Season of the Deep Week 5 shares one of the most important cutscenes in Destiny 2‘s story, which has come a long way from simply being about Light versus Darkness. The introduction of Pyramid Ships, the Witness, and the enigmatic Veil have led to numerous speculations, but finally, we get some answers in the Witness cutscene.
Ahsa, the ancient creature on Titan, uses Sloane to share her knowledge of Witness’s plans in the Into the Depths questline. However, this week’s cutscene is revelatory, leading players to the origins of the Witness. She also talks about the Traveler’s connection to the Veil, setting the stage for the catastrophic phenomenon known as “the final shape” — the title of the upcoming expansion. Moreover, fans of the Unveiling lore will recognize names that left the Destiny community puzzled for many years.
The cutscene shows that a past civilization in the universe stumbled across the Traveler, which gave them a Golden Age — just like Earth and the Eliksni home planet Riis. After living under its silence and prosperity for eons, they endured its chaos and sought something more; they believed that this Gardener needed a Winnower, also known as the Veil.
The Veil introduced them to the Darkness, a paracausal power shaped by consciousness, and led them to a discovery that could cut existence into a final shape. Ahsa explains that their intention was to use the connection between the Veil and the Traveler to reshape reality, threatening the universe. (Although this happened in the past, it’s similar to the Destiny 2: Lightfall campaign ending with the creation of the portal.)
However, they were unsuccessful. The Traveler fled, and consequently lead to the creation of the Witness. The people merged into a single entity, the Witness, while simultaneously becoming the first victims of it. The cutscene ends with Ahsa revealing the existential purpose of the Witness: to seek salvation and establish meaning in this universe. Here, the cat-and-mouse game of the Traveler and the Witness began.
Season of the Deep isn’t over yet, and we still don’t know much about Ahsa or Sloane’s condition. Meanwhile, visit the Veil Containment marker on the Neomuna map if you’ve completed the Parting the Veil quest. Each week of Season of the Deep, a new audio log from Chioma Esi — an Ishtar Collective researcher and one of Neomuna’s founders — gives more information about the Veil, Vex, Exos, and SIVA.
