Deathsong

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"Four trillions souls were about their days and nights as an unknown melody caught the breeze. It was beautiful—an ethereal gift and the end of all things. The Choir sang. Only twenty strong. As their voices grew in volume, the people started to scream. The planet's crust shifted and cracked. The seas roiled and spilled out over the land. The core shook. The ground shattered. Defenses scrambled. It was too late. Less than an hour after the Song began, the hidden homeworld of a forgotten people split in twain. These are the Song's powers, its gifts—anti-life and oblivion."

— Insquisition of the Damned - IX.II: The Unmaking

The Deathsong was a creation of Hive Wizards to rend, kill, and utterly destroy all things physical, both body and spirit, of those who listened to it. The exception is the singer, though how they do so is uncertain: Toland, the Shattered speculates that they are either weaving themselves into the song and becoming part of it, or are engineering the song for someone else of greater strength and pinning that being's power against the quiddity of death.. The song was originally known as the Song of Life or the Song of Creation and was gifted by the Traveler, and the song's frequencies were heard across the stars, wherever life's promise took hold. Worshipped by both some of the Ammonites and some of the Hive, some sought to understand and control it, unravel its secrets and gain control over life and, more importantly, death. Though for centuries, the Song remained untamed, as it seemed the Song did not grant life on its own.

A group of Hive known as "The Choir" eventually formed that celebrated the Song and would make repeated performances, although the origins of the Song of Life and Creation from the Traveler caused the Song to hurt and corrupt the Darkness infused Hive, while the Song's secrets remained beyond their grasp. Eventually, a Hive known The Stricken found hidden notes within the song and, by making them Reversed and Mirrored in pitch, weaved her own song that she sung at the Choir, which caused the death of the First Conductor. Intrigued by the song, the Choir eventually captured the Stricken and had her interrogated in order to understand her findings. The Stricken's discoveries would be used to created a whole new song, what would soon be known as the Deathsong. During the Hive-Ammonite war, against a world and species whose names were erased from the the World's Grave, the Choir landed twenty of their number at set points around the planet's equator. Singing their Deathsong, they caused unparalleled devastation across the whole world until, less than one hour later, the planet split in half.

At some point, however, the Choir became "the Broken Choir", and their legendary perfected Deathsong was lost. The Choir and their Deathsong would be considered the stuff of myth and folklore, untrue at best and greatly exaggerated at worst. Although many Wizards known as Deathsingers have created deadly Deathsongs of their own, they are considered far from the true power of the perfect-pitched Song in legends, and many such as Ir Yût, the Deathsinger have given up on dream of rebuilding the Choir and perfecting the Deathsong.

The Witch known as Azavath, however, would still cling to the dream of rebuilding the Choir, leading it and perfecting the Deathsong, being noted that she is one of the rare few so purely connected to the pain of being that makes her worthy of the Choir. After her rebirth by Savathun as Ir Airâm, Deathsinger into the body of her dead sister, Malkanth, she would attempt to rebuild the Choir with four other Witches. After the events of Shadowkeep, The Guardian, with the assistance of Eris Morn and guidance of Toland, the Shattered, would go to search and weaponize a Deathsong from Ir Airâm and her choir to form a rocket launcher known as Deathbringer.

List of appearances

• Destiny: The Dark Below (First appearance)
  • The Taken King
• Destiny 2: Season of Opulence (Mentioned only)
  • Shadowkeep