#weavecraft

Artificial spine that clasps tight around the shell. Enhances the wearer's innate flexibility, allowing rapid retreat.

A flexible shell-prosthetic. It would enhance a weave-type's flexibility, allowing evasive options.

Those aren't extra legs, those are more like artifical ribs that clasp around Hornet's torso, allowing the brace to reinforce her spine (yes, Weavers have spines)

Her body seemed a Weaver's, but her mask had been forcibly removed, and her own Silk was bound useless by heavy pins lodged through her spine.

Segmented ribs is also something we've seen before, specially in Pharloom

Anyways, that prosthetic sure looks comfy with how padded it is

It is essentially a (soft) back brace (posture correction and reinforcement) or perhaps more accurately a back belt (also known as lumbar support belts or lifting belts, wearable devices designed to support the lower back during physical activities such as lifting, bending, or prolonged standing)

First Sinner and Widow both scuttle to gain distance in a similar manner, but they just lean forwards while taking advantage of their many limbs, of which Hornet only has 4 (two arms, two legs), so she crawls on her back instead (judging by the position of her head relative to the rest of the body), taking advantage of the support the brace grants

While I do think the lack of limbs (relative to an average Weaver) is what prevents her from scuttling normally (so anatomy issues from birth), it could also be a result from the back issues she seems to have since the start of silksong (her strength diminished because of the rune cage, the long journey and the harsh fall, her pain flares after said harsh fall, and both her unbroken spool and silk regeneration being "restored / regained": silk generation and retention which we know (thanks to Widow) is related to a Weaver's spine) (I talked more about it when discussing Injector band)

But how many limbs do Weavers normally have, anyways?

They're pretty much always depicted as having 6, same for Pharlids, except Herrah while sleeping and First Sinner in a few selective frames

It's unclear how much First Sinner's single frame of 8 limbs while screaming can be really trusted, as a 5th extra limb can be seen in a single frame of Nightmare King Grimm and a single frame of Hornet's scuttle animation when climbing a step, both of which are inconsistent with the rest of their animations

However, her charge attack where she scuttles through the ground while slashing wildly clearly has 5 limbs running while 2 limbs slash away throughout the whole attack, for a total of 7; you could maybe argue she got two very long fingers on each "arm", but to me those are clearly whole limbs

Or you could argue these are all animation errors, as there are also frames where all 6 visible limbs are seemingly coming from First Sinner's hip, instead of 4 "legs" and two "arms", before suddenly going back to the usual 4

Still, spiders are well known for having 8 limbs, a fact Grand Mother Silk references, although Hornet ends up having 10 after claiming her power; maybe the 4th pair of limbs is almost always folded into the chest, like Grand Mother Silk's idle pose, and/or 8 limbs only came to be in the very first few Weavers, those that wouldn't have a perfectly round head

...Actually, just realized even the generic Weavers scuttling away in Widow's memory have a few frames of 8 legs

So yeah, you can interpret this as consistently inconsistent, or just as Weavers having a hidden 4th pair of claws (you can also use this to interpret Hornet to have extra limbs that just so happen to be aligned into looking like she only has 4, but imo that's inconsistent with what we're shown of her)

Weavers of course aren't the only ones scuttling around, there's Grand Reed, and Morticians kinda, and also...Stilkin??

(sorry, I didn't have a better gif at hand)

Stilkin Trappers seem to scuttle mid-air before throwing their stakes; their pose while doing so resembles both the Swampstress and Pilgrim Preacher from Songclave for some reason

But how? How is the Stilkin Trapper essentially flying?

We know Weavers can use fine, near invisible silk to basically walk through air, and while no silk is visible while doing so, Widow is presumably doing the same (that or crawling through the walls of the foreground); both First Sinner and Grand Mother Silk are likely also controlling their weapons through such fine, invisible thread, rather than randomly having telekinesis (another example of this super fine thread is Hornet's stingshards, which are suspended on them)

Meanwhile, I think Stilkin Trappers are just using the numerous vines and roots in the ceilings of their caves to move around as if it was their web, a detail that is simply visually omitted for simplicity's sake (that, or they run on cartoon coyote time)

But talking about moving through silk....

Fabled Weaver talent. Dash forward and sprint with unnatural speed, as though gliding upon Silk.

It seems Swift Step is an ellaboration on this skill of walking upon thread, and Silkspeed Anklets builds upon it further...seriously Hornet, why can't you just scuttle up to Mt Fay? oh wait

How are these anklets worn? they don't exactly look like they'd sit confortably on the ankle; the indentations we know are for holding / manipulating silk, as seen in Spider Strings

To me they look kinda like horseshoes or a spider's paw, same for the rune representing Swift Step kinda (although I must admit the ancestral art runes are rather vague) maybe they're like sports anklets?

