#katabasian Mason

[catwyk]

revelations based on shitposting in the discord

[pinkelotjeart]

Silt verses meme/vine comp inspired by @thermodynamic-comedian

[eyesteeth]

lost your appetite, hm?

[mostly-void-partially-song]

I have Silt on the brain still and think I need to make a playlist for this. If anyone has any suggestions that speak to them re: the world, plot, characters of the show please comment or tag them!!!! I'll post the playlist link once it has at least a dozen songs in it haha

[selwynsel]

so were roemont n mason fucking

[slightlyspooky]

God damn it Faulkner

[whod-win-pods]

Who’d win in a chess match between Katabasian Mason and Jonah Magnus?

[aregebidan]

i might have missed another usage of "schism" in the podcast but they're rare enough that these are the only ones i've spotted so far. if the word "schism" in TSV specifically refers to a literal splitting of the nature of a god between groups of believers, it would be. very interesting to say the least to see how a potential schism interacts with the trawler-man's already dual nature (and possibly be relevant to his erratic behavior with carpenter + the disciples who were eaten along with the sacrifices?)

[tibialtybalt]

He's so embarrassing

[valtsv]

top 5 favourite characters in the silt verses and why you like them?

VAL - i have a whole tag for her so i'm not even going to bother trying to condense my feelings for her further

Carpenter - ironically, i first started to fall in love with her after listening to her monologue about how people will refuse to allow you agency in your aromanticism because of their own insecurities and resentment that you rejected them (that they werren't special). every episode since i've fallen in love with her a little more. she's a loser. she's a serial killer. she doesn't give a shit what you think. she cares, not even that deep down, so goddamn much that it's killing her. she can't just let things happen because "that's just the way things are". i understand why she has actual gods fighting over her, let alone people. if i was friends with mallory carpenter i would be so obnoxious about it. which is why - apart from the fact that she's not real - i'm not.

Paige - you can't really get more "put your money where your mouth is" than birthing a whole entire god in a misguided but well-intentioned attempt to fight injustice and provide victims with a materially achievable means of fighting back against their oppressors. i love transfems experiencing postpartum depression and infanticidal urges towards their own horrifying god-child they regret bringing into the world.

Katabasian Greve - i love schemers i love people who take advantage of every hand they're dealt i love manipulators who let other people do their dirty work for them before stepping in to reap the rewards i love leaders who lie and backstab and ruthlessly cut a path through anyone who stands in their way, foe and follower alike. i know she and mason had THE craziest gossip seshes.

Gage - i didn't really think that much of them until they started questioning their life's purpose outside of being bonded to their sister by a combination of trauma and complicity, culminating in a necessarily violent separation, but goddamn. cain and abel who?

[catwyk]

The Traditional Garb of the Parish of Tide and Flesh

Part 2: The Katabasians

these guys were SO MUCH FUN to do!!!! they were also extremely fiddly and time consuming, but i hope it was worth it :]

click for quality and check the following links for the other designs in this series!!

Part 1: The Parishoners

Part 3: The High Prophet

[monstrousproductions]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I had just finished the latest tsv episode and. well first of all I wanted to congratulate you on the absolute stellar performance of getting drowned. Very disturbing (overwhelmingly positive)

I can't stop thinking about why Rane would get in the water with a shark. You knew he tried to drown himself before and now you stand before him (the other Faulkner, his warped reflection, the bride to his trawlerman) and he's asking you to get in, it's fine, the water isn't even that deep here!

The faith! The trust! Like Faulkner said, it's eating them all but he's the only one awake to hear the bones crunch. I truly believe Rane expected him to do something unhinged in that pool, but either trusted him enough to believe the katabasian bait or thought themself physically able to overwhelm him should the need arise. Except they didn't know he's done that before! How could they? And they still tapped his arm even when they knew he had murdered Mason.

The anglerfishery of it all.

