Warning, very long. Approximately 1742 words. Now that Season of Opulence has been released, we have two new lore books. One of them called “The Chronicon”, is probably the most important piece of text that Bungie has ever released. It gives us a vast description of Calus’ history and future, which is connected very closely to ours. It starts with the first book I. I am assuming that the titles of the books are Roman Numerals. Stating that: “The following pages are a true and authentic publication of the incredible deeds and remarkable discoveries of the Emperor Calus, greatest emperor of the Cabal, witnessed by his most loyal allies and recorded by his most trusted scribes.”, the book gives us a clear message that this book is true, or at least they want us to think that. It talks about how Calus started the Chronicon, after he was betrayed by his allies. Calus was originally going to be killed, but from popular choice, he was exiled instead, in a prison barge called the Leviathan. Unrelated, but this pretty much proves that there is no relation between the Leviathan in the Books of Sorrow and this Leviathan. He was sent on a unchangeable course away from the Cabal home planet, Torobatl. Calus makes a speech, and leaves, taking his advisors and scribes, which are the narrators of these books. The second book, is called DLXXVIII. This is 578 in Decimal, so it is probably a long time after the first, although it does say many days after launching, which could mean that Calus is using a different form of Roman Numerals, or another system altogether, however, in It Stared Back, Calus says that it was years, or millenia, since they had departed and until they reached the wall of infinite black. However long it had been, something happened. I’ll let the book describe it. “It was as if the ship had been plucked from the cosmos like a berry by some gargantuan hand, rolled between forefinger and thumb, squeezed and tested for ripeness, and then, having been found satisfactory, slung backward in an unknowable direction toward an unknowable maw.” Something had been done to the ship, and then it was thrown in a direction unknown to the passengers. Soon after, I’m assuming it stopped, as Calus got out of the ship in a pressure-gel suit, to “see the destination of my banishment in private." Twelve hours later, Calus returns. He returns in book DLXXIX, 579. The part that happens here as been talked about in other sources, such as the Leviathan raid weapons. The scribe describes what Calus said here: "Outside the ship, the Emperor looked over the edge of the universe, and saw nothing. That is, it wasn't that he saw nothing unusual, but he saw Nothing: the absence of light, dark, life, death, the absence of anything, even of absence itself. And out of the Nothing, there came whispering in a dark language, which filled his head so loud that he forgot for a moment his own language, and suddenly the Nothingness dispersed to show Something, which was a fleet of foreign ships. He saw next the destruction of a great many worlds and creatures, including all his enemies, and himself, and he saw the rot and fragmentation of his own corpse and skeleton. And last, before he was released, the whispers grew louder and granted him the honor of spreading the news of the end." This is clearly the tetrahedron ships from the end of Destiny 2’s campaign. Another quote is “Death is coming, and It has made me Its herald. The end will eat everything.", so clearly describing a cataclysmic event in the future involving the tetrahedrons. Not much happens in DCII, 602, except a small description of his Shadows. In DCV, 605, Calus talks about a failed assassination attempt on Ghaul, and how he had “spoiled the whole batch [of Shadows]” It starts to really get interesting in DCCII, 702. Calus starts by meditating on the failure of his Shadows, until a messenger tells him of the Guardian killing Ghaul in the Sol System. What might have been a boring bossfight for us was a huge event for Calus, because he immediately started making plans to go meet the Guardian. He also tells his advisors to build robotic clones of himself, which are the original Leviathan raid boss. In DCCLXXXIX, 789, Calus writes the Guardian a love letter. It is unsent however, because he was probably too embarrassed to send it to the Guardian. Here is the link because it is quite long: https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/dcclxxxix#book-the-chronicon In DCCCVII, 807, we start to step into the future. This future was shown to Calus at the edge of the universe, by the tetrahedron ships perhaps.This could be near or far, we don’t know. The Hero of the Guardians becomes a Shadow, and they have a huge banquet. Calus speaks to the Guardian, saying: "You represent the dawning of a new era. The last era before the end. I will have you at my side as this petty world meets Death." MCXII, 1108, starts with Calus asking the Guardian, the Shadow of Shadows, to find an army of Shadows. THe Guardian looks throughout the Fallen race, picking Mithrax to become a Shadow who, partnered with the Guardian, killed all of the other Fallen, a surprising twist from seemingly peace loving Mithrax. The Guardian offers Shadowship (?) to the Queen Mara Sov, who had appeared with the title Shipbreaker. This might mean something but I don’t know much about Mara’s lore. She, however, rejected the Guardians offer, so she was murdered by the Guardian in that moment, on her throne. Petra Venj joined the Shadows though, and then Petra and the Guardian exterminate the other Awoken, very very surprising considering Petra’s loyalty to her race. Calus welcomes them as Shadows. MCXVII, 1118, hasn’t got much, other than a description of the Shadows breaking into the Inner Sanctum, revealing hundreds of years of lost knowledge, as well as the Aphelion, being spoken about in Dreaming City lore, who are the most powerful being ever, having the power to destroy entire planets in the blink of an eye. Mithrax was killed in a battle outside the Sanctum. He didn’t last long. This next page, MCXX, 1120, however, is the most pivotal point in the entire book. Rasputin and the Vanguard respond to the growing strength of Calus and the Shadows, and contacts Calus to remove his forces from the planets and moons, or they would respond with deadly force. Calus didn’t want to, because he didn’t fear the Vanguard and Rasputin, but he allowed the Guardian to have a meeting with them. The Guardian spoke well of Calus, but the Vanguard decided to start a war. The Guardian reacts pretty interestingly, with: "Who do you think I am? Without me, you have only a dwindling army of ambivalent soldiers. I am the Young Wolf. I killed the Taken King. I defeated Ghaul, I roused the Traveler, I silenced the Moon, I stopped the invasion, I broke the curse, I broke the Houses, I killed the queen! I am the Shadow of Earth!" I really love this quote because A) We are finally saying something, and standing up for ourselves, and B) We finally get recognition of what we’ve done. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS: “I broke the curse.” At some point, we do indeed break the curse on the Dreaming City. It will happen! One other notable thing is “I stopped the invasion.” I don’t know if this is referring to something that has already happened, or will happen. Either way, this is pretty important. The Guardian then attacks Hellas Basin and Rasputin, “ that left the War Machine in cinders. The Vanguard surrender and beg for mercy, but the Guardian denies their pleas. Next part is in the tag.