#Project:Waffle

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Decided to adopt the head canon that Wyrms like to hoard trinkets. I have many thoughts and ideas about it, and reasons for adopting it.

Each wyrm, and being with the mind of a wyrm, (I.E. just the vessels and Hornet) enjoy hoarding one specific trinket. A holdover instinct from the days when they didn't have minds, as wyrms are true omnivores, able to eat anything, so instead of hunting instincts they had hoarding instincts.

Each wyrm's hoard was heavily guarded. They would never let anyone take from it without their permission, and were known for hiding them in little nooks and crannies.

Wyrms liked to encourage this instinct, especially in their kits. If a wyrm didn't collect and add to their hoard, it might be a sign of depression, anxiety, unhealthily high stress levels, low self esteem and hole slu of other mental health issues, sometimes also being signs of physical sickness.

While most wyrm instincts get covered up by their minds, different minds let through different instincts. Some wyrms struggle with borrowing instincts, other struggle with instincts revolving around mating and breeding. Wyrm with a capital W struggles with nesting instincts. That being said, the hoarding instinct is the only instinct, besides the instincts revolving around how their tails show their emotions, that every wyrm seems to have no matter what. There is a hereditary syndrome in which the instinct seems to not be there, but that doesn't stop wyrms with it from hoarding, as hoarding had become a part of wyrm culture, but they did struggle with figuring out what they wanted to hoard since it didn't come to them naturally. Sometimes the object that a wyrm hoarded would change, normally after some sort of trauma but it sometimes just happened. The literature of wyrm society nearly always mentioned what the protagonist hoarded, and having that change by the end of the story was a common trope. That being said, any time a wyrm that had this instinct tried to suppress the instinct, it rarely worked, unless it was supposed since kithood, then it might be hard to reobtain said instinct.

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I wrote "their blank face stared blankly," during a writing exercise. 🙃

Me while writing: oh hell yes this is such a good sentence I'm the master of poetic imagery

The writing when I go back to edit:

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Here's some art of Hornet in a special outfit, it's the type of outfit a Deepphid would only wear to a party, festival, ceremony, diplomatic meeting with a foreign power, etc. It's also the type of outfit only nobles can get their hands on.

This was supposed to be a simple peice. This was just meant to be me solidifying the outfit for a comic I was drawing. It lead to me erasing the entire comic and deciding the completely rework Hornet's entire place in Project:Waffle. Basically, discard anything I said about Hornet, except for the post about the Grimm Troupe.

Okay, so this is the post about Hornet

Growing up, Hornet ALWAYS wanted to meet her father, but Herrah never let her, as she didn't like the idea of the bug that murdered his children being a major influence in Hornet's life, though young Hornet was a child who didn't understand that. After begging and prodding and petitioning her mother for YEARS, Herrah decided that Hornet could meet her father, though only for a day and under Herrah's supervision.

So that happens and Hornet and PK IMMEDIATELY kick it off, PK (who I characterize as being REALLY protective to ANYONE he considered family (he only really was weird with Hollow cause he spent the entire time lying to himself that, "You don't care for them, they have no mind, or thoughts, or will, you can't possibly care for them," because he knew the MOMENT he admitted to caring for them he would be unable to go through with the plan, and, in his mind, doom the kingdom. That's WHY PK found another option to stop the Radiance, the White Lady, who also was trying and failing, though failing much harder, to not care, basically backed him into a corner and got him to admit to her and himself that he cared for Hollow, and now suddenly the whole plan needs to be thrown out the window)) is ecstatic to be able to bond, even if just for a bit, with his daughter, and spends the time he has with her to be the BEST dad he could be. (The White Lady describes PK as a great father when he's trying to be one, and a terrible father when he's trying to be a king.)

He and Hornet spend the time playing tag, and he teaches her a popular Hallownest board game, which he gives a copy of to her to take home, and Hornet is having the time of her life! It's everything she hoped for and MORE.

This causes her to bug Herrah even more to go meeting him again. Over time, this routine of sending Hornet to the White Palace for a week every year, though she goes with some retainers who keep a close eye on her and PK, Herrah's orders.

While at the palace, Hornet tries VERY hard to get Hollow to do, something, anything really, talk, blink, smile, acknowledge that Hornet's even there. Hornet knows of the plan for a long time, she's just a CHILD who can't really understand it at all.

Eventually, as the infection keeps getting worse and both Hallownest and Deepnest decide 1. That Hallownest needs to focus on the Vessel's training. 2. That Hornet needs to train and be prepared for queen ship ASAP. 3. That it's not profitable for either of those 2 goals to keep sending her to the White Palace for a week every year. 4. It's probably not safe to send her over to the palace every year anymore. So she stops getting sent over there.

Years later, the infection suddenly disappears, atleast in Deepnest's perspective, without the plan being enacted and with no word from Hallownest about what happened. Now, everyone really wants to know: what happened? Why did the infection disappear? Is it gone forever or only a bit? Why did Hallownest seemingly change plans and decide to not tell ANYONE about it? Why has Hallownest decided to change plans? Is the Radiance dead? Is she just sealed away? What will happen to the infected? To the shaky alliance between Hallownest and Deepnest that only arose to combat the infection? What are the consequences of how the infection was dealt with? And so many more, but Herrah also recognizes that, if this reprieve is only temporary, she can't waste time going on a diplomatic mission when she could be rebuilding her kingdom, so she sends Hornet on the mission (it's why she's wearing the outfit) instead, along with some escorts.

