Destiny fans reckon they've uncovered a description of what the Darkness actually is
I believe in a thing called lore.
Ever since Destiny launched back in 2014, fans have wondered what the Darkness actually is.
The Darkness is the Destiny universe's overarching threat, a mysterious force opposed to the Light. The Light, which grants the Guardians their super powers and gives the Ghosts, the little floating robot things that work with the player throughout the game, life, originates from the Traveler. The Darkness, it seems, works in opposition to the Traveler, which made some grand last stand on earth as it fended off this threat years before the first game begins.
Destiny 2's campaign suggested the Darkness was finally on the march via a post-credits scene which showed mysterious pyramid ships heading earth's way. And then the Warmind DLC revealed the Worm gods, the scaly deity species which billions of years ago gave the Hive their power, commune with and are in turn sort-of disciples of the Darkness.
There's more detail on the Darkness for Destiny lore nerds, but, essentially, fans have been waiting four years for Bungie to finally pull back the curtain on the game's big bad guys. Now, it seems, things are happening.
THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD.
Destiny fans have data-mined a lore tab from one of the Drifter's cards and found what looks like an insight into the Darkness that tallies with previously-released lore. The Drifter, by the way, is a new character set to be introduced into Destiny 2 via the Forsaken expansion, due out next week. He runs Gambit, a new player versus environment versus player mode.
As highlighted by redditor dobby_rams, this lore tab suggests the Drifter found remnants of the Darkness on a planet where a creature was trapped in a monolith. The lore tab describes this creature as having a "gooey, vacuous form with no head". Oh, and it suppressed light by producing "anti-light" fields. There were thousands of these creatures on the planet.
Here's the data-mined text:
"During our long stay on that planet, we found many of those monoliths, each with their own captured creature.
"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.
"The anti-Light fields we had detected from orbit that spread across the planet? It was these things. Our ship's scanners indicated thousands of them were on this planet with us.
"We were ecstatic.
"In hindsight, we all could have done with a few less of 'em.
"My crew and I quickly learned that the creatures in the monolith facilities were not the only ones on that damn rock. Plenty of 'em roaming around out in the wild-where it was cold, but less cold than the frozen cages with the monoliths.
"How'd we find out? Well, one of us died in our sleep. Not that uncommon or tragic, actually. Happened a lot. Cold out there.
"Except this time, that fella's Ghost couldn't resurrect him. Turns out one'a those creatures just slithered by, and close proximity to it from inside our shelter just... silenced that poor bastard's Light."
Did the Drifter actually fight the Darkness? That's what Destiny fans believe.
This description also tallies with lore associated with Cayde-6 - yes, the character Bungie is killing in Forsaken. Cayde's Treasure Island book, found in The Taken King Collector's Edition, contains images of black, shadowy alien creatures (thanks, Reddit). Remind you of anything?
Here's Cayde's journal entry that goes alongside the images:
"There's no bounty. No Hive. I'm out in plain sight. Sky is torn open and there's nothing and nobody left in this ruined world but me and the boiling shadow all around. Whatever it is hits me before I can level my gun. Doesn't matter. Tendrils of pain crawl over my splayed fingers, my outstretched arms, my shoulders, my neck, my screaming mouth as it consumes. I'm being enveloped. Everything is wrong. Primordial. My systems go sideways. All but my sensors. It wants me to witness this, the world."
Back at GDC 2013, Bungie game director Christopher Barrett and Destiny 1's original writer showed off a piece of concept art which depicted five races. Destiny 1 only launched with four. The fifth race was illustrated by - you guessed it - pyramid-shaped ships, as well as dark smoke.
Combining Cayde's images with the Drifter's lore, fans are starting to paint a picture of what the Darkness actually looks like as an evil alien race. As Bungie revealed in a Destiny ViDoc, the Drifter arrives with a mysterious hunk of rock attached to his spaceship. Fans are speculating this is a part of the planet he encountered the aliens on, which means the Darkness may finally be here.
Destiny 2 Forsaken has an annual pass made up of three content drops spread out across the year: Black Armory, Joker's Wild and Penumbra. Joker's Wild, Bungie said, digs into the Drifter's backstory and what's inside "that crazy rock" attached to his ship. Joker's Wild isn't out until spring 2019, so it'll be a while yet before we have answers.
But, finally, it looks like answers are coming.