The Nine

The Nine
Overview
Other name(s):	IX Ennead
Domain(s):	Unknown Space Solar System Planetary Bodies Milky Way
Engagements:	Wolf Rebellion (catalyst)
Leadership:	Collective consensus
Notable information:	Released Skolas, Kell of Kells Hosted the Trials of the Nine, The Reckoning, and Rite of the Nine

"The Nine are the flesh of dust."

— Xûr

The Nine (often represented as the IX), also known as the Ennead, are a group of enigmatic entities affiliated with the Sun and planets of the Sol System. They control Unknown Space, a mysterious realm whose nature is poorly understood.

Overview

The Nine are intelligent beings composed of Dark matter, which developed cognition after being pulled into loops by the gravity of Sol and its planets. Their existence is predicated on the existence of those celestial bodies, as well as on life within the Sol System, as the motions of lifeforms cause gravitational perturbations that drive the Nine's ability to think. The Nine's primary concern is sustaining their own existence, whether by protecting the life on which they depend or by finding a way to end their reliance on it.

Whereas baryonic matter-based lifeforms exist in three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension, the Nine exist in a fourth dimension inaccessible to baryonic life, which allows them to experience the past, present, and future simultaneously. To lower-dimensional lifeforms, this gives the Nine the appearance of being able to foretell the future; perhaps the earliest known demonstration of this may be seen in the Prophecy Dungeon, which included symbolic representations of future events such as the rise of Eramis, the disappearance of Io, Mars, Mercury and Titan following the arrival of the Black Fleet and later arrival of Empress Caiatl in the Sol System. The Nine are additionally capable of a limited form of time travel, as shown when they transported Louis Yero hundreds of years into the future from the Space Age; however, they can only send objects forward in time, not backwards.

As described by the Nine to Lavinia Garcia Umr Tawil, the "bodies" of the Nine consist of looping formations of dark matter centered on the gravity wells of the celestial bodies of the Sol System; however, when III was encountered on Kepler after Maya Sundaresh forced it into three-dimensional space using the Echo of Command, it took the form of a gargantuan tentacled entity with a massive central "eye", in the center of which was what appeared to be a gravitational singularity or black hole. It is unclear to what degree this form resembles the "true" forms of the Nine in their native higher-dimensional environment.

Despite the Nine's virtual omnipresence within the Sol System, the scope of their power over the world of "normal" matter is limited, and so they primarily act through a handful of agents, emissaries, and associates. They appear to be capable of freely manipulating the dark matter that composes themselves. They are also able to manipulate and even synthesize regular matter under certain circumstances, such as through the portals of Cocytus.

History

Origins

As revealed by the Nine to Lavinia Garcia Umr Tawil, the Nine originated from streams of dark matter particles passing through the galaxy and the solar system, long before the Traveler arrived in the Sol System. As dark matter only interacts with normal matter through gravity, these streams were drawn to the cores of the Sun and its orbiting planets. The infalling dark matter was then flung back into space, before being pulled in again to form endless loops. These loops formed the basis of emergent consciousnesses that would become the Nine.

The Nine did not truly awaken until life evolved within the solar system. The movements of lifeforms resulted in perturbations to the loops of dark matter particles cycling through each celestial body, creating waves that formed the basis of complex thoughts. According to Lavinia, the dark matter of the Nine passes through every living thing and every iota of matter in the solar system.

The Nine were cognizant of their dependence on all life and the worlds of the Sol System: if that life ended, so too would the Nine as thinking entities. They began searching for a way to end that dependence and sustain their existence independent of it. Two factions emerged after the arrival of the Traveler to Sol: one faction sought to harness the paracausal properties of Light to construct living bodies for themselves out of regular matter, the other seeking to create a pocket universe with physical laws that could accommodate them.

Space Age

At some point during the Space Age, circa the late 20th-early 21st century, the Nine murdered Nella Davis, a mathematician working under the United States Department of External Observation on Project Graviton, by teleporting a train to an empty intersection as she was racing home from work in response to an urgent matter concerning her daughter, sending her body forward in time to when Ophiuchus would find her. The Nine claim to have done this in order to ensure that Nella would die and be reborn as Ikora Rey centuries later after the Collapse, as Ikora would play a pivotal role in the Nine's plans.