There is around when I think the story starts, Hornet appearing in the White Palace for the first time in years to ask what the fuck is going on.

Her character arch I'm currently thinking of is trying to stop the supreme awkwardness between her parents while relearning to have fun again. (This may or may not be inspired from a song by AJR, shut up, okay?)

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Dreamer post! DREAMER POST!

Let's start with the things that apply to all three. The masks are artifacts from the ancient civilization, they protect the mind from infiltration and stop the wearer from aging. Each of the dreamers hold a token called "The Pale King's Favor" that allows them to ride to restricted stagways (Hidden Station, Queen's Garden, Distant Village) and enter the White Palace without an appointment. It also means Herrah won't get attacked on sight by sentries for being from Deepnest. All the Dreamers also know every part of the vessel plan.

Monomon's grandparents came from a foreign kingdom, having helped with many inventions and advising The Pale King for many years, she bought the last of House Acidbath's land from them and repaired the old academy into her archive. She basically raised Quirrel, tutors kids, raised Null for the king and has dreams of reinstating the academy. She is very perceptive and knowledgeable, but can be blunt, able to see that a bug is feeling an emotion then proceeding to yell out that they are feeling said emotions.

Monomon: "Hey Wyrm! Lurien has a crush on you!"

Wyrm: *looks confused*

Lurien: (was not ready for that to be known) *kneels before the Queen* "Don't arrest me your majesty"

Lady: *equally confused as higher beings overall are fine with there spouses taking lovers, so long as they don't take a second spouse* "why would I...?"

She was given her mask by Wyrm as he liked her well enough and wanted to keep her and her skills/smarts around. When I say that I mean she is allowed to come over for dinner whenever she wants and that is very big. Maybe I should probably explain her species. The species overall are called Uutmas, each come in many forms. The Uutmas in Hallownest aren't natural except for Monomon, who made them so she could have friends of her species. (The rest of the Uutmas may or may not be extinct, haven't decided yet) fog canyon was terraformed by Monomon to resemble her old home. She is surprisingly lonely for someone with so many friends and admirers, though she isn't soul crushingly lonely (that's Lurien's job), she can handle it mostly, she just feels bad about it every now and then.

Sharp Butterfly Kendry The Watcher, who goes by Lurien, is the heir to House Delvict, having been born with that name, along with being heir to House Kendry, having tooken that name when he came of age. He gave control of the city to a cousin from a lesser noble family. He became a watcher, and I think I'm going to paste what I said in an old post here as I don't really think I could explain the watchers any better.

"There have always been The Watchers. They are bugs who would shun themselves from everyone and just watch. Become an object in the background. Observe. And the head of house Kendry, Oliphus Kendry, or Peircing Dragonfly Kendry - The Watcher, became the first state sponsored watcher. His job? Keep an eye on the capital, report issues to be fixed, possible threats to the capital, infrastructure that needed to be repaired, stuff that needed to be built, etc. The Kendrys gave their claim on the city to the Delvicts, and became a family of Watchers. The ideology of Watchers is to become nothing but a background object and watch. To listen, to watch, to keep others updated on the goings on, but never to intervene, and never to be worth enough to warrant acknowledgement. Only when watching though, when reporting they became everything. Yes, The Watchers are also news reporters, they run the Capitol Times. Lurien, the most recent watcher, is different because instead of treating watching as a job that one eventually clocked out of, he seems to always be watching, as though it is his identity, maybe because he doesn't have one himself."

Lurien chose to watch because he didn't feel like there was anything else he could do and be even slightly competent at, and has sense became strangely prideful yet self loathing about his ability to watch. Like, if you question him about whether he saw what he thinks he saw he'll go, "Are you questioning me on my watching skills? It's the only thing I'm good at, I'd think I'd know more than you!" And brags about how good he is at watching, and how good he is about blending into the background, how good he is at being meaningless, and how good he is about being nothing. He was Hollow's role model when they still were "The Pure Vessel". Lurien doesn't really have anything beyond watching. It's really the closest thing to an identity to him. Monomon is 'The Teacher' 'The Wise' 'The Perceptive' 'The Nuterer' 'The Foreign Sage' 'The Inventor' 'The Strange' 'The Foreigner' 'The Creator of Life' 'The One Who Plays God' (more accurately Kolpetri, though they mean the same thing) etc. Herrah is 'The Beast' 'The Poet' 'The Artist' 'The Mother of the Nest' 'The Spider Who Desires Nothing More Than to be a Mother' 'The Defender' 'A Mother First' 'Wyrm's Plaything' 'The Adulterous' 'She Who Cares More Naught for Home' (more accurately Sedari, though they mean the same thing) 'The Poet of Empty Words' 'The Warrior Under the Mask of an Artist' 'The Creative' 'The Artist Who Creates More than Just Art' (This is a common saying that is a polite way to say 'bitch fucked a bug and got pregnant') and more. Lurien is just The Watcher. Nothing more, nothing less. Not inherently good, not inherently bad.

Lurien does little more than just watch, but he does like to paint his view overlooking the city and some other things every now and then. He also writes poetry, but would not consider himself a poet. Every poem he writes starts off with such

"I'm not much of a poet

Yet still I write"

That being said, he has written more poetry than Monomon, he just hadn't published any while Monomon has published some. She focuses on teaching more than writing poetry. Lurien doesn't publish his works because they are all very personal, mostly talking about his complicated feelings with his identity (or lack thereof), his job and how that is the closest thing he has to an identity, his unrequited feelings for the king (cause you can claw one sided Pale Watcher from my cold dead hands), how he feels about being dreamer and the abandoning of the vessel plan, how he feels like he is nothing and yet doesn't know how to feel about that.

