Eliksni siege

The Eliksni siege or alternatively named the Hundred-years Siege or Never-Ending Siege is a conflict that has spanned nearly an entire century between the Last City and the Eliksni Houses. It would eventually end roughly after the SIVA Crisis and the later emergence of the House of Dusk during the Red War.

Overview

Prelude

Long ago, before the Traveler arrived in the Solar System, an insectoid species called Eliksni encountered the Traveler, calling it the Great Machine and ushered in a Golden Age of their own, turning their home planet Riis into a paradise. However, once the Traveler left, a great cataclysmic event called the Whirlwind occurred, where the forces of the Witness and the Hive scattered the Eliksni and ravaged Riis. In the aftermath, the Eliksni became the Fallen and fought amongst themselves for the remnants of their civilization, until a tense cease-fire was called. The Fallen then declared they would go their separate ways and search the stars for the Traveler hoping to bring their people back to glory in an event known to them as the Long Drift. For years, the Fallen have searched the galaxy and after arriving in the Solar System, they found it on Earth, defended by those with its power, the Guardians.

The Guardians have defended the Last City, where the Traveler hovers above, for years and the Fallen became their most common foe, as they have faced numerous houses but none could break the Last City's defenses. Each of the Fallen houses sought to claim the Traveler for themselves and therefore fought each other as well as the Guardians.

Notable conflicts

Battle of Six Fronts

The first major battle with the Fallen occurred in the outskirts of the Last City's territories between the Fallen and squads of Titans led by the Iron Lords. Despite attacking on multiple fronts, the Titan defense held and the attackers were forced to retreat.

Battle of the Twilight Gap

Under the manipulation of the House of Kings, the Fallen decided to begrudgingly put aside their differences and fight together to storm the Last City and claim the Traveler. Three houses: the House of Devils, Kings and House of Winter joined their forces in an all-out assault on the Last City, culminating at Twilight Gap. Originally the House of Wolves would also come to their aid, but were stopped due to the interference of Queen Mara Sov and the Reef. While City artillery battled with Fallen Walkers, the Guardians led by Lord Saladin, fought against the siege. Despite the Fallen's efforts and Guardian casualties, the Guardians held the line and forced the Fallen into a retreat. Only Solkis, Kell of Devils refused to retreat and continued to fight, only to be killed by Saint-14. The Fallen were then completely routed from the city, thanks to a counterattack led by Lord Shaxx.

The Fallen then ceased to work together again and retreated to different parts of the Solar System to their own devices. The Devils retreated to the Cosmodrome, the Winters retreated to Venus and the Kings continued to hide in the shadows of Old Russia. In addition, a new smaller house was formed from the malcontents and outcasts from the others after the failure at the Twilight Gap, the House of Exile which had taken residence on the Moon.

Reef Wars

Unknown to the Last City, another Fallen House sought to join their brethren in the battle, the House of Wolves, and with their support, they might have turned the tide to their favor. However, for reasons known only to her, the Reef Queen Mara Sov launched a surprise attack on the Wolves, claiming half their numbers and their Kell. Then began the bloody Reef Wars which ended with the Reefborn Awoken the victors as the Wolves nobility and new Kell, Skolas, was imprisoned. Mara Sov gave them the choice of either living in the Reef with Mara as their new leader, or perishing. The majority chose the former while others went off into hiding. Without the Wolves support, the Fallen failed to claim the Traveler.

Vanguard Offenses

Years after the Battle of the Twilight Gap, the Vanguard have maintained their defenses but only recently have they decided to launch new offenses on their enemies, the Fallen especially. The first offense came with the death of the Devil Archon, Riksis, at the hands of a newly risen Guardian. Without their Archon, the Devils' Prime Servitor, Sepiks Prime, was left vulnerable. Forming a team, the Guardians invaded the Devils' Lair to battle with the Prime Servitor and destroy it, depriving the Devils of leadership.

On the planet Venus, the Guardians finally tracked down the Winter Kell, Draksis, who had attacked scouting and supply ships for years. Fighting to his Ketch and through his guard, the Guardians cornered the Kell in his throne room and killed him, leaving the House of Winter leaderless and its members under the threat of infighting.

With the loss of their Kell, the Winters decided to find a new leader. Enlisting the aid of the mercenary known as Taniks, the Scarred, the Fallen broke into the Reef's Prison of Elders and gained the prison cell of Aksor, Archon Priest. However, the Vanguard heard of their efforts and sent in a team of Guardians to kill the Priest. Tracking the prisoner, the Guardians faced off against Aksor just as he was released from his prison and succeeded in killing him, leaving the Winters leaderless once more.

