I've been lore diving for the past few days and I came across quite a few interesting reads. Some were about vault of glass. Anyway I was discussing what I showed to my friend and he got snagged on the part about atheon fighting unlimited guardians and not dying instantly. So I wanted to create a thread to explain my perspective. Atheon is time. Or at least inside the vault atheon is time. There for he always exists because time exists. So how do we defeat him? what is times vengence? Why doesn't killing him in our time kill him forever? How can we leave if we are at the end of time? Let's start simple. Time's vengence isn't a conventional buff. it's actually a merger of every other single time line. We aren't literally doing extra damage. merely all other time lines in where atheon has fought, will fight, or is fighting other guardians is being directed into our time line for a short time. Why doesn't killing him in our time line kill him in other time lines? Well this is also simple. When WE defeat atheon we are only defeating our timeline's version of atheon. Our time line is not directly connected with others. only when times vengance happens. On top of that we know there are timelines that exist that atheon wins in. this is evidence by kabrs attempt failing. Why doesn't killing atheon in our timeline kill him forever? Well as we know the vault of glass is not in line with the time line outside of the vault. If this were true kabr wouldn't be remembered by anyone. And as far as we know the vex inside the vault don't have power outside of the vault. So time is displaced inside the vault. freely manipulated by the vex inside. If we actually defeat atheon the templer or oracles could have seen this coming. and simply un do it. They have the power to see the future and manipulate time after all. How are we able to leave? Well this is major speculation on my part. But I feel that we can leave because upon defeating atheon we should be at the end of time. Because after all atheon is time. and time goes on forever. I'm thinking there is a fissure. A moment in time and space where we created a tear. Because we basically achieved the impossible. So basically I believe there is a small pocket of existence because of our actions. that allows us to leave. And the oracles simply "restart" time inside the vault preventing time from unraveling inside the vault. And because it's possible for them to do so it will always be possible. So time never truly ends. Saved the best for last. How do we defeat atheon? If according to what's been previously stated is true atheon should take unlimited damage the moment timelines merge and be destroyed constantly forever. But he doesn't. So isn't there an issue? NO. Not if you look at damage as a different way. We are not actually damaging atheon, we are un writing his existence. And we already know this is a slow process due to what we know about kabr. Now imagine instead of kabr being un written we are un atheon. And atheon is time. So we are unwriting time itself. Which completely explains both why it takes so long to "kill" him and why time's vengence has such a huge effect on atheon. With times vengence we are basically using infinite time from other timelines to un write our own time line. Which is why the process is so much faster. Anyway that's just my take on the whole thing. I'm not claiming I know the truth. Just my perspective. If I wasn't clear enough please let me know and i'll try to make something simpler. Thanks for reading!