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· An unknown threat, the Steel Lords, exists in the world of Hollow Knight.
· They rule the Cold Steel City, and their vassals are forced into absolute obedience through a process called 'compression'.
· Compression can transform not only simple bugs but also higher beings into robotic steel servants.
· Cut content from Silksong hints that this faction will play a significant role in the future.
· The fate of those who resist the Lords is worse than death, and those with a Steel Soul are not given a second chance.

· Silksong's Steel Soul-exclusive quest revolves around the hidden Steel Prophet Z and her lost vassal, Sula.
· When Z is found on the desolate stairs, she is dormant, covered in sand and dirt, her metal body and gems having lost their color.
· Attacking Z reactivates her, and she immediately recognizes Hornet as part of a higher being.
· Z calls Hornet a 'Child of Steel', implying that Hornet has drawn the attention of the Lords.
· Z's role is to observe the land and its inhabitants, and she believes Hornet was sent by the Lords to find her lost vassal.
· If Hornet refuses the quest, Z says, "Will you defy the rules? Untamed? Unbound by the Lords?" emphasizing the importance of obedience and the miserable fate of those who resist.
· The 'compression' inflicted upon higher beings, in particular, is implied to have been experienced by Z herself, showing how the Steel Children are born.
· Compression is a process of forcibly injecting the essence of powerful beings into a steel shell to suppress their will and control their minds.

· Steel Soul Jyn, found in Hollow Nest, is recently compressed and has a lower understanding than Prophet Z.
· The compression process is similar to the Citadel's soul structures.
· In the Citadel's secret chambers, a massive machine called the 'Silk Siphon' is used to extract the souls of aging lesser laborers and choir bugs.
· The extracted souls are transformed into silk fly forms and forcibly injected into constructs that serve as the Citadel's immortal slaves.
· This new shell overwhelms their will and replaces it with the simple directive of 'service'.
· A similar process is seen in the Pale King's 'King's Moulds', where the Void is used as a power source instead of souls.
· These two processes appear to be connected, with experiments in one providing knowledge for the other.
· In the case of the Steel Children, because higher beings are transformed, they can retain some complex thought and individuality compared to the Citadel's automatons.
· It is presumed that the Steel City possesses a much more advanced version of the Silk Siphon, capable of overwhelming even the most powerful souls.

· The aura emanating from Z is implied to be a form of 'remote sight', similar to the surveillance tools the Weavers use to track lost vassals.
· Since the Steel Children act as the Citadel's overseers, such powerful abilities are logical.
· Even with just one Steel Child placed in a hidden corner of the kingdom, the Lords can observe everything that happens there.
· This also aligns with the ability of higher beings to sense important events in their respective kingdoms.
· According to records found in the base game's 'Cradle', the Citadel hunted down Weavers who fled Pharloom and 'dragged them beneath the Steel City'.
· This could refer to the 'Widow', but the pin embedded in her back is steel-grey rather than the Citadel's typical gold, suggesting a connection to the Steel Lords.

· Z marks several camp locations where Sula rested on a map, and Hornet discovers traces of desperate and dangerous rituals at each site.
· When Sula is found in the Moss Grotto cemetery, she is already performing a ritual, manipulating the Void itself to create a 'summoned savior' to protect herself from the Lords.
· Sula is a type of bug similar to Hollow Knight's Confessor Gigi, possessing the ability to summon the Void.
· The fact that bugs with such powerful Void manipulation abilities are at the lowest rung of the Steel City's hierarchy implies that the Lords are far more powerful.
· The vassals having knowledge similar to shamans suggests that the use of runes and rituals was essential for manipulating the vital energy needed to create the Steel beings.
· The Void appears to be the only entity that can pose a threat to the Lords, and Sula's act of summoning the Void brands her as a 'tarnished' being.
· A 'tarnished' vassal will be hunted by the Lords forever.
· Sula's rebellion stems from her desire to escape the cruel mission of being a slave and watching kingdoms die without being able to do anything.
· Sula laments, saying, "Steel hearts feel too little. Yet we are forced to serve. Only we endure everything. Why?"

· Hornet allows Sula to escape the Lords forever, and Z admires Hornet's complex thought that freedom, even if hunted, might be better than endless servitude.
· Z gives Hornet a 'Growstone', the birthplace of Z and the Steel City.
· The Growstone is described as a cold, steel-like stone with astonishing regenerative abilities.
· This stone is very similar to Hollow Nest's rare and powerful 'Pale Ore', which also emits a cold aura and is connected to higher beings.
· If these stones are the souls of higher beings forcibly injected into metal, then the Growstone's infinite regenerative ability perfectly matches the infinite soul generation of the 'King's Soul Charm', a characteristic of the Pale Being.

· Z remains faithful to her function of always observing, recording, and waiting, or is eternally bound by duty.
· Jyn, who possesses a Void heart, says, "Jyn judged wrongly. Not inferior. Perhaps different. Different from Jyn. More complete. Different from the Lords," implying that the Lords are a unified collective on par with the Shade Lord.
· It is certain that new content related to the Steel City will be added in a future DLC.
· Team Cherry stated in an interview that a specific backer boss would become Hornet's main rival character.
· This bug is 'Steel Assassin Sharp', who uses their proboscis as a blade and whip.
· Sharp is a hunter from distant lands, tasked with eliminating Hornet, and does not come alone.
· The reason the Lords send an assassin after Hornet may be because she summoned the Void in Act 3, becoming a 'tarnished vassal' like Sula.
· There is also speculation that this DLC could be Steel Soul-exclusive, offering only one chance in all boss battles.