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sundayswiththeilluminati · 6 years ago

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Legend of Acrius

“In the Cabal legend, a hero seeks to possess the sun. He succeeds. Then he becomes Emperor. The Cabal…are not a subtle people.” —Tyra Karn

Type: Shotgun

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Shock Blast - This weapon fires blasts of high-damage Arc energy that overpenetrate enemies.

Trait: Long March - Detect enemies on your radar from farther away.

Masterworked Traits: Deeper Pockets - Increased ammo reserves. Trench Barrel - After a successful melee hit, this weapon gains increased damage, handling, and reload speed for a short duration—or until three shots are fired.

Ornaments: The Emperor’s Pleasure, War Beast Skin

Origin & Description: Legend of Acrius is another enemy weapon Guardians can acquire, this time from the Cabal. The Cabal Empire is one of the four main hostile factions in the solar system, and maybe the best at war. They're basically space Romans if Romans were seven feet tall and built like bipedal rhinos in mech suits and also had dealt the Guardians their biggest defeat in the history of ever. Both male and female Cabal serve in the armed forces and are indistinguishable to the human eye when suited for combat. Out of combat, females can be identified by the pair of forward-facing tusks along their lower jaws that emerge as they reach adulthood. The Cabal rule a massive interstellar empire that stretches way beyond our solar system - we’re the equivalent of a troublesome border province to them - and have conquered multiple worlds and multiple “client species”. Among the latter are the Psions, a species kept more or less in permanent bondage for their unique mental powers.

In Destiny 1 we only had a minor Cabal scouting legion to deal with, though they still caused massive headaches; but in Destiny 2 the Cabal drive the base game’s plot. See, that scouting legion reported back to the current emperor, Dominus Ghaul, describing among other things the ruined-but-still-potent Traveler and the incredible feats accomplished by those gifted with its Light. Hearing these stories, Ghaul decided to come to our system personally to take the Light for himself and his own elite fighting force, the Red Legion. Ghaul had unexpected aid in the form of one of the Nine, who - man, let’s not even get into what the Nine are right now, it’s enough to just say they’re mysterious and very powerful - who concealed his approach until he descended directly upon the Last Safe City. The Guardians fought back, of course, but this wasn’t Ghaul’s first rodeo. The Red Legion brought with them a giant boot designed to confine the Traveler (which, fair, it's been illegally parked for centuries) and cut off its power. And - well, it worked, and it sucked. Without their Light newly-mortal Guardians were cut down by the Red Legion before they realized what happened. The old Tower was destroyed in moments and the City occupied within the day. This invasion, which became known as the Red War, devastated both the City and the Guardians. In other words...we got our asses kicked.

Eventually we clawed our way back into the Light and into the City, kicked the parking boot off the Traveler, faced a Ghaul energized with stolen Light, got our asses kicked again, then had the Traveler go "oh my god FINE I'LL DO IT" and vaporize Ghaul itself. Oh, we also had to destroy a Cabal superweapon aimed at our sun along the way. It was called "The Almighty." Yeah, that bit about the Cabal language having no word for "hubris" is right on the money.

Although we toasted Ghaul the Red Legion is still in our solar system and they're nothing if not trained professionals equipped for the long haul. They've occupied Mercury and Mars and are actively scavenging resources and technology to build their forces back up. The Spire of Stars raid involves killing the new leader of the Legion, Val Ca'our, to keep them on the back foot; they're no longer an existential danger to the City, but Red Legion forces still pose a major threat to anyone outside its walls.

As if it weren't enough that we have to deal with Red Legion holdouts, there’s another Cabal faction in our solar system: the Loyalists. Ghaul became emperor by deposing the previous emperor, Calus, who had also become emperor by force (remember, space Romans). Calus led a populist revolution to topple the ruling military Praetorate and eventually the deposed ruling class struck back. After the coup Ghaul and Caiatl, Calus’ daughter, put him and his loyalists on a prison barge called Leviathan locked on a course for the edge of our galaxy. Problem is, Leviathan got there. And when it did, Calus went outside and encountered something...else. Something pyramidal, and hungry, and imminient. And long story short Calus is now hanging out in our solar system aboard the Leviathan, by now retrofitted into a kind of colossal world-eating Space Vegas, drinking and yelling about how it’s the end of the world so let’s fuckin party. Calus’ hedonistic nihilism started off kind of funny, but it wasn't until the Season of Opulence that we learned just how dark his philosophy really is, what he means by "the end of the world," and how serious he is about his determination to be the last being alive. I won’t go into details because the details are gross but among other things Calus basically had his future-predicting psions write a fanfic describing the murder of every single character in the game, often in grotesque Hannibal levels of screwed-up. The dude is off his fucking rocker, is my point.

Unfortunately Calus is also very smart, and as the former ruler of a military dictatorship he knew exactly how to get the Guardians on his side from day fuckin' one: loot. Tons and tons of loot. The Emperor is more than generous with his (obscene space future-tech) wealth, and the sad truth is Guardians will do anything for shiny guns. So for the time being the sentiment towards him in the new Tower is neutral to slightly favorable, which is astonishing given the Cabal literally blew up the old Tower. Me? I hate him. Calus is actually the only character in Destiny lore whom I hate. Not as in he's a bad character - in fact he's an amazingly well-written and -acted character - but as in I hate him, and I hope Rasputin feeds the Leviathan some antimatter ordnance as soon as possible.

Calus decided upon seeing that world-swallowing fleet of Darkness that there is no possible hope for any living being and the end is certain. Having decided that, he then asked himself what a loving and generous god-emperor (as he believes himself to be) would do in this situation. Naturally the answer was to conquer any civilization that tried to fight back against said tide of Darkness - because resistance is futile and fighting back will only prolong their suffering, so a kind god-emperor like himself who has seen the truth must force them not to prepare for an unwinnable war but to pass the time they have left joyously. Embrace your life today - pass your days in gluttony and hedonism - and then embrace your death with the same enthusiasm when Darkness comes. In other words it's not enough that he's a fatalistic, selfish coward, he's making war on anyone trying to fight back to force them to be cowards as well. You can see, perhaps, why I hate him.

Anyway, Legend of Acrius is his fanciest gift thus far. It's a Cabal shotgun, and having been murdered by numerous Cabal shotguns, Guardians can attest to their potency. Unfortunately, there’s a catch: have I mentioned lately that the Cabal are fucking huge? The scout rifle Skyburners’ Oath, a regular-sized gun for a Guardian, was made as a sidearm for a Cabal elite. Legend of Acrius? Is the actual size of the actual Guardian trying to use it. Equipping it cripples your mobility stat, noticeably reducing your movement speed and jump height. In return you get a “shotgun” that’s more like (somewhat) portable artillery. Two years and a few hundred light levels since its introduction Acrius’ railgun-style Arc blast still slices through crowds and puts down big-ass damage numbers on the scariest bosses in the game. When paired with rapid-reload perks like Lunafaction Boots, anything you point it at won’t be bothering you for long.

With the disappearance of Leviathan around the same time as the Black Fleet's arrival, Acrius' acquisition quest has changed to simply purchasing it from the Tower's Monument to Lost Lights. Its two ornaments are also both Cabal-themed. "War Beast Skin" changes its surface to resemble the rough red scales of Cabal war beasts (or "knife dogs," to use their Guardian name). "Emperor's Pleasure" changes its Red Legion colors to the white-gold-purple of Calus' Loyalists.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

#Destiny 2 #Legend of Acrius #Emperor Calus #Dominus Ghaul #The Cabal Empire #Destiny Compendium Exoticarum #this is the wager of existence #Destiny

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