The Knight in Hollow Knight is the main protagonist that players will take control of. The Knight was born a Vessel to the higher beings The Pale King and The White Lady - it is shown in the Birthplace Cutscene that the Knight fell back into the Abyss right after it was sealed.
Video game lore nerds love a good fake language. Dragon Age has its own version of Elven, The Legend of Zelda has various Hylian dialects, even Ratchet and Clank had its very own Lombax alphabet (which, if I recall correctly, is creatively named 'Lombaxian').
Hollow Knight is no exception; there's certainly a language in the game, though it isn't obvious, because it all sounds like absolute gibberish. From Iselda's wistful sighs of 'bafanada', to Hornet's battle cries of 'adino!', these are just noises to fill the quiet air of the Hallownest and give life to the various bugs we meet.
These seemingly random sounds are well-designed, characterful expressions which help to provide the player with an idea of each characters' personality. The Dung Defender and his proud guffaws tell us he was a bold and eccentric knight, whereas the Seer's odd chanting paints her as a spiritual figure, if not a bit of a bizarre one.
There are hints at written language in Hollow Knight as well, in the form of glowing lore tablets. These lore tablets can be found all over Hallownest, and their designs can vary greatly from location to location, indicating different dialects for different regions.
But for some Hollow Knight fans, the gibberish just wasn't enough.
Reddit users Anand_G, The_Dialog_Box and ThePawnOfOthers (along with a team of Hollow Knight enthusiasts) took it upon themselves to draw up an entire alphabet inspired by the game's designs.
Deemed The Hallowscript, the fans designed a language almost completely from scratch - complete with sets of rules on how to write it. And not only have they come up with a written language - in theory, at least - you could actually speak it.
'I've always had a hobby for conlanging, and I find linguistics really interesting. Most of what I know just comes from watching YouTube videos and reading Wikipedia,' Anand_G told me. Conlanging is the process of constructing a language that hasn't naturally developed.
'I wanted to make a group of conlangs for a D&D campaign, and for one of the conlang's writing system I wanted to use the script of the Hollow Knight lore tablets, because I thought they looked really cool.
'After a while the language became separate from the rest of the campaign, and after I couldn't find the actual language anywhere on the internet, I realised I had to make it myself.'
The_Dialog_Box had already tried to design a bug language a few months prior, but struggled as Team Cherry didn't design the in-game language to be functional, it was simply intended to fit the game's aesthetics.
'I didn't get very far at all,' he said. 'I came up with some basic rules/syntax for the system, and then pretty much abandoned the project until I stumbled across Anand_G's post on the r/HollowKnight subreddit.'
To start off the language, The_Dialog_Box predominantly used the lore tablet that can be found in the White Palace Hollow Knight, and began transcribing every voice line heard in the game to analyse them.
'A large part of that was isolating any recurring words and trying to figure out what they might mean based on a variety of factors: the word's placement in the sentence, which other characters say the same word, the tone of voice with which the word is said, etc.' he explained.
What the group has managed to come up with thanks to all their hard work is incredibly impressive, and while they make it look easy, there were a lot of challenges involved with the language's construction.
'The biggest difficulty with this project is knowing where to draw the line between sticking to the source material and making a 'good' conlang,' The_Dialog_Box continued.
'If we try too hard to stick to what the voice lines say, we could end up with a massive set of oddly specific rules that only serve to allow certain voice lines to make sense. But if we don't draw from the voice lines enough, we could end up creating a generic conlang that's only loosely inspired by Hollow Knight.'
This conlang is certainly not generic, however. Below you'll find the in-depth alphabet structure Anand_G has come up with, and this is only version three, as the group are still working on improving it.
The systems referred to in the alphabet above relate to different ways The Hallowscript can be written. System one is for inanimate objects (and has options for how the letters can be joined together or written alone), system two is for animate objects, abstract nouns and important verbs.
According to the conlangers, some of the language appears to follow rules of logography - where certain words already have their own sort of pre-built design. The multiple systems of writing are similar to some real-world languages too, Anand_G told me it's closest comparison would be to the Japanese dialects of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
'I also saw some letters had a different look near the end of words in the tablets (but not so different it was justifiable they were different letters). This is comparable to Arabic, which has a beginning, middle, and end forms of each letter.'
If you want to have a go at writing some words or phrases in The Hallowscript yourself, there are a fair amount of rules and systems the group has come up with that you can find here. If you manage to wrap your head around the language, you could end up with something resembling this:
The spoken part of the language is a slightly different affair, however. Anand_G told me he got an idea for the 'feel' of it from Latin and Japanese, but the way characters talk in Hollow Knight is so unique he's found it difficult to compare. Though it is somewhat possible to speak it - if you're able to replicate the sounds.
