Oryx’s closest lieutenants, his Daughters,Ir Anûk and Ir Halak. To explain the purposes of both Daughters, we need to explore the reason that Oryx gave creation to both the sisters and their brother, Crota. To this, we delve back into the Books of Sorrow.
After a long era of destroying planets, razing worlds and wiping out civilizations, Oryx vowed to return to his throne world and wished to have his own sons and daughters to “love and kill” for the rest of time. What possessed the Taken King to want such a thing? For an individual that had done nothing but destroy and kill for the entirety of his existence, what possessed Oryx to want to create something? This is something that we, as Guardians of the Light, will never truly be able to understand.
The Books of Sorrow speak quite extensively of both the origin of the sisters and their roles in Oryx’s crusade of death. after countless campaigns, the Hive God sat his sword down momentarily and described the relationship with his family. What Oryx describes as “love” and what he deems “beautiful” that we, as warriors of peace, will never begin to grasp.
Oryx says that he loves both of his sisters because they are deceitful to him and have killed Oryx a countless number of times over the millennia. This sense of elation, of gratitude that Oryx feels, is likely akin to the Worms’ need for sustenance. Oryx kills his family because they allow him to do so, both of their Worms’ hunger is abated in the process. The love he feels is the result of his Worm, and the directives that he receives the Darkness.
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Oryx Ponders
He wonders if he can describe himself as a nihilist, or an individual that rejects all established laws and order, instead embracing anarchy and destruction. It’s an evil term, one I hope that I never have to use to describe a Guardian of the Light. That being said, Oryx looked back on all he had done, and the “love” that he had shown for his siblings by killing them a countless number of times over the millennia. Unlike both of his siblings, however, Oryx wished to pass this onto “children. Sons and daughters to love and kill.”
You see, this is how beings of the Darkness show love and loyalty; through destruction and death.
Oryx returned home from the “Deep” and had three children:
The Hive God Crota, and the wizard twins, Ir Anûk and Ir Halak. Since we have previously discussed the Son of Oryx, we will be focusing on the sisters today.
According to the Books of Sorrow, if read in chronological order, the twins were “born” after Crota, making them his younger sisters.
Now, the Books diverge at this point. In one verse, Oryx describes that he fought “through hell” to give birth to Crota. However, in a story different than that of the sisters, Oryx claims that he took a broodmother to give creation to Crota. However, there is no mention of the Hive Prince’s mother anywhere else in the Books.
The Daughters of Oryx have a slightly different origin story. According to another selection from the Books, specifically verse 4:7, the Daughters were born from cutting a larvae in half. Each half of the Worm grew into a respective twin. Ironically, the Worm was cut in half by Oryx’s sword, an item that had brought about the destruction of a countless number of creatures and civilizations over the millennia.
In what was likely influenced by the hand of the Taken King, each of the sisters seemed to grow into a reflection of one of Oryx’s siblings.
Ir Anuk, the older of the twins, grew up to reflect the cunning Savathun. In her youth, the Hive Wizard reportedly wrote eleven axioms (a sort of scientific law, at our best understanding) on the nature of Oryx’s throne world. Through this understanding of Oryx and the laws the reality that he created, Ir Anuk destroyed one law, thereby mantling the Worm God Akka and becoming a God herself, much like her father.
It seems that as the sisters encountered universal truths in the Throne World dimension, Anuk would destroy these truths of reality to gain more power for herself. How is this possible? The laws of our reality that we have set have stayed as they are since the beginning of this dimension.
Ir Halak, the younger of the two, would come to reflect that of Xivu Arath, the Knight Sister of Oryx. It’s said that the Songs of Death and the very term “Deathsinger” would come through the work of Ir Halak. According to the Books, she sang a song of death in Xivu Arath’s throne world and killed everything there that listened to it. The Books describe that Halak would use her swords and Deathsongs to tear apart the very fabric of realities from inside Oryx’s Throne World, which would leave her sister, Ir Anuk, up to collect, interpret, and then destroy what was left over.
The Songs of Ruin and the Power of the Deathsingers would come from the work of both of these twins, but this was not the only creation that came about from this work. No, something that some of my peers argue is just as devastating came from this work as well. The Oversouls and Oculi.
It is said that Oryx came upon the Daughters killing each other and dying “in a wound between places.” Oryx then questioned what exactly the twins were trying to accomplish. In the most basic terms that the sisters could manage, they described their experiment as: “If we can separate our deaths from ourselves, and hide them, we will be hard to kill.” The cunning sisters were working with the first instances of a Hive Oversoul.
Now, Guardian, I know you are a veteran of the Moon Raid. Through your reports, that was your first encounter with an Oversoul. These…devices of the Darkness are difficult to explain in terms that you would understand. Oversouls are extensions of a Hive God’s Throne World.
Guardians have encountered three different Hive Oversouls: Crota’s, The Warpriest’s (which some Guardians have referred to as his Oculus), the weapon on Oryx’s Dreadnaught. Each was connected to a different Hive created dimension, which being exposed to in the material world means immediate death and destruction of matter in and around the blast site. The Reef Awoken were the unlucky combatants that tested the power of the Dreadnaught’s Oversoul weapon. All of those deaths, the Queen and her Guard alike, were caused by the research of the Daughters of Oryx.
More than any of Oryx’s other lieutenants, do not let the stories and lies spread by the Darkness keep you from your goal. The twins will work together to ensure your destruction. Current intel reports suggest that they do not have access to an Oversoul, but it is possible that their experiments have yielded more results dealing with multiple dimensions. =
The City depends on the defeat of these two monstrosities. Know that as you invade that dark place, the hopes and wishes of all those below go with you. As does the knowledge I hope this old Warlock has bestowed on you.