#ballador

Part of a series. See the contents for other parts

Awkwardly numbered, and yes posted after parts 5 and 6, because... Well, I've done this thing that's happened before, that by the time I finish something big, my mind has turned into so much mush that I can't assess the state of my own work. Only thought in my mush head: it's done, time to post. But uh once my brain recovered I had to realize it was still just a first draft. I slowed down to edit more as I was rolling the posts out, but eventually I realized I'm really missing some things in here to drive home the big points I want to make for the overall series, emphasizing all the themes and all that. And it's easier to make this odd insertion into the contents than rearrange/do massive edits on what I've already posted XD;;; (I'll be going back to make a proper introduction too at some point I think, but that will just be an edit to the first post). There will be a 4.5B

Contents

GMS and the Weavers

Pilgrims' Inheritance

Faith without a Heart

Apostasy: Family and Faith Bound into One

Interlopers? (this post)

Purity

Silk-spun Children

Daughter of Hallownest

Pharloom's Future

Conclusion + Misc

Interlopers?

I've said much by now on the pilgrims' place in Pharloom. Inheriting a system of rule and hierarchy and faith, and further a place in a kingdom-wide family as successors to Pharloom's first children...even without knowing the mother at the top of it all.

But how about something more direct? That is, all of this designation of their place in family is through the intermediary of the Weavers. In other words, what is family to GMS, and who is included? What are the bugs of Pharloom to her? What does she want from them?

Unravelled silk heart: ...Their voices... Their song... / ...Their memory... / ...Bind their shells... / / ...Bind their souls... / ...Bind them all... / ...Raise them... Up... / ...To devote... Eternal... // ...One mind... One union... Widow, before she notices Hornet: They shall join... Union upon your thread... A gift, for your waking. A world strung to serve... Bell Hermit: Power existed in these lands even before [GMS] bound them beneath her. Hornet: This land's grandeur, the devotion of its bugs, and the curse that befalls them. The signs are clear. Your kingdom is in the thrall of a creature beyond bug, one of that higher caste. Hornet: You were mortal bugs, caught beneath a being pale... Devotion or destruction... these are the only fates my kind allow.

Eternal devotion, union. A kingdom bound beneath. I wouldn't say these things point to the bugs being like children, including the one direct example of GMS's speech (for the silk heart). Same as some other aspects shared between common bugs and her children, such as the imposition of religion, I can't say these words aren't how she speaks of her children. But the focus isn't like how she speaks of Weavers or silk-spun children.

First Sinner: ...She called us daughters... Called us divine... She lied...

GMS directly called the Weavers her daughters and divine. I am doubtful she called the bugs children, and calling them divine seems out of the question.

Bell Beast silk heart: ...Child... Weaver... / ...Child... Spider... / ...Arrived... At last... / ...Our Silk... / ...Our strength... / ...Our nature... / ...We feel it... / ...Rise... Rise... // ...Come, child... Witness our waking... First Sinner needolin: I did not wane! / I did not forget! / Sustained by fury! / Cursed by Silk! / Cursed with Silk! / Cursed to know… / The sin... the truth... Lace silk heart: ...From our Silk... A child born loyal… Clawmaiden needolin: ...Your Silk... / ...Your strength... / ...Ours by birth... / ...Ours by right...

GMS recognizes her nature in Hornet. Her silk. All the Weavers have that same silk. The silk-spun children obviously are made entirely of the stuff. The Clawmaidens, uh- I don't even know XD But they're early automatons and I wonder if they somehow were modeled directly off of the Weavers and their haughty attitudes. Just included as an example of a focus on silk.

Surgeon journal entry: Their procedures with Silk may have prolonged life within the Citadel, but they unknowingly gifted many minds to the monarch. Caretaker: Just think of'em greedily shoving the Silk into their shells [...] Then think on how long it's all gone on... Hornet: […] The Silk has seeded deep into this kingdom's shells, generations deep... No wonder Pharloom's bugs proved such easy prey for that haunted thread. It had only to seek for itself to reach them.

