Protagonists | Hallownest (Groups, Assorted NPCs, Historic Characters, Bosses) | Pharloom | Expanded Universe
Groups of Hallownest
The distinct groups, organizations, civilizations and tribes that co-exist alongside, or live within the Kingdom of Hallownest. These groups are mostly territorial in nature, and had developed their own societies apart from the influence of the kingdom. open/close all folders
Base Game
Forgotten Crossroads Groups
Snail Shamans
Affiliated Characters: Snail Shaman
A tribe of snail creatures knowledgeable about the Soul and capable of channeling spells using it. Unfortunately, only one of them remains during the course of the game.
- Ambiguous Situation: Visually, the snail shamans appear to have more in common with characters like The Collector and Kingsmoulds, further strengthened by the spells and spell upgrades you get from the remaining snail and his kin being based around the void. However, nothing ever confirms this or if the snails had anything to do with the Pale King's efforts to keep Radiance away and forgotten, barring the Soul Sanctum experimenting on one in their own efforts.
- Butt-Monkey: A non-humorous example: the remaining snail shaman's family appears to have all died out before the events of the game, and you get their powers from what remains of them. The Shaman never seems to become suspicious and believes they are all voluntary gifts (which may or may not be true in two cases).
- You do not get Desolate Dive from a Snail, rather you get it from Soul Master, who likely experimented on one — considering how the Shaman mentions an ill-tempered third uncle. It's more or less confirmed when you find the apparently undead snail strapped to a dissection table in an optional area, which — fittingly — gives you the Vengeful Spirit upgrade.
- The Cousin in the Overgrown Mound is dead of some kind of fungus and shrubbery growing on it. you get the Howling Wraiths from her.
- The fourth aunt in the Crystallized Mound is trapped in a prison of crystal, and upon shattering it and her, gives the Descending Dark upgrade.
- A snail's sarcophagus can be found in the Resting Grounds, which gives you the Soul Eater Charm. The Snail Shaman makes no mention of a buried relative, but its not out of the question if they are related.
- Foil: The snails are centered around the void/black magic focused on damaging foes and affecting things in the waking world; the moths are worshippers of the light whos powers are typically uncombative and affect dreams.
- Planet of Steves: The one who gave you the Vengeful Spirit spell is identified as the Snail Shaman, whose family is collectively identified as the Snail Shamans.
- Posthumous Character: Save for the surviving member of their family, all other snail shamans are already dead due to some circumstances. All that remains out of them are their lifeless corpses. One of them is even tortured by the Soul Sanctum Scholars.
- Unwitting Test Subject: One of them was captured by the Soul Sanctum scholars to be experimented on. Once you find this shaman's location, it is already dead, but you can still retrieve the Vengeful Spirit spell from it.
Greenpath Groups
Mosskin Tribe
Affiliated Characters: Unn
A group of bugs worshipping Unn, a Higher Being dwelling somewhere in the Greenpath. They were allied with the Kingdom of Hallownest and agreed to have paths build in their territory, as long as they could attack anyone moving away into the wilderness itself.
- Ambushing Enemy: Some of the moss bugs blend well with the green plants and moss of their land.
- Mosscreeps lie flat and almost invisible against the Mosspath's greenery, and pop out and start moving once the player comes close to them.
- Moss Chargers burst directly out of the ground when the player enters their territories, charge towards him, and vanish back underground to ready another attack.
- Moss Knights hide in thick bushes, waiting to ambush the enemy. It may throw the player off guard during the first scripted Moss Knight encounter, but they can be spotted easily since the "hidden" Moss Knights still have their heads popping out of the bush.
- Cult: Unn is worshipped by the Mosskin in Greenpath, for being the deity who brought them and that place's green vegetation.
- Forest Ranger: Played with. They protect the vegetations and devote themselves to Unn to the point of building even a shrine for their god, but the trained warriors of the Mosskin are armed with a sword and shield.
- Have You Seen My God?: The tribe became infected when Unn hid herself away, with a lore tablet in Greenpath hinting at this trope as the cause:"Hidden Unn, we need you now. We grow tired away from you. Our leaves are falling."
- In-Series Nickname: A Lore Tablet in Greenpath refers to the Mosskin Tribe as "the Green Children".
- Knight Templar: Moss Knights patrol the Greenpath and will viciously attack anyone that comes too close. They believe they are defending their god's dream from interlopers.
- Nature Is Not Nice: Before the Infestation, they would still kill anyone who strayed too far from the paths.
- Plant Person: Subverted. Most of them cover themselves in green moss, plants and grass in order to blend with their green surroundings, but they are still bugs. The Mosscreep, Moss Charger and Massive Moss Charger look like they are living, walking bushes, but they are actually bugs on the inside.
- Reclaimed by Nature: The few parts of the Greenpath and the Queen's Gardens that had buildings and roads are now overgrown with foilage and thorny vines, and the former is inhabited by the mosskin tribe.
- Underground Monkey: Volatile Mosskin look very similar to regular Mosskin, but regularly emit Deadly Gas and explode after death.
- Undying Loyalty: Even if the Greenpath or the Mosskin themselves are infected, their loyalty is still for Unn.
Fungal Wastes Groups
Fungal Tribe
A tribe of sapient mushroom beings residing in Fungal Wastes. Despite not being bugs nor plants, the Fungal Tribe seems to have developed its own civilization and language, as written in their lore tablets.
- Ambushing Enemy: All of them blend well and hide in the background and mushrooms of the Fungal Wastes, then jump up once you get too close. The miniboss fight against the Shrumal Ogres counts as well, since they are sleeping in the stage at first.
- Anthropomorphic Transformation: If the Hunter's comments on the Shrumal Warriors is to be believed, these mushroom creatures were simply just mushrooms, until some unknown force caused them to grow hearts, minds, and even faces.
- Cowardly Mooks: Shrumelings respond to the Little Ghost's presence by blindly running away from them.
