The Higher Beings

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

The Pale Beings

Pure Gods of Mind, Body, and Soul

Wyrm & Root are two of the most powerful entities known to ever inhabit Hallownest. They possess a Pure Focus, something no mortal bug could hope to attain. Through this Pure Focus, they could effortlessly manipulate Soul.

Wyrm, the Pale King, is the male part of the duo. It formerly took the form of an enormous, limbless worm, with an eight-pointed 'crown' at its mouth. It later cast off that form, in favor of a small insectoid being, though still maintaining its gleaming white and silver appearance and 8-pointed crown. It also (presumably) possesses limbs unlike its previous form, allowing it to more delicately and precisely interact with the world around it, though view of these limbs is usually obstructed by its silver cloak. It also may have dawned something akin to shoulder armor and/or monarch wings.

Root, the Pale Queen, is the female part of the duo. It currently takes the form of somewhat large(compared to her partner), tree-like entity. It is unknown how or if Root is capable of locomotion in this form, or if it has taken other forms. If she did reincarnate from a previous, larger form, like Wyrm did, then its possible that the white roots in Kingdom's Edge are the remains of that form. Its also possible that her current form is larger than the one she took as the Queen, based on the imprint on the seat in the White Palace.

Associated with the color white.

The Shade Lord

Void given Focus

The deepest darkness of the Abyss, worshiped by the Ancients before Hallownest came to be. The true nature of The Void is shrouded in mystery.

The Mind, it limits us so. This is a limit that even those Pale Beings possess... But The Void, it has no Mind, not as we understand it. Its potential may as well be endless.
The Void, though naturally shapeless, could be given Form when united under the Heart of one most Hollow, and through Focus that Form shall ascend beyond the limitations of the so-called 'Gods'. What power could hope to oppose such a force?

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Lemm:

"Inspired or mad, those ancient bugs.
They devoted their worship to no lord, or power, or strength, but to the very darkness itself."

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Pale King:

"VOID, yours is the power opposed.
But yours is potential, eternity potential, force that could deny Time.
VOID, harness shall be placed upon you."

Associated with the color black.

The Radiance

Forgotten God of Light

A silken moth-like entity that exists within the expanse of Dream. It was once worshipped by the Moth tribe as the god of Light and Dream. After being deserted by many of its followers, it lashed out at Hallownest, inflicting a horrific plague on the minds and bodies of a large number of the kingdom's population. In response to the plague, The Pale Beings sealed away the Radiance, though it eventually weakened its prison enough to unleash the infection once more.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Pale King:

"No blazing kin. Only one light shall shine against the dark.
The Wyrm becomes beacon, minds expanded, to yield, to devote.
Eternity in promise and charge in progeny cursed."

Associated with the color orange.

The Nightmare's Heart

Scarlet God of Nightmares

A dark, beating heart that exists in (presumably the center of) the Nightmare realm, an expanse of Dream that split off from the rest. It enlists a Troupe to carry out its ritual on an endless cycle. The ritual serves to collect the flames of the fallen kingdoms, and to rebirth the Nightmare King into a younger, new body, so that the cycle may continue at infintum.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Grimm:

"Through dream I travel, at lantern's call
To consume the flames of a kingdom's fall"

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Grimm Troupe:

"Shadows dream of endless fire
Flames devour and embers swoop
One will light the Nightmare Lantern
Call and serve in Grimm's dread Troupe

A spark of red lights darkest dream
Scarlet nightmares bright and wild
Visions dance and flames do speak;
Burn the father, feed the child

Dance and die and live forever
Silent voices shout and sing;
Stand before the Troupe's dark heart
Burn away the Nightmare King!"

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Seer:

"An expanse of Dream was split,
One realm now must stay apart,
Darkest reaches, beating red,
Terror of sleep;
The Nightmare's Heart!"

Associated with the color red.

