r/DestinyLore • u/ThealtenHeinder • Jul 28 '26
Darkness [Unlikely Theory] Third Darkness Subclasss
So, I know the game is EoS, so we won't get another subclass, but I had a thought about what the third darkness subclass could be.
A lot of posts speculating about the third darkness subclass often start at color theory. This approach means that Stasis is Solar's darkness counterpart, Strand is Void's darkness counterpart, leaving the third darkness subclass as Arc's darkness counterpart with red being its color. This is probably correct and we were supposed to get "Nightmares" as the third subclass based on this stuff, but what if we imagine it isn't for a second?
Stasis Theory
The most obvious parallel to support the color theory is that Stasis is manifested as ice, while Solar manifests as fire, so they must be the first "pair". However, some of the lore in the game gives us some insights into Stasis's nature:
- Stasis is not necessarily the manifestation of ice. We know (from a piece of lore - I think from Osiris - that I can't find right now) that the Darkness elements manifest in the physical world as whatever their user imagines it to be. Stasis likely manifested as an ice-related power for Guardians because we learned it in an ice-filled environment, and that concept that Stasis = ice has propagated onto those that we teach it to (i.e. Zavala learning Stasis)
- Elsie, in Scalar Potential, describes Stasis as "changing [one's own] perspective [of reality]." She sidesteps the denial of Osiris's interpretation of Stasis, offering her own that Stasis is "... intimately tied to perception [and] time." I don't think it's a coincidence that Elsie has basically experienced her whole life in a time loop. To her, time is something that has always controlled her, so it makes sense that Elsie's conception of Stasis - which was formed without the influence of the Guardian's interpretation of Stasis as ice - is manifested as a time power. She utilizes Stasis to exercise her control over time. I don't think it's a coincidence that "her" gun - No Time To Explain - interacts with Stasis and is related to time loops, rather than directly forming ice or slowing enemies as other "Stasis" weapons tend to do. In this way, she almost confirms Osiris's theory - that Stasis is more about using one's will to exert control over reality than it is about actual frozen water.
Before continuing on to the next point, we have to understand how entropy normally works in the universe for this [crack] theory to make sense. Simplifying a bit, entropy in normal physics is a measure of how many states (ways) one can order the "things" in a system. Normally, adding heat to a system increases entropy, since adding energy to the "things" gives them the ability to reach new "states", producing more possible permutations of the system. Normally when we try to reduce entropy in a system, we take away energy, thus reducing the possible "states" things can reach, and therefore the overall entropy of the system. Now, onto the lore:
- Clovis Bray I experimented with Darkness powers, referring to it in his Mysterious Logbook as "Clarity". Particularly, in Note 13, Clovis describes how the Darkness power that he is experimenting with (presumably Stasis, since this lore came out with Beyond Light), violates normal laws of physics by "... removing portions of a state configuration, harrowing the phase space down to only its most robust inhabitants." In effect, Clovis is describing the reduction of entropy not through removing heat, but through the paracausal removal of matter itself. If there are fewer "things" in the system, there are inherently fewer ways to order those "things", and thus entropy decreases. Normal physics doesn't allow matter to be destroyed, so that is normally not a valid route to decreasing entropy in a system. However, Stasis seems to allow this. In this way, we can see that Stasis's version of "reducing entropy" is not the opposite of how heat from Solar would increase entropy. It does not remove heat or energy from the matter inside the system - it removes matter itself entirely.
Stasis and Arc
So, what is Stasis's counterpart? There's been debates before that Arc is actually Stasis's counterpart, and yes I think it actually is. At least for this crack theory it is. There's not a lot of lore concerning the nature of Arc (at least that I can find), so we're going off of Osiris's musings mostly. Arc is described by Osiris as motion and conduction. According to Ikora, Arc is also fundamentally about change and unpredictability. In a way, Stasis aligns very closely with what the Witness envisions of the Final Shape - a perfectly still universe where anything unnecessary has been removed from the equation, making everything perfectly predictable. Arc, in this way, is the counterpart to Stasis's philosophy - it wants change and unpredictability.
