#my version of Lurien is just like

[ruthlesslistener]

8, 33 and 35 for palewatcher

8. What do they love most about the other? Why?

-Not to be cheesy but for both there's a strong element of 'you are the only person who sees me as myself and the only person who makes me feel grounded in this reality'. For my version of Lurien, at least, this is because he grew up very much a ghost living on the fringes of society- he's an immigrant's son who was hatched in Hallownest, never truely knowing his home culture and never fully fitting into the society built by the beetle tribe in what was to become the City of Tears. He was an awkward and lonely quiet child who grew up on tales of huge families and kinship in an empty house, in a society that did not offer any of those comforts to him, and shied away from those who offered it as a result- which was rare, because he was odd, he didn't fit in, and his lack of knowledge about his heritage quickly made him quite boring. He essentially spent his whole life up to meeting the Pale King either in the shadows or in the minds of estranged scholars as he ravenously devoured the scrolls and tablets his mentors mentioned in passing in the lecture halls he attended to, and then he met PK, and it was like a total transformation. NOTHING about what made him 'other' was a distinguishing feature to the Pale King. Only himself. Only his mind, his skill, his art, all the best parts of himself- and becoming Watcher moved him to a position where he was then capable of discussing things with collegues who were often just as odd as he was, such as Monomon and Isma. PK's monochromatic view of 'all mortal bugs are the same to me unless they make themselves stand out through the sharpness of their mind' put Lurien on equal grounds for the first time in his life, and that gave him the confidence to take the initiative to grow closer to PK, where actual love for the individual developed.

For PK, however, that grounding is much more literal. PK is a god who put himself into the mortal realm so that he could study them better, because he was fascinated by a life that he was inherently an outsider to. He is an individual (and even that is debated, since he gave his soul to the White Lady), but at the same time, he can never be a person like Lurien is, and juggling that duality is extremely difficult. Lurien, however, not only sees both aspects of his nature, he also understands them (and he also understands that he will never fully understand), and works with him accordingly. He's his tether point to the world of mortals, the lens through which he sees it- his 'humanity', essentially, if such an allegory can be applied here. He's the...bug version of his humanity?? Idk

33. How do they flirt? Who’s the worse flirt?

-Both of them are terrible flirts because both of them are extremely fucking subtle about their flirting and neither of them bother to think of themselves over politics lmfaooo. Lurien staunchly refrained from flirting specifically bc he didn't want his emotions to jeopardize the fate of the City or a relationship he was (mostly) comfortable keeping platonic whereas PK was too busy worrying about the future and trying to Be The Perfect King Who Never Feels to. Well. Realize what Lurien meant to him. And then when he did, his chosen method of flirting was to basically just up the sugar daddy game he was already doing for Lurien to begin with, so Lurien didnt know what to think of it other than 'my king you really should not be doing this, what, this is far above your station and you know it' sjcjdhs

Which is a long way to say that both of them flirt via blood-oaths to their mutual passions and by offering servitude to each other and they're both happy to keep it that way. They're both incredibly reserved individuals, flirting is stuff like Lurien going to a work meeting in PK's stead when PK is too deep in a project to understand linear time, or PK offering to groom Lurien's wings after a stressful day despite wyrms not really doing the allopreening thing much. Stuff like that

35. Is their relationship a secret? If so, why?

-YEAH their relationship would be a secret for a while. Not really bc PK cared- he really, genuinely does not- but bc Lurien himself is an extremely private individual who holds a lot of anxiety around people's expectations and breaking social rules, even if he's technically above all of them as the literal most high ranking bug in the kingdom under both the actual gods of the place. This works for PK, because the beetle tribe is socially very monogamous so other bugs learning about their relationship would result in lots of gossip and questions he'd consider a headache to deal with, but Lurien would rather nobody but those in the 'inner circle' (Lucien, the Dreamers, Dryya bc she's the White Lady's favored mortal/mortal mate so she Gets It) to know about his love life, so that's how it is. Plus, even if he'd never act on his compulsions unless a god other than WL tried to touch Lurien, PK is territorial, so. It works out for them both djcjfjsj

#gemisbored #palewatcher #hollow knight #lurien the watcher #the pale king #ask game #ask meme #hollow knight headcanons #as far as pk is concerned- wl's opinion matters first. she doesnt care. therefore he can have whatever he wants in his kingdom #and if that means a consensual relationship with lurien where he sees into a world he wants so desperately to be a part of #then so be it #meanwhile Lurien feels like himself the most when he's with PK #bc i cannot overstate this enough: this is a relationship that is at its very core #autism/ocd/transgender solidarity. and monsterfucking.

[vulturereyy]

Lurien the Watcher (Damselfly Version)

Had the idea at work on how to "solve" Lurien's curious mask hole placement with bugs, and ended up making an entirely new stream of thought oops. Damselflies (and many other bugs) have small eye spots, typically on the tops of their heads, called Ocelli! Ocelli are 'simple' eyes, in that they mostly detect light, movement, and general broad-scope things. I thought they would align well with Lurien's single-holed mask, but then...

What if he covers his true eyes because he's incredibly sensitive to visual stimuli? What if he's very sensitive to *any* stimuli? I have been drawing him with black limbs honestly because his legs are just shown to be solid black in the HK style, but what if he actually wears gloves to help decrease the amount of touch and sensory input he gets from the outside world? Lurien is also the only bug off the top of my head that is fully cloaked like this, his legs only show when you perform bug violence against him.

Especially with such a tall tower holed up at the very top of Hallownest's heart... There is something to be said on how much he would have lived away from everything. I think there's more to that than just your typical social recluse.

Also what if he had whiskers because damselflies have very fuzzy faces and I thought it would be funny.

(also I just realized the fact I drew him holding Hegemol's hand and face in this art means a whole lot more now uuUUAAAGH)

#Lurien the Watcher #hk Lurien #Hollow Knight #Hk headcanon #Damselfly Lurien

[alecz-obssesionz]

◇ LURIEN GIJINKA SKETCHES ◇

[ That I made between classes, ohoho ]

◇ Ok HC explanation now; on my version of Lurien itself, bug or human, he's a moth. He came initially as a sort of counselor to Radiance until her empire's fall and tribe's betrayal, this treason to her got her attacking him almost to dead.

