Needle
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- "The needle [...] is not a sea-ship, like Aurash’s. It is an artifact of high technology."
- — Sathona[1]
The Needle was an ancient spaceship of unknown origin that was lost to the depths of the gas giant Fundament long before the Krill arrived on the world. It was found by the daughters of the Osmium King after they escaped the sacking of their homeland by the Helium Drinkers.[1]
Overview[edit]
The Needle was a long, slender gray vessel, described as "unbreakable" and old. Unlike Aurash's sea-going ship, the Needle was a spacecraft, an "artifact of high technology".[1] Its interior had "glistening halls" and a "gold dark helm," and it possessed a "flesh garden" and a "birthing room" where some unknown monstrosity had been born and presumably killed the ship's former crew.[2][3]
It was capable of piercing the depths of Fundament,[3] surviving pressures and temperatures that only the paracausal powers of the Worm gods could otherwise defy,[4] and could lance through the continent-sized anemones of the Fundament depths without damage to itself.[3] However it was not completely impervious, as its hull was later graven with worm-larvae.[4][5]
It possessed sensors that could listen across vast distances, and could register the telepathic voice of the Leviathan through its hull.[3]
History[edit]
The Needle arrived at or was manufactured on Fundament long before the proto-Hive's world crashed into the gas giant.[1] Its previous crew traveled into the deep and retrieved or made an object which, upon being liberated from its chrysalis, massacred them "obscenely" then subsequently died.[2][3][note 1] The Needle drifted abandoned thereafter.
Led by the whispers of the Osmium King's worm-familiar, Sathona directed her sisters to the Shvubi Maelstrom where they located and salvaged the Needle. Xi Ro wanted to take and sell the Needle at the Kaharn Atoll to raise funds for mercenaries, but Aurash desired to take command of and explore its secrets; Sathona sided with Aurash. Alone of the trio Sathona knew the vessel's history.[1]
Over the next two years the sisters repaired and learned how the Needle worked.[2] During this time Aurash would occasionally let Xi Ro pilot the ship, listen to her sister Sathona read stories as she meditated, or else mind the ship as Xi Ro and Sathona played "swords and lanterns".[2] Gradually, Sathona became fearful of growing too old to wreak vengeance, and counseled her sisters to dive before they died in vain.[2] During their dive, they met immense monsters that threatened the ship but Xi Ro used it as a weapon and dove through them, until they met the Leviathan, warden of the Worm gods.[3]
The Leviathan counseled them to turn back and to save themselves from the ruinous path they were following, but Sathona ignored the creature and pushed her sisters forward, and they continued onward;[3][6] to meet Yul and the rest of the Worm gods.[4]
After the pact was made, the Needle was intagliated with worm-larvae to spread amongst the rest of the Krill, transforming them into the first Hive.[5] It is not known what happened to the Needle after the Hive gods left Fundament, or if was used in combat. Billions of years later Sathona—as Savathûn—reminiscences about the past, mentioning the Needle only in passing, as she writes the eighth Book of Sorrow for Eris Morn to discover.[7]
Notes[edit]
- ^ This crew of unknown explorers may have been called by the Worm gods and given larvae for the same purpose like the Osmium sisters were. For whichever reason they may have breached whatever terms set between them and the Virtuous Worms upon cutting open the chrysalis, sealing their fate.
- "From across the stars We have called life to Fundament, so that it might contend against extinction. For millennia We have awaited you... our beloved hosts."
- — IX: The Bargain
List of appearances[edit]
- Destiny: The Taken King (First mentioned)
- Destiny 2: Season of the Witch (Mentioned only)
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: V: Needle and Worm
- ^ a b c d e Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: VI: Sisters
- ^ a b c d e f g Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: VII: The Dive
- ^ a b c Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: IX: The Bargain
- ^ a b Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: X: Immortals
- ^ Bungie (2015/9/15), Destiny: The Taken King Grimoire: VIII: Leviathan
- ^ Bungie (2023/8/22), Destiny 2: Season of the Witch - Lore: II—Savathûn—Imago Unfurl
