#hollow knight speculation

[mebis-art-dump]

Random Hollow knight trivia

Quirrel's/Monomon's "mask" is closer to a stone slab, with false eyeholes that dont go all the way through and a notch for Quirrel's head

there's a hand in there

the sharp shadow charm seems to represent a soul totem (or the AC bug it was based upon) but instead of the standard body it has what seems to be either a cluster of blades or a cloak (considering the effect, probably both)

it can also be seen as said AC bug dashing towards the camera, making use of sharp shadow

[ruthlesslistener]

Yknow what dawned on me the other day? I can’t remember many of any instances of electricity within Hallownest. The elevators are mechanical, we hear the gears. Same with the trans. The lighting is lumaflies and candles. The closest to electric power things off the top of my head is the soul sanctum machines being powered off of Soul.

This is both fascinating because it’s such a wild concept, complex machines without electricity. But it also makes me thing what else is PK would do with access and information with the technology we have.

Hehe yeah, the only electricity that is present in Hallownest is entirely associated with Monomon, therefore placing it in a sort of foreign, alien light that very clearly does not mesh with the rest of Hallownest. Soul seems to be the raw, undiluted energy of the land and all living things, and so it is tapped into as a replacement for the more tangible, familiar sources of power that we think of, like coal or electricity. They're likely sister sources- most of how we work is through electrical impulses, after all, and those weird soul sanctum mages in the coli use lightning- but soul is probably more stable and easy to source, considering the fact that there's literal pools full of it located around Hallownest. It's sort of like the life pulse of the land, which can then be siphoned into other things to power them, and drawn back out as necessary.

The way I like to think of it is that Hallownest is incredibly technologically advanced, but not in the same sense of the word as what we'd use for ourselves; it uses a fusion of magic and tech that follows rules and engineering requirements, but would be completely inaccessible to us. Comparing it to what little we know of Pharloom- who seems to be set roughly in the period of the industrial revolution, as they seem to use coal and steam engines- and this becomes even more apparent. I like to call Hallownest the bug Atlantis for this very reason, because the way I see it is that being in a realm so rich with gods makes it a bounty of natural magical resources, which have been used in creative ways for a good long while before other civilizations ever figured out basic things like the steam engine, which costs a lot more natural resources and is a lot more crude/filthy than soul-powered energy. Perhaps that's part of the reason why PK claimed other civilizations did not exist outside of Hallownest- he did not consider them advanced enough to be worthy of the title

As for how PK would fiddle with our own technology, I feel like he'd be fascinated by how far we've come without the guidance of a higher being like him, but would grow bored with it incredibly quickly, as he'd be able to outpace our own developments far more rapidly than we ever could. Dude would have figured out nuclear fusion and created a stable model for energy farms way before we did, and would look down on us for being slow about it. Which makes sense, as he is the God of Mind and has thousands of years of experience capturing and experimenting with extremely volatile energy sources, but it would be very humbling and extremely infuriating to deal with

[artechoceneexplorer]

Remember that wheel I posted like half a month ago? I finally finished it!!

Now here's some close-ups with the characters that are featured in it :>

Red section!! Featuring Garnet from Steven Universe, Red from The Sea Beast, Hornet from Hollow knight, the Scarlet Caviearer from Bivaltopia and a pointy creature by Equiëtum ❤️🍄❤️

Orange section!! Featuring Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle, Enoch from Over the Garden Wall, The Core from Amphibia, Rahang Besar from Project Temere and the Pomegranate King by Miguel11to.

Yellow section!! Featuring Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls, Jake the Dog from Adventure Time, the Plasm Wraith from Pikmin 3, the protagonist of Abzū, the Pangaloon from The New Dinosaurs and Amphinatans mirabilis from Polinices 💛🌟💛

Green section!! Featuring Kermit the Frog, Diamondhead from Ben 10, Link from Skyward Sword, Tighnari from Genshin Impact, the Emerald Bombardier from the Dragonslayer Codex and a Samara Fairy by samuelele_draws 💚🍀💚

Cyan section!! Featuring Rika from Pokémon, a Na'vi from Avatar, the Flish from The Future is Wild, the Giant Severateel from Sinedey and Furcagnathodon from the Kiatra project 🩵🐬🩵

