Loyalists

Loyalists
Overview
Objectives:	Royal Guard Calus' Supporters
Deployed:	Nessus Orbit (formerly) Watcher's Grave Meridian Bay Moon Orbit
At war with:	Vanguard Imperial Cabal Sol Collective Savathûn's Brood Red Legion
Allied with:	Black Fleet Scorn Nightmares Xivu Arath's Horde Shadow Legion

"The Leviathan is now home to the last of us true Cabal. We will remember the old ways, for I am the wellspring from which our great civilization flows."

— Emperor Calus

The Loyalists are Emperor Calus's loyal followers and guardsmen following his exile aboard The Leviathan.

History

The Midnight Exile

Cabal Loyalists

"They would have killed me, but I was too beloved and too glorious. So they sent me away into resplendent exile upon this Grand Leviathan."

— Ex-Emperor Calus

The Loyalists were formed upon the enactment of the Midnight Coup by Ghaul, the Consul and his Co-conspirators. Knowing that the act of killing Calus would be too great an outrage to quell, Ghaul and the Red Legion instead exiled Calus aboard his own craft, a titanic prison ship The Leviathan along with any and all supporters of him. It was said whilst the Consul spit in the face of Calus and enjoyed the moment of the Coup all too well, Ghaul refused to look Calus in the eyes presumably out of shame. From here, Calus and his Loyalists would be locked in the area of the Leviathan now known as the Menagerie.

The Leviathan would travel on a predetermined course set to essentially fly it to the furthest reaches of Space. On this course, the Loyalists and Calus would fly past the outer fringes of the Cabal Empire, and to the horrors of primarily Calus, grieve for their home people. What had been the lavish and 'pleasures' of Calus' old Empire, where art was celebrated as much as war had become an industrial, militant, and brutal regime of martial self-sufficiency and grit.

Passing by more of the Empire, Calus and his Loyalists witnessed even the face of the Imperial Navy change from proud, independent cruisers to swarms of ugly and crude frigates and warships. Observing the Red Legion assault a Hive War moon, Councilor Match spoke with many other Loyalists on how the Cabal could fend against the Hive. His answer came from another Psion who believed the Cabal could not beat the Hive, but merely fight them off long enough to live their lives.

The Black Edge

The Leviathan

"Is this the edge of the universe? Space cannot have an end: it goes on forever. But a hole in forever would be a kind of edge... a flaw, a defect, a place outside place..."

— Councilor Match

Eventually, after when Calus had stopped cursing Ghaul and the Loyalists had long parted from the fringes of Cabal Space the Leviathan was sudden and abruptly stopped. The Leviathan had come up against an expanse of utter nothingness, at the very edge of the universe, shorting out the navigation systems and the course the conspirators had set. Calus looked into the void and came to an understanding, believing that it had chosen him to herald its inevitable victory. He would watch it consume the light of the universe, and all among the last of the living would know his greatness. While Calus viewed the edge in this way, celebrating it and having it give him newfound purpose and rejuvenation, the Loyalists were terrified by him and thought he had suffered trauma and hallucinations from his pressure suit malfunctioning.

After Calus' and the Loyalists' encounter with the Black edge, it was found the ship had sprung back to life and the Loyalists toiled to undoing the sabotage made by the Red Legion along with seeking to expand the elements of the Leviathan so that they may thrive. With control of the Leviathan back in his hands, Calus set out on a long voyage of his own, "[plumbing] the secret places of the cosmos", visiting strange realms and old ruins. This cemented both his conviction that his hedonistic philosophy was correct and his intent to retake his empire. Along the way, he gathered forces to strengthen his Loyalists.

The Rise of Shadows

The ancient throne of Emperor Calus

"My Shadows are a chosen people, selected from the best of the best of each world I've encountered."

