#cotl theory

Okay so, this is INSANE! Why don’t they teach this in school??

Apparently, farmers dock their sheep’s tails to prevent some issues, like lambs nipping each other accidentally while playing and cause pigs to go insane over the scent of blood, but overall sheep naturally have them long.

Here’s a pic:

My point is…could the sheep in Woolhaven do a similar thing? Could The Lamb have or used to have a long tail?? It’s just a fun concept that I was thinking about.

Edit: I noticed that one of the reposts mentioned flystrike and I decided to research the topic a bit better. So APPARENTLY docking is done a lot less to prevent nipping but rather to avoid maggot infestations and manure accumulating under the tail. Remember everyone, fact checking is important 😅!

A mom and her two stars ⭐⭐

Sadge version down below because of a very dark game theory based off the game's devs notes!!

TW: symbolical depiction of a mother losing her two daughters (the dev notes imply that she ended their lives to feed the rot with her own despair and also to spare them from a violent death)

ENG: Once we finish Demon Quest, we’re met with a this screen. Many people find it strange that Kallamar is grinning so brightly, like a child. I used to think the same. So this time, I’d like to share a headcanon analyzing Kallamar’s psychological state. Honestly, I don’t think Kallamar was ever truly happy—even back when he was a Bishop. Compared to his siblings, he was the most anxious and timid. That’s why he relied on Shamura, the eldest, and feared Narinder, the third-born and the overseer of death. And I believe this fear existed even before Narinder ever plotted his betrayal. The Kallamar that Narinder remembers was always the brother who looked at him with fear. Because of this, I believe Kallamar was the one least suited to wear the crown. Yet unlike Haro, he couldn’t let go of his divinity. Whether it was out of a desire to survive or a need for power… either way, these elements clashed with his true nature, leaving him to live a life gripped by fear, crushed under the weight of the crown.

But now? The Bishops and Narinder alike have been dethroned by the Lamb. They’ve lost their divinity and become followers. Ironically, it’s because Kallamar became a follower that he’s finally able to be his true self. He no longer needs to hold onto power, nor hide in Shamura’s shadow. For the first time, he’s free to live life on his own terms. And I don’t think Kallamar fears Narinder anymore. What he feared was the Red Crown(death)—not Narinder himself. It was only after becoming a follower that he was finally able to see Narinder not as the embodiment of the Red Crown, but simply as a cat.🐱 Now that he has nothing left to fear, maybe that’s why he can smile so brightly after the Demon Quest?😆

I wanted to come up with a theory that could explain the reason for the cages and torture instruments distributed throughout The Rot. And I feel this might be related to the Old Faith.

Recently, in the Woolhaven trailers it's revealed, that the God of Winter, Yngya, is still alive albeit in a physically atrophied state from what we've seen so far, but it was also revealed that another deity known as The Icegore is also alive.

This is interesting to see because it's heavily stated that the Bishops Of The Old Faith killed most of the other Gods in the pantheon to ensure that only the five of them would remain. The ones that they didn't kill were said to have gone into hidding or straight up left on by their own volition or possibly in exile. But with The Icegore they've pretty much been confirmed to have been dead way back since the start of the game seeing as their leg and eye have been turned into relics by Chemach, who makes them from fallen gods.

❄️Which lead me to these theories:

Made some designs based off the relics

tbhhh ive been also cooking up mini lore for them so i will just kinda dump in the below (+put the original traditional designs i made of them

about how when shamura says bonds (chains) must be forged in godly matters they refer to both the bishops' blood but also narinder's. look at his robes, the red in the middle that starts at his throat and trails down, as if his throat had been cut not necessarily to kill but to make him bleed as much as possible

in the game, the god of death cannot die. the only time the player is in actual risk of "dying" (permadeleting a save file) is when they have 0 followers for two days. the solution to this is to recuit TWO followers minimum. guess who narinder has by his side in the afterlife.

TWO followers, given to him by shamura. they said they didn't want narinder to be lonely. But exactly why would narinder be lonely if he was "swelling with devotion" ? and forneus never says when her kits were taken, just that they were a gift to "the one they loved the most." by "they" it is heavily implied that she's referring to shamura. still, I don't think shamura meant to gift them to narinder out of malice. i truly think he did not wish for him to be lonely.

now, what does narinder say about baal and aym?

intended as KEEPERS??? why would narinder interpret them as keepers, if they were gifted to him before he was imprisoned? maybe he thought shamura was distrustful of him from the start. but even then, if they were already his loyal followers by that point, why wouldn't they be chained? they're completely free to move. Not to mention, look at their eyes. reminds you of something??