The Master Herald

Harbinger of the End

Though it may appear to be an innocuous mushroom, it is connected to a vast network of fungal cultures accrossed the kingdom, and seems to possess an otherworldly, almost omniscient, intellect. Its intentions are unknown, though an excerpt from its shroomal elegy states that it will 'signal an ages end', implying a potential apocalyptic scenario.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Shroom:

"This border bounds the twisting, scratching things.
Their dead sire, once of honoured caste.
Their sealed mother, but the common beast.
No peace with them we make.

Pity those bugs.
Minds locked.
Thoughts trapped in solitude.
Faint shadow of an idea are the words that attempt its utterance.

Strength in the shared self.
Strength in the mind united.
In every bug that would pass upon our roads, only the melancholy of disparity.

Warily shall we accept the will of the Wyrm.
It's prescience shields us.
Fate and Future we shall entwine."

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Shroomal Elegy:

"We speak the path of the Master Herald, he who would signal an Age's end.

Spawn of self, their minds unite,
Aside the source of acid blight,

Aglow in darkest, winding depths,
Winds all howl above fossilstone steps,

Monarchflys in airs set still,
To Root's domain and snail once shrill,

Path of Wyrm, at new lands entered
There journeys end. The kingdom ventured."

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Mister Mushroom:

"...Wyrms pull bugs into their thrall,
Till ages pass and kingdoms fall,

Caps and shells may fall to dust,
But Mr Mushroom readjusts..."

Associated with the color yellow.

The Ancient One

Bleeding God of The Depths

A large, multi-eyed entity that seems to exist somewhere between reality and Dream. Little is known about the entity aside from its connection to Lifeblood.

Associated with the color blue.

Unn

Sleeping God of the Lake

A large, apparently intelligent slug that dwells in an acidic lake named after itself. It is revered as a god by the Mosskin of Greenpath.

Associated with the color green.

The Seeker

Seeker of Gods

Though they do not consider themselves gods, they do possess powers beyond that of bugkind. The Seeker is a shared collective consciousness of beings who refer to themselves as 'The Godseeker'. As the name implies, they seek out beings of great power, attuning to their resonance, in hopes of Ascending. The Seeker left their homeland after the ones they worshiped as gods seemed to vanish, forsaking them. Wandering the wastes, desperately searching for a divine resonance to attune to. It was when they felt the power of the Pale King that they ventured to Hallownest. Sometime after reaching Hallownest, the head Seeker was imprisoned in a golden 'cocoon', along with the Godtuner, for unknown reasons.

Associated with the color gold.

The Vessels

Not Bug, Nor Beast, Nor God

Created by the Pale Beings in an effort to contain the Radiance. The vast majority of Vessels created were deemed abject failures, and cast into the Abyss from whence they had been born.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Pale King:

"...Soul of Wyrm.
Soul of Root.
Heart of Void..."

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Pale King:

"No cost too great.

No mind to think.

No will to break.

No voice to cry suffering.

Born of God and Void.

You shall seal the blinding light that plagues their dreams.

You are the Vessel.

You are the Hollow Knight."

[GSandSDS]

Doesn't the protagonist himself becomes the Shade Lord at the end? Well, it's not made completely clear, but it's a possible interpretation (for example: the protagonist's own statue in the hall of gods takes the form of the Shade Lord after beating all bosses in radiant mode).

[Appaguchee]

The collecter has blue eyes. Not abyssal creature blue, but wierd blue. it's wierd. Just a note.

My opinion of the void is that it can infinitely respawn itself, but the shade lord itself can only be summoned, it can't actively partake in the ruling of hallownest like light and wyrm and root all do. The point being, it absorbed it's spawn (the vessels) to beat radiance, it wasn't just overpowered relatively to radiance.

