Empress Caiatl

"Our future will not look the same as our past. With your trust, I will usher us into a new age, and I will not default on my promises, as my father did before me."

Empress Caiatl, formerly known as the Princess-Imperial, is the current Empress of the Cabal Empire and daughter of the former, exiled Emperor Calus.

She and a group of others staged a coup to overthrow her father and later succeeded Dominus Ghaul as leader of the Empire following his death at the Red War. After the Sol System was invaded by the Black Fleet, Caiatl sought to bring humanity into the Cabal Empire as subjects to aid in her war against the Darkness and Hive.

The Midnight Coup
"Father, I will not be weak."

- Caiatl to Calus during the Midnight Coup

As the daughter of Emperor Calus, Caiatl grew up surrounded by his decadence and extravagant pleasures. Disgusted by his revelries, Caiatl instead found a friend and mentor in Evocate-General Umun'arath, the Primus of All Legions. She played games of war and conquest with the general to learn strategy and soon embraced the military lifestyle, wearing pressure armor at all times, even on the capital of Torobatl. Eventually Caiatl became a pilot in the legions and while scouting the frontier of the Cabal Empire saw numerous threats to its security which she did not believe Calus would be able to handle. Meeting with Umun'arath, who shared the same concerns about the exterior threats faced by the Empire, the two warriors made plans on how to deal with the situation.

Caiatl and Umun'arath soon joined a conspiracy led by Primus Ghaul of the Red Legion and the exiled Consul to overthrow Calus and end his negligent rule of the Empire. Knowing Calus' closest secrets, Caiatl was a key player in the Midnight Coup, securing the throne room and the bone he kept there as part of a special arrangement that helped secure his throne. As her father rushed into the throne room to utilize the bone in the midst of the coup, Caiatl greeted him and vowed never to be weak before crushing the bone, ending his chances of stopping the coup. Calus' popularity with the common people prevented the plotters from executing him, and he was instead imprisoned aboard The Leviathan and exiled to the edge of the galaxy along with his Loyalists by the ascended Dominus Ghaul.

Rise of the Princess-Imperial
"The Red Legion will march again."

- Princess-Imperial Caiatl

Caiatl became the new ruler of the Cabal Empire after the demise of Dominus Ghaul during the Red War. While making preparations in her war room to lead her fellow Cabal into a new age, Caiatl contemplated her bitterness towards Calus and Ghaul in lieu of their failings. She blamed her father for delving their people in vice and luxury, and Ghaul for his obsession with the Traveler and its Light. However, she also credited Calus for instilling within her a active imagination due to all the stories and plays he had subjected her to as a child, and now Caiatl planned on utilizing that imagination to save the Cabal and forge a better future for her people. She intended for this new future to be of war and conquest of rival nations under her direction so that the Cabal would rule the galaxy once more.

Standing in Caiatl's way of full control of the Cabal Empire was her father Calus, who had emerged from his exile shortly after Ghaul's death in the Sol System. She directed her own emissaries to eliminate one of her father's Shadow agents operating in the Human's solar system that was using The Fourth Horseman, an infamous Cabal killer, to eliminate remaining Red Legion personnel.

To aid in her ambitions, Caiatl began attempting to rally the remnants of the Red Legion back to her side and exhorted all loyal Cabal across the Sol System to prove themselves by capturing Calus. Although the remnants of the Red Legion on Earth, Nessus, and the Reef responded to her call and offered tribute, they could not comply with her orders as with the arrival of the Black Fleet to that system, the Leviathan disappeared without a trace. She dispatched emissaries and scouts to the system, however, they began to report abandoned Red Legion camps with signs of internal conflicts. Additionally, a mysterious disease of Hive origin began to spread amongst the fringes of the Cabal empire.

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Fall of Torobatl
"Our people are not meant to flee our battles. But neither are we the Hive, throwing ourselves on the blade again and again. There is strength in tactical retreat."

- Caiatl, informing her war council of her decision to retreat from Torobatl

As the de facto ruler of the Cabal following the death of Dominus Ghaul, Caiatl presided over the Cabal Empire from the royal palace on Torobatl. When one of her generals came to her complaining of a horrendous stench coming from Umun'arath's quarters. Concerned, Caiatl visited her mentor's room and discovered it stank of death and poison. Instead of the neat and tidy war room of the Cabal's military leader she found the tables covered in papers and tomes which she did not recognize, and saw to her horror in the corner was a Hive Thrall chained to the wall. She questioned Umun'arath on what she was doing, noticing that the tome the general was currently reading was bound in flesh, and was disturbed as she explained that she saw the future of the Cabal in the ways of the Hive and their lack of fear towards death. Caiatl reminded Umun'arath that it was she who had taught Caiatl about how the bravery to defy death was what made soldiers. Her mentor dismissed that, and now proclaimed that with the rapidly deteriorating state of the galaxy they must embrace new ways and new gods to survive. After a long silence, Caiatl came to a decision and ordered Umun'arath to step down from her council.

