Destiny 2 Lore - My first impressions of the "Ghosts of the Deep" Dungeon! (A new high standard?) 

Oryx’s body arriving on Titan might be explained by the lore tab for the Royal Chase scout rifle from season of the hunt. It talks about Oryx’s body being watched from the orbit of Saturn until a gravitation anomaly occurs at the moment Titan disappears, possibly pulling Oryx in.

Relative motion makes it look as if it is moving towards Saturn but the body’s actual velocity could be something completely different depending on how the Dreadnought is moving

I loved the parallels to the Books of Sorrow in this dungeon. It makes Titan feel like the hive’s fundament. And our fireteams were the three siblings going down into the deep to find the darkness, which is Oryx in our case.

I think the coolest part about this dungeon is that by technicality, we have all three of the Hive Gods' influence all within one dungeon.

Another note on some enemies: • Simmumah Ur-Nokru was a wizard we killed in The Strange Terrain - the strike where we killed Nokris. • Vorlog was an enemy we killed in the Court of Oryx.

The fact that oryx's worm is unaccounted for and that oryx's body is not decomposing but still undergoing mitosis is the true horror of the dungeon.

The fact that the lore from one of the armor pieces says that 1) Oryx’s body is alive and growing, but mindless, and 2) that Oryx’s worm is unaccounted, is really exciting and horrifying in a very lovecraftian kind of way

God, I couldn't agree more on the "wanting our mission to fail" part. Oryx has been my favorite character since he showed up and the possibility for more screentime/development would be amazing. The whole inner-conflict thing of his existence and the possibility that he may not stay a bad guy after getting rezzed are just too good. I really hope Bungie doesn't leave his story here. I want more Oryx!

Until said otherwise, my headcanon will be that a Cabal cruiser entering the system saw Oryx's body floating towards Saturn and the commander, just for the hell of it, gave the order to hit it at top speed to see if it would explode. Much to their chagrin, even in death his body was actually far too durable for such an attack to work, but they did all get a laugh from the way it bounced off and shot towards Titan.

Bringing Oryx back into the fold would do SO much for the story of The Hive. Seeing him have a crisis of faith after finding out the formative experience that he based his life on was a lie would be so interesting.

11:32 if you check the season triumphs, one of the bosses in deep dive is “Kelgoroth, Taken from Bones”

With every dungeon that has come out, my feeling was “okay that wasn’t bad, glad it’s over”. This one? I WANT MORE! This is the one dungeon where I want more from it. More like it. When I saw oryx for the first time during this, it became my top favorite dungeon. The hive are my favorite enemies in game only because of the lore.

I mean it's unlikely, but if Oryx was just drifting from the ship, he was already at orbital speeds for Saturn. Titan as it passed by repeatedly it would have exerted its own gravitational pull each time and pull him further and further away from Saturn. Velocity required drops as distance increases. Eventually Titan's own gravity would win out as Oryx got further from Saturn.

Standing near Oryx’s corpse for too long causes auditory hallucinations according to the lore tabs on the armor, so yeah. I think bringing the Navigator’s corpse into the City’s borders is very explicitly at least a little dangerous.

An interesting aspect that I really liked was the theme that plays during the final boss battle. You can hear parts of Crota, Oryx, and Savathun’s theme during the battle, and I thought it was a really cool little detail.

It probably doesn't make any sense, but I would like to imagine some lingering part of Oryx in his body helping us overcome the ritual during the encounter. Of course he hated us for killing Crota and generally serving the Traveler, but we bested him in combat, even if it wasn't according to the whims of the Sword Logic. I'd say he would much rather help us keep himself dead than be resurrected by the Lucent Hive with heresy squared.

There does seem to be a heavy emphasis on Xivu's emotional state in the dungeon, from genuine grief then to singing the praises of the sword logic with such fervour. She's the first member of the Hive that we have seen have such raw emotion and perhaps it's with that emotion that an advantage can be found. I know that perhaps we might get the incline that she is capable of reason, but given her situation of her race and the fact that she is the last Hive god we need to use this advantage to put her down.

