story about a blinkered monarch doing bug colonialism, believing his (pretty mid, now that we’ve seen the Citadel) city is unique and an exceptional in history and destined to last eternal only to immediately beef it at the first plague (common historical occurrence) so he does infanticide about it
I’m admittedly still a bit shaky on my Hollow Knight lore but wasn’t the plague a magical plague created by a literal god that infected bugs through their dreams? That’s not really the sort of thing you can plan for or stop because it doesn’t behave anything like a normal disease.
That is correct yes. The “plague” was really the delayed psychic consequence of the bug colonialism, not a microbial infection. But it made my glib little summary sound better
Interesting, and very different from the reading I got from other people.
The take I’d essentially seen was that the Radiance was an evil god who kept bugs enslaved in a state of mindless devotion until the Pale King “expanded their minds” and gave them free will, at which point they stopped worshiping her, with the Infection being her attempt to re-enslave them.
That is one interpretation. It assumes that post-Hallownest Radiance isn’t all that different to pre-Hallownest Radiance. That the infection was pretty much always how she always operated. There’s some things to suggest otherwise. I swear the moth lady, the one who gives you the dreamnail, said the Radiance used to be more benevolent (and really only a divine figure to the moths), but turned bitter after moths started forgetting her after the Pale King set up shop.
The Pale Kind King (edit gosh this is some lovely winve) was also on an exceptionalism kick - his empire was supposed to be the only civilization, the only place for thinking bugs. But. That doesn’t actually seem to be the case. He seemed (mostly) to straight up ignore the mushrooms and the mantis polities right on his doorstep because doing so would have been a tad awkward, something of an ideological contradiction. And whatever culture and civilization the moths had is almost completely gone. Maaaaybe it was all above board, maybe he just made a better case to the moths than the Radiance did. Fair victor in the marketplace of ideas. But he also clearly doesn’t have much scruples when it comes to getting his own way. Hard to believe there isn’t shady shit hidden in that forgotten past.
story about a blinkered monarch doing bug colonialism, believing his (pretty mid, now that we’ve seen the Citadel) city is unique and an exceptional in history and destined to last eternal only to immediately beef it at the first plague (common historical occurrence) so he does infanticide about it
chuds: its woke because there are 2 gay bugs
I’m admittedly still a bit shaky on my Hollow Knight lore but wasn’t the plague a magical plague created by a literal god that infected bugs through their dreams? That’s not really the sort of thing you can plan for or stop because it doesn’t behave anything like a normal disease.
That is correct yes. The “plague” was really the delayed psychic consequence of the bug colonialism, not a microbial infection. But it made my glib little summary sound better
Interesting, and very different from the reading I got from other people.
The take I’d essentially seen was that the Radiance was an evil god who kept bugs enslaved in a state of mindless devotion until the Pale King “expanded their minds” and gave them free will, at which point they stopped worshiping her, with the Infection being her attempt to re-enslave them.
That is one interpretation. It assumes that post-Hallownest Radiance isn’t all that different to pre-Hallownest Radiance. That the infection was pretty much always how she always operated. There’s some things to suggest otherwise. I swear the moth lady, the one who gives you the dreamnail, said the Radiance used to be more benevolent (and really only a divine figure to the moths), but turned bitter after moths started forgetting her after the Pale King set up shop.
The Pale
KindKing (edit gosh this is some lovely winve) was also on an exceptionalism kick - his empire was supposed to be the only civilization, the only place for thinking bugs. But. That doesn’t actually seem to be the case. He seemed (mostly) to straight up ignore the mushrooms and the mantis polities right on his doorstep because doing so would have been a tad awkward, something of an ideological contradiction. And whatever culture and civilization the moths had is almost completely gone. Maaaaybe it was all above board, maybe he just made a better case to the moths than the Radiance did. Fair victor in the marketplace of ideas. But he also clearly doesn’t have much scruples when it comes to getting his own way. Hard to believe there isn’t shady shit hidden in that forgotten past.Definitely gonna have to watch out for this in my next playthrough.