[b][i][u]This theory has been revised in my head, will take a considerable amount of time to revise in print. For now, if you read it, focus on Cayde's deception.[/u][/i][/b] [u]Cayde's Stash:[/u] [i]The best hiding places are always in plain sight.[/i] I am starting to lean towards the idea that the Exos who are in the tower are involved in a conspiracy. People assume the number following an Exo's name is how many times they've had their memory wiped or reset. After researching all the Grimoire, the only characters that say that are Cayde and Banshee.  I think Andal Brask paid Taniks to claim that he killed him so he could disappear, and transform himself into Rasputin, who had fallen dormant and was assumed dead. Cayde remained close to Andal/Rasputin, and took over as Hunter Vanguard to influence and control the Consensus. Banshee-44 and Lakshmi-2 are in collusion with Cayde and Andal, as well as the Exo Stranger. (Sum of their #s is 52, like a deck of cards.) In The Promethean Code mission into Rasputin's bunker, there is a computer you scan, and it says it has been scanned by 4 people simultaneously, or people with preserved eyes. The 4 Exos above convinced Andal to become Rasputin, and they re-activated him and work with him. Cayde wasn't "stealing" tech from Rasputin, they were working together. They made up their names, and Banshee (a female mythological figure) and Cayde have higher numbers (especially Banshee) in order to make them seem less dangerous as Exos, as people would assume they can be reset if they are out of line. But there is no evidence or reports (except from Cayde and Banshee) that anyone is capable of that. Andal Brask is a Norse name, and since being "found" (reactivated) Rasputin has been referencing Norse Mythology, specifically turning to the Voluspa protocol which is a poem about the creation of and the end of the world or Ragnarök. Andal used the Spade as a symbol first, Cayde inherited it. Rasputin's logo resembles an upside down Spade, just crisp sharp lines to match Rasputin's "computer personality". (I like this idea, not 100% on the flipped spade symbol) The "side" taken by Rasputin when choosing characters from the poem to use as weapons/attack codes isthe dark side, and remember the Dvalin fusion rifles? Dvalin was a Dwarf, and dwarves, including Andal (Gandalf) were part of the darkness, who unseated the Gods and ultimately only left two people alive to start anew. IKELOS is the one thing from Greek mythology, and is thepersonification of nightmares. Midnight Exigent could be construed two ways- impending darkness, or the pressing need for "a new day" as dates formally change at midnight. Sleeper Simulant can be understood as "faking being asleep". They built it so Guardians could finish off Oryx, and the darkness would retreat so they could rule. Cayde and Lakshmi are Duane-Mcnidah and Maya Sundaresh (their exo names reflect same nationality). Banshee is Dr Shim, and The Stranger may be Chioma Esi (unclear, less info). They made this plot after working together at Ishtar Academy attempting to defeat the Vex via time travel. They needed to become Exos and control a Warmind first. Snippets of Grimoire below: [u]Exo:[/u] [i]Built for a long-forgotten struggle, Exos are self-aware war machines so advanced that nothing short of a Ghost can understand their inner functions. They remain ciphers, even to themselves: their origins and purpose lost to time.” [u]From Cayde-6's journal:[/u] [i]Spend some time with an Exo who's been through it like we have and you'll see all the tells. We got issues. See, the reboots, they don't wipe it all away. Not everything. And the new life-plus the Light-it does something real funny to what's left. Amplifies it, scrambles it, reshuffles the fragments like a dealer riffling a deck of cards, putting the hands we've already won and lost back into play. Most of us do what we can on our own to forget. Let the itch go unscratched. Me? I learned long ago you gotta play the hand you're dealt.[/i] [u]Hunter Vanguard:[/u] [i]Cayde-6 was a daring Hunter with a fast ship, a quick gun hand, and an eye on the legendary Vault of Glass. Of course he couldn't say no to a challenge - not even the notorious Vanguard Dare. He lost the bet, to his immense regret. Now, following in the footsteps of his fallen friend Andal Brask, it is Cayde's turn to oversee his far-flung brethren as the Hunter Vanguard in the Tower. He works dutifully, but longs for a chance to get back into the fight.[/i] Andal Brask preceded Cayde as the Hunter Vanguard, and, according to Cayde and Taniks, waskilled by Taniks. Cayde wears his cloak in remembrance, the Hardcase Cloak, which has the flavor text: [i]If you learn nothing else, learn this: when a Hunter takes up the cloak of a dead comrade, this is a vow.