#oh i see a literary structure like that is called a chiasmus

[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.

[thefirstknife]

First, that one post I made about mission names and how there might be one more name we haven't seen yet? We have seen it this week as the final mission! The last one is:

Chiasmus is "a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order." And I knew I remembered that word, because I recently re-read The Hidden Dossier, part of the Witch Queen Collector's Edition where Ikora and Jalaal discuss Truth to Power. And:

JALAAL >> REY

Oh. I see. I see! A literary structure like that is called a chiasmus, and chiasmus means "crossing point"! Like a wormhole or a portal! It was hidden in plain sight. But then we must act urgently to stop this! Savathûn cannot be allowed to depart our universe into some reality superordinate to ours— But now you'll tell me: so what if she does? What can she do to us out there?

Interesting! A portal you say? Man. Everything truly was hidden in plain sight.

[maxmrnv]

1. Translation of metaphor

Metaphor is a stylistic device in which transference of names is based on the associated likeness between two objects. Both words have at least one common semantic component.

If we speak about rendering SDs into the target text there can be the following translation decisions:

Appropriate/faithfull translation of SD conveying all functional and structural peculiarities of any source SD in the target text.

Stylistic individualization which usually happens when the translator has equivalent stylistic means but foregrounds other SD strengthening them.

Stylistic loss usually happens when the translator doesn’t convey source SD in the target text thus the translator weakens the target text.

Stylistic substitution which usually happens when the translator doesn’t have any equivalent stylistic means and changes them into other SDs.

The following ways of metaphor translation are singled out:

Literal (word-for-word) translation which is usually found among trite metaphors.

Demetaphorisation which usually happens when the translator replaces metaphoric word meaning by unmetaphoric equivalent: чорна робота – unskilled work; he is yellow – він боягуз.

Metaphorization the replacement of non metaphorical meaning by its metaphorical synonym. It is the compensation of previous loses: ця ідея привернула його увагу – this idea gripped his mind.

Transmetaphorisation is the replacement of the image created by the source metaphor or replacement of the component of this image: ах ти, дурне теля – oh the silly goose; злі погляди – black looks.

Change of SD. Usually in the process of translation metaphor can be changed into simile or epithet: dog days – найспекотніші дні.

Explicatory translation (описательный перевод).

2. Translation of epithets

Equivalent translation when the evaluation and the structure are preserved in the target text: вітер тихий – peaceful wind.

Structural changes usually happen when we deal with the change of the structural type of epithet or some other grammatical changes.

Semantic changes which usually happen when the image is preserved but it is expressed by other words: polished conversation – стримані розмови. Сонечко наше красне – our dearest splendid sun.

Structural and semantic changes: a duck of a boy – диво-хлопчик.

The change of stylistic device. Usually epithet can be changed into simile.

Explicatory translation: flight-by-night theatre – театр, який незабаром за��риється.

3. Structural types of English and Ukrainian epithets

Structural types of English epithets:

Simple (single) epithet (expressed by one word).

Pair epithets (expressed by two words joined by conjunction or asyndetically): wonderful and incomparable beauty.

Chain of epithets (expressed by three or more homogeneous attributes): In the cold grey early morning.

Two step epithets (adverb + adjective): absolutely fantastic.

Phrase epithet: cat-and-dog life.

Inverted epithet: a rose of a girl, a hell of a noise.

Sentenced epithet which is usually emotionally coloured addresses or post-positive attributes.

Structural types of Ukrainian epithets:

Simple epithets (expressed by one word either an adjective or an adverb or a participle): бистра вода, боязко тремтить, зневірена душа.

Epithet apposition (expressed by two nouns which are written with a help of dash, прикладка): думки-метелики, сльози-перли.

Composite epithets (епітети-композити, expressed by a compound word): квітки синьоокі, вогнеокий демон, осінь жовтокоса.

Sentence epithets (performs the fan toon of predicative thus forming the sentence): твої очі – тихий вечір, твої очі – срібна річка, твої очі – ніжні квіти, твої очі – тиха радість.

In Ukrainian stylistics color epithets are widely discussed and used.