Some time later, Caiatl was alerted by Advisor Taurun that Umun'arath had been apprehended in the central square of Torobatl's weaponsmith district, in the midst of conducting what appeared to be a Hive ritual. Caiatl arrived on the scene to confront the disgraced Evocate-General and was disturbed to find her nearly naked with glyphs carved into her skin and a sickly green fire burning behind her. Dismissing the guards, Caiatl demanded to know what new god her former mentor was rambling about greeting. Umun'arath stated it was the the god of war, causing the ground to begin rumbling. Caiatl declared that her obsession had turned her into a threat to Cabal society and began to pronounce her sentence, but Umun'arath then raised her hands, which glowed with energy and made the fire burn brighter while a stranger chattering began. Concerned, Caiatl drew her ceremonial blade and drove it into Umun'arath's gut, seeking to halt the ritual, but the corrupted general only laughed. Disgusted, Caiatl kicked Umun'arath off her blade and into the fire, inadvertently completing the ritual and summoning Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, and her army to Torobatl through a massive portal.

A battle began to defend the Cabal homeworld, but the endless army of Hive ground down the Cabal's military. The capital city was quickly overtaken by Cryptoliths which emerged throughout its streets. Caiatl took to the skies in her starfighter to defend the world, but found that while every missile she fired destroyed one set of foes, they were soon replaced, and she was eventually shot down. Wounded and with her combat suit leaking gel, Caiatl reflected on her role in the invasion, reflecting that even if she had been unwitting it was still her blade that completed the ritual Umun'arath set in motion. Xivu Arath then spoke, declaring that the Cabal had long worshipped war and thus her, and that she had finally come to claim her tribute.

Caiatl withdrew to her flagship, the Eligos Lex V, and met with her council of advisors. Taurun reported that the Hive's War moons were too powerful and overwhelming their defenses. As Ca'aurg and Tha'arec began arguing over the role Emperor Calus and Dominus Ghaul had played in weakening their society and defenses, Caiatl interrupted before a fight commenced. She noted that her father had built a mythology around himself and what the Cabal could be while taking only half-steps towards his goals, while Ghaul imagined slights and sought to use the Legion as a tool to entrench his own legacy. Declaring herself to be like neither of them, Caiatl stated that Umun'arath had misled them as well and that they could not be the Hive and throw themselves at their enemy without hope of victory. She decided they would evacuate the entire surviving population of Torobatl and undertake a tactical retreat to the Sol System to reclaim what remained of the Red Legion. Noting the worry and shame on her council's faces at the dishonor in retreat, Caiatl further declared that this was her first order as the new Empress of the Cabal Empire.

Caiatl's coronation was held the next day as the Cabal fleet retreated from Torobatl. Following her coronation, Caiatl addressed the entire Cabal fleet to address their concerns about the fall of their homeworld and their retreat, reassuring them that there was no shame in withdrawing to consolidate strength for future conflict. She urged them to remember that they found themselves in a war with the embodiment of war itself, and admitted that she now found conflict to be ugly and poisonous and that the Cabal must fight for a greater purpose than the fight itself. Caiatl declared they would fight for each other and the Empire and would do so with the remnants of the Red Legion in the Sol System. She vowed that she would lead the Cabal into a new age, one where she fulfill promises that her father left unfulfilled. She began by announcing that all Psions were now free and full citizens of the Empire and any who wished to depart could do so and be granted a reasonable amount of supplies. Caiatl cautioned that those who remained would soon find themselves in another war, but that together they would build an army that fought for each other. She then ended her address by declaring that they would emerge victorious against the false gods of the Hive and would unite to draw strength from the past to forge a new united future for all Cabal. }}

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Chosen Alliance
Following the defeat of the High Celebrant of Xivu Arath, Caiatl herself came to lead her forces in the Sol System. Wanting to secure an alliance with the Last City against the Hive, Caiatl arranged a meeting with the Guardians where she parlayed with the Vanguard Commander Zavala and Osiris. Her demands for Zavala to submit before her were rebutted by the Titan commander to which she challenged him to a war game, pitting the Guardians against the strongest of her Cabal army in bid for dominance.}}

Personality and Traits
Despite Caiatl's royal status, she did not share her father's appreciation for luxury. She instead embraced a militant lifestyle, which eventually led to her turning on her father and aiding Dominus Ghaul's rise to power. However, she came to later view Ghaul with disgust and embarrassment as well due to his obsession with the Traveler and claiming the Light, viewing him as another weak ruler whose failings necessitated her rise to Empress to save the Cabal Empire from ruin.

One of the few things that Caiatl did enjoy was flying, and she became a highly capable pilot to facilitate this love.

Trivia

 * Caiatl is the main antagonist of the Season of the Chosen.
 * Caiatl's headdress looks similar to the head armor for Titans from the Eater of Worlds Raid Lair.

List of appearances

 * Cabal Booklet
 * Destiny 2: Season of Opulence
 * Season of the Worthy
 * Season of Arrivals
 * Season of the Hunt
 * Season of the Chosen