WEBVTT

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Despite this channel running for over 5 
years now and having over 3 whole videos

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dedicated to Hollow Knight lore, there are 
still quite a few big mysteries left lurking

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in the ruins of Hallownest. This video will 
serve as a rundown of all the weird aspects

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of Hollow Knight lore we have yet to fully 
piece together. We’re going to be hitting

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on a few topics I’ve already covered in 
previous videos, but there are also a

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few mysteries that I haven’t really touched on 
before as well. Also, some of these mysteries

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do have pretty reasonable explanations, that 
maybe aren’t as well known in the community.

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And before we get started proper, I did want to 
mention the Lore Archives, which is a document

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full of interesting lore write ups written by 
various members of the Hollow Knight community.

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So if you want to check out theories from the 
community on a variety of different topics,

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try checking this page out. I put a link 
down in the description. I also put a link

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to the entire script of the Bee movie as 
well. So be sure to check that out too.

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The first big question I think we all asked at one 
point or another is… what’s outside Hallownest?

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There are two instances where the game tempts 
us with glimpses of the outside world, but we

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are stopped by powerful forces of nature. 
Through interacting with the Godseeker,

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we also get very small windows into lands outside 
of Hallownest. We see the Godseekers in the middle

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of their journey through the wasteland as they 
make their pilgrimage to Hallownest. We also see

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the Land of Storms, the location from which the 
Godseekers fled after they were abandoned by the

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Gods of Thunder and the Gods of Rain. We also 
see parts of the lands beyond in the Quirrel

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prequel comic and in the opening cutscene of 
Hollow Knight: Silksong. All of these scenes

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portray the Lands Beyond as a desolate wasteland 
filled with nothing but sand, rock and deadly

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creatures. Even the tablet in the Howling Cliffs 
tells us there is no world beyond Hallownest.

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But are the Lands Beyond truly such a 
desolate wasteland? After all, there

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are several travelers who arrive in Hallownest 
such as Zote, Cloth and Tiso. And of course,

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there’s also Pharloom, a completely different 
kingdom that exists somewhere else out there.

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So, even if the Lands Beyond are mostly wasteland, 
there still appear to be pockets of civilization,

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although maybe not to the scale of Hallownest in 
most cases. But this does raise another question.

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Why does the lore tablet at the entrance to 
Hallownest call it the last and only civilization?

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I think this is because the Pale King expected 
Hallownest to last eternally. And if that were

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the case, then to travelers arriving in the 
far future, it really would be the last and

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only civilization. And there might actually be 
good reason to believe that there really aren’t

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many kingdoms left in the world of Hollow Knight.
Long before the events of the game, the Pale King

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existed in the world as a Wyrm, burrowing 
through mountains and across wastelands,

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and only came to Hallownest to die. From there, 
he shed his Wyrm form, taking on a meager shell,

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founded Hallownest and created a beacon to draw 
in subjects to his new kingdom. According to

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Dream Nail dialogue from Mister Mushroom, this 
is how Wyrms typically operate: “Wyrms pull

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bugs into their thrall”. Wyrms might be one of 
the primary forces that build civilizations in

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this world. But there’s one line from Bardoon that 
illuminates the problem here. When discussing the

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Wyrm’s Cast-off Shell, Bardoon says “With its like 
gone, the world is smaller.” This line might imply

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that the Wyrms of this world have all died out.
This could explain why the land is so desolate.

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The creatures mainly responsible for creating 
and advancing civilization are just all gone now,

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so most of the kingdoms have collapsed into sand. 
It’s interesting to think of a world where Wyrms

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were more prevalent and there were tons of nearby 
kingdoms engaging in trade and warfare. Of course,

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while this might explain the current state of 
the world, it raises another question. Why did

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all the Wyrms die out in the first place? Did 
they destroy the natural ecosystem of the world

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by their actions, leading their population to 
drop? And why did the Pale King die specifically

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in Hallownest? Is there something unique about 
this patch of earth that draws the likes of the

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Pale King and other civilizations to try to claim 
all of it? These are some pretty broad questions

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that I’m not sure we’ll ever get answers to. And 
the Pale King isn’t the only Wyrm we know about.

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The Blackwyrm is mentioned in the Hunter’s 
Journal entry for the Dung Defender, where

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he mentions that he participated in the “Battle 
of the Blackwyrm”. And that’s all we have on the

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Blackwyrm. This pitiful amount of information has 
led to a wide variety of theories, and I think it

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might be worth discussing a few of them here.
One of the most popular theories out there is

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that the Blackwyrm is the corpse that 
houses the Colosseum of Fools. In my

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dedicated Colosseum of Fools video, I 
dismissed this idea pretty strongly,

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but since anything related to the Blackwyrm 
is speculation, let’s lay out the evidence.

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First of all, this ancient bug corpse is very 
unique from every other ancient corpse we see

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in Hallownest. It appears to have chains 
going into it as if someone was trying to

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immobilize it, perhaps because this creature 
was encroaching into Hallownest during the

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Pale King’s reign. This could signify a battle.
Second, the Lord Fool might be like the Pale

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King in that it was born from the carcass of 
the larger Colosseum bug. The name Lord Fool

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might have even been part of his punishment 
for trying to invade the Pale King’s kingdom,

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and he’s been relegated to stay inside his 
Cast-off Shell on the edge of the Kingdom.

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Third, the worship of the Lord Fool 
we see of bugs like the Little Fool

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might be part of the “wyrms pull bugs into 
their thrall” line from Mister Mushroom we

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discussed earlier. This might also explain 
why the Colosseum houses infected bugs that

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seemingly still retain their ability 
to act non-hostile towards the Knight.

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The hurdles this theory has is the fact that this 
corpse looks nothing like the Cast-off Shell. It

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has limbs, it isn’t molting, the interiors look 
different. There’s also Ellina who identifies the

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Cast-off Shell as a Wyrm, but not the Colosseum 
of Fools corpse. In order for this theory to work,

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you have to argue that the Pale Wyrm 
isn’t representative of all wyrm types,

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which I think does have merit, but I think 
the Colosseum Wyrm idea strays a bit too far.

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The other argument I’ve been seeing pop up is 
that the Blackwyrm isn’t a Wyrm at all. This

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stems from the lack of consistency between its 
name and every other instance of “Wyrm” we see

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in the game. Any time the word “wyrm” is used 
outside of “Blackwyrm”, the word is by itself.

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Most instances of the word just say 
“Wyrm” by itself with a capital “W”,

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with a few instances where it’s just in lower 
case. There’s also the one time Grimm uses the

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word “worm” with an “O” seemingly to mock the Pale 
King. The only other time, aside from “Blackwyrm”

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where we get an adjective in front of the word, 
is when it’s written as “Pale Wyrm”. Two words,

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both capitalized. As opposed to just one word.
Personally, I don’t find this line of thought

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to be very compelling either. 
Mainly because, if it’s not a Wyrm,

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what is it? Generally the theory follows 
that the Blackwyrm was some kind of location,

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perhaps a place with a structure that looks like 
a wyrm or something to that effect. Or maybe it’s

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named after a battle tactic. Like the Battle 
of the Bulge. While this might alleviate the

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discrepancy between “Pale Wyrm” and “Blackwyrm”, 
I don’t think it’s a very sound idea on the whole.

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The only other idea I can think of is that 
the Blackwyrm is a different Wyrm with its

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own kingdom that possibly fought against the 
Pale King at some point in the past. It seems

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like if any higher being could form a militia 
to do something like that, it would be a Wyrm.

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So yeah, that’s my take on 
those four words of lore.

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Void is a very complex subject in Hollow Knight, 
so much so that there is a 70 page lore document

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written by Sumwan and ToxicBrain detailing all 
the different aspects of Void and its impact on

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the lore. But in this section I’m going to discuss 
something only briefly mentioned in this document

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and never mentioned on this channel before.
While Soul and Essence have clear sources from

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which they are created, we have no clue how Void 
is formed. Void is always described as a darkness

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or an emptiness, which aren’t really things that 
can be created, but instead are an absence of

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something else. However, there is one comparison 
that could explain where Void comes from: regrets.

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When dying and losing its shade in Hollow Knight, 
the Knight can recover it by giving a rancid egg

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to Confessor Jiji in Dirtmouth. Jiji describes 
the missing shade as a regret which leaves a

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dark stain on the world. And after the Knight 
collects the Void Heart, Jiji even describes the

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Knight as “coming to terms” with its own regrets.
But it’s not just the Knight’s regrets that Jiji

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speaks about. Jiji notes that the entire kingdom 
of Hallownest has become thick with the stains of

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regret. It’s possible that Jiji is aware of the 
other shades trapped in the Abyss, but the fact

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that she says the entire kingdom is stained might 
mean that she can sense the regrets of all the

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bugs that have died since Hallownest collapsed.
This idea that normal bugs can also leave stains

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of regret is reiterated by the Hunter. In the 
journal entry for the Shade, the Hunter remarks:

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Each of us leaves an imprint of something 
when we die. A stain on the world. I don't

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know how much longer this kingdom can 
bear the weight of so many past lives...

