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The Books of Sorrow are a compendium of the Hive's history, stretching back before the dawn of humanity, when the Founders of the Hive still lived as mortals on the Fundament, a gas giant similar to Jupiter. Excerpts of the book can be recovered by discovering Calcified Fragments aboard the Dreadnaught.

Synopsis

Calcified Fragments: Curiosity

This Verse isn't in the Books proper, and may be considered as a prologue.

It begins with the narrator writing to their sisters, telling them that after two years of its short life they have found the truth of the Fundament: they, and perhaps all of the races living on the gas giant, are immigrants. It describes many nearby known continents as fragments of an ancient world where they once had lived, how how the sea they float on and the atmosphere above them must be two layers of the same gas giant, a massive world.

The narrator then addresses one of their sisters by name, Sathona, and tells her that their philosophy of life—"the Timid Truth", it is called—is completely wrong, and that they were never meant to be prey, but something much more. Then the narrator asks Sathona to tell their father of this discovery, claiming it is the culmination of his whole life, and signs it as "with love[...] your first surviving sister, Aurash". The Verse mentions that this is Sathona's second birthday.

I: Predators

Verse I opens with an introduction, indicating Xi Ro had written this, and meant for it to last. It mentions she is the third surviving sister of a brood that was apparently killed or lost to misfortune. Her father is called the Osmium King.

In this Verse, true to its title, Xi Ro describes seven dangers her species face and her observation of it. She describes a stormjoy as "a living cloud", drifting along currents, with "feeding tentacles" tipped with "bait-stars". This bait-stars apparently use light to attract prey, as Xi Ro describes light as being dangerous. She then records that the aged can choose to be eaten, that a brave knight can cut off the bait-stars without getting killed, and that she herself has six of them.

She describes what happens when her father "uses the engines", that an unwary person can fall off the continent to their death. Then she describes how the currents of the Fundament ocean bring them to other continents, especially the Helium Drinkers of the Helium Court, members of their species. After describing their physical appearance Xi Ro says how they raid them each day, and that they are "bright/evil", and how she wants to become a knight and fight them. She also describes losing ten of her sisters to the Helium Drinker ambassador appetite, calling it "tribute", but resents it.

Xi Ro then describes Mothers, the females of their race. Like much of the Verse this has a happy quality to it. She describes their attributes, that they can fly, live for longer than ten years, and are extremely intelligent. She also warns what happens if anyone tries to harm their eggs, that the Mothers eat them. She then notes that her sister Sathona wants to become a Mother and live longer.

Then she tells of the storms of the Fundament. The rain is often poisonous and can even dissolve flesh, and if lightning strikes a person they are instantly obliterated. She mentions lightning farms, indicating they harness the storms for energy, then finishes by saying it is all deadly. Continuing in this vein Xi Ro then talks about the rest of Fundament, saying it is very large and they are small, and if they don't understand something it is likely to kill them. Her teacher, Taox, says that is why they live so briefly, and why they breed and adapt quickly.

Xi Ro finishes by mentioning "moon waves", saying it is something her sister Aurash is afraid of. Xi Ro doesn't know what they are, and when Aurash returns from a place called Tungsten Monoliths, she'll ask her.

II: The Hateful Verse

The Verse opens with an introduction to the Helium Court, mentioning that it was written both in secret and desperation. The writer introduces herself as Taox, the teacher of the Osmium King's three daughters. She claims she is sterile and a Mother; and because of these two qualities she rose above pettiness to see what she calls "the patterns of survival". Taox mentions having designed the engines used to move their continent, the Osmium Court. Both of these she says she did alone, and now she'll do so again.

Taox writes a plea to the King of the Helium Drinkers. Her King is old—nearing his tenth year—and approaching madness, senility already claimed him. She says he neglects his duties in favor of studying old books, observing "moons above the storm", and wandering his halls muttering about nonsense, talking to a "dead worm". This worm, she mentions, is sealed in glass when he isn't wandering and tends to it.

She laments the King's three surviving daughters, each two years old. She describes Xi Ro, Sathona, and Aurash's qualities, listing their ages from youngest to eldest. She calls Xi Ro brave for wanting to be a knight, Sathona clever for wanting to be a Mother, and Aurash as simply the "navigator child". (Taox mentions that in the next day Aurash will return from the Tungsten Monoliths, spoken of in previous Verses.) All of these are good qualities, Taox says, but none of them are suitable to protect her home and people. Xi Ro cannot lead, Sathona cannot fight, and Aurash is often distracted by her curious nature. She fears for the survival of all future children.

Taox then begins to close by saying that the King will lock himself away in his Royal Orrery, and will neglect his kingdom again. She calls for the Helium Drinkers to invade, to kill the three heirs, and instal her as regents, offering her services as engine-builder to them. She finishes by saying if she failed, she invokes a curse to be eaten by the Leviathan.

She ends by saying this is a hateful request written in grief, and that she is "neutered to watch". She mentions being the Osmium-mother, indicating she may have birthed the Osmium King.

III: The Oath

The narrator, Aurash, is speaking to her sisters. She instructs them to place their left hands on a mast next to hers in order to swear an oath. She tells them how to do it, by piercing their hand and drawing a blood-line down the mast. After each oath is sworn Aurash intones: "in blood the oath is made".

Xi Ro, the youngest, swears on her left eye to take back the Osmium Court and kill the traitor Taox in vengeance. Sathona, the middle child, swears on her right eye to take back her home, eat the mother jelly, and raise her children on the corpse of the Helium King. This she promised to fulfill. The two sisters then offer to help with Aurash's oath.

