You know, Hive and Vex have always been my two favorite races and I think I now know why. Hive embody the grotesque, bodily horror which makes the stomach churn. But vex are the intellectual, existential horror which fills ones mind with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. How truly terrifying. I adore it.
yeah, the Fallen and Cabal are scary because of their strength, but they were always redeemable. We can relate to them feeling snubbed by the Traveler, and we can relate to the Cabal being persecuted by the Hive. They're like the redeemable moderates of Destiny
And then there’s the Taken and the Scorn, who are just mindless ruthless entities who just follow whoever or whatever decides to take control. Like Oryx and Rhulk, when they were killed, their minions just went crazy and walked around mindlessly until someone took command.
i have no idea how the vex arent being seen in the story more as a big bad, in my opinion the vex have more power than the witness and could make a way more amazing story compared to the light and dark saga were currently going through with the witness.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx fallen and cabal are scary cause they're way more human then most would like to admit. Eliskni are humanity if the traveler left, cabal is us if we let our tribalism and war like tendencies be prominent
A theory: That Vex, running the simulations, was focused on running as many accurate sims as possible. The best of it's mind's ability. Keep the humans, human. So when or if the humans were released into Vex space, by other Vex or a Warmind, they could operate on the understanding of that sim. That the only thing that Vex did to play God was to give them the reason to go back into Vex space. It played the odds on them, and, in a way that allowed them to diverge in an expected and streamline manner. Reality was the Control Group. That Vex wanted honest humans, ones with knowledge of the Vex's potential abilities, and, those 227, humans to be willing to cross back into Vex controlled simulation. That was the experiment. To inject divergence and study the humans further into or onto Vex predictions. To any end deemed worth simulating. To seed them with the idea that they are tied to Vex consciousness, dead or worse without them. Possibly even to develop reflective data on the Vex themselves, to see what they don't have, or don't think. The Vex wanted a better perspective on human data.
Simulations might be a neat twist to tie into an activity. Like how racing games have "ghost cars" in time trial modes, maybe we could have an activity where we have to beat our "simulation" to prove we're the real copy and "succeed" at the activity
I'm thinking more along the lines of an interesting multiplayer activity, you play through the activity alone, but it matchmakes you with five other guardians, you each go through your PVE strike/activity alone, but for certain sections you have to go through a 'vex simulation' and enter the other guardians PVE activity, burst down an enemy or help out your ally, and get both of you back to the 'real' strike/activity zone. No one gets to know who's zone is real until the activity randomly decides which player's activity is reality, and the 'real' player goes in and brings their 'copies'/other players into the 'real' pve activity. couple this with another activity that loops time, and repeats the same strike/activity again and again getting more difficult each time as the activity similar to deep dives or the coil and you have two interesting vex themed activities that pull a little from the lore.
“For the mind of the vex… is that faith?” -Praydeth, during the exotic version of the taken war paradox mission for no time to explain. The Vex simulate a draw for paracasual power. To place our hearts in the hands of the enemy and ask, “change your ways.” Ulan Tan and the truest truth. That we will not win or lose, but have a draw.
That bulldozer ferrari analogy is really good, it very well demonstrates how near impossible a task it is, but given enough control over the circumstances, it is possible. like the few instances where the vex HAVE managed to simulate control over guardians, like saint 14 or the VoG fireteam, where the vex were given possibly hundreds of years in their turf.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I was in a taco bell drive thru with my GF behind a white sedan and maroon SUV. I looked out the window and looked back and the white car was gone and there was a perfect car sized space between me and the SUV. At first I thought I just imagined the white car, but then my GF says "Wasn't there a white car in front of us?" without me saying anything. I haven't been okay since lol
@@RuiNDieM1988 I was on a road trip with my gf a little after twilight, in the middle of nowhere in a place I didn't know well. GF's using her phone as a GPS for me while I drive and I make a wrong turn. Not a huge deal, there's a driveway I can turn around in. It's covered by trees so when I pull in it's pitch black, visibility is zero just a few feet in front of me. I thought about turning my headlights on, but I felt eyes on me from straight ahead. Quickly reversed out of the driveway and turned the correct direction. Immediately after that, the GPS stops being able to orient itself and it's just spinning around calling out directions. Quitting the app and reopening it does nothing to fix it. By the time we get out of that rural area and back on the freeway she had to completely power down her phone and turn it back on to get it to work. Maybe that sensation I was feeling that creeped me out and messed up the phone was something high voltage or magnetic on that property, I don't know, but it's one of my weirdest stories.
"What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
Modern theories by people far smarter than myself put the probability that we are currently living in a simulation at roughly 25%. The real world, not just Destiny 2. I'd believe it if at the end of Final Shape we realize the Vex have won this whole time and we've just been fighting our way through a simulation.
@caseyriggs6264 that would be a really interesting twist, actually. Not only would it mean that the Vex figured out paracausality, but if it was "our" victory, it would still technically prove the Traveler's philosophy correct. It's a strange sort of meta-win
@@MelancholicBodhisattva AFAIK, The Black Heart was not a simulation but a true Darkness object they were worshipping. The vex were trying to make a bridge by using the three minds representative of [Past/Present/Future], maybe when the Heart exploded on that brief moment the Vex had an "Eureka" moment and put a simulation veil on top of everything. And if not, there's also the second version of the theory that's a bit more recent "We never left the Infinite Forest". There we did actually see the Vex managed to suppress Saint's light, suppression is, inadvertently, a form of control.
The problem is that it's not like them simulating us just automatically sucks us into that simulation. There's a very real danger that their ability to accurately predict the future poses, strategically speaking, but that simulation itself is not an immediate danger to those of us outside of it. Sure it sucks a lot for the simulated versions of us that are basically spawned trapped, but we ourselves are not trapped. Unless, of course, it also *retroactively* simulates everyone's lives up until that point. In which case, the danger is very *very* real.
