Thinking of the Deep as something fundament to the universe seems too naive. The way it is described, it certainly seems ancient and mysterious, but making assumptions that it is directly related to the universe as opposed to, say, merely being an acausal environment from which powerful percipients can gain weakly acausal powers in the material universe seems too... I don't know, [i]unsophisticated[/i] for a story like this. Also, Hive beat the Vex in this timeline. Straight up. Vex put up a good fight, but they were destroyed on the Hive's home turf countless times. Can't say it would be the same in other timelines, though... Quria, Blade Transform sent out that vital info to the other Vex, so they should theoretically be superior some other [b]time[/b]. They aren't so much part of the Darkness, though... they seem to merely admire its power. What with it being so inherently difficult to comprehend, their desire to learn and assimilate its power into their ultimate plan should be an important part of their involvement with it. They aren't so much a part of the Darkness as they are its ally. [i]ALSO,[/i] Oryx and his sisters kill each other because it fits into their personal philosophies, which have been infected by the Worms. The ultimate plan they speak of refers to whittling down the universe into its purest and, to them, most beautiful form. Toland said it best when he said this: [quote]"I drive myself to the edge of madness trying to explain the truth. It's so simple. Elegant like a knife point. It explains - this is not hyperbole, this is the farthest thing from exaggeration - EVERYTHING. But you lay it out and they stare at you like you've just been exhaling dust. Maybe they're missing some underlying scaffold of truth. Maybe they are all propped on a bed of lies that must be burned away. Why does anything exist? No no no no no don't reach for that word. There's no 'reason'. That's teleology and teleology will stitch your eyelids shut. Why do we have atoms? Because atomic matter is more stable than the primordial broth. Atoms defeated the broth. That was the first war. There were two ways to be and one of them won. And everything that came next was made of atoms. Atoms made stars. Stars made galaxies. Worlds simmered down to rock and acid and in those smoking primal seas the first living molecule learned to copy itself. All of this happened by the one law, the blind law, which exists without mind or meaning. It's the simplest law but it has no worshippers here (out there, though, out there - !) HOW DO I EXPLAIN IT it's so simple WHY DON'T YOU SEE Imagine three great nations under three great queens. The first queen writes a great book of law and her rule is just. The second queen builds a high tower and her people climb it to see the stars. The third queen raises an army and conquers everything. The future belongs to one of these queens. Her rule is harshest and her people are unhappy. But she rules. This explains everything, understand? This is why the universe is the way it is, and not some other way. Existence is a game that everything plays, and some strategies are winners: the ability to exist, to shape existence, to remake it so that your descendants - molecules or stars or people or ideas - will flourish, and others will find no ground to grow. And as the universe ticks on towards the close, the great players will face each other. In the next round there will be three queens and all of them will have armies, and now it will be a battle of swords - until one discovers the cannon, or the plague, or the killing word. Everything is becoming more ruthless and in the end only the most ruthless will remain (LOOK UP AT THE SKY) and they will hunt the territories of the night and extinguish the first glint of competition before it can even understand what it faces or why it has transgressed. This is the shape of victory: to rule the universe so absolutely that nothing will ever exist except by your consent. This is the queen at the end of time, whose sovereignty is eternal because no other sovereign can defeat it. And there is no reason for it, no more than there was reason for the victory of the atom. It is simply the winning play. Of course, it might be that there was another country, with other queens, and in this country they sat down together and made one law and one tower and one army to guard their borders. This is the dream of small minds: a gentle place ringed in spears. But I do not think those spears will hold against the queen of the country of armies. And that is all that will matter in the end."[/quote]