Quria, Blade Transform

Quria, Blade Transform
Biographical information
Other name(s):	The Dreaming Mind
Species:	Vex (formerly) ; Taken
Faction:	Blood of Oryx (formerly) ; Savathûn's Brood ; Sol Collective (temporarily controlled)
Rank:	Ultra
Class:	Taken Hydra
Combat information
Mission:	The Lost Splicer (briefly) ; Expunge: Delphi
Weapon(s):	Taken Aeon Maul
Abilities:	Take ; Simulate ; Summon Vex ; Summon Taken ; High Durability ; Midair Levitation ; Temporal Disintegration Protocol ; Temporal Shockwave ; Rotating Shields

Quria, Blade Transform, also known as the Dreaming Mind^[1], was a Vex Axis Mind Hydra that was Taken by Oryx in the ancient past.^[2] Created by the Vex to conquer Oryx's Throne World and unravel its secrets by gaining an understanding of the Sword Logic, Quria was defeated and Taken by Oryx, but was allowed a measure of free will. The Taken King later gifted the Mind to his sister, Savathûn.

Following Oryx's death, Quria was utilized by Savathûn to command the remaining Taken and create new ones, with Quria having acquired the ability to Take via paracausally-enhanced simulations of Oryx.^[3]

Later, Quria played an integral role as the architect of the Endless Night, and served as the season antagonist for Season of the Splicer. It was ultimately defeated by the Guardians with the assistance of Mithrax.

Biography

The Ancient Past

"I have to kill everything. Then I will be powerful."

— Quria, deducing the Sword Logic.

Quria's origin can be traced to an ancient conflict between the Vex and the Hive. Crota once aspired to match the powers of his sisters and cut open a wound into an unknown region of space to obtain a new power. However, he unknowingly released the Vex onto the throne world of Oryx.^[4] The machines quickly dominated his father's throne, but they could not understand the Sword Logic and were thus unable to fully control the Throne World. The Vex reformulated their strategy and manifested Quria with the explicit task of deducing the metaphysical framework that governed Oryx's realm. Quria applied itself to this problem and came to a simple conclusion: for the Vex to gain power through the Sword Logic, they must kill everything.^[5]

Quria summoned a warrior class of Vex to flood the Throne World through the portal Crota had opened. Crota attempted to fight these Vex, but despite his efforts, they managed to slaughter thousands of Hive and entrenched themselves within the Throne World.

Quria, Blade Transform invading the throne world of Oryx.

The rest of the Hive launched their own attack against the Vex incursion, with the Deathsinger twins Ir Anûk and Ir Halak constructing an Annihilator Totem to repel the Vex, whilst Crota attempted to close the gate he opened. Quria prevented this by instancing itself on the other side of the portal and building a device to keep it open. The Mind organized a series of test invasions to better exploit the paracausal physics of the Throne World.

For centuries the Hive and Vex clashed against each other, leading to a stalemate as neither party was able to leave their home territory, as the Vex would be annihilated in the Throne World, whilst the Hive lost too much power when they left the Throne World to fight the Vex at their source.^[5]

To gain a further understanding of the Sword Logic and the Darkness, Quria captured Worm larvae for experimentation, which led it to discover that directing worship towards the Worms granted mild paracausal abilities. Quria thus created a new Vex priesthood and directed its subminds to worship the Worms. For reasons unknown, Quria refrained from introducing the Worms into its own organic mind fluid, possibly because its observations of the Hive revealed the dangers of the parasitic symbiosis.

Simulating the Taken King

At the behest of his patron Eir, Oryx returned to his Throneworld and quickly turned the Vex against each other by converting some of them into Taken. Quria was unable to adapt to the new threat and was repelled from the Throne World along with its forces.

Quria later ambushed Oryx inside the Nicha Thought-ship after he destroyed the Harmonious Flotilla Invincible war fleet with his newly constructed Dreadnaught.^[6] Quira however, was no match for the Taken King's might and was beaten into submission. But before Oryx could deliver the killing blow, Quria projected a simulation of his former self, Aurash. Oryx had a conversation with the simulated Aurash, while Quria observed and transmitted what it gathered to the greater Vex. Eventually, Oryx, intrigued by Quria's unique abilities, Took the Vex mind^[7] and gifted it to Savathûn so that she could study it. However, Oryx had left Quria some of its free will intact so that it could surprise her.^[8] While in the Witch Queen's care, Savathûn taught Quria to harness Hive magic and apply it to computational problem-solving. Using this, Quria learned how to navigate and solve unsolvable problems, such as how to navigate a singularity. Quria also studied the simulation of Aurash it made before being taken. After observing the simulation for an indeterminate amount of time, Quria was eventually able to perfectly simulate the Taken King himself and, through it, learned and mastered the power to Take.^[3].

