Who Is Caiatl, Destiny 2’s New Villain In Season Of The Chosen?

Bungie has launched a trailer giving us the primary take a look at Destiny 2’s subsequent content material season, the Season of the Chosen. We now have a way of a brand new risk going through the photo voltaic system within the type of a Cabal drive and its new empress, Caiatl.This is Caiatl’s first look within the sport, and if you have not been following the ins and outs of Destiny 2 lore, you is likely to be a bit of confused. After all, this can be our third main Cabal villain because the launch of Destiny 2 again in 2017, and so they’re all associated to some inner political battle within the Cabal Empire that you simply would not find out about when you hadn’t learn numerous lore entries. Caiatl is new to the sport, however her identify has been floating round for some time and her presence might have some large implications for previous characters and the place the Cabal enemy faction is headed subsequent within the story.Caiatl is the Cabal empress, however she hasn’t been in our photo voltaic system this complete time–instead, she was again on the Cabal homeworld. She has ties to the characters we have seen to this point in Destiny 2, although. Caiatl is the daughter of Calus, the exiled Cabal emperor who spent the previous few years hanging round in Nessus’s orbit in his large spaceship, the Leviathan. She was additionally an ally of Ghaul, the Cabal chief who deposed Calus and took over his reign. If you missed out on Destiny 2’s vanilla marketing campaign, the Red War, it’s best to know that gamers walloped Ghaul, and the Traveler wakened and actually annihilated him.Wait, Why Is Caiatl Empress And Not Calus?To perceive Caiatl’s complete deal, it helps to know a bit in regards to the Cabal. They’re a usually militaristic society with an Ancient Roman theme, and for some time, they have been the dominant navy drive within the galaxy. Then Calus took energy in a populist rebellion, pushing out the navy management. Calus’s complete deal was, principally, that everybody ought to chill out and stay luxuriously, and the Cabal individuals actually loved that, even when it left the navy extraordinarily bitter.So Calus threw his consideration at wine, performs, zoos, gladiator contests, and different enjoyable issues. All the whereas, the empire’s navy forces anxious they have been in hassle with a pacesetter who did not actually care about conquering issues. Even Calus’s daughter grew to hate him due to his laissez-faire perspective, which she noticed as weak point. Caiatl beloved flying and joined the navy as a pilot, and that took her to the outer reaches of the Cabal empire, the place she apparently noticed a bunch of threats she was anxious her dad wasn’t geared up to deal with.When Ghaul began planning to overthrow Calus, Caiatl helped. They deposed Calus in an occasion known as the Midnight Coup, however Calus was means too standard among the many common people for the conspirators to execute him. Instead, they caught him on the Leviathan and despatched him out to wander the universe. And he did, for hundreds of years.Eventually, the Cabal invaded our photo voltaic system, and in Destiny 1, they obtained wrecked fairly savagely by two important forces: Guardians, the gamers; and the Hive, led by Oryx, the Taken King. Oryx used his energy to “take” individuals (principally, to reshape them into some form of darkish creature and completely subsume their will) towards the Cabal, so that they rallied towards him and attacked his ship, the Dreadnaught. They additionally despatched a misery sign to the Cabal empire–and that is what induced Ghaul to invade in the beginning of Destiny 2.So after Ghaul died, Caiatl named herself empress. Ghaul’s troops, the Red Legion, are scattered across the photo voltaic system, however Caiatl is reuniting them. She additionally inspired them to seize Calus, however they by no means managed to take action. When the Darkness and its fleet of pyramid ships confirmed up on the finish of the Season of Arrivals, Calus seemingly bailed from the photo voltaic system as well–conveniently proper earlier than the arrival of his daughter, who hates him, and an enormous batch of Cabal reinforcements.Why Is Caiatl Here Now?That’s a very good query since Ghaul has been useless for 3 complete years. The lore suggests issues have modified lately again on the Cabal’s house; a dialog between Vanguard leaders Zavala and Ikora Rey and the Reef’s appearing regent, Petra Venj, notes that the Cabal are affected by some form of horrifying illness that appears to have its origin within the Hive.Last season, the Season of the Hunt, was all in regards to the Hive god of battle, Xivu Arath, utilizing a brand new energy to deprave numerous different aliens and switch them into “Wrathborn,” a military that served her. That sounds lots like a Hive illness and could possibly be what’s affecting the Cabal. Also in play is Savathun, one other Hive god, who has been hanging round in Destiny 2 because the starting, executing secret plans and schemes. The lore dialog talked about above, which comes from the Wild Hunt armor from the Season of the Hunt, suggests the Hive are utilizing the Dreaming City’s Blind Well as a approach to ship the illness again to Cabal house. That additionally implies that Caiatl’s arrival could possibly be a facet of certainly one of Savathun’s nebulous, evil machinations that we do not but perceive.In any occasion, it appears Caiatl is right here to battle the Hive and attempt to assist her individuals again house. That tracks with the trailer Bungie launched for the Season of the Chosen, when Caiatl will present up–she tries to create a treaty with the Vanguard to type an alliance towards different threats just like the Darkness. Zavala does not go for it, so we’ll be at odds with Caiatl to a point, but it surely does not appear to be one other all-out battle like when Ghaul arrived.And the very fact Caiatl provided a treaty in any respect suggests she wants the Guardians simply as badly as she thinks we’d want her. Fighting the Hive is not straightforward, because the Cabal have repeatedly realized. So Caiatl is taking a web page from her father’s guide: Calus enlisted the assistance of Guardians within the Leviathan raid lairs Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars, and once more within the Crown of Sorrows raid and the Season of Opulence. Caiatl appears to be considering with the identical creativeness as her father (she even says in a lore entry that, whereas she despised all his frivolities, she appreciates the out-of-the-box considering she picked up from watching so many performs and listening to so many tales).The trailer for the Season of the Chosen paints Caiatl as a villain, but it surely looks like she’s probably a deeper character than that, and we have not seen all the pieces there’s to see in regards to the Cabal’s plans. This complete season has a theme of “champions” about it (as in two opposing forces sending their finest fighters to battle, slightly than going into open warfare), which seems like Guardians are going through off towards Caiatl’s forces in small honor battles slightly than full-scale warfare. It is likely to be that Caiatl actually does need an alliance and is attempting to work with Guardians however has to save lots of face and challenge energy. So she’s placing up her champions to battle towards Guardians in Battlegrounds, this season’s new exercise, as a lot to check our mettle as to find out who will get to be in command of the photo voltaic system. Testing gamers’ mettle after which using their assist was precisely the identical play that Calus made, in any case.There may additionally be extra happening right here than we’re but conscious of. The trailer for the Season of the Chosen ends with a quick flash of a Scorn enemy and a Cabal ship drifting by means of house. There’s some lore within the Season of the Hunt that mentions a rumor that Calus was dispatching his forces to seize Scorn–so maybe we’ve not seen the tip of his affect on the scenario in any case.Of course, it is fairly early to invest, and we’d discover that we have stepped into one other battle with the Cabal within the Season of the Chosen–whether we wished to or not. But with Calus gone, Caiatl is the one large Cabal character nonetheless round, so it will make sense that she’s right here to remain for some time. And like her dad, there is likely to be extra to her than simply one other massive alien for us to shoot.