All in all, it's good to see people recognizing Bungie's MO for new IP. I mean look at the first HALO: all in all it was a great game when first played, but look back at it now and you see how unrefined and somewhat more lame it was compared to the end of the trilogy. But anyway time to dive into te possibilities of this world: 1) I feel as though the darkness is a combination of a few theories presented in game. The races we fight feel as if they were once great (I.e. Fallen & Cabal) and they were either attacked by the Darkness or were succumbed to it after the Traveler left in defeat. So while The traveler uses the light to help other beings achieve greatness, the Darkness waits for the light to fail them, and consumes them in it's goal to conquer the Light. But since all if the armies are still here, is suggest that the Darkness could be an actual physical force that these other races follow and then pick the scraps after the initial battle is won. The Vex collective inside the Black Garden is another oddity. It shows that the vex may not have a completely controlling, overall conscious. The Collective inside the Garden were literally forced into worshiping the Heart due to it's power. They saw no other alternative in machine logic, than to initiate a non-logical course of action. But after it is destroyed, the Traveler does not immediately wake up, and the Vex do not immediately become friendly. This suggests that the Darkness is both Physical and energy based. The Darkness could be comprised of different entities similar to the Heart and the Traveler. They are powerful beings, but either choose or need to use others as their vessels of their might. This being said, they find races that better suit their needs. The Traveler choose humanity probably because as a whole, humanity wields Light better than Darkness, whereas the Hive literally worship the Darkness and could never live in the light. This beings me back to the other races. The Fallen have a sense if ancient nobility, but are turned savages, probably because some Dark power saw their weakness and exploited it to turn them into its agents. In regards to the Reef and the Awoken, the are what could become of Humanity if they fall from the Light. While the Awoken aren't part of the Dark, they loom at the edge of it, not interested in saving the Traveler or the rest of humanity, but not wanting the Darkness to overtake them. All in all these dynamics will make for an interesting new IP and I can't wait for the decade of new material we will see, even if this game was a little short out of the box.