There is a certain character I have avoided talking about on this channel.
A character with lore so deep and so complex that no one has been able to decipher their
dialogue in a way that makes coherent sense.
I am of course talking about, none other than Menderbug.
I am really at a loss on how to tackle this guy.
So instead I’m going to pass the buck, and talk about another character, the Mask Maker.
The Mask Maker is an NPC found in Deepnest.
They are voiced by Ari Gibson, and, oddly enough, they spend their time making masks.
Since pretty much everything Mask Maker says is cryptic, we’re going to go through every
line and decipher it the best we can.
So buckle up boys and girls, because it’s time for some deep speculation.
The first line from Mask Maker brings up the question of masks in Hallownest, saying it’s
hard to tell who is and who isn’t wearing a mask.
Well, the Dreamers are definitely wearing masks.
If we can’t agree on that then this is going to be a long video.
Same for the members of the Grimm Troupe.
We even get to see Brumm character with and without his mask.
The Godseekers appear to be wearing masks as well.
And then there’s the bugs in the Colosseum of Fools.
They look like they might be wearing masks too.
Out of all the faces in the game, these are probably the closest ones to what the Mask
Maker actually creates.
Unfortunately, this is all visual, so there’s no text to confirm this 100%.
There are a bunch of characters we could talk about that might also be wearing masks, but
whether or not we agree on those, there are definitely creatures in Hallownest that don’t
wear masks.
And I’d say that would be the majority of them.
At the very least, the masks that the Mask Maker is making aren’t being worn by many
of the bugs we see in Hallownest.
The Mask Maker’s next line tells us that not everyone is born with a face.
So for those people, the Mask Maker will provide masks.
They then imply that a face is needed for one to “define”, “focus” and “exist”.
My interpretation of this dialogue is that a “face” is a metaphor for a being that
has sentience.
The bugs in Hallownest are incredibly diverse, meaning that some bugs might not be as capable
at higher thought than others.
An example of this would be the spiders in Deepnest.
Midwife calls them the most intelligent species, or in other words, more intelligent than other
enemies in the game.
So my theory is that some of these bugs with weaker minds need masks in order to have greater
control of themselves.
Honestly, I feel like this is pretty speculative, but it’s really hard to make sense of this
weirdo.
At one point the Mask Maker says:
“Faces I grant to all who'd request.”
So if you need a face to exist, how do you request a face in the first place?
What the fuck, Team Cherry?
You’re destroying my brain here.
Anyway, masks give bugs sentience.
While I don’t have much proof outside of this dialogue, it does seem to line up with
what happens with the Pale King.
From the lore tablet in the White Palace throne room, we know that the Pale King became a
beacon for the bugs of Hallownest, resulting in an expansion of their minds.
So in other words, the Pale King was able to achieve the same effect as the masks without
making his subjects wear them.
Regardless of whether this is true or not, it does seem like the Mask Maker is entirely
unrelated to the Pale King in any way.
The Mask Maker lives in Deepnest, outside of the Pale King’s domain, and the Mask
Maker has knowledge of events that happened before the Pale King’s rule.
The need for masks was probably much greater in the time before Hallownest, so it makes
sense that a being like the Mask Maker would have popped up during that time.
Now you might be questioning how the Mask Maker could have been alive for so long, but
remember, time in Hallownest is weird as fuck.
According to the Elderbug, the Stag Stations were closed before he was even born.
So if we assume that the Stag Stations didn’t close until the fall of Hallownest, that means
that Hornet is actually older than Elderbug.
Let’s dive deep into that Quirrel comic Team Cherry released.
It gives us an idea about what life outside of a kingdom looks like.
Featured in the comic is a character named Boon.
Boon speaks with few words, and the structure of his sentences are strange.
Contrast that with Tuk, a bug we meet in the Royal Waterways.
These bugs are pretty similar looking, implying that they are the same species, but Tuk is
much more articulate in his dialogue.
