Toland, the Shattered

"Tell me, Guardian: Do you trust me? Do you believe I am an ally of the Light or a servant of the Darkness? What if I told you I was neither?"

- Toland, the Shattered

Toland, the Shattered was a Warlock Voidwalker who studied the Darkness and eventually went mad, leaving the Last City in exile. He was an expert on "forbidden" Hive Arcana; for that reason, he was recruited by the Praxic Warlock Eriana-3 to be part of the six Guardian Fireteam who delved into the Hellmouth in search of Crota. Considering only Eris came back alive, he was assumed to be dead, though unlike the other members of the fireteam, his fate was never witnessed by anyone else. Recently, messages purportedly written by Toland have been discovered that indicate he yet survives in the Ascendant Realm. He attempts to communicate to the Guardian by unknown means, as he takes "a debased joy in speaking again to small human-form heads." He is believed to be the creator of Bad Juju, an Exotic Pulse Rifle covered in the bones of an unknown creature. In addition, Toland is said to have designed Shadow Price, a legendary Auto Rifle issued to the Vanguard.

Descent into the Hellmouth
Many of Toland's discoveries survived him via fragments of his journal and the memories of Dead Ghosts. A whole copy of the Journal was kept by Eris Morn. His studies led him to conclude that the Darkness was the evolutionary endpoint of the universe, and that its campaign of destruction was to ensure that nothing could ever rise up to challenge it. He had a fascination with Hive rituals, particularly the Deathsong of Ir Yût.

Years after Toland's exile and in the aftermath of The Great Disaster, the old Warlock was visited by Eriana-3 and Eris Morn, who were seeking a way to destroy the Hive Prince Crota. He revealed to them that Crota could be killed if they were to enter the Ascendant Realm and slay him within his throne room after defeating his champions. Toland warned them of the many dangers they would face and spoke of the mysterious song sung by the Deathsingers that he wished to understand. Toland decided to join them in their quest to end Crota in order to learn more about the Hive, and they recruited three other Guardians to their mission: the Titan Vell Tarlowe and the Hunters Sai Mota and Omar Agah. As they prepared for their mission, Toland imparted what he knew of Hive lore to Eris, including his knowledge about the Ogres known as the Might of Crota, which would be unleashed when Crota's will was challenged. Eris questioned how he had come by this knowledge, and Toland claimed to have learned it from the Darkness itself.

His fascination lead him to attempt to "identify [him]self as a friend" to a Deathsinger. Though the Deathsinger's song destroyed his body, his consciousness survived in the Ascendant realm as an Ascendant soul itself.

Journey in the Ascendant Realm
"You fools! You disastrous, bumbling squanderers! It's not right! Who now shall be First Navigator, Lord of Shapes, harrowed god, Taken King? Not you! You might have been Kings and Queens of the Deep! But you have toppled Oryx and you have not replaced him! There must be a strongest one. It is the architecture of these spaces. Why are you leaving?"

- Toland.

He watched the Guardian's progress in his war against Oryx, regarding their victories as simply an extension of how the Hive rule through the Sword-Logic. He was infuriated, however, when the Guardian defeated Oryx but refused to take up the mantle as the new Taken King. It is possible that the reason Toland was so upset about the Guardians refusing to take Oryx's place was because he himself became a firm believer in the Sword-Logic and the nature of the strongest ruling. With the Guardians freeing the Light, not Taking it and leaving Oryx's throne vacant, it was obvious that Toland felt that the Guardians squandered the chance to take Oryx's place, and more so that the Sword-Logic failed and was now broken. This in turn left Toland's deeply held beliefs and his years of studying the Hive all for nothing.

Toland's voice can be heard in Destiny 2 during the Voidwalker subclass mission. He will recount some of his discoveries about the Hive and the Darkness, and how he entered the Ascendant Realm.

In The Depths of The Dreaming City
"Guiding the uninitiated toward a final battle of spectacular futility used to be my specialty, you know. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty."

- Toland

Though the Sword Logic was broken, Toland still journeys through the Ascendant plane between throne worlds. It is also revealed that he created a small worldlet for himself. Toland also held an encounter with Mara Sov on her journey to Eleusinia. When Toland questioned her, Mara temporarily drove Toland out his own realm and used it as a rest point for her own trek through the Ascendant plane.

