The Fate of the Pale King

We've talked a lot about Pale King on this channel, but today he's getting his own video. But we're not going to talk about how he had sex with a tree, or how he killed millions of his own children, or that time he built a shitty tram that only goes about ten feet. No, instead let's talk about the

fate

of the Pale King. The gray mourner in the resting grounds implies that the Pale King fled his

king

dom. This agrees with what is written in the game manual, which mentions what happened to the Pale King when Hallownest fell into ruins.

He explains that he abandoned his subjects and went into hiding. Anyone hoping to find the Pale King would face a dangerous journey beyond belief. And well... ♫Frolic by Luciano Michelini♫ This damn prank got my video claimed 😭 The exact timeline of when all this happened is a little confusing. There are insect corpses in the Ancient Basin begging for the Pale King to return, so the infection hadn't fully taken hold when he left. At some point the gates to the City of Tears were closed, possibly as a way to try to keep the infection away. This could explain why some of the insects in the City of Tears resorted to cannibalism.

Relic hunter Lemm tells us that before the city collapsed, insects began writing on spider silk instead of stone tablets, but that the humidity in some of the towers has ruined most of these writings. In other words, these insects are complete idiots and we have no writings about when the city fell. Relic hunter Lemm mentions that he has found no mention of the Hollow Knight beyond the statue in the City of Tears. So, as far as we know, the King went into hiding at some point while all this was going on, and some of his subjects still retained their control over Radiance.

Of course, we know where the Pale King went. His corpse can be found inside the White Palace which is located inside a Kingsmould. This opens up a whole new Pandora's box that we need to discuss. There is an idea that the White Palace hidden within Kingsmould is just a memory and not the real White Palace. I've mentioned this idea a couple of times in my other videos, but I don't think it's correct at all. First of all, if this is just a dream, what happened to the real White Palace? Relic hunter Lemm tells us that the palace appears to have disappeared.

Does this mean there is a second White Palace somewhere we haven't seen yet? Did I miss it by chance behind a breakable wall on Greenpath? This argument makes less sense than simply saying that the one in the dream is the real one. When we try Dream Nail the Kingsmould without the Awakened Dream nail, we can see that there is some kind of barrier on it. This is the same barrier we see over the three Dreamers. It seems that someone was intentionally trying to block this dream from the outside world. This only makes sense if it's a real place and not just a random memory.

The Pale King in the White Palace drops the Royal Soul, which the White Lady recognizes as connected to the real Pale King. Why would the real Pale King be hidden in a random memory and not in the real White Palace? The White Palace itself contains a memory sealed in the Path of Pain. Why would a memory be sealed inside another memory? What is this, Inception... but with bugs? Anyway, why would a Kingsmould have this memory of the Pale King in the first place? It doesn't really seem like something the Pale King would just mention during a casual game of dominoes or something.

Dying in the White Palace counts as a real death, which I think anchors the White Palace to reality in some way. And we also know that the Pale King was able to somehow place the Radiance inside the Hollow Knight. So why can't he place the White Palace inside the Kingsmould? It seems to me that the King definitely had the ability to put his palace in the dream world. But enough arguing with actual evidence, it's time to start speculating about some of the darker issues surrounding the Pale King. The corpse of the Pale King is found hunched over his throne in the White Palace.

Now, I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure things don't die for no reason. I suppose the conservative view on the death of the Pale King would be to say that he simply withered away. The White Lady describes the ruin of Hallownest as lasting much longer than the existence of the

king

dom, so the Pale King has probably been there for a long time. But I think I have an explanation that at least makes some sense. The vacuum. Let's start by establishing that Void and Pale King are enemies. The history tablet in the King's Workshop reads: “EMPTY, yours is the opposite power.” In this line, I think the Pale King is saying that the Void is a force opposite to him.

The Pale King is described as a

pale

light, similar to the Shining. We see that Radiance and Void aren't exactly pen pals, both from their Dream Nail dialogue and the fact that Void completely screws up. So it would make sense that the Void would also be an enemy of the Pale King. Or it could be that the Void is opposed to any kind of life in general, since it seems as if the void has killed some insects. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that the void has the potential to kill the Pale King. It's good, awesome.

But that doesn't really matter if we can't put the void in the throne room with the Pale King. But we can! Look at those black balls floating! That's emptiness, people! Well maybe. In my Mask Maker video, I mentioned that there are black balls floating around and said I thought they were evidence of emptiness. In the Ancient Basin and the Abyss, there are small black balls floating everywhere to imply the presence of void. But someone has since pointed out to me that these black balls found in the Mask Maker's room can be seen in several other rooms.

