Veiled Tithes Suit

Veiled Tithes Suit
Specifications
Name:	Veiled Tithes Suit
Rarity:	Legendary
Availability
Loot drop?:	No

Veiled Tithes Suit is a Legendary Armor introduced in Season of the Witch.

Veiled Tithes Helm/Hood/Mask

"Responsibility, taken in secret, proudly upheld."

— Helm Description

"Rational and ritual in gnashing dissonance."

— Hood Description

"Toiling in the dead of night."

— Mask Description

Eris had whittled the Hive Knight's denuded femur into a shaft and driven it deep with osmium nails. She'd wrapped it in velvet string, attached her sigil to it. Now it chimed as she turned it in her hands.

"Yeah, make it pretty," Immaru said, rolling his eye. "That'll help. Real useful."

"I am binding the staff with my power," she said archly. "What 'use' have you been?"

"I told you what to do!"

"I gathered the materials. I crafted the staff. I infused it with Light and soulfire. Do not presume your ideas were essential to this process."

"You think you're such an expert in Hive magic," Immaru scoffed, "but you know what? You're just doing parlor tricks. Without me, that staff would be nothin' more than a fancy piece of bone."

Eris gripped the staff and held it out to test its heft. It was unbalanced. She returned it to the worktable.

"Do not make yourself intolerable."

Immaru moved so he could look Eris in the face. She raised her eyes, staring him down. He came close; she did not step back.

"Or what? You might scare everyone else, but you don't scare me. There's nothin' you can do except put up with me."

Eris returned to her work, raising a hand and pushing him out of the way. He huffed, watching her as she resumed sharpening the points of the staff's base.

"With this, the Guardian may devise rituals of their own. It will empower their Light and channel the Hive's vile power."

"You're welcome," Immaru said smugly.

Eris ignored him and examined the staff she had crafted. It represented hours spent sliding a blade's edge over layers of dead, porous Hive chitin, carving it with spells and imbuing it with magic. At its head was soulfire ichor, encased in vitreous Light. A gleaming vessel.

"One last reagent."

She turned back to her worktable. The worm squirmed and squealed under her knife.

Veiled Tithes Gauntlets/Gloves/Grips

"Blades swung, lessons learned."

— Gauntlets Description

"Sharp in word and deed."

— Gloves Description

"Taking the sword in hand."

— Grips Description

BEHOLD, MY BROOD HOW YOUR ENEMIES LAY ROTTING IN THE FIELD!

THE CHROMA-ADMIRAL RAFRIT ENGULFED BY WAVES OF DEATH, DRAGGED BACK INTO THE ATMOSPHERE BY A MILLION HIVE CORPSES. THE AMMONITES KEENING BELOW AS THEIR WARRIOR OF THE SKY FELL INTO THE DEEP.

AND THERE, IN CONCERT WITH YOUR GODS, HIS ARMOR WAS PULLED SLOWLY FROM HIS BODY UNTIL THE SINEW OF HIS ADDUCTORS TORE, ANNOINTING OUR GODS WITH HIS SPURTING PLASM.

HOW HE CRIED AS HIS RUINED FLESH WAS IMPALED— HIS WAILING, A CALL TO WORSHIP IN THE TEMPLE OF HIS DYING BODY!

THEN WAS THE AMMONITES' LEVIATHAN ALONE.

SO I DID COMMAND MY SERVANT, IR UULXAL, TO TASTE OF THE LEVIATHAN'S FLESH, TO TEAR IT FROM THE SKY IN A FEAST OF AGONY.

AND SO HE DID.

THE LEVIATHAN'S VISCERA OPENED TO THE SKY AND RAINED DOWN UPON THE AMMONITES, BATHING THEM IN THE BOWELS OF THEIR GOD. SO MY BROOD DID TASTE OF HIS ENTRAILS AND REJOICE!

FROM THIS VICTORY FORWARD, UNTIL THE SKY FALLS AND THE DEEP SUBSUMES ALL, IR UULXAL SHALL BE KNOWN AS THE LEVIATHAN-EATER, BANE OF THE AMMONITES, AND FAVORED HARBINGER OF XIVU ARATH!

Veiled Tithes Plate/Vest/Robes

"Hope and hate share the same heart."

— Plate Description

"Feeling the fury in your chest."

— Vest Description

"Calm and centered through the tumult."

— Robes Description

Mithrax had come to Ikora's office with a gift and a question.

The gift was a large glass jar of preserved leechlike creatures, oily and glistening. They were perhaps the most delicious thing Ikora had tasted in the last 20 years. And while the two of them worked their way through the jar, Mithrax uncomfortably stumbled his way to his question.

