Intro
Ever since its release back in September of 2025, people have been debating what the plot to Hollow Knight: Silksong even was. Why were all those bugs obsessed with their pilgrimage to the Citadel? Who were those mysterious figures who seemed to be running the place? And just who exactly is this character? Why is everyone saying her name is Hornet and calling her a spider and a worm when she doesn’t look like any of those things?
This video intends to answer a good 70% of these questions. We will ascend through the land of Pharloom, dissecting the game’s dialogue and world in an attempt to wrangle a more complete understanding of Team Cherry’s Metroidvania masterpiece. But with how recent this game is, please keep in mind that the theories shared here might be lacking the sort of refinement you would expect from deep dive lore videos about other, less recent video game releases. Also, please don’t take everything I say in this video as gospel. I am just one of many people with theories, and nothing makes my words more inherently correct. So don’t just automatically believe me when I say stuff like when the Slab was built, or that the Earth is round or that now is actually a really good time to be investing in Etherium.
Oh, and this video will contain massive spoilers for not only Hollow Knight: Silksong but also Hollow Knight. In fact, you kinda need to know a lot about Hollow Knight’s story to really appreciate the story in Silksong, so if you need a refresher on Hollow Knight’s lore, be sure to check out my Hollow Knight lore video first. This video also contains massive spoilers for the hit 2004 film Shrek the Third. So if you need a refresher on Shrek the Third’s lore, be sure to check out my Shrek the Third lore video first. This is the Somewhat Complete Lore of Silksong.
Promise of the Citadel
The story of Silksong begins with Silk, more specifically Grand Mother Silk, a higher being described as the primal source of all Silk. Silk in the world of Silksong is spun from the soul of its creator, and has the power to heal wounds, extend life, and weave powerful runes. Grand Mother Silk is also described as a pale being. What exactly are Pale Beings? Some might have you believe they are great beings, worthy of praise above all others. But Hornet wouldn’t necessarily agree with that assessment.
While Pale Beings are immensely powerful, they don’t always have the best intentions at heart. Pale Beings are usually mainly interested in total subjugation from the bugs living beneath them. Hornet, a bug who is half pale being from her father, the Pale King, explains:
Devotion or destruction… these are the only fates my kind allow.
And Hornet doesn’t hold the Pale Beings in her life in particularly high regard. She calls her father, the Pale King, a fool in the Wingmould’s Hunter’s Journal entry. And she admonishes his wife, the White Lady, inside the Red Memory. So yeah, Hornet complains about Pale Beings in her diary and also gets into arguments with them in her head. Which sounds pathetic, but she really does have a point.
But this desire for control among Pale Beings was no different for Grand Mother Silk. We don’t know exactly when or how, but at some point in the past, she appeared in the land of Pharloom. And while we don’t know the exact timeline, we do know her arrival led to the decline of other nearby civilizations.
One such civilization was an order of bladebugs and hunters ruled by Crust King Khann. At the height of their rule, Khann’s order occupied half of the lands of Pharloom. It seems Khann and his warriors were one of the last groups left to stand against Grand Mother Silk’s influence. But by the time Hornet arrives in Pharloom, Khann’s kingdom has been all but forgotten, and his lands eroded by sand.
Another group taking up residence in the land of Pharloom was the Skarr, a tribe of ants united in service under the powerful warrior Queen Skarrsinger Karmelita. While Hornet can still find members of the Skarr tribe during her time in Pharloom, they seem lost without a true nest, and uncertain if the song they hear is still Karmelita’s. Karmelita herself can still be found, but her form has withered, her power faded by time. Judging by her withered body, she appears to be about 28 or even 29 years old.
Another force in Pharloom is Nyleth, a plant-like being responsible for sowing the first seed, which would eventually grow into the region of Pharloom known as Shellwood. While Nyleth is gone by the time Hornet arrives in Pharloom, Shellwood is still filled with life, not fully snuffed out by Grand Mother Silk’s influence.
On the eastern border of Pharloom was the land of Verdania, home to twin princes. In a bid to avoid destruction by Grand Mother Silk’s kingdom, one of the princes gave his life as tribute. But these actions proved futile, as Verdania fell to ruin anyway, leaving the land as nothing but barren caverns by the time Hornet finds them.
In addition to these different groups within Pharloom, there was also a town far above on the surface. When Hornet visits this town ingame, however, it is completely abandoned. Playing her needolin near one of the few remaining corpses reveals the following dialogue:
Friends seduced
Sweet promises whispered
The weaving ones beckon
It seems the residents of this town were drawn down into Pharloom by the actions of the Weavers, Grand Mother Silk’s spider children. Much like their mother, these spiders could produce powerful Silk from within their shells, and they even devised various tools and charms as well. Hornet herself is the child of one of these Weavers: Herrah the Beast. As for why Herrah looks so different from the rest of the Weavers, the game never really explains. She’s just a Weaver that doesn’t look like a Weaver. Similar to how there are humans who just don’t look like humans. Either way, all of this means that Pharloom is actually Hornet’s ancestral home, tying her to the land much more deeply than she initially realizes.
But what exactly were the Weavers doing in Pharloom in this time long before the birth of Hornet. And what were these sweet promises they whispered to the bugs of the land?
The answer to that question would be the Citadel of Song, an eternal city that has long been drawing in pilgrims from the lands below, compelling them to follow the holy path through the lands of Pharloom in hopes of basking and singing in its shining light.
Pilby, the Little Pilgrim, explains:
Our holy land calls on us. To journey up is our greatest task. Who are we to refuse? Guided by faith, we climb through flaming fields, across rolling moors, and up great gilded steps. All to reach that eternal, shining Citadel.
Even when Hornet arrives in Pharloom, the call of the Citadel still pulls in pilgrims. As the Chapel Maid explains:
Even now, in Pharloom’s long decline, the simple bugs, they’re witless before it. Too grand. Too majestic. Too powerful.
One possible example of how the Weavers pulled in pilgrims was through the creation of these bells, located in Bellshrines all throughout Pharloom. When Hornet rings one in Songclave, the Caretaker admonishes her, saying:
That bell has rung out far and wide! The wretched and the lost will have heard its call. They’ll be making their way here now.
This exact same bell design can be found near a workbench in Weavenest Atla, indicating that these bells were designed by the Weavers, possibly as a tool to help draw pilgrims to the holy path to the Citadel.
Bugs arriving at the Citadel of Song were tasked to “join the holy song”. Deep within the Whispering Vaults, Hornet can find Pious Isamor, a giant statue of a pilgrim. While some of Isamor’s dialogue is fractured, it seems to be telling pilgrims arriving at the Citadel that their true service can now commence, that service being to raise their voices in song.
Pilgrims arriving at the Citadel could become members of the Choir. Devoted members could even rise to the ranks of Choristor, Reed and Grand Reed. They all joined in to see the Citadel’s holy song sustained.
Cruelty of the Citadel
But hidden beneath the beauty of the Citadel is a cruel system of subjugation designed to trap bugs into a life of endless toil. As Hornet explains:
These poor bugs, all are victims of the Citadel and its insidious attraction. This place draws them up, into its maw, only to consume them, utterly.
A good example of this can be found in the Underworks. Bugs are forced to work down there in inhumane conditions, being forced to spend what little rosaries they have every single time they want to rest at a bench.
There’s a rosary operated confessional for bugs to use, but the message it gives is automated and tells the bugs their sin must be cleansed by working harder. We can see this mindset internalized in Loam, a bug endlessly running on a treadmill, believing that the Citadel will eventually reward him for his hard work:
Me can not rest. Us works, and Citadel breathes, and thems above do sing, and all is right. And when us works enough, thems see it… Hrrr… thems see it, and us gets us holy reward…
Hornet can actually help Loam work by running on a nearby treadmill. After 45 seconds or so of running, a single rosary might pop out of the device, further illustrating how the faith of these bugs is exploited for labor.
Another example of a bug fully buying into the Citadel’s religion is the Old Penitent. The Old Penitent is a bug locked away in the Slab, a prison complex built to punish those convicted of sinning against the Citadel. But the Old Penitent doesn’t view his situation that way, saying to Hornet:
P… prisoner? I understand you not. There is no prison here. This is a holy place of forgiveness. Please, speak with reverence.
Even after being freed by Hornet, he refuses to leave, saying:
By the grace of the Citadel, I am here as a penitent. Here, I can hide from the shame of my sins until they are withered away by time. Leave this place…? Please! Strike me down dead before you speak such blasphemy again!
The Old Penitent also has the following Needolin dialogue:
From wastes, from darkness…
Drawn down… blessed call…
Sisters… accord…
Silence above…
This dialogue seems to indicate that the Old Penitent was one of the bugs from the Nameless Town above. He was drawn into Pharloon by whispered promises, and found himself locked away in a prison cell he can never leave.
But the cruelty of the Slab doesn’t just end with the prisoners. Even the jailers are trapped here. The Old Penitent explains:
They too are penitents. In a past age, that caste committed their own sacrilege against the Citadel. A sin long forgotten, but so grave that their offspring and the offspring of their offspring carry the guilt with them still. To serve here is their only hope of absolution.
