So this is a theory I’ve had rattling around in my head for a few months now and I thought why not put it out here. So we know of Stasis. Cosmic Ice, the closest power we’ve had to the Darkness. But there was always something about it that intrigued me and it started with Eramis. If you’ve played Beyond Light, you’ll know that as the story progresses she starts to freeze somewhat; firstly seen when she consults with Kridis and Atraks about the deaths of Phylaks and Praksis. And then again at the end of the campaign. Now I know many people speculate that the reasoning for her being frozen, is because she lost against us in that fight and is being punished or because her gauntlet broke (wanna remind people we don’t need a gauntlet/device to enhance our use of stasis, so I don’t totally agree with this). But I wanted to suggest an alternative theory as to A) why she froze and B) how the Eliksni and us control Stasis and quite possibly the Darkness powers itself. I first want to look at a line from Variks during the Evacuation mission in the Eramis segment of the campaign: [quote] I see now that you wield this dark power more wisely than Eramis. Perhaps the corrupt did not stem from Darkness, but from anger. [/quote] The basis for the theory is this: in order to control the Darkness and not be corrupted by it, we must overcome an emotion that clouds us. This is where the theory starts and when we apply this context to a wider array of characters, we see it kinda works. Let’s start with the simple one of Eramis (I have other examples, but we’ll start with her). Eramis is clearly a display of anger (and arguably rightly so). She is angry at the Traveler for abandoning her species which led to the death of not just her people but her lover in particular, and they’ve been fighting over it with Humanity ever since they arrived in Sol. We can also see her anger in smaller acts like Variks rebelling, our interference through killing her council and even us challenging her in the final mission. I believe the anger overtook her and hence why she Froze. Let’s look at another example. In the Dark Future, Ana is one guardian who falls to the corruption of Stasis and the Darkness. Her fall isn’t actually revealed in game but in the grimoire anthology “War Machines”. Page 65, “Lost Light” reads: [quote]It’s been so long since my life, my real life, before the Light. I had no idea. Everything I’ve tried to find out about myself has been covered up, redacted, and hidden from me. I thought I was a good person. I don’t know what I am anymore. I see it now, [b]with resounding clarity.[/b]It moves ethereally, seductively, like a dancer looking for a partner. I accept. “[b]...tell me everything.”[/b][/quote] This takes place after Ana relives an experience from her pre-resurrection life. She sees her father dying in his exo body and her grandfather walks her away while being extremely sinister (and based on Ana’s reaction it’s clear why they tried to cover it all up). Ana would go on to become corrupted in this timeline and fall to the darkness, trying to convince her sister to join her before her death. I would like to argue that Ana would’ve needed to overcome curiosity, if she had wanted to remain in control. This is evident pretty much everywhere. Everything about her wanting to reclaim her past. The curiosity of her once self. Now there are many more longer examples I could give, but I will give a brief description of who else this could apply to: Elsie Bray - Elsie is a complex one, but I think insanity is the best one to describe her. Each future she tries to rewrite to stop the Dark Future, and you know what they say about insanity. I’d argue she must have overcome it a long time ago based on her calm nature regarding stasis and her control over it. And I imagine the current timeline reassured her. Eris Morn - Unsurprisingly, Eris Morn is obsession. And based on some of the lore in the letters she wrote, I don’t think she’s overcome this emotion yet. She is still obsessing over wanting to kill the Osmium heirs and even started to display a want to offer the vex a similar fate in memory of Asher Mir. I imagine she will either fall like in the Dark Future or perhaps need to overcome it soon with Witch Queen. The Drifter - Drifter is definitely fear. Considering he is staying in the system as of Beyond Light as suggested by his new membership among the Vandark and his use of Stasis, I think he’s either overcome it, or is close to doing so. Kridis - another member of the overcome emotion group. I believe Kridis had to overcome worthlessness. She says in the Dark Priestess questline she speaks almost as a fanatic of Eramis and the darkness. I also wanna draw comparisons between the calmes nature of both Kridis and Elsie. Perhaps a coincidence, but it’s there. Kridis also displays arguably the most mastery of stasis out of Eramis’ council. Phylaks - I believe Phylaks needed to overcome Honour (with a u) to fully control stasis. The Eliksni are an honour bound race, and she fights like a warrior holding that code very high; high enough that she only challenged us when we met her level of fighting prowess. I also believe she died before she could overcome it. Hence her limited control over stasis. Praksis - I believe Praksis to be very similar to Phylaks in that he died before he could overcome his emotion. Praksis I believe needed to overcome Impulsion. Everything he does is to better Eramis’ and her chance of winning the war. Even to the extend that in his empire Hunt, when you destroy the brig and get through the lasers without setting them off, he gets concerned and says about not informing Eramis of this. Perhaps as not to get her disapproval (which could easily be an alternative for his emotion). The Young Wolf - I believe our emotion we overcome was turmoil. We are fighting between Light and Darkness the entire campaign, trying to find balance, which we obviously do at the end of the campaign. And enough so that we can call on Stasis whenever we want. And control it with extreme mastery. Now. This is merely a theory. But it will be interesting to see if it can be applied to other characters as the story continues and as/if more characters start to learn stasis. But I would like to hear your input below.