The Witness

Overview

The Witness is the ancient paracausal opposite of the Traveler and the primary antagonist of the first saga of Destiny. It is a single entity formed when an ancient civilization, the first one uplifted by the Traveler, merged its minds into one gestalt consciousness using Darkness drawn from the Veil. It commanded the Black Fleet and its forces use Darkness elements like Stasis. It was defeated in The Final Shape.

Role in the story

The Witness sought to impose the Final Shape, a fixed, timeless state in which suffering and choice no longer exist, and destroyed countless civilizations in pursuit of it. It spent ages hunting the Traveler, eventually breaching the Traveler's Pale Heart and drawing on its Light to begin enacting the Final Shape on Earth. Guardians severed its hold on the Traveler's Light, and later channeled the Traveler's Light through their Ghosts to shatter its final barrier. Its death fused its Darkness with the Traveler's Light, creating paracausal artifacts called Echoes. Its last words were "We—I—I don't understand," the first time it used "I" instead of "we."

Appearances

The Witness first appeared in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, was identified as the Witness in The Witch Queen, and was central to The Final Shape. It appears as a boss in the Iconoclasm mission and in the Salvation's Edge and Excision raids. Brett Dalton voiced it, and Brandon O'Neill voiced it in The Final Shape.