#implied hollow/bretta

[illmoraineakoi]

I love the fact that Vessels are just weird little nesting doll creatures.

A light within some Void within a physical body and shell.

They've got so many layers. Tiny little Void Onions.

[tonythr]

Sometimes you are so sad you turn into a game construct, and that's ok

Part of the reason I love Hollow Knight is that you never know when a certain phenomenon is a part of the game's actual lore or simply a gameplay convenience, but most of the time it's up to you to decide anyway. Like, yeah, I know that looking too much into what should be just a game mechanic and/or a simple animation effect makes you more of a clown than a lore master, but, honestly, at this point the entire fandom wears rainbow wigs and squeaky red noses in order to forget about the pain of no Silksong, so no one has the right to stop me from having fun with some observations I made and how they might be intentional lore pieces. So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that this theory might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it's neat, so I'm gonna post it anyway.

Now, here's the question: what do you think these two have in common?

Both are very sad because they lost someone who was close to them.

2. Both give the Knight a Mask Shard when they die.

My theory here is that these two things are connected.

Now, Mask Shards are weird, lore-wise. The locations where they are found don't always... make much sense. Like ok, aside from the two that I mentioned above, we have ones that are found on top of ancient black statues — this implies that those shards are connected to (and probably were made by) the Ancient Civilisation.

We also have some shards that we get from various NPCs (Sly, Bretta, Seer) — those also make sense, since there's nothing wrong with those weird bugs possessing some ancient artifacts. But then we have Mask Shards that just kinda... float there.

No ancient pedestals. No reason to suggest someone actually owned them. No reason for them to be there aside from the game wanting to reward the player for something.

This is also true for some of the Vessel Fragments.

Although the fountain one is exceptional. The fragment is actually a part of the Pale King's statue, but it detaches once the needed amount of geo is reached. It looks like this statue actually 'gives' it to the Knight once it puts enough geo in the fountain. It could be something that has to do with PK's magic, or with the whole 'sacrifice' theme that's going on with him. Anyway, it's not hard to come up with an explanation for how that one works. What is more interesting is how these shards and fragments are created.

Because apparently this mf can just materialize them out of thin air.

Now, I KNOW this is probably just a nice animation to emphasize how cool of an award a mask shard is, but it also wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that what happens here is Grubfather actually manipulating Soul to create this shard for the Knight. I mean, Grubs do possess some sort of 'holy strength' that was never properly explained to us (that's why I'm hoping to see some grubs in Silksong), and one of the two charms created from their power is something that straight-up gives the Knight extra Soul. If we don't count the Shaman charms, which were used only to extract and use Soul more efficiently, the only other charm that does that is Kingsoul, the embodiment of the union between two Pale Beings. So yeah, the Grubs are totally OP, and Grubfather probably does create a Mask Shard out of Soul here.

Which only proves the fact that both Mask Shards and Vessel Fragments are made out of Soul. I mean, come on, the Knight literally consumes them just like it consumes each of the spells and the Soul of its enemies, AND it takes Soul to restore broken masks. I think it's safe to assume that those ancient masks that the Knight is using to strengthen its shell are made out of Soul, or at least some material that is heavily tied to Soul in some way.

Another fact is that those masks and vessels have big connections to the Ancient Civilisation. Aside from the obvious things like the fragment/shard statues that I mentioned earlier having clear similarities to the Soul totems, there's this whole thing with the engravings on those masks and vessels having a bunch of connections with magical secrets of the Ancient Civilisation...

What I'm getting at here is that the bugs of the Ancient Civilisation probably knew the secrets of manipulating Soul and used those secrets to create masks (for protection) and Soul Vessels (for containing Soul), as well as Soul Totems. It means there is a way a Mask can be created out of Soul, aside from what we see the Knight do when it heals (which is an interesting process, btw - when a mask breaks, the Knight can restore it using Soul, but it can't create new masks to have infinite HP, so the masks it collects must have unique properties that prevent them from being completely destroyed and instead allow them to be recovered after breaking). And maybe that process was already shown to us.

Ok, now I'm actually talking about my theory again. See, the reason I think there's more to these two moments than just a simple reward being given to us by the game is because there's some overlapping philosophical (symbolical?) motifs that connect Brooding Mawlek and Grey Mourner AND possibly give us a glimpse into the secrets of Soul discovered by the Ancient Civilisation. I'm talking about what Soul itself might represent as a sorta metaphysical concept (I don't know how to say that properly... Just bear with me pls).

In the world of Hollow Knight, there are many philosophical concepts that give depth to the nature of various in-world phenomenons. For example, the Void is heavily tied to regrets, perhaps dark memories that keep us from moving forward. That's why it makes sense that, ultimately, Pale King faced his demise at the hands of the Void - he sacrificed thousands of his own children in order to save Hallownest and failed anyway, so there is no way he could avoid (pun intended) being overwhelmed by his regrets about this whole thing.

The Soul is the power that contrasts the Void.

It's implied by Jiji that, when the Knight leaves behind its Shade, it starts to drain *hope* from it.

This line was probably left there to explain this game mechanic:

When the Knight dies, it can no longer fill its Soul meter to the full, until it finds and defeats its Shade. This implies that Soul represents *hope* in contrast to the Void representing regrets.

If we accept this assumption, we can see that it makes sense how:

The White Palace is shown as a beautiful, calm, hopeful place despite it being filled with thorns and sawblades (that might or might not be a metaphor for the PK's pain of trying to hide his mistakes and regrets).

The shamans' dying thoughts are often their last hopes of being free, being heard etc.

The Soul is literally what gives the bugs' bodies the energy to move.

I feel soulless when I wake up at 7 a.m.

All things considered, it's easy to see how Soul is something that might represent such things as hope, motivation, faith - all those feelings that make a person feel whole.

And when the fate forces someone into situations where those things are lost, their inner self breaks. When something separates us from our loved ones for a whole eternity, leaving us as lonely, empty shells of our former selves, our soul hardens.

We already know that masks in this game directly correspond to the person's self, their ability to define themselves as who they are. A mask is literally the core of the person's mind.

And when a person breaks, when their hope becomes eternal sadness, when the essence that animates their body becomes a solid rock, their mind shatters, leaving only a single shard of what should have been a whole mask.

Perhaps, something like that also happened to the bugs of the Ancient Civilisation? Or maybe they found a way to control that sadness, just like they found a way to manipulate the power of regrets? They look like a bunch of cool goth bugs, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was their thing.

TL;DR: ancient masks that the Knight uses are made out of Soul, and Soul is a power that represents hope. When a person experiences a feeling of strong loneliness and hopelessness, their mind literally breaks, and their Soul literally hardens, resulting in the creation of Mask Shards. The bugs of the Ancient Civilisation might have known this.

Kinda edgy.

I like it.

[ashcoveredtraveler]

I have two personal headcanons for what happened with the traitor lord and his daughter. Alongside that is the headcanon that the traitor mantises were banished into Deepnest and took over the failed tramway before moving into the queen's gardens in order to attack the White Lady.

My first headcanon is The Traitor Lord and Ze'mer had encountered one another and had been fighting on the brink of death. The Daughter ends up being skewered in an attempt to save them both. The Hollow Knight possibly being a witness to this and the Mantises being pushed back until some time after the sealing of the Hollow Knight.

The alternative to this headcanon is the Hollow Knight ends up killing the Traitor's Child by complete accident as she once again goes to protect her father.

This event possibly enforcing the Hollow Knight's devotion to the Pale King. It makes the most sense to me due to how the grave is inscribed with such an impartial representation yet somehow having so much care to even make the grave in the first place if the other mantises despised her. It would imply the Hollow Knight made the grave, but Ze'mer was one of the few witnesses to this burial which is why she knows about it in the first place.

Also on the topic of Mantises, Hegemol could possibly be a Mantis. Why else would there be a statue of him right outside the fungal Wastes near mantis Territory? Not only that but also the entry point into the Royal waterways near the dash master room where you find Bretta implies that this path was built for someone.

I'm just ruminating here, food for thought.

For CWHP(or pretty much all of my writings or headcanons), Ze'mer wouldn't fight traitor lord unless it was needed. He would annoy her and insult her to get her angry so she would fight him so he could show his daughter that her love interest is unruly, but she can control herself. I think that manti values their own blood and relatives so she would try and save her father before Ze'mer.

I think that the tribe in a way honors the Hollow Knight and it cause I think that the Lords wear crowns that resemble the Hollow Knight horns. I have thought about hk potentially killing traitors daughter before, but I think they are train to not kill anyone.

In all of my stories, Hegmol is a tarantula. Specifically a peacock tarantula. I think the statue is there since he is "guarding" The City.

[scrawnytreedemon]

if you've got any, talk abt your headcanon for hollow and affection!?

Ohohohooooo!!!! You have UNLEASHED ME!!!

I'll try and put my own spin on this, as I feel everyone and their mum has largely the same idea of how Hollow expresses affection(which is to say, Baby Need And Want Hug)

As sweet as it is, I don't think Hollow would take to affection right away. To say they've been neglected all their life would be an understatement. Maybe they got some coddling as a very little child, but in the same way one would play with a doll. Learning that certain gestures aren't just Very Unusual Threats and that they're genuinely safe would take a good while, especially with the other healing needed from being a vessel for a dying Light god.

I absolutely ADORE the headcanon that vessels purr n shit, but not too long ago I saw a post suggesting that their "noises" would actually be a lack of sound??? And I thought that was???? The tightest shit??? But also we're going post!Infection Hollow, and for that I headcanon they were given Her voice-- Either way! Some form of purring and chirruping, voiced or un-voiced!