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This regret motif appears one more 
time, scribbled on the tablet located

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just outside of the Abyss. The tablet describes 
the Abyss and discarded Vessels as the “refuse

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and regret” of the Hollow Knight’s creation.
So there are quite a few connections between

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Void and regrets. But the problem with this theory 
is that we don’t really see non-Void creatures

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actually create Void. There are occasional 
bugs that have black streaks under their eyes,

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such as the Grey Mourner’s dead lover, the Lord 
Fool, No Eyes, Mask Maker and Karina. But there

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really isn’t any slam dunk connections here. For 
the mantis, those could be tears, for No Eyes,

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blood. For Lord Fool, it could be weathering, 
like what we see on statues and paintings that

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have eyes. And as for Mask Maker and Karina, 
there really isn’t any indication that either

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of these two characters have any regrets.
But I think there is at least one plausible

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example of a non-Void creature leaving a 
dark stain on the world: the Pale King.

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The entirety of the White Palace hidden in 
the dream realm still shines with that bright,

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pale light, with the only two exceptions being the 
White Palace workshop and the Pale King’s throne

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room. From the dialogue of his Royal Retainers as 
well as Mask Maker, we know that the Pale King was

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racked with shame and deeply troubled. Ultimately, 
the Pale King faded away alone on his throne, and

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the deep regrets he held inside stained the throne 
room, shrouding it in a thick cloud of Void.

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While I think this makes a lot of sense 
thematically, it might be too much of

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a stretch to say Void originates entirely from 
regret, especially since the way Void is used in

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the rest of the game doesn’t reflect this idea. 
Team Cherry might have just used this “regrets”

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concept as a way to keep the concept of Void a 
mystery, since the player could potentially meet

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Jiji very early on in the game. But it’s the 
best explanation I have for the Void’s origin.

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The only other idea I can think of is that Void 
is supposed to be like some kind of oil deposit,

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perhaps from the dead bodies of creatures 
past. But the lack of the United States

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military anywhere in Hallownest 
kinda makes this theory unlikely.

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Mask Maker is such a fun little character. 
They seem so oddly separated from the rest

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of Hollow Knight lore, and yet they have intimate 
knowledge about the events of Hallownest and even

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civilizations from long before the Pale King. Some 
of the Mask Maker’s dialogue can be interpreted in

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regards to the Knight. They talk about the 
contrast between the Knight’s outer shell,

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and its inner shade, almost as if the Knight 
itself is a face hidden behind a mask.

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But this doesn’t really answer the question 
of why the Mask Maker is making masks in the

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first place. Who are the “Kingdom’s faceless” 
the Mask Maker is referring to? Why do they

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seemingly equate having a face with the ability 
to “define, focus and exist”? And why do they

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consider masks a “gift to a world deserving”?
The problem with answering this question

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is that we see very few characters in 
Hollow Knight that actually wear masks,

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and sometimes those masks seem to serve 
different functions. There’s the three Dreamers,

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Quirrel, the Fools in the Colosseum, the Grimm 
Troupe, the Godseekers and possibly Midwife.

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But outside of that, we’ve got very 
little to work with. So it’s hard to

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define who the kingdom’s faceless are 
and how masks affect their wearers.

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I have my own idea about what all this means. 
It does involve a lot of assumptions and it

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has its fair share of issues, but I’m not really 
sure if there’s a theory out there I like more.

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I mentioned before that the Mask Maker draws 
a contrast between the Knight’s outer shell

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and inner shade. I think there is a parallel 
theme here in the actual bugs of Hallownest.

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I think some bugs are naturally 
more beastly in nature, and aren’t

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capable of higher thought. These would be the 
“faceless” that Mask Maker refers to. However,

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these bugs can still conceal their true nature 
using masks. And somehow, masks are able to grant

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these bugs identity and allow them to exist as 
more than just weak-minded beasts. In effect,

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this is the same as the Pale King’s beacon. 
However, while in Hallownest, these bugs no longer

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need to hide their true forms, as explained in one 
of the lore tablets located in the King’s Pass.

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In a time before the Pale King’s beacon, masks 
were potentially a much more useful object,

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which could explain why we see ancient masks 
lying around the kingdom. Perhaps the Mask

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Maker was making masks long before the Pale 
King arrived, and chose to continue making

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masks because that’s all they know how to 
do. Their swirling eyes might imply that

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they are a little insane, driven to feverishly 
make masks for the people of a dead kingdom.

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So, to simplify things, the Pale King’s beacon 
“redeems” the beastly “base instincts” of bugs.

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However, bugs could also wear masks that 
conceal their beastly nature and, in turn,

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grant them an identity. Both are methods that 
turn the “faceless” into sentient beings.

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How likely is this theory correct… ehh, I’m not 
sure. It’s still really weird that Mask Maker

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is making masks for Hallownest when Hallownest 
strictly doesn’t need them. It’s also possible

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that I’m misinterpreting the King’s Pass tablet 
completely, or drawing a connection between that

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and Mask Maker that wasn’t intended. And again, 
we don’t really see how masks grant identity

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like all this applies. Like I said, this 
theory is still my preferred interpretation,

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but I’m not going to act like it’s an airtight 
explanation of the Mask Maker’s dialogue.

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I really do think we just lack information to 
pin down exactly what this maniac is on about.

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Charms are ubiquitous in Hallownest, popping 
up in all sorts of random locations. And charms

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can be created from a variety of different 
circumstances. Charms can be crafted by bugs

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like the Soul Catcher and Mark of Pride, born 
out of strong emotions like the Grubberfly’s

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Elegy and the Spell Twister, or even created 
naturally like the Spore Shroom and Deep Focus.

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But charms can also form in another more morbid 
way. Salubra tells us that charms can be created

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from the last wish of dying bugs. Charms that 
likely fit into this category include Dashmaster,

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Fury of the Fallen and the Glowing Womb charm.
But the biggest actual mystery surrounding charms

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is how they work. They are created through various 
random and tragic events, yet they all can slot

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into these vague, weird, generic notches.
The best canonical explanation of anything

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related to how charms are equipped comes from the 
Wanderer’s Journal which mentions that equipping

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and unequipping charms can be tricky, so you have 
to be sitting down to do it. Thanks to officially

00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:13.440
licensed Hollow Knight vinyl records released by 
Fangamer, we can actually see that charms have

00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:19.320
these interfaces on their backside that allow them 
to slot into charm notches. But even though these

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slots are discrete, with each charm connecting 
to just one slot, a charm like Kingsoul still

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requires 5 charm notches to actually equip. It 
doesn’t really make sense and even Team Cherry has

00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:37.320
thrown up their hands on this one. In an interview 
with Edge Magazine, Ari Gibson explains that

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charms, quote “had this vague sense of socketing 
into the Knight’s shell in some sort of creepy

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way”. He makes it sound like this is some sort 
of cyberpunk body augmentation. Now I haven’t

00:16:48.540 --> 00:16:54.360
played Cyberpunk 2077. Although I have watched 
its anime adaptation, Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

00:16:57.900 --> 00:17:01.800
Everyone in the Hollow Knight community 
generally agrees that grubs are hideous

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creatures that deserve to be mashed up 
into a fine, viscous paste. But one thing

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the community isn’t quite as sure on is most 
of the lore surrounding the Grubs and reason

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behind the capture. “Why are all these 
grubs trapped in jars?” I hear you moan.

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High up in the Watcher’s Spire, just below where 
the Dreamer Lurien the Watcher sleeps eternal,

00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:28.200
we can find a couple of unassuming lore 
tablets. However, upon further inspection

00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:32.940
we can see that these tablets actually 
contain images of jars, similar to the

00:17:32.940 --> 00:17:38.340
ones found scattered throughout Hallownest. The 
same jars containing dozens of helpless grubs.

