Sword nerd thoughts about silksong weapons
I've been playing silksong, and I couldn't help but think about the weapons used in Pharloom and Hallownest and how they're different.
See, in Hallownest, the setting of the first Hollow Knight, the weapon of choice is "Nails", which are characterized by a heavily triangular shape, with a strong widening from tip to guard, a prominent shoulder for the blade, and a straight grip that ends without a pommel.
Like so.
Nails in Hollow Knight are almost universally used for slashing attacks, with very few exceptions. Now, cultural inclinations towards cut vs thrust come and go, (historically rapiers and sabers were used in the same time period) and the design and use of the nails suggests that martial tradition in Hallownest heavily favored the cut.
In contrast, the weapons of Pharloom are "Pins", characterized by long thin blades of mostly uniform width, with no defined grip, and a ring pommel formed by bending the metal of the pin back on itself,
(Best image I could find)
Now, from a practical standpoint, that thing should be useless for cuts, despite how many enemies use them for cutting. the shape of it is clearly inclined towards the thrust, and indeed, thrusting attacks are much more common in Pharloom than they were in Hallownest. A weapon so strongly optimized for thrusting (again, despite how the enemies often use them) suggests a strong cultural bias towards it.
And this is normal, some martial traditions favor thrusting, other slashing. The stark differences between the Nails of Hallownest and the Pins of Pharloom does put Hornet's Needle in an interesting spot though.
Hornet's needle is longer and thinner than almost any nail, with only the Mantis Lords having remotely similar weapons, making it a visibly more precise and elegant weapon than the average nail in Hallownest. However, it's thicker than any pin, with the triangular blade and prominent shoulder of Hallownest's nails, making it a better slashing weapon than the pins of Pharloom. And, interestingly, it has a ring pommel, just like a pin.
This leads me to my theory. We know that Hornet was raised by Weavers, and the Weavers have a strong presence in Pharloom, possibly even being native to it. I think that Hornet's nail was made for her by a nailsmith based on a Weaver's description of a pin. It's a long, thin piercing weapon with a ring pommel, just like a pin, but with the distinct shape of Hallownest's blades. A weapon much like Hornet herself, made from Hallownest, but shaped by a different tradition.
anyway rant over