So I’m sure many of you are excited about the next expansion. So I thought I’d do something a little simple and more relaxed: what basic lore could help provide more context to information in Beyond Light? I’m going to focus on a few key areas that I believe are most relevant to the DLC: [b]Exo Stranger:[/b] Nothing too much to mention here as Beyond Light should be the time where we learn more about her. Theories suggest that she’s either Elsie Bray or Maya Sundaresh. She’s known to hop between Worldlines and was the one who guided us towards the Black Garden and it’s heart over 7 years ago and gifted us her rifle (which later shared a frame with No Time To Explain). Again not too much to mention as she’s one character we know extremely little about. [b]Variks the Loyal:[/b] Once the Judgement Scribe to House Wolves, he is a loyal devotee to the ways of old. After Mara Sov killed Virixas, Kell of Wolves at Ceres, Variks committed himself to helping her and the Awoken. After the capture of Skolas and most of the Wolves at Cybele, Variks was given control of the Prison of Elders as it’s Warden. We would work with Variks three times. First during the House of Wolves expansion, where we’d hunt down Skolas and his lieutenants across the system and stop him from recruiting more Eliksni from other houses to add to his army. Then again during the Taken War, where we’d aid him and Petra again in fighting a small resurgence of Wolves on Mars. And finally we’d run a small errand for him, investigating the presence of the would be Prince Malok, Pride of Oryx, who Variks wanted for the Prison of Elders. Then we come to the time before Forsaken, I’m going to cut a lot of this bit short because it’s really worth reading the entire lore book. After Cayde’s Six apprehended the Scorn Barons and locked them in the Prison of Elders, Uldren was also apprehended. Thrown into a cell and looked like he was going mad. Variks in conflict after seeing what the dark ether could do and learning that the Kell of Kings was dead at the hands of Fikrul, the Fanatic; Variks caused the Prison Break that lead to the death of Cayde-6. Vanguard reports show that they would be interested in hunting him down, but Reef officials have shown it could lead to open conflict with them if they are not involved in his capture. Now he’s with Eramis, although likely to attempt to draw her away from the Darkness. [b]Clarity, Clovis Bray and the Deep Stone Crypt:[/b] So this one is quite convoluted and don’t worry if you don’t fully understand it; this information comes from the Journals of Clovis Bray and was a part of the Beyond Light Collectors Edition: Clovis Bray after interacting with the K1 artefact arrives on Europa and finds something called “Clarity Control” which is either some artefact of the Darkness, or the Pyramid itself. “Clarity” is like an essence and “Clarity Control” is the physical device/artefact/pyramid. Bray has had a past of being a not so ethically sound scientist and modified his own son, Clovis Bray II, to have genes from his father rather than his mother. This caused a defect in himself dubbed the “the curse” which spread to three members of the Bray family. Clovis and Clovis jr, and Elsie Bray (one of Clovis jr’s four children). Clovis Sen. Wanted to create the Exominds to allow him to live forever, but his tests up until this point had proven failure. He used Clarity Control to discover that the answer lies in the Vex. So, after emailing Elsie Bray and promising her that they could help each other with the curse, she arrives on Europa and they begin. I should also mention that by this point, Clovis Bray Sen and Jr, are both dead. Well physically at least. Sen. is in a SMILE pod which keeps his consciousness alive and allows him to fully understand what’s happening while his organs are replaced with ones grown in pigs, and Clovis Jr’s Mind is being stored on a memory. After a raid on an Ishtar Collective facility (which killed some people) they managed to get the Vex to construct a vex gate. Clovis (through a proxy of some kind), Elsie, Maya Sundaresh (an Ishtar Collective researcher who is now working with Clovis) and some other researchers, go through the gate and observe what is called a “star forge”. A star that’s being kept alive by the vex as a fuel source. They then eventually start trying to implement the Vex into the Exo Program, and that’s where the journal leaves of. Clovis mentions how he plans to not be the first to test his immortality machine and refuses to let Elsie either, because he’d rather not let them both die. Not much else to note here. If you’d like more info on Exo’s, the Grimoire cards are a start, as are some of Cayde’s journal entries. [b]The Pyramid:[/b] So the Pyramids are clearly building up to be our rivals. Our big bad for the years to come. One is active on Europa, but it seems like this one has been there for a while. The Pyramids are basically anti Travelers and communicate with us for this entities called “The Winnower” (Just note, they’re basically the Darkness). The Winnower is the ancient enemy of the Gardener (The Light) and believes in a simple philosophy which essentially boils down to “prove you are strong and deserve to live, or die like the weak”. Very similar to the Hive’s Sword Logic. The Pyramid here though seems to be the source of Stasis throughout the system to expect it to be involved with how we learn it. [b]Eramis and House Salvation:[/b] Eramis was a Devil’s Baroness. Dubbed “Eramis, the Shipstealer”. She rose to prominence during Season of the Drifter and orchestrated the heist on the tower to steal Outbreak Perfected from the vaults. Since then she has taken her lieutenants (VIP’s from other Eliksni houses) and shown them how to wield Stasis. She and her house have adopted a new ideal. One of revenge and chaos. To destroy the Traveler out of revenge for abandoning their once great people. Not much else is known about Eramis, so we will need to wait and see how she develops in Beyond Light. [b]The Crow:[/b] For those who didn’t watch the Vidoc, we learned about Season 12, aka Season of the Hunt. We’ll be working with Osiris, Spider and the Crow to push back Xivu Arrath’s attempts to corrupt herself an army. But let’s apply some backstory to The Crow. Before his resurrection, he was Uldren Sov, but before then he was Uldwyn Sov. A human aboard the Exodus Green. After Mara created the singularity, which drove the Exodus inside and turned them into the Awoken, he became Uldren. From then he served at his sister’s side, even battling Sjur Eido in her trials as Mara’s representative. After she gather a major following and returned to the world they came from; he became Prince of the Awoken, Serving as Crowmaster, leader of the spies and spy drones the Reef had. He gifted Mara Sov a tiny wish dragon who would call itself Riven. From here we’d see him when we brought the Sovs Zydron, a Gatelord’s, head and he’d give us the location of the Black Garden. He’d also serve in the Battle over Saturn which was supposedly his death. But he crashed on Mars, by Olympus Mons. After crashing again in the Hellas Basin, he’d eventually make his way to Craask, Kell of Kings. With the aid of Uldren, the two would unify the houses. Eventually while scavenging in the Reef, Uldren would encounter a dying Fikrul who would become contaminated with Darkness from a year from the Awoken Prince. Soon he’d be reborn as first of the Scorn, and come to call Uldren his king, and his father. From her we’d eventually see Fikrul dock and kill Craask sending the Eliksni into what we see today. He’d eventually be captured and sent to the lowest depths of the Prison of Elders with his Barons. Variks would break them out, Uldren would kill a lightless Cayde-6 and we’d get the Forsaken Campaign. From Mara’s Court room, we’d see a vision of a small pink ghost revive a body under an Awoken gazebo in the Dreaming City. This would be Uldren’s new life. No memories. A fresh start. What happened to him exactly from here out is unclear, but he seems to have made his way at least to Earth where he was hiding as of the Dawning. He seems to be working with/for the Spider and has now taken the mantle of “The Crow”. We will likely learn more in Beyond Light about this new man. And that’s it. I hope you found this helpful in understanding some of the context for certain things in Beyond Light.