#occlusion

First and foremost, what happens to initiate the quest? Well, Quinn tells us that when the Witness used the Veil to make the link, that event briefly rebooted the CloudArk. As soon as it rebooted, the Vex noticed something, broke into the Hall of Heroes and destroyed five Cloud Strider memorials. They are irreplaceable, made from each Cloud Strider's core. When interacting with them, our Strand connected with one of the Cloud Striders and rebuilt the memorial. Quinn realised that if we connect with others, we will be able to restore all of them and figure out why the Vex wanted to destroy them.

We are able to restore them all and learn about them, how they connect to each other and what they occupied themselves with.

The Strider

The Strider, real name Mikaela Julaha, was the first Cloud Strider. In her lore, which is a version told in some sort of show for kids, we're told:

Before the Strider, we did not have a special protector for the city, and that meant we all had to fight every day. We had many weapons and implants to make ourselves strong, but not the special synthesis that makes the Cloud Striders special. And many more Neomuni had to be soldiers and transform their bodies to protect the city and get hurt.

Makes sense! Before Cloud Striders, everyone had to fight, which meant more people suffering and more victims, as well as more people having to use augmentations. However, there's a difference between regular implants and what the Cloud Striders have. Cloud Striders get a "special synthesis." How? Strider made the Sidereal.

What is the Sidereal? Fret not! We know! The Sidereal was created by the first Cloud Strider:

The Strider saw us suffering. She worried that fighting so much would hurt our hearts, and she knew that one person can make all the difference. So, she took her courage and her wits and her strength and created the Sidereal.

Do you know what the Sidereal is, niños?

That's right! The Sidereal is a special place where one person gives up their normal life to become a Cloud Strider and live for us all!

The Strider gave us the Sidereal. The Cloud Strider fights so we can have peace so we could be more than just soldiers.

It's some sort of a machine that does the process of becoming a Cloud Strider. It is somewhat described in the lore tab where Nimbus becomes a Cloud Strider, Foremost Vimana:

There are no smiles to go around when drills bore into bone until they taste marrow, and metal latticework replaces the dermis of their flayed-open throat. As the cradle lowers them into the Sidereal, the droning hum of a nonillion nanites fills their ears and drowns their fear.

The Sidereal is a special machine able to integrate the nanites into Cloud Striders so fully that they merge in a way that makes Cloud Striders what they ar; big, strong and also with their lifespans cut short. Intriguing process, possibly discovered by Mikaela through her own situation; Mikaela had an unspecified accident which led to her body being heavily augmented, but then those augmentations started aggressively deteriorating her body. It's implied that the lifespan part was unknown when this was first done, though the full timeline of these events is unclear.

Needless to say, Strider also found the whole topic of the exotic quest, the friendly Vex Mind called the Occlusion. Strider was the first to find it and she protected it and kept it safe, leaving it alone in the CloudArk. It is apparently integral to the function of the CloudArk; Quinn describes it as "loadbearing." I can't help but wonder if those two things are connected; if the creation of the Sidereal is directly related to Strider's discovery of the Occlusion or the other way around.

The Bluejay

Bluejay, real name Conrad Jain, is a really interesting Cloud Strider because he became one in order to have legal access to simulation tech. He was a tech genius and a game designer. He basically turned CloudArk into what it is today; at first it was just used for storage, but his simulation research and insight into the Vex allowed him to turn it into a real virtual space where people could go, live and play. Basically without him, CloudArk would still just be storage. And he researched the Vex as well:

So Bluejay helped us expand how we use the CloudArk—he made it a place we could play or even live, if we needed to. And when he made his game in there, he also learned that the Vex used the CloudArk, too. ... Bluejay learned he could jump from the CloudArk to the Vex network, and he sabotaged their machines from the inside. The Vex were very confident and did not think he could find them, so they were careless. And so Bluejay scared them, and they ran away!

Naturally, he found the Occlusion, from Strider's files and information. He left the Occlusion alone, clearly, which means that he knew its importance. Given his drive to stop the Vex, if the Occlusion was a threat or unimportant, he could've pushed it out.

In his other lore tab, the one that features a record of a hearing of him in court (he was arrested for illegal simulation research), he is arguing with the judges about his deeds, insisting that he is helping everyone. He is not remorseful at all and mentions how important his work is. Some relevant excerpts:

JAIN: We're the last of humanity, trapped in a bubble. Simulation is an entire frontier we can explore to re-define what it means to be human. And you outlaw it just because we fear others' bad experiences from hundreds of years ago!

