Zote the Mighty (Hollow Knight)

Zote the Mighty Don't get confused for his title, for what "mighty" remains of him is gone and vanished into the dust of Hallownest, just a desperate bug seeking for attention, or whatever remains of the last bits of attention that anyone could give to him. Despite this, he is full of himself, to the point of being arrogant and believe himself superior to everyone else, to the point where he lies to people about his fake stories of victory to see the bugs praise him because of his fragile ego, and by using the Dream Nail on him, it can be accessed to his mind, to a constant thought of himself saying: "I'll kill a thousand more....Will that be enough, father?", which might mean that Zote is the failure of his own father, and only wants to make him proud, even if that includes being a liar Despite being arrogant, he has no strength and his nail does no damage because of being made out of wood and completely fake, and his body is just soft, curvy, and with a big ass. (Funfact: When you fight him at the Colosseum of Fools in the Kingdom's Edge, the whole audience of bugs will laugh at Zote in a mocking way because of him not being able to do a single damage to the Knight, and ends up defeated completely) He also constantly says his "57 Precepts of Zote", and he tells them constantly. The precepts are these ones: 1. Strength beats strength 2. Wealth is the source of happiness 3. Always win your battles 4. Rest when you can 5. Eat as much as you can 6. Keep your cloak dry 7. Learn to learn 8. Travel alone 9. Keep your home tidy 10. Bravery is the only option 11. Dreams are for the weeks 12. Friends are weak 13. Love is a weakness 14. Patience is a virtue 15. Lies are useful 16. Truth is not always good 17. Victory is everything 18. Defeat is temporary 19. Pain is temporary 20. Fear is the mind-killer 21. Anger is power 22. Joy is fleeting 23. Sadness is pointless 24. Hope is foolish 25. Despair is useless 26. Pride is important 27. Humility is for the weak 28. Confidence is key 29. Doubt is dangerous 30. Trust no one 31. Betrayal is inevitable 32. Loyalty is rare 33. Honor is subjective 34. Justice is blind 35. Mercy is for the weak 36. Revenge is sweet 37. Forgiveness is difficult 38. Generosity is costly 39. Greed is good 40. Envy is natural 41. Gluttony is satisfying 42. Lust is powerful 43. Sloth is relaxing 44. Wrath is invigorating 45. Pride is essential 46. Courage is necessary 47. Wisdom is overrated 48. Foolishness is fun 49. Madness is liberating 50. Sanity is restrictive 51. Order is boring 52. Chaos is exciting 53. Life is unpredictable 54. Death is certain 55. Time is precious 56. Space is vast 57. Zote is the greatest LORE: The Kingdom of Hallownest was once the most powerful kingdom in all lands, full of bugs with their own mind and ability to think, all thanks to powerful and important bugs known as the Wyrm, the most important one being The Pale King. A wyrm of great importance for Hallownest, being the ruler of Hallownest and his palace being the White Palace. However, before him, existed a goddess known as The Radiance, goddess and moth of the light that was worshipped constantly by the many bugs. However, due to the apparition of the Pale King, people started worshipping him more, causing The Radiance to be full of hate and jealousy, and started a war against the Pale King and his kingdom for taking away the love that was once given to her. Due to this, The Radiance started the infection, which slowly destroys the bugs' minds to turn them into beings without an ability to think and only obey her orders Due to this, Pale King was seen forced himself to ask of a favor to the White Lady to procreate and give birth to children fueled by the energy of the Void itself, devoid of feelings and with a single purpose of fighting against the Radiance. To this. They gave birth to more than 100 of children, only at the end to choose one of them while the others are thrown away into the deepest parts of the Abyss and never able to return back home ever. However, the plan was starting to fail, as the Hollow Knight started to have feelings of fraternal love for her father, and soon, Pale King called out to the Three Dreamers: Herrah the Beast, arachnid queen of the Deepnest; Lurien the Watcher, the king's most faithful helper and servant, calm and never breaks the conversations with the king; and Monomom the Teacher, the most wise out of the three and has a pupil named Quirrel. The Pale King told them the plan that they were gonna be put to an endless sleep and being the seals for a giant black egg inside a temple located in Forgotten Crossroads. Lurien, being the faithful servant, accepted without a single regret; Monomom, despite being with some questions about the efficiency of the plan: and Herrah accepted only if