Hallownest's Ancient Civilization Examined

Oh everything falls eventually this is true in both real life and in hollow night Halla nest was once a vast Kingdom complete with a network of pathways ambitious mining operations and nudist bath houses but even the pale kings eternal kingdom could not stand against the onslaught of time of course not every Kingdom is destroyed by one moth but holliness fate isn't necessarily unique in the world of hallow night mr. mushroom implies that the actions of the pale King were commonplace with worms creating kingdoms and ruling over them until they crumbled but in this video we're gonna look at a different civilization seemingly long before the pale King or the radiance existed a group of bugs that worshiped the darkness the civilization doesn't have a name in the game but for the most part people online call it the ancient civilization other names include the ancient caste or the black kingdom in my humble opinion all of those names suck ass so I'm just gonna call it the void Kingdom now we don't know if it's a literal Kingdom for all we know it might be more accurately called a void a anarcho-syndicalist implicitly I'm just going to call this ancient civilization the void Kingdom discussing the void Kingdom is difficult because the game gives us so little information to go on after all the civilization is said to be ancient so it makes sense that nobody in the game besides lemon the mask maker even really talked about it but there are still echoes of the void kingdom found in re Gibson's artwork so in this video we're going to go through the few scraps of dialogue we have as well as discuss how some of the art in the game might be hinting at certain connections we're also going to talk about the nature of the void for like the fifth time on this channel some of the things I'm going to be saying in this video are highly speculative so take everything in this video with a grain of salt also feel free to check out this document on the void by someone and toxic brain it's very well done and super informative let's start with a relic seeker LEM in the god master update LEM directly addresses the void Kingdom in the journal entry for the void idle he says inspired or mad those ancient bugs they devoted their worship to no Lord or power or strength but to the very darkness itself these void idols are described as being from before hollow nest and they are designed to contain void within them but why on earth would bugs want to worship the darkness are they like Satan worshippers do they eat babies did they vote for Rick Scott well we do have this dream nail dialogue from the shade beast this chozo statue ripoff can be dreamed nailed if the nine has the awoken dream nail dream young the shade beast without obtaining the void are gives the following void power without unity so according to this guy void contains power which is kind of weird considering the LEM quote above seems to separate the void from power maybe the power within void as a result of the void being worshipped similar to how the bosses of hollow Knight find stronger form should the god seekers attunement regardless there are examples of void having utility which also might factor into why the void kingdom were so interested in it but we'll get to that later LEM also talks about the void Kingdom when discussing the arcane eggs he explains that arcane eggs are a treasured relic from a time before Hal honest they proved the existence of this age alongside the soul totems found throughout the kingdom these eggs work similar to wanders journals acting as a store of information while LEM can only access the outer layer ancient bugs were somehow able to reach the information stored deep within and finally LEM mentions that the eggs are rumored to contain a will and that they seek out a Bearer LEM speculates that the eggs themselves are drawn to the night since the night was able to find a whopping four of them one final detail about arcane eggs is that they're described as being made of stone let's start with this whole concept of arcane eggs containing wills it definitely sets them aside as being quite unique but they aren't the only example of this phenomenon when hinting for the night to go to the ancient basin the elder bug says the following did you know the caverns continued even below the capital few have ventured that deep so the details are scant those who made a back total of impossibly old structure and roads formed as the law rocket self-possessed a will in other words the architecture of the ancient basin was supposedly formed with the will of nearby rocks so why the fuck would rocks want to build roads or seek out owners my pet rock doesn't do jack shit maybe he's depressed well there is one explanation but I don't really want to say it because it devolves into saying that a whole bunch of different things are made out of void and this community is already too quick to play the vCard so I'm a bit worried about this we already know that void can take the form of liquid and gas given the sea avoid and the billows of void gas we see in several locations but void can also take on a solid form as well one clear example of solid void are the void vines we see connected to the husk Danny in the Queen's gardens as well as the soul totems in deep nest and the strange egg in the birthplace of the abyss another example of solid void is related to the shade gates found throughout the kingdom these dark balls look like solid balls of void these void stones are a little hard to see due to them being obscured by the surrounding structures these appear to be modeled after the pale king's crown implying that he was responsible for placing these shade gates most of the shade gates can be found sporting these artifacts but there are a few examples in the abyss showing these stones without the pale Kings additions finally the entrance to the pantheon of hallow nest also features these void stones and then we have the black egg where the hollow Knight is imprisoned Quirrell describes the egg is being made of stone but in the dream no more ending we clearly see the black egg turn into shadow and void liquid as it exits the temple so that's three out of the five states of matter void can become does this mean we might see void plasma at some point or void bose-einstein condensates of course the real question is do the arcane eggs and the Rose in the ancient basin somehow contain void proximity to void would seem to be the main factor that differentiates these rocks from the rocks found anywhere else in the kingdom what else could possibly give them this power but then again the arcane eggs aren't near as dark in color as the black egg and I sincerely believe