Hive (Destiny)

The Hive are a mysterious species of ancient origin that currently occupy the moon of the planet Earth. Their origins on the planet of Fundament was revealed through the hive god Oryx via his Books of Sorrow. The Hive have encountered and destroyed thousands of species since leaving their world in an effort to satisfy the hunger of the worm gods that give them their power.

Biology & Appearance
The Hive come in many forms but their general appearance is one that instils terror in to many. Individual creatures can be hundreds if not thousands of years old, however many thousands more continue to be born and bred in the depths of their worlds, evidenced by the pupae attached to the walls and ceilings of their moon fortress. They are sequential hermaphrodites who are all born biologically female as thralls, but as they age and grow in power, they gain the ability to metamorphosize into "morphs" that may be male or female. They are symbiotes with another species, the "worms", which may be infant forms of the infamous dragon-like anhamkara. When killed, Hive typically disintegrate, leaving behind only ash, their exoskeletal armour and the Worm larvae bonded to them. Interestingly, Hive have been seen igniting upon death. The reason for this dramatic and instantaneous destruction remains unknown.

Typical examples of Hive come in the following forms:

Thrall

The bottom of the hierarchy of Hive, thrall harken back to ancient human myths of demons or zombies. They gather tribute to their leaders by using their twisted, deformed bodies directly against an enemy. Sharp claws are used to tear through flesh and armour in close combat and therefore the thrall will rarely been seen alone but rather in a swarm. They are the youngest Hive caste, with all other Hive being those who have proven themselves above all the rest and allowed to molt into acolytes.

The cursed thrall is the bottom most of these, only able to completely sacrifice itself to harm the living. Identified by a green glow and arms fused to its body, it's only attack is self destruction and killing those in its vicinity.

Acolyte

Hive acolytes are the backbone of the species, employing ancient energy weapons to attack their foes. More intelligent that the thrall, an acolyte also enjoys the privilege of light armour formed by its own hardening skin in addition to offensive weaponry. Only by accruing sufficient tribute can a Thrall hope to molt into an Acolyte.

Knight

When an Acolyte earns enough tribute to fuel its own evolution, sexual dimorphism takes effect. If the Hive turns out to be male, it will molt into a Knight. Xivu Arath is the only known exception to this, being the only female Hive to have taken the Knight morph.

The Hive knight is the heavy armour of the species. Countless battles have caused its extremities to harden in to a thick armour. Their size allows them to handle heavy weapons such as large swords or artillery like cannons. These are also the lowest of the hive able to wield dark magic in the form of an almost impenetrable force shield.

Knights that prove themselves in battle can go on to be some of the most powerful servants of the hive gods.

Ogre

Hive ogres are abominations of dark rituals and centuries of transformation. Originally Thralls tortured and mutiliated in order to mold them into monsers, Ogres are able to deal and receive huge amounts of damage and can often be considered an army of their own. If not by the force of their immense fists, ogres can deal damage by unleashing a stream of void energy towards victims, decimating them almost instantly.

Given enough time, the ogre can also go on to become some of the most potent adversaries an enemy of the hive will face.

Wizard

The females of the Hive, Wizards serves as the scientists and engineers of the Hive, employing ancient dark arts to further their masers' plans. Even the lowest of these can employ a shield of pure energy, unleash a torrent of arc fire at an enemy or shroud itself in a vale of poison and darkness. Despite the masculine title, wizards are actually an exclusively female morph, and in fact serve similarly to insect queens, gestating the thralls either asexually or with the assistance of males who have proven themselves. The necromancer Nokris remains the only known male Wizard.

Hive leadership

Exalted and ascendant hive often come from the battalions below them having demonstrated an uncanny ability to spread pain, suffering and destruction.

At the very top echelon are the hive gods. These are often in commune with the deep themselves and are not bound by the rules of this universe when within it. While the demise of some of these gods has been observed, this is only attainable when attacking them within their own dimensions and often only by attacking them with specific artefacts or tactics.

Culture
In ancient times, the Hive were a delicate species that often lived only a short life. Before leaving their home planet of the Fundament, three of them made a deal with another species known only as the worms. The worms would channel the power of the Darkness to them, allowing them to exist indefinitely but at the same time tethering them to the eternal conquest against the light, therein becoming the hive.

