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🤍 Contributor Lineup 🤍

Happy Hollow Knight Day! To celebrate our upcoming zine release + an amazing game, we want to show off HallowHome's incredible team of amazing contributors!!

Cover Artist: @/bluequills_ (TWT & IG) Artists: @/boompf.art (IG) @boyyardee @/ButterflySist3r (TWT) @/butterflySist3r (IG & BSKY) @charlie-jpeg @/Cm._hk (IG) @forged-cold @/DerpaTure (BSKY) @/DerpaTure_ (TWT) @/derpature (CARA) @attex @/Deviljno (TWT) @/jackkozitza (BSKY)

@/ykrandomdraws (IG) @/kathrin9109 (TWT & BSKY) @/dragon_nyx (IG) @/dragon-nyx (BSKY) @/dragon_nyx (TWITCH) @ded-lime @girlkisserr @lonelysheepling @lucika-tran @lunathrix @mebis-art-dump @/weirdghostparty (BSKY)  @/nerd_enough (IG)

@DevilCatDarling @/nota_mato (IG) @/notamato (BSKY) @/_notamato (TWT) @honeyoneli @ophi-chus @oranjmesh @pineapple_ink_art @pineflowerart @herdingflowers @slimeshade @/birdsmybeloved (TWT)

@king-dynamo (TB) @TheAnonymousMystery @thecornermushroom @willowwormwood @/zazi @ mastodon.art @/arthur_zzhang (IG) @sevilai @/schatten-light (BSKY) @will0wispy @/junjun0235 (TWT, IG, & CARA)

Writers: @astorichan @frolicinq @ofstormsandfire @machine-finch @peachdoxie @rainbow-scarab @reveks @/SnapdragonsR (TWT) @/SnapdragonsR (BSKY) @vaultbuggo

Mods: Evie @/evielutione (TWT & IG) Dianna @wormdomination AKnightOfAGoodKing @the-kings-of-games Lecsi @mae-berry Vanilla @valhamhart Thank you for supporting our team! Look out for our zine release coming next week, and Happy Anniversary, Hollow Knight! 🤍

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Sly's Past in the Crossroads

I coulda sworn I put this on my blog but perhaps I mix it up with all those times I've told people on Discord so XD here we are. Theory post time.

Sly used to live in the Crossroads, in that little village where you first find him. I think this for a few reasons.

First, I must speak of Sly's age.

The stasis seems to have some odd effects on bugs, some of which seem to have lived a long time. I'm just assuming that aspect of stasis for this post. Sly trained the Nailmasters, and is almost certainly older than them. Some of Sheo's dialog has him speak of the Great Knights (and sculpt them). He seems quite familiar, at least for someone with an interest in the kingdom's warriors. But according to Lemm, "Both [the Great Knight's] names and appearance seem to have been expunged from history." So it seems Sheo, and by extension Sly, are old enough to have been around during Hallownest's heyday, perhaps centuries ago.

This raises an interesting contradiction. The game manual calls Elderbug "the oldest resident of Dirtmouth". Dirtmouth, it seems, has been living on the edge of the Kingdom, free of the stasis. Elderbug looks and acts old, but he's just....normal old, not supernaturally old like Sly. He doesn't know what Hallownest was like long ago except in stories. When you open the stag station in Dirtmouth, he says "That building lay silent since before even my time."

So, what to do with this discrepancy? Surely Team Cherry could never make a mistake, could they?? If Sly was originally from somewhere else, perhaps that could explain the wording that Elderbug is Dirtmouth's oldest.

(I've heard some say there are some mistakes in the game manual as compared to the game XD it could be for this but that's not all I have here for my theory)

We find Sly in that little village, the same one where we find Gruz Mother and Salubra, in a house that's falling apart. He's partially infected, though Ghost is able to break him out of his haze. Bugs become infected through their dreams. Bardoon says:

I resist the light's allure. Union it may offer, but also a mind bereft of thought… To instinct alone a bug is reduced…

We see reference to the instinctual state of bugs as well in a few entries of the Hunter's Journal, such as guards continuing to act as guards. Sly is not as far gone, but I had to wonder. Why does dream lead him there? To a village that's mostly dead? He thinks of Oro, his past pupil, and whoever Esmy is (I think another prior (and probably dead) pupil, but that's for another post). When Ghost breaks him out of his early state of infection, he says:

…I see. This old village. What a strange dream, to have led me down here! If you hadn't found me, I don't think I would've ever woken.

He seems to recognize it instantly, even from the inside of a broken house. I think he used to live there, in that same house. A place he knew well, ingrained in him deeper than his current house (and life) in Dirtmouth. Where even if half asleep his feet could carry him there on instinct.

