Many people seem to think that Destiny’s story is, well, lacklustre. But what if most people are missing one big key thing about the story?
Buckle up, because it’s time for a bonkers theory about a video game.
So, according to the Destiny wiki, this is the story:
Many generations ago (shortly after present day), the emergence of a gargantuan construct known only as “the Traveller” ignited a Golden Age of technology and exploration for humanity.[1] Initially the Traveller settled on Mars, where it shared its knowledge and technology with humanity, and a city grew around it.[2] With the assistance of the Traveller and its enigmatic technology, humanity tripled its lifespan, terraformed planets and moons, and expanded its civilisation beyond Earth and throughout much of the solar system.[1][2]
The Golden Age would last for centuries, but human civilisation fell victim to a cataclysm of extraordinary magnitude, known as the Collapse.[2] A malicious entity known as The Darkness, an ancient enemy of the Traveller, waged a campaign of destruction against civilisation. Few managed to survive the devastation.[2] Forced to withdraw to Earth, mankind’s homeworld, the embattled sphere made its final stand, where it sacrificed itself to save the remnants of humanity.[1][2] The Traveller is now silent and dormant, while those who survived united to build The City beneath it, establishing the last bastion of civilisation in the solar system.[1][2] A powerful defensive aura remains projected over the City by the Traveller.[1][2]
The City has come under attack throughout the years, mysterious alien species probing its defenses for weaknesses.[1][2]You are one of an army of warriors known as Guardians that call the City home, individuals that have taken a stand to reclaim what has been taken from us.[1][2] Guardians have harnessed the Traveller’s energy to create powerful abilities that allow them powerful offensive attacks, defensive counters, and increased mobility.[1][2] Guardians seek to uncover the mysteries of humanity’s downfall and reclaim what has been taken from them.[1] These exploits lead them to rediscover and reclaim old worlds, once part of mankind’s civilisation but now occupied by deadly extraterrestrial species and threatened by the return of the Darkness.[1][2]
The Guardians are all that stand between the dark forces that seek to destroy civilisation and those who take refuge within the City.[1][2] It is their duty to rebuild from the ashes of defeat, to ignite the once great flame of human civilisation, and be the light that shines through the darkness.[1][2] Their failure would mean the destruction of the human race.[1][2]
Pretty straightforward. I’ll summarize: you are the good guy, because guardians fight to keep the traveller safe from THE DARKNESS. The darkness, as the name suggests, is an evil thing, as it ended humanity’s golden age. The traveller, meanwhile, is keeping everyone safe from further doom.
Hold up, though. Are we really sure we play as the good guys? Are we really sure the traveller is a positive force worth saving? It’s not like we know much about it, or even the darkness, for that matter.
…yeah, this is one of those twists. Redditor neocitron posted a “crackpot theory” recently, which has made me reexamine what I think I know about Destiny’s story. They explain:
I was patrolling around the moon yesterday and was silently stalking Fallen Dregs trying to listen to alien banter. I moved too close and startled one of them, who turned around and gurgled in broken english (kind of how the Grunts in Halo did) “It’s the Darkness!” before firing away at me… Wait.
Are. We. The. Darkness?
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense… WHY ELSE would aliens be relentlessly fighting us without much justification? Although I can’t explain why the alien factions would be fighting each other. Maybe the Traveller is a weapon and we simply don’t know it because we’re under its spell? And the alien factions don’t trust each other with the Traveller’s power?
Damn… This is why I love the open ended narrative Bungie creates, it eventually gets sifted down and sharpened over years of questions and added content to the worlds.
And some commenters in the thread elaborate further:
Maybe the traveller has been to their worlds and caused great destruction. Maybe he needed a new army, we think we fight for the light but we are actually making the universe a much darker place. The Speaker has always seemed like a shady guy to me. It’s an interesting point of view.