In Forsaken, Toland appears as a floating ball of light in the Ascendant Realm within the Dreaming City. Upon encountering him, he reluctantly agrees to lead the Guardian out of the Ascendant Realm. Toland can also be found in the Ascendant Realm in certain spots during an Ascendant Challenge. Once approached, he will disappear and briefly monologue about the Taken curse within the City.

Restoration of the Bad Juju
"Inflict your desires upon reality, Guardian. One good death deserves another."

- Toland guiding the Guardians

After Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer went insane, the ensuing Hive corruption tore part of the Leviathan between normal space and the Ascendant realm. Emperor Calus located Bad Juju sometime after this hoping to lure out Toland, unaware that his physical form had been destroyed. A month later, The Guardian discovered the place aboard the Leviathan where Calus had left Bad Juju, whose Ahamkara essence had gone out of control and affected the distorted parts of the ship.

Within the Ascendant Leviathan, Toland traveled to the epicenter of the rampaging essence, where a crew of Loyalists were engaged in a deadlock against Taken apparently originating from the Hellmouth, for the purposes of taunting the Cabal for tampering with his keepsake. All of the Taken and Loyalists in the realm are eventually slain, and their deaths used to seal the Ahamkara essence back into Bad Juju, restoring it and leaving the Guardian to claim it for themselves. After this, Toland ominously warns the Guardian of threats superior to the likes of the Hive's strongest individuals.

Reunion with Eris
"I will teach you what I know. Executions are so much more fun when the martyr thinks they have a chance against the lion."

- Toland, the Shattered

When Eris Morn became trapped in the Ascendant realm, Toland reunited with his old fireteam member, despite her initial suspicions after surviving an encounter with the Witch-Queen. As they both reflected on their experience with their tragic descent into the Hellmouth, Toland brought up the idea that something greater was at play and how Savathûn was previously goading Eris into looking into. He last warns her of dangers she was treading into before she was warped away to the Dreaming City.

After Eris accidentally triggers the appearance of the Nightmares, Toland turns his attention to the Moon. While monitoring the Hive's activity, he begins sharing information with Guardians willing to listen. When the Guardian begins a quest to harness the Hive's Deathsong, Toland decides to aid them out of curiosity. He guides the Guardian to different components needed to access the song, and watches as they slay a new choir of Deathsingers gathering underneath the Moon and uses their remains to create the Deathbringer.

Personality and Traits
"Life is pain. Pain is power. And power is life."

- Toland Toland was described as one of the chief experts on the forbidden arcana of the Hive but he grew obsessed with their secrets, leading to his descent into mania and madness, which ultimately led to his exile from the Last City. Ghost even noted that Toland must not have been "fun at parties" after hearing an entry form his journal. Toland himself admitted he may be mad in one of his reports. Despite his madness, Toland possessed a deep hunger for knowledge and secrets, even willing to risk his very being to learn them. Eris claimed that such curiosity made Toland predictable as she knew he could not resist a marvel like Eleusinia, Mara Sov's throne world.

Despite aiding Eriana and Eris in their mission to kill Crota, the former Guardian would slowly grow more believing in the Hive's Sword-Logic, believing it to be a beautiful thing and that all should follow it. So much so, that he reacted with fury at the Guardian's decision to slay Oryx yet refuse to take his place as the Taken King. His bitterness with the Guardian would remain as he initially refused to aid the Guardian through the Ascendant Realm but relented in helping them.

It's possible Toland possessed an inability to bond with others as though Eriana and her fireteam valued his knowledge and secrets, they were unnerved with his obsession with the Hive, though Eris herself stated that he was a friend of hers. Further, Toland was prone to keeping secrets from his teammates. His reunion with Eris was initially tense, given her suspicions of him, but he ultimately warned her of the dangers the Witch-Queen posed.

Guren, Toland's Ghost Quotes

 * This is the final transmission of Guren, Ghost of Toland whom you call the Shattered. He goes to hear the song of death.
 * Nothing will deter him. None of you can stop him. Not anymore.
 * Toland will hear the deathsinger's melody. He will redefine death, escape the Traveler's blunt samsara.
 * He will sound the depths of the powers you so myopically fear.
 * My only regret is that will not live to see his triumph.