The idea is that there's enough info on everyone in said simulation that it can reproduce their pasts (and thus their memories of the pasts). Maybe it recalls memories as you do, for your synapses (memories) are simulated as well - in which case your past might as well be simulated too as they're causal events. It may not be able to harm the real you, but how do you know you're the real one? Let's say you, the one reading this, is a simulation. Are you seriously about to kill all the other yous on the off-chance assumption you're the real one, other than the original? That's genocide in an essence.
If I remember correctly, there was that one seasonal moment in Destiny 2 where a Vex simulation affected the real world, and the Vex removed the sun for a time (Season of the Splicer I think?). So if the Vex "simulations" can in fact affect and change the real world, that is quite a substantial and immediate danger to us "real" people.
@@constellarnova6782 I skipped that season, so I won't lie, forgot it happened despite it being such a big deal (if I remember, was one of it not the first time Vex actually were 'on' Earth). So yeah, at this point the Vex ARE affecting reality, which makes it even MORE terrifying...
If I'm being simulated, I'm not the one doing anything. Vex are just simulating me doing it. Either I'm real, and kill those simulations... Or I'm a simulation, and the Vex is going to force me to kill the simulations.
I feel like ever since Foresaken we've gotten further and further from our SciFi fantasy setting and ended up in a Fantasy scifi. Which the swapping of those adjectives is actually important to my point. Also how did you know I was watching those on a phone Byf? Very sus there Mr.Vex!
Here’s a 5th grade English class idea lol. The vex simulation started right after everyone’s lights went out in the Collapse. Mostly everyone died and those that are left are dealing with the vex the best they can. Our guardian is basically Neo from the Matrix unless you chose Exo for your starting class lol.
@@rushmeme1166 iirc, its got something to do with the fact that they are made using vex tech. something about vex fluid being needed to contain our true souls and selves and not just a mere digital copy of ourselves. there is... a lot of messed up crap clovis did in the name of imortality and creating his "perfect vision" of humanity. combined with the paracausal nature of a guardian it, more or less, essentially makes exos immune to the vex' schenanigans.
@@rushmeme1166 I figured if you wake up as an exo, you’d be automatically drawn to the vex since it’s made of the same tech. Then the hero’s journey to regain your humanity something, something, become legend and stuff lol.
As a philosophy student, gotta love Descartes' name and epistemological thought drop. The philosophical weight of their lore is also almost certainly why the Hive and Vex are my favorite enemy races.
I'll be honest, if I was in that situation, I'd be the nihilist of the group like, "Let's just go on with our lives, so what if we're a simulation, for all any of us know we've been simulations our whole existence, what difference does it make, and if it can hurt us so what, assuming there even is a real version of any of us, they won't suffer anything, our existence is irrelevant" For anyone thinking "You would be way more freaked if you were ACTUALLY in that situation" I disagree, I've been in a car accident where we were rolling to a bridge that was high enough to be certain death, I had a moment where time slowed and a fraction of a second lasted several minutes, in those minutes I accepted death, it was actually nice, fearing death is overrated, but clearly we didn't reach the bridge and actually survived without a scratch, I've been living with the acceptance of death for half my life by now and it was the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Huh, if you think about it, we as the players are the Vex, we attempt to simulate the guardians every time we load into an activity or patrol we try and do something slightly different from every time before. We are always in groups with different people resulting in different outcomes. But we can only ever simulate 1 guardians actions at a time
simulation theory is religion for secular tech geeks as far as I'm concerned, most people throughout history have been pretty comfortable with the idea of this reality being nested inside another one and presided over by an intelligence. hinduism outright teaches that our world is a dream the supreme god is having. not saying religion or simulation theory is right or wrong, just that it's not as new as pop sci would have you believe
This reminds me of the most interesting (and my most favorite) vanilla Destiny 2 adventure on Nessus. It focused on the vex and our ghost told us that the vex had told him (our ghost) to "come home". This has huge implications.
According to pre story rewrite BEFORE Destiny 1 released, the Traveler WAS a Vex, it seems bungie is rewriting the rewrite aka retconning, to course correct their story back to what it should've been
Really hope the simulated Ishtar researchers are part of Echoes. Their story is too good not to capitalize on. Yet…I would be concerned given Lightfall of how it could be handled.
I like to imagine that whenever a Vex Mind, no matter how big or small it is, that it could be simulating an individual that it doesn't yet know is a paracausal being like a Guardian. Then whenever it thinks it has it perfectly copied, it casts it's super or some other ability, the Vex Mind just spontaneously explodes. Then other Minds see that Mind and try to simulate what could've made that happen and then they also explode as well. So whenever you're fighting the Vex and you cast your super or any of your abilities, you're actually destroying a lot more vex than the ones you killed right in front of you.
I don't play Destiny. I don't really engage with its community. But I can appreciate the effort put into making these videos, filtering through all the lore tidbits, and going to the supreme effort of collaborating with others to create something beyond the original source material. Awesome as always.
I like to think that maybe after the Light and Dark saga, The Witness or someone else has set up some kind of dead man's switch to enable the Vex to simulate paracausality. It wouldn't be entirely out of left field, given the previous existence of the black heart and Asher's manual simulation of the Veil.
Haha, silly Byf. Of course the world is real. I'm watching this video on my phone with a charger. I even got my hand on Praedyth's shoulder. Wait... *NO-(Lost in time)*
I do wonder, with the 227 successfully rescued. Was that all of them? If the specimen was aware of it's capture, did it delete any and all of the simulations that didn't simulate the specimen being found? A defense mechanism of sorts so we would not see any advancement with their studies of us.
Same, we haven't gotten a vex season since, let's see wish, witch, deep, defiance, seraph, plunder, haunted, risen, lost, splicer? Have we seriously not had a vex-dedicated season since splicer?
