Shortly after the three sisters escaped their overthrown kingdom, but long before they found something incredible in a far away maelstrom, Aurash suggested that each of them take an oath in response to what had happened to them. They each, in turn, stabbed themselves through a fleshy part of their left hands with their knifes and carved a short, blood-soaked line down the sides of the mast of Aurash’s ship as they swore their oaths. The damage to their hands would not be debilitating or permanent, but it would be painful and it would leave a lasting reminder in the form of a scar.

Xi Ro, the up and coming warrior who was the youngest of the three royal sisters, swore to take back the Osmium Court and kill their former instructor Taxo who betrayed them and their kingdom.

Sathona, the clever thinker, pledged to become a mother and breed her spawn on the corpse of the king of the Helium Drinker mercenaries who Taxo had conspired with.

And Aurash, the sailor and explorer and who was oldest of the sisters… hesitated. It wasn’t until her sisters provided her their help that she was was able to stab her hand and swear her oath. But why? After all, it was Aurash who told her sisters they should all take oaths in the first place. And they hadn’t needed her help. It seems unlikely that Aurash feared the physical pain of making the oath, so what then? Let’s read her oath together and find out:

I am Aurash, first daughter of the dead king. I will chase my father’s last screamed warning. I will know what changed the motion of our moons. If the end of the world is coming, I will understand why.

On my center eye I swear it. I will understand.

There are two things here:

• While Xi Ro and Sathona’s oaths are both centered on revenge, Aurash’s is not. I think, unlike her sisters, she isn't one to turn so quickly to violence.
  
• Though perhaps not as prone to violence as her two sisters, Aurash also seems far more concerned with something other than revenge. A large part of her oath talks about their father’s last warning which was about the motions of Fundament’s moons. A warning that Aurash claims is somehow linked to the end of the world?!

What is this? What is going on?

It turns out that the Osmium King might not have been as mad and as senile as he had seemed. Turns out, there was something he discovered and shared with his oldest daughter shortly before his death… something that would ultimately spur Aurash and her brave exiled sisters to become three of the worst monsters the galaxy had ever seen!

Sources:
III: The Oath

Previous: 2: The Brave Exiled Sisters
Next: 4: Familiar Ideas

This got me thinking, though.

How seriously do we take the grimoire? And I mean, can we take it all as absolute truth? Much of the grimoire presents stories almost as myths or legends, and The Book of Sorrow in particular reads almost like a sort of bible. Is this the true story of Oryx, or are these a set of stories presented by Oryx as proof of his Godhood?

I hope you keep these up! The Book of Sorrow is the only bit of the grimoire I really engaged with, so I'm eager to see you present things I don't know about. One day, I'll get around to reading it all . . .

This got me thinking, though.

How seriously do we take the grimoire? And I mean, can we take it all as absolute truth? Much of the grimoire presents stories almost as myths or legends, and The Book of Sorrow in particular reads almost like a sort of bible. Is this the true story of Oryx, or are these a set of stories presented by Oryx as proof of his Godhood?

That's a very interesting question. Especially with regard to the Books of Sorrow! Later down the line when Oryx is boasting about something or other there are notes from one of his sisters that the things he has written down are lies. It'll be fun to a. find that card again and b. try and interpret what the conflicting notes mean!

In general though, I think the Grimoire has been fairly consistent and non-contradictory. There may be a few things here or there that don't add up or are obvious distortions of the truth, but most of the stories seem like they are to be trusted.

I hope you keep these up! The Book of Sorrow is the only bit of the grimoire I really engaged with, so I'm eager to see you present things I don't know about. One day, I'll get around to reading it all . . .

Oh absolutely! Things are moving a little slow right now, but soon we'll be jumping through the Books of Sorrow several cards at a time. And then it's own to all sorts of other great stories. A scattering of stories from the Golden age will be next and that will include the cool story of the Ishtar Collective scientists trapped in a couple hundred Vex simulations. Those will be followed pretty quickly by the stories of the Iron Lords. Then it'll be on to the City Age which, of course, has many great stories!

This will, of course and by design, take quite a while. The point is to pace it out, make it easy to read one step at a time. But we'll get there one Tuesday and one Friday at a time.