It's unclear which experiences he's referencing. Possibly something from before Neomuna. Ishtar Collective was aware of Vex simulations and are possibly the ones who banned research of it. Only Cloud Striders, who answer to the council, are allowed to research it, and Conrad calls them "council's lapdogs."

JAIN: The CloudArk is an nth dimensional paracausal fold, and we use it to store library books.

C. BOUDAN: We use it to support the public need. Not as some playground.

JAIN: Play?! You bastard, I lost friends shutting down the Vex Isometry! You wouldn't be sitting there i—

Conrad knew a lot about the CloudArk and its abilities and possibilities. He was also aware of how it ties into the Vex Network and how important it is to expand the knowledge of it. And, unsurprisingly, he knew something about the Veil. In his own words:

It's... it's the shadow of every story and memory and hope we brought with us. The stars are off limits, but the Veil knits an entire universe for us. We just had to embrace it!

It's unclear, again, but we do know that CloudArk is powered by the Veil. Conrad, aka Bluejay, was pivotal in turning the CloudArk into what it is today, which means he must've known more about the Veil as well. This directly ties the Veil's power with the CloudArk; it's the Veil that "knits an entire universe" for them via the CloudArk where they can upload their consciousness and live inside unimpeded. These are all breadcrumbs for us to follow.

The Stargazer

I did a write-up on Stargazer as they relate to the question of why Neomuna never helped Earth during the Dark Age. In short, Stargazer (real name Laminak Li) was a mathematician before becoming a Cloud Strider and they were able to use math to re-discover the location of Earth and scan it for signs of life. Upon finding them, they went to Earth, learned of the Lightbearers, killed one, made contact with the Warmind in the bunker and deleted all records of the exodus ship and Neomuna to protect it from violent warlords of Earth.

Stargazer was aware of the Occlusion and named it:

Yes, hmm. How to describe... "Algorithm" is inaccurate but acceptable shorthand. It's... an occlusion. In the way? Perhaps. But if we ride along the edge... hm. Accelerated processing, gravitational lensing as applied to data.

Highly unclear what it means, but their story is tied to the math and science of rediscovering Earth. It appears they may have used this "algorithm" to do it. I'll briefly mention another Cloud Strider (Siegebreaker aka Telluride Magsi), the one whose memorial we first rebuilt and who first mentioned the algorithm:

Built a data crawler app to scour Siegebreaker's database for mentions of the other four Cloud Striders targeted in that Vex attack. He references Stargazer! And some kind of secret "number-crunching algorithm".

He thought it was a "number-crunching algorithm" and Stargazer claims that "algorithm" is not accurate enough. Is Occlusion responsible for this math and "number-crunching" to pinpoint where Earth is? Here, I also want to point out that "sidereal" is not a made-up word, it's a real concept:

Sidereal time is a timekeeping system that astronomers use to locate celestial objects.

That... can't be a coincidence given that the machine that makes Cloud Striders is called the Sidereal. Like, it's too much for the Sidereal to be called that for no reason. Perhaps this machine can be used for things other than making Cloud Striders or maybe the technology it's based on is also applicable elsewhere. This also relates to Bluejay who explicitly talked about the stars being "off limit" but that the power of the Veil and CloudArk can allow them to access the world otherwise. How do the Occlusion and the Sidereal tie into this? Are all of these things connected somehow?

The Maelstrom

Maelstrom was a military leader before becoming a Cloud Strider. Her real name was Sedderik Assur. In the kid's version of her story it's explained that she was a great warrior who fought off not just the Vex, but also other people causing problems. She founded the Assur Academy which trains people into leadership and they also train Cloud Striders.

It's also explained that she ended something called the "Uplift Coven" who were a group of bad people that wanted to be Cloud Striders. They hurt people and stole from people and Maelstrom stopped their attack.

What else do we know? "She was one of the city's greatest military leaders. Ended the Cobalt Occupation before she even became a Cloud Strider." (1) She knew about the Occlusion hiding in the CloudArk and she called it a "simulation echo" (2). This is interesting in relation to Bluejay, who was doing simulation research and knew of the Occlusion as well. Maelstrom's Occlusion data comes from Bluejay and Stargazer. She also said the following herself:

This little electronic oracle may be useful, but I don't like anyone standing behind me, whether they've got a knife or not. So the question is, tear it out and let the whole network fall apart? Or leave it in... and maybe things get a whole lot worse?

