Ever since the beginning, we have always thought of what a Dark Guardian would be like to face. The corrupted, twisted forms of solar, arc and void that they would cast, their existence being the antithesis to our existence. But, all the closest we’ve ever gotten is the Hive (a connection I see as quite faint when you really think about it). The event of Risen fighting in the name of the Darkness was nothing but a dream. At least, until recent events. Now that the Pyramids are here in mass, maybe Dark Guardians won’t be that much of a wish for much longer (give or take two years to Lightfall).
Now here’s where I’ll spin off into spinfoil theory. The Pyramids have always been either copying or doing the opposite of what the Traveller does. The Traveller wakes up, the Pyramids wake up. The Traveller morphed planets and moons to make them inhabitable, The Pyramids are now here morphing them back to their harsh environments. But not entirely. An aspect of the Darkness has always been “the strong will survive and the weak will perish” essentially. They’re not just morphing them back to their original state, they’re being morphed into a state where the strongest will survive in a land manifested in Darkness. What better occupant for such a harsh land, than beings made from the power of the land’s creators.
We’re already able to see some of the changes the Pyramids have done, storms have begun to engulf Mars, the waves of methane on Titan have begun to peak to new heights, (I wasn’t really able to see any changes to Mercury), and Io, where the biggest changes can be seen. We already know about the corruption of the Tree of Silver Wings, but, when looking at the Cradle from the Lost Oasis, I noticed that certain structures have appeared to have formed outside and in the Cradle. Most prominently, I noticed a series of arches leading to the center where the tree is located, and (as far as I’m aware) this is not the path that we take in the interference mission to get to the tree. The edges of the Cradle look like towering walls, individual pillars inside looking like buildings. It almost looked like a recreation of the Last City. Though, quite frankly, it is much, much smaller than the City. But with the Darkness appearing to have corrupted the entire crater, as seen by the circle shapes that we’re familiar with, whose to say that this “Last Stronghold” won’t grow?
But all of this has just been about the Pyramids, what’s to say that Dark Guardians, or Revenants (which is what I like to call them), may be a thing. That leads to the closest thing we’ve seen to Dark Ghosts, or Phantoms (another name I just came up with), the Dark Shards (or, shards of Darkness, or whatever). These have been shown in trailers regarding Beyond Light, mainly in the one scene of the Stranger holding one, Eramis holding one, and, from yesterday’s story trailer, a high-ranking Fallen getting ahold of one then casting a Stasis Super. I see these shards as the most direct line of power to and from the Darkness. Though they do not seem to be sentient like Ghosts, but it’s the most similar thing that we’ve seen. Besides, since is the first time we’ve ever seen or (as far as I’m aware) heard of these things, who’s to say that these Dark Shards are a “Ghost in development?”
So, we have things that are made from Darkness that grants the bearer Dark power. All we need is for these things to become sentient and/or for them to resurrect a corpse, then we’ll be staring into a pitch black reflection. Or maybe that won’t happen. Will the Darkness resurrect the dead, or will they connect with living beings. With all the places prominent with Darkness (at least with no prior inhabiting of Light), life as grown exponentially, prime example being the Black Garden. Though, it’s still tough to tell whether or not that’s the Darkness’ doing, or the Vex. Who knows, maybe Eramis and her House of Darkness is the closest we’ll get to having that dark reflection of ourselves. Or maybe the Darkness will fight us themselves. WHO KNOWS. We got a bit of time until nothing stands in the way of our fight with the Darkness. A lot can change from now to Lightfall. Maybe both Light and Dark will be destroyed, or both will continue their eternal war, or they’ll merge into one thing and we’ll be stuck fighting about what it represents.
Or maybe the Traveller is just a giant loaf of space bread and the Pyramids are just giant space toasters coming to cook it. I don’t know. I don’t make the game.