An Echo. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3s9HrakJTc]Ager & Rega[/url] Credit: All The Players [ATP] Mara Sov, [i]"So you wish to hear the rest of my brother's story? Fine. I will oblige you. When the Storm came, Rega and Ager rode the winds to meet it, a fleet of talons at their back. A great battle ensued. The Storm took, as was its nature. Many fell, Ager among them. Rega could only watch as he tumbled down, down, down... until her heart beat alone. She dove into the Storm, giving herself to destroy it. Rega's spirit ascended higher into the sky... where she hoped to reunite with her brother. Instead, she met the thing that sent the Storm. A bottomless well of grief. Unreachable by reasoning or bargaining... or violence. A voice in the darkness. And so... Rega gathered her feathers into an aegis of wings... to shield the world below. But over the years feathers broke away. Futility wore thin her resolve. Then, one day, her heart began to beat as it once had... doubled, distant... but different. [b][u]A beautiful echo.[/u][/b] Hope called her home. And though she prayed to find Ager there... he never returned".[/i] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENfYG2XWYyE]Tracing the Stars II | A Hollow Coronation — Mara's Alternative Class Dialogues | Season of the Lost[/url] Credit: Destiny Lore Vault The Lie, Mara Sov, [i]"When the Awoken people came into being after the Collapse, [b][u]I was the first.[/u][/b] As first, my chosen form defined what an Awoken could be. Thousands followed my example, willing themselves into existence within the Distributary. Some, like Uldren, required help. His mind was like an unsteady fawn. No surprise, he was unable to do it on his own. So I guided him. Filled the gaps in his memory. I gave him a star to follow. He was bonded to me, and his devotion spiraled into pathetic recklessness. Even through death, he hasn't outgrown that dependency. I see it in him, as he looks longingly to his Ghost for answers. To you..."[/i] "I was the first". Mara Sov wasn't the first. The proof: [url=https://www.destinypedia.com/Lore:Marasenna#Ecstasiate_II]Ecstasiate II[/url] [i]"With that amputation, around that scar, she incarnates. Awakens with a gasp. Cold stone under her shoulders and back and a face above her, radiant. "Mara?" the face says. "[b]What am I?[/b]" Mara whispers. "[b][u]The second,[/u][/b]" the woman says".[/i] If you were to ask me what my favorite mission of all time is? Arecibo - it got me studying the lore. My second favorite mission talks about a place in Marasenna (a Forsaken lore book), the commissioned & edited history of the Awoken & of Queen Mara Sov. There's a campfire there. In the fable of Ager & Rega it's called "The Hollow". This mission confirmed that comparativism was the appropriate method in analyzing the lore. Because... of the defined, but alternative perspectives - not just the poetry of the Fable... or Uldren's and Mara's differing in their appraisals during the mission, but the contrast between it "Tracing the Stars" and Marasenna... and the "FIRST" provable lie/secret of Mara Sov I discovered. Set me on my journey to decipher the truth. Ordinatio Veritas. Here's the thing about lies and secrets... hard to keep it straight. Marasenna is Mara's autobiography... basically, she decided how it was written, what was included... edited or excluded. In Marasenna, it says... she was the "Second". In 'Tracing the Stars', she lies to our face saying she was the "First". The mission was called "Tracing the Stars" in Season of the Lost. As [url=https://www.destinypedia.com/Lore:Marasenna#Heresiology]Heresiology[/url] is the most important lore entry in the Franchise's history... this mission defines the core arc of the narrative and its dilemma since day 1 in Destiny 1. I'm going to take you through it... Tracing the Stars: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQNTvSoi2zs]Tracing the Stars I | A Hollow Coronation: "Kestrels Whose Hearts Beat as One" | Season of the Lost[/url] Credit: Destiny Lore Vault (DLV) [i]"[u]Queen Mara Sov:[/u] This is the Gatehouse. It leads to many places. The vault where I stowed the scepter is one of those places. The Atlas Skews you've collected serve as star charts, of sorts, used to map and navigate Ley Lines back when they could be freely explored. Uldren had been searching for Ager's scepter for some time when he made these. Another daring venture to win my affections against my better wishes. He often embedded travel logs into his skews. Here. [A recording from Uldren plays]. [u]Uldren Sov: [/u] Sister... I wonder when the spies you have following me will find these. Do you still walk the old paths we've made? Mother's old tales come to mind. I've been adding to my favorite: the twin kestrels whose hearts beat as one. You'll have to tell me what you think when I return with the scepter. Mother Kestrel watched perfect daughter Rega as she plotted the infinite paths of the Hollow, as if concocting a plan for each way it could grow. But with her son, Ager, Mother instead held him tight beneath her wing in the oak's hollow. She pointed starward and whispered warnings of dangerous storms and cosmic sojourners that carved chaos in the sky. The beautiful depth of the dark spots caught his eye. His imagination was arrested by them. Ager struggled against his mother's wing, yearning to leap from the tallest branch and soar to see the storms for himself. But Mother Kestrel's talon caught him. She scolded him to never leave the canopy. She held him in crushing closeness and vowed not to show him the stars again. He grew to resent her protection. [u]Queen Mara Sov: [/u] If it is still unclear, the twin kestrels represent Uldren and myself. [b]Their mother is Osana Sov. [/b] Uldren found Osana's prescriptions restrictive. I never considered her a mother myself, but her dreams of foresight interested me. We both saw calamity looming, Osana and I. In the Distributary, where the Awoken were born, we were eternal. Osana would hide there forever rather than face the enemy. When we left to form the Reef, many chose to hide with her. You're done here. I'll send for you when more skews reveal themselves".[/i] Continue to 'Tracing the Stars II'.