Hallownest's Ancient Civilization Examined Script

Everything falls eventually. This is true both in real life and in Hollow Knight. Hallownest was a vast kingdom complete with a network of pathways, ambitious mining operations, and nudist bath houses. But even the Pale King’s eternal kingdom could not stand against the onslaught of time. Of course, not every kingdom is destroyed by... one moth, but Hallownest’s fate isn’t necessarily unique in the world of Hollow Knight. Mister Mushroom implies that the actions of the Pale King were commonplace, with Wyrms creating kingdoms and ruling over them until they crumbled.

But in this video, we are going to look at a different civilization. Seemingly long before the Pale King or the Radiance existed a group of bugs that worshipped the “darkness”. This 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 going to 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 Anarcho-syndicalist commune. But for the sake of simplicity, 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, this civilization is said to be ancient, so it makes sense that nobody in the game besides Lemm and the Mask Maker even really talk about it. But there are still echoes of the Void Kingdom found in the Ari Gibson’s artwork. So in this video, we are 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 5th time on this channel. Some of the things I am 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 Sumwan and Toxicbrain. It’s very well done and super informative.

Let’s start with Relic Seeker Lemm. In the Godmaster update, Lemm directly addresses the Void Kingdom. In the journal entry for the Void Idol, 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 Hallownest, and they are designed to contain void within them.

Buy 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 dream nailed if the Knight has the Awoken Dream Nail. Dream nailing the Shade Beast without obtaining the Void Heart gives the following. “...Void… Power… Without unity...” So according to this guy, void contains power. Which is kind of weird considering the Lemm quote above seems to separate the void from power. Maybe the power within void is a result of the void being worshipped, similar to how the bosses of Hollow Knight find stronger forms through the Godseeker’s 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. Lemm also talks about the Void Kingdom when discussing the Arcane Eggs. He explains that Arcane Eggs are a treasured relic from a time before Hallownest. They prove the existence of this age, alongside the Soul Totems found throughout the kingdom. These eggs work similar to Wanderer’s Journals, acting as a store of information. While Lemm can only access the outer layer, ancient bugs were somehow able to reach the information stored deep within. And finally, Lemm mentions that the eggs are rumored to contain a will, and that they seek out a bearer. Lemm speculates that the eggs themselves are drawn to the Knight, since the Knight was able to find a whopping four of them. One final detail about Arcane Eggs is that they are 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 Knight to go to the Ancient Basin, the Elderbug says the following, “Did you know the caverns continue even below the capital? Few have ventured that deep so the details are scant. Those who made it back told of impossibly old structures and roads formed as though the rock itself possessed a will.” In other words, the architecture of the Ancient Basin was supposedly formed through 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 jackshit. Maybe he’s depressed.

Well, there is one explanation. But I don’t really want to say it, because it devolves into saying a whole bunch of different things are made out of void. And this community is already too quick to play the v-card, so I’m a bit worried about this. We already know that void can take the form of liquid and gas, given the Sea of Void 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 Dandy in the Queen’s Garden, as well as the Soul Totems in Deepnest 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 King’s additions. Finally, the entrance to the Pantheon of Hallownest also features these void stones.

And then we have the Black Egg, where the Hollow Knight is imprisoned. Quirrel describes the egg as 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 roads 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 utilized these will bearing 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, there is plenty of evidence to support the idea that void can be imprinted with a will. The Kingsmould seem 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 wills seem 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 is imprinted on it. Same with the Knight, it also contains a will according to Steel Soul Jinn and the charm description for the Void Heart.

We also have the Collector. The Collector is a void 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 Dandy in the Queen’s Garden, who implies that 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 at the Knight, that is until it receives the Void Heart. The journal entry for the Void Tendrils is obtained 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”. So we’ve seen the phrase “given form” before in the Hall of Gods.