Mmm ok this little thought exercise is good and all, but upon drawing this and further consideration, the shoe / sport anklet angle doesn't really work, specially when running out of silk, so best not to overcomplicate ourselves and take it as just what the name says

Now, we can't talk about the anklets without talking about Weavenest Cindril

There's the theory that the Swift Step Weaver is actually Cindril, which makes sense, but I want to focus on the escape plan, specifically the rune map

This video claims it to be a map of the kingdoms nearest to Pharloom, but I actually just think it is a map of Pharloom itself, and its routes outwards into the wastes, specially because of its layered nature

(Granted, my interpretation could be a bit awkward if we take the map to be meant to have Cindril at its center, but I think it is centered around the Cradle instead)

But the main reason? Farsight

This device seems to only cover so far as Pharloom, and not farther, unless future expansions prove this wrong by adding a second kingdom or something containing completion percentage (by the point of this post being written we've only seen the first teaser for Sea of Sorrow)

It even seems to have two layers in the cutscene, like the rune map

That said, the design and location of Farsight could perhaps indicate it was inspired by the Pale King, which would strictly mean it was created way after the Cindril operation (while we're at it, Cindril was likely before or at least at the same time as the creation of Weavenest Atla, depending on if all Weavers were collaborating even between nests at this point in the timeline)

No blazing kin. Only one light shall shine against the dark. The Wyrm becomes beacon, minds expanded, to yield, to devote. Eternity in promise and charge in progeny cursed.

Could also just be a thematic callback, since it is essentially "World Sense 2"

Either way, when I saw the cutscene and design of the Farsight rune, I realized not just that it was probably a map, but also one that resembles the Vitruvian Grub: the old theory that it is a map might be true after all, and most likely one created through runes / some magic method or knowledge

Is the Vitruvian Grub representing the individual grubs innate hability to return to their nest? or is it a map radiating from the Grubfather?

Another thing that caught my attention is the echo-like borders of the rune map; they could be representing borders or frontiers or thressholds, but they also remind me of the unique screech of Wraiths

Maybe a representation of Grand Mother Silk's silken sight? or that the method used to make the rune map works on a similar way?

Going back to Cindril, I really like the view it has towards the wastes

To me, the implication is that they'd run out of this window after having completed their training / proven their speed in the floor above

And here's something funny: the frame of this window is actually repurposed from a cut harp mechanism in Mt Fay, which had runes and all; it also kind of resembles the large rune holding frame of Weaver elevators / teleporters

Now, the first case is asset reuse, and the latter is perhaps just consistency in Weaver architecture, but could it be that when this Weavenest was operating, this window would actually give them a headstart by accelerating them greatly in an almost teleport way?

This one's gonna involve some juicy lore, but lemme talk about Weaver anatomy first

I've mentioned this before, but Weavers really like to implement what to me reads as aspects of their anatomy to their architecture, as if inspiration or imitation, mainly seen as vertebra and ribs, and in the case of their harps it seems to be their limbs

The design of the Spider Strings then would suggest their limbs have small spikes or setae allowing them to better manipulate silk (something that is further implied by an old location for the needolin that got cut during development) which alongside their bladed foreclaws and varied body spikes could've inspired the bladed hooks of their looms; it is even possible that these setae act as retractable claws and are what actually form the bladed foreclaw

They also seem to have the same kind of simple claw seen in Huntress and Styx, alongside other bugs

With that out of the way, let's get to the meat of it

As I already mentioned before when discussing bells, song as magic has been known since the first game

When Charms like each other, they shine even brighter and sing even more sweetly!

Grubsong, Grubberfly's Elegy

Weaversong, "Silken charm containing a song of farewell, left by the Weavers who departed Hallownest for their old home."

Carefree Melody, "Contains a song of protection that may defend the bearer from damage."

No. No tune. If it sings… We can not hear it.

(I will get back to Godseekers in a minute, got things to talk about them)

As to how song works to make magic...soul and silk are described as whispering, something better heard when spellcasters are nearby (Weaver burials, soul scholars, Pure Vessel casting pale nails)

I can hear it…The whispering of their souls…

Where these strange warriors go, whispers follow them

Stinks of them horrid crawling whisperers a bit, so might be dangerous

Termination, is the n-n-necessary fate of all those enthralled by the whispering Silk.

Faint whispering can be heard near Widow, the same heard near Weaver Burial Spires. It ceases once Widow stops playing to address Hornet.

(Last one is heard in memories, like the silk hearts or the old hearts, and can you hear it? behind the whispers, a tune not dissimilar to what's heard in Godhome? for some reason Tumblr isn't letting me upload any more audio, so you'll have to compare it yourself, the sound heard around Pantheon of Hallownest, or at its very peak)

I think certain songs and verbal spells resonate with these whispers of soul to produce magic; in the case of the Needolin, we literally see it resonate with the strings of the harps, the haunted, and even the Grand Gate (and no, it isn't a password thing, Elegy of the Deep works on the rune harps and Weavenest doors just as well as the regular song)

The resonance is inducing / increasing power within these until they have enough energy to activate

This is how we're explicitly told the Spider Strings work, by resonating with the needolin to amplify its effect

Spider Strings are actually what's left of a cut mechanic called attunement that would've permanently improved the effectiveness of the needolin over time; the mechanic might be gone but there's still mentions of attunement, other than the effect of this tool (hold it, Godseeker, we'll talk about you in a moment)

The bells are rung? Then this sacred threshold may now be crossed, for the final task is simple! Only music, played fair and true. Music shall attune the bells, and see the gate descend.

