Video game series by Bungie
Destiny is an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game series developed by Bungie and previously published by Activision. The series is now self-published by Bungie after the conclusion of their partnership with Activision in 2019. "Destiny" marked Bungie's first new console franchise since the "Halo" series. Set in a "mythic science fiction" world, the series features a multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games. Activities are divided among player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game types. In addition to normal story missions, PvE features three-player "strikes" and dungeons and six-player raids. A free roam patrol mode is also available for each destination which feature public events. PvP features objective-based modes, as well as traditional deathmatch game modes.
Players take on the role of a Guardian, protectors of Earth's last safe city as they wield a power called Light, granted by a celestial being called the Traveler, to protect the City from different alien races. Guardians journey to different planets to investigate and destroy the alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out, while also engaging in an intergalactic war against the Traveler's ancient enemy, the Darkness—Guardians also later learn to control and use its power. 
The first game in the series was "Destiny", which released on September 9, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. This started the decade long contract of the franchise which expired on September 9, 2024. Over the course of its three-year lifecycle, four expansion packs were released. A sequel, "Destiny 2", released in September 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, followed by a Microsoft Windows version the following month. It has since been released on Google Stadia, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series X/S platforms. Thus far, "Destiny 2" has had eight expansion packs; the eighth, "", concluded the first saga of the franchise called the Light and Darkness saga. Additionally, the second year of the game's lifecycle introduced seasonal content—extra downloadable content released periodically throughout the year between each major expansion—Year 7 of the game replaced the seasons with three larger episodes. Also, in October 2019, the base game of "Destiny 2" was re-released as a free-to-play title called "Destiny 2: New Light", adopting the games as a service model, with only the expansions and seasonal passes requiring purchasing.
 was released on June 4, 2024, as the finale to Destiny's first saga of content. It featured the return of Nathan Fillion as Cayde-6's voice actor after the character's death during the (where he was temporarily voiced by Nolan North as Fillion could not voice the character due to scheduling conflicts), released in September 2018.
Setting.
Bungie described the setting of "Destiny" as a "mythic science-fiction" world. The setting, about 700 years in the future from present day, follows a prosperous period of exploration, peace, and technological advancement known as the Golden Age. In a universe where humans have spread out and colonized planets in the Solar System, an event known as "the Collapse" saw the mysterious dissolution of these colonies, the end of the Golden Age, and mankind teetering on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the Collapse are those living on Earth, who were saved by "the Traveler", a white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled humans to reach the stars. The Collapse was caused by a mysterious force called the Darkness, wielded by a malevolent being called the Witness, an ancient enemy of the Traveler that plagues the galaxy. The Traveler now hovers above the last safe city on Earth, simply called The Last City, which is surrounded by a massive Wall, and its presence allows the Guardians — the defenders of the City — the ability to wield an unknown power, only referred to as "Light". The player takes on the role of a Guardian, and is tasked with reviving the Traveler while investigating and destroying alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out.
Upon mankind's first attempt to repopulate and reconstruct after the Collapse, it is discovered that hostile alien races have occupied mankind's former colonies and civilizations, and are now encroaching upon the City. Throughout the series, players have to combat aggressive aliens who have occupied the Solar System. Just like the Light for the Guardians, the Darkness lends powers to these alien threats, though Guardians have soon begun to wield the powers of Darkness themselves along with the Light. The powers of Light and Darkness are discovered to be forms of paracausal energy that gives their wielders the ability to bend the laws of reality to their own will, with the Light being tied to the physical world, and the Darkness being tied to thought and consciousness.
Both games use settings on various planets, moons, and other features within the Solar System as the Guardians fight to defend the remnants of the Golden Age. "Destiny" featured maps across Earth's Russian Cosmodrome (and an area outside it called the Plaguelands), its Moon, Venus, and Mars, and also included player-versus-player maps set on Mars' moon Phobos and the planet Mercury. "Destiny 2", prior to the "Beyond Light" expansion, included Earth's European Dead Zone (EDZ), its Moon, Mercury, Mars, the centaur Nessus, Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Titan, as well as the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City, areas situated along the Reef, located in the System's asteroid belt. There was also a social space in the EDZ called The Farm. With "Beyond Light", Bungie opted to create a Destiny Content Vault, placing Mercury, Mars, Io, Titan, and The Farm content within it to start, as a means to better manage the game's future expansions. Bungie does plan to revise vaulted content as the series progresses to re-introduce these into the game. "Beyond Light" also reintroduced Earth's Cosmodrome from "Destiny" as well as a new location, Jupiter's moon Europa, and a new social space called the H.E.L.M. (Hub for Emergency Maneuvers and Logistics). Another social space, Xûr's Treasure Hoard, which is located in an unknown realm of the Nine called Eternity, was added in Season 15 as part of the "Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack". "The Witch Queen" added a fourth social space, the Enclave on Mars, as well as a new location, Savathûn's Throne World, within the Ascendant Realm above Mars. Upon release of "The Witch Queen", the Tangled Shore was removed and placed in the content vault, but Bungie stated that following this, expansion content would no longer be vaulted, but seasonal content would still be removed upon release of each major expansion with some exceptions. "Lightfall" added the secret technologically advanced city called Neomuna on Neptune. Simultaneously, The Farm social space returned in Season 20, "Season of Defiance". A fifth social space, the Hall of Champions, was added in Season 23 as part of "Into the Light", but was removed upon the release of "The Final Shape". "The Final Shape" add a new location, the Pale Heart, located within the Traveler, with areas influenced by previous destinations explored throughout the history of the franchise—the is the first patrol destination that can be explored solo unless the player has a pre-made fireteam.
