Gods & Glory™ is gonna be YUUUGGEE [speculation] Script

So earlier this month William Pellen and Ari Gibson made the long drive from their home in Adelaide, South Australia to E3 here in the United States.

Aw yes, America, the home of the free. Now don’t get me wrong, America definitely has its own list of problems but despite all that, I’m still proud to be an American. Sure, we may not have those cute koala bears like they do in Australia. But you know what, that’s just fine. Who wants koala bears anyway? Like 90% of them have chlamydia. 

So why exactly did Team Cherry come down to E3 and risk getting gunned down in the streets of LA? Well, two things. First of all, they likely came over to eat some of the finest cuisine America has to offer. The second reason was to promote the release of Hollow Knight on the Nintendo Switch. Now the Nintendo Switch has sort of become an indie developer’s wet dream. As a Switch owner myself, I can tell you that indie titles are all we have to play while we wait for the next Wii U port to come out. Shovel Knight’s launch on Switch sold faster than any other platform release, and the game was almost three years old by then. And Celeste has sold better on Switch than on any other platform as well. So yeah, Hollow Knight is probably going to do pretty well. Team Cherry is probably swimming in piles of gold as we speak.

But it wasn’t just the Switch release that Team Cherry had for us. They also showed off some new footage for Content Pack 3, Gods & Glory™. And no, Lifeblood doesn’t count as a content pack, that was a “Major Update”. It’s a totally different thing. But if new footage wasn’t enough, Team Cherry also held a Reddit AMA on r/nintendoswitch. We learned a little bit about Gods & Glory™ as well as some other cool information. According to Ari Gibson, the snail from the Weird and Wonderful World trailer got cut from the game because it was too big. Okay, really Ari? If fucking Ridley can get his giant ass into Smash Bros, I’m pretty sure Gary the Snail here can fit into your little indie game. Also, Hollow Knight 2 confirmed for 2028. Anyway, between this new AMA and the gameplay footage shown at E3, there is a lot to talk about.

So let’s start by looking at the details Team Cherry gave us in the Kickstarter update first announcing Gods & Glory™. In this post, Team Cherry teased that the update would feature a new game mode. Now when I first heard this, I thought it was obviously going to be some form of Hollow Knight Battle Royale. People have been begging Team Cherry for this game mode since the Kickstarter began back in 2014. I for one would love to run around and smack other players with a fucking frying pan. Well maybe not a frying pan, but you get the idea.

Well, it turns out I was wrong, because during the Nintendo Live Treehouse Event, Ari and William showcased some of the new update and explained that Gods & Glory™ would be Team Cherry’s take on a boss rush mode.

“But we didn’t want to just make a boss rush mode, we wanted to do it in our way. And what that meant was, we wanted to integrate it completely into the game experience. We wanted to make sure there’s a narrative in there. We wanted to make sure that it’s all part of the Knight’s journey, and it’s not like a separate divided mode from them to play.”

So in other words, Team Cherry wanted to fit a boss rush mode into the game that still made sense lorewise. And to do this, Team Cherry has introduced a new character called the Godseeker. 

But before we get into that, let’s talk about the mechanics behind this new boss rush mode. What we see in the Treehouse Live event is that there are different arenas in this new area called Godhome, where the Knight faces off against a selection of bosses. The player also has the option to bind certain abilities to make the match more difficult. The game appears to keep track of which bindings you’ve beaten each area with. After William defeats the last boss, we see one of the five empty notches get filled on the archway above the door. This makes me think that the other four notches represent each of the different bindings that the player can enable for the arena.

In this first arena, we see William Pellen face off against the Vengefly King, the Dung Defender, The Mega Moss Charger, Hornet and Paintmaster Sheo. Now during the Treehouse event, Ari Gibson mentioned that some of the old bosses were being tweaked for this new boss rush area. We can actually see this in the footage provided. In the original game, the Knight could fight the Massive Moss Charger, but here, it’s the Mega Moss Charger.