I've always had this theory that if we have a computer that can perfectly stimulate reality, that same computer would need have enough power to simulate itself, simulating itself simulating a reality that would be simulating itself, simulating a reality, etc. Is it possible? Unsure. Maybe with each iteration the bubble that it can simulate shrinks, but then that's when you realize that its a simulation.
supposedly it would take more computing power than you could generate with all the matter and energy in the universe to accurately simulate the universe. entropy is a pain, lol. you could simulate things well enough to fool human perception by using tricks and shortcuts the way videogames do though
The moment when you realise that Bungie likes to make terrifying-on-a-cosmic-scale enemies for us to fight... (The Vex and the Flood that I'm aware of but idk if there's also some in marathon)
I feel like the Vex are too abstractly horrifying for most people to fully grasp what itd be like to deal with then. I've seen countless people try to compare the Vex to the Flood from Halo, but there's just no comparison between these things. Don't get me wrong, i think the Flood are terrifying and Im nostalgic as hell for Halo. But the Flood rely on organic nervous systems to infect, where as the Vex casually infect all forms of matter, living or otherwise. The Flood have the Logic Plague, but the Vex aren't sentient in the same way AI are, and their Pattern is simply more fundamental than anything that the Gravemind could come up with. Especially since there's no reason it couldn't be outright simulated by the Vex, or be converted in the time its trying to corrupt some Vex units. Even neural physics, in my mind at least, would be largely comparable to the texh the Vex have access to considering they can manipulate time, the gate systems, instant transimission, access to the greater vex network linked across time and space, etc.
actually if you take expanded Halo lore into account, the Gravemind basically infected reality itself through neural physics, and every time a new gravemind forms it can retrieve all its old memories even after being wiped out completely. in some ways the Vex would actually be jealous of a power like that, though their ability to infect anything and everything physically does come pretty close
And now an interesting consideration: Comments from a D2 vanilla strike by our Ghost, asking about OXA and MSund12. Did Maya Sundaresh fork-12 make it, somehow, through the Vex network and find the OXA, or a simulation of the OXA device?
I don't know about us, but the guardians _are_ simulated. The fourth wall is canon in Destiny, and certain figures like Savathun, the Ahamkara, and the IX can poke at it. I guess in a way, the Vex can't predict the guardians because they aren't run by the CPU; they're run by us. Ask any IT guy about P.I.C.K. errors. I find it interesting that one of the scientists kept saying he should have gone to Braytech instead. He'd still be studying Vex, just from the hardware/biogoo angle instead of their mind/software.
When asked the question of how do I know if I'm real, I like to refer to truth to power from your videos, that our reality is our reality and it's real to us and thats what matters because there isn't another reality we can realize.
The vex are weird bc they can time travel but they can’t but they can but they can’t but they can. The echo chamber did what it could with setting up the rules on how the vex CAN time travel and besides some great predictions like the endless night the super vex computer hasn’t really been a big threat.
When I was watching, I also thought that they could’ve possibly moved the specimen within range of the traveler, and because I can’t simulate the traveler it would just short circuit and shut down or something akin to that
This is why guardian fireteams always have multiple classes as part of the team. When the Warlock starts thinking too much, either the Hunter does something stupid or the Titan punches something.
Byf cutting to "but that's all from me for now!" after dropping a unique kind of existential horror ending with "we're all probably doomed no matter what at that point" gave me psychological whiplash and I will be billing Bungie for my therapy appointment.
According to bungies roadmap AFTER TFS, we're going back to the Vex, so just like how we got a little tour of Hive life, last season (season of the Witch), we'll learn what the Vex are and what their motives are
@@Bustuhh I’m especially excited for… what was it called? Echoes? Because it will be the first of those new long episodes with more rewards and story and such. So that will be fun. Hopefully episodes are actually a good system and not just long seasons with extra filler in the battle pass lol
Off topic but also on topic, with bungie recently having some layoff as of late it goes without say that there should've been new job openings... that being said.. bungie needs to hire this man so we can have our very own personal byf reading to us grimeore lore, journal entries etc IN GAME ! It would also help with the add multi task of listing to the lore of some exotic weapon or armor while I take on a horde of enemies 😉
No kidding some of the lore books could be R look at inquisition of the damned or when Dredgen yor going on his run of chaos, there's alot of stuff that teir but there's some comedic material
AM didn't rely on simulations but it did use hyperadvanced tech to completely control the lives of the people it tormented, causing them pain and keeping them alive, transforming their bodies, and medically resuscitating them when they died for more torture, the end result isn't much different
I forgot where it was mentioned but weren't the Vex or what they were before they became Vex the absolute apex predators of the universe before paracausal energy was introduced
Wait stop. At 20:17 the Moon is mentioned as having "new gravity." I always thought that all of the bodies in the game having the same gravity was just for gameplay reasons, but it's actually mentioned in the lore!? Honestly blows my mind, I need to do more reading.
The Guardians jumping off the tower or dancing ect reenacting jackass teir tomfoolery Vex: why? This doesn't compute or lead to anything beneficial why do they do these things
Wasn’t there lore somewhere that said all the Vex we’ve fought haven’t been like, actual combat frames? Or at least not frames that are specifically designed and use for warfare? Or has that been debunked?
nah they actually stuck with that and Beyond Light introduced the first true combat frames, which are the wyverns. If you go way back to the D1 vanilla grimoire entries, their "weapons" are repurposed builders' tools, like fancy welding equipment and such. the hobgoblin shield is just them using time manipulation to self-repair in fast-forward, stuff like that
The vex are decently the coolest race in my opinion. When you get to know the lore they all of a sudden shift from generic si-fi robot to much more lifelike. I would love a new season where we find some damaged vex and make a deal with it. That would just be so weird and so sick.
13:05 [indistinct percussive sound] ... it's a facepalm. Maya Sundaresh just facepalmed. One of the few lore moments that literally made me cackle out loud.
What would be truly terrifying though is if this entire story from D1 all the way through to Final Shape was just one gigantic Vex simulation, that something happens during or after Final Shape that served to pull away the current and have us realize we've been in a glass box this entire time under the Vex's control (though that might cheapen everything that has transpired as never having happened in "reality").
Yeah that would really piss people off. There's no better way to anger people than have a huge story development then show that it was all a dream (or something else along those lines).
