#scalled

[briannabug]

Laird Byron & Nick Tremblay

[smol-gay-enby]

Mind drawing some of the scalled from outlast 2 they are scary as shit

Have some boyos :D

[khalix-hyetology]

Okay so i literally dress my self like Blake. With green jacket, glasses, and trousers. I show my self to Nick and i describe myself as "The Messiah". What would Nick do?

If they are still part of the Scalled. He will still try to kill you and eat you. Simple as that. That is the only life he knew. 

After Temple Gate, your image may cause him triggers and make him think about traumatic episodes. So, for a while, initially, he will avoid you. Then he will get a bit “comfortable” and ask are you really Blake Langermann. If you say “yes” he may not completely believe you. If you say you are someone else, well, he will smile and ask what is up with the appearance? I am sure it would be an interesting conversation =)

[zhoban-blog]

An execution I hardly see but still love

[grim-faux]

I do feel bad for Nick; I haven’t learned much about him or know really any other theories about him, but he seems like a victim. He’s infected same as whatever the Scalled have gone through as far as SDTs goes - or maybe he got it from other means such as blood contact.  But it’s really messed up to think that those of Temple Gate would do anything to him since he’s not what would qualify as a consenting adult, and simple minded.

One note called him “a donkey in the shape of a man”, and that’s grade A fucked up.  That said, Nick’s pretty much not seen as equals; given to Laird (lil bastard) - as they say - like a pet.  

[digitalfrontiers]

[khalix-hyetology]

Life in Temple Gate

A Post with me trying to chart daily life in Temple Gate. Life in Temple Gate didn’t necessarily start in Temple Gate. We know from canon information online that Knoth started his gospels and that he had followers and they lived in Lydia Deagan’s ranch until they were chased off by authorities. The reason stated, as Outlast wiki documents, that dead bodies started showing up. As I mentioned in an earlier post, infanticide and death were mentioned since the first gospel of Knoth so there is no wonder that killings of people not following beliefs can happen.

However, Temple Gate was founded in 1975. Outlast wiki stated that Knoth and his followers came to the place in 1971. Took around five years to build the whole town. 

As you know there is an inscription on the town plague: “It felt inevitable, like a dream or memory. Not mine.” The “not mine” part is not read out by Blake and is pretty effaced and one must carefully see it. Basically, this is already explained in the gospels of Knoth of all the visions he had of numerous entities that personally sounded eerily similar to Walriders. 

Well, moving on, we know that Knoth in his journey to Havasupai took different sorts of people and rejected no criminals neither. In the gospels Knoth is encouraged to breed by the voices until a “nation” could be established thus allowing the antichrist to emerge,

This could mean that the killing of the children is a recent phenomenon. It may have been happening for like a year or so now; when the cult’s population starting to rise. This is probably Murkoff being very twisted and perverse and going to the “basics.” Experiments cannot be done without a suitable sample size. By encouraging incest and inbreeding they could get their sample size. But they needed to control it and also the radio emissions pretty much had a feedback loop which would make people hypersexual and homicidal. That is exactly what Murkoff wanted or just went with. Evidence of this is that there is a good number of people within Temple Gate. 

Though, initially Knoth seemed to have many female followers. It later ebbed possibly because many of them became Scalled. You will see more females or recognize more females in Scalled population. Seeing that syphilis is spread by Knoth the chance of many females being affected is not unlikely. 

Going back to life in Temple Gate, they seemed to live a “normal” enough life until recently. People seemed okay tending farm and crops. There was also a school for children though the books seem old and limited. The education level is not so good amongst many people. Some like Ruth can write eloquently. Others, like John and even Marcus, Simeon’s friend and Judith’s husband, write less so but seem to write more colloquially. Ethan also keeps a colloquial sense of tone in his letter but doesn’t have spelling mistakes. 