4. Types of repetitions

According to the structure all repetitions can be subdivided into:

Ordinary repetition which has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated Union occurs in various positions. It stresses both the logical and emotive meanings of the repeated union: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal.

Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other units which show the peak of the speaker’s emotions: These are only promises, promises, promises.

Anaphora – the beginning of two or more successive clauses or sentences are repeated. It usually creates the background for the following non repeated unit: ти пахнеш як листя весняне, як дитинство моє полотняне, як тепла малинова стежка, як мамина срібна сережка.

Epiphora – the ends of two or more successive clauses or sentences are repeated. It usually adds stress to the final elements of the sentence: there is no negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is only an American problem.

Framing repetition – the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end thus forming a frame: The king is dead, long live the king.

Catch repetition (anadiplosis) – the end of the sentence is repeated at the beginning of the following: now he understood. He understood many things.

Chain repetition presents several successive anadiplosis and it usually produces the effect of developing logical reasoning: The more I study the more I know. The more I know the more I forget. The more I forget the more I forget.

Parallel – the syntactic structure of several successive sentences is repeated. It adds rhythm and balance to the utterance and helps to stress main idea. Sometimes it goes together with different types of repetition.

Chiasmus (хиазм) usually consists of two parts where the second part is the mirror reflection of the first part. It is the repetition of the same structure but with the opposite order of elements: I know the world and the world knows me. Треба їсти щоб жити, а не жити щоб їсти.

5. Types of climax

As to the structure climax can be:

Ascending (нарастающая): Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die.

Descending (спадающая): Be careful, not a look, not a wing, not a syllable, not a whisper.

Two-step: He was so helpless, so very helpless.

Three-step.

According to the meaning climax can be:

Logical. It means that next unit is more logically important.

Emotional. Each next unit is more emotionally stronger.

Quantitative.

6. Peculiarities of English and Ukrainian simile

Simile (сравнение) is an imaginative comparison of two objects belonging to different classes. It shouldn’t be mixed with logical comparing.

Simile consists of three elements:

The tenor (тема сравнения) is the object we compare.

Formal element (like, look like, as, as though, as…as, such as, resemble).

Vehicle (образ сравнения) is the object we compare with.

In simile two objects are compared on the grounds of similarity of some quality. This feature is called the foundation of simile.

Types of simile:

According to usage simile can be trite and fresh.

According to the expression simile can be simple and extended.

According to the usage of foundation simile can be explicit (she is as beautiful as rose) and implicit (she is like a rose).

Disguised simile is mostly found in English. The formal element is expressed by a verb.

Ukrainian similes can be also divided into trite and fresh, simple and extended, explicit and implicit. The only difference is in the usage of the formal element. In Ukrainian it can be expressed by:

Conjunction (мов, немов, як, ніби, наче…).

Predicate (подібний, схожий).

Asyndetically: Твої губи – розгулена рана, кров твоя – рубін коштовний.

Instrumental case (творительный падеж): Ти – зорею, а я – кленом.

7. Types of periphrasis and the peculiarities of its usage

The following types of periphrasis are singled out:

Logical: my better half (spouse), weak sex, автор «Мертвих душ».

Figurative periphrasis which are usually based either on metaphor or on metonymy: black gold, the sunflower state (Texas).

Euphemistic periphrasis (эвфемизм) is a more polite qualification instead of an unpleasant one or of taboo words. Euphemistic periphrasis are used:

To name the death: to pass away, to join the majority, to pass into the darkness etc.

To replace some unpleasant words: to hit the bottle (пьяница), to tell stories (лжец).

To raise the social and professional states of the person: the needed, to ill provided, the low incomed, team assistant (instead of secretary).

Gender-specific forms: chairperson (chairman), spokesman (representative).

8. Stylistic differentiation of the vocabulary: literary level

Bookish words are mainly used in the written form of the language. They are characteristic feature of official, scientific and poetic messages. They are mostly found in author’s narrative, descriptions and argumentations. They usually contribute to the massage, the tone of safistication and seriousness.

All bookish words are divided into:

General bookish words.

Special literary words which are subdivided into:

Terms are words denoting objects, process, phenomena of science and technique.

