Characters / Destiny: The Darkness

This page details the various beings that directly serve the Darkness, outranking the Hive and the Vex.

Main Character Index | Active Guardians (Historical Guardians | Guardian Classes | Uldren Sov/The Crow and Glint) | The Tower | The Reef | The Fallen (House of Devils) | The Cabal | The Vex | The Darkness (The Hive | The Taken | The Scorn) | Other Characters and Entities

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The Darkness

The Deep, IT, the Flower Eater, the Queen of Final Shapes, That Which Also Inhabits Its Petitioners, the Black Edge, the Formless One, the Winnower, Clarity

"[...]And it is majestic. Majestic. It is the only thing that can be true in and of itself. And it is what I am."

The overarching antagonistic force of the Destiny Universe, an equal and opposite to the Light, along with its various heralds and servants who do not fit with any of its various servant races like the Hive or the Vex. They roam the universe following a philosophy of purposeful and absolute destruction, having done so since time immemorial, as well as to pursue the Traveller and undo all it has ever done.

Beware of Unmarked Spoilers

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The Darkness

The Darkness/The Deep/The Formless One/The Winnower

"The worth of a thing can only be determined by one beautiful arbiter: that thing's ability to exist, to go on existing, to remake existence to suit its survival."

"The Speaker tells of a cosmic force that swept over us and caused the Collapse. Legend calls it the Darkness, the Traveler's ancient enemy, which hunted it across space. All we have left are questions."

The ancient enemy of the Traveler, and supposedly what brought the Collapse to Humanity's Golden Age. It has been actively chasing the Traveler for several eons, and has proven to be its most dangerous foe. Various clues and lore have claimed the Darkness to be something akin to Sentient Cosmic Force, whom its servant races communicate with and worship by enacting its philosophy of extreme simplification of the universe into something everlasting called the Final Shape.

The truth, however, is not what it seems. The Darkness is slowly revealed over the course of the story to be a far more neutral cosmic force associated with immaterial abstracts and concepts of reality in opposition to the material powers of the Light. The Guardians slowly begin to harness this power to combat the true Arch-Enemy of the Traveler, The Witness.

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• Abusive Precursors: According to the Unveiling, the Darkness inadvertently created the Vex when it clashed with the Light in pre-existence. The Witch Queen further implies Stasis, one of the elemental manifestations of the Darkness, contains the ideal environment to build Vex technology due to the scientific implications of it creating the absence of entropy and energy (both sought-after conditions for quantum computing). Yet, all depictions of the Darkness interacting with the Vex either involve torture (i.e. being Taken), giving the Vex unavoidable predictions of their extinction by its hands, or managing to cause their Hive Mind to split up by sectioning off a part of it into the cult-like Sol Divisive.
• Affably Evil: Going by how it communicates directly with Oryx in the Books of Sorrow, the Darkness is... actually quite friendly to its agents.
  "Oryx, my King, my friend. Kick back. Relax. Shrug off that armor, set down that blade. Roll your burdened shoulders and let down your guard. This is a place of life, a place of peace.
  Out in the world we ask a simple, true question. A question like, can I kill you, can I rip your world apart? Tell me the truth. For if I don’t ask, someone will ask it of me.
  And they call us evil. Evil! Evil means 'socially maladaptive.' We are adaptiveness itself."
  • In the Grimoire entries for the various types of Taken, the Darkness discusses their flaws and suggests ways to improve themselves, typically by giving them a [knife] which changes them into something stronger and better, and views being Taken as a gift that sets them free of their limitations and burdens. In particular, it shows enormous respect for Primus Ta'aun for his bravery, valor, and skill, as well as his love for his troops and his devotion to duty.
  • In Book: Marasenna, Cosmogyre IV, the perception that Mara Sov has of contact with the Darkness is that it is malevolent, but not by choice, but because it defaults to that by its very nature.
  She senses that the nothingness around her is not indifferent; that it is aware of all purposes, and that its own purpose encompasses them. It is infinitely hostile because it must be.
  • In the Unveiling lore, essentially its own letters to the Guardians, it shows a polite, introspective side, and even once fondly refers to Oryx as "my man."
• Ambiguous Situation: The Witch Queen upends much of what we know about the Darkness as an entity. Primarily, regarding its very nature as a supposedly sentient entity. The Witness is their own being and it's confirmed they were the one who engineered the rise of the Hive in Fundament. This raises several question: in any lore book in which someone communicates with the Darkness, was it truly the Darkness conversing? Was it actually the Witness? How much of a distinction is there? How many of the things supposedly done by the Darkness were actually done by the Darkness, and how many were done by the Witness using the powers of the Darkness? Lightfall lore Inspiral then all but confirms the Darkness is not at all sentient and clarifies pretty much everything the Darkness has supposedly done is indeed the Witness acting as if the paracausal force is sentient and carrying out a singular purpose. It is not made clear if this means that the Unveiling lore as an allegorical tale about the origins of Light and Darkness is a complete fabrication, or if the Winnower in the tale is meant to be the Witness.
• Applied Phlebotinum: One of its many manifestations is the golden element Resonance. It doesn't seem to be connected to a fundamental force like the Light or a form of consciousness like Stasis (strong emotions and a desire for control) and Strand (peace of mind and open thoughts), but nearly every piece of technology connected to the Black Fleet seems to require it to function. If you can imagine it as something they or the Disciples would use or need, its signature golden mist isn't too far behind.
• Arc Words: The Darkness is heavily associated with "shape" — it's end goal for the universe would be an Ultimate Lifeform known as the Final Shape, and when creating a Taken, it tells them to "Take your new shape." The Witness, when conversing with Calus on the Guardians moving to challenge them on Neomuna, states "let them come and see our shape revealed". Tessellation's weapon perks suggest the word and others associated with it are also Newspeak for every WMD in the Black Fleet and their possible use cases.
• Big Bad: Subverted. The Darkness was touted as the main antagonist of Destiny for years, with certain lore even giving it a playfully malicious personality that could give Old Scratch a run for his money. The Unveiling lore book even establishes it and the Light's conflict as primordial, older than the universe itself and many of the enemies of the Last City have pledged themselves to it. However, Shadowkeep has Mara implying there is a distinction between "the Darkness" and the Voice in the Darkness. Season of Arrivals subsequently show the entity responsible for the Collapse and what various people have been calling "the Darkness" is actually the Black Fleet, and The Witch Queen finally establishes that the Fleet's master, the Witness, as the true Big Bad and The Heavy of the series. The Darkness is just a different form of cosmic power than the Light.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Its various servants and lore make it clear the Darkness sees the universe as being ultimately defined by violence, extinction, and winner-takes-all. It views this as majestic. It intentionally compares itself to the Traveler, stating that the Traveler only creates death and stagnancy by helping other life, while the Darkness is the only source of true growth by forcing violence and conflict.
• Break Them by Talking: When someone is Taken by Oryx, a voice heavily implied to be the Darkness itself speaks to the individual, and proceeds verbally pick its previous life apart, saying that their old choices had failed them, and by being Taken, the Darkness is granting it a means to destroy those would who would try and destroy it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In lore pieces in which the Darkness speaks, it clearly revels in upending and ruining all that the Traveler has created and blessed, determined to make the universe see its philosophy reigns supreme over the Traveler's way of life.
• Catchphrase: "It is majestic. Majestic." Many lore has the Darkness repeat variations on this phrase to describe its survival-of-the-fittest, winner-take-all view of reality.
• The Chessmaster: Certain Grimoire entries imply the Darkness has been manipulating the Traveler from afar in its eons f pursuit; chasing it along a path of its choosing and determining which young civilizations the Traveler would lend its aid to. It is not known if this is true, and if it is why the Darkness would do this, but the reason is probably not good for the Traveler, humanity or any race blessed by the Light.
• The Corruption: Rasputin describes the phenomenon responsible for the Collapse as the "queen of final shapes" and "that which also inhabits its petitioners." Considering what happened to the Hive when they made their bargains with the Worm Gods and the Deep they serve, this assessment is pretty accurate. The Scorn are also believed to be what happens to a Fallen whose Ether is corrupted by the Darkness itself. Subverted, it turns out that's the Witness's influence - in truth, the Darkness itself was corrupted by their nihilistic and obsessive viewpoint, pure Darkness is more akin to morally neutral Psychic Powers due to its association with thought, perception, subjectivity and the raw processes of life; abusable, but not more so than the Light itself. The issue is that said power over thought lends itself well to being a medium for the Witness's philosophy.
• Cosmic Entity: This is the being/elemental force/stellar phenomenon/whatever which caused the Collapse and mortally wounded the Traveler. In Cosmogyre III, it is described as being absolute darkness, cutting off all communications and using an incredibly powerful and high-resolution series of gravity waves to analyze everything around it at the atomic level. Lightfall has Osiris come to the realization that the Darkness embodies abstract phenomenons brought by life: evolution and growth, survival instincts (Sword Logic), assertion of control and order (Stasis), perception of time and memories (Deepsight), and consciousness itself (the Strand and the river of souls) as opposed to the Light, which embodies material phenomenons, such as heat, electricity, and gravity/dark energy.
• Dark Is Evil: In contrast to the Traveler. Many Darkness lore and servants paint it as violent and destructive, exhibiting a Might Makes Right philosophy, with its servants wanting to cull the undeserving from those who have a "right" to exist, happily annihilating whole civilizations and never wavering from their crusade. The Traveler, by contrast, is genuinely friendly and will bless any civilization it encounters, though it had a tendency to flee whenever the Darkness eventually caught up to it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: However, the Darkness has been shown to be a useful tool to the Guardians. Since Beyond Light, Guardian opinion of the Darkness as a cosmic force seems to have shifted from "embodiment of evil" to "potentially destructive tool" — much in the same way Light was abused by Warlords during the Dark Age. Lightfall has Osiris realize that the Darkness isn't inherently evil, but instead an embodiment of abstract and psychic phenomenons, a counterpart to the physical nature of the Light.
• Demonic Possession: The few times the Darkness is reported to be encountered in the flesh, so to speak, it does so "wearing" the bodies of various creatures. The Book of Sorrows shows Oryx's process to summon the Deep involved giving it the body of an unborn Ogre, and one of the files from Praedyth's Ghost reports encountering it "wearing a Fallen Captain like a suit of clothes".
• Eldritch Abomination: It heavily damaged the Traveller, so it counts. Precisely what the Darkness actually is, remains a mystery. In-Universe, there are many differing thoughts on its nature; some argue it is this trope, others claim it is a technological weapon, others believe it is simply the leadership of the various alien factions who have despoiled human civilization, and others say it is the Traveler's Evil Counterpart.
  • What is known about it is that it's got a complex enough structure, even the near-omniscient Vex couldn't figure it out, which is why the Sol Divisive worship what is implied to be a fragment of it as a god. Rasputin likewise describes it as a self-directed event more than a mortal being; it's intelligent, and it's angry. It's also described as "acausal", i.e. it's acting on future events or acting without past ones.
  • The Books of Sorrow indicate it is some kind of paracausal entity bent on remaking the universe into its own "perfect shape", and that the Hive are its main agents for destroying species, particularly those guarded by the Traveler.
  • The Lore entry Gardener and Winnower has the Darkness itself tell a story about what is all-but-stated the origin of the Universe. In it, it describes the Darkness and the Light as predating time within a field of possibilities, having existed, but not lived, as self-aware ontological dynamics who emerged from mathematical structures which formed the foundations of reality. They had no predecessors, not any descendants, were not bound by causality, were not part of any great component or schematic in the field of possibilities, and only existed because they had to. It's really hard to get more eldritch than that.
  • Lightfall Lore Inspiral might have subverted this. The Darkness isn't so much a Sentient Cosmic Force or any form of entity, as much as it is a Background Magic Field which exists for all beings who can perceive and tap into it as a source of paracausal power.
• Eldritch Location: Whatever the Darkness is, it seems to reside in a dimension superordinate to the physical universe; specifically within the deepest part of the Ascendant Plane. It can only reached by those who are sufficiently attuned with the Darkness: the only known entities who can reach this deep are the Worm Gods, Oryx with the Tablets of Ruin, the Witness, its Disciples, and beings who are infused with the Witness's presence.
• Emotional Powers: Lightfall reveals this is the true domain of the Darkness. Its powers relate to abstract phenomenons which can be conceived and perceived by the mind, as well as give physical form and shape to the emotional and mental activities. Stasis for one is brought by strong emotions and the desire for control which manifests as the assertion of order into the chaos of entropy, while Strand embodies peaceful emotions and an open mind to reach into and give way for the abstract river of souls to flow into and take form in reality. This also explains why Dark Is Not Evil, since both of these view points can be positive or negative (control allows for order but can lead to stagnation, while peacefulness can lead to passivity).
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Beyond Light introduces Stasis, an ability to forcefully remove heat and entropy from reality, which results in the formation of crystalline ice structures. Zigzagged, as it turns out Stasis is not all that bad, and it's much more about the user than the ability itself.
• Faux Affably Evil: That casual dialogue with Oryx up under Affably Evil? That part about letting down your guard? While Oryx is gone, his sisters have been moving to cut off his power and seal him inside the Darkness. The Darkness knows this, and laughs at Oryx for believing he'd be safe during their audience. Still, this is downplayed considering the Darkness has a very strange morality, so it probably thought of it as more along the lines of a practical joke. Additionally, the Darkness technically wasn't wrong. Oryx certainly would be safe there. Just unable to leave, or do anything else.
• The Grim Reaper: The Unveiling has it call itself as "the Winnower", and makes comments comparing itself to the embodiment of death. Notably, the fact the Ecumene and Qugu civilizations uses the Darkness specifically in ways which conflict with its tenets and this presentation of Darkness being Death, adds to the mysterious and potentially fabricated qualities of the Darkness as an entity.
• God of Evil: Subverted. Being worshipped by the Hive would seem to qualify it on principle alone, and many lore entries paint has it openly claim itself as a monster. However, very little clue or evidence of its actions could be pointed to this, and Lightfall has Osiris note the Darkness is essentially a cosmic fabric which forms the consciousness itself; both its good and bad aspects.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Lore entries build it up as the ultimate force behind the villainy of the Vex and Hive, the despair of the Fallen, the transformation of the Scorn, and the division of the Cabal. That being said, the story slowly reveals the Darkness might not in fact be responsible for the aforementioned things; as the Black Fleet led by the Witness are the direct cause. Savathun even puts the Darkness's status as this into question with some of her "Two Lies, Two Truths" games, though the truth of her statements are suspect. Lightfall then heavily implies it is not even sentient enough to be an entity, much less a villain.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: It's not clear why it does what it does, or why it hates the Traveler so much. Some lore entries suggest it may be deliberately herding the Traveler to certain races for its own purposes. The Books of Sorrow and Unveiling indicate that it may want to remake everything by its own standards. Another indicates that its only purpose is war, and that everything is little more than a justification. Inspiral reveals the Darkness isn't even sentient enough to have an agenda in the first place.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Downplayed. While obviously not outright defeated by them, the Exos, which only exist in their current state because of a gift from the Darkness, ended up becoming eligible to be resurrected as Guardians by its mortal enemy to fight its machinations. This goes double if the Player Character is an Exo, as they get involved in trying to investigate and/or thwart some of the Darkness's most heinous schemes in-game.
• I Have Many Names: "The Darkness" is what humanity calls it. The Hive know it as "the Deep" or "the Formless One". The Fallen call it "the Whirlwind". The Vex call it "the Black Heart". The Cabal Loyalists call it "the Entity". The Awoken call it "the Voice in the Darkness". Rasputin refers to it as "the Flower Eater" and "Queen of Final Shapes". Clovis Bray I referred to it as "Clarity". The Pyramids, which appear to constitute the closest thing to a body it has, are collectively called "the Black Fleet". It refers itself as "the Winnower" as part of an analogy ^note to contrast the Light as "the Gardener". The Inspiral lore book also reveals that the Ecumene and Qugu also refer to it as the Deep.
• Invincible Villain: Many lore entries suggest the Darkness as being utterly confident its ultimate victory is a law of nature, same as gravity or physics. There's no particular reason why it's going to win; that's just how the universe works. When Calus encountered the Darkness, he could only conclude that its goal was so inevitable that rather than try to fight it, he would just spread merriment and cheer before it in order that everyone else would be happy and content before their inevitable deaths at its hands.
  And there is no reason for it, no more than there was reason for the victory of the atom. It is simply the winning play.
• It Can Think: In its first encounter with mankind, when nothing about the Darkness is known, one of the first things Rasputin has to say about it is that it was angry.
  Rasputin: Bootstrap simulation suggests event is DIRECTED and INIMICABLE.
  • Lightfall subverts this. The Strand is described as tapping into the psychic matrix which connects all consciousness in the universe and it is described as reactive to intelligent beings who can reach for it. This means it reacts to intelligence and thought, but isn't intelligent or capable of thought by itself.
• Meaningful Name: One lore entry has it give itself the pseudonym "the Winnower", which it describes as "[separating] what would flourish from what had failed" from the Gardener's plants.
• Might Makes Right: The core philosophy which it and all its servants live by, contrasting heavily with the Traveler.
  If a civilization cannot defend itself, it must be annihilated. If a King cannot hold his power, he must be betrayed. The worth of a thing can only be determined by one beautiful arbiter: that thing's ability to exist, to go on existing, to remake existence to suit its survival.
• Mundane Utility: One of the contrasts it has to the Traveler and the Light is how much more often this trope comes into play with the Darkness; the more practical applications of Light-based paracausality are portrayed as special and extremely rare, like in the case of the rebuilt Hawkmoon and the Radiant Accipiter. Meanwhile, the Hive applies rituals which invoke its powers as part of pretty much everything in their culture and tech, while the Black Fleet uses its physically-illegal tech in factories, guns, vehicles, and infrastructure since time immemorial.
• Mythical Motifs: Hades and Persephone of Classical Mythology. The chase between the Darkness and the Traveler almost parallels the story of how Hades took Persephone to the Underworld, and the changing of the seasons as a result. The red flowers in the Black Garden being called asphodelia adds to the Chthonic themes, referencing the Asphodel Fields. Resonance's gold color also calls back to Hades' other domain being that of Wealth, as his domain of the Underworld contained all of the world's riches (which includes gold).
• "Not So Different" Remark: As several Grimoire cards are happy to point out, a being like the Guardians that exists only to kill for reasons that aren't their own doesn't really have the moral high ground against an entity devoted to eternal conflict.
• Omnicidal Maniac: As it explains to Oryx, the universe is built on destruction and violence and the force that matters and deserves to exist is the one that destroys all other challenges to its existence. Therefore, they have to kill everything they encounter, because that's just how things work. The first message you gain from the Unknown Artifact within the Pyramid has it describe everything which exists are suffering, and the right, good thing to do is to get rid of everything for "the elimination of suffering". The only things allowed to exist, therefore, are things which must exist.
  "The fate of everything is made like this, in the collision, the test of one praxis against another. This is how the world changes: one way meets a second way, and they discharge their weapons, they exchange their words and markets, they contest and in doing so they petition each other for the right to go on being something, instead of nothing. This is the universe figuring out what it should be in the end.
  And it is majestic. Majestic. It is the only thing that can be true in and of itself.
  And it is what I am."
• The Power of Hate: Whatever its beef is, lore entries make it clear the Darkness is seriously pissed off with the Traveler. One of the few things that Rasputin was able to determine during the Collapse when it entered the Solar system was its anger. According to its allegory in Unveiling, the Light wanted to undermine its role as "the Winnower" of things which suffer and do not need to exist by introducing excessive complexity to life in the universe and the two went to war over the idea.
• Red Herring: Towards the end of Light and Darkness saga of Destiny storyline, and with The Reveal the Witness caused the Collapse, it's heavily implied the Darkness not only isn't evil, it isn't even sentient, with the Witness using it as a source of its power. This is further elaborated on in the Dexter Road allegory in Inspiral, a book about the many forms the Darkness takes. It specifically reveals that Darkness and the universe in general, is purposeless, does not think and does not give answers when those in it cry out for meaning... leaving a Wanderer, all but stated to be the Witness, to use this intrinsic lack of meaning or design in the universe to convince people to join it on the path to the Dexter Road, a metaphor for the Final Shape, through means such as force, suggestion and leading them to believe purpose can only be found in the Dexter Road. Most striking of all is that one of the ways the Wanderer uses to gain control over others... is by acting as though the Wind itself, which the allegory already acknowledges does not think nor speak, is telling you to walk the path of the Dexter Road. The Witness has crafted an elaborate lie — one that may even extend to the Unveiling lore book itself, given that the Qugu and Ecumene use the Darkness in ways directly opposed to the Witness's beliefs — that the Darkness supports and exists only for the sake of pursuing the Final Shape.
• Religion of Evil: The Darkness is worshipped by the Hive and the Sol Divisive Vex in various ways. In the Hive's case, this is usually through the genocide of a planet's population while following the process of sword-logic... though if there's no one else around, the Hive will gladly kill one another as an expression of their worship. The Hive also keep a library known as the World's Grave to record all of the civilizations they destroyed in their wars in the name of the Darkness.
• The Reveal: While there is not a lot of information available about the Darkness. The Stranger reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the Darkness itself. Namely, there is a distinction between "the Darkness" who is the Black Fleet, which was the cause of the Collapse and the primeval force of Darkness which powers its manifestations like the Stasis. While there is indeed a connection between the two, this connection is similar to how Light and the Traveler is connected. Meaning that while the primal force of Darkness has connections to the destruction of humanity, it is merely a tool. There are connections to be made between how Light was abused by the Warlords during the age following the collapse and how countless atrocities were committed using Light. The Prophecy dungeon also furthers this notion. Light and Dark while diametrically opposed are merely tools that can be used for good and evil, there is no inherent good or evil to them. It is the Traveler and the Pyramids that such terms can be applied to.
  • This is later both reaffirmed and rendered moot in subsequent playthroughs of "Presage": the Loyalists research on the Scorn discovered that all the Darkness within the universe was fundamentally connected to an intelligence they dubbed "the Entity", who is almost certainly the Witness.
• Self-Applied Nickname: In Unveiling, it gives itself the role of "a Winnower" while giving the Traveler the role of "a Gardener". How it describes the role is rather fitting.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: We're not entirely sure what the Darkness is, but it treats itself like a force of nature.
  • Come Lightfall, and this is subverted by the lore entry Inspiral - the Darkness is not sapient, just being a force that exists. While there is still some ambiguity as to whether the Witness and the Winnower are separate, the book's revelations regarding the history of Darkness and allegories regarding its lack of will or voice means that they are not Darkness itself, adding to the piles of mystery about the entity.
• A Storm Is Coming: In a sense; its onset is noted to reek of the same stuff that gives rainstorms their characteristic odor. While not quite on the level of Evil Smells Bad, it gives the usual sensation of a storm the association with the Darkness's most vile users.
• Straw Nihilist: Defied. Unveiling has it bluntly state the view that "all life increases entropy" is a "tired little gotcha" peddled by Straw Hypocrites who pretend to prefer no existence to a flawed one, and are just outright boring to it. As it explains to Oryx, it sees the fundamental struggle of life as beautiful and worth it in and of itself. The fact that the Witness and Rhulk have the initial appearance of these by contrast is what calls their loyalty to the Darkness into question, though given that they at least have some metric of worth to see in mortals, it just makes things even more confusing.
• The Extremist Was Right: Toland believes that Guardians don't fear the Darkness because it is evil and wrong, but rather we fear the recognition that it is right. Considering how much the Sword Logic and the Last True Shape are explained, brought up and proven, he might also be right.
  Toland: The Last True Shape is not a belief. It has nothing to do with faith. It's pure logic. Self-evident, self-proving.
• The Social Darwinist: The philosophy around the Darkness and its servants is type 5 Social Darwinist. Specifically, how Social Darwinism rules the universe, and how any attempt to resist it with peacefulness and justice is doomed to failure.
• Top God: A "God of Gods" variety with the Hive. Oryx is their God-King, but he in turn answers to both the Worm Gods and the Darkness (or the Deep, as they call it), who sits at the very top of that hierarchy.
• Ultimate Life Form: This is one way the Final Shape can be interpreted, for a species or civilization to emerge that can survive anything and everything the universe can possibly throw at them. Exactly what the Final Shape will be, even the Darkness doesn't know.
• The Undead: The Magitek used by servants of the Darkness tends to resemble necromancy and undeath and the Hive, its closest servants, are pretty much a horde of technological zombies charged with the Darkness's power. There are some indications that the Darkness itself is the long-dead corpse of something that was once alive and is now "charged with war." Praedyth's dialogue in the secret ending to "Paradox" call it a "long dead will" that the future Taken Vex are enslaved to. Oddly enough, the Darkness claims the opposite, that the Traveler is the one raising the dead and compares the Guardians to "dead husks." Rather tellingly, the idea of necromancy - bringing back to life something that was killed previously - is such a complete anathema to its philosophy that it is one of the few things that the Hive consider heresy.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: According to the Pleased to Meet You Grimoire entry, it sees existence as full of suffering, while those who do not exist cannot suffer. And if the right path is to remove suffering, the only things in the universe that should exist are those that must exist. It also gives the thought experiment of a world where the Darkness doesn't exist, where nothing can die, everything suffers and no choice has any meaning or consequences because there isn't something like death to act as an overarching existence.
• Written by the Winners: As revealed in the Inspiral entry, various civilizations used the Darkness for constructive purposes directly opposed to the supposed "Darkness" philosophy, such as the Ecumene using it to create a peaceful hive mind of the species who joined them and the Qugu using it to interact with the River of Souls to communicate with their long dead family and ancestors. Both these civilizations were later destroyed by Hive genocide, their use of the Darkness being purposefully omitted in the Books of Sorrow as it contradicts the Witness's vision.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Beginning with Shadowkeep, the Darkness seems to have become intrigued in the Guardians, with this curiosity only expanding further come Season Of Arrivals and culminating in them being gifted with a portion of its power in Beyond Light, Stasis.
  "You are the Gardener's final argument. It would mean everything if I could convince you that I am the right and only way. I truly value you. To the Gardener, you are a means to an end. To me, you are majestic. Majestic. You are full of the only thing worth anything at all."
• Vagueness Is Coming: If there are questions regarding what exactly the Traveler is, the questions regarding the Darkness exceed it. The game never reveals exactly what the Darkness is, to the point of not even seeing it. Something that was part of the Darkness, known as the Black Heart, is shown in the Black Garden being worshipped by the Vex, but even then there are no answers as to specifics. In the Books of Sorrows, Oryx and his siblings interact several times with the entity known as the Deep and the Worm Gods that serve it, but exactly what the Deep truly looks like is never specified. The closest description we ever get is in Cayde's journal, which describes some sort of all-consuming entity like tendrils of choking, suffocating poison that utterly ate his body and left him fully aware while it was doing so. In Season of Arrivals the vagueness finally begins to fade as the Black Fleet arrives. While Ghost still doesn't know what Pyramids are, he says with certainty the Pyramid on Io isn't a vessel: it's a sentient, paracausal being like the Traveler.
  • The closest thing we have to an actual being that could represent The Darkness is the repeating motif of a Veiled Statue that was found in the Pyramid on the Moon and Inside the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa. But whether that's any indication that the Pyramids have some kind of a true form or if it's simply artwork is utterly unknown.

