<So I decided to do it, to cover the immediate aftermath of the Collapse and then some. Also to speculate what happened to everyone else. As stated earlier, the Collapse ended when the Traveler pushed back the Deep. This was not an easy task and the entire Solar System was in ruin. The Traveler, having exhausted its efforts in defending humanity, fell dormant over an undisclosed region of Earth, theorized to be either northern South America, Nepal, or northern Russia. In it's last waking moments it released the Ghosts who spread across the system looking for dead souls capable of wielding the Light. This was a wide range of people considering many billions were dead. Rasputin, having blown all of his weapons during the Collapse, fragmented himself and shut it all down. The Earth fragment would later be reawakened by the Iron Lords in their attempt to get one of the greatest Golden Age technologies, SIVA. The other minds were supposedly destroyed during the Collapse, or "Titanomachy" as Rasputin calls it. The Awoken woke up in the Distributary an unknown amount of time after the Collapse. The Distributary was a world in a singularity created by the clash of raw Light and Dark energies. In this world they were immortal but still retained memory of their "previous life". One of the most common enemies to newly-risen Guardians were the Fallen. The Fallen arrived shortly after the Collapse ended to pillage the now abandoned colonies and worlds of humanity. They very quickly took over Earth and Venus despite the warring Houses. It's reasonable to assume that during this time the Houses of Winter and Scar fought, as their are members of the HoS in the Prison of Elders, suggesting a presence in the system. During the chaos of the Collapse, the Vex on Venus, Mercury, and Mars kick into high alert presumably due to the threat of the Deep. They finished terraforming Mercury in weeks, using its surface as a cover for their reality engine, the Infinite Forest. Vex on Venus were slower in completing their task, but it seems as if many of their structures were already present, as the Ishtar Archives make mention of the Vault of Glass, the primary underground Venus construct and one of the three major installations on Venus. The Vex on Mars were even more lax until the arrival of the Cabal. The Cabal came in the form of Scout Legions led by the Skyburners. Their original goals were to mine Mars and other celestial objects. Things changed when they found the Vex. They dedicated time to study them as much as they could, that and their future encounters with Guardians and Hive opened their eyes to the rest of Sol. However, their main focus was on Mars and holding off the newly made, and horribly misplaced, Virgo Prohibition Vex Program. These Vex were made for simple attrition, but were apparently a mistake by the Vex Collective. The Hive under Oryx did not start making advances on Earth until after the Great Disaster, but the Grasp of Nokris arrived on Mars sometime after the Collapse. They attempted to get as close to the Traveler as possible without getting in Crota's way, and Xol and Nokris thought that taking out Rasputin's primary fragment would win them the day. However, Rasputin froze the entire Hellas Basin, trapping the Hive in the process. One of the most interesting things about the aftermath of the Collapse involves the remains of humanity. Despite the Darkness laying waste to Sol, not everyone died on colonies other than Earth. Despite that, many survivors in the inner system away from Earth or the outer system most likely died from natural causes and the lack of resources by the utter decimation of their homes. The remaining people of Earth were in turmoil. While some had it easy, others fought each other constantly. It took the combined threat of the Fallen and the hope the Guardians (specifically Iron Lords) gave them to bring most together in what would become the Last City. However, for a long time there were only the Risen, many of which chose a Warlord lifestyle. It isn't truly known what happened to the Darkness after the Collapse. Many believe that the Deep fell back and went dormant, others believe it to be destroyed entirely. The Darkness itself, whether "dead" or dormant, still had a presence in Sol. Through the Hive and the Heart of the Black Garden it influenced Guardians, driving some to insanity. The only other faction that arrived sometime post-Collapse was the Nine. It really isn't known exactly what they are, but many theories presented have been recently coming true, leaving only 3 theories left unanswered. The others may explain certain aspects of what happened post-Collapse. According to "theory 1", the survivors of Jovian colonies (Jupiter and beyond excluding Nessus) made a deal with an alien force to survive. This alien force wasn't specified, but it is theorized to be the Nine themselves. Proof of this theory being true comes from Xur, and exotic vendor who claims to be a Jovian under the control of the Nine. He says Light hurts him (and apparently he accepts cookies made with actual Taken Blight), which suggests he is Dark in nature. "Theory 2" suggests that deep-orbit Warminds survived the Collapse using hardened stealth platforms. Evidence for this theory comes from the D2 Trials Shotgun, "A Sudden Death", which describes The Nine discussing someone who had recently talked to the "deep orbit minds". "Theory 3" has not yet been proven. "Theory 4" has been proven by the Emissary of the Nine, who says to watch for signals coming from the direction of the Corona-Borealis Supercluster. This implies that the theory of the Nine arriving via a signal from that direction to be correct. "Theory 5" suggests that firstborn Awoken are part of the Nine. Evidence for this comes from the Marasenna, where the new Awoken discover that the ship is missing 9 of its crew. "Theory 6" says that the Nine are Ghosts who pierced the Deep Black (heliopause?) without a ship. This isn't EXACTLY the case, but 9 Ghosts who had lost their spark and had pierced the deep black were found by Orin, backing up some of the theory. "Theory 7" currently has no proof, but suggests that the Nine are aspects of Darkness broken by the Traveler's fight. It also says that they work to destroy us from within. "Theory 8" says that the Nine are a viral language of pure meaning. Xur says to describe what WE do is to speak a language of pure meaning. This theory is implied to be true as well. "Theory 9" is the third theory not yet proven. It states that the Nine are remnants of a transcendant shape. Despite a lot of these theories suggesting a rather recent origin, the Cabal seemingly have texts dedicated to the understanding of the Ennead, or a set of nine. What this means still isn't entirely known. The Nine are mysterious, shady, and don't really send good vibes despite Xur selling exotic weapons. So that's the aftermath of the Collapse + some theories and speculation. I hope you enjoyed as this will be the last of this series for now. I will NOT be covering the rest of the Dark Age nor any future age as a whole, only focusing on individual aspects. The Collapse - What We Know:[url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/250309409[/url] If I got anything wrong, please let me know.>