#i love leshy so fucking much you dont understand

[vikingpoteto]

I hate cult of the lamb, man. I can't be doing this. I can't be genuinely crying about a little freak that canonically looks like this

[flagellant]

Hey! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like you actually know things about wend*gos and I genuinely want to have a better understanding.

Based on my limited understanding, the association with deer and wend*gos is more of a pop culture thing and the original concept of wend*gos arent like that at all. They're regular humans who got cursed for being cannibals, right?

Dont get me wrong, youre completely right in saying that people need to stop associating deer imagery with cannibalism as pop culture doesnt erase appropriation, but am I at least right on the history?

No pressure to answer if you dont want to, thanks for taking time to read this regardless.

Alright, it's been a while since I've spoken about the winter hunger so it's time for the perennial disclaimer: I am not Anishinaabe, and I cannot be considered a true authority on their practices and beliefs. Native America is, after all, not a monolith, and I can only speak for what I know through research and seeking to learn about this topic in order to be more respectful of them and advocate for that respect due to my audience's size.

With that said: You're correct. There is absolutely no deer imagery aligned with the Anishinaabe culture's portrayals and understanding of the being in question. I'm not 100% sure on its origins, but I'd be willing to bet that much of the inspiration would come from the Witcher 3's depictions of leshy--they click all of the buttons through visual language, and I can see why people would see that sort of iconography and begin applying it disrespectfully. Like I keep saying--fucked up deers are cool and spooky as hell! It's not a shock that through law-of-large-numbers and a history of oppression and thievery that the horror genre can often be anti-indigenous bc of that!

For clarification of the most commonly understood appearance of the winter hunger--and this is not so that you can more accurately use it, it is so you can more accurately defend against racist and inaccurate depictions--it takes the shape of humans. Often of people you know. There are sometimes qualifiers like frostbite or lack of feet but at the very root of it, it is supposed to look like a human being.

Further disclaimer: What I'm about to say may be an entirely wrong interpretation of the winter hunger, but it is rooted in my culture's understanding of a very similar evil being which exists in Dine and other desert-dwelling native tribes such as mine. It's further rooted in my specific understanding of religion through anthropological lenses, since that's why I love studying religion so much--because it doesn't exist in a vacuum it is defined by our understanding of our surroundings.

Picture it this way: Both the Anishinaabe and my own people are in some way considered extremophilic cultures. We both live in an environment which reliably becomes lethally dangerous to exist within if you aren't prepared, willing to sacrifice your own comfort for the survival of everyone, and combines a level of isolation during those extreme climates with a need to be able to trust those around you implicitly because you all want to survive. Deserts, be they snow or sand, are difficult places to live within. There are enough resources to go around, but it's not exactly uncommon for there to be enough to go around and that's all. You're surviving because you and everyone around you are putting the survival of everyone over individualist comforts.

The winter hunger and the desert swallowing you whole are always taught as something which looks like a human. Which sounds like a human. Which can trick others into thinking it is human. Beings which have the shape of a person, but have no humanity--they lost it or they never had it. And both of them are things which gain power over you when spoken of and thought of--they're a type of memetophage. They feed on people who know about them, so you're forced to balance "aware that this danger exists" with "need to know what the danger is". They often will try and trick you into evil deeds or danger yourself by wearing the face and voice of family and loved ones. People you know well to let your guard down.

Now remember that you are a culture which needs to prepare itself for extreme climate survival. Everyone has to rely on everyone else. But sometimes people aren't going to like the people they're surviving with. People will resent other people for whatever reasons they choose, justified or not. Living so close together and in such tight quarters can be stressful and bring out the absolute worst in us.

Imagine, for a moment, going out into a snowstorm or the bitter desert night, looking for food for everyone else, sent with someone you hate. It's a harsh life. Even at your safest you are at risk of death for whatever reason--getting lost, being attacked by an animal, taking a bad fall. It happens. It's a fact of life. It's horribly tragic but it's acknowledged as inevitable.

