At the recording of this video, we are about halfway through the Season of Arrivals. Ok, maybe a bit less than half way since due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the release of Beyond Light got pushed back, but I’m getting sidetracked.There are Pyramid ships on various planets, The Drifter is playing around with some kitbashed, juryrigged Darkness trashcan that can decrypt Umbral Engrams into so some super evil looking loot, and Rasputin……is silent….

So what’s this talk about Rasputin blowing up a planet? What started as a joke, began to make some sense.

This is Videogame Crosstalk, and I hope you enjoy this Destiny Lore video.

So before we go any farther, here’s what should be an obvious disclaimer: while I intend to support this video with facts and references from ingame content and lore, the end result is purely conjecture and spinfoil.

There’s a lot happening all at the same time, and it’s not necessarily chronological. But we’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s start early in the Season of the Worthy. Here, we learned that the Cabal were planning on crashing the Almighty into the Tower as a last ditch effort against Humanity. Ana Bray helps us get into some long lost Warmind Bunkers in the EDZ, Luna, and finally, Io. When we first clear out the Bunker on Io, Rasputin shows us a bit of his historic records. We see the Pyramid ships and we hear audio of some kind of crisis. As it turns out, this audio is from the lore book, Last Days on Kraken Mare. Essentially, that book describes the day that the Darkness appeared in the Sol system and the citizens had to evacuate from the New Pacific Arcology on Titan. From the entry, The Sixth Seal, Part 2, 

The alert scrolls through Mia’s mind, in that hallucinatory screen space that matches but never impairs normal vision. “TRAVELER DEPARTS IO. TERRAFORMING INCOMPLETE. ACCELERATING TOWARD EARTH. BEHAVIOR UNPRECEDENTED.”

Essentially, the Darkness has appeared, and the Traveler high-tails it to Earth to protect Humanity even though it has not finished terraforming Io.

Picking back up with the entry, Faces Like Shields, as the Administrators of the Arcology start escorting the millions of civilians and workers to evacuation pods, security gets deployed to the rig.

Crown Six looks up in very human surprise. “David,” she says, guardedly. “Tell me you’re not still—”

“An ethicist? Sorry, Morgan. Still me.”

“Then I’m not speaking to you,” the Exo says and turns to Mia. “Administrator van der Venne, I’m here under SOLSECCENT’s special security protocol for extreme crisis. I must ask for your compliance and all possible assistance with our mission.”

For such a peaceful society, this kind of abrupt bluntness is not met without resistance. However, Crown Six makes it abundantly clear that she is absolutely serious and that now is not the time for petty grievances like….Ethics. Crown Six points a firearm at Mia van der Venne and confirms this in no uncertain terms.

“I won’t shoot you.” The needles of Morgan’s scalp glitter. “But I will tell you that I could, if I found it necessary.”

The second half of that sentence is crucial. Crown Six acknowledges that it would not be right to shoot Mia. But, the authority to do so absolutely exists, and it’s use will be exercised based on Crown’s sole discretion and judgement. Essentially saying, “Push me and find out”.

The protests to the treatment continue, but ultimately end with the confirmation of the origins of this surprise visit:

“Who ordered this?” Mia demands. “On what grounds can SOLSEC impose some high-handed protocol on my Arcology?”

Morgan does not make the obvious correction: not who ordered this, but what.

Yep. Rasputin doesn’t mess around then things are urgent.

Consider the title for the next two entries, Kalki’s Burning Sword, Parts I and II. The reason for this SOLSEC occupation isn’t readily apparent, but it ties back to the book’s first entry, The Sixth Seal, Part 1 where the researchers found something on Titan, and Rasputin doesn’t want it to leave the Rig. We don’t know what it is, but we do know that it is something very important, something dark and secret. The scientists tried to keep their findings as secret as they could, and had plans to use the evacuation as cover to get this information back to Earth. So they smuggled the info onto a portable data drive, falsified evacuation rosters, got on a transport ship, left the ship dock and…

The beam kisses the rising shuttle and cuts through it, like a wire through a block of butter, as if the ship and everyone inside were as thin as the hydrocarbon sleet. Thunder booms, louder than Earth’s, through heavy nitromethane air….

…It was a good plan, she’d thought. Smuggling Shanice Pell out on the evacuation ships was the right thing to do. Because it put Shanice Pell’s personal autonomy above the needs of any enigmatic emergency protocol. Because it gave Shanice a choice about what to do with her data, instead of yielding that choice to Morgan and her Exos.

Whatever that data was, Rasputin decided that it would be safer for humanity if that info never left Titan, and was willing to launch an assault on evacuating refugees to contain it.

And if you really want to beat this concept to death, as it were, consider the flavor text on all the warmind weapons from Season of the Worthy. Absolute martial law.