— Emperor Calus

Encountering many races, both old and new, such as the Clipse, Sindû, and Arkborn, Calus brought all of them into the folds of his Great Leviathan. He created the Shadows as his elite champions, allied with aliens such as the Clipse and the Sindu, and sent messages promising that whoever slew his conspirators would be given great wealth and glory. To the Clipse, he won their battered war after the Red Legion had abandoned them and brought aboard thousands into newly produced arcologies before obliterating the Clipse homeworld with the guns of Kaga-Clipse. To the Arkborn, Calus threatened them and their interstellar conduits during his exile aboard the Leviathan. One of them, known as The Fulminator, agreed to join him as a Shadow both to keep him away from her people and in exchange for a specially engineered containment suit that would allow her to move freely beyond her ark. Her departure outraged the rest of the Arkborn.

The Failed Assassination

Emperor Calus atop his throne

"On the day I lost the Shadows, Ghaul fought and killed Valus Nohr last"

— Emperor Calus

Eventually, he set a course for the Sol system, which the Red Legion was planning to assault. Many celebrations and ceremonies of countless victories were held by the Red Legion. One such ceremony would be interrupted by Rull and his assassination of Iska'al and Moli Imoli with Rull perishing before Ghaul just as he had killed the Everjoy. In the days immediately before the Red Legion set out to the Solar System to wipe out the Guardians, Calus deployed his Shadows to assassinate the various conspirators behind the coup that deposed him. While the Shadows succeeded in eliminating nearly everyone on Calus's hit list except Caiatl, Umun'arath, Otzot, The Consul and Dominus Ghaul, none of them survived their mission. Although they succeeded in infiltrating Ghaul's vessel, the Shadows perished one by one against overwhelming odds. Nohr slaughtered three hundred of Ghaul's best warriors with her bladed shield before facing off against the Dominus himself. She was the last Shadow standing, and Ghaul killed her, much to the grief of Calus.

Arrival in Sol

An Invitation

The Pleasure Gardens

"Calus loves these Guardians so. He loves them for their energy, their liveliness, their willingness to do whatever he asks in hope of a reward. He loves it when they dance."

— Councilor Match

Reaching Sol, Calus and the Loyalists learned of other warriors in the system that might serve his purposes. Arriving over Nessus after the death of Ghaul, the former Emperor of the Cabal and his Loyalists arrived in the Solar System aboard their massive craft and immediately set to work on reclaiming the Empire. He gave elements of the leaderless Red Legion the chance to "join the loyalist regime," sending them on missions to collect geological data on Nessus. These Red Legion, those that did not fail, would integrate with the Loyalist regime. Calus would also have Loyalist spies onboard The Almighty called the Crimson Shadow.

Calus extended an invitation also to The Guardian to board his vessel for slaying Ghaul. The Guardians accepted Calus' challenge and following a long journey through Calus' palace and defeating his loyalist army, the Guardians seemingly meet Calus in person in his throne room. Facing off against the exiled Cabal Emperor, the Guardians survive his strange powers and after dealing critical damage to him, they found that the Calus they were facing was really a robotic duplicate.

The many robots of Calus

Regardless, the Guardians succeed in destroying the robot. Before the destruction of the machine, Calus boasted about his power and claims to know the "real truth" about the galaxy and the purpose of the Traveler. Nonetheless, he rewards the Guardians for completing his challenge and offers them a place by his side should they seek him out.

Some months later, Emperor Calus called upon the Guardians again when his Leviathan broke off a chunk of Nessus that contained a powerful Axis Mind, Argos, Planetary Core, thus clogging up the massive vessel. After a perilous struggle against the Axis Mind, the Guardians succeed in disabling its shield and destroying the Mind. However, with Argos's shield gone, the Guardians were soon to be devoured by the inferno of the Leviathan. Fortunately, Calus saves the Guardians and rewards them for their success and the Cabal Emperor once again offers them more than just the power of the Light, as Calus demonstrated that he can keep them safe. He also cryptically warns them that the "end" is near and therefore must be ready, as he will find them again.

The Red Siege

The Red Legion besieging the Leviathan

"I will take the Leviathan for the Red Legion. The great machine is a weapon of the Cabal, and if Calus holds no allegiance to his people, then he is not worthy to wield it."

