There are certain people who seem to have been destined to live their lives within a specific
time and place. They embody the tone and feeling of their era until the two are intertwined and
inseparable. The world that emerged from the collapse was an untamed and treacherous place.
It was at once magnificent and bleak, simple and complex.
It was a world made for a being like Cayde-6.
As an Exomind of mankind’s Golden Age, Cayde was once human, born sometime prior to the collapse.
In ancient times he served as a soldier to some forgotten cause until his mounting debts
overwhelmed him. Eager to secure desperate individuals for their developing Exo Program,
the Clovis Bray Corporation approached Cayde with an offer to wipe his debts clean.
His personality was uploaded into an artificial life-form and his life as he had known it, ended.
Now the property of Clovis Bray, Cayde was forbidden from contacting those from his
previous life, most notably his wife and son, whom he had nicknamed “Ace”.
As was common procedure, Cayde’s mind was periodically “reset” in which associative
access to his memories was removed or impared. Each reset acted as a kind of rebirth,
and Cayde was known as Cayde-1 through Cayde 5 during this period.
In an attempt to preserve his past lives and the memory of his family, Cayde kept a
detailed journal intending to one day give it to his son. This grounded him and provided purpose.
By his own accounts, it helped him through the toughest moments and made him a better man,
but as more and more of his life was lost to him, the journal became the only record of who he was.
It also became a warning. In entries specifically addressed to his future selves, he admitted that
he couldn’t be sure his memories were real, or merely a delusion crafted to make himself whole.
Cayde is one of the few surviving beings to have witnessed the Collapse of Mankind
and his journal recounts the memory of being restrained by a shadowy creature in
the ruins of a devastated world. He was awoken sometime later by what would become his Ghost,
a reflection of Cayde’s own personality named Sundance. This was the birth of Cayde-6.
As a Guardian and later Hunter, Cayde became extraordinarily proficient in neutralizing threats
to the Last City. During prolonged expeditions into the wilderness, hunting for resources
and technology, a close friendship developed between Cayde and fellow hunter Andal Brask.
Equally brash and prone to gambling, the two hunters formed a wager on which of them would kill
the infamous fallen warlord, Taniks the Scarred. Cayde would win, and as per the terms of the dare,
Brask accepted a kind of early retirement. He became the Vanguard of the Last City’s Hunters,
accepting a higher status within the guardians, but one that prevented him from taking part in
field missions. Taniks the Scarred however had survived his encounter with Cayde and Brask,
and murdered Brask in an act of revenge. In the memory of his fallen friend, Cayde reluctantly
accepted the position of Vanguard, and would don Brask’s cloak for the rest of his life.
Cayde was uniquely competent in his role as Vanguard, but he deeply missed the action
and camaraderie that could only be found by operating outside the city’s walls.
Despite his restlessness, he found some measure of vicarious excitement in helping
those Guardians who, like him, preferred to ignore standard operating procedures. Perhaps
his most famous indirect contribution was in forming the plan that ultimately defeated Oryx:
The Taken King. Ultimately however, Cayde-6 was most at home in the wilds or the chaos of
a desperate situation. During the Red War against the Cabal dictator Dominus Ghaul,
Cayde was again instrumental and the Last City endured only through his efforts.
Cayde-6 would ultimately meet his end in an attempt to bring order to the piracy rampant
throughout the debris field known as the Reef. Deep within the Prison of Elders, the traitor
Guardian Uldren Sov orchestrated a mass breakout, and executed Cayde-6 when he attempted to
intervene. After many centuries, Cayde was finally reunited with his son, in one form or another.
A Guardian of the Last City, an Exomind of the Golden Age, a reckless gambler,
and cunning hunter; the life of Cayde-6 was full of contractions.
He was often seen as laid-back, carefree, and especially bored with his duties as Vanguard.
Even during the darkest moments, he maintained a light-hearted and jester-like attitude that
might have equally inspired or annoyed those around him. Despite this however,
he took his role of Vanguard seriously and worked just as hard as any who ever held the position.
Though always cognisant of the image he presented, he took purposeful steps to conceal this.
He also was an exceptional gunslinger, and in Cayde’s hands, his signature weapon;
“The Ace of Spades”, was one of the deadliest weapons in the solar system. But above all,
Cayde was someone who thrived in chaos and had a trained eye
for identifying and exploiting the opportunities that chaos presented.
Even in death, his force of personality looms as large over the Last City as it ever did in life.
There are certain people who seem to have been destined to live their lives within a specific
time and place. They embody the tone and feeling of their era until the two are intertwined and
inseparable. With the passing of Cayde-6 into legend, perhaps this is in some small way,
the end of the age he was meant for. And without him, the Solar System can go on to
enter a new era in which the talents of a gunslinger might no longer be needed.