New Silksong Riddle Characters Examined

So it’s been about 3000 years since Team
Cherry gave us a blog update about Silksong.

It almost seemed like Silksong was just some
shared fever dream we all hallucinated for

over the past year.

I was about to nuke the channel and become
a foster parent.

But luckily, the Hollow Knight community has
been tossed a succulent bone by a most unlikely

ally, Leth.

In case you didn’t know, Matthew Griffen,
AKA Leth, has begun providing us with Silksong

updates in a most unusual way.

Remember when I mentioned that theory that
Silksong was going to be released on June

12th?

Well, this resulted in another theory that
Team Cherry was going to make an announcement

on May 29th, since Hollow Knight’s trailer
dropped two weeks before the game came out.

Of course, nothing was announced on May 29th.

But Leth did post a riddle in the Hollow Knight
Discord.

He figured that giving our starving community
something to do would help ease the sting

of Team Cherry’s deafening silence.

The riddle didn’t reveal anything, but it
was just nice to be able to interact with

Leth as people tried to piece together the
riddle’s meaning.

But as it turns out, William and Ari really
liked what Leth was doing.

So they started giving Leth content that could
actually be revealed from these riddles.

These reveals happened every Monday for the
past four weeks.

And Leth even gave me one part of one of these
riddles to post on my Twitter for people to

find.

Now, I’m not going to spend a lot of time
discussing these riddles.

I would recommend looking at fireb0rn and
TacoTV’s channels if you want more details

on what these riddles were and how they were
solved.

They’ve done a good job documenting all
of this stuff.

And I know I’ve talked about the Hollow
Knight Discord a lot on this channel, but

I really do have to say that it’s a great
community.

The people there deciphered Leth’s riddles
incredibly quickly, and they’ve done a ton

of digging into Hollow Knight lore and Silksong
speculation.

So yeah it’s a good group.

For this video, we’re just going to focus
on what was actually revealed and what stupid

nonsense we can speculate from it.

First up we have this character, commonly
referred to as the Huntress.

Basically Leth would post a zip file along
with a riddle.

The answer to the riddle would be the password
needed to open the zip file.

The answer to this zip file was Huntress,
hence the name.

Inside the file is a character portrait, a
short animated gif, as well as a few lines

of dialogue and a brief description.

The Huntress appears to have set up camp in
this small alcove possibly somewhere near

Bonebottom.

We can also see that bags have been strung
up in the room.

Also, notice how these objects are slowly
swaying in the room.

It’s a pretty neat detail that wasn’t
really used for hanging objects in Hollow

Knight.

The Huntress begins by noticing that Hornet
is carrying the “organs of others”, and

asks if she would be willing to offer these
organs or even her own organs as “birth-meal”

for her brood.

The Huntress is described as a towering old
predator, waiting for the arrival of her children.

She scorns the Citadel above and the hapless
pilgrims who are ascending towards it.

Now we’ve all met people like this in real
life, asking to feed our organs to their young.

In this instance, Hornet might be able to
give this character some kind of collectable

taken from other enemies.

We know that quests will play a big role in
Silksong, so we might see a lot more of these

types of items.

But as of right now, the only items we have
seen enemies drop are rosaries and shell shards.

She also says Hornet could offer up her own
organs, but I doubt she would agree to that.

One interesting note about this character
is that she looks vaguely like the creatures

we saw in one of the images Team Cherry gave
us for the Forest of Bones back when it was

going to be in Hollow Knight.

Could these hideous freaks of nature be her
children?

The Huntress is also quite aware of what is
going on in Pharloom and she doesn’t appear

to be a fan.

She holds a disdain for the Citadel, which
we saw a brief glimpse of in the trailer.

This area is likely controlled by the bell
cult, and appears to be the destination of

many bugs travelling through Pharloom.

So the Citadel probably isn’t a great place,
but then again, this lady wants our organs,

so maybe we shouldn’t value her opinion.

One final point, the HUD in this gif appears
a bit odd.