Once they get used to it, I think Hollow would be big on hugs and other tactile forms of affections-- Perhaps a little too much so, collapsing on people they've barely methddkjkjhdfjkhfdkjdfkjdkj

While I'm not sure if this is very in-character, I'm absolutely weak for the idea that Hollow clutches Knight close anytime they can because they're scared of losing them again-- Which leads to many scenarios where Hollow's just slumped on top of them and Knight is squirming wildly because they're a Dignified Preteen Saviour of Hallownest who wants to run petty errands Very Important Business. The guilt and shame they feel for leaving them behind is overwhelming, and so they overcompensate-- That, and they themselves have just been through something horrific --So it swings both ways, in that sense.

Both them and Hornet would be wary, at first. We have everything aformentioned for Hollow, and the fact that Hornet grew up During The Apocalypse And The Hellscape After and that part of her duty was cutting down any of the vessels that made it out of the Abyss. That, and the long-buried memories. Just... vague, blurry splotches of colour flared with soft white light racing in slow motion down halls No Longer There. Did they even meet? Once things warm up, though, and after the initial fussing is over-with, I think Hollow would be someone Hornet could genuinely settle down with and be on equal footing-- Be the Slightly Older Sibling they both fancy they might've been, had things been different.

Hollow would get along quite nicely with Elderbug :) It'd be a love-language of gifts between neighbours, and words of advice. He may not be close to them like their family and loved ones, but he's near, and they're always glad to pop by and chat. Their garden's brimming with the buds born from that one, glowing white bloom he gifted them, long agao when they first arrived.

It isn't long before Bretta realises she has butterflies again-- Or lumaflies, of whatever it is she wants over and done with! She's not ready for any of this. Everything's gone by too quick and she wants her heart to still. But it doesn't; and it doesn't help that Hollow is keen on escorting her home after their walks. Agh... No, no, no, no, they don't mean it like that-- And even if they did, Bretta would tell them now's not the time! And yet... the flowers they gifted her the other day sit so sweetly in the vase by the windowsill; glowing. Maybe she'll try, one more time.

They dream of Her. She's long dead, but they dream of Her. Hornet was scared shitless and so was everyone else until someone more reasonable less broken came by and told them it was normal for things like these to linger even when they're long gone. They dream of Her. She's radiant as ever. She's awful-- So worthy of worship and every ounce of their attention. They can't help but stare; even as their eyes burn like acid's been thrown in. She's glorious. Glorious. And it's awful. She's awful. They're awful. Their mind is theirs now but it's so empty; like She'd moved out and taken all Her things with Her. She was awful. They're glad it's over. Glad it's over but aching so much because She was the one thing glueing them together this whole time.

(Thank you as always, Thrill, for chipping in <3 always glad to see you :))

[warriordream]

Parts of Hollow Knight that blatantly refer to the Knight as a child or imply they are a child. Quote analysis. Updated with additional information if some was missed. - - - 1 update.

IMPLIED.

Showing the Knight in their just hatched form, similar to the Hollow Knight, & showing Broken Vessel who could be a tall child, preteen, or a teenage vessel. This is only an implication. I try not to use headcanons in my posts, as most people try to use their own against others to prove their point, or justify the things they do.

BLATANT. (Explicitly referring to the Knight as a child.)

ELDER HU: "Wait, child! Why have you come here? Have you come to tame this savage, ruined land?"

"Beware dreams of glory, child. Turn back, and do not return."

"My mind... it clears. Have we been... sleeping, child?"

- Unlike No Eyes who does not seem to be blatantly speaking about the Knight when referring to a child, later calling the Knight a monster, Elder Hu seems to be directly speaking to the Knight.

IMPLIED TO BE A CHILD. (Not explicit, but child coding is implication enough.)

NAILMASTER MATO: "I hope you don't think me too forward when I say that I consider you to be my child. Yes! When I saw you perform my Nail Art I felt a bond between us suddenly flash into existence!" - A grown adult would not look at another grown adult, and forwardly press to them, who is likely capable of caring for themself that they are now their father. But a child bug without parents, or a home, is a little more feasible. ELDERBUG: "Little did I know, one young bug was taking my words to heart and would repay my kindness." - While Elderbug is known for calling most bugs around him young, while being the youngest in the game, it is notable that he refers to the Knight & Bretta as young, two of the most child coded characters in the game. ZOTE: "What are you still bothering me for? I'm a Knight. I'm not interested in your childish games. I need my rest." - Zote implies that being a Knight makes him the Knight's senior, that they're simply being a child. ETERNAL EMILITIA: "No doubt this one will meet its demise at the nails of the city's guards. I'll outlive you too little grub, as I did all the others."

NAILMASTER SHEO: "A visitor! Why have you crept in here, little grub? Perhaps, like me, you have a taste for discovering new things?"

- Grub is a word for a young, recently hatched bug. A synonym for nymph, larvae mean the same thing. A pupa would be a teenage bug. It is unlikely this word is used for adults, and is more a recognition of a child. "Fully-grown vessel, carrying the plague's heart within it's body." - Implies the Hollow Knight is a grown adult, whereas all other Vessels aren't. Common theory or headcanon is that the Hollow Knight grew unnaturally, but this implies that all Vessels would grow to this state but have not lived long enough to get to this point. Despite living long enough to grow or molt to this size, Ghost is still small, and thus is still a child in comparison.

THE HUNTER: "Tiny squib... You approach fearless. Are you a hunter like me?" - - INFORMAL: a small, slight, or weak person, especially a child.

- To refer to the Knight as a tiny & little squib, would be redundant. So to use the word as a recognition of them being a weak child, is likely. Until he recognizes the Knight as a skilled hunter, he will refer to them as 'squib'.

The same can be said for Tiso's Dirtmouth dreamnail dialogue. TISO: "This little squib clearly fears me."

BOSS, SPIRIT'S GLADE: "You too are a warrior? I see your nail, but your shell seems underdeveloped." - They can recognize that the Knight is a warrior, but sees that they are a child and likely have not molted or grown.

REFERRED TO AS 'LITTLE (NICKNAME)': - This will not include moments of being referred to as small, or tiny, as those are usually remarks on their height. Little one, or little '(blank)' is usually used as a term of endearment. This is disregarding Silksong dialogue since that is subject to change, and how the relationship between Hornet & her rival may change with time.

HORNET: "Too weak, little ghost..." "Again we meet little ghost." "I'm impressed little ghost. You've burdened yourself with the fate of this world, yet you still stand strong." "Little Ghost... What dreams we share..."

- Hornet knows the Knight's age, she was raised around the same time as the Hollow Knight and knows that the Hollow Knight is an adult.

She isn't afraid to only call them Ghost, meaning she is either doting on them (she does recognize them as her sibling, "Would you supplant our birth-cursed sibling, or would you transcend it?"), or pitying them ("Only pity for your cursed kind.") "Ghost. I see you've faced the place of your birth, and now drape yourself in the substance of its shadow." "Ghost of Hallownest, you possess the strength to enact an end of your choosing." "Leave me now, ghost. Allow me a moment alone before this bedchamber becomes forever a shrine." "Then do it, Ghost of Hallownest! Head onward. Burn that mark upon your shell and claim yourself as King." "Come no closer, ghost."

THE DREAMERS: "Let us sleep little shadow." "Go no further, little shadow." "Fade away, little shadow."

SNAIL SHAMAN: "Oho! What brings you back through here, little shadow? Are you lost?" "It's just perfect for a little one like you! Ohoho!" OGRIM: "How funny that I see you in my dreams too, little one."

- Ogrim was around during the time of the Hollow Knight, and recognizes the Knight as a Vessel or the Hollow Knight's sibling. ("...So there were others...") He would recognize the Knight as a child, much like the Hollow Knight once was.

GHOSTS: GRAVEDIGGER: "Do as you will little wanderer. Cut a path toward your goal." CASPIAN: "Beware your own mind little one." "Do you think dark thoughts little one?" GARRO: "Are you a warrior, little one?" "Stand strong little warrior." MARISSA: "Welcome to my stage little one." ATRA: "Don't fear little creature." HUNDRED NAIL WARRIOR: "Do you like my nails little wanderer?"

[nemofil]

i had a fun time discussing ideas for a dumb hollow knight content-creator au (where everything is also fine)

1. radiance was a big shot before the pale king arrived and stole all her followers bc he did basically the same content as her, just a bit better. eventually radiance started an ARG about someone controlling the whole world with a hivemind and got pale king in it and they’re very much besties with a small rival arc :D

2. lost kin used to do normal content like gardening and walking/hiking around until in one video it ended abruptly and they never uploaded again, implying that they died somehow. then some 400 years later they begin making content again where they wander and had a COMPLETE 180-degree turn on their content. it’s now all trolling and arson until like one day they went back to normal content for... some unknown reason

3. grimm’s the super enigmatic vlogger with the super hot voice and every one keeps wondering what he looks like and there’s some thirsty fancams and edits about him (mostly made by godseeker)

4. speaking of godseeker, she posts fancams of like... literally everyone and she’s probably into astrology, and her texts are always in a slightly elegant form like “greetings, may i interest you in [thing]?”

