Hollow Knight The Grimm Troupe Lore Explained

you

god damn that's an amazing title screen
Grimm troupe is finally here and with it

comes some new lore for us to try and
decipher not only do we have Grimm and

his lackeys to discuss but there's also
more lore for the Bell King and some new

developments with some of the current
residents of howl nest the new lore this

time around is somewhat uplifting but
mostly just incredibly depressing then

again given team Jerry's track record
are we really that surprised this is the

Grimm troupe explained so what is the
Grimm troupe well it appears to be some

sort of traveling circus they appear in
game after the Night Lights the

nightmare Lantern which doesn't appear
until the night uses the dream nail on

the corpse of a nearby bug this use of
the dream nail is important because it

establishes the connection that the
Grimm troupe has with the dream world

the hunter's journal entry for the
nightmare King contains a quote from

seer she explains that at some point in
the past the dream world was split this

split was between dreams and nightmares
with the nightmares being sent to a new

realm which we'll call The Nightmare
Realm this nightmare realm is where the

boss fight with a nightmare King takes
place you can tell from the dreamcatcher

particles that surround Grimm that the
essence of nightmares is different from

the essence that makes up dreams going
back to seers quote we can see that she

mentions the nightmares heart this heart
can be seen in the Nightmare Realm in

fact you can hear it beating as the
night makes its way to the chamber where

it fights the nightmare king this
nightmare heart or the heart of Grimm as

it is also referred to is the true power
of the Grimm troupe so what exactly is

this thing is he a higher being like
worm root and light is he just the

Nightmare equivalent of the radiance
well the white lady mentions that the

clan and the master are one when talking
about the Grimm troupe which does kind

of sound similar to the radiances
hivemind and there's the fact that they

both use dreams in a unique way the
radience uses them to control bugs

whereas grimm uses them as a way to fast
travel between kingdoms finally they are

the only two bosses in the game with
full screen title cards so there are

definitely some similarities here but to
say that the two are on the

level of power might be a bit of a reach
but there is one thing we do know about

the heart of Grimm in order to continue
its existence a ritual must continuously

take place to maintain its strength and
that's where the knight comes in it's

likely that the Grimm troops ritual has
happened many times before and will

possibly continue to happen in the
future the ritual is supposed to take

place in the remains of a ruined Kingdom
this is laid out plainly by Grimm in his

hunter's journal entry and in his
dialogue when the night Meets him the

ultimate goal of the ritual is for the
current troop master to die and be

replaced by the Grimm child will become
the new troop master Grimm explains this

is all done to prolong the heart of
Grimm it is the duty of the one who

begins the ritual in this case the night
to feed the Grimm child the flames or

nightmares of the Dead Kingdom which
must be collected from the Grimm kin the

troop master and the nightmare King must
also be defeated we know all of this

because apparently the Grimm troupe
wrote a poem about themselves which

appears in the hunter's journal as a
work of art I'd say it's a little too

derivative but in terms of lore it's a
gold mine the hunter's journal entry for

the Grimm kin master reads feed the
child burn the father this shows that

the current troop master must be killed
so his flames can be fed to the Grimm

child there's more evidence for this in
the hunter's journal entry for the Grimm

kin nightmare which reads dance and die
and live forever the dance refers to

Grimm's first fight with the night die
refers to the death of the current

nightmare King and live forever refers
to the prolonged strength of the heart

of Grimm through the successful
incubation of the new Grimm troopmaster

the nightmare King's dream nailed
dialogue during the fight also mentions

in dreams born anew so yeah the heart of
Grimm is basically cheating death

through this process of constant rebirth
through the Grimm kin that's some pretty