Around the same time, the Nine abducted Louis Yero, another DEO employee, by pulling him forward through time into the City Age, shortly after Orin had left her position as their Emissary.

Golden Age

According to II in a communication to the Guardian while the latter was exploring Kepler, the Traveler did not flee to Sol, but rather arrived with the intent to meet the Nine specifically.

City Age

"He says the Nine are vulnerable every moment they touch our world."

— Brother Vance

For most of the City Age, little of the Nine was known outside of the cryptic sayings of Xûr, their mysterious agent and the first known Emissary employed in their service. Xûr himself first appeared in the Tower after the end of the Great Ahamkara Hunt; Cryptarch Lavinia speculated that the Nine had previously made use of the Ahamkara for their paracausal abilities and had sent Xûr to interact with the Guardians for similar reasons. He is a member of the Jovians, a mysterious race that exist beyond the Reef. According to him, his kind were originally a creation of the Nine that willfully chose their purpose given to them, unlike the Awoken.

Osiris is said to have met with the Nine on Europa, and before his exile had an obsessive interest in them to the exclusion of his duties as the Warlock Vanguard. Nonetheless, the Nine had a vested interest in helping the City, tasking Xûr to sell powerful weapons to Guardians. The Nine formed an alliance of sorts with the Reef, but their loyalty fell into doubt following the release of Skolas at their command. The Cabal in the Sol System were aware of the Nine, referring to them as the Ennead.

Reef Wars

During the Reef Wars, the Queen's Wrath Sjur Eido was killed by an unknown party, and her bow stolen. A strange coin was left on her body as "weregild", suggesting that the Nine were in some way involved with her death.

Fall of Crota

Following the death of Crota, Son of Oryx at the hands of the Guardian, the Nine took control of the ancient space station known as Cocytus, which contained inter-dimensional portals that had formerly been redirected to lead to Crota's Oversoul Throne. The Nine began using Cocytus as a laboratory, using the station's third portal to convert their dark matter into regular matter, with the ultimate goal of producing living organisms from scratch. While the Nine could create, with increasing sophistication, basic atoms, crystals, and organic precursors, their two attempts at viable life failed almost immediately, and the portal fell mostly into disuse. Each sending was recorded by the Awoken forces still containing the station. Their own probes, sent through the same portal, immediately ceased to exist on crossing, presumably transmuted likewise into dark matter.

Arrival of the Taken King

Shortly after the battle of Saturn, when Oryx invaded the Dreaming City, the Nine debated about what to do regarding Oryx's incursion, as he threatened all life in the Sol System. I and IV seemed to blame either Mara Sov or Riven for worsening the situation, with IV claiming that their actions had "ruined everything." When Oryx subsequently Took Riven, the Nine were driven into a frenzy, arguing amongst themselves about how to prevent Oryx from seizing more Ahamkara to bolster his army. Against the protests of I and IV, the other members of the Nine reached out with the apparent intent of killing all of the remaining Ahamkara in the Sol System.

The Red War

Sometime during or before the Red War, an Awoken agent of Mara Sov named Orin sought out nine Ghosts who had gone beyond the Solar System and inquired after their findings. Receiving only a set of coordinates, she left them. She also found several deep-orbit minds during her search. Orin soon encountered some of the Nine herself. After warning her of the possibility of going mad from the conversation and of a potential price to be paid for her curiosity, they tasked her with finding three worthy keys. They then commended her for seeking them out, for her resourcefulness in acquiring a ship and her decision to avoid "a golden snake who poses as a god".

The Nine would also be indirectly responsible for the Red War, with one member blinding the Guardians to the arrival of the Red Legion, allowing Ghaul to successfully attack and occupy the City. This member of the Nine did so to learn how to take the Light, but they would be severely punished, as Ghaul's success led to the deployment of the Almighty, which would have destroyed the Sol system along with the Nine had it not been disabled. Orin later revealed that the war was also the result of the Nine orchestrating events to kill Orin's Ghost, Gol, when Ghaul caged the Traveler after Orin had told him to go to the City to warn them. As such, without her Light, Orin would become the Nine's second Emissary, allowing them to use her as a proxy in hosting the Trials of the Nine.