5. pure vessel doesn’t talk while they’re streaming, and you only see an arm playing and a bunch of plushies on their table :D also they’re EERILY good at this, and sometimes hornet comes in their room since they live together with the siblings 

6. little ghost REFUSES. ABSOLUTELY REFUSES to play anything other than platformers when they’re streaming. everytime a follower donates and asks them to play something that isn’t a platformer, they begin tapping on the table. it’s morse code that says “fuck off”. they have made small exceptions though, like when they played dark souls and bloodborne and were eerily good at it

7. myla and bretta do little animation memes and they sometimes collaborate together :D

8. the collector has an onlyfans where he shows off his shiny pokemon collection. he also streams gacha games and does NOTHING but whale on them. and... rarely, he goes bug catching

9. quirrel has a wide blanket of content, sometimes he’s walking around, sometimes he’s blowing toilets up with monomon, and sometimes he just gives out worthless information in 30-second videos

10. it’s a given but sheo does drawing streams, mato posts videos about, well... swordsmanship... and i like to think that oro’s a commentary person who like. drops the bluntest jokes and yet still manages to get his very based point across

11. sly’s one of those internet legends who gives like genuinely useful advice about money and scams and all that other stuff but his upload schedule resembles that of a hermit’s

12. the nailmasters have a minecraft smp series where mato and oro are planning to go to war, sheo’s just doing whatever and sly hasn’t appeared on the server in years

13. dung defender does like commentary and stuff where it’s super happy and he’s just a very positive content creator in general :D

14. lurien posts fancams on alt and does tea commentary on main. sometimes he slips up and posts a fancam on main. but the fucking amazing part is that no one knows who his alt is LMAO

15. i fucking heard dystopia sneeze so damn loud in the background @dystopiax you little shit /affectionate connotation

[feralphoenix]

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS: The Mechanics of the Infection

welcome back to feral’s essay tag where the hot takes don’t stop from keep being hot!

this particular meta has a Lot of citations from canon, and my plan is to have them as actual footnotes in the dreamwidth mirror when that goes up (as i always crosspost my meta there in case my layout text is too small for any folks accessing these from computer and not mobile).

CONTENT WARNING FOR TONIGHT’S PROGRAM: This essay contains discussion of body horror, cancer, and many of the darker aspects of Hallownest’s society.

ALSO, AS USUAL: I read Hollow Knight as anti-colonialist fiction and all of my meta approaches the text from that angle. This essay is strongly critical of the Pale King and Hallownest, and affords sympathy to pre-Hallownest societies & native characters, including Radiance. If you come from a Christian cultural background (regardless of whether you currently practice the religion or not), some of the concepts I am going to discuss may be challenging for you. Please be responsible in your choice whether to engage with this content, and also, be respectful here or wherever else you’re discussing this essay. Thanks.

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS: The Mechanics of the Infection

If you’ve ever looked through my Hollow Knight tags, you have probably seen me joke about the Infection like a lot, usually along the lines of Radiance casting Level 9 Inflict Tang on Hallownest, or “(radi voice) the End of EVA will continue until you Let My People Go” or some such. In addition to being some of the most beautiful body horror I’ve yet seen in fiction, its appearance also makes it a veritable meme factory.

It is also something that inspires a lot of very wild theorizing amongst fans, because canon tells us WHY the Infection exists but doesn’t ever directly explain WHAT it is. To name just a few of the guesses I’ve seen, people have posited that it could be some sort of pupa juice, or maybe some type of parasitic fungus.

I have my own guess, though, and it’s based on hints we can find in-game. I would like to share it with the class today, so let’s take a quick look through the sauce, starting with what we already know!

WHY

We learn why the Infection happened from Seer and Moss Prophet, and this is also summed up more directly in Team Cherry’s dev notes attached to Seer.

The Pale King wanted to be the only god of light in the crater,* so he tried to kill Radiance by thralling her children - attracting the moths with his light and making them forget about her,** assimilating them into Hallownest. Radiance survived because some moths still remembered and tried to preserve what they could of their original culture,*** and eventually she attempted to reassert her existence and communicate with the bugs of the crater by speaking to them through their dreams. However, the Pale King realized what was happening and ordered his worshippers to shut her out.****

Radiance did not give up, and continued to broadcast her message through dreams. This unstoppable force VS immovable object conflict could not last forever - something eventually had to give, and what gave was the mortals.***** The Infection was an accident that Radiance did not initially intend, but presumably chose to weaponize after the fact as a way to attempt to pressure TPK into releasing the moths and leaving her alone (or, barring that, a way to thoroughly destroy his kingdom at the very least).

SOURCES:

* “No blazing kin. Only one light shall shine against the dark.” - Lore tablet hidden beside the Pale King’s throne in the White Palace.

** “None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters.” - Seer’s 1200 Essence dialogue.

*** “But the memories of that ancient light still lingered, hush whispers of faith... Until all of Hallownest began to dream of that forgotten light.” - Seer’s 2400 Essence dialogue.

**** “The King and the bugs of hallownest resisted this memory/power and it started to manifest as the infection.” - from Team Cherry’s dev notes attached to Seer.

***** “Light is life, beaming, pure, brilliant. To stifle that light is to suppress nature. Nature suppressed distorts, plagues us.” - Moss Prophet's dialogue.

HOW

Now that we’ve recapped why the Infection exists, let’s examine the process of how the Infection works. We see some examples of this with various characters in-game, and the Hunter also shares his observations of the Infection’s mechanics in his commentary on the Infected Crossroads entries.

Since we’ll be bringing up the Hunter's Journal here, I want to first examine three entries to establish its dual authorship and how trustworthy it is: The Shade’s entry, the Lightseed’s, and Radiance’s.

We know that the bottom section of the Hunter’s Journal is the Hunter’s personal notes on each creature because the game itself tells us so. So who writes the notes on top that give a brief explanation of what each creature is? It’s a common fan theory that Ghost writes these, which I believe is indeed the case.

First let’s look at the Shade, which is automatically unlocked when we receive the Hunter's Journal in-game regardless of whether we have died and fought the Shade or not. Mechanically this is important because if the Shade weren’t unlocked by default it would be impossible to attain the Hunter achievements without dying at least once - this would REALLY suck for anybody who likes to suffer enough to try to complete the journal in Steel Soul mode.

The Shade’s entry reads:

Echo of a previous life. Defeat it to retake its power and become whole.

-

Each of us leaves an imprint of something when we die. A stain on the world. I don’t know how much longer this kingdom can bear the weight of so many past lives...

Notice that the top text knows exactly what the Shade is and how it works. In story terms, this would imply that Ghost has died and come back enough pre-game to understand the mechanics of how their revivals work.

The Lightseed’s entry reads:

A single-celled organism, completely infected. Scurries about simple-mindedly.

-

Strange air has been seeping down from above for years. Some of the air became liquid, and some of that liquid became flesh, and some of that flesh came to life. I don’t know what to make of it.

In this entry, the top text assumes that Lightseeds are a Lifeseed-like creature that has been infected, and the Hunter’s notes reveal that this is incorrect and the Lightseeds were actually born from the Infection itself. From this we learn that the top text isn’t omniscient and can be mistaken: It’s written from a limited perspective.

And here’s Radi’s entry:

The light,* forgotten.

-

The plague, the infection, the madness that haunts the corpses of Hallownest... the light that screams out from the eyes of this dead Kingdom. What is the source? I suppose mere mortals like myself will never understand.

Here, the top text has information that the Hunter doesn’t, and which only a handful of bugs are privy to anymore.

From these three examples, I believe it is safe to say that Ghost is in fact the author of the journal entries’ top segments.

It’s important to remember that the observations these characters make can be not wholly correct, and I’ll bring that up when I believe it to be relevant, but for now let’s build a picture of how a case of the Infection generally progresses by looking at the Hunter’s commentary on Infected Crossroads enemies, and at a handful of characters whose Infection we directly observe: Bretta, Sly, Myla, and Moss Prophet.

The Hunter describes the broad arc of Infection progression in the Violent Husk's entry: “First [the bugs of Hallownest] fell into deep slumber, then they awoke with broken minds, and then their bodies started to deform...”

The two NPCs who we can save from becoming Infected, Bretta and Sly, are initially found emitting orange fog and mumbling to themselves. In Bretta’s case, when listened to, she initially talks about being left behind and forgotten** as she assumes that all people will treat her this way even though she craves affection and attention; Dream Nailed either before or after being listened to, she mentions a “shining figure”.***

Meanwhile, Sly speaks about his pupil Oro and someone named Esmy, and when his symptoms subside he identifies that he was led to the Crossroads village ruins by a dream.****

Listening to Bretta and Sly completely brings them back to reality, after which they leave the underground area entirely to return to Dirtmouth. However, when the player encounters Myla after defeating Soul Master and obtaining Descending Dive, listening to her does not cause any change in her condition despite that she is not yet hostile.

During these encounters, Bretta is surrounded by orange fog, Sly is surrounded by orange fog and his eyes have also begun to turn orange, and Myla's eyes are glowing but there is no fog around her. So, we can deduce that for as long as the orange fog is present, a bug may still be awoken and cured (Bretta and Sly both show no signs of relapse over the course of the game), but once the fog disappears the bug can no longer be saved by external means.

The "deformation" that the Hunter mentions in the Violent Husk entry refers to the large blobs of Infection that develop on the bodies of creatures that have been infected for a long period of time. We observe these upon the Infected Crossroads enemies, as well as on Hollow and the Moss Prophet. We also see that these Infection tumors can eventually kill bugs once they grow too large and impede bodily functions, just like real cancer: The Moss Prophet and Mossy Vagabonds are all discovered in this state after the Crossroads become infected, as are the Husk Guards in the Crossroads.

