lacampanadevaca

[grayeet]

I love the pale garden and how it's like a parallel to dark forests. I love how the two divert expectations.

Dark forests, despite their name, are saturated and full of life. Even compared to regular forests, there's a lot more biodiversity than many of the "basic" biomes. There's three whole different trees found there, giant mushrooms, and plenty of flowers. They're one of the biomes capable of spawning a lush cave underneath it. It has its dangers just like any other overworld biome, obviously, but it's nothing overly more than anywhere else. Traversing it can be tricky sometimes and illagers may take residence in the biome's woodland mansions, but it's ultimately a very colorful and lively environment.

Opposing it is the new pale garden. Usually white and light colors are seen as pristine and good, but the pale garden takes it the opposite direction and goes right into uncanny valley territory. It has none of the color of dark forests, none of the biodiversity, none of the liveliness. It has trees and moss that look familiar, but something is off. It has a signature mob, but even the creaking is just a puppet of the trees, not really sentient, not really even plotting against anything. There's "life", but, once again, it's wrong.

I think the pale garden is a wonderful addition to Minecraft's world building as it is, but the deliberate parallel to dark forests? Delicious.

[mebis-art-dump]

According to official artwork, quirrel and hornet have black eyes, vessels have sunken eyes (potentially empty eyeholes) and the king has a third, more fucked up thing going on

A friend had already made an image like this some years ago, but I wanted to make my own version with more examples

From top to bottom:

- Pure Vessel in the Gods and Glory trailer, Hornet in one of silksong posters and the knight in one of godmaster posters

- The Hollow Knight, Quirrel and Hornet in the Quirrel prequel comic

- Pure Vessel, Quirrel, Hornet and the knight from the collector's edition card set

- my summary diagram depicting the three different types of eye, the Pale King as depicted in the Pale Court track poster (the official track from Gods and Nightmares soundtrack, not to confuse with the mod "pale court" (fanmade dlc)), Hornet in the cover for silksong soundtrack samples and the knight as depicted in the cover for the original game's soundtrack

[tonythr]

Quick Slash is even cooler from a narrative perspective, and why I think the Nailsmith's story parallels the Pale King's

Cold take: Quick Slash is the best charm in Hollow Knight.

Slightly Warmer take: Quick Slash is the only S-tier charm that is great from both gameplay and lore perspective (aside from maybe Spell Twister).

The reason for this is that its existence is actually a

metaphor

Here, look at this.

So, Quick Slash is something that was created from a relatively big number of objects that were discarded and deemed imperfect, and that possess a collective will of wanting to fulfill their purpose.

You know what that reminds me of?

A large amount of creations: check.

Discarded as imperfect: check.

Still possessing a will to find closure: check.

Being a part of a larger, more powerful thing: check.

Having a common creator who is responsible for their creation and rejection: check.

So yeah, I think that Quick Slash's lore (or at least its description) is meant to parallel that of the Vessels'.

But I wanna talk about that last point: the creator.

It is heavily implied that the person who created and then later discarded those nails was the Ancient Nailsmith we see in the room where we get Quick Slash.

(Oh by the way I just realized that this stone ring thing on the right of that room is actually the furnace, neat.)

Judging from their Dreamnail dialogue, this Ancient Nailsmith was trying to achieve the same goal as the other, more famous Nailsmith we all know and love: creating a Pure Nail.

And you know who else was trying to create a perfect, Pure thing while discarding many other similar things that later gained a collective will?

That's right - it's the guy who is also responsible for creating those other discarded things we discussed earlier!

Ok, but what I really wanted to talk about here is how all of what I just said ties back to that other, more famous guy - The Nailsmith.

We don't know for sure how the story of the Ancient Nailsmith ended, but it feels like it exists there mainly to put an emphasis on the City's Nailsmith's story; to convey that his struggle is an important theme in this narrative (because ancient means important, ok?) And, I mean, the City's Nailsmith's story also parallels that of the Pale King's in the same manner, right?

The thing is, we already know how PK's story ended.

In trying to achieve perfection, to create an eternal Kingdom by making a Pure Vessel devoid of mind, voice and will, the Pale King doomed himself to be taken over by his regrets, by the vast emptiness of the futility of his struggles. But was it because he failed, or because that was where his story was headed all along?

What if PK succeeded? What if the Radiance was sealed forever? What if his Kingdom actually stood eternal, never to change, never to end? What if he realized he achieved his only goal in life?

And that's the part where we get to a story the ending of which is up to the player's choice.

To quote White Lady, only two obvious outcomes there are from such a thing.

The first is an honorable death by the fruits of his labor.

If we choose to kill the Nailsmith with the Pure Nail, he dies happy, knowing that his life's goal is accomplished and having gained all the satisfaction he could from it.

The second I find preferable, a new passion.

If the Nailsmith doesn't feel the finishing blow of the Pure Nail, he is left unsatisfied. But, while trying to resolve that unsatisfaction, he eventually finds something (and someone) that gives him a new calling, a new thing to create, a new reason to live.

And, while those are both equally valuable, equally canonic outcomes, don't you think the second one is just... better? I mean, not only does it include the achievement of the Nailsmith's goal, but it lets him live AND gives two lonely souls a partner in life! I feel like that's the thing this narrative is trying to convey. What it's trying to say about the meaning of life, about our dreams.

Maybe that was the ultimate folly of the Pale King - the inability to change. His story would've ended in the same way, regardless of whether Hallownest lasted eternally or not. He would be dead, if not by the hands of the Void, but by his own - but ultimately, by the hands of that vast emptiness of realizing that you achieved your only goal and that now all there is for you is this eternal satisfaction that slowly fades away, leaving you with nothing.

