In Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris features Osiris as Dawnblade. However, he was actually supposed to be a Sunsinger, right?
In the Destiny lore, it is often mentioned that Osiris was a powerful Warlock – a Sunsinger Warlock.
As Sunsingers, Warlocks who used the Solar focus were referred to in Destiny 1. They had the ability to resurrect themselves, among other things. In Destiny 2, this Solar focus was replaced by the Dawnblade, which can no longer resurrect itself but hurls flaming blades at enemies with a sword. Since then, if you play as a Solar Warlock, you are Dawnblades.
In a cutscene from Curse of Osiris, we first saw Osiris, who was known as a Sunsinger. But in the cutscene, he suddenly uses the Super of the Dawnblade and attacks enemies with the flaming sword. How can that be?
Three “explanations” can be quickly found in the forums:
- Destiny 2 is a video game, not everything has to make sense .
- He is now a Dawnblade, “because marketing”. In trailers, he cannot use a Super that no longer exists in Destiny 2.
- Or Ghaul is to blame: He first took the Light from the Guardians, and since the cage surrounding the Traveler was destroyed, all Sunsingers somehow became Dawnblades. It just is what it is.
However, these explanations are not particularly satisfactory. The lore expert My name is Byf also thought so, who presents a theory in the video that can be linked to the Destiny backstory. We will present it afterwards.
How does the Light actually work?
In fact, there are no direct hints in the lore about how the Light or how the Guardian focuses work. It is only known that Guardians are able to use the Light as a weapon, while also distinguishing between Arc, Solar, and Void energy.
The fan theory now assumes that a Warlock using Solar Light should not be categorized strictly as either a Sunsinger or Dawnblade. Instead, Sunsingers and Dawnblades are Warlocks who both use Solar Light but apply different techniques. These techniques can be learned – and theoretically could be used at will by the same Solar Warlock.
Thus, Osiris could be a Solar Warlock who masters both techniques and can therefore use either the resurrection or the flaming sword at will.
Hints for this theory are provided by the Arcstrider, the Arc Hunter in Destiny 2. It is known that this Hunter subclass did not suddenly appear and replace the Blade Dancer from Destiny 1 out of nowhere. On the contrary: According to the lore, an Arcstrider is a very ancient Guardian focus that has almost completely been forgotten. Arcstriders once “learned” to shape the Traveler’s Light into a staff to defeat enemies.
Early in the story of Destiny 2, Guardians (that is us) learn this “technique” using the piece of the Traveler. The Arcstrider does not “replace” the Blade Dancer, it merely represents another ancient technique of using Light. Here, specifically, the Arc Light.
In Destiny 2, therefore – according to the theory – the Arc Hunter is not a completely new Hunter subclass, but remains the previous Arc Hunter, who has learned a different technique for a different Super.
Ultimately, the new focuses differ little from the “old focuses” from Destiny 1. Grenades and melee attacks have largely remained identical. This is also an indication that an Arcstrider does not represent a completely new subclass, but actually only differs from the Super – from another technique of shaping Arc Light – from the Blade Dancer.
A Solar Warlock can theoretically switch between the Sunsinger and Dawnblade Super at will
What does this mean now? According to the theory, one should not strictly separate the Guardian subclasses of the same element (Solar, Void, Arc). A Dawnblade is not something completely different from a Sunsinger; instead, a Solar Warlock can switch at will between the Sunsinger Super (Resurrection) and the Dawnblade Super (Flaming Sword), provided he masters both techniques.
Osiris is known as a powerful and intelligent Warlock. He may have known the technique of the Dawnblade long before we did. And just as we can switch between grenades at will, Osiris can switch between Solar Super attacks. He decided in the cutscene to use the Dawnblade technique instead of the Sunsinger technique.
This theory would mean that we Guardians could also be Sunsingers, Blade Dancers, or Defenders again now that we have the Light back. Theoretically, we still master these techniques. We haven’t forgotten them just because we can now use the new techniques.
But here comes a design decision from Bungie into play: Bungie does not give us the option to switch between the Super of a Sunsinger and a Dawnblade, even though, according to the theory, it would be possible without issues.
Osiris sets an example for us, if the theory holds true…
What do you think of this theory? Does it sound plausible or is it just an interesting attempt to make sense of the developers’ decisions?
