Black Fleet

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Black Fleet
Overview
Other name(s):	Pyramids "The Darkness" "Black Triangle" "The deep Black" "Phantom" "Phantom Ship" "Final True Shape" "The Masters" "The Black Fleet" "Dark Omen" "Shape of Shapes"
Focal world(s):	Extragalactic space Sol System Ascendant Realm Earth (formerly) Moon Fundament Io Mars Titan Mercury Europa Court of Savathûn Neptune
Goals:	Enforce the will of the Witness throughout the universe Undo the Traveler's work, by corrupting the worlds it terraformed with Darkness
Distinctions:	Terraforming abilities Control of gravity Nightmare creation Structural Metamorphosis
Notable individual(s):	Essence The Lunar Pyramid The Ionian Pyramid The Mercurian Pyramid The Martian Pyramid The Titanian Pyramid The Europan Pyramid The Sunken Pyramid The Drowned Pyramid Typhon Imperator

"We are not your friend.
We are not your enemy.
We are your... salvation."

— The Witness

The Black Fleet is an armada of massive Darkness-imbued tetrahedral vessels, known as Pyramids. It was commanded by the entity known as the Witness and its Disciples, who pursued the Traveler for eons to subdue it and bring about the Final Shape. The Fleet is collectively responsible for the cataclysmic destruction of countless civilizations uplifted by the Traveler, with the Whirlwind of Riis and the Collapse of Earth being two of the most recent examples.

Following the defeat of the Witness and its Disciples, the Pyramids and their technology left in the Sol System would be operated by the remaining forces of the Witness along with wielders of the Echoes.

Overview

The Black Fleet was once thought by the people of the Last City to be synonymous with the Darkness itself, who knew it only as a malevolent force that had swept through the Sol System and brought about the Collapse. In reality, it is a fleet of vessels commanded by the Witness and its Disciples, who wielded the Darkness as a weapon against humanity and other civilizations as part of their eons-long crusade to find and subdue the Traveler.

On Europa, several artifacts originating from the Black Fleet have been encountered, including Stasis Locks, Cruxes of Darkness, Splinters of Darkness and the Ziggurat. Following Mars' reappearance in the Sol System after having vanished during the Pyramids' arrival, another artifact of the Black Fleet known as the Relic was found to have appeared on a cliffside overlooking Mars' Cradle.

History

The Ancient Past

According to the creature known as Ahsa, the Pyramids were constructed by the species that gave rise to the Witness, and were later used by the Witness when it left its homeworld in pursuit of the Traveler. Over time, the Witness would recruit Disciples from various species, including Rhulk and Nezarec, each of whom would be granted their own Pyramid.

At some point, a Pyramid came to rest on the surface of Seht, the ancestral homeworld of the Qugu. This Pyramid became covered in stone and dirt, causing it to resemble a natural landform; it would later be revered by the Qugu as a holy site, which they referred to simply as "the Mountain." During the Hive's invasion of the Se'Tar system, Savathûn, the Witch Queen reactivated the Pyramid using her flagship, causing it to rise from its buried resting place and join her forces as they laid waste to the Qugu. This Pyramid would later be destroyed by the last remnants of the Seht Armada under the command of Warden Te'Qal.

Another Pyramid commanded by Rhulk would be sent to Savathûn's Throne World on the orders of the Witness, to keep an eye on the treacherous Hive God (and also possibly as a punishment for Rhulk's past failures as a Disciple). Rhulk and his Pyramid would remain in Savathûn's Throne World for countless eons afterwards, until Savathûn was eventually reborn in the Light and neutralized the Pyramid, causing it to sink into the swamps of her Throne World.