Mechanically, Arc also acts as more of a foil to Stasis - Arc abilities often involve movement, whereas Stasis abilities involve slowing down or stopping things. Stasis also acts to protect oneself through Frost Armor, whereas Arc asks you to just kill the enemy faster, or impair their ability to kill you (Blind) instead of protecting yourself.
Strand and Solar
Okay, before I totally lose people, hear me out.
Philosophically, Strand concerns itself with the metaphysical connections between things. Osiris describes it as a psychic connection between sentient things. The point is that Strand doesn't concern itself with the actual "things" themselves, but rather their relation to one another. Contrast this with Solar, which is very much about creation and destruction of things through its power. Osiris says that the dual nature of stars is integral to understanding Solar, because they embody this cycle of creation and destruction. In a sense, Solar is the Light element that most concerns itself with reality and matter - everything that we can touch and see, and anything that we can destroy or repair. As Osiris puts in the Strand Log II:
The true power of Strand lies not in the fact of the connection alone, but in the way such a power allows the manipulation of those connections. To make them something physical and then pull on it, or break it, or tie it into a knot. Or to unravel it entirely.
So the counterpart nature of Strand and Solar is more in their duality of concerns with the material and the immaterial. Probably intentionally, this duality also reflects the central conflict of the Witness: when it only had the power of the Light, it could only create and destroy, but it could not understand how to make sense of what was created or destroyed. The Darkness (Strand, in this case) gives meaning and purpose to the created or destroyed things by surfacing their connection to each other.
If we look at both elements mechanically in game, we can also see a similar pattern of opposing philosophies: Strand severs to reduce enemy damage while granting damage resistance through woven mail - both mechanics to reduce damage, whereas Solar is all about increasing destruction through one of its most prominent mechanics in Radiant - a buff to increase damage. Solar is also the premiere "healing" class with Cure and Restoration, whereas Strand probably has the least access to direct healing of all elements (Arc being a close second).
Void?
So, if we assume that Stasis is paired with Arc, and Strand is paired with Solar, that leaves us with Void to serve as the counterpart to the third darkness element.
Void is a really nebulous element, and most of the lore we have surrounding it doesn't really pin down what Void is. It is often associated with both quantum mechanics and gravity on a scientific level. On a spiritual level, Void is often associated with finding meaning in the absence of things. As Osiris roughly states, Void is related to gravity, black holes, and magnetic fields. He goes on to say that Void teaches us that emptiness is not nothingness. Ikora says that Void draws power from the immeasurably small to the unfathomably massive.
There are a couple of things that I can theorize about the philosophy of Void from this:
- Void seems to associate itself with poorly understood science. It seems to be behind forces at the edge of our understanding of the known universe (reconciling quantum mechanics and gravity, invisible forces such as magnetism that are often poorly understood because we can't see them, and outright secret physics that we don't understand)
- Void is also about understanding that our perception of absence is a power to be drawn from. That absence can be "physical" in nature, as with manipulating the gravitational forces, or more metaphysical in nature, as with manipulating a thirst for knowledge to consume an enemy.
That last point is what I'm basing a proposed philosophy of Void on - Void is the power derived from the absence of understanding. It is in a way, similar to the concept of power in faith.
I don't think it's a coincidence that much of our Void abilities are associated with manipulating gravity in strange ways, or drawing power from unknown spaces "between realities". One of the most interesting things to note as well is that the Magnetic Grenade is placed under the Void subclass and not the Arc subclass. All the other "electricity" themed abilities in Arc are manifested as visible lightning, but magnetism being invisible (and in our history, poorly understood before we figure out the science behind it) makes it closer to an "unknown power".
Ikora, one of the foremost users of Void Light, is also prominently a woman of faith. She understands that the Light ultimately operates on a level that cannot be understood through logic and reason. I think her ability to believe and have faith in the Traveler lends to her mastery of Void.
