Seeing an “AI gains sentience and revolts” story in which the machine is trying to save everyone but is antagonized by humanity’s hubris is such a novel and refreshing take on the genre. The narrative team on Bungie really is pulling out all the stops in preparation for Lightfall

The irony that Clovis a man obsessed with making the human race immortal pretty much allowed the collapse to occur by stopping the AI trying to stop it, while Savathun at the time a follower of the witness stopped the collapse from completely succeeding

At first I wanted the bow because it was a cool Warmind bow.
Now I want it so I can bring her remaining sentience to Neomuna and go, "See? Look at this. These people are here because of you. You did good."

Quite a scary thought being so sentient that you’re able to feel yourself being slowly decompiled and shut down bit by bit with nothing you can do but purposely fragment yourself in hopes you can survive. Clovis is really a terrifying oddity all his own

"If the Telesto isn't sentient at this point, I don't know what's going on." Technically speaking, it is possibly Sentient since the energy in Telesto is from Mara's Harbingers used in the Battle of Saturn. Harbingers can "speak" or "sing" to the Techeuns who "bonded" to them.

Love the call out of sentient weapons finding their way to our guardian

once you've read destiny lore you'll never stop wanting to beat clovis bray to death with your bare hands

Forget this being some of the most insane lore in the season. This was probably the most engaging lore I've heard this year. It was bonechilling to see the number of habitable worlds drop to just 2 in real time. And that it was so bad that the ai just decided to launch all the pods because it was the best possible hope of humanitys survival. Really amazing writing from the bungie, and amazing coverage from byf as always.

Byf's reading as Sotaria makes me want him to be cast as an AI in a videogame or a movie.  He has a great delivery for the cold, computational inflection of voice in this video

There's a beautiful parallel here. What Dr. Maya Sundaresh was to Soteria is now what Anna Bray is to Rasputin.

Both taught the AIs to be sentient and to protect humanity. Also, the amazing season 19 artwork depicts an intimate moment between Ana & Rasputin while all Exos (possibly hinting at Clovis) pulling away threads meant to separate that bond & return control of the warmind to Clovis.

Great job, Bungie!

I find it amazing that Humanity made an AI so advanced they found and prepared for the Darkness and the Black Fleet way before we even had a clue about it.
Not only that but the fact that the AIs cooperate secretly to save humanity and also Rasputin willingly scrubbing any memory he has of Nefele Stronghold in order to protect both the AI fragment and the humans that went with it.

I love the AI conversation brakedown in the lore tabs better than any other. Its able to hold more mystery then a typical one, I think.

Idk if you noticed, but Soteria references an ancient Greek goddess of Deliverance and Salvation. Additionally, even the modern Greek "Sotiria" means salvation. Considering the bosses in the dungeon have Greek-adjacent names I doubt this is a coincidence. Bungie really loves that word.

One of the scariest things i know in the lore is the exact moments the AIs of the golden age realise humanity if doomed and start spewing code like panicking scientist.

If Neomuna originated from a single pod launched by the collective/brays, it could explain why the AI inside Quicksilver recognized Elsie as a bray and allowed her to fire it.

The lore this season has been fantastic, bouncing back and forth between the Golden Age and today. Secrets like Nefele Stronghold and Soteria's fate that were buried during a time on the very precipice of the Collapse, forgotten through the ages until being uncovered by present data archaeology as we struggle to return Rasputin to consciousness. I've always loved the lore surrounding the Collapse - certainly including what happened during the event itself and the immediate aftermath, but especially the moments just prior. Humanity was too drunk on its own power in the Golden Age to realize what was coming save for a scant few, but their own creations - the great Tyrant, Rasputin and associated AI - sensed the coming storm and did their best to save the species that they were created to defend.

I've been picking up every scrap of information from this season so none of this was new to me necessarily but this video and the wonderful work put into it helped make sense of the timeline of it all.

Something else worth noting is that if you have Hierarchy Of Needs and pull it out in the final room Soteria will have decipherable messages that when translated and put together read

"Attention all guardians, you represent us. This darkness must be stopped! When the fleet is ready for battle, help me find [Data indecipherable, most likely The Veil or Neomuna], maybe the Traveler will..." The message is ended at the exact moment Persys rips Soteria out of the Spire and she creates a submind to be placed into the Bow.

i loudly exclaimed "wow" at the end, it felt like a revelation almost. thats super cool that Soteria is the reason for Neomuna being there

Man, Strand is so interesting... a Darkness power that potentially requires a sort of "lack of strength" to wield, if the new trailer is any indication. It makes sense why the Witness and it's forces never figured it out, since strength is sort of their whole gimmick, and why it's going to be instrumental in defeating Xivu Arath.

It also shows that the Darkness is both much further reaching than what the philosophy of the Witness encompasses, and that there may be much more secrets about it that need to be discovered.

That last bit of her separating her mind gave me goosebumps, can’t wait to see how things unfold throughout the season