With Lightfall being just four months away from release, Destiny 2's Season 19 has to tie some loose ends before wrapping up Year 5, and it also has the job of bridging the gap between the current stories and the one told with the upcoming expansion. Because Lightfall is set in the city of Neomuna on Neptune, which is currently an unknown location to mankind, the only likely explanation is that the Warmind Rasputin actually erased mentions of this settlement to shield it from the Darkness. This can be inferred by lore tabs that talk about how mentions of a place called Nefele Stronghold were found in the Warmind's logs, with Nephele being a nymph from Greek mythology associated with clouds.

Destiny 2's Cloud Striders are bionically-enhanced humans that protect the people of Neomuna, and that's the connection with Rasputin's Nefele Stronghold, which was likely a name the Warmind himself created. As such, the most logical next step for Destiny 2's Season 19 would be to bring Rasputin back and finally give him the Exo body that Ana Bray has been trying to restore for the Warmind all this time, so that he can reveal what the Nefele Stronghold is and where it is. While this is a sort of reverse-engineering process to get information, there's a trailer that Bungie shared for The Witch Queen expansion that might have accidentally spoiled Season 19's story and weapons.

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Why Destiny 2's Season 19 Might Bring Back Rasputin and Seventh Seraph Weapons

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The Witch Queen expansion was revealed all the way back in August of last year, and with it came many game-changing features, such as weapon crafting. The first trailer for Destiny 2's weapon crafting mentioned that players would be able to select their preferred perks on any weapon they unlocked the pattern of, but also that this process wasn't exclusively coming for new weapons alone.

In fact, after revealing new content, the trailer then went on to show three Seventh Seraph weapons in a row as Bungie developers from the livestream explained that weapon crafting is conceived to also reprise old guns and give them new perks when making them craftable. With a specific focus on Seventh Seraph weapons, which are the only ones alongside IKELOS weapons that can generate Warmind Cells, the connection with Rasputin becomes clear. While this doesn't guarantee that the next Destiny 2 Season will indeed bring back Rasputin, it does at least show that Bungie could still reprise Warmind-related weapons.

In fact, players could also learn about Neomuna from the Exo Stranger, Elsie Bray, whose fish-like companion from the Beyond Light expansion seemingly comes from. However, in terms of narrative, this does make less sense than a Season dedicated to repairing Rasputin and reprogramming him to a degree because this specific plot thread has been left hanging ever since Season of Arrivals, when the Warmind was shut down by the Black Fleet. Not only that, but Warmind Cells have been long overdue for an overhaul after the major nerfs from last year, as their current state doesn't encourage Destiny 2 players to use them.

Overall, there's a good chance that all of this was intended from the get-go, and that showing Seventh Seraph weapons before The Witch Queen was something Bungie did because it knew they would come back at some point. In fact, if the theory surrounding Rasputin's return in Season 19 was already plausible based on the context from Lightfall and The Witch Queen's Evidence Board missions, this piece of information further increases those odds. Ultimately, with still over a month of Destiny 2's Season of Plunder going, it may be too soon to expect official confirmation from Bungie, but it's still something that could come in a few weeks.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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