#the wound tree

[catwyk]

wound tree martyr doodle from before work ‼️‼️‼️

[doctorloup]

I will die today. I will not die helpless. My death will not amount to nothing. My hand will draw the marks of my revolt. My flesh shall take the great shape of my revenge.

On a bit of a silt verses relisten and the youth have taught me where to find the drawing programs.

[ignitingthesky]

yesterday I was thinking: even though Paige is turning into a tree, wouldn't it be nice if years and years and years later, when new pilgrims pass by the spot that was supposed to be a tree, they see it split open by new growth of crocus flowers?

[pinkelotjeart]

The silt verses chapter 37

I will keep making cool silt verses fanart until more people listen to this podcast, I am desperate.

[in-the-eye-of-the-beholding]

this is a silt verses blog now sorry (go listen to it if you haven't. this post will have spoilers)

I'm having straight up revelations in here, yall.

first I'm thinking about names. about how paige's god had a good, descriptive name, a name that poetically conveyed what it was meant to be. we are the many below, the crushed and trampled, the unseen masses devoured by the system and buried under its weight

but... not a lot of people call it that. it's the wound tree. it's a tree that wounds. that's all it gets to be

and of course it is, because one of the points of paige's story is that the system subsumes criticisms into itself. the moment she put it out there is the moment she lost control of the narrative. it was always going to be the version of itself most convenient to those in power. not a force of justice for the downtrodden, just a force of random, spiteful violence seeking to tear down innocent ordinary people doing their ordinary jobs

the many below were never going to be heard because it is not the narrator of its own story

secondly, with that in mind it occurs to me that VAL is the perfect warsaint, the perfect embodiment of this kind of narrative violence, the perfect distillation of the government's most terrifying and devastating power: the power to retell the narrative as they see fit. the power, if you will, to have the last word.

that unseen yet ever-present god that the cairn maiden describes? the one that's pretty transparently a god of capitalism, or at the very least easily reads as such?

I think we know its name - one of its names, anyway.

because what changes when VAL starts taking the narrative into her own hands, when she refuses to tell the story she's fed, when she begins to refuse cruelty and grasps for defiance, for kindness? she starts leaving out the magic words:

the Last Word tells me so.

[vienna-salvatori]

I just finished the silt verses (absolutely amazing, my heart is broken) and uh. well.

y'know how the episode titles make a poem?

It fits really well if you think it's Paige saying it, around the same time as the closing narration of the final episode. The sentiment matches VERY WELL with her approach to the Wound Tree, and what she's expecting to happen afterwards.

Evidence below the cut

Here's the poem, in full. Particularly relevant lines are bold.

Let me speak first of revelations/ and next of dark deceit Then I'll speak of champions/ of lovers, gods, and beasts My song is long and twisted/ it winds, it worms, it wends It carries few, it drowns many/ and those I love, it rends My song has taken hold of me/ it grips my tongue, my throat My voice cries truths I never knew/ and to fight is just to choke So let me dwell eternal/ and in ruined flesh ascend For my song has no beginning/ and the current flows on without end If I could trace with bloodless fingers/ If my hands could shape the flow I'd bear this song to the precipice/ and rend us both to dust below We'd both go plunging downwards/ One final fall from grace I'd howl, I'd scream, in victory/ And we'd be gone without a trace But we'll never be rid of each other/ my song, my sorrow, and I So I'll bear it trembling onwards/ to drift on, to dream, to die And where my final footsteps fall/ something dreadful shall arise Its gaze shall fall o'er trembling plains/ its wrath shall scald the sun And where once its howling forebears walked/ some day there shall be none The wise man knows the taste of rot/ all lovers part as dust And even the kings in their bowers of steel/ shall wither in ruin and rust This rotten world shall wheeze its last/ this hateful hymn shall cease But as my last breath splits my throat/ I'll wheeze through splintered teeth One last song of revelations/ of prophets' dark deceptions Of love, and gods' defeat Of love, and gods' defeat

and those I love, it rends: Pretty self explanatory. Paige has no idea what actually killed Shrue, Hayward, or Carpenter. Or Faulkner, for that matter... but she knows Shrue was killed while uttering the prayer-marks of their god, so assuming she was hallowed by it is a pretty reasonable guess. She knows Hayward martyred himself to buy her time. Her god already claimed her father's life, and as far as she knows, probably took Hayward at a minimum too. Even if they weren't claimed by it directly, they still died in service to, or as a result of, the cause of the god she decided to champion.

