Nokris, Supplicant to Savathûn

"I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."
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"The name is... Nokris."

— Ghost

Nokris is a Hive entity of uncertain power.

Little is known except that a statue can be found in the Dreadnaught near the Altar of Oryx beside similar statues of Crota and Oryx, indicating kinship. The Guardian's Ghost infers it is a Hive god from accompanying Hive glyphs but couldn't recognize the symbol. There is no file associated with this entity from either the World's Grave or the Books of Sorrow. At Eris Morn's request Asher Mir scoured his library for references to Nokris but found none.

Conjecture

• There are two prevailing hypotheses as to the identity of Nokris.

The first hypothesis is that Nokris was a brother of Crota, and was erased by the Vex when they invaded the Dreadnaught. This predated the creation of The World's Grave, the source of all Hive history and knowledge, and due to the Vex's mastery over time, observing The Gorgons' power, Nokris was "forgotten" by the Hive, only surviving as a statue, much like how Praedyth's gear and minor references in texts survived his erasure.

There are two problems with this, however. The first is that the Vex are not omnipotent, and indeed the extent of their power is limited to realms they control. The High War was a confusing place, defying the Vex logic. The second is that the Hive godkings are incredibly powerful, with Oryx defeating Quria's every attempt to simulate him, Savathûn merely dismissing the Vex as "blowing up"; and when the Hive went into the Vex world, they suffered only the loss of power. As paracausal beings—"para", beside; "causal", time; literally outside of ordinary physics—Ascendant Hive refuse to obey ordinary rules, beholden only to the Sword Logic as their law. Guardians themselves are subject to the Vex's power only inside the Vault of Glass, where the Vex reign supreme; nothing suggests that Crota stumbled into the Vault, and indeed his survival ("come home glorious, or die forgotten") speaks against Nokris' erasure. Lastly, an argument from silence: Nokris was not erased by the Vex because they never touched him. Everything in the Books of Sorrow relating to the Vex stems from Crota and Savathûn, and only Crota was thrown into the Vex conflux.

The second hypothesis rests upon three factors. Nokris was Crota's mother, betrayed Oryx, and was killed; but out of sentimentality, her statue was left alone. Crota's mother in the Books is unnamed, Oryx speaking to his son about her offhandedly, and nothing more appears about her. Stemming from the Hebrew word "Nokri" is the definition "adulteress", which is "unfaithful woman"; in the context of the Hive, Nokris betrayed Oryx, attempting to kill him and seize his power, but failed. Similarly, "Nox" was the primordial mother of the Greco-Roman deities, "Thanatos" (Death) and "Hypnos" (Sleep), with her counterpart "Erebus" (Darkness). Finally, the Crucible map Cathedral of Dusk. The flavor text suggests that it is a burial site for someone close to Oryx—logic dictates it is for Crota, but one of the possibilities is the unnamed mother of Crota as the text mentions "lover". Ultimately this last hypothesis is conjecture and rests upon shaky evidence, as the "adulteress" definition is only used a few times in the Bible, whereas the "foreigner" is overwhelming used instead.

Ultimately Nokris is shrouded in mystery until further information is available.

Trivia

• The word "Nokris" might be derived from "Noctuidae", which is a family of moth, the wing patterns of which resemble the Shroud of Flies Hunter Cloak pattern. Similarly, "Nokri" is a Hebrew word for "alien" or "adulteress". Relatedly, the prefix "Nok" could be a derivation of "Noc", or "Nocturnal", the Greek Goddess of the night; similarly, the Roman translation is "Nox".

List of appearances

• Destiny
  • The Taken King (First mentioned)
• Destiny 2 (Mentioned only)