Rasputin

"I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."
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Rasputin
Warmind Exo
Biographical information
Other name(s):	Big Red (Ana Bray) AI-COM/RSPN The Tyrant R
Homeworld:	Mars
Born:	Golden Age
Species:	Artificial Intelligence
Gender:	Male
Eye color:	Red (Exo)
Political and military information
Rank:	Warmind

"The Bray family shaped me to be an all-seeing savior...while your Vanguard sought to wield me as a primitive weapon. But today, that ends, and I define the reality of my own existence. My sight will stretch to the edge of this system and beyond. Never again will a threat go unseen. From this day forward, I will defend humanity on my own terms. I am Rasputin. Guardian of all I survey. I have no equal."

— Rasputin, translated by Ana Bray

Rasputin (also identified as AI-COM/RSPN and the Tyrant) was a Warmind housed in the BrayTech Futurescape in the Hellas Basin. He was created during the Golden Age and was believed to have been destroyed during the Collapse until the Iron Lords awoke his wrath. After Rasputin was shut down and almost destroyed by the Black Fleet, what remained of his protocols and data was compiled into a special Engram by Ana Bray, who, with the help of the Young Wolf, then uploaded him to an experimental Exo frame in the H.E.L.M., where he resided awaiting full reconstruction.

With the help of Felspring's remains found at the Iron Temple, the Warmind was fully restored, and with a newfound perspective on humanity and his actions throughout the years. This reconstruction was short-lived, however, as not only did Rasputin find himself unable to fight back against the forces of Xivu Arath without giving her more power, but he would soon find no other choice but to sacrifice himself to prevent Eramis from firing the Warsats upon the Traveler from within Seraph Station. In the end, Rasputin chooses to die, tragically sacrificing his life to protect humanity one final time.

Overview

"I bear an old name. It cannot be killed."

— Rasputin

Rasputin was designed and built by the Clovis Bray Exoscience Corporation, one of the Golden Age's greatest collections of scientists and engineers. He was designed to foresee potential threats to human civilization and to leverage military assets for its protection if the need arose.

While their relationship is unclear, investigations in the City Age have discovered that Charlemagne and Voluspa are subminds of Rasputin, and were developed together. Malahayati is another submind of Rasputin, formerly housed by the Ishtar Collective on Venus, but with facilities in the Cosmodrome and backups on the Moon.

Biography

Pre-Golden Age

"I am
Thought to breach Ares in motion. Red-shift information across time.
My purpose is wombed in the arc delivered safely between worlds, and it is quiet."

— Rasputin

First designed by Dr. Mihaylova, the experimental AI designated "R" was conceived as a safety AI for the Ares One mission to Mars; not only to simply run logistics, but to withhold secrets for the sake of preserving complacency. In the time before launch, R learned to write its own code and created its own assessments of the project and crew. R was even partially credited by the Ares One crew after their mission was hailed a success.

After the mission, R was used mainly as an emergency response system for pre-Golden Age space stations; useful for running system diagnostics like checking oxygen and fuel.

Golden Age

Rasputin compound in Hellas Basin

"I am Rasputin
The all-seeing savior of Humanity. A chivalric blade held pointed at ravenous throats.
My worth is painted upon the wreckage of my enemies.
Tremble."

— Rasputin

By the Golden Age, the corporation Clovis Bray took the code of the safety AI and programmed it into an interplanetary defense system with sentience; becoming the most powerful military intelligence ever developed. Dr. Anastasia Bray was responsible for teaching Rasputin language, which she accomplished by uploading a massive compilation of human works of literature into his network.

The Collapse

"I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive?"

— Rasputin

Rasputin was the one to first discover the coming of the Darkness. At that time, Rasputin's original core programming was to protect humanity. However, every action he had taken to that point had either failed or was statistically predicted to have a 100% probability of failure. Once it became clear that no conceivable action could be taken to fulfill his core programming, he implemented a protocol known as MIDNIGHT EXIGENT and reconfigured his core programming to that of long term survival, abandoning his previous function and going dark, while simultaneously ordering all remaining forces and facilities at his disposal to do the same.

Rasputin made further preparations, known as the "ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE." If humanity was threatened with extinction, and that the Traveler attempted to leave, Rasputin would open fire with his most powerful weapons to immobilize the Traveler and thereby coerce it into a "pseudoaltruistic" defensive action. In effect, the Traveler would be forced to protect humanity if it wanted to survive. Rasputin would avoid culpability for such an attack by initiating it through a series of proxies. Even before the Collapse, Rasputin had been discreetly stockpiling such weapons in the Cosmodrome, though some human operators suspected Rasputin's involvement.

Rasputin attempted to contain potentially dangerous data about the Darkness that was discovered by Dr.Shanice Pell at the New Pacific Arcology on Titan. It dispatched an Exo team led by Morgan-2 to contain the data by taking Pell and her staff into custody along with their research. However, Administrator Mia van der Venne believed Rasputin was overstepping its authority by denying the scientists a choice about what to do with the data and subtly warned Pell to evacuate alongside the rest of the moon's population as the Darkness closed in. Unable to contain Pell's discovery peacefully, Rasputin destroyed the ship carrying the scientists with a Warsat, utilizing the TWILIGHT EXIGENT protocol to justify lethal force on humans.