The "electronic oracle" she speaks about is most likely the Occlusion. Oracle is an interesting word to use; the Occlusion is somehow tied to Soteria, the Augurmind who was half-Warmind, half-Vex and had predictive technology. Like an oracle. Another interesting connection with Soteria is that Soteria's predictive technology was used to locate other habitable systems outside the solar system and predict the best ways to map them, reach them and colonise them. Aka we're talking about math and simulations to find planets again.

Maelstrom's other lore entry, the one that's a record of a log she made herself and isn't a watered down story made for kids, is her message to her rookie Cloud Strider partner called Geist. Maelstrom explains that she's sorry for shooting Geist, but that she had to and that she hopes this apology would be enough. It's safe to assume Geist survived.

Maelstrom focuses a lot more on what she finds to be her biggest mistake; creating the whole Cloud Strider training. She thinks it's her "stupidest idea ever" to pick twenty two kids and train them all to be Cloud Striders and then only pick one. She also thinks she didn't fully explain to them just how much the process of turning into and being a Cloud Strider takes from people.

She says she's right for picking Geist because:

All of you were driven, talented. But, Geist, you were the only one who didn't need it. You were the one who'd help this city as a civvie or a Strider.

The "it" Geist didn't need is presumably the augmentations and the full power of a Cloud Strider (aka the "special synthesis" through the Sidereal) since Maelstrom explains that Geist would've helped either way, with or without becoming one. At least ten of the group she trained turned out to be "terrorists with Cloud Strider training." Aka the Uplift Coven. Possibly Cloud Strider candidates who weren't too happy about not being given the luxury to become one.

And Maelstrom names some of them. Two to be exact:

And looks like I was right to not pick Ahpoor and Laghari and their little coven.

Laghari? Hm. I noticed this back then but there were a lot of names happening so I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but we still only have one Laghari character in the game: Quinn Laghari. The Hall of Heroes archivist who gave us the quest. Was she a Cloud Strider candidate who has a problematic past? Or was this an ancestor of hers? How old is she? Did she know Maelstrom personally? It seems like we have a lot more to find out about the history of characters we interact with. Even if this is Quinn's ancestor, it would still be interesting to find out what happened here.

Maelstrom ends her account with one more peculiar piece of information:

But I'm leaving you a present. Something my mentor left me: the kill codes for the Sidereal.

Interesting. Maelstrom's mentor (unknown right now) gave her the "kill switch" for this machine. And she passed it onto Geist, saying that once the Sidereal is destroyed and there are no more Cloud Striders, things would be better and "the rest of the city would have to step up" instead of "dooming another soul to this life."

Very strong words from Maelstrom. This obviously didn't happen for whatever reason. The Sidereal is fine, though we obviously don't know where it is or how it works. Given that it was created by the first Cloud Strider who was also the first person to find the Occlusion and this whole storyline hinges on the Occlusion since it connects all the Cloud Striders mentioned, I have a feeling the Occlusion has something to do with the Sidereal.

And given everything from Bluejay, as well as the fact that the Occlusion resides within CloudArk, both CloudArk and the Veil must be involved as well. Quinn even makes a comment about it at the start of the quest, something people may have forgotten by now, when our Strand recreates a destroyed memorial. Quinn is surprised and interested and then says:

I've read some academic studies on Veil transcription of the collective unconscious. I bet if I put you in cryo, I could—

The Veil, its ties to the "collective unconscious" and its ability to power the CloudArk are clearly relevant here when it comes to Strand, the memorials and this whole story. Quinn also thinks that we would be able to find out more if we were to be placed into cryo and linked to the CloudArk. Maybe one day!

Another thing that makes the connection is the imagery and motifs of the Neomuna symbols, especially as they relate to the symbol of the Veil:

This is from the in-game badge, but it appears everywhere. You can see it on Neomuna on the panels and everywhere in the menus for Neomuna collections and lore books.

The full part, the lattice? That's on the Cloud Strider Legacies lore book art, which is where all this lore is from:

This lattice can also be seen on Cloud Striders themselves, most notably on Nimbus' neck (also referenced in the lore I copied where Nimbus is lowered into the Sidereal where it's idenfitied as "lattice"), but also as a smaller motif on all Cloud Strider memorials and, I believe, as a motif on the Cloud Strider core which can be seen in Nimbus' hand in the training montage cutscene:

It also reminds me of the view of the Veil from below, as it's shown in this concept art:

Is there a connection relevant for any future reveals or is most of this just flavour and some background on past Cloud Striders, politics of Neomuna and its history? I feel like there has to be something more going on with CloudArk and the Occlusion, which naturally involves the Veil but also possibly the Sidereal and Cloud Striders themselves. And how does it tie into the Vex, their network and Soteria, whose arrival to Neptune was the catalyst for everything to follow?