This is probably due to the effects of the Pale King.
The lore tablet in the Howling Cliffs agrees with this, telling us that entering the lands
beyond Hallownest results in the loss of the mind granted by the kingdom.
There is also the corpse at the edge of Howling Cliffs that says:
“No king, no mind, release”.
Now you could argue that Boon is just a man of few words, but the dude talks in the third
person.
That’s always a sign that something is wrong upstairs.
And then the question of Quirrel comes up.
He doesn’t lose his mind outside of Hallownest, just his memory.
So what causes this?
Well, he does have Monomon’s mask, and maybe his face is also a mask as well.
Or maybe Quirrel just has a mind of his own and doesn’t need anything to keep his sentience.
I do think his time outside of Hallownest is what made Quirrel lose his memory, but
his mind remained intact.
So yeah, this shit is really confusing, and I don’t have a definitive answer, but this
is the most coherent case I think can be made.
I think that masks are somehow tied to granting bugs sentience which is why the Mask Maker
feels obligated to create them.
So the Mask Maker is apparently hooked on their own goods, because the mask they are
wearing can change whenever you enter the room.
It’s a pretty neat detail, but more importantly you can use Desolate Dive to knock their mask
completely off.
This gives us a better look at the Mask Maker’s eyes, revealing one of the worst cases of
glaucoma I have ever seen.
We’ll get to the weird eye thing in a minute, but more importantly, knocking the Mask Maker’s
mask off gives us additional dialogue.
The Mask Maker tells us that they might just be wearing another mask underneath this one
like they are some sort of clever Scooby Doo villain.
Then the Mask Maker tells us that truth in Hallownest is always buried deep.
Yeah…no shit.
The Mask Maker then says the following:
“To change a face; to conceal it fully within another...
A powerful protection that is, but one with sad consequence.
The original mind is destroyed, though those of striking will may still retain a sliver
of that concealed self.”
My view surrounding this dialogue is that it is relating to the relationship between
the shell and the shade of the Knight.
The face of the shade is being concealed within the face of the shell.
This results in the shade being protected, but at the cost of the being that once inhabited
the shell.
The original mind might be referring to the mind of the Vessel that died, which the concealed
self is the shade concealed inside the shell.
This theory makes more sense when we look at the Mask Maker’s Dream Nail dialogue.
They refer to the shade as the face that hides beneath.
At this point, I should probably bring up the idea that the Void might have a mind.
Basically, the Void is capable of doing things.
The best example is when it calls out to the bug in the lighthouse, telling it to turn
off the light.
Another argument for this is that Team Cherry removed a line of dialogue that read “Void
given mind” from the latest DLC.
The reason they removed this is because Void already has a mind, the argument goes.
So in this interpretation, “original mind” would be referring to the mind of the shade.
It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t really know if there is enough evidence for
it.
Another theory is that the dialogue is referring to how Quirrel’s mind was destroyed by wearing
Monomon’s mask.
This kind of fits, but I have two problems with it.
First off, I think Quirrel’s memory loss has more to do with leaving Hallownest.
Second, Quirrel’s mind wasn’t destroyed, he just lost his memory.
It is possible, but I’m not convinced.
If you talk to the Mask Maker after getting the King’s Brand, they will talk about the
“ancient caste” that once tried and failed to rule over all of Hallownest.
We don’t know much about the ancient civilization that existed before Hallownest.
From Relic Seeker Lemm, we know that this civilization created the Arcane Eggs and the
Soul Totems, and that they worshiped the void.
I could go into more detail on this, pouring over every little bit of information we have
about this civilization, but I have too much of a life for that shit.
As for right now, this line of dialogue tells us that the Mask Maker is knowledgeable about
past events, either because they were told about these events or because they were alive
during those events.
Like I said earlier, I think it’s the latter.
The Mask Maker’s next dialogue can be triggered by acquiring the Shade Cloak.