- Festering Fungus: The Fungal Waste area is overrun by mushrooms. This includes not only sapient mushrooms, but Plague zombies with mushrooms growing on them. They explode into orange gas instead of attacking directly. It's implied, however, they became spore carriers after they died and zombified.
- Hard Head: Shrumal Ogres are immune to downward nail attacks from mid-air, thanks to their thick caps. Subverted with spells like Desolate Dive that can still damage them.
- Harmless Enemy: Shrumelings lack any way of damaging the player, as they don't even deal contact damage.
- Hive Mind: A lore tablet in Fungal Wastes mentions the tribe have their "mind united".
- Mob War: There is a hostility between the creatures of the Deepnest versus both of the Mantis Villagers and Fungal Tribe residing in the Fungal Wastes. The more direct wars however, happen between the mantises and spiders since the mantis village is located just near the entrance to Deepnest. The Fungal Tribe on the other hand, refuse to make any truce with Deepnest.
- Mushroom Man: They're living humanoid mushroom creatures.
- Our Ogres Are Different: Shrumal Ogres are huge specimens of the common fungal species that have grown in girth well beyond their regular kin, and serve as the heavy hitters of the fungal tribe.
- Partially Civilized Animal: They have developed their own language and a semblance of civilization. However, it is limited as the shrooms are connected via a Hive Mind and not of their individual wills.
- Super Spit: Shrumal Ogres attack from range by spitting globs of Infection fluid, which will linger on the ground for a while after landing.
Mantis Villagers
Affiliated Characters: Mantis Lords/Sisters of Battle, Traitor Lord (Former), The Traitor's Child (Former)
A tribe of warriors who managed to resist the Infection and fall of Hallownest through sheer might and dedication to their lifestyle. Most of the mantises remained in their village located between the Fungal Wastes and Deepnest.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After you beat the Mantis Lords, all other mantises will not attack you and instead bow to you.
- Barbarian Tribe: Mantises are driven by their desire for combat. A tablet written in one of the village's entrances even drives the outsiders to expect their deaths in the hands of the tribe.
- Battle Trophy: In the vicinity of the Mantis Village are countless masks and shells of other bugs, many of them resembling the beasts of Deepnest, skewered on weapons and used as decorations.
- Blood Knight: Mantis society is built around endless battle. They're among the few creatures in the game that are hostile on sight despite not being infected — that's just how they operate.
- Closer to Earth: It's implied that they kept themselves free from the Infection because they live simple, brutal lives.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The Mantis Lords acknowledge the Knight's strength after it beats them, and the other mantis villagers won't attack it anymore.
- The Exile: There is a fourth Mantis Lord who went out of the tribe's code and embraced the infection out of a desire for more power, and convinced a number of other mantises to join him. The tribe's response was to cast all of the infected mantises away and brand them as traitors. These traitors can then be found in the Queen's Gardens.
- Fragile Flyer: The Mantis Nymphs have less health than the ground-based Warriors, and usually take one or two fewer hits to go down. In exchange, they rely on dodging strike-and-retreat tactics, diving low to attack and then quickly flying back out of range. In-universe, this is due to mantises only being flighted when they're in their nymph stage, as the larger and stronger adults become too heavy too fly.
- Hidden Elf Village: Their village is located in the deepest levels of the Fungal Wastes, just near the entrance to the Deepnest.
- Hold the Line: Some time in the past, the Pale King and the Mantis Lords made a truce. On the Mantises' side, they were to kill anything that stumbles out of the Deepnest — and if you look at the gate to the Deepnest from the Mantis Village, they've been doing this for a loooong time.
- Mob War: There is a hostility between Deepnest and both the Mantis Villagers and Fungal Tribe residing in the Fungal Wastes. The more direct wars, however, happen between the mantises and spiders since the mantis village is located just near the entrance to Deepnest. The Fungal Tribe, on the other hand, refuse to make any truce with Deepnest.
- Natural Weapon: The common Mantis Warriors use their "claws" or bladed forelimbs when fighting.
- Noble Savage: They live in the Fungal Wastes and border the Deepnest, living in rough huts and display masks of defeated enemies everywhere. They will still respect you if you beat their leaders.
- Proud Warrior Race: All of them in the Mantis Village, so much. They aren't infected or anything; they just always fight you regardless. Their warrior code (and the resultant hard line against the infection it requires) has spared their village the worst of the ravages that have befallen everywhere else.
- Rite of Passage: According to the Hunter’s journal, a mantis youth's passage into adulthood is often celebrated, although this also marks the loss of their ability to fly.
- Slaying Mantis: The tribe consists of warrior mantises that are swift enough in combat to be some of the more difficult enemies in the beginning of the game.
- The Spartan Way: The mantis youths are compelled to kill in order to prove themselves to the tribe before becoming warriors.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Mantis Villagers will eventually become friendly towards you in certain conditions, but you can still harm them anytime. They will fight back if you do, but the other mantises will still be friendly even though you just slaughtered their friend. Granted, they're a tribe of born warriors, with battle and killing being integral to their culture, so it makes some sense they would respect your combat superiority and your right to fight anyone at will.
City of Tears Groups
Sentries
Affiliated Characters: Husk Sentry, Winged Sentry, Heavy Sentry, Lance Sentry, Great Husk Sentry
The undead husks of Hallownest's sentries. Still retaining shallow memories of their duties before they died, they patrol the City of Tears even in their undead state.
- Airborne Mook: The winged sentries and lance sentries are winged, allowing them to patrol the City's airspace and attack the Knight from above, the Lance sentries also being able to throw their lances and divebomb you. As a result, most are located in the outdoor areas of the City of Tears, where they can take advantage of the open space to manouver and stay out of the Knight's melee range between attacks.
- City Guards: Even after being taken over by the infection, they still retain their duty to patrol the City of Tears and combat any threats.
- Dash Attack: One of the heavy sentries' attacks has them lower their nail and charge headlong towards and past the Knight. Winged lance sentries have a similar attack where they dive down to the Knight's level and quickly fly towards them with their lance aimed forward.
