Fanfic / TITANOMACH

Cover art for TITANOMACH I: Triumvirate

TITANOMACH is a Destiny fanfiction series, written by Xabiar. An extensive Alternate Universe retelling of the games' story, it covers humanity's history in the war between Light and Darkness, starting with the Traveler's arrival over Mars.

The TITANOMACH series comprises the following stories:

• TITANOMACH I: Triumvirate (in-progress): The story of how the balance of power on Earth shifts when the Traveler appears over Mars, and the dawn of humanity's Golden Age, as told by the Speaker to a newly-Risen Exo. (FF.net, AO3)
• TITANOMACH II: Set to cover the First War of the Darkness.
• TITANOMACH III: Planned to cover the events of the Collapse.
• Future stories covering the events of the games, as well as the wider war of Light and Dark.

---

This fanfiction has examples of the following:

• Adaptational Backstory Change: In canon, Amanda Holliday was born after the Collapse. In this story, she is an Admiral of the United States Space Force by the time Triumvirate starts.
• Adaptational Badass: Everyone, according to Xabiar. If you can name a given faction, they're getting a massive buff.
  • The Traveler, in canon, dedicated itself solely to uplifting species across the cosmos, fleeing when the Darkness comes knocking, until the Collapse. In this story, where there is an ongoing war between Light and Dark across the universe, she is far more proactive, acting through her Ghosts and openly communicating with Valentin (the Speaker) and Osiris when needed, and also shows elements of Guile Hero in her dealings with the Triumvirate and the Resistance.
  • What little has been seen of the Guardians so far applies here as well; they demonstrate a greater variety of capabilities compared to what has been shown in canon, such as altering existing matter and life, and creating weapons from nothing (actual, non-Light weapons, as opposed to elemental apparitions like the Golden Gun).
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The Ghosts show up immediately after the Traveler's arrival; instead of being created at the end of the Collapse, they were active before the Hive rose to prominence.
  • Amanda Holliday shows up in the first act of Triumvirate, centuries before she was born in the canon games.
  • Mithrax shows up in Triumvirate's second interlude, already a Kell of Light... and a Guardian in his own right.
  • The ending of Chapter XXII sees the debut of none other than the Witness, as The Dragon to the Ascendant One.
• Adaptation Expansion: The events of the Golden Age (or, at least, its beginning) and the Collapse are explored here in detail. Even if they're vastly different from canon.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Triumvirate's first interlude reveals that the Sword Logic is capable of being harnessed by the Light as well; the Vanguard has opened a new Guardian branch (the Forsaken) dedicated to experimenting with it.
  • While the Light has been portrayed as good for the longest time in canon, it was ultimately revealed to be a neutral force with a focus on material manipulation. This story sees the Light take on a more unambiguously "good" role, to contrast the Darkness's renewed villainy.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Similar to the Light, the Darkness was recently revealed to be simply a neutral power, though one that has been tainted by the Witness, that being the cause of its initial portrayal as "evil". TITANOMACH takes the original portrayal and takes it to its logical conclusion.
  • Micah, who would become an Exo Guardian in canon, falls under the influence of the Darkness instead, and as of Chapter XXII, she fully embraces her powers, becoming humanity's Ambassador to the Ascendant One.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The Last City is now known as Sanctuary. Justified; according to Little Psycho, humanity has managed to reclaim more territory on Earth and even beyond it; the second Interlude outright reveals the existence of several other independent Vanguards, as well as separate empires ruled by the British, the Germans, and Felwinter.
  • A downplayed example; the use of "Fallen" to refer to the Eliksni is implied to be less popular than in canon, as a Titan notes that it excessively simplifies their present situation.
  • Another downplayed example with the Traveler: while that is her more prominent title, she's given a proper name of her own: Almaral.
  • The Void as we know it from canon does not go by any name, due to the Light no longer being divided into separate manifestations. Instead, that name goes to the power commanded by the Nine and their subordinates.
  • The Witness is subject to this as well, being instead referred to as the Savior.
