Mantle Of Light

[STATEMENT] .I FEAR THE FUTURE PROMISED | BUILT | EXIST LOST IN THE DARK [END STATEMENT]

6 years ago when i really started making art in the community, one of the earliest things i drew was Riven.

The working title for this was "a quiet goodbye". Sometimes you dont get the fanfare. The mission is last minute and the vanguards send you off alone. Thats what i wanted to capture because thats what it felt like.

WHERE

THE FUCK

Main!verse

Hive!Au

Ahamkara!au

Echo’s Ghost, Whisper

New Light vs Current

I wasn’t here for long, not as much as everyone else at least, and I held off really making a serious post cause of that.

I remember when D1 came out and my brother got it. He begged me to draw a ghost for his birthday, and I did. We owned so much destiny merch even though we only played for a few hours and that was really it for me.

Until Final Shape, that was. My friend asked me to play and after some convincing I did. After one day I was enamoured. I bought all the expansions after that, started making ocs and cracking jokes that our guardians were together (I’m the reason her guardian has a name after so many nameless years), and spent many sleepless nights playing. It even lead us to dating.

I met new people, a lot actually, in a time where finding and talking to people with common interests felt impossible. I played games with people for the first time in years.

It was new, fun, and scratched an itch in my brain I hadn’t experienced in a long time. The anger and disappointment from Ark: Survival Evolve having their official servers shut down along with all the drama surrounding their devs felt fresh. It was a game I sunk days of my life into.

Destiny 2 replaced that.

It replaced a void that I had, something that made days where I didn’t want to get up worth living.

I may have only played for 2 years, I may have missed all its origins. I may have missed its golden age.

Yet, even still, it was there for me.

Those nights I couldn’t sleep, the days where the world was crashing down on me, loosing some of the people closest to me, fighting to stay afloat, all the drowning school work, and even more. If I kept listing it I’d be rambling forever.

Destiny 2 may have not been a game I’ve played for long, but its impact will forever be something I carry with me. I couldn’t have asked for a better game to cross my path.

So whether this is truly the end or a path paved for a new beginning, I thank this game for all it’s done.

Lux praevalet, semper et in aeternum

(Art below the cut)

We’ve defeated gods

Together, we’ll get through this

a new chance. a new calling.

Written to honor my sweet Delta, my Guardian and first ever videogame OC.

This one's for Destiny, in thanks for all the late gaming nights, endless exploring, title-hunting, art inspiration, writing encouragement, and immensely fun gameplay.

While the game will remain, I still felt like writing this. Thank you, Bungie.

Per Audacia Ad Astra

<< Legacy >>

A year after the Witness's fall.

Delta strode towards the tree. Towards his sculpture. Her ivory armor gleaming in the morning light, its golden linings, marking her as something divine. Her platinum hair dancing gently in the early breeze.

She placed a hand over that golden handle, her finger tracing the delicate spade as her other hand cupped the face depicted in the bronze beneath the crimson leaves.

The Daughter of Flame, the Firefly, Dredgen Light, Cursebreaker, Savior, Warden of the Reef, Iron Lady, Flamekeeper.

These were the titles bestowed upon her like a crown of flames.

She reminisced of the time when she was carefree and rash. When she challenged any breathing being, and burned with the sun's light. When she would walk into the Vanguard chamber and gloat about her recklessness to Cayde-6, and he would laugh at her and with her.

Then her memory painted more vicious battles. When she descended into Luna for the first time, when she faced the horrors of the Hive.

When Delta stood face to face with the dark, and she burned bright in its heart.

When the City fell, and she did not yield.

When the threat of a dark future loomed over Mercury and then, when the weapon rose from its slumber.

...Then, when she lost a piece of her heart, of her flame. When she rained fire upon the Tangled Shore, and red was the only hue in her armor, in her knives.

When she stepped into the realm of starlight, and faced its curse. Not for a queen, but for the sake of a friend.

When vengeance burned so deep, that it carved itself in her blood, in her bones. When she ventured so near the reaping flame, that it caught her eyes.

Then, Delta thought of her redemption. She thought of how light came to clad her, instead of that deepest black she'd taken to wear, when she brought back a lost hero who never once doubted her, despite the blood in her hands.

She thought of when she stepped into the cold dark. So different from the solar might that has ever flowed through her veins.

Of the hope amidst despair, of a love born of hate and silver feathers, of the dark.

Delta then, remembered once again, his face. You're my favorite. Don't ever forget that, baby. He had said, when he gave his Light in that final, bittersweet victory, so that hers would continue to shine.

She caressed the efigy that depicted Cayde-6 again, and raised her emerald gaze to the heavens and the stars above, as if he were watching.

"I think it's about time I fly on my own, don't you think?" She said, her voice like soft linen.

Delta looked once again to the sculpture as Lux materialized and rested upon the crook of her neck, as a silent, loving reminder that he would be there every moment.