#destiny 2 meta

[therealtsk]

Destiny's Lore, and Why It Didn't Need The Witness

So, I know most of you follow me for Worm or DC stuff, so here's an admission of my tragic past: I used to be a big Destiny fan! I know, I know, i'm losing followers by the letter, but in my defense, I dropped out years ago, around Shadowkeep. I briefly checked the game out again during the Witch Queen but never actually finished the campaign since I didn't have any friends to play it with at the time and so I couldn't force myself back into it's goddawful grind. To be clear, I've never played Destiny for the gameplay. I'm one of those weirdos who actually really, really liked the setting's lore and world building. It was one of the most unique things I'd ever seen, this really engaging mix of high fantasy and sci-fi all at once. And you know what? Some of Destiny's lore books are honestly incredible! The writing is emotional, the prose evocative, so many alien perspectives expertly captured. The Books of Sorrow, Thorn, Truth to Power, Book of Unveiling, The Ahamkara gear...goddamn, they're so good. But I got caught up on Destiny lore a little bit ago, and...wow. Bungie did it. They killed the last thing I still loved about Destiny. And they killed it with the Witness.

Let's talk about the Witness for a bit. The Witness has taken the slot of the new Big Bad for the Destiny universe, previously held by The Darkness. Their backstory is that they used to be individuals of a race that was the first to be blessed by The Traveler, Destiny's slated Big Good. This race proceeded to have a golden age that lasted for eons, with them eventually running out of things to do, and thus asked the Traveler to tell them what their purpose is. Obviously, the Traveler didn't answer, and their entire civilization had a collective existential crisis so hard that they decided that if the universe didn't come pre-built with a purpose, they'd just kill everyone and reboot the universe so that it did. To accomplish this, they tracked down the Traveler's never-before mentioned Dark counterpart and all fused into a single being, seen here. And on the topic of the Witness's appearance, I'm sorry, but the visual design here is just...bad. It's just bad. It's almost painfully generic. They have a geometrically rippling long black coat with no defining features, a pale human-ish face, and their brain appears to be leaking other faces in a smokecloud constantly, which i think looked far cooler on paper then it did in a render. Compare this to Savathûn or even Oryx's visual designs and they don't hold a candle. Speaking of comparisons to the Hive Gods, this is where my rant truly begins, so buckle up.

The fact that the Witness has all but replaced the Darkness- newly released lore suggesting every time we thought a character was interacting with the Darkness itself, it was really them talking to this character- that the Darkness is now stated to be completely apathetic and unintelligent, nothing more then a power source to draw upon- not only runs directly counter to some of my favorite lore in the franchise but cheapens every other Darkness-affiliated plot line and character. Not only does the Witness not speak at all like The Darkness has in the past, making the claim of them being one and the same dubious to me, but it also results in all of the Witness' Disciples (their right-hand men) being shoehorned into storylines in ways that feel almost painfully lazy. Case in point: The Lore of the Hive. As mentioned above, The Books of Sorrow is some of my favorite sci-fantasy with fantastic horror elements and incredibly evocative bits of prose. It's a gripping narrative how in the face of utter annihilation, a group of siblings make a desperate bargain with unknowable creatures once kept buried beneath the earth...and how their once noble efforts to save their people from death turns into a bloody conquest across the stars. It's an excellent tale, showing us how the truest test of character is who you are when times are hard- will you let those hard times twist you into a foul shape, or will you endure in spite of them? It establishes the cosmology of Destiny, with the Hive and Worm Gods being established as some of the most powerful and important beings in the story, powerful disciples of The Deep. With the new retcons, Rhulk (a Disciple of the Wintess) shows up, basically tells the Worms to shut up and listen cause he's the real Disciple of the Darkness, not them, and they're going to fall in line now. Because now, instead of the syzygy being a real threat that did devastate the planet the Krill lived on, Bungie's saying that the entire thing was a lie created by the Witness and the Worm Gods. Which takes the aspect of "sometimes bad things just happen but it's up to us to choose how we will let those things change us" that's key to the narrative and completely removes it- which is so backwards from how this all works! Evil lives in all of us, waiting for when we're weak to tempt us into doing what's wrong in the name of survival or pleasure or whatever virtue it disguises itself as- it doesn't stroll up out of nowhere and create a twelve-step-point-plan to ensure that we become evil too! Putting aside that, as I admit it's a subjective criticism based on my own perspective on the nature of morality, I think it greatly cheapens multiple other stories. Now that the Darkness is completely amoral as a force and it's just the Witness who is corruptive, I guess Dredgen Yor, Jana-14 and all of the other guardians we've seen fall were all getting brain blasted by this one dude, instead of their falls being a result of being seduced by power they should have known better then to touch blindly. Now, I can already hear people saying "But what about Stasis!" And yeah, I have Thoughts on Stasis too. I don't entirely dislike it, but I do dislike how it's been executed. Sword Logic works- or worked- by basically asserting yourself above physical reality. "I am the strongest thing alive, and I prove it thus." You defeat a powerful enemy and take their strength for your own. That's something you can work as being doable without inherently corrupting you. After all, it's not considered evil to fight for your own survival or for the protection of others. It just so happens that constantly introducing your brain to the idea that killing other things will make you objectively better then them is bad for you even if those powers weren't sourced from a primordial consciousness that has and will try to influence you for it's own ends.

To use a metaphor, Sword Logic is akin to something like nuclear power- sure, it's got one hell of a kick, but if you let your guard down around it, not only will it fuck you up but it'll contaminate everything around you with the fallout. But now to say that "nope, the darkness is totally fine and not even alive and aware it's just the same thing as the light but different colors and this whole time it's just been this one guy who's been ruining it for everyone else" is so...god, it's so much less interesting. And I think ultimately, that's my problem with the Witness. As a whole, they are just so much less interesting then what we had before! I loved the Books of Sorrow and Unveiling so much because it was such a fascinating display of completely alien thought and genuine nuance. The Darkness doesn't do what it does because of any tired trope of "evil nihilist" or just might makes right, it's a living embodiment of a cosmic philosophy in a war with another, both of them arguing for how all of creation should work. Whether or not the only things in life that matter are the things that live, and that to live is to suffer so ergo only that which cannot break should live, so you must break everything until only the absolute strongest shapes remain- or if it is possible for creativity and diversity and soft things to exist and create a life that is worth living in spite of the inevitable pain we all go through. That is so much more interesting then a bunch of dudes who are ultimately just mad about the fact that there's no easy to find and read manual for our purpose in life! It's such a basic, not to mention human motivation in comparison to what The Darkness had when it was a character in it's own right. And so...yeah.

