The Fate of the Pale King Script

We have talked about the Pale King a lot on this channel, but today he’s going to get his very own video. But we’re not going to talk about how he had sex with a tree, or how he killed millions of his own children, or that time he built a shitty tramway that only goes about ten feet. No, instead we are going to talk about the fate of the Pale King. The Grey Mourner in the Resting Grounds implies that the Pale King fled from his kingdom. This lines up with what is written in the game’s manual, which mentions what happened to the Pale King as Hallownest fell to ruins. It explains that he abandoned his subjects and went into hiding. Anyone hoping to find the Pale King would face a journey perilous beyond imagining. And well…

♫Frolic by Luciano Michelini♫

            This fucking joke got my video claimed 😭

The exact timeline of when all of this happened is a bit hazy. There are corpses in the Ancient Basin of bugs begging for the Pale King to return, so the infection hadn’t completely taken over when he left. At some point the gates to the City of Tears were closed, possibly as a way to try and keep the infection out. This could explain why some of the bugs in the City of Tears resorted to cannibalism. Relic Seeker Lemm tells us that before the city collapsed the bugs took to writing on spider silk instead of stone tablets, but that the moisture in some of the towers has ruined most of these writings. So in other words, these bugs are complete morons and we have no writings from when the city fell. Relic Seeker Lemm mentions that he has found no mention of the Hollow Knight beyond the statue in City of Tears. So, as far as we can tell, the King went into hiding sometime while all of this was going down, and that some of his subjects still retained their control over the Radiance.

Of course, we know where the Pale King went. His corpse can be found inside of the White Palace found inside of a Kingsmould. This opens a whole new can of worms that we have to discuss. There is this idea that the White Palace hidden inside of the Kingsmould is just a memory and not the real White Palace. I have mentioned this idea a couple of times in my other videos, but I don’t believe it to be correct at all. First of all, if this one is just a dream, then what happened to the real White Palace? Relic Seeker Lemm tells us that the palace seems to have just vanished. Does this mean there is a second White Palace somewhere that we haven’t seen yet? Did I just happen to miss it behind a breakable wall in Greenpath? This argument makes less sense than just saying the one in the dream is the real one.

When we try to Dream Nail the Kingsmould without the Awakened Dream nail, we can see that there is some kind of barrier over it. This is the same barrier we see over the three Dreamers. Seems like someone was intentionally trying to block this dream off from the outside world. This only makes sense if it’s a real place and not just some random memory. The Pale King in the White Palace drops the Kingsoul, which the White Lady recognizes as being connected to the real Pale King. Why would the real Pale King be hiding in a random memory and not the real White Palace?

The White Palace itself contains a memory sealed away in the Path of Pain. Why would a memory be sealed inside another memory? What is this, Inception... but with bugs? Anyway, why would a Kingsmould even have this memory from the Pale King in the first place? Doesn’t really seem like something the Pale King would just mention during a casual game of Dominos or something. Dying in the White Palace counts as a real death, which I think anchors the White Palace to reality in some way. And we also know that the Pale King was able to somehow place the Radiance inside of the Hollow Knight. So why can’t he place the White Palace inside of the Kingsmould? It seems to me like the King definitely had the capability to put his palace in the Dream world.

But that’s enough of arguing with actual evidence, it’s time to start speculating about some of the more obscure matters surrounding the Pale King. The Pale King’s corpse is found hunched over on his throne in the White Palace. Now I am not a biologist, but I’m pretty sure things don’t just die for no reason. I guess the conservative view towards the Pale King’s death would be to say that he just withered away. The White Lady describes Hallownest’s ruin as lasting far longer than the existence of the kingdom, so the Pale King has probably been there a long time. But I think I have an explanation that makes at least some sense. The Void.

Let’s start by establishing that the Void and the Pale King are enemies. The lore tablet in the King’s Workshop reads:

“VOID, yours is the power opposed.”

In this line, I believe that the Pale King is saying that the Void is a force opposed to himself. The Pale King is described as a pale light, akin to the Radiance. We see that the Radiance and the Void aren’t exactly pen pals, from both her Dream Nail dialogue and the fact that the Void completely fucks her up. So it would make sense that the Void was also enemies with the Pale King. Or it might be that the Void opposes any sort of life in general, as it appears as though some bugs have been killed by the void. Regardless, I think it’s safe to say that the void has the potential to kill the Pale King.

Okay, cool. But that doesn’t really matter if we can’t place void in the throne room with the Pale King.

[Saved by the Bell credits plays to indicate that the video is over]

But we can! Look at those black balls floating around! That’s void, people! Well, maybe. In my Mask Maker video, I mentioned that there are black balls floating around, stating that I thought they were evidence of void. In the Ancient Basin and the Abyss, there are little black balls floating around everywhere to imply the presence of void. But someone has since pointed out to me that these black balls found in the Mask Maker’s room can be seen in several other rooms. It’s in the Stag Station in Dirtmouth, as well as several indoor rooms found in the game. So I don’t think the particles in the Mask Maker’s room are a very reliable piece of evidence.

