Everything we know about the Keep of Voices, Destiny 2: Forsaken’s raid

Destiny has always had different pinnacle activities for different types of players, but the raids have always felt like the culmination of everything the game has to offer. With Destiny 2: Forsaken, players will be introduced to a new raid — which we believe is called the Keep of Voices. While the raid itself is still very much a secret, we’ve learned some tidbits here and there from Game Informer’s August cover story and from Bungie itself.

The location

We don’t actually know for sure that the new raid is called the Keep of Voices. However, we do know that’s where the raid will be located. According to Game Informer, the Keep of Voices is the giant tower at the heart of the new location, the Dreaming City, and it’s where players will be able to take down the monsters that will plague them throughout Forsaken.

In the initial ViDoc about Forsaken, and in a few since, we’ve seen a group of six players walk into a dark room only to have the doors shut behind them. That’s all we’ve seen of the interior of the keep — that we know of.

While the Keep of Voices is a complete mystery to us, the Dreaming City isn’t. It’s the home of the Awoken race, a group of humans who’ve been dramatically altered by the Light. Prince Uldren — the man who shot Cayde-6 — is the brother of Mara Sov, the queen of the Awoken. We also know that the Taken appear to have control over the Dreaming City, with the Scorn also posing a serious threat to its safety.

Because of the Taken’s involvement, the Dreaming City has been partially ripped into two planes. There is the normal city, and the Ascendant Realm — a creepy, alternate reality version of the location. If any of Destiny’s past raids — especially King’s Fall — have taught us anything, it’s that the Ascendant Realm will play a huge role in some of the upcoming fights.

The enemies

While the Scorn would be the obvious choice — considering they’re the new faction in Forsaken — it appears that they won’t be the major players in the Keep of Voices. In a interview with Game Informer about the Scorn, the developers spoke about wanting there to be a Scorn raid someday. When combined with the massive Taken presence we’ve already seen in the Dreaming City, the Scorn will likely exist as secondary players, if they appear at all.

Based on what we’ve seen, it’s fairly reasonable to assume that the Taken will be the Guardians’ main enemies in the Keep of Voices. Which leads us to a far more interesting question now that Oryx is dead: Who’s controlling them?

Bungie/Activision

The final boss

There are a few good ideas of who the final boss could be, and we’re going to explore each of them.

The Ahamkara theory

Game Informer describes the Dreaming City as: “virtually drawn from the pages of a classic fantasy novel, this is the eleven homeland under threat from an insidious dragon that has infected its heart.” This could simply be a very nice description of the location using motifs we’re familiar with, or it could speak to the larger enemy that will await players.

It seems unlikely that players could face down an actual dragon in this raid. However, it wouldn’t be impossible. Bungie did describe the raid as a return to the monster hunts that players were familiar with in Destiny. If more of the bosses will be mindless beasts like Golgoroth, then a dragon could be possible.

And before you ask, there are actually dragons in the Destiny universe. They’re called the Ahamkara, and they’re almost all gone. A quick look at the Destiny Wikipedia entry for these beasts will tell you that they have great power but inflict a terrible price on anyone that seeks to have their wish granted by the Ahamkara.

Because they were so dangerous, they’re nearly extinct. If you’ve been to Io or worn one of the many exotic armor pieces with Ahamkara in the name, you’ll be familiar with what the bones look like. But just because they’re all supposed to be gone doesn’t mean we won’t see one in the raid. The problem with the dragon theory then becomes: Why would an Ahamkara work with the Taken? We can’t answer that one.

Uldren

Uldren would make a lot of sense as the final boss if you were just glancing at Forsaken. He killed Cayde-6, and now we need to storm his homeland to seek revenge. But Bungie has alluded that Uldren will be dealt with in the campaign, and the description of the campaign’s structure suggests that the kill order for all the Barons, except the final two and Uldren will be determined by players.

A Guardian-sized raid boss would be interesting, but presents certain problems for how most raid fights have worked in the past. It’s possible that there could be a King’s Fall situation here, with Uldren being partially defeated in the campaign only to retreat to the raid, but it seems like something bigger is going on.

Moving past Uldren and the Ahamkara, there are two very good, very serious ideas of who could the final boss could be. And both stem from a fun hint from a Bungie developer.

Joe Blackburn, the lead raid designer for Destiny 2, tweeted something interesting about the final raid boss.

While a clear joke, Blackburn has been known to leave cryptic hints to raid secrets in posts before. In fact, he gave away the first Prestige week’s kinetic loadout in a similar, joking way. The important part of this tweet is actually the single pronoun “she” toward the end of the tweet.

Assuming the boss isn’t someone random and is in fact a character we’re aware of, the confirmation that this will be the first female final raid boss brings us to two more suggestions.

Mara Sov

The queen of the Reef is missing, and it seems that Uldren could be working with the Barons in an attempt to find her. But it’s also possible that he knows exactly where she is, and is following out her orders when he kills Cayde-6. But this doesn’t really seem like the Mara we know, or the Mara that was lost attempting to defeat Oryx. This would have to be a Mara being controlled by something else.

Mara also has the same, human-sized problem with being a raid boss. So it seems unlikely that she’ll be the final encounter in the Keep of Voices. Instead, perhaps defeating the final boss will rescue her from their prison, making her more of a damsel than an enemy.

But who could be holding Mara captive? It’s almost certainly ...

Savathun

For those not in the know, Savathun is the sister of Oryx, the Taken King. We also learn in Destiny 2 that she’s assumed control of the Taken after the death of her brother. Being the Taken Queen and the clever Hive god that she is, Savathun has the ability to influence others to do their bidding.

If Savathun were to have located Mara, she would have information she needs to turn Uldren into her pawn. Considering the location, the Taken presence, and the strange flip in behavior for Uldren — suggesting that he’s not really acting on his own will — Savathun makes more sense than any other character we’ve heard of in Destiny.

Like Oryx, Savathun is also a Hive god, meaning she fits the description of “monster” pretty neatly. The greatest stories of Destiny have always revolved around killing Hive royalty. First we came for Crota, their prince. Then his father, Oryx, led an invasion to seek revenge. And now Crota’s aunt, Savathun, cold be attempting a subtler way to end the Guardians once and for all.

As far as who the raid boss will actually be, we’ll have to wait and see until Destiny 2: Forsaken is released on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One on Sept. 4.