#hk ramblings

[shentheauthor]

Thoughts on vessel communication

Handwriting translation/ID:

Void telepathy!

No voice to cry suffering, but void beings can communicate!

[picture of Hornet and Ghost with a red X between them]

Hornet isn’t void, so she can’t “hear” the Vessels

[picture of Ghost and the Hollow Knight with a green check mark between them]

Ghost and THK are void, so they can “talk” to each other!

Things void beings can communicate:

- feelings

- images (takes concentration)

Things they can’t:

- actual words

[picture of Ghost and Broken Vessel as shades. There is a thought bubble that reads “hello” to ghost’s right. Underneath in red text, it says “doesn’t work” while pointing to the thought bubble. Underneath the picture is another picture of Ghost and Broken Vessel, this time with a thought bubble with a happy face indicating excitement. Underneath the bubble in green text, it says “yes!” With an arrow pointing toward the bubble.]

Page 2:

[image of the hollow knight with a thought bubble next to them. In orange text, the Radiance is screaming]

Thk let this [indicating the orange text] through their Void link (opening cutscene)

[there is a small doodle of Ghost saying “tf is goin’ on over there”]

(It was a call for help)

- every vessel got a lot of feelings blasted into their heads. [in orange text] anger, fear, hope, desperation, grief, hatred. Poor thk.

Void telepathy does work on other void beings

[picture of Ghost saying “wtf” to the Collector, who is sending their laughter and images of grubs through the void link]

[phantomgrape]

Thing I noticed while I was chatting with some pals about Hollow Knight

Crystal peaks being the ONLY part of the game where you actively ASCEND to progress is fucking genius.

Crystal Peaks was the place the place where the moths resided, as did The Radiance presumably. The Radiance in her presence and boss fight have a heavy emphasis on flight and ascending upwards (look no further than the final part of the fight, where Ghost LITERALLY climbs up to her to land the final blow).

In retrospect, Crystal Peaks in its fundamental design almost FORESHADOWS this moment and its association to The Radiance and her moths.

[roadkill-punk]

siblings :3

Misc. headcanons below the cut

This is all post black egg and fall of Hallownest, I'm just bad at remembering to draw Hollie's scars.

The stack! Hollie does that when they're bored and want to bother Hornet, like how some dogs will rest their head on you when they want attention.

The ideal outcome to being a pest is chin scratches, riight where their mask ends and their void-body begins. That's the best spot.

Hollie is absolutely purring anytime they get affection, Hornet does too sometimes, but she's a little self conscious about it.

That vessel is a fucking menace. Their favorite activities include making Hornet's day just slightly more irritating. This ranges from moving her things just a few inches to the side of where she left them to demanding attention while she's busy to 'accidentally' knocking her into various bodies of water.

These two have been through a lot together at this point, and given how starved for security and affection the both of them were as children among other things like being born into a death and chaos and given immense responsibility that neither of them had any control over that eventually led to the downfall of everything they knew and loved- they both were quick to open up to each other and seek out comforts that they previously were denied.

That's not to say it didn't take them a damn long time to approach each other and directly ask for things, both of them have their own reasons for being unsure about that sort of thing.

Their recovery was a process but they got there in the end, and now they have each other without the constant fear of not living up to the egregious standards of royal parents or being an impure, vile, worthless stain on the world :3

Their relationship is so sweet honestly they deserve to be happy and healthy and with family that loves them

Even if sometimes Hornet wants to rip Hollie's head off.

[deadly-glamourtail]

ISAT fans. Hollow Knight fans. Do you see my vision

ramblings of how would isat lore get adapted to hk's world below; spoilers for both obviously

edit: Part 2 with Odile and Bonnie here! and Part 3 with Isabeau and Mirabelle here!

edit: part 4 with (Redacted) and Mal Du Pays!

Since there's no surface in HK's lore, the best thing to get for Universe worship is probably the Dream Realm, since it's the only place with seemingly sky light. One thing connected to the other, and it just felt fitting to have Siffrin be moth tribe and Loop a mini-Radiance.

Instead of what goes down in Hallownest, there are thousands of minor moth gods from bug-Island North of Vaugarde; they don't really have the Radiance's power and thus can manifest in the waking world just fine. Also unlike Hallownest, there's no rivalrly between Dream and Nightmare; but since the former still would manifest as flames, it could still be interesting for an AU replacement of Red.

