Holy wow, this has to be one of the more compelling reads I have encountered with my time with Destiny regarding the lore.
The Hive have been the most mysterious faction thus far seen in the Destiny universe to me. They appear to be this aggressive, demonic, "dark magic" group and yet outside of their armor and weapons, their architecture and aesthetic is something of almost austere beauty. I'm not a huge fan of the Hive overall in design, but their "Space Gothic" architecture/aesthetic is damn amazing to me. It is this last bit that REALLY makes me wonder about them being a once powerful civilization in their own right and how they might have made a potential "deal with the devil" with the Traveler that changed them for the worse forever.
Bringing it back to the topic of worms, I only recently noticed what look like large pupae hanging on the spiraling rock formation just inside the Hive complex entrance closest to where you spawn during patrol. Also, the idea of smaller symbiotic creatures would go a long way to explaining the presence of the barnacle-like growths that appear wherever the Hive dwell. Even more interesting is that these barnacles seem to be more common in areas where the hive are attempting to establish a foothold somewhere new. Perhaps these growths actually "build" their architecture?
I also really like the speculation that each faction we've encountered has some tragic angle tied to them, and that all of them each in some way has something sympathetic tied to them (even despite the fact that they all want to wipe the floor with our blood, lol).
