Home ▶ Fallen London » Off topic: The Surface

Discuss topics unrelated to our games here - as ever, be courteous and have fun!

Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

7/17/2017

Since leaving Failbetter, Alexis Kennedy has been working on a new project, Cultist Simulator: Behold Our End. It's exactly what it sounds like.

Alexis Kennedy, July 12, 2017 wrote:

It’s a game of apocalypse and yearning – a digital narrative boardgame about trying to destroy the world, but also about the reasons you’d want to do that, and the things that are missing from the world.

…if you want a game where you can paint nightmarish visions or crush investigators or betray your fellow cultists or feed unnamable hungers or travel behind the walls of the world or retire to live a cosy life with your children or drown the cities in terrible light

…if you fancy something a little like Fallen London without the F2P and grind

…or if you wanted more of the Uttermost East content in Sunless Sea, or the Mr Eaten content in Fallen London

… then pop your name into the mailing list, and I’ll tell you about the Kickstarter when it’s ready. And also about my collaborators, about the Cultist Simulator Perpetual Edition, about Noon, and about the journal of Teresa Galmier.

The kickstarter is tentatively scheduled to begin in September. There's also a free, very basic Alpha available for download on the website.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 7/17/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+9 link

phryne
Posts: 1351

8/2/2017

http://weatherfactory.biz/the-locksmiths-dream-1923-edition/

If you lived in the first half of the twentieth century, and you wanted to find a way into the Mansus, you probably owned a copy of this book. It began life as a catalogue of unusual parallels in the dreams of artisans, but by the time of Volume 2 (‘Portions and Proportions’) it amounted to a survey of the Mansus’ outer layers. Consequently, the Long suppressed it, and I’m taking a bit of a chance by sharing this picture. I found it in a bookshop in Camden Lock Market. Galmier actually lived in Camden for a couple of years, after the court case, tutoring undergraduates in Italian and writing furious letters to the local paper. I don’t know where she went after that. But this edition was published in 1923: the year she passed the Spider’s Door.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Alexis really is a master in the game of "invent-arcane-artifacts-and-drive-people-crazy-with-obscure-hints" wink

--
Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition
Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide

+6 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/4/2017

phryne wrote:

Alexis really is a master in the game of "invent-arcane-artifacts-and-drive-people-crazy-with-obscure-hints"

Yes he is. My favorite part of the Cultist Simulator prototype is the books.

The Locksmith’s Dream: a Light through the Keyhole

Discovery Text: The first volume of ‘The Locksmith’s Dream.’ A recent, but intriguing work, handsomely bound in gold-tooled calf-leather.

Card Text: The first volume of Teresa Galmier’s examination of parallels in the mystic dreams of artisans.

Study Text: No-one has ever explained why Galmier devoted herself to this quixotic exploration of artisan’s dreams.

Quote: “Time and again we hear of the Wood, which rises from the world’s foundation. All trees reach for light. What does the Wood reach for?”

Lore: Mansus Glimpse

The Locksmith’s Dream: Portions and Proportions

Discovery Text: The second volume of ‘The Locksmith’s Dream.’ A recent, but intriguing work, handsomely bound in gold-tooled calf-leather. The frontispiece, however, has been slashed with a razor.

Card Text: The second volume of Teresa Galmier’s examination of parallels in the mystic dreams of artisans.

Study Text: In this volume, Galmier records fewer dreams, and explicates more of her own elaborate theories.

Quote: “Thus the essence of these visions: what is below can’t escape what is above.”

Lore: Consent of Wounds

[spoiler]Using Consent of Wounds with the Rite of the Watchman’s Sorrow allows you to pay a brief visit to the outer layers of the Mansus. Using it with the Rite of the Crucible of the Soul allows you to summon the Hour of the Red Cup into your body. So she really did find a key - it's not wonder her second book was suppressed.[/spoiler]

De Horis [Volume 1]

Discovery Text: A nineteenth-century reprint of a fourteenth-century Latin translation of a fourth-century catalogue of secret gods.

Card Text: An occasionally coherent catalogue of the secret gods, organized by hour. This is a reprint, but in the original Latin.

Translation Text: An enigmatic work: even more enigmatic in Latin.

Study Text: This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others.

Quote: “The Glory is a question, and the Moth always answers Yes. The Black-Flat’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.”

Lore: Wood Whispers

The Orchid Transfigurations (‘a feast’)

Discovery Text: The first volume of the ‘Orchid Transfigurations.’ A sixteenth-century alchemical fever-dream, frequently banned for the disturbing allure of its illustrations.

Card Text: An original edition of a compilation of quasi-Rosicrucian allegories, supposedly by Robert Fludd. This is the original Latin.

Translation Text: It seems unlikely that this is Fludd. Fludd would write better Latin.

Study Text: The illustrations are certainly striking. They flush the skin and glow beneath the eyelids after the book is closed.

Quote: “We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.”

Lore: The Delightful Sacrament

Traveling at Night (Vol. 1)

Discovery Text: The dream-journal of Christopher Illopoly, sometimes called ‘the only readable occultist.’

Card Text: The annotated dream-journals of Christopher Illopoly.

Study Text: Illopoly’s work is literate, entertaining, and bewildering.

Quote: “The Wood lies outside the walls of the Mansus. As any student of the Histories knows, the Wood has no walls.”

Lore: Wood Whispers

Six Letters on Necessity

Discovery Text: A printed edition of the Six Letters of Necessity. A small volume of the correspondence of a seventeenth-century magus.

Card Text: Warnings and confessions about the cost of the secret arts, addressed to a student by the seventeenth-century magus (and reputed immortal) Julian Coseley. .

