[Weekly] Ancient Apocalypse Armor Lore in One piece- Drifters Ice Planet Ghost Logs
When/how did Drifter get Stasis? Why does the Derelict have Egregore fungus on it like the Glykon? What happened to Drifters ghost? Are there possibly enemies associated with the Pyramid fleet? What was Drifter up to before/during/after the Red War and Gambit? When was Stasis first hinted?
These are all questions people might have. Questions that are generally answered in the tale of Drifters adventure on a unknown ice planet outside our system.
The primary point of this post, is to simply collect the 6 scattered parts of a single tale together in one place^((spread across pieces of the Ancient Apocalypse armor lore)), rather than have people need to search or bookmark all 6 separate pieces to reference it. But its secondary point is to put it out there in the open to reexamine in light of developments in Beyond Light and Season of the Chosen; to consider how it may be relevant to the intensifying conflict between the Traveler and the Black Fleet, upcoming events/narrative in Seasons and Expansions to come.
Part 1
"Maybe you leave your first apocalypse. But your second one never leaves you." —The Drifter
I had a crew once. My best friends. Which isn't saying much, trust me.
They're all dead now. Almost to a man. So what does that mean for all you lil' Guardians out there who are my new best friends?
Don't think about that one too hard.
Anyway, my crew, or a little subset of it, we leave the system together. Dawn of the City Age at the time. We were looking for somethin' greater than Light. 'Cuz we had seen that Light can be the cause of… so much strife.
We searched far and wide. Must've been… hundreds of years. We found a planet beyond the system bristlin' with an energy that repulsed Light. Naturally, we were curious.
We landed. Intended to settle and conduct the research necessary to make this energy portable. A weapon outta legend called Thorn had similar, Light-repressing capabilities.
It seemed promising. But hand to my heart it was cold. Humans were not meant for that place. Every once in a while a member of the crew would succumb. Died where they stood or sat. Thank the planes for our Ghosts.
We were in high spirits. We were veterans. Grizzled. Hundreds of years in space will do that.
—Drifter's thoughts recited to his Ghost, for posterity. The first of five parts.
Part 2
"Sometimes it's a cosmic event. Sometimes it's a beast from hell. Sometimes it's one man." —The Drifter
So there we were. On that cold hunk of ice with no name, just me and my crew. Everything peachy-keen.
We discovered some kind of alien monolith, a facility left by the inhabitants of that planet long gone by then.
But trapped inside was a creature. In a cage of some sort, frozen in ice. An exhibit? Was it some kind of zoo? Still not sure to this day. We should've brought a scientist. All we had were… well, guys who thought we looked tough in dark colors.
During our long stay on that planet, we found many of those monoliths, each with their own captured creature.
Anyway, this thing—the creature—looked like it shared common bioenergetics with the Hive, but there were no records then or since that I've ever seen of humanity's encounters with them. And the creature had a property the Hive did not have. It produced a field that repressed Light—like a Darkness Zone but contained to a gooey, vacuous form with no head.
The anti-Light fields we had detected from orbit that spread across the planet? It was these things. Our ship's scanners indicated thousands of them were on this planet with us.
We were ecstatic.
In hindsight we all could have done with a few less of them.
—Drifter's thoughts recited to his Ghost, for posterity. The second of five parts.
Part 3
"Sometimes the difference between survival and eradication is just pure, simple stubbornness." —The Drifter
My crew and I quickly learned that the creatures in the monolith facilities were not the only ones on that damn rock. Plenty of 'em roaming around out in the wild, where it was cold, but less cold than the frozen cages that contained the ones in the monoliths.
How'd we find out? Well, one of us died in our sleep. Not that uncommon or tragic, actually. Happened a lot. Damn cold out there.
Except this time that fella's Ghost couldn't resurrect him. Turns out one'a those creatures just slithered by, and close proximity to it from inside our shelter just… silenced that poor bastard's Light.
It was unfortunate, but it also lit a fire under us. The next morning we realized we had a potential weapon on our hands that could change everything in battles of Light versus Light.
We knew we had to find a way to get these creatures off their icy home.
And we needed to find it fast. Despite our breakthrough, tensions were… a little high. Some of us thought it was awful convenient the creature wandered by and happened to take out only one of us. And so soon after we realized the value of them.