Aurash, the eldest of her dead father, swears on her center eye to find out what drove her father into obsession, and what caused the moons to shift and understand if the world is ending. She then thanks her sisters. Saying they only have one ship, which represents freedom, she makes plans to go exploring, to find secrets and raise armies. Ordering the lightning sails raised Aurash and her sisters begin their travels.

IV: Syzygy

Aurash reflects on all that has changed since they escaped. She tells of how Xi Ro and Sathona used their various tricks—the bait stars and cunning—enabled them to be free of the Drinkers, and laments the loss of her home. She mentions how Xi Ro hates Taox with a burning fury.

Aurash thinks back to her expedition to the Tungsten Monoliths, of how she first learned the truth. The Timid Truth, she again says, was their philosophy of life, that they are the bottom of the Darwinian chain, "the smallest, most fragile things alive", and are meant to be prey. She adds with contempt Taox's teachings that they came here to flee a cold universe. She then turns to her dead father, of how he died afraid. Not because of Taox or the Drinkers, she knew, but because of what he saw. He told her—"screaming"—that physical law was bent and the paths of the moons were different, indicating a syzygy.

She paints a picture of the Fundament's fifty-two moons—not all, she amended belatedly, but just enough—aligning together and exerting their gravity upon the seas of the gas giant. Her deepest fear, she recounts, is that this combined force would create a bulge that would pass over the world sea and annihilate civilization, and her species. She calls this a God-Wave.

Aurash resolves to find a way to stop it, but despairs of getting back home, to her father's Royal Orrery, of learning exactly when this would come to pass. Then she recounts how Xi Ro comforts her when her fears become too great to handle, and how their growing reliance on Sathona's wit seemingly brings them good luck. She notes Sathona's odd and sometimes erratic behavior, but dismisses it because of the good it brought them.

V: Needle and Worm

This Verse begins with Sathona recording her secrets, and why her behavior has changed so drastically as noted by Aurash. She mentions a code, meaning she is keeping this from her sisters.

Sathona recounts their journeys across Fundament, of how they sailed through great storms and beautiful days, exploring wrecks and fleeing from monsters. She calls these the happiest moments of her life. She reveals her desire to be a Mother, not so that she could raise children, but so she could live a longer life, to make a difference, to have a meaningful life. She mentions they have been out to sea for a year, marking them as three years old. Sathona mentions she is afraid of dying before they could fulfil their oaths. She then says she knows secrets, of where to find certain things, then mentions a "needle ship".

Another recounting of their travels begins. Sathona triumphantly says of how they rescued the needle ship from a "Shvubri Maelstrom", and that she knew it would be there. She describes the needle ship, calling it long and slender like hope, older than death, unbreakable, and gray. She records it is not a sea-ship like Aurash's but a thing of advanced technology. Sathona says, chillingly, that she knew what happened to the crew, and the ship's purpose.

Sathona tells of how Xi Ro wanted to sell the ship at a place called "Kaharn Atoll" where others gathered to raise money, money to hire mercenaries and take back their home and obliterate the Helium Drinkers. Cunningly, she told her youngest sister that the ship was worthless. Aurash then decided to figure out how to open the ship and captain it. Sathona approves, for she says her worm told her "it was the right thing to do".

In the third and final entry written by Sathona, she describes this worm as a segmented creature, the very worm her father kept and talked to, which she grabbed as her sisters fled. It was dead but somehow was able to influence her. "[L]isten closely, oh vengeance mine..."

VI: Sisters

The Verse begins with a record of the end of the sisters' carefree life.

Aurash urges Xi Ro to come and take her mind off of her duties, which was moving bodies of the former crew from a place called the "birthing room". She encourages her sister to pilot the needle for a time, and this Xi Ro does, her mind at ease. The needle's wake could be seen upon the surface of the metallic ocean.

As Xi Ro steers the ship Sathona tempts Aurash with stories she acquired from the Kaharn Atoll, likely during a resupply trip. Sitting in a place called the "flesh garden", among "mummified flesh fans", Aurash listened in silence to her sister, her own mind quiteted. She reflects for a moment upon her brief life, of how eager she is to know and learn of the world.

Afterward Xi Ro pulls Sathona from her stillness to play a game — swords and lanterns — but this fails to succeed as her sister only goes through the motions. At last she tells her sisters that they are five years old, middle-aged by their reckoning. They spent about a third of that life repairing the needle, and not working toward revenge: Sathona will soon be unable to become a Mother and Xi Ro will be unable to kill those which killed their father, age claiming them. Lastly she laments Aurash being unable to discover the truth of her father's madness. Taox the traitor would outlive them all and they would die in exile.

Xi Ro comments that she wished Sathona weren't so honest, while Aurash privately thinks her middle sister had never been wrong. She then proposes that they utilize the needle to its intended purpose: to dive beneath the waves, toward the center of the Fundament, to find a secret to change the world. This is in part because of her voracious nature to discover everything; the other is out of desperation.

Her younger sister protests, saying that was where the bodies she'd pulled from the birthing room had died, and a mysterious horror born.

Sathona supports her elder sister, prompted by her dead worm. The Verse ends with her hoping they'd find what they needed most — long life.

VII: The Dive

The three sisters begin their dive. Sathona dove for life; Xi Ro for vengeance; and Aurash for knowledge. As the needle dove Aurash searched through its recorded maps—there is mention of "high angelic cloud decks" and "oceans and plates of floating world"—to map their course to the Jovian's core.

