Despite this channel running for over 5
years now and having over 3 whole videos
dedicated to Hollow Knight lore, there are
still quite a few big mysteries left lurking
in the ruins of Hallownest. This video will
serve as a rundown of all the weird aspects
of Hollow Knight lore we have yet to fully
piece together. We’re going to be hitting
on a few topics I’ve already covered in
previous videos, but there are also a
few mysteries that I haven’t really touched on
before as well. Also, some of these mysteries
do have pretty reasonable explanations, that
maybe aren’t as well known in the community.
And before we get started proper, I did want to
mention the Lore Archives, which is a document
full of interesting lore write ups written by
various members of the Hollow Knight community.
So if you want to check out theories from the
community on a variety of different topics,
try checking this page out. I put a link
down in the description. I also put a link
to the entire script of the Bee movie as
well. So be sure to check that out too.
The first big question I think we all asked at one
point or another is… what’s outside Hallownest?
There are two instances where the game tempts
us with glimpses of the outside world, but we
are stopped by powerful forces of nature.
Through interacting with the Godseeker,
we also get very small windows into lands outside
of Hallownest. We see the Godseekers in the middle
of their journey through the wasteland as they
make their pilgrimage to Hallownest. We also see
the Land of Storms, the location from which the
Godseekers fled after they were abandoned by the
Gods of Thunder and the Gods of Rain. We also
see parts of the lands beyond in the Quirrel
prequel comic and in the opening cutscene of
Hollow Knight: Silksong. All of these scenes
portray the Lands Beyond as a desolate wasteland
filled with nothing but sand, rock and deadly
creatures. Even the tablet in the Howling Cliffs
tells us there is no world beyond Hallownest.
But are the Lands Beyond truly such a
desolate wasteland? After all, there
are several travelers who arrive in Hallownest
such as Zote, Cloth and Tiso. And of course,
there’s also Pharloom, a completely different
kingdom that exists somewhere else out there.
So, even if the Lands Beyond are mostly wasteland,
there still appear to be pockets of civilization,
although maybe not to the scale of Hallownest in
most cases. But this does raise another question.
Why does the lore tablet at the entrance to
Hallownest call it the last and only civilization?
I think this is because the Pale King expected
Hallownest to last eternally. And if that were
the case, then to travelers arriving in the
far future, it really would be the last and
only civilization. And there might actually be
good reason to believe that there really aren’t
many kingdoms left in the world of Hollow Knight.
Long before the events of the game, the Pale King
existed in the world as a Wyrm, burrowing
through mountains and across wastelands,
and only came to Hallownest to die. From there,
he shed his Wyrm form, taking on a meager shell,
founded Hallownest and created a beacon to draw
in subjects to his new kingdom. According to
Dream Nail dialogue from Mister Mushroom, this
is how Wyrms typically operate: “Wyrms pull
bugs into their thrall”. Wyrms might be one of
the primary forces that build civilizations in
this world. But there’s one line from Bardoon that
illuminates the problem here. When discussing the
Wyrm’s Cast-off Shell, Bardoon says “With its like
gone, the world is smaller.” This line might imply
that the Wyrms of this world have all died out.
This could explain why the land is so desolate.
The creatures mainly responsible for creating
and advancing civilization are just all gone now,
so most of the kingdoms have collapsed into sand.
It’s interesting to think of a world where Wyrms
were more prevalent and there were tons of nearby
kingdoms engaging in trade and warfare. Of course,
while this might explain the current state of
the world, it raises another question. Why did
all the Wyrms die out in the first place? Did
they destroy the natural ecosystem of the world
by their actions, leading their population to
drop? And why did the Pale King die specifically
in Hallownest? Is there something unique about
this patch of earth that draws the likes of the
Pale King and other civilizations to try to claim
all of it? These are some pretty broad questions
that I’m not sure we’ll ever get answers to. And
the Pale King isn’t the only Wyrm we know about.
The Blackwyrm is mentioned in the Hunter’s
Journal entry for the Dung Defender, where
he mentions that he participated in the “Battle
of the Blackwyrm”. And that’s all we have on the
Blackwyrm. This pitiful amount of information has
led to a wide variety of theories, and I think it
might be worth discussing a few of them here.
One of the most popular theories out there is
that the Blackwyrm is the corpse that
houses the Colosseum of Fools. In my
dedicated Colosseum of Fools video, I
dismissed this idea pretty strongly,
but since anything related to the Blackwyrm
is speculation, let’s lay out the evidence.
First of all, this ancient bug corpse is very
unique from every other ancient corpse we see
in Hallownest. It appears to have chains
going into it as if someone was trying to
immobilize it, perhaps because this creature
was encroaching into Hallownest during the
Pale King’s reign. This could signify a battle.
Second, the Lord Fool might be like the Pale
King in that it was born from the carcass of
the larger Colosseum bug. The name Lord Fool
might have even been part of his punishment
for trying to invade the Pale King’s kingdom,
and he’s been relegated to stay inside his
Cast-off Shell on the edge of the Kingdom.
Third, the worship of the Lord Fool
we see of bugs like the Little Fool
might be part of the “wyrms pull bugs into
their thrall” line from Mister Mushroom we
discussed earlier. This might also explain
why the Colosseum houses infected bugs that
seemingly still retain their ability
to act non-hostile towards the Knight.
The hurdles this theory has is the fact that this
corpse looks nothing like the Cast-off Shell. It
has limbs, it isn’t molting, the interiors look
different. There’s also Ellina who identifies the
Cast-off Shell as a Wyrm, but not the Colosseum
of Fools corpse. In order for this theory to work,
you have to argue that the Pale Wyrm
isn’t representative of all wyrm types,
which I think does have merit, but I think
the Colosseum Wyrm idea strays a bit too far.
The other argument I’ve been seeing pop up is
that the Blackwyrm isn’t a Wyrm at all. This
stems from the lack of consistency between its
name and every other instance of “Wyrm” we see
in the game. Any time the word “wyrm” is used
outside of “Blackwyrm”, the word is by itself.
Most instances of the word just say
“Wyrm” by itself with a capital “W”,
with a few instances where it’s just in lower
case. There’s also the one time Grimm uses the
word “worm” with an “O” seemingly to mock the Pale
King. The only other time, aside from “Blackwyrm”
where we get an adjective in front of the word,
is when it’s written as “Pale Wyrm”. Two words,
both capitalized. As opposed to just one word.
