#SHAMURA IS KILLING ME HOW DO YALL DO IT!?

[doxthehyena]

Darkstalker!

Since I'm having such a "I am going to tear my flesh apart" on how to design Shamura to my liking I might've procrastinated. This started as me doodling cotl then..I turned and looked at my bookshelf and oh yeah, its all coming together. I know the only description of him having icewing in him is a white line but I kinda stretched it (I do regret the tail spikes)

[spiderin-space]

“Aynno had lost her physical abilities but retained her quick wit; Shamura’s mind was broken, but their body was still whole. What an odd little pair they made.”

“Aynno has been taking things one step at a time, ever since she was indoctrinated into The Cult of The Lamb. Once a Darkwood librarian, she now serves as the curator of the God of Death’s collections, serving them after they rescued her from the ashes of her old village. She thought her life was finally returning to normal… that is, until The Lamb approaches her, asking for her help with easing one of the infamous Bishops into their mortal existence. It’s no simple task: Shamura is of course well known for their ruthlessness, and they aren’t afraid of showing it to Aynno either. But as the weeks turn into months, the pair slowly begin to learn that first impressions aren’t always accurate… and that they share more history together than they may realize.”

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YIPPPEEEEE I am Cringe but I am Free .

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I’m gonna be real honest, I don’t expect many people to read this oneskdk considering how niche it is 😩 I p much wrote this solely for myself as a way to develop/build on their relationship because I Will kiss that spider if it kills me (it probably would tbh)

But on the off chance someone is interested…

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Aynno didn’t have much going for her, a scrappy little stag librarian in her tiny Darkwood village, so small it felt like even Leshy himself forgot about them at times. But that all changed, after the Bishop of Chaos was slain by The Lamb. Left scarred (both physically and mentally) following the upheaval, she was taken in by the kindly sheep, and even offered her old occupation once it became clear she was too disabled to perform normal labor around the cult. And things were going good, as she slowly learned how to live again…

…At least, until the Bishop of War and Wisdom is brought into The Cult of The Lamb. Sensing that Shamura may have a more difficult time adjusting to cult life, The Lamb seeks out Aynno, believing her connection to books and knowledge may serve to help ease them into their new existence. At first, they want nothing to do with the deer, seeing her as merely a babysitter who’s only purpose is to keep them in line. But as the pair slowly open up to one another, they begin to realize that maybe, just maybe…

…mortal life is worth living for.

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As with all of my works, I’m going to start uploading chapters onto my AO3 next Wednesday!! (Also as a little bonus, this particular story is going to be building off one of my previous fanfics, After The End, if yall wanna get a head start for context 👀)

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Even though this is extremely self-indulgent, I hope yall will give it a read!! And I’ll see yall on Wednesday!! :3 💛

(Title image with no words below the cut)

[radiantroach]

Hi! Sorry I'm still a little new to the fandom, so I'm still in the process of learning the lore and diffrent popular interpretations.

But i am really loving what yall are putting down, so please forgive me for rambling for a second.

I'm really intrigued by the idea that the crowns are separate entities from their bearers, and that the bearers can be at odds with their crowns.

Tbh, that explains one of the things that kinda puzzled me about Shamura. They seem to be the only bishop with two domains: wisdom and war.

Maybe once I play cotl again I'll catch onto it earlier, but in my first playthrough, it seemed like Shamura's main thing being wisdom was well established, but the domain of war was kinda... tacked on. Like the writers were really married to the idea of the bishops being the four horsemen of the apocalyps; even after it no longer fit neatly with the characters (Shamura having two domains. Leshy having a fifth, new, horseman-like domain)

But the idea that the crown is its own character explains the discrepancy of Shamura's end.

If they had their way, Shamura's domain would be wisdom. But the crown's domain is war. Thus putting the two of them in an ideological clash (which is made even more difficult after Shamura's injury.

Now. about our favorite squid.

I love him dearly, and all the traits that fans dislike about him are the ones that have endeared me to him. But that's a whole other post.

In Relics of the Old Faith-- if you bring Kallamar into the cult-- one of his traits is his fear of death. Not just of his own. He has a negative reaction to any death that occurs in the cult.

This has given me the headcannon that, originally, he was in favor of Narinder resurrecting the dead (whether or not he voiced his support is up for debate. but it would have eased his fear, knowing that death was no longer permanent). however, once he saw the other bishop's reactions, and realized he was outnumbered, he joined his siblings against Narinder.

Maybe it was true that it was the others who came up with the plan to lock away TOWW, but he absolutely played a part in it.

If they were willing to banish their sibling for stepping out of line, what would they do to those who supported him?

His role in the lamb genocide followed suit.