Blue section!! Featuring Stitch, Modecai from Regular Show, Shiver from Splatoon 3, Dory from Finding Nemo, the Inkilatura from Tales of Kaimere and an aquatic sapient from Scylios 💙🌀💙

Purple section!! Featuring Amity Blight from The Owl House, Chameleos from Monster Hunter, Double King by Felix Colgrave, Thanos, the Amoebic Sea from Darwin IV and the Violet Bunting from the Birds of Novasola 💜👾💜

Pink section!! Featuring Nimona, Al-An from Subnautica: Below Zero, Kanroji Mitsuri from Demon Slayer, Perfuma from She-ra, an Axolotl from Minecraft and Apocleavis magnifica from the The Future is Far project 🩷🌸🩷

The B/W and final section!! Featuring Tui and La from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Spiderman Noir from Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and Umbragrus huxlwyi from the Dragons of the World project 🖤🐧🤍

Hope you like it, took me like a month to finish :")

[cloudyswritings]

More vessel biology headcanons?

Vessels are actually really, really good at burrowing. It’s probably how so many escaped the abyss after they got sealed. They got it from both parents, and the void. Which per my silly little brain, can old be contained in round glass.

the void basically erodes/decays things in fast forward otherwise?

Vessels all have one major flaw or imperfection the void couldn’t remove, THKs was either a desire for perfection or being able to make familial bonds.

Ghosts flaw is an endless well of willpower. They will never, ever, stop. They inherited from their mothers conceptual side, because their will is the slow burrowing of roots through stone and the deceptively gentle trickle of water on metal. Greenpath vessels was a sense of adventure/desire to explore. And the nosk vessels all had a sense of longing for companionship which led to their deaths.

The vessels also seem to have physical flaws too? Like structurally I mean. The prime example is THKs missing arm, in the pure vessel boss fight that same arm is what they use for the void tendrils attack and by the time we fight them in the egg it’s entirely rotted off. I think it honestly was never as strong or stable as the other arm and was bound to be lost eventually. Broken Vessels flaw would be their third horn(the one that’s broken off).

Vessels actually do still have some of their own light, you can see this in game actually—even without the lantern you give off a subtle glow. I think that some vessels actually retained some of the godly light and status they otherwise would have had, only a little though.

The above idea comes from my headcanon that Wyrms specifically are really resistant to void as far as gods go, because they always dig deep and far and in that sometimes burrow into pockets of void far below the surface. They need to be able to survive contact with it in the short term at least. This nature would explain how some vessels retain minute traces of light, and why the pale king was the one actually standing at the mouth of the abyss waiting for vessels.

given time, soul, and light a vessel can grow to enormous sizes- or eventually metamorphose into a wyrm proper. Albeit one still tarnished by the void

in fact I wonder if any of the seeds/eggs dropped into the abyss hatched young Wyrms instead of vessels? Maybe they escaped or something? I don’t think this is likely but it’s a cool idea.

vessels are deceptively light, as in like hornet could carry THK on her back if she needed to- they’re literally hollow in a way

Void and water don’t mix, it’s like oil and water. That’s why we float in the blue lake.

The void itself might be the remnants of an ancient sea that covered the world beyond Hallownest before the age of bright gods. It would explain the trilobite creature we see in deepnest and the way the abyss and the rest of Hallownest appear to be made of fossilized shells. Plus if it’s the remnants of the sea then it could be something like a microbial mat that’s really toxic to life? Like maybe it’s a magic microbial soup? Magic microbial goop even. Vessels are goop.

Vessels are really really strong compared to other ways of containing things, like THK held the radiance for a long ass time. If a vessel tried to contain a weaker god they’d probably just be able to tbh. Like anything weaker than the nightmare heart if probably fair game for yoinking.

Vessels also sometimes inherit the hunger of Wyrms, and looking into their eyes gives the sensation of falling into the maw of some great beast. Godseaker did call Little Ghost a wielder of nail and eater of soul

Vessels are also really susceptible to outside influences, kinda like evee if they were Pokémon. This is how Ghost can use so many charms at once but also why said charms can change them so easily.

Theoretically a vessel raised by or containing a god could take on some of their traits-either by force or by accident.

