The owls are watching in The Division 2
This mystery is a hoot
The Division 2 may have no central narrative to speak of, but that hasn't stopped Massive Entertainment sneaking some exciting, ARG-styled mystery tales into it. As of last week's endgame-expanding update, players have been spotting wooden owls hidden around post-invasion Roosevelt Island, each guarding a candle which can be lit. Seven owls in total, and if all seven candles are lit in the right order, an underground passage is opened. Things only get stranger below, hinting at a cult working behind the scenes in DC, with ritual-locked hideouts to be found. Spooky.
Upon descending to a secret brazier-lit cavern, and saluting a giant statue of an owl, players hear an audio-log playing from somewhere in the room. If the subtitles are to be believed, it's a bunch of Outcasts (the enemy faction normally in control of Roosevelt) talking about "The Morovian Society". You can see the work the Division 2's players have done on this mystery here on Reddit. Right now, the trail appears to have gone cold, possibly until the next big update due on April 25th (due to add a reportedly puzzle-centric raid), or the next weekly cycle of new Invaded missions.
This is by no means the first of The Division 2's big secrets. There's ciphers and hidden messages leading to secret missions with brutal boss fights. There's even a mysterious enemy faction or two. While many players have bumped into them, nobody quite knows what the deal is with the completely silent sewer-people wrapped in chains is, but they're definitely hostile and their heavies carry chainsaws. Sometimes they even come out to the surface at night, and appear regularly during one especially mysterious side-mission. While nocturnal, I doubt the CHUD crowd have anything to do with the owl cult, but I could be wrong.
Will any of this actually lead anywhere? Will there be any sort of payoff beyond some fancy unique gun? Nobody knows, everyone has their own theories, and most players just don't care and are content to run around DC, shooting poorly motivated villains. But I know I'm going to be suspicious of any owls I see.
Credit to "arkeus" on Imgur for the header image.