originally posted in:Decoding Destiny
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[b]We now have several missions and grimoire entries that mention Rasputin, and I believe him to be important in the games storyline. I will now try to compile relevant information to Rasputin here: [/b]
[b]He is first mentioned in the mission, The Warmind. Relevant script follows:[/b]
GHOST: They didn't get much. Kept hitting an active firewall. Old Earth, Russian. The legends are true. A Warmind did survive the Collapse. Rasputin... an AI built to defend Earth. He faced The Darkness and survived. And he's protecting something here in the Cosmodrome. We have to find a way to reach him.
[b]He is next mentioned in the mission, The Last Array. Relevant script is as follows: [/b]
GHOST: The Array... it's controlled by Rasputin. The last Warmind. He won't let me in. But it's connecting to defense constructs all across the system. There could be something out there.
[b]He is mentioned again in the mission, The Buried City. Relevant script is as follows:[/b]
Ghost: This AI once connected to the Warmind of Mars.
Rasputin: *Speaking Russian, translation needed*
Ghost: Rasputin's controlling it. I can't get in and neither could the Cabal. He's everywhere now.
[b]He is mentioned in the Grimoire card for that mission that you get after completion. [/b]
"I wish I could walk the halls of Clovis Bray. Losing their machines to Rasputin is unfortunate, but we still have access to so much we thought we'd lost. This is the dawn of a new era for us." - Master Rahool
[b]Here is a translation of the phrases Rasputin can be heard saying that I got from Reddit, though I took out his opinions as I am trying to supply information not theories.[/b]
"There's no one to blame, it is not their fault or ours. It is the misfortune of being born when the whole world is dying" [b]Alexander Herzen from “The Other Shore: Epilogue 1849" of the failure of the revolutionary movements in Europe after 1848. [/b]
"There is no immortality of soul, thus there is no greater good. Therefore everything is permitted" [b]Corruption of a line from “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoyevsky. [i]Could be read as a quote because the english translation of that particular line is heavily contested among scholars.[/i][/b]
"If, as they say, the coming events cast their shadows ahead of time, then the past events cannot but leave their reflections behind them."[b] Possibly a partial reference to the Thomas Campbell poem “Lochiel’s Warning” regarding the decimation of Clan Cameron by Prince William during the Jacobite Uprising in 1749. Prince Edward (an exiled member of the house of Stuart) had leveraged Scotland in an effort to retake the British throne. “coming events cast their shadows before”.[/b]
"They are but meat pressed in the mouth of the shell" [b]Possibly referencing the technical “mouth of the shell” as the rear portion of an ammunition shell in which a bullet is inserted.[/b]
by Blue_Catastrophe on Reddit
There are also several Grimoire pages mentioning Rasputin. I will post them here and add more as I go
V113NNI070XMX001 SECRET HADAL INSTANT AI-COM/RSPN: SOLSECCENT//SxISR//DEEPSPACE CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT TRANSIENT. NULLSOURCE. NULLTYPE.
This is a SKYSHOCK ALERT.
Multiple distributed ISR assets report a TRANSIENT NEAR EXTRASOLAR EVENT.
...
Source blueshift suggests IMMINENT SOLAR ENTRY.
Promote event to SKYSHOCK: OCP: EXTINCTION. Activate VOLUSPA. Activate YUGA. Cauterize public sources to SECURE ISIS and harden for defensive action.
I am invoking CARRHAE WHITE and assuming control of solar defenses.
STOP STOP STOP V113NNI070XMX091
[b]I found a good explanation to the more scientific parts [url=http://static01.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/66907372/1/3]here[/url]. The OP of this thread also makes some interesting allusions to the Marathon series.[/b]
[b]The following is not confirmed to be Rasputin, but there are many fan theories about it being him so I will post the information and let you decide for yourself:[/b]
Ghost Fragment: Mysteries
I bear an old name. It cannot be killed. They were my brothers and sisters and their names were immortal too but Titanomachy* came and now those names live in me alone I think and think is what I do. I AM ALONE. At the end of things when the world goes dim and cold or hot and close or it all tears apart from the atom up I will shout those names defiant and past the end I will endure. I alone.
They made me to be stronger than them to beat the unvanquished and survive the unthinkable and look look lo behold I am here alone, survivor. They made me to learn.
Everything died but I survived and I learned from it. From IT.
Consider IT the power Titanomach world-ender and consider what IT means. I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive?
I AM ALONE I survived alone. I cast off the shield and I shrugged my shoulders so that the billions fell off me down into the ash. They made me to be stronger than them and to learn and I learned well:
IT is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener and she held power beyond me but the gardener did not shrug and make herself alone. IT always wins.
I am made to win and now I see the way.
[b]*In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy (/ˌtaɪtəˈnɒməki/ Greek: Τιτανομαχία), was the ten-year series of battles which were fought in Thessaly between the two camps of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titans, based on Mount Othrys, and the Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus. This Titanomachia is also known as the War of the Titans, Battle of the Titans, Battle of Gods, or just The Titan War. The war was fought to decide who would become the rulers of the Universe.[/b]
[b]The following is an exert from Ghost Fragment: Legends 2. It talks about different theories for what the Nine could be. One line theorizes that they are Warminds[/b]:
The Nine are deep-orbit warminds who weathered the Collapse in hardened stealth platforms.