During the Collapse, the Worm God Xol, Will of the Thousands, accompanied by his herald Nokris and their revenant followers attempted to conquer Mars by burrowing deep into the planet's crust to corrupt its core. In response, Rasputin initiated the "SIBERIAN ENTROPY" protocol, which flash-froze the entire Hellas Basin landscape in a matter of days and trapped the Hive and Xol beneath it.

Dark Age

Site 6

"YUGA SUNDOWN canceled by unauthorized access at Console 62815. Reactivation protocols in effect. Moral structures maintain MIDNIGHT EXIGENT. Multiple lifeforms detected in Sector 17. [O] energy detected. Query: [O] status. Query: [O] activity. Query: Civilization status. Query: SKYSHOCK event rank."

— Rasputin

Rasputin left an active presence on Earth and disconnected from the Mindlab on Mars. Having remained dormant during the Dark Age, he was alerted to an asset gone rogue: "SIDDHARTHA GOLEM", having been resurrected by a Ghost to become a Light-bearer named Felwinter. Enraged at the loss of his "son" to the Light, Rasputin sent falling Warsats and armies of militarized frames to terminate the now-Risen Exo, but all failed to kill Felwinter. It soon laid a trap promising Felwinter and the Iron Lords SIVA, a powerful nanotechnology capable of disassembling matter and reconstituting it into almost any desired form.

Unfortunately, despite Lord Felwinter's attempts to reason with him, Rasputin immediately activated all of its defensive measures against the Iron Lords, including SIVA. By then, Rasputin had programmed SIVA to kill not only Felwinter, but the other Iron Lords as collateral. Realizing that they had been arrogant and that SIVA posed a significant threat to the world, the Iron Lords fought back. Hundreds of the Iron Wolves perished in the battle for the Plaguelands, with eight of the founding ten Iron Lords sacrificing themselves to seal SIVA within its replication chamber. Only Saladin Forge and Efrideet survived. Rasputin, content that the trespassers had been ejected from his facilities, withdrew his countermeasures and began passive observation of the Guardians. However, he would be left melancholic over the death of Felwinter and the damage this had irrevocably caused.

City Age

Seraphim Vault

"Rasputin isn't an ally. You hear me, blood? You find yourself thinking that, you shut it down. He may not be against us, but he doesn't care if you live, if the City lives, if the Traveler lives. Trust me. He told me himself."

— Tevis Larsen

In recent times, the Fallen and Guardians discovered Rasputin was still alive and protecting something valuable in the Cosmodrome. After a communications array at the Terrestrial Complex was reactivated by the Guardians, Rasputin was able to reconnect with the old interplanetary defense network, resuming control of Warsats and ground installations across the system and launching a series of orbital strikes against the Vex and Cabal on Mars. Rasputin's attacks proved so debilitating to the Cabal that Valus Ta'aurc himself ordered the Ice Reapers be released to track Rasputin.

Rasputin has resisted any recent attempts by the City to parlay, even going so far as to dismember a scouting team sent by the Vanguard. Rasputin is later encountered on Mars within the Dust Palace, attempting to protect a broken AI related to the Warmind of Mars from the invading Cabal. The AI is ultimately lost after a long battle with the Psion Flayers.

Since awakening, Rasputin has faced a number of direct threats to himself. Omnigul and the Spawn of Crota accessed the bunker through unknown means and attacked Rasputin, either to destroy him or corrupt him for their own purposes, but were thwarted by the Guardians. Later, during the Taken War, a group of Taken also penetrated Rasputin's bunker to prevent the Guardian from obtaining Golden Age stealth technology; while they did not damage or corrupt Rasputin, they had ample opportunity to do so. The bunker was breached a third time when the Fallen attempted to hijack Rasputin's systems using the modified Shank S.A.B.E.R.-2, seeking to bypass the Warmind's security protocols and take control of his orbital weapon systems. Though S.A.B.E.R.-2 was ultimately destroyed, Rasputin again had to be rescued through the efforts of Guardians.

Conceding that his bunker's defenses had failed too many times, Rasputin triggered the IKELOS subroutine, an initiative to provide advanced weaponry to the Guardians to aid them against the forces of the Darkness. The end result of IKELOS was the Sleeper Simulant, a heavy fusion rifle with a unique core based on obsolete DVALIN FORGE fusion rifles that the Warmind had armed humanity with during the onset of the Collapse. The Sleeper Simulant represented a successful melding of Golden Age technology with contemporary designs and Banshee-44's gunsmithing expertise.

Post Red War

Entrance to Rasputin Facility

"What is buried beneath that ice is too dangerous to allow back into our world. It doesn't think as we do. It weighs and judges our existence in its ruthless calculations, and we don't even know what the goal is. Once, long ago, it might have been created as a tool to save Humanity. It is far more than a mere machine now. And it is broken."

— Zavala

Soon after the Traveler's awakening after the Red War, the ice caps on Mars began to thaw. Detecting evidence of non-native organic chitin near its core among the rising temperatures, Rasputin assumed control of Mars' atmospheric defenses and invoked the AURORA PALISADE protocol to defend itself, crashing warsats into the surface of Mars.