The Veil (Unmarked Season of the Deep Spoilers)

By studying the Veil, they came to know the Darkness, a power that was shaped by thought and consciousness. And in the Darkness, they found the means to carve away the chaos of existence, to calcify it into a Final Shape.

A paracausal entity who is metaphysically linked with the Traveller, currently located under Neomuna. It is the focus of the events of Lightfall, where the Witness sends Calus to retrieve it so linking with the Traveller can be done. Root of Nightmares reveals Nezarec held the Veil during the events of the Collapse, before Savathun backstabbed him and stole the Veil, hiding it in Neptune to be discovered by the people who would later build Neomuna. Season of the Deep reveals its true nature as the source of the Darkness as a paracausal force.

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• Allegorical Character: Interestingly, to both the Winnower and the First Knife.
  • The Veil's thoroughly passive nature brings to mind the Flower Game from the allegorical tale of the Gardener and the Winnower told of in the lore book Unveiling; "the only play allowed is the initial arrangement of the flowers". It matches the Veil's stance of doing nothing and also parallels how the Gardener/Traveller broke the rule of the game by intervening with the flowers and blessing civilizations. The sole flaw in the allegory being, unlike the tale, the Veil doesn't appear to care about the Traveller's actions, or indeed, about anything at all.
  • One lore entry of Inspiral from Root of Nightmares acknowledges the previous tale about the Gardener and the Winnower playing a game of possibilities across creation as both true and false, in that it isn't how things truly happened but rather an attempt to make sense of the incomprehensible reality which predated the universe. The narrator then concludes it with a statement: "there can be no gardens without knives" which is a blatant description of the Veil. There can be no life for the Traveller to bless, or a garden for the Gardener to make in this allegory, if the Veil — the First Knife responsible for carving life and consciousness to form amidst the fabric of material reality — doesn't exist.
• Ambiguously Evil: Or at a minimum, Ambiguously Blue and Orange in the morality spectrum. The Veil is definitely a neutral party in the conflicts between Light and Dark, given it has done essentially nothing in the eons the universe has existed. However, what can be inferred from its action, or lack thereof, is quite telling: when the race which would become the Witness brought it to the Traveller in an effort to carve the pale heart open and completely subjugate its Light, the Traveller ran... while the Veil has absolutely no issue with this happening, even though doing so would reshape the universe itself and potentially end it completely. This paints the Veil as apathetic to the notion of the universe being reshaped by the Witness, as well as bringing the possibility that it might, in fact, be counting on the chance a mortal race will find it, learn about the Darkness, and use it against the Traveler.
• Big Dumb Object: It's a giant purple entity which looks vaguely like a halved ball with roots and other biological features. It serves both to a contrast and a parallel to the Traveler.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Veil is the source of all Darkness in the universe. However, much like how the Darkness is slowly revealed over time to be a neutral cosmic force, the Veil itself also seems completely apathetic to the conflict between Light and Dark, seeing as it has apparently done nothing out of its own will ever since the creation of the universe. The Darkness originating from it is thus not inherently associated with good or evil, and the only reason the Darkness has been painted as opposed to the Light is because the Witness has made the utmost effort in painting the Darkness in its own philosophy and antagonistic shape.
• Death Ray: The Veil emits a strange radiation which, if ordinary lifeforms get too close to it, would leave them brain dead. The effects are especially severe for Exos, who experience psychological disturbance even outside the lethal range of the Veil. Chioma and Maya believe it is because the Veil is quite literally the source of all Darkness phenomenons in the universe — including consciousness, as such getting too close to it would overload the very minds of living beings. The Exos are presumably more affected because they were created from harnessing the Darkness itself.
• It Can Think: The fact the Veil has done absolutely nothing in the eons it has existed might make it seem the Veil is mindless — but make no mistake, like the Traveller, it is most certainly sentient. When Maya first observed it and questioned in her mind what it is, she heard her own voice reply, “the Veil”, as if it responded to her question.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Season of Defiance has Asher Mir invent a construct based on the Black Heart, which is itself stated to be a failed attempt to imitate the Veil. The result is a strange construct composed of a halved ball made out of pure white similar to the Traveller, while the other half is a purple one with roots similar to the Veil. It serves to highlight their nature as Mirror Character to each other.
• Meaningful Name: Unlike the Traveller or the Gardener, who was simply called such by mortal races across the universe, the Veil all but confirms to those who approach it that "the Veil" is indeed how it is called. And it is a fitting name, given it essentially serves as the cover hiding several truths about the universe. Beyond the Veil, one can discover Darkness as a paracausal force, as well as the Traveller and its Light metaphysically connected to it.
• Mirror Character: Season of the Deep emphasizes the Veil is very similar to the Traveler, as a sentient source of paracausal power with motives which completely elude all other beings in the universe. It even responds to Maya questioning what it is using her own voice, much like how the Traveller tends to speak in visions using the voices of past Guardians.
• Not So Similar: Despite being Mirror Characters, the Veil is still significantly distinct from the Traveler. Their two most important differences are how the Traveler is proactive in achieving its mysterious goals, while the Veil seemingly could not care less about doing anything, and while the Traveler's powers are based on physical and material phenomenons, the Veil's powers are based on abstract and formless phenomenons.
• Right Under Their Noses: The true source of the Darkness as a force wielded by the Guardians? The city of Neomuna located on Neptune, which prior to Lightfall, was believed to be uninhabited by most characters.
• Synchronization: According to Ahsa, the Veil has always been connected to the Traveller, disregarding any physical distance. The race which would become the Witness detected the connection between the Traveller with the Veil, somewhere across the universe, and used that link to discover its original location. This connection can be strengthened if Light and Darkness are harnessed together, and doing so would allow individuals to essentially "calcify" the Light within the Traveller using the Darkness, and shape it. Avoiding and preventing this to happen is exactly why the Traveller has been on the run from the Witness for eons, and this connection is likely why the Witness is always able to find where the Traveller is no matter where it runs — which explains why the Witness and the Black Fleet was unable to find the Traveller after the Collapse, as Savathun stole it from Nezarec and hid it from the Witness.
• Walking Spoiler: Just knowing the Veil exists at all is the plot of Lightfall, where the Witness seeks to use it to begin the Final Shape. Then the fact it is the Darkness counterpart to the Traveler, and implied to be completely apathetic to the ongoing conflict between Light and Darkness, is a massive spoiler for the entirety of the franchise.

The Black Fleet (Unmarked Season of the Arrival Spoilers)

The Black Fleet

The Black Fleet/The Pyramids

You bring weapons. You will not need them. We offer only truth.

A fleet of massive, pyramid shaped ships which seemingly represents the Darkness itself, they slowly started moving towards the Solar System after the Traveler's reawakening. Upon their arrival during Season of Arrivals, the scape of Sol is completely rearranged, shedding light upon what the forces of the Darkness actually are.

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 the first thing shown that actually successfully damages a Pyramid.

However, Season of the Deep reveals that 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.

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• Ambiguous Situation: When Ghost tries to scan them, the Pyramids register as sentient paracausal beings, not unlike the Traveler. However, the question remains; are the Pyramids truly sentient, or are they simply ships being directed by the Witness using the same principles as the Radiant Accipiter (a paracausal jumpship with no electronics or engines) on a more grandiose scale?
  • Witch Queen confirms at least some of the Pyramids are "piloted" by the Disciples, with Rhulk having his own Pyramid and Nezarec being the former master of the Lunar Pyramid. Moreover, all Pyramids default to the Witness as their one true master, as the Witness was able to strand Rhulk in Savathun's homeworld. Season of the Haunted then shows the Pyramids are considered their own entities, as Calus must earn the right to the Lunar Pyramid's power through trial.
  • Season of Defiance reveals the Pyramids not only assimilate both lifeforms and technology from civilizations they destroyed, but also that the flesh and tissue ingrained within the Pyramids are still entirely alive and conscious, almost certainly because the Darkness permeating the ships is a paracausal force sustaining both life and minds. Given the Witness is shown able to permeate its will to its living servants, including into a Psion during the Season, it is all but confirmed the Pyramids are also alive, infused with the Witness's conscious will.
• Arc Villain: The Pyramid on Luna serves as this for Shadowkeep, being the source of the Nightmares after being awakened by the Hive, while the Pyramid of Io serves as this for Season of Arrivals, attempting to make contact with the Guardians.
• Arc Words: Associated with a few key phrases:
  • Salvation. The Witness constructed the Black Fleet with the intent of saving the rest of the universe from the Light by creating the Final Shape: a salvaged universe with inherent meaning.
  • Purpose. The Witness and all of the beings serving the Black Fleet are a combination of Straw Nihilist and Anti-Nihilist, believing that since the Traveler refuses to give the universe purpose, it is their duty to instill purpose on the universe. Too bad this manifests as intergalactic genocide.
  • Shape. Just like the allegorical Darkness above, they are heavily associated with the idea of shaping, tying directly into the properties of the Darkness as a whole. The Witness wants to bring about a stagnant Final Shape to the universe to give it meaning. Its Disciples desire the same, but each individual brings their own personal interpretation of the Shape to how they serve their master, i.e. they shape their own purpose. This is seen on a literal level, as well: beings serving the Pyramids assimilate traits from the races they have conquered. They are literally shaped by their conquests. Finally, the fusion rifle/grenade launcher Tessellation indicates through the odd formatting of its perk descriptions that they view weaponry as merely tools to shape reality to an ideal state (by blowing it to bits), which also has the benefit of downplaying their repeated WMD use.
• The Assimilator: According to a concept artist and Season of Defiance, troops which directly work for the Black Fleet tend to take on traits of the races they've conquered, if not outright created from the flesh samples which the Pyramids have secured. The worm parasites inhabiting the Hive, the Disciples and their Exotic Eye Designs, and the Shadow Legion; many of them are explicitly called "chimeric beings" who change over time as they continue to harness the Darkness and integrate other life to themselves.
• Big Dumb Object: Acting as the Traveler's Darkness counterparts, the Black Fleet as a whole mirror it in this regard, being gigantic pyramid shaped vessels of ambiguous sentience.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Tessellation implies they prefer to use more euphemistic and neutral-sounding terms to describe any offensive technology they may have.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Cayde's journal indicates that each Pyramid keeps those it consumes aware of their pain and what it's doing while changing them and their world. In Book: Marasenna, Cosmogyre III, Alice Li also notes that whatever the Black Fleet is about to do to her crew, it will be A Fate Worse Than Death after it finishes analyzing their bodies.
• Drone of Dread: Starting with Shadowkeep, everything related to the Black Fleet and the Witness tend to be accompanied with sinister-sounding synth noises which emphasize how otherworldly and ancient they are. It shows up here and there in the music for Beyond Light (best seen in the startup screen music, where it opens up with a Scare Chord before transitioning to "Salvation") and The Witch Queen, highlighting how much influence they have over the story, especially as more knowledge of it and its agents comes to light.
• Eldritch Abomination: In Season of Arrivals the Black Fleet arrives on Io. Ghost is able to scan one, and while he doesn't know what the Pyramid on Io is, he concludes it's not a ship: it's a sentient being, paracausal in nature. This leads Zavala to ask if it's like the Traveler, and Ghost confirms this line of thinking.
  • Dialogue from Lightfall further implies the Pyramids are literal extensions of the Witness, as they are directly synched to the Witness's movements and desires.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To the Traveler in many ways. Both are immensely ancient eldritch entities which can warp reality, who can bless their agents with those very powers to enact their will. The Black Fleet also has a habit of creating evil counterparts to the Guardians, who have faced at least four such groups over the course of the franchise.
  • The Hive are the first group, being a race blessed with paracausal powers similar to the Guardians' own and which directly fight in their patron's name.
  • The Scorn go a bit further, having the Guardians' ability to use the three Light elements and more overt methods to cheat death.
  • House Salvation takes things even further still, wielding the Darkness as Stasis after it was directly offered to them by the Witness, acting as a dark mirror of Stasis-wielding Guardians.
  • The apex of these counterparts would be the Subjugators, human-sized clones of Rhulk who wield Stasis and Strand, and are the closest the Witness has come to deploying the Dark Guardians alluded to in the Dark Future.
• Eviler than Thou: As a faction, the Black Fleet on the whole eclipses every other force in the Destiny universe. The Hive and their Worm Gods owe their existence to the Pyramids and have served them from the beginning, the House Salvation Fallen and Scorn are immediately either strongarmed or brainwashed into service, the Vex (Sol Divisive in particular) worship it and foresee a future where they are ultimately destroyed by it and may owe their existence to the Witness as well, and the antagonistic Cabal in Sol immediately join Calus in swearing fealty to them once they arrive.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: 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 The Witness...
• Friendly Enemy: At first. The Witness' first attempt at contact with the Guardians in Shadowkeep is surprisingly casual, softly lecturing the Guardian about the failures of the Light while promising to be Sol's salvation. In Season of Arrivals, the Fleet mostly attempts to communicate with the Guardians, while Savathun and Nokris interfere. In Beyond Light, the Europan Pyramid grants the Guardian Stasis, implicitly setting up Eramis as an enemy to allow the Guardian to unlock the power's true potential. However, come The Witch Queen and the seasons thereafter, the Black Fleet apparently grows tired of trying to win the Guardians over and begins openly ramping up to bring war to Sol, culminating in attacking Earth and the Traveler in Lightfall and openly imprisoning humans and Eliksni in Season of Defiance.
• Futuristic Pyramid: Fitting the Sinister Geometry motif of the Darkness, the Black Fleet are all pyramid-shaped vessels colored pitch black, with motifs which make them look supremely ominous and foreboding.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The actual forces behind the Collapse, the Whirlwind of Riis, and the corruption of the Krill Sisters, hidden behind Hive propaganda and scattered Golden Age information for centuries, moving towards Sol since the end of The Red War campaign. Their forces finally take the center stage from Season of Arrivals onwards, relegating their master, the Witness, to proper Big Bad role.
• Harsh Word Impact: Invoked with Tessellation, one of the Black Fleet's specialized guns. It can load and fire cooked grenades, which the Fleet's Conlang apparently considers equivalent to language itself.
• Hive Mind: The Pyramids, while independent paracausal beings, all serve the mind of the Witness. This has interesting implications, considering the Witness itself is implied to be a Mind Hive.
• Hostile Terraforming: The planets taken by the Black Fleet during the Arrival are revealed to have bases of operations forcefullly inserted into them when they return. Mars is implanted with the building containing the Relic, which the Hidden immediately secures. Titan initially does not appear to have been affected, but a part of the New Pacific Arcology is revealed to have been replaced with the Tirtha Bind, a stronghold used by Xivu Arath.
• Knight of Cerebus: The simple reawakening of a single Pyramid on the Moon leads to one of the most disturbing and esoteric campaigns in the game's history, and the arrival of the whole Fleet in Sol leads to much of the progress Guardians have made over the game being set back to square one. Furthermore, their arrival leads to revelations further down the line about their master, the Witness.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Pyramids still have unspeakable power even when completely totaled and stashed away in obscure parts of the cosmos. Case in point, the crashed Luna Pyramid was already permanently killing Guardians even before the Young Wolf finds the Nightmares it was creating themselves. The raid of The Witch Queen is set in a Pyramid which was somehow lost and wrecked in Savathun's throne world, and it remains a dangerous threat to all opposing forces, be it the Guardians or Savathun's.
• Leitmotif : A seven-note rise and fall on an electronic horn accompanies the presence of the Pyramid Ships. It was even integrated to the planetary themes during Season of Arrivals.
• Magitek: Much like Ghosts, the Pyramids have a distinctly technological presentation with their lights and mechanisms despite their inherently paracausal nature, making it hard to tell where the machine ends and the Darkness begins. Witch Queen and onward places increasing focus on "Pyramid technology", beginning with Rhulk's experiments and the Upended superweapon, followed by Calus's Shadow Legion who have received upgrades from it, to their flagship called "Essence" being the stage for Root of Nightmares and Nezarec's resurrection.
• Mind Rape: Seemingly does this as a reflex, warping individuals who come into contact with certain parts of its techs into the Black Fleet's cause, or causing Phantoms/Nightmares to appear from the depths of the mind of those who come into its range of influence.
• Mobile Maze: While they're always pyramid-shaped, the Pyramids can reconfigure their interiors at will, closing off and opening up paths arbitrarily, which only heightens the impression of being inside a living entity.
• Mook Maker: The larger vessels can spawn smaller, nearly identical ships known as Pyramid Scales.
• Mysterious Benefactor: Through a stray Pyramid on Europa and the Anomaly, the Black Fleet served as this to Clovis Bray during and after the Golden Age, providing its power to sustain the Exo project, though this came at the cost of Clovis's already-diminishing sanity.
• Newspeak: It's implied the Black Fleet employs a language system that uses this form of manipulation together with Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking to encourage and normalize violence, given that Tessellation is described as a "weapon|instrument|topology" and its grenades "projectiles|shapes|languages."
• Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: The Black Fleet's technology can be used to build weapons, which have a distinct cubic shape to them. The best examples are Insidious (Arc Pulse Rifle), Forbearance (Arc Breech-Loaded Grenade Launcher) and Cataclysmic (Solar Linear Fusion Rifle), which look more like multiple metallic/stone blocks fashioned together in the shape of a weapon.
• The Pen Is Mightier: Invoked; if Tessellation is any indication, they quite literally see any and all weapons as writing instruments for a language. Based on its perks, the phrasing for Tessellation's function (a gun that can load grenades) can be written in their parlance as "an instrument to conduct language" or something similar.
• Red Herring: Season of the Deep reveals the Black Fleet are not the Traveler's actual opposite; they were merely constructed by what used to be the Witness to act and function that way. The Traveler's true counterpart in the Darkness is the Veil.
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: An interview with WIRED magazine regarding the Pyramids' art direction states that their interiors were intended to evoke the products of an alien culture so old and advanced, it is basically impossible to distinguish its art, culture, science and technology.
• There Is Another: Hundreds of them, of varying shape and size who are collectively able to rival the Traveler in paracausal activity.
• Time Abyss: At the very least older than any Disciple of the Witness, if not as old as the Traveler and the Witness themselves. Season of the Deep confirms the Black Fleet actually predate the Witness and both are billions of years old, but neither are as old as the Traveler.
• Villain Team-Up: 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 Hate Plague 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. Fittingly, it's only once these factions have been fought off and the Guardians enter the Pale Heart to confront the Witness directly do its own personal forces, the Dread, emerge in full.
• Walking Spoiler: By virtue of only appearing in the second game's main campaign stinger, before taking years to actually arrive in the Solar System. When they finally do arrive, major revelations come one after another.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Ghost mentions the Pyramids aren't really ships, they just look like that. Each Pyramid is actually a paracausal being just like the Traveler, implying the ships which observers can see are merely images born as a compromise of the mind.

Nightmares

Nightmares

The Nightmares appear to be extracted from our very psyche—violent manifestations that wreak havoc, tormenting us with our past trauma.

Phantoms of the Guardians' past enemies or comrades killed in combat brought back by the Luna Pyramid during the events of Shadowkeep, hunting down the Guardians with ruthless efficiency. Later revealed to be the results of Nezarec's dream powers mixed with the power of the Darkness.

