It's been a while.
Anyways, here's the House of Winter or whatever.
I never thought much of these guys, they really only exist to give Venus the standard repertoire of two factions at odds with humanity that nonetheless hate each other.
What I remember the most about them was how confused I felt when finding out the guys that call themselves the 'House of Winter' decided to make their base in the hottest planet in the solar system.
What were they thinking? It's even 99% rainforest there.
At the very least, they had a cool part during the House of Wolves DLC, but only because the Wolves were trying to make them their bottom b...
The first time I saw the House of Kings, they didn't even register to me as a distinct faction from the Devils.
Keep in mind my only three full-on videogame experiences at that point were Halo, the classic Sonic games and Guitar Hero 3. I was a bit of a Halohead, if I do say so myself.
Anyhow, this is relevant because Halo's enemies are distinguished by the color of their armor (or they used to be, anyways) and their design.
So my first thought upon seeing these golden Fallen was 'oh, cool, these guys must be stronger than the ones out in the courtyards', and I mowed them down regardless. It didn't help that the armors all have the same design between houses save the colors.
I only learned about them fully after re-descovering D1 and experiencin' it all over again, getting interested in the lore.
The way they're supposed to be this sort of hidden faction that once stood on top of all the houses and now seek to reclaim that glory from the shadows is really cool to me, and really helps paint them as even more dangerous than the other houses if left unchecked.
So like the Devils' banner seems painted and dripping with the blood of the damned, so does the Kings' crown spark under the weight of the sword held to their heads.
Continuing with the series of Fallen Houses banners.
I mentioned before that the House of Devils was my favorite -- And that was only a half-lie.
In truth, the Wolves are also up there in my Fallen houses ranking.
I came into the game wayyy late into its lifetime. My first experience with it was with my dad's copy, and I had to save a lot of money to buy my own, DLC and everything.
So when I finally got it, the House of Wolves expansion was the newest shiny toy in the community. And what a shiny toy it was.
Everything just seemed livelier. The Reef was opened up as a new social area (to a questionable degree of success), sidearms were implemented into the game as a new option for special weapons, a bunch of cool ass Fallen-themed gear was added, the liquid-ammo OMOLON guns, the Prison of Elders as a concept...
Whew, it was one of the best times to be a Guardian. So much new stuff suddenly dropped like it was nothing.
And at the center of it were the Wolves. Rebellious, untamed, highly dangerous and thirsting for revenge. For glory.
Every new mission involving them felt like trying to defuse a bomb before the fuse burned out. Every fight felt like the difference between survival and total annihilation.
The Wolves just had this character, this aura of undeniable presence and terrifying will that kept you on your toes whenever they showed up. You knew they were dangerous, they knew they had everyone on the backfoot, and the entire incident felt like an ultimatum:
Fight tooth and nail, or be completely and utterly annihilated.
Well, at least that's how I remembered it.
I didn't have much friends to play with back then, so most strikes and missions I did by myself. And facing Skolas was like going to school with your pants on backwards and no breakfast.
Of course, I managed to cheese it by jumping atop one of the big Vex towers and just blasting him with rockets and sniper rounds, but it still felt like the largest battle of my life.
In the end, the Wolves were defanged and dethroned once again, but their claws and bites left a clear mark in the history of the game. MY history of the game.
From then on, to survive, the Guardians would have to follow the law of the jungle. For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
