Hive (Destiny)

Revision as of 18:52, 5 October 2018

The Hive are an alien race that features in Destiny.

History

The Hive were said to be an ancient and festering race of evil beings. They were able to trace their origins to a gas giant that they named Fundament. Long ago , the earliest form of the Hive had managed to crash their home planet into Fundament in an effort to hide from an unknown threat. The shattered remains of their world thus served as large continents that floated above the gas giant's surface. These massive shards floated above the Fundament Ocean in a layer of the planetary atmosphere and the early Hive managed to craft a civilization whilst forgetting their earlier history. The Hive were not alone on Fundament as it was population by hundreds of other intelligent species and the gas giant's 52 moons were similarly inhabited by a space faring race known as the Ammonites that were guided by the Traveler. Their existence by this point was noted to be harsh and the lifespan of their kind was quick with it rarely passing ten years on their world. Fundament was nearly uninhabitable for their people with the Fundament Ocean being toxic to them whilst the skies were ever stormy and it rain was either poisonous or corrosive whilst lightning killed anything it struck. In addition, there were numerous predators that stalked their people such as the Stormjoys that were living clouds that preyed on them and the Hive themselves also frequently fought against one another. The progenitors of their kind were traced long ago to the three daughters of the Osmium King that resided in the continent of the Osmium Court. The Osmium King fell into madness when he was 10 years old where he feared an event called the Syzygy whereby the planet's 52 moons aligned to create a massive tidal wave known as the God-Wave that destroyed the civilizations of Fundament. He had acquired a seemingly dead worm that he kept within his company and spoke for for unknown reasons. Around this time, Taox who was a sterile mother served as teacher to the Osmium King's daughters Xi Ro, Sathona, and Aurash but she came to fear that the offspring were too weak to succeed their father. Thus, Taox invited the rival kingdom of the Helium Drinkers of the Helium Court who invaded the Osmium Court and killed the royal family. This allowed Taox to rule the Osmium Court as regent when the Osmium King was slain though his 2 year old daughters managed to escape on a ship where they vowed revenge against the attackers. For a year, they travelled the sea on a salvaged ancient high-tech ship called 'the needle' where they survived the Shvubi Malestrom. Xi Ro wanted to sell the ship at the Kaharn Atoll that was a gathering place for the many species of Fundament in order to raise enough funds to hire a mercenary army whilst Aurash wanted to take command. Ultimately, Sathona sided with Aurash and goaded a worm that their father had kept and though it was seemingly dead where she could hear it speak. The sisters spent the following two years attempting to reactivate their ship with Aurash looking for it to fulfil its purpose into diving into the planetary core to learn the secrets at preventing the Syzygy. Whilst there, they encountered a vast creature known as the Leviathan who was a disciple of the Traveler. It warned the sisters against going forward as they would face a choice between choosing the Sky or the Deep. Ultimately, the sisters rejected the Leviathan as they could not accept allowing their people to remain to suffer leading to a rejection of the way of the Light. Thus, Saathona came to listen to the words of the worm that spoke to her that urged her to continue diving and embrace the Darkness.

The three then went deeper into Fundament's Ocean where they encountered the Worms who drew power from the Darkness with these consisting of Yul, Eir, Xol, Ur and Akka. These five were the Worm Gods who had lived and grown in the depths of their world for millions of years after being trapped there by the Leviathan and the Traveler. From there, they had called to many species to their world in the hope that someone would find them. This led to them offering Xi Ro, Sathona and Aurash immortality if they willingly submitted to become hosts to their larvae. This was under the term that the sisters never strayed from their nature otherwise the Worms would consume them and that the stronger they grew then the greater the Worm's appetite became over time. After accepting the pact, the sisters were transformed with Xi Ro took the knight morph becoming Xivu Arath, Sathona took on the mother morph as Savathûn and Aurash took on the king morph becoming Auryx who was the King of the Hive. In the following years, the siblings then returned to their people where they began to spread the Worms among them thus transforming their kind into the Hive who began to liberate the Osmium Court. This saw Taox being driven from the land and other species forced from Kaharn Atoll. The remaining members of their kind were given the choice of either dying or accepting the Worms into their bodies leading to their kind being transformed fully into the Hive as they began building spacecraft to leave their homeworld of Fundament. By this point, Auryx had turned his attention to the moons of Fundament that was home to a species known as the Ammonites that were allies of the Traveler and who had given shelter to Taox after she fled. At first, Auryx was willing to negotiate with the Ammonites but his sister Savathûn under the pressure of the Worms led to her killing him as punishment for denying their nature. However, instead of dying, his soul had instead passed onto the Ascendant Realm where it came to reside whilst his physical form returned to the mortal realm. The experience saw Auryx purging any remaining sympathy and goodwill he had as he became a merciless tyrant who waged war against the Ammonites. They were overwhelmed by the Hive with the Leviathan who had similarly sought asylum being slain leading to Taox and the Traveler fleeing into deep space. Thus, as the Hive became an interstellar species they proceeded to wage war against the entire universe leading to them waging a war of extermination against other species including the Ammonites, the Ecumene, the Dakaua, the Harmony, the Qugu, and the Taishibethi. This period not only encompassed war against other races but among the Hive themselves as Auryx began to war with his sisters with them killing one another on a regular basis. This was because they worshipped the ideals of Sword-Logic as they sought to become the strongest beings in the universe with them always shunting their souls into their throne worlds upon defeat only to be reborn again. Thus, the Hive continued their campaign of genocide in order to feed the Worms that resided within them as the lords of their race established their respecting homes within the Ascendant Realms to continue their long war. During their existence, they had seen thousands of worlds fall to the Darkness.