During their dive they met predators which sought to ensnare them for food. One such group of creatures were anemones, "continental in scope", using glowing tentacles much like bait stars to lure them. Xi Ro ignored and pierced them through with the needle, leaving behind frosty blood to mingle with the metallic water.

At last they came to a place that was mysteriously still. Aurash turned on the sensors and they listened to the Fundament above them. Continents crashing against one another, helium-neon rain storming, monsters struggling—and the beginnings of the Syzygy. Sathona expresses horrified amazement, that Aurash was right.

Xi Ro remembered the birthing room, wherein they had found a dead horror born from unfortunate explorers. There is made mention of a chrysalis and a caul, indicating this something was perhaps an invertebrate. Something found in the darkness of the Fundament. Then, as she spoke, revelation coming upon her, the Leviathan overshadowed the needle.

The Leviathan is described in monstrous terms: its brow is as large as a continent, and has great, crackling array-fins of electricity. Its voice is described as a "microwave", indicating the Leviathan spoke telepathically; and it warned them to turn back, to save themselves.

VIII: Leviathan

This Verse is unusual in that it records five discourses between the Leviathan and two of the sisters, but the third sister not addressing the beast or being addressed.

The Leviathan proclaims that they were on the verge of a titanic war between two philosophies called the Formless and the Form, or, as it later became more commonly known, the Deep and the Sky. Speaking of its great vision the Leviathan tells of what each philosophy does: the Sky builds up while the Deep destroys, illustrated with the analogy of a fire being drowned in water. In conclusion the Fundament is extolled as a refuge and a home for trillions, the jewel and triumph of the Sky.

Aurash responds with a plea. The world is harsh for the proto-Hive, the small krill, full of monsters and stormjoys; it is no home. They lived and died in the dark, lives soon snuffed out. And eventually even the Syzygy would destroy them all. She entreats the Leviathan to let them go so that they may continue upon their quest.

The Leviathan counter-argues that their very struggle is what gives him hope. After asking them what drew them to the deepness of the Fundament, he then tells of how he watched them live and die and live again in their constant survival against the planet's harshness, "balanced between the Deep and the Sky". He warns them again that when life becomes too hard to bear this life turns to the Deep for survival, and urges them to reject it, maintaining that the hard way is better.

Xi Ro protests the fact that he has no right to tell them what they should do—he is old, massive, and will continue to exist long after they have died. If that is how the world works, she vowed, then she would change it. Taox would not get away, nor would anyone like her; Xi Ro would kill them all.

The Leviathan seemingly ignores this impassioned defiance, telling them that what they seek will lead them to death, for the Deep is all about the extermination of life. He contrasts this with the Sky, saying that it works against death, creating toward a place of eventual peace and utopia. He ends with a final warning: they will live as death and destruction if they do not return, for once they start down this road they will never come back. The Sky, he contends, is harder indeed but it becomes easier.

Sathona, meanwhile, takes advantage of the Leviathan's silence to reveal to her sisters their father's familiar, claiming it led them to the needle, that it speaks plainly rather than riddles. She asks them what will they trust: the Leviathan and its empty promises, after all they have fought and suffered for, or "the plain, honest worm"?

She commands they dive deeper, inciting Aurash's curiosity, and Xi Ro's sense of adventure, "oh, sisters of mine..."

IX: The Bargain

The narrator is describing Aurash standing upon the needle. It tells her she should be dead, crushed by immense pressure and heat, except that it sustained her.

The narrator then reveals itself to be Yul, the Honest Worm, one of the five Worm Gods. These others he calls Virtuous. Yul describes himself as vast and ponderous, full of strength, and immense. He describes himself as having great jaws and folded wings, and all of the colonies of creatures living upon him in symbiosis. He finishes by calling himself "fecund", able to produce life and sustain it. The others are presumably similar in size.

Yul then describes their history, that the Fundament is actually a prison. The wording is unclear but while they remained imprisoned they grew also; calling other species to roost upon the planet, to test them and see if they were worthy. He finishes by saying they have waited millennia for Aurash and her sisters to find them.

Then he offers them a bargain. The Leviathan, he claims, would destroy them in fear, and that it has conspired to drown them with the Syzygy. To combat this he says the Worm Gods could help them. First they must take into each of their bodies a larva, in order to become eternal, and be free of their "fragile flesh". The larva, Yul claims, would allow them to remake their bodies and the world in their image. for whatever is imperfect they would destroy — no law would bind them, save one.

Aurash would forever obey her inquisitiveness, Sathona her cunning, and Xi Ro her strength. They would never cease to obey the defining traits lest they be consumed by their worm. But if they succeed both they and the worm will grow stronger. Yul promises this is a small price to pay for eternity, that they would benefit the most out of it.

He concludes by inviting Aurash to accept his offer.

X: Immortals

The Worm Gods declare that their compact is done and that Aurash is now eternal, exerting that they are bound to her as close as her appetite or her loves and needs, likening themselves to the weapon in her fist and the word in her throat. They then intagliate her ship with worm larvae and charge Aurash with spreading the good news through the Osmium Court and the Hydrogen Fountain, in the Bone Plaza and the Star-surgery - assuring she will rise in the world.

The Worms also declare that those who reject symbiosis with their children, will be made an example of in the face of the mighty wave that is coming for them all, instructing her to save only what can be saved.

The Worms then grant her power over her own flesh, ending the conversation by asking Aurash what her adult name will be after she takes the king morph. She replies it will be Auryx—meaning Long Thought—and the Worms approve.

