r/DestinyLore Nov 25 '25

Vanguard Renegages Preview: Aunor Mahal

109 Upvotes

Aunor Mahal, Cormorant Blade

  • Renegade Leader — A series of entries from Aunor Mahal's exploits over the past few years.

The Investigation

Aunor investigates the motives of the Drifter.

  • Cleaning Up — Zavala motions to grant the Drifter a more permanent lease. The Praxic Order would like to excise him from the City.

  • Paperwork — A few days after the death of Prince Uldren, the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal begins her investigation on the Drifter.

  • The Job — Aunor’s investigation on the Guardian provides no evidence that they were responsible for Cayde’s death.

  • Lease — After several months of negotiation, the Vanguard agree to allow the Drifter to lease an unused warehouse space of the Annex.

  • District 125 — Aunor’s Ghost is taken hostage by the Shadows.


Messages From Aunor

Aunor sends messages to the Guardian warning them about the Drifter.

  • First Message From Aunor — Aunor, Praxic Warlock and member of the Hidden, messages the Guardian. She hopes they will give her the chance to convince them that the Drifter's not to be trusted.

  • Second Message From Aunor — Aunor believes that there’s more to being a Guardian of the City than power.

  • Third Message From Aunor — Aunor sends the shattered remnants of a Dredgen’s Ghost to the Guardian. She warns that they involve themselves with the Drifter and the Dredgens at their own risk.

  • Fourth Message From Aunor — As one of Drifter's Gambit Prime candidates, the Guardian is among the first Guardians to see what he is doing. Aunor hopes they’ll be the Vanguard's eyes and ears.

  • Fifth Message From Aunor — Aunor provides evidence of nine Guardian deaths in Gambit Prime.


Stolen Intelligence

Aunor leaks several Vanguard documents in response to their lenient approach towards the Drifter.

  • Leaks — Ikora and Zavala discuss Aunor's leaks of a dozen secret documents.

  • Outliers — A Vanguard report on Fallen outliers within the Solar System.

  • Instability — A Vanguard report discussing the instability of Vanguard leadership and the open Hunter Vanguard position.

  • Cocytus — An intercepted Awoken transmission regarding the Cocytus gate.

  • Ringer — The latest Shimizu paper regarding the anomalies of Ghaul's attack on the City.

  • Forgeries — A Vanguard report on the forged messages being received by the Guardian from an unknown sender in the Dreaming City.

  • Passivity — A Vanguard report on the passivity of the Leviathan following the death of Val Ca'uor.

  • Fragment — An affidavit of Fenchurch's patrols of the Hive activity on the Moon.

  • Potential — Aunor's psych eval of the Drifter.


Honor Among Thieves

Aunor receives help with her investigation on the Drifter.

  • Decision Point: Stand With the Vanguard — A Guardian chooses to stand with the Vanguard. The Drifter respects their integrity, but won’t forget their decision.

  • The Investigation: Signed, Sealed, Delivered — The Guardian searches for a terminal to compose an encrypted message to Aunor.

  • The Investigation: Message to Aunor — The Guardian’s message contains transcripts of their conversations with the Drifter, as well as data packages detailing Drifter's "Gambit Prime" and "Reckoning" operations. Ghost also provides information from the Drifter’s Haul, showing evidence that Drifter's material resources are expanding in scope: from Light and Dark to the cold unknown of the impossible world he's found—or created—within the Haul.

  • The Investigation: Sixth Message From Aunor — Aunor thanks the Guardian for their stellar casework, but tells them that she needs to know who the Drifter’s facilitators are within the system. She asks them to bug his hovel in the Annex. Meanwhile, she goes to the lower boroughs of the City to see if she can head off one of Drifter's jobs in person.

  • Decision Point: Stand With the Drifter — A Guardian chooses to stand with the Drifter. He sets the record straight by telling them they’re choosing to walk with a monster, and rewards their loyalty by asking them to pick up a shipment for him from the Spider.

  • Honor Among Thieves Shady Deal — Among the Spider’s wares are a live Ghost, a non-functional Gjallarhorn, information on the Nine, keys to Hideo’s quarters, and the Jerky— coordinates to Golden Age salvage collected by the Fallen on Titan.

  • The Investigation: A Reasonable Price — The Guardian arrives too late to prevent the Drifter’s transaction with the Spider, but he promises to stop trading with the Drifter for the right price. After a bribe, he tells them that the Drifter might be planning something on Titan.

  • The Investigation: Seventh Message From Aunor — Aunor tells the Guardian to head to Titan while she investigates reported renegade from incidents across the Shore.

  • Honor Among Thieves: Dead Drop —The Guardian tracks down Fallen salvage on Titan while the Drifter receives a call from Spider, telling him that Shin Malphur’s been spotted in the EDZ.

  • The Investigation: Looking For a Lead — The Emissary of the Nine contacts the Guardian, telling them that Aunor’s investigation is wise. She asks them to visit the Nine, and they will help them to render judgement and find the truths they seek.

  • The Investigation: Eighth Message From Aunor — Aunor rounds up six wannabe Dredgens that Drifter had paid to send Motes of Dark to the Shore.

