Much like it did with Vow of the Disciple last year, Bungie released a new Raid forDestiny 2that ties in with the events of the new expansion’s story campaign.Lightfall’s Root of Nightmarewas a highly anticipated piece of content for several reasons, starting with the fact that players were left with more questions than answers at the end of the campaign, and Raids tend to bridge the gap with an additional cutscene and lore books.Destiny 2is also known for teasing future content way ahead of time, and while that might mean that more clues were left in Root of Nightmare, its very existence was foreshadowed all the way back in The Witch Queen.
The Witch Queen expansion was very different in terms of tone compared toDestiny 2’s Lightfall, which feels more like a love letter to ’80s action movies than it does the gritty story that Bungie promised. The main allure of The Witch Queen as an expansion was probably the fact that it forced players out of their comfort zones to seek all sorts of secrets, both during the campaign and in the post-campaign section. With both a cutscene andSavathun’s two lies and two truths game, Bungie revealed the Macrocosm encounter in Root of Nightmare beforehand, unbeknownst to all players.
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Destiny 2’s Root of Nightmare Raid Was Hinted at Twice in The Witch Queen
Destiny 2’s story and lore are often covered extensively both in the game and outside of it by Bungie, at times with the help of community members and even collector’s edition mementos. In this case, the company had laid bare a great secret in front of the Guardians, but it was very much hidden in plain sight. The end cutscene for The Witch Queen campaign involved an entity that players came to know as The Witness, and it entered a room where small-scale replicas of various planets were constantly moving.
This exact same room is used in theRoot of Nightmare Raidduring the Macrocosm encounter, where players have to defeat Cabal troops and a named enemy called Zo’Aurc, Explicator of Planets. The planets that players have to move throughout the encounter are the same as shown in that one cutscene from The Witch Queen, and they also include the recently explored Neptune. Yet, this was just one form of foreshadowing that Bungie used at the beginning of Year 5.
As part of the post-campaign content for The Witch Queen,Destiny 2playerscould complete rotating activities called Altar of Reflection, each with its set of puzzles and bosses to tackle. At the end of each of the four different types of Altar of Reflection, players were met by a projection of Savathun playing a game of two lies and two truths with them, articulating four statements. One of the various statements was “The power to move worlds will soon be yours.”, and it’s now clear how it was not a red herring for players to chase, but a hint for the Macrocosm encounter in Root of Nightmare.
It’s up to the Guardians to move the worlds, or planets, within the room where the Explicator of Planets stands, and it’s precisely this that Savathun meant - although it leaves one wondering how she could know all this in advance. Still, it goes to show how intricateDestiny 2’s narrative really is, and how much of that is set in stone way before accompanying Seasons or expansions are released. Another great example of this comes from the fact thatDestiny 2’s Season of Plunder was not a red herring, and it detailed Nezarec’s story for a reason, as Bungie needed a compelling villain for the Root of Nightmare final boss encounter.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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