What Is With The Dreamer's Houses? Herrah's Den

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Would you like to see some more outfits? I had to practice drawing Hornet before I could draw this portrait.

The original outfit is my attempt at drawing OG Hornet design without any reference. Somehow the horns turned out right.

The Upper-Right outfit is my own design. I added some fuzz armor for protection and decoration. I gave Hornet a utilty belt with silk, a pouch, and a Weavers' badge all in reference to Silksong. I also made a choice to not have Hornet be so dark. Canonically, Hornet isn't void, so her shell color shouldn't be black. I went with a grey to be close as possible to her canonically colors.

The Lower-Left outfit is a Formal outfit. I figured that Hornet would like to honor all three of her mothers (Daughter of Hallownest), so I incorporated all three aspects of her mothers. The purple cloak is in honor of Queen Herrah while the dress design is something the Hallownestian nobles would wear. Thus Hornet would be respecting the White Lady. The golden gems are for Queen Vespa. Of course, Hornet must still dress like herself. Red, her favorite color (no more white for Hornet now she is grown). Hornet also wears a web crown and Weavers' crest for she is the Princess of Deepnest.

Finally, in the Lower-Right corner is of course, Todder Hornet. She would have carried her needle anywhere before being traumatized during the Infection, after which she carried her needle everywhere even when she felt safe.

A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background. 

What is with the Dreamers' Houses?!?! Part 3.8 Lurien's Spire - Secret Room!

Onto to the secret room!

It is a very small room, making me wonder how Lurien walked into here. All three colors associated with the Watcher’s Spire are here, though the purple glow is dominant.

First things first, Lurien has his own Lore Tablets, which is very unique in the kingdom. No, seriously, he’s the only guy who has a lore tablet with no magic or science behind it. (Not to mention a private lore tablet, not a public notice.)

The only lore tablet we can read is Lurien’s last words, which I read for you in the last part. Here is it is repeated below. To quote Lurien’s last journel entry:

“Sleep beckons eternal and these words become my last. Though my gaze shall no longer fall upon this city, I will act forever in its protection. For King, for bug, for Hallownest, I head now to my rest.”

His last words tell of Lurien’s determination, dedication, and peace.

One interesting thing to note is that we only get to read Lurien’s thoughts, not the other Dreamers. We know nothing of Herrah’s thoughts, except for everything being done for Hornet. We read Monomon’s reports, but please forgive me for stating how those tanks merely report events happening like a science report, not giving us Monomon’s personal thoughts on the matter. Those come from Quirrel translating her actions to us.

I’ll be honest, this room infuriates me for one simple reason, every lore tablet and all the ‘wanderer’s’ journals lying here are clearly written by Lurien and contain his thoughts, but we are not allowed to read any of them…except for his last entry!!! The 1 Dreamer we know little about and we have an entire room with his diaries and we can’t read it!!!

Lemm would have a field day in here. Can you imagine the classified information or missing links Lurien has in here?

And don’t think “classified” and go “Oh! Pale King fanboy!” No. Look around. I can’t even find a single Hallownest crest here, much less Monarch Wings representing the Pale King.  (Except the chair. Maybe.) Take a look.

          If we move on, it is easy to notice how the lamp is out. This is the first time we’ve seen a lamp that was clearly supposed to give light, but there’s none. It’s almost as if either the bug inside the lamp died OR the Spire staff did not expect anyone to enter this room anymore.

Artist Aspidiske did a comic about that lamp, so I will let you read it. On the Last Day - Aspidiske - Hollow Knight (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

          Before I touch on the entrance to this secret room, allow me to remark on what’s bugging me. Lurien’s journals are just dumped on the ground.  All other journals in the Spire are at least on shelves, these are in piles. And I would like to know why as we haven’t seen Lurien being particularly organized or disorganized before.

          Now! The Entrance!

          The secret room to Lurien’s last thoughts is blocked by a statue of Lurien! Which is very weird once you stop to think about it.

          In game, you come across several statues in Hallownest. These statues tend to come in three categories: Items of worship (like the Pale King or the Radiance statue at Crystal Peak), statues of civilizations gone by (most often seen in the Queen’s Gardens), or memorials to dead people.

          And here’s Lurien with not one, but three statues to himself.

          Only one of the three statues breaks when you hit it, leading you to the secret room, which makes sense for finding secrets. But real life before Lurien went to dreaming…

It makes no sense for Lurien to have this statue when he was awake. The statue is pretty, but very unpractical for someone to use that hidden room. And this is Lurien we are talking about here. Out of the Dreamers, he is the only one who goes for both the beautiful and practical. And based on the section regarding the pillows, Lurien isn’t vain either, so he wouldn’t have a statue of himself, much less three!!!