His mask was an heirloom passed down through House Kendry as a way to help watchers become "nothing" when watching. Lurien always wears his mask. Lurien is always watching. Lurien is nothing more than a shadow on the wall. Watcher isn't his job, it's his identity.

And that is not doing him any good.

Herrah The Beast, Queen of Deepnest and mother of The Gendered Child. Born into House Dormon, married into House Beast, she became queen after the death of her husband, gaining the throne after an intense succession battle with her brother in law. The old king was rumored to have died from the infection (he died peacefully in his sleep, no madness, but Deepnest didn't know the infection's symptoms at the time, just that a plague had been killing much of Hallownest's population, so misinformation was to be expected) so she was given an ancient relic (her mask) to defend herself from it. She never had an heir with her husband, but her brother in law did, a weaver named Enlan, and Herrah knew that the only reason her BiL backed down from succession was that she couldn't have an heir, (Deepnest tradition says that two bugs are still married even if one dies, and thus if Herrah were to take another partner she would be committing adultery and any children she was to have would be illegitimate and thus disqualified from the crown) so the crown would be passed on to Enlan.

When The Pale King asked Herrah to become a dreamer, she declined for the reason that she didn't have an heir. So PK gave her one. And despite the fact that she has explained to her people that, no, she didn't fuck The King of Hallownest, wyrms reproduce asexually, and thus this child wasn't a product of adultery and thus, legitimate, not everyone agrees with her loophole.

There are two factions, those who like Herrah despite her "adultery" because she is genuinely a good queen and that peace with Hallownest is a good thing, and those who say she only thinks about Hallownest's wants because she "fucked" its king we should go to war now. The "Herrah is a good queen," party

(The Queen's Party Coalition, consisting of the Co-operation Party (peace please, and trade too, but not with Mantis Village) The Peace Party (peace, don't really care about trade or not, let's also be peaceful with Mantis Village) The Isolation Party (The Hive was right about anything) The Liberal Party (Our strict culture of no divorce and matriarchal rule is bad actually) The Weaver Union Party (Weavers deserve rights and stuff for their art) The Proletariat Rights (or Socialist) Party (Socialism rocks) The Communist Party (Insert Soviet Anthem here) The Monarchist Queen's Party (Used to be the Monarchist Party but they split - Monarchy rocks and Herrah is the legitimate queen, Hornet is the legitimate heir) The Constitution Party (can we have a republic, or constitutional monarchy (Herrah has said she was willing to sign a constitution, it's how she got the throne and where the Concil of Citizens came from) yes this party might split in 2 soon based on full republic or keep the crown) The Freedom Party (Serfdom suck actually) there are more but those are the big ones.)

(yes Deepnest is semi democratic. They have 2 councils, one of noble leaders, one of elected officials, both have to agree on legislation before it's passed onto the monarch for approval. (Council of Nobles and Council of Citizens)) is the majority party, while the "fuck the spider who fucked the wyrm," party

(The Coalition of Traditionalist Parties, consisting of the Deepnest Party (Fuck Hallownest, we rock) The Kingdom Defense Party (Fuck Hallownest, we want war) The Conservative Party (Matriarchy rocks, actually, and the fact that we have had 'kings' is an abomination, in fact, the fact that we have a word for a male ruler is an abomination, and marriage is sacred, divorce is evil) The Prosperity Party (nobility should still be allowed to exploit workers) The Feudalism Party (Yeah Serfdon!) The Monarchist King's Party (We should expedite the transfer of the throne to BiL (Then Enlan when BiL got executed for assassinating his brother, the previous king in a play for the throne. Enlan holds no ambitions for the throne BTW, he wants the weave poetry for the rest of his life and despite what some Deepnest sayings would have you believe, no that is not all you need to run a kingdom)) The Party for the Protection of the Throne (Constitution bad) there are others, yes both coalitions are being held together with duct tape and glitter glue, thank you for noticing) in the minority, but only by a little.

Hornet is Herrah's life, her world, she would do anything for her daughter. She is the type to take pictures (or weave pictures in this case) of every important moment, save as many memories as possible, coo over every single new face her daughter makes, and fight like a bellfly outta hell for her daughter. Her daughter is her everything. Her daughter is who she was willing to sleep for, after all.

Herrah is feisty, she might not be a warrior, but she certainly can bite. She's stubborn, willing to fight for what she believes in till the bitter end. She's also caring, surprisingly so, and can understand making a hard decision. She's a pragmatist, though that doesn't mean she hasn't got an ego on her. To put it simply, she's surprisingly similar to Wyrm, just without the crippling self-loathing and little smaller of an ego. Less of a pragmatist too.

Herrah likes to write poetry, it being her main hobby, but she weaves art and clothing from time to time. She doesn't fight with the needle anymore, but she had been trained in it when she was Herrah of Dormon.

