In any game’s development, content inevitably gets left on the cutting room floor as the project goes through various iterations. For instance, did you know that an old piece of Destiny concept art depicted a big frog? Bungie should really add that to Destiny 2. But the big frog isn’t the only interesting piece of Destiny history that never made it into the final game. Once upon a time, Bungie was considering including animal people among the franchise’s various races.
Specifically, Destiny was going to include an anthropomorphic race of cat people. Typically referred to by fans as “Tiger Man,” this “noble, wise, and bestial” race would have been an option for player characters. Imagine, cat people walking around the Tower next to humans, Exos, and Awoken. It would have certainly made the world of Destiny feel quite different, and Bungie seemed to be aware that ultimately, the Tiger Man would not fit into the game. As one dev put it during a GDC panel, “Some things just don’t actually belong in that world. Some things you must leave on the cutting room floor.”
Alas, poor Destiny Tiger Man! Dead before his time, unborn into an uncaring universe. We shall never know of his noble, wise, and bestial ways. We can only imagine a better world, in which Tiger Man roams freely across the vast cosmos.
Still, the Tiger Man may be absent from Destiny, but it is not forgotten. Back in the original Destiny, players could acquire a Tiger Mask during the Festival of the Lost. In addition, Lord Shaxx wore a Tiger Man mask during the 2015 Festival. This may have been a reference to the conspiracy theories that Shaxx was indeed a Tiger Man himself. And given that Shaxx has never been seen to take off his helmet, maybe he actually is.