TL;DR: Quick Slash is the best because it's a metaphor for discarded vessels; perfection is overrated, try to get laid instead.

[bakaforbrains]

world's most ambitious crossover for pride month

[linophrynelight]

I'm losing my mind at this essay about The Pale

[ollylotl]

a dream of home

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

It's the 6 month anniversary of this blog! Check out these cool bugs I found.

(EDIT: Check out this amazing fanart by thecornermushroom!)

Part 2 - Part 3

[clever-naming-convention]

So the pale garden is just more proof that the sculk is natural and not from some other dimension right?

[chasing-faith-and-fate]

Moon 16

Pt 1

Moon 15 | Moon 16 p2

[miramelo]

You are so cute I want to eat you up

Bruce was chosen for a reason...

[mebis-art-dump]

you've probably seen this before, or made the connection yourself (ignore bottom right corner)

but there's also this:

The flowers of the Queen, the crown of the King, and the Hollow Knight

[tonythr]

The Watcher's telescope view is a social commentary and here's why

Ok so let's set some things right first. City of Tears is amazing.

(Yes, Pale Court is also an amazing mod)

I've played Hollow Knight many times, and City of Tears is probably the one location I never get tired of. The scenery, the lore, the room layout, the music, the atmosphere - it's all perfect. It's the culmination of Halllownest's beauty, the peak of the game's art style, and the narrative's most essential location. City of Tears is the heart of Hollow Knight.

This game is a story about a Kingdom and its death, a tragedy of a society that was built on dreams of light but ultimately was consumed by the light so much that darkness became its only hope. And City of Tears stands at the center of this story. So it's fitting that the themes of corrupted dreams, society flaws, and dark hopes are what shape the lore and atmosphere of this beautiful, gorgeous location.

Did you ever notice that the tears of this Kingdom are dark despite them originating in a glowing blue lake, and the waters that flood the streets are almost as dark as the void in the Abyss? Do you ever think about how the vibrant blue color of the City is basically a culmination of how the color blue is presented in other locations (Howling Cliffs, Forgotten Crossroads, and later Royal Waterways being more of a remix of it), and how it's tied to the very essence of Hallownest (and how Resting Grounds, the location that contains Blue Lake and also uses a bright blue color, represent the very foundation of Hallownest's history, that being Seer's story about the Moth Tribe's betrayal that started the war between Pale King and the Radiance)? Do you feel like Soul Master basically represents the thunder and the lightning in this never-ending rain? Do you get it????

Anyway yeah, there are many things that can be said about City of Tears, and this is hopefully not the last time I make a post about it. What I want to talk about here is the City's society.

Basically, Monomon said it better than anyone could:

It's a very complicated topic. The narrative basically explores the inner mechanisms of a free mind, how its primary need is finding a purpose, and how its purpose turns out to be a constant need of... something. Anything. As long as there is something to want, a free mind will want it. As long as there is something to yearn for, something to enjoy, something to dream about, our minds are going to move in its direction, never wanting to stop. Because a stasis is worse than death. Because a world without dreams is an empty world.

But then again, isn't constant yearning another instance of, well, constance? If dreams never end but also never evolve, doesn't that create another kind of stasis?

Like I said, it's very complicated. Let's go back to what I was getting at in the first place. What I actually wanted to say is this:

Theese guys fucking fucked up as a society.

It's classic dystopian shit (or maybe I'm using the wrong word, but you get the point). Rich people are living in luxury while the rest are suffering. They're making gold a fucking religion and are seeing it as the only beauty in the world. The corrupt upper class are using heavy gatekeeping on the lower class.

Literally.

What's interesting is that, at first, we barely see any lower class bugs in the City. There's suspiciously few regular husks in this location, compared to how many rich guys are on the eastern side. But then we get to Soul Sanctum and it all starts to make sense.

There are no red cloaks in those corpse piles. Only the poor were killed for those experiments. It can't be a coincidence. It's straight-up elitism-based genocide (again, I don't know if I'm using the right terms, correct me if there's a better way to say that, but the point is clear).

Also, see how many streets are flooded on the western side in comparison to the eastern side.

Point is, the bugs that ruined the kingdom by always wanting more (what Monomon wrote about) are most likely theese rich ones. It's a very fitting thing for this dystopian narrative: neverending greed that leads to the downfall of a civilization.

There's a note in the Hunter's Journal that describes it in the best way possible:

For every location in the game, there is a place that functions as the center of its essence, its narrative heart, the culmination of its themes. For Queen's Gardens it's the White Lady's cocoon, for Greenpath it's the Lake of Unn, and for City of Tears (or at least its eastern part, the one with the upper class) it's the Watcher's Spire. The tallest building of the great capital. The home of (evidently) the most rich and influential bug of the City's high society. Literally the top of this social hierarchy.

He is also arguably the most mysterious dreamer out of all three. I mean, why does he have only one eye? What type of bug is he? How did he get this much power? Does he really have some kind of connection with the Collector? Is he a motherfucking fluke? Why does he seem to have an obsession with serving the King?

That last question is kinda answered by the cut content though.

That last sentence is kinda confusing. Is it regret? Is it humility? Is it pride in his sacrifice? In any case, here we see that Lurien actually knew that the Pale King was literally a god, and desired to worship him, like any other bug yearns to worship some kind of deity. So while other bugs of Hallownest worshiped PK because he was a monarch, albeit a godlike one (for all they knew he could be just an extraordinary bug, but a bug nonetheless), Lurien worshiped him as an actual god. And the intricacies of worshiping a god are one of the central themes of the game. From the moth tribe's betrayal of Radiance leading to the birth of the Infection to the Godseeker's shenanigans leading to the birth of the Shade Lord - the game makes multiple statements about gods, religious devotion and the semantics of divine power. Just that one idea that a god takes its power from the ones that worship it deserves its own post - heck, it deserves its own book.