This is blowing my mind right now. Think about it, the names of some of the enemies are Wizards, Knights, Acolytes but we’re Titans, Hunters, Warlocks, which have negative or evil connotations to them. Titans in Greek mythology, hunters just killing things, warlocks wielding dark magic…
I’m discussing it with a few friends and it’s starting to make sense. We’re basically an army of undead. And this whole space fantasy theme, makes the theory seem plausible. What about the Vex? What if they’re like Cylons? Why haven’t we seen any other humans elsewhere?
So many questions…I’m not sure if I’m entirely sold, but every little detail seems to connect. This could be huge!
Read some of the card backs. On the back of “Legend: The Black Garden”:
I am Pujari. These are the visions I have had of the Black Garden.
The Traveller moved across the face of the iron world. It opened the earth and stitched shut the sky. It made life possible. In these things there is always symmetry. Do you understand? This is not the beginning but it is the reason.
The Garden grows in both directions. It grows into tomorrow and yesterday. The red flowers bloom forever.
There are gardeners now. They came into the garden in vessels of bronze and they move through the groves in rivers of thought.
This is the vision I had when I leapt from the Shores of Time and let myself sink:
I walked beneath the blossoms. The light came from ahead and the shadows of the flowers were words. They said things but I will not write them here.
At the end of the path grew a flower in the shape of a Ghost. I reached out to pluck it and it cut me with a thorn. I bled and the blood was Light.
The Ghost said to me: You are a dead thing made by a dead power in the shape of the dead. All you will ever do is kill. You do not belong here. This is a place of life.
The Traveller is life, I said. You are a creature of Darkness. You seek to deceive me.
But I looked behind me, down the long slope where the blossoms tumbled in the warm wind and the great trees wept sap like blood or wine, and I felt doubt.
When my Ghost raised me from the sea there was a thorn-cut in my left hand and it has not healed since.
edit:
From the card “Enemies : The Darkness:”
The card mentions varying ideas on what The Darkness is from the point of view of different groups on Earth.
Certain positions – often labelled heretical – imply that the Traveller itself triggered the Collapse, or that it knew the Darkness was coming for it and hoped to use the Solar System as a sacrifice or a proxy army. The Binary Star cult is one notable example.
I dunno if I’m fully convinced, but I’ll admit, I kind of love this theory. It’s fun. More importantly, it’s making me reexamine things in Destiny to see if perhaps there are some subtleties I missed about the story. This theory doesn’t change the way Destiny is written/the delivery, or the fact that you have to go outside the game to learn some of the lore, but it does make things more interesting. I’m particularly fascinated by the idea that critics are dismissing the story, whereas fans are digging in deeper and seeing what they can find.
What do you think? Is this what is actually going on in Destiny’s story, or is this theory just a bunch of hogwash? Have you noticed anything that would contribute or debunk the darkness theory? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
52 responses to “A Wild Theory About Destiny’s Story”
Even without reading into the lore I was suspecting something like this. It feels like Bungie are itching to do a big ‘this changes everything!’ moment.
I like it a hell of a lot more than the stale, uninspired base story.
Could you imagine after all the DLC and expansions, Destiny is just another game/film commenting on US Foreign policy?
You’re a solider, with little or no knowledge of modern history invading other planets and killing other races because someone told you to because ‘reasons’. The final scene of Destiny will include you, the Guardian, atop a million alien corpses’ and your Ghost. Dinklebotm gives a final monologue, stating that war is pointless, and how we have lost our innocence blindly following the whims of a monolith for no real purpose. After the monologue, Dinklebot turns, directly looking into the camera and says ‘isn’t that right…society?’. Cue Metal Gear Solid conspiracy sounds as the credits begin to role.
If only they had dropped these sorts of clues in the actual game rather than forcing us to leave the game to read the lore online. The story would have been much more fulfilling.
Yeah, smells almost as whiffy as the ME3 indoctrination theory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com.au/comic/2008/01/11
Ockham’s Razor: The story was bland and told shittily and fans desperately want to believe it can’t be as simple and disappointing as that.
I definitely agree the story as present in game was absolutely abysmal.
