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As a child from a family of historians, the various aspects of historical curiosity always appealed to me from my youth. As I grow up, mythology remained as one of my steadfast companion. I have always been amazed by the wild imagination of the ancient bugs, on how they cast their mind so wild that they dreamt up heroes and beasts, battles and miracles, and entire new higher beings, even with existing pale beings to attribute the wonders of the world to and put their mind at rest. This is demonstrated by Ancient Hallownest (not to be mistaken with Great Hallownest, our country) and their wild troves of legends, unrestrained by the censure pale beings typically held over any worship not to their own.

The book will be divided into four parts. The first will be about the various pale beings Ancient Hallownestians imagined, as well as the White Lady, the historical pale being of Hallownest which will be included with the myths due to her relation to some of them. The second will be about the renowned figures of Hallownest, with notable inclusions such as the Great Nailsage Sly, or the Gray Prince. The third are about foreign figures adapted to Hallownestian Mythology, of which Hornet and the White Knight are the most prominent. The fourth part are about famous religious leaders of Ancient Hallownest, a feature unique to the kingdom itself.

Sources for the recorded myths include mythological accounts from many contemporary sources, which the most prominent listed below:

• Lemm the First, my ancestor, and a historian-collector with many preserved artifacts
• The Hallownestian Hunter's Journal, a bestiary of sorts, maintained by Hunter's of Ancient Hallownest, which includes some accounts of mythological beings
• Monomon's Archive, a collection of ancient scientific texts stored in advanced (for the time) acid tubes which hold no mythological relevance, but helps discern history from mythology
• Lurien's Collection, a series of paintings that depicts some mythological legends of Early Ancient Hallownest
• Weavenest Herrah's artifacts, which provides insight into Deepnest culture and mythology
• The Bretta Sagas, a Late Ancient Hallownest series of text that focuses primarily on contemporary heroes

For the Second Edition of the book, we have fixed the spelling and formatting mistakes left in the first book. Additionally, new artifacts for the Grimm Troupe was discovered at the Howling Cliffs that warrants a reclassification of their legends.

For the Third Edition of the book, per popular demand, Appendix A have been added, which adds additional information about the major sources used in the book. Appendix B contains new discoveries found after the High Queen allows historians to excavate the ruins of Ancient Hallownest to a greater degree after confirming permission from the White Lady last year through usage of the Elegy. Excavation around the Ancient Gardens are not allowed, however, for fear of disturbing her hibernation, which left potential for more discoveries when the White Lady eventually wakes.

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In the entirety of this book, the White Lady is perhaps the only true historical character to be included.

The Pale Being of Hallownest, the White Lady was a Pale Root, which perhaps influenced the lax censorship of other religious doctrines and mythological legends not pertaining to her worship, unlike the civilizations of other Pale Beings, with the most notable being Grand Mother Silk, who extends her doctrine regularly beyond the confines of her kingdom.

The White Lady is known to rule over Ancient Hallownest at the Ancient Basin, although her current location of rest is in the Ancient Gardens. Her worship pertains largely to rites of fertility, blessings of growth, and agricultural rites. She did not limit the rest of worship to other beings, or make any attempts to draw followers to those domains, although she did curse those who stand against the monarchy with infestation, as discovered from the tomb of Xero the Traitor.

Her rule of Hallownest marks the beginning of the Early Ancient Hallownest period, and her retirement to the Ancient Gardens marks its end. Shortly after her retirement, with the death of her inner circle, Hallownest as a kingdom collapses due to disease and insurgency, leading to the eventual decline and collapse of surrounding kingdoms.

Her binding cocoon can still be found today in the Ancient Gardens, with her roots digging through the grounds. Disturbance of the ground is prohibited by any capacity by the High Queen, with violation being subjected to long-term imprisonment.

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The Radiance is a mythological being worshipped by the moths of the Resting Grounds as the Higher Beings of Light and Essence, relating to the moth's reported expertise in essence manipulation, and their own definition for beauty and salvation being the Pure Light. As a being imagined to be worshipped by the moths prior to the arrival of a true Pale Being, she is quickly forgotten after the formation of the Kingdom of Hallownest.

Worship of the Radiance are typically through prayers and essence talismans. There is a general lack of statues, with the only found creation depicting the Radiance located in Hallownest's Crown. The lack of physical items of worships is often deemed the main reason the Radiance fell out of the moth's memory so quickly. To this date, there remains no stories about the Radiance that existed before the White Lady came into power. There did exist a myth with Radiance as a character, but the myth itself pertains more to the Nightmare Heart.

At the beginning of Late Hallownest, shortly before the collapse of the kingdom, the Radiance came back into the public as the force to blame for the disease and infection of the people. Through the analysis of records of the disease, though, it lacks all of the characteristics of a divine retribution. The disease did not have a targeted group it strikes at, instead affecting the entirety of Hallownest indiscriminately, including mindless bugs. The disease, while causing lack of autonomy, a common symptom of pale influence, did not direct those affected to the construction of any idolatry, or direct them to do meaningful worship, instead reverting them to their mindless states. The disease is dispelled by a relatively weak burst of pale energy from a dead pale being (more on that in the Pale Wyrm chapter), which would not affect something created by a living higher being. Those three points makes the disease very likely to have had a mundane source instead of being spawned from a higher being.

Tracing of the evolutionary process have also failed in discerning whether moths are a creation of a higher being, or naturally evolving, due to their customs having the body of the dead dissolved into dream essence, which makes it impossible to find a corpse suitable to do the tracing. Even after the extension of allowance to historical excavation last year, no moth bodies have been found under the crypts in the Resting Grounds or the Crystal Peak, making the Radiance's second claim to being a higher being unverifiable.

Exploration of the Dream Realm in Hallownest was met with no sign of an alive higher being or a dead higher being decomposing essence.

Barring any new discoveries by the archeologists working at Hallownest's ruin, the Radiance is recognized as a god made up by the Moth Tribe to explain phenomena relating to essence and the Dream Realm.

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The Pale Wyrm is the only other higher being with a confirmed presence in Hallownest history. With the Pale Wyrm, however, there are notable events beyond its death that ties in with multiple legends of Hallownest, that makes it more of a mythological figure in Ancient Hallownest mythology.

The death of the Pale Wyrm marks the beginning of Ancient Hallownest, and the collapse of its corpse marks the end of Ancient Hallownest and the beginning of Dark Hallownest.

An excerpt from one of Ancient Hallownest's religious documents found inside a chapel reads:

"At the beginning of Hallownest, when most bugs were mere beasts, and the White Lady still deep in her hibernation, the Pale Wyrm arrives at the Kingdom's Edge to die. Their death releases their soul, their beacon against darkness, and infuses it into the savage beasts of the kingdom to grant them minds, and uplift them into us sentient bugs. The energy rouses the White Lady from her rest to watch over the newly formed bugs, and unite them all under her care. Thus all bugs then knew that while the White Lady watches over them in this realm and nurture their shells, the Pale Wyrm grow their minds and brought their soul into being with this last act. And so they awaits the bearer of the King's Brand,..."

While the document was preachy and omits some facts we knew to be true, it was somewhat accurate to the records of history that most historians recorded. The Pale Wyrm did indeed died at the Kingdom's Edge, though root exposure there suggests that the White Lady killed it after a fight, possibly when it was weakened from the mass uplifting (a confirmed historical event due to the many jumps in the evolutionary tree of Hallownestian bugs). Its disturbance of her root was deemed the main cause for her waking. The sequence about the White Lady was deemed historically correct, but modern research on soul proves that uplifting is done by injecting small amounts of soul to reform existing soul into a more complex form, rather than creating soul from nothing, which is associated to creation. The part about the King's Brand will be discussed in more detail the next chapter.

The collapse of the corpse released an ambient amount of soul that ended the disease across the whole kingdom a few days later, marking the end of Hallownest's deadliest disaster, opening the way for the kingdom's rebuilding, and the beginning of Middle Ages Hallownest.

Accounts of multiple independent sources from different parts of the kingdom recognized the infection ending within the span of a single day, several days after the collapse of the corpse. With no other notable events happening around the time that could possibly released enough soul power to end the disease was recorded by the people, historians have linked those two events together, with the corpse's collapse causing the disease to end.

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Historically, the Pale King was a ruler of Hallownest alongside the White Lady, who vanished (presumably died) shortly after the disease became a pandemic across Hallownest and the surrounding regions.

The Pale King is worshipped by the bugs of Hallownest and considered as the same being as the Pale Wyrm. While the full religious documents is too long-winded to be included here, the main theme of it is that the Pale King was the reincarnated form of the Pale Wyrm, proven so by the King's Brand he wields.

The majority of this doctrine is considered by modern historians to be religious propaganda, however. There are some major issues with this depiction of the Pale King unrealistic and false, one of the more prominent being some issues regarding the King's Brand's existence, but the greatest strike against this story is that the Pale King and the White Lady are confirmed to rule over Hallownest together over the same period of time.

The nature of Higher Beings is to stand alone at the top of the kingdom, ruling over bugs and receiving prayers. The existence of the Pale King as a higher being would already make the White Lady feel compelled to expel him from her kingdom, as with any higher beings not of her kin. The act of ruling together, letting the Pale King steal a portion of worshippers from her and compel her to share her control with him would be an act that cause her to chase away any higher beings, kin or otherwise.

