What would you do, in the Pale King's robes? How would you make things right? How would you deal with Radiance and the infection? Could you change the fate of Hallownest? Two very different protagonists give it a try. (Art by one of the creators, used with permission.)
A Hollow Knight fanfiction duology where two very different people are put into the Pale King's place to try to avoid the terrible decisions he made, yet faced with terrible decisions to make of their own. Obviously an alternate universe fic. Both fics are built with the same world, but the different protagonists, their different levels of maturity and decisions they make mean their courses veer sharply in who they get close to, what actions they take and the ending.
Contains Under the Hills (Where New Home Lies), where a young teenager and big memester arrives in Hallownest who's not new to the whole reincarnation business and remains honest with the people around it;-and Far Away (From Fate's Design), where a non-binary Wiccan arrives in Hallownest thoroughly uninterested in war and plays at being an amnesiac while trying to figure out the whole being a god thing.
The title is an homage to a poem by Tolkien and a song by Led Zeppelin.
For ease of reference, the protagonist of UtH is called the youth while FA's protagonist is called by the creator-given nickname the stranger. (Later, Stranger is called Benui.)
You can find the series here
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Far Away (From Fate's Design) is also hosted on Sufficient Velocity.
Both Works
- Author Avatar: Both work's protagonists are fictionalized versions of the writers.
- The Corruption: Both the infection and void poisoning, both of which can be fatal.
- Crossover: Both fics have elements of other fiction, such as stranger singing songs from Ar Tonelico or referencing Homestuck troll shipping dynamics-which is fitting, as both authors use pascalCase user handles, which were made popular via the webcomic in question.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Hegemol and Ogrim aren't exactly known for their intellect, but are very excellent warriors.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Just because they're of the darkness, doesn't mean the Lord of Shades is evil. It's fairly apparent they're the one who gave the protagonists their second chance at life. Interestingly, the Lord of Shades doesn't answer the Stranger when ey ask if they're a god.
- Dead All Along:
- Both protagonists died, though in different ways. The youth was attacked, while the stranger seemed to freeze to death.
- The Pale King is gone. How? Nobody knows.
- Find the Cure!: The Infection, which causes a great deal of unfortunate symptoms.
- Forced Transformation: The protagonists become wyrms, but were humans.
- Genre Savvy: Both protagonists seem to be at least somewhat aware of the sort of world they've been reincarnated into.
- Good Is Not Soft: The Great Knights, beyond being a strong unit together that balance one anothers' weaknesses include genuinely good people who want to serve the kingdom for their own reasons. Ogrim and Isma are noted for their kindness and compassion, though Dryya and Ze'mer's own moral standing is currently unknown.
- Grandpa God: Unn tells the Stranger to call her 'granny.'
- How Do I Shot Web?: Both are new to being a god and wyrm, with no idea on how to be either.
- In Spite of a Nail: The cover of the series shows the two protagonists with the child form of the eponymous Hollow Knight and the little knight]]-but they look different.
- Lighter and Softer: In comparison with the parent work, which is a tragedy, the tone of both works seem to be a bit lighter than the original work. The creator noted that it would be difficult to match the original's darkness given it's a world where Wyrm's plan not only failed, but that he'd already crossed a moral line that he could not come back from.
- Light Is Not Good: The Pale King, associated with light, did horrifying things and so does the Radiance.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: Neither of the protagonists are gendered, with the youth going by it/its and the stranger by Spivak pronouns.
- Old Friend, New Gender: While the Pale King was male, neither the youth nor the stranger identify as such.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The youth is a more hyperactive, open person with a lot of passion where the stranger is more reserved and patient but intensely private.
- Reluctant Ruler: The youth, especially so but both are in that boat. The stranger is just concerned that ey don't know what ey're doing.
- Ruler Protagonist: Both are the Pale King. Obviously, they're this though one has more of a problem with actually ruling than the other.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Root seems to lose her husband, no matter what if that's because the soul inside is that of a child who isn't of age to consent or because the soul inside finds her agreeing with mass infanticide is a bridge too far.
- Uncertain Doom: While the Pale King's body is alive, his mind seems to be gone; how this happened is entirely unknown.
Under The Hills
- Beware the Honest Ones: Just because the youth is being honest, doesn't mean it's dumb. On the contrary, it may be a smarter move than the stranger's lying.
- Cowardly Lion: The youth is scared shitless of everyone, at least, early on.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Root's behavior infantalizing towards the youth deeply annoys it; just because it's a nymph doesn't mean it is okay to baby the wyrm.
- Just a Kid: To the horror of the Dreamers and Root.
Far Away
- Deadpan Snarker: The stranger has very dry and self-depreciating humor.
- Didn't Think This Through: To try to see Root's thoughts more clearly, the stranger decides to sing EXEC_Linker-and finds that the magic is already active but that eir casting it made it stronger. Why is this important? The original use of the song was to erase the caster's mind and let them be possessed by Mir/Mule.
- Dramatic Irony: A devout Wiccan priest who becomes a god.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The initial parts of this half of the fic were written in third-person, with the point of view changing to first person after stranger wakes up the second time in Hallownest.
- Enby Looks Like A Dude: Due to the body previously holding someone who identified at least loosely as male, people consistently misgender the stranger as male.
- The Fettered: While e does learn how to defend eirself, the stranger is very pacifistic and devoutly Wiccan. To quote the Wiccan rede: If it shall harm none, do as you will. Time will tell how well the stranger upholds that morality.
- Shout-Out: ...to Exalted, Ar Tonelico, other Hollow Knight fanfiction and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Hymmnos songs play a much larger role for Stranger/Benui's magic.Politics, now that's the stuff that'll kill me if the Radiance doesn't.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While outwardly shy and a bit standoffish, the stranger shows small acts of kindness, like thanking a kingsmould that is supposed to be mindless for their service and telling them ey're proud of them or comforting Ogrim by seeing his worth and loyalty, even if he's young and naive.
