Bite-sized Backstory is an ongoing guide to the incredible stories contained within the Grimoire Cards and Lore Books of Bungie’s Destiny.

Select one of the following entry points to get started:

History of the Hive

History of the Eliksni

History of the Awoken

History of The Last Word


Bite-sized Backstory 17: The End of an Age

Some 10,000 years after their defeat of the Ecumene empire, and more than 30,000 since the brave exiled sisters were betrayed and fled to the inner seas of Fundament, the Hive have finally reached what Oryx says is the edge of the Deep. We first learned that Oryx was chasing after the Deep after he and his sisters eliminated the Qugu so many thousands of years ago. Back then it was Oryx’s…


Bite-sized Backstory 16: Oryx’s Pyramid Scheme

For a thousand years, Oryx and his sisters must have killed billions and maybe even trillions of thinking beings who were once members of the Ecumene. We know the numbers they slaughtered were so great two ways: 1. When the Dakaua War Council first met to address the Hive threat the Hive had only destroyed somewhere around 300 worlds, and only seventeen (17!) of those were part of the Ecumene. By…


Bite-sized Backstory 15: War and Trickery

For the next hundred years, Oryx fought the combined forces of the Ecumene. Where as before he and his Hive were unable to stand against these “lords of matter and physical law,” Oryx was now able to turn the Ecumene’s own units against them. We’ve seen some pretty devious Taken enemies as Guardians, and that’s with Oryx just subverting Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal. I like to imagine that a Taken…


Bite-sized Backstory 14: Oryx – The Taken King

The Hive were all but beaten. Thanks to Taox’s information, the Ecumene knew exactly where to strike and exactly who to target. Before long, Auryx, Savathûn, and Xivu Arath could not even emerge from their throne-worlds for fear of being killed again and again. Worse, hiding and waiting was not an option, either. Each of the siblings felt the gnawing of their worms inside them. Without a supply…


Bite-sized Backstory 13: The Amiable Ecumene

With more than three hundred worlds in ashes behind him, Auryx should have felt mighty and powerful. Instead, he felt trapped and he felt afraid and he felt betrayed. He wasn’t sad or or ill at ease with the destruction he’d caused. This time, he called his sisters to him and cried out in grief because he’d finally proven something that had been nagging at him for some time: His worm’s hunger was…


Bite-sized Backstory 12: War on Life

After their defeat of the Ammonites, the Hive hollow out some or maybe even all of Fundament’s 52 moons turning them into giant spaceships capable of traveling to distant star systems. I wonder if this process looked anything like what Crota was doing to our moon? For a very long time, the Hive’s fleet of moons travels through the cold dark between the stars. Interestingly, even though they are…


Bite-sized Backstory 11: Rampant Speculation 1

There are a few interesting questions I’ve put off until we could reach a good stopping point in the Hive’s timeline. A lot of little nuggets that don’t really have directly supported answers but are ripe for a little good ole fashioned Rampant Speculation. No sources this time (Calcified Fragments: Curiosity – XX: Hive if you must) as I’m trying to draw some fun…


Bite-sized Backstory 10: The Birth of the Hive

Auryx was dead. Murdered by his sister Savathûn along with all the members of the Ammonite Satellite Congress… Except, he wasn’t dead! Instead of being no more, he finds himself, minus his physical body, inside what the worm gods described to him as a cyst universe created by his own might. A “Throne World” they called it. All three royal siblings, the worm gods told him, now had this power to…


Bite-sized Backstory 9: Auryx’s Sadness

Auryx had done it! He had managed to get himself, his sisters, and a large number of his people off of their inhospitable, unforgiving world. They had traded the Stormjoys, and burning seas, and lightning storms, and the ever enveloping pitch black they’d been forced to live in for the serene beauty of space. As a navigator and astronomer, one would think Auryx would be ecstatic, but he was…


Bite-sized Backstory 8: The Conquest of Fundament

With the help of the worm gods, Auryx, Savathûn, and Xivu Arath load their deep diving needle ship with worm larvae and return to their Osmium Court. They begin to offer the worms’ larvae to any and all of their kind who will accept it. Those that refuse are killed or forced to flee! With the new might of worm-enhanced followers, the royal siblings lead an army against Taox. They push her…