This is the best death for Rane I could imagine. They're one of my favourite characters: a pragmatic fanatic, so terribly faithful and treacherous at the same time, utterly fascinating in their devotion.

I wish that when Faulkner looked down at Rane through the mirror of the surface, he finally saw something other than his own face. I don't think that's the case though, and that, too - him taking away their personhood during the last moments of their life, is part of Rane's tragedy. This is his revenge - for killing Carpenter, for making him into a hollow mouthpiece, for pulling him out of that tank. And they're not even allowed to die as Rane - they die as Charlie, as Faulkner 2, as Mason, as sister Thurox. Terrible! I love it!

Sorry for the ramblings. I just really, really enjoyed Rane. Once again congrats!

No need to apologise, I'm certainly not going to complain about people messaging me to be nice about my performance! Thank you so much 💖

Honestly I think Jon deserves so much praise for Rane - all his characters feel so rich, even if we don't see that much of them "on screen" so to speak. It's easy to feel like even the relatively small roles in TSV are fully realised, fleshed-out people with rich inner lives, even if we never really see that side of them. And I think he's made a show that invites you engage in that if you want to, so that you can approach Rane and ask what their motivations are and why they might make the choices they do, and have fun chewing on that.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, and again for being so kind about the performance! I loved playing Rane, can't wait to revive the character in The Tequila Verses, the upcoming TSV spin-off sit-com set in Rane's crab-themed, beachfront cocktail bar they open after surviving Faulkner's attack.

[misstrashchan]

So... Please tell me I'm not the only who has Thoughts. About Hayward's plan to recruit Shrue and specifically Carpenter's involvement in it because. Adjudicator Shrue has been working to legalise the Trawler-Man's people and was working with Mason and the current Katabasions. Before that they were trying to eradicate them, being the one to hire and send out Mercer and Gage with their own platoon of soldiers.

Which brings us to Faulkner and his murder of Mason and Thurrocks, his opposition to the Katabasions plans to legalise them and let the Withermark and their people be used as a weapon of war, and the story he spins pinning the murders on Carpenter, painting her as a traitor who was working with the legal authorities (aka Shrue) and undermining them:

FAULKNER:

I could never have imagined that the Legislatures could have won her over to their cause.

It was Sister Carpenter who alerted the government’s forces to the location of the Paraclete’s Gulch. 

(With a weary finality)

But they had, and of course her return was no coincidence at all.

It was Sister Carpenter who attempted to undermine our defences from within.

And after their attack failed, thanks to the combined strength of our disciples…it was Sister Carpenter who waited for a moment when the entire Gulch was gathered below in joyful celebration, and she assassinated Katabasian Mason and poor Sister Thurrocks.

(3x01 Something Dreadful Shall Arise)

And we know how strongly Carpenter feels about the idea that she would ever work with the government legislatures against the people who were once her family, how angry she is that Faulkner has written a story that has made that lie true:

CARPENTER:

You think I’d ever make peace with the people who did it? You think I’d work with them against my own family? 

Against my brother, my parents, my grandmother?

You think I wouldn’t have put a bullet in my own skull already if I had that weight pulling me down?

And I think it's important to point out that Carpenter has no idea why Faulkner killed Mason and Thurrocks. She doesn't know anything about Mason and the other Katabasisons plans to legalise their god by proving themselves useful as a tool in the war. But we do know that in the past, when the idea of legalising the Trawler-Man was brought up before in S1 by Paige as a more peaceful way forward, she loathed the idea as much as Faulkner:

PAIGE:

But this is what's absurd, isn't it? We're talking about ancient history. Laws from 50 years back, long dead legislatures.

They're accepting new faiths back into the canon all the time now. You just need to get your god's name on a petition and-

CARPENTER:

Listen to her, Faulkner. "Our god's name, on a petition". Well. Why shouldn't we be reasonable about all this? Now that the Peninsula is ready to hear our case?

Why shouldn't we go through the proper channels? Why shouldn't they be allowed to get away with it?