Considering the Pale King's continued existence by the side of the White Lady, it is more probable that the collusion between the Pale King and the Pale Wyrm are propaganda distributed by him on order to legitimize his rule and solidate his power, in an age where male bugs in power were generally dismissed and disrespected. He was more likely a bug favored by the White Lady to help her rule, possibly one of the first bugs to came to her in the beginning of Ancient Hallownest.

The King's Brand, the artefact mentioned, is not confirmed to hold any more power than to be a key to access highly restricted areas in Hallownest, with the most prominent being the Abyss Gate. The first High Queen, while being in the first line of succession from the king, was not reported to possess any such artefact.

The king also showed no unique feats of advanced soul usage that cannot be attributed to the White Lady. In fact, another major point against the Pale King being the Pale Wyrm is his inability to stop the disease from becoming a pandemic, a thing that the corpse of the Pale Wyrm can do.

Worship of the Pale King involves idolatry. Sculptures of all shapes and sizes are used to pray to the Pale King, as shown by the excavated totems from churches, as well as Lemm the First's collection of King's Idols on display at the National Memorium. All totems shares three features: a four- pronged crown, a round body, and six wings.

Update pertaining to the Third Edition: the discovery of the broken Kingsmould under the debris of the Palace Grounds. This confirms that the Pale King have great knowledge in working with the void and with essence, suggesting him being a moth or a shaman that had his life extended by the White Lady. His development of the Kingsmould, if verified, could be considered the first functional void automaton ever made.

The Kingsmould could hold further discoveries also, as it is protected by an essence shield. Attempting to use an awoken dream nail on it leads to the essence being drained by the leaking void. If the seal can be cracked, it would lead to a trove of knowledge about the Dream Realm in Ancient Hallownest.

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Unn is the higher being the Mosskin worships, and is credited with the creation of the Green Caverns and the Mosskin.

Unn is worshipped through tablets of dedication laid throughout the Green Caverns, where Mosskin could visit and cave their own dedications to Unn into the stone, in addition to the original message. These tablets are very useful in confirming the existence of Unn.

There are two major, differing theories on the historical role of Unn, which are both considered as official history by various different renowned institutions. For the sake of comprehensiveness, I deemed it necessary to include both in this book.

The first theory is that Unn was a different name used by the Mosskin to worship the White Lady. This theory explained the creation of the Green Caverns and the Mosskin's creation, as the Green Caverns shared a lot of plants to the Ancient Gardens, and the Mosskin were created in the image of species of plant. This theory also cited the periods of activity of Unn and the White Lady as proof, where Unn appears as a historical figure mainly before and a short time after the beginning of Ancient Hallownest, which coincides Unn's lack of activity with the White Lady's activity.

This theory, however, falls apart on two account:

The Mosskin is poised against the White Lady in honor of Unn, a conflict which would not develop to be notable in history if Unn was the White Lady.

The charm labeled the Shape of Unn transforms bugs into slugs when activated by soul circulation.

The second theory addresses both these concerns with Unn being a powerful slug who rallied the Mosskin against the White Lady, and was revered as a god after she died. This theory considers the White Lady's lack of activity being due to Unn and the Mosskin, and she finished handling them after Unn's death.

This theory, while holding up better than the previous theory, assumes Unn and the Mosskin's conflict with the White Lady being much more intense than historical data suggests, and failed to answer the questions about the higher being that actually created the Mosskin.

After the High Queen's changes in policies, a vassal is being developed to dive underneath the corrosive acid in the Lake of Unn to retrieve lost artefacts buried in the bottom of the lake that might grant us more insight into Unn. Given the timeframe of development at the moment of writing this entery, the first test drive of the vassal in a recreated acid pool is due in 6 months, and available artefacts are expected to be fully retrieved in a timespan of two to four years. Those new discoveries might grant us the truth beyond those two unsatisfying theories.

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Grimm is deemed the Nightmare Heart, a being which draws power on the Essence of Fear. While Grimm travels through many kingdoms to harvest essence and leave many myths in his journey, the only relevant ones are about his birth in Hallownest and his return to Hallownest.

While Grimm might have originally be a higher being, with the splitting of the Dream Realm into multiple domains, Grimm was born into a physical form in Hallownest. Though originally a true Higher Being, in order to cut off the desire for worship and allow him to move freely between kingdoms, Grimm formed his power into the Nightmare Heart, transforming his form of power to be similar to that of an Old Heart that contains a Higher Being's power. Although little other records remains of the time before Ancient Hallownest, it could be inferred that the reason for Grimm's exodus is because of the existing White Lady who would have been able to destroy the newly-formed Higher Being.

The second reference to Grimm is at the end of Ancient Hallownest, when Grimm returned to Hallownest to harvest the Essence of Fear for the rebirth ritual he needed to transfer the power of his heart.

While little had being confirmed about the exact historical events surrounding Grimm due to his private nature and insistent claim that he cannot remember his past existence, he was forced to allow researchers to investigate his Rebirth Ritual by political pressuring following the discovery of the Nightmare Lantern providing definite proof of the ritual.

The ritual works by transferring the Nightmare Heart to another vessel through victory by conquest in the dream realm. The next Grimm would be given to a participant, who would kill the Grimmkins that has been collecting Essence for Grimm. The essence would be transferred to the vessel strengthening the bond between it and the Nightmare Heart. When the participant brings the vessel into the dream realm and kill Grimm there, the existing bond would transfer the power of the Heart to the vessel instead of the participant, thus continuing the Heart's power. The recovered remains of Grimm's consciousness would be recovered in the physical realm to be inserted in the vessel's mind after it fully matures. The collection would bring no harm to the kingdom in ruins itself, and the only reason Grimm does the ritual in fallen kingdoms is to maximize the amount of Essence he can gather and avoid the ire of other higher beings.

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On the discussion of the Abyss Civilization, there is still a lot of mysteries about them, due to the strange nature of the abyss.

The Abyss Civilization is a tribe of bugs that is estimated to predates the birth of the White Lady, and gone extinct before the start of Ancient Hallownest.

This tribe of bugs lives their entire life inside the void. Most data gained from them is from the forensics, since the void wards off any creature that can causes decay. All the skulls of every being of the tribe which died in the abyss are still preserved in a giant pit at the abyss center.

Judging by the forensic data, the beings shared  very close genetics, revealing them to most likely to reproduce asexually. Existing egg-fruits have been found with stillborn shells that suggests the same level of difference genetically between them and others outside the egg-fruit. The egg-fruit's frequency of encounter increases the further the dig team went down, which suggests that they had once been able to reproduce faster, and their extinction is because die faster than they can birth. Data have also shown a strong genetical relation to the White Lady, suggesting the White Lady had once been a member of the tribe, likely the last of their children, who had ascended into a higher being. Their resistance of the void could be due to their connection to the Everbloom.

The people of the Abyss Civilization is judged as not quite a higher being, although with their power to resist the void, they are much more similar to higher beings and mortals, with a right push leading them to ascend. Perhaps, they are a missing step between mortality and divinity.

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The Pure Vessel is not revered as the way a higher being was typically revered, but more as a philosophical concept and idea, appearing in research logs and schemas. Throughout the history of Hallownest, this title was also attributed to the Hollow Knight, who is considered to be a Pure Vessel. For disambiguation, Pure Vessel here refers to the concept in Ancient Hallownest, while the Hollow Knight will be discussed in the later chapter as the existing being.

The concept first appeared in the Archives Research Log under the Philosophical section, in correspondence under the highest level of security between Monomon the Teacher and the Pale King. Some parts of the encryption used in the conversation have not been decrypted, and other parts only decrypted partially and recreated in context of other correspondence. The conversation detailed around the existence of a being with unbreakable will, capable of withstanding all temptation, and having immense mental fortitude. The conversation then revolves around how it would interact, the various aspects of its life in defense of this purity, such as the decay of time affecting its will, its need for sustenance being a temptation, the forcible ascension from a higher being affecting the mind. The correspondence comes to a conclusion as Monomon the Teacher confirms that such a being would need to have no mind, no will, no desires, and as such, no feasible living being could ever achieve those ideals, and a probable one that could would have no thoughts, wants for nothing in life, have no particular inclinations to act on, and she called such an existence being a "being of emptiness, a form without voice, without will, existing in perfect purity and perpetually immobile unless some being were going to move it around. Such a being would then become a pure vessel for that being, an existing life yet only in command of another's will." This definition would become the acclaimed definition for the Pure Vessel concept, a blank slate as a being. The concept would continue to be in use beyond the scope of Ancient Hallownest, and even now, exists as a common terminology in philosophy.

The correspondence then moves on to the theoretical creation of the Pure Vessel as specified by those terms. After discussions about materials that composed the vessel, the void was selected as its corrosive nature can affects the mind as well as the physical form, and the White Lady joined the discussion. However, after the continued discussion of the precise way of shaping the void, which leads to the construction of the Lighthouse and the creation of Kingsmoulds, the Archives used a newer form of encryption that have not being decrypted, similar to the one used at the Abyss entrance and the Howling Cliffs.