weird shit I don't know what kind of
drugs they have in Australia but team

cherry must be getting the good stuff
once the Grimm troupe quest is completed

wearing the fully upgraded Grimm child
charm while talking to the white lady

will trigger new dialogue she mentions
the scarlet letter after seeing a

familiar flame within the grimm child's
eyes

implying that the heart of Grimm now
resides inside of the Grimm child Brom

also mentions that members of the Grimm
troupe are just vessels for the flame

this would explain why the white lady
says that the knight and the grim child

are similar they both act as vessels
used to contain powerful beings but

although the white lady describes the
Grimm troupe as all in one

there is one within the ranks who does
not want to participate in the ritual

when collecting the last set of flames
then I can find Brom in deep nest where

he confesses his desire to banish the
Grimm troupe Brom explains that the

Grimm troupe are trapped in servitude to
Grimm and that the endless song of grim

survival should be silenced confessor
Gigi mentions that the completion of the

ritual may cause suffering but
hollowness doesn't really seem to change

even if the ritual is completed the
white lady doesn't even give a fuck if

you help out Grimm or not so long as the
night still stops the infection so in

reality the only people who potentially
suffer from Grimm shenanigans are his

servants aside from Brahma
there's also divine the grim steeds the

grim kin and the grim child who all
reside within Grimm's Troop in fact even

troopmaster Grimm himself seems to be a
slave to the heart of Grimm just so he

can live forever it's at this point that
the player has a choice to either go

back to kingdoms edge and banish the
Grimm troupe or return to dirt mouths

and defeat the nightmare king that's
right it's like a choose your own

adventure book except that one choice is
clearly far worse than the other one

there is no good reason to banish the
Grimm troop outside of getting an

achievement if you choose to banish the
Grimm troupe you miss out on fighting

the nightmare King and while the
nightmare King is frustrating his fuck

he's definitely one of the best bosses
in the entire game so what do you get

from banishing the Grimm troupe well you
get a new charm that replaces the Grimm

child charm causing you to lose custody
of Grimm Junior

but the worst part of it is when Brum
comes to dirt mouth under a new name

NIMH confessor GG mentions that the grim
troop hide their true identities in

forms dreamed whatever that means
maybe NIM was brahms original name

before somehow joining the grim troop
dream mailing name reveals that he has

no recollection of his past at all so
why is having NIM in dirt now so bad

well NIM brings along his accordion bug
thingy and starts playing a

carnival-like rendition of dirt mouth
steam so now you've got salut bruh

making endless moaning and laughter
sounds though constantly running his

mouth off just off-screen and now this
asshat has to play his fucking music

right Nix is a goddamn bench any sort of
ambience or mood that dirt mouth once

had is now completely gone I mean no
offense to Christopher Larkin or

anything his music is godlike and I
masturbate to it all the time but this

is not worth missing a boss for brahms
desire to betray his masters a cool idea

and all and I think it might have been
included as a way for people to get a

hundred six completion file without
having to fight the nightmare King Grimm

cuz you know he's hard as fuck but still
it seems a little weird to me before we

move on one last thing
Grimm seems to draw some strong

inspiration from vampires during the
fight he turns into these things which

are close enough looking to bats and he
sleeps from the ceiling like bats do

also the black white and red design is
pretty similar to Dracula as well it's

also interesting that Hall Knight is a
Metroidvania game and now clearly has

elements that the two series are related
to vampires and fucking flying jellyfish

monsters another cool Halloween
reference can be found in the game's

code for all of Brahms dialogue inside
of the tent his text entries are titled

under I Gor not Brom I Gore's the name
of an assistant who appears in several

Frankenstein and Dracula films then
there's a carnival theme which is

another scary trope also Grimm's name is
obviously referenced to the grim reaper

so yeah a lot
different themes were thrown together to

create the grim troops design and lore
but hey there's some more to lure stuff

to talk about in this content back the
next big piece being the path of pain it

is now possible to re-enter the white
palace where a new platforming section

can be found the lore tablet at the
beginning of the area informs the player

of the painful suffering that will occur
re Gibson did the original layout for

the white palace so if he did the path
of pain as well then god damn this guy

really has gotten good at causing
suffering he should become a dentist or

something this section of the game
features the sealed vessel theme which

plays when the knight is trying to get
the void heart this song was really

fitting for that section but here it
kind of gets ruined by the fact that we

end up hearing it for so fucking long I
spent an hour trying to get through this

section and then I experienced a bug at
the end where I couldn't exit the room

with the Kings mold a lot of people
experience this bug and team cherry has

since patched the game I didn't wait for
the patch though so I just did the path

to paint again on my steel Sol file it
was fucking brutal but I finally made it

to the next room I was really excited to
see what my reward was gonna be and what