Taken King Quotes

 * A Dreadnaught shields the Hive from the Traveler's Light. Were we to pass through its deepest layers, our Light would be as a dying sun.
 * It has long been my belief that the binds which hold the greatest Hive terrors could be lifted by releasing the energy stored within their tomb husks.
 * These stones. Always in their combat arenas. Do they have a strengthening function? Or are they mere legacy of a forgotten time and realm? The Hive never stopped honing their strength. They missed the point of being dead! Haha, ahh, I've heard it said that 'that which does not kill you makes you stronger', but what does that mean in the face of immortality?

Item Description Quotes

 * If you believe your weapon wants to end all existence, then so it will.
 * Knowledge is its own end.
 * As the thorns tear your skin, so Oryx tears your soul.
 * Ha! You should have let it feed unchecked, dear squanderer.
 * They'll believe you are one of their own. And that is the only way.
 * Drown in your wishes, dear squanderer
 * At the overlook's edge, the garden grows onward.
 * The insatiable Void growls in anticipation.
 * The Void is never satisfied.
 * To inflict your desires upon reality.
 * To completely know, and then completely destroy, another being.
 * To subsume another's will in your own.
 * To bind another being, cell by cell, to your will.
 * Eriana's Light burned so bright in that last fatal assault.
 * I could flense you apart, molecule by squirming molecule. It is within my power.
 * The Hive are a festering sickness. A living plague of bone and suffering. But there are methods through which their affliction may be turned against them.
 * The skull is silent, but its hollowed bone hides secret knowledge. The channels etched within its hard palate and jaw were engraved over centuries by her terrible song, like water carving stone.
 * Gather wicked bone to serve as the conduit for your wretched symphony. Through the fetid marrow, new frequencies will be discovered—new horrors… And you… their willing conductor.
 * The Singers' melody, sung through gnarled throat from cracked lung, is but a weapon like any other—nurtured by the will of a sinister witch. Sever the head of the High Conductor, whose temporal bone is a dark mirror of the Singers' carved palate.
 * And with their screams, we shall map the language of pain and scrawl a new masterpiece—the vile sheet music of damnation, a strange, new song of bloodied ear, carved flesh, and shattered bone, so that their symphony of torment may be turned against them.
 * The wicked one who would see the Deathsingers' Choir reborn has been heard in the depths. It is her song—unique in its sorrow—that will complete your mastery of symphonic arcana. Survive the Aria. Survive the depths and her wretched melody, and then collect one final instrument: the Singing Skull of Ir Airâm.
 * The skulls have been gathered, and the final instrument set to join your symphony… the eroded grooves upon their jaws, cheeks, and palates providing the secret frequencies of the hallowed Deathsong. Its mysteries are now ours to bind and enslave. Its power is now yours to inflict at will. You are choir and conductor. You are, as ever, death.

Toland's Journal Quotes

 * The Court of Oryx. The most powerful of his army. He would hold the Court in reserve. Allow the mass of the Hive to tear down a world. Then, he would open the gates and unleash the Court upon a weary and battle-scarred race. Fear is a powerful weapon, and one the King uses all too well.
 * I do not fear death. I have already met her and walk again in the Light. I know she and I will meet again in time. Rather, I fear what she leaves behind. Loss is like the Darkness. It corrupts.
 * I have left searing footprints on the dark side of the Moon. I have stood on the spires of Mercury, chilled by the solar wind. I have stretched my wings, and I have flown. That is what is possible when you understand the Sun's song.
 * The Void is not the Darkness. The Darkness is what it is. Void energy is like all things of this universe, it is Light seen through a prism. A fundamental force, the vacuum between the stars, the absence of everything else. Just try explaining that to someone who has never walked the Void.
 * As the Cabal rushed the line, the Warlock raised his hand to the sky. The sky came down to meet him, and we felt the Light touch our hearts.
 * Life is pain. Pain is power. And power is life.
 * A terrible bargain, a terrible curse...that was the way it began.
 * Hunger is a terrible curse, but if it serves to motivate, to inspire, to urge, can it not also be a blessing?
 * Could it be possible to tap into the power of that dreadful bargain from so long ago? And if so, what would it cost?
 * The Famine, the Feeding...and always the Deathsinger's shroud covers all...these are the keys. These are the keys...
 * Guiding the uninitiated toward a final battle of spectacular futility used to be my specialty, you know. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty.