There's also the tuning device atop Mt. Fay, seemingly built out of pale ore, material now known to have an affinity to soul, which greatly amplifies the needolin for a moment (and has a rune that is the combination of the gate rune (also seen as part of the teleporter runes) and the rune harp activation rune)

It would seem like the Weavers' song which sustained Grand Mother Silk works under this attunement / resonance concept, the numerous harps resonating with and strengthening the light of Her Silk; the eternal song of slumber would then induce sleep directly through a similar resonance

There's also what Learned Pilgrim, the pilgrim elder that was researching the haunting in the Marrow, has to say

(...) Tightest around heart. Pulsing rhythm. Sick. Alive. Dead? Something worse. (...)

What haunts us? Thread... holds memory... Whose whispers do I hear? Song... thread... resonates...

The needolin sure works similar to the Dream Nail huh, and Silk at times similar to essence; how come Silk, which is Soul weaved into thread, hold memory?

Styx actually has a line that pretty much explains the cobweb memories

Sssss! Such sssss-sounds, plucked from the air and caught in your Silk! A marvel, my misss-stress…

They get caught in the silk, and inprint upon it

When Hornet binds a crest, she's actually turning the memories into silk before absorbing them

You make it seem so simple-like. All o'that learning, all o'that strength… sucked up in a whirl of Silk.

Crests are described to us as this:

- Hornet: You see one's nature, Eva? It is a skill far beyond bugs. - Eva: One not without cost. My sight perceives a bug only through the imprint upon their soul. - Hornet: You speak of their crest? That signifier of a bug's essence and their invisible yoke born through a lifetime.

And here's some of Eva's last words

- Hornet: Your talents have provided great benefit, Eva. What is it you desire of me? - Eva: Only to have my own soul, my own memories, bound within your shell... As you have done with those others throughout these lands. I would not define as a crest within you, but my small strength may still grant a final boon. - Hornet: You ask to be subsumed? Know your mind would cease to be, in any independent sense.

Lady, would you think again upon my last request? To be bound amidst your shimmering soul?

Despite the distinction of Essence as its own substance, Soul and mind / memory actually never were that much separated in the first game

Radiance's infection affected the mind yes, but it also distorted soul, turning it orange, not just the blood and gut of bugs, but also the spells of scholars

The vessel's ability to focus, which otherwise only functions by focusing soul, is what allowed it to absorb the Radiance and the Dreamers; when absorbing the Dreamers, the particles look much like soul, and with the idea that orange miasma = corrupted soul, it could be argued Soul too was what was syphoned out of the Hollow Knight (and the same gas particle is used in both instances around the knight, just white with Dreamers and orange with THK)

(Hornet's ability to effortlessly bind crests and souls so different to her own could also be seen as an extension of this focus ability, inherited from their father)

Beings made out of essence, and the act of striking an enemy with the Dream Nail, both give Soul, although this has been theorized before to be because of the mind / Essence being the source of the body's soul; this has also been used to explain the corruption of the body brought by the infection

The ghost particles of the Resting Grounds which only become visible after obtaining the Dream Nail also resemble soul

Snail Shaman spells also seem to be bundles of soul that contain the knowledge on how to cast the spell, which the user replicates with soul collected afterwards (although obtaining a spell does fill the soul gauge entirely)

Snail Shaman is also able to discern the qualities of his family within the spells

My friend. My friend. There's another quality about you yet. You didn't perchance visit my fourth aunt? She makes her home beside that Crystal Mount. Leaves quite an impression on those that seek her out. Were I not bound here, I'd love to visit myself.

This could be about the structure of the spells rather than the soul itself, but Caretaker has this same recognition when sensing and talking about what remains of the Seeker's soul

- Caretaker: What's that you got there, bellringer? Stole someone else's soul for yourself? - Hornet: You speak of the remnant I found in the muck-choked caves beside the Citadel? This is soul siphoned from a once powerful bug. - Hornet: It's only a thin mix now, but there is still some strength left. At peak, their talents must have been impressive. - Caretaker: Aye, they was that. I knew the bug, in 'is prime, long time back.

If Seeker's Soul has not been acquired: Find the husk of my cousin, claimed by the scorned bugs of the swamps. A careless fool to let himself be taken, and dead they might be, but some glimmer of his soul can still be sensed.

Talking about Soul Sanctum scholars, here's the dreamnail dialogue of the Soul Warrior

This soul...Is it my own? ...This power...What did it cost? These skills...No training I recall...

Salubra says some charms come from the last wish of a dying bug, strong emotions and desires crystalizing into a form, something that reads very much like essence antics, but also

Just think of all the little bug souls that went into creating your collection! It's like a crowd of strangers in your pouch, or purse, or…err….wherever it is you keep them.

Snail Shaman also says this

Don't worry about it. I'm sure the spirits of my ancestors will be watching over you.

Though he doesn't say soul here, the context of vengeful spirit makes it clear he's talking about soul

Conjure a spirit that will fly forward and burn foes in its path.