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Here are some of the 112 vessels in the story. Though I couldn't possibly flesh out all 112, I wanted to work on some of them so here ya go:

Tonya (3):

their the most important to establish so they come first. See, in the Abyss where all the vessels were thrown down all the vessels were given 2 options: either hold onto your shell and stay a vessel, or return to the sea of void from whence you came. At first, most vessels stayed, holding onto the naive hope that they could become a pure vessel, but over time, more and more of the vessels gave up on that hope and returned to the void. Tonya is important because unlike every other, they didn't only care about being the pure vessel. See, their life philosophy is that life is going to suck, but you can't just give into it, and that if you stare down life with determination while giving it the middle finger for long enough, it will get better, you just need to move on from failure and make the most of what you have. So when they failed to become the Pure Vessel they didn't care and moved on to make the most of the abyss. They were to most mature of the vessels down there, and thus led a group of vessels who followed their lead and stopped caring about being a pure vessel and instead made the most of living in the abyss instead of giving into failure and returning to the void. They were a great leader who cared about everyone in their cohort (as I call them) but secretly really wished they could just take a break. They found one of the few nails in the abyss and were the one who figured out how to use void to repair the shells of vessels when they got hurt, though it doesn't work nearly as well as soul. They also found small puddles of void that were calm enough that the vessels could relax in them, unlike the void sea which was artificially calmed but the light before it forced the poor bug in the lighthouse to turn it off, which then the sea let out it's rage, making it not a good place to relax in it. After the Radiance was dealt with and PK decided to save the vessels locked in the abyss, Tonya was the first to lead the remaining vessels out and, like most vessels, really like their father, though mostly because it means they can take a well deserved break. Overall, their a mama's kid who like to relax at the Queen's Garden with Lady often.

Lux (24) & Nox (25): these 2 vessels are really crafty, and extremely close to one another. They are the craftiest of Tonya's Cohort, great at getting into places they aren't supposed, though they never found a way out of the abyss, mainly cause they didn't care enough to try. While in the abyss, they found a way into lifeblood room, though didn't really do anything there besides stealing the arcane egg. They found ways to use the broken eggshells that the vessels hatched out of to make little homes, were the ones to throw most the vessel corpses into the birthplace as no one really wanted to see them all, made games to pass the time and built up the wall of rocks that helped defend Tonya's Cohort from some of the predators in the abyss, and the occasional predator from the void sea. When the remaining vessels rose from the abyss, Lux and Nox still stayed as close as ever, were fond of their father, and still were crafty and into getting into places they are supposed to be. Sneaking into the bedroom of many people, PK's workshop, where they became really into some of the non-void based experiments he was doing in their, the kitchens, to steal food, and even out the palace entirely. Yes, most the vessels like to escape the palace as they want to explore the kingdom, though they are too young to be out on their own, and so no adults let them leave without supervision, though that doesn't stop them, and when it comes to leaving the palace without permission, Lux and Nox are the best. They help the others escape, and when mass escapes happen it's normally because of them. When exploring the kingdom, avoiding the great knights who went looking for them, they tend to gravitate towards Deepnest, as of all the places they aren't supposed to go, Deepnest is the crowning jewel that they constantly want to explore, though can never seem to cross the border before being caught.

Echo (111):

Echo really likes being strong, while in Tonya's Cohort, they were the guardian of the other vessels, wielding the only other nail in the abyss and using it to defend the others from threats. After leaving the abyss, they are happy that the others are safe, but not really into the fact that they are treated like a child, which they are, but they are also fiercely independent. They run off during escapes to try to regain that independence and protect their siblings from some of the threats of Hallownest, like fool eaters, guards, predators that escape from Deepnest, sporgs, blugg saccs, mantises that are mad at intrusions into their territory, roaming fools looking for a fight, bees that attack anything that comes remotely close to the hive, giant falls, acid, stalactites, spikes, etc. They really look up to the great knights, especially their bigger sibling (bigger, but not older, they are actually one of the youngest), wanting to be a knight just like them.

Oji (101):

A bit of an outcast amongst Tonya's Cohort, they never had many friends, but always wanted them, they were just too shy to talk. After rising from the abyss, they still struggle, having a hard time finding people in the castle, so during escapes they look for friends throughout the kingdom.

Eclipse (30):

She's a special vessel as after leaving the abyss and learning what gender is, she realized she was a girl! She looks up to Hornet, liking to take dance lessons from her, though she has a hard time defining what it means to be a girl vessel. (Also, after she came out, they stopped calling Hornet the gendered child) I imagine that she'd figure out her gender identity in the fic, though I don't think I know how to write that.

Nyx (66):

Another vessel that looks up to Hornet, though they prefer learning to weave from her, making them another part of the Hallownest Clothing Club (seriously, I have so many characters that know how to make clothing in this story, Hornet weaves, Hollow and Nyx learn to weave from Hornet, Hornet has a cousin named Enlan who weaves, Herrah weaves, Lady can weave though she prefers stitching, Seer knits and crochets, Ivyln is a jack of all traits, master of one, that being clothing design, and Illaria (Ze-Mir's girlfriend) is a tailor, (she also plays the harp and violin and knows how to cook, paint and do advanced mathematics, but that's beside the point))

Dawn (54), Dusk(55), and Horizon (56):

This trio of vessels tends to stick together alot, they like to cook, hanging around the kitchens often and helping out wherever possible. They want to learn from everyone in the kingdom, and out of it too, learning dishes from anyone they can when escapes happen.

