History Characters / DestinyTheDarkness

An elite strike force of human-sized warriors under the Witness's command. Introduced in ''The Final Shape'', they are the primary unique threat within the Pale Heart, and use their own versions of the Darkness Guardian subclasses as the Harbingers and Omens.

* EvilMakesYouUgly: Those who serve the Black Fleet are apparently warped by their exposure to Resonance and Pyramid tech: Nezarec and Rhulk are both explicitly warped by their service, with their bodies largely looking flayed and fleshy. The Tormentors and Subjugators, derived from the Disciples, are in many ways worse than their progenitors in that they largely lack faces or mouths, with their bodies splitting open at various points. Even the Shadow Legion's armored appearance is much more clunky and off putting than their mainstream Cabal counterparts. That's not getting into [[{{Gonk}} The]] [[UncannyValley Witness]]...

An elite strike force of human-sized warriors under the Witness's command. Introduced in ''The Final Shape'', they are the primary unique threat within the Pale Heart, and use their own versions of the Darkness Guardian subclasses.

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreaddestiny.png]]
[[caption-width-right:1000: Enforcers of the Black Fleet]]

!!The Tormentors, Reverants of the Witness
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_183521_chrome.jpg]]

The personal army of [[BigBad The Witness,]] lent to the Shadow Legion for the invasion of Neomuna during ''Lightfall.'' Powerful, unstoppable behemoths that promise to teach Guardians [[ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts the true strength of the Black Fleet.]] It is very strongly implied that they are followers of Nezarec, inducted as fanatical sycophants of his teachings through unknown means.

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_08_24_111717.png]]

[[folder: Grim]]

[[quoteright:517:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grim_2.png]]

[[folder: Husks/Geists]]

[[folder: Attendants]]
!! The Attendants

[[folder: Weavers]]
!! The Weavers

* VillainTeamUp: If the number of individuals and factions from different races on this page didn't clue you in. The Black Fleet's entrance into Sol is followed by a slow and gradual team up of multiple enemy factions. The Hive were always in service of the Darkness, but Xivu Arath's faction in general joins up with the Black Fleet after Savathun's heresy is made apparent. This is followed in short order by the founding of House of Salvation, a Fallen house that answers to the Witness, then the building of the Wrathborn (which occurs through the spread of a HatePlague that affects all enemy races). And without Fikrul or the rest of the Barons around to command them, the Scorn also end up under the thrall of the Witness completely. Exiled Emperor Calus then pledges his sect of the Cabal to the Black Fleet. This is followed in turn by the increasing presence of the Sol Divisive among Black Fleet operations. All in all, headed into ''Lightfall'' the Black Fleet and the Witness have at their disposal the single most formidable force the Guardians have ever faced and that's before taking into account the personal forces the Black Fleet brings to the table, such as the Taken, Nightmares, and Tormentors.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Witness seems to genuinely believe that the people of the Sol System are suffering under the Traveler and seeks to bring "salvation" to them, much like the Darkness itself. If it is also ''the Winnower'', then they also see their crusade as nature running its course and part of a cold, emotionless "[[TheSocialDarwinist collective obligation]]" discussed in Vow of the Disciple. Unsurprisingly, the civilization whom the Witness once was also suffered from the same problem: they ''could not'' go on without purpose after living in a harsh planet where living alone was a struggle, and upon discovering the Veil and its Darkness, they considered the fact universe lacked an intrinsic meaning and existence had no greater purpose to be ''a crime'' they [[MeaningfulName witnessed]], and must be corrected at any cost.

[[/folder]]

The melee bruisers of the Dread, capable of taking revenge after their deaths by unleashing parasitic hosts known as Geists.

!!!'''Axis Minds'''
[[folder:The Undying Mind]]
!!The Undying Mind
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undying_mind.jpg]]

->''"We are starting to believe that time is home to the Vex, and somewhere in those unmappable voids dwell their undying minds."''

The boss of the strike of the same name, The Undying Mind has only one mission: Lock the Black Garden back out of time, and then revive its Heart.

* ArcVillain: For ''Season of the Undying''. It's the driving force behind the Sol Divisive's invasion of the Moon and once again seeks to rip the Black Garden back out of time.
* BackFromTheDead: As of ''Season of the Undying'', the Undying Mind has been resurrected.
* DeaderThanDead: Ikora confirms at the beginning of the ''Season of the Dawn'' that the Vanguard's endeavour to eliminate the Undying Mind across all timelines has been successful, joking that the Cryptarchs should change its name.
* DeathIsCheap: Any attempt to assassinate it in ''Season of the Undying'' results in a duplicate being summoned from an alternate timeline. Ikora's construction project, which requires a boatload of salvaged Vex parts, is aimed at [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill killing every single instance of the Undying Mind in every single universe]].
* FlunkyBoss: Very much so, with both Precursor and Sol Divisive Vex aiding it in its efforts to kill you.
* KingMook: A gigantic Hydra, similar to Sekrion. The chief difference is that its rotating shield is split into three smaller shields, rather than being one continuous piece.
* MightyGlacier: Like any Hydra, though it is more mobile than most of them, randomly moving up and down the arena you fight it in.
* TimeMaster: When you can single-handedly rip an area out of the flow of time, you are ''definitely'' this.

[[folder:Consecrated Mind]]
!!Consecrated Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_857.jpg]]

A warped Harpy belonging to the Sol Divisive and the first major threat faced in the Garden of Salvation raid.

* AmbiguousRobots: This Harpy looks less like a robot and more like a fleshy monstrosity, with malformed wings and numerous tentacles. Not to mention all the additional eyes. The very first thing you see it do is it attacking and possibly eating a Minotaur. When have we ever known the Vex to eat?
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Breaking a player out of its voltaic field requires you shoot the proper eyes, and exposing its actual weak point requires you to destroy all of its eyes after luring it to a charged relay, then blasting the white core in its back as it runs.
* CowardlyBoss: It only directly fights you when you corner it in an area that it can't run from you in, and even then you have to lure it into a charged relay and destroy all its eyes to expose a weakpoint to hammer while it flees back to the center.
* EvilIsVisceral: It's in the way of your path to [[spoiler: a structure similar to the pyramid's interior]], and the Consecrated Mind looks bizarrely ''organic'' for a Vex construct, with its wings resembling flesh branching off into organic-looking tentacles and regularly growing [[EyesDoNotBelongThere Vex sensors that look like actual eyes.]] This is likely due to whatever is causing it to overflow with Darkness energy, [[spoiler: considering the Sol Divisive appear to have a relay connected to the actual pyramids.]]
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Whenever it traps a teammate in a voltaic field, the Consecrated Mind will sprout several organic-looking eyes (although they're still typical Vex sensors) on its wings. Either the inner or outer eyes need to be shot out in order to continue without killing the trapped teammate.
* KingMook: A giant Harpy with many eyes.
* GetBackHereBoss: It constantly moves around the arena it's in, forcing the team to chase it down to activate the mechanics of its fight before coming in for damage. When you get to break its barrier at the relay you lured it at, the Consecrated Mind will retreat back to the center of the map, which translates into your fireteam being forced to move along the corridor to keep firing at it.
* GoForTheEye: It has many eyes, all of which can be shot. It's crucial to shoot the right ones in time, though, otherwise the player it traps will die.
* MarathonBoss: This thing compromises almost all the encounters in the Garden of Salvation raid.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Compared to the rest of the Sol Divisive, the Consecrated Mind has been heavily mutated into a [[EvilIsVisceral strange, fleshy form]] and is initially encountered eating a Minotaur for an unknown reason.
* ThePawnsGoFirst: During its first two fights, it doesn't actually try to attack you directly. About the only thing it does is wander around and deposit a Voltaic Overload onto the ground, then disappearing again. During those times, you only fight the lesser Vex in charge of defending the Black Garden.
* SequentialBoss: Three fourths of the entire raid involve fighting this thing in some form.

[[folder:Sanctified Mind]]
!!Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sanctified_mind_sol_inherent.jpg]]

A massive Minotaur, part of the Sol Divisive, responsible for processing sacrifices to the Darkness. It is the last boss of the Garden of Salvation raid, and defeating it reveals an unsettling truth about the nature of the Sol Divisive's worship of the Darkness.

* AmbiguousRobots: While Vex are decidedly robotic to begin with, the Sanctified Mind looks more like a giant statue than anything mechanical. Much like the Consecrated Mind before it.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: Aside from the obvious default weakpoint that only gets exposed during its damage phase, the Sanctified Mind has two extra ones on its shoulder and leg. Shooting either causes portals to form, leading to two other areas outside the main arena, where extra enemies carrying motes reside.
* BossArenaUrgency: Throughout the battle, it will occasionally destroy parts of the platform that the fireteam is on, reducing the amount of room to maneuver. The fireteam has to reconstruct these destroyed patches when they can, lest they have nowhere to go and end up succumbing to the radiolaria beneath.
* EvilIsVisceral: Guardian of the [[spoiler: Darkness structure behind its arena]]. While not as mutated as the Consecrated Mind, the tentacles sprouting from it, its non-uniform and eroded design, and the exposed inner frame still bring to mind flesh rather than metal nonetheless.
* HighPriest: Is more or less this for the Sol Divisive.
* KingMook: Quite possibly the largest Minotaur seen yet.
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=398oA98hfMc "The Sanctified Mind"]]. It combines OneWomanWail with FreakyElectronicMusic, sounding chillingly ethereal and unnerving.
* LivingStatue: It looks more like an animate, distorted effigy of a Minotaur instead of a robot.
* PullingThemselvesTogether: Before the fight starts, it looks like it's seperated into multiple pieces and hovering above the radiolaria lake. When combat starts, it assembles into Minotaur form. It dissassembles again during its damage phase.
* PuzzleBoss: Makes heavy use of the tether and voltaic mote system from the rest of the raid, this time in more confined areas and splitting things up between light and dark relays.
* StationaryBoss: Downplayed. While it can and does walk around, it keeps itself confined to the main area on the radiolaria lake it's standing on and makes no effort to get out of the firing range of the fireteam.
* TakenForGranite: It turns into an inanimate fixture as it collapses in apparent pain once defeated.
* ThinkingUpPortals: Part of the strategy against it is to jump into portals it summons after a weakpoint is blown up and be warped to areas outside of the arena to kill enemies and collect motes, then get pulled back to dunk those motes into a relay.

[[folder:Akelous]]
!!Akelous, the Siren's Current
A mutated Sol Divisive Harpy and TheDragon to the Divisive's newest servant of the Witness Persys, Akelous is encountered trying to drain the fuel system of the Pillory bunker on Mars.

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Take too long trying to interrupt it when it's absorbing the fuel rods and it'll throw you off the Spire of Ares with a massive static shock.
* {{Cap}}: Gains massive damage reduction if the player hacks off more than half of its health in one damage phase.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Inverted; the Vex ''know'' Arc energy is hazardous to them in uncontrolled amounts, yet Akelous repeatedly tries to harvest the unstable and oddly-wired conduits of the bunker. This exposes it long enough for the Young Wolf to shut it down, while they themselves escape relatively-unharmed despite soaking up just as much Arc energy to re-power the grid.
* EvilIsVisceral: A servant of the Witness and uses the same mutant, flesh-like frame as the Consecrated Mind.
* MeaningfulName:
** A corruption of "IKELOS," the protocol that created the Sleeper Simulant and the Escalation Protocol weapons; together with Persys, Akelous is raiding the Spire of Ares to help Xivu Arath and the Witness arm themselves with Rasputin's remains [[spoiler:and also locate its brainchild Soteria on Neptune to obtain ''its'' power]].
** Akelous's name can also be taken as a corruption of "Achilles;" the method used to defeat it is [[AchillesHeel yet another case of the Vex frying themselves on an uncontrolled power surge]]. It may serve the Witness and have some semblance of paracausality, but it's still the same kind of machine as Theosyion and the Consecrated Mind, i.e. a bulky Harpy.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Much like the Consecrated Mind before it, Akelous is first seen devouring a Minotaur, this time to drain its conduits.
* MovesetClone: Shares its AI behavior, physical design and most of its basic encounter framework with the Consecrated Mind, the only differences being the lack of anything related to the Volatilic Overflows the Consecrated Mind creates and exactly how you lure it into being vulnerable.
* PuzzleBoss: Needs to be lured into consuming the bunker's energy by reactivating the fuel system outside the bunker's tower. Once this happens, it ends up exposing itself and becomes vulnerable to damage.

[[folder:Persys]]
!!Persys, Primordial Ruin
The leader of the Witness's attempt to use the Sol Divisive to obtain the Pillory bunker's files, a heavily-armored Wyvern. Serves as the last boss of the Spire of the Watcher dungeon.

* AncientEvil: A member of the aged Sol Divisive and the most ill-intentioned non-Taken Vex encountered to date as a servant of the Witness. Persys is also the only post-''Shadowkeep'' Sol Divisive elite whose frame does not lean into EvilIsVisceral, instead looking like a worn and unimaginably-old statue.
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:It's implied Persys has already won, as the intel it's looking for pertains to an ArtificialIntelligence revealed to be Neomuna's creator. As a result, the events of "Spire of the Watcher" are thus a deliberate wild goose chase plotted by the Witness]].
* DamageSpongeBoss: Comes with the territory of being a Wyvern and PuzzleBoss. Going at it alone can take at least 15 minutes to kill it, and that's with optimization.
* DefiantToTheEnd: As one of the Witness's many servants, it was perfectly content with cooking itself to death if it meant allowing the Spire of Ares's data to be secured and then destroyed to hide the evidence, meaning the Young Wolf's intervention wouldn't have changed much. [[spoiler:It never really mattered how it went out, anyway; [[ForegoneConclusion the Witness needs a valid reason to go to Neptune, after all]]]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: The huge Wyvern walking on an inaccessible catwalk when you first reach the open section of the Reactor Firewall? That's Persys. It's only at the very end of the dungeon that you meet it again and fight it properly.
* IronicName: A corruption of "Perseus," the slayer of monsters from Greek myth. [[spoiler:Keep in mind this thing's trying to get a lead on an innocent human city for the express purpose of subjugating it]].
* KillItWithFire: Its shielding can't stand heat, and reactivating the Seraph Reactor Core's power will initiate a purge sequence that melts off its defenses.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** If the fact that it's part of the [[BlackSheep Sol Divisive]] didn't clue you in on its evil intentions, Persys is currently the only non-Taken Vex in the game whose BossSubtitles imply malicious intent.
** Persys's name can also be interpreted as a rendition of Perses, a mythological figure in Greek myth whose name literally means ''"destroyer."''
* RedHerring: We're led to believe Persys is after submind data located within the Spire of Ares. [[spoiler:Reading through all of the dungeon's loot gives the strong indication that it was looking for a completely different portion of Clovis's AI research. [[TheBadGuyWins Persys got what it came for, and now the Witness knows to look closer within Neptune]]]].
* ShownTheirWork: Persys's attempt to blow the Spire of Ares skyward is described as sending the reactor core into "''prompt'' critical." In real energy reactors, GoingCritical or even supercritical is not always a problem, since both terms simply refer to a heightened reaction rate. "Prompt critical," on the other hand, refers to the ''rate of change'' in reaction rate spiking suddenly, which is much more of a concern than what the rate actually is.

!!!'''Other servants of the Black Fleet'''
[[folder:Clarity Control]]
!!Clarity Control

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clarity_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I wonder why Clarity Control chose the particular aspect it did. That form, that face. The same visage as the precursor on Earth's moon. What is it meant to communicate? Is it a message particularly meant for me?"'']]

A mysterious veiled figure residing within the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa, used by Clovis Bray to convert Vex Radiolaria into that which would eventually fuel his Exo Project. Described as an "entity from beyond our own dimension."

* BlackSpeech: Can be heard in its presence or in the presence of its idols and the Artifacts they hold.
* TheCorruptor: To Clovis Bray, turning what was once an egotistical but ultimately well meaning man into a narcissistic servant of the Darkness.
** Also implicitly responsible for the corruption of the Sol Divisive in the ''Garden of Salvation'' raid, considering what they were guarding was another statue in its likeness.
* DarkIsEvil: Visibly radiates darkness, and is completely covered in a creepy dark veil.
* DarkMessiah: Implicitly, or at least Clovis seemed to think so. Notably, it is seemingly the object of worship of the Sol Divisive after the final demise of the Black Heart.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Responsible for Clovis Bray's ultimate descent into madness and the existence of Exos. It is present for the Deep Stone Crypt Raid, but is not fought or confronted in any meaningful way (if it even can be confronted). Its likeness is also present in all of the Pyramid ships shown thus far, meaning it likely has a ''major'' role in the hierarchy of the Black Fleet.
* LivingStatue: The likenesses of it that show up on the Pyramids are still treated as living beings, reaching out to the Guardians of their own accord. Clarity Control itself may also seem this trope, but its chest visually moves while being observed and its cloak seemingly moves, making it an aversion.
* TheManBehindTheMan: To the Black Heart, seemingly being higher in the pantheon the Sol Divisive worship and being the being responsible for their oddly organic appearances.
* MysteriousBenefactor: To Clovis Bray, inspiring his Exo project and granting him the insight necessary for many of his greatest accomplishments.
* MysteriousVeil: It and its likenesses are completely covered in a veil obscuring any and all features.
* ReligionOfEvil: Seemingly a religious idol among Darkness worshippers, with a monument at the center of each of the major Pyramids visited thus far.
* TheSpook: Showed up on Europa a few years before Clovis showed up, and began whispering ideas into his head. So far, we have no idea of its motives or actual power level, only that it was responsible for the success of the Exo project.
* YouHaveFailedMe: After the Vex attack on Bray's colony, Clarity Control grew silent, seemingly abandoning Bray for his failure.

