Act 2: What You Need to Know About Maya Sundaresh: Destiny 2
Alright, Guardians, "Echoes," the first Episode of Destiny 2, has exposed a whole fresh degree of weirdness regarding the Vex. There is some rather unusual behavior here, and Maya Sundaresh has taken front stage. Hold onto your Ghost; it's time to explore the secrets of the Vex and Maya's part in this changing threat.
Vex Gone Rogue: Light's Authority
Remember the great struggle in the Excision project. Though occasionally things have unanticipated effects, we Guardians used Light's power to permanently destroy the Witness. A few months forward, reports of odd energy and a lot of Vex acting quite weird on Nessus start flooding in. Add some Cabal and Fallen, all looking for something buried on this lush planet, and it is obvious something major is descending.
A "fallen remnant" of the Witness is the actual driver of all this anarchy. It's an Echo, and this enigmatic object mixed with the Light produces something entirely fresh. This power is messing with the Vex.
This power is enabling individuals to make their own decisions, so altering the Vex and releasing them from their shared hive-mind. It resembles a Vex version of free will rather precisely. But keep in mind, that Echo and the mix of Light and Dark are driving everything.
Maya Sundaresh is the Conductor.
One must be familiar with the Ishtar Collective in order to grasp The Conductor. These were some eminent Golden-Age scientists consumed by the Vex. They even feature a symbol that surfaces in the "Enigma Protocol" exercise. These people were all focused on learning the Vex and figuring their deal.
To survive during the Collapse, the Collective dispatched exodus ships The Exodus Indigo, one of these ships, arrived at Neptune where Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi founded Neomuna. They came upon the Veil, which has a darkness twist yet is essentially like the Traveler's Light. These researchers commenced investigating the power of the Veil. Maya continued investigating the Vex, who still resided on Neomuna, concurrently. The Vex Strike Force public event features them as the primary baddies.
Season of Defiance taught us that Maya and her team were employing "The Chorus," a technique meant to establish connection with the Veil. With a central "conductor" guiding the entire thing, it resembles a huge orchestra. Maya could effectively link The Chorus to the Veil. Later logs unfortunately show Maya dead in The Conductor chair. She seemed to have tried to interact personally with the Veil. It is not a coincidence that the Conductor who abducted Saint-14 has a same name as the location Maya was discovered at. Maya might have only partially been successful in establishing contact with the Veil, so granting her control over the Vex.
Saint-14's meeting with the conductor: the influence of the Veil
Maya experimented using dead Exo frames among other things. Consider them as sort of filters separating the Veil from the Chorus. This simplified the Veil's data for human comprehension. Maya, now the Conductor, may be learning to control her new power in this way.
Guardians discovered Saint-14 being under interrogation by the Conductor when they went to save him. Saint's "humanity" and his "legitimacy" captivated the Conductor. This is so because the Conductor is searching for the meaning of being real and, as a possible replica of the actual Maya Sundaresh, she seeks answers from an Exo.
Maya's Exo Expertise: An Other Golden Age
Maya's experience with Exos and the Vex is most definitely evident in the Conductor's behavior. Saint tells Osiris a "new Golden Age is coming, free from falsities like me." The Conductor sees Saint as a copy thus she will use the power she acquired from the Veil and the Echo to bring in a new Golden Age.
Imagine it: should the Conductor be a Veil-powered Maya, she would be a "copy" exactly like she charges Saint-14 of being. Thus, much for not being a falsehood. Seeing how this whole thing turns out will be fascinating.
Where is next?
With this fresh threat, the Vanguard will be quite busy. Guardians will find more about the Conductor's intentions for the Vex; the Cabal and Fallen are also attempting to control the Echo. We have to monitor the Vex closely throughout this period as well. The Conductor seems destined to occupy the power vacuum the Witness left. Destiny 2: Echoes: Act 2 has a lot more arriving in it!