Whether before or after Orin visited them, the Nine spoke amongst themselves regarding two significant events. The first event was regarded with anticipation, and appeared to be Mara Sov's plan involving her Techeuns; the Nine were confident that her fall was inevitable, for the odds she played with had been weighted by them. The discussion of the second event was tinged with overtones of regret and sadness; I, IV, and V appeared to be lamenting the Nine's slaughter of the remaining Ahamkara after Riven was taken by Oryx. In response to the others' remorse, III reminded them that the Ahamkara were merely "stolen constructs" and that killing them was a mercy, and urged the rest of the Nine to "rid [themselves] of regret".

Forsaken

During the Guardian's third visit to Mara Sov's throne, the Queen was seen talking to the Emissary, saying that she agreed with the Nine's terms regarding an asset to be stationed beyond the grave of the First Fleet. She then told the Emissary to remind the Nine that she had shown enough patience regarding the matter. The Emissary leaves and Sov warns the Guardian not to get involved in the Nine's schemes, claiming that they never end.

At an unknown time after the curse was unleashed upon the Dreaming City, the Nine argued with the Emissary regarding her status as a pawn of the Nine, Mara Sov's plan, and an oncoming storm. During the conversation, the Emissary pointed out the fact that seemingly only five of the Nine were present, which the Nine admitted was true.

Season of the Drifter

During her surveillance of the Drifter, the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal recorded at least one conversation between the Nine and the Drifter. The Drifter appeared to be speaking aloud to empty air and remarked upon the Nine showing him visions of a future universe consumed by Darkness, as well as another vision of a universe suffused with Light. The Drifter rebuked the Nine for trying to sway him to their cause, upon which they apparently attempted to kill him by overheating his brain. The Drifter responded by using his Light to counter their attack.

In addition, one can hear different members of the Nine speak directly to the Emissary during several invitations of the Nine. They would also test the Guardian once more through the Reckoning, which took place in the Haul that the Nine gifted to the Drifter and now is attached to Drifter's ship, the Derelict.

The Arrival

During Season of Arrivals, the Prophecy Dungeon was released. Here, Guardians accomplish various tasks given by the Nine in hopes of receiving an audience with them. In this audience, Guardians seek to understand the nature of the Darkness, to the best of the Nine's ability in describing it. The answer to this question is given by the Emissary on behalf of the Nine.

The answer was interpreted by the Drifter as the Nine stating that the difference between the Light and Dark was ultimately meaningless. Along with their answer to the player's question, they also foretold of the use and balance of Darkness in Stasis, the disappearance of Mars, Mercury, Io, and Titan, the Guardian's inevitable clash with Eramis, Kell of Darkness, and at the time unknown Cabal threat. After asking them about the nature of the Darkness, the Nine would show them visions of a world of too much darkness, a world of too much light , and a world of the balance between the forces.

The Witness's Death

While the Nine remained neutral in the formation of the Coalition brought about by Empress Caiatl's presence in the Sol System, the Endless Night, and Mara Sov's return to the Dreaming City and the War against the Witness, they would soon discover that the Witness was defeated and its Final Shape was stopped by the Guardians.

III expressed relief that the threat posed by the Witness was gone, while VI lamented the Witness' defeat as a "wasted opportunity" for the Nine to escape their dependence on baryonic matter-based life. I, V and II rebuked VI, with I chiding VI for exaggerating their situation, V claiming that the "useful idiocy" of the Witness had not been a viable means of escape, and II calling their viewpoint childish while claiming that the Nine should accept the status quo. VII then called out the Inner Orbits for being complacent, urging their compatriots to "look beyond the chains of matter" and have faith in their ability to reshape reality to their will; III responded by saying that the Nine's strength lay in the bonds of solidarity, matter and love that connected them all. IX declared that they found the solution proffered by VII insufficient, causing VIII and V to muse on the division in the Nine's ranks. VI ended the discussion by stating that they mourned the loss of the Nine's former unity of purpose, and warned their opponents that they risked the future of the Nine as a whole if they continued on their current path.

