#wisp thicket

First off, let’s cover what we know about Wisp Thicket. It’s a largely secluded area of the game only first accessible through Greymoor, and is considered a sub-area of it. Hints of its scenery can be seen nearby Yarnaby’s Bellhome (including the Pimpillo tool, which will come up later), and the boss arena’s (included as a part of Bellhart) outer walls can be seen in the Underworks, along with an alternate entrance in the Underworks only available only by going through the Wisp Thicket. Other than that, this area is sectored off from the rest of the game.

Within Wisp Thicket, there lies a group that worships the Father of the Flame, the Burning Bugs. They wish to be burned along with their Father, and seem to perpetuate an unending cycle of burning all bugs who cross into their woods with Wisps, a living force they work with. Despite this aggression, it seems to be placed in a belief that the Father of the Flame and the Wisps burning them is a desirable thing— the Burning Bugs’ Needolin dialogue speaks of wishing to be burnt to a crisp.

This wish to be burnt extends to even the FotF, who has Needolin dialogue desiring to burn, Hornet even commenting on the structure in her Hunter’s Journal entry. This belief may have been spread to the Burning Bugs by the FotF, or the FotF wished to be burnt due to its existence of being built on old remains and wishing to rest. The exact nature of the whole situation is somewhat vague, so I think either interpretation can be correct based on your own views regarding the Burning Bugs.

That is most of our canon information regarding the Wisp Thicket, and any others will be brought up later. For now, let’s turn our focus to a basic understanding of the Grimm Troupe. All of this information is exclusively contained in Hollow Knight, as there are currently no direct mentions of the Troupe’s name in Silksong.

First appearing in the aptly named Grimm Troupe DLC for Hollow Knight, the Grimm Troupe are a traveling band of entertainers who wander from kingdom to kingdom using the Nightmare Lanterns. While largely unknown to both the residents of Hallownest and Pharloom, they are a substantial enough group to have acolytes who worship them, and these acolytes are the ones who light the Lanterns which allow the Troupe to find new kingdoms to travel to (in Hollow Knight, the only known acolyte is dead, leaving the job of lighting the lantern to the Knight).

The primary troupe we see in Hollow Knight consists of Divine, Brumm, and the Troupe master, Grimm. Minor characters are also seen in the Grimmkin Flame holders and the Grimmsteeds. All of the characters in or associated with the Troupe wear masks with lines through the eye holes. The Grimmchild is also a part of the Troupe, though it plays a larger part in the Troupe’s true purpose.

In truth, the Troupe and its master Grimm serve the Nightmare’s Heart, a higher being created and born from nightmares. Their traveling is a means for the ritual they enact to endlessly sustain the Nightmare’s Heart. The Grimmchild is a being that feasts on the Flames of Nightmares and grows, so that it may one day mature into the new Troupe Master, the Nightmare King. The finale in this ritual involves the killing of the old Nightmare King (in this case, Grimm), so that it may feed the Grimmchild even more and ensure the lasting life of the Nightmare’s Heart.

It is unknown why the Troupe’s members joined, or if they joined aware of the Nightmare’s Heart they would end up serving. Grimm, as the Nightmare King, was born into the ritual to take part in it, and seems to see it as the natural order by which the Heart is sustained. Divine seems only interested in Leg Eater, but Brumm is much more hesitant on serving the Heart. In the ritual before the Nightmare King Grimm fight, where the Knight must defeat three Grimmkin Nightmares, there exists a fourth flame in Deepnest’s Distant Village. Going to this reveals that Brumm wishes to be free of the cycle he is in, and so requests the Knight’s to banish the Troupe, though he says he won’t mind if the Knight finishes the ritual so long as they don't regret it. Should the Troupe be banished, the NKG fight will be skipped, and a new NPC called Nymm appears, an amnesiac Brumm who has forgotten his memories of the Troupe. Whether this is a result of Brumm taking off his mask (perhaps implying some form of brainwashing, or that he was an unwilling participant), or if this memory loss happens to all former members is unclear. If banished, it can be assumed that Grimm and Divine will eventually travel to a new kingdom to continue the ritual, perhaps filling Brumm’s old spot with someone else.

With all of this out of the way, let’s discuss my theory on the connection between the Troupe and the Wisp Thicket.

Put simply, I believe the Wisp Thicket is a long separated and warped idea from those who witnessed and/or possibly worshipped the Troupe many many years ago. Both groups have a big connection to fire, but while the Troupe uses the fire to sustain, the Burning Bugs wish purely to burn and be burnt. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between the two groups, or other coincidences that just seem very odd when all placed together. The cloaks of the Burning Bugs and the Troupe’s Acolytes are very similar, and the general theming and connections to fire are just too much of a coincidence for me to ignore.