If Kallamar was afraid of death before... well, banishing the God of Death only assured that his fate would be worse than anything he could imagine.

So, of course he would do anything to avoid seeing the TOWW again. No matter the cost.

Even if that included killing an entire species.

(Side tangent: once we save Kallamar from purgatory, he shows up at the cult with a massive ego. Referring to himself (or at least his ear) as beautiful and handsome. Then audibly gags at the thought of Heket's temple. So when you mentioned how Kallamar speaks with authority half the time, and begs the lamb to leave him alone the other half...

Now I have the idea that the "confidence and authority" part WAS Kallamar, and it was the Blue Crown that looked at the Red and started visibly sweating. and i love that)

May I say that I think about the fact Kallamar claims he didn't want to banish the Red Crown WAY too much? Like, sure, it could've easily been a lie no doubt about that. But. If it wasn't, that's super interesting. The primary reason was the problem with resurrection existing, right? And Kallamar is shown to be terrified of death (and purgatory), although how much that has to do with death itself vs his issues with the Red Crown can absolutely be debated.

Either way, it's Interesting. He fears the Red Crown heavily, yet didn't agree with casting it out. Was it due to the fact he feared death more than the crown (assuming his fear of death isn't Due To the crown) or was he close to Narinder in a way he could ignore the resurrection thing? Could he have had no problems with it in general even??

Plus since if it isn't a lie, the fact he focuses on that instead of the lamb's genocide, to me, enforces the idea he definitely played a part in it. Which was definitely the most logical thing based on his dialogue during the intro, sure, but it's still something I noticed.

I do wonder what it would imply if he IS lying, though. Like, presumably the Red Crown (or He Who Waits), if he's trying to take to it, would know if Kallamar was involved or not. Why would he bring that up with The Lamb staring him down? Is he that freaked out (presumably by the Red Crown, since that seems to be what he's worrying about in this case) he just spit out the first thing he could think of to try and save his skin? Or does he think The Lamb is mad about the Red Crown's banishment and is trying to appease them on that front, instead of the slaughter of their kin??

I'm not sure if this makes any sense I'm just kinda spitting out words-

I think a lot about Kallamar, anon.... more than I probably should. Grade A squid brain rot. It's a shame how disliked he is.

To me, Kallamar reads as complicit. Sure, maybe he really didn't want to kill all the sheep or banish TOWW, but he was still an active participant. It's a very manipulative type of "you made me do it".

It's interesting; because there's cut dialogue from Kallamar where he actually does try to appeal to Lamb. He says he tried to tell the others that genociding sheep wasn't a good plan. but they wouldn't listen to him.

But one thing for sure, is that Kallamar sees the Red Crown and Narinder as separate entities. I wrote something up about it once, I should make a masterpost of my theories... With Shamura basically out of commission, Kallamar's the next in line in terms of experience, so there's probably something about the crowns that he (and conscious-Shamura) understand that his younger siblings don't.

So when Kallamar begs the Red Crown for mercy, I think that's exactly who he's addressing. He knows it wasn't the vessel under the crown that trapped him. It was who was in the crown—and there is someone in the Red Crown.

There's someone inside each of the crowns. There's little hints that that's the case spread about, but the most obvious one is when their purged statues begin to cry black tears from their crowns. Chemach in particular also addresses the Red Crown and Lamb separately.

The anatomy of the lamb merch would imply that the crowns shape and influence their wearers to fall in line with the desires of other gods. Some people can resist it, but others, like a sheep, may not be able to. While Leshy and Heket are, for the most part, in line with their crown, Shamura and Kallamar visibly aren't.

Shamura obviously bounces back and forth between incoherent, repetitive riddles and becoming lucid enough to wallow in a millennia of guilt. (Note: as a follower, Shamura speaks primarily in rhymes, so that would mean that the exposition dialogue regarding Narinder isn't completely their own thoughts). But Kallamar also has a dichotomy to him: the side of him that speaks with confidence and authority, and the side of him that's basically begging Lamb to leave him alone every chance he gets.

Oh, oh, figuring it out as I'm typing this. He's appealing to the crown because it doesn't matter what Lamb thinks. The crown will override it. The crowns most likely aren't set in stone and their "opinions" can be changed, which would then change the actions of the wearer:

If you think about it, if Shamura didn't go out of their way to tell Lamb all the family-business, we'd only know two things about Narinder's personal relationships: 1) That Shamura loved him the most, and 2) Kallamar is his brother.

For all the negative things Narinder has to say about Kallamar, he's yet to disown the pathetic little squid. And he admits that Kallamar's temple was beautiful. And that seems important, as the beauty of his own (former) temple is something Narinder harps on more than a few times.