Hollow Knight Headcanon - Blog Posts

Headcanon: Monomon, Queen of the Oomas/Uomas

Monomon is the “Queen” of the jellyfish creatures that inhabit the Fog Canyon, but not in the traditional sense. She does not have a monarchy that she governs—She is the “Queen” that her “hive” serves and protects.

Like normal jellyfish, the oomas and uomas are like a bundles of nerves. They cannot see or hear, but they react to changing stimuli in the environment. The only one among them able to think independently, to see and hear the world around them: their queen, Monomon.

Before the rise of the Pale King, Monomon was incapable of higher thought. However, she was clearly more intelligent than the primal beasts that roamed the depths. She had a very strong sense of curiosity, which the King learned when he’d found a hidden stash of tomes and journals in her possession. Inspired by her desire to learn, he granted her higher thoughts along with the other bugs of Hallownest.

With her mind expanded, Monomon began to learn as much as she could about the world around her, including the nature of her jellies. She knew that they would respond to her mental state, but she didn’t know the specifics. There was clearly a pattern they would follow depending on her emotional state:

When she was happy or excited, they would gravitate to her and cling to anything around her. Her theory was that they wished to partake in whatever was causing her joy.

When she was upset, they would grab anything around them and bring it to her. She believed they are trying to cheer her up by presenting her with gifts.

When she is scared/angry, they turn hostile and attack anything that draws near. This seems to be a primal instinct to protect the queen when she senses danger.

It wasn’t until she took on her apprentice, Quirrel, that she was able to learn more about their behaviors. Since they behaved in response to her, there was no way for her to see how they reacted without her presence. But with Quirrel able to study them away from Monomon, he learned that the strength of the reactions that the jellies had was entirely dependent on their distance from Monomon. The further they were from her, the weaker their reaction. This has led Monomon to believe that she is unknowingly emitting pheromones out into the environment that they are sensing and responding to.

With this knowledge in hand, Monomon began an experiment to see if she could teach any of the jellies to ignore her pull or think somewhat independently of her. This would eventually lead to the creation of Uumuu—a being that was created solely for security purposes. It would be able to ignore her pulls so that it could remain vigilant, and had been taught to identify threats without Monomon having to identify them as such beforehand.

When Monomon became a Dreamer and was sealed away, it turned the Oomas/Uomas completely docile. Without their queen to guide them, they merely drift aimlessly, awaiting the call of their queen once more. The only exception: Uumuu, who still spends their days guarding the sleeping Monomon from any intruders who dare try to wake her. But with the infection slowly overcoming it, and without Monomon’s guiding tentacle, Uumuu has lost the capability to differentiate friend and foe. Even in the presence of a familiar face, it can only follow what it was trained to do:

Protect Monomon at all cost.

The White Lady - The Goddess of Fertility

Aight, so this might be just a random midnight headcanon that crossed my mind, but I had to share it because the White Lady is refusing to leave my mind:

The White Lady was the Goddess of Fertility within Hallownest. While yes, bugs have been able to reproduce long before she appeared, her presence had an influence not on bugs' capabilities to reproduce, but she inadvertently also had an influence on societal norms surrounding romance/intimacy.

Before the White Lady had appeared, it was an unspoken societal rule that bugs did not mingle with other species. Though it had initially sprung up as a "you can't reproduce with someone outside of your species" mindset, it evolved into bugs being ostracized if they were to fall in love with one outside of their species. Those who did intermingle were oftentimes alienated by other bugs as a result. This also left many interspecies couples to struggle with starting families, as many would not allow them to adopt as it would "damage the mental health of the child."

When the White Lady appeared, she was saddened by all of these societal rules. As the goddess of fertility, she wanted everyone to know the joy that offspring could bring. So, as her gift to Hallownest, she blessed the kingdom's denizens by giving bugs the ability to bear children with others outside of their species.

However, her gift was not accepted as swiftly as she hoped. Many were still convinced that those interspecies children would grow up damaged, and those that had interspecies families felt as though they had to hide their families to avoid scrutiny as well as potential physical and mental danger that coming out would cause.

Because of this (and with the Pale King's permission) she made it very public about the children that they bore. She hoped that she could lead by example and help to change the mindset of the bugs of Hallownest. However, the bugs saw these two as an exception, as the Pale King and her were both higher beings, and as a result were exempt from the rules of society.

It wasn't until Hornet was born that the true shift began. While the bargain between the Pale King and Herrah was merely for political reasons, those outside who did not know of the deal began believing that the Pale King had bore a child with the Spider Queen because so many were rejecting his wife's gift. They believed he wanted to show the world that it was no longer taboo, and because he was so revered by people, the shift in mentality began happening much quicker. They were even more convinced after Hornet grew up, as she had grown up to be a normal girl--or as normal as she could being a princess and daughter of the Pale King.

(side note: It was also because of the White Lady that the Pale King and Herrah were able to bear a child together. She hoped that the child born between them would help bugs to accept one another no matter who they loved.)

As time passed, it became much more common to see interspecies couples. By the present time, it became a cultural norm in Hallownest, though many had forgotten by then that it was the White Lady's influence that allowed such things (as they'd forgotten about her and the Pale King by that time).

By the time the Kingdom began to crumble at the hands of the Radiance, the dwindling population made the White Lady start to lose control and become overcome by her more basic instincts. As the Goddess of Fertility, her body began to respond to the dwindling population by an uncontrollable urge to repopulate herself. However, knowing that she would not be able to care for those offspring and that they would become more fodder for the Radiance, she bound herself within her gardens. She prays that soon her urges will subside and that she may one day be able to return to the Kingdom she once knew...

sometimes I wonder out of all of the tribes that do not have a higher being, only the mantises managed to not get infected.

The bees make sense why they succumbed, vespa was dead so they latched onto the next best thing. The mushrooms are a similar case.

But deepnest?

I feel deepnest also has a warrior culture and I feel that Herrah is a strong enough leader and has people who respect her enough that she could have pulled off a quarantine like the mantises- though I can see why a larger territory would become an issue

My only explanation is thar while deepnest valued strenght it also valued the arts, what with the weavers and whatnot. And with the arts and dreams being interlinked it made them rather susceptible to the infection.

What do you think?

I think that the reason why Deepnest fell is not because Herrah and her kin weren't strong enough, but because the Radiance specifically targeted them after Herrah chose to become a Dreamer. I think there's some dialogue in game hinting to it, iirc? But I could be misremembering, so don't take my word for it. Either way though, Herrah was essential to the plan that sealed away the Radiance, and so the Radiance retaliated as such. In terms of being involved in the war, they were pretty damn involved, and, well...that damned them

The mantises, on the other hand, stayed neutral during the entire fight. Sure, they might have had a treaty with Hallownest, but they were no means friendly with the residents. And given the fact that the Traitor Lord and his followers willingly took the Radiance's infection into themselves, its likely that Radi knew they were sympathetic to her cause/easy to manipulate and simply chose to bide her time so that she could maximize the amount of followers she got out of it. Better to have half of them come to her than to force compliance and lose the whole tribe

usually the headcanon is that the knight is the youngest sibling because they’re short. and to that i say, NO. it’s actually the opposite. the knight gives so much older/oldest sibling vibes.

the hollow knight can’t seal the radiance? the knight just goes, “fine, i’ll do it myself.” or “ok i’ll slice god up and then slap her in the face for my siblings”. they’re the older sibling, it makes perfect sense.

or, better yet, in the godhome ending, they become an eldritch being, uniting all the void??? oh yeah they’re just in their emo phase. the first sibling’s always a little weird.