#cult of the lamb darkwood

[dracofaun]

Welcome. Defeat the Bishops.

[cult-of-a-buttercup]

Headcanons of the Old Faith: Darkwood

Anura

Narinder’s Faith

Anchordeep

Silk Cradle

Festivals:

Being the land of Chaos, the festivals are nothing short of that: there are plenty of bonfires, dance circles and hunts, each more common in different seasons.

Ordinary bonfires are held mainly in winter, as a way to keep cold at bay while at the same time reveling in the natural chaos of fire. All kinds of stuff are burnt during them, from old grass to corpses of heretics killed by followers. The fire is also used as a way of cleansing haunting spirits from the land, an idea originally introduced by Narinder during his time as a bishop.

Dance circles are common during summer and spring, used as ways to celebrate good weather and encourage offspring amongst followers. With the number of followers always rising and falling constantly, it’s important to try and keep somewhat of an influx of younger generations to worship Leshy. In recent years, after a great fall due to the killing of lambs, it only seems to keep growing.

And lastly, hunts are held all year round- though they are at their peak during fall. They are competitions, held from in between villages to small groups of friends. They work as a way to test the body and soul, and how well you can work with the difficult and chaotic lands of Darkwood. It also works as a good indicator to see which followers are more capable of guiding villages into battles.

Rituals:

Due to the lack of doctrines, Darkwood has many more casual festivals around the year than rituals.

A common ritual is a Rite of Wrath: every so often Leshy joins in the destruction of a village, and that sets off the destruction of its neighbors and surrounding forests. It is frowned upon by the rest of Leshy’s siblings, since it tends to end the lives of more followers than heretics and tends to drag on for too long to be fixed quickly- but he either doesn’t care or doesn’t know they feel that way.

Due to this, Darkwood also holds a lot of funerals. Since they are way too often for comfort, most followers of Leshy turned funerals into month-long events for many fallen brethren at a time. During those events, they remember each dead follower individually and speak of who they were, share whatever their favorite meal was and decorate their resting place and home with various assortments of wild flowers. It should be noted that this ritual was originally from Narinder- it was his idea to make a larger and more massive version of the funeral ritual after he noticed that holding one at a time wasn’t paying off.

Similar to funerals, weddings are held as a massive event between many couples. Since most of the time it has to be officiated by a high priest or Leshy himself, it was Valefar’s idea to imitate the protocol already used for funerals. So, weddings are absolutely massive, taking about a full month in Leshy’s temple. There is food, makeshift music with the few instruments the villagers have and a lot of dancing. Leshy often takes part of them, indulging in the food and the dancing along with some of his priests. The clothing is usually passed from generation to generation, made out of dried grass and decorated with the flowers of the season.

Worshipping:

Since it’s a scattered place, the ways of worship vary from village to village: but, it is always connected to the destruction of their own people or the killing of heretics.

Villages destroying neighboring villages and burning whatever remains is a constant way of appreciating chaos- even if it decimates Leshy’s followers constantly. Same with destroying one’s own home and then dancing around the fire, chanting prayers for the holy worm. Sometimes the noise of the fire and the loud prayers are enough to catch Leshy’s attention- those few times he joins in the wreckage and it turns into the ritual mentioned beforehand.

Killing heretics is seen almost as a sport, usually keeping heretics as prisoners before letting them loose and chasing them around the dark forests. Once again, if Leshy notices this he likes to join in, and his followers are more than happy to have him.

Clothing:

With how quickly things can change while living in Darkwood, clothing is one of the lesser worries- thick wooly coats for winter, flowy robes for summer, and in-betweens for fall and spring. Jewelry is usually stolen from destroyed villages and used as trophies by the followers who are deemed the strongest warriors.

Being the land which had most lambs before Narinder’s imprisonment, a lot of the clothes are made out of wool from their fallen victims- some choose to keep the bells as part of their clothings, others prefer to use it as a doorbell or a trophy.

Amongst cultists:

Amongst themselves, Leshy’s followers are very close to each other when from a same village: they often break havoc, mourn their losses and share their winned treasure together. When from another village, it can be the same closeness shared between villagers or a more dangerous rivalry- which often leads to one village destroying the other.

Being mainly small villages, the jobs involve whatever the village needs- be it cattle, farming or weapon making, there is a bit of everything needed. Anything outside of that, such as writing or art is seen more as a luxury- when a village destroys another they try and steal whatever books and paintings they can find to keep it as a trophy.

Outside of Darkwood, however, followers of Darkwood are seen as the more fanatic and dangerous followers of the Old Faith- sometimes even believing there’s no real followers and just beasts roaming around in the ragged clothes of fallen followers.

[canadianno]

TELL ME ABOUT THE AU!! SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE WORM!!! The lighting/background looks great btw, oh, and, WWHY IS LESHY BLEEDING?!??? IS HE BLEEDING OR IS IT DIRT??? Can't wait to see more! 🥳

AURRGGGH OKAY HOLD ON RAMBLE UNDER THE CUT

(Spoilers present but not big ones)

Tldr: Leshy IS bleeding because he got attacked for trying to create a semblance of order

Now I RAMBLE.

