It was never answered directly in simple terms, but we have a vague idea that it had something to do with whatever happened at the end of the Collapse which resulted in the Black Fleet being pushed out of the Solar system. This involved the Traveler doing something which ended up leaving it heavily damaged and also dormant, as well as Savathun tricking the Witness, stealing the Veil and hiding it away. With the Veil gone and the Traveler "asleep," the Black Fleet was driven away and had no reason to reactivate because the keys to the Witness' plans (the Traveler and the Veil) were in some way removed and disabled. Kinda like, there's nothing to do with the Veil gone and the Traveler metaphorically dead.

The Pyramids reactivated when the Traveler sent out the pulse when it awakened at the end of the Red War because it essentially signalled its position and its status as alive. This basically told the Witness "Hey one part of the equation is ready, we just have to find the Veil now. Worth taking a look."

Nothing so far! They were kinda tied to the Witness in general so it makes sense that they're dormant now, though it's possible that someone could take them over. I do believe we've seen something like that in some of the material for this episode? I think it may have been a showcase or something where Fikrul was shown with the Pyramids in the background. I can't remember exactly where it was.

Could be something that we'll see in the remaining story of Revenant, possibly also in stuff going forward? I think it would make sense that someone would try to grab them for themselves, as they do not appear to be active right now.

Maybe! Sort of!

I have a long ass post with several other connecting posts because I've been obsessed with this for a long time, but all of that is from before WQ released. Initially, I speculated that the Pyramid in question would be the Pyramid in the throne world (because it's conveniently damaged in the middle), and we had nothing but vague images of it being there. But outside the speculation which turned out wrong/unconnected, the rest of the post explains everything from the Witch Queen Collector's Edition and how it relates to Sjur in great detail.

In short, back in the Forsaken year, there was a lore tab in which Fenchurch has a vision of Mara and Eris confronting/damaging an unknown vessel. It was hard to say at the time, but when I read this post-Shadowkeep, it was really obvious that it was a Pyramid ship so that gave me fuel to connect that vision with a dream Sjur Eido had, also released in the Forsaken year in which she saw Mara and another woman destroying a "great black triangle."

At the time I believed that this was talking about some future event, something that will happen in a future season or expansion. However, WQ CE had a multi-page chapter dedicated solely to clarifying this in which Fenchurch sends a report to tell Ikora that he has spoken to Eris about his vision and that Eris confirmed this event has already happened. As a matter of fact, he only had a vision because Eris sent a message documenting this event, embedded in a shard of the Pyramid, for it to be found by someone in case she dies.

At some point after Forsaken, but before Shadowkeep, Mara and Eris (with the help of Elsie, the Nine, Rasputin and even Failsafe) discovered an early arrival of a single Pyramid ship to the edge of the system. They went there to meet it, in the orbit of the dwarf planet Eris. At some point, Mara went into orbit of the Pyramid and possibly entered it; this is unclear. Eris could not tell exactly what happened, except that Mara came in contact with the vessel and then died. Eris went to pick Mara up from her throne world and then the duo landed on the dwarf planet where they found a lot of debris, apparently from the Pyramid ship. Eris was wounded so Mara helped with the wounds. Eris also picked up one of the debris pieces and embedded a message to it, then sent the fragment to the Moon with her Hive shenanigans. The fragment was eventually picked up by Fenchurch.

We don't know exactly what the debris was and what Mara did with the Pyramid, but the description of the fragment was matching Pyramid material and I used that to identify it as Pyramid material, before WQ CE. So the debris on the dwarf planet should be Pyramid debris. It's however unclear if Mara did damage that caused that debris or not. On the other hand, both the vision from Fenchurch and Sjur's dream (a little embellished, as dreams tend to be) are describing the same event. So the event during which Sjur is "close to figuring her way out" has already happened. Whether Mara destroyed (or damaged) a Pyramid or not.

Which is why I believe that the conditions for her return have already been fulfilled. Obviously, being "close" to finding her way out is relative; "close" could've meant weeks or it could mean years. We don't know where Sjur is and how exactly she died, and she described it as being trapped in a maze.

It could also be that there will be another instance of Mara and Eris attacking a Pyramid ship in the future (Sjur's dream also mentions Crow being present). In that case, the conditions for her return have not happened yet. But until we see something of the sort happening, this is the best match for Sjur's dream and confirmed as real, via Fenchurch, meaning that her dream was not just nonsense.

