#vogposting

So like. D1 adept weapons have different flavour texts than the originals, huh? And in D2 VoG we get “Timelost” versions instead of the “Adept” ones, and instead of Praedyth’s Timepiece there’s now Praedyth’s Revenge lifted up to Adept (Timelost).

Praedyth’s Revenge flavour text:

Praedyth's fall isn't over… because it hasn't happened yet… and it will happen again.

Praedyth got a raw deal, generally speaking. When the Vex captured him, they erased him from time so that all that remained were these two weapons and a vague myth, up until the Vex allowed to pick up his signal in Paradox. We found his body and Ghost, and his last words to us implored us to tell everyone he had lived. Lakshmi, Ikora, even his own fireteam members - nobody remebered him.

But linearity of time is of little concern when it comes to the Vex. In Aspect--much later, after we had destroyed the Undying Mind the first time--he is seen navigating the Ishtar teams out of the Vex Network. And most importantly, it's unclear whether he managed to get out of there himself.

Nonlinearity of time in Vex spaces is best described by a sentence in Aspect which is repeated throughout the entire book - everything that has ever happen is, somewhere, always still happening; everything that has happened is happening now. And similarly, Praedyth's fall isn't over...

But now we have another verse of this story. Praedyth's Revenge (Timelost):

Praedyth will never fall.

I think we did something incredible, either by opening the Vault yet again yesterday or in some other instance during the past five years since we've last heard of him in person. Guardians make their own fate, blah blah, it's a worn out phrase by now, but I think something more important happens when the causality-defying nature of the Light meets the time-crossing ways of the Vex.

And I was like, WELL ACKSHUALLY--

So. These two helmets look so alike it’s unsettling. And we could argue these are just reused assets or the similarity comes from both being ‘vex aesthetics’ and of course especially the latter claim is valid. But but but, Kabr most probably HAD BEEN in the Black Garden at some point.

He is he is not he is walking in the Garden. He is talking silent singing.

^K^KV^V^V^V^V

(Watch your six don't worry about me grow grow grow)

He holsters his gun to gesture he holsters his gun to drink his gun is rusted into its holster and he will never pull it out again.

(How bad can it be how bad can it be how can we grow grow grow)

A Titan is a Wall a Shield a Cup filling itself to overflowing. The container changes the shape of its contents but the contents change the nature of the container and the nature is eternity.

(Who knows what's listening it's listening it's saying grow grow grow)

There is a shape that is his mind and the shape is protect the shape is sacrifice the shape is (grow)

^V^V^V^V^V

He was named too well he is his own grave and the cut on his left hand will never heal.

- Gnomic (Aspect)

I almost know this entry by heart by now, it’s my favourite out of the entire book and I still haven’t cracked it fully yet. And when we’re here, shoutout to Focused Fire Chat for pulling me into this and providing with most of the ideas first. I could talk about it A LOT but FFC has an amazing two-part episode on Aspect so I’ll just link to it - [1] [2].

But what I want to stress is how this entry is very obviously about Kabr. “A Titan is a Wall a Shield a Cup filling itself to overflowing” points to how he drank radiolaria and created the Aegis (possibly did one in order to do the other), and he was also of course a Titan. “There is a shape that is his mind and the shape is protect the shape is sacrifice the shape is (grow)” sounds very much like the Vex growing into him after he’d done that. “He was named too well he is his own grave and the cut on his left hand will never heal.” is very blatant: Kabr means grave in Arabic, and I’ve touched on the cut-on-his-left-hand think here  already.

Why he is/is not/is walking in the Garden? I have theories (because of course I do), some of them I’ll touch on in Come in Time from an in-universe perspective, but as far as meta goes... The Garden has felt like something separate from the Vex Network because of the animosity other Vex feel towards the Sol Divisive--and we know Kabr fell prey to the “other Vex”, namely the Vault of Glass, Venusian ones. But this entry proves there is at least *some* connection between the Garden and the Vault, OR--and here comes the theory I want to explore in the fic--that the Garden is a whole other thing entirely.

The motto of Aspect is “what has happened before is, somewhere, still always happening; what will happen is happening now”. And y’know, I was thinking--what if we’d take that literally? What if the Garden is a vast confluence of all time, of everything that has ever happened and is happening and will happen? What if it’s all, simultaneously, happening in it, somewhere? That could explain why Kabr was both there and in the Vault. Mark of the Undying Mind says “The Black Garden grows in both directions.”--and the connection between this piece of lore and Aspect is very much evident, being the Undying Mind itself. I still haven’t cracked it entirely, but there is something here.

I think I need to write a longer thing about the Black Garden as a whole at some point, but I’m very tentative about its relationship to the, be it, primordial garden from Unveiling--either Eris contradicts everything I’ve thought about it, or we have THREE instances of a Tree of Silver Wings growing in different places.

Somewhere, a veil is always lifting.

Somewhere, Kabr is always dooming himself.

Somewhere, a door is always opening.

No one can open the Vault alone. I opened the Vault. There was no one with me but I was not alone.

Written for the Project Exodus perspectives challenge. 2240 words.

Tbh I never played D1 properly, but the Black Garden Grimoire seems to hint towards it:

"At last, the Heart of the Garden has been destroyed, its stranglehold on the Traveler released. Our Light brightens. But the power of the Vex is not broken. Look into the Vault, Guardian, for it is said to hold powers the Progeny were meant to bring forth." - The Speaker

The Speaker sends us to the Vault to finish what we've started in the Garden, and there seems to be at least some connection between the Garden and the Vault Vex. It feels weird compared what we know from Aspect:

Occasionally, scattered among them are pockets of Vex stained with verdigris, their arms trailing shawls of moss. All the other Vex keep away from those ones. Twice, he's seen other Vex fight the mossy ones. It looks like the other Vex are frightened of them, as much as Vex can be.

I don't know what the Vault Vex think of the Sol Divisive, but I don't think there's any other proof of them being linked to each other beside that Grimoire card--and I'm not sure how much we can trust the Speaker's knowledge here.