I Call This One "found Family But It Goes Horribly Wrong In An Irreparable Way" :)

I call this one "found family but it goes horribly wrong in an irreparable way" :)

I've been doing a lot of cotl comics but I kinda lost my comic making endurance after not working on art since last september, so I made this to help me flex my art muscles. Apologies for the watermarks lmao they kinda kill the mood but I've already had people repost my art when I put it on reddit so...might as well get the credit if my stuff is gonna be reposted regardless. RAMBLE INCOMING!!

Thinking about how shamura was most likely the one to find + raise their adopted siblings and help them survive the mass deicide that happened thousands of years before....OUUGH. I have so many ideas for comics that take place when half the bishops were still lil kids. I have one in progress right now actually. But it just hurts when I remember how it all ends- they loved their family for so long and yet they credit their love as what caused it to fall apart!!! The lore of the bishops only sunk in when I was dealing with my own heavy sibling angst, and I was like wow....shamura supported the sibs so much they accidentally encouraged their brother into being a heretic, and couldn't close pandora's box in time to save him or the rest of the family. They blame themself for the past 1,000 years and seem to be totally okay with dying for what they did?? Like when they get sent to the shadow realm they tell you to "finish the job" instead of leaving them in purgatory. And despite being the bishop of war, they are the only bishop to not have a "desperate" phase where their attacks get more brutal. They're not desperate, they just want to get it over with. All their other siblings are dead by then anyway so it's not like they have anything to stick around for, even if they were healthy enough to win the battle. Plus I mean...narinder is the bishop of death so they probably just want to see him one last time. Owch

Don't get me wrong I love to hate narinder and his only role in my cult is the guy who cleans the outhouse, but I really like his dynamic with shamura vs. the other siblings. I kinda see him as the troubled kid that couldn't assimilate into the family and shamura took it upon themself to try and fix him. It's interesting thinking about how they're the only one he shows remorse for despite feeling the most betrayed by them. I don't think he 100% hates them, he's just been locked in gay baby jail for so long he's had nothing better to think about than "my sibling encouraged me to experiment with my godly duties, and then punished me for it!!". He's not wrong? But also is shamura that wrong either??? Idk it's complicated with no real answer and I like it a lot, I wish the game told us more about what the bishops were like before they got their shit rocked during the schism. I would've loved to see shamura before their brain was turned to mush by their tbi + 1,000 years of suffocating grief and crushing guilt :)

ANYWAY thanks for making it to the bottom of this rant, here is a sketch I did a while ago of shamura + baby leshy from a prequel au thing I don't have a name for yet:

Leshy; quite the whimsical creature

I'll continue this later today or tomorrow or even never because this was exhausting I didn't know getting my ideas/information and stuff onto writing and trying to make it make sense would be this exhausting...

Sources:

Mystic Seller (Ōmeteōtl)

History repeating itself (The Five Suns)

Narinder (Lilith)

Cross/Sword symbol (Lilith's Sigil)

Leviathan Cross

Pentagram

Lucifer's Sigil

Further information about symbols and so if you're interested:

Cult of the Lamb (religious connections)

Symbols Index (no meaning explicitly given)

PS: For clarity's sake, there are many symbols in COTL that don't actually have a certain meaning. Many of which were simply marks to indicate who made something (primarily churches and so on). This is particularly directed to the symbols thrown around when ichor hits the ground, when you open a chest, when you construct something, and even would go as far as to say chemach's followers symbols.

That is to say, they still have a meaning, however up to interpretation.

EDIT: Here is the sheet I found for reference to the "meaningless" symbols that I mentioned earlier. For anyone curious. You can find some of these in cards too. I'll go into it next time.

This is one of the few sheets of actually useful info I found during my small period of time in which I pulled an all nighter because it's actually frustrating to find anything about the symbols in COTL, because some are mere inspiration or aren't faithful to the original symbol. If you are truly interested in the meaning behind most drawings/symbols you find in this game I STRONGLY suggest you simply don't. Unless you know where to look.

I love pop rocks, can I have some more [x]

First rule of reincarnation is to have insane sex with the guy who killed you last time