In Destiny, the Grimoire cards hold numerous secrets and information. We now want to prepare the content of part of the cards in an illustrative way: The Guardians and their Foci.
Bungie has come up with something really great: instead of delivering more story content in the game, nearly all background information is presented in text form: as Grimoire cards on an external website. And there, you will find a lot of text – a tremendous amount of text. On Bungie’s official website, you can only read the contents of the cards after you have unlocked them in the game through certain activities.
The Chaos of Grimoire Cards
The Grimoire can initially be divided into six categories: Guardians, Inventory, Allies, Enemies, Locations, and Activities. Each category can be subdivided into numerous subpoints, and in each subpoint, there are plenty of cards. If the cards contained only one sentence each, that would still be within the realm of the reasonable, but some Bungie employees seemingly typed their fingers raw: One can find entire short stories on the backs of the cards. Who is supposed to read all this? Much of what is written in these Grimoire cards is really interesting. To make their contents accessible to a larger audience, we now want to present the most important information in an illustrative way. Let’s start with the Guardians and their Foci.
What are Guardians?
The first card that contains information about our Guardians explains what Guardians actually are: They are “warriors forged in the light of the Traveler”. Each Guardian must have risen from the dead to wield the light as a weapon. If you remember: At the beginning of our journey, we are resurrected by the ghost of the Traveler. The Guardians are meant to defend the city and save humanity – and thus become legends. We will now look at the classes of the Guardians.
These are the Titans in Destiny
The Titans strive for honor and represent hope. They are fighters and defenders of the light who declare war on the darkness. To enforce the will of the Traveler, the Titans confront every challenge unwaveringly and head-on.
The Grimoire mentions Holborn, a Titan commander, and Tubach, who set out for the Dust Palace to search for the ancient war spirit and the one who guards it. Holborn was “the right hand of the city on Mars”. Tubach was one of the best Titans of that city and subordinate to Holborn. The twelve-pointed star was Holborn’s army’s symbol. Additionally, Titans Jagi (a commander), Tibon, Lyssa, and Bayle are mentioned, who are not elaborated on.
Interestingly, there is also a brief mention of a Warlock named Ikora, from whom we learn that she “has always been impulsive”. We all know Ikora Rey from the Tower: she is now the leader of the Warlocks.
These are the Hunters in Destiny
The Hunters use the light of the Traveler to rediscover the secrets of lost worlds beyond the city. They are described as daring scouts and quiet killers, experts with knives and precision weapons. Hunters carve their own paths and write their own laws.
A Grimoire card tells of a huntress who wanders alone on Venus. You can tell: Something is troubling her. She quietly kills some guards; from their throats “gas bleeds.” She forges her way, with only her revolver by her side. It turns out she is hunting Draksis. Almost driven to madness, she burns all enemies with the Golden Gun and laughingly shouts, “Draksis, Draksis, I have come!”
She obliterates all enemies and approaches the Kell ship. She could finish it herself now, but she made a promise to Cayde. Apparently, she has to struggle with herself not to give in to the urge to kill the Kell herself. She finally tells her ghost to report to the Vanguard that Draksis is here. When the ghost is sure she won’t go to the ship alone, it emits a gentle, relieved sound, like a sigh.
Why the huntress behaves this way is not explained. However, she is apparently the one who tracked down Draksis on Venus.
These are the Warlocks in Destiny
The Warlocks are the war scholars of the light, dedicated to understanding the Traveler and its power. The spirit of a Warlock seems to harbor many “deadly secrets that swing between divinity and madness”.
A Grimoire story tells of a Warlock who says he can explain as much as he wants. People understand him only if they are Warlocks. Titans cause only noise, Hunters only clean their nails with their knives and stare at you as if a third eye has grown.