First of all, thank you for the compliment <33 Most of the credit to how nice the background looks is because I referenced the actual game and the game just- looks nice!

NOW onto Leshy.

You guys can have TCOLC lore spoilers. As a treat.

The green crown used to be the crown of Order.

Now, my lore with the crowns- well, the most important part of my lore with the crowns- is that they cast an aura on all who stray too close into their range. This aura cast is the OPPOSITE of the effect of the crown- the crown of order projects chaos.

This aura will enchant most people.

Leshy was not affected by the aura, but, instead of moving on when coming across the clearing of chaos, he tried to get them to stop. People were hurting each other, and he didn't want anyone to die. He was, of course, attacked for this and one of his 2 eyes he could actually see out of was blinded in the process.

This is exactly what the crown was looking for.

To claim a vessel, the crown searches for those who can not only deny the aura, but also fight the aura.

The crown led Leshy to the closest nearby crown, Narinders' temple, and the rest is history!

I'll let you guys do with that what you will ;]

[cultofsnowfall]

Leshy, The Chaos Bishop of The Green Crown in Darkwood!

Here’s some Leshy Headcanons!

Before Being Indoctrinated:

🌿 • Leshy is the youngest of the Bishops and so he gets babied and has more freedom on how he acts and portrays himself to his followers and the other bishops

🌿 • He sees mortals as playthings or toys so he plays pranks on them often and doesn’t really care for their personal emotions. Narinder always plays along being a huge prankster as well

🌿 • He definitely has some sort of ADHD. He constantly changes plans or activities on a whim with little to no thought

🌿 • Along with his schedule being unpredictable so is his mood. He can be playful one moment and sadistic the next

🌿 • If his followers think to even cross him he will devour them without a second thought. Even if a follower does nothing wrong and follows his every whim he will sometimes decide to eat them anyway

🌿 • As the Bishop of Darkwood his society is responsible for the steady wood supply throughout The Old Faith

After Being Indoctrinated:

🌿 • He is the most defensive and verbally hostile Bishop in the cult. He hisses out insults any chance he gets. Usually Shamura has to calm him down

🌿 • Leshy is completely blind so his hearing and smell is heightened. He can distinguish individuals on scent alone

🌿 • Because of this he suffers from sensory overload quite often. A method of grounding himself is to gently stroke and sniff the Camelia flower he has hidden

🌿 • Still has the ability to burrow underground. Usually only does it when he is under some sort of stress or extreme emotion

🌿 • Enjoys gardening even if he can’t see. The calm environment with the earthy smells remind him of Darkwood, giving him a sense of comfort

🌿 • Tends to cling onto his siblings for reassurance, usually Heket as she makes him feel safe

🌿 • His diet is now strictly vegan as during his Indoctrination he developed the inability to digest any animal by-product. He still misses eating meat and flesh

🌿 • Leshy surprisingly is 6’1ft tall for being the youngest Bishop. He uses this height to intimidate others simply to prank them and fill his chaotic nature

[circuscountdowns]

inspired by how I do not let my 27ish followers be dead for longer than a ritual cooldown :) (and now I have so many immortal necklaces and egg yolks???? forever cult forever and ever)

[cheer-soli-art]

“Ah. Camellias.”

Leshy, from @bamsara ‘s The Rehabilitation of Death

[alwaysoutofpaper]

guess who started playing cult of the lamb

edit : this got a lot of attention so i hope it's okay to inform y'all my commissions are open :)

[lil-vibes]

Day 9: Bones are needed

Previous/Next

(prompt list here!)

[cheesy-bagels]

tsundere ass bitch

[beetleheaddesigns]

Leshy cult of the lamb fanart

[espighty]

grown ass man by the way

[thesplashyeth]

recognizing the god of chaos

[canadianno]

Yo! Which darkwood boss is your fav? Mine's amdusias.

Oh it's so 100% Barbatos. And not even for good reason.

I don't have the game yet, (I'm saving up), but one of my friends does. He streams his gameplay to me and it's all fun and all!

In his game, he ofcourse recruited Barbatos after winning the fight, and oh my god. Barbatos is such a coward. He won't do tasks we ask, he just cowers in corners and cries. Because of this we decided the only reasonable next step was to bully him and only him.

Barbatos is the highest faith follower in the cult 😭😭

[cultofsnowfall]

Here’s my take on the Darkwood Mini-Bosses in my artstyle!!

[spark-circuit]

Cult of the Lamb: Pilgrim DLC - Jalala's Journal! (Rest of the pages below the cut to hide spoiler content!)

[owosa]

Day 7: Back to Darkwood

The new aesthetic of the place was a pleasant surprise. The False Prophet has a weakness for flowers and these new ones did not disturb them, but only made them want to find a way to bring some back to the cult.

Darkwood remains their favorite dungeon.