So, the progression we can see here is that bugs become infected through their dreams, and while they can initially be woken, if left alone they will fall into too deep a sleep to wake up. Some time after this they will start to move around again but will be hostile to any creatures that are not infected. And, if left in this state for a very long period of time, they will develop tumorous growths which are potentially fatal.

Potentially fatal. This is an interesting contradiction to a basic assumption that most players - and even Ghost and the Hunter - seem to hold about the Infection: That is, that the Infection functions like a pop-culture zombie plague, and infected creatures are all undead (reanimated dead things that can't be killed); thus that the enemies that respawn after resting or going offscreen are the same ones that Ghost just murdered, and have simply been reanimated by the Infection once again.

But infected creatures can die of the Infection. What’s more, bosses and unique instances of generic enemies (such as Myla and the Moss Knight at the pier of Unn’s lake) do not respawn once killed. And it’s definitely not that Ghost killed them that counts: Traitor Lord dies whether Ghost fights him solo or whether Cloth is brought along, in which case she always gets the final blow. This creates the argument that the respawning generics are NOT in fact the same individuals reanimated over and over, but different individuals of the same enemy class, and that their different respawn rates speak to how plentiful those creatures are - small animals respawning faster because a new one will arrive in the recently killed one’s territory sooner, for instance.

Ghost and the Hunter both seem to assume that infected enemies are all undead - many creatures are identified as “husks” or “the remains of [whatever specific bug]” in the Hunter's Journal. But we’ve already established that sometimes Ghost and the Hunter are wrong.

So, if infected creatures aren’t undead, then what are they?

SOURCES:

* I find it a very interesting tidbit of characterization for Ghost that they refer to Radiance as the Light, as native bugs do, rather than calling her the Old Light, as Hallownest bugs did. This has some fascinating implications for where Ghost feels their allegiances to be, but that's neither here nor there right now lol.

** “Ohhh... please... don’t leave me behind! You... forgot about me...? I knew you would... everyone always forgets about me...” - Bretta’s dialogue, Fungal Wastes encounter

*** “...Shining figure...So bright...” - Bretta’s Dream Nail dialogue, Fungal Wastes encounter

**** “...ugghh, Oro you oaf.... You wield your nail... like a club... ...Esmy... how much deeper do we have to go... Oh! What?! Who are you?! ...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.” - Sly’s dialogue, Crossroads village encounter

WHAT

In a move very on-brand for Hollow Knight, there’s actually a line from Seer that gives the whole game away - and I mean this incredibly literally, she declares her loyalty to Radiance and says Fuck Hallownest and also hints at what she hopes for from Ghost all in two breaths!! - except that most players are never going to see this line because Seer only says this if you screw up platforming in the Forgotten Dream and yeet yourself off a platform before picking up the Dream Nail.

I do not doubt that I could wring a whole essay out of this one line by itself (and Seer deserves an essay from me so maybe I will), but today the part we’re concerned with is the third line of this dialogue, i.e. how she describes the Dream Nail to Ghost: “The power to wake this world from its slumber[.]”

Its slumber.

The Infection doesn’t only spread through dreams. It is a dream.

To put it in a more meta/video game mechanics sort of way, the Infection is a status ailment. Sleep exists as a common status ailment in RPGs, strategy games, and even some adventure games and platformers. Usually the status ailment of sleep is a mild nuisance that wears off after time, when a character is struck, or if the requisite curative is used; in comparison the Infection is Sleep But Bass Boosted. Appropriate, for a glorified status ailment that’s inflicted by the literal actual god of dreams.

The Infection can only be cured in the very early stages. Once an infected creature has fallen into a coma, there’s no longer any hope of a third party breaking the curse... and also, infected creatures sleepwalk. Violently.

This may also provide an explanation for why mummified bugs in the catacombs have been infected, too: If they were freshly dead and their lingering spirit was still attached enough to their corpses, and that lingering spirit retained enough of a mind to dream...

Aside from those mummified bugs, though, I believe it likely that most if not all of the infected enemies in-game are very, very much alive.

Beyond all the dialogue and lore crumbs pointing to the Infection simply being a cursed sleep, this explanation makes the most sense when thinking about Radiance as a character. She is the literal embodiment of dreams as well as the sun, so inflicting eternal slumber with bonus malignant sleepwalking is a natural extension of her power and a way to use it offensively without being directly violent.

(I've written about this at length elsewhere, but signs point to Radiance having been a pacifist prior to the Pale King’s invasion. Short version: The Moth Tribe were pacifists and Radiance was the center of their culture so it would be odd if she were an exception; she is incapable of inflicting any physical harm whatsoever in a game where lack of contact damage from an active enemy indicates helplessness and such enemies always flee from Ghost unless they have a tool they can use to fight with; her behavior in her boss battles indicates a lack of combat experience, and her nail-generating spells seem to be based on Hollow’s abilities. Real-life adult moths cannot fight - they defend themselves with flight, camouflage, mimicry, and I’m Poisonous So Fuck Off coloring.)

Now, I don’t want to downplay the harm the Infection causes - it doesn’t have to turn bugs into literal undead zombies to be devastating. What we can glean of Hallownest’s ruins suggests that as a state it was heavily dependent on labor to run its industry, so incapacitating the laborers would have turned the whole country on its head, especially because those laborers cannot be woken. The Infection also created an intense atmosphere of terror throughout Hallownest as bugs tried to discover ways to cure it or at least protect themselves. And as the Hunter observes,* because of how the Infection is caused, the harder you try to block Radiance out, the worse the Infection will get.

(A sidebar: Interestingly, the Infection's progress seems to be very slow when a creature willingly accepts it; Moss Prophet has Infection tumors when met but doesn’t die of them until the Crossroads is infected, though many Crossroads bugs are found dead of tumors immediately. Traitor Lord and his followers opted in to the Infection long ago, but Traitor Lord is still at the “orange fog” stage and could theoretically be cured, if he wanted to be. Both Traitor Lord and Moss Prophet are still completely lucid, too.)

Radiance may not have committed any direct violence against Hallownest, but the Infection does incite violence: infected creatures become hostile to and will attack the uninfected. And as we’ve discussed, the Infection itself can become fatal once it’s progressed far enough for tumorous growths to form.

A god smiting the shit out of her people’s oppressors by nonviolently but thoroughly disrupting their kingdom, Especially if that kingdom is a genocidal colonialist slave state,** as a Let My People Go And Leave Me Alone :) ultimatum is not unreasonable. (And Moss Prophet tells us point-blank that literally just listening to Radiance in the first place would have prevented the Infection before it began!) But despite that Hallownest as an institution is unambiguously awful, Hallownest bugs victimized by their own state (such as the maggot slaves and other menial workers) probably saw much less benefit from Hallownest’s genocides than the rich and nobility, and likely deserved the smiting way less than said rich and nobility.

Meanwhile Hallownest’s neighbors - all native nations who are just as much victims of TPK’s bullshit as the Moth Tribe - did not deserve to get caught up in the smiting at all.

Lateral harm in Hollow Knight is another topic that deserves its own essay - and more than that, lots of in-depth conversation! - but, again, that’s not the topic we want to focus on today. I do want to make it clear, though, that infected creatures being alive and theoretically wakeable if the curse should end doesn’t suddenly mean the Infection was actually no big deal. If you want your jimmies rustled, try Dream Nailing enemies that pull from the generic Dream Nail dialogue pool: They are on some level aware that they’re dreaming and can’t wake.***

Clues that the Infection is literally a dream are littered all over the game, from Elderbug’s initial dialogue**** to the name of ending 3, Dream No More - not only named that because that’s the ending where Ghost sacrifices Radiance’s life as well as their own to end Hollow’s suffering rather than only sacrificing their freedom.

Some of what Bardoon and Moss Prophet have to say about the Infection is suggestive of the nature of this dream, though. Moss Prophet appeals to their audience to find unity through the Infection,***** and Bardoon also remarks on this, though he cautions that this comes at the cost of being reduced to instinct.****** Dreaming does tend to come hand in hand with lack of inhibition and suggestibility, but I’m more interested in what Moss Prophet and Bardoon mean by unity, since infected creatures’ thoughts are different depending on what they are and what they were already doing while awake.

There's less specific hard evidence for this aside from how we can observe that Infection blobs are connected to Radiance, transmitting her heartbeat and birthing the Lightseeds, her unintended creations. But given that those blobs do originate from Infection fluid according to the Hunter... Radiance is not just the embodiment of dreams but the heart of THE Dream. So could the Infection be a forcible pseudo-immersion into that capital-D Dream, the Dream Realm itself?

Whether my hunch here is right or not, I can’t in good faith end this essay without bringing all y’all’s attention to absolutely my favorite bit of The Infection Is A Dream foreshadowing: The way multiple parties mention the fact that the Infection smells and tastes sweet.*******

You know... it’s sweet... it’s a sweet dream... get it.........

And now that you can no longer unsee that brilliantly awful pun, I think I'll see myself out!

SOURCES:

* “The infection that swept through Hallownest so long ago... they say that the harder you struggled against it, the more it consumed you.” - Hunter’s commentary, Slobbering Husk Hunter’s Journal entry.

** I’m referring, of course, to the maggots. See: “Weakest members of the kingdom of Hallownest. Generally looked down upon and forced to do menial labour.” (Ghost’s commentary) and “If they try to bargain for their life, just ignore them. They have nothing to offer.” (Hunter’s commentary) from the Maggot Hunter's Journal entry as well as False Knight/Failed Champion’s backstory. Remember also that maggots are the larval form of flies like Sly (you’ll see the resemblance if you compare Sly’s features to the maggot siblings’), meaning Hallownest employs child slavery. In more cheerful news Sly’s backstory must be absolutely goddamn wild.

