The Books of Sorrow serve as the Holy text for the Hive, and by extension the Taken as well. In Book One, we learned of the Krill and how they came to make contact with Yuul and the other Worm Gods of the Deep. In Book Two, the Sisters find their place in the universe and begin their practice of the Sword Logic. In Book 3, the Sisters learned the secrets of the Deep that will allow them to continue their crusade without worry of their worm consuming them.

This is Part 4 in a 5 part series. I will summarize the Lore cards from Destiny 1 within the context of what we know now. This is Videogame Crosstalk, and I hope you enjoy this Destiny Lore Video. 

<Intro Splash>

The first half of Book four is surprisingly introspective. In verse 4:0 – A Golden Amputation, Oryx stretches and flexes his new power. In a very dramatic fashion, the entry claims that Oryx paces in his throne room ten times. With each pace, the race known as the Taishibethi takes another metaphorical step towards its extinction. By the tenth pace, they are extinct, and with that it seems as if the Deep has taken notice of Oryx, and beckons him to meet. Oryx, of course, is all too happy to oblige.

To do so, Oryx reads from his Tablets of Ruin, constructs an Altar and prepares an Unborn Ogre. Oryx then calls to the Deep, beckoning it to use the Unborn Ogre as a vessel.

Verse 4:2 – Majestic Majestic is the transcription of what the Deep says unto Oryx. The speech is very casual, and underneath the relaxed tone it is incredibly manipulative. Here, the Deep says everything that it can to keep Oryx on its side. The entire monologue can actually be described as affectionate, truth be told. But it is also what one would expect to hear from someone who is so utterly drunk on their own self-righteousness, despite how utterly and thoroughly evil that person is. It is also written, dare I say, in the same tone that our mirror self speaks to us at the end of the Shadowkeep campaign.

Verses 4:3 – When Do Monsters Have Dreams and 4:4 – More Beautiful to Know are two of those introspective entries that I mentioned earlier. 4:3 outlines a bizarre dream that Oryx had, and like all proper dreams three quarters of it makes no sense. But the main gist of it seems to be that Oryx is getting a bit paranoid about possibly moving too quickly and he subconsciously fears that Savathun and Xivu Arath are plotting against him. 4:4 also discusses his paranoia, more specifically Oryx believes that his sisters are after his Tablets of Ruin. Once Oryx finally recollects himself, he decides that upon his return back to his Throne he will begin to have children. Thus begins Oryx’s extended family, and by extension the full Hive Pantheon begins to take shape.

Skipping up to Verse 4:6 – Eater of Hope, we hear the first mention of Crota, son of Oryx and boss of Destiny’s first Raid, “The Dark Below”. As he is introducing his son to the world, Oryx lays out the ways that he has gone ahead and sabotaged his sisters so that they may never challenge or usurp him. Oryx also tells Crota that they are chasing a God called the Traveler. You know, that thing that we as Guardians tend to worship and what seems to be the prize that virtually every faction in the Destiny universe is obsessed with? Towards the end of this entry, Oryx states that he intends for Crota’s existence is to seek out and destroy Taox. Unfortunately, as per the entire point of the Dark Below raid, we killed Crota in his own throne world. And as far as we know, Crota never got around to completing his task.

Verse 4:7 – Shapes : Points introduce us to the Death Singers that we defeated in the Kings Fall raid: Ir Anuk and Ir Halak. These two wizards were born from a larvae that Oryx cut in half with his sword, Willbreaker. Rather than die, the two halves of the stubborn larvae grew into the sisters. What I find interesting now are the following lines:

And you, Ir Halak, you are a wizard too, as is the way of twins. I have been with Xivu Arath, who complains that you have made a song, and sung it in her throne world, and killed everyone who listened, quite irrevocably. Will we have songs instead of swords and boomers?

What I find interesting is that we have several instances associated with Savathun that involve songs: the strike, Savathun’s Song and the adventure on Titan, Siren Song, where we hear the singing crystals, all the while the song making Sloan sick. Apparently, there is power in music we have yet to fully understand? If you would like to explore this concept further, I have a full video discussing this, and will provide a link in the description.

The next few verses are pretty much the shenanigans that the Hive God Family starts to get into. In Verse 4:8 – The partition of Death, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak are practicing death so that they may learn how to separate themselves from Death, thus making themselves harder to kill. Essentially, they are experimenting with throne worlds and seeking to become masters of death itself. Oryx then tells his son Crota that he should pay attention to his sisters as they are very cunning. In what can be equated to a young child, pouting and stamping his feet, muttering, “Oh ya? I’ll show him who is clever!” Crota slices a wound in the time and space in an effort to begin his own experiments. And then…

Out of this wound came machines called Vex. They invaded Oryx’s throne world.