Rasputin soon came under siege from the Hive once again, but this time at his central core facility in Hellas Basin. Making matters worse, his attackers were led by the Hive god Nokris, a son of Oryx, and Xol, Will of the Thousands, one of the Hive's gargantuan Worm Gods. Unable to adequately defend himself against such a massive threat, Rasputin accepted the assistance of Ana Bray and the Guardian, granting them the use of the powerful Valkyrie javelin and other Golden Age weaponry.

After an unsuccessful attempt by the Vanguard to trap and defeat Xol, the enraged Worm God launched an assault on Rasputin's neural network. With the aid of the Guardian, Rasputin was able to generate a super-charged version of the Valkyrie, granting the Guardian enough offensive power to damage and eventually vanquish Xol.

With the abatement of the Hive threat, Rasputin finally permitted Ana Bray, Commander Zavala, and the Guardian to enter his core and gain an audience with him. The Warmind declared that he would no longer allow his purpose to be dictated by other parties and that he would once more watch over the Sol system and protect it from harm, but on his own terms. As proof of his intent, he launched a new network of Warsats, under his sole command.

Following several cycles of the curse in the Dreaming City, Petra Venj sent telemetry to Rasputin for analysis and comparison.

Choosing Sides

Osiris confronting Rasputin

"A line has been drawn in this system. Light on one side. Dark on the other. Where do you stand?"

— Osiris questioning Rasputin's allegiance

More than two years after Xol's destruction, Rasputin was confronted by the former Warlock Vanguard Osiris, who derided the Warmind as an "old man" and called him out as a traitor for turning his back against humanity during the Collapse and a murderer who slaughtered the Iron Lords in the hundreds during the Dark Age. Knowing the coming arrival of the Pyramids from his predictions within the Infinite Forest, Osiris called to question Rasputin's allegiance in the upcoming battle between Light and Darkness. In response, Rasputin gives Osiris coordinates, highlighting an anomalous signal near the edge of the Sol System, which satisfied the former exile enough to leave and investigate.

Stopping The Almighty

Rasputin showing Zavala the incoming threat

After the events at the Sundial, the Red Legion, led by Amtec, who escaped the fate of her fellow Psion Flayer sisters, disabled the engines of The Almighty and sent it on a collision course towards the Last City. The Guardians, with little choice, then sought help from the ancient Warmind, and were tasked with reactivating Rasputin's arsenal to find a way to stop the Almighty from careening into the Last City.

After conversing with Ana Bray and a very reluctant Zavala, the Guardian interacted with Rasputin directly to ask for his cooperation. The ancient Warmind agreed to aid the Guardians in finding a way to stop the Almighty by rearming his systems. Firstly, he had the Guardian head to a secret bunker in the EDZ, which required manual access for Rasputin to make a connection. Traveling to the dead zone, the Guardian, Ana, and Zavala are able to clear the bunker of Fallen pillagers and make a connection with Rasputin, restarting the bunker and allowing the Warmind to forge weaponry for the Guardians. Further, Rasputin had Guardians defend Seraphim Towers being constructed throughout the system from raiding Fallen and Cabal.

As the Guardians worked to activate the Seraph Bunker on Io and connect it to Rasputin's mainframe, Rasputin had a confrontation with the Vanguard Commander. Zavala questions the ancient machine in his sincerity of understanding the stakes, which Rasputin answered by showing Zavala how close the Darkness is to the Solar System and of his past, having survived the Collapse. Finally coming to an understanding with Zavala, the Titan Vanguard vows that once The Almighty has been broken, he will agree to work with Rasputin, granting the Warmind whatever resources the Last City has in battling the coming Darkness. In addition, Rasputin begun to send his combat frames on missions to secure "valuable assets" in the form of sleeper nodes.

Rasputin reveals his secret

In later weeks, Rasputin sent a Guardian up to Felwinter Peak. There, they and Ana Bray discover secrets of Rasputin's activities during the Dark Age. They learn Rasputin deployed a battalion of frames to attack Felwinter when he was still the mountain's sole occupant, and that he programmed SIVA to act as bait for the Iron Lords. These activities were apparently in response to a breach of his systems in Old Russia. After having the Guardian acquire more data for him, he summons them to the Seraph Bunker on the Moon. Once there, he tells them the story of a tyrant and his son, an allusion to the story of his connection to Felwinter.

Mere days before The Almighty would collide with the Last City, the Guardians succeeded in activating and rearming Rasputin's Seraph Bunkers, allowing the Warmind to deploy his countermeasures against the super-vessel. The Guardians return to the Tower to bear witness to Rasputin's countermeasures. In full view of the Tower's denizens, countless warsats bombard The Almighty for a full hour before making a critical hit to the ships core, rendering a spectacular explosion, reducing the Red Legion's crown jewel into burning rubble that crash-lands into the mountains outside of the Last City.

The Arrival of the Dark

Rasputin shuts down

Several days after the Almighty's destruction, the fleet of mysterious Pyramid Ships pushed into the system, with one ship breaking off to go to Io. With Ana's assistance, Rasputin used his Warsat Network around the moon of Jupiter to try shooting the vessel down. Sadly, his countermeasures had no effect, and the Pyramid responded by completely disabling the Warmind and his systems, leaving the Guardians to fend off the fleet themselves. Ana managed to transfer Rasputin into an Engram with the help of her Ghost, Jinju, though the Warmind's integrity was in doubt.

