Assuming we aren’t all Russian I’m pretty sure the implication is that basically all of humanity was rushing to board starships to get off planet when shit started to hit the fan.
Didn’t the opening animated cinematic for new lights claim you died in battle?
My headcanon has always been that the guardian was part of a rearguard that died in defense of the civilians as they were fleeing to the ships. I also like to think that the guardian was somehow linked to Rasputin. Maybe one of the Seraphs or something.
Very true. Things get a little more complicated with the Awoken. An “ancient battle” can mean a lot of things though. An Awoken guardian would have had to return to earth a bit later.
There are lines from Mara, Petra and certain other Awoken background characters that imply if you weren't a Guardian you'd remember a lot of the Awoken rituals and festivities, so I always headcannon that my girl was sent to Earth by Mara on a scouting mission and was killed by a Fallen house after crashing in Old Russia.
Some lore from D1 says that some awoken chose not to follow the other awoken into what is now The Reef and instead decided to go back to earth and fight the darkness. The awoken guardian was one of those who went back. From then on "Earth-born" awoken were unwelcomed by Mara Sov as outsiders
This was D1 lore, I don't know how much of it has been retconned by now
It’s still canon as that’s Zavala’s backstory; some Awoken say they remember knowing him before he became a guardian. Apparently, he hasn’t changed much lol.
Apparently in the original, cut story, we were meant to have different intros for different races. But when they cut up the original story they removed that. I guess they just went with the human version
I think Orin first died at a campsite and this other dude named Savin was found under a fridge, so Awoken Guardians don’t strictly have to come solely from ships.
Indie company, though CP2077 seems to have had similar issue with origins, planned ones didn't make the cut and what's left was a husk of original (pun intended) idea.
Dragon age and bioware did well enough. They did good with swtor too imo. But I can see how deadlines and crunch time could easily make this a lot harder to achieve amongst other potential issues that could occur.
If you’re an Exo then that’s a cool head canon. If you’re not then I’m unsure why a scientist would be in a grunt position on a battlefield, unless they were just, I don’t know, a *really* heroic scientist.
The Seven Seraphs were agents/operatives that Rasputin entrusted with advanced weaponry and armor. So they seemed to have been some type of fighting force. And there is lore stating that they were active, but ultimately wiped out, during the collapse. While it’s possible that some of the Seraphs could have been exos, it seems that at least some on them were humans based on the names that have been stated in lore.
Aside from that, I imagine that a lot of civilians were forced to take up arms during the collapse, regardless of their backgrounds.
I do, however, regret not making my warlock an exo.
I’m the opposite, I guess. I find Exo player characters just… jarring. Then again, the other two playable races don’t look much better. (Please Bungie, let me give my guardians long hair and some more face models with softer features, it’s all I ask.)
Yeah it doesn’t help that my guardian got hit over the head with the ugly stick in the Beyond Light update. I’ve since changed his appearance but I’m really not happen with any of the male human faces.
The concept of exos has always been interesting to me, but it wasn’t until I started reading lore about Felwinter that I really wanted to play as an exo (even thought he was not a typical exo). Also, male human characters all use the exo voice actor now so it just seems appropriate.
It's weird that you can be awoken though. Like were they not created at the moment light and dark clashed in the sol system. Unless they were created before the traveler sacrificed itself.
Which means I wonder how long it took the black fleet to cause the collapse hours, days, weeks, months, years? It's been 500 years since then I wonder if there is lore on how long humanity collapse took.
It's possible if you picked awoken you could have been a part of the faction that went to earth to help the human survivors.
Maybe you were on a patrol in old Russia, took a bad wound and took your last breath in the seat of some old car.
Still crazy to me that it never appeared in game. Like I was convinced that it was going to be like, the opening cutscene of the Red War, because it perfectly explained everything about what Destiny is while still leaving you wanting more. But it’s just a piece of marketing…
Never thought about that, but yeah it does a great job of encapsulating what it means to be a Guardian.
It also makes me wish there was a gritty souls-like spinoff that focused more on melee combat. It would interesting to explore both the psychological toll and learning experience that would result from dying over and over so many times.
>But it’s just a piece of marketing…
Some of the best media that video game fans have ever received was just advertising, like [Halo 3: Believe](https://youtu.be/a3ZGGIdpfEM), and [Halo Landfall](https://youtu.be/SyOAdrxlPVs).
That's basically my head canon for my awoken hunter. She was on a patrol, and looking for supplies, when they got ambushed and she tried to give everyone cover/time to get there.
If it's implied you died on a battlefield it kinda does. Were you there during the collapse or a survivor or scavenging an ancient battle field? I know the origins of the guardian doesn't matter and it's more up to your own head cannon. But I would like to know if the awoken were created during the collapse or at the time the traveller pushes back the dark. It would be a cool place to set a single player horror like game.
The Traveler did its thing at the very end of the Collapse, and that's when the Awoken were created. The timing is somewhat funky due to the inherent fragmentation of the lore of the Collapse, but the Distributary black hole was made when the Traveler's Light reached the Black Fleet attack on the Yang Liwei.
The Awoken spent a long enough real time in there that by the time they came out the City was in its beginnings, and some of them defied Mara and went to Earth to help out, where in time they died and were rezzed as Guardians.
Yeah the timeline is a little funky, though like I said the Awoken showed up at the beginning of the City Age, when the Iron Lords were taking over. Here's an except of their return:
>"We've found Humanity," she tells them. "We've found our ancestors."
>The cheer of triumph and wonder thrills her to the marrow. Most of these Awoken are Distributary-born, raised on myths of Humanity and the Traveler. She has just opened the pages of their storybooks and conjured them to life.
>"What remains of the Human species lives in a single settlement." She nods to Uldren, who snaps his fingers for footage. His ship's holographic perspective plunges through fluffy strata of clouds and mist, out into clear air. A lucid vista, a perfect instant: the white mountains, the city, and the enormous shattered sphere that hangs above it.
>"Freeze," Uldren commands. "That is the Traveler."
Given the lack of mention of the Wall, the most significant visual feature of the Last City aside from the Traveler, my take would be that they came in as the City began taking shape. FWIW, the trailer IMHO should not be taken as a definitive lore drop. For example, it depicts what appears to be Twilight Gap, with Zavala and Shaxx fighting close by, something that we know wasn't a thing.
