What Happened to The Knight in the Wasteland?

[wind hound]

Why did the Knight forget its past? Are vessels given a mind by PK's beacon? Or was it because The Knight was an infant? Or does the Wasteland have that effect on all minds?
Did the Knight still have a mind, just no memories?
When Hornet says "Yours is a resilience born of two voids", is she talking about resilience gained from just fending for yourself or did forgetting its past make the Knight's mental fortitude stronger?
Did the Knight's time in the Wasteland make it more suitable for being both The Hollow Knight and The Wielder? If so, how?

The white line on the bottom of the picture

[onyx slate]

Being away from the pks beacon takes away your intelligence, its why quirrel lost his memories as well, and we can also see in the quirrel comic that he meets a creature similar to tuk but way less intelligent, so the memory being taken away is directly related to pks beacon

[exotic tulip]

The Knight's time in the wastes made it stronger by most rudimentary "training" is what I'm getting from "resilience born of two voids" (strength from being void and from training in the wastes, a "void").

[exotic tulip]

TK is void tho, I'm pretty sure void doesn't get its mind from PK.
The original child was the King's too, I'd assume it wouldn't need his beacon either would it have survived.

[onyx slate]

That is mostly speculation, there's nothing in the game that suggests that being void gives you inherent intelligence, unless you're relating to the ancient civilization, but even they can't be really used as a source since we know next to nothing about them

[exotic tulip]

I would be extremely surprised if the void substance that is opposed to light got its "mind" from the Pale King.

Also that would mean it was mindless before.

It doesn't look like it has higher thought too, just base instinct, which is far from what the Pale King gives.

[onyx slate]

There's also the factor of the masks to take under consideration though, mask maker says that masks used to be Important but they don't hold as much relevancy anymore, because of the pks beacon their use wasn't needed, so that might also play a role into this question

[exotic tulip]

TK doesn't wear a mask afaik

[onyx slate]

Are you forgetting what health is

[exotic tulip]

Yeah, the durability of the shell

I didn't forget that.

[onyx slate]

Mask shards

[onyx slate]

It's in the name

[hasty shuttle]

the Knight heals its shell when focusing. This is visualized by showing a mask. It's a bit of an abstraction. From the HK game manual

[karmic geode]

the beacon doesn't apply to Vessels IMO

if it's memories were truly given up then the Birthplace cutscene couldn't happen

[onyx slate]

Ah I see, so it has no lore implications and is mainly a design choice?

[tight loom]

the mask shards are explicitly stated to strengthen your shell, so kinda but not really

[hasty shuttle]

yeah, i don't think it's ONLY a design choice. but it is really weird to think about.

[karmic geode]

And the Shell is what stores Soul

Also the way HP is shown isn't canon

[wind hound]

While I don't think you're wrong, Quirrel's dialogue seems to suggest the surface isn't that dangerous.

Your nail looks a fine instrument, but it's showing signs of wear.
I'd wager up there it would take you far. Down here however, I suspect you'll soon meet dangers the surface world can't match.
But then again, a baby having to survive on its own might toughen it up enough so to be noteworthy.
/Insert good segue into question here/
Do you think TK's lack of memory could be seen as a "void"?

[exotic tulip]

Wastes, not surface, and yeah it actually survived there compared to most people playing the game when in Hallownest
It's less dangerous than a fallen Kingdom filled of orange juice people - some of which can explode - but it still has hostile bugs.

[karmic geode]

yes, Hornet mentions "two voids" as the source of TK's strength

the Void proper, and the Wastes/lack of memory

[exotic tulip]

I'd say the second is only about the wastes and gitting gud in them since I am not fully convinced losing memories makes you better at beating Hornet.

[karmic geode]

the Wastes isn't necessarily what caused them to lose their memories

[mossy falcon]

Losing memories means less attachments to other people/things. This could help the Knight to become hollow, and contain the Infection.

[karmic geode]

you cannot "become" pure or impure, you either are or aren't

[hasty shuttle]

I think pure things can become impure, it's transient. As for the Knight in the wastes, I think its time outside the wastes caused it to forget its past. A past it later remembers in the Abyss cutscene.

[tight loom]

I mean, why would vessels need PK’s beacon to be smort

[karmic geode]

Vessels don't depend on PK's beacon though

[hasty shuttle]

Why did the Knight forget its past

[karmic geode]

trauma - they clearly didn't forget everything in the Wastes

[brisk stump]

The PKs beacon still has an afterglow mentioned by the Godseekers which could mean that TK could have just gained consciousness when in the vicinity of Hallownest and he still didn’t remember the wastes

[exotic tulip]

Why would TK be beacon-dependant ? Void in PK's child's shell.

[karmic geode]

that still doesn't make sense, as the afterglow and beacon aren't necessarily the same thing; and even if they were, there's the fact that TK still knows how to do things like use charms / wield a nail / etc

and they don't just flail the nail around, it's noted that TK uses it skillfully; if TK's memories were in fact totally wiped by the beacon, this couldn't be the case

[karmic geode]

yeah, whatever intelligence they have isn't from PK as the original child was destroyed

plus imprinted Void beings have minds, as stated by Ari in regards to the Collector

he mentions how the Collector has thought processes that while "unknowable", do exist

[unique gale]

The memories the knight has are not lost completely, more so just hidden, since the dream nail can reveal these. Therfore the wastes outside of hollownest simpley lock up memories I suppose

[exotic tulip]

Why would the wastes make them forget stuff ?

[karmic geode]

no, leaving the area of PK's beacon is what causes regression to base instinct in those who weren't already sapient

"No king...no mind...Release..."

the Wastes on their own don't do anything

[fringe lantern]

What

The

Fuck

Is

The wasteland