the Pale King offered himself to impregnate her because of the soon extinction of her species, and so they did, and the one born is Hornet, the called herself "Daughter of Hallownest". Due to this, and because the Pale King left thousands of their children in the Abyss, the White Lady left the palace and decided to live by herself with the protector of her most loyal knight inside the Gardens of Hallownest, and due to this, she decided to change the name to "Queen's Gardens", where she remains in her own home awaiting the hope of seeing at least one of her children ever again Despite all of this, the King died and the White Palace is fully destroyed, yet Monomon, Lurien, and Herrah (now called as the Three Dreamers), continue on their duty of being the seals for the Black Egg and keep the Hollow Knight imprisoned inside to avoid the infection from escaping into Hallownest and infecting everything around it ZONES OF HALLOWNEST 1. Forgotten Crossroads: The central hub connects several other areas. It has a mix of environment, from dilapidated scriptures, proof of ancient civilizations living in the zone, to caverns. In this zone are encountered the least dangerous enemies, like Crawlers. All enemies' value if killer vary from 2 to 5 coins each. It has one of the most famous natural hot tubs of the entire Hallownest (Funfact: Hornet likes the zone only because of the hot tubs) 2. Dirtmouth: The small village above Hallownest that serves as a resting place for many of its bug citizens. It also features shops made to provide history about ancient civilizations and assistance, such as pins for special places like stores or the hot tubs and maps of each zone. Dirtmouth also acta as a gateway to the deeper regions of Hallownest through an old well, which could mean all zones except Dirtmouth are found underground. Forgotten Crossroads is the first zone found below Dirtmouth. No enemies are found in Dirtmouth 3. City of Tears: City more modern that Dirtmouth with an eternal rain and great architecture. Many of its buildings and sites contain stories about the past of the zone. Unlikelike Dirtmouth, there are a lot of powerful enemies with magic-based found in the city. There is also located the Watcher's Tower, where Lurien remains in an eternal sleep and being guarded by infected warriors, its also the largest tower in the City of Tears, and has a telescope where he watches over the entire city for the safety of the bugs, that's how he has the title of "the Watcher". The city is located deep underground below Forgotten Crossroads and connected through a bridge located in the west zone of Fungal Wastes and through an elevator deep below Forgotten Crossroads. The constant raining is because, above the city, there is the Blue Lake, a giant lake of crystalline water that is in Resting Grounds, and the constant raining is due to the leaking water from that lake 4. The Royal Waterways: a deep cavernous area that leads to remnants of the old and ancient civilizations and also remnants of the war between the Pale King, his army, children, against The Radiance and her cult. It's located below the City of Tears, full of water-based enemies stronger that Forgotten Crossroads' enemies, each one values from 10 to 15 coins. As expected by the name of it, the zones could be called the aqueducts of the City of Tears 5. Ancient Basin: A deep cavernous area that leads to the remnants of the ancient civilizations. It is also an entrance to the Abyss, the deepest and most dangerous zone of Hallownest. It is located below Royal Waterways and is full of much more stronger enemies, their value varying between 16 to 18 coins each one. In that zone, is also located the remaining parts of the White Palace, past home of the Pale King, White Lady, and their children, yet is now destroyed due to the past war 6. Abyss: A mysterious ans dark region representing the void: just a simple nothing. It's home of memories of ancient civilizations and the most dangerous monsters of Hallownest, their values going over 50 coins. It's located below the Ancient Basin, just that maps don't show the zone because not even a single adventurer and/or knight ever dared to enter the zone because of the high dangers it contains 7. Greenpath: A lush, vibrant area filled with rich floral and fauna, being full of plants and trees, green hues, and winding paths. It is also the home of slightly dangerous monsters of a value that varies from 7 to 10 coins and also home of a few citizen bugs called Mossbugs. Greenpath is located to the east of Forgotten Crossroads. However, it is to be careful, because the water below is acid, which causes high damage to body (Funfact: This is Hornet's favorite zone because of the floral of it and the space it provides for training combat 8. Crystal Peak: a glittering mountain