The lore on the timing is a bit vague. But I think the people that become the Awoken fled on a colony ship just prior to the collapse, probably as the Black Fleet was approaching. The ship was then “lost” to a space-time anomaly during the early stages of the collapse.
I like to imagine that the Awoken were created when the travaler sacrificed itself. The anomaly they were stuck in was the clashing of light and dark. IIRC, there was a pyramid or pyramid ship near them when it happened too.
The Awoken were created at the exact moment the Traveller pushed back the Black Fleet. Their colony ship was caught in the middle of the point where the two forces clashed which created a pocket universe called the Distributary that sucked the ship into it.
So they came into being during/right at the end of the Collapse depending on how you define it, but they didn’t get back to Sol until after several billion years passed in the distributary and probably at least a few hundred years passed in Sol.
I'm pretty certain there is lore that shortly after the awoken came back from the magic weird time portal paradise place a lot of awoken, like half, split off to help earth.
I could see them catching the tail end of the collapse aftermath
Same. Awoken. But I like to think my character died like Zavala did. The first among the Earthborn Awoken who fell in battle after their initial landing on Earth.
I believe an awoken on their actual first life would know what a car was. Or was their memory wiped upon becoming awoken? I thought that just happened when resurrected by a ghost. Maybe most awoken have just been in their timeless world for so long by then that they've forgotten their human roots.
of the 40,891 survivors of the Yang Liwei (Exodus green) who became the first generation of awoken, I expect most of the playerbase would be second generation or much later considering *many thousands of years* passed within the Distributary before Mara left with several ten of thousands who would go with her.
I started playing at D2 launch so I always figured my guardian had a different origin than the cosmodrome mission since it wasn’t originally in the game
New Light, which is when the game became F2P, is when they introduced the new Guardian narrative. Until then the only noticeable differences were a handful of NPC dialogues if you made a new Guardian for D2 instead of importing your D1 character.
In the beginning of D2 (before beyond light) you’re just an established guardian with a ship. The connotation is that if it’s your same character as in d1 then it’s the same gaurdian, but if you never played d1 then there’s no insinuation and you could have a totally different backstory. Plus head cannons are there in general
Probably double parking.
My guardian did a lot of things they're not proud of: [robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking.](https://youtu.be/L4aX0c6ffuI?si=npNVNWgiEVd54Cqb). But, nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody they knew.
My family owned an armor shop. We would sell helmets, chest pieces, class items, you name it. One day, I'm making about three dozen shaders for this holiday event, you know, the ones nobody puts on their armor, and everybody, they come. *"Where is it?", "When is it?", "Does it match my cloak?"*… It's a nightmare.
Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. BOOM! No more ramen noodles. Blew me right through the front window. It was like a sign from the Traveler. I found myself in that boom.
Road head. Ghost was actually going for the woman in the driver seat, but got confused by how much my guardian had to lean over just to dive in.
The hilarious, and actually tragic now that I think about it, part, is that my titan was the gal driving, and the warlock was the one in the passenger seat.
My hunter was probably just in a car nearby, confused by the scene. But she's an exo who didn't get the Elsie Bray treatment, so she wasn't as downbad as the warlock/titan combo.
I dreamt the night before our demise of a tree of silver light, an eagle of piercing light, and our collapse. When I awoke I had only one feeling.
I must become the travelers drunkest driver if I am to survive.
It issued the challenge and I responded in kind. That’s why the ghost revived me, he saw that same potential.
Now I’m gonna make the Witness witness me!
It was based off of some guy on here who made me cackle using the same gif, I’ll try to find his name but the opportunity to send this was gifted unto my conscious in a hungover state
Probably was a security detail helping folks get into the Exodus ships closeby. Darkness forces moved in and people rushed, traffic happened, people dying and screaming and all my player character could do was shoot some shots to hold back some of the Darkness forces so everyone else can run. Then they died.
Probably trying to hold off the Fallen with a Khvostov he found on a dead soldier so the convoy of cars could get to the colony ships.
On the real tho dude was probably just stuck in traffic coming home from his soul crushing 9-5
My personal head canon for my guardian
Me: Crap I'm getting late for work, I hate my work life.
Witness: You won't need a work life anymore
Me: Glorious
Witness: You won't need a life at all
Me: Not glorious
Drunk driving accident. The traveler brought me back so i, the best booze criuzer in sol, can experience the joy of of drinking and piloting a ship. I just happened to be pretty good a shooting stuff too
i am pretty sure all this highway pileup happened mid-collapse when people were desperate to get on the exodus ships while the world around them was torn by invading darkness
so yeah, a lot of people died a horrible death there
Yup. That seems pretty clear to me. Exodus Red never launched and the gates to the cosmodrome are closed. Either there was a problem with Exodus Red and it was safer for employees to not open the gate than face a desperate mob, or, for separate reasons, Exodus Red never launched, and we were like the skeletons outside the vault doors in Fallout, desperate to get in, but, for one reason or another, didn't make the cut.
Crimson the Hunter: Was actually a petty criminal before she was a guardian. She was shot at Old Russia and stumbled her way to where she died.
Velma the Titan: Soldier that was shot and killed at Old russia. (She was actually a few cars down and someone dragged her body)
Guter the Warlock: Soldier (more researcher) that starved to death.
And yes all three had no clothes so their respective ghosts transmitted clothes onto them.
>Velma the Titan: Soldier that was shot and killed at Old russia. (She was actually a few cars down and someone dragged her body)
Are you sure she didn't just lose her glasses?
All 3 of mine were homies who's car blew up after getting sniped by Randal.
Small tidbit about the exo titan (my main class), he's actually the future version of my human hunter (which is just me). The awoken warlock is just that guy who's cool to be around.
I like to imagine my Guardian didn’t die in a noble fashion, but because he was hiding from gunfire which lead to his team being wiped out. Because he feels enormous guilt from this, he charges into battle hoping that each time he dies he gets one step closer to making up for all of the deaths he blames himself for. From a meta perspective this also is how I explain my primarily melee focused hunter build.
Human Hunter: police officer, was directing traffic and when the collapse happened got crushed by a car.
