This will be a relatively short theory, some people have done something like this before before but this is my take on it. You thought oryx or the vex were true darkness? The vex were easily taken by Oryx. Therefore Oryx is the darker of the darkness. But there's a little line of dialogue from so far back that we all may have forgotten. [quote]"The hive have seen thousands of worlds taken by the darkness"[/quote] One would think that to just be Oryx at first glace but it seems carefully worded to drive away from that. The hive watched the darkness take worlds. As in the hive watched a separated entity (the darkness) consume worlds. What does this mean? There's something else out there, with unknown intentions and an unknown form. We do know things about them though. They really like gardens. Card>Allies>Rasputin>Ghost fragment: Rasputin 4:[quote]And you are not one of IT [the flower eater, the queen of final shapes, that which also inhabits its petitioners][/quote] The [i]Queen[/i] of final shapes? This is the darkness, but it would seem it may have "relations" with the hive. They also may be the creators of the black garden itself. Card>enemies>The Taken>The Taken: [quote]Oryx wields this power. But Oryx did not make it. We face the same flower we met in the black garden.[/quote]So we know the black heart wasn't created by Oryx and it wasn't created by the vex but it's power is similar to that of the taken power. The darkness may be very like the taken but with their own shape. Another distinguishing feature of the darkness is it's fondness of gardens. The vex have no need for a garden so it's more likely the darkness created the garden with the black heart and it also seems it may have a certain "blind spot" with gardens. Card>Activities>Crucible arenas>Crossroads: [quote]A hidden report to Ikora mentioned, "they[the vex] clove this ruin out of the land, possibly to defend themselves from a long-vanished enemy, or perhaps to isolate the land for experimentation. [/quote] This may have been how the vex hid themselves from the darkness when it attacked. Maybe the darkness overlooked this kind of area? But according to Rasputin IT ate "flowers". Maybe flowers of it's own origin. When he refers to it eating the flowers I can only assume he means mercury as it was a garden world. It attacked that garden because it wasn't a garden IT made. I guess you could consider the darkness's garden as a sort of check point system, so it can tell where it's been and where it hasn't. A calling card if you will. To sum up. We know the darkness is a separate entity that has similar power to the taken but doesn't bow to Oryx's will, and it "likes gardens". It's very powerful and may be lead by the "queen of shapes". The traveler must have fought it back and put it in a place where it had to recover, but at a cost. Extra little bit: [spoiler]This is going on a limb and likely isn't right but the darkness might be cephalopods....Why do I say this? Phanin mentions his love of cephalopods numerous times in our gear. Because he was in the vault of glass, maybe he saw a vision of the darkness. He also mention about how he "looks up" when he enters a room because he doesn't want to"get his head bitten off". IDK, maybe Pahanin was just outright crazy but I feel like it's worth a mention.[/spoiler] So what do you think? anything I'm missing, Anything you think makes more sense? I'll make an extended theory if I get anything substantial. edit list: [spoiler]Big edit: I wanted to come back and re-work this theory with the new things I've learned in the lore (as it has been a long while since I first made this.)[/spoiler] [quote]Back to master thread: [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/205238605?showBanned=0&path=0[/url][/quote] Cheers. :D