After the Guardian solved a chess puzzle within the Unknown Antechamber, the Nine would begin issuing a challenge to Guardians called the Rite of the Nine. It was in that time the Nine told the Emissary of Theia's demise long ago and since then began fearing for their death as well. The Nine would remind the Emissary of their division as some sought transformation and others sought escape. The Nine would see the Emissary beginning to rebel against them when they refused to grant the Emissary freedom and put her plans of escape into action. Whilst the Guardian was able to find various golden engrams with engravings, they would gain insight into which member of the Nine was speaking in Roman numerals. When the Rite was completed, the Nine would reach out to the Guardian through the Emissary again, telling them that they would reach out again in time.

Skirmish on Kepler

"what follows light and shadow is silence
that silence breaks
i am summoning you as a new age begins"

— III

Several weeks prior to the incident on Kepler, the Outer Orbits of the Nine convened with each other by orders of V, explaining that it had found that Maya Sundaresh possessed a "tool of schisms" and attempt to draw her into Nine Space to bring the Echo closer to them. VIII would claim that she would have to face either III or IV as VI would send an invitation to Maya through their Emissary Orin, VII and VIII suggested that they have a weapon for reassurance. V would disagree, to which VI asked them to change their position to gain the assurance of the weapon, as they were necessary for their future plans.

Shortly after, III would speak through Orin on Kepler, declaring that humanity had forgotten that they needed the Nine and that the Nine would send a message to remind them. In response, Orin broke free of the Nine's hold on her, announcing that she was resigning her position as Emissary and that the Nine would need to find someone else to send their message. Shortly after this, Maya would find III on Kepler before the Singularity and would attempt to trade the places of Golden Age Earth with present day Earth. III would refuse and in retaliation, Maya would pull III into physical space, killing it and destabilizing the Singularity tied to it.

Afterwards, the Nine began looking for a candidate to replace Orin as Emissary, and provisionally settled on Lodi, a human from the Space Age that the Nine had pulled through time into the present day. He subsequently arrived on Kepler, where he met the local human inhabitants, the Aionians, and later after several weeks, Ikora Rey and the Guardian, who had traveled to Kepler in response to an "invitation" sent by the Nine. Orin herself would also meet with the Guardian, Lodi and Ikora, supporting them in their mission to investigate a gravitational singularity on the surface of Kepler that threatened to wipe out the Sol System.

During the events that followed, Lodi began experiencing visions and messages from the Nine, and would also be used as a mouthpiece in a similar fashion to Orin. Through Lodi, the Nine revealed that they were responsible for the death of Dr. Nella Davis, the woman who would later be revived as Ikora Rey. Orin also shared some of her knowledge of the Nine with Ikora and the Guardian, revealing that the Nine were capable of sending objects forward in time, but that they could not send anything back in time.

Later, when the Guardian collected enough Strangelet Capsules to pass through the singularity safely, the Nine used Lodi and Orin as their mouthpieces as they held a council with the Guardian, stating their intent to vote on two issues: the Guardian being named as the Nine's Weapon, and Lodi being appointed as Emissary. Though the votes were unanimous in the former, they were evenly divided in the latter, as III was evidently unavailable for comment. The Guardian was tasked by the Nine to seek the final vote from III on the Emissary issue.

As the Guardian fought past the Nessian Schism and House of Exile to find and confront Archon Levaszk, they discovered that III had died, and that dark matter was being siphoned from its massive corpse by the Exiles to feed the Kepler singularity. After Levaszk was defeated, III would be temporarily revived by the Drifter using the collected Motes of Dark stored within the Haul, causing its body to vanish. III showed the Guardian and Ikora a vision of Maya Sundaresh pulling III into three-dimensional space using the Echo of Command. III used Lodi to deliver its message to the Guardian and Ikora, stating that its death would lead to a mass extinction event, and that humanity must "bind the Nine" in order to survive. III voted in favor of appointing Lodi as the next Emissary as it died once again, its corpse reappearing where it had lain previously.