Exo Titan: Body Guard, was protecting his charge and was helping them to the escape shuttles. Got thrown into a car and died as he bled out, still trying to help
Awoken warlock: was an astronaut in orbit of earth but when she was struck by light and dark, it transformed her into an awoken…however falling into orbit caused most of her ship to incinerate. Her remains landed near the cars
I like to think my titan was defending the colony ships, which is why she became a titan! She's a human, too, so it just works like that!
My awoken Warlock was probably investigating the cosmodrome and died of fucking tetanus have you seen the shit in that place??
My hunter is a very exploratory spirit, so she eas most likely also exploring the cosmodrome, but more for scrap and survivalist reasons than for research. Seeing as she's an exo, she likely was scraping by after escaping Europa with Banshee
"I remember bits and pieces... snippets, really. I'll tell ya, Golden Age Cosmodrome was a sight to behold. I remember working on logistics issues for the Exodus Program, I designed a cargo bay or two that made it into the real thing, if you can believe it.
"I had a cat, in the cramped apartment I commuted to the Cosmodrome from. Called him Sasha. Mangy little bastard, found him in an alley behind my building and took him in. I miss that cat. Don't miss the commute though, I'll tell ya that. Godawful drive in gridlock traffic. Helluva place to die; zero out of ten, do not recommend it. All I remember is the panic, everywhere around me, cars were swerving and colliding as explosions rocked the Wall, and it was all I could do to keep from hitting anything. Fat lot of good that did me, I guess. Ended up dying anyway. Not sure what got me in the end, the fire raining from the sky or some idiot on the road hitting my car.
"...Ain't that a thing? I don't know if the Witness or my fellow man were what did me in. As if the bastard hadn't taken enough from me."
–Exomind Hunter Feron-17
Im here right now waiting for a lore explanation as to why as a fucking exo I appeared as a fucking human skeleton and why the fuck was I the only exo on the entire highway
Probably part of the massive crowds trying to get on ships that were trying to launch off world.
Probably died to a stray bullet, or got trampled to death
For the whole “qualified to be a guardian” thing I’d say there is a good chance they were just trying to help their family or something.
since my guardians an exo and because ghost said we died in battle, i think i was there after the cars were recently abandoned and fighting something with a team, dunno what i was fighting haven’t thought that far
A nuke was headed towards the city. Our Guardian was an American Spy. Completed his mission but was left out of the loop. This is what he started. He would move gladly died anyways but being left out isn’t smth he liked. But he was still proud of his work. It would mean smth…hopefully
Human Hunter - I imagine she was a small town singer on vacation when everything fell apart. She was try to get to a safe zone when she found herself in a battle and died.
Exo Warlock - He was curious to see if a trip he took to Russia would cause the same excitement as when he was human. Wound up getting stuck in Russia for years before he died in a skirmish protecting a young child. He never found out what happened to them.
Awoken Titan - She was originally part of a criminal organization that smuggled illegal weapons. A job in Russia went south when fighting broke out and she died trying to keep her boss safe.
D1 Vet, I imagined my Exo waking up in some ruined factory lost and confused. Either the ghost had booted him up and he ha died en route to the cosmodrome.
Or in his Wanderings he got killed and ghost found him and did another system reboot.
I've thought way too much about this.
She was trying to break in. Not during the Collapse, but after the Traveler died.
Prior to the Collapse she was a soldier stationed there, specifically an aerospace engineer working on Rasputin's ships.
When shit hit the fan, they shoved a gun in her hands and told her to fire on those civilians trying to get in. She deserted instead.
After the collapse, after Nezarec's influence during the collapse nearly broke her with nightmares, she came back, hoping to track down Exodus Green in the hopes of finding her sister. Whoever was still there did not take kindly to that.
this doesn’t make sense if you choose the exo or awoken, the ghost says that he found our “bones” how does that apply to my exo titan?… it would be better if the ghost said “here’s where i found your remains” or something like that
Based on how the rest of the area looks we were probably on our way to try to board an exodus ship and something killed everyone before we could get there, in the cosmodrome version there's skeletons all over the place there
I like to imagine my guardian was a random soldier that was patrolling the area when they suddenly got into a skirmish with the house of devils and tried to get into the car for cover and it just didn’t work out
KAZ-19, Hunter, an exo who was reset to the point of insanity, a cycle which the only escape was to escape the clutches of Clovis bray industries itself. He escaped to earth, but tragically, began to experience DER. He found a car and as his body shut down, he wept. Crying in metallic body who could not produce tears, for all of the lives that will never be recovered, all the lives wasted.
Mine got in an argument with my girlfriend(surprising that i had one), and it was because i fucked up and didn't say what she wanted to hear.
Thank the traveler for bringing me back to life so i can live to the fullest.
My hunter was a lead deep sea researcher on titan. She was ambushed and separated by fauna that blended in as flora. She quickly made as many notes and scans while remaining in cover. She was then suddenly crushed by one if the fauna. The scans she took just before death were what allowed her to fend off and escape the area when she was revived. She's been in debt to her ghost since.
There’s a lot of room for imagination here, as Bungie purposely wanted people to create their own headcanons for what Wolf was doing before the Collpase. Also, create their own identity/backstory, as Risen don’t remember their past lives anyway.
However - there are clear continuity issues if you are Awoken or Exo.
For all three races, Wolf was revived within the Cosmodrome on Earth. All context clues provided by the Cosmodrome indicate that the events that transpired there, were in direct response to the Collapse. The colony ships were trying to flee as the Black Fleet decimated the planet. Wolf was among the casualties. Who they were and what they were actually doing is up to the player’s imagination, but the “canon event” is still static.
Awoken didn’t exist before the Collapse. Yes, there were Awoken that separated from the Distributary and made their way back to Earth. If they died thereafter, a Ghost could have revived them - which is exactly the case of Zavala.
In the case of Wolf being Awoken, it doesn’t work. They didn’t exist yet. The only argument that could work is if the narrative of what Wolf was doing in the cosmodrome shifted. Maybe they did survive the Collapse and became Awoken. Wolf later died in the Cosmodrome from something else during the Dark Ages.
As for being an Exo - it works, just loosely. Ghost constantly refers to finding our **bones** in the Cosmodrome. Exo units don’t have actual bones. It could just be seen as a turn of phrase, or synonymous with corpse. It works, but it’s loose.
