Dema

The bishops are the rulers and controllers of Dema – which is an evil city surrounded by a wall. The bishops are 9 and all have a name :

1. Andre
2. Nico
3. Lisden
4. Nills
5. Listo
6. Keons
7. Reisdro
8. Vetomo
9. Sacarver

As you can see here:

As a group, the 9 bishops are called Niners. Each of the rulers above has one sole motive
– to prevent the inhabitants of Dema from fleeing the city. Keons is most likely the bishop in charge of Clancy and some others, since it’s not a bishop per person but a bishop per group.

To understand the meaning of that map, we need to connect it with “Twenty One Pilots” last album: Blurryface. The cover of that album is very similar with the center of the map: nine circles, each one representing one of its songs.

Each bishop name is found in one of those songs’ lyrics, like “Keons” for “choke on smoke” in Heavydirtysoul and “Sacarver” for “she’s a carver“ in Tear in my heart.

The only one that doesn’t connect with lyrics is “Nico”.

In the famous song Stressed Out, we heard for the first time the name Blurryface.

Blurryface is a character that represents, in it’s eponymous album, the embodiment of the singer’s demons and anxieties. He sometimes interferes in the music videos in the form of Tyler with red eyes in Fairly Local and Stressed Out for example. If you’ve listened Stressed Out, you know the line “My name’s Blurryface and I care what you think“.

We can readily deduct that Nico and the bishops are, like Blurryface, the embodiment of people’s anxieties and demons.

Clancy, who no one knows the actual identity of, once felt admiration for Keons. In fact, he said ” I wasn’t scared. I was relieved. After all that he taught me, his presence was the most conforting moment that I had in days, and I couldn’t help but be happy to see him. ” further ” Keons had always seemed gentle and warm “.

In Dema, the people in the town have a job, which no ones really mentioned what it is. Though it’s probably everyday tasks. Like let the Niners control Dema and never think about another life, and without any rebellion.

But we can be convinced that it doesn’t work, since a revolutionary group who assuredly already escaped from Dema come back to this evil town to give a hand to the prisonners. This group are called the “Banditos” and they are recognized by the fact that they wear yellow clothes.

In NATN, the Banditos lead by Josh, help Tyler escape the city by putting on his shoulders a yellow jumpsuit, because bishops can’t detect anything colored in yellow.

The song’s story is purely a metaphor for the struggle with mental illness (depression, anxiety, etc). The evil city of Dema refers to personality disorder. The bishops that prevent the inhabitants from running and going away from Dema represent the internal struggles of a person suffering from mental illness. In Tyler case, depression and anxiety.

In the letter’s story, Clancy doesn’t want to be controlled by the Niners anymore (and we can assume that he feels the same way that Tyler do in NATN).
This sort of refusal to be controlled can also be found in the line, “when the bishops come together they will know that, Dema don’t control us. Dema don’t control us” in NATN.

In Clancy’s letter by ” gEt out. the compAss lies. they don’t control you. get out. the compaSs lies. They don’t control you. get out. the compass lIeS. they don’t control yoU.get out. the comPass lies. they don’t control you “

Finally, Clancy joins the banditos. We can hope that the same thing happens to Tyler and that Blurryface doesn’t come to take him again.

Stay Alive frens ||-//