#gods of hallownest

[ospreyeamon]

twinned domains of the divine

It’s a nice touch that the gods of Hallownest are designated two areas of power rather than just one. The Pale King is Mind and Light, the White Lady is Light and Life, Unn is Life and Dreams, the Radiance is Dreams and Light, and the Nightmare King what else but Fire and Nightmares.

(And the Shade Lord? Darkness, definitely. But for the other – Soul, Light, Battle, Will? Born from the union of two Pale Beings and the Void they dropped their eggs into but born again at the pinnacle of the Godseekers’ pantheons.)

Not only does this help them to avoid feeling simplistic, it opens up comparisons between gods that seemingly share a domain.

The native gods of upper and middle Hallownest – Unn, the Radiance, the White Lady – are centred around dreams-light-life, with the Nightmare Realm having broken away to go on tour and explore nightmares specifically and fire in general. Unn and the Radiance both birth their children, the mosskin and the moth tribe, from dreams. They can also call to bugs through their dreams though the Radiance does this far more powerfully than Unn; however, this may be to a lack of willingness to impose her will over others on Unn’s part rather than a lack of strength.

While Unn and the Radiance’s dreaming aspects appear similar, Unn and the White Lady are associated with different kinds of life. Unn’s realm of Greenpath is lush with plants but the White Lady seems more likely to be fungal in nature, akin to the underground networks of pale root-like tendrils beneath the mushrooms and toadstools we see on the surface. Though the White Lady and Unn both create children, the White Lady’s are children of her body while Unn’s are born from her dream.

(If the Void Entity is a god then I think it must be a god of darkness and life, but life as expressed in lifeblood rather than fungi or greenery.)

The Radiance’s imagery associates her with the sun while the White Lady’s light seems to be that of bioluminescence – ghost mushrooms and maybe jellyfish. It isn’t clear where the White Lady’s original seat of power was but Fog Canyon does feel like the original border of Unn’s realm with another. I agree with Feral’s assessment that the Pale King is linked with artificial lighting; the City of Tears is filled with beautiful streetlamps and it fits with what we know of the subversion of the moth tribe.

Unexpectedly it is not their shared divine domains which bring the Pale King and the Radiance into conflict, or the White Lady with Unn. In both cases it is the Pale King’s aspect of Mind in its manifestations of innovation, planning and industrialisation in additional to his wyrm-foresight which are the catalysts. The Pale King’s vision of an uplifted, industrialised Hallownest united under his rule leads his initial interference with the Radiance’s followers and territory – using his own pale light to aggressively seduce members of the moth tribe away from their creator. The White Lady’s complicity in her husband’s imperialism sees her annex the portion of Unn’s realm which becomes her garden.

‘the pale king is associated with artificial lighting’, feralphoenix (Feral), 27 February 2021, https://feralphoenix.tumblr.com/post/644289276300886016/you-know-ive-seen-a-couple-of-folks-in-hollow

#Hallownest Walking Tour #hollow knight meta #Unn #The Radiance #The White Lady #The Pale King #gods of hallownest #a wild headcanon appeared #hollow knight spoilers

[vellichorom]

i walk the pantheon of hell.

#uwu art #Hollow Knight #The Knight #Ghost #Little Ghost #Godmaster #Godmaster DLC #blood tw #// ask #AFTER A YEAR OF RESPITE I return to beat the shit out of gods in the pantheon of hallownest & fuck am i CLOSE to finish #anyway i'm a very AGGRESSIVE defense #so bug soul & infection juice just SPRAYS everywhere & the vivid image of the ruined knight covered in blood just makes me insane #that's ME #i keep getting whipped but oh well i work hard play hard yeah work hard play har

[ruthlesslistener]

admittedly really not a fan of hollow hating pk (mostly because my interpretation of them knew what costs were at stake and inherited like, all his depression and black-and-white problemsolving skills and protective urges and total lack of self-worth), but I'm a REAL big fan of them having this deep, burning hatred for the Radiance. Like, full-on, vitrolic 'I will deface every statue of you, I will wipe clean the earth's memory of you, I will burn you down to ash and then follow you to hell to ensure there is no remnant of you sort of hatred. Because SHE is the reason they were born like this SHE is the reason why so many of their siblings suffered SHE is the reason father hurt and mother left and SHE is the one who killed all the people who they were supposed to protect and made their sacrifice and father's sacrifice and their sibling's sacrifice meaningless and SHE was the one who broke their body and their mind and their heart and no matter how deeply they understand her pain, they will not stop until every last bit of her is eradicated and the fading scream of her corpse is fully swallowed by the deep. There is fear of her, yes, and deep terror of the pain of her retaliation, but once that fades, there is only a deep, smouldering hatred of her that will never fully be extinguished

