The smash-hit indie metroidvania Hollow Knight made an immediate impression on fans of the genre through its richly detailed world, exhilarating combat, and engrossing atmosphere and lore. Taking direct inspiration from titles like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight is set in a world slowly dying and features a protagonist whose goals are as obscure as the true nature of the setting.
Indeed, part of the fun of Hollow Knight is sifting through the remains of a dying setting, trying to piece together the events that brought about the game's current state of affairs. As such, those who have yet to finish the game should beware of spoilers ahead, as the sense of discovery is one of Hollow Knight's big selling points.
10 Who Are The Higher Beings?
In Hollow Knight's lore, Higher Beings are akin to gods, but the nature of these beings and their powers vary from individual to individual. Many of the key players in the foundation of Hallownest and the troubles it experiences (The Pale King, White Lady, and Radiance, for example) are higher beings who were worshipped for their power and influence over the world's history.
Generally speaking, a Higher Being is a creature of powers that greatly exceed those of normal bugs. They often have the power to create life, see the future, and expand or influence the cognition of lower beings. This doesn't mean that they're above making mistakes though, as it is the mistakes of the gods themselves that set the events of the game in motion.
9 What Is Hallownest?
The Kingdom of Hallownest is the domain of the Pale King and the setting in which Hollow Knight takes place. Inhabited by bugs and beasts, many of whom were granted sentience by their god-king, Hallownest is the largest and most industrially advanced civilization discussed in the game's lore.
Hallownest either integrated, annexed, or formed agreements with the various tribes and cultures that inhabited its territory prior to its establishment. The Mantis Tribe, Mushroom Clan, and the bees of the Hive all had to either integrate with the new Kingdom or sort out their own separate arrangements with the new political authority. After a time, however, Hallownest began to crumble thanks to the mysterious infection plaguing its inhabitants.
8 Who Is The Pale King?
The Pale King is the ruler and progenitor of Hallownest, the higher being who gave life and spirit to the formerly inert bugs that would become his subjects. He didn't always assume a form familiar to the bugs of his kingdom, though. In fact, the king was once a Wyrm -- a very large, very old being that predates the foundation of Hallownest by an unknown number of years.
Although the king was worshipped by the bugs of Hallownest, his status as god and ruler angered the powers that came before him, namely the former god of the Moth Tribe - the Radiance. Forgetting the Radiance would prove to be the fatal mistake of the king and the bugs of his kingdom.
7 Who Is The Radiance?
The myriad of tribes that would be integrated into Hallownest during its formation by the Pale King didn't always go quietly, with the most notable example of this tendency being the Moth Tribe and their goddess, the Radiance. An ethereal higher being of light and mysterious power, the Radiance created the Moth Tribe in exchange for their reverence. Her dominion was lost after the creation of Hallownest though, which lead her former subjects to turn their worship to the Pale King instead.
The Radiance was never truly forgotten, and the remanents of her powers are the source of the infection plaguing the land that the Knight must seal away.
6 What Is The Infection?
The Infection is the destructive contagion that brought Hallownest to its knees prior to the events of Hollow Knight. The Radiance, old god of the land, refused to be forgotten and began to manifest herself through the dreams of the kingdom's bugs, twisting them mentally and physically in the process.
Identifiable by its distinctive orange glow, the bugs of Hallownest tried desperately to stop the infection from consuming the kingdom, but to no avail. It spread unchecked throughout the land, reducing the kingdom to a husk of its former glory. It is the task of the Knight, one of the king's vessels, to reverse the contagion and save the kingdom.
5 What Is The Void?
Void is an ancient substance found at the bottom of the Abyss. It is, as far as anyone knows, far older than even the Higher Beings who participated in the foundation of Hallownest. Its mysterious power is perhaps best defined in opposition to the Light which is embodied by the Radiance, making it an essential component in the construction of the vessels designed to challenge that old enemy.
The Void was also the object of worship for a civilization more ancient than any other described in the game's lore; the large corpses of old bugs found in the Abyss and other such areas suggest that this society was structured around the Void itself, but very little else is known about them.
4 Who Is Hornet?
Hornet is a product of the complicated relationship between Hallownest, its king, and the Spider Tribe that refused to surrender its independence to the new kingdom. Although the Tribe violently resisted integration into the larger fold of Hallownest, the Pale King needed their help once the infection began to spread.
The Tribe's queen Herrah made a pact with the Pale King as such. In exchange for becoming a Dreamer to seal away the infection, Herrah was to be granted a child borne of a secret union between her and the King. That child was Hornet, making her a sister of sorts to the Knight and their siblings.
3 What Is A Vessel?
The Vessels were the Pale King's solution to the Infection. Created by the Pale King and his mate, and infused with the essence of the Void in opposition to the Radiance, the Vessels are supposedly empty beings untainted by will, mind, or voice, a characteristic that will allow them to absorb the Infection within themselves and seal away the Radiance forever.
Unfortunately, most Vessels were not perfectly empty, or "pure", leading the Pale King to discard most of them as failures. Ultimately, one was deemed pure and chosen for the task of permanently suppressing the Infection, this individual being the titular iconic game mascot Hollow Knight.
2 Who Is The Hollow Knight?
A sort of older sibling to the player's Knight, the Hollow Knight is a vessel borne from the Abyss and fused with the Void, designed by the Pale King with the express purpose of sealing away the Infection. The plan was flawed, though, because although the Hollow Knight was supposed to be a pure vessel devoid of spirit and soul, something changed them before they were sealed away.
Such are the events that set the Knight's difficult quest in motion. With the Hollow Knight corrupted and the seal failing, the infection has run amok in the once-great kingdom of Hallownest. Will the Knight succeed where their older cousin failed, or will they simply repeat the same mistakes for the sake of a long-forgotten king?
1 Who Is The Knight?
The Knight is the successor to the Hollow Knight, another vessel borne from the void, supposedly without essence, tasked with executing the final will of a dead king. After wandering the wastes outside of Hallownest for an unknown amount of time, the Knight is summoned to the old kingdom to execute their sworn duty, thereby setting the events of the game in motion.
It is, however, unclear whether or not the Knight can succeed where their predecessor failed. The Hollow Knight was not a pure vessel, an oversight that led to the downfall of Hallownest. Across the game's multiple endings, the Knight can complete the purpose that they were created for, or challenge the Higher Beings that created the game's state of affairs in the first place.
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