Cayde is Dead

E3 Story Reveal Teaser: Forsaken

If you haven't watched it yet do yourself a favor and brace for impact.

If you have then I have no doubt you have one of two responses to this. The first is absolute rage, the fan-favorite being so blatantly killed in a minute and a half reveal trailer before Forsaken drops. The second is distraught weeping because this is Cayde we're talking about, everyone loves Cayde. He's the jokester, the comic relief, the one that's so relatable.

But let's back track for a second and go over this reveal trailer.

Cayde has already been burnt to a crisp, which now ties in the Ace of Spades being framed with smoke on the Forsaken poster. Then his Ghost, who is unscathed and seemingly confused, is snuffed out of existence with a single shot. Ghosts have always been fragile, no shell could withstand such a powerful blow, and the death of a Ghost means no more immortality.

It's here we see some of the Forsaken, the camera panning around to reveal Prince Uldren with the Ace of Spades aiming directly at the camera, which has Cayde behind it. As the camera continues to pan over the rest of the Forsaken we hear a second shot off camera and the clattering of an Exo body as it falls to the ground. Uldren then stands over the body and holsters the weapon, before going to the exit of what I'm assuming is the Prison of Elders.

So, this means Uldren is either the Kell of the Forsaken or is a close ally. But why would he do such a thing? Well, remember how is beloved sister, Queen Mara Sov, sacrificed herself when the Dreadnought came in Taken King? He might hold some resentment about that.

What about Cayde? With a dead Ghost there's no reviving, whether it's a dark zone or not. So that leaves two options for him to come back to life. Either they transfer his consciousness into a new body or a new Ghost brings him back, both are viable options that can fit into the story.

Suffice to say there's something especially cruel about the whole trailer. Uldren kills Cayde with the Ace of Spaces, the handcannon that's named after Cayde's son, Ace, which was revealed to us in the knickknacks from Cayde's stash. Killed by his own weapon, it's heart wrenching.

But let's take another look at it, this might be a permanent death. Pre-ordering gets you access to Cayde's Exotic Stash, which was teased in the original Destiny. Back when The Taken King was released there was an easter egg of finding Cayde's Cards, of which we never really did find a stash but it was mentioned. We all assumed the new boxes for Cayde's treasure maps was the answer. We were wrong. This exotic stash for Forsaken is what was mentioned back then all those years ago, finally able to find it and use his own gear to get revenge.

Yet, Cayde may not actually be dead.

With the TTK collector's edition came something called Insula Thesauraria, a physical book that held Cayde's scribblings and a Strange Coin. Within this book Cayde talks about Exo reboots and Doctor Maya Sundaresh, an Ishtar Collective scholar he was assigned to protect, that he (sort of) fell in love with. He's already an Exo at this point because he talks about the reboot Exos have to go through and how the Light "does something real funny to what's left" to quote the book. Keep in mind this is before the Ghosts where introduced because The Collapse hasn't happened yet.

Cayde has already died once before without a Ghost. Something at the Ishtar Collective goes wrong and he's sent into a black dimension and has to fight his way out.

This is the passage:

Whatever it is hits me before I can level my gun. Doesn't matter. Tendrils of pain crawl over my splayed fingers, my outstretched arms, my shoulders, my neck, my screaming mouth as it consumes. I'm being enveloped. Everything is wrong. Primordial. My systems go sideways. All but my sensors. It wanted me to witness this, the world. Its world now, suffocating in the black poison. I collapse. We all collapse.

It's unknown what this actual blackness is, whether it's Taken or something else, but it continues on to another realm.

You wake up and look into the cold spaces between circuitry (galaxies?) begging for answers. None come. But other voices wait. At your center, safe and untouched, sits the original you. Just a little box tucked at the back of the closet, filled with trinkets and odd notions kept for no obvious reason.

You have no idea when you last spoke to this tangle, but that's what you do now, using a whisper and the lightest touch, being all sorts of cautious because you're afraid of frightening whatever wants to speak with you.

And then it speaks, and instead of answers, it begins with the only question that matters. "Do you want to know what happens next?"

Realigning...

This one ain't mine. It's someone (something?) else entirely. But it's the most important memory I have.

It's with these two passages that Cayde has died before, of which this was probably his first permanent death before his Ghost found him. That much is obvious. But, in these passages it's clear that the Exo consciousness does indeed transfer somewhere else, like a nexus of minds across an unknown network, to be transferred into another body. With the accompanying reboot when an Exo wakes it wouldn't be difficult to accept the new body either.

With this I leave you hope, Guardians, that our beloved Cayde isn't dead for there are viable options to bring back our favorite Hunter Vanguard.

Pack your gear, Guardian, we have a Prince to slay for he has hell to pay.