Weapons of Sorrow, Armor of Fate: the Worms and the Ahamkara, as illustrated in Destiny's Inventory
Much has been made about the connection between the Ahamkara and the Hive Worms, and I have touched on the topic in previous posts. I go back and forth on a near-weekly basis (yes, I am a nerd) as to whether or not the Worms and the Ahamkara are the same. Lately, I’ve been considering a new angle, which is focused on the existence of, and differences between, the Weapons of Sorrow and exotic Ahamkara armor. At the moment, I think that this latest examination offers some further evidence that the Worms and the Ahamkara are distinct entities.
I’d like to start by looking at a very interesting feature: namely, that there appear to be no exotic Ahamkara-based weapons. Ahamkara detritus is, so far, restricted to armor (and, recently, a single consumable). Similarly, although there are Weapons of Sorrow - weapons apparently based on Hive technology or powerful due to Hive corruption - there is no “Armor of Sorrow.” The weapons of sorrow are Thorn, Necrochasm, although I’ll discuss Bad Juju as well, which in its own way is the exception to these rules.
More importantly, all of these weapons reference the known capabilities of the Hive Worms, and by extension those of the Ahamkara, as illustrated in the Grimoire. Ultimately, it appears that they offer both complementary, but not identical, takes on the nature of each. The differences between the two sets - weapons and armor - is further evidence to suggest that the Ahamkara and the Worms are not one and the same, but linked or parallel entities.
First, we know that both Worms and Ahamkara can manifest as a sort of auditory hallucination. In the Books of Sorrow, Taox tells us of that: >“Senility has claimed my lord the Osmium King. He is ten, and mad. The study of ancient text consumes him. Today he raves about moons above the storm. Tomorrow he will wander the halls, speaking to his familiar, a dead white worm from the deep sea. He keeps it in glass, and he tends to it, and he neglects the duties of a king.”
Not only does the Osmium King (the father of Oryx, Savathun, and Xiva Arath) speak to his worm-familiar, he tends to it to the exclusion of his other duties. Furthermore, in book V, Sathona tells us of the same worm that:
“1. It was my father’s familiar. I ripped it from him as we fled. It is a dead white thing, segmented, washed up from the deep sea.
2. It’s dead, but it still speaks to me. It says: listen closely, oh vengeance mine…”
This reveals two important features of the Worms, both of which are elaborated upon later in the Books of Sorrow: firstly, that even if a worm is evidently dead, it can still speak. Second, that these worms speak with the same verbal tics as the Ahamkara appear to.
That link is made clear in the various pieces of Ahamkara-based exotic armor scattered through Destiny. For example, on the Hunter Gauntlets “Sealed Ahamkara Grasps,” the flavor text states: “Plating the Ahamkara bones in silver helps to quiet the auditory hallucinations...oh bearer mine.” On the Young Ahamkara’s Spine, it reads: “Give me your arm, oh bearer mine. Let me help you fill the world with teeth.” On the Warlock exotic helmet, Skull of Dire Ahamkara, the text reads: "Reality is the finest flesh, oh bearer mine. And are you not…hungry?" In all examples, two things are made clear: Ahamkara bones, despite the creatures being ‘dead,’ create hallucinations of a kind, and the speaking format of “Oh [noun] mine” is shared between the worms and the Ahamkara.
In Ghost Fragment: Warlock, we learn that the Ahamkara bones are capable of manipulating Guardians. A Warlock dares a Hunter to bring down one of the Ahamkara, and the Hunter takes the bait. At this point, the Warlock says: “And I looked at the piece of spine in my hand and wondered - why did I say that? What moved me to such pride?” The purpose of the Warlock’s challenge is unknown, but the speaker recognizes that he or she has been manipulated somehow, saying that they “Don’t know what came over [them],” and that they’d “Never shown off before.”
