Why The Cabal Emperor Should Not Be Killed In A Cabal Based DLC
Since the end of the Taken King, the Cabal are in a vulnerable state and they sent a message outside of the system, presumably to the Empire detailing their situation.
Unless Bungie decide to let this be the beginning of the collapse of the Cabal’s presence, a Cabal centred DLC is almost expected at some point.
And what better way to top off a Cabal based DLC than with a raid?
Imagine, The Elite Flagship arrives in the System, and deep inside is the Cabal Emperor themselves. A plucky team of six Guardians are tasked with the mission of boarding the massive ship, hunting down, and killing the Emperor.
From a player’s perspective I admit that would be immensely fun with the possible new mechanics, level design, and aspects to explore, and from a game designer’s perspective I imagine it must be fun to build and design that challenge and intricate easter eggs or hidden items.
From the perspective of the Destiny franchise’s story, slaying the Emperor would be beneficial too.
But it cannot happen. Or more accurately, it should not happen.
Firstly, killing the single most important individual in an enemy faction does not happen in any of the current Raids I am aware of. Atheon, being Vex and because of the nature of the Vault of Glass, never truly falls. Crota, is the Son of Oryx, and Oryx is one of three sisters.
Now, I have not yet played Rise of Iron and have no knowledge of its contents story wise and raid wise. This is a status I would like to keep until I have played the expansion myself. But I do not think the Wrath of the Machine Raid would cause the extinction of an entire enemy class.
The death of the Cabal Emperor would cause the extinction of the Cabal on Mars and on the Dreadnaught.
Think about it, the Emperor is the one who’s ordering ships to be deployed to our system to reinforce troops already here. If the Emperor dies then no-one will order reinforcements to come, meaning there will be a limited number of Cabal left.
Also, the power vacancy created by the Emperors death is likely to cause a lot of in-fighting amongst the Cabal. This will trickle down to the deployed footsoldiers who are, as we know from the Grimoire Card “Cabal”, already arguing amongst each other about their allegiance to the Empire. The already existing uncertainty amongst some troops combined with the lack of figurehead in the Empire, is likely to cause some of the Legions to fall prey to infighting amongst other Legions and amongst troops of the same Cohorts.
For example, the Sand Eaters have weaker moral than most Legions on Mars so they are likely to fall victim of the infighting resulting from the Emperors death. The Blind Legion, who are described as carrying out their jobs with ‘fanatic zeal’ are then likely to try and kill any troops that seem to be against the Empire.
Even without the Cabal infighting they are at risk of extermination. With a limited number of troops and no reinforcements, Cabal numbers on Mars will be thinned out to nothing by Vex assaults and Guardian activity.
The Cabal on the Dreadnaught will be overran incredibly quickly without reinforcements, meaning the Dantalion Exodus V will soon become taken by the Hive.
On Mars, Cabal numbers would decrease and there would only be the Guardians and the semi-active Warminds stopping the Vex. Since Vex took Mercury and changed it in days, Mars is likely not going to last long with massive Vex presence.
By killing the Cabal Emperor you would need to show the impacts of this on the Cabal. If Cabal activity does not change after the death of their ruler then that is to say the Emperor was as influential and as important as a single Legionnaire, something that is highly unlikely.
So the choices would be to kill the Emperor and deal with the realistic outcomes which would result in Vex superiority on Mars, kill the Emperor and have no change to Cabal troops which would massively devalue the Emperor and would be unrealistic, or not kill the Emperor.
Now, unless Bungie wish to either remove the Cabal entirely from patrols or trivialise the death of a figure that was highly believed to be a vital part of the Cabal Empire, I suggest keeping the Cabal Emperor alive.
What does everyone think?
