Destiny 2 leak puts Witch Queen speculation in overdrive

Speculation on a notorious batch of assumptions Destiny 2 the leaks came to a head before season 15 and Witch queen expansion reveals. Bungie’s Loot Shooter Live No stranger to in-depth player data mining and theorizing based on those results, but what makes the latest ongoing rumor leaks so notable is how much the studio continues to prove it right.

Possible spoilers to follow. If you want to enter Season of the Lost with a completely blank slate, you better go back now.

Ahead of Destiny 2the big annual showcase of tomorrow, Bungie posted a 15-second teaser for the Witch queen reveal today which shows the Hive God Savathûn, a figure posed as the master of cunning and deception, walking through a dark lake filled with the bodies of dead Thralls. “The truth is a funny thing,” she said. It is first of all the players who watch a character who has worked against them for a long time in the story, presented in a dramatic way. The teaser also once again reminded fans of a huge, mysterious whirlwind of leaks that began circulating earlier this year.

But I’ll get to that in a second. First of all, a quick taxonomy apparent destiny 2 leaks. There was the “Leaking notepad”Which began to circulate just days before Season of the Splicer went live in early May. It’s supposed to come from the raidsecrets discord server where fans exchange rumors and discoveries, with an image claiming the file was dated a week before Bungie even revealed Season 14. The material included potentially important things, ranging from claims that Osiris was in fact Savathûn and that a new element introduced to the game would be a power thorny called “steam.”

Much of this leak has repeatedly proven to be legitimate. He also referred to the new anti-cheat software coming to the game. Last week, Bungie confirmed Destiny 2 would be get BattlEye anti-cheat support next season. The leak stated that Season 15 will be called Season of the Lost and will feature Mara Sov, both Bungie recently confirmed that. The leak also correctly predicted several changes to come Destiny 2the sandbox.

But there are also things that seem less likely to happen. Notepad leak mentions a Halo related content that would celebrate Bungie’s 30th anniversary as a game studio. The fact that this year Destiny 2 the showcase takes place on the same day that Microsoft’s next Xbox showcase made this particular detail even more compelling. Paul Tassi of Forbes, however, recently reported that none Halo crossover is currently in preparation.

Then in July there was the “Pastebin Leak. “It included the Notepad leak at the top as well as a ton of other stuff, including a lot more details on the next one. Witch queen expansion as Savathûn having a dreadnought orbiting Mars similar to the new location of Destiny 1‘s King caught expansion. Some in the Destiny 2 community has come to treat the Pastebin leak as if it was just the full version of the Notepad leak. Others believe it’s just some sort of master document bringing together a bunch of rumors from different sources, and debates over its veracity have fractured the RaidSecrets. destiny subreddit in competing schools of thought. There was one piece of information in particular that was too hard for some fans to digest: Savathûn getting his own Ghost.

2015 King caught expansion, considered by many to be the golden age of the beginning destiny, introduces the Book of Sorrows, an Old Testament-like text that served as the origin story for the Hive and more specifically that the powers of Savathûn and his siblings came from larvae of the god Worm found deep in their world of origin called the Foundation that lived within them as symbionts.

While the ghosts come from the Traveler (a supposedly benevolent alien power) and can revive the Guardians indefinitely, the Symbiotes are evil in nature and effectively curse the Hive gods to give in to their lowest instincts in exchange for to be able to. Some Destiny 2 traditionalists fail to see how Savathûn or any Dark Agent could ever have a ghost because they don’t deserve it. For others, it makes perfect sense given Bungie’s recent focus on Arcs of Redemption and strengthening the moral agency of its previously one-dimensional alien races.

How does this relate to today’s teaser? In addition to the Pastebin leak, a separate image which is believed to come from the same source showed an art brut concept for the Witch queen extension representing Savathûn with a ghost. The image was much easier to dismiss until Bungie today confirms that the leaked rendering of Savathûn, Spiky Bone Crown and all, is correct. It would also fit in with theories like that through GameSpotby Phil Hornshaw this gluing season was not a full-blown attempt to destroy the last town as much as a prelude to players teaming up with Savathûn against other enemies.

Some time ago, Bungie expressed its growing dissatisfaction with the the powerful data miners and spoiler culture of the game. The proliferation of leaks that turn out to be only partially real makes one wonder if, perhaps, this is an active attempt to keep players slightly off base. Misleading “leaks” are not unheard of, Respawn did it last year with Apex Legends by sending false details about an upcoming character. Moreover, Savathûn is basically meant to be the destiny Loki of the universe. So when she calls the truth “a fun thing” in today’s teaser and the marketing slogan for tomorrow’s event is “survive the truth,” and you have all the makings for the fans fall head first destiny rabbit hole.

Fortunately, we’ll know soon enough how true all of this is. Of tomorrow Destiny 2 the showcase starts with a pre-show at 11 a.m. ET.