So it looks like some of the more lackluster bosses might be getting a tune up, which is pretty cool. Maybe they’ll finally give Nosk those badass wings that got cut from the game. Another character that might be getting a treatment is the Hollow Knight, albeit in a slightly different way. We see a brief glimpse of the Hollow Knight during the Gods & Glory™ teaser trailer. Something important to note here is that the Hollow Knight is lacking the giant crack on his shell. This crack first appeared at the start of the game, when the Radiance began seeping out of the Hollow Knight and can be seen during the battle with the Hollow Knight. Also it looks like the Knight is wearing armor. The armor plating on his shoulders is clearly absent on the statue found in the City of Tears. So it looks like we might be facing a younger version of the Hollow Knight, with a moveset possibly more based on swordplay than just mindless attacks.

They also show off the Radiance in the teaser trailer. Is it possible we are going to get another fight with her too? Will she be any different? The Godhome looks a lot like where the Radiance battle took place, so maybe these two beings are more closely related than we realize.

Anyway, once the Godseeker’s quest is finished, a new mode is unlocked, which dataminers have been able to figure out is called God’s Glory. There is also a sprite design for the new mode. So is this just another version of the Boss Rush Mode? That seems pretty weird since it is listed with Normal Mode and Steel Soul Mode. Maybe this new mode will be tied to the whole “glorifying charm” aspect Team Cherry announced in the Kickstarter update. 

Alright, so we talked about some of the mechanics of this new update. Now let’s talk about lore.

In the Treehouse event, we see the Knight unlock the chains on a cocoon with a simple key. Then the corpse of a giant bug falls out. Now I think it’s fair to argue that this is the Godseeker. Obviously the creature was chained up, like the Kickstarter update said. Also, the creature can be dream nailed, allowing the Knight to enter an area called Godhome. 

But this is where things get confusing. The kickstarter update talks about how the Godseeker quest will expand the player’s romance options. Is Team Cherry saying we can romanic this corpse? 

♫I’ve been really tryiiinnnggg, baby!♫

Of course it seems like the Godseeker might still be around in the Godhome. I assume that’s her sitting on the throne during this battle. Maybe the bug we find in the Junk Pit is just a carrier for the Godseeker. It’s a pretty common theme that we see with both Grimm and the Pale King. In the Treehouse event, there is never any opportunity to talk to this character, so we still don’t know what Team Cherry is talking about with all of the this romance stuff.

So yeah, why is a chained up cocoon sitting in a junkpit in the Royal Waterways? The easy explanation, and my own personal belief, is that the Godseeker was yet another powerful being that the Pale King attempted to hide away from the world. It’s pretty obvious that the Pale King didn’t really want to share his kingdom with other powerful beings. He locked away the Radiance. He deemed lifeblood, a blue liquidy goop connected to another powerful being, a heresy. And he possibly had the grubs imprisoned because of some holy power they had. It is kind of strange, though. The Radiance had three layers of protection over her, while the grubs were spread out and hidden all across Hallownest. But the Godseeker can be unlocked with a simple key. I gotta say, the Pale King got a little lazy with this one.

Similar to Grimm, I am guessing that the Godseeker’s quest will involve something to do with keeping herself alive. As for what this quest is, my guess is that the Godseeker is searching for a being that is worthy of the title “God”. The Kickstarter description for the content pack reads “Take your place amongst the Gods in an epic celebration of Hallownest's Glory and the final chapter of the Knight's journey.” So the Godseeker watches you fight all of these bosses, and by the end, might elevate you to the status of God somehow.

So how does finding a God help the Godseeker prolong her existence? I don’t know. It’s possible that she seeks out Gods so she can kill them or maybe have crazy bug sex with them to create another more powerful baby God bug thing. I know that sounds weird but it’s pretty par for the coarse when the rest of Hollow Knight’s lore is concerned One final note, In the Switch trailer, we see that the Godseeker is no longer on the throne. Is this because she only watches each arena fight once, or is there some other reason why she isn’t there? Do we have to kill her or something?

