| “ | The King falls, but I live forever! | „ |
| ~ The Soul Master |
| “ | In my dreams I could see it. The Kingdom's salvation, the cure for the plague... the answer was in the soul that animates our bodies. But the King... why?! He opposed everything I did... His jealousy... his madness... by standing against me he robbed me of my immortality! Now the King and his Kingdom are dead... but I... will live forever. | „ |
| ~ The Soul Master's ghost after the Soul Tyrant's defeat. |
The Soul Master is a major antagonist and boss in Hollow Knight. He was once the leader of the Soul Sanctum, who tried to use the power of the soul to immortalize himself to live through the Infection, but was ultimately driven mad from misusing the substance.
Biography[]
During the time of the Infection caused by The Radiance for the negligence in her worship, the Soul Master and his students studied collecting soul from within the bugs' spirits, believing collecting enough would stop the Infection. The Pale King opposed the Soul Master's idea and ordered him to cease his experiment, although the Soul Master and his students continued to perform the experiment in secret from the king, with no knowledge of his usage of Void to seal away the Infection instead.
When the Hollow Knight managed to seal away the Infection, everything seemed to return to normal. However, it did not last long for the Infection to find its way out of its sealed state. The Soul Master was inspired by prophetic dreams on a new way to use soul to avoid the Infection. Without the Pale King's advice, as he and his White Palace vanished following the Hollow Knight's sealed fate, the Soul Master and his followers took more drastic measures to obtain soul by conducting experiments on various bugs of Hallownest to deprive them of their soul, believing enough will grant them immortality from the Infection's wrath, although most of the members were cursed from the misuse of soul and turned into creatures known as Mistakes and Follies.
Despite the thoughts of the Soul Master and his students, soul was not strong enough to protect them from the plague and they became infected. By the time the Knight makes it to the Soul Sanctum in the City of Tears, they were too late, as the Infection had made it through the sanctum and corrupted each and every member of the facility, including the Soul Master himself, who faces the Knight at the end of the sanctum.
Due to all of the soul that Soul Master had obtained, he was a powerful foe for the Knight to handle, although the Knight managed to find a way to conduct and collect the soul, and used their power against the Soul Master, seemingly destroying him and exposing his soul. Before the Knight was able to collect it, the Soul Master managed to recreate himself through his exposed soul and continued his brawl against the Knight but was defeated yet again, this time for good. The Knight once again collects Soul Master's soul and obtains the Desolate Dive spell, allowing them to slam through the floors of the Soul Sanctum and continue on their quest.
Optionally, the Knight can return to the Soul Sanctum and use the Dream Nail on the Soul Master's corpse to enter the Dream Realm and fight the Soul Master's Dream Boss counterpart, the Soul Tyrant. He fights identically to the Soul Master, except his spells are casted faster, the shockwaves of his slams are taller, and his spinning attack summons six orbs instead of four. After defeating the Soul Tyrant, the ghost of the Soul Master appears above his corpse, explaining that all he did was so he find a cure for the Infection. He then disappears, granting 300 Essence to the Knight's Dream Nail.
Godmaster[]
In Godmaster, the Soul Master is fought in the Pantheon of the Artist as the third boss, and later in the Pantheon of Hallownest as the thirteenth boss. The Soul Tyrant is fought in the Pantheon of the Knight as the ninth boss, and later in the Pantheon of Hallownest as the thirty-sixth boss.
A statue of him is found in the second floor in the Hall of Gods. If the player has not defeated him yet, the statue will not show and an empty stand will read: "Immortal, I rule the sanctum". Otherwise defeating him in the base game will make the statue materialize in a bright light, allowing him to be fought again. Defeating his dream form will allow the player to Dreamnail the statue to fight the Soul Tyrant.
The Soul Master statue reads: "Covetous god of soul", while the Soul Tyrant version reads: "Frenzied god of mortality".
Personality[]
During his boss fight, the Soul Master's Dream Nail dialogue reflects on his arrogance of achieving immortality, boasting that while the Pale King falls, he will live forever. But during the Soul Tyrant's fight, his Dream Nail dialogue behaves more resilient such as questioning if the voice was ever there and if the souls collected brought him closer to the light. After defeating the Soul Tyrant, his ghost reveals he has grown remorseful of his previous actions and questions whether the light prophet in his dreams was really there.
Gallery[]
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Videos[]
Trivia[]
- As the Soul Tyrant, the Soul Master is one of the six bosses that can be refought in the Dream Realm, the others being the False Knight, the Broken Vessel, the Dung Defender, Zote, and Grimm.
- Defeating the Soul Master unlocks the "Illumination" achievement, while defeating the Soul Tyrant unlocks the "Mortality" achievement.
- The Soul Master is the only boss to give the Knight a spell after defeat, that being the Desolate Dive.
- Prior to update 1.0.1.3, the Soul Master's slam attacks did not produce shockwaves.
- It is possible that the Radiance was the cause of the prophetic dreams that the Soul Master was inspired from.
- In the game files, the Soul Master is referred to as "Mage Lord".
- Since the Lifeblood update, the Soul Master's size was slightly shrunk, though this may be a glitch.
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 Villains
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Hollow Knight The Infected Other Hollow Knight: Silksong | ||