While looking at the new, BEAUTIFUL, faction Banners and I noticed something weird. Dead Orbit contains a dragon. Give you not the Traditional Western dragon, or even the Eastern dragon. But a sea dragon.
Now I find this weird, given the lore behind the sparrow, Dinas Emry, where the Consensus held a meeting just for Ariadne Gris painting one on her sparrow, that they would be allow to have one on their banner.
This raises a lot of questions. Is this a Ahamkara? Is it a Leviathan? Does Dead Orbit also just think dragons are cool? Why is it coiled around the traveler? WHATS WITH THE BIRD!?
Note I have seen people call it a snake, even horned ones, donât have long noses.
You raised a good question. I will try to answer, through symbolism.
Dead Orbit is a quasi-religious faction, with a lot of elements of cultism (FWC as well). It is natural to think then that they use a lot of symbolism and allegory to build their doctrine language.
I can see two main mythological elements here⌠a giant dragon that has the color of the earth, and a giant bird who is fleeing from it, with a dark color. It is plain simple, though splendidly executed, what is going on here and I will do it on a bullet point breakdown:
The Dragon is coiled to the Traveler, and it represents Earth and its people, intertwined with a heavy relationship of dependence to the Traveler;
A sword is wounding the Dragon by the mouth, effectively binding it with pain and damage to the Traveler itself, representing the very addiction and the forced relationship we have, that binds us to the Earth;
A giant black bird (the color of Dead Orbit) is fleeing from all of this and in its line a little sphere with the Dead Orbit sign on it. The Bird is the will to leave the planet and the system, to break the dependence to the Traveler. The sphere is the population of the Dead Orbit members who are thus leaving the Earth in a single, strong and condensed unity.
Remarkably, this banner is wonderfully executed and adds deep levels of lore to the Dead Orbit faction, in my opinion, sipping into symbolism and allegory in a wonderful way.
What is the possibility that this is a reference to Norse mythology?
Yggdrasil, the World Tree, has numerous residents, but the two that seem to be on the Dead Orbit banner are the serpent-dragon, Nidhogg, and its unnamed foe, the eagle. They live on opposite ends of the tree and are said to be sworn enemies. In the Gylfaginning, the first part of the Prose Edda, itâs said Nidhogg resides beneath the Yggdrasil tree, gnawing at the roots in an attempt to topple it.
There are some people who theorize that at Ragnarok, the end of the gods or armageddon, Nidhogg would rise up and aid the giants in slaying the gods.
In the context of the banner, it would make sense. We are the eagle, the serpentâs antithesis, trying to survive the end of the Gods (remember Dead Orbit seeks to leave the Traveler and Earth to find another place to live). Nidhogg, in this case, would be the âDarknessâ (if that term is even still relevant).
Dead Orbit, like everyone has said, tends to have a lot of mythological elements to it. In addition, Bungie has used Norse mythology in its game before - like Gjallarhorn. Perhaps this is another reference to it?
Just thought I might leave this here - let me know if there are any inconsistencies in the mythology.
Very interesting interpretations. My take is a bit different in some ways but has trend in common with the other theories/interpretations rather well.
Dead orbitâs goal/belief is that wherever the Traveller goes, trouble follows, so we should leave the Traveller and the the Earth with it to find a new planet to live and escape the darkness.
I see the symbolism as such:
The Traveller is surrounded by darkness to the bottom, alluding to the Darkness following the Traveller wherever it goes.
The dragon-like beast could represent our emotional pull to the Traveller that is going eat us if we donât escape or is maybe deceiving us like an Ahamkara, which in the history of the Last City are portrayed as evil (The Great Ahamkara Hunt), to stay on Earth and be destroyed by the coming darkness.
The sword being driven through the dragon-like beast and the Traveller looks brown and slightly resembles a branch from a tree (or other plant for that matter) maybe symbolising how it is our nature to flee from harm, the natural course of action, or something of the like. It might also tie into Seraphâs (https://commons.ishtar-collective.net/u/Seraph) theory of it being a reference to the Yggdrasil tree, but Iâm not quite sure whether it fits the theme as well.
The bird carrying the Dead Orbit insignia most likely, if not certainly, symbolizes the Dead Orbit faction itself carrying away humanity to a safer new home, away from the dark as clearly depicted on the banner.
Thatâs my interpretation, I hope you found it insightful.
