Shrine Guardian Seth is not just some invention by Team Cherry. Rather, this character is a virtual memorial.
Early on in Hollow Knight: Silksong, you encounter the Shrine Guardian Seth. This boss is tough and demands everything you’ve got. But no matter how hard this fight may be, it’s nothing compared to the struggle Seth’s namesake had to endure in real life.
The real Seth wrote on Reddit six years ago under the username big_boi878. He happily and proudly shared that the Silksong creators, Team Cherry, had allowed him to come up with a boss enemy that would then appear in Silksong.
Why the nice gesture? This is the part where it gets unspeakably sad.
I made a character for silksong
by
u/big_boi878 in
Hollow Knight
A battle that was almost impossible to win
At that time, Seth was suffering from Ewing’s sarcoma. This is a malignant bone tumor that usually occurs in children and adolescents. It is rare, with an annual incidence of 1.5 cases per million inhabitants. Seth was one of them.
I’m still fighting
, Seth wrote in his Reddit post embedded above. His passion and enthusiasm for Hollow Knight and Silksong were evident in every response. He thought his boss enemy looked “really cool.” He was “breathtaking and really fast.”
Scrolling through the comments section of the Reddit thread is an emotional roller coaster.
Many comments written six years ago wish Seth all the best in his ongoing battle. Then comes a harsh cut. Suddenly, there are tons of comments written a year later: “Rest in peace, Seth.” Because in the end, the brave Silksong fan lost his battle with cancer.
He never got to fight the boss named after him.
So Shrine Guardian Seth isn’t just any opponent in the game. He is a virtual memorial to one of the biggest Silksong fans, who ran out of time but never lost his enthusiasm for the game.