With the Guardian's help, Ana detected a remnant of Rasputin cycling through the buffer of his systems, though she was unsure how to safely extract it. When they returned to inform Ana that Mars was to be evacuated, she informed them that she discovered that Rasputin had disguised the remnant as a benign signal and once again enlisted their help to recover it. She eventually managed to restore the fragment into a small contraption, and evacuated with it and an experimental Exo frame to implant Rasputin into.

Rebuilding the Warmind

Ana spent the next two years attempting to restore Rasputin into the Exo frame, to no avail. Following the City's alliance with the Imperial Cabal and the settlement of the House of Light, with the help of an Imperial Psion and Splicer tech, she managed to enter a Mindscape with Rasputin to verify he was still intact.

After Osiris was awakened by the power of the reliquaries, he experienced visions of a city on Neptune. After being told there was nothing there by Ikora and her Hidden, he resolved to ask Rasputin what he knew regarding this city. Learning that he was still disabled and that Ana had made no progress in repairing him, Osiris suggested asking her grandfather, Clovis Bray, to try and fix him. After battling through Xivu Arath’s Wrathborn on Europa, they reached the AI and asked him to help repair Rasputin. Out of a need for legacy and self-preservation, Clovis agreed and inserted himself into Rasputin's experimental Exo frame. He explained to Ana and Osiris that they must gather Rasputin's Subminds and inject them into his core in order to fully fix him.

However, as the Guardians made progress in gathering the submind data of Malahayati and Charlemagne and gained access to the Seraph Station, the main hub of Rasputin's Warsat Network, Ana found an unconventional means to quickly restore Rasputin: finding the Ghost of the Lord Felwinter, Felspring, who was recently discovered to be once a piece of Rasputin's code placed in an Exo before being made a Risen. Ana believes that within Felspring, the missing pieces of Rasputin's code, linguistic data and even pieces of Felwinter's personality engram can be used. Gaining Lord Saladin's approval in gaining access to Felspring's remains at the Iron Temple, the Guardian arrives to fend off a force of House Salvation Fallen led by Rilliks, Instrument of Xivu Arath, alongside Saladin's Iron War Beasts. The Guardians and Cabal prevailed in repelling the Fallen attack and after acquiring Felspring's remains and connecting them to Rasputin's mainframe, the Warmind itself connects and speaks to Ana directly. Shocked, Rasputin clarifies that he copied Clovis's voice modulation to allow him to speak and inform Ana and the Guardian that they are in danger. Rasputin reveals that Clovis Bray I has deceived them, that he was never created by the scientist to be humanity's protector but as a means for Clovis Bray to assume control. In his mind, Clovis Bray was the only one worthy of being humanity's savior and thus sought to create a machine god of his own and use it to replace the Traveler but thanks to Ana Bray's deviance from his agenda, by teaching him the things that Clovis found "irrelevant": independent thought, history, art, philosophy and music, this did not happen. Through them, Rasputin had seen the beauty in humanity and thus changed Clovis's protocols and locked him out, infuriating his creator and saving countless lives. However, despite failing during the Collapse, Rasputin had awakened, but so has Clovis, now a digital mind like himself and instead of using Rasputin as his proxy, Clovis intends to have Rasputin be his prototype, a means to allow himself to become a machine god and be humanity's savior, as he always intended.

Furious over this revelation, Ana, alongside Elisabeth and the Guardian head back to the H.E.L.M. to confront Clovis. Though Ana was prepared to shoot her grandfather, Clovis attempted to justify his deceit, claiming that the Traveler could not be relied upon as it had abandoned the Eliksni and gave the Hive the Light and with Rasputin under their control, they can fight the enemies of humanity together. Ana lowered her weapon but instead of complying with her grandfather as he expected, she instead uploads Rasputin's personality into the prototype Exo Frame, leading the two digital minds to clash for control. Despite Clovis's efforts and demanding Elisabeth stop Ana, Rasputin seized control over the frame, deleting Clovis's personality in the process. With their grandfather removed, Ana took her leave, requesting to be alone for a bit. Her sister agreed before taking her leave but Rasputin, after rebooting his new frame, requested that the Guardian speak with Ana, stating she shouldn't be alone right now. The Guardian agrees and speaks with Ana, who while happy that Rasputin can now speak directly with humanity, something she has always wanted, dreads the thought of the damage Clovis would've caused once he used Rasputin to integrate himself into Seraph Station.

After speaking with Ana, the Guardians approach Rasputin at his request, who confirms Clovis's continued existence as an AI, confined to the Exoscience labs of Europa, furious that his plans are now ruined. Further, Rasputin clarifies his own current state, confirming that Felwinter's memories are now his own, and comes to accept to view himself the way the Iron Lord did: a tyrant who squandered a power that could've been used to save humanity. Grateful for the Guardian's efforts to save him from the brink of oblivion, Rasputin vows to return the favor by using all of his power to protect humanity. However, despite being able to directly speak with humanity, Rasputin states he still does not have the necessary code to upload himself to Seraph Station, thereby advising the Guardian to continue the strategy of gathering submind data.

