Those who played the campaign in Destiny 2: Lightfall were able to dive into the greatest story of the light and darkness saga. However, there were more questions than answers. What exactly is the Veil? And what did the Witness actually do? MeinMMO explains it to you.
More questions than answers: When the players completed the Lightfall campaign in Destiny 2, it revealed more questions than answers. The cutscenes during the story were spectacular to watch, but also filled with terms that some players could hardly understand and many were extremely dissatisfied with many things.
- Who or what is “the Veil”?
- What exactly did the Witness do at the end of the story?
- What exactly did my Ghost do?
- And above all – how and when do we proceed now?
All of these are things that Bungie does not clarify directly, leaving many players in the dark. However, some things could be known from the last season 19. Others were openly communicated in the game’s lore. So you can read it to understand the story at least a little.
However, there are also connections that are not explained at all in Lightfall and are based on story beats from previous years. MeinMMO explains some of the most important details to you in this article that Destiny 2 did not tell you during the story and what it could all mean for the future of Destiny 2.
Insights about the Veil and its purpose
What is the Veil? As players learned at the end of season 19 through Osiris and Rasputin, the Veil is a paracausal object. Light and Darkness are not adversaries, but merely cosmic abilities. They are also considered paracausal.
What does the term “Paracausality” mean in Destiny 2?
In the Destiny 2 universe, this term is used to refer to abilities, events, or entities. All effects and events have a preceding cause.
The Darkness and Light play a game. Basically, a much more complex version of “Game of Life” by John Conway.
This game will consistently lead to an end state dominated by a single, self-sustaining pattern that encompasses all others in the game. The rules of the game are the laws of physics as they are generally understood. The “new rules” that became the Light and Darkness are the foundation of paracausality.
Paracausal means that while Light and Darkness obey physics, they ignore and circumvent the conventional cause and effect system.
(Source: https://www.destinypedia.com)
Throughout the entire story and even in Season 19 of Destiny 2, this term “the Veil” was used repeatedly. In the campaign, you can see it for the first time.
The Neptunian city in Osiris’ visions exists. I do not know exactly where, but there is “the Veil,” an object of great paracausal power. It is connected to the Traveler.
Excerpt from the last message of the war mind Rasputin in season 19
Here is what could be learned directly from the story campaign:
- The Veil is a strangely colorful, yet majestic object and a light structure that falls several stories in the form of a tree or a connected network of astart-like structures.
- It was originally hidden on Neptune by Savathun to keep the Witness at bay during the first collapse, saving humanity. The Veil could therefore be something like a core or the soul of the Traveler.
- Moreover, every NPC conveys the message that he is super important. But the player does not really learn why.
- The Veil is an object buried deep in the heart of Neomuna. Apparently, the Cloud Striders use it but know of its existence, not of the apparatuses there. Because Nimbus was surprised when he learned about the existence of a prototype of the Cloud Ark down there.
- Later, the Ishtar Academy built a huge complex around the Veil. There are machines that are arranged around it and that obviously served to sit in.
This reminds us of the prediction technology of the old faction “Future War Cult,” which probably not every player remembers.
Future War Cult, Maya Sundaresh, and the Ishtar Collective:
The well-known faction from Destiny 2 “Future War Cult” was once founded by Dr. Maya Sundaresh. As a result of her experiments, a Vex-inspired thought projection device was used to look into the future. This device caused its users to become psychologically unstable, and they began to worship the device as a god. Since the so-called “Nicha Thought Ship” was associated with the Vex, the “device” can traverse time and space.
Maya herself was a Venusian researcher and founding member of the Ishtar Collective. During individual Vex experiments, Maya and parts of her scientific team were simulated by the Vex. “MSund12,” who is mentioned at the end of the strike “Terminus of Insight,” is the 12th simulated copy of Maya Sundaresh and is said to exist to this day.
It is also known that Maya herself or one of her virtual copies allegedly infiltrated the Clovis Bray research facility on Europa to obtain information about the clarity control, the paracausal power that guided Clovis in his experiments.
Also in Lightfall, the name Maya appears in the form of the location “Maya’s Refuge.” Perhaps not without reason.
- Ghost approaches the Veil and says: “Finality takes shape”.
- Your Ghost also notices that it feels like the Veil is the same as the Traveler.
- As we progress, Calus reveals to us during the campaign that it is a “grave” for something.
- The Witness wants and needs the Veil. He doesn’t attempt to connect to the Veil through Calus with the radial antenna for no reason.
- In the exotic quest, it is also learned that the Black Heart was a failed attempt to restore the Veil. An attempt made by the Witness.
- The Witness has a unique ability to take over and command ghosts.
- When Ghost is once again “abducted” by the Witness and approaches the Veil, it says: “We have finally found you.” The Veil could really be the soul of the Traveler, otherwise, he might have said “We have finally found it.”
