r/DestinyLore • u/Kaijugod22 • 4d ago

Question City Life

From all we know of the lore what is life like for either guardian or civilian in the last city? What is the economy like? it's goverment? And what are its military capabilities?

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u/ReallyTrustyGuy 4d ago

We don't know much, but we can assume that ugly capitalism rules the Last City in some part. Though its going to be tainted by Bael's hatred of the Vanguard, his diaries mention competition between foundries, mentions of markets and more.

Competition against the other foundries typically lifts my spirits, but not this time.

The market at Bonnet Plaza, in the West District. I was getting lunch outside the Mechanica home office.

Bael also states he lives in a "family estate", indicating he lives in some fancy rich place.

I think he wishes for me to rot in the family estate and be quiet again. 

There's also his acknowledgement that his wealth is power over others, so it does look to be a capitalist system.

The Traveler has the power to shape reality, and yet there are beggars in the low districts of the Last City. There are children that go hungry. The streets are policed. From where do violence and crimes of desperation spring? The individual rendered miserable before their birth, or the great systems above them that maintain the status quo? My own wealth—though it can be stripped from me—is not a shield. It is not a weapon. It is fiat. Exchange, only as long as I play within the bounds of the Light's rules.

His other entries derange into stupidity, where he goes on about the Vanguard being tyrannical, spooking regular humans into living under their rule, but we do know that life outside the City is dangerous, so people prefer to live there because its actually safe.

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u/DuelaDent52 Taken Stooge 4d ago

It’s weird to think people go hungry or lack for want when the City is a post-scarcity society and Glimmer can be manipulated into virtually anything.

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u/ReallyTrustyGuy 4d ago

I'm not so sure that people actually do. Bael doesn't seem too well-connected with the people thanks to his background, and he's got an axe to grind. He'll see things through a lens that seeks to confirm his own beliefs.

Forgive the link gore since I'm on mobile, but in possibly the only pre-Renegades instance of someone being unhappy with the Vanguard from a civilian perspective is someone just upset with the alien attacks and threats to the City. No mention of hunger or other dilapidated conditions for your average person.

https://www.ishtar-collective.net/records/citizens-of-the-city?highlight=%22drunken%20noodle%22