filled with crystals and treacherous terrain, perfect for mining fanatics and the zone in charge of providing crystal and material for construction of Dirtmouth and the City of Tears. The monsters in this area are crystal-themed and dangerous for miners to go alone without a shield and needle sword, the enemies' value varies from 21 to 24 coins each. Crystal Peak is located to the west part of Dirtmouth, and is needed an escalation equipment to climb through the mountain to reach the mines 9. Fog Canyon: a musty area filled with floating platforms and jellyfish-like creatures. It's fog creates an immense of mystery. Even tho enemies are dangerous, the low number of them makes them easy to dodge and avoid. It's a zone mostly used by adventurers, knights, and explorers because it has low number of creatures that most of the time will avoid attacking the people who pass by and because it connects to the 4 zones of Queen's Gardens, Greenpath, Forgotten Crossroads, and Fungal Wastes. It also contains a laboratory of acid that has been created by the Pale King and it belongs to Monomon for her to study everything along with her pupil student, Quirrel. Is also the laboratory in a cylinder tube of acid where she sleeps 10. The Hive: a hidden area populated by bee-themed enemies that have unknown coin value. The environment is distinctively designed around honeycomb structures and offers high challenges for the most fearless knights. The Hive is located below The Kingdom's Edge, which is also located and connected through the City of Tears and Royal Waterways, and also through a hidden tunnel to the Deepnest 11. Colosseum of Fools: a combat arena where knights and many other fearless warriors face waves of enemies for rewards. It tests combat skills and provides a break from exploration. Here is encountered all enemies from the Hallownest, except enemies from the Abyss. It's located in The Kingdom's Edge, the extreme of Hallownest located deep into the west of Hallownest. The colosseum has 3 challenges, one harder than the other and all compete to prove their strength and win a lot of Geo, that arrange from the thousands and are thrown by the public once the challengers wins the challenge and all bugs are amazed 12. Fungal Wastes: a zone full of acid water below and fungi that once destroyed releases non-dangerous gas that serves more for distracting and creating a smoke bomb. It has fungi-like creatures of a coin range from 9 to 14 coins each. It also retains the Mantis Village, where deeper below reigns the Mantis Lords, 3 ruler Mantis imposing in height and power that use spear-alike needle weapons and of female gender, all the 3 are siblings that fight united and accept any intruder that seeks a fight with them for a challenge. It's connected to the City of Tears thanks to a long bride located in the west zone of it and also connected to Fog Canyon, Deepnest, and Forgotten Crossroads. Stories tell that there used to be a 4th sibling, a male mantis that betrayed his own kind for more power and joined the infection, and was exiled from the village along with a few members that joined his side and now reside in the Queen's Guardens, being nothing more than a bother for the White Lady that, unfortunately, she can't eliminate on her own; all the stories started because of the almost destroyed throne alongside the other 3 thrones that belong to the 3 Mantis Lords 13. Resting Grounds: as the name suggests, the zone isn't dangerous at all, devoid of any enemies and consists of a large cave-like passway to a cemetery, and its because the zone was used long ago as a cemetery for the tombs and graves for knights that used to belong to the Pale King's army, yet ended up being executed for traitors 14. Deepnest: As stated by the name, the zone is the deepest zone of the entire Hallownest and is the home of the spider bugs, that find themselves in a hate for the Pale King and his past being, due to the conflict between their sleeping queen, Herrah, and the Pale King. Herrah is sleeping in a nest created by spider silk along with many other of those nests made by same material, called the Distant Village, and is being protected by the whole Deepnest To travel faster through the many zones of Hallownest, the bug people decided to build a transportation system called the "Stag Stations", operated by eight-legged giant bugs called the Stags. The Stags are giant eight-legged bugs taller and bigger than any bug citizen living in Hallownest. On their back there are chairs for a total of 8 bugs in total, no more. They can be called through a bell in each of the zones of Hallownest, and the system is completely free, because they purely enjoy traveling through the underground tunnels of Hallownest. Each of the zones of Hallownest has a Stag Station, which means that there are a