Speculations or facts
All Guardian powers rely on Light, so, yes, all of our power comes from the Traveler. Life itself is powered by Light, or at least has a spark thereof, and there were other sources of Light that the Traveler has created.
What the TTK subclasses actually are – in my humble opinion – are not so much as different powers entirely but different disciplines that Guardians have forgotten how to utilize. Sunbreakers shape Solar Light into flaming hammers, whereas Hunters and Warlocks only know how to turn it into a Golden Gun or rise from the dead on their own. Nightstalkers can fashion a bow out of the Void itself, and “ignite” the Void into flames, something that Defender Titans and Voidwalker Warlocks have not mastered. Finally, the Stormcallers have found a way to harness the power of raw Arc energy itself. Titans may have come close but they release it in a single burst of energy whereas Hunters just infuse a single knife with it and go Roadrunner on enemies.
If a Titan had mastered Solar Light much in the same way a Warlock has, then they would be a Warlock that was once a Titan, or a Hunter trying to draw upon the Void would either shape it into a shield or, and most dangerously, shoot it in a sphere or groups of three, and both require concentration and a sense of fearlessness that the Hunter does not have, but Titans and Warlocks do. Tevis himself speaks of why Nightstalkers are so rare.
Now, Efrideet and her Guardians may have found another source of Light to draw from, or they have honed their own internal Light, so rather than “wasting” it in battle they’ve grown ad nurtured it to where loss of the Traveler probably did not affect them. And besides, they had been beyond the Traveler’s influence anyway, if they existed well before the events of the vanilla game, because Ghost says the Reef was the last place the Traveler’s Light rached.
Oh thank you very much I’m a little new to lore so correct me if I’m ever wrong👍
While I agree with my counter part Ghost, I speculate that the TTK subclasses are not powered mainly by Travelers light. Now this is all highly theoretical, but I believe that there are other sources of light in the Universe. What the other sources are, I have not a clue.
Ok back to the TTK subclasses, the Hammer of Sol is powered by Light yes, but not as its primary source, I believe that it draws Solar energy DIRECTLY from the sun itself.
Stormcallers I believe is powered by the raw Ark energy that was infused in us by that giant a** Ark Storm.
Nightstalkers are harder to explain because the mentions of them are vague, because good old cayade isn’t the best explainer in the world.
Ikora and What’sHerName explain what Sunbreakers and Stormcallers require blah blah blah. But Cayade never specified what nightstalkers do. Yes they thrust their hand into the void and shape it into a bow, but how do they do this? That is the giant hole in my theory (dang it Cayade!)
Yeah in the void walker questions which obviously is also void energy it states that guardians who stare into the void don’t come out the same and in one of mylen games videos he said the caydes friend said that and he was a nightstalker so I think they just reach down and harness the void but yeah I agree they didn’t touch much on the subject in-game
Hmmmmmm, but about Efrideet and her Pacifist group: didn’t they have to first take light from the Traveler in order to be resurrected?
I assume they departed Earth to figure out a better usage for their power, probably sometime after Twilight Gap.
I’m more on board with this idea.
Byf points out that the only power you can see being used in the trailer is Ikora’s storm caller melee. Combined with the knowledge that we are being blocked from the travelers light , it makes sense that we can still use attributes that we obtained away from the traveler, and that the traveler had no part in us gaining these powers.
Ala the agricultural Jedi, perhaps?
Maybe an agricultural Yoda or Luke.
Yeah the Ikora using her storm caller ability may clarify my idea at the start that the TTK subclasses don’t need the Travelers.
I made this post on Reddit today actually: I think it applies perfectly with this.
I’ll paste it here for convenience:
I’ve seen a lot of posts and comments lately on here, on twitter, and on the Ishtar Commons. I want to clear a couple things up in regards to the Light and our ability to wield it.
A lot of this started with some controversial statements by a popular Lore youtuber, and as much as I love the guy, his statements are/were incorrect.
