Black Garden

The Black Garden is a mysterious realm located outside of space and time. Described as the birthplace of the Vex, It once housed the Black Heart, a failed replica of the Veil that is used to weaken the Traveler, and is tended and guarded by the Vex collective known as the Sol Divisive, led by 3 frames collectively callex the Sol Progeny that was slain by the guardian. The Sol Divisive continue to have dominion over the black garden until the war of light and darkness left a ever lasting ripple through the universe and the garden as a whole, other factions such as the Hive, Taken, and the broken faction of the witness fled there and fought over the place.

## Overview

The nature, origin and purpose of the Black Garden remains shrouded in mystery. According to Pujari, the Garden is a reflection of the Traveler's actions: when it terraformed Mars, the Garden either came to be or changed in response. The mesa-like structure in the center of the Garden strongly resembles the Cradleleft behind by the Traveler on Io, which was also seemingly a product of the Traveler's terraforming activities. However, it was not created by the Traveler. When the Sol Divisive Vex arrived, they attempted to control it and impose their own changes through rigorous engineering and earth-moving.
The Black Garden is a place where "everything grows" and where "abstract patterns war for survival, fighting to propagate themselves by preying on each other." Thoughts such as ideas and concepts are carried on the wind in the form of whispers, "sentences with just the beginnings of syntax". Introducing new ideas into its conceptual environment, such as through speech, causes those ideas to "take root" in the Garden. Uldren conversing to a Cabal Legionary in Ulurant led to the whispers taking on aspects of Ulurant grammar. Even the Vex there sing ("faint, wraithlike notes of inhuman clarity") to "see how the Garden changes their song." The Sol Divisive Vex are particularly interested in the Black Garden because its effects on them "[grow] them toward what they want to be."
Prolonged exposure to the Black Garden's environment can be dangerous. The concepts being whispered there are potentially a contagious "brainstain" hazard. The Legionary who Uldren spoke to had been exposed to the Garden for an unknown length of time, and ended up having its "secrets" grown into him in the form of thousands of tiny seeds pockmarking his skull, imparting him with knowledge of the Vex. It is even stated that everything that dwells in the Garden becomes symbiotic with it as an extension of its growth, whether it be shedding leaves that fertilize the soil, or the bones or unspoken thoughts of individuals.
The sky of the Martian Black Garden initially appeared as a thick green veil of mist but after the destruction of the Black Heart, it appeared more clear and centered in what appeared to be in a cavern within the Martian landscape. The Lunar Black Garden also appeared with a misty sky, but with three Suns along with a planet and its orbiting moon.

## Locations

* Pantheon (Crucible map)
* Looking Glass
* Embrace
* Undergrowth
* Boundless Horizon

### Areas of Interest

* Tree of Silver Wings
* Pantheon
* Boundless Horizon
* Undergrowth
* Gardeners Mesa
* Winnowers Valley
* Empyrean
* Perdition