After a certain period of time, from the orders issued around the Archives, a group of scholars was transferred to research at the abyss. Their reports are varied, but most of them have certain details about beings of the Abyss Civilization, and there was a skull found in the Archives confirmed as belonging to them. Shortly after, the Hollow Knight appeared, and was referred to as the Pure Vessel. This suggests that they attempted to mimic the biological designs of the abyssal beings.

Any further details on this subject either belongs to the philosophical side, the Hollow Knight entry, or have been restricted as protection of privacy.

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This marks the beginning of the second part of the book - the mortals. They differs from the myths about higher beings in that they were mentioned not as bugs to be worshipped but someone to be emulated, to serve as an ideal to strive for, or someone whose stories serves as warnings to avoid, and to guard against. Although some non-mortals will be included, the aspects of their stories are more similar to that of mortals than of the higher beings.

We first begin with the subject of the Five Great Knights - one that my ancestor had poured much of his time to learning about them. The first knight that will be discussed is the Hegemol the Mighty, a bug who has done as much good in his service as the bad he brought after its end.

Hegemol the Mighty, under the service of the kingdom, worked as the guardian at the gates of the City of Tears. He is referred to as a protector of the city, and the main gate to the city at the end of the Pilgrim's Way of Hallownest have his statue displayed there. Beside those facts, there is not much known about the knight before the disease starts to spread.

After the disease spreads and the White Lady returned to her hibernation after starting a stasis spell around the kingdom, the City of Tears go into a lockdown. It is reported officially that shortly after Hegemol completed the lockdown procedure, he travelled down to the crossroads.

From then on, various lines in Wanderer's Journals stated that he collaborates with maggots to attack and rob travellers of their belongings, and was often seen taking loot to the storerooms above the stag station. It is unclear what caused this change in morality.

The Hunter's Journal did mention him under the name of the False Knight, suggesting an encounter later on, but his description was damaged and illegible.

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Dryya the Fierce was a respected knight of the Five Great Knights. She was the honorary guard of the queen, and is respected by the masses for her devotion and determination.

Before the end of Early Ancient Hallownest, Dryya was not mentioned often due to the nature of her job, as the White Lady was rarely seen in public. When the White Lady went into hibernation, Dryya was seen going with her into the Gardens, presumably to guard her in her hibernation from the Mantis Traitors that were taking over the garden. Preliminary autopsies on multiple mantis corpse founds a large amount of mantis was killed over a period of time using the same weapon, likely Dryya's.

In the Gardens, there is a grave found under the name of Marmu, presumably Dryya's real name. However, it is likely that the gravesite was fake, possibly by Dryya herself, since the dream nail revealed no information from the gravesite, which was a very rare occurrence for a dedicated site of death. As excavation is strictly forbidden in the area, there is no confirmation about whether Dryya is still alive, seeing as the White Lady can extend a bug's lifespan with proximity.

Along the end of Early Ancient Hallownest, most official records were made out of silkpaper instead of stone carvings. Following the years of mishandling afterwards, most records was destroyed. Any remaining information left after these years were sourced mostly from unofficial sources that was unable to afford spider silk, which leads to names being lost, since Ancient Hallownest culture is to refer to others by title. Before the search area was allowed to be expanded, the only information found of Dryya was of the totem of Marmu, which fits the job title of Dryya the Fierce, causing the misnaming. Following more exploration, a pile of mantis corpses was found inside a trap, from which the name the knight goes by was found using the dream nail. This chapter have been renamed accordingly to account for this new information, using the Knight's title name rather than her real name.

Without excavation or exploration near the cocoon allowed in the Ancient Gardens, however, it continued to be impossible to verify whether Dryya/Marmu is truly dead, or the gravesite was a false trick to lower the enemy's guard.

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Ze'mer the Mysterious, or later known as the Grey Mourner, is the knight in charge of diplomatic relations of the Pale Court. Ze'mer came from the Lands Serene, a kingdom that have a lot of dealings with Essence and Dreams, which makes Ze'mer proficient in essence manipulation, allowing us to see her imprints on the dream realm. This leads to Ze'mer the Mysterious ironically being the Knight we know the most about among the Five.

Ze'mer was assigned the role of diplomat by the Pale Court shortly following her inauguration. The remaining store records showed her to take on territory negotiations with the Mantis Tribe, pollen trade with the Hive, and Crystal Peak excavations with the Moth Tribe. Notably, Greenpath and Deepest is not mentioned, both being dealt with by the Queen and the King respectively.

Within the remaining records of the White Palace and the Hive, there are no notable events regarding Ze'mer. The Moth Tribe negotiations leads to Ze'mer being given a home, hidden in the Resting Grounds behind some tombs, which is where dreamscapers found most of the imprints Ze'mer left with her essence, however, there was no notable occurrences with Ze'mer's time as a diplomat, either. The majority of what we came to know Ze'mer as came from her time with the Mantis Tribe.

The story of her life, that she immortalized in the Dream Realm, plays out as follows.

Because of the tense situation between the Mantises and the Pale Court, Ze'mer was disliked by most of the tribe as the face of the enemy. For some traditionalists, their hatred and xenophobia against her was deep-rooted. Those traditionalists includes the Fourth Lord, who would eventually be known as the Traitor Lord.

The Fourth Lord, unlike usual Mantis Lords, was male, and chosen and supported by traditionalists only because he is the only sibling of the existing Lords who was aligned with them. Despite being the lord with the least power, he is the one with the most vitriol and hatred among the Lords. This narrative was initially shared by his daughter, who was initially an integral part of the traditionalist block of the mantises, who would radicalize the Mantis youths against the Pale Court using her respect among them.

In Ze'mer's first visit to the Mantis Village, she was the one who challenged the knight, as the most powerful warrior eligible of the traditionalists (Mantis tradition dictates that male bugs cannot issue challenges against female bugs), in order to use the duel to legally kill the messenger and make a point to the Pale Court. Although Ze'mer was wounded heavily, she manages to defeat the daughter with a lucky strike.

In her subsequent returns to the Mantis Village, hoping to regain her lost pride, the daughter challenges Ze'mer twice more, and each time, lost the battle. The defeats angered her enough for her to disregard proper conduct, and leave the Mantis Village to seek to ambush Ze'mer in Hallownest to take her revenge.

Her plan was to ambush Ze'mer at the Hive on one of her trips, as outsiders are required by law to forgo their weapon inside the Hive. While her infiltration was initially clear, the bees eventually took notice to her, and she was captured to be brought to the Hive Queen for charges of attempted assassination. Ze'mer, who was there at the time, helped advocate for her release and pardon by giving them an Everbloom gifted to her by the White Lady. This action earned her respect in the eye of the Lord's daughter, who used to regard all outsiders as selfish and honorless. In the eyes of Ze'mer, the constant duels she was challenged with each visit is a sign of respect of her skills, unlike the mantises who saw rematches issued by the loser as a sign of disrespect towards the winner's legitimacy.

After this meeting, which was also the Lord's daughter's first foray into civilization outside the Mantis Village, she began to doubt the doctrines she used to preach to her peers. After another visit from Ze'mer, she arranged with Ze'mer for an unofficial outing in the City of Tears to get to learn more about the world outside. This would continue on to be a monthly occurrence, where they would go together after Ze'mer's visit to the village to various locations around Hallownest. Is was along these times that the two of them grew close and eventually fall in love.

With the arrival of the disease, however, the traditionalists were even more agitated than usual about their fear of threat from the Pale Court, fearing that they would take advantage of the disease to invade the Mantises with their strength. This, in turn, leads to pushback from the Sister Lords, who feared instability from the traditionalists section. They seek to demote the Fourth Lord, who, in return, arranged for an invasion of the Gardens and an exodus of traditionalists that follows the Lord. In the wake of the movement, feeling responsible for her previous stance on the matter, the Lord's Daughter seeks to call off the movement by challenging her father for control of the sect at the gardens, counting on his sympathy towards his own kin. She ends up losing the battle to a mortal wound, and dying at the gardens in the arm of Ze'mer shortly after.

Following her death, Ze'mer resigns her post as a Knight, and went into hiding at her house in the Resting Grounds. Shaping the tragedy of her lover into the dream realm, she then lay the Everbloom on her lover's grave, a symbol of the start of their relationship. After the act, she turns into essence, to live with the memory forever.

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Isma the Kindly was one of the Five Great Knights, who is a being uplifted from vines. While initially selected for combat, Isma soon pivots to research, through the information gained from the research logs left in the Archives, and for Isma's own notes, hidden inside her grove. There were regular correspondence between her grove, which doubles as a research lab, and the Archives. It was about the creation of what would be known as Isma's Tears, a crystal that, when consumed, protects the consumer from acid until its complete digestion.

The research was started due to the immunity Isma have over acid, which was unique to her nature. As there was no solution to the acid of the Fog Canyon and the Fungal Grove at the time, she aims to create the Tears in joint research with the Archives as a solution to prevent injury and death from acid. From her journal notes, an incident involving the collapse of the bridge leading into the City of Tears that maimed and killed a caravan of trading bugs incites her to begin research on the subject. Using her grove to grow her vines, and experimenting with their extract, she initially came close to discovering the formula, but her research was halted to address the issues of the spreading disease.

