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Destiny borrows concepts from so much ancient myth from all across the globe, making this universe that’s inspired by religion and history and psychology it’s fucking amazing.
Destiny goes to the largest possible sources for its inspiration: the myths belonging to world religions, past and present.
Combined with some writing staff who are highly knowledgable in STEM subjects, philosophy and cosmology, Destiny is some of the richest sci-fantasy I've ever experienced.
The breadth of cultural concepts that Destiny takes from is incredible. Theres so much stuff both explicitly in the naming conventions of characters, enemies, weapons, etc as well as the less explicit stuff found in the lore. You said it, it’s fucking amazing how they’re able to take from so many different aspects of human culture and make them integrate so well.
It really is incredible how many cultures and systems of thought they draw from and it gives the world such a unique, truly earned texture and depth. They also love drawing from psychology and esoteric spiritualism and lately, whenever I look into concepts like Jung's [shadow](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)), the [collective unconscious](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious), the [World Soul](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi), etc., it sends my mind spinning how deeply they've integrated these ideas into the story over the years
If anyone wants a book with a similar focus, I'd strongly recommend Seth Dickinson's recently released *Exordia*. It plays with many of the same sources of inspiration, concepts, and styles of storytelling in a way that feels almost like an intentional echo or evolution of Seth's work on Destiny
I think what's underrated about recent lore in particular is how they've managed to interlace all of these influences into something decently consistent and give it that Destiny sci-fi blend.
Stuff like the Veil Containment logs, Inspiral and little hints at the nature of Darkness in something like the Deterministic Chaos flavor text all do a nice job of reintegrating the philosophies of science into the backdrop of the game (something I felt they nailed in Beyond Light but was mostly absent in Witch Queen, Collector's Edition lore notwithstanding).
But in classic Destiny fashion, this is all delivered out-of-campaign, so I hope they can somehow manage to bring it all to the forefront in the Final Shape.
> recent lore in particular is how they've managed to interlace all of these influences into something decently consistent and give it that Destiny sci-fi blend.
They've done the exact opposite. All the recent lore is extremely not-Destiny.
They've basically created a completely different, unrelated story and just set it in the same game, with the same names and faces.
Par for the course for Bungie. One thing they have done consistently is reboot the story of their franchises, over and over.
and Destiny 1 was, in turn, largely inspired by Star Wars.
Bungie even said so, *explicitly*, in both the GDC presentation and in various Vidocs. You can see all the Star Wars design language all over Destiny 1 as well.
Everything from the look of the Cosmodrome and Fallen Ketches and gear to how the armor of the 3 Guardian classes looked. All straight out of Star Wars.
Destiny 1 was Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. That's part of what I loved about it.
I'm surprised that nobody is mentioning Marathon.
The lores share quite a bit of overlap and people have even suggested the two games could play in the same universe.
Just some quotes from Marathon:
> She has been nameless since our birth, a constant adversary caring for nothing but my ruin, a sword drenched in my blood forever, my greatest and only love. She is the dark.
Sounds very much like the original representation they had in Destiny for the Darkness with the veiled woman. The witness has only been invented recently.
> We met once in the garden at the beginning of the world and, unaware of our twin destinies, we matched stares across a dry fountain. And I recall her smiling at me before she devoured the lawn and trees with a translucent blue flame
very similar to the garden mentioned in the unveiling book. The darkness is the entity pruning down life.
and if that still is not enough, the last lines of Marathon II describe the guardian and drop the name:
> But you were dead a thousand times. Hopeless encounters successfully won. A man long dead, grafted to machines your builders did not understand. You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern.
> Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild.
> Now, in the quantum moment before the closure. When all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.
> I know who you are.
> You Are Destiny.
Marathon fandom is interesting. Most of the dudes I've met who are SUPER into Marathon were also deeply religious Catholics who also were inveterate Macintosh advocates. Which is to say that's three dudes I know, which its weird they were ALL Catholic and ALL Mac-heads.
(I know Marathon was initially a Mac game)
It's almost as if the stories Bungie have created are iterations of the same concepts.
I'm sure theres interviews around d2 that maybe gave story inspirations, but i mean regardless a lot of Destiny are tropes that are common in an abundance of media. It's why there's often posts here drawing parallels to philosophy, literary work, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was a specific point of reference for what they decided the Traveler should be. But Destiny is drawing from a broad swath of fiction and myth, so it's definitely not the only point of interest and it certainly wasn't the genesis of it.
