The Pale King's deal with Herrah was actually genius
I'm sure this question has crossed many people's minds when they've played Hollow Knight: why is Herrah a dreamer? Monomon and Lurien were both followers of the Pale King and probably volunteered eagerly for the position; Monomon to preserve the kingdom's diversity, and Lurien because he would do anything in service to his king, but Herrah? She is a foreign queen, furthermore, she did not volunteer willingly for the position, but had to be persuaded through a deal. Well to start with, let's look at Deepnest.
Deepnest is not a friendly place
The first sign of Hallownest's tumultuous relationship with Deepnest is the failed tramway. Granted, this project may have failed due to aggression from the region's wildlife and not the actions of the Distant Village, as we already know Hallownest had a deal in place with the Mantis village to keep those away:
The truce remains. Our vigil holds. The beasts are kept at bay.
- Mantis lore tablet
But it reflects well the attitude the Distant Village likely had about the expansionist empire at their door.
To start with, those creepy puppets who tell you to rest on the bench in the Beast's Den. They look like upper-class Hallownest bugs, which is odd, because why would the denizens of Deepnest even know what they look like, given their isolation, and why would any bugs wearing these robes ever step foot in such a dangerous place? Here's my theory, they are the shells of real Hallownest bugs, as we can find the webbed remains of similar bugs who've been deceived by this ruse in the other building:
ā¦Not friendsā¦
Furthermore, they are the shells of diplomats sent by Hallownest to negotiate with the bugs of the Village, which would explain their upper-class fashion. That didn't turn out so well though, did it?
Even if they aren't the actual shells of Hallownest's representatives, the way they're used is already damning enough.
Ah, but the weavers are now infected, which is why they have become so aggressive. While it is true that the infection increases the aggression of its host, it isn't really known to make its hosts more clever, in fact, quite the opposite:
For quiet retreat did I climb up here, away from spitting creatures. Ormmph⦠Yes. High up. Away from simple minds, lost to light. Theirs is a different kind of unity. Rejection of the Wyrm's attempt at order. I resist the light's allure. Union it may offer, but also a mind bereft of thought⦠To instinct alone a bug is reducedā¦Hrrmā¦
- Bardoon
And that, was quite a clever trap. Probably too clever for an infected mind, especially given how clearly those puppets speak. Moreover, we do see an uninfected weaver in their hidden den, so we know not all of them have fallen to the infection.
If there needs to be more evidence that this is behavior we should expect from intelligent Deepnest bugs, we only need look to the Midwife. She is an uninfected servant of the Nest, who despite claiming to be a friend, will always try to eat the Knight at the end of her dialogue. This is probably how the Nest has acted for most of its existence, and again following Hallownest's fall, but something happened in-betweenā¦
Something changed
In the later months or years of Hallownest, bugs stopped using stone tablets:
In its declining age, this city switched from stone to parchment woven of spider's silk. It's a small tragedy, but the moisture in these towers has rendered most of those texts illegible.
- Relic Seeker Lemm
We can see spools of silk in the weaver's den, Deepnest stag station, and the hidden station at the palace grounds, so almost certainly this new silk came from the weavers.
Furthermore, we know the Nest worked alongside the Pale King with his vessel plan, as we can find a prototype of the seal that was used to bind the Hollow Knight within their hidden den.
So what changed? An acknowledgement of a shared threat, bringing both communities together? I don't think so. Before the Pale King arrived in what would become Hallownest, all tribes in the area seemed content to stay within their boundaries:
No bug has ever laid claim to this whole. Even the beasts knew their limits and bound their realm at Nest's edge.
And it is only upon pushing those boundaries that collapse becomes inevitable:
It is the ancient caste that made attempt at such vast rule. Hallownest's ruin reflects well those fared attempts.
- Both quotes from Mask Maker
The Radiance and the moth tribe coexisted with the other tribes and gods around them for an unknown period of time before Hallownest started expanding into their lands. Besides the Hive which shut its doors to the outside world, the Nest was the last frontier Hallownest really had left to conquer. Given their isolation from the kingdom, the Nest would have every reason to believe the Radiance was not their problem, and if she returned, Hallownest might fall but the Nest would keep going on all the same.
Although, if weavers were happening to become infected at this time, their general hostile and isolationist attitude would make it unlikely for them to seek or accept the aid of Hallownest of all places.
No, the reason Deepnest suddenly got friendly with Hallownest was because of The Bargain tm.
Why the bargain was genius
We don't have definitive proof of who came up with the deal. There is dialogue from Herrah which states that it was the Pale King, but because this dialogue is unused, it of course cannot be used as evidence:
Wyrm, your attempt may prove futile, but your offer I could not refuse.
That said, it was probably still the Pale King's idea. To start with, let's look at the Midwife's dialogue:
That village above here, home to a sad creature. Hers is a tale of tragic exchange. Cost her and her people greatly, though I suspect she bore no regret in making it.
This deal cost not only Herrah, but her people greatly as well. It was not a deal made lightly, but seemingly one she couldn't refuse. We know that she once had a husband, as the mushrooms mention him in one of their lore tablets:
This border bounds the twisting, scratching things. Their dead sire, once of honoured caste. Their sealed mother, but the common beast. No peace with them we make.
He was of "honoured caste", we don't know what this means, but as Herrah is a queen and yet still described as a "beast", he must have been a notable creature, likely a higher being of some sort.
Herrah it seems married well above her station, but as a now widowed mortal queen she was in need of an heir, and not just any heir, an heir of appropriate caste. In this deal she'd lose her autonomy, and never get to see her child grow up. What does the Pale King get?
He gets everything.
