On the heels of a brief teaser showing the new Moon destination coming in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep this September, today Bungie released a full-fat developer diary exploring the making of the "completely remastered" Moon and showing a few overhauled locations.
"We wanted to take this destination and see if we can really stand it alongside all the other destinations we've made in Destiny 2," said art lead Mike Poe, later adding that "In Shadowkeep, the Moon is entirely changed. It's completely remastered. There have been a bunch of different changes, large and small, for players to experience on their own. You've been here before, but it's not the same."
The Scarlet Fortress constructed by the Hive is the centerpiece of the new Moon, but as design lead Ben Wommack put it, the whole area is "about double" the size of the Moon in the original Destiny, with "more than twice as many places you can go." Some of those places are all new, but many use familiar areas as a building block for new ones.
The Fallen ship seen over the original Moon, for instance, has now been gutted by Fallen and turned into a makeshift base. Like the Hive, the Fallen's influence is seen throughout the Moon, especially at one of the new Lost Sectors which takes place in an old Moonbase (located down the right path from the main landing zone in Destiny 1, if I remember correctly). The dev diary also shows that the Chamber of Night, once home to the Crystal of Crota, will be revisited in Shadowkeep.
Outside of the Moon's makeup, Bungie shared a bit more on the story of Shadowkeep. We know we're heading back to the Moon to fight ghosts of battles past, apparently dug up by Eris Morn, but it was never clear what those ghosts were. It still isn't, to be honest, but it seems they aren't just manifested visions of Eris' imagination. Wommack said, "Eris discovered something on the surface of the moon - a hidden Darkness." This lines up with creative director Steve Cotton's previous tease that "the Darkness is a lot closer than we realized."
There's one last thing I want to call out, partly because it's too spooky to ignore, but also because it's sparked some of the more interesting tinfoil-hat theories surrounding Shadowkeep. A shot in the previous Moon teaser showed what looks like six Guardian phantoms or ghosts suspended in mid-air, and today's dev diary uses the same shots. However, it also shows dozens of these creepy things looming over what looks like the Hellmouth. I get that the whole "Moon's haunted" meme has kind of run its course, but this is some poltergeist shit right here.
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