Null (2):

Null is a special vessel, in that they WEREN'T a part of Tonya's Cohort, in fact, they weren't even in the abyss. When PK first created his plan to end the infection, he didn't believe that a vessel that rose from the void could be impure, so he made one egg, with one child in it, and placed it in the abyss. When the child hatch, he took it to the palace, but immediately realized they were impure, after 2 weeks of study, he decided that he needed to try again with more vessels, giving the failed one to Monomon to raise, as he decided he couldn't raise a pure vessel, be a king, AND be a father at the same time. Null has been salty ever sense, believing it Hollow's fault they got replaced, the only one of the vessels to have never given up on being the Pure Vessel, they really don't like Hollow, and spend their time trying to impress their father by being better than Hollow, who really hates the fact that one of their siblings hate them. Being raised by Monomon, they are the only vessel to be literate, and they helped out around the Teachers Archive though only because they had nothing else to do, they distinctly don't like Monomon, trying to run away to find the palace many times, but always failing. After the infection ended, Monomon gave them back to PK, as the agreement they had was that she would raise them till the infection was defeated. They are overjoyed to be back with their father, but hate that they live with Hollow now. And even though they really love their father and want to impress him, they have a small part of them that resent him for pushing them off on Monomon. They are based on the Broken Vessel.

I guess I should talk a bit about Ghost here, so here I go!

(Little) Ghost (112):

Also was a bit of a loner during the days of Tonya's Cohort, though that never bothered them. They, unlike the other vessels, are mute, and that's not because of any "no voice to cry their suffering" reasons, they would've been mute regardless of void influence and experiments. They were able to find a way out of the Abyss, but came back, as they always seem to go back to the abyss, even after rising out of it, they seem to be drawn their. They get along well with Hollow, and don't remember the moment hanging off the edge of the platform being left behind by them, nor do they care. They also chill with Hornet as well. They don't really know what they enjoy, or want to be even. And are one of the few vessels who didn't return to the void to not be overly fond of their father, not really thinking much of him. They're arch is about finding themself, and learning what they want to be.

I also have somethings I want to talk about that pertains to the vessels as a whole.

The numbers, you've seen em by the names, after bringing them up out the abyss, Wyrm gave them all numbers to help with organization, as he didn't know all their names at first and needed something to help make things easier, and putting them all in an order was one way to do that. The numbers are used for the order they line up in, seating charts, and other stuff where an order of some sorts are needed, they don't go by the numbers. Though when the siblings fight they sometimes call eachother by their numbers (Null just calls Hollow "1" by default), but nobody else uses them.

Voices and talking, all vessels can talk, but need to learn who to, they have a base knowledge of how to understand Hallow Tounge, Wyrmish, and (without  PK's knowledge) can read, speak and understand the ancient and forgotten language of Abyssal Tounge. Ghost is the only one who is mute. Null is the only one who can read and speak Hallow Tounge at the start. Hollow has an issue with talking were they can, but don't like it after years of conditioning not to. They're working on it, but how much they talk depends on the person, talking a lot to Hornet, their siblings (minus Null) Lady, Seer, the great knights, Monomon and Quirrel, Illaria, the traveling troupe, Enlan, and Confessor Jiji, while being quite quiet around Wyrm, Null, Lurien and Lucien (the butler), Herrah, most of the royal retainers, most strangers, anyone who is of the noble rank, and most of Hornet's side of the family.

Next is that fact many people have this vessel/void telepathy they put in fanfic, and I'll just say it, vessels don't normally have telepathy. I imagine that, once Little Ghost becomes the lord of shades, they can kinda do a telepathy thing with the others, mostly just this sort of influence thing were they can compel the others to do something, but the others know that it's Ghost doing it and can deny the order if they want. Then the void entity, which is an amalgamation of all the vessels in one, allows all the vessels to work together perfectly and fluidly till they split back into individual shades, though they each still are individuals in the void entity, each wielding a part of the power, though Ghost definitely heads the void entity.

The question of where they all sleep. Hollow has there own room, all the others share a bedroom full of bunk beds, for a while, I imagine an arch where Lady decides to try to make Null and Hollow get along by moving Null into Hollow's room.

Oh, eating! They don't need to eat, though do it cause they want to. How? By shoving the food into the eye holes in their shell. The void that makes up the shade inside dissolves the food on contact, allowing them to taste it. Each vessel has their own preferences for food, Hollow likes sweet stuff, especially the nectar of the hive, Ghost likes stupid amounts of salt on their food.

Is a vessel the shell or the shade? Definitely the shade, the shell is basically clothing to them, the reason they have them is because shells are perfect at keeping out warmth and light, as shades feel actually pain when touched by light and their void bodies can come apart when too hot (don't worry, all they need to do is go back in the cold to reform, though they won't be able to move during it).

How mutable are they? The games show that PV can shoot out a tentacle of void from their arm, so many people say vessels can somewhat shift their shell around, I imagine that the little ones can't do it, as the shell is basically the corpse of the vessel that died in the abyss and infused with the void. Their essence infused with the void, becoming shades, which puppet the shells around. The shell and shade need to fuse together to allow the mutability to accor, and the vessels need to go through their 2 pupal stages for that to happen, and vessels don't pupate naturally, seeing as that requires to wake up the part of the shell that allows for growth, as the shell, being a corpse, has forgotten it can grow and thus needs to be reminded that it can be it does. Same thing goes with healing. Shells don't know that they can heal, so they don't until they are reminded by soul (the life force of all living things) flowing in them again, in which that soul will be used to heal. That being said, shades are different from shells and are really mutable. In fact, when shades for are made they take no proper form, only filling the space they inhabit. As the shade gets used to inhabiting the shell, they take the form of the shell, the more a shade grows and pupates, the less mutable it becomes. A fully grown shade will refuse to change at all.

