What Hollow Folk are
Hollow Folk are Fable's undead. They go by two names in the franchise: Hollow Folk and Hollow Men. They are ancient corpses animated by restless souls of the dead, specifically by spirits called Wisps. Think of them as Albion's version of zombies, though they lean more skeletal than rotting.
They are confirmed to return in the reboot with a visual redesign. The core concept remains the same: dead people who will not stay dead, shuffling and swarming in the darker corners of the world.
The name
The name "Hollow Men" may reference T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem "The Hollow Men," which deals with themes of emptiness, paralysis, and spiritual death. The connection has never been officially confirmed by any Fable developer, but the thematic overlap is hard to ignore. These are literally hollow: empty shells animated by something outside themselves.
How they work
Wisps are the animating force. In Fable lore, Wisps are restless souls of the dead that drift through the world. When a Wisp enters a corpse, it reanimates. The corpse becomes a Hollow Man, driven by the Wisp's restless energy. The Hollow Man is not the person it used to be. There is no consciousness, no memory. It is a shell being puppeted.
This means Hollow Folk are found wherever death has accumulated. Graveyards, battlefields, crypts, marshlands where bodies were dumped. Anywhere the dead were left and Wisps drift, Hollow Folk can appear.
Combat behavior
Hollow Folk attack in large groups. They swarm. One Hollow Man is not particularly threatening on its own. A dozen of them closing in from all sides is a different situation entirely. Their strength is numbers, similar to Hobbes, but with a different feel. Hobbes are chaotic and bumbling. Hollow Folk are relentless and eerie.
In previous Fable games, they emerged from the ground around the player, spawning in waves. Fights against Hollow Men often felt like survival sequences: hold your ground while they keep coming. Whether the reboot keeps this wave-based spawning or changes how encounters work has not been detailed.
Fire weakness
In the original trilogy, Hollow Men were weak to fire-based Will spells. Fire was the most effective damage type against them. Given that fireballs are the most prominently shown spell in the reboot, this weakness would give players a natural reason to lean on fire magic during Hollow Folk encounters.
Whether the reboot preserves this specific weakness has not been confirmed. The developers have stated that each enemy type has unique weak points, so some form of elemental vulnerability for Hollow Folk seems likely.
Visual redesign
Playground Games has redesigned all returning creatures for the reboot. Concept art descriptions indicate the Hollow Folk redesign is "faithful to that messed-up fairytale vibe" that defines the new game's aesthetic. Fan reception to the redesigned Hollow Folk has been positive based on what has been shown.
The "messed-up fairytale" description captures what Playground Games is going for. Hollow Folk are not meant to look like generic fantasy skeletons. They are meant to look like something from a dark children's story, unsettling in a way that is specific to Fable's tone. They should feel like they belong in the same world as chicken-kicking and mockumentary interviews, which is a narrow aesthetic target.
Where they appear
Expect Hollow Folk in the darker, more desolate parts of Albion. Marshlands, graveyards, ruins, and underground areas. In previous games they were most common at night and in gloomy locations. Bloodstone, with its dungeons and seedy atmosphere, is a likely location. The sewer system beneath the town is another candidate.
Style weaving against Hollow Folk
The Style Weaving system should handle Hollow Folk swarms well. Area-of-effect Will spells can hit multiple targets. Sweeping melee attacks can cut through groups. Ranged attacks can thin the herd before they close in. Instant transitions between combat styles let you adapt on the fly as the swarm shifts around you.