#lore.exe

[infinitewarden]

— enough

[shroomicidal]

Old comic I never finished

Hope you missed Blurred Distortion <3

Feel free to take a guess at what happened if you’d like, maybe I’ll bring the story back

[infinitewarden]

Just want to address something really quick: I've been seeing a weird increase in people who think Guardians age.

This is. Factually not the case and is indeed a very important plot point of Zavala's past.

Some other notable lore entries that talk imply it or outright state it:

A small band of humans emerge from the woods at Osiris's flank. Some carry rust-laden firearms. The one who leads them jaunts forward. "Stand up, old man." The words are slung over his shoulder, wet and heavy. "No." (5: Moths to Flame Part II)

Saladin Circa Dark Ages vs. Saladin at Present

Osiris (and Ikora!) Early City Era (~200 years ago) Vs. Osiris at Present

And, if you haven't set aside time to rewatch Zavala's story then there's this: He has remained the same through hundreds of generations.

It's not "headcanon" if you think otherwise it is directly in opposition to why guardians are the way they are and how they function. Genuinely I have no idea where this idea of Guardians aging came from but it completely defeats the purpose of many tragedies and driving forces Guardians face because of their unaging immortality.

[infinitewarden]

The Vex, the Black Garden, and Mercury's Conversion. (Alt Title: I am going insane)

There's always something going on with the Vex in the background and I can't believe I didn't pay closer attention to it when these weird single-celled organisms have always been right up my alley right there beside Osiris.

Anyways. What's been on my mind lately is Brass Gardeners from the Inspiral lorebook (dropped from Root of Nightmares.) I was so caught up in the interesting implications and continuation of Unveiling that it completely flew under the radar for me.

Now what I want to focus on is these key aspects from this lore entry:

Garden state: neutral garden&&gardeners==root&&branch==leaf&&flower //intrinsic, inextricable, inescapable

And

anomaly One = leaf|invasive; Garden state: active (gardeners attend)

And

anomaly Zero = infinite|witness; archive data retrieved. Zero = infinite|witness == (a seed was planted here.) Recorded referent: "Black|Heart" Zero : seed :: One : DANGER [SIMULATION BREAKING. VISIBILITY NARROW. FRACTALS DISINTEGRATING.] anomaly Zero, absent. anomaly One, DANGER remaining. Garden state: acting (gardeners in unison)

And

//There is a majestic thorn. The anomaly is gone. The garden is peaceful. //It is known|seen|predicted that a primary function of irresolvable|irrecoverable presences is to trample. Flowers growing / damage repairing / threat unresolved Function called: escalation. Iteration. Function: winnow. Function: simplify. Function: flatten. //The first defense is offense.

Now I'm no expert at coding. But I know a little bit about logic algorithms, especially ones that are presented here. (This is an if-then type of algorithm. These kinds of logic equations are also used in Philosophy which I know much more about.)

The gist of this entry is that, from what I can glean, the Traveler visited the Vex once, and while the Vex considered it invasive they were not actively hostile. An indeterminate amount of time passed, presumably up until the Collapse (our time), and the Witness visited the Garden these Vex have created. (It very well could be that the Black Garden was not the Black Garden until the introduction of the Witness.) It left them a "seed" (or... a code...) that would become the Black Heart.

Or, as we now know, a failed attempt at recreating the Veil.

After this introduction is when the Vex became actively hostile. They did not stay gardeners, the Sol Divisive became winnowers only when the Witness introduced the concept. Which is an incredibly fascinating implication.

So what does this mean?

Well I have a couple theories. Remember this is just speculation, it's not canon.

So we know the Vex have been in our system for... a while. Ever since the Ishtar Collective and Clovis Bray decided to be stupid about them. But this idea of total conversion didn't seem to be the end-all state. I mean the Ishtar Academy was still intact despite some Vex conversion. It doesn't seem like Europa's conversion went very far either.

So why did they go into a frenzy with Mercury during the Collapse? Why did the Vex make Mercury their simulation engine for a Vex end-state? If they wanted to they could've made any of the thousands of planets they inhabit into a simulation engine to the degree of Mercury's but there's no evidence they did. Why target Io? Or Nessus? Why only planets the Light has touched?

