Shin Malphur

Shin Malphur
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Earth
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Vanguard
Rank:	Guardian
Class:	Hunter (Gunslinger)
Notable info:	Owner of The Last Word

"Palamon raised me from there. The family I call my own - called my own - cared for me as if I was their natural born son. And life was good. Being the only life I knew, my judgment is skewed, and it wasn't easy - pocked by loss as it was - but I would call it good. Until, of course, it wasn't. Until two men entered my world. One a light. The other the darkest shadow I would ever know. "

— Shin

Shin Malphur was a renegade Hunter Gunslinger and the protégé of Jaren Ward. He carried on his legacy, taking up his mentor's weapon, The Last Word, as his own.

Biography

Rise of the Lone Gunman

Shin Malphur was once a boy living in the refugee village of Palamon, raised by his adoptive father after his biological parents were killed by Dregs. After Jaren Ward first arrived, Shin immediately bonded with the Guardian and became close friends soon after. A few months after Jaren arrived in the town, Shin watched him gun down the corrupt Magistrate Loken, freeing Palamon from his tyranny. When Palamon was destroyed, Shin followed Jaren to hunt down the attacker. Jaren had perished, but his Ghost found Shin, and discovered that Shin carried the Traveler's Light. From that day, Shin became a Guardian himself, and hunted down the infamous villain Dredgen Yor at Dwindler's Ridge.

Chasing Shadows

When the Shadows of Yor began emerging in the Crucible, Shin approached Ikora Rey to express his frustration with lack of response by the Vanguard to the cult's worship of Yor and their use of Thorn replicas. While Ikora shared Shin's concerns, she noted that he might be too close to the situation to see it objectively. Shin argued that he had seen videos of matches from Widow's Court and warned that the Shadows were playing with death.

His Ghost later questioned if he would fight the Shadows, and Shin noted that others were hoping that they would use the power they wielded more carefully than their inspiration had, but admitted that he doubted that would prove true and that the Vanguard's observation would likely not be enough. His Ghost asked what he would do, and after contemplating for a moment, Shin declared he would do what needed to be done.

At some point during his hunt for the Shadows, he encountered The Drifter.

Using intelligence from the Drifter, Shin was able to track down a man named Callum, who was part of the Shadows before they all separated to keep Shin off their tracks. Confronting him after he had just murdered his own Ghost with a dagger carved from a projectile from Thorn, Shin warned Callum that 'they should not have followed him'. Callum argued that he and Shin are the same; that they do the wrong things, for the right reasons. Demanding any last words from the Shadow, Callum replied that Shin would never kill them all. In an attempt to kill Shin, Callum reached for his weapon, only to be incinerated by Shin's Golden Gun, his ashes burned against a rock, with a hole in the center indicating where Shin landed his shots.

Trivia

• Shin has the distinction of being the only known Guardian who was not previously dead; he appears to have been born blessed by the Traveler's Light, as both Jaren and his Ghost could tell upon their first meeting that he was special.
• Shin is also the only Guardian to use another Guardian's ghost.
• It's possible Shin was among the first Guardians to use Golden Gun, indicating he is a Gunslinger. He may have invented the technique himself.
• Shin has been called a "renegade Hunter," "the lone gunman,” and “the man with the Golden Gun.”

List of appearances

• Destiny (First mentioned)
  • House of Wolves (Mentioned only)
  • The Taken King (Mentioned only)
  • Rise of Iron (Mentioned only)
  • Age of Triumph (Mentioned only)
• Destiny 2 (Mentioned only)
  • Forsaken (Mentioned only)