#Ulan-Tan

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

Marcus Ren is a Hunter who became a legend in the Cosmodrome due to his skill in the Sparrow Racing League. He's also creator of the Fr0st-EE5 and St0mp-EE5. Marcus was also part of several fireteams of Guardians deployed to the Cosmodrome in the aftermath of the SIVA Crisis. Also I believe that "Don't notch your cloak for every bounty. You'll run out of cloak." was said to Shaw, no reason, just funny.

Ulan-Tan was a controversial Warlock whose teachings formed the core doctrine of the Guardian faction known as the Symmetry. Ulan-Tan's Thesis concerning the nature of the Darkness posits that the Darkness is a necessary symmetry to the Traveler in the cosmic balance. For unknown reasons, Ulan-Tan was viewed by the Vanguard as a troublemaker with dangerous ideas that inspired too much fear. At some point, Ulan-Tan died and was interred with a legendary burial ring. A grove on the Jovian moon Io is named after him.

[thefirstknife]

I'm here to distract people from the sadness because there's some super WILD shit going on with Avalon and Asher's discoveries within the Vex Network.

So when you find all three secrets (not chests, extra three secrets that involve destroying the three Vex type pyramids with Vexcalibur in each section), you get an extra section to teleport to where Mithrax shows a simulation of what Asher has been working on. He simulated... well. The Veil.

This is exactly the same as the one from concept art, aka where we can see the full thing. The stuff on the left? People theorised egregore, but it didn't look like egregore to me, but also I never figured what else it might be. And here we can see what it is. It's the Tree of Silver Wings.

My other post with pictures of the Tree, both the one Io (which this one is identical to) and the one from the raid (which is more evolved so to say).

This feel like some sort of a joined manifestation of both Light and Dark. Perhaps some primordial entity. Or as the artist put it: "physical manifestation of incomprehensible cosmic energy. Window into the mind and memory of the universe." Something from Before(TM)? From the original Garden or from the beginning of the universe? Something from the Witness' "first victims" as Nezarec put it, but who were they? The Garden itself? I am losing my mind.

The garden grows in both directions. Ulan-Tan's symmetry. Etc etc.

Video with Mithrax's dialogue.

[flowers-of-io]

I'm doing some masterful acrobatics to dodge spoilers until I get through the whole campaign but so far I've done two missions and I'm LOVING it. Gosh we are SOOOO back!!!!

THE HAWK!!!!!! Mara crying on comms! Pujari and Ulan-Tan being discussed! Cayde is so cool as a mentor figure here and I love his dynamic with Crow and Glint. I'm feeling extremely soft and protective over the Traveler and I'm so worried for Ghost. The dialogues are splendid. The pale heart is so painfully familiar and comforting and beautiful, it makes me think again of what has compelled me in the Light in the first place. It's this sort of homecoming, of safety and love and warmth, of things being good. Augh Book is relevant again I guess. And the vision at the start!!!!! Gosh that was so fucked up!!!!! I want 50!!!

[synnthamonsugar]

DESTINYTOBER: Day 13 - Guardian

Read it on AO3

Aryn belongs to @wonderwafles

. . .

Phoebe didn't know why she allowed herself to get cajoled into joining these Tower mixers. Parties weren't her scene, and as far as she was concerned she got enough socialization on patrol. Still, she knew Ylenna would fret about too many nights spent alone in her apartment if she didn't — and there was food — so she relented. 

Tonight's mandated mingle placed her at a table of Lightbearers who challenged her faculties of recognition to varying degrees. No one was totally unfamiliar, a few she even knew casually, but she might struggle with names if pressed. 

They'd breezed past initial smalltalk and into the question-based party game part of the evening. Thoughtful quiet fell upon the table when one bubbly hunter asked:  "Greatest Guardian of all time. Go." 

"It's gotta be Osiris, right?" opined a titan, "He's done too much to not be. Hell, he's doing more than most even without the Light."

"That's blatant Ikora erasure," chimed in a warlock, raising her hand to preemptively silence the titan. "Yes, yes, I know — Osiris was her mentor, but sometimes a student surpasses the teacher."