— Val Ca'uor

Sometime later, following the end of the Red War, in the vacancy that was left behind by Ghaul's death, Val Ca'uor took advantage of the power vacuum and quickly asserted himself as the commander of the Red Legion. Under his direction, he hoped to resupply the Red Legion by pillaging Vex technology from Mercury and gather energy from Mars to regain their strength following the failure to capture the Traveler and defeat the Guardians.

After Xol, Will of the Thousands was killed, Val Ca'uor led a fleet against The Leviathan in order to kill Emperor Calus and seize the ship for the Red Legion's purposes. To the Red Legion and Ca'our respectively, the Loyalists and Calus had betrayed the Cabal people and proven themselves as traitors by not assisting the Cabal in the Red War which would have been their Salvation. In a great siege, Ca'our and the Red Legion slaughtered countless Loyalists through their conquest of the Leviathan's internals and Spire. Ca'our had even managed to nearly slay a robotic Calus duplicate before meeting his end by the Guardians. It would later be found out this Raid was unauthorized by the Vanguard and solely Guardians heeding Calus and Calus alone.

It would appear despite the Guardians' intervention, a vast amount of Loyalists had been killed as every proceeding encounter on the Leviathan with the Loyalists afterwards shows far fewer Cabal members.

During the time of Forsaken, Calus had begun to slip some Loyalist spies amongst the Red Legion's ranks such as Taurg, Disguised by the Emperor. Many of these spies were former Red Legion themselves.

Depths of The Menagerie

Pathway to the Kingdom of Sorrow

"There is a dark place aboard my ship where you have never been. Where I was reborn. Like you were reborn. The Menagerie awaits you, Guardian."

— Emperor Calus

Prior to the events of Season of Opulence, Calus broke his promise to the Fulminator upon her dissipation. He returned to the interstellar conduits and, with the aid of his Loyalist Councilors, kidnapped many of the Arkborn, imprisoning them within a section of his Menagerie.

His Shadows agents had also laid siege to a Hive War moon and uncovered an Ascendant Hive artifact called the Crown of Sorrow. Calus' Councilors concluded that the Crown was a two-way seeing device into the Ascendant Realm, and he later sought to use it in order to subjugate the Hive under his rule. This however was a desperate ploy by Savathûn, the Witch Queen in order to take control of Calus. But he however saw through this minor trick and didn't have any intention of putting it on himself as he desired a Shadow to do it for him.

Sometime following the Guardians' recent battles with the Kell's Scourge and dealings with the Drifter, Emperor Calus was able to create what he believed to be the perfect candidate to utilize the power of the Crown of Sorrow through Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer. Though Gahlran was bred to control the artifact to further Calus's goals, he was ultimately consumed by it as Savathûn's influence was too strong for the Shadow, which allowed her Hive to infest the deep treasure vaults of the Leviathan.

Calus enlisting the help of his new Shadows

Calus called up the Guardians to form a Raid team to purge his spacecraft of Gahlran and his Hive. The Guardians traversed the treasure vaults and encounter many dangerous Hive rituals but manage to persevere and reach Galhran himself. Despite the Crown granting Gahlran great dark Hive powers, the Guardians managed to slay the Sorrow-bearer, completely purging the Hive from the Leviathan. Calus, pleased with their continued successes, rewards the Guardians with great riches and officially names them one of his Shadows.

However, Gahlran's usage of the Crown of Sorrow had caused even worse side effects as its power had unexpectedly torn open rifts into the Ascendant realm centered around the upper decks of the Leviathan. Calus sent his Loyalists to investigate and located the framework of an old weapon of Toland himself. Following the creation of the Guardian's Tribute Hall in commemoration of the Guardian's feats, Calus informed him that an unknown power began to dwell within the Ascendant portions of the Leviathan and tasked them to find the corporeal essence. After a vigorous battle between the Taken and Cabal within the Ascendant Realm, they would meet with Toland who had asked the Guardian to feed the essence through killing, thus locking the essence back into his creation and claiming the weapon for themselves.