- Elite Mooks: Much faster and stronger than the husks found in places like Forgotten Crossroads, they have weapons and armor and still remember their training in combat. Among the sentries, the Great Husk Sentry is the biggest and toughest of them all, with attacks that take off two masks at once and a shield to block the Knight's own nail. The Hunter sarcastically notes that the latter kind are the only Hallownest bugs he knows of that pose an actual threat.
- Fragile Flyer: The winged sentries have the lowest overall health of the sentry types — common sentries have the same as they do to start with, but gain a little extra when the player gets the first nail upgrade that the flying types don't benefit from. As a result, they take the fewest hits to defeat, but are harder to bring to battle thanks to staying up in the air most of the time.
- Giant Mook: Heavy sentries and Great Husk Sentries are basically supersized versions of the common sentry, with more force to put behind attacks.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: The sentries are mostly blue, but the large and powerful great husk sentries are colored red instead.
- Mighty Glacier: The Great Husk Sentry is one of the strongest enemies in the game, boasting a powerful attack. It is also rather slow, especially when compared to the other sentries.
- Tough Beetles: They are somewhat beetle-like in appearance and they fiercely guard the City of Tears. Special mention goes to the Great Husk Sentry, the largest and toughest of the sentries, capable of doing two masks of damage per hit.
Soul Sanctum's Scholars
Affiliated Characters: Soul Master/Soul Tyrant, Soul Warrior
Intelligent bugs who secluded themselves in their sanctum and devoted their lives in researching soul in an attempt to cure the Radiance's infection. However, the Pale King began to oppose their researches as the scholars have been conducting experiments on bugs. Now driven by madness and the infection itself, the scholars went mad and believed that soul is the key to immortality.
- Body Horror: The Mistakes and Follies look like deformed slug-like beings made out of soul. The former's Journal entry suggests that they are still clinging on the hope that their fellow scholars would create new bodies for them... But even that seems to be a stretch considering how all other scholars are now infected.
- Face–Heel Turn: Their original goal of experimenting with soul was under the belief that it could help the King to cure the infection in his kingdom. But due to the infection itself and the "prophetic visions" that the Soul Master was supposedly receiving, things changed when these scholars believed that soul could give them immortality instead. Live experimentations on bugs happened, prompting the Pale King himself to oppose these scholars.
- Find the Cure!: Their original goal was curing the infection. After being driven to madness by the infection, their goal was twisted into finding the key to immortality.
- Foreshadowing: When the Hunter recalls that all efforts of the Soul Sanctum scholars were to no avail, he theorizes that the infection came from somewhere deep inside the bugs that they could not escape. He's right about the infection's methods – The Radiance can infect bugs from the inside, via dreams.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Nothing good came out from most of their researches, and their end-results with fellow bugs mostly become failed experiments aptly named Mistakes and Follies.
- Immortality Immorality: The Soul Sanctum is an academic institution that serves as home to the Soul Master and his pupils; they sought to stop the plague and achieve immortality by harvesting and twisting soul to aid their research. Without a dream nail or the innate ability to steal soul, the only method of collection is to inflict harm on other living creatures, and after defeating the Soul Master you can find a room filled with the husks of hundreds of dead bugs.
- Immortality Seeker: The Soul Master and his fellow researchers hoped to find a way to live forever, but they were all driven mad and deformed by misusing the power of souls.
- Mad Scientist: Technically applies to all of them under the leadership of the Soul Master. Once aimed to cure the infection by researching on the soul, they've began abusing the powers of the soul in an attempt to achieve immortality, and began conducting experiments on other creatures. Plus, there's also the exposition that the Soul Master himself is getting inspiration from his so-called "prophetic dreams", hinting that he may have been infected by the Radiance in the first place.
- Motive Decay: It's the Soul Master's motivations that drive the scholars to work under him. At first, they were allowed to research on the soul in order to find the cure against the infection, but they experimented on the soul in an attempt to find immortality instead. When the kingdom was ruined by the infection, most of the scholars themselves were also infected, yet still spend their fruitless hours inside the Sanctum.
- Power Floats: The Soul Master and the Soul Twister can float, thanks to their experiments.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Mistakes and Follies were former scholars who experimented with their own selves, but such results have Gone Horribly Wrong.
- Scale of Scientific Sins: Immortality - A sin commited by the Soul Sanctum Scholars who experimented with soul and living beings in a futile attempt to seek immortality. Surprisingly for all other scientific sins that he did, the Pale King opposed these experiments.
- Science Hero: They were once this, experimenting with soul in order to find a cure for the infection. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the infection itself and the "prophetic visions" that the Soul Master was supposedly receiving, they began experimenting with soul in order to gain immortality instead, effectively turning themselves into Mad Scientists.
- The Smart Guy: These scholars are highly intelligent.
- Teleport Spam: The Soul Master, Soul Twister and Soul Warrior enemies can do this a lot to escape or get close to the Knight in combat.
Deepnest Groups
Spider Tribe
Affiliated Characters: Hornet, Herrah the Beast, Midwife
At the borders of Hallownest lives a tribe of spider-like bugs, hidden away in the Deepnest. They don't follow any of the laws of Hallownest and would happily catch, kill and eat any bug that dare stray into the darkness they inhabit. The tribe consists of a loose association of different creatures, such as the huge Stalking Devouts, the Weavers that had come to Deepnest from a distant land, and seemingly unique beings such as Midwife, united by their worship of Herrah the Beast. The Infection hit them hard, reducing almost all of their number to mindless agression. The only exception were the Weavers, who fled the Infection and returned to their own land.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Zig-zagged with spiders, who are actually called "spiders" a couple of times, but most dialogues refer to them as dwellers of the Deepnest (note how their chief, Herrah, is only ever called "the Beast") or individually by more specific names such as Stalking Devouts or Weavers.
