“East is up. I’m fearless when I hear this on the low.” – Twenty One Pilots, Nico and the Niners 

Introduction

Ah, yes. Here we are again. Analyzing the lore of Twenty One Pilots’ make believe world, Dema. The darkness of the bishops, and the yearning for freedom from the banditos. There’s “Clancy Letters” and song lyrics, as always. Except this time, we escape.

* disclaimer – read the other two Dema articles first 🙂 *

The Escape Route

Before Trench was released in 2018, we again received a “letter from Clancy”. In previous letters, he discussed feelings of confusion and loss being in the hands of the bishops. In this letter, he wrote about how the banditos planned to escape. He explained, “There’s no chance that we can step through unnoticed…They’re asleep…We’ll make sure that all of us are noticed”, then later, “We know that we must go low…They don’t control us.”

But why would they want to go completely noticed? Why are they going low?

Well, this directly correlates to the Trench single, “Nico and the Niners”.

In this song, we get this bridge:

“What a beautiful day for making a break for it…Start a concert, a complete diversion. Start a mob and you can be quite certain we’ll win but not everyone will get out.”

And this chorus:

“I’m lighter when I’m lower…When bishops come together they will know that Dema don’t control us. East is up.”

In the letter, Clancy is expressing their need to escape Dema. He understands that in order to get out, they have to be noticed. There are only nine bishops. Even with the watchers, not every single bandito would get captured. They may lose some of their people, but they expect it. They’re ready for it. They know that those sacrifices need to be made for the betterment of their people. Whatever it takes to escape confinement. They know they need to stay low, yet noticed, go east, and accept life altering sacrifices.

Conclusion

This brief look into the depths of Nico and the Niners is an EXTREMELY important part to our story of Dema and the Banditos. So important that I had to keep it separate from the “Dema: Welcome to Trench” article. It definitely wasn’t because I forgot to include it. Anyway, stay tuned for the biggest, most complex section of Dema: Scaled and Icy.