Upvote for creativity. Tons of speculation though, which you admit to. Since we are speculating, here is a totally unfounded idea I've had in the past. Radiolaria, is a marine animal, which is the biological portion of the vex (the white crit spot). After the VoG, the surviving Pahanin becomes a bit obsessed with....cephalopods. A marine animal (octopus, squid, etc). His cloaks' flavor text show this. http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/octopus-cloak?highlight=Pahanin http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/squid-pro-quo?highlight=Pahanin Now that is not a lot to go on, but there is another cephalopod mentioned in grimoire. The first encounter we know of with the traveler to date, in the books of sorrow. The first race the hive destroy: the Ammonites, described as bony Cephalopods. What if the vex are the remaining biological elements from the ammonites? Salvaged from the destruction of their species, placed into machine frame. No memory of their past. They position themselves to never be destroyed again by writing themselves into every timeline. There is a bit more to this, but that's all the nonsense I have to write at the moment :)