WMG / Destiny 2

There will be a sidequest involving Eris Morn and raisins.

Possibly as a Festival of the Lost-based quest. Maybe even allowing players that got the Superblack Shader (and thus, the Piece of Celery) during the 2016 event to have a head-start. And the final prize of the sidequest would be... peanut butter.

• As of now this is Jossed. Eris Morn does not appear in game, and as such no quests relating to her appear either.
  • Though one of the items you can get from Cayde's stashes is "Ascended Celery"....
• Confirmed. 2019's Festival has her return to her old tradition of handing out raisins.

Following Theory may also double as Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror...

The Cabal have Come for the Traveler, they're also more advanced than we are...what are the chances that Ghaul uses advanced Cabal tech to jump start the Traveler and bring it back to "Life"? Pretty high, admittedly. If he succeeds by the time the raid rolls around and we succeed in killing Ghaul/the Cabal? a potential new Golden Age, with reverse engineered advanced Cabal Tech/Weapons at the forefront of our Arsenal, meaning we'll be ready for the next attack. If we fail? Well, we're already following in the footsteps of the Fallen...

• Mostly Jossed. The Traveler does come back to life at the end of the campaign, but not for the reasons you describe.

Cabal presence in the Inner System will lead to an Enemy Mine or Teeth-Clenched Teamwork situation with the Eliksni

Think about it, until House of Wolves the only planet that the Eliksni shied away from was Mars. as of that expansion they are now the only other race besides mankind to have presence on all four planets, Dreadnought notwithstanding. chances are in order to bolster our numbers we broker a trade, some of the Travelers Light and a place in the Last City for reinforcements. Since they don't really have any more Kells, Variks may very well step up as the voice of reason and unite the Fallen under the banner of House Judgement and seek peace with mankind in order to save the Eliksni from extinction, doubly so since Mara Sov is missing and they were the previous agents of the Traveler, which may accept them back into the fold for helping its current agents of Light. Doubles as Moment of Awesome if it unlocks custom Eliksni playable characters in the character creation menu after completion of the story.

• Jossed. The Fallen remain hostile, and the only non-hostile interaction between the player and the Fallen is the potential scene wherein you save a Fallen Captain from a Hive Knight
  • As of Forsaken, that fallen captain became a member of a guardian fireteam, and plans to gather other "open-mind Eliksni" to "fight for the Great Machine together".
  • Confirmed; as of Lightfall, a full Alliance between Humanity, Eliksni, and the freaking Cabal has solidified in response to the very avatars of the Darkness, The Witness and his Disciples, invading in full force.

The ships seen in The Stinger are Savathun's fleet.

At some point, she was able to solidify technology made of the Darkness itself, and now that the Traveler's active she is eager to intercede personally and avenge Oryx herself and kill it in one fell swoop.

• Semi-Jossed. The Black Fleet belongs to Savathun's boss. However, it's entirely plausible that she has rode in and even commandeered some of these pyramids, seeing as her forces know how to use Pyramid Bombs.

By the end of the expansions, the Player Character will become the new Speaker

It's mentioned in the post-game that the first Speaker had a Ghost, and therefore may have been a Guardian at one point. With the spot left vacant after the main campaign, the Player, as one of the strongest and most Traveler-connected Guardians still active and not the leader of any other existing faction, would be the most logical candidate to fill it. Plus, it would be amusingly ironic for the Speaker to be someone known for not saying anything. Alternately, the player could be Suddenly Speaking at the end after becoming Speaker in order to relay something important.

Future expansions will deal with either Savathun or Xivu Arath coming back to resurrect Oryx.

During The Taken King expansion, Guardians could find a read a history of the Hive called the Books of Sorrow. One entry discussed how after Oryx killed his sisters Xivu Arath and Savathun so that he could kill his Worm God and gain power directly from the Darkness, he was eventually able to resurrect them by enacting a huge war in Xivu Arath's case, and by convincing his enemies he wished to align with them to backstab Xivu Arath, only to backstab them instead, reviving Savathun through an act of cunning. Since Oryx can be considered the God of Knowledge, perhaps the two Hive Gods will conspire to have Xivu Arath wage such a brutal war against the Last City, the Vanguard will delve deep into Hive knowledge cunningly placed by Savathun until they learn so much Oryx is resurrected.