This quest was A LOT and I think it was meant to be and that it was meant to give us leads and things to think about. It took me a while and a lot of re-reading and re-organising things to figure out the whole relatively chronological order of things, as well as possible connections between them and why this quest links these specific Cloud Striders and their experiences with the Occlusion, the Sidereal, the CloudArk and indirectly with the Veil. I'm still not sure where all of this leads, but these are starting points that were made to get us to talk.

The most Human strategy is some variant of tit for tat: tend to cooperate, but do unto others as they do to you. Start nothing. But if you are hit, hit back hard. Hit back harder each time.

So you punish the other village for attacking. You counterattack. Unwilling to walk away from a war they've already spent blood on, the other village attacks for the next two years in a row. A cycle of war begins.

If we take "A" to mean cooperating, and "X" to mean attacking (defecting), and both villages are playing tit for tat, the two villages' behavior over the years will look like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX AAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They are now trapped in an infinite war.

Let's say that the villages' yearly grain production plunges from 1,800 bushels to 1,200 bushels in the first year of war, to 1,000 bushels each year afterwards. Yet neither side can break out of the cycle of retaliation.

The only way out is a moment of grace. Cooperation, spontaneously and for no reason, after 20 years of war. Forgiveness without cause. Unilateral mercy. Declaring peace.

This is the value of forgetting. Forget they hurt you. Forget what's rational. Do what's right.

Now, if the other village takes advantage of your disarmament, you will look like a damn fool. But if the other side stops fighting too, both of you can go back to the maximum global good: 1,800 bushels of wholesome grain a year.

Imagine that those bushels of grain are peoples' lives, and you understand the urgency of grace. You feel the need to forget the past.

Ransom's grievance with the Eliksni is a rational one, but it could doom us to another cycle of conflict.

The psychometer lets us glimpse ancient memory, not because the Light cannot remember, but because it chooses to relieve us of memory's grief.

The Glykon Volatus is infested with the residue of evil's touch because the Darkness is there, and the Darkness remembers the suffering aboard. Haunted, like the Nightmares on the Moon.

You win a game of go by maximizing your own personal score. But I played for a joint good, a victory not described by go's rules. Externality drove me to cooperate when I should've competed. One move's grace for Zavala, so both of us could play a better game.

And the Drifter's poor Ghost. After centuries hoping he would become a true Guardian, after centuries of disappointment, it still sacrificed its own form to grant him another chance.

This is why the Light wipes away memory. It strikes away the pain of the past to break the pattern. To create the possibility of grace.

This is why the Dark remembers. We need to remember how we were hurt, so we can avoid being hurt again.

Gambit could simply be a game of speed gardening. Gather seeds and sow|sew them, leaving each group to their own. Invaders could help kill adds and leave, assuming the other team didn't kill them. It would be faster and less stressful for everyone. Just kill the Taken, not each other. But it never is.

In my best Gambit matches I am aware. Aware of my teammates and the enemy. Who has housed 15 motes no problem? Who is struggling? Is the invader being aggressive? Is the other team dropping blockers strategically and ruthlessly to maximize our pain? I |assess| the other teams |intent|. I |react| to these dillemas as they come. I |choose| my path forward. I |act|.

"THE ENEMY JUST SENT OVER A TAKEN BLOCKER. ENEMY INVADER INCOMING. YOUR ENEMY JUST SUMMONED A PRIMEVAL, THEY KILL IT, THEY WIN THIS." When the enemy is in their element, my dear friend cannot shut up. He haunts my nightmares sometimes. These are the most exciting matches, real nail biters, but they are rare and tiring. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to pay attention so hard. Drifter cheers loud. I often feel of two minds about it all.

We never learned its lesson, the [G]ame's. In the minds of some, the Gambit fields are empty. Everyone has moved on to the Final fields. But there's still time to learn. Time to understand. Very little.

|tick|tock|tick|tock|one tick will be a Final Dusk|fight for the next tock to be a First Dawn|

Where have the planetary bodies gone? Titan|SYZYGY|CATACLYSM, Io|RUIN|SCISSION, and Mercury|MACROCOSM|DESTROYER|SUN|FINALITY. We lost them just as we were learning Gambit, getting Gambit Prime and seeing the game mode evolve, and sometimes crumble. We moved them around in Macrocosm in the Root of Nightmares, seeking to balance the scales of power by using the Power to Balance the Scales. But they have not returned. Where are they?

