Characters / Cult of the Lamb - Bishops

Cult of the Lamb Main Character Index
Cult of The One Who Waits | Old Faith (Bishops | Minibosses | Enemies) | Vendors | Others

The four ruling oligarchs of the Old Faith. They are gigantic, mysterious creatures, all with crowns on their heads and eldritch powers that inspire loyalty among the woodland creatures and wreak nightmarish havoc on non-believers.

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In General

• Bad Boss: They both sacrifice and turn their own followers into beasts in order to defeat the Lamb.
• Barrier Maiden: According to Ratau, they sustain the chains that bind the One Who Waits and keep him sealed off.
• Beat Still, My Heart: When a bishop dies, the Lamb can take their still-beating and spiky hearts. Those hearts can be used to upgrade the Red Crown.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: They all collectively serve as the leaders of the Old Faith, making them equally responsible for the genocide of the Lamb's species and everything else.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Both they and The One Who Waits wish to rule over the Lands of the Old Faith, but they are on completely opposite sides.
• Body Horror: After the Relics of the Old Faith update, their "Purged" forms while trapped in purgatory are badly decayed with huge chunks of skin missing and plenty of exposed tissue and organs. Since they're already dead at this point, they're basically zombies. Miserable, tormented zombies.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Their Telekinesis seems to render the Lamb completely immobile, yet they never attempt to kill them when they're at their mercy. Even during their boss fights they rely completely on spawning Mooks and/or physical attacks.
• Brought Down to Normal: When resurrected as Followers, they lose their powers that allowed them to compensate for the disabilities gained from their wounds; Leshy is completely blind, Heket is barely able to talk, Kallamar is deaf, and Shamura's Talkative Loon speech becomes much more pronounced. Also, unlike Narinder, they lack their immortality, though this can be fixed with the Resurrection Ritual or a few Gold Skull Necklaces.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the Bishops is distinguished by the color of their eyes and Crown.
  • Leshy: Green
  • Heket: Yellow
  • Kallamar: Blue and Light Green
  • Shamura: Purple
  • Narinder: Red
• Combat Pragmatist: With the exception of Leshy, they will target the Lamb's followers with negative ailments to make their cult fail.
• Cool Crown: They have Crowns that work just like the Red Crown the Lamb wears.
  • Leshy's crown is very similar to the Red Crown, but it has a green rhombus-shaped eye and it has angular tips instead of rounded ones.
  • Heket's crown has three tips, a more acute shape and a yellow eye shaped like an upside-down triangle.
  • Kallamar's crown is cone-shaped and has a light green, circular eye.
  • Shamura's crown has tips shaped like a pair of pincers and its eye is purple and moon-shaped.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Not the first time around, but by calming their restless, eternally suffering spirits by beating the crap out of them again, they'll turn into Followers that you can indoctrinate much like the One Who Waits does at the end of his battle.
• Dented Iron: They all retained heavy injuries while battling The One Who Waits that, judging by the bloody bandages all of them are wearing, still haven't healed.
• Disability Superpower: They're all mutilated in some distinct, unique manner Like Leshy missing his eyes and Heket having a Slashed Throat. It doesn't stop them from being the most powerful and dangerous beings in the settings.
  • Made more apparent in the "Relics of the Old Faith" update in which being reduced to significantly weakened Followers seems to nullify their ability to do this. Thus, Follower Leshy's initial reaction being to cry out how he can't see but he can still smell the Lamb nearby or Follower Heket struggling to speak making her a Terse Talker with ellipses dominating her dialogue.
• Elite Four: They are set up as the four central antagonists that you must defeat.
• Evil Counterpart: Well... Eviler. Each of the Bishops represents a rival god to the One Who Waits. They also have their own Crowns similar to yours, also empowered by their followers' devotion.
• Evil Gloating: While delving into their dungeons they'll show up periodically to taunt you. Later on they'll even start cursing your Followers.
• Family of Choice: Word of God confirms the Bishops to not be blood-relatives, but they still support each other as family.
