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rainbowolfe · 6 months ago

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All About the Fanatic

I’ve been mulling this over since Sins of the Flesh dropped, but now I finally have the time to make a formal post about it. It’s about the identity of the Fanatic.

First things first, who is the Fanatic? Like as a person (beast).

The Fanatic was deemed worthy of a Crown by Chemach after surviving some sort of conflict. They are someone who is incredibly devoted to the First Gods/Great Ones even after ascension. And before receiving their own Crown, they too were just a Follower worshipping a Crown Bearer for protection. Timeline-wise, this probably places the start of Fanatic’s story shortly after the Great Ones leave this realm/world (though haven’t completely abandoned it yet. Maybe).

Right off the bat, we get confirmation that Crowns are living things. “I will nourish this Crown and be worthy of this power.” Crowns are something that have to be fed, and in exchange, the wearer gets to use its powers.

Fanatic has deemed themselves judge, jury, and executioner in the name of the Great Ones. If their weapon-set didn’t come with the Crown, then I believe that’s what they’re asking for in the second tablet. (“I seek your understanding.”) Though they’re being vague about what it is they want, they’re asking for something. And they’re offering further dedication/sacrifice in exchange.

Alternatively, they feel they’ve done something wrong and are asking for forgiveness. Either way, their weapons allow them to (effectively) convert Fervour into Devotion. They have a direct incentive to kill as much as possible. They technically don’t need Followers to feed their Crown either, putting them in a very unique position.

While they seem to start in Silk Cradle (they make mention of seeing the weapons used by the Great Ones), when they grow older they go on a pilgrimage that lands them in Spore Grotto. This may be a point in the “did something wrong and now they feel guilty” category, cause no one goes on a pilgrimage just because. The Mushroomos are present but don’t reveal themselves. Maybe they just haven’t evolved to the point of mobility at this time, but they can speak (to each other). And they can see.

Fanatic comments on how the air smells sweet, which could be a few different things, but it all relates back to either illness or decay. It could be the scent of the menticide mushrooms/Mushroomos. It could be the bacteria thriving in the dead carcass of a god. Or it could be a sign of what killed the God in the first place. Certain illnesses make the body give off a sweet smell in death, such as cancer, sepsis, or diabetes.

Loosely off-topic, but I believe this dead carcass of a Great One is why the rest of them ditched this realm. It’s one thing for First Gods to kill First Gods. It’s another for a Beast, an Idol, or even some random monster to do so.

“Hatched beneath the First, they crave no power, seek no other fulfillment, for it is not in their nature. And it is by nature that we must abide.”

The Fanatic values nature above all. It is the thing they’re most concerned with when they see the state of Chemach a hundred years later. Whatever cult they were originally apart of most likely worshipped a nature-oriented idol (which is one of the Aesthetics we can take on in SotF). For as much as they praise the Great Ones and seek their favor, they don’t actually value them. Not more than themselves. (as we see later)

As Fanatic passes the triple digits in age, they’re more inclined to keep a better record of the world around them. It seems that, post whatever happened to Chemach, Crowns are distributed randomly at any time. Some are hidden away to be found, others are taken by force. With no real “benefactor” save for the Crown itself, many probably just. Died from their own incompetence. And some other Beast was there to scoop up their Crown.

“Rise and fall like tides cut free from the moon” loosely implies (to me) that either a major Ocean deity or Moon deity has died. It’s weird wording you wouldn’t ever use unless something has happened to your moon. The tides are explicitly controlled by the moon. So if they’re cut free from it…

Fanatic is approached by what’s presumed to be a war god. And it most likely is. But technically, it could be any of the surviving five, as they’re all apart of this purge. The new faith that calls themselves the Old Faith. Fanatic isn’t interested in turning on their peers or worshipping… whatever it is the Old Faith worships.

It is very funny that Fanatic is on a first name basis with exactly one god. Hundreds of them. Hundreds. They name one. And it’s interesting that their domain is tied to “change”, much like Shamura claims Knowledge is.

Yngya is a made up name, as far as I can tell, so it’s not obvious what their domain was. What we do know is that they were responsible for changing the color of the leaves. So, some sort of season-based god, if not specifically Fall.