*** “I’m not...Dead..” “Am I...Sleeping?” “I can’t....Wake up...” - Dream Nail dialogue from generic Hallownest bugs (Wandering Husk, Leaping Husk, Horned Husk, Husk Bully, Husk Warrior) and from God Tamer for some reason

**** “Perhaps dreams aren't such great things after all...” - Elderbug’s initial dialogue

***** “Embrace light! Achieve union!” - Moss Prophet’s dialogue

****** “Theirs is a different kind of unity. Rejection of the Wyrm’s attempt at order. I resist the light’s allure. Union it may offer, but also a mind bereft of thought... To instinct alone a bug is reduced...Hrrm...” - Bardoon’s dialogue (Listen four times, not counting other dialogue flags)

******* “A thick orange mist fills these walking corpses. It has a sweet, sickly taste to it. I find it foul. After you kill these creatures, I suggest you do not eat them.” - Hunter’s commentary, Husk Bully Hunter’s Journal entry, just for one example.

[ganymedesclock]

how do you figure that the knight has a personality. from what i've seen, it's purpose is to stop the plague, and every action it takes is to further that goal. there aren't any sidequests that bring it to other, irrelevant things.

Anon pardon me for being rude but this just sounds a lot like you really weren’t paying any attention at all.

The first thing Ghost did was leave Hallownest entirely

They came back specifically because Hollow was dying. Numerous people speculate or imply about this and it is shown to us in the opening cinematic- Hollow screams, and then Ghost specifically returns to Hallownest. Given Ghost shows neither loyalty nor reverence to any figure of the Pale King, in any route, it is hard for me to believe this is their instruction.

Literally numerous characters explicitly discuss that Ghost is making independent decisions. Open the wiki and find a character page and read their dialogue. I challenge you to find basically any character in the entire game who has more than a single sentence of dialogue, that does not talk about Ghost making choices and having opinions. 

The soundtrack that plays during Hollow’s fight sharply changes tonally in response to Hollow stabbing themselves. No one else is observing Hollow. “We” as player do not have a presence that is acknowledged in the meta of the game. Ever. Ergo: These moments of sadness are emotions we are told that Ghost has.

The person who tells us that Ghost is empty was wrong about it explicitly and big time. Literally the entire reason Hollow didn’t work is because the Pale King was wrong about the vessels and his entire civilization ate shit because of it. In case you missed the charnel pit filled with dead children, or the fact that you basically find his dead body curled up in an empty throne room where you then have to smack it out of its chair and onto the floor in order to clear the area, PK is not a trustworthy source of information. He is factually observably incorrect about several things (see: the lore tablet in the Howling Cliffs that states there “is no world beyond” and implies sapience only exists within Hallownest’s bounds when half the cast casually talks about and is canonically shown via things like Quirrel’s prequel comic to have come to Hallownest from outside, and been sapient the whole time. PK HIMSELF came to Hallownest from the outside and was sapient. 

Also the specific thing you cite that would be counter-evidence to Ghost lacking a personality happens. like. all the time. Things that aren’t relevant to Ghost’s Assigned Objective:

Literally any ending except “Hollow Knight” which you can complete by ignoring everyone and running in a straight line to the goal. Even that ending requires Ghost to conduct independent synthesis of ideas to figure out how to complete this, which an entity that has a personality and thoughts does things. 

Any objective that requires the Kingsoul calls for you to wander what White Lady notes is a long way off the path and obtain objects you were never “supposed” to have when your path ahead to replace Hollow is clear.

Every aspect of the Delicate Flower quest

The Colosseum of Fools

The entirety of the Grimm Troupe DLC

The entirety of Hidden Dreams DLC

The entirety of Godmaster DLC

Sitting with Quirrel at the conclusion of his storyline

Sitting and listening to Marissa

Meditating with Mato, or seeking out the Nailmasters in the first place

Beating up Millibelle for robbing you

Accepting the Hunter’s Journal and completing it

Fighting Hornet a second time and acquiring the King’s Brand (which is used to defy an explicit order of the Pale King, that the Abyss is to be left sealed)

The grub sidequest

Pursuing any of the character storylines, such as Cloth, Bretta, Tiso, or Elderbug’s to its logical conclusion

This list is incomplete and could continue

It certainly looks like actually most of the game consists of actions that make no sense from the perspective of an empty creature who is completely apathetic, lacks a personality, and only obeys orders given to it by PK, and, after all, we are roleplaying the experience of being Ghost, considering never at any point does the game ever acknowledge the player as an entity or break the fourth wall. The closest it comes is the Shrine of Believers which is extremely esoteric to access.

It would also certainly seem I’m really mad about it, which I am: Anon, please consider that I am an autistic adult. Please consider that many people with autism, especially in childhood, can be:

Nonverbal

Prone to repetitive behavior or acting in a way that others describe as “robotic”

Lack what is considered “typical emoting” / could seem to be “blank-faced”

Basically, everything the vessels are. And autistic people are, you know, real actual human beings with thoughts and feelings. You know what people argue, all the time? That we aren’t. Especially young nonverbal kids.

Do you understand maybe why I am saltier than small oceans about this subject?

If so, I really hope you understand that while I cannot physically reach through the screen and stop you from believing this, broaching this attitude does cause me, as an autistic person, to trust you significantly less, especially since we are talking about a game that calls a huge amount of attention to the fact that all of the vessels suffered and were hurt by what was done to them. Broken Vessel reaches out to you when they fall. Hollow actively stabs themselves during their fight to prevent Radiance from using themselves to hurt you and comes back as a Shade to attack her in Dream No More.

To insist there’s not evidence of Ghost having a personality is to both insist, in arrogance, that all of the humanity of playing Hollow Knight is only brought by the player- when we are not a force that exists in this world- and to deny the fact that there is anything wrong with the Abyss. Which is clearly not the conclusion the game intended to present you with. There is a reason we feel something about the Abyss, and not about the workshop in the White Palace where bits of Kingsmould armor are stacked up. And even the Kingsmoulds, it’s made clear, have at least the capacity to grow and form opinions given the implications of The Collector.

[rukafais]

Why is using he/him for the vessels so bad?

Transcript for first image:

Q: both the knight and the hollow knight are genderless?

Ari: Yeah, we think that is canonical. And it’s mentioned several times within the-

William: Maybe we never quite explain- or, maybe it’s never liked explained...I don’t know how you would even explicitly say this in-game.

Ari: I think it may be, somewhere. But it’s just a factor of it.

William: The character we’re playing as...is this a spoiler?

Ari: We should say that sometimes I think we say ‘he’, but that’s just probalby our-

William: Early on we did. Because that was like way before the character really even...we kinda knew what the character is-

Ari: I think we still accidentally say it as like a habit thing. But that is not accurate.

William: Canonically, yes (they are genderless).

Transcript for second image:

Q: A lot of non-binary people see the Knight as agender and feel empowered by the game. Was it your intention for them to be genderless? Do you support this head canon?

A: Absolutely we support this! And it’s fantastic that players could feel empowered in such a way. Maybe a spoiler, but HK does (almost explicitly) confirm its protagonist is genderless.

Because they are explicitly genderless and don’t take he/him pronouns.

Team Cherry also talks about the struggle of localisation in another interview, because they had to work around languages that didn’t have the capability to convey a gender neutral pronoun/gender neutral terms, and they apparently also checked the game to remove titles that would imply gender (like changing ‘prince’ to ‘wanderer’ for bretta referring to the Knight, because ‘prince’ traditionally implies masculinity.)

[feralphoenix]

SONGS OF RESISTANCE: The View Myla Grants Us Of Hallownest’s Moths

hello again hollow knight fandom, i am back with my picante takes and ready to discuss two things i love: myla hollowknight and the moth tribe! Let Us Be Sad About Them Together.

as with my previous essay i’m going to be putting this fellow up on dreamwidth later for accessibility purposes since my layout text may be too small for high-res pc users. this time i’ll be attaching that in a reblog to avoid this post getting eaten by the dread tungle algorithms.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR TONIGHT’S PROGRAM: This essay discusses colonialism and genocide both in real life and the fictional depictions in Hollow Knight, as well as racism in the zombie horror genre and in fandom.

ALSO: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay

SONGS OF RESISTANCE: THE VIEW MYLA GRANTS US OF HALLOWNEST’S MOTHS

In this house we are all love Myla.

Well, in all fairness, there are probably plenty of Hollow Knight fans who aren’t interested in her character, since which fictional characters one attaches to is always a matter of personal preference. But she’s still well-loved for a minor NPC and inspires a high level of devotion in her fans. There’s nothing that whips folks into a frenzy like a cute character you can’t do anything to help, and unlike some other characters in Hollow Knight Myla’s fate leaves no room for ambiguity. Once you pick up the Crystal Heart you’re left with only two choices: Avoid her, or kill her.

A lot of Hollow Knight’s world is designed to make you care about it so that it will hurt more when Ghost’s violent skillset proves too limited to save something or someone. The consequences of Hallownest’s founding and policies have directly or indirectly caused a great deal of damage to everything, and chief among those consequences with massive damage and a wide splash range is the Infection. Much has been said elsewhere by other people about Hollow Knight’s predominating mood being a struggle against futility, with Ghost arriving at the eleventh hour and every new tragedy designed to make the player more desperate to find something actionable, only finding out by trial and error what’s beyond your personal ability to save.

Myla, in that sense, is a typical example of that worldbuilding. She’s a particular kind of stock character in the zombie horror genre, the innocent who falls victim to the plague and cannot be saved, wrenching audience hearts and demonstrating the stakes.

