The Destiny community is filled with talented creators who inspire us every single The passion of the these creators, and the communities they've formed has helped make Destiny feel like more than just a game.
Our Creator Spotlight articles are our way of celebrating those individuals. Each edition, we'll sit down with a member of the community to learn about their journey, what inspires them, and the impact they're making along the way.
This week, we're thrilled to introduce our very first Creator Spotlight: Abaddon!
Abaddon is a Destiny creator best known for his lore content. Many of you will recognize him from his popular "7 Levels" series, including videos such as "The 7 Levels of Destiny 2 Raid Bosses" and "The 7 Levels of Destiny 2 Guardians", which quickly gained traction.
The video that really caught our attention, however, was "Solving Destiny 2's Most Impossible Raid". Exploring the story of the Vault of Glass, the video blends engaging storytelling with stunning illustrations by The Mighty Gefan and voice performances from Roo, Michael Clawson, LlamaD2, RisibleZombie, ToadSmoothie, AkiAndFam, JamesJrVoices, and even Abaddon's own mother.
It's a project that showcases not only Abaddon's deep appreciation for Destiny's lore, but also the level of care, collaboration, and creativity that goes into his work. The passion behind the video is unmistakable, making him the perfect choice for our very first Creator Spotlight.
If you haven't yet seen the video, we encourage you to give it a watch!
Solving Destiny 2's Most Impossible Raid
For the remainder of the article, we’ll be chatting with Abaddon to get to know him beyond his content. We’ll talk about his creative process, what drives him to create, and the parts of Destiny that continue to inspire and resonate with him.
It was through my family! My mom purchased my dad Destiny 1 a little bit after it came out back in 2014. I would watch him play every night, and right before Taken King came out, I started playing on my own account. I've been hooked ever since then. There was just something so magical and special about Destiny that captivated me as a kid and continues to captivate me now.
Ever since I was a kid I was always interested in content creation. I went through so many channels across so many different niches, trying to get something to stick. I even tried Destiny content on YouTube quite a few times before landing on lore stuff. But in the middle of trying to get YouTube to work, I was also posting Destiny news/info content on TikTok. An audience quickly took shape there, but it was never truly fulfilling for me, since writing and storytelling are things that I've always been passionate about.
In the months leading up to Final Shape, I really took a deep dive into the lore, specifically stuff regarding the Gardener and the Winnower. Through that research I discovered a mystery religion known as Gnosticism, and realized that everything was intertwined in a pretty interesting way. I put all this research together and made my first lore video a few days before Final Shape, and ever since then, my focus has been on my main YouTube channel!
Big shoutout to Venextron here by the way. His massive video on Unveiling really got me into lore and started this all. If you haven't seen that video, please give it a watch!
This is a tough one, but I think it has to go to the Vault of Glass video. That video captures everything I love about Destiny. Fascinating environmental storytelling, interesting characters, incredible lore, and connections to real-world religions and mythologies. Being able to spend time discussing Christianity and ancient Sumerian stories is just so cool, and stuff like that makes Destiny so special. The Vault of Glass video also acts as a massive love letter to Destiny for me, since that raid is where you get 'Guardians make their own fate' from, and that phrase and the raid's main themes have been something we've all been using to help navigate the end of Destiny 2. It's a story that ultimately is about hope and faith in the face of impossible odds, and that is very relevant to our current circumstance.
I always start with the story of whatever topic I'm looking at, and discover what it is trying to say. What message, themes, etc is it speaking to? From there, I'll look at all the related lore, books, flavor text, etc, and start to string together a story using those elements as my creative clay. And from that point, the video just starts to take shape.
I think the most challenging part for me is making sure I'm accurate. Because of the nature of my videos, I tend to cover a ton of content, and as I'm editing, I'll realize that I missed something, said something completely wrong, misspoke, etc, and I'll have to go back and re-record. Sometimes things are still missed, but I really try to make sure I'm not getting anything wrong.
Don't be afraid to fail. Failure is a natural part of this process, and will ultimately make you a better creator in the long run. Failing teaches you so much about your content and your audience, and that is very valuable. So, when failure comes, ask yourself why, and you can almost always find an answer there. It's a great teacher, and it doesn't make you any less of a creator.
Bonus advice here too, never compare yourself to others. The age old phrase, "comparison is the thief of joy," is something to always remember, especially in the field of content creation. But, it's actually better for you if there are multiple channels in the same niche making videos. It breeds community, and when multiple people make similar videos, everyone succeeds! So, extend the olive branch, and welcome others with open arms.
Oh man this is so tough. Lodi, Drifter, Rhulk, Eris, Oryx, Savathun, Praedyth, Shin Malphur, Bael - all of these characters are fantastic and so inspiring to me, but I've got to say that the Winnower is my absolute favorite. The Winnower and everything that character represents binds together the entire Destiny universe, and everything between its logic, the pattern, the Flower Game, its connections to real-life philosophy and mythology; it's just all so good and so interesting. Genuinely, the Winnower is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction.
