#saladin-class destroyer

[grayrazor]

Work doodle this time is a Starfleet battleship and escorts.

[alphamecha-mkii]

Ymir Class (Neo-Saladin Class) Destroyer by thefirstfleet

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Hubris before the fall

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A decade ago there was a powerful world by the name of Oma that was the crown jewel of the Omak Domain. Rich with natural resources and rare metals, it was able to establish a powerful trade network that generated billions of credits monthly leading to the people of Oma to grow fat with decadence. This led to a rapid degradation of their societal values to such an extent that they believed that they and only they were truly worthy of running galactic trade and began pressuring their neighboring governments to relinquish trade control of their domains to them.

When they finally approached the humans they sent forth a trade delegation to their parliament. This delegation did not present a sympathetic view of their stewardship, nor a presentation outlining the benefits of their management skills in intergalactic trade. No; this delegation strode into the terran parliament and denounced human trade standards as inferior and unworthy implementation between galactic powers.

No strangers to prideful boasting, the humans naturally took great offense to the grand standing of the delegation and cast them out without even hearing their full proposal. In response, the Oma began sanctioning the terran domain; isolating its trade routes and starving it off much needed resources.

For months the human diplomats tried to reach out to the Oma to find a political solution, but each attempt was met with the repeated message “Submit”.

As time passed and riots began to break out across human worlds from the lack of materials, the terran government finally had enough and dispatched a war fleet to Oma. The fleet was comprised of nearly three fifths of their entire naval power and was spear headed by the latest Herald class battleship “Saladin” with the equally famous Admiral Timmins in command.

Being comprised of mainly trade ships; the Omak Domain navy was primarily built around fast moving frigates, destroyers, and smaller patrol craft capable of catching pirates that preyed upon their shipping lanes. They were little more than a speed bump to the well-disciplined prowess of terran armada and was swept aside easily as the human ships made for orbit directly above Oma. Yet even with this encroaching ring of steel the Oma public did not panic.

Unlike their navy, the Omak Domain’s ground forces were substantially better in comparison. They had fought many ground wars to secure trade outposts, mining operations, and subjugation camps and were thusly made up of a hardened collective of veteran soldiers and automated war machines that were capable to five terran soldiers. So when the human fleet finally did position itself in orbit above Oma, the Omak military was confident they would repel any invasion attempts made by the humans; even going so far as to openly mock Admiral Timmins in a direct communique that not one human soldier would live to set foot on their world.

To their surprise Admiral Timmins agreed to those terms and began the battle.

From the launch bays of every terran ship came hundreds of heavily armed fighters, bombers, drones, and reconnaissance craft that swarmed through Oma’s atmosphere. Not a single lander or ground soldier was deployed as the Admiral coordinated a planet wide devastating air campaign of destruction.

The Omak air force was overwhelmed in a matter of hours by the constant waves of enemy aircraft and found itself further crippled as their launch sites were surgically struck from orbit by human warships. When the last of the Omak air power was expended the human air power had complete control over the skies of the planet.

Civilian targets such as cities and towns were ignored; but the precious foundries, factories, and mining complexes that had given the Omak people such wealth were reduced to little more than burnt pieces of metal and ash. The Omak rulers watched as their life blood of commerce was taken from them one continent at a time and sent countless messages to the human fleet for peace. Their reply was always a single word that none of the Omak would agree to.

“Submit.”

By a month’s end the world of Oma was little more than a smoldering crater. Gleaming cities now stood as silent watchers over miles of burnt landscapes and wasted industrial complexes. The people who had only known wealth and power were now left to wander the ruins of their former trade empire as the human fleet still held orbit over the world. Fragments of the Omak Domain attempted to bypass the human fleet to deliver supplies but each attempt was met with the humans either seizing the ship and the valuable cargo or destroying it just as it was about to land.

It didn’t take long for the previously subjugated peoples that had relinquished control to the Omak to begin rising up once more and regaining their sovereignty. Some the newly freed powers sent their own delegations to the human fleet and kneeled before Admiral Timmins; thanking the humans for bringing their oppressors low. Each time the Admiral would thank the aliens and invite them to the viewing decks so they could look down at the burnt world that had once held them so firmly under its thumb.

In a way it was both a gesture of friendship and a warning to all those that would come after; that the realms of man would never take kindly to the hubris of fools.

[renarinkholin]

Let’s Talk About “The Young Wolf”

So the Destiny fandom as a whole has really latched on to “The Young Wolf” when referring to the player character Guardian, and this is a little strange to me. Not that people like the title (I don’t care for it much, but that’s a difference of taste thing) but that the fandom treats it as The One True Title/Name for our Guardians, as declared by lore. 

I wrote up a meta response to a post about a week ago, and just used “our Guardian” throughout, then mentioned in the tags that I don’t care to use “The Young Wolf” because I don’t really like it. I got a response that basically said, “I agree with your meta but people use The Young Wolf as their title because it’s canon and using ‘the Guardian’ is confusing and terrible.”

But is it really canon that this title is the main title amongst the many, many titles and accomplishments our Guardians have picked up? I decided to do some searching and my conclusion: It really isn’t.