• As of Witch Queen, Savathun ain't in a position to save anything. However, she did hint that it's possible Oryx will come back. Maybe.

Cayde really does have cotton socks and they come from Zavala.

I mean... Zavala does crochet.

Emperor Calus will be the host of Destiny 2's Prison of Elders version

.He is, after all, still alive, and the entire Leviathan raid a way of probing the Guardians' strength and entertaining himself. In the future, he'll invite us to a more peaceful area of the Leviathan and set us against gladiators, willing and not, to help train the Guardians and pass the time.

• Semiconfirmed, he hosts the Menagerie, a game mode where the Guardian joins 6 others to wager runes for specific rewards.

We will be having Darkness-based classes.

• Emperor Calus will train us to use the Dark without being consumed by it, like he seems to be doing.
• Or perhaps Forsaken will feature the Darkness "offering" its help in avenging Cayde-6's death.
• Confirmed:
  • In Beyond Light, Elsie Bray teaches us the power of Stasis, rounding out our Fire, Ice, Lightning trio with ice-like powers; you create unmovable shields out of everything - and then you prove they're not unbreakable by shattering them to crush your enemies with the frozen debris.
  • In Lightfall, Osiris teaches us the power of Strand, quite possibly the most human of Darkness powers; ensnare your enemies in psychic webs while you freely glide around them with ease.

Ghaul wanted to be killed by the Guardian.

It seemed like he was really affected by the speakers Devotion-Sacrifice-Death speech. Perhaps, believing he had already covered the devotion part, he interpreted it as needing to sacrifice himself and allow himself to be killed in order to fully attain the Light. And in fact, it did actually kind of work if not for the Traveler waking up and stopping it altogether.

Calus is under the control of the Virtuous Worms.

Calus uses the phrase "oh champion mine," in one of his letters, and that wording is, as we all know, the catchphrase of the Worms/Ahamkara. Whether he knows it nor not, he is currently under their control and is merely being used as a tool of the Darkness to strengthen the guardians so that It may ultimately take them as new servants.

Cayde-6 will get his hands on one of Amanda's Tanks.

And it will have an AI voiced by Nolan North. Because after all, in a way it will be Nathan's Drake.

• Nolan's already busy voicing the Young Wolf's Ghost, so unlikely, unless Cayde needs to, ah, "borrow" him for something.
  • Jossed, unless there's something in Forsaken that immediately precedes Cayde's death.

Eris Morn is in league with Savathun

.If you think about it, Eris never went into detail about how she escaped Crota's Ascendant Realm. Maybe Savathun captured her, and eventually tortured her enough to turn her traitor against the guardians, promising Eris revenge against Crota in return. This is supported by the fact that when Oryx first appears, she has so much knowledge regarding the Taken and how to beat Oryx. Also, a the end of Taken King Eris takes...something from Oryx's sword, claiming it to be for "her queen". And who is Savathun? The Witch-Queen of the Hive.

• It's important to point out that Eris's primary character trait is her hatred of the Hive, and the Taken King already established her as being in league with the Queen of the Awoken.

The Warmind DLC will take place on Mars.

Some new dialogue appeared for the end of the "Arecibo" Adventure on Io, where Ghost spaces out and starts screaming about red sand, Mars, and the ice caps, before snapping out of it without any memory of what just happened. If one remembers the early drafts of Destiny's story, one other Warmind besides Rasptuin was going to be involved: Charlemagne. While ultimately having no bearing on the first game, his presence was hinted at a few times, with Ghost mentioning how the Dust Palace's systems were connected to the Mars Warmind once and that the Warsats on the planet during the Sleeper Simulant quest had the abbreviation "CHLM" in their name. Either Rasputin is telling us to go back to Mars to find Charlemagne for whatever reason, or Charlemagne is desperately calling for help.

