Bite-Sized Backstory 11: Rampant Speculation 1 (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, November 08, 2016, 00:25 (2935 days ago)

There are a few interesting questions I've put off until we could reach a good stopping point in the Hive’s timeline. A lot of little nuggets that don't really have directly supported answers but are ripe for a little good ole fashioned Rampant Speculation. No sources this time (Calcified Fragments: Curiosity - XX: Hive if you must) as I'm trying to draw some fun possibilities from that which isn't entirely there. Perhaps you'd care to join me? :)

1. The worm gods say that:

For millions of years We have been [trapped|growing] in the Deep.

Ok. So who trapped them there. Well, the Leviathan, apparently:

For millions of years the Leviathan caged us here. It is a pawn of the Sky, a philosophy of cosmic slavery.

A little later the worm gods say that

the war rages on.

Could these worms have lost a battle millions of years ago and been held prisoner ever since? And if so, why hold them prisoner instead of killing them? Could it be because killing them isn't all that effective? Sathona’s familiar communicated with her and her father even though it is described as being dead…

2. Who were the creators / previous owners of the needle ship? They are at one point referred to as explorers, but clearly they were more than that. They didn't just map Fundament, they dove into its core and brought back a chrysalis to a room dedicated specifically to birthing it. They seem to have succeeded but were then all slaughtered for their efforts… If they were allied with the worm gods why didn't the worms escape millions of years ago?

I propose this: The explorers on the needle ship were deceived into retrieving a unborn worm or possibly worm larvae and were offered the same choice Aurash and her sisters were, but they rejected the worms' offer.

I think the worms could not leave Fundament's core on their own but rather had to spread into the three royal sisters and later their followers in order to gain enough power from directly participating in the slaughter of the races of Fundament. Only then did they finally gain enough power to tear wounds to orbit. Perhaps when the needle ship explorers refused to do this they were killed so the worms could use their ship to lead the next potential hosts to them even though it took millions of years to do so?

My guess is Sathona's familiar was what the needle ship explorers brought back, but it killing the small number of explorers wasn't anywhere near the number of deaths the worms needed to take direct part in to escape their prison.

3. The Osmium King and Aurash independently verified the changed orbits of Fundament’s moons. The three sisters used the needle ship’s sensors to hear the distant approach of the god wave. I think its safe to assume the moons really were rearranged and a civilization destroying wave really was on its way… but who really caused it?

The worm gods, upon reaching orbit, say:

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.

But, the Leviathan talked of how the Sky creates safe places and when the Leviathan flees Fundament it says:

—Sisters of Aurash, open your eyes++
++Who made you monsters? Who summoned the wave?—
—Make peace. Join with me in golden renewal.++

Clearly it is referring to the worm gods as the ones who summoned the god wave. Which would mean it is saying that it was the worm gods, and not the Traveler, who rearranged the moons. Who is right here?!

I think the Leviathan is right. For two reasons:

First, it didn't sugar coat the way the universe works when it told the sisters that struggle and death is sometimes part of living, and it also was exactly right about the worms and their motives. Looking through everything the Leviathan says I don't think it even comes close to telling a lie. It relates unhappy truths, yes, but never a lie.

Second, the worm gods come very close to directly admitting they have the power to move planets:

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.

What happened millennia ago? Aurash told his sisters he had proof that:

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. All the other nearby continents — the Helium Drinkers, the Bone Plaza, the Starcutters — came from the same world.

Perhaps the other races of the Fundament are migrants too.

If the worm gods really had the power to crash entire planets into Fundament surely they had the power to rearrange its moons. So why lie about it? Well… give it a bit and we'll find out that the worm gods’ bargain with the three royal sisters wasn't exactly entirely truthful either. As a brief preview, here's what Auryx had to say when he found out the entirety of the bargain he and his sisters had agreed to:

NO

Savathûn! Xivu Arath! My siblings
We are betrayed. We will never live eternal.

I think the worm gods grant power and knowledge through bargains. They seem to know the answers to questions no one had known to ask. But I also think in the end, time and time again, their price is ultimately revealed to be too high as we'll soon see, oh speculators mine.

Previous: 10: The Birth of the Hive
Next: 12: War on Life