Lucky for him, he managed to escape alive however, her light burnt most of this left side of his whole body includding wings.

Only to become the watcher after looking for assylum on Hallownest and meeting the PK.

He wears covering most of the time and I just gave him under clothes to be around his spire of when he likes to on private

◇ On my gijinka, Lurien would be around his late 40s/50.

#he and pk are old man yaoi on my human ver #LMAO DKAKKD #hope you appreciate recent traditional sketches it's all I've managed to do recently #lurien hk #lurien the watcher #hollow knight #hk #Alecz'Makingz #I'm not normal about him #silly hcs #I really really hope yall like him #Lurien stuff hits really personal to me #was even kinda shamed to post it

[thebirddoctorguy]

Hollow Knight, or the lack thereof

So I got to thinking of Hollow Knight earlier and I decided to make a post about it. I'm not really sure where this is gonna go but I guess we'll see.

Major spoilers for late game content after the cut.

Now, some of this info will probably be incorrect, as *some* of it is from my memory of the lore. I will try to quote lore texts and dialogue when I can.

Within the game you find the Pale King, from him we get the quote,

"No cost too great.

No mind to think.

No will to break.

No voice to cry suffering.

Born of God and Void.

You shall seal the blinding light that plagues their dreams.

You are the Vessel.

You are the Hollow Knight."

I'm assuming this is him talking to The Hollow Knight when they were younger, as we see them in the birthplace cutscene. In the end we learn that The Hollow Knight couldn't have been perfectly "hollow" as they were meant to be. This is simply because they didn't perfectly contain The Radiance, because the infection continued to spread.

Somehow, The Pale King had to have considered that something could happen to The Hollow Knight, considering that they were locked inside the black egg temple. The dreamers themselves are interesting to me. From the resting grounds lore tablet,

"To protect the Vessel, the Dreamers lay sleeping.

Monomon the Teacher In her Archive, surrounded by fog and mist.

Lurien the Watcher In his Spire, looking over the city.

Herrah the Beast In her Den, amidst the deep darkness beyond the kingdom.

Through their devotion, Hallownest lasts eternal."

Each dreamer seemingly has a title, indicating they were something/ someone special.

Monomon the Teacher. Who did she teach? Presumably she taught Quirrel.

Lurien the Watcher. What was he watching from his spire above the city of tears. Why was he defended so heavily by his "Watcher Knights"? A lore tablet in watchers spire even contains his last words,

"Sleep beckons eternal and these words become my last. Though my gaze shall no longer fall upon this city, I will act forever in its protection. For King, for bug, for Hallownest, I head now to my rest."

Why was this "watcher" so important?

Lastly, but certainly not least, is Herrah the Beast. Herrah is Hornets mother, which is interesting for a few reasons. First, how long have the dreamers been asleep, considering the state of hallownest, I'd assume a long time. How old could Hornet be? Perhaps this is a question we will get answered in Silksong. Second, who could be Hornet's father? It could be whatever is in that weird thing inside the beasts den. I truly hope that some of these questions are answered if/when Silksong comes out.

Now, back to The Hollow Knight themself. One thing ingame that really shows that they aren't perfect is the existence of The Pure Vessel. A perfect version of The Hollow Knight that has been created by the godseekers. Perhaps this is actually just what The Hollow Knight would be if the Radiance was never trapped in their mind.

Throughout the fight with Hollow Knight there are bits where they stab themselves in the chest repeatedly. I'd like to think this is The Hollow Knight trying to help the player to finish them off.

One reason The Hollow Knight isn't perfectly hollow is their relationship with the Pale King. When The Pale King decided that the vessel was the one to contain the Radiance, he began to raise the small vessel, creating a bond with it.

I think I'm done writing this for now. I may reblog it to add some thoughts later.

#hollow knight #hollow knight spoilers #nobird #offtopic #The Hollow Knight #the pale king #Hornet

[nonuggetshere]

Hi i was summoned by the lurimol question i saw LMFAO I admittedly have trouble keeping up with everything but i am here to spread my lurimol propaganda and also WHAT DID HEGEMOL DO TO BE EXILED??? ; ; MY MAN...

JDBDJDDNDH THE SECOND IT'S MENTIPNED AND YOU POP INTO MY INBOX, I FEEL LIKE I JUST PREFORMED A SUMMONING RITUAL

He didn't do anything, other than training Hollow and being loyal to the Pale King. In this AU, Hollow essentially teams up with Radiance to break out of the egg and dethrones their father, then curbstomps anybody loyal to him. Including Hegemol and Lurien. They fought the knights before getting to their father and banged them up pretty badly, then they imprison their father/accidentally kill him (depending on the version) and their mother, exile the 5 knights and demote Lurien from his position as a watcher, though he does still hang around Hallownest. In the version where PK lives, he and WL are soon exiled too and eventually meet up with the knights, before they later individually split during their travels.

I think I might Lurien x Hegemol canon to this AU because I like the appeal of two lovers drifted apart by circumstances beyond their control 👀

(As a side note, I know I made Hollow sound not so great in this summary so I just wanna mention they're not evil, just hurting. They're a good but deeply troubled person and The Radiance takes advantage of that and their failing mental health to manipulate them. They eventually seek the knights out and make amends.)