XI: Conquerors

The Worms speak to Sathona, who by now has taken the mother morph and has become very keen, and has named herself Savathûn.

They go on to reveal that the Leviathan caged them within the Fundament for millions of years under the Traveler's philosophy of cosmic slavery, seeding civilizations predicated on what they believe to be a terrible lie—right actions can prevent suffering.

They also state such philosophy to be antithetical to the nature of reality, where deprivation and competition are universal. The Worms exert that in the Deep, they enslave nothing and that liberation is their passion—existing only to help the universe achieve its terminal, self-forging glory.

The Worms are also pleased with Sathona's use of the Worm larvae in the creation of mighty knights and plentiful warriors, pointing out that Taox’s retreat to the Hydrogen Fountain proves her superior strength. They then inform her that reclaiming Fundament would not be enough and the technology to build ships would come from one of the five hundred and eleven species living on the gas giant.

XII: Out of the Deep

The Worms address Xi Ro, now Xivu Arath after taking the knight morph. They acknowledge her love to conquer, and reveal that they enjoy to see her at work, stating that nearly two percent of Fundament’s surface is now under their dominion and are pleased that her species embraces the worm. They then go on to assure her that the Syzygy has passed and warn that the God-Wave will reach her in less than two years.

The Worms tell Xivu Arath that Taox's surviving Refusalists flee towards Kaharn Atoll in the hopes of rallying what's left of Fundament's life against her and that the Leviathan’s agents are destroying all of the planet's ships and engines, trapping the Hive and their Worms on Fundament. They order Xivu to overwhelm the Kaharn bastion and to slaughter everyone there. From those acts they would obtain the logic they required to cut space open and migrate to orbit.

The verse closes with a final statement from the Worm Gods: reality is a fine flesh, oh general ours. Let us feast of it.

XIII: Into the Sky

The Worm Gods congratulate Auryx who by now has already begun to exhibit paracausal abilities.

The Worms note that at times sadness is present in him. They then assure that he enacts a sacred and majestic task and a divine work, declaring that existence is the struggle to exist - only by playing that game to its final, unconditional victory can they complete the universe.

They then announce that they are free from Fundament’s core, and Savathûn’s cutters are ready to fly. With Xivu Arath victorious, the Worms had opened a wound at Kaharn—a wound leading to geostationary orbit. The Worms then point out that they are faithful to their covenant.

The Worms close the verse by assuring Auryx that they have no future on Fundament, but its moons will make fine habitats.

XIV: 52 and One

The Worms bring Auryx "good news" on the whereabouts of Taox: she has been eagerly granted asylum on the large ice moon by a species of bony six-armed cephalopods Savathûn named the Ammonite. After vainly appealing to the Ammonite hopes and dreams, Xivu and Savathûn devised a plan to kill them all and take their things.

The Worms inform Auryx that they have detected a fifty-third moon in orbit of Fundament—the Traveler. They then assert the Traveler's presence is what arranged the Syzygy. The Verse ends with the Worms chiding the siblings with a final command: "Do not hesitate. You’re fighting the hypocritical puppets of a cosmic parasite. Avenge your ancestors."

XV: Born As Prey

The Worms speak to Auryx and his sisters, noting that their armies have been forced to retreat from the Ammonites as a result of Auryx's weakness. The Worms then order Savathûn to wake Auryx out of his "catatonia" and to convince him that there is no possible way to live in peace with the enemy and that the notion of peace is nothing more than a bait-star of the very thing they wage war against. The Worms then describes war as an effective way of achieving peace and equality—"War is the natural rectification of inequality. The universe’s way of pursuing equilibrium."

The verse ends with the Worms telling Xivu Arath that it is time for their forces to change tactics—"Breed your armies back to strength, and find a way to disperse the broods across these many moons. If we cannot defeat their strengths, we will infect their weaknesses."—and prepare for victory.

XVI: The Sword Logic

The Worms address Auryx directly. They tell him that the Ammonite have begun using "paracausal weapons", meaning powers like those of the Deep and the Sky, which are superordinate to physics; and that the source of these powers and weapons is the Traveler, "the Sky's bait star", and offer to equip Auryx with what will become known as Hive magic—not the Deep itself, but a way of calling upon its power.

The Worms urged Auryx to observe his separation from causal closure by killing a hundred Thrall, and watch his sword change as universe reacted to his power. They say he has begun defining his existence, in the ways of the Deep. However, this power is not the only reason he is indebted to the Worms. To prevent his symbiote from devouring him, he must obey his nature and honor their pact.

XVII: The Weakness Verse

Auryx is dead. After he offered to parley with the Ammonite on neutral ground, Savathûn betrayed and murdered him, then ambushed the Ammonites and continued waging war.

The Worm Gods insist that Auryx will learn from this, and that it was only right that he was killed for his weakness and mercy. They repeat the killing logic; any who cannot survive being tested are not worthy of existing in the eyes of the Deep. The siblings are obligated to test one another, and since Auryx is safe in his throne world, he can learn and return more powerful.

They then inform Auryx that while his sisters fight the Ammonites, the God-Wave is destroying the surface of the Fundament, justifying the trillions of deaths by asserting that the survivors will be ready for another Syzygy.

In parting, they taunt Auryx, saying the still-elusive Taox must be laughing at him.

XVIII: Leviathan Rises

The Worm Gods then move on to the Leviathan. Auryx is most likely still dead, as they are describing what is happening to him as he recovers from his folly. The Leviathan is fleeing Fundament, moving toward the Ammonite homeworld and escorted by Chroma-Admiral Rafriit. This admiral is a fearless warrior, who has outwitted Xivu Arath and likely foiled Savathûn, and the Worms note he is incapacitated by his protecting the Traveler's disciple.