The pilgrims do not naturally have silk. Not inside their bodies, as has been happening for a long time under Citadel rule. In this light, the bugs couldn't've been haunted so easily in the past. Perhaps they could be part of such unity if they wished it, or in some lesser unity. Yet the other dialog at the beginning of the post, on Pharloom being bound, or caught, or enthralled. Those things still described Pharloom when GMS was awake.

What is the difference between the Weavers becoming Weavers and the pilgrims being ensnared by thread? If the pilgrims weren't haunted in the past but still bound beneath GMS, would there have been a difference?

For one the pharlids are unintelligent bugs, who were greatly changed as they became Weavers, shaped by GMS's will. But I do think the silk is the greater association. Even with everything the pilgrims did with silk on their own, using it in battle, putting it into their shells, it didn't come from them. They needed an external source.

Hornet: They hunt me for my nature. For the Silk produced within my shell. Seamstress: Ahh ha! Truth, no doubt! In Pharloom, yours is a rare skill, prized beyond measure, to channel one's soul within a thread. Soul and Silk inseparably linked. It is a skill almost lost from Pharloom. Those old Weavers shared it, but they're long dead now.

I believe that that more than anything made the Weavers daughters to GMS. She put some of her own nature in them. That's why Hornet is recognized by GMS, and none of the other bugs are, no matter how much silk they have in them.

At the very least, it made the Weavers the first children. I've considered whether the other bugs could've been secondary children during GMS's time, and it's just a hierarchy of some children being better than others. It's possible, but I'm not so sure. For one, the way I think the generational counting works as I was going over in the last post, I think they would've started counting from around when the Weavers were handing over control of Pharloom (more on this in a minute). More importantly, GMS was ready to let all of Pharloom die to protect Lace from the void. And she had been concerned with hunting down the Weavers that fled, both from feelings of betrayal and wanting family back. Also, uh:

Lace silk heart: ...Better a child spun mad... than none… / ...Better a child spun frail... than none… / ...Better a child spun pure... than them…

GMS's whole mindset in creating Lace was that she would not have children without doing so. The Weavers had left the kingdom. She seems to be comparing Lace to them, to say she's more pure. I guess you can say she also didn't have the common bugs of Pharloom when asleep and she'd be angry at them for abandoning her too. I just don't think that's anywhere near as strong.

So. I've spent quite a few words before this post talking about the bugs as successor children. I am not undoing it. But more considering how the Weavers brought the bugs into the family. Part of me wants to consider that as lesser, like the bugs are just interlopers in the family, with the way GMS doesn't consider them children. But then I could ask why GMS is the gatekeeper for such, when the Weavers are family members. In the same way, for instance, that parents have limited control of their own children's choice in partner or having children. Not like the bugs are the actual children of the Weavers, but the whole designation of children seems generational to me. Weavers as first children, and then each generation of bugs as second, third, etc. Though the way I'm phrasing it (second children, third children) would more point to them being the next generation of children of GMS, rather than of the last generation of children… Well, all of this is getting pretty speculative anyway XD As I was saying in the last post, this numbing system is extrapolated from text in the Slab, so I can't say this is particularly strong to base so much of it off of just that when all these phrases aren't used in game. Even as I still think there's enough evidence to call them part of the family on some level.

Rune harp in High Halls: Last words of the Weavers. "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." Weaver effigy: Carving of Camora, Weaver of healing. A prayer is etched upon it. "Weaver, heal my sons, their fearful hearts, their limbs that shake at the climb to come. We pray, gift but a glimmer of your strength, that when we stand before your divinity, you see bugs shed free of fear."

The Weavers pass on their burden. Rule over the kingdom, and duty to keep GMS asleep. The designation as children. ...And their divinity itself.

