#cult of tiamat
Mystery: Thomas Warren / DaivaCorp / Luciternica Resources
Updated 8/16/16
SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12
1. Daiva Corporation, a major international energy corporation, funds research into the paranormal. (2x09) Its CEO is Thomas Warren. Warren is on the Fortune 500 list. He is also described by Alex as “Sexy James Bond.” (2x01) Regularly scheduled to speak at conferences, Warren is reclusive and often cancels. (2x07) He splits his time between San Francisco, London, and Seattle, and travels frequently. (2x02)
2. For some reason, Thomas Warren contacts Alex under then name Carl Jenkins to set up a meeting, insisting Strand be there. He doesn’t say much of anything, but he does steal Strand’s coffee cup. (1x11)
3. DaivaCorp was behind the not-for-profit company bankrolling Strand’s speaking engagements in Seattle. (2x02)
4. Warren was involved in an archaeological dig in Hillah, Iraq. Strand believes this may have had something to do with Tiamat, and that Warren may have found the Horn of Tiamat. (2x03) For more information, see The Cult of Tiamat.
5. Because he is a lawyer, Strand believes Warren to be “the Advocate.” Strand also believes that Warren and Coralee are connected in some way, and that Warren “had something” on Coralee. (2x03)
6. Warren may have been present at the exorcisms of both Jessica Wheldon and “John” (false name). At John’s exorcism, men in business suits explained that there was a “new way” to fight Satan, but symbols relating to opening demonic portals (including the upside down face) were present there. At John’s exorcism, these strange men used a machine to “cure” John of the outward signs of his possession. (2x07)
7. Simon Reese tells Alex to focus on finding Thomas Warren’s machine. “Find the machine, and you’ll find the man behind it.” (2x09)
8. Before her disappearance, Sammie the Hacker transmitted information to the TBT team in the form of a fax sound, which one of Nic’s friends (presumably MK) decoded. It included a handful of incorporation documents, research grants, and board of director lists. (2x09)
9. A subsidiary of DaivaCorp is Luciternica Resources, a robotics lab. Thomas Warren sits on the board of directors. They very likely produced the machine used on “John.” The machines were delivered to Warren under the guise of being Pachinko machines. (2x10)
10. The machines produced by Luciternica Resources feature symbols connected to the Cult of Tiamat. A small plate that looks like a serial number plate above the door to the back of the machine features the same symbol from cave paintings and Coralee’s ring. (2x10) The symbol also appears over a tomb in Cairo where, in 1955, a disputed page reported to be from the Gospel of Truth was unearthed. (2x11) For more information, see The Cult of Tiamat.
11. In 2x11, Thomas Warren attempted to set a meeting with Nic and Alex. After some clarification, Strand is allowed to come to the meeting, but no recording devices are allowed. As they are about to go in, they see a big security team heading their way, armed with guns. Just before the security team closes on them, Coralee shows up and (ostensibly) rescues them, saying “get into the van if you want to live.”
12. Continuing from 2x12, Coralee delivers Alex and Strand to a safehouse, where it is revealed that during their marriage, Coralee had been working for an organization run by the Advocate through Thomas Warren. As Warren’s agent, she was tasked with reporting Strand’s whereabouts and protecting him, confirming that the Advocate had been closely watching Strand. She warns him against Daiva Corporation, stating that they believe Strand’s family hold a “genetic key” crucial to their ends, and says she believes that they may be working in conjunction with the Order of the Cenophus. (2x12) For more on this, see The Disappearance of Coralee Strand.
13. Strand finally meets with Thomas Warren in the season 2 finale, and Warren offers him a job on their team as they work on some “altruistic” project. As payment, Warren offers to fund The Strand Institute, whose coffers have dwindled over the years. Warren also reveals that Howard Strand did not, in fact, die in an accident, but was murdered. He gave Richard one of Howard’s journals, saying that Howard had worked for Daiva Corporation for seven years, and was in fact working there when he was murdered. (2x12)
The Cult of Tiamat & Sumerian / Babylonian Myth
Updated: 8/16/16
SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12
1. The Sumerian/Babylonian myth of Tiamat is binary. One part regards a creatrix, the other a “monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos.” Strand links the myth of Tiamat to aquatic monsters like “Ctulhu or Cthulhu,Leviathan, the Kraken,” and says the myth concerns “The battle between some cultures’ hero and a chthonic monster.” The battle between the hero and the monster is sometimes called “Chaoskampf,” and the monster is sometimes depicted as a dragon. (2x03) [Ed note: though Strand defines “chthonic” as “aquatic,” this is not correct. “Chthonic” refers to things pertaining to the underworld, and things that dwell beneath the earth. “Chaoskampf,” however, does pertain to the battle between a cultural hero and a “chaos monster,” which often takes the form of a snake-like serpent, a sea serpent, or a dragon.]