At the end of the Lightfall campaign, it turns out that the Witness’s mission was never to destroy the Traveler, but to use it to create some sort of portal. For this, the Witness “imprints” a triangular shape onto the surface of the Traveler and then disappears into it.
Here the story continues: Through the quest “Unfinished Business” the story continues. Here you learn that the Black Heart in the Black Garden was a paracausal power source that was destroyed in Destiny Vanilla. It was an imperfect replica of the Veil. The Vex are somehow also involved in that.
Now the Traveler stands in space directly in front of the H.E.L.M. with the portal in the middle, and no one knows what the Witness has done with it and where he has disappeared to. Ikora informs the Guardians that we currently cannot follow the Witness. Scans have shown that neither the Vanguard nor any Guardian possesses the technology or power. One would not survive it. Furthermore, the ghosts of the Guardians can still sense the Traveler – but not as strongly as before.
From patrols, we learn that the Witness has opened a “Einstein-Rosen Bridge” with the portal. This has been determined by the scientists of Neomuna.
So far the facts from the current story campaign of Lightfall, which were all quite obvious. Now let’s get to the theory of what the Veil is and why the Witness needs it at all.
The Traveler may lead to the “Philosopher’s Stone”
Does the fate of the Traveler lead to the origin of the universe? We have already noted during the Witch Queen release: “The Traveler is not the Light. It only uses it and passes it on to us.” And even then we spoke of geometry in the game. Light is a circle and Darkness is a tetrahedron.
On reddit, players have now put forward an interesting theory regarding the end in Lightfall.
- When you bring the Veil, the pyramids, and the Traveler together, you get the pattern of the legendary “Philosopher’s Stone”.
The path to a perfect, final form: After the Veil established the connection to the Traveler, the Witness began to construct that very symbol with the Traveler to create a portal. The crucial ingredient – the Veil – made the beginning of this perfect construct possible.
- The Veil, connecting with the Traveler, thus enabled the Witness to create “the perfect squaring of the circle” or at least begin with the squaring of the circle by “pressing” a triangle onto the Traveler.
- The portal that the Witness opens could possibly be a portal to “perfection”. A portal to an area from which life flows.
If you also consider that the Guardians have found many allies in Destiny 2, especially through Strands, that we learned that we swim together in a river connected by many threads.
It is assumed that the weapon whose energy is Strand also works from a byproduct of the Veil and its energy signatures. There is even a term “anima mundi” for this.
Admittedly, all of this sounds rather scientific. However, Bungie often refers to such scientific ideas and theories. Entropy, with Stasis and Europa, black holes, planes of emptiness in the universe with dark matter or even their own creations, like the paracausal entities. This has often caused some Guardians to suddenly find themselves with their noses in a scientific book.
The Witness is not unlike Savathun: In a way, the Witness tricked the Guardians similarly to how the Witch Queen once did. We could not really win. The Witness always had the upper hand. As if he planned that at least one of the two opposing parties would reach the Veil.
In the last battle, Calus says we Guardians must stay alive. Perhaps he even knew about this plan of the Witness. But it is clear: The Witness would have won in any case. Since we could defeat Calus, he used our Ghost to complete his plan.
How will the story of Lightfall continue?
The campaign is not the end: After these insights and what is known about Bungie’s storytelling pathways, upcoming quest and endgame content should provide more context about the Veil, its nature, and its connection to the Traveler itself.
- The Exo-Quest “Unfinished Business” is received after completing the campaign and already contains further important information about the Veil.
- There, Nimbus reveals more details about this great mystery through Rohan. Or as Ikora would say: “We will proceed step by step… Unwaveringly”.
Additionally, there are still 4 seasons in the DLC that could be linked to further information about the Lightfall campaign. One should also be aware that some things may no longer be communicated in video format but instead rely on written lore transmissions or side quests in the game.
As a player, it is always worth taking a look at the loot lore entries from Destiny 2, including weapons, sparrows, and exotic lore. Quests can also reveal further story details.
Update: This is what Bungie says about the abrupt end of the story
In the weekly “This Week at Bungie” blog, Bungie also addressed the complaints of players and also referred to the upcoming seasons and a continuation of this mega cliffhanger.
We know that at the end of the Lightfall campaign, many questions remain unanswered that you are all eagerly awaiting. While the events of the Season of the Resistance are underway this week, you should know that this is just the beginning of the forthcoming year, in which the events of “Lightfall” and “The Final Shape” will be interconnected.
writes Bungie in the official TWaB blog post via bungie.net
We can’t wait for the community to learn more about the origins of the Witness, his goals, and the ways we can thwart him and his disciples over the course of Season of the Depths and in Seasons 22 and 23 later this year.
What do you think? Do you believe the raid “Root of Nightmares” will reveal another part of the story after the exotic quest, just like in Witch Queen? And how plausible do you find the idea with the Philosopher’s Stone? Let us know.
The current and harsh criticism from players about Destiny 2: Lightfall currently weighs heavily on the new DLC:
