What I’d like to know is why they didn’t completely finish the job during the 1st Collapse. Why devastate our solar system, leave the Traveler ([i]or whatever/whoever is within it[/i]) comatose but very much alive, move so far away that it’s taking them years to return to our system, and take a centuries long nap. Why, after all that, are they evidently suddenly interested in finishing the Traveler now? Makes me wonder whether they aren’t the evil beings we expect them to be. Perhaps their aim was merely to disable The Traveler and the damage suffered by humanity was only collateral. We’ve been encouraged to make many assumptions about these entities; mostly on the basis of their relationship with the Darkness which, presumably, must necessarily be antithetical to us and our Light. But what if that isn’t the case at all? It was a popular notion during D1 Y1 that The Traveler was much less than the heroic savior and protector of mankind initially thought, if it’s not an outright villain. While I hear that less often today, the evidence for that case has increased significantly. For example, Mara now claims that the Traveler is directly and intentionally responsible for the conflicts humanity has been facing. Additionally, Forsaken has been blunt in positioning the Darkness as more of an impersonal, amoral cosmic force - a tool that expresses the morality and intent of its wielder. We have interpreted from its effect on our Light - a power to which we questionably ascribe the moral quality of “goodness” - that it must be evil. Forsaken makes deliberate efforts to make us wonder how clearly we’ve been seeing things. I say all that to defend the idea that the these beings may not be the epitome of evil that we’ve been expecting. It’ll be interesting to see what Bungie does next.

I thought Rasputin crippled the Traveler? If so maybe they feast on light but it needs to be active so when Rasputin crippled it and it went to sleep in a way its light faded and so they called it off and waited for it to heal which would explain them powering up as soon as the light touched their ships.

Rasputin did cripple the Traveler. Which would make it very easy prey for whatever tracked it down in our solar system, right? Why leave it hovering over earth when it’s just a sitting duck if their intent is to destroy it, is my question. That these beings somehow feed on the Traveler’s light and aren’t working to destroy it is a plausible answer; however, I’m having a hard time thinking up any lore suggesting it. In fact, if we take the lore associated with the Drifter as describing these beings, they seem to cancel the light - not consume it. Anyhow, it’s all interesting but only theory at this point. Hopefully Bungie will deliver something worthy of all these years of speculation.

I think the triangle ships are the darkness, as most people agree, so once they crippled and made the traveler go comatose the same thing happened to them (because of the whole yin and yang thing the lore has going on) so they fled the system before going to sleep until the traveler woke up and now they are coming back

Or these beings simply wanted to do a show of force. Showing that they’ve got the power to take down and cripple the Traveler. Or they simply left to regain power and are now stronger than ever.

I think it’s generally believable that they lacked the ability to destroy the Traveler originally, met a stalemate, and retreated to gain greater strength before making their currently impending attack. Unfortunately, the scene at the end of the Red War campaign makes that a little less believable as it certainly appears the ships were just out in the darkness of space doing nothing and that they powered up to come to our system after being touched by the Traveler’s very loud, very questionable outburst of Light. That scene drives a few questions if we also take the “stalemate” view. For example: [quote]Why attack now?[/quote] The post Red War scene pretty strongly suggests that these enemies are headed our way because they sensed the Traveler. Has something in their ability to defeat the Traveler changed? Which suggests the question... [quote]If something has changed in their ability to defeat the Traveler, why were they just hanging out in space instead of returning to the place they left it to finish the job while it as comatose?[/quote] Taking in these questions it really seems possible to me that these enemies of the Traveler have no intention of destroying it or humanity. Rather, they’re working to stifle and disable The Traveler and they tolerate collateral damage to the races near it. Once it’s disabled, job’s done and they return to space to hunt for other Travelers, resuming their pursuit whenever they pick up on a Traveler’s trail. Or, destroying a Traveler isn’t as obvious a process at it appears - perhaps it’s not about destroying the giant globe we identify as the Traveler at all - and they thought they had destroyed whatever it truly is the first time before leaving. Now, learning a year ago that they had not, they’re returning to do their job right.

Rasputin crippled the Traveller.

Light and Dark... the Awoken are key to the endgame, when we face off against the Darkness in D3.

I know! Also kinda confirms what we’ve thought all along that those ships harbor beings of pure Darkness. The Eldritch

It would make sense; Eldritch describes something as otherworldly or ghostly.

That's so interesting. I haven't read Marasenna all the way through, but I'll have a look now.