[locrianking]

Lightfall & Aspect

hi destiny tumblr!

it’s me, your local lore geek. as we speak, i am working on a (long!) meta post about the connections between the lightfall campaign & the aspect lorebook. i haven’t really seen people talking about these ties so i wanted to do it myself.

in the time it takes me to write this, i really really encourage anyone confused about lightfall to read aspect! if nothing else, read it so you can rip my theories to shreds when i finish this meta. but seriously i can’t encourage it enough, go check out aspect please

[macgyvertape]

I think this is a really plausible theory and a lot of the timing matches up when you consider Bungie’s leadtime on seasons is about 5-6 months out but was probably longer in 2020/21 due to Covid. (From a game director’s tweets today 12/7/22 we’re in s19 ingame and they’re working on s21).  Witch Queen delay was announced Feb 2021, about 8 months before planned release, Grasp of Avarice was released about 6 months before Season of the Haunted aka second season of year 5.

So it would make a lot more sense to move forward a dungeon from the second season of year 5 than create a new dungeon from scratch alongside the workload of bugfixing Witch Queen and creating Dares of Eternity for the 30th Anniversary.

When you consider the plan of some big new content tied with each season ie: Expansion/Dungeon/Raid/Dungeon, and how as you mentioned GoA theme lines up really well with Plunder’s themes, the then later dungeon of Duality being pulled forward to replace the original second season again seems more likely than leaving Haunted as the last season and dungeon and creating something to fill the gap. 

Duality seemed to be released earlier than intended with an above normal amount of bugs, and the Hakke armor seems thematically out of place. But might be more fitting releasing in season 19 with the Hakke interactables this season has. 

I wonder what the [unknown] season 18 would have been, it would have definitely involved Ana Bray and Rasputin but after Season of the Risen’s main enemy types were Scorn and Hive I would be surprised if they would be repeated so soon if it was Xivu-Arath as the antagonist since the main enemy types this season are Scorn and Hive. (side note: it’s been a very  heavy Scorn as main enemy type year). I also wonder when the order of subclass reworks were decided, Arc 3.0 lined up nicely with Plunder and the Fallen arc shields, but Solar 3.0 worked really well with the Incandescent perk pool of Haunted. 

Season of the Haunted with Duality being a Calus focused dungeon makes a lot of sense as 4th season of  year 5 with the focus on him right before he’s the main antagonist of Lighfall in the same way Savathun was the main antagonist of Season of the Lost before Witch queen. Both seasons served as a way to really develop the antagonist of the next expansion especially for post-Content Vault players. As it is Calus has been sitting around for the past six-ish months, which is anticlimatic.

 A lot of the storyline points you raised really support this theory, especially how Calus possesses the Lunar pyramid in Haunted and it’s developed later in Plunder when the significance of Nezarac’s pyramid would be better written by building it up first and then he possess it. I don’t think Bungie will ever give an answer about this, it’s weaknesses in the story caused by need for gameplay objectives but it’s very interesting to speculate about.

who wants to hear my theory about how the post-WQ seasons had to be rearranged due to the delay (and removal of the 2nd darkness class), which led to plunder feeling so half-baked

if you said no too bad i already started the post

So my theory is that, in the initial D2Y5 roadmap, the seasons were meant to be:

Risen

Plunder

[Unknown]

Haunted

This would have led to the story, roughly, being as follows:

After defeating the lucent brood's scheme to take over the Scarlet Keep, and defeating Rhulk, the witness thaws out Eramis. We race her for the relics of Nezarec, and bump heads more than once* with the Lucent Brood, who are also attempting to gather power for a plan C since "kidnap the traveller" and "overlay the throne world onto the moon" both failed. After gathering the relics and reviving Osiris, we learn about a "secret" hidden away on Neptune that even Savathun feared. [speculation about S19 follows, since all we have confirmation-wise is that Seraph Rounds are being reworked] However, we have no real means to go on a scavenger hunt across the surface of neptune. However, we do have a golden age supercomputer that also kept meticulous records of everything leading up to the collapse, and enlist Rasputin's help to find this secret. Based on this lovely text post by @thefirstknife, it is confirmed that Neomuna is the result of an Exodus ship sent to Neptune during the collapse. However, between the text post and the fact that we didn't know about it til now, it would seem the records were then purged from Rasputin's logs. Season 18, then, would consist of piecing together the mystery of what happened to this ship and why all traces of it were erased. However, as we're wrapping up our investigation, the Leviathan returns. We deal with the Leviathan, and the Nightmares, only for Calus' broadcast to go out to the city. Fortunately, Rasputin's finished his calculations, and has pinpointed the location of Neomuna. All that's left is to get there before Calus...

There are a bunch of other, smaller details that feed into this theory as well though.

Dungeons. Under the current plan, we have Duality and an unknown S19 dungeon. Under my proposed original setup, the dungeons would have been a Plunder dungeon, and Duality later. However, consider that when WQ was delayed, one of the pieces of content we got to tide us over was... a hive and fallen populated Dungeon, with a pirate theme, where the central mechanic is collecting treasure engrams. Which would fit pretty cleanly into Plunder, no? And given the timetable, they wouldn't be able to build a new dungeon from scratch in time for S17. But, they could pull the S19 dungeon ahead. Maybe by truncating the loot pool, and letting it ship with some bugs that, while annoying, don't make it completely unplayable. Then they'd have until S19 to make a new one 🤔🤔🤔

The Nezarec plotline, in general. We get a random Glaive with his name on it, then we get lore for him next season. Sure, it's a neat (unknown at the time) preview, but it would have a bigger impact if we knew who Nezarec was before getting the Glaive.

Haunted's writing. While the broad strokes were good, the mission-by-mission writing left a lot to be desired. If they had to rush it 6 months ahead of schedule, it makes sense that they'd just turn their notes into some monologues and call it a day. (As an aside, I think the Sever's would have worked better if they went Crow - Zavala - Caitl - Crow - Zavala - Caitl, giving each character 2 weeks off to process their failure and prepare before diving in again)

This would also mean that season of the Haunted takes place during Festival of the Lost, which lines up nicely.

Season of Plunder, where we smuggle spider into the city, would happen before Guardian Games. As it stands, the lore text for the Mark of Medal class item is incredibly out of place, as it implies Spider is in the City. As of Season of the Risen, he is... not, and so the flavor text is weird.

[ahamkara-apologist]

okay disclaimer: ik that categorizing female characters as the 'mom friend/figure' is a legit disease in fandom caused by general misogynistic views of female characters, and it's something that personally greatly irritates me bc its not only awful to do, it also tends to ruin the characters its put upon. ESPECIALLY in D2, which is outstanding in its cast of strong female characters

however. in the case of Eramis, I do believe that the fact that she was a mother and is a genuinely caring, nurturing person at heart is something that is a deeply important core part of her character, as well as thematically important to the future of the Eliskni moving forward. It's important because in her case, I believe that her motherly inclinations are why, pre-Witness-whispering-through-the-Darkness, Eramis was such a successful kell- because unlike some other kells who sought a future for the Eliksni via domination, her main focus for them was to create a haven for her people that could be defended from Lightbearers. Riis-Reborn wasn't something to sniff at- it was the closest thing to an actual Eliksni city in a very long while. What got her was her trauma of the Whirlwind and her desire to destroy the Traveler to level the playing field for everyone involved- trauma that the Witness preyed upon in order to get to us. Like a parasite, seeking its secondary host. Eramis certainly is not the only Eliksni who lost her family during the Whirlwind, but I think that her specific brand of anger is closest to that of a mother lion whose cubs are in danger, and is lashing out in a furious fight-or-flight reflex at anything that she perceives as a threat. It's just that in this case, her 'cubs' were the Eliksni as a whole, and the threat she perceived before the Witness started torturing her was the Traveler.

