Rasputin's History
Rasputin (also identified as AI-COM/RSPN and the Tyrant) is a Warmind housed in the BrayTech Futurescape in the Hellas Basin. He was created during the Golden Age and was believed to have been destroyed during the Collapse until the Iron Lords awoke his wrath.
Rasputin was designed and built by the Clovis Bray Exoscience Corporation, one of the Golden Age's greatest collections of scientists and engineers. He was designed to foresee potential threats to human civilization and to leverage military assets for its protection if the need arose.
While their relationship is unclear, investigations in the City Age have discovered that Charlemagne and Voluspa are subminds of Rasputin, and were developed together. Malahayati is another submind of Rasputin, formerly housed by the Ishtar Collective on Venus.
Pre-Golden Age
First designed by Dr. Mihaylova, the experimental AI designated "R" was conceived as a safety AI for the Ares One mission to Mars; not only to simply run logistics, but to withhold secrets for the sake of preserving complacency. In the time before launch, R learned to write its own code and created its own assessments of the project and crew. R was even partially credited by the Ares One crew after their mission was hailed a success.
After the mission, R was used mainly as an emergency response system for pre-Golden Age space stations; useful for running system diagnostics like checking oxygen and fuel.
Golden Age
By the Golden Age, the corporation Clovis Bray took the code of the safety AI and programmed it into an interplanetary defense system with sentience; becoming the most powerful military intelligence ever developed. Dr. Anastasia Bray was responsible for teaching Rasputin language, which she accomplished by uploading a massive compilation of human works of literature into his network.
The Collapse
Rasputin was the one to first discover the coming of the Darkness. At that time, Rasputin's original core programming was to protect humanity. However, every action he had taken to that point had either failed or was statistically predicted to have a 100% probability of failure. Once it became clear that no conceivable action could be taken to fulfill his core programming, he implemented a protocol known as MIDNIGHT EXIGENT and reconfigured his core programming to that of long term survival, abandoning his previous function and going dark, while simultaneously ordering all remaining forces at his disposal to do the same.
Unknown to the other Warminds, however, Rasputin had made his own preparations, known as the "ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE." If humanity was threatened with extinction, and that the Traveler attempted to leave, Rasputin would open fire with his most powerful weapons to immobilize the Traveler and thereby coerce it into a "pseudoaltruistic" defensive action. In effect, the Traveler would be forced to protect humanity if it wanted to survive. Rasputin would avoid culpability for such an attack by initiating it through a series of proxies. Even before the Collapse, Rasputin had been discreetly stockpiling such weapons in the Cosmodrome, though some human operators suspected Rasputin's involvement.
Rasputin attempted to contain potentially dangerous data about the Darkness that was discovered by Dr.Shanice Pell at the New Pacific Arcology on Titan. It dispatched an Exo team led by Morgan-2 to contain the data by taking Pell and her staff into custody along with their research. However, Administrator Mia van der Venne believed Rasputin was overstepping its authority by denying the scientists a choice about what to do with the data and subtly warned Pell to evacuate alongside the rest of the moon's population as the Darkness closed in. Unable to contain Pell's discovery peacefully, Rasputin destroyed the ship carrying the scientists with a Warsat, utilizing the TWILIGHT EXIGENT protocol to justify lethal force on humans.
During the Collapse, the Worm God Xol, Will of the Thousands, accompanied by his herald Nokris and their revenant followers attempted to conquer Mars by burrowing deep into the planet's crust to corrupt its core. In response, Rasputin initiated the "SIBERIAN ENTROPY" protocol, which flash-froze the entire Hellas Basin landscape in a matter of days and trapped the Hive and Xol beneath it.
Dark Age
Rasputin left an active presence on Earth and disconnected from the Mindlab on Mars. Having remained dormant during the Dark Age, he was alerted to an asset gone rogue: "SIDDHARTHA GOLEM" having been resurrected by a Ghost to become a Light-bearer named Felwinter. Enraged at the loss of his "son" to the Light, Rasputin sent falling Warsats and armies of militarized frames to terminate the now-Risen Exo, but all failed to kill Felwinter. It soon laid a trap promising Felwinter and the Iron Lords SIVA, a powerful nanotechnology capable of disassembling matter and reconstituting it into almost any desired form.
