#hounds

Cenaran hounds are proto-whales. The initial motivation to domesticate them was their proficiency in water - the wild proto-hounds were capable of moving in water in ways that stickfigures cannot. Sticks sink like rocks!

There was motivation to obtain an efficient way of collecting oceanic resources, and these whales happened to show off that they're really good at catching fish and shellfish, and that they can be trained to fetch other resources [such as aquatic plants, loose minerals, pieces of shipwrecks etc].

Nowadays most Cenaran hounds are bred to be primarily land-based animals, but there are heritage breeds that love water and are still trained to swim in it. Similarly to earth dogs, hounds are social animals and do well in groups.

My designs of some of the backrooms entities for the next comics

RIGHT after Bryce asks Azriel if he has a mate, she brushes her hand along the wall of the cave, which has been covered in art.

The art depicts a girl sitting on a toadstool, with a hound resting at her feet. It seemed strange that SJM would include a description of such a casual gesture, and my gut told me that the art itself might somehow be important. I started researching … and it led me straight to the Mabinogion.

In the 4th branch of the Mabinogion - the same branch as Blodeuwedd’s story - Gwydion, a magician, tricks a king by turning hounds into toadstools. This is one small facet of a greater story that involves Blodeuwedd, a woman “made of flowers”, who is turned into an owl when she and her warrior lover conspire to kill the man that she was magically created to be with.