Crown of Sorrow

"Gahlran believed the Crown made the Hive his. Now he is [mine]."

- The Witch, Insidious.

The Crown of Sorrow is an ornate crown of Ascendant Hive authority which psionically connects the wearer's mind to those of all nearby Hive, along with granting them access to Hive magics and arcana. It was originally created by the Hive God Savathûn, the Witch-Queen as part of a trap against the exiled Cabal Emperor Calus.

The Sorrow Bearer
The crown was first left on a stray War moon, which was claimed as an athenaeum world by Calus' Loyalist Cabal. It was then located by Katabasis, a Hunter-turned Shadow who helped find the crown and deliver to the former emperor.

When it was delivered, the Psions studying the crown guessed that it was crafted in imitation of the Taken King's power to compel wills. Upon analysis, however, it was discovered that the crown meant to serve as a surveillance device, feeding all sorts of data to the Witch Queen deep within the Ascendant Plane. Calus, wanting a Shadow to control the Hive imprisoned within the Menagerie, had bred a Ceremonial Bather in the Royal Pools of Leviathan named Gahlran to wear the crown as his anointed Sorrow-Bearer.

Calus met with the newly born Gahlran and had his Psion Councilors present the massive, plated helm to him from above. As they lower the crown, Gahlran heard a litany of voices shouting down at him from inside the artifact as it slowly descended. Despite his protests, Galhran is forced by the Psions to don the Hive artifact, which would meld his mind with a hundred billion Hive throughout the Leviathan. Wearing the crown, however, revealed a more sinister purpose: to subvert the wearer's mind to the Witch Queen's will using Hive glyphs etched into a viral language within the crown's interior.

The Crown would drive the unwilling Gahlran insane until his death at the hands of a six-manned fireteam of Guardians, rendering the helm inert without a bearer. It is then recovered by The Guardian after the raid and presented to Werner 99-40. While the Crown of Sorrow was back in the Cabal's possession, Calus had his Psions continue to telepathically analyze it for additional traps.

Presage
Following the disappearance of the Leviathan, Calus along with numerous advisors and Katabasis, sought to use the Crown to commune with the anomaly left behind the wake of Mars' disappearance. Utilizing Psion Councilors to experiment upon Scorn captives on the Glykon Volatus, it would later be realized that Dark Ether held similar properties of the Crown's power, and would later find the perfect candidate to commune with it. However the experiment would turn against the Cabal as the Crown's power enforced large growths and a Scorn outbreak across the Glykon, leading to the deaths of the various Cabal and the Guardian on board.

Trivia

 * The basic design of the Crown of Sorrow is vaguely similar to the headdresses of South American civilisations such as the Inca and Aztec.
 * When Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer is killed, the Crown of Sorrow crashes on the ground and the player can crouch walk under it and see the Hive runes that allow Savathûn, the Witch-Queen to control the wearer. Central among them is what could possibly be the insignia of Savathûn; though the symbol provided with the announcement of The Witch Queen is most likely the sigil of the Queen, and it does not align with the Crown of Sorrow rune.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2:
 * Season of Opulence
 * Season of the Chosen
 * Season of the Haunted