Like many, I’ve always speculated about the global Destiny story and universe. The nature of the dark and the light. The purpose and origin of the traveler. What is the point of all this?
Tl;dr
[spoiler] The traveler is the creation of humanity in another timeline. That’s why it chose to stay when it found us here in our timeline. Ghosts were created by the traveler in its last efforts and copies of its human creators minds housed inside the traveler were put on them. This is why ghost can only raise one person, and only one specific person. This is the “Destiny”. A full circle story line as destiny that the traveler would find humans again, linking past and present.[/spoiler]
And it seems as we finish year 2, we are left with more questions than we started.
But, I think Bungie has dangled a few loose threads that I could see being woven together to complete the story. And they’ve done it before too. In year 1, scattered across a few random grimoire cards were subtle hints at the dependency on hive for worms, and the existence of a symbiotic relationship with them. As we found in the TTK, the worm hints manifested into what I consider to be the most significant lore content yet, the book of sorrows, where the hive origins and worm gods were revealed.
So much like those worm hints, I think there are some other hints. And that is where my post starts.
So what is the common theme of subtle hints that prompted this? A singularity (a black hole). Throughout several cards, references to black holes, singularities, etc are made.
Let’s talk creation. Whether you attribute it to God or you call it the big bang, our universe, life, all began with the mass of an entire universe condensed to single point. Nothing outside that point existed.
I believe the “final shape” discussed in the book of sorrows to be a similar singularity, a black hole. A black orb in which nothing exists but itself. I believe this to be the end game the darkness/deep is seeking to achieve. The end of life. Not just death, but the removing of conditions and elements and factors in which life could be conceivably created. All the universe contained back in a black hole. The end, final victory. Remember the discussion in Darkness 3 by Toland about the nature of the Darkness:
[spoiler] (Excerpt) “…This is the shape of victory: to rule the universe so absolutely that nothing will ever exist except by your consent. This is the queen at the end of time…”[/spoiler]
This creates a nice symmetry with the traveler. A white sphere that creates life juxtaposed to a black sphere that ends it. Real yin and yang shit.
So the traveler creates life which extends and expands the universe while the deep seeks to eliminate such things in order to expedite the final result (the black hole).
So here is my speculation, assuming my belief on the nature of the final shape to be true.
I think that humanity in one timeline attempted to hide from the darkness in a black hole. Only that in being inside the black hole, you aren’t exactly dead, you just don’t exist in our universe (beyond the event horizon). So humanity erased from existence in the universe, but not dead. I think Humans built a device, a machine, that was able to return from the black hole and cross the event horizon back into our universe…the Traveler. The traveler was purposed to seek out and create life in the universe, to counter the efforts of the darkness.
We wonder why the traveler chose to stay at earth (we can debate that flee vs stay lore elsewhere, but can at least agree, Bungie intentionally chose Destiny to be in our solar system) is because the traveler recognized it’s creators, humans. That is the Destiny. It was destiny that the traveler would eventually find its own creators in our universe/timeline.
In fact, taking it a step further. I believe it is highly probable that copies of the human minds that created the traveler are actually housed inside of it (think like the Ishtar Scientist in the Vex cards).
That is why humanity was uniquely gifted with the traveler’s light. Why guardians exists.
So how did the traveler give guardians their light? Ghosts. I believe ghosts to be the mechanical housing of the consciousness from the original humans who created the traveler. Much like an exo with its mind wiped, no memory of their former life. The traveler in its last efforts puts the consciousness of its inhabitants into mechanical bodies (Ghosts) infused with light.
So since most are thinking I’m crazy by now, I’ll take it one step further. Know how Ghosts wander around for centuries looking for specific people to raise up? They don’t just raise up the first person they see. I think the consciousness the ghost contains is somehow linked to our guardian, and only once the ghost finds the genetically correct person to match the consciousness it houses, can it raise forth a guardian. Meaning we found ourselves.
EDIT: forgot to add, it is possible that Savathun figured this out. Read the gift mast card in book of sorrows. The gift mast is a relativistic jet (Google it) from a black hole. The hive are at war with the harmony. The book says that Savathun achieves some secret purpose and later Savathun asks that she separates from oryx and grow different and goes into the black hole. Whatever secret purpose she found among the harmony, I think there is a connection and it was important enough to cause her to leave oryx for the first time in millennia. Possibly discovering the travelers origin?
Think of it as a bastardized version of Marathon and Halo (Precursors-> Mantle/Humans) rolled up in space magic.
So to tie my rampant speculation back to grimoire. There is only one grimoire card for Ghosts, Ghost Fragment: Ghosts. It is located in the spoiler below. I’ve added my interpretations in parenthesis.
[spoiler]
Beyond.
It is a place, a place casting shadows and emotion.
It’s a real place, I know.
One hot blue sun, say. And other suns too. Five? I like seven better. What I’m recalling is a giant star with a family of size smaller suns, and you could spend days and nights counting all the planets circling those suns….except there are no planets. Not anymore. ([i]This is the ghost’s memory of life and the system they lived in before the black hole[/i]). The powers in charge have carved up all of the worlds, and maybe a brown dwarf or two for good measure. With that rubble, they fashioned a topologically creative enclosure, a twisting of space and time sealed behind doors that admit only those who know the magic words. The bones of a hundred planets have been cut smooth and laid out like a floor, a polished and lovely floor creating vast living spaces. A floor bigger than ten thousand worlds, catching the fierce glory of the seven suns. For light, for food. For beauty. And nothing escapes. Not heat, not gravity. Not even the faintest proud sound. ([i]This is the black hole being created, being created for them[/i])
It could be anywhere. It can live in the cold between galaxies, or folded up inside matter, near enough to touch right now…[i](invisible to us in our reality [/i])
I remember it and maybe it’s exactly as I describe it. Seven suns wrapped inside magic. Or it’s something else entirely, perhaps. A place still fat with life. An abundance of sentient souls, some decent, maybe a few of lesser quality, and everyone stands about or floats about, or they bounce between dimensions. The point is that the residents of this hidden realm live inside a bottle so perfectly hidden that they can’t see beyond their own borders. Which shapes a mind in very specific ways. ([i]This is the ghost memory of them being on the inside of the black hole, the hidden realm[/i])
But, Beyond is their name for a mysterious, doubtful realm that they can’t see.([i] beyond the event horizon[/i])
Which is us ([i] humanity[/i]), of course.
[/spoiler]
I don’t think it coincidence that the only Ghost grimoire card seems be some hazy, vague memory of something that seems very much to be describing the creation of a black hole. A solar system worth of suns and planets wrapped up into space time (aka, black hole). In fact I think I know the name of that solar system.....Alpha Lupi. As in dreams of. That's why the travelers dreams are so confused. It's having trouble differentiating what time line its on.
Now realize, I fully suspect I’m wrong on many if not all items in this theory. At a minimum, I hope it generates some creative thoughts. But this is my thoughts on what the destiny story will be about.’
Hope you enjoyed the read
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But the traveler went to the fallen first