I think the darkness is dark matter/energy, and those that have been influenced or evolved within it are agents of it. Destiny writing seems to take one step into fantasy with one step into science to draw two themes together. The Planet the Drifter is on, I believe, is Mike Brown's undiscovered Planet 9. Its a mathematically predicted to exist planet orbiting our solar system. Its predicted to be larger than all of the Kuiper belt objects (10 times the mass and two to four times the diameter of earth) - enough to pull these bodies into similar orbits. The orbit of Planet 9 is theorized to be between 10,000 and 20,000 years. Its so dark that so far we're unable to physically detect it. Its theorized to be an ejected Ice Giant - a mixture of rock and ice with a small envelope of gas. Conspiracy theories and ancient texts that talk about Nemesis (Nibiru) - a planet or star that enters our solar system over millennia and causes massive extinctions. This theme is also present in Destiny lore through the Nemesis Star weapon from the mysterious Nadir foundry, the Light Beyond Nemesis warlock helmet. Flavor text: "What is the answer when the question is extinction?" A theory its thought that when this planet passes through the Oort cloud, its gravity pushes comets towards the sun and is responsible for the various mass extinctions throughout earth's history. This planet may have remained undiscovered into the Golden Age because of the "Anti-light fields" that the Drifter talks about. Being a man who is a bit of a crypto-archaeologist, the mystery of an undiscovered dark planet would be something he'd want to explore. So this planet's orbit may take it out so far that it exists into the void/darkness or millennia. Creatures frozen in ice, waiting for a thaw as the orbit draws closer to the sun. Feeds on the mass extinction, then goes back to hibernation. Much like a cicada - (rolls into the traveler gardener theme). So with your post about the darkness, It looks like it is something physical - like dark matter. Its a philosophy - like Darwinism. Its also an environment where beings evolve to feed on light. So I think this story of the Drifter is to teach us is the survival behavior of organisms that evolved in the dark. This may help us draw the motivation of the enemies of the pyramid ships who evolved in a similar environment. Something unrelated I noticed about the Drifter and his folks losing their light when everyone gained theirs back: [i]One day, when we had settled in for the night in another monolith, something swept over the planet. I later learned it swept across the system. All'a you hearing this felt it. You were there at the source. All four of us lost our Light. And we knew it. We looked over at the monolith-creature in its frozen cage. It seemed to stare right back.[/i] "Something swept over the planet. I later learned it swept across the system" is referring to when the Traveler woke up. Not when it was captured - everyone just lost their light, nothing swept. "All four of us lost our light." It reads like they all lost their light when everyone gained theirs. Its also subtly saying the planet they were on was within the system.