The Burden of Sin in Tom Bloom's CAIN
"In this talk of sin, what about forgiveness?"
Growing up Roman Catholic meant internalizing that I, personally, was responsible for the wrongdoings I committed. That we, as human beings, were born with sin and the capacity to sin embedded within us. To transgress against others was a choice. It meant I was always cognizant of the things I did. The consequences of my actions. But not every Catholic internalizes that lesson, and not everyone grows up Catholic, learning about our first sinners. About Cain.
Cain is a figure from Abrahamic belief, the first murderer who killed his brother in a fit of envy. CAIN is a tabletop RPG by Tom Bloom of Kill Six Billion Demons and Lancer fame, as well as the name of an organization in-universe. All three Cains are bound together by the concept of Sin, but where the tale of the Abrahamic Cain begins and ends with one man’s singular transgression against his brother, Tom Bloom’s incarnation of Cain is a commentary on societal and institutional violence. Of the gaps that the most vulnerable fall into, becoming agents of pain.
CAIN’s central premise revolves around the hunting of Sins — the physical manifestation of a latent psychic’s built up trauma and negative energy, and creatures capable of extreme malice. These sins distort the very world around them. By the command of the CAIN organization in order to protect the public, Exorcists — psychics who are just a hair’s breadth away from having become sinners themselves — must hunt down and eliminate these sins as they appear. While it is possible to separate the sin from the so-called sinner, there are three fates which typically befall those who have been bound to sin: killed in the course of the exorcism from their sin, forced into perpetual confinement at the behest of the CAIN organization, or called upon to serve as fellow Exorcists. It’s a cool, slick premise that, on the surface, emulates Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man, two urban fantasy manga that ooze style, violence, and a cynically bitter view of how the organizations meant to protect us have been twisted beyond belief. When I saw its art and read the opening paragraphs on its itch.io page, I was enamored.