So yeah, Lurien's devotion to the King is an important part of the story. He sure is an important character in this narrative. He also got a cool house. Being able to observe the entirety of the Hallownest's capital is badass.

But there's one thing I find odd about all that, and it's the moment we get to actually look through his legendary telescope.

Is it just me, or does this feel kinda... Underwhelming? Almost disappointing? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love this view, it's beautiful, and I would certainly love to be able to see something like this with my own eyes irl, but, looking at this picture, I can't help but wonder...

Did he actually see anything from up there?

In cut dialogue, Lurien talks about how he loves the City's streets, and his hidden lore tablet contains words about his love for bugkind, but... I see neither any streets on this image, nor any bugs (that are not vengeflies). Only spiked rooftops and rainy fog, clouding the view of the actual City.

And sure, the Spire has many windows and even had multiple watchers who were helping Lurien with overseeing the capital...

But his own spot was always this one.

His telescope was sealed in one place, letting him see only a small portion of the City and its life. Almost like his own worldview was stuck in one perspective.

Notice the wording here. It's not "The Seals must remain". It's "Bonds must remain". He's not thinking just about the Seals containing the Infection. He's thinking about the whole Kingdom needing to stay unchanged. His dream is the stasis that the Knight (and also Monomon, Hornet and, in a sense, even Radiance) want to end. The stasis that the Pale King wanted to create in order for his Kingdom (and therefore himself) to be eternal. The stasis that would allow for both Pale King and Lurien's worship of him to remain forever.

But there is always a cost to ascending higher than others, and it's that you can no longer see what's going on below or who's suffering down there. I think Lurien, sitting atop the tallest tower, was actually detached from the struggles of regular bugs. He and his Spire are the culmination of the City's upper class' ignorance towards the ones who were below them on the social hierarchy. A dreamer who dreamt of watching over the very heart of the holy civilization lived so high up he could no longer see his beloved world in its complicated, detailed entirety – and the tears of the stasis created by those like him only blinded him more.

All those flooded streets, those broken buildings, those empty halls, those starving bugs, those sealed doors - even though he watched over them, he couldn't see them.

I'm pretty sure Lurien didn't even know about the Soul Master's experiments, despite the fact that the Soul Sanctum was located right next to his Spire.

Or maybe he knew but chose to turn a blind eye to it (pun intended).

But it's kind of poetic, isn't it? It's the beauty of the tragedy of this game's characters. A Beast who had to surrender everything to the opposing civilization. A Teacher who could no longer teach. A Watcher who couldn't see the truth.

And all that makes me wonder... How much suffering could the Pale King see, standing on that platform at the top of the Abyss, facing away from the pit where his children died?

TL;DR: Lurien's point of view was too high up to actually see what was truly going on down there, both literally and metaphorically. His desire to worship the Pale King made him ignorant of the struggles of regular bugs. Similarly, the extreme elitism of the high society of Hallownest lead to ignorance, discrimination and greed, which ultimately caused the sprawl of the Infection. This side of Lurien's story might also parallel the Pale King's with his ignorance towards the discarded vessels.

TL;DR²: Eat the rich

[alaskaartz]

MY AU PK'S COMPLETE LORE!! (I think)

I'm probably forgetting some stuff but HERE WE GO!! Also feel free to ask me anything about- any of this, im happy to answer!!

Wyrm Biology

Wyrms are a type of dragon, divided into two types, usually referred to as dawn and dusk wyrms. All wyrms share some common traits such as having horns ( the amount depends on the type of wyrm) and being able to change their form in a dire emergency, all wyrms are immortal meaning they will never get old or die of old age, all wyrms can use a plasma blast in self defense too, wyrms burrow underground to make dens for their families, young wyrms just burrow for fun making tunnels and such, occasionally making a small underground spot to hide what would become their hoard. All wyrms are protective of their hoards, and will usually only let their mates in to the hoard 

All wyrms mate for life, despite being absolutely massive (avenerge sized wyrm is 13500ft to 3 miles long) (longest wyrm ever recorded in history was 5.5 miles long / 29040ft / 8.8 kilometers) and territoryal, they are very caring and gentle creatures, especially when it comes to ones they hold dear.

Female wyrms only have one egg every 500 years, but usually end up having around 6-8 offspring 

Wyrms have pretty bad eyesight so they have heightened senses of smell and hearing to make up for the poor vision

Wyrms are omnivours, meaning they can and will eat both meat and vegetation. Though wyrms tend to prefer hunting for food then picking tiny berries off a bush they can hardly see

All wyrms have stripes or spots as well, even both at times, though there is a rare genetic mutation that some wyrms get that makes them entirely one color, scales, skin, fur, horns, all one color

Wyrms are very very intelligent and can learn a lot of things in a matter of days, they also can adapt to things fairly quickly as well. Wyrms also have an ability to open an use portals to teleport around.

