Destiny 2 Lore - Who is the Conductor (It's almost certainly Maya, but here's why...) 

*Why is it when something happens with the vex it’s always you three* _Maya, clovis bray, and osiris standing there_

"I must deliver an uncomfortable report to Ikora" And the winner for understatement of the year goes to...

I haven’t watched the video, but I almost definitely know it’s maya. As soon as she called herself the ‘Conductor’ I remembered veil containment and that Maya was in the conductors chair for the experiments. They also brought up lakshmi at the end of act one which is known to be made by Maya on Neptune

MSund12 should know that they're also a copy...a simulation. Reading the lore tabs on the weapons, it's clear that she is a harsher (?) version of Maya, even more extremely obsessed with the Vex than the original Maya was with the Veil. Her savior complex rivals Clovis Bray. It's ridiculous that they call out Saint when they're no different. I hope that plays into things. I also wonder if other Mayas and Chiomas would be willing to stop her.

Bungie described this Episode as being about “Discovering a new Civilization” and on the Bungie Website, a public description of Battlefield: Core says “Delve into the Core of Nessus and uncover a thriving Vex Civilization” ok, so, why are the Choral Vex building a civilization? Ikora revealed this Werk that the Echoes contains the Minds of species the Witness destroyed… and considering how we are suddenly getting information on the previously obscure Qugu species…I think it’s safe to say that this Episodes Echo of Control contains the Minds of the Qugu and they are piloting the Choral Vex bodies! That’s why the Chiral Vex behave more individually and sentient! So the Conductor isn’t just trying to rebuild Humanitys Golden Age, but also giving the Qugu a second chance at life! I can already sorta guess what species are contained within the 2 other Echos: Fikruls Echo of Corruption: Eliksni from Riis (???)’s Echo of the Deep: *The ECUMENE* Oh and video starts at 2:00 !

If MSund12 is the conductor, she's got a lotta fucking nerve telling Saint he needs to get deleted just for being a rouge timeline/simulation remnant

If MSUND12 can still exist, then the high likelihood of a Chioma Esi copy ALSO exists, and we might have need of her.

Wouldn't it be a cool twist if the Conductor was the Osiris from the timeline we pulled Saint 14 from? Back to retrieve his long lost love and take revenge on the people who took him, us and our Osiris, maybe by destroying our timeline. Edit: Yes, I know it definitely Maya. This isn't a theory, it's just the direction I wish the story went. It'd certainly play into Saint's dilemma a lot more than just having it be Maya.

God, I only just realised that since Lakshmi-2 and Maya share the same voice, it means we could have Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice grace our ears once again

maya and micah being front and center these last couple months is soo rewarding

I’m curious if the reason the Conductor/Maya was so brutal to Saint about being a copy of a copy, is because the main Chioma found MSund12 and they had a falling out that had to do with her just being a copy

It's like 99.9% certain that it's Maya Sundaresh. The only other person it could realistically be is Chioma Esi. She gave herself up to the Vex willingly, and we already know Asher Mir survived that. They're even able to keep some of their individuality within the Vex collective. Those veil containment logs get dark at the end, so who knows how twisted she may have become within the Vex network. She's also the only other person that knew about the Conductor/Chorus setup on Neomuna. All the MSund12 references might just be us catching glimpses of Maya's copy trying to reach Chioma. Could make for a wild story. Chioma's trapped in the Echo and going insane, MSund12 reaches out to us in hopes we can get close enough to install her into the Echo with Chioma. Reuniting with her love calms Chioma, and the two of them together regain control of a potentially-now-friendly subdivision of the Vex?

It's like, so obviously, Maya that I don't even call her the conductor. There's just no way it isn't her.

It’s incredible how similar Maya’s story is to Clovis. They were both manipulated by the Witness; despite their intellect never realized they were pawns, and were both abandoned by the Witness after being used. Both becoming machines, losing their humanity. Only difference is, this Maya at least, is no pushover like Clovis.

