OP here, just different acc.
@thefirstknife The amount of research we’ve done regarding eliksni lore showcased to us, at least, that there was a very clear shift between D1 eliksni lore and D2 eliksni lore. Forsaken, for example, was a big turning point in eliksni lore, ranging from big things like the Wolves slavery retcon to the Prison of Elders being a collaboration between the Wolves and the Reef rather than being Mara’s preexisting trophy collection. Variks’s characterization change might not be a definitive retcon, but it’s certainly jarring for him to shift from grimly pretending loyalty for survival, to being the Sovs’ weird... butler. Skolas’s final speech to Mara was also incredibly confusing to read in the light of everything related to the Scatter.
I have admittedly little to no attachment to Saint-14′s lore. It’s an interesting insight into the early City Age and the aftermath of Twilight Gap. It’s not significantly more violent or disturbing than anything else warriors do in Destiny. In fact, as you can see in my original post, I am proposing that the lore could be made far more disturbing if certain elements in the D1 lore are acknowledged.
For example, the superior firepower of the Houses, and the Devils in particular, up until D1 has been completely ignored in this new lore, as has their policy of “shoot on sight” for humans (which we got elaboration on even in D2 in the Ghost Stories lore, so hey, intra-D2 inconsistencies). Their living sacrifices to their Prime, the piles of human skeletons we see in the Devils’ lair, the way the Devils would hunt people down, even tiny, harmless groups of survivors such as Amanda’s family. It’s just... not addressed. Not even by Saint, who by all rights should be talking about it. The unprovoked death and destruction that drove Saint to hunting the eliksni is simplified to ‘I SAW THEM EAT BABIES’ (and by House Rain, a House of prophecy that was, according to Variks, who didn’t have a reason to lie, very, uh, dead), only for that statement to be retracted mere months later.
Which is it, Bungie? Was there a communication breakdown between your writing team and now you’re backpedalling to compensate? At least give me a complete timeline!
There’s the very clear goal of ‘eliksni allies’ and I can appreciate that, but it’s quite clumsily done. This should be fraught and messy, but the current writing direction has made it feel peculiarly sanitized. Like they very much do not want to write a complicated, imbalanced reconciliation narrative.
And regarding Mara, her future storyline isn’t the issue: it's a fact that we’ve already gotten D2 canon stating that the Prison of Elders was a collaboration between the Wolves and the Reef, contradicting Mara’s D1 ownership. We’ve got D2 canon that says they were peacefully gifting amethysts to the archons as equals. That’s at least 50 years of Mara’s autocratic rule over the Wolves (chained wolves, Variks and Skolas were both very clear on that matter in D1) just… gone? Into some lore black hole? A matter that was a large aspect of the Last City’s relation with the eliksni, and particularly in the House of Wolves DLC, has been completely overwritten.
Would you not agree that all of this constitutes a retcon?
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