Dawn wyrms

Dawn wyrms typically have lots of horns on their heads and fur, they also are pale in color (different shades of gray and white) they have fur tufts that extend down from the sides of their heads. When hunting dawn wyrms will lower their heads and wait perfectly still, until they feel vibrations from the ground in the fur tufts and when they have the chance they will strike, this has been proven very effective because dawn wyrms have a 98% success rate when it comes to hunting Dawn wyrms do not have wings at all, and prefer to stay in more dusty areas, but close to mountain bases, dawn wyrms have smaller eyes than dusk wyrms to block out sunlight and dust

Dusk wyrms

Dusk wyrms have fewer horns on their heads (at max 4-6) and no fur, Dusk wyrms can be found pretty much anywhere, they are typically darker shades as well. Dusk wyrms are typically shades of gray and black, it is very rare to find a dusk wyrm with any white on them. Dusk wyrms also hunt in darker areas, meaning they have bigger eyes to semi detect movement when hunting. Though Dusk wyrms have about a 70-80% success rate when it comes to hunting, they’re a lot more clumsy, which means they resort to vegetation when hunting is a bust. Dusk wyrms are also typically on the bigger side of the scale of wyrm size. Dusk wyrms can also summon wings made of soul, they naturally produce a lot of soul so they can summon their wings whenever they need to, most of them can summon 4-7 pairs of wings. 

PK lore

PK’s parents-birth

PKs mother Sam was a dawn wyrms looking for a different place to live, the place she had been staying her whole life was running low on food so she decided it’d be best if she left and went to find a mate elsewhere. Meanwhile PKs father Luci (Full name Lucifer) was struggling because his family saw him as bad luck, because he hatched all black and the biggest of his litter. His parents saw this as a threat to the rest of their children so they chased him away the second he no longer needed them to survive. The two wyrms were on the run from their home lands when they quite literally ran into each other. Sam was surprised but very excited because this big wyrm she just found seemed mate worthy, Luci on the other hand was weary this wyrm he just found would chase him away too, but she didn’t. For months they courted each other until finally becoming mates. 

They had their first egg in the year 24 (yes, year 24.) and they had their first son named Adam, they had their second egg in 524, and they had their son TJ, they had their third egg in 1024, august 30th  their son PK was born, just like Luci, PK had the solid color gene too, though PK was all white and the runt of the litter, making him the smallest of his siblings, after PK was born Luci and Sam their final egg in 1524, their daughter Enid. 

Early life

A lot of PKs early life (from being born to age of maturity) was spent being carried around by his parents. Because PK was so small his parents feared he’d get lost, hurt, or squished. Though PK did get along great with his siblings, PK was a little closer to his younger sister than his brothers, mainly because Adam and TJ were known to take full trees out of the ground and wack each other with them. Despite this, Adam and TJ were always gentle when interacting with PK. PK was a total mama's boy too, he followed his mother around everywhere, the only time Luci had to keep PK in the den so he wouldn’t follow Sam was when Sam would go out hunting, she always returned with more than enough food for her family. PK was very curious about everything around him, and just curious in general, once he wanted to try out flying without his parents around to supervise, because he was young and not used to flying yet, he crashed and got hurt, so Luci had to go find him and bring him home, he wasn’t allowed to leave the den for a month after that incident. Once PK got older and had reached the age of maturity, Sam and Luci let him go out hunting with them, despite being small PK was still a very good hunter, though all that didn’t last very long. 

For years wyrms were being hunted and killed because a clan of dragon hunters (the godseekers) believed that drinking their blood would grant immortality and make them all powerful. 

While Wyrm blood did not make mortals IMMORTAL- it did extend their lives a few years or so. The godseekers clan leader, Godseeker herself, took it upon herself to kill every single wyrm in existence. And of course Godseeker went after PKs family too. Godseeker went after Adam first, he was able to get home but unfortunately his wounds were fatal and he passed the second he made it back to his family, which meant godseeker went after Luci next. Sam saw all this happening and had to make a very difficult choice, would she let all her children die alongside her? Or risk it and take away one of her children in hopes they would live. Sam decided to risk it and take one of her children far far away, TJ was trying to assist Luci in fighting Godseeker, so Sam had to decide between Enid and PK. Enid was bigger than PK yes, but that made her an easier target, she was also still quite young so the chances of her surviving on her own were slim. PK was older, smaller, and had good survival skills, meaning his chances of surviving this were much much higher. Sam took PK and went as far as she could, she dropped him at the side of a mountain and screeched at him to run, while Sam rushed back to attempt to help fight off Godseeker. 

Post Godseeker

(year: 1908-1910)

PK ended up transforming, which only a full blooded wyrm can do ONCE in their life. He made himself smaller, gave himself limbs, and ran. He ran as fast as he could. For the following months he was still getting used to his new body, and how to use it, but he was getting on just fine. One day he was climbing down a mountain and stopped on the top of a hill, at the base he could see a village of some kind, perhaps a city? (he didn’t know all he could see were colored blotches or something) unfortunately since he wasn't used to his new body, he slipped and that sent him tumbling down the hill.  

In the city, a woman, White lady (WL) was stringing up her laundry when she saw something (PK) tumbling down the hill, she quickly rushed inside to grab some towels and ran over to help. When she found him at the base of the hill, he had been knocked out from hitting his head, which now had a crack all across his face, and he had a few cuts and scrapes here and there. 

After PK woke up, he was very confused, he didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know anything about anything around him. WL tried to calm him down but all he received was some growling and screeches from PK. Once PK realized WL wasn't going to hurt him, he softened up a bit, letting her help him, even though at times he nipped at her because rubbing alcohol on wounds is painful. 

WL quickly started asking PK who he was, where he was from, what he was. PK didn’t know any languages so he only stared at her. While frustrating, WL began to teach PK how to speak, write, and read. While WL was at work or the library, PK was home learning, and with his very high wyrm intelligence, he learned to speak fluently in a month or so, he started to read any book he could get his hands on. 

PK really liked WL, so he did anything he could to try to impress her, though obviously dragon courtship didn't work on WL, luckily she didn't know that's what he was trying to do, so PK went and learned how to properly impress her. Bringing her flowers, giving her gifts, ect, in time PK was able to win over WLs heart with ease and they began dating.

