Monomon The Teacher - Blog Posts
Продолжаем тему Грезящих
Мнонмона Наставница.
Предполагается что её тело, как желешки медузы, градиентно прозрачное – от головы до груди, и кончики щупалец. Живот, юбочка (т.е. нижняя часть тела), и большая часть длинны щупалец, не прозрачные. В связи с чем, мне очень захотелось нарисовать то, как просвечиваются внутренности. Но, чтоб не перегружать рисунок, решила изобразить только самое главное – мозг (она ведь учёный) ), и ядро, которое является для нее сердцем. Так же, всё тело излучает слабое зеленоватое свечение. (в оригинале у Наставницы четыре щупальца, но, далее я буду рисовать шесть - так кажется гармоничнее)
...
Мономон и малышка Умуу ^_^
Будни в Архиве....
translation:
Q. - Will it explode?
M. - Shouldn't...
Monomon and lil Quirrel ♡
"doesnt this kingdom just abound with surprises? a building atop an acid lake. despite the sight, i cant help but feel... familiarity? something stirs in my mind, though i cant yet tell what.. though much of my memory is blank, this place, i recall." week 31! hope you dont mind, just establishing a little headcanon between monomon, quirrel, and uumuu :3. probably not my best work, but id say it was 5 hours well spent! i hope you all have a wonderful new year, thank you so much for the support! it means the world to me <3
BEWARE! The Pale King is kidnapping children!
I've been thinking about making little dreamers for a while now because they're cute and I'm unemployed. Herrah is an extremely biting, evil and cute little spider (it's passed down genetically), Monomon is a funny ball that flies and glows, and Lurien is just constantly worried (a funny little man).
The White Lady is thinking of beating her husband because he is ruining their reputation in the kingdom.
Throwing my hand into the hk gijinka ring with my human version of Monomon~!
I think a lot about how Monomon in her normal form would perform mundane tasks (such as writing at a desk), and I thought it would be fun to translate that to a human form. I love to imagine that she intentionally doesn't tell people about the missing arms because she likes to see their shocked expressions when they see her for the first time.
Might tweak the clothing a little bit at a later time, I like the idea of Monomon in a hanfu-inspired dress, though I didn't think about it until I was done with this piece about how she puts the belt on... We can say for now that Quirrel puts it on for her, lol
Sharing a Monomon and Quirrel doodle I did a while ago that I never finished and I’m not sure if I ever will. I love my goobers being adorable, loll
Imagine: Monomon but she’s Quirrel-sized
Time waits for no bug, and Monomon has become desperate in her search to free Quirrel from his fate. Yet Quirrel sees that this unhealthy obsession has begun affecting her in the worst possible ways. Though she means well, Quirrel cannot let his teacher tear herself apart like this, especially not for his sake. But with Monomon no longer willing to listen to his pleas, Quirrel is running low on options. Desperate times truly call for desperate measures.
Come check out my next fanfic of HK, this time featuring Monomon and Quirrel! Hope y'all are ready for some angst and pain >:3
"Wherever you lead, I will surely follow."
Headcanon: Monomon, Queen of the Oomas/Uomas
Monomon is the “Queen” of the jellyfish creatures that inhabit the Fog Canyon, but not in the traditional sense. She does not have a monarchy that she governs—She is the “Queen” that her “hive” serves and protects.
Like normal jellyfish, the oomas and uomas are like a bundles of nerves. They cannot see or hear, but they react to changing stimuli in the environment. The only one among them able to think independently, to see and hear the world around them: their queen, Monomon.
Before the rise of the Pale King, Monomon was incapable of higher thought. However, she was clearly more intelligent than the primal beasts that roamed the depths. She had a very strong sense of curiosity, which the King learned when he’d found a hidden stash of tomes and journals in her possession. Inspired by her desire to learn, he granted her higher thoughts along with the other bugs of Hallownest.
With her mind expanded, Monomon began to learn as much as she could about the world around her, including the nature of her jellies. She knew that they would respond to her mental state, but she didn’t know the specifics. There was clearly a pattern they would follow depending on her emotional state:
When she was happy or excited, they would gravitate to her and cling to anything around her. Her theory was that they wished to partake in whatever was causing her joy.
When she was upset, they would grab anything around them and bring it to her. She believed they are trying to cheer her up by presenting her with gifts.
When she is scared/angry, they turn hostile and attack anything that draws near. This seems to be a primal instinct to protect the queen when she senses danger.
It wasn’t until she took on her apprentice, Quirrel, that she was able to learn more about their behaviors. Since they behaved in response to her, there was no way for her to see how they reacted without her presence. But with Quirrel able to study them away from Monomon, he learned that the strength of the reactions that the jellies had was entirely dependent on their distance from Monomon. The further they were from her, the weaker their reaction. This has led Monomon to believe that she is unknowingly emitting pheromones out into the environment that they are sensing and responding to.
With this knowledge in hand, Monomon began an experiment to see if she could teach any of the jellies to ignore her pull or think somewhat independently of her. This would eventually lead to the creation of Uumuu—a being that was created solely for security purposes. It would be able to ignore her pulls so that it could remain vigilant, and had been taught to identify threats without Monomon having to identify them as such beforehand.
When Monomon became a Dreamer and was sealed away, it turned the Oomas/Uomas completely docile. Without their queen to guide them, they merely drift aimlessly, awaiting the call of their queen once more. The only exception: Uumuu, who still spends their days guarding the sleeping Monomon from any intruders who dare try to wake her. But with the infection slowly overcoming it, and without Monomon’s guiding tentacle, Uumuu has lost the capability to differentiate friend and foe. Even in the presence of a familiar face, it can only follow what it was trained to do:
Protect Monomon at all cost.
More Qi doodles, this time featuring Hornet (and and dad/babysitter Quirrel)!
Somebody’s gotta watch the kids during those Dreamer meetings, lol
When the depression hits hard and you gotta draw your OTP with their lovechild to make you feel better.
Anyway, have some quirrelmon with Qi, my lovechild for them
More color palette challenges, this time with the Dreamers! Once again, the palettes are from @color-palettes and were chosen based on title
Monomon - Deep Sea Science
Herrah - I’m Sorry That I Left You There in the Darkness
Lurien - Are You Aware of My Presence, Watching and Unbreathing?
Will I ever draw Monomon consistently? Who knows!
Anyway, have two cuties being goobers~
(Transcript below cut)
Top right: doki doki doki (heart pounding)
Bottom left: kusu kusu (giggling)
Bottom right: Kaaa (embarrassment)
Screw you and your cringe culture *Yeets a lovechild atchu*
Drag me in, take me under (The waves shall claim me)
Lyrics: Tides by Cepheid
I have no excuse other than this popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I drew it shdjkfls
Fun little doodle of my version of Monomon without her mask/robes. I've decided to try and do the characters from HK a bit more stylized, and Monomon was definitely on the top of that list. I wanted to give her something more akin to a humanoid look, because I didn't really like the idea of her being Ooma-shaped. Looked very... questionable in my opinion.
Also, I have a headcanon that Monomon's mouth is not very visible unless she has it open. Which is often, considering I headcanon her as quite the chatterbox. Add Quirrel to the mix and you get a never-ending conversation between two nerds, lol
Reupload of the of the quirrelmon pic because now it be colored~💕
Herrah the Beast has been invited to the Teacher's Archive to meet Monomon. Accepting the invite, Herrah finds herself at the doors of the towering building in Fog Canyon. When confronted with the Archivist herself, Herrah realizes Monomon is not at all like she imagined, and finds herself struggling to keep up with the teacher's bubbly behavior.
Fun little friendship-fic between Herrah and Monomon~ Featuring some Quirrelmon and cute baby Hornet~
Headcanon that Herrah can't remember Quirrel's name, just that it starts with a Q. So she just calls him whatever Q-name comes into her head.