Study Text: Coseley’s tone is urgent – as if he suspected he might have little time left.

Quote: “Even the Sunne can be divided, though it require the Forge of Dayes for its division.”

Lore: Ardent Prayers

The Geminial

Discovery Text: A manuscript of unusual antiquity, its cover decorated with fragments of coral.

Card Text: A fragile manuscript, illuminated with twinned shapes of sad and luminous beauty, and with all the phases of the moon. It might be as old as the sixth century, but the language – Fucine – is much older. The page-edges have been known to cut like razors.

Fucine: A people lived east of the lost lake of Fucino. Horace warned that theirs was the land of witches. This was their language, called by some ‘the dry tongue’ and by others ‘the tongue of witches.’

Principle: Knock

Lore: Unknown

Book Analysis

I suspect that the Locksmith’s Dream has a total of three books, as this would fit the escalation that occurs between the first and second volumes. The first volume begins unassumingly enough with an esoteric, almost scholarly exploration of artisans dreams (sounds harmless, doesn't it?). The second volume becomes more theoretical and crosses a number of lines in the process, resulting in copies of it being mutilated and suppressed. It seems likely that there’s an unpublished and very supernatural third book out there somewhere, written right before or sometime after Galmier went through the Spider Door. Furthermore, Galmier’s focus on artisans implies some sort of correspondence between the medieval building guilds and the Mansus, with the dreams of the locksmiths in particular being her key to understanding and ultimately opening the Mansus' doors. Everything in the visible world has some sort of relationship with the powers of the invisible world. (“Thus the essence of these visions: what is below can’t escape what is above.”) Like to like is very much in effect.

The De Horis is an occult encyclopedia that was anonymously constructed out of earlier texts sometime in late antiquity. The fact it isn’t ascribed to a single author suggests that it was a group creation. My guess is that it was originally a Hellenic work before it was translated into Latin, but in a world where Fucine, “the tongue of witches,” is a thing, who really knows where it came from. The encyclopedia probably has a total of seven volumes, one volume for each occult principle/hour, making it the ideal introductory work.

The Orchid Transfigurations is a very weird text. It is definitely not the work of a single author, as its attribution to Robert Fludd is clearly bogus and your character identifies the work itself as a “compilation” of texts pretending to be something they’re not (in this case, Rosicrucian). It sounds a little bit like the Corpus Hermeticum, where a number of diverse texts arising out of a shared intellectual milieu were later combined together into a single invented tradition and wrongly ascribed to a single author. As the common milieu of the Orchid Transfigurations is sixteenth century alchemy, it seems safe to assume that all the volumes explicitly deal with the subject of perfection and transmutation. The hodge-podge nature of the compiled sources however means that the nature and intent of these transmutations could vary pretty widely. Yet the compiler must have had a larger purpose in mind when making the selections that they did. Personally, this series is my favorite so far, as I just love strange stuff like this.

The Geminial, is the only book that is explicitly magical. You can’t translate it in the prototype game and it will probably take some effort to do so in the full game, but the payoff will probably be pretty substantial. Even untranslated you can use it’s strangely razor sharp pages to perform human sacrifices (yikes). As you move from searching through dusty bookstores to actually collecting relics of power, more and more of your attention will no doubt focus on items like The Geminial and their possible uses.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/9/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+6 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

9/18/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Besides the very strong cases Vexpont and Anne have made, I now realize there's another indirect pointer that the second Hour is the Mother of Ants, not the Red Grail:

In the Kickstarter update Alexis wrote, "It references two Hours, one of which has been slightly more obscure to date, as well as a number of setting details. Enjoy!"

The Red Grail is anything but obscure, for anyone who played the first prototype. The Mother of Ants, on the other hand, *is* much more obscure as yet; we previously knew virtually nothing about her (it?) except the "Consent of Wounds" and the "Injury" text. That makes for a much better fit.

Anne's right and I'm wrong. I did the rest of my wiki research siege this afternoon, which ironically showed the answer was findable by simple Googling.

Here's the Mother of Ants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphisbaena

edit: Mother of Ants is very likely to be a straight pull from Borge's 'Book of Imaginary Beings'. I have a copy knocking about. Time to blow the dust off, I fancy.

Bloody repeat-offender Borges bootlegger. Fool me once, shame on you...
edited by Vexpont on 9/18/2017

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+6 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

12/20/2017

On Poppy Lascelles, I looked through the files to see if there's a workaround for her being unusable and discovered there's actually two versions of her in the files: poppy and poppyready. Apparently the patrons operate the same way--the "ready" ones you can speak to to get a commission, and the ones without "ready" you can't; or in Poppy's case, she acts like a regular acquaintance. Of course, when you're introduced to Poppy, you're given the wrong one. Spoilers for a bit of Poppy's story (though I'm sure there will be more in later builds), in case any of you would rather wait for her to be properly fixed: (otherwise if you'd rather play it for yourself before it's officially fixed, press the ~ key, type in poppyready, and press the +1 button)
[spoiler]

Questioning her further...

Speaking to her again, this time agreeing to her offer, gives one of each Spintria, which would help beginning Bright Young Things immensely while they're waiting on gaining Reason to work for Glover & Glover. It also spawns the purple hourglass tile shown left, which just says "In the 'Season of Rags,' Poppy will return.."

Once the timer hits 0, one of two things may happen: "Silence from Poppy," which just says "Poppy is seen around town, assisting at charitable events, smiling benignly." and restarts the 5 minute timer after 10 seconds. Or, "A friendly visit from Poppy..."

She requires a follower sacrifice.