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• Arc Villain: Of Shadowkeep, and Season of the Haunted.
• Becoming the Mask: The Nightmare of Cayde-6 is convinced he's the real deal and projects his woes onto Crow in an attempt to emotionally wound Ikora Rey.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Nightmare of Safiyah initially appears to have the same cynical-yet-harmless philosophical attitude about the Light some of the more opinionated living characters possess. However, she's willing to resurrect Kethiks and his Fallen army (i.e. the Fallen that killed Zavala's son Hakim) just to get her way when Zavala won't listen to her demands.
• The Bus Came Back: Were absent from the game after Shadowkeep, but Season of the Haunted revolves around Calus reviving them. Lightfall also reveals they aren't limited to the Lunar Pyramid, as the one on Europa attempted to break Elsie with a Nightmare of the dozens of dead Expendable Alternate Universe Ana Brays.
• The Chain of Harm: Most of the non-combatant Nightmares are created in such a way that the only way to get rid of them is to perpetuate the same abuses and atrocities that led to them being formed in the first place.
• Final Boss: The Shadow of Crota serves as this for the main campaign of Shadowkeep in an exact replica of his fight from Crota's End.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Pun aside, many Nightmare opponents are far stronger than their original incarnations as the memories around them twist over time and build them up as bigger threats than they actually were. Kethiks is probably the biggest example: they were simply a spear-weilding Wretch that went down with one bullet to the head, but centuries of Zavala agonizing over Hakim's death at their hand have turned them into a Kell-sized, Scorch-Cannon-toting Fallen warlord.
• Heel–Face Turn: Surprisingly so. The normally vicious and spiteful nightmares, if confronted and accepted, can instead change into Memories which embody hidden positive traits of the same beings they once wore as a monstrous cloak.
• Hive Mind: Cek'ik, a Scorn Chieftain formed when three smaller Nightmare Chieftains perform a Fusion Dance, strongly implies the Nightmares do not have any sense of individuality or even a Shapeshifter Default Form; they are only as unique and as powerful as their targets permit them to be.
• Hypocrite: The Nightmare of Safiyah, in particular, will at one moment condemn Zavala for trying to move on after the death of their son, before then doing the same for not moving on far enough. This, however, is likely a reflection of Zavala's conflicting emotions that never got properly sorted through, as he likely feels both criticisms are valid despite the illogical or bad-faith arguments being made.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: It's strongly implied Nezarec was supposed to be their true master before the Hive and later Calus took the keys to the ignition, given the numerous connections he has to the Lunar Pyramid. But with him gone for some unknown reason, the Witness has no problems letting someone more useful take his powers.
• Incendiary Exponent: Not technically, but their appearances as wraiths covered in orange and black miasma gives off this vibe.
• Knight of Cerebus: Their appearance causes a special sort of dark tone not quite seen since the first appearance of the Hive, causing the Young Wolf to panic and abandon the mission so they can reevaluate how to approach the Lunar Pyramid.
• Made of Evil: Downplayed. They're made of guilt, fear, and traumatic memories, and as a result their very existence is based around hating whoever they were born from. Can be subverted, however, if their target comes to accept them, causing them to embody the good aspects of what they were born from.
• Mind Rape: A result of the Luna Pyramid reaching into the Guardian's mind and pulling some of their greatest foes from it.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Non-combatant Nightmares are almost completely impervious to physical harm and must be dispersed either by resolving their victim's traumas or placating their own, usually with more abuse.
• Necromancer: The Nightmare of Safiyah implies the Nightmares themselves have the power to multiply by wielding their energy in this manner to resurrect deceased allies.
• Nightmare Face: Although it is difficult to see from a distance, it is possible to see faces under the helmets of dead Guardians' wraiths... and they are one of the scariest things to see in Destiny!
• Offscreen Inertia: They didn't just start from square one in terms of being a threat when first discovered. As Vyhar and Akroma can attest, they were slowly assembling a body count by assassinating unfortunate Guardians before the Young Wolf made it to Luna. And when the main force is dealt with, they're still finding new fears and old rivals to latch onto offscreen, resulting in unusually-tough Nightmares that have to be destroyed weekly.
• Out of Focus: After the story of Shadowkeep was concluded, there hasn't been much attention given to the Nightmares' role in the overarching plot. Season of the Haunted finally brings them back into the spotlight.
• Revenge: The Nightmare of Safiyah is driven by an insatiable hatred of Zavala's ways and wants him to face "repentance" for the death of his son Hakim by using a Nightmare of Kethiks to murder him.
• The Sociopath: Season of the Haunted reveals they're sapient and, as a consequence of being Made of Evil, are essentially this trope:
  • They lack empathy and a conscience, only pretending to make use of it if it means kicking their victims while they're down, with Cayde grasping at the idea that giving Crow amnesty is morally wrong to undermine Ikora and Uldren using his bond with Mara to upset Crow himself.
  • They actively manipulate the truth in pursuit of further emotional damage; Cayde tries to tell Ikora (and is perhaps convinced himself) that he and Crow are just their past selves coming back even though this is explicitly not the case, and Uldren glorifies his atrocities as if Crow is capable of the same thing.
  • They need stimulation, which they get by physically and psychologically harming others.
  • They are annoyingly pretentious in how they go about their behavior, and spend their time trying to get their targets to submit to them.
• The Spook: No information is given on them initially, and their appearance is more than enough to inspire the Guardian to get the hell out of dodge.
• Taking You with Me: The Nightmare of Safiyah's goal: Resurrect Kethiks and force Zavala to die in agony at the hands of the same person who killed their son and forced them apart.
• Villain Team-Up: Not in a traditional sense, but the greatest foes of the Guardians in one way or another are assembled to terrorize them once more.
• Weapon for Intimidation: A Nightmare of Qalec (the Psion that previously tried to kill Zavala) will repeatedly aim his gun at Ghost while you're on the derelict Leviathan, but will never actually pull the trigger. Going into a specific hatch when this occurs exposes Qalec to being banished, awarding a triumph.

Leadership

The Witness

The Witness, the Voice in the Darkness, formerly the Penitent

—-We have seen enough. The children of Sol cry out for salvation.—-

^{The Witness's Original Form}

And so they saw the Light not as a source of prosperity, but of utter chaos.

Voiced by: Brett Dalton

—-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 Soul Jar 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 Renegade Splinter Faction 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.

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• A Form You Are Comfortable With:
  • It's implied the doppelganger Guardian from Shadowkeep met at the end of the expansion is the Witness taking on the Young Wolf/Hero of the Red War's appearance, as they make the same fingertent gesture the Witness does.
  • Lightfall then implies its tall, slender humanoid form is some kind of disguise or mask it wears primarily to protect the sanity of its Disciples. When Calus succeeds in angering the Witness enough to cause it to lose its temper and express vocal rage, when it next speaks afterwards, its voice is deeper and more guttural than it usually is for a beat, and Calus himself is now fearfully looking up, his figure cast in shadow and even suffering a Psychic Nosebleed, at something which is suggested to be a bit more... traditionally eldritch.
• All There in the Script: API calls for Root of Nightmares and profile statuses for the raid used by Steam, XBOX Live, and Playstation Network reveal the Pyramid it personally boards, which gets damaged by the Traveler's Hostile Terraforming in Lightfall and abandoned as a result until Nezarec seizes control, is officially dubbed the Essence.
• Always a Bigger Fish: The Witness is likely the most powerful entity in the universe, and displays immeasurable power in many of its appearances. It destroys an entire fireteam of Guardians with a flick of its wrist and tanks a direct hit from the Traveler, its supposed Light aligned equal. The Hive Gods, Worm Gods, and Mara Sov are all absolutely outclassed by it, and are only as powerful as they are due to its manipulations. Nezarec, an Ancient Evil god of pain and suffering that outclasses the Hive Gods themselves in terms of power, bends the knee to the Witness. Put simply, there is absolutely no contest from anything currently in the setting who can match it.
• Ambiguous Gender: Androgynous and uses both male and female voices to form its Voice of the Legion.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • It's known the Witness is its own person. What is left ambiguous at first, however, is how much agency goes into their actions, and whether or not its goals are even the Darkness's, assuming such a distinction even exists, at all, seeing how Savathun mentions that, like the Black Fleet, it is not the Darkness as the force of nature. Savathun says it's either The Man Behind the Man 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.
  • Its command center aboard the Essence Pyramid, Macrocosm, is ill-defined in what it actually does. When it first appears in The Witch Queen, it gives off the impression of a standard control center with realistic dioramas to punctuate its eldritch inner workings and the Witness's own abilities. However, when Zo'Aurc interfaces with Macrocosm, it seems to do little besides give them access to Resonance, and when the Guardians begin fiddling with the planets in the room, they do little except produce a massive Resonant backlash in either their direction or Zo'Aurc's direction depending on whether or not Macrocosm is properly "configured."
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: As shown in the teasers for Lightfall, the Witness is absolutely massive. That being said, it's possible (and likely) that it can change its size and shape at will.
• Arch-Enemy: Considers the Traveler this, hunting it across the universe to put an end to the Light. One interpretation of the end of Season of the Seraph is that the Traveler itself recognizes it in kind as an enemy personally worth facing, ultimately making its first explicitly offensive move against it in the opening of Lightfall. Season of the Deep clarifies their relationship: the Witness is the first civilization the Traveler blessed. The people who became the Witness were so desperate for purpose, and sought a universe with an objective meaning in its structure, such that they attempted to fuse the Traveler with its Darkness-counterpart, the Veil, in an effort to reshape reality itself. This act seemingly infuriated the Traveler, causing it to abandon their civilization. The people then used the Veil to fuse themselves into the Witness and began their billions years-old rampage across the stars pursuing the Traveler, in a campaign which is described by Ahsa as to impose meaning into a meaningless universe.
• The Bad Guy Wins: By the end of Lightfall, it has seemingly accomplished what it needs to begin the formation of the Final Shape, having used the Young Wolf's Ghost to forge a link with the Veil, allowing it to carve a strange portal into the Traveler. This act allows the Witness and most of its Black Fleet to enter the portal, away from where the Guardians and Coalition can follow, setting the stage for the beginning of the end of the universe.
• Berserk Button: Despite having very little patience or tolerance for failure, the Witness is never shown raising its tone or showing any sign of anger, instead chiding its subordinates with scathing but valid criticism. However, its stoicism has very clear exceptions:
  • Savathun interfering with its messages to the Guardians quite clearly infuriates the Witness enough to order the forces present in Sol on an essential witch hunt for the traitorous Hive god.
  • It’s heavily implied to hate the self-serving nature of the universe as it is. Calus failing to secure the Veil as thoroughly as the Witness would like prompts it to give the very same speech it gave to the Guardians regarding what the ex-emperor fears the most. Calus does not take it well and starts criticizing the Witness back, prompting it to face him and listen... Until he implies that the Final Shape is a waste compared to what the Witness could do with its power. The Disciple did not even manage to finish his sentence before it cuts him off with a loud, roaring “ENOUGH!”
• Big Bad: The ultimate antagonist of Destiny's Saga of Light and Dark, specifically taking the role from the end of the Witch Queen onward. Referred to as The Darkness from Day One of Destiny, years before its true nature was discovered, it is the ancient enemy of The Traveler and the architect of the First Collapse. After the Traveler makes its survival apparent, the Witness directs its forces to return to Sol, becoming the direct main antagonist from the end of The Witch Queen onward. Devs eventually confirmed it to be this for the universe as a whole, calling it "the most powerful enemy in Destiny." Further highlighted in Lightfall, where it is revealed that the Darkness as a force is not sentient or sapient - every quote attributed to the Darkness in the lore actually belongs to the Witness.
• Bizarre Alien Locomotion: It's unclear what kind of anatomy it has under its outfit, making it ambiguous as to if it walks with two legs or if it just floats everywhere.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Its eyes are black as pitch, making it look like it doesn't have any at all and instead possess empty sockets in its face.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: 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 "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 witnessed, and must be corrected at any cost. This is further muddied by the Collector's Edition for The Final Shape revealing that the Witness selectively deleted any memories that would imply the path that it undertakes is wrong, making it ambiguous if it really has incomprehensible morality or just wants to prove itself right.
• Character Tics: The Witness and its avatars always steeple their hands on their appearance.
• Cold Ham: Speaks in a low-pitched Creepy Monotone and uses an eloquent cadence.
• Collector of the Strange: If the opening notes for the pages in "Inspiral" are any indication, it has a habit of collecting data drive equivalents from every civilization it visits, placed in urns around its personal Pyramid. It doesn't bother to clean this up when it packs up for the portal made on the Traveler, allowing the Young Wolf to discover the truth about the Darkness in-universe by essentially picking through its trash.
• Corrupted Character Copy: As the collective will of an entire civilization with complete faith in its convictions, the Witness can be seen as a twisted version of The God-Emperor of Mankind.
• Control Freak: It wants meaning in a universe that explicitly lacks it whatsoever, as Ahsa explains it. It's thus suggested that some of its acts (mainly its projection onto the Darkness itself) are simply an excuse to control others. This is also its motivations for challenging the Traveler and enacting the Final Shape: Whereas the Darkness is wielded via intent and thus controllable to an extent, the Light can be primordial and "chaotic" and thus unwieldly.
• Creating Life: It 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.
• Creepy Monotone: The Witness's composite voice 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 Empty Shell due to its long existence and viewing the Final Shape as more of an obligation than a desire.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The civilization that birthed it is implied to have been little better off than the Krill that it would later manipulate into becoming the Hive: they are described as nomads that lived on a harsh and deadly world, running from oasis to oasis to survive. Such an environment imbued the people of its world with a deep need for purpose. It's to the point long after the Traveler terraformed their world and gave them a golden age, they were still intent on finding their purpose, and discovering the Veil and that the universe itself has no apparent greater purpose led them to conclude the universe as it currently exists must be reshaped, leading to the creation of the Witness and enacting countless atrocities across universal history.
• Deadly Euphemism: When speaking with Xivu Arath about the Guardians' intent to use Savathun to avert the Final Shape:

—- Show her your love, Xi Ro.—-

• Demonic Possession: The Witness does this on occasion, however it’s less to do with necessity and more because the Witness views those it interacts with via proxies as beneath it. It pulls this on Ghost in Shadowkeep, using the power of the Pyramid to worm its way into his shell and take control during the final mission. It spends its time taunting the Young Wolf about how the Light has failed everyone and will lead to death, all the while tempting them that only the Darkness can be their salvation.
• Deity of Human Origin: While decidedly not human, it is 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.
• Desert Punk: The very small glimpse we get of the Witness's original form, alongside the first lines Ahsa gives regarding its past, implies that the Witness's people endured on a desert world, searching for oases to survive.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: 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. The Traveler's rejection of said purpose led them to ultimately merge their race's consciousness via the Veil into a single entity: The Witness.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Although the extermination of the Noesis suggests the Witness could have simply wiped humanity and the Eliksni off the universe nigh-instantly, Eido comes to realize that out of pure spite for the Traveler, it deliberately chose to use more flashy, 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.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: The Witness's reason for pursuing the Final Shape is to prevent the Light from ever being used for destruction. It never realizes that this would be a likely result of bringing about the Final Shape, or that the Traveler might use the Light as a weapon to stop said goal.
• The Dreaded: All those who serve the Witness live deeply in fear of facing its 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.
• Eldritch Abomination: While it may appear more humanoid than the Hive Gods, the Virtuous Worms, and the Ahamkara, the Witness is far more eldritch than all of those. According the "Captain's logbook" lore book, the Loyalists research on the Glykon Volatus revealed that every piece of Darkness in the universe was fundamentally connected to a single intelligence they dubbed "the Entity", almost certainly the Witness. Additionally, in "Lightfall", when the Witness shouts at Calus, the Witness's voice becomes more guttural while Calus looks up and suffers a Psychic Nosebleed, implying that the Witness has a form that is more traditionally eldritch looking.
• Empty Shell: In the present day, it feels 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 its actions. If it is the Winnower, its idea of an ideal world being subverted for billions of years makes this all the more apparent. The only sign of complicated emotions it's 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.
• Engineered Heroics: Remember the Syzygy? The cataclysm that would doom Fundament? Yeah, that never actually happened, that was a lie this entity cooked up so it and the Worm Gods could pretend to save the day by creating the Hive.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • At the end of Season of the Seraph, the Traveler chooses to stay behind on Earth rather than continue fleeing after the Warsat Network is destroyed. The Witness interprets this as the Traveler realizing it has nowhere else to run.
  • It and Oryx have erased the fact that the Ecumene communed with the Deep from even the Books of Sorrow, implying that it cannot fathom the idea that the philosophies governing the Darkness’s elements can be used for anything but invoking the Final Shape.
  • As Season of the Deep reveals, the Witness was designed with the idea that the Traveler and Light will eventually destroy the universe and its utter lack of faith in any evidence to the contrary is what makes it evil.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Traveler. Both gift their powers to the downtrodden, but the Witness expects servitude and worship where the Traveler merely wants to help. Both grant the Guardians visions, with the Traveler speaking in the form of Guardians long gone and the Witness first appearing to the Guardian as a mirror image. Both speak in gender neutral Voice of the Legion, but the Traveler's voice (or rather the voice in its visions) is much better synchronized, while the Witness's voice is slightly out of sync, giving it an unnerving echo. The Traveler has no known creator, its roles in the history of the universe implicitly natural; the Witness is an artificial being and a Control Freak that seeks to insert itself into the Darkness's history at every possible moment by force.
• Evil Is Petty: 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. Moreover, whenever it arrived to exterminate a species blessed by the Traveler (like the Eliksni or humanity), it would go out of its way to instill terror and despair in its victims rather than eradicating them quickly and efficiently, purely to spite the Traveler and its creations.
• The Evils of Free Will: Considers the Wrathborn's total Loss of Identity and borderline non-sentience a gift and calls the forcible conversion of one of Eramis's friends generosity. Of course, this is assuming it is not just deluding Eramis into thinking it and Xivu Arath don't see her as completely useless. However, it's ultimately revealed to be related to its motivation. They want purpose from a universe which has none, and are willing to reshape reality itself so it has one.
• Evil Wears Black: Its outfit is a fittingly all-black arrangement.
• Eviler than Thou: To the Hive Gods and pretty much every enemy the Guardians have faced. Savathun describes the Witness as giving the Darkness "a wicked shape", and her horror at its plans causes her to ally with the Light to protect the Traveler from its wrath.
• Evil Virtues: Responsibility for one's mistakes, and being able to follow through on 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 to break it's stoicism and show how angry it can really get.
• Expy: Serves as a broad one for the Idea of Evil, being a Greater-Scope Villain 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.
  • Its origin as the collective will of an entire civilization also draws heavily from the Anti-Spiral of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, likewise sharing in their motivation of having grown disillusioned with a power they once wielded themselves, fearing its potential for destruction and thus choosing to bring stagnant order to a chaotic universe, ending up consolidating themselves into a single collective being that might as well be a genuine Physical God that ends up being the true main antagonist for everyone.
• Face–Heel Turn: Originally, the race that would go on to become the Witness was a struggling civilization wandering and searching for scraps to survive. When they discovered the Traveler and learned how to wield the Light, they were uplifted like future races such as humanity and the Eliksni. It wasn't until they discovered the Veil and the Darkness that they tried to control the Light's more "chaotic" aspects that the Traveler left them and the race merged all their beings into the creature that would come to be known as the Witness.
• The Faceless: Downplayed, as their mouth is obscured by part of their top, but the rest of their head is visible.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • 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 there doesn't need to be one.
  • Wrath. The Witness is not actually the entirety of its former race, but only the remains of an extremist minority motivated entirely by hatred for the Traveler & its opposition, as well as the idea that the only solution to the chaos of the universe is genocide. It is revealed that the Witness is infinitely more powerful than it has previously let on, but it considers that to be kindness, and so it uses its full power on everyone except those that are actually connected to its mission. Blinded by its rage, it spends millions of years if not more never once realizing that this "kindness" could have let it win a long time ago.
• Faux Affably Evil: 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 out of spite.
• Finger-Tenting: Seems to be a Character Tic, as it regularly puts its fingertips together in its appearances.
• Foil: Stated by the devs to have been partnered with Calus in Lightfall as deliberate counterparts. Even without this statement, its plain to see they're about as different as can be. The Witness clothes itself in a dark, ever shifting cloak while the Cabal Emperor (in his prime, at least) wears a flashy, thick golden suit of armor. The Witness is a thin Soft-Spoken Sadist, while Calus is a bombastic hedonistic Large Ham. The Witness promises to convert us to the side of the Darkness with time, offering salvation. In turn, Calus offers us material gain while seemingly reveling in our Light fueled carnage, ultimately turning out to be a False Friend. Calus has made sure to build many monuments to himself and made the Cabal Empire a monument to his ego, taking on grandiose titles and likening himself to a god while being a fallible mortal. The Witness has a relatively lowkey title for itself, making very little effort to differentiate itself from the force it serves, and eschews the title of a god, instead seeing itself as someone who is meant to put an end to the games of Light and Dark once and for all.
• Foreshadowing: Its first target in Sol was Titan and the New Pacific Arcology is eventually revealed to have engaged in superweapon development behind the backs of even Clovis Bray; the NPA's antics are portrayed as Sick and Wrong in lore tabs. We later learn that the Witness's creators wanted to eradicate the Traveler's influence because they deemed its power too dangerous to be kept around, meaning that to it, there was a damn good reason it had to flood the moon first.
• Fusion Dance: 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.
• Game Face: When the Witness silences Calus for mouthing off to it, Calus is noticeably looking upwards from where the Witness was initially, indicating that either it is a sizeshifter, or that it assumed a far more monstrous form. It's also apparently so intense to look at, that it causes Calus to bleed from his face.
• Greater-Scope Villain: 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. It's also the entire reason the Hive ever came into existence, as it 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.
  • Come Lightfall and the Witness turns out to be a subversion — as revealed in Inspiral lore, the Darkness as a force doesn't actually have the intellect needed to be truly sentient or sapient and is therefore impartial and apathetic to the universe because it isn't an intelligent entity. Moreover, another excerpt from said lore also heavily imply the Witness created the Vex ^note anomaly Zero = infinite|witness; archive data retrieved. Zero = infinite|witness == (a seed was planted here.) Recorded referent: "Black|Heart". The Witness is, and always has been, the true Big Bad of Destiny.
• The Greys: Its 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.
• Hate Sink: The more we learn about the true nature of the Witness, the less sympathetic it becomes. It's gradually shown that, as opposed to being a Cosmic Entity motivated by legitimate grievances against the Light and the Traveler, it's a fascist Renegade Splinter Faction of the first race blessed by the Traveler that hates the Light for how uncontrollable it is and fused themselves into a singular entity to oppose their former patron, which they now chase across the universe so that they can capture it and use its powers to reshape the universe into a more order form, implicitly with them at the top forever.
• The Heavy: Is this for the entire series, apparently being the one who's actually doing things for the Darkness and controlling the Black Fleet.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: While its war against the Traveler is well documented, and its known that the Witness is working towards the Final Shape, it is unknown what exactly it wants with the Traveler. In Lightfall, the lore entry Inspiral reveals that not even the Disciples fully understand what the Witness truly wants from the Final Shape. Finally laid to rest in Season of the Deep, where its motivations are revealed - it wants to use the Veil and the Traveler (the entities from which Darkness and Light, respectively, originate) to create an ordered universe, where there will be meaning to the universe and there is no risk of the Light chaotically causing destruction.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Hive are a creation of its lies. Part of the reason the entire game series exists to begin with is because Savathun fooled it with a trick of her own and convinced the Witness to leave Sol, thus giving the Traveler more breathing room.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Interestingly enough, while the Witness has had many successes manipulating races into serving its cause, each of its disciples, who all know its true endgame, have proven incompatible with its methods or beliefs.
  • Rhulk seems to be the only disciple who seemed to actually understand the Witness's motives (which makes sense as he was the first), his narrow-mindedness caused him to break his own candidate for disciplehood after destroying said disciple's race, making Rhulk's efforts meaningless.
  • Calus is a quintessential hedonist and thus cannot understand the Witness's selfless goal to create a world without pain for its own sake.
  • Nezarec apparently reveled in being a god of pain, in defiance to the Witness's goal to end all suffering.
  • The page "The Cave" in "Inspiral" double-subverts this; it reveals the Disciples do not actually know about the true nature of the Final Shape, and suggests that this is because the Witness is using their conflicting understandings and ideologies to converge on a singular final solution. However, the page being called a "delusion" suggests that even that idea is far-removed from an unknown truth, and the Witness might as well have gone back to playing the trope straight again.
  • Eido's conclusions about the Witness' spiteful actions against the Traveler and its chosen suggest this trope may be averted - its choices of pawns and Disciples are mostly species, or members thereof, left by the Traveler (Rhulk, Eramis) or manipulated by the Witness to spurn it (the Hive) - thus its choice of underlings serves as yet another show of spite towards the Traveler.
• Humanoid Abomination: Underneath their clothing that shifts in the same manner as the Black Fleet's architecture and that weird pillar of smoke that keeps forming human heads, they're actually a fairly normal sci-fi alien. It's those effects and fashion choices, however, that make them look utterly wrong compared to the other races. This being said, Lightfall implies that the Witness might be a more "standard" Eldritch Abomination that is simply wearing a form that won't instantly mind-fuck anyone that gazes upon it; see A Form You Are Comfortable With above.
• I Have Many Names: The Witness, the Voice in the Darkness, the Entity, the Darkness, and (possibly) the First Knife.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: How else can you describe its outfit idly shifting and undulating as if it's alive while worn?
• It's Personal: Implied. Their dialogue seems to indicate that they're very interested in making the Traveler face the consequences of what it's done to the civilizations it has abandoned over the course of eons. Season of the Deep confirms this by revealing just how personal it is - that is, an entire alien race have a vendetta against the Traveler, and became the Witness to go after it.
• Invincible Villain: In some ways, it definitely feels like this trope. It managed to make four planets disappear in one go, and would have taken the entire galaxy were it not for the Traveler reviving itself and banishing it back. Even then, the Pyramids still exist and are capable of causing problems for Sol. When it does personally fight in Lightfall, not even the Traveler is able to visibly damage it.
• Irony: Early Guardians, such as Saint-14, assumed that the various servants of Darkness were races rejected by the Traveler for their sins. While this can't be applied to most of the enemy factions, this is the true origin of the Witness - it is the gestalt form of the very first race to be blessed by the Traveler, who tried to use its power alongside the Veil to create a perfected universe because they could not accept that there was no inherent meaning to existence.
• Knight of Cerebus: The mood darkens instantly when Mara mentions the presence of the mind behind the Darkness, and it only gets darker from there once Savathun reveals the context of its true nature. Its coming arrival brings the promise of a new Collapse.
  • The knowledge of its existence seemingly drives every player in Sol to the brink. Calus abandons his previously benevolent persona entirely attempting to impress it, 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.
• Lean and Mean: If its arms are of any indication, it's notably skinny compared to the average human, and it is also the mouthpiece of the Black Fleet itself.
• Light Is Not Good: While its outfit is black, every visible portion of the Witness's skin is pale white in color, which only serves to highlight its otherness. It could also be a subtle hint that the Witness's people were the very first race to wield the Light.
• Manipulative Bastard: It 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 follow the Witness.
• Meaningful Name: It's implied to be a witness to everything that has transpired between the Traveler and the Darkness, and seems to know the Traveler better than anyone else.
• Mind Hive: Implied both visually (the faces manifesting from the smoke on its head) and verbally. It refers to itself as "we," and is said to have "a thousand names."
  • Season of the Deep reveals that it's a straight variation, as the Witness didn't start as a singular entity, but rather, was the result of the entirety of the first alien culture the Traveler blessed combining themselves all into a single creature. This explains both its usage of "we" (as it's literally an entire alien race condensed into a single body) and the face-smoke radiating from its head, representing the countless souls brought together to form the Witness.
• Mirror Monster: A variation, but the Witness usually appears to others as if it were a reflection in a mirror. More often than not, its presence actually causes reality itself to shatter, taking on the appearance of broken glass. This brings to mind the idea that breaking a mirror leads to a bad future, especially since the future the Witness has in mind is the Final Shape.
• Mysterious Past: May or may not have been a mortal once blessed by the Travelers' light, spurned by it, and driven to divine conflict with it by these actions. May also be a Mind Hive or Many Spirits Inside of One, or the Winnower and the mind behind the Darkness itself. It is also lightly implied it may have driven the Darkness to war against the Traveler in the first place. Season of the Deep sheds some light on its origins, revealing it to be the final shape of the first alien race that was blessed by the Traveler, and its motivation for chasing it through the universe.
• Near-Villain Victory: 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 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 The Stinger 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.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: 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 Arc Villain 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 it was 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.
• No-Sell:
  • When the Black Fleet made its presence known in Season of Arrivals, Rasputin fired every Warsat over Io at the Pyramid approaching the moon. Not only does the Pyramid emerge unscathed, the Witness retaliates by essentially turning Rasputin off like a light switch because it considered Rasputin an annoyance.
  • The Traveler directly assaults its flagship during Lightfall with a beam of pure light. The Witness responds by floating into the goddamn beam and out into the vacuum of space, looking more slightly annoyed than anything.
• Not So Stoic: The opening scene to Lightfall has the Witness briefly widen its eyes in shock after reaching towards the Traveler, seeing a vision of Neptune and finally learning that the Veil has been hidden there the whole time.
  • At the climax of Lightfall, Calus pushes his luck and actually talks back to the Witness, questioning why it is singularly focused to a specific obligation despite being powerful enough to have the universe in its grasp. This is enough to finally break its soft-spoken stoicism as it roars in rage back at the former Emperor with such fury that it literally cracks reality around the two of them and nearly rips Calus's mind and body asunder as he cowers before its wrath.
• One-Man Army: Despite its appearance, the Witness is arguably the single most deadliest being in the entire universe as it not only commands the Black Fleet at the flick of a wrist, but as a paracausal being not unlike the Traveler, The Witness's actual strength is immeasurably cosmic in proportion. As an unfortunate fireteam of Guardians found out trying to square up with it during the opening moments of Lightfall, Ghosts and all.
• Orcus on His Throne: While it manifests personally for the recruitment of new Disciples, it also seems to allow the Disciples to take the initiative in razing worlds and leading its armies. It evidently let Nezarec lead the Black Fleet during the Collapse, and seems willing to let various enforcers lead their forces while it commands the Darkness throughout the universe.
  • Averted come Lightfall. As soon as the Witness has the Traveler 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 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 linked to 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 Traveler has proven capable of destroying its Pyramids by terraforming them (which up until this point were known to be nigh-indestructible), so keeping the prime source of Light in check is a priority.
• Order Is Not Good: 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 is ultimately driven by intention and thought. As a result, it seeks to rectify the fact that phenomena exist that sapient beings cannot influence - by destroying everything that can't be influenced.
• Order vs. Chaos: 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 by the 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.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: See Ambiguous Gender. The Witness, an ancient and otherworldly personification or chiefest wielder of the Darkness, appears as a slender, androgynous figure that speaks with a male and a female voice simultaneously, and is referred to as "it" (though it refers to itself as "we"). As it turns out, the Witness doesn't actually have a gender as it's a being made up of the thoughts and consciousnesses of an entire alien civilization.
• Outside-Context Problem: 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 both 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.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Best exemplified by this quote:

