Weblore:Shadowkeep: Difference between revisions

“Your tea has gone cold.”

“I… have been burned before.”

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

“The universe has many corners. There is much that is shocking still left to uncover."

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

“That would be nice.”

“You're leaving.”

“Tell me I'm wrong.”

“There is a greater purpose.”

“When will you be back?”

“So you're abandoning us.”

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

“We would have been lost without you. We need you here. You know this.”

“I have to do this alone. It's—”

“Let her go.”

“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.”

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

“Is this true?”

“As I told [[Asher Mir|Asher]], there is a storm coming...”

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

“Yet his sisters would see his will done. There will always be another storm.”

“Then let's weather it together.”

“We made do without her before. We can do it again.”

“You see everything but what you already have.”

“Good luck.”

“Eris…"

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

“Did you believe it would be so easy?” [[Toland, the Shattered|Toland]] this time. The voice echoes all around me.

“No, Witch. I thought it… would prove more difficult… to find you.”

“Tell me, [[Savathûn, the Witch-Queen|Archentrope]], now that you have me… what will you do with me?”

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

“You are no more my family than a parasite is to a host. You will die, like your brother before you.”

“If only you had gazed upon the dark majesty that slumbered beneath you…”

“To be so near, only to scratch the surface, must tear at the filament of your mind.”

“Open your eyes, Eris…”

“Eris!”

“Eris!”

“You encountered the Witch-Queen and survived.”

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

“Tell me, what did she say?”

“It was riddles… taunts. She used you, all of you, perverting your voices… I was close to something. Beneath the surface. Slumbering.”

“Intriguing.”

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

“I have to. I need to.”

“Are you telling yourself this to motivate, or are you blinded by your obsession?”

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

“Go on.”

“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 imagine dying would leave one unsettled.”

“True, but this lies beyond that void. Our fireteam was comprised of some of the best to ever wield the Light, and yet we were eviscerated with ease.”

“They had weapons… we were not prepared.”

“While true, does the circumstance not bother you?”

“It haunts me to this day. I hesitate to believe anything She would say.”

“But why would She say anything at all?”

“…She means to guide me, Toland.”

“Do not play into Her hand.”

“You lend credence to Her riddles. We must know the truth, no matter the cost.”

“Tread lightly, Eris. Or you may end up like me yet. Or worse!”

“My charge is the same, as always.”

“I'm afraid so.”

“CLICK.”

“Lower your guns!”

“Eris Morn. Apologies for the welcome. Never know what will come out of there.”

“This place… it's miraculous.”

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

“Where are we going?”

“To see [[Mara Sov|the Queen]].”

“The Witch aims to bait me. I require your guidance, my Queen.”

“She is calculated, meticulous. Proceed cautiously. Her intent is obscured.”

“Where do we begin?”

“Eris… there is understandable urgency in this matter…”

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

“The shadow of death cannot hinder me.”

“You walk a thin line between duty and obsession. Take it from one with experience.”

“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—”

“Eris. Breathe.”

“We know about the Hive, as well as their recently erected Keep.”

“Then you will come with me, Ikora.”

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

“You must let me show you the truth. Then you will understand.”

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

“Then I will go alone.”

“Eris...”

“On this I cannot negotiate.”

“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.”

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

“We all do what we must.”

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

“I have to go.”

“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>

Sayeth Oryx, “I have made preparations. If I am defeated, I know it will be because My understanding of the universe was incomplete. I know that I will fall to something mighty, something that craves might, something that loves which I love, which is a principle and a power, the versatile, protean need to adapt and endure, to reach out and shape the universe entirely for the purpose of endurance, to mutate and redesign and test and iterate so that it can prevail, can seize existence and hold it, certain that this is everything, that there is nothing to life except living. And it has two faces, yet it is one shape. One face is the objective, which is to exist, and the other face is that will to sacrifice things and ideas for a single mission, the mission of becoming the shape, a shape that is a principle, the utter commitment to survival, to drawing the right sword and choosing where to cut: that edge, that sharpness, that logic of swords. So I will prepare a book, which is a map to a weapon. And My vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand Me, where I have been and where I was going. And then they will take up My weapon, and they will use it, they will use that weapon, which is all that I am. They will become me and I will become them, each of us defeating the other, correcting the other, alloying ourselves into one omnipotent philosophy. Thus I will live forever. Aye mak sicur.”

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>

“North is toward Oryx my King,” said the first Knight.  

“No,” said the second Knight, “Xivu Arath is victorious in all wars; north is toward my Queen.”

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

“Oryx is more powerful,” His Knight retorted, “for He has gone into the Deep, alone of all the Hive; He has spoken to that which is caustic to existence, and returned with some loan of its power. He has even relaxed in its presence, for He is friend to that which cannot befriend.”

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!”

Now the other Knight knew the sound of holy writ, but could not surrender the fight. “Yes, Oryx was first to know the Deep,” the Knight of Xivu Arath said. “But first blood is not last blood; first to meet the Shape of Shapes is not last to touch that secret face. Easy it may be to dismiss my Queen for Her blunt strength and simplicity. But She causes exhaustion and ennui in Her enemies, which, in a cosmos where existence may be maintained by will alone, are the surest of killers. And as for your prophecy, I need not disprove it, for until it is true it is only a boast.”

Seeing this, my father said “Let this one be inundated in the old way of floods; let her greatness be reduced to only what is greatest, for she has an excess, and excess is the capacity to be stringently purified.”

But I would not be taken to the floodplain; I was afraid; I contended with a hundred Thralls and ten Knights and was not beaten; I contended with an Ogre and I was exhausted; only then did my father, who is Eater of Hope, who burned with the secondhand melamu, who trampled the netherworld as hooves trample hands, come down from His throne, saying, “Do you love Me so hugely as to defy My edict, and so test the verity of My will? In this capacity you are also great.”

Seeing the reduction of me appear before His throne, my father said, “You are great now, and you cannot love Me. For the parts of you that were Mine have been taken from you; the parts that were His remain.”