Destiny: Tlaloc, Zankapfel and Co. – What do the names of the weapons mean?

In the MMO shooter Destiny, some weapons and items have strange names. We will look at what lies behind these terms.

Today, we’re serving you delicious, wonderfully useless trivia that you can use to impress your clanmates in the next raid. Why is the “Zankapfel” called “Zankapfel”? Who or what is Khepri? And is there more behind Tlaloc than just a questionable tongue-twister?

If you’ve ever wondered about these crazy terms, you can now sit back, relax, and eagerly absorb the following information.

What Tlaloc, Zankapfel, and Co. are all about

We want to approach the absurd and dubious terms in Destiny by looking at the name of the respective item, as well as their flavor texts – the short descriptions from Bungie.

• Tlaloc: Let’s start directly with the exotic scout rifle Tlaloc. It carries the flavor text “Unleash the storm. Hold nothing back.” and can only be equipped by Warlocks (Storm? Warlock? Stormcaller, aha!). The picture is completed with the note that Tlaloc was one of the most important gods of the Aztec pantheon, associated with all weather phenomena, such as rain, hail, snow, and indeed storm! Bungie evidently thought this through!

  

• Cocytus SR4: This is also a scout rifle with a strange name. According to the flavor text, it drowns “your enemies in a sea of pain.” In Greek mythology, the Cocytus is a river of the underworld and is known as the “river of lamentation.” When the deceased drink from this river, they realize that their life in the upper world has ended and mourn their suffering.

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  Glatisant: This is a legendary auto rifle with the description: “You cannot catch it. But that’s not the point.” The Glatisant is also known as a quest beast and takes us into the mythical world of King Arthur. It has the head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the rear of a lion, and the legs of a stag. What went wrong there is unknown. In any case, it lives “to be hunted, not to be caught.” The Glatisant symbolizes the desire for adventure, without knowing exactly where the journey will lead.
• Zankapfel: The Zankapfel is an impulse rifle with the short flavor text “For the fairest one.” Here we again find ourselves in Greek mythology, where the Zankapfel is known as the golden “apple of discord.” During a wedding, the goddess of discord, Eris, threw this apple with the inscription “For the fairest one” among the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, leading to a dispute regarding who the apple belonged to. Eris did this out of anger because she was not invited to the wedding.

By the way: Eris is the goddess of discord and strife, often depicted as a hobbling, shriveled woman. Only when she manages to stir envy and hatred among humans does she blossom into her true form, growing into gigantic size and beauty.

Some Guardians still don’t trust Eris in Destiny, just like Cayde-6. Although she has helped us in the fight against powerful enemies so far, who knows how her role will develop in the future. Will she bloom into her “true form”? She is always depicted with a glowing green orb in her hands… is this perhaps a reference to the “apple of discord”?

• Tao Hua Yuan: Behind this pretty name lies a sniper rifle with the additional text: “One day the flowers will bloom again.” Tao Hua Yuan is Chinese for “Peach Garden of Immortality” and represents a utopia of a land full of joy and abundance.

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  Khepris Stachel: This is a pair of gauntlets for the Hunter with the flavor text: “The wound is not so deep, but it is there – and that is enough.” Chepre, or in English Khepri, is an ancient Egyptian deity symbolizing the sunrise and the morning sun. He is usually depicted as a scarab or as a man with a scarab head.
• The Fermi Solution: The Fermi Solution is a ship from the Dead Orbit and is labeled: “We are not alone.” This term takes us into nuclear physics: The nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi was known for making good estimates despite a lack of information. A Fermi problem is a problem for which there is practically no available data. A solution to the Fermi problem can therefore only be attempted with general knowledge and common sense.  

  

Phew! The names of the items in Destiny take us from Greek mythology to nuclear physics, from the Aztecs to Chinese utopian thoughts. Bungie has apparently gathered quite a wealth of knowledge about the world in Destiny, which sometimes only becomes apparent upon closer inspection.

At this point, we would like to thank our reader Flying Horseman for the groundwork for this article! Thank you!

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