These could be metaphorical souls, our concept of a soul as opposed to the lifeforce consumed by spells and such, but honestly I think the more straightforward answer is the more likely one, specially after silksong: soul is one's self while simultaneously lifeforce, not a single inmutable unit but soluble and volatile

Whispering Roots are also, well, whispering, a property I already pointed out is shared with high concentration of soul, and there's also whatever is going on with spirals

Essence can be found wherever dreams take root. Have you seen them? Those whispering plants that grow all over this old Kingdom?

The pink crystals of Crystal Peak, which focus soul and refract light, are also said to sing and whisper

...Light refracted.... ...Energy contained...

I'm so close... Keep singing, crystals! Keep singing so I can find you! Keep whispering, crystals! I can almost hear what you're saying!

They sing too, if you listen. Very softly…

Worth going over what we're told of essence itself

What a terrible fate they've visited upon you. To cast you away into this space between body and soul. Will you accept their judgement and fade slowly away? Or will you take the weapon before you, and cut your way out of this sad, forgotten dream?

But that talisman you now wield, the Dream Nail… it can cut through the veil that separates the waking world from our dreams.

Essence… the precious fragments of light that dreams are made of.

Sometimes dreams take the shape of those who have passed away. Such dreams are bountiful sources of Essence!

This kingdom is full of old memories, both beautiful and grotesque. Seek them out, reveal them, and gather Essence.

Plucked from one of my most precious memories, this Charm will bring you and the Dream Nail closer together still.

Yes, you're starting to see them. The connections between us and the dreams we leave behind, like prints in the dust.

The Dream Nail glows bright… It holds over 1200 Essence. Looking into it I can see so many memories peering back at me. So many asking to be remembered.

The folk of my tribe were born from a light. Light similar to Essence, similar to that powerful blade, though much brighter still. (...) But the memories of that ancient light still lingered, hush whispers of faith… Until all of Hallownest began to dream of that forgotten light.

The Wielder has at last appeared and I've held the memories of my tribe for long enough. It is time for us to be forgotten too.

"Fragments of light" makes me think two things: either fragments of Radiance, or more likely, fragments of Soul, as Radiance isn't the only source of essence

(even the blue essence of lifeblood makes sense as fragments of light even if lifeblood isn't soul: lifeblood is described as light multiple times, and it does replace soul)

So essence seems to originate from Soul rather than the other way around

At the beginning there's much emphasis on dreams before turning into talk of memory

I think memory turns into dreams; a dream can hold a memory, but memory seems to be its own thing, as there are no mentions of dreams in this context in silksong, only memories

(Actually, just checked, and neither "dream" nor "dreams" are used even once anywhere in silksong)

The veil between dream and waking seems to be the barrier between what's perceived with the body and what's perceived with the mind, or maybe the separation between matter and energy

Travel through the veil can be understood as turning matter into soul and viceversa (or i guess essence in the case of the knight using the dream nail, or Radiance and Grimm), this explains teleportation as well as the White Palace and Monomon's second seal

Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters.

Dreams may not be present, but this sentiment still continues into Silksong, with chapels and memory lockets being made to remember and these memories turning into crests, weavers holding their memories in their silk even in death, and specially when looking at Elegy of the Deep and the old hearts

Actually, now that we're talking about music we should return to talk about string instruments and resonance, talking of which...

Silk is perfect for resonance, but regular thread or specially metal seem to be a decent replacement in certain contexts

Notice the similarities between these lines of dialogue

Godseeker, when talking about the Pure vessel

Though its worldly body be bound and defiled, the glory of its pure form endures, ruler of this pantheon.

Hornet, when talking about the memory of the Everbloom:

In the distant past, I knew the flower. My thread still holds its faint memory. If the Everbloom was grasped strongly enough within my Silk, it could be made to manifest.

Godseeker, when talking about Unn:

Sleeping God, We can barely feel thy presence amongst the green left behind. What strength thee once possessed fades beyond time and tune…

Snail Shamans, in response to Hornet:

Ah! So you're asking another spell of us? To reveal the flower clear?… But to illuminate one of your kind's old memories, so acutely… This is no easy thing, even for us…

Memory, Soul, is light, one that fades with time as it is forgotten and slips into oblivion, and the older a memory is, the stronger the resonance brought by attunement must be to restore it

Bell Hermit: Grnk. Seek the old hearts of our kingdom and the last successors to bear their strength. Chapel Maid: They're still out there, hidden away, much faded by the pale one's long dominion. You must make them stir. Chapel Maid: We will teach you how, in the way befitting a Weaver, a sombre song to reach down into their memories and enliven them a final time.

This is the most obvious in Lost Verdania, unearthing memories to enlighten the faded ones, until the lost memory of the palace is fully illuminated

Attunement can be understood as adjusting a musical instrument to produce specific notes, or a radio to receive the right signal within the noise, or adjusting a device to have it work on peak conditions

Resonance occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximum amplitude response in the system. When this happens, the object or system absorbs energy from the external force and starts vibrating with a larger amplitude.

In this world, all these concepts are applicable at once, seeking the right frequency of song to be in tune with the target soul / memories, in order to influence it either to make it stronger or otherwise manipulating it through resonance

This is why the Godseekers hum and sing, the pantheon soundtrack is diegetic, they need not just the focusing crest of their masks but also song for their ritual

The focusing crest's function is likely only to catch and send the right frequency so to speak, the crest does the tuning and the Godseeker does the resonating

The noise of thine wriggling creates much discord, drowning out the godly resonances we attune Ourselves to!

