A completely custom city for the Hollow Knight universe! Feel free to do with it as you wish!
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Bloodheim, The City of Blood:
A city of sub-utopian architecture, with the greatest greats at the top, and the darkest evils hidden far beneath, soaked in sanguine, left to rot and decay. Echoes of steel, screams of victory and defeat, roars of the crowds. Bloodheim is a city of passion, individuality, and desire, but important of all, a city of battle. Inhabitants, travellers, and everything in between, battle it out through brain, wit and brawn, to eventually climb to the one position everyone dreams to one day achieve…
The Apex is the strongest, a position that boasts respect. A position that can only be taken by those that fight through teeth and bone, one that has spilled enough blood to paint the town over. This is a title that claims that you are the strongest. In a city like this, it’s practically divine.
Though divine isn’t too far from the truth. Those that claim this title, claim the status of a higher being, granting them power beyond belief. Power to order, power to protect, and power to declare war on the world.
Bloodheim itself is a city alive. Blood flows through channels and aqueducts, through sewers and tunnels, flowing deep beneath the city itself, pooling into an underground sea, the feeding ground, and birthing ground, of the Abyss itself. Absorbing the blood, the nutrients, the life essence, it warps them, grows, and forms monstrosities whose forms even the farthest reaches of your imagination cannot fathom.
Why would they do this, you may ask? Allow me to introduce you to the inhabitants of this utopia, the Anisoptera, or more commonly named, Dragonflies. These beings, though perhaps familiar, take a far different form than the bugs that we know.
These creatures are humanoid in nature, standing upright on two legs, with a defined waist, a broad torso, and four arms, where humans would have two. They sometimes have a solid tail that protrudes from the back of the abdomen, though others of the species do not. They stand at an average of 7 feet tall, though height does vary quite a bit between individuals.
Some of these creatures have antenna out the top of their heads, others opt for a more solid horn-like structure. Their faces are almost always covered by a plain, white or grey mask. Underneath the mask they have large mandibles, compound eyes, able to locate and track prey even in the darkest, or fastest environments.
From their upper-middle back, four membrane-like wings, translucent in nature, protrude outward. When the dragonfly is on the ground, the wings fold down, much like that of a beetle’s, acting as a cloak. Most in this species usually tuck them behind a cape or robe when not using them. These four wings allow for incredibly precise movement, with them able to hover mid-air, easily do 90° turns mid-air, fly backwards, and even fly upside down, allowing for a full 360° movement within the air. Their fingers extend into incredibly sharp claws, easily able to tear through any obstacle that isn’t bone-hard, though even then they can deliver deep cuts into the hardest surface. The Anisoptera, being partially void, leave a shade after death. However, due to their mind and soul transferring to a new body after death, results in the shade being completely mindless, attacking anything in sight. Most shades are dealt with swiftly upon the death of a dragonfly. Despite this, they choose to use weaponry, most defaulting for pole-arms, others choosing more close ranged weapons like swords or long range weapons like bows.
Why do they use these weapons? Well, to fight of course! The Anisoptera are a battle borne race, with even their base instincts roaring for a fight. At a young age, Into late adolescence, these beings join the elders in expeditions, hunting parties, where they learn the basics of fighting, and learn about their main targets, the wild beasts of the endless wastes outside the kingdoms. As young adults, they leave the city, going on large scale adventures, only returning after they achieve enough merit from their deeds in other kingdoms and encampments, fighting in wars and protecting other kingdoms. Once they return with proof of their merit, they’re now allowed to fight in the tournaments, and live within the city itself. They climb through the ranks, fight through tournaments and sanctioned matches, until they too may get the chance to rise to The Apex.
However… that’s all that is seen on the surface.
As newborn, the Anisoptera Larvae are brought far beneath the city into the pool of blood, and even deeper. They’re dipped into the Abyss, their souls officially touched by the abyss, making it so when the dragonfly dies, their soul is brought to a new, unclaimed larva instead, and are allowed to start anew, with all the important memories from their past lives. Through this system of rebirth, they grow, refine, and achieve higher and higher, starting the cycle over and over, with fighting at the centre of it all.
Every 4 years, massive tournaments are held, allowing one to both get experience, and test their meddle against others, including adventurers outside of Bloodheim. The winner wins a large cash prize, and the status of being the winner of the Vier Cup, allowing them complete access throughout the upper city.
Every 10 years, the entire city gets together for the Battle of Blood, a colossal tournament, where anyone and everyone takes place, as if one wins this tournament, they gain the right to verse the current Apex in a legendary fight to the death. If the Apex wins, the runner up gains similar prizes to the Vier Cup, as well as the ability to join the Apex within the Blood Palace as an honoured guest. However, if they win, they usurp the Apex, and claim that title for themselves, raising into a higher being, and ruling over Bloodheim until they themselves are usurped. The old Apex is then cast out, sent out to create their own kingdoms, each gifted a small army of Anisoptera warriors, and is sent off with a huge celebration.
Despite the fact that they lost, they gain a new life, one that allows them to create their own kingdoms.
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Bloodheim is also known as the City of Marble, as white pillars, statues, roads and buildings line the streets of the utopia. Banners from the different houses and clans hang from silk and rope, portraits of past and current warriors line the sides of buildings and hang from arches. Sanctioned matches in the middle of the streets, upon stairwells, around fountains. Children play-fight in the streets, adults sparring, some even fighting for the hell of it. The Colosseum filled to the brim as usual, tournaments constantly being held, as this kingdom prizes pride above all. Pride in oneself, pride in one’s ability, and pride in one’s strength, whether it comes from their physical body, or from their inquisitive mind.
And the main inhabitants of Bloodheim personify pride itself. Anisoptera, Dragonflies, absolutely love to fight. Utilising their individual strengths and abilities, they rise through the ranks, fighting for the joy and the rush, each of them striving for The Apex. The Anisoptera are also the only species dipped into the Abyss at birth, allowing them to have their immortality, their eternal rebirth, eventually causing their larvae to evolve without a soul, capable of absorbing and imbuing the old soul into the new form.
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The entire underground works like an artificial human body. The heart, being at the centre, is The Engine, the thing that ensures everything else is powered. The engine takes fuel from the stomach, or Blood-works, whose purpose is to transform blood into pure energy, before sending it through the Bloodstream, into the different Organs of the System. The entire system is overlooked by the Control Room, which is responsible for managing literally everything within the System.
Above Ground, Top -> Bottom
Underground, Top -> Bottom
- Radar + Sound Detection
- Blood Batteries + Storage
- Carbon Filter + Outtake
- Impurity Storage + Sensors
- Blood Energy Conversion Chambers
- Deoxygenated Blood Outtake
- Blood Transfusion Chamber
- Catalytic Conversion Chambers
- Extraction Vein entrance
- Sifting + Sorting Chambers
- Liquid Extraction Chambers
- Abyssal Feeding Grounds
- Abyssal Breeding Grounds
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Despite the grandeur of the city, living within it does come with some risks. Once a year, shadows fall on the valleys, canyons and ravines that surround the mountain that Bloodheim stands upon. Mists and fog fill even the deepest crevices, monstrosities and creatures crawl from pits even lower than that, deep beneath the earth, as the abyss destabilises, and the hunt begins.
The Call of The Abyss is an event that happens yearly, where the void itself grows far too ravenous. Gladiators and Champions from Bloodheim itself take part in The Hunt, where they fight against the void to gain riches, artefacts, renown, experience and fame, granting them an even greater chance at blasting through the tournaments, and grasping the chance to one day become The Apex themselves.
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Original Creator: @thewandering-nomad (thats me!)
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