'The phonetics were really hard, and I didn't get very far with them until The_Dialog_Box showed up and had figured it out in full. One of the more difficult things about the phonetics was figuring out the allophones,' Anand_G said.
'Allophones are sounds that seem different, but are interchangeable. Looking through the voice lines The_Dialog_Box found many very similar words, and a common thing across all of them was that they differed by switching the 'a' to an 'e'. The discovery of these had a big impact on the written text, as it changed how many symbols needed to be made.'
To most of us, all this talk of allophones and logography might just be reminiscent of a stressful school language lesson, but for people like Anand_G and The_Dialog_Box, all this work has been one interesting mystery after the next to figure out.
Unfortunately, Anand_G's planned D&D session that inspired all this never ended up happening, but as a consolation he's discovered how many people in the community want to get involved in this sort of work.
'The most fun part for me was actually hearing how many people wanted to help, and how much cool stuff that they had already figured out. For example, The_Dialog_Box piecing together how branching worked was absolutely amazing.
'I never expected so many people to want to join in! And I don't think we would have figured out half of the stuff we did without having multiple people.'
Essentially, this is all very in depth talk explaining how a group of strangers on reddit have made an entire language, based on gibberish, from a video game about exploring a lost bug civilisation. The Hallowscript team is a testament to how dedicated the Hollow Knight community is, and even now they're still tinkering with the language they've made.
'I haven't thought about what I might do with language once it's done,' said The_Dialog_Box. 'I'm in it for the experience-and of course, for the fun. After all, this is a perfect intersection of two things I'm really passionate about: Hollow Knight lore and conlangs. What more could I ask for!'
God-like creatures in the world of Hallownest that exist above all others. They have abilities and powers that regular bugs do not have, and many were deified; worshipped as gods by other bugs.: There are some groups that worship each of the higher beings like deities:. in the case of The Pale King and the White Lady. It's not much of an actual cult since they have realistic and proper positions in the society of Hallownest for being the royalties who rule the kingdom. Their subordinates are very much civilized either, and not small secluded groups or tribes that deify the other higher beings. The Radiance is worshipped by the moth tribe. By extension, Some creatures led by the Moss Prophet also the Radiance via the infection that it brought.
Unn is worshipped by the Mosskin in Greenpath, for being the deity who brought them and that place's green vegetation. The Grimm Troupe is this for the Nightmare's Heart, as they conduct rituals in an attempt to sustain the life of the Heart by providing it with vessels. The Godseeker Tribe has a goal of attuning Godhome to the ' and commune with that deity. Initially, they thought of the God as the Radiance, but it turned out to be the Void Entity.: All except Unn are, and are remembered by their titles which also border with trope, such as The Pale King, The Queen, The Radiance, and The Nightmare's Heart. Deer hunter 2016 download games. Even the Void Entity is a unique case, since it has.: As higher beings, their abilites can encompass a wide margin, even greater than the regular bugs. But they can still manifest, be encountered, hurt or outright killed.: The Higher Beings are tied to the greater scope and history of Hallownest.
While each of their individual presence are repeatedly mentioned all throughout your journey, most of the crucial lore and plot points are only made accessible late-game. The Pale King, heard while ascending the AbyssThe mysterious ruler and founder of Hallownest, venerated by his subjects. By the time the player character arrives, much of his kingdom has been in ruins for over a century following a, and the King himself has long since departed for parts unknown.: Subverted. While the details of what he was like as a person before the infection are unknown, his plan to create the perfect hollow Vessel to contain the infection required the sacrifice of thousands of his own spawn until one of them became perfectly 'hollow' enough to contain Radiance.
Ironically, it was because he wasn't heartless enough that doomed the plan, as he became attached to the Hollow Knight and raised them into adulthood, causing them to gain an 'idea instilled' and become no longer truly hollow.: His original form is of a gigantic Wyrm, specifically the giant discarded shell at Kingdom's Edge is actually his old corpse, containing a broken pod that is implied to be where his current form was birthed from and where the Knight obtains the King's Brand. It is unknown how many of the regular Hallownest citizens actually know the true origin of their King, and only the more ancient beings seem to be aware, such as his mate and Queen the White Lady, who only ever refers to him as the 'Wyrm'.: The king of Hallownest was revered by his people as a deity. Born from a wyrm's corpse, the Pale King did everything in his power to replace the old light of the Radiance with his own and rule over Hallownest forever.: According to the game manual, under 'The Missing King' entry for the characters, the Pale King is explicitly stated to have went into hiding.: Just what happened to the Pale King? While the Knight finds a corpse in White Palace, it's unclear what the White Palace the Knight visited really was.
