Cabal Booklet

"I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."
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The Cabal Booklet is an untitled book included in the Destiny 2 Collector's Edition. It consists of a formal invitation written by Dominus Calus, the former Cabal Emperor, to an unidentified prospective champion to assassinate the Cabal leaders who overthrew him in a coup. The invitation reveals significant details about the history, government, and culture of the Cabal.

An Invitation

YOU'RE LIKE ME, AREN'T YOU? YOU WON'T SETTLE FOR WHAT YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN. YOU WANT MORE.

Do you desire eternal greatness? Do you seek true freedom? I, alone, hold the power to grant you these gifts... if you prove yourself to me.

Know that I am Calus, the last and greatest emperor of the Cabal. For centuries, I led the revels of my empire, and the stars themselves burnt sweet and clear. But in time the jealous and the tight-fisted rose up and sent me into exile. And when the people called out for me, these envious rebels battered my Cabal down into grey submission.

Now I offer my gifts and delectations to you, young celebrant! Together we might restore laughter and great excess to the golden halls of Torobatl and all the stars beyond!

But before we feast together, I must know your quality. Can you bear the weight of my favor? Are you capable of executing my vengeance?

I seek equals, and they are few. I've seen more than a thousand years of war and trouble. I fought the Sindû escadrilles, put down the Clipse revolt, and interpreted the mad prophecies of the OXA Machine. But might is not enough - for through all of this struggle, I kept the bonfires lit and the sweet wine flowing. To be emperor, you see, is to be the model of perpetual joy! A good ruler must live the life that everyone craves. For if an emperor cannot be happy, then what hope has anyone?

In you I also seek the capacity for wonder and the appetite for greatness. When I took the throne, my people bled to feed a corrupt military elite. I chased those Praetorate scum from their dens of iniquity. I offered their stolen riches back to my Cabal! And I vowed to celebrate our existence in the highest luxury, to set an example for my empire - no privileged few, but decadence for all!

Friend, I was betrayed.

I could have forgiven the traitors, for I am an emperor of limitless cheer. I swear on my own silk and treasure that although my betrayers were as close to me as my own daughter, still I would have forgiven them - had they not also betrayed my people.

It was not enough for this vile council to overthrow me. These mendacious and murderous villains, these dear companions who I kept so long at my side: they gave my Cabal to brutal military rule. Now armored tyrants stain golden Torobatl with their dark designs. Ghaul is the epitome of their creed. An innocent orphan simmered in their poison hate. He will infect the whole Cabal with his emptiness - I have foreseen it! His life will be a quest to fill the hollow in his soul!

They would have killed me, but I was too beloved and too glorious. So they sent me away into resplendent exile upon this Grand Leviathan.

And from that exile I call on you, the brave, to execute my justice upon the traitors. Save the Cabal from grey enslavement. Join me in my search for the glorious and absolute powers of the universe!

Bring me the end of my enemies, and prove yourself worthy of the prize Ghaul will never claim. True power. True purpose. These things I offer you, and weapons, and knowledge, and glory. I have pulverized moons into beautiful rings of ruin! I have snuffed out stars to improve the harmony of the constellations! Think of the monuments I can make for you.

I promise you everything. All I ask is death.

These are the names of the traitors:

The Bodyguard: Lictor Shayotet, the Emperor's Protector

Shayotet the Uncleft. My eternal companion, my shield and my trust. Whatever good I did, he owns a piece of it, for I did it all under his protection. How many bullets he took for me! How many poisons and piercing thoughts! When I spoke to the people at Dau'uss, and told them I had repossessed the wealth and plunder of the Praetorate elite, it was Shayotet who stood by my side. The Legions could have bombed our hides to leather! But he stood!

He loved me through all the hard times. Oh, friend! How could my happiness turn you against me? How could you grow disgusted with my joy and revelry? How bitter to lose a friend because your friendship was made only of shared pain.

On the dark day, Shayotet led the soldiers into my house. Shayotet let the soldiers plunder my collections, feast on my larders, and shoot down those who tried to save me. Shayotet said he was doing this in the name of the man I'd once been, but I knew he was jealous of yhe emperor I'd become.

Shayotet must die.

He's a bodyguard, centuries old and always vigilant. He has only one weakness: he will stand and fight. he doesn't know how to run. Make him feel like he's protecting something, and he'll battle to end.

Without me, what has Shayotet to protect? Why, brave adventurer, he's like you. He does love his guns.

Should You Succeed

THOSE ARE THE NAMES OF THE TRAITORS.

May I never hear those names again. Not until the day when you, oh brave supplicant, come to claim your reward. And such reward! I promise that your name will be envied even in the bright heart of the galaxy, where the stars are thick as honey.

Upon my ship I have prepared a welcome befitting an emperor's champion! I have baths and gardens, arenas and halls, arsenals of arms and armor, libraries of legends and documents, specimens, treasures, beasts to slay, games to quicken the heart or stimulate the circuitry or whatever you please. But most of all, I have prepared tests.

For I offer to the worthy a place at my side.

I say this to you, oh champion mine, and I say it from my heart: there are those who would bargain away their souls just to live a little longer. I am not them. Life must be worth living. Life must be lovely and delicious and enviably sweet! Nothing has ever lived that will not die, so what matters is how we use our time.

I will gather the mighty to protect my empire, an empire of hard-working scientists and clever engineers. Where there is war, legions of my citizen-soldiers will bring peace. Where there is hurt, my armada of golden ships will bring hope. And when greater powers intrude on my domain, I will greet them as their sovereign.

For in my exile I have plumbed the secret places of the cosmos. Even my grand Cabal is only a single tooth in the great jaws of time. The universe is strange beyond reckoning and dangerous beyond courage. I have voyaged beyond the edge of reason, into the dominion of cold screams. I have seen our future written in the ruins of ancient fortress worlds. I have gathered up the moon-sized bones that tumble on the precipice of ancient singularities, and I have tossed them to scry our fate.

When everything has been taken from you, nothing remains to you. And when you roar into nothing, nothing sometimes answers.

So when you succeed, I invite you to walk in my gardens, and to wash yourself in my pools, and to test your might in my arenas. At the end of the game I just may await you, with treasure and with opportunity. For our work is not yet done. No, my champion, my work is not yet done.

Emperor Calus