Long long ago, a rocky planet inhabited by the proto-Hive collided into a gas giant named Fundament and shattered.  All of the rocky planet shards that were left scattered across the Fundament ocean, within one of of it’s many layers, and became “continents” in which the proto-Hive took refuge and lived out their existence.  This vast world was filled with five hundred and eleven other intelligent species who also inhabited Fundament’s sea through seemingly similar circumstances.  Surrounding Fundament and within it’s great orbit were fifty-two moons inhabited by a race called the Ammonites.  The Ammonites were bony, six-armed cephalopods who evolved on an icy moon of Fundament. At some point, the Traveler arrived at the planet and became a patron of this race, who helped them build an advanced space travelling civilization with paracausal technology that spanned all of Fundament’s fifty-two moons.  Deep beneath the Fundament ocean dwelled a massive creature called the Leviathan, a great disciple of the Traveler, and one who plays a larger part in this races existence, as it’s a gatekeeper for the darkness being imprisoned in the depths of Fundament.

Life was quick and harsh for the proto-Hive. Their natural lifespan rarely exceeded ten Fundament-years, though proto-Hive who ate “mother jelly” became able to spawn and live longer.  Fundaments environment was harsh and relentless, as the ocean was toxic, the storms constantly raged through the skies, the rain was poisonous and corrosive, and living clouds called Stormjoys would prey upon the populations causing mass conflict amongst the proto-Hive.

This world was filled with torment and a great fear of a catastrophic event called the “Syzygy” an artificially induced alignment of Fundament’s moons that would create a devastating global tidal wave, the “God-Wave” as the Ammonites called it. One kingdom of the Fundament Ocean was the Osmium Court, ruled by the Osmium King. When the King went mad out of fear of the “Syzygy”, Taox, the teacher of the King’s three daughters, invited the rival Helium Drinkers of the Helium Court to invade and install her on the Osmium Throne. The Helium Drinkers did so, but failed to kill the King’s three daughters: Aurash, Sathona, and Xi Ro. The sisters escaped on a ship, swearing an oath to avenge their father by overthrowing the Helium Drinkers and bringing revenge to their family by hunting down Taox.

Through plotting and planning their revenge the sisters eventually salvaged and reactivated “the needle”, a high-tech ship which had been neglected over the years, but was designed to explore Fundament’s darkest depths. Deep below the sea, the sisters encountered the great Leviathan, who warned them away, and tried to convince them of the darkness the planet had imprisoned, but they continued on and encountered the Worms and made a pact with them to gain immortality and power, taking on the Worms’ parasitic larvae and spreading them among the other proto-Hive; thus the first true Hive were created, and so the sisters were transformed into their new creations as Xi Ro became Xivu Arath, Sathona became Savathun, and Aurash became Auryx.

In just a few short years after the sisters transformed they took the Hive and conquered a large portion of Fundament’s surface population, reclaiming the Osmium Court and harrying Taox off-world. After building their first starships, the Hive followed Taox and encountered the Ammonite civilization that lived among the moons, as well as the Traveler. The Ammonites were far more advanced than anything on Fundament’s surface and were initially able to drive back the Hive’s attacks, especially as Auryx held the Hive back in the hope of achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict.  Savathun denounced her brothers weakness and killed her brother for his futile efforts of peace.  The great Worms hidden in Fundaments depths then vested Auryx and his sisters with the power to defy death so long as they continued their conquest and fed their worms. Auryx returned to life and together he and his sisters defeated the Ammonites, killed the Leviathan, and forced the Traveler to flee.

The three leaders of the Hive transformed Fundament’s fifty-two moons into great colonies for the Hive and set out to conquer the universe in the name of the Darkness and find Taox, who still eluded them. Fundament’s fate afterwards is unknown, though the Syzygy had already taken place before the Hive had begun to war against the Ammonites. It’s likely the “God-Wave” wiped out the remaining of Fundaments surface population. However, the ultimate cause of the Syzygy is unclear. The Worms claimed that the alignment of the moons was caused by the Traveler to prevent the surface civilizations from contacting them, while the Leviathan claimed that the Worms were behind the event in its final plea to the Hive.

We may never know the truth about what causes the Syzygy, or who causes the Syzygy, but one thing is clear, the Hive are still out there and we will see more of them very soon.

Until the next episode Guardians