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[[File:LoreUnviel.png|300px|thumb]] | [[File:LoreUnviel.png|300px|thumb]] | ||
'''[[Lore:Unveiling|Unveiling]]''' is a [[Lore]] book introduced in ''[[Shadowkeep]]''. Entries are acquired weekly by visiting [[Eris Morn]] on the [[Moon]] after completing [[Beyond]]. It consists primarily of messages from the [[Unknown Artifact]] addressed to the [[Guardians]] directly from the [[The Witness|Witness]] itself, using a creation parable narrated by an unknown entity in an attempt to sway them of its ideology.<ref>[https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-weighs-in-on-the-current-argument-raging-through-the-destiny-2-lore-community-has-the-witness-been-retconned/ Bungie weighs in on the current argument raging through the Destiny 2 lore community: Has the Witness been retconned?]</ref><ref>'''Bungie (2024/06/04)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[The Final Shape]] - [[The First Knife#Lore|The First Knife]]''</ref> | |||
This article is a slightly annotated version for readers confused by certain terms or concepts introduced in ''Unveiling''. ''Commentary and markups are expressed in italics.'' | This article is a slightly annotated version for readers confused by certain terms or concepts introduced in ''Unveiling''. ''Commentary and markups are expressed in italics.'' | ||
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{{clear}} | {{clear}} | ||
==Pleased to Meet You== | ==Pleased to Meet You== | ||
:''The title of this entry is likely an out-of-game reference to the lyrics of the song "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones.'' | |||
[[Wikipedia:Jakob Böhme|One of your philosophers]] said, "It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost in sorrow. There is no sorrow. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness." He was a shoemaker. He was right, and it matters more than anything. | [[Wikipedia:Jakob Böhme|One of your philosophers]] said, "It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost in sorrow. There is no sorrow. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness." He was a shoemaker. He was right, and it matters more than anything. | ||
According to him, the visible world is a manifestation of eternal light and eternal darkness, and it is in eternal opposition that eternity has revealed itself. The fall was necessary for creation to escape its first imperfect stasis and seek a truer form. Heresy? Well, then, I am the heresiarch. The philosopher died of a bowel disease. Those who do not exist cannot suffer and are of no account to any viable ethics. If the true path to goodness is the elimination of suffering, then only those who must exist can be allowed to exist. It is the nature of life to favor existence over nonexistence, and to prefer the fertile soil to the poisoned wind. Because those who open their mouths to that wind pass from the world and leave no descendant, whether of flesh or of thought. | According to him, the visible world is a manifestation of eternal light and eternal darkness, and it is in eternal opposition that eternity has revealed itself. The fall was necessary for creation to escape its first imperfect stasis and seek a truer form. Heresy? Well, then, I am the heresiarch. The philosopher died of a bowel disease. Those who do not exist cannot suffer and are of no account to any viable ethics. If the true path to goodness is the elimination of suffering, then only those who must exist can be allowed to exist. It is the nature of life to favor existence over nonexistence, and to prefer the fertile soil to the poisoned wind. Because those who open their mouths to that wind pass from the world and leave no descendant, whether of flesh or of thought. | ||
::''The above is a reference to German philosopher and theologian, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_B%C3%B6hme Jakob Boehme's] [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x030131743?urlappend=%3Bseq=13%3Bownerid=27021597768395742-17 Six Theosophic Points], with its use popularized in the second epigraph of American writer, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy Cormac McCarthy's] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian Blood Meridian]. In its original reading and in Blood Meridian, the quote asserts that human darkness does not come from a place of sorrow, because in order to commit acts of cruelty, one must dispose of such concepts. In the text of Destiny a different reading can be taken, the [[ | ::''The above is a reference to German philosopher and theologian, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_B%C3%B6hme Jakob Boehme's] [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x030131743?urlappend=%3Bseq=13%3Bownerid=27021597768395742-17 Six Theosophic Points], with its use popularized in the second epigraph of American writer, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy Cormac McCarthy's] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian Blood Meridian]. In its original reading and in Blood Meridian, the quote asserts that human darkness does not come from a place of sorrow, because in order to commit acts of cruelty, one must dispose of such concepts. In the text of Destiny a different reading can be taken, the [[Darkness]] introduces the idea that while it is inexorably linked with decay, it is not necessarily an objective force of evil, but one of lessening and ending.'' | ||
But imagine the abomination of a world where nothing can end and no choice can be preferred to any other. Imagine the things that would suffer and never die. Imagine the lies that would flourish without context or corrective. Imagine a world without me. | But imagine the abomination of a world where nothing can end and no choice can be preferred to any other. Imagine the things that would suffer and never die. Imagine the lies that would flourish without context or corrective. Imagine a world without me. | ||
==Gardener and Winnower== | ==Gardener and Winnower== | ||
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<nowiki>*</nowiki> It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun.<br/> | <nowiki>*</nowiki> It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun.<br/> | ||