In the case of the Hive Worms, this manipulation manifests itself for overtly - the worms act as advisers to the Osmium sisters, demanding tribute and wars that will provide it. Over the course of the Books of Sorrow, they slowly change the original purpose of the Sisters - to find Taox, their betrayer, and kill her - to their own purpose, which is apparently universal genocide. Ultimately, when the Sisters encounter the Leviathan, which begs them to abandon the Deep, Sathona responds thus:
“Sisters, I have my father’s familiar. Look! It answers me in plain words. It helped me find this ship. It gives me strength when hope is lost.
Who will you trust? The voice that wants us to live and suffer, as we have lived and suffered? The Leviathan that offers no hope against Taox or the world-wave?” Or the plain, honest worm?
Let us see where its whisper leads us, Aurash. Let us go deeper, Xi Ro!
Let us dive, oh sisters mine.”
At this point, the fate of the three Sisters appears to be sealed. The Worm has manipulated the siblings in the same way that the Ahamkara bones can manipulate a boastful Warlock.
Finally, in one of the lines most often used to argue that the Ahamkara and Worms are one and the same, the Worms tell Xivu Arath: “Reality is a fine flesh, oh general ours. Let us feast of it” (Books of Sorrow XII: Out of the Deep). This, of course, is a direct copy of the text found on the Skull of Dire Ahamkara, simply with the noun and possessive adjective replaced. Let us examine how the lore surrounding the Weapons of Sorrow contradicts this assumption.
Both of the Weapons of Sorrow operate by harnessing the power of the Hive Worms. Let’s examine them both, and begin with Thorn’s signature perk, Mark of the Devourer. In the Books of Sorrow, the word “Devour” appears a very ominous nine times. In Book XXIV: The Scream, the word appears twice, both times in relation to the fate of the Osmium siblings and their compact with the worms. The first example reads as such: “Our might shatters entire species. We inhale the smoke of their burning. This is our compact with the Worm our God —the worm makes us mighty. But as we wield this might, our worm’s hunger expands. If we fail to feed it, it will devour us from within.” And the second follows thusly: “Soon, my siblings, we will be so mighty, and our worms so hungry that not with all our might could we possibly feed them. And we will be devoured.”
In both cases, “devouring” is evidently the power of the worms, and later the goal of Xivu Arath - “THE TRAVELER. We chase it and we will devour it,” she says in Book XLV. Thus, when we use Thorn’s intrinsic perk, we are harnessing the hunger of whatever power it uses - and hunger, as we know from the text that accompanies our exotic armor pieces, is not just a trait of the worms, but of the Ahamkara as well. It’s worth noting that in Rezyl Azzir’s final appearance, his first attack on the Hive Knight that challenges him is thwarted by the creature’s shield of darkness - it makes sense, then, that Rezyl’s - now Yor’s - weapon be able to puncture these shields.
Next, let’s consider the Necrochasm. This weapon goes through three permutations as it ascends to its final form - I’ll focus on the last two stages, the Eidolon Ally and the fully-upgraded Necrochasm. First, the flavor text for the Eidolon Ally states: “We thought it was inanimate, but it has grown...changed. Ghost refuses to analyze it further, but I secretly believe it has become my friend.” This suggests that the weapon produces an auditory hallucination similar to those described in both the Books of Sorrow and the Sealed Ahamkara Grasps.
Building on this aspect, the text accompanying the Necrochasm states: “Eternity is very close. Can you feel yourself slipping?” Compare this to the text found in Ocean of Storms 2, the Grimoire card in which we are given a description of the worms that infest the caverns gnawed within our moon. In the card, an unidentified narrator describes wandering the tunnels, waiting to die:
“One does not walk amid those dark tunnels and not lose something. They say that to look out upon the ocean is to feel small. But to walk in these caverns is to feel your grasp on reality slipping.”
Eternity, in the case of this Grimoire card, is indeed very close. It equates to death, or to the “Final sleep…the sleep that isn’t sleep,” as the narrator describes it.
Particularly important is the repetition of the word “Slipping.” Due to the way in which repeated diction is used across Grimoire cards to establish a link between Rezyl Azzir and Dredgen Yor, it seems likely that these parallels are intentional as well. In this case, the word choice establishes a link between the Necrochasm and the effect that seeing the worms had upon the unnamed narrator in Ocean of Storms: 2.