• Alien Geometries: The "interior" of the Traveler in Chapter V is presented as an endless expanse of a city in eternal alteration and expansion, with streets multiplying in every direction possible and impossible, and buildings shifting and strecthing into different forms. The sight of it very nearly overwhelms Valentin and the rest of the Traveler's Chosen, before they inevitably adapt to it.
• All-Loving Hero: Valentin settles into this as the Speaker, as he strives to have every confrontation he involves himself in be resolved as peacefully as possible in order to avoid bloodshed. This extends to the Triumvirate's forces as well; to him, all are equally Human, and all are equally deserving of life. It helps that his connection to the Traveler allows him to see into the souls of the people he interacts with, and all the possibilities open to them.
  • That being said, if you are the kind of person in which he cannot see any possible hope of redemption, do not expect mercy from him. General Zverev found that out the hard way.
• Alternate History: After the Second World War, the Americans, the Soviets and the Chinese form the Triumvirate instead of engaging in a Cold War. This is the main divergence point between TITANOMACH and real life, in terms of human history.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Besides the post-WWII divergence in human history, the rest of the entire setting is radically different from canon; the conflict between Light and Darkness is significantly expanded in scope, with the Traveler being only one of several similar entities (collectively known as Celestials), and Guardians of thousands of species fighting the Darkness' armies throughout the universe.
  • This also means the Eliksni have Guardians of their own before the Whirlwind, among other things.
• An Ice Person: Queen Alexandra II of the United Kingdom takes an affinity to ice as a Guardian, first creating an ice dagger while speaking with Valentin and later freezing all Soviet soldiers attacking her nation.
• Ascended Extra: In canon, Mihaylova was one of the astronauts sent to Mars after the Traveler's arrival, but not much else. Here, she's not only part of Ares One, but she's one of the five selected by the Traveler to speak with her, and gets her own dedicated plotline during Triumvirate's third act.
• Ax-Crazy: Patriot-3's Ghost, Little Psycho. He is extremely fond of hunting Eliksni, and has a history of "experimenting" on them.
• Back from the Dead: Obviously, this is how the first Guardians are introduced. Specific examples include Valentin, Fang, Osiris, Radegast, Ernesto, Hayden, Zavala and Patriot-3.
  • In Chapter XXII, Valentin brings back every living thing that perished during the Battle of Ethiopia, from Africans to Soviets to even animals.
• Bad Future: In Chapter XVII, the Traveler shows Valentin a vision of a future where humanity rejected her. In her absence, the Darkness effortlessly takes over the entire solar system, with Clovis Bray (now a titanic Exo) ruling over humanity on its behalf. Valentin is forced to witness a cavalcade of atrocities, including (but not limited to) the brutal suppression of the unfortunate people who attempted resistance. One could consider this a fabrication on the Traveler's part... except Clovis ends up undergoing the Exo conversion process two chapters later, just as the vision foretold.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Chapter XVI, Milya is initially confused when Arjun Gala, noted Indian "pacifier" of dissident territories, expresses insatisfaction with his current handling of Riyadh, calling it abominable and pathetic, and implying some level of hatred for his previous deeds. Unfortunately, he's very much proud of them; what he hates is how New Delhi gives him too few resources to truly do as he pleases.
• Big Bad: The entity known as the Ascendant One is the main leader of the Darkness's forces across the universe, making him this to the entire saga.
  • For Triumvirate, there is Clovis Bray, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, who sees in the Traveler's gifts an opportunity to reshape humanity into his own vision, taking advantage of them to coordinate a campaign to bring the holdout nations into the Triumvirate's fold. In the process of doing this, he risks setting humanity on a course to total subservience under the Darkness, as the Traveler shows to Valentin.
    • Big Bad Duumvirate: As of Chapter XXII, Clovis is supplanted by two others: the Intercessor, and Micah Abrams, who is now an Ambassador of the Darkness.
