The Story in the Songs
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- 48 min read
1. This article will mention suicide and mental health disorders. 2. This is the second of a three-part series. Part One, Why Twenty-Øne Pilots May be the Best Music Artist, was released Monday. Part Two, Welcome to the Clique, was released Wednesday. 3. All of the lore, characters, images, places, and the storyline covered in this blog post belong solely to Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. I am proud to credit them fully for such a rich and compelling story and am simply compiling their genius into one long post.
So you see why Twenty-Øne Pilots may be the best music artist. You've read or skipped my Welcome to the Clique post. And now you want to know the lore. (Or you're well versed, and you want to know my theories. Don't worry, they're plain as day. They're formatted like the disclaimers above.)
I've tried to go as in-depth as I could without rambling for hours. The lore is so deep that it's practically impossible to know everything about it. I have so much respect for these writers, Tyler Joseph especially, and I am constantly in awe of the genius it took to put all of this together. I hope to one day be half the writer he is.
I am so thrilled to be able to put this all down on paper for you guys. I've discovered more somehow through writing this - people have reached out to send me links to others' discoveries, concocted theories with me long-distance and in my kitchen, motivated me to keep going, listened to me ramble on and on, and counted down the days to this post's release. So I'm going to explain it to you as best I can. Buckle up.
To properly do this, you'll need at least an hour or two (or three), a web browser, and YouTube, but you can do it in half an hour if you want to just read the post plain and simple. As you read, I'll instruct you to read select letters from Clancy and watch certain music videos so you can get the most out of this explanation. If you don't want to spend that much time here, you'll still be able to understand the lore without reading the letters or watching the videos, as I'll explain each video/letter to you. Other than the letters, I'll copy and paste important photos here. All credit to Twenty-Øne Pilots.
Enough. Let's go.
Background
Dema is a circular city. It is located in the center of Trench, a large and desolate continent with nothing on it but Dema. There is a small island to the East, Voldsoy, separated from Trench by the Paladin Strait. Port Vial is at the bottom of the map.
The Sacred Municipality of Dema is run by the Nine Bishops, or the Niners. The Bishops are Andre, Lisden, Keons, Nico, Reisdro, Sacarver, Nills, Vetomo, and Listo. Nico is the leader, which is why the Bishops are often referred to as "Nico and the Niners." His full name is Nicolas Bourbaki, and he is also known as Blurryface.
If you look closely at the map of Dema, you will see nine circles. They are towers, and they represent the Bishops. Each one is labeled with a name. The nine sections immediately outside the small circles are the Niners' sectors - also assigned by name, one to each Bishop (they say "DST. NICO," "DST. REISDRO," etc.). Outside the sectors is Necropolis, which is full of tombs. Beyond Necropolis, there is a wall, and beyond the wall, there is nothing.
The Bishops are also the heads of the United Vialists. Vialism is the religion of Dema. Vialism teaches that the only way to go to paradise, or be Glorified, is to self-destruct. The citizens of Dema are encouraged to enjoy life to the fullest and then self-destruct. Once a year, the citizens attend the Annual Assemblage of the Glorified, which is a celebration honoring those so noble as to self destruct in the past year - the Glorious Gone. (If you are concerned about Twenty-Øne Pilots supporting suicide, listen to Neon Gravestones.)
Clancy is a citizen of Dema. He lives in Keons's sector, and since he was nine years old, he has hated Dema. He hates Vialism. He hates the Niners. He wants to get out. He knows there is something better than Dema.
He wants to escape.
Scroll to the bottom of https://dmaorg.info/found/15398642_14/clancy.html and read Clancy's first journal entry, 988 06MOON 18. Do not close dmaorg, we will use it repeatedly.
Josh's birthday is June 18th, 1988.
In this entry, Clancy contemplates how trapped he feels in Dema. He mentions that he used to be filled with wonder, saying "There was a wonderful structure to the city that put my cares to rest" (see Redecorate, SAI, 0:01) and "the responsibilities of the day seemed to be accomplished with minimal effort. Once a task was taught and understood..." (see Mulberry Street, SAI Livestream, 4:02). He talks about how, at nine years old, he realized that Dema was not his home. He describes serving Keons, the Bishop he lives under, and how Keons is not ruthless like the other Bishops, but stoic. He is kind. Along the side of the letter, you can read the words, "West wall blocked. East is up."
Hmm. East is up.
Let's take a look at the maps again.
If you can, zoom in on the compass. I know, I know, it's grainy. Trust me on this one. The East arrow is pointing upwards. If you aren't convinced, look at the caption on the map reading "DEMA." See how the E is emphasized and the A is an up arrow? East is up. This is repeatedly enforced throughout their media (see the caption under the map of Dema on dmaorg, Cancer album cover, and Nico and the Niners, Trench, 0:20).
If you look extremely closely at Dema on the map of Trench, you can see the nine circles and the nine sectors. But they don't line up like they do in the map of Dema. In the map of Dema, there is a sector aligned perfectly above the square. On the map of Trench, the sector that's aligned correctly is to the North - the left side of the square.
Thus the map of Dema is situated so North is up, while the map of Trench is situated so that East is up.
So what happens when we turn the sectors in the map of Dema the same way, so that East is up instead of North?
Didn't do much, it doesn't seem. But wait. Those circles in the center of the photo are familiar. Nine circles in a square formation. The Blurryface album cover, perhaps.
That doesn't mean anything, does it? It's just circles and more circles. Those patterns, though, correlate to songs. If you look at the YouTube videos, there are patterns as the visual for most of the audio tracks.
I'm not going to drag you through the process of matching the patterns, especially because some of them are harder to track down since they have music videos. If you want an example, look at Doubt (second from the top in the song list) and the center circle in the album cover.
If you match up the songs to the circles on the album cover, then superimpose that onto the map of Dema...
Each tower is assigned a Bishop, and each circle is assigned a song. Therefore, you get one Bishop per song. (eg. Doubt, the center circle on the album cover, and the center circle on the rotated map of Dema, which is labeled "Reisdro.") And if you look into their song, you can find each Bishop's name, hidden in the lyrics.
[From left to right, top to bottom on the rotated map of Dema: the Bishops and their respective songs.]
Keons - Heavydirtysoul - 0:19
"I hope that they choke on smoke 'cause I'm smokin' them out the basement"
Sacarver - Tear in My Heart - 2:48
"She's the tear in my heart, she's a carver, she's a butcher with a smile"
Listo - Ride - 1:05
"We have a list of people that we would take a bullet for them, a bullet for you"
Lisden - Polarize - 0:31
"Though I am running to you all I feel is deny, deny, denial"
Reisdro - Doubt - 1:02
"Temperature is dropping, temperature is dropping, I'm not sure if I can see this ever stopping"
Vetomo - Lane Boy - 0:18
"They think this thing is a highway, highway, but will they be alive tomorrow"
Andre - Fairly Local - 0:47
"Tomorrow I'll keep a beat and repeat yesterday's dance"
Nico/Blurryface - Stressed Out - 0:27
"My name's Blurryface, and I care what you think"
Nills - Goner - 0:56
"Though I'm weak and beaten down, I'll slip away into the sound"
In my opinion, the Bishops represent fears. I'll be honest with you here, I'm not sure how widely accepted that theory is. I might have made it up. It might be common knowledge. My research shows that some people think the Bishops represent different mental health issues or insecurities but haven't yet assigned any specifics to them, so this might be pure theory of mine. Whether or not it is, the part that's really my theory is what fears I think the Bishops represent. So, here you go. My first fan theory: the fears attributed to each Bishop.
