The Knowledge! So much! So Fast! It’s glorious!

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Friday, June 14, 2013, 20:13 (4190 days ago)
edited by Ragashingo, Friday, June 14, 2013, 20:31

This past week has been a blast. Before I get to that I’d like to do something I meant to do before the start of E3. I want to thank you all for being such a great community. I hopped over from HBO as soon as I could in the hopes of getting in on the ground floor of this new community. And boy did it work. From the initial unease with the new forums, to the “ARG” to the rampant speculation and story telling and fan art, it’s been a blast and I’m glad AND honored to have gotten to go along for the ride with all of you.

Now, onto the meat of this post!

There was so much going on this week I thought it might be neat to make a list of the things I found especially interesting. There’s so much to think about and speculate on now that I feel it’s going to take us a while to get though it all. Things like:

1. I became intrigued with the tall tower like structures lining the wall of Old Russia. The ones that sported collections of container ship sized cargo containers and multiple reentry capable looking shuttlecraft. My first thought was they were just fancy if archaic looking launch vehicles for the shuttles, but the cargo containers made me think they were colony ships of some kind. This was confirmed by… yeah, I didn’t really keep records of who said what, oh well, next time… a Bungie employee in a video interview. He said that they were colony ships. What’s more it was said that the people of Earth were trying to flee the cataclysm that destroyed much of civilization!

Really!?! This alone brings so many story points forward!

- Was the fall of Earth something that happened slow enough that the various nations could build such ships to evacuate their people?

- Was Earth the first target of whatever wiped out much of humanity?

- Was it thought that the other planets in our system were safe, or at least thought to not be under attack at the moment and that anywhere was safer than Earth?

- Did Earth perhaps fall first leaving the other Human controlled planets cut off?

- Did the other human colonies even get attacked by whatever hit the Earth? According to Bungie.net the Fallen boast that they control all of Earth’s old colonies. Maybe they waged war and defeated groups of Humans stranded away from a destroyed Earth?

- Might there be other groups of Humans out there right now? On The Reef perhaps?

- As far as we know Earth is the only planet with a giant alien… thing… hovering above it. A damaged alien thing. Perhaps The Traveler is what attacked the Earth and its damage was sustained in the battle with the other Human colonies?

2. The Traveler remains as mysterious as ever, but a few new pieces have fallen into place.

- In the gameplay demo we see that sizable Fallen ships are capable of doing some sort of teleportation or “hyperspace” (I don’t believe the exact name was ever mentioned) jump into Earth’s atmosphere. The City’s walls would be useless against such attacks so it seems safe to assume that part of The Traveler’s protection includes something that prevents (enemy?) “hyperspace” jumps near The City and perhaps something that makes plain old flying over to The City impossible as well. Bungie.net does mention The Traveler’s protective shield...

- It was mentioned in at least one video interview that at least some Guardians are picked or chosen by The Traveler. Is every Guardian connected to The Traveler? If not are the ones that are more important or legitimate than the ones that aren’t? Are we allowed to play as ones that are not picked?

3. The City might be a more interesting place and in a more interesting position that I thought. In the cutscenes following the gameplay demo one of the characters mentions that war might be coming and that The City needs to go on the offensive. On Bungie.net it notes that The City has fought countless wars to keep peace.

- Initially I thought that The City would be desperate, under constant siege, but now it seems that thanks to The Traveler’s protections that The City is in something resembling a stable arrangement with the rest of the solar system.

- Talk of another war coming, and of The City going on the offensive make me think that while mankind does have its back against the wall it is not out of the fight, and it may even be considered a power if not a major power in the fight for the solar system. Within The Traveler’s area of influence we may in fact have the one unassailable position in the entire solar system! And given what we’ve seen of Humanity’s technologies (dropships, all manner of powerful guns and space magic, inter-system capable personal ships) it may be possible that Humanity has the power to strike out against its enemies with enough force to do some real damage.

- If mankind is a major player then why aren’t we already taking back our planets? Maybe striking out from a single base, protected as it may be is not a good idea? Maybe we are a power, but only a power among several and not strong enough to fight the multiple enemies we would need to in order to reclaim our system?

- We also learned through cutscene that The City is attempting to expand its influence beyond its walls and that some of humanity (or at least one lone blue Awoken) choses not to live in safety beneath The Traveler. What politics might come from powers on Earth resisting The City’s advances? What is there for The City to gain beyond its walls? Is The City even the good or the goodest of the good guys on Earth?

4. We got to see our first glimpse of Ghosts. So far we know that they can light your way, that they can comment on your surroundings, and that they can perform actions, such as repairing a facility’s systems, that relate to the mission you are on. It was also said in one of the interviews that they could be upgraded like many other things in Destiny, and since that answer was given in response to a question about combat it seems likely that Ghosts can also help you fight.

- But what are Ghosts? We know that every Traveler gets one but why? Who makes them? Are the related to The Traveler? Did I only ask that question because sometimes Ghosts appear as round balls of light? Is similar geometrics a good basis of comparision? Why am I asking so many questions in a row? Won't somebody help me? Why can't I stop? Ahhhhhhhhhhg!?

- How does the Ghost know its way around a facility in the wall of Old Russia? Have others mapped the area? Is the Ghost special somehow with future seeing abilities like the disembodied head back in Myth? Might there be a conspiracy about which areas have and have not been mapped and explored?

- I for one think that Ghosts are another example of AI in the Destiny universe, the first being the Exo and the second being the war intelligences on Mars. I also think that Ghosts provide an in-universe explanation for why you can die in Destiny but are suspended in a glowy ball of light instead of… being simply dead. Perhaps Ghosts can maintain you pattern or some such thing until you revive yourself (at some cost) or a fellow Guardian revives you?

Well, that’s all the speculation I’ve got for now. Perhaps I’ll think of more later. Anyway, I’d love to hear yous guys thoughts and ideas on the story stuff we’ve seen over the last week!