The Trawlerman

The Trawler-Man is an illegal river god worshiped by the Parish of Tide and Flesh. Notable followers from Season 1 include Sister Carpenter, Brother Faulkner and Katabasian Mason.

## Description

It is mentioned members of the Trawler-Man's faith do not entirely agree on how he is depicted. Universally, the Trawler-Man has two faces, and two mouths. One that devours and one that spits out silt in return. From there, depictions diverge.

Some followers describe the Trawler-Man as looking closer to his angels. Some kind of crustacean monstrosity that constantly leaks silt from his mouth. Others describe him as more "ornately" angelic.

Sister Carpenter mentions her interpretation of the Trawler-Man being donned in an oilskin hat that obscures his double faces until he chooses to reveal them.

Mason's personal interpretation of the Trawler-Man is how he was described when the story of the Promised Bride was told to him. He is a figure that is still, but never certain. Donned in a grey mackintosh and hood, the fabric ripples and changes with the current of his river. Just as his skin does. Mason also notes him as turning one face towards you when he wants to speak, and the other towards you when he is listening.

## Organization

The organization that worships the Trawler-Man is known as the Parish of Tide and Flesh. They operate primarily in the West Midlands of the Ignathian Peninsula from an area known as The Paraclete's Gulch. The Parish is led by a council known as the Inner Table, which is made up of several Katabasians including Mason. There is a Katabasian above the Inner Table (aptly titled the 'High Katabasian'), but they have yet to be formally named or introduced in the series.

### Prominent Followers

Despite being an outlawed God, it has been implied that the Trawler-Man had a considerable following on the Peninsula prior to Adjudicator Devlin's movement to forbid certain gods (including the Trawler-Man) and legalize others. The number of followers was considerably thinned by the last religious war.

* Adelina Glass (also known as Nana Glass) was a prominent and well-known follower of the Trawler-Man amongst his worshippers. Carpenter mentions that throughout Adelina's life, she pierced her ears, cheeks, and lips with a total of seventeen barbed hooks in devotion to the Trawler-Man. These piercings were worn publicly despite the threat they would get her reported to authorities. She was also noted as singing constantly in tribute to her God.
* Sister Carpenter was born into the faith, especially after she began to be raised by her grandmother Adelina. She cites being properly called to the faith the day her brother died in prison invoking the Trawler-Man with prayer marks. Unlike Faulkner, her relationship with her God and Religion is incredibly personal. Carpenter didn't seek out any other members of the faith until Mason approached her when she was eighteen. Throughout the show, her one-sided dialogues with the Trawler-Man are internal and never in prayer or hymn, like how Faulkner worships.
* Brother Faulkner is an emphatic convert to the faith. He grew up in the Whisper Plains, described as "pine forest and dry red earth", far away from the White Gull River. His family was not religious. He was introduced to the faith via the "Drowning Song", a viral "revelatory exposure" event that swept through school-aged children throughout the Peninsula, inducing them to drown themselves. Faulkner heard a voice that inspired him to drown his brother, an act he feels no regret for, and instead saw as his first ecstatic encounter with the Trawlerman. Faulkner prides himself in his excellent handwriting for prayer marks, is skilled enough to create sacrificial saints of the Trawlerman, and eventually rises to a leadership position in the church.
* Katabasian Mason, like Carpenter, was born and raised within the faith. He rose to prominence and the title 'Katabasian' eventually. He may have also partaken in the Sodden March of 903. He is also a member of the Katabasian's Inner Table, though he doesn't lead them.

### Holy Days

**The Day of The Fiddler Crab's Feast**

On this day, members of the Parish commemorate the day that Katabasian Fleck lead his people deep into the Delta and were summoned by their enemies in the river mists. Day after day, the waters did not produce any fish or lobster no matter how hard they tried. They were beginning to starve, and as a result many of the Trawler-Man's followers had begun to lose their faith. Fleck told his followers to wait and hour and then find him at the water's edge. He strolled into the mist, and his people waited an hour before following him. Fleck had asked the Trawler-Man for a gift, and given one in return. His body was swarmed with river angels, crabs and leeches. His people began to grieve and, remembering Fleck's final words, understood what this feast meant and that he had sacrificed himself so that his people could survive. According to Chapter 12: And To Fight Is Just To Choke, this occurs on the Day of Emergence, the Second Week of Dwindlings.