2. A glyph that Strand says is connected to Marduk, a Babylonian god, is found in the room of Simon Reese. [Ed note: Marduk defeated Tiamat in battle. Very interesting.] Additionally, a symbol to bind the Sumerian go, Anzû. is drawn on the south wall to his room, which Strand posits is an attempt to create a “devil’s door.” Of Simon, Strand says: “Those symbols are very specific. Someone’s knowledge of ancient Sumeria, and this type of script in particular, is fairly comprehensive. It’s clear whoever drew those symbols had dug quite deeply into sacred geometry and ancient occultism. And for some reason, Simon Reese is upset with Trent’s conversion to Christianity… It’s not really my field of study. But I did recognize some of those equations. The symbols are adapted from ancient Sumerian, but the equations are from the middle ages. Dark alchemy, a form of what you might call devil worship.” (1x06)
3. The demon board used in the University of Washington experiment in 1993 is linked to Pazuzu, the Babylonian ruler of Demons, and Richard Strand immediately recognizes it from his father’s work. The underside of the board features a pentagram within two circles as well as a number sequence. (1x08)
4. Strand’s father was heavily interested in the Cult of Tiamat and wrote an unpublished paper on the topic. (2x03)
5. Strand believes that Thomas Warren found the Horn of Tiamat during his dig in Hillah, Iraq. (2x03)
6. A symbol linked to the Cult of Tiamat and the Pilori has been found in/on: Coralee’s ring (2x09), Howard Strand’s journals (2x09), a cave painting (2x09) [Ed note: though Alex did find an upside-down face at Urraca Mesa in 1x12, I can’t find an instance of anyone mentioning a Tiamat-related symbol there], and a Luciternica Resources “exorcism machine.” (2x10). Strand says this symbol can be used to summon or bind a member of the Pilori. (2x09) See notes below for elaboration/discussion on this point.
7. Richard Strand suspects he has been stalked by people looking for artifacts and information that were once in his father’s possession. (2x05) Potentially related: be was recorded by Alex Reagan when speaking to Amalia, inquiring after a tall, striking blond woman who won an auction in Russia. Though she confirmed that the woman spoke fluent Russian, she was unable to confirm if the woman was from Malta. (2x06)
8. Alex Reagan found old letters (from the 70’s or 80’s), in Howard Strand’s former house, hidden behind a picture that reminds her of the creepy painting in Strand’s honeymoon suite, where they found Coralee’s coded message. This particular picture features a squid beast attacking a boat and being speared by men, a clear link to Leviathan/The Kraken/Tiamat. In these letters, which are typed, unsigned, and undated, though probably from the 70’s or 80s, Richard Strand is discussed. It sounds very much as though he is being prepped to assume a position within the cult of Tiamat called “the mantle of the dragon.” The correspondence had a Tiamat stamp, and was postmarked from Istanbul, Turkey.
It also includes a 14-digit number code which Nic splits into two 7-digit codes in order to point to Mt. Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey. Nic posits that Mt. Ararat may be the location of the Axis Mundi, where Percival Black will play his Mysterium in an attempt to end the world. (2x10). Strand states that there is no way that a symphony could be played atop Mt. Ararat, which was also the mythic site upon which Noah’s Ark came to rest after the great flood. He says that the site furthermore has significance in pre-Christian, Armenian myth. He says that the 17,000 ft elevation would make it nearly impossible to carry instruments to the top without mountaineering gear. (2x11) It is later revealed that the Axis Mundi may in fact be the PNWS station. (2x12)
9. In 2x11, there is discussion of the Gnostic Gospels (previously mentioned in 1x03 in reference to The Unsound), ancient texts written between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, making some of them older than the New Testament, However, due to their content and provenance, they are not considered Biblical canon, and are thus considered New Testament Apocrypha. “Gnostic” comes from the Greek “gnosis,” which means knowledge. Per Strand, “gnosis” is a “popular term in Greek philosophy. The Christian Gnostics believed that salvation lay not in Christ, but rather in psychic, or pneumatic souls freeing themselves from the material world via the book of Revelation.” Nic mentions that Tiamat is also referenced in Revelation as a dragon.