[Have you seen the City lately? Sometimes the mountains disappear around the edge. It is an Abyss out there. Sometimes the Dreaming stir. I pray they do not awaken.

Have you ever seen the Scorn fight a Taken blight in the City? They are tenacious, as are we. They sharpen each other in their own way, as we all learn in our own. I just wish they wouldn't sharpen against us too.]

Dark Guardians have been in action since we mastered Stasis. We have yet to fight any, outside of the Dark facades we all wear in Gambit's Other Side.

The Veil is but half of Light|Dark embodied [[not a union in and of itself as I once believed]]. We cannot Live|Die without both. We would not want to livelivelivelivelive|diediediediedie ∞. We need both. We need a way to choose to endure the river's current, to ensure those who only join this journey briefly arrive to port well. We need a way to sever the loop if we react|choose|act. We need choice|truth|power.

[CONTRAST. As Death sharpens against Life, Life sharpens against Death. But it needn't be so equally. "Evil is real, even in a world of grey. It must be named and fought, because left unchecked, it takes everything."

The Emissary: Dredgen. Let's play a game. Your kind reveals so much in the choices you make.

Drifter: What the hell does that mean? You know what - okay, I'll bite.

The Emissary: Your feet find purchase in shifting sands.

Drifter: Okay, why is it getting hot? Do you feel that, Guardian? I can't… I can't see anything.

The Emissary: The night has enveloped you. This is a world full of Dark. No sparks.

Drifter: What's that smell?

The Emissary: The stench of the dead.

Drifter: Am I dead? I hope so, because what I'm smelling, I don't want to be touching.

The Emissary: You stand atop a dead world. A collapse.

Drifter: Get me outta here.

The Emissary: Very well. Your feet find purchase in shifting sands.

Drifter: Holy hell, what're you doing now? It's too bright!

The Emissary: The sun is blinding. This is a world is full of Light. No shadows. A creature runs into you in its blindness; it nearly bowls you over.

Drifter: [grunts] Hey, watch it! What was that? That's not funny.

The Emissary: It has lived here all its life. Too long. It is very old. But if you could see, you would see it appears young.

Drifter: Okay, when I said "get me outta here," I meant I'm done with your bull-

The Emissary: It grabs your hand.

Drifter: Don't touch me.

The Emissary: It begs. It begs you for help.

Drifter: You call this a game?

The Emissary: It begs you for death. On this world, ruled by full Light, it cannot die. It has companions that are as long-lived. It hates them, and they hate it. It will never end. It will never die.

Drifter: Get me outta here, Orin! It won't let go. I can smell it rotting!

The Emissary: And it smells you! You won't help it?

Drifter: I said I'm done!

The Emissary: Very well.

Drifter: What the hell is wrong with you, you lunatic?

The Emissary: You asked about Light and Dark. Come find us again any time, Dredgen. Guardian.

The Prophecy is yet to be fulfilled.]

What if the planetary bodies return some day? What if some of our number defect? If the line between Light Dark is Severed, which side will you land on?

Where are you going? No, wait, listen.

I was right, at first. In the ever-expanding Blighted-place, even Light must obey the sword-logic. Even you Guardians, you best and brightest of the dying dawn, you drew blood in honor of the Taken King. The Warpriest did his duty, and you did yours. Oryx was challenged, yes, but challenged in the way of the Hive, which is to say that challenge is worship — is challenge — is power. Sword-logic. You played your part well.

You were not supposed to touch the Light.

How did you find your way into the King's Cellars? How did you even recognize that benighted|draught for what it was? Do you not know that the Hive pursue Light precisely for the purpose of devouring it with slavering jaws and slick greedy gulping throats? How did you take (or rather, un-Take) the Blighted|Light that Oryx gathered to offer in sacrifice to Akka, and ignite it so that it burned and burned the Darkness?

It was barely Light anymore. But you took it. And when you took it, you did not keep it. You set it free.

You fools! You disastrous, bumbling squanderers! It's not right! Who now shall be First Navigator, Lord of Shapes, harrowed god, Taken King? Not you! You might have been Kings and Queens of the Deep! But you have toppled Oryx and you have not replaced him!

There must be a strongest one many one. It is the architecture of these spaces.

Why are you leaving?

If the invader comes, will you still be a Guardian? Or will you join the true Dredgens? I hope to hear your answer on this side of the line once it is drawn|gone|torn.

