Toland, the Shattered: Difference between revisions

|class=[[Warlock]] {{C|[[Sunsinger]]}}<ref>'''Bungie (2015/9/15)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Taken King]], Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Path of the Sunsinger]]''</ref>, {{C|[[Voidwalker]]}}<ref>'''Bungie (2017/8/9)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Shard of the Traveler (Voidwalker)]]''</ref>

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{{Quote|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}}

{{Expand-section}}

{{Quote|They want to know what you know."<br>"Yes. And I will tell them, but they will never understand. I'll greet them with a smile and welcome them in. I will learn how we can benefit from their ignorance.|Guren and Toland, when Eriana and Eris approached him about the knowledge how to destroy Crota}}

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, Son of Oryx|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 (class)|Titan]] [[Vell Tarlowe]] and the [[Hunter]]s [[Sai Mota]] and [[Omar Agah]].<ref>'''Bungie (2014/12/9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Dark Below]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Activities/Raids#Crota.27s_End|Crota's End]]''</ref> As they prepared for their mission, Toland imparted what he knew of Hive lore to Eris, including his knowledge about the [[Ogre]]s 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.<ref>'''Bungie (2014/12/9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Dark Below]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Exalted_Hive#Might_of_Crota|Might of Crota]]''</ref>

===Journey in the Ascendant Realm===

{{Quote|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.}}

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===

{{quote|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}}

===Restoration of the Bad Juju===

{{Quote|Inflict your desires upon reality, Guardian. One good death deserves another.|Toland guiding the Guardians}}

===Reunion with Eris===

{{Quote|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}}

{{quote|Life is pain. Pain is power. And power is life.|Toland}}<ref>'''Bungie (2015-9-15)''', ''[[Destiny]]: PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Jumpship#Raid_and_Arena_Ships|Agonarch Karve]]''</ref>

Toland was described as one of the chief experts on the forbidden arcana of the Hive but he grew obsessed with their secrets, which ultimately led to his exile, as the [[Speaker]] believed he posed a danger to the Last City. Toland himself admitted he might be mad in one of his reports. Through his intense research of the Hive and the Darkness, somewhere down the line he started to believe in the Sword Logic and see it as the force ruling the cosmos, and it infuriated him that he could not make others understand it.<ref name="Darkness 3" />

His main motivation and driving force always seemed to be curiosity. He possesses a deep hunger for knowledge and secrets, even willing to risk his very being to learn them; Eris remarked that made him predictable, regarding his earlier appearance in Mara Sov's throne world. He takes joy in preaching his beliefs and findings, and feeling his words are falling for deaf ears irritates him greatly. He seems to be enjoying his role of a foul guide, laying out a trail of breadcrumbs and watching others follow it. Even his bitterness towards the Guardian would in time be defeated by this - in [[A Hum of Starlight]] he angrily remarks he will not be our Virgil guiding us through the dark, and when we meet him again on the Moon in [[Shadowkeep]], he proceeds to do just that.

His relationship to his fireteam was a complicated one, as they valued the knowledge he possessed but were distrustful of his secretiveness, Eris even accusing him of "holding [his] secrets like weapons" in order to doom them.<ref>'''Bungie (2014/12/9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Dark Below]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Exalted_Hive#Eyes_of_Crota|Eyes of Crota]]''</ref> Eriana blamed him for the fireteam's tragic end<ref name="Patrol:H">'''Bungie (2019/10/1)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Shadowkeep]], Playstation 4'', Patrol dialogue: the Hellmouth</ref>, and her Ghost [[Jax]] urged anyone listening not to trust Toland in its last transmission.<ref>'''Bungie (2019/10/1)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Shadowkeep]], Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Lore:Luna's Lost#Ghost Fragment: Eriana-3's Ghost|Luna's Lost - Ghost Fragment: Eriana-3's Ghost]]''</ref>. Eris herself seems to have conflicting feelings about him, feeling as if she should not miss him yet listing him among her friends and arguing that "a fireteam's bond are not so easily undone".<ref>'''Bungie (2019/10/1)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Shadowkeep]], Playstation 4'', Lost Mementos: Memory of Toland, the Shattered</ref>.

Toland himself admits to having always respected, and still respecting, his fireteam members<ref name="Patrol:H" />. When Eris met him in the Ascendant Plane, he expressed genuine concern about her wellbeing and warned her of the threat the Witch-Queen posed. He does not think too highly of the Vanguard, believing them to be small-minded, and calls the Speaker a "masked hypocrite".<ref>'''Bungie (2015/9/15)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Taken King]] Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Activities/The_Taken_King#Court_of_Oryx|Court of Oryx]]''</ref> At one point he vocalizes his respect for [[Wei Ning]], noting that he admired her directness.<ref>'''Bungie (2014/12/9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Dark Below]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Exalted_Hive#Oryx: Rebuked|Oryx: Rebuked]]''</ref>

*''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.''

*''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?''

*''If you believe your weapon wants to end all existence, then so it will.''

*''Knowledge is its own end.''

*''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.''

*''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.''

*''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.''

*''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?''

*''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.''

*''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...''

*''I leave you here.''

*''The rules of Ascendance have changed according to the wish of the dragon.''

*''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 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...''

*''Listen - death is the last part of living and life is learning to die. The song is the same as the singing; the last truth commands me to eat all the light in the sky.''

*''What does it mean to die so many times, at the hands of so many enemies and allies? What has death taught you, Guardian? How has it shaped you?''

*''To perform a ritual of sacrifice is to tempt a god's hunger. Your very presence here is a kind of ritual. You present your Light so freely...''

*''I shall be your Virgil once again...''

*''Will you be prepared? Or will you be... boring?''

*''Listen, listen...''

*''Come slayer of Oryx. I have words for you.''

*''Will you listen? Or will you be like your Vanguard?''

*''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?''

*''In the Hive, the vanguard face a new threat they didn't understand. So they did what they do best - they shot at it. And to their detriment, it shot back. Death was delivered the day of our Great Disaster.''

*''Arrogance is little more than a by-product of hubris. And hubris destroys most of us in the end. Hundreds of Guardian souls shattered against the edges of Crota's blade the day of the Great Disaster, their Light consumed by his ambition.''

*''The heresy was born here, in the Keep, where the daughters of Crota first began their experiments with Nightmares. It was here their priestess asked the question that her sisters would not: If Oryx cannot be resurrected, can he be remade?''

'''Choir of the Damned, 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.''

**''[[Curse of Osiris]]'' {{Mo}}

**''[[Forsaken]]''

**''[[Shadowkeep]]''

**''[[Beyond Light]]'' {{Mo}}

==References==

[[Category:Characters]]