Lore Check

NPCs and lore call our Guardian “Young Wolf” only 17 times in Ishtar Collective, which searches through lore books, dialogue transcripts, item descriptions, etc throughout Destiny and Destiny 2. The use of this title happens in three different cases: 1) used in the context of the Iron Lords/by Saladin directly, 2) used in a list of titles and accomplishments, as one of many, 3) used by non-Iron Lord characters in a general sense.

Saladin and the Iron Lords The first usage accounts for the majority of the title’s appearances, 10 of them total. Of these, 7 are said by Saladin, who gave our Guardians this nickname, 2 are by Tyra Karn (one of which she uses “A Young Wolf of the Iron Lords”) and 1 is when Shaxx calls you “Saladin’s Young Wolf” in the Homecoming opening mission of D2. I’m not going to screenshot all of these, but feel free to look them up if you want.

One Title Amongst Many The second usage, when it appears amongst many other titles, happens 4 times across the games: two times in Calus’ prophecy fanfic about us, once in Saint-14’s eulogy in the Corridors of Time, and once in Phylaks’ dialogue during her Empire Hunt.

Other Cases There are only 3 times where NPCs use “The Young Wolf” as a general title to refer to our Guardians. Vyhar calls us this in that his Ghost’s Fragment, Osiris calls us this in the Season of the Hunt’s transmission from him, and Saint-14 calls us this once while talking to Ikora.

Conclusions

The fact that the overwhelming majority of times we hear someone in-game or in-lore call our Guardians “The Young Wolf” it’s either Saladin using his personal nickname for us, someone referring to our status among the Iron Lords, or someone listing off a bunch of our titles and accomplishments. The fact that there’s only 3 times ever that it has been used in a general context, and two of them showed up this season means that I really can’t take at face value the notion that the “Young Wolf” is our main, general title. If the fandom wanted to just pick a title out of a hat at random amongst the many we’ve picked up, sure, it works. It is a title our Guardians have. It’s nowhere close to being the title for our Guardians.

In the grand scheme of things? It’s a pretty minor title. In fact, it’s mostly one character’s nickname for us. What’s the accomplishment here: “played Rise of Iron’s story campaign”? That’s the accomplishment the fandom has decided to define our player characters by? It’s baffling to me. 

After all, Emperor Calus decided to call us the Shadow of Earth, and that shows up in lore far more times numerically than “the Young Wolf.” Drifter calls my Warlock “Snitch” every time she plays Gambit because she didn’t side with him. I don’t see why either of those would be any more valid as a general title in the same way Saladin’s nickname, “Young Wolf” has become.

There’s better general titles out there. A whole bunch of characters refer to our character as “The Hero of the Red War,” including Asher, Saint-14, the Drifter, the Spider, Aunor, even a random Titan named Joxer. In lore, that seems to be more of the go-to “general” title for our Guardian in D2. And that makes sense, if we’re talking about our Guardian in the context of Destiny 2, it would make more sense to use their title that refers to them completing the vanilla campaign, not a random D1 expansion that, lore-wise, is pretty forgettable.

There’s a whole handful of titles we’ve got as a result of killing Oryx: Kingslayer, Destroyer of Oryx, Slayer of Oryx. In terms of importance, that’s a way bigger deal than finding and containing SIVA. Or “Crota’s End” for killing Crota. 

All in all, I think if we’re being honest, the devs try pretty hard to avoid giving our player characters any kind of name or main title in-universe. It’s tricky to write dialogue that way, but they do a pretty good job of it. Most of the time people refer to us, we’re just “the Guardian.” Or vendors will refer to you by your class as a title. Or a specific character will choose to give us a nickname and that specific character calls us that, which is what happened with Saladin. The few times where the writers are narratively written into a corner and they need someone to use a general title for us? They just pick one at random, it seems.

Anyway, this is a long post that probably will not really have an impact on anything. And in all honesty, I’m not trying to tell people that they should stop referring to the Guardian generally as “The Young Wolf” or that it’s bad or something. I just find it weird that this one got stuck in the fandom’s brain like this, and it’s one that you won’t see me personally using in a general sense because I find it to be kind of lame and I don’t think Rise of Iron was all that narratively important. I don’t really care about Saladin and I don’t see why I should pretend like his nickname is my Guardian’s general name in fandom spaces.

When I write meta, you’re going to see me using “our Guardian” or “the Guardian,” because that’s the general name the game gives. I don’t think of my Guardians as “the Young Wolf” any more than I consistently think about them as “Crota’s End” or “Shadow of Earth” or any of the other multitudinous titles we’ve accumulated over the years. They’ve done lots of things and they’re all of those titles technically. They’re just my Guardians though. 

People can refer to their Guardians however they want, and I’m sure “the Young Wolf” is sticky enough at this point that people are probably just going to keep using it in the general sense. But I take issue with assertions that it’s the game’s canon main title for us, or that it’s the objectively correct thing to call our Guardians. It’s not, it’s a minor title among many, and I personally am not interested in doing it. 

PS: If you read this whole post, you deserve a bowl of spicy ramen, on me! Have a coupon for it.

[alphamecha-mkii]

U.S.S. Xerxes NCC-505 - Saladin-Class Destroyer by Donny Versiga

[alphamecha-mkii]

Saladin Class Destroyer by Donny Versiga