Personally, I don’t find this line of thought
to be very compelling either.
Mainly because, if it’s not a Wyrm,
what is it? Generally the theory follows
that the Blackwyrm was some kind of location,
perhaps a place with a structure that looks like
a wyrm or something to that effect. Or maybe it’s
named after a battle tactic. Like the Battle
of the Bulge. While this might alleviate the
discrepancy between “Pale Wyrm” and “Blackwyrm”,
I don’t think it’s a very sound idea on the whole.
The only other idea I can think of is that
the Blackwyrm is a different Wyrm with its
own kingdom that possibly fought against the
Pale King at some point in the past. It seems
like if any higher being could form a militia
to do something like that, it would be a Wyrm.
So yeah, that’s my take on
those four words of lore.
Void is a very complex subject in Hollow Knight,
so much so that there is a 70 page lore document
written by Sumwan and ToxicBrain detailing all
the different aspects of Void and its impact on
the lore. But in this section I’m going to discuss
something only briefly mentioned in this document
and never mentioned on this channel before.
While Soul and Essence have clear sources from
which they are created, we have no clue how Void
is formed. Void is always described as a darkness
or an emptiness, which aren’t really things that
can be created, but instead are an absence of
something else. However, there is one comparison
that could explain where Void comes from: regrets.
When dying and losing its shade in Hollow Knight,
the Knight can recover it by giving a rancid egg
to Confessor Jiji in Dirtmouth. Jiji describes
the missing shade as a regret which leaves a
dark stain on the world. And after the Knight
collects the Void Heart, Jiji even describes the
Knight as “coming to terms” with its own regrets.
But it’s not just the Knight’s regrets that Jiji
speaks about. Jiji notes that the entire kingdom
of Hallownest has become thick with the stains of
regret. It’s possible that Jiji is aware of the
other shades trapped in the Abyss, but the fact
that she says the entire kingdom is stained might
mean that she can sense the regrets of all the
bugs that have died since Hallownest collapsed.
This idea that normal bugs can also leave stains
of regret is reiterated by the Hunter. In the
journal entry for the Shade, the Hunter remarks:
Each of us leaves an imprint of something
when we die. A stain on the world. I don't
know how much longer this kingdom can
bear the weight of so many past lives...
This regret motif appears one more
time, scribbled on the tablet located
just outside of the Abyss. The tablet describes
the Abyss and discarded Vessels as the “refuse
and regret” of the Hollow Knight’s creation.
So there are quite a few connections between
Void and regrets. But the problem with this theory
is that we don’t really see non-Void creatures
actually create Void. There are occasional
bugs that have black streaks under their eyes,
such as the Grey Mourner’s dead lover, the Lord
Fool, No Eyes, Mask Maker and Karina. But there
really isn’t any slam dunk connections here. For
the mantis, those could be tears, for No Eyes,
blood. For Lord Fool, it could be weathering,
like what we see on statues and paintings that
have eyes. And as for Mask Maker and Karina,
there really isn’t any indication that either
of these two characters have any regrets.
But I think there is at least one plausible
example of a non-Void creature leaving a
dark stain on the world: the Pale King.
The entirety of the White Palace hidden in
the dream realm still shines with that bright,
pale light, with the only two exceptions being the
White Palace workshop and the Pale King’s throne
room. From the dialogue of his Royal Retainers as
well as Mask Maker, we know that the Pale King was
racked with shame and deeply troubled. Ultimately,
the Pale King faded away alone on his throne, and
the deep regrets he held inside stained the throne
room, shrouding it in a thick cloud of Void.
While I think this makes a lot of sense
thematically, it might be too much of
a stretch to say Void originates entirely from
regret, especially since the way Void is used in
the rest of the game doesn’t reflect this idea.
Team Cherry might have just used this “regrets”
concept as a way to keep the concept of Void a
mystery, since the player could potentially meet
Jiji very early on in the game. But it’s the
best explanation I have for the Void’s origin.
The only other idea I can think of is that Void
is supposed to be like some kind of oil deposit,
perhaps from the dead bodies of creatures
past. But the lack of the United States
military anywhere in Hallownest
kinda makes this theory unlikely.
Mask Maker is such a fun little character.
They seem so oddly separated from the rest
of Hollow Knight lore, and yet they have intimate
knowledge about the events of Hallownest and even
civilizations from long before the Pale King. Some
of the Mask Maker’s dialogue can be interpreted in
regards to the Knight. They talk about the
contrast between the Knight’s outer shell,
and its inner shade, almost as if the Knight
itself is a face hidden behind a mask.
But this doesn’t really answer the question
of why the Mask Maker is making masks in the
first place. Who are the “Kingdom’s faceless”
the Mask Maker is referring to? Why do they
seemingly equate having a face with the ability
to “define, focus and exist”? And why do they
consider masks a “gift to a world deserving”?
The problem with answering this question
is that we see very few characters in
Hollow Knight that actually wear masks,
and sometimes those masks seem to serve
different functions. There’s the three Dreamers,
Quirrel, the Fools in the Colosseum, the Grimm
Troupe, the Godseekers and possibly Midwife.
But outside of that, we’ve got very
little to work with. So it’s hard to
define who the kingdom’s faceless are
and how masks affect their wearers.
I have my own idea about what all this means.
It does involve a lot of assumptions and it
has its fair share of issues, but I’m not really
sure if there’s a theory out there I like more.
I mentioned before that the Mask Maker draws
a contrast between the Knight’s outer shell
and inner shade. I think there is a parallel
theme here in the actual bugs of Hallownest.
I think some bugs are naturally
more beastly in nature, and aren’t
capable of higher thought. These would be the
“faceless” that Mask Maker refers to. However,
these bugs can still conceal their true nature
using masks. And somehow, masks are able to grant
these bugs identity and allow them to exist as
more than just weak-minded beasts. In effect,
this is the same as the Pale King’s beacon.
However, while in Hallownest, these bugs no longer
need to hide their true forms, as explained in one
of the lore tablets located in the King’s Pass.
In a time before the Pale King’s beacon, masks
were potentially a much more useful object,
which could explain why we see ancient masks
lying around the kingdom. Perhaps the Mask
Maker was making masks long before the Pale
King arrived, and chose to continue making
masks because that’s all they know how to
do. Their swirling eyes might imply that
they are a little insane, driven to feverishly
make masks for the people of a dead kingdom.