(This is, of course, an unfair bias- the Pale King and White Lady were the ones who chose to confront her in such a monsterous matter, and thus are not free of criticism like the Hollow Knight prefers to imagine- but love makes one irrational, doubly so when that love is both genuine and abusive and there can be SOMEONE to blame for why your family that so dearly wants to come together will never ever be able to do so)

#hollow knight #i really need to write hollow fuckin losing it more tbh #they are a very patient sweet and sad muse with a long fuse #but they are capable of brutal violence and vitrol when that fuse burns low (and they never forgive nor forget) #such things include: the radiance #sister being kidnapped #outer gods tampering with Hallownest #their own faliure with themself

[maddieandangel]

Had a weird Hollow Knight-related dream a couple days ago, so I decided to draw a major scene I remembered from it dgsgshf

More context will be in the tags, for those interested!

#hollow knight #little ghost #hk ghost #the knight #hk hornet #hornet #alright. as of writing these tags it's been a week since the original dream so! let's see what i remember dgsgsgf #i was playing a game. which was a sequel to hollow knight ((Not silksong though)) #there was some new sort of divine infection in hallownest and hornet had asked ghost to investigate it. they ended the last one after all! #the red glowy spike gate thingy is what you jumped into to enter the 'infected' areas #though it actually led directly to a hub world type of place. which was kinda like an expanded base for the grimm troupe? #more like an entire lair instead of a camp. also some greek gods were there for some reason lmao. they had their own special rooms too #so sidenote but- new headcanon that there are grimm troupe members named ares athena artemis &... venus lmao. not aphrodite for some reason #also monomon was there?? i think??? except she was cooking????? she had a sidequest to deliver something to someone though i dunno hdgfhdgh #i remember going back to the grimm troupe lair a couple times throughout my 'playthrough' #anyway. the 'infection' this time around was more of a glitchy physical corruption thing? rather than a mind corruption. #though there were still aggressive enemies to fight. but i remember getting a map from cornifer early on and he was. probably infected #i think part of his body was covered in electricity or something? so he wasn't fully visible? but he was still acting normally #there was also a moth who was the seer but then later wasn't the seer (but was still the same moth) dghgdhf. i delivered stuff to her #that glowing white wall thing in the drawing was like a one-way gate. you could only cross it from the other side and ghost came from there #i guess things looped back up somehow i dunno ghdgfhgf #anyway. ghost's red eyes. those are significant! those happened while i was walking through a corridor. it had pools of shallow water #(shallow enough to just walk through) and also creatures that were lightseeds but red.the implication was that they were full of Blood lmao #and as i went along killing them--as one does--as i walked through the hall. they started turning the water red too #there was also narration about this as it was happening ashdgsf. specifically the narrator said the water turned red before it actually did #ghost's eyes slowly turned red too. but aside from that they were fine! since. they're the player character and the player is perfectly fin #BUT. when they encountered hornet again. she thought they were infected. and that she lost the only family she had left </3 #she didn't attack though. instead she just jumped into the red spike gate without a word. decided to try to fix everything herself #but eventually you'd encounter her again down below and she'd fight you. didn't actually get to that in the dream though #aand i'm out of tags </3 i wanted to talk about what i'd do to make this make more sense as an au or something now that i'm awake but. :c

[arty-cakes]

it would be nice to have a separate place for my stupid little comics considering that i never panel or plan anything and so consequently they're just rlly rlly long

#a sideblog maybe. my fear of spamming people triumphs my desire to share art #i still really like dirtmouth and everyone in it and im always drawing stuff for them but ALSO #my art is so out of context #i feel like if you didnt know me itd be like huh and whuh #thats why i dont rlly maintag it #but im always so emotional about dirtmouth ughh its just not fair #you cant even get infected up there and its still a dead town #it had this- weird symbiotic relationship with hallownest and had no choice but to go down with it #like idk what was going on with the townsppl like were they lured down there by a certain moth or was it their hubris god knows #maybe it was dead long before they decided to leave. but its not fair....... elderbug needs friends....... BRETTA NEEDS FRIENDS #i have a save file where all the npcs are there but im still conflicted on whether to keep grimm around or sacrifice him for brumm idkkk #going through it today fellas....

