Final Shape

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This article is about the goal of The Witness. For the conclusion of The Light and Darkness Saga, see The Final Shape.
Civilians of the City being calcified as Earth is reshaped.

The Final Shape was the name used to describe the ultimate end goal of the Witness and its precursor species. It referred to a potential end-state of the universe in which the Witness intended to winnow, carve and calcify the universe into a frozen state of eternal perfection. In this hypothetical state of reality, only items and entities with a purpose or structure that The Witness deemed fit for existence will remain. Had this state been achieved, The Witness would've accomplished its eons-long quest to impose its form of salvation to a meaningless, chaotic, and open-ended universe.

Possible Forms

The idea of a "Final Shape" has been described by several different entities associated with the Darkness. According to the Hive, the Final Shape is the natural end state of violent winnowing; what remains when everything that can possibly be destroyed has been obliterated, leaving only that which has proven its ability to defeat all obstacles to its continued existence. This conception is later echoed by Oryx, the Taken King, who describes the Final Shape as "a fire without fuel, burning forever, killing death, asking a question that is its own answer, entirely itself".[1]

As described by Ahsa, the species that would eventually become the Witness also sought to bring about a "Final Shape", which they sought to achieve by uniting the Traveler and the Veil and using their combined powers to reshape reality as they desired. The details of this goal are unknown, other than it involved converting the universe into a perfected, eternal state.[2]

The Witness seeks to bring about the Final Shape, but the exact nature of this goal remains unclear even to its Disciples. Each Disciple seems to have developed their own conception of what the Final Shape entails, and is seemingly permitted by the Witness to act accordingly. According to an unnamed and long-dead Disciple whose thoughts are recorded in the Inspiral lore book entry "The Cave," Nezarec believed the Final Shape to involve becoming one with all of existence, whereas Rhulk believed it to be a universe free of disparity and differentiation, and Savathûn and her Hive believed it to be a universe in which the Sword Logic was triumphant. This unnamed Disciple subsequently concluded that none of the Witness' followers could fully grasp the true nature of the Final Shape, and that the Witness was allowing each of its Disciples and other servants to act according to a greater plan that would ultimately realize all of their seemingly disparate visions of the Final Shape.[3]

The Witness' Truth

It would later be revealed that the Final Shape is what will happen when the Witness freezes and calcifies reality into one perfect moment forever, where all are calcified into a marbleized reality, much akin to the frozen forms glimpsed within the Pyramids. An end to anguish and bliss, to the cycle of action and reaction, the chaos of life untangled, its complexity made known and contained, and given a static "purpose". With the Darkness projecting possibilities from thought and memory, and the Light to give them form and make the imagined structures real, the Witness plans to reshape reality into a "perfect stillness" that never changes and never dies, where all lives are immortalised in the universe at the time of their greatest triumph or most profound regret. To carve the universe into something that cannot be destroyed, and thus will surpass infinity and triumph over entropy, but yet would hold no more life which the Witness believes only leads to chaos and suffering. The Witness will not be part of the Final Shape itself, but will instead become the god that chooses what each person's eternity would be that they are imprisoned in; to transform the universe into a fixed state based on what the Witness believes we deserve, a perfect ending it chooses for us, and where nothing exists without the Witness's consent.[4]

List of appearances

References

  1. ^ Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King, Grimoire: XXV: fire without fuel
  2. ^ Bungie (2023/6/20), Destiny 2: Season of the Deep, Dialogue: Zavala and Drifter Radio Message
  3. ^ (2023/3/10),Destiny 2: Lightfall, Inspiral
  4. ^ Destiny 2: The Final Shape
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