The Golden Age

Sometime in the late Golden Age, Clovis Bray and the Aeronautics of China launched a joint venture called K1 to discover extra-spatial transmissions emitting somewhere beneath the surface of the Moon. Excavating at the Ocean of Storms, they uncovered an artifact acting as a transceiver for the Pyramids, to which they believed to be communicating with the Traveler's origin. Unfortunately, exposure to the artifact created Nightmares that plagued the crew with insomnia, hallucinations, and major psychosis to which Clovis Bray had to have the artifact sealed in a sophisticated containment system. Kuang Xuan, the project commander of the K1 mission, instead turned to one of their sites' antennae to intercept the artifact's transmissions and had the project on lockdown. The team would stay isolated on the Moon for a time until the Collapse, which they were slaughtered by the sudden appearance of the Hive.

Before the Collapse, Clovis Bray I led an expedition to the Jovian moon Europa, which he had received visions of from the K1 Anomaly. He and his team uncovered a large statue of a veiled, humanoid female figure, which he appropriately named Clarity Control. It is believed that the statue was sent by the Pyramids two decades prior, if not in direct communication with them.

The Collapse

During the Collapse, the Black Fleet invaded the Sol System in force, laying waste to the worlds and colonies of the Solar System as they descended upon the Traveler and Humanity, nearly wiping out all of humankind in the process. It was only thanks to the counterattack of the Traveler, and the interference of Savathûn, that humanity was able to survive and have some of their people be resurrected as Guardians, so that hope would still exist for the Solar System in their fight against the Darkness.

Red War

The Pyramids reacting to the Traveler's wave of Light

After the death of Dominus Ghaul at the hands of The Guardian, the Traveler reawakened and sent a pulse of Light throughout the Sol System, and eventually the outer reaches of the Milky Way. This pulse eventually reached the Pyramids as they lay dormant in intergalactic space, and as the pulse washed over the fleet, they reactivated and began moving en masse toward the Sol System.

Nightmares on Luna

A single Pyramid from the fleet was discovered by the Hive buried beneath the surface of Earth's Moon for an unknown amount of time, but their efforts were unsuccessful at awakening its power. It remains unknown how long this vessel was buried on the Moon, although Eris Morn speculates that it may have been struck down by the Traveler during the Collapse, or left behind intentionally. It became active by Eris Morn upon touching it, creating Nightmares from the Darkness to haunt the Traveler's Light-bearing Risen.

Multiple Pyramids can be seen in the background when the Guardian receives a vision of the Black Garden from the Unknown Artifact found within the Pyramid on Luna. Later, a Guardian excursion into the Garden revealed that the Sol Divisive Vex having been communing with a Pyramid Scale and the Sol Inherent minds were destroyed to stop its spread of Darkness.

The Darkness Descends

Around the time of Amtec's attempt to crash the Almighty into The Last City, the Black Fleet had finally reached the outer Solar System. Rasputin detected the presence of the Fleet beyond the Heliopause, and directed Osiris to investigate an "anomalous signal" when the former Warlock Vanguard visited the Warmind to question his allegiance to humanity. Upon taking his ship to the site of the anomaly in the Kuiper-Oort Expanse, Osiris discovered a vast "maw" of Darkness shrouding a Pyramid, which began interfering with Sagira while beckoning Osiris to approach. Donning an EVA suit, Osiris left Sagira behind in his ship to investigate the anomaly more closely, and discovered a metallic seed within its depths. Immediately afterward, he found himself aboard his ship once more, with Sagira behaving as though Osiris had changed his mind about leaving. Still holding the seed in his hand, Osiris set a course back to the inner Solar System, with the shadow of the Pyramid looming over his vessel as he departed.

Over the following weeks, Rasputin monitored the Black Fleet as its Pyramids approached the inner Solar System, plotting their course on monitors within his Seraph Bunkers and sharing the information he gathered with the Vanguard. Starting from an initial force of one lead Pyramid accompanied by seventeen smaller ones, as the Fleet passed through the Kuiper belt the number of vessels increased to thirty-two, followed by seven more as the fleet approached Neptune. The following week, the number increased to forty-three as the Fleet began to make its way towards the inner planets, while the lead Pyramid held position above Neptune. The Fleet next set its sights on Uranus, now numbering forty-nine Pyramids in total, and began moving toward Saturn. By the time the Fleet had claimed the outer Solar System, a total of fifty-four vessels had been detected.