For some reason, the right end of the spool
is missing, and the silk itself is thicker.

This might just be a buggy UI issue, since
the game is still in development after all.

Or it could be possible that the silk spool
itself can break, similar to how the soul

vessel in Hollow Knight breaks.

However, this bobbin symbol in the corner
is not lit up either, which we have seen is

supposed to light up once you have a full
spool of silk.

We even see it light up in a later reveal
as well.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if this UI was
still buggy.

The next character revealed appears to be
named Grindle.

Grindle is a snitchbug that can be found locked
up in a cell somewhere in what I assume is

the gilded city.

Once freed, he will offer Hornet information
in exchange for rosaries, but his intell is

apparently not very good.

So chances are he’s going to give us bunk
lore, because god forbid we have a character

that gives real lore.

From his dialogue, we know that Grindle has
been locked up for a while.

We also know that Grindle plans to take advantage
of Pharloom’s ailing state, though there

is no more detail on what exactly is happening
to Pharloom.

We know that it is haunted by silk and song,
but the exact details on that still remain

pretty hazy.

Grindle is described as being a snitchbug,
which isn’t a real thing according to Google,

but his head has a similar design to the enemy
we saw in the Silksong reveal trailer, indicating

that we might see more of this species of
bug throughout the game.

There are quite a few other details in the
provided gif that we should talk about.

First of all, we actually see another prisoner
in this area.

This bug looks similar to some of the other
enemies we have seen in trailers, except this

guy isn’t wearing a headdress.

Perhaps he is a defector from the cult, or
maybe they just removed his bedsheet as punishment.

They let him keep his bell staff though, so
that’s nice.

We also see that in Grindle’s cell there
is a work bench covered in throwing daggers.

Not sure what weapons like those would be
doing in a jail cell.

Was Grindle about to shiv some bitch?

Regardless this might be the location where
Hornet obtains the throwing dagger tool.

Finally, there is another additional HUD element
that we haven’t seen before.

There appears to be a little green bead on
the end of Hornet’s silk spool.

This might be the result of some kind of tool
Hornet has equipped, but I’m not sure what

it would do.

We can see in the tool menu in the reveal
trailer that some green object appears next

to a Weaver-type tool and some kind of device
that looks like it could weave silk.

I’ve mentioned before that there appear
to be different classes of tools in Silksong:

red, blue and yellow.

My guess is these blue tools will be related
to modifying Hornet’s silkspool in some

way.

We can also see that the right side of the
spool is missing in this gif as well, so the

bead might be related to that in some way.

The third reveal we got from Leth was for
a caravan of fleas.

Now, we have actually seen these fleas before
in the Silksong E3 demo.

They appear to operate like the grubs of Hollow
Knight, getting stuck in different areas and

needing rescued.

According to their dialogue, we can tell that
the caravan is not from Pharloom, and that

they have but a single, humble wish.

The caravan didn’t realize how dangerous
Pharloom was, however, and instead of watching

their kids like responsible ass adult fleas,
they let their children get lost all throughout

the kingdom.

These fleas are said to carry bountiful food,
powerful drinks and surprising amenities.

So these characters probably give Hornet these
different foods as reward for returning their

fleas.

The fact that these are foods and drinks makes
me think these are perishable items, which

wasn’t a super prevalent mechanic in Hollow
Knight.

It will be interesting to see how exactly
that will work in Silksong if this is the

case.

These fleas appear to be making a pilgrimage
to the Shining Citadel at the top of Pharloom,

which is a very common theme throughout this
game.

Of course, we have characters like the Huntress
who distrust the Citadel and all it stands

for, but a lot of other characters seem interested
in making it there.

There’s a pretty interesting parallel to
this in Hallownest.

Bugs would make pilgrimages to Hallownest
to see the Pale King’s kingdom as well.

There’s even a path in Hallownest called
the Pilgrim’s Way.