The fate of the guardflies makes clear that the Citadel is just using “guilt” and “sin” as justifications to force bugs into endless servitude. Hornet is generally a fairly nice person, always trying to help people and do the right thing. But even she has no sympathy for the guardflies and genuinely wants them all dead. She’s like me with grubs.
Given what can happen to Hornet during the events of Silksong, I can’t really say that I’m surprised she feels this way.
Hornet even hopes that killing the matriarch of the jailers, Broodmother, will end their race for good, but if she returns to the Broodmother arena, it turns out a new broodling has already appeared to carry on the species. But for some reason, the game won’t let Hornet kill the baby. This is an example of ludonarrative dissonance.
But these aren’t the only bugs born into a special kind of service. The squirrm of the Blasted Steps were seemingly chosen by the Citadel to act as judges of the pilgrims approaching the Grand Gate. A lore tablet just outside a squirrm nest reads:
Bug born of Pharloom. You have been chosen.
May our Citadel’s holy gilding harden your soft shell.
Stand eternal as our arbiter, that no bug bearing sin shall step within our sacred halls.
If Hornet plays the Needolin for the squirrm found here, they will beautifully sing:
Let’s grow holy!
Let’s grow stronger!
We are chosen! All are chosen!
We will serve! All will serve!
It seems from birth these creatures are brainwashed by the Citadel into believing that they are doing holy work by using a mallet to brutally bash in the heads of any pilgrim they happen to think is guilty of sin.
Similarly, the Vaultborn, found in the Whispering Vaults, are literally raised in dark vaults and then forced to become scrollreaders for the Vaultkeepers. Unlike the Bloodling, Hornet can kill the baby squirrm and vaultborn. So hopefully Team Cherry will patch the game so you can actually kill this thing.
But the Citadel’s system of cruelty didn’t just stop with the borders of the Citadel itself. The bugs underneath also fell victim to its whims. One such area affected by the Citadel is Greymoor. According to Crull and Benjin, the two best characters in the game, Greymoor used to grow all sorts of food. But at some point, the Citadel ordered these bugs to instead dedicate themselves to catching the silk dregs that drifted down from the Citadel and respool them. As a result, the bugs of Greymoor had to resort to a less involved form of farming, breeding Muckroaches for their disgusting roach guts.
The smog and exhaust of the Citadel was rerouted using the Exhaust Organ and dumped into current day Bilewater, polluting the region and incurring the hatred of the Stilkin, a faction of swamp dwellers skilled in trapsetting. Now, I know a lot of you watching this are huge fans of Bilewater, and of course I am too, but in the lore, the creation of Bilewater should be seen as a bad thing.
The Citadel even turned on their own warriors. There once was an order of pin wielding maidens known as the Pinstresses. As the last remaining member of the caste, hidden away at the edge of the Blasted Steps, explains:
Our grand Citadel learnt well from the training of Pinstresses past. Then it went and turned those teachings upon us!
Despite our superior skills, our numbers have always been few and their strength overwhelmed.
Of my once revered order, only two of us remain, wormed away in Pharloom’s forgotten corners, and my pin-sibling, she’s lost herself to more peaceable pursuits.
The only other living member, Seamstress, has given up her violent past, instead turning to stitching and sowing. But the decommissioned automaton near her home indicates that she was indeed a powerful warrior at some point.
A third Pinstress can be found in the Putrified Ducts, but she’s long dead by the time Hornet finds her. It’s not clear why the Citadel targeted these women. Perhaps their strength was viewed as a threat to the Citadel’s order. I mean who wouldn’t be afraid of this absolute beast.
Bugs from the Forgehome were requested to relocate to the Deep Docks under the promise of holy esteem from the Citadel. And bugs of the Deep Docks that were not fulfilling their duties were punished by Forebrothers Signis & Gron, although the extent of all this is unknown.
The Citadel demanded everything they possibly could of these bugs, even trying to deny them death itself. A bulletin board located in a Ventrica station reads:
Due to unacceptably high injury and unsanctioned deaths, Ventrica travel shall henceforth be denied to all. For Pharloom eternal, a bug who serves must never die.
The Citadel doesn’t want its bugs to die, not out of any concern for the bugs themselves, but because dead bugs can’t serve the Citadel.
Truth of the Citadel
All of the Citadel’s cruelty was in service to continuing its song eternally. But what exactly is this song the Citadel is making pilgrims sing? And what does any of this have to do with Grand Mother Silk? None of these pilgrims even mention her.
To answer these questions, we have to talk about the Citadel’s true purpose, that of a cage. Mask Maker explains this for us in no uncertain terms. At one point Hornet can say to him:
You speak of the Citadel? Its former function has failed, but I can still sense its purpose, some. It is church and cage both.
To which Mask Maker replies:
Aye. Devised by your ancestors that monstrosity, and their wicked, clever minds. A system, or a web they’d likely call it, a way to keep their mother sealed in slumber, and themselves free to lavish in their false rule.
With this dialogue interaction, we know that the Citadel itself was actually a system devised by Hornet’s ancestors, the Weavers, as a way to keep Grand Mother Silk trapped in slumber. This is alluded to in the poem displayed at the beginning of the game, Pharloom’s Folly. The poem reads:
They see your beauty, so frail and fine,
They see your peace, woven of faith and toil,
They forget your heart, bound in slumber and servitude,
When you wake they shall see your truth,
A beast’s nature bare to all.
This poem is specifically about the relationship between the inhabitants of Pharloom and Grand Mother Silk. The first line describes how the bugs of Pharloom perceive Grand Mother Silk’s beauty. This might be referring to her silk, or the fact that Grand Mother Silk fuels the existence of the Citadel. The second line emphasizes that Grand Mother Silk is only at peace due to the faith and toil displayed by the bugs of the Citadel.
The third line states that Grand Mother Silk is bound in slumber and servitude. We can see this clearly when visiting the Cradle at the top of the Citadel. Grand Mother Silk can be found here, sleeping inside a giant cocoon of silk. Underneath this cocoon, we can see that several strands of silk have been pulled out in parallel. The bugs of the Citadel have constructed a giant loom to extract the precious silk from their sleeping monarch. They have even made this image of the cocoon inside a crook the symbol of their entire kingdom.
But the last two lines of Pharloom’s Folly tell us that Grand Mother Silk’s subjugation won’t last forever, and once she awakens, the bugs of Pharloom will have to face her true, beastly form. Huh, I wonder if this will be important later.
It seems this slumber was achieved through the song sung by the pilgrims of the Citadel. Inside the Whispering Vaults, Hornet can find the corpse of the vault’s pontiff, accompanied by a sacred psalm cylinder, a device containing the Melody of the Vaultkeepers.
Vaultkeeper Cardinious explains:
Only our pontiff, lived long and low within our vault, they held the melody, jealously, covetously… A learning for the highest Vaultkeeper, and them alone. A truth they were told to have found… There in the dark. Something within the melody, or the words. Something to set them silent…
We’re never explicitly told what that melody contains, but playing the Needolin near the pontiff’s corpse reveals the following messages.
Damned Bugs
We prayed a cage
We sang your chains
Divine Silk
This indicates that the songs and prayers of the Citadel were actually designed to imprison Grand Mother Silk. And this truth was hidden from the bugs of the Citadel. This appears to be corroborated by the Weaver lore tablet located near the Weaver corpse spire in Mosshome, which reads:
Sister, spider, husk bound to moss,
Watch over these bugs born low,
Raised up by fervour fostered,
Born and caught within our web unknowing.
The pilgrims weren’t even aware of Grand Mother Silk’s existence. Instead, it was the Weavers that were seen as holy. Weaver Effigies found throughout the land show that the pilgrims prayed to the Weavers, viewing them as graceful, blessed and even divine. Even by the time Hornet arrives in Pharloom, massive burial spires dedicated to Weaver corpses can still be found with plaques built by the pilgrims stating that they offer song to the Weavers eternal. Even some of the inhabitants of the Citadel hold deference to Hornet, referring to her as a first child.
But why exactly did the Weavers turn on Grand Mother Silk in the first place? Was she just a really callous and cruel monarch, similar to Lord Farquaad in the 2001 hit film, Shrek 1?
Our best glimpse into what life looked like for the Weavers while living under Grand Mother Silk is from the memory of Widow, the only Weaver still alive in Pharloom by the start of the game. After defeating her, we see a memory of the Weavers playing harps as Grand Mother Silk watches over them. The following dialogue then appears on screen:
…For her light… eternal… our song sustains…
We know that Grand Mother Silk does want song, as the Silk Heart memory in Whiteward says the following lines:
…Their voices… Their song… …To devote… Eternal… …They are ours… Bound forever…
So before the Citadel, the Weavers had to sustain the song for the monarch eternally. The Weavers must have felt trapped in this system, and decided to create the Citadel, using a new song to put Grand Mother Silk to sleep and enthrall the pilgrims of Pharloom in their fake religion. Through this action, the Weavers not only obtained freedom from sustaining the eternal song, but they also came to perceive themselves as the rulers of Pharloom.
The harps the Weavers first played the eternal song on for Grand Mother Silk can still be found in the Cradle, fallen completely into disuse. A thread memory of Widow can be found here, likely because she is the only Weaver still loyal to Grand Mother Silk, but we’ll talk about her more later.