- Cult: The spiders have Acolytes and seem fanatically dedicated to their leader, Herrah. It isn't clear what kind of cult it is however — most likely either a Cult of Personality around Herrah (as her mask is seen as an icon everywhere), or a Breeding Cult that seeks to breed more spiders, or some sort of a "hunting cult" that takes great pride in killing and eating anything they get their claws on.
- Dark Is Evil: They are spiders who live in the dark.
- Dramatic High Perching: The Little Weavers attack the Knight from walls, ceilings or from the air, walking on invisible strands of silk.
- Extra Eyes: They have three pairs of eyes.
- Had to Be Sharp: Implied; to live in the Deepnest, the most dangerous part of Hallownest by a long stretch, you would have to use any means and skills necessary to survive.
- He Was Right There All Along: Little Weavers can suddenly pop out of nowhere from the background, implying that they are hiding while stalking the Knight.
- Hidden Depths: The Weavers had several talents that contributed to the growth of their tribe.Midwife: "Amazing things the weavers once crafted on their looms; stories, shields, spells."
- Hidden Elf Village: Their home is the Distant Village, a few dozen silk cocoons hanging over a dark lake in the Deepnest. It has a few signs that the Kingdom of Hallownest was allowed to built a Stagway and some other buildings, but they look as though they've never been used.
- Lightning Bruiser: Stalking Devouts amble about swiftly, move faster than the Knight walks when attacking, have a good amount of health, shield their faces with their claws, and deal two masks of damage with said claws.
- Magically-Binding Contract: Herrah the Beast struck a deal with the Pale King to be one of the Dreamers to seal away the Radiance. In return, Herrah asked the King to father her a daughter, which he agreed to. The child (who is none other than Hornet), technically a half-princess Heroic Bastard of Hallownest, was born from their union and raised by a midwife.
- Mob War: There is a hostility between the dwellers of the Deepnest versus both of the Mantis Villagers and Fungal Tribe residing in the Fungal Wastes. The more direct wars however, happen between the mantises and spiders since the mantis village is located just near the entrance to Deepnest. The Fungal Tribe on the other hand, refuse to make any truce with Deepnest.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The Little Weavers can be found walking in the air to ambush the Knight, but they are actually spiders walking on their invisible threads.
- Non-Indicative Name: No Little Weavers can be found inside the Weaver's Den, despite having "Weaver" in their name. They are found in the general areas of the Deepnest instead. The reason is because the Weaver's Den was originally home to the true Weavers, but was left abandoned when they fled the Infection — a single individual is met when the Knight first enters, but flees immediately and is never seen again.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Unless they are attacking, Stalking Devouts are invincible to melee attacks from the front. The Knight needs to either goad them into revealing their faces or rely on ranged attacks.
- Sole Survivor: The Weavers ended up leaving Hallownest to head back to where they originally came from when the Infection hit, leaving their original den in Deepnest a ruin littered with corpses... with the exception of one uninfected Weaver that stands near the entrance of their den once you pick up the Weaversong charm. However, she can't be interacted with, as she immediately scurries away once she sees the Knight.
- Spiders Are Scary: The savage bugs of Deepnest are mostly variants of spiders.
- Spider Swarm: They all live in Deepnest (and exclusively in that place alone), and have rulers such as Herrah.
- Town with a Dark Secret: They eat other sapient bugs.
- Undying Loyalty: They are loyal to the queen of the Nest, Herrah the Beast.
- Weaponized Headgear: The Stalking Devouts' "Masks" are actually plated claws, which split open to reveal their real head, and each side of the mask are used as blades when they attack.
Distant Villagers
A group of strange bugs who are seen in the Distant Village, just below the entrance to the Beast's Den.
- Ambiguous Situation: What we all know is that they are fakes and are only trying to trick you. But what are they exactly? The game does not make it clear if they are just Weavers disguised as husks, are puppets manipulated by an offscreen puppeteer, are animated by the same parasitic bugs that "revive" the dead, or are actual husks but disappeared after you escaped.
- Broken Record: Gee. How many times do they have to tell you to sit and rest!?Greetings. You are very tired. Sit and rest.
We are friends. Welcome. Sit and rest.
Please sit and rest.
It is warm and safe. Sit and rest.
Welcome. You need rest. Sit and rest. - Flat Character: They are only there to entice you to sit on the webbed bench, then capturing you to the Beast's Den once you fall for their trap.
- Foreshadowing: You can pass by some dead husks in another area of the village. When hit with the dream nail, these would hint about a group of fake bugs.
- Hidden Elf Village: True to their namesake, they reside in the Distant Village, probably the only place in the Deepnest that has some signs of being "civilized", as there is a working Stagway nearby.
- No Name Given: They don't have any official names, only labeled as "Royal" or "Fake" in the game files.
- Psychic Block Defense: They cannot be dream nailed. This is a big reason some suspect them to be mere puppets on invisible strings of webbing.
- Shmuck Bait: How nice it is for those people at Distant Village to have a bench for you to rest on. A bench covered in webbing in the heart of spider land, a ruined, completely cocooned town. The exact place you need to fight one of the Dreamers on. A nearby house has several corpses whose last thoughts call them liars, and the villagers give no response when hit with the dream nail. Then you sit on the bench, discover that you are trapped in its webbing, the villagers approach, and you wake up in the Beast's Den.
- Stylistic Suck: Entering the Distant Village will play a somewhat "calm" tune compared to the Deepnest's eerie ambience. However, when the villagers lured you into the trap, the music slowly becomes distorted as they approach you.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Once you escaped the Beast's Den, you'll find out that the "villagers" have their shells and cloaks abandoned on the floor of the entrance.
Resting Grounds Groups
Moth Tribe
Affiliated Characters: The Radiance/Absolute Radiance, Markoth, Seer, Unnamed Moth
Ancient beings created by The Radiance and knowledgeable in the manipulation of dreams.
