Speculation Saturday #7: The Hive (Destiny)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Saturday, July 12, 2014, 21:02 (3573 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by General Vagueness, Saturday, July 12, 2014, 21:11

- Of all our enemies in Destiny, the Hive are the only ones to be directly linked to the Darkness. The Fallen come off as opportunistic space pirates. The Vex have some strange reason to travel through time and combat us, but it feels like maybe they're acting on their own. The Cabal are said to be an organized military force securing positions and feel like they have their own agenda. But The Hive are said to be crusaders for the Darkness. How does an entire race end up working for something called "the Darkness?" Do you just hold an election and vote to be evil?

Looking at Germany in the mid-1930s through mid-1940s, yeah, maybe.

- Are there other Hive ships and bases throughout our solar system? Perhaps even completely defeating them and driving them from our Moon would only be step one?

Well yeah, they're in "Old Russia", so presumably they'll be in other places besides there and the Moon.

- Could the Hive be one of the Darkness' main weapons? The Traveler comes and makes worlds habitable. The Hive come and tear into the heart of worlds and make them grim and dark and dangerous.

I don't know but that sounds interesting and plausible.

- Is it possible, despite some hard evidence saying that the Hive believe in the Darkness, that the Hive have actually themselves been enslaved?

Being slaves and believing in a cause your masters believe in-- or want you to believe in-- is definitely possible.

- Are The Hive Destiny's Flood? They fit a few of the criteria: Undead-ish, Zombie-like, an affinity for burrowing in and festering. Do they perhaps have a hive mind? Do they perhaps infect or zombify other races? I don't think they'll be exactly like the Flood since Bungie seems to be purposely avoiding direct Halo crossovers, but the similarities are there.

I don't know, I just know those barnacle things seem like a bad sign. They look, well, kinda gnarly, they're apparently often found around Hive ships or insertion craft or whatever, and they emit a black... mist? smoke? gas? which I think has also been seen coming from the Hive, and which I can't help but think is maybe (like probably*) tied to the Darkness and/or largely consisting of Hive spores.

* like definitely OMG u guys it has 2 be its so clear zOMFGG u guise *ahem* but seriously, it seems so obviously bad, it's hard to think it'll be ignored or brushed off unless they remove it entirely

- Is the Hive even a collection of individuals? It seems pretty clear that The Fallen are, with ranks and positions and punishments and rewards, but what of the Hive? If anything, I'd speculate that Wizards are at least closer to individuals and leaders than the rest of them...

Calling a vast swath of them "Thralls" could certainly be telling... or it could just be a cool name... not really any way to know at this point. :/

- Why do The Hive hate the Light anyway? Is it a religious hate or a more practical one? Does The Traveler perhaps make it much harder for them to Hiveform worlds? They choose our dead rock of a Moon to make their vast fortress. Perhaps The Traveler's remaking of lifeless worlds into ones that more "standard" races (like Humanity, the Fallen, and the Cabal) can live on has the opposite effect for the Hive, making their expansions significantly harder? Maybe The Traveler even terraformed a world or worlds belonging to The Hive, killing millions or billions, or trillions of them in the process? By accident?

I'd be for some quote-unquote legitimate reason for the Hive's hate, characterization is good and all that.
As for whether it's religious or practical, perhaps both? That would play into allusions to the Crusades that you picked up on, two forces battling over both land and faith.

- Could The Hive actually be the Darkness? They certainly seem evil enough. They like to destroy and conquer instead of bring life and prosperity. They've been right on our doorstep since the time of (their defeat?!) our collapse. This doesn't really fit with the theme of the Darkness returning soon, since the Hive are already here... but nothing says our enemies can't hide in plain sight!

I don't think that's the case and I don't want it to be the case. I could maybe buy them being a manifestation of the Darkness-- or a creation of the Darkness, that could really be something. That would explain things pretty neatly and demonstrate the power of what's against us, but then it leaves out a lot of potential interesting-ness with motives and backstory.

- If the Light is represented by The Traveler and Human exploration and colonization and the Darkness is represented by the undead-like Hive and partial planetary destruction, what is the transcendent plan some of the Awoken on the Reef believe in? A balanced eternal struggle with no winners? A universe free of either side? Could the Light and Darkness be nothing more than ancient Giants dominating our universal playground, trying to bend us into following their predispositions towards Order and Chaos? Maybe the correct path is to leave both behind and embrace our own Destiny?

I don't know, but I have a feeling whatever their philosophy is, I'll either really agree with it or really disagree with it. (It's weird how a third option can be as polarizing as two polar opposites.)

Next Saturday: The Vex

Robots of hammered bronze traveling from another time to battle us here and now? What's that all about? Join me next Saturday as I once again gather the Facts, makes some Informed Suppositions, and get carried away with a good dose of Rampant Speculation.

I just want to point out they seem to have been moving away from the time travel thing lately, describing them as seeming like they might be from another time, and not outright stating anything about time travel. I'd have to go find the video (or someone else would), but we may have been chasing a shadow this whole time-- how was the time travel initially brought up? I'm pretty sure it was Joe Staten and someone from the art team giving a presentation, I think it was at GDC last year. I seem to remember that part was something about characterization and aesthetics, where details don't really matter (there might have even been an "as if" or "as though" or "looks like" or "seems like" in there in the first place). They might just be making it more clear now, and not changing their nature, but either way it does seem like they're moving away from time travel as a fact. (Which I like; even if they clearly would have been accounting for it from the beginning, I feel like time travel wouldn't work with Destiny's story and setting, or at least it wouldn't work for me.)