The Teacher and the Apprentice
Omg this game has me so addicted, I swear. I always love finding new games (and a new Boi™) to obsess over.
:))))))
i like to think monomon wriggled about in the archives' acid pools just like uumuu does
tumblr has done terrible terrible things to the quality, i'm afraid, please do click if you feel so inclined! :)
Teehee made this for an art project
assorted monomon and quirrel sketches of varying quality because they are my blorbos and i wish to hold them gently
It's neat to think that the reason the dreamers became such is because they were loyal to the people they had ward over first and foremost
Herrah as deepnest's queen is loyal to her people, integrating the metal crests of the devours and the weavers in the den
Monotone, who set up her archive as neutral ground is loyal to those that she taught
Lurien, while loyal to the king, is suggested by the decoration in his main chamber to be loyal to hallownest and its people first
They all care about the people under them before they care for anything else
For all their differences, it's really telling that all three Dreamers became Seals because of the exact same reason.
I'll love to see the fandom explore this aspect of the Dreamers. Think of all the fluff and angst one can create in the fandom while drawing on canon!
What is with the Dreamers' Houses?!?! Part 4.0 : What We Know that We Don't Know
At last! We have analyzed all the Dreamers' houses!
One last thing about the design of the Dreamer's houses and how they reflect each Dreamer's character. Throughout this analysis, we have been discussing what we can tell about the Dreamer's character from what we see, but we have yet to discuss about what we don't see.
With Herrah, we see the entirety of her den while we are barred from most of the Village. As such, we can guess more about Herrah's character than her people. Though I must admit that there is a bunch we can’t see due to being part dragon and part plant, but not part spider. Which means we can’t climb to the ceiling. But we DO see most of her house compared to most of the Dreamers. How this translates to the essay is all that we don’t see of Herrah is because we don’t have access to Weaver culture.
But alas, I still must guess how much we don’t know we don’t have access to in Herrah’s den. We must be missing more than Hornet's baby clothes!
With Monomon, we can guess that there is more to the Achieves, such as the classrooms, but that is a mere guess so we cannot comment on Monomon's character in that regard. But with Lurien…
We are canonically barred from seeing the entire Spire.
The green arrow is pointing to another hallway which we cannot enter in game. We know that this is another hallway as the wallpaper design is blurred out due to distance, unlike the wallpaper right next to Little Knight.
For reference, this screenshot was taken right after you successfully got past the part which requires Monarch Wings and takes you up into Lurien's Spire. AKA. Right at the bottom of the Spire. Which means THERE ARE ENTIRE SECTIONS OF THE WATCHER'S SPIRE RIGHT UP TO THE BALLROOM WHICH WE DON'T SEE! Check this map here!
Yellow marks the Door on the second level. Blue is the entire area that we are barred from seeing.
This is not the only section we are barred from seeing.
The Red is the entire section of the Spire which we don't see. Remember, we only go up the elevator to Lurien which is reflected in the map.
Now, do you remember these hallway pictures I showed you? The ones where Team Cherry showed 3-D in a 2-D world?
In order to achieve this effect, that window must be some ways away from the main hallway where we are standing. Far enough to create enough distance for a hallway by the window. Meaning there is a WHOLE ANOTHER HALLWAY leading who knows where!
There is another possible section of the Spire that we are unable to access.
These appear to be supporting the Watcher's Spire. Now, they could either be pillars and thus inaccessible to anyone, not just the player. Or, they are other towers supporting the main tower to the Spire, which means that not only is there entire section worth the height of the main Spire which we can't see, but whole towers as well!
Again, this is speculation. If anything, these towers outside Lurien's Spire are most likely supports for his own Spire as something needs to support the weight of the tallest spire in the City.
And we haven’t even touched the rooms belonging to the servants!
Remember this?
From: Hollow Knight: How To Defeat The Watcher Knights
This hiddie hole belongs to the rope that holds the chandelier which we can drop on one of the Watcher Knights, dropping the 6 bosses to 5 bosses.
