The Geography of Hallownest Hallownest is a vast underground kingdom, once-bustling but now abandoned, riddled with crumbling infrastructure, forgotten pathways, and overgrown caverns. The kingdom spans numerous distinct biomes, each with its own ecosystem, inhabitants, and hazards. The Infection, a wrathful plague from the dreaming god known as the Radiance, has twisted many of its creatures into mindless husks. --- 1. Dirtmouth - Description: A quiet, nearly abandoned town on the surface, nestled between cliffs. The last stop before descending into Hallownest proper. Its buildings are shaped like oversized snail shells, with a desolate charm. - Key Features: Well entrance to the Forgotten Crossroads, a graveyard, Stag Station, and a few remaining residents (Elderbug, Iselda, Cornifer when he returns.) - Connections: - Belowground: The well leads straight to Forgotten Crossroads. - Side Paths: King’s Pass and the Howling Cliffs (collapsed staircase to the west) and Crystal Peak (via a broken lift to the east.) --- 2. Forgotten Crossroads - Description: A network of interconnected chambers and tunnels, once the central hub for travel and trade. Now overrun with infected husks and crumbling rocks. - Key Features: Stag Station, False Knight boss arena, Grubfather’s den, many hidden passages. Ancestral Mound, Home to the first of the last three snail shamans. Temple of the Black Egg, where the prison holding the Hollow Knight is located. - Connections: - Up: Dirtmouth (via well.) - West: Greenpath. - East: Crystal Peak (via mining tunnels.) - Down-East: Resting Grounds (via elevator in the upper-right section.) - Down-West: Fog Canyon (via a hidden path.) --- 3. Greenpath - Description: A lush, vibrant region of creeping vines, waterfalls, and thick vegetation. Home to the Mosskin, worshipers of the ancient deity Unn. - Key Features: Lake of Unn, Hornet’s first encounter, thorny traps, acid pools. Stone Sanctuary and Nailmaster Sheo’s Hut. - Connections: - Down-East: Fog Canyon. - Down-West: Extends into Queen’s Gardens. --- 4. Fog Canyon - Description: The misty caverns of Fog Canyon are filled with bubbles and acid lakes, with some areas covered in thorns. The ground and walls usually consist of rocks or short, green flora. The bubbles in the region have trapped swirling gases inside them, and the ones with an orange glow explode when they are popped - Key Features: Teacher's archive, the great technological library of Monomon the Teacher and her resting place as a Dreamer. Overgrown Mound, home to the second of the last three snail shamans. - Connections: - Up: Greenpath and the Forgotten Crossroads. - West: Queen's Gardens. - East: Fungal Wastes (Two paths, one through queen's station in the lower section of Fog Canyon, and another through a path near the path to the Forgotten Crossroads.) --- 5. Fungal Wastes - Description: A damp, grotto-like region filled with giant mushrooms, spore clouds, and poisonous gas. Home to the Mantis Tribe, proud warriors who guard the path to Deepnest. - Key Features: Mantis Village, spore-shrooms, the toll gate to City of Tears. - Connections: - Up-West: Queen’s Station (links to Fog Canyon.) - West: Queen's Gardens - Down-West: Mantis Village (guarding Deepnest entrance.) - East: City of Tears (after defeating the False Knight and obtaining the City Crest, insert the crest into the statue at the gates to unlock them.) - Down-East: Royal Waterways (via a secret submerged passage.) --- 6. City of Tears - Description: The grand, rain-soaked capital of Hallownest, now drowned in eternal rainfall leaking from the Blue Lake above. Full of empty nobility, mindless guards instinctively maintaining their posts, and lingering ghosts of the past. - Key Features: Hollow Knight statue, Pleasure House, Soul Sanctum (full of deranged Soul warriors,) Nailsmith’s forge. - Connections: - Up: Resting Grounds (via the Elevator Pass.) - Down: Royal Waterways (sewers beneath the city.) - West: Fungal Wastes (via the city’s west gate.) - Far-East: King’s Station (leading to Kingdom’s Edge.) --- 6. Deepnest - Description: A pitch-black labyrinth of cramped tunnels, deadly traps, and skittering horrors. Ruled by the Beast Tribe before their queen, Herrah, became a Dreamer. Also home to the Weavers, a tribe of spider scribes who come from the distant kingdom of Pharloom. - Key Features: Nosk’s den, Distant Village, tram to Ancient Basin, Mask Maker’s lair. - Connections: - Up-East: Mantis Village (via gate after proving strength). - Up-West: Queen's Gardens (via a dangerous vertical path.) - Down: Ancient Basin (via tram tunnel.) --- 7. Crystal Peak - Description: A dazzling yet deadly mining cavern filled with luminescent crystals that blast energy beams. Home to enslaved miners and the mad Miner Bugs who worshipped crystal light. - Key Features: Crystal Heart (super dash