Each Bishop represents a specific fear, which relates to the song they're found in. The Bishops instill these fears in Clancy, which we will see more on later, therefore having unique control over his mind. It may help to read "Bishop" as synonymous with "fear." Andre. Andre's assigned song is Fairly Local. Fairly Local is about the mental struggle of trying to get better. In the song, Tyler sings about a place he knows very well. He knows the people and the streets. He spends the first verse talking about how he will never change, and Andre's name is found in the line that is the heart of this verse: "Tomorrow I'll keep a beat and repeat yesterday's dance." This verse encapsulates the fear that you will never get better, you will just continue to feel this way forever. Andre is the Bishop of not getting any better. Lisden. Lisden is in Polarize. As we are told in the song, to polarize is "taking your disguises, separating 'em, splitting 'em up from wrong and right." Polarize is about figuring out who you are. Clancy wants to become "a better brother, better son... a better adversary to the evil I have done." He wants to fully become who he is, and throw away the disguises he's created. But he is crying out for help because he doesn't quite know who he really is, who he wants to be. He feels like he still has not become who he truly is. Lisden is the Bishop of not being who others think you are. Keons. Keons is the kind Bishop, but he is still a Bishop. He is Heavydirtysoul, which asks over and over, "Can you save my heavydirtysoul?" Clancy is running from death, his mind is infested, he cannot make the voices stop. He needs help, and again, he is crying out for it. However, he gets no answer. The song has no resolution. It is fear, it is a desperate call for someone, anyone. Keons is the Bishop of no one being there to save you. Nico. Nico is the most prevalent Bishop, the one around every corner, the one who commands and orchestrates all the rest. He is Blurryface, he is Stressed Out. He is hiding behind a distorted photo of who you really are, wishing you could go back to the past, thinking about who you used to be. He is caring what others think and being scared you will disappoint everyone again. Nico is the Bishop of everything you've ever done wrong. Reisdro. Reisdro is Doubt. Doubt is partially about being scared of who you are and scared of what is inside your mind, but more than that, it is about becoming so overwhelmed by the dark parts of your thoughts that the people you love leave you. It is about becoming so detached from reality that you are given up on. Reisdro goes hand in hand with Keons. Keons is the Bishop of no one being there to save you, and Reisdro is the Bishop of those you love leaving. Sacarver. Sacarver is not hard to analyze. Tear in My Heart sings Sacarver's name, saying that "she's a carver." Sacarver is directly related to love, specifically romantic love. He is the pain that comes with love, the self-sacrifice, the decision to relax your defenses and let someone else in. He is the fear that can come with falling in love - the fear that you're getting something wrong, you're letting the wrong person in, you'll get hurt from this. Sacarver is the Bishop of weakness in love. Nills. Nills and Sacarver go hand in hand as well. They are both Bishops of weakness. But Goner, where Nills is found, is not about love. Goner is about faith. It is about the desire to know your Creator, to be known by your God, and to be saved. But it is also about the fear that you are too far gone. Nills tells you that you are too bad for God to save. You don't believe enough for Him to care about you. Maybe if you had been better, but no. You are too weak. Nills is the Bishop of weakness in faith. Vetomo. Vetomo is the easiest Bishop to discover by far. Lane Boy tells the story of someone prone to color outside the lines and think outside the box. Clancy wants to do what he wants; he does not want to believe in Vialism, he does not want to succumb to the Bishops' twisted ways. But Vetomo instills the fear of Lane Boy into him. Clancy is afraid to disobey Dema's rules. Vetomo is the Bishop of getting out of line. Listo. Listo is a difficult Bishop. He hides in corners and comes out when he knows that he will push you over the edge. Listo is terrifying, bone-chilling. He finds you in the middle of the night and when all the others are present at once. Ride is about empty promises. It is about saying "I'd die for you" because it's true, you would. It's about not being able to say "I'd live for you" because you wouldn't. Because you want it to be over. Because you're sick of being crowded by the other Bishops and you're exhausted. You would die for anyone because Listo is the Bishop of the desire to die.
So, now, we are back to Clancy. He is stuck in Dema, surrounded by fears and graves and walls. The Bishops want him to self-destruct. The citizens of Dema want him to live for the moment. He does not want to do either of those things. He wants to live intentionally, and more than that, he wants to live. He wants to escape.
Before we jump into music videos, we'll go back to dmaorg and make sure you know what several of Clancy's bits and pieces of evidence mean (or what we think they mean).
Scroll up to the second piece of evidence, 988 12MOON 01.
Tyler Joseph's birthday is December 01st, 1988.
This is presumably a record of Clancy's first escape attempt. It is labeled "Failed Perimeter Escape," or FPE as you can barely see at the top. (FPE also stands for few proud emotional, fan premier exhibit, and food petrol etc.) There is not much to know about this piece except that Clancy has tried to escape. This may have something to do with the note on Clancy's first letter that tha "west wall is blocked" - perhaps he tried to escape by going West but could not.
One interesting thing about this entry is the number Clancy's FPE was given. You'll notice it's the same number as the number in the URL. At one point, the website was just dmaorg.info, but as you'll see if you click on that link, Dema Council found the leak and shut it down, naming Clancy's violation code (the hidden message in the bad website is, once again, East is up). Fans discovered another way into the website by putting the violation code into the URL. Clancy's code can also be found by assigning numbers to the Blurryface songs and then seeing which numbers correlate to which circles on the album cover.
Scroll up to the third piece of evidence, 009 12MOON 29.
Self-Titled was released on December 29th, 2009.
This one is a little strange. The figures in the photo are vultures, sitting atop a wall or tower. This is our first introduction to what vultures are to Dema: the only things that leave and then come back, therefore a symbol of hope. But at the same time, they are necessary to Vialism. How? We'll find out later, but because of it, they are also a symbol of Dema.
Scroll up to the fourth piece of evidence, 011 07MOON 08.
Regional at Best was released on July 08th, 2011.
This one is simply a photo of a child. I like to think it's young Clancy, at the time he first wondered if he should leave (nine years old, which seems about right). The similar style to the last photo may imply that the child is gazing up at the vultures.
Scroll up to the fifth piece of evidence, 013 01MOON 08.
Vessel was released on January 08th, 2013.
We've already seen the map of Dema.
Scroll up to the sixth piece of evidence, 017 02MOON 12.
On February 12, 2017, Stressed Out won a Grammy award.
This one does not stand on its own, and we will revisit it and uncover its true meaning in a minute.
Scroll up to the seventh piece of evidence, 017 07MOON 07, and read Clancy's second journal entry.
This date marks the first day of the duo's hiatus.
There is not much to say about this letter. Clancy is thinking on the city, the wonder it fills him with, and how he desperately wants to get out. But there is a hidden message written with the missing letters: You are still sleeping.
Scroll up to the eighth piece of evidence, 017 07MOON 16.
This date is the day before the band received an award for "most dedicated fan base." Case in point.
This is a GIF of a cheetah running. It is a reference to the future song Pet Cheetah. There are letters flashing rapidly above the cheetah, which end up spelling UNSTILLIDONTCKNOWOHISNREALINAMECDOOU? You can almost read this sentence, save for the presence of a few nonsensical letters. If we remove those nonsensical letters, we get the following message: U still don't know his real name do u? The nonsensical letters spell NICONICO. We have to keep in mind that this is a while ago, and the fandom did not know that Nico and Blurryface were synonymous; this message is telling us that Blurryface's real name is Nico.
