Hollow Knight is widely known as an amazing indie game by its fanbase since its release in 2017 from developers Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine or more commonly known as team cherry. It quickly gained popularity due to its artstyle, music, worldbuilding and many other aspects that were completely new to indie gaming. Today I’d like to focus on the lore and worldbuilding aspect of the game, so I give you the lore of Hollow Knight:

Imagine you wake up to a call no one but you heard. This is how the protagonist of the game, The Knight, wakes up in the game Hollow Knight. As you explore the world, you become aware that there seems to be much more to the land called Hallownest which the game takes place in. The bugs and tablets throughout the game reveal a dark past that leads back to the infection that plagued the land. Everything you learn eventually leads you back to where The Knight came from: the abyss.

The abyss is a place entirely made of void and worshiped by the lands of old. The corpses and their inventions are the only things the bugs have left of those believers. Slowly, the worship of the void became irrelevant as new gods came into power. They brought prosperity and most importantly conscience to the bugs of Hallownest.

The first of these gods is known as the Radiance. She was worshiped by her descendants: the moth tribe. Her shining light over the tribe gave them power to manipulate  an energy called essence, which allowed the tribe to manipulate and create dreams as well as make charms to harness the light. Most notably, one of the creations of the moths was the dream nail which allowed the harvesting of essence and the ability to invade the minds and dreams of others. Even though she gave her tribe such gifts, eventually someone else took her place in the minds of her believers. Another light came to being: The Wyrm, more formally known as The Pale King.

The Pale King was also a being of light, but with his light he also brought sentience to Hallownest. He gave the bugs more just than their base instincts. He made a society in exchange for worship. He is often thought of as the one who gave people a mind of their own. He created transportation and cities for his people and they worshiped him for his greatness. As The Pale King swept the land into his grasp, the moths followed and forgot the one who created them. The Radiance was approaching her death because her worship was fading away. She was locked away and in her solitude became angry. She would not tolerate being forgotten by the ones she created. As a way of revenge, she invaded the dreams of the citizens of Hallownest. The Radiance wished to take back what was rightfully hers or so she believed. When she would invade the minds of these bugs, they would fall into a deep slumber and when they woke they would be mindless once again. They reverted to their base instincts, although they were ten times more aggressive. 

The bugs tried to fight back, not knowing what was invading their dreams and minds. They did not want to go back to being mindless. Enraged by their defiance, the Radiance cursed these bugs with an infection that forced dominance and loyalty to her. This infection was cureless and volatile. During this infection, The Pale King struggled to find a solution. He was losing his people at an alarming rate. In his franticness to find a solution, he found the void. The void had long been forgotten by the people of this land, but The Pale King believed that this was his answer. He believed that if he could create a being with no mind then he could entrap the Radiance forever. The Radiance needs a mind to invade to spread her infection, so if she was entrapped in a mindless being, she could no longer plague Hallownest. 

The Pale King and his queen, The White Lady, began by having hundreds if not thousands of children which they then threw into the abyss to make vessels, created of root, void, and wyrm. The vessels, in theory, were mindless due to being imbued with void but that didn’t seem to be the case. The vessels would have to go through a test to see if they’re mindless, and they would have to escape the abyss on their own with no help from others. It proved to be an impossible task for many because most vessels couldn’t make it by themselves and the ones who were able would help their siblings without question. Thousands of vessels were discarded back down into the abyss until one remained. This vessel was born at the same time as our player character, The Knight. They ascended together, though neither of them needed help from the other until the very last jump. The Knight just barely made it, struggling to pull themself up. Their sibling had made it to the top with ease, and The Pale King waited, watching with bated breath, for what this vessel would do. This was his last hope. Finally, the vessel had come to a decision, he followed the Pale King out of the abyss without helping their sibling and was thus dubbed “The Hollow Knight.”

The Hollow Knight was trained harshly to be perfect. It was the last hope for all of Hallownest. As this vessel was being trained, the Pale King wanted to find a way to seal the Hollow Knight away and eventually concluded that he needed three powerful people to seal away themselves in the dream realm, effectively, sealing the door to the Radience’s prison, these three bugs became known as the dreamers. The first of the dreamers was Lurien the Watcher. Though not much was known about Lurien, it was said that he was the one who watched over all of Hallownest from his tower and was very secluded. The second of the dreamers was Monomon the Teacher. She was known for her dedication to knowledge and her teachings. The third and last dreamer is Herrah the Beast. She was the queen of Deepnest and the hardest of the three dreamers to convince. Deepnest refused to join Hallownest in their unification and was secluded. Herrah saw no need to help Hallownest until her people started getting infected too. Her condition for becoming a dreamer was that The Pale King had to give her a child. The Pale King agreed and a child was born who became known as Hornet.

The Pale King finally had everything he needed. The Hollow Knight was finally ready and everything seemed to go well. The Hollow Knight sealed the Radiance and the dreamers kept their seal. Hallownest seemed to return to its former glory. That was until much later. The infection came back with a vengeance. More people became infected until nothing was left. The Hollow Knight had failed. In a last ditch effort, the Hollow Knight rang out a piercing scream, calling on anyone who could hear it.  Only one person answered his call: The Knight. The Knight traversed through Hallownest until it came to Dirtmouth, and the quest to save Hallownest began.