- "Gahlran believed the Crown made the Hive his. Now he is [mine]."
- — The Witch, Insidious.
The Crown of Sorrow is a dangerous and powerful Hive artifact which grants (or curses) its wearer with great Hive magics. As part of a trap set by Savathûn, the Witch-Queen, it came into the possession of the exiled Cabal Emperor Calus. Suspecting that such a powerful artifact was a lure, Calus directed his Psions to examine it, finding the information stream sending data to the Ascendant realm. Despite the obvious ploy, Calus still desired to use the Crown to civilize the Hive and instead gifted it to one of his Shadows, Gahlran. Calus specifically bred Gahlran to wield the Crown's morbid powers to further his goals but in the end, the crown drove Gahlran completely mad. With the crown's power, Gahlran was able to summon an infestation of Hive within the Leviathan's vaults, working towards an unknown goal.
However, Calus called upon his Guardian champions, offering great riches as reward for putting Gahlran down and purging the Hive from his ship. Even with the Crown's formidable dark powers granted to Gahlran, the former Shadow was defeated after a prolonged struggle. The Crown of Sorrow managed to survive the battle but was rendered inert without someone to bear it.
Trivia
- The basic design of the Crown of Sorrow is vaguely similar to the headdresses of the Aztecs.