It is in Stag Station in Dirtmouth, as well as several interior rooms found in the game. So I don't think the particles in the Mask Maker's room are a very reliable test. But things are a little different with the Pale King's throne room. First of all, the throne room is dark. So dark that the Knight takes out the Lumafly Lantern. This is very peculiar without a doubt. The only other area in the White Palace that I can find that is this dark is the hallway to the King's Workshop where he worked on the empty buildings. Whether or not this means there is a vacuum in the room is up in the air.

You don't need the flashlight for the Abyss, so that might be a moot point. Secondly, the black balls in this room are actually a little different from the ones we see in other parts of Hallownest. Black dust balls appear and disappear, while empty balls grow and shrink. Now just look at the balls in the throne room. That's textbook contraction! On top of that, these empty balls can be much larger than powder balls. After intensively studying the balls for about twenty minutes, I can conclude that these particles in the throne room are actually empty. If this wasn't proof enough, there are also plumes of black smoke in the room.

This is another effect that is only found near a vacuum. I hope my speculations haven't lost you yet, because this is where things get good. If there really is emptiness in the throne room, where does it come from? Well, I have a few theories, two of which revolve around Kingsmoulds found in the game. We see a total of eleven Kingsmoulds in the White Palace. There is a guard at the entrance, another shortly after, two guarding the memory in the Path of Pain, and then seven corpses outside the throne room. It seems a little strange that the Kingsmoulds near the Pale King are dead, but not the ones further away.

It could be that the void within Kingsmoulds could escape its confinements. The presence of the Pale King drew the void within these Kingsmoulds to him, and that is why he escaped from these Kingsmoulds and not the others. But there are some problems with this theory. Didn't the Pale King realize this could happen? We kind of have to admit that the Pale King is an idiot for this theory to work. And while he may be kind of a jerk, I don't think he's a jerk. On top of that, the Kingsmould corpses have a pool of Void around them, so is the Void even moving towards the throne room?

Or does it just do nothing? So that's a possible theory. It's not exactly airtight, but I think it's plausible. However, there is another Kingsmould we need to talk about: the corpse found in the Ancient Reach. As I said before, this Kingsmould was used by the Pale King to hide himself and the castle from him. But this corpse looks quite different from the corpses found in the throne room. This Kingsmould has giant void tendrils connected to it. I find this to be much emptier than what you would get from a Kingsmould. I think these tendrils are seeping into Kingsmould.

In other words, the void of the Abyss actually made its way into the dream within the Kingsmould and reached the Pale King. That's dedication, I must say. This theory also gives more importance to the lighthouse keeper in the Abyss. When we first reach the Abyss, the lighthouse light goes out. Inside, we see the corpse of one of the Pale King's followers. His Dream Nail dialogue says: “...Turn it off?...I can't...My King. I'm sorry… The sea calls…” I think this dialogue is showing us that the lighthouse keeper was influenced by the void to turn off the light, and then apologized to the King for doing so.

The Pale King knew that the Void was dangerous, so he had the lighthouses built. But his servant failed to keep the void at bay, allowing the void to advance into the Palace Grounds and reach Kingsmould containing the White Palace. We can see that the vacuum is capable of doing this. There are void tendrils leading to Deepnest, where the Sharp Shadow amulet can be found. And then there's the fact that void particles can be seen as high up in the realm as the elevator at the top of the Ancient Basin. Well, what are the problems with this theory?

Well, Kingmould's mind was locked behind a shield, so is it really possible that the void could pass through it? During the two Radiance battles we can see that the Void is able to enter the Dream World, but we don't know how much harder it would be for the Void to enter Kingsmould. What exactly would it be like for the Void to enter this dream? Did he pass through the front door? Or can he just appear wherever he wants? If the void came this way, why wouldn't it attack the Royal Retainers? This theory also does not explain what is happening with the Kingsmoulds in the White Palace and why only some of them are dead.

So yes, both theories are incredibly speculative and should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, but I think there has to be some reason why there are empty particles in the throne room. It is worth mentioning that the history tablet in the throne room could be related to all of this. There are a few of these egg-like tablets found in Hallownest. Most of them feature this strange symbol flashing on the screen. These tablets were probably created by the Pale King. There is a certain sound effect that plays when reading these tablets. We can hear a longer version of this sound during the birthplace scene in the Abyss when the Pale King is talking to the Hollow Knight.