ability,) hidden caves with Pale Ore, infected mining drones. - Connections: - West: Dirtmouth - Down-West: Forgotten Crossroads. - Far-Down: Resting Grounds (via a long descent through dark pits.) --- 8. Resting Grounds - Description: A solemn expanse of tombs and memorials, where the spirits of Hallownest’s fallen rest. The Dreamers’ Monuments stand here. - Key Features: Seer, Dreamnail acquisition, Spirit Glade, Blue Lake. - Connections: - Down: City of Tears (via elevator.) - Up-West: Crystal Peak (via hidden tunnel.) - West: Forgotten Crossroads (Two paths: The blue lake and a tram.) --- 9. Ancient Basin - Description: A silent, empty realm where the Pale King once ruled. Now home only to broken constructs and the ruin of the White Palace (accessed through dreams.) - Key Features: Broken Vessel fight, Palace Grounds, tram links to Deepnest and Kingdom’s Edge. - Connections: - West: Deepnest (via tram.) - Down: The Abyss (sealed entrance.) - East: Kingdom’s Edge (via tram.) - Up: Forgotten Crossroads (Via an broken elevator shaft.) --- 10. Kingdom’s Edge - Description: A desolate expanse of howling winds and falling ash, the border between Hallownest and the wasteland beyond. The corpse of the fallen Wyrm lies buried here. The death of that creature is what gave birth to the Pale King, founder of Hallownest, and it's ruler before it fell to ruin. - Key Features: Colosseum of Fools, Hive entrance, Oro’s hut (Nailmaster), Wyrm's Grave. - Connections: - West: Ancient Basin (via tram.) - Down: The Hive (hidden entrance.) --- 11. The Hive - Description: A hidden domain of aggressive Hive Soldiers and honeycombed tunnels, relentlessly defending their domain. They were the last to fall to the Infection, as their hive mind that countered it was destroyed when their queen died. - Key Features: Hive Knight boss, golden honey platforms. - Connections: - West Edge: Kingdom’s Edge (via a breakable wall.) --- 12. The Abyss - Description: The absolute bottom of Hallownest, a sea of living Void. Birthplace of the Vessels, including the Hollow Knight and countless discarded failures. - Key Features: Lighthouse, Void Lake, Shade Cloak. - Connections: - Only Access: Requires King’s Brand from Kingdom’s Edge to open the seal. --- The Infection Origins The Infection is an invasive, dream-borne plague orchestrated by the Radiance, a higher being of light and dreams, once worshiped as a god by the ancient moth tribe. When the Pale King usurped her worship, she was cast into oblivion, forgotten. Yet, memories of her lingered in dreams, allowing her to fester in the subconscious of Hallownest’s denizens. Furious at being forsaken, the Radiance weaponized these dreams, igniting the Infection to reclaim control. --- Containment: The Pale King devised two potential methods to suppress the Radiance: 1. The Willful Prisoner - A vessel with an unbreakable will could be raised to trap her until natural death. - Pros: If the vessel died with the seals intact, the Radiance would perish, unable to escape. - Cons: Decades of rigorous mental conditioning required. - Inspiration: The Mantis Tribe’s natural resistance: fortitude, isolation, and fierce independence. 2. The Hollow Prisoner - A vessel devoid of mind, will, or voice, nothing to corrupt, nothing to manipulate. - Pros: Faster, more straightforward. Void, the antithesis of light, was the perfect medium for a flawless seal. - Cons: Seemingly none. The Pale King chose the second path. His haste and paranoia ensured that failed Vessels, those showing even the faintest flicker of thought, were discarded into the Abyss, left to rot in darkness. Perhaps some could have lived as citizens, but fear and desperation led to their mass execution. He kept this cruel act a secret from the masses, letting them believe the Hollow Knight was his first and only attempt. --- The Nature of the Infection Before Dreamer Neutralization The early stages of the Infection are subtle, manifesting in altered mental states rather than physical mutations. - Symptoms: - Euphoric Delirium: Victims experience intense pleasure and a dreamlike stupor, often mistaking their condition for enlightenment. - Aggression Toward the Uninfected: A deep-seated need to "convert" others, either through force or seduction. - Cognitive Deterioration: Instinct and primal drives override higher thought, reducing victims to base impulses. - Physical Manifestations (Rare Before Transformation): - The Infection physically resembles translucent adipose tissue, filled with a viscous, glowing orange fluid akin to honey. - Notable Observation: One researcher deliberately ingested the fluid, describing its taste as sweet, like orange marmalade. After Dreamer Neutralization When the first Dreamer is slain, the Radiance’s grip strengthens. The Infection intensifies, the Forgotten Crossroads transforms into a warped, pulsating