So to begin, throughout the mission, as we play it normally, it's clear Praedyth is contacting us because the Vex need our help to clear out the Taken in the Vault of Glass. It's mentioned that them getting a foothold there would allow the Taken to infect the rest of the Vex, and eventually we would have whole Vex planets being Taken. Which is bad, and its why we help them.
That's basically all we knew before the secret memories were found. Now we know quite a bit more.
We will try to explain what Praedyth's messages mean and then we will go over the Grimoire.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass - "So the Vex predicted their own annihilation. When did they believe this would happen? Can calculations the of minds the size of planets be wrong?"
What the vex predicts, and what they are afraid of, is Oryx. In the Books of Sorrow they fought him before, and its what led to the Vex and Taken hating each other so much. So the Vex know of Oryx, and know how dangerous he is. And this suggests they predicted he would win. But our Guardian stops that by killing the Taken in the Vault of Glass, thus breaking Oryx's hold on them.
Guardians have some sort of special ability outside of time, or out light allows us to work around fate. Similarly to how we can break Atheon's hold on space and time during the Vault of Glass raid. The Vex predicted and saw Oryx winning and conquering them, but we prevented that.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass 2 - "I had a friend, back at the Tower. she used to say. 'Praedyth, there's always room in the back of the mind for hope. It's the crack that let's the light in.'
The Vex have no hope. No imagination, no drive, no fear. All they have is the Pattern. Everything must fit. If it can be made to fit, good. If it can't, it gets cut away."
This references the idea of the Vex being machines that are only logical, only work within their parameters. They only work towards whatever goal has been set for them. Thus, they saw that Oryx would win, and they had no chance. But they still fought on, because that is their goal. They can't do anything else.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass 3 - "They think this is the end of them, a path with no escape. And yet, here they are, there they will be, and there they will have been.
For them, there is no paradox. There is only the pattern. And the pattern needs to see the Vex to see it to completion. And so the Vex must be. For the mind of the Vex, is that faith?"
This is similar to the second memory. The Vex foresee losing. They know it will happen because they have calculated or seen it happen already. Yet they have to continue with the Pattern, because they have also seen it happen and them existing in the future. Why Praedyth says this is faith is because for the Vex, despite everything in their completely logical calculations, simulations, and predictions saying they lose to Oryx, they continue on with the Pattern, whatever that is, because they have reach it somehow.
They don't see it as not making sense that they both are destroyed and controlled by Oryx and also exist forever. They just continue on.
Mystery: Praedyth's Door - "Welcome to the end of the Vex. Their 'immutable' future"
Immutable means unchanging over time or unable to be changed. It's in quotes because, obviously, its not immutable. We change it. But they see it as inevitable.
"Enslaved to a will they don't understand. A will long dead here. Dead eons ago"
This references Oryx I think. Which makes sense, because the Vex would endure longer than him, due to him eventually being consumed by his Worm. Thus, even if Oryx defeats them, takes them all, and conquers the universe, eventually he runs out of things to kill and conquer, and thus would eventually die. The Vex would continue on serving him though, despite him being gone.
And the part about them not understanding his will references in the Books of Sorrow when the Vex try to fight Oryx in his Throne Realm using Sword Logic. They can only understand so much about how the Hive and Oryx work.
"The Vex won't spare the City. They won't even thank you. But that's the thing about Light: You never know where it will shine."
This is self-explanatory. We saved the Vex from being Taken, but they don't care. All they wanted to do was get us to do so, and thus allow them to continue the Pattern. They will still try to kill us and go on, because that is what they are and what they do.
Also, at the end of the mission Dinklenot comments on the ghost we pick up from the chest being Praedyth's. Its a Future War Cult ghost. We give it into Lakshmi-2, the FWC representative in the Tower, and while she doesn't comment much, this all heavily implies Praedyth is a member of the War Cult. He is also possibly an Exo, which would allow him to survive in the Vex network, and not lose his mind. However, us finding what are likely his bones at the end of the normal mission seem to suggest that's not the case.