"And Saint's better than either — "

"Ulan-Tan? He had no right to be right about everything, and yet — "

" — don't want to be controversial, but Savathun convinced the Traveler to give the hive the Light. That has to count for something —"

Through the lively chatter, Phoebe locked eyes with the woman sitting diagonal from her. She maintained a parasocial rivalry with Aryn, who she regarded as something of a dark mirror to herself — both Awoken Titans, heroes of the Red War whose lives diverged toward different paths. Where Phoebe walked in the Light, Aryn stepped in the side of the Darkness. Rumors swirled of lavish audiences with Calus, of prowess on the Gambit field and mastery over Stasis. Accomplishments from before her time, too, probing the mysteries of the Dreadnaught and killing the Taken King himself. 

If there was a choice that Phoebe made, Aryn was assured to have done the opposite. Morally, Phoebe found her reprehensible, but couldn't help but appreciate the inverse symmetry between them. On some level, she wanted to pick her brain, try to piece together how they could be so similar and different at the same time. In Aryn, perhaps she could find proof by contradiction of her own ideology. 

(And, perhaps, a friend. She got a tingle of excitement thinking about winning her over, and quickly buried the thought.)

Aryn gave a knowing smile. Surely she'd also heard stories about Phoebe awaking the Traveler, and killing it too. The rumors of her resistance to the Darkness. Maybe even the death and revival of her Ghost. How did she feel about Phoebe killing her once-beloved Emperor? 

Phoebe twisted her lips in kind, hoping her grimace didn't show through. 

The murmur at the table drew quiet. 

"Well? What do you think?"

"Yeah, you two haven't said."

Everyone looked in the direction of the Awoken Titans, awaiting their answers. 

Phoebe wanted to say: Me, I'm the greatest guardian to live. No one has done what I've done. She thinks if Ylenna heard her speak those words, she would slap her across the back with such unconstrained pride that she wouldn't be able to breathe right for a week. She also thinks it would sound insane to everyone else.

After a pregnant pause, Phoebe looked to Aryn again, hoping to bait the self-congratulation out of her so that she could acceptably do the same. "You first."

Aryn laughed. "No no, you go. I insist."

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

●Half-Truths◌

A fine blade, but seems like it's missing something…

A star I think. We count on stars as steady friends because they always rise and always shine but a star's a delicate truce: an explosion caught by its own mass so that it can't erupt and can't collapse. Thus I imagine the state of the machine might be. But one force or another has gone awry and now it rests here, snuffed and broken, waiting for the two rival forms of ruin to be set in balance again.

"Duality is not a curse, but a gift." —Author unknown

"The road ahead is unknown, but time tells us many things. The moments that become past in turn become blueprints for the future. In this space, there is no right or wrong. "We find a contemporaneous merging of what is known and what is unknown here. Somewhere between the knowns and unknowns lies the real. The tangible. "There is a weight to it; a feeling that tells you what you hold is true. "But what if the truth hasn't been told? What if the truth is a lie? "New paths present themselves. Blueprints change. We walk the line of truth every day. "But now, the line that holds the gentle balance has been crossed. "The truth is, this won't be the last time." —Excerpt from the Symmetry pamphlet, "A Place Between"

◯Feet alone cannot take us to where we're going.❍

Matt, Matt, wake up!

I was thinking about how there's no true end to anything

Everything comes from and goes to the same place

Nowhere!

So, if the beginning is the end

And the end is the beginning

Then what's the end anyway?

Does that help you sleep better?

Like the rosy haze of an apocalypse sky

Or the comfort inside of a lie?

◐Close your eyes, and open your mind.◑

"To have Light, we must have Dark. This is the symmetry of the Universe." —Controversial Warlock Ulan-Tan

I propose a simple experiment—look around. You see light. You see darkness. There could not be one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin. If it is true for these Newtonian echoes, why would it not be true of the purest, paracausal forms? Therefore, I conclude: the reason you persecute me is not because of the symmetry. It's because of the truth beyond this truth, the truth which you most dread: if we could destroy darkness, but we had to give up our Light to do so, how many of us would make that trade?

◯Turn your eyes inward, upon your ideal self.❂

No matter where you start or where you end

You are in between the Where and When

You are in the middle of The Loop

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Do you feel half empty or half full?

Is everything beautiful or dull?