After the outbreak escapes local quarantine efforts and spreads to the entirety of Hallownest, she returned to the research to find closure within herself. After the White Lady enters hibernation and the Mantis Traitors blocked off the routes into the Gardens, her supply of soul was cut, and she began reverting back to her base nature. After finding out the exact combination of extract and soul to form the tears, she tasked her lover, the White Defender, to guard her grove. Then, she hide the notes and the formula in the grove away, and resolve to make as much of the tears as she can make and place them all over the garden, until she reverted into vines and take root in the Grove.

The formula was released by the White Defender following the end of the infection, who decides to name it after her. The notes, however, was just found last year following a more throughough search of the Grove, detailing her progress of making the Tears. There had been discussion of moving her to the Gardens to revive her, but as she had taken root too deep to be moved without serious harm to her, she would likely have to stay there until the White Lady rises from her hibernation.

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Ogrim the White Defender is the last knight among the Five Great Knights. He performs the traditional roles of a knight and guardian, and was often seen patrolling around the kingdom. He is the only knight to have activity after the end of Ancient Hallownest.

The earliest documents about him found him to be the last knight recruited into the Five, shortly after Isma. After his initiation, Isma was assigned to help familiarize him with his duties. As there were no other details relating to them that was relevant to their courtship, this was probably the period of time they began to fall in love.

After a short time working as a knight, Ogrim had taken leave for a while due to take care of his family, who was injured after an incident involving a collapsing bridge when in their way to the City. When he returned, he was assigned to aid Isma in the construction of her Grove, and management of the Royal Waterways. Records from the Fluke Hermit reports that Ogrim used to hire a squadron of Flukes to help clean the Waterways and aid with construction of the Grove.

After the Grove's completion, Ogrim manages the Waterways and directs the sentries from the Kingside of the City of Tears, until the kingdom was overran by disease. Then, he followed Isma and guards her grove from infiltrators, until the end of Ancient Hallownest, when he publicized Isma's findings, and works as area patrol for Hallownest, until he grew old and retires.

The location of his final resting place was restricted due to privacy concerns.

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Unlike the previous entries, which were figures formed from collective worship, or otherwise real people with an elevated mythological presence, the Grey Prince is first formed in classical literature, in the second volume of Bretta's epics. He seems to be an entirely fictional character created by Bretta, but his stories had integrated so well into mythology that he deserves a mention here.

In the second volume of Bretta's epic, "The Gray Prince", he was depicted as a wanderer from a far land, arriving to Hallownest seeking adventure, then falling in love with a fair maiden. The epic goes on about the internal conflict between the love the Grey Prince have and his desire to seek adventure and wander, and the feelings of the lover, wanting to make the Grey Prince stay with her. The epic merges the legendary battles and duels with the immersive love story using its colorful, winding prose. While the irrelevant plot points will not be discussed in great detail to prevent spoilers, I will analyze some parts of it that might suggest the inspiration for the epic in an existing event.

The first interesting feature is in the name "The Gray Prince" itself. Traditionally, the titles Princesses and Princes usually uses are paired with prefixes relating to the nature of their kingdom, or suffixes stating their own nature, such as the Green Princes ruling over Verdania, or Hallownest's Princess-Protector, there is no relation between the title Grey and any kingdom Hallownest or around Hallownest. The closest title that is recorded is Pharloom's Grey Ghost and Greyroot of Shellwood. Their descriptions was wildly different than the Grey Prince, however, and they did not rule over any kingdom either. It was possible that the prefix was chosen like this to prevent affronting any political entities.

The next evidence is early on in the book, where the Grey Prince is depicted as wielding a nail made out of shellwood. Narratively, this approach shows the prince's strength and power, winning any fight he encounters even with a disadvantage. However, given the material the nail was made of being shellwood, the implications are that the Grey Prince came from Pharloom, which would not be an unusual source of inspiration given Bretta's first book.

There are mentions of the Grey Prince returning from a glorious battle as a champion of the colosseum, which given the context from Hallownest, is the Colosseum of Fools. The title Champion suggests that the Grey Prince had only defeated the second trial, which was unusual considering the title of Fool is a far more glorious title.

The mention of the map-maker's wife is congruent to the point of view of the current times, and served as a great parallel to the lover, and the map-maker to the Grey Prince. In ancient times, a cartographer is typically a wanderer, warrior, and scribe in one, in order to be able to discover the entirety of a land. This fits greatly as a parallel between the Grey Prince and his lover, and puts Bretta's life at around the end of Ancient Hallownest, since it coincides with the time dated on one of the latest maps belonging to the era.

Exploration of Bretta's old house reveals a golden statue, likely modelled after the Grey Prince. Unfortunately, the statue was fully drained of essence, which causes the gold sheen, and prevents further exploration of such an emotionally-charged object in the dream realm. Bretta probably used the statue as a writing complement similar to the White Knight effigies, and the amount of inspiration she draws from her model drains the statue of its essence. This dedication to literature likely make the story so passionate to read.

In all accounts, Bretta's work puts the Grey Prince as one of Hallownest's most well-known figure of legend, right alongside the Great Nailsage Sly, the White Knight, and Hornet. This is a great feat, as the other three figures are all confirmed to be real people that have legend drawn upon them. The fact that Bretta manages to popularize the Grey Prince to such manner, along with the fact that this is Bretta's second installment that have done so, is a major Hallmark in Hallownest literature.

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Lord Fool was the founder of the Colosseum of Fools, and its first Lord. He paved the way for the development of the Colosseum of Fools into a separate political entity, and was revered as the lord of the colosseum even after his death.

The Colosseum's tales recorded by the Wanderer's journals suggests that Lord Fool first came to host the Colosseum on open ground as a small fighting ring. Taken inspiration from the might of the Pale Wyrm's corpse, he found a skull of similar size and make it his own base of operations. He put up scaffolding around it to build a viewing ring, and charge people to view the battle. Combatants would enter and brawl with each other, the winner taking the cash prize. He sets up a three-tiered tournament, as the Trials of the Warrior, Champion, and Fool, with the Trial of the Fool being the one with the highest honor. Lord Fool himself would engage in battle with victorious Fools who wanted for more glory and geo.

In the early days, there was not much traffic at the colosseum, as there lacks a way for traffic between Hallownest and the Kingdom's Edge. Lord Fool himself arranged for contribution to an elevator connecting the City of Tears and the Resting Grounds, with the condition that the elevator had a stop at the Colosseum's entrance. The Pale Court agrees to it, as long as the Colosseum did not involuntarily force combatants to do battle, and allows the Pale Court to send over personnel to check.

With the agreement, the Colosseum manages to grow steadily from the desperate people who wanted a quick geode, or the glory hounds who wishes to prove themselves. As the battles at the time were relegated to three draws of blood, this keeps a continuous flow of bugs, with some regulars. The fools were given a place of management, and some viewers were content to spend their lives there to upkeep the place for the rights to watch the battles.

With the accumulation of permanent residents, Lord Fool appealed to the Pale Court for recognition as an independent entity, in exchange for guarding the Kingdom's Edge. As the realm have little value to the Court, the request was accepted.

After Lord Fool grew old, he chose the Pale Lurker as the new leader to appeal to the Pale Court. When he died, he was preserved on his throne, and revered as the symbolic lord of the colosseum. His body are still preserved by the Fools Entertainment Enterprise in the flagship building of the business.

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The next leader of the Colosseum, Pale Lurker was granted her role after Lord Fool's death. She originally was assigned to keep the Colosseum in control by the Pale Court, but eventually got connected to the lifestyle there and decided to stay permanently after her duty ended.

A professional trapper, she often relies on her spike traps to do fight enemies. When she was granted the role of Fool Champion, she began reconstruction on the Colosseum's battlegrounds. Moving walls and ceiling, platforms, mechanical cages and the retractable spikes in the floor were all associated to her design. Due to her innovative idea, battles of a lot more variety were hosted at the Colosseum of Fools, attracting more bugs  to join.

She was beaten in combat by God Tamer and removed from the role of Champion Fool. Afterwards, she still maintains the mechanical workings of the battleground, until she grows insane and became hostile to other inhabitants. While everyone slowly forget her, God Tamer took care of her and let her roam around the backside of the colosseum, until she died to injuries, after a warrior found her there and fought her.

God Tamer was the third leader of the Colosseum of Fools. Known for her talent at controlling beasts, she took the role of Champion Fool after defeating Pale Lurker in combat. She came from outside of Hallownest, shortly after the beginning of Late Ancient Hallownest.

God Tamer pioneered the usage of beasts to fight challengers in the colosseum. This change helped significant extends the battle time of each challengers, reducing the amount of challengers needed over the same period of time. Additionally, the beasts added variety to the battles with their wild differences. However, this choice came with some drawbacks: Injury and death were more common due to the mindless nature of beats, and the beasts are not screened for infections beforehand, which could lead to an outbreak in the Colosseum.

