The Shepherd

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The Shepherd
Friend(s)	Hourglass Dogs
Affiliation	The Great Runas
Occupation	Shepherd
Characteristics
Species	Cat
Gender	Feminine (she/her pronouns)
Eye color	Black and yellow
Appearances
Portrayed by	Emma Breezy
Animator	Utu-Nui
Appears in	Temptation Stairway Joelgc.com
Debut	Temptation Stairway

“

"А?… Это... Туррон?!" (Eh?...Is that a...TURRÓN?!)
— The Shepherd, Temptation Stairway

”

The Shepherd is a minor character who appears in Temptation Stairway. She is seen taking care of the Hourglass Dogs in the Hourglass Meadow.

Appearance

The Shepherd appears to be feline to some extent. She has a black humanoid body with a skinny neck, legs, and arms. Her head sports a pair of black ears that curve upward like horns. Her two-toned face resembles a mask, having red on her left side and white on her right (with a small section of red on her white side's cheek). The red side sports the outline for her mouth and has an oblong light-yellow cat eye, while the white side has a much more detailed eye along with an eyebrow. Her red side and the red cheek present on her white side also have angular whiskers. She also sports hair that starts as a brown streak on the top of her head and spreads into two pigtails.

The Shepherd's outfit consists of a brown button-up vest with red buttons, exposing her midriff, and a matching long brown skirt tied with a red belt. She also wears brown sandals and holds a shepherd's crook.

Personality

The Shepherd appears blunt and exhausted at first, acting aggressively and dismissing what Ena has to say. She seems to hold significance to The Great Runas, insisting it does not give out horoscopes anymore and should not be disturbed by "simpletons". She does seem to warm up in some way, as she is quickly swooned by the Turrón that Ena gives her. After receiving the treat, she gives a Blood ID in return and directs Ena towards the Mannequin Expanse, not far ahead, before dozing off.

Gallery

Artwork

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  Concept drawings of characters for Temptation Stairway including The Shepherd.

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  Render of The Shepherd uploaded to Joel G.'s social media, almost 3 months before her debut.

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  The Shepherd with five Hourglass Dogs.

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  A similar render of The Shepherd with four Hourglass Dogs, as seen on Joel G.'s Twitch profile.

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  Rigging and custom pixelation effect test with The Shepherd. Unlike the final product, the pixelation effect is applied in Blender.

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  The Shepherd's 3D model and eye set. Modeled by Utu-Nui.

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  GIF of The Shepherd with an Hourglass Dog. Posted on Joel G.'s Twitter.

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  Concept art of The Shepherd. Found in the files for Utu-Nui's model of The Shepherd.

Website

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  The Shepherd avatar skin from Joelgc.com.

Screenshots

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  The Shepherd's reaction to seeing the Turrón.

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  The Shepherd and Ena.

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  Ena and The Shepherd doing the Turrón dance.

Merchandise

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  The Shepherd and some Hourglass Dogs on a shirt.

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  The Shepherd and Hourglass Dogs sticker.

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  The Shepherd, Phindoll, and Brick Frog sticker set.

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  A sticker of The Shepherd with some Hourglass Dogs.

Trivia

The tank in TempleOS's ZoneOut game, which heavily resembles The Shepherd's tank.

Norma Salt's Picasso's Cat–El Gato, which The Shepherd's overall visual design is based on.

• The Shepherd speaks Russian, voiced by bilingual (English/Russian) voice actor Emma Breezy. She has an accent and imperfect pronunciation; this is likely because Emma was born in New York. This caused some confusion, but Emma has confirmed that The Shepherd speaks "entirely in Russian". Transcription:

  Ах... Ещё один Эна-баламут...
  Уходи, наш Великий Рунас уже на даёт гороскопы.

  Ты шшш... негодная шшш... егоза шшш...!
  Никто не пройдёт!
  Великий Рунас бы был очень злой, если бы какой-то простак, как ты, появился в его любимом мест...!
  А?... Это... Туррон?! ¡turrón, turrón, turrón, turrrrón!♪

  Возможно ты выиграл эту войну, но проиграл битву.
  Возьми, это ID крови. Это значит ты собираешь щедрые предложения для нас.
  Продолжай... вперёд и внеси в святой кодекс, потом найди голубую дверь.

• The Shepherd is the fourth ENA character to have their name be a job, the other ones being the Auctioneer, Keeper, Merchant, and The Therapist.
• Oddly, The Shepherd's render used for merchandise shows her with two eyebrows rather than a single eyebrow on her white side as seen in Temptation Stairway.
• The Shepherd's crook appears lodged in Moony's head-hole later in the episode she appears in. This may hint that Moony took a path through the Hourglass Meadow to find The Great Runas and ended up meeting The Shepherd.
  • As later shown in Power of Potluck, Moony is capable of dragging characters into the hole in her body and possibly harming or killing them, which may also indicate this as a possible fate of The Shepherd and a reason for the crook's presence inside Moony.
• The Shepherd is one of the unlockable avatars on Joelgc.com.

Cultural references and inspirations

• The idea for The Shepherd was stated during a Twitch stream to be from a video recommended to Joel Guerra on YouTube named "LoFia Soren - Spiral of moments". The video eventually inspired the idea of The Shepherd's crook and then the character.
• The tank from which The Shepherd is eventually shot resembles the tank from the ZoneOut game found in TempleOS, an operating system written by the late computer programmer Terry A. Davis.
• The Shepherd's face design is based on a painting by Norma Salt titled Picasso's Cat–El Gato.