Fragments from the Outside

Spoiler warning for the beginning of the game.

It all starts with the swallowing of a bee, in most cases this would warrant a visit to an emergency ward, cluthing your neck in a paroxysm of “ohfuckIcan’tbreathe! halp!’ , here instead it precipitates an initiatic crisis, a kundalini experience, weird nocturnal events as latent supernatural abilities awaken, followed by a mysterious phone call and an invitation to work for the Illuminati (or whichever faction you chose) and then off to a hive like network of portals to worldly locations and spawn points that are beautiful flourshing burts of greenery abuzz with bees. Below is a text dump of bee lore. But first we get the memes out of the way:

And now we kick off with a bunch of excerpts and quotes from various sources.

In The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, the authors reproduce the family crest of Clan Plantard, the contemporary representative of which was, until recently, the Grand Master of the Prieure de Sion, an Order which, according to Lincoln, dominated the Order of the Knights Templar and various other highly influential institutions which, at certain periods of history, included the Vatican. The crest which supplies the key to the Current represented by the Merovingian bloodline and the Order of Sion, comprises the symbols of the Typhonian line of descent: the two bears, eleven bees, and the fleur de lys. The motto incorporated in the crest reads Et in Arcadia ego (Ed Note: See top pic.). Arcadia=127, which is the number of the Egyptian Goddess Heqt who was typified by the ‘lower part of the back, or haunch.’ The two bears denote the Mother (Typhon) and her son (Set). The image of the bee pictorializes the buzzing or humming vibration peculiar to the Outer Ones, or their vehicles. Eleven is the number of Those who are Without, or beyond, the Tree of Life, thus identifying the Outer Ones. 

The Outer Gateways - Kenneth Grant

The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor for a common good true happiness and prosperity are found. The bee is a symbol of wisdom, for as this tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so men may extract wisdom from the experiences of daily life. The bee is sacred to the goddess Venus and, according to mystics, it is one of several forms of life which came to the earth from the planet Venus millions of years ago. Wheat and bananas are said to be of similar origin. This is the reason why the origin of these three forms of life cannot be traced. The fact that bees are ruled by queens is one reason why this insect is considered a sacred feminine symbol.

In India the god Prana—the personification of the universal life force—is sometimes shown surrounded by a circle of bees. Because of its importance in pollenizing flowers, the bee is the accepted symbol of the generative power. At one time the bee was the emblem of the French kings. The rulers of France wore robes embroidered with bees, and the canopies of their thrones were decorated with gigantic figures of these insects.

The fly symbolizes the tormentor, because of the annoyance it causes to animals. The Chaldean god Baal was often called Baal-Zebul, or the god of the dwelling place. The word zebub, or zabab, means a fly, and Baal-Zebul became Baalzebub, or Beelzebub, a word which was loosely translated to mean Jupiter’s fly. The fly was looked upon as a form of the divine power, because of its ability to destroy decaying substances and thus promote health. The fly may have obtained its name Zebub from its peculiar buzzing or humming. Inman believes that Baalzebub, which the Jews ridiculed as My Lord of Flies, really means My Lord Who Hums or Murmurs

- Secret Teachings of All Ages - Manly P. Hall

Mayan Shamans venerated bees, their word cab meant Earth, land, honey and beehive variously. They sang to the bee in ritual chants (have your sound on for that page)

We can add buzzing in abduction  / UFO phenomena and kundalini experiences:

At about 2230 Dec 30 1972, Ventura Maceiras, an illiterate night watchman, was listening to the radio outside the wooden shack that is his home, when suddenly the transistor radio began to fail. Impact adjustment did not work, so he switched off. He noticed a humming “like angry bees.” Looking up, he saw a bright light hovering over a nearby grove of eucalyptus trees. He could see an enormous object in the midst of the light, whose color changed from orange to purple. At the center of the object, he could see a round cabin with windows, and through the windows, two figures.

- Occupant database

Mr. P. Petit and his employee, Mr. Tillier, with shop owner Mr. Pecquet, saw an oval object on the ground in Corrompu, France. When it took off the lights of a tractor went out. It measured about 4.5 meters (15 feet) in length and emitted a bright light similar to a welder’s torch. It came back, turned, and flew off toward the southwest. It reportedly made the same noise as a swarm of bees. 

- Passport to Magonia - Jacques Vallee

The Wikipedia entry on sleep paralysis states

Many perceptions associated with sleep paralysis (visceral buzzing, excited mental state,[22] presences, and the paralysis itself) also constitute a common phase in the early progression of episodes referred to as out of body experiences.[23] Mental focus varies between the two conditions; paralysis sufferers tend to fixate on reestablishing operation of the body, whereas subjects of out-of-body episodes are more occupied by perceived non-equivalence with the body.

Notable too is Lovecraft, who without a doubt had sleep paralysis experiences (and visitations by nightgaunts). Did he hear the buzzing too?

In 1927, Lovecraft wrote a brief pseudo-history of the Necronomicon that was published in 1938, after his death, as “History of the Necronomicon”. According to this account, the book was originally called Al Azif, an Arabic word that Lovecraft defined as “that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposed to be the howling of demons” (one Arabic/English dictionary translates `Azīf as “whistling (of the wind); weird sound or noise”.)[11]

Wiki sauce

From the description of Saut-i Sarmad (abstract sound) by the Sufis

This sound develops through ten different aspects because of its manifestation through ten different tubes of the body; it sounds like thunder, the roaring of the sea, the jingling of bells, running the water, the buzzing of bees, the twittering of sparrows, the Vina, the whistle, or the sound of Shankha until it finally becomes Hu, the most sacred of all sounds.

This sound Hu is the beginning and the end of all sounds, be they from man, bird, beast, or thing. A careful study will prove this fact, which can be realized by listening to the sound of the steam engine or of a mill, while the echo of bells or gongs gives a typical illustration of the sound Hu.

Let’s get back to the act of bee swallowing and a little bit of Qabalah, the Hebrew word for Bee is DBVRH, a contraction of DBVRH is DBR, meaning Word or Logos. The act of swallowing is one of receptiveness, incubation. The Logoi / Swarmhum is your awakening to another world - The Secret World, where the story that plays out becomes your word. Such a simple seemingly random occurrence as a bee flying down your throat becomes what is perhaps - for me - the single most astonishingly rich introduction to a computer game, and thus was this tulpas birth to the labyrinth in this deep mythically resonant massively online paralell reality construct.