Well... The answer is a little complicated. We don't know, really, how the Vex began to terraform Nessus and Io, but we do know how they got to Mercury.

So, let's remember this line:

anomaly One = leaf|invasive; Garden state: active (gardeners attend)

Now, let's look at how the Vex were introduced to Mercury in Trials and Tribulations (for the sake of clarity I will be cutting out the Witness lines save for one vital line):

It was a garden world. The phrase, uttered in confidence. The expanse above, a cup—rimmed in gamma-ink radiance—dammed against the Mercurian sky at the Kármán line. Against the howl of star-wind, the black fell open. Within the rip convulsed and excreted coils of shimmering life. Probing, clattering tendrils slithered down to make landfall. Chrome-hooked appendages stretched for miles through sun-soaked atmosphere. They bored into the marigold sands. From the great temporal chasms flowed an ocean of radiolarian fluid. Across the horizon the scene was resonant and multiplicative. Each injection site fostered a new lineage in stone and steel and fluid. The new age in sub-routine and observation. They would foster the seeds of a generation in time. From the sites bubbled pools that murmured chaotic, and wrung the Traveler's Light from Mercury. The Light coalesced within the pools. The planet transformed into a machine of prediction. The arms retracted, and returned to temporal hovels, suspended just above Mercury's influence. With them rose the spires. From the core, threads of iron fused reinforcement into the spires and brought them high. A surface driven flat by eons of solar erosion had risen. A million open mouths curled plated tongues in completion. Across the world grew a terrible consciousness that yearned to find its progenitor. The hulking vessels pulsed with light. The pools and spires pulsed dull tones in recognition, and the black sealed once more, restoring the sol-dominated sky |awaiting an angular shadow|. Illumination left the spires, and the Light was erased.

Okay, this one is a big one and might be a little difficult to grasp, but the gist of it is that a portal ("the black") opened and implanted the first Vex seeds into Mercury all while draining the Light. This portal was created by a Pyramid. This happened during the collapse.

The Vex were artificially implanted onto Mercury by the Witness for the purpose of creating a prediction engine. And not only that but they were meant to wait for the Witness's return.

Which they responded to in the last chapter of Trials and Tribulations:

Vance stood in the old Lighthouse, frantically assembling the Infinite Simulacrum: a machine formed from bits of simulation seeds and connective Vex architecture to mimic a pocket forest. Textured notes and schematics derived from Osirian lore guided his hand. He heard stories from passing Guardians of increasingly frequent coronal mass ejections. Vast bursts of charged particles whipped into space and furled around a gravitational monster buried from sight and sense in the roar of the star-wind. Passage to Mercury had become more dangerous for the uninitiated. These unnatural motions were heralds of speculation, and he had read the signs. He knew the prophecies by heart and mind and intention. Ruin. Something new |and so very old| emerged, brother to a shriveling star: An angular |hungering patient yawning deep| shadow reached across Mercury. Uncounted |known| spires fell under its grasp |with uniform relief|. Dulcet tones brought low under lightless breadth and the weight of dark |salvation| hummed beneath the shadow. Their echoes spilled out |awakened| and flowed over crumbling spires |in conversation|. One singular spec of illumination blinked into being, |an end| seen by none, and then |many| spread as the shadow did. The old Lighthouse |spire's collective| beamed |rose| and flared as shadow overtook it |to meet the underbelly|. Vance |the implement| could hear |their inspired voices| weeping, not with tears, but in the |voracious| low |ceremonial| hum he had come to associate with death. He closed his eyes |and saw what was to come|. This day had many names. None would suffice.

We know now that memory and consciousness is linked to the darkness, and in turn links to simulations. Is that why they made a prediction engine? Were the Vex on Mercury meant to help the Witness expedite the path to the final shape? Were they left in limbo because of Savathun's betrayal? Osiris saw what the Witness's final shape would result in within the Infinite Forest, was this the end goal the Vex were meant to look for? Was the Witness using the Vex as herbicides on Mercury,

I don't know what's going on with the Vex or the Black Garden or Mercury and its implications are driving me fucking insane. I don't even know what I'm getting at here anymore I just need you to understand that there is Something Here and I Can't Fucking Touch It. I started off trying to find meaning behind the change in the Vex if they changed at all but the rabbit hole just kept getting deeper.

