#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

[boglarkarebay]

Alright, I’m done with all this bullshit.

Blogpost on my interpretation of how the void works in Hollow Knight and how the King made void beings.

We know that Hallownest is in stasis, and that somehow void is related to that. We also now that the Vessels were created to store the infection inside. What these two things imply together, is that void is some kind of conservation method.

That’s why it can defy time itself. It keeps the things it absorbs in the exact state it used to be in when it was consumed. For example, and I’ve learned I’m not the only one coming to this conclusion, there is the Collector. The original collector, whose SOUL it consumed has long been dead, but the void version of them is still around.

The Vessels must work similarly to the Collector. They are not the children who died, but their immortal void clones. They wear the corpses of the royal kids as masks (our healthpoints are literally reresented with masks, and when they all break, the outer shell breaks and the shade is revealed!!). Since they are made of void they can store an infinite amount of stuff inside such as money, charms, items, SOUL and dream essence (that’s why we need to absorb the shade to get our Geo back, although the Steel Soul mode may be the canon one).

Now to how void beings are created. As I mentioned before, both the Vessels and the Collector absorbed the SOUL of a living bug, but we don’t precisely know the circumstances of that. In the case of the Collector, we only know that they spent some time together. As for the Vessels, I have a very speculative theory on mind.

Basically, I assume the King used the same technique he used to make the other void beings in his palace, or at least something similar. What I think happened, is that he basically lured the void into those molds we see in his workshop, which were full of SOUL (maybe his SOUL, I don’t think he used anyone else’s since he opposed the experiments of the Soul Master, and also it’s strongly implied his SOUL was infinite). The void seeped into the mold to get the SOUL, but then it got trapped inside - either manually or by some sort of seal (the seal of binding??). There, it absorbed all the SOUL it could, becoming a creature of both void and SOUL (like the Kingsoul/Voidheart, wow!).

I’m sure the King used some kind of method to code specific orders into the SOUL inside the mold, too, so that the Kingsmolds obeyed him (the Wingmolds don’t seem to have any objective). We could speculate on to how much degree he did the same thing with the Vessels, personally I think he forbid them from hurting noninfected bugs (unless they are offered a challenge like by the Mantis Lords).

Anyways, that’s basically all my ramblings. I know a lot this stuff ain’t provable or anything, but it seems to be in line with the rest of the game. Feel free to disagree with me, I’d love to have some deep lore-discussions on here…😏

[reksink]

Sona Given Form💚

[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!

[marbledpython]

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

[raddest-laddest]

whoever said this sounded like hornet

i could kiss u rn

[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 :}

[carkeyarts]

carving the king's idol

[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]

Void tech! Based on a convo with @cloudyswritings

She mentioned using void as a depth measurement and I went a little crazy

This is the Depth Sensor! It’s composed of two main parts: a glass sphere filled with Void, and a metal ring with a smaller glass piece filled with Void set into it. The ring is attached in a way that allows it to spin.

Void is attracted to either the Void Sea, or the largest body of Void nearby. The smaller void “gem” is kept floating by being attracted to the sphere. No matter what way you turn the sphere, the ring should always be parallel to the ground, otherwise something is wrong.

The deeper you go into the cave systems, the more the ring is pulled downward. Think of it like a compass, almost. You can tell your depth based on how low the ring is dipping.

Note: these devices are incredibly difficult to make, due to the dangerous nature of the Void. They’re also extremely volatile, though the good manufacturers will make sure the glass isn’t easy to break. As a result, well-made depth sensors are very expensive, usually only owned by wealthy explorers.

They also have to be kept in special padded cases to make sure they don’t crack and begin to expose their owners to Void Poisoning.

Note 2: these do NOT work around vessels. The void gem will always be pulled toward them, unless you’re near the void sea.

[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?

[galgaeium]

Y'all got art requests?

Ok.

Ask me to draw i guess.

I got art block to a small degree.

Ill do OCs, fanart for fandoms im in, birds, other animals (except spiders, lord knows i cant do spiders.)

Ill not do NSFW or gore and overly complicated designs.

If you want me to draw something, just pop by my inbox and tell me.