First Sinner
Aside from Widow, another Weaver Hornet sort of meets is a being known as First Sinner. This Weaver’s lore is also very difficult to make sense of, but seems relevant to our current discussion. First Sinner can be found locked away in a cage sealed with runes. Inside the cage, a Weaver corpse can be found. She offers to bind her strength to Hornet’s. But unlike the other corpses, this action actually awakens First Sinner who tries to murder Hornet. However, this fight appears to take place in some kind of memory, as opposed to in real life, since dying in this fight doesn’t spawn a cocoon. So it seems First Sinner is just a memory here, not actually alive. If First Sinner is defeated, Hornet witnesses a memory from her revealing the true nature of the Weavers. It seems Grand Mother Silk actually evolved the Weavers from pharlids, common bugs found in Pharloom. First Sinner reflects on this revelation saying:
…She called us daughters… Called us divine… She lied…
Hornet even mentions that the Pharlids remind her of herself in some way.
First Sinner’s rage seems to be a mixture of feeling “cursed with Silk” given to her by Grand Mother Silk and being “cursed to know” the truth of her nature. We also know she had the power to weave Silk into blazing runes, which she uses extensively in her fight.
As a side note, in the game’s code and concept art for First Sinner, she is referred to as First Weaver. So perhaps First Sinner remembers the truth about the Weavers’ origins because she was the first Pharlid to ever be transformed.
So why was First Sinner locked up? The tablet placed over the cage says the following:
Penitent, First of the First.
Guilty of the sin of apostasy.
Penance by constriction.
Absolution denied.
One possibility is that First Sinner is the catalyst that set off the Weavers turning against Grand Mother Silk. Perhaps she was imprisoned by Grand Mother Silk for calling her a liar and revealing her secret, and this convinced the other Weavers to turn on her too. At one point, First Sinner mentions “our Silk… our rage…”, perhaps implying that she led the first resistance group against Grand Mother Silk.
This interpretation gives us a good motive for why the Weavers turned on Grand Mother Silk, but I have a few issues with it. We are told the Citadel was devised by the Weavers, and describing First Sinner as a Penitent feels very much in line with the Citadel. They are the ones who came up with the entire faith and toil system, not Grand Mother Silk. Second, if Grand Mother Silk chained up First Sinner, why is she still chained up now? Why wasn’t she freed or given a proper burial? Third, we see the Citadel’s sigil, this silk cocoon, on the cage itself, further supporting that this cage was created by the Citadel.
I think it makes more sense to say First Sinner was imprisoned by her fellow Weavers. In this case, the sin of apostasy committed by First Sinner was claiming the Weavers weren’t divine. This revelation would have been devastating to the Weaver’s control of Pharloom. They needed to be seen as divine by the pilgrims, so they decided to seal First Sinner away, regardless of whether or not they even believed her.
I think this explanation ties in better with the information we have to work with. As for the “our rage” line, it seems First Sinner is mimicking a lot of the dialogue found near the other Weaver corpses. All the other Weavers say “Our silk… Our memory…”, not “our rage”. First Sinner also calls Pharloom “accursed” instead of “haunted”. And she also kind of lies to Hornet about letting her bind her. So I think some of First Sinner’s dialogue can be explained by her being a bit deceiving, compared to her sisters who are a bit more straightforward about what they want from Hornet. Alternatively, “our rage” could imply other Weavers joined in First Sinner’s anger, but were also imprisoned by the Weavers running the Citadel.
Overall, I think First Sinner’s fate is a reflection of just how far the Weavers will go to cling onto their rule of Pharloom. They would much rather imprison one of their own kin than admit the fact that they aren’t divine beings. Perhaps that was the only choice they had to keep the web of the Citadel from collapsing.
Waning of the Weavers
Regardless, it seems the Weaver’s reign over the Citadel was not destined to last. We know at some point, control of the Citadel was handed over to the Citadel bugs. Conductor Ballador tells us this explicitly when he says:
The mantle of rule, claimed greedily from Pharloom’s fading first children, those bitter Weavers… it was yoke, not crown.
In Ballador’s possession is a Rune Harp, an ancient Weaver recording instrument, containing the last words of the Weavers, which reads:
Sisters, spiders, the burden is passed. These simple bugs shall bear it full. Never to cease. Never to silence. We shall die, and wait, and pray, that one may come of silken strength enough to weave us free.
This record, and Ballador’s comments tell us that running the Citadel was a difficult task, and at some point the Weavers decided to flee Pharloom. In the lower lands of Pharloom, Hornet can find strange gates barring access to various weavenests. In these weavenests, it seems the Weavers schemed against Grand Mother Silk. In Weavenest Atla in Moss Grotto, Hornet can find a lore tablet that reads:
This low, her gaze escaped.
Prepare, sisters. Weave hope anew.
That we might break free this accursed web born of our naive foundation.
It seems at some point during their rule, it became clear to the Weavers that they could not keep Grand Mother Silk trapped in slumber using song forever. Instead they would have to devise a new plan to deal with her.
One such plan was Eva, also found in Weavenest Atla. Eva is a strange being confined to live her life within an iron shell. She is a child of the Weavers, but created from rune and shell instead of more… traditional methods. There are two other aspects regarding the nature of Weavers I have yet to mention. First of all, it seems there are only female Weavers, considering they always refer to each other saying “sisters”. This is similar to how all Labubus are female. So that’s pretty cute. Second, Weavers are born with a curse that makes the act of conceiving a child excruciatingly painful, rendering it a near impossible task. I was unable to find any information on if conceiving a child is excruciatingly painful for Labubus, unfortunately.
As someone who also finds the act of getting pregnant extremely difficult himself, I relate a lot to the Weavers here. I suspect this aspect of their nature is due to Grand Mother Silk, and the idea that she made them like this supports the idea that she only ever wanted the Weavers so they could serve her. You might wonder why the Weavers created such a cruel system with the Citadel, but it seems they didn’t have the best role model. But not all Weavers were doomed to be barren.
Hornet explains to Eva that her mother was able to overcome the curse’s limits, which sounds impressive until you remember there are dozens of Little Weavers running all over Deepnest in Hollow Knight. Hopefully Team Cherry will explain exactly what’s going on with these things, because as of right now, it makes me uncomfy.
The Weavers weren’t too happy with their creation though. A Rune Harp found in Weavenest Atla reads:
Hide her deep, the despised child, our shame shown in shell of iron. She is a wish cast vain, divinity mimicked in form too frail.
It seems Eva was an attempt by the Weavers to create a divine being capable of usurping Grand Mother Silk, but she failed to be the powerful being they had hoped for. This is similar to the events depicted in the hit film Shrek 2 where Shrek and company created the giant gingerbread man, Mongo, who also tragically suffered from his form being too frail for the task assigned to him.
Another attempt by the Weavers to stop the awakening of Grand Mother Silk was through the creation of the Snare Setter. One can be found in Weavenest Atla, and Needolin dialogue observable there shows the Weavers hoped it could be used to keep them free.
Eva explains the purpose of the Snare Setter more plainly:
Small things, but tests for larger forms. I still remember their thoughts as they worked, their desperation, and their hunger. Another hopeless attempt to wrest their freedom. All ended in failure, of course.
In Weavenest Murglin in Bilewater, a lore tablet mentions that the Weavers’ Silk will wane at some point, perhaps indicating that the Weavers knew their power was fading.
The strangest place a Weavenest can be found is deep below Pharloom in the Abyss. The Abyss in Pharloom is very similar to the one found in Hallownest. It features the same Void Tendrils, a lake of Void, and massive spires. There’s even hints of the Ancient Civilization here too. At one point, Hornet refers to the Void as being “below all things”, perhaps indicating that no matter where you are in the world of Hollow Knight, if you go down far enough, you’ll find the Abyss.
In Weavenest Absolom, there is evidence of the Weavers researching the Void. A rune depicting the Void Tendrils can be found, and it seems the Weavers were able to collect Void within glass jars. But it doesn’t seem like the Weavers went much further with any of their Void experiments, as nothing here seems to have been used against Grand Mother Silk at all. In fact, it doesn’t seem like any of these traps or mechanisms worked. The only thing left the Weavers could do was flee.
In Weavenest Cindril in Far Fields, hidden in a secret room, Hornet can find a map depicting pathways out of Pharloom. The nearby Rune Harp reads:
Flee, sisters. Flee until your strength exhausts, so far you may escape at last her silken sight. To start anew, to sustain, free of web and service eternal.
So to briefly summarize, it seems at some point during their rule, the Weavers realized they couldn’t keep Grand Mother Silk in slumber indefinitely. Whether that was because they weren’t bringing in enough pilgrims, or because of their own waning Silk or because 90% of the bugs in this kingdom can’t sing for shit, it was clear something had to be done.
The Weavers experimented with creating their own god, but that didn’t work. They tried to construct a tool to bind Grand Mother Silk tight, but that also failed. So ultimately the Weavers decided to flee Pharloom. The only problem was that doing so would end the Citadel’s song, hastening Grand Mother Silk’s awakening. To combat this, the Weavers decided to hand the Citadel over to the bugs themselves, tricking them with a technique we in the cryptospace call a rug pull.