—-Your fear brings your pain. We know pain. Our purpose is its end.—-

• Painting the Medium: When it speaks in lore entries, its sentences are surrounded by - —triple hyphens with a space— - instead of quotation marks.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: 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 the Veil, ultimately becoming more powerful offensively than the Traveler itself and seemingly killing it during the Downer Ending of Lightfall.
• Planet Looters: 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.
• Pragmatic Villainy: 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 a stasis prison, it recognizes her worth as a veteran Eliksni, skilled in hunting for loot (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 activating 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.
• Rage Breaking Point: Though the Black Fleet (and the Witness by extension) spends the end of Year 3 and all of Year 4 upset at Savathun for repeatedly interfering in her machinations and co-opting both the Taken and the Guardians to do so, the Season of the Lost finale is where its fury finally lets loose as it sends a massive assault consisting of the Hive, Taken, and Scorn still loyal to it to try and destroy both the Witch Queen and the Guardians and Awoken participating in the ritual.
  • Calus nearly finds out the hard way what breaking the Witness's composure is like after mouthing off to it when his pride is wounded by its words showing that, while a rather humble entity despite all of its cosmic power, The Witness is still very much a God and when its wrath is tested, Calus would be have been gruesomely broken by it had the Witness not needed him to still fulfill his part to play.
• Rage Quit: 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. In her conversation with Eido, Mara likened the Witness' goal to universe-scale taxidermy.
• Revenge Before Reason: The Final Shape Collector's Edition suggests it has the power to nearlt instantly 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.
• Royal "We": In contrast to "the Winnower"’s affable personality, the Witness acts formally and refers to itself this way, though it’s entirely possible that its being literal given how it came to be.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A major motivator of the Witness is preventing the Light, which is inherently chaotic and capable of great destruction, to cause said ruin. The continuous efforts it makes to pursue the Traveler and potentially destroy the universe via invoking the Final Shape eventually resulted in the Guardians, who wield the Light as a weapon and thus purposefully cause destruction. The Witness created the very thing it sought to prevent. For added irony, the Guardians have managed to retain/regain their morals while wielding the Light, while the Witness has effectively discarded them on its journey.
• Self-Serving Memory: As revealed in the Collector's Edition materials for The Final Shape, the Witness' original form deliberately altered their memories so as to remove any experiences that would convince them that the genocidal path they planned to take was wrong. Eido, upon learning this, is revolted by how selfish said plan was.
• Stealth Insult: The Witness seems to be fond of these toward its servants who did not prove themselves in its eyes somehow. When addressing the Hive Gods (except for Oryx), it always addresses them by their original names: Sathona and Xi Ro rather than their divine names Savathun and Xivu Arath, implying in its eyes, they haven't changed from being the children princesses whom the Witness first saw in Fundament. Likewise, it addresses Calus as "Emperor" seemingly as a form of respect, but it also implies Calus hasn't changed from the disgraced, exiled emperor it first encountered in the depths of space.
• The Stoic: Called such by Bungie. This can be seen in the way it talks, 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 its own rage to... nothing. Lightfall later reinforces this trope by implying the Witness is, in fact, in a constant state of rage.
• Straw Nihilist: Subverted; while they and the Disciples preach about irrelevancy and the end being nothing constantly, it's because they believe life in the universe does have worth but is confined to a scale that defies human understanding. Season of the Deep reveals that it is actually maddened by the fact the universe lacks any apparent meaning and is trying to create meaning by creating the Final Shape.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Despite its vocal complaints towards the Traveler constantly failing to live up to its promises and leaves civilizations to die, the Witness expresses nothing but sympathy towards its age-old enemy while commencing the Final Shape, explicitly calling it both a victim and perpetuator and, ultimately, the perfect argument as to the Witness's goal to snuff out all pain.
• Time Abyss: The Witness predates Rhulk, who himself predates the Hive, a race who is already billions of years old by the time the Guardians encounter them.
• Tragic Keepsake: Though its origins are long gone and can no longer be recognized as the people that were used to create it, the Witness still remembers the art of its home and puts unusual amounts of effort into keeping it alive, suggesting this trope.
• Tranquil Fury: While there's no indication of the Witness personally acting as anything other than The Stoic, it becomes increasingly clear that Savathun defying it and attempting to undermine it during the Season of Arrivals infuriates it.
  • Hinted to be its default state of being. Rasputin's musings on its motives during the Collapse mention that it is acting with anger above all else. Mara Sov's speculation on its nature ends with stating that its rage is such that it will "burn the stars to cinders". Calus mouthing off to it, while incredibly stupid given his recent failures, is quite shallow, and if it were directed at anyone else it'd probably just get him told off. Towards the Witness, however, that is still enough to cause its façade of omniscient stoicism to crack completely, hinting that it lives constantly in a state of barely concealed rage. "Season of the Deep" explains why it's so angry: it's an entire species merged into an individual and has spent billions of years hunting the Traveler, so it has all the rage of a species combined. Ikora sums it up to Zavala perfectly:
  Ikora: "We are at war with an entire civilization condensed into an individual. Multitudes of resentment and hatred crushed into a singularity."
• Utopia Justifies the Means: This is the real nature of the Final Shape - as opposed to an Ultimate Life Form, it is the intended perfect universe created by combining the power of the Traveler and the Veil. The result is intended to be a universe with actual structure and meaning, something the current universe lacks in the eyes of the Witness.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Is the aforementioned vagueness, having its coming alluded to since Day 1 of Destiny's campaign. Its currently unknown what its exact goals are, only that it wishes for the extermination of the Traveler and the bringing about of the Final Shape.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • It's aware of the Traveler's number-one Fatal Flaw of constantly ditching civilizations and the fact that the clock is ticking on when it's ready to consider doing this again, and it's right to be slighted by this even if the Black Fleet is the one making it act.
  • It is later revealed that its true motivation is that its constituents were the first to learn the true scale of what could happen if the Light were ever to be turned on sapient life instead of uplifting it. Even ignoring those the Traveler left, humanity alone is irrefutable proof simply visiting a civilization can be an impetus to build weapons of mass destruction. Between Clovis's intended use for ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE, Rasputin using TWILIGHT EXIGENT to kill civilians anyways, the Warlords, the various Faction Wars, and even the innocuous-seeming Centrifuse rifle, it's a wonder none of the Black Fleet's forces bothered to speak up about their motivations sooner.
• Voice of the Legion: Speaks in a combination of various male and female voices.
• Walking Spoiler: In case the "Unmarked Spoilers" warning didn't make that clear. It's hard to mention anything about the Witness without bringing up its association with the Darkness, as well as how its existence challenges everything that we think we know about the Darkness conceptually.
• Was Once a Man: 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, considering the source, this should be taken with a grain of salt. Later confirmed in Season of the Deep (see: Mind Hive above).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Implicated as such during Lightfall as, while a frightening paracausal being that lives in an entirely different realm of thought than most and has done immensely horrible things across the cosmos as it sought to settle its age-old feud with the Traveler, the Witness repeatedly states that its purpose is to "end all pain" and allow a new universe free from such conflict to be born from the ashes of the prior one.
  • The alien race that make up the Witness turn out to be this. They saw the potential that the Traveler's Light had... for immense suffering. It freaked them out so much that they decided to collectively become the Witness and actively hunt the Traveler down as a result.
• What You Are in the Dark: Lame puns aside, invoking this seems to be one of the Witness's goals, as shown in the Lightfall reveal trailer, saying no one is truly free to act until the bitter end.
  —-Let them come and see our shape revealed. What they do then, unshackled from hope... that is who they are. Because only in the end... are we free.—-
• Wicked Cultured: Season of the Deep reveals it was the one that drew all of the art aboard Rhulk's Pyramid, including the symbols used in Vow of the Disciple and the Cleaver emblem.
• Xanatos Gambit: 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 by (and even accounted for) Calus's failure due to his impossibly large ego and narcissism, instead utilizing the Lightbearers themselves to fulfill its objective via Demonic Possession of their Ghost as it had done prior to establish a link between the Traveler and the Veil. Regardless of whether Calus fulfilled his goal or the Guardians bested him in combat, the Witness still wins at the end of the day and is able to begin the end proper.
• You Have Failed Me: Before even appearing on screen, it locks Eramis in a Stasis cocoon for failing to defeating the Guardians in the climax of Beyond Light. Savathun trying to cleave herself of her Worm and escape its influence causes an alliance of the Scorn, Hive, and Taken to be sent to her doorstep. Rhulk failing to convert the Ahslid is met with being stranded in Savathun's throne world and left to die. In short, being the master of a faction who values survival of the fittest above all else isn't going to be the most understanding of any failure or subterfuge from its lessers.
  • 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 or into Scorn. 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.
  • Calus's failure to secure the Veil leads to a thorough dressing down from the Witness and his abandonment in the final battle, implicitly leaving him unable to use his Disciple power to its true potential like Rhulk or Nezarec.

The Disciples (Unmarked Witch Queen Spoilers)

In General

The Disciples of the Witness

The collective seconds to the Witness, recruited across the stars and often found in their lowest moments. They are unknown in number, but it is known they are all much more powerful than even the Worm Gods, using an aspect of Darkness known as Resonance. Though they serve as The Dragon, none of them are truly aware of what the Witness envisions for the Final Shape of the universe and each of them operate seemingly independently of one another with their own methods and personal interpretations of the Darkness.

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• A God Am I: An aversion — according to Ikora, the Disciples consider themselves greater than gods. Nezarec likely plays it straight, though, being described as a god of pain.
• Ambiguous Situation: The idea of this title being bestowed upon the most powerful servants of the Witness seems to indicate that we've met a couple potential Disciples long before we even knew they were a thing. Some of these are:
  • Clovis Bray I: He was at least a servant of the Darkness through Clarity Control. Part of the reason he was obsessed with his Exo project was to prove himself worthy of joining the "pantheon" he believed Clarity Control represented. He is distinct from someone merely brainwashed by the Darkness, however, with his massive technological achievements and influence.
  • Eramis, Kell of Darkness: She was granted power by the Darkness and the Witness personally, but was quickly disposed of the moment she failed to stop the Guardian. It's unknown if she was just a mere servant or was elevated to the position before her death. Her revival in Season of the Plunder and afterwards shows her taking orders straight from the Witness, but being treated as a mere lackey.
  • The Hive Gods (Oryx, Savathun, Xivu Arath): They're some of the most powerful servants of the Darkness around and have existed for billions of years. However, they have never once been called Disciples since the introduction of the concept. Savathun was explicitly being considered, but her betrayal left that moot. Oryx's status hasn't been mentioned and Xivu Arath, despite being the Witness's top general, seems to be nothing more than muscle. Possibly their subservience to the Worm Gods renders them ineligible, as they constantly have the threat of death by parasite over their head.
• Connected All Along: One thing they all share in common is that they have all been responsible for massively influencing the behavior and lives of the enemy races in Destiny during their lifetimes — and sometimes, even after them.
  • Rhulk was responsible for corrupting the Worm Gods and helped discuss the Witness's plans to do the same to the Hive.
  • Nezarec's corpse empowered an unknown amount of Fallen (including Mithrax) when they arrived at Sol, potentially implicating him in numerous tragedies at their hands.
  • Emperor Calus, of course, was the former leader of the Cabal.
• Cosmopolitan Council: Implied. They are clearly not one race, as Rhulk is the last of the Lubraeans and the Witness offered Mara a place among them.
• Co-Dragons: To the Witness.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Although not purposefully. It is heavily indicated that each of them have their own interpretation of the Final Shape and what the Witness wants from them. For instance, Calus sees it as the absolute end of everything and a cause for decadent revelry. Rhulk sees it as simple nihilistic violence. The Witness is heavily implied to remain mostly mum on what it wants from pursuing the Traveler, however, so this is likely encouraged.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: From Queens to only survivors, as long as you're useful and have the capacity to seize power you're welcomed into their ranks.
• Evil Is Visceral: The elder Disciples seen thus far have almost a flayed look to them, almost as though their raw muscles are showing at all times.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: The Black Fleet melts them down into red, muscular Humanoid Abominations made from the DNA of the races they've conquered after some period of time. Their uniforms don't help much, with unsightly bucket helmets being a common trait among them and any force cloned from their species.
• Expy: Of the Godhand, albeit a much more family friendly version. A group of demonic Evil Is Visceral beings in the service of a God of Evil from various backgrounds that have the power to reshape reality on a whim, serving the same broad goal while also acting in a self serving way. They are also characterized by mass sacrifice and being great leaders of the masses before their ascension.
• Frontline General: Have no problem leading the charge during their conquests and genocide.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: They all wield or otherwise make use of a gold-colored element that is often referred to with terms related to the word "resonance." This appears to be a highly concentrated form of Darkness separate from the laws of reality that Stasis and Strand are connected to, and serves as an Applied Phlebotinum of sort with a wide variety of uses in weapons and machinery. Whatever it is, it's devastatingly powerful and universal in a manner that surpasses the regular Light and Dark elements.
• Not Quite Dead: A common trait all of the Disciples possess is an ability to cheat death in a way that does not actually involve Resurrective Immortality.
  • The Gouging Light Sparrow's lore implies the tree Rhulk transforms into upon his death is actually a vegetative state that can drain life to restore him to health. While the nuclear explosion caused by Marco sending the original Gouging Light's reactor into a meltdown annihilated his corpse for good, the one the player owns emanates Resonant energy, implying Rhulk might have used the energy from the blast to switch places.
  • Calus is banished from the physical realm in Season of the Haunted, but is still able to use psionic projections and control technology. He eventually gets a new body in Lightfall.
  • Nezarec's corpse was full of Darkness essence, and even after being mutilated into pieces he can apparently still use the remains to corrupt those who pick it up. Various lore also indicates Nezarec's soul might be inside the Delicate Tomb's Resonant engine, though the weapon itself describes Nezarec as not being contained within any of these parts, but rather currently "diffused" in an intangible state. Lightfall then clarifies his spirit is in fact not bound at all, and fully capable of influencing people even without his pieces provided he can notice them.
• Physical God: Well, they believe themselves to be above gods, but this still applies. They're all immensely powerful paracausal beings who command Darkness on a level sufficient to pose a threat to the Traveler individually. Nezarec zigzags this, being powerful with or without his corporeal form.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Downplayed; while the writing of Destiny isn't particularly conducive to slang, all of the Disciples with spoken lines often flip-flop back and forth between eloquent and more informal dictions when talking to the player.
  • Rhulk waxes poetic in his normal lines for Vow of the Disciple, but makes random quips of a more casual nature during his fight.
  • Nezarec spares no expense in announcing his return with pomp, but the inelegance in some of his brooding on Neomuna doesn't exactly scream "millennia-old creature who proselytized the Psions and possibly a cluster of humanity."
  • Calus is, well, Calus, but would rather not mince words when losing his cool.
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: While their numbers are indeterminate, they're a variegate collection of aliens with weird powers, each one hand-picked by the Witness to help bring about the Final Shape (though they don't necessarily agree what the Final Shape will actually be). Each one flies a personal Pyramid, and they may have matching outfits — Rhulk and Nezarec certainly do, but Calus doesn't, but Calus breaks the mold in a lot of ways that may simply be because he's a very recent inductee who hasn't been homogenized yet.
• Transflormation: So far, every Disciple we've seen killed has their body violently erupt with vine- or branch-like structures when they die, including the tangentially related Tormentors. Lore from The Witch Queen suggests these growths are actually healing their bodies, but nothing has come of this since.
• Villain of Another Story: As indicated by Rhulk's backstory, each of them likely has a long line of trauma and death associated with their origins and how they met the Witness.
• Walking Spoiler: Being near the top of the ladder in threat level means each of these characters is a gigantic spoiler about the true threat of the Darkness. And in the case of one in particular, they're also a spoiler on who has been working for the Witness, which in turn opens a massive can of worms on why the hell they're just a distant memory.

Rhulk

Rhulk, The First Disciple

"You have served your purpose. All that awaits you now is the gift of death... The darkness beyond your final days."

Voiced by: Andrew Morgado

"You have bidden me sharpen their fatuous minds into a spearpoint, as you did on Lubrae, but without showing my face to cow them. So instead, I shall press my shape into the dust of this world and cast a new generation of Ahslid in my image. And they shall be my glaive."

