Grand mother silk

Appearance

Grand Mother Silk is a massive anthropomorphic spider-humanoid Higher Being with a feminine build. She has a slender white body ending in a large circular abdomen. She also has eight arms (six of which only unfold during one of her attacks), bronze forearms, black hands and bronze "legs" which conjoin into a single point. Silk's face is nothing but a black void, and she has two halo-like horns floating above her head. Most notably, silk extends from her head like extremely long white hair.

When Hornet binds her in the Weaver Queen ending, Silk's face begins to unravel and turn into threads, implying that she herself is made of countless silk strands. This seems to be proven by how her whole body is stained black when she's trapped in the Void, and how her severed arm has loose threads coming off of it.

Personality

From what is shown in her dialogue, Grand Mother Silk is a hegemonic and egotistical Higher Being, wanting nothing more than to be worshipped and praised by all for eternity. She shows no regard for the suffering of others, enthralling bugs into a torturous hive mind using her threads and wiping out any opposition to her rule, as evidenced by the destruction of Karak. She also has a perverted obsession with motherhood, creating "children" to satisfy this need for having a figure to care for.

Silk is evidently a neglectful parent at best and an abusive one at worst, as she discarded Phantom into the Exhaust Organ once they started to fray, and created Lace in such a manner that not only was her development stunted, but she was also forced to serve Silk forever, displaying a lack of care for her wellbeing. Intelligent though Silk is, she displays remarkably poor empathy and emotional intelligence, failing to foresee that her mistreatment of others would inevitably breed resentment and betrayal.

When betrayed, Silk shows herself to be incredibly vindictive and merciless, ordering the Citadel to capture any Weavers they could find and bring them to her to be absorbed, even claiming Weaver descendants that had nothing to do with her initial sealing. She also attempts to drag Hornet down into the Void with her when the Soul Snare is activated, outraged and willing to take revenge on the one who had foiled her plans, even if it meant the both of them dying.

Despite her wickedness, Silk is not completely heartless and does possess some genuine care and empathy. She was genuinely hurt by the betrayal of the Weavers, lamenting their betrayal in a memory of her creation of Lace. Silk, despite her mistreatment of Lace, leading to her crippling self-loathing and nihilism, does genuinely care for her daughter, holding back the Void in an attempt to protect her from it during Act 3, so much so that she wears herself thin constantly replenishing the cocoon she wove, severely weakening herself.

It all comes to a head when Silk, upon Hornet freeing Lace from the Void's control, unhesitatingly gives her archenemy the remainder of her power to escape the Abyss with her daughter, dooming herself to be consumed by the darkness. In the end, Silk never truly redeems herself for the countless atrocities she committed, but she is

Lore

At first, Weavers were free from her for the first time, and some had even left Pharloom for other kingdoms, such as Hallownest. However, the Bugs of Pharloom, specifically those in the Whiteward, used the mother's Silk in order to increase their lifespan, which led to the Grand Mother being able to control these bugs at her will. She had hated what the Weavers had done to her, so she commanded the Bugs of Pharloom to venture out of their kingdom in order to find the Weavers, which had included Hornet despite also being part Wyrm.

Weavers had also made Weavenests across Pharloom . They were outposts in which Weavers tested out experiments. The most notable Weavenest is Weavenest Atla, where Hornet encounters Eva. A being made purely of Silk, in an attempt to recreate a Higher Being who could challenge the Grand Mother Silk. However, Eva's form was too frail to exist outside her chamber

Long ago, the Pale Higher Being known as Grand Mother Silk would travel to a mountainous area inhabited by numerous bug tribes and clans. She would use her powers to evolve small arachnids known as Pharlids into the sapient Weavers, granting them the unique ability to spin silk. Grand Mother Silk would lie to the Weavers, telling them that they were her divine daughters, as well as keeping them as her own worshippers to sustain her influence. Grand Mother Silk would establish the kingdom of Pharloom in this mountainous region, conquering and destroying the neighbouring clans such as the Order of Karak, whose waterways were turned to sandy desert thanks to her conquest. As implied by Skarrsinger Karmelita and the Skarr, Silk may have tried to overtake Pharloom in the past with her silk, a precursor to her curse over the kingdom.

Eventually, however, the Weavers would grow tired of their servitude and rebel against Grand Mother Silk, lulling her to sleep and imprisoning her within a cocoon at the top of Pharloom. From there, they would establish themselves as the new rulers of the kingdom, building the Citadel as a way to keep her from awakening whilst being able to enjoy a life of lavish luxury. However, the Weavers realised that no matter how many tools and technologies they made to curb Silk's influence, she would always be the true ruler of Pharloom. Thus, many of them would decide to migrate to other kingdoms such as Hallownest to escape her influence, while the Weavers that stayed in Pharloom would pass away. In their absence the Citadel Caste would usurp rulership of Pharloom, converting the Weavers' system of song and prayer used to keep Silk at bay into a dystopian and corrupt system they used to benefit themselves.