But Hollow Knight plays with the trappings of zombie horror in a very unusual way, one I find thematically fascinating.

For a quick overview, the “zombie” as we know it in popular culture is an appropriation of a voudou (the Black American spiritual practice) concept that deals with the fear of slavery killing one’s spirit. (People more versed in/with roots in voudou culture can give a much more comprehensive overview than this simplistic one.)

The zombie horror genre, especially in Western media, is part of the great white fragility stock plot trifecta (the other two being alien invasions and robot uprisings). Zombie horror in particular expresses white fears that marginalized ethnic groups will rise up violently in revenge for their mistreatment and destroy white society. The fear of “that which is human, which ‘humanity’ is not” (to borrow mecha visual novel Heaven Will Be Mine’s pithy term) and the extreme levels of violence towards human-but-not bodies typical of zombie horror are often an expression of such bigotries. This is, again, a subject that’s been discussed in greater depth and with more nuance elsewhere.

But what Hollow Knight does is take the ugly metaphors and it makes them literal, makes it harder to ignore the toxic subtext of the genre. The Infection is literally a native god’s revenge on the settlers who committed genocide* against her people. How the Pale King’s colonization of the crater negatively affected the preexisting groups of bugs underpins every level of the worldbuilding, as does Hallownest’s cruelty towards its neighbors.

Hollow Knight is a game that is about the tragedy of Western imperialism. It is one of the work’s central themes. There are a lot of conversations that need to be had about the ways these themes manifest and, on a real-world level, about fandom’s predisposition to avoid the subject.

But, for now, let’s get back to Myla. If she fits such a stock zombie horror archetype, and Hollow Knight uses zombie horror tropes to underline the conversation it attempts to have about colonialism, then what has Myla got to teach us about the overall worldbuilding?

There's two topics I’d like to broach here: First we’ll get into how the circumstances of Myla’s infection fit in to the implied role of Crystal Peak in pre-Hallownest society. Then let’s take a long look at the lyrics of Myla’s song and what it implies.

MYLA, THE CRYSTALS, AND THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

If you think about it, Myla is an interesting outlier compared to the other NPCs we encounter on the verge of succumbing to the Infection. Both Bretta and Sly are unhappy: Bretta is a lonely, anxious bundle of abandonment issues yearning for someone to sweep her off her feet; Sly misses his pupils and loved ones who’ve left him in death (we never learn who Esmy is or what they were to Sly, but we sure can tell they’re not around anymore). The temptation to dream away those sadnesses seems to play a part in their vulnerability to the Infection, and also why Ghost’s interruption brings them back to reality.

Not so Myla. She appears to be blissfully unaware of her fellow miners’ fate, and most of her dialogue prior to her infection (besides the song - we’ll get to that later) is about how much fun she’s having at her job and how much she enjoys Ghost’s occasional company.

Yet she still winds up infected when Ghost’s back is turned. Why?

Not to discard the possibility that Myla’s got her own issues too, but in her case there seems to be another likely cause at hand: The crystals. If hit with the Dream Nail before infected, she mentions that she can hear them “singing” and “whispering”.

Under the The Hunter’s Hot Takes section of the Hunter’s Journal entries on various Crystal Peak enemies, we can learn more about the crystals - particularly in the entries for the Husk Miner and Crystallized Husk.

Crystal Peak’s crystals were thought of as particularly precious in Hallownest and harvested en masse for use in luxury items and the like. To do so, the mining operation was set up throughout most of the mountain, though the area around its peak still remains largely untouched. However, there’s more to the crystals than just that. Like Myla, the Hunter notes that the crystals can be heard to sing very very softly if one listens closely enough.

Perhaps of even more interest than that is this particular comment he gives us, from the Crystallized Husk journal entry: “There is some strange power hidden in the crystals that grow up there in the peaks. They gleam and glow in the darkness, a bright point of searing heat in each one.”

I don’t think it’s a particularly revolutionary idea to point out that there’s some connection between the crystals and Radiance’s power; this is something many players have intuited just based on Myla’s dialogue. But, in order to understand what Myla is demonstrating about the game’s world I think it’s important to think about what that connection is.

Speaking of which, the local Whispering Root has two important clues for us: The phrases “light refracted” and “energy contained”.

The very top of Crystal Peak is one of the only places in the crater where the moths’ architecture has escaped Hallownest destroying it, and is the only place in the entire game setting where their religious iconography remains fully intact. There are stone monuments covered in their language (which has been destroyed with the rest of their culture) and the statue of the Radiance - this is easier to see in the Wanderer’s Journal tie-in book, but the huge stone arches upon the Crown represent Radi’s halo and its rays and encircle her when viewed head-on or from a distance instead of the side view we get in the game.

The crystals grown here were used by the moths to store and cultivate Radiance’s light. It’s impossible to know what sort of architecture/infrastructure existed inside the mountain before Hallownest stole it from the moths. But between the massive scope of her statue and all the texts at the Crown, and the fact that the moths were working with their literal actual god’s freely given power here, it can be safely asserted that Crystal Peak was a holy ground to them.

Hallownest didn’t care about the mind-boggling level of spiritual significance Crystal Peak must have had to the natives, though. To the Pale King and his people, the crystals are just a natural resource to be harvested for personal profit.

This is unfortunately a conflict that still plays out in colonized countries today. If you’re American, #NoDAPL probably comes to mind; Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are filled with these sorts of horror stories too. Settler disrespect for indigenous sacred grounds is a huge problem that needs addressing. If you’re looking at the story of Crystal Peak and thinking it’s very on-the-nose... maybe it needs to be.

Anyway, Myla is nowhere near as miserable as Bretta or Sly, but she still notices that something’s up with these crystals. She hears the voice coming from inside, and she’s curious, and she tries very very hard to listen to it... so she DOES end up hearing Radiance’s voice. Radiance’s real voice, not the songs and whispers inside the crystals: The voice of a frightened, angry, grieving god who knows there’s a new vessel running around in Hallownest, and doesn’t want any part of that. A voice that’s pleading for someone, anyone to kill this dangerous creature, and save her from the threat Ghost poses.

Between how freaked out Radi is to know Ghost is poking around, the tendency we see in her boss battles for her to panic and kneejerk blast things at full volume/vibrance when she’s panicking, and the way her dream broadcast seems to be only a one-way communication line while she’s in the Black Egg... naturally this spells disaster for poor Myla.

Similar to the Moss Prophet, this small tragedy is a demonstration of the eleventh-hour state the conflict is in: The Pale King has escalated this situation so far, and Radiance is so traumatized and isolated, that bystanders who might in a kinder timeline have become Radi’s allies instead get caught up in her AOE. Myla’s definitely not as aware of the overall situation as the Moss Prophet, since she’s a Hallownest bug and not an indigenous one the way they are. But she noticed things were not as they seemed, and she was curious. Who knows what new possibilities could have opened up, if Radiance was able to truly communicate with bugs in the outside world?

Small side note before we move on, but I’ve noticed a tendency among some folks who notice the missed connections to come down extra hard on Radiance and chalk Myla’s infection/Moss Prophet’s death down to deliberate cruelty on her part. I’d like to gently push back against this.

Living in a post-colonial world we all absorb some level of prejudice from our surroundings, and it’s important to take a look at our first assumptions about people (or, in this case, fictional characters lol) to examine whether these prejudices we’ve inherited have influenced those assumptions.

So, if your first instinct is to look at this situation and say the problem is that Radiance is being too harsh and too angry where she should have stepped back and softened her emotions for others’ benefit to gently persuade them to her side... Please think about how when people of color and non-Christians express anger or hurt at our treatment, or even so much as calmly assert our boundaries, white/Christian viewers often view us as much more aggressive and threatening than we actually are. The “angry black woman” trope is a good example of this stereotype. You may want to look up the HuffPost article “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” and its discussion of white fragility to further understand this phenomenon.

It is absolutely essential to remember the complex power dynamics in play in Hollow Knight and that the Pale King deliberately imprisoned Radiance (who had at this point already gone through an extreme amount of trauma) in a way that would compromise her ability to communicate with others. If you can extend compassion to characters like Ghost or the Pale King and empathize with their motives/feelings when their actions cause harm, but you are not willing to do the same with Radiance... it’s important to sit down with yourself and examine why that is.

THE MEANING BEHIND MYLA’S SONG

Okay, let’s switch gears and take a look at the lyrics to the song Myla sings, since it’s got some interesting things to tell us too.

The first verse, which you can hear from Myla the first time you meet her/before you acquire Vengeful Spirit, goes:

Bury my mother, pale and slight Bury my father with his eyes shut tight Bury my sisters, two by two, And then when you’re done, let's bury me too

There’s not much particularly story-related going on here except foreshadowing that Myla may in fact wind up dying. Most of what we get here is that a) this is a song about burying the dead and b) it’s morbid as fuck.

Curious, a new player might think of the mention of burying the dead; there are a lot of corpses just lyin’ around all over the ground - something that might lead one to believe Hallownest didn’t have such a custom. Later players will discover the Resting Grounds, confirming Hallownest did bury its dead... and that the gravekeepers are all dead too.

Let’s look at the second verse, which Myla remembers and will sing after you pick up Vengeful Spirit:

Bury the knight with her broken nail, Bury the lady, lovely and pale Bury the priest in his tattered gown, Then bury the beggar with his shining crown

This right here is where it gets interesting. The first verse describes the singer’s family as dead or dying, but the people we’re burying now sure do have some parallels to Hallownest's ruling body, don’t they?