The Queen of the Nest is now out of action, and his own blood sits upon its throne, but as Hornet is too young to rule, the Nest is essentially leaderless. Furthermore his own queen is either raising Hornet, or at least has a strong influence on her, as she was close enough to the princess to develop a bond:
It faced the Gendered Child? She's a fierce foe, strong in mind and body, striking reflection of her mother, though the two were permitted little time together. I never begrudged the Wyrm's dalliance as bargain. In fact, I feel some affection for the creature birthed.
Hallownest now firmly has its claws in the Nest and its future, making the Nest a vassal of the kingdom, and this manifested in cooperation and trade.
So why did the Pale King chose Herrah and not one of his own subjects? Because it let him execute his plan to save Hallownest and conquer his final rival in a single move. Oh, and it would have been a perfect victory, if it wasn't for that dang impurity in the Vessel.
All images taken from hollowknight.wiki
Now that Silksong is out I suppose it's time I amend this theory.
SILKSONG SPOILERS AHEAD!
Herrah it seems married well above her station, but as a now widowed mortal queen she was in need of an heir, and not just any heir, an heir of appropriate caste.
So here I was kind of correct, but also incorrect⦠let me explain. Within Pharloom we can meet a being called Eva. Eva is not a bug, but a construct of silk held within an iron shell. When talking to Eva, Hornet can have this conversation with her:
H: How did you come to be sealed here, Eva? E: Lady, you mistake. What seems a cage is as much my shell as the form inside. E: I was born within this space. To leave would be my death, an uninspired end, though one I've sometimes wished would come. E: I am unique, you see. My mothers shared the curse of their tribe, to conceive a child is a painful, near impossible task. H: I know the curse well, Eva, for I am also its victim, and spawn of one who managed to overcome its limits. H: Are you too an attempt to defy that cruel constraint? E: A flawed attempt. A life spun from rune and shell, sustained only by its cage. My thoughts may mimic a Weavers but my senses are my own. E: Over time, that difference brought only distance between us.
The weavers suffered from such bad infertility they resorted to making an artificial child, because conceiving on their own would be almost impossible. Almost.
Herrah overcame it, but only by making a deal with a higher being, an actual god. So Herrah taking a husband of "honoured caste" may still be significant, not as an attempt to produce a child of appropriate station, but just to produce a child at all. Unfortunately this didn't work out for her and she got one from the Pale King instead.
But wait, there's more to this than thatā¦
ACT 3 SPOILERS IN NEXT SECTION
The weavers of Pharloom wanted to be free from their old god, the one who uplifted them and called them "daughters". The Citadel was devised for this purpose, a way to keep her caged and asleep:
Mask Maker: Our mortal mob did once act some defiance, unawares maybe, but successful in part, goaded towards it by Weavers' will'n all. H: You speak of the Citadel? Its former function has failed, but I can still sense its purpose, some. It is church and cage both. MM: 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.
All while they worked in their nests at the edges of the kingdom where her sight didn't reach, searching for a longer-term solution:
H: Eva, I am seeking a tool, told to be somewhere in this structure. It is a snare device of Weaver make. Do you know of it? E: I may, lady. Search over from here, on side where the moss meets the nest. There, my mothers built their tools, all traps and bindings. Small things, but tests for larger forms. E: 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.
But eventually, due to their inability to reproduce and aware that their mother would wake, the weavers ran out of time and had to admit defeat. They passed the mantle of rulership onto the conductors, then either fled into the wasteland or died within the kingdom's bounds.
They held on to one final hope though; these are the last words of the weavers, the rune harp held by the last conductor of Pharloom:
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.
Now returning to Hallownest, or rather a memory of it from Hornet's perspective, we see that the weavers there shared this hope for Hornet to be their saviour of silken strength:
ā¦Ignore them, daughter⦠their whispers⦠ā¦Greater, grander⦠Weaver, guardian, queen⦠Those are their desires⦠not your own. Certainly not mineā¦
But not Herrah, Herrah wanted Hornet to be free to make her own destiny.
Counterpoint! Maybe the weavers were just talking about Hornet being a queen within Hallownest?
I don't think so. In the next part of the memory we see Queen Vespa training Hornet, and it's implied that she knows Pharloom is going to seek the princess out eventually:
ā¦In time, they will come for you⦠Those who fear your nature, and those seeking to claim it⦠ā¦To survive our world, you must learn to sting⦠swift and suddenā¦
But then why wasn't Hornet warned about her grandmother? Probably because Herrah didn't want her actions to be influenced, or for her to live in fear. So, the loyal weavers kept their desires to hushed whispers, and Vespa did what she could to prepare Hornet for the worst.
This desire, for Hornet to be well prepared but not railroaded, is expressed well in the final conversation of the memory:
White Lady: ā¦For our ways you will think us harsh⦠You will think us uncaring, unrepetant⦠WL: ā¦And so we must seem, for such is the cost of our wish⦠H: You are wrong, Lady⦠H: I knew the wish, and the price to achieve it. And now, across these many ages, I have only come to know it better⦠H: Strength⦠in mind, in care, in claw. Strength enough that I may live to see a world better than our own, or to craft a world as I desire. H: That was the wish, of my mother, of my mentor, and of you⦠WL: ā¦Indeed, spider⦠So much pain you must have passed to speak our hope so simplyā¦
And then there is the first ending, where Hornet binds the Pale Monarch's strength to her own. This ending is called "Weaver Queen", affirming the wishes of the weavers of both Pharloom and Hallownest alike.
Okay, so what was the point of this story summery? Well in conclusion the caste of Hornet's father was important to Herrah because a higher being's power allowed her to conceive a child at all, and it was important to the weavers because it gave them a saviour that could depose their long-despised mother. It was not important because of a need for an heir to rule Deepnest.
The gift of such a child would have been well received by the Nest indeed - no wonder they were so forthcoming with their silk once the deal was complete.