So, to simplify things, the Pale King’s beacon
“redeems” the beastly “base instincts” of bugs.
However, bugs could also wear masks that
conceal their beastly nature and, in turn,
grant them an identity. Both are methods that
turn the “faceless” into sentient beings.
How likely is this theory correct… ehh, I’m not
sure. It’s still really weird that Mask Maker
is making masks for Hallownest when Hallownest
strictly doesn’t need them. It’s also possible
that I’m misinterpreting the King’s Pass tablet
completely, or drawing a connection between that
and Mask Maker that wasn’t intended. And again,
we don’t really see how masks grant identity
like all this applies. Like I said, this
theory is still my preferred interpretation,
but I’m not going to act like it’s an airtight
explanation of the Mask Maker’s dialogue.
I really do think we just lack information to
pin down exactly what this maniac is on about.
Charms are ubiquitous in Hallownest, popping
up in all sorts of random locations. And charms
can be created from a variety of different
circumstances. Charms can be crafted by bugs
like the Soul Catcher and Mark of Pride, born
out of strong emotions like the Grubberfly’s
Elegy and the Spell Twister, or even created
naturally like the Spore Shroom and Deep Focus.
But charms can also form in another more morbid
way. Salubra tells us that charms can be created
from the last wish of dying bugs. Charms that
likely fit into this category include Dashmaster,
Fury of the Fallen and the Glowing Womb charm.
But the biggest actual mystery surrounding charms
is how they work. They are created through various
random and tragic events, yet they all can slot
into these vague, weird, generic notches.
The best canonical explanation of anything
related to how charms are equipped comes from the
Wanderer’s Journal which mentions that equipping
and unequipping charms can be tricky, so you have
to be sitting down to do it. Thanks to officially
licensed Hollow Knight vinyl records released by
Fangamer, we can actually see that charms have
these interfaces on their backside that allow them
to slot into charm notches. But even though these
slots are discrete, with each charm connecting
to just one slot, a charm like Kingsoul still
requires 5 charm notches to actually equip. It
doesn’t really make sense and even Team Cherry has
thrown up their hands on this one. In an interview
with Edge Magazine, Ari Gibson explains that
charms, quote “had this vague sense of socketing
into the Knight’s shell in some sort of creepy
way”. He makes it sound like this is some sort
of cyberpunk body augmentation. Now I haven’t
played Cyberpunk 2077. Although I have watched
its anime adaptation, Cyberpunk Edgerunners.
Everyone in the Hollow Knight community
generally agrees that grubs are hideous
creatures that deserve to be mashed up
into a fine, viscous paste. But one thing
the community isn’t quite as sure on is most
of the lore surrounding the Grubs and reason
behind the capture. “Why are all these
grubs trapped in jars?” I hear you moan.
High up in the Watcher’s Spire, just below where
the Dreamer Lurien the Watcher sleeps eternal,
we can find a couple of unassuming lore
tablets. However, upon further inspection
we can see that these tablets actually
contain images of jars, similar to the
ones found scattered throughout Hallownest. The
same jars containing dozens of helpless grubs.
We can find a stockpile of these jars east
of Lurien’s tower in a location called the
Tower of Love. The original resident of
the Tower of Love can seemingly be found
in the Queen’s Garden, clutching the key to
unlock the tower’s door. When Dream Nailed,
this Husk Dandy says “Too long… spent together…
We become as one”. In addition to this,
we can also see Void seeping out of their corpse.
The source of this Void becomes clear when the
Knight unlocks the door to the Tower of Love.
Inside the Knight finds a maniacal Void being
known as the Collector, who is likely the
one responsible for capturing Grubs in jars.
From its Dream Nail dialogue, we can tell that
the Collector is obsessed with protection and
providing a safe space for its captives, so much
so that the Hall of Gods describes it as a god
of Protection. Finally, hidden in a secret room of
the Tower of Love, is a strange diagram of a grub,
drawn in the style of the Vitruvian Man.
Now that we’ve laid out all the facts of
the matter, let’s dive into heavy speculation.
It seems Lurien tasked the Husk Dandy found in
the Queen’s Gardens with preserving the various
wildlife of Hallownest. This might have been
in an effort to preserve these animals from the
Radiance’s infection, sort of like Noah’s Ark from
the Bible. Or maybe Lurien just wanted there to
be a collection of these bugs somewhere within the
city, sort of like a zoo, like the one depicted
in the 2011 hit comedy film We Bought a Zoo.
Somehow the Collector came into the possession of
the Husk Dandy. The Collector itself appears to
be created from a mould found in the White Palace
Workshop, the same mould used to create the Pale
King’s Kingsmould guards. This implies that the
Collector is some kind of defective Kingsmould,
leading to speculation that the Collector somehow
escaped from the White Palace and was later found
by the Husk Dandy. While it’s not impossible,
I have a slightly different explanation.
We know that Kingsmoulds likely roamed
areas outside of the White Palace, given
that the Nailsmith can be seen making a little
Kingsmould doll. Perhaps it wasn’t uncommon to
see Kingsmoulds walking around the streets of the
city. So, it’s possible that the Husk Dandy was
able to secure a Kingsmould of their own, either
through Lurien as part of the preservation effort,
or just through connections they
had with Hallownest’s high society.
But I think there was one problem with this whole
setup, that being that this little Husk Dandy was
a total freak. I think this Husk Dandy was the
one who originally drew the Vitruvian Grub,
due to some sort of strange obsession with the
grub’s body and physiology. But I think this
fascination also extended to other creatures as
well. Perhaps the Husk Dandy was also curious to
see what their Kingsmould servant looked like
underneath all its heavy armor. Maybe they
decided to completely strip it down so they could
observe this strange creature in its natural form.
Regardless of how the Husk Dandy ended up living
with a naked Kingsmould, this set the stage for
the two to “become as one”, with Void seeping
into the Husk Dandy’s body, and the Husk Dandy’s
fascination and obsession with preserving bugs,
and especially Grubs, seeping into the Collector.
These strange thoughts warped within the
Collector’s mind, transforming it into the
least insane Tumblr user you’ve ever seen. In
the end, the dying Husk Dandy decided to lock
the Collector inside the Tower of Love, fleeing to
their final resting place in the Queen’s Gardens.