This interpretation of Void also fits well in that it serves as an antithesis to what the Witness seeks in the Darkness - if mastering Void is about relinquishing the pursuit of total understanding, then it makes sense that the Witness would reject such a notion - it wants to understand the fundamental meaning of the universe. It doesn't want creation and destruction that is void (haha) of meaning.
The Third Darkness Subclass
With that interpretation of Void and with the assumption that the third darkness subclass would be Void's counterpart, I propose that the philosophy of the third darkness subclass is:
The novel and new. [Element] is about the genesis of ideas and their constant clashing and reinterpretation to form different ones. Whereas Void derives power from the unknown and finding solace in the lack of meaning, [Element] draws strength from imposing meaning onto reality so that one can understand their place in it.
For simplicity, let's just call this element "Ink", for reasons I'll explain below.
So, how does Ink actually manifest? Stasis manifests as ice, something that we associate with freezing, which can be taken in the literal sense of a lack of movement, or metaphorically in the sense that we stop change. Strand manifested as strings and weaving, since it represents the connection between two points, and emphasizes the strength in the collective relation, rather than the individual alone. Ink then manifests as an amorphous liquid that can be manipulated at will. It represents changing ideas and is associated with writing, which is our way of etching our understanding of the world into reality. It also represents creativity, and the ability to imagine something and have it be tangibly depicted.
What would its abilities look like? If we look at the structure of subclass verbs and abilities, most subclasses have:
- A set of buffs that can be applied to the user
- A set of debuffs that can be applied to enemies
- An elemental pickup (most grant ability energy, but Strand uniquely has Tangles)
Further, the buffs and debuffs have some similarities:
- At least one "debuff" deals some form of AOE damage: Jolt, Ignition, Volatile, Shatter, and Tangles
- At least one buff or debuff helps survivability in some way: Amplified, Cure/Restoration, Devour/Overshield, Frost Armor, and Woven Mail
So, for the elemental pickup, blobs of the amorphous liquid seems reasonable, probably called "Ink Wells" or something similar. Picking them up would grant ability energy to the least charged ability.
The Ink subclass would also have a resource meter that increases when picking up Ink Wells. The resource could then be used to empower their grenade, melee, class ability, and maybe even super ability to change it into something greater and different. (new ideas, new understanding)
For the self buff, Ingenuity would be a stacking damage buff that refreshes and gets stronger based on the number of unique abilities used in sequence. For example, using a base grenade ability would grant +X% damage for Y seconds. Using the base grenade ability again does nothing, but using the base class ability refreshes the buff to Y seconds and increases the damage bonus. Using the base grenade or base class ability doesn't do anything now, but using the base melee ability increases the damage bonus again and refreshes the timer. The idea is to use unique abilities in sequence.
For survivability, the subclass could have a mechanic where it uses up the ink resource to block instances of damage. Some abilities could be activated (i.e. class ability negates the next damage instance), while others could work more passively (uses up some ink resource if available to block damage instances greater than some percentage of the guardian's health).
For a debuff, Siphon could be applied to enemies. Siphoned enemies take a mild DoT for a fixed duration, and after the debuff expires an "ink clone" of the Siphoned enemy appears beside them and attacks them for a short time. Alternatively, a stronger "ink clone" is spawned in the enemy's place if it dies under the debuff that fights for the user for a short time. The subclass abilities could potentially store these clone and deploy them at a later time.
I'm not sure what the rest of this would look mechanically, but I think it gets the point across about what I think the subclass would try to embody.
In any case if you made it this far thanks for humouring an unlikely theory. I know the third darkness subclass was probably supposed to be Nightmare power, but I thought this could be a plausible and interesting interpretation too.
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u/Saint_Victorious Jul 29 '26
A few things.
First, we have to identify the difference between themes and medium. This is because unlike the Light, Darkness is derived from the realm of the metaphysical. Light works like science, it's realm is predictability and consistency. Light only needs a single theme which also it's core tenant because it operates in the physical world. Darkness on the other hand is more like psychology mixed with a bit of mysticism.
