Vex (Destiny)
The Vex are a robotic race that features in Destiny.
Contents |
History
The Vex were a type of machine-based networked intelligence that had existed in the universe. One theory was that the radiolarian fluid within the Vex as the last vestige of the biological life forms that became the Vex. In reality, they originated in the 'flower game' that was being conducted between the Light and Darkness in the primordial 'garden' that existed prior to the creation of the universe. All of these games would end with a single, self-sustaining pattern emerging and dominating the entire simulation. This was pleasing to the Darkness but was irritating to the Light, which desired that the game produce endless novel patterns instead. When the Light and Darkness began to war with one another, initiating the beginning of the universe, the patterns from the flower game escaped into it. In the initial hot state of the universe the abstract patterns existed as quantum fluctuations, before eventually creating a more stable substrate for themselves in the briny seas of the first worlds to form in the universe, the radiolaria. This was the origin of the Vex as they would later come to be known, and from this point forward they were driven to once more totally dominate the reality they found themselves in, though operating on 'outdated' rules that did not account for the paracausal powers of the Darkness or the Light. Much of the Vex's evolution was speculated by the human scientist Clovis Bray I hypothesized some likely intermediate steps during his studies of the Vex structures around 2082 Volantis. The Vex developed in extremely high energy environments and competition and predation were not optimal strategies. Instead, the group signalling between the radiolaria formed the basis for the evolution of a swarm intelligence. The radiolaria developed crude armor, possibly hydrogel or silica plating to shield themselves from intense cosmic radiation, allowing them to remain close enough to the surface to directly feed off this plentiful energy source. From here, the Vex constructed and developed ever more complex structures, storing the information in the patterns of the radiolaria colonies themselves. Their microscopic nature allowed the Vex intelligence to deduce and experiment with quantum and high energy physics early, while the radiolaria themselves became, in essence, microscopic tool users. The Vex developed rapidly, and at some point in their development in the early universe, developed mega-structures around the short-lived hypermassive stars their planets originated around. These structures artificially extended the lifespan of these stars, allowing their use to 'forge' heavier elements that would have been otherwise fantastically rare in the early, low metal universe.
According to the Books of Sorrow, the Vex had encountered the Hive where they invaded the throne world of Oryx. Initially, they struggled against the sword-logic of their foes until the Mind Quria deduced this belief system. This led to a series of conflicts between the two sides with thousands destroyed in the process. Quria sought to exploit the paracausal physics of Oryx's throne to become divine and organised a series of test invasions. The conflict continued for a hundred years of local time when the Vex came into the sword world and were inevitably annihilated but the Hive lost too much of their power when they responded by attacking the Vex world. Though Oryx eventually succeeded in eliminating the Vex from his realm, they preserved what they learned and passed it on to the rest of the Vex hive mind. Quria would later ambush Oryx when he attacked the Nicha Thought-ship. In the ensuing battle, Quria generated a simulation of Oryx's original form: Aurash. As Oryx was distracted by the simulation, Quria devoted the rest of its resources to sending what it had learned to the rest of the Vex hive mind. Quria was then Taken and given to his sister, Savathûn as a gift, however, Oryx allowed Quria to retain a portion of its own will.
At some point, their structures began to manifest in the Solar System where they were being discovered by mankind during its Golden Age. It was within the Black Garden on Mars that some claimed that the machines of the Vex were born. Structures associated with this mechanical race were present on Venus and so old that they predates humanity with these buildings populated by Vex intelligences. On Venus, the Ishtar Collective proved to be the greatest source of knowledge on the Vex after encountering one of the units for study. Ishtar researchers suspected that the Vex ruins came from an alternate Venus and came into being when the Traveler transformed Venus into a habitable world. Their analysis nearly drove the researchers mad as they learnt the Vex was able to generate simulations of themselves within its mind to such accuracy that the Collective scientists were unsure whether they themselves were perhaps recreations within the constructs mind. Such was the severity of the task that the Collective called for a Warmind to study the Vex as its complexity would bypass any question of reality during the research. The Vex first appeared on Mercury during the Golden Age as well, shortly after the Traveler terraformed the planet into a garden world. Dendron, Root Mind was created following the Vex's arrival, and began converting the planet into a Machine World that would house the "reality engine" known as the Infinite Forest within its core. At some point, Clovis Bray I, the patriarch of the Bray family and founder of the Clovis Bray corporation, arranged for a Vex to be stolen from the Ishtar Collective and transported to his research site on Europa. This Vex then built a gate leading from Europa to 2082 Volantis, a blue giant star system in which the star had been surrounded by Vex megastructures. Clovis I's ensuing research into Vex radiolarian fluid and the mysterious paracausal power he called Clarity resulted in a breakthrough in the development of exominds. During or before the Collapse, the colony ship Exodus Black left Earth on a trajectory out of the solar system. It was intercepted, however, by the planetoid known as Nessus, which had become fully converted into a Vex Machine World and had left its usual orbital patterns. The entire crew of the Exodus Black was captured or killed, with some being kept alive by the Vex for a time for experimentation and analysis.