"Eris Morn has changed," he said carefully, and Ikora nodded. "She chose to change, and she acted out of… is there a Human word for 'love-bravery'?"

Ikora smiled. "Love," she said.

"Love, then," Mithrax nodded. "If she were to change forever, if she cannot return to herself, will she be remembered well? Since her first choice was made from love?"

Ikora responded as though she had not struggled with the thought a thousand times already. "Eris will always be Eris, no matter what form she takes," she said.

Mithrax harrumphed in satisfaction and leaned forward to take another leech. "Yes. I am always impressed with the resilience of the Guardians, with or without their Light. Saint tells me the Titan Sloane embraced the Taken, and she is doing well."

"Yes, and for that, I am grateful," Ikora said. "But… they don't always come back, Mithrax. An old friend of mine was corrupted by the Vex in a similar way. He stayed behind when the Pyramids attacked, just like Sloane. But I believe we lost him."

"I am sorry about your friend," Mithrax said somberly. "I hope he is remembered as a hero."

Ikora raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

"I, too, encountered a great mind consumed by the Vex," Mithrax continued. "The Guardian and I attempted a rescue, but it went deeper into the network as it gained the access it sought. It taught me that the pursuit of truth is worth any price—even one's own sense of self."

Ikora smiled. "Asher would have agreed with every word of that."

Mithrax leaned forward in amazement, a leech dangling limply from his claws. "You knew Ashermere?"

Ikora cocked her head. "Yes, Asher Mir. How on earth did you know him?"

"Asher… Mir," Mithrax said slowly to himself, mimicking Ikora. "That is why I have been unable to locate any records."

"Ikora," he said, straightening himself in his seat, "I must tell you a story about our friend, Asher Mir, the hero."

Veiled Tithes Greaves/Strides/Boots

"Feet steady in the midst of the madness."

— Greaves Description

"Dancing at the edge of the Light."

— Strides Description

"Lithe came the footfalls of the dead."

— Boots Description

Immaru focused his digital iris, zooming in on the Guardian. They were about to initiate a new ritual, and the Hive Ghost was keen to see their response.

When the Screebs started pouring in, Immaru couldn't help himself. "Oops! This one's all Screebs," he chortled. "Have fun."

He expected the ritual to end promptly in a shower of Dark Ether. Instead, the Guardian surged through the air, dodging explosion after explosion. Their Light seared through the Scorn, burning them alive.

It wasn't long before the smoke cleared and the Guardian stood alone, their Light thrumming with tithes. Immaru grumbled to himself.

For as long as he'd been a Ghost, he'd resented how the Guardians referred to the Light. It was never "my Ghost's Light" or "the Traveler's Light." No—it was always "MY Light." They talked about it like they owned it. Like they were entitled to it. Like they earned it.

But looking down at the smoldering battlefield, Immaru had to admit that the Guardians' arrogance served them well. It gave them the confidence to mold their Light in the fashion that suited them best. They treated it like a tool—something to be used. That gave them an advantage over the Lucent Brood, whose manipulation of the Light was inhibited by reverence.

Immaru turned away from the ritual circle in disgust. He hated to admit it, but the Lucent Brood had a lot to learn about the Light from the Guardians.

And once they did, the Humans would pay for their lack of respect.

Veiled Tithes Mark/Cloak/Bond

"Shield against the whispering Deep."

— Mark Description

"Rising above the Deep."

— Cloak Description

"Macabre in its brilliance."

— Bond Description

Zavala locked his office door. The furtive gesture made him uneasy, but he couldn't risk anyone coming in. The feed he was about to watch could easily be misconstrued.

As it was, the City smoldered with rumors from citizens and Guardians alike. The persistent, undulating hole in the Traveler's side put everyone on edge. Hearing that Vanguard leadership was using Hive magic to fulfil a bargain put forth by the Witch Queen would undoubtedly stoke the flames of panic.

Zavala leaned grimly over his desk to watch the Guardian's latest tithes to Eris Morn.

It used to be simple, he lamented. We exterminated the Hive wherever we found them, and we felt good about it. Justified. But in recent years, morally ambiguous situations like these had become more common, and separating friend from foe was increasingly difficult.

Over the feed, Eris Morn's face lit up with fierce elation as the Guardian's tithes flowed through her. Her Hive form seemed to swell with power. Zavala knew that Eris undertook the rituals with temperance, at least for now, but he wondered how long her clarity would last. Elsie Bray's warnings had been too vivid to dismiss entirely, even after Ikora's reassurances.

Zavala turned away from the feed to gaze out the window at the Traveler. The trauma puncturing its side reminded him of the stakes. The reasons they were taking such risks.

He sighed, wondering how many more compromises they would have to make before the end.

Appearance

• Destiny 2: Season of the Witch (First appearance)