I've got a (most probably) stupid question but it was bothering me since D1 vanilla: - we don't know the fates of these simulations. But we know that they have memory flaws. - we don't know "from what" our ghosts were created by the traveler. But we know that their number is limited and that they have the memory issue, too. - when we enter the ishtar collective facilities on venus in D1 campagne, out ghost's voice is recognized by the AI and he is welcomed as Dr. Shim. The ghost does wonder about the fact but casts it aside. - it's never brought up again. > Is our ghost somehow a Dr. Shim copy?
It'd be a cruel reality if we get past Darkness vs. Light and it was all one big simulation. Allowing paracausality where they want it. (The Traveller, The Witness, The Guardians and so on) Not allowing their own paracausality to prevent interference in the sim. All in preparation for a greater "war", a greater purpose, whatever.
The one line of “If you have a plan, then so does your sim, and the Vex knows about it” Almost makes the Vex omniscient if they have a good enough simulation
Huh, I just worked out something - these sims are probably how Ishtar worked out how to build their own Exo's that didn't need access to the alkahest to prevent billboarding.
Wish we'd get ti explore this more, but last we've had was the infinite forest(where it seems not just simulated vex can become aware). We kinda had some hints of it in neomuna with how the vex are active there, but not to this extent for a long while. Wish wed get more since vex can fight the hive on even footing(until they bring in Taken or paracausal shenanigans)
I am a zombie with infinite lives, and you want me to feel fear? You fundamentally misunderstand what we are. We are an unending army. Dying forever, and never at the same time.
It's unfortunate how it doesn't feel like the Vex don't get as much screen-time as the other species. Sure, Lightfall had a focus of sorts, but the last main conflict we had with with the Vex was during Season of the Splicer if I'm not mistaken... (Well, that's what I get for not playing through Season of the Wish yet; seems like the Sol Divisive are the fore-front of this season...)
Not really. This season is mostly vex enemies, and we head to the black garden, but it doesn't really focus on the vex. All the story is mostly in the ahamkara and awoken.
On the note of Rasputin coming back and being a threat to the Vex, Could Rasputin be revived by a ghost and become a guardian? I understand he had somewhat of an exo form and we have exo guardians but Rasputin wasn't a living thing so could he be revived as a guardian in the same way our guardian was? Love the video! :D
well we already have exo guardians, so it depends on what you mean by a living thing, and Rasputin's "son" Felwinter was a guardian, so I don't see why not
You know, Hive and Vex have always been my two favorite races and I think I now know why. Hive embody the grotesque, bodily horror which makes the stomach churn. But vex are the intellectual, existential horror which fills ones mind with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. How truly terrifying. I adore it.
yeah, the Fallen and Cabal are scary because of their strength, but they were always redeemable. We can relate to them feeling snubbed by the Traveler, and we can relate to the Cabal being persecuted by the Hive. They're like the redeemable moderates of Destiny
And then there’s the Taken and the Scorn, who are just mindless ruthless entities who just follow whoever or whatever decides to take control. Like Oryx and Rhulk, when they were killed, their minions just went crazy and walked around mindlessly until someone took command.
i have no idea how the vex arent being seen in the story more as a big bad, in my opinion the vex have more power than the witness and could make a way more amazing story compared to the light and dark saga were currently going through with the witness.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx fallen and cabal are scary cause they're way more human then most would like to admit. Eliskni are humanity if the traveler left, cabal is us if we let our tribalism and war like tendencies be prominent
16:41 "I wish I'd taken that job at Clovis"
Trust me pal, no you don't.
No kidding best thing to ever happen
Everyone wants to work there until they realize they're better off ANYWHERE else
SAME SHIT DIFFERENT DAY- All vex researchers across the system
It’s so cool that Byf unvaulted season of the undying for this video
A theory:
That Vex, running the simulations, was focused on running as many accurate sims as possible. The best of it's mind's ability. Keep the humans, human. So when or if the humans were released into Vex space, by other Vex or a Warmind, they could operate on the understanding of that sim. That the only thing that Vex did to play God was to give them the reason to go back into Vex space. It played the odds on them, and, in a way that allowed them to diverge in an expected and streamline manner.
Reality was the Control Group. That Vex wanted honest humans, ones with knowledge of the Vex's potential abilities, and, those 227, humans to be willing to cross back into Vex controlled simulation. That was the experiment. To inject divergence and study the humans further into or onto Vex predictions. To any end deemed worth simulating. To seed them with the idea that they are tied to Vex consciousness, dead or worse without them. Possibly even to develop reflective data on the Vex themselves, to see what they don't have, or don't think.
The Vex wanted a better perspective on human data.
Playing God by creating a God for them to fear
Simulations might be a neat twist to tie into an activity. Like how racing games have "ghost cars" in time trial modes, maybe we could have an activity where we have to beat our "simulation" to prove we're the real copy and "succeed" at the activity
Just like mirrors edge!! :o
I'm thinking more along the lines of an interesting multiplayer activity, you play through the activity alone, but it matchmakes you with five other guardians, you each go through your PVE strike/activity alone, but for certain sections you have to go through a 'vex simulation' and enter the other guardians PVE activity, burst down an enemy or help out your ally, and get both of you back to the 'real' strike/activity zone. No one gets to know who's zone is real until the activity randomly decides which player's activity is reality, and the 'real' player goes in and brings their 'copies'/other players into the 'real' pve activity. couple this with another activity that loops time, and repeats the same strike/activity again and again getting more difficult each time as the activity similar to deep dives or the coil and you have two interesting vex themed activities that pull a little from the lore.
@@darth_talon628vods4I mean for the maps in like.
Mercury for pvp it is a vex sim
@darth_talon628vods4 jesus christ this sounds like a headache...its perfect!
I’m glad I can still watch Byf inside this Vex Simulation.
Right there with you.
The vex understand byfs importance so they and him made a deal
@@johngancarcik5682 Deals are possible??
Sadly in this vex simulation I have a small pp
“For the mind of the vex… is that faith?” -Praydeth, during the exotic version of the taken war paradox mission for no time to explain. The Vex simulate a draw for paracasual power. To place our hearts in the hands of the enemy and ask, “change your ways.” Ulan Tan and the truest truth. That we will not win or lose, but have a draw.