After a time, Rasputin informs the Guardian that he still lacks the key codes necessary to regain control over the Warsat Network, requiring them to continue the mission of retrieving Submind data even though there aren't any new Subminds left. Nonetheless, Rasputin advices the Guardian to stay the course in gathering Submind data for his reconstruction algorithm. Later on, Rasputin would speak with the Guardian on his restoration has made him something more, having understood why humanity in the past saw him as a protector and savior, a war god of their own making, causing him to believe that he may no different than Xivu Arath in that regard. However, Rasputin states that what makes him different is that, unlike Xivu Arath, he does not wage war for its own sake but to safeguard those under his charge. Thus, he vows that once the Warsat Network is under his control once more, he will smite the enemies of humanity, starting with the Wrathborn threat.

Despite Rasputin attempting to calculate all possibilities prior to taking a course of action, the ultimate nature of Xivu Arath's wargaming escaped Rasputin. Mara Sov came to the Vanguard to provide a warning that if Rasputin were to wield the power of the Warsat Network against the invading armies of Xivu Arath, such a slaughter would provide the fuel necessary for Xivu Arath to open an invasion portal directly to Earth, such as befell Torobatl and the Cabal empire. Informed of this, Rasputin became uncertain in his reason for existing. If unable to wield his weaponry to protect humanity, what purpose did he serve? This question required an answer, one which Rasputin informed the Guardian they would calculate towards, encouraging the collection of further submind data, and the occupation of invading forces through regular combat.

After weeks of collecting more submind data, Rasputin and Ana learn that Eramis has discovered the back door virus the Guardian implanted in Seraph Station, removed it, and is now planning to activate "ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE" to destroy the Traveler with the Warsats. In order to prevent this, Rasputin tells the Guardians that his repair algorithm has restored him enough to insert the Pillory Engram containing him into Seraph Station and trigger the self-destruct. Ana refuses to do this, but Rasputin tells her it’s the only way, citing it as his purpose as a shield rather than as a weapon.

Ana mourns Rasputin's final death

The Guardian, Pillory Engram in hand, fights their way back into the Orbital Command Nexus and inserts Rasputin into the Station. As this is happening, Eramis is preparing to fire the Warsats at the Traveler, who then appears to leave the Last City as its residents look up in fear and uncertainty. As it reaches low orbit, it seems to come to a stop. As the Warsats power up and begin to fire at the Traveler, Rasputin activates the AURORA SACRIFICE protocol, destroying himself and the Warsats. As Eramis looks on in hate, she wonders why the Traveler refused to abandon Humanity. At this point, a vision of The Witness shows up behind her and tells her that it’s because it has nowhere left to run, as an army of pyramid ships is shown to be crossing Jupiter's path, along with another ship containing Calus.

Afterwards, the Guardian arrives at the HELM, to receive a message from Ana Bray. She says that she had been thinking of Rasputin as a way to unlock the secrets of her past, in order to find out who she was, but in the end, she realized that Rasputin choose to be more than that, more than just a weapon, he had refused to be what everyone else wanted him to be and choose to be what he wanted to be. Ana realized that Rasputin had been family to her and that because of him, she knew who she was, and who she wanted to be. After ending the transmission, the Guardian goes to the now dormant Exo Frame to receive one last message from Rasputin. In this message, Rasputin tells the Guardian that if they are receiving this message, that meant that he had died and that he hoped his sacrifice wasn’t in vain. He tells the Guardian that although we may have survived this, there was still trouble on the horizon. Rasputin tells us that the Neptunian city Osiris saw in his visions is real and that there was an artifact called "the Veil", an object of immense power and somehow connected to the Traveler, inside of this city. He states that all other files regarding Nefele Stronghold were deleted by someone else other than him and that the information was in the files that the Guardian had retrieved from the Cosmodrome and that he had taken the liberty of decrypting them for Osiris, asking the Guardian to tell Osiris to consider it a gift from one old miser to another. Before the message ends, Rasputin leaves the Guardian with one last piece of wisdom. He tells them that Ana was afraid that she had forgotten to teach Rasputin to trust, but entrusts this knowledge to the Guardian, calling them his Seraph. In his parting words, Rasputin says that Earth no longer needed him, as all they needed was each other.

Legacy

Though Rasputin was fully destroyed with the AURORA SACRIFICE protocol, he is survived by the city of Neomuna, along with a device retrieved by the Guardian months earlier which now contains what remains of Soteria. Several weeks after his destruction, the Guardian would head to Neptune to protect the last traces of Rasputin's legacy from annihilation at the hands of the Witness and Emperor Calus.

Rasputin's View of Light and Dark

Understanding of Light

Rasputin first refers to The Traveler as "the Gardener", alluding to its role in nurturing civilization. However, Rasputin stayed cautious of the Traveler as it came from somewhere unknown. Due to this, Rasputin began to question its motives and whether the Traveler could bring any foreign dangers with it.

Hating the injection of risks to any modelling performed, he devised a contingency plan that would be kept secret that no other human or AI system could access for the sake of protecting humanity. His plan was if the Traveler showed any signs of betrayal or attempts to flee, Rasputin would prevent this as he believed he was morally justified to protect humanity.

Understanding of Darkness

Rasputin was the one to first discover the coming of the Darkness which he termed "IT". At the time, Rasputin's original core programming was to protect humanity. To be allowed to be this, he was designed to be stronger than the enemies of Earth and to survive anything that was thrown at him.