—Drifter's thoughts recited to his Ghost, for posterity. The third of five parts.
Part 4
"I stopped counting the Armageddons." —The Drifter
I mentioned tension was high among the crew in the last one, right? That's what I thought.
Well, it got worse. Another one'a us died. In the exact same way, even after we took up residence in one of the monoliths. Idiot just froze to death, his Ghost too whacked out by Light repression to do anything about it. Died in his sleep.
The others were not happy about it. I was not happy about it.
We had been looking for a way to contain the creatures. The monoliths seemed to have some kind of freeze tech (if you could call it technology) that we could use if only we could replicate it. I'm a pretty savvy mechanic. But we couldn't figure it out.
We started to blame each other. Someone must have lured one of those things near crew quarters. To this day, I still don't know for sure. Why kill just one of us? For what? It was more plausible that the creatures did it knowingly. A punishment for our intrusion. But there was no malice there that we could detect. Only biology.
At the time, we didn't care.
Eventually, one of em drew a gun. I knew it would happen, and I had prepared a soothing speech to smooth things over just in case.
I told 'em to holster that smoke wagon. And the next time any one of 'em tried it again, I'd kill 'em all without a second thought.
I didn't speak plainly often. But when I did, even that crew listened.
—Drifter's thoughts recited to his Ghost, for posterity. The fourth of five parts.
Part 5
"Had a face like the end-times and eyes like manna in the desert. One look at him, and I knew I wasn't gonna be saved." —The Drifter
We were at our wit's end. A year on the planet, and we had been completely unable to capture or tame the creatures that had become our sole objective.
They were our bane.
Our ship had long been rendered useless by the extreme cold. We had all died a hundred thousand times over to the cold. I know you've all been in the Crucible. Played Gambit.
This was worse. Much worse.
Anyway. Four of us were left. We were raving psychos at this point. Only the four of us and the howling wind and icy slopes for company. The occasional scurrying, vacuous creature to argue about.
One day, when we had settled in for the night in another monolith, something swept over the planet. I later learned it swept across the system. All'a you hearing this felt it. You were there at the source.
All four of us lost our Light. And we knew it. We looked over at the monolith-creature in its frozen cage. It seemed to stare right back.
I think I mentioned we're all raving psychos at this point. Well, we did what all measured raving psychos would do. We thought we each had been betrayed by the others. We drew on each other.
To this day, I'm not sure how many of those guys drew intending to kill.
But I'll tell you this. I was the only one who walked out.
The creature in that monolith watched it all. When it was over, I stuck a finger straight up at it.
It was just me now.
How'd I get from there to here? Maybe I'll get to tell that story someday. We'll see if my Gambit makes it that far.
—Drifter's thoughts recited to his Ghost, for posterity. The fifth of five parts.
Final Part
When the end comes… Will you clear the way for him, Warlock?
Uh, okay. It's been a while since I sat down to do one'a these. Where was I?
My crew and I had been stuck in a prison of our own making, dying over'n over from the cold on a frozen rock out in the deep black. Hounded every day by the indigenous life that could erase our Light just by being near us. Life that we were hoping to capture, to help us end battles of Light versus Light.
But they were killin' us, one by one, robbing us of the Traveler's gift in sub-zero temps.
We each thought the others were to blame, somehow luring the creatures to camp during the night to claim victims. Could've just been bad luck. The place was riddled with beasts.
Even now, I couldn't tell you either way. It was dark, it was cold, for days, weeks, months.
Just as tensions between our group reached critical mass, on the other side of the system, Ghaul and the Red Legion took out the Traveler. Even out in space, it cost us our Light.
But we didn't know that. We all felt it, blamed each other without sayin' a word. I could see it in their eyes.
If I didn't draw, they would. So—ol' Drifter was the only one who walked out.
Final deaths. All of them.
To this day I don't know whether that planet, with its numerous monoliths, was meant to contain those beasts or breed them. Some of those morphs were caged. Some walked free as we did.
So. How'd I get from there to here? We had no ship. We had no way to contain those anti-Light creatures that had been the whole point of the trip in the first place.
