A lot of DestinyThe story exists everywhere except the main game. The version you get by playing today’s campaign is very different from the version that existed just a year ago, and it is also very different from the version you will get if you played Destiny for hundreds of hours enjoying the peaceful atmosphere building of the gun flavor text random menu screens, and Bungie’s own websiteNow the studio has found an even weirder place to reveal new story twists by posting Season of the Chosen’s big bad on Twitter.
This week, Bungie handed over the reins of his Destiny account to Caiatl, Empress of the Cabal. What may have been just a weird fourth-wall-breaking publicity stunt turned into something else based on how much the game’s developers devoted themselves to the bit.
‘Protectors! Your commander lets you fight those who could be your allies, ” Caiatl wrote Monday. “Join me in the fight against our shared enemy.”
In Destinyland, Caiatl tries to get players to bend the knee as part of an alliance to face off against their shared enemy, the Hive. Although they didn’t join her in-game, they joined Caiatl on Twitter to tease her endgame and make the giant alien warlord to step on it
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Here’s an example of how that went:
Caiatl: Join me in revenge.
DrLupo: Please walk with me
Caiatl: You address an empress, commander of legions and ruler of the cabal. You’re already under me.
Caiatl is 9’10 “In comparison, that’s four inches longer than Resident Evil VillageThe very tall vampire lady that players wanted to kick on them too who is 9’6 “
But the Empress, whose father was a robber in the first year, doesn’t just try to meme with people. She also spilled some important beans about this week’s assassination attempt on Vanguard dad Commander Zavala. In excellent daytime soap opera fashion, he was hanging out on a balcony that was about to be shot by Psion Flayer when Crow, former Destiny 2 villain turned to amnesia, sad boy, good guyappeared in front of him just shortly enough to make him aware of the intruder. The big reveal? Caiatl claims she did not order the hit.
“If I wanted to kill Zavala, I would look him in the eye if I did,” she wrote in response to a tweet from a player asking about the attack. “A warrior earns no less.” That definitely puts a different spin on things! Destiny often prefers to tell stories through big, blunt allegories – Achilles drags Hector around outside the gates of Troy-esque things – rather than leaning on intrigue and conspiracy. Season of the Chosen has stood out in that regard so far. The politics of Destiny’s universe deepens and becomes more three-dimensional. Of course you would have to constantly replay missions to get sound bites with spinning dialogues to get the full picture, and now you have to hang out on Twitter in Caiatl’s menchies too.
However, the players who have appeared have managed quite a bit.
“You missed every shot you took, [Caiatl], ”Tweeted one player. The magnificence of your gunsmiths’ works seems rather dubious at best. Meanwhile, the pile of Cabal bodies we’ve collected speaks volumes, Empress. But please get on with your sales pitch. “
Caiatl replied, “Any challenger you kill paves the way for stronger commanders. Every battle you fight against us teaches us your tactics. “
Bungie probably couldn’t have staged it better.
Some comments from players even made the character become poetic. “Do you ever regret betraying your father, Calus,” one asked. “Life is a chain of decisions, victories and regrets. Do you regret not saving Cayde-6? She wrote back. (If you live under a rock or just don’t play Destiny: Cayde-6 was Nathan Fillion, who killed Crow in 2018
Ideally, exchanges like this would appear in the game not just as lore dumps associated with loot drops or animated shorts, but as normal scenes rendered in the engine. For a whole host of reasons, including probably a lack of time, money, and resources, those kinds of fleshed-out stories have never been in the cards for DestinyStill, it’s one of the more creative solutions Bungie has come up with since the series’ launch, turning fans into answer people to help build this season’s characters, and it’s certainly better than nothing.