Flip a circle and the middle stays the same

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Halfway

We're halfway home

Slow down

The day's boutta be gone

The sun goes

He sleeps until dawn

Slow down

The day is gone

A gardener and a winnower sit down to play a game called Possibility. This is a game about a garden, which is to say that it is also a game about flowers, just as a game about a living being must also be a game about organs and bacteria. A gardener and a winnower collaborate to create a protein. Whose hand is it in the design, that shortens one life to extend the rest? It is the winnower that discovers the first knife, but it is not done without the gardener. This, too, is a tradition: a knife does not come to exist without something that must be cut. A woody stem, a colored petal, a vital vessel. The first victims of the blade. All of these are true. All of these are false, for metaphor simplifies as the knife does. It pares incalculable concepts into shapes your wrinkly little brains can comprehend. The weight of billions and the simple curve of a planet give you pause, and how then are you to be expected to grasp the forces that created your nth-removed creator?

//

ACCESS: RESTRICTED

DECRYPTION KEY: 2CA9SXUO2C$IKO-006

REP#: 011-PSYCHOMETER-TEST

AGENT(S): TRU-135

SUBJ: PSYCHOMETER FIELD TESTS

1. The new version works. Love all the knobs and antenna; very analog. I took readings off a hatch control out here on Europa and Cowlick was able to retrieve badly distorted voices in some kind of distress. I don't know if it's doing exactly what you Warlocks want, but it's doing something all right. Cowlick says it's probably tapping into her scrutiny, if you permit that term in your ivory halls.

2. Now, I'm not much for gadgets, so I won't ask you how you rigged this thing. But I am one for gossip. Weren't we closing in on some kind of workable theory of exactly how our Ghosts resurrect us? One which was, if I am not mistaken, based on research by the Future War Cult? Did any of that work survive Lakshmi?

3. You know they did try to recruit me once. The Cult. Over a game of poker. Fifty-two cards in a deck don't seem like many, this hard-ass Titan told me. But there are 80 658 175 170 943 878 571 660 636 856 403 766 975 289 505 440 883 277 824 000 000 000 000 different possible shuffles of 52 cards. You could walk back and forth across the observable universe faster than you could count all those possible shuffles. A lot faster. That's life, she said, and she had daisies impaled on the spikes of her skull. Life is endless permutation. So many possibilities. But the rules are what matter. Who cares how the deck shuffles if you don't know the rules of the game? We play this game over and over. Life and death. Light and Dark. But the only way you learn the rules, the only way you're ever gonna get one of those Truces you're named for, is if you come inside. Come into the Cult. Come on in and see. But I didn't.

We don't get a choice about the rules. We just play the game.

4. Another thing she told me is that you can play poker with just three cards and two players. Jack, Queen, King. Ante one, max bet one more. High card wins unless one player folds. And in this game, there are many strategies available to the first player, but very few to the second, who acts to exploit the choice made by the first. Many possibilities against few. Sounds like you'd rather be the first player, huh? But if both players play perfectly, that second player wins in the end. Mathematical inevitability. Ain't that something? But I said, your game's just a toy. It's just a contrivance. That's not life. Life isn't one player always exploiting and beating the other.

5. Anyway, back to testing. Might go back to Cocytus and aim this thing at the gate. See how wild it goes. If you never hear from us again, you know Truce and Cowlick finally found something too spooky.

MESSAGE ENDS

If the Light forgets while the Darkness remembers, then why does a Ghost's power of determination let it access latent memories imprinted in the dead? That's paradoxical. That should be a property of Darkness. How can such fundamentally opposed forces do the same thing? Am I as shallow as those Guardians arguing over power levels? Trying to force a simple binary upon a complex spectrum… ? The Drifter talks about "spectrums of Light"—powers his Ghost can access because of its modifications. Forcing the metaphor, I thought. Light is not light. It doesn't have frequencies or spectra. But if we are all constrained by our internalized ontology, by our tacit understanding of how the world works… maybe the circumstances of extreme survival compelled the Drifter to explore a new ontology. Maybe his Ghost achieved a new way to think about the Light.

△To know true color, you must first know Darkness.▼

"We are unique emanations of the same shared Light." —Cult of the Aeons

We are prismatic. We are fractal. We are microcosmic.