Connecting all this back to grubs, it’s hard
to tell if this obsession with grubs was really
warranted at all. Is there really anything greater
to them? While it isn’t much, we do have a little
bit to go on here. Note that the symbol placed on
the chest of the Vitruvian Grub lines up pretty
closely with this gem on the Grubberfly’s Elegy
charm. The Grubberfly’s Elegy shows us what the
next stage of life looks like for a grub, and the
charm itself can imbue the Knight’s nail with a
“holy” strength. So perhaps the original bug was
obsessed with some sort of hidden holy strength
contained within grubs.
This
mystery is pretty important to the core
story of Hollow Knight, and it can actually
be pretty confusing for new players. How
exactly did the Knight and other vessels
escape the Abyss? Team Cherry was even asked
about this question to which William relied:
We're not sure - we know that some of his
siblings managed to make it out of the Abyss,
but most of them did not. Whether those
who made it out were somehow different,
or whether some of them were just lucky...
that might be something we examine later!
But is William actually telling the truth here?
Surely they have an answer to this question.
Hollow Knight lore kind of completely breaks if
they don’t. Since Team Cherry is not going to
answer the question, I will share one theory that
has been floating around for a while. Basically
there’s a portion of Deepnest that does seem
to be affected by the influence of the Void,
and not far from there is Nosk’s lair. And this
is the one location of the game outside of the
Abyss where we see the most Vessel bodies.
This seems to imply that there might have
been a path out of the Abyss through Deepnest.
Another question that might arise from this is
why the Knight left Hallownest in the first
place. We’re given no explanation for this
and it may be as simple as Vessels just kinda
wander around like that. And although we don’t
know why the Knight left Hallownest, we do know
that the Knight was called back to Hallownest by
something. It’s not confirmed what this was,
but it seems to be related to when the Hollow
Knight’s shell cracked in the cutscene shown at
the beginning of the game. We also know that the
Knight is just one of multiple Vessels wandering
around during this time, as Hornet is actively
hunting Vessels down and destroying them to
keep them from trying to free the Hollow Knight.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if other
Vessels also happened to have left Hallownest.
Lifeblood is a topic I have barely talked about
on this channel, and that’s because Lifeblood
barely has any influence over the overall
lore of Hollow Knight. But we should take a
little bit of time to talk about Lifeblood because
Lifeblood is pretty weird. Throughout Hallownest,
the Knight can find eight separate Lifeblood
cocoons. Destroying these cocoons releases these
small creatures called Lifeseeds, which are filled
with Lifeblood. Not far off from these cocoon are
butterfly shaped flowers. And there are also
three Lifeblood related charms the Knight can
find. The Lifeblood Core and the Lifeblood Heart
are both objects that can seep or bleed Lifeblood,
while Joni’s Blessing actually transfigures
the vital fluids of its wearer with Lifeblood.
Lifeblood is described as making the user
feel much healthier. But despite this,
Salubra tells us that drinking Lifeblood
is a taboo, and the Blue Child Joni,
the character in possession of Joni’s
Blessing, is described as being a “heretic”.
We don’t know for sure why Lifeblood is considered
such a taboo, but we can figure a few things. In
Joni’s Repose where we find Joni’s corpse, we
can see an explosion of Lifeblood butterflies
and vines covering the cavern, all seeming to
radiate from Joni’s corpse. Given her charm,
it seems like Joni’s “vital fluids” had
been completely replaced with Lifeblood,
and upon her death, this Lifeblood spouted
out from her. From there, these butterflies
and vines can then travel out and create more
Lifeblood cocoons for more bugs to drink from.
It seems Lifeblood’s powerful healing
properties are meant to entice a host to
consume it. According to the Wanderer’s Journal,
Lifeblood vines are capable of producing fruit,
which in real life lore, have evolved to be
eaten by animals as a way to spread their
seed. And upon that host’s death, this Lifeblood
can then spread itself out even further. In fact,
there might already be a vast network of
Lifeblood vegetation spreading all across
Hallownest. And I should also note that Joni
isn’t the only Lifeblood infused creature we see.
Deep under Hallownest, hidden away In the Abyss,
is a door that can only be unlocked by having
enough Lifeblood masks. Behind this door is
a strange region that seems to exist both in
the real world and the dream realm, where
we can see a giant creature with glowing,
blue eyes lurking in the background. This creature
can also be seen hiding in the Lifeblood room in
Godhome. This being is referred to as the
Abyss Creature in the game files, and it
clearly has some kind of connection to Lifeblood.
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the Abyss
Creature facilitates the appearance of Lifeblood
in Godhome, but I’m not entirely convinced that
this is the true source of all Lifeblood. It
might be possible that this creature is similar
to Joni in that it just ingested Lifeblood to the
point where its “vital fluids” were completely
replaced and it can now spread Lifeblood
around through the Dream Realm. But with
how little info we are given on Lifeblood,
we can’t say anything too conclusive here.
Out of all the Pale King’s Five Great Knights,
Isma is easily the most mysterious. We probably
still know more about her than we do Dryya, but
nobody cares about Dryya and all my homies hate
Dryya. Getting back to Isma, we know that she was
a kind person and that her and Dung Defender had
a very close relationship. You can even hear
Dung Defender say Isma’s name in his sleep.
But we only catch small glimpses of what
she looked like during Hallownest’s prime,
and her corpse in the Royal Waterways seems to
have somehow fused with the plant life around
her. We know that this location, known as Isma’s
Grove, is being protected by the Dung Defender,
and if we look at the Dung Defender’s
dialogue after consuming Isma’s Tear,
he seems to think that Isma is still alive.
And this might be true, in a sense. Looking
at her corpse, it seems as though Isma is
the source of all the plant life around her,
almost like her body is a seed that has
taken up root in the ground. This might
indicate that Isma didn’t die, but instead has
transitioned into the next stage of her life.
And it’s likely that the Dung Defender is
aware of this. The sign he makes outside
her grove specifically mentions that
it is a grove. If Isma is the source
of all the plant life around her, then Dung
Defender must have seen her in this state.
Strangely, Dung Defender mentions that Isma
willfully gave the Knight her blessing,
which is a little odd considering the blessing
in question was “Isma’s Tear” and it doesn’t seem
like Isma created it specifically for the Knight.
