Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness
From Destinypedia, the Destiny wiki
| Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness | |
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Fearmonger[1] |
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Wanderers (formerly) |
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Male |
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Summon Resonate Spikes |
- "You have served your purpose. All that awaits you now is the gift of death… The darkness beyond your final days."
- — Rhulk, as he engages the Guardians in combat[5]
Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness was the first of the Witness's chosen Disciples, extraordinarily powerful paracausal wielders of the Darkness and the strongest known generals of the Black Fleet.[4] Hailing from the planet Lubrae, he played a prominent role in the creation of the Hive by subjugating the Worm mother, Xita, into servitude and propagate her larvae that all Hive would have as their parasitic fodder. For his part as the titular Subjugator that the Worms revered, he would cultivate their breeding for the Hive's armies in Savathûn's Throne World, all while keeping tabs on the Witch Queen herself from his own Pyramid.
After Savathûn's rebirth in the Light, Rhulk was imprisoned within his own Pyramid by a curse of Light placed by the Witch Queen; however, he would retaliate by bringing the Scorn into her throne world and subsequently taking command of them. He is the final boss of the Vow of the Disciple Raid, where he ultimately met his demise at the hands of Guardians.
Biography
Lubrae's Ruin
Wanderer
- "Mother and the others look at me with concern. Not for my injuries, but for those who suffered at my hands… and they are right to do so. Tearing their bodies to pieces brought only joy. What… am I?"
- — Rhulk's thoughts after his brutal killings[6]
Rhulk was born to his father Rhelik and mother Vrhuna on the planet Lubrae, a civilization that had been blessed by the Traveler but fell into a military dictatorship after it left. Rhulk lived with his clan of Wanderers in the Wildlands outside of the sole city on the planet, which was controlled by The Regime. The Wanderer clans were subject to frequent dangers, including monstrous wildlife that emerged under the Umbral Sun at night and the Stalkers sent by the Regime to hunt and kill the Wanderers who rejected the city's ways. When he was young, Rhulk witnessed his father kill Stalkers who threatened the clan with a brutality fueled by a bloodlust that Rhulk also felt. He confided in his father about their shared rage and was taught to hate the Regime by him, but when the rest of their clan began to shun Rhelik for his brutality he softened, much to Rhulk's disappointment.[7] His father attempted to teach him patience by making Rhulk watch as other Wanderers were killed by a hunting party of Stalkers and holding him back when Rhulk attempted to intervene. Rhulk was enraged and confused by his father's inaction and believed he was betraying his principles, and vowed to bring down the Regime.[8]
Although the clan sought only to help others in need of assistance and to care for the land, the Stalkers continued to pursue them. During one battle several members of the clan were killed, including Fhent and one of Rhulk's clan-uncles. Rhulk fought back against the Stalkers and killed several of them, claiming their supplies and equipment as his own, including a Glaive and Sapphiric Converter. However, Rhelik was captured during the raid by the Stalkers and the rest of the clan, including Rhulk's mother Vrhuna, looked upon him with only concern and fear due to his brutality during the fight. Frustrated by what he perceived as their weakness, that night as the clan danced and sang in tribute to their survival and in honor of the dead, Rhulk ripped apart a pet Yhadt that belonged to some of the clan's children. The clan was horrified, and though Rhulk felt powerful in that moment he feared that made him a monster.[6]
A year later, Rhulk was forced to live as an exile from his clan due to his bloodlust being viewed as a liability. While the clan had not been attacked again since that night, Rhulk stalked the area around the artificial Abyss which separated the Wildlands from the Regime's city. He hunted the Stalkers with his new weapon and tools seeking any sign of his father in the hopes of rescuing him and bringing him back alive to the clan. He named his glaive Rheliksward in honor of his mission. Although he killed many Stalkers over that year, he found no sign of his father and felt lost without Rhelik's guidance. His search came to an end when he encountered Rhelik dressed in a Stalker's uniform and was captured by other Stalkers under his command. Infuriated at his father's defection to the Regime, Rhulk believed him to be a coward who sought only survival instead of sticking by his principles.[9]
Stalker
- "—-The Regime took all that mattered to you… and yet, you blamed your father?—-"
"The Regime never lied about who they were. They were brutal, yes. But honest."