When the troubles start Blake comes along. The first letter is from Tom to Ellie: basically a suicide note which is also eerily close to home for Blake concerning Jessica. The second letter is the one that Lisa writes; Lisa pretty much reiterates her Faith in The Testament of New Ezekiel. As I have explored in an earlier posts on belief systems, Lisa excitedly talks about having visions:

“I saw a creature like the burning sun but with inward rings of teeth upon teeth and dangling beneath limbs that I took to be arms but were cocks that rose in chiding purpose and as this monstrous sun descended, it fucked the earth and birthed some great and slouching horror from the fire. I was filled with the same fear, so great that I could not breathe nor move...when I woke I found myself wet with lusting...I would take greater comfort in your manhood inside me and a firm prayer that the antichrist be strangled in my womb. The most faithful of your flock in holy longing, Lisa.” (highlights my own)

As we know from Knoth’s gospels, sexual imagery, feeling aroused and all of that is a part of the experience of being blinded by the light or exposed to radio signals. Also, seeing these ghastly, supernatural type creatures that are possibly Walrider like references. 

I do believe the Heretics, the murders and all of these things are actually recent happenings. The Gospels of Knoth prove that and many of the letters seem recent. The gospels are fashioned with a scientific experiment in mind, with a device partly planned to go about it that way. Obviously, there were unplanned things like the feedback loop was more a theory than a perceived reality which augmented the experiences of the people making them do separate things like New Gospels and make motifs such as the “Scalled Christ” and all of that. Similarly, Val’s communication with the voice inside The Towers is pretty much like some sensual dialogue of “understanding” or “inheritance” which I believe Murkoff didn’t essentially plan such as Billy’s lateral ascension and laughing at REM sleep. 

Not everyone is keen on the visions. Not everyone was happy with the infanticide. Not everyone faced “ecstatic rage” in the line of “proximity to death.” Judith becomes emotionally and sexually withdrawn from her husband Marcus when they killed their child Sarai. Marcus wants to still have sex and all but Judith has become angry and sad. Though Marcus threatens her with violence because he believed that both of them were doing their religious duty. There is another husband, I believe, Phillip, who talks nicely and respectfully to his wife telling her to hold on and that the visions mean they have come close to the end and after this pain there will joy in paradise. 

From Val’s own accounts I recognised a lack of intimacy and community within Temple Gate. Even in the school lesson plan, which may be recent, there is an activity on finding out the enemy. This makes bullying and harassment inevitable among later generations. Where the odd child would be questioned and be ostracised; later on they may even be ostracised from their parents believing they have delivered a form of antichrist. Thinking that anyone could be the spider-eyed Lamb or the lesser whores or the devil’s whore also breeds unfaithfulness to one’s spouse because they may always be suspecting their husband or wife is relational to the antichrist. 

The letter titled “Val’s secret” is interesting as Val shows sexual attraction to a woman named Ruth:

“The chief among his deacons, Val, came to me before sunrise this morning with an offer that was not fully described. Val acted like somebody offering something secret and sexual in nature. But my knowledge of Val and his character, it frightened me terribly and I would not accept any such invitation. Val would not further explain, and told me that “there are places in our hearts Papa Knoth cannot reach” though truth be told Val seemed more interested in other areas of my body. I suspect [this] is blasphemy and betrayal and cut it off before any harm is done. I hope Papa can help, as I am dreadful scared. 

Ruth.” (highlights my own)

Whenever, I read Val’s journals or read letters pertaining to them, I always feel this lack of intimacy. This gulf of understanding amongst the people in The Testament of New Ezekiel. Everyone is out to report and criminalise everyone: in many ways this is the way I think Ngugi wa Thiang’o talked about this in relationship to Colonialism. Though, colonisation is not necessarily happening here, the way Thiang’o talked about English schools not allowing children to talk in their native languages but always in English and how children were forced to report people who spoke in their native tongue. There would be punishment for the child to indoctrinate them in the English language and to feel they have done something wrong speaking in their own. Similarly, David Wyndham’s The Chrysalids show that mutant humans living amongst religious zealots was always in fear for their lives because punishment was either death or something terrible, if discovered. We can say cults colonise the mind in behaving in certain ways that are not reasonable or even “good” but they make believe their rights and wrongs are perfectly alright. Actual tyranny is born from this. 