Scroll up to the ninth piece of evidence, 017 07MOON 17.
This is the day the band got the award for "most dedicated fanbase."
We have talked about the Bishops, we have talked about Dema, we have even talked about the vultures, but we are still missing one crucial group of people: the Banditos. The Banditos are legends, their existence has never been proven. But the legends still stand: there are people outside. There are escapees. They live in Trench, free and thriving.
In this photo, we see the Banditos. This photo echoes back to the photo of the vultures. The vultures are the hope inside Dema; the Banditos are the hope outside of Dema. Don't let this fool you; Clancy has not found the Banditos yet. He is not even sure that they exist, as he is not yet out of the city. Remember that this is not an easy-to-read storyline but compiled evidence, and I want to get to a couple of other things before we dive into the MVs.
Scroll up to the tenth piece of evidence, 018 07MOON 01 (the GIF).
This is a GIF of a vulture. His name is Clifford, by the way. He is watching. Why?
Scroll up to the eleventh piece of evidence, 018 07MOON 01 (the letter).
This may be the most interesting thing we've looked at so far, so read it carefully. We learn a lot in this letter. First and foremost, we learn about "smearing." Smearing is one of the Bishops' supernatural abilities. Smearing takes place when one of the Bishops cups their hands around the victim's neck, and a black substance is transferred from the Bishop's hands to the victim's neck. It overpowers the victim and transfers fear into them. This is why when we see Clancy in the music videos, he will have a black substance on his neck and hands. The more of the substance there is on his neck, the worse he is doing at the present time. When a victim is smeared, Clancy believes their eyes become bright; Clancy does not understand this phenomenon yet or the connection between it and the bright-eyed people, he only knows of its existence. People also have strong theories that smearing affects memory, supported by the clue "as their penance fades, so dims their memory of something more." This theory will hold more water as we continue.
In this letter, we also get some hints that Dema has not always been this way. Phrases like "when the Bishops instituted Vialism as mandate, they effectively reversed the hope that many arrived with" imply that at one time, Dema was not the hopeless place it is now, and it was not filled with this twisted religion.
But that is not all we gain from this letter. No. Remember the piece of evidence I said we'd come back to? Well, here we go. We overlay the yellow tape and numbers over this image, and we uncover a secret message.
The yellow letters spell "we are Banditos." The letters with the numbers above them are thus: EHNRCT. Unscrambled to say "Trench." What's more, the numbers above the letters tell us we are meant to use a1z26 cypher, which if you're not familiar simply means that a=1, b=2, c=3. We know this because the numbers above/below the letters in the image correlate to a1z26 cypher.
I do not have time to get into everything you can discover using the dates and file names on dmaorg and a1z26 cypher. I encourage you to research it on your own.
The only thing I'll throw out there is that the numbers in the file name for this image also spell "Trench."
Scroll up to the twelfth piece of evidence, 018 07MOON 05 (the image).
This is a photo of Trench. Hard to see, I know, but the black is the land and the white is the cloudy sky.
Now, we've come to the really fun part. We know Clancy. We know Dema. We know each of the Bishops, and we've seen that they represent fears or mental illnesses that they instill by smearing. We know that the Banditos are a legend that may or may not exist. We don't quite know what Vialism is yet, but we'll learn that soon. We've deciphered every image on dmaorg we've looked at so far. Your introduction to this world has been sound; it's time to see the real story.
In this video, Clancy tricks Nico into taking him outside the walls. This is never really addressed further, but the point is, Nico takes him out into Trench. Josh - the Torchbearer, as we will later confirm - is drumming in the middle of the road, and he sets his drums on fire to distract Nico. With Nico distracted, Clancy runs and escapes. He is in Trench. He is free.
Skip the dmaorg letter and the GIF. Look at 018 07MOON 08 (the image).
This is a freeze frame of the music video we will watch shortly. You may come back to it later if you want to. Look closely and you will see a man lying in a ravine.
Read 018 07MOON 08 (the letter).
This letter is a very raw piece of Clancy. He is terrified by the pressures of this new place. Clancy is here to find the Banditos. He tries, he really does. He is crying, I don't know where you are. You have to come and find me. But the most powerful part of the lore is the strong tie Clancy has to Dema; he hates it, yes, but it is all he knows. There is a wonderful structure to the city, and it puts his cares to rest. It is the same feeling that overtakes you when you begin to realize you must fight to get better: darkness is comforting. Darkness is easy. It is so much harder to fight than to give in.
But Clancy stumbles forwards. He has waited years for this freedom, and he will not give it up without a fight. He believes in the Banditos, and he is determined to find them. At the end of the letter, he cries out, Cover me! He says he will not stop. He can feel that he is tied to Dema, but he does not let it weigh him down. He struggles on, hiding in crevices, so afraid of nothing and so motivated by everything. He will not go back.
Read Clancy's next entry, 018 07MOON 18.
This letter puzzles many for reasons we will see in a second. First, we'll review what it says. Clancy has been in Trench, and he is growing weary. He is walking along a ledge midway between the ridge and the bottom of a canyon, and he sees someone else. A man is walking along the ravine, seemingly unaffected by the fear of the unknown. Clancy trails behind him for a while, confused, watching. And then they appear.
Banditos, real, alive. They are suddenly all along the edge of the ravine, looking down at the man, watching him. They are warning him of something - someone is approaching.
And approach he does. A Bishop on a white horse comes from nowhere, speeding towards the man. The Bishop's appearance seems to paralyze the man, and the Banditos watch as the Bishop smears the man, taking control of his mind once again, and brings him back to Dema.
Clancy runs.
He is scared. He doesn't understand. He knows the Banditos are real, but he reports feeling more alone than ever. Again, he writes cover me. He is weak and he admits that he misses the city. He knew the city, he understood it. But this place it too large, too empty, too unknown. It is the same feeling as before: darkness is comforting. And Clancy, like the rest of us, fights the urge to sit in the evil simply because it is what he knows.
Watch the Jumpsuit music video.
In this video, we see Clancy. He is stumbling along a ravine, cliffsides high on either side, tired, hungry, weak, hurt, scared. He is a shell of himself. He does not even know who he is.
We see that a Bishop is approaching on a white horse. Coming for Clancy. Knowing exactly where he is.
Clancy looks up, and the Banditos begin to appear. One by one, they fill the cliffs, staring down at him in their green jackets adorned with yellow tape. They look at Clancy, watching him trudge along.
The Bishop appears on his horse. The Banditos watch as he approaches Clancy, and Clancy does not run. He is so tired. We do not know it at first, but the Bishop is Keons, and Clancy knows Keons. Keons is kind. Clancy is comforted by Keons's presence; when there is so much he does not know, Keons is someone he can trust. His mind is stretched thin by the strain of being in Trench, the hunger and thirst and exhaustion, and this does not scare him as it should, it comforts him. Keons smears him, and the paint spreads, covering Clancy's neck and overtaking his mind. Keons gets back on the horse. Clancy stumbles along behind him, submissive.
But the Banditos will not let him go that easily. They begin to throw down yellow petals, and the petals shower Clancy and Keons. This is especially significant because Bishops cannot see the color yellow. Keons is confused by what's going on. The petals spook Keons's horse, and while the Bishop struggles to regain control over the animal, Clancy finds it in him to run.
