#katabasian roemont

[catwyk]

travel doodles part 2!!!! notes and info below if youre interested :]

link to part 1

🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞🦀🦞

picture 1: the cairn maiden!!! i drew her veil on whiteboard ONCE and im obsessed w shading thin drapery now. tbh im just obsessed w drapery

picture 2: headshots of faulkner, roemont, carpenter, and shrue that very much leave something to be desired, but im including them anyway

picture 3: faulkner comforting his father during ep 38 (best s3 episode)

picture 4: PYJAMA FAULKNER !!!! also during ep 38

picture 5: wallace, faulkner and thurrocks attempting to contact the endless drear in ep 22 (best s2 episode). again this leaves somethig to be desired but whooo cares maybe ill adapt it digitally

picture 6: very rough 2-panel comic of faulkner stealing carpenter's pancakes. there was gonna be a third panel where she stabs him with a fork but i fucked it up so badly i had to rip out the whole page. the text reads "couldnt care less" // "still waiting for his food"

picture 7: drawn most of the way through listening to season 3, and you can tell bc im just desparate for carpenter and faulkner to have a happy moment :( this is them going out for coffee together (the text shows that carp has a cappuccino and faulk has a hot chocolate)

picture 8: young em and carpenter playing in the white gull, trying not to fall in :] better times all round. this is another one i wanna digitize

picture 9: an older em and carpenter, where em is cleaning her scraped knee. his speech bubble reads "stop kicking your damn leg."

[mostly-void-partially-song]

Faulkner, weren't you ever taught not to play with your food? (The parallels were too good not to put side by side)

[dumbass-is-my-default]

I love that I usually listen to podcasts while driving because sometimes I’ll be taking a turn on my way home and think “oh hey this is where Roemont died :D”

[eliassimp]

Am i going insane or Katabasian Roemont and Katabasian Greve from Silt Verses kinda similar to Augustine and Mercymorn from the locked tomb???? Or at least they gives the almost same vibes at the beginning???

[downthegenderriver]

The audacity of Roemont accusing Faulkner of hubris when he demands that his own god's angels recognise him despite his achievements being largely administrative and not really his god's problem.

[humanteethmarksonhumanbone]

freaking almost choked on mac n cheese cause asdfhkl roemonts impression of faulkner LMAO omg the goofiest

“🤠🐴we have been mis-layy-ed🪕🤠”

[theboombutton]

GOD I need to stop listening to The Silt Verses right before bed

Not cause it's scary - I mean, it is scary in a way, in several ways, and frankly this episode (33) had its goddamn moments what the fuck - but because I get hype and want to come on here and verbally shake people until they understand.

I'm especially caught right now by the juxtaposition of the Roemont and Val scenes. Frankly, I'm really tired of people acting like how they're remembered is the important part of their lives, and it was INFURIATING to listen to Roemont wax poetic about all the things he's done for the Faith and how all of the work of his life will be undone if future editors of the Verses think Faulkner's story eclipses his, and cut him out as irrelevant. Like. Come the fuck on dude, the work of your life wasn't to do all these things, but rather to continue to receive acclaim for them centuries after you're dead? The complete lack of self-awareness or perspective is distasteful.

But then. The Last Word, the Retcon God. THIS is what it would be to have the work of your life erased. HE is the editor snipping events out of reality itself.

Roemont is whining about how someone he hates is gonna be more popular than him in a century or two, and up north Val is rewriting perceptions on the fly. Roemont is mad some people who never met him will forget that he gave the order to reclaim the Gulch, and up north Val is forcing a woman to forget that her husband and son ever existed, and because she said so, they actually didn't!

God I love this podcast.

[theboombutton]

Peer review

Come, let’s get your coat. It’s raining out. [ID in alt]

[valtsv]

silt verses tarot assignments:

i. the fool - hembry / sid wright

ii. the magician - VAL

iii. the high priestess - nana glass

iv. the empress - the trawlerman & the promised bride

v. the emperor - katabasian mason

vi. the hierophant - hayward

vii. the lovers - mercer and gage* / devereaux and sebastian if you insist on a romantic couple. this podcast doesn't have many options lol.

viii. the chariot - faulkner

ix. strength - brother wharfing

x. the hermit - roake

xi. the wheel of fortune - katabasian roemont

xii. justice - adjudicator shrue

xiii. the hanged man - the children of the woundtree / the many below & dennis duplass

xiv. death - the cairn maiden & stewardess acantha

xv. temperance - sister thurrocks

xvi. the devil - press secretary carson

xvii. the tower - the wither mark

xviii. the star - carpenter

xix. the moon - sibling rane

xx. the sun - vaughan

xxi. judgement - paige

xxii. the world - the god of penda's slake & charity

(*the lovers is not an inherently romantic card, it symbolises unity)

[moonward-bound]

High Katabasian Roemont was so funny. “Don’t you recognize me?” Brother the water expresses both love and hatred through indistinguishable consumption lol. Lmao even.