- Ambiguously Evil: The tribe were the main worshippers of Radiance. However, some of them can still be aware enough to reflect on and be ashamed of their deeds, such as the Seer who now looks for a worthy wielder of the Dream Nail.
- Arc Words: "Dreams" and "Light", two concepts that are heavily associated with them for being created by the Radiance herself, and for being able to enter the dream world. The remaining objects that were left from their kin are also named the Dream Nail, Dream Wielder and the Dreamshield.
- Be All My Sins Remembered: After forging the Awakened Dream Nail, the Seer requests the Knight not to remember the entire moth tribe for they do not deserve such praise over the consequences of their actions.
- Cape Wings: All three members of the Moth tribe that the player encounters — the Seer, plus Thistlewind's and Markoth's ghosts — keep their wings gathered around their bodies like cloaks, covering themselves from neck to feet.
- Dream Walker: They specialized in the manipulation of dreams and they created the Dream Nail, a weapon/tool that allows non-moths to access other people's dreams. A flying moth even saved the Knight when the Dreamers attempted to trap it in the Dream World.
- Due to the Dead: Under the Pale King's rule, the Moth Tribe were tasked to be the caretakers of the Resting Grounds, the place to remember Hallownest's deceased citizens.
- Dying Race: Whatever happened to the other remnants of the Tribe, they died off-screen to the point that the Seer became the Last of Their Kind. The other deceased moths were even aware of the fate of their race, that when you use the Dream Nail on the statue holding the Dream Shield, they urge the Seer to protect herself since she is the last. Unfortunately once the Seer recovers all of her memories, she disappears into Essence, bringing the end of the moth tribe.
- Ethnic God: Before they turned to the Pale King, the moths worshipped the Radiance as their patron and creator.
- Foil: The snails are centered around the void/black magic focused on damaging foes and affecting things in the waking world; the moths are worshippers of the light whose powers are typically uncombative and affect dreams.
- Heel–Race Turn: A race created by the Radiance, but the moths turned themselves to serve the Pale King after his arrival in Hallownest, and eventually forgot the Radiance.
- Macabre Moth Motif: They descended from the Radiance herself, (also a higher being that took the form of a moth), and they can access dreams in one way or another.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The moths left behind a statue on top of the Crystal Peak to remember the Radiance. But even after their Heel–Race Turn, the statue served as the catalyst for other bugs to be infected by the Radiance.
Ghosts in the Spirits' Glade
Affiliated Characters: Revek
Deceased insects whose lingering ghosts are still found in the cemetery of Hallownest, the Spirits' Glade. For as long as the glade still houses the likes of such ghosts, Revek will keep on performing his duty of protecting them.
- Due to the Dead: These ghosts have two sides who remind others to respect them:
- Under the Pale King's rule, the Moth Tribe were tasked to be the caretakers of the Resting Grounds, the place to remember Hallownest's deceased citizens.
- Revek is an embodiment of this trope on both sides; he requests you to respect the ghosts in the Spirit's Glade. You can interact with them for sure, but if you "destroy" any of the ghosts using the Dream Nail, Revek will relentlessly pursue you as a punishment. And he cannot be stopped unless you leave the area.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: They can only be seen if the player obtains the Dream Nail. Some are not aware that they already died, and some are not aware of the passage of time. However, all ghosts are stuck on where their corpses are located. And since they give essence and disappear when hit with the dream nail, they can be assumed as the deceased bugs' imprints or memories.
- Posthumous Character: As a ghost, they are already long dead by the events of the game.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Like the other ghosts, you can use the Dream Nail on these spirits to "absorb" them for essence.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you collect the essence of any of the ghosts in the Glade of Hope, Revek will relentlessly pursue and attack you (dealing two masks of damage per hit) until either you escape from the glade or you die, and he can't be hurt. He's the first ghost you can encounter in the glade and he warns you not to tamper with the graves.
Kingdom's Edge Groups
The Fools
Affiliated Characters: God Tamer, Little Fool, Lord Fool
The Colosseum seems to be one of the few still-functioning tribes in Hallownest; a huge arena where gladiators travel from far and wide to test their mettle.
- Artifact Mook: Hollow Knight has a very consistent atmosphere, every enemy bug lives in specific areas with detailed explanations for their presence and how they fit into the local ecosystem. However, as a pure survival gauntlet, the Trial of the Fool throws in several different enemies from all across Hallownest.
- Awesome, but Impractical: An In-Universe example that is lampshaded. In the Colosseum, the Battle Obbles each wear a tiny mask. The Hunter questions if the mask even has a practical use or if it's just an extravagance.
- Blood Knight: Despite being infected, they still hold on to their quest for glory and victory in the trials.
- Blood Sport: What we're all here for! A Fool ponders if it's really worth it..."Are we all Fools?..."
- Beast of Battle: Those uniquely red-plated creatures (Sharp Baldur, Armoured Squit, Battle Obble, and Death Loodle) that you can find only in the Colosseum? According to the Hunter, they are all bred for battle by the Fools, trained for combat, tougher and more aggressive than their ancestors living in the wilds.
- Challenge Run: The Colosseum is just three increasingly difficult combat challenges when you come down to it.
- Disposing of a Body: The first sign of the Colosseum most players will see is in the Kingdom's Edge. Occasionally, the corpse of a Fool will fall down from above, crashing onto a platform or into the acid pools below.
- Gang Up on the Vessel: If it comes to a choice between attacking you and dodging or defending against a stage hazard (or the trained animals the Fools use, which will attack anyone), the Fools will pick going after you, every time.
- Gladiator Games: The Colosseum of Fools is an optional endgame area to challenge the player's combat prowess, complete with cockroach gladiators, captive wildlife, and a bloodthirsty audience. They hold three levels of fights called trials, with the last one requiring the challenger to face the God Tamer. Interestingly, a dried-out husk of a corpse is seated in the throne suspended over the arena. He is hinted to be the Lord Fool, implying that there is no longer any figure of authority overseeing the fights.