Shard of the Traveler Quotes

 * This is the shape and the point of the tooth: nothing has ever lived that will not die. Now I fly between green-black suns in the labyrinth beyond Crota's god-star. This is the Overworld, the Sea of Screams, where the throne-universes of the great Hive fester in eternal majesty. I move among them. I map the shapes and connections of this world.
 * I want to appear in the Tower and taunt them, lo, lo, I never sleep, I dance in light and shadow, I never sleep, I will never die. I will never die. I want to ask them: if you followed your laws here, to this trembling fearful place, of what use were those laws? But I have work to do. I shout into deep places. Osiris! I call. Osiris, Osiris! Can you hear me?
 * The Traveler came out of the void that surrounds all things. Thus we know that the void is full of power. Thus we enter the void without fear. Small minds will call your abilities blasphemous. They will compare you to the abominable Wizards of the Hive.
 * But you will not be held back. Gifted with the Traveler's Light, armed with the secret physics of a lost age, you will tear reality asunder. You will fear nothing, and nothing will not fear you.

Dreaming City Quotes

 * YOU! Why would you come here? There is no place less suited for the likes of you, walking in the dreamland of your enemies.
 * And what, am I to be your Virgil? A guide, a shepherd? [chuckle] No, no, no...
 * There are no guides here. It is a place of scheming queens and traps unsprung.
 * "The dreary plain, forlorn and wild, the seat of desolation, void of light!" Ha!
 * You walk blind above an abyss, full of trust for a friendly voice. You're playing right into her hands.
 * Leave the Dreaming City while you still can, dear squanderer.
 * Quickly.
 * Show her your nerve exceeds your grasp.
 * I leave you here.

Shattered Throne Quotes

 * Imagine three great nations under three great queens. The first queen writes a great book of law and her rule is just. The second queen builds a high tower and her people climb it to see the stars. The third queen raises an army and conquers everything.
 * We fear the Darkness because we believe it is e wrong. Evil. No, no, no. There is one reason to be afraid: the recognition that it is RIGHT.
 * Listen! Listen. Death, true death, is both failure and liberation. Liberation from a race you had no hope of winning. To kill, then, is a terrible sort of compassion, a dreadful kindness.
 * Delve deeper. Make yourself known. They'll believe you are one of their own. And that is the only way.
 * Do you know the Awoken bury their dead in open- air crypts? It's a tradition born of a dreadful kind of optimism. Foolish, if you ask me.
 * I could flense you apart, molecule by squirming, molecule. It is within my power.
 * When a god's will is met with force, its might will be unleashed in the form of... hahaha.. trickery.
 * Do you like it here? It's scenic, I will say that. The sisters did not do much redecorating when they moved in, but I say, give them time..
 * Follow the screams
 * Were you tricked by the worm that chased the Warmind? Did you truly believe you'd fought one of the beings that the Hive call gods? Ha!
 * "A shape which depends on nothing but itself." Do you see the profundity of that concept?
 * Ah, my foolish friend, you walk the spine of an ouroboros. Find another way.
 * Whenever in our passage we find ourselves in need of power – remember that the greatest authority here is a blade made keen by eons of use.
 * There is only one end to the universe, only one conclusion - what the gods of this place call "The Last True Shape."
 * Paracausality! What a trip. If you believe your weapon wants to murder all existence, then so it will. Call it a little bad juju, if you please...
 * Sickness, weakness, bad luck, pestilence - that's the old idea of a curse. This repetition is an innovation purpose - built for Guardians.
 * Death is just a word, isn't it? A catch-all term for the failure to go on – nothing spiritual, nothing with its own quiddity.
 * Come back to us, Eris. Come back. I have seen your future; you are, as ever, fated to be misunderstood, maligned, ruined on the rocks of tragedy...
 * Sympathy and study do not breed alliances. Don't mistake me.
 * The Shape needs no followers; no one to enact it, to preach it, to practice it. It is, and will be. There's nothing else, Hive or no Hive, the end is still the same. So why are you here?
 * Listen! Do you hear them respond to your presence? Commands echoing through the dark, fetid caverns...
 * Now conscience wakes despair that slumbered - wakes the bitter memory of what he was, what is, and what must be worse...
 * The idea of that final shape – it slices, razor-sharp, snicker-snack, through the pretense of civilization.
 * Eris – my dear Eris. If only you could see us here; if only you had not turned away toward your selfish purpose...
 * This is the queen at the end of time, whose sovereignty is eternal because no other sovereign, can defeat it.
 * They'll carry out their orders with grinding stone and squeaking claw, skittering thrall and blade against bone.
 * Eir. Ur. Yul. That is the cry now, that is the cry now that the littlest worm has shamed its kin...
 * The Last True Shape is not a belief. It has nothing to do with faith. It's pure logic. Self-evident, self- proving.
 * You are a misshapen puzzle piece. You perplex me. You defy the logic which cannot be defied.
 * What will you do here, in this world on fire? You could carve your name into the fabric of reality, but you lack the imagination for that, don't you?
 * A dreamer set adrift, caught between schemes -a pleasant pawn for murderous queens... hahaha.
 * That which does not kill you makes you stronger, but what does that mean in the face of immortality?
 * Tell me, Guardian: Do you trust me? Do you believe I am an ally of the Light or a servant of the Darkness? What if I told you I was neither?
 * The beauty of the con before you is simply breathtaking. On one hand, a war of endless attrition. On the other, certain defeat.
 * Do you ever pause, dear listener, to consider who benefits from all this heroism you commit?
 * The gates of hell are open night and day; smooth the descent, and easy is the way...
 * We all died once, and it did not prove insurmountable.
 * Eris, Eris, what a name, a name for discord a name for far cold orbits where no living thing should dare to go...
 * If you’re looking for the heart of the curse, you will not find it here. It is smuggled away, secret and safe...