"You must learn to tease apart the hues of your own heart." —Parables of the Allspring

I turn

I turn my headlights on

I turn my headlights on

And suddenly I can see

I learn

I learn of right and wrong

I learn to follow one

And suddenly I can breathe

I turn

I turn my headlights on

I turn them on

I'm aware of all my parts

And suddenly I see everything wrong

Then I get tunnel vision

Closing in over me

I forget, with love as my witness

I can stand on my feet

I fall back then I see

Tunnel vision

Closing in over me

I forget, with love as my witness

I can stand on my feet

I fall back then I see

Can I get, can I get out?

Can I get, can I get, oh

Can I get, can I get out?

Can I get, can I get, oh

I burn

I burn my candle out

I burn my candle out

(Can I get, can I get

Can I get, can I get out?)

So nobody else can see

I've learned

I've learned what made me start

What turned me on

Now I'm scared of all my parts

'Cause suddenly I can see everything wrong

Then I get tunnel vision

Closing in over me

I forget, with love as my witness

I can stand on my feet

I fall back then I see

▶The courage to walk into the Darkness, but strength to return to the Light.◁

Fear. That’s the only vivid memory left in me. It’s the moment when my fear was so thick and urgent that I gave up breathing. I stopped pretending to think. How I remained on my feet was a mystery, because the terror was bearing down on me, like a mountain about to crush my soul. But I have to ask, “What was terrifying me?” Darkness ruled the sky. The world around us had shattered, and it seemed vanishingly unlikely that we would outlive this one awful day. Yet the fear didn’t come from the surrounding mayhem and despair. The source was inside my skin. I was utterly terrified of my own awful nature. And which part scared me? Inside me was an essence woven from beyond. Was I Awoken before this? She was still in my head. I could hear her song growing fainter. Gone? Not yet. A new crippling terror was taking over. I was focused entirely on my fear. But I had to make an effort. And it occurred to me then that nothing in the universe was more dangerous than human hubris. I still had this Other within? But the human side was what mattered: Weak and foolhardy, sure to fail in the next moment. That’s why I was afraid. Then someone spoke. Maybe it was me. I don’t remember. I was trying to focus, and a new thought took me: My soul lay between those two entities. And that’s how I am still: The boundary, the seam. The friction. And that’s when the fear began to fade.

◮One day, you will see them both.◭

Let's make a toast to the damned

Waiting for tomorrow

When we're played out by the band

Drowning out our sorrows

What will become of us now, at the end of time?

We'll be fine, you and I

Let's draw a line in the sand

Keep it straight and narrow

We had it all in our hands

We begged and then we borrowed

What will become of us all at the end of love?

When we've stopped looking up?

You can take my heart

And hold it together as we fall apart

Maybe together we can make our mark in the stars we embark

And keep us together as the lights go dark

Let's tell the truth, just for once

Asking for an answer

Now that it's all said and done

Nothing really matters

What will become of us all if we dare to dream?

At the end of the scene?

You can take my heart

Hold it together as we fall apart

Maybe together we can make our mark in the stars we embark

And keep us together as the lights go dark

Let's open up to the sky

Askin' it for closure

'Least we can say that we tried

But it's never really over

What will become of us all, at the end of the line?

Will we live?

Will we die?

You can take my heart

Hold it together as we fall apart

Maybe together we can make our mark in the stars we embark

And keep us together as the lights go dark

⍱Let the heat melt your body so your soul might flow with the river of time.⍲

Raise your voice and sing.

"The Veil." It names itself, as the Human mind named itself, with the weight and presence of sound on the lips, translated into a form that you can physically comprehend. Encompass. Envelop. A touch of teeth and tongue. A vibration of an eardrum. Air moving through a chest cavity. A taste of breath. More than that. Not nearly as much as that. That was the beginning. "Be known." This is next: you see the whorl and weft, the place where it joins itself in one smooth, unbroken surface of light. Make an incision, and from the wound of light will pour forth colors you have never seen. You are pigment, the pigment closest to those colors. "Be seen." Wet matter set against that light, the light that determines what color you are. But each color is a note, and each note is a mind. You are a choir. A chorus. You open your mouth to join it, and you are flooded with the taste of color, with the taste of sound. The sound and color that you are, translated. A means for you to understand. "Be heard." You raise your hand and hold it steady.

|| There is whispering from the deep-dark, alluring and terrifγing—a reminder of things left behind, bittersweet and abhorrent. ||

⬤Does one life across infinite realities equal immortal life?♾

We are thinkers, daring to dream about the universe and its infinite expanse.