Barbarisms or foreign words these are borrowed words.  

Archaisms which on their turn can be proper archaisms (words which in the course of language history have been substituted by new forms):; Historical words;Poetic words mainly used in the poetry in the 19th century: woe – sorrow; quoth – said.

9. Stylistic differentiation of the vocabulary: colloquial level

Colloquial words are usually associated with oral form of communication. They are often used in dialogues and character’s monologue and they mark the message as informal nonofficial and conversational. They can be subdivided into:

General colloquial words.

Special colloquial words which in their term consists of:

Slang – the words which are used in very informal communication. They are highly emotive and expressive and are quickly replaced by new words.

Jargonisms – these are words which are spoken by a limited group of people united socially or professionally and this words are substandard, expressive and emotive. They can be subdivided into: proper jargonisms which originated from Thieves’ jargon and serve to conceal smth; professional words that are used by representatives of some professions; vulgarisms are strongly emotional, derogative and avoided in polite communication; dialectical words are usually phonemic or lexical variations of the language.

10. Graphical stylistic devices

Three groups of graphical SD are singled out:

Change of type and it includes: italics which usually shows the stress the speaker made on this word or syllable; CAPITALISATION which shows the intensity of speech; petite is change into smaller print, which shows that some information is not very important or is not pronounced loud.

Spacing of graphemes includes: multiplication of graphemes which shows the intensity of speech: Ууурааа!; hyphenation (слогоделение) usually shows the ride and clipped manner in which something is pronounced: О я-ка ра-дість зно-ву те-бе ба-чи-ти!;

Spacing of lines: lay-out (разбивка) is usually found in poetry.

11. Lexical stylistic devices: pun, zeugma, semantically false chain and their peculiarities.

Pun is a SD in which the usage of one word in two meanings either deliberately by the speaker or as a result of the listener's misinterpretations of the expression. Such usage produces humorous effect.

Zeugma (зевгма) is a usage of polysemantic verb followed by two nouns which are not connected semantically: She was a thief you got to believe, she stole my heart and my cat.

Semantically false chain is the usage of polysemantic verb followed by three or more nouns, the last of which falls out of the semantic group does producing humorous effect: He thought to himself give her what: a keys, a box of chocolate, a punch in the nose. Він любив свій дім, жінку, дітей і пиво.

12. Types of narration and narrative compositional forms

Types of narration (типы повествования)

Author’s narrative which can be of two types:

Proper author’s narrative which is usually given in the third person singular. If we speak about the proper author’s narrative we can say that the development of the plot is concentrated here, personages are given characteristics, the time and the place of the action are also described here, it gives information about the author’s preferences and objections, believes and considerations.

Entrusted author’s narrative which is given in the first person singular. It entrusted author’s narrative the writer hides himself behind the figure of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from his point of view and only sometimes emerges in the narrative with his own consideration. The structure of such narrative is much more complicated and sometimes can be even anonymous.

2. Dialogue. Personages express their minds in the form of attended speech. In their exchange of remarks the participants of the dialogue while discussing other people and their actions expose themselves too. It is the form of the personages self characterisation, and the author eliminates from this process.

3. Interior speech. It allows the author to pip into the world of the character.

Interior monologue which is rather long piece of the text, dealing with one major topic of the character’s thinking, offering causes of its past, present and future actions.

Short inserts (краткие вкрапления) of the interior speech. They usually present immediate mental and emotional reactions of the character to the remark or action.

Stream of consciousness. The reflection of the mental process undergoes some linguistic structuring to make it understandable to the reader. In some extreme situation they can be disjoint, associative manner of thinking which makes the interior speech almost incomprehensible.

4. Represented or reported speech. It is the blend of the viewpoints of both the author and the character. It serves to show either the mental reproduction of one’s remark or the character’s thinking. It is usually given in the third person singular with some author’s qualitative words and author’s view points.

Narrative compositional forms

Narrative proper (повествование) which is dynamic and usually unfolds the form.

Description (описание) which is static and gives details of the appearance and character of the personage, place and time of the action.

Argumentation (рассуждение) which is static and usually explains the causes and effects of the character’s actions, behaviour, considerations about moral and other issues.