Speaking to her afterwards is the same as talking to a regular acquaintance. Alternatively, if you don't have any followers to offer... unfortunately, you are taken as a sacrifice to the Sun-in-Rags instead.

[/spoiler]

Side note: After reading some of the new books, and studying A Sexton's Secret, I definitely agree that I was a bit hasty before in assuming the White is a new Hour, when new evidence now definitely implies it's actually an alternate name for the Sun-in-Rags. :P
edited by Alice Lutwidge on 12/20/2017

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+6 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/21/2017

Speculations on the Hours

I should say right out that I expect most of these speculations into the possible natures of some hours, including some barely mentioned hours, to be way off. But... if all goes well, we've still got months to wait for the game. I thought I'd play around a little with tabulating what little information we've got, and adding uninformed speculation to the mix.

There are several parts to these speculations:

One is to assume that the number of the Hour might have some correspondence to an associated hour of the day. It may not! Their numbering may be completely unrelated to their ordering, and we don't even know if the Hours have a correspondence to time as we know it. (Except for Moth, where we're told explicitly.)
A second is to assume that the Hour's number might have some connection to the corresponding cards of the traditional Tarot trumps. Again, it may not! (In one case, we have an intriguing association for the Witch and Sister, but that might be just that one card.) But perhaps the Tarot trump can give us a bit of clue into its flavor or personality, or something to build on.
A third is to assume that the Hour's name, and meanings we can independently learn for that name, e.g. by wild Google searches, browsing Borges, or what-have-you, may have some association with its nature or flavor. Again, that may be as wrong as assuming that a guy named Rex (or girl named Regina) necessarily has a royal demeanor and sense of dignity. But we've got to start somewhere, and we have far too much time to kill between now and the initial release, right?
Remember: "Some Hours are malevolent. Some just embody passions too strong for human life. All are very dangerous."

Recent general notes on the Hours and Principles from the Reddit AMA:
LordOfEye Q: "Is the House the true dwelling of the hours, or simply the representation that we choose to project on to it? As an extension of that, are the Hours truly knowable by a mortal?"
Alexis Kennedy: "(a) yes (b) is the Mansus truly knowable by a mortal?
Arjhan6 Q: "Was the Great War a victory, defeat, or inconsequential to the various hours?"
Alexis Kennedy: "Depends on the History. But to be less coy, events at that level are of direct interest to the Hours."
Maniph Q: "What exactly are the Hours? What’s the Mansus? What is air? What’s eight divided by zero?"
Alexis Kennedy: "The enumeration of action. The House of the Sun. Unheard music. A feast untouched."
space_communism Q: "... Do Gods-From-Flesh originate as human occultists or otherwise come from our reality?"
Alexis Kennedy: "That is a reasonable suspicion to suspect."
Amestria Q: "There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found a cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. ... How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?"
Alexis Kennedy: "There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate."

Notes: "Poseidon is not the only God in the sea" is I think a specific allusion to The King Must Die, in which it becomes quite significant that there is a sea goddess worshiped elsewhere, unconnected with Poseidon. To me, he's implying that there might be several completely different Hours embodying the same principle but in completely different ways and interpretations. I don't know about the Intercalate, as this seems to be the first reference to it. intercalate: (v.) 1. interpolate (an intercalary period) in a calendar. 2. insert (something) between layers in a crystal lattice, geological formation, or other structure.

So here we go:

0. The Moth.
Hour of time = 12:00 midnight (official lore)
Possible Tarot correspondence = 0 The Fool. (Air; The Fool can symbolize questing, seeking, so chaos and yearning is a good fit!)
Lore: "The Moth’s Hour is midnight. It is the first God-who-was-blood. It seeks among the trees of the Wood; it beats within the skull; it is dappled."
“The Glory is a question, and the Moth always answers Yes. ..." [De Horis vol I]
The principle of Moth: "I knew a man who captured moths in a bell-jar. On nights like this, he would release them one by one to die in a candle. [Moth is the wild and perilous principle of chaos and yearning]" Associated with Passion.
Further things we think we know: The Moth is not simply an expression of the insect; it has creepy hands.
It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
Certain people can have affinity with the Moth. "I ran crying into the night and I recollected myself only curled among the roots and blades of the Wood. To that episode, I ascribe my affinity with the Moth…” ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Search: Not even going to try searching this; "moth" will pull up far too much to sort through.

Speculation: Moth seems to be what this game is all about, doesn't it? Impossibly powerful yearning, and yearning for the impossible. To quote Archy, but at the same time i wish / there was something i wanted / as badly as he wanted to fry himself. Speaking of which, I'm still hoping to have another dream about The Wood.

I. The Door in the Eye.
Hour of time = possibly 1:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = I. The Magician (Mercury)
Lore: "The Door in the Eye, which illuminates, which navigates, which is not compassionate. The Watchman is the Door in the Eye. He opens the way for the willing and for the unwilling. He is often the first Hour that we supplicate. He is always in white."
This associates the Door in the Eye with the Watchman, hence the rite of the Watchman's Sorrow
"EACH HOUR HAS ITS COLOUR. EACH FLAME HAS ITS FUEL. I've walked behind the Watchman; I've seen his shadow on the stone. This is the first step in understanding the shaping of fate. If I had more time, I could learn to walk the Mansus; gather disciples; find the star-shattered fane; watch the Hours walk; grow Long." [One victory condition, alpha]
Search: Can't find anything seemingly meaningful, other than some wonderfully scrambled metaphors ("Working at _ is a great way to get your foot in the door in the eye industry") and references to a historical novel "The Eye in the Door".