[[folder:Xivu Arath]]
!!Xivu Arath, God of War
[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_6_84.png]]
[[caption-width-right:342: '' "This is our obligation as lords of the Hive, to make war upon each other, to eradicate weakness and make ourselves sharp." '']]

Following Savathun's falling out with the Black Fleet and excommunication by the Witness, Xivu Arath ascends to highest god of the Hive pantheon and Hive liaison to the Black Fleet. She acts as both attack dog and TheDragon to the Witness from this point onward.

For more information on her, see her folder on [[Characters/DestinyTheHive the Hive.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eramis]]
!!Eramis, Kell of Darkness
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20221011_195514_chrome_6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:'' "Remember, light only burns bright so long but darkness is forever."'']]
->'''Voiced by:''' Salli Saffioti

A Baroness of the House of Devils known as the Shipstealer, Eramis once plotted Fallen reunification under the Devil banner. During the events of ''Forsaken'', she is among the many inmates of the Prison of Elders who take advantage of Variks's orchestrated prison outbreak, fleeing to parts unknown. The Praxic Order catch wind of her activities, designating her as VIP#2029 and branding her as a potential threat to the City.\\\
Eramis eventually leaves the Devils banner behind and establishes the new House of Salvation on Europa, taking the title of Kell of Darkness as she seeks to unite all remaining Fallen under her banner. Her efforts led to the construction of Riis-reborn, as massive Fallen city built amongst the ruins of Clovis Bray's Europan colony. However, Eramis's new empire is powered by the Darkness itself, as she seeks to empower all Fallen with it to destroy humanity and the Traveler.\\\
After her failure in ''Beyond Light,'' Eramis is entombed in a cocoon of ice until the Voice in the Darkness releases her in ''Season of Plunder,'' tasking her with retrieving artifacts tied to both the past of the Fallen and the Disciples...

!!!'''Axis Minds'''
[[folder:The Undying Mind]]
!!The Undying Mind
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undying_mind.jpg]]

->''"We are starting to believe that time is home to the Vex, and somewhere in those unmappable voids dwell their undying minds."''

The boss of the strike of the same name, The Undying Mind has only one mission: Lock the Black Garden back out of time, and then revive its Heart.

* ArcVillain: For ''Season of the Undying''. It's the driving force behind the Sol Divisive's invasion of the Moon and once again seeks to rip the Black Garden back out of time.
* BackFromTheDead: As of ''Season of the Undying'', the Undying Mind has been resurrected.
* DeaderThanDead: Ikora confirms at the beginning of the ''Season of the Dawn'' that the Vanguard's endeavour to eliminate the Undying Mind across all timelines has been successful, joking that the Cryptarchs should change its name.
* DeathIsCheap: Any attempt to assassinate it in ''Season of the Undying'' results in a duplicate being summoned from an alternate timeline. Ikora's construction project, which requires a boatload of salvaged Vex parts, is aimed at [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill killing every single instance of the Undying Mind in every single universe]].
* FlunkyBoss: Very much so, with both Precursor and Sol Divisive Vex aiding it in its efforts to kill you.
* KingMook: A gigantic Hydra, similar to Sekrion. The chief difference is that its rotating shield is split into three smaller shields, rather than being one continuous piece.
* MightyGlacier: Like any Hydra, though it is more mobile than most of them, randomly moving up and down the arena you fight it in.
* TimeMaster: When you can single-handedly rip an area out of the flow of time, you are ''definitely'' this.

[[folder:Consecrated Mind]]
!!Consecrated Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_857.jpg]]

A warped Harpy belonging to the Sol Divisive and the first major threat faced in the Garden of Salvation raid.

* AmbiguousRobots: This Harpy looks less like a robot and more like a fleshy monstrosity, with malformed wings and numerous tentacles. Not to mention all the additional eyes. The very first thing you see it do is it attacking and possibly eating a Minotaur. When have we ever known the Vex to eat?
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Breaking a player out of its voltaic field requires you shoot the proper eyes, and exposing its actual weak point requires you to destroy all of its eyes after luring it to a charged relay, then blasting the white core in its back as it runs.
* CowardlyBoss: It only directly fights you when you corner it in an area that it can't run from you in, and even then you have to lure it into a charged relay and destroy all its eyes to expose a weakpoint to hammer while it flees back to the center.
* EvilIsVisceral: It's in the way of your path to [[spoiler: a structure similar to the pyramid's interior]], and the Consecrated Mind looks bizarrely ''organic'' for a Vex construct, with its wings resembling flesh branching off into organic-looking tentacles and regularly growing [[EyesDoNotBelongThere Vex sensors that look like actual eyes.]] This is likely due to whatever is causing it to overflow with Darkness energy, [[spoiler: considering the Sol Divisive appear to have a relay connected to the actual pyramids.]]
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Whenever it traps a teammate in a voltaic field, the Consecrated Mind will sprout several organic-looking eyes (although they're still typical Vex sensors) on its wings. Either the inner or outer eyes need to be shot out in order to continue without killing the trapped teammate.
* KingMook: A giant Harpy with many eyes.
* GetBackHereBoss: It constantly moves around the arena it's in, forcing the team to chase it down to activate the mechanics of its fight before coming in for damage. When you get to break its barrier at the relay you lured it at, the Consecrated Mind will retreat back to the center of the map, which translates into your fireteam being forced to move along the corridor to keep firing at it.
* GoForTheEye: It has many eyes, all of which can be shot. It's crucial to shoot the right ones in time, though, otherwise the player it traps will die.
* MarathonBoss: This thing compromises almost all the encounters in the Garden of Salvation raid.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Compared to the rest of the Sol Divisive, the Consecrated Mind has been heavily mutated into a [[EvilIsVisceral strange, fleshy form]] and is initially encountered eating a Minotaur for an unknown reason.
* ThePawnsGoFirst: During its first two fights, it doesn't actually try to attack you directly. About the only thing it does is wander around and deposit a Voltaic Overload onto the ground, then disappearing again. During those times, you only fight the lesser Vex in charge of defending the Black Garden.
* SequentialBoss: Three fourths of the entire raid involve fighting this thing in some form.

[[folder:Sanctified Mind]]
!!Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sanctified_mind_sol_inherent.jpg]]

A massive Minotaur, part of the Sol Divisive, responsible for processing sacrifices to the Darkness. It is the last boss of the Garden of Salvation raid, and defeating it reveals an unsettling truth about the nature of the Sol Divisive's worship of the Darkness.

* AmbiguousRobots: While Vex are decidedly robotic to begin with, the Sanctified Mind looks more like a giant statue than anything mechanical. Much like the Consecrated Mind before it.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: Aside from the obvious default weakpoint that only gets exposed during its damage phase, the Sanctified Mind has two extra ones on its shoulder and leg. Shooting either causes portals to form, leading to two other areas outside the main arena, where extra enemies carrying motes reside.
* BossArenaUrgency: Throughout the battle, it will occasionally destroy parts of the platform that the fireteam is on, reducing the amount of room to maneuver. The fireteam has to reconstruct these destroyed patches when they can, lest they have nowhere to go and end up succumbing to the radiolaria beneath.
* EvilIsVisceral: Guardian of the [[spoiler: Darkness structure behind its arena]]. While not as mutated as the Consecrated Mind, the tentacles sprouting from it, its non-uniform and eroded design, and the exposed inner frame still bring to mind flesh rather than metal nonetheless.
* HighPriest: Is more or less this for the Sol Divisive.
* KingMook: Quite possibly the largest Minotaur seen yet.
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=398oA98hfMc "The Sanctified Mind"]]. It combines OneWomanWail with FreakyElectronicMusic, sounding chillingly ethereal and unnerving.
* LivingStatue: It looks more like an animate, distorted effigy of a Minotaur instead of a robot.
* PullingThemselvesTogether: Before the fight starts, it looks like it's seperated into multiple pieces and hovering above the radiolaria lake. When combat starts, it assembles into Minotaur form. It dissassembles again during its damage phase.
* PuzzleBoss: Makes heavy use of the tether and voltaic mote system from the rest of the raid, this time in more confined areas and splitting things up between light and dark relays.
* StationaryBoss: Downplayed. While it can and does walk around, it keeps itself confined to the main area on the radiolaria lake it's standing on and makes no effort to get out of the firing range of the fireteam.
* TakenForGranite: It turns into an inanimate fixture as it collapses in apparent pain once defeated.
* ThinkingUpPortals: Part of the strategy against it is to jump into portals it summons after a weakpoint is blown up and be warped to areas outside of the arena to kill enemies and collect motes, then get pulled back to dunk those motes into a relay.

[[folder:Akelous]]
!!Akelous, the Siren's Current
A mutated Sol Divisive Harpy and TheDragon to the Divisive's newest servant of the Witness Persys, Akelous is encountered trying to drain the fuel system of the Pillory bunker on Mars.

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Take too long trying to interrupt it when it's absorbing the fuel rods and it'll throw you off the Spire of Ares with a massive static shock.
* {{Cap}}: Gains massive damage reduction if the player hacks off more than half of its health in one damage phase.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Inverted; the Vex ''know'' Arc energy is hazardous to them in uncontrolled amounts, yet Akelous repeatedly tries to harvest the unstable and oddly-wired conduits of the bunker. This exposes it long enough for the Young Wolf to shut it down, while they themselves escape relatively-unharmed despite soaking up just as much Arc energy to re-power the grid.
* EvilIsVisceral: A servant of the Witness and uses the same mutant, flesh-like frame as the Consecrated Mind.
* MeaningfulName:
** A corruption of "IKELOS," the protocol that created the Sleeper Simulant and the Escalation Protocol weapons; together with Persys, Akelous is raiding the Spire of Ares to help Xivu Arath and the Witness arm themselves with Rasputin's remains [[spoiler:and also locate its brainchild Soteria on Neptune to obtain ''its'' power]].
** Akelous's name can also be taken as a corruption of "Achilles;" the method used to defeat it is [[AchillesHeel yet another case of the Vex frying themselves on an uncontrolled power surge]]. It may serve the Witness and have some semblance of paracausality, but it's still the same kind of machine as Theosyion and the Consecrated Mind, i.e. a bulky Harpy.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Much like the Consecrated Mind before it, Akelous is first seen devouring a Minotaur, this time to drain its conduits.
* MovesetClone: Shares its AI behavior, physical design and most of its basic encounter framework with the Consecrated Mind, the only differences being the lack of anything related to the Volatilic Overflows the Consecrated Mind creates and exactly how you lure it into being vulnerable.
* PuzzleBoss: Needs to be lured into consuming the bunker's energy by reactivating the fuel system outside the bunker's tower. Once this happens, it ends up exposing itself and becomes vulnerable to damage.

[[folder:Persys]]
!!Persys, Primordial Ruin
The leader of the Witness's attempt to use the Sol Divisive to obtain the Pillory bunker's files, a heavily-armored Wyvern. Serves as the last boss of the Spire of the Watcher dungeon.

* AncientEvil: A member of the aged Sol Divisive and the most ill-intentioned non-Taken Vex encountered to date as a servant of the Witness. Persys is also the only post-''Shadowkeep'' Sol Divisive elite whose frame does not lean into EvilIsVisceral, instead looking like a worn and unimaginably-old statue.
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:It's implied Persys has already won, as the intel it's looking for pertains to an ArtificialIntelligence revealed to be Neomuna's creator. As a result, the events of "Spire of the Watcher" are thus a deliberate wild goose chase plotted by the Witness]].
* DamageSpongeBoss: Comes with the territory of being a Wyvern and PuzzleBoss. Going at it alone can take at least 15 minutes to kill it, and that's with optimization.
* DefiantToTheEnd: As one of the Witness's many servants, it was perfectly content with cooking itself to death if it meant allowing the Spire of Ares's data to be secured and then destroyed to hide the evidence, meaning the Young Wolf's intervention wouldn't have changed much. [[spoiler:It never really mattered how it went out, anyway; [[ForegoneConclusion the Witness needs a valid reason to go to Neptune, after all]]]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: The huge Wyvern walking on an inaccessible catwalk when you first reach the open section of the Reactor Firewall? That's Persys. It's only at the very end of the dungeon that you meet it again and fight it properly.
* IronicName: A corruption of "Perseus," the slayer of monsters from Greek myth. [[spoiler:Keep in mind this thing's trying to get a lead on an innocent human city for the express purpose of subjugating it]].
* KillItWithFire: Its shielding can't stand heat, and reactivating the Seraph Reactor Core's power will initiate a purge sequence that melts off its defenses.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** If the fact that it's part of the [[BlackSheep Sol Divisive]] didn't clue you in on its evil intentions, Persys is currently the only non-Taken Vex in the game whose BossSubtitles imply malicious intent.
** Persys's name can also be interpreted as a rendition of Perses, a mythological figure in Greek myth whose name literally means ''"destroyer."''
* RedHerring: We're led to believe Persys is after submind data located within the Spire of Ares. [[spoiler:Reading through all of the dungeon's loot gives the strong indication that it was looking for a completely different portion of Clovis's AI research. [[TheBadGuyWins Persys got what it came for, and now the Witness knows to look closer within Neptune]]]].
* ShownTheirWork: Persys's attempt to blow the Spire of Ares skyward is described as sending the reactor core into "''prompt'' critical." In real energy reactors, GoingCritical or even supercritical is not always a problem, since both terms simply refer to a heightened reaction rate. "Prompt critical," on the other hand, refers to the ''rate of change'' in reaction rate spiking suddenly, which is much more of a concern than what the rate actually is.

!!!'''Other servants of the Black Fleet'''
[[folder:Clarity Control]]
!!Clarity Control

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clarity_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I wonder why Clarity Control chose the particular aspect it did. That form, that face. The same visage as the precursor on Earth's moon. What is it meant to communicate? Is it a message particularly meant for me?"'']]

A mysterious veiled figure residing within the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa, used by Clovis Bray to convert Vex Radiolaria into that which would eventually fuel his Exo Project. Described as an "entity from beyond our own dimension."

* BlackSpeech: Can be heard in its presence or in the presence of its idols and the Artifacts they hold.
* TheCorruptor: To Clovis Bray, turning what was once an egotistical but ultimately well meaning man into a narcissistic servant of the Darkness.
** Also implicitly responsible for the corruption of the Sol Divisive in the ''Garden of Salvation'' raid, considering what they were guarding was another statue in its likeness.
* DarkIsEvil: Visibly radiates darkness, and is completely covered in a creepy dark veil.
* DarkMessiah: Implicitly, or at least Clovis seemed to think so. Notably, it is seemingly the object of worship of the Sol Divisive after the final demise of the Black Heart.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Responsible for Clovis Bray's ultimate descent into madness and the existence of Exos. It is present for the Deep Stone Crypt Raid, but is not fought or confronted in any meaningful way (if it even can be confronted). Its likeness is also present in all of the Pyramid ships shown thus far, meaning it likely has a ''major'' role in the hierarchy of the Black Fleet.
* LivingStatue: The likenesses of it that show up on the Pyramids are still treated as living beings, reaching out to the Guardians of their own accord. Clarity Control itself may also seem this trope, but its chest visually moves while being observed and its cloak seemingly moves, making it an aversion.
* TheManBehindTheMan: To the Black Heart, seemingly being higher in the pantheon the Sol Divisive worship and being the being responsible for their oddly organic appearances.
* MysteriousBenefactor: To Clovis Bray, inspiring his Exo project and granting him the insight necessary for many of his greatest accomplishments.
* MysteriousVeil: It and its likenesses are completely covered in a veil obscuring any and all features.
* ReligionOfEvil: Seemingly a religious idol among Darkness worshippers, with a monument at the center of each of the major Pyramids visited thus far.
* TheSpook: Showed up on Europa a few years before Clovis showed up, and began whispering ideas into his head. So far, we have no idea of its motives or actual power level, only that it was responsible for the success of the Exo project.
* YouHaveFailedMe: After the Vex attack on Bray's colony, Clarity Control grew silent, seemingly abandoning Bray for his failure.

[[folder:Xivu Arath]]
!!Xivu Arath, God of War
[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_6_84.png]]
[[caption-width-right:342: '' "This is our obligation as lords of the Hive, to make war upon each other, to eradicate weakness and make ourselves sharp." '']]

Following Savathun's falling out with the Black Fleet and excommunication by the Witness, Xivu Arath ascends to highest god of the Hive pantheon and Hive liaison to the Black Fleet. She acts as both attack dog and TheDragon to the Witness from this point onward.

