LogFAQs > #882494590

The Pale King became VERY fearful, because the Radiance and the infection were the only thing that could harm him. Every bug infected added to The Radiance's power. He threw everything he had into finding another way to seal the Radiance and eventually did. He enlisted the help of three powerful bugs to help him hopefully seal it away forever. Two were his allies already, his guardian Monomon and his research assistant Lurien. The third was the leader of the renegade Weaver clan, considered the strongest bug in the land. The Pale King approached her with an offer. If she would agree to become a Watcher, he would create her a daughter. This daughter was Hornet, the "gendered child", the only vessel to have a personality. Herrah did not get to spend much time with her daughter before taking up her duties as a watcher.

The King created an more perfect Vessel this time, the Hollow Knight, to contain the Radiance and sealed it inside The Black Egg. The Watchers used their power to seal the egg shut forever, trapping the Hollow Knight/Radiance hybrid.

Back to life as normal for awhile, until eventually the Radiance was able to weaken even this more perfect seal. When the infection began to spread again, the Pale King became even more fearful, to the point where he and his entire palace VANISHED. No one knows where they went, but the Pale King is not dead, just in hiding.

This is where the game begins. You play as the last Vessel the king made to try to seal the Radiance. As such, you are imbued with a bit of his power and spirit. Your body is a vessel and your spirit is a Shadow bound to that vessel. You are driven to stop the Radiance and stop the infection. In order to do so, you must kill the Watchers and break the Seal on the Black Egg. However, by the time you get to them the Watchers seem to understand the problem and are ready to die so that you can do your job. They know if the Radiance gets free then all of bug kind will revert to mindless creatures capable of nothing more than sun worship.

On the bad ending, you simply destroy and replace the Hollow Knight, but now without Watchers to seal you away. Your body will eventually become a house for the Radiance, and the cycle will go on except now there is no other vessels since the Pale King fled. This will be the LAST iteration of the cycle, and eventually the Radiance will win.

On the good ending, you strengthen the Dream Nail enough to enter the Hollow Knight's mind (with Hornet's help, bless your gendered sibling). Inside, you confront the Radiance directly and if you're skilled enough you KILL it, ending the cycle forever.



When the Hornet DLC drops, hopefully we'll get a more fleshed out backstory on things, but that's the general gist of it. I didn't really cover things like the Pale King's alliance with the White Lady, the 5 Great Knights, etc. There's A LOT more lore out there.
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If her hips don't break, you didn't "carry" hard enough" -SpunkySix
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