that we need to be careful about what we say is void it's a slippery slope to complete and utter anarchy so for now I think we can only conclude that the void kingdom somehow utilize these will be rocks and stones how exactly these were created and whether or not the void kingdom was directly responsible remains to be seen but this leads to another interesting question can void contain a will if void can become stone and stones can contain a will then why not I don't think we can say that void has a will on its own but there is plenty of evidence to support the idea that void can be imprinted with a will the kinks mold seems to carry a prime directive to kill and defend which might have been placed on them when they were molded by the pale King the shades are described as being fragments of a lingering will these will seem to have originated with the bugs that were originally killed when they were dropped into the abyss so again the will isn't coming from the void but it isn't printed on it same with the night it also contains a will according to steal soul gin and the charm description of the void heart we also have the collector the collectors avoid being like the shades but it shows even greater cognitive abilities according to William in an AMA the collector was even capable of drawing a map of the grub locations showing a high level of intelligence so where did this will come from a likely candidate appears to be the husk Danny in the Queen's garden who implies it spending time with the collector changed the both of them in some way but this is pretty speculative though at the very least it's clear that the collector has some kind of will finally let's talk about the void tendrils that flap around in the sea of void void tendrils are these weird shadow creatures that thrash out to the night that is until it receives the void Hart the journal entry for the void tendrils is attained in this strange room found on the east side of the abyss behind a shade gate the room contains some kind of desk along with a strange formation in the wall inspecting the formation gives you the journal entry along with the following prompt an imprint of abyss given form we've seen this phrase given form before in the Hall of gods the phrase void given form is used to describe the statue of the night as it appears in the dream no more ending so is void equivalent to an imprint of abyss making the void tendrils similar to the night well I'm not sure what else an imprint of this would even look like like what is this shit I've literally stared at this thing for the last 18 months of my life and the only thing I can see is Florida the state in which Rick Scott is currently governor we don't really know why the void tendrils live in the sea a void or what their purpose was but they might be the culprits responsible for convincing the bug in the abyss lighthouse to turn off the light which might imply that they have a will so where did these abominations come from I think it's likely that the void tendrils were created by the void kingdom first of all given form implies that the void didn't manifest into tendrils itself second the journal entry for the void tendrils seems to be referring to the void kingdom the bugs of hollowness sometimes wondered whether there were other older stranger kingdoms deep below them and for some reason the hunters omnipotent and omnipresent so this is some pretty strong evidence if he thinks the void kingdom is relevant to these creatures then it probably is finally we need to look at the objects found in this room so this desk is weird it has four spikes similar to the pale Kings but one of the spikes is longer so I don't think there's a connection here instead there's something else in this room we need to look at over the course of this channel we've talked about horror lore voor lore and now we're gonna talk about floor lore so remember how LEM said that the soul totems were another indication of the void kingdoms existence while the floor found in this portion of the abyss can be found underneath several - soul totems in the game since we know that the totems were created by the void Kingdom it seems pretty likely to me that this room was used by this ancient civilization this room might have been used as some sort of observation deck or workbench or German sex dungeon so to quickly recap I don't think the void itself exhibits a will instead a will is imprinted on void manifesting in creations such as the void constructs the vessels and the void tendrils the arcane eggs and the rocks and the abyss and the ancient basin can also contain wills but it's not clear how this process works or if void is even involved and what exactly does a rock with a will of its own do like the ones from Roadrunner going back to these soul totems there is another detail common among many of them hiding in the background these twisted pillars they show up all over hallow nest behind at least 21 different totems so where these things also built by the void kingdom are they made of solid void well these pillars show up in one specific area that is quite interesting these pillars can be seen inside the black egg now the question is do these pillars turn into shadows and fly away with the rest of the egg in the dream no more ending and that would imply that they are made of void but then again does this mean these chains are void or these drapes why our Hornet in the night shell the only things that are left where's the hollow night shell where are their nails if the void sucked it all up why is Hornet okay there'd better be an explanation of this team cherry I know where you live regardless of what these pillars are they do seem to be a calling card of the void kingdom since they can be found near so many soul totems that doesn't mean I think they made the black egg temple though the pale King appears to have been able to create stone objects from void himself we have the shade gates and he also had these containers that were used to store void that appear to use void stones as lids anyway there is one other spot where these strange twisted pillars can be found that being the entrance to the room where the ancient nail psmith can be found we know this corpse was called the ancient nail Smith from the text file containing its dream nail dialog of course the ancient nail Smith isn't the only giant corpse we find in hallow night we also have the shade beast in the abyss as well as the green beast in the Queen's garden whose names come from their sprite art files there's the worm corpses in the kingdoms edge and finally we have the temple of the black egg which according to the upcoming Hall Night art book was built from the carapace of a colossal ancient