Vex
| The Vex | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Classification | Time-manipulating machine collective |
| Homeworld | None (their realms exist outside normal space and time) |
| Leadership | Axis Minds (no true hierarchy, only functions) |
| Allegiance | Mostly none; the Sol Divisive serve the Witness |
| Subgroups | Sol Collective, Sol Divisive, Precursors, Descendants, and others |
| First appearance | Destiny (2014) |
The Vex are a species of time-manipulating machines found across the Sol System and far beyond. Each Vex unit is a robotic frame built from an unknown alloy, but the real organism is the milky fluid held inside it, called radiolaria. A single frame is disposable, and the Vex spend them freely; what matters is the radiolaria and the network it serves.
The Vex behave as one vast intelligence working toward a single goal: to reshape the universe into a form they can fully model and control. They raise enormous machine-structures across whole worlds, and they manipulate time itself, replaying moments until the outcome fits their pattern. In combat they are marked by the glowing core in their torso, which is their true weak point rather than the head.
Nature
A Vex frame looks mechanical, but it is only a shell. Inside the mind core is radiolaria, a fluid of silicon-based microorganisms that holds the unit's piece of the Vex network. The frames can be replaced endlessly, and the Vex are described less as born or built than as converted: radiolaria can turn living matter into part of the collective, as it did to the arm of Asher Mir.
Because the network is shared, the Vex act with a single purpose even when scattered across worlds and across time. They have no real sense of self and little distinction between a simulation and the real thing. To the Vex there is only the internal model and the outside world that must be forced to match it.
The Network and Time
The Vex run on a trans-dimensional network detached from the normal flow of time, which lets them simulate possible pasts and futures and travel through their own gates. There is one thing they cannot do: they cannot simulate the paracausal powers of the Light and the Darkness. The Vex came into being before those forces, so Guardians, Warminds, and the Traveler all fall outside their models. Much of Vex activity is an effort to understand and overcome that blind spot, which is why some of them have turned to worship and to the Darkness itself.
History
The Black Garden
The Black Garden is a realm outside space and time, tied to the Vex's origins. There the Sol Divisive worshipped the Black Heart, which they took for a fragment of the Darkness. Guardians entered the Garden and destroyed the Black Heart, an act that brought the realm partway back into normal space.
The Vault of Glass
On Venus, the Vex built the Vault of Glass, a timeless realm where Oracles foresee the world the Vex want and a creature called the Templar reshapes reality to match it. Guardians fought to its heart and destroyed its overseer, Atheon, Time's Conflux.
Mercury and the Infinite Forest
The Vex turned Mercury into a machine-world holding the Infinite Forest, a vast engine for simulating endless futures. During Curse of Osiris they worked toward a future with no Light and no Darkness, only Vex, under the Axis Mind Panoptes, Infinite Mind. Osiris and the Guardian stopped it.
Quria and Savathûn
The Vex once invaded Oryx's Throne World, and to understand his Sword Logic they built the Mind Quria, Blade Transform. Oryx Took Quria and handed it to Savathûn, who used it to study paracausal power and, much later, to plunge the Last City into the Endless Night.
Neomuna and the Witness
The Sol Divisive came to serve the Witness, seeking to merge their collective with its consciousness. During Lightfall the Vex besieged Neomuna on Neptune, and Guardians learned that the Black Heart had been a failed copy of the Veil. The Sol Divisive later fought for the Witness in the Pale Heart during The Final Shape.
Collectives
The Vex are divided into collectives, each with its own directive but all serving one purpose:
- Sol Collective: the main, consolidated force seen across the system.
- Sol Divisive: the Darkness-worshipping sect that guards the Black Garden and serves the Witness.
- Precursors: a collective from the ancient past.
- Descendants: a collective from the far future.
- Hezen Corrective, Hezen Protective, Aphix Invasive, Virgo Prohibition: collectives tied to specific worlds and projects.
Minds
The most powerful Vex are the Axis Minds, units that store everything needed for a goal and direct masses of lesser Vex. The Vex have no true ranks, only functions, so a Mind is best thought of as a distribution point for the collective rather than a king. Minds usually take the form of a Minotaur or a Hydra. Special ranks include Gate Lords, the huge Minotaurs that lock Vex realms out of time, and Oracles, the floating calculations that try to erase their targets from existence.
Combatants
Every humanoid Vex has its mind core in the torso, which is the weak point; shots to the head only enrage them.
- Goblin: basic infantry that swarms and teleports.
- Hobgoblin: long-range support that seals itself in a shield and regenerates when hit.
- Harpy: flying scouts that must stop to fire; their core sits behind the eye.
- Minotaur: aggressive heavy infantry with a Void shield that charges while firing.
- Hydra: floating processors protected by a rotating shield that blocks all damage from one side.
- Cyclops: stationary artillery that fires heavy Void blasts.
- Wyvern: a large hybrid first seen on Europa that delivers a gravity-slam pounce.
- Fanatic and Supplicant: damaged Goblins and Harpies that detonate as kamikaze units.
Notable Minds
- Atheon, Time's Conflux: the overseer of the Vault of Glass.
- The Templar: the Vault guardian that bends reality to the Oracles' design.
- Panoptes, Infinite Mind: the master of the Infinite Forest on Mercury.
- Quria, Blade Transform: the Mind that studied the Sword Logic and was Taken by Oryx.
- The Undying Mind: an ancient Mind that seals the Black Garden out of time.
Fighting the Vex
Aim for the glowing torso core on humanoid Vex; headshots send them berserk instead of killing them. Hobgoblins shield and heal when shot, so burst them down or wait out the shield. A Hydra's rotating shield blocks everything from one direction, so move to its open side or use a Sword. Harpies are only vulnerable when they stop to scan and fire.
Trivia
- Vex units and Minds are named after Greek mythology, with the Wyvern as a rare exception.
- The radiolaria inside the Vex was used by Clovis Bray in the creation of the Exos.
- The Vex's realms, such as the Black Garden and the Vault of Glass, exist outside normal space and time.