[catwyk]

nightmare blunt rotation:

katabasian roemont

hembrey

charity's boyfriend

nana glass

devereaux

[lights-at-night]

a chronological analysis of ranefall's relationship

alternately titled, 2373 words of me yapping about ranefall

long post. spoilers for all of tsv s3

on first impression, the relationship between faulkner and rane is that of a prophet and his disciple, a leader and his loyal advisor. rane's introduction is them driving faulkner back to the paraclete's gulch - an act of service, which sets a tone for the rest of their relationship. they say that "it was a true privilege to have seen it with [faulkner]". this establishes that rane and faulkner are not on equal footing, that rane's experience is elevated by faulkner's presence (or perhaps status). 

after this, faulkner persuades rane into telling him about their opinions of the katabasians' council by saying that they are on equal footing. of course, they aren't. but this illusion allows rane to feel like they are permitted to be open with him. faulkner doesn't return this courtesy, not answering rane's question of if legalisation is allowed and instead telling rane something appropriately shocking (a death threat towards him), to perhaps distract. 

 rane continues to act as faulkner's assistant in the next few episodes, bringing him news of the parish. however, chapter 33 marks a gradual change in rane and faulkner's relationship. faulkner's monologue in returning to the paraclete's gulch shows how far he has risen in status within the parish. he isn't just an ambitious fanatic in the eyes of the faith anymore, to them he is a prophet. and he is loved. 

as this is happening, rane takes over more and more of his responsibilities. thirteen sentences of this monologue are dedicated to repeating back what rane has told him. this shows his increase in reliance on rane to tell him about the parish and also likely means that rane is the one who has been finding out all this, giving them a more active role in the parish. at the end of this chapter, rane is the one arranging the ceremony to pray /derogatory for carpenter and they are the one preaching to the worshippers, which likely means that they were in charge of that ceremony and not faulkner. their relationship has become somewhat balanced, though not equal: rane obeys faulkner's orders since he is the high prophet, and faulkner obeys rane's stage directions for his performance. 

this episode is a turning point for rane and faulkner, with rane taking a more active role in leading the parish and faulkner confined to being a extremely prized decoration, an object of worship.

this is what their relationship seems to be at a surface level. but faulkner's monologue in chapter 33 also tells us that he views his status as a prophet as a "performance". he doesn't genuinely believe he is a mouthpiece of the trawlerman. the status that the parish has raised him to is somewhat undeserved. 

whether rane, too, believes that faulkner is in direct communion with the trawlerman is not revealed. they always act like it, but since the only lens we see them through is faulkner's, this is not necessarily an accurate representation of them. it would seem that  rane is loyal to faulkner, for example in their interactions with  roemont. the stage directions in this section state how rane is "placatory", and how in the first scene mentioned their tone is "polite". when asked what they see in faulkner by roemont, they say "i'm not sure i understand", which could be genuine confusion over how roemont doesn't see faulkner's glory, or a way to go forth in the conversation as neutral and not be accused by either side. from this, my guess is that rane has a genuine belief in faulkner, to an extent, but may be doing so only for the sake of politeness, or appearances. 

chapter 38 continues to have their dynamic be in limbo. greve's message to faulkner makes him all the more self aware about his deception. he is reminded unkindly that he is very much alone and no amount of love from his fanatics can change that. 

so faulkner tells rane about his childhood home, making the both of them feel like they are closer. without the pressure of leading the parish, they can pretend they could be friends. given faulkner repeating greve's monologue, i think he talks to rane as a way to remind himself he isn't as alone as she says he is. 

then faulkner tells rane to find him prayermarks to protect from gods. when asked if using the marks of another god is blasphemy to the trawlerman, faulkner replies with "it's not blasphemy if the high prophet does it,". he is still leveraging his title over rane despite his discontent with the role. to him, he says whatever will get him the prayermarks. to rane, it blends faulkner as a person with faulkner the high prophet even more.

at the end of the episode, rane saves faulkner from drowning himself. they ask him if he heard the music. this shows how their faith is at the forefront of rane's mind, not faulkner's wellbeing, and it always has and will be - an attitude they hold throughout the series and which faulkner acknowledges in the drowning scene. faulkner doesn't answer, which is a completely reasonable response in this situation. this is probably the most honest they have been with each other since their meeting, with rane saying what i assume they are thinking and faulkner not lying about his faith in the trawlerman. 