This dungeon, and Ecthar in particular, has solidified my appreciation for the Hive as the greatest and truest nemeses of the Guardians. While your average Hive soldier may not be a threat, and the Sword Logic does look down on necromancy, the existence of Throne Worlds and now Hive Ghosts means that you can never truly be sure a significantly-powerful Hive is dead. With the exception of Taniks, no enemy from any of the other races manages to cheat death and prove themselves a persistent thorn in our side like several Hive enemies have done, and that makes them an excellent foil to us functionally-unkillable Guardians. Also, fun fact, Kelgorath is definitely coming back. The lore on the new strand sword describes him being taken.

This dungeon mechanically knocks almost all the other dungeons out of the park. It has multiple interacting mechanics that they do different things with throughout. It's built more like a full raid than something like Spire where it had 1 mechanic that it used throughout. Whichever team at Bungie made this deserves a massive raise because this is the first raid since Prophecy (and maybe Grasp) that I've enjoyed this much.

We will see kelgorath this season in the deep dive activity because in the seasonal bonuses tab on the deep sea locksmith challenge you can see Kelgorath, taken from bones

It’s also nice to see Xivu Arath’s perspective on most of the events that the siblings have gone through: Their time on Fundament, Oryx’s death at our hands, Savathûn’s betrayal, etc. You start to get hints that she’s beginning to have some doubts as well by the end of it. Makes you wonder what her reaction will be when if/when she finds out about “The Lie” that we told Savathûn at the end of Witch Queen 👀

The aesthetic, the lore, the gear. Everything is awesome!

You can use planets to slingshot yourself to other planets, it does make sense like skipping stones if the dreadnought is moving so I could see him sort of skimming across the plants and asteroids to land where he did .

I love the opening cutscene for this dungeon too, we see the vehicle we drove out of the arcology towards the gunship at the end of the Year one campaign mission on Titan. Love that little detail

11:28 Fun fact if you check the challenges to unlock the upgrades for this season in one you'll see that one of the bosses of either salvage or deep dives is 'Kelgorath, the taken blade' or something like that. So we'll have to fight again this season and chances are, he'll be a taken or have taken like abilities. So we'll need to teach the same lesson to the old man, again.

I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS DUNGEON, THE LORE AND COMBAT ARE AMANZING

Potential explanation as to how Oryx got to Titan: Savathuun had him towed there. The Hive have plenty of space capability, and Sav was building a foothold on Titan, so it would have been a relatively simple matter to arrange.

Hive are just the most intresting race and they lend themselves well to dungeons with their lore, design and architecture. This and Pit are my two favourites.

In the Seasonal Challenges for Season 21, defeating the 3 different bosses in Deep Dive is needed to unlock one of the Seasonal upgrades. The third of those bosses is Kel'gorath, Taken From Bones. We'll have a chance to test Byf's statement on him soon, which I find quite nifty.

we can talk to a giant space whale but Oryx crash landing on titan is where you draw the line??? 😭😭😭😭

Proud of you for enjoying something I know was absolutely difficult getting through! You're the man Byf!

Love fishing and watching your videos, I usually listen to them at work as I like to try and piece together what I have played with the story. Plus it passes time, Loved Dynasty, Loved the 4+ hour long Chronological story, and your reading of the books of sorrow. You are a legend! You are the reason I can make sense of the game because it was really complicated for a 14 year old when I first started. Now 24 loving your readings, theories, and if no one says it bro if you need to take a week off whenever you do it! Thanks for all the time you dedicate to keeping viewers engaged, AND there isn’t a single thing I disagree with when it comes to your saucy first impression videos. Cheers to you Legend. Bungie should be dying to have people like you apart of their narrative team.

Honestly i can imagine oryx being stuck in orbit and by some chance landing on titan either that or the hive somehow dragged his body there then somehow lost it. In terms of story i get the feeling what comes after final shape may have something to do with the hive

11:27 If you look at the season of the deep title seal the down the drain triumph shows kelgorath is one of the deep dive bosses.