Unfortunately, despite Lord Felwinter's attempts to reason with him, Rasputin immediately activated all of its defensive measures against the Iron Lords including SIVA. By then, Rasputin had programmed SIVA to kill not only Felwinter, but the other Iron Lords as collateral. Realizing that they had been arrogant and that SIVA posed a significant threat to the world, the Iron Lords fought back. Hundreds of the Iron Wolves perished in the battle for the Plaguelands, with the eight of the founding ten Iron Lords sacrificing themselves to seal SIVA within its replication chamber. Only Saladin Forge and Efrideet survived. Rasputin, content that the trespassers had been ejected from its facilities, withdrew its countermeasures and began passive observation of the Guardians. However, he would be left melancholic over the death of Felwinter and the damage had irrevocably caused.
City Age
In recent times, the Fallen and Guardians discovered Rasputin was still alive and protecting something valuable in the Cosmodrome. After a communications array at the Terrestrial Complex was reactivated by the Guardians, Rasputin was able to reconnect with the old interplanetary defense network, resuming control of Warsats and ground installations across the system and launching a series of orbital strikes against the Vex and Cabal on Mars. Rasputin's attacks proved so debilitating to the Cabal that Valus Ta'aurc himself ordered the Ice Reapers be released to track Rasputin.
Rasputin has resisted any recent attempts by the City to parlay, even going so far as to dismember a scouting team sent by the Vanguard. Rasputin is later encountered on Mars within the Dust Palace, attempting to protect a broken AI related to the Warmind of Mars from the invading Cabal. The AI is ultimately lost after a long battle with the Psion Flayers.
Since awakening, Rasputin has faced a number of direct threats to himself. Omnigul and the Spawn of Crota accessed the bunker through unknown means and attacked Rasputin, either to destroy him or corrupt him for their own purposes, but were thwarted by the Guardians. Later, during the Taken War, a group of Taken also penetrated Rasputin's bunker to prevent the Guardian from obtaining Golden Age stealth technology; while they did not damage or corrupt Rasputin, they had ample opportunity to do so. The bunker was breached a third time when the Fallen attempted to hijack Rasputin's systems using the modified Shank S.A.B.E.R.-2, seeking to bypass the Warmind's security protocols and take control of his orbital weapon systems. Though S.A.B.E.R.-2 was ultimately destroyed, Rasputin again had to be rescued through the efforts of Guardians.
Conceding that his bunker's defenses had failed too many times, Rasputin triggered the IKELOS subroutine, an initiative to provide advanced weaponry to the Guardians to aid them against the forces of the Darkness. The end result of IKELOS was the Sleeper Simulant, a heavy fusion rifle with a unique core based on obsolete DVALIN FORGE fusion rifles that the Warminds had armed humanity with during the onset of the Collapse. The Sleeper Simulant represented a successful melding of Golden Age technology with contemporary designs and Banshee-44's gunsmithing expertise.
Post Red War
Soon after the Traveler's awakening after the Red War, the ice caps on Mars began to thaw. Detecting evidence of non-native organic chitin near its core among the rising temperatures, Rasputin assumed control of Mars' atmospheric defenses and invoked the AURORA PALISADE protocol to defend itself, crashing warsats into the surface of Mars.
Rasputin soon came under siege from the Hive once again, but this time at his central core facility in Hellas Basin. Making matters worse, his attackers were led by the Hive god Nokris, a son of Oryx, and Xol, Will of the Thousands, one of the Hive's gargantuan Worm Gods. Unable to adequately defend himself against such a massive threat, Rasputin accepted the assistance of Ana Bray and the Guardian, granting them the use of the powerful Valkyrie javelin and other Golden Age weaponry.
After an unsuccessful attempt by the Vanguard to trap and defeat Xol, the enraged Worm God launched an assault on Rasputin's neural network. With the aid of the Guardian, Rasputin was able to generate a super-charged version of the Valkyrie, granting the Guardian enough offensive power to damage and eventually vanquish Xol.
With the abatement of the Hive threat, Rasputin finally permitted Ana Bray, Commander Zavala, and the Guardian to enter his core and gain an audience with him. The Warmind declared that he would no longer allow his purpose to be dictated by other parties and that he would once more watch over the Sol system and protect it from harm, but on his own terms. As proof of his intent, he launched a new network of Warsats, under his sole command.