- Immigrant Patriotism: Within the ranks of the Fools, there are also bugs from other tribes such as the Mantis Traitors and Soul Sanctum Scholars who chose to fight in the colosseum.
- Informed Attractiveness: According to the Hunter, a Heavy Fool has a surprisingly beautiful face beneath its mask.
- It's Raining Men: The area in Kingdom's Edge with the acid pools? That's where the Fools dump their defeated contestants, literally evoking this trope when dozens of them can be seen falling every time you climb higher on the platforms.
- Laugh Track: The spectators will laugh at some things that humiliate the contestants, such as the Knight getting tricked by a Grub mimic, or just anything that Zote does in the Colosseum.
- Partially Civilized Animal: The Fools are bloodthirsty warriors in the trials. But outside the actual fights in the colosseum? They are surprisingly passive.
- Spikes of Doom: They particularly like covering the floor with spikes. This will kill Fools who can't fly or jump onto platforms, just the same as the knight.
- Underground Monkey: The Fools have a lot of specialized breeds of wildlife from around Hallownest to test their fighters.
- Volt Twisters, only encountered during the Trial of the Fool, are recolored and slightly redrawn Soul Twisters with lightning-based attacks.
- The Colosseum of Fools also has Sharp Baldurs, Armored Squits, Battle Obbles, and Death Loodles, which are spikier and more heavily armored than their main game counterparts.
- Unique Enemy: There is a non-hostile Sturdy Fool that can be found bathing in the Warriors' Pit section of the Colosseum of Fools. You can strike the nail to splash the liquid and make it grunt, or you can use the Dream Nail to read its unique dialogue....Why does it disturb me?...
- Unstoppable Rage: The Fools are mostly consumed by the Infestation, but that doesn't stop the twin bosses of the second Trial from flipping their shit when their partner is killed!
The Bees
Affiliated Characters: Hive Knight, Hive Queen Vespa
Sapient bugs that live in the Hive located below the Kingdom's Edge. They have rejected the Pale King's quest and secluded themselves to their own businesses. Unfortunately, Vespa's death weakened the Hive and exposed it to the infection outside.
- Bee Afraid: They're willing to protect the Hive with their lives, attacking any intruder who dares enter their domain. That is, unless you have Hiveblood equipped.
- Bee People: Bee people indeed, as they live in a beehive and attack any intruders who dare set foot inside.
- Body Horror: Surprisingly enough, there are Husks inside the Hive, but they are labeled "Husk Hive" in the Journal, and are stated to be cowardly husks colonized by hivelings, and they have a small beehive in their bodies.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Zig-zagged. There are bees in Hallownest, but they are never once called "Bees", instead referred to as denizens of the Hive, where they are found (similarly, the area is never called a "beehive": only "Hive"). The Wanderer's Journal however, does refer to them as bees.
- Closer to Earth: They rejected the Pale King's attempt of truce from the Hallownest kingdom, since these bees only want to protect their queen and live in their hive.
- Destructive Savior: Hive Guardians protect the Hive at all costs by hurling their bodies. The Hunter notes that their clumsiness can make the Guardians damage their own Hive when charging at intruders. In fact, the game encourages you to exploit this tactic, since a Mask Shard in the Hive can only be obtained by luring a Hive Guardian to destroy a cracked wall.
- Encounter Repellant: Equipping the Hiveblood charm removes aggro from all enemies inside the Hive.
- Fantastic Racism: Anyone who enters the Hive without having a trace of their blood is attacked and labeled an intruder. Fortunately, the Hiveblood charm does protect the Knight against the Bees, by way of being an Encounter Repellant.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even if the Hiveblood charm pacifies the bees in the Hive, it doesn't change their hostile Dream Nail dialogues.
- Giant Mook: Hive Guardians, giant bees who attack everything by smashing it with their huge bodies.
- Guide Dang It!: The existence of The Hive is indicated by a few bees surrounding it from the outside, but the entrance is blocked by a breakable wall over a set of spikes.
- Furry Reminder: As if the similarities to their real-life beehive counterparts aren't obvious enough, the Hunter calls them hardworking creatures in large numbers, and their bodies contain a thick, sweet golden liquid – In other words, honey.
- Hive Caste System: Fitting for a bee colony, there exists Hivelings for simple tasks, Soldiers and Guardians as their primary defenders, the Hive Knight as their last line of defense, and Vespa the Hive Queen being their leader.
- Hive Mind: They are simply collectively known as the Hive and are implied to act on a unified order.
- Hornet Hole: Where they can be found. Apart from the Bees patrolling it, the Hive's decorations and items are also bee-themed — the geo deposits found elsewhere in the game are replaced by chunks of honey studded with geo, while several areas have walls of wax or crystallized honey that must be broken to progress.
- Locked Out of the Loop: By the time they are already infected, the Bees were never fully aware that their Queen already died. A literal case of Undying Loyalty happens soon after.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: There's a honey bee hive hidden in Kingdom's Edge. It has its own boss and several persistent types of bees that are difficult to fight off. The area is optional, but mandatory if you want to collect the charm, mask shard, and grubs hidden in it. The bees in the hive are easily aggro'd by the Knight's presence. That is, unless you wear the Hiveblood charm which acts as an Encounter Repellant against them.
- Undying Loyalty: Since their infected minds are unware of their Queen's death, they are aimlessly protecting the Hive even if they no longer have a leader. This state of mind saddens their Queen's ghost, and she even expresses relief that the Hive Knight is now free when you kill him.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Just like the Mantis Villagers, you can still kill the bees even if they are already non-hostile to you (which can be made possible using the Hiveblood charm). They would also fight back once provoked in this situation.
Queen's Garden's Groups
Mantis Traitors
Affiliated Characters: Traitor Lord, The Traitor's Child
Unfortunately, a group of mantises were also cast away from their village and branded as traitors for embracing the Infection.