I also think that her relationship with parenthood also makes for a very interesting character contrast to Misraaks (aka the other successful kell viewed as a source of hope for the Eliksni), and helps to set them up as antiparallels to each other. Eramis was a gentle, nurturing mother with a reverence for the Traveler who turned into the bitter, cunning warrior we see now when she lost access to her wife and children; Misraaks was a fearsome, ruthless pirate before he became a father, which gentled him and turned him towards being more pious. Eramis represents the old ways, and offers hope to the Eliksni who cannot bear to cohabitate with humanity; Misraaks represents a change in the tide, and kells the open-minded Eliksni who are willing to lay down their arms to live among the humans of Sol. Misraaks is of Light (change, forgiveness, moving forward), while Eramis is of Darkness (memory, control, looking back). They're opposites in every way except for the fact that both of them were/are amazing parents, and I'd argue that their ability to nurture and overlook others is what led to their success as kells.

Most importantly, however, is their relationship to Eido, who represents the future of the Eliksni. Misraaks was her father, and he did his best to raise her to be kind and openminded, but he also shielded her from the horrors of the past a little too well. She's outgrown that, and now that she's strong enough to handle said horrors, Eramis has been acting as a mentor to fully introduce her to the tragedy of what she lost and why elder Eliksni are so angry about it- and I don't think that she would have been receptive to Eido attempting to talk to her if it weren't for the fact that under all of her prickly armour, she's still that nurturing person at heart. It's her desire to care for others and to see a better future for her people that has kept her going despite her having no hope for herself, and it's that loving heart that has saved herself and her people from utter destruction at both our hands and Fikrul's- because if she didn't look at eido and go 'oh this child is the future of our people and i must protect her with my life', then both her and the rest of House Salvation would have been marked for death. And now here she is, continuing to care for Eido even as her father declines by telling her stories about Riis and helping her track down an apothecary to try to cure him, despite her not believing in his ways. I don't think it's entirely because she used to be a mother, but...I do think that it's playing a huge role in it.

(I also think it's personally fascinating to see how someone who used to be known for being a doting, sweet mom to her hatchlings and a caring mate to her wife can turn into someone who's a terrifying warrior on the battlefield and a cunning, politically saavy ruler, but even then, that doesn't surprise me all that much- if you've got a dearth of experience wrangling hatchlings, then being kell of a house is basically just wrangling a bunch of grown-up hatchlings. Same principles, just upped a level or two in complexity.)

[zalia]

y'know, I think you can do a coherent reading of the Witness as an analogy for generative AI and now I've thought it I can't unthink it... (I do not think this was the intention of the writers but it kinda fits)

the Witness is incapable of creating anything original, anything it makes is just a remix or mockery of other things. It's soldiers, the Taken, the Shadow Legion, the Scorn, the Wrathborn, even the Hive, are all twisted versions of things that already exist - the Hive are a species it changed. The Dread in Final Shape are looking to be warped versions of different species.

It's pyramid ships are terraforming parts of the Earth right now, and Terraforming is something that the Traveller does, but the Traveller brought life, while the Witness can only turn things into a sterile place devoid of life. It rages against the Traveller because it wouldn't give them purpose, never understanding that purpose is what you create for yourself - the same way AI bros want to make art without actually doing any of the work or having any of the inspiration

[destiny2paladin]

The amount of fun one can have in destiny is inversely proportional to how effective the loadout would be in high-end content (raids, dungeons, etc.) Maximize the silly. Make that build around that niche exotic nobody uses. Make the hardest fit ever to go with it. Minmaxing is for nerds, just make the stats what you feel is right. Have fun, because it's all just a game.

[tacticalgrandma]

This bit keeps sticking with me, when it comes after the Witness's "We know pain. Our purpose is its end," which comes after Rohan's "Pain reminds us that we're alive, that we're still fighting." Lightfall starts off with the Witness being this unstoppable, untouchable force, that unmakes Ghosts and Guardians with a literal flick of its wrist. And then the rest of the expansion sets up why it just kind of sucks at what it's pretending to be.

Osiris defines the Light as being the physical, and doesn't just link the Darkness with the immaterial—he links it with thought, memory, emotion, soul. The Witness is a being of Darkness, and Darkness is the nature of being alive. Darkness is emotion, fear is Darkness, pain is Darkness. The Witness speaks and portrays itself as emotionless, above it all—but Calus makes it angry. Mara and Eramis see its sadistic wrath, turning Eramis's friends into Scorn in punishment. Rhulk's lore book shows it blatantly manipulating a deeply disturbed and unstable person, playing on his anger and pain. The Witness is not a deity, it is not a force of nature. It is a being of emotion that does not wish to be emotional, that sees emotion as weakness and vulnerability. It has all of existence at its fingertips and Calus is more creative, more imaginative than it, just because he lets himself want.

The Witness gave us Stasis, the element of control. It could not anticipate or defend against Strand. Calus, this narcissistic, hedonistic, failure hit on a weak point of the Witness. It can't accept, it has to control, and being alive means letting go sometimes. It is afraid of pain and failure and it sees that fear as failure. It fights the river.

[lenaellsi]

Some Crowley quotes:

(Excited about his star nurseries) "Most of the universe's stars will come pre-aged, but these ones are only starting out!"

(After being told that the universe is going to be destroyed in six thousand years) "But that's nothing! What's the point in creating an infinite universe with trillions of star systems if you're only going to let it run for a few thousand years?"

(After being told about the flood) "All of them? Not the kids, you can't kill kids."

(After Aziraphale reaffirms his loyalty to God) "Same God that wants me to whack the kids?"

(Realizing that Armageddon is about to happen) "No. Already?"

(Praying during Armageddon) "Don't test them to destruction. Not to the end of the world."

(Elspeth says, "People die.") "They do, don't they?"

(Wee Morag dies) "Too late."

(Speaking to Gabriel about Aziraphale being in danger) "It's always too late."

and,

("Nothing lasts forever.") "No. I don't suppose it does."