"—-Honesty meant something to you?—-"
"It meant everything." - — The Witness and Rhulk discuss him joining the Regime[10]
Rhulk was put on trial in the city for his alleged crimes against the Regime but was spared when Rhelik testified on his behalf and requested that he instead be made to serve as one of the city's Stalkers. This only served to further infuriate Rhulk as he wondered if his father truly cared about their clan and family or if he was only an opportunist who would do or say anything he needed to survive. He swore to himself that he would ensure that Rhelik would die by his hand.[9] However, despite his hatred for his father, Rhulk began to learn more about the city Lubreans and their philosophies. Although he found the government strict in its laws and with power concentrated in the hands of a few, the overcrowded city still had a higher standard of living and comfort than the Wanderers who faced terrible dangers aside from the Stalkers in the Wildlands. He found that the Regime was also honest in its intentions, unlike his father, and his bloodlust was encouraged amongst the Stalkers. They returned his glaive to Rhulk as well, which he renamed to Rheliksbane and took pleasure in how that unnerved his father.[10]
With this new information, Rhulk began to reconsider the conflict between the Regime and Wanderers and realized that both sides' hands were stained with blood, not just the Regime's as his father had always taught him. Rhelik eventually confessed to Rhulk that he was not truly loyal to the Regime. Infuriated by his father's continued lies, the two fought, but Rhelik managed to escape from Rhulk and the City.[10] Pursuing his father, Rhulk tracked him to their clan's last refuge in the Wildlands. He found it abandoned but with numerous important personal items and other supplies left behind. Surmising that the clan had fled quickly after his father's return, Rhulk believed that they would seek shelter near the Abyss.[7]
Rhulk found his former clan hiding near the Abyss, with Rhelik seemingly planning on smuggling the surviving Wanderers into the city through nearby tunnels. Emerging from the forest to confront them, Rhulk noticed that many familiar faces were no longer amongst the clan, although his father, mother Vrhuna, and clan-mother Kheesa remained alive. His father claimed that they had been expecting Rhulk to join them, and the Stalker was torn between killing them and helping them find a new home. Rhelik and Vrhuna both apologized for their wrongs against Rhulk and expressed their love for him. Vrhuna apologized for exiling him, while Rhelik expressed his regret for indoctrinating him into hating the Regime and claimed that all he wanted now was for their clan to live in peace and safety. Rhulk believed he could see the honesty in his eyes and thought that perhaps that was the path to follow, allowing his parents to embrace and comfort him. However, they took that opportunity to shove Rhulk backward into the Abyss. As he fell, Rhulk cursed his naiveté and looked at the faces of his clan, which no longer held regret but only relief at Rhulk's presumed end.[11]
Ruiner
- "Their folly was their intended salvation. Siphoning light from the Sapphiric Sun itself. I use your Luster. Turn their technology against them, like a backfired pistol. After serving them. Protecting them. Fighting for them. Suffering for them. A shattered sky. A planet convulsing. Tearing apart."
