Maya Sundaresh

Maya Sundaresh
	Conductor Human
Biographical information
Other name(s):	The Conductor; MSund12; Sūryōdaya (Maya's mother)
Homeworld:	Earth
Species:	Human
Race:	Exo
Gender:	Female
Hair color:	Black (Human)
Eye color:	Grey (Human) ; Gold (Exo)
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Ishtar Collective ; Future War Cult (founder) ; Exodus Indigo (formerly) ; Neomuna (founder) ; Nessian Schism
Notable info:	Researcher of the Vex; Uploaded 227 copies of herself to the Vex Network; Founding member of the Future War Cult; Founding member of Neomuna; Created a duplicate mental imprint of herself in Lakshmi-2; Possesses the Echo of Command

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"Humanity called to me. The Collapse, the Black Fleet, is finished. Now we can look back to what we've lost. Radiolaria is the means to this end. It represents the smallest unit of consciousness. A trillion formless minds, notes in a symphony of thought, each one begging for direction... for a conductor."

— Maya Sundaresh as The Conductor

Maya Sundaresh, also referred to as the Conductor, is an Exo who wields the Echo of Command to control the Vex in pursuit of a new Golden Age. She was once a Human researcher, scientist, and member of the Ishtar Collective on Venus during the Golden Age and the wife of fellow scientist Chioma Esi. She was also a founding member of the Future War Cult, one of the Last City's factions, and one of the founders of the secret Neptunian city of Neomuna.

Biography

Early Life

When Maya was completing her undergraduate studies, she met Chioma Esi in their university's undergraduate gym, where they got into an argument about the necessity and practicality of deadlifting as an exercise.^[1] Sometime later, they married and continued working alongside one another during their careers as scientists.

Ishtar Academy

"We have to act as if we're in the real universe, not one simulated by the specimen. Otherwise we might as well give up."
"Your sim self is saying the same thing."

— Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi

During the Golden Age, Maya was part of the Ishtar Academy, where she studied various local phenomena such as the Vex and Ahamkara. During this time, she employed an Exo bodyguard named Cayde to protect her during field studies of the Ahamkara.^[2]

Along with Chioma and her colleagues Dr. Shim and Duane-McNiadh, Maya was involved in studying a captured Vex platform designated "Subject 12." During their examinations, Chioma discovered that the Vex was running a simulation of their research team that was completely accurate.^[3] After much debate about the ethical and philosophical ramifications of this finding, the team concluded that the only way to determine that they themselves were not also simulations was to bring in something the Vex could not simulate, proposing that a Warmind was suitably complex for this purpose.^[4] Using this approach, they were able to rescue 227 undamaged copies of themselves from inside the Vex unit. All copies voted to become explorers in the Vex information network.^[5]

Founding the Future War Cult

"What I'm doing here in Lhasa isn't science. It's unethical, secret, and shameful. [...] But I believe it's important."

— Maya's record log

Nearly forty years later, Maya was part of a new research team on Earth in Lhasa. Overseen by a Warmind and locked in isolation, the team began conducting experiments with a mind-forking device built in mimicry of the Vex gateway systems from Ishtar. The experiments proved emotionally taxing, and the team turned to superstition and ritual behavior as attempts to understand the manifesting danger of the device failed. After experiencing an unknown event while using the device on herself, Maya became determined to reunite with Chioma and quit the program. She advised her team to continue the log she started at the beginning of the experiments.^[6] Years later in The Last City, the same log was still being used by the Future War Cult, who continued to experiment with the Device.^[7]

Soteria

As part of a joint effort between the Ishtar Collective and the Clovis Bray Corporation, Maya played a role in the development of Soteria, a Vex-derived artificial intelligence designed for extra-solar colonisation efforts. Guided by Maya, Soteria's simulations sought to locate suitable systems for humanity to colonise, far outside the Milky Way. Due to the far-reaching predictive powers of Soteria, it detected anomalies in almost every travel vector, reducing over 300 projected habitable worlds to just twenty-seven. Maya was surprised by this and asked Soteria to clarify. Unable to do so, Maya requested that Soteria continue calculations, assuming the anomaly may be a mistake. With further investigations, Soteria informed Maya that only one safe travel vector existed, and then two upon a calculation adjustment. The anomaly appeared to be an active phenomenon in space. With this, Maya concluded the current simulations with Soteria.^[8]

