wil

LORE!

[deathcrawling]

hi!! my name is wil, they/it.

this is my side blog where i discuss the lore that surrounds the band I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME (idkhow). ive made a website thats dedicated to the general ideas of the lore which you can find here (warning it is outdated, im working on something new!)

please feel free to reach out to me regarding any questions or comments related to lore! :3

main blog: @fadeyouout

[deathcrawling]

Wait so is Dallon canonically dead or is it a metaphorical thing

as far as i know, it has not been confirmed that dallon in dead in the lore. myself and @temporalarts have a theory that tellexx's experiments lead to dallons death, causing him to become pride. but also, it can 100% be a metaphorical thing as well! theres unfortunately not enough information to have a solid theory

[temporalarts]

lore dallon weekes your swag is too different they'll kill you (personal theory is that he died after razzmatazz and the area we see the gloom division in is some sort of purgatory but as wil said not confirmed)

[deathcrawling]

What are your top lore questions that you want answered or to be explored in future albums?

great question! i have a TON and i hope some get answered during the vip qna this upcoming tour!

1. in what order did the sins come into existence?

2. whats the backstory of each sin, who were they, how did they end up being a sin?

3. is hart harley jarvis apart of the lore?

4. are the infatuation and what love music videos canon to lore?

5. how does the gloom (the goop on dallons hands) work? what is it? is it dangerous?

6. what was the original concept for gloom division lore? how was it supposed to tie into the other albums?

7. how do the sins fit into tellexx? what exactly are they supposed to do?

8. how long have the sins existed for in idkhow lore? are they recent, or were they kept secret from us?

[deathcrawling]

Wait so is Dallon canonically dead or is it a metaphorical thing

as far as i know, it has not been confirmed that dallon in dead in the lore. myself and @temporalarts have a theory that tellexx's experiments lead to dallons death, causing him to become pride. but also, it can 100% be a metaphorical thing as well! theres unfortunately not enough information to have a solid theory

[deathcrawling]

some lore stuff confirmed on twitter!

[deathcrawling]

Regarding The Sins, I've been having a hard time deciphering which one is which. I know after all, that many others and I, thought Dallon initially would have been Lust. That is, before more information came to light. So I'm just going to be drafting up some of the information I've thought about both in favor and against certain ideas. Perhaps pooling together information will help everyone eliminate and determine suspects. My two strongest contenders of assigning which sins to which is what Maya posted:

They raised a lot of great points while we were talking and making our theories which I will be going into. My second assignments would be this:

Personally, I agree with Gluttony being assigned to Hat and would honestly love it to be that. I really liked how Maya brought up how thin Hat looks, which is a great detail that I can see being in favor of Gluttony. Tangentially, I would love their cool character design of them having a scary mouth to be canon. Haha. Considering lore precedence I feel like there could be details pointing to Hat maybe being assigned Greed. Which would be odd, but possible. After all in the teasers for What Love we were show the book, King of the Golden River. Which is all about how Greed threatens to destroy the river and kindness brings it back.

https://x.com/iDKHOW/status/1707442738982224209

Notably in the teasers and featured in the music video is this black silhouette with a similar hat! I feel like from a lore/ARG standpoint it would be a bit strange to have 2 seemingly vague but significant characters with a shared design feature. However, it could be argued that the silhouette in What Love does look slightly different. Perhaps there are two silly hat guys, haha. And on a personal note, I feel like it would make most sense for Greed to be the guy who literally looks like a bandit or the *silver* mask. Maya also made a great point for the farthest left sin being Envy, considering how they look judgmental, and as we joked, like a hater. They are also the only one with their face fully exposed, which could lend credence to that! After all they are stuck with their true face while everyone else is able to conceal more of themselves. I initially thought that its possible for the person on the very left to be Sloth. Considering how far away they are standing from the rest of the group. It would also be funny character design wise as they have what looks like a cape or cloak billowing. But them being the only one with a facial expression being conveyed lends higher credence in my opinion to them being Envy.