- — Rhulk, as he turns the Upended upon Lubrae[12]
Rhulk survived his fall into the depths of the Abyss, although he was badly wounded by the drop. Surprised by his own survival and by the fact the supposedly endless Abyss had a bottom, Rhulk took in his surroundings and found himself in a swampy ruin filled with darkness. He heard creatures approaching, but as they closed in on him Rhulk heard a voice declaring him unbroken. His wounds healed and he watched a being filled with dark luster approach, melting the encroaching beasts away with its very presence. The being declared that it saw Rhulk's own dark luster and the Lubraean questioned what the being was and how it granted him life. The being declared itself an opportunity and told Rhulk that he was to be and cause ruin. As the voice faded Rhulk saw its dark luster remain behind and noted how similar it was to that of the Umbral Sun. Rheliksbane, which had been sundered in his fall, was repaired as well by the being and enhanced with its energy. Glancing upward, Rhulk saw the Abyssal Bridge that connected the city to the Wildlands and knew his clan had likely made its way into the city by then. Taking with him the dark luster that remained, Rhulk used his glaive to begin climbing the walls of the Abyss back to the surface, determined that this time he would not show weakness and waver from his desires.[13]
Upon reaching the city, Rhulk hunted down his clan and slaughtered them all, including his mother and father, whom he decapitated. He spared not even the children as the citizens of the city watched in horror of his butchery. The forces of the Regime were horrified by the slaughter in the streets of the city and imprisoned Rhulk, stripping him of his glaive and calling for his execution. However, the dark being assisted Rhulk once more in being freed of his chains and he recovered his glaive, now calling it Lubrae's Ruin, and set out to end his people entirely for their abandonment of him. To do so, he utilized the gifts of the Traveler against his people by harnessing the dark luster to reverse the mechanisms of a machine that drew energy from the Sapphiric Sun to power the city. Doing so destroyed the star and began cracking Lubrae apart. Rhulk was the last one alive, and as he stared into the Abyss he reflected in horror upon what he had done. Dropping the glaive and dark luster he had harnessed, Rhulk dropped himself into the now truly endless Abyss to finish the extinction of his species.[12]
Witnessed
- "—-And what do you feel now? Devoid of family. Devoid of The Regime. Devoid of Lubrae. What do you feel here, in our embrace, now that they are gone and you are left? What do you feel, my child?—-"
"Relief." - — The Witness and Rhulk as he becomes a Disciple[12]
However, Rhulk once again did not perish by his fall into the Abyss. Instead, he awoke in a state of confusion as the dark being from before spoke to him. Rhulk despaired in his actions and lamented the destruction of Lubrae, torn between blaming himself and the dark being for driving him to his actions. He declared he had been loved and cared for, but the voice questioned who cared for him now. Rhulk answered that there were none left to do so. The voice asked if he still desired to be cared for, but Rhulk could only say he once did. Then the being questioned if he had returned that care, which Rhulk had no answer to. The being then began showing him visions from his past, including when he had first felt disappointment in his father for not fighting the Stalkers and claimed that he had never been able to return them. Rhulk told the being it had its answer then, but it told him that the answer was not for it, but for Rhulk to embrace.[8]
The being continued to question Rhulk about his past, and Rhulk told it of his parents and clan, whom he dismissed as traitors whom he should have known would betray him as well. As more scenes from his past played out before him, the being claimed it saw a child seeking validation while suffering great loss. It then asked about the shimmering orb that had visited his people, but Rhulk told it that had been long before his time and had left the Lubrae with a divided society in its wake. The being showed him an image of the Traveler, which Rhulk recognized as the shimmering orb from the stories, and he blamed it for providing hope but leaving behind power in the hands of those who desired it but lacked an understanding of what to do with the gifts given. The being forced Rhulk to see once more what he had done to those with that power, and he again lamented his destruction of Lubrae, but the being reassured him he had only done what was needed.[14]
Rhulk was next shown when his clan became fearful of his brutality. The being accused his clan of being disrespectful of his power, while Rhulk thought them weak, although the being noted that he had protected them anyway. As they viewed the rituals around surviving attacks and remembering the dead, Rhulk claimed that loss meant little to the Wanderers due to how often clan members died. The being questioned if he was sure it was not just him who did not feel loss, causing Rhulk to lash out and claim the being did not know what it was talking about. As he watched his younger self rip apart the Yhadt, Rhulk wondered why the being was showing him all this. It claimed that having already experienced it he should have no issue seeing it once more before claiming that Rhulk had always known what he was. Rhulk declared he had known he was a monster than just as he knew it now, however, the being corrected him and claimed he was not a monster but a savior.[6]