Imagine the knowledge of how dangerous what you two are doing worming its way into your head during this time. If you were willing to hate this person enough to kill them...it wouldn't be hard to convince everyone it was just an accident. Just something which happens. Kill a stag, then kill them and jam the stag's antlers through the wound. Or just disable them somehow and leave them to freeze in the snowdrifts and say they got lost. Or push them down a ravine. There are so many possibilities and all of them exonerate you of any complicity, because yeah, you didn't like them...

...but you trust each other to survive. You trust that you're all willing to give up things to make sure everyone is able to survive and get through these things. You trust that when you are in danger, you don't need to worry about it coming from someone you know. And so why would anyone suspect you? And maybe you convince yourself that what you did was good, actually. One less mouth to feed. More food for everyone. Or it's just easier for you--someone who you hated so much, and now you never need to worry about them again.

Imagine the way that knowledge that you've done it once would show up again and again. Anyone and everyone is now in danger because you've become aware of the benefits of being greedy. Of choosing to hurt and kill other people to further your own goals and desires. Of deciding that the sacrosanct ties of the whole community's survival is not a priority over your own violent impulses. The knowledge of what you can do to other people is, itself, a danger. You put the idea of it, the possibility, in someone's head, and there is every chance that it could start dwelling in there and taking root, changing them from a good person, someone you know, a member of the community, into an evil, selfish monster which has lost its humanity and merely wears that person's face. Uses its voice to lie to you. Wants you all to have your guards down around it. Something waiting to strike where it can.

Now remember that we turn rainbows into the bridges of gods because we needed to create a reason for them. That's the history of magic: we don't know how to explain something, or we don't know how to process it, or we do and need to obfuscate that knowledge through a layer of fiction to cope with it. We don't invent the divine for no reason, on instinct, without thinking. We do it because there is something that creating it offers us as a species and culture that would otherwise be lacked. So think: Why would tribal cultures who need everyone to be willing to set aside personal wants and grievances to ensure that everyone survives through harsh climates need to have something like the winter hunger or the desert swallowing you whole? What benefit does it offer the community? What is the purpose of sharing knowledge about this monster? Where would it fit into that culture's way of life and philosophies?

The answer becomes self-evident soon enough. We all know what it looks like when one person decides they can sacrifice other humans for their own personal greed. We call them oligarchs.

[cconfusedkat]

i think i sorta know how i want to build up each of the bishops/allure together ,,

Leshy and allure are the fun ones together,, leshy thinks hes finally found another person to "annoy" but in reality hes found his perfect spouse to match that energy of his and for a love of fighting to bond with them ? Allure often thinks he can be a bit too much ,,but they like his leadership when it comes to missionary parties being sent out ,, they think hes often misunderstood ,, probably the first person to understand him more properly than anyone else before ,,, still doesnt stop him from nagging allure by randomly tazing them in the waist or going "TAG" and burrowing himself under the dirt (WHICH IS AN UNFAIR POWERPOINT!!!!!!!) (<- allure textbubble)

Heket and allure are also a fun bunch :-] but theyre both more emotional than the realize ,, heket doesnt like opening up nor does allure so they sorta bonded in that,, allure likes that shes overprotective of small things such as insects or being a collector of stuff ,, they could probably name a billion things about her ,, heket just finds them cute tbh 😭 like yeah she CAN be emotional but thats not rlly her whole thing ,, shes probably the one to make allure angry first cuz of her chaos she puts up when being paired up with leshy behind the scenes- allure is overly cheesy and heket is NOT !!! I hope that can summarize them together better LAMDOADM allure is an overanalyzer and heket just. Doesnt care? I mean she Does care its just shes also an asshole ❤️‍🩹