Second most likely to be Envy would, just in my opinion, be Silver Mask. The mask imagery would work well for Envy. Interpreting it as insecurity as we can see nothing of their actual self. A false face; them wanting and having something silver and perfect to represent them. Them becoming that representation to the point that its uncanny and they aren't anywhere closer to having that visage in reality. Regarding the second assignment I'm very unsure where it leaves us for the Bandit looking character. I know lots of parallels are made between greed and gluttony in discussion of the sins in general, and many representations can treat them similarly. Perhaps Bandit is Gluttony but I am unconfident in this. All of this is hard to say! I can see so many interpretations. I feel pretty confident about which is Wrath but for all I know he could be Sloth, Gluttony, etc! There are 25 possible combinations for The Sins. I'm going to be doing more research but this is what I have so far! Let me know what you think.

hello! i am so sorry im getting to this late- especially after the sins have *technically* been confirmed!

the hat figure and the tall black hole looking figure were my 2 biggest mysteries.

with lust being confirmed as the sunglasses lady, dallon representing pride, i figured out basically all of the other sins on my own.

i figured dead white eyes was wrath due to the possible costume inspo from Zorro (movie), as well as the character motivations that are very much similar to the feelings of wrath.

greed, having a silver (or gold?) mask, which is the only physical form of possible money worthiness we see in this whole picture.

then sloth, being the furthest away from the group. not giving any care to others, being "lazy", not wanting attention.

so then i was left with envy and gluttony, at first i thought gluttony was hat person, and envy was the tall, black hole like figure. which is what i posted at first, but then the more i thought about it, the more it made sense for envy to be the hat person. being envious is wanting what someone else has, its a feeling of jealousy in a way. with the hole (face) looking through a veil has that distorts things around them as better, to be envious of.

which then left the tall looming black figure, and gluttony as my final ones. i didnt really have any rhyme or reason behind it, it was the last ones i had left so thats what i left it as. i posted my guesses + art on instagram and dallon left a comment on the idkhow account, which basically confirmed my guesses. so these are what we have for the sins (pictured below).

i hope this response makes sense haha, please let me know if you want any clarification on anything!

[deathcrawling]

ive seen a lot of people sharing their guesses for the sins so i thought id share mine!

[deathcrawling]

updated version of the sins! with dallon basically confirming lore, this is who we have as the sins!

[temporalarts]

hi!! idkhow-lore-related question here. about the time travel aspect. does the order that the mv's came out in matter chronologically? like, is it supposed to be treated like one long story when binged? is there even a set storyline?

great question! basically, not really? in very complicated answer:

idkhow's timeline is meant and described officially as "pure madness" because the music videos are strewn across multiple decades with no indication of what came before or after one another because of idkhow/tellexx use of time travel. all music videos don't have an continuous story that can be followed (except three, will get into that below), but is instead better to look at them as context to an overarching story.

the only confirmed chronological order between all of the music videos is leave me alone (20??) -> razzmatazz (time vortex connecting leave me alone and diatt) -> diatt (1964) known from various comments from dallon. it's not confirmed wether this is an actual start to the timeline or not, so again all up to interpretation, but alot of people think of it as the start.

(sorry didn't realize this was in my drafts unpublished!! my bad)

[deathcrawling]

ive seen a lot of people sharing their guesses for the sins so i thought id share mine!

[deathcrawling]

Hey Wil!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Gloom Division lore as a whole! Especially with the recent image release. First, I wanted to discuss the instructional shirt as I haven't seen people talk about it much!

You might have already noticed this, but in the top right corner are the 6 levels.

I remember the first time I saw this and I was instantly reminded of the ending image in the Do It All The Time music video. I have many speculations and theories regarding the implications but nothing concrete. Perhaps each level is also a different plane of existence/dimension with time being one of them, but I'll get into that and other theories another time.

