Today Bungie announced that the Forsaken campaign and Tangled Shore would be vaulted. This continues their strategy of vaulting content from at least two years prior in order to assist with space constraints. The vaulting will occur on February 22, 2022, and coincides with the launch of the Witch Queen expansion, and is a massive misstep.
Destiny 2 has been on fire for the last year-plus in terms of its storytelling and rapidly evolving world. This has been in large part due to a single character, the Crow, aka Uldren Sov.
Uldren Sov was a minor NPC in the original game, but served as the primary antagonist of the Forsaken campaign. Until about a year ago, Uldren was most well known as the man who killed Cayde-6. The subsequent campaign followed our Guardian’s pursuit and eventual execution of Uldren in revenge. It was a powerful moment of moral gray that capped off perhaps Bungie’s greatest expansion to date. The hunting of the Barons through the Tangled Shore and the eventual reveal of the Dreaming City are marquee moments for Destiny 2 players. Uldren and the mystery of Riven, the Ahamkara, are certainly the most memorable Destiny antagonist since Oryx. We despised Uldren by the end of that campaign, and his execution was a satisfying ending.
Every Ending is Prologue
As Destiny players know, death is rarely the end. Uldren found new life, resurrected as a Guardian with no knowledge of his past crimes. He became the vagabond Guardian Crow, whose antics we have covered considerably both here and on our sister show, The Last Word. Since his reawakening as a Guardian, Crow has been slowly integrating himself further and further into the narrative, to the point that he has almost become the central protagonist. This is not a criticism. Our silent Guardian is too much of a cipher to be useful as a true driver of the narrative. At least so far. He was instrumental in each of the last seasons, and all without knowing why he needed his identity kept secret. All of this has been lead up to the current season, with the return of Queen Mara Sov.
The Real Witch Queen
The current Season of the Lost is a tale of two Queens: Mara Sov, Uldren’s sister and queen of the Awoken, and Savathûn, the titular Witch Queen. Uldren’s quest in Forsaken hinged on his search to find his sister, and really is the genesis for everything that has come after. There is a clear dividing line between the Red War and its aftermath, Warmind, and Curse of Osiris, and the post-Forsaken content. In fact, one of the current longest-running plot points in the game revolves around the curse on the Dreaming City, the origin of which comes from the Forsaken campaign. The curse was the first connection players had to Xivu Arath, Quria, and really Savathûn herself. It provides key backstory and information in a pressing way to the ongoing narrative of Destiny 2. Without the context of Forsaken, Destiny 2 makes less sense than any of the previously vaulted content before it.
Season of the Lost
The reveal of Crow to the city as Uldren Sov, and his potential replacement of Cayde as the Hunter Vanguard still have yet to happen. The curse of the Dreaming City has yet to be broken. Spider, the Eliksni crime lord, has yet to do anything with his collection of dead ghosts. The Tangled Shore is ripe with potential that has been mostly unrealized as a location, and it is a shame that it has not been. At least the Dreaming City itself will remain as part of the game. It is their best location to date from an art direction perspective. The Last Wish is the best raid in the game as well, though Deep Stone Crypt is a close second. It is a shame that Forsaken is being vaulted as it still is the best self-contained story that the game has told to date. It is tight, fun, with a compelling villain and twists galore. Its loss is the biggest blow thus far to the game, and it is a shame that it is happening.
