Dema
The fictional city ruled by nine bishops at the centre of Twenty One Pilots' Trench story.
Dema is the fictional city at the centre of the storyline Twenty One Pilots introduced with their fifth album, Trench (2018). It lies within the continent of Trench and is ruled by nine bishops led by Nico. The band first mentioned Dema at the 2017 Alternative Press Music Awards, where Josh Dun said Tyler Joseph was "severing ties with Dema". Its name is drawn from dakhma, the "Tower of Silence" of Zoroastrianism.
Lore & Background
The nine bishops of Dema are Nico, Andre, Lisden, Keons, Reisdro, Sacarver, Nills, Vetomo and Listo, and their religion is called Vialism. Nico, the chief bishop, was revealed by Joseph to be Blurryface, the personification of his insecurities from the earlier album of that name. A group who call themselves the Banditos aim to liberate the people of Dema; they wear yellow, a colour the bishops cannot see. The story's protagonist, Clancy, wrote journal entries about his escape from Dema that appeared on the website dmaorg.info in 2018. Joseph has described Trench as a journey between one place, Dema, and whatever comes next.
Reader's Guide
The storyline was expanded in Scaled and Icy (2021) and Clancy (2024) and concluded with Breach (2025). In the video for "The Outside" the bishops execute Keons and a fire breaks out in Dema. On Clancy, the title character returns to Trench to free his fellow citizens of Dema after escaping and being granted a power. In the "Paladin Strait" video he climbs the tower where the nine bishops reside and is confronted by Nico. The video for "City Walls" closes the story: Clancy puts on a bishop's hood, his squad take the roles of the new bishops of Dema, and the Torchbearer leaves the city to find the next Clancy.
More in Lore & History
Elsewhere in Twenty One Pilots
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