This has also made me realize that my idea of vessels are technically undead, so that's fun.

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This is why I made Project:Waffle, to get the good end!

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Three words, never heard before. Got this idea when making my other fluffy comics, have a few other ideas too!

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Decided to draw my blorbo some outfits! They deserved more outfits and I realized that they had a casual outfit, but that it wasn't really fit to wear around the white palace, and that they didn't have ceremonial robes, so I drew some for em' along with other outfits, as I just wanted to draw them. I created Project:Waffle just for them, of course Imma draw em alot!

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But what if they were, like, somewhat healthy?

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Ask an you shall receive random tumblr user!

Also I just wanted to draw Hollow from my various AUs, specifically "the big 4" (Project:Waffle, PK in the Charm which I'm calling 'Elegant Regrets' for reasons that become revealed later, and two others I have yet to post about) Each AU has a symbol I drew by that form of Hollow and some are just Hollow in outfits and situations.

Can we normalize drawing the hollow knight. Just hollow, specifically in pretty attire. Please draw hollow. Feed me.

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AAAAANGST

In my personal project that was orginally ment to be fluffy?

(It's more likely than you think)

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Unsure if I'll finish these Grimm pieces for Project:Waffle. So here they are! If y'alls is interested, I'll finish em and rant about lore

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Got in the mood to draw for my personal project and realised that I never solidified my Pale King design, so here you go! A page of front and back with some sketches to get used to the design. A little janky, but they are just sketches and this is my personal project.

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Decided to draw some great knights! I say some as I didn't have any inspiration for Hegamol, suggestions for a mighty design?

Time for personality and backstory!

Isma - Gracious Verdure Acidbath, The People's Defender, who goes by her personal name of Isma, is a strange plant-like being from the noble house of Acidbath, and the only of the great knights with a noble background. The house of Acidbath is a strange one, as only one adult member exists at a time, always female, and next is born at death automatically, though most Acidbaths prefer to have the next down the line before she dies so she can raise the next. She turns into trees on death, swim in acid to absorb it instead of drinking water, are quite malleable, being able to change her shape quite a lot, though she can't change anything about her head. They have a very interesting history, being one of the 6 noble houses to help The Pale King found Hallownest, but I'll go into that in a later post. Isma was given the secondary title of "Kindly" for her soft yet welcoming demeanor. Her official title is that of "the people's defender" because she's definitely that face of the 5, while the others can definitely speak to the public, she is the best at it. She's great with children and always open to meeting new people! She leads the charge of the great knights to try to get Hollow to get out of their shell (figuratively) without them getting out of their shell (literally). In her backstory, she and Ogrim were childhood sweethearts who lost touch as they grew up. She lived in relative poverty, as the Acidbaths had lost all their fortunes generations ago. To make ends meet, she became a fool in the Coliseum, and absolutely does not have good memories of the place. After fighting for years in the Coliseum, Wyrm sends in another group of soldiers to try (and later fail) to put an end to the Coliseum, this time led by Ogrim, who recognizes Isma and gets her the shaw out of there. Well, she's quite good at combat, even if she can be surprisingly brutal for such a kind soul, so she gets a vouch from Ogrim and bonus for being noble born and those three things combined to let her join the knights garrison, ascending through the ranks to eventually be sworn in as a great knight.

Dryya - Dryya Dirvyn is a stick bug that grew up in greenpath near queens garden. As a kid, she was bestfriends with Marmu and the two would sneak into queens garden to pretend to be brave knights here to save the wooden doll they would put in "danger". Eventually, the two get caught by the queen herself, and Lady, seeing these two, lonely kids who only had each other, and said she'd grant them each a wish if they protected the gardens for a day, they both wished to fly. Lady accepted these terms and the two set off to guard the place. Problem, Marmu had chosen to stand guard on a little mound that got flooded with acid. Queens garden used to be a part of green path, and thus used to have acid, but they drained to acid through greenpath and fog canyon and into fungal wastes (fungal wastes was where they dumped anything they didn't want, acid, sewage, infected corpse overflow) but the system was sometimes faulty causing mild flooding into these acid rivers. Marmu was at the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up getting dissolved, which traumatized Dryya, who was tooken in by Lady, raised in the palace and became Lady's personal knight. As you can see, Lady kept her end of the bargain and gave Dryya wings so she could fly. Dryya is fierce, that's why her secondary title is "fierce". Her first title is "the queen's defender" as that is her job. She fights elegantly and is very protective of The White Lady because she doesn't want to lose another one. She is definitely the knight that thinks the least of Wyrm. She is the one to yell a pep talk about how they're going to kick the world in its tu and nothing can stop them.

Ze-mir - Ze-mir (no last name given) is a strange flower-like being that is not native to Hallownest. Not much is known of her backstory as she tends to keep that under wraps but seemingly all her people died and she blames herself for not being able to protect them. She traveled for a long time and eventually ended up in Hallownest, where she immediately demonstrated her skills as a warrior by helping out in the battle of the bkackwyrm, despite being unprovoked and not part of Hallownest's defense force. This is how she got a high rank in the knight's garrison, which she used to quickly spring board into becoming a great knight. Her title is "The Visitors Defender" for she helps protect the foreigners, immigrants, travellers, tradesmen and anyone just passing through. Her secondary title is "mysterious" as she can be a bit of a black box at times, especially to the public. She's a bit catty and gossipy, but she means well. That being said, a "bit" gossipy is probably an understatement, as she like to gossip so much people called her "the king's liability". She's not the type to show fear or sadness, and that's probably because she wants to be the noble knight and great protector of Hallownest, so she tends to suppress those emotions at times, the only person she's really ever been open with being her girlfriend Illaria. She can be a bit headstrong at times, and doesn't fully know when to shut her mouth, and likes to tease pretty much everyone, but especially the king. She really likes to tease the king, and fluster him, she's really good at that. She's not the type to swear though, that's Dryya's job.

