Today marks the start of Season of the Haunted, a new chapter in Destiny 2’s ongoing story. New players and veteran Guardians answer the call as a returning threat has suddenly appeared in our galaxy. . It’s in this new season that we find references to tragic conspiracies, relatable family disputes, and the unwavering desire – no, the need – to party like it’s the end of the universe.
These references are all chapters in a story that began long before our Guardians and will hopefully survive long after their Light has passed. As we discover characters, places, and objects, new parts of this story fall into place like jigsaw pieces of space magic. And wouldn’t you know, there’s someone at Bungie dedicated to solving puzzles.
We sat down to discuss some of the elements present in Season of the Haunted, where this tale began, and how the rift that formed long ago between an iconic Emperor and his daughter brought the ghosts of the past to the gates of humanity.
Without further ado, I present to you Bungie’s Destiny Historian, Ashley Flanagan.
Legendary Knowledge: A Drifting Emperor
Richard Barrick: Thank you very much for spending this time with us today. Let’s start with who you are and how you got here.
Ashley Flanagan: My name is Ash. I’m Bungie’s Destiny Historian. It’s not the first time that I’ve been a kind of historian, but not always for video games. I have an MA in Roman History and taught that as an adjunct professor for a few years, which is very relevant to the Cabal stuff we’re going to talk about today. I got into video games about ten years ago when friends of mine started working on an indie video game and asked me if I wanted to write about it.
Having a background in real-world history seems relevant for this, as I’m pretty good at sifting through information and identifying what’s a reliable source. One unusual thing about Destiny is that much of our lore is filtered through characters who can be unreliable storytellers. I mean, are you going to take what Savathûn says at face value?
Well, it sounds like you’re the perfect person to talk to about Season of the Haunted – there are two elements of the season that get much cooler when you know more about them, Calus and his massive planet-devouring ship, the Leviathan. Let’s start with Calus; who is he?
Calus is the former Emperor of the Cabal. Most Cabal players I’ve encountered are in the military, so it’s easy to think that the whole Cabal culture is super militaristic. But Calus is different in that he’s a bit of a hedonist. He thinks the military is a means to an end, and that end is to have fun all the time. Anyone can have a good time too (as long as they don’t get in their way). For this reason, by most accounts, Calus was quite a popular emperor.
But it also led to him making enemies in the military. His reign ended when Caiatl (his daughter) and a group of his closest confidants conspired to depose him in an event known as the Midnight Coup.
To hear Calus say it, their one big mistake was that he was too popular to kill. So the solution they came up with was to put him on a ship, disable the navigation system, and send him off into deep space.
So Calus was exiled and drifted through the stars on Leviathan until one day he stared into the void and had a profound experience where he felt like something was looking back. He had an epiphany where he came to believe that there was an inevitable end to the entire universe. He decided the only thing to do was try to have as much fun as possible while going out.
Is this the reason for the “games” he played with the Guardians on the back of the Leviathan when Destiny 2 launched?
Yes, he needs to be entertained all the time. As far as Calus is concerned, his being slightly bored for even five seconds is the worst thing that can happen.
Calus is also very fond of Guardians as long as they don’t get in his way. He thinks they are really fun and exciting. He enjoys promising Guardians prizes and bribing them to fight for him. The Vanguard really hates that Guardians are susceptible to flattery and bribes.
So he goes into exile, has this epiphany, then decides to take advantage of it by giving in to his hedonism. Was he affected by the fact that he was betrayed by his daughter and his closest friends?
It touched him a lot. He was actually too depressed to do anything until the experience he had when he stared into space. This is what gave him the motivation to take control of the Leviathan, turn it into a pleasure barge, and start recruiting champions to exact revenge on all the conspirators who participated in the stroke of midnight. It was then that he decided to head to the Sol system and find Ghaul.
There was actually a printed list included in the Collector’s Edition of Destiny 2 with the names of the people who betrayed him. And Ghaul was very high on that list.
Why is that? Who was Ghaul?
Ghaul’s story is inspired by Roman history, which has always been a great source of inspiration for the Cabal. He was abandoned as a child and raised by one of Calus’ political enemies whom he had wronged by becoming emperor. Ghaul was a gladiator for a time – one of Calus’ favorites – whom he began to think of as the son he never had. He eventually joined the court of Calus and gained a leadership position in the military. So, it was pretty brutal for Calus when he was deposed by a plot to put Ghaul on the throne in his place. It was almost as big a betrayal as his own daughter’s, but not quite.
We met his daughter, Caiatl, in Season of the Chosen, didn’t we? Why did she accept it?
Ghaul was someone Caiatl admired, otherwise she would never have taken part in the plot. She did this because she thought he would be a better leader for the Cabal than her father was. For a long time, she saw in Ghaul the kind of soldier she wanted to be and the kind of leader she wanted to be.
She doesn’t approve of anything he did in Destiny 2. For her, it was like seeing her idol fall from that pedestal. And she realizes now that he always had these big flaws, and he ended up making really stupid decisions that she would never have approved of.
But she still has those feelings for him from when she considered him her hero, and she still wonders if he would approve of anything She is fact – if the Ghaul she remembers would be proud of her.
Seems like she was more related to Ghaul than her fun-loving dad. What was his relationship with Calus before his impeachment?
Caiatl never really understood her father because she is a Cabal soldier and much more in line with the militaristic part of their culture. She never had all her “party” thing.
Going forward, we’ll take a closer look at Cabal family life. What fatherhood was like for Calus, what Caiatl’s childhood was like, and we’re going to see Caiatl trying to figure out his father – trying to figure out if it’s even important that he has a reason for being the way he is. Since the midnight coup, their relationship has mostly consisted of trying to kill each other. But I think if you asked any of them, they would say there was a time when they loved each other.
Since Caiatl arrived in our galaxy, she has formed an alliance with the Vanguard. It looks like this will only complicate things for her and Calus.
A new Empress forming an alliance with the Vanguard against other Cabal factions was a truly huge and risky move. We’re going to see her struggle with that and try to find a balance this season.
Besides his pursuit of pleasure and revenge, what else does Calus have up his sleeve? The Leviathan looks different than it did the last time we saw it. It reminds me of the ship we saw a few seasons ago in the Presage mission. This ship had ties to Calus, didn’t it?
Calus experimented using the artifact known as the Crown of Sorrow. Presage’s ship was one of them. Because of his party, we don’t really consider Calus to be an intellectual, but he’s been fascinated to learn more about the nature of darkness since that experience where he stared into space and felt like something was watching.
I guess it would be foolhardy to assume we know everything Calus does. For example, we know that the Leviathan is approaching the Pyramid ship on the Moon, but we don’t know why. Are you able to talk about it at all?
We will soon learn a lot more about the history of the dark fleet, so I don’t want to say too much, but a long time ago scary things happened on the Moon. The moon is usually the bad news in Destiny.
It has that vibe about it. Sorry, Moon.
We hope you enjoyed learning about one of Destiny’s favorite Cabal icons. And we hope that when you board the Derelict Leviathan this season, it helps you appreciate the journey the ship has taken and how much you are now a part of its history.
The Haunted season begins today. Anyone can play for free or unlock some of the season’s extra features by picking up a Season Pass. On behalf of everyone at Bungie, we hope to see you in the game and write your own legend in the stars.
