Three Destiny 2 characters are seemingly killed off in a lore book

On Tuesday, Bungie launched the second half of Destiny 2: Season of Arrival’s final Exotic quest. Earlier in the season, players prepared some of the game’s older destinations to enter the Destiny Content Vault and leave the game when Bungie launches Destiny 2: Beyond Light on Nov. 10. On Sept. 8, players helped evacuate the remaining assets on Mars, Mercury, Titan, and Io. But not everybody made it out alive.

These four planets are some of the oldest in Destiny 2, entering the game in the Red War campaign at launch or within the game’s first two expansions in early 2018. And like every planet in Destiny 2, each of the evacuated planets had their own vendor character, each with their own story to tell and history. But of the four planetary NPCs players help in the Evacuation quest, only one seems to survive.

[Spoiler warning: this post contains spoilers for a lore book currently available inside Destiny 2. If you haven’t read Duress and Egress and want to, we recommend you do so before reading this post]

During the quest, players earned a new lore book in-game called Duress and Egress. And three of the book’s chapters reveal the fate of Sloane, Asher Mir, and Brother Vance.

Asher Mir

Asher was the vendor on Io, a crusty, old Warlock forced to replace one of his original arms with that of a Vex Goblin. When the Darkness — the giant pyramid ships currently invading each of the disappearing worlds — reaches Io, Asher decides to try and fight back rather than leave.

The Asher: Conclusion chapter shows Asher Mir descending into the Pyramidion — a giant Vex structure that also serves as a Strike in-game. He moves past traps familiar to Guardians who’ve plunged the depths hundreds of times in the last three years. And believing that the Darkness first came to Io in search of secrets hidden inside the Pyramidion, Asher collapses the structure in on himself, burying its secrets and, presumably, killing himself in the process.

Commander Sloane

Sloane was one of Zavala’s most trusted Titans, and the Guardian vendor on one of Jupiter’s moons, also called Titan. She was one of the first Guardians players met in Destiny 2, running into her and Zavala a short ways into the Red War campaign. Like Asher, she decided to stay behind and fight the Darkness, rather than retreat.

In the Sloane: Riastrad chapter, Commander Sloane wraps her body in a high-tech suit of armor. After interfacing with the suit, she learns to control it, and rushes off to fight a one-woman battle against the Hive and the Darkness. The story doesn’t explicitly say that Sloane perishes in her battle. But based on what we know about the Darkness, one Guardian — even a very powerful Guardian — can’t last long on their own. It reads more as a noble, final charge than a success.

Brother Vance

Brother Vance is not a Guardian, and he was never much of an ally either. Brother Vance was a fan-boy and the vendor on Mercury. Obsessed with the mythical Warlock Osiris, and leader of his cult/fan-club, Vance originally met the Guardians as the Trials of Osiris vendor in the original Destiny. But as the Darkness threatens to envelop Mercury, Brother Vance decides to wade into the planet’s Infinite Forest to find Osiris, his idol, rather than return to the Tower empty handed.

In the Vance: Passeri chapter, we follow Brother Vance into the Infinite Forest for the first time. It’s a psychedelic look at the portal of infinite space and time, seen through the blind eyes of a non-Guardian. But as Vance explores what he’s always wanted to know, he finds what seems to be another version of himself in the Forest. The two struggle, and the chapter ends. Vance finds himself in what seems to be a Paradox, killing or being killed by a future or past version of himself.

Of all the stories, Sloane’s is the most open, with Brother Vance walking away dead or injured, and Asher crushed under the rock. The only survivor is Ana Bray, who returns to the Tower with the remains of Rasputin, the Warmind, likely trapped inside an Exo. It’s currently unclear if we’ll ever hear from Asher, Sloane, or Brother Vance again, but Ana and Rasputin will play a major role in the next few years of Destiny 2’s story.