[nooooough]

"First they fell into deep slumber, then they awoke with broken minds,"

#tw jumpscare #trying to get a good nights sleep and god shows up and yoinks your mind #rude #hollow knight #undertale #the radiance #wandering Husk #hallownest #lore #meme #edit #audio #zzz

[mantisgodsdomain]

Our Scarlet is technically capable of draining life force from things like plants and crystals and occasionally structures, but it gives a lot less in terms of returns compared to just eating bugs because what he's doing, basically, is taking life force from other people and then converting it to his own life force, and what a plant has running its body isn't necessarily as useful when it comes to running his body. It's a last-ditch option at best and something he really doesn't want to do in general, because if he wants anything even vaguely resembling a decent flow of life force, he had to actually bite the thing and it really hurts your teeth to bite crystals.

Due to the specific mechanism that he converts energy through, he is also fully immune to a handful of conditions, such as The Infection, as that is... more or less just The Radiance shunting part of Her essence into a host with a specific designated purpose. It gets processed into Life Energy For Him over time, same as with any other life force he drains from anyone - though with gods, specifically, it can get a bit strange. Life force from a god is a very concentrated form of That God and the domain that is essentially their lifeblood, and though it converts fairly effectively it's also A Lot to chew through, to the point that it can functionally drown out his own conscious mind for a time. This is very unpleasant for him. Generally results in him losing time at the very least, and getting stuck with severely altered states of mind for however long it takes to process. He tries to just avoid the divine, if he can.

#we speak #headcanons #we guess. bit more like head-making-up-mechanics at this point but scarlet is ill defined enough to justify it #he usually tries not to drain life force from gods because he can lose some very significant chunks of time to it #he slept in hallownest once dreamed of LIGHT #and then woke up three months later covered in dried infection and missing all memory of the intervening time #he does not go to hallownest anymore. he doesnt want to know what the hell is up with them nowadays. #he knew them as a major trading post with a relatively high god population #and then he took a trip for a while and apparently the whole kingdom fell??? he has no context on this and isnt sure he wants to know #we stick this specific backstory in whenever we do hollow knight crossovers specifically because of the impact #of having a guy around who knows full well what hallownest is but missed the entire infection and hollow knight plan #he restocked there and pawned a kings idol like five kingdoms away for travel money and that was like half of his interaction with it #we are unclear if he would even know who the radiance is #bug fables #yes we're maintagging this. look at our post boy

[nonuggetshere]

Ok well then since no rain, and I’m also using the mask thing here which you can disregard if you want:

High fashion for like nobility? Would be Flowy styles (based on the cloaks we see in game) with several layers of fabric that *for sure* drag on the ground, intricately carved masks, maybe having a good sword as a fashion statement? Those would be all intricate as well. I’m unsure on if they would like hoods though.

Perhaps lace is a major part in the outfits? I can imagine they would like clothing that is iridescent, especially in the outer layers of the outfits (because PK glows and they wanna mimic that because he set the beauty standard)

For knights ans guards and such, they’re still as fancy as they want when not on duty, but when they’re on the job they dress practical. They still accessorize tho

Middle class would be simpler masks and clothing that doesn’t drag, reasonable shoes that may perhaps still be a touch fancy, lace but less than what nobility has, still flowy, no shininess that isn’t jewelry tho.

Those in the lower class would be a whole lot more practical, simple masks or no masks at all, limited flowiness, cheaper clothes that have less layers and are much easier to wash because they’re busy, working people.

Also everyone has many large pockets because I say so

PS I know nothing about fashion but I know fancy equals expensive and what’s seen as fancy

OHH THANK YOU

#thylacines can talk #asks #still gonna go modern though because i alreafy frew Petunia and I am NOT redrawing that #i suck at old timey fashion too #god i SUCK at making outfits these are gonna SUCK. Modern clothing doesnt fit into Hallownest imo but i dont know what else to put these #two cunts in. sorry if i seem extra complainy im hangry

[bowserplush]

Hollow knight, but when you meet hornet for the 1st time she aims her needle at the vessel and the text box says “ I know what you are”

#hornet hollow knight #hollowknight #hornet #there can only be one gay in hallownest #and by god hornet is the gayest of them all #silksong

[malewifeph1lza]

brainstorming vessel eggo designs 💪

#trying to think of ways to like #incorporate their traits while keeping it at least slightly canon compliant #as in they would have access to these things in hallownest #richas cloak is green and yellow leaves replacing his jersey #chay pomme and dapper have armor like THK #gave dapper a cracked mask so half his face would look like bbh #colt posts #tallulah probably has a like. what’s it called. the flower quest flowers #as protection #sunny has crystals from crystal peak instead of diamonds #I think dapper would be like god tamer. just Has Creatures

[much-significant-harassment]

In regards to your post talking about Hollow Knight gjinkas, if I may list more than one character

God Tamer and Beast, Pale Lurker, Tiso and Quirrel, please :3

Tiso to start!

