Five Season 19 Story Theories in Destiny 2
Season 19 is only around the corner, starting on 6th December. This is a big season, as it leads us into Lightfall, the penultimate major expansion of the light and dark saga, currently scheduled for 28th February 2023. Season 19, currently known as Season of Redacted, will bridge that gap between Witch Queen and Lightfall, so we should have an exciting season ahead. Today I’m going to look at the potential narrative in season 19, looking at the clues we’ve had in-game, plus looking at open story threads from Bungie.
Before we get into it today, let me know in the comments what you want to see related to the story in Season 19.
Next season is a big one for Destiny 2, it’s the prologue to Lightfall. We know we’re going to Neptune, and we’ll be fighting against The Shadow Legion Cabal forces backed up by The Witness and their newest disciple Calus. We know we’re going to be based in Neomuna, the Neon City on Neptune, and we’re going to discover a new darkness power called Strand. We know a lot about where we are going, but we don’t know how we’re going to get there.
Let’s have a look at some open story threads, and the likihood of them being the focus for Season 19. It’s worth saying at this point this is all speculation, I’m not talking about leaks here today.
Black Armory
The Black Armory was featured in Season of the Forge (Season 5). This was a great season that brought with it a huge suite of weapons, a repeatable seasonal activity with the Forges, secrets through Niobe Labs, fantastic exotics and loads more. Ada-1 has already rejoined the tower, acting as our transmog vendor, and dishing out mods and armor.
The original Black Armory was founded at the end of the Golden Age. The clan’s matriarchs believed that the Earth is about to be invaded by some extraterrestrial enemy and agreed to manufacture and stockpile advanced firearms to ensure survival of their families. They built several Forges and were selling some weapons to compensate for their expenses; Helga Rasmussen, previously of Clovis Bray, ran the business side of things. The Armory’s precautions failed when the actual Collapse started; their superior firearms provided little protection against the Darkness onslaught.
Given we’re under threat once again, The Black Armory could re-emerge to help protect humanity against the incoming Darkness forces. Personally, I’d love to see The Black Armory weapons return – Kindled Orchid, Hammerhead, and Blast Furnace just to name a few. While I would like to see the weapons come back, the odds of The Black Armory being the story focus is slim.
Savathun
At the end of the Witch Queen Campaign, Savathun was defeated. She informed us The Witness is coming, which could lead to a new Collapse. While Savathun died, her ghost Immaru managed to escape, leaving the possibility of Savathun coming back at some point. Immaru how leads the Lucent Brood on Savathun’s Throne World, who have been under utilised since the The Witch Queen Campaign.
In Season 19 we could see the return of Savathun, ressurected by her ghost to return to the fight against the Witness. While I do think this is going to happen one day, I think Season 19 might be too early. In Lightfall I believe we’re going to be facing off against Calus and The Shadow Legion, and Savathun would be a good returning character for that fight.
Nezarec
The appearence of Nezarec in the story for Season of Plunder was a surprising one. It’s been long speculated by fans, but we didn’t really see it coming. Nezarec’s corpse was discovered aboard the Lunar Pyramid by the Eliksni after their arrival in the Sol System.
The Eliskni determined that Nezarec’s body was a source of great power, and divided the corpse into pieces that they then distributed amongst themselves as talismans. These pieces were later stored within relics and hidden away across the galaxy. Eramis, Kell of Darkness currently seeks to collect all the relics, for purposes yet unknown. Through her research on these relics, Eido, Daughter of Misraaks discovered a reference to the “Curse of Nezarec” in an ancient dirge. The curse is alleged to drain the life of the user, though its purpose is also unknown.
We also have some clues related to the future through the Vox Obscura exotic mission on Savathun’s Throne World. There are dialgoue lines at the end of the mission that have successfully predicted future events.
“The Leviathian reborn” – This was Season of the Haunted
“The Shipstealer revived” – The Shipstealer refers to Eramis in Season of Plunder
“A city besieged” – This could be The Last City, but could also refer to Neomuna, the Neon City on Neptune for Lightfall
“Your Traveler Infected by darkness” – This is the one that stands out, and could be a prediction for Season 19. Perhaps revealing the secrets of Nezarec’s Relics leads to The Traveler being infected by darkness. After all, Lightfall is the name of the next expansion, which doesn’t sound like good news for the Traveler. Regarding the odds for this storyline, I think it’s high, given it’s something we only just discovered in Season 19, plus the link to the Traveler getting infected by darkness makes a lot of sense.