Do the vex not understand Paracausality because the Traveler and the Veil were once one? I mean I made up this whole apple metaphor about how if you knew everything about an apple but then suddenly the apple was split into two separate things and the apple simply did not even exist as a concept anymore wouldn't you be just as confused? Also they say the Vex need to Veil in order to finally understand Paracausality. Is that why they don't? Because they only knew the two when they were one?

Does anyone hear me. What the fuck is happening. What's going on. What is the purpose of the Lighthouses. Why did the Witness plant the Vex there. Why did the Witness call Calus specifically to the Mercury anomaly. What's so important about Vance and the Tones for Osiris's memories of them to have possibly been removed!? (ANOTHER POST TO BE MADE.) Why was Sister Faora mentioned? WHAT DOES IT MEAN. I'm losing my train of thought there's just So Much Here.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH THE VEX AND MERCURY

[infinitewarden]

Every day I fight battles for Osiris's honor. Every single time he's a relevant character being his Messy and Brash self people take it personally. Every time I think it'll be different.

Anyways

I really liked Osiris's characterization in Lightfall, it felt more true to how he is as a character than he was in Seraph. However I'm already seeing people being Weird about him. On one hand, I understand he isn't for everyone, not everyone has to like him as he's a very difficult man (which is exactly why I like him.) However there's a difference between just... Disliking a character and egregiously misreading and misinterpreting one.

Two major points I've seen talked about already, ad infinitum, that I feel I have to give you a better perspective of: the urgency of which he acts, and his unhealthy training techniques. (And to a lesser point the claim that he's been over exaggerated which spoilers: he's always been like this.)

His urgency

(or as so many of you claim, that he's yelling at us the entire time.)

I feel like someone having to walk a baby through how to use building blocks it's THIS dire.

THE THEME OF LIGHTFALL IS GRIEF. It's grief and finding a way to accept that grief, not push it down or block it, not fight it every step of the way, but rather let it flow through you and allow it.

Osiris's arc throughout Lightfall is grappling with this: he's not had the TIME to process his grief, both over Sagira and over the loss of his Light. He feels inadequate because there's never been a time where he hasn't been able to act himself.

Osiris outright states in the campaign that he always used his grief as something to push him forward, as a means to fix it, like he did with Saint. But he can't do that now and it frustrates him. He pushes us because it's a reflection of himself, he's beyond frustrated with the fact that he can't do this himself, that he has to rely upon others when he's been self reliant for hundreds of years.

Not only that but he's ALWAYS been a very no-nonsense kind of guy, it used to be that he had Sagira to balance out his social awkwardness, but since she isn't here to often speak For him he's been struggling to interact with others. Sagira acted as a median, now that she's gone he's had to go it alone, you can't blame him for his bluntness.

Now... the yelling scene... I don't know why but everyone seems to be taking this one really really personally despite that fact it's painstakingly clear he's yelling because he's angry with HIMSELF. You're all so focused on the fact he yelled — which, I feel I need to remind you he's in grief and he's going through a very hard change, he's always been calm so seeing him like this really puts into perspective how much he's hurting. No one is talking about his apology afterwards.

He recognizes that he lashed out incorrectly, (and imo he's ALLOWED to after all he's gone through. god forbid grief be expressed in any capacity other than quiet depression.) And then he apologizes. Because that's what he does. He recognizes a misstep and apologizes. This is how he's always been.

Training

And when he's training us, telling us to push beyond our limits, this is a reflection of himself again. This is how he trained. We know this because this is how the Crucible became what it is now.

But I will also take good ideas where I can get them. And Osiris's belief that Guardian minds and bodies can be sharpened as one sharpens a sword is a damn good idea. You've seen the results in the Crucible. Do I really have to say any more?

The Conqueror 2

Osiris has always pushed himself (and in part I think Felwinter added to this) so it only makes sense he'd try to push us in the same manner. The entire point of this is to show it's wrong and Osiris eventually recognizes it as wrong! His perspective was incorrect! And it changes! Because that's how stories work!

