Might come as an odd question but working on my own HK campaign I was kinda thinking how best to translate some stuff from the game to D&D terms and I'm a little stumped on how some creature types might be translated. A lot are obvious like a lot of creatures in the games are beasts or monstrosities or… however you'd differentiate PC "humanoid" bugs to monstrous "animal" bugs, and even some plants like the White Lady, but like what is Grand Mother Silk? A celestial? Elemental? Would like Grimm and the Nightmare King be the only "fiends" we could really note? The Pale King was once a "wyrm" so like would he have been a dragon? Sorry if it's a vast and rambling question but it's been bounding in my head for a bit >3<
I like to first thank you for giving me the excuse to talk about this. I love world building and have thought a lot about this. Also secondly! I want say that these are my personal thoughts on the subject, that other DMs will have their own interpretations and you should ask your DM what are their interpretations in their Hollowed Kingdoms World.
This is actually connects to my discussion on the power scaling of the Hollow Knight world you can find here: https://www.tumblr.com/hollowedkingdoms/805084349057974272/the-scale-of-power-in-the-hollow-knight-universe?source=share
Also for those who aren't really familiar with Dungeons and Dragons Monster Categories you can check out this link which has a good summary of each one: https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters#content
So lets start off with basics any bug that have intelligent thought would be considered "Humanoid" for sake of simplicity. They be regular bugs like Elder Bug, Cornifer, Grindle, Shakra, the Mantis Tribes, Ants etc. and other creatures with intelligent thought like the snail shamans for example. They may all be different species but again I think the defining way to classify anything as a "humanoid" if they have higher intelligence. The only exception to this would technically be "Giants", but I think giants are extremely rare and/or extinct. The only bugs I would consider as giants are the giant dead bugs we see around Hallownest. Now you may ask: Well what about Bardoon? I would say yes I think I would categorize him as a giant, but see him more as a "Giant-kin" like how Trolls are technically giants.
Everything else would be consider a monster/animal that can divided into the appropriate category. Though I will say that they are technically all bugs, the "Beasts" category being any bug that would be consider an beast/animal. This is because "Monstrosities" are very specific set of creatures that are not natural in any way. Whether that be through magical experimentation or the product of magical curses. Plasmids, Uoma and Mistake's would be creatures that I would considered Monstrosities.
However after that categories get a bit tricky. This is mainly because of the world of dnd is a bit different than the world of Hollow Knight. There is no Feywild, nor Shadowfell, there are no elemental planes along with no overt heaven or hells. So Celestials, Fey, Fiends and also Dragons are hard to find equal equivalents. A lot of it is vibes, but I have tried to break things downs before similarly in my previous post on the Power scaling of the Hollow Knight Universe. In which I broke down the term "Higher Being" that is used in the universe into the categories: Higher Beings, True Gods and Primordials.
Higher Beings being ironic the lowest title. This is because these beings do have god like power, along with being seemingly immortal. However, they can be killed by other beings lower then themselves. Another big difference between these beings and the next level is that they can not make something from nothing. So I think that Fey, Fiends and Dragons would generally fit this category. The Pale King I think would be a Dragon, not just because he is a Wyrm, but also due to the fact there is mention of more than one Wyrm in the original game. Dragons are a unique category that they are very powerful creatures, but are a very specific species, with most of the category for a while being mainly the variations in age of the OG Chromatic or Metalic Dragons. So since again, there is more than one Wyrm, I would feel comfortable putting them underneath this category since they could be considered specific species. The Nightmare King/Grimm along with his Grimmkin I agree with being the only Fiends in the world so far. I would also say if any DM wants to create any other beings coming from the Nightmare Realm they would also be underneath the Fiend Category since its close enough to the hells. In addition though the Nightmare Heart is specifically a "True God",I would consider a Fiend categorically since it is from/created the Nightmare Realm.
Meanwhile Grandmother Silk and the White Lady I think would consider a Fey. Fey are powerful creatures, but usually seen as less powerful as gods and can be fought/slain which fits the category of Higher Being I previously set.There may not be any Feywild, but they are beings closely tied to the forces of nature, while also taking ideas from fairy tales and the fae. Hags in particular are known to have "Grandmother" in their names. So me in particular seeing that and looking at dnd categories kinda made it obvious for Grandmother Silk, but that was a fun tidbit and was besides the point. I am curious what they are gonna do in the future expansions, but I think for now I want to say that most Higher Beings could be generally categorized as Fey.
However this changes when they are what I call "True Gods" which I define as: They can create something from nothing. Along with them mainly existing in the Dream Realm, which I interpret as the worlds Heaven Realm. Because of this heavenly vibe of the Dream Realm and the power they wield, I would consider any True Gods to be categorized as Celestial. The True Gods I recognize as such being The Radiance, Unn and The Nightmare Heart. However, like I said above The Nightmare Heart would be considered Fiend because The Nightmare Realm is a separate section of the Dream Realm.
Then…. We come to what I call "The Primordials",they are one step above True Gods, only in the sense that these represent some primary forces of this world. This is where I put Void Entity/Lord of Shades and The Abyss Creature (or I will just call the Lifeblood God). I would classify these beings tentatively as Elementals, these beings are defined by their element which in Hollow Knights case is The Void and Lifeblood. There are no elemental gods in dnd technically, but I think elemental would be right call for category. I also made a theory in my last post that these are two out of three elements that make up the backbone of the world. The third one being Light which is represented by the Delicate Flower/The Everbloom. Since as a writer the themes of Light, Darkness and Life are pretty common but if you want to know more please read my previous post.
If there was anything I missed please send me more questions and I hope you enjoyed this unhinged TedTalk Part 2.