Thanks for the feedback! :)

How seriously do we take the grimoire? And I mean, can we take it all as absolute truth? Much of the grimoire presents stories almost as myths or legends, and The Book of Sorrow in particular reads almost like a sort of bible.

It does, but by the end of it, Oryx is surprised when reminded of what he once was. Either

A) it IS a bible and such surprise happens before said bible was written

or

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

- No text -

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny, it just allows the author to create cool artistic short stories rather than presenting it as a straight forward encyclopedia. I sort of just take everything there as "the truth," but I thought it was an interesting point of discussion to raise and something to think about it.

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny, it just allows the author to create cool artistic short stories rather than presenting it as a straight forward encyclopedia. I sort of just take everything there as "the truth," but I thought it was an interesting point of discussion to raise and something to think about it.

Maybe he can enlighten us in regards to how the grimoire was viewed as it was being created. Does it have a 'reliable narrator'?

Don't forget about this article: Clarkesworld

Some really interesting discussion about the creation of Destiny's lore, from some really great writers.

Don't forget about this article: Clarkesworld

Some really interesting discussion about the creation of Destiny's lore, from some really great writers.

I remember looking at that article, but sadly its content was purged from my memory banks. :( :) I'll have to skim it again to refresh my memory.

I think the whole point of Sathonia's "This book is full of lies" graffiti is an in universe get out of jail free card. Any time Bungie wants to change the lore, they just have to say "Oh, Oryx was lying on that part of the book. He's just manipulating you."

Most of the writing does not directly deal with the subjects at hand. Almost all of it is quotes or narration from an in game character, and as such can be used, expanded or abandoned at will.

That being said, we have no other entries that contradict anything in the book of sorrows, or the SIVA logs, so for the most part there are no cannon conflicts.

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny, it just allows the author to create cool artistic short stories rather than presenting it as a straight forward encyclopedia. I sort of just take everything there as "the truth," but I thought it was an interesting point of discussion to raise and something to think about it.

I think this is probably the way to go. "Truth" is such a subjective thing, especially with lore, myth, and legend. I get the feeling the Grimoire are stories from Long Ago sifted through the sands of time; and like many collections of old stories we have in the real world, it's a bit haphazard on the whole "is it true" question.

I mean, who cares if Icarus was a crap pilot? Not the point.

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny

Does it? If it did, there wouldn't be parts that are redacted. Someone in universe is censoring them and only letting us see what they want us to see.

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny, it just allows the author to create cool artistic short stories rather than presenting it as a straight forward encyclopedia. I sort of just take everything there as "the truth," but I thought it was an interesting point of discussion to raise and something to think about it.

Maybe he can enlighten us in regards to how the grimoire was viewed as it was being created. Does it have a 'reliable narrator'?

The fact that there are redactions in the grimoire necessarily mean that it is not a 'reliable narrator'.

so for the most part there are no cannon conflicts.

This will change the next time they modify primary behavior.

I'm not sure that censoring some parts makes the remaining text untrue.

B) how the Book of Sorrows exists in-canon wasn't really thought out, so it can be assumed to be absolute truth in its conception

That's what I suspect. It's sort of how I view the grimoire in general. It presents the true lore of Destiny, it just allows the author to create cool artistic short stories rather than presenting it as a straight forward encyclopedia. I sort of just take everything there as "the truth," but I thought it was an interesting point of discussion to raise and something to think about it.

Maybe he can enlighten us in regards to how the grimoire was viewed as it was being created. Does it have a 'reliable narrator'?

The fact that there are redactions in the grimoire necessarily mean that it is not a 'reliable narrator'.

The Books of Sorrow are the text of an in-universe work. I believe there's an additional layer of authorship between the text and player because aren't they translated by Eris?

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/552jel/an_interesting_book_showed_up_in_my_mailbox/

GB have any opinions on this? Seems like a fan fake? People have been calling him out on many details - spelling errors, lack of postmark, envelope looks new, etc.
User's public social media shows him friends with a gal with the last name Tsai. Fairly common name but, could she be related to Bungie's James Tsai?