Destiny 2 Reveals Inspiration Behind The Veil Lore

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In the latest official blog post, Destiny 2's narrative team finally provided detailed accounts of the inspirations and influences behind the creation of The Veil and its subsequent storyline involvements. Introduced in the Lightfall expansion, The Veil has caused seismic changes in the current storyline, becoming an integral part of the Light and Dark saga almost instantaneously. However, the introduction of such an important narrative aspect was done rather poorly, leading to frustration and disappointment in the Destiny 2 community.

The initial story in Destiny didn't elaborate on the struggle between Light and Dark too strongly, instead focusing mainly on the threats readily willing to attack the Guardians, such as the Vex and Hive. The first hints of this cosmic battle raging in the background came to light with The Taken King expansion, giving players much-needed insight into the nature of Darkness and the incomprehensible powers at work. These topics were further elaborated in Destiny 2, with Shadowkeep expansion finally unveiling the Pyramid ships and The Witness. In subsequent seasons and expansions since then, the forces of Light have met The Witness in battle, leading to an all-out system-wide war in Destiny 2: Lightfall and the discovery of The Veil.

From a lore perspective, The Veil is an object that can act as a psychic bridge to connect people, which has been successfully conducted by characters such as Dr. Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi. The results obtained from their experiments served to create the CloudArk device that currently hosts the consciousness of Neomunian citizens. In the latest blog post, the narrative team of Destiny 2 elaborated on the various inspirations and influences that led to The Veil's creation. The team explained that existing science fiction movies such as Altered States, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and independent science-horror projects like SCP Foundation and Magnus Archives influenced The Veil's mysteries.

These influences can be seen in the latest season's final storyline cutscene where The Witness is revealed to be an amalgamation of an entire species, influenced by the powers of The Veil. The cutscene has gruesome depictions of mutilated bodies and ritualistic mass death, ultimately birthing an incomprehensibly powerful being that bends the laws of physics, similar to the stories of Nyarlathotep and several SCP entries. The team further elaborates on the influence of Lord of the Rings and the concept of fear invoked by an outside watcher, similar to how The Veil's intrinsic connection with The Witness invokes uneasiness in hardened Destiny 2 characters like Osiris.

The post details the narrative team's plans to introduce more Veil-related lore entries and elaborate the story further in Seasons 22 and 23, ending with Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion. As Season of the Deep enters the final stages and with a showcase for the future set for August 22, players can expect more Destiny 2-related things to look forward to.

Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.