Why are the Snail Shamans?

The Snail Shamans are one of the biggest mysteries
in all of Hallownest.

I know I’ve said that before, about the
Ancient Civilization, about Mask Maker, about

the nature of Higher Beings, about Mister
Mushroom, and about Zote’s political ideology.

But I really do mean it this time.

The Snail Shamans are a pretty easy group
of characters to overlook in Hollow Knight.

They’re definitely important, but they don’t
seem too related to anything that actually

happens in the main story the character unravels
throughout the game.

The Shamans also don’t really tell us much
about who they are or where they came from.

This is in part due to the fact that the vast
majority of them are dead.

And for the one Shaman who is alive, his dialogue
only gives us small glimpses into the Snail

Shaman culture and practices.

One important thing to understand about the
Snail Shamans is how they are related to Soul,

one of the main spell systems found in Hollow
Knight.

Hollow Knight’s spell system is introduced
very early in the game, and while it’s easy

to understand mechanically, the lore surrounding
it isn’t quite as straightforward.

Hitting enemies will give you “Soul” which
you can “Focus” to either heal or use

attacks.

But what is Soul?

Is it like mana?

Why is Soul always displayed as a white liquidy
goop?

Is it some kind of “spiritual milk”?

It’s possible that Soul even have some kind
of taste.

The Hunter shares his thoughts in the Soul
Twister hunter’s journal entry, saying:

I have heard others talk about 'soul' but
I do not understand what it actually is.

I do know that freshly killed meat tastes
best - is that because the 'soul' still clings

to it?

Of course this seems more like idle speculation
on the Hunter’s part, and unfortunately,

he doesn’t actually tell us what Soul might
taste like, so we can only make educated guesses

on that front.

Hollow Knight’s Soul system draws more from
the concept of shamanism than the traditional

fantasy magic systems you’d find in stuff
like Lord of the Rings or Arthur.

Basically, every living bug contains Soul,
and this Soul is used to animate their bodies,

so Soul seems to act like a lifeforce primarily.

But Soul can be found elsewhere.

In fact, Soul is so prevalent throughout the
world that it permeates the air itself, and

Soul is so valuable that several groups in
Hallownest have taken efforts to store or

manipulate Soul in some way.

The Ancient Civilization built totems used
to store Soul.

The Soul Sanctum scholars appeared to have
studied these totems and ended up using glass

jars to store the Soul of bugs they captured.

And then there’s the Snail Shamans.

Their goals and habits are probably even more
vague than the Ancient Civilizatio At least

we know that they were worshipping the Void.

As for the Shamans, they just sort of hang
out inside their own little mounds.

And we don’t know exactly why.

We also have no idea where they came from
or how they fit in with the other groups in

Hallownest.

But it’s clear that they have a strong connection
to Soul, and that connection ties deeply into

how they live their lives.

The majority of the Shamans the Knight finds
are located in these areas called mounds.

These mounds are described by the Wanderer’s
Journal as ancient temples constructed from

the bones and shells of innumerable dead creatures.

These mounds also appear to have some actual
structure to them, with several beams of wood

arranged in various ways.

And I use the term “structure” loosely.

And just to clarify, this stuff isn’t technically
wood, but instead “shellwood”.

The Hunter mentions that Zote’s Life Ender
is made from this shellwood substance, and

there’s also a developer’s note about
it as well.

But what is shellwood actually?

How would one carve a shell into wood?

Well, my theory is that I have no fucking
idea.

Getting back to the mounds, I’m guessing
they are supposed to be similar to burial

mounds.

There’s literally a bench made out of bones
here, so I don’t think that’s much of

a stretch.

The Shaman even says that the spirits of his
ancestors will watch over the Knight when

he forces it to kill the Elder Balder.

There’s no denying that Soul is connected
to dead bugs.

Whenever you cast a spell, you can hear whispering
coming from the Soul.

*spooky whispering

Which makes sense because the Knight is literally
conjuring an angry spirit and firing it off

to attack its foes, hence the name “Vengeful
Spirit”.

The Soul Sanctum bugs also fire attacks that
make this whispering sound.

*ᵖᵉᵉ ᶦˢ ˢᵗᵒʳᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵇᵃˡˡˢ

We can even hear the nightmarish cries of
distressed Souls in the second phase of the

Soul Master fight.

*demonic voices WHAT THE HELL

This is kinda weird.

