Destiny 2 Lore About Someone Unfamiliar
Destiny 2’s lore books hold some incredible stories tucked inside them; from alternative perspectives on seasonal events to histories of places and people from deep within its past, many narratives exist without connection back into its main narrative arc; one such narrative called Dust may well be its best representation; it follows Lavinia Garcia Umr Tawil through her life’s journey as Cryptarch of Destiny II.
Back when Season of the Drifter/Joker’s Wild was introduced in Destiny 2, its Dust Lore Book could be obtained by scanning items located within Reckoning activity. Structured as an inquiring into Things Man Was Never Meant to Know, Lavinia used this book as she investigated more into who or what makes up what are known as The Nine entities.
Lavinia, who learned of her birth from hearing about it from her mother’s account of what occurred at birth from hearing from an Ahamkara bone found by Lavinia’s birth day witch mother on Venus, finds Xur in the Tower hangar and asks him about what this dust contained; instead of receiving satisfactory answers she begins searching through archives in hopes of discovering more information on Nine; but Ikora Rey discovers her and reports her theft to a tribunal and exiles her from Last City.
She then arrives on the Reef, gathering intelligence from Eliksni. Unfortunately for her though, she falls prey to Awoken apprehension and sentence of life imprisonment for spying. Redeemed from jail by Paladin Kamala Rior, she’s brought aboard warship by Paladin Kamala Rior to study Calus’ Leviathan Leviathan where they see Nine “reaching out” toward Calus’ Leviathan but before she could report this information back to Last City she is taken back into jail before ever reaching this information could reach Last City authorities.
Lavinia manages to flee prison by paying off a Corsair to take her on board the space station Cocytus, where she soon becomes lost and alone. Fearful of recapture by Paladin Rios, Lavinia leaps through one of Cocytus’ Golden Age gates before coming face-to-face with The Nine, who explain they represent all planetary masses in our solar system: shadows cast across its landscape by light from sunlit worlds like Venus.
“Lavinia had an unexpected shock of understanding about where The Nine have always existed: within everyone and every system; each living thing; trillions and pentillions of slim dark matter tentacles that penetrate all our bodies to consume our thoughts and lives and become pinched silhouettes impaled on infinite spiderlegs.”
Lavinia meets Orin and hears him tell her she’s no longer safe from danger – too late as Lavinia has already been taken out of Nine’s reality and rebuilt into another reality with “clever-looking old lady”, who encourages her not to fear but that “you have come exactly where you belong – somewhere appreciated and where all your knowledge can truly benefit us all – I remember telling you then you were very fortunate, don’t you recall?”?
Have you guessed who Savathun was yet? “Lucky” Lavinia’s entire life appeared to have been orchestrated by Savathun so as to gain information on the Nine. Damn.
Lavinia has only been mentioned once since being introduced through the Dust lore book: In Season of Arrivals, in one of Drifter’s quest steps notes “meeting Lavinia out there in the nothin'” and speculates whether or not Lavinia found what she sought for. But according to Savathun who loves knowledge and Lavinia who craves secret, both found true homes within Savathun’s court.