Honestly, if anything like Mara, Eris and possibly Crow destroying a Pyramid might happen, we only have Season of the Wish left for that to occur so it's now or never (ofc depending on what happens to the Pyramid ships post TFS). If Sjur's dream is not the event described above, then it would have to happen next season, so either way Sjur-Eido-Returns believers are awake and ready. I will definitely understand if it doesn't happen and everyone should be ready for it not to happen, but we have a chance now so we're eagerly waiting to see if something happens.

So far we haven't seen anything odd with them. The biggest change is just the Witness' Pyramid as it's being affected by the roots from the Traveler's terraforming beam, but no other Pyramids seem to be affected (that we know of).

We've also discovered that there's a Pyramid at the bottom of the sea on Titan that apparently is in some way connected to Xivu, as she calls it her temple. We have no idea when it got there. It's possible it's been there since the Collapse, or that it arrived with the Witness in Lightfall. It's also possible that's the same Pyramid that used to hover around Titan in Arrivals and that it has since sunk to hide in the depths of the ocean. I believe that's the most likely since Sloane had been tracking it as it moved around Titan, "shedding scales" and she also mentions fighting the "Pyramid's minions" as she was going deeper into the ocean. At the end, Sloane's chase for the Pyramid led her to being attacked by Xivu.

This might imply one of several things: the Pyramid is fully autonomous to do what it wants (in this case engaging with Sloane) or the Pyramid was just acting on what the Witness wanted it to do the entire time or the Pyramid was partially in control of Xivu who used it to get close to Sloane and kill her and her Ghost. In my opinion, it's probably a mix of the second and third option. Xivu is still acting on behalf of the Witness, the Witness positioned the Titan Pyramid there to get rid of Ahsa, and left it fully or partially in the hands of Xivu to finish the job. So even in this case, we can't really say if the Pyramids are acting any differently. My current belief is that they really can't; they're either controlled by Disciples and other servants of the Witness or following a preplanned pattern left by the Witness. Also remember that the Witness can still observe what's happening outside of the portal so it can reasonably still send orders and directions to its servants and Pyramids as well. So far we have no evidence of any Pyramids acting autonomously.

Yeah, the cutscene shows us the Pyramids starting off just as regular ships. We saw them being built normally and all. Obviously, this was done when the Witness' people had the Traveler with them so maybe they were infused with some paracausal gift from the Traveler or something like that.

This also explains why we see cities in them. They were massive ships where these people could live as they travelled around the universe. They're clearly in some way paracausal at this point, but this probably has something to do with the Witness' transformation. And yep, it seems like the Witness can control them; they're connected, paracausaly. They all emit the same tones as the egregore and the planetary anomalies and it all links back to the Witness. Ghost may as well have been detecting the Witness. After all, it was the Witness that hijacked him to speak to us in the first place.

I believe they aren't independent entities, just ships infused with the Witness' power which allows it to control them. Some are given to Disciples and it's currently unclear what happens to that connection then; it may be somewhat less prominent as the Disciples can control them on their own too, though they're technically an extension of the Witness anyway. It all fits with how the Witness treats everyone under its control; the Pyramid ships are empty and largely identical vessels, hollow of any individual needs and ideas, conforming to what the Witness wants and strives for. The same happens to Disciples (they only keep some personality), tormentors, subjugators, now Scorn and anything the Witness controls.

We might still find out more about them going forward so anything here is subject to change, ofc! But for now, it seems to fit with how the Witness operates; with utmost control and no deviations from the goal.

The exotic mission is incredible. Please get your exotic fish and dunk them in the HELM and then do the exotic mission. It's best to go in not knowing anything, though the mission is quite difficult gameplay wise. I'd still recommend trying it out on your own and then checking a guide later. Spoilers under:

Saw this in the final mission in the deep as well. What are you doing here. That's Pyramid architecture, for those that can't see properly. It's just... there. In the deep. At the bottom of Titan. I saw this in the corner of my eye and I am wondering. I will ALWAYS spot any pixel of Pyramid architecture anywhere.

But yeah. Pyramid stuff at the bottom of Titan. Hm.