I suspect they’re a Death God. The Blood Moon Ritual is associated with the changing of seasons, and with it souls are allowed to pass on peacefully. If their domain specifically has to do with Fall, they’re most likely a Harvest God and those are often Death Gods.

I do wonder what it is Haro did that allowed her to keep her life and her Crown. There’s something off about her Crown, sure, but she still has it. She’s still powerful/capable based on the bodies you can find in her room. And she’s in a close enough range of the Bishops to have a pretty good idea of what happened between them.

The Fanatic may not recognize it, but there is/was some sort of relationship between them and the war god. Some sort of history. Maybe it’s a Mr. Incredible-Buddy thing. Where the Fanatic was the war god’s idol, but the war god was nothing to Fanatic. Regardless of the details. Every other God (save for Haro) was completely wiped from the record. They weren’t just killed. Their Crown, their Domain, and their Shrines are gone.

And though Fanatic is forced to revoke their Crown, they’re spared. (“How easily pain made a defector of me.”) I don’t believe it’s possible that none of the other hundreds of Gods were unwilling to defect in exchange for their lives. I think it’s that Fanatic was the only one given that choice.

From the beginning, the War God sought out Fanatic to give them a chance to join their new cause/religion. They were turned away… but came back near the end of the purge. Not to kill Fanatic, but to torture them into submission. “No” was never an option. The game implies that re-education is a painful process. If you reeducate someone at night, Followers will wonder about the screams they heard in their sleep.

*insert segue here*

Sozo was worshipped by Mushroomos, but also held deeply rooted contempt for them that manifested through cannibalism. I spent a bit of time stalking Sozo in my playthrough, and I noticed that he hates Mushroomo. Rightfully so, considering what happened to him. Under the influence of the menticide mushrooms, his true feelings bubble to the surface. But that’s not the important part for this. The point is, when we complete the requirements of Sozo’s quest, it’s not an ant follower form we’re granted. It’s a Mushroomo.

Therefore, I don’t think the serpent skin we get represents the form the Fanatic took. It represents the being the Fanatic has unfinished business with. Business we somehow resolve by learning/seeking “the truth”. Which is what the Ancient Tablets represent. The tab you read the Ancient Tablets (and the extra notes) in is explicitly called “Knowledge”.

Shamura is the only character we’ve encountered that has two domains. Knowledge and War. Something more had to have happened behind the scenes for them to acquire their second domain. The Bishops killed hundreds of gods, but the Bishops didn’t acquire those domains. They were lost. When Yngya is killed, the Bishops don’t inherit the ability to change the seasons, it just doesn’t happen anymore.

So the question is, was Shamura the God of War first? Or the God of Knowledge? Based on how everyone in the game speaks about them, I’m inclined to believe it was Knowledge.

What Shamura is praised for most is their mind. Narinder reminisces about the strength of their mind and how they were once the wisest out of all of them. What’s taken from them is their intelligence—the information they’ve acquired over the years. (“I may no longer be wise, but I am no fool”). Their followers give offerings to them to ask for knowledge and guidance. And it’s also the domain they tell Lamb about first.

In fact, if Lamb doesn’t challenge them and instead bows when they request it, Shamura doesn’t share that they’re also a God of War.

Even the status effect they’re afflicted with (Dissenting) is more related to Knowledge than it is War. When Dissenter’s dissent, there’s the chance you get dialogue from them. And in that dialogue, they speak of knowing the truth. The truth and knowledge are inherently connected in this world. Dissenter’s don’t encourage violence or fighting, but a mass exodus. Dissenters steal, but they don’t destroy anything.

The Fanatic admits to relinquishing their blessing, aka their Crown. BUT, we see with Narinder/TOWW that giving up your Crown doesn’t mean giving up your godhood or the abilities that came with it. He was still the God of Death (and had complete control over that domain) until Lamb defeated him. Even after his defeat, he’s still immortal (unless you have Mystic Seller put him through the godly washing machine).

