Hi, another ask kinda indirectly related to the Bilehwit AU
But what are some of your personal headcannons about the bishops, that may or may not be in this au but as a personal interpretation of their character?
+ Who's your fav Bishop(excluding Narinder for now) ?
Favourite has to be Kallamar - gay coward??? Me coded fr fr.
That being said, I somehow always write more about Shamura???
But headcanons!
Kallamar:
🐙My man has a skin tone for gold, and he lets it be known by wearing enough to be heard janglin' a mile away.
🐙He has never once in his life done that! (He has done it 1 billion times, but he must appear better than thou.)
🐙Scared of Shamura when they're not lucid.
🐙Once drunk Leshy under the table only to then get decimated by Heket.
🐙Many spouses, does not like sexual activity. In my eyes he's asexual but a hopeless romantic.
🐙Will stop whole processions to look at bacterial growths on the floor.
🐙East Asian - South Korean, modern day would be a K-Pop beauty influencer.
Leshy:
🌱 Is Chaotic, but not in a fun way, more in a "Oh my God 3 people are dead" way.
🌱Used to biting to show affection.
🌱Cries when he's angry.
🌱Wants Shamura to be proud (they are.)
🌱Turns spouses into Witnesses. Also doesnt know what a spouse is/is for.
🌱Is the most physically violent.
🌱Ate scraps of metal on a dare (digested with no problems.)
🌱Russian.
Heket:
🐸Hates mushrooms (shockingly).
🐸Bought a cowboy hat.
🐸Likes to garden and cook but hates washing up.
🐸Says shit like "four score and twelve moons ago" to piss off Kallamar.
🐸Likes writing on Papyrus.
🐸Egyptian and will complain about heat.
🐸Lesbiab. Lesbaen. WOMAN LIKER.
🐸Tells you to go fuck yourself if you compliment her looks.
Shamura:
🕷When lucid, talks about the good old days.
🕷Most crimes committed as a mortal.
🕷Writes nursery rhymes for their followers.
🕷Used to have dancing rituals to gather sin - now can barely twitch their legs to a beat.
🕷"Oh, thank you Leshy- sorry, Narinder." "I'm Kallamar." "That's what I said." - common occurrence even before.
🕷Wants a pet so so bad. Do not give them one.
🕷Attracted to people with long hair and excellent grammar.
🕷Once did a kickflip so bad they had to kill the elderly congregation watching them.
🕷Tanzanian and speaks swahili when angry.
Narinder:
🪦Likes to bite Kallamar ("I can't help it, cats love fish." "I AM NOT EVEN CLASSIFIED AS A FISH." "You could be.")
🪦Indian, but spent so long in Purgatory he can no longer handle flavourful foods. At least at the start.
🪦Didn't realise Bilehwit had an ACTUAL CRUSH on him and thought they were like. Just that devoted. Pious. That's why they never took a lover.
🪦Cat baths when no one looks - gotta look constantly refined.
🪦Uses his third eye to scare people, namely children.
🪦I Would Never pt, except he definitely is still doing it while you watch.
🪦Finds children hilarious (to torment).
🪦Best dancer, worst singer of the Bishops. Can play music very well though.
🪦First time in Bilehwit's tent, he paid no attention because they were arguing. Then snuck in later to actually see the place.
Uhh kinda not directly related to your au but how much of the Bilehwit au will be based on your own cotl gameplay & how much will be oc content made for a story in mind?
And what were your cult & lamb like in your gameplay?
Went on desktop to answer this one!
Well, the AU is actually based on a mix of my first ever game (now completed) and a newer game save I have used to remind myself of each area. It is also dosed with a healthy amount of off game things - I use it as a baseline for the main plot lines, such as dungeons and boss fights, but cult life and worldbuilding are much larger, exploring more than just running and grinding resources.
I do want to also explore more of the culture of each area, with undercover missions and such into areas to avoid repetitive fighting through the many, many mini-bosses. This is based on my own personal headcanons, and I have been and will be researching my chosen cultures as much as possible.
So while I will be going through plot points of the game, that is more of a goal to reach rather than the focus of the story, which is exploring Bilehwit as a leader and Narinder as a god, and what that relationship entails. It is a lot more relationship focused than the game, though some mechanics do exist! I am trying hard to make it exciting and fun!
My cult in the game was wild as all hell I will not lie. I was out there getting faith low as hell then using blessings to bring it back up when we had no food, and panicking a lot. My lamb in game was as feral as I was, the fighting style very much... hit it 'til it dies and before it kills you. I beat Kallamar first try on about 4 hearts with nothing but screams and panic in my soul.
I am not a good gamer, I prefer watching, but I have all DLC's on my switch and quite a few on my hand-me-down playstation (did I have to save for those, lordy) and I mostly work with the cult rather than fight. The second I got the 'go-home-free' thing from Leshy i started just escaping my dungeon runs when i had collected enough resources to not be impacted by the percentage loss.
Essentially, I am no gamer girl (I am no woman or man anyway but the vibes remain) but I do enjoy the game on easy and medium! And I fight with pure tornado power, never dodging, only hitting until they or I am dead xx
Just read your Bilehwit Au on Ao3 and was greetes by the amazing ref for the lamb here on tumblr!
And yes i absolutely love it when people explain clothing choices in character design especially since you wrote Lamb culture is based on the Old English pls do ramble 🙏
Well hello!! This my first ask from someone I've never met before, so I'll ask you to please be patient with my wild trails of thought.
This will be a long one, but I'll focus on two main outfits - the daily wear and the ritual outfit, as they have the most symbolism.
The easiest one is obviously the leaf outfit - cute, I love it so much!
