Fallen
| The Fallen | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Classification | Insectoid scavenger species (Eliksni) |
| Homeworld | Riis |
| Leadership | Various Kells; Mithrax (House of Light), Eramis (House of Salvation) |
| Allegiance | Independent Houses; the House of Light is allied with the Last City |
| Subgroups | House of Light, House of Salvation, House of Dusk, and others |
| First appearance | Destiny (2014) |
The Fallen, who call themselves the Eliksni, are a four-armed alien species of nomads, scavengers, and pirates. They were once a great spacefaring civilization that flourished under the Traveler, which they knew as the Great Machine. When the Traveler abandoned their homeworld during a catastrophe they remember as the Whirlwind, their society collapsed, and the survivors have wandered ever since, raiding ruins to stay alive and trying to reclaim the Great Machine they believe is theirs by right.
The name "Fallen" is a human word for their decline. The Eliksni are proud and grieving in equal measure, and many of them see Guardians as the one obstacle standing between them and the Traveler.
Biology
The Eliksni are tall and lean, with chitinous exoskeletons, multiple eyes, and four arms at full rank. They breathe through respirators built into their helmets and depend on a substance called Ether to live. Ether runs through their bodies like blood, and after the Whirlwind only their machine Servitors can still produce it.
Ether is now rationed by rank, and the more a Fallen receives, the larger it grows. That is why Captains tower over Vandals and Dregs, and why Kells and Archons tower over everyone. The lowest caste, the Dregs, have their lower pair of arms cut off as a mark of shame, and only those who rise in rank are allowed to regrow them.
Society and Hierarchy
Eliksni society is built from competing Houses, each flying its own banner. A stable House needs three things: a Kell, the political leader who controls the flow of Ether; an Archon, the high priest and chief engineer; and a worshipped Prime Servitor, the machine that produces most of the House's Ether. Kill all three and a House panics, scatters, and is broken for good.
Below the leadership come the Barons and Captains, then the Vandals, and finally the Dregs at the bottom. Servitors are built in the Traveler's image and were once objects of pure worship; today they are also a painful reminder of how far the Eliksni have fallen, kept around as much for survival as for faith.
History
The Golden Age and the Whirlwind
On their homeworld of Riis, the Eliksni lived a Golden Age under the Great Machine much like humanity's own. That age ended in the Whirlwind, when the Witness and its Black Fleet arrived and the Traveler fled. The Pyramids tore through Eliksni civilization, and the surviving Houses turned on one another. Several Houses were wiped out entirely, and the survivors fled their dying world on long voyages that finally brought them to the Sol System during humanity's Dark Age.
Wars against the City and the Reef
The Fallen raided human settlements throughout the Dark Age and besieged the young Last City for a century. They were thrown back at battles such as Twilight Gap, and the Reef Awoken later crushed the House of Wolves in the Reef Wars and captured their would-be unifier, Skolas. As Guardians rose, they picked the Houses apart, destroying Prime Servitors and killing leaders across the Devils, Winter, Kings, and Wolves.
Rise of Iron and the SIVA Crisis
On Earth, the House of Devils became the Devil Splicers and uncovered a Golden Age nanotechnology called SIVA in the Plaguelands. Their Archon, Aksis, turned himself almost entirely into a machine. Guardians shut down the SIVA source and destroyed Aksis in the raid Wrath of the Machine.
The House of Dusk and Forsaken
By the time of Destiny 2, the surviving Houses had merged out of desperation into the House of Dusk. The most important Fallen story of this era came in Forsaken: cast-out Dregs known as the Scorned Barons, led by the Archon Fikrul, broke out of the Prison of Elders and murdered the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6. Fikrul became the first of the Scorn, an army of undead Eliksni, splitting that horde off from the living Fallen for good.
Beyond Light and the House of Salvation
In Beyond Light, the Baroness Eramis gathered broken Fallen into the House of Salvation and led them to Europa. There she drew Stasis from a Pyramid and named herself Kell of Darkness, only to be frozen in Stasis by the very power she thought she commanded. The scribe Variks turned against her and helped the Guardian.
The House of Light and the Last City
Not all Eliksni stayed enemies. Mithrax founded the House of Light, allied with the Vanguard, and during the Season of the Splicer the Eliksni were granted sanctuary inside the Last City in a district called the Eliksni Quarter. The House of Light joined the Coalition against the Witness. In later stories, Fikrul returned with the power to turn living Eliksni into Scorn, which finally pushed Mithrax, Eramis, and the Vanguard into an uneasy alliance to put him down for good.
Houses
- House of Light: Mithrax's House, allied with the Last City.
- House of Salvation: Eramis's House, which turned to the Darkness on Europa.
- House of Dusk: the desperation-merger of the old Houses, seen across the system.
- Scorn: undead Eliksni raised by Fikrul; no longer truly Fallen.
- House of Devils, Kings, Winter, Wolves, Exile and others:older Houses, most now broken, scattered, or absorbed.
- House of Judgment: the House that kept the peace between the others, now reduced to Variks alone.
Combatants
The Fallen fight with speed, ambush, and stolen technology. Many of their weapons deal Arc damage.
- Dreg: the lowest-ranked infantry, fielded in swarms.
- Wretch: a docked, two-armed melee soldier with an energy spear.
- Vandal: agile mid-rank troops who snipe with Wire Rifles or fight with blades.
- Marauder: stealth raiders who turn invisible until they strike.
- Captain: durable crew leaders who carry an Arc shield and teleport short distances.
- Shank: small flying drones, including the kamikaze Exploder Shank, the sniping Tracer Shank, and the armored Heavy Shank.
- Servitor: floating machines that produce Ether, fire Void blasts, and shield nearby Fallen with immunity tethers.
- Brig: a walking war mech first seen as the giant INSURRECTION PRIME.
Vehicles include the Pike, the six-legged Walker (or Spider Tank), and the Skiff dropship.
Notable Fallen
- Mithrax, Kell of Light: founder of the House of Light and an ally of the Last City.
- Eramis, Kell of Darkness: the Shipstealer who wielded Stasis and founded the House of Salvation.
- Variks: the House of Judgment scribe who has long worked with Guardians.
- Skolas, Kell of Kells: the Wolf Kell who tried and failed to unite the Houses.
- Aksis, Archon Prime: the SIVA-augmented leader of the Devil Splicers.
- Fikrul: the Archon who became the first of the Scorn.
Fighting the Fallen
Captains carry Arc shields and blink away when pressed, so close the distance or break line of sight. Servitors project immunity tethers that protect nearby Fallen, so the Servitor usually has to die first; its eye is the weak spot. Watch for Vandals and Tracer Shanks lining up Wire Rifle shots from range, and avoid the heavy melee knockback of a Walker.
Trivia
- "Eliksni" is the species' own name; "Fallen" is what humans call them.
- The leader Mithrax's name is more accurately rendered "Misraaks."
- Dregs are docked of their lower arms as punishment and earn them back only by rising in rank.
