Destiny: TTK Lore – The Hive’s Tragic Backstory and Oryx’s Rise Explained

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.

Political Turmoil on the Hive Continent

Despite the short lives of the Hive, they developed conscious awareness and intelligence quickly within those years. In the Hive time that is referenced by the grimoire, the Osmium King ruled Hive society, and was nearing the end of his lifetime. Upon his death, one of his three daughters, Aurash, Xi Ro, or Sathona was to succeed him. However, the children’s teacher Taox, a sterile mother with political prowess, had concerns about this succession.

“None of these are suitable heirs. None of them will protect the Osmium Court from the howling Fundament. Xi Ro can fight, but not lead. Sathona can think, but not fight. Aurash’s curiosity will draw her away from duty. I fear for all future children.

Gather your knights, o Helium Drinkers, and invade our continent. Kill the three heirs. I will rule the Osmium Court as your regent, and build engines for you. And if I fail, let the Leviathan in the deep eat me.” – II: The Hateful Verse

So she betrayed the children and the Osmium King. Despite her best attempts, the sisters manage to escape on a ship, igniting the spark that would create the burning, rotting, decaying, conflagration of the Hive with which we are familiar. Eventually, the sisters found another ship, designed with high technology for ancient purposes, and they took command of it. The three sisters were now filled with hatred for Taox, the desire for vengeance, and a mission take back their homeland.

While they traveled through space, trying to plan their revenge, the sister Aurash was worried about not only their lives, but the fate of the Fundament as a whole. Before the Osmium King was betrayed, he had told Aurash about strange planetary movement he observed. He mentioned that a syzgy, which can be described as a celestial alignment of planetary bodies, might alter the Fundament’s gravitational pull in such a way as to effect “A wave big enough to swallow civilizations. A God-Wave,” – IV: Syzygy.

Aurash shared this concern with her sisters. And she was convinced by Sathona of what to do:

“We three will die here, in exile. Taox will outlive us. And Aurash, brilliant-eyed Aurash, you will die of old age long before you have proof of your God-Wave, or any way to stop it.”

“We have to dive,” Aurash said. “That’s what this ship is built to do. Dive into the Fundament, the world below us… towards the core.” VI: Sisters

The Leviathan, The Deep, and The Sky

As the three sisters ventured into the Deep, they encountered a being known as the Leviathan, urging them to turn back. Here’s where things start to get spiritual and metaphysical. Buckle up.

“We live on the edge of a war— —a war between Formless and Form++ ++between the Deep and the Sky—” VIII: Leviathan

Okay, so the Deep is a Oneness that represents nothingness and death. The Sky is a Oneness that represents being and life. If you tend to think more scientifically, the Deep is a personification of the concept of antimatter while the Sky is a personification of the concept of matter. If you’re a scientist, you may realize that the war the Leviathan talks about between form and formlessness is not make believe.

This story of this battle is the oldest story ever told. It goes by different names. The battle of Light and Dark. Of Life and Death. Of Fear and Love. Of the Sky and the Deep. With every last drop of its will, intention, and hope, the Leviathan begs and pleads with the sisters to choose the Sky and not the Deep. The Leviathan values the Hive as its proof against despair and as its beacon of hope. The Deep claims that:

“++Existence is the struggle to exist— —When the struggle seems lost++ ++when the safe place crumbles— —everything turns to the Deep to survive++” VIII: Leviathan

The Leviathan warns and advises:

++TURN BACK FROM THE WORLD-KILLING WAY++ ++OR YOU WILL LIVE AS DEATH AND DEVASTATION++ —The Sky is the harder way. But it is kinder.— —My charge is balanced: my voice exhausted.—” VIII: Leviathan

The Deep’s claim is that when fear sets in, all living beings will turn to violence. In other words, it is easy to choose the Sky and the Light when one’s life feels safe and secure. But when chaos sets in, beings turn to Darkness as the easy way out, for there is often power in Darkness. In times of turmoil, the path of the Sky and of the Light is a difficult one to walk. But the Leviathan pleads with the Hive sisters to realize that no matter how dark and hopeless their lives may seem, there will always be the option to turn to the Sky’s Light. It pleads that violence and Darkness are never one’s only options. That no matter how hopeless the situation may seem, the Light is still there. But the Hive does not see it.