Unbeknownst to Rasputin, however, another Pyramid had broken away from the main Fleet and descended upon the inner system undetected. By the time of the Almighty's destruction, this Pyramid had reached Jupiter and made its way towards Io along with an escort fleet of Pyramid Scales.

Arrival

Pyramid Scales touch down on Io.

"You bring weapons. You will not need them. We offer only truth."

— The Witness through The Ghost.

Several days after the Almighty's destruction, the Pyramids had spread throughout the system. Alarmingly, many of these Pyramids appeared on worlds that were nowhere near where Rasputin had detected them. It is unknown if these vessels had broken off from the main fleet or if they were new ones who arrived in the system undetected. The first of these Pyramids made its way to Io. In a similar fashion to the attack on the Almighty, Ana Bray deployed satellites against the Pyramid in hopes that it would be destroyed. However, the Pyramid remained undamaged and continued its approach on the Jovian moon, also managing to disable the Warmind and render the Warsat Network entirely useless.

After the Warmind fell, the Io Pyramid touched down near the Cradle and began deploying its Pyramid Scales in the Echo Mesa nearby. Eris Morn departed for it as soon as it arrived, resulting in Zavala tasking the Guardian to investigate the Pyramid and retrieve Eris. As the Guardian approached the vessel, the Darkness possessed their Ghost and brought them closer to the Pyramid. However, the Guardian was pulled into the Ascendant Realm by Savathûn, the Witch-Queen. After fighting through numerous Taken and Hive, the Guardian finds Eris in the center of the Cradle, where a Tree of Silver Wings, spawned by the Traveler's Light, was situated inside. Over the week, the Pyramid continued to corrupt Io, deploying Pyramid Scales and infesting the planet with Darkness. The Drifter dispatched a special Bank device to collect Energy of the Darkness, while at the same time having Guardians fight off an arms race with the Cabal and the Vex, along with Savathûn's Taken forces.

Almost a month after the arrival of the first Pyramid, three more touched down on Titan, Mars, and Mercury. The Titan Pyramid was the first to start deploying its Pyramid Scales, scuttling the Hive and Fallen in the New Pacific Arcology in an arms race to claim Darkness seeping in blooms from the alien vessels. From the depths of the Pyramid back on Io, a large force of Pyramid Scales was sent out to survey Io's surface, to presumably prepare it for terraforming.

With the crippling of Rasputin, the choice was made by Zavala to evacuate the four worlds that had come under threat from the Pyramids. The Young Wolf would aid Zavala, by making final preparations, by completing a list of objectives for each destination following the needs of Sloane, Asher, Vance, and Ana. Though the evacuation intended to have them leave, they chose to do the opposite, with Vance and Asher entering the Infinite Forest and Pyramidion respectively, and Sloane choosing to hold the line against the Pyramid occupying Titan, and the Hive. When it came to overseeing Ana Bray's exodus from Mars, the Young Wolf assisted in her attempt to salvage what was left of Rasputin, which resulted in his remains being placed in a specialized Engram. With what remains of Rasputin's mind preserved, Ana would make her final preparations before departing Mars. In the following weeks, Guardians were pulled into the Ascendant Realm, reminiscent of the Court of Oryx on the Dreadnaught, this time encountering Nokris, Savathun's supplicant. Upon defeating him, the Darkness finalized its message, telling Guardians there is an ancient power deep beneath the surface of Europa and that it must be embraced, displaying each race with a shadow of a Pyramid, with one shadow lingering over the Fallen.

A short while after the final message the Pyramids would finally consume Mars, Mercury, Titan, and Io in shadow, the final fates of those who stayed behind may never be known. However, despite the Darkness growing even more suffocating, hope was seemingly rekindled as quite unexpectedly the Traveler began to pulsate with energy as it started healing the wounds sustained from liberating itself from Ghaul's cage. The resulting energy would eventually erupt into a cascading flash of light.

