Quite a blunt statement, I know. Naming the Awoken as enemies of the Tower is quite a stretch, given the generosity that has been shown the Guardians recently. Hopefully in this explanation of some grimoire cards I can show why this generosity might have an ulterior motive.
Not many people take the time to read grimoire cards. Yes, we love to earn them in order to flaunt a higher number than other people, but we generally don't care about the lore that is behind them. In these cards you can read about anything from a specific Fallen gun to the backstory of Skolas. However, we can also find hints of future developments in these cards. So, if you've got nothing better to do, follow along as I explain why I think the Awoken will be the cause of the Tower's downfall. I highly suggest you follow along with me by reading the entirety of the cards I quote.
Places > The Asteroid Belt > Prison of Elders, The Reef.
This card is Cayde-6, Hunter Vanguard, narrating the Queen's use for the Prison of Elders. This is one of the paragraphs from the card.
"Everyone involved in the civil war started trying to play their rivals against each other, and the Awoken too. No one wanted to become so strong that they'd be a target. No one wanted to bleed their own forces dry doing someone else's dirty work. Cutthroat politics! And who's the best at cutthroat politics? That's right, her Majesty, the Queen of the Reef."
This is just a sample from the card, but it goes on to explain the entire story. One common theme throughout this card is that the Queen of the Awoken is dangerously good at ‘cutthroat politics.’ One tactic mentioned that was used by both Skolas and the Queen is creating strife between two rivals. Focus on the same paragraph I quoted before, but this time the first sentence.
“Everyone involved in the civil war started trying to play their rivals against each other, and the Awoken too.”
Earlier in the card there is an explanation of Skolas’ thought process as this was going on during the ‘civil war.’
“…if the Reef killed my boss, and gave me a chance at the throne, maybe I can use the Reef to kill all my rivals too!”
Using her rivals to kill off each other was the method by which the Queen forced the House of Wolves into her submission.
Why this vague history matters you might not realize. Later on in Cayde-6’s explanation of the Prison of Elders he explains that the Queen captured many abominations throughout the Reef and keeps these evils in the Prison. Cayde-6 makes his own subtle mentions at some reasons for this.
“Maybe the Queen wants Guardians in the Reef, to deter more unrest. Maybe the Queen wants intelligence on how her prizes fight.
Maybe she wants intelligence on how WE fight.”
Ominous, right? Here is the following statement that connects with what we said earlier.
“Whatever happens— I want you to remember that she knows, more than anyone else I've met, how to set one foe against another.”
When we look at the story line of the Expansion II, House of Wolves, we realize that this is exactly what she is doing. The House betrayed her, and is now running a muck who knows where, and rather than do her own dirty work she is calling in the Guardians to handle them, all the while learning how we fight. This follows her template of ‘cutthroat politics’ mentioned earlier.
“No one wanted to become so strong that they'd be a target. No one wanted to bleed their own forces dry doing someone else's dirty work.”
She is perfectly setting Guardians against the Fallen in order to avoid making the Awoken seem as powerful as they really are. And at the same time, she is learning how Guardians fight and is causing a great deal of distraction from the real Darkness. I mean, who wouldn’t choose to fight in an arena with awesome rewards as opposed to off somewhere fighting massive armies of the Darkness against which the most common reward is death?
So far, all of this is guesswork. Well, more of a hypothesis. Yes, I have evidence, but in reality all of this is merely an educated guess based on the evidence. However, another grimoire card displays the chilling scene of an interaction between Eris Morn and Prince Uldren, the Queen’s brother. This time I have copied the entire card, as it isn’t quite as long as the previous one.
Places > The Asteroid Belt > Ghost Fragment: The Reef
The attendant moves as Prince Uldren passes through the massive door separating the Outpost’s common area from the warren of tunnels that make up the Queen’s Bay.
He rounds a corner and a poorly maintained hatch opens for him, clunking and groaning as it separates. The room beyond is dark, shadowed.
He steps through, and the hatch shudders closed behind him. A series of dim illumination panels flicker on. He is not alone.
Three dull green lights blaze to life behind a veil. She tilts her head to consider the Prince, face like a marble carving.
"You." Her voice resonates inside small chamber.
"Say what you want and get out. We don’t have time for this right now."
"In the past, Her Majesty has seen fit to—"
"In the past, our nav lanes weren’t full of Guardians." Uldren snaps.
"Last I heard, your Queen was on the far end of the Belt."
"If the Guardians knew you and she were in contact, it would be detrimental to her plans."
The woman nodded, once. "Very well." She stood, slowly, drawing herself up to her full height in one smooth motion. "I come with word from beyond..."
The mysterious figure is no doubt Eris Morn, the representative for the Crota’s Bane faction in the Tower. What other female character has three glowing eyes behind a veil? More can be learned about her by reading about her in the grimoire and by listening to her while doing the missions for her in-game. Why is the Queen in contact with Eris Morn? I can’t find any answer for this that is more than a guess. Who is she bringing word from? Once again, we can only guess. (Let’s just hope that it isn’t a certain King we’ve all had our minds on lately…) However, we do have some evidence for why Eris might be looking for contacts outside the Tower.
References for the evidence on Eris Morn are in-game things she has said, and the statements in the grimoire card “Allies > Tower Allies > Crota’s Bane
Eris Morn was once a Guardian. That should be fairly obvious, based on the fact that she’s the hipster of the Crota raid. (She failed at it before it was cool.) Her card mentions that she lost her Ghost in this failed raid. Upon losing her Ghost Eris was forced to hide in the Darkness of the Moon. She lived off of it for “countless cycles” as the card says.
“Despite all odds she endured, using the very dark she battled to emerge a changed warrior—driven, some would say obsessed.”
Eris Morn, according to this card, used the Darkness itself to escape. Shifty business, huh? It gets worse. The Speaker and Commander Zavala (Titan Vanguard) both believe that she has been “fully seduced by the shadows.” The card also states that her warnings of Crota are often deemed “madness.”
So, think about it. A Guardian who lost her Ghost, survived off of the Darkness the Hive live off for years, and returned to the Tower to warn them about it only to be scoffed at as crazy might have just a tiny little bit of contempt. And if the Speaker is to be trusted, she might just be as much as an agent of Darkness as she looks.
I look forward to hearing feedback about this theory and some ideas about what might be the answers to the numerous questions this theory has raised.
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2 RepliesAwoken are guardians so it wouldn't make sense, as well as per ttk the reef's army us decimated and they rely on the tower and guardians to help them recover. Prince uldren I assume will take the throne and he does dislike guardians. But he's a dick, not suicidal