That said, there *is* a pretty sizable amount of lore to sift through which, from what I’ve gathered is very much in line with Bungie’s lore writing with Halo (love or hate the games, the lore for Halo is pretty darn good).
I’m dissapointed that playing through destiny explained absolutely nothing of what was going on though.
Just game one though, so they wouldn’t want to explain much.
Also of note is that most of the “Explanations” were from archaeology of our near future, while they were under attack from all sides. No wonder they have conflicting opinions of what happened, and I don’t think we’re going to find out the full story for at least another 3 years. 12 if they stick to the 20 year trajectory
Funnily enough, playing Destiny inspired me to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey again last night. Watching the film again made me realise how very little story/dialogue the movie actually has. The movie is riddled with ambiguous metaphors/allegories, and potential references to philosophical ideas. As a result, there are a crazy amount of theories about the film made by movie critics, fans, and intellectuals. Kubrick admitted that he wanted to leave the film open to interpretation.
I feel like the team at Bungie tried to replicate the film by making Destiny ‘non verbal’ and open to player interpretation. Whether Bungie does this effectively though is a whole different matter.
Or people are judging it before it develops and these are the only people who don’t rip things to shreds before they understand them. Storytelling is complex, visual, explicit, subtle, aural, literal, metaphorical etc. The fact that people take ONE SINGLE PERSPECTIVE and deem it “correct” simply because it was the first explanation they came and do not have the skills required to unpack the bags the story comes in.
There’s an assumption that video games don’t have even this potential and so that becomes the natural response, factor that in with everyone believing that “opinion” is bulletproof (the bewildering belief that it cannot be factually incorrect) and we have an entire community who will never accept deviation from the narrative they’ve created. People want things to be shit because… well we don’t know. Maybe they somehow believe arbitrary judgement is the way to go? It’s embarrassingly sad how few people analyse or evaluate story before judging it.
I was annoyed at the story when I completed the missions but then I reminded myself it wasn’t finished.
Sooo…
It, somewhat ironically, tells a story that there’s no trophy for finishing the campaign. It’s the kind of thing everyone else rewards players for doing. I’m not exactly a person who gives a shit about that achievement hunting kind of thing but it’s absence was rather noteworthy when I just finished it and there was no ding…
I haven’t even bothered to look at trophies because I just know it’s going to be full of PVP shit.
I’m personally always skeptical of anyone who claims to be the voice of something that appears to have no method of communication, so I would not be at all surprised to discover the Speaker was spinning a line of bullshit.
That was the first thing I thought about the Speaker as well. Also note that the New Monarchy vendors sells his/her wares a few meters away from the Speaker’s dwelling. Illuminati confirmed?
In all seriousness though, does anyway know what role the factions play? I’ve read on IGN, what little there is on IGN anyway, that the New Monarchy are meant to represent the interests of the Queen of the Reef. Which is odd, because the item descriptions state that the New Moncarchy have the most legal authority on Earth, suggesting that Earth is still rule by a Queen/King.
I haven’t read all the grimoires yet but I was under the impression the New Monarchy are trying to reinstate the power of an earth monarch but there isn’t one at present.
A lot of the Destony story is mysterious by design. What we’re seeing now is barely the prologue. More content/story will unlock in time, I’m sure, and not just via expansion DLC.
Why do I keep typoing Destiny as Destony? Really bothers me andI can’t edit my posts at the moment. /o\
Oh thanks for clearing that up. My girlfriend picked up the Destiny guide, but I haven’t bothered reading it. I’m sure there are added explanations in it as well. Yeah I figured that it was open on purpose. I’ve mentioned above in a different response that I think it was inspired by films such as 2001.
Yeah I’m sure that they would release more content in expansions. But I just found what Bungie is doing really peculiar. Releasing a full priced prologue, with the aim of fleshing out the story in expansions. I just really find most of Bungie’s decisions to be odd for this game. It’s hard to explain.
If that’s true, then it’s a
rip-offhomage to Crackdown.It’s not an uncommon storytelling technique. 😛
No, no, I’m pretty sure Crackdown invented it.
