At some point, I’ll make a consolidated post about Osiris and his lore. However, I’ve read a lot a mixed reviews about the Osiris lore in CoO and the new web comic. I have my own mixed reviews but one thing I believe is consistently missing from a lot of the discussion is context. So here is the context of the exile of Osiris which should also help reconcile the character of the speaker as witnessed in the comic. One of the most important contexts is the point of history at which Osiris was exiled, and the state of humanity and affairs in general. Osiris was a hero of the Battle of Six Fronts. For those not familiar with D1, this was the first coordinated attack on humanity since the collapse. The attack came from an alien invader to our system, the Fallen, and they attacked directly at the heart of the remnants of the humanity, the last city. The collapse was a near extinction level event, and the last pockets of humanity on earth existed in small villages and communities, who eventually gathered under the traveler and formed the Last City. The reason this is important, is that as one reads the lore, they will see who was attacking humanity, and who wasn’t. The TL;Dr of this is that the Fallen were the threat to humanity at this point in our history. Not the vex, not the hive, not the cabal. In current time, the Fallen seem like the least threatening of the bunch, but at the time of Six Fronts, they were almost our sole enemy. The Hive were but rumors and ghost stories, their actual existence in debate and contained to our Moon. The cabal may or may not have even been in our system yet, and if they were, were a scout team digging in the sand of Mars. The Vex, Osiris’ pet project, they were on Venus and while dangerous from a biological sense, were tinkering with vex structures and a subject of human research and had shown no military position against humanity. This was before the Red War, the Black Garden, the slaughter on the Moon at Mare Imbrium, the Dreadnaught. The threats of the Hive, the Cabal, the Vex, while real…were dark clouds on the horizon. Meanwhile, there was a storm at the door steps. The Fallen were the most near threat to the continued existence of humanity. A humanity protected by guardians, but without the structure and command we see today. A small collection of guardians in a flimsy alliance trying to gain a foothold for humanity. Six Fronts was a major victory for humanity, for guardians. The first victory against an alien invader, first glimmer of hope that humanity could fight back. Yet Six Fronts was just the start, and future attacks (Twilight Gap) would prove even larger. This is the world that Osiris and the Speaker existed in. The Speaker, Ikora, Saint-14, and others, were all frustrated with Osiris. He himself a hero of Six Fronts, the others could not fathom how Osiris could have experienced that attack, seen the Fallen nearly over run humanity first hand…and turn his back to focus on more ethereal threats. They needed his leadership, and he instead focused on those distant clouds on the horizon. Time would prove Osiris correct, that the Fallen were not our greatest threat in the end, but at the time, it seemed heretical to not assist in pushing back the alien hordes clawing at the walls. They likely felt abandoned and angry. And worse still, not only would Osiris refuse the mantle to fight the Fallen hordes, but Osiris’ message became popular amongst the people to the point other followers stopped supporting the fight. A cult of followers arose. Anti-traveler talk began based on the learning of Osiris, and a counter culture emerged. Osiris as we see in the comic, did not desire this, yet did not stop it either. He simply ignored it which allowed it to grow. The Speaker, who had experienced the earliest faction wars of the city, wars where guardians (then more akin to warlords) had killed each other in power grabs, saw the message of Osiris as divisive, and a threat to return to the days of the warlords with feuding principles. A step backward toward chaos that might prove unrecoverable. The speaker in the comic comes across like a dictator, Fahrenheit 451 villain. And he was. Every bit as stubborn and egotistical as Osiris, he felt like his position was correct. And more, including Ikora, agreed with the Speaker than Osiris. There was a ring of Fallen spears around them to address first before beginning any grand campaign against a more distant enemy. They were all partially correct. Had the Fallen at Twilight Gap succeeded in eliminating the Last City and reclaiming the Traveler, then Osiris’ fascination with the Vex would have been in vain. Yet had not Osiris, and Toland, and others who followed in the belief of looking for larger threats, then we would not be prepared to handle what are now greater threats than the Fallen. And as much as a bad guy that the Speaker comes across in the comics, D1 grimoire shows that the Speaker later “apologizes” to Osiris. At least to the point we was willing to hear Osiris out, admit Osiris might have known the truth all along, and sends Saint-14 to find him. http://www.ishtar-collective.net/cards/osiris?highlight=Osiris The Speaker we encountered in D1, and see in D2, is one who has relaxed his views. Seen the controversial teachings of Osiris (and others like Toland) prove true. By then, the context of the Speaker wasn’t just the Battle of Six fronts. It was the Vault of Glass, it was Crota, then Oryx, then the Red Legion. But at the time, the presence of Osiris was deemed too much of a distraction, too controversial, and he was exiled for it. While it certainly in the hindsight of history paints the Speaker in a bad light, the context of events of the time may have indeed required it. This is not to defend the actions, but rather provide the scenario in which such things can occur, and the motivations behind those involved.