...Lastly. I think. I think Sly and Salubra used to be dating XDDDDDD sorry I am subjecting you all to this. But I have reason to believe it. Or at least that they were flirty in the past.

I think Salubra talks to Ghost somewhat like she used to talk to Sly. She calls Ghost a "gadfly" a couple of times. And this word has a few meanings. One is literally a kind of fly, and Sly is a fly as well. Another is "social butterfly", which could be what Salubra is thinking of (especially with calling Ghost "stylish" and "dapper" alongside the word). BUT THE THIRD DEFINITION--

WHO'S MORE OF A BLOODSUCKER THAN SLY LOLLLLLLL

I rest my case, Salubra used to call Sly her dapper gadfly, Slylubra canon

.

.

(ahem, my primary evidence is mostly the dream instinct aspect as far as Sly's former home, but shhhh Sly/Salubra is clearly the most important outcome of the lore XD)

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Happy One-Year Anniversary of the Independent Hollow Knight Wiki!

We are proud to be fan-owned and fan-operated since October 2023! Here's to many more years! (Hopefully even some with Silksong in them!)

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🤍 Contributor Apps Closing Today! 🤍

Calling all critters—HallowHome's applications for Vol. 2 close TODAY at 11:59 PM CST! We hope to see your application 🥰

📃 Carrd: https://hkhallowhomezine2.carrd.co/ 💚 Artist App: https://forms.gle/UoWmuPJYzkzUsnkr9 🖤 Writer App: https://forms.gle/Czjt9iPjLVuECJeV6

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🤍 1 Week Until Contributor Apps Close 🤍

Artists, writers, and bugs alike, we want you!! Our contributor applications close in just ONE week now!

📃 Carrd: https://hkhallowhomezine2.carrd.co/ 💚 Artist App: https://forms.gle/UoWmuPJYzkzUsnkr9 🖤 Writer App: https://forms.gle/Czjt9iPjLVuECJeV6

Applications close on October 16th @ 11:59 PM CST!

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Markoth and Forbidden Knowledge

I have a whole lot of thoughts about Markoth. I think he was on the run from the authorities because he was trying to figure out the Pale King's origins, and the Pale King would not allow that.

First, as far as being on the run. When you first speak to him, he says:

You have come a long way, just to die here at the edge of the world. No, do not speak. I have heard thousands and thousands of empty words from those like you. Your pride, your desires, your desperation... you will take these things with you once I strike you down. Raise your weapon then, and die like those who came before you.

He's clearly seen combat, and expects it. I wondered at first if he was bloodthirsty, ready to kill, on the run as a criminal, and that made more people come after him to kill him. But there are some more clues. He says, after you defeat him:

Warriors, knights, kings, even time itself... they have no power over me. Only you.

It sounds like not just random warriors but the Pale King himself and his knights, and maybe those of other rulers. Was it because he was that bad of a criminal? I think it was for another reason.

I can... see myself there, still sleeping. How long have I been hidden here? Here at the edge of the world, no-one could find me... except you.

He was hidden. He's in a desolate region of the kingdom, behind this shade gate that no one can get by. If he was so bloodthirsty, why hide like this? Cornifer says, of Kingdom's Edge:

Judging by this wall, the city's folk seemed hesitant to build further into these caverns. I wonder what kept them at bay?

Thistlewind says:

You find it strange to see a moth wielding a weapon? We are a passive species, though I am not the only one amongst us to take up arms. Another braved the edges of this world, hoping to uncover a truth long forgotten. I wonder what became of him?

I wonder if it may have been taboo for any bug to travel into Kingdom's Edge. I have a lot of thoughts on the Pale King which I've said in another post, but to summarize: The Pale King set himself up as the creator of Hallownest and told bugs there was nothing else. He tried to set himself up as the only god in Hallownest and make the moths forget the Radiance (this part is from developer notes and it might not be fully true in game, since we have Unn still around...but it's at least true for the Radiance the moths left her and forgot her). He also took on the legacy of the Ancient Civilization as his own, as if it was always about him, though that's straying farther from my point.

The point is, the Pale King having origins outside of Hallownest is a contradiction to the story he tells. And I think he wanted to keep his wyrm body a secret so no one would ever find out. Thistlewind tells us that Markoth wanted to find some buried secret. Perhaps knowing that things weren't quite right. Seer knows about the Radiance in the game. Maybe Markoth did too, or knew some fragmentary information about the past, knew the Pale King's story wasn't quite right. A journey to uncover the truth that led him to Kingdom's Edge....