Well obviously.
The trip in the story for me was a bit different, granted I haven’t finished the game yet though.
But picture this, I’m an Exo, a machine. I have a buddy who is a hands-free flashlight. Who, themselves, was created by a larger maching. Two machines wandering the leftovers of a human civilisation torn asunder, trying to find out how to fix the master machine.
I am fighting Fallen, fine, they fight me and were fighting my apparent creator race (humans). I am fighting the Hive, sure, they seem nasty, and even stole a bit of the Traveller, a machine brother (sister? Comrade. Robot means worker anyway, so my Exo is now socialist). Then comes the problem. The Vex. A machine race. With no individuality. Who were in the solar system purportedly before humans. This gives my Exo a moral conundrum. While I have had no troubles fighting loose Vex around the place (kill or be killed, etc) I have kinda issues with hunting down a group that have more right to the place than my creators did, and also have more in common with myself. I feel like any self-respecting Exo would try and start a diplomatic exchange at this point.
So I start on the Mars missions, and stick to taking down Fallen quest arcs, and only kill the Vex that I absolutely have to. And then there are the Vex again, fighting the Cabal. Making it worse if anything. Vex are fighting Earths enemies as much as Earth are, and may even have more in common with Exo than any other race (incl. humans).
Just makes me wonder. I wish we could have talks with the Vex, rather than exchanging plasma
I’ve always seen the Cabal as another pocket of human-esque creatures, following the Traveler’s “Light” (they are located on Mars, in a structural capacity that seems like they’ve been dug into the planet for centuries). There are also the Awoken of the Reef, and considering some Awoken are Guardians, it should make sense that the Reef is beseiged by the Darkness as well, but quite the opposite seems to be happening: They are Co-existing. It would also seem that at least 2 of the cutscenes clearly point to the Reef’s goals not quite aligning with the Guardians – that is, to defeat The Darkness. Foremost in my mind is that the Queen’s Brother consistently opposes the Guardian’s attempt to seek the Black Garden, and at one point the Queen tells her brother that “Often when you guess at others’ motives, you reveal only your own.” While that tells us that the Queen and her Brother don’t see eye to eye, it stands that her brother would have some semblance of knowledge towards what her goals are. Also, him being in such a trusted adviser suggests that he might have some sway over the Reef’s masses, being able to take over as King some day.
Another thing to note is that the Awoken from the asteroid belt live “On the edge of the darkness”.
Being in the asteroid belt, they are placed the furthest from earth in regards to the other locations in game. Literally being the furthest the Guardians can reach and where the traveler’s “light” can touch.
Additionally the Awoken appear to have an alliance with (some of?) the fallen and are incredibly hostile and distrusting of any race that serves the traveler (even other Awoken).
The first time you hear of the awoken is from The Stranger as well, who makes an interesting quote of “A side should always be taken little light, even if it is the wrong one…”.
Probably inconsequential, but your ghost also despises being called “Little Light” too.
There’s definitely pieces that fit this theory and I’m really intrigued by it.
Thinking about the story? Looking forward instead of judging it? Not recoiling at anything we have a slight social prejudice towards? NO ARBITRARY CRITICISM!?
Nope, not real. *reaches out hand to touch*
I think the “Little Light” comment was a nod to Dinklage himself, and it was the “Little” part he objected to.
Or… all the aliens are actually humans, just modified over time and circumstance.
We (the guardians) have been dead a long time so possibly wouldn’t know…
But yeh, they need to get all of this off the grim cards and into the game. Having to read through the cards on the app is not as good as if they were accessible in game. I even remember when first got to Mars and the Ghost went through and actually described what the Cabal do… I said to my friends “Wow, that is the first time that thing has told me anything useful about what is going on.”
Such a great universe, so poorly explained and explored.
Still having sooooooo much fun playing though 🙂
Exactly my thoughts.
Even an in-game codex a-la mass effect would go a long way to improving the connection to the story.