• Mars was the second planet shown in the post-credits cutscene, and we already know the first planet (Mercury) is the setting for Curse of Osiris. That and Cayde's off-hand remark about Mars still being a hotspot of Cabal activity means that this theory is entirely plausible.
  • That the DLC is rumored to be named "Gods of Mars" only adds fuel to this theory.
  • A description that was briefly present on the Play Station Network seems to confirm this. It states that Charlemagne has imprisoned Rasputin in a vault in a place called "The Frigid Vale of Mars", and the Guardians will be working with Ana Bray to fight Charlemagne and free Rasputin.
    • 50/50 chance that the part about Ana Bray joining and Charlemagne being evil is true. Bungie may have introduced quite the helping of Continuity Snarl, but it usually consisted of trivialization; nothing from Destiny 1's lore has ever been fully contradicted. Reminder: Ana Bray is supposed to be dead, but the FWC implies that she simply went missing and is currently impossible to track or even hear from. Also, there's a possibility Charlemagne is benevolent since his data was used to power Rasputin's IKELOS subroutine, though there's also a chance that, in the event that he is evil, IKELOS may have something to do with why he's getting angry.
    • Ana Bray does join up and acts as Mars' faction rep, but the part about Charlemagne being evil is Jossed: Rasputin is under threat from the Hive, not another Warmind. The lore also suggests that Charlemagne and Joyeuse are subminds of Rasputin, not distinct entities themselves.

The Post-Credits Cutscene and Future Expansions locations

There are four locations (besides Earth and Dark Space) showcased in the post-credits cutscene: Mercury (with the Almighty next to it), Mars, the Rift, and Saturn. We know Curse of Osiris takes place on Mercury, so it stands to reason that the other three locations could be the settings for three more expansions, possibly in the order shown. The Warmind DLC on Mars in the above WMG would be next on the list, followed by the return of the Awoken and something to do with Savathun taking Oryx's place (and possibly a return to the Dreadnought, which is still in Saturn's orbit). And of course, the unnamed enemy hanging out in Dark Space will be saved for Destiny 3.

• Warmind does indeed take place on Mars, and the next expansion, Forsaken, will take place in the Rift. That just leaves Saturn before this WMG is confirmed.
• Datamined content suggests that the next two worlds after the expansions will be an original area called the Myriad, which lies on the outskirts of the Solar System, and Ganymede. Both are stuck in a situation similar to Io and the Myriad has a Lovecraftian monster drifting nearby.
  • The Myriad and Ganymede seem to be early development names for Nessus and Io, respectively. The Leviathan ship in orbit around Nessus could potentially be mistaken for a Lovecraftian monster.

Year 2 will no longer have Flashpoints

After all, who's going to give you the rewards for them?

• Jossed; the planetary vendors are now in charge of their respective worlds' Flashpoints.

Cayde-7 will replace Cayde-6

Please. Anything enough to keep Cayde alive.

• Sadly jossed. Rebooting an Exo doesn't bring them back to life. Consoles in the Warmind DLC state that Exos reboot themselves to prevent their human minds from rejecting their robotic bodies and collapsing. It isn't a means of resurrecting them. Besides that, Word of God has confirmed Cayde is gone.

Mara Sov is a Guardian now and will replace Cayde.

Dialogue from Curse of Osiris heavily implies that Mara did not survive the assault on the Dreadnaught. However, just because she died doesn't mean that she can't come back. Recent concept art shows an Awoken Guardian (presumably a Hunter based on their cloak) with features very similar to Mara's, and the player's Guardian having only just been resurrected a few years ago means that there may still be Ghosts out there trying to find partners. If this is the case, it could lend some context as to why Uldren would be willing to go to war with the City.

• Corroborated, as far as one can with WMG stuff, by this datamined Reddit post on the flavor text and lore entries from the Reverie Dawn warlock raid gear. If this is to be believed, Mara Sov not only survived the events of The Taken King, she's created her own Ascendant Realm similar to Oryx's or Savathun's and will use this to return to our reality.

A corrupted ahamkara will be the final raid boss.

Another theory taken from the above-mentioned Reddit datamine. We've heard of the great hunt that saw the practical extinction of the species, but there were also stories that one or two may have survived and hid away from the hunting parties. If the lore info of the Reverie Dawn gear is correct, one still lives and has possibly been corrupted by the Darkness, put in the Dreaming City to sully it from the inside out. Whether we'll have to kill it or just find some way to purify it remains to be seen.

• Confirmed: The final raid boss of Last Wish is the Taken Ahamkara Riven of a Thousand Voices, which we've slain.

Year 2 will have a Festival of the Lost

Because the E3 trailer has shown us we're definitely gonna have someone to mourn...

• Confirmed: The Year 2 road map includes a Festival of the Lost for October.

Future candidates to Replace Cayde

Let's list a bunch of possible candidates.