How many hidden corners and passages are in the Watcher’s Spire? How many are we unaware of? Does every chandelier have a little hiddie hole like this one? Did Lurien ever use one of these servant passages and hiddie holes himself?
Now what about the Watcher Knights themselves?
You cannot tell me that these guys lived in Lurien’s ballroom. Where were their barracks? Where did they keep their weapons and gear? Where did they train? Surely Lurien wouldn’t outsource his Watcher Knights’ gear and training from his Spire, opening himself to possible assassination attempts? This bug had 15 Watcher Knights. I think he was concerned about getting attacked. So where do these Watchers sleep, train, and relax? We have half an entire Spire unseen.
Another question regarding Lurien’s servants. Remember how Lurien has a butler? Depending on how much Team Cherry wants to draw on medieval history, Lurien’s butler could have a different responsibility than modern day butlers. Modern butlers handle everything in the house: managing the daily operations of a household, keeping inventory of household supplies, maintain the cleanliness of the estate, etc.
Note how I said modern butlers. In medieval times, all those duties belonged to the head steward. The butler had a different job. He was the most trusted servant and confident of the head of house. He had to be in order to be trusted with the keys to the wine cellar! Or as it was called, the buttery. If Lurien’s butler had this job, then where is Lurien’s wine cellar? Where are the kitchens?
Of course, this doesn’t impact Lurien’s character too much as we don’t imagine him cooking. And we need to beeline towards Lurien to break the seals and open the Black Egg Temple, so we can’t take a detour towards the kitchens.
Doesn’t change the fact I would love to see Team Cherry or the fans develop the Dreamers’ houses more, especially Lurien’s Spire.
All the locations mentioned above beg a serious question: how much of Lurien's character do we not know simply because we cannot see his entire house? If everything that we do see speaks of a fortune worth of information, how much more is hiding from us?
Now take this to Herrah and Monomon. How much of them do we not know? What about their interactions with each other? Team Cherry had originally planned to give us individual boss fight rooms for each Dreamer. How much of Herrah, Monomon, and Lurien's characters will we never know because we never saw those rooms?
With that, I shall end this essay and leave you to your thoughts! It has been a long journey and I hope you dear reader learned something new. Please reblog any of your thoughts or ideas inspired by this essay!
If you wish to read more of the Essay, click one of these links below.
Part 1.0: Herrah's Den : Here
Part 2.0: Monomon's Archives: Here
Part 3.0: Lurien's Spire: Here
Part 3.25: Lurien's Spire: Windows and Colors: Here
Part 3.5: Even More of Lurien's Spire. Here
Part 3.7: What is WRONG with Lurien's Spire?: Here
Part 3.8: Even, even More of Lurien's Spire: Secret Room: Click here
Part 3.9 Watcher Knight Boss Room! Here
Link to essay on Ao3: Here
What is with the Dreamers' Houses?!?! Part 3.8 Lurien's Spire - Secret Room!
Onto to the secret room!
It is a very small room, making me wonder how Lurien walked into here. All three colors associated with the Watcher’s Spire are here, though the purple glow is dominant.
First things first, Lurien has his own Lore Tablets, which is very unique in the kingdom. No, seriously, he’s the only guy who has a lore tablet with no magic or science behind it. (Not to mention a private lore tablet, not a public notice.)
The only lore tablet we can read is Lurien’s last words, which I read for you in the last part. Here is it is repeated below. To quote Lurien’s last journel entry:
“Sleep beckons eternal and these words become my last. Though my gaze shall no longer fall upon this city, I will act forever in its protection. For King, for bug, for Hallownest, I head now to my rest.”
His last words tell of Lurien’s determination, dedication, and peace.
One interesting thing to note is that we only get to read Lurien’s thoughts, not the other Dreamers. We know nothing of Herrah’s thoughts, except for everything being done for Hornet. We read Monomon’s reports, but please forgive me for stating how those tanks merely report events happening like a science report, not giving us Monomon’s personal thoughts on the matter. Those come from Quirrel translating her actions to us.