An alien who was picked up by the Witness and became one of their most loyal Disciples, and the leader of the Scorn offensive into Savathun's Throne World.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Like his master, it's unclear how much of his philosophy and motivations actually translate to pleasing the Darkness as an entity, if such an entity even exists.
• Ambition Is Evil: The philosophy of the Darkness translates to endless ambition and absolute power for Rhulk. Anyone who believes they have a better idea is, to him, a spineless coward.
• All There in the Manual: His backstory is only glimpsed at in Vow of the Disciple. The Shattered Suns lorebook goes into greater detail, as well as his recorded musings at the end of the "Preservation" mission.
• At Least I Admit It: His idea of repentance and justification for just about any crime is simply to be up-front about it. Covering it up seems to be the only thing he finds morally wrong outside of what he believes to be the philosophy of the Darkness, and doing so is enough to send him into a homicidal rage.
• Awesome, but Impractical: While his corruption of the Ahslid by tricking them into blowing each other up through nuclear war and then possibly turning the Sole Survivor Uun into a Disciple seems intimidating, compared to the success story of the Hive it's ultimately a waste of time and resources. Plus, Rhulk can't make more corrupted Ahslid like he intended (see the header quote) if they're dead. The Witness understood this, which is why he got locked up in the Throne World.
• Battle Theme Music: "The First Disciple", being a more dramatic and powerful remix of the sinister synths associated with the Darkness, with foreboding drums that make it feel like Rhulk's going to crush you just with his presence. It gets a more heroic upswing during the damage phase, still sounding foreboding but leaning towards the main theme of the Guardians as they strike him when he's vulnerable.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Despite his many boasts about his power and his position as the First Disciple of the Witness, in the end, Rhulk failed to accomplish much of anything. He was trapped in his own Pyramid from Savathun's Light magic, he failed to corrupt the Ahslid, and he dies to a single fireteam who didn't even know he existed until the day they killed him.
• Body Horror: Rhulk's fate after being defeated is perhaps the most graphic death in Destiny 2 yet, given vines start sprouting from every inch of his body and his chest bursts open, revealing that there are no longer any organs inside his body. With arms stretched out while begging for the Witness's forgiveness, Rhulk's body essentially contorts itself into a twisted tree.
• The Brute: One of the Witness’s most loyal servants, evidently its oldest, and a fanatically loyal meathead who values only strength.
  • This also applies to him in gameplay, as when he invites you over to fight him directly, he contrasts with previous raid bosses by almost always moving, and frequently moving to dash attack the fireteam or firing a quad laser. Anyone who gets too close to him while he's walking will get kicked and take heavy damage, often dying on impact.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Honesty meant everything to Rhulk as a Lubraean. Unfortunately, the fact that this wasn't the case for his parents was easily exploited by the Witness to drag him into their ranks.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Actively looks down on people who believe in things other than their own power and ability to implement their most selfish and destructive ambitions.
• Chess Motifs: Rhulk’s name is pronounced similarly to “rook”, perhaps a reference to his attack pattern and head structure. It could also be a reference to the other Disciples and servitors of Darkness in the expansion, with Xivu Arath taking the role of Knight, and Calus taking the role of King.
• Collector of the Strange: Has copies of the Aegis and Taken Eyes aboard his ship. The "objective" in the room holding them is "Nothing More Than Meaningless Trinkets," implying he keeps those to prove that they are somehow useless. Unfortunately, both of these counterfeits have all the functions of the real deals, allowing them to seal Darkness.
• Dash Attack: His main attack outside of lasers involves dashing towards a targeted fireteam member and swinging his glaive to deal immense damage.
• The Dragon: To the Witness, having stood by them during their most heinous moments, as the title of First Disciple implies.
• Enemy Chatter: He regularly chimes in during Vow of the Disciple, especially as you draw closer to the Upended.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Had a brief stint trying to squeeze Light and information out of Hive Ghosts. All of the specimens he fetched exploded upon analysis, and while he knew it was because the Light is only given and not taken, he stubbornly insisted on continuing anyways because of The Right of a Superior Species.
• Evil Counterpart: Of the Exos. The Exos exist because of a gift from the Darkness only for the Traveler to turn them against it, while Rhulk was born into a society blessed by the Traveler only to be turned against it by the Witness. Furthermore, Exos are cybernetic, while Rhulk deals in Organic Technology and systems that don't require electronics to function.
• Evil Gloating: Regularly mocks the Guardians as they penetrate the depths of the Pyramid.
• Evil Virtues: Honesty. Part of Rhulk's Freudian Excuse is that he could not understand why the military regime on Lubrae was able to be honest about their shortcomings and misdeeds, while his parents had to lie to him about their motivations and actions.
  The Witness: The Regime took all that mattered to you... and yet, you blame your father?
  Rhulk: The Regime never lied about who they were. They were brutal, yes. But honest.
  The Witness: Honesty meant something to you?
  Rhulk: It meant everything.
  The Witness: Interesting. And so, in the face of your father, the hypocrite, you leaned on the Regime that enslaved you instead. That killed so many of your kind.
  Rhulk: The Regime did not enslave me. It freed me.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Taking a closer look at his face shows that Rhulk has some very bizarre◊ pupils going on. Four of them are shaped like stars, one is the astrological symbol for the dwarf planet "Eris", and one is a circle split down the middle that has most notably been spotted on the attire of the Exo Stranger and Ana Bray. The meaning of these, if there's any, is unknown as of this writing.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: All of the "objectives" in the Vow of the Disciple Raid are replaced with Rhulk taunting and threatening the fireteam. By the time you reach him, your "objective" simply reads "DROWNDROWNDROWN."
• Freudian Excuse: Rhulk lived on a world that was blessed by the Traveler, only to turn to a violent dystopia when it left them. The Lubraeans descended into a hellish government regime that culminated in a Civil War. When Rhulk's parents began acting in ways that made him feel they had betrayed his kind and lied to him, it filled him with endless despair that was not alleviated until the Witness convinced him to believe in the Final Shape and the absolute power of the Darkness.
• Genius Bruiser: He's The Brute and a massive Blood Knight, but he's also a learned historian, with his Pyramid resembling a museum, and he's studying a way to bind the Scorn to Worms (you fight his first success, the Caretaker, as a boss).
• Greater-Scope Villain: Is the ultimate creator of the Worm Gods, by having corrupted their Hive Queen and turned them to worship of the Darkness.
• Happiness in Slavery: He was oppressed by a military regime on Lubrae before the Witness found him. However, as he tells them, he found the regime's brutality liberating because they weren't afraid to admit it. This led him to try and kill his own parents once he felt they had lied to him.
• Ignored Epiphany: At first, Rhulk feels great remorse for destroying his homeworld, and as the Witness makes him relive his past, he reflects with horror at the suffering he inflicted upon others, calling himself a monster and demanding that his past is not something to relive. But ultimately, the Witness was able to convince him that his actions were necessary, followed by asking him how he now felt in the Darkness's embrace, to which Rhulk replied, "Relief."
• Ironic Death: He got his start as a Disciple by turning the energy-siphoning technology of his homeworld against itself. He meets his end as a Disciple when Guardians turn the energy-siphoning technology of his Pyramid against him.
• Kick Chick: A male example. When he's not firing lasers or using his glaive, he uses deadly kicks that are very likely to one-shot whoever's struck by them.
• Lightning Bruiser: Rhulk is a marked change from traditional Destiny raid bosses in that he's neither a large target or a Stationary Boss, instead being extremely quick the moment he strikes. When he fights you directly with his glaive, his lunge attack, while telegraphed, spells doom for any unwary Guardian he's focusing on, and his Lubrae Sun lasers require you to dodge within a second's notice. Overall, his fighting style actively discourages strategies that involve stationary damage spots, given his melee attacks easily destroy Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance, not to mention oneshotting any Guardian standing in them.
• Limp and Livid: Rhulk spends most of his time on the ground walking menacingly in a straight posture with his arms crossed behind his back, but when he becomes vulnerable, he hunches over with his glaive in hand and starts striding with the clear intent to end you.
• Magic Knight: While he uses a lot of Darkness-based magic, after being forced to fight directly he quickly shows he's no slouch with a glaive.
• Not Brainwashed: Played with. Although it's suggested that the Witness groomed him into servitude, looking closer at Rhulk's memories (including him skinning a pet belonging to his clan's children and feeling good about it) seems to indicate that he's a natural-born psychopath. However, it's also worth noting that, before the Witness, it was his father Rhelik who encouraged him to embrace brutality and savagery in their fights against the Regime at a young age, and from what those same memories indicate, nobody in his clan actually made much of a genuinely committed effort to teach Rhulk off the downward path that his father set him on, or to at least teach him to channel his brutality into more controlled and constructive practice (other than his father, who himself wasn't very effective in the way he went about it)- and given Rhulk's values regarding honesty, it's implied that nobody really reached out with any kind of real clarification or guidance, either. And while all of this could be Self-Serving Memory at work, it is also worth noting that, even before the final betrayal by his family that saw him thrown into the Abyss- thus resulting in him meeting the Witness in the first place- Rhulk is shown to have a genuine degree of concern and remorse regarding his own brutality at times; with the pet-killing instance described above, while he did feel powerful from the deed, he was also torn between that and both a sense of guilt and the (admittedly well-founded) fear that he was a monster for it, and when he destroyed his own planet and people, he was initially so horrified at what he had done that he voluntarily threw himself into the Abyss of the now-dying Lubrae. Even when we find and listen to his recollection of Lubrae's end in his Pyramid ship- after he's long been a fanatically devoted servant of the Witness for untold eons- there's some indication in his tone of voice and choice of words that he still feels some remorse for effectively committing genocide on his own people. In short, while there's some indication that a part of him has always found a thrill out of hurting others- and he shouldn't be absolved of his several millennia's-worth of atrocities regardless- it's also still apparent that, throughout his life, this side of him was something that was either actively encouraged or simply never discouraged in a manner that was constructive or effective, and the Witness simply took advantage of his already-present weaknesses and insecurities in order to convince him to fully embrace his brutal nature.
• Out-Gambitted: By Savathûn, twice that we know of.
  • During his exile in Savathûn‘s throne world, he got the chance to stretch his legs and raze another alien civilization like he used to. When his Pyramid arrived at the world of Kalarahnda, he destroyed its orbital ring for his first trick — which the Apocalypse Cult Savathûn had seeded among its people years beforehand took as their sign to act. Immediately, they released superweapons that melted all life on their own planet before Rhulk could do anything else to it, denying him any satisfaction in their destruction, seemingly because Savathûn thought it would be funny.
  • Rhulk fully expected Savathûn to betray the Witness somehow, and made it clear that if she made any wrong move, he would use the Upended to obliterate her throne world. When the betrayal came and Savathûn claimed the Light, not only was he caught flat-footed and trapped inside his own Pyramid, she even found a way to shut off the Upended, leaving Rhulk a completely powerless prisoner until she died.
• Outside-Context Problem: Rhulk is the first enemy with no connection to the main five enemy factions in Destiny, instead being a direct servant of the Darkness. His species have never been encountered up to this point and he gives a hint as to what the true powers of the Darkness is capable of, and on a level not even Eramis can match.
• Powers Do the Fighting: The first phase of his fight just involves him summoning Taken and Scorn to swarm you, and occasionally teleporting around to fire walls of lasers. During this time, he never makes an effort to attack you physically. It's only in phase two that he deigns to get his hands dirty, and even then he's slow and methodical about it, simply striding around with a relaxed pace in between dash attacks.
• Rainbow Motif: His Pyramid stands out among the others for having many colored set pieces in its architecture. Rhulk offers a possible explanation for this in the form of a Lubraean mural he keeps to remind himself that they're dead and he has forever eclipsed their miserable existence.
• Rare Random Drop: Rhulk has a chance of dropping the Exotic Collective Obligation Void Pulse Rifle. Its functions revolve around the new Void mechanics introduced in Void 3.0, where it leeches Void debuffs (suppress, weaken, volatile) when damaging enemies. When fully charged, it can swap modes to deal those debuffs back to targets all at once. It also instantly reloads the magazine upon getting a Void buff (Devour, overshield, invisibility).
• Reassigned to Antarctica: The Witness exiled him to Savathûn's Throne World after he failed to properly raise up a race called the Ahslid like the Witness did the Hive, with Fynch comparing it to babysitting Savathûn. Then Savathûn got hold of the Light and trapped him in his Pyramid.
• Red Is Violent: Has a predominately-red color scheme and is hellbent on destruction.
• Reverse Arm-Fold: Keeps his arms crossed behind his back when not attacking with his glaive or using a beam attack.
• Roundhouse Kick: Another departure from regular raid bosses is that, instead of an area-clearing stomp attack to knock away players who get too close, Rhulk has a "Savage Strike" melee attack where he wallops them with a low kick, dealing enough damage to often instant kill.
• Rule of Symbolism: Wonder why the Darkness uses the glaive and its aggressive playstyle to represent the Relic's powers? Rhulk (and by extension, Lubrae's Ruin) is the answer: it's how he describes his plan to use the Ahslid for his own gain.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He's been trapped within his own Pyramid for quite a long time, and it's only after Savathûn dies that the Pyramid is opened.
  • Leaking Can of Evil: He was still able to give orders to the Scorn and Taken while trapped inside, however.
• The Slow Walk: During the second portion of his fight, Rhulk comes down on the ground and slowly walks around the arena with his arms in a Reverse Arm-Fold position, only breaking his pace when doing his lunge attack.
• Smug Snake: He’s plenty powerful without a doubt, but he spends most of the fight physically and verbally toying with the Guardians that have come to kill him. In the final phase however, he begins to panic as he is gradually overwhelmed and desperately tries to regain control of the situation via a Total Party Kill, but by then his misplaced arrogance has already taken its toll and he pays for it with his life.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: As he is killed by the Guardian, Rhulk's last words are "Witness... forgive me!"
• Straw Nihilist: Talks about irrelevancy and meaninglessness quite often in his letters to the Witness, and isn't exactly the most well-meaning character. Downplayed, in that he finds this ultimately liberating, because to him, belief in nothing except in one's own power and ultimate entropy makes one immune to true despair.
• Time Abyss: The first Disciple of the Witness, older than the entire Hive race and potentially even the Worm Gods they serve, given he was responsible for inducting the Worms to the Darkness in the first place.
• Uncertain Doom: His body was hauled out of his Pyramid after his initial defeat, and destroyed in a nuclear explosion caused by the destruction of the original Gouging Light Sparrow. However, the tree-like form he turned into is implied to be a means to revive him by assimilating other lifeforms, and while the Gouging Light's explosion should have stopped Rhulk's corpse entirely, the Sparrow's in-game model seems to have had its nuclear reactor replaced with vines and a Resonant engine...
• Violation of Common Sense: When was the last time you deliberately jumped into an enemy's deathray to obtain a secondary buff that you need to deposit into a totem?
• Wave-Motion Gun: Can fire deathrays from cruxes if Lubrae's Ruin is not available for whatever reason. However, a Guardian with the right essence can absorb the entire laser and use it to turn his arena's technology against him. In the first phase he fires a single wall of beams forward, and during the second phase he opts for a four-way blast.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: Destroyed the twin suns of Lubrae, his homeworld.

Nezarec

Nezarec, Herald of the First Collapse, The Final God of Pain

"Oh, a shame we can't entertain our one-sided conversations further! Ah, but this... this feels too good. Guardians! Let me devour your fear!"

Voiced by: Ben Pronsky

They mistake the vessel for its contents. They confuse the pieces with the whole. They see their imprisonment as empowerment.

An ancient entity that humanity has known about since before the Golden Age. Season of the Haunted confirms Rhulk found him and turned him into a Disciple of the Witness at some point. He is associated with the Nezarec's Sin Warlock helmet, and has a physical influence in the galaxy in the form of various "tombs," one of which the Drifter stumbled across during his voyages from before Forsaken.

Unlike the other Disciples, however, Nezarec perished long before the events of both Destiny games, and was buried within the Lunar Pyramid. His tomb would be ransacked by the Eliksni shortly after the Collapse, his body parts used to harvest the Darkness within for strength. Centuries later, the infighting and miserable living conditions of the Eliksni have scattered the relics containing his pieces to the wind. Reacquiring them forms part of the conflict of Season of Plunder.

Nezarec's spirit would later return in Lightfall. It turns out he has been somehow trapped in the Vex Network, and once he is made aware of the Veil and Neomuna, he starts feeding on its citizens to gain power. It is strongly implied the Tormentors are followers of his teachings. He later takes command of the Essence Pyramid after the Witness abandons it, reincarnating in a recreation of his original body through the Light, kickstarting the Root of Nightmares raid and becoming the Final Boss of the expansion.

---

• Acrofatic: His original body is notably quite chubby and larger than the basic Tormentors, but he is even more agile than them (or anything his size should be). Hell, he's even faster than Rhulk, who was far slimmer!
• A Day in the Limelight: Season of Plunder is the first Destiny story content to specifically focus on Nezarec and his role in shaping Sol to what we see when we started the game. The Root of Nightmares raid also sets him up as the Arc Villain for the Lightfall expansion.
• All There in the Manual: Various patch notes for Season of Plunder hotfixes reveal that like Rhulk, Nezarec had involvements in the gold-colored element Resonance, as the wavy pattern that appears on the Robes of Nezarec ornament when paired with Nezarec's Sin are referred to with the same name in those patch notes. None of this is indicated anywhere in-game, and the off-color appearance of the pattern makes it easily mistaken for Obsidian Radiance or some other similar power. By the time of his raid, this is confirmed: Nezarec can use Resonance to wipe the Guardian party and upon death, his body contorts into a tree-like growth and releases Resonant aura.
• Ambiguous Situation: Nezarec's Whisper deals Arc damage, even though he's connected to the Void. Whether this is due to Gameplay and Story Segregation (as a Void glaive already exists with the Enigma) or a legitimate hint at higher control of Destiny's elements is unclear, though Season of Plunder hints at the latter given his use by the Eliksni.
  • Root of Nightmares later clears the ambiguity: he survived the death of his physical body after already trying to harness the powers of the Traveller, and the terraforming of Essence Pyramid provides him a perfect medium to recreate his original body to return to the mortal plane. Both him and weapons associated with him can inflict Void, Solar, Arc and Stasis damage.
• Ambiguously Related: Nezarec was once worshipped by the Psions, with them even given the most psychically powerful among their kind to him as offerings, and his head has features similar to their headgear, but his relationship to them is otherwise not elaborated on - its possible he is a Psion, or that he created the Psions in his image, or that he altered his appearance to look like a Psion to match the expectations of his worshippers, or that their similar appearance is simply a coincidence.
• Ancient Evil: While not the oldest, Nezarec is the agent of the Darkness that has been around humanity for the longest, surpassing the Lunar Pyramid and Clarity Control. Or rather, the presence of the Lunar Pyramid is owed to him.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: As his title suggests, he is the embodiment of suffering and agony in all forms, whether it be the physical or the mental.
• Arc Villain: Of Lightfall in post campaign, from when he infects Neomuna with Nightmares and culminating in a showdown with him at the Essence Pyramid during the final battle of Root of Nightmares.
• Artifact of Doom: The relics containing bits of his body bring out the worst in the people who have them (as Mithrax can attest). It is later clarified Nezarec does not actually reside in any artifact associated with him, but rather those pieces are how he can notice and interact with the mortal plane now that he only exists like a ghost.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Lightfall has Nezarec being familiar with the nature of Strand, even though it is an ability which the Guardians only recently discover as a means to harness the Darkness — or more precisely, the psychic matrix or river of souls which permeate all the consciousness and life in the universe. This familiarity suggests Nezarec possesses a similar ability or state of existence which permits him to exist as a disembodied consciousness within this fabric of reality.
• As Long as There Is Evil: Because of his transcendent state, Nezarec will never truly die. As long as sapient life has the capacity to feel and inflict pain, his consciousness will remain in the universe to watch and find more victims to haunt. Both emphasized and downplayed after his defeat; while unlike Rhulk and Calus, the death of his new physical body doesn't hinder Nezarec from continuing to speak to the Guardians. Defeating him in his fluctuating state of existence seems sufficient to keep him off the physical realm for the time being, but he taunts that he will continue to exist like a memory.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Surprisingly, yes - while his race has never been seen prior to Lightfall, his appearance vaguely resembles that of a Fallen, a race he corrupted through relics made from his corpse.
• Ax-Crazy: A disturbing mix of this and Soft-Spoken Sadist. Make no mistake, Nezarec is completely insane. Come the end of his raid, he madly gloats about his desire to terrorize and torment the Guardians simply for the sake of it, and spends the entire fight wildly screaming as he utilizes his new and terrible power to carve massive destruction. Oddly enough, he seems to have been one of the most level-headed and loyal Disciples in spite of this, making clear he has always simply done his duty, nothing more... while enjoying all the terror it creates in the process.
• Battle Theme Music: "Oneirophobia",
• Black Speech: While trapped in the Vex network, he only speaks with perfect clarity in one area of the HyperNet Current strike (in which he notices Neomuna), and all other times it will be this. Wearing Nezarec's Sin or using Nezarec's Whisper will translate them into legible dialogue. Most of it is just brooding to no one in particular, but occasionally he'll slip some stuff with deeper implications.
• Body Horror: Nezarec's recreated body which he reincarnates in for Root of Nightmares raid looks like a much larger (about 2.5 times) Tormentor, but his flesh is blood red as if missing skin tissue. He also has growths in his back resembling the branches of Tree of Silver Wings. Add in how shockingly agile he is despite his size, and his erratic movements, it makes him all the more macabric.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: It is generally believed Nezarec was stranded by the Traveler's retaliation during the Collapse, so even though he managed to inflict some pain on it, he ultimately paid far more dearly. Averted come Root of Nightmares, which reveals it was Savathun all along who backstabbed him; the Witch Queen crippled and stole something from him (implied to be the Veil in Neomuna) before she used a ritual to kill his original body and cursed him so his influence would be restricted.
• Cardboard Prison: Subverted. The Delicate Tomb has him explain he is never once contained in the first place, but rather his being currently exists in an intangible state, with his relics merely being anchors to permit him to notice and interact with the physical world (“They mistake the vessel for the contents”). Lightfall reinforces this by showing how his spirit is in the Vex Network, and once he notices them, he moves to Neomuna and later the Essence Pyramid.
  They think me contained, but I am instead diffused, as vapor upon the wind.
  Once again, I am becoming.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He revels in pain and terror and makes no attempt to hide that. Justified in that it is literally how he survives; as a transcendent being, his existence is directly linked to the concept of pain in the universe. In a way he's effectively the Anthropomorphic Personification of sadism. This contrasts heavily with the other two Disciples seen so far; Rhulk, The Stoic and full of arrogance, and Calus, a more selfish hedonist.
• Connected All Along:
  • Initially thought to be either an in-universe Urban Legend or an Outside-Context Problem, Season of the Haunted reveals Rhulk knew who they were and anointed them as a Disciple.
  • Ever wonder why Destiny 1 sometimes called the Eliksni part of the Darkness even though there was no apparent association? Nezarec is why, as Eramis reveals.
  • He'll sometimes ask if the Psions still worship him while patrolling Neomuna, implying that he is the true identity of the God-Thought or a similar deity from their former religious beliefs.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Both on the giving and receiving end of this.
  • As he led the forces of the Black Fleet during the Collapse, he is likely responsible for many of the injuries inflicted on the Traveler that still remain to this very day. However, at the same time, it was the Traveler's retaliation that led to both his stranding and implied falling out with the Witness and (eventual) death. So he got a few good licks in, but the God of Pain was no match for the might of the Traveler in its prime.
  • As indicated in the lore for Root of Nightmares, Nezarec was actually finished off by Savathun. This still makes him both the giver and receiver of this trope, as Nezarec himself is much more Lovecraftian than other Disciples.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Nezarec's musings in the lore for Delicate Tomb have been compared to long-term radiation warnings, specifically the infamous "This is not a place of honor" message. Coupled with Eido's comments about the artifacts, his current state appears to be an extremely blatant metaphor for nuclear waste, or specifically how a civilization from the distant future might react to waste from the present. As radiation is itself inimical to the Light since it's one of the few ways to lock down a Guardian without destroying their Ghost by poisoning them into a deathloop, this has unsettling implications.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: This extremely-obscure character that only Drifter was previously known to be aware of and mentioned only twice prior to Year 5 is revealed in Week 7 of Season of Plunder to be the true leader of the Collapse.
• Eviler than Thou: To Calus, his successor as Disciple and attempted usurper of his pyramid. While Calus was a Narcissist through and through and had no problem with genocide and devouring the essence of worlds to sate his ego, he ultimately has something of a Freudian Excuse in his horrid treatment by the Praetorate growing up, and had people who genuinely cared about him. Nezarec, meanwhile, only cares about feeding off of people's fear of him. While it was initially suggested that Calus was the worse of the pair, it becomes clear that beneath Calus's showboating is a hurting, fragile old man. Nezzy himself almost puts Rhulk to shame in sadistic villainy.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Much like Rhulk, Nezarec's eyes (all seven of them◊) differ wildly from each other in both coloration and pupil shape.
• Final Boss: Of the Root of Nightmares raid and by extension Lightfall as a whole.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Outside of concept art, the only time the Pyramid tech within Delicate Tomb (which strongly implies the gun to be Nezarec's Soul Jar) is visible in-game is when it's being reloaded.
• Friendly Enemy: In a way. While Nezarec is very much a Card-Carrying Villain, he's also surprisingly casual in his one-sided conversations with the Guardians. In fact the first boss of Root of Nightmares, Zo'Aurc, Explicator of Planets, isn't his underling, but instead a ambitious Shadow Legion Incendior who he actually outright asks the Guardians to kill for him. He even admits that he'll miss his chats with the raid fireteam right before his boss fight, but he enjoys the concept of killing them far more.
• From a Single Cell: With a scope, his body can be seen gradually regenerating from his head downward as you progress through Root of Nightmares, growing alongside the tree cradling his tomb.
• Frontline General: Is said to have led the attack on Earth during the Collapse personally.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Nezarec gains a pair of wings after taking the Light. But unlike the freeform, vaguely-angelic wings Dawnblades gain when they use Heat Rises, Wings of Sacred Dawn, or Daybreak, Nezarec's are solid and reminiscent of the branches of the Tree of Silver Wings.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Connected to the First Collapse, Drifter's backstory, the Tormentors and Psions, as well as some of the darkest actions of the Fallen. He was also present when Savathun first began to openly enact her plans against the Witness, implicitly being her Fall Guy. This is without getting into his invasion of the Vex network and terrorizing of Neomuna's citizens in Lightfall. All in all, its hard to find an antagonist more deeply ingrained into the history of the story, only outclassed as such by his master, the Witness, and Rhulk, who are by association responsible for his ascent in the first place.
• The Heavy: Was this for the Collapse, leading the Black Fleet in their assault on the Traveler while the Witness arranged things from afar.
• I Am the Noun: How he introduces himself in Lightfall:
  "I am pain. I am terror. I... am Nezarec!"
• In Love with Your Carnage: Nezarec occasionally comments on the Guardians' assault in the various activities throughout Neomuna, usually with glee at how much destruction they bring to Calus' Shadow Legion and the Vex. Then again, what would you expect from someone called the "God of Pain"?
• Lampshade Hanging: He's acutely aware of player Guardians all being collective Heroic Mime characters, and says it's a shame that their "one-sided conversation" can't continue when it comes time to fight.
• Light Is Not Good: Gains the power of the Light after his return, and is just as sadistic as before.
• Lightning Bruiser: In the same vein as Rhulk, only moreso. Nezarec isn't the sort of raid boss who stands around to be shot at; his boss fight involves doing mechanics while running away from him, because he will actively chase you down and try to chop you up with his scythe. He also will regularly focus on different members of the fireteam, and part of the fight involves drawing his attention away so the players doing everything else aren't torn to shreds by him.
• Monster Progenitor: Of the Tormentors, as its heavily implied they are either his creations or imperfect clones of him.
• Mutual Kill: Implied as it was he who led the attack on the Traveler during the Collapse, but it was also the Traveler's decision to fight back that ultimately led to his fall from grace and death. Ironic in that neither are truly dead, merely dormant with their pieces scattered to the cosmos. Averted in Root of Nightmares lore, which indicates it was Savathun who killed his body.
• Mythical Motifs: Nezarec's overall character evokes Charon, the ferry of the underworld. Nezarec's mind survives past the death of his physical body within the "psychic matrix" which binds all consciousness and psyche in the cosmos, which is even compared to a river of souls by Osiris. Nezarec expresses familiarity with it enough to navigate and metaphysically move through it to cross vast distances of space, moving from within the Vex Network to the Neomuna and then into the Essence Pyramid, not unlike Charon rowing through the rivers of the underworld. In physical form, Nezarec wields a scythe, which in some depictions is also what Charon uses to row his boat. After his defeat, Nezarec leaves his scythe in reality, it metaphorically symbolizes losing the ability to "row his boat" in the river of souls, which might explain why he is unable to influence the physical world for now.
• The Old Gods: He was something the Psions previously worshiped out of fear, and he occasionally muses if they still revere him even though they've moved on.
• Orcus on His Throne: Played with, as while he works to reform his original body aboard the Essence Pyramid, he's also actively peering into the Vex Network and spreading his influence over Neomuna, giving the citizens nightmares and feeding off their terror. And during the raid, he can still try to kill the Guardians by unleashing waves of Darkness energy upon that will kill them all unless they safeguard themselves with Darkness power first. Even while reconstituting himself, his influence and power is great, letting him cause trouble without a physical form.
• Outside-Context Problem: Despite having been an issue since before the Golden Age, much of what we know about Nezarec is totally disconnected from the main narrative, and his physical influence is possibly somewhere outside the system, if Drifter discovering one of their "tombs" in his travels is any indication. It took five years after his introduction to reveal that he is indeed an agent of the Darkness. Season of Plunder later subverts this when it turns out we already have been dealing with a problem in the main story connected to him: the Fallen.
• Posthumous Character: He was active during the Collapse, with the Lunar Pyramid belonging to him, but by the time the Fallen entered it, he was an embalmed corpse (that they cut apart to steal bits of). Much later, Eris found his glaive abandoned and covered in centuries’ worth of dust. However, it's clear he's still present in some form, capable of exerting influence on people carrying his pieces. Lightfall and the Root of Nightmares raid clarify he is only physically dead, being able to inflict torment and nightmares to people whom he notices even as a spirit, and he's perfectly capable of coming back when provided the chance.
• Pieces of God: The Eliksni dismembered his corpse to harvest the Darkness in his body, eventually scattering them across the cosmos. The Witness later tasks Eramis with bringing them back together, which she failed.
• The Power of Hate: During the Root of Nightmares raid, if Nezarec's forces aren't pushed back sufficiently, a massive Resonant backlash fueled entirely by his hatred will disintegrate the fireteam. The scattered lore also indicates the cult which worships him practices this as a religious obligation, with him and his Tormentors inflicting pain to victims so they in turn will hate him and give him tethers to continue existing in the world. This is revealed to be why Nezarec gave away his name to those whose dreams he torments — a name makes it easier for victims to curse him and feed him their hate.
• Power of the Void: Associated with the Nezarec's Sin, a Warlock helmet that boosts ability cooldowns on void kills. The Tormentors, who take after him, also prominently use the Void in their attacks, and even using Suppression to make it harder for Guardians to fight them. And in his boss fight, Nezarec himself regularly uses Void-based attacks.
• Psychopomp: Evokes the imagery of a reaper, as his connection to the Nightmares is used for the Scythe in Season of the Haunted and is strongly implied to be the original leader of the Tormentors if not the first Tormentor himself.
• Red Is Violent: It's implied the Nightmare energy coursing through the Haunted weapons are actually a tiny fragment of his power, just barely on the edge of burning out from neglect. His true body is also predominantly colored blood red, and he himself is a sadistic monster that revels in pain.
• Religion of Evil:
  • Was worshipped as a god before the Golden Age. The Tormentors are also implied to be carrying his legacy.
  • Root of Nightmares reveals his acolytes still endure from the First Collapse all the way to the present day, and they include a former Guardian (potentially a Warlord), an Eliksni, and a Psion — suggesting he has a cult within all three races.
• Sadist: Implied by his title of God of Pain. When he finally speaks in Lightfall, he shows himself to be a being who absolutely relishes in inflicting any kind of discomfort, pain and torment, at one point even trolling the Guardian carrying his pieces to not look back just to unnerve them.
• Screaming Warrior: Most of Nezarec's attacks are punctuated by him shouting if not outright roaring, made all the more notable since there is almost no Destiny enemy who is that vocal when you're actually fighting them save for scripted dialogue. He lets out another loud, guttural roar when onh is last legs.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: This is about as close to actual death as he can get, as pain sustains his mind; while killing his physical body prevents him from acting, his mind remains active and simply awaits for an opportunity to revive his body.
• Shock and Awe: His connections to the Eliksni are associated with Arc energy and thunder, suggesting he was also able to use the element. Come his raid, he shows he can wield them with efficiency.
• Shock Stick: Rounding out the Enigma's Void damage and the heat-based mechanisms of Lubrae's Ruin, Nezarec's glaive deals Arc damage and constantly crackles with electricity while it's held. Fittingly, it has a number of perks that speed up its handling and projectile velocity.
• Sinister Scythe: Carries one called the Night Terror, which he upgrades with the Tree of Silver Wings aboard the terraformed Essence Pyramid. It sharing a name with the Moon sword is deliberate; it's implied that the manmade Night Terror is an unauthorized approximation of the true weapon, which is why the Exodus Indigo didn't have a sword in its inventory. There's also the consideration that Nezarec's Night Terror has an odd weight distribution to it, requiring him to hold it like a regular sword instead of a two-handed weapon.
• Sinister Surveillance: Is currently monitoring the Vex network following his return in Lightfall. If you bring in Nezarec's Sin or Nezarec's Whisper to the Hypernet Current strike, he'll call out and threaten you by revealing that yes, he's watching you, too.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: When he's not in battle, he's disturbingly calm and civil.
• Something Only They Would Say: "Catharsis" takes place in a chamber of the Lunar Pyramid called the Chantry of the Darkest Hour. Of Hated Nezarec refers to him by the same subtitle at one point, and together with Eris locating the original Nezarec's Whisper, it only further implies that he was once the Lunar Pyramid's occupant.
• Soul Jar: There are numerous context clues (being released in Season of Plunder, the weapon's internals containing Pyramid tech, the individual residing within it being branded a traitor) suggesting that the Delicate Tomb fusion rifle is the final piece of Nezarec containing his soul. However, it is subverted by the description of the rifle itself which claims none of him is actually contained within any of his relics. Lightfall and Root of Nightmares further drive home how he never had a Soul Jar in the first place, with his spirit wandering around.
• Surrounded by Idiots: He doesn't think too highly of the Shadow Legion, seeing them as cannon fodder at best and utterly useless garbage at worst. He even bluntly calls Zo'Arc a "useless sack of meat" and kindly requests the raid team to kill Zo'Arc when they get to the Macrocosm.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: A one-sided example. While the Shadow Legion protect the Essence Pyramid as best they can, they don't react to Nezarec's comments on their apparent incompetence. Justified, as every Shadow Legion soldier is an Empty Shell, so they literally can't form any opinions - all they do is follow the orders of the Witness and its Disciples, and nothing else.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Strongly implied to be the true master of the Nightmares. Unfortunately, considering nobody's heard from him in centuries (and may not even be part of the Disciples anymore), that just leaves their power to be used by others for their own agendas. Indeed, by the time he returns proper and regains his physical form, he doesn't exhibit control over the Nightmares, instead using a combination of Light and Darkness alongside tons of Shadow Legion.
• Undying Loyalty: Professes his loyalty to the Witness even after it has left the material world and implicitly abandoned him during the Collapse years ago.
• Villain Respect: As much as he loathes Savathun for defeating him and killing him the first time, cursing his body, and spiriting away the Veil to Neptune, Nezarec begrudgingly admits that he does respect her efforts. He also highly approves of the Guardians' standard operating procedure, and finds it invigorating to fight them, even as they're laying waste to all his troops.
• Weaksauce Weakness: During his boss fight (at the time of this writing) he can he stunned for the entire encounter by a well-timed melee strike.
• Worf Had the Flu: Nezarec attempts to reincarnate by using both Light and Darkness in the terraformed Essence Pyramid to recreate his original body. This seems to result in an unstable state of existence (what with the Body Horror and growths resembling the Tree of Silver Wings on him). Nezarec complains much of his strength is absent in his current body, and even his party-wiping Resonance attack shows how his Darkness is fluctuating. This might be why after his defeat, though he can still speak, he claims he would exist as a memory more than anything else.
• Yin-Yang Bomb:
  • The Delicate Tomb is a Light-based weapon fueled by a dynamo-like Pyramid device (similar to those in the barrels of the Vow of the Disciple weapons).
  • When he finally challenges the Guardians personally, he is also able to use both Light and Darkness as weapons of mass destruction.
• You Have Failed Me: After being killed and cursed by Savathun, Nezzy was abandoned in Sol where his original body was picked apart by Fallen raiders, implicitly as a punishment for losing the Veil.

