urban sonnet
Stumbled upon a theory while looking through old Reddit threads. The idea is that the Colosseum spectators are more primal forms of the bugs of Hallownest. So basically what the modern day bugs of Hallownest might have looked like before the Pale King arrived. We can tell from the Hunter's Journal that Hallownest's bugs evolved to be weaker than they once were.
Wandering Husk:
These "civilised" bugs of Hallownest were weak in life and now they are equally weak in death. Send them back into the dirt they were born in!
Leaping Husk:
The bugs of old Hallownest did not hunt their own food, they had it brought to them. That's why they were so weak. That's why their kingdom crumbled into dust and faded away!
Husk Warrior:
Softened by generations of luxury, these bugs lack claws or armour or venom. Those who wish to protect themselves are forced to fashion weapons from stone, ore or shell.
Gluttonous Husk:
As these bugs became wealthier they hunted less and consumed more, eventually taking on a grotesque shape not unlike over-ripe fruit.
Contrast that with the Primal Aspid, which shows us what the more ancient form of the Aspid Hunter looked like.
Wilder, ancestral form of the Aspid. Once thought extinct, they have reappeared at the edges of the world.
This theory also contends that Eternal Emilitia was "cast out" by her fellow High Society members due to her more primal looking horned head, a reminder of these bugs' more beastly origins.
You've no doubt sensed my affluence. You're right to guess, I'm renowned amongst the upper caste of Hallownest.
...Well I was... once, until those cretins cast me out.
Could these bugs be an ancient branch from somewhere in the evolutionarily chain?
pale nexus
elder thorn
warped tusk
tight isle
austere vessel
solar patrol
~~
vague jackal
hexed iris
proper flint
barren otter