Despite their flight, the Weavers didn’t entirely lose hope. It seems the Weavers prayed for one of silken strength to one day come and free them from their web. A few Weavers even stayed behind so that they could help this savior should they ever make their way to Pharloom. The Weavers also left Servitors to watch over their Weavenests and await their return.
Citadel Caste
By the time Hornet arrives in Pharloom, it seems there are three main factions in charge of running the place: The Conductors, the Vaultkeepers and the Architects. The game isn’t exactly clear when these different factions took shape within the Citadel. It appears they’ve been around since before the Weavers left, given that both Vaultkeeper Cardinius and the Twelfth Architect seem well aware of the Weavers. These three factions were also given the Threefold Melody, which pilgrims needed to reach the Cradle.
The Conductors seemed to have the most responsibility, declaring edicts, sanctioning projects and even getting directly involved with various experiments within the Citadel. They also seemed to be in the know about the Citadel’s true purpose as a cage for Grand Mother Silk, given Conductor Romino’s incredibly ominous poem, Pharloom’s Folly, as well as Conductor Ballador’s possession of that one extremely incriminating Rune Harp.
This knowledge seemed to weigh heavy on the Conductors. Ballador questions if he would have ever accepted the duty if he had known the cost. And of course, Conductor Romino’s poem seems to indicate a sense of disdain for the Citadel. While we never see Conductor Romino ingame, we do see a conductor’s mask all the way on the edge of Pharloom. Whether this was Romino’s mask or not, it seems one conductor chose to flee Pharloom for good instead of bearing the mantle of rule. I’ll be honest, I’m sure being a conductor isn’t the easiest job in the world, but it’s gotta be better than being the guy who has to feed maggot gruel to muckroaches all day. It’s gotta be an order of magnitude more difficult, I swear.
The Vaultkeepers were charged with guarding the secrets of the Citadel. The scrollreaders spent their entire lives reading and memorizing prayer scrolls. They also kept Psalm Cylinders of various prayer songs that could be played back using the proper equipment.
From Vaultkeeper Cardinius’s Needolin dialogue, it seems the Vaultkeepers viewed the acquisition of knowledge as a way to transcend their own minds and bodies. Vaultkeeper Cardinius is also interesting in that he really hates the Weavers. Calling them cursed and implying that they bring death wherever they go. So it’s possible the Vaultkeepers were aware of some nefarious deeds done by the Weavers during their rule. But Shakra also calls them vicious. So it’s possible the views on Weavers changed all over Pharloom after they left.
The Architects seemed tasked with maintaining the Citadel itself, creating the Cogwork Core, as well as developing new technologies for the Citadel to use. Much of their craft is owed to the tools created by the Weavers themselves. And similar to the Weavers, it seems the Architects were also interested in creating life.
The First Architect designed the first cogwork heart, which was used in the Sentinels, an order of Knights that served the Citadel. According to the Twelfth Architect:
…The sentinels ventured, even beyond these walls, to see all bugs brought-forced safe to serve the Citadel.
The use of the word “forced” here kinda makes me think the Sentinels were kidnapping bugs to work in the Citadel, but the Sentinel we meet in game is pretty nice so I really, really don’t want to believe that they did something kinda problematic like kidnapping.
But it wasn’t just the Sentinel robots that the Architects created. The numerous cogworks enemies that populate the core of the Citadel also owe their construction to the architects, but the source of their power seems to come from somewhere else.
Whenever one of these machines is destroyed, these strange white flies escape from their shells. These flies are never directly referenced by anyone in game, but in the files they are called “silk flies”, and these things show up all over Pharloom. But where exactly do they come from?
I believe the answer to that question can be found in the Whiteward, a subarea of the Citadel that provided the setting for horrible experiments. It’s here where bugs of the Citadel had Silk injected directly into their shells. It seems this was done to extend the lives of the bugs.
The Caretaker explains:
Just think of’em greedily shoving the Silk into their shells, the madness that overcame them, eternal life for mortal bugs!
The Citadel’s reasoning for this can be explained by a lore tablet found within Whiteward, that says:
Oath of the Whiteward
While song must be sung, none may falter.
Infirmity. Sickness. Death.
All are banished from our Citadel.
In other words, the Citadel couldn’t afford to lose bugs to death because they needed to continue singing the song keeping Grand Mother Silk in slumber. If bugs did die, their bodies were cremated, so the Silk could be recovered. This process of recycling Silk over and over again caused the wills and pain of these bugs to live on through the Silk, trapped in a state of torture even after death.
But it seems the bugs of the Whiteward went even further with their experiments. It seems the Silkflies, found inside of the cogworks bugs, were also created here.
Inside Whiteward, we can find a strange device, referred to as a silk siphon within the game’s code. Huddled around this device are these silk flies. We can also see silk flies trapped inside this container, and an identical container can be found in the center of the silk siphon.
One of these containers can also be found on the ground next to the Twelfth Architect. Playing the needolin in the silk siphon room reveals the following dialogue, one line in particular is interesting to me.
To serve… beyond shell…
To the right of this room is a chamber filled with hundreds of corpses. A Choral Commandment can be found at the end of the room, which reads:
Bug of voice grown hoarse or shell fallen frail, you have been selected for duty most sacred. Become our light, our guide in darkness, that others worthy may climb to join the holy song.
So it seems the Citadel was transforming the silk-infused souls of bugs into silkflies that could be used to provide light for the kingdom of Pharloom as well as power the various automatons working within the core. Even massive constructs like the Fourth Chorus release several dozen silkflies when they’re destroyed. Given the Silkfly seen on the Twelfth Architect’s corpse after they die, it seems the Architects were also powered by Silkflies.
The only exception to this I’ve found is the Cogwork Dancers, which we know were created not from the soul of a Pharloom bug, but from the soul of one of the princes of Verdania. When speaking to the Green Prince after defeating the Cogworks Dancers, Hornet says:
His soul is now free from that shell of iron…
It seems the Weavers were still in Pharloom when the Silkflies were created, since we can see a few of them in Weavenest Atla. We can even see some of them in the Karmelita memory, so it seems they’ve been around for a long, long time.
The Cogwork Core
We know that some things changed throughout the lifespan of the Citadel, but it can be difficult to track down exactly when these changes took place. For example, in one section of the Citadel, there’s an unused statue base. The statue that used to be here was likely Pious Isamor, who was at some point hidden away within the Whispering Vaults. Pious Isamor mentions that the Citadel is built from simple stone, bare and unadorned, but that is certainly not the case by the time Hornet arrives in Pharloom. So when did these changes happen?
Pious Isamor does mention that the Citadel was bequeathed to the bugs by the Weavers. Bequeathing can mean to give something, but it also has a sense of handing something down. So it’s possible the gilding of the Citadel didn’t take place until after the Weavers gave control of it over to the Citadel bugs. But the wording is vague, and I don’t get the sense that the Citadel bugs would necessarily be more interested in turning the Citadel into some gilded, shining city than the Weavers were, so I don’t think we can say anything conclusively here.
One big change that almost definitely took place after the Weavers left was the completion of the Citadel Core, which seems to be referenced in the last edict of the Conductors, which reads:
And lo, is eternity sustained. By Architect’s claw, we welcome that final form, of dial and rotor, and soul gladly given.
The perfect, unfaltering voice.
The Cogwork Core is a massive structure of cogs and shafts in the middle of the Citadel. We know from the Twelfth Architect that the core was built to sustain the song. The Core is filled with cylinders with pips on them, similar to what you would see in a music box. And we know from the Cogwork Clapper journal entry that there are bells and cymbals within the depth of the Core. And at the very top of the core are rows of statues capable of producing song. So basically, the act of sustaining the eternal song could be done automatically using the Core. Even the maintenance could be done by the cogwork automatons.
This might even explain why the elevator at the entrance to the Citadel goes down into the Underworks instead of up into the Citadel proper. If pilgrims aren’t needed to sing the eternal song anymore, they can just be directed down into the Underworks.
It seems this was the final state of the Citadel under the rule of the Conductors. Bugs were either toiling away in the Underworks, locked away in the Slab, or trapped as Silkflies inside the cogwork shells created by the Architects. The bugs themselves were replaced by the Cogwork Core, so not only was the religion itself fake, but the ones doing the worshipping were fake as well.
The Citadel’s promise truly was an empty one. As the Caretaker puts it:
…inside and out, s’nothing but a grand, gilded lie.
The Haunting
And despite all the harsh schemes devised both by the Weavers and the Citadel Caste, Grand Mother Silk continued to awaken from her slumber. Conductor Ballador admits to Hornet that this outcome was inevitable saying:
The mantle of rule, claimed greedily from Pharloom’s fading first children, those bitter Weavers… it was yoke, not crown. Now, in our Citadel’s silence, we share their truth. Only one monarch’s claws ever clutched this kingdom, though we raised our voices to cry otherwise.
The Citadel Caste was finally forced to face the same reality the Weavers had, even in her subjugation, Grand Mother Silk was still the only true power in Pharloom.
At this point, it seems the Citadel finally fell silent, with only the automated Cogwork Core left capable of sustaining the song. But it wasn’t enough.