Grief

Grief is not always shown with crying messes, it's not always quiet depression, it can manifest by being incredibly volatile and angry and that's how Osiris handles his grief when he can't just power himself through it anymore.

His arc is coming to terms with the fact he can't just wrestle his grief into submission. His arc is that he doesn't have to deal with his grief alone. His arc is that his mortality and inability to act himself isn't a personal failure. His arc is that he lets it flow rather than try to push it down. Like strand, Osiris's grief is a river and he's been trying to build a dam for the past several months.

Osiris is a nuanced character. He has flaws and he's never hid them. If you played the entire campaign with the audio off and subtitles off and you can't grasp the simple fact Osiris is experiencing incredible amounts of grief and trauma that's on you, my friend.

[infinitewarden]

Do you mind clarifying what exactly the age difference between Osiris and Drifter is? I’m a bit confused on how far apart the two were resurrected

The truth is we don't know and to say that Drifter is Definitively older than Osiris is misinformation. We don't know when Drifter was Risen in relation to Osiris and vice versa. The most we know is that Osiris was most likely risen in the earlier years of the dark ages given his run-in with a Warlord (who, mind you, was relatively alone — so before given the relative power that warlords came to have.)

Additionally, when you're in the Infinite Forest you experience some Serious time dilation (When we return from it for the first time in Curse of Osiris and we were gone for Some Time, Ikora says we had Just left) so given the time dilation that adds more years to how "old" Osiris is. Then if we include the thousands if not millions of lives he experienced in the Sundial through his Echoes that adds Even More years.

Osiris is very possibly The oldest Guardian alive, even older than Drifter.

And this is a little bit of a nitpick to that commentary but Osiris didn't ask for "advice" it was a peer review which has a different vibe :P

[infinitewarden]

and, most vitally, osiris is jewish

[infinitewarden]

Okay I know it's a running gag at this point about me being like "aHAH speaker Osiris evidence!!" But, this is something I've been dying to talk about since @thefirstknife brought it to my attention.

(Exorcism)

(Morpheus, Jean-Bernard Restout)

I don't need to explain why these two are so similar. But, we do need to talk about who Morpheus is and why Bungie designers would use him as a parallel.

Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the Ancient Greek: μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's Metamorphoses he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the medieval period, the name began to stand more generally for the god of dreams, or of sleep. (Wikipedia)

Quite interesting! Osiris's own state has been described as he's dreaming, and not only that but we've seen his dreams, and he's distinctly losing his sense of self and human form. (more about prior analyses here and here)

Now it may seem like this is just a parallel for parallel's sake but historically Bungie isn't prone to do that. For example, the island we fight Savathun on is a direct reference to the painting Isle of the Dead. (More on that here.)

Somnus is Roman mythology's counterpart of Greek mythology's Hypnos. God of sleep, and the poet Virgil describes him as half brother to death, Mors. Ovid describes Somnus as having thousands of sons. I know these seems like it's not related to anything but I promise it is. We know that the Traveler often correlated to dreams, given the Speakers' existence.

Which gives us an interesting idea of what Speakers are. They exist to give meaning to the Traveler's dreams, one might even describe them as dreams in human form.

Additional note is that the Traveler describes the Darkness as such:

The Traveler has not left us. Something new || half-remember and wished-forgotten, this false-sister || has arrived. (Severing)

The only other person to have decribed the Traveler and the Darkness being Osiris in his prophecies:

Two siblings cleaved by time and space, reflections never found alone, The ending of the eldritch race—a path long seen but never known. (Garden Progeny 1)

Which circles back to Somnus and Mors being step-siblings.

Alright I hear you. What does this have to do with Osiris and Morpheus? Everything. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this was more evidence to my idea of Osiris being something like a Speaker, and if not that then the Traveler is at the very least trying to get a hold of him.

It's not a coincidence they made a parallel to Morpheus, and it's not a coincidence that shortly afterwards every lore piece about Osiris's coma has been about his sleep and dreams.

And, of course, how can I forget.

The Traveler speaks only to those who sleep or the dead.