For more information on her, see her folder on [[Characters/DestinyTheHive the Hive.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eramis]]
!!Eramis, Kell of Darkness
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20221011_195514_chrome_6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:'' "Remember, light only burns bright so long but darkness is forever."'']]
->'''Voiced by:''' Salli Saffioti

A Baroness of the House of Devils known as the Shipstealer, Eramis once plotted Fallen reunification under the Devil banner. During the events of ''Forsaken'', she is among the many inmates of the Prison of Elders who take advantage of Variks's orchestrated prison outbreak, fleeing to parts unknown. The Praxic Order catch wind of her activities, designating her as VIP#2029 and branding her as a potential threat to the City.\\\
Eramis eventually leaves the Devils banner behind and establishes the new House of Salvation on Europa, taking the title of Kell of Darkness as she seeks to unite all remaining Fallen under her banner. Her efforts led to the construction of Riis-reborn, as massive Fallen city built amongst the ruins of Clovis Bray's Europan colony. However, Eramis's new empire is powered by the Darkness itself, as she seeks to empower all Fallen with it to destroy humanity and the Traveler.\\\
After her failure in ''Beyond Light,'' Eramis is entombed in a cocoon of ice until the Voice in the Darkness releases her in ''Season of Plunder,'' tasking her with retrieving artifacts tied to both the past of the Fallen and the Disciples...

[[folder:Tormentors]]
!!The Tormentors, Reverants of the Witness
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_183521_chrome.jpg]]

The personal army of [[BigBad The Witness,]] lent to the Shadow Legion for the invasion of Neomuna during ''Lightfall.'' Powerful, unstoppable behemoths that promise to teach Guardians [[ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts the true strength of the Black Fleet.]] It is very strongly implied that they are followers of Nezarec, inducted as fanatical sycophants of his teachings through unknown means.

* AmbiguouslyRelated: While there is a definite connection between the Tormentors and Nezarec since the latter is a KingMook of the former, their exact relation is not stated - they could clones of him, as is the case with the Subjugators and Rhulk, or they may simply be devoted followers of his cult who took on his appearance and choice of weaponry in reverence.
* AntiMagic: Their Void-powered attacks can disable all the abilities of a guardian for a short time.
* AttackitsWeakPoint: Tormentors have two big, glowing weakpoints on their shoulders. Once these are destroyed, they get a third one at center of their torso, but this one can only be damaged while they face the attacking guardian, which puts the latter directly into the crosshair of the respective Tormentor.
* ApocalypseCult: As more Tormentors show up throughout the campaign, their BossSubtitles begin to imply that they've carried on Nezarec's ReligionOfEvil centuries after he first introduced it to humanity.
* BossInMookClothing: Stated by Bungie to be "like boss characters on the battlefield," promising to be much stronger than any other minibosses the Guardians have faced.
* EliteMook: These things are a walking sign that the Witness and Calus are no longer playing nice or trying to bring the Guardians to our side, instead bringing Sol down by force and enacting their plan to bring about the Final Shape.
* GrappleMove: One of their attacks, Dark Harvest, involves clutching you with their scythe, then holding you in their off-hand and blasting you with Void energy until the force propels you away from their grasp. It's a marked departure from previous boss unit designs, and it's made even more scary since a successful grab forces you out of the usual first-person perspective and makes you watch your Guardian helplessly struggle in third-person perspective.
* HeroKiller: [[spoiler:Veriizia, an elite Tormentor, delays the Young Wolf in Mission: Jailbreak long enough to ensure they and Mithrax cannot escape the base without also allowing Amanda Holliday to die]].
* LightningBruiser: Tormentors hit like a truck, can close the distance between them and a Guardian frighteningly fast and also are invulnerable to weapon-damage on a large portion of their bodies.
* LogicalWeakness: Despite their great power, they are still physical beings, and can be suspended by Strand, frozen by Stasis or blinded by Arc-abilities / grenade launchers with blinding grenades.
* MythicalMotif: Omen, the Tormentor faced during The Whetstone, takes after the stories of the minotaur - they're an extremely powerful monster fought inside a difficult to traverse labyrinth, and can only be damaged after killing unique minotarus to buff up your damage enough to do more than ScratchDamage against them.
* PraetorianGuard: The elite guard of the Witness and their Disciples, with the strength and endurance to match.
* ScratchDamage: They take negligible damage on every part of their bodies except their weakpoints. Omen, the final boss of The Whetstone, takes this one step further, taking ScratchDamage ''on their weak point'' unless you have three stacks of the Deathly Sharp buff.
* TheSlowWalk: At the start of a combat encounter with the Guardians, the Tormentors are content to slowy walk in the direction of their adversaries and pelt the Guardians with long-range attacks. However, once the two weakpoints on the shoulders of the Tormentors are destroyed, they have enough and start to run.
* SinisterScythe: All seem to wield these. Fitting, considering they serve a thing that acts as though it is the embodiment of Death itself.
* SwordBeam: Their main method of attack is to hurl homing arcs of Void energy from their scythes.
* VillainTeamUp: Team up with the Cabal Shadow Legion to take Neomuna and the rest of Sol by force. This can also be considered a zigzagged trope, as while this is the first time we've seen the forces of the Witness and Cabal team up, the Shadow Legion is born and bred to serve the Witness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Subjugators]]
!!Subjugators

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_08_24_111717.png]]

An elite strike force of human-sized warriors under the Witness's command. Introduced in ''The Final Shape'', they are the primary unique threat within the Pale Heart, and use their own versions of the Darkness Guardian subclasses.
----
* BoomStick: True to their design basis, they use crude-looking spears to channel their attacks, and can release powewrful blasts of energy from them.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: While the Tormentors a year prior are giants patterned after Nezarec, Subjugators are human-sized and patterned after Rhulk.
* EliteMook: Field bosses much like the Tormentors before them, although apparently much more agile and deadly.
* EvilCounterpart: They're the Witness's ultimate counterpart to the Guardians - humanoid warriors who wield the power of the Darkness just as the Guardians wield the Light.
* {{Foil}}: To the Guardians. The Guardians wield the Light while the Subjugators control the Darkness. Guardians can come from many different races while the Subjugators are all modified clones of Rhulk. The Guardians all have an extremely varied arsenal and armor set while Subjugators appear to only have a limited number of appearances and wield only glances. The Guardians have existed for potentially millennia while the Subjugators are very recent creations of the Witness.
* ForceAndFinesse: Visually the finesse to the Tormentors' force. They're described as back-line support units who use their powers to perform area denial and apply status effects, compared to the Tormentors being straightforward blunt instruments.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: While not the end of ''Destiny'' overall, they are introduced in ''The Final Shape,'' the expansion capping off the initial story of ''Destiny'' across the games.
* MookLieutenant: Seen leading the Taken during the trailer for ''The Final Shape.''
* PowerCopying: Gameplay footage in the Showcase shows they can use Winter's Wrath and Flechette Storm, the Shadebinder's super and one of the Berserker's aspects respectively.
* SendInTheClones: Said in the Showcase to be freshly minted, mass-produced clones of Rhulk, and it shows in their slender builds and choice of weapon.
[[/folder]]


!!!'''Leadership'''
[[folder:The Witness]]
!!The Witness, the Voice in the Darkness, formerly the Penitent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fnbstvhxeaantxy.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''---We have seen enough. The children of Sol cry out for salvation.---'']]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[labelnote: The Witness's Original Form]][[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/witnessog_1.jpg]] [[caption-width-right:350:''And so they saw the Light not as a source of prosperity, but of utter chaos.'']]]]
[[/labelnote]]


-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/BrettDalton
-> ''---The universe makes us all victim, and perpetrator, of its infinite cruelty. You, more than any, suffer both fates. Be free.---''
The actual force behind what Humanity has known as the Darkness, a mysterious humanoid alien who controls the Black Fleet and has pursued the Traveler for eons. First seen near the end of ''The Witch Queen'', they make their approach to Sol, finally confronting the Traveler and setting the stage for ''Lightfall'' and ''The Final Shape.''
\\\
The Witness is later revealed to not be a true creature, but an animate SoulJar containing the first civilization the Traveler blessed. Realizing that the Light held untold destructive potential that could potentially outweigh all of the good the Traveler has brought to the universe, they created the Witness as a vessel for their work and raised the Black Fleet so that they would always have the time and resources needed to pursue the Traveler and extinguish the Light forever. ''The Final Shape'' further clarifies; the Witness is not entirely said race, but a fascistic RenegadeSplinterFaction called the Penitent that exterminated the majority that were opposed to its beliefs and used its wrath to fuel what would become the Black Fleet's crusade.
----

!!!'''Axis Minds'''
[[folder:The Undying Mind]]
!!The Undying Mind
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undying_mind.jpg]]

->''"We are starting to believe that time is home to the Vex, and somewhere in those unmappable voids dwell their undying minds."''

The boss of the strike of the same name, The Undying Mind has only one mission: Lock the Black Garden back out of time, and then revive its Heart.

* ArcVillain: For ''Season of the Undying''. It's the driving force behind the Sol Divisive's invasion of the Moon and once again seeks to rip the Black Garden back out of time.
* BackFromTheDead: As of ''Season of the Undying'', the Undying Mind has been resurrected.
* DeaderThanDead: Ikora confirms at the beginning of the ''Season of the Dawn'' that the Vanguard's endeavour to eliminate the Undying Mind across all timelines has been successful, joking that the Cryptarchs should change its name.
* DeathIsCheap: Any attempt to assassinate it in ''Season of the Undying'' results in a duplicate being summoned from an alternate timeline. Ikora's construction project, which requires a boatload of salvaged Vex parts, is aimed at [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill killing every single instance of the Undying Mind in every single universe]].
* FlunkyBoss: Very much so, with both Precursor and Sol Divisive Vex aiding it in its efforts to kill you.
* KingMook: A gigantic Hydra, similar to Sekrion. The chief difference is that its rotating shield is split into three smaller shields, rather than being one continuous piece.
* MightyGlacier: Like any Hydra, though it is more mobile than most of them, randomly moving up and down the arena you fight it in.
* TimeMaster: When you can single-handedly rip an area out of the flow of time, you are ''definitely'' this.

[[folder:Consecrated Mind]]
!!Consecrated Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_857.jpg]]

A warped Harpy belonging to the Sol Divisive and the first major threat faced in the Garden of Salvation raid.

* AmbiguousRobots: This Harpy looks less like a robot and more like a fleshy monstrosity, with malformed wings and numerous tentacles. Not to mention all the additional eyes. The very first thing you see it do is it attacking and possibly eating a Minotaur. When have we ever known the Vex to eat?
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Breaking a player out of its voltaic field requires you shoot the proper eyes, and exposing its actual weak point requires you to destroy all of its eyes after luring it to a charged relay, then blasting the white core in its back as it runs.
* CowardlyBoss: It only directly fights you when you corner it in an area that it can't run from you in, and even then you have to lure it into a charged relay and destroy all its eyes to expose a weakpoint to hammer while it flees back to the center.
* EvilIsVisceral: It's in the way of your path to [[spoiler: a structure similar to the pyramid's interior]], and the Consecrated Mind looks bizarrely ''organic'' for a Vex construct, with its wings resembling flesh branching off into organic-looking tentacles and regularly growing [[EyesDoNotBelongThere Vex sensors that look like actual eyes.]] This is likely due to whatever is causing it to overflow with Darkness energy, [[spoiler: considering the Sol Divisive appear to have a relay connected to the actual pyramids.]]
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Whenever it traps a teammate in a voltaic field, the Consecrated Mind will sprout several organic-looking eyes (although they're still typical Vex sensors) on its wings. Either the inner or outer eyes need to be shot out in order to continue without killing the trapped teammate.
* KingMook: A giant Harpy with many eyes.
* GetBackHereBoss: It constantly moves around the arena it's in, forcing the team to chase it down to activate the mechanics of its fight before coming in for damage. When you get to break its barrier at the relay you lured it at, the Consecrated Mind will retreat back to the center of the map, which translates into your fireteam being forced to move along the corridor to keep firing at it.
* GoForTheEye: It has many eyes, all of which can be shot. It's crucial to shoot the right ones in time, though, otherwise the player it traps will die.
* MarathonBoss: This thing compromises almost all the encounters in the Garden of Salvation raid.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Compared to the rest of the Sol Divisive, the Consecrated Mind has been heavily mutated into a [[EvilIsVisceral strange, fleshy form]] and is initially encountered eating a Minotaur for an unknown reason.
* ThePawnsGoFirst: During its first two fights, it doesn't actually try to attack you directly. About the only thing it does is wander around and deposit a Voltaic Overload onto the ground, then disappearing again. During those times, you only fight the lesser Vex in charge of defending the Black Garden.
* SequentialBoss: Three fourths of the entire raid involve fighting this thing in some form.

[[folder:Sanctified Mind]]
!!Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sanctified_mind_sol_inherent.jpg]]

A massive Minotaur, part of the Sol Divisive, responsible for processing sacrifices to the Darkness. It is the last boss of the Garden of Salvation raid, and defeating it reveals an unsettling truth about the nature of the Sol Divisive's worship of the Darkness.

* AmbiguousRobots: While Vex are decidedly robotic to begin with, the Sanctified Mind looks more like a giant statue than anything mechanical. Much like the Consecrated Mind before it.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: Aside from the obvious default weakpoint that only gets exposed during its damage phase, the Sanctified Mind has two extra ones on its shoulder and leg. Shooting either causes portals to form, leading to two other areas outside the main arena, where extra enemies carrying motes reside.
* BossArenaUrgency: Throughout the battle, it will occasionally destroy parts of the platform that the fireteam is on, reducing the amount of room to maneuver. The fireteam has to reconstruct these destroyed patches when they can, lest they have nowhere to go and end up succumbing to the radiolaria beneath.
* EvilIsVisceral: Guardian of the [[spoiler: Darkness structure behind its arena]]. While not as mutated as the Consecrated Mind, the tentacles sprouting from it, its non-uniform and eroded design, and the exposed inner frame still bring to mind flesh rather than metal nonetheless.
* HighPriest: Is more or less this for the Sol Divisive.
* KingMook: Quite possibly the largest Minotaur seen yet.
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=398oA98hfMc "The Sanctified Mind"]]. It combines OneWomanWail with FreakyElectronicMusic, sounding chillingly ethereal and unnerving.
* LivingStatue: It looks more like an animate, distorted effigy of a Minotaur instead of a robot.
* PullingThemselvesTogether: Before the fight starts, it looks like it's seperated into multiple pieces and hovering above the radiolaria lake. When combat starts, it assembles into Minotaur form. It dissassembles again during its damage phase.
* PuzzleBoss: Makes heavy use of the tether and voltaic mote system from the rest of the raid, this time in more confined areas and splitting things up between light and dark relays.
* StationaryBoss: Downplayed. While it can and does walk around, it keeps itself confined to the main area on the radiolaria lake it's standing on and makes no effort to get out of the firing range of the fireteam.
* TakenForGranite: It turns into an inanimate fixture as it collapses in apparent pain once defeated.
* ThinkingUpPortals: Part of the strategy against it is to jump into portals it summons after a weakpoint is blown up and be warped to areas outside of the arena to kill enemies and collect motes, then get pulled back to dunk those motes into a relay.

[[folder:Akelous]]
!!Akelous, the Siren's Current
A mutated Sol Divisive Harpy and TheDragon to the Divisive's newest servant of the Witness Persys, Akelous is encountered trying to drain the fuel system of the Pillory bunker on Mars.

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Take too long trying to interrupt it when it's absorbing the fuel rods and it'll throw you off the Spire of Ares with a massive static shock.
* {{Cap}}: Gains massive damage reduction if the player hacks off more than half of its health in one damage phase.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Inverted; the Vex ''know'' Arc energy is hazardous to them in uncontrolled amounts, yet Akelous repeatedly tries to harvest the unstable and oddly-wired conduits of the bunker. This exposes it long enough for the Young Wolf to shut it down, while they themselves escape relatively-unharmed despite soaking up just as much Arc energy to re-power the grid.
* EvilIsVisceral: A servant of the Witness and uses the same mutant, flesh-like frame as the Consecrated Mind.
* MeaningfulName:
** A corruption of "IKELOS," the protocol that created the Sleeper Simulant and the Escalation Protocol weapons; together with Persys, Akelous is raiding the Spire of Ares to help Xivu Arath and the Witness arm themselves with Rasputin's remains [[spoiler:and also locate its brainchild Soteria on Neptune to obtain ''its'' power]].
** Akelous's name can also be taken as a corruption of "Achilles;" the method used to defeat it is [[AchillesHeel yet another case of the Vex frying themselves on an uncontrolled power surge]]. It may serve the Witness and have some semblance of paracausality, but it's still the same kind of machine as Theosyion and the Consecrated Mind, i.e. a bulky Harpy.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Much like the Consecrated Mind before it, Akelous is first seen devouring a Minotaur, this time to drain its conduits.
* MovesetClone: Shares its AI behavior, physical design and most of its basic encounter framework with the Consecrated Mind, the only differences being the lack of anything related to the Volatilic Overflows the Consecrated Mind creates and exactly how you lure it into being vulnerable.
* PuzzleBoss: Needs to be lured into consuming the bunker's energy by reactivating the fuel system outside the bunker's tower. Once this happens, it ends up exposing itself and becomes vulnerable to damage.