Choir clapper (only found in High Halls arena) needolin: Bow your heads in reverence! / Prostrate your meagre shells! / Tremble before our masters! / Know our lords divine! Twelfth Architect needolin: ...To mend...Unending... / ...To serve...Eternal... / ...Always an Architect... / ...From these thoughts...Creation... / ...From these memories...Skill... / ...Designs...Divine... Chapel of the Architect needolin: Our hope... / Build... Craft... Pass... / Always another... / Always eternal... / Can it end? / Designs... divine... Twelfth Architect on the cogwork heart: That heart is an inspired form, conceived by the first of my line for a knight of cog and blade. Twelfth Architect after Hornet gets the melody: Impressive-industrious... eternal... You have seen a glimpse, Bug-Red, of us-s-s, how once we were. The minds of Architects inspired. What majesty we did create... wiktionary definition of inspired: (religion) Infused with power or knowledge granted from a supernatural entity; possessing inspiration from the divine. Vaultkeeper journal entry: High caste bug, responsible for delivering sermons and leading prayer for those beyond the walls of the Whispering Vaults.

The conductors were regarded as divine themselves. The Architects do not directly call themselves divine but they keep saying their work is divine. I believe the use of inspiration is in that religious sense, as if their own minds carry divinity, or they channel divinity as they work. The vaultkeepers, uh. They seem to be religious leaders, and their leader is called pontiff, but I don't find any reference to them being divine themselves.

At the very least the conductors have taken this status that the Weavers had, divine and at the top of the hierarchy. The Weavers derive their divine status from being GMS's daughters. I can't say I know how the Citadel's leaders justify it for themselves. But with how long-lived they are, I wonder if the conductors (and possibly the pontiff) are/were from the first generation of bugs which the Weavers handed power to, making them second children. Or at least of the earliest generation still alive. For the Architects it's more complex. I believe from the way Twelfth Architect speaks, the architects were made sequentially, so that there was always just one architect at a time. And for complex reasons I wrote about previously, I think each new architect takes on the memories of the old ones. In this way the divine mind itself was from the past, probably all the way back to the start of conductor rule.

Twelfth Architect on cogwork heart: In it, I see my predecessor’s talent, immense, now lost-forgotten. I could never create-copy a work s-s-so fine. On architect's melody: From my mind-vault, the imprint has f-f-faded. With many things it is like this… remembrance, dimmed… Close to death: The skill to construct an Architect… That was taken by t-t-time. I am the last-final. Introducing itself: I am an Architect. Only an Architect. To build-automate is not choice. It is our nature-directive-c-c-c-cage.

Twelfth Architect speaks of things getting worse over time. It doesn't think itself as capable as earlier architects. It can't remember. Its existence on its own is limited, only an architect, ordered by directive to create, but it channels the divine. And that inspired mind, passed from architect to architect, will end with the twelfth.

Chapel of the Architect needolin: Our hope... / Build... Craft... Pass... / Always another... / Always eternal... / Can it end? / Designs... divine...

Eternity itself hinges on this, keeping an architect of divine designs. Or it did.

Twelfth Architect: The core remains to sustain the song, but no more Architects to tend-toil or build anew. S-s-strange... 'For Pharloom eternal,' states the d-d-directive-cage. But how can eternity sustain without an Architect to serve? This seems e-e-error. An end? An error... welcome? Choral commandment: Last edict of the Conductors. "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."

Twelfth Architect is uncertain of eternity without itself, but the hope is the continued existence of automatons will sustain eternity regardless.

I go over all this with Twelfth Architect wondering if its situation is at all similar to the bugs. The bugs have lived generation after generation in a hierarchy controlled by those at the top of the Citadel, divine status conferred upon the conductors, even as the conductors are no different in species than the rest (er, of course there are different species in Pharloom but there's not a divide like where all Weavers were divine—presumably whatever species the conductors are is elsewhere in Pharloom) (it's certainly true for the vaultkeepers and Scrounge). For Twelfth Architect, I assume memory got a little worse each iteration, whatever inspired mind was trying to be kept fading each time. The bugs went through several generations, and I wonder if each generation was considered less divine, or if only the ones at the top ever got such a word applied to them.

Conductor Ballador: 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.

Part 2 of a series. See the contents for other parts

Contents

GMS and the Weavers

Pilgrims’ Inheritance (this post)

Faith without a Heart

Apostasy: Family and Faith Bound into One

Interlopers?