• IMO, the frontrunner would likely be Shiro-4. He operates in a similar manner to Cayde, though a bit more within the rules, and he is a well-respected & prominent Hunter.
• Marcus Ren is outright mentioned by Cayde in his recordings during the Ace of Spades mission as being the most probable Hunter capable of taking him out permanently. The same recording mentioning Marcus also explicitly has Cayde mention Klingon Promotion is in effect for any Hunter who kills him and he gives advice to his successor. Foreshadowing? It would at least let him finally show up.
• Uldren could take Cayde's place since he mentioned that the Hunter who kills him becomes the new Hunter Vanguard. And this is because Uldren was resurrected as a Guardian.
  • I think Cayde would agree that giving Uldren his old job (which he hated, remember) would be better revenge than killing him. Getting Hunters to cooperate is like herding cats on a good day, even when they like you. Could you imagine the kind of grief they could dish on someone they have good reason to hate?
• It's official: he's replaced by The Drifter, a rogue Lightbearer who invented a game mode about 'defeating the enemies of mankind so you can reach your ultimate goal of going back to backstabbing each other'. Cayde would be so proud.

The Ahamkara are not willing servants of the Darkness

This is going off the same leak for Forsaken as listed above, but something doesn't quite add up for me. The Ahamkara have always been portrayed as dangerous creatures, servants of the Darkness who corrupt anyone they can to its will. From Mara's description of it, though, Riven seems largely benevolent. Perhaps she just managed to bond with the creature or we're only seeing it from a skewed perspective. But then, why would the Hive go out of their way to corrupt it if it already serves the Darkness? While I won't question that the Worm Gods like Xol and Akka are undoubtedly evil, it may be possible that some are not quite as malevolent as the lore and various bone armors make them out to be... oh reader mine.

Quria will make a Heel–Face Turn.

The proof seems to be in the pudding. (WARNING: Sections J and G contain massive spoilers for Forsaken's endgame.)

• Jossed. Quria is still evil as of Season of the Splicer.

Forsaken Revisted

With Season of Dawn touching on Curse of Osiris and focusing on the relationship between Saint-14 and Osiris himself and the upcoming Season of Worthy focusing on Rasputin, Ana Bray and Zavala, it looks as though Bungie is tying up certain storylines. If so, then the Season after "Worthy" could touch on Forsaken, possibly even featuring the debut of Guardian!Uldren.

• Jossed. Season of Arrivals did and does not (directly) focus on anything Forsaken-related.

The Security Officer from Marathon is in the game. He's just been hiding under our noses the whole time

• Considering his nature. Which begs the question: Who could he be?

There will be other Darkness-based elements and according subclasses, one of which will be called "Vacuum" and give you wind powers

• This is a continuation of the popular and now confirmed "Darkness-Subclasses" WMG. It has been revealed that there will be a new element called Stasis, which gives you ice powers. Now take a look at the previously available elements, Solar, Arc and Void. These are Light-based elements, given it is the Light which gives you these powers, but they have one thing in common: They all are a manifestation of some form of Energy, respectively nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational energy (gravity is a force, not a form of energy, but that's beside the point). Ice, on the other hand, and by proxy Stasis, is the lack of energy. This difference is one of the things that signifies its ties to the Darkness instead of the Light. Other Darkness-based Elements and Subclasses will also be represented by a lack of energy. What might those be? Well, this is where other Tropers might be better at coming up with something clever than myself. The only thing I could think of is "Vacuum", i.e. a space with no matter and no air, and no matter = no energy. How "a lack of air" will translate to wind powers is beyond even me.
  • Well, the second power is officially Strand, a collection of psychic strings comprised of peoples' souls and connections. It's like The Force on Muppets. It's likely the polar opposite of Arc, which is composed of strings of disconnecting electrons. This troper is not sure how Void could be the polar opposite of vacuum.

Ada-1 is a Light based Exo.

• Beyond Light says "normal" Exos are made with a combo of Vex stuff and Darkness. Ada clearly works differently. It's likely the Black Armory figured out how to use Light to make Exos, but for obvious reasons, were only able to use the process on her.

