Iron Banter: This Week In Destiny 2 - Mara Sov's Ahamkara, The Death Of Dance, And An Iron Banner Arsenal

Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it's story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what's going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what's drawing our attention across the solar system.

I have to say, I'm loving the way Destiny 2 has been telling stories this year. Weekly seasonal story beats coupled with new activities to explore has provided a great way to drop into the game, even just for an hour or two, and watch the world expand and unfold. This week, we got a new creepy conversation with Savathun, listened as Mara Sov let the mask slip as relates to her late brother Uldren, and wandered around an excellently fragmented new Shattered Realm area. But just as with the seasons before it, it's the story that continues to enthrall me.

Queens' Gambits

On a stream last week, Destiny 2's new creative director, Joe Blackburn, described the Season of the Lost as being something like The Silence of the Lambs with the presence of scary Hive god Savathun just hanging around. Like the frighteningly calm Hannibal Lecter in that movie, Savathun is already working on us. This week, she said a lot of cryptic things about what's really going on in Destiny's story, hinting at there being something more frightening and more powerful over and above the game's central conflict between Light and Darkness.

I particularly like this take on Savathun's head games from developer and podcaster merritt k:

Destiny 2 has broken the fourth wall on a few occasions. The Emissary of the Nine has made comments like that before, and there's lore on the Skull of Dire Ahamkara Exotic helmet that refers to the reader as "O Player mine." There are a lot of theories as to what these things are all about, but generally, Savathun seems to have more knowledge about the inner workings of the universe than we've yet heard. Since we have some idea what we're building toward with The Witch Queen expansion--Savathun and her Hive brood wielding the Light, a major twist--it really seems like things are about to get weird(er) in Destiny 2, both through the Season of the Lost and the next expansion.

I've had a lot of theories over the last year about where Destiny 2's story is headed, a few of which seem to have been borne out, but it's interactions like this that are my favorite, because they're some pretty intense head-scratchers.

There was also some suggestion in the first week that helping Savathun fight the worm gods might draw the attention of some giant worm bosses, like Xol, who we fought in a Strike back in Warmind. But just because Savathun is anti-worm generally doesn't mean she's against all of the remaining worm gods. Saniya Ahmed dug into some old Savathun lore to explore the possibility that more worms are coming back, and that at least one might still be an ally to the Witch Queen. We might know where Savathun is headed thanks to Bungie's Witch Queen expansion showcase, but there are still a whole lot of potential plans within plans going on right now.

What if Mara Sov is as dangerous as Savathun?

Speaking of plans within plans, let's talk about that Ahamkara egg in Mara Sov's chamber. Theories are already floating around that Mara is going to use that egg, the Wall of Wishes, and the Techeuns we're currently working on rescuing from around the Ascendant Realm, to bring back at least one Ahamkara for the sake of wishing Savathun free of that worm god she's trying to ghost on. Personally, I've always found the concept of the Ahamkara--paracausal wish-granting shapeshifting monsters--to be super compelling, but they've never existed in the game the way they do in the lore. It seems like Mara is working to bring the Ahamkara back from extinction, partially as a means to defeat Savathun, but ultimately for her own ends.

Earlier this week, I speculated that the return of Ahamkara to the game could be a hint at what Destiny 2 could look like in a few years, after Bungie releases The Final Shape and we get the conclusion of the Light and Darkness saga, the current story arc. If the story of the conflict between the Light and Darkness has to end, that suggests that we'll likely see Destiny 2 become a world without either the Traveler or the Darkness, or both. But since paracausal powers are so essential to Destiny 2 gameplay, it seems like the game will need ways for those forces to continue to exist, even without the gods responsible for them. Adding more paracausal creatures like the Ahamkara might provide a good story reason for some of the reality-bending video game things we can do in Destiny 2.

But even without making guesses that are years down the road, we can tell that both Mara and Savathun have a lot more going on than we realize. Both queens are executing larger plans, and neither has a single goal in mind. We know Mara works to consolidate her power all the time and that she ultimately has Awoken interests--and not necessarily ours--at heart. She also is, uh...meaner than I realized. Complete this week's Tracing the Stars quest step to hear her talk shit about her dead brother Uldren, now risen as the Guardian Crow. Is Mara this season's Lakshmi-2? I feel like we could be headed in that direction, discovering that the Awoken queen is actually a gossipy political maneuverer who sees us as pawns as much as Savathun does. Expect the Season of the Lost to reveal that maybe the machinations of Savathun, Xivu Arath, and the Black Fleet aren't all we have to worry about.

Now, on to the goofy gameplay stuff that happened this week.

Dancing Is Banned

Sadly, we shall have far fewer lords of the dance in the Crucible this season.

Last week was the first chance for Hunter players to snag Radiant Dance Machines, a reprised Destiny 1 Exotic that's back in Season of the Lost--and they immediately discovered it was hopelessly, hilariously broken. When you use your Hunter dodge near enemies while wearing the Exotic, you get a short period where you can do a bunch of dodges in a row. Players immediately thought of the Dynamo mod that gives you Super energy when you dodge and the Stasis Aspect Winter's Shroud, which slows enemies near you when you dodge. They slapped those things on their Hunter builds and went on ridiculous tears in the Crucible.

Bungie almost immediately responded by disabling Radiant Dance Machines in the Crucible and Gambit because that was obviously not what was supposed to be happening, and we've now gotten a nerf that ratchets back RDM's power to keep you from exploiting it in different builds. It sounds like RDM won't get multiple boosts off mods like Dynamo, even when you do multiple dodges in a row. From a practical standpoint, though, RDM is still a goofy cool Exotic even without the mod synergy it afforded. Dodging around a player is hilarious--even if it gets you killed a lot because if you're too close, people can still just easily punch you in the face.