Anomaly (artifact)

This article is about the Lunar artifact. For other uses, see Anomaly.

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" It is lonely. It is impossibly, inexpressibly sad, beyond the capacity of the human limbic system to experience. But it is content in its loneliness, and in its beautiful sadness. It is the light of the first sunrise after your lover leaves forever. It is the acceptance before death. Transcendence lies not in the denial of attachments and limitations but in the complete understanding of our confinement and the tautological tyranny of existence. The final stage of Buddhism cannot be attained. There is no escape from samsara for it is as closed as a lock. Heaven is invaded and its territories are afire and all its mountains have been shattered into thrones. This is the inevitable and perfect shape of the truth.
It is magnificent. Majestic. Majestic."

— The thoughts of K1 Project Commander Kuang Xuan, while meditating in the presence of the Anomaly

The Anomaly, as it is referred to by the scholars of the Tower, is an artifact of the Black Fleet located on the Moon.

Overview

The Anomaly is a black, spherical object. It produces a subtle electromagnetic field which can interfere with human nerve impulses, although it is too weak to cause physical damage. It appears to be associated with the Darkness, which Clovis Bray I referred to as "Clarity" during his studies of the artifact.

History

Origins

During their initial study of the Anomaly, the K1 team determined that it had arrived on the Moon at some point before the Traveler came to the Sol System; Eris claimed that it was left on the Moon by the Black Fleet at some point in the past.

Golden Age

The Anomaly was first discovered during the late Golden Age, when the joint Clovis Bray-Aeronautics of China K1 research team detected "extra-spatial" activity and electromagnetic signals originating from beneath the surface of the Moon. The K1 team followed the signals and bored into a subterranean lava tube, upon which their instruments and boring machine failed instantly upon breaching the chamber, although the suits of the miners were inexplicably unaffected. Inside, the researchers discovered a black spherical object, which was determined to pre-date the arrival of the Traveler in the Sol System. The research site known as K1 was subsequently built to study the artifact, which the K1 project commander Kuang Xuan simply referred to as "the article".

Initially, the K1 research team assumed that the artifact was most likely associated with the Traveler; one researcher, Tanis, claimed that the artifact must be relaying signals from a distant origin point, which she speculated to be the Traveler's home.

Research staff at the K1 site soon began experiencing a range of adverse psycho-physiological effects, including insomnia, increased stress hormone levels, and hallucinations. Despite the troubling effects of proximity to the artifact, one researcher developed insights during a bout of insomnia that led to a breakthrough in the development of interstellar drive technology - a discovery which led directly to the development of the colony ships used in the Exodus Program.

Eventually, Alton Bray stepped in to claim possession of the artifact for the Clovis Bray corporation under the pretense of protecting the K1 team from its effects; a BrayTech device, the MASM Cladding and Containment Unit, was built to contain the artifact and limit its effects, after which it would be moved to a secure Clovis Bray facility elsewhere on the Moon. In addition to shielding the surrounding environment from the effects of the artifact, the MASM cladding unit also contained cells, organisms, and simulated copies of the brains of the K1 research team, which were intended to serve as early warning systems to alert researchers to the artifact's activity. However, it was found that proximity to the artifact did not adversely affect any of these elements, and that it appeared to selectively affect human minds.

The K1 team later determined that the antenna they had built at the Site Two facility was receiving the same signals that had previously been relayed by the artifact; the K1 researcher Yan hypothesized that by cycling through a seemingly arbitrary set of gravitational and electronuclear states derived from studying the artifact, the antenna transmitted a "password" that connected it to the higher-dimensional network the artifact seemed to utilize. Kuang Xuan subsequently decided that she should meditate in the presence of the antenna, upon which she received a vision seemingly related to the Darkness.

Later, Clovis Bray I communed with the artifact, and was instructed by it to go to Europa in search of a secret that would grant him immortality.

City Age

The Anomaly remains on the moon to the present day, contained within its dodecahedral cage. A Crucible field has been established in the research facility which holds the artifact.

Allegedly, a Titan once attempted to break through the Anomaly's containment unit, without success; however, she was killed by a Warsat exactly 24 hours later, suggesting that she may have triggered a defensive protocol put in place by Rasputin.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First appearance)
• Destiny 2: Shadowkeep (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Worthy
• Kuang Xuan's Logbook (Mentioned only)
• Mysterious Logbook (Mentioned only)