Alright boys, Combat Mind gave up on passing down the series since no one posted any entries, that’s how lazy I was. So here I am, writing this instead of doing my homework. I’m just gonna hope he sees it, and go ahead and post. Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong or if I was unclear, or just comment if you wanna talk about lore! Causality! For the longest time, I actually thought that this word said “Casuality”, and I thought it was referring to the likes of horrible “casual” gamers like me, who cause our teammates to go red with rage and our opponents to jump for joy when we’re in the lobby. But no. I got addicted to Destiny’s lore, and so here I am. As my very good friend Wikipedia puts it: “Causality is the study of cause and effect.” For example, I did not write my LfD contest entry, so the author discontinued the series. Cause -> Effect. You with me so far? Good. Now, how does this pertain to Destiny, you might ask? Good question, you’ve come to the right place. So, let’s take a cause and effect example from Destiny: Savathun tricks Crota into tearing a hole in space-time, and through that hole come our favorite cuddly war machines, the Vex. You still with me? Good. So, the basic rule of causality is that the effect cannot occur before the cause. For example, I couldn’t be studying hard because I passed the big test. (Or maybe you can, but we call these people brown-nosing dweebs). Anywayz, think of causality as a microwave: you put cold, fresh-from-box food in, you get an edible substance out. This rule seems pretty obvious and unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it actually has huge consequences for the flow of space-time continuum. To maintain life as we know it without creating time loops (*cough Dreaming City cough*) or other disasters, the cause always comes before the effect. But what if that wasn’t the case? This is where we get into acausality and paracausality, two big words that are often thrown around in conversations about Destiny’ lore. First, acausality. This means “without causality” or something like that. So imagine that you somehow here on Bungie.net reading this post, but you haven’t put in the link for B.net or opened the app. So, the cause happened because of the effect. You still with me? Good good good. The best example of acausality in Destiny is the Vex. The Vex can defy the Laws of Physics, they seek to master time, to can erase things from existence, they can put their own will into the flow of reality. But here’s the trick about that: to defy the laws of physics, said laws must exist. Therefore, even in breaking the law, the Vex are acknowledging its existence. You science nerds out there might recognize this as the fourth dimension. Shoo! This is Lore for Dummies! The rest of the Lore subforum is for you guys! No, I’m just kidding, you can stay. But for real though: Vex. Acausality. Fourth dimension. Beta males. You guys still here? Just wait, it gets even better. Now, Paracausality! This one I actually think is a little misnamed, or at least misleading in the naming. The prefix para- means “sort of” or “semi” or “half”, or something like that. I mean, I hope it does, I’m not actually googling this stuff. But regardless, I couldn’t come up with a better name, so that’s that. Simply put, paracausality means [b]beyond causality[/b]. So whereas the Vex might have the power to write the future before the past, Big Daddy Oryx rejects the whole system. Remember when Oryx kicked Quria’s behind? That’s because for all the Mind’s acausal power, it has systematic limits that were predictable. The Vex want to control time. Oryx seeks to destroy it. To consume. This is why Oryx’s power destroyed the Vex bomb logic. In theory, it would take a being with paracausal power to defeat another. We see this in the Books of Sorrow, Book XVI: The Sword Logic, Verse 2:6- [quote]“We knew curiosity would draw you back, Auryx. In their desperation, the Ammonite have begun using paracausal weapons. What are these? How do they work? Wouldn’t you like to know. Suffice to say that some powers in this universe are superordinate to mere material physics. The source of these weapons is the Traveler, the Sky’s bait star. Their effect is subtle, but devastating. But you are armed to respond in kind. Savathûn’s mothers have listened carefully to our teachings. We will not give you the Deep, King Auryx — that power is for us, your gods. But we will teach you to call upon that force with signs and rituals. Small minds might call it magic. You are no longer bound by causal closure. Your will defeats law. Kill a hundred of your children with a long blade, Auryx, and observe the change in the blade. Observe how the universe shrinks from you in terror. Your existence begins to define itself.” [/quote] In other words, the Worm gods have given Auryx paracausal power. The whys and wherefores of this we could talk about for hours. But their reasoning is clear: to combat the power of the Traveler. And yet: we, the Guardian, defeated Oryx. So don’t think for a second that we are merely pawns on a chessboard. We are chessplayers of interdimensional magnitude. We’re pretty damn cool. Still with me? Good for you. Give yourself a pat on the back. Maybe you learned something new, and/or had some fun reading my take on acausality and paracausality. Let me know if there’s anything I could clarify! This is NightHawk377, the third writer of Lore for Dummies, signing off. I hope you’ve enjoyed my first entry, like and subscribe, and I’ll see you in the next one. In the words of ShadowSniper, the creator of LfD: [b]Knowledge is Power. Kill stuff with it. [/b]