He tears along the ravine, running for his life, hope, and freedom. The Banditos are real, they are here for him. He will not go home.
Home?
He trips. He falls to the ground. Keons comes to him. The Banditos are gone, except for one, who is gazing solemnly down at him, a bandanna around his mouth. Then he, too, turns and leaves.
Clancy is taken back to Dema.
Read Clancy's next entry: 019 01MOON 22.
In this letter, Clancy is back in Dema. He is thinking on the other man and on the fact that he is back in the very place he swore he would never return to. He wonders if the other man escaped the Bishop or is in Dema somewhere. He refers to Dema as "home" and is crippled with the feeling that Trench is beautiful and he belongs there, but he felt relieved when Keons approached. He recalls Keons saying, "Clancy, child, let's go home." He does not mention running or the petals, though he does remember the Banditos. Again, it raises the question: does smearing alter memory? Perhaps. The hidden message in this letter is Sodeepnedbayou. There are two references in this message: first, the Ned Bayou, which we will discover later, and second, the message at the beginning of Nico and the Niners: We are Banditos. You will leave Dema and head true East. We denounce Vialism.
What has puzzled fans since Trench came out is this: Who was the first man in the ravine? Clancy speaks about the man in the ravine from the third person, seeing something that is happening separate from himself. However, the MV shows Clancy in the ravine. The man's journey and Clancy's are remarkably similar except for two key details in Clancy's: the petals and the fact that he runs. However, Clancy ran away from the scene of the man in the ravine. Could he have run away, and therefore not seen the petals and the man deciding to run, therefore making the two escapees identical? Perhaps. Another theory is that the man on the car in Jumpsuit is Clancy and the man in the ravine is a different man, though also played by Tyler. This implies that Clancy could still be watching the man in the river, and in Jumpsuit we are watching through Clancy (the man on the car)'s eyes. But I believe this is refuted by Clancy taking the jacket from the trunk of the car and putting it on so that he matches the man in the ravine exactly.
This question has not been solidly answered as far as I know, but I have a strong theory we will learn of later. If you're learning this for the first time, you have yet to learn a few crucial details.
Clancy is back in Dema, yes, but his resolve is not dead. He gets stronger and he wants to get out again. He knows now that the Banditos are real, and he is determined to find them and join them. So he makes a plan.
I'm not sure why the letters are ordered like they are, but I strongly believe that the two we skipped are out of place and come into play at this point in the story. At this point, you will scroll back downwards to view the evidence we skipped.
Scroll down to the thirteenth piece of evidence, 018 07MOON 05 (the letter).
Clancy is making a plan to escape. He is so close. He knows how he will leave. He has recovered from his second failed perimeter escape, and he has made a plan. He plans a diversion. He is hoping "the other side will find a way in." He says he is willing to risk being smeared to find a way out. Who is the "we," though? I think it refers to him and the Banditos. Though he does not know who they are, he may be reacting to the camaraderie he already feels with them.
Scroll up to the fourteenth piece of evidence, 018 07MOON 06.
A GIF of a torch in a tunnel. We will see it presently.
This MV has heavy ties to the Heathens MV.
The first thing we see in this music video is the Annual Assemblage of the Glorified that Clancy talked about in his letter. This is part of Vialism. The Bishops are seen at the front of a large church-like room, with citizens of Dema in the aisles. The Bishops are performing a ritual, and the neon inside the glass they form will become the neon gravestones for the Glorious Gone - those who have self-destructed.
Meanwhile, Clancy is going to escape again. While everyone is distracted, he leaves his apartment and heads for the walls. He is stopped, though, by a group of Banditos. He is surprised, and his instinct is to run, but there are more behind him. He is surrounded by the yellow-clad Banditos, and his senses come to him. One of them steps forward. His name is Torchbearer, often referred to as TB, and he leads the Banditos. They have come to save Clancy.
The Banditos and Clancy begin to perform a concert. The sound of the music, of the rebellion, disturbs the Bishops and their Annual Assemblage of the Glorified. The AAG is cut off, and the Bishops go outside to see what the ruckus is, but by that time, the Banditos have taken Clancy below the city into a tunnel system. They are covering him in yellow tape and taking him away from the city. All the Bishops find at the scene of the concert is a pair of younger children looking curiously at an abandoned drum set and a forgotten jacket.
Clancy is free again.
Watch the Levitate music video.
What we see in this MV is Clancy learning to be a Bandito. He becomes one of them - they cut his hair and are generally seen helping him break free from Dema. They are teaching him their colors. However, he is still tied to Dema. It still calls to him. We see the vulture again and again, and hear references to it in the song. Its eyes are yellow - bright - like Clancy mentioned seeing in someone who had been smeared. Does smearing really have a connection to the bright eyes? We'll have to see. All we know at the moment is that somehow, the Bishops are using the vulture (Clifford) to spy on the Banditos and Clancy. Therefore, they know right where Clancy is.
Presently, a Bishop comes to find him, smearing him again and dragging him back to Dema.
Clancy is defeated. He is numb. And worst of all, he is imprisoned. The Bishops do not trust him on his own anymore, they know he will just escape again - or worse yet, the Banditos will come and find him. The Banditos need him for some reason - somehow, they think he is the key to taking Dema down. But not anymore. The Bishops see the obvious threat on the horizon and they imprison him. Clancy is defeated, locked up, silenced, suffocated, forgotten.
Until the Bishops have an idea.
Everyone in Dema knows Clancy. They know that he has tried to escape and succeeded multiple times. They want to know more about him. Those that think like him are inspired and those that do not are horrified.
The Bishops know Clancy writes.
So they give him a pen and they tell him to write.
For months, the same thing happens, over and over, again and again. Clancy spends dark, cold nights in his prison cell, and by day, he is given a pen and told to write, watched by the Bishops, commanded to write only what will "benefit the citizens of Dema." Meaning that nothing leaves that room unless it praises Dema, respects Vialism, or is simply mindless. That is what the people of Dema want: mindless entertainment to occupy their time. Thus, Scaled and Icy is released - an album full of propaganda. (Some of the songs are true, yes, but watch carefully for the Bishops' influence.)
It goes well, overwhelmingly well. The people who think like Clancy have their hope crushed by the music, which tells them that the Bishops were right all along. The people who love Dema are set in their ways and have someone telling them that they are doing everything perfectly. Everyone enjoys more Dema-regulated mindless entertainment.
So the Bishops take it a step further: they want him to perform on Good Day Dema, a television show. It's full of vibrant colors and fake laughs and, to Clancy's disgust, the hosts seem to be decaying, their eyes bright and yellow like the vulture who spied on him. He hates every second, but what can he do? He performs. He sings. He tries to let the creativity heal him like it wants to, but this creativity is not real, it is stifling, choked, and dying. It is not who he is or what he believes, it is simply what he must do in order to live. So he performs.
Watch the Shy Away (Livestream Version) music video.
Again, the Bishops' plan goes well. The livestream is an overwhelming success.
So they make yet another. They take it one last step forward to cement the image of Clancy, once an escapee, now supporting Vialism. They decide to hold this year's AAG (Clancy has been in captivity for a year at least, possibly multiple) on a ship, and they want Clancy to do a live performance.
What can he say but yes?
So he does.
Watch the Saturday music video.
Scroll up and read Clancy's next letter, 022 03MOON 17.
In this video, we see Clancy perform on the ship. All is well until, out of nowhere, a bright-eyed sea dragon (his name is Trash) attacks the ship. Many people die, but Clancy gets free.