Take a sip of Vex milk every time Byf says “Maya Sundaresh”.

Disclaimer: Writing this comment before watching, so this may have been covered. I am super late to the lore party, but literally just today I finished getting the Strand aspects tied to the Veil Containment logs, so this is quite fresh in my mind. The specific terminology used in Veil Containment was "conductor and chorus" for interfacing with the Veil, and Maya Sundaresh was the last Conductor to use the Veil (she was found in the Conductor's chair.) So, MSund pickanumber is probably the Conductor in this Episode. Maybe it's MSund12, maybe it's the OG Maya, who knows but

absolutely love how the hydra at the end of the first step to the oracle mission has the waypoint right over where it's eye would be when you walk in

As someone who has stepped away from destiny since shadowkeep i somehow always find my way back to your channel byf. My time with the series on the whole has ended but listening to your summaries on the story content will always be enjoyable and reminds me of all the good times ive had with the series. I'm glad you guys have a good game to play.

I like the conductor storyline so far but I really want a future episode with Clovis Bray as the villain. My 2 ideas are as follows- 1. he either finds an echo and makes an even more powerful version of exos and recreates siva. 2. Less likely but he somehow finds out about neomuna and corrupts their systems and plans to use the people of neomuna's cryo bodies to make an army of cloudstriders. Yes i know there is no lore to back any of this up, but it always bothered me that clovis just disappeared after Rasputin told everyone what Clovis was planning to do, Clovis is alot of things, but a quitter is not one of them. I would love to hear any thoughts people might have about this episode concept idea. Thank you for reading this and have a good day.😊👍

Outside of Osiris, Maya is the only other character I can conjure up when asked what characters are tied to the Vex

There's silhouettes of the Conductor around Nessus. They vanish when you get close. There's also a mini game that involved some scrambled code.

What if... this is the Echo. A memory, of Maya. Her consciousness trapped in the Veil... The Veil being linked with the Traveler, the Echos are memories of the dark manifest with the Light. A 230th Maya.

Wow this released faster then expected! Amazing ❤ Thank you Byff and Team behind the scenes.

I have a feeling it's Chioma Esi. Only because Maya is too obvious and Bungie loves throwing in little twists some times.

I love how they put in bits of current event's roots back in the vanilla? campaign. I truly wonder if these story beats are simply sprinkles they pull from or if it's planned from the start

You know, Veil Containment was pretty disappointing for me when it dropped as most of these entries had an absence of findings about the Veil itself- but now associating this with the Echoes lore and other findings on Maya Sundaresh, it makes perfect sense. Just wish we got a heads up on letting it cook

i haven't even watch the video yet but i read the "It's almost certainly Maya..." in Byf's voice. He's stuck in my head

As soon as the trailer released from Echos, Saint-14 describing how the voice compelled him was enough to tip me off to Maya Sunderesh, given her intimate knowledge and experimentation on Exos as both a part of Braytech and the Exodus Indigo. Her consciousness being transferred into the Veil only confirmed that she’d either send messages through the vex net, or emerge again in a new body.

I think the special thing we could have with Maya is that she could be a more tangible version of the witness. The Conductor itself could be original Maya, her mind trapped in the veil released by the Witness' actions and then sent in that echo, using the nearby vex stuff on Nexus to rebuild herself. Could be MSund12 in the vex network finding the echo and using that to make herself a physical body and start conducting the Vex. Either way then you could also have other Mayas that are opposed to the Conductor, either helping us this episode or later on assuming we don't outright kill her this episode (which would be a shame but the long term effects of giving the vex individualism could spiral on to new things later on without Maya). I'm almost at the point of betting the Conductor specifically is the original Maya. Her mind trapped in the veil, consumed by the Witness when Lightfall happened, and then she resided in the echo that then used the vex to build herself a body. And then either the end of this act, or sometime in Act 3 (or if Conductor doesn't die then later) we manage to speak with MSund12 who, as a copy of the younger Maya and untainted by the veil, will assist us in fighting back.