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Hearing about non-linear storytelling in future Destiny releases (in today's blog) makes me very excited. One of Destiny's great strengths is coaxing you into the lore via curiosity, which leads you down self-directed rabbit holes where you discover things for yourself. That is the best feeling, and if they can translate that to the game's structure, they could do some exciting things that engage players far more deeply.

Also love this art. First one very much reads as Venus to me (gas columns, The Citadel on the horizon), which I've been expecting a return to since Lightfall.

Second and third are more mysterious, but I do have to point out the small glowing blue and red organic feature in the bottom left, which really reminds me of the coral from Deep and the jungle plants we're currently seeing in Echoes. The ship also looks like it's being torn apart or atomized, almost similar to when Darkness-infused enemies die and the tendrils scatter.

Those floating sensors are also interesting. The markings very much reads to me as Neomunian. And you all know me... I am just waiting for the [REDACTED] to become a more active element. So what could the Neomuni be helping us detect? What whispers on the zephyr are these sensors picking up?

We closed a door with The Final Shape, but we are opening a new one, a weird one, an exciting one, that takes Destiny to places it has never been before.

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Chiasmus

There's something that's been knocking around my head for a couple years now about Destiny's general narrative structure, and this entry brought it to mind and made me think. Bungie is keeping secrets, not deep in the files but in things unsaid. In the telling of the story, below the event horizon. In the shape of it.

"Do you know how to make a strong password?" he asked. "I don't know if I do," I said. "Tell yourself a story," he said. "Use that one good story you'll never forget, that you can carry forever. Let your story take odd turns and wear a few surprising marks, make sure it belongs to you, so you can keep it secret."

This echoes something I believe said by Savathun that the greatest form of encryption is secrets, because they can only be unlocked by true understanding. When I think about stories like Truth to Power, there is such deliberate structure and subtext to them despite being confusing and intentionally obscured, and that structure is seen elsewhere in Destiny. We've even seen Ikora and Arach Jallal discuss the narrative structure, called "chiasmus."

REY >> JALAAL

We are headed inward, as if moving from parent to child universe.

Then we proceed in reverse. Savathûn is revealed to be a fiction of Dûl Incaru. Dûl Incaru a simulation by Quria, and so on.

So in the end, Truth to Power moves outwards.

Just as Savathûn plans to move. In from our universe and out to the Distributary—

Or out from our universe to its parent.

JALAAL >> REY

Oh. I see. I see! A literary structure like that is called a chiasmus, and chiasmus means "crossing point"! Like a wormhole or a portal! It was hidden in plain sight.

Chiasmus is a sort of chiral structure defined as a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words", and this achieves a fascinating effect; it leads you down a path of understanding, and sometimes does so by leaving your understanding up to the inferrence of the structure itself rather than stating the point directly and then leading you there

This is a scalable and somewhat flexible technique that can be used in sentences, paragraphs, or whole texts to convey very particular meaning. It's even used in the national anthem of the Netherlands, the oldest living national anthem (this one is interesting because it bounces back and forth—verse 1 mirrors verse 15, 2-14, 3-13, and so on until they meet at 8). I believe something like this is the basis for the entirety of Destiny's story; start with two presupposed points set in stone, set one as the start and one as the end, hide the end, and then slowly build from there. Bungie gets a lot of guff for perceived retcons, but in the broad strokes, and thematically, when it comes down to it, they know their stuff and have always seemed to have a long view in mind.

Chiasmus derives its effectiveness from its symmetrical structure. The structural symmetry of the chiasmus imposes the impression upon the reader or listener that the entire argument has been accounted for. In other words, chiasmus creates only two sides of an argument or idea for the listener to consider, and then leads the listener to favor one side of the argument.