The image clears of dirt and dust as a hand wipes the lens clean. A figure holds the Ghost up, looking into the lens. Harsh light from an unfamiliar sun backlights the four-armed creature, making it impossible to see its face. Its massive head turns, and a clicking and chittering voice can be heard speaking to something off-screen. While the noises themselves are harsh, the tone and content seem almost gentle. A curious creature, not a violent or angry one.
And now the Grimoire.
All of the Grimoire, barring the last one, seem to be from the perspective of a Ghost traveling through time, seeing different events happening. A theory is that each ghost we pick up in the Vault is a ghost of the three fireteam members who were erased from time. But there really isn't anything to back it up.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass - The image clears of dirt and dust as a hand wipes the lens clean. A figure holds the Ghost up, looking into the lens. Harsh light from an unfamiliar sun backlights the four-armed creature, making it impossible to see its face. Its massive head turns, and a clicking and chittering voice can be heard speaking to something off-screen. While the noises themselves are harsh, the tone and content seem almost gentle. A curious creature, not a violent or angry one.
The lens refocuses beyond the creature's head as it talks, and a startling landscape climbs to the horizon. It's a paradise. Carefully tended lakes and rivers, water everywhere, wind their way between fields of lush iridescent crops and into groves of starkly colored trees. Every inch of the land seems engineered, brushed by a sculptor's hand for form and function both.
The sky is a light pink, spotted with clouds and crowded with ships. Thick lanes of aerial traffic soar through the air, tightly managed and seemingly endless.
And beyond it all, above the clouds, hangs a perfect alabaster sphere. The image wobbles, shaking, flickering as if the Ghost is blinking. And the fragment ends.
This seems to be a vision of the Golden Age period for the Fallen/Eliksni, or another race. The alabaster sphere is obviously the Traveler, and it clearly made whatever the Eliksni's previous homeworld was a paradise. Also, the Eliksni who picks the ghost up isn't hostile, so they obviously have changed over time due to being fragmented by Oryx and the Darkness. Plus they don't seem to know what the Ghost is, so that implies they either never had their version of Guardians, or only had them for a short time if ever.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass 2 - Images flicker in and out repeatedly over its length. The result is a series of tableaus, moments in time captured by the Ghost's struggle to see what's going on:
- The face of an Exo, staring impassively down at the Ghost from very close. He appears to be confused, unsure what he is looking at.
- A landscape, from a position a few feet off the ground, moving laterally to the point of view. The Ghost appears to be clipped to the Exo's belt. The image is of a battlefield, and over two dozen Exo soldiers can be seen marshalling for battle.
- A chaotic scene of Vex and Exos fighting a titanic battle. The backdrop is a pitted and scarred landscape, a planet unidentifiable from present context. Vex energy bolts hang in midair as the frames click by, teeming masses of constructs surging towards an entrenched line of Exo soldiers.
- A metallic leg and boot, belonging to a Vex Goblin. The Exo goes down.
- The horizon of this battle-scarred world, the Ghost kicked free of the Exo's body. Most details are obscured by dark and shadow, but one detail is easily made out: a massive crashed spacecraft. The last image: a sigil of Golden Age Earth, emblazoned on the side of the ship's prow.
This seems to describe a battle from when the Darkness attacked Earth, and the Exo are the soldiers. What this suggests is that A. The Exo's were Golden Age Earth's primary army, or were their soldiers B. They were desinged to fight the Vex. Or both. Either way it gives us some insight on the possible origins and purpose of the Exo.
Mystery: The Vault of Glass 3 - A starfield. The stars swing slowly across the Ghost's field of view, just darkness and the blazing fury of distant suns as the Ghost tumbles through empty space. Hours of this before, with a wash of power, a huge convoy of ships drops into reality from warp.
A convoy of Guardian craft, hundreds strong. Ships of all sizes and shapes can be seen, from venerable craft that have been salvaged from the Golden Age through to City designs to vessels that have yet to emerge from the Shipwright's hangars.