Ooo. Osiris and Saint. Maya and Chioma Esi. The parallels are unbelievable!

Could it be Chioma Esi? I can imagine a plot where all this stuff about Maya is a deliberate move to mislead us and Chioma could have become the Conductor in some sort of attempt to utilize the power of the Echo to find the original Maya. Obviously this whole train of thought could be flipped to be Maya instead of Chioma, but having Chioma be the Conductor instead could be a fun twist, especially with how blatant the hinting is towards Maya being involved.

Love ur stuff byf, gonna fall asleep to this probably

Hmm, even the Echo's of the Witness might also contain that primary drive OF the Witness, to see everything 'frozen' or perpetuated in some eternal shape. It might also 'promise' the deliverance of a "desire" (much like an Ahamkara 'wish') that has a fatal, poisonous twist for the wielder of the Echo.

Something else that I keep remembering is the Ishtar logo at the end of the wishkeeper exotic quest, it almost looks like what is around the heads of the coral vex

I mean, with the Final Shape narrative version of Insight Terminus, it literally alludes even further to Maya lmao

Conductors do not 'lead' they facilitate, and draw together, for want of a better word "weave" discordancy into harmony and sculpt from that harmony something awesome, beautiful and ephemeral, for no two performances are identical, but ALL if conducted correctly individually unique. So I am wondering about Maya Sundaresh, Conducting her Vex Chorus.

I might as well mention that one of the notable Mayas is one of the Ishtar Academy copies who was captured by the Vex, duplicated AGAIN, singled out for being the only one that liked being alone, and then sent after Clovis Bray during the Golden Age, where she infected Clovis Bray as part of a Vex signal on 2082-Volaris and caused him to hallucinate her until he split his consciousness into Banshee and the big head. Also once again going to plug my theory that Dr. Shim, Maya and Chioma's colleague, is the player character regardless of species. The identification system in the Ishtar Academy on Venus thinks you are them, and it would be possible for them to be turned into an Exo (as we see in Last Days on Kraken Mare) prior to the collapse, or be on the Exodus Green as it was pulled into the nascent distributary. And in a conversation with Praedyth in the Vault of Glass, it's mentioned that they're the most quiet one. (Though if that is true, the player character swears a lot less than Shim did.)

It would be cool if we meet one of the other mayas as well. Like maybe msund12 could be an ally we meet, since she was made before maya gave in to obsession, and the conductor is the "real" maya that "died" on the chair, but really entered the vex network or something, became fully digitized.

I just love the deep existential sigh Byf has whenever there's a complicated timeline graph is brought up.

Is it not possible it is a desperate Chioma Esi that, in hopes of finding Maya's consciousness and having that last moment with her, has taken up the mantle and resources of The Conductor to do so?

I could see them doing something along the lines of, maybe Maya was successful in interfacing with the veil itself. Maybe her personality or something along those lines was stored within the veil, and when the witness used the veil to make a hole in the traveler the upload of her self got pushed to the side due to the events of the final shape. And now that that battle is over the bursting echos from the traveler could be data that was once contained within the veil being shot out throughout the universe. That chunk of data containing Maya was contained within one of these echos and when mixing with the radiolaria fluid of nessus and through vex interfacing of the echo itself Maya could be reborn as a vex? Genuinely I am not a lore nut at all and I kind of just rambled my thoughts on all this lol. I'm pretty sure Ikora during the start of the Act 2 cutscene for this episode refers to the echos as possible "memories" contained within the traveler or something to that affect? Maybe Maya herself was a memory contained in the veil that then mixed with the traveler through the witness's manipulation?

It's Wyona Ryder for sure going to show us her special technique

I think it's been a misstep for things to have gone on this long without us actually hearing the Conductor speak and interact with us.

