I’ve been thinking on our good friend left adrift in the void for a little while now. Toland the Shattered, and his opinions on the Queen of the Awoken. If you take the time to listen to the ravings of the mad man, some of you might come to the conclusion that Toland isn’t particularly fond of our dear Queen, Mara Sov. Not that he holds a distain for her, but he clearly has an aversion to the woman, advising the Guardian to abandon the Dreaming City, saying that they walk in the “dreamland of [their] enemies”, and that it was “a place of scheming queens and traps unsprung.” Now, there’s a good chance he’s talking about the Witch Queen, Savathûn, in this quote, and he most likely is, but he says “Queens”. As in plural. Hinting that he views the two Monarchs as stemming from the same category. Another quote that seems to suggest that Toland isn’t the biggest supporter of the Awoken Queen especially for someone who hangs around her Throne Space so much, would be from an Ascendant Challenge Bounty, reading; “Starlight, star bright, first untruth she’ll craft tonight”. Again, who he’s referring to isn’t explicitly stated, but given that Mara has referred to her mother being Starlight on multiple occasions, is well known for her “untruths” especially in the Marasenna, and this quote comes from a bounty for the challenge held in Mara’s Throne, the evidence seems to point towards Mara being the one he’s referring to. A few other lines that Toland will tell you when you find his Wisp in Ascendant Challenges or in the Shattered Throne are also telling. One in particular has him saying he’s “A dreamer set adrift caught between schemes in a pleasant pawn for murderous queens” again grouping the two Queens together under the describer of “Murderous”, or how he has referred to Mara as an “Absent Queen” when questioning why the Guardian keeps returning to the Dreaming City, a remark which most Awoken would take exception to. Toland will also try to get the Guardians to think on what they’re actually doing in the Dreaming City, saying its a “final battle of spectacular futility" as well as asking “Do you ever pause, dear listener, to consider who benefits from all this heroism you commit?” Like the other quotes, Toland could be talking about the Hive side of the activities in the City, and how the Guardians could be playing into the hands of Savathûn, but the Witch Queen and the Awoken Queen seem to be two sides of the same coin in Toland’s eyes, meaning he’s likely trying to show that the Guardian’s actions further both their ends, neither of which they really understand or even know about. There’s also the incident found in the Reverie Dawn set where Mara had scared Toland out of his own topography. As a pseudo-physical wisp with nothing more to his name than the geometry he had managed to claim in Ascendant Space, I feel like Toland might be a bit sore on the subject, which could be the reason for his opinions on the Queen. Although, that raises the question of why he hangs around her Throne, and why he didn’t just return to his space when she left? Taking a look back at Toland's past might shed some light. Toland was there, when the Guardians challenged the Taken King in his Court. He saw how they snaked into his Cellar and poisoned his tithed Light to burn his Worm, and how they cracked his crown and sent him adrift in Jovian space. He also saw them leave as soon as the deed was done, abandoning the now empty mantle to rot. Imagine how infuriating/heart breaking/all around disappointing it was for Toland to not only see those who dethroned the Absolute Power that was Oryx leave the Throne unclaimed, squandering their opportunity to be Kings and Queens themselves, but then to find that some formless Not-thing found their way to the Throne and scraped together that wild logic like a Dreg-armed collecting scrap for their Captain. When he saw this Not-thing out in the Howling, he asked who they were and she snaps at him, spouting her spiel on lineage of Starlight and Darkness. Realizing that she’d collected Oryx’s Logic, he does the only rational thing and escapes before she can display her insanity in a much more physical manner. Yet Toland isn’t one to be daunted in the face of insurmountable power, rather he’d been intrigued by her. He hugs close to her kingdom, observing what she’ll do next. Then, who else to show up but the Squanderer themselves, looking to become a tool for the one who’d claimed their bounty. I can’t imagine how Toland could’ve felt seeing such dramatic irony unfold right before his non-existent eyes. His words of wisdom are warnings, from one Long Adrift Guardian to another, to open their eyes. For if you won’t shatter that which stands between you and the Truth, then he will shatter it for you.