Back to what I am confident in. I don't think it would be farfetched for them to correspond to the sins. As you know, Dallon described in an interview that he would eventually become one of the sins. And notably at the Salt Lake City listening party they gave out hotel keychains with a 7 on them. As well as a notepad that says Memo From the Desk of Gloom Division. Implying he, at the very least, travels between each level. Extrapolating from the album cover and this information, perhaps he gets to the top level and becomes the sin, Pride. In Idiots of Oz the song starts with elevator music. This could purely be a musical/aesthetic choice but perhaps this is also a nod to Dallon going between the levels and finally reaching his.

hello! i have some theories about GLOOM DIV lore right now! some of which have been confirmed by dallon during VIP during gloomtown tour, others are solely based on myself and @temporalarts research! also WARNING! this will be a bit all over the place, i apologize for the messiness of this post.

FACT:

lets start off with what is fact, dallon has confirmed that 1. himself and the figures in the albums physical copies gatefold represent the 7 deadly sins, and 2. he represents PRIDE out of the seven sins (he mentioned this during VIP Madison, WI), and the lady with the sunglasses in the gatefold represents LUST (mentioned during VIP STL, MO). he has not said which sin is who for the remaining 5. he also confirmed that there was supposed to be deeper lore this album, but wanted to focus on music rather than lore due to how stressful it was with RAZZMATAZZ era lore (confirmed VIP Madison, WI).

THEORY/SPECULATION:

in terms of theories, my current theories on the album mainly surround TELLEXX and PRIDE out of the seven sins and who he is, what he does, and how he (and the other sins) came to be. a lot of these ideas i have come from religious context, as the 7 sins are apart of loads of religions, im mainly pulling from the christian bible as well as some mormonism.

because i feel that TELLEXX is important to this albums lore, lets start off with my theories on TELLEXX. TELLEXX acts very much like a cult, going after people lonely and desperate for fame or a rise in social status, and manipulating them, isolating them from the real world. as far as we know that dallon hasnt been the only subject, it has been confirmed in the TELLEXX letters, how many other subjects there has been? im not sure. nonetheless, TELLEXX is inherently evil but puts on a good face for the sake of having a good reputation, and i believe that TELLEXX is basically the devil pretending to be God/a God-like figure. i think TELLEXX wanting to be a god/higher than god can both be figuratively and literally, TELLEXX obviously has bigger plans that we aren't aware of at the moment, but it does look like it involves taking advantage of people and transforming them to fit their vision. they take in people who are often desperate for something, whether its fame or some sort rise in social status (aka social climbers), its what they do. and like ive mentioned previously, its what we see in real life cults, the leader of the cult sees themself as god or as a god, they claim to know more than the average person and they manipulate and isolate people so they can control them. so TELLEXX having their subjects, who we can assume were also looking for fame/social acceptance based on dallon, sign a contract that isolates them from the real world and promising that they can do these things for them makes a lot of sense.

in a figurative sense, TELLEXX at its core is evil, they have ill intentions but put on a good face so they wont get exposed/in trouble.

in a literal sense, TELLEXX has ties to the devil/is the devil but pretends to be God or a god, because they are desperate to have that power.

in terms of the 7 deadly sins, i have very little factual info to go off of so these ideas are very loose and don't make the absolute most sense, but i have a lot to say. dallon represents PRIDE, and i believe that he died from some sort of volunteer research study accident and became the sin PRIDE in the afterlife (assuming that TELLEXX somehow represents the devil, he made a deal with the devil). PRIDE, historically and religiously is considered the "highest" and "most powerful" of the sins. PRIDE is the leader of the sins.

i think that this explains WHY we see dallon literally higher up than the rest of the sins, because he is their leader, he is the most powerful.