[[folder:Persys]]
!!Persys, Primordial Ruin
The leader of the Witness's attempt to use the Sol Divisive to obtain the Pillory bunker's files, a heavily-armored Wyvern. Serves as the last boss of the Spire of the Watcher dungeon.

* AncientEvil: A member of the aged Sol Divisive and the most ill-intentioned non-Taken Vex encountered to date as a servant of the Witness. Persys is also the only post-''Shadowkeep'' Sol Divisive elite whose frame does not lean into EvilIsVisceral, instead looking like a worn and unimaginably-old statue.
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:It's implied Persys has already won, as the intel it's looking for pertains to an ArtificialIntelligence revealed to be Neomuna's creator. As a result, the events of "Spire of the Watcher" are thus a deliberate wild goose chase plotted by the Witness]].
* DamageSpongeBoss: Comes with the territory of being a Wyvern and PuzzleBoss. Going at it alone can take at least 15 minutes to kill it, and that's with optimization.
* DefiantToTheEnd: As one of the Witness's many servants, it was perfectly content with cooking itself to death if it meant allowing the Spire of Ares's data to be secured and then destroyed to hide the evidence, meaning the Young Wolf's intervention wouldn't have changed much. [[spoiler:It never really mattered how it went out, anyway; [[ForegoneConclusion the Witness needs a valid reason to go to Neptune, after all]]]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: The huge Wyvern walking on an inaccessible catwalk when you first reach the open section of the Reactor Firewall? That's Persys. It's only at the very end of the dungeon that you meet it again and fight it properly.
* IronicName: A corruption of "Perseus," the slayer of monsters from Greek myth. [[spoiler:Keep in mind this thing's trying to get a lead on an innocent human city for the express purpose of subjugating it]].
* KillItWithFire: Its shielding can't stand heat, and reactivating the Seraph Reactor Core's power will initiate a purge sequence that melts off its defenses.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** If the fact that it's part of the [[BlackSheep Sol Divisive]] didn't clue you in on its evil intentions, Persys is currently the only non-Taken Vex in the game whose BossSubtitles imply malicious intent.
** Persys's name can also be interpreted as a rendition of Perses, a mythological figure in Greek myth whose name literally means ''"destroyer."''
* RedHerring: We're led to believe Persys is after submind data located within the Spire of Ares. [[spoiler:Reading through all of the dungeon's loot gives the strong indication that it was looking for a completely different portion of Clovis's AI research. [[TheBadGuyWins Persys got what it came for, and now the Witness knows to look closer within Neptune]]]].
* ShownTheirWork: Persys's attempt to blow the Spire of Ares skyward is described as sending the reactor core into "''prompt'' critical." In real energy reactors, GoingCritical or even supercritical is not always a problem, since both terms simply refer to a heightened reaction rate. "Prompt critical," on the other hand, refers to the ''rate of change'' in reaction rate spiking suddenly, which is much more of a concern than what the rate actually is.

!!!'''Other servants of the Black Fleet'''
[[folder:Clarity Control]]
!!Clarity Control

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clarity_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I wonder why Clarity Control chose the particular aspect it did. That form, that face. The same visage as the precursor on Earth's moon. What is it meant to communicate? Is it a message particularly meant for me?"'']]

A mysterious veiled figure residing within the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa, used by Clovis Bray to convert Vex Radiolaria into that which would eventually fuel his Exo Project. Described as an "entity from beyond our own dimension."

* BlackSpeech: Can be heard in its presence or in the presence of its idols and the Artifacts they hold.
* TheCorruptor: To Clovis Bray, turning what was once an egotistical but ultimately well meaning man into a narcissistic servant of the Darkness.
** Also implicitly responsible for the corruption of the Sol Divisive in the ''Garden of Salvation'' raid, considering what they were guarding was another statue in its likeness.
* DarkIsEvil: Visibly radiates darkness, and is completely covered in a creepy dark veil.
* DarkMessiah: Implicitly, or at least Clovis seemed to think so. Notably, it is seemingly the object of worship of the Sol Divisive after the final demise of the Black Heart.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Responsible for Clovis Bray's ultimate descent into madness and the existence of Exos. It is present for the Deep Stone Crypt Raid, but is not fought or confronted in any meaningful way (if it even can be confronted). Its likeness is also present in all of the Pyramid ships shown thus far, meaning it likely has a ''major'' role in the hierarchy of the Black Fleet.
* LivingStatue: The likenesses of it that show up on the Pyramids are still treated as living beings, reaching out to the Guardians of their own accord. Clarity Control itself may also seem this trope, but its chest visually moves while being observed and its cloak seemingly moves, making it an aversion.
* TheManBehindTheMan: To the Black Heart, seemingly being higher in the pantheon the Sol Divisive worship and being the being responsible for their oddly organic appearances.
* MysteriousBenefactor: To Clovis Bray, inspiring his Exo project and granting him the insight necessary for many of his greatest accomplishments.
* MysteriousVeil: It and its likenesses are completely covered in a veil obscuring any and all features.
* ReligionOfEvil: Seemingly a religious idol among Darkness worshippers, with a monument at the center of each of the major Pyramids visited thus far.
* TheSpook: Showed up on Europa a few years before Clovis showed up, and began whispering ideas into his head. So far, we have no idea of its motives or actual power level, only that it was responsible for the success of the Exo project.
* YouHaveFailedMe: After the Vex attack on Bray's colony, Clarity Control grew silent, seemingly abandoning Bray for his failure.

[[folder:Xivu Arath]]
!!Xivu Arath, God of War
[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_6_84.png]]
[[caption-width-right:342: '' "This is our obligation as lords of the Hive, to make war upon each other, to eradicate weakness and make ourselves sharp." '']]

Following Savathun's falling out with the Black Fleet and excommunication by the Witness, Xivu Arath ascends to highest god of the Hive pantheon and Hive liaison to the Black Fleet. She acts as both attack dog and TheDragon to the Witness from this point onward.

For more information on her, see her folder on [[Characters/DestinyTheHive the Hive.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eramis]]
!!Eramis, Kell of Darkness
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20221011_195514_chrome_6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:'' "Remember, light only burns bright so long but darkness is forever."'']]
->'''Voiced by:''' Salli Saffioti

A Baroness of the House of Devils known as the Shipstealer, Eramis once plotted Fallen reunification under the Devil banner. During the events of ''Forsaken'', she is among the many inmates of the Prison of Elders who take advantage of Variks's orchestrated prison outbreak, fleeing to parts unknown. The Praxic Order catch wind of her activities, designating her as VIP#2029 and branding her as a potential threat to the City.\\\
Eramis eventually leaves the Devils banner behind and establishes the new House of Salvation on Europa, taking the title of Kell of Darkness as she seeks to unite all remaining Fallen under her banner. Her efforts led to the construction of Riis-reborn, as massive Fallen city built amongst the ruins of Clovis Bray's Europan colony. However, Eramis's new empire is powered by the Darkness itself, as she seeks to empower all Fallen with it to destroy humanity and the Traveler.\\\
After her failure in ''Beyond Light,'' Eramis is entombed in a cocoon of ice until the Voice in the Darkness releases her in ''Season of Plunder,'' tasking her with retrieving artifacts tied to both the past of the Fallen and the Disciples...

* ArcVillain: She appears to be the main antagonist of the ''Beyond Light'' expansion, having united the Fallen houses into an empire and rechristening herself as the "Kell of Darkness". She returns to this role again in ''Season of Plunder'' after the Witness frees her from her icy prison, searching for the artifacts containing parts of Nezarec.
* AnIcePerson: She's primarily a user of Stasis, the form of Darkness element relating to cold.
* BigBadWannabe: Eramis certainly believed that her House of Salvation was going to turn the tide of the war with the City and put the Eliksni on top. In ''Beyond Light'' she tries to compete with the Pyramids for the Vanguard's attention, only to be dealt with by the Guardians in a matter of days.
* BreakingSpeech: Throughout ''Season of Plunder'', she repeatedly mocks Mithrax over his past and the dark things he did before his encounter with the Young Wolf prompted his HeelFaceTurn.
* TheBusCameBack: She returns to the forefront in ''Season of Plunder'', after spending ''two DLC expansions'' trapped in her frozen prison.
* ButchLesbian: Compared to her former mate, Athrys. While Athrys was a GirlyGirl, who loved flowers, was gentle, caring and kind, an artisan of sorts, and would sing lullabies to her hatchlings, Eramis was a guard watching over the Traveler, trainer of children as future guards, both strong and stubborn, and after the Whirlwind became a Devil Baroness and infamous pirate, then powerful Kell seeking to wage war against the Traveler.
* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler: At the start of Mission:Breakout, she hastily calls Mithrax to warn him to not rescue the latest group of Shadow Legion captives, saying he'll die unless he turns back. He and Amanda dismiss her, but as it turns out she really was trying to tell him the whole thing was a trap, one that ultimately claims Amanda's life. She even shows up to stop the shockwave from the ExplodingBase from claiming Mithrax as well.]]
-->'''Eramis''': IWarnedYou...
* CondescendingCompassion: Can ''not'' show sympathy for Mithrax's cause without also implicitly mocking and undermining his living situation [[{{Hypocrite}} or trying to dig up his dirty laundry even as her own persists long into the present]].
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: When she sees that the Traveler is still floating above Earth even after she attempted to use the Warsats to destroy it, she cannot understand why it won't flee just like it did during the Whirlwind.]]
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: While Stasis itself isn't inherently evil, it comes from the Darkness, and she's the one who discovered it.
* EvilIsNotAToy: In a fitting turn of events given what's become of other Darkness-users in the past, Eramis is frozen to near-death by her own Stasis when she defeated for the second time.
* FantasticRacism: She despises Guardians and refers to them as puppets. Mockery based on them being resurrected by the Light of the Traveler.
* FatalFlaw: A lack of true conviction and assertion. Stasis itself is repeatedly stated by those studying it to consume anyone who lacks the ability to stand up for themselves, and Eramis is the first recorded instance of this actually happening. The Witness only keeps her alive and free from defilement entirely for utilitarian reasons, and is ready to throw her out with the garbage the moment the insecurities that consumed her initially bite back again.
* {{Foil}}: She's an unwittingly similar entity to Clovis Bray I. Both are individuals obsessed with the past in some way (Clovis' narcissistic need to protect his legacy, Eramis' fixation on the Traveler abandoning the Eliksni); both are hellbent on doing whatever it takes to get what they want most (Clovis being a Control Freak trying to be the savior that nobody asked for, Eramis allying herself with the Witness to try and make the Traveler pay); both refuse to back down even when it's clear they're just hurting themselves (Clovis refusing to acknowledge others are right, Eramis not having the guts to admit she's screwed herself and her House with her actions). The big difference between them is self awareness - on some level, Eramis does seem to know that she's done nothing but caused further pain and anguish for herself and her followers, especially in ''Seraph'' where her House has been repurposed into Wrathborn and Scorn, and she tries to tell Eido to stay out of the bloody conflict between her and Mithrax. By contrast, Clovis is an utter bastard who is HatedByAll and never once shows regret or guilt, and he tries so desperately to enforce his nonexistent authority that it comes off as him being an insane narcissist; any time he's ever denied or told off, he tries to make his critics look bad, painting them as being "clouded with emotions" and similar nonsense.
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: The Traveler refusing to abandon humanity like it did the Fallen ''breaks'' her. After spending a lifetime trying to punish the Traveler for abandoning her people, and trying to prove to the Guardians that it will do the same to them, seeing it silently acknowledge that it made a mistake during the Whirlwind and refuse to repeat it renders her whole quest for revenge meaningless. She's effectively a shell afterwards, with even her subsequent taunts to the Guardians feeling more like she's desperately trying to convince herself she made the right choice... and failing.]]
* TheHeretic: Similar to the Devil Splicers and Scorn, she eschews the Fallen's religious reverence of The Traveler and it's proxies, The Servitors and even destroys them to display her power.
* HoistByHerOwnPetard: Despite rising to power and founding House Salvation through obtaining Stasis, [[spoiler: Eramis is ultimately defeated and her house scattered to the subzero winds by Stasis-wielding Guardians.]]
* InsistentTerminology: As she is the head of the House of Salvation, Eramis' title should be Kell of Salvation. Everyone in story and out, however, refers to her as the Kell of Darkness.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Though Eramis seems to ultimately escape unharmed without very many of her transgressions forgiven by most, ''Season of the Seraph'' reveals the Witness and Xivu Arath managed to punish her anyways by using the Cryptoliths to destroy House Salvation.
* MixAndMatchWeapon: Outside of her Stasis powers, Eramis uses Bequest (either a copy or the original) from the Deep Stone Crypt, a futuristic halfway between a katana and a cutlass.
* NobleDemon: She's a brutal tyrant, Dark-worshiper, and Kell, but she's still a ''Kell''; she won't attack anyone under oath of parley or betray her crew.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Quotes by Variks, as well as some of Eramis's lines, reveal that she was alive in Pre-Whirlwind times and vividly remembers the suffering endured during the Whirlwind. Unlike Variks, who acts like an elderly person, Eramis is still pretty spry, towers over him and is a very capable fighter.
* PetTheDog:
** At the end of ''Season of Plunder'', [[spoiler:she actively protects Eido from a Lucent Brood attack, despite being her enemy.]]
** Similarly, at the end of ''Season of Defiance'' [[spoiler: she outright calls Mithrax to warn him to turn back from he and Amanda's latest rescue mission, which ended up being a trap that ultimately kills Amanda. She then goes even further by outright saving Mithrax personally by making a barrier to stop the explosion from killing him too.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Gives one to Mithrax about him lying to Eido about his DarkAndTroubledPast, calling him out on having been an even more brutal pirate than herself in his prime and expressing doubt he's actually changed at all.]]
* {{Revenge}}: Seeks this against the Traveler, which she blames for the current state of the Eliksni.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Eramis wields the Bequest, a sword from the Deep Stone Crypt symbolizing Clovis Bray I's ex-wife Lusia, or more accurately his twisted idea of compassion towards her by forcibly turning the Brays into Exos. She herself has a separated lover in the form of Athrys, and has likewise committed countless atrocities in the name of salvation. More generally, just like the original Clovis (and not the Crypt copy, since it [[AesopAmnesia lacks the memories that made him sympathetic]]), she is also less "evil" and moreso clinging to the false hope that [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans she will eventually save her race for real and bring back what she's lost]]. And just like Clovis, it doesn't make her any less of a bastard for believing so, because of her incredibly condescending attitude and the reality that her efforts simply ''[[EvilWillFail aren't working]]'' and will never bring her to her goals as long as she sticks to them.
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: [[spoiler: By ''Season of the Wish'', with the Witness otherwise occupied within the Pale Heart (and thus not keeping its eye on her), Eramis takes her chances to finally escape from the Black Fleet, determined to find Athrys and preferring to face the Final Shape with her wife rather than alone.]]
* SpacePirates: The Praxic Order's report describes her as the classical Fallen pirate of the old ways, being vicious, uncompromising and extremely cunning. This ironically makes her the most likely candidate to rally the Fallen, unlike Variks, Mithrax and Fikrul, all of which seek to do the same thing through fairly esoteric means.
** Like a classic {{Pirate}}, she's got an eyepatch over her two right eyes, as well.
* TrappedInVillainy: [[AmbiguousSituation Implied]] in the cutscene after [[spoiler: you kill Eramis's subordinates Praksis and Phylax.]] [[spoiler:When another one of her followers, Kridis, tries to get Eramis to see reason and suggests that using the Darkness is not as reliable as she thinks, one of her arms begins freezing up in Stasis, forcing her to smash it free of the ice. Given what is suggested in YouHaveFailedMe and YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness further below, it's possible that Eramis [[HeelRealisation may have actually taken her words into consideration]], only for the Witness to shut down any potential HeelFaceTurn by trying to kill her.]]
** In the Season of Plunder [[spoiler:she is freed from her Stasis prison by The Witness, with the very clear implication she'll be put back in that state should she fail or attempt to flee from the task it gives her.]]
** The final entry in the ''Between Stolen Stars'' lore book from Season of Plunder, unlocked after the finale of the season, further implies this. [[spoiler:Eramis considers Eido's communique, where the scribe had asked her to "Come home," offering her a place in the new Eliksni society that the House of Light was trying to build. Eramis, however, was [[YouCantGoHomeAgain unable to move past all that she had lost]], and admitted to herself there was [[NoPlaceForMeThere no place for her]] in such a society.]]
** ''Season of the Seraph'' both takes this further and effectively cements it, as Eramis witnesses what awaits House Salvation as a result of [[YouHaveFailedMe her failure]] in the previous season. Her forces are forcibly turned into Wrathborn by Xivu Arath, and if they die, the Witness just brings them back as mindless Scorn. Looking into the eyes of Scorned Eliksni that she once considered friends and comrades and seeing nothing of their personality looking back out, [[DespairEventHorizon drives her to despair]]. But she can't quit, or the Witness will just kill her. When she contacts us at the end of Operation: Seraph Shield during the fight against Praksis the Defiled, she sounds utterly broken. The finale of the season shows that, even with her finger on the trigger to [[spoiler: activate the ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE protocol and blast the Traveler out of the sky]], she hesitates greatly and might have even taken the chance to finally walk away were it not for the Witness staring Eramis dead in the eye and goading her to "make it feel [her] pain".
* UncertainDoom: At the end of Beyond Light, Eramis was frozen into a Stasis-ice statue, with nobody able to tell if she was alive or not. As of Season of Plunder, subverted - turns out she was alive enough to be unfrozen.
* TheUnseen: We don't encounter her during ''Joker's Wild'', but her forces are scavenging the ruins of the Old Tower to get their hands on a piece of SIVA technology that could help them rebuild the House of Devils. Mithrax makes a point of assigning you to recover the Outbreak Perfected before the Devils do.
* VillainousBreakdown:
** After the Young Wolf begins carving their way through House Salvation's leaders, she becomes desperate enough to try and unleash the Vex upon Europa in order to even the odds, uncaring of the fact that they'll simply kill everything that crosses their path in the resulting pandemonium. [[spoiler:By the end, as the Young Wolf corners her, taps into their Stasis powers and begins subjecting her to a vicious CurbStompBattle, she's left incredulous and impotently yelling insults at the Guardian.]]
--->'''Eramis:''' You are not special. The Darkness is ''MINE!''
** After her climactic showdown against Mithrax in ''Season of Plunder'' practically leaves her with no bargaining chip in Nezarec's artifacts, Mithrax and the Drifter are quick to remark how ineffectual her threats have become in subsequent Ketchcrashes and Expeditions. Eramis, for her part, is hopelessly adamant that she did not fail in her mission, even though it's clear she's lying to save face [[YouHaveFailedMe and the Witness will eventually deal with her]].
--->'''Mithrax:''' You have failed, Eramis. What will you tell the Voice in The Darkness?\\
'''Eramis:''' I have not failed.\\
'''Mithrax:''' You can lie to yourself, but you cannot lie to the Witness.\\
'''Eramis:''' I have [[SuddenlyShouting NOT FAILED]]!\\
'''Mithrax:''' Yet here you are.
** In the finale of ''Season of the Seraph'', [[spoiler: upon seeing that the Traveler refused to abandon Earth, all Eramis could do is just brokenly ask why it was not fleeing, so sure she was that it would leave the planet to the same fate as Riis]].
* VillainousBSoD: Suffers from a powerful enough one in the lore tabs for ''Season of the Wish'' [[spoiler:to completely abandon her crusade and try to find her way back to her wife Athrys, so that she may be with the one she loves when the Witness creates the Final Shape.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Like Skolas before her, Eramis has observed the dismal state of the Eliksni and endeavored to change their fate. To this end, she plans to use Stasis and the technology of the Deep Stone Crypt to empower the House of Salvation and take the City in a bloody conquest. Unlike most other antagonists, her ultimate goal seems to involve destroying the Traveler, not commandeering it for her purposes.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Eramis sees herself as a heroic liberator and uniter opposing the monstrous Guardians, when in reality she's just another tyrannical alien warlord for the Tower to deal with.
* YouHaveFailedMe:
** [[AmbiguousSituation Possibly]] [[ImpliedTrope implied]] in ''Beyond Light''. When Eramis is defeated the second time over by the player Guardian, now wielding Stasis themselves, Eramis's own power consumes her and freezes her solid, with the implication being that the Witness now saw- or perhaps ''always'' saw, if its prior transmissions are any indication- a more capable wielder of its power in the Guardians, and put Eramis on the chopping block once the Guardian was given the proper "push" needed to embrace its power and sufficiently proved their worth.
** Played with in the final two seasons of the ''Witch Queen'' expansion. [[spoiler:Eramis is unfrozen by the Witness to retrieve the artifacts of Nezarec, showing the Witness still has a use for her. While she ultimately fails to retrieve the artifacts, the Witness does not punish her...at least, not directly. Instead, [[KickTheDog it punishes her house]] by turning them into Wrathborn for Xivu Arath, with some being unlucky enough to become ''Scorn''.]]

