Paging story experts *SP* (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, September 10, 2018, 00:19 (2058 days ago) @ Oholiab

I just finished the story tonight, and I need some help understanding what just happened. I have not unlocked the Dreaming City, so maybe some of this will become more clear.

I think it's important to understand that not all the answers are handed to us right upon finishing the story. Even those of us who have explored The Dreaming City have not uncovered some major story points. My guess is that the Raid will answer some questions, but that some things will be progressively revealed via the ongoing changes that will happen to The Dreaming City over the next few weeks.

There's also a lot of hidden items like Dead Ghosts or crystal fragments all over the place. Apparently some are even hidden in pre-Forsaken destinations. And there is something on the order of 30,000+ words worth of stories that shipped as part of Forsaken's lore. Topics like the history of the Awoken, Prince Uldren's motives, and the purpose of The Dreaming City get a whole lot of detail through these stories that you can uncover piece by piece.

Finally, the Raid and possibly events after the Raid my change our understanding of things, so some of these answers are temporary pending future revelations.

I get that Mara was not physically present, but her... memory... was goading on Uldren. But was it really Mara?

No. The true answer remains to be seen, but my current informed best guess is that Prince Uldren was being manipulated by an Ahamkara named Riven that seems to be trapped in The Dreaming City. But there are several layers there to further untangle there.

What was the thing at the end? Who is Riven?

I'm not completely sure what that thing was. I thought I knew what was coming in that mission, but I had no knowledge of that final boss fight! It seems likely it was some sort of monster acting on behalf of Riven since it was named "Voice of Riven" just as we've seen various Hive that represent Savathun in D2. (I think that if we learned anything from that fight, it's that the Raid might be seriously weird!)

What were Uldren’s crimes against the Awoken that put him in the prison and got Petra so fired up?

This one is in the stories you can piece together by collecting hidden items and completing activities and so on. The basics of it seem to be that Uldren went mad at the loss of his sister and used the Eliksni House of Kings to attack his own people out of rage of Petra working with the Guardians to secure the Reef after Oryx was defeated. (But again, there are multiple layers with regard to Uldren and his actions.)

How is someone supposed to know these answers? I ask this seriously: is there something I’m missing (missed) that was supposed to fill in these gaps? Admittedly, I didn’t rush through the story, and lots of life happens between sessions, preventing my brain from retaining plot points from one story moment to the next.

Go dig around in the Lore section of your Triumphs screen. There may not be a ton unlocked (mine is still a whole lot of "Unknown"s and "??????"s) but there is probably something interesting for you to read. Essentially, Bungie is treating Lore as something to be uncovered and earned in much the same way they are treating Crucible Triumphs or Achievements. We don't get all the Lore at once and some of it we'll probably have to seek out or work for.

I think it should be said, that even though the main story leaves some questions and mystery A) It didn't lie to us. Like where Uldren says he did everything for his sister, he was telling the truth... from his own point of view. B) A lot of the stuff teased by the main story is addressed directly in the lore. This isn't a time where things are teased and then just dropped or forgotten about. At least not so far...

Thanks!

You're asking good questions. For now, rest assured that for many of them there are good, solid, detailed answers. :)