Now, it's time for us to learn the last critical piece of Clancy's world. He himself has not known it up to this point, which is why I've never told you. But it will give us a puzzle piece we've been missing for a while now.
The Bishops, we know, have supernatural abilities. They can smear, and the smearing has something to do with the bright-eyed vultures and decaying Good Day Dema hosts. But there is something that they hide from the citizens of Dema; they have another supernatural ability, this one darker and more threatening. Not only can they smear, but the Niners can seize available vessels through the supernatural ability they gain from horns.
That was gibberish.
Let's break it down.
In this diagram we see the following: seize available vessel on Voldsoy eastern cove. interrupt bishops. glorious gone = available vessel. bishops control the available vessel! interrupt and seize. they will make you a weapon.
Seizing is the ability to control dead bodies. It is procured by something on the Eastern cove of Voldsoy, the island off the coast of Dema. The "Glorious Gone" are the Glorified people, buried in Necropolis. They are available vessels for the Bishops to seize and use however they want.
Dead vessels, like the vulture the Bishops used to spy on Clancy.
Dead vessels, like the decaying hosts of Good Day Dema.
Dead vessels, like the sea dragon that attacked the ship.
Now we see the connection between the bright eyes and the Bishops. The bright eyes do not come from the smearing, as Clancy originally thought. They come from being seized. The Bishops have the ability to possess a dead thing - person, vulture, dragon - see through its eyes and control its motions.
This brings us to my second fan theory. We saw earlier that the man Clancy saw wandering through Trench was a separate person from Clancy, though their captures were near-identical. So who was the man in the ravine?
The man in the ravine was not Clancy, as some people theorize. He was neither a Bandito nor was he another escapee of Dema, like Clancy is. The man in the ravine was the Bishops' perfect photo of what Clancy should look like. Wandering on, seemingly unaffected by the pressures of being in Trench because the Bishops cannot understand such a hopeful fear. Yet he was still tired and weak, because the Bishops want Clancy to be tired. They want him to miss home. So the man in the ravine does just that. In the Bishops' perfect scenario, Clancy is at his worst when a Bishop finds him. He does not run, he does not hide. The Banditos throw no petals because there is no reason for them to. They know what is happening, they have probably seen it before. They still watch because they want both the Bishop and Clancy to know they are there, but they do nothing. The Bishops know that Clancy will not miraculously give in. They have seen those like him before, and they know he is too strong for that. They know where he is - they have been watching him through the vultures. So they show him what he needs to see to plant the idea of "home" in his mind. The Bishops seize a man and have him walk down the ravine, catch Clancy's attention, and then submit immediately to the Bishop who confronts him. They are showing Clancy what they want him to be. Even in Trench, they have some level of control over his mind. If I had to guess, I'd say the Bishop was Keons, implanting in Clancy the fear that no one would ever come to save him. This man, he was sick, he was tired, he needed to go home. Someone came for him. But no one would ever come for Clancy - not the Bishops, not the Banditos. (This is also supported by the split-second flash of the AAG at 1:43 in the Jumpsuit MV, and we'll see another extremely solid support for this theory later on.) Clancy makes it five more days before he is in a poor enough state for the Bishops to make their "rescue" attempt. It does not go quite as well as the seized man's rescue, of course. Clancy is real, and he runs. The Banditos have been watching him, they know he is real, and they throw the petals to distract the Bishop. But Clancy is too tied to Dema, and the Bishops succeeded easily at getting in his head. He thinks of the man in the ravine, graciously brought home by the Bishop, and he trips and falls prey to their trap.
Back to the present. Clancy is treading water somewhere in the ocean surrounding Trench, a seized dragon swimming beneath him. He still has no idea what seizing is, why the real Bishops weren't on that ship, why the dragon attacked, or how the Bishops seize (but we don't know that yet, either). He has yet to figure any of this out. He washes up on an island, Voldsoy, and the Torchbearer has joined him. I think he was with Clancy in Dema all along (this will become much clearer later on). Some think he found Clancy on the island. But either way, the Torchbearer is with Clancy on the island, and something there is awaiting them - whatever it is has answers. He just has to find it.
Watch the The Outside music video.
The first thing we see in this video is a Bishop - Keons. Keons is back in Dema, seizing Trash the dragon and using him to attack the ship and set Clancy free. He has betrayed the other Bishops in order to let Clancy get away from Dema once more. We see that Keons is using some sort of horns to seize the dragon, both of their eyes bright and yellow, supporting the discovery that the bright eyes come not from smearing but from seizing.
Out of nowhere appear the other Bishops, and they promptly kill Keons. Such a betrayal is no small matter to them. Perhaps they suspected, and that's why the Bishops on the ship were not real. Then again, perhaps they simply didn't feel like going. But maybe they know something about Keons that we do not.
Clancy has washed up on an island, as we know from the letter we already read. Voldsoy.
The Torchbearer is a crucial part of this video. Clancy is tired, weak, not yet recovered from the physical and emotional strain that was Dema prison and performing propaganda. Torchbearer lifts him up, leads him on, making him continue when he least wants to. They are following something around the island, and they come to a cave. A small alien-like creature with horns - the same horns Keons was holding - is peering out from the entry to the cave. Clancy and Torchbearer follow.
In the cave, they are greeted by a handful of these creatures - "Neds" - and Clancy is given some... soup? Magical juice? Your guess is as good as mine. These Neds do not have full-grown horns like the one seen in the mouth of the cave. Clancy then sees the Ned with full-grown horns again, watching him from further down the cave tunnel. He stands and follows him out of the cave to a cove. (This is the afore-mentioned "Ned Bayou.")
When Clancy comes out of the cave, he sees that Ned has removed the horns from his head and is holding them out to Clancy. There are other Neds standing atop the cave, staring down at Clancy. Clancy takes the horns and the Ned who gave them to him disappears. The other Neds, staring down at him from the cliffside, show him how to lift the horns. When he does, he miraculously begins to seize Keons.
Keons's body stands up amidst the other Bishops, and there is obvious terror. The Bishops are the only ones who have ever seized. They are afraid at the sight of seeing Keons seized; who is doing this? Who else has the power they do? This person may be a formidable threat to them. Keons takes one of the neon tubes standing in the center of the room and tears it down. The death of a Bishop. He crumples again.
Clancy is alone with his newfound power and the Torchbearer. They go to the edge of the island and hold up their torches. The Banditos on the other side of the Paladin Strait mirror their torches.
The last thing we see in this video is two people, standing side by side on Trench, looking at the torches on Voldsoy that are Torchbearer and Clancy. They are the children who discovered the abandoned drum set and forgotten jacket in the Nico and the Niners MV. It has been years since Clancy met the Banditos. Clancy was in Dema for far longer than we witnessed.
Read Clancy's next letter, 022 03MOON 18.
This letter is extremely fascinating. Not only does it help confirm my past theories and tell us more about Clancy, Torchbearer, and seizing, but it will also support my best and last theory, which we will save for the end. We'll break it down piece by piece, looking at each of the four fascinating lines.
"It feels strangely familiar. Not the spikes in my hand, but the power is harnesses. I've felt it before."
Clancy is thinking on the fact that he feels as if he's done this before. This is interesting now, but later, it will be magnified and serve as the basis for my last theory. For now, we will wonder at it as much as Clancy does.
"It all begins to make sense.