The Witch Queen Will Take Place in Old Chicago

• It's a theory that has been circulating for a while now, but Savathun has good reason. she wants to access the Distributary, the Awoken homeworld where time is diluted, the Distributary exists in a black hole created by the clash between light and dark we knows that the Graviton Lance was found in the Chicago Subway tunnels, a gun that creates Black Holes, perhaps the Graviton Lance is just a taste of the real experiments done in Old Chicago
  • Nope. It takes place in the Witch-Queen's brain. Sort-of; it's a pocket dimension sculpted according to her whims. Also Mars.

The Witch Queen Will Take Place on Venus

• Counter theory to the Above one, Vault of Glass is coming back in Season 14 and Venus is not with it. While the reason most likely being development cost, the real reason could be that they are saving it for the Witch Queen. Savathun would be interested in the bounty of Golden Age knowledge harvested in the Isthar Sink, as well as The Vault of Glass itself, The Oracles nested inside could allow her to defy fate like Guardians can.
• Jossed, Mars and Savathun's Throne World.

The "internal war" Lakshmi-2 has foreseen will be of her own making

• She believes that the House of Light will be the cause of a major, disastrous conflict in the City, but in truth, it will be her own fault. Due to the FWC's actions, eventually a large enough group of civilains (and possibly even Guardians) will become radicalized enough to stage an armed uprising against the Vanguard, demanding that the House of Light be expelled from the City and the standoff ultimately leading to a firefight. For an added dose of irony and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, it will be Mithrax and the House of Light that ultimately help resolve the crisis, which explains why Lakshmi saw him and his House at the "heart" of the conflict in her visions.
  • Adding to this, Stochastic Variable reveals that part of Lakshmi's vision includes Asher Mir returning, and crying out "those FWC traitors" - perhaps a very critical detail Lakshmi is conveniently omitting for her own agenda.
  • Confirmed. And when the situation failed to boil over, Lakshmi decided to take matters into her own hands and open a Vex portal in the middle of the Eliksni Quarter, hoping to space them all. She instead got an armada of Vex, who proceeded to shoot her dead.

Lumina and the Weapons of Hope.

• The questline to obtain the Lumina is called "a Weapon of Hope." From this, it can be inferred that the Lumina is the first, and so far, only Weapon of Hope. In order to understand what a Weapon of Hope is, however, we first have to go over the Weapons of Sorrow.
  • The Weapons of Sorrow are Guardian weapons created or otherwise modified by and infused with the Darkness that follow the rule of the Sword Logic, in their creation and their effects. Put another way, they are weapons that have "fallen to the Darkness," so to speak. So far, we have two confirmed Weapons of Sorrow:
    • The Thorn - A hand cannon made by grafting the bones of a Hive Knight onto the frame of the Rose. Has the ability to drain one's Light, which translates to a DoT effect upon hit.
    • The Necrochasm - An Auto Rifle that was empowered by killing numerous Hive and infused with Crota's essence. Has the ability to curse those it kills, translating into enemies exploding like cursed Thrall.
  • From this, we can assume that the Weapons of Hope are the antithesis to this - they are more or less the weapon version of a Guardian, weapons that are born again in the Light. So far, the only known member of this classification is the Lumina - Formed by effectively "redeeming" the original Thorn and cleansing it of corruption, before promptly infusing it with Light. Has the ability to heal and boost the Light of others, which translates to healing and a weapon damage boost.

The Grasp of Avarice

• Theory #1: The crystals and the "cursed engrams", as referred to by Bungie, are one and the same; this is supported by Shaw Han's intro dialogue, which features him showing the player what looks to be a shard of an engram, which by normal engram physics, should be impossible, as engrams should simply decompile. Completely blank white engrams litter several areas within the dungeon, and the active ones both debuff you and are drained by the large crystals in each encounter, killing you if you fail to bleed your stacks in time.
• Theory #2: The cursed engrams and their associated debuff "Burdened by Riches" are paracausal in nature, in a more eldritch way; Wilhelm-7 and his fireteam were all driven to madness by delving deeper and collecting more and more cursed engrams until they either died or killed each other. Collectors are driven to collect more both by a sense of impending death and the recharge of all abilities with every 10 collected.
  • Theory #2a: The crystals growing out of Wilhelm-7's corpse (chasis?) are a result of him not finding any more cursed engrams, and letting "Burdened by Riches" expire.

The central twist of The Witch Queen is that the Ghosts simply wanted to do it.