Each layer in the hive hierarchy is required to gather tribute to their immediate leadership through the suffering and destruction of other life. This in turn feeds the layer above until finally reaching the Ascendant Hive and eventually the worms they serve. Ascendant Hive are those few other than the three Hive Gods who are able to access the Ascendant Realm. An alternate dimension of Darkness, Ascendant Hive are able to establish personal pocket-dimensions known as throne worlds within the Ascendant Realm, rendering themselves truly immortal as they would simply return to their throne world. However, Ascendant Hive can still be killed if done so within their throne world. Additionally, throne worlds do not seem to be exclusive to Hive. Mara Sov, the queen of the Awoken, and Hiraks, a baron of the Scorn, were able to establish throne worlds of their own.

The Hive's ultimate purpose is to achieve the universe's final, perfect state in which nothing exists but the Darkness. They worship the Darkness above even their own gods and have commited countless acts of genocide in order to earn greater power and favour from the Darkness.

Technology
The Hive have been shown to make use of technology from small, short range energy weapons through to entire armadas of interstellar ships, most notably the Dreadnought belonging to Oryx, The Taken King. Disturbingly, Oryx's fleet was partially built from the exoskeleton husks of Hive who defied him, while his Dreadnought was built from a combination of the Worm God Akka's remains, and Oryx's own throne-world from the Ascendant Realm.

All technology observed so far appears to be a fusion of known materials with arcane magics tapping into the energies of Solar, Arc and Void. Hive ships, most notably their Tombship transports, rarely fly to their destination like other starships, but instead emerge through portals from the Ascendant Realm, then back again after delivering their passengers. Such portals have also been utilised to summon considerable ground forces, although these were established by Wizards through ritual means. The Hive have also developed an automatic turret-like construct known as the Shrieker, a biomechanical device which resembles an eyeball comprised of void energy, protected by a metallic shell.

The Hive also made use of biomechanical devices known as Cryptoliths. Xivu Arath used these devices to seize control of her enemies and bend them to her will, turning them into mindless, enraged minions known as Wrathborn. So far, the ranks of these Wrathborn have been filled by enthralled Eliksni, Cabal and even renegade Hive loyal to Savathun.

History
The Hive originated on the gas giant Fundament, divided into feudal societies based on the planet's floating islands. On Fundament, the Hive led extremely short lifespans due in part to their extremely hazardous environment. When the Osmium King was betrayed and murdered, his three children fled to the depths of Fundament, travelling to the centre of the planet. They encountered a gargantuan creature known as the Leviathan, a disciple of the Traveller. It warned them not to travel any deeper, as what they would find would only condemn their species. The three siblings ignored these warnings, refusing to believe that their people's suffering could possibly be worse.

At the core of Fundament, they discovered the Worm Gods, immortal servants of the Darkness imprisoned within the planet by the Traveller. The Worm Gods urged the three to release them in exchange for power and immortality not only for themselves, but for all their kind. They agreed and became the Hive as they are now known. They each had a larvae of the Worm Gods implanted into their bodies, rendering them biologically immortal and granting them paracausal power. In exchange, they had to kill others in order to feed the larvae and gain even more power, but failing to do so would force it to consume the Hive from within. The three siblings returned to the surface, reclaimed the Osmium court and renamed themselves Oryx, Savathun and Xivu Arath. The rest of their species was coerced into undertaking the same transformation they had and to go to war against the rest of the universe.

Countless species and civilisations had been eradicated by the Hive, the Ecumene being one of the most notable examples. This alliance of alien races was so great a foe, Oryx was forced to (temporarily) kill his sisters and one of the Worm Gods in order to commune with the Darkness, enabling him to transform his enemies and servants into ghostly minions known as Taken. It was the Hive who conquered the Eliksni homeworld Riis, as well as the Cabal homeworld Torobatl most recently. It is also believed that the Hive fought alongside the Darkness against the forces of Earth during Humanity's collapse.

After the collapse, the Hive claimed Earth's moon, hollowing it out to build a subterannean fortress known as the Hellmouth. This stronghold was ruled over by Crota, Oryx's son who had been exiled after mistakenly enabling the Vex to invade his father's throneworld. After losing countless of their number to his wrath, the Guardians of Earth succesfully invaded the Hellmouth, breached Crota's throne world and assassinated him, causing the Hive their first true defeat through the death of one of their gods.

