Hive

"That shiver you feel up your spine is truth. There are nightmares rising from the shadows, and they hunger for our dying hope."

— Grimoire entry

Template:Species Infobox The Hive is one of the races encountered among the ruins of humanity's Golden Age.

Overview

The Hive are an impossibly ancient race that has kept themselves alive on tombstone-like sarcophagus Tombships. The Hive delve deep into a planetoid, unheeding of the damage they do in the process, crafting linked caverns and gothic-inspired columns. Their underground spaces are like a dungeon that has only recently been pulled up from too long underwater.^[1] They are able to manipulate the physical world in ways humanity can only begin to imagine.^[2]

The Hive are not an enemy military, so much as rising force.^[3] The Hive have great hatred for the Light, and to them, the eternal struggle between light and dark is not only a war, it is a crusade—all Light must be devoured so Darkness can reclaim the universe.^[4]

At the time of the game they have burrowed deep into the Moon, staying there for centuries while growing stronger.^[5]The Guardian's Ghost states that he believed the Hive to be contained on the Moon for centuries, but the player first encounters them in Old Russia underneath the Skywatch, where the Fallen have attempted to seal them away.^[6] The guardians eventually discover that this is just the beginning; the Hive have been building an army and intend to invade Earth en masse.^[7]

Biology

Members of the Hive appear to be uniformly pale, sinewy and skeletal in appearance. All castes lack visible eyes, although some have been seen with glowing patterns that resemble eyes. The ancient armor many of them wear has fused with their skin, becoming part of it.^[8] When they are killed, they ignite in a shower of dust and embers.^[1]

Several varieties exist: a roughly human-sized variant, known as a Thrall, a somewhat larger version known as Acolyte and Knight and a larger, vaguely feminine Wizard with elaborate armor and ornamentation.^[9]