In Bug-gaurde (heh), the Change God equivalent is probably a chill higher being like Unn and the Lifeblood entity, but pale-themed so everyone's shades still stay similar to the original game and Siffrin doesn't look out of place despite wearing something slightly yellow-y. Godseeker would be SO pissed if they showed up here, no available gods would care about attuning any more than regular worship lmao

I'm rusty on HK lore though, so just shallow ideas. I'm sure someone that's more into both games together would know how to better work with them lmao

[alaskaartz]

funny y'all say that cuz I was fact checking that yesterday lol

[nexahexagon]

Hi @silverskye13 you’ve made a grave mistake giving them star symbolism and a devoted relationship I think I’m brainrotting too close to the sun,,,

And,, Sculk stuffs,, they’re not just rotating anymore they’re full on ballroom dancing within my brain

The tats I thought would be cool- I’ve seen ppl do it b4 irl for top surgery scars and,, yknow,, stars,, s,stars,,

[alecz-obssesionz]

My bff @pinktrapped made a western au with the bugs called ~HALLOWEST~ and I JUST COULDN'T RESIST DEAR LORD

Idrew her designs and added Radiance

[three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat]

New video goes up on HallowTube (hallownest youtube) called "In Defense of the Pale King" and it's 45 minutes of the Hollow Knight silently explaining their defense (the other shades hold up poorly written signs for subtitles) while Ghost fights the Radiance in the background

[the-moth-from-elsewhere]

do you know how much I freaking LOVE the horror of the infection from hollow knight?! Not even the physical changes, those matter less to me. Just…the idea of having this PRESENCE in your head, being infected with SOMETHING and you know it. You’ve been told about this, but you never thought it could happen to you. And it’s so much more comfortable and calm than you expected it to be. You’re powerful and unrestrainable. But as time goes on, it’s not you anymore. It’s not your will anymore. And you don’t know where you are or who you are, this is just your life now. Imagine looking your friends and family and the eyes and their soul is just…gone, replaced by this thing that you thought was your friend. Or maybe she is, and she’s just the most obsessive “friend” in history.

…idk man

[hollypies]

I've noticed an overlap of hollow knight and rain world enjoyers! So I was curious which game you've played/found first and which you prefer lol

Also here's a pic of Shadow

[shentheauthor]

I like to think the vessels are just… deeply uncanny.

They’re incredibly pretty by bug standards. Like, the most gorgeous bugs you will ever see in your life. The problem is, they’re so pretty, it’s kind of terrifying. Their faces are too symmetrical, too unblemished, too smooth and perfect. They just don’t look *right* even though there’s no reason to think they look wrong.

Can you imagine? You wake up, you go out to the store, and there’s a tall, silent, gorgeous bug there. They don’t move, to the point where they might as well be a statue. They don’t even seem to breathe, and it’s impossible to tell where their vacant eyes are staring.

They radiate an unknown power. It’s something between light and dark. The two don’t cancel each other out, they only strengthen each other, leaving you shivering with cold as they seemingly suck the heat out of the air. They glow, and yet sounds and light are muted around them. Their body is pure black, absorbing most of the light they emit. Nothing is reflected at all. They are just a void.

You feel drawn to them, and yet every instinct you have is screaming at you to stay away. This bug feels dangerous, but they haven’t done anything other than stand there. That animal part of your brain just knows something is wrong, and it’s as intriguing as it is terrifying.

The vessels don’t move correctly either. They’re graceful, but something about it is wrong. Their movements are too smooth for segmented joints. Like their body isn’t rigid. Their footsteps don’t make noise. When they get hurt, they keep going like nothing happened. Their body just reforms unless the wound is near-fatal.

If they are killed, they come back. But they leave something behind. It radiates with malice, and you have no idea what it is. If the vessels are voids, Shades are black holes. No light escapes their body or reflects off of it, not even the light from their eyes. And the Shades just blindly attack, angry and ready for vengeance. If their regrets are this powerful, what are they capable of in retribution?

Don’t even get me started on void tendrils. The vessels are terrifying to be around and I stand by that. They’re the children of two gods, warped by the primal force that opposes the light. They are not normal bugs in the slightest, and I think that we as a society should talk about it more

[indecisive-ire]

I had a shitty idea ™️

Okayokay like imagine if the Hollow Knight and Ghost both survive the dream no more ending and they just kinda chill in Dirtmouth, recovering. Meanwhile, the Pale King wakes up from his long-definitely-not-dead-nap like: "Oh shit."

And he gets up and decides to explore around for a while, avoiding bugs like Lemm and the nailmasters for the time being. Then he finds his way to Dirtmouth.

