#things change.

So obviously the kingfisher is the go-to symbol. when picking the animals for the weapons i think des was the third one i made and the first one where the association was kinda. obvious. it's a bird that sits still on a branch all day, waiting, except when it shoots itself like a spear at some fish. Cain carries a lot of this in him and it's not just Des's influence. He spent many years stagnant, waiting for the right moment to do something that might be considered redemptive (in his eyes at least)... but he often waited too long, and didn't strike soon enough ... by the time of the trilogy he is entirely friendless and has betrayed all the people closest to him by his inaction! oh well

um his name, 'Cain', as mentioned somewhere else this was a placeholder name i just never changed, obviously it's the biblical Cain story, the weapon wielder who was the first to turn on all the others. yeowch

and his tarot card is The Hanged Man. now i illustrated my hanged man inver tarot with félix because at the time i had only written stbh (final draft anyway) and tvm was still in its janky first draft from 2020 and even though Cain's moment of being Dangled On A Rope is much more impactful, imo, and more central to his character, i didn't illustrate it because at the time because i thought that if i just drew some random old guy, it would be a less accessible piece of art than félix version which can be aesthetically fun because all his skin's gone and he looks more fantasy-ish. that was the reasoning (i had not planned to ever release the books so the spoilers aspect was not a concern to me)