Empress Caiatl: Difference between revisions

Unfortunately, Caiatl's decision to brazenly challenge The Nightmare of Ghaul early gave Calus the time he needed to merge his consciousness with the Lunar Pyramid. However, Eris determined that, like a snail coiled in its shell, Calus had not fully slithered out of the Leviathan and taken control of the Pyramid yet. She estimated that if they strike now and perform one last severance ritual, they just might be able to stop Calus from taking control of the Pyramid. With the plan now in motion, the Guardian would return to the Leviathan and harvest the Nightmares necessary to conduct the final ritual.

Once the Guardian finished, they began their final assault against Calus alongside Crow, Caiatl, Zavala and Eris. Caiatl and the others were tasked with setting up their amplifiers while the Guardian would distract Calus's forces. After Caiatl finished setting up her amplifier, she arrived in the throne room with Calus nowhere to be found. As the Guardian made their way towards the throne room, Caiatl heard something mysterious right before her something jammed her comms. Worse of all, Zavala, Crow and Eris faced heavy resistance from Calus's Loyalists, cutting off their communications as well. It was clear the diversion did not fool the former Emperor. The Guardian tracked Caital to the room underneath the throne room, where all of Calus's robotic duplicates were. At the end of the room was a portal that led the Guardian down into the Lunar Pyramid. After leaping through it, the Guardian would meet up with Caiatl in the [[Chantry of the Darkest Hour]] surrounded by the bodies of Loyalists. Caiatl was upset that the others were not with the Guardian, but regardless stayed determined, recognizing that they must face Calus alone. Without wasting any more time, Caiatl turned around and called out her father, demanding to know if Calus saw her in all her glory and insisted that the former Emperor show himself. Both the Guardian and the Empress jumped down into the arena below and prepared for battle. As the Guardian placed down the Nightmare Harvester in the center of the arena, Calus materialized in front of them in his Psionic form. Calus expressed that he did see Caiatl, but he only regarded that he saw only her failure, her doubts and her fears, and stated that Caiatl could have ruled by his side, but instead chose this fate. An intense battle began as the Emperor unleashed an army of Scorn and Loyalists, all of which were led by the fading Nightmares of [[Nightmare of the Fanatic|the Fanatic]], [[Nightmare of Kethiks, Grief Unforgiven|Kethiks]] and [[Nightmare of Dominus Ghaul|Ghaul]]. With each Nightmare slain, the three memories of Uldren, Safiyah and Ghaul were called forth to greatly weaken Calus while the Emperor tried to fight back by unleashing a barrage of psionic projectiles that would be blocked by a shield deployed by Caiatl to protect her and the Guardian. After a long and hard-fought battle, the Guardian slayed the final Nightmare and completed the ritual, severing Calus's connection to the Lunar Pyramid for good. As his psionic form began to disappear, Calus tried to speak with Caiatl one last time but was cut off before he could even start.

Exhausted, Caiatl fell to her knees and removed her combat equipment. The Guardian wanted to help her up, but Caiatl refused their help. Zavala, Crow and Eris all arrived in the room with them, as did the memories of Uldren, Safiyah, and Ghaul. Zavala approached Caital and asked her where Calus was, to which the Empress responded that Calus was dead, that he had given himself over to the Witness, and that the man she once knew as her father was gone. Zavala comforted Caiatl, and together they leaned against each other as the three memories faded away. However, despite succeeding in stopping Calus from taking control of the Lunar Pyramid, Eris did not see this as a victory, as Calus had succeeded in his ultimate goal. Calus had become the Herald of The Witness and the Harbinger Of The Second Collapse.

Caiatl made a brief appearance during the events of [[Season of the Seraph]] where she was called to a meeting with [[Mithrax, Kell of Light|Mithrax]] by [[Mara Sov]] to discuss the threat of Xivu Arath and her pursuit of the [[Warsat]] network. Mara explained that the Hive God planned to use the Warsat network to achieve the same outcome she did to conquer Torobatl. She was waiting for the Guardians to restore [[Rasputin]] so that the Warmind could intentionally eradicate her army of [[Wrathborn]]. The resulting destruction would feed her worm greatly, as well as fueling a powerful ritual that would open a portal over Earth large enough to send her armies through and overwhelm the forces of the [[The Coalition|Coalition]]. At first, Mara suggests that they must cease their efforts to restore the Warmind, but [[Ana Bray]] would arrive at the meeting and voice her objections, stating that Rasputin is more than a weapon but an ally that Humanity needs. Mara then thought of a compromise. She suggested that they aim not for total victory, but settle for a stalemate, thereby, allowing the Guardians to finish restoring the Warmind, but at the same time, also ensuring that Rasputin himself can't use his defences, a decision that everyone in the meeting agreed.

Caiatl would even take part in the [[ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE]] mission. As the Guardian made their way through the [[Seraph Station]], Caiatl would take her fleet and engage Eramis's fleet. However, one of the Ketches was not fooled by the diversion and still attempted to bombard the Guardian from afar. When the Traveler tried to leave Earth as Eramis prepared to fire the Warsats, Caiatl and Valus Forge watched the event unfold on the Empress's flagship.

 

After the Witness's arrival and attack on the Traveler, it would call upon its newest disciple, Emperor Calus once again. The Witness tasked Calus with going to [[Neptune]] to locate and secure [[The Veil]], a powerful paracausal object of Darkness that has a special connection to the Traveler. Knowing the danger that such a threat posed, Caiatl took her Imperial Fleet and pursued her father to Neptune. She arrived at the planet just as the Guardian was on a mission to storm Calus's new flagship, the [[Typhon Imperator]], and destroy the [[Radial Mast]], an artifact Calus intended to use to establish a link between the Veil and the Traveler. However, the Guardian was overwhelmed by Calus's [[Shadow Legion]] and [[Taken]] forces and greatly weakened. Luckily, Caiatl arrived in a [[Thresher]] just in the nick of time and bombarded the arena, creating an opening for the Guardian to escape.

 

After the Guardian managed to escape the Typhon Imperator, Caiatl explained that the Calus they faced was not the same one they originally knew. She states that Calus had become something akin to a "hungry, desperate beast." Ever since his first encounter with the Witness, he had abandoned all honor and reason, sacrificing anyone and anything for his own salvation. Caiatl even says she regrets not killing Calus when she had the chance back during the Midnight Coup, but declared that if Calus wasn't stopped, he would make sure it would be the end for them all.