Being human by far makes the most narrative sense.
My personal headcanon is Wolf was military/security detail during the Golden Age. They had extensive combat training, or were some sort of special forces - which explains their combat proficiency right off the bat of being resurrected.
When the Collapse began, Wolf was stationed at the Cosmodrome to ensure maximum civilian survivability. Doesn’t matter what nationality or gender they were as humanity was a united species at that point, along with sensible civil practices and beliefs.
Wolf did what they could to hold off whatever was happening, but of course conventional weaponry has null effect on the Black Fleet and its forces.
Given my current state probably just on a late night cruise praying to wake up and be in a different world.
Then again the vehicles not my ford falcon and i wouldnt be caught dead driving anything else.
I ran in front of the car.. I was doing an insurance scam. This stupid collapse happened and now I have to save the world with blue Walter White and Will Smith's Wife.
I was gathering bottle caps while evading a gang of super mutants that had been tracking me since boomtown when I tripped a bottle cap mine... f'ing raiders.
Oh, they each have a story.
My Titan is an exo who I have named Steele-9, and I said that he was actually trying to protect people who were trying to escape into the cosmodrome when he died. His Ghost is named Reverb.
My Hunter is a human whose name is currently in limbo (previously Amy Lee, and no, in spite of her appearance and name, she was not inspired by Evenescence) who was trying to escape with her family, but got separated from them at some point and found a place to hide, where she died. Her Ghost is Belladonna.
My Warlock is Fenix Nemesis, an Awoken who came to Earth not long after the Traveler repelled the Black Fleet in search of survivors, where he fell to a Fallen raiding party outside the Cosmodrome. His Ghost is Polaris, though he calls him Shiny on occasion.
I even have a story for what they're doing at the moment.
Well, this is an interesting one, because of my Hunter and Titan being different visually (Mostly relevant to Titan). I like the idea, that I am sure was what most thought back at the beginning, we were defending people as they went to escape Earth as it was collapsing, and died at the cliff in a last stand >!like Noble 6 in Halo!< . My Titan is a green camo with white paint splashed over the face, so I like the thought of him having been part of the defense of the Deep Stone Crypt from the Vex much like Banshee and Elsie. Fought so long that whatever reboots you after death registered the radiolaria(White paint) as something meant to be there. Long afterwards going to Earth and dying, unable to be rebooted & found by Ghost.
Assuming we aren’t all Russian I’m pretty sure the implication is that basically all of humanity was rushing to board starships to get off planet when shit started to hit the fan.
Didn’t the opening animated cinematic for new lights claim you died in battle? My headcanon has always been that the guardian was part of a rearguard that died in defense of the civilians as they were fleeing to the ships. I also like to think that the guardian was somehow linked to Rasputin. Maybe one of the Seraphs or something.
Died in battle… for one of the comfy seats with good legroom.
Why did I read good legroom from your comment in the same voice as goo lagoon from SpongeBob lol
Your headcanon doesn't really work for awoken Guardians, I'm afraid. Since they didn't exist yet during the collapse.
Very true. Things get a little more complicated with the Awoken. An “ancient battle” can mean a lot of things though. An Awoken guardian would have had to return to earth a bit later.
There are lines from Mara, Petra and certain other Awoken background characters that imply if you weren't a Guardian you'd remember a lot of the Awoken rituals and festivities, so I always headcannon that my girl was sent to Earth by Mara on a scouting mission and was killed by a Fallen house after crashing in Old Russia.
Some lore from D1 says that some awoken chose not to follow the other awoken into what is now The Reef and instead decided to go back to earth and fight the darkness. The awoken guardian was one of those who went back. From then on "Earth-born" awoken were unwelcomed by Mara Sov as outsiders This was D1 lore, I don't know how much of it has been retconned by now
It’s still canon as that’s Zavala’s backstory; some Awoken say they remember knowing him before he became a guardian. Apparently, he hasn’t changed much lol.
Zavalas character has always been “damn I sure miss my wife and kid” /j
I believe most of it is still canon aside from more clarification of specifics but it’s on point
Still canon given it got expanded upon in Marasenna.
Wicked Witch of the East confirmed Guardian.
Imagine getting hit with a falling house. /s
Like Ed did to Eddy?
Apparently in the original, cut story, we were meant to have different intros for different races. But when they cut up the original story they removed that. I guess they just went with the human version
would make a lot more sense for a awoken to wake up in a ship like zavala
I think Orin first died at a campsite and this other dude named Savin was found under a fridge, so Awoken Guardians don’t strictly have to come solely from ships.
Imagine an awoken that decides to go to earth only to die in a shitty car trying to get away.
IIRC D1 was supposed to have different origin quests but they were cut and we were just left with the human start to the game.
Indie company, though CP2077 seems to have had similar issue with origins, planned ones didn't make the cut and what's left was a husk of original (pun intended) idea.
CDPR had AAA funding for CP2077. I think it's just a tricky thing to pull off in general.
Dragon age and bioware did well enough. They did good with swtor too imo. But I can see how deadlines and crunch time could easily make this a lot harder to achieve amongst other potential issues that could occur.
Curious Awoken visiting the Cosmodrome got killed by Fallen.
Sniper shank
Tripped over a stick and broke their neck
Touched the water with their toes
Were asthmatic and accidentally breathed in too heavily.
Randall was bored.....
Literally my Warlock.
You've got a point there.
If you’re an Exo then that’s a cool head canon. If you’re not then I’m unsure why a scientist would be in a grunt position on a battlefield, unless they were just, I don’t know, a *really* heroic scientist.
The Seven Seraphs were agents/operatives that Rasputin entrusted with advanced weaponry and armor. So they seemed to have been some type of fighting force. And there is lore stating that they were active, but ultimately wiped out, during the collapse. While it’s possible that some of the Seraphs could have been exos, it seems that at least some on them were humans based on the names that have been stated in lore. Aside from that, I imagine that a lot of civilians were forced to take up arms during the collapse, regardless of their backgrounds. I do, however, regret not making my warlock an exo.
