Worm God

The Worm Gods are a race of extremely large worm-like creatures with immense paracausal powers. They share a symbiotic relationship with the Hive, who revere them as gods.

History
So far, only 6 Worm Gods have been identified. They were discovered by the Witness and its Disciples within the core of the planet Fundament. At the Witness' command, the Lubraean disciple Rhulk corrupted them, bending them to the will of the Darkness, and abducted their mother, Xita the Nurturing Worm in order to breed more Worms for their own use.

Much later, the Witness contacted the children of the late Osmium King of the Krill and warned them about an impending tsunami that threatened their race with extinction, guiding them to Fundament's core in search of a solution. In actual fact, this tsunami was never going to happen, it was lie conceived by the Witness in order to corrupt the Krill. The Osmium Heirs discovered the Worm Gods at the heart of Fundament and agreed to free them and become hosts of their larvae in exchange for power and immortality. Returning to the surface with their new gods, Oryx, Savathun and Xivu Arath forced their 'gift' onto their people, corrupting the Krill into the Hive.

For eons, the Hive have fought and exterminated countless species and civilisations, as the Worm larvae within their bodies needed to feed on the lives they took to survive and continue to empower their hosts, lest they become consumed by their own symbiotes. To reduce the risk of failing to satisfy the Worms, Oryx established the tithe system so that a portion of the power the Worms granted their hosts would go their immediate superior. During the Hive's war with the Ecumene, Oryx fought and killed one of the Worm Gods, Akka the Worm of Secrets, in order to gain the power to transform his enemies into Taken. He also cannibalised Akka's remains into the hull of his Dreadnought, a massive starship containing his Throne World.

One of the Worm Gods, Xol, the Will of Thousands, became paranoid over the death of Akka, believing himself to be the next to perish. He proceeded to abandon his kind, along with Oryx's excommunicated son Nokris and fled to Mars, where the AI Warmind known as Rasputin froze them beneath the planet's surface. Centuries later, the reawakening of the Traveler freed Xol and his followers, prompting a Hive invasion of Mars. The Guardians of Earth's Last City intervened and killed Xol, only for his essence to eventually possess a sniper rifle. Nokris, abandoned by his god, would go on to become the supplicant of his aunt, Savathun.

Years later, Savathun, having turned against the Darkness, sought a bargain with Queen Mara Sov of the Awoken, offering to help her fight the Darkness if she could remove her Worm. Although Mara accepted the offer, she fully intended to kill Savathun as soon as her exorcism was complete. Savathun expected this however, and was able to escape as soon as her worm was removed, leaving it in the Awoken's custody.

Overview
The origins of the Worm Gods remains unknown, as well as whether or not others exist apart from the six the Witness found within Fundament. Some have theorised that the Worm Gods are in fact a form of Ahamkara, if not at least a related species. As demonstrated by Xol, the Worm Gods possess immense physical strength befitting their size, as well as a variety of paracausal abilities such as breathing fire, producing harmful energies in their wake and telepathy. Like the Ahamkara, the Worm Gods can evidently transcend death itself, such as when Xol's essence escaped after the destruction of his physical form and was bound to a rifle.

The life cycle of the Worm Gods is largely unknown. Every member of the Hive species hosts a Worm God larvae within their body, which grants them paracausal power and biological immortality, but also feeds on the host as well. The Hive must kill others in order to feed their larvae with the life force of others instead of their own, as well as to earn greater strength as a reward for feeding it. How much time the Larvae need to mature is unknown, although they may not be able to at all, as Oryx, Savathun and Xivu Arath were eons old, yet they still carried Larvae within them.