And the craziest thing happened. My Ghost snapped. What do I mean by that? Let me step back:
I think all this time my Ghost was hoping I would fall in line, that I just needed time to take up the mantle of the Traveler. My re-birthright. But that had never happened. It took hundreds of years, but my Ghost finally flipped.
How? Well, our escape was all its idea: If we could modify its Light to replicate the energy effect of the monolith cages, it might be able to contain the creatures in the same way.
But we would need parts. Ghost parts. And we knew where we could get some.
The Ghosts of my former crew all fled as soon as their charges hit the dirt. So me'n mine, we hunted them.
And then it came time to perform the modifications.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked it. There were lasers all around us, scrounged from my crew's wrecked ship.
"Just make sure it works," it said.
So I began, sparks flyin' around me as I cut into its armor. If I died to the cold before I finished, all would be lost. It spoke over the din of the work.
"Hey. There's always hope. For what it's worth, I'm proud of you." It was the last thing my Ghost ever said, and the last lie it ever told.
The next morning, it was forever changed, but it had a brand new shell of armor, reinforced by the guts of five other Ghosts. Its eye was bright red. It could no longer speak.
The blue setting was still there, accessible whenever we needed it. But the red setting would save our lives. It was kit-bashed and jury-rigged, but it could replicate the energy of the cages. We froze every creature we came across, brought all of them onboard a new ship I cobbled together, now that we were free to explore that ice trap of a planet. It was a trashfire of parts I lovingly dubbed "The Derelict," a ship that I added to as I journeyed back towards home.
Ghost could now tap into spectrums of Light no one on Earth had yet seen. Spectrums beyond the Light. Don't get me wrong. I'm no herald of the Dark. This was a kit-bash job.
But it was a renaissance for us. Gambit banks, Motes of Dark, the Derelict. They were all innovated out of that red setting.
And that's when I suppose y'all met me.
I think it's time I got back to Gambit. You should, too.
—The Drifter to his Ghost, for posterity.
Food for thought
Since a post just literally dumping lore by itself is boring, here are some things to consider and possibly start a discussion.
- The location of said planet, really is unclear. There is a slim possibility it could be somewhere just outside our system, something like Planet 9 / Planet X ^((hypothesized undiscovered large planet that is postulated as responsible for irregularities in the orbits of our gas giants))
- That said, in the unreliable Calus Scribe fanboy version of events/history(the Chronicon), it is given a name and some importance. If the information is accurate at all, this makes it even more unlikely to be Planet 9/X and very likely to explicitly be in another star system, or to be a rogue planet.
Athenaeum World X is what it is called. And some brief highlights from the two entries:
The Shadows of Earth, of the Eliksni, and of the Awoken arrived on the ice planet that held Emperor Calus's Athenaeum World X, the name of which has been lost to time. This planet, being a repository for precious, ancient knowledge collected by the Emperor, was chosen for its hostile environment, which served as a built-in defense system for intruders and thieves.
En route to the planet's Inner Sanctum, where the athenaeum world's knowledge was kept, the Shadows were stalked by an undocumented species of indigenous wildlife, whose natural capabilities as a predator proved unexpectedly debilitating to the companion-soul of the Shadow of Earth. The Shadow, being symbiotically reliant on its companion-soul, was thus weakened and the trio was forced to bivouac in place beneath a great monolith as a storm fell upon them.
"Who do you think I am? Without me, you have only a dwindling army of ambivalent soldiers. I am the Young Wolf. I killed the Taken King. I defeated Ghaul, I roused the Traveler, I silenced the Moon, I stopped the invasion, I broke the curse, I broke the Houses, I killed the queen! I am the Shadow of Earth!"
...
After the reclamation of the Athenaeum World X, which held in it the secrets of one of the most advanced predators in the system, the Aphelion, which had the power to devastate whole worlds in the blink of an eye, the Shadow was able to use this lost knowledge to rebuild the Loyalist fleet stronger and more magnificent than ever.
- Wherever its location, we learn both that Guardians ability to use the Light is not affected by proximity, and that the impact of Ghaul suppressing the Traveler could be felt even in another system.
