alright woolhaven au thoughts let's go
so this doesn't follow from any of my fic aus, just in the sort of 'default' lore i've got that every OTHER au builds off of by either building directly from the base timeline or by adapting the character lore to a different au (you can read lore stuff here [Esriaal] [Narinder] [Sheep] if you're interested)
also of note: this is AU stuff, not a theory or analysis (believe you me I have ANALYSES of this game and those are very separate, my poor friends can attest to that lmao)
alright so. woolhaven, yeah?
what happened during woolhaven
real quick, the highlights are: all the canon things happened, including sidequests (i did NOT suffer through the entirety of flockade for them to have not 100%'d this too)
So Yngya is fought and freed, Marchosias is told to fuck off and killed as is their right, Woolhaven is restored as a memorial to the Lambs of Ewefall (we'll get into the difference in a hot minute). etc etc
other events of note:
Narinder accompanied them in his demon form on every run through Ewefall and the Rot, both because he gave them hella hearts and because of the next part
which was the first winter, faith hit such a low that narinder and esriaal, already cautiously friends/allies after a number of peaceful years post-usurpation, decided to do something drastic
so they got married for the faith bump, and have been 'pretending' to be married for the last 40 years - they've never been actually involved, setting aside the fact that they've lived together and run the cult together ever since and absolutely definitely DO want to be involved but aren't willing to risk it if things fall apart
okay with that out of the way
background of the sheep
so the first important thing to establish is the difference between Yngya's sheep and the sheep Esriaal was a part of
basically, way back when, during the purges of the other gods, Yngya fled the purges with the sheep who worshipped her - but not all sheep did that, and of the ones who did, not all of them were willing to abandon their homes.
So Yngya's sheep settled in Woolhaven, almost entirely secluded even from other sheep, and since at the time the issue was Yngya and her cult, the other sheep were spared. Bishops weren't (at the time) inclined to slaughter the sheep when they were still an excellent source of cultists, especially with Yngya presumed dead and her cult 'dealt with'
Over time, the sheep outside of Woolhaven/Ewefall came to think of Yngya's worshippers as not being part of a god's cult at all, just a particularly reclusive part of the mountain herds (explained in the 8 herds post)
And being secluded from the other sheep except for rare interactions, the two populations developed their own cultures to some degree, and with that comes different stories and traditions
as explained in the leadersheep post and briefly summarised here, the version known by the sheep in the LotOF went:
Long ago, there was a mad Shepherd who believed he could lead the sheep to paradise, but it would require the deaths of many sheep to do so. He believed that he could simply steal the souls back from the One Who Waits, so the deaths didn't matter. The first Esriaal, a young ewe with black wool (our Esriaal's namesake), disagreed about that, and through an intense effort of arguments and debates managed to convince the flocks that 'stealing the souls of the dead back from a bishop' was in fact a stupid fuckin idea. When she was about to win the argument, the Mad Shepherd broke the symbol of his rule, the Crook, and injured himself so that she couldn't be chosen as the Shepherd in his place. Worried for him, she chose to abandon her arguments to try and help him, which he rejected. The herds sided with her anyway despite losing according to the rules, the Mad Shepherd chose exile over submitting to her rule, and to ensure no one Shepherd could ever doom the herd as a whole, they split into eight herds of equal standing - two each to Anchordeep, Darkwood, Anura, and Silk Cradle.
meanwhile, though distorted over time, the sheep of Ewefall's version of the story went:
Yngya, seeing the Bishops taking down gods, tried to guide her flocks to safety - but when she made the plan known, expecting that everyone would follow her wisdom and seek safety, a ewe named Esriaal objected. She was a black ewe, her face pale and eyes dark, and she argued that the Bishop of Death couldn't be evaded so easily - and that it was safer to abandon Yngya and remain behind. Clearly under the influence of the One Who Waits, the first Esriaal went to the many flocks and one by one turned them away from Yngya, and when the time came she snapped the Crook in front of Yngya to show Her that she was no longer welcome to rule the sheep. Yngya declared her La Ruĝa Neanto (the Red Denier) and all of the faithless sheep as la neantoj, then fled to Ewefall with the Lambs (also known as la kredantoj, or the believers).