00:17:38.340 --> 00:17:43.920
We can find a stockpile of these jars east 
of Lurien’s tower in a location called the

00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:48.660
Tower of Love. The original resident of 
the Tower of Love can seemingly be found

00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:54.480
in the Queen’s Garden, clutching the key to 
unlock the tower’s door. When Dream Nailed,

00:17:54.480 --> 00:18:01.380
this Husk Dandy says “Too long… spent together… 
We become as one”. In addition to this,

00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:07.560
we can also see Void seeping out of their corpse.
The source of this Void becomes clear when the

00:18:07.560 --> 00:18:12.900
Knight unlocks the door to the Tower of Love. 
Inside the Knight finds a maniacal Void being

00:18:12.900 --> 00:18:18.360
known as the Collector, who is likely the 
one responsible for capturing Grubs in jars.

00:18:18.360 --> 00:18:23.340
From its Dream Nail dialogue, we can tell that 
the Collector is obsessed with protection and

00:18:23.340 --> 00:18:29.820
providing a safe space for its captives, so much 
so that the Hall of Gods describes it as a god

00:18:29.820 --> 00:18:36.480
of Protection. Finally, hidden in a secret room of 
the Tower of Love, is a strange diagram of a grub,

00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:41.820
drawn in the style of the Vitruvian Man.
Now that we’ve laid out all the facts of

00:18:41.820 --> 00:18:47.880
the matter, let’s dive into heavy speculation. 
It seems Lurien tasked the Husk Dandy found in

00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:53.160
the Queen’s Gardens with preserving the various 
wildlife of Hallownest. This might have been

00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:58.260
in an effort to preserve these animals from the 
Radiance’s infection, sort of like Noah’s Ark from

00:18:58.260 --> 00:19:03.300
the Bible. Or maybe Lurien just wanted there to 
be a collection of these bugs somewhere within the

00:19:03.300 --> 00:19:09.900
city, sort of like a zoo, like the one depicted 
in the 2011 hit comedy film We Bought a Zoo.

00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:15.720
Somehow the Collector came into the possession of 
the Husk Dandy. The Collector itself appears to

00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:20.580
be created from a mould found in the White Palace 
Workshop, the same mould used to create the Pale

00:19:20.580 --> 00:19:25.860
King’s Kingsmould guards. This implies that the 
Collector is some kind of defective Kingsmould,

00:19:25.860 --> 00:19:31.140
leading to speculation that the Collector somehow 
escaped from the White Palace and was later found

00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:36.720
by the Husk Dandy. While it’s not impossible, 
I have a slightly different explanation.

00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:42.180
We know that Kingsmoulds likely roamed 
areas outside of the White Palace, given

00:19:42.180 --> 00:19:47.280
that the Nailsmith can be seen making a little 
Kingsmould doll. Perhaps it wasn’t uncommon to

00:19:47.280 --> 00:19:52.620
see Kingsmoulds walking around the streets of the 
city. So, it’s possible that the Husk Dandy was

00:19:52.620 --> 00:19:57.960
able to secure a Kingsmould of their own, either 
through Lurien as part of the preservation effort,

00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:01.860
or just through connections they 
had with Hallownest’s high society.

00:20:01.860 --> 00:20:08.340
But I think there was one problem with this whole 
setup, that being that this little Husk Dandy was

00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:13.560
a total freak. I think this Husk Dandy was the 
one who originally drew the Vitruvian Grub,

00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:19.500
due to some sort of strange obsession with the 
grub’s body and physiology. But I think this

00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:25.560
fascination also extended to other creatures as 
well. Perhaps the Husk Dandy was also curious to

00:20:25.560 --> 00:20:30.240
see what their Kingsmould servant looked like 
underneath all its heavy armor. Maybe they

00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:35.580
decided to completely strip it down so they could 
observe this strange creature in its natural form.

00:20:35.580 --> 00:20:41.460
Regardless of how the Husk Dandy ended up living 
with a naked Kingsmould, this set the stage for

00:20:41.460 --> 00:20:47.760
the two to “become as one”, with Void seeping 
into the Husk Dandy’s body, and the Husk Dandy’s

00:20:47.760 --> 00:20:53.160
fascination and obsession with preserving bugs, 
and especially Grubs, seeping into the Collector.

00:20:53.760 --> 00:20:58.740
These strange thoughts warped within the 
Collector’s mind, transforming it into the

00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:04.560
least insane Tumblr user you’ve ever seen. In 
the end, the dying Husk Dandy decided to lock

00:21:04.560 --> 00:21:09.600
the Collector inside the Tower of Love, fleeing to 
their final resting place in the Queen’s Gardens.

00:21:10.860 --> 00:21:15.840
Connecting all this back to grubs, it’s hard 
to tell if this obsession with grubs was really

00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:22.140
warranted at all. Is there really anything greater 
to them? While it isn’t much, we do have a little

00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:27.960
bit to go on here. Note that the symbol placed on 
the chest of the Vitruvian Grub lines up pretty

00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:33.060
closely with this gem on the Grubberfly’s Elegy 
charm. The Grubberfly’s Elegy shows us what the

00:21:33.060 --> 00:21:38.340
next stage of life looks like for a grub, and the 
charm itself can imbue the Knight’s nail with a

00:21:38.340 --> 00:21:44.700
“holy” strength. So perhaps the original bug was 
obsessed with some sort of hidden holy strength

00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:47.260
contained within grubs.
This

00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:53.400
mystery is pretty important to the core 
story of Hollow Knight, and it can actually

00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:58.500
be pretty confusing for new players. How 
exactly did the Knight and other vessels

00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:04.020
escape the Abyss? Team Cherry was even asked 
about this question to which William relied:

00:22:04.020 --> 00:22:08.580
We're not sure - we know that some of his 
siblings managed to make it out of the Abyss,

00:22:08.580 --> 00:22:12.480
but most of them did not. Whether those 
who made it out were somehow different,

00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:16.620
or whether some of them were just lucky... 
that might be something we examine later!

00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:22.740
But is William actually telling the truth here? 
Surely they have an answer to this question.

00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:28.920
Hollow Knight lore kind of completely breaks if 
they don’t. Since Team Cherry is not going to

00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:33.960
answer the question, I will share one theory that 
has been floating around for a while. Basically

00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:38.040
there’s a portion of Deepnest that does seem 
to be affected by the influence of the Void,

00:22:38.040 --> 00:22:43.860
and not far from there is Nosk’s lair. And this 
is the one location of the game outside of the

00:22:43.860 --> 00:22:48.840
Abyss where we see the most Vessel bodies. 
This seems to imply that there might have

00:22:48.840 --> 00:22:53.880
been a path out of the Abyss through Deepnest.
Another question that might arise from this is

00:22:53.880 --> 00:22:58.920
why the Knight left Hallownest in the first 
place. We’re given no explanation for this

00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:04.320
and it may be as simple as Vessels just kinda 
wander around like that. And although we don’t

00:23:04.320 --> 00:23:09.360
know why the Knight left Hallownest, we do know 
that the Knight was called back to Hallownest by

00:23:09.360 --> 00:23:14.100
something. It’s not confirmed what this was, 
but it seems to be related to when the Hollow

00:23:14.100 --> 00:23:18.960
Knight’s shell cracked in the cutscene shown at 
the beginning of the game. We also know that the

00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:24.000
Knight is just one of multiple Vessels wandering 
around during this time, as Hornet is actively

00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.080
hunting Vessels down and destroying them to 
keep them from trying to free the Hollow Knight.

00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:33.180
So I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if other 
Vessels also happened to have left Hallownest.

00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:39.900
Lifeblood is a topic I have barely talked about 
on this channel, and that’s because Lifeblood

00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:44.460
barely has any influence over the overall 
lore of Hollow Knight. But we should take a

00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:49.680
little bit of time to talk about Lifeblood because 
Lifeblood is pretty weird. Throughout Hallownest,

00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:55.140
the Knight can find eight separate Lifeblood 
cocoons. Destroying these cocoons releases these

00:23:55.140 --> 00:24:01.140
small creatures called Lifeseeds, which are filled 
with Lifeblood. Not far off from these cocoon are

00:24:01.140 --> 00:24:06.300
butterfly shaped flowers. And there are also 
three Lifeblood related charms the Knight can

00:24:06.300 --> 00:24:13.560
find. The Lifeblood Core and the Lifeblood Heart 
are both objects that can seep or bleed Lifeblood,

00:24:13.560 --> 00:24:20.640
while Joni’s Blessing actually transfigures 
the vital fluids of its wearer with Lifeblood.

00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:25.380
Lifeblood is described as making the user 
feel much healthier. But despite this,

00:24:25.380 --> 00:24:30.420
Salubra tells us that drinking Lifeblood 
is a taboo, and the Blue Child Joni,

00:24:30.420 --> 00:24:35.400
the character in possession of Joni’s 
Blessing, is described as being a “heretic”.

