Hollow Knight Lore

The lore

Before Hallownest existed, the land of the insects was split into tribes of feral insectoid and arachnoid beings - the moths who worshipped The Radiance, plant-like beings in Greenpath who worshipped Unn, the mantises, the mushrooms, and the spiders.

As time passed, a higher being known as the Wyrm traveled to the land of Kingdom's Edge and later on "died", but in actuality metamorphosed into the Pale King. The Wyrm lowered and thus humbled himself and his form to appear like the bugs that inhabited the land, and built the kingdom of Hallownest. The Pale King ruled the kingdom by uplifting unintelligent and feral bugs, granting them sapience, freewill, and higher intelligence.

The bugs of Hallownest began to follow the Pale King, convinced to join him - this lead most of the tribes, such as the Moths, to abandon The Radiance who had selfishly kept them in a lower feral state with no freewill so they would have no choice but to worship him.

At some point, the kingdom of Hallownest rose to its success and great prosperity due to the benevolent Pale King's reign, but later on, was invaded by The Radiance who was filled with a bloodthirsty revenge. The Radiance, who revealed his true evil nature, attacked and invaded the dreams of all the bugs who had weak minds, and who were filled with hope and desires, resulting in their transformation back into feral forms.

Being good and caring for his people, the Pale King longed to put a stop towards The Radiance's cruel madness. For reasons not explained, he had to do so by creating  Vessels, living insectoid beings made from Void, which the Radiance was weak against. This gave the Pale King an advantage.
Though thousands of Vessels were created, the Pale King only chose the purest of the Vessels to become the "Hollow Knight", only one Vessel, who was considered a pure and princely savior of Hallownest. This Pure Vessel was then used as an instrument to seal The Radiance within itself, sacrificing itself for his kingdom as a knight is expected to do in times of war, and was locked inside a vault called the Black Egg Temple.



However, the Pale King knew that somehow the Sealed Vessel needed extra protection, so he appointed three bugs, known as the Dreamers, to make a seal that would stop anyone from infiltrating the Black Egg Temple and releasing the Infection upon Hallownest.

Monomon was a jellyfish-like mentor within the kingdom of Hallownest, Lurien was the enigmatic, wise, and fiercely loyal guardian of the City of Tears, and Herrah was the dark, rebellious, and self-proclaimed "queen" orb weaver of Deepnest. The Dreamers entered an eternal sleep to protect the dreams of the Hollow Knight so it would be protected from any influence from the Radiance it had absorbed into the Void within itself.

Despite this seal, the Hollow Knight's shell eventually cracked due to a small and somehow unnoticed flaw in its purity (its emotional attachment to its creator and father the Pale King, who raised and trained it like a son). The wicked Radiance began to leak out, and corrupted the minds and bodies of the inhabitants of Hallownest, resulting with the Kingdom going into stasis.
Despite all his heroic efforts to stop the Radiance, the Pale King, having no one to help him, mysteriously disappeared.

The story of The Hollow Knight begins with the protagonist, The Knight, a strange Vessel, suddenly arriving in Dirtmouth after it was telepathically called, This mysterious nameless Knight begins its journey through Hallownest by uncovering the forgotten kingdom's darkest secrets.
Will you be able to rebuild and save the once prosperous kingdom?
Or will it fall under The Radiance's evil corruption and completely filling the depths of Hallownest with the Infected?