DISSENTING FOLLOWERS. all four bishops and their respective minibosses have black scleras and red irises. the only characters / enemies who have similar eyes to baal and aym are the witnesses, that I theorize are old enemies sealed away by the bishops that rise after the death of their capturer. (and barbatos but like. they're the only miniboss who has those eyes so I don't count them) Maybe shamura sent them to narinder under the guise of "keepers," knowing that narinder would guide them. Notice what he says. "Must I be blamed for my influence?"

Narinder says it was here that they cast the chains that bound him (ignore kallamar's joy I have no clue why he's so happy here?) meaning it's here that they probably fought. The monument says the same. "Here did death no longer wish to wait." this obviously refers to narinder. The one who waits could no longer bear to wait, and he put his and the other bishop's reigns in peril trying to expand his domain. shamura feared narinder would grow too greedy and held a council of war with the others.

Narinder struck at them, supposedly second. They knowingly attempted to kill (bound) their brother, just like cain and abel, and were punished for it. See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, think no evil. narinder was punished too, relegated to the afterlife, destined to be forgotten, to rot. my theory is that shamura gave him baal and aym afterward. they loved him the most, to the point where their brother being forgotten, truly dying, was so unbearable that they gifted him two young followers under the guise of "keepers."

also think about kallamar and how he can't bear to see narinder. We know that kallamar is the second oldest, and that he's aware of his cowardice.

"... of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known."

"It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha..."

"So many things I did not wish to hear... Narinder's foolish plans."

"When Shamura told us what we must do to ensure our survival... I did not wish to hear that, either."

"And yet I was a willing conspirator. Cowardly Kallamar."

shamura tells us this.

I think shamura set aside their fear of losing their brother and the love they held for him, to save themselves and their other siblings in case narinder betrayed them. kallamar did not. he was cowardly, he did not wish to hear narinder's heresy or shamura's plans, even knowing their happiness would not last.

side note, narinder's speeches to you after beating each bishop are the longest when he talks about kallamar and shamura. This could also be because he knows the lamb for longer at that point, but I do truly think that he couldn't bear to resent his youngest siblings enough to blatantly insult them like how did to kallamar and shamura.

not to mention heket's dialogue. she blames the red crown, never her older brother. when she does refer to him, she calls him a monster who will not be satisfied until all four of them are felled. she never names him. she grieves, laments about how they were happy once, all together.

narinder's dialogue about leshy is the shortest. maybe it's because they didn't know each other well, since leshy was so young, but leshy is directly stated to not have known about the plan, at least not completely. I don't think narinder resents him as much as the other because of that. leshy even calls the lamb an unworthy bearer of the crown. he doesn't insult narinder, he simply calls him "the chained one."

shamura deems you an unworthy bearer of the crown if you bow to them: "I am disappointed, I admit. I thought my brother had better… taste."

if you do not bow: "A lion in the guise of a Lamb. I expected no less from a vessel of the Red Crown. Very well. War is also my domain."

shamura is also the most outwardly resentful of mortals. "He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals." they were the oldest, but also the most prideful, even more so than heket, who is the only other bishop who commands you to bow, and has similar dialogue to shamura. but if you do not bow, she does not compliment you like shamura does, instead she demands you to bow again, which shows her immaturity.

if you bow: "Ha! Cowardly vermin. You disgust me." if you do not bow: "You will bow, or I will make you!"

another side note about heket:

"There is no justice in this world."

"No matter how... how loudly you demand... urge... beg..."

she tells you this after you give her relic back. this is purely headcanoning now, but perhaps she had her throat torn out by narinder because he could not bear to hear her beg.

For starters, it's pretty easy to figure out that he's one of these things:

The Bagworm moth.

They're these little critters whose larvae cover themselves in nature stuff like twigs or leaves. Y'know. Kinda how Leshy does. We can kinda' tell from his Relics of the Old Faith form that he does have actual skin underneath and that the leafiness isn't a direct part of the skin.

Basically Leshy isn't a worm in the official sense, but more of a caterpillar.

He's still just a baby🥺

Ok, awesome.

But uh...which species...?

There's like a thousand and they all look different.

I kid you not, I actually went through the entire Wikipedia page of their species until I found one I think fits best.

Luffia lapidella

Lookatit. Tell me this ain't Leshy.

Anyways, my fic led me down this rabbit-hole of theory fodder. D...does this count as theorizing...? Ahhhh, the studies of a writer. But it was super fun exploring him transform and scare everyone when he becomes a moth in Metamorphosis.

To conclude whatever this is: here have in-game Leshy if he looked like what he actually does in biology: