#blue loki
Sometimes I forget that Uldren Sov was a massively nerdy falconer. And then Crow goes and does something like calls his ship the Radiant Accipiter. Not just the Hawk. The Accipiter.
All I can imagine is Crow wandering round the Dreaming City on missions, occasionally hearing of “that mad prince who was so into birds he called everything he could a Crow and called his most honoured man the Rachis and used to get sad when his hunting companions died and preferred to wear black and white and feathers”…
Crow, wearing black and white, with his accipiter ship: “Huh, wow. Weird guy. Doesn’t ring a bell. Rachis is a pretty neat nickname, though; you know, that’s the part of a feather where everything stems from…”
The Corsairs and Petra, probably, looking at him exhaustedly: “We know.”
To preface, I’m writing this not to discuss morality, or culpability. I don’t give a shit.
I’m writing this because there seems to be a general and baffling misunderstanding of what Uldren’s crimes were. And yes, they were crimes. No, they were not limited to Cayde’s murder. In fact, Cayde is such a small part of why Uldren ultimately dies that, outside of the Young Wolf’s personal motivation, it’s arguably irrelevant.
I’m writing this because, even disregarding Young Wolf ’s vengeance and Mara’s lightbearer scheme, Uldren would always have had to die. And that’s a point I hear too often danced around.
“I didn’t like Cayde, I would have spared Uldren.”
Irrelevant, the Regent Commander of the Awoken has decided he cannot be allowed to live, and for valid reasons.
I’m writing this because, when Crow calls his past self a monster, there’s WAY more cause for that than the murder of a single man.
Also he’s kinda THE authority on Uldren >.>Ahem
After the Battle of Saturn, Uldren is mentally in a bad state. A very bad state. Not the topic of this post, but it IS why he ends up agreeing to help the House of Kings.
He helps them ransack the Reef, terrorizing settlements to destabilize an already hurting population. Roughly two years between Battle of Saturn and Red War, and around another year to the events of Forsaken. Roughly three years dedicated to assaulting his own people. For perspective.
TerrorismandMassacres. It gets so bad that after the Red War, Cayde tries to get the Reefborn that remain to come live in the City instead. It’s a very not good time to be Reefborn, with the Barons and Kings about.
Eventually, with Fikrul, he slaughters the Kings.Turns himself in.
At this point, only the capture team, the Techeuns, Petra, Variks, and Cayde (possibly the Vanguard as a whole?) know he’s alive, mad, and imprisoned for these crimes. His involvement with the Kings is kept secret. Variks is ordered explicitly to keep it secret.
Effectively he’s imprisoned on an insanity plea, and because they don’t know what else to do with him. My personal opinion here, but morale amongst the Reefborn was so low by this point that Petra probably couldn’t reveal his involvement or punish him. Hell, until Mara returns, people were acting behind Petra’s back, undermining her. They didn’t believe her up to the task.
We see the eventual escape. I think it’s worth noting that, while undoubtedly bravado fueled, Cayde’s very rapid travel to the block where Uldren and the Barons were being held likely has some to do with who and what. He is one of a small few who knows the deeds of those held there. That they have to remain.
So Uldren has now not only shown he’ll willingly and deliberately attack his own people, mentally ill or no, he’s also shown that if freed, he WILL do it again. Once again he and his Barons assault the Reef. As we learn more about the Scorn, we come to realize that they’re basically an unending army that are solely loyal to him.
We see the rest. He heeds Riven, lets Scorn into the Dreaming City, sets in motion the first part of Riven’s soon to be sprung trap.
So, when he’s finally cornered, what to do with him? Ghost says Uldren’s finished, and urges sparing him. But Ghost is wrong.
Uldren cannot be held: the Prison of Elders is in shambles, and the basically immortal and incredibly numerous Scorn will never stop trying to free him if he’s re-imprisoned.
Uldren, likely, cannot be reasoned with: even once free of Taken influence, his mind is still full of coco puffs. In my opinion, his dialogue indicates that he doesn’t understand he’s been manipulated. He still doesn’t understand ‘Mara’ was not Mara. He’s unwell in a way the Awoken either cannot treat, or will not. And with Riven still alive at this point, there’s every chance she could manipulate him further. Unwell as he still is, he wouldn’t know any different.
In Season of the Lost, Mara suggests that Eris would have seen he was unwell, that he was being manipulated. This is probably true, Eris is very insightful. But the key people involved already knew that. Not the details of who was doing the manipulating, but they knew he wasn’t well. MARA knew he wasn’t well, years before we ever even meet him. Nothing was done, which suggests to me that nothing could be done.
So Petra’s only real option now, unable to hold him or reason with or treat him, is, unfortunately, to kill him. She cannot give him a trial, as to do so would be to put the Awoken’s beloved Prince’s crimes on display and would in all likelihood fracture a society already being held together by duct tape and a prayer.
A fun little sidenote: Petra and Uldren were friends. So, opinion again here, when she goads the Young Wolf, asking what Cayde would do, I think she was trying to avoid having to do the deed herself. Whether she or Young Wolf ultimately pull the trigger though is intentionally left up to you.
Amazingwriteup OP, I’ve thought about this a lot myself in arguments about Uldren’s crimes and the duty of the YW and/or Petra to kill him at the end of Forsaken. He wasn’t going to quit until the Reef was destroyed and the Awoken were dead. He said so himself.
One thing I’d like to add is that he was likely under the influence of the Darkness even before Taken-Riven got her hands on him. Jolyon indicates he was drastically different after returning from the Black Garden, and the Uldren we met in-game in OG Destiny was a far cry from the brash, carefree man we caught glimpses of in pre-Black Garden lore.
I don’t say this to remove responsibility, but point out something that’s extremely concerning in light of new revelations about how various actors within the Darkness work - by killing and killing and killing until they’re the only one of their respective group left. Uldren had a line promising something to the effect of ‘giving the [awoken] what they deserve, extinction’. Where have we heard sentiment like that before (or rather, since?)
He was an existential threat to the (already battered) Reef and Awoken people and no one seems to remember that. Thank you for bringing that back into focus.
Excellent compilation of all of Uldren’s crimes and Petra’s decisions and the whole situation in the Reef.
I’m specifically also reblogging with the addition about the Black Garden because it’s further proof that whatever drove Uldren to do all of this was something no one could’ve reversed. Not even Mara.
The first thing Mara asks when Uldren returns from the Black Garden is if he’s seentheBlack Heart. And she’s noted to be uncharacteristically shaken while questioning him.
“Uldren.” Mara, shaking him. She does not ordinarily touch anyone. “Did you see the heart?”
…
“You didn’t answer the question,” Mara says coolly. It’s a perfectly sensible observation. It’s the strangest thing Uldren has ever heard her say.
Given her strange behaviour about this topic, it’s clear that whatever happened, happened the moment Uldren gazed upon the Black Heart. And that it was not reversible. At least not in a way known to Mara and others at the time. Not when it came to Uldren. Jolyon also saw the Heart, but the actively worked on forgetting it because it unnerved him so he avoided the corruption (although I suspect not without permanently locked behind trying to forget the incident), but Uldren? He sought it out more and more. Nobody can help with it: you have to resist it yourself.
And when Uldren refused to resist it… Well, what followed is detailed in the OP.
