Arboris
The Withered Crown

Floor 10

The Withered Crown

The dying crown of the Tree, where the ash falls and makes no sound

Levels 33–35
Town
Lastlight
The wilds
The Ashfall
Guardian
The Hollow Knight

The lowest reach of the Tree's crown, and the last of it that still holds leaves, though they are grey. The world kept here ended in ash: the sun went pale, the sky turned the colour of a hearth in the morning, and the ash fell for seven years until every fire was out but one. Lastlight is the fortress that kept it burning.

Beyond the walls the Silence lies so close that sound will hardly carry, and it lies closest in the north, at the Throne of Silence. The Vigil on the walls speaks to itself with fire. On the Throne waits the Hollow Knight.

The Withered Crown: the lowest reach of the Tree's crown, and the last of it that still holds leaves, though you will have seen what colour they are. Our world ended here, in ash. The Tree took what was left of it, and this fortress with it. We call it Lastlight, because when every other fire in the world went out, this one did not.

Leofric, Keeper of the Last Fire

Map

Map of The Withered Crown seen from above, north at the topLastlightThe Ashen ApproachThe Grey BoughsThe Fallen KeepThe Whispering BarrensThe Bone OrchardThe Throne of Silence

Places

The wilds grow stronger the further you go from the Hearth.

  1. The Ashen ApproachLevels 34–35
  2. The Grey BoughsLevels 34–35
  3. The Fallen KeepLevels 34–35
  4. The Whispering BarrensLevels 34–35
  5. The Bone OrchardLevels 34–35
  6. The Throne of SilenceLevel 35
  • Hearth
  • Field boss
  • Dungeon door
  • Guardian

Who lives here

Dust MothLevels 33–34Drift ScorpionLevels 33–35WitherwalkerLevels 34–35Pale StriderLevels 34–35Ash GolemLevels 34–35Shade WispLevel 35Bone CentipedeLevel 35

Field boss

The Hollow ChoirLevel 35

The Hollow Choir

The Whispering Barrens, Level 35

A great grey flame of many voices over the Whispering Barrens; when it rises, the whispering stops all at once. It sings without a sound, and the song goes through you; its voices cry out together and throw you back, and when it falls still, the stillness spreads like a ring on water. Be outside the ring.

It wakes on its own about every half hour, and the whole floor hears it: The Whispering Barrens fall silent all at once: the Hollow Choir has risen!

Dungeon

The Silent Archive

For a party of up to six, from level 35. Every party walks its own copy.

The great library of the Withered Crown's world, cut into the hill beneath the Throne of Silence; its door opens only to the chroniclers' word, caught in a shade's echo. When the Silence came down every page went blank, and in the Inkwell the lost words woke as the Unwritten; the Grey Binder has strung the stacks shut.

Bosses

The Grey BinderLevel 35The UnwrittenLevel 36

Its keepers

Vellum MothLevel 35InkwyrmLevel 35Stack WardenLevel 35

Guardian

The Hollow KnightLevel 37

The Hollow Knight

Level 37

The Withered Crown's guardian, the great foe of the first ten floors: a knight of iron as tall as a house who has sat on the Throne of Silence since the night the Silence came down. Arrows ring off him like stones off a bell; when he stands, the ash stops falling, and the Silence comes out of him.

Waits in the Throne of Silence: the great guardian of the first ten floors. Everyone who climbs fights it together, and it grows with them.

Townsfolk

Lastlight

Lastlight
  • LeofricKeeper of the Last Fire
  • RowenaMarshal of the Vigil
  • JoranSmith of the Last Forge
  • MabynQuartermaster of Lastlight
  • ClementLast of the Chroniclers
  • OdileSexton of the Bone Orchard

Their tasks

  1. The Last FireLeofric, Level 33
  2. The Ashen ApproachRowena, Level 33
  3. Smoke for the BeaconsRowena, Level 33
  4. Deadwood for the FireLeofric, Level 34
  5. The Keep of the Old CompanyClement, Level 34
  6. Voices in the BarrensClement, Level 34
  7. Iron of the Old CompanyJoran, Level 34
  8. Thread for the WallsMabyn, Level 34
  9. Diggers in the OrchardOdile, Level 35
  10. The Word at the DoorClement, Level 35