Afterwards, the Guardian would attempt to stop the Nessian Schism from converting the Unknown Periphery of the Nine Realms into a pocket of the Vex Network. They were successful and they would learn from the 50th copy of Chioma Esi and the 87th copy of Maya the Vex were looking for the other members of the Nine.

Identity

As their name suggests, the Nine consist of nine members, each associated with one of the nine largest celestial bodies of the Sol System. Each member is also referred to by their number, typically rendered in text using Roman numerals.

Current Members

• Mercury
• Venus
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Sun

Deceased Members

• Earth
• Theia

Agents and Emissaries

• Xûr
• Starhorse
• Lodi

Former Emissary

• Orin

Speech Patterns

Each of the Nine exhibit distinct speech patterns, which are also transcribed using unique styles that can be used to tell them apart. The table below lists the members of the Nine alongside their associated speech patterns:

I: Mercury	II: Venus	III: Earth	IV: Mars	V: Jupiter	VI: Saturn	VII: Uranus	VIII: Neptune	IX: The Sun
Proper punctuation.	Phrase 1 - phrase 2.	lower case	UPPER CASE, PUNCTUATION.	U P P E R C A S E A L L S P A C E	UPPER CASE	phrase 1 + phrase 2	phrase 1 = phrase 2	.sent | ence.
Most well-spoken and neutral in personality.	Straightforward and robotic in speech.	Almost whisperlike and cautious.	Well-spoken but straight to the point; emotive and forceful.	Contrariwise and sarcastic; emphatic and forceful.	Pragmatic and straight to the point; emphatic.		To the point.	A sense of superiority and arrogance.

Factions

At present, the Nine are divided into two factions: the Inner Orbits, associated with the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and the Outer Orbits, associated with Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus.

The Inner Orbits seek to study the Light and use it for their own purposes, and are responsible for sending Xûr and the Emissary to interact with the Guardians. According to Orin after her resignation as Emissary, the Inner Orbits are more willing to communicate with other beings than their Outer Orbits counterparts. However, in a message to the Guardian, VII cautioned them that while the Inner Orbits were "very polite", this politeness was insincere.

The Outer Orbits seek to free themselves from their dependence on matter-based life and the Light, and to that end have experimented with creating their own realms through spacetime engineering and the creation of dark matter-based black holes, which would serve as gravitational foci independent from those provided by the realm of normal matter. One of their number, VI, has also learned to draw upon the arcane power of the Hive and Dread within the influence of Saturn's gravity well, seemingly with the intent to achieve Ascendance.

Legends and Theories

For most of the time humanity has been aware of their existence, little was known about the Nine due to their enigmatic and secretive nature. The Grimoire Card Ghost Fragment: Legends 2 presents nine legends offering different possibilities as to what the Nine truly are; while these legends do not accurately describe the Nine, many of them accurately describe entities or concepts related to the Nine. The listed possibilities include:

• The Nine are survivors of the cis-Jovian colonies who made a compact with an alien force to ensure their own survival. This fairly accurately describes the inhabitants of Neomuna, as well as the Aionians.
• The Nine are deep-orbit warminds who weathered the Collapse in hardened stealth platforms. Orin found and questioned "deep-orbit minds" on her search for the Nine, who asked her in turn about the location of the "lying robot" who "no longer lies with others."
• The Nine are ancient leviathan intelligences from the seas of Europa or the hydrocarbon pits of Titan. The Emissary names "the hydrocarbon pits of distant moons" as one possible place worthy Guardians may find the Nine.
• The Nine arrived in a mysterious transmission from the direction of the Corona-Borealis supercluster. The Emissary advises worthy Guardians to listen for the Nine in its direction.
• The Nine are the firstborn Awoken and their minds now race down the field lines of the Jupiter-Io flux tube. When the Awoken were reborn in the Distributary, nine of the 900 crew of Yang Liwei were not accounted for.
• The Nine are Ghosts who pierced the Deep Black without a ship and meditated on the hissing silence of the heliopause. A group of Ghosts apparently made contact with the Nine by meditating on the heliopause, and were sought out by Orin.
• The Nine are the aspects of the Darkness, broken by the Traveler's rebuke, working to destroy us from within.
• The Nine is a viral language of pure meaning. Xûr claims that "to do what you say, is to speak in a language of pure meaning".
• The Nine are the shadows left by the annihilation of a transcendent shape, burned into the weft of what is.