[a-driftamongopenstars]

a few thoughts I had about the whole symbology around the Light and the Darkness, and especially with the new trailer dropped.

i love how much shapes are being put to the front of it all.

not just the title, although this is a part of it.

shapes are the most basic thing, it's how we learn. we learn to create from shapes, the most simple ones, circles and spheres, triangles and pyramids, squares, and then we built these complex things, but at the heart of it all - it's made of basic shapes.

there is something so... thematic about them. it's like going back to the basics, to the start, where there is black and white, right and wrong.

but it isn't that easy.

and then we arrive to the final shape.

as if the witness is trying to make it all... simple. to unify all these complex shapes into something singular, understandable, palatable.

but it doesn't work like that.

i don't know yet what those cubes are going to be within the new dlc, but they also look so wrong against this amazing, varied, colourful landscape. beautiful and terrifying and wrong, because you so rarely find perfection out in the wild.

anyway, it's about the shapes!!

[lizzieraindrops]

Destiny is a story about shapes and grief.

I think I may have figured out Destiny. I don't think the primary conflict between the Light and the Darkness is the philosophical issue we thought it was.

I got thinking about it after all this talking, with many others but especially @jazzhandsmcleg, about the way all of The Witch Queen DLC and its 4 seasons have had overarching narratives surrounding trauma and cycles of violence and grief, and the way the Darkness and the Light are characterized by their different approaches to it.

In TWQ, Savathûn is given a true second chance for her species in the Light. But as Ikora points out, she struggles to break free of the learned patterns of the Darkness, continuing the pattern of deception and violence.

Same with Season of the Risen - it’s the Warlords and Dark Ages all over again, but this time it’s the Hive. It forces once again to ask: what does it mean to be given a second chance if this is what you do with it? Temper this with Saladin’s story about the girl from the Dark Ages who he protected, but who became a cruel mortal Warlord in her own right. Crow objects to the mental torture of the Hive Lightbearers and he tries to break from the cycle of interspecies violence, but unintentionally ends up continuing it by killing the Psion and heightening tensions between humans and the Uluran.

Season of the Haunted!!! Literally, the entire thing is about confronting your traumas and greatest fears and the worst parts about yourself and beginning to heal them, making something better from them. Completely changing the game by turning Nightmares that torment into Memories that guide you. Crow with the memory of Uldren, Zavala with that of Safiyah, Caiatl that of Ghaul - and most importantly, resolution focuses on how they, specifically have been held back from healing by their self-incriminating Nightmares. It challenges the cycle of continuing violence on a very personal level. Eris even has patrol dialogue describing the a Nightmare as a thing of pain craving only more pain: "Such is the cycle."

Season of Plunder brings up the very same questions on a much higher organizational level. It gives us Eido and Eramis taking very different jaded vs. new-hope approaches to the legacy of the Whirlwind, asking: can we change? Are we defined by generational trauma forever? Can we continue to grow and change for the better even though it can never be undone? Though Eido is clearly young and naïve, we're clearly given the opportunity and narrative nudge to sympathize with her desire and hope for growth and redemption, both for the Eliksni overall, and for Eramis in particular.

And we're not even done with Season of the Seraph, but it already goes incredibly hard asking the same questions, again from a more personal angle. How far, and through how many generations is trauma transmitted? From the Bray family to Rasputin, to Felwinter to Osiris to Ikora – how do we fix this? How do we fix this? How do you defeat an enemy who IS war itself? What can you do to end an endless cosmic cycle of violence?

Go back and back and back in Destiny's lore even back to D1, and the majority of conflicts seem driven by this cycle of grief and revenge and violence. The entire line of humanity's war with the Hive goes back through Oryx's grief for Crota and the First Crota Fireteam and Eriana-3's grief for her wife Wei Ning. Even the Hive siblings' pact with the Worm Gods, though manipulated by Rhulk, was driven by the pain and grief they endured for themselves and their people, and wanting to escape that cruel pattern. The entire predicament of the Eliksni and their conflict with humans is driven by the trauma and grief and loss of the Whirlwind. Even Caiatl's empire, a conquering force that would be highly regarded by the sword logic, now must reckon with the same kind of loss in the Fall of Torobatl.

How do you escape this cycle and stay free of it?

I think, this year, we are finally seeing the beginnings of an answer.

I can't highly enough recommend the TWQ Collector's Edition lorebook (page scans & transcript) and The Hidden Dossier (page scans & transcript) that immediately follows it. What I've been calling Ikora's theory of "memory and grace" that she develops through the course of these two lore books is a balanced philosophy of memory/Darkness and grace/Light (which honestly deserves an entire post of its own). I think it clearly points toward the final resolution the story of the conflict between the Darkness and the Light.

In light of this, something in the Calus part of the new Lightfall CE lorebook (images, transcript) really jumped out at me.

“The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA. Your star got its name from the oldest myths in that archive. And when your mother told your father that story…the star became your name. A prayer that all will go as it must…and the way it must go is struggle.” “Aiat.” Not a word in Ulurant or any other Cabal tongue. “But Caiatl means something else..” “Yes. ‘It may not always go as it needs to go.’ A good name for a soldier." "A strange name for a daughter," I say. "Your father chose it for your mother's sake. Out of love."

And because the parallel is so overwhelmingly striking, I am once again going to reference philosophy/worldbuilding from the Young Wizards universe, which has great resonance with Destiny lore and which Bungie has been long aware of and has even been referenced in Forsaken-era canon lore.

“all the fair things skewed, all the beauty twisted by the dark Lone Power watching on his steed. If only there were some way he could be otherwise if he wanted to! For here was his name, a long splendid flow of syllables in the Speech, wild and courageous in its own way—and it said that he had not always been so hostile; that he got tired sometimes of being wicked, but his pride and his fear of being ridiculed would never let him stop. Never, forever, said the symbol at the very end of his name, the closed circle that binds spells into an unbreakable cycle and indicates lives bound the same way.” [...] “Nita bent quickly over the Book and, with the pen, in lines of light, drew from that final circle an arrow pointing upward, the way out, the symbol that said change could happen—if, only if—and together they finished the Starsnuffer’s name in the Speech, said the new last syllable, made it real.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “So You Want to Be a Wizard, New Millennium Edition.”

CAIATL’S NAME IS LITERALLY THE UP-AND-OUT SYMBOL.

I know I'm probably only talking to the handful of Destiny players from the (very small) Young Wizards fandom, but what you need to know is that this moment is pivotal and sets up the series-long theme of hope for an eventual exit from the cycle. It's the incredibly small, overwhelmingly improbable possibility of a second chance, a new start for the Lone Power, the source of all strife and suffering, who itself is driven by loss and pain. A concept of extended grace that is inherently tied to the philosophy of the Light.

“Billions of years, it took. All the redemptions there have ever been went toward this; from the greatest to the least. And finally in the fullness of time you came along, and took my role, of your own will, and woke up a race powerful enough to change the whole Universe, and gave them the fire.” She glanced up at the mobiles and smiled. “How could he resist such a bait? He took the gamble: he always does. And losing, he won.” [...] “The Defender reached down and put a hand into the shadow. “And we are going where such matters are transcended… where all his old pains will shift. Not forgotten, but transformed. Life in this universe will never have such a friend. And as for His inventions… look closely at Death, and see what it can become.” The long, prone darkness began to burn, from inside, the way a mountain seems to do with sunset. “Brother,” the Defender said. “Come on. They’re waiting.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “High Wizardry New Millennium Edition.”