Purity

Silk-spun Children

Daughter of Hallownest

Pharloom’s Future

Conclusion + Misc

Pilgrim's Inheritance

All this isn't just about GMS and her progeny, as I spoke of in the last post.

Rune harp found in the Citadel: Sisters, spiders, the burden is passed. These simple bugs shall bear it full. Never to cease. Never to silence. Conductor Ballador: 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.

(It must be noted that, as in the line above, the Weavers are often called first children. This will come up repeatedly.)

And this longer exchange:

Hornet: The bugs of your land, I have watched them, climbing towards their absolution without the flicker of a thought to what it means. Mask Maker: Aye. But isn't it always such for those snared to serve your higher caste? Our mortal mob did once act some defiance, unawares maybe, but successful in part, goaded towards it by Weavers' will'n all. Hornet: You speak of the Citadel? Its former function has failed, but I can still sense its purpose, some. It is church and cage both. Mask Maker: 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.

The pilgrims of Pharloom, up to the highest authorities of the Citadel, took on the task from the Weavers to keep GMS asleep. But it's more than just a matter of rule and duty. The pilgrims take on a particular role.

Pious Isamor: ...Dear [pil]grim... Dark it seems now... [l]et these word[s] become your guide… Hear our voice... Let it [?] your own! Give of yourself for great Pharloom, for [the] first-children who bequeath it to us... for our salva[tion] sure to come! Pious Isamor needolin: Pilgrims... all… / Siblings... serving... / Devout... unwavering… / All... are equal…

Pious Isamor is a statue seemingly animated by silkflies. It's found in a hidden location in the Whispering Vaults, probably some storage room. Those on the Hollow Knight wiki speculate it used to be in a prominent spot in Choral Chambers (removed from a base that was left in place). From its dialog it clearly was supposed to be talking to pilgrims, telling them how they should be in the Citadel. I think it was from the time of the Weavers. From the talk of first-children, to other of its dialog saying the Citadel is bare and unadorned, to indicating equality between all the pilgrims...those things aren't true in the present. There's high stratification in Citadel society, and plenty of adornment.

Twelfth Architect: Long before the c-c-creation of the core, the sentinels ventured, even beyond these walls, to see all bugs brought-forced safe to serve the Citadel.

(can't help but use this line any chance I get) (I dunno if the sentinels were in the Weaver times but they at least were early on in bug rule)

What I wanted to point out here is...even in the time of the Weavers, there were pilgrims. They came to the Citadel. They worshiped the Weavers (see: weaver effigies, containing prayers to weavers). And they called each other siblings.

And the Weavers...they were called first children. Children of GMS obviously enough. But if there are first children, does that not imply there are subsequent children? Would it not be the pilgrims, who are all siblings to each other? Sure, sibling is not an unusual term to call people in a religious sense, but I think it's both in this instance. The family role that GMS bestowed upon the Weavers is in turn bestowed, expanded, to encompass all of Pharloom and its bugs.

(I don't think Lace, Phantom, or other silk-spun beings could be the second children, but I'll discuss why later.)

Hornet, to Twelfth Architect: I bear the lineage of Weavers, along with other strands, equally strange. Twelfth Architect: Then on your r-r-request, Bug-Red, as directive demands, for Pharloom's first children, a-a-a-and our kingdom-eternal, I shall c-c-craft.

Cardinius: Fool! Demanding of a Vaultkeeper. Hers is impudence enough to bring death... If she did not carry the scent of Weaver-spawn. Hornet: So you know something of my ancestry, learned bug. If it gains me favour here, then I'll expect your service in full. Cardinius: Bleg! Dead! Dead, your vicious kind are meant to be. Better methinks to stay as such… Gkkkt. But this one was taught. It shall fold its claws. It shall pass its knowledge, as much as is gleaned. Only to a first child must a Vaultkeeper defer.

There has always been a hierarchy in Pharloom. Between GMS and Weavers, with GMS at the top. Between the Weavers and other bugs, with the Weavers worshiped, and it is clear from the dialog that they and their high station were remembered still by a few. (I believe Second Sentinel may also remember, if only because it asks Hornet for orders immediately upon waking as if she was an authority.) Even in the Weavers' long absence, they hold the highest rank in the Citadel. Of course, the Weavers have still been gone for the most part. Without them, the pilgrims stratified greatly, with the Conductors on top. It's not just a straight vertical hierarchy though.