The question of how to live well in a universe of indifference, cruelty, and deprivation is the ONLY question. The Light does not offer us an afterlife or an otherworldly paradise. It does not give us throne worlds or pocket universes. The Light tells us that paradise is something we have to make here.

The Darkness cautions us against mercy to our enemies. Are we fools for trying to be good, when our very survival is at stake? Maybe. But the fact that our morals sometimes make it more difficult to survive is proof they are truly good! There is not much commendable about doing a right thing when it is also the tactically correct thing. When the good thing is also the hard thing: that is when the righteous are separated from the lost.

Sen-Aret, let me tell you something I have told no one else. I know that in the end, the Darkness can win. Do you understand what I mean? By its very nature, the Darkness is the judge of what will exist and what will pass away. In the end, there may be only Darkness because all that exists will remain only by its consent.

But the Light grants us freedom from existence alone as the measurement of our worth. Oh, evolution has made us afraid of nonexistence, certainly; and it is good to fear and to avoid nonexistence because without existence, we cannot experience joy. The idea that death is an escape from suffering is a trap. Death is not an escape from anything. It is a wall, a cessation, meaningless. I do not ask anyone to embrace death. There is no possibility in death; life is our only chance to live.

Darkness helps us avoid death. It helps us to go on existing. It is necessary. We must remember what hurt us so that we will not be hurt again.

But Darkness alone points to an eternal existence of mere survival—to a universe where the only judge of a good existence is the ability to go on existing. It is the grace of the Light that grants us the dignity to choose a finite life of compassion and common good over an eternity of competitive subsistence.

The Darkness, or the being that speaks for it, claims that the extermination of all those who choose the Light is inevitable; that the universe will be inherited by morally impoverished advantage-seekers like the Vex and Hive. Logically, I cannot see an escape—so long as I accept the Darkness's logic.

But this is exactly why we fight, Sen-Aret. Not to preserve our own lives, but to preserve the possibility that we represent. When all choices are measured by their fitness pay off—by what they do to benefit the continued existence of the chooser—the Darkness has won completely.

The most important thing we can do, the most formidable blow we can strike against our true enemy, is to offer irrational grace: to choose unreasonable hope and unreasoning compassion even if it goes against calculated advantage.

It is only by disregarding the logic of mere survival that we can create a possibility of existence outside that logic.

So. If they do not offer you a spot at the campfire. If they call you naïve. If they dislike your complaints about the casual violence of the casually violent. If they quote from the Unveiling texts, tell you how the Gardener lost because it always stopped to offer peace, and the Winnower always struck—then ask who they would rather sit by at the fire: Gardener or Winnower.

Then ask them if they would like to live in a universe where no one ever sits beside anyone else at the fire.

Never forget that even in the miserable logic of the prisoner's dilemma, it is the cooperators who create the best world. Two cooperators will score higher, together, than two defectors ever could. A world of cooperators would defeat a world of defectors if the defectors could only be kept away from the cooperators' bounty.

Never forget that what we achieve together, what we accomplish by leavening Darkness with Light and Light with Darkness, tempering grace with memory and memory with grace, is quite literally more than the Darkness alone can imagine. The Hive may have extinguished entire galaxies of allied life, but before the Hive came, those ecumenes accomplished titanic works. What do the Hive have to show for all their conquest? Miserable warrens and rotting moons. Even their libraries are just catalogs of death. Even their queens want a way out.

Never give up hope. If it is possible to live well, then it is worthwhile to try. If it is possible to exist by the rules of the Light, then the Darkness is forever defeated. It cannot dominate all things for all time.

Above all else, when you are in the deepest pits of despair, I offer you this: I believe that there is no reason the Traveler chose to make its stand here at Earth, instead of at Riis or any world before. I do not believe in any special quality it detected in humanity. Nor in any great tactical advantage the Traveler gained by vouchsafing its power to us. It did not release its Ghosts as a move in a scheme of incomprehensible complexity, or because we fit the criteria of an ancient plan. It did not compute the set of contingencies which could permit its own survival, a one-in-a-trillion pathway through a thicket of certain death.

I believe the Traveler simply could not bear to abandon one more infant possibility.

So it chose an act of unreasonable grace.

Clarity in action, Ikora Rey

[These dreams|memories|lives|sparks|seeds need not fade forever. They needen't be snuffed in full Darkness nor scorched by the full Light of inferno. We simply must give them a ring of spears in which to grow and keep them. Tend to them. Be their Guardian|Shield|Life—line|Seraph|Gardener.]

DROWN IN IT