Editing Forum:Crota, the Shattered

{{forumheader|Fan Fiction}}
{{Boss infobox
|nameBG=olive
|BG=olive
|sectionBG=black
|lineBG=black
|name= Crota, the Shattered
|image= {{Tabcontainer 
|title1= Initial Form
|content1= [[File:Crota the Shattered Cloudless.png|300px]]
|title2= Combat Form
|content2= [[File:Crota the Shattered.png|300px]]
}}
|othernames= Eater of Hope <br> The Hope-Eater <br> The Monster of Luna <br> The God-Knight <br> Light-Destroyer <br> Son of Navigation <br> Sword of Pits <br> Worldbreaker <br> Breaker of Worlds <br> Prince of Annihilation <br> Rotting Vessel <br> The Unwilling
|species= [[Hive]]
|faction= [[Blood of Oryx]]
|rank= Vessel <br> [[Ultra]]
|class= Vessel [[Knight]]
|mission= 
|gender= Male
|weapon= {{icon|Prismatic}} [[Cleaver#Sword of Crota|Sword of Crota]]
|ability= Everlasting Presence <br> Inflict Despair <br> {{icon|Prismatic}} Prismatic Blast <br> {{Icon|Solar}} [[Soulfire]] Wall <br> {{Icon|Strand}} Everlasting Assimilation <br> Assimilation Manifestation <br> Enrage
}}

{{quote|This mighty child... Such fire! Such hate. Even in his most truest of deaths and with what little of his soul persists, I can feel his hatred bleed into this realm, keeping it alive and beating. He defies the [[Final Shape]] out of hatred for [[The Guardian|you]]. What a fascinating phenomenon. He shall be my sword, as he was his [[Oryx, the Taken King|father's]].|[[Forum:The Everlasting Echo|The Everlasting Echo]]}}

'''Crota, the Shattered''' is the controlled soul of [[Crota, Son of Oryx]] repossessing what little remains of his body and is controlled by [[Forum:The Everlasting Echo|The Everlasting Echo]]. He serves as the unwilling secondary antagonist of the content pack, ''Final Rest'' where the Everlasting Echo, controlling Crota's soul, seeks to possess all of reality, making it the only truly free being in existence while all else lives to serve its twisted desires. Crota serves as its first step to this plot.

==History==
===Resurrection===
{{quote|Thank... you...|Crota, the Shattered}}
After the events of [[Last Rites]], Crota's soul was left fractured with most of it stolen by [[The Guardian]] in their war against [[Oryx, the Taken King]]. Because of this, Crota's undying flaming soul could not properly be put to rest, and as such it was left stuck within his tomb for years. The hatred his soul exuded was able to keep the [[Oversoul Throne]] corporeal all this time, albeit in a far weakened state. This was until [[Forum:The Everlasting Echo|The Everlasting Echo]] fell into the [[Hellmouth]] and into Crota's throne world. It'd pierce Crota's tomb and take control of the languishing prince's soul in the form of Crota's crown. It'd burst from his tomb, the few remaining bits of his body spilling out and floating in the air around his crown before assembling to reform a facsimile of Crota's body. The Echo would also reform Crota's sword into a new more viscous form to use. With this new body, the Echo would use it to consume the [[Echo of Oryx]] that was protecting the tomb. This would allow Crota the ability to control all the [[Taken]] that flooded [[Moon|Luna]] in pursuit of the Echo.

The Guardian, [[Drifter]], [[Zavala]], [[Ikora Rey]], and [[Crow]] would work together to fend off Crota and the invading Taken while Eris channeled her recall spell to get them out of the Oversoul Throne. The teams would succeed and evade the Echo's grasp, allowing it time to adjust to its new form and begin its plan. It'd use Crota and the Echo of Oryx it consumed to order all the Taken on Luna to begin capturing all those on the moon and bring them to it so its influence could spread. This would create the faction known as the Lost which are twisted and spliced together creatures fit to the Everlasting Echo's whims.

Crota would see action again when, empowered by the [[Echo of Riis]], the Guardian would return to the Oversoul Throne alongside Eris Morn and [[Eramis, Kell of Darkness|Eramis]] to defeat him. They'd succeed in using the Echo to weaken the bond between the Echo and Crota enough to bring him to his knees. Eris would approach Crota in hopes to relish in the feeling he had of being helpless to her whims just as her fireteam was to his swarm. But as she approached, she didn't see fear in his eyes, she saw relief. Crota would weakly utter "Thank... you..." to Eris as she prepared to tear the Everlasting Echo from his crown and return him to the grave. Eris would realize the true pain Crota was in and back away in shock, giving the Everlasting Echo enough time to regather its strength and flee, its vessel in tow.

