First we need to establish our players and their echoes/reflections:

The Red: Dead Judgement of the Red Alignment; Mother of Parabola, Fingerkings, and Aeginae; Origin of the Red-Handed Queen

The White: Judgement of the White Alignment; Spymaster of the High Wilderness; The Orchestrate of multiple plots to destroy the Neath

Because of chapter 7 of Firmament we know that the Red-Handed Queen is a fragment of the Red, born from her destruction for the creation of Parabola, as tasked by the White. We also know that the Beleaguered King is a reflection of the White due to what the Red learned from him about "the schemes of her destroyer"

This is continued in the strangest interaction between the Parabolan King and Queen, where they speak of the message the Bazaar possesses. The King says "Some of them have taken steps to ensure it is not delivered", to which the Queen replies "We should have done the same, to that message that passed between us". That is strange, perhaps it is of the request the White gave the Red to which he betrayed her with? Oh, and what story line can you find this interaction mourning a past that could have been? Seeking Mr Eaten's Name, how interesting, we will get back to that.

Given the relation between the Red-Handed Queen and the Fingerkings reflecting the reality of the Fingerkings and the Red, as long as echoing the relationship of the Red and the Aeginae, it would not be wrong to continue to use the Parabolan relations to understand the truth of the world. So, the question that fully sent me down this path: Who is the Innocent Princess, the daughter of the Red-Handed Queen and the Beleaguered King?

I will be sidetracking real quick to explain the plot of Seeking in a cosmic sense, not the story line, but the history and plot behind it. As learned from the "Nicator", the White planned this all from the very beginning. So, in essence: Mr Candles was sacrificed to the plot of Seeking in service to the White's ambitions. The Priests-Kings of the Third City brought about his sacrifice to be swallowed up, so that the the Judgements will grant the White victory when the crimes of the Neath are exposed.

Back to the question of the Innocent Princess, there is a quote from the Silver Tree that may... Reveal some things: "In my dream, the Innocent Princess was sacrificed to the North Wind in service of her father's ambitions. The priests pushed her from the cliff to be swallowed by the sea, so their god would grant their King victory."

The Innocent Princess, in the case of the dreams about her, only exists to be sacrificed, that is her only importance. Mr Candles only importance and remaining existence is only about his sacrifice.

What I am suggesting is very simple: The Innocent Princess is a reflection of Candles, and thusly, that Mr Candles is the son of The Red and The White.

This post is already too long, so I will not post the evidence for Candles having been a Judgement in the past, but it explains how one of the most on the nose pieces of evidence is connected to being Stormy-Eyed "And the star becomes a candle-flame in a window across the way. Try as you might, it won't become a star again." Storm is considered a "prince among myrmidons", just like how the Red calls herself "Queen of the Myrmidons". Storm is in a tangible way blood related to Candles, and would certainly know who he used to be.

The repeated themes motifs that Seeking Mr Eaten's Name and Queeneater's Castle also make sense with this in mind, as it would be a tale of Mother and Son, used and sacrificed the same way, by the same Judgement.

It also explains why Salt is strangely connected to Seeking Mr Eaten's Name out of nowhere. In Queeneaters, we learn that in at least a metaphorical sense, Salt usurped her, taking part of her with it. This is found in the Memory of Frostfound found within The Mind of a Long-Dead Queen. With a tie-in with The Green King, we hear of when The Red was "in rags, red and green". With the tie in you have the option to "become Green": "All boundaries were once mine. I will midwife myself, ripped through my own form, render my flesh to carry in rags as I, newborn, birthmother, attend the grave of my birth. But it will not come – or if it does, it goes on without me. I see the green disappear like snow in the heavens and I am alone and I am red again. I am myself again." Along with that, on the stage and in in your confrontation of the Red herself, the Knave is shown to represent a usurper, taking from the Queen to become something new and better, something that was taken from her that leaves her.

With this, Kingeater's Castle comes into focus. Queeneater's castle is the site of the Red's Judgemental remains, just as Kingeaster's Castle is the remains of Salt's Judgemental remains. It also explains how Salt crossed the impossibly boundary of the East, for it devoured and took from the Judgement of Metes and Bounds, Boundaries were once hers, so of course it could use that to pass to the Uttermost East.