This is the devil’s second chance, its homecoming. Grace among the memory. How do we heal this? By fixing it. By making and TAKING that opportunity of grace.

Likewise, Destiny is shaping up into its own universe’s story of this Reconfiguration, the remaking of everything that exists through the act of a second chance, both offered and taken, with full awareness of the irreversibility of harm already caused.

Destiny isn’t the story of the light and the darkness fighting each other. That happens, but that’s not what it’s ABOUT.

It’s “And I know exactly what we are. We’re best frenemies with a history of intense mutual hurt and messy reconciliation, leaving a deep tenderness as well as an almost impenetrable knot of scars. What could be simpler?” (Chalco)

It's “For so long, I believed peace was beyond my reach. No more. I have found it in guiding others down the same path that saved me. But… I might allow myself to want more than peace. What, I am not certain. Is joy the word? Might I find that again?” (Eris)

It's “Second chances… hm. Turns out I've been using mine wrong. I thought being a Guardian was my destiny. That wielding the Light for good was the most I had to offer. But it's clear now. This is what the Traveler chose me for. I was reforged in the Light for a purpose. To remake something dead and gone… into something beautiful. To learn how to forge something new from what we were. Everything Uldren did to the Reef, the Scorn… Fikrul. I have a responsibility — no — a calling to make them whole. And… I can't replace Cayde. But I can cover his old patrols — maybe organize the Hunters a bit, if they'll let me. Clean up some of my mess. I don't know if I can fix everything Uldren left broken… but I can try.” (Crow)

We aren’t defeating the Darkness. That’s never what it’s been about. It’s about breaking the cycle of trauma and grief with memory and grace. We're transcending the Final Shape, but we're not here to destroy it or become it. We’re harmonizing the Darkness and the Light into a sustainable balance to create something new from the wounded remains.

We're here to heal the broken relationship between the Winnower and the Gardener.

That's all that it is, in the end. They had a falling out, and now they hurt, and they hurt each other, and everything else, forever. Breaking free from that cycle begins and ends with them.

Is that fair? No, it's not.

But Destiny is – unhingedly, brilliantly, paradoxically – a FPS game about how to stop killing each other, growing ever more into a framework of restorative and reparative justice.

The story says, we are all culpable, we have all done awful shit and have endless potential to do more awful shit – AND, most critically, we all have the potential to do better (grace). AND, the act of making the conscious choice to do so and letting that happen is the only way for things to get better (memory).

The Collapse happened and it was horrible, the Red War happened and it was horrible, the Great Disaster happened and it was horrible, Twilight Gap happened and it was horrible...AND?? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND? The Whirlwind happened and it was horrible! The Fall of Torobatl happened and it was horrible! Your species' Choice was stolen and you became the most prolifically violent killers in the universe and it was and is horrible! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Are you going to make it more horrible? Or are you going to make it BETTER????

Are you going to fight for the Final Shape, or for the gentle kingdom ringed in spears?

[syncopation53]

The thing about nimbus that makes them such an interesting character to me is that they are earnest and unapologetic and excitable and they put 110% into everything they do at all times and all of it comes from a place of “pay no attention to what’s behind the curtain lighthearted funnyman persona”

Not to say that nimbus is Actually just full of angst and sadness and tragedy behind the scenes all the time. they aren’t, not even with the death of their mentor. nor is it all that different from what they are feeling at any given moment. it’s not. But being neomuni, being a cloud strider, a protector of their people (and an incredibly competent one at that), it gives them a certain presence to their self-image in their own mind that probably wouldn’t be there if they were just another digital citizen, if they were still Dara Danu instead of Nimbus. The augmentations they put themself through to become a cloud strider aren’t something eating away at their lifespan every waking moment, it was a conscious choice and noble sacrifice. Rohan’s death wasn’t something to mourn, it’s something to inspire and propel them to fight and work harder and preserve his memory. Their jokes and commentary aren’t ways to put distance between Nimbus the Cloud Strider and Nimbus the Person, it’s just their brand of humor that some people find annoying. But that’s fine by them, they wouldn’t be bothered by that. Their core is still protected, and that’s all that really matters in the end. This way nothing can reach them, hurt them, pull them in any direction other than where they want to go. This way nimbus as a whole is friendly and open and protected and untouchable, paradoxically in thanks to how ridiculously, unabashedly comfortable they are in their own skin, so much so that it becomes a caricature of itself without anyone even trying to make it that way, least of all nimbus themself

And they are themself, fully, during the entirety of lightfall and post-campaign. They’re silly and fun-loving and goofy and joking and reckless and overconfident and compassionate and intelligent and caring and emotional and dedicated to the safety of their people above all, and it’s all over-the-top and in-your-face and probably a little bit too forceful thanks to them going from one in a team of two with someone to watch their back and cover for them so they can goof off on the job to The lone cloud strider responsible for the survival of their entire civilization more than ever now with their presence being known to the rest of the solar system and also dealing with shadow legion and vex incursions on the side. It’s their nonchalant “I’m full of fury” line that made me think “oh you are absolutely blorbo material” but it was the mission in the black garden for deterministic chaos that really made my third eye open and my brain say “oh. oh there is so much more going on with your character than we realize. ok then” *becomes my new favorite*

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

All Cogito-4 fics chronologically

Will be updated. If a fic isn't here it means that it's not canon anymore sorry

Pre-D1

Destiny 1 Report from the bottom of the canyon [X] Report from secret Operation Powerplant [X] Report from the Last City [X]

Destiny 2 Report from the crashed ship [X] 9 sayings of the Nessus scouts in A5341 sector [X]

Post Beyond Light Report from an unimportant rock [X] Report from a rock marked with yellow paint [X] And I killed Cayde-6 (old but still somewhat canon) [X] Lost and found [X]

Post Final Shape A house and a clothing line [X] Fragmented, Vex [X] Together (Wawrzyn's report) [X] Rebirth (Report from Savathûn's Court) [X] Ensnare (Of course I did) [X] Divine [X] Fireteam Colide plays a board game [X]

Full timeline, abriged:

BrayTech scientist (chemist)

pirate on an Eliksnii pirate ship after 4th reset

Killed while defending the crew from a ambush

Risen during the Great Hunt (1st of July)

Student of a Warlock named Štefan Ryba

Leaves the City for missions after the Battle of The Burning Lake (after Ryba goes missing)

Takes part in The Great Disaster (he's greatly affected by it (terribly scared of Hive) but doesn't let anyone know)

Doesn't oppose Osiris but doesn't align himself with the Cultists

Leaves the City more often after Osiris'es exhile (to avoid the tensions between fractions)

