Highlights
- The lore and storyline of Destiny 2 has been heavily influenced by the Guardians' decision to kill Crota in the original Destiny, leading to major plot points in subsequent expansions and seasons.
- The Dark Below expansion set the series on a trajectory that has continued throughout Destiny 2, with the death of Crota kickstarting Forsaken and the Witch Queen expansions.
- The consequences of killing Crota have had a ripple effect on characters like Queen Mara Sov and Uldren Sov, as well as attracting the attention of powerful figures like Oryx and Savathun.
The ongoing storyline of Destiny 2 is currently leading up to the culmination of almost ten years of major plot points and established lore through the universe of its speculative future Solar System. However, one interesting detail about this decade-long story is how so much of the lore of Destiny 2 has been affected by a decision made by the Guardians during a raid in the original title.
Although the original Destiny didn't become well known for the quality of the game's story until the first anniversary expansion, The Taken King, released and introduced Oryx to the series. Before Oryx could come to center stage, though, the Dark Below expansion introduced Crota, and set the Guardians on a trajectory that has continued on the same through line all the way into the current seasons and expansions of Destiny 2 to this day.
The Death of Crota Kickstarted Forsaken and Witch Queen
After ten years of development, with different creatives taking the lead over all of this time, it can be difficult to understand exactly how much of the story of Destiny was planned from the beginning. However, in all of that time, the Dark Below expansion has managed to make an impact on the story that set the majority of the series' story into motion from the moment the Guardian first challenged Crota in the Hellmouth. The most obvious next step was the introduction of Oryx into Destiny's lore, but that one inflection point influenced everything from Queen Mara Sov's time in the ascendant realm to Savathun's fixation on the Traveler.
Most directly from Destiny 1 to Destiny 2 was the effects that The Taken King had on Mara and Uldren Sov, causing the disappearance of the queen and the mental breaking of her brother. This then led into Forsaken with the death of Cayde-6 and eventually the final fate of Uldren Sov and the reappearance of Queen Mara. All of this stems as a series of consequences for killing Crota in the Crota's End raid and spurring Oryx to come get revenge on the Solar System, which of course led to Mara Sov's supposed death when the Dreadnaught first appeared.
The same can be said for Destiny 2's Witch Queen expansion, with Savathun's attention being fixated on the Traveler and the Solar System after the death of Oryx. While the Hive had always considered the Traveler to be an ancient enemy, vanilla Destiny 2 has a number of storylines, including the Savathun's Song strike, that imply that the Witch Queen was acting on the power vacuum left after both Oryx and Crota were killed. That is the story of the Hive in Destiny 2 in the end, a series of powerful figures coming to fill the void left by every major leader that the Guardians most recently killed.
Lightfall Would Have Been Much Worse for the Guardians
While the constant conflict against the Hive and the horrors of the Ascendant Realm that spread across the Dreaming City might seem like an entirely negative result of having dove into the Hellmouth to kill Crota, Lightfall is proof that it could have been worse. One aspect of the Guardian's ongoing fight against the darkness that was not influenced by Crota was the Red War that started vanilla Destiny 2, the end of which announced the Traveler's position to The Witness in the first place. However, the revelations that came as a result of the Witch Queen and subsequent seasons helped prepare the Vanguard for the arrival of The Witness.
So, if things look bleak by the end of Lightfall and into Destiny 2's current Season of the Deep now, without the knock-on effects of defeating Crota, the Guardians and the Vanguard might have been completely destroyed. In the end, it is interesting to see the way that the storyline of Destiny 2 has evolved to the point that there is so much weight on the Crota's End raid from the first expansion to the original Destiny.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