was it

incredible this is huge guys now there's
a lot going on here so let's run the

seat down play-by-play just in case you
may have missed something

The Pale King and the hall and I are
looking off into the distance and then

they look at each other and then the
scene ends that might not seem like much

but in terms of Halle Knight lore this
is like the fucking Holy Grail first off

this is clearly a memory since we know
that the hall and is currently locked up

inside the Temple of the black egg this
fact alone is huge the exact nature of

the white palace hidden away inside of
the Kings mold at the ancient basin has

been debated for a long time
there are basically two schools of

thought on the subject either the white
Palace stored here is the actual white

palace meaning that everything inside
the White House is real

including the pale Kings withered body
or the white palace merely exists as a

memory or dream meaning that the real
white palace might have looked different

and that the pale King might be
somewhere else

this new cutscene seems to lend credence
to the idea that the white palace is

completely fabricated from memories but
I don't think we can say that for sure

yet I mean yeah this is a memory but
it's clearly different from the rest of

the white palace after all there's a
tablet that says it's a memory right at

the start of the path of pain so this
does seem to separate it from the rest

of the area so let's talk about this
scene when does it take place I think

the best bet is to say that this takes
place right around when the hollow

Knight was chosen by the pale King the
hollow Knight doesn't look any different

from the cutscene we see in the abyss so
it hasn't grown up to the size it later

reaches a pretty popular theory that
attempts to explain why the white palace

is filled with a fuck ton of buzz saws
is that it served as a test for the

vessels to see if they were good enough
to be used for sealing up the radiance

this theory does seem to make sense with
a new content maybe the scene takes

place right after the Hall Knight has
completed the path of pain proving its

worthiness to the pale King I don't
really know if I buy into this theory

but it's interesting nonetheless
regardless I think it's safe to say that

this scene takes place pretty shortly
after the hollow Knight was chosen to

become the vessel so what exactly is
going on here well it kind

looks like The Pale King in the hall and
I are sharing a moment honestly I'm

getting a pretty strong Lion King vibe
from this sort of like a father-son

moment maybe The Pale King truly cares
for his creation he knows that the

hollow Knight has to be used to seal
away the radiance but he can't help but

grow attached to his child
the white lady mentions that the hollow

Knight was tarnished by an idea
instilled could this be that inception

it also makes sense with the halt
Knights cut dream nail dialogue where it

says father
maybe the hall and I wonders why it's

father chose to forsake it it thought he
loved it and of course the pale King

loved his child but what could he do his
people needed him after all no costs too

great

honestly though this actually made me
really sad everyone likes to say that

the pale King is an asshole and while
that may be true this is a really

humanizing moment for him I feel like I
understand him a little better now

viewing this cutscene also unlocks a new
entry in the hunters journal the new

entries for the seal of binding or sob
for short I think it's pretty safe to

assume that the SOB was somehow used in
an attempt to seal the radiance inside

the vessel in the Black Gate temple but
we do see it pop up in other places too

this seal can be found at the entrance
of the path of pain in the room before

the memory as well as inside the weavers
den the hunters journal explains that

the sob is used to contain a powerful
force or to preserve something of great

importance so it seems like an sob was
used to preserve the pale Kings memory

of this moment and it was kept within
the white palace as for the sob in the

weavers den well that's a tricky one in
this update we do learn more about the

weavers a new charm can be found in the
weavers den called the Weaver song the

description for this charm explains that
the weavers left hollowness to return to

their old home and aside from the one
Weaver that we can see briefly as we

leave the Weaver's den the place does
seem abandoned wearing the Weaver song

while talking to midwife triggers new
dialogue for her midwife explains that

the weavers used their looms to weave
songs shields and even spells did the

weavers create this SOB using their silk
it seems possible but if so what were

they sealing well the hollow Knights
head can be seen in the middle of the

seal so maybe it has something to do
with that unfortunately I think we're

gonna have to play the waiting game for
a little while longer

so there's all the big chunks of lore we
got from the Grimm troupe but there's

also a few little details worth
mentioning at one point Grimm mentions

that the knight is a vessel discarded we
already knew this but it's always nice

to have more confirmation another
character introduced in the Grimm troupe

is divine the top half of her looks a
lot like leg eater but her bottom half

doesn't if the player uses divine to
transform all of the fragile charms into

unbreakable
charms talking Thule Gator with an

unbreakable charm equipped will cause
him to travel up to dirt mouth to seek

out divine and then divine eats him this
appears to be an example of sexual

cannibalism where a female will
cannibalize a potential mate either

before during or after copulation this
practice can be seen mainly in spiders

as well as mantises and some other
insects

so while leg eater might no longer be
with us we can only hope he was able to

bone one last time and then there's
beretta basically if you've unlocked the

grey print so boss fight before this
update beretta would sit by zoo

listening to him contently since the
release of grim survivor her interest in

zone out dwindles the more you defeat
the grey Prince if you were able to

defeat grey Prince so ten times and get
the gold Zoet statue beretta will

disappear leaving Zoet to Yammer on to
no one elder bug tells us that beretta

left towards the howling cliffs and bred
his writings inform us that she has left

to find a new love since neither Zoet
nor the night were good enough for her

so who will beretta eventually end up
with well there are many eligible

partners still left in hala nest each
more becoming than the last honestly

this is one of hala Knights greatest
mysteries to date forget about that

peruvian grub shit this is what we all
need to be trying to figure out before

content pack 3 arrives one final thing
in the room where the dream shield is

located there's a statue that can be
dreamed nailed it reads protect yourself

you are our last so what does this mean
well it might be referring to seer who

is the last moth well that's about it in
terms of lore but this video is running

a little short so I figured I'd share
with you my thoughts on the latest

content back personally I enjoyed it
very much I know the Grim Reaper quest

stuff is just a glorified fetch quest
but my desire to learn more about the

grim never made it feel like a chore and
yeah the bosses are really good Grimm is

fun and Nightmare King Grimm is such a
refreshing challenge on top of that

there's more lore in this pack than
hidden dreams and you know howl nights

lore is kind of interesting I guess so
that's always nice I will admit that I'm

not a big fan of the whole getting
locked out of

the nightmare king grimm fight i mean in
terms of Lauritz a nice addition yeah I

just feel bad for anyone who
accidentally banished a Grimm troupe

without realizing that they're missing
out on fighting a new boss but other

than that one gripe this content pack is
amazing the lore the loot the boss

battles the music it's all top-shelf
shit my friends but honestly I think we

all know it the best part about the
Grimm troupe update is the knight

finally faces the right way when exiting
the tram