===An Unlikely Alliance===
{{quote|What cruel irony... in my desire to inflict the same feeling of helplessness and despair that beast inflicted on my fireteam and all those of the [[Great Disaster]], I delivered him hope. Crota isn't in control of the Echo like how the [[Fikrul, the Fanatic|Kell of the Dead]] or [[Maya Sundaresh]] were, nor is this Echo a fading memory of something before like the [[Echo of Navigation]]. This "Everlasting Echo" is alive, sapient, and malicious. It's using Crota like a cerebral parasite, piloting his soul and the shards of his body like a puppet. As much as I'd want more vengeance and leave him suffering like this... I must move past that... and grant Crota the mercy he'd never grant us.|Eris Morn}}

With this new knowledge, the trio would once again track Crota down to [[Essence]] where they'd find him just before the fully bloomed [[Tree of Silver Wings]] within, kneeling. The Everlasting Echo would state that it decided to grant Crota one final wish, to see the fruits of his [[Hive|people]]. So it decided to show him their greatest failure, that even their [[The Witness|master]] failed, and forced him to commune with the [[Light]] emanating from the tree. It'd then state its confusion that Crota seemed happy to see them. Crota would then attempt to wrestle control from the Echo, causing it to enrage and take back control and attack the trio, realizing they were Crota's last hope and if they were destroyed, nothing would stand in its way.

During the fight Crota would repeatedly attempt to fight back against the Echo, going to far as to repeatedly gash at his crown and stab himself, leaving openings for Eramis to try and use the Echo of Riis to separate the two. Crota would again fail to defeat the Guardian and this time Eris would successfully use the Echo of Riis to pierce Crota's veil and skewer the Echo's essence, prying it from him. Crota's form would immediately disperse and leave his body's shards once again empty, but this time, no undying [[Soulfire]] remained. Crota was finally at peace.

==Appearance==
While being possessed by the Everlasting Echo, Crota took on a strange form. Due to most of his body being destroyed during the events of [[Crota's End]], only fragments exist; that being pieces of his breastplate, parts of his left shoulder, a small fragment of his left arm, and his entire right forearm. His crown was utterly destroyed, but the Everlasting Echo would take the form of it, returning the identifying piece of the prince's visage. Though this crown also would endlessly leak a strange pillar of viscous smoke that resembled that of [[The Witness]]' similar feature, albeit far smaller and without any faces within. Crota would also gain a cape similar to the Witness', including the [[Darkness#Resonance|Resonance]] cloud at its end. These features are due to the Everlasting Echo being the memories of the [[Precursors (Species)|Precursors]] before they transformed into the Witness, but is still well aware of what became of them.

Usually Crota's shards float in the air, but when he needs to fight, the Echo summons a full ethereal body for him to use.

==Gameplay==
In the first encounter, Crota fights identically to his old self. But in the second one, Crota, the Shattered fights differently and is instead in line with a more aggressive and faster [[Zulmak, Instrument of Torment]]. He constantly attempts to close in and use his sword which is almost always an instant kill. While seeking foes, he may also fire Prismatic Blasts which, unlike his original ball-like Darkness Blasts, instead are heat-seeking needles akin to the ones pierced into the [[Wretched Knight]]. He can also create a tall wall of [[Soulfire]] out of his sword by slicing the ground, this wall incinerates all weapons fire that comes contact with it and deals heavy damage. Crota can also use Assimilation Manifestation which allows him to channel any ability from various enemies. This can include but is not limited to, summoning [[Taken Psion]]s, throwing a [[Cabal Frag Detonator]] or [[Shock Grenade]], warping a short distance like a [[Captain]], or even summoning packs of [[Lucent Moth]]s. This ability is foretold by the text "''Crota draws upon Lost :Name of Enemy he's using the ability of:.''"

When the second encounter starts he also inflicts the Everlasting Presence debuff which suppresses supers and severely hinders heavy weapon ammo drop rate, but increases critical damage. Though Crota is initially immune to critical damage. To damage Crota, one must clear out the room's ads, allowing Eramis room to move in and channel the Echo of Riis. Crota will charge her in an attempt to stop the channeling, but as a result leave himself open to the blast which opens his crown up to take critical damage and hurt the Echo directly. Crota will struggle to close the gap on Eramis for seven seconds, then use Everlasting Assimilation on her in an attempt to consume her and the Echo of Riis. To free her the player must kill a Withering Knight and take their [[Cleaver]] and break Crota's shield. If this isn't done within fifteen seconds, Eramis is consumed and the mission fails. If you succeed, Crota kneels and can take a small extra burst of damage from the cleaver and allowing Eramis time to flee back to safety. As long as a Guardian is hitting Crota with a Cleaver, he stays kneeled. But every 0.75 seconds one stays within a certain radius of Crota, they gain the Despair debuff and if it reaches ten, they die. Upon reaching below 40% health, Crota enrages and runs much faster akin to a [[Vanquisher]]. Once the extra cleaver phase it then repeats until Crota is defeated.

==Appearance==
*''[[Destiny 2]]: Final Rest'' {{1st}}

==Author's Notes==
*This idea was inspired by one time I played [[Last Rites]] and thought "If we didn't take all of Crota's soul, what happened to the rest?" and I also remember that after you kill him in Destiny 2, he leaves an undying flame bonfire where he was slain. Combine this with an idea I had of having a truly evil Echo and I wrote this.
*The drawing of Crota, the Shattered took about four hours of off and on drawing across 2-3 days.
**Though I must disclose that the pose was heavily referenced from Crota himself. But the rest is completely my own doing
**During the drawing process I disabled his green mist to work on the cape, but then I looked at it and liked the idea of him having floating armor bits while not in combat. So I decided that he'd usually just be floating chitin but manifest the rest of his body while fighting.

[[Category:Enemy fan fiction]]