Everyone is debating whether Eris is secretly serving Mara Sov or Savathun. I'm calling it now... the answer is both. Because Mara Sov *is* Savathun. May I direct your attention to the following observations: ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Savathun said "we need to become different." We don't yet know just how different she meant. Her brood could be the thing that "happened" to the Awoken. 2. Savathun infiltrated the Harmony with secret covens of witches in disguise, as the Queen is possibly now doing to Guardians. 3. Cayde-6 describes Mara Sov as a master of manipulation. Savathun's "nature" is cunning. They have remarkably similar personalities. 4. As Mara Sov tricks her enemies into fighting each other, so did Savathun trick Crota into letting the Vex invade Oryx's dimension. 5. Similarly, we know Mara Sov plotted to kill Oryx before he entered the system. Crota's death, spurred on by Eris, drew Oryx into a battle he could lose. Once again, she uses other enemies to try to dispatch Oryx, and Crota was part of the trap. 6. Awoken have an unknown connection to the Darkness and Void magic superweapons. This would explain it. 7. Mara Sov had no fear of material death at the hands of Oryx's ship, because of a greater plan. Kinda like how Savathun has been killed and returned from her Throneworld hundreds of times, if not thousands. Plus, the Queen's priestesses noted that the defeat would be "here, now" and not "there, then." The Queen's brother also felt her presence after her supposed demise. 8. It would give symmetry to the plot that you know developers love. Exo and Vex have history together: One playable race and one race of darkness. Now the Awoken and Hive do too. That leaves the Fallen and Cabal as victims. 9. "I am noble too, Lord of Wolves. Starlight was my mother, and my father was the Dark." I.E. her teacher Taox (neutral) and the Deep (darkness). 10. By claiming Willbreaker, Eris might be claiming all tribute sent to Oryx. In this case, each kill brings Mara Sov closer to returning from her Throneworld, at which time she would claim Oryx's ability to Take. 11. Mara Sov helped us clear the Black Garden, possibly for the same reason Savathun tried to subvert the Ana-Harmony. "Our gods should be ours alone." 12. Releasing Skolas, then letting us recapture him would have given her a chance to observe whether Guardians were ready for Oryx. If Mara is Savathun, she needed a paracausal weapon from either the Sky or the Deep to end him. We are paracausal, which is why the Vex can't simulate Guardians. 13. The Prison of Elders could be an arena of survival of the fittest, of sword-logic. Just as Oryx, Xivu Arath and Savathun constantly warred on one another, so did the Awoken Queen set her prisoners against one another, while she tested their weaknesses. 14. Variks asks: "Why do the Awoken whisper to the stars and listen for the whisper back, the voices from the Jovians, the song in the dark?" So they are in communication with a dark patron, the Jovians who serve the Nine. The Nine have been described as Leviathan intelligences at the Jupiter system, not too dissimilar from the Worms of Fundament. 15. Ghost Fragment - Awoken 2 refers to "singers" and "her" at the birth of an Awoken. There is another race that has "singers": the Hive. 16. Ghost Fragment - Fallen 4: "I AM LORD OF WOLVES, the Kell sends. YOU ARE AN EMPTY THING WITH TWO DEAD SOULS." 17. "The Awoken became my family." 18. Why do Awoken witches cover their eyes? Maybe because they have 3 of them like Eris. Less likely, but food for thought.