- Egregore Fungus is connected to Darkness, and is described as "Sarcophilous growths, with cores of Darkness." Clearly life of some kind associated with the Darkness. Their presence on the Derelict, Glykon, and Cabal Home world, all stem from exposure to darkness.(with the Derelict containing, or having contained creatures with power of darkness)
- The term monolith, is used almost exclusively in description of the Pyramids/Ziggurat. This word is most famous in fiction with its use in 2001 Space Odyssey^((Its easy to see how) ^(this scene) ^(involving a monolith may have influenced the creation of the moons aesthetics))
Even more curious is how a earlier short story precursor titled "The Sentinel"^((click the link to see art work)) dealt with a mysterious alien tetrahedron on the moon, left as a warning beacon to monitor and detect intelligent life. Aliens speculated to have "used mechanisms belonging 'to a technology that lies beyond our horizons, perhaps to the technology of para-physical forces.'"
(sound like Shadowkeep at all?)
(a reference to Space Odyssey was made in Beyond Light Collector edition letter to the line
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. ", a reference to Europa having been terraformed by the monoliths^((turning Jupiter into a star)), and declared off limits to humanity^((to support the evolution native life there)) (Humanity was free to explore, settle, and use all the other planets/moons as they wished) - We specifically have the Giant Pyramid referred to as a monolith, as well as the Ziggurats. And said monoliths on Drifters ice planet also used cages that use energy to freeze the creatures, tech that drifter could not replicate with technology. Said energy was only replicated when Drifter modified his ghost to tap into "spectrums of Light no one on Earth had yet seen. Spectrums beyond the Light." (its pretty obvious in hindsight here this is Stasis)(the frozen cages, quite likely may have even been perfect Crystals)
The connection to "freezing energy from monoliths" on drifters Ice planet, to "Guardians receiving freezing energy powers from a monolithic Ziggurat", clearly connects them to being similar structures.
(Stasis could also be potentially a solution for indefinite Cryo Stasis, as it is capable of reducing entropy in a system to 0, which would stop all motion in a body, preventing the body from deteriorating completely) - To access "Stasis", Drifters Ghost was modified by other ghosts, and entered a "red mode", and lost its ability to speak. It would be curious to see whether our ghost when possessed goes red. Drifters ghost not speaking, isnt clear whether it is by choice or by capability, but the description of his ghost is remarkably similar to Ashers ghost(for different reasons)(Ashers ghost was infected by the Vex, developed a red eye and stopped speaking)
- These unknown creatures were described as something utterly unlike any other species, albeit some loose similarities with the hive. They had inherent anti light powers, powers only seen from direct Darkness, or extremely powerful hive. They were also described as having "gooey, vacuous form". Vacuous can mean empty or void ^((as in lacking something that normally would be there, like a consciousness)(the darkness also is often associated with voids, or absence)).
Drifter does not equate any malice to them, only biology^((as in natural Guardian enemies, or as in the Darkness is a force of nature)) . Even the description of "It seemed to stare right back", may be a reference to previous darkness connected lore. - And while a interview which brought up expectations of Arrivals/Beyond light featuring enemies pouring out of the Pyramids, the existence of some sort of creatures was not denied, merely the expectations surrounding them following old concept art or journal sketches. Certainly lore like the attack on the Black Armory during the collapse,
Entry 71
Last night we awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of something pounding on the walls. It roared and stomped and howled in frustration… until it found the doors. They didn't hold.
I never saw it. We were too occupied blindly firing around a corner. I just remember the smell of wet earth, and a sound I've never heard before. Like a machine being stretched and then compressed.
When it was over, we'd lost members of our Black Armory family and the thing—whatever it was—got away.
and things like old Grimoire on the Darkness^((many of the theories there have already been proven true, aliens rejected by the Traveler remains in the open)) , even recent flavor text involving Old Chicago with a "unknown enemy of the Light" which hunted down and killed many guardians and picked them off one by one(similar to how Drifters creatures behaved), leaving a traumatic experience of hopelessness compared directly to losing the light in the Red War.
- Its not impossible that these creatures could be variants of Taken, or extremely similar to Taken, as the power to Take originally comes from the Deep(Darkness). Certainly there are similarities with the Taken. Given how Ikora describes the Taken as " Husked out and filled up", Vacuous certainly would fit alongside "Husked out".
Food for thought TLDR
- Dont be surprised if Pyramid ships start releasing gooey Vacuous creatures when the sales pitch for Salvation is rejected, and we are scheduled to receive Annihilation instead.