⨀Perhaps that is all we are.☯

I see an abyss. Small and distant shapes. I'm walking in your nascent memories. Flickering motes. I sense… curiosity. You've always pondered, from the very beginning. As did we. I see tessellation. The pulsating hum of cosmic structure; a kaleidoscopic symphony of Light and Dark. What was the Veil to you? Since I woke, I've always felt like I was still dreaming. I'd like to think that's how you feel as well. Those of us that hunger for a great truth—we dream with you. —Unknown Warlock

The Other Half

If only there was a way to combine them…

Even the most perfect of pearls has grit at its center.

…it's within you too.

There's that wild, incurable curiosity.

A long time ago, there were three sisters. A Voice in the Darkness put a lie in their hearts, and they've acted on it ever since.

Just as you've been lied to.

Light and Dark. Witness and Traveler. Always doubled. Always pitted against each other in some grand game. Well, I've had enough of their games, haven't you?

Let's break their rules. Together.

Pnuvyhujl pz h wypzvu jlss. Zvtlaptlz hu lunyht pz aol rlf.

When I was a New Light, our trainers made us meditate for hours on end. Sitting in silence, focusing on a single point: a candle, a mirror, the Traveler in the distance. I thought we were focusing our Light to manipulate the physical word. But now, centuries later, I finally see what they were trying to teach us. The point is not the Light. The point is THE POINT. The singularity through which all power flows. Darkness and Light becoming one in an endless cycle, like electrons bouncing between anode and cathode. A prismatic circuit.

[gionkonrad]

Wednesday, August 28 2024;Journal

Akala ko may quiz kami kaya nag study/review ako Hanggang 1 am. It's a good thing na nag announced si sir Tan, na di sya makakapasok today kaya wala akong first subj.

Sobrang lakas ng ulan pagkagising ko, naghihintay nalang ako ng suspension pero wala eh, so ayun pumasok ako.

Late ako dumating pero goods naman, mabait si sir Rouie, pinayagan parin akong mag sign sa attendance.

After that, yung mukang tamad namin na teacher sa com prog 1 naman yung magtuturo. Kung maka salita kala mo may tinuturo sya eh, para syang patay kung magsalita, tamad na tamad magturo, walang sense. Sayang 2 oras sa kanya, okay pa self study talaga kesa naman yun. Pag napuno talaga ako di ako papasok sa lecture nya at mag self study nalang talaga, pero sayang attendance eh.

So lunch na, well kasama mga classmate, pumunta kami sa sm food court, chill lang, usap usap.

Pag balik namin sa STI, sinabihan kami na, suspended na yung class kung kelan di na umuulan.

[arthez]

Ulan benim WhatsApp tan mesajıma iki gündür cevap vermeyip beni az önce instagramdan çekilişe etiketlemiş olamazsın yaaa yapmamışsındır bunu yaa

[raiasintended]

The Symmetry and Ulan-Tan finally rediscussed in the new content……. my tiny little lore hyperfixation is relevant again 😭

[psychicllamacookieranch]

Evanescence - "Tourniquet" (Lyrics video)

mga kantahon nako ai--sa ako mga problem--

asa na ang salvation:(

im true lost==

you are true lost--na esaved--

pero wala!!!

waaat??

bleeding!!

screaming!!

grrrk!!

yaw kay mag ulan unya:( pud:(

okey --im hapi:)--tan awa ra gud:)

grkkk louy pud nako oi:)

pero hapi ko ron man:)

--kapoya pugong sa emotion na makalagot:)

hahay best--iloveyoul godbless youall hurot nalang!!

[hriobzagelthewanderer]

Mangroves for the Soul

[Continued from here with @sins-of-the-sea]

The words spoken by Ulan seemed to hang over the table between them, forming a fine, silvery mist... only for azure, crimson, amber, and emerald to flow from the other side where the Fae sat- forming a veritable aurora of power in the air between them... a collection of forces and magics that only grew brighter as all the colors seemed to meld together into a bright, pure silver - and in a flash, everything went white for the long-lost servant of 'The Master'.