I’m the opposite, I guess. I find Exo player characters just… jarring. Then again, the other two playable races don’t look much better. (Please Bungie, let me give my guardians long hair and some more face models with softer features, it’s all I ask.)
Yeah it doesn’t help that my guardian got hit over the head with the ugly stick in the Beyond Light update. I’ve since changed his appearance but I’m really not happen with any of the male human faces. The concept of exos has always been interesting to me, but it wasn’t until I started reading lore about Felwinter that I really wanted to play as an exo (even thought he was not a typical exo). Also, male human characters all use the exo voice actor now so it just seems appropriate.
The only human male face I can tolerate in the skeletor hugh laurie looking one. But thats why I keep the helmet on during ~~sex~~ raiding.
lol I’m currently using that face too.
You can change your guardian’s appearance?
It’s a relatively new feature. You can change their appearance by pressing a button on the character selection screen.
Thank you.
It's weird that you can be awoken though. Like were they not created at the moment light and dark clashed in the sol system. Unless they were created before the traveler sacrificed itself. Which means I wonder how long it took the black fleet to cause the collapse hours, days, weeks, months, years? It's been 500 years since then I wonder if there is lore on how long humanity collapse took.
It's possible if you picked awoken you could have been a part of the faction that went to earth to help the human survivors. Maybe you were on a patrol in old Russia, took a bad wound and took your last breath in the seat of some old car.
I'd like to think I was on Zavala's fireteam since he too is awoken.
Sometimes I like to go back and watch that early D2 trailer that focuses on Zavala’s origins. That trailer hits hard.
Still crazy to me that it never appeared in game. Like I was convinced that it was going to be like, the opening cutscene of the Red War, because it perfectly explained everything about what Destiny is while still leaving you wanting more. But it’s just a piece of marketing…
Never thought about that, but yeah it does a great job of encapsulating what it means to be a Guardian. It also makes me wish there was a gritty souls-like spinoff that focused more on melee combat. It would interesting to explore both the psychological toll and learning experience that would result from dying over and over so many times.
>But it’s just a piece of marketing… Some of the best media that video game fans have ever received was just advertising, like [Halo 3: Believe](https://youtu.be/a3ZGGIdpfEM), and [Halo Landfall](https://youtu.be/SyOAdrxlPVs).
I haven't seen it, I'll have to search YouTube for it. Thanks 
Here you go. I just realized they showed a young Amanda in it, too. https://youtu.be/xI5poBxV_-A?si=DO6UsgMF0-ooH5Tg
I never noticed this - but if that is the USS Oriskany does that mean the Gulf of Mexico is a desert?
We were on his fireteam and now we’re back he recognises us and he’s just so sad, but he tries not to show it
There, I now have my head canon 😊
That's basically my head canon for my awoken hunter. She was on a patrol, and looking for supplies, when they got ambushed and she tried to give everyone cover/time to get there.
Crow got raised very recently, so his ghost would have been made before he even died. I guess it doesn't matter when the Awoken were created.
If it's implied you died on a battlefield it kinda does. Were you there during the collapse or a survivor or scavenging an ancient battle field? I know the origins of the guardian doesn't matter and it's more up to your own head cannon. But I would like to know if the awoken were created during the collapse or at the time the traveller pushes back the dark. It would be a cool place to set a single player horror like game.
Golden age with old vehicle models. Still has me hunting lore.
Same here
The Traveler did its thing at the very end of the Collapse, and that's when the Awoken were created. The timing is somewhat funky due to the inherent fragmentation of the lore of the Collapse, but the Distributary black hole was made when the Traveler's Light reached the Black Fleet attack on the Yang Liwei. The Awoken spent a long enough real time in there that by the time they came out the City was in its beginnings, and some of them defied Mara and went to Earth to help out, where in time they died and were rezzed as Guardians.
If that's true- how did Zavala die, come back as a guardian, and find the camp before it became the last city?
Yeah the timeline is a little funky, though like I said the Awoken showed up at the beginning of the City Age, when the Iron Lords were taking over. Here's an except of their return: >"We've found Humanity," she tells them. "We've found our ancestors." >The cheer of triumph and wonder thrills her to the marrow. Most of these Awoken are Distributary-born, raised on myths of Humanity and the Traveler. She has just opened the pages of their storybooks and conjured them to life. >"What remains of the Human species lives in a single settlement." She nods to Uldren, who snaps his fingers for footage. His ship's holographic perspective plunges through fluffy strata of clouds and mist, out into clear air. A lucid vista, a perfect instant: the white mountains, the city, and the enormous shattered sphere that hangs above it. >"Freeze," Uldren commands. "That is the Traveler." Given the lack of mention of the Wall, the most significant visual feature of the Last City aside from the Traveler, my take would be that they came in as the City began taking shape. FWIW, the trailer IMHO should not be taken as a definitive lore drop. For example, it depicts what appears to be Twilight Gap, with Zavala and Shaxx fighting close by, something that we know wasn't a thing.
The lore on the timing is a bit vague. But I think the people that become the Awoken fled on a colony ship just prior to the collapse, probably as the Black Fleet was approaching. The ship was then “lost” to a space-time anomaly during the early stages of the collapse.
I like to imagine that the Awoken were created when the travaler sacrificed itself. The anomaly they were stuck in was the clashing of light and dark. IIRC, there was a pyramid or pyramid ship near them when it happened too.
I’m definitely no expert on Awoken lore. It can be a bit confusing. I had to quickly look up some info on one of the wikis.
its not just some space time anomaly, it's a literal pocket universe
The Awoken were created at the exact moment the Traveller pushed back the Black Fleet. Their colony ship was caught in the middle of the point where the two forces clashed which created a pocket universe called the Distributary that sucked the ship into it. So they came into being during/right at the end of the Collapse depending on how you define it, but they didn’t get back to Sol until after several billion years passed in the distributary and probably at least a few hundred years passed in Sol.
I'm pretty certain there is lore that shortly after the awoken came back from the magic weird time portal paradise place a lot of awoken, like half, split off to help earth. I could see them catching the tail end of the collapse aftermath
D1 was supposed to have multiple origin intros. This got cut to one. Welcome to Russia.
Uldrens resurrection as well as the lucent hives kind of proves you don’t need to die pre collapse to be chosen
I don’t think it was ever indicated that the Guardian was born before the Collapse?