It was during the war against the Ecueme that Auryx came to realise that the Worms had deceived both him and his sisters as their appetites had grown beyond their ability to feed with deaths. This led to him meeting his sisters in his Ascendant Realm where he was surrounded by their servants some of whom despised them for showing weakness with the three despairing over their situation. The sisters offered their power to aid their brother whereupon Auryx killed them and used their might to confront his patron god Akka who was the Worm of Secrets. Auryx was able to slay Akka and stole the Worm God's ability to call upon the powers of the Deep and created the Tablets of Ruin giving him the power to Take others leading to their transformation into the Taken. With his transformation complete, Auryx then became known as Oryx who held the title of the Taking King. Around this time, he revived his sister Xivu Arath in an act of war and his other sister Savathûn in an act of cunning. Oryx then decreed the creation of a tithe system whereupon each Hive would kill their enemies and take some to their feed their own Worm whilst the remaining was given to their superior. Thus, a cycle of violence was created whereupon the leaders of the Hive could satiate the Worms in them whilst indulging in their own respective natures. However, in fear of descending into nihilism, Oryx decided to sire an offspring leading to the births of his spawns including Crota the Son of Oryx along with the Deathsinger twins Ir Anûk and Ir Halak. One day, the Deathsingers were refining their Deathsongs when they came upon the idea of the Oversoul with Oryx commanding his son Crota in observing his sisters so that he could possible learn something. In this time, Oryx went away to study the Deep when Crota came to be deceived by Savathûn into using his Cleaver to cut a portal in the High War through which they encountered the mechanical beings known as the Vex. Hostilities erupted between the two races whereby the Hive waged a war against the Vex for the next century. This exposed to Vex to the concept of Sword-Logic and worship of the Darkness as a means of attaining power in the High War. The Hive were ultimately able to overpower the Vex but unable to push them out leading them to losing much of their power when entering the conflux of the machine race. As a result, the state of the war became dire to the point that the Worm God Eir demanded that Oryx return in order to end the conflict. Upon returning to the High War, Oryx used his might to take the Vex and cleared his throne world whereupon he was angered at his son Crota's imperfection. As punishment, he threw Crota into the Vex's gate network where he decreed that his spawn either return victorious or die forgotten. Corta at first came to resent his father for being abandoned but in time came to understand his sire's purpose for the punishment leading to him building temples to Oryx and the Deep thus becoming a vital part of the Taking King's tithe of death along with achieving godhood for himself. Meanwhile, Oryx came to recognise the threat posed by the Vex invading the throne world and that this should never happen again leading to him moving the High War into his mighty Dreadnaught that was built from the remains of the Worm God Akka.

