Their Relationship

Is this anything

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He of Havoc

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

New to posting on Tumblr BUT I fought the social anxiety demons long enough to allow me to actually click the post button. Enjoy this doodle of my Kallamar as a first actual post!

It's hard to get a grasp on Heket's personality and character voice, largely because she cannot use it. But when she can, what we gather at first glance is...

She's so obnoxiously self centered it is honestly hilarious. If you open Anura before defeating Leshy, she will say this line.

"The Bishops… my family. Have they not suffered enough? Have I not suffered enough? We fought, pathetic vessel. We bled. We grieved. And yet the Red Crown wants more. No more."

Like, genuinely, I can not imagine unironically saying this. Complaining about your struggles, your family suffering... to the last lamb left in the land?!?! You sacrificed them! Girl, time, place, and proper audience, please. Oh, and she can't help but insult you during her pity party. Absolutely top-notch. No notes.

But yes I do have notes. The fact that she's saying this to the lamb implies something more than just simple irony.

She feels she has no-one else she can share this with.

When Leshy has died and after you have your first encounter with Heket in her domain, Shamura comes this sequence of dialogue happens:

Heket: "Shamura! We did not wish to bother you, but-" Kallamar: "Shamura, the Red Crown grows stronger by the day. Already it has succeeded where he has failed before. Leshy has been slain!" Shamura: "Five becomes four becomes three becomes two becomes one becomes nothing." Heket: "...Shamura, rest. We will deal with this. Won't we, Kallamar?"

She is apologetic, a bit surprised, but clearly ready to seek advice before being interrupted.

Perhaps Kallamar thought she was going to be too slow to say it, but in any case, Shamura is in no state to deal with it.

Heket's reaction is not to show her frustration in front of Shamura, but can't help letting a little of it creep in towards Kallamar demanding he agree instead of taking it as a given.

She then turns her anger towards you, an acceptable target.

You there, vessel of the Red Crown! Bow to me, or you will regret it!" [Refuse] Heket: "You will bow, or I will make you!" [Bow] Heket: "Ha! Cowardly vermin. You disgust me."

She demands you bow. Leshy and Kallamar never do the same, so this is something she's doing mainly to copy Shamura and how they behave. She isn't happy no matter what you pick, but instead of inflicting more famine upon you, she changes all the rooms to combat rooms, something closer in line with Shamura's element than her own.

Heket is more or less trapped in the position of needing to be the pillar of support for her siblings. She cannot express her doubts or fears, as when she is less sure of herself, Kallamar cuts her off. Shamura is not in their proper mind. And Leshy...

"We are far older and more powerful than dear brother Leshy was."

Leshy is her baby brother.

And you can tell Heket is the main pillar for the bishops because if you kill her no two bishops are ever seen in the same room again.

Thus, before she has a true reason to hate you, the lamb is the only person she feels safe enough to talk to.

She needs to be strong for her siblings and followers, but you? You're already a heretic. It doesn't matter what she tells you. Her followers know not to listen to heretics. It's safe.

And thus, how you get the line about her family having suffered enough.

In fact, this one moment is the only time outside of threatening you that she uses "I" terms instead of "We".

"Before us stands the last of its kind. All others we have hunted down and put to the blade."

"We need not bother Shamura with this. Deal with it, brother"

[..]"You have felled the youngest of us. We are the Bishops of the Old Faith. We protect against heresies such as yours. We are the guardians of the true word, and we will not tolerate such blasphemy."

"[..]we cast out the Red Crown."

"The one you serve, that monster we have put in chains, will not be satisfied until you have killed all four of us."

Vs

"I will not suffer the same fate as Leshy... Find me in my temple. You will join your kin in slaughter!"

"Finally. I have been looking forward to this. Make your peace, creature. You will not be leaving this temple."

"If you insist I suffer, so shall you."

So at the very least she recognises why you might be trying to kill her, since she mentions your kin.

But it's obvious Heket hasn't really had time to be herself and that her duties, aside from gratuitous violence, don't really allow her to express herself. That makes finding her character so much harder, since until the update all we had was that one melancholic line to define her by.

