<Welcome back... yes I did draw for this post. I'm on break and have some free time. Moving on. Khartion, Archival Mind https://i.imgur.com/TrWJBla.jpg was the keeper of the map of the Infinite Forest. The simulation then decided to redirect the Cabal to terminate the map... which then included its keeper. Thuun failed to destroy it and Khartion failed to not die... I mean c'mon he was killed in seconds. Anyway. Khartion, Archival Mind is a real mind. But did he actually die? To understand that, we need to know more about the Simulant Present and the very thing that it connects to... the Infinite Forest itself. Brief history on the Infinite Forest and what it is just in case: The Infinite Forest is a massive reality engine designed to simulate multiple instances, each instance is a test to see if it fits into the Vex's ultimate plan. The Infinite Forest is hosted by Panoptes, Infinite Mind. It was built into the core of Mercury, requiring the hollowing-out of its core. Sagira says this about the Simulant Present: "This is a combat loop: a simulation of the recent past when the Cabal attacked Mercury." So the area IS a simulation. So, he isn't dead? Well... "And before you ask: everything in here IS real enough to kill you." - Sagira, Beyond Infinity AND Panoptes was found in the Infinite Forest. He is only in the Infinite Forest. If the Infinite Forest isn't... REAL, then Panoptes shouldn't be real either. That's not true, though because Panoptes is the one controlling the machine that is the Infinite Forest. It's the one spinning the gears. Assuming that the Vex are smart, then the one that keeps the -blam!-ing map of their great reality engine would have to be hidden away inside that very engine. Making it difficult to find for any random person. Sagira isn't a random person and has been inside the Infinite Forest many times with Osiris. Plus Ikora had the idea of looking through the Pyramidion. Speaking of which, Sagira finds the coordinates for the Atlas Grove in the Pyramidion. She says it is IN the Infinite Forest. This kinda makes it difficult to say if the Atlas Grove is a real place on Mercury or just exclusive to the Forest. Considering that the Vex don't like to stray from reality too much, the Atlas Grove might just be real. However... in the Tree of Probabilities STRIKE (not mission) Khartion appears again... only to get rekt a second later. That entire simulation is a combat loop. Khartion will always die in this loop. Considering how difficult it is to restore a Vex mind, this has to be a simulated Archival Mind. But the loop is also a part of the recent past. The Cabal might've killed the real Archival Mind during that time, especially if the simulated present is accurate to those events. This also takes into consideration the strength of the Red Legion. They pretty much wiped the Vex off of Mars, destroying the gate to the Black Garden and destroying major structures. They tore Mercury in half for god's sake. I have another problem as we don't know if the map for the Infinite Forest is located in the real Atlas Grove. If it isn't, then the Archival Mind in Tree of Probabilities would've been the real one. Thoughts? Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/6lD47 >