- Achilles' Heel: Because the Traitors and Traitor Lord dash for a lot of their attacks, using the Shade Cloaknote to avoid into their attacks makes killing them much easier. You even need the Shade Cloak to enter the area where you fight the Traitor Lord to begin with.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How the traitors are now residing in the Queen's Gardens. They've killed most of the sapient bugs there... Except for the spot where the White Lady is located, as the Great Knight Dryya's corpse is seen atop a mountain of mantis traitors' corpses, implying that she was at least successful in fending off a number of them, unfortunately at the cost of her life.
- Barbarian Tribe: Mantises are driven by their desire for combat. A tablet written in one of the village's entrances even drives the outsiders to expect their deaths in the hands of the tribe.
- Evil Makes You Monstrous: Applies to the Mantis Traitors who are now infected, but went into some Body Horror changes. The Traitor Lord takes the cake out of the changes, since he is now massive.
- Fragile Flyer: The flying Mantis Petras have less health than the flightless warriors, and usually take one or two fewer hits to go down. In battle, they use ranged attacks while trying to avoid the Knight. In-universe, this is due to mantises only being flighted when they're in their nymph stage, as the larger and stronger adults become too heavy too fly.
- Natural Weapon: The common Mantis Warriors use their "claws" when fighting. This also applies to the infected traitors.
- Razor Wind: Mantis Petras attack by creating "wind-scythes", blades of compressed air, by slashing with their claws, which spin towards the Knight before retrating back towards their sender.
- Slaying Mantis: The theme of the entire tribe; they are nimble warrior mantises and some of the more difficult enemies in the beginning of the game. The traitors take that even further, with fast dashing both on the ground and in the air.
- Underground Monkey: Mantis Traitors and Mantis Petras are upgraded versions of the Mantis Warriors and Mantis Youths, respectively; the former using a dive attack in addition to their Deadly Lunge, the latter throwing scythes similar to those of the Mantis Lords.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The infection gave the traitors strength, but a side-effect, it also drove them mad.
Mossy Vagabonds
Affiliated Characters: Moss Prophet
A small group of Mosskins who were swayed by the Moss Prophet to worship the infection instead of Unn. They can be found in a chapel of the Queen's Gardens.
- The Heretic: They were part of the Mosskin Tribe, but now worship the infection (and by extension, its source, The Radiance) instead of their first higher being of worship, Unn.
- Lazy Bum: This is how The Hunter describes the vagabonds.
- Permanently Missable Content: Zigzagged. Odds are you'll find them dead on your first playthrough because you came through the Queen's Gardens entrance after killing a dreamer or getting the Monarch Wings first. Thankfully, even if they're dead you can still get their journal entry.
- Plant Person: A subversion. Similar to the Mosskins, they cover themselves in thick bushes but are still considered bugs.
- Religion of Evil: They are the cult followers of the Moss Prophet who now worship the infection itself. They even had their own chapel in a secluded area of the Queen's Gardens!
- Underground Monkey: They look like fat Moss Knights with thicker vegetation covering their bodies.
Royal Waterways Groups
The Flukes
Affiliated Characters: Flukemarm, Fluke Hermit
Worm-like, parasitic creatures residing only in the damp Royal Waterways. Most of them are driven mad by the infection now, only wanting to breed even more. There is an uninfected fluke out of them however, the Fluke Hermit. But even it holds the desire to expand their numbers.
- Asteroids Monster: Flukemons sliced in half with a nail will form two independent, still-living and still aggressive, smaller flukes.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Flukemons and Flukefeys look nothing like parasitic flukes, and are closest to annelid worms, particularly leeches.
- Gonk: They don't even have any distinct facial features, nor proper eyes.
- Hell Is That Noise: All flukes let out grating, gurgling and slobbering sounds when they become aggressive.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: The Flukemarm is the one reproducing all the Flukemons and Flukefeys you encounter in the Royal Waterways.
- Scatting: Flukes always produce an indecipherable mess of sounds.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: When a Flukemon is killed, it's split in half at the waist. The top half reanimates before hitting the ground and slowly floats towards the Knight. The bottom half reanimates a few seconds later and sprints toward the Knight on the ground — similar to a whole Flukemon, except in can now climb foreground walls.
Abyss Groups
Vessels
Warning: Massive Spoilers Follow
Affiliated Characters: The Knight, the Hollow Knight/Pure Vessel, the Broken Vessel/Lost Kin
The creations of the Pale King, created by the thousands in hopes that one would be sufficiently hollow to contain the Radiance without being itself corrupted.
- The Blank: Their faces are hard, blank white masks whose only facial features are a pair of motionless eyes that are essentially just holes bored directly through their crania.
- Disability Immunity: Invoked by the Pale King in his plans of the Vessels. Being "hollow" means that the Radiance won't be able to corrupt anything if the individual has no sense of identity or will.
- Empty Shell: The Pale King's plan in creating the ideal, Pure Vessel centered around shaping a being without any will, mind, or desires. Since the Infection functions by corrupting and infecting minds, the only way to prevent it from taking over the Pure Vessel was for it to have no mind to latch on to.
- Hero of Another Story: Many are implied to have made journeys similar to the Knight's, somehow escaping the Abyss and climbing to the surface world, but died either on their way up or while trying to return to Hallownest — a dead Vessel is found in the Greenapth in Hornet's arena, the Broken Vessel died in the Ancient Basin, and a large number of dead Vessels are found strung up with other prey in Nosk's lair.
- Living Shadow: The Vessels are constructs of the liquid darkness of the Void bound inside of physical shells — breaking these shells allows the darkness to emerge, as seen in the Shades created when the Knight dies or the Siblings that wander in the Abyss.
- No Biological Sex: Vessels have no biological sex or gender identity, due to being artificial constructs created by the Pale King and being essentially molds of Void contained by shells.
- Royal Blood: The Vessels are the children of the Pale King and the White Lady, who were cast into the Abyss to be transformed into creatures of the Void.
- The Speechless: Vessels lack mouths, making them incapable of speech.