O Gods of Hallownest, graciously thee open the way to this greatest of Pantheons! Thy voices grow closer and thy resonance draws Us ever higher! Pray will We, Attune will We, until that spark of divine light shines from the deepest darkness!

With Radiance, they're purposefully singing her theme to attune to her

But couldst thou ever hope to overcome that mighty God tuned at the core of dream and mind, when met in perfect state, at peak of all others? We think not!

So yeah, Elegy of the Deep is not much different from the Godseekers ritual, on the fundamentals

Some of the wording of the old hearts quest even makes me think of the Grimm Troupe's ritual, the way you have to "fan the flames" so to speak through the two fights with Grimm

This concept of resonance could also be used to explain the infection and the haunting: both Radiance and Silk are hijacking the frequencies of common bugs, overwhelming their souls

But now, you could ask about void, which is the literal opposite of soul, but still can be attuned by the Godseekers

And yes, void is the power opposed, but precisely because of that it goes from inert substance to writhing blades in its presence, forming eyes to see its light and demonstrating a mind to protest its presence with; in other words, it reacts to it, and thus can resonate with it

"...Turn it off?... Cannot... My King. I'm sorry... The sea calls..."

Where soul is wind, void is empty air set still, light to shadow, sound to silence, void is oblivion, things lost from the edge of memory

Void seeks to devour soul, but isn't mindless: it can also meld with it, be influenced by it, shaped by it, like seen in the black threads, the shadow spells, the king's moulds, the collector, and the vessels

Void can and does react in a similar manner to soul, like a contrasting reflection, like an echo, and also mix with it to form a new form, or a new mind, not really different from a regular bug's, and hey, it's not like it's easy to attune its resonance

Meagre one, dost thou imagine thyself the equal of this God? Dost thou imagine thyself made in its image? Thou assume a similar shape, and the deep echo within thee seems familiar… Ahh! What thoughts are these? Thou sow blasphemies in Our mind, wretch! Begone! We pray that the God of nothingness silence thee forever!

O bound one, thy silence nearly deafens Us. Foolishly we feared thee, yet only by thine providence shall We find the one We seek. The God sleeping within…

That pulsing emptiness... Truly, it has been transformed by the revelations it found. Does it... feel anything? Triumph? Or hate? If it does, I cannot sense it.

So it is quite noteworthy how Radiance's theme fades away and is drown out by huming and chiming as she's close to being defeated, before being met with the cacophony of the unified void

This "silence" of void, and vessels, can be seen in other contexts, worded differently

You carry a lot of smells on you, but you don't have one of your own. Funny little thing…

Observed… Small. Dull. No Soul. Long shadow… It is blank, but brave…

"No Soul" of course refers to void being unable to produce soul, but it could also be Jinn making assumptions about the knight's mind, assumptions immediately proven wrong

…It refuses to trade…? It has a will… all Its own. Can refuse. Jinn will keep waiting… until a gift comes.

The ancient Civilization seems to have worshipped the void specifically because of it being capable of drowning out soul

In silence your voice, In darkness your form, We higher who see you seeking, Our shells yearn for your embrace.

Erase our fear, Eliminate our desire, To suffer no more, Void, cleanse us.

"...No will... No self... Shade..."

You can already see both them and the Pale King arrived to the same conclusion, and similar ideas, while also seeing how wrong they were, as the knight, the vessels, have minds, wills, a self

In Hallownest's Abyss, there's a room full of stone vessels in the same shape as Soul vessels, but filled instead with void

It is clear now that this site saw an experiment regarding this idea of shades, bugs saw their soul extracted and fed to the void, or maybe they were thrown to the void directly

But a memory lingers:

"...Our voices... will cry out... again..."

and when the knight uses howling wraiths here, this void, or rather, these shadows, react to it, not just to the soul but to the sound, to the emotion, as it is the same as their own desire to be heard again, and mix with the spell (also, another connection between sound / voice and strength of spells)

"...Hear...me..."

Pried a spell out've my larger cousin did you? Aren't you the charming one. She's not usually the generous sort, certainly not as giving as myself, but she does have that wonderful voice! It's no surprise her spells take on such aural force.

Blast foes with screaming SOUL and Shadow. The Wraiths require SOUL to be conjured. Strike enemies to gather SOUL.

unlike the other two black spells, soul here isn't completely consumed by shadow, but rather the shade wraiths "join the choir" so to speak

Blast foes with screaming SOUL.

Notice the glowing white eyes, this is a trait shared with shade soul, which still requires soul to be casted, and with void given form, which is to say shades and moulds

Conjure a spirit that will fly forward and burn foes in its path.

Conjure a shadow that will fly forward and burn foes in its path.