The ships are battle-scarred. Many are barely spaceworthy. As warp drives wind down several seem to lose power and begin to drift. Some of the largest craft bear imagery familiar to frequent visitors to the tower: Dead Orbit symbols, the simple icon of the Vanguard. The New Monarchy and Future War Cult as well, though fewer examples can be seen. Others bears symbols never seen in the Tower to date.
Every single ship, from the largest cruiser to the smallest personal craft, carries shards of stone, remnants of the City and the Tower. Banners too, tattered and worn from entering and leaving warp.
The fleet is only visible for a few breaths, less than a minute. Then, with a massive flash of light, the fleet jumps on. The craft that have lost power are left behind, spinning and whirling away from the etheric wake of their powered fellows. The Ghost spins on, and soon enough only stars fill its field of view until the fragment ends.
This is a big one. This event likely hasn't happened yet. What it shows is pretty obvious: The City, or at least many Guardian ships, are fleeing something. And they have been torn up. They are carrying the last bits of the Tower and City with them, and are in a hurry, enough so that they can't even afford to stay to help their less fortunate friends who can't continue.
What this will mean eventually? we have no clue. Its possible in Destiny's future the City and Tower will be destroyed, and we'll be forced to flee. Or maybe this is a future we will prevent. Either way, its a big deal regardless.
Interesting theory: All of those timelines are the various futures each of the Factions wants. New Monarchy in alliance with the Fallen or Eliksni in a perfect orderly world on Earth, Future War Cult with an army of Exo fighting the Vex, and Dead Orbit and all the City fleeing to who knows where.
The only potential chink I can find in said theory is that the Exo battle has a ship with a Golden Age emblem on it, it says the sun is "unfamiliar" in the Eliksni one, and the Eliksni and Exo don't seem to know what a Ghost is. Other than that, its definitely a cool theory.
Mystery: Praedyth's Door - The receiver sputtered to life. It had taken him the better part of a decade to get his crude comm scanner working. And another few years to get it transmitting. Now, in the brief windows of time when the door to his cell opened, he would call for help. He sighed, a deliberate act that caused him to cough roughly. He had no idea how much longer his body would hold out. But then, that kind of thinking was all relative here, wasn't it?
Praedyth stared at the sprawling mass of metal and wires, listening to the tinny sounds coming from his makeshift speaker. Before he spoke, he always made a point to listen. The words, the concepts that flowed into his mind confused him. Timelines and potentialities that might have already happened, might happen, might never happen.
A pattern was ever dancing in the edge of his vision. At times like this, when the world rushed past him, he had to hold tight to the fact that he was still breathing. He would often focus in on the intake, output, inbreath, outbreath, breath, breath, breath... hours later, he blinked. Refocused. The static had stopped. He had missed a window.
Once, he would have cursed and spat. Now, he just shook his head. A weak movement of the neck.
The Vex had decided their end. The Guardians had interceded. The Vex were fallible.
If the Vex can be wrong... if they can make mistakes... someday he could be free. Someday he might leave the Vault, might see again the Traveler.
Until then he would listen, he would observe. He would be the man on the outside looking in, a viewpoint into the consciousness of Minds that spanned galaxies. He would try to understand the Vex. Praedyth closed his eyes.
This one is fairly self-explanatory. Praedyth is in the Vex network, or can see it somehow. He is trapped somewhere, and is somehow alive, or being kept alive. Him talking about his body giving out suggests he is human, or Awoken, but we really don't know.
He's somehow able to see into the Vex mind, and they are for some reason allowing this.
But the important thing in this is 1. Praedyth isn't dead and could return and 2. The Vex aren't infallible, they were wrong. They thought Oryx would beat them, and we proved them wrong by preventing that. Despite all their knowledge, vast power, time traveling, ect. We still proved them wrong and stopped a future they had preordained.
And thus, we think that if the future of us fleeing something with remnants of the City and the Tower, it can be changed and averted by us.
After all...Guardians make their own fate.
Hope that you have learned some helpful insights from this post.
Hope that you have learned some helpful insights from this post.
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