As I've said before, my MacBook Pro's Desktop Picture is set to rotate through all the released Destiny desktops. This evening Bridge of Chains rotated in and I began to look at it. For some reason my mind had always associated the large tubular structures with sort of smelting conveyor system. You know, like the big tubs that the melt metal in. I thought we were looking at some sort of conveyor system that was transporting hot metal of some kind down the line. Tonight though the image really caught my eye and I decided to look closer. My conclusion? This scene is far creepier than I first thought.

First off are the four figures down near the bottom. For the longest time I thought they were there just for scale. To show how huge these big containers were. But no. Look at them. The lead guy is clearly in awe of the structure he is walking towards. The two guys behind him have just a bit more detail on them, and it looks to me that all three are wearing oxygen tanks or some similar form of life support. The fourth guy isn't with the other three I don't think. He seems to be the only one holding a weapon, in this case I'm thinking more a stick type weapon than a gun. He also seems to be in a somewhat fancy uniform. Is escorting the three inside? Do they have a choice?

Now take a look at the next nearest structure, almost directly behind the odd man out. It's largely identical to the structure closest to us, but raised up a good amount. You can see its raised up, drawbridge like door, the same kind the three guys are heading towards, thanks to the orange glow. Also note the large amount of smoke (really large amount, remember how huge these things are!) coming out of the left hand side. What's going on in there?

Now direct your focus to the ceiling in the distance. We can see that all these structures are hanging from (gigantic) chains which are attached around those big blue light sources which are in turn a part of a larger stretched out oval. We can see the end of another one of these long oval shapes in the foreground. Note that it is closed off on the end. Unless the whole oval, blue light source, and hanging structures move at once, which I'm just not feeling, these structure don't go anywhere. I'm thinking they can be moved left right to align them with their nearest bridge and up and down, but they don't move nearer or farther down the tunnel / building / whatever all this stuff is inside.

So what the heck are these things?! My best guess is that they are some sort of self contained slave camps with integrated living quarters. Probably not nice places to be. The whole thing is loaded up with workers then raised up and away to make escape impossible. Assuming that's even close to correct, who needs hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of workers, and for what purpose? Out of all the Destiny pictures I think this may be the most interesting, not so much for what it shows, but for what it implies and for the gaps in our knowledge it makes apparent. We even know more about Race 5, the pyramid ship race, than we know about this image!

Any thoughts? Any info about his image I've missed or forgotten?

You pointed out a lot of things I missed. Probably the most interesting thing I saw in this picture is the strange combination of technology. They use draw bridges and chains, but then they have rectangular floating platforms spread throughout.

You pointed out a lot of things I missed. Probably the most interesting thing I saw in this picture is the strange combination of technology. They use draw bridges and chains, but then they have rectangular floating platforms spread throughout.

Ah, good catch! It could be entirely practical. Perhaps floating a small platform, and by small I mean the size of a large house or bigger, is feasible but keeping a giant, sky scraper sized work camp in the air is better left to gravity and some really big, really strong chains.

Any thoughts? Any info about his image I've missed or forgotten?

Interesting stuff!

At first glance, the pale green and orange colors remind me of the moon locations from other concept art, but perhaps also the footage we've seen from the Hive locations in the gameplay demos. The towers look very menacing and formidable. Probably designed in some part to keep something out (or in). Something that can't fly, at least. Something that came from...below?

If you look closely, there are a bunch of transport ships, drones, or something flying around in the distance throughout the scene. They all have a rectangular top that tapers downward. At one end they have a glowing orange circle (engine?) and a line of lights lengthwise along the sides (windows?). I'm thinking the place is more alive than it appears at first glance, with ships coming and going from the towers. How they land on those things...I don't know.

It's strange that each tower appears to have a unique system of cables, chains, and whatnot suspending it from the ceiling, despite the design of the towers themselves looking fairly identical. The one in the foreground is a four-chainer. There's another with a mess of wires, another with three chains, etc. Maybe this implies there's more diversity within the towers than we might think, or the towers were built over a long period of time.

Probably wrong theory: This is some kind of ancient hanging city, designed to keep out the Hive or as-of-yet-unnamed Moon Monsters. Drawbridges pull back to keep out unwanted guests.

As far as the guys on the bridge, the standing-guy definitely looks like a guard of some kind but it's hard to say.

Theory #2, and this goes along with your idea: perhaps the whole thing is a penal colony on the moon. The towers are designed to keep prisoners inside and occasionally they're escorted out to go mining.

In the 5 color alien race postcard, the cabal frame had long cylinder-like dropships coming down from above. When I saw this picture i was reminded of that at first, maybe all suspended in a hanger. I think the three figures up front could be cabal, makes everything even bigger. Maybe they are lowered directly to the ground?

So, maybe slave quarters. Maybe prisons. Maybe simply living quarters for what population could make it to behind a wall or other safe area? Dystopian desperation at it's finest?

But yeah, prisons I think. Look at the little floating platforms...look like monitoring drones, delivery drones, personal transport platforms, or all three.

I'm not sure I agree the 4th guy is escorting the other 3. It is certainly possible, but it looks like he's standing there looking out, not directly minding the three.

I hadn't actually seen this picture before...cool, and good analysis.

In the 5 color alien race postcard, the cabal frame had long cylinder-like dropships coming down from above. When I saw this picture i was reminded of that at first, maybe all suspended in a hanger. I think the three figures up front could be cabal, makes everything even bigger. Maybe they are lowered directly to the ground?

My instinct says "dropships" more than anything.

They look like giant censers.

~M