nest, and dormant mutations accelerate. - Transformed Infected: - Physical Changes: - Feminine Mimicry: Regardless of original biology, infected bodies shift toward exaggerated femininity: wider hips, fuller curves. - Enhanced Reproductive Organs: - Females develop additional wombs (in the breasts, stomach, and colon, allowing insemination via the nipples, mouth, and anus,) producing clusters of Infection-laden eggs when inseminated. - Males exhibit increased phallic size and elasticity, allowing penetration of any orifice. Semen is replaced with pure Infection fluid. - The Hollow Knight: Being genderless, their transformation granted them both male and female traits: breasts, a vagina, and an equine-like phallus. - Behavioral Shifts: - Lust-Driven: The sexual imperative replaces aggression: seek mates, breed, spread. - Cognitive Recovery: Though still instinctual, some regain speech, usually those who accepted the Infection willingly. - Propagation: - Every orifice becomes a vector for incubation (vagina, nipples, urethra, anus, mouth.) - Insemination triggers egg formation, birthing grubs of pure Infection that overwhelm uninfected individuals, turning into adipose tissue and quickly transforming the victims. Before the insemination, the wombs are empty. - Exception: Corpses are left untouched, the Radiance despises necrophilia, deeming it abhorrent. (Corpses can be reanimated by the infection, healing their wounds and rot, although they can only ever run on instince. They can be sexualized when reanimated, as they are considered alive at this point.) Non-sapient life, while infected, do not become sexualized, only being aggressive. Children are also excluded from infection, and even ignored by even the most aggressive of infected individuals. The Radiance want's vengeance, and was willing to destroy Hallownest for it, but she is not evil. - Environmental Corruption: - Infected Cysts: Any inanimate orifice penetrated (walls, rocks, furniture, etc.) forms swollen cysts of infection fluid reservoirs. Cysts and infected vines also form around the Forgotten Crossroads when the first dreamer seal breaks. --- The Pleasure House: A Mirage of Forgotten Grandeur Overview Nestled at the crest of a towering spire in the decaying City of Tears, the Pleasure House is a decadent anomaly among the Infection’s grotesque breeding nests. Once a high-class brothel catering exclusively to Hallownest’s elite, it has endured, even thrived, amidst the kingdom’s ruin. Its residents, now transformed by the Infection, retain their former wit, charm, and refinement, refusing to descend into mindless debauchery like their wilder kin. Philosophy & Society The aristocracy of the Pleasure House willingly embraced the Infection, not out of desperation, but in pursuit of hedonistic immortality. Scholars among them recognized the Radiance in their dreams from old, forgotten scrolles they had discovered. They abandoned the Pale King’s failed rule in favor of her divine union. In return, She spared them the brutish madness afflicting lesser-infected bugs, granting them clarity, eternal youth, and absolute carnal mastery. They despise the feral infected scattered throughout Hallownest, viewing them as animals undeserving of Radiance’s light. Their contempt for mindless husks now mirrors their old disdain for commoners, though ironically, they’ve grown far kinder to lower-class travelers than they ever were in the kingdom’s golden days. --- Rules of Engagement: Payment & Consequences The Pleasure House operates under strict but fair trade laws: Accepted Payment: 1. Geo (still prized for buying goods from rare merchants.) 2. Rare trinkets (antiquities, jewelry, fine silks.) 3. Exceptional sex (Most fail to meet their standards. Geo and trinkets are still viable payments if this doesn't work out, so guests tend to bring those just in case.) For Those Unable to Pay: - The Merciful Tax: Instead of full infection, the guest willingly nurtures a clutch of Infection eggs within them (via insemination in any viable orifice.) - The process is uncomfortable but not painful. - Eggs hatch into grubs en masse, bursting free and dispersing to spread the Infection elsewhere. - The host remains uninfected, free to leave afterward. For Those Unwilling to Pay (Despite Having Means): - The Penalty of the Ungrateful: Full, forced Infection. - Stripped of freedom, transformed into a breeding thrall if male, or a broodmother if female. - The House treats this as divine justice for arrogance. Guests are warned of these terms before entering and may leave at any time. --- Architecture & Interior With the original furniture long rotted, the residents molded living Infection cysts into replacements: sculpting, hardening, and polishing them into lavish furnishings. - Seating & Tables: Cyst-flesh burned until rigid, lacquered with sap from