In honor of the end of Age of Triumph (albeit pretty late, my bad) I have created this post on the history of Earth and its Golden Age all the way up to its Collapse, and I will follow up with a post on everything after the Collapse and one on everything else. A toast to all the ages and triumphs both past and to come, and to Guardians everywhere. May your brandy be strong, your wine be rich, and your water be spiked ______________________________ [b]The Before:[/b] that is the name of the year's before the Golden Age of humanity. The Before played out exactly like history did in the real world; all of our wars, all of our struggles, all of our achievements. But when the Traveler came, things diverged from how they played out in our world and the timeline of Destiny began. [b]The Golden Age:[/b] with the arrival of the Traveler came extended life, unbelievable scientific advancement, and unity amongst all humanity (aside from the occasional arguments over philosophies, theories, and mind forking, but at least people didn't shoot each other for that stuff anymore). Before even encountering us it terraformed Mercury, Venus, and began its work on Mars. Afterwards it altered the Moon's atmosphere and worked on the moons of Jupiter amongst other locations in our system that are no longer known to us. Our system flourished with life, once desolate worlds turned into gardens. As for technology, humanity began creating wonders. Artificial intelligences to operate vehicles and laboratories and monitor activity, followed by Warminds to safeguard entire planets. Massive cities rose on other worlds, warp drives were invented for quicker travel across space, and even devices harnessing antimatter were created. Cars stayed the same, no one bothered inventing something better. Stupid cars. The Ishtar Collective formed on Venus, its Academy the peak of education and its scientists the greatest minds in the system. Clovis Bray Industries shot up from the sands of Mars, representing the pinnacle of innovation and creative science. Experiments were performed on the mysteries Vex that appeared out of the ancient structures on Venus, SIVA and its children nanotechnology were born on Earth and then perfected on Mars, and starships flew all throughout the system and even mapped the universe outside. Colonies were made on the Moon as well as Jupiter and its moons, and gardens were made on Mercury. All was peaceful and bright. But Rasputin had a thought: what if there was something besides the Traveler out in space? And what if it wasn't friendly? The creation of the first out-of-system colony ships were sped up and world-razing doomsday weapons were placed around the worlds, leading a specific few to figure out that Rasputin was preparing for potential threats. Rasputin was the first to detect the Darkness coming. As the Golden Age began crumbling at its end, Exos were developed. It is unknown how they were able to put a human mind into a machine body so seamlessly and permanently, but the miracle of Exos came to be. It's safe to assume that the original purpose for building Exos was to live forever, and that the origins of their creation stemmed with the advanced mechanical bodies used by the Ishtar Collective that could temporarily hold a human mind (a mind still linked to the body), but when the Ishtar Vex experiments ended and the cult around the Device began, their use became focused on exploring Vex tech more safely. The Device was built to mimic Vex technology and is somehow linked to the Vex's time system, allowing whoever enters to see through time and space. The human mind is too weak for this, but it was found that Exos had more resilience. Then the Collapse began. [b]The Collapse:[/b] the Golden Age fell to war. The Moon was lost; reports on giant worm-like entities burrowing tunnels for swarms of murderous creatures were the last we heard from our colonies and outposts there. The Vex began attacking, which was a surprise because they had never attacked humans preemptively before, and in days we lost Mercury. The Exos were mass produced for war, not only because they were resilient to the Vex technology, but because they did not grow tired, did not need food or rest, and could take more punishment. Jupiter and its moons supposedly fell in the ensuing battles between humanity and the Vex, along with Venus and most likely Mars as well. It is unknown if the Cabal arrived during the Collapse. Rasputin had protocols set to defend humanity and to keep the Traveler in our system at any cost (he had a lot of nukes pointed at it I guess). However, we know from the Dreams of Alpha Lupi and the Mysteries grimoire that the Traveler stayed with us of its own accord during the Collapse. In Mysteries, Rasputin himself admits that the Darkness defeated him and destroyed all the other Warminds, and that the Darkness defeated the Traveler even though it fought with humanity at its back. Rasputin had colony ships launch with civilians and technology like SIVA, but all were lost before leaving the system. Many of the ships were destroyed around the Asteroid Belt, creating the Reef that we know today and supplying the population for the Awoken in the Reef. A ship which held SIVA crashed on Nessus, and all other traces of SIVA and its offspring were locked away or destroyed. We lost all our worlds, even Earth. All the Warminds perished and Rasputin shut down to be awakened when the time was right. The Traveler was crippled by the Darkness, but in a final effort the Traveler repelled the a Darkness from Earth and created Ghosts to find humans (both dead and alive) that could wield Light and defend what was left of it. The Awoken were created in the clash of Light and Darkness and all knowledge on the creation of Exos was lost. Nothing was left of our Golden Age aside from a few memories and the husks of our technology. All that remained were a few scattered humans, Exos, and Awoken, and an unmoving giant that hovered above Earth. Then the enemies that remained in our system began recollecting themselves from the Traveler's blow. _______________________________ Hope this enlightened some of u on the background story of Destiny (told u there was a story ;P). Follow the link for the next part on the Dark Age and early City Age, that's where all the epic stories of the first Guardians are: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/230166437/0/0 Link to my Archive: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217384398/0/0