During the Collapse, the Vex were responsible for transforming all of Mercury into a giant machine within days when the seed of the Infinite Forest was planted alongside its Mind Panoptes. The Centaur Nessus was populated by the Vex who gradually converted it into a Machine World where the barren surface was turned into a somewhat liveable planetoid. In time, they would have spread to the other worlds in the Sol system and overrun everything had not the Traveler used its power to keep them at bay. This would leave them on Venus though one pocket of Vex resided on Mars where they engaged in guerilla warfare against the Cabal. The Cabal had managed to successful penetrate the Vex's cognition mesh but did not understand the true nature of the Black Garden. A Nexus Mind was in the process of transforming Venus to become part of the Vex's intergalactic chain until it was destroyed by a number of Guardians. The activities of the Vex in the solar system was not an invasion but rather due to a signal that was calling them back home to the Black Garden.
Taniks and his House of Wolves sought to asset their dominance in the Sol system by making use of Vex time altering technology.
During the Red War, the Cabal Red Legion invaded the Solar System where some of their forces began to arrive on Nessus in order to uncover any secrets on that planetoid. This brought them into conflict with the Vex forces that populated that world.
Overview
In terms of appearance, the Vex were able to take a wide variety of forms from humanoid to more animalistic ones and others that were geometric in shape. Standard Vex were more humanoid in their proportions with a head that had a single photoreceptor though destroying the head did not incapacitate the unit but targeting the power core in the chest destroyed them. They had some form of organic core present within their mind core with this containing a milky radiolarian fluid. Their mind cores were actually biological but relative to no known lifeform thus making them not an entirely machine race. Radiolaria were particles of Vex minds with it being referred to as mind fluid. It was said that they were an indestructible foe who were relentless and supremely intelligent along with the capability of teleporting.
Their basic cooperative signals were said to had formed from swarm behavior with it being a simple game capable of storing information in self-repeating patterns. Ultimately, it was said that the Vex were not a group mind but rather one master pattern spread across many elements with them being fractally self-similar.
Due to their network, they were identified as a hyperintelligent, time-spanning thought mesh. Their intelligence was able to generate simulations of real-world events with perfect accuracy and even predictive capability allowing them to run a parallel virtual reality within their minds that was nearly indistinguishable from the real universe. In terms of organization, the Vex were a network of thoughts that were both unified and vast. They were linked in a network unlike any encountered on Earth they operated in unison where they were directed by a single unfathomable purpose. Through their singular mind, the Vex were able to react at incredible speed. Time was relative to them as constructs could be lost or reborn.
Vex were divided into numerous body types that included:
- Goblin : the basic model of Vex that had large fan-shaped heads with damage to it not incapacitating them but rather sent them into a frenzy.
- Hobgoblin : these were a tougher leaner model of Vex that had improved optics along with acute sensors in its horns. The had a defensive reflex where they sealed themselves into a stasis state and awaited helped if they were attacked.
- Minotaur : a bipedal harder thicker model with heavier firepower though their processing power was devoted to the physics of building massive Vex complexes but in battle they used their teleportation abilities aggressively.
- Harpy : a fast and mobile model that operated as airborne units deployed in flocks for patrol or scouting missions where they needed to stop to stabilize before attacking their targets.