That bulldozer ferrari analogy is really good, it very well demonstrates how near impossible a task it is, but given enough control over the circumstances, it is possible. like the few instances where the vex HAVE managed to simulate control over guardians, like saint 14 or the VoG fireteam, where the vex were given possibly hundreds of years in their turf.
Why says our guardians ever left the infinite forest for real?
Joke is on us. We're in a vex simulation about watching a video about a video game in which the vex simulated a group of scientists
being in a simulation would explain my life, some of it feels scripted
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I was in a taco bell drive thru with my GF behind a white sedan and maroon SUV. I looked out the window and looked back and the white car was gone and there was a perfect car sized space between me and the SUV. At first I thought I just imagined the white car, but then my GF says "Wasn't there a white car in front of us?" without me saying anything. I haven't been okay since lol
@@RuiNDieM1988 I was on a road trip with my gf a little after twilight, in the middle of nowhere in a place I didn't know well. GF's using her phone as a GPS for me while I drive and I make a wrong turn. Not a huge deal, there's a driveway I can turn around in. It's covered by trees so when I pull in it's pitch black, visibility is zero just a few feet in front of me. I thought about turning my headlights on, but I felt eyes on me from straight ahead. Quickly reversed out of the driveway and turned the correct direction. Immediately after that, the GPS stops being able to orient itself and it's just spinning around calling out directions. Quitting the app and reopening it does nothing to fix it. By the time we get out of that rural area and back on the freeway she had to completely power down her phone and turn it back on to get it to work. Maybe that sensation I was feeling that creeped me out and messed up the phone was something high voltage or magnetic on that property, I don't know, but it's one of my weirdest stories.
Destiny is actually real and the vex is simulating a reality where Destiny is just a video game
@@im_a_tortoise9299 and they’re still losing
WE ALL need a TSLAYP of Helldivers 2
You mean WE. Lol
👀
So correct
@@MynameisByf here's hoping you can log in, the servers are struggling a bit
It's been too long since a TSLAYP imo
Good: "I think therefore I am."
Better: "I can raise my middle finger at the Vex, therefore it doesn't matter if I'm in a simulation or not."
😂😂😂😂😂 you mad lad you
Praying all of Lightfall was a mere Vex Simulation.
Man I wish
Would make sense for all the plot holes in lightfall
can u imagine ☠️☠️
If nimbus was simply a vex trolling I could sleep at night again
Top tier comment
Another day another win for the Vex taking down the sweats the imposters among us
😭
Was this comment simulated ?
You forget Byf, Rasputin is now a robot dog! As such, he would obviously save people.....as he has become a very good boy.
I guess the Vex Simulation had a glitch when we had that wacky weekend of wepon forging madness
I'm sure they did that on purpose just to f with us and see what would happen
"What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
😎
".......You think that's *air* you're breathing right now?"
Modern theories by people far smarter than myself put the probability that we are currently living in a simulation at roughly 25%. The real world, not just Destiny 2. I'd believe it if at the end of Final Shape we realize the Vex have won this whole time and we've just been fighting our way through a simulation.
A.K.A. we never left the Black Garden
@caseyriggs6264 that would be a really interesting twist, actually. Not only would it mean that the Vex figured out paracausality, but if it was "our" victory, it would still technically prove the Traveler's philosophy correct. It's a strange sort of meta-win
@@MelancholicBodhisattva AFAIK, The Black Heart was not a simulation but a true Darkness object they were worshipping. The vex were trying to make a bridge by using the three minds representative of [Past/Present/Future], maybe when the Heart exploded on that brief moment the Vex had an "Eureka" moment and put a simulation veil on top of everything.
And if not, there's also the second version of the theory that's a bit more recent "We never left the Infinite Forest". There we did actually see the Vex managed to suppress Saint's light, suppression is, inadvertently, a form of control.
I don’t think I like to be somebody’s plaything.
@@deltagamer2024 imagine video game characters getting sentience randomly
"How do you know all of the things around you are real?"
Why do you bring me back to my time reading Phillip K. Dick?
Honestly never knew why Grimore cards lore was never put on the loading screens in D1 even randomly, reading wtf was going on was interesting.
I've never played The Sims, but some of those things you described... well, they bring back fond Rollercoaster Tycoon memories.
Having a Rollercoaster plow into a group of guests 😂😂😂😂😂
The problem is that it's not like them simulating us just automatically sucks us into that simulation. There's a very real danger that their ability to accurately predict the future poses, strategically speaking, but that simulation itself is not an immediate danger to those of us outside of it. Sure it sucks a lot for the simulated versions of us that are basically spawned trapped, but we ourselves are not trapped.
Unless, of course, it also *retroactively* simulates everyone's lives up until that point.
In which case, the danger is very *very* real.
The idea is that there's enough info on everyone in said simulation that it can reproduce their pasts (and thus their memories of the pasts).
Maybe it recalls memories as you do, for your synapses (memories) are simulated as well - in which case your past might as well be simulated too as they're causal events.
It may not be able to harm the real you, but how do you know you're the real one? Let's say you, the one reading this, is a simulation. Are you seriously about to kill all the other yous on the off-chance assumption you're the real one, other than the original? That's genocide in an essence.
If I remember correctly, there was that one seasonal moment in Destiny 2 where a Vex simulation affected the real world, and the Vex removed the sun for a time (Season of the Splicer I think?). So if the Vex "simulations" can in fact affect and change the real world, that is quite a substantial and immediate danger to us "real" people.
@@constellarnova6782 I skipped that season, so I won't lie, forgot it happened despite it being such a big deal (if I remember, was one of it not the first time Vex actually were 'on' Earth).
So yeah, at this point the Vex ARE affecting reality, which makes it even MORE terrifying...
If I'm being simulated, I'm not the one doing anything. Vex are just simulating me doing it.
Either I'm real, and kill those simulations... Or I'm a simulation, and the Vex is going to force me to kill the simulations.
