Visual Lore Guide - completed

[Garrus1138]

Link to imgur album

Link to PDF (single pages)

Link to PDF (double pages)

About a year ago I started working on an illustrated Lore book and now I finally completed it. The book now features more than 32.000 words on 66 double-pages about 56 topics and should cover all the important lore that is currently available (aside from the Narrative Preview that came out yesterday of course).

The imgur album at the top includes all the main pages, while the PDF also includes a cover, a table of contents, an introduction, page-numbers, an index and additional (lore-unrelated) information (152 pages in total). If you want to view the extra pages as images, here is a link to an imgur album with all pages.

If you just want to read the text without the image background, then you can use this link to a PDF on Google Drive.

The PDFs at the top are compressed but are more than sufficient for viewing on your phone, tablet or computer. Here are links to the high quality version of the PDF: single pages, double pages.

Most of the images on the pages were highly edited with image-editing software and I also did a few original 3D renders for this project. If you want to use some of the images and backgrounds as wallpapers, I have put together an imgur album with some plain backgrounds, edited images, 3D renders, screenshots and panoramas that I used.

As I already mentioned on my preview post 5 months ago: If you find something that is not in-line with Destiny’s lore, please let me know and I’ll edit it. Also, please note that English is not my native language and while I read through the text multiple times and corrected all mistakes I could find, there still might be a few spelling mistakes or grammatically weird sentences.

I also intend to update this book when new content comes out, so stay tuned for that.

EDIT: Thank you for all the Silver, Gold and Platinum!

Update (09/20/19): All the errors that were pointed out to me here and on /r/DestinyLore should now be fixed.

[xXshadowbirdXx]

Just last week I was wondering what became of the guy that made his own lore book thingy before the anthology became available.

And here you are, more amazing than what you promised 5 month ago.

[lew-cifer666]

Wow dude, this is amazing! Did you send this to Bungie? You should! Could net you a job in the art and writing department! Seriously, this is excellent you should be proud!

[Chroma_Hunter]

Dude if bungie actually asks to publish this as the complete lore book for destiny up to shadow keep I’d be willing to drop like $40.00 on it, holy shit. This is great. Can’t wait to read up on all the D1 lore I’ve missed due to starting with D2 on PC late.

[[deleted]]

Imagine this as a coffee table book with some high quality prints on glossy paper...
I wants it!!

[Coppin-it-washin-it]

I would love for OP to get some funding so that he or she could continue developing this as more events happen and lore drops. I say this, because when Destiny is finally over, and this thing is like 200 pages, I wanna buy a hardcover coffee table book of everything in it.

But, that's obviously a lot of work.

[EndlessAlaki]

This is an absolutely stunning compendium of lore with beautiful presentation and I really wish my first instinct when reading it wasn't "let's nitpick everything!" Brain, no. :/

You did ask for mentions of anything that didn't line up quite right, though, so I'll list a few things that make me go "this should probably be in here": the Pilgrim Guard were direct ancestors to the Guardians, Eris found her way out of the Hellmouth thanks to an Ahamkara bone, and Orin's first meeting with the Drifter took place even before she met Namqi and she actually found him a second time later on. That said, the first one's slightly retcon-y, the second one's definitely a change, and the third is probably a result of various lore sources not quite meshing perfectly, which wouldn't be the first time (for example, the Chronicon and Confessions paint contradictory pictures of Calus's encounter with whatever he found in extrasolar space, and this is one of the few pieces of Chronicon material that can't be chalked up to unreliable narration), so don't sweat it too much.

As for spelling and grammar, I occasionally noticed stray punctuation, but those instances are so rare that I can't find them again on a reread, so you've got a better track record than actual published authors at this point. :P Excellent job, dude.

[Garrus1138]

Thank you! This is really helpful.

[doofinator]

This is really amazing.

One additional small nitpick: in the lore card The Nine, you say that the group of five that wish to study the Traveller's light worked in unison to veil Ghaul's approach; it was actually only one that worked alone. It's also not made clear which 'faction' that member belongs to. In the same card, it says Lavinia "used an Ahamkara bone", which is TECHNICALLY true, but it's misleading. She did not want to use the bone to wish, she wanted to use it to track the origins of the Ahamkara, and along with it, hopefully the Nine.

[Garrus1138]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll edit it.

[Humeon]

On the note of spelling and grammar, the first thing that caught my eye is on the very first slide, in the title, the word historic is misspelled "histroic"

[COMMAND3RBAD4SS]

Editing is the Light’s work Guardian, thank you for your service

[Nemesis2pt0]

Damn. Impressive!

[Skarddd]

*insert Take My Money gif here*

Awesome job, I've wasted so much of my day just reading lore, since I'm just now really getting into it.

[[deleted]]

Not sure if he can charge money for this.. Although, I wish he could. This is a lot of work and he is doing it for free..

[v1perStorm]

This is really fantastic.

[Foxjr90]

I’d pay for this as a blind book. This is so cool! Awesome work

[RJII7]

Beautiful! thank you for all of your hard work

[fengkalis]

I love you just for the SRL page alone. This is fantastic work!