• Forced Transformation: Every mini-boss you encounter is one of their followers that the bishops have transformed into a monster in order to destroy the Red Crown. This is turned on them once the Lamb defeats them a second time in Purgatory, although besides having to serve the Lamb they tried to kill and stop they're mostly okay with being turned into Followers.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Their pupils glow the same color as their Crowns' own eyes. Much like the Lamb, their entire eyeballs also glow when they absorb devotion from their cultists.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Lamb they sacrificed to keep The One Who Waits contained was instead empowered and returned to the world of the living by The One Who Waits, and kills them one by one.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Save for Leshy, who rules over Chaos, each of the Bishops represents the domain of a different Horseman.
  • Heket: Famine
  • Kallamar: Pestilence
  • Shamura: War
  • Death ends up being represented by Narinder AKA The One Who Waits.
• Killed Off for Real: Unlike their miniboss followers or The One Who Waits, who can be recruited at the end of the game if spared, they're dead dead after the player defeats them in their respective dungeon. Justified as killing them is the only way to break the chains binding The One Who Waits... or at least that's what he claims.
  • Somehow, this does nothing to prevent the player from re-matching their boss fight via destroying their statues in their domains and using the new mysterious portals that emerge in their place. It might have something to do with their "lingering presence" after their deaths that apparently empowers their surviving followers to be stronger on returns to their respective domains.
  • Subverted in the 'Relics of The Old Faith' update which allows the Lamb to resurrect and recruit the Bishops into their cult as followers.
• King Mook: They all have certain physical similarities to some monsters occupying each of their respective domains as well as the mini-bosses. After they go One-Winged Angel for their boss fights, they start fighting like stronger versions of them too.
• Large and in Charge: All of them are massive compared to the critters that populate the world. In turn, they become much smaller when reduced to your Followers.
• Laser-Guided Karma: As of the "Relics of the Olds Faith" update, the bishops who had punished your followers with specific ailments will suffer those very same ailments upon being converted into followers. Thus, Heket will suffer from starvation, Kallamar will suffer from illness, and Shamura will suffer from madness, joining the cult as a "dissenter". Conversely, Leshy never tried to target your followers so he joins your cult in a normal state aside from having unique dialogue.
• Monkey Morality Pose:
  • Referenced by three of their injuries - Leshy lost his eyes ("See No Evil"), Kallamar his ears ("Hear No Evil"), and Heket her throat ("Speak No Evil").
  • The lesser known fourth monkey is represented in part by both the One Who Waits and Shamura. The statue is interpreted as either "Do No Evil", which matches the chained god; or "Think No Evil", which matches the addled Shamura.
• New Era Speech: When first introduced shortly before the Lamb's first death, they celebrate their impending victory over the One Who Waits.
  Heket: Before us stands the last of its kind. All others we have hunted down and put to the blade.
  Kallamar: With this final sacrifice, the "prophecy" will be impossible to fulfill.
  Leshy: The heretic who lies bound below will be condemned to eternal captivity.
  Shamura: And the Old Faith shall be preserved.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: They believed killing the Lamb would prevent the prophecy, but instead it put them in contact with The One Who Waits.
• One-Winged Angel: The Bishops are able to turn into massive and horrifying beasts when faced in battle, through the sacrifice of their most devout worshipers.
  • Leshy grows into an immense plant beast and regains his eyes.
  • Heket turns into a demonic frog creature.
  • Kallamar sprouts four arms, each with a different weapon.
  • Shamura transforms into a vicious spider monster.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When they transform for their boss fight, the Bishops' pupils glow crimson red.
• Telekinesis: They're able to lift other beings with their mind. They do this to the Lamb when they speak to them.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Each of the Bishops was wounded when they imprisoned the One Who Waits. Even now, seemingly centuries later, the bandages over their wounds remain bloody.

Bishop Leshy

"Time to put an end to this FRIVOLOUS MASQUERADE!"