And this isnt just a "void when given eyes" thing (void tendril eyes are also a lot more dull, almost just glassy bubbles), when the shade casts the spell (it remembers the spell, which would imply the "recipe", made out of soul, is still within), because of being unable to add soul to it, it comes out as the perfect negative of vengeful spirit, a black projection of pure void, with no white in the eyes, just translucent instead, see through (this is also true of the regular spirit and the white wraiths, they have see through eyes, not pure black)

So it seems like when void is imprinted by sufficient soul to give it a stable form and make its mind develop to be complex enough to think more than just "devour", the soul remains deep within it, unable to come out but only degrading slowly over time, instead of completely dissipating like what supposedly usually happens, similar to how the sea's shore stops thrashing when presented with a strong enough light from thousands of lumaflies (which may or may not be soul given form like in the case of silkflies) focused by the lighthouse (sidenote, this amount of light, which may be soul, starts doing a strong buzzing..? droning? sound), or how GMS attempts to delay the inevitable by constantly outputing silk, or how lost lace isnt consumed and is even capable of commanding the void within the cocoon to an extent

This would explain all that is discussed here, and also the fact that the knight can have and employ aura despite supposedly having no soul, and maybe even the effect of Joni's Blessing (although thats admittedly rather weird as the effect seems focused on the masks, the shell, but that could be because game abstraction) (I guess both could also be explained as the shell having trace amounts of the original soul though)

In the presence of soul, faint light shines back from the fragmented minds of void tendrils

With the use of runes, soul and purpose can be infused upon moulds, but this imprint is fragile, and must be sustained by a white shell capable of holding soul

False fly with a rune etched shell. A tortured mix of soul and void is caged within.

While within this shell, the mould is stable enough to have its imprint be read by the dream nail without losing form like the shades

The collector has assimilated a bug's soul, their mind, in full, creating a new personality from the melding, it is now bigger and more defined, and stable enough to not need a shell and even has a proper voice; the void does not release its grip on soul, but the dream nail is still bright enough to pierce through it and reach this mind, this soul

By having a proper voice, a mind stable and bright enough for it to exist in this way, the collector is allowed into the pantheon, but the singing of the godseekers is still noticeably out of tune when attuning to it

When vessels were born, void melded with their souls and thus gained their minds, the shade's form sustained by the pale shell

The shades themselves can maintain their form without this shell, but are still frail enough to be pacified and knocked dormant by the dream nail, before it could reach their thoughts, and they fade and become fragmented over time without the shell

The collector has hearty laughs, and both shades and pure void produce sound still, but both moulds and vessels are completely silent; this could be attributed to the shell keeping the void within in check, an equilibrium

In the case of the vessels, seeing how it blocks out the dream nail, at least in THK, it could be that it ends up working similarly to the seal of the shade cloak ancient bug, made out of a layer of soul and a layer of void; why this doesn't happen with moulds could be because their armour is imprinted with the same runes used in their creation, while the vessels is natural shell

But this doesn't prevent back doors, and you'd just need the right path or a strong enough force to break in, or out from within

It was the pale beings mistake to confuse this silence for absence, assuming the mind of an unborn child imprinted upon a shade would be or remain devoid of dreams (a mind which we can't even assume to have started empty, seeing how bugs being born with instinct and drive and knowledge and even capable of speech seems to be natural and common), but if a mind is capable of forming memories then it is capable of dreaming, a shade's eyes shine bright because it houses a mind capable of creating "fragments of light", however faint, and however buried within their dark forms, even if the Dream Nail disperses siblings sooner than revealing their thoughts

The concept of "tarnished by an idea instilled" is folly, a post hoc rationalization; the memory protected within the Path of Pain is there because of the Pale King's perspective on the matter, and if we want to point out to any one unbiased source that could truly be considered an "idea instilled", we could point out the dream at the end of the Pantheon of the Knight, the moment where the Godseekers first break through the Pure Vessel's mind and reach the Radiance, and what do we see in this conduit to Radiance, in this moment shared with the knight? Remembrance of the birthplace itself, of when both the knight and the Hollow Knight were still newborn, of all their siblings; perhaps there is regret, perhaps there's something else, but it is there, as buried within as the Forgotten Light, a connection that ends up allowing a brief moment of attunement with the captive light (and also the rest of the void)

What compels its climb out of the darkness? What compels its return to this sacred kingdom? A call from beyond the Seals? By the Vessel, or by that captive light?

The voice, the scream, is Radiance's, but why would she call out for a replacement of her prison, when she's already rotting her current one?

To do this just for the sake of breaking out faster would not just be a stupid risk, but also contradict her fear of the knight and the commands issued to kill it

If it was to have it be killed by the dangers of Hallownest then it would, again, be a rather stupid and risky decision when she just needs to break free

And the knight, which could've just ignored the call, decided to show up

The knight is not immune to having its heartstrings pulled on this exact same way

It was transformed by the revelations of the birthplace, this is key: it was deeply shaken by the new understanding, enough to trigger ascension through self acceptance, and the White Root's inability to discern these emotions simply show the truth that she was never able to in the first place

If there's an idea instilled, it could very well exist since their conception, or since hearing their purpose laid out to them; but in reality, if any one idea can be instilled to ruin a vessel, then there's nothing stopping the Radiance from being the one to instill it

She could influence the mind of any vessel she ended up inside of, including the knight, in much the same way that Godseekers can attune to them: after great effort, but eventually succeeding

The folk of my tribe were born from a light. Light similar to Essence, similar to that powerful blade, though much brighter still.