Among Hallownest’s Great Knights, three of them - Dryya, Isma, and Ze’mer - were women. They are also very dead or might as well be: Dryya was killed by Traitor Lord’s resistance, Isma is a tree spreading acid through the kingdom’s waters to cut off access to the City of Tears, and Ze’mer hung up her nail after her mantis girlfriend’s death and only lingers on as a revenant.

While there aren’t any characters who are described in-text as “priests” in Hallownest, the idea of a tattered gown might bring Lurien the Watcher to mind, or perhaps the Soul Sanctum’s magicians before they went rogue.

The lovely, pale lady in the song can only refer to the White Lady, Hallownest’s queen. And there’s only one man in the game who has a shining crown: The Pale King. The lyrics are particularly derisive towards him in a way they aren’t to any of the other figures listed, too.

So, it seems like whoever came up with this song didn’t think much of Hallownest. With that in mind it’s hard to think that it originated from any sort of faction loyal to the king.

We’re missing a line from the third verse, which Myla sings after you’ve beaten Soul Master and she’s beginning to become infected. But what we do see of it is Huge in terms of lore:

Bury my body and cover my shell, [...] What meaning in darkness? Yet here I remain I’ll wait here forever ‘til light blooms again

So. The “protagonist” of this song’s family has died, and they expect to die as well, but even unto death they're waiting for Hallownest to fall and the light to return.

The moths became Hallownest’s gravekeepers after the Pale King forcibly assimilated them. Under the Pale King’s light, the moths forgot Radiance and most of their original culture, but Seer tells us in her final monologue that a few individuals remembered just enough to pass bits and pieces down through the generations. This secret resistance among the moths was what kept Radiance alive and prevented her from being sealed away entirely.

This song Myla sings comes from that moth resistance.

Code songs amongst oppressed ethnic groups are very much a real thing, especially when groups have to communicate or signal each other within hostile parties’ hearing. Since I’m American (and had a big ol crush on Harriet Tubman as a little kid lmao!) the first thing that came to mind for me when I made this connection was the working songs escaped Black slaves used in the Underground Railroad.

These have another point in common with the moth gravedigger song Myla sings, in that they enter the general cultural consciousness through out-group people who don’t know the true context. If you ever pick up a book of American baby songs, you’ll probably find some Underground Railroad code songs in there - often because generations ago white kids heard these songs from Black slaves or servants, and went on to sing the same songs to their children with zero awareness of what the songs were really for.

So some Hallownest bug somewhere probably heard the moths’ song and liked it and sang it in a context totally divorced from its original one, and it got spread around and passed down to become one of Myla’s old favorites, with her seemingly not realizing the meaning behind the lyrics. The moths’ song of devotion to their lost god survived them as a people.

This is some VERY realistic and layered worldbuilding. There is so much to glean from just one NPC’s dialogue when put together with other clues. Of course all of it is SAD and DEPRESSING, but Hollow Knight is a tragedy with a super unsubtle point to make about the unsustainability of Western imperialism.

What happens to Myla is awful, and upsetting, and unfair. So was what happened to the moths and their sacred ground, and to Radiance too. It’s important to understand the scope of the conflict that led to all this happening, trace it to its roots, and lay it at the feet of the ones responsible for engendering all this tragedy in the first place: Hallownest and the Pale King.

*A NOTE ABOUT MY USE OF THE TERM “GENOCIDE”

This is a tangent, but since there’s some debate about whether it’s appropriate to define the Pale King’s actions towards indigenous bug nations as genocide, allow me to cite the official definition of genocide here.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention for short) defines genocide like this:

Genocide is any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, religious, or racial group, as such:

A) Killing members of the group

B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Among the abovelisted, Hallownest is guilty of A (Deepnest and the moths), B (Deepnest physically/the moths vis a vis brainwashing), C (the mantis tribe and the hive), and E (the moths, which we know from Marmu, and possibly the mosskin also - Isma is mosskin).

Then there is cultural genocide, i.e. acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, religious, or racial group's way of life. Let’s look at the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) and how it defines cultural genocide:

A) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities

B) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources

C) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights

D) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures

E) Any form of propaganda directed against them

Hallownest is guilty of every item on this list. A: The moths, attempted with Deepnest. B: The moths, the mantises, the flukes, the mosskin; also attempted with Deepnest. C: The moths, the mantises, the flukes. D: The moths; attempted with the mantises and Deepnest. E: The mantises and Deepnest.

Any sort of discussion of the wide-reaching harm Radiance caused MUST include the context that the Infection is her response to multiple levels of genocide. Discussion that does not include this context loses nuance and simplifies the conflict and power dynamics portrayed in the game in ways that reflect real-life racism and Christian supersessionism.

Now, this is NOT some sort of holier than thou Fandom Purity dunk to say that it’s Bad or Wrong to care about Hallownest’s nobility. Like, one of my favorite characters in this dang game is the White Lady, who spent a long ass time enabling her husband’s actions before she finally walked out on him over the mass infanticide thing. You can, and it is okay to, love TPK and want rehabilitation for him while acknowledging that the dude has done objectively bad things.

I just feel that it’s important to keep things in perspective so that we don’t wind up stirring a bunch of real-world bigotry into our fandom funtimes. A lot of us don’t have the luxury of turning our brains off and simply Not Seeing It, because these same sorts of dynamics are behind a lot of the hardships that threaten our everyday stability.

It’s pretty hard to have conversations about those things in real life if one can’t even recognize them in fiction. So, this might be a good opportunity to start practicing anti-racism so we can better utilize that ideology in real life, where the stakes are much higher.

[ganymedesclock]

So like, how would you succinctly describe how you interpret/write Ghost?

To elaborate on what I said here, I keep several qualities in mind when writing Ghost.

They are an experienced traveler. We don’t know how long they spent beyond the kingdom, but, they are recognized as a kindred spirit by people who are very experienced or traveled despite seemingly being fairly young, or at least in a kind of undead-child-limbo state where their years haven’t affected them much.

Their body language is very orderly and composed. They are not incapable of making mistakes, or struggling or failing- if anything they are likely used to this- but the implications of the Shade system suggests that they hold themselves to a high standard and that failure weighs heavily on their mind.

While this is more personal headcanon than anything, I feel like they would be sparing with any form of communication available to them. It isn’t merely that they’re silenced by lacking a voice- they also seem to be quite a taciturn and stoic soul by preference.

(I kinda like to think that if they were in a situation where they were talking using some workaround or another, the result would come off a bit like Garnet from Steven Universe- brusque, authoritative, not mincing words, and even potentially rude or cutting, but more warm and verbose around people they are closer to)

They are relatively young, or again, in a kind of limbo that means the passage of time hasn’t brought age. They doze off easily if left on the benches. There are things they haven’t experienced and a kind of innocence to their curiosity for the world. I can see them, subtly, having a streak of those kids who perceive themselves as extremely mature and wise but then... they can have some fun splashing around the hot spring. 

Understated but very present is that Ghost definitely has an angry streak and a hunger to prove themselves. They don’t care so much about petty reputation (they don’t seem inclined to do much to attack or punish Zote when he lies about them to Bretta) but are drawn to try and prove themselves in the eye of the Hunter, or in the Colosseum of Fools. Even very early on, when Elderbug cautions them about the numerous dangers of Hallownest, the overall trajectory of the game suggests they don’t pay him terribly much mind, or meet it with a kind of ‘challenge accepted’. And again, the Shade system suggests Ghost takes failure very harshly- believing they can’t afford to fail or should be above it or, likely, a complex tangle of sentiments. 

They can certainly have something of a haughty and cold streak that rears its head towards certain people- they don’t seem to hate Zote but they don’t think much of smacking him around in the Colosseum, either, to say nothing of their less than reverent treatment of PK’s body or Millibelle.

At the same time, though, it is hard not to see them as very motivated by loyalty to those they love, and interpersonal curiosity. Your only option in the game to leave Zote for dead happens before you talk to him- so, basically, as long as Ghost has listened to him even once, they don’t want him to die. They follow Hornet into Greenpath the moment they spot her. The cutscene in the City of Tears, with the slow pan up Hollow’s statue and the image of it “weeping”, as well as the way that almost the first thing we see in-game is Hollow screaming in pain, the boss title of the Lost Kin, and even the shift from judgmental (“False Knight”) to compassionate/tragic (“Failed Champion”) when Ghost realizes that he was trying to protect the other maggots.

To pull this all to a central thesis: Ghost is a complex bundle of emotions kept under a heavy lid. Young, brittle, lonely; haughty, proud, and vicious- curious, compassionate, and earnest. Reserved, superficially proper, they seem to have a strong self-identity as a knight (I’ve talked before about how the game’s noncanon prototype has Ghost address the player directly in a way that seems to illuminate their thinking for the main game).

They also seem genuinely curious about history. Quirrel and Lemm have a lot of dialogue, and while Lemm is an optional encounter, the text for the Void Idol is given by him, and not from a conversation Ghost and Lemm have ‘in canon’ which would imply Ghost visits and listens to him more than we are necessarily shown in-game. Many characters also make sidelong comments into Ghost’s inquisitive nature and their desire to ‘dig deeper’. (visit the Snail Shaman after obtaining Desolate Dive, for example)

In a more trivial sense, I operate on the read that the first half of the Hunter’s Journal entries reflect Ghost’s perspective, while the second half can be attributed to someone else, usually the Hunter- and the tone of those entries further seems to betray Ghost’s thought process. They have several habits that rear their head in those entries:

They are curious about weapons and consider them important. They note the relative uncommonness of great nails, consider Ogrim skilled (and his white defender form, gallant) and despite disrespecting Zote, note that he seems to have made his weapon himself and the name he calls it by.