In my eyes, the Wisp Thicket is a place which once hosted a group of Acolytes or another group of bugs who witnessed the Troupe, but due to a lack of contact with the Troupe, their worship slowly morphed and changed in its ideas until it became the group we know today. The basic ideas remained the same, the clothing and rituals of fire, but along the way, the Burning Bugs gained the idea that they were the ones who needed to be burned and burn others, instead of being the ones to offer the Grimmkin Flames. Perhaps their use of Wisps is something which the Burning Bugs use in order to fulfil their wishes, or are a separate force which is similarly worshipped or is forced into servitude with the Burning Bugs.

Going along that same vein, the FotF could be an attempt at recreating the Nightmare’s Heart from the corpses of old Burning Bugs, or it could be an old makeshift Nightmare Lantern from the ashes of bugs, slowly having been changed and morphed into a grave until the idea of the FotF emerged. It’s also notable that it’s the *Father* of the Flame, and Grimm (the spawn of the Heart) is referred to as the Nightmare *King*, with a journal entry even stating "burn the father, feed the child" in relation to him. While this could be another coincidence, I think it’s very intriguing— the chance of two fire-related and red-colored groups worshipping/being led by a figure referred to with masculine terms, and then *not* being connected in any way? Certainly possible, but knowing this game, very unlikely.

The Wisp Thicket and Burning Bugs being a long disconnected offshoot of the Troupe’s Acolytes would also explain some of their differences— after so long spent out of reach and contact, new ideas formed in the Burning Bugs’ minds, and they eventually became so different that they could be considered a separate group. The Wisps came from the ideas of the Nightmare Flames, but turned into creatures that entirely lived to burn attackers, instead of feeding the Grimmchild. The FotF formed in some way from the idea of the Nightmare’s Heart and/or Nightmare Lantern, but became twisted until it became an entirely separate entity, formed from the ashes and corpses of other bugs.

Now, with all of that said, I’m sure there is one question that people have, and that they wish to be answered.

“Interesting theory, but how does Trobbio fit into this?”

Let’s answer that, now that all of the major components have been put together. Trobbio, at a first glance, appears to have no connection nor relevance to the rest of Pharloom. He’s a thespian butterfly(? I assume he is one, at least) that performs on a stage in the Capital, a place otherwise seeming devoid of classic entertainment. It is entirely unknown how long he has been performing there, nor if he was around when the Citadel first started collapsing to the Haunting. He claims his performances alone will spark Pharloom’s flame again, and when the Needolin is used on him, he has no strings attached, proving he does his performances of entirely his own volition.

There are, however, a couple things which can be used to link him with the Wisp Thicket (and by extension the Grimm Troupe). For one, his Needolin dialogue mentioning flames and a spark, along with light. This could be written off, though I am inclined to believe it as a connecting detail given the details that can be seen as links between him and Wisp Thicket. Something else to note is his use of smoke bombs that are oddly similar to the Pimpillo tools, incendiary cloth-covered bombs that are constructed within a room in Greymoor right next to the Wisp Thicket, its existence being a hint to the place’s existence at all. A Burning Bug's corpse is even right by it. Given the placement, I believe that these weapons are a creation of the Burning Bugs, and Trobbio's smoke bombs are a modified version of these tools for performance, as both explode in a similarly bright and flashy fashion.

This is another detail I see as interesting, Trobbio's general torso shape. It's similar to the Burning Bugs, a segmented torso that's rounded at the end. Trobbio is far more thin than the Burning Bugs, and many other bugs have a segmented torso of similar shades, but I thought it was worth mentioning as a faint connection. The Burning Bugs also have one more set of limbs than Trobbio does, though they might just be different bug species. Maybe Trobbio has two sets of arms and just never shows the second, who knows.

What could drive Trobbio to become an actor is currently unknown, and many ideas and theories could be equally correct. He could've simply gotten bored, inspired by something he saw outside the Wisp Thicket, run away from the group, or a number of other theories. He could've even heard of the Troupe or read about them somewhere, either in Wisp Thicket or elsewhere, and decided to follow them, bringing the "Troupe inspired the Burning Bugs" theory to somewhat of a full circle.

In addition, as another small minor bit of evidence, the sign advertising Trobbio's stage has three masks on it, all with a line down the middle. The masks are split in the wrong place, down the middle vs through the eyes, and a few enemies in the Whispering Vaults share the mask design on the sign (most notably the Scrollreaders), more probably serving as the game's indicator of "hey this area is part of the Whispering Vaults" rather than any Troupe connection, but I still wanted to point it out before someone mentioned it.

I don't think I have much other evidence or details to cover, nor was I ever good at writing conclusions, but I do think this theory to be canon based on my current knowledge and understanding of the lore regarding these groups and areas. Feel free to agree or disagree, I know this is largely based on small details and vaguely associated pieces of evidence strung together. If you read this far, I'll give you this doodle as a parting gift. Baby Trobbio. Joys.