The Godseeker in the Pantheon in Hallownest also never explicitly states that he died — rather that he was 'erased completely'.: The Pale King's distinct horns are imprinted on various key objects and statues. As you are nearing the endgame, the four-pronged horns of the king also appear when you obtain the King's Brand, and it also resembles the maw of the dead wyrm from which he was born.: Eventually the lengths he went to in his desperation to contain the infection is revealed — he used thousands of his own children as the basis for the Vessels, a plan so 'cruel' that it even turned off Ogrim, the King's most loyal Knight.: The Weavers' leader, Herrah the Beast, entered a brief one with the Pale King. In order for Herrah to agree in becoming a Dreamer, she requested to bear a child of the Pale King.: The King's shell doubles as a crown. His can be found. Its points are quite similar to the three horns that decorated his archenemy, the Radiance. It also resembles the maw of the dead Wyrm from which he was born.: The Kingsoul charm is split into two pieces, one acquired from the Pale King in the White Palace and the other given by the White Lady in the Queen's Gardens. The halves are useless on their own, but by interacting with their keepers, the Knight is able to acquire both pieces and join them as a functioning charm.: Unfortunately, this happened twice without the Pale King being aware of them at first, which caused his plans to fail miserably:.
While his initial goal was to build a kingdom out of Hallownest and eliminate the bugs' memories of the Radiance, making it an, the King didn't realize that the workers have at the top of the Crystal Peak. For they discovered a statue of the Radiance, and it was just enough to make the Radiance be remembered once more and spread its infection across the kingdom.
To combat the infection, the Pale King designed hollow Vessels to be free of mind, voice, or will so that the Radiance won't be able to manipulate anything while being sealed in a Vessel. He chose a candidate to be the Pure Vessel, but did not know that this Vessel was in fact, not hollow in the first place, as it had an 'idea instilled'. Seer: 'But another light appeared in our world.
A wyrm that took the form of a king.' .: A white silhouette of the Pale King also appears in the background of the White Defender boss fight. He is depicted here with wings that look similar to the Monarch Wings, implying that the Pale King is the previous owner for the Monarch Wings that you can obtain the Ancient Basin.: The Pale King throwing all rejected vessels into the Abyss, leaving most of them to remain trapped in there and die.: It is eventually revealed that the Knight, Hollow Knight, and all Vessels and Shades are siblings, and at one point the offspring of the Pale King and the White Lady.
It is not clear exactly what the Pale King did to his children in his desperation to create the perfect Vessel to contain the infection, but he left thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of Vessel corpses and wandering Shades in the Abyss. Eventually, he sealed them away and refused to return to them once he thought he had the perfect Vessel. The Knight somehow managed to escape and make their way to the Howling Cliffs at some point.: Possibly. His corpse can be found still sitting on his throne at the end of the White Palace, but the game keeps it ambiguous on whether the White Palace the Knight visits is a memory, or was the real deal transported to the dream world.: The King had a knack for shaping the Void and making it do his bidding, and using it as a power source for constructs like the Kingsmoulds and Wingmoulds.
Trouble is, the game also suggests it wasn't the safest thing to deal with, if the occasional corpses bleeding black from the eyes are any indication.: Spoke like this, judging by the inscriptions written for 'higher beings' being written by him.: His crown. It is in the symbol of Hallownest, which is to remind the citizens of their king and have them revere him as a god. It also has four prongs, which is more than the three-pronged crown of the Radiance, as a symbolism of how the Pale King wants to replace or usurp her.: Is one of the three known rulers of Hallownest (the Pale King, the White Lady, and the Radiance).: Under his rule, he commited five of these:. Automation - The Tramway system. To the point where the Last Stag feared that their manual labor of transporting passengers. Genetic Engineering - The Pale King infused his children vessels with the void, making them physically hollow, while his attempts were motivated by finding the vessel with no will, no mind, and no voice, trying to make them metaphorically 'hollow'. Creating Life - Apart from the vessels, the Pale King has also managed to create living beings made out of pure liquid void, such as the Kingsmoulds and Wingsmoulds found in his White Palace.
