WTF is up with The Dreaming City?

Lore
#1

Okay, so my dad recently shared his readings of the Marasenna with me, and I have to say - I’m intrigued. I’m going to stay spoiler-free here. It’s a good read, and I recommend hunting these lore books for yourself in-game.

But after my dad shared it with me, I couldn’t help but wonder - what the hell is going on with the Dreaming City? Last time we saw Mara, she was quoting the Exo Stranger, and then just up an vanishes. Is she working alongside her now? What is going on?

So, I do what I always do - ask questions, hypothesize, theorize, philosiphy, wish I was 21 and stupid so I could drink these questions away (thankfully, I’m neither of those!) and do a bunch of research from as many sources as I can gather whilst keeping it simple.

But this? This is wierd for me. I have a lot of questions, and I barely know where to start.

So let’s start where I think we should - the Curse on the Dreaming City.

For those who don’t know - the Curse on the Dreaming City is like a narratively-better version of Groundhog’s Day - every three weeks, all events in the Dreaming City reset and happen again - the Awoken Courier can’t avoid getting shot, our Guardian can’t resist helping out, the Oracle Engine keeps on getting attacked, and our Guardian is constantly on the hook to help reclaim it, and every three weeks, we keep on visiting Mara in her court (until she vanished) and every three weeks, the Shattered Throne Dungeon returns (Bungie please make more Dungeons. Those are cool.) and we constantly kill Dul Incaru, the Eternal Return.

Which, now that I’m writing about it - brings up an idea for hypothesis - Dul Incaru keeps on coming back every three weeks, which is the exact same amount of time that the Curse resets to week 1, and her name is “The Eternal Return,” which tells me she probably has something to do with this whole curse thing. I don’t know. The weird thing is that we always kill her in the Ascendant Plane.

Again, for those who don’t know, if you kill a Hive in the Ascendant Plane/their throne world (I think they’re one in the same?) they die forever. It’s how we killed Crota, its how we killed Oryx. Find the Throne World, shoot the big guy until he dies, and leave before it collapses.

So why is Dul Incaru always coming back even when we’re killing her in the Ascendant Plane? Is it not her Throne World? The looks of the Ascendant Plane are similar to those of the Throne World that The Mindbender secured after killing Cayde-6, so does that mean the Ascendant Plane is a Throne World?

Elaborating off that - I came up with another idea (pardon these theory trails. I have a habit of doing them, but they sometimes seem like they lead somewhere.) What if we are killing Dul Incaru in a Throne World, but its not her Throne World? What if that Throne World belongs to another Hive deity? Maybe Savathun or another sister of Oryx? Maybe we didn’t shoot her with enough bullets to really kill her?

I don’t know. You guys discuss, and I’ll see what I can find across my Lore sources.

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#2

The Shattered Throne isn’t Dul’s Throne World, the Triumph you get for entering the Shattered Throne says for you to enter Mara’s Throne World. Meaning the Shattered Throne is possibly Mara’s Throne World.

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#3

The Ascendant Plane is where almost all Throne Worlds exist, but you have to be on said world in order to kill them. (Cuz really, Oryx’s Throne World is his ship, and not on the Ascendant Plane.)

#4

There is a difference between the Ascendant Plane, and a Throne world. Throne worlds reside within the Ascendant plane, and being killed within the Ascendant Plane sends you to the deepest realm within your Throne World.

#5

So, we have yet to find Dul Incaru’s throne world.

#6

I don’t know much about this topic but color me intrigued. This has lead to an interesting thought for me. Our Guardians are Ascendant, and have killed plenty of beings to give us a biiiiig ass Throne World. But if this is Mara’s Throne World… then what the hell has SHE been doing? I mean, you all probably know but I don’t.

Aside from that, if this is a time loop, do the Vex have something to do with this? Because the Sword Logic may allow some dominion over reality, but not time. So what is going on here? Could this be why Riven is able to be killed over and over? Or could this be the fallout of her death? Or perhaps, we are seeing the full power of the Taken…

#7

The Vex do. Read the Books, and you’ll find that this is Medusa trying to delay Savathun from finding the real Dreaming City. And thus empowering her Death Battery to impossible amounts, all to Quria’s dismay, of course.

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#8

You are correct in the idea that the Vex have something to do with this. Do you remember Quria? The idea why Oryx took Quria instead of just killing it for the Sword Logic was for a being to be both Acasual and Paracasual. That’s how the curse is resetting.

Also, the reason why Mara Sov has such a Throne World is because of the Reef Wars. Each Awoken, through being connected to her, killed Fallen which give tithe to her.

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#9

Alright! Thanks for the clarification guys!

#10

Actually I would disagree. It never stated that her Awoken tithed their kills to her so she can build an Ascendant realm. If so then Petra had nothing to cry about. Mara actually CREATED a realm with help from her Techeuns and a certain wish-granting dragon. Please note that this is the only ascendant realm not built about the Sword Logic.

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#11

Ah, interesting. I was always under the impression that the way she made her Throne world was through the Reef Wars.

Can I get the source for how she made it without the Sword logic?

#12

Of course, In the lore tab “Throne” it shows how they made her throne world and who made tinctures of Queensfoil.

#13

Thank you for this. +++++

#14

@everyone
Thank you all for the information and theories! I appreciate them immensely!