[[folder: Yirix]]
!!Yirix, Commander of the Conclave

A Psion who leads the Psion Conclave in the stead of Amtec. Responsible for the attempted assassination of Commander Zavala during ''Season of the Chosen,'' and a pusher of pro-Black Fleet propaganda. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

* TheDragon: Serves as Calus' public mouthpiece, gathering him Psion recruits who are implied to go on to serve in the Shadow Legion.
* DragonTheirFeet: While Calus is definitively killed off in the final mission of ''Lightfall,'' Yirix has yet to be dealt with and is assumed to still be at large.
* TheQuisling: After the destruction of the Almighty, Yirix begins to push a pro-Darkness narrative to her fellow Psions as a worthy alternative to the currently struggling Cabal empire. This is in spite of the fact that the Black Fleet is ''indirectly responsible for the destruction of the Cabal homeworld,'' as it was Xivu Arath (the Witness' foremost servant) who conquered it. This does not stop her from joining Calus in attempting to serve the Black Fleet.
* TheSpymaster: Coordinates who the Conclave will attempt to assassinate, her foremost target being Commander Zavala.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In spite of being the orchestrator of the Psion Conclave, she has yet to be dealt with by the time of ''Season of the Witch.''

[[folder:Zo'Aurc]]
!!Zo'Aurc, Explicator of Planets

A Shadow Legion Incendior who tries to helm the ''Essence'' Pyramid after the Witness's departure.

* BigBadWannabe: Tries to take over the Witness's command room (aka Macrocosm) from the ending of ''The Witch Queen''. Unfortunately, they're just a regular Incendior that's also psychologically stunted, so nothing effective would've come out of it even if Nezarec wasn't trying to get them killed.
* EnemyMine: [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Not even Nezarec thinks highly of them]], and asks the Guardians to get rid of them out of sheer frustration.

!!!'''Servant Races'''

[[folder:The Hive]]
See their page [[Characters/DestinyTheHive here.]]

[[folder:Sol Divisive]]
!!The Sol Divisive
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grimoire_sol_divisive.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"They are not all mine, not in the way that admirers such as my man Oryx are mine: utterly devoted to the practice of my principle. But some of them have, nonetheless, found their way home."'']]
A splinter faction of the Vex that began worshipping the Darkness due to the Black Heart. Even after its destruction, they remain active in the Black Garden as functional proxies of the Black Fleet and the Witness, and it is stated that the other Vex collectives avoid the Divisive as much as possible.

* AncientEvil: One of the Vex's oldest collectives and the only one to run on orders that don't trace back to mindless expansion and survival.
* BlackSheep: Because of their worshipping of what other Vex consider an apocalyptic threat, they aren't held in very high regard by non-Divisive Vex and on at least one occasion have even fought with each other.
* EvilIsVisceral: Their most powerful post-''Shadowkeep'' members have uneven frames made out of rock, Darkness, and energy that cause them to resemble flesh and bone.
* ReclaimedByNature: Many have sat in the Garden for so long that regular foliage has started growing on them.
* RenegadeSplinterFaction: As the story progresses, their use as proxies by the Witness has caused them to become more and more estranged from normal Vex.
* VillainousLegacy: ''The Final Shape'' implies the Vex may or may not be descendants of "glass minds" the Witness's former species used, any conflicts with other information about the Vex's origin the product of TimeTravel. With this in mind, the Sol Divisive are effectively living relics of the Penitent's members in their servitude to the Witness.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Not even they are safe from the Witness's zero tolerance for failure, as they are eventually branded as faulty in ''Lightfall'' and besieged by the Taken in the heart of the Black Garden.

[[folder:The Taken]]
See their page [[Characters/DestinyTheTaken here.]]

[[folder:The Scorn]]
See their page [[Characters/DestinyTheFallenScorn here.]]

[[folder:House of Salvation]]
See their section under [[Characters/DestinyTheFallen the Fallen.]]

[[folder:The Conclave]]
!!The Conclave
A large group of Psions who serve the Darkness, led by a defector named Yirix. While not Disciples or servants on the level of the Worm Gods per se, they are unmatched in both rhetorical skills and future sight. Seizing the mantle of the Flayer Sisters previously faced ''Season of Dawn'' and ''Season of the Worthy'', they initially plot to kill Commander Zavala in ''Season of the Chosen'' before ''Season of the Risen'' marks their arrival in much bigger numbers to spread pro-Black Fleet propaganda.

* AntiEscapismAesop: Their ideals are associated with aggressive feelings of nostalgia and an escape from the Psions' current lives, which are quickly demeaned as fallacious and deliberately omitting certain facts. The truth is, the Conclave may offer some form of escapism by defecting, but the Psions as a race already ''chose'' to give up similar ideas in their spirituality, and nothing good comes of serving the Witness for something as simple as this, anyways.
* AppealToTradition: One of Yirix's messages appeals to Psion traditions from before they joined the Cabal... except Caiatl points out the use of this trope as a fallacy by noting that said traditions died out even before the Cabal conquered them.
* CameBackStrong: After practically dying off in Year 3, they're back with a bigger and better Leviathan supply chain, enough firepower to totally smother any intervention attempts, and propaganda so powerful Caiatl's Psions peel off by the week.
* EnemyMine: They have a vested interest in thawing out Eramis, likely to unite with the House of Salvation to utterly quash the Vanguard.
* EvilCounterpart: Of the Future War Cult, before they practically came under the influence and started committing crimes against humanity in ''Season of the Splicer''. Both are, well, {{Cult}}s that use future sight to predict oncoming calamities, and tap into taboo power sources to do so. However, while the FWC is a FailureHero (outside of the Red War and No Time to Explain) that nobody wants to trust, the Enclave is an ObviouslyEvil faction that easily convinces Caiatl's Psions to join them using promises of power, unity, and nostalgia that in some respects ''does'' consistently deliver, but not enough to earn them TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Continuing with Year 4 and 5 totally upending the status quo, the Vox Obscura mission that reveals the Conclave's return revolves around the fact that the Meridian Bay is accessible once more in ''Destiny 2''... only, it's now under a truly inhospitable regime inhabited by actual servants of the Darkness, compared to when the first game described the place using the same general terms. [[TheBadGuyWins The planet is back, but the Black Fleet has already won]].
* WeHaveReserves: They have a CloneArmy courtesy of Calus, making them and their assets even more disposable than regular Cabal, and making repeated playthroughs of Vox Obscura a JustifiedTrope. ''Season of the Haunted'' later makes their assets more conventionally infinite after Calus uses the Lunar Pyramid to create Nightmares of their deceased members until the Young Wolf banishes them.

[[folder:Shadow Legion]]
!!The Shadow Legion
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_211143_chrome_6.jpg]]

The culmination of Calus' experiments with the Darkness: a cloned army of Loyalists augmented with Black Fleet technology who serve naught but the whims of the former Cabal Emperor and the Witness themself. They enter Sol as the latest agents of the Black Fleet's invasion, starting with Neomuna in ''Lightfall.''
----
* AntiMagic: As part of their upgrades, the Shadow Legion is capable of generating fields that suppress paracausal powers. Only Strand is unaffected by the suppression fields.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: The result of Calus being able to apply Pyramid tech to living beings, creating Cabal super soldiers with Darkness powers.
* DarkIsEvil: As if the name "Shadow Legion" didn't give it away, they serve an evil god and egotistical emperor in destroying a hidden city of innocents.
* EliteMooks: A Cabal Legion augmented with the power of the Pyramids and the Witness. Considering what a Cabal legion is able to do on their own, the fact that they've found the power of the Darkness should be cause for no small amount of concern.
* EmptyShell: Suggested to be near-mindless extensions of Calus's and the Witness's will. The Unyielding Favor headpiece describes them doing nothing but stare forward and breathe heavily in the absence of orders, and in one Battlegrounds dialogue from Devrim, he comments that their voices seem devoid of personality.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: The Shadow Legion, as Cabal in the Witness's service, wear helmets evocative of Rhulk's (tall and flat-topped, with a ridge going down the middle and glowing circles for eyes above an encircling mouthguard) and have armor decorated with Pyramid architecture and symbology.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Shadow Legion now sport a piercing white glow to their eyes that is certainly not like the ones from standard Cabal helmets, showing their new empowerment by the Witness and the Black Fleet.
* SuperiorSuccessor: To House of Salvation, their Fallen counterpart who tried to harness the power of the Darkness, and to the Loyalists, who were all eventually killed off or abandoned Calus for Empress Caiatl. They're able to pose a legitimate threat to an entire planet and have the endoresment of the Witness instead of being a test for the Guardians, something neither the Loyalists or House Salvation had in their corner.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: To the Red Legion, being a unified Cabal army personally led by their emperor besieging a Human city. Their elites are even known as Shadow Guard, compared to the Red Legion's Blood Guard.
* WalkingSpoiler: The presence of Calus' loyalists in the forces of the Black Fleet is a major spoiler for the events of ''Season of the Haunted'' and where Calus' true loyalties lie.

!!The Worm Gods

[[folder:The Virtuous Worms]]
!!The Virtuous Worms
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/worm_gods.png]]

Akka, Eir, Ur, Xol, and Yul are the Virtuous Worms, ancient and powerful beings who serve the Darkness that were trapped in the core of the gas giant Fundament. They were responsible for turning the Hive to the service of the Darkness, and are worshiped by the Hive as the Worm Gods.

The Worms as a whole are skilled wielders of the Anthem Anatheme, a metaphysical power source that can be found in the desires and wishes of potential victims. However, Xol is currently the only worm to use it beyond the activation phrase "o bearer mine."

For specifics, see below.

* AGodAmI: One thing that becomes obvious about them is that despite merely being servants of a higher power, they (or as they'd prefer to put it, They) have ridiculously huge god-complexes, and are only too happy for 'lesser races' to worship them as such.
* BelievingTheirOwnLies: A more literal example: Akka is capable of "denying a truth until it becomes a lie", meaning that his lies will literally become the truth.
* TheCorrupter: The Worm Gods practically enslaved the Hive into eternal servitude given how they force them to continuously destroy civilizations in order to keep the Sword Logic and the tithing system going, with the Worms' hunger growing bigger with time.
* EldritchAbomination: They're massive beings who can warp reality. One of the bones from Akka was used to make Oryx's Dreadnaught. Xol, the weakest of them, is a massive worm the size of a tower who hungers for Light.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler:There is a sixth Worm God, their mother Xita. The reason they serve the Darkness in the first place [[TragicVillain is because Rhulk kidnapped her and used that to strongarm them into obeying the Witness]]]].
* GreaterScopeVillain: They are the ones directly responsible for the Hive becoming the way they are now, and each Hive God is implied to be acting on behalf of a Worm God, who acts as a patron for them. Even after the reveal [[spoiler:the Worm Gods are ultimately subservient to Rhulk, the Worm Gods still act mostly independently in their service to the Darkness]]. With the exception of Akka and Xol, they are still yet to interfere directly with events.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Ur is particularly enthralled ([[UnreliableNarrator maybe]]) by Savathûn's cunning and how it works with her powers to affect reality. [[spoiler:Assuming chapter 154i of the Books of Sorrow is a real passage and not a fabrication, it's possible that this has gotten to the point where [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem he's willing to let obvious heresy and even betrayal slide]] just because of how much cunning is involved]].
* ManipulativeBastard: They're very much capable of engineering a planetary catastrophe and framing the Traveler for it, getting away scot-free and even gaining allies to the Darkness' cause.
* {{Necromancer}}: Highly adept at it. To elaborate, they taught the Hive nearly everything they know about death manipulation, and Xol would teach Nokris the art of resurrecting the dead.
* NonIndicativeName: They are the most powerful servants of the Darkness, which is as close to pure evil as exists in the Destiny universe.
* PhysicalGod: Their metaphysical powers are ostensibly the source of the Hive's worship. The victory of the Guardians against one of them on Mars is considered an impossible achievement.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: According to "Truth to Power," [[spoiler:Ur understands ([[UnreliableNarrator maybe]]) that Savathûn's plans are heretical in terms of the Sword Logic's dogma and the deal the Hive had made with him and the other Worm Gods, but [[ItAmusedMe is far too entertained by the idea to intervene or even care]]]].
* TooDumbToLive: Akka, whose main defining power is implied to be the ability to make the opposite of whatever he states true, tells Oryx very bluntly he wouldn't be able to kill him. [[ForegoneConclusion Guess what happens next.]]
* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:They never chose to follow the Darkness, only being forced to do so because [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas their mother Xita had been kidnapped by Rhulk and bootstrapped in a catatonic state to the Upended]]]].
* WhamLine: In the "Books of Sorrow V: Needle and Worm", as related by Aurash on behalf of the words given by her sister Sathona, revealing the Virtuous Worms may be related to Ahamkara in some way, or at the very least use the same speech patterns.
-->'''Virtuous Worms:''' Listen closely, o vengeance mine...

[[folder:Yul]]
!!Yul, the Honest Worm
->"Behold my majesty. Behold my crushing might, my staggering size, my scales that shine with an oppressive gleam. Behold my wings, which create winds that sweep through the stars."''

Speaker for the Worm Gods, and implicitly the most powerful of their number. The original Worm who reached out to Savathun and seduced her with warnings of a "God Wave" that would devastate their home...