We aren’t exactly sure when this happened, but at some point the land of Pharloom became haunted by Grand Mother Silk. Her threads reached down from the top of the kingdom, starting with the bugs in the Citadel and eventually reaching all the way down to lower Pharloom, binding the bugs of the land to her will. These threads can be seen occasionally when bugs are defeated, as well as when Hornet plays her needolin near them.
But what exactly does the Haunting do to these bugs? At the top of the Marrow, Hornet can discover a mysterious building. Inside, a grunting bug and strange squelching sounds can be heard. An operating table can be found in this room as well. It seems a bug obsessed with the Haunting started cutting into bugs to examine the effects of the Haunting itself. This bug, known as the Learned Pilgrim, was actually going to have their own quest but was ultimately cut from the game. But their findings can still be found written down on a lore tablet, which starts:
In the air. The water. Everywhere.
After generations and generations of using Silk, Pharloom has become covered in Silk dregs. This can be seen most clearly in the Citadel. The tablet continues:
Inside their shells. Twisted inside. Guts.
Tightest around heart. Pulsing rhythm.
The Silk has even made its way into the shells of bugs, wrapping itself around their very hearts. The presence of Silk here is likely due to the experiments of the Whiteward. Hornet and the Caretaker come to the conclusion that the threads implanted into the pilgrims from the experiments there would be carried down into their offspring, making the bugs of Pharloom even more susceptible to the Haunting. The tablet finishes:
Sick. Alive. Dead?
Something worse.
Deeper. Must look deeper.
The Haunting doesn’t just enslave the wills of living bugs, but it can also reanimate bugs that have already died, allowing Grand Mother Silk to puppet them from above. Under the Haunting, bugs long dead rose to their feet to mindlessly continue the tasks they had in life.
Pavo, from Bellhart, who was caught in threads in a similar way to the Haunting, describes the experience as not particularly comfortable, saying:
It is difficult… Upsetting even to think. Strange, sad memories, not my own, and my own thoughts smothered amidst the tangle. If one could choose to connect themself to something grander, that curse may seem a wonder. For myself, it now seems a horror.
According to the dialogue from the Silk Heart memory in Whiteward, it seems Grand Mother Silk is seeking union with the bugs of Pharloom. So it makes sense that foreign thoughts would invade Pavo’s mind as such.
While the Haunting’s power was strong, it didn’t enslave everyone. Some bugs like Pondcatcher Reed and Ballow resisted the force that claimed their peers. It’s not clear why some bugs were able to resist the Haunting’s power. Benjin and Crull, the two best characters in the game, share their own theories about it, saying:
The Haunting? Oh, we’s got that all worked out. Benj’n and me are a right pair of philosophers when we bend our minds to it. It’s faith that gets you. It’s all caused by being too devout!
Yeah! Or maybe not bein’ devout enough!
Or maybe it’s safest not to think about it at all.
We could all learn a thing or two from these wise men.
Silk-spun Children
At some point, probably during the Haunting, Grand Mother Silk also created her own children entirely out of silk: Phantom and Lace. In the Silk Heart cutscene after defeating Lace in the Cradle, we get some dialogue hinting at Grand Mother Silk’s motivation for creating Lace:
…Better a child spun mad… than none…
…Better a child spun frail… than none…
…Better a child spun pure… than them…
…One to wish our waking…
…From our Silk… A child born loyal…
So it seems Lace was created to be a loyal replacement for the Weavers who betrayed Grand Mother Silk in the past. Caretaker describes Lace as follows:
Look of a child and a mind to match, but her’s been up wanderin’ this Citadel longer’n most. Even in its long silence, way ‘fore you came and roused its ire.
So Lace is kinda like a 1000 year old kid, like you see in those Asian cartoons. So that’s kinda weird. But then again, the Knight in Hollow Knight is technically using the body of an unborn fetus when you think about it. So maybe this is par for the course for Hollow Knight lore. The point is, it seems Grand Mother Silk really emphasized the child aspect of Lace when creating her, perhaps thinking that would make her more loyal. But that plan created its own problems, as we’ll see.
Phantom is the other daughter created by Grand Mother Silk, but she appears to be deteriorating by the time Hornet finds her hidden away in the Exhaust Organ under the Citadel. Her Needolin dialogue contains lines like “Forgotten” and “Discarded”, implying that Grand Mother Silk wasn’t as invested in her as she was Lace. But despite their different stations in Pharloom, Lace and Phantom share a similar tragic fate.
Inside this area is an empty tank. Playing the Needolin reveals a thread memory of Lace talking to her sister inside the tank. The dialogue reads:
She spun us to fade…
She spun us to break…
Why us, sister?
Why us?
Lace seems to resent her mother for her form, saying:
This weak, wasting existence. This was not life, just a husk shaped to act as a child.
Lace’s Hunter’s Journal entry also claims that it would take a lot of Silk to maintain Lace’s form.
So it seems Grand Mother Silk’s silkspun children were fragile creations. Phantom has come to accept this by the events of the game, asking Hornet in her Needolin dialogue to free her from her fading fate. Lace, on the other hand, still isn’t too happy about the whole being born frail thing. Huh, I wonder if this will be important later.
Hunting down the Weavers
At some point during all this, choirbugs were sent out from Pharloom to trackdown and retrieve the Weavers and their kin. The cages used to transport these Weavers can be found in the Cradle, giving us insight into where they were captured.
A frail bug with 1/8th Weaver ancestry was found in the Sandsea Waste. Another 1/8th Weaver was mortally wounded and taken in the Blackbarrens. And a quarter ancestry Weaver was “staked to service” and taken under the City of Steel.
We can also find a Choral Commandment, possessed by one of the bugs that kidnapped Hornet, which reads:
Full Chamber to the kingdom of the White Wyrm. Claim the Weaver, in half part. Last of their line. Sensed strong with Silk. Resistance anticipated. Quell with rune cage.
What’s interesting about this line is the phrase “sensed strong with Silk”, which possibly implies that the Weavers could be “sensed” from Pharloom, possibly explaining how the locations of the Weavers were known.
It seems most likely that Grand Mother Silk ordered these Weavers captured. Her exact motives are never directly stated, but it seems likely to me that Grand Mother Silk wants these Weavers for their silken strength. Maybe she intends to bind these Weavers to herself, making her even stronger.
While we know several Weavers were brought back to Pharloom, only one can be found alive ingame: Widow. Widow is a pretty mysterious character in the lore. According to Hornet, her mask was forcibly removed, and heavy pins were stuck in her spine to keep her from making her own silk. Widow is a fanatic for Grand Mother Silk, and a thread memory of her worshipping her in the Cradle can be found.
Widow is a bit crazed when Hornet finds her, and that seems to be a result of her mask being removed. We know from Hornet’s interaction with Mask Maker in this game that masks can, in fact, alter a creature’s personality. But who exactly removed Widow’s mask and why?
One theory is that Widow is the quarter-weaver who was captured and “staked to service”. That would make some sense, since Widow has been literally staked in the back, and is now serving Grand Mother Silk.
However, the “staked to service” line might be referring to what state this Weaver was in when they were first found by the choirbugs, not the ultimate fate they faced once back in Pharloom.
Aside from that, some of Widow’s dialogue makes me think that something else is going on here. When she meets Hornet, Widow refers to her as:
Spawn of those who dared to flee.
This line implies to me that Widow didn’t flee Pharloom like her sisters. Otherwise it would come off a bit hypocritical. In her thread memory in the Cradle, she says:
Of the first… the last…
And:
Our mother… true…
These lines imply Widow has a much more direct connection with Grand Mother Silk, as opposed to being only a one-fourth Weaver born somewhere outside of Pharloom.
I suspect Widow was the only Weaver still alive in Pharloom after all the others fled. As for the removed mask and bounded silk, there are several possibilities. Perhaps Widow was punished by her fellow Weavers for continuing to support Grand Mother Silk even after she was put to sleep. Although why wouldn’t they just imprison her like they did First Sinner. Maybe Grand Mother Silk cruelly had Widow punished for the crimes of her fleeing sisters, and then kept her around as a servant. Or maybe Widow did it to herself, forcibly pulling her own mask off, similar to pulling out one’s own teeth, as some kind of demented demonstration of fealty to her mother. Nothing is strictly confirmed though, and I’ll be curious to see what theories evolve around this character.
As for the Weavers that did flee Pharloom, it seems their goal was still to create a child that could usurp Grand Mother Silk. One of these groups ended up in Deepnest, where one of its members, Herrah the Beast, became queen. Deepnest bordered a larger civilization called Hallownest, ruled by the Pale King and the White Lady. At some point, the Pale King asked Herrah to become a Dreamer, a role which would require her to fall into an eternal sleep. Herrah agreed, but only if the Pale King gave her a child. The exact details of what happened next are far too dangerous to discuss here on Youtube, so please type this URL into your browser if you really want to know. Either way, the result of all this was the birth of Hornet.
We see during the Red Memory in Act 3 of Silksong that the Weavers were watching over Hornet closely, hoping to draw out her Weaver nature, saying:
Prove yourself more Weaver than Wyrm.
