Shadow Legion

Shadow Legion
Overview
Objectives:	Serve Calus and the Witness Siege and occupy the city of Neomuna Link the Veil to the Traveler Capture and detain civilians of Earth
Commander(s):	The Witness Emperor Calus
Keep(s):	Typhon Imperator Shadow Legion Prisons Shadow Legion Flagship
Deployed:	Neptune Earth The Pale Heart Nessus
At war with:	Vanguard Neomuni Awoken House of Light Imperial Cabal Sol Collective Compelled Collective
Allied with:	The Dread Taken Loyalists (absorbed) Cabal Deserters Psion Conclave House of Dusk

"Oh, is that you my tenacious little Guardian? What do you think of my Shadow Legion? [cackles] Revel in these hollow victories. I want you in the best of spirits when we meet in the arena."

— Emperor Calus to The Guardian

The Shadow Legion (also known as the Dark Cabal) is a Cabal Legion that act as the personal army to the newly risen Disciple of the Witness, Emperor Calus. They are composed of Calus' former Loyalists and defectors from Empress Caiatl's Imperial Cabal, all possessing paracausal Black Fleet technology from the Witness to aid in combatting the Guardians and suppress their powers.

History

Siege of Neomuna

"My faithful Shadow Legion, this is your glorious emperor speaking. Our alliance with the Witness bears such "delectable" fruits. [chuckles] Together, we will devour Sol!"

— Emperor Calus.

The Shadow Legion were first seen in battle during the Black Fleet's final attack on the Traveler, during which Coalition forces engaged the Pyramids and Shadow Legion vessels in orbit around Earth. After the Witness reached out to the Traveler and discovered the location of the Veil on Neptune, It would send Emperor Calus and his forces to retrieve it.

During their voyage to Neptune, the Guardian would infiltrate the Vual Gaudium, and engage with the Shadow Legion forces aboard. As they were now above Neptune's Orbit, Calus would announce to his followers, speaking of their alliance with the Witness and that they would annihilate the Sol System. He then orders them to prepare for descent and bring triumph to their Emperor. However, the Guardian would sabotage the sabotage the Carrier by destroying its computer core. They would then board the Astaroth Rex II, destroy its reactor, and use one of their Drop Pods to land on Neptune

Upon arriving on Neomuna, the Shadow Legion begin their siege of destruction upon the city. However, they would face resistance not just from the Guardian, but the Cloud Striders Rohan and Nimbus. Discovering the power of Strand, the Guardian uses this ability to defeat Shadow Legion troops before becoming overwhelmed. Eventually the Guardian and Osiris both retreat with the Cloud Striders, as the forces of Calus continued their devastating assault. While the invasion was taking place, Calus would emerge from his dark sarcophagus now in his new disciple form. After communing with the Witness, Calus would order his troops to retrieve the Veil so he could move on from this obnoxious burden.

Beginning their search for the Veil, the Shadow Legion would successfully occupy a large portion of the city and set up fortifications around the Veil containment area. They would begin to use suppressors to subdue the Guardian's powers. However, they would come into conflict with the Vex as they would begin to emerge due to the invasion. This would not be the only thorn in their side as the Guardian would engage with their forces at the Zephyr Concourse, shutting down their barrier shields to traverse further into the city in search of the Veil. Shortly after killing Vul'ourn, Shadow Legion Supply Master, the Guardian's Ghost is possessed by the Witness. Calus would inform his master that his forces had captured the area around the Veil, but that it would take some time to break through, especially with the intervention of the Guardians and Neomuni. The Witness acknowledges this and orders Calus to create the link between the Traveler and the Veil using the Radial Mast and destroy the Veil once the link is created. The Witness states to Calus that the Final Shape rests upon this. Calus agrees as the Witness releases the Guardian's Ghost.

Attempting to stop Calus from creating the link, the Guardian infiltrates the Typhon Imperator to destroy the Radial Mast. Despite the Guardian reaching the room with the Radial Mast and utilizing Strand, the Shadow Legion alongside the Taken manage to successfully fend off the Young Wolf, forcing them to retreat with aid from forces of the Imperial Cabal sent by Empress Caiatl. Later when the Guardian arrived at the Radiosonde to restore power to the CloudArk, they would hide within the building to ambush them at the right opportunity. However, this attempt would be thwarted as the Guardian would escape using Strand.

