Seriously, don't read this if you value mystery. I'm not gonna be held responsible if you do.

I've been reading through the Grimoire cards and came across a large collection of cards called the Book of Sorrow. Within it is the history of the Hive. They started as just a few members of one race on a gas giant with continents. They found some kind of advanced ship and were empowered and given immortality by some kind of worm gods and rose up to conquer their planet, then the 52 moons around their planet (the 53 was The Traveler and it fled) then hundreds and thousands of worlds. It was all a very interesting read that fit with what we knew from what little our Ghost told us in Destiny until I got to card XXXI: battle made waves.

Here the creature that eventually became Oryx goes to speak to The Deep, which is almost certainly The Darkness, and the source of the worm gods powers. Oryx says in greeting: "I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves."

THIS IS HUGE.
Huge, because back in Marathon 2 we have:

In primordial space, timeless creatures
made waves. These waves created us and the
others. Waves were the battles, and the
battles were waves.
Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia
settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the
S'pht, servants who began to shape the
deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea,
rivers and forests. They made sisters for
Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise.

When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was
killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the
W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned
them, but they swam on its surface.

That sentence in the Grimoire was not an accident. It is very very likely that The Darkness is in fact a / the W'rkncacnter from Marathon. Making The Traveler Pthia? Seeing as The Traveler is a "dead god?"

To investigate this for yourself, start here.

I always wondered why the old Activision contract allowed for Bungie to remake Marathon in their spare time if Destiny was going good enough. Now we maybe know!

That said, IDK is this is just easter egg level or self referential level, or literally connecting the two universes like MIDA (possibly).

It might just be a fan of Marathon writing in an easter egg.

Like Unicron, it is a singular being that exists across dimensions, giving rise to much of it's power. That would explain why the Vex want it so badly.

Of course you could also be the lowly security guard from Marathon, Unknowingly pulled across dimensions by your Ghost.

There are huge lore drops in here, so many answers to questions we hadn't even thought to ask ;)

The Akahambra are agents of the Darkness, the worm. They tempted the proto hive like the biblical snake. Humanity dodged a bullet with their extinction.

They are also playing a long game, using the hive to exterminate the rest of life so that only they remain. It also explains their relationship with the darkness, why it allows them as minions.

What is still unknown is why the the Darkness engaged humanity and the traveler alone, without waiting for the Hive minions to soften things as they had done before.

Also, the Traveler knew of the hive, of their campaign, and that knowledge could have been imparted to humanity and prompted the creation of the Warminds and the various weapons. If anything, they confirm a benevolent Traveler who created the Ecumne to unify everyone in paradise.

What made humans different from all the races that failed before? How could humans resist that which till this point irresistible?

I don't remember the Ahamkara being linked to the worms other than the Ishtar collective grouping them together. I was reading at 3am though so maybe I missed something.

Some other stuff:
1. Oryx is Luke's Crota's father.
2. Oryx has a brother and sister who helped him conquer many races but have now left him and my even be his enemies.
3. Crota accidentally created the Vex... I think.
4. The Vex created a powerful mind to study and fight Oryx. It didn't end well. For the mind. But it sent the Vex a bunch of data before being captured.
5. We get a new card or two from the Ishtar Collective scientists. They have a device that does odd things and let's them look / move through time. Perhaps the same thing as the FWC device?
6. Rasputin is curious about the Exo Stranger.
7. It's even more looking like Rasputin decided the best way to survive was to attack The Traveler before it could flee.
8. The Cabal are recognizing that Guardians have personal anti attrition devices which the have mistranslated as Dead Persons. They've also noticed the effects of Darkness Zones on Guardian anti attrition capability.
9. Oryx' dreadnought is similar to Crota's netherworld but reshaped and turned inside out so it forces the way into our real world. This lets him keep his netherworld on the move instead of it being anchored in one place like Crota's was... I think.
10. The Last Word has / had a twin called The First Curse. A gun which might have become Thorn. Not direct evidence but it feels right.
11. Dregden Yor gifts Shin Malphur The Last Word after he (Yor) kills Jaren Ward. Basically, he gets Shin to kill him as a way out of his descent into Darkness. The kill is preformed with two shots then one shot of Golden Gun! :)

Probably more cool stuff but that's all I remember at the moment.

Ragashingo,

The link is in the way the dead worm speaks to the proto hive, "reality is the finest flesh", "oh vengeance mine" and so on. These phrases are the same as the akahambra quotes on your various gear.

As to Rasputin's Traveler contingency plan, I think it would be deployed at the outset of the engagement, in case the traveler attempted to flee upon the first indication that the darkness is coming, not as a last bid effort to stave off a tactical retreat.

Think of it like the Battle of Rourke's Drift. The Zulu (darkness) have destroyed the major columns of the British army and various groups are in retreat. The Sol system is the station, with the humans being unable to depart. If the captain (Rasputin) could have convinced the Natal Calvary (Traveler) to stay it would improve his forces chances of survival, but the cavalry knew it could out run the Zulu.

But what if the Captain could stop the horses? Then the Natal would have to stay and fight.

In the mission where you plant patrol beacons on the Dreadnought, Cayde mentions that "Eris started droning on about the... Pathways into Darkness or something?..."

How about: "[long dead, alive again, their bodies grafted to powers they and I do not understand]" That's similar to one of Durandal's descriptions of the Moljnir cyborgs in Marathon isn't it?

Because in my opinion, the links made by Ragashingo are absolutely fantastic. This just made my entire month. Best thing is best. Thanks for posting it dude!

The more I hear, the more I think it might just be references for the hardcore.

When we're done with the TTK story?

Mostly it's Deep Lore that tells about the past and may have big, but not immediate, implications for the future. My guess is you would naturally find all this out slowly as you did the Shattered Past quest after you complete the main The Taken King line. Really, it's less spoiler and more revelation but I prefer to err on the dude of caution when it comes to spoilers. :)

- No text -

I'm leaven' it. :p

I've never really been able to get the parallels out of my head.

Your experiences being the physical manifestations of the Dreaming God's dreams (PiD).
The W'rkncacnter, Yrro, and Pthia.
Rampancy.

I'm glad to see they're pulling it together. Love it.

...who/what Taox is?

I, uh, read everything and am made woozy by the trip down the rabbit-hole.

So thanks for that.

...who/what Taox is?

I, uh, read everything and am made woozy by the trip down the rabbit-hole.

So thanks for that.

Yep, that's a very good question. Especially since I thought it was said that Taxo was of the same race... a race that only lives 10 years. I don't know of a direct parallel to Marathon. Oryx never seemed to doubt they were alive but they also didn't seem to ever interact directly again either... Very interesting!