Precursors (Species)

“

Boons I grant you, oh bearer mine, but debts must be paid in time.

”

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"...three words, nine word bursts over and over..."This article is based on canon information, but the article title is conjectural, as there is currently no official name for the subject. See the talk page for more information.

This article is about the ancient species that formed the Witness. For the Vex Subtype, see Precursors.

Precursors
Overview
Focal world(s):	System R-3TN-PLRMA
Goals:	Finding purpose in the Traveler (formerly) Define different interpretations of the Final Shape (formerly)
Distinctions:	Pale white skin
Notable group(s):	Bountiful Consensus Penitent Nihilist Solipsist
Notable individual(s):	HNW047622 RS6243199

The Precursors were an ancient humanoid species, believed to be the first to be blessed by the Traveler. However, despite enjoying a Golden Age that lasted for eons, they gradually grew dissatisfied with the Traveler's lack of communication and guidance, and began to crave meaning and purpose. As a result, they sought to enforce meaning and purpose upon the universe, and eventually discovered another paracausal entity, the Veil, which held the means to achieve this goal. Upon attempting to combine the Veil's Darkness with the Traveler's Light and reshape the universe into a Final Shape, the Traveler fled their homeworld. The Precursors then used the Veil's power to shed their corporeal forms and merge themselves into a single, unfathomably powerful Darkness-wielding being: the Witness.

Overview

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Architecture

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History

Origin

In ancient times, the Precursors were once a nomadic people who trekked through the desert of a desolate world for survival. However, they would enter a Golden Age after discovering a large white orb buried in the sand they would call the Gardener. The Gardener terraformed the deserts into fertile deltas and lush gardens and gifted the Precursors with the means of building great cities and ships that let them travel to other worlds that they could terraform themselves.

However, despite all they had been given these gifts, the Precursors desired meaning and guidance from the Gardener but it never spoke to them. In time, they began to see the Light the Gardener provided as a source of chaos instead of prosperity. As such, the Precursors sought a "Winnower" to shape the garden and began to idealize a "Final Shape" to the universe.

In time, various factions of Precursors would form under a consensus, all with their own interpretations of how to enact the Final Shape. The Solipsist believed that one's self is the only existing "Final Shape" in this reality and all other realities. The Nihilists, who were described as "self-flagellating pessimists", believed that the Final Shape would only be brought upon by their own destruction. The Penitent desired to rid the universe of all suffering by any means and believed that anyone who did not act to do so was complicit in its repetitive cycle. Two other groups known as the Bountiful, who had erroneously destroyed themselves with the Gardener's gifts, and the Primacy, who had used the Gardener's gifts for subjugation, were mentioned to have existed.

When Precursors Scholars discovered an entity with a connection to the Gardener known as the Veil, they claimed it. They began studying it, eventually discovering the power of Darkness, which had their means to carve away the chaos of existence and calcify it into the Final Shape. But, when they attempted to link the Veil to the Gardener to strengthen the connection between them and allow them to shape reality to their idealized state, the Gardener fled from their word as it was unwilling to allow this.

Unwilling to give up in their pursuit of the Final Shape, the Precursors, now fully under the control of the Penitent after eliminating both the Nihilists and Solipists, would use the powers of Darkness to merge their collective consciousness, into a single being, one that would be both incredibly powerful and incapable of doubt or dissent in its goal of the Final Shape. This being would come to be known as the Witness.

Dissidents

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List of appearences

• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (First mentioned)
  • Season of the Deep (Mentioned only)
  • The Final Shape (First appearance)
• Entelechy (Mentioned only)