Auryx is allowed to hear what the Leviathan is saying from his self-imposed prison. The Leviathan knows Auryx is dead, as he address them as "sisters of Aurash". He laments their fall into ruin and damnation, mourns the loss of both the krill and Ammonite, that the Traveler's work of recreating Fundament as a refuge is now destroyed. He pleads with the sisters, asking who has brought about this apocalypse. He mentions the Syzygy, and implies its real causation, juxtaposing Auryx's sisters being monsters with the Worms being behind it. He closes with an offer to end hostilities and begin anew.

Before Auryx can question what he has heard the Worms begin their own interpretation of the "old priest's" words, further instructing Auryx in the ways of the Deep. They ask Auryx a series of questions—what has the Leviathan done for him and his sisters, their people? Who has instead stepped up to the plate of dispensing truth and justice for them?

The Worms then instruct him, upon his return into the material world, to reconcile with Savathûn and her betrayal; and to eradicate the Ammonites and the Leviathan utterly with his powers, promising him they'll show the newborn Hive "how to eat the Traveler".

XIX: Crusaders

The Ammonites have been exterminated; the Chroma-Admiral has been murdered by Xivu Arath; Yul and Eir feast upon the dead Leviathan; and the Traveler has disappeared, likely when all hope was lost. One of the Worm Gods speaks to the three siblings as they stand above the Ammonite homeworld, its sea stained black with poison. They ask each sibling if they now see the true meaning of life, according to their nature. The Ammonites, the Worms claim, have occupied a piece of the universe unjustly, that their existence was a lie because they refused to visit death and destruction upon all who were weaker.

Essentially, the Ammonites believed that competition was more valuable than cooperation, which makes one weak. The Worms claim that this philosophy of life was a solipsistic lie, that their golden age was cancerous and anathema to life's true purpose. Life, the Worms claimed, is actually in a constant struggle between annihilation and perfection. The Ammonites failed to apprehend this, and paid with their lives, leaving the suffering Hive to step in and take their place. By right of slaughter they had proven their worth.

The Worms then tell Auryx to look around him, armed with this new knowledge. They claim new battle lines have been drawn in the constant war between the Deep and Sky. But the Worms were not the Deep, only its servants in communion, carrying out its perfect will. Auryx and his sisters would eventually learn how to utilize the Deep's awesome power through their covenant with their gods also, in time.

They finish by saying Auryx was bound by his oath to kill Taox; along the way, he would crusade in the Deep's name, moving the universe toward its final shape.

XX: Hive

As they prepared for their eternal war, going forth from Fundament upon the Ammonite moons, each sibling had something to offer one another and their spawn. Auryx instructed they were to become as numerous and fertile as seeds "in rich flesh"; Xivu Arath mandated they were to become tumors in this flesh, hungry and defiant; and Savathûn command they drink of the worm's poison, to grow in death.

Hive biology, as it was becoming through their newfound power over weak flesh, also matured during this time. Wizards became fertile females, capable of either sexual or asexual reproduction. From their spawn come the Thrall, which grow into Acolytes, and if they survive (through feeding of their worm) become Knights, Wizards, and Princes—what would eventually become Ascendant Hive.

Their purpose, according to their rulers, is to liberate the universe by killing all that is not free, devouring and eating everything that was not worthy of life's ruthlessness. "Aiat", thus they were.

XXI: an incision

Auryx wondered how the Hive would survive, dispersed across the many moons as they were, with little chance of communicating with one another. Savathûn, however, reassured him by telling him her studies of their Gods' movements between dimensions and his return from death, concluding they were one and the same. She advised practising the logic of the sword so that they may imitate their Gods. Xivu Arath, however, claimed she was already proficient in this knowledge, and demonstrated in the next moment by cutting a wound between her moon and another. The Hive had discovered their own macabre form of faster-than-light travel, described as "green fire" and "joyous screams".

Armed with this newfound knowledge their kingdoms grew in the "sword space", in the Ascendant plane, born from the siblings' minds and worms. The glory of Auryx, the knowledge of Savathûn, and might of Xivu Arath, and others, all encapsulated within. Described as coterminous with everyplace the Hive touched, they were thus united, "speech and food" passing through between them.

Auryx proclaimed his title of First Navigator, for the first time; declared that his throne would be created out of osmium; that the sword realm was where he died; and that their thrones would be established in this untouchable place.

XXII: The High War

Over a period of twenty thousand years, as reckoned by the Hive, they made war upon one another. Savathûn flatly told Auryx to not forgive her, to instead take revenge, and prove himself. Xivu Arath was annoyed and fought them both. This was how they established their religion, and their love, by fighting continuously in abyssal plains and lightning palaces of their "sword spaces", their Ascendant Realms, practicing and refining their death.

Eventually they reached a number of alien worlds and forsook their civil war and instead fought united. They may have crossed an intergalactic void, leaving far behind Fundament, before they met adversaries to fight. Auryx took the chance to establish a court, that he called the High War; Savathûn named hers the High Coven, while Xivu Arath arrogantly claimed the world was her court, wherever conflict existed. In these courts they would practice the sword logic, to challenge one another in battle, to learn from one another's demise.

