Guardians and allies in the Solar System are gearing up for the inevitable return of The Witness and dealing with Cabal Shadow Legion forces in Destiny 2’s upcoming Lightfall expansion. Recently, players have worked to revive the massively powerful Rasputin AI Warmind, an action that has even intrigued the Vex. We’ve also begun to learn more about how the Vex are not the hivemind we believed them to be–the radio message of Osiris telling Elsie about the Aberrant Vex moving away from the consensus revealed how Vex factions don’t share ideals or goals. We’ve known the Vex to be combative and experimental Radiolarian-filled robotic species, and Elsie describes in Clovis Bray’s Logbook lore that the “indifferent and curious” Vex will try to reshape the universe in every way they can, but there’s more to it.
Based on the radio message, the Vex featured in the Neomuna Environment trailer, and what looks like the Vex network Nexus reminiscent of Season of the Splicer, it’s clear the Vex will continue to be key in the upcoming story. GameSpot asked narrative designer Liz Baker and senior narrative designer Nikko Stevens during a group interview if the forthcoming story will highlight different Vex motives.
“The Vex are something we’ve talked about a lot, especially between you and I, Nikko, with Spire of the Watcher tower,” Baker said. “There’s a lot of interesting stuff with the Vex and their somewhat enigmatic goals.” Adding, “I don’t think you’re wrong to sense that what’s in the trailer is going to come up in the story.”
The core motive of the Sol Divisive isn’t crystalline, even after defeating those in the Black Garden who worshiped the Black Heart, and the numerous subsequent encounters. Stevens explained, “As far as it connects to Season of the Seraph, like Liz said, her and I had a lot of conversations specifically revolving around Spire of the Watcher and how that story integrates into Lightfall. If you’ve played Spire of the Watcher and read the lore, you’ll know that the contingent of Vex known as the Sol Divisive essentially attacked Spire of the Watcher, and we were able to repel them. It seems like on the surface their goal was to imprison Rasputin, but we learn as we finish the dungeon that maybe they have some nefarious goals.”
Lore tabs from the Spire of the Watcher gear heavily nod to a clairvoyant AI named Soteria, the Augurmind created by researcher Maya Sundaresh using Vex tech. Myelin Games has a video interpreting this AI’s possible ties with Nefele Stronghold, which we now know is Neomuna. Also, another relevant connection might be Sundaresh saving her Ishtar Collective research team from Vex simulation copies by using a Warmind since it’s too complex to simulate and predict; the saved copies went on to research the Vex network. Similarly, the Vex have played a significant role in the Solar System by converting planets and moons into geometric machines like Mercury and Io, Clovis Bray’s search for Clarity on Europa, and many other interconnected yet dangling threads haven’t fully come together. Even the reason behind the singular friendly Harpy from Nessus remains unexplained.
Stevens added, “Given that the Vex Collective is one thing and then the Sol Divisive have sort of broken away from them because they worship the Darkness, and they believe that worship of the Darkness is the path that will lead them to victory. I think all of those sorts of disparate points floating around each other leading into Lightfall, you might see some more connective webbing forming.”
Throughout the years of Destiny, the Vex have been some of the strongest yet most elusive enemies, but Lightfall–which releases on February 28–may shed some mystery about their role in this paracausal battle.
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