Unrelatedly THK has a voice to cry out with…

I think radiance may have eventually tried turning them into something more like Grimm is for the heart, a body for her to use and a mind thoroughly broken to her will.

after-all she shines brightest against the darkness…

If they could eat, Vessels would have a truly remarkable number of tastebuds, because Wyrms will eat anything and I feel like the white lady has ways to “taste” the soil to see if it’s nutrient rich and has fertilizer.

man I’m just realizing, vessels would like some weird food, they’d definitely eat dirt

THK crunching on crystals?? Likely

Finally the horns of vessels are actually their “branches” and will keep growing indefinitely unless trimmed or broken periodically, this comes from both parents. Wyrms need to constantly replace burrowing teeth and Roots are beings of constant growth and pruning.

[shentheauthor]

I be like “I’m normal” and then I look like this while thinking about. Vessel biology

Some thoughts:

Some vessels have lungs, some do not. My headcanon is that Wyrms have lungs, so naturally, that will be passed down to any Wyrm children. Half-Wyrms are confusing, especially since there are so few, and Wyrm genes are displayed differently depending on what bug they’re combined with

The White Lady is a fungus, and I stand by that. Meaning she “breathes” through her gills and pores! It’s passive, so she doesn’t make any noises when she breathes. She doesn’t even have a mouth, since she’s just a cluster of mycelium that the majority of her consciousness is crammed into

So, some vessels have lungs! Some breathe through their void body! All of this is incredibly weird to bugs, who don’t have lungs, but breathe through little holes in their sides! Freaks of nature, the vessels

It might be easier to list potential traits I think vessels can have. There may be a combination of these

Wings (flight-incapable)

Wings (flight-capable)

Tails

Burrowing teeth

Mycelium hyphae

Lungs

Pores/gills

Spores!

Mouths

No mouth

Hard shell

“Skin” (closer to just a bag holding the void body together)

Infertility (the majority of vessels have this trait)

PK’s cold, harsh light

WL’s softer, but more expansive light

Ability to digest rocks and metal

Nutritional needs: minerals, inorganics

Nutritional needs: organics

Poor eyesight

Albinism (PK)

Weak bodies (compared to other higher beings, also from PK)

Horns

Mushroom sprouts

There’s definitely more, but I generally stick to these when trying to come up with various mix-and-match traits for vessel ocs, as well as canon vessels

Edit for those who don’t feel like looking at the comments: Hornet has lungs!

[reksink]

Sona Given Form💚

[ssomepersonn]

assorted paper doodles

[autumnoakes]

me @ characters who were trained to be not much more than a weapon from a young age

(id: a quick drawing of a person holding what looks like a toy between very sharp teeth. their eyes are red and they're panting. they then start shaking their head viciously and are nothing but a blur)

[mebis-silksong-corner]

Another familiar shape

disclaimer: only this depiction of the pharloom crest is this similar ro a wyrm's other versions are more flowery and the symbol overall is probably meant to resemble a G clef

last judge still sus though

that said, lemme dream of potential new wyrm lore

[carkeyarts]

carving the king's idol

[mebis-art-dump]

There's a critical lack of maggot Godseeker in the fandom

(unmasked Godseeker speculation woooo)

For reference:

[ruthlesslistener]

An interesting bit of Hollow Knight lore that you can get from the Hunter's Journal is that "They devoted their worship to no Lord, or Power, or Strength, but to the very darkness itself" so there was no concept of something like the Shade Lord existing or even coming into existence at the time of the Void civilization. The bugs of the Void civilization worshipped the Void, used it I'm their everyday lives and yet it never manifested into some form of higher power until it's people was annihilated by light and it was exploited by light.

I think that's arguably up for interpretation- the void is a very difficult entity/substance to pin down, after all, and pretty much escapes definition by default. That there are so few remnants left of the Void Civilization to begin with (thanks Radi) doesn't help much either

The way I interpret that phrase is that the Darkness/OG Shade Lord was not a true god in the sense that it was a magically living creature that needed to ascend to a position of worship and higher power to continue on to an immortal existence, as the gods of Hallownest are today, but that it was a sort of...proto-god. Alive in the same way that a virus was, a being from a time before life itself that only became 'alive' because it is the antithesis to all things, including nothing. It is essentially Death, but the opposite of death is Life, and so it held a semblance of it much in the same way that the roaring waters of the ocean give the semblance of a great living thing. It straddles the border between living and nonliving, so it was worshiped as the singular entity that it was, but there was still a presence there that reacted to attack and was worthy of the Radiance's fear. Whether or not it died when she tried to destroy it is up for debate- how do you kill something that was on the cusp of life- but it was just alive enough to rush into the vessels and fuse with them as living beings, and alive enough to react when called upon. It just couldn't be categorized as a Lord, Power, or Strength because, well...it wasn't any of those. It just Was, the same way that the ocean Is, and thus was beyond the scope of any modern being that mortals aligned themselves with after they learned to dream