Little lore theory of mine: We know OXA is tied to Taox. We know Luzaku has a faction of "friendly" Hive. We know we're facing the Hive and using the Dreadnaught and going beyond Sol, probably to Torobatl. We know Taox was a being hunted by the Hive god trio for her attempts to stop them. The ghost stories mentions OXA again and now we have MSUND, who accessed information on the OXA machine. Bungie hasn't forgotten about Taox. So, what if Taox found her way into the Pale Heart and is helping Lazaku, and eventually the Vanguard, get the Dreadnaught and help the Cabal take back Torobatl? A year before Final Shape, on a Myelin Taox lore video, someone commented something about Taox being in the Traveler and they cant elaborate further. It was likely a joke, but... With Lazaku in the Pale Heart, what if it was a leak? It got me thinking about this theory, fwiw.

I'm honestly kinda hoping for a 'heroic' Msund, with who she was at her best, not her worst.

I really enjoyed listening to the logs. The story is just so thick. Really enjoying this Chapter of Destiny

I would LOVE and expansion with a sort of espionage/spy thriller vibe with the Conductor gaining influence over the Exos within the Last City. We go between Venus, Neomuna and Europa to find out what's happening. Just spitballing but that's sounds cool in concept lol

The only options I see are that A. It is the original maya sundaresh who “died” in the conductors chair and became one with the network. Which would explain her discontent with copies as she’s no doubt ran into copies of herself and other researchers. As well as having the prerequisites to repurpose the conductors chair from the other side. B. It’s one of the copies of maya who believes herself to be the original (or knows she’s a copy and despises the fact). Or C. It is actually Chioma who, after entering the vex network to find her love, only came across twisted not-mayas that at best were close but not close enough but at worst were pale imitations of her likeness and nothing else… Any of these three options would see the “Conductor” using what was learned on Neptune to make use of the echo, and correct an error they see as the cause of their pain.

Had to go back through the lore tabs mentioned and stumbled across “Irrealis” from the Shadowkeep lore books, “Aspect.” From that page “227.72’s Chioma sounds hoarser than the others. He doesn’t know why.” Has to be the Chioma from Neomuna, who in the previous page “Volative,” it states“2272.72 You lose Maya.” I think both Chioma and Praedyth will make an appearance this season after reading this. But the Conductor is absolutely Maya, Lakshmi-2, and other “brain dead” Exos come together sort of like the Witness did.

Maya as a conductor is possible if she is a conductor who was teaching her everything about the vex and how to control them I Think she is just a pawn in some big vex mind game, also who was talking to maya on neomuna using her one voice? I don t Think it was witness of winoverr that who was it.

whichever Maya the conductor is wields the echo of command, I'm assuming this means command over anything not necessarily just command over the vex, I think the vex just happened to be closest to her and is something she is already vastly familiar with hence her fast asf assimilation of many of them. She may have been around planning this for a while and was simply waiting until the Echo landed in her lap, the fall of the Witness might have been part of her plan or at least something she was aware might occur.

Thanks for another great video, made my day!

Side note but I can see the Psion defectors being the next expansion level threat. They've been doing a lot in the background and they've been getting a lot more mentions as of late

I also think there is a decent possibility of the conductor being Chioma. She did contact the vex in the last veil containment to enter the simulations in search of a copy of Maya. Maybe her grief consumed her and she did some crazy nonsense in her honor. Tho Maya would be a really safe bet as well. Would be nice to have an appearance of my boy Asher Mir tho lol

The conductor and chorus reminds me of the presage mission where one mind takes on dead minds.

I know this probably won't happen, but I do wish that instead it was a different version of saint or Osiris. It they went the saint route, I'd like it to be about him feeling abandoned by Osiris, fighting more and more vex, and as his exo body wore down he replaced his armor with the plates of special vex we haven't seen before. Bungie did say we've never seen vex soldiers before, but merely their scouts and scientists.regarding the Osiris storyline, I would have liked them to take an echo from Osiris that was still in the vex net when mercury gets taken by the witness. Someone who was corrupted by the darkness that spread across the planet like the commander on Titan, but he actually succumbs to it and resents Osiris for being the "real" Osiris. Which would explain the bordering on now paracausal powers they're hinting at, as it would be an echo of Osiris that possibly still has the light.