Let’s shift gears and talk about the Nailmasters. So the three Nailmasters, Sheo, Mato and Oro were all trained by the Great Nailsage, who we know is Sly. Nailmaster Sheo, who lives in Greenpath, eventually gave up his nail to pursue a different craft, drawing Nailsmith like he draws those french girl. The other two Nailmasters, Oro and Mato, don’t seem to get along very well. 

The two have very different personalities, with Oro, the brother found in Kingdom’s Edge, wanting you to leave him alone. Mato, who resides in the Howling Cliffs, however, says that he basically considers the Knight his child after meeting it like twice. Oro seems to detest Mato’s sense of loyalty and honor, and his Dream Nail dialogue implies that Oro’s choices in life were justified in his eyes, but that Mato won’t even listen to him. Also, Oro is the only Nailmaster who charges Geo in order to receive training. The main conflict between these two bugs is that Oro owes something to Mato. Mato reassures us that he has not forgotten about this debt, while Oro tells us that Mato will have to wait a little while longer. Considering the fact that Oro charges Geo for his lessons, I’m guessing he owes Mato money. But that doesn’t help us understand what Oro’s lifestyle choices were. Was he turning tricks on the street or something?

More interesting than the Nailmasters, however, is our good buddy Sly. We know that Sly is the Great Nailsage who trained all of the Nailmasters, but we don’t know much about how Sly ended up as a shopkeeper in Dirtmouth. However, there’s a little bit more to his story that is worth looking into. When we first meet Sly, he is being influenced by the infection. He has one line here that is pretty interesting:

“...Esmy... how much deeper do we have to go…”

We have no idea who Esmy is, but I think I have an idea about where she might have gone. When Sly is presented with the Shopkeeper’s Key, he correctly guesses that we found it in the Crystal Peaks. He claims he has no idea how they key ended up there, but that doesn’t make sense. Did Esmy lead Sly into the Crystal Peaks, resulting in some sort of event that caused Sly to lose both his key and Esmy? Or did Team Cherry just put it there because, well, it has to go somewhere? I don’t know, but I do hope Team Cherry gives us a little more info on this story

I’ll briefly mention here that a lot of people have speculated that Sly is actually Mighty Hegemol, one of the Five Great Knights. This is mainly because of his small size and his proximity to the location of Hegemol’s armor. I know I said before that Hollow Knight’s lore is vague enough for any interpretation to be viable. Well, that’s not true. There’s no way Sly’s actually Hegemol, and there’s no way that you could convince me otherwise.

Okay, so how are these four characters going to be used in the upcoming content pack? Are they just boss fights, or is there any more coming in the future? Well, at the very least, we’ll be able to Dream Nail them for just a little bit more lore, but I don’t think Team Cherry can fit all of the lore for Esmy in just a few Dream Nail dialogues. Another thing that Team Cherry can do is add more information about these bosses using the Hunter’s Journal. The journal entries are an easy way to add lore into the game. I mean they even have a Hunter’s Journal entry for the Seal of Binding. Now how does that make sense? I mean, you wouldn’t “hunt” a seal. Okay, bad example.

But considering the Hunter has entries for the Grimm Troupe characters and the Grey Prince Zote enemies, using lines from texts he definitely wouldn’t have access to, it seems like his Journal is becoming less and less grounded in the reality of Hollow Knight. I’m not saying I want Team Cherry to stop doing this. In fact, I have a couple of things I’d like them to add Journal entries for. Regardless, whatever method they chose, I hope Team Cherry is at least able to find a way to add in at least some new lore for these guys.