The Collector is also heavily implied to be an escaped Kingsmould. Cheating Death - The vessels leave when they die. Usurping God - Part of the reason why the Pale King established this kingdom - to unite the bugkind of Hallownest, give them sentience and make them forget the previous ruler who is also a Higher Being (The Radiance). Which is kinda odd once the Pale King is mentioned to be another Higher Being as well. So, we have a case where a new god usurps the old god.: The four-pronged symbol of Hallownest is everywhere. This is an intentional act by the Pale King, who wanted Hallownest's citizens to revere him as a god.
He also wanted to destroy all traces of his rival, Radiance, and he was very nearly successful. Unfortunately, even that wasn't good enough.: The Pale King's lingering power in the kingdom is what drew the Godseekers to Hallownest.
That, and the remaining Godseeker in the Junk Pit all play a crucial part since entering the Godhome in the Godseeker's mind allows the Knight to kill the Radiance in that place without having to fight the Hollow Knight itself, as seen in the two Godmaster endings.: Though he was married to the White Lady, the Pale King had to give Herrah the Beast a child if he wanted Deepnest's loyalty. The White Lady not only feels no spite towards Herrah, she's actually very fond of the child that was born; that child being Hornet.: His own personal philosophy is 'No cost too great.' He was willing to sacrifice thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of his children just to beat the infection.: In case the Hollow Knight failed in sealing the infection, the King had to make a backup plan and keep the Hollow Knight sealed instead. This Plan B consists of enlisting the three Dreamers so that they would act as the that lock the Black Egg Temple where the Hollow Knight is located.: A lore tablet in White Palace reveals he wanted to rule as the only god by granting intelligence to certain bugs so they would worship him.: If the implications about the White Lady being the Queen of Hallownest are true. She is enormous compared to the Pale King who is relatively normal-sized.: Learning about the king and his actions reveal major parts of the game's backstory.: As Hallownest was taken by the plague, he was willing to to keep it at bay. Using the Dream Nail on his corpse reveals his final thoughts: ' No cost too great '.: This Lore Tablet inscription in the entrance of the Abyss, which reveals that the King ordered the Abyss to be sealed off, while the is still inside. SeerThe deepest power of the Nightmare Realm, one that was separated from the dream world.: It is a giant heart located in the Nightmare Realm, constantly beating.
Dream Nail dialogue from a statue found in The AbyssA mysterious higher being made out of Void. It is feared as possibly the strongest being ever known.
This higher being known as the 'Void Given Form' or the 'Lord of Shades' is actually a form that the turns into during one of the endings. As of the Godmaster update, it takes on a much more sinister and larger form known as the 'Void Given Focus' or the 'God of Gods'.: As you deal the final hit to the Radiance, the shade of the Hollow Knight will render her vulnerable, while the playable Knight unleashes the power of the Void Heart to transform itself into the Void Entity called the 'Lord of Shades'. Any subsequent presses of the attack button during this sequence will make its void tendrils lash out at the Radiance and kill it.
This also applies to the Godhome endings, but the Knight will assume the form of the 'God of Gods' instead to defeat the Absolute Radiance.:. The Knight's current status as of both Godmaster endings. After defeating the Absolute Radiance, the Knight breaks their shell and a monolithic shadow appears in their place, finishing off the Absolute Radiance. Is only the Knight in control of this being? Or are the shades of their siblings part of it too?. We get to see the Knight turn into either of these forms just as it has to kill either forms of the Radiance.
However, before fighting the Absolute Radiance in the Pantheon of Hallownest, there is a strange heard just after the Radiance's own distinct scream. If that strange roar is heard before the Knight fights the Absolute Radiance, it could mean that the Void Given Focus is an entirely separate void entity on its own, and is just lending its power to the Knight at the right time and place.: A Dream Nail dialogue for the Absolute Radiance calls the Knight (or to be precise, the Void Entity within it) as her 'Ancient Enemy'.: The Godseeker more or less allows The Knight to do this after getting past the various pantheons and defeating Radiance directly. They seem to go and take over Radiance's plague normally, the Godseeker's physical body as a catalyst to burst from. However, giving the Godseeker a Delicate Flower prevents this, allowing the two to ascend together, turning into light.