Undeterred by these setbacks, Calus sends his forces with the Radial Mast to create a link with the Veil once again. Attempting to prevent the creation of this link, the Guardian and Rohan are sent to foil their plan. Using Strand, the Guardian destroys the suppression devices and uses Goliath Tanks to break into the Vault where the mast is contained. When the Guardian arrives within the Vault, Rohan contains himself within the mast to prevent the link from being created. To stop the interference, Val Bho'kaurl and their forces assault the Guardian. Despite their overwhelming numbers, the Legion fail once again as Bho'kaurl is killed while Rohan sacrifices himself to destroy the Radial Mast. Striving for a new way to gain access to the Veil, the Shadow Legion begin sending Taken into the Vex Network to infiltrate the CloudArk. However, they would face opposition from a fireteam of Guardians, who would kill Toniq, Imprint of Nezarec, and enter the Vex Network to destroy the Taken Vex Mind attempting to break into the CloudArk.

To successfully secure the Veil and ensure that his master's will is complete, Calus leads the Shadow Legion to assault the Veil containment site out of one final desperate measure. They would set up anti-air guns to halt the forces of the Coalition. After shutting off the anti-air guns, the Guardian arrives at the entrance to the vault. The Shadow Legion then begin their assault in an attempt to secure the entrance. Despite their powerful weaponry, the Shadow Legion are unable to overwhelm the Guardian, who is assisted by Defence Turrets and later reinforcements led by Caiatl. Shortly after this skirmish, Calus materializes in the sky with his Psionic form and unleashes a blast that blows open the vault door. The Guardian would then traverse into the site to reach the Veil, while Caiatl would hold off her father's projection. Caiatl would eventually be forced to withdraw as the Guardian would confront Calus face to face for the first time within the Veil containment room. Despite the immeasurable power that the new Disciple had obtained and being aided by his troops, Calus is unable to overcome the Guardian and is slain in a fierce battle. However, the Witness possesses the Guardian's Ghost once again and uses it to create a link between the Traveler and the Veil. With the link between the Traveler and the Veil now complete, the Witness creates a portal to the Pale Heart on the surface of the Traveler. The Witness then enters the portal alongside the Pyramids surrounding the Traveler, beginning its plans for the Final Shape.

Root of Nightmares

Hovering around Earth's orbit, a detachment of Shadow Legion troops would be assigned to the Witness's personal ship, which had been terraformed by the Traveler and resulted in the creation of a Tree of Silver Wings. Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets would survey a collection of worlds conquered by the Black Fleet and catalyze the different models of planets within the ship. Eventually, they would begin to fall victim to the Nightmares of the Disciple, Nezarec, Final God of Pain, resulting in many violent instances among their ranks.

Aspiring to bring an end to the threat Nezarec posed, a fireteam of six Guardians arrive at the Witness's ship. Utilizing seeds of Light and Dark, the fireteam further grows the tree to further traverse across the Pyramid. The Guardians kill Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets within the Macrocosm where the models of the planets reside. Over time Nezarec gathers enough paracausal energy to form a new body comprised of Light and Darkness. Despite the Shadow Legion's attempts to assist the reborn Disciple, the fireteam's strength proves to be too formidable as the Final God of Pain is slain.

Assault on Earth

Despite the death of their emperor, the Shadow Legion would continue to withstand and carry out the orders of the Witness. They would gain a foothold on Earth and contain prisoners within their prisons. However, the Coalition would begin preparations to oppose their efforts. A fireteam of Guardians would be sent to free Amanda Holliday, who was detained within a prison in the European Dead Zone. Using the Ascendant Realm, the Guardians infiltrate the prison from within and defeat Warden Vincu'us, Shadow Legion, freeing Amanda and the other prisoners in the process. Guardians are then sent to free prisoners within the Cosmodrome shortly after. Confronting Zatocc, Devoted to the Witness inside of the prison, it uses its Psionic powers to send them back into the Ascendant Realm. However, the Guardians reenter the prison and slay the Psion Flayer. Next the fireteam frees prisoners from a Cabal carrier in the sky, overseen by Bracus Kravaum, Shadow Legion.

Learning about a secret Shadow Legion prison, the Guardian, Amanda Holliday, and Mithrax band together to infiltrate a secret prison. They would be warned by Eramis of the danger that resided inside, however they would choose to persist. Inside, the Guardian defeats the Tormentor Vereziia, Reverent of the Witness, while Mithrax frees the prisoners. However, Amanda would be killed in an explosion after staying behind to give the prisoners more time to escape. To take revenge for Amanda's death, the Guardian, Mithrax, and Crow infiltrate one of the Legion's flagships above Earth and destroy it, delivering a critical blow to the Legion. Since then, the Shadow Legion would begin to withdraw from the EDZ but some holdouts would remain, with Crow stating that the Shadow Legion hasn't made any attempts to test the Last City's airspace.

