The Leviathan

Leviathan (ship)
Production information
Manufacturer:	Cabal
Technical specifications
Armament:	Planet Consumption Device
Crew:	Loyalist Cabal
Usage
Role(s):	World-Eater
Affiliation:	Emperor Calus

This article is about the personal ship of Emperor Calus. For the ancient creature found on Fundament, see Leviathan (creature).

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The world-destroying flagship of the former Cabal Emperor, Calus.

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The Leviathan is a massive Cabal space vessel that serves as the personal pleasure craft of the exiled Emperor Calus and his Loyalists.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] It is the site of the Leviathan and Crown of Sorrow Raids, as well as the Leviathan, Eater of Worlds and Leviathan, Spire of Stars Raid Lairs. The former takes place exclusively within the palace atop the ship, whereas the latter take place deep within its interior and around the tower situated on the top of the ship, respectively.

Overview

The Leviathan is a gigantic spaceship, which is used by the Loyalists to eat planets and process them into a thick, purple "royal wine". When a desired object is targeted, Cabal soldiers are sent to gather data on its geology to find out how to grind it up. The resulting rubble would be refined and mixed with "royal nectar" to produce the royal wine for Calus's consumption. A large palace where Emperor Calus and his servants reside stands on the head of the ship, and two small artificial suns hover in place above the highest tower.

The Leviathan is formidably armed, carrying laser weapons, missile bombardments and fusion missiles powerful enough to destroy Cabal warships in a single direct hit. These weapons use an unusual, immersive targeting system that may involve psionics, there is even an energy that courses through the ship that can be utilized by certain items obtained.

History

Construction

The Leviathan was constructed at some point prior to or during Calus' reign as Emperor. According to Calus himself, the ship was modeled after "a mythical beast from the dreams of worms", Which was thought to be the Leviathan of Fundament. It turned out that the ship was based off of a "landwhale" native to the cabal homeworld. Its original function, whether a prison barge, warship or pleasure craft, is unclear.

Calus’s Exile

"This Leviathan. This prison ship. I will remake it, as I have been remade. No longer will it represent a mythical beast from the dreams of worms. It will serve as an icon for my newfound gluttony."

— Emperor Calus

On the night of the coup that deposed him, Emperor Calus was arrested and quietly ushered aboard the Leviathan, where Dominus Ghaul and his co-conspirators intended him to remain in exile in perpetuity. The Leviathan's navigation system was locked onto a course that would take it far from the Cabal Empire's domain. After many centuries, the system failed and the ship progressed no further; it had come upon a great expanse of nothingness, and could not plot a course through a place that did not exist. It was here that Calus claimed to have encountered something that overawed him, potentially the Darkness itself, and resolved to become its herald. With the navigation system unlocked, Calus charted a course back to Cabal territory, collecting Shadows from various alien races along the way to enact his revenge against his usurpers.

Post Red War

"The Cabal seat of power now resides in orbit 'round Nessus. In a giant fish."

— The Drifter

Following Dominus Ghaul's death during the Red War, the Leviathan arrived in the Solar System and began consuming the planetoid Nessus.

Some time after the Leviathan began consuming Nessus, it sucked up a powerful Vex mind: Argos, Planetary Core, which projected a shield to protect itself, while simultaneously clogging the Leviathan. The Vex mind was only removed through the intervention of a Guardian fireteam. After the death of Xol, Will of the Thousands, the Red Legion, led by Val Ca'uor, attempted to take control of the Leviathan and kill Emperor Calus, only to be stopped by another fireteam of Guardians.

Forsaken

The Reef armada regularly performs fleet maneuvers near the Leviathan to intimidate Calus that any action he takes can be met with equivalent force. Though target locks are established, no fire is exchanged on either side.

A Shadow Gone Mad

Wanting a Shadow to command the Hive, Calus breeds Gahlran to wear a Hive artifact known as the Crown of Sorrow. However, Gahlran is driven mad by the Crown’s power, as it was a trap laid by Savathûn, the Witch-Queen. Under the control of Savathûn, Gahlran summons a massive Hive infestation, killing many Loyalists, and taking control of the depths of the Leviathan's Menagerie. Now wanting his former Shadow put down, Calus calls upon the Guardian and their allies once more, offering more riches and rewards upon their success.

After a grueling struggle against the mad Shadow and the Hive’s magic, the Guardians succeeded in killing Gahlran and retrieving the crown. With the artifact back in Calus' possession, he orders his Psions to continue studying the runes found underneath it to find a way to prevent anyone else who would wear it from falling to its madness, and to also leave its ability to control the Hive intact.

Calus later honors the Guardians with a Tribute Hall established aboard his ship, and offers them to become his Shadows of Earth.

Beyond Light

Sometime after the arrival of the Pyramids in the Sol System, the Leviathan mysteriously vanished from the orbit of Nessus. Osiris looked into its disappearance, but found nothing hinting as to why the Leviathan left or where it was headed. Logs found aboard the Glykon Volatus suggested that the Leviathan was simply hidden at some location in the System while Calus performed his experiments.

Locations

Unlike previous raid locations, areas within the Leviathan are not given unique names as they load in. However, as with locations within a Crucible map, certain rooms and areas have a unique name that is displayed beneath the player radar.

Embarkment
Castellum
Royal Pools
Pleasure Gardens
The Gauntlet
Throne
Aqueduct
Armory
Conduit
Drain
Engine
Inner Chamber
Irrigation
Pipeline
Transfer
Ventilator
Reactor Room
Statue Gardens
Power Conduit
Celestial Observatory
The Menagerie
Menagerie Depths
Undercroft
Royal Theater
Kingdom of Sorrow

Load Zones

These are the actual load zones on the Leviathan during Raids, or the Crucible.

The Leviathan

Emperor's Respite

Arena

The Menagerie

Miscellaneous

The Tribute Hall

Trivia

The name of this ship is a reference to the mythical creature in the Bible, a sea creature of enormous size.
One idea for the Leviathan's origin, according to artist Dorje Bellbrook, was that the ship was inspired by creatures native to Calus' homeworld resembling large "land whales" that would travel along the ground and swallow anything caught in their path.^[5] It is unknown whether this is canon information or not, though similar-looking creatures feature prominently in Calus's heraldry and architecture.
The Leviathan is the first Raid location featuring multiple, separate Raid activities.
The Leviathan is probably not as large as it seems. As the planetoid that it is swallowing, Nessus, is only about 50km in diameter. Since the Leviathan is only a little bit larger than Nessus, it's assumed the Leviathan is meant to eat moons and planetoids, instead of entire planets. Although, Nessus may have been altered as it is more spherical and has a horizon when on the surface. However it should also be noted that considering the mouth is consistently shown to be twice as large as Nessus at a bare minimum, the Leviathan would have to be at least one hundred kilometers in size.