...the out-of-body account of the rider in the river, the decaying hosts of the television show, the robed figures that commanded the doomed ship..."
This section possibly tells us who the man in the ravine was. This may say that Clancy witnessed himself getting kidnapped as if from a third-person point of view because he was being smeared at the time, which we've seen may cause memory issues. The proof for this is in the line before: "the blood red vision, my dreams of flying..." This is the only time we ever hear of these supposed episodes, but it may serve as proof that the man and Clancy are one and the same.
But Clancy says that he wandered for five days after the incident with the man in the ravine. He mentions no petals and no running, which may well be the memory alteration. But most importantly, we get a letter from Clancy after seeing the man in the river but before being brought back to Dema. Therefore, I don't believe it's possible for them to be the same person.
However, if we look at the context, we see something else altogether. The other two groups mentioned in the letter are the hosts of Good Day Dema and the makeshift Bishops at the AAG. We know those two groups were being seized. Does this prove that the man in the ravine was being seized? No. But the theory holds a lot of water in my opinion.
"Am I in my original life, why am I available to this control?"
This is another instance of Clancy wondering if he has done this before. He seems to think that he may be living some sort of twisted reincarnated life because of the Bishops. I do not think the same, and later, neither will he; however, this is more proof that something like this has happened before.
"Though it's been years since he last spoke with them, I hope they have not lost faith in The Torchbearer's plan.
But how could any of this have been planned?"
This is one of the most captivating pieces of this letter. We get a crash course on so much we did not know through two sentences. First, it's been years since Torchbearer spoke to the other Banditos. Where has he been? He may have been in Dema with Clancy, playing propaganda with him for years. Or perhaps they have been on Voldsoy for far longer than we thought.
Second, the Torchbearer is far, far more important than we realized. Not only was he the motivation behind (or in front of) Clancy's excursion around Voldsoy, not only does he lead the Banditos, but this is his plan. He is the one telling everyone what to do.
The last line is also intriguing. Clancy's question implies that the Torchbearer and his plan are not thrown off by anything. Torchbearer is not surprised by Clancy's new ability, by their presence on Voldsoy, by the Ned gifting Clancy with his horns. He knows exactly what is happening and, somehow, already has a perfectly orchestrated plan which the other Banditos know despite not having seen him in years. This plan, despite being years old, is perfectly compatible with Clancy's new abilities, This adds again to the notion that something like this has happened before: the Torchbearer seems to have known that they would end up on Voldsoy and Clancy would receive the power to seize. Nothing is confirmed, and at the moment we are as confused as Clancy is.
Watch I Am Clancy.
This video is essentially a recap of what we know already, but if you've been here half as long as I have, you need it.
Dema is in Trench.
The Bishops rule through Vialism - teaching that self-destruction is the only way to paradise - and seizing.
Clancy escaped. Grew weak. Was brought back.
The Banditos broke him out. He lived with them for a while. But "the cycle was too strong." He was taken back.
The Bishops made him perform. They were betrayed by Keons.
Clancy received the power to seize. He is on Voldsoy, about to return to the mainland.
At the end of the video, we see Clancy pull a mask over his head. He is inside somewhere - not Voldsoy.
Read Clancy's next letter, 024 02MOON 09.
There is not much to be gained from this letter at the moment. Clancy feels that he will be able to take Dema down. He says he does not feel powerless. He says his new power worked (on Keons) and can work again (which we will see presently). The hidden message in this letter is not in the letters that are doubled, but in the numbers that the letters represent. M is the second letter in the first line. E is the second letter in the second line. R is the ninth letter in the third line. Following this fashion, you get a repeat of the same pattern: 229229229229. This revealed a date: 2/29, which is when Overcompensate was released.
This video puzzled us for a while. In it, Clancy is performing in Dema. He seems to be teaching the citizens of Dema the wrong that is Vialism, telling them his story through photos and his performance. He is rallying them, preparing them for what to come.
But how did he get into Dema?
At the end, we see that Clancy was never in Dema. He seized one of the Glorious Gone to be able to rally the citizens - this is why we saw the neon gravestones at the beginning of the video. He is still on Voldsoy, but Torchbearer has a boat. He is ready to leave. It's almost time to go.
Watch the Navigating music video.
The music video for Navigating has been puzzling fans since it came out. In the video, three more Banditos have joined Clancy and Torchbearer. Torchbearer is now wearing his Voldsoy outfit. They traipse around Trench for a while, and then the Torchbearer appears in front of Clancy, wearing the clothes from the Trench era. Clancy looks to his right and the Voldsoy Torchbearer, who was standing beside him, is gone. Clancy approaches this new Torchbearer, who hands him his mask. We zoom out to see that there are a lot more Banditos than we originally thought. At the end of the video, the beginning of My Blood plays. (This video has many ties to the My Blood music video, a cinematic masterpiece.)
The most widely known theory from this is that Torchbearer simply does not exist. Many people believe that he is a figment of Clancy's imagination, which Clancy has been using all along to help himself get through Dema and his escapes. I don't think this adds up. If Torchbearer really was a coping mechanism, Clancy would probably be aware that he did not exist - or at least someone would. It doesn't add up.
But there is a solid answer. After many, many hours thinking on this topic, it finally appeared plain as day.
The answer lies smack in the middle of the Clancy release livestream (1:05:23). (I somehow forgot this, couldn't find anything despite hours of research, concocted my own theory with a friend, and was finally reminded of the real answer when a brilliant fellow fan answered my call for help on Substack, so I mean it when I say it's impossible to remember everything in this story.)
After Navigating plays, Tyler decides to just tell us this part of the story. He says, "we could talk about the Torchbearer... he also has an ability that we would call his ability to guide... so that's why there is kind of, like, a triangular existence of him... but I will say to clear it up, the Bandito Torchbearer is the real one."
What Tyler is saying here is essentially that the Torchbearer has the ability to project himself so that Clancy sees him somewhere when he is not actually there. The Torchbearer is projecting "Voldsoy Torchbearer," as Tyler calls him, when he is traipsing around Voldsoy with Clancy. The real Torchbearer is "Bandito Torchbearer."
The question is, who is the third? And where was the real one?
Neither of these things are confirmed, they are just theories that come to the top of my head. So here is my penultimate theory: How does the Torchbearer have a "triangular existence" and where is the real one during Navigating?
There are three ways Torchbearer can be presented. The real Torchbearer is the Bandito Torchbearer. He can also project himself as a guide. Who is the third? An extremely brilliant theory [which I found by reading this post and modified - I have not read the whole thing and have no idea of the rest of the content] is that the Torchbearer is a representation of the Trinity. Clancy is being saved over and over by the Torchbearer, guided by the projection of the Torchbearer, and we have the question of how the Torchbearer seems to know everything that is going on. This would make Bandito Torchbearer the story's picture of Christ, Voldsoy Torchbearer the story's image of the Holy Spirit, and a nebulous, all-knowing, ever-present Torchbearer's existence the story's image of the Father. This ties the lore directly to a painting of the Gospel, showing the salvation figure saving over and over and over, always forgiving, ever gracious. I am not completely sold on this Narnia-esque theory but I do love the way it puts Christ as a direct aid in our battles with sin. My original theory, however, is this: the Torchbearer's real existence, Bandito Torchbearer, was on the other side of Voldsoy, collecting the other survivors of the shipwreck and converting them into Banditos. In the meantime, he knew Clancy would need his help to carry on, so he projected Voldsoy Torchbearer to lead Clancy. When VT leads Clancy to BT, VT disappears because Clancy is under the care of the real Torchbearer now. Where, then, is the third point of Torchbearer? There are two options here, in my opinion. The first is that Torchbearer's third person is what I mentioned above, simply a nebulous all-knowing presence that allows him to know all that he seems to know. The other option is that the third Torchbearer is another projection which only exists inside of Dema. This would explain all the times Torchbearer is seen on the drums in Dema, including when Clancy is seizing in Overcompensate. Dema Torchbearer is with Clancy inside, Voldsoy Torchbearer is his guide outside (seen in Navigating and possibly Heavydirtysoul), and Bandito Torchbearer is the real one, who has been leading the Banditos all the time Clancy has been performing. However, this may not be compatible with Clancy's note that "it's been years since [Torchbearer] last spoke with [the Banditos]." On the other hand, that note could simply be Clancy's misunderstanding of the Torchbearer's triangular existence. Therefore, we have two possible sets: real Torchbearer + guide Torchbearer + nebulous, all-knowing Torchbearer or real Torchbearer + guide Torchbearer + Dema Torchbearer.