There is rare power hidden in those frail petals.To hold it so close, one must surely be unaware of its nature.: The four hands of the Void Given Focus have four fingers each.: Like all other creatures made out of void, they have glowing white eyes in contrast to their pure black body.: While the Void itself has a significance as the Pale King used it to counter the Radiance, many historical records claim that it was just a powerful and devouring, neutral liquid substance that is abundant in the Abyss. But the Godmaster content expands on this, as the Godseeker refers to the void as a higher being, especially the. And you, the Knight gets to to kill the.: The Void Given Focus has 4-6 horns on its head.: The endings in which either void forms appear, require the Knight to have unlocked the Void Heart (i.e. You can only use the dream nail on the Hollow Knight or enter the Pantheon of Hallownest if you have the charm equipped), suggesting a connection between the charm and these forms. The only information that you can directly make out of the Void Heart is that 'it unifies the void under the bearer's will'.: In certain endings, the Knight gets to channel the power of the Void Entity for himself, and to finally kill the, the Radiance. Unfortunately in the 'Delicate Flower' ending of the Godmaster expansion, the pitch-black Void Entity itself the Godseeker was given the white delicate flower.: Both forms are made out of void just like the Shades, but are at larger scales. Five warriors who were once the Hallownest kingdom's protectors, extremely loyal to the Pale King.: The Five Great Knights were only referred to as a group in the few historical records that remember their deeds.
Only those who know them personally and are still alive at the current time can attest to who they are as individuals.:: They were once heroic warriors who served under the Pale King. But little is known about them in the current days, with only their corpses or statues being the most evident reminders of their deeds. Relic Seeker Lemm even thinks that names and appearance of the five may have been forgotten in history due to the scarity of information that can be found for them as individuals.: There were stories about a war between the Five Great Knights and a creature known as the 'Black Wyrm'.: The three female Great Knights: Fierce Dryya is The Maiden, Kindly Isma is The Mother, and Mysterious Ze'mer ( The Grey Mourner) is The Crone.: They served under the Pale King and are usually depicted in shining white clothes back then during their prime days.: from the typical naming scheme. Nailmaster Sheo calls four of them individually as 'Mighty Hegemol', 'Fierce Dryya', 'Kindly Isma', 'Mysterious Ze'mer'. In that Sheo doesn't give any adjectives for Ogrim.: Ogrim made dung statues of the other Great Knights who are now dead or missing.
They also appear in white silhouettes during the White Defender boss fight.: They were the Kingdom's protectors serving under the Pale King.: To the Pale King and by extension, the entire Kingdom of Hallownest.: Any information that you can read regarding the five are only accessible relatively late into the game. Then there's also the fact that two of them are by the start of the story, while the other two are but went into seclusion for safety.
The status of the other Great Knight is very ambiguous as well. Dream Nail dialogue from Dryya's corpseThe Great Knight whom Sheo considered as 'fierce'. She was the guardian of the White Lady in the Queen's Gardens.: One of the female Great Knights.:. Dryya's corpse can be found near a pile of mantis traitor corpses.: If one analyzes the area where her own corpse is found, it is filled with the corpses of Mantis Traitors, and her dream nail dialogue is simply 'Protect.' The implies that Dryya died protecting the Queen of Hallownest from the traitors at the cost of her own life from being possibly overwhelmed by their numbers. Considering that the White Lady is still alive by the time the Knight gets to her place, Dryya was able to fulfill her role in one way or another.: Sheo describes her as 'fierce'. The only hint that could prove this is that she was able to defeat several mantis traitors while protecting the queen.: She's already dead and her corpse can be found in the Queen's Gardens.
Dream Nail dialogue from Isma's corpseThe Great Knight known to be 'kindly' by Sheo and hinted to be Ogrim's teacher.: One of the female Great Knights.: For some reason, her dead body is attached to a wall by plant growth. How she ended up this way is left for imagination however.: Her abilities have some connections to acid, since her own tear grants the Knight immunity to acid.: According to the exposition and thoughts by Sheo and Ogrim respectively, Isma is kind, understanding, and strong enough that a fellow Great Knight even wishes to train under her.: Orgrim is implied to have this relationship with his fellow knight Isma, or He'll sometimes mutter her name in his sleep. The gate he guards leads to Isma's Grove, which is, if not a tomb, a sort of monument to her memory.: Her corpse can be found near her grove within Royal Waterways. Nailmaster Sheo, describing the Five Great KnightsThe Great Knight who is implied to be the largest among the five due to his towering figure.
By the current events of the story, what happened to him is left to be very ambiguous and open to a lot of questions.However, his armored shell is still present but stolen. Specific tropes regarding his armor's thief can be found under the False Knight's entry.:. The False Knight's armor is actually Hegemol's.
But it wasn't clear how Hegemol lost his armor to that maggot. Was it simply stolen? Was Hegemol killed by that maggot? Or is he still alive but went into hiding?. Hegemol is always depicted in the statues and in Ogrim's dream without any weapon. However, what does that make of the bug mace that the False Knight (specifically the maggot thief that stole his armor) uses in the boss fight?
