Starting today is the haunting season, a new chapter in the ongoing story of Destiny 2 When an old threat suddenly appears in our galaxy, both new players and experienced parents answer the call. In this new season we find traces of sad conspiracies, family quarrels and irresistible desires, no, need, party as if this is the end of the universe.
These references are all chapters of a story that began before our parents and hopefully will survive well beyond the moment their light fades. As you discover characters, spaces and objects, new parts of the story will take place as pieces of the space-magic puzzle. And guess what, there’s someone in Bungie who’s dedicated to solving puzzles.
We then sat down to discuss some of the elements present in Season of the Torment, where this story began and how the gap created between the iconic emperor and his daughter brought the ghosts of the past to the door of humanity. .
Without getting lost in the chat, the history of this Bungi Destiny is written by the scholar Ashley Flanagan.
Legend: An Emperor Drift
Richard Barrick: Thank you so much for your time today. Let’s start with your identity and your path so far.
Ashley Flanagan: My name is Ash. I am a history scholar of Bungie’s Destiny. This isn’t the first time I’ve played the role of a history scholar, though not always for video games. I have a bachelor’s degree in Roman history and have been teaching for a number of years as an assistant lecturer, very closely related to the Cable topics that we will discuss today. I started playing about ten years ago when some of my friends started working on an indie video game and asked me if I would like to write something for it.
Having a background in real world history is relevant because I am good enough to pick data and identify reliable sources. One of the weird things about Destiny is that most of our stories are filtered through characters who can be unreliable storytellers. Do you really want to take Savathun in his words?
You seem to be the perfect person to talk about Season of the Tormented. There are two elements of the season that become more interesting if you know more about it: Callas and his giant planet-food ship, Leviathan. Let’s start with Callus: Who is he?
Former Emperor of Calais Cable. Many of the cables that players come in contact with are part of the military, so it’s easy to imagine that all cable culture is highly military. But Callas is different in that he is a hedonist. Remember that the military is the medium that justifies the end and this end is always fun. Everyone can have fun (until they get in their way). For this reason, Callas was considered by the majority to be a fairly popular emperor.
But it did make him an enemy in the army. His reign came to an end when his daughter Caiatl and a group of close confidants plotted to assassinate him at a ceremony known as the Midnight Strike.
According to Kallus, their big mistake was that his popularity was too much to kill. So, the solution they found was to put him on a ship, disable the navigation system and send him deep into space.
After that, Callas was exiled and they wandered around in Leviathan until the day he looked into space, and there was an intense experience when he felt something look back. He had an epiphany and he began to believe that an inevitable end was coming for the whole universe. She decided that what she really needed to do was learn how to do it right.
What is the reason for the “games” he played with the parents at Leviathan at the launch of Destiny 2?
Yes, he should be entertained all the time. For Callas, the worst thing that can happen to him is to be a little annoyed, even for just five seconds.
Callas really likes parents, unless they get in his way. She finds them fun and exciting. He likes to promise rewards to parents and bribe them to fight for him. Vanguard hates that parents are at risk for flattery and kickbacks.
So, he is exiled, has an epiphany and then decides to enjoy the situation to the fullest by exposing his hedonism. Did he touch at least a little bit that his daughter and close friends betrayed him?
He was very touched by it. Until the experience of staring into emptiness he was too depressed to do anything about it. This inspired him to take control of Leviathan, turn him into a joy boat, and start recruiting champions to avenge all the conspirators involved in the Midnight Strike. At this point he decides to go to the Soul system and find Gaul.
The Destiny 2 Collector’s Edition included a printed list of the names of all those who had betrayed him, and Gaul was too much on that list.
Because? Who was Gaul?
Gaul’s story draws on Roman history, which has always been a great inspiration for Cabal. He was abandoned when he was a child and was raised by one of Callas’s political enemies with whom he had wronged on the way to becoming emperor. Gaul had been a gladiator for some time, a favorite of Callas who began to see him as a son he had never had. He eventually joined the court of Callas and became a leader in the army. So, he was extremely cruel to Calas when he was deposed by a conspiracy which was intended to put Gaul on the throne in his place. It was about the same level of betrayal as her daughter, though not quite the same.
We met your daughter in Caiatl’s Season of the Season, didn’t we? Why did you take part in the conspiracy?
Gaul was someone Caiatl admired, or never took part in the conspiracy. He did this because he believed he would be a better leader for cable than his father. For a long time he had seen Gaul as the kind of soldier and the kind of leader he wanted to be.
He doesn’t approve of what he did at Desini 2. For her, it was like her idol falling off her back. And now he realizes that he has always had these big flaws and he has made some very foolish decisions that he will never approve of.
But the feeling of seeing him as his hero still lingers and he is still wondering if he will approve of what he has done: if he remembers Gaul he will be proud of him.
Apparently he felt closer to Gaul than to his funny parents. What was his relationship with Kallus before he was ousted?
Caiatl never understood his father because he was a cable soldier and compatible with the military part of their culture. You never understood her desire to “party”.
In the future, we will discuss cable family life in depth. What it was like to be the father of Calais, Caiatl’s childhood and we’ll see Caiatl try to understand his father, try to understand if there’s a reason to be like him. Since the Midnight Strike, their relationship has mostly been about trying to kill each other. But I think if any of them were asked, they would say there was a time when they loved each other.
Since Caiatl came to our galaxy, he has formed an alliance with Vanguard. Apparently it would complicate things for him and Callas
It was a huge and dangerous decision for a new empress to form an alliance with Vanguard against other Cabal factions. This season we will see that he is fighting with her and looking for a balance.
What else is Kallus hiding besides his fun and revenge missions? Leviathan looks different than the last time we saw him. It reminds me of the ship we saw on the Omen mission a few seasons ago. Calas has something to do with that ship, doesn’t it?
Kalas did some experiments using patterns known as the crown of sorrow. The Omen ship was part of it. Because of his partisan attitude, we do not see Callas as an intellectual, but he has been fascinated by the nature of darkness since the experience when he looked into space and felt something look back.
I think it would be reckless to assume that you know everything about Calais. For example, we know that Leviathan is approaching a pyramid ship on the moon, but we do not know why. Can you talk about it?
We’ll get to know more about the history of the Black Fleet soon, so I don’t want to talk too much about it, but a while ago annoying things happened on the moon. The moon usually brings bad news for luck.
It gives that feeling. Sorry Luna.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about one of Destiny’s favorite cable icons. And we hope that when you embark on an abandoned Leviathan this season, it will help you appreciate the ship’s journey and how you are now part of its history.
The season of suffering is starting from today. They can all play for free or unlock some extra features this season through season passes. From all of us at Bungie, we hope you’ll find yourself in the game writing your legend among the stars.