So let me dwell eternal/ and in ruined flesh ascend: "ascend" very much brings to mind sainthood or hallowing, and there are VERY few people who would talk like they're a) expecting that to happen and b) are actually pretty unbothered by the concept. Paige knows she's doomed, and she's come to accept that.

But we'll never be rid of each other: Acantha/The Cairn Maiden explicitly confirms this in chapter 41: Paige won't be free of her god, in either life or death.

And where my final footsteps fall/ something dreadful shall arise Its gaze shall fall o'er trembling plains/ its wrath shall scald the sun And where once its howling forebears walked/ some day there shall be none and This rotten world shall wheeze its last/ this hateful hymn shall cease Paige's conversation with The Cairn Maiden pretty much confirms this, too. She knows: a) Paige's own death is coming. She already has plants growing out of her own body, her transformation is not really in doubt at this point. b) the wound tree is already starving, and raging against the world as it does so- Paige, as its prophet, has a front-row seat to this. The Cairn Maiden confirms that this is common behaviour for a dying god. c) All gods die. All gods will die, in the end, and Paige's movement will be a part of that. d) The Cairn Maiden was waiting for the god-winds to die down. They did, in the finale, thanks to Val.

So: Paige knows her ending is here, on the now-silent plains. She knows her god is dying already, and she has set the plans in motion to make sure it does die. She will transform, and it will rage, but eventually- eventually- it will die, and so will all the other gods.

Howling forebears, splintered teeth- a minor point, here, but the word choice is specific: "howling forebears" is clearly a reference to the god-winds, now quieted in the Grace and blowing elsewhere. "Splintered teeth" is interesting because Paige mentions "broken teeth" as one of the features of her inevitable transformation in her closing narration. We also get "trembling plains" in the poem, and while I think the only reference to this area as "plains" is in the transcript, it does fit with the environment.

Obviously the poem is about the Silt Verses as a whole, too- the Carpenter and Faulkner relationship is evident in the titles as well- but if this thing exists in universe, I'm pretty damn sure that Paige is the one reciting it.

[tinybrownie]

"I’ve been changing, too.

My veins are dark, like roots. They’re moving beneath my skin."

[wolfswitcheryanimations]

Quite a burden you have on your shoulders

The mother of an unwanted god

[kenniex2]

The guy from it breaths it bleeds it breeds 🤝 Paige Duplass 🤝 Daniel Powel 🤝 Arthur Lester

Mother Mary metaphor to the inhuman Jesus stand-in eating me from the inside out

[dissolving-mansion]

thinking about the parallels between Val and the Wound Tree. Shouldn't monsters be allowed to hate their creators for being just as bad as them?

[catwyk]

saint esther, first saint of the many below wound tree

once again, thank you so much to @spectralanomally for advising me on her wounds !!

speedpaint here

[thedapperbard]

With the caveat I already have tattoos and am looking for my next and the silt verses is very dear to me and I am devastated by its ending

[catilinas]

The wind blows their ghosts to the ground

line (loosely a translation of iliad 6.146-9) from memorial by alice oswald, embroidered onto a ginkgo leaf i found on the ground

[pinkelotjeart]

The silt verses but Hayward and Paige hold a gender reveal for their new god.

[linka-from-captain-planet]

most important ship in the game

[vaultnewt]

Giggling like a madman and twirling my hair every time Arcade Gannon speaks but immediately shaking my head and sighing exasperatedly afterwards so everybody in the general vicinity knows that I disapprove of his voice actor