2015 – The beginning of Blurryface
If you have never followed the story hidden throughout Twenty One Pilots music, the easiest place to begin is not with Dema, not with Trench, not with Clancy.
It begins with a face, a blurry one.
In 2015, Twenty One Pilots released their fourth studio album, Blurryface. At the time, there was no way for us fans to know just how important this album would eventually become.
Looking back, however, Blurryface is the first major piece of a story that would eventually grow into a fictional world involving a city called Dema, nine Bishops, a mysterious continent called Trench, a rebellion, a character named Clancy, and a conflict that would take a decade to reach its conclusion.
But the story did not arrive all at once, in 2015 there was no explanation of Dema, no map of Trench. There was simply the introduction of Blurryface, and understanding Blurryface is the key to understanding everything that comes later.
Tyler Joseph described Blurryface as a character representing the things he felt insecure about. In other words, Blurryface wasn’t introduced as a villain living somewhere in a fictional city. He was an embodiment of insecurity.
That distinction is important because the later lore builds a literal world around something that originally worked as a personal metaphor. The story we eventually learn is doing two things at once.
On one hand there is a fictional narrative, on another, the fictional narrative is a way of giving physical form to internal struggles.
March 2015 – Blurryface Appears
Our first step into this new world came on March 16, 2015, when Twenty One Pilots released the music video for their new song, “Fairly Local.”
The song itself also serving as the first single from the upcoming Blurryface album.
Visually, Tyler Joseph is surrounded by darkness, snow falls inside what appears to be an abandoned building, Josh Dun sits behind his drums……and Tyler’s hands and neck are covered in black paint.
The paint would become one of the defining visual symbols of the entire era.
At this point someone might reasonably ask: Why is he covered in black?
The answer as we would learn is Blurryface.
Black paint represents the presence of the character and becomes a physical way of showing the influence that Blurryface has over Tyler, but the video does not explain this through a conventional plot.
Tyler’s behavior becomes increasingly frantic, the environment seems to react around him, Josh’s drums are eventually flying away from him, disappearing into the darkness, and Tyler appears caught between control and resistance.
The important thing is that the video introduces the conflict that will eventually become the foundation of the larger story. At the time, this was simply the beginning of the Blurryface era.
Who Is Blurryface?
The name itself comes from the album, but Blurryface is more than a title.
Tyler described the character as a representation of insecurity, the collection of things that can make a person feel inadequate, afraid, trapped, or uncertain about themselves.
This gives us the first important rule for understanding the lore: Blurryface is both a character and an idea.
It becomes increasingly important as the story develops. We will eventually learn that he is connected to a character named Nico, that he is one of the Bishops, and that he rules over the city of Dema. But if we start the story by pretending that all of that information was already established in 2015, we lose something important.
We lose the fact that the audience did not receive a complete encyclopedia explaining the world on day one. Instead, the band kept adding pieces.
That is why the Blurryface era needs to be understood on its own terms before we connect it to later mythology.
Black paint is probably the most recognisable visual element of the Blurryface era. Tyler repeatedly appears with black paint covering his hands and extending up his neck.
The hands are particularly significant because Tyler has explained that his insecurities are connected not only to what he feels, but also to the things he creates. The idea is simple: Blurryface affects what Tyler creates.
The character isn’t simply standing outside him and attacking him, the struggle is intertwined with his identity and his creativity.
“Stressed Out”
If “Fairly Local” introduces the visual presence of Blurryface, “Stressed Out” makes the character much easier to understand.
Released as a video on April 27th 2015
Tyler and Josh return to their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, they ride around the neighbourhood. The imagery is ordinary, and that is the entire point.
“Stressed Out” deals with the fear of growing older and the pressure that comes with adulthood. The song contrasts the simplicity people associate with childhood against the expectations that arrive later in life.
But Blurryface is still present, the black paint appears again on Tyler’s hands and neck, and throughout parts of the song Tyler’s voice becomes distorted and low while singing about these insecurities.
Another major part of the Blurryface era is its use of red. Red becomes heavily associated with Blurryface and the imagery surrounding him. The era’s visual identity contrasts darker imagery with strong red elements, and fans quickly began noticing that the colour appeared repeatedly throughout the band’s presentation of the album.
The First Bishop Clue
There is one detail from the Blurryface album that becomes much more important once the later lore is revealed.
Hidden within the lyrics of several songs are names associated with the Nine Bishops.
The names eventually identified are:
- Andre
- Lisden
- Keons
- Nico
- Reisdro
- Sacarver
- Nills
- Vetomo
- Listo
The names are found across different songs, with individual letters or sequences forming the names. Findings of the later Dema material connects the names to specific songs including “Fairly Local,” “Polarize,” “Heavydirtysoul,” “Stressed Out,” “Doubt,” “Tear in My Heart,” “Goner,” “Lane Boy,” and “Ride.”
And one of those names is the most important of all
Nico
Who Is Nico?
At this point in the timeline, we do not yet know, this is worth emphasizing.
A chronological lore guide should not introduce information before the story itself has earned it.
We now know that Nico is another name for Blurryface, we know that he is the leader of the Bishops, we know that he becomes the primary antagonist of the Dema storyline, but none of that should be treated as something a person discovering Blurryface in 2015 would necessarily have understood.
The Blurryface Account
The Blurryface era also included a strange and increasingly cryptic online presence associated with the twitter name @blurryface.
This account appeared before the album was announced and began posting unusual, sometimes cryptic material during the album rollout. Fans at the time attempted to decipher the images and messages and determine what they meant.
The band had begun creating an environment where fans were encouraged to look for connections outside the music itself.
Blurryface era represents the beginning of something bigger than a concept album. Fans were no longer only listening, they were searching, comparing images, asking whether something hidden was happening behind the music.
And eventually, those questions would lead somewhere.
The Most Important Thing To Understand From 2015
If you remember only one thing from this first part, remember this:
Blurryface begins as the personification of insecurity.
He is not introduced as “the ruler of Dema,” not as “Nico, the leader of nine Bishops.”
He is introduced as something much closer to a representation of the fears and insecurities that can take control of a person’s life.
The later lore doesn’t erase that original meaning, it builds upon it.
Imagine discovering the story in real time.
We have an album called Blurryface, you have a strange character, Tyler covered in black paint, the colour red appearing everywhere throughout the era, and strange online messages.
You don’t know where any of it is going.
Don’t know about a city, about a rebellion, about a boy named Clancy.
And don’t know that one day the name Nico will be revealed to belong to the character you’ve been watching all along.
That is exactly where the story begins.
The Timeline So Far
March 2015
“Fairly Local” music video introduces the visual identity of the Blurryface era, including the black paint associated with Blurryface..
April 2015
“Tear in My Heart” and “Stressed Out” follow, expanding the album’s visual and thematic world.
May 2015
The single “Ride” is released along with a music video. Blurryface is also released.
2015 onward
Fans begin uncovering connections between the album’s lyrics, imagery, online material and the mysterious identity of Blurryface. And that is where we leave 2015. Not with the answers, but with the first real questions.
Because the next stage of the story will take the idea of Blurryface, a face given to insecurity, and begin turning it into something much more literal.
The world around him is about to become much bigger.
And eventually, we’re going to find a city.
Its name is Dema.