#asks #thylacines can talk #usurper au

[hollownest-whore]

*a bug archaeologists reading about Lurien's devotion to the king and love, while also reading writings of the dreamer's complex yet personal relationships between his butler, and the master of souls*

Archeologist: ..they must've been good friends

#good friends #my version of Lurien is just like #in a relationship with 3 different people #pk isn't one because i don't honestly think they have anything but one sided pining going on #granted the other ppl i ship them with aren't even fucking discussed talking to him so :]

[datastate]

lurien’s butler being the embodiment of a ‘cowardly husk’ in their end really does set the precedent for how you’re meant to interpret lurien himself imo

#EDIT: hiii i made a more cohesive version of my tags in my rb #hk posting #i can't remember if i've talked abt it before but just #especially prefacing his insistence to keep the seals #with his situation and set-up within the spire you could've easily made his closest servant a dandy husk #emphasizing the assumption he was taking his status for granted and similar to other nobles of the city in #rendering his words of ''for this city / for hallownest'' as insincere; confirming he only truly cared to please his king #but with the cowardly husk as our only real association with him alongside the king #it kind of helps with creating a more. sympathetic figure i guess. his denial of hallownest's fall can be read as #desperate faith in the king. something a lot of hallownest shared i think. because if their god-king was wrong then what chance did #hallownest itself stand? not only the people who truly made it the great kingdom it was known as #but the very memory of this honored civilization. what would become of it? would it be encased in tragedy? #(i'd also suggest gluttonous husk but thinking abt it; those r implied to be people like lurien himself or emilitia #they would probably be wealthy enough to not bother with his service) #idk i just think too much abt the city n it makes me sad :[ #jestersvaguely

[thehappiestgolucky]

Did. Did all the characters have baby shenanagains in mer AU?

(Mostly asking because baby Quirrel has legs, he can probably get into places only Herrah can get to! Hornet as a chaos child is amazing and adorable, and Tiso being the tame one by comparison is amazing.)

On that note, do the Dreamers know each other before Quirrel gets found? Because a "first" meeting with Herrah would be a lot sadder on her part because this guy looks almost exactly like an older version of her friend's missing kid. And later it would be a case of "Oh shit how didn't I notice."

Also, I'm just imagining Quirrel being a famous kidnapping story and him showing up again would just set conspiracy theorists wild. So when Tiso reintroduces him to Xero and Markoth they have that extra level of "oh shit. He's gonna be eaten alive by the conspiracy nuts" to go along with the whole merman that can't swim problem.

Also early while relearning to swim, probably: Quirrel moves an arm while talking to someone, and then gets gently course corrected after he begins to spin/flip.

Sorry about the topic jumping just. Merms good.

You just opened the can of worms of me just doodling the merms when they were babs. Also just kinda showing my merm parent ideas. Allow me to ramble.

Merfolk can be born in different ways depending on what species the other half is, for example Tiso and Quirrel. Tiso being a dolphin was a live birth kid, whilst Quirrel hatched from an egg - with Quirrel thus being smaller and having a quicker growth from baby to toddler compared to Tiso. It’s a little fact, but it’s a fun one. Merfolk parents also have multiple ways to carry their kids. One of the most commons ways is a seaweed or equivalent sash to carry the child around the chest - basically a merfolk baby holder. Usually it’s used when the parent needs to do a lot of activity or swimming a fair distance - as it reduces the risks of the child getting lost. For bigger families, usually a hand holding chain is used. The better swimmers the child becomes, the less risk of losing them. Disabled merfolk usually stick with holding hands with a trusted person, or ocean creatures that got trained (think guide dogs but like - ocean).

For baby shenanigans? Merfolk children have just as much energy as human kids do, and one of the ways they expend that energy whilst staying a safe distance near their parent is to swim in rings around them, which naturally is easier when the parents are larger than the children. Normally that’s the case, then there’s Marmu “Am whale baby” and Xero “Am dolphin dad”. Still happens, just a little sillier. Merfolk children with predatory species, like Hornet being a ghost shark, also have hunting instincts and shenanigans, like stalking and leaping at a stray bit of seaweed to practice hunting or constantly nomming on things to stimulate their need to bite. Practicing hunting small game is very good for these subspecies (or whatever word describes the merfolk of predatory species) and actively encouraged even if the parents aren’t carnivorous. The same goes the other way around, as in parents of herbivores or merkids that prefer plants overall, they are encouraged to actively show and help with those diets.

Little Quirrel could easily get lost in crevices if it wasn’t for vigilant mama. (Make no mistake. Baby Tiso was absolutely chaotic. Tiso is chaotic but in a different way from when was small)

Interesting ask! Yes I like to think all the Dreamers were acquainted to one another. I think Monomon was friends with both Herrah and Lurien, but Herrah and Lurien themselves are only acquaintances to one another. My friend and I joked about how Monomon zoomed to Lurien to ask him about names for Quirrel when he hatched because look her babyyyyyy!! Herrah did most likely meet Quirrel, and I’m sure hearing that he went missing was sad since Monomon, personally, feels like a person who masks her upset to not let it bother others. Her baby went missing :(

Also that’s, an interesting point actually. I think to go about it is that only few bad apples amongst the conspiracy nuts actually try to bother Tiso and Quirrel out in public. Most probably talk amongst themselves about it all. I’m sure there’s some unfounded rumours about “oh how convenient he brought back his boyfriend who happens to be this missing merman” “was he ever missing? was it a way to escape??” and stuff like that. Thanks to bug fam, the bad apples that try to bother them get scared away real quickly either by Tiso or Quirrel putting their foot down, or by Hunter, Mato, Hornet, Bugdessa and Ghost just basically getting them to leave. The latter three being kids unafraid to stab others for bothering their dads >:T. But yeah, it’s a reasonable fear for Xero and Markoth to have considering it is rather wild. God forbid when the human group starts making an appearance djdkfnskdj.

Personally Tiso and Quirrel would like to stop being bothered about the nature of their relationship. They’re just boyfriends and the whole being missing thing does not affect that thanks-

Also lovely image. Help he’s speening-

#hollow knight #doodles #happy screms #mermbugs #hk tiso #hk quirrel #hk xero #hk monomon #hk hornet #hk ghost #bugdessa #tisoquirrel #hk ocs #hk gijinka #hollow knight gijinka #ugggfh merfolk development beloved #i just think they’re neat #also never apologise for other au thoughts! i occupy all aus within the same brain #it’s easy to hop between #honestly i just wanted to use this ask to go on about baby merm apologise #they are very small and must be protected #happy rambles

[flecks-of-stardust]

Seeking Sensitivity Readers For My Hollow Knight Fanfiction

Hello folks! I’m a Hollow Knight fanfic writer who has dipped their toes into quite a few experiences they don’t have themself. I want to have realistic and, above all, respectful portrayals of these experiences, and I’m looking for some sensitivity readers to help me with that.