Takes part in The Battle of the Twilight Gap (as defending the ammunition suply chain)

Works on planets and other objects distant from Earth as a reasercher (notably the Asteroid Belt)

Recieves a vision from Traveler and finds his mentor's light artifacts

When the Red War starts he returns to Earth but doesn't take part in the final battle (stays at the Farm)

Confronts rumors of his mentor being Taken but doesn't find them in the Ascendand Realm nor the Reef

Investigates Nessus and the Vex for the first time

Fights on the Leviathan

Establishes a permament camp on Nessus

Confronts the nightmare of his mentor

Assigned Warlock Vanguard Deputy by Ikora Rey

Gets involved with Misraaks'es Splicers (works with them during and after SotSplicer)

Investigates alternative timelines and learns how to manipulate Vex structures

Leaves Nessus after the Echoes Incident

[incesthemes]

so the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell.

and i want to postulate on this concept of the righteous man. both john and dean are considered by this prophecy to be "righteous men," and of course they are both candidates for michael's vessel. it's in their blood.

but at the same time, this is a destiny that must still be fulfilled. action is required to create a righteous man—aka, they have to be sent to hell in the first place. they have to become worthy of being michael's vessel through their participation in starting the apocalypse.

john dies in 201. he's at peace; he's accepted the terms of his deal, and he's accepted his fate. his soul and the colt for dean's life.

there are two conflicts presented across season 1:

the first is on the topic of revenge. ultimately, the conclusion is that revenge is pointless, it will lead to no positive outcome—the past has already happened, and once blood is spilled there's no getting out of it, no stopping. knowing what happened to her brother didn't make kathleen feel better about his death. max killing his family didn't make his pain go away.

the second is on the topic of family. it's a more subtle theme, i guess, suggesting that family will invite destruction to everyone around them. the tagline "the good of the many outweighs the good of the one" is proven to be erroneous and ruinous: by choosing the family, by choosing to protect loved ones, great harm will inevitably come to the outsiders. we see this foreshadowed in 111; we see this exemplified when dean shoots and kills an innocent man in 121.

so choosing revenge and choosing family are both bad choices. but the conflict of season 1 is revenge vs family—sam as the protagonist has to choose one or the other. he's not given a third option.

john, however, finds that third option. he abandons his quest for revenge by relinquishing the colt to azazel, and he abandons his family by sacrificing himself. the act of sacrifice is seen as a selfish one (see: crossroad blues), one committed by a man who cares more about his own feelings than that of the person he saved. this is the recurring narrative throughout seasons 2 and 3—it's not something that john did for his son, it's something he did for himself. and in fact, his act of sacrifice puts sam and dean in more danger by leaving them without a weapon to combat azazel and without any of john's knowledge about the demon or sam's fate.

he doesn't choose revenge. he apparently doesn't choose family. he found the third option: he removed himself from the story.

so he managed to choose both "correct" options: he avoided ruin by abandoning his revenge, and he avoided ruin by abandoning his family. and he went to hell.

he became a righteous man, set to break the first seal to the apocalypse.

dean ends up following these exact steps at the end of season 2—the difference is that doing so is dean's fate and not necessarily john's. the other difference is dean is not at peace with his decision to die. john went to hell but he had accepted it. he was ready and willing to go, and he took what was given to him. even in all hell breaks loose, he's happy and serene in death, in hell. it's his commitment to his actions that separate dean and john.

but dean, through sam's influence, second-guesses himself, and his own shame and hypocrisy stir within him doubt and uncertainty. he doesn't want to die; he doesn't want to go to hell. when he gets there, he screams out for sam, wanting to be saved.

dean breaks. john doesn't.

obviously dean going to hell and breaking the seal was part of his destiny—that much is obvious. but i think it's important that it's dean's actions and decisions that lead him down that path, that he's not a passive receptor for his fate. it doesn't happen to him; he chooses it. sam has to act and decide in order to fulfill his destiny, so dean should be beholden to that same thing. which is why i like this interpretation that it's this selfish sacrifice that creates a righteous man—by dean's own hands he creates his destiny and starts the apocalypse.

john was able to escape this because he's not faced with the same conflict dean is. he's able to find peace and take himself out of the story, choosing both "correct" options and being okay with those decisions. dean makes those same "correct" decisions as john (in dean's case, the conflict he is given is not revenge vs family but duty vs family, and he abandons his duty and his family all the same), but he lacks the conviction that john has. he can't remove himself from the story, he's filled with doubt and unresolved tension, he can't let go fully. there is no peace in dean's story, and the righteous man broke.

and as he breaks, so shall it break.

[justdecadentcollectiondestiny]

Every Day: On Aziraphale

Obviously MAJOR spoilers ahead! Click keep reading at your own risk.

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. I am not angry at Aziraphale for his decision. I don't agree with it, obviously, but I understand why he made the choice he did.

In Aziraphale's mind, there could not be a better course of events than them both returning to Heaven as angels. It would solve pretty much every problem and worry (Aziraphale feels) they had ever had. They would both have their jobs back, both be working for the Good Guys, he would be able to use his new position of power to fix the flaws in Heaven, and, most importantly, they would be together, without any of the fear that had been looming over them for the past six thousand years.

Aziraphale is perfectly aware that they are also being offered safety. With Aziraphale as Supreme Archangel and Crowley as his second in command, they could be freely and openly together and in love for the first time in their entire relationship. Which is why he tries so desperately to convince him to go with him, being the most upfront and honest about his feelings for him than he has ever been before. "We can be together!" "I need you!" He believed so much that he could change Crowley's mind for the sake of them being together that he wouldn't accept that Crowley's answer was "no" until Crowley was out the door, until it was too late.

Additionally, we now know that Crowley and Aziraphale did know each other before Crowley Fell, and this adds a whole new layer to Aziraphale's decision. He remembers the angel Crowley used to be, the angel full of joy and smiles, who loved creating beautiful things, who absolutely adored being an angel. Aziraphale loves Crowley, and he would love to see him that happy again. That coupled with the fact that Aziraphale can probably, like us, tell that Crowley misses being an angel leads him to believe that going back to Heaven would be a no-brainer for Crowley. So he is not prepared in the least for Crowley to want absolutely nothing to do with the idea. He can't fathom why anyone would willingly stay on the "bad" side when they had a choice. The question Aziraphale asks of Crowley is "Why would you choose to be Evil when you could be Good?" But what Aziraphale doesn't understand is that that's not the choice Crowley is making here. He's not choosing Evil over Good. He's choosing himself over the whole system, the system that Aziraphale still has hope can be fixed.

