Destiny 2: Lightfall is now two weeks away, Bungie just dropped a megaton of a cutscene setting up the expansion, and I am hootin' and hollerin'. If you haven't played today's Season of the Seraph mission and watched the cinematic for yourself, consider yourself warned that it's about to get spoiler-y in here.
The big finale takes us back to the satellite we've explored throughout this season's missions to give Rasputin his final sendoff in order to stop Eramis, the big bad of Beyond Light, from using the Warmind's Warsats to attack the Traveler. Before we get into the lore stuff, I want to point out that the Power-capped mission feels great to play, which bodes well for Bungie's plans to cap Power in more activities as it works towards a Power overhaul in The Final Shape.
Anyway, it's now clearer than ever that Eramis was working under orders from the Witness, the Darkness avatar who stole the show in The Witch Queen and will ultimately besiege us in Lightfall, and that's merely a drop in this bucket of lore bombs.
For starters, the Traveler has up and left Earth. It's not entirely gone, and we were able to save it from Warsat destruction, but it's out of the Tower and well into our planet's orbit. That's the good news; the bad news is that we don't know whether the Traveler actually intended to leave us and simply changed its mind after seeing the Witness roll up with a bunch of pyramid ships. Whatever the case, the Vanguard are understandably devastated by the Traveler's departure, and the presence of the Eliksni, once abandoned by the Traveler themselves and dubbed Fallen, has only heightened the tension in the air. The question seems to be: will we fall next?
The other axe falls when we hear the last words of Rasputin, who's been decommissioned by a regretful Ana Bray. "The Neptunian city in Osiris's visions is real," he says. "I do not know its exact location, but it is home to 'the Veil,' an object of immense paracausal power. One that is linked to the Traveler." Rasputin informs us of the Veil hoping to "prevent the second Collapse" at the hands of the Darkness forces on our doorstep, and there's some fascinating but unconfirmed history here.
Lore scholars and leak followers may remember the Veil being described as a race of "astrodemons" said to be part of a once-planned Destiny 3, which probably would've launched around this time if Bungie hadn't decided to stick to Destiny 2 after leaving Activision. Rasputin's taken it upon himself to debunk some leaks this time, seemingly confirming that the Veil is actually some aspect of the Traveler, and it's presumably tied to Lightfall's main destination, the Neptunian city of Neomuna.
The same leak also offered a description of a so-called Veil enemy type that's curiously close to the Tormentors coming in Lightfall: "The Veil, being the true servants of the darkness, are on an equal power level to guardians, if not stronger." It's possible this leak is entirely bogus, but it's a curious coincidence for the Witness's Tormentors to appear alongside mention of the Veil and an antagonist representing Darkness incarnate.
But enough speculation. To get back to the facts of today: the Traveler has left the Tower, the Witness is right outside with an army of pyramid ships, Rasputin is gone, and we're going to Neptune in search of a miracle. Now we're talking, Bungie. Onward to Lightfall.
As it happens, Bungie just lifted the veil on Year 6 of Destiny 2.
