What's Up With Ghost's Sword and SOUL?

[Jith03]

SOUL is implied to be the equivalent of blood, seeing as how it "animates our bodies" (Soul Master). I also noticed that only Ghost's sword is able to draw it from enemies; not even PV, THK's prime form who uses SOUL magic, is seen reducing Ghost's SOUL meter upon getting hit.

How is Ghost's sword able to absorb SOUL anyway? It's like someone's sword is coated with blood only to have it expelled in the form of a fireball when it is swung.

[kanna]

Good question.

Possible in-world explanations:
- different vessels have different unique soul-related abilities
- the ghost/knight is an amnesiac rebirth of the Pale King (unpopular opinion, I know) and its modest soul draw/spell abilities are the last remaining vestige of the immense power PK would have had to manipulate soul.
- ghost/knight happens to carry a very special nail
- all beings descended from gods have this ability (and hence the signs in King's Pass at the start of the game), but not everyone in that group has activated it or knows how to use it.

[Jith03]

Points 2 and 4 do align with the Kingsoul charm, said to have "limitless SOUL". Point 1 does align with Broken Vessel's bullet-hell and PV's SOUL daggers and spikes. Perhaps they have mastered SOUL to the point of not needing to draw it from bugs. For point 3, where did Ghost get their nail from? Another vessel/SOUL wielder?

[kanna]

There's some theorizing here about how the knight/ghost's nail might be special:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HollowKnight/comments/jaxyu2/the_knights_journey/

*edit*

Well I guess maybe not "special" but the main points there are

- the nail came from Hallownest (I think it's implied to be the heart of Hallownest, and not the outer fringes)
- the nail could have been crafted by the legendary Ancient Nailsmith (who probably worked for the king)
- from the page:

Description (from https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Nail): " The ultimate weapon of Hallownest. Crafted to perfection, this ancient nail reveals its true form."

[Jith03]

Just checked the wiki and Nailsmith didn't make Ghost's nail, saying "It's obviously not one of mine". Since he only cared about forging a Pure Nail, and ignored everything else happening in Hallownest, two situations can arise: Ghost got their nail from outside Hallownest, or they looted/traded it from an outsider inside Hallownest.

No matter the situation, the nail must have an enchantment that gathers SOUL blood from enemies, as that is how Ghost is able to heal even before talking to the Snail Shaman in the Ancestral Mound.

[kanna]

Originally posted by Jith03:

Just checked the wiki and Nailsmith didn't make Ghost's nail, saying "It's obviously not one of mine". Since he only cared about forging a Pure Nail, and ignored everything else happening in Hallownest, two situations can arise: Ghost got their nail from outside Hallownest, or they looted/traded it from an outsider inside Hallownest.

No matter the situation, the nail must have an enchantment that gathers SOUL blood from enemies, as that is how Ghost is able to heal even before talking to the Snail Shaman in the Ancestral Mound.

I didn't say he did. The Nailsmith we know in the game is not the legendary ancient Nailsmith. He can't be. It was his life's greatest achievement to restore our character's nail to its "pure" form. ONE nail. If he was the legendary ancient nailsmith, that kind of feat would be nothing to him.

The ancient nailsmith is probably the dead body you find where the Quick Slash charm is located. If you Dream Nail that body, it says "Pure." (This was also a part of the discussion in the thread I linked.)

Personally, I doubt it's the nail. I think one of the other possibilities are more likely, but any of them is a possible explanation and I'm sure there are others I didn't think of.

[Jith03]

One other thing. How is the Dream Nail able to drain considerable amounts of blood without Ghost's enemies being affected?

[kanna]

The Dream Nail is related exclusively to the realm of dreams. I don't think enemies (or most NPCs for that matter) are capable of perceiving its existence, because it probably has no physical form.

I don't think there's any reason to assume soul is equivalent to blood. Blood doesn't directly "animate" bodies anyway. I think the idea that our blood is our "life" is based in a materialistic view of the world (i.e. materialist in the philosophical sense - the concept that anything without physical form isn't real). You can't directly translate materialist concepts into fictional worlds where magic and soul(s) exist. It doesn't work out quite right and just leads to misunderstandings.