This voice clip is fucking weird. We can hear a man's voice, which is probably the Pale King, but then there's that strange breathing that sounds like a female voice. I assume this is the White Lady, so perhaps she was also present when the Pale King chose the Hollow Knight. This strange whisper can also be heard in the Pale King's workshop. This is the same sound you can hear when you are near a history tablet, but in the workshop it is much louder. Anyway, the tablet in the throne room is a little different. Not only is the egg different from the others, but no voice sounds when you interact with it.

Did the Pale King write this tablet? Honestly, I don't know who else would have written it. But I'm getting way off topic. My point is that this egg is reminiscent of the Black Egg in Forgotten Crossroads, as well as the black eggs in the Abyss. First of all, they are black. Secondly, the floor in this part of the room uses the same effect as the floor in the Black Egg. This could be hinting that this egg actually contains vacuum in some form, which would possibly explain why there is vacuum in the room. But at the same time, I really doubt this will kill the Pale King, since there seem to be restraints in this area.

And like I said, the Pale King wouldn't do something so stupid. You know, besides building that useless tram at Crossroads. So there are the possible explanations I can find for why there might be a void in the throne room. Personally, I like the idea of ​​the void rising from Lake Abyss, but it's all pretty speculative. The thing is, I tend to use text and dialogue to discuss thestory, so I'm a little out of my element here, but I think it's worth talking about any possible visual clues we have to the story, even if it's very much up to interpretation.

It's like an optical illusion. I may see a duck, you may see a rabbit, and some people may stare and see something that isn't even there. Now, one problem with the idea that the Pale King was killed by the void is that there doesn't seem to be any indication of this on his corpse. There are no Void tendrils connected to him, and his eyes have no Void streaks. However, it's worth noting that some characters have streaks that don't really seem to be connected to the void at all. And there are artworks from some ships that have stripes, while most do not.

So maybe there isn't a need for empty tendrils and stripes. The Pale King's corpse is a hollow shell. We can't attack any of the other bugs we see that were affected by the void, but it would make sense for the void to hollow it out. So maybe this is an indication of the King's

fate

? Another problem with the idea of ​​the Pale King being consumed by the void is that Kingsoul was not affected. It seems like the amulets could be corrupted by the void, given the Sharp Shadow amulet. But we don't know any of that for sure, so I don't think this is much of an attack on the idea.

Alright, what if the void didn't kill the Pale King? Are there any other explanations we can find other than he simply withered away? One idea is that the Pale King sacrificed himself to create the Royal Soul, as Salubra tells us that amulets can be created from an insect's dying wish. The main problem with this theory is that Kingsoul is said to be born from a union between two Higher Beings, implying that the charm has been around for a while. After all, the Pale King only has half of the Royal Soul. The other half is in the possession of the White Lady.

The spell had to have existed in the past for this to make any sense. Another theory is that the Pale King actually transformed into a new being, leaving behind the hollow shell of him. Bardoon mentions that a Wyrm does not die, but rather transforms. But we don't know if that can happen again or not. Does the Pale King get three life, five life, nine life? In my opinion, this theory weakens Pale King's Dream Nail dialogue: "No cost is too high." And if there is a seal on Kingsmould, could the Pale King escape from the White Palace?

On the other hand, this would give us the opportunity to meet the Pale King in the Hornet DLC in case it is a sequel. It will be a bit of an awkward family reunion, since Hornet is the bastard son of the Pale King and one of his other children murdered his mother while she slept. So yeah…what was the point of this video? Let's see... The Pale King most likely hid himself during the infection by placing his White Palace inside the mind of a Kingsmould. There he withered, died, transformed into a new being, was killed by the void, or something completely random that Team Cherry decides to add with the Hornet DLC.

There is strong evidence that there is, in fact, a vacuum in the room due to the balls. This void could have come from the Kingsmoulds in the throne room, or from the void seeping from the Ancient Basin. There is also a possibility that the void particles are coming from the history tablet on the far right of the room. And that's it. Until Team Cherry prints a death certificate or forensic report, this is the best I can do. There is one last point that I couldn't fit anywhere. Apparently the Pale King covered a bunch of furniture with white sheets.

There's really no way for us to know when this happened or why it happened. Was it part of putting the palace in the dream world? Are they repainting the ceiling? Did Team Cherry just not want to draw a bunch of shit so they put sheets on it? In fact, what kind of furniture does the Pale King have under there? I mean, this is clearly a fucking tombstone. This one looks like a Minecraft pig. And I think this could be a Festivus Pole? Do you know that William and Ari have released four damn DLCs and can't even be bothered to answer this very important question?

It's ridiculous. It's like they don't even care about the story. I'm uninstalling the piece of shit.