However, as the light slowly faded to black, the man's kind words washed over her, even as she started to feel... well, everything more - the way one might feel if one had worn thick, cumbersome gloves all ones' life only to have them taken off and handed a soft, warm, cuddly kitten to hold... though, oddly enough, the inescapable, inexplicable feeling of something flowing into her chest was chief among them.

"I will not lie, Ulan of Tangway; I can no more promise you that the Master will fall and all will be freed, than I can promise you a place among the very stars for eternity... however, your help will prove instrumental towards doing all in our power to help make that goal a reality. The future is not yet set in stone, after all... which means we both have a lot of work to do... do not think, however, that the Kataw as you refer to him will be the only enemy we will possibly face... or that I will be your only ally going forwards..."

As soon as the light had fully faded to black, a hint of light would return, but only the faintest hint of red... and the sensation of being held.

Where once the Shamanic Fae had held a simple compass in one hand, he now gently - and somewhat red-facedly - held a tan, long-raven-haired woman of far smaller stature than himself - who was not wearing a single scrap of clothing.

Clearly he had forgotten to account for something when he worked his magic upon her - and no, as much as some part of him was steadfast on maintaining his stoic, gentle, almost lordly demeanor in front of her... there was no way he was going to be caught ogling her like this.

"...Please, open your eyes, Ulan... you have them again, to start with, so that might be good practice right now for getting used to having everything else again..."

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

So. There were a lot of submissions. As you can see - more then 32. I tried to be as honest and fair while choosing but I couldn't. I only added Marc Kay because he is my personal lorebo, the rest was yours to decide.

Andal Brask

Quantis Rhee

Marcus Ren

Enoch Bask

Marc Kay

Namrask

Shin Malphur

Fenchurch Everis

Maya Sundaresh

Nkechi-32

Micah-10

Sjur Eido

Chalco Yong

Willa Bray

Camrin Dumuzi

Wei Ning

Ulan-tan

Ubartu-ana

Aunor Mahal

Dregen Yor

Luzaku

Nabenki

Sok'tol

Moli'imoli

Sai'mota

Pujari

Kamala Rior

Ace

Aisha

Tevis Larsen

Umun'arath

As you can see, there is one more place left now. To make it fair, here is a pool that will decide who will get in from the rejected batch.

Poll button

People who sent me submissions: @echosong971 @dein0nychus @rabbitlost @khashoggisship @titan-mom @synnthamonsugar @cassiefisherdrake @flowers-of-io @siyurikspakvariisis @xazz @thetruenightzedge @the-half-guardian and one anon.

DESTINY LORE BLORBO ELECTIONS

That's right, folks! We are having another elections and this time they will be all about lore-only characters. Rules of submitting:

character can't have an in-game model

they can have an official artwork

they can be from any sort of lore; including lorebooks, armor/weapon lore, collector booklets, Grimore, D1 Grimore cards and comics

Elections should be starting on Monday.

I'm taking up to 32 submissions.

[apocaiipsis]

“Whatever came for us… it will come again. That is the nature of symmetry." —Ulan-Tan

[screaming-skvll]

“You ever hear of the Symmetry?”

“Uh... old City faction, right? Ulan-Tan, those weirdos?”

“Yeah, that was them.”

“Why do you ask?”

“...You know anything about their teachings? What they were about?”

“Not really. Some stuff about the Light and Darkness counterbalancing each other, or something.”

“Yes, that was part of one of the basic theses.”

“Why are you asking about this?”

“Just curious. Did you know that certain adherents of the Symmetry sought to apply their principles in concrete ways, beyond just discourse?”

“Uh, no... But what does that mean?”

“Well, for instance... the idea you mentioned, the necessary counterbalance of Light and Darkness—I’ve heard a weaponsmith was inspired by this truth, and bent all her skill to creating a gun that embodied that duality.”

“Wait—you said ‘this truth’. Do you mean...? Do you believe in this Symmetry stuff?”

“...That story is true, and that gun is real. Let me show you the weapon, and then you can decide what you think we should believe.”