Ogrim - Ogrim Kyveskix is a dung beetle who grew up in the royal waterways, dirt poor. He was childhood sweethearts with Isma though. He lived in complete poverty for most of his life, till one day when PK had to go down to the waterways for some reason (no one can ever seem to remember why) he met Ogrim and took pity on him, taking him into the knights garrison. Ogrim quickly rose the ranks and became a great knight, with an extreme loyalty to the king. His title is "The White Defender" as he guards the castle and his secondary title is "loyal" because that is his most defining character trait. Well he rekindled his relationship with Isma after saving her from the Coliseum and is quite jovial, always ready to laugh at a good joke, even if it is at his expense (jokes like that normally have to do with his putrid smell). He can get a little testy if he thinks his king's life (and sometimes reputation) is at risk and will follow any order to the letter.

I want to talk quickly about Hegamol despite the fact that I haven't fleshed him out yet. No idea what his species or last name is, I know he was the first of the great knights, his secondary title is "mighty" he is quite soft spoken and has a good sense of humor, and always dreamed of being a knight growing up, but other than that, ehh.

I will mention that Hollow eventually becomes the sixth great knight, but they deserve their own post so not really gonna talk about em here.

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After drawing Hornet's ceremonial dress, I decided to draw PK's ceremonial robes, which literally came to me in a dream.

The story behind them is that after an unfortunate party which taught PK that he really didn't like parties and also taught him what puking was, and felt like, despite Wyrms not being able to puke (he has never been able to recreate the moment and frankly doesn't want to) which ruined his old ceremonial robes so, to not spend the rest of the party in puke stain robes, was given one of the White Lady's set to wear, and since, despite the fact that they are definitely to big for him, and he thinks they look way to gaudy and tacky, he has yet buy replacements, and I'm sure Lady finds this hilarious.

He also finds that the train is too heavy for his tail, which he needs optimal movement of to not fall on his face, to properly balance himself, so he wobbles a bit when running (simple walking is fine) and takes this weird back-leening stance to compensate. Oh, and he finds that the one set of sleeves means he needs to pin his second pair of arms to his side in a way that he finds quite uncomfortable. And they don't give his wings space to breath.

I have a vague idea of an arch focusing around his pride as being caused by his since of shame involving these robes, though that isn't planned out yet.

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Time to explain the history of the six first noble houses of Hallownest. (Note: these aren't the only noble houses, they are just the first, all descending from 6 great followers of Wyrm who help found Hallownest)

House of Acidbath: this house was founded by Koliye Acidbath I, full noble name is Adventurous Verdure Acidbath - Mother Sure Hearted. She was a strong, determined verdure who followed Wyrm because of the adventure it promised. She became quite close to the first Hallowphids and was determined to have Hallownest prosper, she was a great diplomat as well. The verdures are strange in that there is only one adult female at a time, said female will only ever have one daughter, if they don't have one prior to death, they will have one on death, though they prefer to have the daughter before they die so they can raise them. The Acidbath's history goes beyond that, Reyris Acidbath II, or Academic Verdure Acidbath - The Teacher, founded the Acidbath Academy of Hallownest, the first ever higher education building in the kingdom. The Acidbath Academy of Hallownest was owned by the Acidbaths for centuries, though not all of them wanted to run a school so sometimes they would rent it out to other bugs to run. Whichever bugs ran the academy was given the title "The Teacher". Eventually, the Acidbaths went through hard times and stopped being able to fund the academy. It hasn't been used as a school since, it fell into disrepair, and the Acidbaths sold it to Monomon who revamped it into her archive. The title of The Teacher was given to Monomon as she had sometimes used to The Teacher's Archives for private tutoring. I'll probably do a more detailed post about the dreamers later. Isma Acidbath II, or Inventive Verdure Acidbath, The Creator was a famous inventor who basically created the trams and elevators, she also was the one who made Isma's Tear, a magical trinket that made those who carried it immune to acid, that later became a symbol of the Acidbaths. Current living Acidbath is Isma Acidbath IV, or Gracious Verdure Acidbath, The People's Defender.

House of Dirtmouth: this house was founded by Lorrali Dirtmouth, an ant who never took on a noble name, setting a precedent to be followed by all her ancestors. She was a hospitable farmer whose family have lived in the valley of Dirtmouth for centuries before she was born. The Valley of Dirtmouth is one of the most important features of Hallownest, as snow fell on the mountains and melted, running down to the caverns below, allowing for life to exist there. It has also been the entrance to the caverns, the mouth of the dirt, if you will. That's how it got its name. There had always been a farming family there, and they had always been friends with a local higher being who passed through. She would pop her head up to the surface every now and then before going back to wonder the caverns below. She had life powers and gave them good harvests for their hospitality to her, and when she met a strange bug(?) by the frontier of the caverns and brought him to the farming family for housing, they used the farm as the jumping point for founding their kingdom, Hallownest. As gratitude for her help, Wyrm gave her a noble title, Mother Open Door, and let her rule the town that would be the entrance to Hallownest, both the town and family were named after the valley. The Dirtmouths were always a family that never wanted to be noble, sticking to the ways of humble farming and classic Dirtmouth hospitality. They willingly dropped their noble title to switch Dirtmouth to a democracy generations ago. They were the first of the 6 noble houses to disappear, and the only one of the disappeared houses to not have had their name and blood die out. The family tree is a little foggy, but we do know that they still live, the current one being Tam Dirtmouth, alias Elderbug, a humble old bug who doesn't really know or care that he's descended from nobility.

