Anyone who’s ever done an icebreaker activity at a new job or summer camp is probably familiar with the game “two truths and a lie.” In the latest Destiny 2 expansion, The Witch Queen, the Hive God of trickery and lies Savathun plays a similar game with Guardians, offering up two truths and two lies during each completion of the Altar of Reflection activity. Which of her statements are true, which are false, and what could they mean for the future of Destiny? Here are my best guesses. Spoilers for The Witch Queen ahead!

Altar of Reflection: Pact

“Osiris is dead.”

Lie. While a transmission from Empress Caiatl in the Martian Missives suggests that Osiris is dead and his comatose body is something else entirely, that lore is almost certainly false, given that the entire lore book is composed of outlandish, out-of-character statements from other characters. For the time being, Osiris seems to be alive, if in a very limited way.

“Savathun is dead.”

True. Technically, anyway. Hive Gods have historically died a lot, but been brought back in a number of different ways. Savathun does seem well and truly dead for the moment, but her Ghost got away during the final fight and could potentially resurrect her at any time — so yes, she’s dead, but no more so than our Guardians are while we’re waiting to respawn.

“The Witness birthed the Darkness.”

Lie. Savathun talks about the Witness wearing the Darkness like a cloak, and our Ghost describes it as a “neutral force” in Witch Queen dialogue. Destiny appears to be setting up the Light and the Darkness as cosmic principles of creation and destruction, both necessary and natural. What seems likely is that the Witness has hijacked the Darkness and is attempting to throw off the balance of the universe by seeking the final shape.

“In the end, your destiny lies beyond this system.”

True. Hey, that’s the name of the game! This one seems likely for a few reasons — first, Witch Queen has been talking a lot about the Fundament, the Hive homeworld, and also involves some time travel shenanigans, which make it possible that we’ll go back there at some point. Second, the Witness has exhibited the power to move worlds throughout time and space. And if you want to get really meta, this statement could even refer to the story of Destiny continuing outside of the game itself.

Destiny 2 Report Altar Reflect 10

Altar of Reflection: Choice

“The Traveler will leave.”

Lie. The Traveler has spent eons running from the Darkness. It has previously been suggested that the only reason it didn’t flee Earth when the Pyramid ships caught up with it the first time, during the Collapse, was because Rasputin forced it to stay at gunpoint. We now know that humanity — and the Traveler — survived the Collapse in part due to the interventions of Savathun, who somehow tricked the Witness into leaving.

“The Traveler will fall.”

True. I mean, there’s an expansion called Lightfall coming up, which seems to suggest that the Traveler will be taken down somehow. Bungie has also hinted that the next few expansions will wrap up the story of light and darkness, but not the story of Destiny as a whole, meaning that it’s possible that both the Witness and the Traveler will fall in a future story arc.

“The Traveler is not the only one of its kind.”

Lie. As far as I know, we’ve never heard anything about a second Traveler. It would feel kind of cheap for the Traveler to meet its end, only to be replaced by another one.

“The Hive are not the last to be chosen by the Light.”

True. If Ghosts can choose to make the Hive into Guardians, then there’s no reason why they couldn’t do the same for the Cabal — or, even more bizarrely, the Vex. Also, the Traveler hung out with the Fallen before making its way to Earth, but as far as we know never made Fallen Guardians. Given the current human/Eliksni alliance, it might do something like that soon.

Altar of Reflection: Insight

“Mercury, Io, and Titan are in my care.”

Lie. Unless something changed behind the scenes, the Pyramid ships gobbled up those planets back during Beyond Light. It’s possible that Savathun took them back just like she nabbed the Traveler, but I’m not sure to what end.

“The Witness returned Mars to your solar system.”

Lie. I think it’s more likely that Savathun somehow used her Throne World to bring Mars back in an effort to inform us about the Witness and his disciples.

“The power to move worlds will soon be yours.”

True. If our destiny lies outside the system, we need some way of getting there. The Witness has already proven capable of moving worlds, so maybe we’ll learn to do the same thing and move Earth or another planet to reach some far-off place.

“The Taken King will rise again.”

True. There have been hints here and there that Oryx isn’t actually totally dead, but I think this is referring to the return of the King’s Fall Raid. As one of the most popular Raids in Destiny, it seems a natural choice to bring back as legacy content in Destiny 2. And with the time travel and memory hijinks we’ve seen in The Witch Queen, there would be a lore-appropriate reason to dive back into that Raid, possibly to gain information we missed the first time around, back before we knew about the Witness.

Destiny 2 Report Altar Reflect 11

Altar of Reflection: Catalyst

“The Pyramid blade is one key to defeating the Witness.”

True. This one seems unlikely at first, but consider that the Witness seeks the final destruction of all things, whereas the Glaive was created by us through weapon crafting. Yes, the technology we used to make it is tied to the Darkness, but the fact that we made it at all seems to imply that other forms of creation will be necessary to oppose the Witness.

“The Witness seeks the final shape, and the final shape… is nothing.”

True. The Final Shape has been a central part of Darkness ideology since the first Destiny. Backed up by the Witness’s appearance at the end of Witch Queen, in which it says “no more death… no more life.” The Witness wants to throw the creation/destruction balance of the universe out of whack and erase reality to arrive at a final, unchanging state of nothingness.

“The Last City is not the last city.”

Lie. This one is tough. You could argue that the Dreaming City already makes this one true, though it seems to imply another city on Earth or otherwise in the actual material plane of the solar system. It’s possible, but I don’t know of any lore that supports it.

Update (8/23/22): Turns out this one is true! The other city is Neomuna on Neptune, which we’ll explore in Lightfall. That makes one of these other ones a lie, but I’m not sure which right now.

“The Witness will build its army on Mars.”

Lie. Remember, there are Pyramids elsewhere in the solar system — on the Moon, for example. While the Witness — and a “friend” — seemed to be fomenting dissent in the Cabal ranks on Mars, there are plenty of other staging grounds for it to work with, like the several worlds still in its grasp.

Destiny 2 Two Lies, Two Truths — Examining Savathun's Riddles

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