Destiny 2's Recent Leaks Retcon Massive Lore Bits Ahead Of The Final Shape

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Oct 01, 2023

Destiny 2's Recent Leaks Retcon Massive Lore Bits Ahead Of The Final Shape

New Destiny 2 leaks regarding Season of the Deep's story appear to be retconning

New Destiny 2 leaks regarding Season of the Deep's story appear to be retconning the overarching Light and Darkness saga's lore.

WARNING: Massive Destiny 2 Spoilers ahead, proceed at your own risk.

Destiny 2 is ushering in a new era thanks to the recent story developments in the Light and Darkness saga and the upcoming The Final Shape expansion, which is going to bring Cayde-6 back and allow Guardians to traverse the portal that The Witness created on The Traveler. With the saga soon coming to an end, Lightfall's lackluster story didn't land well when it comes to player reception, as it was supposed to answer some questions more than creating additional doubts. However, Bungie promised that Destiny 2's seasonal stories would do that, and it seems that the most recent leaks are proving just as much.

While there were massive leaks before Destiny 2's Lightfall launched, they didn't prove to be reliable until recently, and they didn't even explain many of the lingering questions that players have had. However, soon after the launch of Destiny 2's Season of the Deep, players were able to datamine one of the most meaningful cutscenes in the game's entire history - one that explains the origins of The Traveler's arch-enemy. The Witness' story is not only important to the lore of the game, but it seems to be retconning the contents of one of Destiny 2's most relevant lore books - Unveiling.

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The leaked cutscene was likely meant to be shown in the game at the end of Destiny 2's Season of the Deep, and it appears to be narrated from Ahsa's perspective - the sea creature on Titan for which Sloane called for help. As Season 21's prologue explains, Ahsa is an ancient enemy of The Witness, and she appears to be the one who finally tells players who and what exactly the being is. Based on the leaked cutscene, The Witness was never just one entity, but rather an entire race that once worshipped The Traveler, calling it "The Gardener."

The Gardener is not something new to Destiny 2 players, and its first mention dates back to a lore book, or rather a series of lore books, called Unveiling. Within this collection is a lore book called "Gardener and Winnower," which seemingly describes the origins of the universe and time itself as a game played by the titular entities, but from the perspective of The Winnower - the being that players always associated with Darkness, as it was the counterpart to The Gardener.

According to the cutscene, however, the Darkness is actually Destiny 2's Veil, which has a connection with The Traveler. This was discovered early on by the alien race that eventually became The Witness as it traveled through the universe to find its purpose after being aided by the terraforming and well-wishing powers of The Traveler. This race began to think of the Light and The Traveler, The Gardener, as dangerous under the assumption that life is chaotic and can lead to destruction. The Traveler eventually fled, and the alien race merged into a single entity powerful enough to hunt down and end The Traveler.

This is an incredible source of lore for Destiny 2's worldbuilding, and it answers many questions, but it also poses new ones. Unveiling describes The Winnower as an equal to The Gardener, but this is proved wrong by the cutscene, revealing that even if The Witness considers itself The Winnower, it was not an entity before space and time existed alongside The Traveler. Instead, The Witness' original race existed and thrived solely thanks to The Traveler, and the two entities never really fought in the so-called garden, which ultimately begs the question of what exactly is true from Unveiling and what isn't. As such, this is something that Destiny 2's The Final Shape should put to rest if it is to end the Light and Darkness saga.

Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Andrea became a gamer for life at 7, thanks to a Pokemon Red cartridge and her Game Boy. She knew she wanted to be a writer back when she got a floppy disk and wrote "My Book" on it. Her Italian lineage makes her a big pizza fan. She loves games featuring deep lore, sci-fi elements, and strategic thinking. When she is not writing or editing, she's often found playing Destiny 2 and Pokemon games. Andrea has a BA degree in Cognitive Psychology from UNISOB and an MA degree in Copywriting and Advertising from IULM.

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