• The Collector's Edition book mentions a new movement of Ghosts who are looking to recognize the Hive as oppressed underclassmen that need to be liberated, now that the Books of Sorrow are public records. Suddenly, the idea that Savathun won't have to steal the Light and everything else that makes a Guardian becomes so much more likely...
  • Confirmed as the expansion's First-Episode Twist.

The Radiant Accipiter will, in time, be relevant to the battle against the Witness and their underlings.

• Thematically, the ship is a great mirror to the Black Fleet's technology - both are essentially solid hunks of what should be useless metal held together and allowed to function as machinery by the Light and Darkness respectively, and are both controlled through the user telling them what to do through sheer force of will. It would be a wasted opportunity to not see it at least do battle with a Pyramid Scale or whatever other autonomous forces can be made from the Black Fleet or its cityscapes.

The true masterminds of the Black Fleet are the Darkness equivalent of Warlords.

• Both are independent people raised by the respective forces, but act in ways that oppose the teachings of the entity behind their powers. The Warlords steal, murder innocents, and enforce feudalism for sport against the Traveler's hopes that the Light would be used to protect humanity, and the Witness and Rhulk enjoy waxing nihilistic philosophy and bringing about the end of all existence by force, two things the Darkness as an entity would much rather not do. For one, the Straw Nihilist persona bores it, and the core of its teachings is that the Final Shape comes naturally, even if it really is nothing at all, as forcing it implies the universe doesn't have to end in whatever the Final Shape truly is (and would thus vindicate the Traveler.)

Oryx could never be a Disciple of the Witness

• From the ARG, it seems the Darkness is ultimately a force of nostalgia and being defined by your past to Never Be Hurt Again, while the Light is about abandoning your past to reach for a better future. Oryx made his Deal with the Devil to save the Krill, and as shown by the Warpriest, he never actually stopped wanting to cure the hunger so that the Hive would not destroy itself after becoming the rulers of the universe. Quite simply, he had too much hope for a better future, which would result in the Witness' Straw Nihilist ideology being something he'd be disgusted by. He would, however, be an excellent choice for a successor to the Witness, since his Final Shape of "utopia" rather than "death" would likely win Disciples of his own if he figured it out.

Nezarec will be the Wild Card of the Light and Darkness Saga endgame, rather than a clear-cut hero or villain.

• A god of pain wouldn't want the universe to end lest they be deprived of that domain in a lifeless world, hence why he's not present in the Witness's ranks anymore. But it would still be in his interest to keep a good conflict going to prolong the suffering of those still alive. Perhaps instead of a full-on Heel–Face Turn as the rampant speculation talks about, he'll pull random things that help and hinder the Guardians for no agenda but his own, perhaps becoming The Spook on a cosmic scale without a way for the story to pivot towards reasoning with or destroying him.
  • Seemingly jossed in Season of the Plunder, sense the main plot being collecting his entombed body parts. Unless the vanguard finds a way to resurrect him

Mithrax once ran with the Old Crews

• It would certainly explain why their return under Eramis has put him so on edge.
  • Confirmed as of week 6, he was a captain of his own crew.

Some future storylines may deal in Risen allies of humanity that are non-human.

• For the allies in the Hive, this would involve some of the Lucent brood deciding to defect from Savathun's/Immaru's army. We've already seen the beginnings of this with Fynch choosing to side with us rather than with Immaru.
• For the Eliksni, this may or may not implicate Eramis - likely being the one to be the first Eliksni Risen, if the apparent direction of the story is any indication. Barring that, she will be directly or indirectly responsible for the death of the Eliksni that gets chosen.

Season of the Deep will involve Xivu Arath finally showing up in person

• Confirmed. We do not see her "in person", but it is the first time we hear her speak and she gains more characterization beyond "Warmongering Wargod" in Ghosts of the Deep.

Cayde-6's death is the Destiny universe's equivalent of Who Shot JFK?

• More of a headcanon than an actual WMG, but I imagine that'd there'd be plenty of conspiracy theorists in the Last City postulating about the 'truth' of Cayde's murder and who was really behind it-ranging from plausible suspects (Savathun) to the outlandish (like say, for example, Colonel). After all, the deaths of high profile figures tend to invite conspiracy theories in real life. I doubt the Last City is any different in that regard.