The leaf was chosen for its symbolism in English mythology. The tree itself is well beloved as a symbol of strength and a symbol of fertility - acorns are often depicted as lucky, and an oak full of acorns is a good sign of fertility!
I also chose oak because I think they're very beautiful trees - they can live for up to 1,000 years, and they can grow to 30 meters wide in their leaves. That's amazing to me. They also smell nice, and I remember climbing them when I was little, so it's nice to share the oak with my lambsona.
Next, let's talk about the sacrifice outfit - it's oddly bridal, no?
Well it's intended to be!
The use of white/silver to denote Purity is an old concept, but white wedding dresses in England were only truly popularised after Queen Victoria wore the colour to her wedding - previously a mourning shade.
I chose silver satin as the fabric, and a simple design, as I wanted a bridal look but also something that felt sleek and pure. Bilehwit is a virgin (virgin sacrifice in all ways) and it's a cruel trick to play.
Also, Shamura in my fic struggles to see/differentiate between objects, so having an all white lamb made it easier for them to stay focused.
So while this outfit feels bridal to us, the symbolism in fic is more that it was easier than dying fabric, just raw spider thread spun into a dress.
Shamura did make the veil themself, though, for reasons you will see later ;3
Now, we get to the heavy hitters! First up, the daily outfit.
Now, Anglo-Saxons were all about those layers! So this outfit actually has more layers than you'd even think.
Under the base dress is a thin cotton chemise, or under dress, made to soak up the oils of the skin and sweat, changed most often. Bilehwit would use these as pyjamas in the summer months, too, to keep cool while covered and decent.
The next layer is the linen, with the thin dark band. This would be a slightly tighter layer to the body, and would be long sleeved to offer protection from the sun and the cold. Linen would be the lighter colours, as they'd be protected more, and linen was used as a middling layer to hold heat in winter. Air would be trapped between layers and keep people warm, and also it protected them from any scratchy wool. The woven ribbon at the bottom is decorative.
The next layer is my favourite. This is the red layer, the thicker dress, made often from wool or from linen again. This is made from wool, using a technique called naalbinding, which is what the Anglo-Saxons would have used, as they didn't knit like is common today.
Anglo-Saxon embroidery and weaving was actually really well known in Europe for its fine work and was gifted to Emissaries and Kings. The weaving and sewing business in England went hard as hell, and it's where most people would be employed for personal use or as gifts.
The embroidery of flowers on the cuffs of the red dress, as well as the colar, are those of Achillea millefolium, or 'Red Velvet', flowers. These tiny buds are native to Europe, western Asia and North America, and are small blooms that self seed and explode into colour. I chose them after seeing the flowers on a sketch, and decided that I had to include them.
Red in flower language is always to do with romance and passion. I wanted Bilehwit to show that desire, as they are a hopeless romantic at heart, and they also just feel a deep-seated loneliness that they want filled. The red flowers are the only flowers they've ever been given, and they've spent hours tracing the embroidery threads and staring silently at the sky.
The final apron layer is just that - an apron. It's a thin, boxy piece of fabric that is played on top to ensure the front of the dress stays somewhat clean, and there is a secret pocket behind it that they store honey-sweets in for children (and themself). Just a length of plain cut cloth!
Tied together with a woven belt, this outfit is my second favourite - I love every detail, and when I can talk in fic about it, I will spend thousands of words trying to detail what it means to me, and probably failing.
The final outfit now, one that definitely won't be seen in fic for a good long while - the Fancy/Ritual set.
Look at ittttt ahahahahagahqabqgagagquipqguqugjv
Okay, keysmash over, serious time!
Now, this outfit is interesting, because not only does it have embroidery and styles of old English culture, it also has mixes of Indian influence too!
"Well, that's random to add," I hear you murmur, and you're right. Why would I add that?
Well, because originally I was going to make Narinder have a more Egyptian vibe! I thought; ah, perfect, he'd do great as a Sphynx cat, the Egyptians loved those cats.
See, as it turns out, Narinder is actually a Sanskrit/Hindu name. It's a form of the name Narendra, a masculine name that means "Lord of Men". It's a very formal name, and one I immediately knew I had to switch things around for.
Following this, I was also able to determine the domains and cultures of each other Bishop, by tracing back names and meanings! That's a whole other post I fear.
Back to the dress!
The outline is far more recent than Old English, medieval style dresses, and that's because, uh... I wanted it. (This one is not very historically accurate. Forgive me.)
I wanted a mix of English style embroidery and Indian embroidery styles. Will come back and edit in which style I went with specifically, but I wanted the ritual set to be a touch more dedicated to Narinder, with darker colours, and more Indian fusion embroidery.
The black is velvet, the red is silk, and the white is linen - why? Again, it looks cool.
I can't lie, I have very little explanation for this besides the fact it looks bangin'.
But yes!! That's all my explanations at this current point in time for outfits! However, if you have any further questions, please ask away, and I will happily detail everything and anything about my AU and fic! Thank you for joining me on my rambling!
I have a reference for Bilehwit now, drawn by the most wonderfully skilled and immensely patient @ane-doodles ! She has worked with me for a good long while now to create a reference sheet for Bilehwit.
We worked together on the design, and there are hidden bits of lore, both made after seeing ideas from the artist herself and requests I put in!
If anyone wants an in depth explanation of the background for each outfit, let me know in the asks, and I'll answer!
I am so immensely grateful for her work, as @ane-doodles has worked with me through her own life and work. I would suggest that people go check out her own Lambsona and au! It's really a wonderful time.
Thank you to the Small Fools for all your music, as it's perfect to write to when everything is set in early times and you keep forgetting that SEWING MACHINES ARENT INVENTED YET-
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