And that's where the Metatron comes in. I fully believe that the Metatron manipulated Aziraphale to get him to agree to come with him. We don't get to see all of his conversation with Aziraphale, but we can see that he brings Aziraphale a coffee (trying to get his foot in the door), reassures him that "I've ingested things in my time," that his humanly habit of consuming Earthly food and drink is nothing to be ashamed of (again trying to get his foot in the door by keeping Aziraphale comfortable around him as well as likening himself to him), and pays him compliments that are frankly out of character considering Heaven has regarded Aziraphale as a traitor since the averted Armageddon. But, most damning of all, in my opinion, is the Metatron telling Aziraphale that he could restore Crowley to angelic status. Before this point, Aziraphale was not keen on the idea, even saying point-blank that he doesn't want to go back to Heaven. But the Metatron (like pretty much everybody at this point) knows that Aziraphale is in love with Crowley. He knows Crowley is his perfect leverage, especially since, I believe, he knows that Crowley would never agree to come back to Heaven and he would never have suggested it if he didn't know that Crowley would reject it. His glare at Crowley on his way out the door is enough for us to see his contempt for him, his asking Aziraphale "how did he take it?" seems like strange wording to me (Not "what did he say?" or "what does he think?" Normally you "take" something you don't want to hear, implying the Metatron anticipated Crowley's reaction), and his remark after Crowley leaves that he was "always asking damn fool questions" shows us more of that contempt as well as an attempt to convince Aziraphale that "screw him he's stupid anyway you don't need him." So there you go. The Metatron uses Crowley to get Aziraphale to agree to come back to Heaven, sits back and watches as they both break each other's hearts, swoops back in to pick up the pieces, and now has an angel feeling very vulnerable and alone ready to be escorted back up to Heaven.

I would honestly compare Aziraphale to a cult victim. He's essentially been brainwashed. For countless millennia he has been conditioned to see Heaven as the one and only Good Side, and the angels as the end-all-be-all Good Guys. After everything that's happened over the last six thousand years (the last few years especially), Aziraphale now obviously knows that's not entirely true, but even so, he still has the mindset of two sides, Heaven Good and Hell Evil. And so to be welcomed back to the Good Side with open arms when he's at such a low, to be entrusted with power and recognition by the Voice of God undoubtedly feels reassuring, even though I am positive something small deep inside him is whispering to him that something about this is not right.

More than anything, Aziraphale believes in Goodness. It's quite literally the very core of his being. He wholeheartedly believes that the system is capable of being fixed and that he can be the one to fix it. And not only that he can, that, if he has the chance to, he has to. It's his duty as a being of Good.

Brokenhearted Aziraphale is too stubborn convicted in his values to turn down the chance to change Heaven for the better, and with the bookshop being entrusted to Muriel and, most importantly, without Crowley, he doesn't have much keeping him on Earth anymore.

In the end, it's a combination of Aziraphale's steadfast values and principles, his genuine and unwavering desire to do Good, and Heaven's indoctrination and manipulation of him that leads Aziraphale to leave Earth and Crowley behind and return to Heaven.

Exactly to what end the Metatron wants Aziraphale as Supreme Archangel, I don't know. That's for Season Three to tell us. We'll just have to wait and see.

[raayllum]

So like, I’ve talked about how Rayla leaving metaphorically / emotionally killed Callum in a lot of ways: the prince of Katolis paired with the king she set out to kill, both high mages, etc. I’ve talked about Rayla’s consistent place in the narrative as both a tool for his destruction and his salvation / rebirth. And last but not least, I’ve talked about how Callum and Rayla have both become more like each other in season four

However I haven’t talked about all of these being brought together, which is to say

In season four, Callum is acting like he is already dead 

He’s emotionally shut down, he’s self isolating, he’s trying not to feel anything, he’s the one trying to leave - he’s the one trying to let go (of her). He asks Rayla to kill him because in some way, in his mind, she already has (leaving in his eyes was choosing the mission over him in the worst way possible; he doesn’t understand it was her misguided attempt at prioritizing him) and now he’s asking her to finish the job. 

Which also means out of four seasons, we are four for four of Rayla and Callum having an exchange, at one point or another, about him dying by her hand

This is also something the Book One novelization foreshadowed / talked about as well:

“Wow. So they look identical, but they might kill you or they might save you,” Callum said.

“Exactly. Just like me…” Rayla smiled.

This is also paired with statements like, “She’s alive. And wherever she is, she loves you, too,” which creates an underlying element of “As long as she has breath, she has love for you,” which is an absolutely insane kind of intensity and I love it so very much. 

Dark magic is also associated with death in many ways, as Callum says of the dark magic rune on the primal cube in his dream, “It represented death” (S2 novelization) as well as Sol Regem’s statements, “I smell death” (3x01) and Aaravos being “worse than death” (1x08). It’s no wonder that Callum would rather die than experience something worse than death again, nor that he’s turned to Rayla to do the task for him.

It speaks to the layers of irony TDP always likes to write from, which Rayla being willing to die for him and then faced with him possibly attacking her in the future season (an inversion of their first meeting) as well as Callum asking his would be assassin turned estranged gf to murder him in the first place. Especially when, thanks to her, he already feels dead - and thanks to her coming back into his life, she brings him back to himself and back to his emotions again - she brings him back to life just as much as he brings her back to life.

They’ve always placed agency back into each other’s hands when they each felt like they had no choice to do anything else (“Why? You know this is wrong” and saying she can choose a different path / “Say the word and I’ll go back into that tower with you”). They’ve always helped each other choose their own destinies, to ultimately choose life and a life with each other in the end.

This’ll be no different in the end, I think.

[zalia]

Destiny Architecture

I went on a whole ramble about the architecture of the various factions in Destiny and thought I'd share it here. I'm not an architect, so my knowledge is basic when it comes to technical things, but hopefully it is interesting!

They did a fantastic job with the architecture of the different factions and what it says about them.

The Red Legion and Caiatl's Ascendency are all pragmatic, organised military designs - fortifications, the round buildings with windows on each side linked by trenches. Watchtowers. In the Arms Dealer strike, you have areas where there are loads of vehicles meticulously organised. They are prepared for the long haul, dug into the planets they land on, and they are proud of their machinery, both literal and metaphorica - it's all on display, the pistons and furnaces and engines. There are service shafts and hangars! It's all very practical (and makes the Glykon even more unnerving because the passages and service shafts don't make any practical sense in the way that they connect!).

Calus on the other hand... the Leviathan has the same base in terms of doors and the like, you can recognise some of the same basics - like the shapes of the doors etc. but the pragmatic things are hidden away - they're reminiscent of the servant quarters in old British stately homes - you need them for the place to function! But the people in charge don't want to see them. Calus wants to be surrounded by gold and riches and luxury and not think about the things and people that make it possible. It's always been something that I've thought of when it comes to his empire – he acts like all of it was a place of luxury and hedonism and art, but like the Roman Empire that inspired the culture, that luxury is truly only available to a few people, and is only possible because a much greater number of people are working to provide the materials and labour. We don't really hear or see much about the people the Empire conquered beyond the Psions, but were they living in such luxury? Probably not.