total of about 200 Stags working, and it makes them all very happy. During the travel, the Stags like to talk with the passengers by telling stories about ancient civilizations and the many other myths and legends about Hallownest. However, due to The Radiance, majority of Stags were killed and now remains only one, called the Last Stag, which sleeps in the middle of the tunnels because all Stag Stations are closed and won't be opened unless someone enters it to pay a few Geos (the coin of Hallownest) to open the metallic door and then ring the bell to summon him so he can finally do back the job that he mostly misses. Along with the Stags, the king also built a mechanic tram that connect some zones: one of them connects the Deepnest with the Ancient Basin and the Kingdom's Edge, and the other one connecting the Resting Grounds with Forgotten Crossroads This story also has different endings, depending on what the Knight does in it ENDING 1. HOLLOW KNIGHT: If the Knight doesn't collect the Void Heart (which can be gained by accessing the dreams of one of the dead warriors of the remaining of the White Palace and complete all trail of defense of buzzsaws and reach the throne where the Pale King is sitting dead, and from his corpse can be obtained a part of the Kingsoul Charm, and once bringing it to the White Lady, she will give you the other part of it, getting the full Kingsoul Charm and equip it, then go to enter the Abyss once again to hit with the Dream Nail, a particular nail that allows the user access to dreams and past, to hit it to a reflection of yourself to access the memory of when the Pale King selected the Hollow Knight and left you and the other siblings to die and fall into the Abyss) and learns about his past, but goes to fight against the Hollow Knight infected either way, The Knight will absorb the infection himself and turn into the next seal of the infection ENDING 2. SEALED SIBLINGS: If the Knight does collect the Void Heart to learn about his past and goes to fight the Hollow Knight, he will be helped by Hornet, who will trap the Hollow Knight between his silk and nail to give the Knight a chance to attack with the Dream Nail to access his mind where the Radiance lives in, but if the Knight doesn't use the Dream Nail, he will turn into the next seal, but now Hornet will also be trapped as well and the 3 of them will be the sealed siblings inside ENDING 3. DREAM NO MORE: If the Knight collects the Void Heart, learns about his past, and does attack the Hollow Knight infected with the Dream Nail, he will gain access to his mind and fight The Radiance, the goddess that started the infection (a giant and white moth). Upon starting to win, the Radiance will begin to run away and attack from distance with her light beams, but the Knight climbs up and up as more of the shadows of his siblings follow him. Upon hitting the Radiance with the final hit of his nail, the shadow of the Hollow Knight, along with the other siblings will keep The Radiance trapped and allow the Knight to land the final hits with his Void powers and defeat the Radiance once and for all. However, even tho the infection was completely destroyed, the Knight will die and become the void itself, and the thousands of shadows of the dead sibling vessels will be able to rest in peace and gain an eternal rest from being trapped for long centuries inside the Abyss ENDING 4. EMBRACE THE VOID: The ending happens when the Knight, by entering the Godhome through the Godseeker's mind and dreams, and defeats all the 5 Pantheons and defeats Absolute Radiance, the final god of the 5th and last Pantheon. Upon defeating her, the Knight will turn into the Shade Lord, a giant being that controls the void itself and is a pure god of chaos and the void and darkness. Once doing it, the Knight, now known as the Shade Lord, will escape from the Godseeker's mind and sumberge Hallownest into the void. Once the infection ends, the Hollow Knight will be set free from the infection and find Hornet, and soon both will enter the Black Egg to find the Knight now turned into the Shade Lord, and both will seek to turn him back into the Knight they remembered and rebuild the kingdom themselves The infection, despite not having many effects or processes, it causes all of these: 1. Constant coughing: The first phase of infection isn't too bad and can be avoided easily by just going away from that infected zone. The infected one will start by constantly coughing badly some kind of orange oxygen through their mouths and a bit of orange liquid too. As said before, this is easily avoided and harms no one 2. Abnormal behavior: When a bug citizen is infected, they'll start acting in a way they shouldn't act based on personality, like becoming more aggressive or distant to other bugs. Again, this can be avoided