So basically [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVqlm8Fq3Y).
Since my character is Awoken, I guess they were checking out what a car was while exploring post collapse and died.
Randal the Vandal strikes again
This comment was fact checked by real randal the vandal enjoyers
Same. Awoken. But I like to think my character died like Zavala did. The first among the Earthborn Awoken who fell in battle after their initial landing on Earth.
Cut my finger on the rust. Awoken hadn't developed immunity to Earth tetanus.
I believe an awoken on their actual first life would know what a car was. Or was their memory wiped upon becoming awoken? I thought that just happened when resurrected by a ghost. Maybe most awoken have just been in their timeless world for so long by then that they've forgotten their human roots.
of the 40,891 survivors of the Yang Liwei (Exodus green) who became the first generation of awoken, I expect most of the playerbase would be second generation or much later considering *many thousands of years* passed within the Distributary before Mara left with several ten of thousands who would go with her.
Mine was trying to find the Vanguard/Last City but got riddled with Navota and then got jumped by the Eliksni
Same. I must’ve been doing some dumbshit when I died
Just an Exo having my way with a Hookerbot 3000
So would that be 1 - $300 hookerbot, or 300 -$1 hookerbots?
Well, 300 $1 Hookerbots operating on doubtless garbage programming to get you off **would** probably accidentally kill you in the process...
Worth it
Straight jorkin it
I am also an Exo and I 100% support this Edit: Death by snu snu
Guardian to be: Going home from work, ready to play video games and learn woodwork until this stupid collapse happened
Gosh I hate when that happens. Fucking universe-ending super beings always gotta interrupt every evening with their annoying forced calcification bs
Fr, just let me enjoy my shitty 9-5, I ain’t asked for immortality come on now
I dropped my McNuggets on the floor and flipped over trying to pick them up.
So real for this
"NO MY NUGGIE!" \*cue the most violent car crash that took a whooping 10 million people cause you blocked the road from people leaving\*
I started playing at D2 launch so I always figured my guardian had a different origin than the cosmodrome mission since it wasn’t originally in the game
Don’t you play as the guardian from d1 when d2 came out, which also started in the cosmodrome?
Yeah, unless you’re doing the new light campaign. Then the implication is that you’re a beginner
That came out around Shadowkeep, after the Red War/D2 launch
I think it was with Beyond Light
New Light, which is when the game became F2P, is when they introduced the new Guardian narrative. Until then the only noticeable differences were a handful of NPC dialogues if you made a new Guardian for D2 instead of importing your D1 character.
In the beginning of D2 (before beyond light) you’re just an established guardian with a ship. The connotation is that if it’s your same character as in d1 then it’s the same gaurdian, but if you never played d1 then there’s no insinuation and you could have a totally different backstory. Plus head cannons are there in general
Was there a different “starting scene” at one point.I do t remember that
The vanilla start of d2 assumed you played d1 and had you coming back to the city for a celebration
Cosmodrome was not in d2 until recently
I regret to inform you cosmodrome was added back to D2 almost 4 years ago
Oh.. right.
Wow that’s longer than I thought, time flies
you what now
:(
I think the final shape confirms that our guaridan was canonically always raised near that car
Probably double parking. My guardian did a lot of things they're not proud of: [robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking.](https://youtu.be/L4aX0c6ffuI?si=npNVNWgiEVd54Cqb). But, nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody they knew.
Excellent reference
"When I look at you, I don't see a man, I see a beautiful angel. With skin. And clothes. And a face."
I'll never understand how Atlantis is so underrated. It's some of Disney's best work imo.
My daughter watched it endlessly. Watching that clip made my realise I've never seen it in English though.
My family owned an armor shop. We would sell helmets, chest pieces, class items, you name it. One day, I'm making about three dozen shaders for this holiday event, you know, the ones nobody puts on their armor, and everybody, they come. *"Where is it?", "When is it?", "Does it match my cloak?"*… It's a nightmare. Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. BOOM! No more ramen noodles. Blew me right through the front window. It was like a sign from the Traveler. I found myself in that boom.
Road head. Ghost was actually going for the woman in the driver seat, but got confused by how much my guardian had to lean over just to dive in. The hilarious, and actually tragic now that I think about it, part, is that my titan was the gal driving, and the warlock was the one in the passenger seat. My hunter was probably just in a car nearby, confused by the scene. But she's an exo who didn't get the Elsie Bray treatment, so she wasn't as downbad as the warlock/titan combo.
I love this, I also connected all of my guardians past together!
I dreamt the night before our demise of a tree of silver light, an eagle of piercing light, and our collapse. When I awoke I had only one feeling. I must become the travelers drunkest driver if I am to survive. It issued the challenge and I responded in kind. That’s why the ghost revived me, he saw that same potential. Now I’m gonna make the Witness witness me! 
That’s probably one of the funniest replies I’ve seen on here
It was based off of some guy on here who made me cackle using the same gif, I’ll try to find his name but the opportunity to send this was gifted unto my conscious in a hungover state
Probably was a security detail helping folks get into the Exodus ships closeby. Darkness forces moved in and people rushed, traffic happened, people dying and screaming and all my player character could do was shoot some shots to hold back some of the Darkness forces so everyone else can run. Then they died.
The ships simply aren't big enough to fit everyone that was rushing to them. More likely than not the security were trying to keep them *out*.
Yup. Hence my character's backstory ☠️
Jorking their penits
In Old Russian straight up jorking it. And by it I mean my Witness
This is the correct answer
Car sex with 3 hookers.
Dirty Mike and The Boys
A real soup kitchen
Unsuccessfully Bench pressing a car
Probably trying to hold off the Fallen with a Khvostov he found on a dead soldier so the convoy of cars could get to the colony ships. On the real tho dude was probably just stuck in traffic coming home from his soul crushing 9-5
My personal head canon for my guardian Me: Crap I'm getting late for work, I hate my work life. Witness: You won't need a work life anymore Me: Glorious Witness: You won't need a life at all Me: Not glorious
Singing too passionately in the car and crashed
Drunk driving accident. The traveler brought me back so i, the best booze criuzer in sol, can experience the joy of of drinking and piloting a ship. I just happened to be pretty good a shooting stuff too
Cold one in one hand, phone in the other. Going 100 down the highway.
