Season of the Hunt is over, and now Destiny 2's Season of the Chosen is on the way. Guardians have removed Xivu Arath's hold over the Tangled Shore. For our reward, we freed the Crow from his indentured servitude and brought him back to the tower with us.
As the new season begins, Guardians will discover they're not done dealing with the fallout caused by Xivu Arath's presence in the system. Xivu Arath has been taking Cabal forces for her own and it has brought Caiatl out of hiding to challenge the Hive god's trickery.
Uneasy Negotiations
Caiatl has revealed herself, but she knows she can't fight back the Pyramids looming in the system and Xivu Arath by herself. She proposes an alliance with The Vanguard on one condition: Zavala bows before her. This is an unacceptable ask for someone like Zavala who has been waging war against the Cabal for years. It wasn't long ago that Dominus Ghaul brought the Red War to the doorstep of humanity's last city and almost wiped out the entire Vanguard in the process. Zavala won't be quick to forgive the Cabal, let alone bow before them. While Zavala and Caiatl both know they can't defeat the darkness alone, neither is willing to concede. Zavala stands his ground with a commanding "no," and with that, we've just stepped into another war with the Cabal.
Who Is Caiatl?
Caiatl is the heir apparent to the Cabal empire. She's Calus's daughter and believes in the old way of the Cabal, the ways of war and domination at all costs. She's a talented star pilot and trained in war games with Evocate-General Umun'arath, Primus of All Legions. The two would talk in secret about the dangers lurking at the edge of the system, waiting to take their empire away from them. They believed Calus's opulent and joyful nature was nothing but weakness in the face of a galaxy full of enemies.
Calus wanted a different future for the Cabal. He wanted something more opulent and relatively peaceful by Cabal standards. He wanted everyone in his empire to grow fat with power, knowledge, and wealth. Calus didn't put nearly as much weight in the conquest-only lifestyle that former Cabal leadership lived and died by -- he believed there were more ways than just destruction to preserve the Cabal's way of life. However, there were plenty of members of the Cabal leadership that disagreed with Calus's opulent nature and only saw it as an infection that needed to be burned away. Caiatl was one of her father's prime detractors. Eventually, Caiatl, Umun'arath, and Ghaul's paranoia would grow so great they decided to usurp Emperor Calus in an event known as the Midnight Coup.
The Midnight Coup
The Midnight Coup was the operation that leads to Emperor Calus's dethroning and exile. Caiatl and Dominus Ghaul were the two most well-known architects of the coup, but there were eight, including Umun'arath. While Calus was fleeing to his throne room, Caiatl was lying in wait for him. She was the only member of the Cabal besides Calus that knew of the mysterious bones hidden in the throne room. These bones were meant to send a signal that could shut down the coup in its entirety. Many theorize that these bones were none other than wish-granting Ahamkara bones, but there's no hard evidence to support that claim. As she crushed the bones in her hand, she proclaimed to her father she would not be weak, and that was the end of Calus's reign as emperor of the Cabal.
Caiatl is one of the last usurpers remaining from the Midnight Coup and has the most obvious claim to the entire Cabal empire now that Ghaul and Calus are out of the way. She's rallied the Cabal under her banners while retaining one of the Cabal's most prestigious military members and another member of the Midnight Coup in her ranks -- Evocate-General Umun'arath.
As it turns out, Caiatl and Umun'arath we're right about the dark forces lurking at the edge of the system coming to take the Cabal empire from them. It may have started as delusions of paranoia but has since turned into a cold and bitter reality for the Cabal. The Pyramids are dark paracasual beings making whole planets disappear, and Xivu Arath is turning entire platoons of Cabal forces away from the empire. Caiatl wants to protect her empire and at all costs, even if that meant aligning with a mortal enemy. But in the end, Caiatl's reverence for the old Cabal ways has landed her into conflict with not only Xivu Arath and the Darkness, but the Guardians of the tower as well.