Reports shown that God Tamer often got her beasts from the Tower of Love near the colosseum, where a person living there was willing to trade the beasts they captured for grubberfly grubs. While the trafficking of the sentient grubs have questionable morals, it is implied in the records that the grubs are kept safe by the person, and the source of beasts are reliable.

God Tamer eventually retires from her role after her favorite beast, her companion, died, which, due to the lack of challengers, leads to a council of Fools being found to manage the Colosseum.

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From the day of formation to the end of Ancient Hallownest, the Hive have lived under the rule of five queens.

The Hive is an independent political entity of Hallownest, which contains groups of bees. Despite being born from a small group of different hivemothers, the hivelings consider themselves siblings to each other, and children of the Hive Queen. The Hive have a high disinclination towards strangers, and often avoid outside interaction whenever possible, a trait seen throughout Hallownest history, and which they possesses even now, with the only individual being allowed regular entry to the Hive being the High Queen. It is with her recommendation that Hive Queen Calabrone II allowed us to spend some time in the Hive for research for this book.

The first Hive Queen, Apis I, came to Hallownest from the Kingdom's Edge and founded the Hive with her children. As she arrived even before the beginning of Ancient Hallownest, where records were not kept regularly, all the knowledge about her is from tales handed down through generations of bees.

Hive Queen Apis I died not long after she completed the construction of the Hive, and her daughter, Hive Queen Abeille, took up the mantle.

Under the rule of Hive Queen Abeille, the Pale Wyrm came to Hallownest, and with it, there were an explosion of sentient bugs populating Hallownest.

Hive Queen Abeille established borders early on with the Pale Court, and have a treaty declaring lower Kingdom's Edge a neutral zone. She assigned guard roles to specialized knights, and established the Hive Sign Language, which was to be used by bees talking to each other in the vicinity of outsiders. The Hive Sign Language will eventually go on to become Hallownestian Sign Language that we use today.

Hive Queen Abeille focused on establishing relations with outsiders, electing specialized diplomats to ensure the majority of her people would be unbothered by the new kingdom. Her best achievement is to establish an early pollen trade with the Pale Court that eliminates the need for worker bees to go outside the Hive.

Following after Hive Queen Abeille was Hive Queen Frelon I, who ruled over the Hive at its most prosperous times. Hive Queen Frelon I focused on developing new technologies for the Hive, and was the one who invented the candle, which was one of the Hive's new major exports due to being a toggle light source that does not need soul to function.

The acquisition of an Everbloom early into the Hive Queen's rule lead to the Hive Queen committing multiple experiments relating to its pollens. One experiment in particular manages to recreate some of the regenerative qualities of Lifeblood, without carrying the downsides of the lowered natural regenerative capabilities after it's usage.

Hive Queen Frelon I died from void poisoning, after one of her experiments involving void breaches containment. The records suggests that the experiment might relate to the Pure Vessel correspondence, although Hive Queen Vespa I had completely shut down the research program and removed the equipment from the Hive following the incident, limiting the discerned information we can get about the experiment's nature in particular.

Hive Queen Vespa I was the first Hive Queen to not undergo full growth before becoming queen due to her mother's untimely death. The rule of Hive Queen Vespa I began with challenges due to the Hive's hostility towards the Pale Court for providing the previous queen with the equipments used in the accident, damaging relations and stalled trades. After several months, Vespa I eventually calmed down the situation to return relations to normal.

A few years into the Hive Queen's rule, Hornet was placed into her care. This was an unusual sign, as the Hive is often hostile towards outsiders. However, her tutelage of Hornet was equal to her care for others of her own brood. As of this day, Hornet remains one of the few outsiders fully accepted by the Hive as one of their own.

After Hornet leaves the Hive, they sealed themselves to prevent the disease from spreading to them. However, they was not fast enough, and the entirety of the Hive slowly became infected. As no records were kept during this time, it is assumed that Vespa I died because of the disease.

Shortly after the end of Ancient Hallownest, Hornet returns to the Hive to help establish a new queen and recover from the disease. This marks the beginning of Hive Queens from Dark Hallownest. Hive Queen Vespa II is often associated with the transitioning period, while Hive Queen Calabrone I is widely regarded as the first Hive Queen of Dark Hallownest proper. For the purpose of this book, however, only the first four Hive Queens will be counted towards the era as Vespa II officially began her rule after Ancient Hallownest.

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The Nailmaster Brothers includes Oro, Mato, and Sheo, the three apprentices of the Great Nailsage Sly. They began their apprenticeship at a young age, keeping many years of mastery under their belt.

The first brother, Nailmaster Sheo, trained the art of the Great Slash under the tutelage of the Nailsage. As Sheo continued on to have a career as the Paintmaster, that part of his career will be included separate from his time as a Nailmaster.

Sheo was considered the most accomplished out of the brothers, having improved on his Nail Art enough for his Great Slash to be different from the Nailsage's. Sheo discovered the ability to use the Great Slash with any weapon, not just his personal nail. He was the first to leave the Great Nailsage Sly to carve out his own career after completing his training as a Nailmaster and developed his personal Nail Arts.

Oro was the second brother of the Nailmaster Brothers. He built his home at the Kingdom's Edge after he and his brother Mato leave the Great Nailsage for unknown reasons. His Nail Arts, the Dash Slash, was trained to be equal to the Nailsage's Dash Slash.

Oro was sometimes seen participating in Colosseum trials in the records of the Colosseum, which connects with the location of his house being in the Kingdom's Edge.

His old house contains a weak breed of the Everbloom. It was unknown where he got the flower from, as this was too frail to be the form the White Lady would typically awards others, and he have no activities near the Ancient Gardens where the breed naturally grows.

Nailmaster Mato lives at the top of the Howling Cliffs. He masters the Art of the Cyclone Slash, an attack which allows him greater mobility in the air. This is possibly why he had chosen to live there, as the terrain there is suitable for practicing his Nail Art.

Mato depicts in his personal journal that he would stay there until he had trained his skills enough to fully master his Nail Art. This feels unusually counterintuitive, however, as guidance from the Great Nailsage could help Mato better than him trying to train alone, so there can be some other reason for him leaving.

The Nailmasters took it upon themselves to train others willing to go in the path of the nail. They have trained a lot of pupils after the end of Ancient Hallownest.

The Nailmaster Brothers have a hymn addressed to them in the Godseekers' Tribute poems. The hymn was incorrectly labelled as belonging to Oro and Mato only, which was due to the Journal being made after Sheo became the Paintmaster, excluding him from the group. Godseekers, however, came to Hallownest much earlier before this transition, and as such, would have credited the hymn to all three brothers, and added the Hymn of Inspiration. 

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After he retired from being a Nailmaster, Sheo took up residence in Greenpath and began his career as a Paintmaster. His art heavily feature the use of Great Slash with a paintbrush, an unique technique of his own. As his works of art are mostly centered around his own experiences and thoughts, the Paintmaster will not be moved to Appendix A, unlike Lurien and Monomon.

We can look at a some of his more significant paintings to decipher his life as a Paintmaster.

The first paintings in his career are two paintings titled "Sage" and "Masters". He drew the Great Nailsage and he and his brothers as the first paintings after leaving them. Despite the shading not looking quite right, their pose being stiff, and the proportions being skewed, they were unusually good for his first paintings, which might show that he have started painting before he moved out. As his first painting that we know of, it also shows his growth in his art, as the painting "Reunion", one much later in his career, depicts the four of them at a much more natural and expressive style, showing considerable development in his skills.

The later ones where titleless series of landscape paintings of the Green Caverns. He have drawn multiple artworks about the area in various places and times of the day. He drew these paintings regularly throughout his career. A few notable paintings are one depicting the Lake where something huge was moving under the water, a clearing with an indistinct figure in a red cloak, and a Moss Knight standing at a power, looking into the lake.

Another group of his paintings are ones depicting still-life, usually masks of different designs or nails of different sizes, sometimes both of them. An unique one of his is one of the few titled paintings in this category, titled "The Pure Nail". It depicts an ideal nail with various engravings and perfectly balanced. While he does not typically date his paintings, it can be inferred that this is shortly after he met the Nailsmith.

Of his few named and notated paintings, some come to mind. The painting titled "Nailsmith" was signed with a short note to his new lover, who have just moved in with him, and it came with a note signing its date of completion. After the date on the painting, dated sculptures, likely made by the Nailsmith, were starting to be made.

A painting titled "MASK", in full capitalization, shows an unique golden mask, along with his commentary about inspiration from dreams. From the design of the mask, a Godseeker was the subject of the painting. He might have met the Godseeker depicted, although it is more likely that he saw this in a dream, since Godseekers are very active in the Dream Realm.

The final painting we discuss here is a painting titled "Great Slash". We can see a figure performing the Paintmaster's signature Nail Art. Here, the figure was unnamed, but the shape of the figure was reminiscent of the White Knight in Hallownestian descriptions. What the exact implications of the painting are will be discussed further in the White Knight's chapter.

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The Great Nailsage Sly is the most prominent figures in Hallownestian mythology and history that is not of the higher caste. Despite his mortality, and his lowly beginnings, he manages to become one of the most renowned figures in the entirety of Hallownest and the surrounding area. His development of the Nail Arts gained him the title of Great Nailsage, the second person to ever be granted that title (with the first being the creator of the Nail).