The pilgrims have a degree of upward mobility...somewhat literally of course lol. They start at the bottom of Pharloom, making their way up to the Citadel. Then some of those bugs can reach a higher level, being trusted with weapons (I had so much to say on weapons that I had to make a separate post on it and the Order of the Pinstress).

Chorister journal entry: Disciple of the Choir, elevated above other pilgrims, and forced to cowl their face forever more.

Perhaps some of those could even be elevated to Conductor, if there ever was such an open position. But beyond that I'm not sure what else a pilgrim could be.

See, there are many many bugs in the kingdom that seem to have little to do with this whole pilgrimage.

Loam: Surely you did come from above! Me time has come at last! Me work is done. You come to bring me up! Up, up! Hrrr!

I can't imagine Loam was ever a pilgrim. To reach the Citadel and expect holy reward, only to be taken away to the Underworks and promised a second time? I don't think they've ever seen the Citadel. Have the other underworkers? Have the roachkeepers of Sinner's Road?

Sign near the squirrms: 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.

The squirrms are baby versions of the judges. From birth they are intended for this one job. There never was a pilgrimage.

Hornet, in the Slab: Will you tell me of those who guard this structure? They are servants of the Citadel, are they not? Old Penitent: Servants...? 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.

Scabfly journal entry: Foul creatures birthed into servitude. Their plight elicits no sympathy from me.

I'm sure it doesn't matter what supposed sin was committed. The slabflies perform a useful service to the Citadel. They're as likely to be absolved as Loam is to be taken up.

Forge Daughter: Sent from our Forgehome we were, at request of those holy bugs above. Hornet: The Citadel dwellers? The veiled bugs? They ordered you here? Forge Daughter: Yes! An age ago that. Such is duty! We Forge Daughters live to hone the craft, and aid the line. By the Citadel's patronage, and our long duty upon these docks, our Forgehome would swell in holy esteem.

Forge Daughter, in act 3: There is no choice! Not for us. We cannot leave, not ever. We are a Forge Daughter, fixed to this forge and its service. Ours is a duty lifetime bound.

There's not just one Forge Daughter, but a whole line of Forge Daughters. We don't get to know where Forgehome is, but "those holy bugs above" suggests to me that this Forge Daughter has never been there in the Citadel. They've been assigned to their duty and they never leave. They emphasize it even in as the world may end to void.

Twelfth Architect: Bug-Red. Do you ask-need our service? We shall create, as is our d-d-directive. To serve, for Pharloom eternal. On seeing the cogwork heart: That heart is an inspired form, conceived by the first of my line for a knight of cog and blade. In it, I see my predecessor's talent, immense, now lost-forgotten. I could never create-copy a work s-s-so fine. Realizing it will die soon: The skill to construct an Architect... That was taken by t-t-time. I am the last-final. The core remains to sustain the song, but no more Architects to tend-toil or build anew. S-s-strange... 'For Pharloom eternal,' states the d-d-directive-cage. But how can eternity sustain without an Architect to serve? This seems e-e-error. An end? An error... welcome? needolin: ...To mend...Unending... / ...To serve...Eternal... / ...Always an Architect... / ...From these thoughts...Creation... / ...From these memories...Skill... / ...Designs...Divine...

Twelfth Architect is a bit different in that it's artificially created, and animated by a silkfly that would've come from a pilgrim. But I'm not sure if it's truly distinct from the situation of many bugs. Born into a station and given a duty one can never stop.

Twelfth Architect: A gleaming order, cogwork sentinels, so impressive-majestic in function they were charged-b-b-bound to the highest holy duty. Second Sentinel, act 2: Defence of the sacred C-c-citadel, and the voices that fill it-t-t, is our eternal duty. [Hornet points out the pointlessness amidst vast decline] Eternal, is the Citadel. Et-t-ternal, is the devotion of the sentinels. While its shell is f-f-functional, this sentinel will hold true to its duty. After Hornet emphasizes there is nothing left in act 3: While voices still fill the g-g-great chambers... the sacred task of the sentinels continues. To defend... To p-p-protect.