Finally, there is one last piece that is required in-game to upgrade the Eidolon Ally to the Necrochasm: the Crux of Crota. A Crux, of course, is the essence or heart of a thing - in this case, the source of Crota’s might. We know from the Books of Sorrow that the source of the might of all Hive is the worm that dwells within them; the creature or entity that Oryx refers to as “The Worm our God.” And so, we should not be surprised at the flavor text that accompanies the item: “Their god is now our power.” In essence, the Necrochasm - once fully upgraded - somehow channels the power of the worm gods to wreak destruction.
From these two examples, we see that the Weapons of Sorrow (Thorn and Necrochasm) harness the the power of the worms. We have also seen that exotic Ahamkara armor harnesses the power of the wish-dragons. This simple separation - one set of entities provides weapons, the other provides armor - offers some evidence that the worms and the Ahamkara are distinct species. Consider also the role of the Ahamkara in known Grimoire lore: these dragons granted boons to Guardians that, on the surface at least, helped them to fight against the Darkness - or the Deep, as the worm gods themselves refer to it. By contrast, the worms - as is evident throughout the Books of Sorrow - are agents of the deep, and of destruction. This is illustrated by the in-game separation of worm-god-driven ‘attacking’ weaponry and Ahamkara-driven ‘defensive’ armor, the worms are agents of destruction and the dragons agents of protection.
A written example of this occurs in Book XLVI: The Gift Mast, which describes the Hive’s assault on the Harmony:
“Now arrives Xivu Arath, at the head of her armada. She fights the Harmony for fifty years with strategies and discipline. But the Harmony turn to dragon-wishes, and their wishful bishops wrestle Xivu in the ascendant plane.”
In this instance, the wish-dragons are operating once more as a protective influence against the onslaught of the Hive.
I should note that there is no proof that the wish-dragons mentioned in the Books of Sorrow are the Ahamkara, and considering on the trajectory of Destiny’s history so far I am wary of certainty of any kind until it is written in front of me. However, based on the known properties of the Ahamkara - granting wishes and boons - it seems likely that these are indeed the Ahamkara.
This means that once again we are presented with warring protective and offensive influences. In the case illustrated in the Books of Sorrow, the Hive succeed in overwhelming the Harmony and vivisecting their dragons - and they are not mentioned again in the Books of Sorrow.
There is one final weapon to examine with regards to the worms and the Ahamkara both: Bad Juju, the pulse rifle constructed by Toland, the Shattered. Toland, you’ll remember, became obsessed with Hive power, and with the sword logic in particular. He’s also obsessed with the power of will, and with altering reality through will alone. This is communicated in many places (such as the flavor text for all Bindcaster armor), and once more in the text that accompanies Bad Juju:
"If you believe your weapon wants to murder all existence, then so it will.”
At first glance, this has very little to do with the Hive. However, I will direct you to this post, which illustrates the extent to which will is power in the world of Destiny.
Essentially, will and power are inextricably linked in the lore of the Hive, as is illustrated most explicitly in Book XIII: “You’ve done well, Auryx. Can you feel the growth of your worm? Can you feel your will beginning to warp mere law?” And later, in Book XVI: The Sword Logic, this link is restated: “You [Oryx] are no longer bound by causal closure. Your will defeats law.” It appears that Bad Juju is Toland’s attempt to imitate the Hive power of altering reality through pure will alone. However, it’s not a product of the melding of Hive and Human technology, as Thorn and Necrochasm appear to be. Instead, Toland did his best to copy the idea without having access to Hive magics.
As is indicated by the Grimoire card for Bad Juju, he certainly managed to achieve something: “There must be a structured, mechanical explanation for this weapon's hunger for combat. There must be. But none has been found.” Evidently, Bad Juju is also unbound by causal closure - the hunger that drives it comes from somewhere or something that is mechanically unclear. What is clear is that the hunger of the weapon is ‘fed’ through killing, just as is done by the Hive - the hunger of their worms is fed through slaughter - and which also ‘feeds’ the user’s Super.
