If you’ve played through Destiny’s story missions, you may remember hearing about the warlock Osiris back in the Shrine of Oryx mission on the moon: “OSIRIS: Every end crawls from the same pit, rising from the schism to swallow matter, Light, and life. It will not be stopped, but here it can be slowed. The Shrines of Oryx must be destroyed.”
This mission was first playable long before anyone had ever experienced the Trials of Osiris, so it’s understandable if you didn’t take mention of him at the time. While Destiny’s Trials of Osiris are undeniably a high intensity, fun, and competitive event, not everyone gives thoughts to the legend himself. The are no Trials of Osiris without the legend of the exiled warlock guardian named Osiris.
The next clue we receive about the warlock Osiris is from the Tread of the Hezen Lords. It tells us that, “Rumor has it that the exile Osiris came too close to understanding the Vex.” This is interesting. Shouldn’t guardians want to understand the Vex? Know thy enemy, right? And Osiris certainly wouldn’t have been the first to look into Vex secrets considering Dr. Shim and his team performed extensive Vex research in the Ishtar Collective on Venus. So why was Osiris exiled?
To better understand the exiled Osiris, we turn to his grimoire card. It begins by asking, “What drives a Warlock to madness?” and then begins to explain the untold burdens of being a warlock.
…Warlocks, by their nature, fight a second, internal war. This is the war to understand a universe of secrets— a world that expects Guardians to fight without full knowledge of what they are or what they might hope to achieve…
You were a mighty warrior. I watched you at Six Fronts, and heeded the call of Saint-14 to appoint you Vanguard Commander, even when the Concordat claimed to have records proving you were a Golden Age experiment mis-incarnated as a human by an inept Ghost. Saint-14 assured me you were just a man without much patience for obfuscation.
I watched as you grew tired of strike missions and the grueling, unproductive sessions with the Cryptarchs. That was when I took you under my wing. I saw our future in you. But your curiosity was voracious– How much of a Guardian’s personality and memories were true? How much had been fabricated by their Ghost? Did Guardians share particular personality traits– a willingness to yield to authority, a tendency to do anything anyone asked for the promise of uncertain reward, a blind knight-errant mentality? Had the Traveler manufactured all of you as living weapons?
These are interesting questions with a bit of a meta feel to them. The questions Osiris asks as a warlock within the world of Destiny are questions that many Destiny players could choose to either ask themselves, as Osiris does, or ignore them, as many of Osiris’ guardian contemporaries choose to do. When Osiris asks if guardians have a “tendency to do anything anyone asked for the promise of uncertain reward, a blind knight-errant mentality?” it’s interesting to note that we as players often pursue nightfalls and raids with a blind-knight errant mentality in hope for unknown rewards. We also sometimes tire of strike missions and become furious with the cryptarchs. The grimoire card continues…
And then it got worse, dabbling in thanatonautics, Ahamkara-lore, chasing after Xur and the tricks of the Nine. Launching expeditions into the Reef and beyond at a time when ships were irreplaceable. Your quest split Guardians along ideological lines. This was your greatest crime: Hunters chose to pursue your visions instead of protecting refugees, Titans assembled teams to chase the legendary Vault of Glass instead of striking the Fallen, and Warlocks turned away from the study of the Traveler in favor of your ultimate obsession… learning the exact nature of the Darkness.
When debate became argument, and argument became acrimony, I realized you had already become a cult of personality, attracting Guardians who wanted a clear idea of why they were fighting, what they faced, and how they would ultimately win.
Here we see the true reasons that Osiris was exiled from society. It is the same reason that many visionaries are rejected by society; he questioned the status quo and he attracted others to question along with him. In other words, not so different from Socrates, Osiris was a philosophical threat to the establishment that needed to be removed in order to preserve law, order, and security.
It’s again interesting to note that Osiris is similar to us as players in behavior as he pursues Xur, explores the Reef, inspires guardians to raid the Vault of Glass, and questing to learn more about the Darkness which we are so valiantly fighting against. As the card wraps up, we find out more about the relationship between Osiris and the Vex:
I don’t know where you have gone, but I can no longer send Ghosts out to find you. Some come back– with tales of your death or how you went seeking answers from the far reaches of space and time. That you found a way to explore the Vex gate networks. That you’ve made breakthrough after breakthrough as to their origins– theories that a Guardian could not be simulated, that the Traveler might be an ontoformer or a god-incubator, that the Vex had diverged into multiple groups in order to secure ‘an end state for every possible configuration of reality’.
I fear you have become as obsessed with the Vex as Toland was with the Hive. I’ve heard your own insane prophecies about pits and dead Hive kings. And of Crota, which now I cannot deny…
Perhaps what drives a Warlock to madness is truth.
When the grimoire mentions that Osiris has made, “breakthrough after breakthrough as to their origins– theories that a Guardian could not be simulated,” this returns back to the story of Dr. Shim and his research team as they inspected a Vex mind and realized that the universe is probabilistically a highly advanced Vex simulation.
But if Osiris was right and guardians can not be simulated, then perhaps Dr. Shim and his team made errors in their theories. With every answer and piece of information comes more questions in Destny’s strange world of the undead being brought back to life by the Traveller’s Light in order to fight the Darkness. And let’s not forget, the text also mentions that Osiris prophesized the return of Crota before his time and was mocked by his peers. But eventually, it becomes clear that sometimes madness is just the way the truth appears to those who don’t understand it.
We can’t be sure, but given that Osiris is reputed to have been traveling the Vex gate networks, it is possible that he, like the Vex, is no longer entirely bound by space and time and thus has gained insights about the future. Who knows. Perhaps he and his cult of Osiris are fighting a battle against the Vex’s Darkness to secure the end states and possible configurations of reality in favor of the Light. Or maybe it’s something else entirely. We’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think about the legend of Osiris the exile? Were you surprised to learn this about him? Know something about this warlock that we don’t? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
If you haven’t had enough of Destiny, and would like to pursue more useful and/or interesting information about the game, be sure to check out our destiny Destiny Wiki Guide: How to, Tips, Tricks, & More! as well as our Destiny House of Wolves Wiki Guide: How to, Tips, Tricks, & More!
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