In my opinion, all of the higher beings are relatively equal in power, capable of creating their own species and influencing lesser kinds. Wyrm, root, light, and nightmare (how do you think the nightmare lantern was installed in hollownest?) all exhibit these capabilites, and the shade lord itself kills other deities, so it got itself into higher being status. Unn might have created the mosskin, but otherwise is probably not. The rest just have too little known about them, and the seekers definetly aren't higher beings...
Saying Mr mushroom is higher is like saying midwife and bardoon as well, due to being highly knowledgable. Just because he seams to be predicting the future doesn't necesarrily mean he's higher.

Anyways, what was the point of this?

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย GSandSDS:

Doesn't the protagonist himself becomes the Shade Lord at the end? Well, it's not made completely clear, but it's a possible interpretation (for example: the protagonist's own statue in the hall of gods takes the form of the Shade Lord after beating all bosses in radiant mode).

Personally I think they assimilated and finally put radiance away for good.

[bobime, dorime, demomium]

What about the Hollow Knight? Since he was created through "God and Void", shouldn't he be considered as a higher being as well?

[Appaguchee]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Little Green Yoda Hulk 🌃🌆:

What about the Hollow Knight? Since he was created through "God and Void", shouldn't he be considered as a higher being as well?

I forgot to point that out. But yeah, all of the vessels are deities (or at least the ones that survive to adulthood or find a bench). The avatar of the nightmare heart and radiance have both been proven to fall to the vessel's might.

I don't know if the whole time loop that your character is explained, but that alone makes our character a truer deity than the actual deities, they died, your character cannot.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Appaguchee:

The collecter has blue eyes. Not abyssal creature blue, but wierd blue. it's wierd. Just a note.

My opinion of the void is that it can infinitely respawn itself, but the shade lord itself can only be summoned, it can't actively partake in the ruling of hallownest like light and wyrm and root all do. The point being, it absorbed it's spawn (the vessels) to beat radiance, it wasn't just overpowered relatively to radiance.

In my opinion, all of the higher beings are relatively equal in power, capable of creating their own species and influencing lesser kinds. Wyrm, root, light, and nightmare (how do you think the nightmare lantern was installed in hollownest?) all exhibit these capabilites, and the shade lord itself kills other deities, so it got itself into higher being status. Unn might have created the mosskin, but otherwise is probably not. The rest just have too little known about them, and the seekers definetly aren't higher beings...
Saying Mr mushroom is higher is like saying midwife and bardoon as well, due to being highly knowledgable. Just because he seams to be predicting the future doesn't necesarrily mean he's higher.

Anyways, what was the point of this?

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย GSandSDS:

Doesn't the protagonist himself becomes the Shade Lord at the end? Well, it's not made completely clear, but it's a possible interpretation (for example: the protagonist's own statue in the hall of gods takes the form of the Shade Lord after beating all bosses in radiant mode).

Personally I think they assimilated and finally put radiance away for good.

Actually, the exact nature of the Knight's regenerative immortality isn't fully explained. All that is known is that Vessels leave behind a Shade when their body is broken. None of the other Vessels seem to share the ability to reform their body. A potential theory could be that the player is the Shade Lord, controlling the Knight, and somehow preventing it from staying dead.

The Nightmare Lantern was never installed in Hallownest. Remember, when you use the Dream Nail on the Grimmkin corpse, the Nightmare Lantern seems to bleed into reality. That Grimmkin likely wandered the Beyond in search of a kingdom to use for the Ritual.

I don't see why you think Mister Mushroom is as low as Midwife or Bardoon. Mister Mushroom is at the very least Unn level.
Look at this line: "...Shouldn't trust the eye they gave you. Rely on your own instincts." Mister Mushroom knows that you are viewing the world through a screen rather than through the eyes of the Knight. And that's not the only 4th-wall breaking knowledge that it possesses either.
While the Pale King seems to posses some level of precognition, the Master Herald seems to just know everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen.

[Appaguchee]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Null the Abyssal Alchemist:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Appaguchee:

The collecter has blue eyes. Not abyssal creature blue, but wierd blue. it's wierd. Just a note.