what actually happened was a little bit between, which was the first Esriaal having nothing to do with the One Who Waits directly but very much of the opinion that trying to take ALL of the sheep to Ewefall would be stupid, actually, and just get everyone killed. She was a minor disciple of Yngya, who feels the first Esriaal betrayed her when the young black ewe began to argue against Yngya's plan and suggested that some sheep stay so as to make the disappearance less noticeable - again, important to mention that it was just the ones worshipping Yngya at the time who were being targeted
so the first Esriaal felt it was. a bit overkill, and went behind Yngya's back to talk to the flocks and try to save as many people as she could
the Crook was snapped by Yngya before departing, but she took the top half with her, leaving the lower half with Esriaal, who buried it instead of using it to rule (hence why the first Esriaal was the first leadersheep, the kind of sheep devoted to supporting and guiding the sheep by supporting the Shepherds of each herd)
okay background dealt with
pre-Yngya's freedom/during Woolhaven's story
so i can imagine you can tell why things are complicated lmao
Esriaal doesn't actually tell anyone other than Narinder what their name is once they remember, not until the end of Woolhaven, after Yngya's freed
Even before that, things were... complicated
Esriaal put the pieces together way before Yngya finds out their namesake, obviously (especially since the ghosts of the Lambs, who didn't fully pick up that Esriaal isn't one of them, have been perfectly happy to talk all about how the neantoj and the kredantoj are different and the kredantoj are obviously better)
(they're especially guilty as Sariel tries to teach them about 'their traditions', thinking they just never had a chance to learn, and Esriaal doesn't have the heart to tell him that they have a whole other peoples' memory to carry)
So Esriaal's also heartbroken because they thought there was a chance to get their ghosts back, but it's all the Lambs of Ewefall, since those believed in Yngya and remain connected to the mountain through that faith
In other words: they're all sheep, but Esriaal isn't from the Lambs/Kredantoj - they're from the outside, the Neantoj, bearing the name of the Lambs' greatest villain and wearing the Red Crown that they would all believe the first Esriaal betrayed them for
I made a joke in an old post that it was like some rando named Mary being compared to the Virgin Mary, and it would've been for Esriaal's culture
The closest I can compare this to for the Lambs is someone named Lilith holding the devil's pitchfork rocking up
Naturally they keep their name secret lmao
Completely separate from that is Esriaal's pride, and they don't realise that Yngya's currently being driven mad from pain for a while - so as far as they're concerned, a literal god-killer wearing their own crown has shown up, and Yngya's still talking to them like they're her servant, just because she was the goddess of the sheep (and not even the sheep Esriaal's from)
They worked HARD for this crown god damn it, they're PROUD of the Death they've become, that's worthy of recognition - they had their own mother, who was killed with all of the other sheep, and they don't much appreciate this goddess thinking she gets to just take over as their god or their mother figure
Meanwhile, for Yngya's part, she doesn't realise this isn't one of her Lambs at all - and won't realise that until afterwards
She just believes this is one of her Lambs returned from freeing Narinder, having succeeded at last, but given she's spiralling into madness that doesn't always mean a good thing to her, particularly as the Rot takes hold more and more
aaaaaaaaand then Esriaal and Yngya have that final showdown, and Yngya in her madness (and not realising this person is literally named Esriaal) accuses them of being Esriaal again, trying to betray her Lambs, a pawn of Death and killer of their people, false prophet and wasting every death before them, etc etc
The last battle is. sure a thing
Narinder, present as a demon the way he has been for every crusade in Ewefall and the Rot (because of course Esriaal took him along), who barely remembers the first Esriaal outside of 'alright one sheep had common sense, I'll make sure the other Bishops don't know who she was because she did me a solid': ah. hm. this is going to do a number on my spouse
and then Yngya is freed, and things get easier but also much worse
post-woolhaven and yngya's freedom
So now everyone's in an uncomfy position, but Esriaal's not going to leave her there, so back home they go
she slowly gains her memories back as Woolhaven is restored, and at the end of it tells Esriaal everything
only for Esriaal to admit awkwardly that their name is, in fact, Esriaal, and that they have no idea what happened to that lamb Aniel sent off but it's sure as shit not them (they're more or less a miniature version of their mother with their father's horns and figure)
(i know what happened to that lamb but it's not particularly special, they were just adopted and died with the other sheep)
so now Esriaal and Yngya are in a deeply disquieting position, both of them feeling threatened by the other one in their own ways
For Yngya, this is more or less the spiritual successor of her greatest traitor, who doesn't know what to do with her and can't pass on anything but their own traditions, and what thin connection she'd thought they had has been completely severed. They're young and strong, confident and good at caring for their cult, so winsome that they literally have the god they usurped as their husband, and they're the last god, period. She feels like she doesn't even have a place as the last of the Lambs, and without a 'successor' to dote on (and, admittedly, mould in her own image), she feels lost in the world. She could arguably have lambs of her own, but she feels like they'd just be competing with Esriaal's future lambs (or worse, believe in Esriaal as their god, something her own pride recoils at the thought of)
To say nothing of her awkward interactions with Narinder and her open, unapologetic hostility to the other bishops (which like. 100% understandable, one of them wanted HER dead at one point but the other four succeeded at killing her LAMBS, she's willing to forgive Narinder but the bishops can die horrific deaths and she would smile)
(she doesn't DO anything because Esriaal's asked her not to, but in the one unifying moment they've had, Esriaal has promised that if any of them break the law bad enough to be executed, they'll let Yngya deliver the killing blow)
For Esriaal, they feel like an imposter, a poor substitute for the goddess Yngya was, and resentful of Ewefall's preservation considering the loss of almost everything of the 8 Herds. After Yngya's speech about Narinder and freeing him, equating him with freeing the Lambs, Esriaal also has some suspicions about the connection she shares with Narinder in the past (they're lucky Narinder finds their jealousy attractive). She strikes them as more mature and more at peace, more 'classically' pretty than them, more willing to be caring and nurturing - more representative of the peace that the sheep used to be known for. They know they aren't a Lamb, but they don't even know if their own people would recognise who they've become or take pride in them, and the one sheep that remains sure as shit never will. They simultaneously want her approval and fear what that means
The two of them will EVENTUALLY reconcile and talk things out - talking things out and coming to a consensus is sort of the Sheep thing to do, no matter how long it takes and how many times they butt heads (particularly as they offer her a skull necklace which she accepts)
but until then, it's fair to say Things Are Complicated™
