SHILOH 'THE THIEFKILLER CURSE'

LOOK AT THIS!!!!!
i got this FANTASTIC commision from facefullabugs - @goosterbold and @facefullabugz on tumblr - and i needed it on display immediately. look at this thing!! it's so good! their work is always so full of personality and movement and im over the moon about how well they did with shiloh n jackass. I tihnk it's also very sweet that you can really tell they took time to look at the pages i sent over to work with! extremely good all 'round :]

The Curse

[taken from tumblr]
shiloh is Twitchy about being found out - if forced into a corner where it cant play dead or escape without doing anything obviously inhuman it goes 'aw fuck not again' and kills every witness - that being generally the band of thieves or other people who prey on travelers. because of shiloh's Big Fuckoff Teeth, their bites look nothing like either vampire or leech colony bites and more like those of a gigantic dog, so if/when entire gangs of bandits are discovered dead all together, completely drained of blood and covered in the bites and scratches of what looks to be a Massive canine, people start to theorize.

eventually the consensus becomes that this mystery murderer is some kind of supernatural beast that only targets highwaymen, likely summoned by a powerful mage somehow seeking revenge. as the myth grows, more and more is added to the idea of the Curse, from reasonable things like 'it kills anyone who sees it to prevent witnesses' to nonsense like 'the curse is actually the mutated vengeful ghosts of victims killed in robberies, who must drink the blood of their killers to remain tethered to the mortal realm'

jackass thinks the rumor is dangerous as the detail of large teeth may put them under suspicion, but shiloh is endlessly entertained by it and even joins discussions on the true nature of the curse. also worth noting, shiloh explains away all of its symptoms of infestation by claiming to be cursed, notably a curse that was lodged into their eye, hence the eye patch. this is possibly THE flimsiest excuse one could POSSIBLY come up with but it does, somehow, work for most. those who DO see through it are usually either already friendly with shiloh or the type not to pry. usually.

for Shiloh, being "resurrected" was probably the luckiest break they'd had yet. although it remembers quite a bit of its life before being killed - and recovers memories pretty often - it prefers to act as though its rebirth was a blank slate start. aside from being excommunicated, Shiloh was now free to pursue a life without the strings of the situation that lead to its murder. still, they tend to be a little grim, and perhaps don't think clearly when they really should be.

in the beginning as their conciousnesses were first separating, shiloh n jackass really didn't get along at all. they've grown to be very close since, but there was a long period where both blamed the other for their...situation.

the Big Red Rock shiloh wears is a traveler's tradition; they personally wear it on their prayer beads but it can be anywhere. the stones are chunks of the natural crystalline formations of a very dangerous area, and being able to make it there to take a bit back is supposed to ward off bad luck and further danger. shiloh's rock is notably Fuckin Huge given the size that usually get washed to less deadly distances. it used to live in the area itself for a while, which is how it got a chunk so big.

the sigil burnt into the inside of shiloh's eye patch is the sigil that means an individual is the equivalent of excommunicated by the faith. it shows up on its own when attempting to set foot on holy grounds or receive blessings, but otherwise doesnt appear naturally - shiloh is just guilty. (its supposed to look a little like a deer + antlers, but eh)

although they could remember a few recipes from before their death, shiloh never felt the need to cook since their leeches allowed them to eat live (or relatively fresh) prey without too many issues. effie takes great offense to this, and is the reason shiloh holds such healthy respect for soup n stew.

in the religion which Shiloh observes, the number 9 is considered sacred, which informs a very large amount of the practices surrounding it. the most common sacred symbol is a spiral of 9 points, often called the spiral of thorns, the briar fern, or occasionally the ink thistle. carrying the spiral of thorns is not required, but is encouraged as an aide to keeping one's faith in mind, as well as a physical anchor for prayer.

although for convenience (for both the inhabitants as people and me as a writer) regardless of faith most use a seasonally based calendar similar the gregorian calendar, the followers of shiloh's faith have minor holy days each 9 days, independently from it. since they do not fall on any set date, those who travel often or live in rural places keep track of the days using threads of 9 beads, with a knot that can be loosened to slip beads individually from one side of the string to the other each morning, until all are together on a holy day. said days run in a cycle of 3 - the first is celebration (analogous to the 9th of the month in our calendar), the second suffering/atonement (the 18th), and the third is mourning/preparation (the 27th).

this third day is a day of remembrance wherein the dead are honored and graves visited, frequently the recently passed are given ceremonies of farewell if it is unfeasible that a funeral/wake be held directly. for the living, it is a time to reflect on the past 26 days, and prepare for the next. the day of mourning is often used by adherents to tidy living and ritual spaces, seen as a sort of 'washing clean' before the next cycle begins. it is traditional to use bare hands and water to quench the ashes of the hearth fire (or campfire, as the case may be) to symbolize the acceptance of past actions, and then clean one's ashen hands in running water, to move on from those actions and become better. specialized prayers are spoken at night or early morning, generally just before falling asleep.

food plays a very important part in many holidays and prayers, even minor ones. although it is rare outside of large churches (and therefore prohibitively hard to find and expensive) ritual blessed ink is ingested by followers, either daily, on holy days, or in church services, as available. in Shiloh's hometown, it was a local tradition to eat a different style of food each holy day, with meat skewers on the third day. it is a tradition that Shiloh still follows, as is common to many travelers - the great wilds are heavily influenced by tradition and superstition.

Shiloh is very careful to observe the day of mourning with as much diligence as possible, forsaking unnecessary travel for the sake of prayer, cooking, and (if needed) laundry, mending, and weapon maintenance.

Wondering about how leech colonies work? unfortunately the explanation i have is too big of an image for my website setup, but you can find it, along with supplementary notes, on my tumblr here!