The Collapse

Relics of the Collapse.

"There is no hope anymore.
Only the screams of humanity."

— Henriette Meyrin during the Collapse.

The Collapse was a cataclysm in human history that nearly brought the species to extinction. Following the Golden Age, after mankind had colonized the Solar System, the Darkness attacked humanity, presumably through the Black Fleet under the Witness, and pushed it back to its homeworld, Earth.

Timeline of events

Immediately before the Collapse, an entity or group of entities were detected just beyond the edge of the Solar System, in what was termed a "TRANSIENT NEAR EXTRASOLAR EVENT". The only means of determining that a transient event had even occurred was through the detection of a 0.3-second displacement of gravity waves, as well as anomalous interactions in the local Higgs field traced to sterile neutrino scattering. An AI observing the event, the Warmind Rasputin, was able to derive some information, based solely on the phenomena that it could detect, but was unable to ascertain its mechanism. Rasputin conducted an "Omnibus analysis" of the event's effects on local spacetime, measuring a wide range of data points including direction, distance, range, speed, and size as well as a comprehensive pattern analysis of the event itself. This last set of data showed, to a certainty of "9 Sigma", a definite and measurable pattern that had a complex, almost linguistic, structure that demonstrated both intelligence and intent.

As a method of destruction, natural disasters tore across the solar system, eliminating populations. On Titan in particular, a gravitational anomaly formed and deformed the shape of the moon, stretching it to the shape of an egg . When this anomaly disappeared, the moon rebounded to its original shape, causing devastating methane tidal waves to wash the surface of the planet, shattering the arcologies. In what records exist, there is no army of Darkness beings committing the cataclysm, only reports of inexplicable destruction through anomalous environmental behavior.

In myths extending from time, it is said the Traveler let off a huge pulse of energy, driving back all Darkness forces to the outer reaches of the system. With this, the Traveler had expended itself a great deal, suffering damage, and inflicting on itself a state of torpor. Despite popular belief, the Traveler did not appear to solely prevent the Black Fleet from completely annihilating humanity. Recent revelations have revealed that Savathûn, the Witch Queen was a major reason behind the forces of the Darkness leaving the Sol System inner regions during the Collapse. The Witch Queen's former worm informed the Guardian and Mara Sov that she used clever deceptions to prevent the Witness from destroying the Traveler. It is also theorized that something else forced the Traveler to stay to protect humanity, preventing it from running as it had done with other races before. This is evidenced in the LOKI CROWN programming for Rasputin, where it would aim to keep the Traveler on Earth, using any force necessary. With this information, it could be inferred that Rasputin attacked the Traveler, causing damage to the being, explaining the giant shard present in the EDZ. However, despite this information, much of the actual events of the Collapse remain largely unknown.

What is known is that after the Black Fleet was pushed back, the Traveler released countless Ghosts. These small beings would go on to find their chosen ones, imbuing them with the gift of Light. After this, the Traveler entered a comatose state while humanity entered the Dark Age.

At some point during the Collapse, a single Pyramid would crash-land and be left behind on the Moon, where it would remain undiscovered for centuries.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First mentioned)
• Destiny 2 (Mentioned only)