We begin with resurrection in D1, new life. There's hints of Darkness, but it's buried in the lore and is explicitly taboo. It's confusing, but we slowly learn to see the world from an all-Light perspective. Year 2 we learn about the basics of Darkness via the Sword Logic, the Hive, and the Taken. Then, we press on and lose everything in year 4. We begin to learn more and more until year 5, Forsaken. Year 6 we get the Luna Pyramid, Unveiling, and the arrival. Then, in year 7, we get to *use* the Darkness. In Year 8, we begin to learn about it and seeing the unseen from Savathun via Deepsight, before learning about the Witness. This is also when we see one of our enemies go the other way, crossing our path by going from Dark to Light. Year 9, we learn about the Veil and a new perspective on Darkness, and year 10 we return to the center to defeat the First Knife and are left with only echoes of its victims and the Darkness that bound it

What is the main plan in Forsaken, year 5? For Uldren to enter the Watchtower with the Shard and the Darkness within him, where he unleashes the Voice of Riven, who acts as proxy. Riven enacts the curse upon her defeat, which is maintained inside Elusinia by Dûl Incaru, Eternal Return. Light and Dark to enter a hidden realm where a being in a tower creates a curse which is unleashed upon their defeat, and beyond which another being in a further nested realm maintains said curse. This is strikingly similar to the Witness: it enters the Pale Heart via the Traveler and the essence of the Veil, where it builds a tower and tries to make a sort of curse which infests the Heart. And when we defeated it, the energy from that process was released.

Guess what the mission where Crow entered the portal with the 15th Wish was called? Chiasmus.

Bungie loves secrets, but datamining makes them hard to pull off. They even put a reference to this in an unnamed entryegg in the API for Truth to Power:

O you wonderful curious things. Do you believe you're the only ones with the power to see what should not be seen? Did you believe you can use such power blithely? For your trespass, I would ruin your luck, wreak havoc on your drops, poison your engrams, and fill your lines with static. Thus I would curse you and dissipate the bond that ties you to your tasks. How frail you Guardians can be! How many millions have fallen silent, never to return, because the bond did not hold them strongly enough? But you have already cursed yourselves. You have walked the Anathematic Arc and glimpsed creation from below. You will never forget the tenuous, provisional framework you found here. You will never forgive the mortality and fallibility that underlies a world you thought was everything. Those who use this power to seek unearned knowledge will see more than they ever desired. There is a price for glimpsing the Cord. You will pay it.

This episode, we're learning about Maya, who has a direct link to the Veil, Vex, and Darkness via Clarity ("Take me to the garden’s seed. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me—"), and now this strange Pyramid in act 3 of Echoes. Next, we have Fikrul, the Scorn (Dark Ether), and Mithtrax (Curse of Nezarec). And then we're ending on the Dreadnaught with Savathun, who hid the Veil, and Xivu Arath, who wants to emulate Oryx, the First Navigator with the implication that we will become Navigators. We reached the end of the line in defeating the Witness, but now we're beyond it. I think we're about to come full circle and see secrets beyond even the Veil.

Something else I like about this idea on a narrative and meta level; if the beginning and end of this leg of the story is already decided by its inherent structure, like life, then anything we do is futile. We will wind up there eventually, as everything does in the end. The only difference is the path we walk to get there

I. Guardians make their own fate. But what if the process by which they decide upon their own fate could be understood and manipulated?

But we are transcendent now; we walk a path as yet unimagined by both Light and Dark. What we do now— unshackled from HOPE—that is who we are; because only in the end are we free.

I.VII The cutting word is a doorway—the first syllable of hated salvation.