Auryx and The Worm Symbiosis

via Destinypedia

The three sisters choose the Darkness of the Deep, but like Eve in the Garden, they are influenced by a soft voice whispering in their ears, villainizing the Leviathan, and motivating them to action through fear. The voice is that of a worm which was the late Osmium King’s familiar. Sathona stole the worm as she fled her homeworld, and it spoke to her and her sisters.

The worm called Yul appeals to Aurash:

“I am Yul, the Honest Worm[…]

I am fecund, Aurash. I am at the beginning and end of lives.

Behold Eir, and Xol, and Ur, and Akka. The Virtuous Worms. Look upon us, and know that We are go[o]d.

For millions of years We have been [trapped|growing] in the Deep. From across the stars We have called life to Fundament, so that it might contend against extinction. For millennia We have awaited you… our beloved hosts.

Against you stand the cruel Leviathan and all the forces of the Sky. They would crush you down into the dark. They have arranged their moons to drown you, in fear of your potential.

We want to help you, Princes. We offer to each of you a bargain… a symbiosis.

Take into your bodies our children, our newborn larvae. From them you shall obtain eternal life. From them you shall gain power over your own fragile flesh: the power to make of it as you will.” – IX: The Bargain

Aurash takes the deal. She and her sisters engage in the vampiric symbiosis. With the worm’s encouragement, they return to their homeworld to spread the worm throughout their population and to kill all who resist. The Hive we know begin to form, declaring war against, Taox, the Leviathan and the Sky.

In her new symbiosis, Aurash takes on the name Auryx and begins to use male pronouns.

“The worm grants you power over your own flesh, Aurash. When you’ve taken the king morph, what will your adult name be? Auryx. It means Long Thought. We approve.” – X: Immortals

Also Sathona becomes, “Savathûn, mother morph” and Xi Ro becomes “Xivu Arath, knight morph.”

The Battle of the Fundament 

When the newly empowered Hive return home, Taox flees to one of the Fundament’s moons in search of help. Here, she is aided by the Leviathan and a species called the ammonites, who are experiencing a golden age under the influence of a Traveler. Sound familiar? During this time, the Hive notice an extra moon in the Fundament’s system:

“Our organs detect a fifty-third moon in orbit of Fundament. A Traveler. Divine presence of the Sky. Now we know what arranged the syzygy.” – XIV: 52 and One

This is important to note, because we now have confirmation of a couple facts. First, we know that the Traveler is a “divine presence of the Sky.” Second, we know that the Traveler is responsible for the syzgy, which is what caused the “God-wave” that threatens the Fundament as a whole.

Even still, Auryx falters here in his desire for conquest, and the worms plead with his sister to save him.

“Savathûn. You must draw Auryx out of his catatonia. Make him understand that the ideals of peace and stability he clings to are cancers — brutal, unjust obstacles between us and a fair cosmos. These are the bait stars the Sky uses to blind its slaves.” – XV: Born As Prey

Savathûn is successful in her convincing, and Auryx rejoins the cause with even greater passion and fervor than before. As the battle wages on, the Traveler begins to give the enemies of the Hive paracausal weapon tech. To combat this, the Worms give Auryx access to the power of the Deep through signs and rituals. This is the beginning of the Hive magic as well as their “sword logic,” which we’ll describe in the next section.

Eventually, the Hive defeat the Leviathan and consume its flesh to gain power. Taox and the Traveler flee, and the hive continue their galactic conquest.

The Hive Dimension and The Sword Logic

In the course of the previous battle, Auryx is slain by his sister and then returns from death even stronger. The worms inform Auryx:

From this day forward, Auryx, you and your sisters will each survive death — so long as you aren’t killed in your own throne. – XVII: The Weakness Verse

Although his sister kills him, Auryx is not upset, but rather delighted. In the way of the Hive, there is no difference between Love and Death. This is part of what the Hive refer to as their sword logic. For the Hive, to be killed is to be shown their weaknesses, giving them a chance to learn from them and become stronger. For the Hive, there is no greater gift than death.

