This is my first post on this site so I need to preface all that I am about to discuss by noting that this theory borders on the line of speculation, however that being said, I think it carries some explanatory power in light of the Final Shape’s gameplay developer preview.
With that being said lets begin:
Before anything else we should turn our attention to the final shape expansion and discuss what we already know of it. Foremost noteworthy is our new abilities, namely that of prismatic and transcendance. This is a new power not previously seen in the destiny universe. Prismatic is unlike the darkness and light subclasses in that it combines the two forces to produce a hybrid. In laymens terms, it is the ability to weild the power of light and darkness simultaniously.
Now, what is of immediate intrest here are the implications of this power. As was the case in lightfall and Beyond Light, the new darkness sublasses of more recent expansions have played a larger thematic role that those before them. In Lightfall, we learn about the nature of the darkness as that which is primarily immaterial. We learn through strand that it is consciousness in which the force darkness is born. This naturally mirrors the force of light, where light is made manifest through the physical properties of existence, the darkness manifests through the immaterial properties of the existence. (namely consciouss beings). What we learn of the veil and of the darkness through strand served as the thematic back bone of the Lightfall expansion and lead us ever closer to the witness and toward a hollistic understanding of Destiny’s metaphysics. Given the new subclasses thematic relevance in recent expansions, it is reasonable to expect the same of Prismatic in the Final Shape expansion.
Now we are at the foot of the Final Shape, where the Witness seeks to exact his own shape upon the universe through the dimension (found presumably within the traveller itself) unlocked by the merged power of both the veil and the traveller. Of course, we have already drawn parallels between the representational catagories of light and darkness. And given that the same can said of the traveller and the veil, it should become clear the implication of this new dimension. It is a place formed between both forces or rather within the merging of them. It is herein worth mentioning that it has been enunciated already by many, the fact that the witness is not the darkness. Nor is the veil for that matter in a similar fashion to how neither the guardians nor the traveller are the light.
These are thus far, clear and somewhat obvious observations. Now however we approach the speculatory stuff.
Byff has provided more recently a theory regarding both the witness, the final shape, the traveller, and the necessity of consensus. Therein, he possits that the fundamental weakness of the Witness is to do with the principles underlying his conception. That fundamentally, in order to achieve the final shape a being of sufficient power must achieve a consensus of sorts. Now the exact intricacies and precision of this pre-requisite is entirely speculatory given that the only evidence for it can solely be found in the Final Shape’s (physical) lore book found in the collectors edition which, (as we should be well aware) is subject to change in the final release or may otherwise be a red herring. However, this being said it is reasonable to assume that Bungie have finalized the story given how close we are to release, which is furthermore to say that we may assume that this lorebook provides with it some essential information. Thus, the notion of concensus remains an important justification for my theory, though I should also note, not a necessary one.
Regarding the Witness. It is essentially a being comprised of an entire species worth of consciousness. It’s entire being and design represents the concensus with which it hopes to achieve the final shape. And the species (prescursors) which underpin its existence were at odds with one another as to the manner in which they were to use the final shape. They formed many factions which warred and debated for aeons as to how the final shape should be exacted. This remained so before one faction became dominant above the rest and quelled dissent by exectution. Eventually, this faction agreed to create the Witness by merging their consciousness into one through mass suicide. The lore book concludes with a discussion highlighting the doubtfullness of the precursor species in relation to this approach, how even those appart of the faction questioned its truth. Essentially, the take away of Byff’s video can be largely summed up as “the witness does not possess the concensus that he presupposes” and that furthermore he will face difficulting in exacting his final shape because of this.
Souce 1: (The Precursors, The Final Shape & The Witness, The Penitent’s Answer.)
Source 2: (The Witness’ deep hatred of The Light & why it needs it for The Final Shape.)
Moving on from this we can draw our attention to Byff’s third video where he discusses his predictions for the plot of the Final Shape. He asks the question of what the final shape represents in the Traveller’s eyes. If it were the Traveller exacting this shape, what would it look like? We know the shape of the witness is to eliminate suffering (presumably by eliminating physical existance and drawing all consciousness into one) but what would be the desire of the Traveller?
Byff argues that role of the Gardener in the unveilling lore book mirrors that of the Traveller and that if its goal is to defeat the final shape, and create infinite complexity and variety in life, then use of the darkness and of the Winnower’s final shape may be permitted. In this regard, prismatic and transcendance is of particular use to us. What would the Traveller’s final shape be? It would be the merging of the light and the dark, it would be transcendance of these binary forces and it may even involve concensuss. Furthermore it is worth noting that the new Prismatic abilities are not solely a merging of the light and the dark, they are modular and built with possibility and variety in mind. This reflects the Gardener’s new rule in a number of ways. One could imagine a merging of light and dark to be a static sublass differentiated from the rest solely by colour and type as has been the case with all the rest, but Bungie chose to give Prismatic a creative dimension beyond those of others and this is worth taking into account.
Source 3: (https://youtu.be/1j8RFA1DMw8)
Now we arrive to the object of this post. The Destiny Tricorn symbol and what it represents. Firstly, we may take the shape of the traveller and reduce him to a two dimensional scale, then we do the same for the darkness and reduce the pyramid ships to a two dimension scale. Now we compare them, the traveller a circle and the darkness a triangle. Now what might we ask what divides them? Of course, the circle possess infinite points, it is irrational and rounded. The triangle, is symbolic of hierarchy, of dominance, and therefore is exactly measureable, all its sides essential. The two are at odds with one another of course but if we were to merge them as the Gardener does with his new rule, as the Traveller would with the Final Shape, as we do with Prismatic. We can imagine it to look like the Destiny Tricorn symbol. It features three sides like the triangle, but rounded like the sphere. It is flipped upside down and typically coloured white whereas the Final Shape (as depicted by the darkness) is black.
If the Final Shape represents hierarchy, dominance, culling, and power above all. The tricorn represents sacrafice, transcendance and infinite variety and complexity, (and perhaps concensus). As opposed to being all for one, the tricorn represents one for all. We could even compare the tricorn to the Greek god Atlas who holds upon his shoulders the earth, and with it the entirety of life as the Guardian does. The rounded oval/sphere shape in the centre of the tricorn reflects this interpretation though it also reflects the traveller. This theme of sacrafice has been reflected in some of the earliest knowledge surrounding the Traveller and particularly of the Speaker in the Red War Campaign. Lastly we have might address the meaning of these three sides. This is hard to pin down, some have suggested this represents the concensus between the vanguard, the factions, and the speaker. Though this is an old interpretation formed as far back as D1. It would however serve to parrallel the emphasis placed upon the distinct lack of concensus which underpins the Witness. While our theory surrounding the Tricorn is not dependant upon Byff’s emphasis on consensus, I am confidant that it may at some point play a role in the Final Shape. The three sides may also represent the fireteam and the three classes (titan, warlock, hunter) which appears to make the most sense considering that it was engraved on the boots of the first fireteam who discovered the Traveller in the D1 opening cutscene.
Lastly id like to discuss the implications of this theory. If we were to assume it be correct, suddenly the name of the game makes sense. Since the very beginning our Destiny was made clear to us, it was in plain sight the entire time. As the speaker had said in that same cutscene; “we knew that it was our destiny to walk amongst the stars”, we were always meant to transcend both forces and usher in a new final shape. Others have speculated on the future of Destiny beyond the final shape and claimed that we will venture to new galaxies which would make sense given this quote and Bungies commitment to the original theme of the game. In the gameplay developer preview, Creative Art Director Dave Samuel says this; “It feels like theres this really cool through line through all of this… it is amazing to see this initial inspiration carried all the way through to become a reality”. This quote to me reflects all that I have theorised above, prismatic serves as the “through line” in that it underpins gameplay, plot, and game balance all at once while it has also served as the trascendance theme which has been “carried all the way through” into the final shape. This would imply further that indeed, the concept of merging of the light and the dark had been explored early in Destinys development which would further indicate the plausability of this theory.
Source: 4 (16:35 - 16:59) (https://www.youtube.com/live/jyIm-_Na8mI)