Below you’ll find some brief information about what I’m looking for, and under the cut is a much more detailed version of such information. Be warned that said information will contain spoilers for my fanfic and my AU, Dreamless. I’ve provided what I think is helpful for anyone interested in lending a hand, but I’m happy to share more if need be through DMs, on Tumblr or off it.

Since this is a Hollow Knight fanfiction, I’d prefer if anyone who wants to help be at least somewhat familiar with the source material. My characters are anthropomorphized bugs and/or animals, so not everything pertaining to human biology will apply to them, though of course I won’t stray so much from it that I could just make stuff up. Largely, I’m looking for *personal experiences*, so some anecdotes about every day life, what someone on the outside may not realize about your experiences and your conditions, maybe some common misconceptions you want me to be aware of, and possibly some things you want to see me include.

Majorly, I’m looking for input from *blind and/or visually impaired folks*, regardless of the cause behind your blindness, though I do have both characters that went blind from physical trauma and characters that have been blind since birth; *epileptic folks*, especially someone who has primarily absence seizures or myoclonic seizures; and *people who have experienced adoption trauma*, especially trans-racial adoptees, if you are willing to share your experiences. I would also greatly appreciate talking to someone who has experience with *colonization and genocide*, as well as *folks that have service animals*, particularly service dogs. I’m more than willing to boost and promote your work if you want to help me out, and if you’re interested, please message me.

I would also appreciate input from *amputees*, especially arm amputees, and *people with stuttering and/or vocal disorders*. These are still important to me, but they either only become a major thing after the main story ends, or pertain a relatively minor character that doesn’t appear until much later in the story. Regardless, and again, if you want to offer input, feel free to message me. Or you can put stuff in the notes! That also helps, especially if you don’t feel like committing to being a sensitivity reader but still want to share your thoughts.

Below the cut is a much more detailed view of what information I currently have, what I’m looking for, and overviews of the characters relevant to this post. There will be spoilers below the cut, so peruse at your own discretion.

Lurien — *looking for information about blindness*. His condition is comparable to photoretinopathy, damaged retinas due to bright light. He can make out shapes, but his vision is quite blurry and his color vision has been reduced quite a bit. The back half of his vision is less impacted than the front, but I don’t know how useful that will be to him when navigating the world. He’s also light sensitive because of his condition and gets migraines regularly because of it. He uses a cane to get around, is a very knowledgeable, very formidable magic caster, and is an artist. I’d love to connect with some blind artists, as well as generally talk about how Lurien might navigate life as a blind person. Corrections or suggestions on how to change this aspect of him are welcome; he’s a butterfly, and I’ve taken some liberties here with how things work, but in general I’d just greatly appreciate having personal experiences about life as a blind person. 

Monomon — *looking for information about blindness*. She was born blind; since she’s a jellyfish, she has no real eyes. Instead, she has tons of tiny light sensing cells, and the combined effect of those all over her body allows her to see. What she winds up seeing is extremely low in resolution though, and visual correction tools, like a gigantic magnifying glass she carries around a lot (she can’t really wear glasses), helps increase the resolution of her vision, but she never quite attains ‘normal’ vision. It’s roughly comparable to someone who has 20/180 vision even with glasses. She works in the Archives, often running experiments and working with dangerous chemicals. It’d be great to chat logistics of how she can do what she does with her visual limitations, as well as experiences about being blind from birth. I do know that when she’s in the Archives, she often stands behind what is in effect a massive lens that’s as long as she is tall with off the shits magnification, so she can more clearly see what she’s doing. Not sure if that works out that well though.

Glimmer — *looking for information about blindness, limb amputation, and chronic pain*. Glimmer is the Dreamless name for the Hollow Knight. If you’re familiar with their sprite? Yeah. It’s the equivalent to getting stabbed in the eye. Their left eye is unharmed and retains full vision, but the vision in their right is very blurry, and they have wonky depth perception. They also lost their left arm, cut about halfway through their upper arm. In addition to that, they have extensive scarring all over their carapace, fusing a significant number of their body plates together; compare it to widespread, thick scarring all over the body. The end result is that they can’t bend very much without experiencing severe pain, on top of the chronic pain they already experience from their skewed growth. I’m working with fibromyalgia symptoms for the latter. It’d be great to be able to talk about experiences on being blind in only one eye, and being an arm amputee; most of the information I’ve found so far is about leg amputees, which is still really cool information to have, but isn’t always applicable to Glimmer? They do have a few prosthetics down the line, but I haven’t figured out the logistics of that yet. I just know it’ll have something to do with Void. And of course, any input about chronic pain would be great. I do have a bit myself; I have suspected hEDS, as well as some weird generalized nerve pain spurts, but I don’t experience constant full body chronic pain, which is what Glimmer has. It’d be great to talk about symptom management and living with chronic pain, something of the like. Anything works really.

Orchid — *looking for information about epilepsy*. Greenpath Vessel! Again, remember their sprite? That head trauma resulted in them developing epilepsy. The majority of their seizures are absence seizures, but I’ve been playing with the possibility of them experiencing a grand mal at some point, and I know a lot of folks with epilepsy have grand mals. The information about specifically absence seizures, from what I’ve looked for so far, is quite scant; I would think it’s possible to only mostly have absence seizures? Or maybe it’s better for them to have both absence seizures and tonic-clonic seizures regularly? I don’t really know. Most of what I’ve found has been (very very valid) bitching about tonic-clonic seizures. Their seizures aren’t med controlled because their little Void being self is a freak of nature (affectionate) and no one knows how to administer meds that actually work on them. The upside is that they’re at no risk of dying from a seizure, however much it may suck. Any information about absence seizures and having them would be great, especially if you majorly only experience absence seizures, though general information about epilepsy would be lovely too.