My opinion of the void is that it can infinitely respawn itself, but the shade lord itself can only be summoned, it can't actively partake in the ruling of hallownest like light and wyrm and root all do. The point being, it absorbed it's spawn (the vessels) to beat radiance, it wasn't just overpowered relatively to radiance.

In my opinion, all of the higher beings are relatively equal in power, capable of creating their own species and influencing lesser kinds. Wyrm, root, light, and nightmare (how do you think the nightmare lantern was installed in hollownest?) all exhibit these capabilites, and the shade lord itself kills other deities, so it got itself into higher being status. Unn might have created the mosskin, but otherwise is probably not. The rest just have too little known about them, and the seekers definetly aren't higher beings...
Saying Mr mushroom is higher is like saying midwife and bardoon as well, due to being highly knowledgable. Just because he seams to be predicting the future doesn't necesarrily mean he's higher.

Anyways, what was the point of this?



Personally I think they assimilated and finally put radiance away for good.

Actually, the exact nature of the Knight's regenerative immortality isn't fully explained. All that is known is that Vessels leave behind a Shade when their body is broken. None of the other Vessels seem to share the ability to reform their body. A potential theory could be that the player is the Shade Lord, controlling the Knight, and somehow preventing it from staying dead.

The Nightmare Lantern was never installed in Hallownest. Remember, when you use the Dream Nail on the Grimmkin corpse, the Nightmare Lantern seems to bleed into reality. That Grimmkin likely wandered the Beyond in search of a kingdom to use for the Ritual.

I don't see why you think Mister Mushroom is as low as Midwife or Bardoon. Mister Mushroom is at the very least Unn level.
Look at this line: "...Shouldn't trust the eye they gave you. Rely on your own instincts." Mister Mushroom knows that you are viewing the world through a screen rather than through the eyes of the Knight. And that's not the only 4th-wall breaking knowledge that it possesses either.
While the Pale King seems to posses some level of precognition, the Master Herald seems to just know everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen.

I didn't know he had that line, and never really listened to the mumbo jumbo he said, it being, well, mumbo jumbo. Seeing all futures/pasts/presents isn't the highest of powers. I would rather create kingdoms and rule over them than watch.

I wonder how the two latter got to their status of info though. I'm very curious to how they found out. Similar to the seer, I forgot her as well.

[GSandSDS]

Hmm, I still do not see the connection that a sentence like: "...Shouldn't trust the eye they gave you. Rely on your own instincts.", has something to do with the player before the screen. It sounds more like a general advice to me, that sometimes the look can be deceiving.

[RiderFight0710]

Cant forget that the Godseekers seem to consider every boss as a god like higher being so just remember, every time five or more moss chargers join up they instanly make it on this list.

[RiderFight0710]

In the God Master ending we see the void come up to meet the knight like in the normal one, but then we see him sink into the void instead of crack open. Once that happens the entier void rises up as one, not like in the normal ending where we see the siblings rise up. This time the entire void is one, not separated into siblings, finally we see the meaning of "Void Given Focus" Thats why I dont think the Shade Lord is the knight or controling him, its more like he was a fraction of the whole.

[bobime, dorime, demomium]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย RiderFight0710:

Thats why I dont think the Shade Lord is the knight or controling him, its more like he was a fraction of the whole.

Agreed. As the Knight is at the final phase of the Absolute Radiance fight, the Void is rising without the presence of siblings, unlike the normal Radiance fight. When the Knight hits the Radiance for the last time, his vessel breaks and he rejoins the rest of the Void.

[bobime, dorime, demomium]

I wonder whether the Collector or even the Grubs are also Higher Beings.

The Collector is made out of Void, which should categorize him along the Hollow Knight, the Knight, and the Siblings. He is most likely another failed attempt at the creation of a Vessel, an experiment, which is shown through his tendencies to "protect", which could be twisted to "contain". A counter-argument is that he might have been a prototype for the Kingsmould? However, why wouldn't the Pale King destroy the collector as he presumably did with the rest of the Siblings? Why was the Tower of Love presumably constructed for the Collector where he was locked within?