Second Sentinel doesn't seem that much different to me compared to someone like Forge Daughter. The duty continues. No matter what. No matter how pointless.

Twelfth Architect continued too, until it could not. It found its end welcome, seemingly surprising itself in that thought. But no matter how welcome, it never stopped its duty until it physically could not function.

Moorwing journal entry: Winged mite-beast, bred large to catch workers who once tried to flee their tasks. Twelfth Architect: Long before the c-c-creation of the core, the sentinels ventured, even beyond these walls, to see all bugs brought-forced safe to serve the Citadel.

Even if anyone in Pharloom wanted to do anything beyond their assigned station it's not like they would be allowed to.

I'd like to point out the repeated use of the word caste. It was used above by the Old Penitent to describe the slabflies. It was used by Mask Maker to refer to higher beings.

Vaultkeeper journal entry: High caste bug, responsible for delivering sermons and leading prayer for those beyond the walls of the Whispering Vaults. Pinstress act 1/2 needolin: The flurried dance of blades swung swift… / Warriors proud in battle's midst… / An order lost of maidens fair… / Lethal talents beyond compare… / I remember you... My sisters passed… / You were the finest... bravest... caste… Hornet, to Grindle: The creature that haunts this place is stirring, little thief. The Citadel's caste now roam the halls. You would do well to leave soon, if you mean to survive. Hornet to Lace at the start of act 2: The signs are clear. Your kingdom is in the thrall of a creature beyond bug, one of that higher caste.

And these aren't all the examples. It was used in Hollow Knight too. I made a post about it previously. To quote myself:

“Caste” is a category. Something having to do with one’s place in society, something you’re born into. Mask Maker brings this up upon seeing Ghost with King’s Brand, something to mark them as King, the top rank of a society.

Some quotes from Hollow Knight:

Mushroom people near Deepnest: 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. Mask Maker (Hallownest) on the Ancient Civ: It is the ancient caste that made attempt at such vast rule. Hallownest’s ruin reflects well those fared attempts.

Caste is more than just a social thing. It's also a term with a specific definition in biology:

a subset of individuals within a colony (society) of social animals that is specialized in the function it performs and distinguished by anatomical or morphological differences from other subsets.

For example, in real life, ants would be said to have different castes. They have queens. They have workers. They have soldiers with huge heads and mandibles to match. Each ant is raised in a certain role, affecting their body and behavior, and it won't be changed.

I believe Team Cherry might be influenced by this concept and implemented it in the worldbuilding. Not the physical determination of role per se (though, for instance, the skarr do have great physical differences between different ant types determining their jobs, and someone of Forge Daughter's size and presumable strength may be desired for metalworking), but as kingdoms of intelligent bugs with complex societies, stratifying the society in a manner similar to such biological determinations, and yes, calling to mind real world caste systems.

All this is getting a bit above my paygrade (of $0). Point is, this is a highly stratified society with very little choice. I almost wonder if the pilgrimage is the only source of social mobility, where the pilgrims can hope for a good life if they reach the top, and maybe they could even become part of the power structure. Maybe.

Cogwork statues, the ones guarding the elevator to the Cradle: Pilgrim of Pharloom eternal, you rare chosen who hath ascended to this final threshold, listen to our wish, deliver it, that you may rise above and see your pilgrimage end. […] Pilgrim of Pharloom eternal, regale us with our Threefold song, that you may rise above and worship before our kingdom's divine heart. Conductor Ballador: Would you see her, pilgrim? Up there at our Citadel's crown? Reach those heights we'd hoped to hide and bow before this land's true ruler. Cardinius: The Weaver-thing would claim our sacred melody?! How grim the age we survive to see... Vile sacrilege for it to pass to an outsider… 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. Twelfth Architect: At the height of our core, there is means-s-s-system, near complete... Constructs old-built to sound our song. They need only be set to functional form.