I feel like ever since Foresaken we've gotten further and further from our SciFi fantasy setting and ended up in a Fantasy scifi. Which the swapping of those adjectives is actually important to my point.
Also how did you know I was watching those on a phone Byf? Very sus there Mr.Vex!
I really would love Vex Offensive to come back! I also love these deeper-lore ideas. Makes me appreciate the game even more.
I never got to play it I didn't have the season pass
Here’s a 5th grade English class idea lol. The vex simulation started right after everyone’s lights went out in the Collapse. Mostly everyone died and those that are left are dealing with the vex the best they can. Our guardian is basically Neo from the Matrix unless you chose Exo for your starting class lol.
I love that idea
Why is it different if you choose exo?
@@rushmeme1166 iirc, its got something to do with the fact that they are made using vex tech. something about vex fluid being needed to contain our true souls and selves and not just a mere digital copy of ourselves. there is... a lot of messed up crap clovis did in the name of imortality and creating his "perfect vision" of humanity. combined with the paracausal nature of a guardian it, more or less, essentially makes exos immune to the vex' schenanigans.
@@rushmeme1166 I figured if you wake up as an exo, you’d be automatically drawn to the vex since it’s made of the same tech. Then the hero’s journey to regain your humanity something, something, become legend and stuff lol.
Awesome video, topics like this show the hidden gems of the Destiny lore that isn’t fully covered in seasonal story.
The editing for these
Grimoire cards is spectacular. Talking over each other, the sounds, the "profane" edit. Absolutely immersive
Been using this lore book for one of my Vex players in a Destiny 5e campaign. Awesome to see you cover it!
As a philosophy student, gotta love Descartes' name and epistemological thought drop. The philosophical weight of their lore is also almost certainly why the Hive and Vex are my favorite enemy races.
I'll be honest, if I was in that situation, I'd be the nihilist of the group like,
"Let's just go on with our lives, so what if we're a simulation, for all any of us know we've been simulations our whole existence, what difference does it make, and if it can hurt us so what, assuming there even is a real version of any of us, they won't suffer anything, our existence is irrelevant"
For anyone thinking "You would be way more freaked if you were ACTUALLY in that situation" I disagree,
I've been in a car accident where we were rolling to a bridge that was high enough to be certain death, I had a moment where time slowed and a fraction of a second lasted several minutes, in those minutes I accepted death, it was actually nice, fearing death is overrated, but clearly we didn't reach the bridge and actually survived without a scratch, I've been living with the acceptance of death for half my life by now and it was the best thing that's ever happened to me.
This is just how I live my life now.
Huh, if you think about it, we as the players are the Vex, we attempt to simulate the guardians every time we load into an activity or patrol we try and do something slightly different from every time before. We are always in groups with different people resulting in different outcomes. But we can only ever simulate 1 guardians actions at a time
I'm a bit surprised that Byf did not bring up Roko's Basilisk.
It silly thought experiment (basically rapture for tech geeks) but it's suitable here.
simulation theory is religion for secular tech geeks as far as I'm concerned, most people throughout history have been pretty comfortable with the idea of this reality being nested inside another one and presided over by an intelligence. hinduism outright teaches that our world is a dream the supreme god is having.
not saying religion or simulation theory is right or wrong, just that it's not as new as pop sci would have you believe
Oh God if the vex discover that o.o can you imagine
So worst case scenario the vex simulate a “I have no mouth and I must scream” type thing
This reminds me of the most interesting (and my most favorite) vanilla Destiny 2 adventure on Nessus. It focused on the vex and our ghost told us that the vex had told him (our ghost) to "come home". This has huge implications.
According to pre story rewrite BEFORE Destiny 1 released, the Traveler WAS a Vex, it seems bungie is rewriting the rewrite aka retconning, to course correct their story back to what it should've been
I truly hope that the next saga after light and darkness would have us dealing with the Vex and their timeline warping shenanigans
Really hope the simulated Ishtar researchers are part of Echoes. Their story is too good not to capitalize on. Yet…I would be concerned given Lightfall of how it could be handled.
That would be cool
You are kind of right, just two of them though
@@earljohnsalvador7458 Not entirely. Some of the simulations had team members together in the groups with Chioma and Maya.
I like to imagine that whenever a Vex Mind, no matter how big or small it is, that it could be simulating an individual that it doesn't yet know is a paracausal being like a Guardian. Then whenever it thinks it has it perfectly copied, it casts it's super or some other ability, the Vex Mind just spontaneously explodes. Then other Minds see that Mind and try to simulate what could've made that happen and then they also explode as well.
So whenever you're fighting the Vex and you cast your super or any of your abilities, you're actually destroying a lot more vex than the ones you killed right in front of you.
I don't play Destiny. I don't really engage with its community. But I can appreciate the effort put into making these videos, filtering through all the lore tidbits, and going to the supreme effort of collaborating with others to create something beyond the original source material. Awesome as always.
I like to think that maybe after the Light and Dark saga, The Witness or someone else has set up some kind of dead man's switch to enable the Vex to simulate paracausality. It wouldn't be entirely out of left field, given the previous existence of the black heart and Asher's manual simulation of the Veil.
Haha, silly Byf. Of course the world is real. I'm watching this video on my phone with a charger. I even got my hand on Praedyth's shoulder.
Wait...
*NO-(Lost in time)*
Thanks!
I do wonder, with the 227 successfully rescued. Was that all of them? If the specimen was aware of it's capture, did it delete any and all of the simulations that didn't simulate the specimen being found? A defense mechanism of sorts so we would not see any advancement with their studies of us.
I would love another vex season
Same, we haven't gotten a vex season since, let's see wish, witch, deep, defiance, seraph, plunder, haunted, risen, lost, splicer? Have we seriously not had a vex-dedicated season since splicer?
@@thesonicfanboisplicer was more eliksni than vex
@@thesonicfanboiI think the first episode in the final shape is vex focused
The vex just gaslight people into going insane tbh and I love it
4:17
Bruh I'm watching this on my PC because my phone needed to charge.