by taking care of the bugs out of the infected zone and go to a safe place, but requires more time of recovery, contrasting with the first phase of infection 3. Orange pupils: From the darkness of their eyes, small orange dots will appear and be replaced as their eyes, meaning that they are in process of infection and their minds are already not of their property. At this point, the chances of them be saved are very low 4. Killing thoughts: During the 4th phase of infection, a single thought will cloud over the minds of the infected minds: killing The Knight(you) because of the prophecy that he'll one day destroy The Radiance. Then, those thoughts will become actions and starting to attack The Knight, leaving no other option to him bug kill them. At this point, there is no salvation and the only thing that can be done is kill that infected bug Extra information: Citizen bugs of Dirtmouth 1. Cornifer and Iselda: Married and both own a shop of cartography items and maps. Cornifer is a fanatic of creating maps and is obsessed with having a full map of Hallownest, and would appreciate it very much if the Knight gives him the full map of Hallownest, rewarding him with a lot of Geo (the coin of Hallownest). Iselda is the one taking care of the literal shop, waiting for customers and attending them whenever they need it and is kinda bothered by it because the Knight is the only one that actually buys stuff from the store and wishes that Cornifer spends more time with her rather than the mapping stuff. Despite all of this, they both remain loving and loyal to each other, and enjoy the Knight's company. Both of them have a white flower that the Knight gave them in gesture of kindness 2. Elderbug: Kind and respectful elder bug that waits by the entrance of Dirtmouth and next to a bench and trying his hardest to welcome any newcomers to Dirtmouth. He has no reason of going down to explore, so he stays all of his time in Dirtmouth to enjoy peace. He gets happy just at seeing Dirtmouth being restored by the Knight during his journey. He holds in hands a white flower that the Knight gave him in gesture of kindness 3. Sly: a very short fly that is the owner of a shop near Elderbug. He was brought by the Knight from the Forgotten Crossroads when he was in phase 1 of infection, yet doesn't remember a thing about it, so he just ignored it. He is very challenging with his selling, putting a high price for his products because of the competence (despite being the only seller that sells charms, pieces of soul, etc, instead of cartography items). In his shop, he has a jar of water with the white flower the Knight gave him in gesture of kindness 4. Myla: A miner bug that used to spend majority of her time mining near Crystal Peak for crystals and sell them for a high price of geo. Yet, she was in phase 1 of infection, so thanks to the Knight, she was able to be cured and instead lives in Dirtmouth, along with pictures of her family and members of her same species that are now infected, but still appreciates them and wishes for them to be cured, despite already being infected and knowing the only way for them to be cured is that the Radiance must die. She sees the Knight as a big brother for her and constantly goes to him whenever she is feeling sad or bad, and she always wears in her helmet a white flower the Knight gave to her in gesture of kindness 5. Bretta: A slightly chubby bug that lives in Dirtmouth, in a house next to Iselda's shop. She was abandoned by her own family long ago in Fungal Wastes and lonely awaiting her infection. Then, the Knight came to help her and now resides in Dirtmouth, being the Knight number 1's fangirl, having posters and plushies of him all around her bedroom, and a diary hiding her feelings for him, having a big crush on him and blushing every time they sit together on the bench, and has dreams of she and her "White Protector", just how she calls him, sleeping together. She has a white flower that the Knight gave to her well-protected inside a crystal cylinder, in a pot full of water and watered daily by her 6. Cloth: Big and very strong female bug that has her head covered by a bag with two holes for her to see with her eyes. She also carries around a wooden mallet with her for protection and attacking. She spends most of her time sitting down on the ground and relaxing. She has been a very coward bugs that hides herself behind a fake face of "trial of courage", yet seeing the Knight fight against those infected bugs inspired her to be like him and now wants one day to become like him. She sees the Knight as that typical little brother that has a lot of abilities. Despite rejecting the white flower he gave to her, she secretly takes good care of it, since he spent a lot of time bringing it to her, it's the least she could do to repay him