Better make sure you've got a strong password, wouldn't want to spoil the unveiling.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked. "When I was a little boy," Father said. "During the Before," I said. "Yes." He reached down to brush my hair. "I was recalling how very smart I used to be. When I was your age, I was a genius." "You're smart now," I said. He laughed hard. "Look around," he said. I always look around. "Miss nothing," he told me. Father was standing beside a big gray building. "This is what I want you to see," he said. The building had no doors or windows. "Do you know how to make a strong password?" he asked. "I don't know if I do," I said. "Tell yourself a story," he said. "Use that one good story you'll never forget, that you can carry forever. Let your story take odd turns and wear a few surprising marks, make sure it belongs to you, so you can keep it secret." Father kneeled, putting our faces close... "I want to show you something special," he said. "Something rare." I tried to imagine what that might be. "No," he warned. "You can't guess." Inside the gray building was a diamond wall...A projected sky floated above us. It wasn't our sky, alive with metal and light. Nothing about the grayness was wet and nothing looked alive. I had never seen a sadder piece of ground. "This was our world," Father said. "When I was your age." I touched the diamond wall. He watched my hand jump back. "Hot," I said. He laughed quietly. I shook my burnt hand, and it felt better. "Our world was this. The entire planet was a furnace. Acidic. Dead in so many ways. And I was your age." I was bored with the dead world. I looked at Father's face, asking, "Can we leave?" He started to reach for my hair again but decided not to. I was bored with everything. "When I was your age, people thought they knew almost everything. We had scientific laws and human truths, even a model of the universe. People carried pictures of the past and tried to have a clear vision of their difficult future. I didn't know everything, of course. But when I was a boy, I had every expectation of living a smart short life and learning quite a lot more. "Then the Before was finished. "You know why. "That's when everybody, particularly the smartest of us, learned that we knew nothing. We were children and our little ideas were toys, and the universe was cut apart with great ideas and magnificent, immeasurable potentials." Father stopped talking. I stepped away from the hot diamond wall. "Do you know what I wanted to show you?" Father asked. "Dead rock," I said. "Guess again." He wasn't happy with me. We stepped back into the real sun, the real world. I blinked and looked around, surprised by how green and bright everything was. How happy everything was. Even the saddest face was happy. "I know what you want me to see," I said. "Don't tell me," he said. I didn't tell him.

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

"Now," Eris demanded, her uncovered eyes glowing fiercely. "Tell us how to follow the Witness."

"Tell you?" Savathûn frowned, her voice edged with disappointment. "I already showed you."

Ikora leapt to her feet, roaring Void energy distorting the air around her. She took a measured step toward Savathûn.

"No tricks, no riddles, no lies twisted around the truth," she said, her voice firm. "Tell us now, or I don't have any reason to let you leave here alive."

Savathûn slowly drew herself to her full height and grinned down at Ikora, spreading her wings wide. "Eris may have managed an interesting sword logic stunt, but I have lost none of my power." She began to hover, her talons dragged across the ground as she floated toward the Warlock. "You're in no position to stop me."

The Guardian rose from Eris's side.

"I am," they said.

Savathûn paused for a long moment, her ossified face unreadable.

Finally, she sighed.

"Just when you were starting to impress me," she said as she closed her wings and stooped to Ikora's height. Immaru bobbed awkwardly to keep level with her.

"We both need to stop the Witness, and to that end, I have given you what I promised," she said slowly. "You will find you have it when you are ready. Like Eris said: our bargain is complete. There's no need for drama."

Here at the center, I lie to you the truth. You have everything you need to know it, but I will give you a clue, as the duelist gives warning before she draws. The answer you seek to the Dreaming City is simple, not complex.

JALAAL >> REY

How is anyone supposed to arrive at this by studying the Truth to Power text?

REY >> JALAAL

Very easily. This is why I believe I'm right. This is the analogy our Guardian analysts failed to grasp. Look at the structure of the text.

At first, Eris is real. Then we learn Eris's voice is a deception by Medusa. Then we learn Medusa is nested inside Quria. Then we learn Quria is a fiction of Dûl Incaru. And at the center, Savathûn reveals herself to be the parent of it all.

We are headed inward, as if moving from parent to child universe.

Then we proceed in reverse. Savathûn is revealed to be a fiction of Dûl Incaru. Dûl Incaru a simulation by Quria, and so on.

So in the end, Truth to Power moves outwards.

Just as Savathûn plans to move. In from our universe and out to the Distributary—

Or out from our universe to its parent.

JALAAL >> REY

Oh. I see. I see! A literary structure like that is called a chiasmus, and chiasmus means "crossing point"! Like a wormhole or a portal! It was hidden in plain sight.

But then we must act urgently to stop this! Savathûn cannot be allowed to depart our universe into some reality superordinate to ours—

But now you'll tell me: so what if she does? What can she do to us out there?