Trivia

• The Nine are a homage to Bungie's Myth series, where a similar group also known as the Nine lead the forces of Light against the forces of Darkness. Five members are named: Alric, Rabican, Maeldun, Murgen and Cu Roi.
• The identity of at least five Nine was originally put together in a Reddit post by u/jeckal_died on May 10, 2018, and served as the basis for some of this article, minus the speculation, until the release of The Edge of Fate.
• The Nine are referred to in the Lore tab for the Equitis Shade Rig as the "ennead"; the term "ennead" refers to any group of nine entities.
  • The use of this term may also be a reference to the Ennead, a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology worshipped at Heliopolis: the sun god Atum; his children Shu and Tefnut; their children Geb and Nut; and their children Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.
• With the exception of IX or the Sun, the symbols of the Nine each contain a number of line segments equal to the number of the associated member.
  • Additionally, the symbols for members of the Inner Orbits all contain a semicircle with the opening facing down, while those of the Outer Orbits all contain a semicircle with the opening facing up.
• According to II, despite there being countless other solar systems in the universe, the Nine have never encountered or heard from other similar dark-matter based beings in other systems.
• The ability of the Nine to experience the past, present and future all at once is reminiscent of the Heptapods featured in the novella Story of your Life by Ted Chiang (adapted into the film Arrival in 2016), which were also tentacled or cephalopod-like alien beings capable of perceiving all events in time simultaneously.
  • Additionally, the Heptapods depicted in Arrival use a visual language consisting mainly of rounded or circular shapes, somewhat reminiscent of the symbols used to represent the Nine as a whole as well as individual members.
• The limitations on the Nine's ability to send objects through time (i.e. being able to send objects forward through time, but not backward in time) parallels the limited form of "time travel" offered by real-world black holes: an observer approaching the event horizon of a black hole will experience time dilation, with time passing more slowly for them relative to the outside universe, such that upon returning to the outside universe the observer will find that a greater length of time has elapsed outside than they experienced while close to the event horizon. However, it is fundamentally impossible for gravitational time dilation to reverse the flow of time - it can only affect the rate at which time passes.
• The Lore book Epochs and Orbits contains an entry entitled Asteroid Belt - 0, describing a "stillborn" dark matter-based entity tied to the Sol System's Asteroid Belt. The entry Mars - IV also has IV stating that they are charged with tending the "grave" of the Nine's "stillborn sister", which likely also refers to the Asteroid Belt, as it is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is unclear if this "stillborn" entity is Theia, the ancient planet which was destroyed after a collision with the Earth that resulted in the formation of the Moon, or simply another dark matter-based "sibling" of the Nine that never achieved intelligence by virtue of the Asteroid Belt never having coalesced into a larger celestial body.

Gallery

Symbols

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  The symbol for I

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  The symbol for II

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  The symbol for III

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  The symbol for IV

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  The symbol for V

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  The symbol for VI

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  The symbol for VII

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  The symbol for VIII

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  The symbol for IX

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  A chart for the Nine symbols

III Concept Art

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Other

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  Maya looking at III's appearance within the third dimension

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  Ikora, Lodi, and the Guardian observing III

List of appearances

• Destiny (First mentioned)
  • The Dark Below (Mentioned only)
  • House of Wolves (Mentioned only)
  • The Taken King (Mentioned only)
  • Rise of Iron (Mentioned only)
• Destiny 2 (Mentioned only)
  • Curse of Osiris (Mentioned only)
  • Warmind (Mentioned only)
  • Forsaken (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Forge (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Drifter (First appearance)
  • Season of Dawn (Mentioned only)
  • Season of Arrivals (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Seraph (Mentioned only)
  • Lightfall (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Deep (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Witch (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Wish (Mentioned only)
  • The Final Shape (Mentioned only)
  • Episode: Revenant (Mentioned only)
  • Episode: Heresy
  • The Edge of Fate
  • Reclamation (Mentioned only)
• Mysterious Logbook (Mentioned only)
• The Hidden Dossier (Mentioned only)