However, the hunger that this Grimoire card references can also be read as a reference the hunger so often associated with the Ahamkara, and particularly with the text that accompanies Skull of Dire Ahamkara: “Reality is a fine flesh, oh bearer mine. And are you not…hungry?” In the case of this piece of armor, the skull of the Ahamkara are specifically associated with hunger.
In Bad Juju’s original form, it is covered with what appear to be the bones of a kind of bird, dissimilar in appearance to those we associate with the Ahamkara. However, when equipped with the ‘Dragonsbane’ ornament, Bad Juju appears to have had the bones -specifically, the skull - of an Ahamkara grafted to it. Since we know that these bones have the power to alter reality to an extent - by giving the player extra abilities - it makes sense that their power, when applied to a weapon, would bestow similar benefits. For example, the power to ‘feed’ endlessly on prey.
Similar to the way in which Thorn’s ornaments (“Rose of Corruption” and “Rose of Acid”) both reference the original “Rose” carried by Rezyl Azzir, the ‘Dragonsbane' ornament tells us a bit about how the weapon was created. If Bad Juju was, evidently, constructed with the aid of Ahamkara bones, then the references to ‘Dragonsbane’ and ‘hoodoo’ are revealing in their own way: Dragonsbane being, literally, the bane of a dragon - i.e. the scourge, or thing that brought about a dragon’s downfall - and hoodoo, meaning voodoo or witchcraft. This suggests that Toland killed a dragon, and that witchcraft was then used to give the weapon its powers.
Recall the method by which the Harmony’s wish-dragons are defeated, as told in Book XLVII:
“Next arrives Savathûn, flanked by her chorus and her celebrants. They trick their way onto Ana-Harmony in disguises, so that they might vivisect these dragons. The Worm our God laughs and laughs.”
Toland, as we know, is a very old Warlock, who apparently was alive at the time of the Great Ahamkara Hunt. In fact, the Ahamkara hunt and Toland’s Madness are referenced side by side in the Grimoire card City Age:
“Legends walk through this history. The Iron Lords. Saint-14's crusade against the Fallen. The mask of the Speaker. The great Ahamkara Hunt. Toland's madness. Terrible Faction Wars - and the horrifying, disastrous effort to retake the Moon.”
It is conceivable that the Hunt and Toland’s madness weren’t just concurrent or contemporary, but that one was the cause of the other. It seems likely that Toland hunted down an Ahamkara, as the Warlocks did, but that instead of destroying it he vivisected it and took his bones for his own purposes. Charming. Perhaps his "madness" is just his gun talking to him.
Now, to draw attention once more to the parallels between these weapons and the trajectory of the worms and the Ahamkara, it appears that the Harmony "turned to dragon-wishes" as a substitute for and way to combat the worm-powered Hive. Similarly, Toland seeks Hive power, but can only imitate it through the abilities of the Ahamkara. Hence, the Ahamkara offer either a complementary power to the Worms, or one born of imitation.
Frankly, I'm not sure which. However, the fact that the weapons are driven by worm-power, and the armor by Ahamkara-power, seems to me to further suggest that the two entities are different. Toland's attempt - the construction of Bad Juju - splits the difference by achieving worm-power with Ahamkara bones. It's therefore a fitting metaphor as well - the worms and the Ahamkara are not the same, but they are complementary, and can apparently be used to achieve the same purpose.
To end, I’d like to reiterate that I waffle on this topic, and will continue to waffle until Bungie gives us more information. At the moment, I’m firmly in the “separate but parallel” camp of the Worm/Ahamkara argument. I’d encourage fellow lore lovers to consider what I’ve stated above, especially as there is still so much depth to plumb, and there are still so many connections to make. Hopefully you’ve found this as interesting as I have, and I look forward to seeing what further theories these thoughts will inspire.
