Dating in Destiny

No, not that kind of dating.

Today, we use Before Common Era and After Common Era. Bungie has given us three distinct historical ages to work with: Golden Age, Dark Age, and City Age. Since that's about all we've been given to work with (as far as I've read), I think it will help for us as a community to come up with something a little more specific, for once the timeline starts to get sorted out and make sense (something I'm working on for myself right now).

The most obvious thing for me would be Before Traveler and After Traveler. But I'm not sure if it should be broken down further based on the ages, or kept as simple as that. Because otherwise it becomes a little confusing with GA, DA, and CA, containing multiple recurring dates. But since that's "official", it might be what some people prefer to use.

So as I see it, the year 0 AT would be somewhere between 2000-2100 CE. What I'm wondering though is, does the year 0 AT begin with the first detection of the Traveler, its arrival in the solar system, its first changes to our solar system, its first contact with humanity on Mars, or its arrival on Earth?

I've also been reading a bit about the Ahankara, intelligent dragon-like creatures that the Traveler brought into existence. In one Grimoire card, a warlock mentions holding a fossil of one. As I understand it, fossils take a minimum of 10,000 years to form (this is from an internet search, I could be off). If that's the case, is Destiny much further in the future than we've been led to believe? I have to think that, if so, the ruins we're exploring can't really be from our Golden Age, but something much more recent (functioning lights after 10,000 years... nu'uh). Unless of course the fossilization was also some sort of effect from the Traveler.

Anyways, thoughts?

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I'm liking Before Traveler and After Traveler, as that's what drives everything in Destiny. Thinking the date we detected it as the line, as that's kind of like its birthday (just like how we do with BC and AD).

Ages fit within that frame of reference, so we can do whatever in that regard.

I fear time in Destiny will be a tad fubar, if the macinations of the Vex are any indication, along with those billion year old ruins on Venus.

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I fear time in Destiny will be a tad fubar, if the macinations of the Vex are any indication, along with those billion year old ruins on Venus.

There will be a few events that are pretty far out there. Maybe even multiple timelines. Nothing worse than Halo, with 100,000 yr old societies and time-warping crystals. But as far as I know, parallel realities hasn't been confirmed by anything in Destiny yet. I don't think anything in the present can be changed by manipulating events in the past, otherwise the Vex probably would have wiped us out by now.

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There will be a few events that are pretty far out there. Maybe even multiple timelines. Nothing worse than Halo, with 100,000 yr old societies and time-warping crystals. But as far as I know, parallel realities hasn't been confirmed by anything in Destiny yet. I don't think anything in the present can be changed by manipulating events in the past, otherwise the Vex probably would have wiped us out by now.

Uh, the Vault of Glass is one big set of parallel and overlapping realities man. The relic would seem to suggest that time travel in Destiny works as it does in 12 monkeys / terminator: where you can time travel but you can't change the past.

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Uh, the Vault of Glass is one big set of parallel and overlapping realities man.

My impression was it was just past, present, and future.

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Uh, the Vault of Glass is one big set of parallel and overlapping realities man.

My impression was it was just past, present, and future.

It's more than that. How else do you think oracles, Templars and gorgons can negate your existence?

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It's more than that. How else do you think oracles, Templars and gorgons can negate your existence?

The cause of that is... up for debate.

I actually imagine that the Vault of Glass is a massive simulation being run by the Vex mind, as is mentioned in a couple of the Vex Grimoire cards. When you enter the Vault, you enter the simulation. Makes the most sense to me, currently. The only way we'll know that isn't true is if we see some of the other factions exhibit the same capabilities in future raids. Unless the entire game is one big Vex simulation...

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It's more than that. How else do you think oracles, Templars and gorgons can negate your existence?

The cause of that is... up for debate.

I actually imagine that the Vault of Glass is a massive simulation being run by the Vex mind, as is mentioned in a couple of the Vex Grimoire cards. When you enter the Vault, you enter the simulation. Makes the most sense to me, currently. The only way we'll know that isn't true is if we see some of the other factions exhibit the same capabilities in future raids. Unless the entire game is one big Vex simulation...

