This post will cover the path of Calus after Ghaul’s Midnight Coup, including the creation of the Shadows and his arrival at Nessus. This post will not cover the events of the raids or raid lairs, as they are in-game content. To read about what led up to the events in this post, check out my other post on [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/255612717/0/0]Calus’s Purge and Ghaul’s Midnight Coup[/url] I have also made a post listing and describing all of [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/255612812/0/0]Ghaul’s Conspirators[/url] and another post for all of [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/255612852/0/0]Calus’s Shadows[/url] that we know of Now for the lore • • • Banished from his own empire and trapped on a ship set to drift into nothingness for eternity, Calus pouted for half a century. I’m serious. Aboard the Leviathan, Calus did nothing but rage and feel sorry for himself for what is described to be over 50 years. The first few years he spent cursing Ghaul and complaining, but then he grew quiet and sank into an isolated depression. Moral and hope amongst his Loyalists sank lower with time. Although the Leviathan is all but self-sustained and would have allowed them to live out the rest of their lives comfortably (and even continue their bloodlines, if you get my meaning), it was still a cage and they were still separated from the home they had once served. They tried everything to shut off the ship’s autopilot and navigation system, but nothing worked even with Calus’s Psion council aboard. They drifted for years, watching their former home and the universe around them from the observatory onboard the Leviathan. They witnessed Cabal warring against Hive and gazed upon worlds that had long since become barren of life. Then they found the edge. Not the edge of the universe, but the edge where some unknown force defied space itself. The Leviathan’s navigation and other systems malfunctioned upon nearing this other territory, and the Emperor sent out a message. Calus called this place the “black shelf”, probably meaning the place where light and life fell away into darkness and death, and claims to have had the secrets of the universe revealed to him there. Specifically, he says that when he looked out into the dark, it looked back and spoke to him, showing him the death of everything and his own rotting corpse. It is very likely that this force Calus encountered was the Deep/Darkness. When I say this, I mean the Deep that both guided Oryx with the shadow of its presence and followed Oryx to consume the worlds cleansed by the Hive. I mean the pyramid ships, which we have seen resting out in deep space and now move again. The Emperor appeared to his followers after his conversation, happily declaring that death was coming before setting to work. Regaining control of the Leviathan, Calus led his Loyalists out and back towards inhabited space, speaking of the end of all existence approaching and believing himself to be even more enlightened and godly than before. He became obsessed with luxury and enjoying every moment left in his life and wanted to save himself a seat at the end when the last of the universe was consumed by whatever he had seen at the black shelf. He also built robot bodies for himself, probably to ensure he lived to the end of the universe and to allow him the ability to try new things without damaging a normal biological body. And he also has space magic now. I don’t know what’s up with that. So Calus began to roam the universe with no goal but to enjoy himself and survive. Well, that goal and the goal of killing all the conspirators even though he didn’t want to reclaim the empire anymore. I mean, if the universe is ending, might as well check off the old bucket list just so you can have the satisfaction of having done everything you ever wanted. The thing is, Calus had a change of heart once again and suddenly began to speak fondly of Ghaul. Seeing himself as benevolent and forgiving, Calus speaks of understanding the Dominus and feeling sorry for how sad and misguided he is, but also that Ghaul betrayed the Cabal people so must still die to pay for his crimes. Calus began to conquer other species on his return journey through the universe, adding new strength to his Loyalist forces and seeking elite warriors. Not just warriors who could kill Ghaul, but beings of singular superiority that would be worthy of watching the universe die at his side. Basically, Calus wanted some buddies so he wouldn’t die alone. He called these select individuals “Shadows”. He reconquered the Clipse and defeated the Sindu, and even held the Arkborn at gunpoint in their own interstellar conduits (as beings without physical form, they used these to travel and keep their consciousnesses contained). But when all the fighting was over and the aliens waited for the finishing blow, Calus would hold out a welcoming hand and offer a place at his side once more, along with a promise to aid them in whatever way they needed. Shadows were cast from many worlds, and the assassinations of Cabal involved in Ghaul’s Midnight Coup began. Being from many species with many different beliefs, the Shadows got along horribly. Really the only time they didn’t argue was on the job, and the only things that just a few of them could agree on were the arts of war and killing. Many of Ghaul’s conspirators fell to the Shadows before they finally found an opportunity to kill the Dominus himself. It was then that Calus finalized all of his plans. The Leviathan followed the Red Legion to the edge of the Sol system, where Ghaul was preparing to attack Earth and had paused for just a day to celebrate either a Cabal holiday or the beginning of a campaign. But this was not the only purpose for Calus’s trip to our solar system; Calus chose here as his seat to watch the end of all life, near the Traveler that he claimed was also waiting for its arrival. And to drive the point in painfully deep, Calus is saying that death is drawing very near at the exact same time that the Pyramid Ships (aka Darkness) are closing in on Earth. But back to the cool stuff. The Leviathan’s forces clashed with the Red Legion’s while a single transport ship, carrying nearly every Shadow remaining in Calus’s service, slipped through the battle and crashed into Ghaul’s flagship, the Immortal. Only the piloting Shadow, Jarus, died in the crash, and all the other Shadows flooded into the Immortal. The Arkborn Fulminator, being relatively unhindered by physical beings and constraints, nearly killed Ghaul right then and there at the beginning of the assassination attempt. But Ghaul outlasted her and proceeded to help his crew eliminate the rest of the Shadows. Many fell to him, including the very last: a Cabal named Valus Nohr who had been also been Calus’s first Shadow. The Shadows and Calus’s fleet were all destroyed except for the Leviathan, leaving Ghaul to claim Earth unopposed soon after. Calus refers to this as “the Day the Shadows Died”. The status of the few Shadows who did not go on this mission is unknown, but Calus regrets that he had wasted and ruined the value of the Shadows by using them as tools for his revenge. After Ghaul’s death, Calus brought the Leviathan into Sol and parked by Nessus so the Leviathan could break it down for fuel and wine and so he could try to win the Red Legion over. However, most of the Red Legion was unaccepting of Calus, deeming him a traitor to the Empire for standing aside while the Red War raged on. Calus had promised a Fallen Shadow named Sekris that he would destroy humanity, but in the end Calus hadn’t fulfilled his promises to most of his Shadows and was now interested in having Guardians as Shadows. Calus, you see, had originally thought of Guardians as quaint warriors playing with a power they didn’t understand for an existence that was meaningless. But he had promised a chance for whoever killed Ghaul to become a Shadow, and our Guardian accomplished just that. Now Calus realizes the skill and value of Guardians, and he actually leaves us bemused messages about how hard it is to chose just a few special Guardians amongst all the others. Calus even had someone hack a couple of City Frames to help him select Guardians. Now the Awoken are regularly making shows of force near the Leviathan to tell Calus they mean business, the Nine are devoting a lot of attention to the ship as well, and the Guardians have both helped Calus get rid of invading forces on the Leviathan and killed his Loyalists. Meanwhile, Calus is sipping wine and probably laughing at how futile all of it is. • • • And that brings us up to date. Thanks for following along everyone. To read about [b]Calus’s Purge and Ghaul’s Midnight Coup[/b], as well as [b]Ghaul’s Conspirators[/b] and [b]Calus’s Shadows[/b], follow the links at the top of the post For more lore and fanfiction, check out my [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217384398/0/0]Archive[/url]