The Call to Europa

"The Light believes you thankless. Nothing more than a soldier asked again and again to do its bidding.
So we want to thank you. With a gift. To help you finally take control."

— The Witness to the Guardian

After the Traveler finished healing itself, the Young Wolf arrived on Europa to find a Pyramid much like the one on Luna, along with a new Fallen House led by Eramis, Kell of Darkness whose members wielded dark powers originating from the Pyramid.

As the Young Wolf assisted Variks in fixing the communication relays on top of his safehouse, Ghost detected a dark presence, which he identified as being the same group of entities that had spoken through him on Luna (later revealed to be the Witness). As soon as Ghost fixed the final relay, a Crux of Darkness appeared and dispersed the blizzard surrounding the facility. Speaking through Ghost once again, the Witness encouraged the Guardian to approach the Pyramid, all the while flattering the Guardian and stating that they wished to give them a gift. Upon arriving, The Pyramid sent out a Ziggurat.

After the Guardian defeated Eramis, she reached out towards the Pyramid as she was frozen in a crystalline Stasis prison. Later on, once the Guardian attuned themselves to the power of Stasis, they were teleported to a veiled statue inside the Pyramid, which allowed them to finally gain complete access to their Stasis powers.

It would also be during this time that the Darkness would seek out Savathûn to punish her for her attempted interference, forcing the Witch Queen into hiding. Mara Sov would also reemerge, having deployed her forces and fleets against the Black Fleet, without success; she would later divulge that during her absence following the events that took place in the Dreaming City, she did battle with the Witness, which she described as "a voice in the Darkness". Ada-1 also marshaled the assets of the Black Armory against the Pyramids, but even her unique weapons would prove useless against the Pyramids.

No More Pieces Left To Place

"We have seen enough."

— The Witness

After having been shrouded in Darkness for some time following the arrival of the Pyramids, Mars suddenly reappeared, with large swaths of its surface bordered by curtains of eerie green light; the regions within these borders appeared to be temporally displaced, showing objects and buildings within as they had looked during the Golden Age. There was also a new structure built into the cliffs overlooking Mars' Cradle, bearing the same architectural hallmarks as the Pyramids.

In the pursuit of uncovering the truth of Savathûn's Throne World, the Young Wolf found themselves once more on Europa, this time at the base of the Europan Pyramid itself. Fighting through hordes of Cabal deserters under the command of Valus Dralgur, the Exiled, the Young Wolf entered the Pyramid, where they discovered what appeared to be a city of structures, grander and more elaborate than what was able to be seen within the Lunar Pyramid. After purging the deserters from the Pyramid, the Guardian communed with the Darkness, gaining the ability of Deepsight.

A sunken Pyramid was later discovered within Savathûn's Throne World. A fireteam of Guardians ventured inside, finding Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness, who had been imprisoned within. Similarly to the Europan Pyramid, the Throne World Pyramid was immense in scale, housing many structures within. After overcoming many trials and obstacles, the fireteam faced Rhulk in combat and defeated him.

After the defeat of Rhulk, the Young Wolf would find themselves having to regularly travel back into the Pyramid, needing to clear out the Scorn as they attempted to further harness the Darkness.

The March On Neomuna

"Disciple. You know what must be done."

— The Witness after communing with the Traveler

The Coalition defends the Traveler from the Black Fleet.

After Rasputin's final sacrifice to prevent Eramis from using the Warsat Network on the Traveler, the Black Fleet finally advanced on the Traveler and began their assault on the defending forces of the Coalition, effortlessly destroying any craft that came too close with waves of Resonant energy. The Traveler responded to the attack with a massive beam of Light, which struck the lead Pyramid containing the Witness and created blooms of paracausal flora. However, the Witness itself was unaffected and floated out from its Pyramid to meet the Traveler face-to-face. Eight Pyramids followed it and took up a formation around the Traveler resembling an eight-pointed star, and halted the Traveler's attack by striking it with a concerted Resonant energy surge.

