Kinda back in my Hollow Knight phase rn, so I'm just gonna be word vomiting my thoughts and half-baked headcanons and my vague understanding of Hollow Knight lore. Lets GO!
Do you guys think the Pale Lurker was like, a royal guard of some kind? Or just someone from the City of Tears? Because while fighting her the City of Tears action theme does play.
Like, maybe after the White Palace just up and vanished she took to the colosseum, but also still believed in the Pale King? I don't know man, based on her Dreamnail dialogue, it seems she does worship a king, or perhaps the king she worships isn't even the Pale King.
Maybe because of the Pale King's disappearance she clung onto the Lord Fool to act in his place or something of the like, maybe she noticed he died and went insane trying to delude herself that her king is still alive and well, maybe she separated herself from the rest of the fools because of this too. Maybe that key she held belonged to the Lord Fool as well, and she's holding on to it for the one day he returns or something.
What exactly happened for the Nightmare Realm and the Dream Realm to be split? Maybe The Nightmare's Heart was forced to split the Nightmare Realm off from the Dream Realm because the Radiance was kinda encroaching on its territory?
Like, maybe in her desperation to not be forgotten she tried to use anyone and anything to her advantage, and hey, the Nightmare Heart has a troupe like she did her moth tribe, what if she just takes it.
Which then forced The Nightmare's Heart to make the decision to split the Nightmare Realm off from the Dream Realm.
Maybe after she came back from being forgotten she just, went after everything. Like, if she would go after the followers of Unn even though said god is just sleeping, and she went after deepnest, the Hive and the Mantis Tribe.
Why not assume that she would go after the Nightmare Realm too?
Maybe I could make the assumption that since everything in Greenpath came from Unn's dream, the Radiance basically saw it that she had the right to take Unn's followers because they were molded from a dream. Mayhaps she was even, say, jealous of the fact that Unn's subjects (or like half maybe) didn't leave them even after meeting the Pale King and that their god is sleeping.
So, say that the Nightmare and Dream Realm were one, and the Radiance assumes that dreams are hers to lay claim to and that Nightmares are just a different form of dream. What if she just decided that The Nightmare's Heart wasn't necessary and tried to dispose of them, realized she couldn't, then decided to split them?
Meh, I don't know man I'm just spouting bullshit lols.
Another thing, kinda more bullshit to deal with the Pale King I guess?
So, the final lore tablet at King's Pass states:
Higher beings, these words are for you alone.
Beyond this point you enter the land of King and Creator.
Step across this threshold and obey our laws.
Bear witness to the last and only civilisation, the eternal Kingdom.
Hallownest
A bit funny, isn't it? How the Pale King calls Hollownest the last and only civilization, perhaps you could even call it hubris. But what if, and hear me out here.
What if Hollownest was the last and only civilization...
Maybe before the Pale King's reign there truly weren't any civilizations, or an extremely little amount of them? He could call his the last because he saw the very last civilization crumble and fall before his eyes, perhaps he says that his is the only because the wastes cause bugs to lose their minds and such no civilizations can spawn from mindless bugs.
Except... we do know that bugs have come from beyond Hollownest. Iselda and Cornifer, for example.
But that doesn't mean that the Pale King can't say his was the last and only civilization left, because, at the time, that may have very well been true and other civilizations may have popped up perhaps either during or after his reign.
And Hollownest is called the only civilization because it was the most advanced out of everyone else, Deepnest, the Moth Tribe, The Hive, Greenpath, the whole lot of them.
We could even think about if the split happened either when the Pale King came to Hollownest or well into his reign. Maybe well into his reign was when the Radiance came back with a vengeance, split the realms, and then forced The Nightmare's Heart to go beyond the wasteland in search of sustenance, which would then lead to that higher being to find out about the ruins of civilizations and then realizing it could feast on the fading embers of something that was once great.
Which could then give it the idea of trying to promote the existence of more kingdoms when the embers were running low, or just couldn't support it anymore?
And if the split did indeed happen well into the Pale King's reign, it could sorta spread the knowledge it saw from Hollownest during its travels and subtly suggesting to certain bugs it saw potential in to try and be, well, a king or queen.
Whether that bug gave way to a short lived or long lived kingdom was of no concern for The Nightmare's Heart, either way it still be able to collect the embers from the inevitable fall.
It was just a matter of time.
(How did it loop from being something about Hollownest to the Nightmare Heart again god DAMN IT)