There are two people mentioned in letters that we don’t necessarily see: Paul and Simeon. They are both important people who Blake does not meet or we don’t meet thus we are not sure what their fates are. Paul can be considered to a form of leader, a council elect, a person who helps keep justice in check. Simeon is their provisions’ manager it seems. When a man named John questions about Knoth’s syphilis it is to Simeon who seems higher in rank than him though they both go beyond Temple Gate to get their provisions such as gas and penicillin for Knoth. John may have later been punished: there is a note talking about offending Knoth and feeling horrible about this. I may think this was John. 

There is also a suicide note: we know it is a woman who was lusted after by a person named Judah (you do see a woman’s body in a chasm with bodies dropped; some youtubers, perhaps Timm3D, show that the well from which the tongue pull’s Blake is actually this chasm. Which had Heretics also piled saying “Whores to Satan”). They are pregnant and it hurts; the baby hurts and they can’t see Judah drowning over and over again. Stating they didn’t know Judah couldn’t swim. They think that the antichrist is also in their womb and do mention the baby is Knoth’s. A youtube commenter talked how syphilis can be transmitted to mother to child. Yes, that’s true. Wikipedia also states Cuba is the first country to have stopped this transmission. So, Knoth’s syphilis makes birth difficult and possibly even fatal. Knoth originally mentioned there were more females in his followers to Temple Gate than men but, aside developer issues, you will notice the female population in Temple Gate has gone heavily down when Blake visits it. Female mortality rates may be  higher and many now may actually be amongst the Scalled. And we know of the man in the Scalled who hanged himself pretty much just saying he was borrowing the rope and that he will be done with it soon (this was very painful and sad). 

There is also preparations for the mass suicide casually mentioned as “Garden Note.” I actually had to read it again to know it was preparations for the mass suicide. A man named Macon tells Christine, who is probably his wife, that not to be angry with him for taking the Grape Aid (Koolaid anyone?) for he has taken in for Papa Knoth for a “celebration” (we all know how that turned out). Macon also states:

“I know we ain’t got a thing better to cover the taste in the water, but folks will just have to put up with it, I expect. Don’t give them none of the Sacrement as its needful for service. I guess we can do without our Grape Aid until there’s another run.

Macon.” 

The fact is probably not all of them knew about the death. Knoth may have separately planned it for The Towers’ influence as the gospels lacked those details. It just mentioned if you don’t kill the antichrist, she will kill the world and people who like suffering will drop down to it and drag the righteous along with them. 

I do believe initially there was some peace in Temple Gate. Seeing that Marta and Val probably grew up there and Val may have been born there shows that much. However, seeing that there were always tensions and also their idyllic pastoral lives were punctuated. heavily, by the forthcoming doom and “cannibalistic” genocide/infanticide, I believe there were always suspicions and even ostracisms carried out. 

A mass ostracism is carried out already by the Scalled. The Scalled are out Heretics and are a sub group of The Testament of New Ezekiel. However, there are people over there that actually do realise they are suffering from syphilis and gonorrhea. The first mention of this is from Laird, who has Nick write his letter, talking about how the Scalled are complaining they are not getting the provisions owed them and though Laird and Nick can give them a beatdown they prefer the “gentle path.” We know that Knoth said that he should be harsher with the Scalled. There was a post here on tumblr by someone distinguishing Father Martin Archibald and Reverend Sullivan Knoth. I agree the former seems to “Protestant” the other “Catholic” but they both criticise self-pity so in that they have one similarity. Only, Martin calls Miles his Job and wants him to suffer and believes the crucifixion will help him reach resurrection thus suffering for that resurrection. Knoth believes self-pity is a “womanly sin” and that it also needs to be outed to, I guess, remain pure. 

Going back to the syphilis, Athalia, Simeon’s cousin, possibly also lover or friend, states to give her penicillin as she needs to immunise herself before sores stop coming on and she is showing her sickness. She also questions how Knoth keeps well but she needs proper medicine. We see in her tone many of the Scalled are angry with Knoth. They know he is lying and they are angry to be living in such squalor and filth for faults not of their own. We know Laird was mean to the Scalled and was also telling them, when Blake is escaping, that all of them are worthless and does not deserve good health. So, when he is pushed off that house, I think that was inevitable.In the end, the game does not necessarily point out if anyone from the Scalled or the Heretics or Temple Gate really survived. It would be interesting if they have.  

