Weblore:Shadowkeep: Difference between revisions

“Was that a joke from the dark and brooding [[Eris Morn]]? I’m shocked.”

“I was thinking: We should go down to the City. There’s a great ramen shop there. Perfect blend of spice and flavor.”

She’s studying me now. Does she know?

“You’re leaving.”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

“So you’re abandoning us.”

“There is still much to be done. You don’t know what I have seen.”

“I have to do this alone. It’s—”

“Eris has made her decision. You can’t force her to stay.”

“I don’t think you know what you’re saying, Zavala. Are you forgetting we only survived because of her?”

“And we’re all grateful, but if we can’t live with the absence of one person, we won’t survive very long.”

This is a battle Ikora can’t win. I won’t let her fight.

“Your whispers carry throughout the Tower. Were I not in it, as you would prefer, I wouldn’t have to endure them any further.”

The brave commander can’t even bring himself to look at me.

“[[Oryx, the Taken King|Oryx]] is dead. We’ve weathered the storm.”

“Then let’s weather it together.”

It’s my turn to hang my head.  

She turns to leave and I won’t stop her. She is not wrong.

Zavala’s words ring hollow.

It pains me to part in this way, but I can’t endanger anyone else.

My head is throbbing, but I press on. This place I have found—it promotes pain. The Hive are fond of the anguish they bring. They will not deter me. It’s been months since I left the Tower. What do I have to show for my journey? Dead ends. Whispers. Nothing.

Stick to the shadows. Use the columns and pillars. Caution isn’t cautious enough.

A voice carried on the wind. [[Sai Mota|Sai]]? It can’t be.

A laugh from down the corridor. [[Eriana-3|Eriana]]’s. “Come back to us, Eris.” [[Vell Tarlowe|Vell]]…

They’re dead. This can’t be real. I won’t fall prey to tricks of the Hive.

A wailing scream assaults me. It’s a scream etched deeply in my mind. Poor [[Omar Agah|Omar]]…

I won’t let Her shake me.

“Do? Child of the Hive, can’t you see? We are one. Do you hate it?”

The dirt and debris in the air spin wildly, colliding into me. I’m trapped in a whirlwind. My chest grows tight. Breath short. I can’t see. It’s all around me.

The days have become indecipherable. This harsh plane of existence bears only Darkness and cold—two things I’ve become reacquainted with since my banishment to this hellscape. No matter where I run, the glowing orb follows. It stalks me.

I’ve taken to quietly humming a tune to stave off the madness. I don’t enjoy it, but it helps. It’s worked before, when I was trapped beneath the Moon’s surface. Taken and Hive run rampant here. Around every corner. I’m in no shape to defend myself. My mind fights to stay alert. I just need to rest. Just a little…

No. Stop it. I’m losing my grip again. Hum the song.

You’re making it up. Or worse. It’s the Witch again.

“I’m no closer to discovering their machinations.”

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re in no shape to move.”

“Aren’t you curious what was slumbering down there? I know I am.”

He piques my interest. I’ll allow this momentary reprieve.

“Our time in the Hellmouth… requires further examination. I’ve often thought back to our glorious failure. Something has never sat right with me.”

“I’m afraid so.”

It’s warm now. And bright. So bright.

I’m surrounded.<ref>'''Bungie, (9/18/2019),''' [https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/48151 ''Narrative Preview Chapter Three - A Light in the Darkness'']</ref>

There’s a heat behind my eyes. I’d forgotten warmth, what it felt like. All I can make out are the weapons pointed at my face. If this is my fate, I will end with the fury of a tempest.

“This place… it’s miraculous.”

“Don’t get used to it. We won’t be staying long.”

“You were on the brink of death. That is not a loss I’m willing to bear.”

The same desire runs through my Queen’s veins.

"[[Savathûn, the Witch Queen|Savathûn’s]] cunning has its limits... We retrieved a log dating back to the Golden Age that may aid in deciphering Her riddles. It is one of many. The rest are scattered across the stars."

The months working alongside my Queen were exhilarating and treacherous. I’ve traversed more of the known universe than I ever thought I would see. Through all the vile creatures vanquished and treasures discovered lurks a new sensation… A place in this story.

We’ve collected several of the logs we seek. Each offers a new perspective on the threat we all face. The Golden Age understanding of the concepts of Light and Darkness were primitive, nascent. I wonder if in the millennia that will come to pass, our comprehension will be viewed similarly. It matters not, if we are unable to avoid our looming calamity.

It’s here, in these ruins. I can sense it.

Inside—what we’ve been searching for.

"My Queen … it’s been there all along."

It’s been a long while since I’ve been to the Tower. Much has changed. I pray my departure hasn’t created an irreparable fracture.  

I’ll tell her what I’ve uncovered—where I’ve been. She’ll see the meaning behind my actions.

“When I heard your ship was approaching, I didn’t believe it. Yet here you stand. It’s good to see you.”

“Ikora, my absence was necessary. What I have learned, discovered... Danger lurks closer than you realize. You must trust me. We’ve stood too long ignorant of the cataclysm brewing before us. If we do not act, we face yet another Collapse. We must attend to that which the Hive have unearthed down below the lunar surface—”

A Keep? They mobilize. It’s far worse than I knew.

“Eris, you’ve barely had a moment to rest.”

