Final Shape

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

The Final Shape is the name used to describe the ultimate goal of the Witness, and possibly the Darkness itself. It refers to a potential end-state of the universe in which the Witness intends to winnow, carve and calcify the universe into a frozen state of eternal perfection. In this hypothetical state of reality, only items and entities with a purpose or structure that The Witness deems fit for existence will remain. If this state is achieved, The Witness will have accomplished its eons-long quest to impose its form of salvation to a meaningless, chaotic, and open-ended universe.

Possible Forms

The idea of a "Final Shape" has been described by several different entities associated with the Darkness. According to the Hive, the Final Shape is the natural end state of violent winnowing; what remains when everything that can possibly be destroyed has been obliterated, leaving only that which has proven its ability to defeat all obstacles to its continued existence. This conception is later echoed by Oryx, the Taken King, who describes the Final Shape as "a fire without fuel, burning forever, killing death, asking a question that is its own answer, entirely itself". At one point, Oryx communed with what appeared to be the Witness itself, which affirmed this notion of the Final Shape.

As described by Ahsa, the species that would eventually become the Witness also sought to bring about a "Final Shape", which they sought to achieve by uniting the Traveler and the Veil and using their combined powers to reshape reality as they desired. The details of this goal are unknown, other than it involved converting the universe into a perfected, eternal state.

The Witness seeks to bring about the Final Shape, but the exact nature of this goal remains unclear even to its Disciples. Each Disciple seems to have developed their own conception of what the Final Shape entails, and is seemingly permitted by the Witness to act accordingly. 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.

It would later be revealed that the Final Shape is what will happen when the Witness freezes and calcifies reality into one perfect moment forever, but what this moment is remains unknown.

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)