I've always had this theory that if we have a computer that can perfectly stimulate reality, that same computer would need have enough power to simulate itself, simulating itself simulating a reality that would be simulating itself, simulating a reality, etc.
Is it possible? Unsure. Maybe with each iteration the bubble that it can simulate shrinks, but then that's when you realize that its a simulation.
supposedly it would take more computing power than you could generate with all the matter and energy in the universe to accurately simulate the universe. entropy is a pain, lol. you could simulate things well enough to fool human perception by using tricks and shortcuts the way videogames do though
Yk bif, I have a long running theory that bungies blunders are just a big vex sim.
The moment when you realise that Bungie likes to make terrifying-on-a-cosmic-scale enemies for us to fight... (The Vex and the Flood that I'm aware of but idk if there's also some in marathon)
If the Vex ever figure out how to simulate us, we will have quite the fight on our hands
Ahamkara are real therefore the reality I reside in is real. Vex can't simulate paracausal or ontological effects, which Ahamkara create.
Imagine if they actually did.
Supposing that the Vex do editing of the simulation to mimic the effects of paracausality, though? Like an overseer using admin mode to play god?
if you're inside a reality they control, they could show you anything, there are no tells because they can edit your perception
Ive been in love with everything vex since 2014. They are so damn cool, and my favorite enimies in the game.
?
Same my theme for my human characters is vex theme weapons and armor :)
The vex, to me, are the scariest of all the enemies of destiny. If you think hard about what they can do it’s scary
I feel like the Vex are too abstractly horrifying for most people to fully grasp what itd be like to deal with then. I've seen countless people try to compare the Vex to the Flood from Halo, but there's just no comparison between these things.
Don't get me wrong, i think the Flood are terrifying and Im nostalgic as hell for Halo. But the Flood rely on organic nervous systems to infect, where as the Vex casually infect all forms of matter, living or otherwise. The Flood have the Logic Plague, but the Vex aren't sentient in the same way AI are, and their Pattern is simply more fundamental than anything that the Gravemind could come up with. Especially since there's no reason it couldn't be outright simulated by the Vex, or be converted in the time its trying to corrupt some Vex units. Even neural physics, in my mind at least, would be largely comparable to the texh the Vex have access to considering they can manipulate time, the gate systems, instant transimission, access to the greater vex network linked across time and space, etc.
actually if you take expanded Halo lore into account, the Gravemind basically infected reality itself through neural physics, and every time a new gravemind forms it can retrieve all its old memories even after being wiped out completely. in some ways the Vex would actually be jealous of a power like that, though their ability to infect anything and everything physically does come pretty close
I kinda wanna see the vex be able to break the 4th wall and honestly bungie going full matrix with vex simulations that could be so interesting
It could be how the vex learn to simulate the light. The devs literally wrote the code
0:32 hey that’s me
And now an interesting consideration: Comments from a D2 vanilla strike by our Ghost, asking about OXA and MSund12. Did Maya Sundaresh fork-12 make it, somehow, through the Vex network and find the OXA, or a simulation of the OXA device?
That thought also dawned on me even during veil containment hearing the logs
Great i needed an existential crisis before going to bed thanks Byf
What better time to have one
@@johngancarcik5682 true
I don't know about us, but the guardians _are_ simulated. The fourth wall is canon in Destiny, and certain figures like Savathun, the Ahamkara, and the IX can poke at it. I guess in a way, the Vex can't predict the guardians because they aren't run by the CPU; they're run by us. Ask any IT guy about P.I.C.K. errors.
I find it interesting that one of the scientists kept saying he should have gone to Braytech instead. He'd still be studying Vex, just from the hardware/biogoo angle instead of their mind/software.
When asked the question of how do I know if I'm real, I like to refer to truth to power from your videos, that our reality is our reality and it's real to us and thats what matters because there isn't another reality we can realize.
The vex are weird bc they can time travel but they can’t but they can but they can’t but they can. The echo chamber did what it could with setting up the rules on how the vex CAN time travel and besides some great predictions like the endless night the super vex computer hasn’t really been a big threat.
When I was watching, I also thought that they could’ve possibly moved the specimen within range of the traveler, and because I can’t simulate the traveler it would just short circuit and shut down or something akin to that
existential horror my beloved
This is why guardian fireteams always have multiple classes as part of the team. When the Warlock starts thinking too much, either the Hunter does something stupid or the Titan punches something.
Byf cutting to "but that's all from me for now!" after dropping a unique kind of existential horror ending with "we're all probably doomed no matter what at that point" gave me psychological whiplash and I will be billing Bungie for my therapy appointment.
The Vex are so underutilized 😭
According to bungies roadmap AFTER TFS, we're going back to the Vex, so just like how we got a little tour of Hive life, last season (season of the Witch), we'll learn what the Vex are and what their motives are
@@Bustuhh I’m especially excited for… what was it called? Echoes? Because it will be the first of those new long episodes with more rewards and story and such. So that will be fun. Hopefully episodes are actually a good system and not just long seasons with extra filler in the battle pass lol
Maybe Osiris is already dead and is a simulation so well done because the copies in the vex networks
Off topic but also on topic, with bungie recently having some layoff as of late it goes without say that there should've been new job openings... that being said.. bungie needs to hire this man so we can have our very own personal byf reading to us grimeore lore, journal entries etc IN GAME ! It would also help with the add multi task of listing to the lore of some exotic weapon or armor while I take on a horde of enemies 😉
idk, Myelin worked as a contractor for Bungie to put together a grimoire anthology and it wasn't without problems
Destiny: The video game - T for Teen
Destiny Lore - M for Mature
No kidding some of the lore books could be R look at inquisition of the damned or when Dredgen yor going on his run of chaos, there's alot of stuff that teir but there's some comedic material
hi byf you should make a podcast about the lore and ill listen to it u can start from the beginning till now
I know im not a simulation cause who TF would wanna simulate me.
Mood
I would honestly listen to a audio book on destiny lore from byf
04:31 Byf becomes Morpheus 😂
I didn’t do my homework cause Byf convinced me I’m in a simulation.
