Kalki Golem

# AI-COM/RSPN//ASSET//KALKI GOLEM

The **KALKI GOLEM** (more simply "**Kalki**") was a bespoke Exo frame designed by the Warmind Rasputin. It was featured heavily during the Battle of Eventide in *The Wahei Transcripts*.

### History

Kalki was one of several different "Golems" designed by Rasputin to fulfill various roles during the Golden Age. Distinct from the SIDDHARTHA GOLEM (which one day would be resurrected as the Iron Lord Felwinter) which was used to interact on a more one-to-one level with mankind and help him understand how to relate to them, Kalki was designed for a more martial purpose. There is no evidence to suggest that Kalki was ever activated during the Golden Age or its Collapse, but schematics for it were still buried in the Warmind's Seraph Bunkers.

While the Shadows of Salvation were gathering materiel and making plans, they came to the Lunar Seraph Bunker at some point after its collapse following the arrival of the Black Fleet. Hacking into the systems there, they accessed and copied the KALKI GOLEM files and schematics, then departed to acquire the resources needed to construct it on Europa, in some of the Exoscience manufactory complexes around Eventide. Magda-9 oversaw most of the construction, despite not having in-depth knowledge of the process. The Shadows' intentions with the Kalki Golem were unclear, though it was suggested that Magda may have intended to fabricate a rudimentary intellect to inhabit it and have a close-quarters defensive option for when the Vanguard tracked them down.

After finishing construction, however, the Golem powered up on its own, and already had an intellect inhabiting it. This intellect, a fragment of the Warmind, had been corrupted by Rasputin's encounter with the Black Fleet, and was willing to follow the Shadows, to help them finish construction of Magda's paracausal superweapon. It plugged itself into the sensorium around the manufactory complex, monitoring the perimeter, and so was the first to notice Wahei's fireteam approaching Eventide.

During the Battle of Eventide, Kalki intercepted Aunor Mahal and Elsie Bray when they tried to infiltrate the manufactory complex, driving them back to the scene of the battle as a whole. While it was physically very powerful, it ultimately was no match for the combined efforts of seven Guardians, being decapitated, dismembered, and finally rendered into a pile of slag.

### Description

Kalki was built large, like an oversized Heavy Frame, standing more than three meters tall, broad-shouldered and barrel-chested. Its face was constructed into a grim visage, its eyes glowing orange-red. Its chassis was armored with black plating, and the muscular system that operated the limbs glowed with the same orange-red light as its eyes. It sported four arms instead of two, like its namesake Hindu deity. As Kalki was inhabited by a rogue fragment of the Warmind Rasputin, Kalki only spoke in distorted Russian.

It's possible that Kalki was intended to have other combat capabilities, built-in weaponry, and similar, but it did not display this sort of capability during the Battle of Eventide. It was capable of taking extreme amounts of damage, even paracausally-charged damage, without slowing or reduction in effectiveness. Its main processor was not housed in its head, as it continued to operate after its head was destroyed, even capable of speaking, albeit with further distortion owing to the damage it had taken.

### Author Notes

Kalki was inspired in part by the references to KALKI GOLEM in Warmind lore from *Destiny 2*, especially after SIDDHARTHA GOLEM was revealed to have been the Iron Lord Felwinter. What inspired me to actually create Kalki in *The Wahei Transcripts* was a series of stories by fellow Destiny Journals writer RewsterSause, which featured an Exo Titan called Atlas-27, who was revealed to have been another Golem, the BHISHMA GOLEM, created for a martial purpose.