Ascendant Realm

"Whispered lore and fragmentary theories suggest that Crota represents a distinct class of Hive entities, not resident in our material world. My latest synthesis of this scattered esoterica suggests that Crota's 'home' is a universe created or remade by his power and occupied by Hive organisms of immense age."

- Ikora Rey

The Ascendant Realm (also known as the Ascendant Plane, Netherworld, Overworld, Sea of Screams, or the Howling ) is an extradimensional plane of existence related to the Darkness. Entities with Paracausal powers, most notably powerful Hive such as Oryx, Savathun, Xivu Arath, and Crota, create "cyst universes" within the Ascendant Realm known as Throne Worlds, where they have absolute power over it through the Sword-Logic. The Worm Gods, a higher group in the Hive pantheon, also dwell in a deeper part of the Ascendant Realm, much closer to The Deep.

Overview
"One day, as the green eye stars set behind the far-away spines left by the machines' failed injections, a Knight of Oryx met a Knight of Xivu Arath as they passed across a bridge in the Sea of Screams. To their north lay a strata of ossified corpses, tangled bones left by newborn beings who had hatched into this overworld from the weeping blistered souls of living worlds at the end of their sanity, only to become unanchored from the universe of matter and confuse their shapes with each other, until they became one screaming interchange of bodies and died. To their other north was an atoll of scriptures adrift on a sea of interpretations, gnawed at by heresies like white eels. To another north was one end of the bridge, and to the last north, the other end. All directions were north, but it was not at once obvious what lay at the northernmost place."

- Dust

The Ascendant Realm appears to be an infinite expanse of blackness, suffused with a thick fog or mist that often limits visibility, with occasional pockets of solid geography scattered throughout, typically in the form of throne worlds. The only natural illumination is a harsh, flickering white light from an unknown source. Toland's accounts of the Ascendant Realm describe it as containing green-black "suns"; when the Guardians later entered the Ascendant Realm themselves, massive Taken Blights could be seen in various locations within it, perhaps the same objects Toland was referring to.

Existence in the Ascendant plane is mutable, and maintained by force of will. Well-defended ideas there take physical form, creating bizarre and twisted landscapes. Similarly, using the Sword Logic to define one's own terms of existence causes one to develop a throne world suspended in the Ascendant Plane. All laws within these realms obey the Sword Logic, even other paracausal forces, such as the Light. They are typically formed and can grow in size by the deaths of powerful entities, including the Light-affiliated Guardians. They are completely immune to the effects of paracausal weaponry, such as the Harbingers of the Awoken, being spiritual worlds created from the mind of their resident god. If the god is killed, they persist still as all Throne Worlds are located and connected on the Ascendant Realm's plane.

Throne Worlds have a connection to the Deep, the Worm Gods naturally living close to that connection while Oryx built a pathway and altar to communicate. If one of the Hive Gods is slain in the material world, or in another god's Throne, their soul will pass to their throne where they will regain their strength until they can re-enter the material world; this can potentially be accelerated by the sacrifice of lesser Hive. If they are killed within their own throne, they will die permanently. The lesser Hive may enter the Ascendant Realm at will, but only if they are Ascendant Hive, those Hive warriors who command legions of lesser soldiers and can pay a tithe of death and destruction to the Hive god who rules them.

The Hive are not the only entities capable of forming a throne world. Hiraks, the Mindbender is an unprecedented Ascendant Fallen, as he fell into the Hellmouth as a Dreg and somehow gained Ascendant status, forging his own Throne within the Ascendant Realm by means of Cayde's death. Other means of invading the Ascendant plane separately from the Darkness exist, as evidenced when the Harmony wishful bishops "wrestled" with Xivu Arath near her throne.

The Ascendant Realm can also seemingly pull locations in our world into itself as well, as it did with the Dreaming City. Asteroid 128 Nemesis within The Reef also phase shifts between our world and the Ascendant Realm, due to experimentation upon it by Hiraks, the Mindbender.

Prior to the Taken War, Mara Sov also developed a Throne World known as Eleusinia with Eris Morn's knowledge of the Sword Logic and through Riven's wish-magic. However, it was corrupted by Oryx following her death in the Taken War, and became the lair for Dûl Incaru, the Eternal Return where she is staging the Taken curse of the Dreaming City.

Origins
"For you are not the first hero—nor even Oryx the first villain—to meet upon this plane."

- Sins of Kharad-Tan

The origins and true nature of the Ascendant Realm remain unknown. The description of the Warlock artifact known as the Sins of Kharad-Tan indicates that others walked the Ascendant Realm long before Oryx, the Taken King and the Guardians, but no records have yet been discovered documenting these events.

However, given the discovery of the individual known as Rhulk, and the entity known as the Witness, who are older than Oryx, his sisters, Savathûn and Xivu Arath, it is possible that these beings mentioned on Sins of Kharad-Tan are actually the Witness, and its Disciple, Rhulk.