There are already ghosts in Hollow Knight,
but these creatures are completely different.

Ghosts are made up of Essence, a substance
which can take the form of bygone memories.

So Essence can hold part of a bug’s personality
or identity in a sense.

But Soul can kinda do the same thing.

The whispering of Souls implies it holds some
semblance of the bugs it occupies.

And Soul can take the form of Spirits which…

I think are the same things as ghosts?

So there are two different forces in the world
of Hollow Knight that can create apparitions.

This is a pretty big deviation from how actual
ghosts work in the real world.

But we all know how that stuff works, so I
don’t want to bore you with the details.

The Ancestral Mound also gives us a bit more
information about the Snail Shamans via the

Whispering Root found there.

The dialogue produced by this root reads:

...Soul attuned...

...Spiral focus...

...Shunned Power...

The first line is a little vague.

It just seems to be confirming that the Snail
Shaman is attuned to Soul in some way.

We don’t really know how difficult it is
to be Soul attuned, but it seems like the

Snail Shamans had a much better grasp on how
to use Soul when compared against the bugs

of Hallownest, even including the ones in
the Soul Sanctum.

We only see the Snail Shaman use Soul once.

He actually uses his cute little staff to
conjure up the Vengeful Spirit out of thin

air.

He demonstrates a clear capacity to manipulate
Soul when he does this.

The Snail Shaman also has the Soul Catcher
charm, which is used by Shamans to collect

Soul from the world around them.

Another Shaman relic found in the game, the
Shaman Stone, informs us that the Snail Shamans

have spent generations growing their knowledge
of Soul manipulation to create powerful spells.

One final Shaman charm even gives us a peek
into how Shamans once lived.

The Soul Eater charm is a forgotten Shaman
artifact that was used to draw Soul from still-living

creatures.

So it seems like Shamans of the past were
more intent on taking Soul from others, instead

of passively collecting Souls in temples riddled
with remains.

As for why this practice was forgotten, it
may have to do with the arrival of the Pale

King in Hallownest.

We know that the King did not approve of this
sort of repurposing of other bugs’ Soul.

He explicitly objected to the action taken
by the bugs of the Soul Sanctum.

These bugs harvested the Souls of others,
literally consuming Soul to the point where

their bodies became bloated and deformed.

My favorite example of this has to be the
Soul Master.

When staggered, we can literally see Soul
escaping out of his body as he shrivels up

like a raisin.

And when he dies, the Desolate Dive ability
seeps out of his mouth like a deflating balloon.

The second line given by the Whispering Root
might give us another little insight into

how the Snail Shamans are able to manipulate
Soul.

The “spiral focus” line might be referring
to the spiral shell the Shaman wears on his

head.

This spiral pattern also shows up on the inside
of all three Snail Shaman charms, a small

detail that might highlight its importance.

There seems to be some sort of connection
between the use of Soul, focusing and the

head.

The Godseeker focuses using a crest located
on the mask she wears on her head.

Although in this case, she isn’t focusing
Soul, but thoughts.

The Godseeker is sort of an outlier here,
but she still shows a connection between the

head of a creature, and the act of focusing.

There’s also the Kingsoul and Void Heart
charms.

Another Hollow Knight lore YouTuber, Ccmaci,
pointed out to me that these charms have a

similar looking crest or insignia on their
foreheads, like what we see with the Godseeker’s

mask.

This might entirely be a coincidence, but
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional,

as it could imply the Knight having a greater
mastery over Soul and Void respectively.

The Soul Sanctum bugs claim that they are
trying to obtain a pure “Focus” which

somehow involves consuming large amounts of
Soul.

One of the end results of this is how their
minds swell and ache.

On top of that, all of the scholars wear these
strange jewels on their heads, which are occasionally

used to fire off Soul attacks.

These appear to be the same objects that we
see on the Spell Twister charm.

Perhaps they act like the crest on Godseekers
head, helping them focus.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to
go on here.

Another vague connection we can make is to
the Mask Maker.

The Mask Maker tells us that one requires
a face to “define, focus and exist”, which

is pretty open to interpretation but it’s
definitely important.

So maybe this head-Soul connection is an extension
of that in some way.

That being said, Soul is such a vague force
in this game that you can connect it to a

lot of things, and it’s hard to tell what
connections were actually intended by Team

Cherry.

In my King’s Pass video, I talked a lot
about focusing and Soul and how regular bugs

might be able to focus their own Souls in
some way.