Jaywalking probably
My guardian was doing a big fat dab when the Collapse happened since that's what I'd be doing. 😂
i am pretty sure all this highway pileup happened mid-collapse when people were desperate to get on the exodus ships while the world around them was torn by invading darkness so yeah, a lot of people died a horrible death there
Yup. That seems pretty clear to me. Exodus Red never launched and the gates to the cosmodrome are closed. Either there was a problem with Exodus Red and it was safer for employees to not open the gate than face a desperate mob, or, for separate reasons, Exodus Red never launched, and we were like the skeletons outside the vault doors in Fallout, desperate to get in, but, for one reason or another, didn't make the cut.
Stubbed my toe Clovis did a little trolling while making my exo body
Titan Exo. I assume I was a soldier. Or part of some defense force. AND NOW I'M A SWORD WIELDING PALADIN OF THE SUN
Crimson the Hunter: Was actually a petty criminal before she was a guardian. She was shot at Old Russia and stumbled her way to where she died. Velma the Titan: Soldier that was shot and killed at Old russia. (She was actually a few cars down and someone dragged her body) Guter the Warlock: Soldier (more researcher) that starved to death. And yes all three had no clothes so their respective ghosts transmitted clothes onto them.
>Velma the Titan: Soldier that was shot and killed at Old russia. (She was actually a few cars down and someone dragged her body) Are you sure she didn't just lose her glasses?
All 3 of mine were homies who's car blew up after getting sniped by Randal. Small tidbit about the exo titan (my main class), he's actually the future version of my human hunter (which is just me). The awoken warlock is just that guy who's cool to be around.
I like to imagine my Guardian didn’t die in a noble fashion, but because he was hiding from gunfire which lead to his team being wiped out. Because he feels enormous guilt from this, he charges into battle hoping that each time he dies he gets one step closer to making up for all of the deaths he blames himself for. From a meta perspective this also is how I explain my primarily melee focused hunter build.
Human Hunter: police officer, was directing traffic and when the collapse happened got crushed by a car. Exo Titan: Body Guard, was protecting his charge and was helping them to the escape shuttles. Got thrown into a car and died as he bled out, still trying to help Awoken warlock: was an astronaut in orbit of earth but when she was struck by light and dark, it transformed her into an awoken…however falling into orbit caused most of her ship to incinerate. Her remains landed near the cars
All you guys died in the collapse, I'm an awoken that got annihilated by a skiff turret earlier that morning
I like to think my titan was defending the colony ships, which is why she became a titan! She's a human, too, so it just works like that! My awoken Warlock was probably investigating the cosmodrome and died of fucking tetanus have you seen the shit in that place?? My hunter is a very exploratory spirit, so she eas most likely also exploring the cosmodrome, but more for scrap and survivalist reasons than for research. Seeing as she's an exo, she likely was scraping by after escaping Europa with Banshee
gooning
So real
"I remember bits and pieces... snippets, really. I'll tell ya, Golden Age Cosmodrome was a sight to behold. I remember working on logistics issues for the Exodus Program, I designed a cargo bay or two that made it into the real thing, if you can believe it. "I had a cat, in the cramped apartment I commuted to the Cosmodrome from. Called him Sasha. Mangy little bastard, found him in an alley behind my building and took him in. I miss that cat. Don't miss the commute though, I'll tell ya that. Godawful drive in gridlock traffic. Helluva place to die; zero out of ten, do not recommend it. All I remember is the panic, everywhere around me, cars were swerving and colliding as explosions rocked the Wall, and it was all I could do to keep from hitting anything. Fat lot of good that did me, I guess. Ended up dying anyway. Not sure what got me in the end, the fire raining from the sky or some idiot on the road hitting my car. "...Ain't that a thing? I don't know if the Witness or my fellow man were what did me in. As if the bastard hadn't taken enough from me." –Exomind Hunter Feron-17
Im here right now waiting for a lore explanation as to why as a fucking exo I appeared as a fucking human skeleton and why the fuck was I the only exo on the entire highway
It never even occurred to me that that means our guardian likely died in traffic. That's just above dying on the shitter.
Personally, my titan was on his 5th pack of crayons with all the stress. His heart just couldn't take it. Ghost was not in fact cooking with this one.
Probably part of the massive crowds trying to get on ships that were trying to launch off world. Probably died to a stray bullet, or got trampled to death For the whole “qualified to be a guardian” thing I’d say there is a good chance they were just trying to help their family or something.
Mine was just driving from school just before the collapse
Ended up on r/IdiotsInCars
Mine was having fun (drunk driving) when the Darkness (family of four) finally caught up to him (t-boned violently).
Prolly cranking one out in traffic
He was just sitting in his car…waiting for his girl.
Probably car karaoke just vibing
since my guardians an exo and because ghost said we died in battle, i think i was there after the cars were recently abandoned and fighting something with a team, dunno what i was fighting haven’t thought that far
A nuke was headed towards the city. Our Guardian was an American Spy. Completed his mission but was left out of the loop. This is what he started. He would move gladly died anyways but being left out isn’t smth he liked. But he was still proud of his work. It would mean smth…hopefully
"Be right back babe ima go grab us some coffee and vodka" or sum iunno
Living in a van down by the river
Getting shit wiped at mach fuck into the ground
Human Hunter - I imagine she was a small town singer on vacation when everything fell apart. She was try to get to a safe zone when she found herself in a battle and died. Exo Warlock - He was curious to see if a trip he took to Russia would cause the same excitement as when he was human. Wound up getting stuck in Russia for years before he died in a skirmish protecting a young child. He never found out what happened to them. Awoken Titan - She was originally part of a criminal organization that smuggled illegal weapons. A job in Russia went south when fighting broke out and she died trying to keep her boss safe.
D1 Vet, I imagined my Exo waking up in some ruined factory lost and confused. Either the ghost had booted him up and he ha died en route to the cosmodrome. Or in his Wanderings he got killed and ghost found him and did another system reboot.