faulkner continues his descent, and rane can see this. they might be making an effort yo keep faulkner alive but the only actions we see them make are to repair faulkner's facade. for example, with sister cull, rane tells her to forget she heard any of that. even though the grand aquifer is run down and, as faulkner says, not grand at all, rane continues to pretend that this is what they've all been waiting for, that their sect of the faith is glorious and winning their civil war, which faulkner tells us. i think this is rane's way of showing care, of trying to lift the burden of performance from faulkner. in chapter 44, they say with honesty that they "saw [faulkner] falter" and that "it is [their] duty to pick him back up," which is what i believe their intentions to be when they carry on faulkner's performance. 

 previously, in e33, they found faulkner near to having a breakdown and faulkner told them it was because direct communion with the trawlerman was taxing. and since they found faulkner in the same place he first heard the trawlerman as a child,, it would be a reasonable assumption for rane to make that faulkner was doing that again. they might not genuinely believe this, but it could be a way for them to make sense of faulkner in a way that aligns with their view of him. so they accept this, try their best to make sure it cannot happen again, because what would be the point of all this if faulkner cannot be what everyone thinks he is? nothing is more important than the faith, and the high prophet is the basis of this entire faith. so they pick up the pieces of faulkner's cracked mask, and tell the devout that everything is fine and good. because of this, rane has completely taken over faulkner's responsibilities at this point. there's a quote from arcane that is applicable here: "when i ask [...] what [he's] up to, your name's the first out of their mouth." rane is practically leading the parish at this point, in all ways save titles. 

a demonstration of how little faulkner's word matters is in chapter 43, where rane pressures faulkner into giving away the withermark and tells their audience to disregard faulkner's words, which the faithful do. this shows faulkner's deterioration not only mentally but also in the eyes of his worshippers. he is not what they believe him to be, and so his words are disregarded easily. as he says himself, the word's won't save [him]. they never could. this scene also works as a reversal of their first meeting, where faulkner pressures rane into telling their true opinions with his status. in contrast here, rane pressures faulkner into telling the truth of the withermark with their status among the faith. this is representative of how their positions are completely swapped, with rane holding significantly more power than faulkner. 

faulkner is aware that they are both performing to a degree. the drowning scene is important because in that scene, faulkner takes advantage of their mutual performance to force rane to drown. faulkner frames his discontent in the role of the high prophet, and hides himself from rane for the final time. he pretends that his rage at their indirect murder of carpenter was because he did not have the opportunity to do so himself: that his anger is out of betrayal from their disobedience and not the remnants of love for his sister. this makes sense to rane, it fits into their view of him - it is stated in the transcripts that "rane understands now." faulkner continues to fit within his persona in this scene - is it not fitting that a prophet name his closest advisor his successor, to give someone so close to him a role of importance? - i believe this is what makes rane realize that something is wrong. faulkner has not put on this role in a while - since his suicide attempt, he puts low to no effort into maintaining how he is regarded by the parish. to pivot from that to this is a drastic change, one that likely has reason put into it. faulkner then pressures rane to join him in the water using the role they made for themself. he calls rane is his "most faithful servant", and tells them that "i wouldn’t want you coming to resent me, sibling rane. not when you’ve worked so hard to get me where i am." he puts rane back into a place beneath him, pretending that rane is not the one in control. the next step in this scene would be, of course, for rane to join faulkner in the water. the transcript states, "rane hesitates. they are most definitely afraid for their life and unwilling to join faulkner in the water...but they don't know how to say it without completely shattering the shared performance of loyalty and trust." this demonstrates that rane is aware that this is a performance and that they are expected to play a role just like faulkner was. since neither of them can let up the performance in front of the other, rane is coerced into going into the water.

faulkner disrobes, symbolic of how he is in a way giving up the act. his high prophet clothes have been representative of his persona since ch33, where he describes the clothes that he wears as the high prophet. rane, previously, had told him that his disciples had sewn him a cassock. he says it is too big for him, and rane says they'll pad out his shoulders. this is a physical representation of how rane reshapes him to serve a purpose for the parish. in this scene, he sheds the physical form of the persona of the high prophet and as he drowns rane, he is once again honest with them. 

this scene also demonstrates well how faulkner views rane as a mirror of himself. rane has parallels to faulkner in season 2, with faulkner comparing him and rane to mason and him. rane is as faulkner once was, an eager disciple who thought they were special, but who now knows better. faulkner also asks rane if they would like to be him multiple times, and when drowning rane says many things that could be applicable as him talking to himself, such as "you’re meant to be born anew, sibling! that’s what this is all about! you’re meant to be DIFFERENT! you’re meant to be BETTER! why aren’t you becoming SOMETHING BETTER?" if we interpret this to be faulkner projecting really hard, in this he expresses frustration towards how becoming high prophet has not somehow shifted him into being a better, greater person. though he calls rane charlie in the final paragraphs of the scene, he could also be talking to himself - "we’re so close, you and I, we’re almost there, we can almost hear the music, and once we hear the music, we’ll understand what it was all about, we’ll finally understand, and all the pain will be worth it, everything will be worth it-" he clings onto the idea that there is something better in his future, and tells rane that as he drowns them. 