And while the Pale King is a morally dubious
character, it’s not like his promise to

pilgrims was some completely malicious lie.

So it will be interesting to see what exactly
it is these pilgrims are expecting at the

citadel, and what it is they actually get.

Looking at the HUD, we can see that Hornet’s
spool can in fact be increased in length.

I don’t think anyone doubted this would
be the case, but it’s nice to have this

confirmed.

Also, we can see that one of Hornet’s health
masks has another mask placed on top of it.

This might be like lifeblood, giving you extra
health, but honestly, that seems a bit redundant.

This mask has a crack on it, which might imply
that it can take multiple hits before it breaks

completely, similar to the Balder Shell charm
that everyone forgot exists.

And now we come to the final reveal of Leth’s
riddle madness, Seth.

Seth is a boss fight that appears to occur
somewhat late in the game.

Seth guards a secret located at the base of
the Citadel, and he attacks anyone who gets

too close, including the bell cultists.

There appears to be something a bit unnatural
about this character.

He is described as being ancient, and has
somehow been imbued with stamina and strength

beyond a normal bug.

We do have a hint about what the source of
this strength might be.

Team Cherry provided us with one line of dialogue
from Seth that simply reads “The Voice…

has chosen me.”

But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard
about this voice.

Another character, Trobbio, has been described
as being Master of the Stage, the Brush and

the Voice.

And Trobbio and Seth have somewhat similar
designs.

From one of the provided gifs, we can see
that this feathery thing is actually some

kind of cloak, which means Trobbio’s might
be as well, and honestly, I really don’t want to imagine

what he looks like without it.

The connections between Seth and Trobbio are
interesting, but they don’t really make

sense.

Seth is this hardened warrior protecting some
ancient secret, while Trobbio appears to be

some performer who is obsessed with fame.

Not really sure what to make of that.

Perhaps the Voice is a more nebulous element
that has a broader context we just aren’t

aware of yet.

Looking at the two gifs, we can see that Seth
appears in Greymoor as a passive NPC.

But we also see him in a boss fight with Hornet,
which appears to be a different location.

We know that this is the base of the Citadel,
since it features the tangled roots mentioned

in Team Cherry’s description.

We also see what appears to be some kind of
snow falling from above, similar to the ash

we saw in Kingdom’s Edge in Hollow Knight.

So does this mean Pharloom also contains some
kind of Wyrm in it, similar to the Pale King?

Well, not so fast.

Another theory for what those might be are
flower petals.

We have seen at least one area in Pharloom
filled with petals, and there is another argument

for this.

Leth actually locked this reveal behind two
passwords, which were “protector” and

“bloom”.

The former password obviously refers to Seth,
while the latter could imply that what we

are seeing here is related to plant life.

We also have those roots in this area too,
indicating that plants and trees are growing

somewhere nearby.

The boss fight itself looks awesome.

Seth is fast, and utilizes his cymbal as both
a shield and a frisbee.

Another small detail about this fight is that
we can see Hornet perform some kind of aerial

move where her dress puffs up.

This seems to stall her fall speed like some
sort of glide mechanic.

We know that Hornet’s cloak is an actual
item in Hornet’s inventory, so it seems

like the cloak itself can be upgraded.

Seth is a character designed by Seth Goldman,
a Hollow Knight fan who got to meet Team Cherry

through a program called the Marty Lyons Foundation,
which grants wishes to children with life-threatening

illnesses.

Unfortunately, Seth passed away earlier this
year, but his character will live on in Silksong.

And I’m sure the Hollow Knight community
will remember him for years to come.

And that’s about it for Silksong news.

We’ve received a few glimpses of what new
abilities Hornet will gain throughout her

quest.

And we also met a new cast of colorful characters,
including a thief, a band of fleas, a guy

who hears voices and a girl who wants our
organs.

I’m excited to see what else Team Cherry
has in store for us.

Maybe a ladybug that commits tax fraud, or
a grasshopper that wields a mace, or maybe

even Jeff Bezos.