(when looking at the album cover and gatefold, it looks like the other 6 sins are looking UP towards dallon)

for the other sins, how they came to be is a mystery to me. i can imagine that they were previous TELLEXX subjects who died in some sort of way, and were in some sort of limbo before dallons death. PRIDE was supposedly the first sin to come into existence, which doesnt really make sense in terms of GLOOM DIV lore, so i believe that dallons death and him being PRIDE was a manifestation of the other sins coming into existence. i believe that they existed before dallon, but not physically. whether TELLEXX was purposefully keeping them a secret OR they were not aware of them, i couldnt really tell you. it seems likely that the sins DO work for TELLEXX, either being their eyes (like the white shadows) or being guard dogs/spokespeople for them.

i like the idea of the instruction shirt having to do with the sins in some way, its probable, i personally think that the levels have to do with ones status/knowledge surrounding TELLEXX. being a subject can be considered surface level knowledge of TELLEXX and what they do while being a sin and protecting the company means you're deep into the company knowing exactly whats happening.

EDIT: note about the dripping hands/feet! black hands/feet is often associated with making a deal with the devil in religion (christian/catholic beliefs mainly!), so my main theory on the hands/feet being black has to do with dallons death and him becoming PRIDE due to him making a deal w/ the devil.

[abstrkt-with-a-human-heart]

Oh my goodness this is awesome, thanks so much! I didn't want my ask to be too long as I was already including pictures lol. But I totally agree and also share the same theory about him dying and Dallon (pride) becoming the leader. And it definitely makes sense that the levels would correspond to TELLEXX knowledge, I think the levels are not just exclusively about the sins. Like most things I think the levels mean and represent multiple things.

One last thing, am I incorrect in remembering or at least interpreting that he might pursue the lore for this album when he has free time or is that up in the air?

[deathcrawling]

of course! i love yapping about idkhow lore, and i was a tad bit worried about my response being too long so i understand haha!

with dallon wanting to pursue this lore further i am not sure- as far as i know he told me during VIP that he wanted to focus on music more than lore this time around due to feeling disencouraged and it can get expensive. i saw someone on reddit claim that dallon said that lore would be pursued further for idkhow3 but i am not sure where they got that info, so i believe its up in the air right now. i truly hope he does move forward with this lore because its so interesting and has so much potential!

[mayathexpsychic]

drew the sins from the gloomdiv gatefold along with my mostly arbitrary guesses of which one is which. dallon i need to speak to you

[deathcrawling]

i honestly think maya might be almost, if not completely on the dot with the sins here!

[deathcrawling]

Hey Wil!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Gloom Division lore as a whole! Especially with the recent image release. First, I wanted to discuss the instructional shirt as I haven't seen people talk about it much!

You might have already noticed this, but in the top right corner are the 6 levels.

I remember the first time I saw this and I was instantly reminded of the ending image in the Do It All The Time music video. I have many speculations and theories regarding the implications but nothing concrete. Perhaps each level is also a different plane of existence/dimension with time being one of them, but I'll get into that and other theories another time.

Back to what I am confident in. I don't think it would be farfetched for them to correspond to the sins. As you know, Dallon described in an interview that he would eventually become one of the sins. And notably at the Salt Lake City listening party they gave out hotel keychains with a 7 on them. As well as a notepad that says Memo From the Desk of Gloom Division. Implying he, at the very least, travels between each level. Extrapolating from the album cover and this information, perhaps he gets to the top level and becomes the sin, Pride. In Idiots of Oz the song starts with elevator music. This could purely be a musical/aesthetic choice but perhaps this is also a nod to Dallon going between the levels and finally reaching his.

hello! i have some theories about GLOOM DIV lore right now! some of which have been confirmed by dallon during VIP during gloomtown tour, others are solely based on myself and @temporalarts research! also WARNING! this will be a bit all over the place, i apologize for the messiness of this post.