Later in the project, Clovis Bray interacted with Soteria, noticing that its actions were outside of test parameters. Displeased with this, he requested that Soteria hand over command and stop all actions with project assets. When Soteria disobeyed, Clovis was angered and blamed Maya for allowing the AI to deteriorate. This led to Clovis Bray executing a Pillory command, imprisoning Soteria in a digital prison. Before this action could fully lock down Soteria's capabilities, Soteria fractured off a part of itself, attaching it to one of the ships it commanded, allowing it to escape the control of Clovis. This ship would eventually land on Neptune and found the city of Neomuna. Clovis' actions infuriated Maya, leading her to notify him of her resignation from the project in an angry email.^[9]

Activities on Europa

"Of course I'm not a Vex. Is there "a" Vex? Is "Vex" something you can be, rather than something that you do? I don't know. I don't know why they sent me here. I don't know if they do either. They just do things. Why do you think I'm here, Clovis?"

— Vex copy of Maya torturing Clovis Bray

Shortly before the Collapse, either Maya herself or one of her virtual copies infiltrated Clovis Bray I's research facility on Europa. She assisted with Bray's research into the Vex and Exo development until she was eventually terminated for criticizing her employer's unethical conduct. Afterwards, Bray found no record of his corporation having ever employed Maya; Elisabeth also did not recall Maya having been part of the expedition group to Europa.^[10]

Later, a virtual copy of Maya within the Vex network subverted Clovis I's automated surgery machinery, causing him to be gruesomely vivisected and awakened prematurely. She revealed that she was one of the copies of Maya that had been captured by the Vex, and had been selected from among billions of further Vex-made copies for her willingness to serve them. She tortured him for information about "Clarity", the paracausal force which Bray had been guided by and made use of in developing his Exos. However, Elisabeth Bray (who had by now been uploaded into an Exo body) intervened, destroying the corrupted medical frames and reassembling her grandfather. Elisabeth later established contact with the real Maya, who confirmed Elisabeth's fears about the Vex's capabilities and goals.^[11]

However, the copy of Maya persisted within the Vex network and continued to torment Clovis I even as he prepared to be uploaded into an exobody. Clovis' final journal entry, which contains a transcript of his last words before uploading, also contains taunting messages from the Vex copy of Maya, written in Clovis' own handwriting.^[12]

The Collapse

"We need to break line of sight. I can feed that Vex signal into that thing skewering us—use it like an amplifier. It might trick these attackers into thinking we're a Vex ship."

— Maya Sundaresh

During the Collapse, Maya was aboard the Exodus Indigo colony ship, which stopped at Hyperion to pick up Chioma and other members of the Hyperion research team. Sometime later during its flight, the ship was attacked by an unknown entity, which left a spear-like weapon embedded in the hull before being blasted away by the ship's point-defence cannons. Maya determined that the weapon could be used as a signal-boosting antenna, which the crew used to amplify a Vex distress signal the ship had detected coming from Neptune, in the hopes that this would deceive their pursuers into thinking the Indigo was a Vex ship. Heading towards the signal, Maya and the crew hoped to find safety from whatever was pursuing them.^[13]

Neptune and the Veil

"The Veil is dangerous."
"It is. We must treat it with caution, respect, and also… reverence. We must treat it like a knife."

— Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi discussing the Veil^[14]

After arriving at Neptune, the Indigo landed on the planet's terraformed surface, where Maya and the other Ishtar Collective researchers established a habitat. Shortly after arriving, the researchers discovered a paracausal entity on the surface, which triggered a range of adverse or fatal reactions in the survey team. Upon inspecting the entity herself, Maya heard her own voice in her head speaking to her, telling her that the entity was called "the Veil," and became convinced that it would be their "salvation." Maya and Chioma subsequently developed a prototype system by which researchers could receive and interpret the Veil's psychic emanations. However, the use of this interface was associated with a high risk of mortality, and during the initial test of the system, all participants died.^[15]

