the Verticality of Devotion

my piece for the @finalityzine ! so proud to have been a part of this and to be featured alongside so many powerhouses of art

hey it's the mailman. yeah i have more text posts. no i won't run away this time i promise

Misery Loves Company!

really really love how Destiny handles the topic of redemption and redemption arcs, because Destiny doesn't even bother with the question of "Have they earned it?" and instead asks "Do they want to change?"

For all the chances Calus has been given to turn back on the path he's on by us and even his own daughter who he abused, he never does. He's stuck in his ways and adamant that he's correct and dies for it, forgoing all the chances he's been given. Savathun was given a literal second chance with becoming a lightbearer, but chooses not to change a single thing.

Meanwhile, Eramis seems to be taking that chance (albeit very slowly lmao). She's at the other end with Calus during Beyond Light, but the deeper she finds herself in with the Witness, she starts to realize this isn’t what she wanted at all (personally I believe it started with seeing her dead eliksni friends being turned into scorn as a “gift” but it could easily be a multitude of things) and she takes the hand that Eido and Mithrax hold out to her. She’s done horrible things, of course, but it wouldn’t be a redemption if she hadn’t. Eramjs just needed to realize what she’d done and have the capacity to change.

This bit keeps sticking with me, when it comes after the Witness's "We know pain. Our purpose is its end," which comes after Rohan's "Pain reminds us that we're alive, that we're still fighting." Lightfall starts off with the Witness being this unstoppable, untouchable force, that unmakes Ghosts and Guardians with a literal flick of its wrist. And then the rest of the expansion sets up why it just kind of sucks at what it's pretending to be.

Osiris defines the Light as being the physical, and doesn't just link the Darkness with the immaterial—he links it with thought, memory, emotion, soul. The Witness is a being of Darkness, and Darkness is the nature of being alive. Darkness is emotion, fear is Darkness, pain is Darkness. The Witness speaks and portrays itself as emotionless, above it all—but Calus makes it angry. Mara and Eramis see its sadistic wrath, turning Eramis's friends into Scorn in punishment. Rhulk's lore book shows it blatantly manipulating a deeply disturbed and unstable person, playing on his anger and pain. The Witness is not a deity, it is not a force of nature. It is a being of emotion that does not wish to be emotional, that sees emotion as weakness and vulnerability. It has all of existence at its fingertips and Calus is more creative, more imaginative than it, just because he lets himself want.

The Witness gave us Stasis, the element of control. It could not anticipate or defend against Strand. Calus, this narcissistic, hedonistic, failure hit on a weak point of the Witness. It can't accept, it has to control, and being alive means letting go sometimes. It is afraid of pain and failure and it sees that fear as failure. It fights the river.

Feeling pretty much back to normal so I finished off these refs for Amara I've had in the drafts for a hot minute!! Really dig this style of ref layout

Good evening to evil women only

Season Of The Fishy

crow & his centurion buddy in the back of the helm this past week just 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🍿

Ohno

Disciples, in terms of Chadness:

My dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called "the Midnight Coup" 😳 you'll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: yeah whatever. I don't feel shit.

5 minutes later: dude I swear I just saw the Ghost Primus and the Princess-Imperial in the forest

My buddy Ga’our pacing: Calus is lying to us

I think it was really fitting that Calus, who has been obsessed with chasing grandeur (or at least the illusion of it) should have such an inglorious death, and yet in death he was somehow more impressive than in life.

Absolutely same. Calus is a fascinating character who was really an utter loser his whole life, but due to extraordinary circumstances, achieved such power and status. Deeply recommending Caiatl's portion of the Lightfall Collector's Edition book, as that really goes in depth about Calus before he became the guy we know now. And if you can stomach it, The Chronicon, which details a sharp shift in Calus' behaviour after he met the Black Fleet and the Witness, which worried even his closest advisors.

Now that we have his end, the full scope of his life is incredibly fascinating. A guy who kept chasing pleasure, easy life, hedonism and luxury ended being a tool to a higher being he pledged himself to, thinking that this higher power would see him as an equal and grant him everything he seeks.

One of my favourite visual cues in Lightfall's cinematics with Calus is the focus on his empty chalice. The first thing he does as he emerges from the Disicplenator cube, is take an object and turn it into a chalice. He walks forward, looking at the chalice and then at Tormentors by his side, trying to arouse some sort of celebration or cheering. But he is met with silence and an empty chalice.

He keeps looking at the chalice as if expecting it to be filled. Expecting his newfound power to give him all the pleasure and hedonism he sought, so he could party and celebrate until the end of the universe when he would become the last thing alive, as per his wishes expressed in the Chronicon.

But it stays empty. No matter how many times he looks and waits, it's empty. His throne is lavish and gold, he controls an army in service of the most powerful being in the universe, he has everything at his disposal, but the throne room is silent and his cup empty. No celebrations, no cheering, no party, no lavish dinners, no friends, no advisors, no servants.

There is nothing in service to the Witness. You are nothing to the Witness. You are an empty shell with no choices or wishes or belongings or friends. It's an empty life, devoid of meaning and joy. Calus' chalice would never have been filled as long as he served. He would never have a celebration or cheers or friends ever again.

You can see how he gets mad when the Witness suggests that he failed. How can he fail when he is doing everything required of him and has been doing so for untold centuries? And never gets anything in return? After the Witness beats him into submission again, the first thing he does is crush the empty chalice he's been gripping so tightly and throws it away. The illusion of grandeur shattered. He realises it won't fill and that he will not have anything and he dedicates himself fully to the Witness. Anything else and he will be destroyed.

And even at the end, he still swears on the Witness for power and importance. In the final fight, he still yells at us "I am a disciple!" as if he's trying to convince himself more than us. And he dies alone, hated and despised by everyone that ever knew him and abandoned by the Witness he swore his life to long before Lightfall and long before our fight at the end of Haunted and long before the Leviathan raid.

He swore himself to the Witness at the Black Edge, at the end of the universe, where he was sent to die in exile. Everything he did from that point onward was for the Witness. And it abandoned him in the blink of an eye. He died with his chalice empty, chasing the promise that it would be full forever. He could've had that had he been a better person, a better father, a better husband, a better emperor. But instead he chose a path that led to emptiness and nothingness and he has no one to blame but himself. A fitting end for one such as he.

Ghaul: Fitting the traveler would send you…

Eramis: There you are. I knew it would be you.

Calus: Oh, is that you, my tenacious little Guardian?

YW: