Introduction
Since the recent comic Fall of Osiris Part 2 was released, there has been some confusion as to how the events in the comic tie in with the lore from other sources such as the lore entries. In this post I will be looking at some of the possible alternative timelines of the events leading up to Osiris’ banishment from the City. Before I start, I would like to thank all the people in the lore community (too many to name here!) who discussed this topic with me and helped me to formulate my ideas.
Meeting in the Comic
Firstly, let’s look at what happened in the comic. At the end of the comic, the Speaker calls together a meeting of the Consensus. Those present include not only the members of the Consensus but also the general public. The Speaker accuses Osiris, who is not initially present at the meeting, of abandoning his post as Vanguard Commander and labels him a “coward” and a “traitor”. He claims that Osiris is a “cancer” that needs to be cut out.
Ikora decides to speak up in defence of Osiris against the Speaker. She argues that, far from being a coward, Osiris is trying to protect people against “the forces of the darkness”. She says, “If Osiris says that the Vex are a threat, I believe him.” She also argues that they will not survive without Osiris.
The Speaker dismisses Ikora’s arguments as the result of her supposedly being “corrupted” by Osiris. He moves that Osiris be banished from the City, a motion which the crowd readily supports. In the middle of adding a further motion that Osiris should be punished if he “resist(s) this ruling”, the Speaker is interrupted by Osiris, who says that banishing him “will not be necessary” as he and Sagira will “leave the City willingly.” Ikora, the narrator of the comic, confirms in the next panel that Osiris and Sagira did indeed leave the City, although it’s not clear from the comic when exactly they left.
Meeting in Curse of Foresight
Now let’s look at Curse of Foresight, one of the lore entries that was released with the Curse of Osiris dlc. This lore entry contains a text log of a Consensus meeting. Unlike the meeting in the comic, it seems that this meeting was a private one with only members of the Consensus present. In this meeting, the Speaker says that he has decided to banish Osiris from the City. No one present at the meeting objects to the Speaker’s decision.
On first glance, it may appear that the comic and the Curse of Foresight lore entry give different accounts of the Consensus meeting where Osiris was banished from the City. However, it is more likely that the meeting in the lore entry took place after the meeting in the comic. Osiris wasn’t actually officially banished in the meeting in the comic since the motion put forward by the Speaker, that Osiris be banished, wasn’t officially passed by the Consensus. It makes sense that the Speaker would have wanted to hold another Consensus meeting after the one in the comic so that he could make Osiris’ banishment official. That said, there is no way to know for sure with the information available currently if this meeting did take place after the one in the comic, or if they are alternate versions of the same meeting.
Timing of Osiris’ Departure from the City
If the meeting in Curse of Foresight took place after the meeting in the comic, then this raises the question of whether Osiris was still in the City when this second meeting took place or if he had already left. Going by Curse of Foresight alone, it seems that this question could be answered either way. At the start of the text log, Hideo says, “I note for the record that we are without a Warlock Vanguard or a Vanguard Commander.” This could mean that they were without a Warlock Vanguard or a Vanguard Commander because Osiris had already left the City, or it could mean that he was still in the City but he was absent from the meeting.
Two other lore entries suggest that Osiris was most likely still in the City when this second meeting took place. In Sol Pariah 6, Osiris says to Ikora, “This meeting was prophesied. As is my impending banishment.” She replies, “Then you had ample warning.” The past tense “had” suggests that he had already been officially banished at this point. “Impending” could mean that he had prophesised his banishment but he hadn’t been officially banished yet, or it could mean that he’d been officially banished but his banishment hadn’t technically started since he hadn’t left the City yet. The second interpretation would tie in better with the past tense “had”. If it was the first interpretation, then it would make more sense for Ikora to say, “Then you have ample warning.”
In Sails of Osiris, Ikora says to Osiris, “Then you understand why I must remain; to continue to lead as you once led.” This seems to imply that she has already been made the official Warlock Vanguard, which is what happened in the meeting in Curse of Foresight. So both Sol Pariah 6 and Sails of Osiris provide evidence which suggests that Osiris was probably still in the City when he was officially banished.
So far, it looks like we have the following timeline of events leading up to Osiris’ banishment: meeting in the comic -> second meeting where Osiris is officially banished (Curse of Foresight) -> Osiris leaves the City. However, there are several inconsistencies between the comic and other lore sources which raise questions about the accuracy of this timeline.
Problems with the Timeline of Osiris’ Banishment
In the Deep Storage mission, Sagira says that Ikora led the group that exiled Osiris. Yet this is not what happened in the comic, or in the lore entries. When asked about the inconsistency between Sagira’s line and what happened in the comic, Christine Thompson, a Senior Narrative Lead at Bungie, said that Sagira was only present for the end of the meeting in the comic, not all of it, so she didn’t hear Ikora defending Osiris. The problem is that this doesn’t explain why Sagira would have assumed that it was Ikora who led the group when she would have heard the Speaker saying that Osiris should be banished. Plus in the lore entries Sol Pariah 6, Sagira’s Shell, and Sails of Osiris, Ikora goes to visit Osiris before he leaves the City by herself, not in a group. There is no mention anywhere, other than the line in the Deep Storage mission, of Ikora leading a group to exile Osiris.