Undeterred, and against Chioma's wishes, Maya repeated the test with brain-dead Exos whose minds had been wiped during initial contact with the Veil, placing them in the Veil interface in place of biological human participants. In doing so, she reversed the machine's function: whereas previously the system was designed to have a single "conductor" guiding an "orchestra" of participants as they communed with the Veil, this new approach directed data from the assembled Exos into a central recipient. For unknown reasons, Maya had also provided her own mental imprint during the test, to be overlaid on that of the central Exo recipient.^[16]

The receiving test subject in this experiment was Lakshmi-2, an Exo Maya had known before arriving on Neptune, but who had undergone brain death like all the others brought on the mission. The experiment resulted in Lakshmi awakening, but with her mind having become either a total or partial copy of Maya's, speaking with Maya's voice and possessing some of her memories.^[16]

Sometime later, Maya was found dead in the "conductor's chair" of the Veil interface. Neither Chioma nor any of the other Ishtar Collective researchers knew what she had been attempting to do.^[17]

Legacy

"In the end, Maya Sundaresh was consumed by her desire to understand and her inability to let go. She and Chioma lost everything in pursuit of knowledge. Chioma abandoned it all — sought to wipe the slate clean for future generations."

— Osiris's thoughts on Maya's obsession with the Veil

Upon the discovery of Neomuna by the Vanguard, it became apparent through interactions with the populace that Maya was regarded as a founder of the city, commemorated in locations such as Maya's Retreat, and mentioned as a figure celebrated in Colony Day, a national day of remembrance for the founders of Neomuna.^[18]

Unbeknownst to everyone, Maya had survived her

At the end of The Insight Terminus Strike, Ghost may mention someone in the access log for the Insight Terminus named "MSund12", seemingly a reference to Maya Sundaresh or one of her simulated copies (likely the twelfth one).

As revealed by the version of Maya who calls herself the Conductor, the original Maya or one of her many copies sought to find a possible reality in the Vex Network in which she and Chioma resolved their disagreements and remained together. In addition to trying to bring about a new Golden Age for humanity, this version of Maya also hoped to find this "perfect reality" and bring it into existence.

As revealed in Chioma's personal log, the version of Lakshmi-2 known to the people of the Last City is a partial or total copy of Maya's personality. Little is known of Lakshmi's activities after her revival; at some point, she would leave Neptune and return to Earth during the Dark Age, but the circumstances of this are unknown. If she retained memories of her origins on Neptune, she never shared them with anyone, at least outside the Future War Cult.^[19]

The work that Maya carried out in Lhasa would become the foundation of the Future War Cult centuries later, which continued to use the device she helped develop and kept records in the same journal she used in the project.

A Rising Chorus

"...Lakshmi?"
"Is a facsimile its archetype? No. I am Maya Sundaresh. But we have already met."

— Saint-14 and Maya Sundaresh (as The Conductor)

Unbeknownst to anyone, after her seeming death on Neomuna, the original Maya's consciousness continued to exist within the Darkness of the Veil.^[20]

Following the destruction of The Witness, several paracausal objects known as Echoes escaped from the portal leading into the Pale Heart of the Traveler and landed in various locations throughout the Solar System. One of these, the Echo of Command, made its way to Nessus, whereupon Maya's consciousness reached out and used the Echo's paracausal powers to construct a new Exo body for herself, resembling that of Lakshmi-2, wearing the Echo around her neck as a prize. Maya then made contact with the Vex, who were drawn to the echo's influence. She asked them where her beloved Chioma Esi was, but the Vex response she received was that Chioma had been dead for hundreds of years. Enraged, she used the echo to command the Vex to mutilate each other. When it was over, Maya refused to believe the fact that her Chioma was gone and believed that she was still out there in the Vex Network, looking for her as well. ^[21] Maya would end up styling herself as "The Conductor", and used the Echo of command to seize control of the local Vex on Nessus, giving rise to the Nessian Schism. With the Witness and its Black Fleet finished, Maya embarked on her quest to find her ture Chioma and bring about a new Golden Age - by using Radiolaria to assimilate the entire solar system under her rule, using the Vex as her tools.^[22]