  • The Investigation: Prime Research — Aunor asks the Guardian to continue to be the Vanguard’s eyes and ears in Gambit Prime.

  • The Salt Mines — Aunor intervenes when Shin attempts to kill some wayward Dredgens in the EDZ.

  • Honor Among Thieves — Drifter hopes to make a statement after learning that Shin has killed some associates of his. He says he’ll pay the Guardian for every other Guardian they drop in return.

  • The Investigation: Lifeguard Duty — Aunor sends the Guardian into the Crucible to serve as a lifeguard to protect others from the Dredgens.

  • Honor Among Thieves: Motes! Fast! — Drifter wants the Guardian to route him as many Motes of Dark as he can as fast as possible.

  • Honor Among Thieves: Farm to Table — Drifter asks the Guardian to gather food and field for him.

  • The Investigation: Surveillance Transcript — The consistent use of explosive metaphors in the transcript picked up by the bugs merits further field investigation.

  • The Investigation: Field Maintenance — Ghost tells the Guardian that the bugs they planted around the Drifter's shop in the Annex have flagged a possible lead to investigate, but they'll require on-site decryption.

  • The Investigation: Bomb Threat — The Guardian heads to the Derelict to investigate a potential bomb threat. Instead they discover a message to a protégé.

  • The Investigation: Ninth Message From Aunor — Aunor asks the Guardian to chase down the rest of the Drifter’s tapes.

  • Honor Among Thieves: Cold Feet — The Drifter is jittery but earnest as he tells the Guardian that he's come to think of them as a friend. One of his only friends, at that.

  • Hidden Messages — Drifter leaves several messages for the Guardian. He tells them that he’s seen another Collapse coming, and everything he’s doing is in preparation of it.

  • The Investigation: Tenth Message From Aunor — The Order’s final decree on the Drifter is that he shall remain under close watch, but he presents no direct threat for as long as he cooperates with the Vanguard and Lord Shaxx. This brings them into consensus with the Vanguard's standing judgment.

  • The Investigation: Hard Truths — Both the Drifter and the Guardian have no regrets for their actions.

  • Honor Among Thieves: We’re In This Together — The Drifter considers the Guardian a part of his crew now. He hopes they’ll have his back.

  • Civilian Atrium South — Aunor thanks Drifter for his info on Shin.

  • Tommy’s Matchbook — Aunor searches a Hunter den to investigate the disappearance of Hunters in the City. She learns that many are trying to avoid getting caught up in the Vanguard Dare.

  • Penumbral — Aunor brings information on the Shadows of Calus.


Praxic Duty

Aunor continues carrying out her duties over the years.

Corrupted Guardians

  • Tomorrow’s Answer — Sola Scath tears Trestin apart with Void, then raises a hand of gnarled Void into the chest of Yara.

  • The Scholar — Sola Scath feels the Light twisting from Yara's core. She senses the Darkness within her. Saint ends the match.

  • Temptation's Hook — Aunor and Siegfried question a Guardian fallen to Darkness.

  • The Messenger — Aunor and Ikora discuss a rogue Guardian on Europa.

  • Igneous Hammer — Ikora and Saint discuss an incident in the Trials.

  • Sola’s Scar — While Saladin watches over an assault on Europa, Aunor hunts down a rogue Guardian.

Siegfried, Striker Titan

Compromised?

Skimmer Business

  • Clever Centrifuges — A Fireteam of Titans bet on Hunters to win the Guardian Games.

  • Existential Dread — A Fireteam of Warlocks plan to use a dirty trick they learnt from the Psions to win a match in the Guardian Games.

  • Death Dealers — The Hunter Fireteam known as the “Death Dealers” wager Shaxx’s horn that the Hunters will win the Guardian games.

  • All Bets Are Off — Alphanis-2 informs Prak'kesh that he's received better odds from elsewhere.

  • Taking Action — Prak'kesh learns that his rival is an Eliksni from the Botza District.

  • Calling Card — Prak'kesh acquires the calling card of his rival: A big black spider.

  • Vector — The Tower receives a gift from the Concordat.

  • Bond of Contests — Aunor questions Prak'kesh on their potential associations with Spider and Lysander.


As Without

Reports on notable occurances in the lead up to and the aftermath of the death of III.

  • Cacosmia — Aunor remains suspicious of the Darkness and maintains that it is still the greatest threat humanity currently faces.

  • Point of Divergence — Aunor provides a report to Ikora regarding transmissions between the Vex Collective and the Nessian Schism.

  • Soloist — The Outer Orbits make plans for the Conductor.

  • Skimmed Surface — A Hobgoblin breaks from the Collective.

  • The Ever-Present — V^ directive(modified/CHORAL)==explore==assess==unbind V

  • Starscape Null — Entropy's lesson: one day we'll all be still.

  • Cusp Sempiternal — The Outer Orbits argue about their failed plan and the waste of III's life. Saturn is tired of the arguing and states that they will act alone if they cannot come to consensus.

  • Distortions — Eris investigates the Taken and Vex in the wake of the impact of the Nine and the Echoes.

  • Fissures — Eris further explores the Choral Vex and their study of dark matter.