So, at the end of Navigating, we see a group of Banditos on Voldsoy (in my opinion, shipwreck survivors). We are back with the real Torchbearer and Clancy. We know there are more Banditos on the mainland.
Read Clancy's next letter, 024 02MOON 25.
Clancy, Torchbearer, and the other Banditos are now back on the mainland. Clancy is contemplating the rebellion and the attack the Banditos will initiate the next day. He is inspired, sure he can do this. He knows they will finally abolish Vialism.
There is not much else to see in this letter. The hidden message is follow the torches.
Read Clancy's next letter, 024 02MOON 28.
This letter is the last letter we received from dmaorg. The Banditos have arrived at Dema after presumably traveling for several days. Again, Clancy is preparing to enter. The hidden message in this letter is fly by, a reference to Overcompensate ("I fly by the dangerous bend symbol").
The Paladin Strait music video was originally released as a teaser here [the password is 8325]. The shadier things the Bishops do are all blocked by a "restricted content" banner.
This video is packed. It was originally meant to be the last part of the lore, but they ran out of time, so we've still got a bit to go. We're almost there.
When the MV starts, Clancy, Torchbearer, and several other Banditos are on Voldsoy. The Banditos give Clancy his jacket and mask, and we cut to Trench. They are on the other side of the Paladin Strait now, back on the mainland, in the Bandito camp. This is when Clancy writes the first of the two letters we just read. The day after he writes the first letter, Clancy dons his new clothes and the Banditos begin towards Dema. They arrive, and Clancy writes the second letter.
The Bishops know that Clancy and the other Banditos are approaching, they have seen through the eyes of the vultures. They gather in their towers and, together, they seize all of the Glorious Gone. They rise from their graves in Necropolis, where they have essentially been lying in wait for this day, and tear apart their neon gravestones to use pieces of them as weapons. They rush out of Dema, meeting the sea of Banditos and beginning an enormous battle between the neon gravestones and the torches.
Clancy does not join this battle. Instead, he runs into Dema. Torchbearer watches anxiously as Clancy enters the city and runs to the center, where the Bishops' towers rise high into the cloudy, sunless sky. Clancy scales the tower, quickly reaching the top as the battle rages on behind him and the Torchbearer continues to half-fight, half-watch. He jumps through the window into the circle of the seven Bishops he finds and uses the power of Ned's horns to get rid of them all quickly. Without the Bishops seizing them, the Glorious Gone collapse on the battlefield. Clancy stands, momentarily triumphant, before Nico rushes into the room. He smears Clancy immediately, and Clancy tenses, dropping the horns. Nico is the Bishop of everything you've ever done wrong.
Watch the The Contract music video.
In this video, we see that Clancy enters a hallucination of sorts when he closes his eyes, Nico's hands around his neck. In the hallucination, he is surrounded by hundreds of the Glorious Gone, and they are closing in on him. But Voldsoy Torchbearer - the guide - is with him. When Clancy wakes from the hallucination, he is once again motivated. Somehow, Torchbearer has projected himself into Clancy's subconscious, showing him again that he is never alone. It revitalizes Clancy, as we will see in a moment - but first, we must hear from the Torchbearer.
Watch I Am Torchbearer.
The first interesting thing we see is when Torchbearer says, "But I believe this is the last time. It has to be." This does two things. First, it alludes to the notion that Torchbearer has done this before. It is too specific for him to be simply referring to Clancy's escapes and recaptures, he means this specific scenario of a battle. Second, it puts a limit on Torchbearer's all-knowing power. We know now that he does not see the future. He only knows the past, and makes very particular plans and decisions based on it. If the Torchbearer is ever-present as part of his triangular existence, as some theorize, he may have been the Torchbearer since the beginning of Dema.
Second, he says, "And this time, he trusts us." This also alludes to the idea that this has happened before. He may be saying that trust was the reason Clancy has returned to Dema again and again, but he may also be saying that all of this has happened before and this overarching story is different because Clancy trusts the Banditos.
Lastly, "I am Torchbearer, and I will not give up on him." He then looks up at the towers, wherein Clancy is about to experience his hallucination. Presumably, it is at this point that he projects into Clancy's mind. The words I will not give up on him are particularly powerful. Torchbearer is ever-present and dedicated. He is the real hero.
Brace yourself.
Watch the City Walls music video. Or read to the end, then watch it.
The Torchbearer knows something is wrong. He is so tied to Clancy that he knows immediately. He gathers a few other Banditos and they run into the city, trying to reach Clancy before he gives in.
Nico is tired of Clancy. This one will not back down. Why? He does not understand it. So he does not simply smear Clancy; he stays there, allowing the substance to climb towards Clancy's mouth, overtaking him, slowly, slowly - Torchbearer is tearing up the stairs but will he be fast enough?
But Clancy has just seen the Torchbearer guide in his mind, and he knows he is not alone. He shoves Nico away and Nico responds violently, promptly hurling him against the far wall. Clancy hits the ground hard and Nico starts for the horns Clancy brought.
But Clancy will not be taken down that easily. He scrambles up, runs across the room and kicks Nico's legs out from under him, grabbing the horns. He uses them to shove Nico to the ground. Again and again, Clancy hits him, over and over, he is winning. It is the end.
Nico catches him off guard and throws him to the floor.
Clancy sees the beginning of all of this, the Heavydirtysoul music video. But the Torchbearer is not there. Clancy is alone until Nico appears. I wonder where you are, he cries.
Nico is showing him exactly what he wants him to see.
Clancy runs. He is already going losing progress - he is meant to be fighting, not running - but he is alone, afraid, back where he started years ago. He runs.
We are back in the tower and Nico throws Clancy to the ground again. He has the upper hand now, because Clancy is alone in his mind.
Clancy hits the ground and then he is in the Levitate music video. He is in the Bandito camp but he is so tied to Dema, he knows it, the black is staining his neck and his hands and we can see that it will never come off. He looks around for anyone, but the others are frozen, figments of his imagination, and the Torchbearer is gone. In his place, only Nico. You are alone. You are alone.
Again, he runs. He is alone and he is afraid.
He is not fast enough.
Nico throws him to the ground. We are in the tower again and Clancy is fighting for his life. The Torchbearer is still trying to get to him, knowing something is very, very wrong. Clancy tries to fight back, but again, he is on the ground.