Imagine if it isnt maya sundaresh12. But its actually. Taniks, The Conductor!

Right off the bat, the figure itself amongst precorsor vex frames.

you do sound tired my friend. I hope the break treats you well

Is anyone else hoping for Praedyth's return and that moment of him stepping across back into reality actually approaching in our time?

You are probably right but I am leaning more to one of Osiris echos the one that refuses to listen to Osiris. Taking from other time traveling movies and books I think since the echo was in the corridor of times when Osiris lost his light the echo didn't disappear. Also the way he is coming after Saint makes sense. The echo is still looking for the one Saint that was Osiris Saint. Now he is using the power from the echo and vex to find the one true saint.

Conductor is Laskmi 3. Vex gate downloaded her into the network and she's been slowly on the come up.

Something ive yet to see talked about is the mention of the bungie interview, whilst not in game lore so it could be taken with a grain of salt, the narrative director mentioned how "not everyone who was a part of the witness was there from the start", and I immediately thought about Maya in the conductor's chair, dead. Like one of the many that sacrificed themselves to be a part of the witness. My pet theory is the conductor is either a combination of all the maya's, or is the maya that was potentially part of the witness.

Based on Chioma's logs, it seems she might be the conductor, not Maya. Her final log she states about having to learn to let go and say goodbye. Seems that's what the conductor put in Saint's head.

i love how the story of Maya and her lover are eerily similar to Osiris and Saint, Mayas lover went looking for her in the Vex net like Osiris did, no wonder the conductor said that Saint is a "copy of a copy" and plans on cleaning the universe up of all the beings that have come from different timelines. this is very interesting. all i have now is... is the conductor gonna confront The Stranger? since she has also travelled multiple timelines? (if anything happens to Osiris or Saint I'm gonna flip)

There seems to be some audio glitches during the video. I've heard a few so far, but the latest one I heard is at 3:52. Good video tho! And yeah, it's definitely Maya!

I know it’s unlikely but I hope Praedyth makes a return. It could work since he presumably was freed from the vault of glass thanks to some of the copies of Maya. So there is a way to tie him back into the story.

Something to note. The vex dont delete useful data or data that is about current events. Soo as long as maya versions persist there is a possibility that all of them are still out there. But detained. Perhaps the conductor is one of those ones that was captured hence why she needed authorization. Perhaps the vex figured out that the best way to find maya copys would be with their own. Or a corrupted version. Maya might be our look at what happens when a person not protected by paracausal forces are in the bex network (asher was a guardian and the neomuna people are using the veil)

I’m jumping on the wagon of it being Chioma Esi, given what the conductor said to Saint-14

I wish we could see compelled Vex and normal Vex battling it out, or the compelled Vex being non hostile engaging in mundane chores or waving at our guardians.

Theory: The conductor is the maya that died on Neomuna the one heavily into study and experimentation. Her conscience was transfered to the traveller by the witness in Lightfall. According to Ikora in the dialog at the start of act 2 echoes are regrets and desires of long lost people given life by the travelers light and making their will manifest. Now is it just the conductor chair maya or a blend of msund-12 when it established a link on Nessus is yet to be clarified 🤔

"Maya Sundaresh, now there's a name I haven't heard from a long time brother!" ~ The Drifter or someone to that effect

To answer the question in your thumbnail, yes. Literally yes.

Yea, as soon I heard there was a mind controlling the vex that was making them act like individuals, I called that it was the maya that killed herself in the conductor chair. It was the one plot thread from lightfall that seemed rather out of place, when everything else was eventually explained Then we had the ghost mission, and the name of “The Conductor”

Conductor out here on a Friday night double cheeked up.