The lore seems pretty great, but is delivered in the worst way possible and, even for an avid reader like myself, didn’t exactly make me *want* to go read the grim cards either.
I’ve sunk a dumb amount of time in game already and even though I’m enjoying it, I can only imagine my enjoyment (and others) would have been enhanced greatly by even the smallest amounts of extra exposition and motivation.
I still can’t honestly tell you what the black garden was, why I went to the moon in the first place or why I have to fight everything aside from “reasons”.
The grimorecards are the lore we know, that flavours the story. I’d rather have grimoire/encyclopaedia entries than huge exposition dumps, but there did need to be SOME exposition/information provided via cutscenes because what our Guardian gets exposed to is quite thin.
It was probably intentional but it worries me that it will turn people off.
Sounds interesting. I have nothing to add except thank you for reminding me to read those cards at some stage. ha ha !
Hah, I was going to just thank people for pointing out that I need to read those cards at all!!!
The full grimoire card lists a bunch of theories about what the darkness is:
The pujari position: A corruption that poisoned the golden age from within.
Saint 14 position: An armada of aliens rejected by the traveller.
Ulan-Tans position:A Ying to the traveller’s yang to restore cosmic balance.
The monist position:The traveller is a post singularity intelligence and the universe is a simulation (which it is).
The Acataleptic cause: The darkness is something we can never understand yet must defeat.
And yeah the final heretical Binary Star cult position: every thing is the travellers fault, it caused the collapse and is using us to defend it from the darkness it knew was coming for it using our solar system as a sacrifice or proxy army.
Yin to his yang. Ying yang is a rap duo
Hmm, or you could interprete all of this in a different way.
The Vex, The Hive, they are primitive civilisations (is that an oxymoron?) that feel threatened by the Traveller and its potential for unprecedented growth and prosperity: it has the potential to break down the walls of tradition, collectiveness, sameness in an effort to initiate expansion. Think of how extremist terrorist cells feel directly threatened by Western interpretations of freedom and individual prosperity.
These civilisations essentially won: they destroyed the Traveller, well most of if, and confined it to a final resting place on Earth above the final city for humanity. The traveller, in a final breath, brings “Guardians” back to life: “Guardians” being those that protect the power of the traveller and the benefits it posses for humanity. We are “hunters”, “warlocks” and “titans” because we posses abilities and skills that the traveller had kept confined for use only in a moment of pure desperation: a necessary evil needed to protect us. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
In actually reads like a very straightforward critique of contemporary political conflicts and terrorism: anyone that studies both terrorism and law will see a consistency between how both sides of a conflict define “terrorist”, that who uses fear to initiate change. In our situation, we embrace the traveller, because we embrace growth, change, prosperity, evolution, expansion. In the situation of our enemies in the Destiny universe, they view the Traveller as a threat, as something that has the potential to initiate change through its power and break down the walls that hold up and maintain the hierarchy of power within those civilisations.
They say, “It’s the Darkness!” because they view us as The Darkness. In theory, yes, we *do* play as the darkness, but only in a certain capacity, as a genuine threat to those that hate our cause. We are The Darkness, just as *they* are The Darkness.
Brilliant, absolutely brillant. Probably the best explination of the destiny story yet. That and the conspiracy theory are far more descriptive then what we get from destiny so far.
YOU ARE A GENIUS IC-1101!!!!!!!
In an era long ago, the great empire known as The Microsoft entered an alliance with a group of beings known only as The Bungie, in order to ensure their survival.
For a time there was prosperity, but the Microsoft became suspicious that the Bungie would grow too powerful and break free from their alliance to pursue their own goals.
Soon, the leaders of the Microsoft and the Bungie were engaged in a short, but secret conflict,
where the Microsoft attempted to subvert and control the Bungie, but the Bungie ultimately prevailed and joined forces with the Sony, taking with it their secrets and technology.
With help from the Sony, The Bungie abandoned their culture and attempted to form a new culture that embraced all, abandoning the legacy of their past.