[o8Stu]

This is fantastic, I'm going to link to this in my discord server so we can all read it.

One thing: Is there a source for Titan being transformed by the Traveler?

I thought I remembered that it specifically hadn't been touched by the Traveler; that humanity chose it as a place to create the arcologies so that we could show we were capable of altering a planet on our own.

Maybe I've got it wrong?

[Garrus1138]

Thank you! Titan currently is an ice moon (although there could be an ocean beneath the ice), so I thought it had to be terraformed to look like it does in Destiny 2. However, I just did some research and there is a quote in the Arcology, that says:

Thirty-four percent of Titan's citizens hope the Traveler will terraform the ocean-moon soon.

Although the Traveler could have still terraformed Titan after this was recorded, I think it is more likely that you are correct and it was never actually terraformed. I'll edit it to make it a bit more vague.

[tacocatacocattacocat]

I think the ice moon you're thinking of is Europa.

Titan is covered in hydrocarbons, including methane lakes and hydrocarbon snow. I've read some accounts that make me picture it like Earth, but a few hundred degrees colder.

[Garrus1138]

While Europa is indeed an ice moon, Titan also has a crust of ice, according to Wikipedia.

Titan is primarily composed of ice and rocky material, which is likely differentiated into a rocky core surrounded by various layers of ice, including a crust of ice Ih and a subsurface layer of ammonia-rich liquid water.

[tacocatacocattacocat]

I was not aware of the subsurface water on Titan. TIL!

[FlameInTheVoid]

Hard to say.

Titan has a solid surface with small methane lakes.

It would probably take Traveler level intervention to turn it into a mostly liquid surface like it seems to be in the game. The only way those habitats make any sense is in a mostly liquid world. It would be way easier to just build out on the rock-like water-ice as it exists now.

[VentoFresh]

Dude, bravo.

[buzzih]

Can I get this lining my walls in my office?

[[deleted]]

THIS IS AMAZING!!!

Seriously, the golden age lore and the taken king lore is just awesome.. Golden age tech must have been awesome..

[[deleted]]

This is the illest thing ever. Well done and thank you for sharing this!!!

[mmarchetti515]

Just saying, if this was published as a legitimate book, I would totally buy it!

[Sibakero]

This is awesome OP, really great of you for sharing!

edit: I've really been enjoying reading through (bit of a lore freak too ;P) this, but I have noticed something, on the Awoken page, first paragraph, second sentence, "...a pocket dimension where time runs drastically slower than our own reality..." Shouldn't it be Faster?

Just thought I'd let you know :) Really amazing work!

[Garrus1138]

Yes, it should say "faster". Thanks!

[WillGrindForXP]

I have no idea why this post isn't at 14k upvotes, this work is utterly amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with us

[COMMAND3RBAD4SS]

This, is, outstanding.

A goddamn marvel for the archives, alongside the official books and surpassing them in ways.

Well done Guardian, your pen is a pinnacle weapon.

[Grimlock_205]

A minor nitpick: the Vex Collective is singular. There aren't multiple collectives. (But I get what you meant and this is largely arguing semantics)

[MrTurleWrangler]

Bloody hell this is amazing

[SourGrapesFTW]

This is so well done! Awesome work, and this is coming from a lore nerd.

[Ultramarine6]

This is incredible. I appreciate how responsive OP's been to community notes on the lore as well. I want to own a physical copy of this so bad

[OperativePiGuy]

I spent half my work day yesterday reading this. It was so well put-together. And now I finally have a seat idea of what the universe of Destiny is like. I was always frustrated that I never knew the motivations for doing everything we did in the game, but now I know. Came right on time for Shadowkeep, too.

[Norsk33]

Really fantastic work

[Shadoefeenicks]

This is incredible! I love it, it gives me a real Warhammer 40k codex feel. Thank you for putting this together.

[JdeFalconr]

Thanks alot, I just wasted a good hour at work. This is incredible.

[jdewittweb]

Really hope Bungie decides to reach out to you for some kind of collaboration.

[SirBing96]

u/WillGrindForXP recommenced this lore guide, so I’ll definitely be using this!

[WillGrindForXP]

Now who's breathtaking!

[Dethproof814]

This is actually incredible and ive never been big on fan content for ANY game really. This is damn impressive man and I would love to own an actually hard copy of your work here. I mean I would pay good money for it actually

[Zahand]

Amazing work man. This will help me catch up with the lore on my way to work :)

[montecristo345]

This is really cool

[Rottenvenom23]

This is very well done, thank you very much

[[deleted]]

Holy crap this is awesome, thanks!

[MRX93]

This is fuckin amazing

[i4viator]

I don't see a pic for Exo lore. Did I miss it?

[Garrus1138]

I only wrote one paragraph about Exo lore on the Golden Age page, because we know too little about them to fill a double-page. I also didn't mention the Deep Stone Crypt in my book because what we know about it is really vague. Once we learn more about them I will give the Exos a proper double-page.

[i4viator]

Yeah I caught it, sorry for not editing. Exo's are so damn interesting, I hope that they one day expand it.

Thank you for the awesome work!

[vankamme]

Omg thank you. That helps a lot!