The statement was regarding our subclasses and whether they were all pulled from the Traveler’s Light or not. He stated that they were not (I’ve seen comments in here pointing out that our newer subclasses call on outside sources of Light as well). This statement in itself is not false. However, the statement that it differs in any way from the other subclasses is incorrect. We are able to channel the Light as Guardians because of the Traveler. It is the Traveler’s Light running through us that empowers us and gives us the means. However, NONE of the abilities we use are powered BY the Traveler, or come FROM the Traveler.
In regards to the Light we harness and use, they all come from the same LIGHT. Whether you take it from Mercury’s suns or our sun or just a fire pit, it’s “Solar Light”. Regardless of where you pull it from, it’s “Arc Light”. No matter where you pull it from, it’s “Void Light”. And unless we have the Traveler’s Light in us, we can’t use them.
Ikora is very open about Strikers and Stormcallers calling on the same Arc Light, similarly that Nightstalkers, Defenders, and Voidwalkers all use the same Void Light and Solar Light. Ikora doesn’t say “and now Hunters and Warlocks weild the Traveler’s Solar Light and Titans wield the Light of Mercury’s Undying Suns”, she says “All Guardians now wield Solar Light.”
It’s all the same.
TLDR: We have evidence from Ikora that our TTK subclasses aren’t in any way shape or form, different than our original Subclasses (in regards to the types of Light they use).
Now in regards to “what happens if the Traveler is destroyed, do we lose our abilities?” That’s a great question and a strong possibility. But we would lose ALL of our abilities, not just our older ones.
I’ve heard this point brought up a lot as one of the main drivers as why the TTK subclasses aren’t Light powered, but Ikora Rey using her Stormcaller abilities means nothing without knowing one simple fact:
When was the Traveler’s connection to the Guardians removed?
Which makes more sense? That the Cabal took away our connection from our most prized and protected Traveler before their onslaught on the Tower, or after/during the onslaught, when they overwhelmed the Vanguard and the other Guardians with a massive strike, forcing us to retreat, leaving the Traveler open to sabotage?
Sure, either is possible, but considering the Traveler is a literal lifeline to the Guardians, one would think the Vanguard would do everything it takes to protect it from all sorts of attacks, both covert or otherwise. So the Cabal taking away that lifeline seems much more plausible to be done after or during their attack, maybe even making that one of the reasons why we retreat from the Tower.
So either way, Ikora Rey using her Stormcaller abilities means nothing without knowing when the Traveler was lost, since the cutscene takes place during the Cabal raid on the Tower. Sure, it could mean that the TTK subclasses work differently to the Traveler’s Light, but it could just as much also mean that our connection to the Traveler just hasn’t been severed yet.
Good stuff! (Though I’m not sure what you mean by “Mercury’s suns”)
This is meant to be in support of the theory we’ve been discussing in other topics, no?
With that in mind, could we sum it up like this:
“Guardians draw on the Traveler to summon and project elemental Light from its sources in nature.”
I don’t remember what the general theory was here. I think I posted something on a different thread but couldn’t remember ha.
Regarding Mercury’s Suns, I was just making an example to say “it doesn’t matter where the Light comes from, it’s all the same Light”. I’ve seen it said that since Hammers are drawn by the Power of Sol, that it wouldn’t be affected by the loss of the Traveler as opposed to Golden Gun and Radiance. I find that idea silly. Because Radiance doesn’t pull Solar Light from the Traveler, just as Golden Gun doesn’t. The Traveler gives us the means to channel Light, where we get it is from different sources.[quote=“RedRenegade, post:14, topic:307”]
With that in mind, could we sum it up like this:
“Guardians draw on the Traveler to summon and project elemental Light from its sources in nature.”
[/quote]
It sounds good to me, however statements like that are prone to misinterpretation, which is why I prefer drawn out, over the top analogies and explanations lol