* DealWithTheDevil: The one who extends these deals on behalf of the Witness to the Hiv
* TheDragon: The connector between the Black Fleet and the Hive, serving as the ''de facto'' leader of the original Worm Gods. In particular, he likely served as this to Rhulk.
* TheGhost: Has yet to appear, in spite of being the top non-Darkness god of the Hive.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Serves as this to most Hive-related content, being the creature that lied to the three Hive Gods about the presence of a God Wave, denying the Traveler the Krill as supplicants. In particular, his presence is felt in the lore leading up to ''Warmind,'' with his threat to kill Xol causing the lesser Worm God to flee to Sol and attempt to conquer it with Nokris.
* {{Kaiju}}: Likely, considering he's higher in the pantheon than Akka, who was already large enough to have one of his segment used to make the whole of the Dreadnought
* NonIndicativeName: His most major action was to lie to the Krill Sisters, setting them down a multi-billion year path of destruction. To say the Honest Worm is a misleading name would be quite the understatement.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Speaks of having scales and wings, something seemingly unique to him as neither Xol, Akka, or Xita are shown to have draconic traits. Whether this implies shapeshifting on his part or unique features due to his standing among the worm gods is currently unknown.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Implied to be his reaction to Xol's dwindling returns, which in turn caused Xol to strike a bargain with the disgraced Nokris.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Only has appeared in the Hive-related lore so far, but had a major hand in turning them to the service of the Black Fleet's goals, as well as driving Xol to Mars, causing the events of ''Warmind.''

[[folder:Xol]]
!!Xol, Will of the Thousands
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xol_temp.png]]

->''There is no Light here. You are alone. You shall drift. You shall drown in the Deep.''

The smallest and weakest of the Worm Gods, Xol took in Nokris, the heretical son of Oryx, and together the two sought power to exceed their weaker lot in life. Xol offered Nokris a chance to grow beyond his place as a part of the Hive, and in turn Nokris would feed Xol power. This quest would lead them in pursuit of the Traveler to Mars, and into battle with Rasputin during the Collapse, where both would be frozen beneath the Hellas Basin until the Traveler awoke anew.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Xol was looked down upon by the other Worms for being the weakest of them. Yul in particular was implied to be ready to turn its fangs on Xol in accordance with Sword Logic, something which scared Xol enough to run away from his brethren. He was able to bond with Nokris due to similar circumstances, with both being regarded as weak and seeking to become something more.
* ArcVillain: Of ''Destiny 2''[='=]s second Expansion, ''Warmind''. The surge of light the Traveler released at the end of the main story caused him to reawaken and begin trying to take over Mars, forcing the Guardians to head back to Mars and try to destroy him before he can threaten the rest of the system.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Xol has several glowing yellow nodes on its body that can be shot for critical damage. Getting him to a state where they can be targeted will take some work, however.
* BreathWeapon: Xol has several variants, including a straightforward flame breath across the surface of the tower you fight him on, as well as a Void attack that renders the ground dangerous and forcing the player airborne.
* CompensatingForSomething: Possibly due to being the weakest of the Worm Gods, Xol's epithet is the most grandiose: "Will of the Thousands", as opposed to "The Honest Worm" or "Worm of Secrets."
* DamageSpongeBoss: Xol by himself has more hit points than Oryx. Even critical hits will barely scratch his health bar to any appreciable degree. The only way to significantly hurt him is to use Rasputin's upgraded Valkyrie.
* DoubleMeaning: "There is no Light here." For him to feed on... or for ''you''.
* EvilSoundsDeep: The only time he speaks with your Guardian is in a deep, gravelly voice reminiscent of the equally Eldritch-like Gravemind from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''.
* HorrorHunger: As with all of the minions of the Darkness, Xol hungers for Light. The Young Wolf has to bait him out with a corrupted and damaged shard of the Traveler, and his realization that there's no Light to feed on drives Xol into an apocalyptic fury.
* {{Kaiju}}: Xol is absolutely gigantic, to the point that he is even bigger than ''Oryx''.
* NotQuiteDead: The secret mission ''The Whisper'' has him once again speaking to you despite killing him. The weapon reward, the Whisper of the Worm, reveals that killing him actually made him ''more powerful'', since he feeds as part of the Sword Logic and the might which kills a god, the union between "destroyer and destroyed", is also part of the Sword Logic and something he can feed on. After meeting with the Taken on Io, he turned himself into a weapon in a similar manner to what [[SoulJar Oryx did]] so that he may live on through a form of worship. That worship being killing with said weapon and "become a rule which divided the mighty living from the mighty dead".
* SealedEvilInACan: Xol and Nokris were frozen under Mars's icecaps for a very long time until the Traveler awoke at the end of ''Destiny 2''[='=]s main story. Their resurgence is the focus of the ''Warmind'' expansion's plot.
* WeakButSkilled: The only Worm that experimented with the Anthem Anatheme beyond mere subjugation. The ploy he intends with the Whisper of the Worm relies on it, but only as an added form of insurance, because Guardians ''love'' guns.
* VillainRespect: Honors the overwhelming strength of the Guardians and offers up one of his creations to the Young Wolf out of the blue, the Whisper of the Worm. While some believe it's a scheme to bind them to an actual worm, that won't be an issue for a long time, and, if anything, simply makes the Young Wolf stronger by allowing them to steal power through the Sword Logic.

[[folder:Akka]]
!!Akka, the Worm of Secrets
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_214236_chrome.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Akka my God, Worm of Secrets. I am Auryx, sole king of the Hive. I have come to receive a secret. I want the secret power of the Deep, which you hold."'']]


A gigantic Worm God known for "denying the truth until it becomes a lie." Was slain by Oryx before the formation of the Earth so that he may ascend to the position of the Taken King.

* BackFromTheDead: Sort of. Oryx was noted to have battled his "Swarming Corpse" years after killing him the first time.
* TheGhost: Only shows up in artwork, having been slain by Oryx for his power long ago. Unless one counts the Dreadnought.
* {{Kaiju}}: The largest being described in the Destiny universe thus far, if the artwork for the Books of Sorrow is to be believed. Just ''one'' of his segments was used to make the Dreadnought, which serves as a ''patrol zone.''
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Implied. Akka is spoken of being able to make the opposite of his beliefs and statements true, so when he told Oryx that he couldn't kill him, [[ForegoneConclusion he could kill him, alright.]]
* NotQuiteDead: Akka is described as being "dead but far from gone".
* PosthumousCharacter: Was slain ''twice'' by Oryx billions of years before the start of the game.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Is only mentioned among the other Worm Gods before being slain by Oryx for his paracausal powers, but without him the Taken would not exist under Oryx's command, and Oryx would have never been able to be the threat he was to Sol in ''The Taken King.''

[[folder:Eir]]
!!Eir, the Keeper of Order

The patron of Oryx's sect after the slaying of Akka, who was notably taken aback by Crota's introduction of the Vex to Ascendant Realms.

* FlatCharacter: All we know about him is that he hates disorder and chaos, and that he's the patron of Oryx after his ascension to Taken King.
* NeatFreak: Or the EldritchAbomination variant, being particularly put off by the Vex being introduced into their sacred realms.
* NoIndoorVoice: His one line is delivered angrily and in all caps, admonishing Oryx for allowing his children to fuck up the ascendant realm so badly.
->''"ORYX, SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER."''

[[folder:Ur]]
!!Ur, the Ever Hunger

One of the five original Worm Gods, who has struck a mysterious deal with Savathun to change her source of tribute.

* TheGhost: Has yet to appear in game.
* HorrorHunger: Implied by his epithet.
* MysteriousBenefactor: Has struck a deal with Savathun to alter her source of tribute, although its unknown whether or not this has become an AbortedArc following Savathun's defection.
** In Anânh also reaches out to Ur during her boss battle, implying he grants her patronage as well.

[[folder:Xita]]
!!Xita, the Nurturing Worm
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_212643_chrome_8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Worm Mother... though you sleep eternal, your role in grand symphony persists. Legacy will be carried best I can."'']]

The mother of the Worm Gods, taken captive by Rhulk to force the Worms into service. Kept suspended in Rhulk's Pyramid with the Upended as incentive for the Worms' continued service. After his demise, she's fallen dormant and worm production has halted. Her current status is unknown at this time.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: It's unknown what exactly her morality is, considering she's been kidnapped by Rhulk for billions of years. However, considering her progeny reflexively use the Anthem Anthame to feed, it's likely she'd be considered a case of BlueAndOrangeMorality by any normal being.
* ConvenientComa: Very ''inconvenient'' for her, mind, but her coma-like state has kept her from stopping many of the atrocities the Worms have committed in the name of keeping her from Rhulk's wrath.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Is the loved one for the Worm Gods and, if Savathun is to be believed, the entire Worm race.
* MotherOfAThousandYoung: The mother of the original Worm Gods. In an unconventional example, its implied Rhulk produces the Worms that infect the common Hive from her very flesh, or at least all worms are born of her.
* {{Kaiju}}: Much larger than even Xol or Riven, being the largest on screen creature we've seen as of yet. Although if the Book of Sorrows is not apocrypha, Akka grew much larger than even her considering that one of his segment was used to form the whole of the Dreadnought.
* WalkingSpoiler: Her very existence casts a shadow over the true origins of the Hive and their benefactors, showing the Worms to not be 100% evil.

!!Corrupted Guardians
[[folder:In General]]
!!Corrupted Guardians

Guardians who were not only led astray from the Traveler but who swore fealty to its ArchEnemy, the Darkness, and by extension the Black Fleet.

* TheCorruptible: Were seduced by the promises of the Witness. Interestingly, such a fate was commonplace for Guardians who even entertained the idea of using the Darkness for good before the Young Wolf came along.
* EvilCounterpart: To the Guardians of the Last City, often serving as cautionary tales or reminders of how far our heroes can fall given a proper push.
* FallenHero: Both Dredgen Yor and Toland were once heroic Guardians before being seduced by the promises of the Darkness.
** In the AlternateTimeline described by the Exo Stranger, the Young Wolf, Eris Morn, and many other Guardians have joined their ranks after being corrupted by Stasis use.
* GoodAllAlong: Or at least their intentions usually seem to turn out to be more benevolent than what was initially suggested, as can be seen on their individual pages. In the Stranger's alternate timeline, all who tried to use the Darkness benevolently were corrupted over time, but their intentions started out pure.
* HearingVoices: Whispers from either the Hive or the Voice in the Darkness eventually turned them into what they are today.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: All seem to have started with the intention of combining the forces of Light and Dark to protect humanity, but were eventually driven to either commit atrocities or alienate themselves from humanity entirely.

[[folder:Dredgen Yor]]
!!Dredgen Yor
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dredgen_and_xyor.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Dredgen Yor and Xyor, the Unwed]]

->''"Nothing dies like hope. I cherish it."''

A once-heroic Titan who gave in to pride and temptation and was corrupted by the Darkness as a result.

His Ghost's name was Vincent.

* ArtifactOfDoom: Thorn, and the replicas of Thorn that were created by other Guardians after him. It's implied that he was corrupted by Thorn after he grafted Hive bones [[spoiler:(the bones of Xyor's husband)]] onto its frame as a battle trophy.
* BullyingADragon: In Thorn 2, he's the Dragon being bullied by a bunch of bandits [[MuggingTheMonster trying to steal Thorn from him.]]
* DeathSeeker: Is strongly implied to have become this by the time of his death at Malphur's hand. After his death, Shin discovered that Yor hadn't even tried to reach for Thorn during their confrontation. Malphur ultimately came to the conclusion that [[ThanatosGambit Yor was planning to die]], and set up Shin to be filled with hatred and a desire for vengeance because only someone who could straddle the line between the altruism of the Light and the pure hatred and malice of the Dark would be able to create the Golden Gun and kill him.
* TheDreaded: His name is still remembered with disgust and shame.
* {{Expy}}: Dredgen Yor can be seen as an expy of Darth Vader since [[FallenHero they both fell from grace in a similar manner]] caused great massacres and mass murders, killed an important figure to someone(in Darth Vader's case... his own mentor, in Dredgen Yor's case, someone else's mentor) and was ultimately killed trying to convert someone to the Dark Side(Luke Skywalker and Shin Malphur) and both names are remembered in disgust
* FallenHero: He was once a heroic man, brimming with Light. Specifically, [[spoiler:Rezyl Azzir]]. Then he fell to the darkness, let his revolver become Thorn, massacred Palamon, and was shot dead by Shin Malphur.
-->'''Yor:''' Same meat. Same bone. But so very different.
* HandCannon: Thorn, large-bore single-handed firearm corrupted by the Darkness and Hive magic, the spiritual opposite to The Last Word.
* HeroicSacrifice: The Shadows of Yor view his fall as this, believing that he gave himself to the Darkness to find a way to harness its power and teach others to use that power without being tainted themselves. Shin Malphur also ultimately came to believe this.
* HeroKiller: Yor was responsible for killing several Guardians, including Jaren Ward and Pahanin.
* HopeCrusher: He admits to his Ghost that the only reason he even bothers doing good anymore is so that when he turns on those he helped and crushes them, their horror and despair will be all the sweeter. He even gave Shin Malphur the Last Word from Jaren's body so that the apprentice would have the hope of retribution that Yor could then crush.
-->'''Yor:''' Nothing dies like hope.
* MoralityPet: His Ghost, Vincent, whom Yor considered his best and last friend, served as his conscience, and tried to bring back toward the light. When it became apparent that he couldn't, Yor decided to "free" his Ghost from having to stay with him.
** KickTheMoralityPet: Yor also threatened to kill his Ghost if he didn't leave, and it's not clear if he did.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Dredgen Yor's eventual abandonment of his Ghost made sure that the next time he died, it'd be permanent. Considering the contexts under DeathSeeker, it may have been intentional.
** In giving Jaren Ward's weapon to the dead guardian's Ghost, he gave Shin Malphur the motivations to track him down and finally kill him.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: The bones of the Knight he killed were cursed by his consort, Xyor, to corrupt Azzir. She succeeded beyond her wildest expectations.
* ThanatosGambit: Shin Malphur ultimately suspects that Yor set one of these up. [[spoiler: He believes that Yor intentionally built Malphur up to be a mighty and skilled Guardian able to wield the Golden Gun and kill him, and would be a Guardian who wields both Light and Dark.]]
* ThatManIsDead: He gave up his original name when he became Dredgen Yor. Even his Ghost finally admits that who he once was is dead when Yor explains how he only helps people so he can crush their hopes later on.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Before his fall, he'd already been hearing the Darkness whispering in his ear for some time. His last thought before becoming Yor was a hope that he'd be remembered for what he used to be, instead of what he'd become.
* WhatTheHellHero: Pretty much the entire conversation in "Thorn 3", initiated by his Ghost.
* WickedCultured: He is aware that his name means "Eternal Abyss" in a forgotten language.
* UnwittingPawn: Teben Grey/Dredgen Bane, while researching the Weapons of Sorrow, discovered a [[OhCrap disturbing revelation]] that the Weapons exist solely to charter out a future cataclysm of sorts, leading him to believe that Yor and the destruction he left happened not because of Yor's choices or even his dark corruption, but because the Weapons simply set him up as a puppet devastator to leave a mark for the so-called map they are charting out.
* YouMonster: Pretty much what has been told to him by his own Ghost and Jaren Ward's.

[[folder:Toland]]
!!Toland the Shattered
[[quoteright:314:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toland.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:314:Toland's appearance in the Ascendant Realm]]

->''"I am so terribly curious to know."''

