Every single Bungie franchise is a different piece of the same puzzle, they're probably alternate / parallel / sequentially emerging timelines. Writ large, the story is that a combination of the consequences of natural selection on a cosmic scale, and the law of self-consistency, ensures that a queen of the third kind will always win. Basically, if an entity emerges that attempts to consume all matter and energy in the universe, that strategy of survival / competition will always beat any other possible strategy. The Darkness and it's adherents believe that there is NO alternative. You either conquer and destroy everything in your path, or you will inevitably be conquered and destroyed by something else. The only possible path to real immortality is through the sharp edge of a sword, or the chamber of a gun. From their perspective, if the Darkness doesn't take its cruel, and harsh shape then something else in the vast universe will, the consequences will be the same, but now the adherents of the Darkness, and the Darkness itself will die. The adherents of the Darkness believe this is inevitable, that natural selection on the cosmic scale implicitly necessitates the success of what they refer to as "the perfect shape". At the beginning of the universe the Darkness appeared out from the void, along with other gods, and began to shape the beginning of the universe at the singularity. But then the Light emerged, and the god of Fate made war with Dark (again), and the Darkness was scattered, it hid and was imprisoned in places throughout the entire universe, and began to influence the progression of the entire universe towards the final shape, ensuring that it will be the one to win as the universe moves on towards its inevitable collapse. At the end of the universe Dark and Fate will confront each other in the Black Garden(again) , and the gods will escape through the void into a new universe, or more likely to the beginning of this universe(again), creating a different timeline and restarting the cycle. The god of Fate is a timeless hero, reincarnated throughout the history of the universe. The current incarnation is the mysterious stranger, but we might be her successor. Essentially because of the law of the jungle and the law of self-consistency, the whole universe is trapped in a pseudo- time loop, and something that Bungie first called "the apocalypse labyrinth" over twenty years ago. As for the Darknesses identity, you probably know it, but I won't say it. The Darkness is the one who "rises with the tides" (pathways into Darkness), the Darkness was once a "sword drenched" in the blood of Fate. According to Marathon the god of Dark is both "enemy and lover" to Fate. "Their relationship is complex and perhaps eternal".

Boom ^

Evil is easy to figure out; so many schemes being hatched... you always know where it stands. It's those on your own side of the fence, that may appear to be non-malevolent that one needs to be wary of. #downwithrahool

That's valid. Lofty expectations but it would be interesting.

Double boom ^

Trade mark. Sorry I should have capitalized the letters.

So poetic

Thank you!

Damn. That's really good.