XXIII: fire without fuel

During Savathûn's war against a species called the Qugu, Auryx took the opportunity to kill her. As she and her fleet chased the last of the Qugu arkships her brother came upon her flank and destroyed her, and scattered her spawn, wanting to settle in a meditative retreat. He noted the Qugu's strengths, stubborn and loyal as herd animals, and their weaknesses. Their technology was impressive, as they controlled five stars. Their evolution, however, was something left to be desired. Yet Auryx reflected upon them, as he was reminded of his Hive.

The Qugu were infected by a virus which rewrote their genome, much like how the worm did to the proto-Hive; the virus was relatively benign except it forced them to offer their flesh to larger sessile "jaw-beasts" for amputation. The virus would then convert the eaten flesh to eggs, from which the jaw-beasts reproduced. In return the Qugu would drink a hallucinogenic nectar produced by the jaw-beasts and have incredible visions, likely of a religious nature.

Auryx felt both immense sorrow and joy at their passing. Sorrow, because the Qugu would join eighteen others exterminated in the past century; joy, because the Hive were putting down cancers. Already Auryx was like a god in scope and breadth, feeling these things as gigantic, likely more than his krill self could have imagined. He felt vindicated that the Hive was "cleaning" the universe, calling themselves a wind of progress, tearing apart the scabs and parasites from the material world, and driving it toward its final form. He concluded this by asking a rhetorical question: what was this final shape? A fire without fuel, asking the same question that was itself, through self-vindication; and this is what the Hive must strive toward.

Auryx believed that sorrow and joy were one and the same, like love and death, even as his astronomers tell him they were nearing the Deep, nearer to communion. This could be proved easily, as his worm was fat and contented with the worlds its host had fed it. The Hive were nearing perfection.

XXIV: THE SCREAM

Sometime later—likely centuries—Auryx came to a terrible realization: he and his siblings, the Hive itself, were slowly killing themselves. By the nature of their compact with the worm it would grow according to the tribute it gained from their killing, but in doing so lusted for more, going beyond their ability to feed it. Auryx called it betrayal, crying out that they would never be eternal.

The power of the Hive is such that entire species are shattered upon first contact, and over three hundred and six worlds have been exterminated because of this efficiency. But this is not enough—as Auryx's curiosity grows, his wanderlust to explore and find new life to destroy, so does his worm. Eventually he would be consumed. Yet he could not stop lest it killed him faster. He was trapped in a never-ending cycle of staying one step ahead of it. The same would happen to his sisters, as their cunning and conquest expanded their own worms' appetites. Auryx feared that one day they could not feed them, and so would die unfulfilled, without ever finding Taox.

XXV: Dictata ir Dakaua

The Verse opens as a report by the Amiable Ecumene.

A client nation, called the Dakaua Nest, has reported to them the discovery of an alien spacecraft containing a frozen organism. The craft, dated to be over twenty-four thousand years old, is of Fundament construction. The organism, Taox, has come with a warning—the Hive. After intense interviews, during which the Ecumene learned about the Hive leaders and their motives—including the fall of the Ammonites—perimeter security units reported with new information about their ongoing war with the Hive.

Seventeen members worlds—punctuated, indicating that this was an impossibility—have fallen to the Hive over the past century. The Ecumene leadership concluded rapidly, and based upon their interview with Taox, that everyone within the Ecumene faced extinction. They promoted the Dakaua Nest's War Ministry to military leadership and gave control of the entire Ecumene Status Army to them, also authorizing "caedomatric release", likely a series of powerful weapons that obliterates whatever it touches.

As long as the Hive leadership was targeted, whenever and wherever they appeared, with maximum theater overkill, the Ecumene believed the enemy resolve would crumble and be defeated—this indicates the Ecumene has learned of the Hive deities' reincarnation. The remainder Hive would be eradicated by cleansweep genocide. Throughout portions of the report specific indicators give insight as to Ecumene military command and/or society. "Gland sixty proof assimilation liquor" is likely a specific communication of high importance, while "negative" and "positive reinforcement" likely means various degrees of military or signal strength.

XXVI: star by star by star

The Hive watch as their leaders, Savathûn, Xivu Arath, and Xivu Arath mutually embrace one another, interpreting it as weakness with contempt. They note how they have never despised their lords before, musing over whether they failed them after a number of setbacks.

Savathûn admits she is at her end—despite her planning she still cannot escape her worm's insatiable appetite, no matter how hard she tries. Xivu Arath adds that she slaughters and kills but the harder she fights, the more her worm demands. Auryx mourns his repeated deaths at the hands of the Ecumene war angels, that he dared not go back into the universe for fear he needed his own strength to protect himself rather than offer as tribute. Xivu Arath advises her sisters that they should rest, and Savathûn believes they should enquire instructions of the Worms. The gathered Hive wonder if their crusade has finally come to end at this revelation.

Auryx, however, rebukes his sisters saying: "Have you learned nothing? Would you deny our purpose? Whatever we do, we will do by killing, by an act of war and might. That is the final arbiter we serve, that violent arbiter, and if we turn away from it we deserve to be eaten. No! We must obey our natures. We must be long-sighted, and cunning, and strong. We must take this gift the Worm our God has given us, this challenge, and find a way to keep existing!"

Xivu Arath then queries Auryx on how they will feed their Worms. Savathûn chimes in by stating that she has a potential way, but it would not work unless they increased their killing exponentially beyond their previous attempts—slaughtering their enemies by the billions; Xivu Arath notes the Ecumene's sheer might compared to their own. Auryx claims to know a way to defeat them, but "it will require great power." His sisters readily sacrifice themselves—with Savathûn's exception, to no avail—bestowing Auryx their collective might. These were considered true deaths by the gathered Hive, "for they happened in the sword world."