They discuss a section of the Gospel of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels, that Nic forwarded to Strand. The Gospel begins, roughly translated, “these are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke: Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.“ However, Strand says, many scholars believe that it wasn’t Thomas who wrote the Gospel, but an unknown. One possibility is a mystery apostle.
In this Gospel, Greek philosophy, specifically that of Plato, is discussed. There are also references to the Gospel of Truth, a parable involving math. Strand says, it “describes Jesus being sent down to remove ignorance. It claims that Jesus was a teacher, and describes how it is knowledge, rather than faith, that grants salvation, which constitutes eternal rest, describing ignorance as a nightmare.”
He goes on to say that the Gospel of Thomas also references the Parable of the Empty Jar, which is related to a disputed page of the Gospel of Truth dug up on an archaeological dig in Cairo in 1955. He says that if genuine, scholars place this disputed page in the Sahidic fragments, and that his father, Howard Strand, had done a lot of research on the topic.
Howard Strand had been convinced that the missing page of the Gospel of Truth contained details that are vital to the deciphering information about the opening of the Five Seals. “Let’s just say that the End of Days would be an extremely gentle way of putting it, should the seals be opened,” Richard says.
Nic then produces a photo taken on the 1955 dig that produced the disputed page. Above the opening to the tomb are both the symbol from Coralee’s ring and the symbol of Tiamat. (2x11)
10. In addition to ties to the Cult of Tiamat, Howard Strand also worked for Daiva Corporation, and had done so for seven years before his murder according to Thomas Warren, who was in possession of one of his journals. Daiva Corporation was also very interested in the Strand bloodline, believing it to be a “genetic key” to achieve their ends. (2x12) [Ed note: does this tie in with the “mantle of the dragon”?]
REGARDING THE VARIOUS SYMBOLS RELATED TO TIAMAT
In 2x09 and 2x10, it is made to sound very much like the symbol of Tiamat is the same as the one found inside of Coralee’s ring (linked somehow to the Pilori) and also the same as found on the Luciternica Resources machines.
See the transcript excerpts below:
2x09: Strand discusses the Pilori and Coralee’s ring.
Strand: Rumpelstiltskin was one of the Pilori. A watcher of the highest order. The folklore around this particular character indicates if you learned his name, you’d be granted power over him, but in reality, in the ancient legend involved a symbol, not a spoken name.
Alex: So what? If you discovered his symbol, you’d get some sort of power over him?
Strand: Yes. The word for name and symbol were lost or switched in translation at some point.
Alex: So, what does all this mean?
Strand: I found something in my father’s things. A symbol. It was clearly important to him– he had a safe deposit box here in Seattle. Inside were two journals and a few other items. One of these journals was dedicated to nothing but this symbol. I found the same symbol on the walls of that recent group of cave painting photos. I found the same symbol somewhere else as well.
Alex: Where?
Strand: Coralee had a ring she’d never take off. Never. While we were on vacation in Prague, she needed an emergency appendectomy. Just before her surgery, while she was out, they took off her ring. I saw it sitting in a plastic bag on a side table in her recovery room. I could see the inside of that ring. I could see the symbol. Coralee woke up, and before she said anything to me, she reached for that ring, and became agitated. She was very angry that someone had taken it off.
Alex: And… what do you think that was about?
Strand: I don’t know, but it comes back to this.
Alex: What?
Strand: This symbol.
Alex: Soooo….
Strand: It’s the sign of the Cult of Tiamat.
2x10: Alex describes photos taken from an advanced soldering website that appears to show the Luciternica Resources machines.
Alex: And there it was, the symbol. The same symbol from the latest batch of cave paintings. The same symbol that had been engraved into Coralee’s ring. It was stamped onto the back of a large machine. A large… exorcism machine. It was small, stamped into a plate similar to a serial number setup. It was located just above the door to the back of the machine. Where a technician was demonstrating an advanced soldering technique in a series of photographs. That symbol appearing on that machine was definitely interesting, but we’ve been unable to dig up anything else related to those machines. Of course, we’re going to keep digging.
HOWEVER in 2x11, we are told that they are two separate symbols. Discussing the site where the disputed page of the Gospel of Truth was found, Alex says, “And there it was. Above the entrance to an ancient tomb in Cairo, from an archaeological dig in 1955, the symbol from Coralee’s ring, right NEXT TO the familiar symbol of Tiamat.” She is clearly referencing two separate symbols.
