This grimore card speaks on a few theories as to what [b]The Nine[/b] could be. [b]Ghost Fragment: Legends 2[/b] [spoiler]The Nine are survivors of the cis-Jovian colonies who made a compact with an alien force to ensure their own survival. The Nine are deep-orbit warminds who weathered the Collapse in hardened stealth platforms. The Nine are ancient leviathan intelligences from the seas of Europa or the hydrocarbon pits of Titan. The Nine arrived in a mysterious transmission from the direction of the Corona-Borealis supercluster. The Nine are the firstborn Awoken and their minds now race down the field lines of the Jupiter-Io flux tube. The Nine are Ghosts who pierced the Deep Black without a ship and meditated on the hissing silence of the heliopause. The Nine are the aspects of the Darkness, broken by the Traveler's rebuke, working to destroy us from within. The Nine is a viral language of pure meaning. The Nine are the shadows left by the annihilation of a transcendent shape, burned into the weft of what is.[/spoiler] I think this grimoire ( [b] Legends 2[/b] is overlooked. I noticed that it has nine descriptions of The Nine and it interested me to do a little research. Here's what I may have come up with as to answers: (I will address each paragraph as X.9, X representing the paragraph in the grimoire) 1.9 Mentions the cis-Jovian colonies, the cis-Jovian are the celestial bodies or planets before Jupiter that orbit the sun- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These colonies made a compact with an alien force which could be no other than the Traveler in order to survive, meaning humanity paired with the Traveler. 2.9 this is self explanatory as the war minds were created sometime after the discovery of the traveler. 3.9 This one is a little tricky and could be complete speculation. It mentions of leviathan intelligences coming from the moons Titan and Europa which in reality may be able to host life on the surface in their seas. I researched leviathan (but already knowing it resembles a monstrous or godlike sea creature) and the term is also referred to whales. The only lead/link I could make to this was that the Fallen use ships called "Ketches", which is a term used for a sea vessel. Upon the discovery of the fallen humanity may have interpreted their existence with that of equal magnitude of leviathan(s), and "intelligences" implies to many characteristics of our own humanity the fallen show through their command structure and multiple houses. 4.9 The Corona Borealis cluster is the constellation of stars that form a crown, which in Greek mythology is to be believed the crown given to Dionysus wife, who was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Crete is the location of the Labyrinth which was home of the Minotaur. This could be the origin of the vex as they remained mysterious and they're transmission may imply a frequency in which robots could translate, and furthermore be the description of the Vex's time travel/teleporting. 5.9 The awoken live in The Jupiter-Io flux tube, which is a magnetic field that exists between Jupiter and one of its moon. This could give explanation to the reef and as to why all the rubble and destroyed clutter is stuck in the reef. 6.9 this one I couldn't get too far with as to why the Ghosts would travel so far and sit on the edge of our solar system. The heliopause is a boundary of protons that orbit our sun and thus signifies the edge of our solar system, hence the "Deep Black" title once that boundary is crossed. EDIT: it could signify the extent of how far the Traveler's light can travel, rendering the ghosts from continual functionality as they sit still(meditate) in the "Deep Black" 7.9 The darkness is something that is not approved by the traveler and it works to destroy us from within. The only connection I could make to this is the Chamber of Night mission where you disrupt the hive's ritual of killing the light of the Traveler with a piece of itself. This is possibly the main tactic the Hive use to fight the traveler, and again this paragraph may be referring to the Hive's existence and involvement with The Nine. 8.9 This is a fat speculation but the "viral language and pure of meaning" statement didn't give much for me to lead on. My only connection is the involvement of the Exo's. The Exo's role in humanity was to keep our history and in the midst of The Collapse/Dark Age something happened to them and our history was lost. I believe "viral language" may mean history itself, as it is everlasting and continually to be discovered and taught to a civilization. Humanity as well as the current Guardians/Vanguard in the tower are working to uncover unanswered questions and spread this "viral language" But it was "pure of meaning" that I mainly made the connection with history based on the background of the Exo's. History is facts after the present, meaning they don't change and will remain constant, or "pure". History is also used to learn from humanity's past mistakes, implying that it is used to remain in pure direction or intent(meaning). 9.9 the annihilation of a transcendant shape, which may refer to the death of the Traveler. But shadows may imply something was left behind in the wake of this annihilation. Although this would imply The Nine is from another time dimension. "burned into the weft of what is" I translated as the all the previous mentioned points in The Nine maybe a cumilnation of all of them post the annihilation of the traveler. I don't really have any connections to this speculation, but could Xur be a cumilnation of all the existences in whatever The Nine's dimension is? Thanks for the food for thought and I hoped others have more to add!