Headless One

The Headless Ones are Knights that are of unknown origin. Glint and Eido have engaged in detective work towards discovering their origins, with various theories arising, but no substantial conclusions have been gained to their provenance.

Origins and Truth
Headless Ones first came to the attention of Vanguard forces in the Sol system during the Festival of the Lost of 2021. Glint, in his ever-present naivety and curiosity, sought to determine the veracity of their existence after hearing about them from a Hidden agent. The unnamed Hidden agent had been recording Vex activity on the surface of Europa, encountering an unknown creature in Cadmus Ridge. This had the body of a Hive Knight, but inexplicably had a helmet, or head, resembling a pumpkin with a carved face. Three eyes, a big smile, and most curiously of all, bright purple flames belching out. The Hidden agent subsequently submitted themselves for psychiatric evaluation and seemed to be the subject of much ridicule afterwards thanks to this encounter. Despite the ridicule, they held steadfast to their beliefs, causing their agency of the Hidden to be revoked. Glint met the former agent in a Last City bar to interview them, hoping to obtain more information by asking about the creatures. Upon naming them "Headless Ones", the drunken agent was incensed, and declared to the bar out loud that he definitely saw a being with a "big, smiling pumpkin head".

Egged on by this encounter, Glint continued his investigations of the Headless Ones across the system. Eris Morn rejected their existence as she claimed she had nearly seen it all but never seen a Headless One, a Techeun said they might know something but weren't sure what a pumpkin was , a Cryptarch unveiled a skin magazine showing "veneration" of pumpkins in the Golden Age , and Ikora Rey let on that Cayde-6 had made fantastical claims about his battles with Headless Ones, of which she was sure there was some truth to as Cayde didn't lie, only embellish.

In further discussion with Glint, the aforementioned Techeun, known as Ylaia, surmised that pumpkins must hold ceremonial power for humans, and Nokris, the heretical Hive Wizard, may have used them in conjunction with slain humans on the Moon to give birth to the Headless Ones through necromancy.

Glint moved on to interviewing further subjects in his quest for paranormal truth. Failsafe, though irritated at the lack of contact with Vanguard members despite their promises, confessed that the Headless Ones were her "neighbors", and were "the absolute worst". She continued that they had been existing in caves near the Exodus Black for "centuries" but never once had come to say hello. Her best guess at why they didn't appear more often is that they desired not to be "smashed by rampaging Guardians". After playing a game of checkers with Glint and preemptively ending it in a tantrum, Failsafe revealed they knew of the origins of the Headless Ones, but would only provide that information if Glint came back for another visit. However, despite being an advanced AI, Failsafe smugly slipped that a "Hive necromancer who ripped the concept of Headless Ones from the Human subconscious" is at least the basics of their origins, according to her.

Mithrax seemed interested in the tales of their existence, having heard about them in the past. To him, they may have been borne of Hive experiments or were Guardians who turned to the Darkness. However, his closest account of their existence appeared to come from a fellow Eliksni named Klyfiks, who he considered to be an "idiot", after finding an appropriate translation from his native language. Glint was not dissuaded by the Kell's summary, moving on to interview his next subject. Klyfiks' account backed up what Failsafe had claimed, that the Headless Ones existed on Nessus. Klyfiks said that he encountered them fighting with the Vex over the remains of the Exodus Black and wishing to stay apart from the fighting, hid inside some ruins, where he encountered a being with "a round, bulbous head and flames for eyes". Despite their encounter, the Headless Ones did not attack Klyfiks, who lived to tell the tale.

At last, Glint visited Eva Levante in the tower, who thanked him for his investigative activities. Eva brushed off the existence of the Headless Ones as tall tales, but Glint countered that he and the Guardian were close to proving the reality of their existence.

With the advent of the Festival of the Lost of 2022, it appeared that Eido had been roped into investigating the truth behind the Headless Ones through Glint. Exercising her powers as a Scribe, she sought to trawl the system and speak with as many figures as possible to gather information on the Headless Ones.

At first, she investigated their possible origins in an Eliksni folk tale regarding a figure called Phyzann. This tale spoke of a strong Fallen warrior of the House of Dusk who slew many Cabal, but was betrayed by a Dreg. As they lay dying, they heard the call of the Voice in the Darkness, which had them arise as a Headless One. At first, she asked the Drifter about Phyzann, who reassured Eido that they weren't a legendary warrior, instead a clumsy and cowardly fool. Next she turned to her father Mithrax, who corrected the tales through his own personal experience of Phyzann being an incompetent buffoon. For the last, she spoke to Spider, who dismissed the tales as propaganda, not worth turning to if you wanted truth.

Not dissuaded in her quest, a tale of lost Cabal was her next investigative point. There was rumored to be a group of Cabal called the Legion Lost that roamed the Earth until they were caught in battle within a cave they claimed as their own. The opposing force in this battle was a Headless One itself, who beheaded each member of the Legion Lost and turned them into Headless Ones. Eido spoke with Caiatl to check if any tales of Headless Ones might exist amongst the Cabal. Still, Caiatl could only offer that she knew of Cabal who may have breathed fire, walked through fire or eaten fire. Caiatl attempted to bolster the spirit of the deflated Eido, saying she knew of Cabal with heads ON fire, but not continuously. She next turned to a Psion for more information, with the mere mention of the Headless Ones causing the Psion to telepathically communicate what it knew of them, and how it feared them. The information provided is largely matched up with previous reports of their physical description and other phenomena associated with them. Eido afterwards sought consultation with a Cryptarch, asking for information on a bag of confetti (weighed at 13.2 kilograms) that Guardians claim eject from defeated Headless Ones. At the last, she spoke with Saladin, who entertained the idea of the Headless Ones existing, until he learned the tale originated from Glint. He then immediately dismissed the conversation upon learning Glint was the cause of Eido's fascination.

Eido then attempted to make her own conclusions on the origins of Headless Ones. She didn't believe them to be of Hive origin, and she had begun to become skeptical of Glint's beliefs. She summarised that they may simply be sentient pumpkins, tied to the mysterious ritual of the "Hall Between". A Cryptarch named Matsuo lent his investigative hand toward Eido's work, uncovering a Golden Age report that had evidence of humanity's first encounter with Headless Ones, identifying a man named Ichabod Crane as the first person to meet one. Despite no biological origin knowledge being met, Eido continued theorizing, believing that pumpkins served as a powerful go-between for humanity and the spirit world. She accepted that Glint had proven the existence of Headless Ones, but debate remained as to their origins. .

Gameplay
The Headless Ones are an exclusive enemy that appear in the Haunted Sectors activity during Festival of the Lost. They act as enforcers and protectors to the overseers of their Lost Sectors.

To face one of the Headless Ones, the players must complete one of their summoning rituals which will spawn in a random area around the Lost Sector. These rituals have a set timer; if they are not completed, the players will miss an opportunity to kill one of the Headless Ones. Whether or not the Guardian is near the ritual or on top of it, as the Headless One spawns the players will be flung back from the ritual.

Unlike other Knights, the Headless Ones have two new abilities. These include the Darkness Barrier in which instead of summoning a single Wall of Darkness, they summon three to add better coverage from incoming fire. They also summon in Poison Clouds which were an ability exclusive to Hive Wizards and can lob Acolyte Grenades.

If summoned during the boss phase of a Haunted Sector, they will drop Pumpkin Charges upon death, which can damage the shield surrounding the boss.

Trivia

 * The Headless Ones are the third enemy that does not attack any other enemy faction. The first being the Proxies from Curse of Osiris, and the second being the Wrathborn from Season of the Hunt.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2:
 * Season of the Lost
 * Season of Plunder