Appearance

Identifying Characteristics

Knight is missing his right leg below the knee. This is a conceptual injury; regeneration and magic cannot heal it, and attempts to grow one anew fail as soon as the growth would cause him to have an intact leg. It has been replaced with a wooden prosthetic that mimics it in function almost exactly, and this is bolstered further by a pair of boots of stability gifted to Knight by a sympathetic Buzz Gizmo.

Knight has a glowing white brand on his upper right hand that shows on both the back and the palm. This is the King's Brand, marking him as the rightful successor to the Pale King and ruler of Hallownest.

A magic tattoo resembling swirling white vines or fog climbs up that arm, surrounding and complementing the King’s Brand and decreasing in density as it approaches the torso.

Physical quirks

Knight has learned that the Void making up their body whispers. It is full of ghosts and echoes, often panicked, despairing, furious, or lost. This is deeply disturbing to both Knight and Ngel Sfet; this is not the way the Void should be, or at least not the way it should be left. With concentrated thought, Knight can speak to some of the voices and get responses. Knight is determined to calm and comfort these lost souls and fragments and takes some time to meditate and speak to them every day.

Apparel & Accessories

Knight typically wears a full suit of scaled black plate mail, Knight's Armor of the Deep Abyss, that was made for him by Mithangor. Over this goes a long white cloak with pale metal pauldrons. On the mask that makes up his head, Knight wears a helmet of command, with a magic crownlet firmly seated in the ledge included just for that purpose.
 
Collected on his back are four longswords and longnails of widely varying quality and design, from the intricately engraved Dream Master's Nail to a nonmagical makeshift longnail made from wood, glue, and pieces of two katanas.
 
As with most experienced adventurers in Renedge, Knight's full equipment list is extensive.

Special abilities

Mentality

Personal history

Created among uncountable siblings by the Pale King and White Lady as a vessel to seal away the Radiance and the mindplague she brought, the then-nameless Knight survived being left behind in the Abyss after its sibling was chosen as the Pure Vessel. It escaped its birthplace and ventured into the howling wastes beyond the kingdom, losing its memories and wandering for an unknown period of time.
 
It was eventually drawn back to the kingdom by the anguish of its chosen sibling. It gathered strength, friends, and lost memories, and in the end vanquished the Radiance and saved what remained of the kingdom of Hallownest.
 
As the heir to the kingdom by brand and birthright, and as a trusted friend of most surviving residents, Knight was crowned king of Hallownest and led its rebuilding alongside its half-sibling, Hornet.
 
Years later, Knight stumbled through a one-way portal into Renedge while exploring. It joined up with a friendly adventuring party that it happened across, and it has since spent most of its time in Renedge, exploring and helping people and places in need.
 
After the Fading of the Dream, the populace of Hallownest was evacuated to Renedge, forming the polity of Darkhome in the Underdark under Alvidar. Knight became the king of New Hallownest, the subfaction of Darkhome representing the city and "civilized" bugs, but Knight is also influential with the various other subfactions of Darkhome.

Education

Born with some fighting skill already instilled, Knight is otherwise almost entirely self-taught, learning as much through real combat as through any sort of training. It did receive some combat instruction from various mentors over the years, most notably the Nailmasters of Hallownest.

Employment

Largely lacking the usual mortal needs for sustenance and shelter, Knight spent most of their early years as a wandering warrior. What work they might have done in their time wandering beyond the Howling Wastes is unknown even to Knight; the winds of the Wastes scour memory as well as body. One way or another, at the time of their return to Hallownest, they had only a battered old nailblade to their name.
 
Most of their money during the quest to save the Hollow Knight and defeat the Radiance was earned through simple combat, taking geo from the defeated husks. This was occasionally supplemented by rewards from fighting in the Colosseum of Fools and selling interesting artifacts to Relic Seeker Lemm.
 
With the discovery that Knight was the surviving heir to the throne of Hallownest and with the rebuilding of that kingdom after the Radiance's defeat, Knight was crowned as king, and they have held that role ever since. This has not been a source of income; Knight has no salary, and the kingdom's taxes go into a central fund, not Knight's pockets. In fact, the role has been a money sink for Knight, as they've spent large parts of their funds supporting the city's government and infrastructure. They continue to make up for these expenditures with the funds from adventuring, which is as profitable as it is dangerous.

Accomplishments & Achievements

• Defeated the Radiance and saved Hallownest.


• Was crowned king of Hallownest (and later New Hallownest).


• Played tag with a dragon.


• Helped destroy the Radiance and the Pale King once and for all.


• Won the Battle of the Bands with his team.


• Slew General Shen and his Corrupted augmetics.


• Cleansed Corruption from Shisui as part of the Shadows of Existence.


• Led the party that destroyed the fungal Old One, Galesh, once and for all.