In my Silksong speculation videos, I talk
about how Hornet might be able to make silk

that is composed of Soul.

In my video discussing the post war politics
of Australia after the Emu War, I mentioned

that Soul might taste like vegemite.

And with so many different ways Soul can be
interpreted, it’s kinda hard to say there

is a definite connection between the concept
of the face or the head and Soul.

But I do think there are some strands there.

The last line of the Whispering Root is fairly
easy to understand.

The Shaman’s power to use Soul was probably
shunned by the Pale King.

Like I said earlier, he didn’t seem to approve
of the Soul Sanctum’s experiments at all.

Or it might just be that the other bugs of
Hallownest find freaky snail people with bone

furniture both scary and disgusting.

We know other strange powers like Lifeblood
were considered taboo in Hallownest too.

So something as strange as Soul manipulation
was probably treated the same way.

This line could also explain another phenomenon
we see with the Shamans.

We know from the Snail Shaman’s dialogue
that he is bound to the Ancestral Mound in

some way.

There’s also a developer’s note about
this line of dialogue, which reads:

At some point hints that he can not leave
the mound.

"Can not" could mean he stays out of duty,
or literally can not leave

We find Snail Shamans in the Ancestral Mound,
Overgrown Mound and Crystallized Mound.

If we find any of them outside of a mound,
they are either buried, or being brutally

tortured.

There’s one in the Soul Sanctum, who appears
to have been subjected to experiments.

And there’s one sealed in a sarcophagus
in the Resting Grounds.

Perhaps Snail Shamans were forced to remain
near their mounds due to how the rest of Hallownest

perceived their power.

But that doesn’t seem too likely considering
everyone is pretty much dead at this point.

So it’s probably either that the Shaman
has a sense of duty to the mound, or his strength

is somehow tied to it.

Maybe the Shaman’s spells don’t work as
well outside the mound, so he is vastly underpowered

to leave his home.

After all, he doesn’t even seem capable
of clearing out his own den of dangerous creatures.

But it’s anyone’s guess, honestly.

Team Cherry very much left this part of the
lore ambiguous.

Of course, there’s one question looming
over the nature of the Snail Shamans.

A question that gets thrown around a lot whenever
discussion about them arises.

Are the Snail Shamans Void?

In my video on the Ancient Civilization, I
confidently said there was no question that

these things were Void creatures.

But…

I think I jumped the gun a little bit.

So now it’s time to lace up those clown
shoes, put on that clown makeup, and pull

out your clown keyboards, because we are about
to have a serious discussion about whether

or not Snail Shamans are Void.

So what was 2019 mossbag’s reasoning behind
calling the Shamans Void?

Well, it mainly comes down to a few simple
observations.

When the Knight examines the Snail Shaman
in the Soul Sanctum, it explodes into black

particles that the Knight absorbs.

The Snail Shaman in the Crystalized Mound
also explodes in the same way.

The Knight collects the Shade Soul and Descending
Dark from these Shamans respectively.

What’s interesting here is that while the
prompts for these moves still mention spirits,

their descriptions in the menu describe them
as shadows.

For the Abyss Shriek move, we can even see
the attack uses a combination of Soul and

shadow.

And there’s even unused art of a Vengeful
Spirit-like move with this same motif.

Regardless, these upgrades all mix the original
Soul-based attacks to also use Void.

One noteworthy distinction between the Soul
upgrades and the Void upgrades is that the

Soul upgrades appear as these little spirit
sprites.

The Void spells don’t have this at all.

In all three instances, it’s black balls
flying into the Knight.

And in the third instance that takes place
in the Abyss, we can be fairly sure that the

Knight is consuming Void.

This invites a very simple conclusion.

These Shamans explode into Void which the
Knight then sucks up to inherit their spells.

And that makes sense.

Bada bing bada boom, right?

Well, let’s talk about the elephant in the
room.

Characters exploding into stuff happens on
a number of occasions in Hollow Knight, and

it doesn’t always make sense.

For example, when the Seer disappears after
collecting 2400 Essence, she appears to transform

into a Lumafly.

It’s a really small detail that might have
lore implications, but there is absolutely

nothing else in the game to follow up on this,
and it opens such a huge can of worms that

I’m afraid to even talk about it.

There’s also the Grey Mourner and the Brooding
Mawlek who explode into Mask Shards.

This makes absolutely no sense.