But the Bungie had lost their soul to the Microsoft, and remnants of the old alliance still remain everywhere to be seen if you only search hard enough…
My only theory on the games lore so far is that the Fallen used to be good, and at some point they’ll have a redemption arc.
They once tripped over in an embarrassing way and were mercilessly teased for it then as a result of the psychological trauma they slowly became evil, it’s up to us to lead a diplomatic mission to formally apologise.
This is the same developer who had a cutscene where my Awoken guardian said “How could the Awoken have survived out here?” and have the Awoken make no reference to the fact that the guardian who showed up was another Awoken. Call me cynical but I doubt there’s complex layers of storytelling going on here.
Could there’ll be a twist where it’s revealed that the Traveller is being hunted for a damned good reason? Sure in theory. Will it happen? It’s an MMO that they’ve said they want to turn into a series that lasts a decade, sod all chance of anything massive happening to change the story unless perhaps they want to have you playing as Fallen/Hive/Vex/Cabal in the sequel or something.
Like for example, its a great auto-terraformer, has strange technologies to learn, or can cast a protective shield that lasts for centuries, you mean?
As a fellow Awoken player, that lack of acknowledgement really bothered me as well. There’s all these little things Bungie could have done to make the world feel more alive and interesting, such as changing some dialogue based on character race, which they just didn’t do for some reason.
Or obviously building the game around the idea of a 3 player team then having only one player show up in cutscenes…
There are loads of places in Destiny where you can see this was made by people who make shooters. Almost all the little details that help create worlds are missing, character info is hard to find, story info is hard to find, travelling is weird, the map is weird, it’s unclear how you get things early on…
As yet another Awoken player, this bothered me for a bit too, and in fact broke what suspension of disbelief I had left at that point of the game. Still, in a moment of boredom, I chose to read some of the Grimore cards and found a few that explain this. The Queen of the Reef card explains that she is distrustful of everyone from outside the reef, even fellow Awoken. Additionally, I can’t remember if its the card specifically about the Awoken, but it explains (or at the very least gave the impression) that Awoken Guardians are not from the Reef, but instead are descendants of Awoken that left the Reef and came to Earth generations before.
Admittedly, throwing a few lines on a card that most people won’t see to patch a hole in the plot (or coding probably) is pretty lazy, but its better than leaving yet another moment in the game unexplained.
Yes, it would be disturbing if our character remembered, but necromancy has a strange effect on the dead. They may not always have memory intact.
I don’t think a handful of criticisms in a game with dozens of hours and hundreds of pages worth of lore are enough to judge EVERYTHING ENTIRELY. Sounds like you’ve made up your mind though, not sure anything could change it.
P.s. Played Awoken as well…. yep. That was confusing.
Where the hell are these dozens of hours of lore? I got maybe half a dozen worth – if being VERY generous – in between all the hours of shooting, which only lasted about 16 both combined to finish the story. Do you think there’s a 5:3 ratio of shooty:lore? Me either.
There’s a bunch of different descriptions for patrol missions spouted by the faction leaders, a handful of weapon/armour/ship descriptions that give world-building clues, snippets of ‘overheard’ conversations that sometimes (rarely) contain little nuggets of meaningful world-building, and out of the 1700’ish grimoire points I have, maybe a couple pages at best worth of lore. And those, while rich and juicy, are only snippets – like everything else in the game, hints and suggestions at something great, without realizing that potential.
I believe most of the lore is no in game but on those grimoire cards or whatever they are.
There’s some interesting parallels between the story outline in Destiny and the fall of the Roman Empire. European civilization reached its zenith, establishing colonies all the way into the middle east (Constantinople), Britain, and North Africa. Then after that golden age, it suffered a collapse, taken apart by the arrival of various ‘barbarian’ hordes that fragmented and destroyed the empire. The only vestige of the original western Roman Empire that remained was the dominion of the church, under the pope. The period after the fall of the Roman Empire was known as the ‘dark ages’ because so much was lost.