I’ll be honest, this room infuriates me for one simple reason, every lore tablet and all the ‘wanderer’s’ journals lying here are clearly written by Lurien and contain his thoughts, but we are not allowed to read any of them…except for his last entry!!! The 1 Dreamer we know little about and we have an entire room with his diaries and we can’t read it!!!
Lemm would have a field day in here. Can you imagine the classified information or missing links Lurien has in here?
And don’t think “classified” and go “Oh! Pale King fanboy!” No. Look around. I can’t even find a single Hallownest crest here, much less Monarch Wings representing the Pale King. (Except the chair. Maybe.) Take a look.
If we move on, it is easy to notice how the lamp is out. This is the first time we’ve seen a lamp that was clearly supposed to give light, but there’s none. It’s almost as if either the bug inside the lamp died OR the Spire staff did not expect anyone to enter this room anymore.
Artist Aspidiske did a comic about that lamp, so I will let you read it. On the Last Day - Aspidiske - Hollow Knight (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]
Before I touch on the entrance to this secret room, allow me to remark on what’s bugging me. Lurien’s journals are just dumped on the ground. All other journals in the Spire are at least on shelves, these are in piles. And I would like to know why as we haven’t seen Lurien being particularly organized or disorganized before.
Now! The Entrance!
The secret room to Lurien’s last thoughts is blocked by a statue of Lurien! Which is very weird once you stop to think about it.
In game, you come across several statues in Hallownest. These statues tend to come in three categories: Items of worship (like the Pale King or the Radiance statue at Crystal Peak), statues of civilizations gone by (most often seen in the Queen’s Gardens), or memorials to dead people.
And here’s Lurien with not one, but three statues to himself.
Only one of the three statues breaks when you hit it, leading you to the secret room, which makes sense for finding secrets. But real life before Lurien went to dreaming…
It makes no sense for Lurien to have this statue when he was awake. The statue is pretty, but very unpractical for someone to use that hidden room. And this is Lurien we are talking about here. Out of the Dreamers, he is the only one who goes for both the beautiful and practical. And based on the section regarding the pillows, Lurien isn’t vain either, so he wouldn’t have a statue of himself, much less three!!!
The statues, Lurien’s character, the dark lamp, and the journels have me thinking. What if Lurien was NOT the person who put the statue there, but rather his people put the statue up after he went into the Dreamer. Remember we already know that Weavers rearranged Herrah’s Den so it would be a shrine for her. So it is not much of a stretch to say Lurien’s people rearranged the Spire to honor Lurien after he passed into the Dreaming.
If this is true, then the statue for Lurien is a memorial statue. It is still extermely rare as it has COLOR whereas the other statues have more stone or metal like colors. Lurien’s colored statue gaurds his last thoughts, preserving the Watcher’s last thoughts and allowing those in depersate need to read any of Lurien’s journels.
Then this begs the question, what about the other two statues? I hereby argue that these statues are indeed of the Watcher but not Lurien. If the secret room has all of Lurien’s thoughts, with the last entry being his last thoughts, and the statue was put up after Lurien “died”, than the other two statues could have put up when the previous Watchers passed away. Yes, I agrue that those bottom two statues belong to the Watchers before Lurien. And those statues also guard rooms with the previous Watchers’ thoughts. Yet we are prevented from accessing them lest the fans confuse those two Watchers with Lurien himself.
If this theory is true, what does it say about Lurien? He is the third Watcher in a line. Firstly, the job of Watcher was not created for Lurien, but rather Lurien proved himself in such a way that the Pale King appointed him to the position. Secondly, Lurien is in a tradition. Did you notice how all the statues looked the same? They all have a simple blue robe and shared mask. Lurien isn’t just wearing the robes for fashion, he is honoring the Watchers who have come before him. Third, if all three Watchers are wearing such simple robes and mask, they are hiding their individual identities. Whether it be so people of Hallownest can focus on the mask or so the Watchers’ can protect their families, I shall leave that up to the fans as there are 3 Watchers, leaving room for interpretation. Fourth, the inner character of the Watcher was always more important than the species of the Watcher. Again, all three Watchers are wearing simple robes that hide which species they are. To this day, fans debate on what species Lurien is. Yet all along, we were looking at the wrong thing, myself included. Personal character and individual skill were the most important aspect of Lurien. And that character and skills made him the most powerful bug right under the Royal Couple.