But things are a little different with the Pale King’s throne room. First of all, the throne room is dark. So dark that the Knight pulls out the Lumafly Lantern. This is very peculiar for sure. The only other area in the White Palace I can find that is this dark is the hallway to the King’s Workshop where he worked on the void constructs. Whether or not this means there is void in the room is up in the air. You don’t need the lantern for the Abyss, so it might be a moot point. 

Second, the black balls in this room are actually a little different from the ones we see in other parts of Hallownest. The black dust balls fade in and out of existence, where as void balls grow and shrink. Now just look at the balls in the throne room. That’s textbook shrinkage people!

[Seinfeld credits play because I made a reference to a popular joke from the show and also because it’s a running gag throughout this video]

On top of that these void balls can be much larger than the dust balls. After intensely studying balls for about twenty minutes, I can conclude that these particles in the throne room are in fact void. If that isn’t enough proof, there are also pillars of black smoke in the room. This is yet another effect that is only found near void.

Hopefully my speculation hasn’t lost you yet, because this is where shit gets good. If there is indeed void in the throne room, then where did it come from? Well, I have a few theories, two of which revolve around Kingsmoulds found in the game. We see a grand total of eleven Kingsmoulds in the White Palace. There is one standing guard at the entrance, another one shortly afterwards, two guarding the memory in the Path of Pain, and then seven corpses outside of the throne room. It seems a bit strange that the Kingsmoulds found near the Pale King are dead, but not the ones that are further away.

It might be that the void within the Kingsmoulds was able to escape its confinements. The Pale King’s presence drew the void within these Kingsmould to him, and that’s why it escaped from these Kingsmoulds and not the other ones. But there are a few issues with this theory. Did the Pale King not realize that this could happen? We sort of have to concede that the Pale King is an idiot for this theory to work. And while he might be kind of an asshole, I don’t think he’s an idiot. On top of that, the Kingsmould corpses have pool of Void around them, so is the Void even moving into the throne room? Or does it just do nothing?

So that’s one possible theory. Not exactly air tight, but I think it’s plausible. However, there is one more Kingsmould we need to talk about: the corpse found in the Ancient Basin. Like I said earlier, this Kingsmould was used by the Pale King to hide himself and his castle. But this corpse looks quite different from the corpses found in the throne room. This Kingsmould has giant void tendrils connected to it. It seems to me that this is way more void than you would get from one Kingsmould. I think these tendrils are seeping into the Kingsmould. In other words, the void from the Abyss actually made its way into the dream inside of the Kingsmould and reached the Pale King. Now that’s dedication, I must say.

This theory also grants more significance to the lighthouse keeper in the Abyss. When we first reach the Abyss, the light in the lighthouse is turned off. Inside, we see the corpse of one of the Pale King’s followers. Their Dream Nail dialogue reads:

“Turn it off… Cannot…

My King. I’m sorry… The sea calls.”

I think this dialogue is showing us that the lighthouse keeper was influenced by the void to turn off the light, and then apologized to the King for doing so. The Pale King knew the Void was dangerous, hence why he had the lighthouses built. But his servant failed to keep the void at bay, allowing the void to move upwards towards the Palace Grounds and reach the Kingsmould containing the White Palace.

We can see that the void is capable of doing this. There are void tendrils that reach all the way into Deepnest, where the Sharp Shadow charm can be found. And then there’s the fact that void particles can be seen as high up in the kingdom as the elevator at the top of the Ancient Basin. 

Okay, so what are the problems with this theory? Well, the mind of the Kingmould was locked behind a shield, so is it really possible that the void could get past it? During the two Radiance battles we can see that the void is able of entering the Dream world, but we don’t know how much more difficult it would be for the Void to get into the Kingsmould. What exactly would it look like for the Void to enter this dream? Did it go through the front door? Or can it just appear wherever it wants? If void did come in this way, why wouldn’t it attack the Royal Retainers? This theory also doesn’t explain what’s going on with the Kingsmoulds in the White Palace and why only some of them are dead.

So yeah, both of these theories are incredibly speculative and should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, but I do think there has to be some reason for why there are void particles in the throne room. It’s worth mentioning that the lore tablet in the throne room might be connected to all of this. There are a few of these egg looking tablets found in Hallownest. Most of them feature this strange symbol that flashes on the screen. These tablets were likely created by the Pale King. There is a certain sound effect that plays when reading these tablets.

[Pale King ASMR]

We can hear a longer version of this sound during the birthplace cutscene in the Abyss when the Pale King is talking to the Hollow Knight.

