XXIII: fire without fuel is a Grimoire card from the original Destiny (Destiny 1), found under Enemies → Books of Sorrow. Grimoire cards held most of the game's lore and were read on Bungie.net and in the companion app, not in the game itself.
Card text
I killed my sister today.
She came to this star to oversee the extermination of all life here. The Qugu are a strong power, and their fleets protect four nearby stars. As herd animals they are loyal and stubborn. But they do show grace.
For millions of years of evolution the Qugu have been infected by a virus so insidious that it wrote itself into their genome. The virus compels them to offer their limbs for amputation by enormous sessile jaw-beasts. They venerate these beasts and treat them as gods. The virus converts Qugu cells into eggs, from which strange crawling things pupate, to live within the jaw-beast gut. In turn the jaw-beast extrudes sweet nectar for the Qugu to drink, and they have brilliant visions.
Savathûn and her broods have liberated the Qugu from jaw-beasts, and indeed from existence. But as they chased the Qugu ark-ships, I stopped in to vaporize my sister’s warship and a few of her underlings. I want to dwell on the ruins a while, and punish Savathûn for failing to guard her flank.
They are like us, these Qugu. Bound in symbiosis.
I feel joy, and sorrow. I feel them as titanic things, because I am larger than my body, my mind is now a cosmos of its own. I know more joy and more anguish than the entire Qugu race could ever experience.
Sorrow, because we have killed so much (eighteen species this century alone), and joy for the same reason. Joy that we have put down these blights. Scoured them away and left the universe clean, ready to move towards its final shape. We are a wind of progress. Ripping parasites from the material world — for if they were not parasites, we would be unable to kill them, and they would still exist.
And what is that final shape? It is a fire without fuel, burning forever, killing death, asking a question that is its own answer, entirely itself. That is what we must become.
My worm grows fat and hungry. I feed it with whole worlds. My astronomers tell me they can sense the Deep Itself, and that we are conquering our way towards it.
I think joy and sorrow will be the same thing soon. Like love and death.
She came to this star to oversee the extermination of all life here. The Qugu are a strong power, and their fleets protect four nearby stars. As herd animals they are loyal and stubborn. But they do show grace.
For millions of years of evolution the Qugu have been infected by a virus so insidious that it wrote itself into their genome. The virus compels them to offer their limbs for amputation by enormous sessile jaw-beasts. They venerate these beasts and treat them as gods. The virus converts Qugu cells into eggs, from which strange crawling things pupate, to live within the jaw-beast gut. In turn the jaw-beast extrudes sweet nectar for the Qugu to drink, and they have brilliant visions.
Savathûn and her broods have liberated the Qugu from jaw-beasts, and indeed from existence. But as they chased the Qugu ark-ships, I stopped in to vaporize my sister’s warship and a few of her underlings. I want to dwell on the ruins a while, and punish Savathûn for failing to guard her flank.
They are like us, these Qugu. Bound in symbiosis.
I feel joy, and sorrow. I feel them as titanic things, because I am larger than my body, my mind is now a cosmos of its own. I know more joy and more anguish than the entire Qugu race could ever experience.
Sorrow, because we have killed so much (eighteen species this century alone), and joy for the same reason. Joy that we have put down these blights. Scoured them away and left the universe clean, ready to move towards its final shape. We are a wind of progress. Ripping parasites from the material world — for if they were not parasites, we would be unable to kill them, and they would still exist.
And what is that final shape? It is a fire without fuel, burning forever, killing death, asking a question that is its own answer, entirely itself. That is what we must become.
My worm grows fat and hungry. I feed it with whole worlds. My astronomers tell me they can sense the Deep Itself, and that we are conquering our way towards it.
I think joy and sorrow will be the same thing soon. Like love and death.
Grimoire text written by Bungie, shown as it appears in the Destiny 1 game files.
About this card
- Game
- Destiny 1
- Theme
- Enemies
- Page
- Books of Sorrow
- Grimoire score
- 5 points
- How to unlock
- Unlock this card by playing Destiny.
More cards from Books of Sorrow
I: PredatorsBooks of SorrowII: The Hateful VerseBooks of SorrowIII: The OathBooks of SorrowIV: SyzygyBooks of SorrowV: Needle and WormBooks of SorrowVI: SistersBooks of SorrowVII: The DiveBooks of SorrowVIII: LeviathanBooks of SorrowIX: The BargainBooks of SorrowX: ImmortalsBooks of SorrowXI: ConquerorsBooks of SorrowXII: Out of the DeepBooks of SorrowXIII: Into the SkyBooks of SorrowXIV: 52 and OneBooks of SorrowXV: Born As PreyBooks of SorrowXVI: The Sword LogicBooks of SorrowXVII: The Weakness VerseBooks of SorrowXVIII: Leviathan RisesBooks of SorrowXIX: CrusadersBooks of SorrowXX: HiveBooks of SorrowXXI: an incisionBooks of SorrowXXII: The High WarBooks of SorrowXXIV: THE SCREAMBooks of SorrowXXV: Dictata ir DakauaBooks of SorrowXXVI: star by star by starBooks of SorrowXXVII: Eat the SkyBooks of SorrowXXVIII: King of ShapesBooks of SorrowXXIX: Carved in RuinBooks of SorrowXXX: a golden amputationBooks of SorrowXXXI: battle made wavesBooks of SorrowXXXII: Majestic. Majestic.Books of SorrowXXXIII: When do monsters have dreamsBooks of SorrowXXXIV: More beautiful to knowBooks of SorrowXXXV: This Love Is WarBooks of SorrowXXXVI: Eater of HopeBooks of SorrowXXXVII: shapes : pointsBooks of SorrowXXXVIII: The partition of deathBooks of SorrowXXXIX: open your eye : go into itBooks of SorrowXL: An Emperor For All OutcomesBooks of SorrowXLI: DreadnaughtBooks of Sorrow