I think "soul" in this game is simply the usual concept of a soul or spirit (but it drops the idea some have that each soul is individual, in favour of the idea that all soul is part of a greater collective soul).

The soul is believed by people of many real world belief systems to "animate" the body. In the world of this game, soul can be harnessed by those with the ability cast magic, but much more interestingly, not all beings are born with soul; most of them have had soul given to them later!

"Mind" (which we also reach with the Dream Nail) and "soul" aren't the same thing, but they're closely related concepts and I get the impression the creators of the game treat "mind" like it's a sub-feature of having a soul that gives a bug their individuality.

[Jith03]

Since the Dream Nail affects the head and not the physical body, that could mean, in Hallownest and possibly beyond, there is a limitless amount of SOUL in the dream world. In the physical, waking world, SOUL is only as plentiful as a bug's body is strong. Conspiracy: all magic users aside from Ghost use the Dream to get SOUL for their spells.

[kanna]

Haha, that would be interesting but I think the answer to where magic users other than vessels and gods get their soul comes from what happened in Soul Sanctum. They were so desperate for soul, they massacred countless bugs to fill the soul jars we find there. (And they probably used grotesque contraptions like the ones that they tortured the Snail Shamans with to do it.)

Just a guess on my part but I suspect that the Void is a vacuum (like the way space is a vacuum), but the only thing it can draw in is Soul. If I'm right, vessels would have an advantage of sorts with gathering soul from any source. In theory, less skilled vessels would probably (mindlessly) attract and destroy any "loose" soul they encounter, but more skilled vessels can manipulate it and use it for spells.

I imagine probably only gods (and skilled adepts like the Seer perhaps) can tap into soul from the dream realm normally. Our character is an exception because it became "The Wielder" of moth legend and has the Dream Nail.

You might be right that PV can somehow generate its own soul, but it wouldn't be from dreams since it's not supposed to have a mind. (It obviously does have a mind or it wouldn't have been infected, but I think PV/THK probably truly was the "purest" of all vessels.) Maybe PV had another charm or keepsake like Kingsoul that was given to it by the Pale King, which generates soul without the need to strike anything.

[Jith03]

The Void is also repelled by SOUL, as shown by the Void Tendrils and the lighthouse in the Abyss. Perhaps it is the bug mask that allows vessels to harness magic, as it is the only part that isn't Void.

[Perseus]

Originally posted by Jith03:

I also noticed that only Ghost's sword is able to draw it from enemies; not even PV, THK's prime form who uses SOUL magic, is seen reducing Ghost's SOUL meter upon getting hit.

Both swords are the "same", as in : they are both pure nails. (it's probably the case for all other vessels, too.)

Originally posted by Jith03:

SOUL is implied to be the equivalent of blood, seeing as how it "animates our bodies"

It's not necessarily the equivalent of blood, as the definition of "soul" contains "animates one's body".

Originally posted by Jith03:

not even PV, THK's prime form who uses SOUL magic, is seen reducing Ghost's SOUL meter upon getting hit.

The purpose of the vessels was to contain the infection and, ideally, could only fail to do so when killed.
If the character we play as wasn't able to keep soul contained when simply getting hit, they would not have stood a chance at containing the infection.

[kanna]

Originally posted by Jith03:

The Void is also repelled by SOUL, as shown by the Void Tendrils and the lighthouse in the Abyss. Perhaps it is the bug mask that allows vessels to harness magic, as it is the only part that isn't Void.

I doubt the light from the lighthouse is equivalent to soul. I know that Radiance's light is based in essence, but we don't know if that's the case for the lighthouse light, AND essence isn't the same thing as soul or we'd get a full soul boost whenever we beat a dream boss (like Failed Champ) or a warrior dream.

Void is diminished by light, not soul-- and that's probably only the scattered and non-unified Void from before you get Void Heart. If Void was always repelled by light, then the Dream No More ending's basic Radiance fight wouldn't make sense.