Secret ‘Destiny 2’ Portal Offers Post-Final Shape Vex Episode Clues

While we are officially done with Destiny 2’s main Season of the Wish story, something just happened this week that is probably more interesting than the entire “how do we get through the portal” plot of the season itself.

That would be the grand finale of the Starcrossed mission, which takes place in an Ahamkara lair inside the Black Garden. For four weeks, players have been slowly reaching toward a portal at the end of the final boss room. Inside is the final Starcat for challenge completion, but more pressingly, an Ishtar Collective logo made of Vex architecture.

There is no accompanying voicework or lore books with its discovery, but it’s clearly there for a reason, and what it feels like is a hint toward a Vex storyline to come. Specifically the events of the first post-Final Shape episode, which we’ve been told is focused on the Vex. Previously, Bungie writers have also mentioned that the Vex have seemed ripe for more exploration, given that they’re probably the least fleshed-out faction so far.

For this development, we’ve already gotten a bunch of theorizing from players and it’s caught the interest of our favorite loremaster, MyNameisByf, who put out a fast video on the topic. Here’s a refresher on what you need to know about the Ishtar Collective, their study of the Vex and how they might have ended up inside the Black Garden to craft a symbol like this.

• The Ishtar Collective studied a Vex Goblin who ended up simulating them, a few hundred copies of them, in fact. This situation unsettled the Collective who realized they were more than likely a simulation themselves. Eventually they turned to Rasputin who extracted all the copies of the researchers from the Vex.
• The “real” versions of the team, including Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi would go on to Neptune to found the Neomuna colony, which we learned in Lightfall, powered by The Veil, the paracausal object the Vex were trying to build a copy of with the Black Heart.

• The extracted copies of the Ishtar team were put into the Vex network to explore and research there to find secrets to help humanity in its fight against the Vex.
• The copies made contact with Praedyth, a member of Kabr’s lost fireteam from the Vault of Glass. Others ended up finding their way into the Black Garden itself.
• The idea is that some of the copies studied the Black Garden and attempted to gain an advantage over the specific Witness loyalist Vex, the Sol Divisive.
• Back on Neomuna Maya Sundaresh ran many experiments with Vex tech and the Veil, ultimately creating Lakshmi-2 with her partial memories. But later she was found dead in the seat of the Veil interface, and it’s unclear what exactly happened, and where her original consciousness might be.

So, what does all this mean? The implication would be that the copies of the team in the Black Garden may be responsible for this symbol, meaning we might be able to meet them in the future Vex episode. This also opens up the possibility to reunite with Praedyth, if that’s someone the copies also found at some point, and Bungie does love bringing its lost characters back in various forms. Saint-14 went from whispered legend to Trials vendor, after all.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Maya Sundaresh has a large role to play going forward here, given the mystery surrounding her death, her use of The Veil and her study of the Vex. My theory is that the Vex have lacked a face and a voice for far too long, meaning creating at true “villain” for the Vex with an actual personality has been close to impossible. But what about say, a Vex constructed Maya Sundaresh? While her exo copy Lakshmi-2 is dead, the original Maya likely went somewhere, and if she returns I mean, I can’t think of a better antagonist voice than Lakshmi actor Shohreh Aghdashloo, who I bet would return for the role.

So, all we really have is speculation now, but I do believe the Ishtar symbol is a clear hint about where we’re going in episode 1, with a bunch of possibilities for what that could mean. Looking forward to that.

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