(Symmetry)

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

From the writings of Ulan-Tan, recovered after his death: … It is because Light and Darkness are connected that great sacrifice was required of the Traveler: that which was once in balance was no longer, and to equal Darkness with its Light would take more than had ever been given before. So the Traveler created Ghosts; Ghosts created Guardians. And afterward, the Traveler became quiet. Dead, some thought, or dreaming. When a Human being commits an act of great cost, we know this as injury, as muscles torn and bones broken. It requires rest; frequently, it requires intervention to heal. As simple as the helping hand of another to lean on, or as complex as deep surgery: the constant theme that it cannot be done alone. Even to rest safely in quiet requires another to take over the matters of life that cannot be put off, which do not pause themselves simply for the fact of being asked kindly. So: the Traveler strove greatly, and then became still. How do we believe that it is anything but injured? The Speaker tells us the Traveler is not dead, and I believe this. It is sleeping, resting from its great deed. The sacrifice made for us, to create us. There is a debt thus owed. If we understand that Light is connected to itself—that the Light in Guardians is the same Light as that in their Ghosts, which in turn is the same Light as the Traveler's—then the answer is clear: that those possessed of the Traveler's Light, defended and upraised by it, stand in the best and in fact only possible position to pay back that debt. Who else could even hope to do so? I argue that our duty is to try. Even the act of defending the Traveler so it may heal is some measure of action. But if there is more that can be done, then we who it has defended owe it to the Traveler to do so. Remember that, in Light or in Darkness.

Have you ever been afraid of your Shadow?

Not the mimic who follows down the Garden path or casts itself upon the wall as the sun sinks into Darkness. I mean the one inside. In your nightmares, your dreams, your visions, do you see the worst parts of yourself? The parts you can't even put to words? The parts for which there are no words? The patterns of your life, stretched across the mandala of time and space.

They reflect us all darkly. They wait for moments of fear and weakness to send us spiraling into Collapse. But we cannot exist in the Light without casting a Shadow. This is the pain of existence itself. But know this; you are not alone. Never. Every day I fight my Shadow. And struggle in the dirt. And lose. Over and over. We all do. And in these struggles we change, we find and take new shapes to survive, to grow, to become. But we cannot fight these Shadow wars forever. We must face them. Understand them. Accept them.

The metamorphosis will not happen overnight, but such is recovery; it "is a spiral, not a circle. You may return to the same patterns, but you will break free." My friend Eris told me that. She proved the logic in it. So now I share it with you, dear Traveler. As you await your Guardians, flee your Dark Shadow no longer. Instead, become one with the current. Strive to know the Darkness in your own Heart.

Be free.

Be brave.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

Symmetry

"Duality is not a curse, but a gift." --Author unknown

Type: Scout Rifle

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Revolution - This weapon fires full auto. Hold reload to swap to Arc Seeker mode. Arc Seekers track toward enemies you target.

Trait: Dynamic Charge - Precision hits build up Dynamic Charge. Swapping to Arc Seeker mode increases damage and partially reloads the magazine based on the number of charges.

Masterworked Trait: Electric Styx - Increases the maximum number of Dynamic Charge stacks.

Ornaments: Skyline Constellation, Binary System

Origin & Description: Seasonal exotic of the Season of Dawn, Symmetry takes its name from a Guardian faction known as the Symmetrists and their most well-known philosopher, the warlock Ulan-Tan. Ulan-Tan theorized that both Darkness and Light formed a cosmic balance and neither could exist without the other, making the idea of "defeating" the Darkness ridiculous. He also theorized that there was symmetry in the Guardians' relationship with the Traveler - that as the Traveler had raised Guardians from the dead and healed their wounds, it was a Guardian's duty to raise and heal the Traveler. Whether he intended to or not, Ulan-Tan wound up the focus of a lot of controversy, which he didn't much help by asking, "Are you afraid of me, or are you afraid I might be right? If in order to defeat Darkness we had to give up the Light, would you do it?" He also totally called Guardians out on our tendency to look upon marvels and turn them into guns: "Give a power to a Guardian and they shall know that power as a weapon, for when a Guardian chooses to alter the world, they do so with the bullet and the blade. Grant a Guardian godly power, and that Guardian shall fashion it into a perfect rifle." Yeouch. I think people may have just disliked how badly Ulan-Tan had our number.