House of Delvict: founded by a butterfly named Kri Delvict, or Astonishing Butterfly Delvict - Father Grand Ideas, who ruled the biggest settlement of the "grand cavern" as it was called, and dreamed of uniting the others. A hard task to do when water constantly poured down into it from the blue lake above, which was filled every spring by melting snow and sacred to the moth tribe as it provided them with the water they drank and a food source. Father Grand Ideas was the only one of the nobles who lived in the grand cavern to side with Wyrm, who helped him conquer the cavern that would eventually house the kingdoms capital. The City of Tears' roof was patched up, (it would fall through, causing the rain to start up again during the infection) the capital nowadays is too big to be ruled by one noble family, so lesser families get minor jurisdictions but all have to report to Delvict, though when the city was founded it was split between Delvict and Kendry, that very quickly changed and nowadays Kendry reports to Delvict. Or did, the Delvict name has actually died out, the last one being Masterful Butterfly Delvict - The Grand Leader, whose child would take his mother's last name when he came of age, taking the name and eventual title of Sharp Butterfly Kendry - The Watcher, though he preferred to go by his personal name of Lurien. He gave control of the city to his cousin in House Cyloh, which was a once minor noble family.

House of Kendry: this house was founded by Openri Kendry, or Beloved Dragonfly Kendry - Founder People's Love. They were Kri's best and basically everyone who knew them liked them better than Kri. So, despite not being the head of a noble house, Wyrm decided that they could rule half the cavern and any bug who wanted to be ruled by them instead of Kri. Within 2 generations, however, the house of Kendry changed. There have always been The Watchers. They are bugs who would shun themselves from everyone and just watch. Become an object in the background. Observe. And the head of house Kendry, Oliphus Kendry, or Peircing Dragonfly Kendry - The Watcher, became the first state sponsored watcher. His job? Keep an eye on the capital, report issues to be fixed, possible threats to the capital, infrastructure that needed to be repaired, stuff that needed to be built, etc. The Kendrys gave their claim on the city to the Delvicts, and became a family of Watchers. The ideology of Watchers is to become nothing but a background object and watch. To listen, to watch, to keep others updated on the goings on, but never to intervene, and never to be worth enough to warrant acknowledgement. Only when watching though, when reporting they became everything. Yes, The Watchers are also news reporters, they run the Capitol Times. Lurien, the most recent watcher, is different because instead of treating watching as a job that one eventually clocked out of, he seems to always be watching, as though it is his identity, maybe because he doesn't have one himself. Though that will be saved for the post about the dreamers. The mask Lurien wears was an ancient artifact that was passed down through the Kendrys for generations, as a way to become nothing when watching. They become nothing when watching, but watching is a job for them, one they take pride in, definitely, but also one they can clock out of. Lurien is weird in that he doesn't clock out. Doesn't take the mask off either.

House of Ludyn: this house was founded by Erith Ludyn, or Triple Aspid Ludyn, Mother Ancient Soul. She was the oldest of the nobles, helping Wyrm understand local traditions and culture, which helped him play off said culture to make locals accept him. Basically all non-ascended bugs (bugs without minds) followed Wyrm by default, but the few bugs that were ascended had to be convinced (note ascension can be used to mean a mindless bug gaining a mind or a proto-higher being becoming a higher being, I'll have to make a post about higher beings and mortals that goes more in depth). Mother Ancient Soul was gifted with all of kingdom's edge in return. The House of Ludyn died out "naturally" a few generations back. (There are some rumors of a "noble curse" being cast on all the noble houses of Hallownest as many nobles had a bunch of suspicious deaths leading up to the infection, while other rumors say that it wasn't a curse but The Pale King assassinating a bunch of nobles because all the nobles who are believed to have fallen to the curse did so after they did something The Pale King didn't like. House of Ludyn is nearly always listed as having been one of the few houses to have died out completely by the curse, and they were the house that founded and up kept the Coliseum of Fools, an establishment that Wyrm was notorious for disliking)

House of Ceskiye: founded by Opal Ceskiye, or Luminous Moth Ceskiye - Founder Shining Visage. They were the one who convinced the moths to abandon the Radiance to worship The Pale King after he ascended the moth tribe (there was a split between the tribe on whether to use their new minds to switch worship to The Pale King or to use them to worship The Radiance harder) which yes, technically means they doomed of of Hallownest, but that wasn't known at the time and they were given rulership of the crystal peaks and resting grounds. The House of Ceskiye is believed to have died out because it was targeted by the Radiance when the infection started up. There are some rumors that Seer is related to the House of Ceskiye but there is no evidence of that on account that all the remaining moths' family trees are really fuzzy, on account that the moth tribe was absolutely decimated by the infection. Also Seer can't remember her own name so that makes things tricky. Also if there are remaining Ceskiyes, they would not want to claim that as the Ceskiyes are remembered pretty poorly by most of Hallownest on account of the fact that people blame them for the infection.