The Knight kinda just walked up and “consumed”
it. It seems like the tear was just a fruit
growing out from her body, perhaps representing
her immense sadness in losing her time with Dung
Defender. Did Isma really grow this just for us?
It’s possible, but maybe Dung Defender is
just in denial about Isma’s true state. Or
maybe deep down, Dung Defender knows that she
is gone, which could explain why he ponders if
the line of Hallownest’s Great Knights is going
to end with him. Regardless, it does seem like
Isma could still be alive, even if it’s not
in quite the same way you or I are alive.
Here’s an interesting question that doesn’t get
asked a lot. Why is Hornet named Hornet? It’s a
little bit odd considering Hornet is a spider and
spiders and hornets are not the same animal last
time I checked. Hornet has had her name since her
reveal back in December 2014. It’s a cool name,
but in game, there really isn’t any explanation
for it. There is never any interaction between
Hornet and the Hive, and no one from Deepnest
ever speaks to the origin of Hornet’s name.
If we look outside the game, Ari Gibson did
give us an explanation in a Reddit AMA held
on r/gaming in August of 2017. During this
AMA a user asked the following question:
“Was naming the bee queen "Vespa",
as in "hornet", intentional, and does
that have to do with Hive lore?”
In response to this, Ari said:
Vespa to Hornet was intentional. There was an
old concept here that may still apply: Hornet
was the 'Child of Three Queens,' one birthed,
one raised, one trained. It is from the third
queen that Hornet took her name. Whether that
notion still applies however, I can't confirm,
though it was definitely the basis for the names.
So, the original concept for Hornet was that she
trained with Vespa when she was young, but even
Ari can’t confirm if this is still the case.
Or can he? In an interview with the magazine A
Profound Waste of Time held back in July 2020,
the question of Hornet’s name came up again.
Neither [Pellen] nor Gibson will divulge the
meaning behind Hornet’s name, though Gibson
states it does indeed have significance. ‘And
whether that ever is revealed, I’m not sure.’
In this interview, it seems like Gibson states
that Hornet’s name does have significance although
now he doesn’t want to give any details. Does this
mean that the backstory is accurate? Or did
Ari mean that name had significance outside
of the game? Unfortunately, none of this really
matters for canonically proving Hornet’s origins,
as Team Cherry themselves have stated that
their own statements relating to Hollow
Knight lore should not be considered canon.
William: We try not to … it’s a bit boring
sometimes but we try not to give
out too much information sometimes
that is not in the game. Because a lot of people
spend, it’s really cool, coming up with theories
based on the info in the game. And if
we start giving out info that is not
explicitly in the game, then you might start
contradicting people’s theories and stuff….
Ari: Yeah it colors all that stuff, you know.
William: …which is no fun. It’s not a
nice thing to do for a creator to
come in after the fact and start…
Ari: Stomping around and denying people’s ideas.
William: Yeah, yeah. What’s in the game is what’s
in the game. And anything that we say
outside that is actually not canon.
Ari: Although obviously any additional Hollow
Knight content is canon. So anything through
Godmaster or Grimm Troupe or Hornet…
William: Or the comic and stuff.
Ari: Yeah.
Of course,
we’ll sometimes use Reddit AMA answers as if
they are canon, but only in a few instances like
confirming how the Hive was infected. But those
are way more minor than the Daughter of Three
Queens stuff. I occasionally see people treat this
origin story for Hornet as if it’s true, but keep
in mind that it isn’t officially confirmed
by any means, and the only in-game evidence
we have for it is that Hornet’s name is Hornet.
I should also mention that according to Ellina,
the Hive sealed itself off completely
from Hallownest, which seems to imply
they likely never even met Hornet, despite
the King’s Brand she guards being so close by.
Who the fuck is Dashmaster? There’s literally
only one statue commemorating the guy,
and it’s about 5 feet from a giant sewage
pipe. We’re told that this Dashmaster was
an eccentric bug but not much else.
Also, people got really mad at me in
my last video for saying this guy wasn’t
a reference to the character Sans from
Undertale. I’ll be completely honest with you.
This is a little embarrassing, but I’ve never
played Undertale. Although I have watched its
anime adaptation Cyberpunk Edgerunners. But I
guess they cut Sans from that for some reason.
We’re given quite a good amount of detail
surrounding the nature of the Pale King and the
Radiance. And yet for being such an important
aspect of the story, the White Lady is a bit of
an enigma. We know that part of her nature is a
desire to spread her seed and propagate across the
land. But she decided to put bindings on herself
and trap herself in a cocoon-like chamber to
suppress this nature and hide herself from others.
We can actually see glimpses of what the
White Lady used to looked like before the
events of the game. From the silhouette left
on the chair in the White Palace nursery room,
we can see that she was once quite a bit smaller.
We can also see other images of her in concept
art and early images, which might represent how
she looked during Hallownest’s reign. But now,
her roots have grown out uncontrollably,
and she must do all she can to contain them.
I honestly don’t really have much else to say…
It’s just like, where did she come from? It
makes sense that a Wyrm could have slithered into
Hallownest, but where exactly did this big tree
momma come from?
Pale Ore
Let’s talk about Pale Ore. Pale Ore is icy cold
to the touch, and it has been confirmed by Team
Cherry that it is connected to the Pale Beings,
which either refers to creatures like the Pale
King and White Lady, or Redditors. But what
exactly is Pale Ore and what does it do? Let’s
compare how Pale Ore changes the Knight’s Old Nail
into its final form, Pure Nail. The Pure Nail has
patterns running across it similar to those seen
on the Ancient Mask, Soul Vessels, as well as the
Hollow Knight’s nail as shown in the Embrace
the Void endings and the various nail attacks
used by the Pure Vessel. What’s interesting
here is that the Pure Vessel can literally
create these solid nails that have the same
pattern as the Pure Nail using nothing but Soul.
So perhaps Pale Ore itself contains some form of
Soul, itself a substance with strong connection to
Pale Beings. I should point out that the Pure
Nail isn’t just a regular nail forged to be
stronger. More specifically, the addition of Pale
Ore somehow causes the nail to reveal its true,
ancient form. So, even if Pale Ore isn’t strictly
some kind of solidified concentration of soul,
it certainly has some kind of magical
effect on the Nail itself. However,
the actual location of Pale Ore throughout the
game makes this Soul connection a bit strained.
