<I may have rushed headfirst into the Dust entries twice now. Technically this could still be in that phase, but I've taken a step back to actually look at things. Let me start off with this: The Legends 2 Grimoire Card still got most of everything right, just not in the way I previously thought. The Jovians, the 9 Awoken, the 9 Ghosts, the Warminds, the Leviathan Intelligences, they all still exist... I just have no idea what they're there for. The Nine still have something to do with the signals coming from the Corona-Borealis supercluster and the viral language is still a thing, you get the idea. There's no ignoring previous lore from the Trials of the Nine nor Forsaken. Point is, only 2 theories remain about the Nine that have yet to be confirmed from that card. [quote]The Nine are ancient leviathan intelligences from the seas of Europa or the hydrocarbon pits of Titan.[/quote] [quote]The Nine are the aspects of the Darkness, broken by the Traveler's rebuke, working to destroy us from within.[/quote] Both are hinted, the latter only being so thanks to Dust... kind of. Blah, blah, blah, let's jump in. The Nine themselves are primordial dark matter beings who are tied to the cores of our worlds. Not like, the galaxy's worlds, I mean the worlds in our Solar System. From Mercury to Pluto. Despite their cores being bound to Sol, their thoughts and reach extend to the edges of the Milky Way Galaxy at least. This would explain why the Cabal know about them and potentially why other races know about them. Soon, life happened. Life in Sol seeded the Nine's thoughts. The Nine became dependent on life in Sol to exist, because if that life faded, the Nine would vanish. Powerful entities with the ability to steal wills and make new things, and they have one colossal weakness. An asteroid could strike Earth and this whole operation would be over and done with. Things changed when the Traveler arrived. The Light had the ability to effect without cause. The Light could give the Nine the ability to be independent. They were divided. Not literally, I just mean that 4 of the Nine disagreed with the other 5. They all want the Light, but the way they're described brings confusion. This is where I may have been wrong. [quote]No. Of course she is not safe. Because there are factions among the Nine: one faction sent Xûr and Orin to study Guardians and the Light, to seek the secret of effect-without-cause and to protect the source of that secret, the last source, now that the Ahamkara are gone. Those five played at alchemy with the Cocytus gates, turning dark dust into energy and then into matter, but they could not unlock the secrets of our mad existence. They needed ambassadors. Go-betweens.[/quote] The 5 are the ones we know the most about. They were the 5 voices in "The Emissary" and, by extension, every TotN lore tab. Things get confusing when you read into "The Emissary" and the sentence from "The Witch" that happened right before the above quote. [quote]"Come," the voice calls. "I am Nasya. You are not safe. Come with me."[/quote] Nasya... Nasya was the name before the Collapse, the name before she became a Guardian. The name before she became the Emissary. Nasya was the original name of Orin. So... is she mad at the 5? Or is there something else? The 5 are described as wanting to protect us... BUT the 4 have a different description. [quote]The other faction walks a different path. A path of folds and needles slipped through spacetime itself, existential syringes yielding new spaces, to be remade as the Nine desire. They have tried to gather enough dark dust in one place to form a black hole, and found it difficult: when the dark mass collapses in gravity's fist, the dust passes through itself and scatters. But difficult is not impossible. And there is far, far more dark matter in the universe than bright. They will find a way to make new worlds of it. They will end their dependence on life, and on the Light of Guardians, which the falling veil will soon snuff out forever...[/quote] So the 4 want to make shit on their own, what gives? They want to end their dependence on life and Light before the Darkness annihilates it, so what? I don't know which faction we should be worried about. You could say "neither", you could say "both". If the 5 are truly good, then they are horrible at communicating that. If the 4 are good, then they need to do something... but I guess "Solitude and Silence" is alright. The Nine were in disagreement. Besides "Reextinction", there is a time where they agree. [quote]We try to guard and nurture you. AND WE CHERISH YOU AS SHADOWS CHERISH FLAME watching your swift bright lives flicker, die SUSTAINED BY THE PATTERNS OF YOUR THOUGHT – B U T D I S T A N T U N R E A C H A B L E Beyond - what we are - or what we were [b]the answer lies + in severing[/b] two sides = a single coin .alliance and contact | solitude and silence. Do you understand our fates are intertwined? FOR YOU SEED THE ANISOTROPY WE SUSTAIN but decay is decay is decay A COLOSSAL FRAGILITY, A COMPLEX FIDUCIARY. T O N G U E L E S S W E T R Y T O S P E A K There must be - another way we must become + more than we are always together = never touching [b].dependence i | s deathfated.[/b][/quote] I believe it'll come down to who's more desperate to exist without dependence. At this point in time, everyone and their grandma knows the next Collapse is coming. At this point in time, everyone who knows about next Collapse says that it will be our end or THE end... even the Nine believe this. The 4 seem more determined than the 5. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I wasn't entirely, just about which side. Maybe I falsely accuse the 5 when it's the 4 I should worry about. Perhaps I'm getting worked up about the 4 when it was the 5 all along. I say not to trust any of the Nine, just wait until one of them stabs us in the back more than the one who let Ghaul in did. If one is willing to risk everything in order to learn how to take the Light, how long until others follow. We still don't even know how that one was punished, was it circumstance or was it actually something it did? I don't have any grand speculations right now. I established my point about the Legends 2 theories above and I'm not going to assume what their roles are now. We know what the real Nine are. We know their goal but don't know their plans. Does one hope to earn the Light while the other wants to Take it? I don't know, just be wary of both. I guess the only thing to leave you all with is a potential theory just to let someone speculate on this more. Remember that one image? This one: https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/415/032/large/mark-kolobaev-bungie-concept-artstation.jpg?1505983337 I believed it to be concept art of the 5th race or the Darkness... but something struck me earlier. The skybox, look at it. The front is blue and the back is pink. Look at the skybox for Equinox and the Reckoning maps, same deal. Floating orbs, just like in Equinox and Eternity. This could've been Unknown Space all along. Ancient human hieroglyphs and labyrinth patterns, the latter also seen on Io by the Cradle, where the Traveler started its work before the Collapse happened. Human statues, potentially the first sentient life in Sol. The Traveler statue in the middle, potentially a reminder of the end goal, to have the Light in order to exist. I cannot explain the pyramid ship nor the design of the architecture, as they both are extremely similar. My only guess is that one of the factions are working with the Deep in order to take the Light for themselves, but that in of itself has issues... probably why I'm working out a potential deal out in my head right now. Maybe "we'll build ships for you if you take the Light for us"? I don't know. Have fun.>