By the time he gets there, The Hollow Knight has somewhat adjusted to living, and can defend itself just fine. And they spot the king, while walking with Ghost and just step in front of them. Like "Oh fuck this guy he's not getting near sibling >:("

And the Pale King sustains +500 emotional damage.

Anyway idk wtf this was. I just had to vomit out some brain matter lol. Feel free to light me on fire hehe

Toasty...

[willowwormwood]

I'm definitely late in terms of being a Hollow Knight fan, and maybe that's why it's so offputting for me, but seeing how many people seem to feel like they're owed Silksong and updates about it is really bizarre to me?

At this point I see people complaining about not getting any updates from Team Cherry and I'm like. Man, I wonder why they stopped updating people about the progress of the game. Slowly turning to look at the state of things.

Like I genuinely do understand being disappointed at the lack of news, but Team Cherry already has to live up to the hype of not only matching but exceeding the success of Hollow Knight. People are already going to be that much more critical of it, and you know there will be a flood of people when it does come out saying "oh it's not worth the hype it wasn't worth the wait this sucks", regardless of it's quality.

Genuinely I don't care if they take 30 years to make the game. I want them to take their time and make as good of a game as they can, a game that they're proud of and that's enjoyable to play. Especially in a time when it feels like a ton of bigger art companies are just pumping out sequels and remakes and stuff to make a profit like, let Team Cherry take their time man. They don't owe us art, they don't owe us a game.

[reksink]

Sona Given Form💚

[deadly-glamourtail]

(Spoilers, I mean it!) Wouldn't be a crossover between In Stars and Time and Hollow Knight without doing at least some bosses.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 with the team.

These eight drawings were super fun! Maybe I'll do actual ISAT art later, or Art Fight will take my entire free art time, who knows.

Bigfrin was why I kept going in the first place, and Mal Du Pays was such a lightbulb moment. Details and rambling about crossover lore below!

Remember me rambling about using Nightmare as a replacement for the color Red in the first part? Well, there it is. Hallownest or not, the lore is still clear that the Dream and Nightmare realms were separated long ago, so Siffrin's wish connecting them and putting non-Grimm related Nightmare Essence into the waking world is still, uh, pretty huge.

Between regular Grimm and NKG, it felt right to take inspiration from the latter to do The Playing One. Because they'd be a huge boss in this crossover too, the dagger would also transform into something inspired by the Coliseum Fools' weapons, for visibility. And, since Dream Essence appears as Whispering Roots in the waking world, the best equivalent I could get for Sif's hat was a Nightmare Lantern, though much simpler.

With Mal Du Pays... It took a while to work out.

The first thing that comes to mind would be using Void, but that seems to be something too intrinsic to Hallownest (we know anywhere deep enough could hold Void and worshippers, but ISAT's plot isn't going down, but up). So I thought of regular Dream spirits, didn't seem to work, until a wiki dive got me in the perfect place.

Nosk can read minds and craft perfect facsimiles of important bugs found in memories, and shapeshift arms or wings as necessary to bring down their prey - maybe it's even smarter if not Infected. It was perfect! If they are a well known species, I'd probably follow the nomenclature from HK and call it Repeating Nosk, instead, but let's go with the Sadness for clarity.

Nosk is simultaneously Mal Du Pays and the ghosts in the House. In every loop, they take notice of the group, and put in fake Siffrins in their path to try and separate them. Because this never works, either because they're careful or the whole Memory of Ghosts scene, it goes on just as unexplained, since Nosk can just shred the disguise and blend perfectly into the black walls.

Until, of course, Act 5. There's no team, and now there's a single living bug other than the King for Nosk to prey on. But, since this is Act 5, Nosk reading into Siffrin's mind and becoming aware of all the loops, all the self-hatred, an incomprehensible stretch of extremely similar time breaks it bad.

Sif never notices that the ghosts are now really messed up, with stained clothes, broken masks and barely an attempt to use the same shape. In turn, Mal Du Pays won't strike because it's now aware that it wouldn't work, so, they wait.

Not sure how the fight would happen in the waking world in this crossover, but I wanna say the King sees it coming and lets it happen because he's an asshole like that. Mal Du Pays can't defeat Siffrin in a fight, so it waits until they're too exhausted, and does its thing.

Does it have a voice? Or does Sif take one look at the shells moving around and hallucinates the rest? Could go either way.

Either way, the team would have one hell of a fight in this version.

[artistlara]

RAAAGHGH QUIRRELMON BLAST 💚💙 my part of an art trade with @raddest-laddest ft. their gijinka designs of them :)