D’oh! So if we are to believe the Books of Sorrow, then we are to believe that the origins of the Vex lie in Crota trying to impress his dad and screwing up ROYALLY. So now there are Vex bumbling around in a new universe. Not only is it a new universe, it’s the throne world of a Hive God that is a master of the Sword Logic, a type of religion that dictates that you destroy everything to prove your dominance. Talk about culture shock! 

But here’s the thing: In one of the more recent books, “Unveiling”, we learn that the Vex are actually constructs of The Darkness, whose sole purpose is to ensure that “The Pattern” is maintained. Meaning that Crota didn’t so much welcome the Vex into existence as much as he opened a portal for the Vex to enter Oryx’s Throne World. So if we are to believe this entry in the Books of Sorrow and that Crota’s sword cut into the home dimension of The Vex, what the hell did he cut into!?!? Does the Darkness have it’s own Throne World? Will we eventually enter that realm as the ultimate climax of the Destiny saga?

Back to the Books of Sorrow: So the Vex are bumbling around and the Death Singer sisters and Crota set to work trying to keep them in control, but they are failing pretty badly. This is because one of the main Vex Minds that came through is committed to not only understanding their new world, but analyzing how to exploit the paracausal physics of Oryx’s world. Oh, and by the way, this Vex mind is known as Quria Blade Transform. As you work your way through Destiny, it’s a name that you’ll hear more often. As part of Quria’s attempts to understand, it begins to experiment with religious tactics, even going as far as to establish a hierarchy of its own, complete with a priesthood. Quote:

Quria manufactured a priesthood and ordered all its subminds to believe in worship. Then it set about abducting and killing dangerous organisms so it could bootstrap itself to Hive godhood. For some Vex reason, Quria never attempted to introduce worm larvae into its mind fluid.

With that last sentence we see that while Quria is experimenting with worship, it doesn’t dare introduce a worm larvae into the Vex network. Probably a good move on Quria’s part. Also, it is worth wondering if because of this experimentation, is this why the Vex later constructed altars and shrines to both Crota and Saint-14?

All while this is happening, Savathun apparently has been enjoying watching this all play out because it was she that had tricked Crota into opening the portal in the first place. Anyway, by the end of 4:9 – Open your Eye : Go Into It, things have gotten so out of hand that one of the Worm Gods, Eir, finally bellows out, 

“ORYX, SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER”. 

Crap, now Dad is coming home to see what trouble his kids are making! In Verse 4:10 – An Emperor For All Outcomes, Oryx rushes home to see Vex running amok in his house. He reads from the Tablets of Ruin briefly and starts pushing some of the more powerful Vex into wounds so that they would become Taken. With the Vex now fighting each other, Oryx was able to crush the remaining Vex in his Throne. To deal with Crota,

“My Son,” he said, “this is your punishment. Come home glorious, or die forgotten!” He picked up Crota by the legs and threw him into the Vex Gate network.

Like all good life experiences, it is important to not lose the lesson in the tragedy. The thing that Oryx learns from this is that there is more to this existence than he ever imagined. So far, he has been working to be master of this single existence, but now he knows that he needs to be the master of ALL existences. Nothing puts things into perspective like facing an adversity that completely knocks you off your high horse. This blatant breach in security also makes Oryx realize that his throne world is vulnerable, so he makes the decision to hide his throne world inside a mighty ship to be known as the Dreadnaught.

The final verse in book 4, verse 4:11 Dreadnaught, describes the creation of the dreadnaught that would become the focal point of The Taken King expansion of Destiny 1: a massive patrol zone occupied by Hive, Taken, and Cabal, and the setting for the King’s Fall raid. What is the most interesting aspect of this verse, however, has nothing to do with the creation of the Dreadnaught, despite how impressive and powerful it is. Intertwined in the middle paragraphs, there are a few lines, quote:

[I am Savathun, insidious]

[I graffiti this notice for you]

[These Books are full of lies!]

I honestly am not sure what to make of all this, since it is difficult to take anything that Savathun claims at face value. However, given that we have learned more of the Vex’s origins in more recent lore books, perhaps there is some truth to Savathun’s claims? 

One last thing: Now that Oryx has his Dreadnaught, he needs to go out and search for more answers. To do so, he wants to find something called the “Gift Mast” which was left behind by the Traveler. He believed that the location of the Gift Mast was to be found in the Nicha Thought-Ship, which had guarded the Harmonious Flotilla that he just obliterated. 

But the Thought-ship was a trap. Upon it was Quria, Blade Transform.

And THAT concludes the Fourth book within the Books of Sorrow!

If you would like to support this channel but can’t think of anything to leave as a comment, write the word, “Understanding” Since at the current time both Oryx and Quria Blade Transform are in a battle between each other and within themselves to have full understanding of the universe, or as it turns out, the Multiverse.

You can follow me on Twitter @VGXTPod for more updates on the channel and the podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to hear more lore explained in this fashion and keep up to date with my regular podcast, Videogame Crosstalk, the monthly podcast of gamers talking Tech, Science, and whatever else comes to mind. Until then, I’ll see you in the Tower!