Nezarec is a Psion

• Everything points towards Nezarec being the boss of the Root of Nightmares raid, but there is also radio chatter on Neomuna that tries to relate Nezarec to the Psions, being described as having "psionic powers", and his helmet, Nezarec's Sin, looks awfully similar to a Psion helmet. This would also explain why there is a conclave of Psions that directly worship the Darkness independent of Calus' Shadow Legion: Because they follow Nezarec.

The grand finale of Destiny 2 will be a Sadistic Choice between a graceful Cosy Catastrophe and a betrayal that pollinates new universes by destroying this one

You cannot defeat The Witness. But you can ultimately undo his victory by forging your Destiny out of their rigid Fate. And it will hurt:

• Option 1: Shapes. The guardian chooses to willfully embrace the Darkness and fulfill the Witness' ambition of subduing the light - only to backstab them at the very end with the last of their willpower and alter the 'final shape' into an endless cycle of 'consistent shapes', akin to a universal terrarium. The guardian has trapped the universe in a stagnant status quo, where the alliance is shattered and Guardians will be forced to fight the same enemies in an endless war with almost no hope of peace for all eternity. Almost. Zavala closes the narration with the simple wisdom that humans are, if anything, capable of defying all scripts in due time.
• Option 2: Seeds. The guardian chooses to embrace the hope of light, knowing they must betray everyone they've ever known so that the future is filled with endless possibility. They overload the Traveler and the Witness at the same time, transforming the Witness' execution of the Traveler into a twisted reincarnation of a dying universe. Zavala screams in rage and betrayal as the Enlightened Darkness is used to consume the Last City, followed by the solar system, and finally the universe, mulching them all and then exploding into the seeds of new forms of reality. From this mass sacrifice of unprecedented proportions, new universes are born - filled with endless suffering, and endless hope.
• It is worth mentioning that neither is particularly likely given Bungie's own statement that The Final Shape is merely the end of the Light and Dark saga, with Destiny continuing on beyond that.

The reason Cayde didn't want any grand spectacle of a memorial was because of the Factions

Think back to FWC and their Fantastic Racism during the House of Light/Endless Night storyline. They'd probably be spewing all kind of hateful propaganda and misinformation to slander the Eliksni-and as history shows, one of the more effective tactics in propaganda is to create an Inspirational Martyr-say, a certain popular Hunter Vanguard who was murdered by Elksni. So they exalt Cayde, hailing him as a hero who died heroically defending the Last City and humanity from the Fallen hordes, only to be brutally and savagely murdered by them.

Not only am I certain they'd do this, I imagine they'd have done it before with other prominent Guardians-such as Andal Brask. As such, Cayde would've seen first hand FWC opportunistically peddling dead guardians as martyrs, and he likely decided that, whenever he died, he didn't want his death to be used for political gain. It's telling that Cayde only gets a statue in honor in Lightfall-after FWC is long gone.

Next year's expansion begins with Zavala's Bus Crash

Sadly, Zavala's voice actor (Lance Reddick) died in March, 2023. Rather than replace him, Bungie might decide to capitalize on the in-universe story's cliffhanger crisis to drop the bridge.Everyone in the know realizes that The Witness infesting The Traveller is going to end horribly, and the apocalypse in 2024's expansion begins with what is effectively Red War II, including the part where most Ghosts are unable to resurrect their partners for good - most notably Zavala.

• Jossed. Keith David will be assuming the role of Zavala.

Savathun had a final daughter who was gifted with Light

This would be Savathun's magnum opus: an heiress who wasn't cursed with the Hive hunger, yet Hive enough to carry their culture and lead their people in the event that the Guardians found a way to riddle her with bullets (which they did). If she took a sample of Osiris while their fates were... intertwined...

Cayde's death was Suicide by Cop

Admittedly, this one is a stretch. But there's a small chance Cayde allowed himself to be killed. The reason for doing so, I'm not sure-the most 'plausible' explanations I came up with were because he was Driven to Suicide, or that it was part of some kind of Thanatos Gambit. Fridge Horror kicks in when you realize what that means for Sundance...

Meta theory: The reason Bungie doesn't want to bring back Cayde is because of Cortana

Hear me out on this:

Cortana's return in Halo 5 was....controversial to say the least. Bungie, what with Halo being their former flagship franchise, would take note of this. And they kept this lesson in mind when killing Cayde and keeping him that way: bringing him back carried to much risk of fan backlash if they fucked it up, the safest option, therefore, would be to keep him dead.