Before we go on to her quest line, we do have one more bit of dialogue to go over.

"It was not so long ago that we cast out the Red Crown. A mere thousand or so years. The heresy it preached could not be tolerated.

Such noxious ideals... it could not be allowed."

That pause after noxious ideals, that is Heket burying her emotions. She does it once before when she realises Shamura can't help her.

So why the pause here? Does she think that the ideals honestly weren't worth the sacrifice, could have been worked with? That everything was for nothing and now she has to live with it? Or does she truly feel such deep rage and disgust she has to force herself to calm down.

Perhaps she simply misses her brother in that moment, and hates that this is what had to be done.

Again, she redirects her anger onto you, but this time as herself.

For this most damning of sins, the retribution must be slow and painful. I cast a famine upon your Cult!

--

Onto her post relic quest, Heket still has difficulty speaking, but what she does say shows us some of her character growth.

"...we were happy... once. Surprised, Lamb? Monsters like us..."

Instead of referring to Narinder alone as a monster ("The one you serve, that monster we have put in chains,") She can now see how the bishops looked to you and everyone not in the old faith.

You might see our misery as justice... fool. There is no justice in this world. No matter how... how loudly you demand... urge... beg..."

"...Let us leave... Anura... is no longer mine."

This is also not about you. She's not thinking of you when she says this.

You have just made the choice to free her from suffering. You had the choice to not give her throat back, and yet you did.

If you don't

... my punishment... continues. Wounds to externally... fester.

"Fate is for God's to dictate... I would have done the same."

She admits that she wouldn't have shown you the same mercy. But now that she's mortal, she can't see things the same way anymore. She's had time to live outside her doctrine and power. Consider a different perspective. She knows she's been unfair.

She's speaking of herself and her rule.

"No matter how... how(..)"

This is the first time she's ever doubled up her words. The concept of justice is very important to her as the previous arbiter of it. And now she's empathising with the mortals who were under her care. Under her sibling's care.

She's never had to reckon with the idea that her choice to follow the old faith doctrine was wrong. Or with the idea that she herself is no longer a god and that basic rights to her own body can be denied to her. (Assuming you've been a gentle cult leader, as the return of the relic implies.) The kindness she overlooked is becoming very clear to her, and she can't help faltering.

She's still too prideful and self absorbed to thank you, or give any indication she understands this, as she's still processing it as she's talking. But this mid sentence realisation makes her... embarrassed? Ashamed? Regretful? At the very least, a lot more conflicted than when you first gave it back.

To only visit where I once ruled... to only borrow powers I once commanded." [...] "There is no justice in this world."

Vs

"...Let us leave... Anura... is no longer mine."

She speaks haltingly when emotional, and while you can say she's just having difficulty speaking for so long, two things can be true.

And the truth is Heket is a very melancholic character under all the hotheaded violence and power. This is perhaps because she's based so much of herself upon it that without it she's lost.

-

She's usually the most grandiose speaker, discounting Shamura's poetic leanings. So it's probably from her and not Shamura that Leshy has been copying all his ambitious words and turns of phrase from. Yet, when she speaks of things outside the old faith and its teachings, her dogmatic and not-quite use of the Royal "We" disappears into much more casual speech.

And in spite of only speaking about herself in terms of her relationship to her family, she still feels like she can't connect or open up to them.

Technically in your cult if you spy on her thoughts she IS getting better at using I statements and expressing her personal desires, alcohol, food, missing anura, etc.

So here's hoping for more of the frog in the future so I can understand what her deal is.

What if we break the streak of hsr fanfics and drop a Slay the Princess one for once?

been having this guy in my documents for a while~ so i'm dropping it now it does have spoilers for the game(+ pristine cut) so be warned!

enjoy this angsty 2nd pov mess

Leshy is a chaotic problem child that messes with his siblings and no you cannot change my mind on that

(Except for Shamura cuz he knows he’ll get caught and scolded by them)

Narinder hates whenever he’s pranked, but would jump at the chance of helping Leshy prank anyone else