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cloudyswritings · 4 months

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Wasteland au thing? Also OCs

So this is an idea my brain cooked up at like 1 this morning. Basically this is a look at a group of characters living in the wasteland during the golden age of Hallownest.

Gomer: He’s a common cockroach who got a little(a lot) too popular in his home kingdom and was publicly beheaded by his political rivals. Except it didn’t exactly take, you see all of the adoration and belief from his fans elevated him into a higher being. I’d say he’s basically the equivalent of one of the great knights, but he’s physically much weaker and also missing his head. Despite being a higher being getting beheaded is still going to kill him eventually so he fled into the wastes(carrying his head) to search for a solution to his problem. He’s super charismatic and is a fantastic conman, although his pride and ego is what got him in his situation in the first place.

#9: She’s a worker ant who defected from her colony, specifically she’s a marauder ant supermajor. She fled her colony during active combat with a nearby fire ant colon. She’s extremely good at cartography, making maps at least on par with Little Ghost. Her mapping skills are the reason our little group hasn’t been killed yet. She’s slowly working her way out of the colony mindset that she’s expendable. She hasn’t picked a name for herself yet. Nominally the protagonist should I ever decide to make this into a fanfic.

Smiles: An extremely grumpy desert scorpion who nonetheless is loved a ton by their very, very large family. Joins our group after #9 helps them find their little brother who had wandered dangerously close to the border of a Wyrms territory. Per scorpion traditions a life is owed for a life and Smiles doesn’t mind tagging along nearly as much as they seem to. They’re fond of complaining but never actually mean anything by it. Smiles isn’t their real name, but a nickname that they use in place of it to prevent it from being stolen-there’s a superstition in the wastes that hiding your true name makes it harder for the Wyrm-Winds to strip your identity away.

Heleden: A spiky isopod(please look them up they’re adorable 😭😭) and by far the most lost out of any of our group members. She originally hails from the dense costal jungles far, far outside of the reach of the wastes. How she got there is a mystery to everyone including her. She’s got some memory issues, although if they’re a symptom of the wastes or merely her personality isn’t clear. She can secrete a highly deadly toxin in small amounts. The wastes are incredibly dry and being an isopod she needs a lot of moisture, so she wears layers and layers of soaked cloth to keep her from drying out. Even still running out of water is an issue. She’s a very powerful magic user, although there are some indications that she’s drawing her magic from a god she doesn’t consciously remember. She’s bright yellow/orange.

Alright so that’s it for the members of our little caravan, but there’s some other characters I’ve got mentally made rn

Golmagor: Supposedly killed a Wyrm in his youth, he’s an old bug now but no less fearful of a warlord. His primary weapon is a nail, a nail which looks suspiciously like the burrowing tooth of a Wyrm- it’s made from a blue-purple metal which no-bug has been able to identify. The blade constantly leaks water and is a large part of why he’s so successful as a warlord. By the time our group meets him his son(who’s name I’ve not thought out yet) is vying for control of his territories but hasn’t yet reached the town from which Golmagor controls his forces. He captures our crew and threatens to keep them as slaves unless they capture his son for him. He’s a Brazilian wandering spider, and a master of water and poison sorceries.

The Heirarch: The apostle of the long dead(??) god of lifeblood. Saves our crew after an incredibly deadly battle. Seems peaceful but likely has ulterior motives. Their species is unknown but he doesn’t seem to have an outer shell of any sort. May not be a bug at all. Wears a mask with five eyeholes that seems almost liquid. The only feature of theirs which is obvious through all of the elaborate blue robes they wear is their three pairs of arms.

Squidge: A blue death feigning beetle, she’s a merchant passing through the waste with her caravan. She herself is a native to the wastes and was born there. Bears a charm of an unknown make and function. She trades water she collected for charms, weapons, foreign currencies, or anything her caravan is currently lacking in. Her caravan manages to avoid being devoured by Wyrms despite traveling through their territories by collecting Wyrm pheromones from fresh Wyrmfalls-I headcanon that the (actual)death of a Wyrm acts as a sort of whale fall in the wastes, entire towns have sprung up in the long dead corpses of ancient Wyrms) and using them to scare off larger predatory bugs and gods.

Husk: A bug bearing a strange pale mask and terror-black chitin. They’re oddly sociable and tower over many other bugs they come across(Somewhere between THK and Hornet in size). They have a limp in one leg and horns covered in hundreds of small curved thorns. Their initial flaw was joviality and a desire to help others. The wastes haven’t dulled their good nature and they’re always willing to help out weary travelers by sheltering them until they’re ready to move on. Lives in an elaborate burrow system they dug for themselves, it’s roughly equal in size to the crossroads. Lives with their sibling Pebble, though no-one has met them…

Assorted other ideas I had for this AU/story

Masks are an absolute must in the wastes, they prevent the whispers that dead Wyrms leave behind on the winds from stripping the soul, mind, and moisture from a bug in moments.

Everyone in the wastes knows that if you see carnival tents on the horizon, smell fire without an obvious source, or hear carnival music, you turn around immediately and find another path to your destination.

There are many secret/hidden towns and kingdoms far below the surface of the wastes, finding your way into them is difficult but doable if you really need to, just be ready to deal with a higher being or worst case scenario a god

Hallownest is directly in the middle of the wastes and is perhaps the best known kingdom in the wastes for both its riches and hospitality. Although some say it’s ruled by a wyrm, these are widely considered false claims, afterall Wyrms are fiercely territorial and unlikely to rule as anything but a tyrant.

Warlords are a real problem in the wastes and often fight for control of good trade routes or sources of water.

Water is a very, very rare commodity in the wastes, on par with food, gold, and Wyrm metal.

There are some species of bug native to the wastes, they tend to be colored to blend in with the fossil stones and well adapted to survive surprise dust storms.

Cave bugs are also more prevalent on the surface here than elsewhere because the constant whipping of the winds blocks out any ambient lights(plus it seems like something happened to the sun locally…)

Theres a flea circus that periodically travels through the wastes led by a higher being. Yes they do hate Grimm for giving circuses a bad rap, they just want to make people smile. In fact their patron might be the god of joy or some related concept.

#hk vessels #speculative biology #headcanon #hollow knight #wyrms #wasteland #WastelandAU #AU #damn I had a lot of thoughts #my ocs #worldbuilding #my brain hurts #entomology #kinda?

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