Of the Pale Ore that aren’t rewarded by random
NPCs, they just kinda show up in random rocks
or eggs or whatever they are and in the Radiance’s
statue. The Radiance statue maybe makes some sense
as some kind of offering or ritual, but
these random deposits are a bit more odd.
Perhaps these are the remnants of ancient
Pale Beings from a time before Hallowenst.
This mystery isn’t particularly big or
important, but it’s somewhat cryptic
in the game itself. Throughout Hallownest
are three Nailmaster brothers named Sheo,
Oro and Mato. Despite clearly the best among
the three, Sheo eventually put down his nail to
become an artist, leaving Oro and Mato to carry
on the craft taught to them by Nailsage Sly.
However, at some point, Oro and Mato had a
falling out, and now live on opposite sides
of the kingdom. Mato is awaiting something
that Oro owes him, while Oro will not be
delivering on this anytime soon. We are also
told by Sheo that Oro is haunted by something.
“What could this be?” I hear you quiver.
First off, Oro is likely the worst Nailmaster of
the trio. We have one brief line from Sly where he
says that Oro holds his nail like a club. Later,
upon learning that the Knight received
Nailmaster’s Glory, Oro even mentions that
he doesn’t begrudge that the Knight won Sly’s
approval and even feels that he is redeemed
in helping the Knight along in its journey. To
me, this further indicates that Sly was never
impressed with Oro’s skill as a Nailmaster.
During the fight in Godhome, Oro has Dream
Nail dialogue indicating that he wants to prove
himself. Oro is also the only brother to have
a training dummy outside his hut, perhaps
indicating that he feels he lacks training.
This is reflected by the Dream Nail dialogue of
the dummy, which reads “Stronger… Brothers…” I
think this shows that Oro views his brothers as
being stronger than him, and maybe even dresses
the dummy as his brothers to remind him of this.
Another contrast we can see between the brothers
is how their huts are furnished. Mato has
his hut covered in the skulls of beasts
he has likely fallen, whereas Oro’s
hut is full of random objects from
the city and fancy drapes. Oro is also the only
Nailmaster who charges Geo to train the Knight,
and he even scoffs at the idea that Mato fights
for loyalty and honor. In contrast, Mato gets
overly attached to the Knight, as according to
Sheo, Mato’s greatest desire is to be a teacher.
This all leads to a strained
relationship between Oro and Mato.
Mato clearly takes pride in being trained in
the nail and wants to share that with others,
while Oro lacks confidence in his abilities. He
instead trains alone because he wants to prove
himself. He likely charges money as a way to keep
distance from others, and avoid building strong
connections. We know that Oro hides his true
feelings often due to how he reacts to the Knight
giving him a flower. He acts all pissed off, but
ultimately ends up placing this flower in a vase.
But what does Oro owe Mato exactly? I think the
most logical answers are that Mato either wants
to duel Oro in a friendly competition, Mato wants
to train Oro, or Mato wants Oro to fight alongside
him. Whatever it is, Mato wants companionship.
This would explain Mato’s Dream Nail dialogue
in the Godmaster fight, stating “Brothers always
fight together!” and “Don’t leave me behind!”.
This is the only thing Mato is portrayed
as wanting, and Oro is the only brother
who still wields a nail. I don’t think anything
else would really matter to Mato. But due to his
lack of confidence in his own skills, or his
desire to prove himself, Oro refuses to give
Mato that companionship. However, deep
down, Oro also seeks that companionship,
he just fails to openly show it. Although
Oro and Mato never make up in Hallownest,
it’s nice to think that they were able to share
the battlefield at least once as brothers.
Everyone in the Hollow Knight community generally
agrees that Sly is a geo-pilled chad of a
character that deserves to be remembered alongside
the greatest characters in all of fiction. But one
thing the community isn’t so sure about is the
identity of Esmy, a mysterious character that is
only mentioned once, and never seen in-game. The
only dialogue we get is from our first encounter
with Sly while he’s fighting off the infection
where he says “ ...Esmy... how much deeper do
we have to go…”. William Pellen was asked about
Esmy in a Reddit AMA and he responded that she is
someone that still lingers in Sly’s dreams. So,
not a lot to go on here. From Sly’s dialogue,
it seems Esmy was pushing Sly to travel into
some sort of dangerous area. The only possible
clue we have is the Shopkeeper’s Key, located in
the Crystal Peak, not far away from Dirtmouth.
Perhaps Sly and Esmy were exploring this area
when they were separated somehow. When we give
Sly the Shopkeeper’s Key, he even guesses that
the key was in the mines, so it’s likely that
Sly was in that region at some point.
It’s worth pointing out that a lot of
characters in Hollow Knight have mysterious dead
lovers. Cloth mentions a character named Nola
that also died at some point. In fact, it’s
even implied that Cloth wanted to be killed
in Hallownest so that she could be reunited with
Nola in death. Which… is a very overlooked aspect
of this character and probably one of the saddest
storylines in the game outside of the main quest.
Elderbug also has vague dialogue about a lost
lover, whose grave he visits on occasion.
This would also be incredibly sad if
Elderbug was actually a good character.
One of the biggest mysteries left in Hallownest
has to be this strange trilobite statue in
Deepnest. In the game files, the art in
this area is referred to as a shrine. It
is protected by a seal of binding and connected
to several pipes that hold it up off the ground,
with a mouth located at the bottom. Finally, we
have concept art of the shrine from Ari Gibson’s
sketchbook. The design is basically the same,
except we can see some kind of substance coming
out of the mouth of the shrine. This appears
to be some type of fluid or possibly even silk.
Between the pipes and the mouth, I do believe
that this shrine is a container for something,
perhaps even some kind of creature. Just above
the face of the shrine we can see what appears
to be some type of crown, which could imply
that this shrine houses Deepnest’s King.
The King of Deepnest is mentioned only once in the
entire game in a lore tablet located in the Fungal
Wastes. He is described as Deepnest’s “dead sire”
and that he was of “honored caste”. They contrast
this to Deepnest’s Queen, Herrah, who they
describe as a “broke ass bitch”. From this,
we can assume that Deepnest’s king was some
kind of powerful or important creature.