We are back in the Jumpsuit music video. Clancy is in the ravine. There are no Banditos. There are no petals. There is no Torchbearer. There is only Nico - not Keons, there will be no mercy this time - and Clancy runs. He is alone and he is running for his life.
He falls again.
He is too alone to win. Nico has ensured that.
Nico grabs Clancy's throat and lifts him in the air. He shoves him against the wall, grabs the horns, and stabs Clancy.
Torchbearer runs towards them. He feels Clancy's pain. He knows he is too late but he runs all the same.
Clancy is hardly conscious.
He is back in all three of the music videos.
Stumbling away.
Running.
Always running.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
The Torchbearer arrives but the door is locked, he cannot get in, Clancy is too far gone, the horns are broken and so is Clancy. Torchbearer can do nothing.
But he is there.
Clancy hears him.
And Clancy is not alone.
He turns around in all three of the past experiences.
He faces Nico.
He faces the fear of everything he's ever done wrong.
Torchbearer breaks through the door.
Clancy is not alone.
He raises his hands above his head and they form the symbol that has brought him hope all along, the way he inspires, the way he helps.
|-/
If it wasn't for this music, I don't know how I would have fought this.
Nico is blinded by the hope this gives Clancy and he vanishes. Torchbearer is thrown backwards from the force of it.
Torchbearer and eight other Banditos run into the room. Clancy is alone in the room, looking out the window. He has defeated Nico.
But it is too late.
The black substance has climbed too high. Nico did what he set out to do.
My smile wraps around my head splitting it in two... I don't know how I can keep the top half glued...
Clancy has lost the piece of his mind that was hope. He was too late to save it. Nico, though gone, started the process that got to Clancy first.
Clancy takes the old Bishops' robes and, numb, detatched, a shell of who he was, hands them to stunned Banditos. He will not look them in the eye. He is not himself. Too shocked and sad to refuse, the Banditos take them.
Torchbearer refuses.
Hundreds of thoughts flash through his mind.
What are you doing?
Who are you?
What happened?
Look at me, Clancy.
Who are you?
Clancy, stop.
Don't do this.
He refuses the cloak.
Wordlessly, Clancy moves on. He passes the cloaks to the remaining four Banditos. Nine Banditos, one refused, plus Clancy - nine new Bishops.
The cycle is always the same.
And Clancy falls victim to it once again.
This time becoming the very piece of it he hated the most.
We cut to the Torchbearer. He is at the foot of the towers, packing up. Emotionless. Or perhaps too full of emotion.
Another Bandito comes up behind him. What now?
Torchbearer says nothing and the young Bishop continues.
I really liked this Clancy.
The Torchbearer nods. There is too much for him to say. Yeah. Me, too.
He stands and looks at this young Bandito who knows so little about the merciless cycle. But that's not Clancy up there anymore. He's out there somewhere, and we will try again.
Again?
Always.
And they leave.
But the sun rises in Dema.
The sun has never risen in Dema before.
There is a lot to reflect on here. So, so much. I can't really describe how this end makes me feel, but know that my best friend and I cried on my living room floor the day Breach dropped. The end is heartbreaking. The part of Clancy that will always believe he is alone has won. He succumbed to the cycle.
But there is so much hope here.
Where?
First:
The sun.
The sun has never risen in Dema. This is the first time we see it genuinely sunny. The cycle may be repeating but Dema is better than it was. It is a cycle but it is also a spiral, and Dema is spiraling upwards. It is getting better. Though it is worse for a while now it will never be as bad as it once was.
Second:
Torchbearer.
The hero of the story has never been Clancy. It has always been the Torchbearer. He is constant, kind, merciful, and will never abandon Clancy. He says they will always try again. The young Bandito asks the question we're all asking: Again?
And here is where my last theory comes in.
When the young Bandito asks what he means by "again," Torchbearer says, yes, we will try again. Always again. Because he has done this very thing before. If Dema is a spiral, spiraling upwards, logic follows that there was a spiral before this one, one before that, one before that. This is the last piece of the puzzle. I liked this Clancy. Because there have been other Clancys. This is how Torchbearer knows so much about the past but not about the future. He has done this time and time again for who knows how long. He knows to go back for Clancy because once they find the one who will wield the power, they cannot leave him. Every time, they find the one hidden in Dema who will receive the power to seize. They break him out again and again, until they inevitably end up on Voldsoy. Torchbearer guides this Clancy to the cave, where the Neds will once again give him the power to seize, just like they always do, because they, too, know the cycle. Torchbearer then uses the same plan, modified, better every time, which the other Banditos have known for years. He puts it into motion, he protects each Clancy, and inevitably, he watches as each Clancy gives in. Again and again. He goes back in. He saves. He protects. He watches. He leads. He guides. And he is betrayed. Torchbearer has done this over and over. The last time he did this, the very same thing happened. That Clancy was rescued from Dema, was given the power to seize, and then became a Bishop. That Bishop was Keons. That is why Keons was kind to Clancy. It was no coincidence that Clancy was under Keons. Keons had escaped at one point, but he has no memory of it because the smearing altered his memory so drastically. However, at some point during SAI, he remembers. He supports Clancy. He concocts a plan. He seizes Trash the dragon to attack the ship and let Clancy free because he remembers where he came from. And now Clancy will do the same.
There are only a couple more things for me to tell you. First, the facts. At the end of City Walls, the beginning of Heavydirtysoul plays. Again, it is a cycle. The end of the lore trickles back into the beginning. But the sun is out in Dema now.
Intentions is the "real" end of the lore, meaning it's the last song - it plays at the end of the City Walls music video. If you play Intentions in reverse, you hear Truce, and vice versa. This is another strong reference to the cycle, and adds Truce to the lore story - stay alive.
Lastly, I want to emphasize that this is not a hopeless story of being pulled into the same trap again and again and again. It is full of hope. The Banditos are the hope, always by your side, always fighting with you. The Torchbearer is the hope, never giving up on you, never letting you fall victim to the cycle without a fight. The Banditos are your friends, your family. The sun is the hope, rising, allowing you the chance to try again, knowing you will always get better, knowing it is not as bad as it once was, knowing you have tried and true tactics now.
If Intentions does not allow you to see the happy ending, which is what it did to me, listen to Drag Path. To me, it feels like the real end to the lore. It tells you what I said above: you have been here before, dragged along this horrible terrain, and you created a path for yourself. You will be dragged through it again but it will not be quite as bad because you know it a little better now, and you know it will end so long as you stay alive. Drag Path is a letter to your Torchbearer. You found me. You saved me. I would not be here if it were not for you.
Drag Path reminds you:
You will try again.
Always.
This was honestly such a journey to write. If you read all the way through this, thank you so much. I probably poured over twenty hours of writing, research, and love into this post. This story is very close to me and I am constantly mindblown by it. Tyler and Josh are my heroes and I look up to them so much. I hope you see why after reading all this. Of course, as always, I give all the credit for the story to them.
Some of you know I'm writing a fictional story based on the lore, and if I ever finish it and it's shareable, it will be posted here! Stay tuned!
If you have any questions about the lore, my theories, my books, or literally anything, please please reach out using the contact form below!! I love to hear if I've ever encouraged you guys or helped, and I love to answer questions. Please reach out if you want to!
This was not easy to write and I know it wasn't a piece of cake to read, either. It's over 13,000 words. It's a crash course. A lot of it probably didn't even make sense.
But thank you.
And sahlo folina.
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