Symmetry itself is an exceptional scout rifle and a lot of fun. I'm biased here because it's basically an exotic version of a legendary weapon I already have and love: a full-auto Vouchsafe I call "the nailgun" for its pinpoint sights and the pneumatic pew-pew-pew of its firing. The Scout Rifle archetype, intended as a middle ground between Sniper and Pulse Rifles*, has generally longer range than Pulses but smaller magazines and no burst fire; however, some scouts can roll the Full-Auto Trigger System perk which lets you hold down the trigger to fire continuously, and it turns out that lets you use some scouts as essentially very good pulse rifles. Symmetry fires at 260 RPM, the highest speed currently possible for a scout, and fires full-auto. Hold reload to engage that cool blue marbled-ink effect and swap to its alt-mode Revolution, in which it fires slow homing Arc Seeker rounds like a backwards Skyburner’s Oath. The two modes synergize via Dynamic Charge. Dynamic Charge builds up in regular mode as you land precision hits (similar to Polaris Lance). When you swap to Revolution it'll consume your Dynamic Charge stacks and give a massive damage buff to your Arc Seekers based on how much charge you had. Symmetry will also auto-reload when you swap modes based on the number of Dynamic Charge stacks so you don't waste part of your overcharge time reloading. Unmasterworked, Dynamic Charge will stack up to x15; the masterwork trait Electric Styx raises the cap to x20.

* Unfortunately Bows are kinda eating Scout Rifles' lunch at the moment. Bows also live in this mechanical space, and while they fire slower they hit hard and are overall more fun.

In a game deservedly famous for its weapon design Symmetry still stands out as extraordinarily beautiful. Season of the Dawn has an elegant, clean aesthetic that stands in sharp contrast to the overgrown rust of Season of the Undying and I am 100% here for it. The moment one of the art directors mentioned using 18th-century navigational instruments as inspiration I was all in and after a few weeks of playing I am even all-er in. The sleek coiled barrel at the center of its default look spirals outward in Revolution mode as the entire weapon lights up a deep royal blue with sparks and those strange marbled-ink patterns. The ornament Skyline Constellation, which drops from rank 100 of the Season Pass, changes it to white adorned with golden map-like tracery and changes the coiling barrel shroud to a series of winglike ornaments; switch to Revolution mode and those wings fan out as all the linework ignites. It's truly a gorgeous weapon.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

[ Ace of Spades | Ager's Scepter | Anarchy | Arbalest | Bad Juju | Bastion | Black Talon | Borealis | Cerberus+1 | The Chaperone | Cloudstrike | Coldheart | Collective Obligation | The Colony | Crimson | Cryosthesia 77K | DARCI | Dead Man's Tale | Deathbringer | Dead Messenger | Devil's Ruin | Divinity | Duality | Edge of Action/Concurrence/Intent | Eriana’s Vow | Eyes of Tomorrow | Fighting Lion | The Fourth Horseman | Forerunner | Gjallarhorn | Grand Overture | Graviton Lance | Hard Light | Hawkmoon | Heartshadow | Heir Apparent | The Huckleberry | Izanagi’s Burden | The Jade Rabbit | Jötunn | The Lament | The Last Word | Legend of Acrius | Leviathan’s Breath | Lord of Wolves | Lorentz Driver | Lumina | Malfeasance | Merciless | MIDA Multi-Tool | Le Monarque | Monte Carlo | No Time to Explain | One Thousand Voices | Osteo Striga | Outbreak Perfected | Parasite | Polaris Lance | Prometheus Lens | The Prospector | Queenbreaker | Rat King | Riskrunner | Ruinous Effigy | Salvation's Grip | Skyburner’s Oath | Sleeper Simulant | Sturm | Sunshot | SUROS Regime | Sweet Business | Symmetry | Tarrabah | Telesto | Thorn | Thunderlord | Ticuu's Divination | Tommy's Matchbook | Tractor Cannon | Traveler's Chosen | Trespasser | Trinity Ghoul | Truth | Two-Tailed Fox | Vex Mythoclast | Vigilance Wing | The Wardcliff Coil | Wavesplitter | Whisper of the Worm | Wish-Ender | Witherhoard | Worldline Zero | Xenophage ]

[magnetic-terp-output]

Inktober 2019 - 01 - “Ring”

(Destiny, Ulan-Tan © Bungie Studios)