I still think it Geoma. She went into the vex net, Nexus is a point where the Vex create points of convergence. The Vault was the same way

I think it"s chioma esi as the conductor bc she seems have a stronger motive than maya and she sounds like she wants join them through the Veil's interference by being one with the conductor.

i was actually getting worried that you'd never get around to talking about how the veil containment lore connects to this

here's something else, as the vex would encounter the copies of the original research team, they would inevitably be simulated as well, meaning that, amusing they could sufficiently simulate Rasputin and pull off the jailbreak again, there could be potentially infinite copies of the research team roaming the network.

Straight away, I appreciate the White line explanation for Maya.

After watching this video, i think it's more likely that the conductor is all the researchers that studied the veil and Maya sunderesh. Just a theory tbh, but what if they accidently turned themselves into something like the witness, a composite being. Since they used the veil, they loosely became part of the witness and became the echo when we defeated said witness. It's doubtful, but it might be a possibility

Ok, theory... What if the echo that went to Nessus IS the remainder of Maya's mind that was assimilated into the Veil? MSUND-12 finds the echo, connects with it and with that extra bit of herself, she's been given a key to move her plans forward. That's my guess.

Damn byf beat me to it lol I ve been having suspicions myself that it's her I haven't forgotten the msund 12 reference

I don't know yall saw the leak video last week, but yes it is Lakshmi @ maya sundaresh.

Honestly Bungie doesn't really do unique cool things like making the villain someone unthinkable, it's probably some silly villain. I mean, cmon man, Fickeral is back for the 5th time.

3:52 THE EDIT LMAOOO

"Maya has to be out there, the Maya I remember, and all I want is one more moment with her." It's chioma. It's not maya, everything with Saint going on? Yeah, that line sealed it for me.

What if the conductor is taniks after he found an echo

Could this be Chioma Esi in her traumatized attempts to reach "her" Maya? Doing "whenever it takes for one more moment?" kind of thing. (just more speculation)

Here is the stretch but the clues are and have always been in The Number. The future war cult auto rifle has existed since the beginning of Destiny 2 but the Lore tab was only added right before Witch Queen when Lakshmi 2 invaded the city with Vex. The heart of the Lore tab mentions "which number?" And a paracausal entity known as Riley. The number is 227 as in the number of copies. We all know how Bungie likes its 7's right. Well 227 is the 49th prime number and it is the TWIN prime as in 7 squared or to the 2nd power. Is Laksmi 2 dead?

it could also be chioma esi... she merged with the vex network too, but im pretty comfortable with saying its maya

Based on the theme of Echoes being memories of The Witness and Precursor people, I’m predicting that the Conductor is an amalgamation of ALL the Maya copies.

I could’ve sworn the ending dialogue for insight terminus referenced Otzot instead of maya, unless it was changed recently?

I have a totally unrelated question, what do you think is the most powerful exotic weapon in Destiny in the context of lore/story not gameplay? I think that would be an interesting discussion topic. My personal pick for strongest in universe would be the OG exotic swords as they were crafted using the remains of Oryx's blade.

After listening to this is insane how she and osiris is similar looking through vex to find there loved ones

I really hope that Esi meant that *lakshmi* had Maya's voice and memories, I just really just want to hear Shohreh Agdashloo ingame again.

I have an honest question that's been keeping me thinking. If an "Echo" can be interacted with and empower the wielder like the conductor/Maya what would happen when/if we get ahold of it? Will the vex not be a problem for us anymore? Will we gain that same power?

Star forge is amazing, but me laying in bed without my glasses on and their logo slowly coming on to the screen looked REALLY Sus for a second 😂😂😂 amazing video I loved it ❤❤❤

Byf literally pulled a "I'll do you one better, WHICH is Mya Sundaresh?"

It being MSund12 makes sense since she was accessed on Nessus