Speculation: "I've walked behind the Watchman" somehow suggests to me that it would turn out a Bad Business Indeed if he were to see you. (cf. Neepy Thang and the Bird of the Difficult Eye.) Even so, the Watchman as Magician seems a plausible correspondence, offering a risk worth taking to gain an introduction to the powers of the Mansus. ("the first Hour that we supplicate", "the first step in understanding the shaping of fate.")

II. The Black-Flax.
Hour of time = possibly 2:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = II. The High Priestess (Moon)
Lore: "The Glory is a question.... The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.” [De Horis vol I]
It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
It's an older Hour, and opposes the Crowned Growth. "I thank the Sun for the Horned Axe, the Black-Flax, the other older Hours. Without them I wonder whether we might not all be the Growth." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Search: I can't find anything seemingly meaningful by searching for black flax or Black-Flax, just information about decorative varieties of flax plants or flax clothing.

Wild speculation: On that "No"... perhaps this Hour's nature is that it seeks to freeze and preserve things exactly as they are, or allow them to change only at a glacial rate? That would make it an opposite of Moth, in one sense, and also make it an opponent of the Crowned Growth. Or perhaps (drawing from the High Priestess symbolism) it seeks to protect Mysteries and keep them from investigation and encroachment.
Anne Auclair: Since the Moth answers "Yes" to the question of the Glory and seeks the Light, to a seemingly self-destructive degree (Moth to the candle flame), I think the Black-Flax's "No" indicates that it actively moves away from or avoids the Light. Which seemingly puts it at odds with not only the Moth but also the rest of the Woods, which arises from the foundations of the world and reaches towards the Glory.

III. The Ring-Yew.
Hour of time = possibly 3:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = III. The Empress (Venus, femininity)
Lore: It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
Search: I can't find anything seemingly meaningful, other than bow-makers discussing the importance of following the rings in the wood when making a bow from yew. Or is it about yews planted in a ring, as one does, if one is a Druid?

No speculations as yet.

IV. The Thunderskin.
Hour of time = possibly 4:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = IV. The Emperor (Aries)
Lore: "The Thunderskin is the Heart Relentless, who does not permit conclusion. With the Mother of Ants, he is among the chiefest Gods-from-flesh. He cannot be stilled; he demands the dance; he is beaten, like a drum. Red and blue are his colours. He is heard in the Wood below the world."
Principle of Heart: "The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand." [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves]
The Thunderskin is canonically the source or patron of coffee. (Thanks to Anne Auclair for her Lore question!)
Search: can't find anything seemingly meaningful, just a lot of game skins, phone case skins etc.

Wild speculation: "He demands the dance." Might one of the Thunderskin's particular dangers be as the source of the Tarantella, the fairy-tale-like (but historically attested) contagious mental disease causing people to dance themselves to death? Perhaps then along with coffee, he would also be the source or patron of MDMA and other stimulant drugs?
AA: Presumably depressants and hallucinogens are patronized by opposing powers, as they make you still or take you out of the world. I also wonder if the Heart Relentless being the patron of coffee means that it is actively hostile towards dreaming. For it is within dreams that you glimpse what lies beneath the skin of the world, and the Heart wants the skin preserved.

V. The Mother of Ants.
Hour of time = possibly 5:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = V. The Hierophant (or the Pope in older decks) (Taurus)
Lore: "I need rest and nourishment, if I am to recover. But the Mother of Ants looks kindly on wounds." [Injury text, alpha]
"To open the way, one must first open oneself. This practice outlines that opening, in the name of the Mother of Ants." [Consent of Wounds]
"...the Mother of Ants ... is among the chiefest Gods-from-flesh." (Lore text for the Thunderskin)
Principle: probably Knock, due to Consent of Wounds? but not completely confirmed.
"The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [the knock is the principle that opens doors and exposes secrets]"
Search: We've been kicking this one around already. From the St. Agnes reference in the Addendum from 'Hints to Travellers in Italy', Vexpont teased out a connection to Angitia/Anguitia, a serpent-associated healing goddess of Roman times. More directly, there is or was a New World snake called 'Mother of Ants' by the Aztecs, as reported by an early Spanish naturalist. Some online sources call the amphisbaena (serpent with head on both ends) the Mother of Ants, but even if the amphisbaena association is a mistake as I think, there's definitely some connection with serpents.

Speculation: Can't come up with anything yet, though I feel we should be able to from what we have.

VI. The Witch and Sister.
Hour of time = possibly 6:00 am (I want it to be midnight, but that's the Moth's)
Possible Tarot correspondence = VI. The Lovers. (Gemini, and the Witch and Sister is associated with the Geminiad, so this definitely works.)
Lore: "The Witch-and-Sister unites what is at rest. She is sought at the water’s edge and beneath the moon. She cannot be touched; she cannot be separated; she is pearl, coral, amber."
"They are seen in dreams, particularly when one dreams before a cracked and uncovered mirror. On nights of the greater moon they arise from the lake and generate unwanted multiple births, inspire follies of passion, and blend flesh to flesh. The locals turn for protection to St Agnes, but I have seen that they also make poppets – of two heads and four arms – to placate the lake-witches."
Opposed by the Mother of Ants: "The locals turn for protection to St Agnes... In my dizziness and fear my Italian had all but abandoned me, but I understood this: ‘the Twins! You have kissed the Twins!’" [Addendum from 'Hints to Travellers in Italy']
Search: Didn't find anything relevant, outside of CS links.

Speculation: We've got a little taste of this Hour now - their nature governs forces including lust, mad sex, multiple or conjoined births, but also watery depths (coral and pearl), gems resulting from transformation (pearl and amber), and perhaps tentacled creatures (note the border of the card image.) But I still don't feel like we have a clear picture of her/them.