Strike in the Pale Heart

With their previous failure to halt the Coalition's efforts, the Shadow Legion would later emerge, now carrying out the commands of the Witness within the Pale Heart of the Traveler. Alongside the Dread, they would patrol around the Landing, utilizing three conduits to create a barrier around the entrance into the Refraction. However, the Legion's objectives are threatened by the Guardian searching for Crow, who would deactivate the conduits and slay the Pillar of Denial to bring down the barrier blocking the cave. Left with no other option, they would be forced to confront the Guardian within the cave itself. Ultimately even with their superior numbers and Prismatic shielding, the Shadow Legion would be bested by the Young Wolf once more, leaving the way to Crow clear.

Before the final battle with the Witness, the Coalition worked on mitigating the damage that had been done to the Traveler and thwart any schemes the Witness's minions had. The Shadow Legion had begun an operation aimed at harvesting the Traveler's Light directly, but Caiatl and Zavala became aware of their plans and sought to put a stop to them. Alongside the Guardian, Caiatl and forces disrupted many of the Shadow Legion's harvesting operations before engaging in a final clash against the Artillery Commander and a Goliath Tank, the latter in the presence of the memory of Zavala's former home.

In addition, the Guardian would help Micah-10 to do what they could to heal the Traveler and help to locate several lost Ghosts. One of these missions involved finding and saving Bean, a Ghost that was investigating the ruins of the Exodus Black on Nessus. Once they got close to the location, Micah, Cayde and the Guardian would detect what was believed to be a detachment of the Red Legion even though their leadership had been dismantled for some years, leading the team to think that a Cabal warlord was acting on their own or worse they were following the Shadow Legion. Overcoming their defenses and advancing deep into the planetoid toward the Insight Terminus, the Guardian would encounter an exact copy of Kargen, the Technocrat, that they had killed in the past. They would pursue and kill him, to prevent the Psion Flayer from tapping into the Vex Network again, thus discovering that the Cabal cloning technology was capable of even cloning Psions. After recovering Bean's signal, the Ghost would discover that Kargen's clone was trying to access Vex data on OXA, the Psion prediction machine that was able to see the future in branching paths, and also the Sol Divisive's research on the Veil. Even if they could not discover how the actions of the Psion were connected they would discover that the orders for this Cabal detachment were coming from Otzot leading the team to think that there might be defector branches within the Shadow Legion not loyal to the Witness and that the Psion defectors siding with the Black Fleet were just creating a deception to cover their own operations. The Ghost would also discover that what prevented Kargen from stealing the data from the Vex was Maya Sundaresh, still present in the Vex Network.

When a six Guardian fireteam infiltrated the Monolith to uproot the Witness from the Traveler and break its hold over the Light, the Shadow Legion would confront the fireteam to prevent them from ascending further. However, their onslaught would prove insignificant as they would be slain by the fireteam, who would confront the Witness and uproot its hold over the Traveler. As the Coalition alongside the Lucent Brood launch one final assault, the Shadow Legion alongside the other forces of the Witness would engage with the twelve Guardian fireteam attempting to eliminate their master. Ultimately, despite its unimaginable power, the Witness is defeated, as it is unmade by the Guardians harnessing the power of the Traveler's Light.

Nessian Scouting

At some point during the Upheaval on Nessus, remnants from House Dusk turned into Pirates would investigate the planetoid following the increased Vex and Coalition activity after the crash of an Echo. Under orders from Tarnus, Shadow Legion Taskmaster and Vire, Shard of Contempt, the Shadow Legion would start to work together with Fallen mercenaries, which included Jaxxiks, Shadow Legion Pawn and EM-0, Spiritless Machine, allowing them to use the Legion channels to communicate, modifying their bombs with their own technology and sending their forces and local commanders as support on the field. In addition Failsafe would detect the Fallen crews operating on Nessus repeatedly entering Shadow Legion territory with no incidents, leading Ikora Rey to speculate that a new force was driving the Shadow Legion to continue sending scouts to Nessus supported by the Fallen Pirates, offering them the security a House would normally provide but without understanding what in exchange for.

Structure

"The Shadow Legion are not the Cabal we are used to. We must not assume their strategies or tactics. They do not fight for honor or glory. They fight only for the Witness."

— Mithrax.