Therefore, even after giving up their crown so they would be spared, they would still be the God of Knowledge. Just without a cult or any real power to wield.

“Five becomes… becomes… Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Even pre sins of the flesh, I thought it was an interesting detail that Shamura doesn’t include themselves in their countdown. When you go to fight Shamura, they consider themselves not as ‘one’ but as ‘nothing’.

Then, there’s their final line before you fight them. Lifted straight from the Fanatic’s chronicles. These ancient tablets aren’t, like. Laying around, free for anyone to read. Lamb gets to see them because they’re the chosen one. And they have to sacrifice a full heart to have it (a pound of flesh, in Fox’s terms).

And if Shamura was the one who subjugated/killed the Fanatic, I don’t think they’d be allowed access to these tablets by the higher power guarding them. If they are the one who purged all the other gods to hide the fact that they started a new, fake religion, then they’re not exactly someone who “values truth over all else”. They have to be the one who came up with this little rhyme.

“He of havoc, he of blight; she of hunger, they of might.”

It would be weird for anyone to refer to themselves in the third person, but people gave Shamura a pass because their brain isn’t completely contained within their skull. But I have to wonder if Shamura actually is that kind of crazy. They struggle with memory and the wide-eyed stare makes them look incredibly lost at any given moment. And it seems like they have trouble tending to the needs of their followers as a cult leader. But they aren’t insane. When they’re speaking to Lamb, they seem very aware, actually.

Shamura’s issue seems to be that they spend so much time trying to remember the past, that they’re not reliably “present”. They’re effectively day-dreaming, even when they don’t mean to. Off in their own head. But they’re not like Chemach. They aren’t giggling at inside jokes they share only with themself, or talking to inanimate objects. They just aren’t as smart as they once were, because they can’t retain information.

Even when left without their Crown, it’s still just memory they struggle with—just more so than before. They still don’t speak in third person. They speak in rhymes to help them remember distant things (which they did with their Crown too). Which like. That is a thing. Mnemonic devices are known to be useful for boosting memory for everyone, not just people who struggle with memory loss.

I posit: Shamura was never speaking in the third person. There were five siblings. Five Gods. Five bringers of the end. And Shamura was a sixth, an outsider looking in. Shamed and conquered, and indoctrinated into this group unwillingly.

We see in-game, that there’s something about indoctrinating someone that makes them incredibly… complicit? Passive? Narinder explicitly did not want to join Lamb’s cult, but if you spare and indoctrinate him, he doesn’t leave. (Excluding various game mechanics that apply to all followers) He’s very critical of Lamb and the cult, but even that fades into a begrudging acceptance. He never expresses that he wants to leave. Same with all the Bishops.

The brief memory Shamura has when you give them Spider Silk would reinforce the idea that they weren’t exactly a willing participant in the Old Faith.

“In my silk, I snared a Crown… to their faith, irrevocably bound…”

The Crown given to the Fanatic by Chemach was clearly very revocable. There were no strings attached to their faith in the Great Ones. In fact, their devotion was given by choice. They offered it up. There’s also this decoration:

Of a Red Crown trapped in a web. This seems pretty connected to the memory they’re reciting.

Shamura, still a God of Knowledge just without Crown, would eventually kill and usurp the then-God of War. Granting them two domains. One granted to them by the Great Ones, the other granted to them by another force. Again, whatever force the Old Faith serves. Turua, I suspect.

All with the help of Narinder, the one they love the most.

“Bond forged by the spilling of blood… I know you hear me, God of Death.”

Whatever brought these two together was the death of another. They killed someone. And there are not a lot of options for beings that would require two gods (well, a god and a half) to take them out. Thus it would be really fitting if who they killed was the God of War that made Shamura revoke their Crown in the first place.

In that scenario, of course Shamura would love Narinder the most. They would not only appreciate the gesture and favor him over the others, but they would feel indebted to him. They would do anything for him, as he did for them.

Which includes doing whatever the hell it was that got their brain squashed and Narinder imprisoned, despite their best judgment.

#cult of the lamb #cotl #cotl theory #cotl shamura #cult of the lamb theory #cotl fanatic #long post #in this essay i will

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