- Enemies hunting Guardians in Old Chicago may be said creatures.
- Dont be surprised if Drifter is shown to be more knowledgeable about other "darkness powers" than Stasis(given how his Ghost tapped into new spectrums of light, spectrums beyond the light)
- Dont be surprised if Ghosts having a red mode of sorts is due to darkness possession, or Ghosts utilizing darkness.
- There are many hints that directly connect the monolith alien structures to the Pyramids/ Pyramid constructs such as the "monolithic Ziggurats".
- Arthur C. Clarke clearly has had a influence of sorts on many themes and visuals of Destiny, the monoliths embody features of both the Traveler(terraforming, promoting the development and flourishing of sentient life), as well as the Pyramid fleet(Exterminating species, functioning under the direction of life on a higher plane of existence)
Anyways, hope some people who are unaware of these lore entries are exposed to them, and I hope people find the connections in the Food for Thought section interesting. Now at least I dont have to open 6 pages each time when referring to quotes from Drifters Ice Planet adventure. It should be exciting to see how this plays into events to come, when our choice is made, and we face Annihilation.
our enemy declares a second Collapse. They imply it is already in motion.
She remembers those feelings of desperation and abandonment and how she would have accepted any opportunity if it meant living. Her desperate moment did not end in such darkness, but she cannot help but wonder about other Guardians. That when faced with the choice between annihilation and salvation, they might make the wrong choice.
Posted Aug 2, 2021, 8:43 PM UTC
I will say that the second sketch in Cayde's book isn't a Dark creature, but actually a silhouette study for the Cabal. Now the first one... that's... that's something else.
This world interests me because it seems to very much imply Stasis as well as Dark creatures. I'll say that the common similarities with the Hive is limited exclusively to bio-energetics, which is just how the body uses energy. If the Hive wield Dark power, and these things wield Dark power, there's your similarity. These things are completely alien.
What also interests me are the other creatures like the Aphelion or the Old Chicago entity. The Aphelion is the third known entity to create a SKYSHOCK event (the others being the Darkness itself and the Taken) and are equated to the Taken when Shuro Chi talks about the Awoken's weaknesses and fears in a patrol mission. The Old Chicago entity is a complete unknown, but if what attacked Niobe Labs was indeed an entity of Darkness, then perhaps few of these creatures were left behind at the end of the Collapse, like the Lunar Pyramid.
Though that still doesn't explain the architecture...
I agree. I included it because people tend to often attribute it alongside the first sketch, and it is just vague enough that it might not be Cabal. As well as being close in proximity to the other sketch in the physical collectors book. People also like to attribute this old concept art to that sketch(which tends to be seen in close proximity to the old hive moth people concept arts)
There is of course also the apparition sketched in the Luna journal as well, but that resembles a nightmare pretty well.
Was not aware of that detail. It certainly would lend some credence to the chronicons claim that aphelion are the deadliest predators, if Rasputin recognized their threat as such.
The interesting thing about the Aphelion, is it was referred to the stalking Core, and was extremely radioactive and left no traces of its victims or attacks.
Shuro Chi described victims description "First it shimmered... Then it crawled... and then it screamed."
The big question is whether the Aphelion was interpreted into the distributary legend of the core that stalked, or whether the Aphelion was the basis of that legend.(likely the former, but it is interesting to consider it being in the Distributary)
With Shuro warning us of its danger "no matter what gods you've killed, you will not survive it" is extremely strong words.
As Aphelion means "distance furthest from the sun", it certainly would be suited to a "darkness creature".
It will be interesting to see how things develop over time. It would be great if things are teased a bit before the big reveal(assuming "pyramid/darkness race" are introduced in gameplay)(imagine scenes like the hangman's guttural interaction on the glykon where you know something dangerous is there but don't know what it is, and don't find out until the next expansion)
I had completely forgotten that piece of concept art and it shows the connection to the ships, lol. Each unit is basically a misty smoke-like entity under all that junk, connecting them to that one piece showing all 5 races. Also, seems to fit Cayde's and Ada's descriptions, being covered/armored in rock (constantly flowing rock in one case) and other junk could explain the smells and sounds.