• Blood Knight: The Old King turns out to be this in Chapter V; when the first Celestials arrive to avenge the Queen's death, he develops an enjoyment of the war he wages against them, discovering how his power thrives in battle - which does not wane even as he is banished back to the Deep.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Nine - more specifically, the ones who command Agents like Xûr and Xûll - are implied to operate on this, as they offer gifts and power to those they deem worthy on either side of the Light/Dark war. Even in Triumvirate, they make offers to both the Guardians and Clovis.
• Canon Character All Along: Valentin ends up becoming the Speaker.
  • Similarly, Fang is very subtly hinted to eventually become the Drifter.
  • Downplayed with Isaiah Kane, who's revealed to be Osiris at the end of his first scene.
• Dark Is Evil: The Darkness, obviously.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Possibly. All Awoken males are touched by the Deep, but so far all of them appear devoted to the Awoken and the Eternal Dream over the Darkness.
  • Xûr similarly applies; Valentin acknowledges to himself that even though he is a walking void, he does not bear the malice the actual Darkness possesses.
• Dark Messiah: Micah appears to effectively be this for the population of Neptune after becoming an Ambassador of the Darkness.
• Decapitation Presentation: Arjun Gala's idea of a "formal greeting" to Hamaza and the Resistance is sending them several boxes with the severed heads of captured Resistance members.
• Demoted to Extra: Unlike Mihaylova, Jacob Hardy and Qiao do not participate in the Ares One mission to Mars, and do not make any appearances beyond a presentation on the Traveler to the Triumvirate leaders. Overall, their significance in TITANOMACH's story is practically non-existent when compared to their canon selves.
• The Dreaded: General Arjun Gala of India is this to the Middle East, having earned a reputation as the Butcher of Arabia and the Demon of the Sands.
• Driving Question: Triumvirate's present day (post-Collapse) chapters are mostly based around the Exo Patriot-3; namely, who she was before her resurrection as a Guardian.
• The Empire: The Triumvirate's constitutent powers have many elements of this, chief among them being their willingness to conquer neighboring nations/regions - the Chinese Empire, for example, has conquered most of Asia (as well as Australia), while the Confederacy of American States has annexed South America and conquers Canada near the end of Act II of Triumvirate.
  • Played even straighter as Clovis settles into his role as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, since his ultimate goal is nothing less than human dominance of reality itself, under his sole vision.
• Empty Quiver: In Triumvirate Act III, the Traveler removes every nuclear weapon from humanity's possession - both Triumvirate and independent nations alike.
• Enemy Civil War: Isaiah Kane's plan to deal with the Triumvirate at the beginning of the story involves exploiting tensions between its member states through terrorist attacks and assassinations. Unfortunately, that idea is put to rest from the first chapter, with both Clovis Bray's election as General Secretary, along with the Traveler's arrival, serving to solidify the ties between the main powers.
• Enemy Mine: The Darkness's takeover of Neptune attracts the attention of both Guardians and the Triumvirate, with Clovis even being open to an alliance with the Traveler to repel it.
• Expanded States of America: The Confederation of American States (one of the Triumvirate's reigning powers) is composed of the regular old United States, with the addition of every other country in the American landmass except for Canada (until it too ends up forcibly annexed at the end of Triumvirate act II).
• Fantastic Racism: Little Psycho appears to be prejudiced towards all Eliksni. What makes this even more notable is the implication that the Guardians themselves have a greater awareness of the Eliksni's current situation, with one of them admitting to disliking the name "Fallen" due to how it trivializes the more complex aspects of their predicament.
• Framing Device: Triumvirate relays the story of the Traveler's arrival and the dawn of the Golden Age as the Speaker telling all relevant events to a newly risen Exo Guardian, Patriot-3, in an attempt to help her remember her life before her first death.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Between acts II and III of Triumvirate, Hamaza makes contact with every resistance cell and organization across the world that he can, to unite them against the Triumvirate. All of them agree to meet with him, with the possible exception of the movements Hayden Fox has talked with... until he meets with Hamaza's organization to coordinate with them, effectively bringing the near-entirety of the world's resistance movements under their combined banner.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Traveler may be a benevolent and idealistic entity, but she is not ignorant about how the universe really works, and can be appropriately ruthless and manipulative if the situation calls for it.
