Update 3: The Shrike and the Sparrow are both named after birds, in Egyptian beliefs the soul took on the form of a bird in order to travel to the realm of dreams while the human host slept at night. Now, a Pike is a fish, so I'm not sure how good this side-theory is, though the Pike is a Fallen craft, whereas the Sparrow is human... UPDATE 2: The latest info on the "darkness" seems to confirming me even more, yay! (special thanks to Charlemagne, Milo, and DE4TH) [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=62920207]Also take a peek at Apotheosis' thread![/url] UPDATE 1: I was right, at least with the whole Destiny-Egypt idea, the latest info is that Mars will have a location called "The Valley of Kings" which is a 100% confirmation of Egyptian parallels. :) Original post: [Made August 2013] So, I am going to attempt to explain three major things in Destiny by using Egyptian mythology. There are big parallels between Destiny and Egyptian myths, much like the Halo series and the Bible/Pentateuch. This is still a theory, but the presence of Egyptian mythology in Destiny is undeniable. (TLDR and Tigerman at the bottom) [b]The Traveler:[/b] [spoiler] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khonsu[/url] Khonsu is the Egyptian god of the Moon. He is also known as "The Traveler." He is attributed with many traits that sound a lot like those of the of the Traveler in Destiny. "Khonsu was instrumental in the creation of new life..." "...Embracer, Pathfinder, and Defender, as he was thought to watch overnight travelers. As the god of light in the night, Khonsu was invoked to protect against wild animals..." According to [url]http://www.egyptianmyths.net/khonsu.htm[/url] "His name derives from the root, "khens" which means to travel, to move about, to run." This sounds a lot like The Traveler in Destiny, a [b]protector against the night who gives fertility, vitality, and safety[/b] to those underneath. Khonsu was attributed with healing powers, such as the ability to cast out demons, however he later was evolved into a more warlike god who feasted upon hearts. Hopefully the Big Ball doesn't take the same course, unless it would mean it would attack our enemies. [/spoiler] [b]The Awoken:[/b] [spoiler] EDIT: This bit is outdated, as it turns out that [i]all [/i]guardians have been raised from the dead. So this is a little bit harder, but the Egyptian afterlife is pretty vague, so the idea of someone’s soul sticking around after death is not far fetched here. . “Egyptians conceived of an afterlife as quite similar to normal physical existence — but with a difference. The model for this new existence was the journey of the Sun. At night the Sun descended into the Duat (the underworld). Eventually the Sun meets the body of the mummified Osiris. Osiris and the Sun, re-energized by each other, rise to new life for another day. For the deceased, their body and their tomb were their personal Osiris and a personal Duat. For this reason they are often addressed as "Osiris". For this process to work, some sort of bodily preservation was required, to allow the Ba to return during the night, and to rise to new life in the morning. However, the complete Akhu were also thought to appear as stars.* Until the Late Period, non-royal Egyptians did not expect to unite with the Sun deity, it being reserved for the royals.” [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akh#Akh[/url] *"See you starside."?! So that’s not the most spectacular afterlife idea, but it’s actually not a bad one for sci-fi adaptation. From what I can tell, Khonsu didn’t normally have much to do with death, as he is all about life. But what would his effect be if he entered the Duat of a human soul? I’d assume resurrection of some sort would occur. The Traveler’s story is all about how it brought us life and safety, perhaps it’s awesome powers also awoke the dead to fill the sparse ranks of the living. [b]Also note that Awoken have blue-greenish skin (they were greenish in the GDC concept art), Osiris is a very obvious shade of green.[/b] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Standing_Osiris_edit1.svg/220px-Standing_Osiris_edit1.svg.png UPDATE: Well, it turns out that most of the Awoken were humans who lived/were born around the time of the Collapse, but I was not far off, as it turns out that Guardians have been resurrected. [/spoiler] [b]The Fifth race/Darkness:[/b] [spoiler] Okay so I know this is why you clicked on this thread, so here we go. Since Destiny is obviously based off of Egyptian mythology, the bad guys are probably going to be somewhat similar. Egyptians feared and reviled a guy named Apep (that’s Apophis, for all you kids who read Rick Riordan’s novel about that sort of thing). Apep is similar to Satan in the fact he is depicted as a snake, a serpent, or a dragon. I highly doubt the bad guys in Destiny will look like that, but the character traits are what I’m going for: A head of flint. (“onyx ships” concept art, anyone?) In an eternal struggle with Re/Ra. (god of the sun) Is the epitome of darkness and chaos. Okay so that’s pretty basic bad-guy stuff, right? The thing is, Destiny is all about “Humanity's last light” and the first ViDoc was “Pathways out of Darkness.” It’s actually a really simple plot. The big deal here is that sometimes Apep [i]wins[/i] (albeit only for a few minutes). The Egyptian priests claimed that’s why solar eclipses occur. [b]This means that the struggle is going to go on no matter what, it’s simply a case of one side winning for a time. In almost all videogames there is a definite way to kill the bad guy, but what if that notion doesn’t apply to the Fifth Race?[/b] What if they are something that cannot be destroyed, only beaten back for a time? [url]http://destinynews.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-19-at-2.04.22-PM.png[/url] If Destiny is about being brave, kicking ass, and inspiring a sense of value, what could be a greater antagonist than one who is always scary, can’t get permanently destroyed, and is always existing despite your best efforts? [b]Destiny is going to have a long life, 7 years of game releases to be precise, and it will need an enemy worthy of such an epic series.[/b] That’s where some videogames fail. 343i, for example, is pulling villains out of thin air in a bid to attach a somewhat interesting plot-line to a popular game. Destiny will give you satisfaction of victory, to be sure. The Traveler has beaten back the Fifth Race, which means we get to slaughter races like the Cabal. But for the long-term we have the Fifth Race, and they will be one heck of a challenge. EDIT: And the way Egyptians countered evil spirits and spells wasn't by militant things like exorcism, it was all about wards and charms. So if there is a way to stop the Fifth Race forever, it's probably going to involve finding or building a lot of Travelers, not putting our boots up the Fifth's collective ass. [/spoiler] [b]Tigerman:[/b] You think I’d leave him out? [url]http://www.crystalinks.com/sethmet.jpg[/url] [url]http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Bast.jpg[/url] [url]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MNMmUUbDVm8/T4SKb-lFmDI/AAAAAAAAAFE/72nZMsXK3sE/s320/BastetwithGoldEarrings1.jpg[/url] [url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Bastet.svg/220px-Bastet.svg.png[/url] TLDR: There are major tie-ins between Destiny and Egyptian Myths, and my speculation is that the fifth race will take after the traits of the god Apep, that they will be impossible to kill, they will simply come again and again, but we have the Traveler (Khonsu), and he has Awoken the dead (the blue-green-glowy people) to assist living humanity in finding a solution, and Tigerman is also from Egypt. Thoughts? (really, I'd like to know if there are any other connections I'm missing here!) Are you hiring intern writers, Bungie? :]