SPOILERS! It's entirely possible that Oryx's body could have ended up on Titan. Just because Oryx was last seen drifting towards Saturn does not mean that his Orbital velocity (shared with the Dreadnought) was immediately canceled. There's a possibility that Oryx's body's orbit decayed, and then was slingshot around Saturn, and then attracted to the Titan. Being the moon around Saturn with the most mass, it would make a decent case for attarcting Oryx's body to it if Titan happened to be in the right place at the right time.

When you speak of the irony of Oryx being defiled by the light and necromancy, I can't help but be immediately reminded of the Legacy of Kain series. BTW, to this day the series still has some of the best voice acting and narrative. Anyway, I won't really get into the details of what I'm reminded of, but those of us that have played the series will know. It was great then and it is great now. I can't wait to try out that dungeon.

My guess on how Oryx arrived in the deep of Titan is that Xivu Arath after hearing what happened to her big bro, she flew In her flagship (like the one of Savathun) and with the help of Hive magic she teleported the body and did some sort of a Viking funeral in his honor (specially if you hear all the Memories) And one more thing that most be noted... Oryx's worm is missing. Soooooooooo yeaaaaaaahhhh. We have to be very worry about that

Wow, just refreshed in time. Was interested to see what you’d say about this

I had asked this question years ago to my brother, whom has a degree in this kinda thing. Supposedly upon him flying toward Saturn, the rings and moons would pull him into orbit. Ontop of that you have titan's "gravitational weirdness" and it seems alot more plausible, and it would only be another reason for the witness to take over titan

As soon as I entered the boss room, my immediate thought was can't wait for byfs vid on this

Titan is a moon of Saturn, and could have easily intercepted Oryx whilst orbiting the planet. How is that so unbelievable? Sounds like Byf is literally looking for something to complain about this time.

11:28 In the lore tab of the taken sword, it tells of how Kelgorath changes into "Kelgorath, Risen from Bones" and the triumphs of the season title show that he is the 3rd boss of the deep dives.

I really like this dungeon! Th3 ambience, the massive spaces and the little details here and there in the enviorment along with the encounter mechanics and the armore it's really top tier dungeon for me!

This is something that would be super interesting to comeback to story wise. With the witness being MIA and we need information on him we’ll probably need savathun alive to talk to and she could want to revive and explain things to oryx, Oryx has communed with the deep and probably has some exclusive information about the witness and xivu which could be useful.

I like how the memory fragments are basically just Xivu Arath trauma dumping like a moody teenager

This dungeon, to me, is a great reminder of how things have changed between us and the Hive. Guardians have warred against the hive for better than over a decade. We’d seen them as the antithesis of us, and our greatest threat at the time, as they have consumed and destroyed countless worlds and possibly galaxies. Yet, here we are again, combating the evil Hive, but they once again use the Lighy aginst us, and we use Light, but also Darkness, aginst them. We’ve even gone far enough to wield weapons of sorrow, Taken weapons from this season, and even Hive or Thorn themed armor. In both of us switching perspectives, we Guardians actually came to a broader understanding on paracausality, I think, than the Hive did with either power. We embraced the grey outlook on the war we fought and the powers we willed, accepting that Light and Darkness are tools to shape the universe and affect it. That the wielder is what decides morals and allegiances by their choices, not by their weapon. While the Hive and Lucent Brood still seem fixated on one ideology or the other, I’d argue that we Guardains of Sol have come to a greater, broader understanding. Even Savathun may not be able to see that balance, because Guardains are the only paracausal beings that seem to be able to wield both in balance.

I love the implications of this dungeons story. I have my own theories already on why the Lucent Hive might’ve been trying to resurrect Oryx, especially as a Lightbearer, and it doesn’t involve directly standing against us. Xivu Arath currently controls the Taken and does so at the behest of the Witness, something that Savathun herself stood against. What if they were reviving Oryx with the intent on him being a blade to strike down Xivu and the Witness with. He’s the Taken King and bloody powerful after all, so he’d be able to wrest control of the Taken back from Xivu as well as a fair amount of hive forces. Given that the Lucent Hive most likely know the truths we showed Savathun, a Lucent allied Oryx would learn these things, and be more keen on a “enemy of my enemy is friend” sort of alliance in standing against the Witness. Thats my theory anyways.

