We're officially one week away from Destiny 2's next expansion, The Witch Queen. Bungie has dropped one final look at what's to come with a Witch Queen launch trailer, which provides just a few more details about the expansion's story and gameplay. There's more of the big cinematics of the expansion than we've yet seen, some more potential clues about where the story is going, and maybe a new weapon or two.
While there's new footage in this trailer, there are also quite a few things we've seen hinted at in past trailers. This look features plenty of shots of Savathun's throne world, the new destination in the expansion, as well as some gameplay with the Lucent Hive--all stuff Bungie has showed off plenty already. What's new, however, are the cinematic inclusions, which provide more information about The Witch Queen's story and seem to confirm some past assumptions. There are also a couple of looks into what could be the expansion's raid and suggestions of what we might face there.
As usual, we're scouring every frame to see if there's anything new to glean from The Witch Queen's final trailer, and we're putting all the hints, clues, and speculation in the gallery below.
The crownless queen
The first big shot of the trailer shows us Savathun, crownless, speaking apparently to the Traveler. She talks about having chased the Light-infused machine god for eons, which is something we've heard a lot about in Destiny lore--the Hive have been chief agents of the Darkness, pursuing the Traveler and conquering civilizations it had uplifted. With Savathun gaining the Light, her relationship to the Traveler has changed, but one wonders if Savathun gaining the Light is more of an alliance than a theft.
The creation of the Hive
We previously saw what appeared to be a vision experienced by Ikora that looked like it might be the Hive's creation myth on the planet Fundament. This trailer provides more of that vision, and yeah, that looks to be the story of how the Hive came to be, as detailed in the extremely good lore entry, the Books of Sorrow. As the story goes, three Hive sisters, daughters of a guy called the Osmium King, were deposed and threatened with assassination before escaping. They transformed from a short-lived, weak race into the all-conquering Hive thanks to the pact one of the sisters, Sathona, makes with strange worm creatures. The worms became parasites in the Hive, providing them with power and near-immortality in exchange for the Hive constantly feeding the worms through death and conquest.
In this shot, we see Aurash, who would become Oryx, and Xi Ro, who would become Xivu Arath. The pair were convinced by their sister, Sathona, who would become Savathun.
Spoooooky
A flash during the Ikora's vision shows what appears to be Savathun (or maybe Sathona?) rising from darkened water. Not only is this a spooky image, it gives the impression that perhaps what Ikora is experiencing is actually a manipulation by Savathun. Can any of this stuff be trusted? Or is it just that this whole expansion has some intense horror movie vibes?
Worm familiar
Before the Hive were the Hive, it was Sathona communing with her father's worm familiar that led to the pact between the worm gods and the three sisters.
Traveler at Fundament
The last new shot of the vision shows the Traveler floating in the sky of Fundament. This looks to be more reference to the distant past, when the worms convinced the sisters to become the Hive as part of their war against the Traveler. The Hive then began conquering and destroying the other races of the planet.
Savathun's exorcism
The trailer makes reference to the Season of the Lost's final mission, in which Mara Sov and her Techeuns exorcised Savathun's worm. It was this moment that made it possible for Savathun to gain the power of the Light, but Mara's plans aren't finished.
Zavala and the worm
A quick shot of the Vanguard briefing we've seen before includes what we can only assume is Savathun's worm, as well as an unhappy Zavala. The worm looks dead at this point, but Mara said she'd captured it alive after the exorcism. The Awoken queen said she was going to glean information from the worm, so did it die during her "interrogation?" The Hive's relationships with worms are central to The Witch Queen, it seems, so there's probably more to understand in all this.
O honored guest
There are a lot of shots of Savathun's throne world we don't understand yet, but this one was remarkable because of Savathun's voice-over that went with it. "Welcome back, o honored guest," Savathun says to the Guardians in the video. The "o (subject) mine" construction is notable in Destiny lore for having a relationship to paracausal powers and the Ahamkara. It's something known as the Anthem Anatheme and seems to have a power we Guardians don't fully understand.
Creeping in the dark
Much of this trailer takes on a frightening, horror movie-like atmosphere, but nothing so much as this sequence in the dark. You can hear one of the Guardians breathing heavily with fear, and one wonders how much of that Presage-like spooky vibe might permeate the throne world.
Exploring the depths
This shot recontextualizes an area we've seen photos of with a flood of Hive thralls. The depths of Savathun's throne world allude to her past and there may be secrets down there she doesn't want us to discover.
Door to the Pyramid
We've seen shots that look like Darkness architecture, and we know there's a Pyramid ship in Savathun's throne world. Here we see what looks like a Guardian team entering that structure, or one like it. The Darkness and the Entity that controls it seem at odds with Savathun in the throne world, but it looks like we'll be fighting both sides throughout.
A hidden palace
These underground Hive structures are darker and more mysterious than the bright cathedral above ground. If the throne world represents Savathun's mind, one can't help but wonder what these areas are and what they hold.
Preserved worms
This shot and the next one are interesting. They're definitely Darkness architecture locations we've seen in screenshots already, possibly the Pyramid--or maybe the Relic, the location where weapon-crafting takes place on Mars. In any event, if these are Darkness places, what's with these Hive worms on display?
Darkness's front steps
Again, we've seen this place before, and it may well be the Relic. It would make sense that we'd have to fight our way inside, clearing out Scorn enemies--who seem to match the Taken in being directly answerable to the Darkness's control. That said, in the Season of the Lost, we saw some interesting moments that showed the zombie-like Scorn are starting to develop a culture, so who knows what they're really after in the throne world.
Since the Scorn seem to appear in these Darkness-themed locations, that raises another question: Are we about to embark on a Scorn raid in The Witch Queen? It would be the first raid we've seen with that faction of enemies throughout.
What's up with that Pyramid?
Here we see the Pyramid ship in the throne world, but this time, covered in a strange shimmer and fog, wreathed in orange light. It's unclear what's going on with this thing, really, and it raises the question of what the nature of this particular Pyramid is, if it's part of Savathun's throne world. Is this thing real, or could it be metaphorical, a representation of the Darkness in Savathun's mind? Is that distortion we see on it indicative of conflict between the ship and Savathun? Is the ship under threat, or damaged?
An elegant weapon
More on the Pyramid in a second--is that Titan holding a lightsaber? That's...interesting. We might be seeing an ornament for an existing sword, like Worldline Zero, but it's really tough to say. In any event, that's a weird-looking sword we haven't seen before, and we know there are something like 50 new weapons in this expansion....
Raid ready
Back to the Pyramid--we know it's the location of the expansion's raid, which drops on March 5, and here we see a team assembling to head inside via that massive hole. We were just talking about potential damage to the ship, and here we see a huge portion of it missing, with a bigger opening than any we've yet encountered. Our ventures inside Pyramid ships up to now have been limited, but this looks more like forced hole in the hull than a purposely designed opening. We Guardians don't yet know how to fight or damage the Pyramid ships, although lore has hinted that others (such as Mara Sov) might. Is this a blow Savathun has struck against the Darkness, and is it something we might learn from?
That's everything we've picked out of this trailer, but there's a whole lot more information out there to digest, speculate about, and guess at. Check out the 26 things you might have missed in the Witch Queen ViDoc, our look at the alchemy hints scattered through all the Witch Queen info, everything we learned about the Witch Queen story campaign from a recent hands-off look from Bungie, all we've learned about how weapon-crafting works, our story catch-up for everything that's happened since Beyond Light, and everything you should do to prepare for Witch Queen.
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