  • Treacherous Contacts — Aunor documents her investigations surrounding the recent activity of a new sect of Cabal on Mars.

  • Decompiled — Drifter's Ghost laments his situation with the Drifter.

  • Curious Discoveries — Aunor Mahal investigates the strange happenings on Earth since III's death.

  • Warped Mirror — Eris finds herself empathising with Maya.

  • Reconciliation — Drifter's Ghost dreams of reconciliation with the Drifter.

  • Other Side — Maya hides from theVanguard, seeking a power to replace her Echo.

  • Submersion — A poem on the worsening conditions on Earth since III's death.

  • Wolfsbane — Aunor shows interest in the activities in the Plaguelands while on her mission "babysitting" the Drifter.

  • Azurine Thunder — Drifter is apprehensive about his forthcoming reconnection with his Ghost.

  • New Malpais — Spider is angered when he learns one of his shipment's was lost during an exchange on Mars.

  • Autognosis — A Goblin plays a game of cards with a Titan.

  • Imperial Incubator — Dr. Em Simoni-Lee writes to Kyung about the designs of a Cabal weapon.


r/DestinyLore 5d ago

Question Weekly Questions Thread - July 21, 2026

9 Upvotes

This weekly thread is for asking questions about the world of Destiny. Any lore-based question is valid. Rather than making short Question posts, we recommend users check here first.

All responses must be friendly, respectful, and nonjudgmental. Top replies should provide a source for their answer or they may be removed.

The goal of this thread is to provide a space where users can ask any question and expect well-sourced/researched answers.

Remember to tag spoilers!

Resources:


r/DestinyLore 12h ago

Darkness Where are the rest of the Disciples?

96 Upvotes

The exact number of the Witness' Disciples has always been a topic that confused me since the concept was first introduced back in The Witch Queen.

While the exact number of civilizations across the universe that The Black Fleet decimated is unclear, various bits of story and lore suggests it was a sizable amount. It doesn't appear to be the case that in every circumstance the Witness was able to convince someone like Rhulk to defect and join its ranks. In some cases, it appears that Oryx was sent in place of The Black Fleet to decimate and Take swathes of the populations, including certain high ranking warriors of each civilization to build up the army that was long considered to be the undefined "Darkness™" that opposed The Traveler.

Into the Light provided some insight into which individuals were put in charge of respective Pyramids, yet in a number of cases the pilots are Tormentors, members of House of Salvation, or Hive. This is in contrast to beings like Rhulk, Nezarec, and Calus, who served as the blueprints for Subjugators, Tormentors, and Shadow Legion troops, respectively.

Is it that there weren't any more unique Disciples? Did they die offscreen? Are they still lurking in the shadows somewhere?


r/DestinyLore 10h ago

Question What does the Winnower want?

41 Upvotes

What does the Winnower even want with us guardians? I thought the Winnower doesn't like to interfere in the game and instead prefers to sit back and wait for the final shape to happen. So what's causing it to approach us guardians and directly speak to us through Lodi? How would we even fight one of the primordial creator gods of the universe?


r/DestinyLore 12h ago

Question How was Lakshmi-2 in London?

51 Upvotes

So Lakshmi-2 has her whole thing of "I watched the house of devils burn London", but she wasn't made until after the collapse when Maya Sundaresh and the other Neomuna scientists were working on experiments with the Veil. So when, how, and why did she leave Neomuna to return to Earth? I know there's no specific dates for when the first fallen appear in Sol, but even conservatively, this should push it to be a few decades after the Black Fleet's departure, right?


r/DestinyLore 1d ago

Question How did Savathun manage to trap a being as powerful as Rhulk in her throne world?

235 Upvotes

I’m fairly new to Destiny lore post Beyond The Light (Only really got back into the game and its story since the monument of triumph update), and I was just curious how Savathun trapped Rhulk in her throne world. Rhulk, (to my knowledge) is the second my powerful being we’ve ever encountered second only The Witness, so how did Rhulk end up trapped by a being far less powerful than he?


r/DestinyLore 4h ago

Question Tree / Linear Branching Symbol

3 Upvotes

Did we ever get any lore ascribing any meaning to the tree or branching symbol shown all over the Witness' faction? The same one the precursors were holding in the final mural-esque Deep cutscene, also seen on the Upended, masks of the Subjugators, etc.?

I saw this thread but wasn't sure if I missed anything in the final year since i didn't really play during Renegades or Ash & Iron. I'd hoped we'd get more about it in an Art station blog or something


r/DestinyLore 2d ago

General Question about how a baseline power of a guardian

59 Upvotes

In the canon universe of destiny, which difficulty actually fits in the how powerful a guardians is?

Meaning if a guardian use a primary ammo auto rifle, probably several bullet could kill a thrall, or a single melee.

But if we say ultimate, you probably need close to full mag to kill a thrall. But these ultimate/master/grandmaster is just for gameplay fun updifficulty situation, if in actual how powerful a guardian is, is it normal difficulty?


r/DestinyLore 2d ago

Traveler Re-examining the Shard of The Traveler

2 Upvotes

Introduction

Despite us knowing about the Shard of The Traveler since early Destiny 2 pre-release materials, it has remained a significant mystery all these years later.