But according to this tablet, the king is
dead. Now, that doesn’t mean the King can't
still be inside this shrine. Perhaps the king
passed away while in this device, or maybe he’s
still alive in some sense, but the mushroom
people just aren’t aware of this. Regardless,
if the king was placed in this thingamabob, I
think it must have happened while he was still
alive, given the pipes and mouth.
While this is a very big mystery,
this is one that I am very confident
will be expanded upon in Hollow Knight:
Silksong. When asked explicitly about Deepnest’s
King in a Reddit AMA, Ari Gibson replied:
…further elements of Deepnest's
past will be illuminated in future,
but we can't say anything specific for now.
So, this means that an answer to this question
should be waiting just around the corner… right?
Long before the Pale King’s rule, an ancient
civilization existed in the land of Hallownest.
There are several remnants of this civilization
that can be found in-game. Large corpses in
various locations throughout Hallownest might
be former members of this ancient caste, although
it’s tough to find any direct confirmation of any
of this. But they aren’t the only thing we
have to work with. Arcane Eggs, Soul Totems,
and potentially Ancient Masks and Soul Vessels
are all evidence of this civilization’s existence.
These objects seemed to be of no use to
the bugs of the Pale King’s Hallownest.
The majority of Hallownest’s bugs likely
didn’t partake in the manipulation of Soul,
so there was no use for objects such as
Soul Vessels and Soul Totems. These bugs
also used stone tablets and parchment to store
information instead of Arcane Eggs. Despite this,
it’s interesting to note that the Pale King did
craft some Soul Totems within his White Palace.
And these egg shaped tablets we see throughout
the kingdom might be the Pale King’s own version
of Arcane Eggs, as Lemm explains that eggs are
a great way to store information. Obviously.
Although these are pretty massive eggs for
just a few sentences. That’s like storing
a “read me” txt file in one of these.
There’s also some weird patterns within
the Ancient Civilization. Lemm mentions that
other scholars have speculated that Arcane
Eggs contain some sort of will within them.
Elderbug talks about how the rocks that form
the roads and structures in the Ancient
Basin seemed to have a will of their own.
And then there’s the Quick Slash charm, which
was formed by the fusion of a bunch of discarded,
imperfect nails created by the Ancient Nailsmith.
As the charm explicitly states, these nails
long to be wielded. So, it seems like inanimate
objects from this time period are more likely to
possess living traits such as wills and desires.
But the most interesting relic from the Ancient
Civilization is the Void Idol. As Lemm explains:
Inspired or mad, those ancient bugs. They devoted
their worship to no lord, or power, or
strength, but to the very darkness itself.
Lemm doesn’t give us a good explanation
for why these bugs worshiped the Void,
but if we look in the Abyss, we might be able
to see direct evidence of these strange bugs
interacting with the Void. In this room east of
the Abyss Lighthouse, we see some sort of desk.
Next to it is a strange relief in the wall, which
is described as “an imprint of Abyss given form.”
This may be a stretch, but I think this
was a place where these Void worshippers
would “give form” to the Void, creating the
Void tendrils we find in the Abyss lake. So,
basically a more crude form of the molds we see
in the White Palace workshop. Alternatively,
the Void Tendrils might have existed before the
Ancient Civilization, and this room is where
they studied the Tendrils. Aside from that room,
there is also the Shade Beast, who holds a bowl
that pours out a never ending stream of Void,
which was perhaps used in some sort of ritual.
We can infer from the Mask Maker that this Ancient
Civilization fell to ruin as a result of trying
to lay claim to all of Hallownest. So perhaps
this worship of the Void stemmed from a desire
to expand their lands. This obviously didn’t work
out for them. Perhaps, they even ran into our old
pal Radiance, which would explain why she calls
the Void her “Ancient Enemy”. The last strange
structure we find in the Abyss shows a bunch
of soyjak faces screaming out above an altar,
with the Dream Nail dialogue. “...Our voices…
will cry out… again…” Perhaps this was the last
desperate cry of the Ancient Civilization as their
kingdom collapsed and disappeared into obscurity.
Although maybe this cry is actually true.
Allow me
to speculate. In the Godmaster endings to the
game, we are introduced to this strange Void
creature, who doesn’t have a formal name but is
sometimes referred to as the Void Given Focus,
or the Void Entity. We don’t
really know what this thing is,
but there is debate that it might be a more
evolved or powerful version of the Knight,
given how the Godseeker speaks to the Knight
in Godseeker Mode and the fact that it replaces
the Knight statue in the Hall of Gods.
But I think this being might actually be
more directly tied to the Ancient Civilization. In
the first cutscene introducing this new character,
we can see that it acts distinctly from the
Knight, the Hollow Knight and the rest of
Vessels. While I think the Knight does become
part of the Void Entity at the end of the game,
I think this creature existed before the Vessels
were even created, and has been lying dormant
somewhere in the Abyss, only called back now by
the Focus given to it by the Godseekers’ ritual.
And it seems like the game really wants us to
connect what the Godseekers did in Godhome with
what that Ancient Civilization did with Void
in the past. Hence why we unlock Void Idol
descriptions from looking at the Void Entity
statue. But if the Ancient Civilization really
worshiped a creature like this, what exactly
was it that caused their kingdom to collapse?
It’s established that one power Wyrms like the
Pale King possess is “foresight”. This ability
is mentioned once by Bardoon, and twice by
the mushrooms of the Fungal Wastes. But as
we all know, despite this prescience, the Pale
King’s kingdom still collapsed into ruin. “But
how prescient is the Pale King really?”
I hear you ask in a normal tone of voice.
The way I like to think about this problem
is in regards to time. The Pale King was
specifically trying to create a kingdom that
would last forever: an eternal kingdom. The
Radiance is described in a lot of dialogue
as being nature, or something unavoidable.
This is what the dead mushroom points out
in its Dream Nail dialogue. Nature will
come to destroy the Pale King’s civilization
eventually as kingdoms can’t last forever.
The Pale King’s only solution to this is to
just stop Time, as explained in the White
Palace workshop lore tablet. So yes, the Pale
King was able to foresee an unavoidable demise,
but his solution was to delay it inevitably.
This idea of fighting your inescapable fate
is a storytelling trope seen all throughout
literature. The most prominent and well known
example is from the television series The Amazing
World of Gumball. In the episode The Oracle,
Gumball finds paintings produced by Banana Barbara
that appear to predict future events, with one of
them depicting Gumball completely naked surrounded
by a huge crowd at the mall. In response to this,
Gumball tries everything within his power to stop
this from happening, but through his actions, he
inadvertently causes himself to end up completely
naked surrounded by a huge crowd at the mall.