Great Nailsage Sly began his life as a lowly male broodling, one of the last of a large clutch. As a male, he is barred from even trying to become a broodmother, the highest title of respect in a fly's colony, and was forced do menial labor and often starved in favor of the more healthy candidates. Being pushed around a lot by the other broodlings due to his unusually small stature (even for a fly), he always dreamed of leaving the colony and escape to the world to learn to defend himself and others, which was a sentiment echoed by his sister Esmy, who wanted to go out into the world to learn healing after she personally witnessed her mother slowly die of an infestation, as the primary caregiver. They began to make plans to leave the swarm by using a tunnel beneath their dwellings to escape unnoticed, taking advantage of existing caverns under there. On a freezing night, Sly and Esmy stole supplies and head under the tunnel to escape into the waste. Eventually, they reached Hallownest, and settles in the kingdom.

In his early days, Sly and Esmy lived by doing labor for a wage, until Sly manages to find a Nailmaster who agrees to train him, and to take care of Esmy until she found a more permanent job. Under the tutelage of the Nailmaster, Sly got his signature Grand Nail, a nail three times his own size, as the other nails did not pack a hit given Sly's small stature. He developed his own technique to fit this nail, where the other Nailmasters opted for slow, precise swings to be able to block and counter in time, Sly used the momentum from the weight of the nail to swing it in wide arcs, taking advantage of his small stature so that his swings completely covers himself and leave no opening for an attack.

Under his master, Sly quickly ascended through the ranks, bypassing the other students to learn the Great Slash, the only Nail Art at the time, and earn the rank of Nailmaster. However, witnessing the different battle styles, he is not content with just using the Nail Art as it is, knowing its weakness, that aerial attacks can easily counter the art, and once it is charged to its fullness, it is a predictable attack to counter. Sly first trained to grow his Great Slash to twice its size, with an area that can cover the top of his head. Then, he moved on to one of his greatest feat in the history of the Nail, the simultaneous wielding of multiple Nail Arts at once.

At the time, other Nailmasters was able to develop variations of the Nail Art with different weapons and different style, but they can only wield their own Art, and cannot change it without training. It is only beings of the higher caste that can do multiple arts, by instantaneously changing their own nature to suit them, but such an ability is unavailable to mortal bugs. Sly seeks to replicate this power, and sets a goal to learn three Nail Arts at once.

The idea he acted upon is the dash attack. During quick movement, certain nail attacks are altered, and the nail moves differently despite the same gestures. Sly wanted to apply this to the Nail Arts, but the Great Slash stays the wielder in their place during the slash, which cancels any momentum that was available. In his training, he manages to pull it off once, where he starts the art right at the end of his dash, and manages to elongate the Great Slash, while making it thinner. While the timing is nigh-impossible to replicate, he figured out that he needs to store the power of the Nail Art until the end of the dash to release it right then.

Sly then take on a procedure at the Crystal Peak, where he would meditate for days to crystalize himself temporarily, then breaks out of it at the last second to let the crystals seep into his shell. He repeated the procedure until one of his hearts turned into a crystal heart, capable of storing and discharging energy. Using the heart, he was able to connect the power of the Nail Art to his velocity, making him dash for much faster and further when wielding the art, and deliver a long, piercing slash at its end. He deemed this Art the Dash Slash, and became the first bugs to ever wield two Nail Arts at once.

While this is a great feat, and one that even most of the modern Nailmasters would consider the pinnacle of their career, to wield two Nail Arts at once, Sly still strives for his goal of having three Nail Arts at once. Seeing that the Nail Arts typically follows a set path upon release, being predictable and easy to counter once you know the opponent well, Sly seeks an art that lets him move freely during the art. Sly posited that the ability requires becoming one with the weapon, and after expanding his search beyond the nail to other weapons, he came across traditional Root martial arts, where they would use their own branches and roots as weapons, and enters a wild thrashing, where they would control its direction towards their enemy to strike them down.

With this in mind, Sly applied for an audience with the White Lady. With his name being widely known due to his Nail Arts, an appointment was arranged for him in the condition that he can defeat at least three of the Five Great Knights in a duel - a condition likely made by the knights themselves, seeking a worthy opponent for a trial. At the fight, he handily defeated Ogrim and quickly knocked Hegemol out of his armour. Only when he challenges Ze'mer, Dryya and Isma to fight him three-on-one did he lost the fight, but only after disarming Ze'mer and cracking Dryya's nail with his Great Slash.

In his audience, the White Lady agrees to  give him a blessing of his choice, but he only asked to be cursed by her. Surprised by his request, after warning him that not even she can fully remove it, he was cursed with a root parasite from the White Lady. Despite the parasite being the weakest the White Lady can give, it still drains a lot of his power. The only way he survived is with the help of his sister Esmy, who developed a prototype tool to pierce his own shell and silence the root every day while he attempts to learn the third Nail Art. While the original tool cannot be found, a similar machine developed by Esmy's daughter in Pharloom features multiple needles repeatedly piercing the shell of a bug over and over, a painful process exacerbated by the fact that while the machine can operate quickly, another person must slowly and painfully use the tool to impale him again and again to properly silence the parasite. When he complete his art, the tool was used on him continuously for two whole days to permanently silence the root, and he learned the art Cyclone Slash.

After learning the three arts, Sly retires to the village Dirtmouth and trains his three pupils, the Nailmaster Brothers, while opening a shop and do charmcrafting on the side. His story would continue to be known to bugs across the ages, even now, with multiple military bases and ships being named after him, and a convenience store chain even trademarks his full name.

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Alleged to be a being who have reached the state of a Pure Vessel, the Hollow Knight was a prominent figure in the Pale Court towards the end of Early Ancient Hallownest. While having no official post, they appeared as a part of the Pale Court until the sealing of the Black Egg.

The Hollow Knight was officially introduced to the Pale Court as the ideal Pure Vessel shortly after the reported end of the correspondence between the Pale King and Monomon the Teacher. Given that preparations was already been made for the movement of the White Lady to the Ancient Gardens, and she officially went there after the Hollow Knight was formally inducted, it can be deducted that the discussions on creating the Pure Vessel - the Hollow Knight - was made in preparation for the White Lady's eventual retreat, likely as a form of higher power left in the Pale Court to fill in the vacuum left by the White Lady.

From the design of the Black Egg that caters to void creatures, to survive that long inside it, the Hollow Knight is connected to void in some way or another. Described to be a still, silent being that speaks nothing and only follows orders, taking no initiative of their own, yet evidently having some kind of prescence in the dream realm and possessing active soul manipulation, there are two possibilities for the true nature of the Hollow Knight.

The first theory is that the Hollow knight might be a real bug, given void exposure, and trained to be completely silent and unresponsive to any outside interaction not given by the Pale King. This interpretation gives a plausible way for the Hollow Knight to be created and lauded as a Pure Vessel, especially given the context of securing the status of the Pale Court of belonging to the Higher Caste with the departure of the White Lady, but does not explain the necessity for the in-depth conversations with Monomon, nor the unusual longevity the Hollow Knight have given the void exposure.

The second theory is that the Hollow Knight is a void automaton similar to the Kingsmoulds, but given sentience by some form of technology. This follows through with most of the discussed content between the Pale King and Monomon the Teacher, as well as suits the description of the Hollow Knight as Pure Vessel more. The problem with this is that this have been inreplicable using mortal means even now, and if the White Lady gives the Hollow Knight some kind of blessing, due to their nature as a void being, at some point the blessing will drop, and revert the Hollow Knight to a lifeless automaton. The only way for the Hollow Knight, according to this theory, to be consistently sentient is to have a constant source of a Pale Being's energy go into sustaining the Hollow Knight's sentience, which, given the long lockdown in the Black Egg, is impossible to get.

Regardless of the origins of the Hollow Knight, and their initial purpose as the Pure Vessel, once the disease starts to overwhelm the kingdom, the Hollow Knight was assigned to be infected and locked inside the Black Egg to try to quell the disease. While the imprisonment coincides with a lucky respite from the disease, which gives false praise to the pseudoscience used in this method of quelling a normal infection, predictably, the action did nothing to help stop the outbreak, and a more virulent strain that developed quickly overtake the kingdom again years later. While the kingdom goes into a more effective presentation method with issued lockdowns, with Hornet eventually quarantining the entire nation from the outside world, it was too late to save most of the people of Hallownest, and the Hollow Knight was pointlessly stuck inside the Black Egg. It is only at the end of Ancient Hallownest did the Black Egg collapse and the Hollow Knight escaped their captivity.

Any further information on the Hollow Knight and their life after the end of Ancient Hallownest is restricted due to privacy concerns.

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Moving on to the third section of the book, about the figures that have their tales spread beyond the boundaries of Hallownest, we would have to analyze their prescence from both perspective, which might lead to other tales being included here. Keep in mind, however, the the Hallownestian version would be chosen as the ultimate portrayal in this book.

The first figure that would be included in this list is Quirrel, the Wanderer of the Wastes.