Calus

Emperor Calus, Herald of the Second Collapse

"When they see this glorious end, they will come for us. To savor the fruitless struggle to its last drop. It’s who they are."

^{His robotic duplicate}

^Unarmored

Voiced by: Darin De Paul

"I say this to you, oh champion mine, and I say it from my heart: there are those who would bargain away their souls just to live a little longer. I am not them. Life must be worth living. Life must be lovely and delicious and enviably sweet! Nothing has ever lived that will not die, so what matters is how we use our time."

The deposed and exiled emperor of the Cabal and the leader of the Loyalist faction. After having overthrown the previous corrupt ruling body of the Cabal, Calus would be crowned as emperor and bring forth centuries of peace and prosperity to his people, though as time passed, his hedonistic indulgences only grew worse. Eventually, a group of conspirators including his closest friends, advisors, his own daughter, and the last living member of the old Praetorate, cornered him and ended his reign in what would become known as the Midnight Coup.

After being sent into exile aboard his planet-eating flagship, the Leviathan, Calus wallowed in despair, forced to seemingly travel forever until the ship stopped. It had stopped within nothingness, leaving Calus to bear witness to a great power. Such an experience rekindled his motivation, prompting Calus to a journey of his own leading to the acceptance that his philosophy was true and that he must take back his Empire. He'd take measures to ensure that the conspirators would die through employing other alien races; while some assassinations were successful, they were unable to off all of them.

At the closing of the Red War, Calus would enter the Sol system aboard the Leviathan and invite the Guardians to entertain him by testing their mettle against his Loyalists and the several issues that would occasionally plague the World Eater. With the arrival of the Black Fleet, he and the Leviathan would disappear under mysterious circumstances, their fate unknown for a time and the only evidence being the horrific experiments he carried out on the Glykon Volatis. Eventually, the Emperor would return in Season of the Haunted, with his true colors now in the open as he made clear his intentions to join the side of the Voice in the Darkness. Despite his scheme in gaining control of the Lunar Pyramid failing, Calus would still garner the favor of his patron, ultimately leading to his annointment and taking center stage in Lightfall, where he leads the Shadow Legion to take the hidden Neptunian city of Neomuna...