Lyzi — *looking for information about epilepsy and service animals*. An original character who I love dearly. Best mantis lady. She mostly gets myoclonic seizures, but I know she’s had grand mals in the past. She got epilepsy spontaneously when she was younger, and she’s been getting treatment for it since. What specifically that treatment is is still getting ironed out, since I’m honestly not certain they have medication like we do? There’s some pending worldbuilding here, but the current working idea is something involving soul magic and manipulating that in a way that it calms her brain similar to how epilepsy meds in our world work. Similar to Orchid, anything about myoclonic seizures, especially if you majorly only have those, would be fantastic. She also canonically has the equivalent of a service dog, who is actually a grub. Said grub, Asta, helps out with alerting for seizures/alerting those around her to a seizure happening as well as Lyzi’s anxiety, but for certain reasons I’m hesitating over, she doesn’t appear in the main story. That boils down to unlikely odds of her surviving an important trip Lyzi has to make, and Lyzi reluctantly leaves her behind where she’ll be safe. This, however, means Lyzi won’t have her service animal, and as someone who doesn’t have one, I want to run the general idea and some specifics past someone who does.

Hornet — *looking for information about adoption trauma*. Hornet’s not changed particularly much in backstory from her canon one, but I’ve dived a lot deeper into what she may actually have experienced; adoption trauma is one of these things. She’s essentially a trans-racial adoptee: she was taken in by Vespa, a bee who is, as well meaning as she is, fundamentally not well versed in the culture of Arcleome, where Hornet is from (Arcleome is my AU’s version of Deepnest); she was also formally raised by the White Lady, who did everything in her power to try to erase Hornet’s Arcleomen background; she also had no connection with her homeland once Herrah was Sealed for a multitude of reasons. In effect, she grew up extremely distanced from her birth culture, and has been struggling to reconnect to it ever since. Any thoughts, experiences, anecdotes, whatever about your experience would be amazing, and frankly at this point in time I haven’t been able to find much information about this at all. Possibly I’m just not looking at the right avenues. I do plan to work some of my own experiences into Hornet; I’m from Hong Kong, which has been experiencing a lot of human rights violations and colonization, in ways that mean I’ve been heavily distanced from my homelands and cannot reconnect safely, and I’m going to work something similar into Hornet’s journey of reconnecting to her roots. But that is not adoption trauma, which I think is quite centered in her life, so any information is highly appreciated.

Isma — *looking for information about the effects of genocide*. This is... a little loose, frankly, but it’s what was most applicable to her situation. Tons of spoilers here if I were to go into everything, but the basic rundown of her backstory is this: Isma is the godly child of Unn, who created Zelseq. The pale gods murdered all the other godly children of Unn as part of their plan to secure their rule, except for Isma, who was created last. Instead of killing her, the White Lady took her back to Hallownest and raised her as her daughter. The way she raised her was in part consistent with Zelseqi culture, but the White Lady picked only the bits she liked about it and discarded the rest. Once the Vessel plan was put into motion, Isma realized a lot of things about Hallownest were fucked up, and she escaped and ran back to Zelseq. I mostly just want to run my ideas past someone who also has experience with this sort of thing, especially because the White Lady is former Mosskin in Dreamless. I do have some limited experience with (cultural) genocide myself (see my earlier mention of being from Hong Kong), but with something this heavy I want to run it by someone else as well. Anything you can offer will be great. I would say this is probably the most important thing I want to run by someone despite probably having the most experience with this out of all the other things I’m looking for help for. It’s like the centerpiece of the plot, so uh. Big deal and all. Any help would be great.

Myla — *looking for information on stuttering and/or vocal disorders*. Myla’s got a canonical stutter, and I want to work with it. I do stutter a little myself, but it’s nowhere near significant enough to impact my day to day life, and I want to hear from someone whose stuttering does. I’m frankly not really sure what to look for in terms of information about this? It doesn’t even really have to be a big thing, I just want to be respectful about this. One thing I did find is that singing appears to help certain people stutter less, which would work great with Myla considering she also sings in canon, but again I want to run that by someone who has relevant experiences.

Again, personal experiences would be amazing here, but any information, even pointing me in the direction of resources, would be very much valued. I will also possibly add more stuff here if I ever feel the need to (some characters might be hard of hearing. Still working the details out on that), but here’s what I have so far. You can message me on Tumblr if you want to help, and I also have Discord (DM me to get my Discord user). Or, if you just want to drop some information without necessarily helping long term, a comment or a reblog with tags would be amazing.

This is a super long post, and thank you for reading it if you did. This project is very near and dear to me and I want as many people to be able to enjoy it as possible, and I’d hardly be doing that if I just shat all over the demographics my characters belong to. I’m definitely going to be looking for as much information as I can, but I’m at the point where I’m not sure what information I want or need, and I want to get this sorted out before more of the plot moves on. Really anything helps, even just a reblog. And yeah. Thanks again.

#hollow knight #epilepsy #blindness #chronic pain #uh. idk what other general tags folks from these communities use #pls boost this #dreamless spoilers #that goes on too because of the info in here

[valdotpng]

Hi! I'm absolutely in love with your art and it has given so much inspiration that it helped me try drawing in more of a carefree way again. Just one question, how do you go about designing your hollow knight gijinkas?

ahhh, im so glad it was able to inspire you! hope you have lots and lots of fun creating art again!! :’D

and oughghh... the tldr version is I Just Overthink Stuff, but if you wanna hear more about my thought process, then... buckle up, cuz this is gonna be sort of a long one

first and foremost, i decide on what kinda aesthetic(s) i want my design to have. in this stage, i Think and i gather references or even make somekinda moodboard to get a better feel for what i wanna incorporate into my humanization

then, i look at the character and pick the features that make them recognizable

to make you understand what i mean by that a lil better, lets break down my monomon design:

as you probably already know, i usually Try to keep the characters’ body types and the shapes used in their designs as close as humanly possible to the originals bc my style allows it!