As for what the Collector actually collects, the Grubs, they could be proven to be Higher Beings as well. Presumably that the Collector was originally created to contain the Radiance, were his tendencies, dysfunctionality and admiration for the Grubs to collect them? Or was there another reason? The Charms that you receive from the Grubfather are quite special. Grubsong, which provides you with Soul when you are damaged, technically provides you with a special way to manipulate Soul. You are essentially creating Soul out of thin air. When you strike an enemy, they lose Soul. Presumably that the Knight undergoes the same process when he is damaged, this charm allows you to reverse this process, essentially creating Soul out of thin air. The reason why I think this is crucial is that I tend to think of Soul as something such as Matter to our real world. Theoretically, Matter is not supposed to be created nor destroyed. Therefore I tend to think that Soul cannot be created nor destroyed but transferred, with the exception of how Soul is manipulated by the Pale Beings (Kingsoul). While charms such as Soul Catcher or Spell Twister also help you manipulate Soul regarding how much you obtain or you consume, they do not provide you with special abilities such as this. Grubberfly's Elegy allows you to shoot hot beams of energy when at maxed health. Lastly, both the Radiance and the Pale Beings can manipulate Soul through their own respective ways; the Radiance unleashes the Infection. The Grubs themselves could be related to the Moth Tribe and the Radiance as well. Though given that the Seer asks you to forget her tribe, which might hint that the Grubs are not related with the Moth Tribe after all.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Little Green Yoda Hulk 🌃🌆:

I wonder whether the Collector or even the Grubs are also Higher Beings.

The Collector is made out of Void, which should categorize him along the Hollow Knight, the Knight, and the Siblings. He is most likely another failed attempt at the creation of a Vessel, an experiment, which is shown through his tendencies to "protect", which could be twisted to "contain". A counter-argument is that he might have been a prototype for the Kingsmould? However, why wouldn't the Pale King destroy the collector as he presumably did with the rest of the Siblings? Why was the Tower of Love presumably constructed for the Collector where he was locked within?

As for what the Collector actually collects, the Grubs, they could be proven to be Higher Beings as well. Presumably that the Collector was originally created to contain the Radiance, were his tendencies, dysfunctionality and admiration for the Grubs to collect them? Or was there another reason? The Charms that you receive from the Grubfather are quite special. Grubsong, which provides you with Soul when you are damaged, technically provides you with a special way to manipulate Soul. You are essentially creating Soul out of thin air. When you strike an enemy, they lose Soul. Presumably that the Knight undergoes the same process when he is damaged, this charm allows you to reverse this process, essentially creating Soul out of thin air. The reason why I think this is crucial is that I tend to think of Soul as something such as Matter to our real world. Theoretically, Matter is not supposed to be created nor destroyed. Therefore I tend to think that Soul cannot be created nor destroyed but transferred, with the exception of how Soul is manipulated by the Pale Beings (Kingsoul). While charms such as Soul Catcher or Spell Twister also help you manipulate Soul regarding how much you obtain or you consume, they do not provide you with special abilities such as this. Grubberfly's Elegy allows you to shoot hot beams of energy when at maxed health. Lastly, both the Radiance and the Pale Beings can manipulate Soul through their own respective ways; the Radiance unleashes the Infection. The Grubs themselves could be related to the Moth Tribe and the Radiance as well. Though given that the Seer asks you to forget her tribe, which might hint that the Grubs are not related with the Moth Tribe after all.

This is speculation of course. I love the discussion about the Higher Beings.

Just because the Collector is a Void construct doesn't make it a Higher Being. It isn't Hollow like the Vessels either.

