Since her name was spoken for the first time, Savathun continues to cast a looming shadow over the Destiny 2 universe with her various deceptions. Her machinations are set to come to a head in the next expansion, The Witch Queen, where her cunning will be on full display inside her strange throne world. It was this throne world players got a fresh look at in the expansion's latest trailer, and some are turning to science to try and decode some of the potential mysteries hidden within.
Picking up from the end of Destiny 2's current season, The Witch Queen will see Guardians battle Savathun who has gained the light and stolen it to build her light-infused Hive army. Guardians must venture into Hive God's throne world where they will see just how powerful Savathun's deceptions are inside her pocket-dimension. To combat these lies and light-powered Hive, players will be armed with an array of new weapons and re-worked powers to take the light back.
Savathun's throne world was front-and-center in the aforementioned trailer, which gave players a fresh look and plenty of teases about what is in store for The Witch Queen. It was these teases which caught the eye of Reddit user Sleepysaurus_Rex on the Destiny-centric RaidSecrets subreddit. Sleepysaurus specifically points to the numbers 16, 32.066, 80, 200.59, and [Xe]4f145d106s2 seen only briefly in the trailer.
Some kind of possible secret code in the new trailer? NOT the chemical symbols. Could just be to look nice, though. from raidsecrets
Multiple users were quick to point out in the comments the combinations of 16 with 32.066 and 80 with 200.59 are the atomic numbers and weight for sulfur and mercury, respectively. Other Reddit users added [Xe]4f145d106s2 is the electron configuration for the element osmium.
Given the alchemical symbols present across The Witch Queen, it shouldn't be surprising to see references to sulfur and mercury as the two elements, along with salt, are key to alchemy. The bigger question is what role, if any, these could play inside the expansion as players battle Savathun. Given alchemy's focus on transmutation, it could be Bungie's way of giving a lore hook to Witch Queen's weapon crafting system that will be at players' disposal.
The latter of the three is the most on the nose tease as Savathun, alongside Xivu Arath and Oryx, was a member of the Osmium Court on the planet Fundament. It was on Fundament where the three siblings met the worm gods after their father, the Osmium King, was betrayed by one of his brood mothers. The worm gods would imbue the three with worms of their own, effectively birthing the Hive while the siblings took their first steps to godhood. Imagery of this shared history is seen briefly in the trailer and could hold the key to defeating the Hive god of cunning.
At the end of the day, all this remains speculative until players get their hands on The Witch Queen in February. It does, though, highlight the excitement within the Destiny community for the expansion as this is a confrontation roughly seven years in the making.
Destiny 2 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.