In a daring move, Bungie has released a three-year roadmap for Destiny 2, confirming that the game will not only be making its way to next-generation consoles but that players can expect a long and bright future as it finally realizes its vision to becomes one ever-evolving world. While the threat of the Darkness in Season of Arrivals or Savathun in The Witch Queen in 2021 are both very exciting, perhaps the most interesting release on the roadmap is the 2022 expansion, Lightfall, featuring an ominous logo devoid of color and the mysterious Pyramid Ships front and center.
Destiny 2: Lightfall marks the arrival of the biggest threat in the history of the franchise, and one that Bungie has been building to since the vanilla campaign of the first game. Everything from the threat of the Darkness to the working title appears to indicate significant change coming to Destiny 2 and the potential end of everything known thus far. This is tinfoil hat territory, but the expansion begs some significant questions: is Destiny 2: Lightfall teasing the realization of a prophecy from Season of Dawn's Corridors of Time, one that foretold the death of our Guardian at the hands of an unstoppable threat?
The Corridors of Time Puzzle
During Season of Dawn, Bungie released a new puzzle in the Corridors of Time which the community would need to solve in order to unlock an Exotic weapon quest for Bastion. Requiring an insane amount of collaboration, data collection, and photoshopping skills, players were required to run the Corridors of Time in a specific sequence to reach the Time lost Vault and end the mission. Once players reach the final room, they will come across a mysterious gravestone where a eulogy will be spoken by Saint-14 and a new questline will begin to unlock the Bastion Exotic Fusion Rifle.
Prophecy of Our Guardian's Death
The Corridors of Time was introduced in a storyline where the Red Legion was attempting to travel back in time and rewrite the history of the Red War in their favor. According to Saint-14, in at least one timeline, there's a dark future that ends with the death of our Guardian. The tomb that players come across in the time lost vault belongs to the player's Guardian and Saint-14's eulogy talks of our achievements from both Destiny 1 and Destiny 2, before revealing that our Guardian was killed by a new threat:
"Thank you for coming. We’ve gathered here today to celebrate the life of my mentor. My Inspiration. They called him Crota’s End. The Hivebane. Kingslayer. The Young Wolf. Hero of the Red War. The [man/woman] who avenged Cayde-6. He/She had a hundred titles I cannot recall. And he/she died doing what he/she does best. Defending the Last City of humanity. Ages ago, he/she saved my life. And then inspired me to save myself. I am glad that he/she did. Because, Traveler help us, he/she is gone. And there is no one to save us now. On the day we met, I decided I would follow his/her example. I’m still trying. I’ve marked his grave with one of his/her favorite weapons, shattered in that final confrontation. It used to be mine. All who find what we’ve left here—please leave it be. Unless. Unless you’re still out there somewhere. You’ve performed miracles before. In which case, take it. And come back to us. And we’ll kill what killed you. Or die trying."
Could This Be the Story of Lightfall?
The artwork for Destiny 2: Lightfall is a clear indication that players will be finally going toe-to-toe with the mysterious Darkness and pyramid ships, a threat that could potentially bring about a second collapse and the destruction of the Traveler. While it's unlikely Bungie would kill off the player's Guardian in a live-service game designed to last for multiple years on end, that doesn't mean the prophecy of our death couldn't be used as a significant plot-point in Lightfall's storyline. Bungie could use the prophecy as a story device and build the narrative around players simultaneously trying to stop the darkness and save themselves, or alternatively, begin the entire expansion with the death of our Guardian as it did with Cayde-6 in Destiny 2: Forsaken and use time-travel to rewrite history and save humanity once again.
A Fresh Start in Destiny 3?
Another potential outcome of this prophecy is that it could mark the ultimate end of Destiny 2 after six years of content and pave the way for the next game in the series. There are certainly a few tough decisions that Bungie will need to make in order to realize such an important and final plot point while still keeping Destiny 2 servers online for players to return to whenever they want but that's not something that players need to think about. After six full years and two generations of consoles, eventually, a new game will be necessary to rebuild the groundwork and engine for the purpose of innovation and growth.
During Bungie's Destiny 2: The Next Chapter Livestream, the developer revealed that it doesn't want to make Destiny 3, a third game in the series that could've released instead of the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep expansion had the publishing deal with Activision remained in place. So elegantly stating "we don't want to put another number on a box," Bungie would like Destiny to be an ever-evolving world with new and old content been cycled in and out of the game over time, changing the way players experience the world of Destiny every season.
The announcement of a new expansion called Destiny 2: Beyond Light releasing in September this year, as well as Destiny 2: The Witch Queen in 2021, and Destiny 2: Lightfall in 2022 is proof that Destiny 2 has a long and bright future ahead of it and Bungie isn't about to force its player base to start over from a scratch anytime soon. If the theory is real, Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion in 2022 could change the future of the game forever, potentially creating a need for a third game in the series. However, until then the focus is on Season of Arrivals, the brand new Prophecy dungeon, and a bright future for the looter-shooter that started it all.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light launches September 22 on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.