I've been sitting on a little secret for a while now. One which I have yet to see anyone else figure out so I have decided to shed some light on the darkness that spreads far and wide in the galaxy. We all know that Bungie loves the number 7 and even has a lot of love for the number 9. Some people wonder why that may be and just what that means. Perhaps it is through those numbers and other hints in relation to this that we can predict the future of Destiny and where we will go once we leave our Solar System in Destiny 2 or 3. However today I am not talking about where we may go and what that means, nor am I going to shed "light" on Bungies obsession with "7" and "9" that has been around for a long time since before the days of Halo.

I will be talking about Xur, the merchant who wants your strange coins and motes of light. You love him and every week you're excited to see his goodies in exchange for your hard earned coins. Other times you hate him because he never has what you want. Some think this guy is just an NPC that Bungie made to give you cool stuff for your coins, right? They named him Xur because why the heck not, right? Well no..... Xur is a very peculiar name that was specifically picked and incredibly well chosen.



Xur Agent of the Nine is also a MAJOR 7 reference and one that flew over everybody's heads. His name is similar to that of 343 Guilty Spark and any Halo fan knows that 343 is 7^3 meaning 7x7x7=343. This is the point where you guys are probably thinking "That's nice, what's your point... 343 is a number and Xur is not". Actually in reality the name Xur represents both the number 7 as well as the number 9! Let me break it down for you guys so you can understand the math.

In order to get those numbers we must first add up Xur's name. This is actually exactly as it sounds X+U+R will give us a sum and that sum is divided by 7 or 9 to get the respective number. Each letter represents the number that letter represents in the order of the alphabet. I am sure Bungie is having a giggle with this one but the gig is up. ;)

X = 24, the 24th letter in the alphabet
U = 21, the 21st letter in the alphabet
R = 18, the 18th letter in the alphabet

We now have 24 + 21 + 18 = 63 and with the sum of 63 we figured out the numerology of Xur. Now lets take 63 and divide it! 63 ÷ 9 = 7 and 63 ÷ 7 = 9. In other words 7 x 9 = 63 or simply 7 x 9 = Xur. Xur is Bungies most complicated and best hidden "7" easter egg yet.

Xur also sells some of his wares at interesting prices:

Exotic Shards always go for 7 Strange Coins.
Exotic helms or primary exotic weapons cost 23 strange coins. It is interesting to note that 7 + 9 =7 = 23.
Exotic secondary or heavy weapons cost 1(7) strange coins.
It is unknown if items priced at 13 have any meaning.

It is more or less known that another hidden "9" reference is none other than Eris Morn herself. Eris Morn has 9 characters to her name including the space. Eris is also the 9th most massive body known to directly orbit the Sun and it is a dwarf planet located past Pluto.

Destiny and Bungie themselves both have other secrets that may one day be revealed. There are many hints as to where Destiny will take us in the future and perhaps it is possible that the Traveler is a god like being that was created by an older race that fell to the darkness and the Traveler was a built as last ditch effort to save the galaxy. As for who are the Mine? That may be something I well explore and debate on in the future :)

In such regards I'll leave with a little quote from Xur himself "There are no birds where I come from, things that fly are like shadows."

Mother of God a lot of number :D

I guess Bungie will show the 9 in the future... the Stranger is a pretty unknown figure too.

I just wished he stayed in the same place and he can keep all the secrets to himself.

great observations

i don't actually have the game yet, but i've decided to get it wednesday and i noticed while i was watching some gameplay that the latest expansion has loads of sun/egyptian symbolism

trials of osiris - osiris - sun

adept weapons - adepts were priests in the ancient religions dedicated to the sun

  there's loads of gear with these sun markings

the mask depicted there represents the egyptian god typhon  who was the enemy of osiris

back in those days the priest that controlled the people considered themselves to be wolves and the people their sheep so from that we get "house of wolves"

there are various weapons with names like "eye of sol" or eye of the sun 

and there are many many many more examples

as you've pointed out the symbolism extends all the way back through to the core game it just really jumped out at me now because of how overt it all is

its all lead me to conclude that whoever is writing the details for this game has obviously studied egypt and the religion they practiced

Trials of Osiris is the new highly competitive PvP arena mode that is a single elimination game type. It came out recently with House of Wolves expansion. It's a lot of fun and most of the gear is all Egyptian themed. I hope you enjoy Destiny when you get it, it's a lot of fun and it has tons of cool little secrets hidden in the game. Lots of things to do as well! :D

thanks i'm sure i will i played the demo and i've liked it so far

Or they just contacted a couple of good historians as consultants...