Destiny 2 OST – Language of Pure Meaning

Promethean, Archival Mind

This next section will involve the title and the Jovians, starting with the latter.

“The Nine are survivors of the cis-Jovian colonies who made a compact with an alien force to ensure their own survival.”

This was arguably the first “theory” confirmed by the Destiny franchise, by the presence of Xur, Agent of the Nine. While he is not the Nine, he is part of a race. Xur is what’s called a Jovian. They are described as an amalgam of cells, some originating from Earth. They have a humanoid shape, but have tendrils coming from their face, twitchy hand movements, and glowing orange eyes. I spent ages trying to confirm this and I don’t know if anyone knows, but the next time Xur’s around in D2, look at his eyes, get close to them. You’ll see strands of Darkness in them.

Moving on, the Jovians are described as “like the Awoken but more transformed”. This is backed up by Xur saying “The Awoken didn’t have a choice, we did.” This may also be a reference to the “theory” itself, as it mentions the survivors of these colonies making a deal with an unknown force. We’ll get into that in a moment but let me describe where these guys come from just a bit more.

One thing I noticed recently while researching into this topic was the use and interpretation of the word “Cis-Jovian”. Some described it as stuff closer to the Sun than the Jovian system, so stuff like Earth. Well, the definition of “cis-” is “on this side of; on the side nearer to the speaker.” So if we go by that, Cis-Jovian would roughly mean “on this side of the Jovians”, or close to. In chemistry, it refers to two atoms or groups that lie on the same side of a given plane in a molecule. The context is that we’re talking about a race called the “Jovians”. That in of itself suggests that they come from the outer system, not the inner system.

This brings me back to the pact and Jovian make-up. When Xur frequented the Tower back in D1, he said a lot of cryptic shit. I’m only going to discuss only a couple.

“So much Light here, I suppose I feel pain.”

Xur is hurt by Light. Not by being Nova-bombed, just by being in proximity of the Traveler. This quote is what started me on the “Xur’s a dark entity” train. Not exactly evil in his nature, but being created or given purpose by the Darkness or a higher-up like the Worms or something similar. The compact, like the ones the Hive made with the Worms on Fundament, was made so that the Jovians could survive. Survive what?

“We saw the colony fail, not knowing what we saw.”

Now, truth be told, while I’m sure this refers to the Collapse and fall of the Jovian colonies, I’m not implying Xur sacrificed his will to the Deep so he could survive the End. For all we know, the pact could’ve happened at a later date with parties other than the Darkness, such as the Nine, who Xur says made the change. But would you be surprised if it was the Darkness? Doesn’t help the case when he says things that are similar but not quite what the Darkness itself tells Oryx in the Books of Sorrow.

“For organic life to exist it requires constant adaptation.” – Xur
“And they call us evil. Evil! Evil means ‘socially maladaptive.’ We are adaptiveness itself.” – The Deep

Xur’s primary purpose, at least to us, is to sell “powerful” weaponry. The Nine, however, consider them kind of weak. Which is interesting when Xur says something like this in D2.

“I bring gifts of the Nine. Gifts you sorely need.”

Interesting. Moving on, the title is in reference to another “theory”.

“The Nine is a viral language of pure meaning.”

Xur confirms the existence of such a thing when he says this.

“To do what you say, is to speak in a language of pure meaning.”

Now, thanks to a post that I haven’t seen before, this is similar to the Sword Logic. So, thanks Reddit user dobby_rams for some how making me believe more that the Nine are evil. That being said, it’s possible for the Traveler to have its own language of sorts.

I can’t really go that in-depth into this, but it may be something about having control over someone with your voice and your words. Similar to the Ahamkara and Worms, again, thanks Reddit.

One thing I can say, though, is that this “theory” seems more like an “aspect” than an “identity”. The Jovians, Awoken, Ghosts, Minds, and Leviathan Intelligences all imply that the Nine are those entities, but the Corona-Borealis, Viral Language, shadows, and Aspects of Darkness may just be things about the Nine. A sort of, here’s what makes the Nine… the Nine in a more historical and behavioral sense. Like a “this is where we came from and this is what and how we do” type thing.

Now excuse me, I got to tidy up for the next post, because it’s either going to be real easy to explain or it’ll take quite a while (thanks Warmind DLC).

Thanks to Breshi for the files

All rights belongs to their respective owners. Music composed by Michael Salvatori, Skye Lewin, C Paul Johnson, Rotem Moav and Pieter Schlosser.

Source