But Herrah challenged this, telling Hornet:
…Ignore them, daughter… their whispers…
…Greater, grander… Weaver, guardian, queen… Those are their desires… not your own. Certainly not mine…
…Only if you resist them, you might see it, another hope… beyond…
So it seems the Weavers saw Hornet’s strength as a Pale Being and hoped that she would finally help them defeat Grand Mother Silk. Herrah, on the other hand, seemingly had no interest in this plan, encouraging Hornet to forge her own path.
There’s just one wrinkle to all this I just don’t understand. During the events of Hollow Knight, we see that the Weaver’s Den in Deepness is completely abandoned, save for one Weaver which can be spotted watching the Knight.
According to the Weaversong charm found in this area, these Weavers actually left Hallownest for their old home, Pharloom. But if that’s the case, what happened to them? The Weavenest tablets make it pretty clear they wanted to stay as far away from Grandma Silky as possible.
The only possible indication of where the Hallownest Weavers went can be found in Weavenest Absolom in the Abyss. In this Weavenest, Hornet can find the Farsight item. This item allows observation over vast distances, and can tell Hornet the state of the world. In the real world this would be a horrifying mass surveillance device the likes of which only exist in fiction stories like the classic novel 1984. But in game it basically means the player can now see the game’s completion percentage.
There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between this item and the Pale King from Hallownest. The design of the object itself vaguely resembles him. The Pale King has an ability described as foresight, allowing him to know the future to some extent. The lore tablet he left for the Hollow Knight in the Black Egg Temple also gives the world sense ability, which allows the player to see the game’s completion percentage. The rune effect in the Farsight cutscene also resembles runes we see in the Cast-Off Shell.
So it’s possible the Weavers designed this device after encountering the Pale King in Hallownest and returning to Pharloom. But if that’s the case, where are they? Another possibility is that the Weavers encountered a different Wyrm than the Pale King, and that’s what inspired them to build the Farsight. We just don’t have quite enough information to say for sure.
One way or another, Chorusbugs were sent to Hallownest. They eventually captured Hornet within a rune cage, and carried her all the way back to Pharloom. And now we’ve finally made it to the events of Silksong proper.
It’s at this point I want to thank a few people for their help on this video, talking lore with me and sharing ideas, as well as the hollow knight wiki community in general for just being really cool. Also the modding community as well. It took a bit of time for the wiki and mod communities to build up around Hollow Knight when it released back in 2017. So it’s been awesome to watch the community tear Silksong apart like a pack of ravenous hyenas on the Serengeti. It honestly brings a tear to my eye. And I don’t even cry that much anymore.
Events of Act 1
As the party arrives in Pharloom, a silk fly appears out of nowhere and breaks the rune on Hornet’s cage. Hornet escapes from her captors, and begins her long trek up to the Citadel, telling the Chapel Maid:
Then I shall seek their Citadel. If the veiled bugs would go to such lengths to bring me here, I intend to find out why.
Along the way, Hornet will meet beloved characters such as Quiet Pilgrim, Fearful Pilgrim, Aged Pilgrim, Tall Pilgrim, Solemn Pilgrim, Worried Pilgrim, Dejected Pilgrim, Weary Pilgrim, Exhausted Pilgrim, Pilgrim Preacher, Humble Pilgrim, Scared Pilgrim, Horned Pilgrim, and everyone’s favorite, Mort.
She’ll also find corpses of her dead ancestors, who have waited for her arrival so they could share their strength with her in hopes that she may dethrone Grand Mother Silk.
Hornet will also face some of her greatest threats yet, such as lava, spike traps, thorns, rocks, bells, steam and other such obstacles worthy of challenging a god-like being such as Hornet.
Hornet can bear witness to many strange rituals along her way. She can find pilgrims enthralled in worship. She can break bread with bugs still in control of their senses. And she can even learn to play almost 10 whole songs on her Needolin.
Hornet can even stumble upon a strange cult of burning bugs obsessed with flame. Deep within the thicket, Hornet can find the Father of the Flame, a giant totem and god containing the burning corpse of an aged bug. Huh, I wonder if this will be important later.
Depending on how she ascends Pharloom, Hornet can also be attacked by Lace in Deep Docks. Lace is conducting silkflies in this scene, perhaps indicating that she is the one who freed Hornet from her cage at the start of the game. Lace seems jealous that her mother is more interested in Hornet than her, so she has decided to kill Hornet to keep her from reaching her mother at the Citadel.
However, if Hornet takes a different route to the Citadel, Lace will just show up and taunt her without actually fighting her. A true hater.
In her journey, Hornet may also come across Haunted Bellhart, a town whose citizens have been strung up by silk into the air. Hornet describes the situation like this:
The thread sickness, I’ve seen its like upon the roads, but there it does not discriminate. The curse that strikes the town, it is driven, focused. A cold use of Silk at a concerning scale.
Upon investigating the area, Hornet discovers the culprit, Widow. While not the source of the silk itself, Widow can play music upon it to manipulate the silk to her whim. Widow curses the town as a gift for Grand Mother Silk, and now sees Hornet as another offering she can give her mother. Once Hornet defeats Widow, she binds the Ancestral Art Needolin.
From here, Hornet has two paths to the Citadel. She can either ring the five bells located in the Bellshrines scattered throughout Pharloom, and fight the Last Judge at the peak of the Blasted Steps. Or she can venture through Sinner’s Road to find the Mist, a strange region of warped space in Pharloom full of Silkflies and vengeful Wraiths. By playing her Needolin for the Silkflies, Hornet can find her way to the Exhaust Organ and defeat Phantom. Upon defeating either Last Judge or Phantom, Hornet will gain access to the Citadel.
Events of Act 2
Hornet arrives at a seemingly empty Citadel, until Lace appears again to taunt her. Hornet tells Lace she knows a higher being is responsible for the Haunting overtaking Pharloom. Lace mocks Hornet, telling her she has no chance of defeating Grand Mother Silk. Hornet replies by saying:
I’ve found those who claim themselves a god can rarely match the title. And experience tells me, even gods can fall.
After this interaction, Grand Mother Silk lets out a scream and the Citadel comes to life with the Haunted husks of Citadel bugs.
Once Hornet reaches the top of the Citadel and defeats the Cogwork Dancers, she must complete the Threefold Melody, recovering the three separate songs held by the Architects, Keepers and Conductors.
But before she can get the melodies, Hornet will have to fight one of the most complex and thematically rich characters in Silksong, and perhaps even all of fiction, Trobbio.
Trobbio is a tragic character. His dream was to bring the Citadel back to life through the magic of the Great Stage. He called upon Hornet to be his partner in reigniting the flame that fuels the land of Pharloom. The two danced a dance of unparalleled beauty, with every step, every turn, every goddamn exploding ball executed exactly as choreographed. But then tragedy struck when Hornet straight up murders Trobbio for real, live on stage. Trobbio made the ultimate sacrifice for Pharloom and now he’s dead forever. And yet he lives on in the hearts and minds of children all over the world. Thank you, Trobbio.
It seems recovering the parts to the Threefold Melody was meant to be impossible. Hornet mentions that the climb through the Cogwork Core to reach the Architect’s Melody would be near impossible for a normal bug, and Vaultkeeper Cardinius even outright states it was against the law for a Vaultkeeper to share the Vaultkeeper’s Melody with a non-Vaultkeeper.
These roadblocks to completing the Threefold Melody might play into the idea that regular bugs were never actually supposed to be able to reach the top of the Citadel to learn the truth about Grand Mother Silk’s imprisonment.
Hornet plays the completed melody to the statues and is finally granted access to a lift that will transport her to the Cradle. At the top of the lift, Hornet finds Lace waiting for her in a field of flowers. After the battle, the two finally discuss Lace’s true nature. Lace expresses frustration at her silken form, viewing it as a cruel mimicry of life. Hornet tries to console her, but Lace is having none of it and promptly dies.
Weaver Queen Ending
With Lace out of the way, Hornet finally confronts Grand Mother Silk, the Pale Being responsible for everything that’s happened up to this point. And I’ll be honest I did not expect her to look like this. She’s not bug-like at all. She’s like some kind of weird woman. This is what a woman looks like, by the way.
After defeating her, Hornet binds Grand Mother Silk to herself. As she does so, her crest expands immensely and her masks transform into Weaver-style ones. Hornet’s binding results in the entire Citadel getting covered in a thick web of silk. We then see Hornet’s body curled up inside the Cradle as she grows additional pairs of arms. This ending is referred to as “Weaver Queen” in the game’s achievements menu.
It seems this was the end goal of the Weavers. Much like Eva before her, Hornet was an attempt by the Weavers to create a being capable of usurping Grand Mother Silk. The Weaver Queen ending is not a happy ending for Hornet, as it depicts her following the predestined path the Weavers wanted for her, with her body becoming even more Weaver-like in appearance. But we know that wasn’t Hornet’s true desire. At some point, the Caretaker asks this of Hornet, saying:
Ready to make your play, to oust one ruler and claim her place?
To which Hornet replies:
I’ll not deny some part of me desires that outcome… Dominance, it seems, is baked deep in my blood, as too, no doubt, for the one up top. And yet, another part resists… A part, over time, I find myself siding with more… That part wishes not to claim a monarch’s mantle, rather it would see my freedom regained, and this kingdom’s bugs unshackled from their pale chains.