          The statues, Lurien’s character, the dark lamp, and the journels have me thinking. What if Lurien was NOT the person who put the statue there, but rather his people put the statue up after he went into the Dreamer. Remember we already know that Weavers rearranged Herrah’s Den so it would be a shrine for her. So it is not much of a stretch to say Lurien’s people rearranged the Spire to honor Lurien after he passed into the Dreaming.

          If this is true, then the statue for Lurien is a memorial statue. It is still extermely rare as it has COLOR whereas the other statues have more stone or metal like colors. Lurien’s colored statue gaurds his last thoughts, preserving the Watcher’s last thoughts and allowing those in depersate need to read any of Lurien’s journels.

          Then this begs the question, what about the other two statues? I hereby argue that these statues are indeed of the Watcher but not Lurien. If the secret room has all of Lurien’s thoughts, with the last entry being his last thoughts, and the statue was put up after Lurien “died”, than the other two statues could have put up when the previous Watchers passed away. Yes, I agrue that those bottom two statues belong to the Watchers before Lurien.  And those statues also guard rooms with the previous Watchers’ thoughts. Yet we are prevented from accessing them lest the fans confuse those two Watchers with Lurien himself.

          If this theory is true, what does it say about Lurien? He is the third Watcher in a line. Firstly, the job of Watcher was not created for Lurien, but rather Lurien proved himself in such a way that the Pale King appointed him to the position. Secondly, Lurien is in a tradition. Did you notice how all the statues looked the same? They all have a simple blue robe and shared mask. Lurien isn’t just wearing the robes for fashion, he is honoring the Watchers who have come before him. Third, if all three Watchers are wearing such simple robes and mask,  they are hiding their individual identities. Whether it be so people of Hallownest can focus on the mask or so the Watchers’ can protect their families, I shall leave that up to the fans as there are 3 Watchers, leaving room for interpretation. Fourth, the inner character of the Watcher was always more important than the species of the Watcher.  Again, all three Watchers are wearing simple robes that hide which species they are. To this day, fans debate on what species Lurien is. Yet all along, we were looking at the wrong thing, myself included. Personal character and individual skill were the most important aspect of Lurien. And that character and skills made him the most powerful bug right under the Royal Couple.

So, what do you think? Please reblog and share your thoughts!

If you wish to read more of the Essay, click one of these links below.

Part 1.0: Herrah's Den : Here

Part 2.0: Monomon's Archives: Here

Part 3.0: Lurien's Spire: Here

Part 3.25: Lurien's Spire: Windows and Colors: Here

Part 3.5: Even More of Lurien's Spire. Here

Part 3.7: What is WRONG with Lurien's Spire?: Here

Part 3.8: Even, even More of Lurien's Spire: Secret Room (You are here)

Part 3.9 Watcher Knight Boss Room! Here

Part 4.0 What We Know We Don't Know About the Dreamers' Houses: Click Here

Link to essay on Ao3: Here

If you have thoughts you wish to share, please feel free to comment or reblog! Especially with the above observation!

Has anyone ever had a Pokemon deck where they clearly promote ONE Pokemon card to the best in the deck, but in reality it is the mostly unlikely Pokemon to be OP? I'll go first.

My Flaming Charizard deck my brothers gave me. The box is Charizard, the mat is Charizard, the engeries are fire so Charizard can use his awesome ability; the coin that decides my fate? Charizard.

Which card causes my brothers to tremble in fear?

The Queen. Specifically, Niodoqueen who was put in there SOLELY to counter any water types poor Charizard can't take out.

Wonder how she EARNED her title as Queen? Check out the card and do the math.

Guess how many evolution Pokemon are in my deck? Guess how many are in the field by the time Nidoqueen shows up? Hehe...

Okay, okay, doubt the ability to get Nidoqueen powered up right away? Her base form has "Call for Family" which allows me to call for ONE basic Pokemon and put it on my bench, which is supposed to be used to set up Charamander to Charizard. It proceeds to build up an entire team from which I find the evolutions to evolve (Somehow Charizard doesn't show up till LATER!) which often result in Nidoqueen having FOUR evolved Pokemon on the bench. 50 + 50 + 50 + 50 + 10 = 210 damage.

In other words, thanks bros for giving me the power to take out your Dragonites!!!!

Watcher Dad AU that nobody asked for but here it is!