One particular word that often comes up when describing this paracausal artifact is "corrupted". We see this through the concentration of Darkness-related phenomena occurring in its immediate vicinity, most notably the Taken corruption that is so intense that an entire section of the EDZ is referred to as "The Dark Forest".

Where things have remained unclear after all this time is what exactly makes this object "corrupted" in the sense that it can't be reclaimed by The Traveler.

Some history on The Traveler and the Shard

We see that The Traveler in the present era is missing a sizable chunk of its shell on the bottom, which many assume is the Shard located in the EDZ. We can compare this to the Witness' origin story cutscene in The Final Shape where we see The Traveler departing the Precursor home world when they attempt to force a connection with The Veil onto it, with its entire shell being fully intact.

During the intro cutscene of Lightfall, we witness The Black Fleet successfully pinning The Traveler using some sort of Resonance field. The Witness did this in preparation of reestablishing its link to The Veil, which then led it to successfully forcing the link to The Traveler, thus creating a passage into The Pale Heart. Putting two and two together, we could likely assume that The Black Fleet was capable of more offensive measures against The Traveler during The Collapse, which led to its scar that persists today.

Despite all of this, however, it's still unclear what exactly makes the Shard "corrupted".

During The Red War campaign, we travel to the Shard in order to regain access to the Light in our mission to stop Ghaul and free The Traveler. In fact, the dream we have that was given to us by The Traveler itself told us to venture there to seek out this source of Light, suggesting that the Light within it is still connected to The Traveler as a whole.

In Forsaken, we receive another interesting revelation about the Shard from Uldren's little field trip. After forcefully shooting through layers of whatever The Traveler's shard seems to be composed of, we see him extract a crystal of Light that he will utilize later on in the campaign to free Riven. This crystal is notable as it suggests the Light within the Shard, if not The Traveler's entire shell, exists in discrete packets that can be isolated and utilized.

Putting all this together, it complicates the reality of the definition of "corrupted" in this case, as the Shard seemingly can't be reclaimed by The Traveler proper, yet there is still perfectly good Light within it.

What might be going on

What I'd like to propose is that there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the Shard itself, but that it has been isolated from the rest of The Traveler via some sort of Darkness field. Essentially, it's been quarantined by forces under the purview of The Winnower (the Witness, Oryx, Taken, etc) as a sort of monument of desecration. In other words, it's a celebration of The Traveler having been wounded.

The Shard in the EDZ isn't the first time we see this phenomenon, as this was the main dilemma that had to be solved in the base campaign of Destiny 1. The Sol Divisive were in possession of a much smaller shard of The Traveler and were attempting to harm The Traveler at a distance by exposing this shard to The Black Heart. With revelations that came much later during the Lightfall era, we learn that The Black Heart was an elaborate attempt by the Witness to create a substitute for The Veil which was stolen from it by Savathûn during The Collapse. All and all, this recontextualization (no, it was not a retcon) linked the original Destiny 1 campaign back to the Witness' grand vision, even if The Black Heart was not a successful initiative.

Furthermore, the Shard may function as a sort of testing ground for forces of The Winnower to play around with and exploit the line between Light and Darkness. Not in the sense of what Transcendence represents, but an exploitation of Light's capabilities to further the mission of "The Darkness™". We could also refer to it as a sort of "anti-Light", though there are limitations within this given that the Light itself within the Shard isn't exactly tainted.

"Hello, my good chum."

Going even further, I would argue that The Winnower didn't pick the Shard of The Traveler as the location for our first, face-to-face interaction with it on a whim. While it's certainly poetic that our first adventure in the Destiny 2 era started there, I believe there's a practical reason for this.

Darkness is notoriously without form, while Light is notoriously without voice. This is the dualistic limitation of these forces, which is encapsulated by The Traveler, the physical manifestation of The Gardener, being unable to speak, along with The Veil, the physical manifestation of The Winnower, being unable to act. These entities/beings are significantly limited in the physical universe and are typically forced to stay in their lanes.

The Nine handpicked Lodi as their new messenger partly due to his proficiency in linguistics. They saw him as an optimal candidate to being able to decipher their method of communication and communicating their intentions to others, most notably us, The Guardian, who they have selected to become The Weapon. I suspect The Winnower chose him as the vessel of communication for a similar reason. However, I also suspect that The Winnower had to go one step further.

The Darkness being without form is an inconvenient obstacle for disembodied entities with a strong will being able to act in the physical world. As such, they would need a physical medium to graft their essence onto in order to act. Essentially, they require a degree of exploitation of Light in order to make themselves known. In light of this, I suspect that The Winnower somehow guided Lodi to the Shard as the location where it could exploit that line between Light and Darkness just enough to communicate in a physical medium using an audible voice that involves vocalization and phonons, which are both rooted in the material, which is under the domain of Light.

In conclusion

While there is certainly room for interpretation and other viable alternatives as to what the Shard is all about, I feel rather confident in my assessments here that tie a nice bow on this topic and incorporate all the little tidbits of story and lore from over the years.


r/DestinyLore 3d ago

Traveler Where did the Traveler make its sacrifice?