First of all, I personally like the headcanon of Mr Eaten and Mr Candles being different entities, particularly the system/headmate that I first saw from @vake-hunter. Just hooked into my brain for whatever reason and I could not say no it changing how I viewed the entirety of Candles' and Eaten's story.

So! Thematically, Cards is an extreme exploration of identity, selfhood, and what it means to be someone. In how that regards SMEN is rather simple. She was supposed to be Candles. She was shaped to be Candles, to let him live on, to have a new body, new life, a new chance. How that happens lore wise I will get to it later, but Candles is who she was expected to become, to be. In this perspective, Eaten is the embodiment of those who expected her to be such. For her entire life she had the niggling voice that was hers, telling her something was not quite right. Even the Masters she (fortunately or unfortunately, up to you) has to interact with all start to look at her like she is supposed to be someone else, even treat her like it at some points. To further this point even further, her SMEN arc is a self-destructive response to realising she does not truly understand herself and seeks to cut away everything that "is not her", trying to be what everyone wants her to be. Trying to cut away all that is Seria in order to just be a hollow vessel with that little bit of Candles so that he can grow, fill it up, and live. At the end of that story, well, I will not spoil it, but she does not end tragically. Eaten is not just a one note reflection of such themes, but does bring out said themes, and does develop along the story.

Lore wise, that is the hard part. I have enough nebulous ideas with lore backing that allow for this story to take place, yet none of them fit cleanly. Before she was born, she was changed to be like Candles. Be it through Parabola, souls, laws, no laws, Irem, or a mix of the above, that was the plan. The process was not perfect, Eaten could not just remake Candles, or it would have already happened, but someone could be shaped to be the perfect vessel through Seeking. The result was a Human that was not quite human, did not fully fit in with others of their species, and displayed a disturbing amount of Curatorial traits from a young age. Her Mother tried to do something about this (positive), but well... She failed, and that is another story. In the end, Seria Clever, the Clever Correspondent, would ascend the chain to a form that truly fit their strange strange soul and accept who she was. She was not Candles, even if she is part Candles, she is Cards. This was not who she was when she was conceived, nor who she was shaped to be, but this is who she was.

Another aspect of this relationship that is extremely prudent but did not fit in the other two is a different dive into identity. Are you the same person as you were an hour ago? A day ago? A year? A part of Cards conditions I have not mentioned yet is her ability to remember everything, caused by a helpful (harmful) infusion of Violant, a purposeful reflection of the infusion of Irrigo one gets during SMEN with Obscurity. Cards reflects the guilt and mourning of no longer being who you once were, for good or ill. You can never truly be the person you used to be, no matter what you do, no matter how much you cut away, no matter how much you change, you are the you of now, and you will never be the you of then. Eventually she comes to terms with that, and that the solution to saving Candles is not to damn herself, but the guilt of knowing that she exists now because Candles does not haunts her. The you of before cannot live, because the you of now does. And just like the you of before, Cards exists because Candles wants her to. Again, I will get into this more in my actual writings, but it is more of a self imposed guilt strictly from herself.

When it comes to species, given how other Curators/Masters are based on bats, I wanted to grab a unique species to use instead of just the typical go to bats. Due to her connection to Candles (and my personal headcanon of him being based on the Honduran White Bat), I knew I wanted to go with a white or albino bat. Given the fact that only approximately six species display this colouration, and given only two of those species had pictures I could use, I had limited options.

It is ironic that the species I chose was the Northern Ghost Bat, if you know the lore of Seeking Mr Eaten's Name. It fits with her story, however, because she truly found herself up North.

It is a bit of a debate in the community if Curators/Masters have horns, I personally am in the camp that says yet, but I do have alternate designs of her with or without horns. When she does have horns, she has curled horns, similar to sheep. Given her metaphorical nature as a sacrificial lamb for a large portion of her story it only felt right to include a nod to that in her transitioned form so to say.

Though if I am being honest the more accurate reason for her horns is that I love the design of Kulve Taroth from Monster Hunter World and the Sacrificial Lamb just happened to work retroactively.