IX. The Cartographer of Scars.
Hour of time = possibly 9:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = IX. The Hermit (Virgo)
Lore: nothing at all as yet?
Search: Can't find anything relevant.
Nothing to speculate on as yet. (Sounds creepy, though.)

XII. The Sun-In-Rags.
Hour of time = possibly noon (which sort of works, for a Sun god of sorts.)
Possible Tarot correspondence = XII. The Hanged Man. (Water; The Hanged Man can symbolize self-sacrifice, which might fit with those beautiful endings.)
Lore: "The Sun-in-Rags concludes endings beautifully. He is usually reckoned one of the Gods-from-Light; but Julian Cosely (the seventeenth-century magus and reputed immortal) has indicated he should in fact be numbered among the Gods-from-blood. He burns; he is distant; he is not as he was. He wears gold and red."
"SOL INVICTUS. This was the title of Mithras, but also Hercules, Apollo, and of course Heliogabalus / Elagabulus, who was briefly worshipped in Rome. Briefly along the Second History, anyway. His mortal incarnation was a pretty sorry specimen, although he's believed to have passed the Stag Door, and at least to have been accounted a Know." [Kickstarter announcement email]
Search: It's easy to find a plethora of material on the mortal Marcus Antoninus/Elagabalus, as we've been discussing. He came rapidly to a bad (but interesting) end - he could be the prototype of "Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse." Other characteristics of the mortal Antoninus Elagabalus in our history: mentioned by Borges in 'The Lottery in Babylon', where he's claimed to have held lotteries for his dinner guests; deified briefly after his death, like several of the more successful Emperors; famously decadent and spend-thrift; bisexual and possibly transgender - some biographers claimed he referred to himself as a woman, and to one of his lovers as his husband. Who knows whether any of this bears on the Hour, though.
One nice hit on 'Sun in Rags' is the John Donne poem, 'The Sun Rising' ("Busy old fool, unruly sun...") which contains the phrase "Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time." Hmmm.

Speculations: This Hour would seem wonderful to be associated with - for a little while. Might the existence of the Sun-in-Rags have something to do with the Sun itself having been "split" as noted in the Lore for the Forge of Days and Red Grail? Are the rags of the Sun-In-Rags the "rags of time"? "Briefly along the Second History, anyway" implies a couple of interesting possibilities to me: 1) We're living in the Second History. 2) In another History or Histories, the god Elagabal/Elagabalus was worshipped for much longer, or perhaps still is.
AA: Maybe the Forge of Days and the Red Grail teamed up to split the Sun. That would explain why the Sun-in-Rags is associated with both Light and Blood.

XVII. The Red Grail.
Hour of time = possibly 5:00 pm.
Possible Tarot correspondence = XVII. The Star (Aquarius; the Aquarius correspondence really doesn't work for me!) However, in some illustrations (e.g. the Thoth deck) the Star is shown as a naked woman pouring from an elaborate chalice, though in most she is pouring water out of pitchers or jugs.
Lore: "The Red Grail seeks to devour and be devoured." [Kickstarter page]
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” [The Orchid Transfigurations]
"I need rest and nourishment, if I am to recover. But when my mouth waters, when my vision swims, I see the red cup, and now and then it will speak to me." [Starvation card text]
"Here am I, alone on the night of my victory, my end. The Grail has opened its mouth. It will not forget my savour. It will not forget." [Victory text, web prototype]
"Hersault says the Red Grail split the sun. Coseley proposes it was the Forge of Days. They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon." [Noonstone text, web prototype]
"WHAT IS BELOW CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE. The Red Grail is the Hour of blood and of birth. It has touched me, and I've gained a little of its power. If I had more time, I could draw disciples to me; grow fierce with blood and delight; be the herald of a new age; use that power to ascend to a secret throne, one day." [Power victory condition, alpha]
The principle of Grail – Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. "The principle of the Red Grail demands to be fed."
Search: illuminati swag (Benthic) found a passing reference to a 'Red Grail' in the Charles Williams poem 'Son of Lancelot', in a context where red means hunger - very interesting. Might be more to find, if we dig further.

