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Titan (moon)

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There is more information available on this subject at Titan (moon) on the English Wikipedia.
This article is about the moon of Saturn. For the Guardian class, see Titan (class).
“ A moon of Saturn, with a lost Golden Age utopia beneath its waves. ”
Titan
Titan Thumbnail.jpg
Astrographical

Star, position:

Sol, Saturn

Physical

Diameter:

5,150 kilometers

Gravity:

.14 g

Length of day:

15.94 days (synchronous)

Atmosphere:

Nitrogen (N1)
Methane (CH4)
Hydrogen (H1)

Surface temperature:

−179.2 °C

Societal

Population:

Hive
Fallen
Pyramids

Government:

Hive, House of Dusk, and Black Fleet occupation

 

"The great monuments of mankind's utopian Golden Age now lie toppled or half submerged within the rolling ocean that blankets the entire surface of Titan. All that remains is a flotilla of construction barges and a lone human habitat that serves as the perfect hiding place for some of humanity's scattered forces — and some far more sinister below"
— Website description

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn.[1] It was one of four destinations that was Taken by the Witness at the end of Season of Arrivals. It makes it return in Season of the Deep, albeit only in the form of seasonal activities.

Overview

Titan is covered by a methane ocean, its surface dotted by long-abandoned Golden Age structures such as the New Pacific Arcology that are slowly sinking below the waves. It has recently become infested by a new Hive sect, and is being picked over by scavengers from the Fallen House of Dusk.

According to the Drifter, Titan is subject to gravitational anomalies as a result of the events of the Collapse, with one effect of this being that pockets of air exist suspended in the depths of the ocean.

Titan's methane ocean is inhabited by a variety of life-forms, including at least one massive sea-serpent like creature.

History

The Golden Age

During the Golden Age, numerous great cities such as New Pacific Arcology were built on Titan and became the envy of the rest of the Sol System.[2] These cities were intended to be entirely self-sustaining due to the inhospitable nature of Titan's surface.[3] Settlements on Titan were known to trade with other nearby worlds, such as Hyperion.[4] Scientists also flocked to Titan to escape the stifling influence of organizations like Clovis Bray and carry out independent research.[5] The moon was never terraformed by the Traveler, although 97% of New Pacific Arcology's residents hoped it would be chosen soon.[6]

The Collapse

Titan was one of the first places in the Sol System to detect the arrival of the Darkness, and consequently one of the first places to experience the Collapse. A deep-space probe launched by a team under Dr. Shanice Pell encountered an inexplicable anomaly before losing contact with New Pacific Arcology.[7] Not long after, the Darkness attacked Titan's arcologies by pulling on its oceans with a gravitational anomaly, deforming it into an oval and causing its tides to rise four times higher than normal. When the anomaly vanished, Titan was released back into its original shape, unleashing a massive tidal wave and quake which badly damaged the arcologies.[8][9]

As the Arcology researched the anomaly, they came across the true nature of the Black Fleet independently of other groups that had done the same. Although Arcology scientists attempted to distribute this information to the rest of Sol, Rasputin determined this would pose a greater threat to humanity than the Black Fleet itself and activated TWILIGHT EXIGENT, using his arsenal to secure the research and stop it from leaving Titan at any cost. He eventually succeeded by using a Warsat to kill all of the scientists who had studied the anomaly by destroying their evacuation shuttle. For unknown reasons, TWILIGHT EXIGENT remained active throughout the Collapse, and all civilian survivors who managed to evacuate the moon were swiftly exterminated by further orbital bombardment.

By the end of the Collapse, all Human life on the moon was either drowned by the Black Fleet or shot down by Rasputin.

City Age

The moon's cities remained completely abandoned for centuries, slowly decaying and sinking into the methane ocean. Guardians such as Cayde-6 used Titan as a rest stop during journeys to and from the outermost reaches of the system.[10] Shortly before the Red War, however, a new Hive brood colonized Titan's ruins. When a group of newly-Lightless Guardians under Commander Zavala fled to Titan, hoping to use it as a secret base from which to launch a counteroffensive against the Red Legion, they found New Pacific Arcology heavily infested and nearly gave up on their plan.[2] Worse, Fallen from the House of Dusk had followed the Guardians from Earth, and began feuding with the Hive. Fortunately, thanks to the timely arrival of The Guardian, the support rigs outside the Arcology proper were sufficiently cleared to allow Guardians to secure the command center and City jumpships to refuel there.[11]

Around the time of the Almighty's descent upon The Last City, the Pyramids themselves had finally reached the outer Sol System. After corrupting Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus, the Pyramids set their sights on Titan.

A month after the arrival of a Pyramid on Io, another Pyramid arrived on Titan, holding position outside of the New Pacific Arcology. It was the first of the newer Pyramids to start deploying Pyramid Scales on the Arcology, antagonizing the Hive and Fallen there.

Several months after the arrival of the Black Fleet, they caused the moon along with Io, Mercury, and Mars to mysteriously disappear, just as the Traveler healed itself.

