Darkness

The Darkness closes in on the Solar System

The Darkness is the powerful, ancient enemy of the Traveler, tracking it through the cosmos. Once, the Darkness ruled the universe, and the Hive believe that the Light must be consumed for it to reclaim its domination.

The only solid information on the Darkness comes from an ISR report from centuries ago. At that time, the Darkness appeared just beyond the edge of the Solar System in what was termed as a "TRANSIENT NEAR EXTRASOLAR EVENT". "Transient" is a term used in physics to describe a burst of energy produced by a sudden change in state, such as a Supernova or a Gamma Ray Burst, which are some of the brightest and most violent events in the known universe. However, in this instance, the only means of determining that a transient event had even occurred was through the detection of a 0.3 second displacement of gravity waves as well as anomalous interactions in the local Higgs field traced to sterile neutrino scattering. An AI observing the event (presumably the Warmind Rasputin) was able to derive some information, based solely on the phenomena that it could detect, but was unable to ascertain its mechanism. In an attempt to better understand the phenomenon by recreating all of its known variables (also known as a bootstrap simulation), the AI reran the data through a series of iterations which included a number of randomized inputs, in a process known as a Monte Carlo analysis. Despite this, it was unable to derive any definitive information about the event or its source; however, it was able to determine that whatever was behind the event was clearly a complex structure, acting with clear purpose. It concluded that the source of the event not only failed to conform to any known phenomena in the Standard Model of particle physics (thus labeling it "acausal"), it was also directed, acting with anger, and almost certain to reach the solar system in a short amount of time. As a result, the previously issued Skyshock alert was upgraded to OCP:EXTINCTION, and a number of defensive protocols were added.

The Darkness nonetheless swept through the Solar System, devastating human civilization in an event called the Collapse. Only due to the Traveler's intervention did humanity survive. Seven centuries later, the Darkness was set to return. The Fallen, Vex, Hive, and Cabal are linked to this force. Hive Wizards call upon the Darkness for their powers.

Theories

Because so few survived the Collapse, nobody knows exactly what the Darkness is. Some theories however are offered.

Pujari

Pujari claimed that the Darkness is both a physical and moral presence, evil made tangible. It was a storm of corruption emerging from the Golden Age.

Saint-14

Saint-14 argued that the Darkness was an invading armada of aliens. Some suggest that these aliens had been previously rejected by the Traveler for their sins.

Ulan-Tan

Ulan-Tan suggests that the Darkness is the necessary symmetry to the Traveler as part of a cosmic balance.

The Monists

The Monists believes the Darkness is a technologically superior force, to the point of post-singularity, and that the universe is just a simulation. Such an advanced intelligence could mimic acausality by bending the rules of the universe's programming.

Acataleptic Clause / Praxic Creed

Some believe that not only is the Darkness unknowable, but that people shouldn't bother trying to understand it and instead simply fight it.

Binary Star Cult

A heretical position from the Binary Star Cult states that the Traveler itself triggered the collapse, and used humanity as a sacrifice/proxy army in its war against the Darkness.

Toland, the Shattered

Toland, the Shattered understands the Darkness as the natural evolutionary endpoint of the entire universe. Since the beginning of time, everything has been in competition with everything else for no reason, other than that is the way of the universe: the law of the jungle. As atoms came into being, they defeated the "primordial broth" that preceded it. From atoms came stars, from stars came galaxies, worlds were created, and finally life arose, all due to the eternal competition.

Toland envisions a future where three archetypal "nations" compete with other: the first represents the perfect rule of law, the second represents knowledge made paramount, and the third represents sheer, total conquest. The third nation will succeed, inevitably, and in time will lead to a greater conflict between other nations which all represent the desire to conquer and dominate. The universe thus becomes a place where only the most ruthless entities succeed, to the point where they actively hunt and exterminate other life long before it can ever be a true threat. Finally, at the end of time there will be only one entity that rules the universe so absolutely that nothing will ever exist except by its consent, so it will rule forever. In essence, Toland asserts that this incontestable supremacy is the goal or driving force of the Darkness.

An alternative way of life, where law and knowledge and might worked together rather than competed, as in the case of humanity and the City, is little more than "the dream of small minds", and is unlikely to succeed against an entity of pure conquest.

Dreams of Alpha Lupi

The Dreams of Alpha Lupi poem contains two verses related to the Darkness, and possibly representative of the Darkness's own perspective. The first verse explains that the universe, despite its vastness, is beholden to simple, enduring laws that shape it and give one the impression that it is inexhaustible and eternal. Life is an affront to the universe because it refuses to accept the limitations imposed on it by the natural order.

The second verse seemingly describes the Darkness's feelings about its current conflict with the Traveler. The Darkness exists only for war, the endless struggle to dominate the universe, and in that way it can never be free. It had been at peace for so long, however, that it had grown content and senescent. When at last there arose a new challenge to its rule in the form of the Traveler, the Darkness was pulled back into the struggle, "a dead husk charged with war". The verse ends by noting that war is all that the Darkness knows and is capable of, yet now there are choices before it.

Trivia

• The Darkness bears resemblance to the Armies of the Dark and its leader in Bungie's Myth series—a resurgent dark force that is the antithesis to the (forces of) Light.
• The idea of the Darkness arising from a primordial universe bears resemblance to the origins of the W'rkncacnter from Bungie's Marathon series.
• The Darkness being flagged as Acausal indicates that it has no cause-effect relationship. The simplest explanation is that the event heralding its arrival had no known mechanism from which to derive said cause and effect. It is also possible that it may be acting on an effect-then-cause relationship, or that it is being directed by future inputs.
• Sterile neutrinos are hypothetical particles (leptons) which do not interact via any of the Standard Model interactions (strong force, weak force, etc.) except for gravity. They are believed to be responsible for a number of unexplained astrophysical phenomena, including dark matter and dark radiation, neither of which are currently detectable through any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, except for gravity.
• Gravity waves are generated when an object or event interacts with the curvature of spacetime in such a manner as to create changes in that curvature, which then ripple outward away from the event at the speed of light (or 186,000 miles per second) in a wave-like manner. In reference to the ISR report, the event which triggered the SKYSHOCK alert lasted 0.3 seconds, which suggests that whatever displaced local spacetime during the event measures some 55800 miles in diameter (assuming a spherical shape).
• The term "OCP/Extinction" is a reference to the "Culture" series, by Iain M Banks who, in his novel Excession, defines the term as an "Outside Context Problem", or a problem for which a civilization lacks the capacity to prepare or, indeed, even conceive of. It is the sort of problem that, in his own words, "most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop."

List of appearances

• Destiny (First mentioned)