The Witch and Sister / The Sister and Witch

The Twins are the pair of Hours - the Sister-and-Witch and the Witch-and-Sister - who formed from the union of two mortals. Born in two wombs, one was a princess, the other a monster. The two loved each other and sought union, but in the flight from their homeland they drowned at sea, where they found the Painted River and ascended into the Mansus under the Red Grail. Eventually, they became strong enough on their own that the Grail grew jealous of their power. The two are so closely united that distinctions between these Hours is often difficult, and at times impossible. The Witch-and-Sister, who is stronger in Grail, is the hungrier of the two faces, while the Sister-and-Witch, who is stronger in Heart, is a healer and ensures survival. The Twins are often associated with the sea, the moon, and crossroads; the Witch-and-Sister also has some connection to the Wood, though she may not be a true Wood Hour herself, while the Sister-and-Witch can be found higher up in the Concursum of the Mansus.[3][4][5] Their aspects are mirrored, with the Witch bearing Grail, Moth, Heart and the Sister Heart, Moth, Grail.[6] The Witch's hour is 6 a.m. and the Sister's is 6 p.m.

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Events

The Drowning of the Twins: When a great drought came to the West, the princess and the witch who loved one another were to be sacrificed by the kings of the land. They fled across the sea, but in despair drowned themselves, came upon the Painted River, and ascended through the Red Grail, eventually becoming Hours in their own right.[3]

The Timurid Invasion: The Witch-and-Sister was one of the powers of the Wood which the Great Hooded Princes went to for aid in repelling a Timurid army. While they initially refused, the Princes used secrets from the Velvet to blackmail them, and so a quarter of the Timurid forces drowned themselves.[7]

The Roost: The Twins are among the aviform Hours that gather to share rumours and gossip at a secret location called the Roost, taking the form of twin kites or funeral birds. The Roost is relocated whenever someone overhears their conversations, but was originally located in Miah, and later hidden in the mountains north of Gordion. [8][9][10][11]

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Servants

• Ahad: A murderer child who is said to be a Name of the Moon (the Witch), whose bones still lie in Kerisham. He is the son of Old Mother Anguish a Name of the Mother of Ants, and the twin brother of Daha, a Name of the Sister.[12]
• Daha: A child who is said to be a Name of the Sister. She is the daughter of Old Mother Anguish, a Name of the Mother of Ants, and the twin sister of Ahad, a Name of the Moon.[13]

Relationships

• The Red Grail: The Hour the Twins originally ascended under, which eventually grew jealous of their power and created the Thunderskin to oppose them.[4] The Thunderskin: The Thunderskin was another Hour which ascended under the Red Grail, and was created in part to challenge the Twins in the aspect of Heart and give the Red Grail some dominion there.[4]
• The Velvet: “The Geminiad” associates the Witch-and-Sister with the Hours of the Wood, but makes special mention of a relationship with the Velvet who is known to possess some secret of the Twins which the Great Hooded Princes used to as blackmail material[7]
• The Mother of Ants: “The Mother pierces, the Witch demands, the Sister dissolves”. There are many accounts of the Mother of Ants and the Twins coming into conflict, and having some connection.[14][15][16]
• The Horned-Axe: The Twins and the Horned-Axe also appear to war, likely because the Horned Axe prefers things to be separated, while the Twins seek union.[17]
• The Meniscate: While the exact connection between these Hours is unclear, both heavily associated with the moon, and in a Discord AMA AK did suggest that there was a relationship between them. [18]
• The Elegiast, the Beachcomber and the Vagabond: The aviform Hours who meet in the Roost with the Twins.[8][9][10][11]

Other Notes

• Interpreting the Hours’ positions in the Tarot as actual hours in the day, one can see that the Witch-and-Sister and the Sister-and-Witch take the positions of 6am (06:00) and 6pm (18:00) respectively.
• Throughout Cultist Simulator, various Hours are spoken of with language connecting them to the Witch and/or to the Sister in some way. The Mare-in-the-Tree is sometimes called the Witch’s Sister, for instance. Similar associations exist for the Applebright and in the House of the Moon presided over by the Meniscate.[24][25][26]
• The Twins are heavily associated with the language Fucine, often called “the tongue of witches”, which originates near the dried Fucine Lake in Italy, where the Twins are honored. The Marruvine Idol is an idol used to appease the “witch-twins” that dwell in the lake.[27][28][29]
• The Rite of the Sea’s Feasting calls upon the Witch-and-Sister, with an offering hurled into water, preferably the sea.[30]
• In an earlier version of Cultist Simulator, there was a Rite called the Rite of the Sea’s Marriage, dedicated to the Sister-and-Witch where an assistant offers themselves as a spouse to the unknown/the sea. It was later replaced with the Rite of the Crow’s Quenching.
• The long-haired twin is six-fingered on both of their tarot images. That gives credence to the assumption that the long-haired one is the Witch (being "the monster"), while the other one is the Sister.
• It also should be noted that six-fingered hand also appears on the Malachite tarot image.
• The Twins play a role in the different paths of the Change ascension, when the player’s Sending in the form of a serpent travels to Kerisham to learn from the war between the Twins and the Mother of Ants. Ahad, a Name of the Witch-and-Sister, is referred to in the Moth path, while Daha, a Name of the Sister-and-Witch, is referred to in the Heart path . [14]
• In addition to the direct confirmation by AK, their aspects are confirmed by the Geminiad - dedicated to both of them - giving Grail, Heart, Moth lore. Each of Heart, Grail and Moth are also confirmed for both the Sister and the Witch separately: Geminate Invocation, the Concursum (influencemothe), Veneration: Grail for the Sister; 'Those Who Do Not Sleep', Veneration: Moth, Rose-Pearl Dust for the Witch.
• However, in-game mentions are often confusing and semi-contradict each other. The Witch stated to be more powerful in Grail, and yet the Sister is called upon in the expeditions by the Grail followers (and Grail Veneration mentioning her too, instead of the Witch). Similarly, the Sister is associated with Heart and protection, and yet Rose-Pearl Dust mentions the Witch-and-Sister specifically.

