originally posted in:The Ashen Conflux
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Once, there was a Traveler. It yearned for a utopia universe, where everything and everyone could live in eternal harmony. It set out upon its path, granting Golden Ages to those it met. It came upon a gas giant known by its natives as the Fundament. Here lay the Worms. The Traveler knew one day that these dark dragons would infect a race of the planet and follow the path of its mortal enemy the Darkness. So it arranged a syzygy.
However, it's plan failed. The syzygy only drove a race of krill-like people towards the Worms. Despite the efforts of the Leviathan and the Ammonites, the Worms escaped the Fundament, and the Traveler fled. It continued with its purpose, giving races Golden Ages, but now simultaneously turning them into proxy armies.
When the Traveler caught wind of the approaching Hive, it would turn tail and run, leaving the poor inhabitants of the planet to fight and die. The Tai, the Harmonians, the Ecumene, the Dakaua, the Qugu. It did this to every race [i]except[/i] for us. Sick and tired of running, of being a coward, of watching its children perish, it decided to stand and fight. Just our luck, it stopped here.
Our Golden Age burned bright. It terraformed our planets using those from an alternate universe, bringing across the Vex. We created the Warminds and Exos, perfect war machines.
When the Hive and the Darkness came, we all fought. Unfortunately for the Traveler the combined forces of us and it weren't enough to fight the Darkness and win. Rasputin, having already shut down solar defenses, nuked the Traveler. Thus crippled, it released both the Ghosts and a massive blast of Light, driving back the Darkness and creating the Awoken. The Traveler then fell into a comatose state, it's Light being drained by Hive Siphon Witches and the Heart of the Black Garden.
But, why did Rasputin nuke the Traveler? Sure, this action ended the Collapse, but why do it in the first place? There are three possible answers:
1. A master plan. Rasputin knew we couldn't defeat the Darkness. But humanity needed to survive. So he bombed the Traveler, this action being an early step in Midnight Exigent, his master plan to defeat the Darkness.
2. Taking precautions. Rasputin, analyzing the Traveler, may have decided it could run. Not necessarily [i]would[/i], but could. So he prepared for that eventuality and bombed the Traveler.
3. He simulated wrong. Much like the Worms and Darkness, the Light is a pain in the ass to simulate. So Rasputin, in trying to determine the Traveler's next move, incorrectly guessed that it was going to run. So he nuked it.
Now it's up to you to decide: is the Traveler truly evil? Would you wipe out a planet to save a universe? Would you turn a race into a proxy army with the smallest hope that it could defeat your mortal (immortal?) enemies? Would you use the last of your power to make sure the remnants of your latest children have one last sanctuary?
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Rasputin saw multiple future timeliness through the Ishtar collective and knew the traveler was going to leave and the darkness was coming so detonated a nuke in the (reef) to slow the darkness and cripple the traveler. The side effects created the awoken who were people fleeing the solar system during the collapse.