#is the herrah one wearing a mask or is that a face design?

[prophecyoflunarflame]

nice art time to violently eat it

scug knight designs from the other day

[elk-and-thearchivist]

Elk and Wiki’s designs for the Heralds of Light AU! They can hide their “radiant” characteristics - Wiki just goes back to normal and Elk’s outfit becomes closer to what they used to wear.

And here’s the whole rundown of this AU (made in collaboration with / some parts written by @zykaben / @heart-the-vessel ):

This timeline begins long after Heart, Wiki, and Elk have met. Elk is fully grown (they grew faster due to constant exposure to Wiki's magic), while Heart is still young. Elk and Wiki do not enter stasis in this timeline. This is long before Ghost and Quirrel's arrival in Hallownest.

Wiki discovered knowledge so secret that they've never encountered it in any other timeline- of a backdoor, of sorts, that Monomon had built into the Black Egg.

With Hallownest already crumbling, they had nothing to lose. They decided to go inside to just... speak to the Radiance. Of course, Wiki researched methods to contact her through the seal and everything. At first, she has to speak through THK - they have magic that can pull the Radiance to the forefront. The trio apologize profusely for making them act as her proxy - and they're sorry for it even long, long after.

So they entered the temple. Offered the Radiance a proposal. Hallownest was but a shell of the past, but... it could be better for all those wronged by the Pale King's actions. Her. The Hollow Knight. All their siblings. The dreamers. The three offered to act as her speakers, heralds of her renewal - all they ask is that she no longer burn the kingdom with her fury.

The Radiance, too, has nothing to lose. She agrees. She grants Elk and Heart their own voices, and they set out to spread word of her light as well.

(Eventually, she uses her magic to dream into reality garments suitable for her "priests.")

(Radiance and THK probably "talk" it out a lot while just... hanging around. They find connection. Closeness. A friendship? Perhaps not defined so stringently.)

Between the Radiance's fury calming, and with Wiki working to dismantle the seal without harm to anyone involved in it, the seal becomes very fragile. Wiki constructed magic that would bring the Radiance into the physical plane, and once they did - the seal completely unraveled. THK was freed. And... Lurien and Herrah woke. But not Monomon.

The three keep a home with the Radiance (she slowly learns to love again), but travel often to spread her light. The Radiance gives a voice to the Hollow Knight as well - though she doesn't like that title. She just calls them 'her Knight.' She gives them figurative and, well, actual wings - wings with which to seek their freedom. (Incorporated some bits of @zykaben ‘s Radiant Knight AU)

They go with the Radiance to meet the White Lady once. The Radiance stays outside, while THK goes in. And for the first time ever, they speak to the White Lady with the voice the Radiance gave them—something that their own mother and father denied. They just... tell the White Lady that they know that they aren't pure, that they're not perfect. But they aren't tainted or tarnished or lesser. They're a person. Someone with a mind to wish, will to love, a voice to scream joy and pain and sorrow and rage. They leave, then, and don't look back. (The Radiance meets them outside and they lean on her for support as she gently places a wing over them.)

It isn't long before Wiki seeks out the other Dreamers - after realizing Monomon still hasn't woken. Lurien and Herrah see Wiki, and think - that must be why. Her consciousness is in this clone of hers.

Incorrect, of course. But Wiki having Monomon's memories and experiences didn't help with that. The two Dreamers frequently insisted on Wiki spending leisure time with them - time in addition to their collaboration on trying to understand why Monomon still slept. It takes a while, but eventually Lurien and Herrah learn to see Wiki as their own being, and they build a proper friendship later.

Now, it didn't take that long for Wiki to realize that there was another layer of a seal on Monomon. But... there was a block in their awareness as to how it was made, and how to unravel it. Slowly, after spending time with the other Dreamers - it was indeed triggering memories of Monomon's past, though that definitely made things awkward for Wiki - they managed to slip into the cracks of that mental block. Quirrel. He still had Monomon's mask.

They approach Monomon in her tank, and try to connect reach her. To tell her to call him back. They're not sure if it works, but—it isn't too long later when a very confused Quirrel and Ghost found themselves in the revived kingdom.

Monomon wakes up, finally. Talking to her face to face is very weird for Wiki, but they slowly build a beautiful friendship. A nerd alliance, so to say.

The kingdom of Hallownest is given another chance - not just at living, but thriving.

Random Notes:

Wiki is also super awkward with Quirrel at first but eventually they find their own dynamic separate from how Quirrel is with Monomon

Quirrel is sometimes up in arms at having to deal with not one, but two fools that don't know when you stop in the pursuit of knowledge

He begs Elk and Heart to keep an eye on Wiki but turns out they enable each other a lot and Quirrel throws some hands

The Radiance learns to love again. With the trio, with THK, with the kingdom of bugs she finally let be themselves

Lurien and Herrah at first have a poor opinion of Elk as a failed vessel, but Wiki is quick to tear them a new one for that

Heart sometimes screeches randomly because w o w having a voice

Elk was also very surprised when they spoke with a voice that wasn't Wiki's, in a good way

Elk and Wiki aren't as intertwined or reliant on each other as they are in other timelines, but still very close.