Mental Trauma

During the cleansing of the chasm surrounding New Hallownest shortly after the city was founded, Knight had their alignment and personality reversed by a magic crown that was thrown at them by an undead lord. Knight almost killed Rodger Silverton moments later, and they were both saved only by a paradox effect Pele Firewing used to prevent Knight from having been affected in the first place. Knight has been terrified of mental manipulation ever since, and usually has at least two layers of immunity to mental effects on at all times.
 
A large part of Knight's right leg was bitten off by a Corrupted guard dog on Shisui during the assault on the avatar of Corruption there in September of 23 ARL. The wound was conceptual, and while the stump healed over, the very concept of Knight having that part of their leg is now impossible to implement. This loss has been understandably traumatic, though it has only increased their commitment to seeing Corruption dealt with for good (and hopefully getting their leg back from it in the process).
 
These and similar (if less personal) experiences have caused Knight to become deeply wary of effects that can control, alter, or kill them beyond their ability to self-resurrect. This is not to say that they won't face such threats where necessary, but they will take far more precautions.

Intellectual Characteristics

Knight's core traits are determination and a desire to help and solve problems. Back in the time of the Infection, they returned to Hallownest through the amnesia-inducing Howling Wastes and fought through repeated deaths purely in response to the telepathic call of their suffering sibling. They explored, wandered, and enjoyed the beauties and dangers of the old kingdom as they went, gaining more understanding of who they were and what was at stake, but they never stopped and rarely slowed, even in the face of the buzzsaws of the White Palace and the rage of a radiant goddess.
 
Along the way, they consistently went out of their way to rescue and aid others they came across, purely because those people needed it and Knight had the time.
 
These characteristics have translated nicely into Knight's more recent roles as a king and adventurer on Renedge. Knight is constantly busy trying to improve things, whether that means helping with local problems around New Hallownest or questing to destroy some threat to reality, and they draw enough energy and satisfaction from the same that it takes a great deal to exhaust or discourage them.
 
Knight is excellent at spacial navigation, having spent years in places where dangerous platforming was a normal method of travel. Those same experiences have helped Knight develop an exceptional talent for mapping and navigational memory.

Morality & Philosophy

Knight tends towards a fairly generic "good" stance; help those in need, defend people and reality from great evils, be kind and reasonable, etc. Knight does deviate in one major way, however; Knight has almost no concept of mercy or nonlethal strikes once real combat starts. Unless an opponent actively surrenders or keeping them alive is an explicit goal, Knight will relentlessly seek a killing blow. Signs that the enemy is exhausted, terrified, or otherwise faltering just mean they'll leave a good opening soon.

person.sexuality

None

person.gender_identity

Genderless, but tends more towards male characteristics than female and typically uses male pronouns purely for convenience.

Known Languages

Common, Hallownest

Personality

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Knight is a grandmaster of the longnail (a regional variation on the longsword) and is proficient at fighting with it one-handed, two-handed, or as part of a multi-weapon set of as many as four. They are ambidextrous.
 
They are exceptionally skilled at platforming, acrobatically navigating dense and complex terrain while under threat. They are also highly skilled at mapmaking and navigation. They have trained themself intensively in Void shaping so as to gain better control over their form and the substance that makes them up. They are a nimble flier, skilled at iaido, and surprisingly good with a violin.
 
They are also proficient in a wide range of athletic and informational skills, including running, endurance, observation, SOUL shamanism, Void shamanism, dream lore, and training.

Likes & Dislikes

• Enjoys eating paper napkins. With his alien sense of taste, they are to him what potato chips are to humans.


• Enjoys mapping new places and adding to his extensive map collection.


• Enjoys the challenge and thrill of combat.


• Dislikes fighting soulless constructs. They're typically immune to his soul-tearing strikes and don't provide the life energy Knight uses to power some of his abilities.


• Dislikes foes that can permanently alter or kill him, beyond the ability of himself or his allies to quickly repair.

Social

Birthplace

The Abyss, Hallownest

Current Residence

the Black Palace, New Hallownest

Honorary & Occupational Titles

• King of New Hallownest


• Lord of the Void


• Dream Wielder


• Sailor of the Eight Sovereign Seas

Wealth & Financial state

As king, Knight is effectively the owner of the Black Palace in New Hallownest. It was built to serve as Knight's residence and diplomatic center. Knight also owns a house in Guardia, granted to them by Ba'alzamon.

Family Ties

• Child of the Pale King and White Lady.


• Sibling to all other Vessels, including the Hollow Knight.


• Half-sibling to Hornet.

Religious Views

Is aware that gods exist, having been created by two as a weapon against a third and being personal friends with yet another, but has little interest in worshiping any. If Knight does decide to worship, it will be purely transactional, ritual power provided in return for magical power.

Hobbies & Pets

Pets:

• Black pudding cup. A 3 cubic inch friendly black ooze that acts as a familiar.


• Poppy. A small, friendly spider that basically acts like a dog. Lives in New Hallownest.

Speech

A terrifying mix of static and audible absence that somehow forms comprehensible speech.