After the Witness succeeded in creating a link between the Traveler and the Veil using the Guardian's Ghost, it opened a triangular portal on the surface of the Traveler. Some of the Pyramids would enter the portal, seemingly dissolving into purplish mists of energy as they did so, followed by the Witness itself. Some of the remaining Pyramids would be left behind by the Witness' later assaults against the Last City and its territories.

Fall of the Witness

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Following the destruction of the Witness within the Pale Heart, the remaining forces of the Black Fleet would fall under the command of stragglers like Yirix and Fikrul, the Fanatic, the former the acting leader within the Shadow Legion and the latter using an Echo to command them.

Leadership

• The Witness
  • Disciples of the Witness
    • Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness
    • Nezarec, Final God of Pain
    • Calus, the Disciple

Known Vessels

• Essence (Flagship)
• The Lunar Pyramid
• The Ionian Pyramid
• The Mercurian Pyramid
• The Martian Pyramid
• The Titanian Pyramid
• The Europan Pyramid
• The Sunken Pyramid
• The Drowned Pyramid
• Typhon Imperator

Technology

Structures Crux of Darkness Pyramid Pyramid Scale Radial Mast Relic Ziggurat

Devices Anomaly Clarity Control Pyramid Spikes Resonant Splinter Stasis Locks Suppressors Splinter of Darkness The Upended Unknown Artifact

Weapons Resonant Severus Resonant Sun Scale Drone Launcher Tormentor Scythes Subjugator Glaives Transitory Lance Resonant Allision Husk Blades Vicious Dissonance

Guardian's Arsenal Exotic Weapons Collective Obligation - Pulse Rifle Conditional Finality - / Shotgun Euphony - Linear Fusion Rifle Revision Zero - Pulse Rifle Ruinous Effigy - Trace Rifle Tessellation - Fusion Rifle Winterbite - Heavy Glaive Exotic Armor Cenotaph Mask - Warlock Helmet Legendary Weapons Bump in the Night Cataclysmic Critical Anomaly Deliverance Firefright Forbearance Forthcoming Deviance Hollow Denial Lubrae's Ruin Nezarec's Whisper Imminence Insidious Non-Denouement Nullify Submission Summum Bonum Tears of Contrition Without Remorse

Veiled Figures

A veiled figure found in the Black Garden.

The Guardians' explorations of the Pyramids, as well as the Black Garden and the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa, revealed a motif that appeared to be representative of, or at least associated with, the Darkness: statues of humanoid, veiled figures. All of these statues are identical in shape, have seemingly feminine features, and are posed with faces turned upward and arms slightly outspread. They are primarily used as communicators for the Witness, however on some occasions it has been used by its servants. It was eventually revealed that these statues are representations of members of the Witness' species as they prepared to form the Witness by merging their consciousnesses using the Veil, some of the dissenting minds of the Witness who rejected its philosophy would use these statues to communicate with the Guardians.

During the late Golden Age, Clovis Bray I discovered one of these veiled statues beneath the surface of Europa which he named "Clarity Control". This statue was the source of Darkness, which Clovis referred to as "Clarity," and played an integral role in the production of Exos. Although seemingly made of obsidian stone like most of the other figures, this figure differs from the others in that it lacks any surrounding structures, instead floating freely in midair, and moving very slightly as if breathing. Clovis described the figure as "an entity from beyond our own dimension," suggesting it may be more than a mere statue.

