Hive
| The Hive | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Classification | Ancient Darkness-worshipping species |
| Homeworld | Fundament (origin, as the Krill) |
| Leadership | The Hive gods: Oryx, Savathûn, Xivu Arath |
| Allegiance | The Darkness; the Witness |
| Subgroups | Hidden Swarm, Grasp of Nokris, Lucent Brood, and other broods |
| First appearance | Destiny (2014) |
The Hive are an ancient species that worships the Darkness and lives by a creed called the Sword Logic. Every Hive is bound to a parasitic Worm that grants power and long life but demands a constant tribute of death. A Hive that stops killing starves, because its Worm devours it from the inside. That hunger drives the whole species toward endless conquest and slaughter.
The Hive were once the Krill, a small and short-lived people of the gas giant Fundament. Three siblings, Aurash, Sathona, and Xi Ro, made a bargain with the imprisoned Worm Gods, traded their old forms for power, and became the first Hive gods: Oryx, the Taken King; Savathûn, the Witch Queen; and Xivu Arath, God of War.
Biology and the Worm
A Hive is pale, sinewy, and skeletal, armored in chitin and bone that has fused with its flesh. The true source of its power is the Worm larva sealed inside it. The Worm grants strength close to immortality, but it must be fed death without end, and the stronger a Hive grows, the hungrier its Worm becomes. Stop feeding it and it eats its host alive.
The Hive do not grow up the way most creatures do. They take power from their kills, feed that power to the Worm, and use the rest to climb from one form to the next: a Thrall that survives becomes an Acolyte, and a proven Acolyte becomes a Knight or a Wizard. The mightiest become Hive royalty and, in time, gods.
The Sword Logic
The Sword Logic is the philosophy at the heart of Hive belief. In its simplest form: anything that can be destroyed deserves to be destroyed, and the act of killing both proves and grants paracausal power. Power must be taken by force to be real, which is why the Hive treat resurrection and gifted power as heresy.
A Hive strong enough can carve out a personal realm called a Throne World in the Ascendant Realm. As long as that realm stands, the Hive cannot be permanently killed in the physical world; slain in reality, they simply reform in their Throne World after a time. Only death inside one's own Throne World is final, which is why Guardians have had to invade those realms to end gods like Crota and Oryx for good.
History
Fundament and the pact
On the gas giant Fundament, the Krill lived brutal, ten-year lives. When the three royal sisters were driven from their home, they dove to the planet's core, found the imprisoned Worm Gods, and accepted their bargain: immortality and power in exchange for hosting the Worms and never ceasing their natures. They returned transformed, spread the Worms among their people, and remade the Krill as the Hive.
The Moon and the Great Disaster
Long before humanity noticed them, the Hive seeded themselves beneath the Moon and hollowed out its interior into the Hellmouth. When the Last City launched a doomed assault on the Moon, Crota, Son of Oryx annihilated the Guardian army in an event remembered as the Great Disaster. Years later, Eris Morn led a fireteam into the Hellmouth to kill him; only she survived, and Guardians finally ended Crota inside his own Throne World in the raid Crota's End.
Oryx and the Taken King
Enraged by his son's death, Oryx brought his colossal ship, the Dreadnaught, into the system and unleashed the Taken, a corrupted army he could raise from any species. He had gained the power to Take after killing the Worm God Akka and recording its secrets. Guardians boarded the Dreadnaught and killed Oryx for good in the raid King's Fall.
The Witch Queen and the Lucent Brood
Savathûn, a master of lies, spent years working from the shadows, once even posing as Osiris. In The Witch Queen she gave her Hive the Light itself, creating the Lucent Brood: Hive who raise themselves with their own Ghosts and must have that Ghost destroyed or they resurrect. Guardians killed Savathûn at the end of her campaign, though she was later brought back as a wary, temporary ally against her sister.
Recent threats
Xivu Arath, the God of War, grew into the main Hive threat as her siblings fell, working through rituals, the Wrathborn, and proxy armies. Eris Morn eventually took up the Sword Logic herself and ascended into a Hive god of vengeance to fight her. During The Final Shape, rank-and-file Hive served the Witness inside the Pale Heart, while Savathûn's Lucent Brood fought against it.
Broods
- Hidden Swarm: the brood long entrenched on the Moon, now pledged to Xivu Arath.
- Grasp of Nokris: followers of the necromancer Nokris and the Worm God Xol.
- Savathûn's Brood: the Witch Queen's forces, including the Lucent Brood.
- Xivu Arath's Horde: the armies of the God of War.
- Lucent Brood: Light-wielding Hive raised by their own Ghosts.
Combatants
The Hive overwhelm with numbers and close-range pressure. Their bodies burst into green soulfire when killed.
- Thrall: fast, weak melee swarmers; the Cursed Thrall explodes on contact.
- Acolyte: the soldier core, fighting from cover.
- Knight: heavy infantry that can raise a wall of Darkness to block fire and heal.
- Wizard: flying casters with a Solar shield that leave a lingering poison cloud.
- Ogre: giant brutes with an eye blast and a ground slam; the eye is the weak spot.
- Shrieker: floating sentries that fire seeking Void bolts.
The Lucent Brood adds Light-wielding Lightbearer Acolytes, Lightbearer Knights, and Lightbearer Wizards, plus the small Lucent Moths. Hive travel aboard the teleporting Tombship.
Notable Hive
- Oryx, the Taken King: the most powerful Hive god and master of the Taken. Permanently dead.
- Savathûn, the Witch Queen: the schemer who gave the Hive the Light.
- Xivu Arath, God of War: the embodiment of conquest, who grows stronger wherever there is war.
- Crota, Son of Oryx: the prince who broke the Moon and was slain in his Throne World.
- Nokris, Herald of Xol: an exiled son of Oryx who embraced forbidden necromancy.
- Hashladûn, Daughter of Crota: the architect of the Scarlet Keep on the Moon.
Fighting the Hive
Wizards fly, hold a Solar shield, and leave poison clouds, so strip the shield with Solar and keep moving. Knights conjure a wall that blocks fire and heals them, so flank it or push through. Ogres soak damage; aim for the eye. The signature modern threat is the Lucent Brood: when you down a Light-bearing Hive, its Ghost appears, and you must crush it with a Finisher within seconds or the Hive fully revives.
Trivia
- "Hive" is used the same way for one or for many; there is no plural "Hives."
- The Hive and the Taken were the first Destiny factions to fight side by side.
- The Dreadnaught is carved from the corpse of the Worm God Akka.