Soon enough PK started working. He ended up working with the police because he was able to figure out cases very quickly, and he wasn't afraid to go after anyone, despite being short. 

During PKs time working with the police, he began to gain a lot of popularity. He was smart, caring, charming. And while working with the police, PK was able to arrest most of and crack down on a mafia. He got super close to arresting the whole entire mafia, but they went radio silent and he lost any trace of the mafia higher ups. The police chief had PK retire at that point, so he could focus on his lover (WL) and their life. (Year: 1950)  meanwhile the radiance, the current ruler of the lands, was not happy with how popular this God was getting. She started going mad, attacking anyone who dared question her. PK knew if this continued, Radiance's wrath would destroy the lands. So PK took it upon himself to defeat the Radiance, to protect everyone. 

There's a God list, based on how powerful each God is, PK is the God above everyone else, he's the God of the universe and everything beyond. Radiance is the second most powerful God, followed by WL and Unn, then the nightmare king.

Because of this, PK was able to defeat, and actually kill Radiance. He got pretty injured from the battle, so of course WL took care of him. While PK was recovering, and probably as high as a kite because of 1950s pain meds, the people were very inspired by PK, and wanted to make him King, since there needed to be a new Ruler. 

In 1960, PK was made the King of what was now Hallownest. PK still lived in WLs home, and so while designing the palace they'd be living in, PK made sure to add anything WL wanted to be there too. 

(Year:1970) The palace was completed and PK and WL moved into it together, PK was establishing his advisors and his court, while his and WLs friends, immortal beings but not God's, became the five great knights. 

(Year:1984) after years of asking and nagging PK had finally proposed and him and WL were getting married. PK made sure it was the best wedding every, anything for his love. during the wedding PK made a small ceremony for WL being ‘crowned’ queen. For the next 15 years, PK and WL established their kingdom. Meeting with Queen Vespa, to discuss the Hive, in the end Vespa gave them her kingdom, because her and WL were already best friends, and Vespa knew her kingdom would be in good hands with PK and WL ruling it, plus Vespa wanted to focus on thinking of settling down with her lover. The mantis Lords agreed that their kingdom would be in good hands being ruled by PK and WL. Unn being the oldest god, was willing to give over her kingdom, Green Grotto, because she was old, and tired, and ready for someone else to rule. 

After establishing their kingdom, PK and WL began to relax a bit and do things for fun. They were contacted and PK was asked to play the doctor on Doctor Who, which he agreed, and for awhile WL was the doctors companion (doctor and donna) towards the end of PKs time on the show, WL asked if they could stop acting and start really talking about having a family.

The kids

Before PK and WL had kids, PK knew it'd be an insane danger to his children if godseeker was still out there, so without telling WL he tracked down godseeker and defeated her, sealing her away where NO ONE would find her.

in 2003 PK and WL were excitedly awaiting to become parents. Though the pure joy was short lived, PK ended hearing about the radiance trying to return to the waking world via a dream infection, and only a being of God and void could contain her, meaning one of his children. PK spent many sleepless nights trying to find an alternative, but he couldn't. In the end PK put his first child's egg in the abyss fountain. He took the egg out a few months later and he and WL waited for it to hatch, begging that maybe, because the egg was quite big, that there'd be twins inside, and they'd have one child to raise. 

Against all odds, they got what they wanted. One child was normal, the other, completely hollow, if you didn't look close you'd assume they were dead. The child PK and WL were so lucky to have, they named them Hollow, the completely void Child, they named Kin. 

PK and WL were pretty nervous first time parents but they were doing their best, and they did amazing.  PK was able to teach Hollow to summon their wings and fly by the time they were 5. But the other child, Kin, was still needed to be sealed away, as an extra protective measure, Monomon, Lurien, and Herrah all became dreamers. 

(year: 2010, crazy I know)

PK met with Herrah to try to compromise over her becoming a Dreamer, herrah didn't like that and hurt PK really badly, despite that he went back and still gave Herrah what she wanted, a child. 

A few months later Herrah became a dreamer. Along with Monomon and Lurien, and kin was sealed away. Losing a child was really hard on PK and WL, making them go into hiding for Awhile. 

 But on December 7th, 2010, Hornet was brought to the palace, she was only 3 days old. PK and WL immediately jumped into action, getting anything and everything they needed to take care of Hornet, and WL adopted her immediately. For the next 7 years PK and WL were very happy raising Hollow and Hornet. 

Though during that time an assassin had attempted to assassinate Hollow, cutting off their right arm, in self defense, Hollow threw the assassin out the window, sending them down a rocky hill, resulting in the assassin's death. Hollow was brought to the hospital and they were treated they were put physical therapy, so they could learn how to only use their left arm. 

Then PK and WL decided to have another child, after WL had her egg (those who can have eggs have the egg for 3 months then the egg is just, an egg, for 6 months) PK and WL were excitedly awaiting their final child to hatch.

Unfortunately again the pure excitement was short lived. 

Two weeks after WL had the egg, PK was stabbed by an assassin who had been pretending to be a royal guard. The assassin stabbed PK through the spine, vertically, it's a miracle PKs alive, (AND CAN WALK STILL- )

PK plasma blasted the assassin in the face to attempt to keep them from attacking his family. 

PK was rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery to stitch his organs back together and screw his spine back together. 