The Taken of Quria

Following the Red War, Hidden agents on Io reported observations of the local Taken forces behaving strangely toward the Vex. The Guardian was enlisted by Ikora Rey to investigate and found Vex imprisoned within Taken rifts. This caused alarm as Asher Mir noted that the absence of Oryx meant the Taken shouldn't have the capacity to capture even the most simple-minded Vex. The Guardian then tracked a Vex distress signal broadcasted from the Spine Burrows and confronted a Taken Knight called Ir Arok, Tongue of Quria. Ir Arok escaped as another Taken, Elatiox, Beloved of Quria, appeared to battle the Guardians, but was quickly defeated.^[9]

Ikora feared the Taken may have found new leadership and asked the Guardian to investigate a Cabal base that reportedly had a lot of Taken activity. They found more Vex were being abducted through dimensional rifts, trapped within containment fields and forcefully transformed into Taken by drowning them in the Blights energies. As they ventured into the main Taken conversion site, Ir Arok was spotted again but left the scene, leaving a newly corrupted Erosus to fight the Guardian. Following its defeat, Ikora suspected that the Taken were now building an army.^[10] The Taken were later spotted near the Pyramidion and the Guardian finally cornered Ir Arok near the warp gate of the Vex Collective. While Ir Arok met its demise, some Taken however got through the Vex warp gate.^[11]

The Dreaming Curse

"Quria is the key. The Mind simulates Oryx, and thereby masters the power to Take. But of course, Quria is no power unto itself."

— Toland, the Shattered

When Riven met her demise at the hands of the Guardians, it fed on their collective wish to save the Dreaming City and granted a Last Wish where it manifested a Taken Curse. The Hive with the assistance of the directionless Taken were able to assault the City and targeted important temples and relics that contained many Awoken secrets. The Guardian took action and defeated the Disciples of Quria, Inkasi and Ur Haraak, that were lurking within the lost regions of the City and prevented the Grasp of Quria, Vaksari, from enacting a restoration ritual within the Ascendant Plane.

They defeated the Curse at The Shattered Throne, however, the Curse took its true shape whereby the Dreaming City entered a state of perpetual time loop in which past events repeated themselves every 3 weeks and tied to the death of Dûl Incaru. Ghost noted that the closest records pointed to Vex simulations, but believed the Curse was far too cruel to be a simulation.^[12] Osiris shared his thoughts to Petra Venj and reported that only Vex simulations were capable of this level of fidelity, but due to no Vex presence within the City, they believed the Taken and Hive were behind this.^[13] In the third cycle, Ghost observed that the timing of the loop felt like clockwork similar to a Vex simulation. Sedia agreed and suspected that a Vex Mind may have helped orchestrate the Curse, but went no further with details.^[14]

When the Guardian came into contact with Toland in the Ascendant Plane, he explained that the Curse was a prototype of something far more cunning^[15] and mentioned that Quria was the key. Its paracasual state of being Taken allowed it to fully simulate the Taken King to command the Taken and to Take, but Toland noted that the Mind did not have the power itself.^[3] Quria's ability to Take differed from Oryx who was able to transform beings at will, whilst the new Taken army were previously observed to have been transformed through the overexposure of Blights.

A Lie to Power

As more weeks progressed, the Guardian received a series of cryptic messages encoded within glimmer that purportedly spoke truth to power. The very nature of speaking truth to power is a non-violent political tactic employed by dissidents against an established authority. Previously, Savathûn noted that Oryx's own doctrines were filled with lies and now attempted to challenge those Hive ideas with her own. However, these messages were a tool by Savathûn to express her radical Hive ideas and to manipulate the perceptions of the Guardian through a convoluted mess of lies and half-truths.^[16]

Quria's Interference

Prior to the arrival of Black Fleet into the Solar System, Nokris sought an audience with his aunt, Savathûn, and both came to an accord to exchange secrets. The Witch Queen desired Nokris's knowledge of Necromancy, whilst the High Priest wanted to witness the talents of the Dreaming Mind, Quria. Nokris was then instructed act as an interference between the Pyramids and Guardians.^[1] To aid his efforts, Quria began to direct its force onto the moons of Io and Titan which allowed the Taken to draw power from the nearby infestations of Darkness.^[17]^[18] As the Guardians attempted to make contact, the Wills of Quria intercepted them on various fronts. Eris Morn noted that Savathûn commanded great strength to wield Quria and believed the presence of Quria's Taken on Titan meant the Queen was threatened by the communications between the Pyramids and Guardians.^[17]^[19]

The Endless Night

"I see you. Crawling around my domain like insects. This realm answers only to one master. You are nothing. You know nothing of power. Thrashing around like a wounded animal. Unaware that you are already dead. Your failure is written in time. I have seen your grave. I see you. Rent asunder… Broken… Taken."