But the Hive do not become greater only through death. They also become greater through killing. What’s special about a Hive sword is that it drinks the light of all that it kills. It takes in its energy and becomes stronger. It becomes bigger. And its hunger multiplies infinitely.

With enough strength, a Hive’s sword can cut through the fabric of space and time, opening portals into new dimensions. In a scientific sense, the Hive are akin to black holes, infinitely swallowing space and time, defying what we thought we understood to be the laws of physics. and re-defining the nature of reality around them by the sheer force and density of their existences.

With a cut, Auryx and his sisters are able to enter the dimension into which he slipped when he experienced death. And it is there that they build their thrones and from there that they establish their new homeworld. In the eyes of the sword logic, Auryx embodies the most noble pursuit. He seeks to bring the Universe to its final shape, in that once he has killed all that he can kill, there will be nothing left but the Oneness of nothingness.

“My daughters study the quiddity of death, my son practices the inhabitation of death, and my great work is, in ultima, to become synonymous with death, to die and in that dying live, so that if the universe comes to nothing then I will be a part of that nothing. Far better to have a savage universe with a happy end than a happy universe with no hope.” – L: Wormfood

The Coronation Of Oryx

At some point, Auryx and his sisters become so gigantic that they cannot kill fast enough to satiate the hunger of their worms. The parasites inside of them begin to devour their souls. They become frantic. But Auryx has a plan.

Cleverly, under the law of the sword-logic, Auryx kills both of his sisters. In doing this, he satiates his hunger temporarily. But as dictates the sword logic, this means that he will simultaneously become stronger and hungrier than ever before.

Auryx is wise and he anticipates this new hunger. To satiate it, he seeks out his God worm Akka, who dwells in the Deep.

“I give no secrets,” said Akka, whose voice was code.

“No,” said Auryx, “you give nothing. Giving is for the Sky. You worship the Deep, which asks that we take what we need.” – XXVIII: King of Shapes

With that, he uses, “his sword and his words, and cut Akka to pieces, and took from those pieces the secret of calling upon the Deep. He wrote this secret on a set of tablets, which he called the Tablets of Ruin. And he wore them about his waist.

Then Auryx said, “Now I may speak to the Deep, the beautiful final shape. I will be King of Shapes. I will learn all the secrets of our destiny.”

His speech to the Deep is not recorded here. But it is known that he returned, and he said, now I am Oryx, the Taken King. And I have the power to take life and make it my own.” – XXVIII: King of Shapes

In becoming Oryx and speaking to the Deep, Oryx finally solved the problem of the devouring hunger. From there, he went forth to create his sons and daughters and the Taken. This is the Hive we face today. This is Oryx, the Taken King of Shapes.

“Oryx told the Hive: I am the Taken King, and here is my law.

You Thrall, each of you will claw and scream, and kill what you can. Take enough killing to feed your worm, and a little more to grow. Tithe the rest to the Acolyte who commands you.

You Acolytes, lead your Thrall in battle. Take enough killing to feed your worm, and a little more to grow, and take the tithe of the Thrall you lead. Then tithe the remainder to the Knight or Wizard who commands you. Thus you pay tribute.

You Knights and Wizards, lead your followers in battle. Take enough devastation to feed your worm, and a little more to grow, and take the tithe of your followers. Then take another portion, as much as you dare, and use it for your own purposes. But if it is too much, your peers will kill you and take it. Then tithe the remainder to the Ascendant you serve.

An Ascendant will be those among the Hive who gather enough tribute to enter the netherworld. They will pay a tithe to those above them.

And thus the tribute will flow, up the chain, so that Savathûn and Xivu Arath and myself will be fed by a great river of tribute, and we will use that excess to feed our gods, and to study the Deep. Thus all worms will be fed — as long as we continue our crusade.

This is my law. I carve it thus, in ruin. Aiat.” – XXIX: Carved in Ruin