<Alright, time for another thing about the Deep that is currently making its way to our system RIGHT NOW. To start, I'm gonna need to hook you up with my evidence and previous posts that are related to this topic. The latter will give you some insight as to what my thought process is like and I'll list what has changed from the post I'm linking. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/241823808?sort=0&page=0&path=1 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4LEJ8 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rlod2 [url]http://i.imgur.com/MO3Ho9z.png[/url] https://www.ishtar-collective.net/cards/the-darkness?highlight=darkness https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/sleepless?highlight=sjur https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/cosmogyre-i https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/cosmogyre-iii https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/cosmogyre-iv https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/ancient-apocalypse-robes Let me start by what's changed and a basic overview of what I believe the Darkness to be. The Darkness when referred to as the Void or Deep refers to a place. This place is inferred to be the lower or even central parts of the Ascendant Plane. The heavy ties to the Darkness and the use of Blight as a portal backs this up. The Darkness when referred to as the Deep, Void, Darkness, or Shadow refers to a power. This power is heavily tied to the Light, or Sky, and is implied to be a balancing force. Just a quick note, when Uldren's Darkness and the Traveler's Shard combine, it makes a purple energy. Usually that color is attributed to Void energy. Considering the Deep has been called the Void before, it's something to consider. Perhaps the true path to balance lies in the Void being pure, but neither the Light nor Darkness is the answer to that. In a way, you can compare the Light/Dark/Void to the Force. In a way, it lies in all things according to the Speaker. Of course, some have it better than others, but it seems the only way to truly unlock that is one of the entities controlling the ability giving you that option. It has a moral presence as well, as Uldren's Darkness came from his insanity and murder of other beings, especially the Awoken. When compared to the Force, the first case of Light-turned-Dark is Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader. I don't think I need to reiterate what happened. The Darkness when called by most of its titles, including but not limited to Queen of Final Shapes, IT, Titanomach, Formless One, Deep, and Phantom refers to the entity behind it all. Like the Traveler, IT is a primordial entity that gives species its power in order to use them as proxies in the interstellar war. However, its personality differs heavily. The Traveler's goal is just, and it carries herself weakly. The Deep prefers to kill anything that isn't strong enough. The issue with that goal is that it will always return unless it dies. This means that all life could potentially end unless they turn to Darkness. The proxies under it also fight amongst each other. The Scorn and Hive and Vex are good examples. Even though the Vex haven't served the Deep in a while, the Hive did fight them when they were. Another example of species of Darkness fighting each other are the Worms (loyal to the Deep) and the Ahamkara (free). So there we go. I won't be discussing the place as I believe the Ascendant Plane deserves its own post and this will be mainly about the pyramid ships and what entities live in them or used to live in them. Let's start with the "shape" of the Darkness. [quote]"Exodus Green to unknown maneuvering object. Please squawk your transponder and ident. Over." Another silent quarter-hour passes in Flight. No response comes from the transient contact twelve and a half light minutes away. The ghost has stalked Yang Liwei for eighteen hours now, closing in each time it appears, and Captain Alice Li is wary of it. Other colony missions have vanished during their outward burns—victims of mishap or hostility—and because of these disappearances, Project Amrita did not hurl itself fearless into the void. Rather, they came armed to the molars.[/quote] This is from Cosmogyre I. The events in Cosmogyre take place DURING the Collapse. Not before, not after, DURING. The Ghost Ship they refer to... well... [quote]The stars have gone out. The universe blackened: a shroud of nothingness drawn over Yang Liwei, its forty thousand sleeping passengers, its nine hundred crew, and maybe even the whole solar system. There is no way to know, because there is no way to see anything beyond the hull. The vacuum itself has become hostile to the propagation of light. Darkness surrounds them.