King Knight of Darkhome

One of countless vessels created to seal away the Radiance, now grown into an embodiment of the Void. Supremely skilled with the longnail. King of the Underdark city-state of New Hallownest.

Age: ?? (somewhere between 30 and 100 years?)
Gender: Mildly male-leaning
Eyes: Glowing white, x4
Skin Tone/Pigmentation: Light-eating black. Appears to shift and swirl slightly if you look closely for long enough.
Height: 9'3"
Weight: 104 lbs.

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.

Show spoiler

Knight's mask is the Mask of Shadow, a unique magic item that serves as Knight's skull, anchors his physical form, and provides protection against physical blows.

On his head, Knight wears a helmet of command, a protective item that allows him to gather loyal followers. It includes a slot for a crown, currently occupied by the Imperial Crownlet of Command. The crownlet provides magical protection and enhances the wearer's ability to command, letting their voice be heard clearly from a long distance, boosting the morale and accuracy of their troops, and even allowing the wearer to issue a few irresistible commands to their enemies. Hidden under the helmet of command is a powerful diadem of fast action, granting Knight a permanent haste effect and vastly enhanced reflexes.

Knight habitually wears a set of eyes of smoking, a set of goggles or lenses that give the wearer's eyes an intimidating smoking effect.

Around his neck, Knight wears two necklaces and five amulets, all magical. The necklace of charmed memories has orbs that can contain dear memories or items, granting bonuses based on their sentimental value, or can be used by Knight as additional charm slots. The necklace of fire resistance provides fire resistance. The amulet of soul binding allows Knight to express his soul as a soulblade, a weapon that gives its wielder immunity to most mental and possession effects and has power dependent on the strength of the wielder's soul. Two amulets of magic resistance provide protection from incoming spells, the Amulet of Set does the same and enhances Knight's force of personality, and the silver amulet of spiritsense and life detection allows Knight to concentrate to do as the item's name suggests.

On Knight's upper right hand is the ring of darkness, which bolsters his physical defenses, lets him see in darkness, reduces darkness damage, and provides psionic energy absorption. On his upper right hand is the ring of heroism, which greatly enhances his accuracy, his striking power, his ability to dodge or hold firm against special effects, and his luck.

On his waist Knight wears the beautiful black belt of blackblink, a defensive item that, once every few seconds, can shift him out of the way of an attack in a black flash, moving him up to 50 feet away. Across his chest like a bandolier is the belt of girding, an item that allows him to fight on past damage that should have killed him, draw strength and speed from his own injury and exhaustion, and fend off mental assaults with impunity.

On top of the latter belt, crossing in both directions, are a pair of sashes. The first, the sash of resistance, provides physical protection and defense against exotic effects. The second, a sash of safety made on Shisui, provides similar physical protection but can be used once per day to instantly heal all of its wearer's wounds.

Knight's armor, as mentioned, is Knight's Armor of the Deep Abyss, a unique artifact made from the remains of an invulnerable ruby-eyed arapaima and some of the Scales of Despair. It provides immense nonmagical physical protection, resists and reflects incoming spells regardless of their power, gives immunity to divination and negative energy, grants a swim speed, and includes a toggleable red light aura that imposes a fear effect.

The cloak on top is Knight's Cloak, designed to mimic the armor of the Hollow Knight without the rings that would make it a prison. It protects against physical strikes, spells, and (at present) radiance and fire damage. Currently attached to it is the Fishhook of Power, a magic trinket that adds a randomly determined quirk or power to the item it's connected to. In this case, it makes the cloak silent.

On his arms, Knight wears a set of kote of striking, Eastern-style bracers from Shisui that allow him to briefly double his attack frequency a few times per day. Unlike most magic clothing, these can never resize beyond what's needed to fit a normal human, so if the wearer grows or shrinks too far, they'll pop or fall off.

On his feet (pointed and minimal as they are), Knight wears a set of boots of stability kindly gifted to him by Buzz Gizmo after Knight lost his leg. They cancel all possible footing penalties, including any imposed by his prosthetic, and enhance the support of his footing when striking. Over these Knight wears greaves of resistance, providing additional physical defense and resistance against exotic effects.

Under the armor and greaves are the Pants of Parkour, an item acquired on Cubit that grants its wearer an instinctive understanding of freerunning.

Finally, rounding out his pile of magical accessories are a few small small trinkets. The first is a pin of defense that bolsters physical defenses and aids Knight's ability to parry. The second is the Periapt of Death Curse, an item that again enhances Knight's physical defense but also retaliates against anyone who does kill him with a powerful death curse, likely slaying them in turn. The third is a feathered charm of speed, which enhances Knight's movement speed. The last is an option laser defense satellite, a small device similar to an ioun stone that hovers around Knight's head and will shoot down the first projectile coming towards him every few seconds.

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

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 excitement 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.

The major events and journals in Knight's history, from the beginning to today.

The list of amazing people following the adventures of Knight.