00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:41.160
We don’t know for sure why Lifeblood is considered 
such a taboo, but we can figure a few things. In

00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:46.440
Joni’s Repose where we find Joni’s corpse, we 
can see an explosion of Lifeblood butterflies

00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:52.260
and vines covering the cavern, all seeming to 
radiate from Joni’s corpse. Given her charm,

00:24:52.260 --> 00:24:57.240
it seems like Joni’s “vital fluids” had 
been completely replaced with Lifeblood,

00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:02.940
and upon her death, this Lifeblood spouted 
out from her. From there, these butterflies

00:25:02.940 --> 00:25:08.280
and vines can then travel out and create more 
Lifeblood cocoons for more bugs to drink from.

00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:12.900
It seems Lifeblood’s powerful healing 
properties are meant to entice a host to

00:25:12.900 --> 00:25:18.300
consume it. According to the Wanderer’s Journal, 
Lifeblood vines are capable of producing fruit,

00:25:18.300 --> 00:25:24.600
which in real life lore, have evolved to be 
eaten by animals as a way to spread their

00:25:24.600 --> 00:25:30.840
seed. And upon that host’s death, this Lifeblood 
can then spread itself out even further. In fact,

00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:35.520
there might already be a vast network of 
Lifeblood vegetation spreading all across

00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:40.620
Hallownest. And I should also note that Joni 
isn’t the only Lifeblood infused creature we see.

00:25:40.620 --> 00:25:46.200
Deep under Hallownest, hidden away In the Abyss, 
is a door that can only be unlocked by having

00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:51.720
enough Lifeblood masks. Behind this door is 
a strange region that seems to exist both in

00:25:51.720 --> 00:25:56.400
the real world and the dream realm, where 
we can see a giant creature with glowing,

00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:01.800
blue eyes lurking in the background. This creature 
can also be seen hiding in the Lifeblood room in

00:26:01.800 --> 00:26:06.600
Godhome. This being is referred to as the 
Abyss Creature in the game files, and it

00:26:06.600 --> 00:26:11.340
clearly has some kind of connection to Lifeblood.
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the Abyss

00:26:11.340 --> 00:26:15.960
Creature facilitates the appearance of Lifeblood 
in Godhome, but I’m not entirely convinced that

00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:20.640
this is the true source of all Lifeblood. It 
might be possible that this creature is similar

00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:26.160
to Joni in that it just ingested Lifeblood to the 
point where its “vital fluids” were completely

00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:30.780
replaced and it can now spread Lifeblood 
around through the Dream Realm. But with

00:26:30.780 --> 00:26:35.100
how little info we are given on Lifeblood, 
we can’t say anything too conclusive here.

00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:43.200
Out of all the Pale King’s Five Great Knights, 
Isma is easily the most mysterious. We probably

00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:48.960
still know more about her than we do Dryya, but 
nobody cares about Dryya and all my homies hate

00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:55.200
Dryya. Getting back to Isma, we know that she was 
a kind person and that her and Dung Defender had

00:26:55.200 --> 00:27:00.120
a very close relationship. You can even hear 
Dung Defender say Isma’s name in his sleep.

00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:08.880
But we only catch small glimpses of what 
she looked like during Hallownest’s prime,

00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:13.740
and her corpse in the Royal Waterways seems to 
have somehow fused with the plant life around

00:27:13.740 --> 00:27:19.380
her. We know that this location, known as Isma’s 
Grove, is being protected by the Dung Defender,

00:27:19.380 --> 00:27:23.040
and if we look at the Dung Defender’s 
dialogue after consuming Isma’s Tear,

00:27:23.040 --> 00:27:29.340
he seems to think that Isma is still alive.
And this might be true, in a sense. Looking

00:27:29.340 --> 00:27:33.240
at her corpse, it seems as though Isma is 
the source of all the plant life around her,

00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:38.100
almost like her body is a seed that has 
taken up root in the ground. This might

00:27:38.100 --> 00:27:43.200
indicate that Isma didn’t die, but instead has 
transitioned into the next stage of her life.

00:27:43.800 --> 00:27:47.760
And it’s likely that the Dung Defender is 
aware of this. The sign he makes outside

00:27:47.760 --> 00:27:52.500
her grove specifically mentions that 
it is a grove. If Isma is the source

00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:56.100
of all the plant life around her, then Dung 
Defender must have seen her in this state.

00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.500
Strangely, Dung Defender mentions that Isma 
willfully gave the Knight her blessing,

00:28:01.500 --> 00:28:06.660
which is a little odd considering the blessing 
in question was “Isma’s Tear” and it doesn’t seem

00:28:06.660 --> 00:28:12.060
like Isma created it specifically for the Knight. 
The Knight kinda just walked up and “consumed”

00:28:12.060 --> 00:28:17.040
it. It seems like the tear was just a fruit 
growing out from her body, perhaps representing

00:28:17.040 --> 00:28:22.140
her immense sadness in losing her time with Dung 
Defender. Did Isma really grow this just for us?

00:28:22.140 --> 00:28:27.540
It’s possible, but maybe Dung Defender is 
just in denial about Isma’s true state. Or

00:28:27.540 --> 00:28:32.040
maybe deep down, Dung Defender knows that she 
is gone, which could explain why he ponders if

00:28:32.040 --> 00:28:36.900
the line of Hallownest’s Great Knights is going 
to end with him. Regardless, it does seem like

00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:41.640
Isma could still be alive, even if it’s not 
in quite the same way you or I are alive.

00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:49.980
Here’s an interesting question that doesn’t get 
asked a lot. Why is Hornet named Hornet? It’s a

00:28:49.980 --> 00:28:55.620
little bit odd considering Hornet is a spider and 
spiders and hornets are not the same animal last

00:28:55.620 --> 00:29:01.860
time I checked. Hornet has had her name since her 
reveal back in December 2014. It’s a cool name,

00:29:01.860 --> 00:29:07.320
but in game, there really isn’t any explanation 
for it. There is never any interaction between

00:29:07.320 --> 00:29:12.480
Hornet and the Hive, and no one from Deepnest 
ever speaks to the origin of Hornet’s name.

00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:18.240
If we look outside the game, Ari Gibson did 
give us an explanation in a Reddit AMA held

00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:24.900
on r/gaming in August of 2017. During this 
AMA a user asked the following question:

00:29:24.900 --> 00:29:30.900
“Was naming the bee queen "Vespa", 
as in "hornet", intentional, and does

00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:34.560
that have to do with Hive lore?”
In response to this, Ari said:

00:29:34.560 --> 00:29:40.320
Vespa to Hornet was intentional. There was an 
old concept here that may still apply: Hornet

00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:46.920
was the 'Child of Three Queens,' one birthed, 
one raised, one trained. It is from the third

00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:51.960
queen that Hornet took her name. Whether that 
notion still applies however, I can't confirm,

00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:56.940
though it was definitely the basis for the names.
So, the original concept for Hornet was that she

00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:02.040
trained with Vespa when she was young, but even 
Ari can’t confirm if this is still the case.

00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:09.360
Or can he? In an interview with the magazine A 
Profound Waste of Time held back in July 2020,

00:30:09.360 --> 00:30:14.580
the question of Hornet’s name came up again.
Neither [Pellen] nor Gibson will divulge the

00:30:14.580 --> 00:30:19.620
meaning behind Hornet’s name, though Gibson 
states it does indeed have significance. ‘And

00:30:19.620 --> 00:30:24.840
whether that ever is revealed, I’m not sure.’
In this interview, it seems like Gibson states

00:30:24.840 --> 00:30:30.000
that Hornet’s name does have significance although 
now he doesn’t want to give any details. Does this

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.500
mean that the backstory is accurate? Or did 
Ari mean that name had significance outside

00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:39.900
of the game? Unfortunately, none of this really 
matters for canonically proving Hornet’s origins,

00:30:39.900 --> 00:30:44.100
as Team Cherry themselves have stated that 
their own statements relating to Hollow

00:30:44.100 --> 00:30:49.740
Knight lore should not be considered canon.
William: We try not to … it’s a bit boring

00:30:49.740 --> 00:30:54.000
sometimes but we try not to give 
out too much information sometimes

00:30:54.660 --> 00:31:00.540
that is not in the game. Because a lot of people 
spend, it’s really cool, coming up with theories

00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:05.040
based on the info in the game. And if 
we start giving out info that is not

00:31:05.040 --> 00:31:10.075
explicitly in the game, then you might start 
contradicting people’s theories and stuff….

00:31:10.075 --> 00:31:13.560
Ari: Yeah it colors all that stuff, you know.
William: …which is no fun. It’s not a

00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:19.080
nice thing to do for a creator to 
come in after the fact and start…

00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:26.460
Ari: Stomping around and denying people’s ideas.
William: Yeah, yeah. What’s in the game is what’s

00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:32.340
in the game. And anything that we say 
outside that is actually not canon.

