#whereas PK and Radi both were pretty aware of tribal differences (with radi hitting deepnest and hallownest the hardest for example)

[ruthlesslistener]

No listen, hornet was designed to mirror my trauma perfectly.

She's from two different places, both of which she doesn't feel like she belongs to, now suddenly stuck in a foreign land so so far away from anything resembling "home" that is exploiting the people of one side of her heritage, that of deepnest.

And the only reason she's they haven't caught her is due to the other side of her heritage, that of hallownest, that of the pale king, a side of her heritage that completly rejected the other, feeling like the other was beneath them. And that is the side allowing her special treatment, just enough to allow her to escape pharloom's grasp.

Do you think hornet feels guilt that the wyrm blood she carries, knowing that it is the only reason she isn't farm stock. Knowing that she owes the Deepnest side of her heritage.

Do you think she's tired? She thought she repented for the wyrm blood she carries by protecting the seals, for overlooking the land (her land?) In her father's stead. But now the one side of her heritage that she thought safe, the people she thought escaped are trapped and she must take the vigil again.

But she's so tired.

She thought she was done seeing people like her being mistreated, growing up alongside the pure vessel knowing that neither of them would have existed if not for this Plauge, feeling like their father sees the pair of them as nothing but a bitter debt. But now seeing the way pharloom treats the Deepnest immigrants she's reminded yet again that the world around her sees her as lesser.

Yet like with the pure vessel that she is still in a position of privilege, that she has it so much better.

This lack of singular heritage protects her.

Had she's been purely the pale king's child she'd have been tossed in the abyss like all the others

Had she been purely Herrah's child she'd have been farmed for silk by pharloom or consumed by the Plauge.

She's like a pet bird, yes caged, but not slaughtered like a chicken would, that must fuck with her.

God she must be so tired. But she won't say so, because she doesn't believe herself deserving of exhaustion.

I can't actually delve much into pharloom and Deepnest yet since we don't know much about them, which is why I cut the "essay" in the OG post short.

But if I were to say anything I'd say that Pharloom feels very Christian to me, while Deepnest is very much not, though I can't say which culture they're coded as. Which is fascinating because pharloom clearly accepts immigrants, or pilgrims as we saw in the trailer. It suggests to me that Pharloom is only accepting immigration from nations they deem "civilised", aka bug Christian, or at least willing to assimilate.

However the weavers are not willing to assimilate, and even if they were they look so different to the average bug, which means they cannot. I may be projecting but it's like how if you're a brown middle Eastern guy you can't exactly assimilate into western culture even if you wanted to cause you're not white.

Because of this pharloom keeps the weavers only for their labour and away from the eyes of tourists and pilgrims, to continue this facade of a "civilized" nation, afraid that the "barbaric" (aka not bug Christian) reputation of the Deepnest immigrants would taint that.

It's similar to how if you were to be hired into a factory job here in Europe or any major labor intensive job that is away from the eyes of the public it's filled with immigrants, as if the company knows that they'll accept harsher conditions. No I'm not speaking from personal experience whatever gave you that idea, heh, but seriously it's fucked I hope hornet tears pharloom into shreds.

...

OP I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH THANK YOU FOR THIS MEAL. I think the only thing I disagree on is Hornet's reaction to the burden of her heritage- I think she would be deeply, bitterly angry about it, a sort of ice-cold anger that mingles with the exhaustion yet overwhelms all else- but mmmmm YES this is so good. Hornet being a person stuck between worlds is something that is both her greatest strength, and yet also incredibly isolating for her. She was Deepnest's strongest heir because she was born of Wyrm and Beast, and yet she is still half-mortal compared to her siblings, formed of God and Void. She is the heir to Deepnest, but she is known as the Daughter of Hallownest, and ends up being its protector in the entirety when the Radiance massacred all who were not strong enough to resist her. She's got so much strength, but that strength led to more burdens placed on her shoulders, and now she's trapped in a foreign land far from home, captured like the rest of her tribe, yet tasked with freeing them because her divine blood gives her that edge over the people of Pharloom that her Weavers do not. It must be exhausting, being Hornet, but I'm hoping that some of that lonlieness will be dispelled by meeting fellow outcasts. I sure as fuck can relate to her, as the son of an immigrant and someone disconnected from their family/culture- it's part of why she's one of my favorite characters. Even if she's beloved by one or the other, she'll never fully fit in to either

I also agree on Pharloom having very Christian vibes, what with the rosaries and rigid religious structure and all. It's an interesting contrast from the Radiance, actually, who also gives me strong Christian vibes, but more in the sense of the old testament, wrathful sort of divinity. Pharloom, on the other hand, reminds me more of the corruption wrought by the church; the bounds placed upon others seem to be institutional, and the system of exploitation also seems to be baked into the social power dynamic rather than what we saw in Hollow Knight, where two divine beings that could not comprehend the lives of mortals ended up killing everyone in the nuclear blast radius of squabbling over their worship. It was not institutional; it was animalistic. The fact that Pharloom has a gilded citadel with which immigrants or pilgrims must struggle from the bottom up feels like a metaphor for climing the social ladder, where each rung you jump to demands more of your previous life lost. Those who conform easily and/or are native to Pharloom get to navigate comfortably up the ladder, while those who stick to their own cultural traditions (like the Weavers) are enslaved and exploited. We've yet to see the God of Pharloom, if there even is one, but so far Pharloom really does give me 'extremely strong and corrupt religious political power' vibes from the brief glimpses we see of it. Maybe that's just bc its actually alive instead of the gods being the only ones kind of clinging on, but still. Pretty sure rosaries are a Catholic thing?? Which pairs pretty nicely lots of gilded extravagance and exploitation, lmfao

Either way though, its vibes are absolutely rancid. I sure as fuck hope we see Hornet tearing out its bloated underbelly in Silksong, or at least personally beating back whatever caused the problem. After who knows how many centuries guarding the corpse of a kingdom felled by the folly of gods, she deserves a little regicide. As a treat