And that's just the sort of thing that could get him on the wanted list. He was clearly a capable warrior. If it was announced that he was wanted, maybe with a reward, both authorities (king/knights) and common warriors could be after him, and Markoth expects it. We find him hidden though, by his own words. Either as a (supposed to be) temporary measure to escape authorities, or...perhaps another reason.

I can... see myself there, still sleeping. How long have I been hidden here? Here at the edge of the world, no-one could find me... except you.

I find this bit of dialog interesting. Every other dream warrior seems unaware that they're dead, though a few realize after the fight. Markoth, though...he sees his body. With the way he was speaking, he expected that he was sleeping. Not "sleeping" as in a denial of death (unclear if he knows if he's dead exactly), but as if "sleeping" was the last state he knew himself to be in, when he was still alive.

The Hall of Gods calls him "Dreamborn god of meditation and isolation". I think that kind of sleep he was in was deliberate--not just for rest. I think he has some of the same powers as Seer. I think with meditation he can travel in dream like her, astral projecting or whatever you might call that. It would work out well for him in his situation. If he could find a great hiding spot, he could stay there in body as he explored the area in dream. He either somehow made it past the shade gate, or maybe the shade gate appeared afterwards. And to be a bit more speculative: The stasis might've kicked in while he was there. The stasis seems to freeze time in some ways, lengthening lives. Markoth did die, but... I wonder if he just stayed as he was. Sleeping, until there was little difference between life and death, his consciousness still traveling through dream as if nothing as changed.

Warriors, knights, kings, even TIME ITSELF... they have no power over me. Only you. You are the darkness... come to consume me.

It's such a weird thing for him to say, about time. I suspect due to this that he does in fact know that he's dead, or at least that he was sleeping for an unnatural amount of time. Time and death could not stop him if he was traveling in dream. (Though void...void indeed can stop him).

One last thing.

Markoth fights with two dreamshields (excuse the screenshot with just one--but of course the second phase of his fight has two). His body has only one next to it, and another dreamshield can be picked up by Ghost not too far from Seer. The dreamnail dialog on the stone where you pick up the charm:

Protect yourself... You are our last...

I think Markoth must've left it for Seer.

I'd like to think there were parallels between the two. Maybe Seer didn't become a warrior, but I'd like to think they had some similar dream abilities, and both tried to understand truths the Pale King would prefer to keep hidden. I don't know what kind of relationship the two had, beyond Markoth caring for Seer's safety, but I like to imagine him contacting her to keep her updated on what he learned. Traveling to her in dream, even with his body still hidden away. Whether he ever learned of the Pale King's origins I don't know.

But another light appeared in our world… A wyrm that took the form of a king. How fickle my ancestors must have been. They forsook the light that spawned them. Turned their backs to it… Forgot it even. And so this kingdom was born from that betrayal.

Seer knows. Seer learned the truth not just about the Radiance, but knows the Pale King did not create the land Hallownest, knows he was not always there in the kingdom. I'd like to think Markoth was part of uncovering it.

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🤍 Contributor Applications Open 🤍

Come join us in HallowHome Vol. 2, a free, digital Hollow Knight zine focusing on the daily lives of Hallownest's residents!

📃 Carrd: https://hkhallowhomezine2.carrd.co/

💚 Artist App: https://forms.gle/UoWmuPJYzkzUsnkr9

🖤 Writer App: https://forms.gle/Czjt9iPjLVuECJeV6

Applications close October 16th, 11:59 PM CST.

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🤍 Interest Check & Mod Apps Open 🤍

Our interest check for HallowHome: a Hollow Knight Zine Vol. 2 is officially open until September 9th. 🥰

Let us know your thoughts about what you want from our zine by filling it out here: https://forms.gle/XYdv3FdQGtBkse4M8

🤍 We're also looking for an Art Mod and a Formatting Mod! If interested, apply here: https://forms.gle/ambzBa6AEcgTtyMk7

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🤍 Delve Into HallowHome: a Hollow Knight Zine! 🤍

After months of hard work from our absolutely amazing team for 38 artists and 8 writers, our zine is officially available for download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x1cLMHZeEYeIa5bsvzU0qbO8Uhb3ftRZ/view?usp=drive_link 🩶 We truly hope you all enjoy exploring Hallownest through all the gorgeous art and writing from our many talented contributors. 🖤 Thank you all so, SO much for your support!! Happy 7 Years to Hollow Knight!!!! 🤍💙💜

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HallowHome: a Hollow Knight Zine Volume 2 Coming Soon... Our interest check opens in just 3 days on August 19th! 🤍

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Look I don't claim to be a genius or an expert in Hollow Knight Lore. But I never quite understood the wastes and how they like, wipe your mind. To quote the Lore Tablet: "Those foolish enough to traverse this void must pay the toll and relinquish the precious mind this kingdom grants." and Hornet confirms this by saying Ghost is of two voids: The actual Void, and the 'void' of the wastelands.