Twisted Child Ending
So if the Weaver Queen ending is a bad ending for Hornet, are there any good ones? Well, let’s look at the Twisted Child ending. To get this ending, Hornet has to bring the Twisted Bud item to Greyroot, a strange creature located in Shellwood. Doing this lets Hornet access the Rite of Rebirth quest, where Greyroot injects Hornet with a parasite that limits her Silk and removes her ability to equip tools. To remove the parasite, Hornet must seek help from Yarnaby in Greymoor, a doctor kicked out of Bellhart for her questionable medical practices.
But Hornet can actually just keep adventuring around Pharloom instead of dealing with the parasite immediately. This can lead to some interesting interactions. Eva will bar Hornet from entering her chamber. Any Wardenfly that catches Hornet in a cage will be killed by the parasite. Tipp and Pill will refuse to let Hornet make deliveries. But the biggest change comes when Hornet defeats Grand Mother Silk while still infected. Both Pale Beings will get tangled in the parasite’s roots and be turned into some kind of hardened plant material. Then this happens.
Cut Ending (Strung to Serve)
So I don’t think that’s a particularly good ending either. But the bad endings don’t stop there. There’s actually another ending that was cut from the game called “Strung to Serve”. From what information I’ve seen, this ending was originally going to trigger if Hornet hadn’t rung enough of the Bellshrine bells across Pharloom. There’s a cut line from Caretaker implying these bells weaken Grand Mother Silk. In the final game, these bells just unlock one of the two paths to the Citadel, so they aren’t quite as important as they might have been earlier in the game’s development.
In this ending, Grand Mother Silk overpowers Hornet at the end of the battle. We get a shot of what appears to be some kind of fusion between the two beings. This being then sends threads down to the hapless pilgrims below. So in this ending, it seems like Grand Mother Silk succeeded in taking Hornet’s strength and is now free to enslave all of Pharloom to her will.
Snared Silk Ending
So that’s a really, really bad ending. But don’t worry, I’m sure the next ending will be good, right? Well, no, it’s not a good ending. It’s honestly not even really an ending.
If Hornet helps enough people in Pharloom, the Caretaker will eventually suggest to her a method to trap Grand Mother Silk. This involves collecting the souls of the Caretaker’s remaining relatives left in Pharloom. These souls include the Chapel Maid in the Moss Grotto, the Bell Hermit underneath Bellhart, and a deceased bug whose soul can be found in Bilewater.
Both the Chapel Maid and the Bell Hermit give their souls willingly, but the remaining soul, the Seeker’s Soul, is a little more difficult to obtain. At some point, this bug traveled into Bilewater to seek the help of the Stilkin. But instead of working with this bug to fight against the Citadel, the Stilkin killed him and took his soul. Hornet has to infiltrate the Stilkin’s home, Bilehaven, and defeat them and their leader, Groal the Great.
Now I have the feeling people are going to try to make the Stilkin out to be the bad guys here. But I’ll be honest, if the Seeker was anything like the Caretaker or the Bell Hermit, I don’t blame the Stilkin for doing what they did. I will stand with Groal the Great here. And I hope you do too.
The Caretaker also instructs Hornet to search Weavenest Atla for the Weavers’ prototype weapon, the Snare Setter. Hornet gives these three souls and the Snare Setter to the Caretaker who then sets up the trap inside the Cradle. Hornet then challenges Grand Mother Silk. After defeating her, instead of binding, Hornet plays her needolin to activate the Caretaker’s trap. But something unexpected happens. A large circle of Void within the Snare Setter appears beneath Hornet and Grand Mother Silk. The art assets for this thing imply that it’s actually opening a portal directly to the Abyss. The Void starts to pull Grand Mother Silk in, who in turn, grabs onto Hornet, attempting to drag her down as well. But this scheme is thwarted by Lace, who cuts Hornet free and falls into the Void with her mother.
The two disappear into a giant black ball of Void, that then collapses in on itself, creating a shockwave that shakes the entire Citadel. But just as things seem to have finally ended, Void covered silk threads reach up through the ground from below. This concludes the Snared Silk ending, but instead of putting Hornet back to before the fight in the save file, this ending triggers Silksong’s third act, called Abyss.
Events of Act 3
Hornet awakens to find that all of Pharloom has been altered, with environments wrecked by the appearance of black threads, NPCs killed in the quakes, and enemies possessed by Void.
Hornet travels back to the Ruined Chapel where she confronts the Caretaker, the Chapel Maid and the Bell Hermit, who we learn at this point are actually Snail Shamans. It turns out their fascination with the Void led them to try to use it in combination with the Snare Setter to trap Grand Mother Silk in the Abyss.
The only problem is Lace also fell into the trap. This has caused Grand Mother Silk to violently resist against the Void, continuously creating more silk to keep the Abyss from consuming her daughter. And at the same time, Void infused threads connected to her cocoon have shot up into Pharloom, threatening to destroy the entire kingdom.
Hornet resolves to travel to the Abyss to investigate. She heads to the Deep Docks to seek the help of Ballow in using the old Diving Bell to drop down into the Abyss. Ballow obliges, but the age of the bell causes a malfunction, leaving Hornet stranded deep below Pharloom. Hornet looks for Grand Mother Silk, but discovers that she has been submerged within the Sea of Void. Lace, never one to waste an opportunity to mock Hornet, somehow astral projects herself into the room and tells Hornet that there’s nothing she can do to save Pharloom. Lace explains that she saved Hornet as an act of rebellion against her mother for creating her so frail, and seems to relish in the idea of dooming her mother and all of Pharloom along with her. But Hornet remains determined, claiming that she will acquire “the bloom that repels the dark”.
Hornet returns to the top of the Abyss only to find that the Diving Bell has disappeared, so she has to climb back up out of the Abyss herself.
It’s at this point that the music from the 2019 reveal trailer starts playing for the first and only time during the entire game. Now, I’ve watched that trailer probably over 300 times in the last six years, and it was honestly kind of weird not hearing all the sound effects from the trailer. Hopefully Team Cherry will patch the game to add them back in. I really think that would make this moment even more epic.
Hornet returns to the Snail Shamans and explains that she must retrieve an Everbloom from within her own memories. We see what is likely the exact same type of flower in Hollow Knight going by the name Delicate Flower. Grey Mourner, one of the Pale King’s Five Great Knights, brought the Delicate Flower from a faraway land, and requests that the Knight take the flower to the grave of her dead lover, the Traitor Lord’s daughter. I dunno what it is with Team Cherry and tragic dead gay lovers, but if you are gay or have a gay lover and Team Cherry wants to put you in their game, maybe stop and think about it first.
If the Knight tries to give the Delicate Flower to the White Lady, she declines, explaining that the flower contains a rare power. She also tells Hornet in the Red Memory that the Everbloom is “the first light”. The Knight can give the flower to the Godseeker, but while she recognizes it as rare and pure, she can’t detect any godliness from it. However, giving the Delicate Flower to Godseeker actually unlocks an alternate ending for Hollow Knight.
The Godseekers in Hollow Knight are attempting to attune to The Radiance, who they detect as the highest god in all the land. When the Knight first arrives in Godhome, a dream realm inside the mind of the Godseeker, she is not impressed, calling it a cringer. But if the Knight continues to clear the Pantheons, defeating boss after boss, the Godseeker begins to take notice of the Knight. Upon defeating the Absolute Radiance at the end of the Pantheon of Hallownest, the Knight seems to take on a new form, referred to in game as Void Given Focus.
After this transformation, the Knight begins to leak out from the Godseeker, with Void tendrils lashing out from her body. However, if the Godseeker is holding the Delicate Flower, Godseeker and the Void leaking from her disappear, leaving only the flower with a single stained petal. So it does indeed seem like the Everbloom can repel Void. Whether or not this event in Hollow Knight is the memory Hornet has of the Everbloom is unclear, though.
The White Lady calling the Everbloom “the first light” implies this flower might be a primordial force in the world of Hollow Knight. It’s described as having a pale light, maybe indicating that the power found within all pale beings is connected to it, but for whatever the reason only these flowers can repel Void.
Due to her nature as a Weaver, Hornet can access things like the Everbloom from her memories using Silk. So I guess it kinda works like essence in Hollow Knight but instead it’s silk because what can’t silk do in this universe?
They can make freaking laser beams out of Silk, for God’s sake.
However, Hornet needs a spell from the Snail Shamans to actually access the Everbloom. The Snail Shamans tell her they can cast the spell, but it will require a tremendous amount of power. They tell Hornet to seek the Old Hearts, the strength remaining from the former rulers of Pharloom: Crust King Khann, Skarrsinger Karmelita and Nyleth.
The Shamans then teach Hornet a new song on her Needolin, Elegy of the Deep, which will allow her to access the memories of these bugs from when they were in their prime. So basically like traveling to a pocket dimension. This is similar to the film Shrek: Forever After. Hornet finds the Old Hearts scattered all across Pharloom:
In the wind blasted Sands of Karak, she can find the corpse of Crust King Khann hidden away in the Coral Tower. He’s even got all his soldiers with him, aura farming even in death. Makes you think.
