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 21: The Origin of the Vex

As Oryx’s daughters grow older, they continue to increase their knowledge and dig deeper into their powers and abilities. At some point a few years or maybe centuries later after their birth, Oryx came across his daughters experimenting with death and a Hive wound that they cut between places. When questioned about what they were doing, Oryx’s daughters tell him that they are working on a way to…


Bite-sized Backstory 22: Crota’s Punishment and Oryx’s Plans

Upon hearing Eri’s call to set his house in order, Oryx returns home and quickly overwhelms the Vex pouring into his throne world. The power the Vex had gained through killing and worship was nowhere near a match for the powers that Oryx possessed. As is typical, Oryx took some of the Vex and turned them against each other. We are told that Quria, Blade Transform, the Vex mind in charge of the…


Bite-sized Backstory 23: End of Failed Timeline

With his new, powerful Dreadnaught complete, Oryx sets out to accomplish two of the last objectives we’ll hear about: Hunting down the Nicha Thought-ship and discovering the location of the Gift Mast. These last two objectives are… interesting… because we’ve so heard very little about them. The first we hear of the Nicha Thought-ship is after Oryx’s twin daughters have grown up and become…


Bite-sized Backstory 24: The Gift Mast and Dragons?!

Oryx had gotten what he wanted. What he’d been seeking for a long, long time. In the wake of his victory over Quria, Blade Transform, he finally had the location of the Gift Mast. Soon, he has all of the Hive gather for a major assault. When his sister Savathûn arrives at their staging area, Oryx goes to visit with her. I think the only way to describe Oryx’s mood as he converses with his sister…


Bite-sized Backstory 25: The Harmony and the Ahamkara

The Defeat of the Harmony We don’t know if the Harmony knew about the Hive, or the hundreds of civilizations they’d made extinct. It’s possible they saw the Hive coming and prepared as best they could. One day the Harmony must have been at peace, and the next they faced one of the greatest threats the galaxy has ever seen. And to be honest, they did pretty well, all things considered. But then,…


Bite-sized Backstory 26: The Last Musings of Oryx

We’re finally at the end of the Books of Sorrow. This final chapter seems to be written from Oryx’s point of view as he muses on all that he has done. First we see (Oryx’s?) Hive restate their belief in the form of an open letter to the things they plan to kill. It’s the same basic thing where they say that building safe spaces for cooperation is a fatal lie because the universe only…


Bite-sized Backstory 27: Whirlwind & Rain

The Fallen are ruthless scavengers. Brutal and uncaring, they arrived on their massive Ketches in the wake of the Collapse to loot and pillage our devastated worlds. – The Fallen By the time Destiny’s story ends, it is clear that the Fallen have it the worst out of all the races we’ve met. Once the combined forces of the City and the Reef, not to mention the Vex, Hive, and Cabal, are…


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…


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 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.…