The Sins of the First Gods

Talking about Gods

A small section where I explain the lore of several Gods from CotL.

#1: The First Gods

#2: Yngya❄️

#3: Haro🦉

#4: The Fanatic🐍

#5: The Icegore🌨️

#6: Gods of Gold🪙

#Special: The Feathered Beasts🔺🔵🟨

#7: Leshy🪱

#8: Heket🐸

#9: Shamura🕷️

#10: Kallamar🦑

#11: Narinder 🐈‍⬛

The Sin of the First Gods

This story focuses on the rest of the unknown continent from which the Land of the Old Faith was separated. The reason for this separation is that the lands were contaminated by the corpses of First Gods corrupted by Sin, leading the remaining First Gods to decide to preserve what little could be salvaged, along with the beings and creatures that remained.

When Lamb corrupted their crown with Sin, it awakened the dead beasts, whose remains had lain dormant until then. These Sinners then began to corrupt the lands in order to seize them and obtain the remaining Crowns that still held life.

Rituals

Rituals can serve various functions depending on which one is being performed. And there are various types of rituals, and they don't require the person performing them to have a relationship with that concept. For example, you don't need to control the concept of the Yellow Crown to perform a Feasting Ritual.

Another characteristic of rituals is that they do not need to be performed only by gods; any mortal is capable of performing rituals as long as they have the knowledge (For example, the Winter rituals required the Knowledge of Winter, or the Brainwashing Ritual required Sozo). This is seen by Sozo and the Disciples of Yngya.

Powers of the Crowns

The powers of the Crowns are something more exclusive to the Crowns; they do not require a ritual to be used. These powers are closely related to the concept of the crown, since the Yellow Crown would not be able to do the same as the Red Crown.

Narinder and the Resurrection

When we think about the topic of resurrection with Narinder, everyone relates that to the resurrection ritual. But the reality is that there was never even a mention or relationship between the two. Narinder is able to revive The Lamb as many times as he wants; that is his power. Narinder does not need a ritual to use his powers. Of course, it seems Narinder wasn't always able to control these powers; it's no coincidence that he needed to conduct "experiments."

Furthermore, Shamura never mentions that Narinder performed a ritual; the only thing they mentions is that he sought to open a door for mortals between Life and Death. In fact, it is never mentioned that he ever revived anyone before, and in fact, it agrees with what was mentioned in an AMA, where it is only mentioned that he, like Chemach, tried to go against the established order and paid for his actions.

So no, Narinder had nothing to do with the Resurrection Ritual. In fact, the closest thing to opening a door is a ritual found in the Temple of Narinder, a ritual that requires 20 followers. And it's a ritual that opens the way to The Gateway, so this isn't certain, but perhaps this could be what Narinder truly wanted to accomplish.

traduction: In a Cult of the Lamb puppet show, they revealed plushies of the bishops before they donned their crowns, but I noticed that the Leshy plushie is quite large. Does this mean we shouldn't rule out the possibility that Leshy under his robes isn't so small after all?

I think we all remember the dialogue Temi says when she wakes up as a ghost, she asks about Rami. But what many don't know is that she originally asked about her family, Koka, Chazaq, and her two little cousins. (read the part underlined in blue)

Obviously we don't know if this is still canon, but at least this connection between these characters existed at some point. This would also explain why the second fleece she gives us, which is one she knitted herself, has the colors and stars of Aza and Keru's hats. Well, she probably did it thinking about her two cousins.

Likewise, MM refers to this fleece as the Twin's fleece. So perhaps there is a possibility that the twins could still be related to Temi.

I also bring you the information about the origin of the name Temi. On the wiki you can find a bit more context about this name and how it connects to this possible family relationship.

I believe it's known that The Fanatic is an ancient god who was the last recorded to die in the Purge of the Gods. And also that the soul of this Deity ended up in purgatory.

But I don't think we're entirely clear on where The Fanatic died. And after taking a closer look at the Lore Room, perhaps that Ichor stain on the floor is The Fanatic's blood and the place where they died? If we consider that the souls of the Bishops remained to suffer and relive their last agonies in the same place where they died, which were their Temples.

Perhaps the same is true for The Fanatic; their soul is in the same place where they died. But hey, that was just overthinking, haha. Where do you think The Fanatic was killed?

It also reminded me of how Yngya, when she was killed, left a large pool of Ichor on the ground

Interesting Fact

Q: The design of the visuals of the game speaks of Newgrounds, but also 18th century paper theatre. In the collab between yourselves, how much fun was that?

James: Newgrounds is definitely our background. The three Js met making flash games back in the day. Where they learned how to make games as teenagers. They did a couple of 2D steam games. COTL was the first game where they used Unity and used 2D art in a 3D environment. It raised the overall visual quality of the game. We wanted the game to be atmospheric and have depth/grittiness to it.

Q: The boundary between the creature and an animal. Someone you fight and a friend you want to speak to. What’s the difference between the spider that wants to kill you and the spider you want to worship?

James: The eyes the way we draw the eyes. The lambs and the followers have a certain style of eyes, compared to the baddies. There’s the cute spiders and the enemy spiders. If they’re wearing a robe with red eyes, yeah they’re bad.

