What are the Light and the Darkness?
I’m going to make the assumption that you know absolutely nothing about the title of this chapter, and so I will start at the very beginning.
What is the Darkness, and what is the Light?
Like the Nine have told us in the Prophecy Dungeon, there isn’t much of a difference between the two.
That’s because the Darkness and Light are but energy, tools of higher powers. Those powers are two beings, known as the Winnower and the Gardener.
The Winnower is in control of the Darkness, and the Gardener is in control of the Light.
From now on, I won’t be throwing around the terms light and dark but instead Gardener and Winnower. Those are the real players in this universe, and it’s important that the you know that.
So where did they come from and how did they first come into existence? The Winnower kindly gave us the lore book Unveiling after we completed Shadowkeep, and explained this for us.
The Origin of the Gardener and Winnower
There was a time before any universes existed (yes universes so dimensions are a thing), and by mathematical chance the Black Garden was created.
Two incredibly powerful beings were also created and placed in The Black Garden, a realm where the two could freely exercise their power.
One became known as the Gardener, a being who could bring nourishment to life and cause it to grow. The other would refer to itself as The Winnower, who had the ability to destroy life in its current form and to take it. These two extraordinary beings were the complete opposites of each other, and yet for an immeasurable amount of time they lived together in that Garden.
Their time together was spent in a never ending pattern. In the morning the Gardener would cause life to grow, and in the evening the Winnower would destroy the life that was weak. For in the Winnower’s logic, if something dies, it is because it deserved to die.
The Game of Life and Death
In the day between the morning and the night, the Gardener and the Winnower would play a game.
The game was concentrated around an infinite two dimensional grid of flowers. (I just imagine a box.)
The only move permitted in this game was the initial placing of the flowers in this grid. Depending on the state of the flowers and their neighbors, whether they be dead or alive, an action would take place.
For example rule three stated that a living flower with over three living neighbors would die from being overcrowded. The goal of this game was to use different initial arrangements of flowers to see if the outcome would be any different.
It always ended the same. No matter how the Gardener placed the flowers at the start, the outcome of the grid would always be the same, being the death of all the flowers inside. Soon, they became bored. The Winnower was content with the game, and believed the never changing end to be beautiful, majestic. It was at this moment, that everything changed.
The Gardener announced that they would create a new rule in the game. A rule that would reward those who make space for a new complexity. For those who steer the game away from a gridlock. The rule would ensure that there would always be someone building something new.
This decision infuriated the Winnower, as they believed that this would ruin the delicate balance that existed in the Garden.
They were right to fear this.
Determined to prevent the Gardener from changing the game, the Winnower fought them. Their fight was a powerful and devastating conflict, causing much destruction in the Garden. It was as a result of these ridiculously powerful beings clashing that the universes were created.
This is why we’re here.
That is why anything is here.
Life only exists, because of an accident.
Our universe and all the other dimensions were never meant to happen.
We are a mistake.
A mistake that could not be undone.
The Motivations of the Gardener and Winnower
The Winnower and the Gardener are not gods. They are not all knowing, they are not omnipresent, and they are certainly not all good or all evil. They have a purpose which is to take life, and to give it, and a game. The only difference between our universe, and the original Black Garden from before we existed, is that our universe is the playing field of the grid, and we are the flowers.
Now that I’ve explained what our universe is, and its purpose, I’ll fully expose the mindset and goals of the Winnower and Gardener.
There is our universe the world of Destiny exists in.
The pattern says that everything will die in the end. The Gardener hates this inevitability, and so empowers life if they can. The Winnower has no problem with the pattern of the game, but sees what the Gardener does as ruinous and chaotic, only causing suffering and pain.
When you combine this with the Winnower’s innate nature to kill that which is weak, you can understand why the Winnower is so determined to stop the Gardener. It is the natural order of the Universe that if something is weak, it cannot compete with strength, and so it dies. If the Gardener is going around giving everyone Golden Ages, then not only is the balance of the Universe being upset, but the Winnower’s purpose is being snubbed and denied. It’s a double whammy.
What you just read, that is the reason behind everything that has ever happened in this universe when it comes to the Winnower and Gardener, everything.
That my friends, is the Origin and History of the Light and Darkness in Destiny, as well as the beings who are control of them. My name is Ben, and I hope you learned something new.
Credits
| Program | Freedom! Scholarship |
| Author | Venextron |
| YouTuber | Venextron |
| Publisher | MGN TV |
| Game | Destiny 2 |