The phrase “Void given form” is used to describe the statue of the Knight 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 Knight? Well, I’m not sure what else an imprint of Abyss would even look like. Like, what is this shit? I’ve literally stared at this thing every day 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 of 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 Hallownest sometimes wondered whether there were other, older, stranger Kingdoms deep below them.” And for some reason the Hunter is omnipotent and omnipresent, so this is some pretty strong evidence. If he think 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 King’s, but one of the spikes is longer, so I don’t think there is a connection here. Instead, there is something else in this room we need to look at. Over the course of this channel we’ve talked about whore lore, vore lore, and now we’re gonna talk about floor lore.

So remember how Lemm said that Soul Totems were another indication of the Void Kingdom’s existence? Well, the floor found in this portion of the Abyss can be found underneath several of the soul totems in the game. Since we know 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 that void itself exhibits a will. Instead, a will is imprinted on void manfiesting in creations such as the void constructs, the vessels and the Void Tendrils. The Arcane Eggs and the rocks in the Abyss and the Ancient Basin can also contains wills, but it is not as clear how this process works or if Void is involved. And what exactly does a rock with a will of its own do? Is it like the ones from Road Runner?

Going back to these Soul Totems, there is another detail that is common among many of them hiding in the background, these twisted pillars. They show up all over Hallownest, behind at least 21 different totems. So were these things also built by the Void Kingdom? Are they made of solid void? Well, these pillar 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? That would imply that they are made of void, but then again, does this mean these chains are void? Or these drapes. Why are Hornet and the Knight’s shell the only things that are left? Where’s the Hollow Knight’s shell? Where are their nails? If the void sucked it all up, why is Hornet okay? There had better be an explanation for 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 Nailsmith can be found. We know this corpse was called the Ancient Nailsmith from the text file containing its dream nail dialogue. Of course, the Ancient Nailsmith isn’t the only giant corpse we find in Hollow Knight. 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 Wyrm corpses in the Kingdom’s Edge, and finally we have the Temple of the Black Egg, which according to the upcoming Hollow Knight artbook, was built from the carapace of a colossal ancient bug.

The Shade Beast is obviously tied to the Void, possibly as some kind of void worshipper. But it seems possible that these other giant beings, minus the Pale King’s Wyrm form, were a part of the Void Kingdom. Giant beasts similar to the designs of the soul totems might have also existed around that time. But it’s also possible that some of these creatures lived before or afterwards. There is literally no dialogue related to the Green Beast so we don’t 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 Hallownest, the Ancient Basin and the Abyss seem to be the most important parst 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 100 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 Shade Beast’s 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 explode into void balls that get absorbed by the Knight. However, the Snail Shaman is surprised by the Abyss Shriek, implying that that 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 Hallownest 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 soul similar to the Soul Totems. The Void Kingdom clearly knew how to capture soul, so they seem like likely candidates for creating the Soul Vessels found in the game. There is even a Soul Vessel fragment located in an area in Deepnest 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 Godseekers, 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 Godseekers wore 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 occurence. 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 King’s Brand. The Mask Maker denounces the Pale King’s attempt at uniting Hallownest under his leadership, saying “No bug has ever laid claim to this whole. Even the beasts knew their limits and bound their realm at Nest's edge. It is the ancient caste that made attempt at such vast rule. Hallownest's 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 Hallownest.

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 nailing the structures in the room where the Abyss 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 Silksong, you’re probably aware of the Masters, these mysterious beings mentioned by both Confessor Jiji and Steel 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 Silksong might shed light on what exactly the Void Kingdom was. Seeing as the last Hollow Knight update, Godmaster, decided to give us more info on these void worshippers, I think it’s likely that they will become important in Silksong.

Alright, 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 Hallownest. These bugs chose to worship the darkness. They placed 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 Hallownest, 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 Totem 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 bit 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.

Songs:

Dirtmouth

City of Tears (Outside Loop)

Soul Sanctum

Fungal Wastes

Kingdom's Edge

Resting Grounds

Greenpath