Narinder and allure are. Herm. Quiet ones? Together....? Narinder keeps more to himself often than naught. Allure is the number one oversharer of the yap-century. Paired together you get an annoyed cat being forced to listen to someones struggles for three hours- though jokes aside theyre both not too silly together, theyre probably the most domestic together ,, they both know how it feels to lose family so thats why they feel so bonded together ,, thus being in a qpr cuz their friendship goes a little more beyond than a normal one... yet they dont really experience romance normally together either? So qps it was :-] youd probably catch these two spending time alone indoors or outdoors, mainly for narinders preference. Theyre both quiet extroverts KAMDOAKDSKF

Kallamar and allure are constantly beefing but shi has a weird soft spot for them ??? Like yeah hes a fucking bitch (/lovingly) just like his sister as well as lacking empathy but he sorta just. Has allure as an "equal" person if that makes sense (npd term mainly) ,, she typically despises everyone even allure but sometimes theres just something sweet about them that she cant quite pin down? (Which then he screams in his pillow about and complains about why shes in love with a stupid lamb) ,, kallamar and allure have their moments sometimes where one or the other is rlly nice such as being taught or given something small and they both go like "WERE THEY JUST BEING NICE TO ME??????????????!?!!?!?!?"

Shamura and allure also happen to be a little complex. Allure locked shamura up for a month when they were indoctrinated out of anger as well as not wanting to deal with a dissenting shamura all day?? Shamura attempted to kill them when they were released , which almost worked if it werent for heket interrupting and breaking the fight. Years later from those events youd surprisingly see allure and shamura spending time together near the graves, as shamura smiles nodding their head while listening to what allure talks about the whole day,, allure wanted reparations as an apology from shamura ,, shamura obliged and a year later they accidentally fell first for them ,, however allure did manage to fall harder ,, theyve still got issues to work on together (accidental arguments occuring sometimes or miscommunications) but theyre the second most domestic,, shamura confessed first shyly while allure sobbed cuz they felt silly for not being able to confess first 😭 these two are playful on occasion but theyre relatively calm, spending The most time together at eachothers places, doing whatever,, shamura does scold allure more than the others

So basically its like ,, leshy/allure are matches who are funny together and playful with some hints of being charmed by eachother,

heket/allure are matched for different reasons but nonetheless they can still find that time to be goofy and flirting with eachother (that of which heket still easily wins those) (hints of vulnerability here),

narinder/allure are calm and collected more often than naught ,, some hints of playfulness when the timing is right ? Otherwise def more serious together

kallamar/allure are literally just enemies flirting (with occasional "sorry!" "are you okay?" "good morning")

shamura/allure are conflicting personalities that often clash, but can be found domestic together,, sometimes arguments occur while other times they do the best they can for eachother for both secretly feeling very guilty for the other treated another

[calamitydarcy]

So, do you know of the arg connected to Inscryption? >;3

Also have you attempted "Kaycees Mod" (not actually a mod but a game mode where you are actually properly playing against Leshy rather than trying to escape the cabin)? The final boss is a bit... different than in the main game.

I wish I could have seen your reaction to when you cleared the games first act. If people are not spoiled to that its one heck of a reveal!

Also, also, you are now victim to my Inscytption ramblings: Leshy's probably my fave of the 4 DMs. Once again an AI Guy who is so happy to just Play With Humans, but not quite understanding them. I love that he's so into setting a dramatic atmosphere and getting deep into the roleplay XD

The Lonely Wizard is my cute little void child and i love them.

Magnificus acts awful and his theme is too good for him so I'm giving it to the wizardly void child now.