No dream can hide itself from you now. You can peer into the darkest places… You just need to find the right crack.

If the Dream Nail can do it, she can do it better

Notice how this follows the white to orange logic of infection interacting with soul, and how the only actual damage in the shade is the crack that opened from within its mind, same color, same light as its eyes

The eyes are the window to the soul

Light exists, or comes to exist, or is capable of existing within even the purest void

Even if Radiance could somehow exist within a void being without a mind, her presence alone would mean there's light now, at which point it becomes a measure of strength, of volume, and a single shade will not drown out a whole Higher Being, not for long, if she could get in then she can get out; by the time you have enough void to counter all of her light, you might as well have enough void, a sea worth of void, to kill her

If a mind could exist with memories based not on light but in darkness, of photons in the negative, Radiance could just focus her efforts on the parts where the value is closer to zero, and bring the value back into the positive, as void is not immune to light

To defeat her, it wasn't just that the knight unified the void, it also was that she was weakened through combat to the point that her halo of light was dispersed, and was unable to flee perpetually because she was still technically sealed within THK; it is unclear if the knight could defeat her the same way after sealing her in sealed siblings

That lock of theirs. Desperate, but very clever. I wonder how long they thought it could hold? I hold no disdain for them though. As history goes on I grow numb to its repetitions.

Remember:

Yours was life, pale one. Do not confuse your unique creation with its absence. I have seen others make the same mistake.

When Hornet says this to Lace, she isn't just talking about her, but about the vessels too, like how when she first talks to Second Sentinel she's also talking about herself

If you think about it, the only difference between the Hollow Knight focusing the Radiance, and Hornet binding Grand Mother Silk, is that Hornet isn't Void

The fact that it uses shell canisters and silk immediately makes me think of the silkshot, specifically of its central chamber

Both in turn make me think of embroidery hoops, in the way they're both shaped (which is similar to the bone record, an older, cut version of the bone scroll relics; they still exist in universe)

Did you notice that the ensnared silk final objective marker is the snare setter itself, with a rune woven within its frame? this makes the comparison even more apt

The shell canister itself seems to be the whole central piece, which looks like a spool; I wonder if this says anything about the canisters of the silkshot

Unless proven otherwise, I'm gonna just assume every weaver artifact to have this shiny white look is made out of pale ore

Now, I feel like I've seen that rune in the objective marker somewhere else, or at least a very similar one...

...Are you kidding me

What in the Silklight

Idk what to make of this, I'll leave it here and maybe come back to it if it comes up again

Now, let's look at the tool actually being used

It's so cool

A silklight blade is woven around the tip of the canister (making the whole thing look like a closed pair of scissors if I'm being honest), which drills into the ground, like a sewing machine or perhaps a tattoo one, spreading the snare outwards

You know what this reminds me of?

Stabbing into the ground, spreading round runes with spiky protuding details

Of course, these have different functions which results in one being a trigger set binding and the other multiple projections of a pale nail

In a way, Radiance's tacks are also like this; although she's doesn't seem to be touching the platform beforehand, or even that she would need to do that, and the tiny spikes that come out are casted from runes unlike Pure Vessel's projections

Why does Pure Vessel's spreads outwards into multiple smaller spots, instead of a single wide area of effect around the place the blade is embedded into?

For that we gotta look at both its tarnished form, and Broken Vessel

We can see the infection is injected into the ground by the nail plunge, spreading out then up afterwards

We can safely assume the same happens with The Hollow Knight

There's a difference in that PV/THK's plunge actually spreads outwards in steps before bursting out, like a wave (unrelated but man it's so cool how the miasma of the infection spreads out of its body, following it)

Ultimately I think both the Pure Vessel's spell and the snare setter work the same at the core, the "bursting points" of PV simply being the "suture points" of the snare

Judging by the ensnared silk icon, and by how PV's are large copies of the nail it uses for the spell, it also seems like in both cases the ultimate goal is spreading/creating a larger copy of whatever the snare setter or the spell is loaded with

Now, Hornet's snare placing animation reminds me of one more thing

But hey, Hornet's is just a snare, a bind, it's not like it becomes a portal or anything

Oh wait

Looking at the burst runes...can't really find a close match

If you squint at it, it kind of has the general shapes of an element of the cut endings / cut content, but the resemblance is pretty superficial

Looking at the seals that briefly appear on the loom platforms, there might be some related shapes, specifically that of a forked needle with a keyhole-like notch, but it doesn't quite match and "it has a needle related rune" isn't really revealing in the context of the snare

Looking at the runes around the prototype shrine bell didn't really help either

There's similar patterns here and there, but nothing I'd call intentional

Other runes had similar design elements, but the similarities were minimal and seemed more of a style thing than anything concise, so I didn't bother drawing any comparison chart for those

Honestly, do we even know if the weavers ended up using this version of the snare setter? Are we sure it isn't just a leftover rune discarded in favor of the bells?