Osiris
Osiris has been unconcious throughout The Witch Queen, after going through the ordeal of being taken over by Savathun in The Beyond Light Campaign. Osiris was trapped within his body by Savathûn and was only able to achieve brief moments of consciousness where he could see what was happening. He surfaced once more while Savathûn was walking with Ikora. Osiris desperately hoped that his student would realize the truth and grew frustrated, believing that he had taught her better than this. He later witnessed Savathûn use her true voice to beguile and influence the actions of Lakshmi-2 during the Endless Night.
Osiris later managed to hear Saint-14’s voice and fought to resurface and desperately attempted to warn his partner of Savathûn’s deception, but was still unable to scream as he wished. He tried to weep at his situation but was unable to, and could only feel heat, hate, sickness, and shame. As Savathûn used his voice to tell Saint to trust “him”, Osiris drowned once more into unconsciousness.
Savathûn’s trick was discovered after the Endless Night ended and she agreed to return Osiris in exchange for Queen Mara Sov’s help in removing her worm. Following a ritual which did so, Mara attempted to execute the Witch Queen, but the Hive Queen utilized a contingency spell to swap places with Osiris. After the Techeuns confirmed it was truly him, Saint-14 brought Osiris’s unconscious body back to the Last City to care for him as they waited for the former Warlock to recover and wake up from his ordeal.
We can see from the Lightfall marketing material that Osiris is awake once again, so I would expect Osiris to wake up in Season 19 and help us get to Neptune. The odds for this storyline I think are very high, I’d say 90% certain.
Rasputin
The final potential narrative focus is Rasputin returning. We’ve not heard from Rasputin since before Beyond Light, with Rasputin getting switched off when The Pyramids arrived in Season of Arrivals. We have started to see more clues in game related to Rasputin’s return, most notably at the end of the witch queen campaign with the message onthe evidence board.
“According to this, before initiating YUGA SUNDOWN, Rasputin killed all protective measures in place for Human colonies and settlements. There’s a big list of codenames for the Moon, Mars, Earth, the Exodus ships, etc. but Rasputin also refers to a place called NEFELE STRONGHOLD. No record of that in any of our databases. Forwarding to A.B. for a cross-ref.”
A follow-up message from Ana Bray brings up more questions than it answers:
“To CHA-319: No hit on ‘NEFELE STRONGHOLD’ in any of Rasputin’s records. Can’t even find the original transcript you’re quoting. If it’s real, someone removed all traces of it. And if they did, they did it so cleanly that I’d suspect Rasputin himself.”
According to the lore, Ana Bray successfully put Rapsutin inside an engram, with the potential to move him to an Exo body at a later date.
With Rasputin safely inside an engram and the knowledge that we have somewhere called NEFELES STRONGHOLD, these could be the clues to narrative for season 19. Nefeles translated means Godess of Clouds, and Stronghold is a place that is fortified, to protect it from attack. We know that Lightfall is going to focus on a City on Neptune called Neomuna, which is hidden in the clouds of Neptune, plus they have Cloudstriders, which are like Guardians.
Given Rasputin deleted all traces of NEFELES STRONGHOLD, it’s likely we’d have to consult with Ana Bray, and perhaps remove Rasputin from his engram, and put him into an Exo Body. It could be that Rasputin has some weapons there that would be useful for us in our fight against The Witness.
We have been gathering allies over the past few seasons and Rasputin and Ana Bray would be powerful allies. I can see the story focusing on Rasputin, and sometime throughout the season his AI is transferred from the engram and put into an Exo body. We need to be gathering a powerful team to go up against The Witness and Rasputin is one of the most powerful of them all. Brining back Raputin also works well given we have a Dungeon coming, plus the potential for returning Seraph and Ikelos weapons. Odd of this happening are medium to high, I’d say about 60-70%.
That is it for potential story lines. Whether its one on it’s own, or a mixture of the above, I think there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to Season 19. Bungie will want it to be a big season, as they will want to hype up Lightfall, so I would expect some big narrative beats over the coming months.
Let me know in the comments what you think, and let me know where you want the story to go.
That’s it for this look at Season 19 Story in Destiny 2. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out This Week In Video Games on YouTube and subscribe today.