Some lore of every Silk Skill: Thread Storm, Cross Stitch
This is just straight up the same skill from Hallownest
How did she lose it? Did the calm after the defeat of the infection made her forget from lack of practice? Was the weakening by the rune cage so strong it eroded away some of her very memories? Maybe the rune cage was draining her soul? Her silk?
Talking about the rune cages, the splash art / rune of the thread storm depicts the threads in much the same way the runes wrap around the bars of the cage; i wonder if in the case of thread storm it is meant to represent twined silk
The shaman crest rune bears some resemblance to other spherical runes, but there's no exact matches
Fun how you can spot the needle as a blur in some of these frames
The Weaver that grants this skill is the only Weaver in Pharloom to have no spikes, matching the look of Deepnest Weavers, and you can even see in the first trailer that the enshrined Weavers were originally the Deepnest ones, not even fossilized
We know they departed back to Pharloom to escape the infection, and considering all Weavers died and were enshrined at the start of the conductor era, the Pale King's rule lasted more or less as much as the reign of the Weavers in Pharloom; this would also explain Weavenest Absolom and the Farsight
Grand Reeds also use a technique similar to Thread Storm
High standing insect of the Choir, bearing a bow. This elite Reed has been trained and fed beyond its smaller fellows.
This bug bears a spool of Silk, which they flail to attack. Though somewhat crude, theirs is a technique much reminiscent of Weavers. I wonder who taught them such a use?
It seems the Weavers taught the Choir how to use Silk
(cross stitch is actually a real life form of sewing)
Hornet already knew how to parry, but it was a far simpler, regular parry that didn't involve silk
It would seem her spine injury from the fall into Moss Grotto prevents her from realizing a parry without aid, hence the use of silk in cross stitch
Judging by the prompt rune and specially the shaman crest rune, to me it seems this skill works by anchoring the needle to the surroundings with a net of silk, which in turn acts as a trampoline or perhaps a sort of horizontal bungee rope
It is very fitting that Hornet learns a way to aid herself back into being able to perform a move (and a far more improved, deadlier version of it at that) from someone who is graying with age, fading, aching with stiff limbs and quivering claws, yet still remains a deadly combatant
But, is Phantom using silk?
Their pin throw clearly stops in the middle of the air, like Hornet's needle throw in the first game, or clawline, which does resemble this move in the way Phantom follows after the pin
No strand of silk is visible, but we have seen plenty of cases where silk is only visible briefly or just in part, with Grand Mother Silk's control of scissor blades, which mirrors First Sinner's use of needles, showing no visible strands of silk moving the blades around (and First Sinner's needles also do seem to just float at first)
So yeah, it would seem Phantom does in fact use silk, strands that just aren't visible because they're faded and lacking shimmer, or because of how thin they are
Besides, we're directly told that Cross Stitch itself is a "technique of a creature spun from thread"; perhaps they're taking advantage of the fact that their body is already unravelling anyways
This in turn brings to question if Lace uses silk in some way
Is her large AoE attack a case of silk usage, like a bungee rope at the center of the sphere? or is it instead an advanced use of aura? or perhaps just very good gymnastics?
For what is worth, the telegraph strongly resembles Phantom's steam dragoon attack
(...hold on, is this "cocoon vs exhaust pipes" symbolism?)
As I've pointed out before, one of the cross stitch shaman runes is directly present on the silk siphon machine, perhaps indicating the rune promotes a pulling of silk, or maybe even allow the needle to perform a fast back and forth motion; the blocking rune also resembles other runes related to silk extraction
(The siphon rune also demonstrates the runes granted by the shaman crest aren't about the shamans of the past knowing these runes specifically, but rather Hornet applying their deeper insight of soul into understanding and improving silk skills; in other words, all those blue runes are still weaver runes)
The silk siphon rune also resembles the metallic structure in the underbelly of the teleport-elevator platforms in the Abyss, as well as the Weaver workshop implements (which seem to be a combination of needle, pen and solding gun at once), both cases further emphasizing the idea of "rune that makes things (like silk) go faster"
The other rune that appears in the riposte has a segment identical to one of the runes that appear when casting pale nails, which could either mean the rune is still in the process of being woven, or that it is reinforcing the blade itself
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