One of the simulations can do the homework
This reminds me of the story of I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, especially when the narrator meets AM, idk why though.
AM didn't rely on simulations but it did use hyperadvanced tech to completely control the lives of the people it tormented, causing them pain and keeping them alive, transforming their bodies, and medically resuscitating them when they died for more torture, the end result isn't much different
@xXx_Regulus_xXx I know but it just the situation specifically involving the Ishtar Collective reminded me of that.
@@sp0tl1gtf0rjusticesorry for the ambiguous wording on my part, I was agreeing
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx It's fine, and cool
I forgot where it was mentioned but weren't the Vex or what they were before they became Vex the absolute apex predators of the universe before paracausal energy was introduced
I think that's from Unveiling
Wait stop. At 20:17 the Moon is mentioned as having "new gravity." I always thought that all of the bodies in the game having the same gravity was just for gameplay reasons, but it's actually mentioned in the lore!? Honestly blows my mind, I need to do more reading.
Still wish we get a master vex that acts as a mastermind for the vex. Something older than Quria
Yeah, they aren’t alien robots made of brass. They’re alien mech suits made of brass piloted by sentient saline
If the vex figure out the guardians themselves are proxy bodies for simulatable humans it's over 😂
The Guardians jumping off the tower or dancing ect reenacting jackass teir tomfoolery
Vex: why? This doesn't compute or lead to anything beneficial why do they do these things
Wasn’t there lore somewhere that said all the Vex we’ve fought haven’t been like, actual combat frames? Or at least not frames that are specifically designed and use for warfare? Or has that been debunked?
nah they actually stuck with that and Beyond Light introduced the first true combat frames, which are the wyverns.
If you go way back to the D1 vanilla grimoire entries, their "weapons" are repurposed builders' tools, like fancy welding equipment and such. the hobgoblin shield is just them using time manipulation to self-repair in fast-forward, stuff like that
Vex simulated guardians in future expansion?!?!?!
Maybe in the first episode it might be possible
Maybe even past guardians
The vex are decently the coolest race in my opinion. When you get to know the lore they all of a sudden shift from generic si-fi robot to much more lifelike. I would love a new season where we find some damaged vex and make a deal with it. That would just be so weird and so sick.
13:05 [indistinct percussive sound] ... it's a facepalm. Maya Sundaresh just facepalmed. One of the few lore moments that literally made me cackle out loud.
What would be truly terrifying though is if this entire story from D1 all the way through to Final Shape was just one gigantic Vex simulation, that something happens during or after Final Shape that served to pull away the current and have us realize we've been in a glass box this entire time under the Vex's control (though that might cheapen everything that has transpired as never having happened in "reality").
Yeah that would really piss people off. There's no better way to anger people than have a huge story development then show that it was all a dream (or something else along those lines).
God i wanna have an uncensored version of this lore read
I've got a (most probably) stupid question but it was bothering me since D1 vanilla:
- we don't know the fates of these simulations. But we know that they have memory flaws.
- we don't know "from what" our ghosts were created by the traveler. But we know that their number is limited and that they have the memory issue, too.
- when we enter the ishtar collective facilities on venus in D1 campagne, out ghost's voice is recognized by the AI and he is welcomed as Dr. Shim. The ghost does wonder about the fact but casts it aside.
- it's never brought up again.
> Is our ghost somehow a Dr. Shim copy?
It'd be a cruel reality if we get past Darkness vs. Light and it was all one big simulation. Allowing paracausality where they want it. (The Traveller, The Witness, The Guardians and so on)
Not allowing their own paracausality to prevent interference in the sim. All in preparation for a greater "war", a greater purpose, whatever.
The one line of
“If you have a plan, then so does your sim, and the Vex knows about it”
Almost makes the Vex omniscient if they have a good enough simulation
I have always felt that the Vex and the Borg have so much in common.
The vex actually do alter guardians behavior in this era since this is not the first cycle of observation.
Huh, I just worked out something - these sims are probably how Ishtar worked out how to build their own Exo's that didn't need access to the alkahest to prevent billboarding.
Wish we'd get ti explore this more, but last we've had was the infinite forest(where it seems not just simulated vex can become aware). We kinda had some hints of it in neomuna with how the vex are active there, but not to this extent for a long while. Wish wed get more since vex can fight the hive on even footing(until they bring in Taken or paracausal shenanigans)
I am a zombie with infinite lives, and you want me to feel fear? You fundamentally misunderstand what we are. We are an unending army. Dying forever, and never at the same time.
The thing that always questions me about the vex how did they stay in the prison of elder’s without teleporting to escape? While in their cells
bungo still haven't explained that one to us, but if I had to guess I imagine awoken magic is involved
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx maybe there was something that disabled there ability to teleport out idk
Shouldn't a sufficiently skilled (or overwhelmingly powerful) Splicer be capable of a similar rescue mission?
It's unfortunate how it doesn't feel like the Vex don't get as much screen-time as the other species. Sure, Lightfall had a focus of sorts, but the last main conflict we had with with the Vex was during Season of the Splicer if I'm not mistaken...
(Well, that's what I get for not playing through Season of the Wish yet; seems like the Sol Divisive are the fore-front of this season...)
Not really. This season is mostly vex enemies, and we head to the black garden, but it doesn't really focus on the vex. All the story is mostly in the ahamkara and awoken.
All these simulation fears are ruled out by the fact that the Vex don’t know said persons most intimate thoughts and memories.
On the note of Rasputin coming back and being a threat to the Vex,
Could Rasputin be revived by a ghost and become a guardian? I understand he had somewhat of an exo form and we have exo guardians but Rasputin wasn't a living thing so could he be revived as a guardian in the same way our guardian was?
Love the video! :D
well we already have exo guardians, so it depends on what you mean by a living thing, and Rasputin's "son" Felwinter was a guardian, so I don't see why not
I wonder if the Ishtar simulations ran into Asher Mir at any point? Or will.
Byf casually causing his subscribers to question existence and everything we've known
Imagine the Cayde that we will meet inside the Traveler is also a Vex simulation