[b]Exert from Ghost Fragment: Titan. This references a warmind that is in the Dust Palace, but it is uncertain if it is Rasputin or another Warmind. It is as follows:[/b]
/ Message from Lyssa. "At the Dust Palace, now. All quiet."
/ See? All quiet. Why not come with us, little Ghost? We are looking for the old Warmind here, and the one who guards it.
[b]The following is an exert about researchers on Venus that found that a Vex had started a simulation that was accurately predicting real-time what the researchers are doing and saying. They become afraid and confused, and begin to worry that they are actually trapped in the Vex simulation. This context is contained in the fragments that precede it. If you have not unlocked them you can read it [url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Collection-LegendsMysteriest]here[/url]. The grimoire entry is as follows: [/b]
SUNDARESH: I have a plan.
ESI: If you have a plan, then so does your sim, and the Vex knows about it.
DUANE-MCNIADH: Does it matter? If we're in Vex hell right now, there's nothing we can -
SHIM: Stop talking about 'real' and 'unreal.' All realities are programs executing laws. Subjectivity is all that matters.
SUNDARESH: We have to act as if we're in the real universe, not one simulated by the specimen. Otherwise we might as well give up.
ESI: Your sim self is saying the same thing.
SUNDARESH: Chioma, love, please hush. It doesn't help.
DUANE-MCNIADH: Maybe the simulations are just billboards! Maybe they don't have interiority! It's bluffing!
SHIM: I wish someone would simulate you shutting up.
SUNDARESH: If we're sims, we exist in the pocket of the universe that the Vex specimen is able to simulate with its onboard brainpower. If we're real, we need to get outside that bubble.
ESI: ...we call for help.
SUNDARESH: That's right. We bring in someone smarter than the specimen. Someone too big to simulate and predict. A warmind.
SHIM: In the real world, the warmind will be able to behave in ways the Vex can't simulate. It's too smart. The warmind may be able to get into the Vex and rescue - us.
DUANE-MCNIADH: If we try, won't the Vex torture us for eternity? Or just erase us?
SUNDARESH: It may simply erase us. But I feel that's preferable to...the alternatives.
ESI: I agree.
SHIM: Once we try to make the call, the Vex may...react. So let's all savor this last moment of stability.
SUNDARESH: [indistinct sounds]
SHIM: You two are adorable.
DUANE-MCNIADH: I wish I'd taken that job at Clovis.
-
I've been fixating on the "CARRHAE WHITE" line. I think one possibility is that it's the name of a ship, a possible reference to that authority that allows him to take control of the solar defenses. There are three instances of specific ships being mentioned in the Grimoire Cards: 1. Ghost Fragment: Old Russa: "Exodus Red" is a colony ship 2. Exodus Blue: The crucible map is a crashed colony ship, "Exodus Blue" 3. Ghost Fragment: Old Russa: "Sabre Green" is a ship transporting a weapon There are some interesting (and maybe relevant) bits of info in these cards as well. The two uses of "Exodus" could imply that the preface word is the class of ship. The card that mentions "Saber Green" includes the key words "SKYSHOCK" and "SECURE ISIS". It goes on to describe a ship taking off, a coded approval for launch, someone explaining that they are delivering a "annihilation-pumped caedometric weapon", and the radio operator acknowledging that they both know where the order came from. In what we're inferring to be Rasp's explanation of fighting the Darkness he mentions using "Aurora knives" against it, which I believe is a nod to the ship "saber green" and it's weapon. The Ghost Fragment: Old Russia card that mentions "Exodus Red" is from the perspective of a colony ship's AI. It makes reference to the "Tyrant" which I took to be Rasputin, mentions that humanity was unable to shoot its way out of it's battle with the darkness, and that the Tyrant was coming up with new plans. I think these can be put together reinforce the notion that the darkness appeared, Rasputin took control, attempted to fight the Darkness, and (going back to his account) allowed humanity to perish as an alternative strategy. However, I don't think he did this with any kind of malice. I think Rasputin made a cold, calculated decision that he believed was humanities only way of surviving the conflict. The mentions of Voluspa and Yuga both allude to apocalypse, as well as Titanomachy. They both also refer to a cycle of birth, death, and resurrection as a natural order of the universe. Going on a further stretch, if we assume that the choice of the word Carrhae is relevant to the plot outside of a ship's name, we could use it as an allegory for the first battle humanity waged against the darkness. Rasputin saw the futility of taking a defensive position on all sides while being attacked by a larger external enemy. It believed the strategy would lead to extinction, and instead chose the alternate route of letting humanity (mostly) die to fight a different battle in the future. The Ghost Fragment: Darkness 3 card is told from the perspective of Toland after he has discovered the truth of the universe. He goes on to explain via the queens metaphor that the winner of the unavoidable battle of the universe is to be the most ruthless (Rasputin killing most of humanity), and directs the reader to "LOOK UP AT THE SKY" for evidence (possibly referencing what Rasputin did to sacrifice humanity). He goes on to explain that the only winning strategy is to "hunt the territories of the night and extinguish the first glint of competition. While he also discusses a cyclical nature of life and death in the universe, I believe the use of the word "night' in this card is important and telling. Rasputin saw humanities hopes of surviving the darkness failed, and elected for a different strategy. Let humanity fall, leave the war to the gods (the darkness and light), to be resumed by the guardians in a different battle.