Eris Morn, Destiny’s creepiest Guardian, explained

With Tuesday’s launch of Season of Arrivals and Bungie’s recent reveal of the Beyond Light expansion, Destiny 2 players are finally diving into The Darkness. One character in Destiny’s history is well known for their knowledge of the universe’s most evil sources: Eris Morn. With The Darkness taking center stage in Season of Arrivals, Eris will be one of the main contact points for players.

Here’s everything you need to know about Destiny’s spookiest Guardian.

Before Destiny

Eris first came to Destiny in the original game’s first expansion, The Dark Below. But she had a tragic history long before her time as an NPC.

Eris used to be a Guardian. As a Hunter, she battled alongside Ikora Rey and others in the Great Ahamkara Hunt — where Guardians hunted down and eradicated the last of the powerful wish dragons. After killing an Ahamkara with Ikora, Eris began to hear voices. The two destroyed the dragon’s bones, but Eris kept one as a memento — which would become her iconic, glowing rock.

Eris had a fascination with the Hive, and worked with other Guardians to try and destroy their hierarchy. Alongside Warlocks Toland, the Shattered and Eriana-3, Eris helped lead a team of six Guardians into the Hellmouth on the Moon, in an attempt to kill Crota.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Crota was a Hive god, son of Oryx, the Taken King. He was famous for snuffing out hundreds of Guardians, and leading the Hive’s charge during The Great Disaster — the Vanguard’s attempt to retake the Moon from the Hive before the original Destiny.

In their raid against Crota and his family, all five of Eris’ allies perished in The Darkness. The Hive drained the Light from Eris and her Ghost, taking away her powers and ability to resurrect — making her no longer a traditional Guardian. Alone, Eris wished upon her Ahamkara talisman, and it helped guide her through the dark tunnels on the Moon.

To survive, Eris used the Hive’s own Darkness against them. When the Hive eventually took her human eyes, Eris replaced them with the eyes of a Hive enemy. Eris eventually escaped the Moon by building a new ship out of scrap.

Eris returned to the Vanguard, and Ikora put her to work as one of the Hidden — a network of Guardian spies. Eris served as the Hive expert, and eventually returned to the Tower to help the Young Wolf — the player Guardian — destroy Crota and avenge her Fireteam.

During The Dark Below

Eris showed up in the Tower during The Dark Below expansion, which launched only a few months after the original Destiny.

Changed by her experience on the Moon, Eris was a gruff and grumpy NPC, filled with riddles and surrounded by creepy artifacts. Eris aided players in doing what her Fireteam could not: destroying Crota and his lineage.

After an internal Hive struggle, Crota left the normal plane of existence to rejuvenate himself in his Throne World, but left a crystal behind so that he could easily return to the Moon. (Throne Worlds are complex, but the gist is that they’re small pocket dimensions where powerful foes can protect themselves. The only way to kill someone with a Throne World is to take them down from the inside.)

With Eris’ help, Guardians destroyed Crota’s crystal and killed his partner, the witch Omnigul. But Crota was still alive in his Throne World.

After the campaign’s completion, Eris helped players voyage into the Hellmouth and kill Crota inside his Throne World during the Crota’s End raid, ending him for good.

During The Taken King

A year after the original Destiny’s launch, Bungie updated the game with The Taken King expansion, where Oryx invaded the solar system to seek revenge against the Guardians for murdering his son, Crota. Still the leading expert in all things Hive, Eris worked behind the scenes with Mara Sov — queen of the Awoken people in The Reef — and the disgraced Warlock, Osiris, to mount a battle against Oryx.

After a small space battle, Eris assisted Guardians in killing Oryx on his Dreadnaught. In the King’s Fall raid, players delved into Oryx’s Throne World to kill him for good.

Eris left the Tower in search of more answers shortly before the Red Legion attacked and destroyed the original Tower in Destiny 2’s Red War campaign.

Shadowkeep and beyond

While Forsaken has some confusing lore around possible Eris sightings, she didn’t show back up in-game until Shadowkeep. In her search for answers, Eris found herself on the Moon again. She discovered a giant Pyramid ship buried under the surface, and accidentally unleashed a curse upon the Moon.

Knowing this Pyramid ship belonged to The Darkness, Eris called for aid from her fellow Guardians. Eris assisted players in defeating Nightmares of old foes — Darkness energy manipulated by the Moon’s Hive presence. Eris also sent players inside the Pyramid, helping them craft armor to protect against The Darkness. Guardians returned with a strange artifact, which Eris is still studying at the beginning of the Season of Arrivals.

On the Moon, Eris’ old Fireteam haunted her. After players helped banish her Nightmares, Eris visited the Pyramid on the Moon herself. Inside, her Ahamkara talisman accidentally absorbed some of The Darkness. Eris smiled at the camera, initially leading players to believe she had become possessed by The Darkness.

With Bungie’s recent announcement of Darkness subclasses in the upcoming Beyond Light expansion, this cutscene takes on a new meaning. Eris is already experienced in wielding the power of The Darkness against its various factions. This smile now suggests Eris has found a way for players to wield The Darkness’ own strengths against it, and she’ll likely be the guide for players to acquire their new subclasses in fall.

Eris has been instrumental in helping players battle unknowable foes in the past, and Guardians will likely need her expertise in Season of Arrival, Beyond Light, and during the entire war with The Darkness.