Thus equipped Auryx went to Akka.

XXVII: Eat the Sky

The Verse opens with an emergency report by the Ecumene Crisis Council transmitted to all military forces.

As detailed in the report the Hive, formerly on the verge of defeat, have suddenly regained the advantage and are pushing the entire Ecumene military back exponentially. The spinward frontier, likely the outermost borders, has fallen to the advancing Hive armies, and Ecumene permitier, militia, and shock fleets have been blunted or utterly destroyed. The time for estimated defeat is two hundred twenty years.

"Oryx", the report continues, is the center of this resurgence. Using a weapon the Ecumene call "paracausal" and "ontopathogenic", he corrupts Ecumene forces and, the report notes bewilderedly, equips them with unnatural abilities deemed "physically illegal". This the first recorded use of the Taken. The report concludes with the assertion that all clients of the Amiable Ecumene should devote all of their resources to combating this new weapon, or face extinction.

"Vigilance spike" and "enact impulse" are likely referring to increased motivation for Ecumene units, while "gland one hundred twenty proof fight or flight encoding" refers to their new orders; note the difference in numbers to the previous Ecumene report.

XXVIII: King of Shapes

The Verse details how Auryx became the Oryx, the Taken King, calling it his coronation.

After killing his sisters and taking the knowledge and logic to gain an audience with Akka, he approached the Worm God and inquired after the powers of the Deep. Auryx knew the Worm held these secrets, and would not give them. They engage in a philosophical discourse: Akka confirms that he does not "give", because it is not the way of the Deep, and Auryx acknowledges this, harkening back to when the three sisters had made their bargain in Fundament. The worm larvae were given, not taken, and that was why they ate at the Hive's defeat.

Akka knew the truth, and answered nothing until Auryx said that he would then act upon the Deep's dictats. The Worm told him that his strength was not enough—the Hive King knew that was a lie, and fought with his god. Using all of his new powers, from the mind of Savathûn and the strength of Xivu Arath, Auryx slew Akka and took what he needed—a weapon to destroy the Ecumene. Writing this upon the Tablets of Ruin, which he subsequently wore upon his waist, he then approached the Deep directly.

Proclaiming himself to be the King of Shapes, he communed with the Deep "to learn all the secrets of our destiny". His speech is not recorded, but it is known the Worm Gods were pleased, and that Auryx—now called Oryx—went to reengage the Ecumene with renewed purpose.

XXIX: Carved in Ruin

With his newfound power, Oryx fought the Ecumene over a period of a hundred and forty years and brought his sisters back to life each according to their nature. Xivu Arath appeared after Oryx slaughtered the Crisis Council at a place called the Fractal Wreath. Savathûn reappeared after Oryx tricked the Dakaua Nest into fighting Xivu, to their extinction. Reunited the three siblings then pursued the Ecumene as it fled into the intergalactic void, their galaxy lost to the Hive. Over a period of a thousand years they methodically exterminated each member of species so wholly that they were erased from living memory. Taox, however, eluded them.

More pressing concerns, however, awaited them. After Savathûn inquired after the feeding of their worms, if Oryx utilized her plan, the Taken King decreed the advent of the tribute system. Thrall would kill enough to sate their worm and grow a little stronger, then tithe the remainder to their leading Acolyte. Acolytes were granted a little more freedom on the usage of their tribute but were required to tithe most to their Knight or Wizard. So the tribute chain went, from the Knights and Wizards to their respective Ascendant Hive to at last the god-kings. Ascendant Hive were those mighty enough to create their own Throne or reside within their superiors' own Throne, such is their dedication to the Deep.

Last but not least, the Worm Gods were fed from the tribute given to them; and the three siblings would use their own excess to study the Deep and grow ever closer to becoming perfection. As long as they never deviated from their crusades of death and desolation all worms—both internal and god—would be satisfied.

XXX: a golden amputation

With the Hive once more on course, and suffering no setbacks, they resume their eternal task—annihilation of everything that cannot prove itself against them. They believed their cause was righteous and celebrated everything's destruction with joy, for they the Hive were supreme.

Ten thousand years after the fall of the Ecumene, or so it is inferred, the Hive fleets encountered a sapient species called the Taishibeth, or sun ravens, and systematically destroyed their empire. Oryx did not physically fight until near its end, but oversaw the invasion from his Throne. Described as a series of paces created by Oryx, the order of events might be constructed thus:

The invasion begins when legions of Cursed Thrall, led by Kraghoor (a misspelling of Krughor), appear on the Taishibeth worlds, causing panic and confusion among the defenders. Having properly identified the location of the threat, the Tai rally their own fleets—described as battleplates and arsenal ships—to counterattack. Instead they meet the fearsome Warpriest, who obliterates their offensive and strikes the heart of their defense in return.

The war moons reach the Taishibethi homeworlds and begin to cause havoc, using their bulk to smash delicate astroengineering and the very planets themselves. A pair of Knights, Mengoor and Cra'adug, lead an army to the Raven Bridge (presumably a seat of government) and kill Tai for ten years. At this point the Tai Emperor Raven reappeared and drove back the invaders, using her talons to destroy a war moon and killing all of its Hive. The Hive are seemingly routed.

Oryx then took action. He went out, confronted the Emperor Raven, and Took her, transforming her into the Perfect Raven. Using her innate powers, Oryx caused fear among the Taishibethi and demoralized them. They stop reproducing in their constant fighting. As their extinction neared, they tried to reason with Oryx, claiming that he was destroying a thing of beauty and fame with his abominations, that even the gods would abhor what he has done. Oryx answered that the power to continue existing no matter what was their god—and they, by the sword logic, had failed that judge.