Other destinations that have been featured in the games include the "Dreadnaught", the massive flagship of Oryx, The Taken King, situated in the rings of Saturn in the original "Destiny", and the "Leviathan", the flagship of the exiled Cabal Emperor, Calus, in "Destiny 2". The "Leviathan" was originally only the location of "Destiny 2"'s original three raids and located in Nessus' orbit, but was removed upon "Beyond Light"'s release; however, a derelict version in the Moon's orbit became a patrol destination in Season 17, "Season of the Haunted", although it was removed upon the release of "Lightfall".
Characters.
The expansive universe of "Destiny" features numerous recurring non-player characters (NPCs) to assist the player. Several provide the player with quests while others are vendors to buy new gear using the in-game currency of glimmer and/or other resources. Most of these characters are human or of two subspecies: the Awoken, descendants of a human colony ship that had encountered a phenomenon in deep space that caused them to become more enlightened to paracausal forces while giving them blue-gray skin and other elf-like features, and Exo, robotic shells housing human consciousness developed by the Clovis Bray Corporation as to try to give humans immortality but require their memories to be occasionally wiped to prevent them from going insane.
While all Lightbearers of the Vanguard are recognized as Guardians, the player's character is unnamed and is simply referred to as "Guardian" or "the Guardian" by the NPCs. In the original "Destiny", the character was voiced by one of six people, depending on which species and gender the player selected when creating their character: Matthew Mercer and Susan Eisenberg voiced the male and female Human guardians, Crispin Freeman and Grey Griffin voiced the male and female Awoken Guardians, while Peter Jessop and Cree Summer voiced the male and female Exo Guardians. In "Destiny 2" beginning with "Beyond Light", Peter Jessop now voices all male player Guardians while Susan Eisenberg voices all female ones. Guardians are accompanied by a Ghost, a robot artificial intelligence. Just like how the player's character is simply referred to as the Guardian, the player's Ghost is simply referred to as Ghost without its own unique name, whereas other characters in the game have names for their respective Ghosts, which also have their own unique voices. The player's Ghost was originally voiced by Peter Dinklage in the original "Destiny", but due to his availability, veteran voice actor Nolan North replaced Dinklage with the release of "The Taken King" expansion, and re-recorded all of Dinklage's lines from the base game.
The Guardians are led by the Vanguard that oversees their activities. Among their leaders include the Speaker (voiced by Bill Nighy) who was the head of the Vanguard and who speaks for the Traveler but was killed during the Red War in "Destiny 2"; Titan Vanguard Commander Zavala (initially voiced by Lance Reddick, now by Keith David), an Awoken who oversees most of the Vanguard's military operations; the Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey (initially voiced by Gina Torres, now by Mara Junot), a human who instructs the Hidden, the Vanguard's network of scouts and spies to track enemy movements; and the late Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 (voiced by Nathan Fillion), who was a happy-go-lucky Exo and sharpshooter that assisted across various Vanguard functions; Cayde-6 was killed during the "Destiny 2: Forsaken" story content, his death having a lingering effect on the other characters, but returned in spirit form in "Destiny 2: The Final Shape". Other key members of the Vanguard include Lord Shaxx (voiced by Lennie James), who oversees the Crucible activities, Saint-14 (voiced by Brian T. Delaney), who is a fabled Titan of the past and rescued from death through time travel that manages the Trials of Osiris matches, and Iron Lord Saladin Forge (voiced by Keith Ferguson), who had helped to end the conflict necessary to make the Last City a possibility and oversees the Iron Banner Crucible event. The Vanguard had also governed the Last City in the Consensus alongside three factions of citizens: the Future War Cult led by Lakshmi-2 (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo), which had used Vex technology to see constant conflict in the Last City's future and thus maintained preparedness for this, Dead Orbit led by Arach Jalaal (voiced by Peter Stormare), which believed that humanity must abandon the System and colonize planets outside it, and New Monarchy led by Executor Hideo (voiced by James Remar), which sought to replace the current democratic leadership of the Vanguard with a single powerful ruler—all of these factions were disbanded following the death of Lakshmi-2 at the end of Season 14, "Season of the Splicer".
Among other major recurring allied characters include former Warlock Vanguard Osiris (voiced by Oded Fehr), who had been exiled after he became obsessed in studying the Vex but has since returned although he lost his power of Light after his Ghost, Sagira (voiced by Morena Baccarin), was destroyed and has since learned the Darkness power of Strand; Eris Morn (voiced by Morla Gorrondona), a former Hunter that has studied the Hive and the threat of Darkness; Ana Bray (initially voiced by Jamie Chung, now by Erika Ishii), the granddaughter of Braytech's founder Clovis