Moon Patrol Quotes

 * I shall be your Virgil once again...
 * Will you be prepared? Or will you be... boring?
 * Come slayer of Oryx. I have words for you.
 * You have wandered far. From one enemy's dreamland to another.
 * Words are weapons, thoughts the arts of wielding them. Listen well.
 * Let me teach you. The coming clash will be so much more entertaining if you are prepared for it.
 * There is something you must see. Carry your thinking-machine to the place I send you.
 * Go where I send you. I have knowledge for you.
 * ''All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, And study of revenge, immortal hate. And courage never to submit or yield. And what is else not to be overcome?

Moon Quest Quotes
Choir of the Damned, Symphony of Death Faculties of the Skull, Symphony of Death
 * Welcome, once more, to the edge of oblivion, hero. You have faced much – enough to impress the easily impressed – but the melody we seek to cage may be more than you can overcome.
 * My concern extends only to all we gain to learn from what comes next. Succeed or fail, Guardian. Either way, new understandings will be gleaned from your courage.
 * Beyond, the choir awaits. Quiet the Aria before they shred your mind and rend your flesh. The song's embrace will be harsh, but remember… Every note you endure will lead to the Hive's undoing.
 * Here, Guardian. I came to the Moon with Eris and other lost warriors not to end the Nightmares, but to meet them – understand them. From that understanding, I expected to conquer their horrors and safeguard our past, present, and future. But the Hive are not simply waking terror. They are a dark mirror – a reflection of all we fear to face in ourselves. Crota, Oryx, the Worm Gods, the Ascendant Plane… they are so much more than enemies and the unknowable. They are teachers. The fear they sow: a lesson – a path toward an evolution. We must tear every instrument of death they wield from their hearts, minds, and hands and remake them to inflict our will.
 * The pain of her song. Even removed from your plane, I can feel its reach. Silence her!
 * The Deathsong is yours to command – a new chorus to serenade your enemies with suffering. The final instrument is yours. Take the Deathsinger's skull to Eris; complete the weapon.
 * The siren call of the Deathsingers pervades the minds of those with little strength. Step beyond the threshold and display your power.
 * The skull of the devoted belongs to you now. There is great power in it… should you find a path to wield it.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Dark Below
 * House of Wolves
 * The Taken King
 * Rise of Iron
 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Forsaken
 * Penumbra
 * Shadowkeep
 * Season of the Worthy
 * Season of Arrivals