^{Click here to see his powered form.}

^{Click here to see his purged form.}

^{Click here to see his powered purged form.}

^{Spoiler Alert!}

The ruler of the Darkwoods.

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• Animal Motifs: Bagworm Caterpillars. Leshy's form and the form of all his mutated followers is that of a worm covered in various leaves and twigs, which matches the "cases" made by Bagworm caterpillars out of detritus, and throughout Darkwood one can see more classical bagworm cases hanging in the air suspended by vines, down to having sinister glowing red eyes inside much like the standard enemies. They also bear a resemblance to Leeches with their single large mouth and more aggressive behavior.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: As shown in the "Leshy's Kitchen Nightmare" animated short, Leshy is surprisingly proficient at cooking... when not distracted. He ended up burning a steak to the point of catching it on fire simply due to a butterfly that happened to fly close to him ensnaring his attention, to the dismay of the two fellow followers who otherwise were eager to eat.
• The Baby of the Bunch: He's the youngest of the four.
• Big Brother Instinct: Age-inverted. Like Heket's reaction to his death, Leshy is furious at the Lamb if they kill Heket first.
• Blindfolded Vision: Despite the fact that his veil covers his eyes and mouth (and is incredibly stained with blood), he doesn't seem bothered by it.
  • Even though his dialogue as a follower indicates that he legitimately can't see any more, he can still perform all the tasks any other follower can without difficulty just for player convenience.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: As a Follower, he has shades of this when giving his unique quest, insisting that he's not asking for a favor nor does he need charity. If you give him some Red Flowers from his domain, he starts to wistfully reminisce over his past before suddenly yelling at the Lamb to go away.
• Expressive Accessory: The "Leshy's Kitchen Nightmare" short has the triangle on his blindfold morph into various shapes depending on his emotions.
• Extra Eyes: He has four eyes, but they are only visible when he transforms.
• Eye Scream: He lost his original eyes in the battle against The One Who Waits. He grows them back in his boss fight.
• Hidden Depths: According to Narinder, Leshy is a master gardener and the flowers blooming in Darkwood are his doing. The flowers still blooming even after his death suggests that he didn’t use any sort of godly power to make them grow.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Subverted. Leshy represents Chaos, and unlike his siblings' domains, he doesn't share it with any of the Four Horsemen.
• Meaningful Name: Based on Leshii, the greater forest spirits in Eastern Slavic mythology.
• Monkey Morality Pose: Leshy had his eyes gouged out by The One Who Waits; a reference to "See No Evil".
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Underneath his veil, Leshy has three rows of sharp, bloodied teeth that lead into a giant, cavernous mouth.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He's the only follower to not have any sprites for facial expressions. Even the other Bishops get the normal eye and mouth sprites, but you just have to guess at how Leshy's feeling.
• Planimal: He rules over the Darkwood, looks like a giant leech, and his body is both covered in tree leaves and has several branches growing out of his head like "antlers."
• Smug Snake: Relatively speaking, he's the most haughty and dismissive of the Lamb and their efforts compared to the other Bishops. Then again, he's intended to be the first bishop to be taken down so it's only natural that the other Bishops recognize how threatening the Lamb is after such an accomplishment.
• Starter Villain: Leshy is the very first Bishop the Lamb slays. His area is the easiest to access, requiring only one follower to open and he is the only one of the Bishops who doesn't lay a curse on your followers, meaning you can concentrate completely on your crusade.
• This Cannot Be!: He's startled when he discovers the Lamb lives again.
  Leshy: How can this be? You were put to the blade, Lamb, as all your kind were. And yet here you stand before me, unrepentant.
• Un-Sorcerer: He's the only one of the Bishops not to put a curse on your followers, although it'd be rather unfair if you had to juggle your followers' health and the crusades from the first area.

Bishop Heket

"Make your peace creature, you will not be leaving this temple."

^{Click here to see her powered form.}

^{Click here to see her purged form.}

^{Click here to see her powered and purged form.}

^{Spoiler Alert!}

The overseer of the toxic lands of Anura.

