Soul Master

Evil-doer
Full Name	Soul Master
Alias	Soul Tyrant
Origin	Hollow Knight
Occupation	Head of the Soul Sanctum
Powers / Skills	Soul Spells Teleportation Desolate Dive
Hobby	Collecting soul.
Goals	Use soul to end the Infection (failed). Use soul to make himself immortal (failed).
Crimes	Killing others for soul Tyranny Murder Mad science Mass Murder
Type of Villain	Immortality-Seeking Collector of Souls

“	The King falls, but I live forever!	„
	~ Soul Master

Soul Master is a major antagonist and boss in Hollow Knight. He was once the leader of the Soul Sanctum, who tried to use the power of the soul to immortalize himself to live through the Infection, but was ultimately driven mad from misusing the substance. 

History

During the time of the Infection caused by The Radiance for the negligence in her worship, Soul Master and his students studied collecting soul from within the bugs' spirits, believing collecting enough would stop the Infection. The Pale King opposed Soul Master's idea and ordered him to cease his experiment, although Soul Master continued to perform the experiment in secret from both his students and the Pale King.

When the Hollow Knight managed to seal away the Infection, everything seemed to return to normal, but it did not last long for the Infection to find its way out of its sealed state. Without the Pale King's advice, as he and his White Palace vanished following the Hollow Knight's sealed fate, Soul Master and his followers took more drastic measures to obtain soul by conducting experiments on various bugs of Hallownest to deprive them of their soul, believing enough will grant them immortality from the Infection's wrath, although most of the members were cursed from the misuse of soul and turned into creatures known as Mistakes and Follies.

By the time the Knight makes it to the Soul Sanctum in the City of Tears, they were too late, as the Infection had made it through the sanctum and possessed each and every member of the facility, including Soul Master himself, who faces the Knight at the end of the sanctum.

Due to all of the soul that Soul Master had obtained, he was a powerful foe for the Knight to handle, although the Knight managed to find a way to conduct and collect the soul, and used their power against the Soul Master, seemingly destroying him and exposing his soul. Before the Knight was able to collect it, Soul Master managed to recreate himself through his exposed soul and continued his brawl against the Knight but was defeated yet again, this time for good. The Knight once again collects Soul Master's soul and obtains the Desolate Dive spell, allowing them to slam through the floors of the Soul Sanctum and continue on their quest.

Optionally, the Knight can return to the Soul Sanctum and use the Dream Nail on Soul Master's corpse and enter the Dream World and fight Soul Master's Dream Boss counterpart, Soul Tyrant. He is one of the 6 bosses that can be re-fought in the Dream World, the others being False Knight, Broken Vessel, Dung Defender, Zote, and Grimm. Defeating Soul Tyrant grants the Knight 300 Essence to their Dream Nail.

Gallery

Images

Soul Master

Soul Tyrant

Soul Master as seen in the Kickstarter trailer.

Videos

Hollow Knight Soul Master

Versus Soul Master.

Hollow Knight - Soul Tyrant

Versus Soul Tyrant.

Hollow Knight Boss Discussion - Soul Master

Soul Master discussion.

Hollow Knight Boss Discussion - Soul Tyrant

Soul Tyrant discussion.

Trivia

• Soul Master is the only boss to give the Knight a spell after defeat. That spell being Desolate Dive.
• Prior to update 1.0.1.3, Soul Master's slam attacks did not produce shockwaves.
• It is possible that the Radiance was the cause of the prophetic dreams that Soul Master was inspired from.
• In the Lifeblood update, Soul Master's size has been slightly shrunk.