Final Shape

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This article is about the goal of The Witness. For the conclusion of The Light and Darkness Saga, see The Final Shape.

Civilians of the City being calcified as Earth is reshaped.

The Final Shape is a term used to describe a potential end-state of the universe that has been sought after by multiple entities related to the Darkness. While the exact nature of the Final Shape is open to interpretation, it broadly seems to involve the universe being reduced to a simplified, eternal, self-sustaining state of existence.

Possible Forms

The Winnower's Final Shape

As described in Unveiling, the Winnower promotes a philosophy of might-makes-right and "survival of the fittest," claiming that only those things which must exist should exist, and that any entity which cannot defend its own existence is morally equivalent to that which has never existed in the first place. As a result, it encourages its followers (as well as the Guardians) to destroy their enemies, reject the ideals of peace and cooperation, and pursue ever-greater power, so that they might eventually become the Final Shape.

The Vex's Final Shape

As revealed in Unveiling, the Vex are in fact descendants of the "Final Shape" that repeatedly arose in the state which preceded the universe, referred to as the "flower game". In their current incarnation, they seek to become the Final Shape once more by weaving themselves into reality at its most fundamental level, thus becoming the only entities in existence.

The Witness' Final Shape

The Witness' precursor species became fixated on the idea of a "Final Shape" out of a desire for meaning and purpose, as they found none in the universe or the Light. Various factions within the species' governing body, the Consensus, arose with differing conceptions of the Final Shape, but all were eventually supplanted by the Penitent faction, who believed that the Final Shape was to be a universe free from suffering. They sought to achieve this by using the Veil's Darkness along with the Traveler's Light to transform the universe and all beings within it into a calcified, frozen, timeless state in which suffering could no longer exist. After the Traveler fled the precursor species' homeworld and the species used the Veil to merge themselves into the Witness, the Witness pursued the Traveler with the goal of realizing its vision of the Final Shape.

Due to being able to see into being's memories using the Darkness, the Witness is able to use this knowledge to tempt its enemies to surrender to or join the Witness in return for a more personalised Final Shape, either as a version that cures them of past pain or suffering they've experienced or by offering what it thinks they want. For Crow, it offered him to be looked at with pride, trust and love by his friends and sister, as well as to erase his past mistake with the Dreaming City and make him into a version that rules the Awoken and the stars. It also offered to bring him out of the shadow of his sister by doing so, as well as hinted that it would let him see "[his] sunrise" again. For Zavala, it offered to bring back Safiyah and Hakim where he can be spend eternity with them at their home, and later to remove any doubts or fears he had in his lack of purpose and join the Witness's amalgam mind. For Ikora, it offered to remove her from the endless cycle of death and rebirth that it believes she's grown weary of, and instead have her friends returned and let her only experience eternal victory in battle forever. With The Guardian, it initially offered freedom from their unending life in "enslavement" to the Traveler, but later, believing they desired endless challenge, offered to ascend them to as that which destroys all that can be destroyed, to make them "chosen" and be regarded by all other Guardians as above them. It then offered to give them an escape from the eternal cycle of battle for rewards and commendations, and instead promised all the vast riches the Guardian's strength was "owed". Finally, the Witness, claiming that the Guardian's potential was being limited by the Vanguard leading them, offered to help them achieve the power they deserved beyond what the Traveler would give; to not become part of the Final Shape, but instead to join the Witness as a god controlling all. Their Ghost, however, believes that the Witness is only making these offers of becoming a disciple or even a god because the Witness is desperate and terrified of what the Guardian can do to it.

As Understood by the Disciples of the Witness

The Witness never revealed the full extent and nature of its vision of the Final Shape to its Disciples, and as a result each Disciple appears to have developed their own conception of what the Final Shape entailed. According to an unnamed and long-dead Disciple whose thoughts are recorded in the Inspiral Lore book entry "The Cave," Nezarec believed the Final Shape to involve becoming one with all of existence, whereas Rhulk believed it to be a universe free of disparity and differentiation, and Savathûn and her Hive believed it to be a universe in which the Sword Logic was triumphant. This unnamed Disciple subsequently concluded that none of the Witness' followers could fully grasp the true nature of the Final Shape, and that the Witness was allowing each of its Disciples and other servants to act according to a greater plan that would ultimately realize all of their seemingly disparate visions of the Final Shape.

As Understood by the Hive

According to the Hive, the Final Shape is what remains when everything that can possibly be destroyed has been destroyed, leaving only that which has proven its ability to defeat all obstacles to its continued existence. Oryx, the Taken King described the Final Shape as "a fire without fuel, burning forever, killing death, asking a question that is its own answer, entirely itself".

List of appearances

• Destiny: The Taken King (First mentioned)
• Destiny 2: Forsaken (Mentioned only)
  • Season of Opulence (Mentioned only)
  • Shadowkeep (Mentioned only)
  • Season of Arrivals (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Lost (Mentioned only)
  • The Witch Queen (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Haunted (Mentioned only)
  • Lightfall (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Deep (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Witch (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Wish (Mentioned only)
  • The Final Shape (First appearance)
• Entelechy (Mentioned only)