Did Hegemol fought bare-handed in the past? Did he also use a mace as his but preferred to keep it away when not needed? Or did he use something else, like a giant nail?.: He's the physically largest Great Knight, thanks to his armor.: Nailmaster Sheo even this trait as he recalls Hegemol being surprisingly soft spoken for one who is so large.: In a Dream Nail dialogue of the White Defender, Ogrim mentions missing Hegemol's sense of humour.: A line for the Failed Champion reveals that a maggot stole that giant armor while Hegemol was sleeping. This reveals a lot from the False Knight and False Champion boss fights - That a Great Knight now has an on how his armor was stolen by a mere maggot, that Knight's current whereabouts, and that the maggot simply did the act to protect its brothers.
To protect the Vessel, the Dreamers lay sleeping.Through their devotion, Hallownest lasts eternal.In order to contain the infection plaguing Hallownest, the Pale King enlisted the help of three renowned bugs, placing each of them into a deep sleep in order to seal the Black Egg Temple. If the Knight hopes to bring the infection to an end, they must seek out each of the Dreamers, enter their dreams, and slay them in their sleep.: The Knight has to hunt them down and absorb their essence to unlock the Black Egg Temple and defeat the final boss.: All of them wear black garbs to indicate their status as Dreamers.: They are first introduced via floating projections after the Knight obtains the Mothwing Cloak in Greenpath. Monomon'sThe chief researcher of Hallownest who makes her home in the Teacher's Archives, located in Fog Canyon. The Oomas and Uomas that populate the Canyon are creations of hers.: Implied to be why she gave Quirrel her mask before he left Hallownest. Lurien'sA bug who watches over the City of Tears from the Watcher's Spire, protected by his force of Watcher Knights.: His mask only has one eye in it.: After you kill Lurien, all candles in his room will be extinguished.: There's a telescope on the left window of Lurien's room. Sadly, peeking on it doesn't reveal anything surprising.: Lurien seems to believe that the Knight's quest to break the seals and confront the source of the infection will only end up making things worse, and attempts to discourage the Knight from going further in Greenpath before trapping them in the dream world when they reach the Resting Grounds.
Herrah'sChief of the beasts of Deepnest. Her cooperation and enlistment as a Dreamer was part of a deal she made with Hallownest, in exchange for the Pale King fathering a child with her.
She is secluded away in the Beast's Den.: Heavily implied. You can't be the chief of a place like for nothing, after all.: The Weavers' leader, Herrah the Beast, entered a brief one with the Pale King. In order for Herrah to agree in becoming a Dreamer, she requested to bear a child of the Pale King.:.
Warrior's Grave Map PinThe lingering ghosts of particularly strong bugs that can only be challenged once the Dream Nail is acquired. Defeating them rewards the knight with a large amount of Essence. They were all designed by Kickstarter backers.: They are optional spirits that you can challenge for essences once you get the dream nail.: They're all unaware of their own deaths. Some of them realize the truth after being fought, but some don't.: All Warrior Dreams are located in graves used to remember where they died.: Getting the dream nail also unlocks fights with dream warriors and dream bosses, who when defeated can be collected by the dream nail for between 100 and 300+ Essence each. You need 1800 Essence to work towards the real ending, and 2400 to unlock some crucial context for the lore.: All of them (except No Eyes who sings her own song) share the same boss fight theme titled.: They've all been dead for quite a while.
Elder Hu (Hunter's Journal)A traveling sage who sought to purify the borderlands of Hallownest from the Infection. He, unfortunately, became infected himself, and his own infected mind made him see the Mantis Village Tribe as afflicted by the plague.
The Mantises killed him after he attacked them, and a memorial was erected in his name above the gates to the City of Tears.: Wanted to purify the Infection, but got infected himself.: His only method of attack is to summon numerous rings down.: After being beaten by the knight, he realizes that he was wrong for attacking the Mantis Tribe, and comes to terms with his death. Galien: Let us test our strength in joyful combat!.: His main form of attack is to simply spin his large scythe like it acts as a huge buzzsaw. He can also summon two smaller discs that independently move and bounce.: His main scythe can re-adjust itself to follow the Knight's location even as it bounces. Galien can also pause the scythe for a bit before directly aiming it at the Knight again.: He never realizes that he's been killed, and acts as if the knight is the first person to defeat him. He's also unaware of the King's disappearance.: He is the only Warrior Dream who uses a physical weapon instead of projecting a spectral copy, and he can freely move the scythe without directly interacting with it.: Once launched, his spinning scythe will keep on bouncing every time it hits the edges of the arena.