The Mask Maker will talk about the Wyrm’s great shame, and the creation of the vessels.
They then mention that the stasis of Hallownest is the Pale King’s legacy.
When the Pale King sealed the Radiance inside of the Hollow Knight, he did so as an attempt
to keep Hallownest in an eternal stasis.
This is spelled out in the lore tablet in the King’s workshop.
The tablet explains that Pale King hoped to use the Void to “deny Time”.
Hallownest was placed in a sort of stasis by the Pale King placing the Radiance inside
of the Hollow Knight.
By doing this, the Pale King hoped to keep the Hallownest lasting eternal.
This lines up with a lot of dialogue we can find in the game.
Seer tells us that the kingdom is in a slumber.
Both Hornet and Vespa mention that there was attempt at perpetuation.
The statues in the City of Tears and in the Resting Grounds mention that Hallownest will
last eternal thanks to their sacrifices.
The lore tablet in the White Palace throne room says:
“Eternity in promise and charge in progeny cursed.”
Or in other words, Hallownest can last eternal because the Pale King used his children to
create a Vessel.
Monomon describes the world as:
“A world forever unchanging.”
The developers notes also lay this out plainly.
Finally, the Radiance’s line “DAWN SHALL BREAK” is a reference to ending the long
night that Hallownest is trapped in.
Of course, time still moves in Hallownest, but you know, it’s like, a metaphorical
thing.
Like when you say “break a leg” or “I don’t have any STDs.”
In their last line, the Mask Maker explains that they make masks as a gift to a world
deserving.
What a nice fellla.
Anyway that’s it for dialogue, but there is more going on here that we need to talk
about.
There is a clear connection between the Mask Maker and the Void.
The most obvious example is the Mask Maker’s eyes.
It appears as though there’s void swirling around in there.
There are also black streaks coming from their eyes, similar to the bugs found in the Ancient
Basin.
There are also black particles floating around in the room: a dead giveaway that Void is
around.
There’s one other aspect worth mentioning.
The files for the artwork in the Mask Maker’s room use the phrase “Egg Chamber”.
You can see the egg shape a bit from the outside of the room.
There’s also a bunch of chains and scaffolding, but I don’t really know what that’s about.
My guess is the egg is similar to the egg inside of the Temple of the Black Egg, which
was used to contain the Hollow Knight.
Hornet explains that the egg is used to sustain the Void beings, and that its bindings would
drain her if she were inside.
In the Dream No More ending, the entire egg begins to dematerialize, and we see pools
of Void seep out of the temple, so it seems like the egg itself is made of Void.
So, is the egg chamber that the Mask Maker is inside of also made of Void?
This would explain the particles, and maybe the Mask Maker is an example of a creature
being drained by the egg.
I’m guessing that the process happening to the Mask Maker is similar to what happened
to the bugs in the Ancient Basin.
An exposure to Void is causing the Mask Maker to become filled with void.
This theory of mine does leave us with a few questions.
Why does the Mask Maker not seem to care?
Isn’t getting consumed by the Void a bad thing?
Well, maybe not.
No Eyes also seems to be accepting of the Void, and she seems like a pretty reasonable
woman.
Is the Mask Maker trapped in the egg?
Did someone put them in there, or are they there by choice?
They don’t seem to have any interest in leaving.
Does wearing a mask help them survive the Void?
Regardless, I think this egg chamber is the reason we are seeing the influence of Void
around the Mask Maker.
And that’s all I can think to say about the Mask Maker.
To sum up my speculations, the Mask Maker creates masks to help other creatures become
more sentient.
They probably predate Hallownest and the Pale King’s rule, and they live inside of a Void
egg similar to the egg found in the Temple of the Black Egg.
I’m not sure if this video really provided many answers so much as it just raised more
questions.
This Hollow Knight lore shit is getting too complicated.
I think I’ll switch over to Fortnite lore.