Warning: contains spoilers of the game Hollow Knight.
Hollow Knight is one of my favorite games.
Pure Vessel is a character in the game. It was created with one purpose, to seal the infection (Radiance) that invades everyone’s mind, puts them in a mindless, killing state.
It was made by the White King (a God figure of the world), harnessing the power of the void. The White King made a “vessel” out of the void. A vessel is an entity with a mask and kind of looks like a man. It’s a container that can seal the infection inside, though itself might get infected overtime.
To seal the source of all infections, the Radiance, it has to be the purest, perfect vessel, with no emotions, no wills, no thoughts, purely hollow, the infinite void. Because it seems that anything that can think or dream, the radiance will enter their dream and invade their thought, eventually infect their mind.
It was born in The Abyss, where all the vessels were born.
The White King made tens of thousands of vessels, and only the perfect one got out.
Fan art of The Abyss, made by Awlita, it is filled with vessels that didn’t make it out, the player (little vessel) is looking up The Abyss.
In the game, we (the player) are also a vessel, and at one point we returned to our birth place - The Abyss.
We get to go back in time to witness when Pure Vessel was born - the perfect vessel, the destined knight to seal the Radiance, who later did manage to contain Radiance inside, and became known as The Hollow Knight.
As we relive the moment of when Pure Vessel climbed out of The Abyss, a poem appears on the screen, line by line as we go up. It was a very emotional and landmark moment of the game, and a beautiful poem.
No cost too great.
No mind to think
No will to break
No voice to cry sufferingBorn of god and void
You shall seal the blinding light that plagues their dreamsYou are The Vessel
You are The Hollow Knight