The fact that it’s in the arcology was the thing I was the most excited for. I was definitely one of those people that wished they could just jump down and explore the forest

Considering the Thalassaphobia, hearing you say this is your #1 favorite dungeon is really wild. Was on call with my clan leader who's in a similar position and the vehemence when he said he's never playing it again was so real.

Loved the idea and thought of the dungeon. But I’m disappointed oryx wasn’t resurrected or we were given some sort of story implication of it. Like an after story effect where we look into it and turns out they were not resurrected because of the touch of malice holding orix’s soul. An also like that oryx’s worm evolved into a larger worm or something. Like something else aside from “hey we found this, these guys failed to bring him back” “ahwell, lock them away.” Like imagine, this late in the game and Oryx comes back, next season we go to the dreadnaught and that it has disappeared, so we investigate savathun’s throne world and make a deal with her ghost to bring her back in exchange for tracking down Xivu and oryx. So we track down certain ingredients in the moon, in the throne world, and such. Thus we form an alliance with Savathun and let her speak to her brother and sister. Lead to Savathun stabbed but killing Xivu and Orix sides with the darkness still till it gets straight answers. Savathun responds and comes back to help us unlock the portal in time for the final shape.

When my friend and I got to the end we both just went back and forth with "OH!" In shock. What's more that the funny image of just a random asteroid hurling by and hitting the body out of the way as a small % chance at the end of a KF raid made me chuckle.

I find it so interesting that we as a team of 3 decent down into the deep ocean of Titan. Kinda reminds me of that lore video where Oryx n his sister's venture into the deep to meet the worm God's. Really cool.

Space engineer here, what's the problem? You defeat Oryx on the Dreadnaught, he floats off toward Saturn. You know what ELSE is floating, rather orbiting, around Saturn? The moon of Titan. If the Moon can raise tides on Earth, surely a moon of Saturn could interfere with the orbital pattern of an object orbiting Saturn. If we found Oryx on Europa, on a moon orbiting a different planet, one that is 4x farther apart from Saturn than Earth is from the Sun, then sure, raise questions. I know this is first impressions video, but you really need to consider reaching out to your community more to unravel these issues. Because this kind of thing breaks my immersion into lore videos. Considering how diverse the lore, physics, and culture both Destiny and its community are, we really need to start treating confusion points as opportunities to learn.

i feel like they changed oryx's death location in the reprised KF for this reason, in the reprised KF he floats out into space and not towards Saturn unlike the D1 KF death.

The drip is IMMACULATE, I fking love the armor, it's the best I've seen in a real long time. Once again, thx for bringing the lore together.

You sparked a memory with your intro. When I was a kid I was an ocean rescue lifeguard. Part of our training was to swim 50 strokes out then dive for sand. We had to scoop sand from the bottom and bring it to the surface… then swim 50 strokes out and do it again 4 more times…. My guy, that pitch black freezing water is where boys become men..

Titan is a moon of Saturn, why is it wierd Oryx landed there?

To add to a more chilling effect what if every time you performed the rune mechanic at the final boss fight you heard oryx growling like he can feel himself being brought back. Overall I thought the dungeon was indeed really good and well done, can’t wait to get the exotic! 😁

I got that warlock helm on my first run, not having any indication of where the dungeon was leading at the end. I didnt even notice that was a huge body until hallway through. Such a trippy dungeon, having only been able to do the Kings Fall raid once recently before the new season for guardian rank. My mind is blown, and im horrible at mechanics, yet I love this dungeon so so much. I cant wait to get he full set.

I remember seeing a comment under one of your videos on the alter of reflections about the idea of a "servitor sized ghost floating around saturn looking for oryx" and this dungeon makes me kind of wish we could of seen that.

Would be really cool if you could hear Oryx whispering to us if you had touch of malice equipped. Or if you have deep sight you don't see the body of Oryx but rather Aurish (i don't remember the spelling)

I just love when Byf starts to nitpick about things that don’t make sense in the lore like he’s being critical only to just hand wave it later on and pretend like it’s not an issue

It’s probably my favorite dungeon, this was fantastic incredible narrative. Fantastic mechanics to!