Real World References

• The Witch-and-Sister takes the place of the Lovers in the Tarot of the Hours. The Lovers can represent love, relationships, and choices, and its presence often implies a temptation of the heart or a decision to be made regarding romance. The card is also associated with Gemini, the star sign of the twins from which The Geminiad takes its name.
• The Sister-and-Witch takes the place of the Moon in the Tarot of the Hours. The moon can represent deception, dreams, and illusions. It suggests that not everything is as it seems, and the need to trust one’s instincts and not be overcome by fear and insecurity.
• The Moon Tarot number corresponds to Hebrew letter Qoph/Kopf (nineteenth letter), which is often associated with the sewing needle, a prominent motive in the Sister's depiction.[19]
• Kerisham, the Names Ahad and Daha, and the Twins’ origin in the West might all reference the Legend of Ys, a mythical city in Brittany swallowed by the ocean. In one version of the legend, the princess Dahut (sometimes presented as a sorcerer), also called Ahes, loved the sea, and so her father built Ys on land reclaimed from the sea. To let her lover inside one night, Dahut mistakenly opened the gates of the city dikes, causing the city to be flooded. King Gradlon tries to flee with his daughter, but is told by a voice to sacrifice her to the sea to save himself. Some versions say that Dahut survived as a morgen (a water spirit) or mermaid haunting the sea. Kerisham is even acknowledged in-game to have once been Caer Ys.[20][21]
• The Witch-Kissed Oil ties the Twins to Hecate, a greek goddess of crossroads, magic, and boundaries, often presented in a triple-form sometimes with three separate bodies, and other times as having one body and three faces.[22]
• The Twins are among a number of Hours associated with Janus, the two-faced god of doors, beginnings, and endings who is referenced several times throughout Cultist Simulator. Teresa Galmier ties them to Janus through his status as a “twin-god”, and like him the Twins have two heads/faces.[23]

Theories and Questions

• One theory suggests that the difference between the two faces of the Twins is not which one is stronger or dominant, but rather what role each of them takes, so that one of the two serves as the Witch in the Witch-and-Sister while acting as the Sister in the Sister-and-Witch. This may also explain why other Hours are referred to as the Witch and/or Sister at times, in that they are fulfilling a role or function usually taken by one part of the Twins in a relationship.
• The Twins are among the Hours hinted at in the description of the Dappled Mask, which speaks of how “the moon might change herself to an ant or to a bird or to her sister”. The exact meaning of this description and the event it refers to is unclear. Rather than being a historical account, it may simply be reflecting a balance of power within the Mansus, as the Wood is shrouded from the Glory, but beings such as the Moth seek the Light an would allow it to shine upon the Wood.[31]
• The Winged Doll may be referencing the story of Ahad. The description mentions an attic with a locked window where the doll, a child’s plaything, was kept, and Ahad the murderer child’s bones are located in an attic in Kerisham. Both are tied to the Moth aspect and to the Change ascension. This connection is very speculative, however.[32]
• One way of separating the Twins is a general interpretation of “higher” numbered Hours like the Sister-and-Witch usually appearing in the upper levels of the Mansus like the Concursum, and “lower” numbers like the Witch-and-Sister often residing in the Wood, though this is not an established rule or anything.

In-Game Sources

1. "The Witch-and-Sister; who cannot be touched, who cannot be separated, who are pearl." We call upon the Sister-and-Witch, who cannot be separated We call upon the Sister-and-Witch, who cannot be touched We call upon the Sister-and-Witch, who are pearl 2. Read 'The Larquebine Codex' 3. Read 'Those Who Do Not Sleep' 4. Read the Geminiad 5. Inquisitions for the Demiurge: 6. 'The Witch-and-Sister is Grail, Moth and Heart. The Sister-and-Witch is Heart, Moth and Grail. I think. ' 7. Read 'The Fire-Circle Tantra' 8. Read 'The Book of the White Cat' 9. Inaam, Kapigiginlupir, Garkie, Cryppys 10. Read 'In The Mountains As Upon The Plain...' 11. Guise: Eagle 12. Name of the Mother, Name of the Moon 13. Name of the Serpent, Name of the Sister 14. Heart's Integument, Surrendered, Moth's Integument, Surrendered 15. Gladwyn Lake 16. “Fucine was spoken in the dry country. It is the language of witches. It shares words with High Aeolic.” 17. Study 'De Bellis Murorum', by 'Solipsistos' 18. Inquisitions for the Demiurge: What’s the relationship between the Witch-and-Sister and the Meniscate? Both possess heavy moon symbolism, so there must be something going on. The Church and the Sisterhood certainly thought so, although of course back then the Madrugad wasn't really an Hour as such. 19. Qoph 20. Ys 21. Thine Eyes Have Seen 22. Witch-Kissed Oil 23. Read this volume of the Locksmith's Dream 24. Read 'Birdsong' 25. IN THE HOUSE OF THE MOON 26. THE FEAST FULFILL'D 27. The Journal of Alessandro LaCroce 28. Develop an understanding of the long-dead Fucine language 29. Marruvine Idol 30. Rite of the Sea's Feasting 31. Dappled Mask 32. Wingèd Doll

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