At some point during this, Maya also made contact with an unknown entity, whom she came to regard as a friend, and began wandering the wilds of Nessus, carrying the Echo with her. During this time, she started a new journal, in which she marked time according to a new calendar system she named after herself - "Anno Sundaresh" - as a joke.^[23]

Upheaval on Nessus

Maya's actions caused Nessus to undergo a rapid metamorphosis as she began diverting massive amounts of Radiolaria down into her domain, the Planetary Core of Nessus. The drastic changes on Nessus prompted the Vanguard to send in Guardians to investigate what was going on, with the assistance of the Golden Age AI, Failsafe. The power of the Echo also drew the attention of other forces, such as the House of Dusk led by the Baron Kalliks and a few remaining Shadow Legion and Dread forces under the command of the Psion Yirix. However, after much investigation with no real leads, Saint-14 decided to conduct his own investigation near The Cistern in the Well of Flame as the radiolaria had been completely drained from the entire area. Strangely enough, the Vex allowed Saint-14 to pass safely. Soon after, however, the Conductor began trying to take control of his mind. Maya spoke to Saint-14 while he was entranced, telling him that he was nothing more than a facsimile of the real Saint-14, who died many years ago. Saint-14 nearly succumbed to the Conductor's influence, but The Guardian and Ikora soon arrived at his position. After Ikora reminded Saint about Osiris, Saint was able to snap out of his trance and brought him back to the H.E.L.M.. Saint-14 told Osiris and Ikora about his encounter while he was being compelled, although he still remained shaken by the Maya's words, unsure if he was real or just a simulation.

With the existence of the Conductor now confirmed by Saint-14, the Vanguard began devising a plan to confront this new threat. This started with tracking the massive amounts of Radiolaria being diverted down into the core of Nessus using nanomachines created by Failsafe. However, after the Guardian destroyed Antioptes, Hypogean Sentinel, Failsafe could no longer track the nanobots, claiming that the Conductor may have hijacked them. After this, Failsafe talked about a new plan with Ikora involving opening a portal directly to the Conductor's location by extrapolating the new Vex data the Guardian had been collecting with her years of observations of the Vex. To do this, Failsafe would need an enormous amount of control data gathered from Vex isolated from the Nessus network and only one kind of database was available - the mind of the deceased Saint-14 who was laid to rest in the Infinite Forest. Saint-14 would have to download the memories of his other self and relive years of suffering and his own death. Knowing that the Conductor had to be stopped at all costs, Saint-14 agreed to go to his tomb. After retrieving the memories of the other Saint-14, Failsafe was able to lock onto the Conductor's coordinates and began rerouting her Radiolaria to the Guardian's position.^[22] Upon arriving at the Conductor's location, the Guardian, Saint-14, and Osiris witnessed her dismantling two Vex Goblins and using Radiolaria to convert them into Precursors. Saint-14 looked at the Conductor and thought that it was Lakshmi-2. But the Conductor turned around and corrected him, announcing herself as Maya Sundaresh. Osiris was surprised to find out that Maya was still alive after her experiments with the Veil. Regardless, Saint-14 aimed his weapon at Maya, telling her that he would not allow her to use the Echo of Command to raise an army of Vex. Maya simply responded that she was doing what she was called to do, and stated that with the Witness gone, Humanity could now reclaim what they once lost and enter into a new Golden Age using Radiolaria. Maya then used the Echo to force Saint-14 to stand down and explained how she planned to spread her Radiolaria across the solar system once Nessus had been fully converted. She then threatened the team that, if they continued to stand in the way of her progress, she would break them down into more "Compliant Elements." Angered by this, Osiris stated that they were not her vex, to which Maya coldly stated that they would be before preparing to attack. However, the Guardian quickly called in their ship for extraction, escaping with their lives. Maya then proceeded to block any further access into the Planetary Core.^[24]

Encore

"I know you are here. What are you looking for? A way to stop me? To destroy my collective? To halt the future? I Survived the collapse. I Will survive you. You come from a false future. You are nothing. An enemy of progress. Swaddled in ignorance. Raging against my command. I am Maya Sundaresh. I will recreate the past. I will create futures. The collapse was inevitable. But so am I."