So, what do you think? Please reblog and share your thoughts!
If you wish to read more of the Essay, click one of these links below.
Part 1.0: Herrah's Den : Here
Part 2.0: Monomon's Archives: Here
Part 3.0: Lurien's Spire: Here
Part 3.25: Lurien's Spire: Windows and Colors: Here
Part 3.5: Even More of Lurien's Spire. Here
Part 3.7: What is WRONG with Lurien's Spire?: Here
Part 3.8: Even, even More of Lurien's Spire: Secret Room (You are here)
Part 3.9 Watcher Knight Boss Room! Here
Part 4.0 What We Know We Don't Know About the Dreamers' Houses: Click Here
Link to essay on Ao3: Here
If you have thoughts you wish to share, please feel free to comment or reblog! Especially with the above observation!
What is with the Dreamers' Houses?!?! Part 3.7 Lurien's Spire - WHAT is WRONG with Lurien's Office?!?!
Welcome back! Do you remember the last part where I was talking about how Patriotic Lurien was with all the Hallownestian crests?
I was about to leave it off here, until I realized something strange. There are no King’s Idols in Lurien’s Spire. Mr.-Certified-Pale-King-Fanboy has no King’s Idol from which he would worship the Pale King. What kind of fan would not have an idol or picture of his king? Especially in his bedroom!
Again, I was going to leave it even after checking the Hollow Knight wiki. Tumblr/Ao3 artist Aspidike already wrote a whole comic on it after all, so why should I spend time on it?
Looking back on it, I really should have spent more time wondering why Lurien has no King’s Idols to worship the Pale King when HERRAH is shown to be more religious than him. The Spider Queen has a Shrine inside her den while Lurien doesn’t even have a single idol or a chapel!
I only began to look deeper at the lack of King’s Idols in Lurien’s Spire when I realized there is something else missing in the Watcher’s Spire. Take a look at the carpet in Lurien’s Office.
Why does Lurien have purple carpet that completely covers the floor? Even wrapping around the pillars leading up to his Office? Why when everywhere else in his Spire has RED flooring and Hallownestian seals…
And that’s when it hit me. Not only are there no King’s Idols in Lurien’s Spire, but there is also nothing of the Pale King in Lurien’s Office a.k.a where he lays slumbering.
Look at Lurien’s Office again.
No painting of the Pale King, only that of the City. No massive window of the Hallownest Seal, only open windows. There are Hallownest Seals on the banners…but no Monarach Wings.
Please, allow me to explain the importance of the lack of Monarch Wings. Take a look down below at the kinds of Hallownest Seals seen across Hallownest.
The above photo is a drawing as I suck at photoshop.
Design 1 or the Seal design is most reminiscent of the Pale King with his Monarch Wings, hence why it will be often referred to as the Monarch’s Seal in this essay.
Design 2 or the Crest design is the most often seen crest design across all of Hallownest. It is the center or base that Designs 1 & 3 form their own designs on. I often take it to mean Hallownest itself versus the Monarch’s Seal which brings to mind the Pale King.
Design 3 is the design, which to my knowledge, is only seen in the City of Tears, especially on the noble’s side of the City. Originally, I called it Plumage Design and pondered whether or not this was an allusion to the Pale King, but now I believe it is a homage to the White Lady. See the comparison down below.
