Recently, an Easter-themed Twitter post asked developers to share some of their favorite Easter eggs from titles they've worked on. In the thread, Christopher Barrett, former Art Director and now Game Director at Bungie, pointed out some of his favorites from the Halo and Destiny series, showing that Destiny had been teased long before its reveal.
Before Destiny was officially unveiled, fans scoured the internet and Bungie's previous titles looking for any information they could find about the game. As it turns out, there were references right under players' noses. An Easter egg in Halo 3: ODST showed off some Destiny elements that'll be immediately recognizable to players today.
Sharing some of his favorite Easter eggs with the Twitter community, Barrett posted three images. Included was a shot from Halo 2 showing a sign for a business that read "TTERRAB INDUSTRIES." There was an image from Halo 3: ODST showing an advertisement for the vehicle manufacturer Asklon, depicting the Earth with a small white circle positioned to the northeast and the words "DESTINY AWAITS" above. Finally, there was an image of Oryx from the Taken King expansion for Destiny.
Barrett went on to provide a little context. He noted that the "first one is pretty obvious, from Halo 2, second was a tease of Destiny in Halo: ODST, and the third was a little more subtle but probably my favorite." Digging into these Easter eggs, two are related to Destiny, and one is just a fun name drop in-game.
The first Easter egg, featured in Halo 2, shows "TTERRAB INDUSTRIES." "TTERRAB" is Barrett spelled backward. Barrett, of course, refers to Christopher Barrett. This is easy to miss, but once noticed, it'll always stick out. The second Easter egg showcases the Earth with a smaller white circle above and to the right. While the white circle was likely interpreted as the moon at the time, it's now more plausible to consider that it may have been a reference to the Traveler.
The Traveler is an entity that imbues Destiny's protagonists with the power of the Light. It is a circular structure with a white shell that hovers above Destiny's Last City and is visible from orbit. The words "DESTINY AWAITS" above seem to solidify this reasoning, even before Barrett confirmed it to be a Destiny-related Easter egg.
The last image requires a little bit of additional knowledge about Christopher Barrett to come together. An image of Oryx was shown, and Barrett commented saying that it's a more subtle Easter egg, but his personal favorite. Barrett's online handle was Oryx, or variations of that name, long before the character made an appearance in Destiny. Meaning, at least in a way, Oryx is Christopher Barrett's original character (OC). At the very least, he inspired the name for the fearsome Taken King.
It's equally fun as it is interesting to see a title's creators commenting on Easter eggs in their games. Without this sort of further elaboration, some of these fascinating details can easily pass by players and risk going unnoticed forever. Hindsight is twenty-twenty though, and once these details are revealed, it's hard to believe they went unknown for so long. Perhaps Halo Infinite will have even more great Easter eggs hidden in plain sight.