Destiny 2 has a world that is defined by its different factions. Each faction has its own enemy types and strategies for players to react to while facing off against their hordes. However, all of the factions also have a very detailed and nuanced history, sociology, and impact on the events that have played out across Destiny's universe. One of the factions that have had a very large impact on Destiny, especially in recent seasons, is the Vex, an ancient cyber-organic species that is extremely old.
The Vex are also known for their technology. The species has a robotic appearance while also building massive structures, being able to digitally teleport themselves, and often face players in entirely digital realms of their own construction. While Destiny players are more than familiar with fighting them, there is still plenty that most Destiny players don't know about the Vex despite the race being fleshed out with some of the most interesting and unique lore in all of Destiny's world. With their origins dating back billions of years, it only makes sense that the Vex would have some interesting stories to tell.
The Origins of the Vex in Destiny
The official description of the Vex in Destiny's Grimoire describes them as living metal with incomprehensible intelligence. The Vex were created before the creation of the universe through what is known as the "flower game" between Destiny's Darkness and Light. The games between the two always resulted in the creation of a self-sustaining pattern that would grow to dominate the entire simulation. It was when the Darkness and Light created the universe and began warring with one another that the pattern escaped the simulation into the real world as the radiolaria. Radiolaria are microscopic organisms based on silica that look like pools of milk in large quantities.
The exact evolution chain that the Radiolaria experienced on their way to becoming what is now known as Vex is unknown, but it is known that they operated on swarm intelligence with a hive mind. The race still followed the rules that were set for them in the simulation, meaning that they do not account for the interplay of the Light or the Darkness in their calculations or decision-making processes. Eventually, the Vex created the mechanical-looking forms that players are familiar with while also constructing massive structures to house themselves, such as Destiny's iconic Vault of Glass. Their structures are defined by their size, with tall spires often built around hypermassive stars. The structures are believed to extend the lives of these stars so that the Vex can use them to farm and harvest extremely rare elements for future constructions.
Vex Sociology
One of the strangest and most difficult aspects of the Vex to understand is how they think. Unlike humans who use symbols and language to understand and formulate thoughts, the Vex instead simulate all outside observations inside of themselves to generate the necessary output. For example, a human who is cold will understand that they are cold, imagine what would fix that problem, and then go and put on a sweater or jacket. A Vex that was cold would skip the middle steps completely and would just have the desire to put on a sweater or jacket without fully understanding why it wants to do so. Vex do not know why they do what they do or have certain wants, they just act. This works well for the Vex, as it ties into Destiny's big mystery of the Vex hive-mind and what the Vex truly want.
The only thing that the Vex seem to want is to recreate the world in their image to assimilate it with their pattern. This is because the Vex are driven by their internal simulations, which they have complete control of. Their only drive, then, is to make the external world match their internal simulation. The absence of the Light and the Darkness from the Vex's internal simulation means that this mission will only be complete when the Light and Darkness are also completely eradicated from existence, making the Vex a strange faction on the outside of Destiny 2's core conflict.
Vex Technology
The Vex have developed some of the most impressive and powerful technology in all of Destiny. One of the largest of their creations is a trans-dimensional and trans-temporal gate network. The gate network is made up of Vex structures on nearly every celestial body in the Sol system and allows them to effectively teleport throughout the network to any location in hardly any time at all. The gate network incredibly also lets the Vex travel to any point in time or parallel universe that the Vex have anchored themselves in. This ability is unbelievably powerful, and could very well build into some big events in Destiny's future.
The Vex also have incredible abilities when it comes to simulations, as they can create entire believable universes that players eventually explore throughout Destiny 2. The simulations allow the Vex to train and test out possible outcomes, with the Infinite Forest on Mercury being the most impressive example. Destiny's Infinite Forest is a massive reality engine that can simulate infinite variations of reality whether it be in the past or future. Another interesting aspect of the Infinite Forest is that simulations within that are left unchecked are capable of exiting it to the physical world, similar to how the Radiolaria did billions of years ago.
The Vex are an incredibly deep and unique faction with Destiny's world, and it will be very exciting to see what Destiny does with the faction moving forward. The Vex's unique technology and impressive simulations open fresh possibilities for Destiny going forward, as the faction can be used to create numerous stories and quests. Destiny 2's future is very exciting, with the game ramping up to its newest expansion. Hopefully, players will get so see some more of the Vex when the new content launches next year.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.