Servitors and Ether (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, October 27, 2020, 13:57 (1486 days ago) @ Robot Chickens
edited by Ragashingo, Tuesday, October 27, 2020, 14:04

That Fallen captain said the line like "break away from our chains" then she punched that serviter into bits. Why she do that? Do Serviters control or something? or is she just crazy and decided to kill the closest thing to her?

Don't the servitors provide ether and are a technology that emerged during the time of the Traveler's presence in Eliksni culture? Thus, they are a symbol of dependence.

Correct.

Servitors are living relics of the once-mighty Fallen civilization. Packed with ultra-sophisticated machinery, they process matter and energy into the Ether that the Fallen depend on for life. In battle they support the Fallen with defensive systems and their own powerful energy weapons. Outside, they anchor Fallen comms and provide vital technological acumen.

If you track the Fallen from their arrival in the Sol system all the way to Eramis on Europa, one of the primary things the Fallen have been after is controlling Servitors, rebuilding Servitors, or finding alternatives to Servitors. Think all the way back to Destiny's original Strike, The Devil's Lair:

The Fallen will continue to claw at the walls of our City, unless we strike them down. Beneath the ruins of the Cosmodrome, in the shadow of an old colony ship, we’ve located the House of Devils’ Lair – and the High Servitor feeding them their strength. We must destroy this machine god…and send their souls screaming back to hell. -Commander Zavala

"Feeding them their strength" was literal. Even in that Strike, remember how the Servitor boss was connected to a few Fallen around it for a few seconds before the final battle began?

During the Reef Wars, where the Fallen fought against the Awoken and each other, one of the primary objectives of each Fallen House was to capture the other Houses' Servitors.

Deeper into Destiny 1, the House of Wolves were struggling to rebuild their Prime Servitor:

Kit-bashed using parts and pieces of lesser Servitors, Kaliks Reborn is fueled by servants so loyal to the rule of the long-lost Kaliks Prime that they would sacrifice their own ether to the last fume.

Kaliks Reborn is seen by these devout prisoners as the resurrection of their Prime. With a Kaliks to serve, the Fallen may rally, the Wolves may gain new strength. Or worse, a new House may rise—a House blinded by faith and hungry to be seen as equal

As we got into Rise of Iron, Aksis, the leader of the Devil Splicers, used SIVA as the biggest rallying cry to gather his followers. He would give gifts of SIVA in exchange for loyalty in order to reward and control his forces. In fact, look at his description:

Aksis is the fruit of the Devil Splicers’ labor. A former Archon Priest, Aksis has submerged himself in SIVA’s apotheosis and emerged as Archon Prime. All that he was is gone: his dreams. His hopes. Replaced by agency. He has shed his gods and his Ether like skin, and in his uplifted state, waits in his Perfection Complex for offerings of SIVA from all Fallen.

Remember how Devil Splicer Fallen would release those tracking SIVA blobs when headshot instead of a burst of Ether? They were literally running on/living on SIVA instead of Ether at that point.

Into Destiny 2 Forsaken, we get the Scorn. They are Fallen who have been killed and then been brought back to life with the Dark Ether by Fikrul, their leader. Dark Ether was, again, a substitute for the regular Ether that Servitors made. During the Forsaken campaign, we saw the Scorn killing numerous Servitors as both a way to weaken the remaining Fallen houses and because they simply did not need the Servitors anymore. (Dark Ether came about from a Wish Prince Uldren made to the Ahamkara Riven while he grieved over a dying Fikrul... Our Guardians killed Fikrul multiple times but he never stayed dead because of Dark Ether.)

Now, in Beyond Light, we once again see a Fallen leader destroying a Servitor and promising to supplant it with a new power. See how all the Fallen took a frightened step after their Servitor was destroyed? That wasn't just being in awe of the new Stasis power... that Servitor was their food factory, basically!