If people can just die and turn into masks,
then why the hell do we need Mask Maker?

Are masks somehow connected to the Souls of
bugs?

Was the Brooding Mawlek hiding this Mask Shard
up its asshole?

That sounds painful!

A more agreeable and straightforward explanation
is that this is just a gameplay quirk.

Another example we can compare this to is
Grey Prince Zote.

Several of his animations use the black ball
effect similar to what we see with the Snail

Shamans and the Abyss.

Since this entire fight takes place inside
a Dream concocted by Bretta’s obsessive

mind, this probably isn’t supposed to imply
that Zote is Void.

In fact, it seems highly unlikely that Bretta
would even know what Void is.

So black stuff that appears in her dream is
probably just an ingame effect used to portray

the conjuring of a character made up mostly
of the color black.

We’re in a similar boat with these Shamans.

These effects might purely be an aesthetic
choice by Team Cherry, and not proof that

the Shamans are actually Void.

If we talk to the Snail Shaman after getting
the Shade Soul, he implies that it was the

Knight’s essence that melded with the spell,
using a powerful source to do so.

The wording here is annoying in how obscure
it is.

So stuff goes into the Knight, giving it enough
power to transform the spell inside it with

its own essence, and by essence, I don’t
mean actual Essence, but Void.

There’s enough vagueness there to perhaps
argue that the Knight is absorbing the power

of the Shamans in a general sense, and not
somehow absorbing their Void bodies, but it

would honestly make more sense to me if they
were just Void.

I mean that seems to be the case when we get
the Abyss Shriek.

Another possible hint at Shamans being Void
is how the Shaman in the Overgrown Mound appears

to be melting, kind of like what we see with
Void in other locations, particularly the

Collector.

But it could be just dark colored leaves,
to help sell the “overgrown” aspect of

the mound.

As a side note, if the Shamans are Void, it’s
kinda weird they put one in a sarcophagus.

It’s certainly possible, but I think it
would be the only instance of a Void creature

having a “proper” burial.

Another small detail to consider is how the
Snail Shaman calls the Knight a shadow and

mentions its “empty face”.

This could imply that the Snail Shamans are
at least aware of what Void is.

The only characters who call the Knight a
shadow directly are Hornet and the Dreamers,

and arguably Divine, all characters who are
more likely to know what Void is.

It’s obvious that the Snail Shaman is pretty
aware of things, considering he can tell when

he is Dream Nailed.

Also, the fact that he says our essence melded
with the Vengeful Spirit after getting the

Shade Soul kinda implies that he knows the
Knight is unique.

How exactly would a non-Void creature's essence
meld with a Void spell?

So that’s all of the evidence for why the
Shamans are Void.

Our main argument is balls.

And yes, balls are pretty convincing in most
instances of Hollow Knight lore discussion.

But once we get into non-ball related topics,
there are a lot of other issues that pop up

with this theory.

First of all, if the Shamans are Void, where
did they come from?

For a lot of Void beings, we have explanations.

The Kingsmoulds and Wingmounds were created
to serve the Pale King.

The Collector probably also came from that
mold, and probably is sort of working with

the Pale King, it’s a whole thing, we’re
not getting into it right now.

The Vessels were also created by the Pale
King, when he placed eggs containing his children

in the Abyss.

The ferocious Void Tendrils and Shade Lord
appear to be more intricately tied to the

Abyss and Void itself, although the specifics
are muddy on that front.

The Shamans, on the other hand, don’t have
any leads for their possible Void origins.

In fact, we are fairly certain they didn’t
come from the Abyss at all.

After obtaining the Abyss Shriek, the Snail
Shaman tells the Knight that the spell must

have come from a place the Snail Shamans never
thought to look.

This implies that the Shamans aren’t connected
to the Abyss at all, unless the Snail Shaman

somehow forgot where his people came from.

That seems unlikely, but we do know that the
Snail Shamans have forgotten at least one

part of their history, considering the Soul
Eater charm is described as a forgotten Shaman

relic.

As for their true origins, we do see a similar
character to the Snail Shamans in the upcoming

Silksong sequel.

The Churchkeeper appears to be a similar character
archetype as the Shamans, except instead of

teaching Hornet how to shoot ghosts out of
her face, she’s teaching Hornet how to play

songs on her needle.

But should this character even be considered
a Snail Shaman?

Are Snail Shamans even a species?

Or do you just need to wear one of those snail
hats to become one?