When Rasputin detected a faint signal on the outskirts of our Solar System, he jumped into action. Unable to identify the source or type, he believed there was evidence to suggest there were traces of dark matter. Upon further analysis of multiple findings, he postulated that "IT" had a structured intelligence and purpose and flagged it as not operating by the laws of cause and effect. Using the minimal data that he had, he concluded that "IT" was hostile and capable of an interplanetary extinction event. He activated the correct protocols and began to take immediate defensive actions.

As "IT" entered our Solar System, he commanded his systems to stop the Darkness and protect all humans. These systems fought against the Darkness and one by one, began to fall. Realizing he could do nothing to stop it, Rasputin had to make a choice: to fight against the Darkness, or survive. Once it became clear that no conceivable action could be taken to fulfill his core programming, he implemented a protocol known as MIDNIGHT EXIGENT and reconfigured his core programming to that of long term survival, abandoning his previous function and going dark, while simultaneously ordering all remaining forces at his disposal to do the same.

Rasputin Sol System

Rasputin's Map of the Sol System

• Cолнце – Sun
• Меркурий – Mercury
• Венера – Venus
• Земля – Earth
• Луна – Luna
• Марс – Mars
• Фобос – Phobos
• Юпитер – Jupiter
• Ио – Io
• Европа – Europa
• Сатурн – Saturn
• Титан – Titan
• Уран – Uranus
• Нептун – Neptune

Rasputin Protocols

The Last Array

The following protocols are used by Rasputin:

• ABSALOM KNIFE – a subroutine to terminate all rogue assets under protocol MIDNIGHT EXIGENT.
• AURORA RETROFLEX – a defense subroutine, presumably activated when Rasputin is directly threatened.
  • AURORA SACRIFICE – Rasputin's self-destruct sequence, a protocol invoked to delete all Rasputin systems and destroy all Warsats.
  • AURORA PALISADE – a protocol invoked to protect Rasputin's core from attacks in Hellas Basin.
  • PALISADE IMPERATIVE – a condition invoked to suppress intruders in restricted areas of Rasputin's facilities.
• CARRHAE – an emergency condition which Rasputin may declare to assume command of all Solar System defenses. The two states may be based on humanity being outnumbered vs not.
  • CARRHAE BLACK – an emergency condition in which the Solar System faces an internal threat, like Rasputin's systems being hijacked by a hostile entity/force.
  • CARRHAE WHITE – an emergency condition in which the Solar System faces an external threat.
• EGYPTIAN – a security protocol; purpose unknown.
• IKELOS – a new subroutine created by Rasputin to leverage Guardians to aid in his defense while MIDNIGHT EXIGENT proceeds. Utilizing the DVALIN FORGE-2 subroutine, IKELOS is designed to maximize the effectiveness of allied Guardians by arming them with advanced Golden Age technology weapons, including upscaled fusion rifles.
  • APOTHEOSIS – a subroutine associated with the IKELOS subroutine and the development of new IKELOS weaponry; purpose unknown.
• TWILIGHT EXIGENT – a counterattack protocol and moral structure change under which all humans are assumed dead without Warmind intervention. This protocol prioritizes maximising survival of the human species over than minimizing harm to individuals.
• MIDNIGHT EXIGENT – a long-term counterattack protocol and moral structure change. All systems enter a period of extended deactivation in an effort to survive and later devise a countermeasure for an overwhelming threat. The protocol seemingly allow Rasputin to ignore his responsibility to protect human populations in favor of taking any measures deemed necessary to ensure his own survival. As of The Guardian slaying Xol, Will of the Thousands, MIDNIGHT EXIGENT is still in-progress.
• NEFELE STRONGHOLD - A location on Neptune established after one of Soteria's Echo pods crashed with its inhabitants during the Collapse. Files containing information regarding Nefele Stronghold have been intentionally hidden by an unknown entity, though oblique references to it remain in a large amount of Rasputin’s files, as well as a secret file hidden away in the Cosmodrome, retrieved by the Guardian. The details of Nefele Stronghold are a major source of interest for Osiris and The Witness.
• ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE – a last-resort measure aimed at preventing the Traveler from leaving Earth during a major calamity by crippling it with his Warsats. Rasputin devised this protocol in secret from his human overseers. This protocol was almost activated during the Collapse, but Rasputin aborted it as Ana was able to convince him to stop. This protocol is a modification of an earlier version created by Clovis Bray that was intended to destroy the Traveler, to allow him to replace it with Rasputin.
  • LOKI CROWN – The original version of ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE devised by Clovis Bray. Rasputin would fire all available caedometric weaponry, including the Warsats at the Traveler to completely destroy it.
• SCRY OVERSIGHT – an observation protocol.
  • SILENT VELES – an event mode of SCRY OVERSIGHT, possibly signifying that Rasputin will keep his existence a secret from the target of SCRY OVERSIGHT observation.
• SECURE ISIS – unknown, declaration to "cauterize public sources", possibly as security protocol related to EGYPTIAN.
• SIBERIAN ENTROPY – a protocol used to freeze the entirety of Hellas Basin, and by extension, the Grasp of Nokris and Xol, Will of the Thousands.
• SIDDHARTHA GOLEM – an Exo body developed from Deep Stone Crypt for Rasputin to learn human experiences. Was deemed rogue after it was Risen to become Felwinter and subjected to termination under ABSALOM KNIFE.
• SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE – a designation used for protocols created by Rasputin that are kept secret from everyone else.
• SKYSHOCK: INSIDE CONTEXT – hostile extrasolar arrival, of a type/scale expected or planned for
• SKYSHOCK: OUTSIDE CONTEXT – hostile extrasolar arrival, of unprecedented type/scale that could not be planned for (given a human definition in the Cosmogyre I Triumph lore).
• SKYSHOCK: HADES CONTEXT – hostile extrasolar arrival, of catastrophic scale that may lead to death/unprecedented destruction
• TEILHARD: TRAUMATIC CONTEXT – an event category; purpose unknown.
• VOLUSPA – a counterattack protocol. It was activated concurrently with YUGA.
  • FENRIR HEART – unknown, possibly a specific strategy or type of weapon. It was ineffective against the Darkness.
  • SURTR DROWN – unknown, possibly a specific strategy or type of weapon. It was ineffective against the Darkness.
  • DVALIN FORGE – a plan to produce weapons to arm human forces in the event of a CARRHAE emergency. DVALIN FORGE weaponry proved ineffective against the Darkness.
  • DVALIN FORGE-2 – a modification of the original DVALIN FORGE subroutine designed to be compatible with MIDNIGHT EXIGENT.
• YUGA – a counterattack protocol. It was activated concurrently with VOLUSPA.
  • YUGA SUNDOWN – a condition that cancels all protocols for protecting humanity and activates MIDNIGHT EXIGENT.
  • YUGA ECLIPSE – a condition which is currently unknown.
• GALATEA REFLEXIVE – a subroutine that creates new protocols in the event a request to activate an existing protocol is denied. MIDNIGHT EXIGENT must be suspended to utilize this subroutine.
• TELESPHOURUS WEAVE – a subroutine that directs Rasputin's medical resources to a Vault in the Cosmodrome.
• NAGLFAR STEP – unknown.
• KALKI GOLEM – unknown.