i follow the same philosophy while designing faces/heads. little ghost, for example, has a square-ish head, so i gave them sort of a bowlcut to achieve the same shape in my gijinka! and, as you can see, human quirrels face is a lil longer than og quirrel, but i kept the chin + the head covering stayed the same:

i also like to get creative with various head coverings and hairstyles to represent non-human features like horns:

no shame in just sticking their mask onto their face and calling it a day, though-- masks play a somewhat important role in the lore, after all!

the coloring part is pretty straightforward-- i try to keep it as close to the originals as possible, too

lots of hk characters have black limbs, so a thing i like to do abt that is to give my designs dark gloves/pants/shoes/etc as a substitute:

actually, i think that lots of the bugs’ features can be represented in their clothes’ detailing too!

clothing details are also a neat way to add a personal touch to their outfts! luriens, for example, features a banner (?) found in the watchers spire! and the pattern on herrahs shirt is made out of silk thread/spiderweb and looks like... well, spiderwebs :p

*edit: ah i should also mention that postures/mannerisms/expressions/etc play the biggest role in conveying a characters’ personality, so give that a thought, too!

and thats.... all i got atm. i might be forgetting something, but thats the gist of it! hope this was somewhat helpful! (or at least comprehensive sidhfiohsdf)

#val.txt #long post #like rlly rlly long sorry #hollow knight #hk #hk gijinka #Anonymous

[ruthlesslistener]

I got a small headconon that The pure vessel likes to draw/paint/do art and they got really good at it but they think it's bad and gets super shy about it when it's found out. Thoughts?

I think that's super cute! I have a similar headcanon about them being naturally inclined to art, though it leans more into the abstract than realism.

However, my version of Hollow isn't worried about quality, it's the simple means of self-expression that still scares them. Just because they can doesn't mean that they should, even though Lurien and the others encourages them to try

#hollow knight #anon #reply #the hollow knight #the pure vessel #they like greys and blacks and whites and swirling forms

[hollowknightheadcanons]

So I heard Hollow Knight Pokemon aus are on the menu

Not so much "Hollow Knight characters as Pokemon trainers," as "AU where Hollow Knight characters ARE Pokemon so maybe this is mystery dungeon"

For the most part, I tried to make everyone a different kind of Pokemon unless they're family (like the vessels and Nailmasters) or just generally look like the same species to me (like Elderbug and Zote). ...This forced me to shove some square pegs into round Pokedex entries. I also made this about a month ago so I'm a bit confused by some of my own choices, in hindsight, but there's only so many fitting Bug mons.

Ghost- Fomantis (on account of Fomantis being something that looks like a bug rather than being a bug; it has the right proportions & silhouette, and has a lil bit of a cloak, and since it's either a bug-shaped plant or a very plant-aligned bug it seemed fitting for something born of Root) THK- Lurantis (same reasoning as above, but now Tall)

Hornet- Spinarak Herrah- Ariados

Quirrel- Karrablast (I seriously considered making him a Wimpod or Golisopod, but I decided that Karrablast looked more Quirrel-y than Golisopod could, in the end)

Elderbug- Swadloon (it has the right sort of forlorn look to it) Zote- Swadloon, but somehow lamer (since I think Elderbug and Zote are the same species)

Cornifer- Kricketune Iselda- Leavanny (which I guess makes her the same species as Elderbug and Zote, but nothing else fit her. The runner-up choice was Ledian, which worked even less)

Sly- Masquerain

Bretta- Illumise, very tentatively

Myla- Ledyba

Confessor Jiji- Sliggoo

Tiso- Durant

Cloth- Nincada

Last Stag- Vibrava

Nailmasters- Vikavolts

Nailsmith- Heracross, which fits him like a glove. If I was forced to defend just one of my HK-characters-as-Pokemon picks, it would be Nailsmith as Heracross

Grubs- Wurmples Grubfather- An extra large Wurmple, I suppose. When all of the grubs are rescued he gives you Beautifly's Elegy.

Salubra- Shuckle

Snail Shamans- Shelmets and Accelgors (in nice spiral hats, of course)

Mosskin- Burmy family Unn- some kind of divine Swalot

The Hunter- Genesect (I excuse him being a Legendary with the headcanon that The Hunter was once the higher being of Deepnest. Otherwise, I'd pigeonhole him as Kabutops)

Grimm- Gliscor Grimmchild- the tiniest Gligar, but somehow Fire-type

Mister Mushroom- Shiinotic Various Fungal Wastes folk- Paras/Parasect, Foongus/Amoonguss, Shroomish/Breloom (Waaah)

Mantis Youths/Mantis Petras- Scythers Mantis Lords/Mantis Traitors- Scizors of varying size Traitor Lord- Mega Scizor (empowered by the Infection)

Monomon- Tentacool

Marissa- Vivillon

Lemm- My notes from a month ago say Venomoth, which makes no sense. O great Lemm fan, kindly pick up the torch where I have dropped it, and succeed in picking a Pokemon for Lemm where I have failed

Lurien- I'm just making him a Yanma or Yanmega because nothing else works for Yanma, and nothing else really seems to work for Lurien either

Tuk- a VERY large Venipede

Ogrim- Golisopod Isma- Ribombee or perhaps Roserade (if it wasn't a Mythical mon I'd make her a Celebi) Dryya- Leavanny Hegemol- Pinsir Ze'mer- Shedinja; she looks like she should be a Pheromosa, but I'm hesitant to make anyone short of a higher being an Ultra Beast

Seer- Butterfree

God Tamer- Durant with a giant Kabuto Lord Fool- Armaldo

Hivelings- Combee Hive Knight- Beedrill Vespa- Vespiquen

Midwife- Drapion (its mandibles remind me a bit of her mask, and its typing fits her vibes better than Centiskorch)

Marmu- Caterpie Markoth- Dustox Xero- Ninjask Gorb- Blipbug No Eyes- another Shedinja Elder Hu- Volbeat? Galien- Pinsir

The Radiance- a divine Volcarona

The White Lady- a divine Tsareena?

The Pale King- some kind of divine & very stylized Orbeetle? I'm drawing a blank here

—————

Okay I FINALLY got around to answering this, I started playing PMD and it reminded me of the post.