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• Big Sister Instinct: She is furious at the Lamb after Leshy is slain and curses their followers with starvation in revenge.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In addition to her reaction to Leshy's death mentioned above, Heket is sympathetic to Shamura's condition. She attempts to keep Shamura out of the loop regarding the Lamb, and even after the Lamb's survival is brought to Shamura's attention, Heket is still insistent on Shamura not needing to bother themself with the issue and to rest instead.
  • If Leshy is still alive upon first encountering her, she despairs over how the suffering her family has endured to seal The One Who Waits will have all been in vain so long as the power of the Red Crown still persists through The Lamb.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Heket represents Famine. She curses the Lamb's cult with starvation and her followers pray to her for bountiful harvests as befitting her Meaningful Name as noted below.
• Hypocrite: Heket lambasts the Lamb for killing her brother Leshy and attacking her family, completely ignoring the fact that she and the other Bishops didn't just rob the Lamb of their own family, but their entire species through their genocide of all lambs.
• Kneel Before Zod: Orders the Lamb to do so at one point, and you can choose whether to comply or refuse. Your followers will lose faith in you if you bow, but if you refuse, Heket will punish your defiance by replacing every room in the dungeon with combat rooms.
• The Leader: Downplayed. The Bishops don't officially have a leader but with their oldest, formerly wisest member now being out of sorts mentally, Heket is the one most often shown taking charge and ordering the others around. She's even the first to speak during their New Era Speech. With how caring she is towards the others, it overlaps a bit with Team Mom.
• Meaningful Name: Heket was an Egyptian fertility goddess represented as a frog. Explains why her followers pray to her for bountiful harvests.
• Monkey Morality Pose: The One Who Waits slit Heket's throat, making her a reference to "Speak No Evil".
• Moral Myopia: It's fine for her and the other Bishops to slaughter an entire species of innocent sheep, but the Lamb retaliating by going to war against and killing them is a sacrilege and proof that they're a monster.
• Multipurpose Tongue: Unsurprising with being a frog, she can use her tongue as a ranged attack. The surprising part is that she has multiple tongues she can unleash simultaneously to cover most of the battlefield.
• The Quiet One: Implied. Her text is smaller than the other Bishops besides certain lines implying she's speaking in a less strenuous tone, which would line up with her throat being torn out. As a follower, she becomes a Terse Talker who spaces out much of her dialogue, presumably thanks to having less power and being more pained by speaking.
• Sour Supporter: Suggested by her unique dialogue as a Follower. While some of it has to do with her difficulties in communicating with her horribly injured throat, what little she's able to say suggests that she's not happy about her current servitude.
• Slashed Throat: The One Who Waits cut her throat during their battle.
• The Smurfette Principle: Heket is the only female Bishop.
• Terse Talker: As a follower, much of her dialogue is spaced out with ellipses, if not just being ellipses. She says very little as well, all thanks to her throat being ripped out.

Bishop Kallamar

"You do not understand, lamb. Heed my warning and stay away!"