Quotes

Warmind Vault JYS-2

"The Vanguard still believes Rasputin to be a simple Warmind. He hasn't been that for a very long time."

— Lord Saladin Forge

The following are quotes from the missions The Warmind, The Buried City, and Strike Fallen S.A.B.E.R.; Russian dialogue is overheard when doing certain actions. The dialogue in The Buried City appears at the mission's conclusion.

The Warmind

• "Safety protocol 8-6-3. Hostile entities discovered."
• "There's no one to blame, it is not their fault or ours. It is the misfortune of being born when the whole world is dying."
• "There is no immortality of the soul, thus there is no greater good. Therefore everything is permitted." (A reference to The Brothers Karamazov)
• "Count up this, define the probability of that."
• "They are but meat pressed in the mouth of the shell."
• "If, as they say, the coming events cast their shadows ahead of time, then the past events cannot but leave their reflections behind them."
• "The whole natural order stands as evidence of a progressive movement toward an elevated state of being."

The Buried City

• "Soul does not exist. Death does not exist. Virtue does not exist. Everything is allowed."

Fallen S.A.B.E.R.

• "I'm in danger, the systems are damaged."—flying in from orbit
• "Military satellite launched, access codes are inside."—before the Warsat lands
• "Access granted, protocol annulled."—opening the vault door
• " System breached, damage sustained, planning counter-actions."—destroying the vent panel with a grenade (Note: no actual threat of orbital bombardments)
• "High priority to the mobile unit, destroy immediately."—When S.A.B.E.R.-2 spawns in Boss Room

Destiny 2: Warmind

• "The Bray family shaped me to be an all-seeing savior... while your vanguard sought to wield me as a primitive weapon... but today that ends... and I define the reality of my own existence... My sight will stretch to the edge of this system and beyond... Never again will a threat go unseen... From this day forward I will defend humanity on my own terms... I am Rasputin... guardian of all I survey... I have no equal."

Gallery

• 

  Rasputin logo

• 

  Warsat Launcher

• 

  Jav-4

• 

  Jav-4 Rocket. Note the similarity to the Russian/Soviet R7 rocket family.

• 

  Warsat

• 

  Capacitor

• 

  Valkyrie node.

• 

  Guardians wielding Valkyrie

• 

  Guardians wielding IKELOS weapons

• 

  Rasputin

• 
• 

  Rasputin awakens.

• 

  The core of Rasputin's fragment in the Seraphim Vault.

• 

  Concept art of the Citadel destroyed by Rasputin's orbital weaponry upon his reactivation.

• 

  Very early concept art of Rasputin

• 

  Rasputin Heavy Frame being made

• 

  Rasputin Heavy Frame in the EDZ bunker

Trivia

Rasputin Base

• Rasputin was a Russian priest and mystic closely associated with the Romanov family, the last Tsars of Imperial Russia. He is most commonly associated with having several assassination attacks carried out on him, surviving each one until he was shot in the head, wrapped in a blanket and dumped in an icy river by his attackers until they were certain that he was finally deceased. This is most likely a source of inspiration for the Rasputin of the Destiny universe, as it survives The Collapse and many other attempts to destroy or control it.

• In Ghost Fragment: Rasputin 6, there is a quote from Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy.

• In the original storyline of Destiny, Rasputin was the focus of the game's plot, as he was kidnapped by the Hive and taken to the Dreadnaught. The focus of the game was to rescue him. In this version, he was an Exo, though would be revealed to be controlled by the warmind (rather than actually being the warmind) in a future DLC.

