Yesterday, word broke that the Japanese PlayStation Store had inadverently outed Destiny's next DLC. The page had gone live and been promptly removed; but not before hawk-eyed Destiny fans had screenshotted its details. The page reveals that we'll be returning to Mars. Mars was a location in the previous title, but actually appeared in the sequel, thanks to The Crucible maps. This seemed to indicate that Bungie was not done with the location, and if this leak is anything to go by, that seems to be the case.
Since yesterday, though, the PlayStation Store in the United States has published the same information, thankfully though, in English. The details are widely similar, outside of phrasing. So, unless Sony is winding up for an elaborate April Fools prank, this seems to be legitimate.
Quote:
"Destiny 2 Expansion II: Gods of Mars sends your Guardian on a long journey to a brand new destination -the Frigid Vale of Mars, with an array of new missions, adventures and enemies to fight. Charlemagne has reawoken on Mars and has imprisoned Rasputin within an ancient vault. Work with the elusive Ana Bray -long thought to be dead, in order to combat Charlemagne's Remnants, free Rasputin, and uncover the secrets of Clovis Bray."
The Japanese version version varies only in phrasing, outside of the inclusion of a few important details:
"Destiny 2 Expansion II: Gods of Mars sends your Guardian out to Mar's Clovis Grove, a brand new destination that is host to an array of brand new missions and adventures. Work alongside the elusive Ana Bray in order to prevent Charlemagne, Matrix of Corruption from amassing an army of SIVA-enhanced weaponized frames before Mars is lost."
Charlemagne, for those unaware, is a Warmind, like Rasputin. It's not clear what his role was (Rasputin was intended to defend Earth). In Destiny 1, it's believed that the Cabal found him in the Clovis Bray research facility featured in "The Dust Palace" Strike. The strike has an elite deployment of Cabal Psions fighting with Rasputin over a "Central AI's Cortex." Given Charlemagne's location on Mars, the Clovis Bray company's involvement with Warmind's and Rasputin's (rare) concern, his existence seemed all but guaranteed.
So, is this leak legitimate?
I believe this leak is legitimate. It seems hugely unlikely that two different PlayStation storefronts could make the same error, and even then, the mechanism for getting fake info on a PlayStation store twice is inconceivable. The simplest explanation is that it is true.
So what does this mean?
There's a lot of good story threads from both Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 heading in the direction this DLC looks like it's going. Let me elaborate.
In the base game, the new Tower has a number of ghost scans. Two of those ghost scans concern us:
Someone's been trying to modify one of Shaxx's Redjacks! But all the interface history shows is access by other Frames. "Arcite and Dahlia", it says. Over and over. "Arcite and Dahlia".
Looks like a journal: Ana Bray. But I can't tell who— Pretty much the entire thing is redacted. And there are whole pages missing. Something about all this seems… wrong. Am I worrying too much?
For in-lore reasons, this expansion seems to have been hinted at from the beginning. Someone (or thing) is trying to modify Frames (the cool non-Exo robots). Notably, it seems that the Frames themselves are modifying each other. Westworld creepiness aside, this is reminiscent of a plot-point from Joseph Staten's original story for Destiny.
In Staten's story, we found Rasputin inhabiting the body of an Exo. He was both a primary companion and a MacGuffin of sorts. Osiris and a Reef character named "The Crow" would try to convince us The Traveler and Speaker are evil and agents of The Darkness. Rasputin would have been kidnapped by Oryx, the Taken King, and held aboard The Dreadnaught. We would then rescue him, and discover the truth that The Traveler was a harbinger of The Darkness, and had arrived to leach our Golden Age power. At the center of this, was the one character who has seen The Darkness: Rasputin.
Right off the bat, Warminds can presumably inhabit Frames. So it's not inconceivable that Charlemagne, after capturing Rasputin, is capturing Frames for his personal army. We know that Rasputing controlled SIVA at one point, and used it to kill the Iron Lords. We also know that a live, weaponized version of SIVA exists somewhere on Nessus. Put the pieces together, and all the pieces for this DLC's premise have been in front of our eyes for some time.
And here, we need to pause to discuss one last thing. I wrote an article before Destiny 2, in June, titled "The Warminds have seen The Darkness."
"Perhaps it's incorrect that the Tower Vanguard views Rasputin as merely a series of weapons and WarSats--or even merely a rogue actor. Rasputin, and should he appear--Charlemagne--know exactly what The Collapse was. And once we know what put humanity on its knees, we may finally prove ready to fight back.
"It's unlikely that we'll fight The Darkness in Destiny 2. But in Destiny 3? The future beyond? We can't secure our civilization on Earth, much less across the Solar System, until we comprehend and repel The Darkness once and for all. And the Warminds hold data that make it possible. The future looks bright, and Destiny 2's Warmind-themed Expansion can't come soon enough."
Whether it be Jovians aboard Triangle Ships, or an actual amorphous Darkness, The Warminds have seen The Darkness. Whatever they know could prove crucial to our fight, and revelatory to our lore. Destiny 2 has been tragically lore-shallow. Outside of some neat stuff like the Aeon Cult, it's been repetitively focused on "The End." As cool as that is, I'd like some lore either hinting what it could be, or else focused elsewhere.
After the bad storytelling in 'The Curse of Osiris' and the slap in the face of lore fans it delivered, 'Gods of Mars' has the opportunity to handle many of Destiny's most intriguing mysteries. Bungie's chosen some excellent topics, now all we can do is hope they deliver.
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