  • Hayden Fox is noted to echo her more ruthless side by Watcher-14, which makes him a perfect candidate to become Her Shadow. He fully embraces his role as a Guardian in Chapter XXII.
  • In that same chapter, Valentin sees the Battle of Ethiopia end with everyone involved coming back to life by his hand. He then kills the leading Soviet general (and most of his entourage) after assessing their less reputable traits (as well as the lack of any possible redemption for them).
• Government in Exile: The Resistance was founded by Hamaza (Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic), and it also includes figures from other nations conquered by the Triumvirate, such as Jilla Pitaft (Defense Minister of what once was Pakistan).
• Guile Hero: The Traveler herself shows elements of this as Triumvirate progresses; what help she gives turned out to be a Secret Test of Character for the Triumvirate, to judge how they end up using their advancements. Unsurprisingly, Clovis and the other Triumvirate leaders employ them for war and conquest of the independent nations or to tighten their control over the populace (the Exo and the Warminds being the most prominent examples), and as a result, she begins moving in favor of the Resistance and the independent nations by the time Act III begins.
• Heroic BSoD: Hamaza falls victim to this after the Soviet Union's invasion of the North African junta at the end of Triumvirate Act II, being reminded of India's own invasion of Pakistan.
• Historical Domain Character: Ernesto, one of the Traveler's Guardians sowing dissent against the Triumvirate in Act III, is all but explicitly stated to be Che Guevara, though lacking all memory of his past life.
  • Chapter XXV adds another one, this time being Vladimir Lenin. And unlike Ernesto, he appears to still remember some part of his old life.
• A House Divided: Implied with the Eliksni, who are mentioned to be split in two camps: Loyalists (which include the House of Kings and the House of Light) and Breakaways (which include the House of Dusk and the House of Devils).
• Humanoid Abomination: Xûr, as always, though this is expanded on - Valentin, with his paracausal vision, sees the agent of the Nine as a literal void walking the earth. The sight of it unnerves him greatly.
• Kill and Replace: The first thing Hayden does upon being resurrected as a Guardian is to take on the appearance of his Soviet executioner, shortly before killing him.
  • The very next chapter, he does the exact same thing to the head of the KGB.
• La Résistance: The Resistance is an anti-Triumvirate movement, founded by Hamaza and aided by independent nations such as the United Kingdom and Israel.
• Literally Shattered Lives: This is the fate that awaited all Soviet ground forces during their invasion of the United Kingdom, courtesy of Queen Alexandra.
• Living Statue: The Intercessor brought to Neptune is one. It and all others like it appear to act as scouts for the forces of Darkness. One of their duties appears to be identifying potential Darkbearers, if the Antiphon to Micah is any indication.
• Loss of Identity: Averted, for the most part - Guardians generally retain their living memories and identities from before they wielded the Light... so long as their brains haven't been damaged before their first resurrection. Obviously, this means that amnesiac Guardians still exist, such as Patriot-3, Zavala, Fang Sov, Ernesto and Radegast.
• Mage Killer: The Triumvirate's Izanagi Battalion, revealed in Triumvirate Chapter 26, is intended to fight and kill paracausal entities. Clovis's plan is to use them to counter the Guardians attacking the Soviet Union.
• Master of Disguise: Hayden becomes able to impersonate anyone after becoming a Guardian. He can also shapeshift other people into whoever he wants.
• Meaningful Name: The Ghosts are named due to their ability to form illusions to blend in and teleport, leaving people as if they had seen a ghost.
• Military Coup: Holliday leads one against President Quinn in Chapter XXIII.
• Mind Rape: As she begins to harness the power of the Darkness, Micah subjects the entire population of Neptune - including one of her fathers - to this, in order to fully convert them to its worship.
• Never Gets Drunk: One of the effects of being a Lightbearer is that alcohol no longer affects you. Shaxx takes note of this with Amanda.