After viewing Rhulk being captured by the Regime and his father's betrayal, he was questioned by the being about why he blamed his father instead of the Regime. Rhulk explained that he thought the Regime brutal but honest in its goals in comparison is his lying and cowardly father. The being was fascinated by his answer and how honesty meant everything to Rhulk. It questioned why even then he would still follow the Regime that had killed so many Wanderers and enslaved him, but Rhulk corrected the entity and claimed that the Regime had freed him to be who he always wanted to be.[10] As they grew closer to his family betraying him, Rhulk asked the entity to stop making him relive his past. The entity asked why he would not want to relive his greatest moments. Rhulk protested that great moments usually ended in triumph and not genocide before noting none of this mattered in the end. The being told him this was not the end and that Rhulk was undergoing a metamorphosis that required him to understand and cut away all the things that made him weak and leave behind only what was strong. It explained that it had recreated his world around them to see those weaknesses, like love and regret, and to understand that Rhulk needed now to look back with pride on what he had done as it had led him to them. Rhulk questioned at last what the entity was, and it answered that it was his salvation, his judgment, and soon his Witness.[15]
They watched as Rhulk began his pursuit of his father and clan to the Abyss, and Rhulk reflected that his father had feared him and his bloodlust, which Rhulk decided was a weakness.[7] As they reached his massacre of the clan, Rhulk protested and demanded not to be made to relive this moment. He denounced it all as madness and screamed in horror as he saw Lubrae once more destroyed by his hand. Reaching the end where he plunged into the Abyss, Rhulk was asked by the Witness what he felt now, devoid of family, the Regime, and Lubrae, held in the embrace of the Darkness. Opening his eyes, Rhulk crawled out of a black solution that had been holding him throughout this conversation. Before him, he picked up Lubrae's Ruin and the luster given to him by the Witness, who once more asked him what he felt, to which Rhulk responded "relief".[12]
Uun and the Ahslid
- "You taught me the most precious lesson of irrelevance. Only purpose can be momentous. It is the moment of clarity that freed me from worldly soil. This final gift I withhold from my progeny. It is the most challenging lesson to teach, and I stand in awe of the elegance with which you revealed the truth to me. I cannot do the same without reflection. I have imitated myself all too well, but to imitate you, my Witness, it is the one challenge to which I find myself unworthy."
- — Rhulk, as he remarks his failure of teaching the Ahslid[16]
Reborn as the First Disciple, Rhulk became the Witness' chosen enforcer and executioner, bringing destruction through fire and glaive and leading the Pyramids of the Black Fleet to wipe out the civilizations uplifted by the Traveler. He would also utilize the Upended to burn all traces of their passing, much as he did with his home Lubrae. He would also overseer the induction of new Disciples, such as Nezarec, whom he gifted with a Glaive.[17] After eons of supplication, however, Rhulk would find himself bereft of purpose and fulfillment in his duty, and would unrelentingly challenge the Witness to be recognized as an equal. He would constantly debate with his god about his repeated attempts to rise above his station, much to his own sense of self-loathing and inadequacy.
At one point, the Witness endowed him with the task of subjugating the insectoid race known as the Ahslid. The Witness stated to Rhulk that this opportunity would test his worth, and tasked him with enlightening the Ahslid with the same lessons Rhulk had learned from his master. As a condition, however, Rhulk was requested to do so without revealing his presence to the Ahslid. Rhulk thus changed his warmongering approach to one of unseen guidance and subterfuge.[18]
At first, Rhulk stalked the race of Ahslid for fourteen local years and offered every warrior he met the opportunity to prove their worth, only for them to cower in fear and die by his glaive. The Disciple would eventually comprehend his master's commandment, and began to cull key members of the race in secrecy and spread fear and paranoia amongst the Ahslid, creating a generation that would follow Rhulk's philosophies.[19]
In the span of years, the Lubrean fostered this new generation by acting as their unseen guide, presenting opportunities to families lacking it and inducing suffering to those unsullied of it. Amongst the new brood was a foundling Rhulk named Uun, whom the Disciple took a particular interest in after his first kill. The Subjugator, seeing himself in the young Ahslid, would uncharacteristically spare him from being ostracized from his peers and leave him to grow as a warrior. This experience would cause Rhulk to question the Witness' hand in shaping his own destiny.[20]
Over time, the Ahslid became a race divided amongst themselves and gripped by paranoia thanks to the Disciple's machinations. Influenced by Rhulk's guidance and teachings, they built weapons of mass destruction that could destroy their world. Only Uun, now doubting himself, remained a disappointment to Rhulk, who cast him from his graces into obscurity. At the same time, Rhulk had withheld teaching the insectoid race of irrelevance: the same lesson he himself learned from Lubrae's destruction. Rhulk is left to brood over his inability to teach the Ahslid the most challenging lesson he knew, and thus finds himself unworthy of emulating his idol.[16]
Rhulk ultimately failed in his task, underestimating the Ahslid's capability for destruction, which led them to wipe out all life on their world in atomic fire. Only Uun, whom he once shunned for his weakness, would be left alive to face the Disciple. The Ahslid's attempt to challenge Rhulk was ultimately futile, leaving Uun prostrate on the floor near death and begging simply to know Rhulk's name. In a moment of weakness, Rhulk whispered his name to the dying Uun moments before his passing. Despite having failed his task of uplifting the Ahslid, Rhulk would only further appreciate his master's lessons.[21]
The Subjugator
- "There are no pleasantries in the Deep. Only the decaying husks of oversized parasites towering before me. You take me for a fool, believing I am like all else—manipulated by your psychic machinations. But I will not be controlled, for I am wrath."
