Speculation Saturday #4: The City (Destiny)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Sunday, September 29, 2013, 12:14 (4071 days ago) @ Ragashingo

- After the Fall what’s left of Humanity somehow recognizes the safe zone established by The Traveler and builds a large walled city there. But did we have to build each building and road post Fall, or was there an existing city already there for us to start with? Based on the watermarked maps in the background of even the oldest Destiny content we suspect that The Traveler settled over the city of Puerto Princesa. Perhaps that island city was never touched during the Fall and, due to its intact nature, became the obvious location to being our rebuilding efforts?

I just want to get a general idea where the city is, or at least whether or not it's an extended Puerto Princesa.

- The Tower is a place we can go to repair and rearm. It appears to have everything from launch bays for our personal spaceships to observation decks overlooking The City. Do Guardians live there too? What about non-guardians? Is the tower some sort of off limits military building, or does it perhaps have a gift shot and daily tours?

I hope it has some stuff like that, that would make it, well, less boring. Also I still want to stay in first-person view there. >_>

- How was The City built? Where do we get the materials to sustain it? Presumably Earth is no longer the hugely interconnected manufacturing marketplace that it is today. The City can’t just order in new parts from someplace an ocean away. I wonder if that big sphere right above it with pieces large and small seemingly falling away has anything to do with this? Or, stated more clearly: Is Humanity perhaps cannibalizing The Traveler to build The City and or fuel Humanity’s war effort?

You're right about not getting things from an ocean away, but what about the land around them, and what about spans of water that aren't a whole ocean? If The City is an extended Puerto Princesa there's a lot they could get to quickly even in a pretty bare-bones boat.
As for looking around on the land, or even going anywhere, at least two pieces of concept art (which you used in your post) show lines extending from The City that could be roads.

- If The City actually is safe, why are we sending out fire teams of Guardians instead of hunkering down and building up an actual army? Even if it is just a small one comprised of large groups of Guardians, wouldn’t that get more accomplished than sending out forces only powerful enough to complete what would seem to be fairly limited tasks? Perhaps there is a reason The City can’t deploy armies? Maybe small ships can slip in and out past The City’s enemies, but bigger groups, or larger warships would get shot down?

I figured that the rough number of people playing for most of the game's lifetime would be canon as far as how many Guardians there are, which would qualify as an army, but they could work it some other way. Either way a lot of what we do may be scouting missions (or at least start that way).

- I touched on this a bit last week with the Fallen, but given that Humanity has an actual city, and not just a hunkered down military base, isn’t it destined to win by attrition? If each one of our Guardians can kill just one enemy, and we can keep producing Guardians, don’t we eventually win in the long term?

that is largely answered by this:

- What is the population of The City like? There must be some limit to its ability to grow outward. Has it reached that limit yet, and if so is overcrowding becoming a concern?

regardless of how much room there is and whether it's crowded, The City only has so much room, and we're protected there but not elsewhere; plus we're outnumbered and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out one or more of the species that want us dead have their own city or cities

- What is The City’s end goal? Peace? Expansion? The complete annihilation of all it enemies? Just because it’s where we are going to originate from doesn’t mean its leaders have good or honest motivations. Once again I come back to the idea that Humanity, and The City in particular, has done something, or is hiding something that has caused all these aliens to want to destroy us.

Bungie already did that to varying degrees at least twice, I don't think they'll do that again this time; I think there at least won't be any coordinated bad stuff and cover-up

- It seems very likely that The City can manufacture weapons and vehicles for its war effort, but is that all The City is? Is there entertainment? Are there social scenes? Restaurants? Malls? Parks? Heck, is there even money? Or could it be one large population operating under marshal law with an “economy” fueled by work rations and strictly controlled time and material allowances?

I hope so, it'll help it be interesting. Oh, I said that above. well... >_>