And while many bugs can manipulate Soul in different ways, the Pale Beings seemed to have virtually limitless power over Soul.
This Pale magic of their's is truly unique. Able to create intricate seals of various designs and purposes. The Pale King even being able to harness, shape, and even program Void into various constructs.
Perhaps the Pale King died from overusing his power, creating too many Vessels for instance(seriously, there must be several thousand Vessel corpses in the Abyss).

[Appaguchee]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Null the Abyssal Alchemist:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Little Green Yoda Hulk 🌃🌆:

I wonder whether the Collector or even the Grubs are also Higher Beings.

The Collector is made out of Void, which should categorize him along the Hollow Knight, the Knight, and the Siblings. He is most likely another failed attempt at the creation of a Vessel, an experiment, which is shown through his tendencies to "protect", which could be twisted to "contain". A counter-argument is that he might have been a prototype for the Kingsmould? However, why wouldn't the Pale King destroy the collector as he presumably did with the rest of the Siblings? Why was the Tower of Love presumably constructed for the Collector where he was locked within?

As for what the Collector actually collects, the Grubs, they could be proven to be Higher Beings as well. Presumably that the Collector was originally created to contain the Radiance, were his tendencies, dysfunctionality and admiration for the Grubs to collect them? Or was there another reason? The Charms that you receive from the Grubfather are quite special. Grubsong, which provides you with Soul when you are damaged, technically provides you with a special way to manipulate Soul. You are essentially creating Soul out of thin air. When you strike an enemy, they lose Soul. Presumably that the Knight undergoes the same process when he is damaged, this charm allows you to reverse this process, essentially creating Soul out of thin air. The reason why I think this is crucial is that I tend to think of Soul as something such as Matter to our real world. Theoretically, Matter is not supposed to be created nor destroyed. Therefore I tend to think that Soul cannot be created nor destroyed but transferred, with the exception of how Soul is manipulated by the Pale Beings (Kingsoul). While charms such as Soul Catcher or Spell Twister also help you manipulate Soul regarding how much you obtain or you consume, they do not provide you with special abilities such as this. Grubberfly's Elegy allows you to shoot hot beams of energy when at maxed health. Lastly, both the Radiance and the Pale Beings can manipulate Soul through their own respective ways; the Radiance unleashes the Infection. The Grubs themselves could be related to the Moth Tribe and the Radiance as well. Though given that the Seer asks you to forget her tribe, which might hint that the Grubs are not related with the Moth Tribe after all.

This is speculation of course. I love the discussion about the Higher Beings.

Just because the Collector is a Void construct doesn't make it a Higher Being. It isn't Hollow like the Vessels either.

And while many bugs can manipulate Soul in different ways, the Pale Beings seemed to have virtually limitless power over Soul.
This Pale magic of their's is truly unique. Able to create intricate seals of various designs and purposes. The Pale King even being able to harness, shape, and even program Void into various constructs.
Perhaps the Pale King died from overusing his power, creating too many Vessels for instance(seriously, there must be several thousand Vessel corpses in the Abyss).

I disagree with the idea that he died from overuseage, his kingsoul charm produces INFINITE soul. If you want to get it and cast spells over and over to try and prove me wrong go ahead. Very unlikely. I think that he made the shade lord pretty angry. "You dare come into my kingdom and try and usurp my power? Your petty games will not end well wyrm." is a way it could have gone for example. I'd be mad too. (I'd be mad that half my kingdom will never be added too. man I really wanted the abyss expansion :( )

[bobime, dorime, demomium]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Appaguchee:

(I'd be mad that half my kingdom will never be added too. man I really wanted the abyss expansion :( )

I hold to the hope that the Abyss is expanded with the upcoming Hornet DLC.

[Appaguchee]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Little Green Yoda Hulk 🌃🌆:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Appaguchee:

(I'd be mad that half my kingdom will never be added too. man I really wanted the abyss expansion :( )

I hold to the hope that the Abyss is expanded with the upcoming Hornet DLC.

Screw nintendo switch and wii u and playstation vita! We would have gotten to it if they hadn't been added to the list...