One again, I’m left wishing Destiny was crafted in a way so that literally any of that meant anything to me. It all sounds fascinating, but I shouldn’t have pretend like I’m researching a PhD thesis to keep up.

I took the SPOILER tags off, as there is no "turn off" function in preview. I have tagged my post accordingly.

Yes, PFHOR was hilarious. It's an acronym, not an actual reference to the Marathon aliens. But still. We know.

On the bigger details... spoilered as this might play heavily into the main story:

I will be very very surprised if this does not at least play heavily into the raid at least. I now have expectations in possibility of what shall be encountered, though I don't expect it will give much of an edge. In fact, if there is story... and I currently presume there shall be, I think having read this text will allow me to appreciate it more.

The collectors book is logs of THE Clovis Bray, Father of Anton Bray, Grandfather of Wilhelmina (Willa) and Elisabeth (Elise) Bray. He picked up signals from the Darkness at the research facilities on the Moon (see the Lost Sectors on the Moon, and the collectors book that came with Shadowkeep...) and believes something he calls "Clarity" is directing him to Europa.

There is alot of talk about the K1 artifact in this as well, AKA "The Anomaly" we see in the center of the PvP map of said name. As for the name "Clarity"? For a man who seems such an ugly perfectionist, so narrow minded in his brilliant outlook, it's interesting his experiences would have him conclude the name "Clarity" for the phenomena. So many others would call it a Nightmare.

On Europa he finds strange life forms and what is almost certainly buried Darkness, perhaps a Pyramid like on the Moon. Clovis Bray is dying, has been for a long time, and has been using all sorts of advanced techniques to keep himself alive. His goal on Europa is to gain immortality. Or, as he puts it, he wants "a chance to pass beyond the infinite, and escape the tyranny of causal closure." (Yet another Destiny and Bungie figure trying to escape the end of the universe!)

Before it was revealed in the story, I used Asher as a voice. The speech patterns line up so well.

He begins a major project to design a perfect Exo for himself. A project he eventually refers to as the Deep Stone Crypt. One that doesn't suffer from needing to be wiped and rebooted. His main method of achieving this goal is to combine Vex mindfluid with the power of the Darkness to use as a truly random seed for the overly orderly/mechanical Exo brain hardware. During all this, he convinces Elise to join him as she is dying from a strange disease that all the tech and power of the Golden Age cannot stop. The ultimate plan is to move himself and her to these perfect Exos once the project is ready.

"The Bray Curse" he calls it. Basically insomnia with added side effects. Though it seems to me it's very likely that this "curse" is of his own making out of his genetic manipulation attempts in the search for perfection. In all things. Children and grandchildren alike.

The book ends (with pages seemingly torn out!) as Clovis Bray nears completion of his perfect Exos. He made and released several prototypes (almost certainly all the Exos we know about today) but they all had flaws. Even his best exo suffered a horrible psychotic mind crash... and that's all we know.

A right hellish fate, might I add. His casual view of the data, and a not a person whom was experiencing untold suffering, was quite telling. Clovis might not want to die, but parts of him are clearly already dead. Then again, it seems like the only thing that's still original and not a copy would be his brain, so I suppose that even technically such would be true.

During the course of all his preparation and research, Clovis Bray, Elise Bray, and Maya Sundaresh at one point captured a Vex and had it build a Vex gate on Europa. Through that gate they found one of the most amazing sci-fi mega structures I've ever heard of. Apparently the Vex were present in the very early days (eons?) of our universe and needed a way to make heavier elements beyond hydrogen. Instead of waiting for stars to eventually go supernova and spread heavy elements across the universe, they constructed numerous massive structures above a supergiant star. These structures, which ran for millions of years, used the star to fuse together hydrogen into useful heavier elements, then extracted those elements and replaced them with more hydrogen. They essentially turned a star into a forge and prevented it from collapsing into a supernova but constantly refueling it! All to get the materials they needed for other massively huge projects at a time when such materials did not really exist anywhere in the universe!

This was cool. Of all the things I hope to see in game... it's this. Full stop. This portion has alot of good information about the vex, including how the Vex potentially interpret the world and the particular quirks of "Vex Milk".

Need to read it again, not sure I understood it all on my first read through of this section. (I was multitasking and raiding on Leviathan as well. The down time only lasts so long.)

In the end, Clovis Bray's fate is unknown, as are Maya's and Elise's, but there was nothing to suggest that he or they failed in their reach for immortality. That we have the Exo Stranger and Maya Sundaresh still around (Maya keeps coming up in lore, the Exo Stranger, who I've had to concede is Elsie, is obviously back) points to at least some success. Interestingly, time travel is never really touched on, and past lore seems to show the Exo Stranger is capable of some form of time travel.

More and more it seems to me that time travel may, possibly, maybe be less the mechanic for what we see, and more the "alternate quantum realty" take AKA comic book story mechanics. Infinite viewable, intractable alternate choices, without the messy logical mechanics of time travel.

Than again... I've not yet read the lore on Saint-14. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So... strong ties back to previous lore, some questions that have existed from since before Destiny finally answered, and plenty of just plain awesome sci-fi writing throughout. Do read the photos of the book linked by INSANEdrive if you aren't buying the collectors edition. It is very, very good.

No interpretations about the dreams/visions? There were two of them.

- No text -

I settled for the Digital Deluxe, but Bungie didn't even give me my 'instant' rewards. Oh well. ;-(

Did you see this tweet?

We’re investigating an issue where Xbox players may not be able to acquire their Beyond Light pre-order items.

Players should ensure that they have their pre-order items installed by Managing their game and then visit Master Rahool in the Tower to claim them.

— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) June 10, 2020