PK spent months in the hospital recovering, one day, on Halloween, PK and WLs egg was hatching back at the palace. PK was able to open a portal to the closet stag station so his family could get home quickly, though cars exist, stags are faster. Once his family left and PK was there alone, he just made a portal home and went home to be there with his egg when it hatched. Naturally when WL got there she was freaked out seeing her husband laying there with the egg when he was supposed to be at the hospital.  PK insisted he stay and WL let him. Afterwards, PK made a portal for himself and hollow to go back to the hospital.

For the following months PK recovered and went through a lot of physical therapy. He now wears a back brace at all times because he has chronic pain I'm his back from being stabbed. 

(Year: 2024)

Now days PK has a mostly normal life all things considered.  He runs Hallownest alongside his wife and has an amazing family life. :)

Important but idk where to put it

My friends AU Grimm Troupe realm hopped into mine, still not sure how, but they're my royal family's found extended family now

WL has an older brother named Willow and he is a MASSIVE jerk. He married Emilitia and they have two kids (Oakley and Maple) and now they're all banned from the palace because Emilitia just, decided to punch PK and broke his nose. 

Wow didn't know it'd take me this long but this AU takes place above ground and everyone is people sized

PKs an artist and he taught Hollow how to draw, that's also kinda how PK designed the palace, he drew it

Because of PKs transformation, he has a pretty bad immune system, so the palace is always shiny because it's been cleaned and sterilized sometime in the past 2 or 3 hours.

PK and his kids still have dragon behaviors such as, rolling in grass, purring, tail wagging, hoarding, ect. 

2 years ago (so 2022) Nightmare King, the boss of the nightmare mafia, and the one who sent the assassins after PK and Hollow, broke into the Palace trying to go after Hornet, luckily Hollow woke up and stopped him but NMK ended up smacking hollow in the face with the crowbar he had leaving them with the crack on their face. Afterwards PK had multiple troops storm NMKs house and arrest him. 

Headcanons but imma add them anyway

When the seasons change PK has a solid week of his throat being scratchy and he can’t speak because of it, afterwards he’s fine so he assumes it’s dragon-like seasonal allergies.

PK and the kids eyes are two different shades of black, but only WL can tell the difference between their eyes and their pupils

Every few months PK and the kids tail scales shed, Hollow’s usually get stuck so PK helps them with getting the scales unstuck 

PK and WL don’t know how old they are but PKs 1,000 and WLs 995

Because of being dragons, PK will sometimes go flying with Hollow and Hornet because the palace is on the edge of the city of tears (they overlook it from the palace gardens) and PK, Hollow, and Hornet will sometimes race around the city, occasionally accidentally scaring people because when flying fast, all of them make the night fury dive bomb sound. 

[lady-quen]

The roleplayer desire to write Mael a bit with someone's muse vs the cringefail main character syndrome fear because Commander OC, smh

I have a vision but this is me when I try to talk about it in a large(ish) fandom. Anyway. Hides my shame in tags

[explaining-homestuck]

can you please explain quadrents (specifically moirailegince? i see alot of people dont seem to get it and id love to have a post to link back to when i explain it instead of having to go through homestuck)

Ah, tackling the big one first.

Homestuck itself has its own explanation of quadrants, which starts on Page 2392. However, I'll take a stab at simplifying the explanation here, although I may take direct quotes from the comic.

Humans have only one form of romance. And though we consider it a complicated subject, [...] it is ultimately a superficial slice of what trolls consider the full body of romantic experience. Our concept of romance [...] is still just [...] a single, linear concept.

(I guess I will be taking direct quotes from the comics.)

This concept of human love is generally represented with the symbol <3, or ❤️. However, trolls, in keeping with the Midnight Crew's full set of playing card theming, have four different types of romance, to fit the four suits.

<3/♥️, Hearts; <3</♠️, Spades; c3</♣️, Clubs; and <>/♦️, Diamonds.

This creates 4 Quadrants of romance, a term that is often used to refer to love and romantic entanglement.

Here, Nepeta's helpful diagram shows how these quadrants are related.

Hearts, the Flushed Quadrant, and Diamonds, the Pale Quadrant, are grouped as "Red Romance". These are the quadrants more associated with what we would possibly call positive feelings.

Meanwhile, Spades the Caliginous Quadrant (often called "Pitch"), and Clubs, the Ashen quadrant, are grouped as "Black Romance", more associated with negative feelings (to a degree, the divide isn't as simple as that.)

Furthermore, Hearts and Spades are Concupiscent Quadrants, and Diamonds and Clubs are Conciliatory Quadrants. These terms relate to the purpose of these quadrants within troll society: Concupiscent (which has meanings of sexual desire) Quadrants are related directly to the reproductive cycle of the troll species. Meanwhile, Conciliatory (meaning to placate of pacify) Quadrants, quote:

"would be more closely likened to platonic relationships by human standards"

Note: this does not make them necessarily platonic relationships in troll society. Pale and Ashen relationships remain romantic, and there may possibly also be sexual elements (not that these are shown or implied in the comic, nor will they be theorised upon here).

The comic makes it clear that while many parallels can be drawn between troll romance and certain human relationships (for example, "frenemies" or "QPRs"), these relationships are different from troll ones, as trolls are driven by primal forces to engage in their 4 types of romance, in the same way we do with our one (This is, of course, a gross oversimplification of the vast spectrum of the human experience of attraction and possible lack thereof, but it's a fair rough analogy.)

Let us now move on to the first and easiest to understand quadrant:

♥️: The Flushed Quadrant

The Flushed Quadrant is (almost) exactly the same as human romantic and/or sexual attraction. For our purposes, ♥️=❤️.

While the trolls have no concept of marriage, and don't generally use the terms boyfriend/girlfriend, the term for a partner in the Flushed Quadrant is a Matesprit, meaning the two trolls have formed a Matespritship.