In the conflict against the Vex and Harmony, an Axis Mind named Quria created a simulation of Oryx with this being his former self of Aurash. Oryx simply looked at the simulation with amusement whilst the facsimile of Aurash saw his future self with horror. The virtual copy of Aurash demanded to know from Oryx what he had done to her sisters and their people with the Taken King simply using his power to 'Take' the Vex machine and present it to Savathûn as a gift. Around this time, Oryx was asked for proof that the path they had chosen was the right one with the Hive King pointing to the existence of their kind as proof enough of their convictions to live eternally under the principles of Sword-Logic. After the Harmony were defeated, Savathûn took her fleets to enter the black hole their enemies had lived around where she claimed that this would make them stronger whilst her sister Xivu Arath took her own forces away as she felt her brother constrained her too much. Thus, Orx decided to continue his crusade alone and began to contemplate his actions in the future. Meanwhile, the Hive continued their pursuit of the Traveler with Crota tracing the entity into the Sol System sparking a conflict with mankind. Crota and his spawn sought to establish their foothold on the planet Earth's Moon in order to launch an invasion against humanity's homeworld thus leading to the Guardians first encounter with the Hive at the Battle of Burning Lake where they were unaware of the true danger posed by the species when a counterattack was launched in an incident that came to be known as the Great Disaster. Ultimately, the Hive's use of Sword-Logic proved too great for the Guardians leading to countless number of their heroes falling o the enemy such as the legendary Titan Wei Ning who was personally killed by Crota. A team of Guardians led by the Warlock Eriana-3 swore revenge and attempted to kill Crota who managed to escape permanent death by leaving the Ascendant Realm with the Hive containing his soul in a crystal placed in the real world. From among the attackers, only Eris Morn managed to survive where she returned to Earth whilst Crota's followers attempted to revive him for a full scale invasion of Earth. In time, the Moon would fall at the hands of the Hive King Crota where they managed to dig deep extensive tunnel systems under the surface. This saw the establishment of a mighty fortress known as the Hellmouth that was situated deep underground. At some point, they established a library containing the lore they had on Earth with this being known as the World's Grave based on the Moon. For centuries, they had begun seeding Earth whilst waiting for their gods to return. During some unknown point, they had managed to acquire a piece of the Traveler that they took with them back to the Moon. In addition, through the Shrine of Oryx they remained in communion with their god. After the Collapse, it was said that the Hive had not been on Earth's surface for many years. It was in fact believed that the Hive had been contained on the moon for centuries. However, they had managed to arrive at a site in Old Russia beneath the Skywatch though the Fallen would manage to seal them away. The Guardian during his journeys managed to uncover the Hive building an army with the express purpose of invading Earth in large numbers. Around this time, the Hive had begun a ritual designed to sap the power of the Traveler through a captured piece of it but this was stopped by a Guardian. Crota's sect then attempted to revive him in a plot to bring about a Hive invasion and destroy the City. This plot was thwarted when the crystal containing his soul in the Chamber of Night was destroyed thus banishing him from the physical world. Afterwards, a team of Guardians journeyed into the Hellmouth to confront him in the Oversoul Throne where they succeeded in killing him.

With his son dead, the Hive King Oryx made his way to the Sol system where he commanded a fleet of ships from his Dreadnought and was accompanied by his army of the Taken. Upon arrival, they struck against the Cabal at their bases on Phobos and Mars where the enemy lines were devastated in a matter of hours. This led to the Vanguard at the City uncovering the existence of Oryx when a Guardian was investigating a Cabal distress signal at which point the Taken began to manifest on numerous worlds as the Taken War began to engulf the system. Around Saturn, the Hive armada was confronted by a fleet from the Awoken of the Reef with this assault commanded by the Queen. Despite their effort, the Awoken were defeated dye to the energy pulse weapon of the Hive Dreadnought, from Saturn's orbit, Oryx started to use his power to gather servants from across the system that were enslaved to his will and empowered. These individuals formed a new army that served Oryx and were called the Taken who intended to enslave all his enemies in this fashion. However, Oryx's physical shell was destroyed when the Guardian's breached his altar to attack him though his soul managed to return to his throne realm situated within his Dreadnaught. In the mean time, he created Echoes of himself that led the Taken in the numerous attacks in the Solar System. Upon eliminating the blights created, the Guardians decided to turn their attention towards Oryx and his champions where they targeted his followers among the Court of Oryx. Once this was done, they invaded the Hive King's throne realm where they successfully killed his closest advisors including his daughters before confronting Oryx himself in his Ascendant form. Once there, they used his captured Light against him and despite his numerous attempts at killing them in the Darkness he was ultimately slain by the Guardians. A year later, the Hive were shown to had remained organised but had maintained their foothold in their territories in the Solar System. By this point, SIVA had been unleashed by the Fallen House of Devils who were using the technology to enhance themselves in the Plaguelands. This saw some of the Devil Splicers led by Kovik experimenting not only on themselves but on the Hive as well. This resulted in the Hive launching a war against the Splicers with this ending when the Guardian's defeated the Fallen and thwarting the House's plans.

