sometimes I wonder out of all of the tribes that do not have a higher being, only the mantises managed to not get infected.
The bees make sense why they succumbed, vespa was dead so they latched onto the next best thing. The mushrooms are a similar case.
But deepnest?
I feel deepnest also has a warrior culture and I feel that Herrah is a strong enough leader and has people who respect her enough that she could have pulled off a quarantine like the mantises- though I can see why a larger territory would become an issue
My only explanation is thar while deepnest valued strenght it also valued the arts, what with the weavers and whatnot. And with the arts and dreams being interlinked it made them rather susceptible to the infection.
What do you think?
I think that the reason why Deepnest fell is not because Herrah and her kin weren't strong enough, but because the Radiance specifically targeted them after Herrah chose to become a Dreamer. I think there's some dialogue in game hinting to it, iirc? But I could be misremembering, so don't take my word for it. Either way though, Herrah was essential to the plan that sealed away the Radiance, and so the Radiance retaliated as such. In terms of being involved in the war, they were pretty damn involved, and, well...that damned them
The mantises, on the other hand, stayed neutral during the entire fight. Sure, they might have had a treaty with Hallownest, but they were no means friendly with the residents. And given the fact that the Traitor Lord and his followers willingly took the Radiance's infection into themselves, its likely that Radi knew they were sympathetic to her cause/easy to manipulate and simply chose to bide her time so that she could maximize the amount of followers she got out of it. Better to have half of them come to her than to force compliance and lose the whole tribe
2 - SPIDERS' Nest
Day 2 of my inkless Hollow Knight Inktober. It turned out much better than I was expecting it to tbh.
I think something else to note since my other post about PK is getting attention: is that unless someone knows what they're doing, dreams cannot be controlled.
This is why the Radiance is so damn dangerous: she will find a crack and worm her way in, promising sweet things that the average person can't fight back against. Every single uninfected person with is lucky to not have come under her radar/hasn't been there long enough/has a very strong will and sense of self. Even then, the strongest of wills can break (as evidenced with Holly) and it's only a matter of time before she claims everything.
They can fight back in dreams, but they can't control them. PK is not a dream god, just knows enough about the realms and has enough power to bullshit his way through this whole plan and the moving of the palace. That also means since he's not inherently a dream god and doesn't know everything, the White Palace ends up shifting and twisting into the platforming hell it is now. He doesn't have full control over it, and his emotions will dictate how it ends up being.
The only two beings that we know of that can control dreams in some way is the Radiance and Grimm. Grimm too is definitely the weaker one, being stuck in the nightmare realm and having to do this ritual. I think it's safe to say Radi and him probably got into some sort of feud (that Radi probably started with what we know of both of their personalities) and it lead to the realms separating. Everyone else is subject to their unconscious mind, and both Gods can take advantage if they want to. Grimm doesn't seem to interested in doing so other than harvesting essence, but Radi sure does, as that is a core mechanic of how the infection works.
Now the biggest question is: can a dream be sustained after its host is dead?
If we assume no, then maybe with Grimm's or Radi's intervention it can keep going, but I doubt it would work forever and would be draining on them both. They'd have to have a damn good reason to keep a dream alive.
But also if we assume no, the fuck is going on with the White Palace? Is the king somehow still alive in some form?
Though if the answer is yes, then the White Palace is a graveyard, a lingering fragment in the Dream Realm, and one that will fade with time.
All sorts of fun headcanons can come from just the concept of the dream realms alone. Being a fan of the Yume Nikki games, I think I like the idea of the King not being in full control of his dreams and a lot of the internal guilt and grief and wanting to run away from it all manifesting as a result. And you have to wonder just how it remains there when the King is seemingly dead...
I would love to hear your thoughts on Nosk if you ever got the time to erite about it. Your artwork of it was a delight; I loved Ghost being lit up in orange. 10/10 lighting!
First of all - THANK YOU SM FOR THE COMPLIMENTS!! I haven't tried shading like this in. Months, like I said
Second of all
(Also thanks for the excuse to draw my Vessel sona)
Don't get me wrong I don't hate Nosk, they're one of my favorite characters in Hollow Knight and media in general. I absolutely adore the concept behind them and the SUSPENSE through those tunnels leading to the big reveal still remains one of my favorite scenes to come back to in HK. The design and concept behind them is very neat and the overall feeling of that first time you enter the arena and see that cutscene is just. Wonderful.
That said, my issues are all about the actual fight. Specifically the attacks.
Nosk has arguably one of the most interesting buildups to a fight in HK, and is in one of the most creepy areas of the game, considering the arena and atmosphere of the fight too, I was expecting this to be a hard boss. I was expecting really difficult and potentially creepy attacks. The OST is one of the most anxiety inducing tracks in the game. Yet the entire fight just amounts to them.. running around? Occasionally jumping onto the ceiling? It feels like a rip off.