This is pretty confusing, as prior to that point, they’d been seemingly discussing ONE symbol that linked the ring, the exorcism machine, and the Pilori to the Cult of Tiamat. Doubly so, since moments later, Alex says:
“I knew that Strand’s investigation into Coralee had stalled with Thomas Warren, and that the symbol on that machine, the same symbol that was carved into that Egyptian tomb, and the same symbol that had been engraved into Coralee’s ring pointed directly to Daiva Corporation.”
Is the symbol on Coralee’s ring the same as the symbol of Tiamat, or are we talking about two different, but related symbols? It’s currently unclear.
The Disappearance of Coralee Strand
Updated: 8/16/16
SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12
1. Richard Strand’s wife, Coralee, disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 1997. (1x02)
2. The couple was on the way to Big Sur, and had stopped at a gas station. (1x02)
3. It was later revealed that Coralee disappeared after an argument. (1x11)
4. Strand went missing for five days after her disappearance. (1x03)
5. Strand was the main suspect for a time, but was eventually cleared. In addition, Strand assaulted a psychic who was hired to look into Coralee’s disappearance. (1x03)
6. She was certainly hiding something big from Strand before her disappearance– he describes it as “systematic. Hotels, motels, secret meetings.” (1x11)
7. Coralee’s father believe Strand murdered Coralee. Her mother does not, and believes her daughter to be alive due to a postcard she received. (1x03)
8. Coralee had actually been featured on PNWS through found tape collected around the time of her disappearance, in a segment entitled, “Love on Tape: Sound Audio on the Topic of Love.” The tape was found in 1997 by triathlete Carl Harrison, but not sent to PNWS until 15 years later. At the end of the segment, she asks, “Warren?”(1x05) This may be a reference to Warren Beauchamp, a locksmith (1x09), or perhaps Thomas Warren, who Strand believes “had something on Coralee.” (2x03)
9. There is mounting evidence to show that Coralee is indeed alive: a postcard to her parents (“Thinking of you,” 1x04), a cryptic, computerized voice message to the station (“Richard Strand. Please don’t worry. It’s Taddycoram Dickens. I left you something beside the white chickens.” 2x05), and a book cipher message left on the back of a painting in their honeymoon suite (“Leave me. Find Advocate. Simon Reese.” 2x07/2x08).
10. Tina Stevenson of Lake Tahoe has confirmed that the woman she knows of as Lisa Graves is in fact Coralee Strand (1x10), and was verifiably alive as of 1x12. Lisa Graves is the name of Coralee’s college roommate. (1x11)
11. In 2x05, Coralee’s birth name was revealed to have been Harriet. Strand knew that the “Taddycoram Dickens” message was from Coralee because Taddycoram’s real name was Harriet. Coralee changed her name in high school.
12. Coralee may also have been involved in the cult of Tiamat, as she wore a ring with a sigil that had the power to either call or bind a figure of the Pilori. Strand first noticed the ring when Coralee was admitted for an emergency appendectomy in Prague. She was angry that it had been removed. (2x09) For more on the sigil, see The Cult of Tiamat.
13. When Richard Strand disappeared for five days, his daughter, Charlie, was with him for four of them as he searched for her. (1x09) Though Charlie regards Coralee as her mother, she was not Charlie’s birth mother, who was Canadian (104). After her return, Charlie had little to do with her father, telling Coralee’s parents that she no longer had a father. (1x04) At one time, she petitioned for emancipation, and is not currently in contact with her father. She does say that Coralee’s parents, the Jacobsons, are not the most reliable character witnesses regarding her father. (1x08) Although Charlie was located in Italy in 1x08, she may have returned, per her conversation with Alex in 1x09 (”How was Italy?”). Her current whereabouts are unknown. When questioned about what caused her estrangement from her father, she is repeatedly evasive, telling Alex to ask Strand instead. Strand’s response is that he told Charlie that Coralee had been having an affair, and she had reacted “badly.” (1x10)
14. In 2x11, Thomas Warren attempted to set a meeting with Nic and Alex. After some clarification, Strand is allowed to come to the meeting, but no recording devices are allowed. As they are about to go in, they see a big security team heading their way, armed with guns. Just before the security team closes on them, Coralee shows up and (ostensibly) rescues them. She says, “get into the van if you want to live.” Richard does not respond with surprise, leading the listener to believe that he’d known about Coralee’s survival for some time, and that she may have in fact been the female “friend” he referenced working with in 2x08. How long Richard has been in contact with Coralee is currently unknown.
15. The finale of season 2 (2x12) is dense with more information regarding Coralee’s disappearance. Coralee and two of her associates, a man and a woman, take Alex and Strand to a safehouse that Alex thinks is an AirBnB. She and Strand have a conversation in the bedroom, then Coralee leaves.