[mebis-reblogs]

Hey so, I'm replaying hollow knight and today just beat the mantis lords

But most importantly, I didn't remember there was a hallownest crest in here

In the resting rooms

The area only honored outsiders would be allowed to enter

Knowing the mantises, this wouldn't be some random nobility, but a strong warrior, so it must have been a knight

There's the possibility of it belonging to some mantis but I doubt it

You see where I'm going with this, right?

[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.

[shentheauthor]

Sick Wyrms (and Vessels)

Long post under the cut

What could possibly get a wyrm sick???

Well there’s a number of things: starvation, lack of sleep, basically most things that can fuck up a human. Wyrms are just VERY durable, so it’s hard to get them that way

There are natural pathogens, of course, but most can’t infect Wyrms. Their immune systems are crazy strong, since they consume countless parasites when they dig. They can fight off pretty much any disease

To truly get sick, Wyrms have to be very young, very old, or naturally weak

The Pale King is the third one lmao

His albinism gives him a lot of health problems, leaving him vulnerable to the few pathogens that CAN get Wyrms sick.

He sure isn’t going to get sick more than once every several decades, but he definitely can get sick

Fevers, delirium, aches, and since he has lungs, sneezing/coughing, are all on the table. So is vomiting, rip

PK will try to hide it as much as possible, shoving down all of his discomfort, or if he can’t, holing up in his study all day for “important business”

He’s the type to pretend everything is fine, even when he’s alone, because he’s a workaholic and he’s overcompensating for his natural weaknesses

Even after centuries away from other Wyrms, he still has this intense fear of being caught off guard by a competitor. He almost died several times when he was wandering, and it left him paranoid

He can be coaxed into resting by his wife, and her alone. She’s strong enough to protect him, even if her main power isn’t combat-related.

Now, what about the Vessels? (Note: my THK is named Vess, so I will be calling them that)

Vessels are an odd case, since many of them are incredibly weak for higher beings, too. It doesn’t help that most of them are already dead

Many vessels get sick easily. The void does a great job of getting rid of pathogens, but that doesn’t mean that chronic illnesses and pain won’t get them

It isn’t uncommon for vessels to spend days bedridden due to the pain and malaise caused by their semi-organic bodies trying to reject the void

Ghost was spared the pains and sickness, but they’re really fragile for a long time. They only gain strength because of items found in game, and eventually ascending to godhood, making them immune to all disease

Vess is not so lucky. They didn’t have chronic pain before, but they sure do now! The radiance fucked them up BAD.

Their immune system is practically nonexistent now, leaving them vulnerable to disease

They get sick a lot after the godhome ending. They’re not okay.

Another one who gets paranoid when they’re sick. If you even SAY the word sickness around them they start shaking, and don’t you dare sneak up on them unless you want your face to be speared by their horns

About Hornet:

Hornet is arguably the luckiest of PK’s children, because she’s pretty good at avoiding diseases

If she takes care of herself, that is

Which she doesn’t

She’s sick a lot too, but she can power through it. Herrah’s genes do a lot to help her immune system, so she can fight off the diseases that get her pretty quickly

She’s like PK, in that she refuses to show any vulnerability. If she’s sick, she gets super paranoid, and won’t even let her siblings touch her

She can actually get a wider range of diseases than most bugs, but her immune system can actually remember the pathogens, so she rarely gets the same bug (ha) twice

[reksink]

hi I really love your spec bio hornet designs it’s amazing how much detail goes into this

:O!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Hornet's designs are some of my favorites to workshop and refine, and I'm really glad you like them! Like I said before, the possibilties for her are endless, both for her external and internal structures. Capturing details that are both logical from what we know about her and real life spider while then fitting that knowledge into her design is something I'll always love about the process A small collect of roughs for the eyes:

Again, thank you so much for send this, it's really sweet to hear :}