Despite Calus's extreme narcissism and "interesting" ways of showing his (genuine) love, he remains trapped in self-conflict over his decisions, a problem that he would rather laze over in blood than consider solving. His abilities have caused this stress to manifest physically in the form of Nightmares of his former enemies and their munitions, along with the origin trait Bitterspite — a high-risk perk that boosts reload speed the more its user takes damage.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: Makes some... interesting remarks about how he feels when you fight aboard the Leviathan in Season of the Haunted. Combined with his descent into evil and the implication that he may have merged with the ship, the creep factor increases tenfold.
• Abusive Parents: He is revealed to have been a terrible father to Caiatl in Season of the Haunted, to the point of having her beloved warbeast companion butchered and its body given to her simply because, in his mind, she loved it more than him. Even now, his words regarding her are a mixture of contempt, envy, and a desire for her to submit herself to him as her father.
• Actually a Doombot: As the final battle aboard the Leviathan goes on, you realize that instead of fighting Calus himself, it is a robot designed in his likeness built to challenge the Guardians that come to seek the hard-fought glory. And the ship has many more of these robots, justifying the weekly raid reset.
• Adipose Rex: While typical Cabal aren't slim by any stretch of the imagination, Calus is titanic even by their standards. His chin is jowly and fat, his stomach has a large paunch to it, and you even start the fight with him by shooting his wine cup out of his hand.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Calus proudly talks about how he's plumbed ruins and studied ancient and lost societies, including those who were wiped out by the Hive.
• A Father to His Men: Calus genuinely loves those under him, particularly the Shadows who were his closest agents and assassins.
• Affably Evil:
  • He's a selfish hedonist, but he genuinely seems to believe in his For Happiness creed, wants to avoid the Cabal going the way of the Hive and empathizes with the reasons of the council that betrayed him, even as he explains their weaknesses.
  • The "Invitation from the Emperor" Adventure on Nessus has him attempting to invite members of the Red Legion in order to turn them away from the Ghaul's path of meaningless warmongering.
  • During the Leviathan Raid, it's stated that the reason he brought you aboard his ship was to test your strength against his own. He's not explicitly trying to kill you (although killing a Guardian is a feat in and of itself), he seems to actually want you to improve and best him. The vast supply of robot doppelgangers he has also indicates that he wants you to keep improving and besting him, lampshading and justifying the weekly raid reset.
  • The lore entries on the raid gear implies that he did forcibly conquer several species into his service, most notably the Sindu, whose greatest pilot he recruited into his Shadows, and the Clipse, whose greatest warrior was the only one to survive the Leviathan's trials.
  • In some of the raid lore items, he outright says that he had the old Praetorate aristocracy literally thrown to a baying mob, and is implied to have had the previous Cabal Senate executed during his coup. In another, he also boasts that he personally gelded the Consul, which explains quite a bit of why the Consul would lead his own coup against him.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Read his quote. He looked into the Darkness and the void at the edge of the universe, and turned away both in horror of what it would make the Cabal, and because he does not fear death.
  • In the Confessions lore, he bluntly states the reason he hates the Hive is because he's utterly certain of the Darkness' victory and the end of the universe - which means what they do is pointless cruelty.
  • Calus has personally seen into the Darkness, and possibly the "final shape" the Hive chase, and found it was utterly lifeless. Toland and Rezyl Azzir became a bitter Straw Nihilist and an Omnicidal Maniac when they saw it, respectively. Calus regained the will to live.
• Aliens Speaking English: The third Cabal to do so in-game. Darin De Paul gives a gravelly and bombastic tone to him.
• Arc Villain:
  • Of the Season of the Haunted, having returned to the Solar system to make a connection to the Lunar Pyramid and make himself the newest Disciple of the Witness.
  • He takes this role in Lightfall too, at least for Neomuna - while the Witness is now directly assaulting the System, Calus commands the invasion of Neptune.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Calus became Emperor by leading a rebellion against the Praetorate personally. While the fight against him on the Leviathan is actually against a robotic body double, the final mission of Lightfall has you face him in person, and he proves more than capable of holding his own.
• Bad Boss:
  • A downplayed version. Because he's certain that everyone is going to die anyway, he doesn't see the issue in killing minions who annoy him out of hand - at the same time, he greatly rewards those he respects.
  • Played straight, however, during the quest Presage, where it's heavily implied he ditches the Glykon and its skeleton crew of devout Loyalists (including Katabasis, a Hunter who had earned many powerful connections with the Leviathan) after things go awry instead of trying to save them. In a true twist of Irony, the first person to go clean up after his mess is the person he admired most: you. However, it may be subverted due to context clues in the quest suggesting he might have been killed in the accident as well, with the Locus of Communion taunting you with his promises of power.
  • Week 2 of Season of the Haunted reveals all of the "real" Loyalists who survived the Leviathan's return to Sol fled the ship, likely due to Calus's declining sanity. As a result, the Loyalists you do face are undead monstrosities controlled by Egregore and unintelligent clones created to replace them.
  • Crow discovers that the above exodus eventually turned into a full scale rebellion, which Calus dismisses as growing pains. A few weeks later, Mithrax intercepts a transmission from him that also tries to spin his view of how expendable the Loyalists are as an opportunity for glory and martyrdom. You're likely sitting in the HELM wing surrounded by an out-of-control egregore colony when you receive this interception, making the contrarian nature of the message palpable.
• Battle Theme Music: "his Raid Theme" and his Lightfall's Final Boss Theme.
• Beneath the Mask: Publicly, Calus appeared to be a benevolent if hedonistic leader. Privately, he was a Narcissist who was only concerned with pleasure, with all of his kindness being ploys to make others laud and worship him. Much of Destiny 2's storyline focuses on how that mask keeeps slipping away until he becomes a Disciple, finally revealing who he is to everyone. Fittingly, during Lightfall, he's shown holding a golden goblet he created with his new powers. The goblet is clearly an allegory to Calus - while it looks ornate and opulent, it is always shown being empty. Calus has everything he could want, but it will never satisfy him - he will always want more.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Season of the Haunted turns him into this, and makes it a major part of the plot. With the ultimate overarching goal being to pull back the curtain of Calus' mind in order to learn what his plans are for the Lunar Pyramid, we end up discovering who the Emperor truly is in the process- that, at its core, all of his seemingly generous promises of wealth and opulence are shallow and only serve to make people love him and trust him, either so he can manipulate them or convince them to shower him with love and adoration right back in order to feed his ego and god complex, if not both; recovering one of his memories in the Duality dungeon will reveal that he has always secretly viewed the Lightbearers that fought in the Leviathan with a sense of patronizing disdain, and only enticed them with luxuries and riches so that he could amuse himself watching their antics. Even before the Midnight Coup, he would do things like foster a genuinely abusive relationship with Moli Imoli and kill Caiatl's beloved pet out of the idea that they could love something else more than him.
• Bling of War: His armor, his soldiers, the weapons and armor he hands out, and nearly every inch of the inside of the Leviathan is bedecked in positively dazzling amounts of gold, crystal, rich purple cloth, and precious gems. Taken to new heights after he becomes a Disciple, as his limbs appear literally dipped in gold, massive golden tusks ornament his impressive shoulder pauldrons, and he wears what can only be described as a sash of various medals which appear to represent the Witness' philosophy and plans similar to Vow of the Disciple's prophecy wall.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Despite the many atrocities he has committed, Calus's love for his subjects and family is genuine. The problem is twofold: he has a rather warped perception of what's best for them that often doesn't include their input, causing him to do things like destroy home planets and kidnap civilizations in the name of love, and the Darkness has driven him insane.
• Body Motifs: The rounded triangle shape Calus uses as his personal symbol resembles both a Cabal's mouth and the Leviathan's maw, symbolizing his gluttony.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Even though it's just a robot you're fighting, Calus is clearly enjoying himself when you fight him in the Leviathan raid.
• Brain Uploading: During Season of the Haunted, Calus' dialogue during patrols and Sever missions imply that Calus' mind has merged with the Leviathan itself, before Calus eventually confirms this during "Sever-Grief", stating that his consciousness has merged with the Leviathan and he can feel the Guardians fighting through the vessel. Following "Sever-Rage", Eris Morn discovers that this trope is Calus' goal: he's trying to upload his mind into the Lunar Pyramid at the behest of the Witness, allowing him to control the Pyramid. The Guardians and the Imperial Cabal are only just barely able to prevent the merger.
• Bullying the Dragon: Decides to mouth off to the Witness and immediately learns how bad an idea it is.
• Call-Back: When faced in "Catharsis" Calus's physical presence is cornered in the Chantry of the Darkest Hour aboard the Lunar Pyramid. The lore for Nezarec's Whisper strongly implies this is Nezarec's former place of rule, or rather, a throne room. So in essence, he is once again fought in a throne room where he isn't quite defeated, just like the original Leviathan raid.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: In lore for the Leviathan, Calus claimed he was so beloved by his people that Ghaul couldn't have him executed when the coup happened, and instead had to exile him. If Calus had died, Ghaul would have faced a titanic uprising. However this ends up being subverted, as "Season of the Haunted" reveals that this was a case of Unreliable Narrator, as Duality has a memory of Ghaul declaring he was fully ready to kill Calus that night, but Caital convinced Ghaul to exile Calus instead.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: "Calus" is immune to any debuff, and only takes increased damage the more skulls you shoot down in the mindscape. It's only during the robot's final stand that you can debuff it, but by then you'd have to be sorely lacking in damage to need a debuff.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Lightfall reveals that before he was Emperor, he was the Prince-Designate of the Praetorate, a sort of combination Puppet King, public face, and propagandist for the regime with no control over his own life, and his powerlessness left him deeply depressed. To hear him tell it, his revolution against the Praetorate and all the hedonism that followed was a desperate effort to never be so numb and miserable again. Caiatl, however, rejects the notion that this explains or justifies his actions. It's not his past that matters, but the consequences of his present behavior.
• Dark Is Evil: After becoming a Disciple, Calus' trades his golden armor for a black one that still retains golden highlights.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: The first entry of the Captain's Log lorebook recounts the Hunter Katabasis meeting with Calus in the flesh, describing the Emperor as withered, with mottled, sickly, translucent skin. Katabasis arrives just in time to see the decrepit Calus being sealed inside a mechanical frame similar to his numerous avatars, designed to pump his royal wine directly into his body.
• Despair Event Horizon: Subverted. He felt like he crossed it after his betrayal, defeat, and exile, but ironically seeing the end of the universe served as ultimate confirmation of his belief in For Happiness, causing him to go right back to the jovial Affably Evil God-Emperor he was when he was in his prime.
• Determined Defeatist: He's pretty sure the end of the universe is inevitable, but he still plans on holding out and building the strong to help ease suffering before the end.
• The Dragon: Set to be this to the Witness following his ascension and the demise of Rhulk. At the very least, he is to be the Witness' direct Dragon for Lightfall, which sees Calus' personal Shadow Legion and the Tormentors team up to take Neomuna.
• The Dreaded: Throughout the "Invitation from the Emperor" Adventure, Cayde-6 makes fun of the various seemingly nonsensical discoveries you find, particularly everything concerning the creation of his "Royal Wine", unaware of that Calus is behind it. When Calus' name is dropped at the end of the Adventure, Cayde-6 immediately has an "Oh, Crap!" and says that he needs to alert Ikora. The fact that Cayde, who was planning on simply teleporting up to Ghaul and shooting him in the face, drops the jokes should tell you how dangerous Calus is.
  • It's less that Cayde was afraid of Calus, the person, and more that he was startled by the fact that these transmissions were coming from the Cabal Emperor. After all, that would be the third time an enemy ruler stopped by the solar system to cause trouble.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He was genuinely shocked and upset by his council turning on him, since he considered them all his personal friends and family (with the exception of the Consul, who he regards as a Manipulative Bastard Dirty Coward). Even in the Booklet, he spends time blaming himself for driving them away.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite everything, he genuinely does love Caiatl, and wishes for her to love him back. The problem is that this love is warped by his narcissism, which led him to constrain her life choices, destroy anything that he perceived she loves more than him, and fear beyond anything else the possibility that she would surpass his achievements as a ruler and leave him forgotten.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sees using children as tools to accomplish your goals as deplorable, which is partly why he hates the Consul.
  • He initially has no interest in serving the Darkness, unlike the Hive. In fact, he avoids that path like the plague. He dropped this after the Black Fleet entered the Solar system in Season of Arrivals, conducting experiments on the Scorn to develop a means to communicate with the Darkness. By Season of the Haunted, he's fully determined to become the newest Disciple of the Witness.
• Eviler than Thou: Season of the Haunted suggests he might be this to the Lunar Pyramid's former occupant. While Nezarec could hardly be assigned any particular alignment because of how little anyone knew about him before Eris found his glaive, Calus's schtick as a potential Disciple in Season of the Haunted seems to be that he's a worse version of the god of pain, if not a full-on Evil Counterpart. Both are hailed as almighty entities who will be there for the weak once the end times come, offering them gifts but outcast as pariahs for their methods. However, while there seems to be even the slightest hint Nezarec's intentions are genuine, Calus makes it adamantly clear that the above persona is just a means to round up different species and then wipe them out so that only he remains. Indeed, he plans to usurp the Lunar Pyramid, Nezarec's former residence, to bring about the Second Collapse, and is cornered and banished from the material realm in the throne room of the god he tried to replace. Come the "Root of Nightmares" raid, though, and this trope is Subverted - while Calus may appear worse compared to Nezarec, he still has sympathetic traits. Nezarec is just a pain obsessed monster.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: His Councilors once retrieved an ancient artifact on one of the Hive's war moons, dubbed the Crown of Sorrow. Calus suspected that it would be a trap, but still expressed a desire to use it to conquer the Hive, so he had Gahlran, a genetically enhanced Cabal super-soldier with extreme physical and mental fortitude, test the waters instead. Unfortunately, the suspicions were correct, and the entity remotely controlling the Crown, Savathûn, inexorably ate away at Gahlran's psyche mere minutes after he wore the Crown, driving him insane and turning him against the Loyalists, requiring Calus to call upon the Guardians to dispose of Gahlran.
• Eye Beam: During his boss fight, he'll occasionally fire a beam of Solar energy from his forehead. It's the first sign that Calus is not exactly what he appears to be.
• Face–Heel Turn: Calus was never the most well-meaning character, but all signs pointed to him being a harmless fellow that could be easily exploited for his generosity until he tried anything funny. Unfortunately, he escapes Sol long enough to actually do that something, and basically fake a case of Uncertain Doom. Then he returns as the true mastermind of the revived Psion Conclave in Year 5, giving them the resources and clones necessary to finally lock down the Meridian Bay for good and allowing Yirix to broadcast misleading propaganda that supports the Black Fleet. Then, in Season of the Haunted, he returns and is working to weaponize the Nightmares emanated by the Lunar Pyramid, actively trying to become a Disciple of the Witness.
• Fatal Flaw: Greed - Calus desires everything, but especially adulation from others. It is this need that drives him to the extremes he uses, ultimately leading him to become a Disciple in the hopes of creating a new universe that will give him the love and respect he feels he is due. Tellingly, this is also why he isn't a very good disciple, as he puts his own needs before the goals of the Witness and the Black Fleet.
• Faux Affably Evil: Lightfall implies Calus is a Domestic Abuser who is willing to assault and verbally dress down even his closest associates over the pettiest of slights. Such as, for example, wanting to honor deployed soldiers.
• Flunky Boss: Has a lot of minions fight for him in the Leviathan raid. Much like how the three trials before facing him rotate each week, you can successively face Void-shielded Incendiaries, Arc-shielded Shotgun Legionaries, Solar-shielded Centurions, and standard Colossi.
• Foil:
  • Stated by the devs to have been included in Lightfall as a deliberate counterpart to the Witness. Even without this statement, it’s plain to see they're about as different as can be. The Witness clothes itself in a dark, ever shifting cloak while the Cabal Emperor (in his prime, at least) wears a flashy, thick golden suit of armor. The Witness is a thin Soft-Spoken Sadist, while Calus is a bombastic hedonistic Large Ham. The Witness promises to convert us to the side of the Darkness with time, offering salvation. In turn, Calus offers us material gain while seemingly reveling in our Light fueled carnage, ultimately turning out to be a False Friend. Calus has made sure to build many monuments to himself and made the Cabal Empire a monument to his ego, taking on grandiose titles and likening himself to a god while being a fallible mortal. The Witness has a relatively lowkey title for itself, making very little effort to differentiate itself from the force it serves, and eschews the title of a god, instead seeing itself as someone who is meant to put an end to the games of Light and Dark once and for all.
  • More broadly, he is one to Dominus Ghaul, the other Cabal monarch introduced in the Red War arc. Ghaul had a militarist, social Darwinist philosophy similar to that of the Darkness, yet coveted the approval of the Traveller and died in an attempt to become its champion, whereas Calus (supposedly) followed a pleasure-seeking, altruistic philosophy similar to that of the Traveller, but became fascinated by the Darkness and eventually succeeded in becoming its Disciple. Even their respective fights with the Young Wolf show this off - Ghaul is a beefed up Centurion fought atop his flagship as the sun rises over The Last City, which sees him using the Light as you fight it out over the fate of the Traveler. Calus, meanwhile, is faced beneath Neomuna, and is a pyramid empowered Colossus who shifts into a Gladiator for his second phase, with the goal being to stop him from interfacing with the Veil, the Traveler's Darkness counterpart. Ghaul's fight is the crux of the Guardian's mission to reclaim the Light and provides players with special wells to instantly charge their supers, while Calus' battle is the zenith of their quest to master the Darkness power of Strand, with his arena practically necessitating its usage to navigate and avoid certain attacks.
• For Happiness:
  • He wanted the Cabal to become a more open, free society of pleasure-seekers like himself. This turned out to be so effective at making his people happy that when Ghaul and the Consul took over, they had to continue the Bread and Circuses policy lest the rise up and overthrow them. However this ends up being subverted, as "Season of the Haunted" reveals that this was a case of Unreliable Narrator, as Duality has a memory of Ghaul declaring he was fully ready to kill Calus that night, but Caital convinced Ghaul to exile Calus instead.
  • His philosophy is further expanded in the Grenade Launcher "I Am Alive"'s lore: he has seen the end of the galaxy, and faced with such a vision of an inexorable fate, he muses to himself that he would do best to enjoy every small delight before the end.
    "Now I've seen everything. We were all so wrong. All of this—the machines, the Eliksni, the Worms, the Light, the Nine. All of it meaningless. This galaxy is tumbling toward a singular conclusion and there is nothing—no one—that can stop it. How could I have missed this? It's the small moments, the simple pleasures that matter. They're all I can think about now. Food and drink aren't mere sustenance. They're a reminder that I am alive."
  • In the Lightfall Collector's Edition booklet, he delivers a furious Motive Rant to Umun'arath saying, essentially, that pleasure is the only point to living.
  "CAN'T ANY OF YOU LIVE? AM I THE ONLY ONE HERE WHO'S NOT UTTERLY DERANGED? THE ONLY REASON WE DON'T ALL KILL OURSELVES IS THAT WE FEEL GOOD! THE ONLY REASON WE DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL, EVEN BREATHING, IS THAT IT FEELS NICE! THAT'S THE ONLY WAY THE UNIVERSE HAS EVER FOUND TO MAKE EXISTENCE TOLERABLE! THE ONLY REASON TO EXIST IS THAT FICKLE LITTLE QUIVER OF REWARD THE BRAIN GIVES US FOR EATING, OR DRINKING, OR DANCING, OR WORKING, OR FREEING OUR PEOPLE FROM THE BEDAMNED PRAETORATE, OR LOVING OUR DAUGHTER! THAT'S ALL THAT'S WORTHWHILE IN LIFE! STIMULATION OF THE THREE PRIMARY VAGUS NERVES! AND IF OUR WHOLE PSYCHE WEREN'T BUILT ON THE NEED FOR THAT REWARD, WHAT WOULD WE BE? HIVE? VEX? NOTHING CABAL, I TELL YOU! NOTHING CABAL!”
• Friendly Enemy: To the Guardians who come to brave his trials in the Leviathan raid. He compliments them for defeating Ghaul and their progress through his ship.
• The Ghost: Zigzagged. While the Leviathan raid seemingly has you fight Calus himself, all the damage he takes chips away at his body and shows it's actually a robot double in his place, with many more being revealed post-kill. Meanwhile, Calus constantly talks to you during the Leviathan-based raids and Menagerie runs, but never actually shows himself. So while the Guardians are never seen interacting with him in person, his robot copies do give an idea of what he looks like. Finally subverted come Lightfall, where he directly confronts the Guardians.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Inverted. Seeing into the heart of the darkness and the end of all things actually shook Calus out of his post-exile funk by confirming his Anti-Nihilist beliefs.
• God-Emperor: Was worshiped by the Cabal, and actively claims to be a god.
• Gone Horribly Right: He wanted to commune with the Darkness itself after it ignored him in the Season of Arrivals. He sure did.
• The Good King: Explicitly says he would have let the consul be had they not undid the reforms he did to make the Cabal a less elitist, stratified society. In addition, when he used the OXA Device, a machine that allowed for remote viewing a precognition, he witnessed the fall of the proto-Hive to the Darkness and Oryx's covenant with the Worm Gods and saw what similar such bargains would do to his people and thus refused the idea of servitude to another power.
• Gotta Kill Them All: The Booklet has Calus name the individuals whom he feels must die for having had a hand in Ghaul's coup. It includes his own bodyguard, a Psion scientist, his public activities overseer, the supreme commander of his armies, his confidante and his own daughter.
• Having a Blast: Calus's main attack against Guardians who stay in his throne room consists of casting a localized explosion on the target, though the blast radius is small and easily avoided. Upon his Robotic Reveal, he'll start shooting rockets from his Arm Cannon, which, again, is a telegraphed move. Upon losing two thirds of his health, however, "Calus" will cast a souped up version of the explosion, leaving several patches of lava in its wake that last for several seconds.
• The Hedonist: And proud of it; he regards "decadence" as a good thing. This was the big splitting point between him and the Praetorate: under the old system the Praetorate were supported by the civilian population who worked as slaves to support the military, but Calus overthrew them and replaced their rule with a golden age of decadence and happiness for all.
  • Calus' Leviathan is a testament to his hedonism. Gold and purple everywhere, gemstones left lying carelessly around, and his throne room contains a massive fountain int he shape of a Cabal head that is constantly pouring out so much of the distinct Royal Wine (which is made by refining the crusts of planets) that it has coated the floor of his throne room and hardened into an amber-like substance.
• In Love with Your Carnage: The lore entry for the Zenith of Your Kind shotgun mentions that Calus could easily wipe out Earth and humanity if he wanted to... but he finds the Guardian's - specifically the Young Wolf's - utter refusal to kneel or surrender to be fascinating, and your ability to challenge, fight, and defeat enemies so far beyond you to be something he loves.
• Irony: Calus verbally dressing down the Witness for their seeming indolence in Lightfall could call to mind the Consul- the one perpetrator of the Midnight Coup that he hated the most- doing the same to Ghaul regarding his refusal to simply take the Light by force several years prior in the Red War, although unlike the Consul, Calus is actually allowed to live in spite of his insolence after the Witness puts him in his place, if mostly because he's still of use to them.
• It's All About Me: At the end of the day, Calus only cares about himself and nothing else. As the lore book "Voices of the Haunted" proves, Nightmare Caiatl says that the real Caiatl will surpass him and eclipse his accomplishments, leaving his reign as a mere footnote in her saga of greatness. Calus then swears he will sooner wipe out all of existence than allow this to come to pass, for he would rather exterminate all life in the universe than accept that his daughter would become a greater leader than he ever was.
• King Mook: When finally fought in the final "Lightfall" campaign mission, Calus acts as two. The first phase has Calus act as a super Colossus using Pyramid technology as his heavy slug thrower, which fires blasts that the Caretaker fired in Vow of the Disciple. In the second phase, Calus pulls the gun apart into two swords and begins chasing the Young Wolf, acting as a super Gladiator.
• Large and in Charge: When you finally meet him in the Leviathan raid, it becomes quickly apparent that he is the largest Cabal in the game, easily about four times as tall as your Guardian. However, it's just a robot lookalike.
  • Taken even further with the vague description of his true form, with it taking Drifter several minutes on a Sparrow to even get in earshot of him. Though it is possible that the hall was just that long.
• Large Ham: When you fling around words like "opulence" and "excess" like it's your bread and butter, there's no other interpretation. The man is showy and he loves it.
• Let Them Die Happy: His encounter with the Darkness left him with the conclusion that all life was doomed to destruction, so if that was the case, then he would spread joy and merriment across the universe so everyone could die happy. This has also led him to Mercy Kill the homeworlds of the Clipse (minus those he could move to pleasure-arcologies) and possibly the Arkborn.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Is apparently unaware that Toland the Shattered's physical form is long gone. The Shadow's Mind helmet states that Calus caught wind of his existence and used an old keepsake (something that Calus mentions is "free for the taking," strongly implying it to be Bad Juju, given what Guardians are attracted to) to attract him, but found no answer.
• Love Hungry: The darker side of Calus's obsession with having everyone who meets him love and worship him above all else, as revealed in Season Of The Haunted; when he learned that his daughter Caiatl came to love the War Beast he gifted her more than she did him, he had it butchered and as if that wasn't enough, returned to her in pieces.
• Meaningful Name: While we don't really know what "Calus" means in the Cabal tongue (if it means anything at all), his name is only a couple of letters off from, and is pronounced exactly like, the human word "callous", which is one way to aptly describe who he really is beneath the bombastic and seemingly-generous front he puts up around others.
• Morality Chain: Believes his full descent into embracing the Witness's philosophies will begin should Caiatl ever die, which is why he doesn't want to kill her even though he must eventually, if he wants to become a true Disciple. One interpretation of Duality is the Young Wolf accidentally erasing the concept of that restraint from his mind by destroying the Nightmare of Caiatl.
• Narcissist: Season Of The Haunted well and truly cements him as one; beneath his grandiose and extravagant displays of generosity and magnetic charisma is an egotist who would brook no insinuation that anyone or anything can, or should, be greater than him, or would be more deserving of love and worship than him; see also Bitch in Sheep's Clothing above.
• Planet Looters: His exile is on a titanic space ship known as the "Leviathan" or "World Eater." Once he retakes his throne, he begins inviting other Cabal to rejoin his regime, but in order to do so they must provide geological data on planets for his giant starship to consume.
• Put on a Bus: The Leviathan disappears from Nessus's orbit at the beginning of Season 12, even though the planetoid was spared from the Darkness's grasp. This also means that all Leviathan-related activities are unavailable.
• Purple Is Powerful: Calus' Loyalists are distinguished by their purple armor and cloth.
• Puzzle Boss: Fighting him (or rather, his robot copy) in the Leviathan requires solid teamwork and communication, as each phase's execution before getting to damage him must be done with little delay in between. Your team has to divide itself in two to complete parallel tasks, taking along some much needed damage boost against Calus once the fireteam gets back together and fire in unison on him. The encounter greatly rewards strategic gameplay, and if perfectly coordinated can have fireteams easily melt Calus's entire health pool in under a minute!
• The Prophecy: He can quite literally see the future, due to having access to a Psion-constructed device known as the OXA Machine. Using it, he not only saw the Hive's fall into the sway of the Darkness, but he also apparently foresaw the deaths of each of the conspirators against him and arranged his Shadows to kill all of them in the manners he'd foreseen, save for Ghaul and the Consul, the former of whom he didn't know how to kill and the latter of which he declared would die via having "his own weapons turned against him." It turns out that the "weapon" was Ghaul, the Consul's weapon that let him rise to power and Ghaul himself dies in the wake of the Traveler's unexpected return.
  • He saw another one of his final victory over the Solar system and subsequent death when he met the Darkness and made his psions write it down and believe it under penalty of death.
• Properly Paranoid: After finding the Crown Of Sorrows, he had Gahlran give it a trial run in his place due to his distrust of the relic. His distrust proved to be perfectly justified, as Savathûn used the crown to destroy Gahlran’s psyche and turn him against his fellows mere minutes after putting it on, ultimately needing to be isolated and put down before he went on a rampage.
• Reality Warper: Numerous lore tabs tell stories of Calus doing impossible things with the implication being that he's getting paracausal power from somewhere and using it to perform some minor miracles. Most likely this is related to either his interaction with the Darkness or the talking bone he possessed that is heavily implied to be part of an Ahamkara dragon.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to the Hive as a whole in the Confession series of lore, calling them hypocrites who use their Social Darwinist sword-logic to disguise that they're terrified of death and given how the universe ends eventually means that their cruelty is ultimately pointless.
• Rejected Apology: The whole point of the Duality dungeon is Calus expressing a titanic amount of remorse over his more questionable actions and seeing Caiatl as a Morality Chain that unfortunately had to leave him... except to everyone else, he's just more of a bastard for it because he hasn't actually done anything about it in centuries and would rather commit more atrocities to fill that void.
• Robotic Reveal: After knocking off a third of his health bar, "Calus" will visually take damage and part of his skin will blow off, revealing a robotic arm (that he'll occasionally use as an Arm Cannon) and a core where the chest used to be. Once you're finally done taking him out, the robot will confirm that it was indeed a test and that the real Calus will await for the Guardians to find him when they become stronger.
• Rule of Symbolism: Immediately after becoming a Disciple, Calus uses his new powers to recreate his goblet, but rather than using those same powers to fill it with anything, Calus simply holds onto it uselessly for much of the Lightfall campaign, eventually angrily smashing it after the Witness berates him for his failures. In short, the goblet is a symbol of how hollow his life has become after sacrificing everything for power.
• Self-Serving Memory: Calus believes he has done nothing wrong to the members of the Midnight Coup. Lightfall reveals that at least for Moli Imoli, they saw... something else.
• Something Only They Would Say: Check that header quote again; his using the phrase "oh, champion mine" draws some disturbing thoughts, given that only the Ahamkara/Virtuous Worms or those under their influence use that kind of wording ("oh, bearer mine" being the more common one). In addition, his entire entreaty to those who would help him is filled with flowery language, offers of great gifts of weapons and treasure and knowledge and grand praise for his "champions."
• Sympathy for the Devil: Despite (reasonably) wanting Ghaul dead, the way Calus describes him in his bounty on the Consul seems to indicate that he actually feels a little sorry for him, mostly due to being raised to be a weapon for the Consul.
  Like any roach, this Consul has a low cunning. He found the perfect vessel to carry his poison: a lonely, crippled orphan child. Into that child he poured his jealousy, his cruelty, and his desire to see the great brought low. Imagine his venomous whispers - "look at how happy they are! Look at how they revel and thrive! While we crack our hides in the filth, and pine for days of fear and gunfire..." Had the child only escaped him, had little Ghaul only crawled off the heap where he was found, so much might have been saved. How terrible the man who sees an orphan as a hollow weapon, and who loads that orphan with the munitions of his revenge. How pathetic the man who wishes only to be a fat parasite again.
  • In the newer raid lore from the Prestige gear, he seems to have wanted Ghaul to rejoin him if he got to Ghaul before the Guardians did.
• Too Much Information: As revealed in the Lightfall collector's edition, Calus has pierced nipples.
• Uncertain Doom: While context clues during the Presage quest suggest he may have finally passed away in the accident that destroyed the Glykon, as the Locus of Communion (which speaks using the lines of deceased characters) can use his voice.
  • As of The Witch Queen and Season of the Risen, the doom seems less uncertain. Hints in the Vox Obscura mission suggest he is backing the Psion Conclave and their propaganda machine. Season of the Haunted then outright confirms that Calus survived the Glykon, and he's now trying to weaponize the Nightmares conjured up by the Lunar Pyramid and become a full-blown Disciple of the Witness.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • He took his initial exile hard, falling into a deep depression and simply waiting for the Leviathan to fall into the Darkness. Subverted later on, his Affably Evil personality is him retuning to normal.
  • This is Double Subverted in Lightfall as it is revealed Calus never left his indignation behind at both the coup and his subsequent exile. In fact, it broke him so utterly he sought to make a Deal with the Devil the entire time to claim Revenge against both his personal enemies and the pointless universe around him in hopes that, once the Witness's finality is shaped and a new universe is born, he'll have a universe more grateful to him. Caiatl even describes him, by this point, being not unlike a feral animal backed into a corner and believes she should have just killed him rather than exile him to spare everyone the consequences of wounding his ego so badly have done.
• The Voice: You don't actually meet him in person for the first year of Destiny 2, instead fighting against a robot double that talks for him. However, his booming voice can be heard throughout the Leviathan, encouraging you to brave the trials he presents you with (or to get rid of nuisances in the case of Raid Lairs) and watching your progress with amusement.
• Walking Spoiler: He only becomes involved in the story after the main campaign, and by that time you'll already know why he has returned from his exile. Then there's the fact that he hosts Destiny 2's first raid aboard his massive ship.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Calus' creed and desire to usher an age of luxury for the Cabal are very genuine and he despises Ghaul's entropic Blood Knight philosophy. However, the means to creating the various luxuries he enjoys include destroying entire planetoids. Morphs into Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist as the storyline progresses, revealing that Calus is a truly titanic Narcissist who only thinks about himself and that his age of luxury is really just an excuse to get people to worship him.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Several of the named War Beasts in the Pleasure Gardens encounter are named after significant Cabal figures, like Valus Ta'aurc.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: An example that is entirely his own fault. Calus was never really around to properly raise Caiatl since he was always partying. The idea that this led to her disdain from him barely crossed Calus's mind, who took to more direct measures to "correct" her behavior and the self-conflict he expresses about this in Duality implies he thinks his love for Caiatl excuses his efforts to be a good father.
• Work Hard, Play Hard: Don't let his worship of luxury fool you, he's just as much of a Proud Warrior Race Guy as the rest of his species. He says the main difference between him and Ghaul is that he fights to carve a safe haven out of the stars, while Ghaul fights to continue fighting.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The guns of the Duality dungeon are shrouded in Nightmare energies and Deliberately Monochrome otherwise, implying they're Nightmares themselves born from Calus's mental anguish and regrets (that he clearly doesn't want to fix anytime soon.)

Uun

Uun, the Failed Disciple

Rhulk on the last Ahslid: "But Uun stands before me, last survivor of his pointless kind. While he proved deaf to the lessons I taught regarding his people's worth, he devoured all I taught him of tenacity and made of it his core. He alone among his people saw the pattern in my killings, in the ascension of children whose backgrounds mirrored his own."

The sole survivor of the Ahslid after their destruction from unknown weapons of mass destruction. Was Rhulk's choice for a Disciple to be brought up from the rest of his kind, only to be found to be sorely lacking the strength for the role. His failure as a Disciple was the final straw that led to Rhulk's exile and ultimate demise.

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• The Dragon: Rhulk's choice for this amongst the Ahslid, only for him to be sorely disappointed by Uun's response to the destruction of his world.
• Les Collaborateurs: Presumably sold his race out to Rhulk and the Witness just as Rhulk did to his people.
• History Repeats: His final fate is a result of Rhulk trying to pull this. Rhulk came to the Ahslid attempting to repeat what the Witness did to his homeworld, only to realize too late that he had pushed the Ahslid too far and broken his chosen candidate for Disciplehood.
• My Greatest Failure: Rhulk's reminder of how hard he failed to convert the Ahslid. It was Uun's final breakdown that caused Rhulk to realize how far he had fallen.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Essentially sacrificed his entire race to the Darkness in an attempt to join the Black Fleet, only for Rhulk to find his display wanting and end his entire life.
• Sole Survivor: The final Ahslid left after their self destruction. This doesn't last very long.
• Trauma Conga Line: Being recruited by the Black Fleet is rarely a happy experience, but this poor bastard watched his entire civilization die after being anointed by Rhulk. When he asks Rhulk for an explanation, his disappointed master simply responds by cutting him down and ending his miserable life.
• Villainous Breakdown: Seeing the death of his entire race led to his final emotional breakdown, weeping and begging Rhulk and the Witness to explain why it was necessary. Rhulk, who had expected Uun to see beauty in the destruction and be proud of being the Last of His Kind, ends his experiment with the Ahslid Disciple right there.
• You Have Failed Me: Was killed by Rhulk after he realized just how badly he screwed up with converting the Ahslid, which ultimately leads to Rhulk receiving this from the Witness.

Unnamed Disciple

A being long dead

An unnamed, long-dead Disciple whose private musings are recorded on one page of the Inspiral lore book.

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• Broken Pedestal: Defied. While they begin the page questioning the Witness's honesty and the true form of the Final Shape it seeks, by the end they've reconciled their suspicions and recommitted themself to serving it. The page notes that they are deluding themself.
• Posthumous Character: Long dead by the time their thoughts are read. Whoever or whatever killed them is not recorded.
• Spot the Thread: They've noticed that all the Witness's minions, Disciples and servants both, have a different interpretation of what the final shape will be, and that the Witness has never provided any definition of its own. However, they ultimately decide it doesn't matter what any of them think the final shape is — the Final Shape will realize itself through them, not the other way around.

The Dread

In General

The Dread

Enforcers of the Black Fleet

The personal army of the Black Fleet. Though the Tormentor class debuted in Lightfall, the rest of the class as a whole is first encountered in The Final Shape, deep in the Pale Heart of the Traveler. They embody the will of the Witness.

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• Ambiguous Situation: The reason for the faction's full might not being dispersed before The Final Shape has yet to be explained. The same can be said for their nature: are they a full race of beings assimilated by the Witness, or are they some variant of clone on the whole like the Subjagator class is and the Tormentors are implied to be?
• Badass Army: As the personal guard of the Eldritch Abomination Big Bad, they serve as this by default.
• Body Horror: The visual culmination of the Witness' corruption through the Darkness, looking like organic beings fused with Black Fleet tech.
• Elite Mook: These guys are the Witness' personal army, which it has only chosen to release now that it is close to accomplishing its goal of bringing about the Final Shape.
• Last Episode, New Character: Most of the faction only shows up for the first time in The Final Shape, the conclusion of Destiny's first ten years of story.
• Reforged into a Minion: Attendants and Weavers are stated to be Psion defectors that the Witness reshaped into better minions, with their origins still apparent in their smaller stature and cyclopean eyes. Downplayed in that they were already loyal to the Witness and simply altered further.
• Remember the New Guy?: The Pyramid ships first arrived out of universe in Season of Arrivals, four years prior to the release of the expansion in which they debut. Why this is the case has yet to be explained.
• Starfish Alien: They look bizarre even by the previous standards established in Destiny. None of them have faces in the traditional sense of the word, with their heads visually invoking the Resonance technology found on Black Fleet ships.