I’m gonna be honest I do not know many of these pokémon so I would be bad at deciding whose who.

But I think the vessels should be phantumps. Look at the shiny version. It’s literally a vessel.

As for Lemm, I asked my friend and they suggested he could be a galarian yamask, since they look like they are holding little relic pieces!

#while we were playing i was making jokes about lemm and my friend was like “waIT PMD AU WITH LEMM AND QUIRREL” so. #i think in that au specifically lemm should be an eevee #submission #long post #i’m not tagging everyone

[hornetism]

monomon and/or ze'mer!!! for the ask meme

Ze'mer answered here! Monomon...Monomon, miss Monomon how i love you...to be quite honest, I think we have very similar thoughts so I'll try to say anything you haven't said before! (operative word being "try")

favorite thing about them

Gosh you've talked at length about it but the grace with which she accepted Hallownest's end...I think I'd like to jump off that and say that her entire plan is something I love. I think it really gives her character depth. Of course, it's also something I dislike on a personal level (as you've noted, her treatment of Quirrel) even though it's amazing narratively. It's incredible to me that giving Quirrel her mask was a strategy that both served to protect her as a dreamer and ensured Hallownest's end when appropriate. The amount of foresight and planning that requires is just so *chef's kiss*. I don't believe she ever fully, 110% believed the Dreamer plan would work. She is too smart for that.

least favorite thing about them

You've talked about this as well, augh, but her treatment of Quirrel; however, I can't truly discuss that without also talking about how it parallels Hornet, but is also Different. This belongs in another post, so I'll only touch on it briefly, but Hollow Knight has a very central theme about the deification of the dead, and I think Monomon, with all her intelligence and closeness with Quirrel, could not possibly miss the fact that even if she wanted freedom for him, she was still making herself a deity in his eyes. I also freely admit that much of my Monomon interpretation is influenced by Stag Beetles and Broken Legs, which I know you've read! By giving him her mask, she was changing him, and she knew it. The Quirrel that we meet in game is the Quirrel that has carried Monomon with him for decades, or even possibly centuries, and we know that canonically wearing another's mask will change a bug.

favorite line

This is cheating, but if I'm allowed to pick this, I'll point to some of her cut dialogue: "To live forever in an unchanging world... Death, I would fear less." THAT hits. Monomon does not only want peace for Hallownest, but her very nature as a scholar forbids her from finding comfort in the idea of stasis. Change, evolution, death and rebirth, the cycle of life—these are things she understands to be necessary for the world. There is nothing to teach or learn if there is nothing that changes. She hints at it in other cut dialogue (that I'm sure is cut only because it's too explicit about lore/characterization and doesn't line up with the style of dream nail dialogue we ended up with), but to her, death as a process isn't the same as death conceptually. True death, to her, is to be unchanging forever. That removes her from the cycle of the world, truly makes her unreachable. (This is also something I love in the way Hollow Knight explores the divine and mortal perspectives on death and grief).

brOTP

The dreamers for sure, but I love a good Monomon-Herrah dynamic. I think they would appreciate each other for their differences and find the other's style of wit immensely entertaining. Herrah is also quite sharp in my mind, and I think Monomon enjoys banter with her, flavored with some very light homoeroticism.

OTP

I don't really see her with anyone! bisexual queen though

nOTP

Monomon/Lurien. They're just bros. They don't seem compatible to me at all romantically.

random headcanon

Autistic queen! I really cannot answer every single character headcanon ask with "autism" but like...she is autistic and I will also freely admit that I enjoy this headcanon because I like to think about how she would stim with her tentacles, curling them up and down and sending waves through them.

unpopular opinion

I am not really sure I have one...I'm honestly so disconnected from popular hollow knight opinions in general that I have very little frame of reference for what is and isn't accepted.

song i associate with them

all caps (grounded version) by squalloscope. I associate it more with quirrel's relationship with her though!

favorite picture of them

This art. Holy shit, it's everything.

#asks #ask games #reteo #hollow knight #hkposting #monomon #i am. so sorry this is so late oh my gosh my life exploded this week >_<

[vivifrage]

For the ship bingo, Herrah/Vespa and Pale Watcher?

Herrah/Vespa in yellow, Palewatcher in blue

With Herrah/Vespa, I love the concept! If I see content for it it's like "heck yeah cool." But at the same time, it doesn't give me like, a spark? I think they'd work well together but I don't actively go "yes those two, love them together."

With Palewatcher, they get the projection because my favorite version of them is two awkward, clueless gays who just want to be chill and relax in each other's company. They're a bit more of a popular ship in the fic circles I poke in than Herrah/Vespa? So I've grown fond of them over time even if Lurien started as my least favorite Dreamer by virtue of having little to go off of.

thank you for the ask!!!

#hollow knight #herrah #vespa #lurien #pale king #i don't think this is technically an ask meme

[ganymedesclock]

More Dreamer headcanons? More Dreamer headcanons.

Lurien:

Was a painter in his youth but became a priest of the Pale King as he aged

Rose through the ranks pretty rapidly out of his devotion, piety, and diligence at his work (given the kinds of edicts PK was prone to, these qualities are interrelated) and served as the governor / chief magistrate of the City, dealt with a lot of things that weren’t important enough to formally hit PK’s desk

Doesn’t like the Soul Master but it’s more wariness than a grudge born of anger. He never was able to pin that scattered handful of missing person cases on the Sanctum, but he had his suspicions.

Three-eyed, or at least originally; when the plague spread, he ‘reduced his infection risk’ by removing his two main eyes. The third has far more limited vision, so after a point his paintings became... pretty blurry. After that, his personal assistant helped him get around.

Is a dragonfly

“I’m going to keep all of my feelings right here and then someday I’ll die”

Fought on fairly rare occasions (okay you try getting past the Watcher Knights) but when he did, carried a staff that had a sharpened staff on one end and PK’s holy symbol on the other. Knows a thing or two about magic but is not above just, y’know, going for the shins. There is relatively little piety to observe in a life-or-death battle. 

