Over the last few years of Destiny 2, multiple factions that were once blood enemies with the Guardians have put aside their differences to form alliances with the Tower. First, in Season of the Chosen, we entered into a tentative alliance with the Cabal under Empress Caiatl. That alliance has been shaky at times, but with the addition of Saladin to Caiatl’s War Council in Season of the Risen, now seems quite solid. In Season of the Splicer, Eliksni refugees moved into the Last City — and in the more reason Season of Plunder, we helped build up the Eliksni Quarter. These alliances make sense, since both the Cabal and Eliksni are basically just people — alien people, but people. You might be wondering, though, might we ever see alliances with other factions who are less like us? Could we get allied Vex in Destiny 2? Well, I think there’s actually a good case to be made for it.
The Vex Are More Divided Than They Seem
The Vex most recently appeared in Destiny 2 as the antagonists of the Spire of the Watcher Dungeon. Here, one faction of Vex — the Sol Divisive — is attempting to gain control of the outpost. If you don’t know much about the Vex, the concept of internal factions might surprise you. They’re presented in the game as archetypal killer robots, so you might think they all share a single mind. And that’s kind of true, but it’s also not the whole story.
In fact, the Vex are networked creatures who have distinct minds and motivations. Multiple Vex can even share the same body, jointly piloting it. A conversation between Elsie Bray and Osiris in a Season of the Seraph radio message draws attention to this. “Think of each Vex Hobgoblin like a starship,” Elsie says. “The crew works together to pilot it, but it doesn’t mean the crew all share one mind.”
Osiris adds that in the Infinite Forest, “aberrant” Vex were quarantined and destroyed by their compatriots. These aberrant Vex acted against the Vex consensus, revealing that the seemingly-unified faction is actually riven by conflict.
These lines seem to me to be setting up the possibility of allying with Vex — at least some of them. As the Witness masses his forces, it would make sense that at least one faction of Vex might see their clearest shot of surviving being to work with the Guardians, Cabal, and Eliksni rather than against them.
Does this mean that the Vex would cease being genocidal death machines? Probably not. But if they’re hyperintelligent creatures, then they might see that the odds are against them if we go up against the Darkness and lose. That wouldn’t preclude us from fighting the Vex in future Destiny 2 content, either, since we already know that there are Vex like the Sol Divisive faction which worship the Darkness.
There’s Precedent: Friendly Harpies
On multiple occasions, we’ve seen “friendly” Vex Harpies that haven’t attacked us. In Season of the Splicer, a Harpy appeared at the site of the final battle in the Eliksni Quarter. This Harpy was widely considered to be the old Io quest vendor Asher Mir in some form, as it emitted beeps that read “assistant” in Morse code — the term with which Asher frequently referred to the Guardian. And back when World Quests were around, one on Nessus that involved tracking down Failsafe’s old crew involved a strange Harpy that seemed to have the Exodus Black’s captain’s memories.
So, are we going to team up with the Vex in a post-Lightfall season of Destiny 2? To me it seems pretty likely. As the Witness and Calus make their move, we might even get a team-up with some Hive. We’ll have to wait until Lightfall launches to find out for certain.