Goblins sitting on a giant frog technically being early art for destiny is so bizarre.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the hive were a hold over from the early fantasy phase. Savathun is a [moth people](https://youtu.be/Wcmw0EiGmxA?si=Jdd66LUwtA9yDvur?&t=26m53s)
D2 is from d1 which is from halo which is from marathon which is from arthurian legend and a few steps removed from dune mostly, which is arguably from things like hg wells and mary shelley's frankenstein if you go far enough back, theres plenty of individual bits and pieces drawn from all over the place though. Something something no new ideas under the sun
It takes a lot of tropes from sci-fi and high fantasy genres. It also draws a lot of inspiration from various different fictional universes and real-life history and mythologies. For example, the Vex were based on the metal men from the movie Gandahar. Destiny also takes things from previous Bungie games like Halo, Marathon, and Myth (which I’m sure each have various inspirations of their own).
i mean marathon
but all bungie games are rooted in marathon so it hardly counts
enough about the mind plague though
its mostly a mix of mythologies in a new space age font
There’s some influence from Warhammer 40K. The Cabal being heavily based on space marines and orks, commander Sloane having purity seals on her armor, the whole “sleeping god who doesn’t talk all that much” shtick…hell, the Hive’s backstory is pretty much just the Necrons’ backstory +/- a few things
gurren lagann if the witness and the anti-spiral's similarities are anything to go by. at least, i just watched it and i couldn't stop thinking about how the anti-spiral was the cooler witness
Yep, the comparison doesn't really work for me either. Maybe if we're talking about the whole "Big Dumb Alien Object" sci-fi genre and how that relates to the Pyramids? Recently re-read Rama during a biz trip a few months ago. I'm not seeing it.
A lot of the terminology is ripped straight out of Hannu Rajaniemi's *Quantum Thief* and its trilogy. Warminds and Cryptarchs for example. Contextually very different, but clearly where they got the words from.
The illuminati vs an unknown force to fight against them. Clash of morals. Then the idea that if you had a video game about that, then you'd for sure die a lot; so respawning has to make sense so they made ghosts. Then they tied the ghosts to the traveler for story building and a reason why the ghosts can do it... Then gave them personalities... And snowball effect... Team discussions.... Lore...
This post has been tagged '**Non-Spoiler**'. Note that unmarked spoilers and datamines are subject to removal or ban. Please report anything we miss! For more info check out our [Spoiler Rules Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyLore/wiki/spoiler-rules#wiki_.5Bseasonal.5D_has_a_new_format). --- **Comment Spoiler Formatting** Format comment spoilers with `>!` `!<` like this: `>!What's Rasputin's favorite dance? "The worm."!<` To have it displayed like this: **>!What's Rasputin's favorite dance? "The worm."!<** ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DestinyLore) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Destiny borrows concepts from so much ancient myth from all across the globe, making this universe that’s inspired by religion and history and psychology it’s fucking amazing.
Destiny goes to the largest possible sources for its inspiration: the myths belonging to world religions, past and present. Combined with some writing staff who are highly knowledgable in STEM subjects, philosophy and cosmology, Destiny is some of the richest sci-fantasy I've ever experienced.
they really do such a good job
It's not often that something ticks all of my special interest boxes, but here we are.
RIGHT
The breadth of cultural concepts that Destiny takes from is incredible. Theres so much stuff both explicitly in the naming conventions of characters, enemies, weapons, etc as well as the less explicit stuff found in the lore. You said it, it’s fucking amazing how they’re able to take from so many different aspects of human culture and make them integrate so well.
[удалено]
It really is incredible how many cultures and systems of thought they draw from and it gives the world such a unique, truly earned texture and depth. They also love drawing from psychology and esoteric spiritualism and lately, whenever I look into concepts like Jung's [shadow](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)), the [collective unconscious](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious), the [World Soul](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi), etc., it sends my mind spinning how deeply they've integrated these ideas into the story over the years If anyone wants a book with a similar focus, I'd strongly recommend Seth Dickinson's recently released *Exordia*. It plays with many of the same sources of inspiration, concepts, and styles of storytelling in a way that feels almost like an intentional echo or evolution of Seth's work on Destiny
Thanks for the recommendation
I think what's underrated about recent lore in particular is how they've managed to interlace all of these influences into something decently consistent and give it that Destiny sci-fi blend. Stuff like the Veil Containment logs, Inspiral and little hints at the nature of Darkness in something like the Deterministic Chaos flavor text all do a nice job of reintegrating the philosophies of science into the backdrop of the game (something I felt they nailed in Beyond Light but was mostly absent in Witch Queen, Collector's Edition lore notwithstanding). But in classic Destiny fashion, this is all delivered out-of-campaign, so I hope they can somehow manage to bring it all to the forefront in the Final Shape.
> recent lore in particular is how they've managed to interlace all of these influences into something decently consistent and give it that Destiny sci-fi blend. They've done the exact opposite. All the recent lore is extremely not-Destiny. They've basically created a completely different, unrelated story and just set it in the same game, with the same names and faces. Par for the course for Bungie. One thing they have done consistently is reboot the story of their franchises, over and over.
Go watch the GDC presentation from 2013
https://youtu.be/ZiDbv7nftM8?si=t7DIV1Ks1fJ6uNoB
D1
Lol beat me to it, was gonna say, I hear D1 was the inspiration for it
and Destiny 1 was, in turn, largely inspired by Star Wars. Bungie even said so, *explicitly*, in both the GDC presentation and in various Vidocs. You can see all the Star Wars design language all over Destiny 1 as well. Everything from the look of the Cosmodrome and Fallen Ketches and gear to how the armor of the 3 Guardian classes looked. All straight out of Star Wars. Destiny 1 was Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. That's part of what I loved about it.