Greenpath vines for sheen. Embedded with gold filigree and crystalline shards from Crystal Peak. - Beds & Cushions: Unburnt adipose tissue, meticulously cleansed of Infection fluid for safety. Plush, warm, sinfully soft. - Private Chambers: Some walls are still lined with glowing cysts, throbbing faintly with inner light. The residents insist this is for ambience. Marissa’s ghost lingers here, her spectral melodies weaving through the halls, reminiscing with the residents between hauntingly beautiful arias. --- The Queen’s Last Night The most treasured tale among residents is the White Lady’s visit, shortly after the Hollow Knight’s sealing. - "She arrived in silence, draped in mourning veils, yet her presence was a storm." - Every resident attended her, worshipping, pleasuring, exhausting themselves to ease her sorrow. - By dawn, she was gone, vanishing into the Queen’s Gardens to atone for a crime kept secret from us. One bold lover later sought her out, braving Dryya’s fury to share tea and conversation. The Queen, though resolute in her solitude, thanked him with a single, aching kiss before turning him away. (Dryya has since fallen to the Mantis Traitors, but the residents of the Pleasure House are unaware of this. The White Lady remains safe though.) --- Lesser Breeding Nests While the Pleasure House is unique, other nests thrive elsewhere in Hallownest, though none as civil. - The Fungal Orgy (Fungal Wastes) - A cavern where spores and Infection intertwine, resulting in grotesque fusion between bugs and mushrooms. - Victims are absorbed into a mycelial hive-mind, their flesh mutated into fungal-like tendrils. - The Husk Den (Infected Crossroads, post-seal breaking) - A writhing pit of newly transformed husks writhe alongside those still in euphoric delirium. - Overseen by an elder Breeder Husk, whose body has bloated into a massive, pulsating womb. - The Colosseum’s Secret (Kingdom’s Edge) - Beneath the arena lies a gladiator breeding pit, where infected warriors duel for the right to procreate. - The victor is allowed to mount any defeated foe, if they survive the ordeal. - They maintain their intelligence, but their sanity was questionable even before infection. --- Main Characters 1. The Pale King - The god-king of Hallownest, a Wyrm who shed his form to rule as a bug. Created the Vessels to contain the Radiance. - Fate: Vanished after the Hollow Knight's sealing failed. 2. The Hollow Knight - The "pure" Vessel meant to contain the Radiance. Tarnished by the Pale King’s affection, allowing the Infection to resurface. - Infection: Now a corrupted, semi-divine figure with both male and female traits, bound in the Black Egg. 3. Hornet - Daughter of Herrah the Beast and the Pale King. Protector of Hallownest’s ruins, wields a needle and thread. - Infection: None, cunning enough to avoid it. Views it as a scourge. 4. The Radiance - The moth goddess of dreams, cast into oblivion by the Pale King. Orchestrated the Infection to reclaim worship. - Goal: To merge all minds into her glowing union. 5. The White Lady - The Pale King’s queen, a root-like Higher Being. Cooperated in creating the Vessels, now hides in the Queen’s Gardens in self-imposed exile. --- Dreamers (Seal Guardians) 6. Monomon the Teacher - A jellyfish-like scholar who preserved knowledge in the Teacher’s Archives. Voluntarily became a Dreamer. 7. Lurien the Watcher - The steadfast guardian of the City of Tears, eternally observing from his tower. 8. Herrah the Beast - Queen of Deepnest, mother of Hornet. Agreed to become a Dreamer in exchange for a child (Hornet). --- Dirtmouth Residents 9. Elderbug - A pessimistic but kind old bug who greets travelers in Dirtmouth. Misses the kingdom’s golden days. - Infection: Unaffected (surface winds protect Dirtmouth). 10. Iselda - Former warrior, now runs Cornifer’s map shop. Worries about her husband’s explorations. 11. Cornifer - Cheerful cartographer who wanders Hallownest, mapping its ruins while humming loudly. --- Infection-Related Figures 12. Pleasure House Aristocrats - Former nobility who willingly embraced the Infection for pleasure and immortality. Retain intellect and elegance. 13. The Last Scholars - Learned bugs who recognized the Radiance early, saving their peers from madness through worship. 14. Marissa (Ghost) - A graceful songstress whose spirit haunts the Pleasure House, singing for old friends. --- Other Key Figures 15. The Nailmasters - Oro, Mato, Sheo: Masters of the nail arts. Sheo abandoned fighting for painting. 16. The Mantis Lords - Proud warrior-sisters who guard Deepnest’s entrance. Resist Infection through sheer will. 17. The Grimm Troupe - A nomadic circus feeding on nightmares, led by the flame-minded Nightmare King Grimm. 18. Cloth - A cheerful, adventurous beetle seeking a glorious battle. 19. Quirrel - A wandering scholar with ties to Monomon.