**The Day of Going Forth**

Commemorates the story of the day the Promised Bride stared into the water of the White Gull and saw the face of the Trawler-man. A holy day of journeys, rebirths and revelations,

## Origins & Mythos

### The Transformation of the Promised Bride

Mason states the story of the Promised Bride has been passed through the faith for a long time.

Long ago, in the flats of the lower delta, an unnamed Promised Bride found her way to the banks of a nameless river. Despite the reputation of loss and destruction that the river held, the Bride hoped that something awful would happen to her. Something that would free her from her obligation to be wed the next day. As she wept, the Bride realized that there was a garden beneath the river's surface. And as she looked down into the garden, the Trawler-Man looked back up. The Bride and the Trawler-Man conversed, discussing how the Bride is unhappy to be wed the next day, and the Trawler-Man's offer to make her something 'that cannot be bound'. The Bride eventually comes to the revelation that regardless of which life she picks; one where she returns home or one where she offers herself to the Trawler-man, she will be a vessel. She chooses to be the Trawler-Man's and enters the depths of the river.

The next day, the Groom of the Promised Bride finds himself alone in a chapel of his family's faith. He waits for a while and thinks over the life he has been promised before becoming impatient and leaving the chapel. Upon seeing the wedding procession approach the Groom realizes that every member of the wedding party, his Promised Bride included, have been transfigured into angels of the Trawler-Man. His Bride rushes to meet him, and after puncturing his leg with one of hers, he joins the procession as one augmented by the river as well.

The Wedding Party then continues inland for an unspecified period of time, and the story ends.

### Known Blessings

* **The Miracle of the Intrepid**
	+ After initially vanishing in a storm, the fishing boat Intrepid remerges on the river as a saint of the Trawler-Man in Chapter 1. The five fishermen on it have been merged into the boat, creating one, large organism that was feeding the writhing denizens of the river. The Intrepid is first found by Carpenter and Faulkner, and then the authorities shortly after.
* **The Promised Bride**
	+ Within the story of the Promised Bride, a woman beseeches the Trawler-Man to help her escape her impending marriage. The Trawler-Man does, by converting her and her wedding party into some of his crustacean angels.
* **The Wreck of the Gulfwalker**
	+ While what the Gulfwalker was to the followers of the Trawler-Man exactly is uncertain, according to Faulkner, it was a sign of the Wither Tide. Carpenter has seen it in person during the period the boat was displayed (probably only to members of the faith).
* **The Mark of the Wither Tide**

### The Drowning Song

*According to the author, the Drowning Song may not have originated from the Trawlerman - its origins are unclear. However, Faulkner attributes his first encounter with the Trawlerman to this event, and several details of his retelling - such as the double voice and the prayer marks that he practiced and which, assumedly, match marks he later knew as the Trawlerman's - suggest that the god was involved in his experience, whether or not it was originated by his followers.*

The Drowning song was a burst of viral faith that crossed the Whisper Plains when Faulkner was young. It encouraged people, particularly younger children in this instance, to submerge their heads until they were near drowning. In return, they would hear beautiful music.

> *“If you lower your head into the water of this tank and hold it there, until the breath has dribbled out of your nose and lungs and you begin to imagine that you are drowning, you will begin to hear music drifting up towards you from below. Clear and beautiful music, like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and the longer you stay under, the clearer the music gets.”* - Brother Faulkner, Episode 2
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Brother Faulkner describes a somewhat feral childhood in the Whisper Plains, a semi-forested area far from the White Gull River, where he and his two brothers would often wander off in the woods instead of attending school. He became enamored with a water tank with painted white marks (assumed to be prayer marks), which was filled with algae and insects/life he did not recognize, and where he saw a distorted version of his reflection that compelled him to return.

He visited the tank three times in total before being confronted by his older brother Charlie. Faulkner then heard "a voice that was two voices", saying the following, which he parroted to Charlie: “If you lower your head into the water of this tank and hold it there...you will begin to hear music.” Faulkner successfully persuaded Charlie to submerge himself, and upon rising, Charlie confirmed that he could hear music, but could not make out the words. He insisted on trying again, instructing Faulkner to sit on his back until he gave a thumbs-up signal to illustrate that he had heard the words. Faulkner obeyed, sitting on Charlie's back, and did not let him up for air even when he began thrashing. The thumbs-up signal never came, and Faulkner continued sitting on Charlie's back until nightfall. After climbing down, he examined Charlie's face and described it "as if it was crawling with life beneath the surface. The widened, panicked eyes still twitching beneath their lids."