A year later, the Solar System was engulfed in war as the Cabal Red Legion arrived where their armada struck at Earth so that their leader Dominus Ghaul could claim the power of the Traveler for himself. Thus, the Red War was fought where during this time the Hive managed to infest Titan that was a Moon of Saturn. At this point, the Guardian's were forced to rendezvous on the water-covered moon as they had lost the Last City to the Cabal with them being pursued by the Fallen House of Dusk. This brought both factions into conflict with the Hive forces with the Guardian's struggling as Traveler had been caged in a mechanism that prevented them from accessing its Light. Commander Zavala of the Vanguard had intended to use Titan as a staging ground to retake Earth but instead had to deal with the Hive forces that infested the Arcology. Lightless Guardian's were defeated by the Hive until a lone Guardian arrived who had successfully restored his connection to the Light. With his aid, they were able to hamper the Hive machinations on Titan allowing for Zavala to return to the Vanguard whilst he left Sloane behind to help continue to secure Titan. It was later discovered that this Hive Brood had sworn allegiance to the Witch-Queen Savathûn and were rallying under her rule.

Overview

Hive Wizard with Thralls.

In appearance, they were a race of pale sinewy humanoid beings varying features but typically had two legs and arms. Their skin was covered in chitin that varied in coloration. As a result of a pact with the Worm Gods, the Hive became hosts to the Worm larvae. The species was capable of hanging genders with females turning male by adopting the 'King' morph. Wizards were the only fertile female members of their kind that were able to mate with another or from themselves. Similar to colonial insects, the species reproduced by being born in a pupae state and fed on worms that they swallowed whole. The early Hive had a short lifespan that rarely passed 10-Fundament years though those females that consumed 'mother jelly' lived longer and spawn. After hatching, the newborn swallowed one of the Worm larva as a whole where the formed a symbiotic relationship with the creature inside of it. The spawn become the Thralls with the survivors maturing into Acolytes whereupon if the worm inside them was well fed then they could become further morphs such as Knights, Wizards or Princes. One type of Hive were the Ogres though these were not part of their life cycle but rather a mutation of a Thrall that was done so at the hands of Wizards. Each different stage of development led to differing levels of musculature and armor forming on their bodies. Light was noted for being both a source of food and pain for the Hive. When killed, their bodies ignited leaving behind only dust and embers.

Among the types of Hive included:

• Thralls : holding a swarming twisting frame and driven by unfettered rage, the Thralls were feral and fearless that charged their foes in an effort to claw them in melee strikes.
• Acolytes : more heavily armed warriors that were armed with ranged weapons.
• Knights : armored warriors that ranked as the foremost and most zealous of the Hive's defenders who had spent centuries of battle to toughen the bony protrusions of their body armor that was as hard as relic iron. In addition, they were empowered by Hive magic that allowed them to summon a shield whilst they healed from their wounds.
• Ogres : abominations of flesh and rage that were charged with Hive sorcery where they were unleashed within the deepest tunnels as living engines of destruction. Apocryphal lore accounts suggest that these creatures undergo agonizing rituals and terrible transformations as they grow allowing them greater might along with cunning.
• Wizard : these floating robed female specimens concealed themselves in fire and darkness where they dissected or experimented on any prey that fell in their clutches.

Their apathy towards the Light was claimed to be above hatred. To them, they saw the eternal struggle between the Light and the Dark as not a war but a crusade. This was because they believed that all Light must be devoured so that the Darkness can reclaim the universe. In terms of language, they made use of a sequence of complex runes that were difficult to translate. Hive were noted to be treacherous and vicious with them prone to infighting along with weakness of the flesh.

There were a number of sects within the Hive that included:

• Blood of Oryx :
• Cult of the Worm :
• Grasp of Nokris :
• Hidden Swarm :
• Silent Brood :
• Spawn of Crota :
• Venom of Oryx :

Hive's operared in the use of Sword-Logic that guided their behaviour that was a guiding religious philosophy that was written in the Book of Sorrows. It proscribed a system of survival of the fittest whereby everything was required to be destroyed along with the bearers having to prove themselves by withstanding annihilation. According to this belief, it was not enough to simply defeat the enemy but rather that they be utterly annihilation and be used to feed the victor. Thus, it attributed that power must be taken by force and could not be received as a gift. It also espoused that power was maintained by sacrifice of the weak which was why the Hive offered the souls of the weaker members of their race in order to become Ascendant. Ascendant Hive was a title given to those special Hive warriors that commanded legions of warriors and earnt the right to enter their god's Ascendant Realms through the killing-logic.