You can even find parallels between some of the species of The Darkness in Destiny and events around the Roman Empire. For example, the Cabal’s unit names are roman terms (Centurion etc.) and these were terms that the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) retained for centuries. Much of Spain, parts of Italy and Roman North Africa was taken over by the Vandals (the Fallen?). In Central Europe, the Francs were the most successful in terms of trying to re-establish, with Charlemagne becoming the Holy Roman Emperor. They’re the ones you often associate with Knights and Wizards and all those medieval things (much like the Hive?) and the major contemporary issue for that particular kingdom was fighting with the pagan Germanic and Norse tribes, who are where we get all those Tolkien-esque fantasy monsters like Goblins and Hobgoblins from (the Vex?).
If this was on reddit, you woulda just got Gold
The part that bothers me is that humanity just started getting its shit together after literally centuries of huddling in the shadow of the Traveller, for… what reason, again? They just finally woke up and felt like not being terrible at everything today? In any other game it’d be thanks to the super-human efforts of the protagonist, but in Destiny, you barely even get acknowledgement, let alone a ‘thank you’, or god forbid celebrated for achieving what no-one else could for hundreds of years.
inb4 traveler is using ghosts as companions to ultimately take control of the vex. they are basically replicators anyway
Mostly what Destiny is doing, on the whole, is making me want to replay the Mass Effect trilogy.
That’s what I did after a couple of hours of playing Destiny.
So what Bungie is really saying is, the cake is a lie?? 😛
This article has been pretty much ripped directly from the Reddit article.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. You’re honestly not used to that by now?
EDIT: Also for everyone that bitches that it’s on Reddit, I don’t use reddit very much at all so please don’t forget us Luddites who don’t trawl the vastness of reddit for this sort of stuff.
I haven’t finished the story yet (Still mid-Venus) but this would be supported by:
the “Not-a-guardian” robot lady saying that you choose a side and it may not always be the right one. Also, the Awoken Queen’s comment “These ones are mine.” when talking about the Fallen would fit too.Regardless of whether or not there is a “Man was the monster all along” twist, it still doesn’t improve the fact that the story feels like a Mass Effect fanfic.
Wouldn’t this basically make in the same as the plot from that movie oblivion?
All right, so say that the Traveller did come to the Solar System knowing The Darkness would follow. Indeed, a proxy army would be necessary. To borrow from the Marvel Universe, if you know Galactus is coming, you try your best to prepare the Earth to defeat him. Ideally, you inform Earthlings of the impending battle, but if it was aware of the approach of The Darkness, it appears The Traveller kept mum.
Plus, all enemies think they are right, you are wrong and vice versa. Wars would not exist otherwise.
As the actual storyline was (so far) extremely brief, I saw this and was open to the idea.
I then went to Bungie.net and looked at some of my Grimoire cards; then my mind exploded.
Reading into those “Darkness” cards you referenced (reading one is why I looked this theory up in the first place and found this article) I found “Ghost Fragment: Darkness 3”. This thing is long, but intriguing. It talks, in much greater extent, about truth, and how the only truth is there is a win and a loss. From atomic creation to rulers conquering worlds, life and existence is all simply a battle.
That got me interested. What got me was the last paragraph. You may need to read the card for full context, but here’s what I got:
“Of course, it might be that there was another country, with other queens, and in this country they sat down together and made one law and one tower and one army to guard their borders. This is the dream of small minds: a gentle place ringed in spears.
But I do not think those spears will hold against the queen of the country of armies. And that is all that will matter in the end.”
Umm… Holy. Shit.
This lore directly references the futility of Earth, or the Guardians. Pretty weird, right?
How does this tie in to the theory that we are darkness, willing or unwilling, was all that I could think.
The Ghost said to me: You are a dead thing made by a dead power in the shape of the dead. All you will ever do is kill. You do not belong here. This is a place of life.
The Traveller is life, I said. You are a creature of Darkness. You seek to deceive me.
This is going to sound detached for the moment, but bear with me.
We died. That is fact. Now we somehow… live? But, do we?