^{Click here to see his powered form.}

^{Click here to see his purged form.}

^{Click here to see his powered and purged form.}

^{Spoiler Alert!}

Lord of the Anchordeep.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
  • After seeing that his plagues have deterred you about as much as Heket's famines (ie. not at all), Kallamar quickly loses his nerve and appears before you to beg that you let him live and spare him from The One Who Waits' wrath.
  • In the Relics of the Old Faith update, he's the only Bishop stuck in purgatory who will just plead with the Lamb to get him out of there instead of the confusion and hostility the other Bishops display.
    Free me! Let me out!
  • In the same update, by the time you try to rematch, he's dropped all pretenses of trying to threaten the Lamb and can merely beg for mercy before the boss fight.
• Animal Jingoism: He fears the One Who Waits the most out of the Bishops and The One Who Waits hates him back for his cowardice. He's a squid and the latter's a cat.
• Bullet Hell: His globus cruciger orb spits out dozens of fireballs which are a massive pain to avoid.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: In contrast to the other Bishops and dieties, his voice stands out by being rather high-pitched and somewhat whiny. It fits his rather cowardly and fearful personality.
• Dirty Coward: Of all the Bishops, Kallamar is the most fearful of The One Who Waits and the Red Crown's return and, as you close in on him, he tries to shift the blame for sealing away The One Who Waits onto his siblings and pleads to be spared (imploring you to take Shamura's life instead) before retreating back to his temple to hide. Both Shamura and The One Who Waits call him out on his shameless cowardice.
• Ear Ache: His ears were ripped off by The One Who Waits during their battle.
• Hidden Depths: As a Follower, The One Who Waits/Narinder, for all his disgust at Kallamar's cowardice, considers his domain to be rather beautifully built. Follower Kallamar himself seems to take a lot of pride in its beauty. The disgraced Bishop also seems to look favorably at the temples of his fellow Bishops for their "eeriness"... except for Heket's temple.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Kallamar represents Pestilence. He curses the Lamb's cult with illness and his followers pray to him for good health and long lives.
• Hypocrite: Calls Ratau and the previous Crown bearers "sniveling cowards", while he himself is a Dirty Coward.
• Monkey Morality Pose: Had his ears taken away by The One Who Waits, referencing "Hear No Evil".
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: For his "Eldritch" form, Kallamar grows out four extra arms, each wielding a different weapon: a staff to summon enemies, a giant saber and dagger to cut you down with, and a globus cruciger to channel his magical attacks.
• Never My Fault: Insists that imprisoning The One Who Waits was all Shamura's idea (although Shamura themself confesses as much later on) and that he was just going along with his siblings, nevermind that he willingly and gleefully sacrificed the Lamb for his own benefit.
• Small Name, Big Ego: As a completely helpless Follower, the tone of his dialogue when given some Crystal Shards suggests that he still seems to think he has some form of authority over the Lamb. At least, he's relatively friendly compared to the One Who Waits/Narinder.
  Ah! An offering to me? You have some sense, Lamb.
• Punny Name: Kallamar is a squid whose name is some letters off and one syllable away from being "calamari".
• Two-Faced: While the left half of Kallamar's "Purged" form is still mostly intact, the right half is almost entirely rotten and bloody.

Bishop Shamura

"He of havoc, he of blight; she of hunger, they of might. Five becomes four becomes three becomes two becomes one becomes nothing."

^{Click here to see their powered form.}

^{Click here to see their purged form.}

^{Click here to see their powered and purged form.}

^{Spoiler Alert!}

Oldest of the bishops and master of the Silk Cradle.

