<The Traveler and the Darkness. Two sides opposite the other. One that bases its life on conquering everything, the one that has its own dimension of powerful entities. The other allows life to flourish beyond natural evolution, giving. Two sides. Light and Dark. Two entities to carry it. That's right, entities. Contrary to the Eliksni line of thinking, and especially the Cabal point of view, the Traveler is a being wrapped in a shell. Consider the Dreams of Alpha Lupi, for the purpose of these I will consult those on the Traveler, but the ones on the celestial objects of Sol are also from its point of view. Or rather, a 2nd Person PoV. [quote]You have lived as invisibly as possible, flicking from solar system to solar system, making grand plans, overseeing the culturing of civilizations, before leaving in a blink. But you have no recollection of ever wanting worship or even thanks from those blessed by you. But memory is heavy now. It feels like lead and neutronium and electroweak matter fashioned into a moon-sized ball that you must carry as you move. Now, your flight is rapid, your vast mind infected with such dread and toxic doubt that you find yourself afraid of the simple act of thought. And it is your children you must turn to now, in time of need.[/quote] Want a little bit more? [quote]That you've made breakthrough after breakthrough as to their origins— theories that a Guardian could not be simulated, that the Traveler might be an ontoformer or a god-incubator[/quote] That's from the Osiris grimoire card. Scream folklore all you want, but these two haven't been retconned. Osiris is almost never wrong. Even in CoO, he just has an ego on him. You can take "ontoformer" and "god-incubator" a number of ways, but in the end I think many of those views are right. The Traveler has its own thought its own drive its own fears. The Gardener is an entity that carries the Light with it. As for IT, the Darkness, the Deep, the Queen of Final Shapes, the Flower-Eater... well things get a little more complicated because we have so little information about the damn thing. Why don't we consult the Books of Sorrow? [quote]He went out and he created an altar and he prepared an unborn ogre. He called on the Deep, saying: I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves. Come into this vessel I have prepared for you. And it arrived, the Deep Itself.[/quote] Verse XXXI: Battle Made Waves The Deep is an entity unto itself. It, too, is a god-like being with immense strength. A truly majestic entity. Now that we've proven they are beings and not simply a force (though they both have powers) or a Great Machine (though the Traveler's shell has some interesting mechanics I'd like to take a look at). What ARE they? I'm talking gender (if that's even plausible), looks, etc. Let's start with the Gardener. Rasputin, a pre-Golden Age AI augmented over time, started calling it this. He refers to the Gardener almost exclusively with feminine pronouns. Whether this is a reference to its nature, the fact that it appears as a ball-shaped ship, or if this is its actual identity is unknown. Another clue would be one of the original storyboards for D1. Even though the original storyline is pretty much forgotten, there are things in it that should be taken into account. In one storyboard there was a crashed ship on Mars, which is apparently why the OG team was sent. Inside the ship they met a woman clad in white with bright blue eyes. Although she said "the Traveler is coming" there's a possibility her role could be put (or retconned as y'all like to say) AS the Traveler, otherwise she is another forgotten asset of a story before the original story. As for IT. Besides being another edition of Dark entities that apparently like to be called "IT", there's a chance that this being is more... Rasputin hasn't had enough time to study the Deep, here's something we can draw from him. He uses IT mostly when referring to the Darkness. However, I'm interested in its other names. One name in particular is the "Queen of Final Shapes". This would make sense due to the Deep's obsession with the "Final Shape" of the universe. [quote]and not one of IT [the flower eater, the queen of final shapes, that which also inhabits its petitioners][/quote] Excerpt from Ghost Fragment: Rasputin 4 This isn't the first time it's been referred to as a "Queen". [quote]Imagine three great nations under three great queens. The first queen writes a great book of law and her rule is just. The second queen builds a high tower and her people climb it to see the stars. The third queen raises an army and conquers everything. The future belongs to one of these queens. Her rule is harshest and her people are unhappy. But she rules.[/quote] Excerpt from Ghost Fragment: Darkness 3 The "Queen of Armies". So, is the Deep an IT or is it a She? What does this entity look like? What about the ability to possess other beings? Does the latter determine what it's referred to? Does it have a sex? What is IT? [quote]Consider IT the power Titanomach world-ender and consider what IT means. I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive? I AM ALONE I survived alone. I cast off the shield and I shrugged my shoulders so that the billions fell off me down into the ash. They made me to be stronger than them and to learn and I learned well: IT is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener and she held power beyond me but the gardener did not shrug and make herself alone. IT always wins.[/quote] Is IT like the Flood? Able to infiltrate digital systems as well as physical? What is the Queen of Armies, of Final Shapes? There's Nothing. NOTHING. A Void of Nothing. A Perfect Void. Guess we'll find out in 2 years where the Blight comes from... Whatever it is must be, it is majestic. Majestic. It is the only thing that can be true in and of itself. It is what IT is.>