Speculations: In the web prototype, of course, we learn a lot about the character of the Red Grail and one form of dangerous relationship to it - opening ones mind to it is spectacularly deadly for oneself and others, in full apocalyptic style. I speculate that a less disastrous relationship with the Red Grail might be possible for the particularly skilled and well-balanced mage who could keep its allure at arms' length, at least for a while, though it will always be a particularly dangerous Hour. It is at least plausible to some of the Know or Long that it is powerful enough to damage the sun.
Vavakx Nonexus: Worth adding that the Red Grail also oversees birth [...] If the Red Grail is indeed connected to the Church of St Agnes and the Serpent, this could illustrate some of the differences between the Red Grail's and the Witch-and-Sister's takes on childbirth, love, lust and other such matters. (It is kinda amusing for me that the Red Grail could be one of the more conservative hours, trying to stay away from deviant children and supporting a church of a chaste virgin saint. Guess all the fasting, flagellation and general higher-power-seeking that went on are a really big draw for the Hour of Hunger.)
Illuminati swag (Benthic): This is really important, actually, as a confirmation of the connection between the Red Grail and Charles Williams - the specific poem from which I've been drawing the Grail quotes is about the birth of Lancelot's son, and connects the birth with the themes of hunger (through wolves and the Lupercal). St. Agnes is the Mother of Ants rather than the Red Grail, but that's definitely an interesting comparison to draw. The "red carnivorous violation of intellectual love" in The Son of Lancelot seems to suggest that the Grail isn't particularly chaste, though.
AA: Well, the Red Cup is the god of blood, birth and appetite - not lust. And when it comes to appetite, the Grail is a god of extremes, a deity that presides over both starvation and gluttony. The Catholic Church has many mystics and saints who starved themselves to be closer to god, while plump overeating monks were something of a medieval stock character (Friar Tuck anyone?). So, in the Church you literally have two sides of the same coin, fasting and feasting.
Alexis Kennedy: [Answering "Was ... Charles Williams a conscious inspiration for the Red Grail, the hour of blood and hunger and birth?"]
"no, and when I dropped by the thread on the Failbetter boards I was interested to see the comparisons drawn. But I have read other Williams; I have read a lot of Lewis, who as you probably know was a reciprocated fan of Williams and a fellow traveller; I have read a certain amount of Arthurian poetry and commentary (Ritual to Romance, Green Knight, and so forth); I'm sure there are influences crossing back and forth. but mostly I think if you're writing on certain themes, you end up drinking from some of the same wells."
XXII. The Forge of Days.
Hour of time = possibly 10:00 pm (though I kind of want this to be sunset or dawn?)
No traditional Tarot correspondence by number (though I kind of wish it were XXI. The World.)
Lore: “Even the Sunne can be divided, though it require the Forge of Dayes for its division.” ['Six Letters on Necessity', Coseley]
"Mouth the scorching words and dream of smoke." [Meditate on the Forge of Days, web prototype]
"In this past, a score or more of Longs were made. They brokered peace with the Forge of Days, long enough to set England on a path of early conquest and eventual destruction. The Forge itself devoured the greatest among them." ['A History of the War of the Roads', web prototype]
"Hersault says the Red Grail split the sun. Coseley proposes it was the Forge of Days. They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon." [Noonstone text, web prototype]
Principle of Forge: ‘Fire,’ I once read, ‘is the winter that warms and the spring that consumes.’ [The Forge of Days transforms and destroys]
Search: Nothing relevant, other than links back to Cultist Simulator posts. (First mentioned in July 2016, before the first web prototype.)

Speculation: "The winter that warms and spring that consumes" is fascinating - at first glance one might read it the natural way (it warms the winter) but it's saying the opposite. It's clear from the very little we know that this must be another particularly dangerous Hour. Cosely (a Know and probably a Long) argues that it split and damaged the sun, and it "devoured" the greatest among a group of powerful Longs. If the Forge seeks to transform and destroy, then that's surely not going to be pleasant for those so transformed. As yet, though, we don't know much about its character (other than hungry for fuel) or what it can do by way of transformation, though clearly its power can greatly affect history.
AA: It might also have ultimately consumed Coseley as well. It's one of the last things he wrote about before...well, whatever happened to him ("Coseley’s tone is urgent – as if he suspected he might have little time left."), and his letters are explicitly about the costs of the invisible arts...

XXVII. The Crowned Growth.
Probably a secret hour, not one of the regular 24. (This is probably a good thing from what we know of it.)
No possible Tarot correspondences.
Lore: "I shall say there was a river flowing through the door. It was not a river, and neither was it pus, nor joy, but when I tried to articulate it better, my pen snapped in my hand. ... The Rising Spider wishes dominion, but the Growth wishes only to infect and become. I do not believe the Bounds are the limbs of the House, but I must aver that the Dead that night had become the limbs of the Crowned Growth." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Search: First hit is the blog lore post 'Around 1890...' followed by the discussions in here. Apart from that, things about mammal tooth growth patterns, various trees' growth (Eastern Redbud, Ponderosa Pine, Cox Orange Apple), business awards, and again something about bowmaking; nothing that seems relevant.

Speculation: More terrible than evil itself - the Hour of cancer (the disease not the sign), of Internet flash worms, of infectious memes, of the hive mind.

The Beachcrow. Unknown number (possibly XI or XIII?)
Possible Tarot correspondences, XI Justice (or Temperance), or XIII Death.
Lore: nothing at all as yet?
Search results: Nothing suggestive - lots of photos of crows on the beach; an interrogation of a serial killer; some nice poems by Ursula K. LeGuin. http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Poetry-Crows.html Nothing too revealing or provoking an Aha! moment, but the poems are good.

Really wild speculation: Raven? Is that you? (Probably not, seems too obvious.)

The least-known hours as yet:

The Lionsmith. Unknown number.
Lore: "The Lionsmith makes monsters, that he may grow strong and stronger." [Kickstarter main page]
"Q: What manner of beings are crafted / spawned / shaped / pulled-into-existence by the Lionsmith? To what extent are any of them, ah, lions?
A: The things he sends against the Colonel, IIRC. To at least some extent, at least some of them are lions.
Q: That begs the question who is the Colonel?
A: The Lionsmith's opponent." [Reddit AMA]
Search: Nothing that seems helpful or relevant; mostly turns up references to jazz stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who I'll have to check out.
Nothing to speculate on as yet.

The Colonel. Unknown number.
Lore: "THE COLONEL IS SCARRED. THE COLONEL IS BLIND. THE COLONEL CANNOT BE EVADED." [email, early web page?]
"Q: What manner of beings are crafted / spawned / shaped / pulled-into-existence by the Lionsmith? To what extent are any of them, ah, lions?
A: The things he sends against the Colonel, IIRC. To at least some extent, at least some of them are lions.
Q: That begs the question who is the Colonel?
A: The Lionsmith's opponent." [Reddit AMA]
Search: Not going to try searching this; I expect it will pull up too much.
Nothing to speculate on as yet.
JoelMB12: The Colonel sounds like it is the hour of the edge

The Flowermaker. Unknown number.
Lore: "THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT HARM YOU. THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT FIND YOU. THE FLOWERMAKER HAS WHAT YOU DESIRE." [email, early web page?]
No other mentions I'm aware of.
Search: Possibly connected? In the 1800s, flowermakers were the people who made artificial decorative flowers, and often ended up poisoned by arsenic pigments and dyes. https://books.google.com/books?id=re4pCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=The+Flowermaker
Nothing to speculate on as yet.

