Destiny 2: The Final Shape is only five days away, and the hype is ramping up. Fan discussions are running wild, with people sharing their hopes and dreams, edits, and memes. And whilst browsing through these various fan congregating grounds, I happened upon a post that unlocked a memory long forgotten, and gave me a thought that I've nary been able to shake since...
We Are Going To Die
That's right Guardians, your time is up. Apologies for the attention grabbing header aside, there is plenty of reason to believe that The Final Shape will genuinely be the end of all of our Guardians. And it all starts way back in December of 2019, with the Season of Dawn. So, let's do a quick recap of that season to set this all up.
The Season of Dawn began with Osiris reaching out to you to request aid in defending a creation of his, The Sundial, as some Cabal Scions were attempting to take control of it to change the outcome of The Red War in their favour. The Sundial (which to horribly oversimplify it is effectively a fancy time machine) had become corrupted by the Psion's in their attempts to harness it, and in doing so accidentally gave you the opportunity to go back through time and save the legendary Titan, Saint-14.
I won't go into too much detail on how that was managed, as it's all very timey-wimey and confusing (it was also four years ago), but basically, you went back to key moments in the life of Saint-14 to assist him through them, and in doing so become his source of inspiration. You gave him the shotgun you collected from his own burial site, 'Perfect Paradox' (not just a clever name) which then in turn allowed you to save him from the Infinite Forest far into the future.
What matters here is Saint-14 himself. Towards the end of the Season of Dawn, after successfully rescuing Saint-14 and putting everything back the way it should be (for the most part), Osiris reached out to you yet again to invite you to explore 'The Corridors of Time', a maze like pocket realm that can be accessed through the Sundial. And so, Guardians explored, and it led to a period of incredible community collaboration as everyone banded together in an attempt to navigate the labyrinth before them. And after only six days, the final route was uncovered and the end of the maze was found. And much to everyone's surprise, what lay at the end wasn't some new big bad guy, it was a grave. Your grave.
Quiet as the Grave
Approaching the grave and 'paying respects' led to my single favourite moment in Destiny history, as you got to listen to Saint-14 give his eulogy at your burial. His speech would even change depending on what you had or hadn't completed, and as a Destiny 1 veteran who had seen and done it all up to that point, I got the whole shebang, which felt incredibly rewarding.
"Thank you for coming. We've gathered here today to celebrate the life of my mentor. My inspiration. They called them Crota's End. The Hivebane. Kingslayer. The Young Wolf. Hero of the Red War."
The speech continued, as he listed the various accolades you had collected throughout your many, many battles. Where it gets interesting though, is when he began expressing just how it was you died exactly.
"And they died doing what they do best. Defending the Last City of humanity."
'Defending the Last City' sounds an awful lot like exactly what we're doing right this very moment. Now yes, of course we've always been defending the Last City, but typically we've done so by going on the offensive. But now with the introduction of the Into The Light update in April, we're very much on the backfoot. The armies of the Darkness are at our doorstep, and we've been doing our very best to keep them back. It's not even about winning any more, as we know we can't hold the line forever; it's just about buying Queen Mara Sov and Osiris enough time to open passage to the Traveler.
To make things even more morose, completing a weapon quest in Into The Light gives you an extra objective upon completion. It's not going out to cause carnage with whatever new toy you've earned; it's not taking it to some magic forge on Mars to make it better, no. Each extra objective has you finding one of your allies, and saying goodbye.
Cogito, Ergo Sum
So with all that misery behind us, let's go back to that grave of ours. In that same eulogy, Saint-14 says the following.
"I've marked this grave with one of their favourite weapons, shattered in that final confrontation. It used to be mine."
Closer inspection of the grave revealed that mark to be a sword, one we have yet to see as an obtainable weapon in 10 years of Destiny history. And now, thanks to an (accidental) leak from MoreConsole, we know that in The Final Shape there will be a brand new exotic sword, and that it will be called 'Ergo Sum'. Bungie have been pretty forthcoming with Exotics so far, such as the new sniper 'Still Hunt' and the glorious return of the first weapon any of us ever received with the now exotic Khvostov, but not this one. And to make matters even more interesting, it's being actively censored. The original source of the leak which has since been spread all over social media has now been edited to entirely pixelate the icon, name, and any extra information we might've been able to glean. However, thanks to quick acting from reddit user u/Dark_Infernox, we have a handy capture.
The similarities between the two are striking to say the least, in addition the name: 'Ergo Sum' ('I am'). 'I' as in the 1st person singular pronoun; 'am' as in... exist.
And then, as if that wasn't all good enough, whilst collecting material for this very article (specifically that very handsome shot of Saint-14), I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Right next to Saint-14 is a collection of weapons, including a stand holding blades... and wouldn't you know it, they have an awfully familiar shape.
So, we have our own grave marked with a mysterious sword, fitting phrases straight from our own eulogy, and the knowledge of a new exotic sword coming our way that is being actively censored wherever possible. With all that in mind, I think it's safe to say... We are toast. But, to go back to that eulogy one final time...
"All who find what we've left here - please leave it be. Unless... Unless you're still out there somewhere. You've performed miracles before. In which case, take it. And come back to us. And we'll kill what killed you. Or die trying."
If you're looking for some more Destiny 2 content from us at Pro Game Guides, check out our piece on When the Destiny 2 servers go down in preparation for The Final Shape.