There are people who talk about the Lake being evil. That is where in the distance Blake sees The Towers on the left side, the mines on the right. We can only think that Murkoff had started building alongside Temple Gate and the mines are also evidence of this. When being chased by Val in the mines Blake comments on where this place is getting this amount of power. It surprises him because the mines are supposed to be dilapidated and abandoned but they are still surging enough power as if they are still functional. It wouldn’t be a surprise that until recently people were maintaining the mines. That The Towers were also being maintained. The Old Traveler may either have succumbed to the signals or even have been saved by going to The Towers and getting refuge. 

The only three people I saw different in the game in Temple Gate was Ethan who proclaimed he was “Unborn”, possibly even slight excommunicated, and the man who is chased down in the lake and the “atheist: . Who had a fire light and may have spelled Help with stone. Both people show that some people may, by luck chance or something, escape indoctrination heavily by the signals if not completely. But Murkoff may know they need to be killed as they don’t necessarily need controls for the experiment in Temple Gate. They need Subjects and Projectors so those people would defeat the purpose of the experiment. Outliers may have always been there and may have been killed within Temple Gate. The last person, document titled “The Atheist” shows how a man is apologising to their wife. They became a Heretic but even that didn’t stop the visions. Unlike Val who accepted that “god” was not god but something else this man may have realised there is something pretty nefarious about Temple Gate. No amount of merry making or fucking around could get them happy. This is someone who is completely devastated. And it is painful to read that. 

When I think about Temple Gate it sometimes brings a sadness in me. When you think about that people wanted probably some peace and instead gogt violence and bloodshed. At the same time, Murkoff has been planning these experiments. Which are pretty much dehumanising and barbaric that instilled in the The Testament of New Ezekiel and Heretics that they must kill and thrive in violence. The only neutral party are the Scalled. The Scalled, unlike the Variants, seemed somewhat awakened by their sickness. Unlike Variants who seem either warped in their own worlds, calling Walrider a god or just screaming — some question the science and mention Billy talking about things hidden or waiting for them in the mountain. I talked this once to someone else and though there is obviously science involved here I do believe the “gateway” generates some things which is not traditionally science if not supernatural. 

The Walrider is considered a god by Martin. To me it looked more like a ghoul or a phantom. The strange, morphing lifeform is also called God by Knoth though I wonder if it was a Walrider like entity. Val obviously recognises it as something having some concrete trajectory. The fact Val wants to consummate their feelings with this creature just shows Val’s desperate need for empathy and intimacy which were denied to them so much. Marta, herself, is denied understanding. She cries when she kills someone but Knoth tells her conscience is just a worrisome worm and that her faith is imperfect. When I think about Marta I also imagine currents of loneliness and a pinnacle of isolation which Murkoff made Temple Gate to be. 

[khalix-hyetology]

Hey , how about a story about Nick's past and / or background story? I really put much attention about him hehe :^3

                          “and the sweet mare near the hearth grazed                             his heart loyal and strong; never questioning                            the intents of the other steeds; who would feed                   him to the wolves, his pound of flesh to deal with survival.”

His mother bore him. Then she grew quiet. Though, they did say she never spoke much. Once there was a murmur if he was Knoth’s child. It was censored as Knoth did not proclaim the child, large, heavy fisted from birth, as his own. Wouldn’t have even if it had been his own. Truth was out that his father had been the one that was burnt three months before his birth. At a nice pyre in the Central Town Square. One of the children had lit the torch. Later on, it was whispered that it was Laird Byron. Well, Laird was one of them.  At that time, he was a disabled young boy who could only walk with a stutter. As he kept growing, his body keep remaining short and his legs were no longer able. Laird too fiercely to archery to strengthen his hands. He rode upon the pony until the pony died from drinking too much from the lake. People stated once the lake had sweeter tasting waters. Though it was not sweet spring water. The sweetness tasted of something different. 