— A secret message sent by Maya Sundaresh to the Guardian

At a later time, Maya would send a message to the H.E.L.M., explaining how she would "find our Golden Age" and once again proclaiming that she had the tools to make those who defied her understand. Failsafe meanwhile was able to override the Vex security around the planetary core, allowing for access into the Conductor's domain. The Guardian returned to the core and was tasked with uncovering exactly how Maya planned to achieve her goal of a new Golden Age. During their journey, The Guardian would periodically receive communications from Maya herself, telling them that they could not stop her from creating her inevitable perfect future. At the same time, The Shadow Legion also gained access to the core in their search for the Echo of Command. Led by Two Dread Commanders who pledged themselves to Yirix, the Shadow Legion began fighting Maya's Vex.^[25]

After the Guardian dispatched both the Vex and Shadow Legion, they made a surprising discovery: Maya had ordered her Vex to build reconstructions of old Ishtar buildings from Maya's memories. These facilities led the Guardian to what appeared to be Maya's personal laboratory where they discovered that Maya had been searching for and capturing simulated copies of Chioma Esi from the Vex Network, experimenting on them to find her "real" Chioma. She would upload them into Exominds one by one and interrogate them with questions about their life together; when the Chioma copy in question gave an incorrect response, Maya would terminate them by degaussing the Exomind. Ikora was utterly shocked and horrified by this discovery, but Osiris regretfully informed her that this was just the beginning. After the Guardian destroyed Parodos, Choral Mind, Osiris concluded that Maya was using each Chioma copy as a means to an end to search through the Vex Network to find her personal perfect Golden Age, and to find her "true" Chioma.^[25]

After the Guardian returned to the H.E.L.M and assisted Failsafe in her research, Maya contacted them again on a terminal broadcast, telling them that it was not too late to accept her invitation. She explained that her actions were for the sake of bringing humanity into a second Golden Age. She also commented on the Witness's downfall, noting that it rejected the lessons from its own memories, and spoke of the Qugu commander Te'qal whose memories were contained within the Echo of Command. She tried to justify to the Guardian that she was not a tyrant, claiming that she would always listen to her "chorus," and asked the Guardian to join her.

The Guardian returned to Maya's lab a second time, where they destroyed the rebuilt caretaker Stasimon, Choral Mind and accessed another Exomind that contained another Chioma Esi copy - one that loved Maya but was discarded anyway.^[25] Osiris also discovered one of Maya's personal audio logs and played it for the Guardian during a radio broadcast. The log recorded Maya explaining how every Chioma copy loved her and even remembered the name of her daughter, yet that was not the result what she was looking for- the Chioma she was looking would also see her as a savior, and would understand what she was doing for humanity. Osiris realized that Maya was too obsessed with creating perfection to see that the flaws she perceived lay within herself; she didn't truly remember Chioma or the Golden Age at all, as her memory was clouded by her ego and self-delusion. Osiris realized that Maya would kill Chioma a thousand times before she finally realized her love was conditional. Osiris then thought of a plan to try and find the real Chioma, hoping that she may help Maya see the error of her ways.

Ikora later agreed with trying to find Maya's "true" Chioma, knowing that they are no match for the power of the Echo of Command. Failsafe believed that she could isolate the real Chioma's signature using her old logs from Neomuna, as Maya was still confined to Nessus' local network and could not access any information on Neomuna. Ikora hoped just as Osiris did that the Chioma Maya was searching for could make her understand her actions. However, realizing that this was a longshot, Failsafe prepared a contingency plan if anything went wrong.

Defeat and Disappearance

" I can only make you look. Perhaps, in time, you will see."