With this victory, having conquered enough to feel its power touch them whenever they listened, Oryx told his sisters that they were worthy to speak to the Deep itself; and that he would heed its call.

XXXI: battle made waves

The shortest Verse in all the Books, this simply records Oryx meeting with the Deep.

Going far into his Throne, he entered an abyss, using his Tablets of Ruin as stepping stones, until he created an altar in the midst of an endless sky. Taking an "unborn" Ogre, he called upon the Deep, claiming he could see it everywhere he looked: "You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves." It answered his call, arriving and inhabiting the Ogre, to speak with Oryx.

XXXII: Majestic. Majestic.

The Deep greets Oryx like a friend, and tells him that he need not be on his guard anymore, for there was no danger or threat where they were.

It then asks a series of questions about its philosophy. The one ultimate question of existence, it claims, is whether or not something can be killed; and it must be answered truthfully—if it is not asked, something or someone will ask instead. This is misconstrued by the rest of the universe as evil, which the Deep assures Oryx is merely "social maladaptiveness", affirming the Hive belief that they were adaptivity itself.

The Deep elaborates further: existence is not built upon friendship, or law, or morality. It is rather built upon a common end—existence at any cost. Life itself is in a constant struggle for existence. The universe destroys through the vagaries of random chance, newborn suns consumed by black holes and habitable worlds ravished in short gamma bursts. Civilization is a delaying tactic, the Deep explains, staving off the end of all things. If the universe is brutal, then so must its inhabitants. Only through the sword can anything survive in the hell of life, not bogged down in swamps of artificial paradise and rules.

This, then, is how the universe evolves, by testing itself constantly, purging any impurity from itself, moving toward perfection, becoming an axiom of reality. The Deep rounds it off by claiming this was a majestic thing, beautiful and true—and that this was what the Deep is all about.

XXXIII: When do monsters have dreams

This Verse frames it as a dream of Oryx's, when he was Aurash, and young, during his meeting with the Deep.

Oryx is going to the Royal Orrery to speak to his father; hearing a noise he looks back to see his two sisters destroying the road. The stones they've torn out resemble his Tablets of Ruin, covered in writing and little worms. Scared, he begins to race for the Orrery but is tripped up by none other than the Osmium King, who subsequently starts hurting him.

The King asks Oryx why he wasn't prepared for his sisters' jealousy, prepared for when they would attack him the moment his back was turned and guard down. Oryx complains that he thought the King was his friend—his father only laughs at him. Holding out a "black sun" in his fist, the King moves to place it inside Oryx. Realizing what he must do, Oryx attacks his father and starts eating him, tearing him to peices. Despite this the Osmium King, seemingly unharmed, approves of Oryx's actions—calling it "majestic and true".

Having successfully defeated his father, Oryx wonders how he would navigate the torn up road, which his sisters are still busily destroying.

XXXIV: More beautiful to know

After his communion with the Deep, Oryx reflects upon his current state; reflects upon all of the things said about him and the Hive, then recalling what the Deep had told him. The only thing something can be good is to be unbroken; Oryx's task is to find or create the perfect unbreakable thing. This, he feels, is the greatest thing he has ever discovered.

He turns his thoughts to his sisters—Savathûn and Xivu Arath, he believes, were trying to usurp his place as ruler of the Hive; they had found a way to cut off his tribute and thus weaken the Taken King. He loved them for this gift of theirs, that nobody else could try and find a way to break him utterly. Xivu Arath, he remembers, had once tried to kill him by destroying an entire war moon during their numerous wanderings. This taught him how to survive the war with the Ecumene. Both of them were full of joy in the Hive's way, joy in purging weakness from themselves. This was the reason he loved her, so that they may prove one another over and again.

When he returned home, Oryx vowed, and reclaimed what was his, he would sire sons and daughters so that he may teach them this love of the Hive's.

XXXV: This Love Is War

This verse is told from the perspective of Xivu Arath, speaking of Oryx and her views of him.

Xivu Arath speaks of how she and Savathûn have betrayed their brother, marooning him in the Deep where he cannot return, in the name of the ancient war they wage on each other. Despite this, she believes Oryx's presence makes her stronger, and describes him, both his form he has taken over the years and his accomplishments as he's become more than he was destined to be on Fundament. She names Oryx the bravest thing she knows and firmly believes Oryx will lead the Hive to their ultimate goal.

She closes by saying her brother loves her, and that love takes the form of the war they wage.

XXXVI: Eater of Hope

Oryx speaks to his newly spawned son, Crota.

He speaks to him of the battles he fought to bring him into this world. The first was his escape from The Deep, his second was waging war on Savathûn to cripple her power, and the third was tricking Xivu Arath and poisoning her tribute. With his position secure, and his place as on the throne well in hand, he sought out a mate and fathered children. Crota being on of them.

He tells his son of that he must fight, and his place in The High War will have to be won. Oryx will give little, for giving is the way of The Sky, but he will make an exception and gifts his son a sword and a name. The rest is up to him. He must travel the stars, hunting down the Traveler, and all the places it has visited. Waging a war against the false god, he must destroy all traces of the Light in the universe, and all life to be found. Then and only then, will the universe take it's final shape.

Oryx names his son Crota, Eater of Hope. He tells his son one more thing, of an ancient oath against a betrayer that is not his burden to bear. He then tells his son to come with him, and meet the rest of his family.