FAULKNER:

Carpenter, let's keep this quiet...

CARPENTER:

My parents were dragged in shackles to the Saints hydroelectric dam, a year after I was born. They were dragged there, they were sentenced, and they were tossed off the side into the churning waters.

And the last words that they ever heard were that they were to be devoured by something that they did not understand. Because the dam was new, and on unconsecrated, and because a god must feed, and because these false faith renegades from deep in the fens made for the easiest sacrifices.

I will not hear that the world is a better place than it was because there is process. I won't and I can't.

(1x12 And To Fight Is Just to Choke)

And now Carpenter is with Hayward, and are headed towards Adjudicator Shrue to try and work with them so they can help the Woundtree seem more sympathetic and have someone who can better tell their story, as it were.

Carpenter is still being hunted by Faulkner's schism, only being given a break by being in a no man's land, only now she won't be, as she's heading into Glottage.

CARPENTER:

(Staring out of the window)

If we stayed on this road heading south, we’d make it down to Marcel’s Crossing by nightfall.

Another day’s driving, and we’d be at the Paraclete’s Gulch.

(3x06 The Wise Man Knows the Taste of Rot)

So the next time Faulkner hears about Carpenter, it's going to be about how gosh, you were right all along Katabasion Faulkner, that devious Carpenter is working with the same government official who tried to eradicate us and who is now trying to legalize us to use as a tool in their war! (that's not even mentioning she'll be seen with Hayward as well, who as far as Faulkner is aware is the cop who was hunting them down back in S1) And Faulkner is just gonna be like

Wondering if he told his lie about Carpenter working with the legal authorities undermine the Parish of Tide and Flesh so convicingly that he made it into the truth and what's that? IT'S THE FOILING TO VAL AND THE LAST WORD WITH A STEEL CHAIR READY TO BEAT ME SENSELESS-

[mostly-void-partially-song]

i want to put Faulkner under a microscope. i want to see a write up on his psychological profile. i want to open him up and see whats going on in there.

he's been affected by the trawler man since at least the water-butt at whatever teen age he was. drowned his brother. left home and found the Parish without getting Got by the authorities somehow. finished growing up in Catholic River God Seminary. offered to kill Carpenter for the Trawler man for not being faithful enough. killed a motel guy bc he romanticized religious murders and had no concept of the consequences (due to being radicalized by the Parish?). thought that the crab monster angel wouldn't hurt him due to his ✨ faith ✨ and then damn near died bc the big ass crab didn't care. decided the only way to fix the situation (being chased by cops) was to wipe some town off the fucking map, but isn't actually as evil as he wishes he were and so he wimped out. helped Carpenter push-pull-taunt their god into wiping that same town off the map saving the day. thinks Carpenter died and so returned to the Parish knowing that Katabasian Mason wanted him dead. gets sent on a suicide mission with like 8 teens by Mason, survives AGAIN (the teens don't), links up with Carpenter, and comes back to murder Mason. consequences, once again, were not thought of so he pins the murder in Carpenter and takes over the river cult Parish. killed Roemont by stopping the man's assassination attempt and, hid crab-nip on him, and let the man drive straight into river of crab angels to be torn apart. declared himself high prophet like any good cult leader. immediately started to hate it and lose his faith (lol). loyal Sibling Rane hid him at his childhood home following the assassination. it took all of maybe 2-3 days for his neglectful dad with dementia to give in to a death god ("all gods are gods of death, Richard") IN FRONT OF HIM. Faulkner tried to drown himself in the same water-butt he had killed his brother in but was pulled out by Rane. he's convinced to give out the crab nuke codes only to immediately find out it will kill Carpenter who he had sibling bonded with (prior to putting out a hit on her). he drowned Rane for them forcing the crab nuke issue but was also (not literally) trying to drown Charlie/The High Prophet Faulkner.