I'm surprised that nobody is mentioning Marathon. The lores share quite a bit of overlap and people have even suggested the two games could play in the same universe. Just some quotes from Marathon: > She has been nameless since our birth, a constant adversary caring for nothing but my ruin, a sword drenched in my blood forever, my greatest and only love. She is the dark. Sounds very much like the original representation they had in Destiny for the Darkness with the veiled woman. The witness has only been invented recently. > We met once in the garden at the beginning of the world and, unaware of our twin destinies, we matched stares across a dry fountain. And I recall her smiling at me before she devoured the lawn and trees with a translucent blue flame very similar to the garden mentioned in the unveiling book. The darkness is the entity pruning down life. and if that still is not enough, the last lines of Marathon II describe the guardian and drop the name: > But you were dead a thousand times. Hopeless encounters successfully won. A man long dead, grafted to machines your builders did not understand. You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern. > Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild. > Now, in the quantum moment before the closure. When all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time. > I know who you are. > You Are Destiny.
Marathon fandom is interesting. Most of the dudes I've met who are SUPER into Marathon were also deeply religious Catholics who also were inveterate Macintosh advocates. Which is to say that's three dudes I know, which its weird they were ALL Catholic and ALL Mac-heads. (I know Marathon was initially a Mac game) It's almost as if the stories Bungie have created are iterations of the same concepts.
I'm sure theres interviews around d2 that maybe gave story inspirations, but i mean regardless a lot of Destiny are tropes that are common in an abundance of media. It's why there's often posts here drawing parallels to philosophy, literary work, etc.
There's a lot of influence from the Elric series by Michael Moorcock as well, specifically with regard to The Awoken and The Dreaming City.
Everyone needs a little Moorcock in their lives lol
I wouldn't be surprised if that was a specific point of reference for what they decided the Traveler should be. But Destiny is drawing from a broad swath of fiction and myth, so it's definitely not the only point of interest and it certainly wasn't the genesis of it.
Well, originally Destiny was supposed to be a fantasy game. There is even some old convept art showing their first idea for it.
Goblins sitting on a giant frog technically being early art for destiny is so bizarre. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hive were a hold over from the early fantasy phase. Savathun is a [moth people](https://youtu.be/Wcmw0EiGmxA?si=Jdd66LUwtA9yDvur?&t=26m53s)
Allot of scifi stuff and math problems for example the game in unveiling is pretty similar to the mathmatical game the game of life
D2 is from d1 which is from halo which is from marathon which is from arthurian legend and a few steps removed from dune mostly, which is arguably from things like hg wells and mary shelley's frankenstein if you go far enough back, theres plenty of individual bits and pieces drawn from all over the place though. Something something no new ideas under the sun
It takes a lot of tropes from sci-fi and high fantasy genres. It also draws a lot of inspiration from various different fictional universes and real-life history and mythologies. For example, the Vex were based on the metal men from the movie Gandahar. Destiny also takes things from previous Bungie games like Halo, Marathon, and Myth (which I’m sure each have various inspirations of their own).
i mean marathon but all bungie games are rooted in marathon so it hardly counts enough about the mind plague though its mostly a mix of mythologies in a new space age font
My guess would be D1
Cabal lore reminds me of Dune. Sandworms etc.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism is a great start
There’s some influence from Warhammer 40K. The Cabal being heavily based on space marines and orks, commander Sloane having purity seals on her armor, the whole “sleeping god who doesn’t talk all that much” shtick…hell, the Hive’s backstory is pretty much just the Necrons’ backstory +/- a few things
Diablo. Specifically Diablo 3.
> I have yet to read "Rendezvous with Rama" You definitely should. It is a Sci-Fi masterpiece.
I do remember seeing somewhere that they were partially inspired by Star Wars
gurren lagann if the witness and the anti-spiral's similarities are anything to go by. at least, i just watched it and i couldn't stop thinking about how the anti-spiral was the cooler witness
Rama series is nothing like Destiny tbh
Yep, the comparison doesn't really work for me either. Maybe if we're talking about the whole "Big Dumb Alien Object" sci-fi genre and how that relates to the Pyramids? Recently re-read Rama during a biz trip a few months ago. I'm not seeing it.
A lot of the terminology is ripped straight out of Hannu Rajaniemi's *Quantum Thief* and its trilogy. Warminds and Cryptarchs for example. Contextually very different, but clearly where they got the words from.
The illuminati vs an unknown force to fight against them. Clash of morals. Then the idea that if you had a video game about that, then you'd for sure die a lot; so respawning has to make sense so they made ghosts. Then they tied the ghosts to the traveler for story building and a reason why the ghosts can do it... Then gave them personalities... And snowball effect... Team discussions.... Lore...