#from all the Distributary stuff to Forsaken Prince theres just a LOT we know abt this guy

[anthem-anatheme]

I feel like spitting out some of my Uldren thoughts today so here we go this might get long.

To start off I've been thinking about just the buildup of things wrong with him when Forsaken is going on. The first time I watched the D1 cinematics with him and read his lore book I started to realize how absolutely uncharacteristic he was throughout Forsaken. It's like all of his personality was stripped away and he was left with just dedication to his sister. So how'd that come about?

Well the reasoning we're given by folks in game throughout the story (mainly Petra) is that he went mad after Mara's supposed death at the battle of Saturn. Now while that's certainly the catalyst to his descent it didn't start there. It actually began in the Black Garden. When we met Uldren in D1 and even before that he was actually very sick. It didn't affect him on a very perceptible level for the most part (I have a headcannon abt that but just sticking to facts for now) but he did have a memetic illness called Brain Stain he contracted from getting too close to the Gardens black Heart.

We don't know too much about Brain Stain other than it being a Darkness construct intended to protect the Garden. Entities that enter the Garden and contract it become obsessed with the place, usually remaining there forever to protect it. (This is what created the offshoot of Sol Divisive Vex too) Uldren managed to escape the Garden partially probably due to Jolyon Tills urging, but also on a technicality. He believed he could get Mara to come back with him, and that they could better protect the Garden from the outside which let him leave to follow that.

On his return he is extremely obsessive about the Garden, forgoing contact with most people he cares about to do more research and plot and plan Garden things. He very much does not want to let Guardians into the Garden in D1, not only because he dislikes them but also to protect it from the havok the Guardians are sure to wreck inside. The only reason he cooperates at all is his dedication to Mara is stronger than that to the Garden (it was cemented over thousands of years after all.)

The death of the heart seems to finally break his obsession with the Garden, though there isn't much time between that and the battle at Saturn.

The main reason I think his obsession with the Garden broke with the death of the Heart is that he keeps trying to return home and make contact with Mara while stranded on Mars. The first time he crashes quite close to Meridian Bay and the gate to the Garden he used to enter. In the wake of the loss of his sister if the Brain Stain were in full effect still there's no reason why he wouldn't just March back to the Gate and go live there for the rest of his days. Instead the Stain shifts to a new fixation: Mara.

Uldren was always loyal and dedicated to his sister but his entire personality/motives were hardly centered around her before this. The twins would butt heads on a number of topics, and Uldren had his Crows and other things to oversee.

Essentially the thing that ends up making him vulnerable to Rivens manipulations is a resurgence of a pre-existing illness that had mostly gone dormant but was never actually cured. Under the despair of his sisters potential death, stress of having to survive on Mars, and proximity to the Garden probably not helping, he gets very sick very fast. His eyes start bothering him way before there's even a start of whispers from Riven.

Getting picked up by the Kings didn't help in the slightest and threw him into an even more vulnerable state due to the torture he underwent to make him cooperate with the Kell of Kings plans. This is the point where Riven makes her move. He's not only sick but his willingness to say no has been purposefully eroded, he's pretty husk-like at this point just clinging to the hope that Mara still might be out there. Which Riven happily exploits.

Uldren is a remarkably complex villain and I love the detail and thoroughness Bungie put into writing him.