The Rising Spider. Unknown number.
Lore: "The Rising Spider wishes dominion..." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Mentioned in passing as hypothetical DLC in a Kickstarter update. "then if I have a better idea a year from now ('Rising Spider DLC would be way more interesting than Crowned Growth DLC') ..."
No other mentions I'm aware of.
Search: Can't find anything relevant as yet. The quoted lore piece itself already turns up by page 5 of a Google search.

Speculation: I like spiders, generally speaking, and yet even with nothing to go on, I suspect that the Rising Spider might be one of the more malevolent Hours.

The Horned Axe. Unknown number.
Lore: It's an older Hour, and opposes the Crowned Growth. "I thank the Sun for the Horned Axe, the Black-Flax, the other older Hours. Without them I wonder whether we might not all be the Growth." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
No other mentions I'm aware of.
Search: There was a type of ancient Norse axe called Snaghyrnd Øx, translated "Snag-Horned Axe", and in general the points of a curved-bladed Viking battle-axe may have been referred to as horns.
Wild speculation: Does this Hour embody the ancient battle weapon? Is it an Hour of battle itself? (And I think an axe would have to be connected with the principle of the Edge.) [Updated] After rereading Mary Renault's The King Must Die, I am reminded this also might relate to the Labrys, the double-bladed axe which was a sacred symbol in Minoan Crete, associated with goddess worship, and became a symbol of feminism and lesbian rights during the 1970s.
I think I'm done. Go wild.

[Edited to incorporate many of Anne Auclair's additions and comments]
edited by cliftonr on 9/22/2017
[Edited again to credit a few more people for their ideas and research, and update with a few more minor thoughts]
edited by cliftonr on 9/23/2017
[Edited yet again to add excerpts of some interesting bits from the Red Grail discussion]
edited by cliftonr on 9/27/2017
[Edited again to add the Lionsmith/Colonel lore and other bits from the Reddit AMA, and AK's official statement on the Charles Williams/Red Grail connection]
edited by cliftonr on 10/2/2017
edited by cliftonr on 10/2/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+5 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/12/2017

More details on Cultist Simulator features and gameplay: combat, exploration, and the legacy system. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that when the Kickstarter ends, Alexis is planning to look at ways he can make the game more narratively and visually interesting with the additional funding he has received.

**********************************************************************************************

Alexis Kennedy, Blood, Roads, Memory

A backer messaged me with a bunch of good questions, so I thought I’d share the answers more widely.

“Will there be direct combat (or at least as direct one can be against eldritch antediluvian evil)? If not weapons against enemy cultists and authorities, perhaps rituals and rites to battle and defend against horrors?”

Not combat combat, not hit rolls and damage points, but there is opposition, yes. In the prototype, it’s really simple – you can suffer a Malady which will chew up your health, or you can be under investigation by the Suppression Bureau, which will end the game unless you can divert it with bribes or scapegoats. In the finished version, these will be slightly livelier antagonists, like Investigators and Detectives and Hauntings, or your own problems, like Appetites and Nightmares. The key thing is that this runs at war-of-occultists speed, not action-movie speed. You’ll need to lay your plans – or conduct your protective rites – and wait for them to take effect.

“How expansive will the world of Cultist Sim be in terms of locations and exploration? More of a “stay around town, discover its dark secrets” or will we be going off to explore distant ancient ruins and hamlets to summon entities and gather knowledge? I guess, will it be more Fallen London or more 80 Days?”

It’s more Fallen London than 80 Days; you are conducting operations from your study. But there will be distant locations. Whether you go there in person or not is still something I’m considering.

At the moment, the plan is that you dispatch followers to find locations (the Tomb of the Amethyst Imago, or the Wreck of the Christabel, e.g.) and break into them, and they bring you back stuff. In the prototype, you do this with Strathcoyne’s Library, and it’s very simple, but ultimately I want multi-stage situations with varying outcomes. You’ll need maps or clues to find the things; you might try multiple approaches to solve obstacles; you might have to deal with the ramifications, like curses or vengeful rivals.

But one of the ideas I was turning over – which has just become much more likely now that we’re better-funded – is that your office moves. It’s always exciting in something like Elder Sign: Omens to see the board change. So if you travelled to Rome or Cairo, the scenery might change, along with the local rules. I’ve also considered making your starting city one of the variant start conditions that come with different legacy options. All this is speculative at the moment! After September, I’ll sit down and plan the final scope. But it is one of the ideas I like more.

“How in depth will the legacy system be? Basically like Sunless Seas, or more complex? Sins of the father tend to be a common theme in gothic and lovecraftian horror…”

More complex. It’s the first major feature on my list once the KS is complete, because I want to start playtesting it with that in place – it will change the rhythm of the game quite considerably (for the better, I think). I expect there to be a low-double-digits total number of legacy choices, of which the player usually sees three at any given time. The structure of CS lends itself more naturally to a more elaborate and extensible legacy system than Sunless Sea. A legacy just provides some flavour and gives you some different starting cards (including ones which may make your life difficult) – there isn’t a chart to hide or stats to tweak. But one of the things I’d like to keep from SS, if I can, is to allow players to inherit a single specific thing, like a book or a tool, so you can pass your journal down through the notional generations.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/12/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+5 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

7/31/2017

One thing that really interests me is the game’s cosmology.

