Earlier this week, Bungie revealed what’s coming next for Destiny 2, and it’s actually pretty interesting. I mean yeah, the gameplay additions, new locations and new loot sounds really cool, but what I’m psyched about is what’s going on with the lore!

I won’t lie. The thing that kept me so invested in Destiny 1 for most of its run was the fact that my friends were playing it too. I had my group. I enjoyed playing with them, I enjoyed competing against them. All that said though, lore was still a big part of what made Destiny fun for me. The world was enigmatic, filled with all manner of intriguing places and fascinating questions. It was fun to visit a place and wonder what it was for and how it came to be in its current state. Answers were few, but hints and clues abounded. Very little was concrete and almost everything was up for interpretation. In a nutshell, the world of Destiny was mythical.

Destiny 2, on the other hand, has basically spent the last three years getting back to that place. It wasn’t so much that it lacked mystery so much as all the important questions had concrete answers. Ghaul was the bad guy. Vex are bad because technobabble, and Rasputin has different lore now. Also here’s someone who was around during the Golden Age who’s basically friends with Rasputin the unspeakably-powerful Warmind. Sure there was lore and backstory, but that same sense of mystery and mysticism just wasn’t there any more. Also, where is the Darkness in all this?! You know? THE Darkness? The big, bad force of nature behind everything in the first game?!

Anyway, things started getting back on track with Forsaken and the circumstances surrounding the Awoken. Uldren’s fall to the darkness, the last Ahamkara and the Awoken Queen’s possession of her own throne world were all fascinating ideas, as was the physics-defying Dreaming City itself. We can’t forget the Drifter either. Not only does he introduce a uh…”sport” based around draining light, but his motivations for doing so are largely unknown. There’s even evidence to suggest that he’s now tied to the Darkness itself somehow. It’s all very good stuff that got expanded upon in Shadow Keep and the recent seasonal content.

This brings us to the Season of Arrivals and the Beyond Light Expansion coming later this year. The Pyramid ship parked about Io (and others like it floating around in system) are the ships that were activated by the Traveler’s reawakening all the way back at the end of the main arc in vanilla Destiny 2. It’s been three years and they’re FINALLY having an impact on the world. Can’t say the same for the Traveler itself unfortunately, but baby steps I guess. What’s more, the Exo Stranger is back, Eris Morn has an active role in the plot and even the Drifter has something new going on. Apparently guardians can actively wield Darkness powers too, which is kind of a whole other can of worms on its own. Even The Nine are getting more attention thanks to some crazy, pocket dimension dungeon coming out within a week or so. Check it out!

There’s going to be so much to delve into. Are these ships the real Darkness or just another manifestation of it? What happened in the future the Exo Stranger came from? What mysteries await in Europa’s Deep Stone Crypt, and what exactly to Eris Morn and the Drifter have to do with any of this? The Awoken Queen is still somehow involved too it seems. Whatever the case, I just hope that Bungie doesn’t get too definitive with their answers. All this makes for a great base from which new myths can take off. All Bungie has to do is keep hinting at more beyond what we’re seeing!

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Are psyched about the new lore possibilities? Will it be enough to bring you back into the game for a bit?

Lede image from Destiny 2: Beyond Light gameplay trailer