Deep Stone Crypt (location)

The Deep Stone Crypt is the original source of all Exos; its nature is mysterious, but it appears to both be a location and a subroutine responsible for seeding the first Exo consciousnesses.

In Beyond Light, it is revealed that the Deep Stone Crypt is in fact a physical place, located on Europa, and is the setting of the eponymous Raid. It is also the location of the artifact or entity Clovis Bray I called "Clarity Control".

The Golden Age
During Clovis Bray I's studies of the Vex on Europa, he discovered that exposing Vex radiolarian fluid to the paracausal power he referred to as "Clarity" created a substance which miraculously solved the "loop/billboard/crash" problem that had plagued early exominds. Likening this substance to the mythological "Alkahest" produced by the legendary Sorcerer's Stone, Bray named his Exo-production facility on Europa the "Deep Stone Crypt".

City Age
After the Collapse, most Exos know the Deep Stone Crypt only as a dream that many of them experience. In the dream, a tower lies on a black plain. Some make it to the tower in peace, while others are forced to slay an army of everyone they have met in order to reach it.

The late Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 vaguely recalled becoming an Exo in his Treasure Island Book, where he recorded going to an icy moon.

In the events of the Season of the Worthy, Ana Bray notes that she is working with Rasputin to find the location of the Deep Stone Crypt; given the control that he can exert over Exos it is perplexing why Rasputin does not know its location.

Rise of Salvation
When Eramis, the Shipstealer came to settle on Europa guided by the whispers of the Darkness, she had her newly founded House of Salvation explore the ruins of the Golden Age Eventide colony, and discovered the Deep Stone Crypt. She quickly got busy uncovering its secrets, with her Baron Atraks, the Wildcard leading the exploration. When The Guardian's offensive grew closer, she instucted the latter to fortify the Crypt, and prepare for the human's arrival. Though the Kell of Darkness was stopped, Atraks had continued working with the Crypt's technology, and managed to turn herself into an Exo.

A Raid fireteam would be put together by the Vanguard to rid the Crypt of Fallen presence. The Guardians traveled through the frigid snowstorm surrounding the installation, and disarmed its compromised security. They reached Clarity Control, where they found Atraks-1 at work on the second Fallen Exo: Taniks Reborn. With Atraks' fall at the Morning Star, Taniks activated the installation's Nuclear Descent Protocol, threatening the entire moon with destruction alongside the Guardians. The fireteam would manage to disarm the nukes required for the protocol's full completion, causing the space station to crash into the ground installation and opening it up for the galaxy to see. The Crypt's AI would warn the Guardians they would have to defend the secrets of Exo creation from all threats now, starting with taking out Taniks for good.

Trivia

 * The way in which Exos may reach the tower peacefully resembles somewhat the ancient Roman concepts of the Elysium Fields.
 * The 'dream' the android NS-5 Sonny experienced in the 2004 movie I, Robot bears similar resemblance to the manner in which the Deep Stone Crypt is described in Destiny. Bungie may have drawn inspiration from this during development.
 * The tower is mentioned by Ana Bray in one of her quotes, where she states that she knows as little about the Bray family as the Guardians do about Deep Stone Crypt.
 * Cayde-6 also references "The Long Slow Whisper," which may be related to either the subroutine of The Deep Stone Crypt, or the location of the Deep Stone Crypt.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Warmind
 * Forsaken
 * Season of the Worthy
 * Beyond Light