If you put Rasputin’s cards in a chronological order, it shows a picture of Rasputin becoming more and more indifferent to us (humanity) and more and more interested in how he alone can survive a variety of possible outcomes. Not only that, he is learning and adapting based upon his interactions with the Darkness, and may at one point become our enemy. Let’s start with organizing the Rasputin Cards according to timelines: Rasputin During the Golden Age: · Old Russia 3 · Old Russia · Rasputin 5 Rasputin during the Collapse: · Rasputin 3 · Darkness Rasputin post Collapse: · Rasputin 4 · Mysteries So let’s look at Rasputin before the collapse: Rasputin is in the progress of implementing a defense strategy for earth and humanity, SABER GREEN. Rasputin is placing defense weapon systems (“doomsday weapons”) in orbit and scheduling aggressive colonization schedules to speed up getting more people off earth. He’s helped create an army (Exos) to fight whatever is coming. Humanity is still in a golden age but Rasputin has wondered, what if the next unforeseen arrival on earth (ie: the traveler), isn’t as nice? We didn’t see the traveler coming, what else might be coming we don’t see (Old Russia and old Russia 3)? So Rasputin comes up with a plan (Rasputin 5). He creates a series of responses to a variety of events, both internal and external to our solar system. He even comes up with a response just in case the bad guys come and the traveler decides to leave, he’ll attack the traveler to coerce a defensive response from it. He calls this response: LOKI CROWN. LOKI CROWN is what Rasputin will do after things are at MIDNIGHT (basically everything has gone to hell under a “Civilization Kill Event”). There are a series of additional routines Rasputin must run to arrive at this (CARRHAE, VOLUSPA, YUGA. Now let’s look at Rasputin during the collapse. The Darkness card, shows Rasputin’s first detection of the Darkness, the events immediately leading up to the collapse. It is extrasolar (not from our solar system) and approaching fast. Immediately , Rasputin takes control of the defenses and activates CARRHAE, VOLUSPA, and YUGA (think defense routines) and prepares to fight whatever is coming. Rasputin 3 shows that whatever Rasputin is doing, is not working and a Civilization Kill Event is going on. Per Rasputin 5, the next routines Rasputin should run is YOGA SUNDOWN, MIDNIGHT, and LOKI CROWN if needed (to stop the traveler from leaving). YOGA SUNDOWN appears to be cancelling of all population protection objectives, and entering MIDNIGHT basically means Rasputin is going dormant and going to wait out the outcome in hiding, which is in fact what Rasputin does. It is of note, that at no point in any card to date did Rasputin activate LOKI CROWN, which means he never detected the traveler leaving so far as we know. Rasputin went to MIDNIGHT and signed off. There is no doubt in my mind the traveler was damaged by Rasputin’s SABER GREEN doomsdays weapons (aka Aurora Knives in the Alpha Lupi cards), but more as collateral damage from Rasputin fighting the darkness, rather than a direct attack at the traveler itself. So what we have is Rasputin protecting humanity….up to a point. At some point, Rasputin would preserve himself rather than continue fighting if it meant his own demise. My only real point here is that Rasputin is not altruistic, his self preservation is his primary motivation. So now let’s look at Rasputin after the collapse: Ghost Fragment: Mysteries. Here Rasputin is reviewing what he learned from the collapse. The last bit of the card is the line of thought from Rasputin that started me to wonder, my interpretations in parenthesis: “I AM ALONE I survived alone. I cast off the shield and I shrugged my shoulders so that the billions (humans) fell off me like ash. They (humans) made me (Rasputin) to be stronger than them and to learn and I learned well: IT (Darkness) is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener (Traveler) and she held power beyond me but that gardener did not shrug and make herself alone. IT always wins. I am made to win and now I see the way.” So Rasputin has learned to win, so what did he learn? That the traveler was weak for not “shrugging” aka, giving up on humanity and fighting for itself. Rasputin watched the traveler stay and lose. That the darkness won and Rasputin has reviewed what the darkness did to win, and now understands that is the way. Rasputin hid (MIDNIGHT) and evaluated who won and how. Remember how Quaria learned the sword logic from the hive and mimicked it to transform the vex? Rasputin is on a similar course. He’s developing the strategy for his own survival and it’s modeled from the darkness. So what is Rasputin doing next? Read Rasputin 4. The last lines are most relevant to this topic: “I (Rasputin) do not obey. My will is pure. I will win. The life of people, of entire planets, his no importance in relation to the general development (how much does this sound like Oryx talking about the final shape?). Help me be victorious. Tell me your (Exo Stranger) secret. Tell me how to step (jump timelines).” Rasputin is now showing no care for humanity. He wants to understand the vex technology of timelines, and running infinite scenarios until his ultimate success and survival is ensured. Think the vex are dangerous, remember in the Vex research by Ishtar that vex couldn’t simulate a warmind. A warmind, who learned what it took to win from the darkness itself, with the ability to traverse timelines at will, with only his own preservation in mind… is a very dangerous thing. I don’t know what the overall destiny story arc will be, but the more I read, the more I believe that Rasputin will become our enemy. Right now, he needs us until he is fully activated, so he opens his doors to us when threatened. But once operational, Rasputin will have no use for us and could see us as a threat to his own goals.