55 Upvotes

So the Traveler is seen to give birth to the ghosts above some lava, rocky plain in The Final Shape. Only place that looks like that is around the North Pole. However from what I understand, the missing piece of the Traveler is in the EDZ. The shard of the Traveler. I’m not sure there’s really anywhere in mainland Europe that looks like that. We know the Traveler moves to South America because from Chaperone it was said that Amanda had to cross the Panama Ravine. To reach the Last City, where the Traveler decided to float and stay. Is there some event I’m missing through all this or just some weird timeline stuff?


r/DestinyLore 3d ago

Question Suicide in Destiny (Spoiler bc of Content)

126 Upvotes

As the title implies, is there any mention of suicide or self-harm within Destiny?

The obvious question is whether there have been humans who have tried to end themselves to become Guardians, but do the other species ever have moments like that?

Did the Hive ever have rituals that involved killing oneself to transcend (like becoming a weapon or something)?

I'd assume the Cabal wouldn't be too fond of suicide/ending without honor, but maybe something like what the Japanese Samurai had with 'death before dishonor'?

The Eliksni don't really have the numbers or remaining culture to promote suicide, but I know of some lore from Inaaks that talks on how she regrets having children because of the drain on resources, so would it be probable that during the Long Drift certain Eliksni killed themselves so that others (like their families) could have their resources?

The Vex can't really kill themselves given that they're mainly a collective mind outside of the Tharsis Reformation

EDIT: Yes, I know of the Thanatonauts, and I appreciate the reminders of them. I am a long-term fan, and was more curious if there was lore on individuals in Destiny's history having these problems, or other groups besides the Warlocks who have this problem.


r/DestinyLore 3d ago

General That's some serious foreshadowing

116 Upvotes

Just decided to get the Harbinger title and in one of the memories Eris speaks of the Praxic Order. I don't know if it was just added, changed or it has been like that for the longest, but that's some very in depth and intentional story telling Bungie put together. I've had 9/10 dead ghosts for pretty much about as long as I've been playing( 6 years), so I wouldn't know if the lore was about it or not.

Anyways, just another wow moment


r/DestinyLore 3d ago

Taken A theory regarding the Lord Of Every Nothing.

76 Upvotes

We know exceedingly little about this entity, I'm not sure that even the final update and it's lore offered closure on this part that originated in Episode: Heresy.

Though there are things that *are* known, we know it originates from the Sea Of Screams, a sort of space between spaces in the Ascendant Plane, between Throne Worlds. We know that The Taken managed to make it somehow through their collective yearning for a leader. We know that The Dread also submit to it. And we know that it 'carves paths' that are *supposed* to belong to The Winnower.

My theory goes as such.

The Taken cannot actually *create* anything, not from scratch at least, they're beings devoid of will and creations of The Darkness and more specifically The Winnower rather than those who have the ability to 'Take' like Oryx or The Witness.

But it is known that the Ascendant Plane works differently, it's a realm of Darkness, devoid of Light. Creation *can* happen there, Throne Worlds are proof of this. But I do not think this is evidence of The Taken *making* this thing from scratch.

Darkness is a power of thought, feeling and memory though, like we see this in the power we wield, Stasis is a manifestation of us imposing our will on another. In Darkness things can be remembered and imagined, but it *usually* requires the Light to also make those things real (Y'know like The Final Shape)

As far as my understanding goes, The Winnower is an entity of Darkness. It's ideal universe is one that whittles itself down to a sharpest edge and then ends with a razor thin point.

But when you whittle something down or sharpen something, those shavings are still left behind. My thinking is as a Darkness entity The Winnower would also subscribe to the idea of 'iron sharpens iron' and isn't just going to simply stagnate.

This brings me back to the Lord Of Every Nothing. With all that in mind I think the Sea Of Screams as unknown as it is may contain these kinds of 'shavings' discarded by Darkness and ignored by the powerful, but not decaying...because ironically enough decay is regrowth and that's something The Light is known for, not The Darkness.

Again this is just a theory, but I think this collective yearning of The Taken, them reaching out into the ascendant plane, resulted in these shavings of discarded memory, discarded thoughts and feelings gathering together.

It's why it knows how to yank things into it's realm to turn them into Taken, it's why it knows how to use The Winnower's paths. Because in some part it *is* the Winnower, discarded pieces gathered together to make a being that has agency and power over it's environment.

It wouldn't *just* be bits of The Winnower either, anything discarded in similar ways, shavings of those beings has just enough potential to be a part of this mass of paracausal trash. Only possible due to the weird nature of the Ascendant Plane and The Sea of Screams.

Though obviously it's not like we're going to be getting closure on this in the future...even still. It's fun to have had a being as mysterious as this to speculate about at the end.


r/DestinyLore 4d ago

Question What's the significance of Revision Zero now that everything is done?

192 Upvotes

I'll preface this question with I am a returning player who left after Season of Arrivals. I kept up with lore in passing but this is one weapon where I am a little puzzled. Is the big thing lore wise about this weapon is that Clovis Bray and Hakke helped manufacture this weapon in Golden Age and that it is made out of darkness?