Expansion Packs
The Grimm Troupe Groups
The Grimm Troupe
Affiliated Characters: Troupe Master Grimm/Nightmare King Grimm, The Nightmare's Heart, Grimmsteed, Divine, Brumm, Nymm (Former)
A travelling group of performer bugs, who evoke a theme of circus plays, conducting tents, music and plays to the kingdoms that they visit. Their leader Grimm, states that there is a reason for the troupe to choose "dying kingdoms" as their destinations. However, there is actually a secret held within the entire troupe, with all of them being slaves of something more powerful working behind the scenes.
- Ambiguously Evil: If you talk to the denizens of Dirtmouth, they all comment that there's something "sinister" about the Troupe, but it's not entirely clear what it is. In-game, they are at least not the Knight's enemies, and are generally quite courteous.
- Arc Words: "Flames", "Dance", and "Ritual" are heavily tied into the motives of the Troupe and its leader, Grimm. Regarding the first word, the troupe members are also heavily associated with using fire or having fire-based abilities.
- Circus of Fear: They reside in a red-themed circus tent, and one of the "performances" include Grimm fighting someone else from the kingdom that they visit.
- Cool Mask: They wear white masks with vertical splits crossing their eyes. Divine gets a half-mask though.
- Creepy Circus Music: Fitting for their theme of being connected to nightmares, the presence of the Grimm Troupe is accompanied with circus music. Among them, you can interact with Brumm, the troupe member who is playing the accordion inside the tent.
- Cult: The Grimm Troupe is this for the Nightmare's Heart, as they conduct rituals in an attempt to sustain the life of the Heart by providing it with vessels.
- The Dreaded: Try to talk to any Dirtmouth NPC the moment the troupe arrives in the town. They will express fear out of the feeling that something sinister is nearby. Consequently, if you decide to go through the Banishment route to make the troupe disappear, the Dirtmouth citizens (especially the Elderbug) will be glad that they are gone.
- Dream Walker: It is stated that they travel through the dreams of an acolyte who set and lit a Nightmare Lantern in a given place.Hunter's Journal for Troupe Master Grimm: "Through dream I travel, at lantern's call".
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Grimm Troupe are themed around a dull red, and are sinister if not outright evil.
- Level Scaling: Grimm and the Grimmkins scale in health depending on how upgraded your weapon is, providing a consistent challenge no matter how much damage you do per hit.
- Loved by All: The troupe really loves and respects their master Grimm, and by extension, the successor Grimmchild. Even Brumm's request of banishing the entire troupe is actually a sign of goodwill in itself, since he is aware that everyone, Grimm included, is a slave to a powerful higher being. He just wants to set his friends free from the cycle.
- No Ontological Inertia: The entire Grimm Troupe (including Brumm and the Nightmare's Heart) vanish out of Hallownest once the Nightmare Lantern is destroyed. Quite subverted once you meet the new stranger in Dirtmouth named Nymm, who is hinted to be an amnesiac Brumm.
- Passing the Torch: This is an indication why Grimm wants the Grimmchild to grow – so that he will have a successor before he dies. And the "torch" can be taken literally in the context of the troupe's symbolism with fire, since the current Troupe Leader Grimm has to be killed in the ritual of making the next Grimmchild grow after collecting the flames. Or as a poem in the Grimmkin Master's Journal entry reads, "Burn the father, feed the child."
- Playing with Fire: They seem to rely too much on flames - You call the troupe to Hallownest by lighting a brazier, Grimm and his Grimmkins use lots of fire-based attacks and projectiles, and the entire quest of evolving the Grimmchild requires you to collect crimson flames.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Part of the outfit color theme and "sinister" aura of the Troupe.
- Slave Mook: All members of the Troupe, including Grimm himself, are actually just pawns or slaves of The Nightmare's Heart.
- Thanatos Gambit: The Ritual of the Grimm Troupe can be summed up like this – The current Grimm plans to evolve the Grimmchild. But when it's done, someone else would then have to kill the current Grimm so that the Grimmchild fully matures and become the next Grimm.Hunter's Journal for the Grimmkin Master: Burn the Father, Feed the Child.
- Vicious Cycle: Once the Grimmchild has matured, someone has to kill the current Nightmare King Grimm to make the cycle continue. The Grimmchild would then be set as the new Grimm.
Godmaster Groups
Godseekers
Affiliated Characters: The Godseeker, Gods of Rain and Gods of Thunder
A travelling tribe of strange bugs who want to seek gods and attune to other living creatures, wishing to ascend to a higher state. During the events of the game, only one Godseeker can be interacted with in the physical world, the rest of her tribe now reside within the Godhome, a place located in her dream.
- Arc Words: "Attune" is heavily associated with the Godseekers' quest.
- Cataclysm Backstory: The Godseekers used to live in lands far away from the Kingdom, but the gods they worshipped left them, forcing the Godseekers to find a new land and attune to other deities. This event was called the "woeful silence" according to the "Lament of the Godseekers" writing.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To Egypt. The Godseekers wear golden masks and their cloaks have a mummy-bandage-like stripe pattern.
- God Is Displeased: The Weathered Mask journal entry states that the Gods of Thunder and the Gods of Rain had abandoned their worshippers (the Godseekers) at one point. The Godseekers lamented this, seeing their "woeful silence" as the end-result of being forsaken. These Godseekers have continued to search for a way to discover new gods so that they might attune to them.
- Have You Seen My God?: Looking for the thunder and rain gods who abandoned them.
- Hive Mind: The surviving Godseeker's mind is seemingly shared among multiple bodies. Particularly evident in the Godhome, where she fills entire colosseum stands with similar looking bugs. Its inhabitants will even mention lines like "our mind" or that their mind is akin to a "sea".
- Planet of Steves: You rescue a chained creature in the Royal Waterways who is identified as the Godseeker. Entering her mind with the dream nail reveals that her entire tribe is known as the Godseekers.
