Hive Life Begins on the Fundament
“That’s what Fundament must be. A titanic gas planet. The endless storm above us must be one layer of the atmosphere. And the sea we float on… there’s more down beneath it. So much more!” – Calcified Fragments: Curiosity
In the Books of Sorrow, the Fundament is referenced as the home world of the Hive. The Fundament is a tremendous planet. It has fifty-two moons and a gaseous, deadly storm layer. It is filled thousands of species living on numerous continents that float across a vast world sea.
It also seems that at one point, the Fundament or “Fundament system” was once connected to a larger society known as the Amiable Ecumene. Amiable means friendly and ecumene is, “a term used by geographers to mean inhabited land. It generally refers to land where people have made their permanent home.” However we do not know what exactly caused this separation.
“Hull isotopes date the craft’s construction 24,000 years ago, around the same time the Fundament system dropped out of contact with our Amiable Ecumene.” – XXV: Dictata ir Dakaua
While the beginnings of the Hive we know start with life on the Fundament, the true ancestors of the Hive are even older. Almost nothing is known about them:
“We aren’t native to the Fundament. Our ancient ancestors came here to hide. The plate of stone we live on, our Osmium Court, is one fragment of a rocky planet that crashed into the Fundament and broke apart […] We live on the shrapnel of our homeworld, floating on an ocean deep inside a gas giant.” – Calcified Fragments: Curiosity
On the Fundament, living on the floating remains of their homeworld, the Hive were the weakest and most vulnerable species, possessing an average lifespan of only ten years. They are often killed, raided, or forced into subjugation and unwilling compromises by those around them.
While we now know the Hive as a powerful, brutal, and relentless species, we must understand that this is not where they started. It is important to understand that here, in the beginning of this story, the Hive are not a malevolent force.
On the Fundament, they do not seek to harm the other species. They are the bottom of the food chain. They are the prey species of their world, and each action they take is motivated by a desire to survive.
