Editing Xivu Arath, God of War

Following her banishment from her own Throne World, Xivu Arath would go into hiding, not taking part in the final battle between the Coalition and the Witness. Her Hive forces, however, would still serve the Witness in combating the Guardians as they found a path to enter the Traveler's [[The Pale Heart|Pale Heart]].<ref>'''Bungie (2024/6/4)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[The Final Shape]] - [[Exegesis]]''</ref>

After the Guardians [[Iconoclasm|found]] the weakness of the Witness, they would continue their efforts to heal the Traveler and locate any remaining lost Ghosts. One of these [[The Ascendant|missions]] involved finding and saving [[Akasha]], a Ghost that had been systemically scanning Awoken territory for years and whose last known location was the Dreaming City. After finding Akasha, Mara Sov, Micah and Crow would deduce from the movements across the Ley Lines, that, as Xivu Arath didn't join the Witness in its invasion of the Pale Heart, she was playing to turn the forces of the Black Fleet and the Coalition against each other to gain an advantage. Xivu Arath would continue to move the Hive forces from her brood through the Ascendant Plane en masse, while Mara was focused on holding back the Final Shape and couldn't keep an eye on her city's Ley Lines, cutting her losses from her previous master and gathering her strength for the war that would follow the [[War against the Witness]].<ref name="ascendant">'''Bungie (2024/6/4)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[The Final Shape]] - [[The Ascendant]]''</ref>

Another of these [[The Past|missions]] involved finding and saving [[Citrine]], a Ghost obsessed with Warmind hardware and whose last known location was Mars. Here, the Guardian would traverse the unpredictable, rifts that cursed the planet. Micah would detect Xivu Arath's Hive forces were sent back to the planet to investigate the time anomalies and the team would confront and kill [[Kelgorath, Risen from Bones]], manifested from when he was trying to conquer the location, to prevent Xivu Arath from retrieving any functional Warmind tech while Mara would dispatch her Techeuns to seal the rift even if temporarily.<ref name="past">'''Bungie (2024/6/4)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[The Final Shape]] - [[The Past]]''</ref>

Though the Coalition rejoiced in the [[Excision|Witness's fall]], they nonetheless understood that its death left a power vacuum that some of its former servants are seeking to fill and continue to enact the Final Shape. They also hadn't forgotten that Xivu Arath remained at large, for though she was mortal, the Hive God of War remained a threat that the Guardians would have to contend with in the future.<ref>'''Bungie (2024/6/7)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[The Final Shape]] - [[Excision]]''</ref> Eris Morn inquired as to where Xivu and Savathûn had fled after the Final Shape was prevented.<ref>'''Bungie (2024/6/4)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Episode: Echoes]] - [[Ill Omen#Lore|Ill Omen]]''</ref>