BUT ALSO??

HOWD THEY GET HERE

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strugglebus?

Hi. I'm gonna tuck this under a cut, because it deals with major medical issues and depression, but the tldr is that I am struggling, and could use some help -- if you want to donate, my kofi is here.

A couple weeks ago, I had an endometrial biopsy performed. It came back with cells that are considered likely to be cancer. My blood test showed really high prolactin as well as high white blood count, which led to the doctor referring me to a surgical gyn-oncologist. Right now I haven't seen him yet, because lol American medical system, but I am... a mess.

A really bad mess.

I'm still unemployed, and I'm still behind on my commissions, so I don't feel comfortable offering them. Instead, I am just going to ask if anyone can financially help out, I'd appreciate it. This news has been very hard on me, and I am basically living on potato chips and crackers because I just do not have the mental fortitude right now to cook anything to eat; I don't have the mental fortitude to do much of anything.

I don't want people to feel obligated. I will live. If I have to, I can eat canned vegetables and be fine. I THINK my insurance will cover treatment. If it is cancer, it is a highly treatable kind, and I should be fine. Probably. Hopefully. But this is the kind of news that scares the ever living hell out of someone and I am just. A mess.

I suffer from poor person guilt, as in I hate asking for help financially. But if you want to-- my kofi is here.

Thanks for understanding. <3

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💖💖💖💖Yesss I loved all these designs you all were making. And it was such a delight when you drew my little vessel

Never really finished this sketch page. But here it is! They've been named Comb (courtesy of @candor-creator).

If anyone wants to hear about it:

Comb is a shade. Died as most of the vessels did, having fallen trying to climb out of the Abyss. It has a higher will than most though, and as such it's able to keep a more coherent mind than the other shades. It's still rather confused.

They wander the Abyss trying to find their original shell. They hope to be whole, when they find it. But it doesn't really know what it's looking for. It will try on all sorts of shells. Even if they don't quite fit, and those bits that don't fit just diffuse into void particles for the time being (their horn, most often).

As I said, it's pretty confused, not knowing their own shell, not knowing what orientation to wear the shells. Their memory is spotty. They just feel driven to keep searching until they find themself, thinking that they will know themself when that happens.

Realizing I have never shared any pictures of my S H R I M P I love my SMIM-P-

Okay context; Me and some of the fellas from HallowHome were talking about the possibility of aquatic vessels that live in the void sea and what adaptations they might have. This is Artem! They're part of a trio with @phantomgrape and @frolicinq as triplets that hatched from the same egg!

I have fallen madly in love with them I just love lil SWIMP Auughds oooug

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"I recall reading once, about the grand courtship dances of the Damselflies. You must imagine how my heart soared upon seeing Lord Lurien himself, finally granted the chance to perform one…"

—Diary of Aedmond the Butler

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They are already selling data to midjourney, and it's very likely your work is already being used to train their models because you have to OPT OUT of this, not opt in. Very scummy of them to roll this out unannounced.

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🤍 Delve Into HallowHome: a Hollow Knight Zine! 🤍

After months of hard work from our absolutely amazing team for 38 artists and 8 writers, our zine is officially available for download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x1cLMHZeEYeIa5bsvzU0qbO8Uhb3ftRZ/view?usp=drive_link 🩶 We truly hope you all enjoy exploring Hallownest through all the gorgeous art and writing from our many talented contributors. 🖤 Thank you all so, SO much for your support!! Happy 7 Years to Hollow Knight!!!! 🤍💙💜

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Did you write a cool fucked up fic about PK making a mothwing cloak? Was that someone else??? It was great but can't fint it on AO3 anywhere, going Fucking insane looking for it in the Pale King tag

Yes! It was me.

I deleted it o-o;;;; But it's coming back soon!

What happened was uh. Just as I was almost almost finished with the fic, my brain turned to mush. Just. Sometimes mental health is like that. Can't think so well. But the expectation in my brain was "this is almost done and I'm about to post it." So even though I hadn't really done editing on the last bits I added, or reviewed it at all to make sure things were good and even, I guess the expectation was strong enough that in my dumb brain state I posted it.

Later I realized. And then took it down intending to put it back up soon.

But by the time I recovered brainpower, I was busy. Haven't really felt like I've had the free time to write (outside of time-sensitive things like the zine) until the past couple weeks. Decided to finish another fic that I just posted last night. But now that that's done. Hoping to fix up this pk horror fic and repost it within the next few days!