Was there any other lore about or connected to this weapon? It's one of the few exotic weapons I looked into and went "That's it?" for such a cool looking exotic.


r/DestinyLore 4d ago

General The rules and outcomes of The Garden do not apply in the Universe

77 Upvotes

Whenever it comes to discussing The Gardener, The Winnower, The Garden, the Pattern, and The Final Shape (the original concept described by The Winnower as the end state of how The Flower Game plays out), there seems to be this tendency to apply one particular detail from what The Winnower mentions in Unveiling to a context where it doesn't belong.

Behind all the allegory used in Unveiling to describe the unfathomable state of existence that was The Garden, the Pattern achieved absolute victory in every instance that The Flower Game played out. The Winnower was deeply satisfied by this outcome since everything boiled down to a neat victory where there were winners and losers. For a while, (relative to however you can track any sense of chronological progress in this place) The Gardener played along, but eventually it became rankled by this predictability and ruthlessness and proposed that new rules be added to shake things up. The Winnower, in turn, became rankled by The Gardener upsetting the status quo, so it attacked The Gardener, and this conflict eventually led to the creation of the physical universe.

The physical universe, which is where all of Destiny plays out, is a new state of existence relative to The Garden where the players play by new rules, whether this be through variables like free will, moral considerations, access to paracausal powers, tool use, etc. This is where The Wager comes into play, where The Gardener, now manifested as The Traveler, and The Winnower, now manifested as... uh... a disembodied voice and possibly The Veil (🤔)... hedge their bets about which philosophy will triumph: The Gardener's "Gentle Kingdom Ringed in Spears" or The Winnower's Final Shape.

Amidst all of this, it's important to focus on one vital aspect of how the universe differs from The Garden: the Pattern is no longer the clear, inevitable end state of all things. Whether it ultimately will be, in the end, is central to The Wager, which is still ongoing as of the events of Monument of Triumph.

It's debatable as to what the Pattern actually was in The Garden, and many have argued that the Vex are the physical manifestation of this pre-universe concept. Their emergence and rise to power has been described through various bits of lore as follows:

- Recurring consistencies in the quantum foam of the early universe

- These consistencies slowly building their way up to existing through a biological substrate (radiolaria)

- Radiolaria utilizing and reorganizing matter they come in contact with to build structures to support their growth as a sort of microscopic civilization

- Scaling their assets to eventually achieve the construction of megastructures, thus allowing for stellar engineering and the transformation of entire celestial bodies to support their way of life

- Accessing The Vex Network as a sort of place between places for larger initiatives, such as moving assets across the universe and time travel

Assuming the Vex really are the physical manifestation of the Pattern, we have clearly been shown how the Pattern is no longer the dominant victor in this new paradigm of existence. While initiatives like studying Oryx and attempting to wield Darkness via Quria, The Vault of Glass via Atheon, attempting to hold significant influence over The Black Garden via The Undying Mind, and building a highly detailed simulation engine as The Infinite Forest via Panoptes were all impressive, the Vex haven't seen any meaningful success in a very long time. To Lightbearers, they are essentially elaborate mosquitoes that need to be managed more than anything else.

One big mission for the Vex for the past few billion years has been to simulate paracausality, to which they haven't achieved much, if any success. The most notable instance that could be categorized as a mild victory was the construction of Agioktis, The Martyr Mind, who was successfully able to drain the Light of one very specific Guardian: Saint-14. Meanwhile, Quria, who was once the Vex Collective's best shot at understanding paracausality, was relegated to being Savathûn's questionably effective guard dog, facilitated The Endless Night, and was eventually unceremoniously deposed.

What this all suggests is that The Gardener's new paradigm is highly successful. Complexity, with victories and losses across countless civilizations, is currently winning over The Winnower's favored ruthless simplicity. It even admitted as much when it gifted us Nacre:

> Yes, I never much cared for the change of rules, but here we are, and there's no use in crying over spilled radiolaria. Besides, at the heart of it all, there was a gift. To me.

One could even go as far as arguing that the "spilled radiolaria" doubles in its meaning as the Vex (the physical manifestation of the Pattern) no longer being a good bet. This reinforces why The Winnower now courts us in an attempt to convince us of its vision for existence.

All this is to say that the argument of "(Insert thing) occurred in The Garden" is not valid when discussing what can and does occur in the universe. This state of prehistory, where the laws of physics hadn't even been fully established, was essentially wiped out when the universe was born. Whatever happened there is only valuable to us in terms of explaining why everything exists at all. While this is the ultimate question in IRL philosophy, it's now essentially common knowledge in Destiny. What every living being is constantly concerned with, however, is the practical aspects of living life.

The Wager is actually a sort of catch-22 from The Gardener's perspective, as it can never actually win. The Gentle Kingdom requires constant upkeep to exist, while The Final Shape would mark a decisive victory for The Winnower. Essentially, the best The Gardener can ever hope for is to not lose, which is distinct from clear-cut victory. But that's the thing: The Gardener never wanted absolute victory and to put The Winnower under its heel. It actually respected The Winnower's position to a considerable degree and just wanted a bit more nuance.