He can also summon up to two glowing mini-scythes that do the same.: He summons a to attack the knight.: He ventures into Deepnest because he believes he needs to prove his strength to the Pale King to be a knight. He, unfortunately, fails to do this and dies as a result. Gorb: Ascend! Ascend ascend ascend with Gorb!.: All he says seem childish and non-sensical. The weird noises he makes during his battle also contribute to his goofy aspect.: Gorb will almost, always retaliate with his attack everytime the Knight hits him.: He is implied to be very intelligent, might be a case of but it's never explained how.: Unlike the others Dream Warriors, Gorb isn't given a backstory. His life stays enigmatic.: 'The Great Mind'.: Has a pretty big distended brain, and seems rather proud of it.: His only attack is firing a ring of 8 spears outwards in a circle from his location.
As he takes damage, he'll start doing it in waves in alternating patterns.: He'll occasionally teleport to a different area of the arena. Markoth (Hunter's Journal)One of the only moths to carry a weapon, Markoth was an undefeated warrior who grew disgruntled from the world and the kingdom of Hallownest, rejecting them. He went to Kingdom's Edge to seclude himself and meditate, hoping to uncover a truth long forgotten, and fighting any who disturbed, regardless of their reasons. He eventually died, his remains never to be found in a lone cave of Kingdom's Edge.: Oh boy! Markoth spends the whole fight summoning Nails around the arena that aim in The Knight's direction for a moment before flying forward. He does this whenever he isn't doing another attack, and the Nails spawn faster as the fight goes on.: He's a member of the Moth Tribe, worshippers of the Radiance and a race once associated with dreams.: The ghost of a moth warrior who's aggressive towards the player when they first meet.: This boss was once overpowered during the release of the Godmaster DLC so they had to tune it down.
Markoth's health was lowered (requiring the player to endure the Bullet Hell for a shorter period of time).: He summons a Dreamshield at the start of the battle that orbits around him. At half-health, he summons a second one.: Attacks by summoning some floating nails near the Knight and launching them after a while. No Eyes (Hunter's Journal)A former warrior of Hallownest who fell to the Infection.
She couldn't sleep knowing the dreams would infect her mind with the light, so she stripped both her and other bugs of their eyes to protect them from succumbing to it. They were all laid to rest in the Stone Sanctuary, a place in complete darkness, deep in Greenpath.: Especially in her Ascended variant where you have a tighter room to move within. Summoned ghosts can converge so closely that you may end up bumping into the nearest environmental traps. Or bump into other ghosts as well! It's common to take 2-3 masks of damage if you are hit by one attack and are very unlucky with the knockback mechanics.: Her sanctuary is hidden away in pitch black darkness, with spikes jutting out from almost every wall, and she's by far the most frightening of the Warrior Dreams.: No Eyes won't appear unless the player has bought the Lumafly Lantern.
Because her stage is that it's impossible to know where you are going inside.: with No Eyes and her followers. They gouged their eyes because they believe that the 'light' would infect them in their dreams, so getting rid of one's eyesight equals immunity. No Eyes is proven to be at one point since the Radiance caused the infection via invading others' dreams.: She ripped her own, and some other's, eyes out to escape infection.: She never directly harms the knight, but rather summons the sanctuary's spirits to attack instead.: The real challenge of her boss fight is this. She around the arena every few seconds, so the player has to get to her before she does it again to damage her, while also avoiding the spirits that actually trying to hurt them.
Xero (Hunter's Journal)A former warrior of Hallownest who believed he could fight the infection on his own and turned against the Pale King, for which he was executed. His tomb can be found in the Resting Grounds, a reminder to any who would betray the King.: You fight the warrior Xero atop a platform in Resting Grounds. But unlike the other boss fights which lock you inside the room, you can easily run past and go below the platform where he hovers or far off to the left of it. Here, you can heal yourself without interruptions because his nails won't reach you and Xero only moves above the platform.
This is possibly as Xero is technically the first warrior dream that you can encounter after obtaining the dream nail, and he gives 100 essence, just enough to introduce you to the other, more difficult warrior dreams. However, this tactic becomes averted in the Godhome.: He was so confident in his strength that he believed that strength alone can defeat the infection. Due to this mentality, he betrayed the King and set off on his own. Xero was then '.: Clearly crossed it a long time ago, judging by his rather bleak and fatalistic outlook on things, but it's unclear whether it was being executed or something else that caused it.: After being beaten by the knight, he realizes his coup against the king was foolish and accepts his defeat.