[/quote] The "Phantom Ship" as they called it, or "Ghost Ship" has shrouded them. A quick search of the Darkness on Destinypedia shows this isn't the first time the Darkness has appeared to have the ability to "cover" things in total blackness. Cayde remarked during his vision of the Collapse that tendrils of Darkness held him and everything else down. Calus had total Darkness surround the Leviathan, and that's where he turned and ultimately noped out pretending he was a herald. It also seems that Pyramids are a common theme. [quote]"I was dreaming," Sjur says, wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand. "I saw you on a great black triangle. You split it in two with your bare hands."[/quote] [quote]What if I told you that eons beyond the void lie worlds that do yearn to aid in our struggle? What if I told you there is a way to grant them passage into your mind, to let them guide your eye against our one true enemy? That they have told me that the dusk of the pyramid draws nigh? Would you believe me?[/quote] These pyramid ships, or at least one of them given the first D2 cutscene, are the Darkness. It is the physical form of IT. The Traveler is a being in an orb, the Darkness is a being in a pyramid. Besides the ability to cover entities in darkness, it also seems to have the ability to emit gravity waves... intense ones, too. [quote]But there's no starlight to die in. The darkness is absolute. Gravity waves tug on her line, pulling her back toward Yang and then hurling her away.[/quote] The gravity waves may have been a way that entire worlds were leveled. Think about it, the Deep spreads throughout Sol, darkens skies, holds everyone down in an attempt to show their weakness, then proceeds to launch every -blam!-ing city into the air and bring it back down in one swift motion. It's like Man of Steel but on a system-wide scale. But I don't know for sure if that's the case, so take it with a grain of salt. Anyway, it's wholly unknown whether there WAS one ship during the Collapse or not. The Fleet awakened by the Traveler are Darkness-based, but I'm unsure whether it's the army that appeared during the Collapse or that + a new race. As I've mentioned a dozen times, The Nine are shady, but one particular theory stands out and it's about the survivors of cis-Jovian colonies. From Xur, we can gather that these were the Jovians. The Jovians made a PACT with an ALIEN FORCE TO SURVIVE. I'm just going to draw similarities here towards the Hive and Humanity/Eliksni. The former made a pact with the Deep through the Worm God while the latter were CHOSEN by the Traveler, even if the Eliksni were abandoned. Anyway, the Jovians, like I've said, are LIKE the Awoken but more transformed. Xur says he's hurt by Light, he's a Jovian. Therefore, Jovians are HIGHLY LIKELY to be made of Darkness. As Xur is merely an agent of the Nine, rather than a part of them like the 9 Ghosts or 9 Deep Orbit Warminds, we can assume that there are quite a lot of Jovians. If we were to assume that the Jovians took a trip with the Darkness when it left Sol at the end of the Collapse, THERE'S YOUR ARMY. But wait, Cayde's journal describes shadow entities during the Collapse. Let me introduce you to what I've called the "Shadows" or "Drifter's Bane". [quote]Anyway, this thing—the creature—looked like it shared common bioenergetics with the Hive, but there were no records then or since that I've ever seen of humanity's encounters with them. And the creature had a property the Hive did not have. It produced a field that repressed Light—like a Darkness Zone but contained to a gooey, vacuous form with no head.[/quote] These creatures are made of Darkness. These may be the things that popped up on our worlds during the Collapse. A natural Dark race of these things. There were thousands of them on the world the Drifter saw them on, it's possible there were WAY more, or ARE way more. But they don't seem like the only race. Look at the "green" concept art or [b]Link 2[/b]. Take a good look at that. The Pyramid Ship in the background, the ancient writing and the VERY human-like statues. That doesn't seem like something mindless Dark creatures would make, and the Traveler model in the middle is very suspicious. This could very well be the signs of a SECOND race of Dark entities that inhabit those Pyramid Ships. May I redirect you back to the Jovians and the Nine. I've already discussed some of Xur's choice words, but the Emissary's are... off. So many of her quotes revolve around death and finality. Or this quote. [quote]Yours is a war without end.[/quote] "War is all there is for you" said the Darkness. While I don't think any more Awoken besides the Emissary, 9 missing Yang Liwei crew members, and maybe a couple of agents are with the Nine, the Nine themselves hold signals outside the galaxy. But the Jovians... I believe there's a lot more to them as I've discussed before. It'd explain the human qualities of that image. Alright, I'm done. I've hit the character limit. Thoughts on this topic? I'll reply to what I can thanks to the limit I JUST reached.>