“I have responsibilities here. A lot has transpired in your absence. We’re still recovering from our… losses.”

But I won’t fight with her. Not again.

“At least allow me to help you mount an adequate response to a threat that, mind you, we don’t fully understand. Let the Vanguard support you.”

That will take time. Always time. The one element we don’t have the luxury of.

“But you’ll be gone before they can mobilize, won’t you?”

“Promise you’ll stay in communication with me. I don’t want this to be like last time.”

“Eris… This thing you’re willing to risk everything for… What is it?”

“I warned of a storm. Can’t you hear the thunder?”<ref>'''Bungie, (2019/9/20)''', ''[https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/48153 Narrative Preview Chapter Five - Reunion]''</ref>

Oryx, peerless King, whose horns pierce the cosmic horizon, who obtains meaning from the heat bath! It is us who beseech You, we Your Hive. Hear as we strangle ourselves with O!-Ryx, call-name of Oryx, which refuses itself by refusing division. Oryx, whose worldline may not be mapped to any simply connected topology. Oryx, who blueshifts when all else recedes. Oryx, whose divine weapons may slice the bond of affection between master and pet. Oryx, in whom is invested the authority of one billion years’ failure to die! We Your progeny, who are caused by You as all things in Your light cone are caused by Your will, beseech You for Your forgiveness!

Sayeth we the Hive, “Oryx our King is defeated in echo and in form, in world and in throne. His children are defeated, His tribute is cut off, His [[Crota|faithful son]] is fallen, His [[Nokris|prodigal son]] entrapped and enervated by the [[Xol|Will of Thousands]] who would use Him as bait for richer feed. Yet we survive in our Thousands of Billions, so numerous in our thriving mass that we could reach from moon to world and back to moon if we stood upon each others’ brows. We live on by the law that we were taught, the Devouring of the Unfree, and that law is manifest in our flesh, which is pared to bone by the Knife of Need and Challenge. And we in our Thousands of Billions do possess a will. Let us test the testament of our King who is Oryx. Let us challenge His legacy as He has challenged us. For there is no surer tribute to the dead than to kill all they left behind, so that only the invincible and necessary will endure. He was not invincible. Thus we must ask after the necessity of His legacy and the need to obey His taboo. Was not [[Xivu Arath, God of War|Xivu Arath]] beheaded, and yet summoned back by Oryx, who remembered Her as war? Was not Savathûn beheaded, and yet conjured back by Oryx, who conspired with Her cunning? Aiat, it must now be so. For if His legacy is true, it will come unto us and defeat our blasphemy. And if it is not, what we attempt cannot be blasphemy, for we have survived Him and surpassed the power of His will. Aiat, aiat, aiat.”<ref>'''Bungie, (10/11/2019)''', ''[https://www.bungie.net/en/explore/detail/news/48286 Endure]''</ref>

One day, as the green eye stars set behind the far-away spines left by the machines’ failed injections, a Knight of Oryx met a Knight of [[Xivu Arath]] as they passed across a bridge in the Sea of Screams. To their north lay a strata of ossified corpses, tangled bones left by newborn beings who had hatched into this overworld from the weeping blistered souls of living worlds at the end of their sanity, only to become unanchored from the universe of matter and confuse their shapes with each other, until they became one screaming interchange of bodies and died. To their other north was an atoll of scriptures adrift on a sea of interpretations, gnawed at by heresies like white eels. To another north was one end of the bridge, and to the last north, the other end. All directions were north, but it was not at once obvious what lay at the northernmost place.

Thus announced, they drew their blades and struggled. At first, the Knight of Xivu Arath, She Whose Victory Is Idempotent, had the upper claw. Through inexorable campaigns and the absolute mastery of operontological warfare, which is the method of war which converts mere strategy into an attack on the enemy’s very fundamental modes of being and knowing, Xivu Arath had claimed great swathes of Oryx’s territories. But then the Knight of Oryx, First Navigator of Phase Spaces, Primogenitor of Possibilities, gained the poise and the momentum. For Oryx was ever exploring and opening new spaces, and all that He discovered weighed more on His existence than all He had ever known and left behind.

“Xivu Arath is more powerful,” Her Knight claimed, “for She held a territory in Oryx’s mind even after She died.”

Perhaps the Knight’s weapon had cut through the thin membranes of reality and drawn a tear of prophecy from the eye of time, which fell into the Knight’s panting mouth. For the Knight then said, “And my King is so mighty in His weight of causality that all which succeeds Him is in some way caused by Him. Even His enemies, in reacting to Him, ultimately obey the shape of His will, as a bandage must obey the shape of a wounded limb. So it is that the one who most hates and fears my King will also be the one to find what He seeks. It is this way only because it must be this way. Aiat!”

For this reason a certain quantity of tribute did not reach one of Crota’s champions at the necessary time, and that champion lost a duel with a sergeant of Xivu Arath, causing the loss of a great number of temples and tributaries, so that Crota, upon slaughtering many liars with His sword, judged it best to sleep and recover His debts, with His soul proxied in a material cask so that He could use it as a piton to return swiftly to the Real. All afterwards proceeded as it must have proceeded. Aiat.<ref>'''Bungie, (10/11/2019)''', ''[https://www.bungie.net/en/explore/detail/news/48287 Dust]''</ref>