#hazbin peter

I wanted his clothing to be catholic inspired, because St Peter is often considered the first pope. But I also didn't want to go too heavy into it, because he never would have called himself a pope, because the office didn't exist. I also mixed in some Eastern Orthodox inspiration for variety. But maybe I'll come back and give him a chasuble later. Maybe the Eastern Orthodox look could be better applied to a character inspired by one of the other apostles. But I'm not sure that's a slippery slope I even want to go down. Peter is in the show, and that's why I'm even designing him. I don't need to go further(I'm trying to convince myself).

--Mortal--

The design on the left is his mortal look. I just looked up what 1st century Judean clothing would look like, and used what I found as reference. The hat is a headscarf that I think would be called a sudra. Or maybe it's a shawl called a tallit.... I don't know. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find something that would me what it was called. I'm fairly sure it's just a piece of cloth that would be used to cover the head or neck for sun protection, or wipe away sweat in the heat. Practical clothing.

I made the tunic gray because that's also the color I chose for his eyes and it kept the color palette more streamlined. I chose grey for his eyes because it's in the realm of what I would consider a reasonable brown-adjacent color to maintain my suspension of disbelief, and to reference that "Peter" means "rock."

--Casual--

The middle one is what I consider to be the more casual angelic outfit. It's inspired by a blend of the papal everyday wear and "choir dress." It consists of a cassock, fascia(sash), and mozzetta(capelet). The colors commonly associated with the papacy are red and white, sometimes gold.

--Formal--

The right one is a more "formal" outfit, and is inspired more by Eastern Orthodox vestments. I think archbishop is the highest office, with the archbishop of Constantinople, aka the ecumenical patriarch, being considered the "first among equals." But bishops and archbishops wear very similar clothes.

But there were so many layers in their liturgical vestments that it wasn't really reasonable to include everything in the design if I wanted to keep it streamlined. So I merged the robe(sticharion, roughly equivalent to an alb) with the epitrachelion(stole). I was close to including a phelonion(similar to a cape), but that was priest garb rather than bishop garb. Bishops wear a sakkos, which seems to be roughly equivalent to the catholic chasuble. The sakkos would cover the interesting visual elements of the stole, so I decided not to include it. I included a omophorion(a stole that is worn on the outer layer, equivalent to a pope's pallium) with a key-inspired symbol on it. It just felt like something that gave a biblical clothing vibe(like a sudra/scarf/tallit draped around his neck?). And I gave him an eastern style mitre(the hat), because I like that it somewhat resembles the headscarf as well as the turban an Israelite/Levite high priest would wear. I don't think Peter would have been a Levite, but it has an association with spiritual authority.

His halo has a symbol that I designed to look somewhat like a key and cross mix. Peter is associated with keys, because Jesus gave Peter "the keys of the kingdom of heaven." These keys are the only reason Peter is popularly placed at the gates of heaven, even though his gatekeeper position is not biblical.

Revelations 21 describes New Jerusalem descending out of heaven. It had a great wall surrounding it(as cities of biblical times time very commonly had), decorated with many precious stones and jewels. There were 12 gates with 12 angels, and the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. Each gate was one pearl(not sure how that would physically work, but that's what the Bible says). And the gates are always open. The wall had 12 foundations, which had the names of the 12 apostles. Each foundation had specific precious stones embedded into it, which I assume correspond with the jewels associated with each tribe of Israel(I could've double checked that, but it's not really what I wanted to focus on).

If we're considering the city of New Jerusalem described in Revelations to be synonymous with the kingdom of heaven, then there are 12 open gates(ie not locked and don't need a key) that are associated with the 12 tribes(not Peter). The foundations of the wall are associated with the 12 apostles(includes Peter).

I don't plan on making heaven match this description exactly, but it is the basis of my idea that the gatekeeper position is just a job. So it's not just St Peter who will be there, and they'll take shifts. So it's an opportunity to make many different character variations based on Hazbin's Peter.