One important thing to note about Gods & Glory™ is that it is the last big update for the Knight’s journey, so this is Team Cherry’s last chance to cover some important details. Of course, things like the Weavers and the trilobite statue in Beast’s Den can be saved for the Hornet DLC, but this isn’t the case for everything.

I think there is a good chance that we will finally find out how the Hollow Knight grew. I don’t think the Hornet DLC can answer this question, because Hornet was either not born or just a baby when the Hollow Knight was sealed away. We know this because the White Lady says that Hornet and Herrah spent little time together. At this time, Herrah would have to be put into sleep as a Dreamer, and the Hollow Knight was presumably already fully grown.

The only theory I really ever hear for the Hollow Knight’s growth is that it was a side effect of taking in the infection. Which is possible, but the growth seen with the infection is usually more of a mutation, causing things to look unnatural. The Hollow Knight looks like a creature that grew normally. But then again, what the fuck is normal in this game?

Another thing that Team Cherry might expand on in this update is the lore surrounding the Snail Shamans. During the Reddit AMA, someone asked Team Cherry if the Snail Shamans would be explained any further, to which William replied “Yes?” We don’t know much about the Snail Shamans. There’s only one that’s still alive in the game, and he tells us that he is somehow bound to the ancestral mound. What is interesting about the snail shamans is that they appear to be made of Void. The main reason I believe this is because the shamans in the Crystalized Mound and the Soul Sanctum explode into black orbs, which isn’t really a think regular bugs would do. Other than the Knight and the bugs in the Soul Sanctum, the Shamans are the only creatures still around who know how to use soul, indicating that their history in Hallownest goes back a long time.

Now there’s lots of other little chunks of lore Team Cherry could throw into this content pack. Lifeblood, the grubs, the Colosseum of Fools, whoever the fuck Tuk is looking for.

But of course there’s one very important piece of lore that we simply cannot ignore. Bretta. As I’m sure you all remember, Bretta left Dirtmouth in Content Pack 2 to go and find her true love, since neither the Knight nor Zote were good enough for her. Personally, I think the Hunter is a perfect match for Bretta. Please, consider the following. Bretta left Zote because he claimed to be a great warrior but really wasn’t. The Hunter is basically everything that Zote isn’t, so Bretta would probably like him. Both the Hunter and Bretta are writers. The Hunter has his descriptive journals while Bretta has her sensual fanfiction. That’s clearly something they could bond over. And then there’s the proximity of Greenpath to the Howling Cliffs. And finally, this kills two birds with one stone. The Hunter’s arc really just sorta stops. It would be a damn shame if Team Cherry didn’t do anything else with his character.

Now you might be thinking, Team Cherry is most definitely going to just kill Bretta off. And that is a fair point. I mean, Team Cherry has a pretty damning track record of this. Just look at Cloth.

♫Mm, whatcha’ say??♫

♫Mm, that you only meant wel-?♫

And Tiso.

♫Mm, whatcha’ say??♫

♫Mm, that you only meant wel-?♫

And Quirrel.

♫OCEAN MAN!♫

♫TAKE ME BY THE HAN-♫

But I really hope things turn out differently this time. Please, Team Cherry, I know you watch my videos. Please for the love of God, don’t kill Bretta. I mean, yeah she’s kind of an asshole, but still, she doesn’t deserve to die.

So yeah, that’s about it for this video. The main take away from all this is that Gods and Glory™ is gonna be fucking huge! You can tell that Team Cherry is going all out on this. I mean, if seeing Chunky Fluke in action doesn’t get you excited for this update, then I don’t know what will. I guess we should talk about when this update might release. In the Reddit AMA, Ari Gibson said that the update was heading into internal testing, which is a good sign. In the kickstarter update announcing the Switch launch, Team Cherry said that the new content pack would be coming out shortly afterwards. So that’s good. Let’s see if we can find a clip of Ari saying that with his own mouth.

“This is an upcoming content pack that we’re gonna release for free in the coming months. It’s called Hollow Knight”

GOD DAMMIT!