The Guardian's accession to Shadow became sour news towards some in the Last City, particularly the Warlock Aunor Mahal, who believed that Calus is subverting the Guardians' priorities, brought her concerns and findings to the Vanguard. She proposed that the Last City should storm the Leviathan and take Calus out before his plans come to fruition. Unfortunately for the Praxic Warlock, while the Vanguard acknowledged that Calus was no ally, he kept the Red Legion in check and supplied the Guardians, nor did they wish to start a war with him. They reasoned that in time, Calus's influence over the Guardians will fall and if the Cabal Emperor does make a wrong move, they will not hesitate to send a strike team. Calus and his Loyalists in the meantime employ the use of Guardians to acquire old relics from Red Legion deserters.

Dawn, Worthy, and Arrivals

" Without its leader, does the Red Legion remain united under a shared purpose? Or has the deposed Emperor slipped his followers into their ranks?"

— Osiris

After The Undying Mind's final destruction, the timeways over Mercury have been undone and a council of Red Legion Psion Flayers aimed to take advantage of the Vex's disorganization to assume control over time itself and undo their defeat during the Red War. Their meddling with Osiris's time-altering Sundial resulted in Mercury fracturing into three different eras, each with its own timelines dictated by the Psion Flayers. The Guardians team up with Osiris to ensure the safety of time, preserve the present, and save a legend, Saint-14. During this, there were accounts of the Red Legion offering bulk of tribute in the form of Light and Vex technology to other Legions and Calus and his Loyalists themselves. It is uncertain, however, if these offerings extended from the confines of the Sundial or not. Judging from the Red Legion's following play in Season of the Worthy, it can be inferred they did not.

Upon Season of the Worthy, Calus employed a Shadow agent to steal The Fourth Horseman, an infamous Cabal-killing weapon, to eliminate multiple key Red Legionnaires across the system. This Shadow, however, was caught and killed by emissaries of her daughter Empress Caiatl, and the shotgun cached away by the Red Legion, later to be recovered by the Guardians once more.

Following the second arrival of the Pyramids in the Sol System, Calus and his Loyalists disappeared along with the Leviathan, abandoning their barge on Nessus. With Caiatl seeking to raise the Red Legion once more and rally the remnants, she has commanded the Legion to seek Calus and the Leviathan and bring them forth to her.

Experiments on the Glykon

After the disappearence of the planets, but before the arrival of Caiatl in the system, Calus would employ a Guardian, Katabasis, alongside two of his liutenants Bahr'Toran and Qinziq, to acquire the Glykon Volatus. The vessel would then be crewed by Loyalists, who began kidnapping Scorn in mass from the Tangled Shore over the course of six weeks, with the intention of using them alongside the Crown of Sorrow to commune with the Darkness at the edge of the Anomaly left in the place of Mars. After six weeks, Calus himself would board the ship along with the Crown, and began attempting communions with the Darkness, by forming a psychic link with the Crown and Scorn through his Councilors. Many of his soldiers would attend these attempted communions, though the crowd diminished over the days as the attempts kept failing. Eventually, Calus managed to establish a connection, and this plunged the Glykon into the Anomaly.

The corridors of the ship began to twist and became infested with a mysterious growth, and the Scorn, now led by the Locus of Communion who was touched by the Darkness, began hunting down the Loyalists. Qinziq, Bahr'Toran and Katabasis tried to round up as many survivors as they could and reached the bridge, where the Crown of Sorrow was located. The Psion attempted to use the artifact to guide the ship out of the Anomaly, while the Guardian and Loyalists defended her. While the Cabal fought valiantly, the waves of Scorn would eventually overwhelmed them, with both Katabasis and Bahto dying as Qinziq succumbed to the strain of the communion.

Eventually, the Glykon would exit the Anomaly and drift towards the Reef. Upon exploring it, The Guardian would find the corridors littered with dead Loyalists, slowly being overtaken by the fungus.

During the Endless Night, Vex simulations of Loyalists would be spotted on Europa among other Cabal simulations, trying to impede the Guardian's interference.

