Everything We Know About Hollow Knight: Silksong’s New Protagonist, Hornet

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the upcoming sequel to the 2017 metroidvania hit Hollow Knight. While many details about Silksong are still a mystery, publisher and developer Team Cherry has confirmed that it will have a new protagonist: Hornet. She was a secondary antagonist in Hollow Knight who eventually helped the Knight on his quest, and now she’ll be getting her own dedicated story.

While Team Cherry has been teasing plenty of Silksong content, it still hasn’t announced an official release date. But based on recent comments from Team Cherry PR head Matthew Griffin, Silksong’s content may be finished and the game may be in the testing phase, so a release shouldn’t be too far away. The game is set to be available on PC and Nintendo Switch at launch.

Team Cherry has already said that Hornet will be bigger and more agile than the Knight was. Here’s everything else we know about the Hollow Knight franchise’s new star.

Who is Hornet?

Hornet is the Knight’s half-sister. She’s the daughter of the Pale King and Herrah the Beast, queen of the spider tribe. Hornet was born as a result of a deal between the King and Herrah that ultimately made Herrah a Dreamer, one of three slumbering beings who were supposed to keep the deadly Infection sealed inside the Black Egg and protect the Kingdom of Hallownest from destruction. That obviously didn’t work.

The Infection seeped out, and Hornet combed the ruins for answers. As the “princess-protector,” she originally tried to stop the Knight from exploring Hallownest before realizing their true purpose and aiding them. At the end of the game, Hornet helped the Knight enter the Abyss, defeat the Radiance, and take the place of the Hollow Knight.

In Silksong, Hornet is captured and taken to the haunted Kingdom of Pharloom. Team Cherry hasn’t revealed much lore-wise about Pharloom or any cosmic forces that might be threatening it. Pharloom is unfamiliar to Hornet, and it’s unclear why the residents of Pharloom are interested in her, or whether she may have some connection to it. But given her backstory, there’s probably a compelling reason why Pharloom wants her.

Soul is out, Silk is in

Hornet gets her name from the stinger-like needle she wields as a sword. As the daughter of Herrah and the Pale King, she’s not a bee, but rather a half-spider, half-Wyrm. (Wyrms are basically ancient slug gods.) As such, her body produces Silk, which is her version of the Knight’s Soul power.

Like Soul, Silk powers Hornet’s healing and many of her offensive abilities. And like the Knight, Hornet builds up Silk by striking enemies. When she needs to heal, her “Bind” ability uses available Silk to wrap up her injuries. Bind is similar to the Knight’s Focus ability, but unlike the Knight, Hornet is able to heal instantly. The downside is, unlike Focus, Bind depletes all remaining Silk each time Hornet uses it. When Hornet dies, she leaves a Cocoon similar to the Knight’s Shade. Striking the Cocoon will fully replenish Hornet’s Silk spool.

So far, Bind is Hornet’s only confirmed ability. But if Silksong‘s character progression is similar to Hollow Knight‘s, she’ll certainly have many more unlockable abilities that use Silk.

Are Hornet and the Hollow Knight Ghost’s little brother and sister?

Ok this is something that i just realized, i must say, i’m no lore expert, i know the basic things but hear me out.

So the Pale King (PK) and the White Lady (WL) created many offsprings in search of the perfect Vessel for the Radiance, thousands failed until one was finally born, the Hollow Knight (HK).

Now, i’m not sure about it but i think that after finding the perfect Vessel the PK and WL stopped breeding, at least they didn’t create anymore vessels after HK, that means that since Ghost is a vessel he was born before HK.

Now as for Hornet, the matter is a little more debatable, we know that she was born through the alliance of Hallownest and Deepnest, her mother Herra (if i remember well) wanted an heir from PK before sacrificing herself to seal HK and the Radiance.

I believe that this plan was conceived only after the birth of HK, or else it would make no sense for PK to gather the dreamers even before finding a Pure Vessel, so i think Hornet was born after HK and since HK was born after Ghost that would make him (Ghost) the older sibling.

Now i’m sure that many are asking why Hornet and HK are bigger than Ghost, that i can only offer speculations for.

For Hornet is pretty easy since she was born from Herra, she might have a different development since she has half of her genes from a different race than the vessels.

As for HK i think that is because of his constant years of training, his body was forced beyond its limits constantly to become strong enough to hold the Radiance, while all his siblings were left to rot in the abyss, lacking any kind of training and barely surviving (in fact all the other vessels we meet are just as big as Ghost, even PK is quite small, that is probably because he never trained).

Ok this is my theory let me know your ideas on this, as i said i’m no expert and could be missing important information, also sorry for my english, it isn’t my mother language.