00:31:32.340 --> 00:31:37.980
Ari: Although obviously any additional Hollow 
Knight content is canon. So anything through

00:31:37.980 --> 00:31:42.480
Godmaster or Grimm Troupe or Hornet…
William: Or the comic and stuff.

00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:44.940
Ari: Yeah.
Of course,

00:31:44.940 --> 00:31:50.880
we’ll sometimes use Reddit AMA answers as if 
they are canon, but only in a few instances like

00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:55.680
confirming how the Hive was infected. But those 
are way more minor than the Daughter of Three

00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.740
Queens stuff. I occasionally see people treat this 
origin story for Hornet as if it’s true, but keep

00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:06.060
in mind that it isn’t officially confirmed 
by any means, and the only in-game evidence

00:32:06.060 --> 00:32:11.880
we have for it is that Hornet’s name is Hornet.
I should also mention that according to Ellina,

00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:16.320
the Hive sealed itself off completely 
from Hallownest, which seems to imply

00:32:16.320 --> 00:32:21.360
they likely never even met Hornet, despite 
the King’s Brand she guards being so close by.

00:32:25.080 --> 00:32:30.720
Who the fuck is Dashmaster? There’s literally 
only one statue commemorating the guy,

00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:36.300
and it’s about 5 feet from a giant sewage 
pipe. We’re told that this Dashmaster was

00:32:36.300 --> 00:32:41.220
an eccentric bug but not much else.
Also, people got really mad at me in

00:32:41.220 --> 00:32:45.240
my last video for saying this guy wasn’t 
a reference to the character Sans from

00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:50.460
Undertale. I’ll be completely honest with you. 
This is a little embarrassing, but I’ve never

00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:56.520
played Undertale. Although I have watched its 
anime adaptation Cyberpunk Edgerunners. But I

00:32:56.520 --> 00:33:02.580
guess they cut Sans from that for some reason.
We’re given quite a good amount of detail

00:33:02.580 --> 00:33:07.200
surrounding the nature of the Pale King and the 
Radiance. And yet for being such an important

00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:12.900
aspect of the story, the White Lady is a bit of 
an enigma. We know that part of her nature is a

00:33:12.900 --> 00:33:18.540
desire to spread her seed and propagate across the 
land. But she decided to put bindings on herself

00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:23.880
and trap herself in a cocoon-like chamber to 
suppress this nature and hide herself from others.

00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:27.660
We can actually see glimpses of what the 
White Lady used to looked like before the

00:33:27.660 --> 00:33:32.220
events of the game. From the silhouette left 
on the chair in the White Palace nursery room,

00:33:32.220 --> 00:33:37.380
we can see that she was once quite a bit smaller. 
We can also see other images of her in concept

00:33:37.380 --> 00:33:42.960
art and early images, which might represent how 
she looked during Hallownest’s reign. But now,

00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:47.580
her roots have grown out uncontrollably, 
and she must do all she can to contain them.

00:33:47.580 --> 00:33:53.520
I honestly don’t really have much else to say… 
It’s just like, where did she come from? It

00:33:53.520 --> 00:33:58.440
makes sense that a Wyrm could have slithered into 
Hallownest, but where exactly did this big tree

00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:02.100
momma come from?
Pale Ore

00:34:02.100 --> 00:34:08.100
Let’s talk about Pale Ore. Pale Ore is icy cold 
to the touch, and it has been confirmed by Team

00:34:08.100 --> 00:34:13.080
Cherry that it is connected to the Pale Beings, 
which either refers to creatures like the Pale

00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:20.280
King and White Lady, or Redditors. But what 
exactly is Pale Ore and what does it do? Let’s

00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:26.640
compare how Pale Ore changes the Knight’s Old Nail 
into its final form, Pure Nail. The Pure Nail has

00:34:26.640 --> 00:34:31.860
patterns running across it similar to those seen 
on the Ancient Mask, Soul Vessels, as well as the

00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:36.360
Hollow Knight’s nail as shown in the Embrace 
the Void endings and the various nail attacks

00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:40.380
used by the Pure Vessel. What’s interesting 
here is that the Pure Vessel can literally

00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:45.900
create these solid nails that have the same 
pattern as the Pure Nail using nothing but Soul.

00:34:45.900 --> 00:34:52.200
So perhaps Pale Ore itself contains some form of 
Soul, itself a substance with strong connection to

00:34:52.200 --> 00:34:57.420
Pale Beings. I should point out that the Pure 
Nail isn’t just a regular nail forged to be

00:34:57.420 --> 00:35:03.600
stronger. More specifically, the addition of Pale 
Ore somehow causes the nail to reveal its true,

00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:09.900
ancient form. So, even if Pale Ore isn’t strictly 
some kind of solidified concentration of soul,

00:35:09.900 --> 00:35:14.880
it certainly has some kind of magical 
effect on the Nail itself. However,

00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:19.740
the actual location of Pale Ore throughout the 
game makes this Soul connection a bit strained.

00:35:19.740 --> 00:35:25.980
Of the Pale Ore that aren’t rewarded by random 
NPCs, they just kinda show up in random rocks

00:35:25.980 --> 00:35:32.460
or eggs or whatever they are and in the Radiance’s 
statue. The Radiance statue maybe makes some sense

00:35:32.460 --> 00:35:37.500
as some kind of offering or ritual, but 
these random deposits are a bit more odd.

00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:41.640
Perhaps these are the remnants of ancient 
Pale Beings from a time before Hallowenst.

00:35:43.500 --> 00:35:49.140
This mystery isn’t particularly big or 
important, but it’s somewhat cryptic

00:35:49.140 --> 00:35:54.000
in the game itself. Throughout Hallownest 
are three Nailmaster brothers named Sheo,

00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:00.660
Oro and Mato. Despite clearly the best among 
the three, Sheo eventually put down his nail to

00:36:00.660 --> 00:36:05.640
become an artist, leaving Oro and Mato to carry 
on the craft taught to them by Nailsage Sly.

00:36:05.640 --> 00:36:11.460
However, at some point, Oro and Mato had a 
falling out, and now live on opposite sides

00:36:11.460 --> 00:36:16.740
of the kingdom. Mato is awaiting something 
that Oro owes him, while Oro will not be

00:36:16.740 --> 00:36:21.960
delivering on this anytime soon. We are also 
told by Sheo that Oro is haunted by something.

00:36:22.620 --> 00:36:28.440
“What could this be?” I hear you quiver.
First off, Oro is likely the worst Nailmaster of

00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:34.800
the trio. We have one brief line from Sly where he 
says that Oro holds his nail like a club. Later,

00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:39.660
upon learning that the Knight received 
Nailmaster’s Glory, Oro even mentions that

00:36:39.660 --> 00:36:44.160
he doesn’t begrudge that the Knight won Sly’s 
approval and even feels that he is redeemed

00:36:44.160 --> 00:36:49.380
in helping the Knight along in its journey. To 
me, this further indicates that Sly was never

00:36:49.380 --> 00:36:55.260
impressed with Oro’s skill as a Nailmaster.
During the fight in Godhome, Oro has Dream

00:36:55.260 --> 00:37:00.960
Nail dialogue indicating that he wants to prove 
himself. Oro is also the only brother to have

00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:06.120
a training dummy outside his hut, perhaps 
indicating that he feels he lacks training.

00:37:06.120 --> 00:37:13.440
This is reflected by the Dream Nail dialogue of 
the dummy, which reads “Stronger… Brothers…” I

00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:18.720
think this shows that Oro views his brothers as 
being stronger than him, and maybe even dresses

00:37:18.720 --> 00:37:24.060
the dummy as his brothers to remind him of this.
Another contrast we can see between the brothers

00:37:24.060 --> 00:37:29.400
is how their huts are furnished. Mato has 
his hut covered in the skulls of beasts

00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:33.480
he has likely fallen, whereas Oro’s 
hut is full of random objects from

00:37:33.480 --> 00:37:39.240
the city and fancy drapes. Oro is also the only 
Nailmaster who charges Geo to train the Knight,

00:37:39.240 --> 00:37:45.900
and he even scoffs at the idea that Mato fights 
for loyalty and honor. In contrast, Mato gets

00:37:45.900 --> 00:37:51.900
overly attached to the Knight, as according to 
Sheo, Mato’s greatest desire is to be a teacher.

00:37:51.900 --> 00:37:56.340
This all leads to a strained 
relationship between Oro and Mato.