It bears minimal structural / style similarities to a cut version of a rune cage, and it do be round, but still

S'a trap, of a sort, beyond the skill of this Citadel, one to go further than just her binding. You'd be just the hunter to set it, if you're dare enough to try…

And last, as the base, seek a weapon of Weavers past. Should still be one left, down there in their largest nest, a snare to set a rune'o searing Silk. Our own trap'll be woven tight about it.

At the very least there seem to have been multiple (please TC I want to be able to have a snare setter in act 3, let there be a second one on some other weavenest)

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. 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.

It really sounds like the snare setter was just an average one, possibly discarded, among many, same for the design of the rune within

(Side note but what does Eva mean by hunger? did all Weavers really did starve themselves? is that why they were all so skeletal save for Herrah? Or is it about hunger for freedom?)

However, the needolin dialogue of the setter's location implies this was their success, the last thing they did before going "ok this may work"

"...Is it done? ...Our runes... Our silk... ...To bind her... tight... ...To keep us free..."

Then again, it could just be that "is it done?" is meant to be reflection of the multiple attempts ("is it done?" "no")

Just to be clear: I'm not wondering wether this exact snare setter was used or not, but if this test rune was the design they ended up going with when making the larger one they'd actually use

Honestly, wish Caretaker actually explained the bell shrine to us, make this stuff clear

In fact, why didn't he and Hornet work on the soul snare within the bell shrine? It would've been so thematically fitting, would've given an excuse to explain the shrines, and would better fit the "we're doing this in secret lest She up above notices"

Like, they just do it on the floor in open air surrounded by random pilgrims

Dumbass

The first shrine is never ellaborated on, it's so weird

Really baffling that none of the snail shamans react to the snare setter outside of Silk and Soul either

And only Caretaker reacts to the Seeker's Soul

Looking at the floor rune, it is equally as indistinct, nothing special about it outside of the spiky parts resembling the PV ones

Same for the larger one, which does have a different, more complex design that ends up looking kind of more like a spiderweb; its design also reminds me of the "radial bones" look of the black egg floor and some weaver floor tiles

I guess the center design on both could resemble the snare setter itself?

The simplicity of these is understandable, as it is only a really narrow side profile; I tried to compensate for the distortion of the larger one as best as I could

I welcome others to share their alternative attempts at reconstructing these patterns

Attached to the snare with rope we can see several bone masks; shamans seem to really like to use masks as sources or reserves of soul, or maybe as catalysts, and even as a form of measure for soul on their spells

Looking at the Cradle, while they're clearly just levers in practice, I have some times wondered if the spinning pieces in the rising platforms are meant to be rune setters, and if these platforms, being looms, were designed to steal GMS's silk to fuel the snare

At the very least I'm certain these loom platforms were being used to collect silk from the cocoon, the poles they're mounted on are empty spools and the needle-like rune is aligned with them, and the weaver spikes are designed after crochet hooks

I'll talk more about these when I get to the injector band

But if these looms were not how they set her binds, what was it? the massive gilded hook the cocoon is in? Was the bind wholy made out of song and thus didn't use silk runes at all, outside of maybe the bell shrines?

this is the dialogue given by every Weaver Burial Spire except First Sinner

Daughter of a distant land... We who remained have waited long... Bind our strength to yours... Reclaim the future of our haunted kingdom...

And this is the dialogue given by First Sinner

Half-spawn of a distant land… Within this cage I have waited… Let my strength be bound to yours… Reclaim the future of our accursed kingdom…

Noticed that?

Bind our strength to yours...

Let my strength be bound to yours…

How curious...you could argue all but FS are talking of their collective as in all enshrined Weavers, but isn't it curious how there's so little of these spires in the first place?

You could maybe argue they all left through Cindril, but that strikes me as a smaller group rather than literally all but like 7 Weavers

And we also know Weavenests contained multiple Weavers working together

And finally, there's the tip of the burial spires

(Fun fact, i was the one to bring this trivia up to the wiki)

that clearly looks like some kind of machine, and in Weaver's Den is used to hold silk, likely to manipulate it in some way, and doesn't it look...like a syphon? The whole spire almost looks like a needle of the injector / extracting kind

And these Weavers were expecting, maybe even counting, on the awaited weaverspawn of silken strength to be able to bind them

What if multiple Weavers consented to be syphoned out of their silk to be bound into a single Weaver, likely those in some sort of high position like some sort of nest leader, before they were mummified, both to better preserve all that strength in a single place and to try and prolong that power for longer (these spires are very similar to Eva's chamber, which i do think is evidence of its "silk preserving" function)

Most sprites for the burial spires are named "Weaver shrine" in the game's files. Eva's sprites also have this name.

In a way this makes every burial spire akin to the heart of a chapel, where the souls and memories of like-minded individuals pool into a well to eventually form a crest

This can be assumed of every chapel, but it is the most obvious with the chapels of the witch (as the exception that proves the rule) (the memories are subsumed to power and grow the root, rather than accumulated), the shaman, and the architect

(What makes Hornet unique isn't just being able to bind, but the fact that she has the malleability to do so with minds that are so different from hers)

So every burial spire contains the body and silk of a notorious Weaver, yes, but also the silk of possibly a nest worth of subordinate Weavers

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