Following the several cycles of the curse in the Dreaming City, Petra Venj sent telemetry to Rasputin for analysis and comparison.
Choosing Sides
More than two years after Xol's destruction, Rasputin was confronted by the former Warlock Vanguard Osiris, who derided the warmind as "old man" and called him out as a traitor for turning his back against humanity during the Collapse and a murderer who slaughtered the Iron Lords in the hundreds during the Dark Age. Knowing the coming arrival of the Pyramids from his predictions within the Infinite Forest, Osiris called to question Rasputin's allegiance in the upcoming battle between Light and Darkness. In response, Rasputin gives Osiris coordinates, highlighting an anomalous signal near the edge of the Sol System, which satisfies the former exile enough to leave and investigate.
Stopping The Almighty
After the events at the Sundial, the Red Legion, led by Amtec, who escaped the fate of her fellow Psion Flayer sisters, disabled the engines of The Almighty and sent it on a collision course towards the Last City. The Guardians, with little choice, then seeks help from the ancient Warmind, and are tasked with reactivating Rasputin's arsenal to find a way to stop the Almighty from careening into the Last City.
After conversing with Ana Bray and a very reluctant Zavala, the Guardian interacts with Rasputin directly to ask for his cooperation. The ancient Warmind agrees to aid the Guardians in finding a way to stop the Almighty by rearming his systems. Firstly, he has the Guardian head to a secret bunker in the EDZ, which requires manual access for Rasputin to make a connection. Traveling to the dead zone, the Guardian, Ana, and Zavala are able to clear the bunker of Fallen pillagers and make a connection with Rasputin, restarting the bunker and allowing the warmind to forge weaponry for the Guardians. Further, Rasputin has Guardians defend Seraphim Towers being constructed throughout the system from raiding Fallen and Cabal.
As the Guardians work to activate the Seraph Bunker on Io and connect it to Rasputin's mainframe, Rasputin has a confrontation with the Vanguard Commander. Zavala questions the ancient machine in his sincerity of understanding the stakes, which Rasputin answers by showing Zavala of how close the Darkness is to the Solar System and of his past, having survived the Collapse. Finally coming to an understanding with Zavala, the Titan Vanguard vows that once The Almighty has been broken, he agrees to work with Rasputin, granting the Warmind whatever resources the Last City has in battling the coming Darkness. In addition, Rasputin begins to send his combat frames on missions to secure "valuable assets" in the form of sleeper nodes.
In later weeks, Rasputin sent a Guardian up to Felwinter Peak. There, they and Ana Bray discover secrets of Rasputin's activities during the Dark Age. They learn Rasputin deployed a battalion of frames to attack Felwinter when he was still the mountain's sole occupant, and that he programmed SIVA to act as bait for the Iron Lords. These activities were apparently in response to a breach of his systems in Old Russia. After having the Guardian acquire more data for him, he summons them to the Seraph Bunker on the Moon. Once there, he tells them the story of a tyrant and his son, an allusion to the story of his connection to Felwinter.
Merely days before The Almighty collided into the Last City, the Guardians succeeded in activating and rearming Rasputin's Seraph Bunkers, allowing the Warmind to deploy his countermeasure against the super vessel. The Guardians return to the Tower to bear witness to Rasputin's countermeasure. In full view of the Tower's denizens, countless warsats bombard The Almighty for a full hour before making a critical hit to the ships core, sending the ship into a spectacular explosion, reducing the Red Legion's crown jewel into burning rubble that crash lands into the mountains outside of the Last City.
The Arrival of the Dark
Several days after the Almighty's destruction, the fleet of mysterious Pyramid Ships push into the system, with one ship breaking off to go to Io. With Ana's assistance, Rasputin uses his Warsat Network around the moon of Jupiter to try shooting the vessel down. Sadly, his countermeasures have no effect, and the Pyramid responds by completely disabling the Warmind and his systems, leaving the Guardians to fend the fleet for themselves. Ana managed to transfer Rasputin into an Engram with the help of her Ghost, Jinju, though the Warmind's integrity was in doubt.
With the Guardian's help, Ana discovered a remnant of Rasputin cycling through the buffer of his systems, though she was unsure how to safely extract it.