A) Lurien's main business outfit.

B) The Watcher's Crest - symbolizing the City of Tears

C) Lurien with a half-mask. Only wears it at home either alone or surrounded by those he cares about the most.

D) Disguise. Yes. It works. Lurien's knights are baffled that nobody watches the Watcher enough to tell that he walks the same despite wearing different colors and a three-hole mask.

Baby Knight gets adopted! And almost immediate glow-up and grow-up!

Fortis (Latin for "brave, strong") is one very happy baby living in the Watcher's Spire with Daddy. His best friend is Grubby the plushies and isn't he the best?

"Nice characters are boring" to YOU. I love characters who no matter what, will always have genuine love for humanity in their heart. Characters who dance and laugh and sing with sincerity. Characters who believe in others, and are willing to extend a helping hand to people when no one gave them the same luxury. Characters who have gone through so much but believe, no matter what, that humanity and life is something beautiful and worth protecting

I want this to be my car someday!

i feel like we as a digital society have forgotten the important rules of the internet

Don't feed the trolls

Never give out personal information

Anonymity is the best defense

Don't click suspicious links

Don't click popups and ads

Just because it's written doesn't mean it's true

You are responsible for your own experience

There is porn of everything, act accordingly

Sometimes...a little Humble Pie like this allows one to create the most beautiful masterpieces.

Now excuse me while I go create. Don't you have something to create too...Artist? Writer? Go while you still have time. I hope to see you again with flushed cheeks and starry eyes as you show me your latest creation.

being an artist is humiliating

I don't think this is talked about enough.

When you put something out in the world, you have to accept the possibility you won't get anything back.

Maybe you laid your heart bare on a one-shot that got zero comments. Maybe it was a painting you spent hours working on that didn't get the engagement you wanted.

I think it might have been the reason I stopped creating, for a little while at least.

I got obsessed with the stupid little numbers and metrics. Got happy when people liked my content, got sad when it resonated with no one. My relationship with what I created was determined by my perception of how many people engaged with it.

I waited day and night for the dopamine rush of notifications. I refresh my inbox, thinking that one of these days, somebody will leave some kind of affirmation, and somehow that recognition will imbue what I created with more significance. More value, writ-large.

If it got crickets, then I've failed somehow. It just wasn't good enough, I say to myself.

For the longest time, I felt like everything I created had to prove it belonged. It all felt like a race, except I didn’t know who I was competing against, only that I always felt left behind and couldn't keep up.

That's my fault. I can't help but measure myself.

But isn’t that the universal tendency? To view our past achievements as a benchmark we have to constantly overcome? Isn’t that why we’re so satisfied to look at old works we made and see how far we’ve come?

I remember what my old teacher used to say. “You’re only as good as your last piece.” As if art exists only to constantly prove itself. As if art is forever doomed to fight for its place in this world.

Well, I'm sick of it.

And so I'm realizing, in real-time, that I don’t want to fight for my place anymore. I don’t want to pander to some stupid algorithm.

I want to create. 

I want to believe that a work of art is good simply because it exists out of necessity. Out of someone’s urgent desire to share a piece of their heart in the world because it would have been devastating to keep to themselves. That’s always been very beautiful to me. It's why there is so much heart in fanworks because of the sheer heart poured into it—a love that is as raw as an exposed nerve.

There are so many stories in your head, numerous in number and nebulous in form, that eventually come to fruition as these delicate, precious things you’ve been brave enough to summon into existence. To materialize in a timeline or dashboard. To somehow take up space in people’s minds if only briefly. 

Maybe that in itself is the miracle. That what you conjured in your head somehow made its way into something real. Whether in tiny strokes or tiny letters on a tiny screen.

Somehow, the numbers next to them don’t seem to matter as much.

Lurien does not like to cross paths with the Pale King, because he demands work reports from him (reports that he makes the night before the scheduled delivery of these reports, obviously)

Lurien avoids meetings with the Pale King

Expected reasons: The King is so handsome and inaccessible… Next to him, my heart stops, my thoughts get confused, it's so hard to breathe… I hope he doesn't notice how much I want to kiss him…

The real reasons: Oh no, he's going to ask me about work and how the monthly report is going. I just got out of a drawing binge yesterday, I need an alcoholic binge because of the number of unopened mail, and somehow all the ink ran out in the tower, and the personnel department forgot to buy a new batch of envelopes to send, and I don't know what's going on in the city right now

To hell with Lurien, who is in love with the Pale King, for him he is the boss who makes him work X)