Another tough one, since Destiny lore is rich, complex, and created by a variety of talented and amazing writers, but the Unveiling lore book is my all time favorite. It goes hand-in-hand with the previous question, but this text is truly fascinating. It connects to philosophy, religion, mathematics, and every time I've read it, I've experienced something different about it, seriously. I've picked up on something I missed before, or thought about it differently. Unveiling conveys such an interesting underlying truth about the mechanics of the Destiny universe, but also, sheds light on the darkness in our own universe, and the ultimate hope we can gleam from it.
"We must remember the value of unshakable, irrational hope. The choice to act as if we lived in a better world can create a place for that better world to exist."
Book: Unveiling, Trust and Hope
Going into Monument of Triumph, I was really worried that a lot of things would go unanswered, and it would act as more of a goodbye than leaving things open ended. We got the exact opposite. The biggest cliffhanger of all time. We got so much lore and story content that teased things to come, and plotlines that were about to begin. All of those things are still unresolved, but things like the whereabouts of Taox were commented on, which was a mystery for a decade at this point. But, by nature of a rushed, abrupt end, some things were going to be left out and still unresolved.
That being said, I really wish we had more on things like Cocytus Station and the Aphelion. We know some things here and there about these two mysteries, but there is still a lot of unknown, and I think we would have eventually gotten around to these. Cocytus was briefly mentioned in DP lore.
Outside of things like that, I also wish we were able to see Savathun's ultimate plan fulfilled. She was to escape the bounds of the Flower Game. It's a desire that connects way back to lore from Forsaken, and even though that side of her character got sidelined for a few years, I think the writers were intending to return to that goal.
I think I have to go with the Drifter. He's seen so many things, talked to so many people, been to so many places, etc. That would be very fun conversation.
A runner-up would be Lodi!
This one is tough, but I think I still have to go with the Final Shape. It's a fantastic story about hope and faith and making your own fate. The character dynamics between Cayde, Zavala, Ikora, Crow, Micah-10, our Guardian, our Ghost, etc, are all down very well, I think. And I think the campaign made the Witness a much better villain following Lightfall. I wish we had gotten just a tad bit more on the Gardener and the Winnower, but that's a small nitpick and doesn't hurt the ultimate narrative IMO.
The time leading up to Salvation's Edge and Excision was also such a fantastic demonstration of gaming storytelling. Those three days with the countdown to the raid literally on the Pale Heart, the final battle with the Witness cutscene, the debuff in your inventory, and the 'Final Shape looms in X days' message when loading into different activities made everything so immersive. And then, of course, Salvation's Edge right into Excision was just amazing. I remember watching the raid race until 7 in the morning and then immediately going to play Excision.
The campaign through Excision makes Final Shape the best for me IMO. It shows the true power behind video game storytelling, and also was a great sendoff to the Light and Darkness Saga.
I love reading, writing, gaming with friends, studying religion & theology, and collecting Lego!
I love this question so much! So many talented and amazing people have inspired my work. In the Destiny community, specifically lore people, Byf and Venextron were (and still are!) two of my biggest inspirations. Byf served as a gateway into the world of the Destiny universe. I started watching his content when I was very young, and he's stayed as a great source ever since. Like I said earlier, Venextron's videos really got me into the more esoteric and mysterious parts of Destiny, like in the case of the Winnower and Unveiling. Besides lore creators, Husky Raid and evanf1997 are two other big Destiny ones.
But beyond the Destiny community, creators like Wendigoon serve as inspirations for how I construct my content on a thematic level.
I still have Destiny content I want to make, and I plan on seeing those videos realized. But moving forward, I do plan to expand my videos beyond Destiny. I'm keeping it vague for now, but I do not intend to stop making lore and story videos at all. I'm planning on making a bigger announcement video regarding this in the near future, so keep an eye out for that!
This is something that I've kinda gone back and forth on, but now after reading everything we got with Monument of Triumph, I think Destiny 3 has to pick up pretty much where we've left off. I think a war on Torobatl would be a fantastic hook, since there are just so many different characters and factions involved with that plot, and Xivu Arath could be a very strong villain. You could also throw in Old Chicago as a location, given that it's a destination that was probably almost complete given Shattered Cycle, and could be repurposed for a bit of a different narrative. Fundament, maybe a moon of Saturn like Enceladus, and the Distributary could all be great destinations as well for a vanilla game.
Ultimately, Destiny 3 needs to lead to the Winnower. That's where we were heading with the Fate Saga, and that final vignette scene in MOT was a pretty massive cliffhanger. The Winnower must be the focus of the next iteration of the franchise.
One of my upcoming videos will be focused on everything regarding Unveiling, the Winnower, and its connections to religion, philosophy, etc. This one has been sitting on the backburner for two years at this point and I'm super excited to get this one out there!
The Final Shape!
Vow of the Disciple!
Tough one, tied between Dreaming City, Pale Heart, and Europa.
Could just say the Winnower again lol, but I'll go with someone we've actually faced. Oryx!
Music of the Spheres. It is the DNA of Destiny's overall tone and sound. Everything ultimately derives from that.
We'd like to take this time thank Abaddon for answering all of our questions, and for pouring his heart and soul into creating the best content he can. Keep up the incredible work!
We encourage you all to go and check him out. You can find him on: YouTube, Twitch, and X/Twitter!
-LukeCB14