The given example within Homestuck canon at the time of a Matespritship was Dad Egbert and Mom Lalonde. Several other well known examples are Rose Lalonde and Kanaya Maryam, Latula Pyrope and Mituna Captor, and Jade Harley and Davesprite (during the Yellow Yard trip, before John's 15th birthday). Many others exist, as well as flushed crushes (Kanaya Maryam for Vriska Serket, Nepeta Leijon for Karkat Vantas, etc.)

Note: Humans can take part in Quadrant relationships outside of the Flushed Quadrant, though some trolls thought this impossible.

Next, we explain

♠️: The Pitch (Caliginous) Quadrant

The simplest explanation of Pitch is always "romance, but with hate instead of love". People often find that hard to understand, but it's a trope that appears throughout media. One of the best examples I've found is LEGO Batman and LEGO Joker in the LEGO Batman Movie.

However, it's much more than simply "hate love". A Kisemesistude is more akin to a fierce arch-rivalry, with a troll competing against their Kismesis to outfox, outsmart, or simply defeat them.

The given example for a Kismesistude is Jack Noir and the Black Queen. Another example is Vriska Serket and Eridan Ampora's black romance, which fell apart before they started the game, Marquise Spinerette Mindfang and Orphaner Dualscar's Kismesistude, which they were mimicking, or Terezi Pyrope and Gamzee Makara's relationship in the pre-retcon timeline.

Note: no successful Kismesistudes exist within the main body of Homestuck: Vriska broke things off with Eridan and likewise Mindfang with Dualscar, and Gamzee was physically and mentally abusing Terezi. All canon kismesistudes have either not budded, or ended with one of the two Kismesis dumping the other, or attempting to kill them. (John and Terezi doesn't count in this case, as its continuation only exists in the Epilogues, a dubiously canon source.) This does not, however, mean all Kismesistudes are doomed to fail.

There are also numerous Pitch crushes, such as Eridan Ampora on Rose Lalonde, Gamzee Makara on Dave Strider (or possibly the Insane Clown Posse, it's unclear) and the aforementioned John Egbert for Terezi Pyrope and vice versa.

Now, it wouldn't be a Homestuck post without an Intermission (possibly the first of several!)

🪣: The Bucket Intermission

I'll keep this short.

Flushed and Pitch pairings can, through undescribed processes, produce a combination of genetic material, which is then collected in a Filial Pail (bucket) by Imperial Drones to be fed to the Mother Grub, who then makes all the baby trolls from the gametes, probably.

Hussie also wrote a short paragraph about dominant and recessive genes which makes me think they know less about dominant and recessive genes than the writers of Metal Gear Solid, but that's not that important right now.

If a troll is unable to provide suitable generic materials, they will be culled by the drone, meaning finding concupiscent quadrantmates is a key goal for a troll's survival.

Anyway, back to romance, with

♣️: The Ashen Quadrant

The clubs symbol notably has 3 circles, which relates to the way this relationship (the most misunderstood one, in my experience) works.

Clubs relationships, or Auspisticisms, are formed when a third troll sees a pair involved in a feud, and decides to step in to mediate, becoming their Auspistice. The purpose of an Auspistice is not the mediate and grow a Pitch relationship, as it's often portrayed, but in fact prevent it from developing.

This is because trolls often feud with each other, causing possible Kismesistudes, but (conventionally) troll romance is monogamous in-quadrant, and having two or more Kismesis would be considered infidelity in conventional troll society, as well as that too many Kismesistudes can increase danger in troll society, and mis-matched rivalries can cause trolls to be stuck in relationships they do not like.

An Auspisticism is often defined by the attraction specifically of the Auspistice *toward* the rival pair, and their wish to mediate them. This is known as an Ashen Crush, much like above Pitch and Flushed Crushes.

Examples of known Auspisticisms within canon Homestuck are Kanaya Maryam between Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram, Doc Scratch between Spades Slick and Snowman (though Scratch's intervention was more driven by accomplishing his own goal of having Slick kill Snowman), and Jade Harley between Bec Noir and the Peregrine Mendicant in [S] Collide, though this ended in failure.

Next, let's move onto

♥️🔁♠️: Quadrant Vacillation

Another known occurrence within troll society and its romantic framework is the Vacillation of two trolls between multiple quadrants. While canon only gives examples of Flushed/Pitch Vacillation, it's stated that this is but the most common type of Vacillation.

This occurs because troll relationships are incredibly malleable. To quote from the comic again:

In many cases, one party will have red feelings while the other has black. But it will often be the case that one party's feelings will swap to match the other's, since there is no quadrant which naturally accommodates such a disparity. But thereafter, it's not uncommon for the two to toggle between red and black in unison now and then. These scenarios naturally result in both red and black infidelities.

This is stated to be a key reason for the existence of the Ashen and Pale quadrants, to prevent such infidelities. Auspistices are intended to be able to stabilise these turbulent relationships, but failure to uphold this role can lead to more instability and chaos within the mixed relationship.

Equius Zahhak and Aradiabot are shown as the key example of Vacillation, caused by Aradia's distain of the former for his rudeness and the fact he planted a chip inside her robot body that would make her love him, and Equius's attraction to the latter paired with his somewhat fetishisation of the caste system (a story for another time). Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram's relationship is also mentioned, with Vriska's continued mimicking of Mindfang pushing her to meld Tavros into a fitting Matesprit, while at the same time expressing distain for his unwillingness to broach a relationship, and his wimpish behaviour. This is also further complicated by Tavros genuinely being attracted to Vriska, but too scared of her to commit to a relationship, and their Auspistice Kanaya Maryam's flushed crush on Vriska also, leading to her slacking her duties so to speak.