Fundamentally, the Shadow Legion bears little differences to either Calus's Loyalists or even the Red Legion, but only augmented by Pyramid technology. Unlike the Loyalists during Season of the Haunted, a majority of the Shadow Legion's soldiers are mainly deserters and traitors to the empire while a small number are fully grown cloned Cabal that have no independent thought or higher-brain functions beyond following the will of Calus and the Witness. However, as seen on Earth, prisoners of the Shadow Legion noted that when not being given orders, some of the soldiers just stood guard silently and breathe deeply, almost wheezing, which unnerved the prisoners more than anything. Devrim Kay would add to this during his recon missions on Shadow Legion troops, citing a lack of nuance in their voices and an "emptiness" within them. Crow would later further add that during his engagements with the Shadow Legion, stating that they "fight like Frames", mindlessly devoted to the orders they were given. Despite their lack of higher brain function, Shadow Legion clones such as Zo'aurc are still susceptible to nightmares induced by Nezarec.

One notable distinction within the Shadow Legion is that it employs the Tormentors, powerful Dread combatants that were manufactured from the imprint of fellow Disciple Nezarec, Final God of Pain and subservient to the Witness itself; acting as either personal agents of Calus or as specialized field commanders to combat the Guardians thanks to their abilities to drain a Guardian of their powers. Further, due to their shared service to the Witness, the Shadow Legion has also been seen to fight alongside the Taken, and later on other units of the Dread.

Members

Leadership

• Emperor Calus

Shadow Commanders Valus Valus Dravusk, Shadow Legion Valus Gathurn Valus Tharum, Gladiatorial Overseer Valus Pra'um Val Val Bho'kaurl Bracus Bracus Kravaum, Shadow Legion Bracus Viguln, Shadow Legion Bracus Zahn Flayer Sizmic, the Net-Desecrator Zatocc, Devoted to the Witness

Shadow Elites Artillery Commander Devourer of Tainted Light Garaask, Undying Inferno Gha'ram Head Chef Kar'uul, Indomitable Champion Ludus, Array Foreguard Rampaging Patron Tarnus, Shadow Legion Taskmaster Testu'udo, Array Bulwark Trask Vraxus, Shadow Legion Saboteur Vul'ourn, Shadow Legion Supply Master Warden Vincu'us, Shadow Legion Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets Tormentors Kavauust, Reverent of the Witness Toniq, Imprint of Nezarec Vereziia, Reverent of the Witness Vire, Shard of Contempt

Unique Forces

War Beast variants Honored War Beast Psion variants Interceptor Pilot Esteemed Psion Honored Psion Munitions Psion Orbital Security Psion Spotter Redolence of Decay Redolence of Splendor Sister of the Eclipse Legionary variants Esteemed Legionary Honored Legionary Patron Redolence of Decay Redolence of Splendor Shadow Guard Legionary Databank Courier Phalanx variants Esteemed Phalanx Honored Phalanx Net-Desecrator's Exploited Shadow Legion Data-Scraper Incendior variants Aspirant of Nezarec Esteemed Incendior Fortress Ship Gatekeeper Honored Incendior Patron Redolence of Decay Redolence of Splendor Shadow Legion Data-Scraper Shadow Guard Incendior Shadow Legion Code Bearer Unstoppable Incendior Unstoppable War Beast Keymaster War Beast Keymaster

Gladiator variants Esteemed Bruiser Excavation Valus Honored Gladiator Redolence of Decay Redolence of Splendor Sous Chef Centurion variants Aspirant of Nezarec Belligerent Patron Chalice Keymaster Cornerstone of the Witness Esteemed Centurion Fortress Ship Gatekeeper Honored Centurion Redolence of Decay Redolence of Splendor Shadow Guard Centurion War Beast Keymaster Colossus variants Aspirant of Nezarec Barrier Colossus Barrier Conquest Keymaster Conquest Keymaster Esteemed Colossus Excavation Valus Honored Colossus Infiltrator Valus Shadow Legion Engineer Terrestrial Lieutenant Witness's Conscript Tormentor variants Imprint of Nezarec Cavum of Nezarec

Technology

Weapons Scorpius Honored Scorpius Anti-Air Gun Vehicles Drop Pod Interceptor Goliath Tank Pyramid Goliath Thresher Harvester Cabal Carrier Astaroth Rex II Orbital Prison Ship Shadow Legion Flagship Vual Gaudium Cabal Warship Typhon Imperator (flagship)

Other Cabal Heavy Munitions Crux of Darkness Disruptor Array Injection Rig Mining Lander Portable Cabal Shield Pyramid Spike Radial Mast Suppressor Tech Pack

Gallery

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  Emblem of the Shadow Legion

Trivia

• Shadow Legion Psions and Centurions have their heads fully covered by their helmets, similar to their D1 counterparts.

List of appearances

• Destiny 2: Lightfall (First appearance)
  • Season of Defiance
  • Season of the Deep
  • Season of the Witch (Mentioned only)
  • Into the Light (Mentioned only)
• The Final Shape
  • Episode: Echoes