Click for far better quality

#God those boots were conna be the death of me #ps its art #hollow knight #hk #hk tiso #not the handsomest mug in hallownest #But certainly ain't the ugliest

[hellofastudysession]

monomon's sorting through the teacher's archives' employee files with her jellyfish tendrils and she plucks out quirrel's file and realizes quirrel quietly changed his pronouns in it at some point. and she smiles to herself and puts it back in its slot and never brings it up with him

#personal #there's so much content on youtube of monomon and quirrel just being silly together #best friends. god #i'm still on the camp of 'hornet ate all of hallownest's gender and no one has it but her' but quirrel trans is also excellent personally

[ruthlesslistener]

Mildly tipsy but you know what is fucking great and sexy. Trans men who have been on t for years yet havent gotten top surgery. either because they dont want to or because they cant doesnt matter bc gooood mens tits are sexy no matter what. gimme them tibbies boy. praise some hot man honkers inshallah

#its been a fucking week leave me alone #also this is entirely bc ive been drawing gijinka palewatcher and decided lurien doesnt necessarily need them tiddies off #i mean its hallownest and hes fucking a wyrm god who looks like a fucked up doll #whos gonna judge him. god??? god is worshipping him just like he worships him

[lightrises]

so hi hello, it's been a hot minute!! whether twitter's done kidnapping my attention remains to be seen but i guess now's as good a time as any to go over some stuff i've been up to. for simplicity's sake i'll keep it limited to Little Gaming Things(tm): thanks to what i'm choosing to blame on botw and hollow knight i'm now deeply in love with action-adventure games??? at least that's where most of my focus has been lately (special shoutouts to haiku the robot and hyper light drifter for being stand-outs i enjoyed a lot). i'm still afflicted with Hollow Knight Brain though so i've kept playing it p consistently over the past year too... i unlocked absrad as i was hoping to do, did steel soul+steel heart, started playing hk on pc to mess around with mods, did steel soul+steel heart again on pc, most recently did pantheon 1 all bindings and finished up the individual bindings for pantheons 1-4 on my og switch file (i'm VERY sincerely proud of those 5 lifeblood masks lol) ......... and uhh. i did one other thing back in april on the pc file:

hmmmm!!!!! yeah. yup.

#looks at literally the last post i made here before this one. laughs and laughs and laughs #IN MY DEFENSE... a) my only real goal was to unlock the PoH exclusive bosses on my pc file too; also #b) up to this point i'd only beaten absrad in the hall of gods *TWICE* #twice out of well over 100 attempts #i expected nothing and look what happened anyway!!!! smh #also ngl it was indescribably surreal to watch godhome ending 1 play out in its *intended* context i.e. as something i triggered myself #just. whew!!!!!!!! #that said it was also funny bc as far as steam is concerned i beat pantheon of hallownest on my first try lmao #(ftr this was my 4th try including the switch file) #anyway: i'm probably gonna crosspost some twitter stuff over the coming days so here's fair warning of that 8')b! #hollow knight /- #light scribes

[ghostingcrows]

P5 Markoth can kiss my ass

#hollow knight #pantheon of hallownest #I hate this achievement but I'm gonna loose my mind if I let HK sit at 98% complete #Nightmare King Grimm is also just the god damn worst

[sins-and-hubris]

I'd volunteer to impregnate the bastard shrimp but I don't have a dick 😔

😔✊️ felt....we're gonna have to rely on Herrah for that one lads. WL wishes, but she's just a bit too big to risk getting the hubby eggbound to try

#i did have a dream that lurien knocked pk up to produce heirs for hallownest #(as in ruling affairs) #so that pk could retreat and be more of a god of mind #but that was before trans lurien stuck with me so now its lu whos the one getting knocked up lmao #anon #reply #but yeah if you impregnate him then maybe itll fix him (it wont) #(in fact it will make him actively worse)