this scene is faulkner subjecting rane to what he feels they've done to him. faulkner locking him and rane in the dreaming pools together represents how they are both trapped in their respective roles. faulkner twists his words to force rane into a role that isn't them in a mirror of rane persisting the high prophet facade. by drowning rane, faulkner feels as though he is drowning himself, which gives him some degree of satisfaction, given his suicidal ideation. but all he has achieved is to make himself more alone. 

though faulkner views rane as a perfect mirror, a "better version of [him], perhaps, who falters less and says the right words at the proper time," what rane really is to faulkner is a shadow. faulkner cannot see rane for who they are because he is too caught up in himself, as demonstrated in the drowning scene. we only see rane without faulkner on one occasion, with roemont, and even that is brief. a shadow is an imitation always seen with the one who casts it - as is rane. since rane never gets their own point of view written in the series, what faulkner is to rane is deliberately nebulous. due to faulkner's unreliable narration. rane is viewed through layers of paranoia, self-loathing and projection. we can never truly know what faulkner was to rane, but we can guess. my personal opinion is that rane did care about faulkner, but their idolization of him and prioritisation of the faith made it impossible to form a true bond. 

thanks for reading!

[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.

[thesiltverses]

Chapter 35 of The Silt Verses has landed.

As Hayward and Carpenter begin their long journey to Glottage, Faulkner receives High Katabasian Roemont at the Paraclete's Gulch and prepares to be accepted - at long last - as an elder of the faith.

This episode features Méabh de Brún, Jimmie Yamaguchi, B. Narr, H.R. Owen, Steve Hendrickson, Sophie Lynch and Adam Cassley.

Additional voices by Stephen Zivic, Lou Sutcliffe and Marlon Dance-Hooi.

Music: 'The Promised Bride' by Skip Kent-Davy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44M05LTHL1k

Transcript: https://www.thesiltverses.com/transcript-chapter-35

This episode contains multiple scenes of strong, bloody, crab-related violence and one very brief scene of chewing. (21.00)

[crimeronan]

i think there's something really beautiful about carpenter distancing herself from the trawler man every chance she gets and still getting showered by miracles while faulker, oh he of strong convictions, gets to bring the miracle of the trawler man to everyone around him but never quite gets to ascend to glory himself. i just love that they're both perfectly poised to stare at each other and each think "your goals are backwards and your methodology is dumb and possibly sacrilegious" and then still end up as something close to friends

also let's talk about how, despite these dynamics, at the end of the day, the trawler man is really just trying to give each of them what they want from him.

MMM YEAH. carpenter being beloved by multiple gods despite being such an ornery bitch who wants NOTHING to do with their sacrificial bullshit..... it really gets me. as does faulkner's ongoing crisis of faith and spiral into Faithless Cult Leader (TM). SO GOOD.

perhaps only tangentially related, but.

i've been thinking a lot about faulkner killing roemont lately. i was surprised that roemont's death ended up Breaking My Fucking Heart -- a real testament to his voice actor!! the whole pathetic old man losing everything he's worked for really.... Got To Me. ough. "don't you recognize me?" OUGH.

but i've been thinking about it in the context of faulkner's crisis of faith, too. because like. faulkner Knows that roemont is faithful. he considers roemont a heretic for trying to legalize the worship of the trawler-man, but it's like....

i feel like. killing roemont was a test of the trawler-man that faulkner devised on purpose. because if roemont dies due to the prayer marks that faulkner scrawled, then there are two possibilities:

1. the trawler-man really IS furious that the high katabasians want to legitimize the faith; the trawler-man really IS on faulkner's side; this schism really IS necessary to keep the faith "pure," and faulkner has never done anything wrong;

OR

2. the trawler-man really IS nothing but a mouth. this isn't a god with a plan or with sentience or with feelings, this is just a living river that chews things up and spits them out, and it doesn't care for its followers at all. and if that's the case, then faulkner is betraying nothing by being a faithless cult leader lying repeatedly to his people.

faulkner is devastatingly clever and constantly being underestimated. but he's also completely alone in the world. and he's Desperate for any sign that the choices he's making are the right ones. and he can't find that sign in anybody close to him, because he keeps destroying the lives of those close to him. so he has to devise his own trials....

hrugh. my boy. my boy my boy my boy.