As a preamble: The release of Heresy Act 2 has been a bit...wonky, to say the least. The first two quest steps seem to be out of order; we got all the Willbreaker shard quests sooner than we were supposed to, I reckon; I also imagine we got our hands on the Writ: Path of Ambition quest sooner than intended. This could be what happens when you lay off people who were likely in charge of testing things like this before you release it, and/or it could also be the result of switching gears on how Act content is meant to be released. I don't know, but it also resulted in the topic of this thread, because I think a lot of things meant to drop with week 2's story came early, both quests and dialogue. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Echo of Navigation has brought a version of Oryx back but, unlike what I've assumed up to this point, [i]the Echo is not the one producing these new Taken.[/i] The Echo doesn't know what it is, only calling it something that stands between the Winnower and the Taken; Xivu Arath also doesn't know what it is, and cannot find it. The Path of Ambition quest has Eris talk about a call she felt emanating from the Deep and pursuing its source takes us back to where we first found Barrow-Dyad. If no one affiliated with the Hive Pantheon knows who or what is controlling the Dire Taken, then everything going on with them - the Eyes, the veins growing throughout the Ascendant Plane and the Dreadnaught - has to do with a third party. Something powerful enough to take control of the Taken and create new ones with new abilities distinct from the original Taken. Something the Hive Gods don't seem to know about, and they've been around for billions of years. The name of the new Taken faction - the Dire Taken - and the eyes that give us Suffocating Terror scream Nezarec to me, as it fits his theme. He would be the most likely candidate, if not for the fact no one seems to recognize what is behind them. This points towards something new, or something from the lore that's finally taking the spotlight. We'll just have to wait and see. While I suspect it isn't someone entirely divorced from the Hive, whoever the new entity is can imbue the Taken they create with Strand and Stasis abilities. The Taken had no access to Strand before, and their only access to Stasis was an update giving certain Taken new Howler weapons. Stasis and Strand abilities intrinsic to the Taken's repertoire show the scope of the new threat.