- — Rhulk addresses the imprisoned Worms beneath Fundament[22]
After his previous failure with the Ahslid, Rhulk instead sought the Worms of Fundament; its progenitors had been previously uplifted by the Witness with the Sword Logic eons ago and the surviving Worm Gods now lived imprisoned far beneath the seas of the gas giant. Serving as its herald, Rhulk swam deep into the depths of the planet's ocean, where he was met with the Leviathan acting as the warden of their prison. Despite its repeated warnings to the disciple to turn from Darkness, Rhulk defiantly rebuked the massive creature before proclaiming that he would "rise" instead of "drown" with the Deep. Rhulk then grievously injured it in an instant as he held the Leviathan's rib in one hand and pushed aside its maimed body with the other.[23] The wounded Leviathan could not meet Rhulk's gaze as the disciple placed the rib beneath the beast's skull and raised its head to meet his eyes, proclaiming that the Worms it imprisoned in the depths belonged to neither it nor the Traveler, but to the Witness only. He dropped the discarded rib into the Worm Gods' dwelling before announcing his presence, uplifting the sediment of the seabed into a dense cloud from which he emerged before his captive audience.[24]
Upon finding the Worm Gods at the deepest trenches of the planet, Xita, the Nurturing Worm greeted the Lubrean disciple only for him to callously scold her for attempting to manipulate him. As he fully knew of the Worms' plight and hunger from eons of their imprisonment, Rhulk offered the Worm mother a trade: the survival of her children in exchange for their eternal servitude to the Witness. He also promised sustenance for them in the form of the primitive ancestors of the Krill on Fundament's surface, to be given new purpose as fodder for her spawn to feed upon. Holding the rib out for her to grasp with her jaws, they both swam upward from their underwater prison, Rhulk dragging Xita in tow towards the surface and into her new prison aboard his Pyramid. Rhulk would therefore become respectfully known as the Subjugator to the Worms for his indomitable might and strength.[22]
Despite Rhulk's prior claim of the Worms' power for the Witness' behalf, Xita knew well enough that Rhulk sought the Sword Logic out of his own personal desire for domination as they offered to elevate himself as his master's equal despite its earlier objections. From her body, Rhulk created a parasitic strain of miniature Worms made of the Worm mother's living segments, small enough to be implanted into a host. He would set these so-called "larvae" adrift on Fundament's ocean, knowing full well they would reach the shores of the Osmium Court to find their respective sustenance.[25] Soon as the Witness and Rhulk predicted, one of these larvae reached its intended target: the King of the Osmium Court. The dead white larvae spoke to the king of a cataclysm that would result from a Syzygy of Fundament's fifty-two moons (though no such danger actually existed). However, the King's mind would prove to be too feeble for the Witness' whispers, which drove him to insanity.[26]
From above, Rhulk and the Witness both gazed upon the Osmium Kingdom's fall to the Helium Drinkers as they observed the escape of the king's surviving heirs: Aurash, Sathona, and Xi Ro. Knowing that the Traveler hidden amongst Fundament's numerous moons was ready to claim the trio for the Light, the Witness chose to claim them first, identifying Sathona as the most promising of the three. Feeding into her fear and pride, the Witness manipulated her desperation into seeking out the remaining Worm Gods in the depths of Fundament, setting the events which led to the creation of the Hive and the rise of Savathûn and her Hive siblings into apotheosis. Rhulk could only wince in envy at his master's suggestion that the future Witch Queen could one day stand alongside him as a fellow disciple.[27]
Rivalry with Savathûn
- "She was a frog in my estimation; small and colorful but toxic to touch. (…) My place is not to understand you, my Witness, but to serve that final goal you see more clearly than I. But now, your gold-leaf parasites call themselves gods and carve out their divine homes. And I am to watch the sniveling frog."