Nosk literally only has three attacks and they're all easy to dodge/cheese, if they were just small parts of the fight, it'd be fine, but instead 50% of the fight is just Nosk running across the arena, which is easy to dodge with or without the use of hiding under the platform(still one of the funniest ways to cheese a fight honestly).
Nosk has a bunch of hanging CORPSES in their den, so I thought that maybe they'd have a close up attack where if you got too close it'd trigger them swiping close range, kind of like this:
Extremely low budget explanation but STILL
The attack with screaming and the infection getting everywhere? NICE! Nosk on the ceiling shooting orange juice at you? GREAT! But the fact those are basically the only two good attacks in this fight with THREE really just. It weighs it down for me man.
By this point in the game(I mean I had to Google where Nosk was since I only saw art of them on my first playthrough since they're hidden), plenty of bosses had phases, too. I feel like the fight could've easily been more anxiety inducing if they had a few phases.
For example:
Phase one - same as current fight + close range attack
Phase two - running attack happens less, potential variations of other attacks, speed up things a bit
Phase three - more orange juice, maybe webs(since that's how the other creatures in the background appear to be captured), could potentially do some jumping version of the running attack(like jumping around the arena aggressively making them harder to do damage to without being hit)?
I'm obviously not a game designer, but I do like rambling about things and potential ideas that could happen to make things better.
The Nosk fight on its own isn't even terrible, it's just the fact that it doesn't live up to the buildup of the way to the fight and the cutscene in the beginning, let alone the absolute panic the OST makes me feel.
Oh and don't even get me STARTED on Winged Nosk. HOW DO YOU MAKE SOMETHING LESS TERRIFYING BY ADDING WINGS IM IN GENUINE SHOCK
I know I probably repeated myself a lot and this is very scattered, but I hope that you somehow enjoyed seeing me ramble aggressively about a fight in a silly bug game that I think has issues anyway.
In conclusion Nosk has an amazing concept, design, OST, atmosphere, and some alright attacks, but really could've benefitted from some more attacks/phases.
I wrote more about this fight than I did for my English essay on Thursday so I don't know what that says about me but do with that what you will
shower. not a bath, a shower. use water as hot or cold as u like. u dont even need to wash. just get in under the water and let it run over you for a while. sit on the floor if you gotta.
moisturize everything. use whatever lotion u like. unscented? dollar store lotion? fancy ass 48 hour lotion that makes u smell like a field of wildflowers? use whatever you want, and use it all over.
put on clean, comfortable clothes.
put on ur favorite underwear. cute black lacy panties? those ridiculous boxers u bought last christmas with candy cane hearts on the butt? put em on.
drink cold water. use ice. if u want, add some mint or lemon for an extra boost.
clean something. doesn’t have to be anything big. organize one drawer of ur desk. wash five dirty dishes. do a load of laundry. scrub the bathroom sink.
blast music. listen to something upbeat and dancey and loud, something that’s got lots of energy. sing to it, dance to it, even if you suck at both.
make food. don’t just grab a granola bar to munch. take the time and make food. even if it’s ramen. add something special to it, like a hard boiled egg or some veggies. prepare food, it tastes way better, and you’ll feel like you accomplished something.
make something. write a short story or a poem, draw a picture, color a picture, fold origami, crochet or knit, sculpt something out of clay, anything artistic. even if you don’t think you’re good at it.
go outside. take a walk. sit in the grass. look at the clouds. smell flowers. put your hands in the dirt and feel the soil against your skin.
call someone. call a loved one, a friend, a family member, call a chat service if you have no one else to call. talk to a stranger on the street. have a conversation and listen to someone’s voice. if you can’t, text or email or whatever, just have some social interaction with another person. even if you don’t say much, listen to them.
cuddle your pets if you have them/can cuddle them. take pictures of them. talk to them. tell them how u feel, about your favorite movie, a new game coming out.
I love your doodles of the silly gay bugs 🫶🏽
i'm glad!! i enjoy doodling them too :)
Part 2 of Silksong poetry! Take this with a grain of salt again. I made a sequel because I wanted to add more verses to the last one but I wasn't able to. A bit of a thankful ramble under the cut. Also, check out my brother's blog! He's new and makes great poetry! I highly recommend seeing @ccokecola's work! Thanks for reading ♥
There was quite a burst of notifications last night. I’m blown away! That was a lot of notes on my pinned post. I didn’t expect my Higher Beings poem to get that many, especially because I didn’t consider it to be my best at the time. Yet I was proven wrong in a good way. Thank so much you for the support on that! I appreciate it! Much love! Thank you for reading! ♥
Lace gijinka! She’s so pretty dmeehdheheujs
She’s giving French