Destiny 2: The Witch Queen’s new raid is filled with juicy lore bits, but one section in particular has the community nervous.
One wall in the Vow of the Disciple raid showcases a list of potential symbols, with only one or two lit up per run. But the symbols are always in the same places when they do appear, and they never deviate. Through community sourcing, players have compiled the symbols to spell a secret message.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the Destiny 2: The Witch Queen campaign and the Vow of the Disciple raid.]
Prophecy
"Hive scorn love darkness worship witness pyramid fleet enter earth stop guardian witness commune traveler drink light witness kill ?"
Last symbol is unknown.
2/2
— Matt (@myelingames) March 8, 2022
The prophecy has to do with The Witness (Destiny’s newly introduced big bad) invading Earth and potentially killing something or someone important.
Using the in-game callouts from the raid, as noted in the tweet above, the prophecy can be a bit hard to read. But when translated a bit more liberally into a sentence format, the symbols read:
The Hive and Scorn love the Darkness and worship The Witness. The Pyramid fleet enters Earth and stops the Guardians. The Witness communes with the Traveler and drinks the Light. The Witness kills …
The final section of what seems like a clear prophecy is missing, and no players have come forward with that symbol appearing on their raid wall. That seems to be by design, and Bungie is keeping players in the dark on what that final symbol could be.
Just using the symbols from the raid, there are some unnerving possibilities. “Traveler,” the mysterious and god-like orb that gives players their power, is the first to come to mind as The Witness’ victim. “The Guardian,” being the player character, is also unnerving.
However, a lore video from YouTuber My Name Is Byf pointed out that when a symbol appears for players, all instances of that symbol appear as well. So when players see “The Witness” symbol appear, it shows up in all three of its spots. While there are no guarantees, it seems like existing symbols already on the wall won’t appear in the final slot.
Even without Traveler, Guardian, Earth, and Light in play, that does lead to some interesting possibilities. Byf pointed out that Savathun — who is technically dead in-game currently, but her Ghost is still alive, leaving her just a quick resurrection away from life — could be The Witness’ victim. But if Savathun ever does get resurrected, it would be silly for her to die again so quickly. If Bungie intended to kill off Savathun, players would’ve just done it at the end of The Witch Queen campaign.
The most likely missing symbol here seems to be the Tower, the social hub where Guardians hang out and conduct their business. If The Witness shows up to “commune with the Traveler and drink the Light,” he’ll be right above the Last City, giving him ample opportunity to destroy the Guardian’s home base.
While this prophecy could factor into the end of The Witch Queen’s story in a few weeks or the upcoming year’s worth of seasons, it seems more likely that this is Bungie teasing Destiny 2’s next expansion, which is not-so-subtly called “Lightfall.” If this scheme of The Witness does come to pass (and that’s still a big “if”), players will need to wait for 2023 to see it for themselves.
Source: Polygon