• Nuke 'em: The Soviet Union opens its invasion of North Africa at the end of Triumvirate Act II with a nuclear weapon detonated over Cairo.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The Spider's overweight physique plays a major role in making people underestimate him. Of course, he's very much aware of this, and it is an advantage he won't turn down if can help it.
• Oh, Crap!: Valentin's reaction when he's selected by the Traveler to carry her message in Chapter IV of Triumvirate pretty much amounts to this, as he knows it essentially means the KGB will take an interest in him.
  • In Chapter XXIII, this is Admiral Santiago and his crews' reaction to seeing an actual dragon (actually Shaxx) descending upon them.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Ahamkara, as expected.
  • Shaxx demonstrates the ability to turn into a dragon in Chapter XXIII.
• Our Souls Are Different: As it turns out, every living thing does possess a soul, and upon their death, it normally ventures into the Nothing, the realm of the Nine. However, paracausality throws a wrench into that order of things, as both Light and Dark can interact with it. More troublingly, this also means it can be destroyed, effectively leading to a total and absolute death of the affected individual.
• Perfection Is Addictive: The Darkness instills an obsession with the pursuit of perfection in everything. This can result in people ending up on the edge of despair at the thought of underperforming, as Micah demonstrates.
• Physical God: The Traveler is seen in this fashion through Triumvirate, to such an extent that a new religion has popped up soon after her first appearance.
• Playing with Fire: This is Radegast's most prominent application of the Light.
• Power of the Void: This is the Nine's bread and butter, as far as power goes, and it is a power they are willing to offer to those they deem worthy, like Fang or Clovis. It also has elements of Soul Power.
• Race Lift: Some of the canon characters receive this, by virtue of not being seen in the flesh in canon at the time of their appearance in this story:
  • Elsie Bray is of Asian descent on her mother's side in this story. Beyond Light, having been released after the fact, establishes her to be dark-skinned in canon.
  • Implied with Milya Mihaylova - her surname is Bulgarian in origin, but she's Indian in Triumvirate.
  • Ulysses Qiao is a Chinese taikonaut in canon, but is described as ethnically Causasian in Triumvirate.
• Ragtag Band of Misfits: This is the makeup of the Resistance's personnel; a union of people from all nationalities, religions and cultures - from displaced Pakistanis and Iranians, to Christians, Muslims and Jews, to Australian veterans and British and Israeli intelligence agents - brought together by their opposition to the Triumvirate.
• Reality Warper: The story takes a different route on how to portray paracausal powers such as Light and Darkness. As an example, instead of being divided into Arc, Solar and Void elements, the Light is portrayed as a power of creation and alteration, one that applies to all things - the first Human Guardians practice their powers by creating objects from nothing and changing existing ones, to varying results, and Osiris is even encouraged by the Traveler to reshape Mercury as he sees fit.
  • That being said, there is nothing stopping Guardians from using these powers to ignite their surroundings, or channel a stream of lightning - they simply have the capacity to do far more than that.
  • For more specific examples of this trope, we have all the terraforming performed across the system - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Neptune - as well as the significantly less benevolent transformation of Neptune at Micah's hands.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Rasputin delivers a scathing one to the Triumvirate leaders upon assessing them, calling them out on their unmitigated arrogance and declaring their rule to be doomed to defeat at the hands of the Traveler, before locking itself out of their control to operate on its own terms.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Ghosts' eyes turn red whenever their Guardians are threatened. The first time this happens, Calumet is lucky enough to be simply teleported back to Earth. The second time this happens, the KGB agents who threaten Valentin aren't as lucky.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Queen Alexandra II of the United Kingdom makes it clear to Clovis that she is willing to fight and die alongside her nation's soldiers. It doesn't hurt that she has a Ghost of her own, with all the support that it implies for both her and her nation.
  • And wouldn't you know it, she does take to the field when the Soviets come knocking. It doesn't end well for them.
• Sand Blaster: After being resurrected as a Guardian, Shaheed conjures up a sandstorm over Ankara to attack the Triumvirate's Eurasian Operations Command.