You mentioned playing through the dungeon with Broman...I don't see it on Twitch. Will there be a video? I love listening to you two talk all things lore!

I adore how to start the final fight you crush oryxs ghost. Like the boss is second to him. Man this dungeon was fantastic Also this dungeon makes me hope the final dungeon for this year is a scorn and house salvation focused dungeon. I can imagine bungie making the final boss athrys.

Why is everyone so opposed to the idea that the Hive could have simply taken his body parts there?

Byf: mentions Kelgorath and asks us to imagine if he came back again. Me, who read the Thin Precipice lore tab: "Buckle up, brother."

Your pure panic at 6:37 😂😂 I believe you now

About the BIG ORYX in the room, it might be possible that when his throne world (i.e. The Dreadnaught) collapsed, the ascendant plane spat Oryx out above Titan rather than Saturn. Remember: we killed Oryx in his Throne World, which is outside the physical plane. Hence, the mystery surrounding the Ascendant Plane; we might know about it more thanks to Seasons of the Lost, Defiance and Forsaken Endgame, but we do not know the true potential of the Ascendant Plane. Its still a big mystery.

Glad to see the narrative team bounce back after Lightfall. The story told through Xivu’s memories was great

I wish I could see that stream you did with Broman. Would have love to have seen you reactions, not just to the ocean, but also to Echtar and Oryx.

The parts of the dungeon like the descent down the drill shaft and the various underwater caverns reminded me so much of the Metroid series whenever you happen upon their flavor of "water level" Bungie nailed the scale of this dungeon and I had such a great time figuring it out with my friends yesterday

I loved the lord that was in it

Literally the best dungeon they've made since pit. Lore-wise, loot-wise, mechanic-wise. Also the overall vibe of the dungeon is amazing i love how you start off in the nature area of the arcology. I absolutely hated the vibe of duality as well as the ciatl fight. hated the gameplay of spire but enjoyed the lore and vibe surrounding it. this dungeon is an absolute masterpiece and i applaud bungie for that.

Using the understanding we have of how gravity works, it's possible that the trajectory of oryx was interjected by a larger asteroid in the belt, causing his path to slingshot around Saturn instead of going to it. This could also cause him to be picked up by Titan. It is possible, not likely, but possible.

Holy lucent light i was not expecting this. Like i did play the dungeon yesterday but i didn't think of it lore wise until watching this vid and i have to agree it all makes sense well except of how the corpse actually got to Titan in the 1st place but still my mind has been blown

other than my absolute hatred of the last encounter, this dungeon was top tier

Loved this Dungeon, It is my favorite now. It's sad knowing this was supposed to be apart of WQ though. Imagine if we got all the content, Strand, and all this that was cut from WQ, it would've been the best expansion we've ever had.

Good work bungie, good to see the lucent hive race didn't go to waste

Finally got to playing this dungeon, not sure how it wasn’t spoiled for me but what a reveal. Awesome dungeon

I just wanna say this is the first time in d2 entirely that a single activity has an armor set that I genuinely would pay for on its own, let alone for all three classes getting such an awesome armor set, for gods sake the hunters got symmetrical arms and legs for once, and warlocks got a helmet that genuinely took my breath away instead of the usual “oh another helmet that I’ll put an ornament over because of that weird bit sticking off the side that ruins the rest of it”