Gallery

• 

  Pyramid on Europa

• 

  Pyramid on Mercury

• 

  Pyramid above the Hellas Basin on Mars

• 

  Pyramid floating on Titan

• 

  Another view of the Mercurian Pyramid

• 

  Another view of the Martian Pyramid

• 

  Another view of the Mercurian Pyramid from the Lighthouse

• 

  Pyramid floating over the cradle of Io

• 

  Lunar Pyramid floating underneath the Moon

• 

  Sunken Pyramid within Savathûn's Throne World

• 

  Ikora looking at the Luna Pyramid

Trivia

• The ending cutscene of the Red War campaign shows a single massive Pyramid in the center of a fleet of smaller Pyramids. It was later depicted by Mara Sov's hologram of the Pyramid fleet in the Queen's Court, which also shows a massive Pyramid amid smaller ships.
• The tetrahedral forms of the Pyramids allude to the philosophy of the Darkness; just as the Darkness seeks to reduce the universe to a maximally simplified state, tetrahedrons are the simplest possible three-dimensional shape. Also of note is that the Pyramids appear to have faces representing the three archetypal triangles: regular, isosceles and right.
• The Pyramid on Luna can be seen from the peak of the Scarlet Keep, through the gate that Hashladûn comes through (you may also need to jump to catch a glimpse).
• When the player encounters the Pyramid on Luna there are two pieces of dialogue that their Ghost can say, dependent on whether the player has completed the final Invitation of the Nine where the Pyramids were briefly pictured. If it has not been completed, Ghost will say that he does not recognize the ship, but if the player has completed it he will say that he does recognize the Pyramid and notes the impossibility of it being there.
  • Ghost Quote 1: "What... is that? I've never seen anything like it."
  • Ghost Quote 2: "That's... one of those Pyramids. It can't be. That should not be here."
• Early in Season of the Worthy, it was revealed that the Pyramid fleet had already reached the Kuiper Belt and made contact with Osiris. The fleet attempted to take control of Sagira in the same fashion that the Pyramid of Luna did to the Guardian's Ghost.
• The total time it took for the Darkness to arrive in the solar system was 1,007 days. That is the time between the release of Destiny 2 on the 6th of September 2017 and the start of Season of Arrivals on the 9th of June 2020.
• Though the tetrahedron shape of the Pyramids has remained consistent with their appearance in both concept art as well as the ending cutscene for the Red War campaign, the ships that are featured within Season of Arrivals are far more sleek and feature less prominent segmented sections. The most likely reason for this change was a redesign, however this cannot be confirmed.
• A possible inspiration for the Pyramid ships is Arthur C. Clarke's short story, "The Sentinel." In Clarke's short story, an ancient alien structure was left upon Earth's Moon, described as being "made of a polished mineral, is tetrahedral in shape, and is surrounded by a spherical forcefield."
• Various artifacts associated with the Black Fleet recall the forms and colors of game pieces or tokens; for example, the Relic in the Enclave on Mars has a section that resembles a tic-tac-toe game, and the Dark City is filled with sculptures and blocks of black-and-white stone which recall the forms of chess pieces. These may thematically allude to the Darkness' view of the universe as a "game" to be won.
• In The Final Shape, it is revealed that the Precursor statues in the Pale Heart contain the dissenting minds that were cut out from the collective of the Witness after opposing its ideals of a Final Shape. However, whether they apply to the entirety of the veiled statues in the Black Fleet remains largely unclear and up to speculation.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First mentioned)
• Cabal Booklet (Mentioned only)
• Destiny 2 (First appearance)
  • Forsaken (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Forge (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Drifter (Mentioned only)
    • Season of Opulence (Mentioned only)
  • Shadowkeep
    • Season of the Undying (Mentioned only)
    • Season of Dawn (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Worthy
    • Season of Arrivals
  • Beyond Light
    • Season of the Hunt (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Chosen (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Splicer (Mentioned only)
  • The Witch Queen
    • Season of the Risen
    • Season of the Haunted
    • Season of Plunder (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Seraph
  • Lightfall
    • Season of Defiance (Mentioned only)
    • Season of the Deep
  • Into the Light
  • The Final Shape (Mentioned only)
    • Episode: Echoes (Mentioned only)
• Kuang Xuan's Logbook (Mentioned only)
• The Hidden Dossier (Mentioned only)
• Bitter (Mentioned only)
• Entelechy (Mentioned only)