However, he feels the urge to teach others, especially when he has had a drink too much. He told a Huntress about the Ahamkara, dragon-like creatures that were hunted to extinction by the Guardians. By the way, the Warlock gloves The Claws of Ahamkara are a testament to them. The Ahamkara were allegedly brought to life when the Traveler appeared.
Meanwhile, the Huntress was just cleaning her nails with her knife during this story. This made the Warlock angry. He told her that she could never slay one of them. Neither the greatest Hunter nor the strongest Titan could do that. The Guardian immediately accepted this challenge, and the Warlock knew at that moment that he had killed a Guardian.
For each class, there is thus a Grimoire card containing information about the classes, and one or two other cards that tell a story about them. However, these stories often raise more questions than they answer.
These are the Foci of the Guardians
“A light shines within you that no darkness can escape.”
Only Guardians possess the gift of the light of the Traveler. Even without a weapon, a Guardian is a radiant machine of destruction. The various classes handle this gift in different ways:
- Titans view the light as a force refined through practice and strict discipline.
- Hunters wander and explore to learn dangerous methods of surviving in the wild.
- Warlocks, on the other hand, study the light and its internal mechanisms.
From an introductory speech by Lord Saladin, our Iron Banner buddy, we learn:
“Nothing born will be born strong.”
We (the Guardians) would possess talents, enormous, wonderful powers. However, we should now wipe the grin off our faces. We would not yet know what a Guardian is, but we would continue to grow. He compares us to an apple seed: for the universe itself had not been bigger than an apple seed. Now, however, it was a monument of creation that astonishes us.
Thus, the Foci are described in the Grimoire
Next, we will take a look at the Foci of the different classes. These are also addressed in the Grimoire cards.
These are the Titan Foci:
- Striker: Strikers can break through enemy lines and focus on close combat. They are armored with light and have “fists of thunder”. With disciplined aggression, they want to intimidate their enemies. “In close combat, a fist is better than any pistol.”
- Defender: Defender Titans can take quite a bit and are trained to control the flow of combat. They are armed with unwavering conviction and can encourage other Guardians to strike back. They are “the wall against which the darkness breaks.”
- Sunbreaker: These Titans use the Hammer of Sol, which is part of past as well as future legends. This Titan order existed even before the city, when the light was still an untamed weapon. Before the fire light now took its place in the city, the Sunbreakers brought honor to the wilderness. “Forge the wrath of immortal suns.”
These are the Hunter Foci:
- Gunslinger: There is only the following note for this focus:
“Doesn’t it all come down to you and your weapon in the end? There’s nothing more to say. That’s just the truth.”
A Gunslinger is “a lone wolf living for the perfect shot.”
- Blade Dancer: Blade Dancers leave the noise and fire to others. They stand for a quick death, silent and merciless. A knife does not get stuck, it does not run dry, and it is very, very quiet. “Wonderful deadliness, merciless style.”
- Nighthawk: Nighthawks do not hunt monsters; they themselves become monsters. You cannot hide from them or escape them. Enemies are bound in the void, the deadly shot occurs without hesitation, without mercy. Monsters need not fear the night. “Draw from the void. Illuminate the path”.
These are the Warlock Foci:
- Voidwalker: Voidwalkers fear nothing, but all fear them. While they would compare small minds to swarm witches, they are equipped with the light of the Traveler: nothing can stop them. The Traveler also came from the void that surrounds all things. Therefore, we know that the void harbors great power. “He who has looked into the void is no longer bound by the laws of space and time.”
- Sun Singer: Sun Singers bring fire into the dark. They illuminate the path and are simultaneously a pyre upon which enemies will burn. The light kept them from death and made them into weapons. This power is now needed by civilization: “There are flames that even darkness cannot extinguish.”
- Stormcaller: Arc is in everything that is alive. Stormcallers are a conduit between heaven and earth, between electricity and matter, between life and death. They are a weapon. “Inner harmony, outward a hurricane.”
This is what the Grimoire cards reveal to us about the Guardians and their Foci. What do you think about it?