00:37:56.340 --> 00:38:01.020
Mato clearly takes pride in being trained in 
the nail and wants to share that with others,

00:38:01.020 --> 00:38:06.960
while Oro lacks confidence in his abilities. He 
instead trains alone because he wants to prove

00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:12.120
himself. He likely charges money as a way to keep 
distance from others, and avoid building strong

00:38:12.120 --> 00:38:17.940
connections. We know that Oro hides his true 
feelings often due to how he reacts to the Knight

00:38:17.940 --> 00:38:23.700
giving him a flower. He acts all pissed off, but 
ultimately ends up placing this flower in a vase.

00:38:24.420 --> 00:38:31.200
But what does Oro owe Mato exactly? I think the 
most logical answers are that Mato either wants

00:38:31.200 --> 00:38:38.100
to duel Oro in a friendly competition, Mato wants 
to train Oro, or Mato wants Oro to fight alongside

00:38:38.100 --> 00:38:44.220
him. Whatever it is, Mato wants companionship. 
This would explain Mato’s Dream Nail dialogue

00:38:44.220 --> 00:38:50.160
in the Godmaster fight, stating “Brothers always 
fight together!” and “Don’t leave me behind!”.

00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:55.500
This is the only thing Mato is portrayed 
as wanting, and Oro is the only brother

00:38:55.500 --> 00:39:01.320
who still wields a nail. I don’t think anything 
else would really matter to Mato. But due to his

00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:06.660
lack of confidence in his own skills, or his 
desire to prove himself, Oro refuses to give

00:39:06.660 --> 00:39:11.580
Mato that companionship. However, deep 
down, Oro also seeks that companionship,

00:39:11.580 --> 00:39:17.100
he just fails to openly show it. Although 
Oro and Mato never make up in Hallownest,

00:39:17.100 --> 00:39:21.480
it’s nice to think that they were able to share 
the battlefield at least once as brothers.

00:39:24.720 --> 00:39:29.580
Everyone in the Hollow Knight community generally 
agrees that Sly is a geo-pilled chad of a

00:39:29.580 --> 00:39:35.280
character that deserves to be remembered alongside 
the greatest characters in all of fiction. But one

00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:40.800
thing the community isn’t so sure about is the 
identity of Esmy, a mysterious character that is

00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:47.160
only mentioned once, and never seen in-game. The 
only dialogue we get is from our first encounter

00:39:47.160 --> 00:39:52.500
with Sly while he’s fighting off the infection 
where he says “ ...Esmy... how much deeper do

00:39:52.500 --> 00:39:58.080
we have to go…”. William Pellen was asked about 
Esmy in a Reddit AMA and he responded that she is

00:39:58.080 --> 00:40:05.220
someone that still lingers in Sly’s dreams. So, 
not a lot to go on here. From Sly’s dialogue,

00:40:05.220 --> 00:40:10.380
it seems Esmy was pushing Sly to travel into 
some sort of dangerous area. The only possible

00:40:10.380 --> 00:40:16.020
clue we have is the Shopkeeper’s Key, located in 
the Crystal Peak, not far away from Dirtmouth.

00:40:16.020 --> 00:40:22.080
Perhaps Sly and Esmy were exploring this area 
when they were separated somehow. When we give

00:40:22.080 --> 00:40:27.300
Sly the Shopkeeper’s Key, he even guesses that 
the key was in the mines, so it’s likely that

00:40:27.300 --> 00:40:31.380
Sly was in that region at some point.
It’s worth pointing out that a lot of

00:40:31.380 --> 00:40:36.480
characters in Hollow Knight have mysterious dead 
lovers. Cloth mentions a character named Nola

00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:41.820
that also died at some point. In fact, it’s 
even implied that Cloth wanted to be killed

00:40:41.820 --> 00:40:47.760
in Hallownest so that she could be reunited with 
Nola in death. Which… is a very overlooked aspect

00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:52.920
of this character and probably one of the saddest 
storylines in the game outside of the main quest.

00:40:52.920 --> 00:40:59.280
Elderbug also has vague dialogue about a lost 
lover, whose grave he visits on occasion.

00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:03.900
This would also be incredibly sad if 
Elderbug was actually a good character.

00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:11.100
One of the biggest mysteries left in Hallownest 
has to be this strange trilobite statue in

00:41:11.100 --> 00:41:16.080
Deepnest. In the game files, the art in 
this area is referred to as a shrine. It

00:41:16.080 --> 00:41:21.240
is protected by a seal of binding and connected 
to several pipes that hold it up off the ground,

00:41:21.240 --> 00:41:27.060
with a mouth located at the bottom. Finally, we 
have concept art of the shrine from Ari Gibson’s

00:41:27.060 --> 00:41:31.860
sketchbook. The design is basically the same, 
except we can see some kind of substance coming

00:41:31.860 --> 00:41:36.960
out of the mouth of the shrine. This appears 
to be some type of fluid or possibly even silk.

00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:41.280
Between the pipes and the mouth, I do believe 
that this shrine is a container for something,

00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:46.500
perhaps even some kind of creature. Just above 
the face of the shrine we can see what appears

00:41:46.500 --> 00:41:51.420
to be some type of crown, which could imply 
that this shrine houses Deepnest’s King.

00:41:51.420 --> 00:41:57.720
The King of Deepnest is mentioned only once in the 
entire game in a lore tablet located in the Fungal

00:41:57.720 --> 00:42:04.980
Wastes. He is described as Deepnest’s “dead sire” 
and that he was of “honored caste”. They contrast

00:42:04.980 --> 00:42:10.560
this to Deepnest’s Queen, Herrah, who they 
describe as a “broke ass bitch”. From this,

00:42:10.560 --> 00:42:15.240
we can assume that Deepnest’s king was some 
kind of powerful or important creature.

00:42:15.240 --> 00:42:20.760
But according to this tablet, the king is 
dead. Now, that doesn’t mean the King can't

00:42:20.760 --> 00:42:26.880
still be inside this shrine. Perhaps the king 
passed away while in this device, or maybe he’s

00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:31.920
still alive in some sense, but the mushroom 
people just aren’t aware of this. Regardless,

00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:36.780
if the king was placed in this thingamabob, I 
think it must have happened while he was still

00:42:36.780 --> 00:42:41.400
alive, given the pipes and mouth.
While this is a very big mystery,

00:42:41.400 --> 00:42:45.480
this is one that I am very confident 
will be expanded upon in Hollow Knight:

00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:51.240
Silksong. When asked explicitly about Deepnest’s 
King in a Reddit AMA, Ari Gibson replied:

00:42:51.240 --> 00:42:55.080
…further elements of Deepnest's 
past will be illuminated in future,

00:42:55.080 --> 00:43:00.120
but we can't say anything specific for now.
So, this means that an answer to this question

00:43:00.120 --> 00:43:08.460
should be waiting just around the corner… right?
Long before the Pale King’s rule, an ancient

00:43:08.460 --> 00:43:13.260
civilization existed in the land of Hallownest. 
There are several remnants of this civilization

00:43:13.260 --> 00:43:18.420
that can be found in-game. Large corpses in 
various locations throughout Hallownest might

00:43:18.420 --> 00:43:23.640
be former members of this ancient caste, although 
it’s tough to find any direct confirmation of any

00:43:23.640 --> 00:43:29.040
of this. But they aren’t the only thing we 
have to work with. Arcane Eggs, Soul Totems,

00:43:29.040 --> 00:43:34.320
and potentially Ancient Masks and Soul Vessels 
are all evidence of this civilization’s existence.

00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:38.460
These objects seemed to be of no use to 
the bugs of the Pale King’s Hallownest.

00:43:38.460 --> 00:43:42.900
The majority of Hallownest’s bugs likely 
didn’t partake in the manipulation of Soul,

00:43:42.900 --> 00:43:47.820
so there was no use for objects such as 
Soul Vessels and Soul Totems. These bugs

00:43:47.820 --> 00:43:54.180
also used stone tablets and parchment to store 
information instead of Arcane Eggs. Despite this,

00:43:54.180 --> 00:43:58.500
it’s interesting to note that the Pale King did 
craft some Soul Totems within his White Palace.

00:43:58.500 --> 00:44:03.480
And these egg shaped tablets we see throughout 
the kingdom might be the Pale King’s own version

00:44:03.480 --> 00:44:09.600
of Arcane Eggs, as Lemm explains that eggs are 
a great way to store information. Obviously.