There's no way Bungie would do that after the Matrix, but with the state of the game as is who knows.

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I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of this event...

Were the Vex only discovered during the events of the game/slightly before? Or has the Vanguard known about them for longer?

I know Dinklebot tells us the Vex turned Mercury into a machine in days, but it's not said whether that's common knowledge, or if he got it from the Vex network.

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Vex were known about during the Golden Age. There's a series of Grimoire cards where researchers on Venus were studying a Vex unit and decide that they need the help of a Warmind for very creepy reasons. Our Ghost also says that The Traveler stopped the Vex from taking over Venus in the voice over at the start of one of the missions.

I think the timeline works something like this:

1. Traveler Arrives
2. We watch the Traveler alter the out planets
3. The Traveler "lands" on Mars and we send an expedition to great it.
4. Golden Age starts and we colonize most of the solar system.
5. At some point we find a / some Vex unit(s) to study... and it / they studies us back... quite thoroughly!
6. The Darkness arrives and Rasputin declares an all out emergency.
7. There is a war in which we are driven back and back.
8. During the war the Vex reactivated what was left of their network on Venus and tried to take it from us.
9. Rasputin gives up on the war effort lowering Earth's defenses in an effort to hide and become strong like The Darkness
10. The Traveler goes to war stopping the Vex, Darkness, and whoever else was here at the time (Hive maybe?) at great personal cost.
11. A few hundred years pass as what is left of Humanity fights among itself while a slowly growing number of Guardians found The City under The Traveler and refugees make their way their. How many hundreds of year? We don't really know... :(
12. The City holds back a large (human?) attacking force where four groups of Titans hold six lines of attack. (I love the Battle of Six Fronts!)
13. The City, emboldened, starts to expand into the mountains beyond The Traveler's protection and (possibly at the same time?) tries to take back our Moon from The Hive.
14. The Fallen attack the expanding City and are stopped at the Battle of Twilight Gap though a great many Guardians die.
15. The offensive on the Moon that had been going decently turns very bad as Crota and his sword kill "thousands" of Guardians. The City is forced to signal a full retreat and declare the Moon off limits. (Interesting then that Crota isn't currently around... Perhaps some Guardian force struck a decisive parting blow buying us several years to regroup while the Hive work on bringing Crota back? Or maybe Crota just went on a well deserved vacation?)
16. The Hive spend the next few decades bombarding Earth with seeders, preparing a hidden Hive army beneath The City's nose in preparation for Crota's return.
17. The Fallen, now disorganized after their "defeat" at Twilight Gap harass... everyone... from The City, to the Hive, to the Vex.
18. The Vex begin to awaken on Venus once again.
19. The Cabal take over Mars.
20. Our Ghost finds us and we start pushing back The Darkness.

Yeah, that doesn't do much to really help date anything, but as was said, lights and buildings won't keep working forever... But then maybe they didn't! Maybe The City instituted a system wide light bulb replacement program! I can see the Patrol Missions now:

"Guardian, this is soandso of New Monarchy, we need you to replace these ten light bulbs. See your Ghost for details." :)

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Thanks for putting a cogent timeline out there, I was too lazy to even try and put one together in my head.

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Thanks for putting a cogent timeline out there, I was too lazy to even try and put one together in my head.

Currently working on one of my own until Destinypedia gets up to speed. I'll post a link once it's got a comprehensive list of the most major events.

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"Guardian, this is soandso of New Monarchy, we need you to replace these ten light bulbs. See your Ghost for details." :)

"Darkness comes in many forms Guardian. We need your Light. Specifically your incandescent or florescent light."

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I remember pre-launch, some material was released stating Destiny was 700 years in the future. Given everything I've seen/read in the game, it appears this notion has been abandoned. Anyone know something I don't?

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I remember pre-launch, some material was released stating Destiny was 700 years in the future. Given everything I've seen/read in the game, it appears this notion has been abandoned. Anyone know something I don't?

Bungie has had a somewhat notorious history of inaccurate and contradictory dates leading back to the marathon days. Chalk it up to human error rather than a grand Shyamalan style twist.

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Dating in Destiny (Destiny)