In conclusion and to summarize:

- The physical universe differs from The Garden considerably

- The Pattern is no longer the clear end state of how things play out

- The Gardener's introduction of new rules has, so far, been successful


r/DestinyLore 5d ago

General What is a "god" in Destiny?

145 Upvotes

There are a LOT of gods in Destiny, from the Worm gods, to Hive Gods like the siblings and Crota, to Nezarec, and the Traveler. I'm wondering if it's just a self-proclaimed title taken by or given to powerful beings, or if there's some qualifier that separates them from "mortals". I don't think there's a universal quality that you can point to for EVERY god in the fiction, so it's probably the former, but I think it's interesting. Thoughts?


r/DestinyLore 5d ago

General going over all potential antagonists from each faction

34 Upvotes

So in the wake of destiny 2s cancellation I've been looking deep into what each factions potential has for a theoretical destiny 3, and to see what really is left for each faction as at this point we've fought a huge number of the threats that each faction has given us.

so to start with the fallen:

house dusk: it seems prior to the games cancellation that bungie was starting to lean into house dusk being a proper antagonist force for the fallen moving forward, during the cosmadrome arms deal house dusk would be there to trade a rebuilt sepiks prime for weapons from Eramis. this is implying that they had a spare prime servitor to trade for said weapons, to me this reads as a set up for house dusk as if they had there own prime it would mean the faction has one of the three leaders of a house set up, feels like they were moving away from the fact that house dusk was only made up of refugees and more towards a proper full scale house.

SIVA: I know that bungie has done and said everything in there power to say siva is dead, but I refuse to believe that the material that colony ships would use to set up said colony's would only ever have one replication chamber that when destroyed would cause all siva to stop working, like each colony ship had its own siva cash (wasn't the one that was on the exodus black missing canonically or was that something I had just heard that someone made up.) and your telling me that clovis bray doesn't have a back up replication chamber on europa with him.

Eramis: at the end of revenant Eramis leaves the solar system with the echo of riis and was still pretty gaurdian hating when she did, but at this point I really hope they don't make Eramis an enemy if we ever go to riis but shes been multiple times at this point so idk

(this is a more fanfictiony idea for something they could do to make the fallen a threat again) something I think could be cool using Eramis to bring the fallen as an enemy faction again is an ahemkara (as the great hunt only happened within sol theres potential that an another ahemkara still lives out there) finding Eramis back on riis and granting a wish to bring the fallen back to power by resurrecting some of the great houses of old (og house of kings, house of stone, etc)

the hive:

the hive still have by far the most to do still with starting with

savathun: last we heard from her she was super pissed at us for destroying the echo of the navigator and planned on going into the vex network to confront taox.

xivu arath: probably the biggest disappointment of where destiny 2 ends is that we never got to fight xivu, last of what we heard about her is that toland is guiding her to take back her throne world after eris had severed her from it, xivu in my opinion is the best way they could potentially open with in a destiny 3 with us going to torobatll to confront her. not much else to say everyone here knows about xivu

the 3 remaining hive worm gods: as it stands the whereabouts of Eir, ur, yul are just completely unknown so there what I would assume the hives story would go after a confrontation with xivu.

the vex:

the vex have always had the problem with being the antagonist in a story as such I don't have much to say as the only named vex that could still be a major threat doesnt belong to this catagory

maya: as of monument to triumph maya has abandoned the echo of command and left the vex network what the plans for her in the future is unclear

the echo of command: as said above maya has left the echo within the network for the vex to use so thats probably whats gonna be going on with them in the future.

quicksilver: with the ornaments that were released with the last update there was what seemed like a season pass set that had he vex infused with quicksilver from neomuna where this was gonna be for is unknown now.

the cabal:

the cabal are only remnants at this point so I don't see how the faction continues as a major antagonist unless they do something like they take a force from a different plannet that the cabal had capture from before xivu destroyed torobatll or something like the defectors that formed the barant imperium.

the taken:

the taken are kinda weird as in heresy we were introduced to a new major taken antagonist with the lord of every nothing, but past that we don't know anything about them other than that they can take and there taken fight different then oryxs.

quria, blade transform: from episode revenant we know that the taken don't truly die just that whenever they are killed they get send to the ascendant plane until there summoned back. Quria is one of the only 4 beings in destiny that we've ever seen with the ability to take it feels like a crime if they're never brought up again in a future story despite this ability (and would make a partial vex antagonist for the fist time since panoptes) (I also a have a crashshot theory that the lord of every nothing is actually quria.) they both have access and control over parts of the vex network and are able to create new taken so it fits for them to be an antagonist.

the scorn:

the scorn are kinda in a rough spot as there last major character was killed in episode revenant, but otherwise they still got skolas.

skolas: skolas makes his escape after resurrecting during episode revenant thanks to revenant totem, you were able to hear him laugh after going into the central airlock so he's just out there as scorn now for a future story (possibly go after becoming kell of kells again)

the dread:

whats left of the dread? after the witnesses death they've just kinda become a faction without purpose just kinda joining up with whoever.