<nowiki>**</nowiki> We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes.<br/> | <nowiki>**</nowiki> We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes.<br/> | ||
::''"Ontology" refers to the branch of metaphysics having to do with the nature of existence.'' | |||
<nowiki>***</nowiki> It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence.<br/> | <nowiki>***</nowiki> It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence.<br/> | ||
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And in time the gardener became [[Vex|vexed]]. | And in time the gardener became [[Vex|vexed]]. | ||
:''This appears to be the origin of the name of the Vex.'' | |||
==The Final Shape== | ==The Final Shape== | ||
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In the three billion base pairs of your root species' genome, there is a single gene that codes for a protein called p53. The name is a mistake. The protein weighs only as much as 47,000 protons, not 53,000. If you were a cell, you would think p53 was a mistake too. It has several coercive functions: To delay the cell's growth. To sterilize the cell when it is old. And to force the cell into self-destruction if it becomes too independent. | In the three billion base pairs of your root species' genome, there is a single gene that codes for a protein called p53. The name is a mistake. The protein weighs only as much as 47,000 protons, not 53,000. If you were a cell, you would think p53 was a mistake too. It has several coercive functions: To delay the cell's growth. To sterilize the cell when it is old. And to force the cell into self-destruction if it becomes too independent. | ||
:''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P53 p53] is indeed a real tumor-suppressor protein found in the human body.'' | |||
Would you tolerate a bomb in your body, waiting to detonate if you deviated from the needs of society? | Would you tolerate a bomb in your body, waiting to detonate if you deviated from the needs of society? | ||
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In the wet pop of grapes and the smear of berries—in the perturbation of the field that was the garden before the first tick of time and the first point of space—were the detonations that made the universes. Each universe was pregnant with its own inflationary volumes and braided with ever-ramifying timelines. Each volume cooling and separating into domains of postsymmetric physics, all of which were incarnations of that great and all-dictating bipartite law that states only: exist, lest you fail to exist. | In the wet pop of grapes and the smear of berries—in the perturbation of the field that was the garden before the first tick of time and the first point of space—were the detonations that made the universes. Each universe was pregnant with its own inflationary volumes and braided with ever-ramifying timelines. Each volume cooling and separating into domains of postsymmetric physics, all of which were incarnations of that great and all-dictating bipartite law that states only: exist, lest you fail to exist. | ||
:''The Winnower here states that their struggle with the Gardener produced the multiverse, with each universe created bringing new universe into being in turn. "Postsymmetric physics" refers to a process which occurred during the early history of the universe, "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_breaking symmetry breaking]", which led to the modern laws of physics.'' | |||
And still we fought. We brought down the tree of silver wings and left the stump to smoke amid the meadows. We left prints of our splayed feet and our straining backs in the clay. | And still we fought. We brought down the tree of silver wings and left the stump to smoke amid the meadows. We left prints of our splayed feet and our straining backs in the clay. | ||
Our trampling feet made waves in the garden, which were the fluctuations around which the infant universes coalesced their first structures. The dilaton field yawned beneath existence. Symmetries snapped like glass. Like creases, flaws in space-time collected filaments of dark matter that inhaled and kindled the first galaxies of suns. | Our trampling feet made waves in the garden, which were the fluctuations around which the infant universes coalesced their first structures. The dilaton field yawned beneath existence. Symmetries snapped like glass. Like creases, flaws in space-time collected filaments of dark matter that inhaled and kindled the first galaxies of suns. | ||
:''A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilaton dilaton] is a hypothetical particle having to do with extra spacetime dimensions.'' | |||
And still we grappled. Our rolling bodies pushed things out of the garden—worms and scurrying life from the fertile soil, wet things from the pools and the leaves. They came out into the madness of primordial space; they thrashed and became large. | And still we grappled. Our rolling bodies pushed things out of the garden—worms and scurrying life from the fertile soil, wet things from the pools and the leaves. They came out into the madness of primordial space; they thrashed and became large. | ||
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Those who peddle the tired gotcha that all life hastens entropy. They are fatuous little nihilists who pretend to prefer no existence to a flawed one. They bore me. | Those who peddle the tired gotcha that all life hastens entropy. They are fatuous little nihilists who pretend to prefer no existence to a flawed one. They bore me. | ||
:''The Winnower is here referring to the fact that biological life, by its very nature, contributes to the increase in entropy of the universe; the orderliness and complexity of life is compensated by the disorder it creates in its surroundings. Some would thus argue that the Winnower should disdain life for creating entropy, when it is a force of order and simplicity; the Winnower states that this is an overly simplistic and boring view.'' | |||
Those who seek to delay the challenge that all things desiring existence must overcome. | Those who seek to delay the challenge that all things desiring existence must overcome. | ||