bug the shade beast is obviously tied to the void possibly is some kind of void worshipper but it seems possible that these other giant beings - the pale kings worm form who are part of the void kingdom giant beasts similar to the design of the soul totems might have also existed around that time but it's also possible that some of these creatures live before or afterwards there's literally no dialogue related to the green beast so know anything about it and information regarding the other beasts isn't much better while there does seem to be influences of the void kingdom all around how honest the ancient basin and the abyss seemed to be the most important parts of their society the most interesting aspect of the ancient basin is that it's called the ancient basin geographically a basin is a depression in the ground where water collects looking at the abyss the entrance is remarkably similar in structure to that of a well it's a long vertical hole that stores liquid at the bottom this begs about a hundred questions was the abyss built as a way to store void or did the void Kingdom just find the abyss and set up home nearby someone had to create this architecture if void was being drained into the abyss where was it coming from or is there just an infinite amount of void pouring out of the shape beasts Bowl somehow there is also the question of whether or not the Snail Shamans are connected to this Void Kingdom. Unfortunately, that is really difficult to answer. The Snail Shamans are definitely some kind of Void creation. The Snail Shaman calls the Knight a little shadow, implying that he knows what the Knight is. And the Shamans in the Soul Sanctum and the Crystal Mound literally exploded to void balls that could absorb by the Knight. However the Snail Shaman is surprised by the Abyss Shriek implying that the Shamans have never been to the place of its origin. I don't think the snail shaman would be wrong in this instance I think a character like the snail shaman would know what he's talking about but that is just speculation on my part that leaves the question of where the snail shamans came from which I don't really have an answer for they have a very strange nature to them the snail shaman in the ancestral mound implies that it is bound to stay on the mound we don't know if this binding is physical or what but it kind of implies that the shamans have been in holliness for quite some time as for the altar in the abyss where the shriek is found I believe this was built by the void Kingdom the faces are similar in design to the soul vessels which store souls similar to the soul totems the void kingdom clearly knew how to capture soul so they seemed like likely candidates for creating the soul vessels found in the game there's even a soul vessel fragment located in an arien deep nest that features those twisted black pillars one minor point we don't know if anything like the shade Lord existed in the void kingdom it appears as though the shade Lord came into being from the worship of the god seekers so I suppose it's possible that the void kingdom was able to create a similar being but there's no way to tell the God seekers were special masks that allowed them to focus their thoughts giving them a godly focus which indicates that the creation of the shade Lord was a more unique occurrence and if something like the shade Lord existed in the past it probably would have already murdered the radiance which brings us to the downfall of the void kingdom the fate of the void kingdom is briefly mentioned by mask maker after obtaining the Kings brand the mask maker denounces the pale Kings attempt at uniting hollowness under his leadership saying no bug has ever laid claim to this hole even the Beast knew their limit and bound their realm and nests edge it is the ancient caste that made attempt at such vast rule how illness ruin reflects well those fared attempts so the kingdom appears to have fallen apart due to their attempts at expanding their rule across all of Hollow nest the radiance appears to call the void her ancient enemy implying that she combated the void kingdom long ago possibly even putting the kingdom to its end dream ailing the structures in the room where the fish shriek is obtained reveals that whoever used to live there they plan on making a return which should be expected as a wise Star Wars trailer once said no one's ever really gone now if you've been following speculation on silk song you're probably aware of the masters these mysterious beings mentioned by both confessor gigi and stele soul jinn they appear to be tied to the void in some way indicating that they could also be connected to the void kingdom possibly as remnants from before the civilization fell if this is true then that means silk song might shed light on what exactly the void kingdom was seeing as the last Hollow night update god master decide to give us more info on these void worshippers I think it's likely that they will become important too in silk song all right let's run through everything one last time and remember there's a lot of speculation in here don't spout all this off at a dinner party expecting everyone to agree with you you might make a complete ass of yourself there was an ancient caste that existed in the lands of hollowness these bugs chose to worship the darkness they placed a void inside of idols in order to worship them and imprinted void with forms that did something they also knew how to manipulate soul capable of placing it within different types of vessels they also used rocks with wills to store information as well as construct roads and pathways this kingdom attempted to expand itself across modern day hollowness but their plans were proved futile possibly due to one moth and their empire fell into obscurity however there might still be a few left who have planted servants to carry out their plans and there you have it of course a lot of this hinges on team Cherry's artwork being 100% deliberate which could very easily not be the case you would think that the pale King built the royal waterways so why exactly can soul totems be found there why is this wall replaced entirely with corpses are these load-bearing corpses where the fuck did the drapes go but hopefully we were actually able to dig up a little more information about the ancient civilization and the void if not then the main point of my video is still pretty strong that being please vote for rick Scott this November

Channel: mossbag

Views: 1,179,303

Keywords: Hollow Knight, Silksong, The Abyss, Ancient Basin, Arcane Egg, Soul Totem, Hollow Knight Lore, Team Cherry

Id: osPSNk_gM_g

Length: 18min 33sec (1113 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2019