The Ghost “revived” us. Even in the future, seems a little iffy. We died, done and done. But somehow, the Ghost sparked a consciousness in our mind that awoke us. [i]But it [b]wasn’t us[/b][/i]. Our new conscious is darkness. We once were people underneath the Traveler. But for whatever reason, it chose us. When we died, we were sought out, and the underlying subconscious of darkness was awoken.
Notice how the Fallen squad at the start was following our Ghost? Why? They didn’t seem to be an attack team, they seemed like they were sent out as a defensive team to eliminate the Ghost (and protect us?). The Fallen and the Hive were both races victim to the Traveler’s attack. The Vex, however… The Vex are the Traveler’s own creation. [i]They are organic robots.[/i] They were constructed from the, well, fallen Fallen and Hive, to serve as the Traveler’s army.
Then there’s the lone Guardian. She is the last hope [i]anyone[/i] has in existence. She is a Guardian not borne from light, without a Ghost. She is seen radioing someone, possibly sending coordinates. To whom? And why?
Look at our weapons and armor. Specifically exotics! Most of them have a dark look to them, made from crude remains. We are simply playing a part. There is still good in each Guardian, but it is hidden under layers of brainwash and story from the original dark bringer, The Traveller. All seemed well, just like in the show V. Aliens come and are nice, help us but deep down have something they want in return, be it willing ir forced out. The speaker is still yet to be revealed as to what race he is. This could be a major game changer too! Bungie was created a time twisted and apocalyptic world with little to no knowledge because they want us to experience what it myst be like for the guardian. The traveller forces you through the Ghosts to go where it wants you. You are bidding to something powerful with motives unknown. A Gaurdian is made from the dead because the living cannot do what the dead can. To the traveller humans were nothing, stupid and frail. Even showing them that once we have reached almost godhood humans are still vulnerable, but an entity with so much power has learned it in dark ways. What if all the other enemies are just like the Guardians. Been given names like us and sent to earth because we are all viewed as darkness to the Traveller. He comes and becomes worshiped, and he himself beseiges life against life. Fallen were smart, Cabal were smart, Humans were smart, until all corrupted by the Traveller, now, everything is enemy. Bungie forces you to be the Guardian, to be in the dark and see what happens when it happens… It is perfect. Maybe not what paying gamers are lookibg fir right away, but they know how to make stories, and their’s usually end in a bang!
Bungie has a penchant for using biblical themes in their games.
In halo you have the Ark, The Flood. Both from genesis, the “beginning”
This game is about humanity recovering from a great collapse, an “ending”
Look at the last book of the bible: Revelation.
The traveler is this disembodied entity, giving his energy, his power to the mortals.
He has a political figure who knows the will of this entity.
The Speaker
He also has prophets who have been given the power to even raise the dead.
The Ghosts
What we are seeing is a literal satanic trinity.
The Traveler is Satan
The Speaker is the “Beast of the Sea”(political leader)
The Ghosts embody the False Prophet (beast of the earth) which was granted power to perform miracles to dominate the minds of the people into worship of a false god.
The Stranger (Exo Female you meet) was not forged in Light. But it’s believed the Exo were created during the Golden Age. If that was the case, we have been lied to by the speaker. The Traveler ended our Golden Age.
Your post makes me think of “death of the author.” We’re the owners of this story now and it is what we make of it. The Indoctrination Theory of ME3 is fascinating regardless of rather or not you believe it. It’s fascinating not because of the idea necessarily, but because of the presentation of it by the fans. Acayvos (sp?) YouTube videos were outstanding. Anyway… I digress.
Humanity finds a misterious thing on mars and use it to advance civilization and create weapons, goes to new worlds and if there is life there it tries to control it, if that doesn’t work then destroy it. Those extraterrestial races just want to exterminate the race that is dangerous to the universe
well, this being a year later with the taken king out now, proves all this is a fantasy and will not be true. We know that the hive is “the darkness”. Though something fishy could be going on with the speaker, but not the traveler.