On the Moon, the Guardians prevented the House of Exile from stealing Hive relics from one of their temples, killing one of their Barons in the process.

Wolf Rebellion

Skolas aided by Xûr, Agent of the Nine.

A Fallen resurgence occurred in the form of the House of Wolves who's Kell had returned, possibly aided by the Nine, and led the Wolf Fallen in a rebellion against the Awoken. In retaliation, Mara Sov placed bounties on the Wolves' nobility while enlisting Guardians to hunt down Skolas. While investigating, the Guardians tracked the Wolf Kell to Venus who sought to gain the allegiance of the leaderless House of Winter. The Guardians found Skolas rallying the Winter after calling himself the "Kell of Kells", a prophesied warrior who would unite the Fallen and reclaim the Traveler. While the Guardians failed in their chance to capture Skolas, they began to disrupt his operations in preventing him from gaining the allegiance of the other Houses, hunted down his followers, and thwarted his attempts to gain dangerous weapons from the Vex Vault of Glass.

Cornered and deprived of allies, Skolas set up a last stand at the top of the Vex Citadel with the Queen's Crows awaiting to capture the Kell. Challenging the mad Kell, the Guardians faced off against Skolas who began using Vex Warp Gates to bring his House from across time. Despite his efforts, Skolas was defeated into submission and sent back to the Prison of Elders. There Skolas' sentence of execution was carried out by the Guardians, leaving the House of Wolves leaderless, homeless and humiliated while most of the other Houses were also weakened.

Taken War

Both the Guardians and the Fallen were heavily affected by Oryx's arrival and his Taken. The Fallen were Taken in huge numbers, forcing most of the Houses to abandon their holdouts. Those Fallen that became Taken were eventually defeated by the Guardians.

Hoping to take advantage of the Guardian's distraction that Oryx and his forces have placed, two houses, in particular, sought to use the war to give themselves an advantage. The House of Devils used an upgraded Shank, S.A.B.E.R.-2, to breach the Warmind Rasputin's firewalls and gain access to his weapons. However, Rasputin sent a distress signal to the Guardians which they answered. They fought into one of Rasputin's bunkers and destroyed S.A.B.E.R.-2, securing Rasputin's defenses.

The House of Wolves, under the leadership of a renegade Archon, Keldar, and a reconstructed Prime Servitor, Orbiks Prime, were able to seize control of some of the underground bunkers of the Cabal on Mars, taking advantage of their losses from the war. Seeking to prevent the Wolves from becoming a threat again, Variks, the Loyal enlisted the aid of the Guardians to find the Archon and the Prime Servitor and destroy them. The Guardians were successful in driving Keldar out of his hideout and locating Orbiks Prime, killing them both. The death of the Prime Servitor and the Archon left the Wolves completely leaderless and broken.

The House of Winter also took advantage of the war to successfully breach the Prison of Elders again and find a new leader. However, while they were able to liberate another Archon Priest, the Taken intercepted them and claimed the priest, turning him into Nixis, Hunger of Oryx, scattering the Winters horribly. The Guardians responded to their efforts and succeeded in killing Nixis and defeating the Taken.

SIVA Crisis

One year after the Taken War, a new Fallen resurgence occurred greater than ever before in the form of the House of Devils. Under the command of a new Archon, Aksis, and his followers, the Devils pillaged every Golden Age vault and lab within the Cosmodrome they could find and in their efforts, they unearthed SIVA, a dangerous self-replicating nano-technology from the Golden Age produced by Clovis Bray. The technology was then studied by the Devil Splicers who utilized the technology to augment their weapons and themselves to become more powerful than ever. Aksis was among those who infused themselves with SIVA but at a much greater level, almost becoming completely machine, and named himself Aksis, Archon Prime. In addition, the Splicers resurrected their Prime Servitor using SIVA, which became Sepiks Perfected, as a means to prove the technology's worth to the rest of their House.