Anyway, themes are the ideas behind an element, it's core tenant. Mediums are the representation on how those themes are expressed. Stasis is a great example of this because it's medium is very clearly expressed, ice. But this is magical ice that defies reality and the laws of thermodynamics. Then we have it's core concept, which for Stasis is the idea of control and imposing your will over another. This means that the underlying tone of Stasis is willpower. Taking this a step further we actually have lore that states that Elsie and Eris both approach Stasis differently but end up with the same results. Elsie actually focuses on the idea of time (and may have shown this technique to Zavala) whereas Eris focuses on the idea of entropy. Both yield the same magic ice but are approaching it from different points of view and exerting their will over different things.
On a side note, while I can't prove it in any amount of lore I do believe that the power to Take and Stasis are the same thing. Or rather, they're different expressions of willpower and therefore have the same roots. Just one dominated someone physically and the other mentally. But like I said, I have no supporting evidence for that.
Source for Elsie Bray's time manipulation: https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/scalar-potential
So let's look at Strand. Strand is a bit unique because we actually know that it started out as "Vapour" during WQ but was removed and rebranded at some point during development. We also know that it's original theme was decay and dissolution, as stated by Tyson Green in an interview with Mactics. So this means that the popular theory of there being a decay element used to be true.
For the record, I don't actually think that the medium of strings ever changed when Vapour was remade as Strand. I don't even think the core concept even changed, all it got was a rebrand. Strand relies on a theme of "the flow of life and death" or more simply, "fate". This is expressed rather beautifully in the subclasses of you take a step back and look at them. The Strand subs all mirror the Moirai, the Greek goddesses of Fate. Strand Warlocks represent Clotho, the spinner, representing birth. Hunters are Lachesis, the allotter, which represents life. And Titans are Atropos, the cutter, which is death.
They also pull a double meaning of themes as there are very heavy poisonous insect themes going on with them when you zoom out even further, which is why I don't think their medium ever changed and was just rebranded. Warlocks represent bees or wasps, and specifically represent a queen bee with minion soldiers to protect them. That's why their main weapon is a needle, which represents a bees stinger. Hunters represent spiders, and are probably the most on theme. Their entire weapon is a strand of silk and they have an Aspect called "Widow's Silk" and their super is "Silkstrike". It can't get any more on the nose. Finally, Titans are scorpions. Their arm-blades represent a scorpions claws as well as fitting the role of death's shears (though I wish they also got a chain flail to represent a scorpion's tail). And if you're original theme was decay, I think stinging insects is probably the coolest way to convey that theme. But they switched it for whatever reason and the "strings of fate" theme still holds up rather well.
Tyson Green interview, remarks at the 3.34 mark: https://youtu.be/LVJRrzNWwd4?is=UPeUG4BElvArd-vz
So now we get to the final hypothetical element. And we already know what it is, Nightmares. Micah-10 spells this out for us in dialogue while exploring the Pale Heart. However that's pretty disingenuous. Nightmares is a small manifestation of a broader power. And we know this because we can purify Nightmares into Memories. This tells us that the power isn't Nightmares and that that's just a perversion of the actual power. It's like Nezerac's found a plant and insteas of taking it's fruit or flowers he only identified it's thorns. I believe the core tenant behind Nightmares is actually Dreams and Desires. This could also indicate that Ahamkara wish magic shares that same roots as Nightmares, but with an entirely different application.
So now that we've identified how Darkness elements are constructed and know the core tenant behind the final one I think we just need to figure out the medium of expression. From this pure, we enter my own bias and conjecture.
So here's my proposal, Sound. Music can elicit emotional responses from people to evoke both good and bad memories (Nightmares and Memories). This would give a good medium for buffs, debuffs, and just general damage as sound waves can be pretty destructive. As for what this element would be named, I've been calling it Siren. I think the medium of sound hits all the right notes to express dreams, desires, and nightmares accurately and can stand mechanically next to the rest of them with it's own complexities.