Nick would often go to the lake as a child. he found solace and peace there. He would see Marta there as well at times. From a young age, he had liking for the taller girl. He had heard people teased her height. Like they teased his voice, already deep if not broken yet. Some of the girls and boys seem to like it but most of the time he was teased. So, even when he knew something in the schoolhouse he would act dumb. Not wanting to be teased for saying anything. It was still hard for him to learn things. Still, he would practice night and day, lamplight of the candle and took extra lessons from his mother. His mother had once helped the schoolmistress so she knew how to teach him with tricks and toys. So, even though Nick seemed “dumb” to everyone, he was better versed in some things and could write better than most of the children. who were worked hard day and night at home and in the fields not always caring to learn more tha prayers. Their exhaustion was to blame. Also to blame was the abusive parents who were always an authority they disliked so they rebelled in their own ways. 

Nick was large and worked in the fields too, but because he liked listening to hymns and hearing his mother read he wanted to be adequate in the written word. Nick was also stronger than most children. He found kinship in this with Marta who was also stronger than other children. Nick would come back home from the fields at early evening, at around 5pm, freshen up and eat his dinner. Then he would walk outside and tend to the plot of his land his mother and he owned. After sleeping for an hour, he would wake up and practice for 3-4 hours straight writing and reading with his mother before they finally retired for bed. 

Bedtimes in Temple Gate varied. No one had an assigned time and some people were seen at around midnight either feeding the horses or even working. Nick was one of those people. Sometimes he would be called even after midnight to help carry bags of wheat or corn. He was rewarded with extra food or nice trinkets, like a pencil or a soft box made out of wood, or a toy made out of feather and leather, or even a wood shaving. Nick would be glad to help. From a young age, he felt working for the community and the others would be a great blessing and rewarding.

This is where Laird came in. Laird was a young boy when he was allowed to be with Knoth and join them on the journey from Albuquerque to temple Gate. he had been a beggar and pickpocket with some other youths in the town. Laird was illiterate. He would go to the school house though he was seated with the younger children. Laird was bad at learning because he focused more on daydreaming and thinking lustful thoughts about their teacher. One day the teacher gave him a punishment to stand up somewhere and realised he couldn’t so she told him to stay with Nick. Laird noticed that Nick could write down some things pretty well enough. After a while, the teacher paired them up and Nick, large in size, could accommodate Laird on his back, who had trouble sitting on the chairs anyway. When Nick was shy to answer anything , Laird would read off his paper and the teacher, and mostly everyone else, started treating them as a singularity. 

This wasn’t always helpful. Nick didn’t always mind as he liked Laird as his constant companion, however, Laird did show some envy. Laird wanted companionship with females. He felt he was witty and could pick up things. His mental faculties were not bad.  The girls always went for Nick more. He didn’t have a bad body growing up. More endowed that most boys his age, which got the interest of many a girl or woman. Laird felt angry at the attention Nick sometimes got so he decided to go to the places for hunting. Nick was able to track animals down and Laird could shoot. They could pick birds. The desert had no deer  though Elk and Big Horn Sheep did sometimes come by and were eating at the feasts held in Temple Gate from time to time. Nick was happy he could provide food for the community. He had interest in females but Laird always seemed impatient when he talked to them. 

After a while Nick saw Laird rise as a deacon due to the skill of archery. People did say that part of it was Nick’s credit as Nick was able to stalk prey and give a platform for the archer. This made Laird furious enough to hurt Nick but slapping his face or biting his ear. Nick just was quiet. 

For the longest time, things were quiet for Nick. There were at times when from the shadows women called him. There would be no Laird then. And, he found himself in the naked arms of a beautiful young female. Even if he was initially clueless and still was, he would try to satiate. He liked the kisses and the caresses of these women. He also liked when his privates meshed with theirs. He didn’t always know why but he liked it. 

As he didn’t talk much, Laird didn’t always know where he was and what he was doing. 

Though a smile. A particular smile at times from those women if they were encountered in the street made Laird mad and he would slap Nick now and then.

His lives had been quiet.

Perhaps, too quiet?

One day he saw the marks on his body.

Laird had them too.

Before he knew it, he was told to say to his mother: goodbye.

And, then he and Laird went somewhere where other people had those marks.

And there it was never quiet.

People screamed, vomited, howled in pain, prayed and did all sorts of things even if it was nighttime.

From gentle soul to Scalled

Nick was put somewhere he didn’t understand

But he always felt it was a blessing to serve the community.

And, this was also community.