Fallen rally to Aksis, Archon Prime

Hoping to learn more about the ancient technology, the Devils under the command of Sepiks Perfected attacked the Iron Temple, the former stronghold of the old Iron Lords that sealed SIVA away. However, Lord Saladin, enlisting the aid of the Guardians, prevented the Devils from breaching the Temple and drove Sepiks into hiding. The Guardians were then sent to the Cosmodrome where most of it laid in ruins and the Hive driven out of their holds, thanks to the Devil Splicers. In addition, the Devil Splicers breached the wall blocking off the Plaguelands where the SIVA replication chamber, Site 6, was located. After destroying the Devils defenses and gaining vital information from a Clovis Bray database on Mars, the Guardians launched the mission to destroy the replication chamber and finish what the Iron Lords started. After fighting through the Fallen into the chamber, the Guardians initiated the self-destruct sequence but faced off against the SIVA-corrupted remnants of the Iron Lords. After a grueling battle with the corrupted remnants, putting the Iron Lords to rest, the self-destruct began and the Guardians escaped in time. With Site 6 destroyed, the Devils lost the means to produce more SIVA but their leadership remained a significant threat.

Lord Saladin and Shiro-4, then tasked the newly named Iron Lords to dismantle the Devils leadership. Their first target was the resurrected Prime Servitor, Sepiks Perfected, who remained in hiding in its former lair. Gathering a team, the Guardians breached Sepiks' defenses and battled with the Servitor once more. Despite its shielding and SIVA upgrades, the Guardians destroyed the resurrected Prime as they did two years ago, this time for good.

While patrolling the Plaguelands, the Guardians took notice of increased activity in hostility between the Devil Splicers and the Hive. Investigations revealed that the Splicers have been experimenting on the Hive using SIVA, whether to enslave them or to make weapons out of them. Regardless, Shiro understood that such experiments could mean the end of the Last City. Knowing the Splicers are following orders high in command, Shiro sends the Guardians to an old missile silo contested over by the Splicers and the Hive. Reaching the center of the Hive nest, the Guardians found an Ogre dissected but still alive and the Splicer in charge of the Hive experiments, Kovik, Splicer Priest with a weapon powered by the Ogre's Void eye. Battling the priest and the Ogre, the Guardians succeeded in killing both which Shiro hoped would end the experiments. In addition, the Guardians launched missions to the Moon to prevent the Splicers from obtaining more Ogre test subjects.

With most of the leadership gone, the Guardians turn their sights on the main Splicer leader, Aksis and his remaining followers. Gathering a force strong enough, the Guardians faced off with Aksis' second-in-command, Vosik, the Archpriest and used the Fallen's own Siege Engine to travel further into the Splicers lair. After defeating Vosik, the Guardians travel into the SIVA server farm and into Aksis' lair, the Perfection Complex. There they battled with the Fallen Archon, but despite Aksis' terrible SIVA powers, the Guardians used SIVA against him and successfully destroyed him, leaving the Devils leaderless once more.

Months after the loss of Aksis, the Splicers hoped to regain their advantage with a new leader and in a desperate alliance with the crew of the infamous mercenary, Taniks, the Scarred. Using SIVA to bring back the mercenary, Taniks become Taniks Perfected. Though SIVA overtook his mind, his leadership and ruthlessness remained, giving the Splicers a new leader. However, Variks heard the chatter of their efforts and informed the Vanguard. Thus they sent in the Guardians to the Moon where they battled with Taniks once more. Fighting through Splicer and Hive to Taniks' ship, the Guardians battled with the resurrected mercenary. Despite his SIVA abilities and varied weaponry, Taniks Perfected was defeated, leaving the Devil leadership completely dismantled and their forces scattered.

Withdrawal

After their humiliating defeat from the SIVA crisis, most Fallen in the entire system began to abandon their holdouts and retreat. The only supposed House to remain was the House of Kings but they remained in hiding from the recent conflicts. A Guardian team observed what Fallen forces remained and found that most of the Fallen's weapons and banners have either been abandoned or burned in large piles. This would mark the end of Fallen's siege and the City had won the conflict.

Central powers of the war

• Cabal
• The Last City
  • Vanguard
  • Guardians
• Awoken
• Vex
• Hive
• Fallen
  • House of Devils
    • Devil Splicers
  • House of Winter
  • House of Kings
  • House of Wolves
  • House of Exile

• Allied alien factions
  • House of Judgment
  • The Nine

Fronts of the war

• Earth
  • The Last City
  • Twilight Gap
  • Cosmodrome
• Ocean of Storms, Moon
• Ishtar Sink, Venus
• Meridian Bay, Mars
• Reef
  • Ceres
  • Amethyst
  • Vestian Outpost
  • Prison of Elders

List of appearances

• Destiny (First appearance)
  • The Dark Below
  • House of Wolves
  • Rise of Iron
    • The Dawning
    • Age of Triumph