So after reading many theories and thinking about the Vault of Glass, I think I may have figured it out. So let's cut to the chase - you can't lose the relic after the Templar. You need to bring it with you through the rest of the Vault. So why do I believe this? Well, a number of things. First, in the grimoire, Kabr says bind yourself to the shield and if you abandon your purpose, let the Vault consume you. We are never able to bind ourselves to the shield, we constantly lose it. Maybe he means that we should keep coming back to it and picking it up, maybe not. Also, many people are concerned that we never actually make it out of the Vault because there's no end screen. Some people think that means there's more left to find. Or maybe we didn't do it right. Also, some people think that we need a shield to use against the Gorgons to reflect their gaze - it would fit with the mythology. The Grimoire card also says that we need a countermeasure suggesting that something can be found, and a countermeasure usual suggests a way to reflect/deflect. Some have gone through great lengths to take the relic from the gatekeepers to the Gorgons. This is clearly too difficult and you wipe when you get there so that's clearly not right. However, the doors don't open until you kill the Templar and then we lose the shield. I'll get back to this later. Another thing that was bothering me was the gatekeepers. If we take seriously that the portals are the past and future, then are there really 3 gatekeepers or just one in the present, past and future? And if it's just 1 in 3 places in time, then it must really only be 1 relic that we get in both the past and future which makes sense because Kabr only made 1 relic. But then, where's the relic from the present? Why doesn't killing that gatekeeper also give us a relic? Because we were still supposed to have the present relic with us. This would also support why it's so ridiculous to try and kill the gatekeeper, grab the relic, and run out before your screen goes dark - there's supposed to be someone there to cleanse you. The other problem is that everything is about the Templar, not Atheon. The Templar protects the rest of the Vault. The shield is meant to destroy the Templar's shield. The power of the Vault flows through the Templar. The oracles tell the Templar what is real and then the Templar makes it reality. The Templar is out of time. When we kill the Templar, it seems as though we are supposed to fix time. Atheon is in the present - he is the point where the past and future meet and he sends us to the past or future. Shouldn't we all be in the present then? The Templar is not anywhere in time though which suggests that the Templar area is very special. This is also where Kabr made the wound in the Vault which we are supposed to bathe in. Most of us do not. We try not to get marked. Bit what if we just stay there? How can the oracles mark us and how can we be negated if we're there? Moreover, the oracles only can use this power within the Vault but technically this is a break in the Vault - there isn't supposed to be any Light in there. Maybe this is the way to keep the shield - don't kill the oracles, just let them pass. And why does the shield come from this light anyways? Also, Kabr said that he drank of the oracles and it tasted like the sea. This area is called the Templar's Well. But the Light wound looks like some sort of fountain and Kabr says to bathe in it. Finally, the oracles each have a note. Their notes make some weird song, but when you destroy them they make some sort of anti-note. Maybe we're destroying their song. If they finish it, and we're still alive, maybe that means we're real. There may be more, but this is all I can think of at the moment. One final point is that this is something that wouldn't take a ridiculous amount of skill, just some thinking and the use of the Grimoire cards. Let me know what you think! Edit: Also, looking up oracles, I may have figured out how the oracles of the Templar are different from the oracles of Atheon. There are 2 types of oracles - 1 that tells prophecies and the other kind are prophecies. So, the oracles in the Templar determine if you're real and tell the Templar to negate you. The oracles don't do this for Atheon though - he doesn't negate. You simply succumb to the oracles - to your prophecy - and when you destroy them you make your own fate. It's still weird though that these are prophecies in your past or future but there aren't any oracles in the present. Maybe if the oracles never mark you and you don't destroy them, they never see you as a threat so you can't succumb to them.