Time

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, July 06, 2013, 11:24 (4157 days ago) @ ZackDark

Yeah, I've been thinking something like that as well.

Another major point I believe is that the 'knocking down' part took at least half a century of major beating, else we would get back on our feet a lot faster.

While we don't know a lot, what we do know makes me inclined to agree. Humanity's golden age wasn't some silly Star Trek "we don't have money or disease or war" type thing. Russia had a very major wall guarding a space port. Various nations still had tanks, aircraft, and aircraft carriers. Mars had war intelligences named after mythic swords. I even believe the Exo to be some kind of either heavily cyborgized human (with everything mechanical but the brain) or straight up human created artificially intelligent warriors that survived the fall. I think Humanity quickly lost any kind of space superiority and then was beat down by forces hanging overhead in orbit. They didn't have the ability to glass us Covenant style, but they had sufficient ground forces to slowly destroy everything. I'm not sure it took decades, but it at least took years.

Then there's the scary part. I don't think the Fallen / Vex / Hive are the ones who knocked us down. I think they came to our solar system for their own reasons, perhaps looking for The Traveler. This part from Alpha Lupi has stuck with me:

In ecstasy they search for you, finding nothing but dense quiet dropping from the stars.

The Traveler and its low orbit could be the dense quiet dropping from the stars.

And If my speculation is correct, if the races we'll be fighting at first aren't the scariest one, then all of us, Humanity, Fallen, Vex, Hive, and The Traveler might be in future danger. Imagine a major gameplay event in the future if The Traveler is further damaged or destroyed exposing The City to everything that is out there! I think it will happen. Not soon. But three or four years after Destiny launches I think we will lose The Traveler and The City. Won't that be fun! :)