I saw this linked on your Neocities website, and the title and cover art immediately intrigued me. As promised in my email, as soon as I was done with webring applications for the day, I hopped over here! I ended up absolutely loving it!! The art is amazing, and I really loved the story of the game.
I liked that Agneau liked the people, more than the cult itself. That's a huge reason why a lot of people stay in cults and abusive religious situations; the community, less so than the beliefs. They love the people there, but they feel that the people don't love them back. That they love their title.
At first, I thought the mention of The Starful Hound "eating their gender" was going to be a silly throwaway jokey line, but it came back in the end, confirming it as a serious plotpoint. I love this idea for a nonbinary character, and that it seems to be quite literal, so to speak. This was before Agneau even knew of the cult. They just knew that one day, they encountered something grand, and woke up, no gender to be felt at all, where there once was. It was mentioned that they joined the cult because they were "kicked out of home". Was their sudden lack of gender why, I wonder? Trying to express this new feeling to others in their family making them face a transphobic disowning? Or perhaps I'm just thinking too hard about it, haha. But it feels like this is the order of events. The Starful Hound loved them and them alone, so she took their gender away. Transgenderism as a sign of being loved by the gods... What a wonderful thought.
Agneau wasn't sure that they were loved by their current family. It's not known if the cult was malicious towards its people in any way, or just ignorant, but the cult sure wasn't directing Agneau with instructions on how to survive the ordeal safely. But even if the churchgoers don't love them, the Starful Hound loves them. Their species doesn't matter to her; she loves them. This idea of unconditional love from a God, even (and especially) when they rebel against the church's ideas of what the "proper" way to worship is, also feels very LGBT. But I dedicate a way-too-large amount of my brainspace to media analysis for LGBT+ themes, so, again, I'm probably biased!
Anywhosies! These were my thoughts when I was playing this game. Needless to say, I found the game extremely fascinating, and quite resonant with my own experiences.
I have just one question, if I may ask. We know that "Agneau" is a title, given to many before it was bestowed onto the main character. Does the main character have a "real" name? I'm curious!
Thank you for putting this game together!