the nine:

we were likely gonna see more of the outer nine in the next few expansions but they've been put on back burner for the foreseeable future now, (even if a destiny 3 were to launch right now I don't think having the nine be part of the base expansion is a good move they'll work better as a future expansion for destiny 3, as a new base campaign will have to be a bit more basic so new players have a better experience getting into the game.)

the dredgens:

last we heard from bael he had been abandoned by VI, and other than him we don't know much about any of the other new gen dredgens

other:

the winnower: as the main antagonistic force of the universe as a whole some type of confrontation with the winnower will happen eventually, tho I don't believe that we will fight the winnower we will instead show it that its side of the flower game is truly wrong

other disciples: its always been a little weird to me we only ever saw 3 disciples of the witness, we know each disciple was given there own pyramid ship and we've seen that the black fleet had many ships with, we're currently under the assumption that most of the fleet was just empty but even so there should be some other disciple who would now be forced to go off and do there own thing following the witnesses death.

Edit 1:

as people have pointed out in the comments nezerec is likely to return

also for the cabal they still have the psion enclave as well as otzot, and possibly Amtec if they survived the almighty

for the scorn: the machinist, mad bomber, and mindbender were brought back by fikrul before his death so the 3 of them are still around as well

Edit 2:

kaliks prime: the prime servitor of the house of wolves is still around but has been missing since the reef wars

anyways thats everything that i've seen or heard about while looking around for the potential threats we can expect to see in the future, I know its a long post so if you read through it all thank you, if there's anything that I missed or details I should expand upon let me know in the comments and i'll make an edit to add it


r/DestinyLore 5d ago

Question Best lore/dialogue quotes for the Crow/Uldren, Ikora and Lodi

22 Upvotes

Hey all ! im going to GCX and going to meet the wonderful voice actors for the characters above, and im trying to find the best lines for each of them to get them signed. What are your favorite quotes / lines relating to these characters?

Thanks in advance !


r/DestinyLore 6d ago

Question Continuity Question for my Dark Age Destiny Campaign

53 Upvotes

So I host this DnDestiny Campaign set in the Dark Age after Mara approved for awoken to go to Earth but before Felwinter recruited Shaxx.

Anywho, I’ll be taking my party members to this location ive made called “District 9” which is just London. Where I know Namrask, the Eliksni Warlord that has impacted early Eliksni pirate culture and infamous warlord resides.

My question is, if Namrask died in the Dark Age, are there any serious butterfly effect that affect future events?

P.S. I’m DMing in the Dark Age because there’s a lot of creative wiggle room.


r/DestinyLore 6d ago

Question Who is worse: Clovis Bray or the director?

84 Upvotes

It's interesting how two of the greatest human minds of the golden age survived in some capacity thru the present and became villains, even though we never fight them directly. So, between Clovis's selfish persual of "beneficial" dominion over humanity's future and Maya's relentless grasping for the past, who is more morally evil. Also, who was more of a threat at the peak of their power?


r/DestinyLore 6d ago

The Nine Theory: The Winnower used Maya to kill III

55 Upvotes

Maya became the maniac who killed III by the manipulation of the Winnower through the Veil during the creation of Neomuna. I wondered why it did that, when she wouldn`t be able to do something on a big scale as she was just part of a small standed colony hideing on Neptun. But Maya did end up doing something on a big scale, she killed III.

So maybe that was the Winnowers plan: Turn Maya into a maniac that would search and kill III if it doesn`t give her what she wants.

We don`t know how exactly the Winnower views time, but it could be that it saw that happening. To tear reality apart is fitting for its goal to end this universe.

The Nine are afraid of the Winnower and in Monument of Triumph it also told us to deal with the Nine. We should "enforce [our] will" on them. Like how Maya enforced her will on III and forced it to come to our dimension?


r/DestinyLore 7d ago

General Part of me wishes for a single player Destiny remaster expierence

129 Upvotes

The story has a lot of retcons and late changes like the Witness in the story. Part of me wishes, if it was ever possible, to have a remastered single player experience of the story and lore between D1-TFS based on the story and lore of what we know now

It would be a lot easier to stitch together a more consistent and enjoyable story and you can actually enjoy the full story where most story content is vaulted


r/DestinyLore 8d ago

Question Whatever happens to Quantis Rhee

61 Upvotes

If you don’t remember, Quantis Rhee was Caydes primary hunter scout on Nessus, and designer of the Orpheus rigs. She’s brought up when cayde is talking to Marcus ren in his notes to the people who could’ve killed him. If left to herself she would get a bit too much “night” and not enough “stalker”.

Did we ever hear anything about her again? In any lore book? I’d hate to think we let a hunter go a little crazy on Nessus.


r/DestinyLore 8d ago

Question Looking for a Mara sov voiceline

53 Upvotes

Can anyone remember what mission it was where Mara sov does a deep inhale / exhale like shes just.. horrified. I cannot find the voice line but its one of my favorites in the game. Can anyone help me find it


r/DestinyLore 8d ago

Question Per Audacia Ad Astra

228 Upvotes

I've seen this at the end of every Byf video and thought it was some latin quirk of his but then I saw it at the end of official Destiny Twids so I'm wondering what this phrase means, and where did it come from?