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The Lambs - A History of Conquest and Violence

Consider this a prequel to another essay I'm brewing up.

Aniel, the Scholar Disciple, and one of the "Main Six" of the ten. She owns and maintains their museum, which she says contains all of lambkind's history and culture. She's very devastated to have lost it, naturally. Based on her gravestone, she really values being remembered. (At the very least, it's the opinion Baraq has of her; he made the graves)

There's a few knick-knacks on the shelves against the wall, but it's clear the most important part of this museum is the Flockade board front and center. They honor their history and their ancestors through this game of parry, slash, (paper).

Flockade, in hindsight, is a pretty blatant sign that the lambs are a militarized society. Likely pulling from Sparta for inspiration. The centerpiece of their history is a battle-strategy game with pieces that only ever reference war or battle of some kind. Their "normal" soldiers are referred to as meat shields. That is not a kind term, to say the least.

The only exception to this being the Shepherds, the pieces that literally can't fight and will lose to everything but another Shepherd. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

Aniel herself is a strategist. This is implied in her final chronicles about herself, where she blames herself for being unable to save more of their people in the Burning of Woolhaven. And then again by her own Flockade piece, the Fallen Scribe. If she were a fighter, she wouldn't have been hiding in the first place, tbh.

The swords are their warriors, the shields are their support, and the scribes are their generals. The Shepherds are their fucking cheat codes.

Flockade paints a very clear picture of a history of conquest and war.

Ewefall. Last Hoof. The Grasslands. These are the given locations where conflict happened. If Ewefall is the place they've claimed as "theirs", what business did they have in these other places? Just something to consider.

How they've chosen to honor their history speaks volumes, but what's been recorded makes it very clear that not all of these were battles fought in self-defense. I would argue most of them weren't. Not if they were eagerly documenting what they "won" from the conflict. People who were forced to fight by a power pressuring them wouldn't glorify war. Reduce it to a collectible game.

That's all war is to them. A game.

If you think that's not a fair observation, consider: there's no mention of the lamb slaughter anywhere. No mention of their last stand before Woolhaven was burned down. And yet... there's a Rotted Shepherd piece. No one from the culling was worth documenting? Not even just the fact that it happened?

The lambs we're dealing with seem to have been a group that went by the name of "Ramhorn". Or maybe that's the name of their actual place of origin. They were clearly ruthless based on their usage of an iron maiden. There's literally no good excuse for them to have that. It's for forcing compliance using pain and fear.

Their most prominent piece of history is their battle against Tooth and Claw, what can only be a two-headed beast. Harriath was injured by Tooth and Claw separately, but Angoel was swallowed down into one, shared belly. Multiple lambs are listed as being apart of this fight.

You can sort of piece together that the lambs in this conflict were at a disadvantage. Maybe they'd already lost once, or maybe just the idea of fighting a literal monster was a little intimidating. But the lambs ultimately won that conflict; Lornileth is honored for dealing the killing blow.

I went ahead and put all these on the cotl wiki if you're interested, but here are some highlights:

-Jorpiel, the Fallen Sword, honored for killing themselves rather than surrendering. -Kelson, the Fallen Shield, honored for dying in battle despite managing to snag the W. -The entire category dedicated to people who were won as "prizes".

And my favorite: Usiu, the Just Sword, honored for winning the Ewefall skirmish :3

The use of "skirmish" here is so very important. A skirmish is a smaller, unplanned fight that's apart of a greater conflict. Which means that before the big Culling, they were already having ongoing problems with someone else in the area.

In my post about what seem to be the former Bishops of these realms, I pointed out that Ewefall is riddled with signs of battle. It looks like the Bishop who was there was either forced out, or failed to take it over in the first place.

And yet, there's little sign of the lambs having a presence in Ewefall. Yngya? Yes. But the lambs? No. Just because she's the Lamb God now, doesn't mean she always was. There's been like three other Gods of Death besides Lamb.

Woolhaven has a very clear aesthetic to it. There are crooks with bells hung off of them as decorations. Their monuments have the asterisk and the spiral carved into them. Their statues depict bells more than their idol. Dark wood, stone paths, and an odd green hue to their things... even the water in the fountain.

There are these rooms, but they're not totally apart of the "natural" ecosystem. The entrance and exit rooms are ours. This applies to the Bishop's realms too.

The only hint there were ever lambs here are the spirals on the Faithless Statues (which incriminates the lambs a bit), the Fallen Temple, and the wool rooms. But this isn't woolhaven.

Woolhaven was burned, for one. These buildings aren't. For two, peep the eye symbol on the building. That's the Red Crown's symbol. Lamb's symbol. The same one on our temple door. This (clearly failed) colony belongs to Death, more than anyone.

This may be the place of origin for some Lambs... but not all of them. Not these ones. The Woolhaven lambs either conquered, eradicated, or displaced another group to be where they are now. With that, it's time to talk about Yewbark.

The Cursed Yewbark. A pale, cursed tree that grows deep within the Rot according to Baraq. But that's actually impossible.

"Once grew tall, 'til sunlight withdrew."

Yewbark needs sunlight to grow. We're reminded multiple times about the complete absence of sunlight inside Rot. This means that Yewbark doesn't originate from the Rot, despite it's fleshy appearance. Yewbark, and the cursed spirit within it, came from the surface. We can even see similar, pale trees in Ewefall, just without all the flesh(the curse, presumably).

This would back the idea of not just Woolhaven, but Yngya also displacing the community(s) that was here before them. As the need for sunlight would mean these trees would suffer in the Winter.

Pure Yewbark: "The promise of summer sleeps within."

The seasonal cycle in the Woolhaven DLC swaps only between Summer and Winter. Yngya brings about Winter, but nothing is said about her bringing Summer. (In fact, the only other season she mentions is spring.) It had to have been a different deity. One that is no longer present in this area based on the eternal snow.

Yngya's memories of flowers, combined with the "misc" decorations that are all flowery and Summer themed also supports that Ewefall isn't supposed to be snowy all the time. If ever.

The rot is a manifestation of the lamb's suffering. But who's suffering is manifesting within the yew trees? :eyesemoji:

Final thoughts:

-girl lamb (Ewefall) and boy lamb (Ramhorn) were most certainly at odds with each other. Shot in the dark, it's something like Eve's ancestors vs. Adam's ancestors. Fire vs. Ice.

-The Woolhaven lambs were nomadic warmongers lol but also potentially responsible for the suffering of their own kind. Lamb on lamb violence. I wonder what made them settle down with Yngya.

-Twins.

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