Swinging on over to the Warmind Bunker on Io, here’s something to remember: When we finally cleared the Io Bunker for the first time, Rasputin had a message for us. The Warming displayed a holographic image and some recorded audio that was from the lore book, Last Days on Kraken Mare. The image that Rasputin displayed was that of the Pyramid Ships. Not of Titan or the docks, nor even a particular evac ship. What truly scared Big Red at that time was the presence of the Darkness and those Pyramid ships.

Allow me to get sidetracked for a moment. Ever have your computer just RESTART on you with no warning? Like, “Hey, I’ve got updates installed and I need to perform a system restart for these updates to take effect. BOOP!” It’s happened to me many times. Even WHILE I WAS RECORDING A PODCAST EPISODE! Seriously, Audacity was recording, the conversation was great, and without warning, just…BOOP! Apparently, when a computer wants to restart badly enough, it’s just going to.

How does this apply to Rasputin? During the entirety of the Season of Worthy, we upgraded all the bunkers across the sol system, and launched MILLIONS of Warsats. Like, LITERALLY millions! We grinded for bits, cleared out bunkers, legendary lost sectors, even installed updates and upgrades for Valkyries and Heavy Frames. After all that, Rasputin shot down the Almighty for us before it crashed into the Tower. It came close, and we were struck by some falling debris, but the Tower stands. Clearly, Rasputin has significant offensive capabilities and is capable of taking out a large target from a long distance away.

But here’s the thing: The Almighty was not Rasputin’s main concern. His main concern was the presence of the Pyramid Ships. Obviously, the Vanguard, and by extension the rest of humanity, is thankful for Rasputin taking out the Almighty. It was a heck of a weapons demonstration. BUT, what if that was simply a demonstration? What if that was just Rasputin testing out his new capabilities? What if his main targets are the Pyramid Ships?

What if the reason that Rasputin shut down without warning was because he was being a stubborn computer, and was doing a system restart so that all the new updates and upgrades could be properly installed? What would his weapons systems look like then?

OK, recap time. Here’s what we know:

  1. Rasputin has been known to shut down without warning
    1. The last time Rasputin abruptly shut down, it was for self preservation against the Darkness. You know, just when they arrived. Kinda like right now….
  2. Rasputin will consider loss of human life an acceptable cost.
    1. In order to contain information regarding the Darkness, Rasputin shot down evacuation ships filled with refugees just to take down one information smuggler.
  3. Rasputin admitted to fearing the Darkness
    1. At the beginning of the Season of Worthy, vowed to never let the Collapse happen again. Remember, the Almighty was not Rasputin’s main concern.
  4. Rasputin’s capabilities have been upgraded
    1. We spent the entirety of the Season of Worthy upgrading Rasputin’s capabilities and launching warsats. You don’t go through all that effort for “just in case” scenarios.
  5. We now have Pyramid ships IN THE SOL SYSTEM
    1. Something Something, “clear and present danger”? Ya, things are going down!
  6. The planets with Pyramid Ships to be Vaulted
    1. These are also the same planets that will be disappearing at the beginning of the new season, and as per the lore book, “Duress and Egress”, we are in the process of evacuating those locations en masse.

So I dare ask you a simple question: Would a Warmind blow up a planet to stop the spread of the Darkness?

Uhhhh, Whether we wanted to or not, did we step into a war with the Cabal?

BOOOOOO!!!!

Ok, so before we wrap this up, a quick caveat that needs to be addressed. 

The reason that Rasputin got shut down could very well be the influence of the Nine. We learned in the lore book Dust, that the reason the Tower’s defense network went down to kick off the Red War was because the Nine. From the entry, The Witch:

In passing, Lavinia sees the entire history of the Queen’s interactions with the Nine: more than anyone suspected, and more vital. She sees how one of the Nine blinded Guardians to Ghaul’s approach, risking everything (for Ghaul would have destroyed the sun, and the Nine with it) to learn how to steal the Light. She sees how that one was punished.

Nondescript ethereal cosmic entities are curious like that, and they have thus demonstrated that they can influence Human tech to serve their own needs. Perhaps the Nine are at it again and shut down Rasputin so that the Pyramid Ships can reach the Sol system uncontested? And besides, is there ANY mythos in which the celestial gods DON’T arbitrarily mess with mortals?

And THAT concludes the video! If you enjoyed this video, please let me know and drop a like. If you would like to support this channel but can’t think of anything to leave as a comment, write the word, “Scorched Earth”, Since that is pretty much the fate for several planets in our system if Rasputin feels threatened. I would have chosen the name of a famous planet that was blown up in a different theatrical universe involving space magic, just to take out a Rebel stronghold that dared oppose a galactic empire, but I don’t want to get sued.

Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to hear more lore explained in this fashion and keep up to date with my regular podcast, Videogame Crosstalk, the monthly podcast of gamers talking Tech, Science, and whatever else comes to mind. Until then, I’ll see you in the Tower!

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