Part of the reason why I am making such a big deal out of the different designs is due to the Medieval heritage the game Hollow Knight draws on. If kings, knights, and keeping your oaths to your lords is greatly important to the game, then having a coat of arms and its impact are not a stretch. We already saw this in Monomon’s portion of the essay when we realized that Monomon was the one in charge of the Teacher’s Archives. Due to the lack of Hallownestian crests (or anything of Hallownest) as well as symbols in the benches being Monomon’s mask, we concluded that the Teacher’s Archives was not part of Hallownest proper, but rather natural territory under Monomon’s direct charge.
Having three different Hallownestain crests is vital. While the standard Design 2 or the Crest design allows one to tell that the messenger is from Hallownest versus the Mosskin, Designs 1 and 3 allow us to tell if the message came from the Pale King or White Lady themselves. The common Hallownestian official might only bear the Crest Design while servants in the White Palace bear Designs 1 & 3. Though I bet the Queen’s gardeners only bore the Plumage Design.
With this in mind, let us turn back to Lurien’s Spire to see which crests he bears throughout.
These are all locations through-out the Watcher’s Spire containing different versions of Hallownestian crests. Now please compare these with that of Lurien’s personal Office and Final Resting Place.
Here is the ONLY Place I found the 1st design or Monarch Seal in Lurien’s Office… If you actually can count it since it’s OUTSIDE his office.
The two places where the Monarach Wings appear in Lurien’s Office are in two locations that are OUTSIDE his office. The first is on the Spire’s wall which is just typical City of Tears architecture while the second winged crest is on the elevator. AKA, a standard design that is easily removed from the room.
What does this mean for Lurien, the fandom’s Pale King fanboy, with nothing of the Pale King inside his office? This is supposed to be Lurien’s personal space where there would be tons of Pale King merch and references. Yet, upon closer examination, not only are there no references to the Pale King, but Lurien went out of his way to hid any references to the White Lady as well! The purple carpet extends all the way down, hiding Design 3 or the White Lady’s crest!
Forget any blacklash from an shocked fandom, the lack of references to the Royal Couple in Lurien’s Office reeks of possible danger for the Watcher. Lurien is the 3rd most powerful bug in Hallownest, right underneath the Pale King and White Lady. Such massive influence needs to be massively watched and carefully checked to ensure that the Watcher doesn’t use that power against the Royal Couple. Yet the Watcher, in his own personal office, does not have any direct reference to either of them.
We do not know how the Royal Couple would feel that Lurien went out of his way to not show any direct alliegance in his private workspace and room.
Now, I already know what you are thinking. Lurien’s canon dialogue in the Dream Realm. “For King Beloved…to sleep and serve…” It seems as if all of his dialogue is suggesting the exact opposite picture of Lurien’s Office, that he put the Pale King above everything…but the Pale King isn’t the only reason why he became a Dreamer. To quote Lurien’s last journel entry:
“Sleep beckons eternal and these words become my last. Though my gaze shall no longer fall upon this city, I will act forever in its protection. For King, for bug, for Hallownest, I head now to my rest.”
Lurien is a poet. 2) His actions are for the forever protection of his City. 3) Lurien’s reasons for acting are not solely for the Pale King, but for bug and Hallownest. This is important as it shows Lurien separates Hallownest from the Pale King in his mind.
While Lurien DID say “For King Beloved”, there is nothing of Pale King inside Lurien’s personal Office. It seems like the care Lurien had for the Pale King was like the love Americans have for their flag, unwilling to let the flag touch the ground…but not going so far to have the flag inside their bedrooms…unless the love for the flag goes beyond patriotism to nationalism.
Finally, what does this lack of crests mean for Lurien’s character? I am afraid that I will have to dive into symbolism to explain as a certain Watcher doesn’t have much dialogue.
The lack of Monarch crest on the banners shows how Lurien always put Hallownest first, not the Pale King’s interests. Lurien could have snuck in one of the bigger banners with the Monarch crests, but chose the smaller banner with Design 2 to hang instead. Symbolically, this shows how Lurien’s heart with the kingdom first.