In information relayed by Richard after her departure, we find that during their marriage, she had been working or “some kind of shadow corporation” led by the Advocate, who she never met, only speaking with Thomas Warren. Her job entailed being a “watcher,” reporting Strand’s whereabouts, and, most importantly, keeping him safe. Coralee admits that she fell in love with Richard, prompting her to protect him from her own organization, as well as another entity. [Ed note: she specifically says “both sides” but does not specify who those sides are.] At that point, her organization kidnapped her, and it seems she escaped and has been on the run from her handlers since.
Coralee has long been watching Richard, protecting him. Richard had been receiving some messages from Coralee for some time prior to the reveal that she was alive, but does not seem to have actually been in contact with her face to face.
Alex asks Richard an open-ended question about his marriage (”So, did she… was your marriage…?”) to which he replies, “No, it wasn’t.” Whether she was asking if his marriage had begun organically through a love match, or if Coralee had been tasked with marrying him and fell in love later is unclear. Still, Alex thinks that Coralee still loves Richard, and he responds that it is “not a consolation,” and that he doesn’t think he’ll see her again.
Here is a transcript of the conversation that concerns her disappearance.
Strand: I haven’t fully processed it all. Not yet.
Alex: Of course. Maybe you’ll see her again. One day. Maybe?
Strand: I don’t think so. At least… I’m not going to pin any hopes on that.
Alex: Well, if it’s any consolation, I could tell she still loves you.
Strand: It’s not.
Alex: Right. Of course not.
Strand: But thank you.
Alex (in narration): I wanted to debrief Strand, to ask him what Coralee told him. What happened to her? What was going on? But that could wait. The man had just lost his wife… again. We started driving. We drove through the city for a long time. I think he just didn’t want to be alone that night. A little while later, we ended up back at his place.
Alex: I know it’s been a long night for you, but do you mind if I ask you a few more questions? It can wait if you’re tired.
Strand: Can I offer you a drink?
Alex: Sure, thank you. Thanks. (sighs) So…
Strand: She was a watcher.
Alex: Your wife was a watcher?
Strand: That’s what she told me.
Alex: And you believe her?
Strand: Yes.
Alex: Okay, so, what does that mean, a watcher?
Strand: She was tasked with reporting my whereabouts, and most importantly, keeping me safe.
Alex: What for? I don’t… I don’t understand.
Strand: She was some kind of an agent for a shadow organization led by the Advocate.
Alex: The Advocate? So… do we know who he is?
Strand: She told me that she never met him, or her. She spoke only with Thomas Warren.
Alex: Okay. So, did she… was your marriage…?
Strand: No, it wasn’t.
Alex: Oh.
Strand: She told me that she fell in love with me, and she continued to protect me because of that love. She indicated that she began protecting me from both sides at that point. That’s when they took her. That’s when she disappeared, when she turned on her own organization. She was on the run from her handlers. That’s when she was sending me messages. She told me the podcast was making it harder and harder for her to communicate.
Alex: They were monitoring the show?
Strand: Yes, they were looking for Coralee.
Alex: Okay, well, that sounds… good, doesn’t it?
Strand: What do you mean?
Alex: Well, not that they took her, or that she ended up running from her own organization, but… she really fell in love.
Strand: She warned me… that the Advocate had been watching me for a long time, and he or her or they are preparing something… big.
Alex: Like what?
Strand: She wasn’t sure.
Alex: Why was she watching you?
Strand: My family.
Alex: What about your family?
Strand: For some insane reason, these people believe my family holds a kind of genetic key to whatever… nonsense they’re preparing.
Alex: What do you mean?
Strand: Coralee believes that Thomas Warren himself is the Advocate, and that he’s been working with the Order of the Cenophus to bring about some kind of… something.
Alex: Did she have any evidence, or connections I could confirm?
Strand: She warned me to stay away from Daiva Corporation. She told me that they believed there was something in my family’s genetic makeup that when the time was right, they could manipulate to achieve some ridiculous end.
Alex: Well, it’s a pretty huge company.
Strand: Yes, that’s concerning.
Alex: I’ll say.
16. It is revealed in 2x12 that during the first five days of Coralee’s disappearance in 2017, strand went out into the woods and tried to “rekindle” his psychic ability in order to find her. He then denies he had any psychic ability at all, but was simply distraught beyond reason. He calls this attempt a “momentary lapse of judgement.” (2x12)