FACT:

lets start off with what is fact, dallon has confirmed that 1. himself and the figures in the albums physical copies gatefold represent the 7 deadly sins, and 2. he represents PRIDE out of the seven sins (he mentioned this during VIP Madison, WI), and the lady with the sunglasses in the gatefold represents LUST (mentioned during VIP STL, MO). he has not said which sin is who for the remaining 5. he also confirmed that there was supposed to be deeper lore this album, but wanted to focus on music rather than lore due to how stressful it was with RAZZMATAZZ era lore (confirmed VIP Madison, WI).

THEORY/SPECULATION:

in terms of theories, my current theories on the album mainly surround TELLEXX and PRIDE out of the seven sins and who he is, what he does, and how he (and the other sins) came to be. a lot of these ideas i have come from religious context, as the 7 sins are apart of loads of religions, im mainly pulling from the christian bible as well as some mormonism.

because i feel that TELLEXX is important to this albums lore, lets start off with my theories on TELLEXX. TELLEXX acts very much like a cult, going after people lonely and desperate for fame or a rise in social status, and manipulating them, isolating them from the real world. as far as we know that dallon hasnt been the only subject, it has been confirmed in the TELLEXX letters, how many other subjects there has been? im not sure. nonetheless, TELLEXX is inherently evil but puts on a good face for the sake of having a good reputation, and i believe that TELLEXX is basically the devil pretending to be God/a God-like figure. i think TELLEXX wanting to be a god/higher than god can both be figuratively and literally, TELLEXX obviously has bigger plans that we aren't aware of at the moment, but it does look like it involves taking advantage of people and transforming them to fit their vision. they take in people who are often desperate for something, whether its fame or some sort rise in social status (aka social climbers), its what they do. and like ive mentioned previously, its what we see in real life cults, the leader of the cult sees themself as god or as a god, they claim to know more than the average person and they manipulate and isolate people so they can control them. so TELLEXX having their subjects, who we can assume were also looking for fame/social acceptance based on dallon, sign a contract that isolates them from the real world and promising that they can do these things for them makes a lot of sense.

in a figurative sense, TELLEXX at its core is evil, they have ill intentions but put on a good face so they wont get exposed/in trouble.

in a literal sense, TELLEXX has ties to the devil/is the devil but pretends to be God or a god, because they are desperate to have that power.

in terms of the 7 deadly sins, i have very little factual info to go off of so these ideas are very loose and don't make the absolute most sense, but i have a lot to say. dallon represents PRIDE, and i believe that he died from some sort of volunteer research study accident and became the sin PRIDE in the afterlife (assuming that TELLEXX somehow represents the devil, he made a deal with the devil). PRIDE, historically and religiously is considered the "highest" and "most powerful" of the sins. PRIDE is the leader of the sins.

i think that this explains WHY we see dallon literally higher up than the rest of the sins, because he is their leader, he is the most powerful.

(when looking at the album cover and gatefold, it looks like the other 6 sins are looking UP towards dallon)

for the other sins, how they came to be is a mystery to me. i can imagine that they were previous TELLEXX subjects who died in some sort of way, and were in some sort of limbo before dallons death. PRIDE was supposedly the first sin to come into existence, which doesnt really make sense in terms of GLOOM DIV lore, so i believe that dallons death and him being PRIDE was a manifestation of the other sins coming into existence. i believe that they existed before dallon, but not physically. whether TELLEXX was purposefully keeping them a secret OR they were not aware of them, i couldnt really tell you. it seems likely that the sins DO work for TELLEXX, either being their eyes (like the white shadows) or being guard dogs/spokespeople for them.

i like the idea of the instruction shirt having to do with the sins in some way, its probable, i personally think that the levels have to do with ones status/knowledge surrounding TELLEXX. being a subject can be considered surface level knowledge of TELLEXX and what they do while being a sin and protecting the company means you're deep into the company knowing exactly whats happening.

EDIT: note about the dripping hands/feet! black hands/feet is often associated with making a deal with the devil in religion (christian/catholic beliefs mainly!), so my main theory on the hands/feet being black has to do with dallons death and him becoming PRIDE due to him making a deal w/ the devil.