Regardless, she is visually similar to them,
which might imply Snail Shaman-like creatures

aren’t unique to Hallownest.

You could argue that this strengthens the
argument against Shamans being Void, but I

will say we know so little about what Void
is and where it comes from.

Who's to say there aren’t other Abyss-like
areas beyond Hallownest where Void can be

found?

So maybe the Shamans found in Hallownest and
Pharloom are Void beings who originated from

a different place.

But, we’re speculating an awful lot here.

And this isn’t the only issue that arises
with the “Shamans are Void” statement.

Another monkey wrench in this idea is how
the Snail Shaman refers to the other Shamans

as his relatives.

Once you get the Desolate Dive, he mentions
his third uncle has the same ability.

He also mentions his fourth aunt, who resides
in the Crystallized Mound.

And he mentions his larger cousin located
in the Overgrown Mound.

How exactly would Void beings have relatives?

Can Void beings get married, do the nasty
and give birth to children?

Technically, shades are siblings, which shows
that creatures connected to the Void can have

relations to one another.

But cousins and uncles imply a multigenerational
community of Void beings.

And... that just sounds kinda silly.

But this does beg the question.

What exactly is a “fourth aunt”?

In order to answer this question, I decided
to consult some of the brightest minds on

the entire internet.

So naturally, I took to twitter dot com and
asked my followers for their thoughts on the

matter.

Thanks to a very knowledgeable and patient
person known as Sage, I was able to uncover

the truth.

“Fourth aunt” isn’t really a thing.

Perhaps a fourth aunt is just your mother
or father’s fourth sister.

That would be the easiest explanation.

Or a fourth aunt could be a fourth cousin,
once removed, which would be someone who shares

great great great grandparents with your parents.

This would imply that, given none of the Snail
Shamans participated in inbreeding, a huge

family tree of at least 133 other Snail Shamans
must have existed to facilitate the relation

between these two characters, let alone the
third uncle and larger cousin and whoever

the hell these people who are and their relation
to the Snail Shaman.

And that’s not even considering the sexual
reproductive habits of actual snails.

And if the Shamans are anything like that,
well, things become much more complicated.

Youcould argue that these relations are more
sentimental than genealogical.

Sorta like dog moms.

While that excuse might work for the relatives,
we still have to counter with the fact that

these Shamans are deeply tied to their ancestors.

The spirits of the Snail Shaman’s ancestors
are apparently watching over the Ancestral

Mound.

This not only reinforces the idea of the Shamans
being biological creatures that aren’t just

created, but it also raises another complicated
question.

Can Void beings even have spirits?

Void creatures aren’t technically alive,
hence the White Lady saying that the Knight

died in the Abyss.

Obviously Void creatures like the Collector
and James Corden have no Soul, but creatures

like the Hollow Knight do give off Soul, so
maybe they would count?

But being a living creature animated by Soul
is very different from being a Void creature

that can contain or hold Soul within its shell.

I don’t think you could say the Hollow Knight
really has its own “spirit” in the same

sense that a regular creature would have a
spirit.

Or maybe I’m reading way too far into the
concept of spirits and Team Cherry just wanted

an excuse to put cute little faces on the
Hollow Knight’s attacks.

Either way you slice it, there are some weird
questions that pop up around the Snail Shamans.

If they truly are Void creatures, why are
they unaware of the Abyss?

How were they created?

Why do they refer to each other as relatives?

If they aren’t Void, why do they explode
into black balls that the Knight sucks up

and then gains Void spells from them?

Why do they still seem to be aware of Void
and its shadow-like nature?

In the end, the Snail Shamans don’t have
a clear answer.

Looking strictly at what’s in the game,
it seems more likely that they aren’t Void,

since the Void ball phenomenon is easier to
handwave than the dialogue we actually get

from the Snail Shaman.

And even if we ignore the Void stuff, there’s
still the big question of what the older generations

of Snail Shamans were doing.

The fact that they had a charm like the Soul
Eater implies that they were a much more dangerous

force in the past.

What were these ancient snail people doing
exactly?

How powerful were these overcooked hotdogs?

I’m gonna hold out hope that Silksong somehow
illuminates the Snail Shamans for us.

Just gonna go and add it to the Silksong Bingo
card right next to more Macebug lore and Funky

Mode.

I mean William did say we might get some Snail
Shaman lore in a Reddit AMA post from 3 years ago

So it’s basically confirmed.