Nightmares on the Leviathan

Eventually, Calus returned to the Leviathan, and directed it over the Moon to attempt a connection with its Pyramid. The Vanguard's initial excursion in its corridors would end with The Guardian surrounded with hordes of Loyalists and Nightmares of them, barely escaping with their Light. Over the following weeks, the Loyalists, now allied with the Scorn and Nightmares, fought Guardians and Imperial Cabal alike as they investigated the Leviathan and worked to Sever its connection with the Pyramid and uncover the depths of the Emperor's consciousness.

Analysis of dead Loyalists, as well as the very words of the Emperor, revealed that almost all aboard the ship were now clones, deprived of higher brain functions, symbiotically linked to the Egregore fungus, and directed by Calus as an extension of his will. Using this connection, Loyalists had journeyed into the Enduring Abyss, reached the Admittance, and eventually the Pyramid itself, ferrying Calus' consciousness directly to it.

Eventually, though Calus' plans were thwarted, Loyalists would still continue to defend the ship as the Guardians worked to rid it of Nightmares until the arrival of The Witness, the Disciple Calus and his Shadow Legion.

Structure

In contrast to the Red Legion, Loyalist armor is predominantly purple and gold, and leaves their arms and feet bare. The Loyalists exiled with Calus were all soldiers, and their ranks have since been grown by deserters from the Red Legion. After the death of Dominus Ghaul, Calus would redouble these recruitment efforts with promises of grandure and opulence, putting aspiring Loyalists to the test with missions, as seen in the Adventure Invitation from the Emperor. Following his return after the Pyramid's arrival, disgruntled Imperial Cabal joined his ranks as well.

Calus does not limit his recruitment to Cabal though, extending invitations to all that he may find useful. This includes races such as the Clipse, Sindû, and Arkborn. The Emperor even tried to recruit many Guardians to his side, appealing to their greed by offering riches and power.

Loyalists do not seem to rely on the massive vehicular deployments seen among other Legions. Instead, they employ more esoteric tactics, seen with the large use of Psions and their Councilors. For example, Loyalists have a Psion Council set as advisors to the exiled Emperor along with maintaining an alternate realm devised by Calus known as the Nightmare Realm to torture his enemies. This would extend to many other of their tactics, being willing to tame dangerous psychic beasts, delve into the Ascendant Realm, and even creating warriors for the sole purpose of using Hive artifacts. They are also not averse at donning other's colors, as seen with the Crimson Shadows and the troops encountered in the Vox Obscura operation, that Empress Caiatl theorizes are reinforced from the Leviathan.

One of the Loyalists' greatest feats in technology would be the development of the Royal Pools. These are an advanced cloning facility, capable of recreating all sorts of creatures, as well as enhance them, who are ready to fight moments after being born. An infamous example of this are the Ceremonial Bathers, the most well known being Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer. In fact, as revealed by Calus, most of the original Loyalists have died during his exile. This has allowed him to experiment with the Pools, handcrafting much of his army. By the time of the Leviathan's return, according to Caiatl's assessment over the soldiers, the clones Calus has made using the Baths possess no higher brain functionality despite being fully grown. The former Emperor uses his psychic influence to command these Loyalists as extensions of his will, without fear of rebellion or independent deviance.

Shadows of Calus

Shadows of Calus

The Shadows of Calus are an elite group of Loyalist champions in the service of Emperor Calus, composed of individuals from various civilizations who were personally recruited by Calus during his exile.

In the days immediately before the Red Legion set out to the Solar System to wipe out the Guardians, Calus deployed his Shadows to assassinate the various conspirators behind the coup that deposed him. While the Shadows succeeded in eliminating nearly everyone on Calus's hit list except Caiatl, Umun'arath, Otzot, The Consul and Dominus Ghaul, none of them survived their mission.

In the aftermath of the Red War, Calus had since started auditioning Guardians to replace them as the newest generation of Shadows, starting with a trial through The Leviathan. They would later aid the emperor in clearing his ship of incursions from the Vex, Red Legion and Hive in addition to proving their mettle in the Menagerie; to which the Guardians that succeeded were given the title of Shadow of Earth much to the concerns of the Vanguard and the suspicions of Aunor Mahal.