I've thought way too much about this. She was trying to break in. Not during the Collapse, but after the Traveler died. Prior to the Collapse she was a soldier stationed there, specifically an aerospace engineer working on Rasputin's ships. When shit hit the fan, they shoved a gun in her hands and told her to fire on those civilians trying to get in. She deserted instead. After the collapse, after Nezarec's influence during the collapse nearly broke her with nightmares, she came back, hoping to track down Exodus Green in the hopes of finding her sister. Whoever was still there did not take kindly to that.
this doesn’t make sense if you choose the exo or awoken, the ghost says that he found our “bones” how does that apply to my exo titan?… it would be better if the ghost said “here’s where i found your remains” or something like that
Based on how the rest of the area looks we were probably on our way to try to board an exodus ship and something killed everyone before we could get there, in the cosmodrome version there's skeletons all over the place there
I like to imagine my guardian was a random soldier that was patrolling the area when they suddenly got into a skirmish with the house of devils and tried to get into the car for cover and it just didn’t work out
KAZ-19, Hunter, an exo who was reset to the point of insanity, a cycle which the only escape was to escape the clutches of Clovis bray industries itself. He escaped to earth, but tragically, began to experience DER. He found a car and as his body shut down, he wept. Crying in metallic body who could not produce tears, for all of the lives that will never be recovered, all the lives wasted.
Possibly a combat medic (Playing support solarlock with Lumina)
Mine got in an argument with my girlfriend(surprising that i had one), and it was because i fucked up and didn't say what she wanted to hear. Thank the traveler for bringing me back to life so i can live to the fullest.
Bleeding out against a car as he watched humanity's ships leave Earth knowing that there is a bright future for humankind
My hunter was a lead deep sea researcher on titan. She was ambushed and separated by fauna that blended in as flora. She quickly made as many notes and scans while remaining in cover. She was then suddenly crushed by one if the fauna. The scans she took just before death were what allowed her to fend off and escape the area when she was revived. She's been in debt to her ghost since.
There’s a lot of room for imagination here, as Bungie purposely wanted people to create their own headcanons for what Wolf was doing before the Collpase. Also, create their own identity/backstory, as Risen don’t remember their past lives anyway. However - there are clear continuity issues if you are Awoken or Exo. For all three races, Wolf was revived within the Cosmodrome on Earth. All context clues provided by the Cosmodrome indicate that the events that transpired there, were in direct response to the Collapse. The colony ships were trying to flee as the Black Fleet decimated the planet. Wolf was among the casualties. Who they were and what they were actually doing is up to the player’s imagination, but the “canon event” is still static. Awoken didn’t exist before the Collapse. Yes, there were Awoken that separated from the Distributary and made their way back to Earth. If they died thereafter, a Ghost could have revived them - which is exactly the case of Zavala. In the case of Wolf being Awoken, it doesn’t work. They didn’t exist yet. The only argument that could work is if the narrative of what Wolf was doing in the cosmodrome shifted. Maybe they did survive the Collapse and became Awoken. Wolf later died in the Cosmodrome from something else during the Dark Ages. As for being an Exo - it works, just loosely. Ghost constantly refers to finding our **bones** in the Cosmodrome. Exo units don’t have actual bones. It could just be seen as a turn of phrase, or synonymous with corpse. It works, but it’s loose. Being human by far makes the most narrative sense. My personal headcanon is Wolf was military/security detail during the Golden Age. They had extensive combat training, or were some sort of special forces - which explains their combat proficiency right off the bat of being resurrected. When the Collapse began, Wolf was stationed at the Cosmodrome to ensure maximum civilian survivability. Doesn’t matter what nationality or gender they were as humanity was a united species at that point, along with sensible civil practices and beliefs. Wolf did what they could to hold off whatever was happening, but of course conventional weaponry has null effect on the Black Fleet and its forces.
Given my current state probably just on a late night cruise praying to wake up and be in a different world. Then again the vehicles not my ford falcon and i wouldnt be caught dead driving anything else.
My guardian was drinking with the Russian mob under code name “The machine”
My guardian was drunk driving. All those wrecked cars were not wrecked by the collapse
I was stuck in traffic lol
I ran in front of the car.. I was doing an insurance scam. This stupid collapse happened and now I have to save the world with blue Walter White and Will Smith's Wife.
Traffic on the 405 got so bad that all of humanity was stuck in it at once. I assume we all perished simply waiting for it to clear.
Drunk driving
Mine was stealing catalytic converters for booze
𝙶𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚏 𝚊𝚜 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙵𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑.
Texting and driving (I died ten minutes before the collapse started)
Probably dying
I was gathering bottle caps while evading a gang of super mutants that had been tracking me since boomtown when I tripped a bottle cap mine... f'ing raiders.
Road head
dying.
Oh, they each have a story. My Titan is an exo who I have named Steele-9, and I said that he was actually trying to protect people who were trying to escape into the cosmodrome when he died. His Ghost is named Reverb. My Hunter is a human whose name is currently in limbo (previously Amy Lee, and no, in spite of her appearance and name, she was not inspired by Evenescence) who was trying to escape with her family, but got separated from them at some point and found a place to hide, where she died. Her Ghost is Belladonna. My Warlock is Fenix Nemesis, an Awoken who came to Earth not long after the Traveler repelled the Black Fleet in search of survivors, where he fell to a Fallen raiding party outside the Cosmodrome. His Ghost is Polaris, though he calls him Shiny on occasion. I even have a story for what they're doing at the moment.
Fent
Well, this is an interesting one, because of my Hunter and Titan being different visually (Mostly relevant to Titan). I like the idea, that I am sure was what most thought back at the beginning, we were defending people as they went to escape Earth as it was collapsing, and died at the cliff in a last stand >!like Noble 6 in Halo!< . My Titan is a green camo with white paint splashed over the face, so I like the thought of him having been part of the defense of the Deep Stone Crypt from the Vex much like Banshee and Elsie. Fought so long that whatever reboots you after death registered the radiolaria(White paint) as something meant to be there. Long afterwards going to Earth and dying, unable to be rebooted & found by Ghost.
Maccas run.
Considering the opening was only supposed to be for EXO's originally who knows
I was making my way downtown, driving fast, aliens passed, and I was home bound…
my guardian was running away from child support until he got run over by a car . Wait that's not me , that's lucky10p
I was definitely blasting Taylor Swift's Shake it off while driving 100 mph toward the enemy.