The same thing pretty much
happened to the Pale King.
Mister Mushroom is a wandering
mushroom man who somehow winds up
in Hallownest. You can only understand him
if you’re wearing the Spore Shroom charm,
but even then his dialogue implies that
he is talking to someone you can’t see.
Out of all his dialogues like this, the only
ones we are confident on are his first and third,
where he seems to be talking to the main
characters from two of Team Cherry's other
games: Hungry Knight and Tomb Cat.
But outside of what I talked about
in my Mister Mushroom lore video, there really
hasn’t been anything conclusive to say about the
majority of Mister Mushroom’s wacky dialogue.
My guess is that Mister Mushroom is talking to
characters from future Team Cherry projects,
or even just ideas they have for games that
they’re never actually going to make. You can tell
from interviews that William and Ari have tons
of ideas for games that they want to make and
it’s something that they think about a lot.
Game development is long, right? Especially games
like this, big games. You spend two years on it.
We’ve thought up ten years of games that we would
love to make in one year of game development.
But as to specific explanations for what any of
Mister Mushroom’s dialogue is referring to… He
does use the word determination at one point.
Now if you’re a fan of the channel, you know I
absolutely love Undertale. It’s an amazing game,
filled with all sorts of wonderful characters. In
fact, I’m so good at the game, I almost beat Sans.
Anyway, determination is actually a very important
aspect of Undertale’s main story, as it shows up
a couple times. So I think I speak for everyone
when I say this can’t be a coincidence.
And of course, because Mister Mushroom
is connected to all of these other Team Cherry
properties in the Team Cherry Cinematic Universe,
they have to give him a post credits
scene to tease his next adventure.
The Masters are yet another group that
will hopefully be expanded up in Silksong,
but as of right now, very little is known about
them. They are a group of beings mentioned only
by Confessor Jiji and Steel Soul Jinn. When the
Knight receives the Void Heart, Jiji mentions that
her Masters would be impressed with how the Knight
seems to have come to terms with its regrets.
Once the Knight is marked with the King’s Brand,
Steel Soul Jinn mentions that she cannot bow to
the Knight, as her masters’ minds are other, and
do not seek order. And once the Knight receives
the Void Heart, Jinn also comments that the
Knight has become complete like her Masters.
From what little we know about Silksong, it
seems there are more Steel Soul creatures
who are looking to assassinate Hornet.
Whoever these Masters are, it seems as
though they are interested in Void creatures
like the Knight, which might explain why Jiji
and Jinn were assigned to offer services,
while others were ordered to kill Hornet.
From the dialogue we get from Jiji and Jinn,
it might turn out that the Masters themselves
are Void creatures. But instead of just crazy
unhinged maniacs like the Collector, or brainless
golems like the Kingsmoulds, these Masters are
actually intelligent and capable of scheming,
with their end goal in mind appearing to be not
order, but something else entirely: Like disorder.
The Delicate Flower comes from a far off,
“serene” land, carried by the Grey Mourner,
a character who herself looks like some sort of
wilted flower. Once the flower starts growing
in the Queen’s Garden, it is described in the
menu as glowing with a pale light. The White
Lady recognizes it as distinct from herself and
Hallownest. She mentions that a rare power exists
inside these fragile petals, and refuses to accept
it, telling the Knight that only someone with no
knowledge of its power would hold it so close.
This flower can be given to the Godseeker, who
ponders that it might be a “splinter, cast-off or
refuse from something greater” before ultimately
saying that she can’t sense any godliness within
it. However, if the Godseeker is holding the
flower during the Embrace the Void ending, we see
that the flower does something to the Void and the
Godseeker, seemingly leaving nothing but a small
black blotch on the corner of one of the petals.
There isn’t any solid theory on what happens here.
It might be that the Void and the Godseeker were
banished to some part of the dream realm, similar
to how the White Palace was teleported away. Or
maybe they were teleported back to where the
flower came from, or maybe they’re just gone.
So despite being described as producing a pale
light, both White Lady denies a connection to
this flower, and the Godseeker can’t detect any
Godliness within it. If that flower shares some
kind of pale property with the White Lady, Pale
King and Pale Ore, this seems to inform us that
just because something is “Pale” doesn’t mean it’s
godly. Is this “pale” property related to Soul,
or some other force? As of right now, I’m honestly
not sure. But one thing I do know, if this flower
really can just pop creatures completely out
of existence, I’m glad I gave one to Elderbug.
The Godmaster update added two additional endings
to Hollow Knight back in 2018. And unlike the base
ending which all were fairly conclusive, these two
endings left the story on a major cliffhanger. The
Knight and the rest of the siblings have
seemingly been consumed into this new,
strange Void Entity. The Radiance’s infection has
been erased from Hallownest. And the Hollow Knight
is now free from its prison inside the Black
Egg Temple. And that’s where the game leaves us.
On top of that we have no idea how or even
if Team Cherry is going to follow up on these
endings. We still don’t know for sure how the
events of Hollow Knight and Silksong line up
on any sort of timeline. If Silksong takes place
after, is the game gonna give us a flashback to
this event? If it takes place before, are they
going to do a time skip? Or are they going to do
something completely different and just explain
it in one off comic or another anime adaptation?
In a Reddit AMA, Ari Gibson did
say the following in regards to
Hollow Knight’s multiple base endings.
All endings are equally canon. We're not
into 'True Endings.' You choose the path
yourself. We'll do our best in all future
Hollow Knight content to account for all of them.
Now keep in mind this post was made 5 years ago,
before the new endings were released, so it’s
possible that Team Cherry changed their mind
on this. That said, I don’t think they have.
This seems like something Team Cherry wouldn’t
change their minds on. And if they really
do have a way to keep all this stuff canon
and pay off everything, I am very excited
to eventually one day have to explain it.
And finally, I think it’s time we talk
about the single biggest mystery that
has loomed over the Hollow Knight community
since February 24th, 2017. It’s a question
that has eluded some of the greatest minds
of our generation. The smartest men, women
and children have tried for years to solve this
mystery, and they have all died in the process.
Who the fuck is Sprintmaster!?