<Cont. [b]Option 1 - Quria Transcends[/b] My personal favorite is, knowing that Savathun has the Taken at her disposal, removing her access to the one actually capable of Taking. If we were to capture Quria, we could even free it. Perhaps the little bit of its will left intact could lead to it allowing itself to be suppressed, captured, or even killed. Let's focus on its capture. If it were to be given the power of an Ascendant Hive, a risky move, it'll immediately turn on the Hive. The Taken were the Hive's only crutch against the innumerable waves of Vex, and with the Taken at their backs, the Hive would be demolished. If Xivu Arath were to pull out her fleet to attack Sol, the Taken turning on them would lead to mass destruction, annihilating a fleet of that scale and stranding the entire Hive species in this system. It would also force Savathun to come up with a way to usurp Quria's power, which could lead to us finding and killing her. If she manages to kill Quria or force us to do it, then we can only hope it drew her out long enough for us to kill her as well. If she doesn't kill Quria, then after we deal with her it'll be much easier to destroy the empowered Vex Mind. [b]Option 2 - Let the Pyramids do it[/b] The Pyramids aren't really happy with Savathun right now. She's not only attempting to go beyond the Sword Logic it upholds but she's also interrupting a millennia-long plan to goad the Traveler's only Guardians against the orb. Combine that with its desire to tempt us and it may turn on her simply to convince us to join her. After all, an impressive display of offensive force against a common foe would more easily tempt us than the most suspicious offers in history that we've been getting in SoA and will be getting in Beyond Light. This could go a couple different ways. Either the Pyramids rip the Taken out of Savathun's control, something they could totally do, or they just attack the Hive. Either would result in the mass death and destruction I mentioned in Option 1. Also like Option 1, this would force Savathun to find ways to around this, ways that would likely draw her out into the open enough to get us to her. [b]Option 3 - Trust Mara (somehow)[/b] Mara Sov, a massive -blam!-, had a plan to go into Oryx's Throne World and take something. We don't know what this is. We also don't know if she succeeded. If she did, and assuming her plans aren't something dumb like "how to beat the Pyramids", then we could see her being a decent asset against the Witch Queen. However, this is risky because even Mara admits that Savathun is cleverer than she is. [b]Option 4 - Fight Tooth and Nail[/b] Option 4 is to "Taken King" it. However, this is based around the assumption that Savathun's key locations, assets, and commanders are brought out into the open following the end of the Dreaming City curse, something that... might not happen naturally. [b]How Do We Get Here? - Potential Hints[/b] Year 4's overarching story should logically pull us from the Darkness-Fallen thread introduced in Beyond Light to the Hive and Taken in Witch Queen. However, I said the Vex earlier, why? Since the Edge Magazine interview with Bungie about Beyond Light and the DCV, we've had confirmation that returning content will (unfortunately) have modern relevance. This includes the Vault of Glass, a notable Vex installation. VoG is set to return around Season 14, which is right before the "Arrivals" of next year's season pass. In order for VoG to have relevance, there needs to be something Vex-y going on around S14, be it a quest or the actual seasonal story. That means the current seasonal out look is: Darkness/Fallen -> Fallen -> ??? -> Vex -> ??? (but likely Hive/Taken) -> Hive/Taken In this, we can assume that the Vex have a hand in Season 15, and (assuming) the Dreaming City curse, which would logically lead up to Witch Queen. This is why I think the Vex will be the ones bringing us to Savathun's doorstep. [b]The Aftermath[/b] The likelihood that a character will die during Witch Queen is actually pretty high, and I'm not just talking about Hive leaders. There's a decent chance that Mara could die. However, that's more wishful thinking. Then again, there is a Telesto ornament that says "Long Live the Queen". If Telesto really does predict the future with every new ornament, then Mara's fate doesn't look good. Quria would also have to be silenced, regardless of whether it initially helps us draw Savathun out. The Taken would be broken as well. Ur, if it does make an appearance during Witch Queen, will probably perish in the raid. Xivu Arath is a mystery. While it's likely that Savathun would just use her to face us instead, I'd rather we save the last Hive Goddess for later in order to learn more about her. Otherwise, we'd be throwing an important Hive under the bus in a colossal "subverting expectations" move. I expect her to survive (though we might actually fight her, but only rebuke), broken due to the loss of her army. This would effectively bring down all enemy races in Sol so that it'll make Lightfall easier to handle. The Hive will be hit hard as a whole. Whether the Pyramids shred them or the Taken turn on them or Mara actually does something and blows their fleets to hell, the Hive will not come out of Witch Queen happy. All of Savathun's remaining schemes will probably continue without her overseeing. The largest one probably will end up being the continuing decline of the Hidden Swarm. If we focused our efforts on finding the remaining Daughters of Crota, we'd end them, too. Point is, the Hive will be broken. Anyway, that's about all I got. I know I am basing a -blam!- load of this off of assumption, but that's really all I can do until the story starts turning toward the Dreaming City and Savathun again.>