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• Affably Evil: Shamura is just as responsible for the genocide of the sheep and the Old Faith's iron grip on the world as the other bishops. Still they're the only one of the four to express sincere regret about having to seal The One Who Waits away and show sympathy for the Lamb at several points.
• Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: At first, inverted, but then downplayed. Upon joining the cult as a Follower, they will immediately dissent. Once calmed down, it is observed that, while of faulty memory and now one of your Followers, these two facts are not directly related as you force them to join like the other Bishops and their poor memory is a result of them losing their divinity.
• The Atoner: Implied as of the Relics of the Old Faith update. Shamura in Purgatory is willing to endure endless combat and torment at the hands of the Lamb, considering it "punishment". Though for what they don't specify.
• Body Horror: After taking enough damage during their boss fight, the bandages on their head will tear away, revealing that their crown appears to be spreading roots into their exposed brain. They later task you with collecting something they wrapped in silk and hid in the Silk Cradle, which turns out to be their skull, and they have an appropriately squicky reaction once you report it back to them.
• Create Your Own Villain: Them introducing The One Who Waits/Narinder to the idea of change was what fueled his desire to rebel against them, forcing them to seal him away.
  • This also applies to what caused the plot of the game to happen in the first place; Them sacrificing the Lamb unknowingly sent them directly to The One Who Waits, the guy they wanted to be kept sealed away, and allowed the Lamb to become a vessel that would eventually come back to kill them and free their new master. Had they just sealed the Lamb away or forced them into servitude, the prophecy they were trying to avoid could very well have gone unfulfilled.
• Dented Iron: They were far more formidable before The One Who Waits split their skull.
• Do Not Go Gentle: They know fully well that the Lamb will inevitably kill them and have made peace with that fact, but they're still going to fight 'til the end.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • They admit to loving The One Who Waits as a brother and express dissatisfaction with them needing to seal him away.
  • In the Relics of the Old Faith update, if Shamura is in the cult when Baal and Aym are resurrected, they'll reveal that they were the one who took the kittens away from their mother Forneus as a sacrifice to Narinder. Why? So the imprisoned Narinder wouldn’t be lonely.
• The Fatalist: Being able to foresee future outcomes, combined with the obvious pattern shown with their siblings and their maturity in comparison, Shamura knows rather well that their time is running out and the Lamb will kill them. They do not gloat, but rather question the Lamb and ask what they think will come after they are gone.
• Forgetful Jones: Often repeats things they already said because of their head injury. This gets worse once they become a mortal Follower, as they forget things such as their very identity and the fact that they lost their skull to Narinder.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Shamura represents War. They brainwash some of the Lamb's followers into attacking their leader. In spite of this, unlike their siblings' followers, Shamura's followers pray to them for wisdom, as Shamura also rules over Knowledge.
• Kneel Before Zod: Like Heket, Shamura orders the Lamb to bow to them. They will send enemies to fight you whatever you do, but they are at least impressed by your courage should you refuse.
• Mad Oracle: All oracle and no madness before, as they were the most intelligent of the siblings, but getting their skull torn open by The One Who Waits screwed their brain up significantly, while still leaving them enough intellect to keep their predictions up.
• Monkey Morality Pose: The One Who Waits splitting their skull is meant to represent "Think No Evil", one of the interpretations of the lesser known fourth monkey.
• Sanity Slippage: Discussed and downplayed. Shamura is well-aware of how their head injury has affected them and considers themself no longer wise but not a fool. Indeed, despite their penchant for cryptic predictions and repeating themself, they were still wise enough to know the Lamb would kill them, and that that's a better ultimate fate than the one that awaits the Lamb.
• Seers: Downplayed. Shamura doesn't so much "see the future" as they "make accurate predictions and convey them as though they were prophecies".
• Sympathy for the Hero: For a given degree of hero. Shamura admits that, even knowing they would die in the end, they would still not trade places with the Lamb. At times, Shamura's attempts to convince the Lamb to stop their crusade sounds like Shamura's doing it for the Lamb's sake rather than their own.
• Talkative Loon: Thanks to the brain damage they suffered during the Bishops' battle with the One Who Waits, almost everything they say comes out as a strangely worded prophecy vaguely related to what's going on at the time. They even repeat themself at times due to short-term memory loss.
• Token Good Teammate: Well, more like Token Mature Teammate, but while other Bishops spend their interactions gloating and insulting the Lamb, Shamura's interactions are less harsh and more questioning, for instance asking what the Lamb thinks will happen to them after The One Who Waits is freed. As a Follower, this is played straight, as Leshy and Heket continue to make their hatred of the Lamb known despite their predicament and Kallamar lords over them like a servant, while Shamura is much more civil and more preoccupied with remembering what they've forgotten.
• Villain Respect: If the Lamb refuses to bow down to them, Shamura compliments them on their mettle, remarking that they'd have expected nothing less from someone worthy of the Red Crown.
• Villainous Valour: Shamura makes no attempt to avoid conflict with the Lamb after they slayed Shamura's siblings. In an odd case, they do still know that their death is inevitable, but they still fight to avenge their fallen siblings. In purgatory, they also accept their eternal fighting as punishment for their acts, unlike the other Bishops who are either still not over their prior loss and out for revenge or, in Kallamar's case, screaming to the Lamb to save them.

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