Another contradiction is that in the comic Ikora is defensive of Osiris, yet in the lore entries she is quite critical of him. As mentioned previously, in the comic Ikora says that she believes Osiris when he says that the Vex are a threat and that she thinks that they will not survive without him. Yet in Sails of Osiris, she calls his interest in the Vex an “obsession” and tells him, “I choose to stay and fight what’s real.” This implies that she doesn’t think that the Vex are a real threat, contrary to what she said in the comic. In Sol Pariah 6, she also says, “Winning by your terms is no victory.” This is quite a contrast from when she said that they wouldn’t survive without Osiris. There doesn’t seem to be any reasonable explanation from the information currently available as to why Ikora would have changed her view on Osiris and the Vex so drastically.
Furthermore, if Ikora truly thought that Osiris was essential for their survival, then why didn’t she object to the Speaker’s decision to banish him in the second meeting in Curse of Foresight? If Osiris was still in the City at that point, as the other lore entries suggest, then there would have been a chance that he could have stayed and helped them. So why didn’t Ikora speak up, as she did at the meeting in the comic?
Timing of Osiris’ Banishment in Relation to Twilight Gap
There is another question relating to the timeline of Osiris’ banishment: was Osiris officially banished before or after the Battle of Twilight Gap? If we go by what Ikora says in the comic, it seems that the meeting in the comic was set prior to Twilight Gap. In the panel before the meeting, Ikora says, “But before we could face our enemies, we had to settle the war amongst ourselves.” This is right after Shaxx says, “And war is coming. It’s coming to our City.” If Twilight Gap had already happened at this point, they would be talking in the past tense.
However, @DancingViru has pointed out that if the meeting in the comic was held before Twilight Gap, then Lakshmi shouldn’t be present at the meeting. According to Ghost Fragment: The City Age, Future War Cult wasn’t invited to join the Consensus until after Twilight Gap. So Lysander from the Concordat should be at this meeting, not Lakshmi.
Leaving aside for the moment when the meeting in the comic took place, let’s return to the meeting in Curse of Foresight. Did this meeting take place before Twilight Gap, or after? There’s no way of knowing for sure since we don’t have an exact date for when the Battle of Twilight Gap took place. Nor is there any mention anywhere of who was Vanguard Commander or Warlock Vanguard during this battle. However, there are a few clues that suggest that the meeting probably took place after Twilight Gap.
We know from the Iron Banner Rep card that Saladin “led the City’s defense during the Battle of Twilight Gap.” Yet there is no record of Saladin ever being Vanguard Commander. According to Curse of Foresight, Zavala was made Vanguard Commander after Osiris; there was no other Vanguard Commander in between. Although there’s no reason given for why Saladin was leading the defence if someone else was Commander at the time, if Osiris was still Commander at this point but was not present at the Battle, then perhaps Saladin stepped in to lead in his absence, or at least was asked to lead. If Zavala was the Vanguard Commander at this point, it would have been strange for Saladin to have been leading the defence instead of him.
There is also an item description that suggests that Osiris was banished after Twilight Gap. The description for Mark of the Exile says:
“Though the City won a great battle at Twilight Gap, it lost an even greater mind.” — Sister Lupe
The name of this “greater mind” is not mentioned, but it is quite possible that it is referring to Osiris. The quote is from someone named Sister Lupe. If the title “Sister” is similar to how Vance is also known as “Brother Vance”, then perhaps she’s one of the members of the Cult of Osiris, which would tie in with the mark being from the Trials of Osiris. Furthermore, the only two people who are known to have been exiled from the City are Osiris and Toland. Although it’s not out of the question that this description could be referring to Toland, or perhaps someone else who died at Twilight Gap, it seems most likely that it is referring to Osiris, given that it is a Trials of Osiris item. If Sister Lupe is indeed a member of the Cult of Osiris, then it’s more likely that she would be referring to Osiris than someone else.
If the meeting in Curse of Foresight was held after Twilight Gap, then it raises the question: why didn’t Osiris leave the City earlier? He said in the comic that banishing him wouldn’t be necessary because he would willingly leave the City. So why didn’t he leave immediately, or at least soon after this first meeting? It’s unclear how long the Battle of Twilight Gap lasted, or how long a time period would have passed between the meeting in the comic and Twilight Gap. But surely Osiris would have had ample time to leave before the second meeting where he was officially banished.
Conclusion
Unfortunately it’s not possible to put together a definite timeline of the events leading to Osiris’ banishment with the information we have available. Is the meeting in the comic a separate meeting from the meeting in Curse of Foresight, or are they alternate versions of the same meeting? Did the meeting in the comic take place before Twilight Gap, as Ikora’s narrative suggests, or after, as the presence of Lakshmi at the meeting implies? Was the meeting in Curse of Foresight held after Twilight Gap, as the Mark of Exile suggests (although the description is so vague that it’s difficult to be certain who it’s talking about)? Why was Ikora defensive of Osiris in the comic, but critical of him in the lore entries? What could have happened that would have caused her to change her view so drastically on Osiris and the Vex?
For the moment, it seems like the most likely timeline is that first the meeting in the comic took place, then the meeting in Curse of Foresight was held to make Osiris’ banishment official. After this second meeting Osiris left the City. However, there are still problems and inconsistencies that throw the accuracy of this timeline into doubt.
TL;DR: The most likely timeline of events leading up to Osiris’ banishment is the following: meeting in the comic -> second meeting where Osiris was officially banished (Curse of Foresight) -> Osiris leaves the City. However, there are inconsistencies that raise questions about the accuracy of this timeline.