Those who describe false moral equivalence. Now, I could not possibly communicate with you unless I could emulate your mind, and with that mind, I acquire the moralities that govern you. By your laws, I and all my followers are evil. Evil. Since that first molecule coiled in the primordial sea, not one Earthborn thing has known a monster like me. | Those who describe false moral equivalence. Now, I could not possibly communicate with you unless I could emulate your mind, and with that mind, I acquire the moralities that govern you. By your laws, I and all my followers are evil. Evil. Since that first molecule coiled in the primordial sea, not one Earthborn thing has known a monster like me. | ||
:''The Winnower here repeats the word "evil" twice, in a similar fashion as the Darkness does in the Books of Sorrow entry "Majestic. Majestic".'' | |||
But did you know that I created you? | But did you know that I created you? | ||
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It was the first defector—the first predator. It changed everything. Now the oozeballs needed sensors to watch for danger, and brains to integrate those senses and generate plans of survival, and swift neurons and muscles to enact that plan. This was the Cambrian Explosion, the great birth of complex life on your world. I caused it. I, the defector, the destroyer, the one who takes. | It was the first defector—the first predator. It changed everything. Now the oozeballs needed sensors to watch for danger, and brains to integrate those senses and generate plans of survival, and swift neurons and muscles to enact that plan. This was the Cambrian Explosion, the great birth of complex life on your world. I caused it. I, the defector, the destroyer, the one who takes. | ||
Patternfall | |||
:''In addition to being a straightforward description of the Darkness as a force that promotes death and ending, "the one who takes" may also reference the power to [[Taken|Take]], which is granted by the Darkness.'' | |||
==Patternfall== | |||
The patterns that escaped the garden landed in the water. | The patterns that escaped the garden landed in the water. | ||
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They are not all mine, not in the way that admirers such as my man Oryx are mine: utterly devoted to the practice of my principle. But some of them have, nonetheless, found their way home. | They are not all mine, not in the way that admirers such as my man Oryx are mine: utterly devoted to the practice of my principle. But some of them have, nonetheless, found their way home. | ||
:''This appears to refer to the Sol Divisive Vex, which alone among the Vex worship the Darkness.'' | |||
==The Wager== | ==The Wager== | ||
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It was the gardener that chose you from the dead. I wouldn't have done that. It's just not in me. But now that they have invested themself in you, you are incredibly, uniquely special. That wandering refugee chose to make a stand, spend their power to say: "Here I prove myself right. Here I wager that, given power over physics and the trust of absolute freedom, people will choose to build and protect a gentle kingdom ringed in spears. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division. And never yield to the cynicism that says, everyone else is so good that I can afford to be a little evil." | It was the gardener that chose you from the dead. I wouldn't have done that. It's just not in me. But now that they have invested themself in you, you are incredibly, uniquely special. That wandering refugee chose to make a stand, spend their power to say: "Here I prove myself right. Here I wager that, given power over physics and the trust of absolute freedom, people will choose to build and protect a gentle kingdom ringed in spears. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division. And never yield to the cynicism that says, everyone else is so good that I can afford to be a little evil." | ||
:''The Winnower's statement about being uninterested in the dead echoes a statement made by the Traveler to Clovis Bray I, while the latter was close to death and thus "farthest from [the Darkness'] influence".'' | |||
The gardener is all in. They are playing for keeps. And they are wrong. Or so I argue: for, after all, the universe is undecidable. There is no destiny. We're all making this up as we go along. Neither the gardener nor I know for certain that we're eternally, universally right. But we can be nothing except what we are. You have a choice. | The gardener is all in. They are playing for keeps. And they are wrong. Or so I argue: for, after all, the universe is undecidable. There is no destiny. We're all making this up as we go along. Neither the gardener nor I know for certain that we're eternally, universally right. But we can be nothing except what we are. You have a choice. | ||
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I truly value you. To the gardener, you are a means to an end. To me, you are majestic. Majestic. You are full of the only thing worth anything at all. | I truly value you. To the gardener, you are a means to an end. To me, you are majestic. Majestic. You are full of the only thing worth anything at all. | ||
:''The Winnower here repeats the word "majestic" twice, in an identical fashion as the Darkness is recorded as doing in the Books of Sorrow entry of the same name.'' | |||
I am, by the only standard that matters or will ever matter, the winning team. Existence is a test that most will fail. Would you not count yourself among the victorious few? | I am, by the only standard that matters or will ever matter, the winning team. Existence is a test that most will fail. Would you not count yourself among the victorious few? | ||
Don't hurry to deliver your answer. I'll come over and hear it myself. | Don't hurry to deliver your answer. I'll come over and hear it myself. | ||
:''The Winnower is here alluding to the imminent arrival of the Black Fleet.'' | |||
==Trust and Hope== | ==Trust and Hope== | ||
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[[Category:Lore|Unveiling]] | [[Category:Lore|Unveiling]] | ||
==References== | |||
<references/> | |||