I HAVE. IM SO PROUD OF MY BOY. HE DID IT! HE SUCCEEDED HE WON HES NOT DEAD FUCK YOU LESHY-

yes i have been playing kaycee's mod,, my next challeng.... hard. im working on challenge level 5 rn. bashing my head against the wall. leshy's so silly in this one though. if i think about the lore too hard i think i might get really sad

i dont have my reaction. to the end of the first act. besides me laughing hysterically at one shotting the moon with my beloved touch of death grizzly. and laughing so hard that every single organ in my abdomen hurt and i thought i fucking killed myself somehow. leshy came through the screen to murder me for blowing up the moon.

i think everything from then on lore-wise was just me repeatedly going WOAHGh. woah. WOAH HOLY SHIT. luke she has a GUN waht are you DOING-

also i went through so many feelings about leshy. he is a beloved old man now but i went through being afraid of him, to disliking him, to thinking he was gonna be the Big Bad Antagonist Forever, to being neutral on him, to starting to like him, to hating his guts (how dare you try to kill my boy..), to sobbing violently during the finale. so uh. yeagh. i had a ride...

i hated p03 for the longest time. because he was so mean to me in act 1. which was NOT nice when i was TERRIFIED of this SHADOWY SUSPICIOUS MAN TRAPPING ME IN A DEATH CABIN IN AN INFINITE CYCLE who is RIGGING THIS CARD GAME. but of course i saw him. in act 2. and then in act 3. and yeagh. listen im a robot kisser above all.

I LIKE MAGNIFICUS,, the poor unfinished lad. i wonder how much of anything was even his choice. does he even know who he is? who he's supposed to be? who he WANTS to be? he didn't ask for this,, he didn't ask to be left unfinished. his words cut off, left unsaid. bound to a script that drops off as suddenly as it starts.

[cconfusedkat]

Hi ive been brainrotting on actual stuff surrounding Allures cult and i need to sit down and place my thoughts

Mature rating because its pretty heavy cult stuff

While looping cirice i kinda wanna begin studying catholicism to sorta understand the religion better (since it's just a branch off of Christianity) and just like. I think allures cult is a believe in one type of god for some time until it eventually turns into Paganism with the older religions of Archangelo... but they want to rename it for allures sake after they pass away, so their followers most likely make a vote on allengelo... sorta just a combination of the eight lambs and allure. The difference is how the people add one more god (making it now nine lambs) of this religion,, their belief in the lambs grow stronger and how the lambs will save them from an eventual doomsday (like how most cults operate, in fear of another rising cult that causes the end of the world. I sometimes forget cults are really this terrifying even when escaping one when you were younger)

I myself eventually converted to islam again so i never exactly had any relations with Christianity and its branches. Using the catholic symbols and reference to missionaries and bishops sorta makes me want to lean further into the darker aspect of allures cult? Their cult *is* named "alluring lamb" after all ,,, you never really know how terrifying it is until youre like. Actually involved. So when im applying my past as a child with trauma regarding cults i hope its clear i dont endorse cults,, i was very lucky to escape

But regarding Allures cult, when they send (mainly two) missionary parties, heket and leshy arent just scavenging for items but genuinely converting others on how this cult is a safe place and etc etc... the dark themes scare me myself but its a big twist to play around with and tackle my own trauma if that makes sense ?

"Cant you see that you're lost.. cant you see that youre lost without me?" Is realistic enough for allure to say, because again theyre still the last remaining god after all. Theres pure horror in that statement. Where else would these cultists go if it werent for the lamb that would save them all from the "fake" religions across the land? Allure was able to change a whole land to their new faith of bringing back the beliefs of archangelo.

Weehhgheh OKAY taps hands on my desk,,, WE TACKLIN THIS TRAUMA TOGETHER IN CLUTCH‼️‼️🗣🗣 unironically it does like. Kinda help me? Talk? About the undistinguished horrors? Allure wasnt exactly a good person in their early days of leading their cult after all,, neither were the bishops,, it all took them to finally apologize to eachother when shamura died ?? LIKE ?? as much as i absolutely love comfort, theres a lot of room for angst and development.

Some people change for the better.. some people change for the worse. Allure shortly realized how fucked up their ruling was so they went as far as to suicide (at 10,000 anyways) just for not being able to handle all that guilt. Okay maybe they need therapy more than they thought but if they use their own confession booth theyll be FINEEEEEE (Allure ,, allure you literally died in your own hands with the fear of anyone finding out ??? YOURE IMMORTAL HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT ????)