They are very interested in knights and orders thereof, as can be noted in both Ogrim’s entries and the city guard. 

Highly motivated by their siblings- they seem to be the one who name the Sibling enemies (Hunter’s entry suggests he has never seen them himself), and the Broken Vessel / Lost Kin, not to mention acquiring the Abyssal Shriek by using Howling Wraiths to ‘give voice’ to stone faces in the abyss.

[ganymedesclock]

Following up with my read on the Radiance: I think Radiance is interesting and I have a little more to say on where I’m drawing this information from because I don’t think I’ve talked or written exhaustively about her.

According to Godseeker, Radiance is the brightest and most raw powerful god in Hallownest presently. The implications of the Absolute Radiance fight is also that she has, despite her efforts to the contrary, faded somewhat in the years since she lost the worship of the moth tribe.

Our first perception of her is that she’s an ALL CAPS SORT OF PERSON. This further invokes the idea that she is exceptionally powerful, but it also sort of implies she is kind of, full blast all the time. Which lines up with how she knows that Ghost is bad news but in Dream No More she accepts their challenge anyway and puts herself in fighting distance of them, rather than taking the arguably sensible option and going “y’know? I’m just going to stay out here.”

Radiance seems to have a heart motif (there’s a “heartbeat” distinctly discernible to all concentrated versions of the plague) and the plague itself is cited as powerful emotions and dreams.

It’s also worth noting that people seem lured down by very specific visions; of the sleepwalkers we rescue, Sly is talking to “Esmy”, an individual he seems to have lost a long time ago who he was motivated to follow as soon as he saw them in a dream (which is pretty significant in implications), Bretta is talking about how everyone forgot about her and she ‘knew you would’. Even in Hollow’s cut dream nail dialogue, they’re asking after their father.

So alarmingly, despite being someone who seems ‘constantly on blast’ Radiance seems to show a fairly calculating streak to her anger. In the form of the plague, she seems to manipulate emotions and also carefully trawl her hosts’ minds to find what’s going to hook them; it’s likely the more overt ‘orders’ we see in Myla’s head are Radiance reacting to Ghost’s presence and trying to move Myla’s not-yet-husk early.

Likewise, the soul sanctum bugs share their distinctive homing fireball attack with Radiance herself- who uses a more refined version.

Radiance thus seems to be someone who exploits and enforces basically, viral empathy; she feels bad, angry, lonely, and she wants everybody else to feel everything she feels. She also has a clear spiteful edge- the Hunter points out that the more someone struggled against the infection, the worse it would be when they were overtaken. Those who willingly (or obliviously) served her, like the mantis traitors and the soul sanctum bugs who she seems to have exploited the Soul Master’s malcontent against the Pale King to basically run a cult in his capital city (he also mentions hearing a voice several times in his normal and Soul Tyrant dream nail dialogue)

On the other hand, Radiance seems pretty stubborn and unwilling to acknowledge vulnerability. That she has such a potently antagonistic relationship with the abyss is interesting as the abyss embodies not only death but also regret. When Radiance is clearly not just a rampaging brute but someone with a calculating angle, it’s certainly interesting that, as much as she exploits others’ grief, the implication might be that she carries her own, and does not desire to engage with it at all.

What is Radiance’s hidden regret? We don’t really know. It may have something to do with the sundering of the domain of dreams, it may be related to losing her followers, it might be a lot of them. We don’t know, and I think that’s something interesting. It is known that she seems to think that if she can’t seize or act on something’s mind, it must not have one, which is... interesting since she seems to have been able to infect the shadow creepers, even.

Either way, she’s quite proud and aggressive, but interpersonally clever in a way PK is not really.

[ganymedesclock]

The Pale King was a very complicated guy, but I still side with him over The Riadeance. What about you?

I’m not so sure we’re supposed to necessarily side with either of them. The takeaway I get from the canon endings is that the Pale King was not a wholly positive influence for Hallownest, but neither was Radiance. The ultimate ending of the game via Embrace The Void seems to be Ghost dethroning Radiance, and emerging as Hallownest’s new god, the Shade Lord- but, I’d argue, it’s entirely possible Ghost themselves isn’t destined to be a perfect ideal god, because that doesn’t exist, but they do have a leg up on I think either of their two predecessors.

Gods in the world of Hollow Knight are, simply, flawed entities. They’re individuals capable of flaws and bias. If there’s something that makes Ghost, at a glance, better suited than either the Radiance or the Pale King, it’s their interpersonal curiosity, but even then, Ghost is still an angry, traumatized child who, much of their ascension happens because, in rage, they want to carve themselves into the world and force it to acknowledge them.

My particular blend of hypothesis and headcanon is that the Pale King focused on the Mind, while Radiance focused on the Heart. Not only does the infection pulse and beat literally like a heart when it’s concentrated, but it resembles both cordyceps and veins. In a more figurative sense, though, it isn’t as if people aren’t thinking when they’re in the thrall of the Radiance- rather, they’re consumed by emotions. The people we see in the early stages who can still shake it off if prompted are people having dreams that affect them emotionally. Implicitly, how the Radiance started leaking out of Pure is by being able to act on their vulnerable emotions. Not Pure’s loyalty to their father, not their sense of duty- those things allowed them to hold against her for the longest time- but, no matter how much they tried not to, they grieved, they felt pain, they cried out for their father and for their siblings.

Radiance’s revenge against the Pale King, asserting herself as the rightful god of Hallownest, is immortalizing her rage and grief by burning it into the hearts of everyone around her. The entities most associated with her and her plague are the Traitor Lord (feeling weak, wanting to be stronger, cast out and feeling betrayed by his sisters), the Crystal Guardian (described as seeing “only light” and captivated by rage), and the Moss Prophet (described as luring people into forgetting their ‘duties’, seemingly with emotional appeal- promising succor from the plague, describing Radiance as warm and nurturing). The description for the Furious Vengefly even describes it as imparting courage at the cost of the will. 

In this, we can see a glimpse of the possibly more benign, or at least neutral, Radiance who once shepherded the Moth Tribe (who clearly had a will of their own- they were able to choose to leave her, after all)- Radiance as the warm sun who emboldened others, connected to them emotionally. It was her subjects, and presumably, she herself, that pioneered the technique of manipulating and entering Dreams, of reading people’s innermost feelings. Presumably this is exactly how she knows how to siren song people in to the plague, how to haunt their dreams- that Sly might be lured in by dreaming of his students, but Bretta would sooner be captured by the idea that everyone forgot about her, is abandoning her down there.

But Radiance is, in effect, Heart that neglects both Mind and Will- she’s all emotions, and they run on full blast. Couldn’t get over the Moths’ betrayal, couldn’t stand that sense of being outshined by the King. How dare you, how dare you try to forget her, try to live without her, how dare you cut these connections, these veins- you’ll feel every second of her pain, you will bleed for having tried to cut her. At her best, she’s warm and nurturing, at her worst, she’s a vindictive torturer.

The Pale King, conversely, is clearly a scientist- not the empath and mystic the Radiance was. He was an experimental tinkerer- not merely facilitating the growth of natural beings but formulating hypotheses and observations of his environment. Developing artificial constructs. We see his domain- see it as chilly, operating-room sterile, armed and defending itself with a thousand different precise cutting implements. He’s Mind, but, he rejects both Heart and Will. When Radiance uses Heart to attack, the Pale King’s response is to try and live by cutting out the Heart- and speaking metaphorically, that left both him and the Pure Vessel bleeding to death. So at his best, the Pale King is a visionary, an inventor. At his worst, there’s the accusation the Hunter gives him on the description of the Wingmould- did he care? Can anyone tell if he did?

Personally, I think he did care, but viewed it as irresponsible of himself to care- he pushed ahead with the creation of the Vessels, with Pure’s training and eventual sacrifice regardless, and then tried to force himself to stop grieving.

But Ghost?

Ghost is Will.

Ghost is cited as a “pure” being of the void, but they don’t lack emotions any more than Pure does. There’s really no way to explain much of the game except to say they’re driven dually by love for their siblings, Pure especially, and rage at what happened to them. Hornet, who’s the most accurate about what leads to the game’s endings- she outright tells you that you have a choice to face the Radiance directly- also at one point tells Ghost that they could win, “if you had the will.”

In his explanation to Pure, the Pale King states that Will is something the Vessels lack. But that’s preposterous. A creature that has no will merely operates according to pre-set instructions with no investment in them. Even if Pure does everything the King asks of them, it’s clear that Pure is not an automaton without investment- rather, they’re a dutiful child, who loves their father, who wants to live up to this heavy burden of saving the kingdom, and who seems to have never questioned what they were told out of that desire to be the savior.

It’s Ghost who learns enough of Heart, and enough of Mind, and uses it insistently to investigate, to prod, to question, to try and understand. Its Ghost, who tends to focus most heavily on what people want, what’s driving them, what do they feel?

Ultimately, Ghost still has this duality- at their best, they’re the most profoundly in tune with individuality. Unifying the Void under their command still has the distinct shades of Pure and of their other siblings; in the cutscene in Godhome after defeating the Pure Vessel, it’s not as if those children are gone, but, rather, they are coming along with Ghost now- much like what several of the Warrior Dreams state or imply.

At their worst, though? They’re hellbent on asserting their own individuality, and they’ll take wild risks or tear into others to prove it.