Tormentors

Tormentors

The first of the Dread to be introduced, debuting in Lightfall as the Black Fleet's elite heavy unit. Powerful, unstoppable behemoths that promise to teach Guardians 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.

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• Ambiguously Related: While there is a definite connection between the Tormentors and Nezarec since the latter is a King Mook 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.
• Anti-Magic: Their Void-powered attacks can disable all the abilities of a guardian for a short time.
• Attackits Weak Point: 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.
• Apocalypse Cult: As more Tormentors show up throughout the campaign, their Boss Subtitles begin to imply that they've carried on Nezarec's Religion of Evil centuries after he first introduced it to humanity.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Stated by Bungie to be "like boss characters on the battlefield," promising to be much stronger than any other minibosses the Guardians have faced.
• Elite Mook: 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.
• Grapple Move: 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.
• Hero Killer: 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.
• Lightning Bruiser: 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.
• Logical Weakness: 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.
• Mythical Motif: 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 Scratch Damage against them.
• Praetorian Guard: The elite guard of the Witness and their Disciples, with the strength and endurance to match.
• Scratch Damage: 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 Scratch Damage on their weak point unless you have three stacks of the Deathly Sharp buff.
• The Slow Walk: 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.
• Sinister Scythe: All seem to wield these. Fitting, considering they serve a thing that acts as though it is the embodiment of Death itself.
• Sword Beam: Their main method of attack is to hurl homing arcs of Void energy from their scythes.
• Villain Team-Up: 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.

Subjugators

Subjugators

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 (Strand) and Omens (Stasis).

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• Affably Evil: They often perform a salute or bow to the player before attacking, or after killing them, as if acknowledging a Worthy Opponent.
• Boom Stick: True to their design basis, they use crude-looking spears to channel their attacks, and can release powewrful blasts of energy from them.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While the Tormentors a year prior are giants patterned after Nezarec, Subjugators are human-sized and patterned after Rhulk.
• Elite Mook: Field bosses much like the Tormentors before them, although apparently much more agile and deadly.
• Evil Counterpart: 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.
• Force and Finesse: 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.
• Last Episode, New Character: 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.
• Mook Lieutenant: Seen leading the Taken during the trailer for The Final Shape.
• Power Copying: 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.
• Send in the Clones: Said in the Showcase to be freshly minted, mass-produced clones of Rhulk, and it shows in their slender builds and choice of weapon.

Grim

The Grim

Flying minions of the Witness present in the Pale Heart.

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• Body Horror: Their faces split open in order to emit their signature shrieks. Their bodies are also disturbingly fleshy compared to the other members of the Dread.
• Flying Mook: Essentially alien bats with guns.
• Power Nullifier: Their "screeching voices" are evidently able to suppress Guardian abilities in the Pale Heart.

Husks/Geists

The Husks & Geists

Left: Geist, Right: Husk

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

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• Body Horror: Outside of the usual Black Fleet Body Horror, Husks are apparently populated by Darkness-adjacent parasites known as Geists.
• The Brute: Of the Dread, being melee oriented fighters more than capable of handling even the most capable Titans.
• In the Hood: Wear classic villainous cloaks with a hood up.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Apparently the Geists are this for the Husks, being only unleashed once the Husk body has been destroyed.

Attendants

The Attendants

Stasis wielding foot soldiers of the Black Fleet.

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• An Ice Person: Just like their Subjugator counterparts, they are able to wield the power of Stasis against the Guardians.
• Mooks: Seem to share this with the Weavers, being much smaller than the other members of the Dread and being far more numerous and weak than the others.
• Zerg Rush: Mechanically similar to Hive Thralls in this way, although far more powerful with their Darkness abilities.

Weavers

The Weavers

Strand wielding foot soldiers of the Black Fleet.

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• Green and Mean: Coated in green energy and helping the Witness bring about the end of the universe.
• Mooks: Seem to share this with the Attendants, being much smaller than the other members of the Dread and being far more numerous and weak than the others.
• Sickly Green Glow: As users of Strand associated with the Witness, they are this by default.
• You Will Not Evade Me: They have a Strand variant of the Psions' old eruption attack that launches the player towards them. It's manageable on its own, less so when there's half a dozen Weavers all tossing you back and forth.

Axis Minds

The Undying Mind

The Undying Mind

"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.

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• Arc Villain: 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.
• Back from the Dead: As of Season of the Undying, the Undying Mind has been resurrected.
• Deader than Dead: 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.
• Death Is Cheap: 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 killing every single instance of the Undying Mind in every single universe.
• Flunky Boss: Very much so, with both Precursor and Sol Divisive Vex aiding it in its efforts to kill you.
• King Mook: 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.
• Mighty Glacier: Like any Hydra, though it is more mobile than most of them, randomly moving up and down the arena you fight it in.
• Time Master: When you can single-handedly rip an area out of the flow of time, you are definitely this.

Consecrated Mind

Consecrated Mind, Sol Inherent

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

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• Ambiguous Robots: 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?
• Attack Its Weak Point: 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.
• Cowardly Boss: 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.
• Evil Is Visceral: It's in the way of your path to 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 Vex sensors that look like actual eyes. This is likely due to whatever is causing it to overflow with Darkness energy, considering the Sol Divisive appear to have a relay connected to the actual pyramids.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: 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.
• King Mook: A giant Harpy with many eyes.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: 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.
• Go for the Eye: 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.
• Marathon Boss: This thing compromises almost all the encounters in the Garden of Salvation raid.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: Compared to the rest of the Sol Divisive, the Consecrated Mind has been heavily mutated into a strange, fleshy form and is initially encountered eating a Minotaur for an unknown reason.
• The Pawns Go First: 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.
• Sequential Boss: Three fourths of the entire raid involve fighting this thing in some form.

Sanctified Mind

Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent

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.

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• Ambiguous Robots: 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.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: 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.
• Boss Arena Urgency: 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.
• Evil Is Visceral: Guardian of the 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.
• High Priest: Is more or less this for the Sol Divisive.
• King Mook: Quite possibly the largest Minotaur seen yet.
• Leitmotif: "The Sanctified Mind". It combines One-Woman Wail with Freaky Electronic Music, sounding chillingly ethereal and unnerving.
• Living Statue: It looks more like an animate, distorted effigy of a Minotaur instead of a robot.
• Pulling Themselves Together: 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.
• Puzzle Boss: 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.
• Stationary Boss: 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.
• Taken for Granite: It turns into an inanimate fixture as it collapses in apparent pain once defeated.
• Thinking Up Portals: 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.

Akelous

Akelous, the Siren's Current

A mutated Sol Divisive Harpy and The Dragon 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.

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• Blown Across the Room: 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.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: 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.
• Evil Is Visceral: A servant of the Witness and uses the same mutant, flesh-like frame as the Consecrated Mind.
• Meaningful Name:
  • 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 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 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.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: Much like the Consecrated Mind before it, Akelous is first seen devouring a Minotaur, this time to drain its conduits.
• Moveset Clone: 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.
• Puzzle Boss: 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.

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.

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• Ancient Evil: 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 Evil Is Visceral, instead looking like a worn and unimaginably-old statue.
• The Bad Guy Wins: It's implied Persys has already won, as the intel it's looking for pertains to an Artificial Intelligence 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.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Comes with the territory of being a Wyvern and Puzzle Boss. Going at it alone can take at least 15 minutes to kill it, and that's with optimization.
• Defiant to the End: 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. It never really mattered how it went out, anyway; the Witness needs a valid reason to go to Neptune, after all.
• Early-Bird Cameo: 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.
• Ironic Name: A corruption of "Perseus," the slayer of monsters from Greek myth. Keep in mind this thing's trying to get a lead on an innocent human city for the express purpose of subjugating it.
• Kill It with Fire: Its shielding can't stand heat, and reactivating the Seraph Reactor Core's power will initiate a purge sequence that melts off its defenses.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • If the fact that it's part of the Sol Divisive didn't clue you in on its evil intentions, Persys is currently the only non-Taken Vex in the game whose Boss Subtitles 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."
• Red Herring: We're led to believe Persys is after submind data located within the Spire of Ares. 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. Persys got what it came for, and now the Witness knows to look closer within Neptune.
• Shown Their Work: Persys's attempt to blow the Spire of Ares skyward is described as sending the reactor core into "prompt critical." In real energy reactors, Going Critical 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

Clarity Control

Clarity Control

"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."

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• Black Speech: Can be heard in its presence or in the presence of its idols and the Artifacts they hold.
• The Corruptor: 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.
• Dark Is Evil: Visibly radiates darkness, and is completely covered in a creepy dark veil.
• Dark Messiah: 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.
• Greater-Scope Villain: 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.
• Living Statue: 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.
• The Man Behind the Man: To the Black Heart, seemingly being higher in the pantheon the Sol Divisive worship and being the being responsible for their oddly organic appearances.
• Mysterious Benefactor: To Clovis Bray, inspiring his Exo project and granting him the insight necessary for many of his greatest accomplishments.
• Mysterious Veil: It and its likenesses are completely covered in a veil obscuring any and all features.
• Religion of Evil: Seemingly a religious idol among Darkness worshippers, with a monument at the center of each of the major Pyramids visited thus far.
• The Spook: 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.
• You Have Failed Me: After the Vex attack on Bray's colony, Clarity Control grew silent, seemingly abandoning Bray for his failure.

Xivu Arath

Xivu Arath, God of War

"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 The Dragon to the Witness from this point onward.

For more information on her, see her folder on the Hive.

Eramis

Eramis, Kell of Darkness

"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...

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• Arc Villain: 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.
• An Ice Person: She's primarily a user of Stasis, the form of Darkness element relating to cold.
• Big Bad Wannabe: 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.
• Breaking Speech: 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 Heel–Face Turn.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns to the forefront in Season of Plunder, after spending two DLC expansions trapped in her frozen prison.
• Butch Lesbian: Compared to her former mate, Athrys. While Athrys was a Girly Girl, 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.
• Cassandra Truth: 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 Exploding Base from claiming Mithrax as well.
  Eramis: I Warned You...
• Condescending Compassion: Can not show sympathy for Mithrax's cause without also implicitly mocking and undermining his living situation or trying to dig up his dirty laundry even as her own persists long into the present.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: 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.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: While Stasis itself isn't inherently evil, it comes from the Darkness, and she's the one who discovered it.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: 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.
• Fantastic Racism: She despises Guardians and refers to them as puppets. Mockery based on them being resurrected by the Light of the Traveler.
• Fatal Flaw: 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 Hated by All 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.
• Heel Realization: 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.
• The Heretic: 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.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Despite rising to power and founding House Salvation through obtaining Stasis, Eramis is ultimately defeated and her house scattered to the subzero winds by Stasis-wielding Guardians.
• Insistent Terminology: 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.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: 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.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: 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.
• Noble Demon: 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.
• Older Than They Look: 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.
• Pet the Dog:
  • At the end of Season of Plunder, she actively protects Eido from a Lucent Brood attack, despite being her enemy.
  • Similarly, at the end of Season of Defiance 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.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Mithrax about him lying to Eido about his Dark and Troubled Past, 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.
• Rule of Symbolism: 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 lacks the memories that made him sympathetic), she is also less "evil" and moreso clinging to the false hope that 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 aren't working and will never bring her to her goals as long as she sticks to them.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: 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.
• Space Pirates: 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.
• Trapped in Villainy: Implied in the cutscene after you kill Eramis's subordinates Praksis and Phylax. 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 You Have Failed Me and You Have Outlived Your Usefulness further below, it's possible that Eramis may have actually taken her words into consideration, only for the Witness to shut down any potential Heel–Face Turn by trying to kill her.
  • In the Season of Plunder 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. 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 unable to move past all that she had lost, and admitted to herself there was 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 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, 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 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".
• Uncertain Doom: 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.
• The Unseen: 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.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • 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. By the end, as the Young Wolf corners her, taps into their Stasis powers and begins subjecting her to a vicious Curb-Stomp Battle, 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 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 NOT FAILED!
    Mithrax: Yet here you are.
  • In the finale of Season of the Seraph, 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.
• Villainous B So D: Suffers from a powerful enough one in the lore tabs for Season of the Wish 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.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: 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.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Possibly 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. 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, it punishes her house by turning them into Wrathborn for Xivu Arath, with some being unlucky enough to become Scorn.

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.

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• The Dragon: Serves as Calus' public mouthpiece, gathering him Psion recruits who are implied to go on to serve in the Shadow Legion.
• Dragon Their Feet: 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.
• The Quisling: 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.
• The Spymaster: Coordinates who the Conclave will attempt to assassinate, her foremost target being Commander Zavala.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: 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.

Zo'Aurc

Zo'Aurc, Explicator of Planets

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

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• Big Bad Wannabe: 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.
• Enemy Mine: Not even Nezarec thinks highly of them, and asks the Guardians to get rid of them out of sheer frustration.

Servant Races

The Hive

See their page here.

Sol Divisive

The Sol Divisive

"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.

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• Ancient Evil: 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.
• Black Sheep: 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.
• Evil Is Visceral: Their most powerful post-Shadowkeep members have uneven frames made out of rock, Darkness, and energy that cause them to resemble flesh and bone.
• Reclaimed by Nature: Many have sat in the Garden for so long that regular foliage has started growing on them.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: As the story progresses, their use as proxies by the Witness has caused them to become more and more estranged from normal Vex.
• Villainous Legacy: 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 Time Travel. With this in mind, the Sol Divisive are effectively living relics of the Penitent's members in their servitude to the Witness.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: 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.

The Taken

See their page here.

The Scorn

See their page here.

House of Salvation

See their section under the Fallen.

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.

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• Anti-Escapism Aesop: 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.
• Appeal to Tradition: 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.
• Came Back Strong: 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.
• Enemy Mine: They have a vested interest in thawing out Eramis, likely to unite with the House of Salvation to utterly quash the Vanguard.
• Evil Counterpart: 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, Cults that use future sight to predict oncoming calamities, and tap into taboo power sources to do so. However, while the FWC is a Failure Hero (outside of the Red War and No Time to Explain) that nobody wants to trust, the Enclave is an Obviously Evil 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 The Right of a Superior Species.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: 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. The planet is back, but the Black Fleet has already won.
• We Have Reserves: They have a Clone Army courtesy of Calus, making them and their assets even more disposable than regular Cabal, and making repeated playthroughs of Vox Obscura a Justified Trope. 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.

Shadow Legion

The Shadow Legion

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.

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• Anti-Magic: 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.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The result of Calus being able to apply Pyramid tech to living beings, creating Cabal super soldiers with Darkness powers.
• Dark Is Evil: 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.
• Elite Mooks: 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.
• Empty Shell: 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.
• Evil Costume Switch: 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.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: 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.
• Superior Successor: 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.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: 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.
• Walking Spoiler: 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

The Virtuous Worms

The Virtuous Worms

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.

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• A God Am I: 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.
• Believing Their Own Lies: 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.
• The Corrupter: 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.
• Eldritch Abomination: 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.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: There is a sixth Worm God, their mother Xita. The reason they serve the Darkness in the first place is because Rhulk kidnapped her and used that to strongarm them into obeying the Witness.
• Greater-Scope Villain: 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 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.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Ur is particularly enthralled (maybe) by Savathûn's cunning and how it works with her powers to affect reality. 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 he's willing to let obvious heresy and even betrayal slide just because of how much cunning is involved.
• Manipulative Bastard: 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.
• Non-Indicative Name: They are the most powerful servants of the Darkness, which is as close to pure evil as exists in the Destiny universe.
• Physical God: 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.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: According to "Truth to Power," Ur understands (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 is far too entertained by the idea to intervene or even care.
• Too Dumb to Live: 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. Guess what happens next.
• Tragic Villain: They never chose to follow the Darkness, only being forced to do so because their mother Xita had been kidnapped by Rhulk and bootstrapped in a catatonic state to the Upended.
• Wham Line: 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...

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...

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• Deal with the Devil: The one who extends these deals on behalf of the Witness to the Hiv
• The Dragon: 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.
• The Ghost: Has yet to appear, in spite of being the top non-Darkness god of the Hive.
• Greater-Scope Villain: 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
• Non-Indicative Name: 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.
• Our Dragons Are Different: 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.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Implied to be his reaction to Xol's dwindling returns, which in turn caused Xol to strike a bargain with the disgraced Nokris.
• Small Role, Big Impact: 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.

Xol

Xol, Will of the Thousands

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.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: 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.
• Arc Villain: 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.
• Attack Its Weak Point: 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.
• Breath Weapon: 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.
• Compensating for Something: 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."
• Damage-Sponge Boss: 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.
• Double Meaning: "There is no Light here." For him to feed on... or for you.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The only time he speaks with your Guardian is in a deep, gravelly voice reminiscent of the equally Eldritch-like Gravemind from Halo.
• Horror Hunger: 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.
• Not Quite Dead: 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 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".
• Sealed Evil in a Can: 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.
• Weak, but Skilled: 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.
• Villain Respect: 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.

Akka

Akka, the Worm of Secrets

"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.

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• Back from the Dead: Sort of. Oryx was noted to have battled his "Swarming Corpse" years after killing him the first time.
• The Ghost: 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.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: 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, he could kill him, alright.
• Not Quite Dead: Akka is described as being "dead but far from gone".
• Posthumous Character: Was slain twice by Oryx billions of years before the start of the game.
• Small Role, Big Impact: 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.

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.

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• Flat Character: 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.
• Neat Freak: Or the Eldritch Abomination variant, being particularly put off by the Vex being introduced into their sacred realms.
• No Indoor Voice: 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."

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.

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• The Ghost: Has yet to appear in game.
• Horror Hunger: Implied by his epithet.
• Mysterious Benefactor: Has struck a deal with Savathun to alter her source of tribute, although its unknown whether or not this has become an Aborted Arc following Savathun's defection.
  • In Anânh also reaches out to Ur during her boss battle, implying he grants her patronage as well.

Xita

Xita, the Nurturing Worm

"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.

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• Ambiguously Evil: 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 Blue-and-Orange Morality by any normal being.
• Convenient Coma: 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.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is the loved one for the Worm Gods and, if Savathun is to be believed, the entire Worm race.
• Mother of a Thousand Young: 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.
• Walking Spoiler: 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

In General

Corrupted Guardians

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

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• The Corruptible: 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.
• Evil Counterpart: 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.
• Fallen Hero: Both Dredgen Yor and Toland were once heroic Guardians before being seduced by the promises of the Darkness.
  • In the Alternate Timeline described by the Exo Stranger, the Young Wolf, Eris Morn, and many other Guardians have joined their ranks after being corrupted by Stasis use.
• Good All Along: 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.
• Hearing Voices: Whispers from either the Hive or the Voice in the Darkness eventually turned them into what they are today.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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.

Dredgen Yor

Dredgen Yor

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.

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• Artifact of Doom: 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 (the bones of Xyor's husband) onto its frame as a battle trophy.
• Bullying a Dragon: In Thorn 2, he's the Dragon being bullied by a bunch of bandits trying to steal Thorn from him.
• Death Seeker: 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 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.
• The Dreaded: His name is still remembered with disgust and shame.
• Expy: Dredgen Yor can be seen as an expy of Darth Vader since 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
• Fallen Hero: He was once a heroic man, brimming with Light. Specifically, 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.
• Hand Cannon: Thorn, large-bore single-handed firearm corrupted by the Darkness and Hive magic, the spiritual opposite to The Last Word.
• Heroic Sacrifice: 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.
• Hero Killer: Yor was responsible for killing several Guardians, including Jaren Ward and Pahanin.
• Hope Crusher: 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.
• Morality Pet: 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.
  • Kick the Morality Pet: Yor also threatened to kill his Ghost if he didn't leave, and it's not clear if he did.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dredgen Yor's eventual abandonment of his Ghost made sure that the next time he died, it'd be permanent. Considering the contexts under Death Seeker, 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.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: The bones of the Knight he killed were cursed by his consort, Xyor, to corrupt Azzir. She succeeded beyond her wildest expectations.
• Thanatos Gambit: Shin Malphur ultimately suspects that Yor set one of these up. 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.
• That Man Is Dead: 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.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: 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.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Pretty much the entire conversation in "Thorn 3", initiated by his Ghost.
• Wicked Cultured: He is aware that his name means "Eternal Abyss" in a forgotten language.
• Unwitting Pawn: Teben Grey/Dredgen Bane, while researching the Weapons of Sorrow, discovered a 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.
• You Monster!: Pretty much what has been told to him by his own Ghost and Jaren Ward's.

Toland

Toland the Shattered

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.

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• Admiring the Abomination: He was very fascinated by the Deathsong of Ir Yût, and joined the fireteam in the hopes of learning more about it.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: 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 he can't go back to the Tower and taunt them with how right he was.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: 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.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: 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.
• Death Is Cheap: 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.
• Fling a Light into the Future: 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.
• The Exile: He was kicked out the City due to his madness and obsession with the Hive.
• Friendly Enemy: 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. 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.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: 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.
• Gibbering Genius: 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.
• Good All Along: 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.
• Hearing Voices: 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.
• Ignored Expert: He, along with Lord Shaxx, tried to warn the Vanguard not to send the army to retake the Moon.
• Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: He knew the Hive better than anyone. This may have been a bad thing. After all, the Tower doesn't exile Guardians for no reason...
• Oh, Crap!: Has one of these moments upon encountering Mara Sov in the Ascendant Realm. For all his work studying the Hive and their sword space, Mara completely outclasses the Warlock and sends him running in fear.
• Plasma Cannon: 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.
• Power of the Void: He shows up prominently in the Voidwalker's version of "The Shard" mission, so it's very likely he specialized as a Voidwalker.
• Slasher Smile: 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: Yes, but not yours.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: 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 The Big Guy and thus the designated tank but got mauled by Thralls before they even made it in.
• Spirit Advisor: 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.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know/Go Mad from the Revelation: 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.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: 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.
• Uncertain Doom: 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.
• The Voice: 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.
• Yes-Man: 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.
• You're Insane!: According to the Grimoire cards, his teammates believed he was.
  Omar: He's mad.
  Toland: Perhaps.
• What the Hell, Hero?: 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.

Briar

Briar of the Wild Brambles

A Sunbreaker Titan and Shell-Shocked Veteran whose PTSD-like symptoms were fed on by Nezarec, claiming him as one of his Acolytes in the process.

His Ghost was Firethorn.

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• Empty Shell: 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.
• Eye Scream: Stabbed out his eyes with a knife, bringing out Firethorn in the process for Briar to destroy.
• Handicapped Badass: Blind now, but still a fearsome warrior.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted; Briar shares his name with a Cloud Strider.

Other Servants of the Darkness

The Black Heart

The Black Heart

"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.

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• A God Am I: 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.
• Arc Villain: 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 in the game's expansions and beyond.
• Batman Gambit: After the Heart Part II implies that the Heart of the Black Garden may have been a lure to draw in Guardians as a sort of "tripwire" to tell how powerful the Traveler was becoming.
• Eldritch Abomination: 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 Lovecraft Lite 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.
• Evil Knockoff: Of 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 do something about the matter.
• Final Boss: 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.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of Season of the Undying. The Undying Mind, Arc Villain 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.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Requires the Sol Progeny to fight on its behalf. Once all three are gone, the Heart can do nothing but get shot.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: 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.
• Secret Test of Character: 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 notifies the Black Fleet of its survival.
• Starter Villain: The Arc Villain 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.

The Inventor (Unmarked Beyond Light Spoilers)

See Clovis Bray I in Other Characters and Entities

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.

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• Abusive Parents: He was tortured by his family to fully indoctrinate him into the Cult of Nezarec.
• The Corrupter: Briar, Koraxis, and Acasia are pushed to their limits and turned into Acolytes because of him.
• The Team Normal: 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.

"HNW" (Unmarked The Final Shape Spoilers)

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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.

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• Cynicism Catalyst: Briefly implies to RS their Face–Heel Turn was the destruction of the star system they cultivated, as well as lingering doubts from the falls of the Swarm and Sovereign.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the beginning, HNW is opposed to the Penitent's teachings, while RS is trying to convince them of its benefits. At the end, their roles are reversed, with RS defecting and fleeing the planet while HNW prepares to sacrifice themselves to the Witness's formation.
• Shadow Archetype: 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 cut away the memories that could make the Penitent doubt, all so the Witness could justify removing all suffering by 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 directive.
• We Used to Be Friends: HNW and RS used to be friends with each other, their friendship souring as the unrest within the precursor civilization escalated. Even so, in their final communique to RS, HNW still reaches out in hopes of convincing RS to return and assimilate into the Witness.
• You Are Number 6: They are only ever identified by the above serial.