After Charlie's drowning, Faulkner returned home and ate dinner with his other brother Eddie. The body was later found by the police and assumed to be a suicide via viral faith. It seems the "Drowning Song" was a viral faith event that was occurring across the Peninsula among school-aged children. The students at Faulkner's school were made to watch a PSA-style play in the auditorium about the dangers of "revelatory exposure". Many of the students still attempted to hear the music, but most failed to do so.

Faulkner considers his interaction with the Drowning Song, and his role in Charlie's Drowning, as his calling to be the Trawler-Man's prophet. He practiced copying the markings on the "sacred water tank", practicing them over and over again in his notebook. He eventually left home and began his pilgrimage to find others who followed the faith.

## Hymns

Katabasian Mason, Episode 16:

> *" Trawler-man of Tide and Flesh. Father in the Water.*
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> *You are the Mouth Devouring and the Mouth Returning,*
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> *you stand tall at the High Tide and crawl on your belly at the Low Tide.*
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> *Upon this day, we, your chosen faithful, offer you body and spirit*
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> *In the hope of your mercy and your favor,*
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> *In the hope of the bountiful catch, and the cleansing current.*
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> *From the wellspring to the sea. "*
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The first few lines of this prayer in particular (From "Trawler-man of Tide and Flesh" to "crawl on your belly at the Low Tide") seem to be the default introduction to how the Parish of Tide and Flesh prays to their God. Faulkner uses this format as early as Episode 1 (Though following the first few lines, his prayer diverges from the text above).
Brother Faulkner, Episode 1:

> *" Sweet dark mouth, all peoples of the world emerged from your great dark depths.*
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> *Sweet dark mouth, you shall widen again.*
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> *Shallow twisted mouths and empty desires,*
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> *Flood the towns, the villages, quench the fires*
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> *Of falsehood in thought, o sweet dark mouth. "*
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Katabasian Mason, Episode 1:

> *‘Ease away my grateful skin, Trawler-Man,*
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> *I will rejoice at skin reshaped in silt,*
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> *And my fragments will swim in the currents of the abyss.*
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> *Fill my eyes and mouth with thick and choking mud, Trawler-man;*
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> *I will exult in the death of sight, sensation, and noise.*
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> *Bear me away into black depths, Trawler-man;*
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> *I will forget my pain and the name I once wore.9*
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> *Rise like a dark river in my throat, Trawler-man.*
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> *And my drowning lungs will sing of Tides and Flesh.*
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Brother Faulkner, Episode 2:

> *Forgive my erring ways, Trawler-man.*
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> *For I am amongst enemies and their eyes are upon me. Protect me, Trawler-man.*
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> *For there is no trust in me, and I am alone.*
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> *Bear me downriver, Trawler-man. And when the river rises,*
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> *On that great day when the river rises, I will find my peace in silt and water. I will rise in the currents, made anew.*
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## Other Aliases

The Trawlerman has several primary aliases that are used by multiple characters, or understood to be more widely-known:

* Father in the Water
* The Mouth Devouring and the Mouth Returning
* Sweet Dark Mouth
* Twin Mouths Agape

In addition, The Trawlerman has several aliases that are personal to specific characters:

* My river (Brother Faulkner)
* My savage, terrible, lonely river (Brother Faulkner)
* Wet, dead-eyed bastard (Carpenter)
* My Muse (Augustus Roake)
* The Muse of the Prior Happiness (Augustus Roake)
* Old forbidden river-god (Hayward)
* Podunk river-god (Hayward)

## Trivia

* When read together, the titles of each episode produce a hymn or prayer to the Trawler-Man.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 6
2. ↑ Chapter 1
3. ↑ Tumblr ask referring to the High Katabasian [1]
4. ↑ Chapter 35: The Wise Man Knows The Taste Of Rot
5. ↑ Chapter 6: It Winds, It Worms, It Wends
6. ↑ Tumblr Ask referencing the Drowning Song[2]