For the lengthy whine at the beginning about Oryxs' body heading towards Saturn and the apparent need for "lore Daddy" to forgive Bungie for this heretical transgression against his waning sense of logic: Orbital dynamics are a thing. A very big, very complicated thing, especially with so many variables in an orbit like around Saturn. You could spend years studying physics, then astrophysics, then majoring in orbital dynamics, and then you'd probably have an ok idea of how complicated things can get in an orbit like Saturns. A cheat way of doing it would be just to buy KSP1, build a rocket and spawn it in at 120000ft, point it directly at the planet and light up its thruster. You're far more likely to end up careening away from the planet on a massive eliptical orbit or getting slung further out into the solar system than you ever are of reaching the planet. Relative velocity might make it seem like Oryxs body was heading towards the planet, since thats how things work here on Earth. If I point my car at something and drive then you can pretty safely assume I'm going to get the at some point, but as the dreadnaught was in a table orbit in Saturns rings theres pretty much a 0% chance Oryxs body would get close enough to enter Saturns atmosphere, and you could say with absolute certainty that it would never occur within the next tens-of-to-hundreds of thousands of years. To be fair theres just as infinitesimally small chance that Oryxs' body would end up on Titan, but the chances are just about as high as it ever landing on Saturn. And also to be fair, I dont even really give that much of a shit about scientific accuracy in our space fantasy shooter game. Titan is the closest patrol zone/environment we have to Titan, so why not just put the mission there. Its just yet again that insufferable "Lore Daddy: ego rearing its ugly and insufferable fucking head as he rants about how theres only so much rule-of-cool he can 'forgive' Bungie for. Like literally anyone needs his forgiveness, and like hes literally any authority on the subject. Your videos are far fucking better when theyre just being informative breakdowns of the lore "Lore Daddy", and far more annoying and far less interesting when your inherit raging narcissism kicks in and you feel the need to go on a rant like youre the god of the Destiny community or something. How was the community summit, by the way? Still waiting on invites?

I love everything around the narrative of this dungeon. The only addition I would have loved to see would be the inclusion of Immaru, Savathun’s ghost, somewhere. We all know Savathun will return someday, and if we got to see even just a little bit from Immaru and what he is up to would have been a great start to Savathun’s reintroduction, especially with how closely all 3 of the Hive gods are tied in this dungeon’s narrative.

Didn't know this dropped. I'm mad crazy excited to play it because I saw the new exotic trace rifle....

As much as i adore this game i cant help but feel an immense sadness when new dungeons and raids drops, just not got the people any more

The Needlestorm at 17:55. Bro felt that one.

11:30 referencing kelgorath I believe before he was in the deep dives boss pool is fucking hilarious, aged like fine wine

The Pressure resistance reminds me of the Marathon game mechanic. There was one vacuum level "Sunbathing" You had to find oxygen stations scattered throughout level.

Funny you mention Kelgorath, considering the A Distant Pull (season's sniper rifle) lore tab

i love the xivu memories, such great dialogue and so well delivered

Just wait till you read the lore tabs… oh byf… oh you’re in for a treat

Kelgorath is coming back, he’s in the triumphs for the seasonal activities

I too loved the dungeon from both a gameplay aspect and what little lore I was able to decipher myself. I dont remember for sure, but I swear there was mention somewhere about a throne world playing a role in how things played as in maybe Oryx's body travelled that way and ended up on Titan. Then again I may have severely misinterpreted something since I was focused on figuring out the mechanics and where to go to advance through the dungeon.

Regicide was such a good choice as background music ❤

This was the Vow of dungeons when it comes to narrative. And I love it

Such a solid piece of content and well worth the dungeon key cost.

I am surprised you didn't look it up or listen in this case byf but the answer to how oryx git to titan is very simple. Xiu brought him here as a final resting place. She says it in the audio logs.

Mr Byf. Mr MNiB. Mr my lore god. i desperately want to watch you playing through this dungeon and all of your first reactions. Thank you. also i must give a wholehearted AMEN to Xivu's voice acting. i was talking to my fireteam about it after we found about half of the memories. "dang shes killin' this stuff." capturing that verge-of-tears rage without it being over the top is HARD and she NAILED it.

About where Oryx's body ends up I think you're grossly overestimating Saturn's gravitational pull and grossly underestimating astronomical distances. With the speed at which Oryx was traveling he would most likely not have hit Saturn, not only because of how slowly he was moving from our perspective towards Saturn, but also because the Dreadnaught is not stationary, but orbiting Saturn along with the rings (which are not made of meteors). That means that he'd be moving around Saturn at a much greater speed than his momentum towards Saturn. In other words, the vector that pulls perpendicular to Saturn would be much greater than the one pulling towards it. In other words again, the possibility of Oryx's body being slingshot and colliding with Titan is not such an impossibility to require suspension of disbelief as you're making it out to be.

The voice acting for xivu is so amazing i love it