The Eliskni architecture all feels very cobbled together and makeshift - there are visible seams and bolts, spots where colours don't match. It's makeshift, which suits their history as a people who have been forced to flee and exist on scavenging for a long time. And there's always a lot of nautical theming going on too - rigging and nets and hoisted awnings like sails. They feel like places made by people who are expecting to need to pack up and leave at any minute. Everything tends to be rounded, which is particularly obvious when you see the Devils in Rise of Iron - everything is more angular because of SIVA and the Rasputin influence, even the shanks. I'd love it if we could get a look at the original Riis architecture.

The Hive are very gothic architecture with a dash of Gaudi (take a look at the Sagrada Família for what I'm thinking). High chambered ceilings, flying buttresses, all the carved figures and motifs - except when you get closer you realise that it's also uncomfortably organic. And it's also decaying – once you get inside the dreadnaught especially you find it full of piles of festering debris, wormspore growing from the corpses of thralls. There are spaces where anything could jump out at you. It's like a civilisation mocking the grand architecture of other species by warping it into something rotten (and also very gothic literature as well - the grand imposing gothic mansion with the dark secret and unpleasant history). The names of the locations in the Dreadnaught often tie-in with the architecture since a lot of them are religious: the portico, basillica, the crypts, the Cathedral of Dusk. They are a species worshipping Oryx, the very real and tangible god.

The Moon under Crota has a similar style, but where the Dradnaught is organic, the areas under the surface of the moon (outside the Red Keep) are more technological - there are still the flying buttresses and supports, the spikes and and pillars around the Hellmouth, but they're blockier, less rounded, stone and metal rather than chitin.

Savathun's Throne World has similar architecture, and returns to the organic feel of the Dradnaught, but in blinding white and red rather than browns. It's similar to the Leviathan in a way – the public areas are much cleaner feeling, regal and filled with Light, but when you dig down you can find the same rot and debris as the Dreadnaught (thinking especially of the 2nd mission of the Witch Queen campaign). Where the Dreadnaught was a mockery of other species, the Throne World feels like it's trying to copy them – this is what Savathun thinks the Light is, look she's changed, really! But in the end, it's more like a coat of paint slapped over a wall with a bad mold problem. The names also switch from kind of Catholic, to more magical and alchemical - Apothacary, altars, temples etc.

The Awoken are really doing the whole fantasy elf thing in a lot of ways, but more with stone than woodland than in Tolkien when we see the Dreaming City. Everything fits in seamlessly with the landscape (which makes sense since it was essentially created with wish magic to be exactly what Mara wanted!). The buildings follow the lines of mountains, pathways carved into crystal caves, the bridge which has supports like the branches of trees like they've grown up from the ground. And there's nature everywhere! But it's not a natural environment. Even when it seems like you're in nature, it's very cultivated - like the garden of a stately home which wants 'wilderness' so has landscaped it. It's also deceptive in the way you go from the 'wilderness' to these very high fantasy buildings, and then as you walk you see these technological marvels like the Oracle Engine, just integrated into it. The Dreaming City is very much portraying an image and is a very finely tuned machine in itself. I kind of wonder what the other Awoken settlements beyond the Dreaming City and the Vestian outpost look like.

Clovis Bray facilities are very minimalist and very obviously designed to make you think 'lab' and 'high technology'. He really wants you to see his stuff and have you think 'this is the future' in a way that draws 70s sci-fi ideas of the future - the way all the sharp edges are rounded off, the bright blocks of colour, the way all of the technology is very conspicuously on display, the massive windows that make all the conveyors and machinery visible. He wants to show off his stuff, and also make everyone who works there know that they're being watched. There's also the huge open spaces and massive drops like Eternity and Creation, which are utterly impractical but also feel infinite and are designed to make you go wow.

You see similar architecture on Neomuna (since Clovis was involved with the colonisation efforts) but on a much more human scale. They have a lot of the same components – the pillars and display screens, the curved bases of the walls – but they're softened with plants and murals, places to sit and socialise. It's not a lab, it's a city where people live. And also it's Neptune, they are a long way from the sun, so everything is bright and vibrant to make up for that. I think you can also see a lot of influence from the Ishtar Collective locations on Venus in Neomuna - they also tend to have a lot of display screens and neon and lots of spots for plants to grow. And then you get outside of the City and see the Veil Containment bunker and see the concrete and metal pragmatism that underpins the city.

The Iron Temple/Vostok is a place that is trying very hard to be a medieval castle with all of the statues and bonfires and the whole aesthetic of the Iron Lords. The statues of the Iron Lords all bear axes and swords. But when you look at it, you can see the very Soviet brutalist foundation of the place. So much of it is blocky concrete - the walls are squared off and unornamented, the observatory is concrete and metal. Every time I go in to where Tyra stands, I'm surprised that the pillar she's standing by is not round, because it's very easy to buy into the illusion they're projecting. There's also the concrete pillar that serves as vault and lights up when you approach - it has the technology, but like the Dreaming City, it's integrated into the landscape. Unlike the dreaming City, they really don't want to show you it.

Raputin's bunkers are just fantastic design in so many ways. They have a very clear shape (you can see the shape of a door and know immediately that this is something Warmind related), everything tends to be at right-angles. It's all very pragmatic and logically laid out. There is definitely technology there, and it's not really trying to hide, but it isn't showing off like Clovis does. Where Clovis is 70's aspirational sci-fi design, Rasputin architecture has a very Cold War vibe to it - none of the technology is flashy - it's chunky terminals running the most basic looking command line UI. It's thick cables and pipes and probably a million redundancies. The kind of tech which is designed to be found in a few centuries and still be reasonably functional. Also unhackable unless you are physically present. Rasputin is an AI so advanced that he can out-think the Vex, but his facilities are built to have the resilience of a Nokia 3310 phone, and are inspired by bunkers designed to survive nuclear war.

(I also think it's not accidental that the Warsats are made up of many angular shapes, especially triangles, trying to be a sphere, considering the whole motif of the pyramids vs the Traveller)

Pyramid Architecture is really really trying to pull off the sword logic 'pared down to remove anything extraneous' and present the idea of a universe united as one in its final shape... and is failing miserably at that. At first glance it's all straight clean lines, black stone, leaning towards brutalist, but they just can't keep it up – they're full of pillars serving no purpose, statues, coloured stone insets. Rhulk's pyramid is full of artwork painted onto the walls. There's so much symbolism built into them. They're incredibly ornate! Because as much as the Witness wants everyone to believe that it is one united force with one specific goal, it kind of isn't. It's made up of many many individuals. Even if those individuals that made it up all agreed on the final shape, it's nearly impossible to get one person to have a 100% consistent view of the universe, let alone hundreds! And especially in the Witness' pyramid ship in Root of Nightmares, you get the impression it's something of a mausoleum for its species and the other species its destroyed. There's lots of coffin-shaped and sized objects in there, and relics hidden away. It isn't as clean and focused as it would like the universe to think.