Before Hallownest existed, the land of the insects was split into tribes of feral insectoid and arachnoid beings - the moths who worshipped The Radiance, plant-like beings in Greenpath who worshipped Unn, the mantises, the mushrooms, and the spiders. As time passed, a higher being known as the Wyrm traveled to the land of Kingdom's Edge and later on “died”, but in actuality metamorphosed into the Pale King. The Wyrm lowered and thus humbled himself and his form to appear like the bugs that inhabited the land, and built the kingdom of Hallownest. The Pale King ruled the kingdom by uplifting unintelligent and feral bugs, granting them sapience, freewill, and higher intelligence. The bugs of Hallownest began to follow the Pale King, convinced to join him - this lead most of the tribes, such as the Moths, to abandon The Radiance who had selfishly kept them in a lower feral state with no freewill so they would have no choice but to worship him. At some point, the kingdom of Hallownest rose to its success due to the benevolent Pale King’s reign, but later on, was invaded by The Radiance who was filled with a bloodthirsty revenge. By doing so, The Radiance (who revealed its true evil nature) attacked and invaded the dreams of all the bugs who had weak minds, and who were filled with hope and desires, resulting in their transformation back into feral forms. Because of this, the Pale King wanted to put a stop towards The Radiance’s cruel madness by creating Vessels made from Void, which the Radiance was weak against. This gave the Pale King an advantage by choosing the purest of the Vessels to become the “Hollow Knight” . This Pure Vessel was then used as an instrument to seal The Radiance within himself and was locked inside a vault called the Black Egg Temple. promo lore hollow knight wiki However, the Pale King knew that the Sealed Vessel needed protection, so he appointed three bugs, known as the Dreamers, to make a seal that would stop anyone from infiltrating the Black Egg and releasing the Infection upon Hallownest. Monomon was a mentor within the kingdom of Hallownest, Lurien was the guardian of the City of Tears, and Herrah the queen of Deepnest. Even with enough protection and being The Radiance sealed, its shell eventually cracked due to a flaw in his purity and The Radiance began to leak out and corrupted the minds and bodies of the inhabitants of Hallownest, resulting with the Kingdom going into stasis. The story begins with our protagonist, The Knight arriving in Dirtmouth, and begins his journey through Hallownest by uncovering the forgotten kingdom's darkest secrets. Will you be able to rebuild and save the once prosperous kingdom? Or will it fall under The Radiance's evil corruption and completely filling the depths of Hallownest with the Infected?