Sword Logic

The Hive Cleaver, signature weapon and illustration of the Sword-Logic

"The sword binds wielder to victim. It binds life to death."

— Toland, the Shattered

The Sword Logic is the guiding religious principle of the Hive. Most of our information comes from the Hive religious text known as the Books of Sorrow and scattered pieces of arcana from Toland's journal.

Overview

As the antithesis to Light, the Sword Logic is best described as the totality and pinnacle of existence and as a "queen of armies". It dictates both the destruction of everything which cannot protect itself against defeat, and the establishment of a systematic, self-proving civilizational structure which can withstand annihilation, often refered to as the "Last True Shape" of the universe. In short, it can be described as a survival-of-the-fittest (or even a social Darwinist) ideology taken to an incredible extreme. It is not enough to merely defeat enemies, but to utterly annihilate them, and take what's left, feeding the victor. All power must be taken by force, not received as a gift, else it be rendered weak and untrue. This is why it is a mistake to categorize it as a morality system; the Sword Logic is amoral and self-serving, a meritorious system which dictates the rise and fall of its user by the right of force.

This is what has built the entire Hive civilization and its very hierarchy. Each lesser Hive must prove itself to become greater, or risk annihilation. This holds true for every Hive, from the tiny Thrall to the Ascendant Hive god-kings, including Oryx and his sisters. Even the Worm Gods are not exempt, as evidenced by Oryx slaying Akka to gain an audience with the Darkness itself. As a byproduct of the pact made with the Worm Gods, when a Hive grows stronger from the killing of lesser life-forms (referred to as "cellular automata") and those which follow the dictates of the Light and the Darkness, so does its internal worm's lust for killing, meaning that unless it is fed enough the worm will eventually consume its host.

The Leviathan knew of the Sword Logic and claimed that it led to ruin and damnation for all who followed its path; in contrast the Darkness (and Toland) claimed that it was a beautiful thing, majestic and noble, and that all life should abide by this self-proving law for this was the natural way of the universe. However there are implications that it destroys the soul and integrity of the practitioner, rendering them into an entirely different creature that would horrify themselves if they could view it objectively. For example, after untold millennia of practicing the sword logic, the emotions of love and hate gradually became indistinguishable to the Hive, and the same may have happened to joy and sorrow. Indeed, even Savathûn, who convinced Oryx originally to find the Worms, expresses doubt as to the validity of their crusade.

The Sword Logic can, in rare cases, resurrect a Hive god which has been killed in the Ascendant plane, as long as the one which killed them kills according to their geas, that is their inherent nature which binds them to the worm.

Tribute system

Hive	Killing-Logic	Feeding Worms	Artificially evolve	Tithe 1	Tithe 2	Tithe 3
Thrall	Gain "tribute" through killing.	Take enough to feed their internal worm.	Take enough to "grow" (or evolve) themselves.	Tithe the rest.	N/A	N/A
Acolyte	Gain "tribute" through killing.	Take enough to feed their internal worm.	Take enough to grow themselves.	Take the tithe of the Thrall they lead.	Tithe the rest.	N/A
Ogre	Kill for their master	Kill to assuage its pain	Kill to become "Reborn"	N/A	N/A	N/A
Knight/Wizard	Gain "tribute" through devastation.	Take enough to feed their internal worm.	Take enough to grow themselves.	Take the tithe from the followers they command.	Take as much as they dared for themselves personally without getting killed.	Tithe the rest.
Ascendant Hive	Gain "tribute" through devastation.	Take enough to feed their internal worm.	Take enough to grow themselves.	Take the tithe from their legions.	Take as much as they dared without incurring the wrath of the God-King.	Tithe the rest.
God-King	Gain "tribute" through the devastation of kingdoms, empires, and nations.	Take enough to feed their internal worm.	Take enough to continually grow.	Take the tithe from their spawn and broods.	Use whatever they wished.	Tithe the rest to the Worm Gods
Taken	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Everything to their master, having been freed from the rest of the Tribute system.	N/A
Worm God	N/A	Be fed through their worshippers.	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Using the table above we might be able to construct the tribute system the Hive use, with allowances made for those excluded. Those who have grown enough from their cunning or strength without being killed will ascend to the next artificial stage of the Hive evolution. If they do not feed their worm the Hive organism will be devoured from within by its own worm for lack of tribute. The Worm Gods receive their tithe directly from the Hive triumvirate.

The only thing unaffected by the system are the Taken, as they are bound to the will of their master until he falls. However, their worms do still need to be fed. Should their master fall, the Taken are left directionless.

Relations to other races

"The capture of Hive leadership might yield vital strategic intelligence, including weapons or tactics capable of defeating Guardians permanently."

— Ghost Fragment: Cabal 4

Vex

The Vex first learned of the Sword Logic when Crota accidentally cut open a portal into one of their sealed dimensions. At first they were confused, their models and projections clashing horribly with the physics of Oryx's throneworld, until they manifested Quria, Blade Transform who quickly deduced the source of the Hive's power and organized a series of test invasions in a plan to bootstrap itself to godhood according to the Hive's own rules.

Oryx eventually returned home and defeated the Vex, closing off Crota's portal after throwing his son through it, but not before acknowledging the Vex as a worthy foe. The Vex may have been exposed to the Sword Logic earlier than Crota's mishap, for Savathûn had known of them and had been the one behind Crota's "accident," but they only began studying it in earnest after Quria uploaded its data on Oryx's Ascendant Realm to the greater Vex network, following its second failed invasion.

Cabal

Cabal Emperor Calus knew of the story of Oryx and his species through a device called the OAX Machine, and of their fall to the Worm gods. General Umun'arath (who curiously shares part of her name with Xivu Arath) was well acquainted with the horrors of fighting Hive. Whether or not the Cabal as a species studied the Sword Logic remains to be seen.

The Martian Cabal Legions have little to no experience with the Sword Logic, having never engaged with the Hive in protracted combat except once on the Moon and knowing that the Hive had weapons or tactics which effectively neutralized Guardian resurrection. Once the Skyburners Legion set foot upon the Dreadnaught they became beholden to the Sword Logic but showed no indication that they recognized any differences to conventional physics. Nonetheless with the defeat of Oryx, the Cabal contingent aboard the Dreadnaught have continued to hold out despite overwhelming losses.

Fallen

The Fallen have not been observed to adapt the Sword Logic to their tactics until the SIVA Crisis, when the Devil Splicers began experimenting with SIVA and transcended flesh entirely. Though not wholly like the Hive and the Worm Gods, the Fallen's behavior is similar enough to the precepts of the Final Shape that they have comprehended a form of the Sword Logic. SIVA itself echoes the Sword Logic on a nanoscale, learning from what it adapts to itself.

The Guardians

In order to defeat Oryx for good (and by extension Crota, though unwittingly), the Guardians tapped into the power of the Sword Logic, as even Light was forced to obeyed it within the bounds of his Ascendant Realm. However, in defiance of the Sword Logic's edicts, the Guardians did not carry through and claim their enemy's power. This infuriated Toland as he saw the raid team which killed Oryx and his Court leave without taking his place, leaving his power open to be seized by another, and meaning all that he had worked for was for nothing.

The Taken

"I am Oryx, the Taken King. And I have the power to take life and make it my own."

— Oryx declaring his power after his first audience with the Darkness.

The Taken are corrupted members of various species the Hive have encountered and destroyed. First demonstrated against the Ecumene after Oryx communed with the Darkness, the Taken as a whole are described as a "paracausal ontopathogenic weapon" which infects the physical existence of an enemy and binds them to the will of Oryx. They serve as Oryx's proxies, as during the war against the Ecumene they allowed him to kill en mass far more than ordinary Hive could do, as he could Take the enemy's soldiers to replace his own losses and empower his forces with their abilities.

Being Taken transforms the victim into a more perfect form, the desired end-state of obeying the Sword Logic. As Taken are not known to obey the conventional Hive hierarchy and tribute system, it may be that their new forms have rendered those systems unnecessary.

Trivia

• The Sword Logic is very similar to the "might makes right" aphorism with several meanings. One is that a ruling elite determines what society views as right and wrong. Another is that whomever "labels what they think is good for [themselves] as right, only those who are able to defeat their enemies can push their idea of what is right into fruition".
• According to William Montague, Kraterocracy (Gr. κρατερός, or krateros, meaning "strong") is a form of government ruled by those strong enough to have seized the reins of power through might or cunning. This is similar to how the Worms introduce Sword Logic to Auryx.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First appearance)
  • The Dark Below (First mentioned)
  • The Taken King
  • Rise of Iron
• Destiny 2