Maybe had feelings for PK but [the sound of two emotionally distant duty-and-labor-oriented people existing in the same space indefinitely and neither of them will talk about feelings ever]. There are fine lines between religious devotion and devotion of other kinds when your god is a physically present person. Lurien existed at more than a few intersections of those lines.

Monomon

Think if a calmer Miss Frizzle pupated into an eldritch abomination. 

Polite. Compassionate to those she worked with. Earnestly believed in the future of the world and the importance of knowledge. Talking to her for any span of time made it pretty clear she was translating everything into spoken language from a very different form of communication that involved transmission of electricity.

Fog Canyon wasn’t originally like that and was basically the subject of a lot of terraforming

She and her people came from Somewhere Else, and as much as she loves explaining it tends to be left as that because there are very few words that explain the Somewhere Else very well except that Fog Canyon is a much more modest, scaled-down version of it. The Somewhere Else had a strange relationship with space and gravity. It also, apparently, had flowers that did not survive being transplanted to Hallownest. 

Flowers are what Monomon calls them at least. Followers of Unn are fairly adamant that whatever those were, they weren’t flowers.

Tastes magic. At least ‘taste’ is probably the closest analogue to what she’s doing.

Capable of echolocation. Most of the time that’s what that clicking noise is. On rare occasions it’s her building an electric charge. People close enough to her know the difference but strangers don’t always. Needless to say if she clicks with a certain variety of purpose then some shit’s going down and you may not want to be holding a metal object at the time.

You’ve heard of feral scientists now imagine that but with court manners and a keen sense of how to wield them so you have basically no warning what’s cooking behind that pleasant atmosphere.

Liked PK decently enough. Wanted him to be right that the plague would stop due to the Dreamers’ and Hollow’s seal. Was completely prepared for him to be wrong and had no particular qualms working with or against PK however she felt best suited the situation.

Wielded no weapons because she didn’t need them. Preferred not to use lethal force against things if it could be avoided- removing life from the ecosystem always has consequences- but absolutely capable of bringing the pain via electrical discharge. Could also paralyze entities with barbs hidden in her tentacles.

Technically trans in that she was interested in more Hallownest-typical gender and presentation than her species’ typical attitudes there. 

Uumuu was more of her relative than a servant; their posted guard over her while she slept was entirely voluntary on their part.

Herrah

Stoic to such a fault that there were at least a few people who’d known her for years and in that time had caught her speaking a single sentence, once, and no more. Marginally chattier among her own people.

Tolerated Monomon decently. Had little to say to Lurien but given the previous point that’s only marginally a personal statement.

Capable of moving at a gallop that outstripped her worshipers’ top speeds. This could go up vertical surfaces.

The nature of her and PK’s deal went unknown to much of Hallownest, though all of Deepnest was aware of it.

Those who assumed she was dangerous on account of being a huge, physically powerful beast with a sharp needle were not wrong, but, were seriously underestimating the Beast regardless.

Very few people heard it but she could sing, with a combination of technical precision and impressive command of her breathing.

#Hollow Knight #Lurien #Herrah #Monomon #the dreamers #readmore

[dialoguelostloop]

my hand slipped for about 10 days straight or so! have some hollow knight gijinkas! (and there are at least 3 more i want to do, too! i just didnt want to run out of photoset space lol)

UPDATE: i drew a lot more than just 3 lol. gijinkas part 2 (hollow, grimm, the white lady, radi, lace, seer, marmu, unn, bretta, cloth, & myla) can be found here.

i’ll put notes about these under a readmore for curious parties.

please read my faq page! (tl;dr version: dont use my art for icons/graphics/whatever without getting my permission beforehand, please use they/them pronouns for ghost and the other vessels in any tags/commentary, dont tag as kin/me/whatever pls)

GHOST - all vessels are albino and have glossy black pools of void for eyes. i think proximity to the void/the pale beings influences how much the vessels grow so ghost, who ollied out early and never came back to hallownest, has been 4′7″ forever even into adulthood (theyre supposed to be in their early 20s here). yes they are Incredibly salty about this. all vessels probably started out with similar Undertale-Brand Androgynous Chin Length Haircuts(tm) with small differences; ghost's identifiers are no bangs (with that hair tucked behind their ears) & big chunky eyebrows.

HORNET - is where i started making gijinkas because i wanted to see more brown hornet lol. i see a lot of parallels between hollow knight lore & australian history in general, and the deepling-weaver lore reminded me of the makassan muslim traders who were on friendly terms with many indigenous australian groups pre-colonization. so... i got really excited about hijabi hornet and decided to Make My Own Content lol

MONOMON - i love valdotpng’s locs monomon So Much i decided to make my monomon gijinka a different ethnicity just to make sure i wouldnt copy that design lmfao. i went with korean monomon because women’s hanbok have such big poofy skirts and lots of dangly stuff (goreum etc) that could echo her jellyfish features. shes trans by the way

HERRAH - incorporated a bunch of den sculpture motifs in her crown and cloak with spiderweb patterns on the cloak hem and the front of her tunic. her and hornet’s 6-braid hairstyles when veiled are the same because i like to make myself sad, which is why baby hornet is also there on her ref

LURIEN - the four-leaf-clover-shaped bun in his put-together pics is courtesy of monomon & herrah who decided to do something with his hair since he wouldn’t. scruffy lurien on his solo ref has been writing reports for 3 days straight w/o painting breaks, has been sleeping in his binder the whole time, & is about to get screamed at for it by monomon lol. he doesn’t wear gold jewelry as a show of loyalty to tpk

QUIRREL - everyone does little samurai quirrel but he talks like one in the jpn localization so everyone is valid actually. he’s very baby-faced for his age (27~30?) but still a whole foot taller than ghost. obv his trans tape is from monomon as u can tell from the notes but she gave him his earrings, netsuke, and inrou too. the ahoge in his ponytail are supposed to be like lil antennae

#hollow knight #hk gijinka #hollow knight spoilers #ghost hollow knight #hornet hollow knight #herrah the beast #monomon the teacher #lurien the watcher #quirrel hollow knight