Tales outside Hallownest, told by the travellers through the wastes between kingdoms mentioned an ageless wanderer, going about in the wastes like it was his home. The wanderer are described as a pillbug wearing a mask on his head, and wielding a hilted nail, answering to the name Quirrel. The wanderer, a very capable person, would travel with the group for several days, aiding them in menial tasks without asking of anything in return, until they part ways,  with the wanderer going to an arbitrary location. He have been mentioned for the entirety of the Late Ancient Hallownest period, according to records. The final tales about him were where he actually have a destination, seeking the land of Hallownest. After that, no more mentions of him were known.

In the records for the Teacher's Archive, a bug named Quirrel with similar descriptions was found working as Monomon's assistant in the end of Early Ancient Hallownest, until shortly after the sealing of the Black Egg, where he leaves the kingdom, probably to avoid the disease.

With the average age of a pillbug at the time, it is highly improbable that Quirrel survived that long in the Wastes. It is far more likely that his descendants, who took after his outfit and moniker, followed him in his expeditious ways, and the they returned to their lost homeland after they heard that the disease was eradicated. The tales spread by the travellers often embellishes the finer details in order to paint a more interesting narrative, or otherwise one suitable to their morale. In this case, the tale of the wanderer serves as a way to downplay the dangers of the wastes, and encourage different groups of travelers to be friendly to each other.

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Born from the Fungal Core, before the Pale Wyrm's arrival, Mister Mushroom is the holder of the title Herald of the Ages, and the Master Herald. He travels to kingdoms and stayed there during significant events that marks the changing of an Age. To this day, it is his definition that defines the Ages historians use to divide periods of time in kingdoms. Multiple historians have attempted to create alternative methods of division, but his method is widely acclaimed as the most logical.

Mister Mushroom visited Hallownest around the collapse of the corpse, which signals the end of Ancient Hallownest and the transition to Dark Hallownest. Each of the Master Herald's official visits are accompanied with a poem he writes, detailing the places he intends to visit, before moving on to the next kingdom. This is the main source of information about his travels, as his memories are quite spotty, and even entering his dreams does not help much in deciphering his thoughts. Although he tries to be helpful in our interviews, he only speaks in Ancient Shroomal, and his speech is quite erratic. From the poems he left behind at least, we know that aside from this occasion, he have visited Hallownest four other times in order to herald the new age.

The first time he returned to Hallownest is at the arrival of the Pale Wyrm to Hallownest, signifying the beginning of Ancient Hallownest. The poem, found buried in the Fungal Core, depicts his travels as follows:

"Azure blood flows in floral vein,

Root of Light, thine bloom rest plain.

Beside the lake of acid blight,

Atop the peak, with childs of light.

At wasted cliffs, the lantern’s call,

The pit of nothing holds darkness's fall.

The Wyrm in Light, the thrall had casted,

The journey end. The Age have passed."

We can largely deduce the locations of the places he have visited from this poem, was largely connected to the major civilizations, higher beings, and the void of Hallownest, which fits with the major event that lead to the change being the Wyrm's arrival and subsequent mass ascension.

The second visit is at the end of Ancient Hallownest. Here, the locations visited are much more jumbled and confusing, since the tablet was damaged and half of it was missing. The clues that remains did not take well to deducing the locations.

The third visit is at the end of Dark Hallownest and the start of Medieval Great Hallownest, where Hallownest was integrated into Pharloom, forming Great Hallownest. While Pharloom did have a visit for the events relating to Dark Pharloom, the visit we will mention is the Hallownest passing only, with the poem found at the entrance to the Abyss:

"Near fallen corpse, the age once turns

Obelisks three in lush caverns.

The golden blood that flows and ebbs

A dreaming ruler of the webs.

The piece that’s left in palest sight

Its other rested in blooming light.

The prison flawed of the mind

The age has come, two threads, entwined."

While this poem was more whole, it was also exceptionally cryptic, with only the first verse and the fourth verse being deduced to be the Pale Wyrm's corpse and the Beast's Den, respectively.

The fourth visit heralds the Industrial Age, where Soul manipulation was developed and publicized, opening the gateway to many soul-based innovations and creations, and allows for taming the Wastes. Two poems was placed on the construction site of the Empire Tramway connecting the kingdoms, with one poem on Pharloom's side, and the other on Hallownest's side. This is a strange development, and there were theories that one of them was fake, but given that they coincides too much to be faked so easily, it seems that the Master Herald intends to elongate his trip to more destinations. The poems, listed for Hallownest and Pharloom respectively, are as follows:

"Vengeful remnants of soul and shade,

Crimson remembrance cast by the faded.

Ethereal land of shrill wraiths,

Thriving gather of the faith.

Fractured lights showing descent,

Gloomy haven of resent.

Beneath the tolling of the bells,

The age shall pass from those of shell."

"In scouring blight, a dreaming sight,

Transparent cages held fallen might.

A den of exiles to create the seal

The song’s true nature completes the deal.

Enlightenment wroughts mortality

Splitting threads rouses impunity.

The last of the line, their key was cast.

Through force of the time, the age shall pass."

Those two poems referred to locations in both kingdoms, where the Herald was seen moving about between the two ancient kingdoms.

The final appearance of the Herald was in the famous Formalization of the Council, where his travels holds an important part in the event. The famous live broadcast showed each of his locations and the ceremony of arrival in detail. This event was a central event mentioned in the educational curriculum, so we need not repeating the details in the book.

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The Nosks are beasts of Deepnest, who imitates others to hunt prey. Their existing unsettling qualities were exaggerated by the denizens of Deepnest, which makes them into a kind of boggart to them.

As we know now, Nosk are hunting creatures, who morphs their shell and shrink themselves to look small and weak, serving as a form of deception to their prey. They typically chooses the form of bugs they see to imitate, although they cannot mimic their higher functions, and only copy the simpler details of the being. While we now regarded that fact as a quirky feature of the beast, back then, such an ability is grossly horrifying to the people.

In Depepnest back then, however, tales regarded the Nosks as mind-reading creatures capable of exact mimicry, who would copy the visage and the personality to lure bugs into their den. This warning serves to call off people from wandering the dangerous caverns of Deepnest alone, as well as teach the people to be wary of deception and lies.

A particularly interesting interpretation of the Nosk is the Winged Nosks, where instead of slowly leading the bug into its lair, as the bug came close, it grabs the bug and fly away to devour them. While the prospect of Winged Nosks was interesting, the narrow tunnels of Deepnest are antithetical to the existence of a winged creature the size of the Nosk. Such a creature would never be able to use its wings, due to the wingspan and headspace required of the Winged Nosk exceeds any possible tunnel and cavern in Deepnest.

Nosks can be found in their enclosure in the Critically Endangered section of the Empirical Memorium. A breeding programme is being established to ensure this beast do not become extinct. As of today, the Nosk is still Extinct in the Wild, with the last Nosk being captured for safeguarding ten years ago. Nosks can be differentiated from normal bugs by listening to its movement.bIf you somehow encounter one in the wild, do not follow it. Nosks will only attack inside their den, or when they feel immensely threatened. This message is included by the sponsorship of the Empirical Memorium of Great Hallownest's Public Relations division.

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As the Weaver Queen of Deepnest, who arrived from Pharloom with the weavers, Herrah ruled the land from shortly after her arrival to the day she became a Dreamer. She have a following of Devouts, who considered her to be as a higher being for her weaver heritage.

After the Weavers arrived in Deepnest from their self-imposed exile from Pharloom, they began the unification of various tribes in Deepnest into a whole kingdom. They chose to set their capital in the Distant Village, construct the Weaver's Den, and Herrah was chosen to be queen, due to her being the best at management, and having the best relation with the populace at the time.

Under her rule, the people of Deepnest do not suffer from the infighting that plagues their life before. This leads to a population boom shortly after Herrah became queen, increasing Deepnest's productions. Under this time, a lot of materials were dedicated to the completion of the Weaver's Den. This was regarded by the documents of the Weaver's as the Golden Era of Deepnest.

After a generation, however, the increased population size leads to increased strain on the agriculture of Deepnest, which was already suffering from the conditions as plants and fungi do not grow well due to the infertile lands, and the beasts are not easily domesticated. In a particularly harsh migration cycle, where the beasts changed their nesting patterns, hunting was not enough to supply the masses, and a group of warriors from Deepnest entered the Mantis territory to get food, which incites the Mantis Tribe to go to war with Deepnest. During this period of time, the Weaver's Den was largely dedicated to developing silk weapon prototypes, with were both to serve the immediate need of the war and the need to permanently stop their mother for when she wakes. It is also during this time that the Devouts was formed, worshipping Herrah. It was first done as an experiment to ascend Herrah, before the results showed that the method is incredibly impractical for ascension, and later used as an elite force of warriors to defend Deepnest from invaders. Around this time, the Pale King began establishing relations with Deepnest, although being the only kingdom not bordering Hallownest, there were little effort on both sides for trade.

