Welcome to my lore post about the directives and history of the time-traveling, planet-remodeling, headache-to-explain-anything-about beings that have conquered countless time streams. The Vex Today (December 27) is my birthday, so I decided to prepare a couple of posts in my Vex series to post on this day in celebration of the beginning of yet another year of my life. I hope you enjoy the read and learn a thing or two The Vex consist of a machine containment vessel holding and being controlled by a radiolarian liquid (the Books of Sorrow refers to this biological liquid that makes up the Vex as Mind Fluid). This means that the Vex ARE NOT machines, they just have mechanical vessels, and can therefore be Taken. The Vex chassis (their bodies) and equipment are built for the purpose of construction, but can also be used for combat. The Vex are constantly transforming the planets they conquer by building their structures and gate networks into them, turning them into part of their vast network with unknown purposes aside from universal domination. The only purpose they have that we know of is to find a way to weave themselves into time so that they will be ever-present and unable to be exterminated, and therefore rule all time streams. Each Vex is of the same Mind Fluid, the same linked mind, and the same directives. This isn't a hive mind, where one entity commands the others; this is one mind shared throughout millions of vessels, but each vessel sees from a different perspective. Two Vex can see the same situation from two different angles and the whole system will then know every possible way to approach from those angles. It is one mind with millions of eyes. Larger Vex models have more Mind Fluid and therefore more of the mind collectively, so appear to command those with less Mind Fluid because they can compute more info than those with less Vex Jizz (had to include it since it's such a fun and common term). Vex can teleport from one star system to another in an instant, making them easily able to overwhelm enemies and prevent negative events. The Vex also use time gates, which can move them as quickly as teleporting but also allow them to move through time instead of only space. Vex are capable of simulating almost any scenario that could possibly happen in a universe, and this gives them an incredible ability to predict and prepare for anything that their enemies do. Their one weakness is that they cannot simulate beings with a mind too big/complicated to simulate (Warminds were supposedly unable to be simulated because of their incredible intelligence, even though you'd expect Vex to have an easy time simulating something as logic-based as an AI) or a being who defies physics such as Guardians or Ascendant Hive. This allows Guardians and beings like Oryx to defeat the Vex because the Vex cannot efficiently adapt to something that they can't understand easily or predict at all. The Vex could just send dozens of units to attack at once and try to win by overwhelming these unpredictable beings, but it is often not worth the risk of losing so many units on the hope that they won't be defeated; the risks are too high for the Vex to use this method. As observed by the scientists at the Ishtar Collective, the Vex control what happens in their simulations and basically play-God inside them. They could torture and attack the beings of their simulations if they wanted to. But they don't. The Vex change their simulations based completely off of what they logically believe should happen. The Vex will not being themselves to torture a simulated being out of nowhere and exhibit control as they could. The Vex do not know malice or hate like the humans, only cold logic and inference. They do not hate humans, we are just an obstacle in the way of their grand plans. The Vex divide into subtypes to accomplish goals efficiently by assigning certain groups to certain tasks, thus eliminating the confusion of random assignment to tasks. In this way, different Vex Minds oversee different groups of Vex and share what progress they've made with the Collective Mind. [b]The Vex timeline as we are aware of:[/b] Vex structures are built into every celestial body that we know of, suggesting that they were somehow able to ingrain themselves into every world at the beginning of time, but we know that they travel throughout the universe creating constructs that establish a solid position within time and therefore make it as if they have always been. We do not know what time the Vex were originally built at, just that they were built in the Black Garden, but they have managed to spread both forwards and backwards through time as well as connecting their intelligence throughout other time streams. Now, the first recorded encounter with the Vex in our timeline is in the Book of Sorrows when Crota experiments with tears and accidentally opens up into a Vex gate system. The Vex then surged into the Dreadnaught and Quria, Blade Transform was built to exploit the physics of Oryx's throne world and become powerful and gain understanding through that. The Vex and Hive came to a stalemate where the Vex could no longer spread through the throne and the Hive could not chase them out, and Quria established itself at the outside end of the tear to keep it from closing. Quria obtained some Worm larvae and began experimenting, but only found worshiping the Darkness to have any chance of a beneficial outcome. Oryx eventually returned to his throne and chased out the Vex and Quria, then closed the year after throwing Crota through it. Oryx then put his throne into a Dreadnaught and eventually found the Nicha Thought-ship which he sought to get information from, but Quria laid a trap for him there. Quria was defeated and Taken by Oryx, then gifted to Savathûn. The Vault of Glass was created in imitation of Oryx's throne world and established a permanent place in time where the Vex exercise control over time, giving Atheon, the Templar, Oracles, and Gorgons immense power. When the humans began expanding during the Golden Age, they found Vex structures already on Venus, Mercury, and Mars that showed signs of being built long ago. The humans then encountered the Vex, but these Vex did not fight humans unless attacked first, showing that they probably found it adaptive to lay in wait for the opportune moment. Maya Sundaresh and her fellow Ishtar Collective scientists experimented on a Vex platform that they had captured (it seems to me like it was merely a Goblin or something of close relation), where they found that it could simulate them watching a simulation watching a simulation watching a simulation etc. until the point where there were at least 227 simulated worlds inside the thoughts of one Vex. The scientists rescued 227 copies of themselves from simulations and sent them into the Citadel to explore time. Maya later joined another group that formed after their project at the Ishtar Collective was terminated that sent people's minds into a Vex device. Eventually, through seeking ways to better withstand the mind splitting, they found that a mind inside a specific mechanical body improved results, and the Exo project was born (this group later became the FWC). The Vex started attacking humans as the Golden Age ended and the Collapse began, and soon they took Mercury and most of Mars and Venus, now fighting Exos built for the purpose of war with the Vex because of their advantages with the time gates. The Vex now stood with control of Mercury and most of Venus, and continue to fight to claim the rest of Venus and Mars. In the Black Garden, they grew an abomination of the Darkness known as the Heart (possibly one of the Worms captured by Quria or the result of one of Quria's experiments). They built three Minds to be manipulated by and utilize the power of the Heart once it was at full strength known as the Sol Progeny, which would be like Atheon except not limited to the Vault and erase all opposition in the universe. Our Guardian destroyed the Heart before it was strong enough to control all three parts of the Sol Progeny, then went on to kill Atheon and all other Vex Axis Minds in the system. The Vex still go on in our system, weakened from the loss of Axis Minds but still powerful and moving to complete their hidden tasks. We know from the Stranger that in most timelines the Vex have already won because the Sol Divisive was not destroyed and occasionally for other reasons, and in almost all of the others the other forces of Darkness have won. Do not underestimate the Vex, or you could find yourself lost in the dark corners of time _____________________________________ Vex Units and Subtypes:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/220134487/0/0 Vex Axis Minds: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/220408908/0/0 For more lore and some stories, here's my master post:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217384398/0/0