Over six years ago, Hollow Knight fan Seth Goldman met with developer Team Cherry after learning he had ewing sarcoma, a form of cancer most common in young people which targets bones and soft tissue near bones. The developer offered to have Goldman design a boss for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and as more players make their way into the endgame of the long-awaited Metroidvania, that boss is finally getting his chance to shine.
(Minor Silksong endgame spoiler ahead.)
That fittingly named boss is Seth, the guardian of one of Silksong's final areas and endgame bosses. Armed with a pin and a cymbal-like shield, Seth fights not unlike the boss form of Hornet in Hollow Knight, dashing diagonally and chaining swipe combos into special moves that leverage their unique gear.
Fan art of Seth has been circulating in the Hollow Knight community for years, and it turns out some of them were very close. Seth kicked my butt a few times just last night, so his design is still fresh in mind.
I really can't wait to encounter Seth in Silksong, and since there's not much fanart of the guy - i did some myself! from r/HollowKnight
As Seth's story has reemerged, Silksong fans have gathered to honor Goldman's memory once again. "I wish so badly that we could play Silksong together too, but I’m glad you’ll still be there in some form," Reddit user EvidenceEquivalent38 writes in a recent post.
Goldman sadly passed away several years ago, as The Gamer reported in 2020, so his custom boss Seth is now carrying his memory. Per The Gamer's report, Goldman's father said, "Seth had a real dream come true" and "Seth's soul lives on in a video game and in the hearts of all that knew him."
That was in an old email to Krystal DeWitt Monroy, program services director of the Marty Lyons Foundation non-profit, which works to "fulfill the wishes" of children ages 3 to 17 with terminal or life-threatening illnesses, sent after Goldman's death. The Marty Lyons Foundation helped arrange the meeting between Goldman and Team Cherry.
Goldman teased his custom boss in a Reddit post of his own in April 2020. "I made a character for Silksong," he wrote.
"So some backstory, I have Ewing sarcoma, a type of cancer (which I’m still fighting, support is appreciated) but my wish was to talk to Team Cherry, which was super fun. But after the talk they said I can make a character, which I did, he’s really cool and has a boss fight but I can’t show you anything besides the name which I named him after myself (Seth) but a blog post is coming soon so I can't [wait] for you to see him, and see his cool lore and design and gameplay."
I've scoured the internet for the blog post in question, but couldn't find an old mention of Seth beyond a Discord tease from Team Cherry's Matthew "Leth" Griffin. Seth was one of the Silksong secrets hidden in a series of riddles, one of which reads:
To find me, dream of a spider's web
A site with a wondrous view
I dwell among visions of dangerous foes
Near colored lands berry and blue
The visions' arrangement, left, right and left
Depicting an exciting story
Among words they lie there frozen in time
Anticipating tales of glory
To the west, green is nearly all I see
Where dangers are raining down
Among the ancient text here is hidden
A pass-word that may be found
To remove the lock we need the key
Ignoring the title we proceed finally
Now count the number of visions you see
And move through the text accordingly