[Pale King ASMR intensifies]

[Weird-as-fuck breathing]

This voice clip is weird as fuck. We can hear a man’s voice, which is probably the Pale King, but then there is that strange breathing that sounds like a female voice. I assume this is the White Lady, so maybe she was also present when the Pale King chose the Hollow Knight. This strange whispering can also be heard in the Pale King’s workshop. This is the same sound you can hear while standing near a lore tablet, but in the workshop, it’s much louder.

[Relaxing, isn’t it?]

Anyway, the tablet in the throne room is a little different. Not only is the egg different from the other ones, but there is no voice that plays when you interact with it. Did the Pale King write this tablet? I don’t know who else would have written it, honestly. But I am getting super off topic. My point is that this egg is reminiscent of the Black Egg in the Forgotten Crossroads as well as the black eggs in the Abyss. First of all, they’re black. Second, the floor in this part of the room uses the same effect as the floor in the Black Egg. This might be hinting at this egg actually containing void in some form, which would possibly explain why there is void in the room. But at the same time, I really doubt this would kill the Pale King, since there seem to be bindings in this area. And like I said, the Pale King wouldn’t do something that stupid. You know, other than building that worthless tram in Crossroads.

So there are the possible explanations I can find for why there might be void in the throne room. Personally I like the idea that the void came up from the Abyss lake, but it’s all pretty speculative. The thing is, I tend to use text and dialogue to argue about lore, so I’m a little out of my element here, but I do think it’s worth talking about any possible visual clues we have about lore, even if it is way more up to interpretation. It’s kinda like an optical illusion. I might see a duck, you might see a rabbit, and some people might stare really hard and see something that isn’t even there.

Now one issue with the idea that the Pale King was killed by void is that there doesn’t seem to be any indication of this on his corpse. There aren’t any Void tendrils connected to him, and his eyes don’t have the void streaks. It’s worth pointing out that some characters have the streaks that really don’t seem to be connected to the void at all though. And there is artwork of some Vessels that have the streaks while most don’t. So maybe there doesn’t need to be tendrils and void streaks. The corpse of the Pale King is a hollow shell. We can’t strike any of the other bugs we see that were affected by the void, but it would make sense that the void hollowed him out. So maybe this is an indication of the King’s fate? 

Another problem with the idea that the Pale King was consumed by the void is that the Kingsoul wasn’t affected. It seems like charms might be able to be corrupted by the void, given the Sharp Shadow charm. But we don’t really know any of that for sure, so I don’t think this is a huge strike against the idea.

Alright, so what if void didn’t kill the Pale King? Are there any other explanations we can find other than he just withered away? One idea is that the Pale King sacrificed himself to create the Kingsoul, since Salubra tells us that charms can be created from a bug’s dying wish. The main problem with this theory is that the Kingsoul is said to be born from a union between two Higher Beings, implying that the charm has existed for a while. After all, the Pale King only has half of the Kingsoul. The other half is in possession of the White Lady. The charm had to have existed in the past for this to make any sense.

Another theory is that the Pale King actually transformed into a new being, leaving behind his hollow shell. Bardoon mentions that a Wyrm doesn’t die, but instead transforms. But we don’t know if that can happen again or not. Does the Pale King get three lives, five lives, nine lives? In my opinion, this theory kind of undercuts the Pale King’s Dream Nail dialogue:

“No cost too great.”

And if there is a seal over the Kingsmould, would the Pale King even be able to escape the White Palace? On the other hand, this would give us the opportunity to actually meet the Pale King in the Hornet DLC should it actually be a sequel. That is going to be a bit of an awkward family reunion, seeing as Hornet is the Pale King’s bastard child and that one of his other children murdered her mom in her sleep.

So yeah… what was the point of this video? Let’s see… The Pale King most likely went into hiding during the infection by placing his White Palace inside of the mind of a Kingsmould. There he either withered away, committed die, transformed into a new being, was killed by the void, or something completely random that Team Cherry decides to add in with the Hornet DLC. There is strong evidence that there is in fact void in the room because balls. This void might have come from the Kingsmoulds in the throne room, or from the void seeping in from the Ancient Basin. There is also the possibility that the void particles are coming from the lore tablet in the far right corner of the room. And that’s about it. Until Team Cherry prints off a death certificate or a coroner’s report, this is the best I can do.

There is one last point I couldn’t fit anywhere. Apparently the Pale King covered a bunch of furniture in white sheets. There really isn’t any way for us to know when this happened or why this happened. Was it a part of putting the palace in the Dream world? Are they repainting the ceiling? Did Team Cherry just not want to draw a bunch of shit so they put sheets over them? In fact, what kind of furniture does the Pale King even have under there? 

I mean, this one is clearly a fucking tombstone. This one looks like a pig from Minecraft. And I think this one might be a Festivus Pole?

[Seinfeld credits because you should always finish your video with a callback]

You know, William and Ari have released four goddamn DLCs and they can’t even bother to answer this very important question? It’s ridiculous. It’s like they don’t even care about the lore. I’m uninstalling the piece of shit.