00:44:10.200 --> 00:44:14.940
Although these are pretty massive eggs for 
just a few sentences. That’s like storing

00:44:14.940 --> 00:44:20.700
a “read me” txt file in one of these.
There’s also some weird patterns within

00:44:20.700 --> 00:44:25.440
the Ancient Civilization. Lemm mentions that 
other scholars have speculated that Arcane

00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:30.000
Eggs contain some sort of will within them. 
Elderbug talks about how the rocks that form

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.080
the roads and structures in the Ancient 
Basin seemed to have a will of their own.

00:44:34.620 --> 00:44:39.300
And then there’s the Quick Slash charm, which 
was formed by the fusion of a bunch of discarded,

00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:45.060
imperfect nails created by the Ancient Nailsmith. 
As the charm explicitly states, these nails

00:44:45.060 --> 00:44:51.360
long to be wielded. So, it seems like inanimate 
objects from this time period are more likely to

00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:56.460
possess living traits such as wills and desires.
But the most interesting relic from the Ancient

00:44:56.460 --> 00:45:03.780
Civilization is the Void Idol. As Lemm explains:
Inspired or mad, those ancient bugs. They devoted

00:45:03.780 --> 00:45:09.180
their worship to no lord, or power, or 
strength, but to the very darkness itself.

00:45:09.180 --> 00:45:13.500
Lemm doesn’t give us a good explanation 
for why these bugs worshiped the Void,

00:45:13.500 --> 00:45:18.180
but if we look in the Abyss, we might be able 
to see direct evidence of these strange bugs

00:45:18.180 --> 00:45:23.460
interacting with the Void. In this room east of 
the Abyss Lighthouse, we see some sort of desk.

00:45:23.460 --> 00:45:30.000
Next to it is a strange relief in the wall, which 
is described as “an imprint of Abyss given form.”

00:45:30.660 --> 00:45:34.260
This may be a stretch, but I think this 
was a place where these Void worshippers

00:45:34.260 --> 00:45:40.260
would “give form” to the Void, creating the 
Void tendrils we find in the Abyss lake. So,

00:45:40.260 --> 00:45:45.180
basically a more crude form of the molds we see 
in the White Palace workshop. Alternatively,

00:45:45.180 --> 00:45:49.920
the Void Tendrils might have existed before the 
Ancient Civilization, and this room is where

00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:55.380
they studied the Tendrils. Aside from that room, 
there is also the Shade Beast, who holds a bowl

00:45:55.380 --> 00:46:00.540
that pours out a never ending stream of Void, 
which was perhaps used in some sort of ritual.

00:46:00.540 --> 00:46:06.300
We can infer from the Mask Maker that this Ancient 
Civilization fell to ruin as a result of trying

00:46:06.300 --> 00:46:11.640
to lay claim to all of Hallownest. So perhaps 
this worship of the Void stemmed from a desire

00:46:11.640 --> 00:46:17.040
to expand their lands. This obviously didn’t work 
out for them. Perhaps, they even ran into our old

00:46:17.040 --> 00:46:23.160
pal Radiance, which would explain why she calls 
the Void her “Ancient Enemy”. The last strange

00:46:23.160 --> 00:46:28.020
structure we find in the Abyss shows a bunch 
of soyjak faces screaming out above an altar,

00:46:28.020 --> 00:46:34.320
with the Dream Nail dialogue. “...Our voices… 
will cry out… again…” Perhaps this was the last

00:46:34.320 --> 00:46:39.480
desperate cry of the Ancient Civilization as their 
kingdom collapsed and disappeared into obscurity.

00:46:41.280 --> 00:46:46.560
Although maybe this cry is actually true.
Allow me

00:47:03.180 --> 00:47:09.060
to speculate. In the Godmaster endings to the 
game, we are introduced to this strange Void

00:47:09.060 --> 00:47:14.580
creature, who doesn’t have a formal name but is 
sometimes referred to as the Void Given Focus,

00:47:14.580 --> 00:47:18.360
or the Void Entity. We don’t 
really know what this thing is,

00:47:18.360 --> 00:47:22.800
but there is debate that it might be a more 
evolved or powerful version of the Knight,

00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:28.620
given how the Godseeker speaks to the Knight 
in Godseeker Mode and the fact that it replaces

00:47:28.620 --> 00:47:33.120
the Knight statue in the Hall of Gods.
But I think this being might actually be

00:47:33.120 --> 00:47:38.160
more directly tied to the Ancient Civilization. In 
the first cutscene introducing this new character,

00:47:38.160 --> 00:47:42.960
we can see that it acts distinctly from the 
Knight, the Hollow Knight and the rest of

00:47:42.960 --> 00:47:47.700
Vessels. While I think the Knight does become 
part of the Void Entity at the end of the game,

00:47:47.700 --> 00:47:53.100
I think this creature existed before the Vessels 
were even created, and has been lying dormant

00:47:53.100 --> 00:47:58.440
somewhere in the Abyss, only called back now by 
the Focus given to it by the Godseekers’ ritual.

00:47:58.440 --> 00:48:03.120
And it seems like the game really wants us to 
connect what the Godseekers did in Godhome with

00:48:03.120 --> 00:48:08.280
what that Ancient Civilization did with Void 
in the past. Hence why we unlock Void Idol

00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:12.960
descriptions from looking at the Void Entity 
statue. But if the Ancient Civilization really

00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:17.700
worshiped a creature like this, what exactly 
was it that caused their kingdom to collapse?

00:48:18.660 --> 00:48:25.920
It’s established that one power Wyrms like the 
Pale King possess is “foresight”. This ability

00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:30.960
is mentioned once by Bardoon, and twice by 
the mushrooms of the Fungal Wastes. But as

00:48:30.960 --> 00:48:36.360
we all know, despite this prescience, the Pale 
King’s kingdom still collapsed into ruin. “But

00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:41.040
how prescient is the Pale King really?” 
I hear you ask in a normal tone of voice.

00:48:41.040 --> 00:48:46.320
The way I like to think about this problem 
is in regards to time. The Pale King was

00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:51.120
specifically trying to create a kingdom that 
would last forever: an eternal kingdom. The

00:48:51.120 --> 00:48:56.280
Radiance is described in a lot of dialogue 
as being nature, or something unavoidable.

00:48:56.280 --> 00:49:00.540
This is what the dead mushroom points out 
in its Dream Nail dialogue. Nature will

00:49:00.540 --> 00:49:05.220
come to destroy the Pale King’s civilization 
eventually as kingdoms can’t last forever.

00:49:05.220 --> 00:49:10.620
The Pale King’s only solution to this is to 
just stop Time, as explained in the White

00:49:10.620 --> 00:49:16.800
Palace workshop lore tablet. So yes, the Pale 
King was able to foresee an unavoidable demise,

00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:22.500
but his solution was to delay it inevitably.
This idea of fighting your inescapable fate

00:49:22.500 --> 00:49:27.600
is a storytelling trope seen all throughout 
literature. The most prominent and well known

00:49:27.600 --> 00:49:32.640
example is from the television series The Amazing 
World of Gumball. In the episode The Oracle,

00:49:32.640 --> 00:49:38.580
Gumball finds paintings produced by Banana Barbara 
that appear to predict future events, with one of

00:49:38.580 --> 00:49:43.500
them depicting Gumball completely naked surrounded 
by a huge crowd at the mall. In response to this,

00:49:43.500 --> 00:49:48.840
Gumball tries everything within his power to stop 
this from happening, but through his actions, he

00:49:48.840 --> 00:49:52.980
inadvertently causes himself to end up completely 
naked surrounded by a huge crowd at the mall.

00:49:54.420 --> 00:49:56.640
The same thing pretty much 
happened to the Pale King.

00:49:58.380 --> 00:50:02.580
Mister Mushroom is a wandering 
mushroom man who somehow winds up

00:50:02.580 --> 00:50:06.660
in Hallownest. You can only understand him 
if you’re wearing the Spore Shroom charm,

00:50:06.660 --> 00:50:10.620
but even then his dialogue implies that 
he is talking to someone you can’t see.

00:50:11.340 --> 00:50:16.500
Out of all his dialogues like this, the only 
ones we are confident on are his first and third,

00:50:16.500 --> 00:50:20.640
where he seems to be talking to the main 
characters from two of Team Cherry's other

00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:25.020
games: Hungry Knight and Tomb Cat.
But outside of what I talked about

00:50:25.020 --> 00:50:29.400
in my Mister Mushroom lore video, there really 
hasn’t been anything conclusive to say about the

00:50:29.400 --> 00:50:33.780
majority of Mister Mushroom’s wacky dialogue. 
My guess is that Mister Mushroom is talking to

00:50:33.780 --> 00:50:38.700
characters from future Team Cherry projects, 
or even just ideas they have for games that

00:50:38.700 --> 00:50:43.320
they’re never actually going to make. You can tell 
from interviews that William and Ari have tons

00:50:43.320 --> 00:50:47.160
of ideas for games that they want to make and 
it’s something that they think about a lot.