During the “silencing” of the Citadel, Grand Mother Silk would eventually begin to stir and, desperate to wake from her slumber, would begin to trigger the Haunting, driving bugs mad using her silk. As the physicians of it's Whiteward had inserted silk into the bodies of many bugs in an attempt to achieve immortality, Silk was overtake the Citadel's populants as her first victims with relative ease. She then gradually spread out her curse beyond the gilded city, allowing her to control a vast number of bugs, even those beyond Pharloom fringes. Using her vast influence, Silk would order the Choir's forces to find and capture the Weaver diaspora that lay outside of Pharloom, bringing them back to her adobe to presumably be absorbed. Eventually, Silk sensed the power of an exceptionally powerful Weaver descendant: Hornet, child of Herrah the Beast and the Pale King. She would thus send the entirety of her Weaver-capturing platoon to capture this Weaver, leading to the game's events.

At some point in the past, Silk desired to have children of her own. Her first creation, Phantom, was somewhat successful but was cast down to guard the Exhaust Organ after they started to fall apart. Eventually, Silk would produce a successful child in the form of Lace, imbuing her with both a childlike body and personality traits, as well as a desire to free her. Lace, however, was also made to be frail and in need of a constant supply of new silk, allowing Silk to control her. Lace is keenly aware of this and resents being her mother's servant and plaything, eventually coming to believe she was to be discarded during Silk's hunt of the Weavers.

Act I: Pharloom While Silk doesn't make an physical appearance, she seems to call Hornet upwards in a memory contained within the Bell Beast's Silk Heart and is mentioned by Widow, who plans to offer up the citizens of Bellhart to her. Pavo also discusses how he felt his mind getting merged into a greater collective while snared in the threads, foreshadowing Silk's goals and nature as a Higher Being.

Act II: Citadel of Song When Hornet first enters the Citadel and finishes confronting Lace, Silk can be heard roaring before sending her silk threads out, reviving the Citadel Caste who attack her. She is confronted by collecting the Threefold Melody, boarding the lift to the Cradle and defeating Lace. Once Hornet defeats Silk, she binds her power within herself to prevent Silk from returning, becoming the next Weaver Queen. As a result, she begins to metamorphose and succumb to her natural Weaver instincts for domination, causing the Haunting to resume in even greater fervour.

In an alternative ending, if Hornet is infected with the Twisted Bud, having not cured it after assisting Greyroot, the Bud hatches and engulfs Hornet and Silk, turning them into lifeless statues of bark as the parasite begins to emerge.

However, should Hornet complete all of the Wishes given to her throughout the game, she will receive a new Wish from the Caretaker, who offers to make her a contraption capable of sealing away Grand Mother Silk permanently: the Soul Snare. Hornet has to collect soul pieces from the Chapel Maid, Bell Hermit and Caretaker respectively, assembling them into a trap with the assistance of a Weaver artifact. With the Soul Snare assembled, the Caretaker places it at Silk's arena, allowing the fight to go on as normal until she's sufficiently weakened, during which the trap begins to bind her.

Unfortunately, the Snare suddenly erupts into a portal to the Void, sending out tentacles which grab onto Silk. She attempts to grab onto Hornet but Lace cuts one of her mother's arms off, freeing Hornet and sending herself plunging into the depths below. As the Void begins to erupt from the Snare, the ceiling shakes and Hornet is thrown into the bottom of the Cradle, opening the third and final Act of the game.

Act III: Abyss During Act III, it's revealed that the reason why the Snare turned into a portal to the Void was because the three NPCs whose soul pieces were used were in fact disguised Snail Shamans, who believed that the Void would be able to nullify Silk's power and kill her permanently. Meanwhile, Silk, in an effort to protect Lace, encases the two of them in a cocoon of silk to keep the Void out. However, the Void's influence still spreads through Silk's threads, corrupting the various bugs of Pharloom. Silk's severed arm can be found in the Cradle and bound to receive the Pale Nails Silk Skill, allowing her to summon homing spears.

Using an Everbloom to stave off the Void, Hornet enters the Abyss and eventually dives into Silk's cocoon, where she confronts a Void corrupted Lace. She defeats Lace in an intense boss fight and dispels the Void's corruption. With the Void closing in, Silk offers the last of her power to Hornet, allowing her to super jump far enough that she and Lace escape the Void while Silk is consumed, ending her tyranny over Pharloom forever.