And now, we move onto the final quadrant, the specifically requested one:

♦️: The Pale Quadrant

Pale relationships are called a Moirallegiance, in which two trolls are Moirails. This quadrant can be liked to soulmates, but with a more platonic (yet still romantic) lean.

Moirails, also called Palemates, exist with the purpose to calm down and pacify their Pale partner. Trolls are (said to be) inherently an angry, violent species, with some being dangerous to themselves or society if left alone. Pale attraction exists for a troll of such tendencies to find a partner who can pacify them (positively), and for even-tempered trolls to seek out those who would benefit from their assistance.

A perfect Moirallegiance is said to consist of two trolls who mutually pacify and assist each other, whose emotional profiles fit together well, helping them to form other relationships in different quadrants with ease.

Moirallegiance is often confused by trolls for platonic friendship, and vice versa, and furthermore, Flushed attraction may be confused for Pale. The Flushed quadrant is said to be "more red" than the Pale one by Eridan Ampora, and likewise the Pitch quadrant "blacker" than the Ashen one, as one might expect from their describing colours.

The most well known Moirallegiance in Homestuck would of course be Meowrails, Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak. Others include the Draconian Dignitary and Bec Noir, Karkat Vantas and Gamzee Makara, and Feferi Peixes and Eridan Ampora (although Eridan held a Flushed crush for Feferi, similar to the one Kanaya held for Vriska during her Moirallegiance with her).

Finally, the an important thing that Moirail can do for their partner, in cases of both dire need of calming down, and a lighter gesture of aid, is the Shoosh Pap, performed by Karkat Vantas to Gamzee Makara to calm him down from his murderous rampage at the end of Act 5 Act 2. Karkat says:

IT'S JUST A TROLL THING, HUMANS WOULDN'T GET IT. 

You would think this is everything, and it almost is, but Hussie's explanation forgoes one particular part of troll romance that is only later elaborated on by Karkat:

♥️♠️♥️♠️: Group Vacillation

Um.

You see.

Do you get it?

I think the diagram is clear enough.

Ok, we're done here.

Edit: it is worth noting that this system of quadrants is actually quite limited, both in terms of actual occurrences in the comic, and how it is often portrayed in fanfiction and fanworks, as (due to its time of writing) does not take into account polyamory in the same quadrant.

Edit 2: Redrom also has nothing canonically related to "pity". Saying "I pity you" to a Moirail or Matesprit in place of "I love you" is not a normal thing for trolls; it's based in a model that exclusively Karkat Vantas came up with and talks about, because of his repressed emotional state; he believes there can only be two emotions, hate and pity, and all other emotions are derived from the two. It's not an accurate representation of the workings of troll romance, only a reflection of his state within the comic.

If you want to know *all* about *all* canon examples of *all* four quadrants, or explanation of the other species's versions of romance, those will have to come at a later date. I could also probably make diagrams. But that will have to do for now, I'm afraid. If you find any inaccuracies that aren't about the spelling of Moirallegiance, (trust me, even the comic doesn't know how to spell it), please let me know! I can also probably answer any questions or clarifications in any reblogs, asks, or replies, but they won't necessarily be this extensive.

(Oh and also if anyone wants me to explain that one gif from the section, I can do that too. You know the one.)

[cloudyswritings]

Wyrm Lore/Biology: weird little freaks

y’all know the drill! This one’s gonna be a bit shorter tho cause I’ve done lots on Wyrms before.

Lore:

There’s a couple different of creation myths amongst Wyrms. The first story goes that the first Wyrms were born when the primordial god of Hunger died, the first Wyrms were born of the lowliest of creatures who ate of Hungers corpse, upon eating him they grew and grew and as they did so too did their appetites until they scoured the land clean of life and created the wastes we know today.

The second regard pale beings, and specifically pale Wyrms, it says that as Hunger fell some of his fangs were knocked loose and fell into the caverns below. These fangs were brilliant and shining, and in time were worshiped, turning into the first Pale Wyrms.

The final one suggested that when Hunger was killed his guts spilled out into the world, and began to chase after his killer becoming Wyrms in the process.

All of these are equally plausible, though the Pale King personally cleaves to the last myth and knows how pale beings currently come into being.

Biology:

They have and endo and exoskeleton, in a manner similar to tortoises and ocean sunfish. Their exoskeleton is made of a mix of chitin and various mineral and metals they’ve consumed over their lives.

They have several hearts, and occasionally grow more as they gain length.

They can’t clone themselves when split however, and only the front half of the wyrm survives in the very rare circumstance that they’re split.

Wyrms produce an extremely potent stomach acid that helps dissolve rocks and minerals. Additionally Wyrms have a series of specialized channels and organs that help bring some of this acid up to coat their burrowing and throat teeth, this is part of how they can burrow through dense stone with ease.

This acid is obviously more efficient when used on reactive stones. Because of this young or weakened Wyrms generally prefer regions composed primarily of carbonate minerals and limestones.

because of this mother Wyrms can usually be found nesting in karstic regions

Wyrms are actually fantastic swimmers, partially due to necessity. Wyrms must always be prepared for the possibility of burrowing into a void pocket, flooded cave, or aquifer. Because of this Wyrms also have several adaptations to deal with being submerged, including the ability to take in oxygen through their cloaca(look up snapping turtles, you can’t make this shit up 💀)

That said Wyrms don’t like being wet at all, and too much humidity can cause molting issues in young Wyrms.

Wyrms generally don’t dream, and also struggle greatly with using essence and other dream related abilities, this is because they are largely beings of the physical world.