00:50:47.160 --> 00:50:51.780
Game development is long, right? Especially games 
like this, big games. You spend two years on it.

00:50:51.780 --> 00:50:57.180
We’ve thought up ten years of games that we would 
love to make in one year of game development.

00:50:57.180 --> 00:51:03.240
But as to specific explanations for what any of 
Mister Mushroom’s dialogue is referring to… He

00:51:03.240 --> 00:51:08.880
does use the word determination at one point. 
Now if you’re a fan of the channel, you know I

00:51:08.880 --> 00:51:15.360
absolutely love Undertale. It’s an amazing game, 
filled with all sorts of wonderful characters. In

00:51:15.360 --> 00:51:22.440
fact, I’m so good at the game, I almost beat Sans. 
Anyway, determination is actually a very important

00:51:22.440 --> 00:51:27.900
aspect of Undertale’s main story, as it shows up 
a couple times. So I think I speak for everyone

00:51:27.900 --> 00:51:32.880
when I say this can’t be a coincidence.
And of course, because Mister Mushroom

00:51:32.880 --> 00:51:37.440
is connected to all of these other Team Cherry 
properties in the Team Cherry Cinematic Universe,

00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:41.220
they have to give him a post credits 
scene to tease his next adventure.

00:51:44.340 --> 00:51:48.600
The Masters are yet another group that 
will hopefully be expanded up in Silksong,

00:51:48.600 --> 00:51:54.240
but as of right now, very little is known about 
them. They are a group of beings mentioned only

00:51:54.240 --> 00:52:00.120
by Confessor Jiji and Steel Soul Jinn. When the 
Knight receives the Void Heart, Jiji mentions that

00:52:00.120 --> 00:52:04.560
her Masters would be impressed with how the Knight 
seems to have come to terms with its regrets.

00:52:04.560 --> 00:52:10.080
Once the Knight is marked with the King’s Brand, 
Steel Soul Jinn mentions that she cannot bow to

00:52:10.080 --> 00:52:15.960
the Knight, as her masters’ minds are other, and 
do not seek order. And once the Knight receives

00:52:15.960 --> 00:52:21.240
the Void Heart, Jinn also comments that the 
Knight has become complete like her Masters.

00:52:21.240 --> 00:52:25.800
From what little we know about Silksong, it 
seems there are more Steel Soul creatures

00:52:25.800 --> 00:52:30.540
who are looking to assassinate Hornet. 
Whoever these Masters are, it seems as

00:52:30.540 --> 00:52:34.740
though they are interested in Void creatures 
like the Knight, which might explain why Jiji

00:52:34.740 --> 00:52:40.020
and Jinn were assigned to offer services, 
while others were ordered to kill Hornet.

00:52:40.020 --> 00:52:44.340
From the dialogue we get from Jiji and Jinn, 
it might turn out that the Masters themselves

00:52:44.340 --> 00:52:49.800
are Void creatures. But instead of just crazy 
unhinged maniacs like the Collector, or brainless

00:52:49.800 --> 00:52:55.200
golems like the Kingsmoulds, these Masters are 
actually intelligent and capable of scheming,

00:52:55.200 --> 00:53:01.680
with their end goal in mind appearing to be not 
order, but something else entirely: Like disorder.

00:53:05.400 --> 00:53:10.560
The Delicate Flower comes from a far off, 
“serene” land, carried by the Grey Mourner,

00:53:10.560 --> 00:53:16.380
a character who herself looks like some sort of 
wilted flower. Once the flower starts growing

00:53:16.380 --> 00:53:21.480
in the Queen’s Garden, it is described in the 
menu as glowing with a pale light. The White

00:53:21.480 --> 00:53:27.180
Lady recognizes it as distinct from herself and 
Hallownest. She mentions that a rare power exists

00:53:27.180 --> 00:53:32.340
inside these fragile petals, and refuses to accept 
it, telling the Knight that only someone with no

00:53:32.340 --> 00:53:38.100
knowledge of its power would hold it so close.
This flower can be given to the Godseeker, who

00:53:38.100 --> 00:53:43.740
ponders that it might be a “splinter, cast-off or 
refuse from something greater” before ultimately

00:53:43.740 --> 00:53:49.200
saying that she can’t sense any godliness within 
it. However, if the Godseeker is holding the

00:53:49.200 --> 00:53:55.020
flower during the Embrace the Void ending, we see 
that the flower does something to the Void and the

00:53:55.020 --> 00:53:59.760
Godseeker, seemingly leaving nothing but a small 
black blotch on the corner of one of the petals.

00:53:59.760 --> 00:54:05.220
There isn’t any solid theory on what happens here.
It might be that the Void and the Godseeker were

00:54:05.220 --> 00:54:10.980
banished to some part of the dream realm, similar 
to how the White Palace was teleported away. Or

00:54:10.980 --> 00:54:16.260
maybe they were teleported back to where the 
flower came from, or maybe they’re just gone.

00:54:16.260 --> 00:54:21.780
So despite being described as producing a pale 
light, both White Lady denies a connection to

00:54:21.780 --> 00:54:27.480
this flower, and the Godseeker can’t detect any 
Godliness within it. If that flower shares some

00:54:27.480 --> 00:54:32.460
kind of pale property with the White Lady, Pale 
King and Pale Ore, this seems to inform us that

00:54:32.460 --> 00:54:38.100
just because something is “Pale” doesn’t mean it’s 
godly. Is this “pale” property related to Soul,

00:54:38.100 --> 00:54:45.840
or some other force? As of right now, I’m honestly 
not sure. But one thing I do know, if this flower

00:54:45.840 --> 00:54:51.180
really can just pop creatures completely out 
of existence, I’m glad I gave one to Elderbug.

00:54:52.800 --> 00:54:58.740
The Godmaster update added two additional endings 
to Hollow Knight back in 2018. And unlike the base

00:54:58.740 --> 00:55:05.100
ending which all were fairly conclusive, these two 
endings left the story on a major cliffhanger. The

00:55:05.100 --> 00:55:09.180
Knight and the rest of the siblings have 
seemingly been consumed into this new,

00:55:09.180 --> 00:55:14.760
strange Void Entity. The Radiance’s infection has 
been erased from Hallownest. And the Hollow Knight

00:55:14.760 --> 00:55:19.500
is now free from its prison inside the Black 
Egg Temple. And that’s where the game leaves us.

00:55:19.500 --> 00:55:24.600
On top of that we have no idea how or even 
if Team Cherry is going to follow up on these

00:55:24.600 --> 00:55:29.160
endings. We still don’t know for sure how the 
events of Hollow Knight and Silksong line up

00:55:29.160 --> 00:55:34.740
on any sort of timeline. If Silksong takes place 
after, is the game gonna give us a flashback to

00:55:34.740 --> 00:55:39.420
this event? If it takes place before, are they 
going to do a time skip? Or are they going to do

00:55:39.420 --> 00:55:44.400
something completely different and just explain 
it in one off comic or another anime adaptation?

00:55:45.120 --> 00:55:48.900
In a Reddit AMA, Ari Gibson did 
say the following in regards to

00:55:48.900 --> 00:55:53.760
Hollow Knight’s multiple base endings.
All endings are equally canon. We're not

00:55:53.760 --> 00:55:58.380
into 'True Endings.' You choose the path 
yourself. We'll do our best in all future

00:55:58.380 --> 00:56:03.960
Hollow Knight content to account for all of them.
Now keep in mind this post was made 5 years ago,

00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:08.940
before the new endings were released, so it’s 
possible that Team Cherry changed their mind

00:56:08.940 --> 00:56:14.460
on this. That said, I don’t think they have. 
This seems like something Team Cherry wouldn’t

00:56:14.460 --> 00:56:18.660
change their minds on. And if they really 
do have a way to keep all this stuff canon

00:56:18.660 --> 00:56:24.420
and pay off everything, I am very excited 
to eventually one day have to explain it.

00:56:26.280 --> 00:56:30.840
And finally, I think it’s time we talk 
about the single biggest mystery that

00:56:30.840 --> 00:56:36.780
has loomed over the Hollow Knight community 
since February 24th, 2017. It’s a question

00:56:36.780 --> 00:56:42.180
that has eluded some of the greatest minds 
of our generation. The smartest men, women

00:56:42.180 --> 00:56:47.880
and children have tried for years to solve this 
mystery, and they have all died in the process.

00:56:48.960 --> 00:56:50.640
Who the fuck is Sprintmaster!?