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So I haven’t had much time to look too deep into all of the new material that came out with the new Raid, Scourge of the Past, but from what I understand, it has some of the most interesting background lore that I’ve seen in Destiny so far, and I’d like to take a moment to talk about the current state of the Fallen that this new Raid implies.
So if you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of an identity crisis happening with the Eliksni people ever since a majority of their House structure was dismantled. Most of it has remained in the background of the Destiny universe, with only recent lore actually addressing what’s been happening. In short, with most Fallen leadership killed, the House of Kings, along with the aid of Prince Uldren Sov, formed the House of Dusk to unify the Eliksni. The main purpose of this House was to get the Eliksni to put aside their problems with one another and organize their efforts in surviving in Sol.
The formation of Dusk signifies a sort of restoration movement for the Fallen, with practices such as wearing less metal plating and using more traditional weapons in battle has become prominent across the House. This has likely occurred as an attempt to try and heal the Eliksni’s wounded pride in their race, where they use spears and blades to fight and rely more on their own natural armor to protect them in battle, proving that they are strong, even without the aid of technology. Less armor also allow the Fallen to use their natural swiftness to their advantage as well, making them much more mobile in fights then before, furthering the independent themes of House Dusk. Other changes that can be noticed is how Dregs will no longer haver their arms docked after they’ve been removed. Amputation is still a punishment for Fallen, but their lower set of arms are no longer prevented from growing back once they’ve been removed, making it so that even if an Eliskni is punished, they aren’t segregated from their people.
It also appears that Ether is being distributed more evenly, with Captains being much larger and Kell-like and Dregs and Vandals more bulkier and nimble. This is likely due to the Fallen’s relationship with the Servitors changing drastically since the start of Destiny. With most of the Godhead figures in their society being removed, such as the Prime Servitors, the Fallen began to view their lesser Servitors less like Gods and more as just machines that, although provided an essential resource for them, are still just a machine. Overall, Dusk’s Formation seems to be a self sufficient movement, where the Fallen have broke their dependence on technology and learning to rely more on themselves and their fellow Eliksni for survival. Which is a nice change of pace, considering in the past, major blows to their structure of power would deepen the Fallen’s technology dependence.
With the emergence of the Kell’s Scourge syndicate, some very interesting ideas about the current state of the Eliksni social climate have developed. The first thing that we learn about Kell’s Scourge is that they are a group of Fallen who are “anti-everything”, and only want to cause chaos in the system, and the reason they’re in the City is to get ahold of a few powerful Black Armory goodies to better help their plight of destroying everything, but I’m not so sure about that. From an outsiders perspective, that seems reasonable enough that the enemy just wants to destroy things, and from the phrasing, it sounds like it was the Ghost who got us all up to speed. But even the Scorn, a deranged splintered off faction of Fallen, didn’t want to just cause chaos. Sure they had members like Kaniks who got a few kicks out of mindless destruction, but it was all to destabilize the Tangled Shore, which would allow Uldren to get to the Dreaming City. It had a purpose. And I think Kell’s Scourge does too.
Taking a look at the leader of this new syndicate, their current goal in the City and the syndicate itself, we can get a pretty good look into what they’re all about. Back in the day, the Fallen used to be all about winning, and had major complexes about predator-prey dynamics, which was a result of their civilization losing everything during the Whirlwind and essentially becoming the Hive’s prey for centuries. This is greatly reflected in Siviks’ name, Lost to None, which could be a way for him to remind others of they way it used to be for the Fallen. That every time you hear his name, you’d think of the past. A human equivalent of that would be along the lines of “Steve, Remember when we were Cool”. Siviks has brought his crew to the City looking to get into the Black Armory’s Vault and steal their tech, which seems to go against the recent trends set forth by the House of Dusk of still using technology, but understanding that it doesn't define them. As for the syndicate’s name, Kell’s Scourge, it isn’t subtle in the fact that it’s a homage to the former House hierarchy that seems to die with Craask. At the moment, Dusk’s leadership seems to function relatively autonomously, with numerous Captains leading their crew and no known Barons or Kells existing. These three factors seems to imply that Siviks is looking to reestablish the Fallen to their old ways, with a societal emphasis on technology and a social emphasis of Kellship controlling the entire House.
It could be that Kell’s Scourge is just a bunch of anarchists looking for that perfect boom, but they’ve been described as terrorists before, which is a really interesting way of putting it. If they just wanted to cause mayhem, that wouldn’t be too different in the eyes of the Lightbearers, so they’d likely just be described as another new House, but terrorists? Terrorists are a group of individuals using violence to bring about their preferred (and usually outdated) social/societal climate, which is what practically everything about them seems to indicate, making it a pretty apt description.
Perhaps I just want to see a Fallen movement like this have more depth to it than just “Hey, wanna break some sh*t?” Other Eliksni innovations or changes in the designated social climate have had way more to them than just face value, and are rather interesting in the how they splintered off from their original system. There’s House Dusk which seems to mainly reject the old ways of the Fallen and are hard focused on simply surviving. There’s House Judgment, which although their current status is unknown, we know Variks wants a complete traditional renaissance to occur, which will bring the Eliksni people back to their former honor and dignity. There’s the Scorn, who’ve harnessed higher powers so that they can finally exist in a universe that has forsaken them. The Spider’s crew, who’s just looking to make a quick buck. There are those like Mithrax, who will concede their pride if it means they’ll be accepted by the Great Machine once again. Overall, the Eliksni are all over the place, and I believe that Kell’s Scourge wanting to reestablish the Fallen’s dependence on technology, as well as kickstart the traditional House system again would fit right in. But that’s just me.
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