- — Rhulk's disgust at surveying Savathûn[28]
Having majorly influenced the creation of the Hive species and the Hive Gods themselves, Rhulk was ordered by the Witness to oversee the production of Worm larvae for the rest of the Hive in Savathûn's newly constructed Throne World. At first, Rhulk was displeased with this assignment, taking an immediate dislike to Savathûn and wondered whether he was being punished for his prior failure with the Ahslid. The first time Rhulk stepped foot into her realm, the Witch Queen kept her face twisted to betray restrained delight at the Lubrean's arrival. In his messages to the Witness, Rhulk would only scoff at her willfulness to turn a blind eye from the precarity of her current situation: being that she was now living within a prison formed from her own ego and the First Disciple was to be her jailer.[28]
Over time, Rhulk and Savathûn would form an impertinent rivalry in the eons they spend in each other's company; the latter always deriding Rhulk's simplicity as a tactician and his brute force approach to every engagement.[4] Rhulk would occasionally relay reports to his master voicing his concerns with Savathûn, one of which being that of her peeved reaction to his continued presence in her throne world. The disciple, who was initially elated much to the delight of her indignation, had his suspicions of any ulterior motives that she possessed given her conniving and opportunistic nature but remained hopeful nonetheless of her growing conviction to their cause. Regardless of her unwilling cooperation, construction of the larvae breeding chambers had commenced with the armies of Oryx, the Taken King and Xivu Arath, God of War expected to grow exponentially in short order. Should Savathûn do anything to cross their interests, however, Rhulk would not hesitate to threaten the destruction of her throne world with the Upended.[29] To that end, the Subjugator had the imprisoned Worm mother Xita as a battery to power the Upended with paracausal Sword Logic.[30]
In a rare moment of reprieve from his duty overseeing the Witch Queen, Rhulk had stepped out of the throne world for the first time in an unknown while. Ever driven to conquer an empire once more, Rhulk chose the ringed world of Kalarahnda, with its yellow haze streaking ruby clouds, as his intended target. The vaulted ring surrounding Kalarahnda was immediately shattered at the Lubrean's hands into a shimmer-like, windblown sand much to his exhilarating glory. His destructive revelry would only be short-lived, however, as an apocalyptic cult called the Polyps of the Longshadow emerged from the shadows in jubilation at the breaking of the vaulted ring. Having divined Rhulk's coming to be the final sign of their ascension, they unleashed their doomsday armaments upon Kalarahnda and scrubbed all life on the planet; stealing the former the purity of their extinction. In a report to the Witness, Rhulk would deduce Kalarahnda's destruction to be the guileful work of Savathûn herself, undermining him of his involvement.[31]
When word of Oryx's death in the Taken War reached Rhulk, the Subjugator observed Savathûn building a palace within her domain as he relayed word of her brother's immediate demise. Having immediately suspected her of playing a role in the Taken King's permanent death, Rhulk nonetheless offers condescending commendation for having outlived Oryx and seizing his secrets of Taking as spoils. Savathûn smugly denies Rhulk any straight answers but the latter warns her that Oryx's death now placed a target on her by the god-slaying Guardians, without the presence of her brother to shelter her in the shadows. She instantly rebukes Rhulk's words having nothing to fear from her exposure, showing no restraint in her expression.[32]
Savathûn's true allegiance is revealed as she betrays the Witness and Rhulk attempting to interfere with the former's transmissions to the Guardians on Io, triggered by the arrival of the Black Fleet. After she hid within the Last City for a year and her subsequent rebirth in the Light, Rhulk would retaliate with the destruction of her throne world, only to have his attempt with the Upended thwarted. He was then trapped within his Pyramid, now sunken in the swamps of Miasma and blocked off from the rest of the realm thanks to her usage of the Wellspring.[33] During his imprisonment, Rhulk had summoned the Scorn to the throne world as his army to fight the Witch Q