— Quria, "speaking" to The Guardian

Following the Clash of the Chosen, a shroud of night engulfed the Last City. Requiring assistance, Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey and Savathûn, under the guise of the Warlock Osiris, asked the Kell of the House of Light, Mithrax, for help.^[20] Mithrax agreed, in exchange for aiding the House of Light in evading the Vex. On their first incursion to the Outer Nexus of the Vex Network, Quria detected the Guardian's presence after they had eliminated the Subjugated Curator. It attempted to purge the Lightbearer from the system while countering Mithrax's attempts to create an exit but failed to stop the Kell from retrieving them moments after its first sighting.^[21]

After multiple intrusions in the Vex Network's Outer Nexus, Mithrax eventually deciphered that Quria and, by extension, Savathûn were behind the Endless Night. Mithrax would spend weeks deciphering Quria's location in the Network. During each incursion into the Nexus, Quira would send secret communications to the Guardian telling them that their failure was written in time and claiming that it had seen the Guardian's grave.^[22]

Sometime after the Young Wolf destroyed Dimio, Oppressive Mind Reborn, Mithrax uncovered Quria's location at the core of the Vex domain. After going through the Nexus one final time, the Guardian would reach Quria's domain and confront the Dreaming Mind directly. Quria would put up a fight using both Vex protocols and Taken forces, but it would ultimately be destroyed with only its head remaining. Saint-14 would be ecstatic to hear the news of Quria's demise, while Ikora and Mithrax remain skeptical of that being the end of the Witch Queen's scheme.^[23]

Even after Quria's death, the Endless Night would continue and would only be lifted after weeks of work from Mithrax's Splicers. Additionally, Savathûn would lose control of the Taken after Quria's destruction, which would quickly fall under the control of their orignal master for Xivu Arath to use.^[24]

Gameplay

Quria begins the encounter by putting up two pairs of rotating circular shields, making head-on combat unadvised. Each shield set is powered by an Ultra located on the edges of the battlefield named the Evaluator of Savathûn and Nexus Minotaur. These Minotaurs must be destroyed to make Quria vulnerable. The Evaluator of Savathûn, a Taken Minotaur, is located on the left side of the battlefield while the Nexus Minotaur is on the right. Both are protected by a shield that must be taken down by delivering an authentication key to a deposit, which will leave them vulnerable. Once the key is inserted, the Minotaur becomes killable, and doing so will result in one of Quria's sets of shields being destroyed, as well as its immunity shield until a third of its health is drained. Repeat this for the other Minotaur on the other side of the arena and Quria will become permanently damageable.

Quria itself can be a formidable foe if fought without a strategy. While completely immobile, the Dreaming Mind has a wide arsenal of weaponry it can use to overwhelm its attacker. Its main way of attack is with a shower of explosives from its Aeon Maul. Once its shields are removed, it will begin launching Temporal Disintegration Protocol walls, that move quickly and remove a third of the attacker's health regardless of any defenses. On top of its own weaponry, Quria summons swarms of Taken Psions to pressure the attacker, pairs of Taken Hobgoblins which can quickly finish off a foe after being weakened by Quria's Disintegration Protocols, and occasionally simulates a Seeker, which can detain anything it makes contact with, which can lead to a quick death if successfully landed.

Despite how powerful Quria is, it still has weaknesses. Due to its immobile state, precision-based weapons like Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles and Machine Guns are much easier to use. Quria's shields can also be bypassed via a weapon capable of piercing barriers. It is advised to finish the fight as quickly as possible as Quria's whole strategy revolves around overwhelming and trapping the opponent with its Seekers, constant summoning of Taken Psions and the splash damage from its Aeon Maul preventing shield regeneration.

Trivia

Quria might be derived from the Greek Kyría (κυρία), which translates to "lady". Related Kýrios (Κύριος) means Lord and is a common title for Jesus Christ of Christianity.
- It may also be a portmanteau of "Query" (A question) and "Curia". (A group of institutions within the Roman Catholic church) Quria was created to answer a question, and its answer was to mimic the religious behaviour of the Hive.
Quria is the second known Taken in Destiny to retain at least partial control of its will, after Malok, Pride of Oryx and before Riven of a Thousand Voices.
In the same lore entries that describe the (supposed) first contact between it and The Guardian, the Vex simulation includes a facsimile of Master Rahool decrypting the vessel of Medusa into a Shader, two generic tokens, and a non-descript rare-quality item. This is a reference to the meme "two tokens and a blue" in the Destiny community.
Quria is the second Hydra that has been observed to have arms and additional appendages, the first being Panoptes, Infinite Mind.