Maybe this is Bungie's third trilogy of trilogies of games about AI's named after famous swords.

except Halo turned into way more than 3 games and Destiny is already planned to have 4

Well the trilogy was the Cortana trilogy, meaning Halo 1-3. Games not made by Bungie don't count and the other two are similar to side stories other series feature. Kind of like the prequel to Wheel of Time for example.

Maybe this is Bungie's third trilogy of trilogies of games about AI's named after famous swords.

except Halo turned into way more than 3 games and Destiny is already planned to have 4

Then there's the fact that Marathon and Halo reference a mythical weapon that's not a sword and doesn't seem to be related to the Matter of France: Mjolnir... so who can say?

And don't forget Foehammer

So, an early childhood obsession with Marathon got me hooked on legendary swords.

There were indeed three mythical blades in the Song of Roland--Durendal (Durandal), Curtana (Cortana), and Joyeuse. Durendal (or Durindana) was wielded by Roland himself in battle, and was known for its endurance. It was lost upon Roland's death at the hands of the Moors, in the climax of the Song of Roland (spoilers!).

Curtana was originally the sword of Tristan, the one who married Iseult, but gained greatest fame as the sword of Ogier the Dane, greatest of Charlemagne's enemies and later one of his dearest allies. The term Curtana is also used to refer to any cut-down sword, most notably the sword of Edward the Confessor, known as the Sword of Mercy.

But we already knew all about Durandal and Cortana. So I've been scrawling "WHERE IS JOYEUSE?" in my notebooks for years, waiting for the third shoe to drop. And instead we get... Charlemagne himself? Now THAT'S interesting. But ah, we note that Charlemagne is only ONE of the great Warminds of old Mars. Perhaps we will yet see Joyeuse? Or perhaps Joyeuse will be a component of Charlemagne?

And what IS Joyeuse? Joyeuse, according to the legend, was the mythical sword of Charlemagne, the Sword of Light. It changed colors many times every day! It was used to behead Ogier's father and then knight Ogier himself as a paladin. It's currently part of the French regalia, but it's arguable whether or not that's the real Joyeuse.

SUFFICE IT TO SAY, I AM VERY EXCITED WE'RE SEEING MORE SWORD-AIS IN DESTINY.

~Duk

After I saw Charlemagne I went on a Wikipedia spree and I was going to post about it here but you mostly beat me to it. I say mostly because it looks to me like what ties this stuff together is the Matter of France. Looking at the related pages there are some interesting names (along with at least one in the list of notable swords).
With the article that was linked yesterday, this is the second time they've mentioned Charlemagne in less than a month of the game being officially publicly known. Given that, the historical significance of its namesake, and how central its namesake is to one of the main things that seems to tie their universes together, I'm theorizing it's a significant element of the game, whether it's a character or more of a plot point or whatever, and I'm theorizing they're using Charlemagne instead of Joyeuse.
There's also the possibility of Almace being tied into all this. They may well have Charlemagne as a red herring and have other relatedly-named things play a bigger role. Then there's the fact that Marathon and Halo reference a mythical weapon that's not a sword and doesn't seem to be related to the Matter of France: Mjolnir... so who can say?

~M

I am almost positive that one of the articles from people at the original press event stated that you would only play as humans. I can't find it now, but I did read about 20+ articles between then and now so who knows.

Assuming it did, the question we must ask is whether the person who wrote said article was explicitly told this by Bungie, or whether they assumed it based on having only seen human characters.

I like pairing your question with this one:

MastaSin: In Destiny, can we play as the aliens or are we locked to the human race? And if we are, why are we locked to the human race? What's the reason?

Not all of the aliens in Destiny are evil, just like not all humans are good. We’ve barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options you’ll have access to in Destiny, but we’re not going to dig in any deeper today.

Playable races, I hope. Sub-class specializations are all well and good, but I'm willing to bet Destiny's class system is going to borrow a little bit more from ME3's than many expect.

~M

I am almost positive that one of the articles from people at the original press event stated that you would only play as humans. I can't find it now, but I did read about 20+ articles between then and now so who knows.

I wonder how we're travelling from celestial body to celestial body. Actually flying between the planets and their respective moons would be really cool, but between planets would be a bit boring.

Unless there were space pirates!

I wonder how we're travelling from celestial body to celestial body. Actually flying between the planets and their respective moons would be really cool, but between planets would be a bit boring.

+1 for drunken stupor, as well.

MastaSin: In Destiny, can we play as the aliens or are we locked to the human race? And if we are, why are we locked to the human race? What's the reason?

Not all of the aliens in Destiny are evil, just like not all humans are good. We’ve barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options you’ll have access to in Destiny, but we’re not going to dig in any deeper today.

Playable races, I hope. Sub-class specializations are all well and good, but I'm willing to bet Destiny's class system is going to borrow a little bit more from ME3's than many expect.

~M

I remember something about the Mars Curiosity team visiting Bungie awhile back. Imagine if they included her or a monument of sorts on the planet. :)

I was thinking along these lines, too. Maybe get really old school and find some of the Viking probes and whatnot.

There should also be adventures on space stations at Lagrange points, because Lagrange points are sexy.

Europa, space's North Korea.

wat?

How cool is that!

The flipside of my pillow ain't got nuthin! What kid doesn't dream of being an astronaut at some point? (I STILL do!) There is something about having the game take place in our home system, and starting off (I'm presuming) on our home planet, that scratches that I-wanna-go-into-space itch, if only a little bit. I am excited.

Too bad we can't attempt a landing on Europa, space's North Korea.

I like when science fiction doesn't use the "it's a magic space orb we found that can do whatever" excuse for creating the fantastical technologies. It kind of betrays the core of what science fiction is to me...

Agreed, magic space orbs are a horrible idea that should never…

…oh. :p

Maybe this is Bungie's third trilogy of trilogies of games about AI's named after famous swords.

Everything Bungie has ever created is a reference to The Song of Roland or a reference to another game that references Song of Roland, man. It's references within references. References all the way down.

How cool is that!

The flipside of my pillow ain't got nuthin! What kid doesn't dream of being an astronaut at some point? (I STILL do!) There is something about having the game take place in our home system, and starting off (I'm presuming) on our home planet, that scratches that I-wanna-go-into-space itch, if only a little bit. I am excited.

I think keeping it within our solar system(?) allows them to ground it in conceivable technology, especially since we're looking to send manned missions to Mars within 50 years or so.

I like when science fiction doesn't use the "it's a magic space orb we found that can do whatever" excuse for creating the fantastical technologies. It kind of betrays the core of what science fiction is to me...

I definitely agree. One of my favorite things about Firefly is the fact that they never develop FTL, and it seems to me that is similar in Destiny. Also having it in our solar system makes it a lot cooler because it's something we can actually see (to some degree) in real life! How cool is that!