Upon learning of his son's death, Oryx led an invasion of Earth's solar system. Having lost most of his fleet in battle with the Awoken, Oryx proceeded to replenish his forces by converting numerous Eliksni, Vex, Cabal and even his fellow Hive into Taken. During this Taken War, Guardians and Cabal alike launched separate invasions of Oryx's Dreadnought. Using a fragment of Crota's soul, the Guardians gained access to Oryx's throne world and slew him, ending the war and leaving the Osmium throne vacant.

Even after Oryx's death, the Taken remained a significant threat. In the years following the Taken War, the Taken began to show significant signs of new leadership, including the creation of new Taken which the Guardians believed only Oryx was capable of. It would later be discovered that they now answered to Oryx's sister, Savathun.

During the Red War, Savathun's brood entrenched themselves on the Arcology of Titan, where they abducted and sacrificed numerous Guardians to summon a giant Shrieker known as Savathun's Song. Upon discovering this, the Guardians tracked down and destroyed it, avenging the deaths of their lost. After the Traveller's awakening, a new faction of Hive laid claim to Mars and sought the destruction of the Warmind Rasputin. These Hive were led by Nokris, Crota's brother who had long since been disowned by Oryx due to his practice of necromancy, something which the Hive considered heresy. The Guardians eliminated Nokris, but not before he summoned a Worm God to Mars; Xol, the Will of Thousands. With Rasputin's help, the Guardians fought and defeated Xol. By the sword logic of the Darkness, Xol pledged his allegiance to those who were greater than him, those who bested them, and so transfered his essence to a sniper rifle.

At Savathun's direction, the Taken Anhamkara known as Riven corrupted the Awoken Prince Uldren Sov and used him to create the Scorn and open the way into the Dreaming City. As the Guardians discovered after Uldren's execution, Oryx had conquered the Dreaming City before his death and left the Awoken realm infested with Taken. By Savathun's manipulation, the Dreaming City became trapped in a time loop between the deaths of Riven and Savathun's daughter, Dul Incaru, both at the hands of the Guardians.

After these events, the Guardians identify the resurgence of the Hidden Brood, a faction of Hive originally commanded by Crota. Reorganised by Crota's daughters, the Hidden Brood had constructed a Scarlet Keep on Earth's moon. As the Guardians launched an invasion of the moon, they discovered a black pyramid beneath the Scarlet Keep, a remnant of the Darkness fleet responsible for the Collapse. The Hive had been harnessing power from this Pyramid, which in turn started to produce Nightmares; shape-shifting entities that assumed the forms of the Guardians fallen enemies and allies, specifically those tied to painful memories. The Hive fought alongside these Nightmares against the Guardians, including those which assumed the forms of long-dead Hive such as Phogoth and Omnigul. Once inside the Pyramid, the Guardians encountered three extremely powerful Nightmares which assumed the forms of some of their most powerful enemies, including the Scorn leader Fikrul, the Cabal emperor Ghaul, and even Crota himself.

When the Darkness fleet returned to the solar system, Eris Morn convinced the Guardians to aid her in deciphering messages from the Darkness in order to learn its intent. Their efforts were hindered by Savathun and Nokris, who seemed to be trying to prevent the Darkness from contacting the Guardians. Eventually, the Guardians killed Nokris once more and Savathun was forced to go into hiding, having been excommunicated by the Darkness and replaced by her sister, Xivu Arath. In order to escape retribution, Savathun abducted the Guardian Warlock Osiris and assumed his form, hiding among the Guardians in the guise of one of their oldest comrades. In order to bolster her forces, Xivu Arath had unleashed biomechanical constructs known as Cryptoliths designed to corrupt the minds of the Hive's enemies. These turned numerous Eliksni, Cabal and Hive into deranged champions of Xivu Arath known as Wrathborn. The Guardians fought and eliminated these Wrathborn, along with Xivu Arath's High Celebrant.

After the end of the Endless Night and the destruction of the Taken Vex known as Quria, Savathun had evidently lost control of the Taken and fled to the Dreaming City, where she revealed her identity to the Guardians, who still believed her to be Osiris. Upon her imprisonment by Mara Sov, Savathun revealed that she intended to free herself from the Darkness and sought the Awoken's aid in removing the Worm within her. During this time, the Hive, as well as the Taken and Scorn, have pledged fealty to the Hive god of war, Xivu Arath.

Behind the Scenes
During its panel at GDC 2013, Bungie stated that the Hive is designed to "capture a feeling of undead royalty." At the time of the Destiny reveal, Bungie had not yet named the species. As a result, until March 2013 these characters were publicly known only by the nickname "Space Zombies."