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· 'Great Mother Silk' is at the heart of all four endings in Silksong.
· She is the one abandoned by the god, who destroyed the kingdom, and ultimately takes an unexpected action.
· This video aims to uncover everything about this character to help you deeply understand Silksong's story.

· According to the in-game bestiary, 'Great Mother Silk' is the source of the curse that spread Silk and drove the bugs to madness.
· Silk is not just a material; it possesses a special power woven from souls, capable of healing wounds, extending lifespan, and creating powerful runes.
· For the eternal prosperity of Pharloom, she created bugs called 'Silkflies' using the souls of bugs as raw material, and these bugs power the Citadel, the heart of Pharloom.
· 'Great Mother Silk' is the origin of all this.

· In the world of Hollow Knight, there are 'Higher Beings' that transcend ordinary bugs. These are god-like entities possessing immense power and intellect.
· 'Great Mother Silk' belongs to a special classification among these Higher Beings called 'Pale Beings.'
· Throughout the entire series so far, only three 'Pale Beings' have been identified: The White Lady, Pale King, and 'Great Mother Silk.'
· 'Pale Beings' are supreme entities with the power of imagination and control, almost god-like.
· Silk's appearance is that of a giant humanoid, with a white body and only the face covered in black, expressionless, with infinite threads extending from her head. When angered, multiple arms unfold.

· The in-game 'Needling' ability is a special musical instrument. When played near enemies, surrounding characters reveal their true feelings and sing.
· However, Silk does not react to Needling; she only lets out a scream of rage.
· Furthermore, Silk refers to herself as 'We,' which implies an ancient royalty or divine being referring to themselves in the plural, representing the will of a 'master' rather than their own.
· This suggests she is not acting on her own will but as a vessel for a higher power.

· When Silk appeared in Pharloom, there were small bugs called 'Paghmos' on the ground, moving only by instinct.
· Silk infused these Paghmos with her intellect, evolving them into beings capable of language and civilization. This is the origin story of the 'Weavers.'
· Silk told the Weavers, 'You are my daughters, divine beings,' and they believed her, creating a religion that worshipped Silk.
· However, the Weavers eventually realized the truth: they were not born as gods but were merely elevated Paghmos.
· As evidence, the Weavers have a species-wide limitation of being unable to reproduce. This is revealed through the character 'Eva,' who was born as a failed attempt by the Weavers to create offspring, an incomplete life form that could only exist within an iron golem.
· This highlights their non-divine origin.

· The Weavers realized not only the truth that they were elevated beings, not born gods, but also that Silk's words to them were lies.
· The being that most vividly demonstrates this is 'The First Accuser.' She was the first to initiate the Weavers' rebellion.
· Her remembered dialogue is: 'She called us divine. Called us daughters. That was a lie.'
· Silk claimed she made the bugs gods to be worshipped, but in reality, she used them as tools for greater devotion.
· This revelation fueled their rebellion.

· The Weavers found a way to pacify Silk. Silk's power was originally sustained by song and prayer, and the Weavers' mission was to maintain Silk's light eternally through song.
· Exploiting this, they repurposed the Citadel's song system for Silk's sealing, successfully putting her to sleep.
· After the sealing, the Weavers created a system to manage Silk, and three positions emerged in the Citadel: Conductor, Architect, and Manager.
· The quest in Act 2 where Hornet collects three melodies is about gathering the melodies held by these three positions.
· Conductor Baradool realized he was not a ruler but merely operated within the framework created by Silk.

· After sealing Silk, the Weavers completely hid her existence from the people of Pharloom and began to rule as kings themselves.
· However, they eventually realized they could not completely escape Silk's influence. Some left Pharloom, and those who remained lost their lives.
· Some of the Weavers who left Pharloom became Hornet's mother, meaning 'Great Mother Silk' is effectively Hornet's maternal grandmother.
· The name 'Grandmother Silk' can be interpreted to encompass both 'Great Mother' and 'Grandmother' meanings.

· Even after being sealed, Silk did not give up. While asleep, her instincts continued to operate, and Silk's threads spread throughout Pharloom.
· Through these threads, the sleeping Silk invaded the bugs' bodies, stole their consciousness, and drove them to madness. This is the truth behind the 'cursed silk' phenomenon.
· The bugs with blurred vision that Hornet sees early in the game are all phenomena caused by Silk's dormant power.
· In the White Tower of the Citadel, experiments were conducted to inject Silk directly into the bugs' bodies to extend their lifespan, which led to the bugs in the Citadel being the first to be controlled by Silk.

· Silk's goal is to bind all souls and shells in Pharloom into a single consciousness, forever dedicating their bodies to her.
· This is less about malice and more about instinct, the nature of a Higher Being seeking to dominate everything, much like the Radiance in the previous game, Hollow Knight.
· Higher Beings offer only two choices: devotion or destruction, and Silk demanded complete worship.
· Her actions stem from this fundamental drive.

· Silk sought out and captured descendants of the Weavers because she needed more of Silk's power to awaken.
· Notably, Hornet, whose mother was Queen Vespa of the Weavers and father was the Pale King, was a being with half the blood of a Higher Being.
· Furthermore, Hornet's ability to generate Silk was incomparably superior to other descendants of the Weavers, making her a very special being to Silk.
· Hornet's abduction and transport to Pharloom were the culmination of all these circumstances.

· In the latter half of Act 2, Hornet confronts Silk, and the ending branches based on the choice after the battle.
· In the 'Sealing' ending, Hornet seals Silk's power and becomes queen. This structure is similar to the resolution in the previous game.
· In the 'Abyss' ending, Hornet plays the Needling to activate the Soul Snare. As Silk tries to pull Hornet into the Abyss, Lace intervenes. Silk and Lace fall into the Abyss, initiating Act 3.
· The 'Abyss' ending creates a new story, Act 3, as an unplanned consequence.
· In the ending where 'Silk is defeated while cursed,' a cat-like entity explodes from Hornet's body, restraining Silk, and an unknown being appears. This could be a fusion of Hornet's curse and Silk.
· These endings offer vastly different outcomes.

· Silk falls to the bottom of the Abyss and begins to be consumed by the void. Her white body gradually turns black.
· At this moment, Silk uses her last strength to create a dance to protect Lace. This suggests that Silk viewed Lace not merely as a tool but as the only life form she had created.
· To protect Lace, Silk carved away at her own soul to continue creating the dance. As a side effect, the void spread throughout Pharloom, and the kingdom began to collapse.
· When Hornet arrived at the Abyss, Silk was barely able to move, but she gave Hornet and Lace Silk, sacrificing her own life so they could escape.

· There are various interpretations as to whether Silk's final action was remorse or instinct.
· In my personal interpretation, it could have been resistance to losing Lace, the only life form she created – perhaps affection or obsession – or the instinct of a Higher Being to protect its creation.
· Furthermore, as an imperfect Higher Being, Silk might not have been fully awakened compared to beings like the Radiance. This imperfection might be the reason she developed feelings for her daughter.
· Her actions defy simple categorization.

· We need to reconsider the phrase 'The Beast's Nature Revealed' inscribed on the tombstone at the beginning of the game.
· Initially, I thought Silk's beastly nature implied domination and invasion, but seeing Silk trying to protect Lace at the bottom of the Abyss, it's possible that 'love' was also included within that beastly nature.
· The Higher Beings' choices were 'devotion' or 'destruction,' but Silk's final action was neither. She simply tried to protect her daughter.
· Whether this was an action outside the grammar of Higher Beings or an instinct to protect her creation is open to interpretation.

· Please share in the comments whether you saw Silk as a villain and how you interpret her final actions.
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