Reappearance

Following the climactic battles over Earth and Neptune between the Vanguard Coalition and the Black Fleet, the Guardians unexpectedly received a distress signal coming from Titan, specifically from Deputy Commander Sloane, who had been missing since the moon disappeared after the Pyramids' initial arrival. Gathering a team involving the Guardian, Zavala, Saint-14 and Lord Saladin, the group head to Titan to find their comrade and bring her home. However, after arriving, the team encountered legions of Hive and Taken serving Xivu Arath. Despite this, the Guardians were able to pinpoint Sloane's location as one kilometer below the surface of the methane sea, forcing them to use a pressure device built by the Drifter, who had also traveled to Titan, to survive the depths long enough to reach Sloane's position.

Arriving at Sloane's location, the team finds her alive but partially afflicted with Taken energies. She informs them at the distress signal she made wasn't made for her but for a massive underwater creature she befriended during her time away, named Ahsa. Sloane clarified that Ahsa is an old enemy of The Witness, and therefore bears valuable intelligence regarding their shared foe, but to communicate with her clearly she needs to strengthen her connection. The Drifter stated he could use his Gambit tech along with the egregore that was growing in the methane sea. Zavala approves of the mission to help Sloane, with Guardians delving deep into the methane seas to gather what they need. In addition, the Guardians partook in salvage operations for the Vanguard and the Drifter, clashing with the Wrathborn Hive and Fallen from the House of Dusk that had disappeared when Titan vanished but had been driven mad over the course of the moon's absence.

The Coalition would be successful in this endeavor, learning of the Witness's origins and Savathun's role to follow it through the portal and put a stop to its plans. With the mission complete, Sloane volunteered to stay on Titan so she could keep on Ahsa while the creature's on hibernation.

Locations

Trivia

  • One of the legends of the Nine states that they are ancient leviathan intelligences originating from either Europa or Titan.[12]
  • In the Beyond Light Collector's Edtion Vanguard Report, it is stated that Europa has "some vague abyssal connection to Titan and Enceladus" but these rumours are "unsubstantiated".
  • Contrary to its depiction in Destiny 2, Titan's surface is actually mostly water and rock with methane and hydrocarbons being a chief component in its lakes as discovered by the Cassini–Huygens mission. Overall the lakes cover a very small percentage of the surface, making Titan drier than Earth.
    • In The Liar Lore book, it is stated that Titan was manually terraformed in some way by Golden Age humans, though it is unclear what the purpose was if the result was flooding the moon with liquid methane.[13]
    • The Last Days on Kraken Mare Lore book implies that Titan as seen in-game was a change brought on by the Black Fleet as it passed by and gravitationally deformed the moon during the Collapse, though this does not explain where the liquid methane for the global ocean came from.[14]
  • In reality, Titan's dense atmosphere obscures the surface from visible light and makes the moon appear orange. Its in-game appearance was likely inspired by false color images of Titan constructed using ultraviolet and infrared photography, through which the surface is also visible.
  • Sloane is seen on Titan with her face and arms exposed; given that Titan has apparently not been terraformed by the Traveler, and that methane becomes liquid at -161.49 degrees Celsius (-258.68 degrees Fahrenheit), it is unknown how she can survive without protective equipment.
    • In the Duress and Egress Lore book, Sloane responds with "because I moisturize" when questioned about this.[15]
  • Titan is the second smallest public location in Destiny 2 after Mercury, with the second-lowest amount of Lost Sectors and Adventures as well. Much like the Moon in Destiny, which served as the Hive's main lair, most of the map takes place deep within Hive-infested dungeons that are not public spaces.
  • Before Shadowkeep, Titan was the only location in Destiny 2 not to feature Cabal as enemies in any capacity. Since then, the Moon has had no Cabal enemies on it either.

Gallery

  • Splash image of an area on Titan

  • The methane ocean of Titan, dotted with Golden Age structures

  • A lone Titan scouts out the landscape of Titan

  • Pre Hive New Pacific Arcology.

  • Seafloor of Titan.

List of appearances

References

  1. ^ Bungie (2015/3/4), Destiny: Activision Blizzard, Grimoire: Saturn
  2. ^ a b Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Hope, Zavala dialogue
  3. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Ghost Scan TM-RIG-1.
  4. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Ghost Scan TM-RIG-5.
  5. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: "New Pacific" armor, class item lore
  6. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Utopia, New Pacific Arcology OS announcements
  7. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: "New Pacific" armor flavor text
  8. ^ Bungie (2019/10/1), Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, Kalki's Burning Sword, Part II
  9. ^ Bungie (2019/10/1), Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, Lore: SUNDOWN DISTRESS
  10. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Cayde-6 Treasure Map flavor text
  11. ^ Bungie (2017/26/10), Destiny 2: Xbox One, Activision Blizzard: Riptide
  12. ^ Bungie (2015/3/4), Destiny: Activision Blizzard, Grimoire: Ghost Fragment: Legends 2
  13. ^ Bungie (2020/3/10), Destiny 2: Season of the Worthy, Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, Lore: The Liar
  14. ^ Bungie (2019/10/1), Destiny 2: Season of the Undying, Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, Lore: Last Days on Kraken Mare
  15. ^ Bungie (2020/6/9), Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals, Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, Lore: Duress and Egress

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