Bite-sized Backstory is an ongoing guide to the incredible stories contained within the Grimoire Cards and Lore Books of Bungie’s Destiny.
Select one of the following entry points to get started:
History of the Hive
History of the Eliksni
History of the Awoken
History of The Last Word
Bite-sized Backstory 37: Yang Liwei
The Awoken have been a strange puzzle ever since we first visited the Reef back in Destiny 1. We met the Awoken Queen and her brother, but we didn’t even learn their names until Petra Venj called upon the Guardians of The City to hunt down Skolas in the House of Wolves expansion. For all of Destiny 1, the Awoken were a culture and a power whose extent was frustratingly difficult to discern. Did…
Bite-sized Backstory 36: The Fallen Houses
With two crushing defeats, one at Twilight Gap at the hands of The Last City and another at Cybele at the hands of the Awoken, the Eliksni found themselves being driven back once again. Since the Dark Age they had raided and pillaged the scattered settlements and cities of Earth mostly unchecked. But now, the Awoken had set up colonies and industry and a military presence within the Reef, and the…
Bite-sized Backstory 35: Betrayal At Cybele
When the Awoken captured Beltrik the Veiled at the Fortuna Plummet, Skolas knew he was running out of options. With no brilliant strategist on his side anymore, Skolas falls back on brute force. For a whole year, Drevis had managed to form an effective blockade of Pallas using only a portion of the fractured House of Wolves. Maybe Skolas figured he could do the same? For his target, Skolas choose…
Bite-sized Backstory 34: The Fortuna Plummet
The Hildian Campaign There’s one segment of the Reef Wars we just don’t know a whole lot about. During the long siege of Pallas occurred what was a perhaps an almost equally long search for Skolas called The Hildian Campaign. Armada Paladins Abra Zire and Kamala Rior were sent into the Hildian asteroid field to try and find Skolas and his chief strategist Beltrik, the Veiled, but this campaign…
Bite-sized Backstory 33: The Long Siege of Pallas
Since before the Reef Wars, the Awoken could only ever tell that the Eliksni were communicating, but what exactly the aliens were saying to one another had always been lost in the pulsed static or rapid beeps and tones of encryption. It seems likely that the Awoken’s communications were almost certainly just as unreadable to the Eliksni, but then it was the Eliksni who were lashing out at Awoken…
Bite-sized Backstory 32: The Eos Clash & Amethyst
After the Awoken smashed their fleet and their leadership at Ceres, the House of Wolves splintered into a variety of groups vying for control. As we saw last time, the three primary contenders for the Kellship were three of Virixas’ lieutenants: Irxis, Wolf Baroness; Parixas, the Howling; and Skolas, the Rabid. The first order of business for these three claimants was to gather their forces and,…
Bite-sized Backstory 31: Meanwhile! At Twilight Gap!
As the House of Wolves scattered and splintered among the many planetoids of the asteroid belt, the House of Devils lead the other Houses against the City. In some ways, the City had unfortunately set its self up for such an attack. What started as settlements underneath the Traveler slowly grew into a metropolis protected by high walls, artillery equipped towers, and scores of nearly immortal…
Bite-sized Backstory 30: The Nobel Queen and the Scatter
When the Eliksni came to our system, the various houses did what they always did. As Variks says: House Winter, attack. House Devils, plot. House Kings, plan. House Wolves circle. House Judgment… wait. – Variks The Loyal The attacks the House of Winter performed are referred to in Draksis, Winter Kell: Kell of the Wintership Simiks-fel, has been an elusive target for the Vanguards.…
Bite-sized Backstory 29: The Eliksni vs The Iron Lords
One. Two. Three. Four. “Guardian Down!” Lord Saladin’s ghost informed him as a barrage of arc missiles streaked across the outskirts of the town turned battleground. The excited clicks and grunts of the alien pirates echoed above the fighting. They were winning! The hundred or so Fallen advancing on the town were a problem, but in truth they weren’t much more than a screen for the spider-shaped…
Bite-sized Backstory 28: Facts and puzzling things about…
Before we really begin, I thought it might be interesting to explore some oddities of Eliksni biology, and take a quick look at two of the key individuals we’ll see driving the Eliksni’s fate before and during the events of Destiny. Skolas the Rabid: The incredibly difficult Fallen Kell many of us faced in the Prison of Elders was once merely one of multiple captains serving the previous House of…