REY >> JALAAL

It's all beside the point anyway. She may have already accomplished what she wanted. Some damn fool Guardian carried out her instructions on a dare. I don't know why she wanted a powerful Guardian to destroy her daughter in the ruins of Mara's throne. But she wanted it to happen. And I'm guessing the effects weren't felt here.

I think she got a glimpse into a world above our own. Maybe even a kind of influence.

Of course, Savathûn is still with us. She walked among us as Osiris; she tricked us into removing her worm; she hasn't vanished into some higher reality. I do not think she built a wormhole into another universe and walked through it—although her intrigues with the Nine have focused on creating singularities from dark matter.

She keeps a lot of irons in the fire, our Witch Queen.

I think, rather, that she sent instructions on how to mantle her.

I think the whole Truth to Power manuscript is an ova, a manual on how to behave like her, how to describe her through action and thought so completely that you become her and thus give birth to her.

It's done in the Books of Sorrow, to recall her from true death. It might be done again.

So a part of her is out of the jar. Slithering into that other world.

Let's hope no one there has given birth to her yet.

JALAAL >> REY

Maybe you're the one who has it all backwards.

The Light is noncomputable. It can't be simulated in conventional physics. That proves that any universe with the Light cannot be a simulation. Our universe can contain simulations, but it cannot be one.

Maybe this other world Savathûn's touched is subordinate to ours after all. Maybe they are the ones who exist in our minds. A dream of a purely material world, adrift in the true cosmos of Light and Dark.

Poor frail dreams. The things she'd do to them…

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Dûl Incaru serves you poison in a fine tea set of Ahamkara bone. "Now you have received my mother's message," she says, "but I must admit it is all a fabrication. I have written it hoping to know my mother, to capture her true motives. To speculate upon her designs is the greatest worship." She sighs heavily, a sound like a scream up a pit, as she sets the teapot down. "We her children are all left to speculate on the great questions. Does she love us? Do we make her proud? Would she hesitate for even the tick of a Planck moment before she sacrificed us in some cosmic design?" "Now drink, and as you die and are reborn, I will reveal to you the destiny she has realized for you, the right and singular fate to which all your principles and purposes will bring you." To drink the poison, continue reading. It tastes of bitter regret and psychosis sweat: a poison to end the thoughts of Human, neohuman, or machine. You see the cosmos before you like a spiderweb of light. Filaments of galactic supercluster shine in the clouds of invisible dark matter, which glue their mass together. Dark energy yawns in the space between all things, ever-growing, ever-spreading. Life arises. Life spreads, contests itself, and changes. Great things are built and destroyed, but from your vantage point, you see that the victor of each struggle contains—in its negative, in the marks left upon it by the loser and the shapes it assumed to win—the master record of all that it has beaten. Information may not be erased. Whatsoever survives until the end of the cosmos will possess and remember all which came before it. This is true even of the devouring black hole, which remembers all the secrets it eats. It will only confess these secrets when it evaporates, 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 years from now, long after the last stars have flickered out. You are a Guardian. You must protect life. If all life is information, and Guardians strive to preserve life, and information is preserved when it is secret, then you must convert all life into the most secure form of secrets, durable to the end of time. YOU MUST CAST ALL THE LIFE YOU CHERISH INTO A BLACK HOLE

JALAAL >> REY How is anyone supposed to arrive at this by studying the Truth to Power text? REY >> JALAAL Very easily. This is why I believe I'm right. This is the analogy our Guardian analysts failed to grasp. Look at the structure of the text. At first, Eris is real. Then we learn Eris's voice is a deception by Medusa. Then we learn Medusa is nested inside Quria. Then we learn Quria is a fiction of Dûl Incaru. And at the center, Savathûn reveals herself to be the parent of it all. We are headed inward, as if moving from parent to child universe. Then we proceed in reverse. Savathûn is revealed to be a fiction of Dûl Incaru. Dûl Incaru a simulation by Quria, and so on. So in the end, Truth to Power moves outwards. Just as Savathûn plans to move. In from our universe and out to the Distributary— Or out from our universe to its parent. JALAAL >> REY Oh. I see. I see! A literary structure like that is called a chiasmus, and chiasmus means "crossing point"! Like a wormhole or a portal! It was hidden in plain sight.