The lack of the Plumage Crests was brought about by Lurien redoing the floors, turning the red floor to purple carpet. As seen before in previous essays, the color red is associated with the nobles and the majority of the Plumage Crests are seen on the noble’s side of the City. Meanwhile, the color purple is primarily seen in Lurien’s Spire AKA Lurien’s color. Just as purple takes from both red and blue to rise to higher wisdom, inspiration, and humility, so Lurien rises above the roots to see a bird’s eye view of the whole culture of Hallownest, not just the nobles who grow (pun intended) from the White Lady.
The open windows has its own symbolism as Team Cherry could have given Lurien’s Office those magnificent Monarch crest windows. Instead, they chose to not just have no seal, but almost no window. Practically, this means Lurien can easily reposition his telescope anywhere so he can see everywhere in the City. But what about symbolism? The answer is that Lurien can see everything CLEARLY and without basis. He sees what is truly there, not what the Pale King wants him to see or expects him to see. Lurien isn’t even plagued by his own personal weakness or anger that could cause the glass to fog up. He can SEE.
Yes, Monomon. You can stop listing all the things wrong with the City. Lurien already has your list and THEN some.
Here we are at the end of this section and I cannot believe that CAREPT of all things would reveal how Lurien's loyalty is to Hallownest first, not the Pale King.
If you wish to read more of the Essay, click one of these links below.
Part 1.0: Herrah's Den : Here
Part 2.0: Monomon's Archives: Here
Part 3.0: Lurien's Spire: Here
Part 3.25: Lurien's Spire: Windows and Colors: Here
Part 3.5: Even More of Lurien's Spire. Here
Part 3.7: What is WRONG with Lurien's Spire? (You are here)
Part 3.8: Even, even More of Lurien's Spire: Secret Room: Click here
Part 3.9 Watcher Knight Boss Room! Here
Part 4.0 What We Know We Don't Know About the Dreamers' Houses: Click Here
Link to essay on Ao3: Here
If you have thoughts you wish to share, please feel free to comment or reblog! Especially with the above observation!
Editing my Dreamers' Houses essay and my goodness, it made me realize how much fight is still left in the Dreamers.
Herrah is all spent, only thinking about her daughter. Unfortunately, there isn't anyone else except Midwife in the Distant Village.
Why?
All the Weavers decided that being Infected, losing your mind while your body attacks anything that moves, was worse than literal slavery. Only those most devoted to Herrah remained...and all of them got infected.
Monomon has no fight...except to argue with Lurien. But have you considered that she has nothing left to fight for?
There is literally NO ONE in her Archives except her infected Uummu, Uomas, and Oomas. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HER STUDENTS IS DEAD BEFORE THE GAME EVEN STARTED. Except Quirrel. Quirrel whom she calls back to finally rest.
Lurien has the most fight...and yes, the Spire doesn't have a single known person still themselves in the Infection. But what about Lurien's whole City?
Yes, yes, the noble side is completely Infected and the Soul Master kidnapped and drained more than half of the citizens belonging to the left side of the City, BUT there are still free people!
The Nailsmith! Eternal Emilitia! Even Lemm, a newcomer to his City! And goodness, the Collector! And grubbies. Can't forget the grubs.
If you go down a bit further, then there's Orgrim, Tuk, and the Fluke Hermit!
Lurien still has people! People with Names! Hopes! And Dreams free from the Radiance!
And if you expand Lurien's care from the City to Hallownest (which isn't a stretch considering how Lurien is so patriotic for his kingdom) then every free bug in Hallownest is his too.
Now here's a question, does Lurien still care about his butler who is Infected? About every single of his servants and friends under the Radiance's spell? If so, what about every captured citizen of Hallownest?
If so, then Lurien is fighting for them too, just like we do for Myla. Fighting and Hoping against Hope itself that they all can be saved one day.
This came as no surprise to me. What knocked me out was realizing that Monomon's efforts were for nothing. Becoming a Dreamer for her students and keep Hallownest united only for everyone to die anyway??? No wonder she was done.