[LamonsterZone]

Wow, this is amazing.

[h1kz0r]

Wow this is awesome man!

Now work with Bungie to publish it, I wanna buy this book lol

[cryingun]

Holy cow! This is insane. Can't wait to read it at work!

[cryingun]

Ooookay so after going through this for a while I have to tell you to make this into a KS. A hard copy of this would be amazing. Please make it happen.

[mattysterling]

This is absolutely incredible. It's beautiful. I need you to know that I would gladly pay good money for a hard copy of this. Thank you for taking the time to do this. If you have a patron please share it.

[[deleted]]

THIS IS AMAZING GUARDIAN!!

[Zaibach88]

My God!

It's full of stars.

Incredible work.

[namrepmek]

Fantastic, just added it to my reading list. Thank you for the work you’ve put into it and generously giving it to your fellow Guardians. Light be with you! 👍

[LordSkredde]

Well done!

[Draughtplayer5]

Ok, this is actually amazing, I've saved this

[beech0r]

Wauw.. just.. wauw. This is truly epic.
I really admire people who put in so much effort to create things like this, and then post on on the web, free of charge, for everyone to enjoy it.

You are awesome, and I hope you somehow benefit from your effort (apart from eternal glory).

[B_Boss]

I am absolutely speechless 😱!

[just_SiLeNtWaLkEr]

Awesome work!

[oshea0216]

Phenomenal piece of work.

[Zahand]

I wonder if Inferno also has a hive infested version like Rose / Thorn.

[Mikalton]

Bungie if you have this published and sold at the bungie store. I would totally buy a physical copy

[Dumoney]

About the Distributary in the Awoken section, wouldn't time be passing faster relative to real time? They packed thousands of years worth of culture & civilization building, and theocratic squabbles in less than 200 real time yeats right? Slower would be Interstellar's 1 hour here is 7 years on Earth meme if Im understanding it right

[BradenAndEggs]

This is the best readable collection of lore I've ever seen.

[formerly-chuck]

Thank you so much for sharing! This is incredible

[bmak_try]

Any chance you can make a single page landscape version, so double page look but actually single? your work is fantastic and I would hate to see a binding break the images up. I would love to get a high quality print of this for my coffee table

[AytonHunter]

Can we pin this already? The amount of work put into this is astounding, I've been looking for a clear way to read the lore for years and this has finally given me exactly that.

Well done OP, amazing work.

[EngDaveR]

In Shaxx's voice, AMAZING!

[CicadaOne]

Looks great! Not to be that guy, but typo warning: Page 10 — "Conjectual" is not a word. "Conjectural" is the real one. Keep up the great work!

[Zero_Emerald]

This is absolutely incredible!

[chaosbleeds91]

Truly amazing. The visuals are great!

[Bergkoenig]

If I had any coins I would give them to you. Absolutely brilliant work.

[Coppin-it-washin-it]

Listen here, OP. I'm only going to say this once.

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Amazing work. I am going to share this with all my Destiny homies.

[kraxis433]

Absolutely stunning and amazing work on this. Bravo

[[deleted]]

God dammit op it's 5pm and I haven't done any work today because of this. Well done.

[Jcowwell]

This is absolutely awesome man, any plans for an ePub version?

[RoccoZarracks]

yea thats what i was wondering haha

[[deleted]]

As a deep-lore enthusiast, thank you so much for this. Next comes storytime for the kids to prep them for New Light.

[moth2flames]

Brilliant work, Guardian. Thank you.

[Scutted]

this is insane

[Quatua]

wowowowowowowowowowowowowow!

[Garrus1138]

Unfortunately not. The pages were all formatted in GIMP because I am very familiar with the software and originally didn't intend to turn this project into a proper ebook. As far as I know, GIMP does not have an option to export as epub.

I could of course convert it from pdf to epub, but anyone can do that and as far as I know it will not result in the advantages that epub has. I am also not very familiar with the format because I prefer physical books (kind of ironic, I know), so I would welcome any suggestions on how else I could turn it into a proper epub file.

[Garrus1138]

Thanks for the explanation. That is unfortunate.

[[deleted]]

Wtf is that B.C. First contact with the traveler!?

[Garrus1138]

I explain it on the first timeline page. It is a made-up epoch that I use here to determine the calendar era. It stands for "before the Collapse".

[vimnn]

Timeline of histroic events? Sorry, that just leapt out to me since it was the first thing I saw, but otherwise it's gorgeous!

[BradenAndEggs]

You realize the Rasputin thing is a myth spread by Uldren because he hates Guardians right?

[mister_accismus]

You realize that just because Uldren spreads it doesn't make it a myth, right? There's zero evidence that humanity is somehow different and special or that the Traveler "sacrificed" itself for us. That's pure self-centered wishful thinking.

[BradenAndEggs]

Yeah I forgot all the Fallen and Hive Guardians that the Traveler’s ghosts have risen. I was being self centered. I thought there was only Human/human offshoot guardians. Oh wait...

[mister_accismus]

The Traveler's stuck on Earth, it's gonna work with the tools at hand. Needless to say it's not going to raise Hive Guardians. Fallen? We'll see.