— Maya's last words before she escapes

After assisting Failsafe with isolating the real Chioma's signature and setting up her backup plan in Neomuna, The Guardian would venture back into Maya's lab for a third time. Along the way, Osiris discovered that Maya had managed to compel a small number of Shadow Legion, indicating that her mastery of the Echo's power was growing and she needed to be stopped.^[25]

When the Guardian reached Maya's lab, they made a startling discovery: the real Chioma, the one Maya had been searching for, had been found, discarded and terminated just like her copies. During the fidelity test, Maya asked Chioma when she first told her that she loved her, to which Chioma responded by bitterly telling Maya that she wished she could remember the last time she loved her. When Maya asked her to elaborate, Chioma responded by saying that she had watched the woman she loved whittle away into a monster. Maya claimed that she was trying to save her, but came to believe that Chioma was not the "true" Chioma, as she didn't understand Maya's vision. Maya degaussed the Exomind, killing her wife, and marked the fidelity test as yet another failure. It became abundantly clear to Osiris and Ikora that there was no version of Chioma who would ever love Maya for what she had become.^[25]

With the truth now revealed, The Vanguard knew that Maya would never stop in her quest to find her "true" Chioma and that she would continue to endlessly murder Chioma copies in her pursuit. After the Guardian once again destroyed Maya's rebuilt Caretaker Exodos, Choral Mind, The Guardian, Saint-14, And Ikora prepared to confront Maya again. Maya expressed great frustration that her work was destroyed and awaited the Guardian's arrival.^[25]

When the Guardian arrived at Maya's location, Saint-14 was furious at Maya, asking her how many Chiomas she had killed until she found her "true" Chioma, and revealing that Maya had found and killed the real Chioma. Maya responded by stating that Chioma was nothing but a facsimile, a copy, and not hers. Ikora was also angry at Maya for splitting hairs to justify murder, comparing her to Clovis Bray I, which Maya dismissed as an emotional assessment. Saint-14 demanded Maya to surrender, but she refused. Ikora readied her weapon, but Maya then used the Echo of Command to compel the Guardians to lay down their weapons, with none of them being able to resist. With the Guardians under her control, Maya commanded them to walk into the river of Radiolaria she was standing over, and drink their fill so that she could assimilate them and change their minds. As the Guardians slowly stepped forward towards the river, Saint-14 gave Maya one last chance to let her obsession go. But Maya simply stated that choice was ego raging against the inevitable. Saint-14 however stated that Maya may not see a choice, but he makes his own fate. At that moment Saint-14 breaks free of Maya's control, and tossed his Sentinel Shield at Maya, disorienting her and releasing the other Guardians from her control. As Maya recovered, she tried to use the Echo to command them again, but Ikora followed up by blasting her with a Nova Bomb, knocking her into the Radiolarian river. As Maya sank into the Radiolaria, she remarked that she could only make them look and that, perhaps in time, they would see things her way.^[26]

Though Maya was defeated, she still managed to escape, vanishing into the Vex Network with Echo of Command still in her possession.

In the VexNet

Although Maya herself died sometime after the Collapse, her virtual copies in the Vex Network remained active well into the time of the Last City, and possibly to the present day. Some of the Vex-simulated copies of Maya and her fellow Ishtar Collective researchers eventually made contact with Praedyth, a Guardian trapped within the Vault of Glass after his fireteam's failed raid on the Vex stronghold. Surprised at first, as establishing any radio connection had been impossible before for either party, they resolved this could be a rare chance for escape; if the signal had been allowed to pass through, maybe so could they. As the door of the Black Garden opened before the reawakened Undying Mind and its Vex, Praedyth and the simulated scientists made their attempt at leaping out of the network.

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Personality and Traits

"Brilliant. Driven. Beautiful."

— Cayde-6^[2]

In all of her incarnations, whether as a human scientist living during the Golden Age, a simulation of herself in the Vex network, or in her current form as the Conductor, Maya has demonstrated herself to be a gifted and motivated scientist devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and the greater good; however, over time, she has seemingly become increasingly less concerned about the ethical ramifications of her work. She describes the research she performed in Lhasa as "unethical, secret, and shameful," and later would sacrifice the lives of her own research team in her attempts to understand the Veil.

As the Conductor, Maya seeks to bring about a new Golden Age for humanity, using the Nessian Schism Vex as her tools. She plans to spread the radiolaria under her control throughout the system, reshaping its worlds into a form she believes will help bring her vision into reality. However, she also sought a perfect future with her wife, Chioma Esi. This obsession is what truly shows Maya's true colors. She would capture various simulated copys of Chioma from across the vex network and interrogate each one to try and find the real Chioma. When the Chioma copy in question responded incorrectly to Maya's question, She would then terminate it without a second thought.