Once an esteemed Warlock, Toland somehow communed with the Darkness, causing him to completely lose his mind and create the Bad Juju rifle. Being an expert on the Hive, he was recruited by Eriana-3 and Eris Morn for their ill-fated assault on the Hellmouth, and presumably died there.
His Ghost was Guren.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: He was very fascinated by the Deathsong of Ir Yût, and joined the fireteam in the hopes of learning more about it.
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Contrary to what most believe, Toland isn't ''entirely'' gone. Though his physical body is dead, his spirit was trapped in the Ascendant Plane by Ir Yût. He has made attempts to contact Guardians in the living world, and even begun to build his own throne world. Strangely, Toland himself doesn't seem to be bothered too much by his state, and his main lament is that [[InsufferableGenius he can't go back to the Tower and taunt them with how right he was.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Toland has been so warped by his exposure to the Hive and the sword-logic that he can't really see the world in any other way anymore. When the Guardians finally defeat Oryx in King's Fall, he can only yell at them in confused anger because they didn't act like the Hive would and set Oryx's Taken Light free, and then killed Oryx and left without taking his place, leaving the Taken King's throne empty and with no one to replace it. For his appearance in ''Forsaken'', he spends most of it berating the Young Wolf for not understanding the Sword Logic and how things work in the Ascendant Realm, and that they shouldn't be trusting him just because he's a friendly voice.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He clearly wasn't all there mentally, but was very intelligent and skilled at his job. Indeed, he's indicated to be the only Guardian who ever understood the Hive's sword-logic, and was able to weaponize it in the form of the Bad Juju pulse rifle. His knowledge of the Hive may have even saved him, in a manner of speaking, as his understanding of their lore meant that he was able to communicate with the Hive and his soul survived Ir Yût's Deathsong.
* DeathIsCheap: This was his belief, for Toland understood that the Hive knew how to manipulate death and rebirth and sought to understand it. Ultimately, his mind and soul survived his physical body's death.
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: His research and knowledge of the Hive alongside Eris Morn's experiences in the Hellmouth are essentially what made The Young Wolf's victory over Crota in The Dark Below and later Oryx possible. The implication seems to be that before Toland, no one knew anything about the Ascendant Realm or Sword Logic.
* TheExile: He was kicked out the City due to his madness and obsession with the Hive.
* FriendlyEnemy: According to his entries in his journal, and his words after Ir Yût killed him, Toland was actually ''friendly'' toward the Hive, having delved so deep into their lore he was more concerned with learning from them than fighting them. Curiously, the Hive also seemed to be friendly toward him in turn, with Ir Yût engaging in conversation with Toland. However, the Hive have a very... ''warped'' definition of friendship, and Toland's conversation with Ir Yût resulted in his physical death and his soul being cast adrift in the Hive's various Ascendant Realms.
-->''I, too, am detached from my source. The charming Ir Yût made her introductions, and I was very pleased to meet her. We had a conversation, a little tête-à-Yût, a couple old wizards exchanging definitions.''
-->''I defined myself a friend. She defined for me the quiddity of death, and she sang the song of that fearful autonomy. Revelation, my friends, it does go down hard. The definition killed me. The killing redefined me.''
** In his brief appearance in ''Forsaken'', Toland points out that it's not wise to trust a voice just because it seems helpful and friendly. [[AffablyEvil Just because someone is pleasant doesn't mean that they're not going to horribly murder you.]] A ''friendly'' enemy is still ''your enemy.'' His dialogue in the Dreaming City indicates that he's hoping you'll be killed by the Hive or Taken in the Ascendant Challenges.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The other Guardians in the fireteam were more than a little creeped out by his antics, but kept him with the team because he knew so much about the Hive. Eriana-3 admitted that she found his fascination disturbing, but she was too hellbent on revenge to pass up his help. Vell Tarlowe told Omar Agah that he didn't view Toland as a teammate or someone to be trusted, he considered Toland a weapon to be used.
* GibberingGenius: It's clear he understood quite a bit about the Darkness and its place in the universe, but the way he went about explaining it is... less than coherent.
* GoodAllAlong: During the Deathbringer Exotic Quest, it's revealed that his ultimate goal was to co-opt Hive Concepts, such as the Ascendant Plane and The Sword Logic and remake them to reflect the will of Humanity. Fill them up with light and life to give mankind the strength to win against the Darkness.
* HearingVoices: He heard ''the Darkness'' speaking to him. It did not help with his sanity, though it may have been what kept his soul intact after his encounter with Ir Yût.
-->'''Eris:''' And how do you know this?\\
'''Toland:''' It was told to me.\\
'''Eris:''' By the Speaker?\\
'''Toland:''' By the Darkness itself.
* IgnoredExpert: He, along with Lord Shaxx, tried to warn the Vanguard not to send the army to retake the Moon.
* KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge: He knew the Hive better than anyone. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation This may have been a bad thing]]. After all, the Tower doesn't exile Guardians for no reason...
* OhCrap: Has one of these moments upon encountering [[spoiler:Mara Sov]] in the Ascendant Realm. For all his work studying the Hive and their sword space, [[spoiler:Mara]] completely outclasses the Warlock and sends him running in fear.
* PlasmaCannon: Bad Juju, an Exotic Pulse Rifle built around the principles of the Hive's "sword logic." No one in the Tower apparently understands the logic behind how it functions and why it hungers for combat, but that seems to be because few people in the Tower can even grasp the Hive's sword-logic, and even if they do, they firmly reject it.
* PowerOfTheVoid: He shows up prominently in the Voidwalker's version of "The Shard" mission, so it's very likely he specialized as a Voidwalker.
* SlasherSmile: A conversation he had with his Ghost, Guren, suggests he was prone to this.
-->'''Toland:''' I will tell them, but they will never understand. I'll greet them with a smile and welcome them in.\\
'''Guren:''' Yes, but don't smile.\\
'''Toland:''' Why not? A smile hides the true purpose of teeth.\\
'''Guren:''' [[TheUnsmile Yes, but not yours.]]
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: One of his lines on the Moon suggests he thinks ''very'' poorly of Vell Tarlowe for being first to die in the fireteam. It's understandable, really, considering he was supposed to be TheBigGuy and thus the designated tank but got mauled by Thralls before they even made it in.
* SpiritAdvisor: Attempted at least. He's trying to contact your Guardian from the Ascendant realm he's stuck in and help them out, but they can't hear his communications.
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow[=/=]GoMadFromTheRevelation: His delving into Hive lore and the nature of the Darkness pushed his mind to the breaking point. When he finally confronted the Hive as part of Eris' fireteam, he was more interested in talking to them than fighting them, and in doing so he sealed his fate... though from his perspective that's not so much a bad thing.
* TomeOfEldritchLore: Toland's journal is treated as this. After getting the schematics for Bad Juju, Banshee-44 gives it to Ikora Rey for "containment". Your Ghost gets to read through a copy of it given to you by Eris, although it's not clear if this is the entire journal, as it doesn't seem to contain the Bad Juju schematics.
* UncertainDoom: Eris was the only person to return from the Hellmouth, so Toland is believed dead by the Tower. It turns out that he is ''physically'' dead, but his soul remains in the Hive Ascendant Realms.
* TheVoice: [[spoiler:He speaks to you in the Dreaming City's Ascendant Plane, though he has no physical form aside from a wisp of light that reluctantly guides you. He's clearly annoyed at your presence and doesn't want to show the way around.]]
* YesMan: Guren, who willingly agreed with every single thing Toland pulled, and only disagreed if it wasn't a way to use other people. It's even implied that Guren killed himself right before Toland died as one last act of pure spite against the Vanguard and an enabling of his Guardian's insanity.
* YoureInsane: According to the Grimoire cards, his teammates believed he was.
-->'''Omar:''' He's mad.\\
'''Toland:''' [[InsultBackfire Perhaps]].
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:He calls out the Young Wolf for not assuming the mantle of Taken King after they killed Oryx, claiming that not only could they have ended the Taken threat then and there if they had done so, but by not doing so, they left the door open for Savathun to wield the Taken to similarly apocalyptic effect.]]

[[folder:Briar]]
!!Briar of the Wild Brambles
A Sunbreaker Titan and ShellShockedVeteran whose PTSD-like symptoms were fed on by Nezarec, claiming him as one of his Acolytes in the process.\\\

His Ghost was Firethorn.

* EmptyShell: He didn't feel anything wrong with killing people, but took no joy in the matter, either. Still, he expected to feel ''something'' from doing so, but all he found was Nezarec reveling in his path of destruction.
* EyeScream: Stabbed out his eyes with a knife, [[WoundedGazelleGambit bringing out Firethorn in the process for Briar to destroy]].
* HandicappedBadass: Blind now, but still a fearsome warrior.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted; Briar shares his name with a Cloud Strider.

!!Other Servants of the Darkness


[[folder:The Black Heart]]
!!The Black Heart

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20220918_234953_chrome.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Whatever the heart of that place is, it's a seed, I think. A seed left behind to grow. Like a... a node of Glimmer... Or a tripwire. Bait to attract those who seek out and destroy what they don't understand."'']]

A mysterious entity dwelling at the heart of the Black Garden, worshipped by the Sol Divisive Vex as a god, speculated to be either a piece of the Darkness as an entity itself or a trap meant to measure the strength of the Guardians. Defeating it was the final challenge of the vanilla ''Destiny'' campaign. It was also the focus of a mission line in ''the Taken King'' and ''Season of the Undying,'' wherein the Taken and Vex respectively try to lock it out of time and revive it, only to be thwarted by the efforts of the Young Wolf.

* AGodAmI: According to early theories anyways. Ikora theorized the Vex couldn't comprehend it and thus decided to worship it. However, it was also unable to defend itself or summon all three Sol Progeny at once, making it hardly worthy of the title in practice.
* ArcVillain: Of Destiny's Day 1 campaign, being the entity responsible for halting the Traveler's healing. Defeating ends the game's main story, but there are plenty worse threats to be found [[DiscOneFinalBoss in the game's expansions and beyond.]]
* BatmanGambit: ''After the Heart Part II'' implies that the Heart of the Black Garden may have been [[spoiler: a lure to draw in Guardians as a sort of "tripwire" to tell how powerful the Traveler was becoming.]]
* EldritchAbomination: A swirling mass of Darkness being worshipped by killer robots in an alternate dimension that is also capable of possessing said robots definitely qualifies. That being said, it can be killed, making it a LovecraftLite example.
** When Prince Uldren first entered the Black Garden, he encountered the Black Heart and it nearly drove him insane. Merely thinking about the encounter causes his entire thought process to break down into a bizarre, trippy series of disconnected images and concepts.
* EvilKnockoff: Of [[spoiler:the Veil, synthesized by the Vex from Rohan's research notes. The repeated failures in getting it to work do provide some use to the Witness in and of themselves, but something changes in ''Lightfall'' that encourages it to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness do something about the matter]]]].
* FinalBoss: Of vanilla ''Destiny,'' waiting at the center of the Black Garden. Only after extinguishing it can the Traveler begin healing, and killing it is the first of many seemingly impossible tasks the Young Wolf will be assigned.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Of ''Season of the Undying.'' The Undying Mind, ArcVillain of the expansion, was tasked with reviving the Black Heart for the Vex, driving the events of the season.
** Interestingly, a minor example in ''The Taken King,'' wherein Oryx sends his army to attempt to revive the Black Heart. They fail, but its interesting to note that Oryx found the task important enough to divert his forces away from his revenge.
* NonActionBigBad: Requires the Sol Progeny to fight on its behalf. Once all three are gone, the Heart can do nothing but get shot.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: Is actually a rather minor piece of the Darkness, with little to no combat ability itself, but managed to vex fireteams of Guardians for centuries until the Young Wolf came around.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Of the Guardians, testing their mettle against a low-grade manifestation of the Darkness. Interestingly, it seems that its defeat is what causes greater enemies to begin making their way out of hiding, until the Traveler is forced to intervene and [[SmallRoleBigImpact notifies the Black Fleet of its survival.]]
* StarterVillain: The ArcVillain of the first campaign who, while eldritch and terrifying, ultimately couldn't do much against the might of the Young Wolf and could only summon minions to defend it. Future villains would prove much more effective.

[[folder:The Inventor '''(Unmarked''' '''''Beyond Light''''' '''Spoilers)''']]
See '''Clovis Bray I''' in [[Characters/DestinyOthers Other Characters and Entities]]

[[folder:Mykel '''(Unmarked''' '''''Lightfall''''' '''Spoilers)''']]
!!Mykel, Leader of the Acolytes of Nezerac
A regular human whose family was responsible for allowing the Cult of Nezarec to survive past the Collapse. Through him, Nezarec corrupted several individuals of various species into serving the God of Pain.

* AbusiveParents: He was tortured by his family to fully indoctrinate him into the Cult of Nezarec.
* TheCorrupter: Briar, Koraxis, and Acasia are pushed to their limits and turned into Acolytes because of him.
* TheTeamNormal: The only named servant of the Darkness to be a mere mortal human and stay that way, with none of the resources that Clovis had.

[[folder:"HNW" '''(Unmarked ''The Final Shape'' Spoilers)''']]
!![=HNW047622=]
A member of the predecessor species that ultimately threw their lot in with the ritual to form the Witness. Their recordings were somehow captured by the Houses of Winter and Rain as well as Sol Divisive Vex, which Eido would later use to assemble into a complete narrative of the collapse of the Witness's homeworld.

* CompositeCharacter: ''Season of the Deep'' reveals that the Witness is not a singular entity, but rather the collective thoughts and consciousnesses of an entire civilization who merged into one being.

* {{Expy}}: As the collective will of an entire civilization with complete faith in its convictions, the Witness can be seen as a twisted version of [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40K The God-Emperor of Mankind]].
** Also serves as a broad one for [[Manga/{{Berserk}} the Idea of Evil]], being a GreaterScopeVillain God born of the sins of mortals and responsible for a great amount of suffering throughout the setting. Both have vague, broad goals that give their servants a great amount of leeway to act as they will while also advancing their God's agenda. Both feel that they are ultimately doing a service to those around them by acting as they do, oblivious or not caring that they enhance the problems they wish to solve.

* CynicismCatalyst: Briefly implies to RS their FaceHeelTurn was the eradication of life in the star system they cultivated, as well as lingering doubts from the falls of the Swarm and Sovereign.

* ShadowArchetype: HNW's ideologies paint a direct contrast to the memory loss inflicted on Guardians upon resurrection. Where the Light cleanses indiscriminately so that Guardians awaken with a fresh slate unburdened by their pasts, HNW states in their last communique to RS the Witness' formation will have [[SelfServingMemory cut away the memories that could make the Penitent doubt]], all so the Witness could justify annihilating all of existence. As Eido describes it, the Traveler erased the Guardians' memories to open new possibilities, while HNW and many others through the Witness wiped their own memories to close them off and ensure they would never stray from their original genocidal directive.

** It's known the Witness is their own person. What is left ambiguous at first, however, is ''how much'' agency goes into their actions, and whether or not their goals are even the Darkness's, assuming such a distinction even exists, at all, seeing how [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail Savathun mentions]] that, like the Black Fleet, they are ''not'' the Darkness as the force of nature. Savathun says they are either TheManBehindTheMan to the Darkness or just someone who received the brunt of its power. ''Lightfall'', at least, ends the ambiguity regarding the distinction between the Witness and the Darkness - namely, that the Darkness isn't actually an intelligent entity, and that anything attributed to the Darkness was actually done by the Witness. ''Season of the Deep'' further clarifies that the Witness is a conglomerate of the first race blessed by the Traveler, granted its power by ''the Veil'', and ''everything'' humanity associates with the Darkness as the enemy of humanity is a result of the Witness's dogged need for a purpose the Traveler wouldn't grant it.

* BizarreAlienLocomotion: It's unclear what kind of anatomy they have under their outfit, making it ambiguous as to if they walk with two legs or if they just float everywhere.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Their eyes are black as pitch, making it look like they don't have any at all and instead possess empty sockets in their face.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Witness seems to genuinely believe that the people of the Sol System are suffering under the Traveler and they seek to bring "salvation" to them, much like the Darkness itself. If they are also ''the Winnower'', then they also see their crusade as nature running its course and part of a cold, emotionless "[[TheSocialDarwinist collective obligation]]" discussed in Vow of the Disciple. Unsurprisingly, the civilization whom the Witness once were also suffered from the same problem: they ''could not'' go on without purpose after living in a harsh planet where living alone was a struggle, and upon discovering the Veil and its Darkness, they considered the fact universe lacked an intrinsic meaning and existence had no greater purpose to be ''a crime'' they [[MeaningfulName witnessed]], and must be corrected at any cost.
* CharacterTics: The Witness and their avatars always steeple their hands on their appearance.

* CreatingLife: They and the Disciple(s) manufacture worms on the double in an entire cityscape of Black Fleet technology to prop up their puppet army, the Hive.
* CreepyMonotone: The Witness's voices lacks a significant amount of inflection or feeling in it, even when it displays some emotion at a target. It helps convey that The Witness is an EmptyShell due to its long existence and viewing the Final Shape as more of an obligation than a desire.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: While decidedly not human, they are the result of mortals implicitly not too dissimilar to humanity delving deep into the paracausal powers that control the universe and essentially melting themselves into a being that is uncontested by anything in the setting, even the Traveler.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: The precursor civilization which originally found the Traveler had their race uplifted and experienced a Golden Age that transformed their desert world into a paradise, but the lack of guidance from the Traveler of what to ''do'' with all this power led to them seeking out the Veil, which ''also'' gave them no guidance. So the precursors decided to try to use both the Traveler ''and'' the Veil to reshape the universe to give it that purpose, ultimately merging their race's consciousness into a single entity: The Witness.
* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Although the extermination of the Noesis suggests the Witness could have simply wiped humanity and the Eliksni off the grid in an instant, Eido comes to realize that [[RevengeBeforeReason out of pure spite for the Traveler]], it deliberately chose to use more drawn-out and less-lethal tactics against them. While more painful, this ultimately permitted both races to survive at all and humanity specifically to be chosen as the Guardians.

* TheDreaded: All those who serve the Witness live deeply in fear of facing their wrath. Savathun, herself a god who had the power of the Light and resurrection, would rather steal the Traveler and store it away than attempt to defeat the Witness. Eramis, once freed from her Stasis cocoon, is explicitly motivated by fear of what the Witness will do to her should she fail to gather the Pieces of Nezarec. And Rhulk, although much more subtle about it, is quick to beg the Witness for forgiveness upon his final defeat.

* EmptyShell: In the present day, they feel absolutely nothing watching complex life in the universe, and due to it seeing the Final Shape as an obligation likewise feels similarly empty going about their actions. If they are the Winnower, their idea of an ideal world being subverted for billions of years makes this all the more apparent. The only sign of complicated emotions they are ever shown to feel are an implied rage at Savathun for interrupting their plans in Years 3 and 4. This is further reinforced in Mara Sov's entry in "Inspiral", where she described the Witness as possessing "rage enough to burn the stars themselves to cinders" within it.
* EngineeredHeroics: Remember the Syzygy? The cataclysm that would doom Fundament? Yeah, that never actually happened, that was a lie this person cooked up so they and the Worm Gods could pretend to save the day by creating the Hive.