- Hydra : a slow physically moving miniature fortress that had a rapid processor feeding data into it by other Vex and though it lacked mobility it made up for this in impregnable defenses along with rock-melting firepower.
Despite being a network, there were divisions of the Vex intelligence into a number of groups that included the:
- Aphix Invasive :
- Hezen Corrective : a Vex subtype set apart from other by their distinct behaviors and objectives which was aggressively seek out and attack the Fallen House of Winter, perform inscrutable operations around shining Confluxes, and even show interest in the Golden Age ruins left by the Ishtar Collective. Some believed that the Corrective were an agent of change designed to solve problems and remake the world in a form suitable to the Vex. Others asserted that Corrective was simply a strategic distraction meant to draw attention away from the actions of the Hezen Protective.
- Hezen Protective :
- Nexus Collective :
- Virgo Prohibition :
- Sol Collective :
- Sol Divisive : a Vex subtype said to be ancient even that operated in the Black Garden on Mars who seemed central to Vex actions in the solar system. Legends and scant field reports all indicate that the Divisive Vex behave religiously.
- Precursors :
- Descendants :
In terms of thought, Vex were devoid of emotions such as hope, imagination, drive or fear. Instead, they sought only the Pattern and sought to make everything fit it. If something could be made to fit then they allowed it but anything that did not fit the Pattern were cut away. It was said that the one common feature that united the entire Vex race was their capacity to infect space-time. Ultimately, their goal was said to be that of Convergence where they sought the reduction of all life into its most simplistic and meaningless form.
Vex Axis Minds were individual hulls that contained the local instances of superordinate of the machine races goal sets and contain a copy of all information required to pursue a particular objective. This allowed other Vex units to focus on local tasks whilst global planning went to the Axis Minds though this also offered a centralized intelligence that was a weak spot to target. A special class known as a Gate Lord were responsible for locking out realms out from time. These units regulated traffic between gates and their minds contained the codes that could open the way into forbidden realms. Vex Spires were a critical component in the mechanical species communication network. A central component of the Vex structure was the Nexus that was a massive trans-dimensional and trans-temporal supercomputer network that the machine race were looking to incorporate themselves into the fabric of the universe.
The Vex were believed to had developed armor very early with this perhaps being a hydrogel which was used to soften gamma rays or plates of silica to trap water. This shield was needed in order to enter the shallows and capture ionizing radiation as fuel. Cooperation in groups consisted of meshes of armored radiolaria that protected harvesters beneath which was used to promote the evolution of ever larger structures. They became microscopic tool-users, building fortresses and maille sheets, storing the programs for those structures in the patterns of their swarms.
Their form of barrier technology was noted for its unstable nature. Structures attributed to the Vex were shown to be present deep underground beneath the surface of a planet to the point that it appeared that they simply waited to be uncovered. Such was the extent of their teleportational capabilities that they were able to warp across an entire solar system in a instant. It was suspected that their massive complexes extended through multiple dimensions. They were able to create time bridges that allowed their constructs to move through the time-stream. Vex utilised matter as a substrate for computation and not as a means of communication.
It was shown that the Vex were able to convert entire planetoids into Machine Worlds. This saw them digitise and convert matter into a mechanical construct. Such worlds were filled with pools and rivers of radiolaria that was deadly to organic matter.
One location created by the Vex was the Infinite Forest that was located in the core of Mercury. It was a virtual simulation of the universe that was used to create their plans of action for reality and was overseen by an Axis Mind. The machine was described as a doomsday machine and a planet sized prediction engine that was able to simulate trillions of realities in parallel with new timelines forming for study by the Vex. Through brute forcing reality, they were able to simulate entire settings with the events within being real enough to kill travellers. The ultimate purpose that was managed by its Axis Mind was to reshape reality into one suited for the Vex.
Members
- Zydron :
- Sekrion :
- Theosyion : known as the Restorative Mind who was summoned through a time bridge to recreate powerful constructs such as a Nexus Mind.
- Quria :
- Panoptes : known as the Infinite Mind who was in charge of the Infinite Forest.
- Argos :
Notes
- The Vex were created by Bungie and featured in the setting of the Destiny universe.
Appearances
- Destiny:
- Destiny 2:
External Links
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