The invention of the Tramway changed the trade between Hallownest and Deepnest. A lot of trade agreements were drafted, and the construction of two tramways were arranged, though one was stopped permanently after the excavation team dug into a nesting ground of dirtcarvers. Silk trades began, and Hallownest supply Deepnest with food. Towards the end of the era, nearing the begin of the disease, the Pale King commissioned the Weavers to develop a seal that is capable of locking away Higher Beings. The circumstances following this is unknown, as the encryption of the messages remained unbroken. Some later theories states that this was for an attempt to stage a coup on the White Lady, but it was disproven after a letter from the White Lady about the construction of the seal was decoded.

With the disease spreading through the land, after Hive Queen Frelon I died and Vespa was unwilling to became a dreamer, Herrah agreed to take her place despite Hornet's recent birth. After she became a dreamer, rule over Deepnest was transferred over to Hornet and the Weavers. When the disease have its second outbreak, all the Weavers flee Hallownest, with Absolom and Karn returning to Pharloom. Herrah stayed in the Beast's Den on her plinth.

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As we all know, Hornet is considered the most influential figure in the history of Hallownest, Pharloom, and Great Hallownest that is not a full Higher Being, with facts, stories, myths, and legends relating to her existing long after the Age of Ancient Hallownest. For the purpose of this book, we will discuss her activity and tales about her in Ancient Hallownest only.

Hornet was born to Herrah of Deepnest and allegedly the Pale King. While the records of the time almost unanimously stated that she was the child of the Pale King, her lifespan was unusually high, even for a weaver, and she was sometimes seen having roots under her shell. This leads to another widespread theory that she was actually the child of the White Lady instead, based on her and the White Lady's fondness towards each other. In an interview back when she was the High Queen, she even answered that she considered both the Pale King and the White Lady to be her parent. The only point against this theory is that there would be no reason in Ancient Hallownest to hide her true heritage. That said, either the lineage of the White Lady or the Pale King gave her legitimacy over both Hallownest and Deepnest, which are potentially ground for her to eventually claim the throne of both kingdoms had the disease not existed, and would be her basis for the integration of Pharloom and Hallownest into Great Hallownest as the first High Queen.

Shortly after her birth, Herrah became a dreamer, and the weavers flee Deepnest. Hornet was sent over to Hive Queen Vespa for training. Under her tutelage, Hornet grew up in the Hive, and was accepted by the bees as one of their own. When she reached adulthood, she was named by Vespa in her maturity ceremony. Shortly afterwards, she left the Hive as Vespa sealed it from the disease.

Returning to Hallownest, she found sanctuary with the White Lady, and the Pale King, who have not go into full hibernation yet then. They discussed a lot about the disease, (which Hornet refused to elaborate on in all accounts of her interviews), and Hornet was granted the right to rule Hallownest, and the burden to defend it.

When the disease spreads across the kingdom, Hornet enacted a full-scale lockdown on the kingdom, preventing anyone from getting in or out. She would remain at this role until the collapse of the Wyrm's corpse, which, since she was very near the corpse at the time of the collapse, some predicts she might have caused it to wipe out the disease after finding out a way to do so, possibly with outside help.

After the disease was ended, Hornet participates in the organization of multiple governmental bodies to resuscitate the kingdom, with the most notable being the Hive. This continues well beyond the scope of Ancient Hallownest.

It was around the end of the Age when tales about her and the White Knight began to be known. Since this covers the White Knight, it would be discussed in detail in the next chapter.

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The White Knight is a figure of legend that are deeply intertwined with Hornet, and appears in both Hallownest and Pharloom's tales with interconnecting legends and events.

The first mentions of the White Knight are in records of Pharloom, depicting a pale figure wandering the Citadel, killing any who dare raise their voice against the silken throne. The White Knight in this form of depiction holds no relation to the tales later on, which began with the mention of the White Knight in Hallownest.

Judging by the timeline, it is difficult to identify a solid first mention of the White Knight, with Bretta's stories, Sheo's painting, and Ogrim's tales as the most apparent basis, but the multiple sources when combined tells the same story.

The first detail is the same shared story structure with appearances of the White Knight in Pharloom relating to Hornet, with the only change being how the locations being changed for Pharloom. The White Knight duelling Hornet at Greenpath was mirrored by the White Knight duelling Hornet at the Deep Docks, which serves as the introductory point for their interactions. The duel was significant in that they are both described as unusually inept in battle than their other appearances, which was probably a point of narrative to show progression in the later duel.

The second battle they are told to have is the duel at either the Wyrm's Corpse and the Cradle, depending on the kingdom. Those two locations are the locations near the power of a Pale Being, and the event that happened later, the collapse of the Wyrm's corpse and Hornet defeating Silk, are also closely related. The events of the duel are also told to be more close to the actual level of skill Hornet and the White Knight are often referred to as having. In Hallownest in particular, it is this encounter that Bretta have written about in greatest detail.

The final encounter is in the depths of the Abyss. While no battle was described as no eyewitnesses can claim to be in the Abyss and lived to tell the tale, due to its corroding nature. However, in both Pharloom and Hallownest's iterations of the tale, Hornet was seen entering the Abyss alone and leaving by the side of the White Knight.

The trilogy of Hornet and the White Knight shows an excellent example of cultural adaptation of a tale. While those three tales were originally associated with Hallownest, using a name adapted from Pharloom's legends, when Hornet arrives in Pharloom, the tale was also imported and retrofitted to match the land. This come with both changes in locations and in a character's nature, with changes to demeanor and description reflecting the culture, with the White Knight in Hallownest being silent and reserved, fitting for Hallownest's culture after the disease outbreaks, and the White Knight in Pharloom being a vocal loyalist to Silk aside from the usual actions, likely an added detail for propaganda.

Later occurrences also detailed Hornet travelling with the White Knight in Hallownest long after Ancient Hallownest, suggesting at least some pale influence that the White Knight have in order to have the extended lifespan. This also cements the White Knight as a real figure, not one created through tales and legend. The main issue is finding from which instance did the White Knight moves from being a legend to being a real figure.

Arguments for the original White Knight being the earliest tales in Pharloom relies on the obvious facts that this is the first version of the figure. Further tales of the White Knight in Hallownest corroborates the ruthlessness the White Knight was known for in the Pharloom version, with Ogrim describing the White Knight mowing down hoards of infected bugs.

The theory of the Hallownestian tales being the first occurrence of a real White Knight cites the lack of travel between Pharloom and Hallownest, but lacks explanation for the White Knight's inactivity between the two periods of occurrence, that the explanation of the White Knight travelling between Pharloom and Hallownest can explain.

Hornet is told to hold great respect for the White Knight, and was a companion of the White Knight in the latest occurrences in Hallownest. However, as no one thought to ask Hornet when she was still available for interviews, the finer details about the White Knight is still disputed to this day.

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In this final part of the book, we move on to figures that spreads religion and preaches for the worship of Higher Beings. We begin with a classic example of one such prosetylizers for the Pale Court - Elder Hu.

Elder Hu was a figure that arises at the end of Ancient Hallownest, when the disease's outbreaks was becoming unmanageable. He would wander the Fungal Wastes, looking for the infected and treat them, while reassuring them that the Pale King and the White Lady would eventually figure out a cure for them all.

His ways was even respected by the Mantis Lords for his honor, who traditionally despise anyone affiliated with the Pale Court. They would occasionally house him and supply him on his journeys, and kept records about his actions.

With his proximity to the disease, he too eventually become infected. He was killed by the Lords as a mercy to the pain the disease would have wrought him in his latest stage, and the Mantis Lords gave him a grave at the Wastes, above the way into the City of Tears. His story arises as one of the more noble ones during the disease and the downfall of the kingdom.

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The Moss Prophet organizes a cult during the end of Ancient Hallownest among their fellow Mosskin.

The cult of the Moss Prophet focus on the foolish idea of following the "light", which is represented by the disease. The Prophet's idea is to willingly infect themselves in order to get embraced by the "light" and avoid death.

After a period of preaching in Greenpath, the cult manages to gain an adequate amount of followers from their kin. Going to the Mantis Village to continue their preaching, the Moss Prophet was quickly chased out of the region, with most of the following members being killed. They convenes at an abandoned chapel to preach again until the disease kill the Moss Prophet.

The cult does not survive very well after all of its members eventually died from disease and infection, along with all the Mosskin that contracted the disease from the cult. All that remains from the cult is the scriptures the Moss Prophet has written prior to their death, and the records of the Mantis Village.

The scriptures contains mostly meaningless drivel advocating for the infection of every living being in Hallownest, but there was one passage where the Prophet referenced void as "emptiness", and concluding that all such things from "emptiness" is unnatural and must be destroyed. This passage contains strangely accurate knowledge about the nature of Kingsmoulds, Wingmoulds, and more advanced forms of Void Vessels, and how to identify them. It is unknown how the Moss Prophet have such knowledge of Void technology, considering that most of it is strictly regulated by the Pale Court. Regardless, the remaining ideas that remained mindless and idiotic suggests that the passage was likely stolen knowledge.

At the time, such a belief was foolish even from such an archaic way of thinking. It is a wonder how such ideas, idiotic as they may be, even persisted until these modern days with bugs who sprouted conspiracy theories and refused proper treatment, and a tragedy that those bugs did not do us the favor to all die off, instead hanging on the kindness of our healers to argue against the very treatments that kept them alive.