* EvilIsPetty: Why did it start a war that has left trillions dead, converted entire civilizations to its cause, and caused its very God to abandon it? Because the people forming it had a collective ''existential crisis,'' and when the Traveler couldn't provide answers and ultimately abandoned it after they attempted to fuse light and dark, they essentially all committed ''ritual suicide'' to form a being capable of fighting it.

* EvilWearsBlack: Their outfit is a fittingly all-black arrangement.
* EvilerThanThou: To the Hive Gods and pretty much every enemy the Guardians have faced. Savathun describes the Witness as giving the Darkness "an evil shape", and her horror at their plans causes her to ally with the Light to protect the Traveler from its wrath.
* EvilVirtues: Responsibility for one's mistakes, and being able to follow through with a promise. Rhulk's presence in the Throne World was meant to be a punishment after decades of manipulating the Ahslid ultimately did absolutely nothing for the two, showing that loyalty doesn't discount the Witness's followers from dodging accountability or being wasteful. This becomes especially apparent as the Ahslid were never seemingly that powerful; Rhulk simply ''lost control'' of them through his own actions due to a lack of finesse. Calus trying to skirt his responsibility for his own failures and demean the Witness in the same breath is enough [[NotSoStoic to break it's stoicism]] [[RageBreakingPoint and show how angry it can really get]].

** It's origin as the collective will of an entire civilization also draws heavily from the Anti-Spiral of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', likewise sharing in their motivation of having grown disillusioned with a power they once wielded themselves, [[WellIntentionedExtremist fearing its potential for destruction and thus choosing to bring stagnant order to a chaotic universe]], ending up [[FusionDance consolidating themselves]] into a single collective being that might as well be a genuine PhysicalGod that ends up being ''the'' true main antagonist for everyone.

* FauxAffablyEvil: ''The Final Shape'' Collector's Edition reveals it presents itself as a cordial entity to civilizations that never found the Traveler, using more efficient and painless methods to kill or convert their populace. By contrast, however, encountering civilizations blessed by the Traveler that therefore bring it closer to its mission cause the Witness to absolutely ''lose its shit'', and will effectively ''torture them to death for the sake of it''.
* FingerTenting: Seems to be a CharacterTic, as they regularly put their fingertips together in their appearances.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The one who's ''really'' been carrying out the Darkness's will in its stead, but has yet to actually face the Guardians head-on. They're also the entire reason the Hive ever came into existence, as they beat the Traveler to the Krill first and spun a lie to convince them to flee the Traveler instead. The fact that Savathun seems to indicate the Witness is responsible for the Collapse further elevates them in this regard.

* TheGreys: Their facial design evokes this appearance, but given a significantly more otherworldly vibe with the face-smoke radiating from their head, along with their mouth being hidden so all attention is placed on their eyes and forehead.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Hive are a creation of their lies. Part of the reason the entire game series exists to begin with is because Savathun [[LaserGuidedKarma fooled them with a trick of her own]] and convinced the Witness to leave Sol, thus giving the Traveler more breathing room.

* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: How else can you describe their outfit idly shifting and undulating as if it's alive while they're wearing it?

** The knowledge of its existence seemingly drives every player in Sol to the brink. Calus abandons his previously benevolent persona entirely attempting to impress them, Savathun is driven to put her plan to steal the Traveler into motion, the Fallen are forced to finally choose between House Light and Salvation, the Cabal are driven to ally with the City, and the Guardians are confronted with the enemy responsible for their entire existence.
* LeanAndMean: If their arms are of any indication, they're notably skinny compared to the average human, and they are also the mouthpiece of the Black Fleet itself.

* ManipulativeBastard: They knew the Traveler was on its way to help the Krill, so it spun a lie appealing to Sathona's pride about how there was going to be a catastrophe that would soon come and how only the Deep can save them. She's not an isolated example, either- the Witness originally sold the idea of being "the herald of the end" to Calus by playing into his ego and god complex, and the primary reason why Rhulk even became its first Disciple in the first place was because it gaslit him into buying into its philosophy when the Lubraean was at his lowest.
** It also loves doing this during the present day, manipulating Eramis' rage and fear of failure to goad her into using ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE on the Traveler. Xivu Arath fares little better, being berated by the Witness after her failure to take Ahsa in ''Season of the Deep.'' It then implores her to bring war to Sol to stop the Last City from using her sister to find the Witness.
* MeaningfulName: They are implied to be a ''witness'' to everything that has transpired between the Traveler and the Darkness, and seem to know the Traveler better than anyone else.

* NearVillainVictory: The First Collapse was this, moreso as more is revealed about its ultimate goal. Nezarec was in Sol with the Veil in tow, and the Traveler was still active. It had everything it needed to forge a connection and jumpstart the Final Shape until [[SpannerInTheWorks Savathun]] killed Nezarec and hid the Veil away. The Traveler itself also seems to have decided to fight against the Black Fleet, becoming crippled in the process and going dormant, essentially neutralizing the Witness' plan for ''centuries,'' which is likely what caused it to retreat to the edges of the galaxy until TheStinger for the Red War campaign, where it senses the Traveler's reawakening and begins its journey back to Sol, finally forging a link between the Traveler and Veil at the end of ''Lightfall.''
* NoNonsenseNemesis: As shown in ''Lightfall,'' the Witness has very little patience for failure or entertaining a struggle against its enemies. Rather than engaging the Guardians in combat as many an ArcVillain before it (such as Oryx, Gaul, or Eramis), it shreds most of their fleet to pieces with a flick of its wrist. Did we mention this was taking place while they were tanking a direct hit from the Traveler itself? All in all, it seems the Witness is so impossibly ancient that it views direct combat or boasting about its power as beneath it.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: While they manifest personally for the recruitment of new Disciples, they also seem to allow the Disciples to take the initiative in razing worlds and leading its armies. They evidently let Nezarec led the Black Fleet during the Collapse, and seems willing to let various enforcers lead their forces while they command the Darkness throughout the universe.
** Averted come ''Lightfall''. As soon as the Witness has the Traveller in sight, it uses its Pyramids to launch attacks on any space vessel in its way. When the Traveler retaliates with a terraforming beam on the Pyramid vessel it boards, the Witness ups the ante; it personally enters the fray, tanks the laser, closes the distance with the Traveler, slices any forces which try to approach it with a wave of its hand, uses a Pyramid beam attack to disable the Traveler's laser, surrounds the Traveler with its Pyramids and finally reaches for it. The only reason it stops is because it receives a vision and comes to the conclusion the Veil on Neptune must be destroyed first before it can do what it plans to do with the Traveler. While it ordering Calus to secure the Veil on its behalf can come across as this trope, it really ''isn't'' because the Witness evidently keeps watch on its target, which makes sense as the Traveller is proven capable of terraforming its Pyramids (which up until this point are known to be nigh-indestructible), so keeping the prime source of Light in check is a priority.
* OrderIsNotGood: The Witness is the gestalt form of a species that once worshipped the Light, but came to fear it because the Light is fundamentally capable of acting without intention, while the Dark [[YourMindMakesItReal is ultimately driven by intention and thought]]. As a result, they seek to rectify the fact that phenomenon exist that sapient beings cannot influence - [[OmnicidalManiac by destroying everything that can't be influenced]].
* OrderVsChaos: What the conflict between the Traveler and the Witness comes down to - the physical phenomena governed by the Light are inherently chaotic and random, while the abstract phenomena governed the by Darkness are influenced by thought and emotion and thus can be controlled to a degree. The Witness fears the Light precisely because of its uncontrollable nature and wants to use the Traveler and the Veil to create a more ordered, perfected universe where this danger does not exist.

* OutsideContextProblem: Initially painted as such. It has been implied by Savathun's statements and the ''Unveiling'' lore book that the Witness is ''not'' the Darkness, but instead something wearing it like a cloak and giving it an evil purpose. This may be referenced in ''Unveiling'', which mentions something called "the First Knife," the catalyst that caused the Winnower to attack the Gardener in the first place. Its reason for doing this, if it has any at all, is unknown, but in the intervening billions of years, the Witness's name has become synonymous with the Darkness itself. The lore book ''Inspiral'', reveals that this is true ''and'' false -- the Darkness itself is an impartial force of the universe and lacks the intelligence to be knowingly good or evil. The Witness, however, is implied to be ''the entity'', the source of all Darkness as a power given to the Hive and Sol Divisive, and the true antagonist of the ''Destiny'' franchise.

* PaintingTheMedium: When they speak in lore entries, their sentences are surrounded by - --triple hyphens with a space-- - instead of quotation marks.
* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Was the first civilization empowered by the Traveler and the most gifted. Ironically, the Traveler chose to give its chaotic powers to people who sought order above all else and they used the Traveler's powers to seek out [[EvilCounterpart the Veil,]] ultimately becoming more powerful offensively than the Traveler itself and seemingly killing it during the DownerEnding of ''Lightfall.''
* PlanetLooters: Just depriving planets of their resources isn't enough - in ''Season of Arrivals'', it flat out ''steals entire planets'' and would have taken the entire Solar system itself if the Traveler didn't reawaken and stop it.
* PragmaticVillainy: The Witness is not above using deceit to get an entire race to serve its cause and in fact might have taken different personas to present itself (if it is indeed ''the Winnower'') in a more affable manner. It is also perfectly willing to gaslight its servants into doing what it wants: despite initially subjecting Eramis to [[YouHaveFailedMe a stasis prison]], it recognizes her worth as a veteran Eliksni, skilled in hunting for loots (which would help in collecting pieces of Nezarec) as well as finding vulnerabilities and subverting foreign technology systems (which would help in hacking into Rasputin sub-minds, the Warsats and activate LOKI CROWN) and it keeps her by its side using the threat of oblivion, turning her House into the Wrathborn if not the Scorn and convincing her to embrace her hatred for the Traveller.

* RageQuit: Immaru describes its goal as this in ''Season of the Witch,'' stating that while the Hive view the Final Shape as the natural endpoint of the universe, one left standing when all others are gone, the Witness' true vision for it is more along the lines of trying to win a game by turning it off, locking everything in a perfect state of being forever.
* RevengeBeforeReason: ''The Final Shape'' Collector's Edition suggests it has the power to instantaneously destroy entire civilizations instead of its usual behavior of slowly killing them, but consciously chooses not to just to spite the Traveler. It saves the cleaner kills for species not blessed by the Light.

* TheStoic: Called such by Bungie. This can be seen in the way they talk, which is usually in an eerie androgynous monotone. Its massive dark eyes and lack of visible mouth from which to draw any emotion from also give this impression. The developers indicate it is likely no emotion runs through the Witness at all, because billions of years pursuing the Traveler across the universe has reduced their own rage to... [[EmptyShell nothing]]. ''Lightfall'' later reinforces this trope by implying the Witness is, in fact, in a constant state of [[TranquilFury rage]].

-->'''Ikora:''' We are at war with an entire civilization condensed into an individual. Multitudes of resentment and hatred crushed into a singularity.

** They're aware of the Traveler's number-one FatalFlaw of constantly ditching civilizations and the fact that the clock is ticking on when it's ready to consider doing this again, and they're right to be slighted by this even if the Black Fleet is the one making it act.

* WalkingSpoiler: In case the "Unmarked Spoilers" warning didn't make that clear. It's hard to mention anything about the Witness without bringing up their association with the Darkness, as well as how their existence challenges everything that we think we know about the Darkness conceptually.
* WasOnceAMan: Possibly. One of Savathun's "Two Truths and a Lie" events implies that the Witness was once mortal, even blessed by the Traveler's light before learning to wield the power of the Darkness. However, [[ConsummateLiar considering the source,]] this should be taken with a grain of salt.

* XanatosGambit: Unbeknownst to even Calus -- The Witness's plan to deal with the Veil and commence the Final Shape was multifaceted and it, seemingly, was not bothered (and even accounted for) Calus's failure due to his [[MilesGloriosus impossibly large ego]] and narcissism, had instead utilized [[UnwittingPawn the Lightbearers themselves]] to fulfill its objective via DemonicPossession of their Ghost as they had done prior to establish a direct link to the Traveler. Regardless of whether Calus fulfilled his goal or the Guardians bested him in combat, [[TheBadGuyWins the Witness still wins at the end of the day]] and is able to begin the end proper.

** Eramis's failure to retrieve Nezarec's artifacts in ''Season of Plunder'' illicits a near-immediate response from the Witness in the following season, where House Salvation's remnants are forcefully turned into livestock for Xivu Arath's Wrathborn. Despite the fact that House Salvation and the Hive should be aligned under the Darkness, it's clear that the Witness is doing this to punish Eramis.

A former dissident of the Penitent that ultimately threw their lot in with the ritual to form the Witness. Their recordings were somehow captured by the Houses of Winter and Rain as well as Sol Divisive Vex, which Eido would later use to assemble into a complete narrative of the collapse of the Witness's homeworld.

* CynicismCatalyst: Briefly implies to RS their FaceHeelTurn was a product of war on their home planet, as well as lingering doubts from the falls of the Swarm and Sovereign.

* ShadowArchetype: HNW's ideologies paint a direct contrast to the Guardians' use of memory loss. Where the Light cleanses indiscriminately so that Guardians awaken with a fresh slate unburdened by their pasts, RS was the one to propose [[SelfServingMemory cutting only the memories that would make the Penitent wrong]] so that the Witness could justify annihilating all of existence. As Eido describes it, the Traveler erased the Guardians' memories to open new possibilities, while HNW and many others through the Witness wiped their own memories to close them off and ensure they would never stray from their original genocidal directive.

[[folder:"RS" '''(Unmarked ''The Final Shape'' Spoilers)''']]
!![=RS6243199=]
A member of the faction known as the Penitent that would later form the Witness, who frequently spoke to a dissident to try and convince them of the Final Shape. Their recordings were somehow captured by the Houses of Winter and Rain as well as Sol Divisive Vex, which Eido would later use to assemble into a complete narrative of the collapse of the Witness's homeworld.

* KnightTemplar: No matter what, RS simply ''refuses'' to believe that the Penitent's methods would involve actual destruction, either because they were too dense to see it or because the Penitent's teachings meant that their targets were beneath them for moral judgement.
* ShadowArchetype: RS's ideologies paint a direct contrast to the Guardians' use of memory loss. Where the Light cleanses indiscriminately so that Guardians awaken with a fresh slate unburdened by their pasts, RS was the one to propose [[SelfServingMemory cutting only the memories that would make the Penitent wrong]] so that the Witness could justify annihilating all of existence. As Eido describes it, the Traveler erased the Guardians' memories to open new possibilities, while RS and many others through the Witness wiped their own memories to close them off and ensure they would never stray from their original genocidal directive.

[[folder:The Veil ('''Unmarked''' '''''Lightfall''''' '''Spoilers''')]]

[[folder:The Veil ('''Unmarked Spoilers''')]]

!!The Black Fleet (Unmarked Spoilers)

!!!'''The Disciples (Unmarked Spoilers)'''

[[folder:The Inventor '''(Spoilers)''']]

[[folder:Mykel '''(unmarked spoilers)''']]

[[folder:"RS" '''(unmarked ''The Final Shape'' spoilers)''']]

* FatalFlaw: [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife Need for purpose]] - the Witness is the gestalt form of the very first race to be blessed by the Traveler, which turned their world into a paradise and gave them ''everything''... except, ironically, the one thing they desired: purpose. Their need for meaning in a meaningless universe drove them to seek out the Traveler's opposite and attempt to combine the two to carve the universe a meaning and grant them a purpose to exist, causing the Traveler to flee from them. Literally ''the entire conflict between Light and Dark'' occured because one species couldn't accept that there is no meaning to life or that [[TheAntiNihilist there doesn't need to be one]].

!!The Witness, the Voice in the Darkness

The Witness is later revealed to not be a true creature, but an animate SoulJar containing the first civilization the Traveler blessed. Realizing that the Light held untold destructive potential that could potentially outweigh all of the good the Traveler has brought to the universe, they created the Witness as a vessel for their work and raised the Black Fleet so that they would always have the time and resources needed to pursue the Traveler and extinguish the Light forever.

Being extensions of the Witness, the Black Fleet is presented as the Darkness counterparts of the Traveler, to the point ''Lightfall'' has the Traveler make its first offensive move against the Fleet's flagship. The Traveler's terraforming beam is shown to be the first thing shown which actually successfully damages a Pyramid.

However, ''Season of the Deep'' reveals the Black Fleet are not the Traveler's direct counterpart. The Pyramids are the last remaining artefacts of the civilization which created the Witness, who have searched for the Traveler's true Darkness counterpart, the Veil, in order to strengthen the metaphysical link between the two, which would allow the Witness to use Light and Dark to reshape the universe.

* CosmopolitanCouncil: Implied. They are clearly not one race, as Rhulk is the last of the Lubrae and the Witness offered Mara a place among them.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: From Queens to only survivors, as long as you're useful and have the capacity to sieze power you're welcomed into their ranks.