In upper Shellwood, she finds a shrine built begrudgingly by the Citadel in honor of Nyleth. The shrine itself is protected by Shrine Guardian Seth, who stops any bug who would try to approach it, killing them if necessary. It’s not clear where Seth came from, or why he’s even in service to Nyleth, but it seems like he’s under some kind of spell considering his personality completely changes after Hornet defeats him, revealing himself to be a total gamer. Finally a Hollow Knight character I can relate to. Well, him and Styx.
On the east end of Far Fields, Hornet can find the withered frame of Skarrsinger Karmelita, who’s gotten a little bit bigger since she was young. I’ve heard this is what protein powder does to you. Playing her newly learned song will allow Hornet to battle Khann, Nyleth and Karmelita in their prime, and claim their hearts for the Snail Shamans’ ritual.
Hornet can also, completely unprompted, mind you, track down the Green Prince on the border of Verdania and murder him while he mourns the loss of his lover. Hornet will then call him vein in her murder journal. What the fuck, Hornet! This means Hornet can actually acquire four old hearts. Whichever one she doesn’t give to the Snail Shamans will get put on a shelf in her bellhome. What is her problem!?
Upon bringing the Old Hearts to the Snail Shamans, the trio cast their spell sending Hornet into the Red Memory, a dreamspace flashing back to moments of her past. We see the Weavers influencing Hornet from a young age, encouraging her to embrace her Weaver heritage. We then see Herrah telling Hornet to forge her own path in life, and that she is not bound to follow the desires of her Weaver kin. Good mom.
We then see Hornet training with Hive Queen Vespa, the ruler of the Hive, a location hidden away in the far reaches of Hallownest. The idea that Hornet was trained by Vespa was mentioned by Ari Gibson all the way back in 2017, but he implied the relationship might not have applied anymore.
But 8 years later, Team Cherry has finally confirmed it. Now, you might think that this interaction finally explains why Hornet’s name is Hornet. But the game technically doesn’t indicate that anywhere in Vespa’s dialogue. For all we know, Herrah just named her that.
At the end of the Red Memory, Hornet confronts the White Lady, who defends her actions regarding the creation of the Vessels.
In case you forgot this minor plot point from Hollow Knight, the Pale King and the White Lady created the Vessels by dropping their children into the Abyss and allowing the Void to hollow them out. One Vessel was chosen to contain the Radiance, an vengeful moth god who has infected the kingdom of Hallownest with a sickness that prays on the minds and dreams of its citizens. Not only does this plan fail, as the Hollow Knight wasn’t pure enough to contain the Radiance, but countless more Vessels, including the player character from the game, were abandoned in the Abyss. Hollow Knight’s story is about the player character, the Knight, coming to terms with its past and deciding the fate of Hallownest on its own terms.
So all things considered, not the best showing by these two higher beings, and Hornet even calls the White Lady out here, saying she would never resort to such a weak scheme for salvation. The White Lady responds with pity, and finally offers Hornet the Everbloom.
I think this sequence serves as Hornet rejecting the excuses of her divine kin. It seems Hornet views their actions as coming from a position of weakness, while Hornet has come to find the strength to craft the world exactly as she dreams it. And through that strength, Hornet will choose to save another from the Void instead of sacrificing an entire generation of offspring to it. Hornet’s resolve is reflected in the journal entry for Lost Lace which reads:
To quell the mother’s rage, and see this kingdom saved, I will claim her back. This one… the dark shall not take.
Hornet awakens in the Snail Shamans’ hut, but all three of them are now gone save for their shells. They seem to have used all their energy when casting the spell and faded away. Let’s have a moment of silence for the Snail Shamans who bravely gave their lives for Pharloom.
Anyways, here’s my tier list for them.
With the Everbloom in hand, Hornet returns to Deep Docks, where Ballow has fixed the Diving Bell. Hornet descends into the Abyss again, where Lace stops her to chat one more time saying:
Take the final plunge, spider. Join us in my drowning palace, and let oblivion swallow us all.
Horner rebuffs Lace, saying:
Oblivion may take you, child. My own life, I shall not sacrifice. I have survived the fury of your land. I have borne its barbs and its blades, and I have seen wonder behind its dangers. But always, child, I remain a daughter of Hallownest. And the void below all things, that darkness I will fear no longer…
This is the last line of dialogue in the game before the true ending and it’s also the only time in the entire game the word “Hallownest” is spoken, which considering Hollow Knight is 8 years old at this point, I think legally qualifies as nostalgia bait. You hate to see it.
Sister of the Void Ending
Hornet then begins her descent into the lake of nothing below. Hornet arrives in a silken sphere created by Grand Mother Silk. The pale monarch can be seen inside, bare of silk. Lace finally appears, but this time corrupted by Void, referred to in game as Lost Lace. Hornet proceeds to beat the crap out of her, slowly freeing her body from the corrupting Void. Once Lace is finally cleansed by Hornet’s blade, Hornet asks Grand Mother Silk to give her enough silk so that she can escape the Sea of Void and return Lace to safety.
However, as Hornet and Lace rocket through the Void, the petals of the Everbloom disintegrate. The ever hungry Void Tendrils take this opportunity to strike, but are stopped by none other than the Knight, who has arrived in Pharloom with the rest of the Shades. We even briefly see the Knight’s Focused form, indicating that the Knight has likely been elevated in power by the ritual of Godhome in this timeline.
We never really got a sense of the Knight’s desires in the events of Hollow Knight, but I feel the Dream No More ending was about the Knight and its siblings destroying the Radiance, not because they wanted to save Hallownest or anything, but because they wanted to free the Hollow Knight from its suffering, trapped in the Black Egg, separated from its siblings.
The Knight also choosing to help Hornet, another one of its siblings, implies that the Knight really does care for her. And it’s not like Hornet didn’t also help the Knight as well, guiding it towards the King’s Brand so that it could learn the truth of its conception. So the Knight helping Hornet here is another example of how Hornet helping others leads to the world of Hollow Knight being a better place, at least in some ways.
The Knight returns Hornet and Lace to the surface, the Void threads around them dissipate, the two awaken, and Lace has a bit of a laugh while Hornet hits her with the Weaver stare. This ending is called “Sister of the Void”. Pharloom and its White Knight have been saved from complete destruction, and the system of endless song and toil has finally been eradicated.
Outro
But now that we’ve talked about Silksong’s story in detail, just one question remains; What is this game even about? Maybe it’s a story about lineage and how we shouldn’t let our ancestors decide our fate. Or it might be a biting criticism of how religion is a tool used by the powers that be to extract labor from the unwitting proletariat. It could be an examination on the nature of truth and how the web of lies we spin will inevitably ensnare us. Perhaps it’s a story about the relationship between mothers and daughters and how mutual love and respect should be shared between them, with no strings attached. Or maybe spiders are just assholes.
Mods used: Hornetless Screenshots https://github.com/TheRealAlph4/Silksong.HornetlessScreenshots Enable Abandoned Ending https://www.nexusmods.com/hollowknightsilksong/mods/331 UltraCam https://www.nexusmods.com/hollowknightsilksong/mods/68 Debug Mod https://www.nexusmods.com/hollowknightsilksong/mods/2 UnityExplorer https://github.com/sinai-dev/UnityExplorer BepInEx https://github.com/BepInEx/BepInEx/releases/ List of songs: Almost all songs used come from the ingame audio files for HK and SS, which can be found here: HK audio assets: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1w8FlFOtTgJR3JR_-CUjsteWwU8yzHl68 SS audio assets: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Tel60vAo8KWFUup-aN_bhiYlgf7B6nn5 Ambient Silk Escalated Coral Ruins Main dirtmouth_wind_loop_b_grass H211 Bit Dreamy H149-88 Citadel Halls MAIN H208 Oppressed Main The Slab (Silksong OST) Cloak Rescue H116 Coral Steps-42 MAIN ALT H117 Wilds-30 MAIN H80-12 PEAK SUB H182 Chapel Ambient Battle Layer New Vaults Temp H129-25 Weaver experiment 2 Shreddy Game Oppressed Sub H108-71 Greymoor v4 MAIN H56-13 Deep Dust-fromSwampSub H180-02 HANG H182 ambient citadel surrounds H129-25 ward H190 Memorium Cogwork Core v2 MAIN H182 ambient peaceful H121 Enclave Split Main H49-102 MAIN LAVA H159_MistMazeAmbient Bellhart RoyalTheme_QueenNew Abyss Battle Loop Strive (Silksong OST) Overworld Theme (Super Mario Bros. 2) Sad Wanderer - MAIN Lace (Silksong OST) Last Dive Prologue v2 Layer 1 H170 v2-04 Choir Battle Track H144-71 WIP Trobbio Lace After Fight H191-09 SILK A Shellwood_sub H207 OpenUp with additional layer 2 H32 Moss Cave-60 MAIN H191-14 SILK B Ways Last Dive Prologue v2 Layer 2 S42 Queens Garden-30 MAIN GG5-04_atrium H82 Hunters Trail v4-47 MAIN S45 HORNET-110 RedMemory 4 Theme Alt S30 White Palace dirtmouth_wind_loop_c_gate Last Dive Prologue v2 Layer 3 Final Fight v2-10 Phase 1v2 Hollow Knight (Hollow Knight OST) Sister of the Void (Silksong OST) Enter Pharloom (Silksong OST)
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