• Scenery Gorn: The prologue of Triumvirate establishes that Earth's environment was not left untouched by the Darkness.
• Shapeshifting: One of the many abilities Guardians have access to. Fox puts it to good use when it comes to impersonating other people, and Shaxx demonstrates a more destructive use when he transforms himself into a dragon to pacify the American fleets sent to Africa.
• Soul Power: Given how life and death works in this setting, the soul of a living thing is an existing thing, and therefore able to be manipulated. Fang calls upon the souls dwelling in the Void to assist him in Ulaanbaatar, and Valentin is able to capture the souls of every African and Soviet soldier who died during the battle of Ethiopia, allowing him to resurrect them all.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The second interlude of Triumvirate reveals that Felwinter is running an empire on former Russian territory.
  • In that same chapter, it's implied that Solkis, Kell of the Devils, is still alive. Notable for the fact that Saint-14 is currently in Mercury leading an expedition to look for Osiris; in canon, he killed Solkis before heading to Mercury.
• Spark of the Rebellion: In Triumvirate chapter 24, Clovis's gala (broadcast to the entire world) is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Shaheed, who speaks of the Triumvirate's impact on his people and his family, before inciting the greater population to rise in revolt. When Clovis kills him live for everyone to watch, it stirs the world into revolting against the Triumvirate.
• Surveillance Drone: The Traveler uses her Ghosts to observe and assess everyone on Earth, Luna and Mars shortly after her arrival. They demonstrate an unsettling ability to show up anywhere, as Clovis soon finds out. Understandably, the Soviet higher-ups do not take this well, due to the security risk they pose. Indeed, they eventually do more than just observe, as they later abscond with several dead bodies to turn into Guardians, along with the collective nuclear arsenal of all humanity.
• Troll: The Telesto probably counts; it regularly breaks the laws of reality on its own at random, registers as a variety of wildly different materials when its composition is scanned, and it's explicitly noted to have a will of its own, meaning it can choose its own bearers... who always end up condemned to failure. Incidentally, Clovis is its latest chosen bearer.
• Visionary Villain: Triumvirate has Clovis Bray, who aims to put an end to intra-Triumvirate tensions and bring all of Earth under its banner, molding it in its ideal vision. Unfortunately, the Traveler's visions to Valentin strongly imply that his ideal of what humanity should be will make it ripe for assimilation into the Darkness's war machine.
• Walking Armory: Military-grade Exos, particularly the Triumvirate's MARAUDER and (to a lesser extent) PATRIOT models.
• We ARE Struggling Together: At the beginning of the story, there is some discord among the Triumvirate leaders, such as anti-Chinese sentiment in America, and the Resistance is working to exploit this. Unfortunately, Clovis Bray wastes no time in getting them to work together again, and the Traveler's presence only strengthens this renewed alliance.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Resistance is dedicated to putting an end to the Triumvirate; however, due to the sheer amount of power and influence it wields, it is virtually impossible to oppose the Triumvirate for so long through virtue alone, and as such, they usually resort to assassinations and terror attacks to strike against the global powers. As of Triumvirate Act III, they're veering away from their terror-based MO, shifting gears to rally all resistance movements of the world under their banner in the name of a final stand against the Triumvirate.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter V, "Warning": The Traveler's first chosen are shown a vision of the origin of the war between Light and Darkness, and Valentin is all but confirmed to be the future Speaker.
  • Chapter XXII, "Antiphon": Micah gains the ability to wield the Darkness - warping Neptune and the minds of its citizens in the process - and comes into contact with the Ascendant One, informing him of the Traveler's whereabouts. In return, he empowers her, granting her the title of Ambassador and allowing the Darkness to establish a foothold in the solar system.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the Traveler's vision of humanity's subjugation at the hands of the Darkness, Valentin sees a baby killed by their mother due to a "genetic abnormality", and young children taken from their classrooms for not being able to sing in unison with the Dark, to meet an undefined fate.

---