The Chronicon Shadows (Fictional)

• Mithrax, the Forsaken – Shadow of the Fallen
• Petra Venj – Shadow of the Awoken
• Eris Morn – Shadow Human candidate of the Hive
• Failsafe-0 – Shadow of the Exo

Crimson Shadows

The Crimson Shadows are a group of Shadows undercover as Red Legion grunts. They are first seen hidden aboard The Almighty.

One squad, a Phalanx and Incendior, can be found in a corridor through an exposed vent, while a Major Incendior and its War Beast pack can be found behind a locked door.

Members

Leadership

• Emperor Calus

Shadows

• Feltroc, the Skull-Piercer – Shadow of the Psion
• The Fulminator – Shadow of the Arkborn
• Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer – Former Shadow candidate of the Hive
• Jarus, Ace Defiant – Shadow of the Sindû
• Katabasis - Guardian Shadow operative of Earth
• Rull, Gun of Kaga-Clipse – Shadow of the Clipse
• Sekris, Baron of Shanks – Shadow of the Fallen
• The Guardian – Shadow of Earth chosen by Calus
• Valus Nohr – Shadow of the Cabal
• Voyc, Shadow of the Wilds – Shadow of the Psion
• Werner 99-40 – Shadow of the Frames
• A shadow sent to kill Empress Caiatl

Other Loyalists

Emperor's Advocate

• Benedict 99-40

Advisors

• Advisor Ilhali
• Advisor Tlu'arg
• Advisor Zhozon

Councilors

• Councilor Match
• Councilor Rahl
• Councilor Verloren

Scribes

• Scribe Amsot
• Scribe Ixolt
• Scribe Savat
• Scribe Shagac
• Scribe Tlazat
• Underscribe Shipal

Soldiers

• Au'gor, Devoted of Calus
• Bahr'Toran
• Qinziq
• Taurg, Disguised by the Emperor
• Val Dumoar Sentinel Commander

Staff

• Chef Brighus
• Actor Tor Trakal

Units

Loyalist Cabal Minors are usually indicated with the Loyalist adjective before their name. Most Elite Loyalist are also identified this way, unless they are important for an activity.

Scorpius variants Watcher Watcher Alpha Watcher Beta Watcher Delta Watcher Gamma War Beast variants Crimson Shadow Loyalist War Beast Royal Beasts Psion variants Councilor Eclipsed Councilor Loyalty Councilor Sol Councilor War Councilor Loyalist Psion Psionic Projection Egregore Atavist Atavist Illusion Standard Bearer Legionary variants Avaricious Treasurer Beast Handler Core Bearer Imperial Legionary Loyalist Legionary Standard Liberator

Phalanx variants Avaricious Treasurer Crimson Shadow Loyalist Phalanx Incendior variants Crimson Shadow Honored Bellkeeper Imperial Incendior Loyalist Incendior Loyalist Torcher Shield Warden Gladiator variants Ceremonial Bather Loyalist Bruiser Loyalist Gladiator Oiled Ceremonial Bather Centurion variants Imperial Centurion Loyalist Centurion Loyalist Sentinel Commander Standard Bearer Colossus variants Loyalist Colossus

Gallery

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  A Ceremonial Bather and Royal Beasts.

• 

  Loyalist troops flanking the entrance to Calus's palace.

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  Up close with a Loyalist Legionary.

• 

  Closer with a lower angle.

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  A Loyalist Legionary.

• 

  A Loyalist Phalanx.

• 

  A Loyalist Incendior summoned as part of the Override: Europa event of Season of the Splicer

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  A Loyalist Centurion.

• 

  A Loyalist Colossus.

• 

  A Loyalist Psion.

• 

  Another Loyalist Psion.

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  A Loyalist Harvester.

Crimson Shadows

• 

  The Incendior variant of the Crimson Shadow.

• 

  the Phalanx variant of the Crimson Shadow.

List of appearances

• Destiny 2 (First appearance)
  • Curse of Osiris
  • Season of Opulence
  • Season of the Worthy (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Chosen (Mentioned only)
  • Season of the Splicer (simulated)
  • Season of the Haunted