According to Mara Sov, ancient Warlocks believed the Ascendant Plane was once home to creatures of great power, a belief also expressed in Eliksni legend according to Mithrax.

It is currently unknown if the Ascendant Realm is a ecosystem of its own, as the ancient Warlocks that Mara Sov had mentioned had stated to believe, or merely a entirely lifeless pocket dimension that came to exist at some point in the past. However, the Worm Gods are said to dwell in this plane of existence, and very likely the Witness and Rhulk, and any other Disciple the Witness had.

The Ancient Past
Auryx was the first among the Hive to discover the Ascendant plane when Savathûn killed him for negotiating with the Ammonites, and the first to realize the innate power it held when the Worm Gods told him to slay his Hive and observe how his relationship to baseline reality began to change. These realms would prove to be a boon in the Hive's quest for immortality as they warred amongst themselves to deepen their power and understanding and during the war with the Ecumene, these realms gave them a place in which to recover.

During the war with the Ecumene, Auryx and his sisters were on the verge of defeat, and so met in his throne world to find a solution; Auryx then killed them after in order to gain the necessary strength. He then traveled the Ascendant plane in search of the Worm God Akka, to take the power needed to save himself and the Hive. Oryx would later return to explore the Ascendant plane more, trying to unlock the secrets of The Deep. He would later move his throne world out of the Ascendant Realm when he built his Dreadnaught, turning it inside out and pouring it into the material plane.

City Age
After Toland, the Shattered was killed by Ir Yût with her Deathsong, his consciousness persisted within the Ascendant Realm. At some point before or after leaving his corporeal form behind, he forged a small throne world for himself within the Realm.

Some time after the Black Heart was destroyed by the Guardian, Crota's Oversoul Throne was breached and the God-Prince killed. Mara Sov also created a throne world, Eleusinia, with the aid of her Techeuns, the Ahamkara Riven and Eris Morn.

Oryx's throne world was subsequently invaded twice by Guardians, who first destroyed his material form and later faced his true form, once again vanquishing him, save for his heart, in which he continued to exist. Guardians also breached the Oversoul Throne a second time to steal a piece of Crota's soul.

At some point, Hiraks fell into the Hellmouth, surviving and learning to harness the power of the realm for his own purposes. He later used the power to pull Asteroid 128 Nemesis between our world and the Ascendant Realm.

A number of worrying reports during the Red War indicated that Savathûn was trying to communicate from the Ascendant Realm to the scattered Taken forces on Io.

Due to the effects of the Ahamkara Riven's last wish, the Dreaming City was pulled into the Ascendant Realm, trapping it between the Ascendant Realm and our universe.

Season of Defiance
With the aid of Mara Sov, the Guardians would use the Ascendant Realm to bypass the defenses of Shadow Legion Prison structures located all across the Earth and its orbit, freeing prisoners captured by the Shadow Legion.

Known Throne Worlds & locales

 * High War—realm of Oryx; converted into the Dreadnaught.
 * High Coven—Savathûn's realm.
 * Black Terrace—Xivu Arath's realm.
 * Ascendant Plane (location)—the space between throne worlds, also realm of Hiraks.
 * Oversoul Throne—realm of Crota.
 * Eleusinia—Mara Sov's artificial throne world made using Riven's wish-magic and knowledge of the Sword Logic provided by Eris Morn, developed shortly before the Taken War and later desecrated by Oryx, the Taken King.
 * Toland's realm—a "scrap of a world", described by Mara Sov as a place of "swords and madness and all-consuming curiosity."
 * Shattered Realm—Several broken sections of the Ascendant Plane where Techeuns hid from the forces of Xivu Arath.
 * Shadow Legion Territory—Sections of the Ascendant Plane adjacent to forts of the Shadow Legion, used for infiltration by Guardians through the power of Queen Mara.

Trivia

 * The capitalization of terms used for the Ascendant Plane is highly variable. The Ascendant Plane may be written as the Ascendant plane or ascendant plane, for example.
 * The Asteroid 128 Nemesis was the experimental grounds used by Hiraks, the Mindbender to pull the asteroid between the Ascendant Realm and our dimension.
 * Throne World creators seem to be able to change the size of themselves within the plane, such as Oryx or Hiraks.
 * Since both Hiraks and Oryx appear bigger within their respective throne worlds, it might be that they are in their true size, and that they are in fact making themselves smaller when entering the material world.
 * The concept of using negative matter/energy to create "pockets" of space vastly larger inside than it appears (possibly as large as a dwarf world, but externally nanometers in size) exists in (purely theoretical) physics; because of the nature of the Hive and Worms, this could explain the bizarre nature of Ascendant Realms since exotic particles are mentioned repeatedly in descriptions of both Light and Darkness.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Dark Below
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Forsaken
 * Season of Opulence
 * Shadowkeep
 * Season of Arrivals
 * Season of the Lost
 * The Witch Queen
 * Season of Defiance