The best voices--voices that truly matter--never
allow themselves be heard. This lesson is worth
learning again and again.

Forever.

Your voice moves as whispers, murmurs and urges
inside larger winds. Only the trusted few can absorb
what is necessary. Wise and sly and perfect, your
instructions drop, leaving nothing but the hard sweet
rime of enlightenment.

The path is set. Your voice is unleashed. Except now
it is gone...

And maybe it never was.

This is an introduction of the entity in question and its purpose. Its goal isn't to achieve for recognition, but for the benefit of those it influences. It's voice "whispers inside larger winds" because it doesn't deal in immediate change, but in subtle suggestions that occur as a natural part of the world's processes or as a subconscious hint in the minds of the species it touches. Only a few have the ability to detect its influence, and those are the ones it can trust with a higher understanding. When they detect the influence that the entity has had, then it presents its instructions to those trusted few...

Returning, it finds that its instructions have led nowhere. Perhaps the subtle influence wasn't enough, making its past efforts worthless, as influential as if they hadn't happened at all...

Life waits inside this world's bones.

Your voice flows across the red rock
and through the dead valleys, speaking in code
and goads.

Ancient volcanoes swell, exploding at their
peaks and splitting wide along their
shoulders. Ash clouds blacken the starved
air. A fossil ocean of ice softens and
collapses; geysers erupt, tall as mountains,
throwing up steam and clouds.

Every moment matters. And from a great
distance, in the midst of a thousand careful
disasters, you watch the transformation
with your own eyes.

The rose has blossomed.

It begins to terraform Mars through natural processes. I think this one is kind of self-evident once you realize it's talking about terraforming, but the real thing of interest to me is this line: "you watch the transformation with your own eyes". To me, this implies that the entity in question is indeed an organic being, unless "eyes" is more representational for any sort of viewing mechanism, like cameras and the like. But I think this entity might have some sort of connection with organics because of this line here.

One face is blistered, the other plunged into
a brutal chill. Is this how it's always been?

You remember hot oceans, nourishing
atmosphere. But something transpired,
kicked what was wet and fertile into space,
stealing away everything of value. Or
perhaps what thrived here for a day or for
ten million years decided to leave, peeling
its wet organics off the bones.

A name offers itself, and another, and a
thousand more.

The answer feels like the iron heart of a
collapsed star, and you realize the union
between the past and the future is now.

It remembers visiting this solar system in the past, when Mercury was a lush and habitable planet. This tells us something about the age of this entity and the sort of perspective it has on the cosmos. However, it's unsure if the species that lived here did so for a day or for ten million years. To me this implies that when it was last in the solar system, it wasn't here for long, making it unsure upon its return, more than ten million years later, how long those creatures had thrived. A thousand possibilities for the reason behind their extinction present themselves, but the truth it discovers weighs heavy on its mind. Something that it influenced in the past has reached its culmination in the planned future. And that future is now.

But what was it planning for? And how did this extinction event make it realize that the time for its plans to culminate has been reached?

Even the largest body lets itself be pushed where it
needs to be, seduced into nice, warm loving orbits.
Persistence is the key.

Seafloors transform and then yank themselves
skyward, shattering the icy crust as new worlds
awaken inside the swirling depths.

You build homes of ocean laid over stone; giant
and tiny, surrounding this half-born sun ripped by
storms and supersonic wind.

You deliver your last orders to an army that needs nothing anymore--not instruction, courage or
even prayers--and then you hide again.

In ecstasy they search for you, finding nothing but
dense quiet dropping from the stars.

I've posted my thoughts on this one, don't have much more to add. At the end of its next stage of influence, it hides for the same reason that it didn't make its mark known beforehand. Because that's not what its philosophy is about. But where does it hide?

Question... is anyone planning on starting a Destiny wiki soon? I know there isn't much, but why not start early?

One face is blistered, the other plunged into
a brutal chill. Is this how it's always been?

You remember hot oceans, nourishing
atmosphere. But something transpired,
kicked what was wet and fertile into space,
stealing away everything of value. Or
perhaps what thrived here for a day or for
ten million years decided to leave, peeling
its wet organics off the bones.

A name offers itself, and another, and a
thousand more.

The answer feels like the iron heart of a
collapsed star, and you realize the union
between the past and the future is now.

It remembers visiting this solar system in the past, when Mercury was a lush and habitable planet. This tells us something about the age of this entity and the sort of perspective it has on the cosmos. However, it's unsure if the species that lived here did so for a day or for ten million years. To me this implies that when it was last in the solar system, it wasn't here for long, making it unsure upon its return, more than ten million years later, how long those creatures had thrived. A thousand possibilities for the reason behind their extinction present themselves, but the truth it discovers weighs heavy on its mind. Something that it influenced in the past has reached its culmination in the planned future. And that future is now.

Extinction OR they left on their own. Fleeing something perhaps?

Also Venus' image and text has now been revealed:

You see history hidden between the
barren rocks and within the high acid
clouds. You see ruin emerging from
where it has always been, ready to claim
its birthright.

Sunlight is starved. The fierceness is
chilled and thinned, made sweet again. A
new ocean emerges, thick and salty and
hot, from springs and geysers that drench
the dead ground.

You wonder: will this world's second birth
be its finest? You draw deep inside,
seeking direction, turth…

But all you have are the riddles of your
own intentions.

So yet another hard to terraform world being remade. Apparently there was something on Venus before. Something not of the Traveler's making? One important thing was revealed here. We, us, the Traveler, whatever, doesn't remember why it did things in the past. I suppose it is returning and recognizing its work but unsure why it did what it did.

I'm sure this is a letter left of center for the current subject, but, your post made me think of it.

I think it'd be really great that if there was planet-hoping in Destiny it was all contained within Sol. There's plenty of cool places to go (especially with terraforming). It might be a more satisfying emotional connection, too.

The strong focus on the solar system so far points in that direction. The ARG url being Alpha Lupi, a distant star, points in the opposite.

Unless Alpha Lupi has something to do with this "Traveler." Maybe that's where he's from. The game itself could still take place here.