Sacrifice played a role in Hive society as they often engaged in arcane rituals that led them to killing their own kind as part of a ritual such as contacting their deities. Death was held as being relative to their kind as some of their number could be resurrected and brought back from the dead. They made use of tombs for their dead with certain slain Hive undergoing a death ceremony. These prepare the dead for the next realm with deathsingers singing to lead the Hive soul to the next realm. The Hive had a complex religious system based on profane rituals and worship of a pantheon of dark gods. These deities operated on a higher plane of misery and seek out the suffering of others. They made use of sacrificial altars that had an important part in their religion where they would sacrifice their own kind in order to achieve direct contact with their gods. Chief among them were the five Worm Gods that were conduits to the Darkness and through which the Hive served them. In fact, the Hive consumed the worms created by the Worm Gods with this being done not for sustenance but rather for survival. Ascendant Hive's could detach their souls and place them in constructs known as Oversouls that were then placed within their own personal ascendant realm. This provided an Ascendant Hive the ability to survive corporeal death as the loss of their physical form led to paracausal death impulse that eliminated any nearby threat after which the Hive used the Oversoul to restore the 'deceased' member of their kind giving them a form of resilience to death that was beyond immortality. These rituals could also be used to target their hated enemy by draining the Light from the Traveler.

They were able to manipulate the physical world in ways that humanity could only imagine. This was tied to their complex religion that was tied to profane rituals that drew on the worship of their dark gods. This pantheon resided in a higher plane of existence described as one of misery with these gods always hungering for the suffering of others. The plane of existence was referred to as the Ascendant Realm that was home to the Hive Gods who resided in cyst universes of their own creation that formed their throne worlds. Such worlds served as homes to the Hive's Oversouls that protected them from permanent death even if their physical forms were destroyed. If the Oversoul was destroyed in the throne world, then the Hive God was permanently killed though certain rituals were even able to restore them. At the top of their dark pantheon was the Darkness which the Hive knew as the Formless One with their connection to it being the Worm Gods. Following them were the chief architects and founders of Hive society.

The Hive were known to possessed a special day called Eversion Day that was celebrated as the time of creation of the Taken King's Dreadnaught. During this time, the great vessel was turned inside-out in a manner similar to Oryx merging with his throne world with the ship. It was known that the Hive used a glyph-based writing system.

Hive vital systems were located deep beneath the architecture of their technology. Hadium was a metal that was favoured by the Hive as not found within the Sol system. This was used to construct various forms of their technology such as their starships. Space-faring Hive vessels contained living components similar to their creators making them a terrifying amalgam or predator genetics, arcane bio-energetics along with ties to the Darkness. The largest of their ships was the Dreadnaught that was a large cylindrical vessel equipped with a form of pulse weapon that could decimate entire enemy fleets. Another kind of vessel were war moons that were satellites converted into warships by the Hive. Tomb Ships were a type of craft used by the Hive that were the loose equivalent of troop carriers. These vessels glided from point-to-point by way of strange portals that were tears in the fabric of space. Much larger Seeder Ships were used by their kind to spread to other worlds and colonize them.

Members

• Oryx :
• Savathûn :
• Xivu Arath :
• Crota :
• Nokris
• Omnigul :
• Golgoroth :
• Gornuk Däl :
• Gulrot : the Unclean
• Phogoth : the Untamed
• Sardok : Eye of Oryx
• Sardon : Fist of Crota
• Banuk : Ur Prince
• Dakoor : Yul Prince
• Garok : Xol Prince
• Merok : Eir Prince
• Telthor : Unborn
• Thalnok : Fanatic of Crota
• Thogar : the Forsaken
• Urrox : Flame Prince
• Urzok : the Hated
• Vorlog :
• Xyor : the Unwed
• Zyrok Däl :

Notes

• The Hive serve as one of the antagonist races in the Destiny setting.

Appearances

• Destiny:
• Destiny 2:

External Links

• Destinypedia Entry

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