Jojo: the character design, I’ll be like, what’s their function? I’ll just look at it and think of what they sound like, etc. The artists at MM have a very intuitive/instinctual practice. We just keep doing more, different things until we arrive at something we like. If I know its going to be a boss, you can either lean into a expectation or subvert. This character is a baddie, they’re hostile. The player is set against them. And then they might have an unexpected voice/demeanor. But you can’t just do it all the time.

(I remember that a certain group of people had doubts about whether that light effect in the Bishops' eyes in the game meant that was the color of their eyes, and well, it turns out that it didn't; the eyes of the Bishops are red.)

Q: The wider universe. The core COTL universe vs. the comics vs. fanart/fan animations. How do you decide what goes into the game or the trailers or the comics?

James: Jojo recently did this really awesome puppet show. This is a good opportunity to explore the backgrounds of these characters in a way that makes sense. A trailer needs to fit specific vibes and characters to sell a product. We wouldn’t really consider fanart canon, its just the fans interpretations. We’re quite careful about what we do—we don’t want to cheapen the characters or universe too much. We don’t want to cheapen the lore. A lot of the fans, they really do care about this stuff. We don’t want to upset you guys (lighthearted)

Jojo: Thinking about Pilgrim, I think that as a writer you always want to be mindful of the medium that your writing for. In game, there’s strict restrictions. You HAVE to be the lamb, which limits how you can interact with the world. With Pilgrim, you don’t have to be the Lamb anymore, so now you can access different parts of the universe we didn’t get to explore before. Different notions of scale and stuff.

(In the end, JoJo was indeed the one who created the Puppet Show, in the lore sense it seems, so we can take this story into account. And it also means that our beautiful Leshy has five eyes xd)

Other information on the subject that no one managed to write down, and I only have the answers.

According to JoJo's perspective, the family relationship between the Bishops is somewhat dysfunctional. Because they do love each other, but they love power above all else, from her perspective.

Yngya died at the hands of the Bishops when they crushed her, minced her, and turned her head into a tortilla. (Basically Yngya has her poor head all squashed). So no, folks, Yngya wasn't killed by the lambs and she wasn't dying, she was already dead.

Well, he asked about cooperative plans for 3 to 4 people. Unfortunately, Jimp mentions that they currently have no plans in that regard. So I think The Owl and The Snake will have to wait. (And thank you so much for your art, @mocho3571, it's beautiful).

Regarding the world of Goat, it is mentioned that JoJo compared The Lamb and Goat as opposites according to mythology and religion. She also mentioned that, in her opinion, the difference is that what worked in Lamb's world didn't work well in Goat's. They also said they would like to explore this world.

They are planning perhaps in the future to show us the Eldritch form of The Lamb, trying to make it a kind of Yin and Yang balance. And The lamb "canonically" has 6 breasts. (I think that last part is clearly a joke)

It's mentioned that Woolhaven might be the last major content expansion, because right now they're planning to start a new game.

It's mentioned that they want to explore the realm of Mystic Seller, as they do have plans for a story about it, but that at the moment it didn't fit due to the nature of this character. Given that the realm of Mystic Seller is some higher plane or dimension, and that they still need to clarify this further

1. To whom are Witnesses affiliated, by nature?

a) Old Faith

b) Cult of the Lamb

c) Plimbo

d) None of the above

2. What is known about the ether so far? Write your answer.

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3. Where do crowns originate?

a) Chemach created them

b) The Mystic Seller brought them from their realm

c) The First Gods

d) The Bishops

4. What places did Marchosias note on his first Research Tablet? Multiple choice

a) Woolhaven

b) Ewefall

c) The Rot

d) The Icegore Cave

5. Did the Lamb Purge begin in Woolhaven?

True or False

6. Who is the writer of the Ancient Tablets?

a) Shamura

b) Narinder

c) Unknown God

d) The Fanatic

7. Are the First Gods affected by the Laws of Nature?

True or False

8. Where do the laws of Nature come from? Write your answer.

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9. How many layers of existence are known so far? And that its existence is confirmed

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10. How did the minibosses of the Bishops biome come to be like that? Write your answer.

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11. Where did the First Gods come from? Write your answer (You can use the map or the globe to point)

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12. Mention a Law of Nature.

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13. Did the Bishops' Biomes always exist and were they always called that?

True or False

14. Has the concept of the Orange Crown ever been stated officially?

True or False

15. Give 3 examples of Nature Laws being broken

Gamiel

Rikbeel

Harut

Lailah

Nuri

Globe of the Cult of the Lamb

I wanted to share with you what the Cult of the Lamb globe is; it's currently on the wiki under the Lands of the Old Faith page for free access by everyone.

Narinder Bishop

A small curiosity is that in these statues of Woolhaven we can observe the robes of the Bishops, but the most interesting one to highlight is that of Narinder. Which has a design identical to that of Shamura.

Wings of Narinder

I'd also like to share that these things that Narinder has are called "wings" in its sprites. That probably explains why those things have multiple eyes, possibly an allusion to "biblically correct" angels.

Midas's Cave is not in Silk Cradle

This looks great on the Pilgrim map, even in the starting panoramic view, but here again, emphasizing the fact with Forneus in the middle.

The Lamb with Shield

A discarded animation of The Lamb using the shield.

Puppet Show Bishops