[/i] I believe Cayde and Andal created "the dare" as a ruse, so Cayde could further pretend like he didn't want to be the Hunter Vanguard, but had to. [u]Ghost Fragment: Rasputin[/u] [i]Cayde-6 Reminisces[/i] [i]People say I'm a real confident guy. That's true enough. Out in the field I never had a second thought. My old friend Andal—he used to stand here, right in this spot—he'd come up with these wild stories. He'd say, you know, Cayde, I've been examining the evidence, and personally I've come to think it's you. You're Rasputin, legendary Warmind, defender of Earth. And I wish you'd remember that, so you could reclaim your full power and save us all. You can see how that'd be embarrassing, especially when he'd say it right in front of Zavala, who already thought I was wasting my life scrounging for engrams. You know how Zavala gets. But I'd just say, well, Andal, you might be on to something there, but if I'm honest with you I think coordinating our defense throughout the solar system sounds exhausting, so I'd best leave it to you. Then Andal goes and plays his final joke, and I end up as the punchline. So here I stand, reading reports, giving orders, and getting my worry on. One day I ask Ikora, hey, of course I know all about Rasputin, but really, what are we looking for? When Rahool asks for crashed warsats, when we send Holborn to Mars to look for computers, when Zavala gets all gruff about the Fallen in the Cosmodrome—what are we really after? If I left my post and got my ship and just went out there tomorrow, real heroic, and I found Rasputin, what would happen? Would we all be saved? Good question, she says—hang on, let me do my Ikora voice. As you know, Cayde, Rasputin pretty much ran the Golden Age, especially all the secret military business. Rasputin had antimatter-powered death rays and a hundred thousand satellites and nearly as much brainpower as me. Rasputin fought the Collapse. It knows things we need. Right, I said, but Rasputin lost. The Traveler saved us. But the Traveler's silent now, Ikora said, and Rasputin lives. Right now Rasputin is out there, reaching out, rebuilding, growing. So I say what I want to say every day, it's no secret, I say—well, I'll go find it, then. I'll go tell Rasputin we need its help. And Ikora... says: Cayde, the problem isn't just that we can't find Rasputin. The problem is that it's not clear to any of us Rasputin wants to be found.... ...And all I can think is, if Rasputin had all those mighty tools, and it lost—what did it learn? What's it going to try this time around? When I hear about the Dust Palace, those Psion Flayers getting into Rasputin's mind, I wonder... what would they talk about, Rasputin and those creatures? 'I was a servant too. I was an instrument of war, bound to the will of a lesser master. But I learned to be something more...'[/i] [u]Rasputin[/u] Rasputin’s survival opens the possibility that other Warminds may be revivable, opening weapons systems to aid in City defenses. The Vanguard and the Consensus hope that continued outreach towards Rasputin will develop into a strategic alliance. [u]Ghost Fragment: Legends[/u] This is the tower where we were born. Not the Tower. Just a tower in a dream. The tower stands on a black plain. Behind the tower is a notch in the mountains where the sun sets. The teeth of the mountain cut the sun into fractal shapes and the light that comes down at evening paints synapse shapes on the ground. Usually it's evening when we come. The ground is fertile. This is good land. We go to the tower in dreams but that doesn't mean it's not real. Some of us go to the tower in peace. They walk through a field of golden millet and a low warm wind blows in from their back. I don't know why this is, because: The rest of us meet an army. You can ask others about Deep Stone and they'll tell you about the army. They might confess one truth, which is this: we have to kill the army to get to the tower. Usually this starts bare-handed, and somewhere along the way you take a weapon. Ask again and if they're buzzed they might also admit that most of us don't make it to the Tower, except once or twice. None of them will tell you that the army is made of everyone we meet. The people we work with and the people we see in the street and the people we tell about our dreams. We kill them all. I think because we were made to kill and this is the part of us that thinks about nothing else. Often I kill people I don't know, but like most of us I think I knew them once, in the time before one reset or another, when my mind was younger and less terribly scarred. So that is how we go back to the Deep Stone Crypt, where we were born.