I can see now. Those who turn against the King are doomed as soon as they raise their weapon. Do not call me a traitor. Simply call me a fool.: He was given a proper burial in the Resting Grounds to make others think twice about treachery. His tomb reads 'Cursed are those who turn against the King.' Currently, and originally read 'Here lies a Traitor' in an earlier version of the game.: Initially, Xero's grave inscription described him as 'a Traitor' (with the uppercase T), until it got changed in a later update.: The inscription for Xero's grave was initially 'Here lies a Traitor'.
After Update 1.0.2.8, this was changed to 'Cursed are those who turn against the King.' .: Nails, and he attacks with them by launching the nails one-by-one at the knight.Other Historical Figures. Relic Seeker Lemm, after giving him the first Arcane EggIt has been hinted that the Radiance nor the Pale Beings weren't the only rulers in Hallownest, and that there are older creatures who existed there way before. Although their contributions were mostly forgotten, some do still exist in rare lore items, as well as strange objects that were left behind.: The Hollow Knight artbook states that the Black Egg Temple was built from the carapace of an ancient bug, hinted to originate from this old civilization.: There is not much lore that can be connected to the ancient civilization, and even those gigantic fossils that you can find may or may not be from those ancient times. The only evident clue is that these giants aren't connected to the present-day Hallownest era at all. There is a giant fossil in Kingdom's Edge where one can obtain the Quick Slash.
It's dream nail dialogue simply reads 'Pure'. Implications suggest that it was the counterpart of a Nailsmith, who tried making a Pure Nail but somehow failed and decided to forge the Quick Slash instead.
The giant fossil where once can obtain the Shade Cloak is also gigantic. It also has a new dialogue when hit with the Awoken Dream Nail, where it acknowledges the Knight as the 'Lord of Shades' when the player has obtained the Void Heart. There is a six-eyed corpse of a giant bug in the Queen's Gardens, but the player cannot interact with it in any way. The Colosseum of Fools is actually the corpse of an ancient bug. Whether or not it is connected to the ancient civilization, it is similar to the giant fossil in Queen's Guardians by virtue of having six eyes. The Temple of the Black Egg's exterior resembles a six-horned shell of a giant bug, with the possibility that the entrance is actually a mouth. There is a giant fossil of a trilobite hanging upside-down in Deepnest.
But it isn't clear if this is a real fossil, or just an imitation of one. A mysterious multi-eyed being that can be seen in the backgrounds of some Lifeblood-related rooms.: Whatever it is, this creature is massive that even only its head is too large compared to the Knight.: It has 6 to 8 pairs of blue eyes, with varying sizes.: The face and blinking eyes of an unknown bug can be seen if you look down from the Lifeblood room (since the camera pans further when you hold the down button while standing). The bug in question is on the lower-right corner of the screen.: Lifeblood is light-blue, and while not heroic, it is still a to the orange infection, since consuming lifeblood increases one's health points.: With the implication that it is connected to Lifeblood, he could be a beneficial force since Lifeblood temporarily increases your health anyway.: What exactly is it, and why is it seen in the Lifeblood Room? Did the Abyss Creature bring lifeblood into Hallownest? Or is it just addicted to the substance? In either case, the substance itself is benefical in contrast to the orange infection, but the creature itself has no written lore to determine if it's a friend or foe.: There are no interactions nor written lore regarding this creature.
However, 'Abyss Creature' is something derived from the game files. Lament of the Godseekers, Hunter's Journal entry for the Weathered MaskTowering creatures whose silhouettes are shown in a part of the Land of Storms, the place where the Godseekers used to stay.: They are huge, even when only their silhouettes are visible in the background.: The Weathered Mask journal entry states that the Gods of Thunder and the Gods of Rain had abandoned their worshippers (the Godseekers) at one point. The Godseekers lamented this, seeing their 'woeful silence' as the end-result of being forsaken. These Godseekers have continued to search for a way to discover new gods so that they might attune to them.: They can be seen in the stormy background in the area within the Land of Storms where you obtain the Weathered Mask.: They were the previous deities whom the Godseekers used to worship before the tribe was abandoned and travelled to Hallownest in search for new gods. Little Fool, when dream nailedA bug who oversaw the trials in the Colosseum of Fools.: A corpse of a large bug seated at the colosseum's throne. But even after his death, his corpse is displayed as if to evoke the image of someone overseeing the trials. The Little Fool still respects him however.: By the time you arrive in the colosseum, he is already long dead.: The Lord Fool, the known leader of the Colosseum is literally a corpse, a puppet placed half-slumped on his throne when the knight arrives.
The rest of the spectators doesn't seem to need his leadership either way.: There's a huge fossil of a bug pasted in his throne, and that is even way larger than his body.