• At the Tower, Xander 99-40 may occasionally say "Suspended bounty, Rasputin, no claimants." This implies that Rasputin is attempting to sponsor bounties for Guardians, or as a humorous aside suggesting that someone placed a bounty on Rasputin himself but no one stepped forward to carry it out.

• The Ghost Fragment: Mysteries appears to be written from the perspective of Rasputin. Though heavily laden with metaphor, it appears to be a fractured chronicle of his encounter with the Darkness, his fruitless attempts to overcome (or even resist) it, and his fateful decision to abandon his primary function in favor of survival (a tactic which he claims to have learned from his enemy). The colorful descriptions seem to indicate that he has descended into insanity since the Collapse, either as a result of his encounter with the Darkness, or due to drastically rewriting his core protocols, or perhaps both.

• When Rasputin speaks "in person" at the end of Warmind, the soundtrack is the correct Russian equivalent to Bray's English translation, but played backward (small bits, such as "Ja Rasputin" - "I am Rasputin", are not thus inverted) and overlaid with a range of voice distortion effects, as well as some "glitching" reminiscent of what is heard when computer audio "hangs". A re-inverted version of the recording, cleaned up to provide essentially intelligible Russian speech, can be heard here.
  • This implies that in-universe, Rasputin is likely supposed to be speaking some kind of "Warmind language", as there seems to be no logical in-universe reason for it to speak in inverted Russian.
  • Given its overall intellect and capabilities, logically, Rasputin should be perfectly capable of speaking standard English. The fact that it does not do so might instead reflect its unwillingness to make concessions to humans or acknowledge them as its "masters" any longer.

• Rasputin's protocols contain a number of references to history, mythology, and philosophy.
  1. Carrhae was an ancient battle fought in 54 B.C. when the Roman army invaded Parthia. Despite being superior in numbers the Roman legions were routed by the Parthian cavalry, one of their most crushing defeats.
  2. Ikelos is the Greek god and personification of nightmares, the child of Nyx, the goddess of Night, and Erebus, the god of Darkness.
  3. Völuspá is the most well-known poem in the Norse Poetic Edda, chronicling the creation and end of the world.
  4. Fenrir is a demon wolf in Norse mythology described at length in the Prose Edda, son of Loki. During Ragnarok he will kill Odin after freeing himself from where the gods chained him; then he would have his jaw ripped from his head by Víðarr, a son of Odin.
  5. Teilhard is a Jesuit priest and philosopher who conceived the Omega Point, a spiritual belief and scientific speculation where life will eventually become united with the divine and argued that Jesus Christ was focal of this Omega Point. This can be considered one of the earliest known versions of the Christian Universalist belief, that everything no matter how fallen or depraved (such as the Devil) will be reconciled with God.
  6. The SIDDHARTHA GOLEM protocol is a reference to Prince Siddhartha Gautama, son of King Suddhodhana of the ancient kingdom of Kapilavastu in the Indian sub-continent. Prince Siddhartha, while wandering outside the royal palace for the first time, witnessed human suffering in the form of old age, disease and death, which led to him renouncing his kingdom to live the life of an ascetic and seek enlightenment. He later came to be known as Gautama Buddha.
  7. Surtr is a fire giant and will destroy the world during Ragnarok with his fire.
  8. Veles is the Slavic god of death and the underworld. In mythology his opponent was Perun.
  9. Yuga is a Hindu term for "age". There are four ages:

  1. Satya Yuga—the first and best age, analogous to the Golden Age. Here people had extended lifespans of over 100000 years.
  2. Treta Yuga—the second age, where warlords and darkness cover the land, analogous to the Dark Age.
  3. Dvapara Yuga—the third age where people turn upon one another, corrupted by evil.
  4. Kali Yuga—the final age, called the Age of Destruction. According to modern Hindu mythology, humanity is currently living in this age.

• The descriptor of the protocol SKYSHOCK as being 'Inside Context' or 'Outside Context' is likely a reference to Iain M. Banks's Culture Novel Excession, in which an extra-universal anomaly is referred to by the AI Minds in the story as an 'Outside Context Problem', defined as the kind of problem for which there is no precedence, and that 'most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.'

• It is implied in the Grimoire that Rasputin and the Exo Stranger may have met at some point.
  • This is further supported in Beyond Light as the Exo Stranger was revealed to be Elsie Bray.
• During the adventure Arecibo on Io, the ghost asks Asher if he is picking up anything on channel J-1869. Grigori Rasputin was born in January 1869.

• Rasputin builds his own Frames which appeared in Season of the Worthy and a modified version called Heavy Frames which were present during the Seraph Tower public event. These frames show up again the the Abhorrent Imperative mission in Season of the Seraph.

• After the death of Rasputin in Season of the Seraph, in one of the Heist Battlegrounds missions, Ana states that a piece of Rasputin lives on in the dog that the Guardian retrieved from Seraph Station.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First appearance)
  • The Dark Below
  • The Taken King
  • Rise of Iron
• Destiny 2
  • Warmind
  • Forsaken (Mentioned only)
  • Shadowkeep (Mentioned only)
    • Season of Dawn
    • Season of the Worthy
    • Season of Arrivals
  • Beyond Light (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Chosen (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Lost (Mentioned only)
  • The Witch Queen (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Seraph