[the-light-of-stars]

saw someone in the TSV fandom try to localise the podcast into dutch so I tried localising some of the names in it into german as well!

to localise the Silt Verses into german I'd associate the Peninsula with northern and the CLS with southern germany, since there's notable differences in naming traditions between the regions so just from hearing a name a german person can tell what region it likely is from - so since the Trawlerman's faith and all its associations with water and silt is in the peninsula, and the CLS are their rivals? northern and southern germany.

The silt verses - Die Schlick Verse

The Peninsula - Das Binnenkap

The Consolidated Linger Straits - Die konsolidierten/konföderierten Harrweiler

Glottage - Glotthaag /Glotthacht

Nesh - Neusch

The Trawlerman - Der Dreggemann

The parish of tide and flesh - Die Probstei von Tide und Fleisch/ Der Sprengel von Tide und Fleisch (both are protestant words, idk what's more common in northern germany)

Sister Carpenter - Schwester Zimmermann

Brother Faulkner - Bruder Falkner

Katabasian Mason - Katabase Steinmetz (or Maurer, but Steinmetz sounds more historical and official)

Mallory Glass - Mareike/Mareeke Gleske

Richard (?) - also just Richard

James Hayward - Jens Heuwert/Heiwert

Paige Duplass - Elisabeth Angerer

I have reasonings for all of these but I figured I'd just post a summary for now

[thesiltverses]

does a plot summary of the silt verses exist anywhere? I listened to the last 2 seasons but since have gotten somewhat concussed and forgotten. most of the plot

We put out an audio recap last week in the feed, but a quick written summary of Seasons 1&2 would be (under the cut for spoilers)

Season 1:

Carpenter and Faulkner, two acolytes of the illegal river-god known as the Trawler-man in a nation known as the Peninsula, are heading upriver in search of signs of their fragmented and scattered faith.

Along the way, they discover friendship, kidnap a disillusioned office worker from the neighbouring nation of the Linger Straits (Paige), and are pursued by Hayward, a hangdog police officer.

Carpenter decides she needs to quit the faith. Faulkner confesses his ambitions of becoming a great leader of their shared religion and drops some of the frenzied zealotry.

In the end, they uncover the Wither Mark, a powerful prayer to their river-god, which has been used to obliterate an entire town.

Cornered, they call upon the river's wrath and are swept apart in the flood.

Season 2:

Returning to the Parish of Tide and Flesh and relaunching himself as 'prophet of the river', Faulkner quickly becomes a thorn in his superior Katabasian Mason's side and is sent out on a dangerous mission.

Carpenter, waking far to the south, is introduced to the Cairn Maiden, a god of death who appears to have taken a special interest in her. She, too, is given a dangerous mission (PARALLELS) - to carry a moaning, screaming corpse back to the White Gull river.

Hayward, having fled to the Linger Straits, meets up with Paige and joins her crusade to create a new god of martyrs that sacrificial victims can use to protect themselves.

This goes, perhaps, a little too well, and after one terrorist attack against a prison, Paige and Hayward find themselves fleeing back to the Peninsula, leaving behind them one deadbeat, dead dad.

In the capital of Glottage, a politician by the name of Shrue recruits a pair of god-hunters, Mercer and Gage, to track down the Parish's people.

(Along the way across both seasons, it becomes increasingly clear that war is imminent between the Peninsula and Linger Straits. At the end of the season, it breaks out.)

Carpenter and Faulkner end up reuniting to try and defend the Parish's people against the government's forces - an attack which is unexpectedly called off.

As Carpenter buries her corpse and comes to terms with the possibility of a peaceful life and an end to her struggles, Faulkner is heralded as a hero of the faith.

It turns out that Katabasian Mason has negotiated with Shrue to legalise the Parish, using the coming war as leverage.

Furious at having his dreams of leading the Parish as a prophet and a war hero stolen from him, Faulkner murders Mason, and in desperation blames Carpenter for the deed.

Carpenter flees. Faulkner remains a hero. Paige and Hayward wash up on the Peninsula's shores. War is here.