There are naturally seven occult principles, personified as Hours, which permeate the visible and invisible world, and which you will have to navigate in order to achieve either otherworldly enlightenment or power.

Lantern – ‘Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.’ – Thomas Browne. [Lantern is the principle of the Mansus, and the light above it]

Heart – The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand. [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves]

Knock – The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [the knock is the principle that opens doors and exposes secrets]

Grail – Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. [the principle of the Red Grail demands to be fed]

Moth – I knew a man who captured months in a bell-jar. On nights like this, he would release them one by one to die in a candle. [Moth is the wild and perilous principle of chaos and yearning]

Forge – ‘Fire,’ I once read, ‘is the winter that warms and the spring that consumes.’ [the Forge of Days transforms and destroys]

Edge – All conquest occurs at the Edge. The one who dwells there cannot see and cannot hear; cannot be wounded and cannot be denied. [Edge is the principle of contention and battle]

Guess which one is the Mr. Eaten one?

The Mansus is the central meeting place, frequented by various powers and the Hours. The terrible light above the Mansus is referred to as the Glory – it is regularly likened to the sun, but it seems a lot more dangerous. Apparently human souls originate in the Mansus and return upon the death of their mortal bodies. The Heart Relentless and the Forge of Ages are both principles and distinct things, not unlike the Mansus, and seem to have a sort of yin and yang thing going (the Heart continues/preserves the world, the Forge transforms/destroys it). Knock has some sort of association or relationship with a power referred to only as ‘the Mother of Ants,’ which occultists call upon to gain access to the invisible world. Moth is the symbol and principle of the Wood, but it is also just one Wood dwelling, Mansus walking Hour among many (albeit perhaps the most important one). Grail appears to have a lesser avatar in the Red Cup, which is a powerful Hour of birth and blood. Edge we know the least about, but it seems to be a specific place. It might be the border place between the Woods and the Mansus, both which have no walls and hence no boundaries, but which are somehow distinct from each other.

Alexis has posted a very rough, but appropriately mysterious map of what this invisible world may look like when fully fleshed out.

The Lantern is associated with human Reason, the Moth with Passion, and Heart with Health and Fleeting Memories. Heart and Lantern are together associated with Contentment. Fleeting Memories and Contentment can be used to repair one's damaged consciousness (Unreason). Enthusiastic disciples are affiliated with Heart, dreamy disciples belong to Knock, and ruthlessly cunning disciples dwell on the Edge.

Fascination results from a nightmare of the Cleansing Dawn (Lantern), while Insomnia results from a dream where you choose to go under the white floor boards (Knock). Starvation destroys health, but opens one up to communication with the Red Cup (Grail). All three menace cards weaken the character by consuming reason or health, but they also open you up to further occult experiences (Fascination, Starvation) or help you defend yourself from attack (Insomnia). This suggests a crucial part of the game will be balancing your menace states by finding the right amount of self-destructive behavior to engage in. For example, you might be more productive if you treated your Insomnia...but what if something came for you in the night while you were asleep?

Each principle has an appropriate fragment of lore, though only five have currently been implemented. Lantern - Mansus Glimpse, Knock - Consent of Wounds, Grail - the Delightful Sacrament, - Forge - Ardent Prayers, and Moth - Wood Whispers.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/9/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+5 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

7/24/2017

Barse wrote:

I
The Kickstarter is definitely worth keeping an eye on, even for FL-only fans - Alexis floated the idea that one of the reward tiers might be him answering any question (NDAs notwithstanding) about any game he's worked on.
edited by Barse on 7/17/2017

This has now been confirmed.

I am now flirting with the idea of paying the hundred quid KS price to get an answer to one question. If I can think of a worthwhile one. (Any ernest but broke fans who have a question they're dying to ask?)

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+4 link

gronostaj
Posts: 403

7/25/2017

"Linux version, barely tested" has the same rhytm in my mind's ear as "baby shoes, never worn", so of course I tried it out. It actually turned on, which is more than I can say about most Linux alpha-version games, and seems fascinating but...... has anyone else found the interface maddening (not in a good, exciting way) and prone to cluttering? I found myself constantly trying to zoom out to see a bigger fragment of the board.

Genuinely not sure if it's the UI design or me doing something wrong.

--
Gronostaj (pl. Ermine), a decadent duellist of mysterious and indistinct gender. Seeker. Willing to die- but not of boredom. Open to all social actions, including the harmful ones.
Soft-Spoken Surgeon, a doctor who owes an onerous debt. Professor of medicine at the University by day, at criminal employ by night. Open to all non-harmful social actions.

+4 link

Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374

8/8/2017

oh and I should add: if anyone wants to get involved before the Cultist Simulator Kickstarter begins on September 1st, do lend your social media powers to the cause here:
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/60124-cultist-simulator-kickstarter
thank you!

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/10/2017

The Sun-in-Rags concludes endings beautifully. He is usually reckoned one of the Gods-from-Light; but Julian Cosely (the seventeenth-century magus and reputed immortal) has indicated he should in fact be numbered among the Gods-from-blood. He burns; he is distant; he is not as he was. He wears gold and red.

Some thoughts on this entry.
1. I'm vaguely reminded of the King In Yellow. I suspect this is intentional. Also, the eyeless, toothy frowny face in the clown motley is really creepy.

2. This seems some pretty clear foreshadowing that Julian Coseley is a not insignificant character. He either wrote more than The Six Letters on Necessity or some of his teachings were passed down by his students. Given he is a reputed immortal, maybe he or some of his students are still alive.

3. The Sun In Rags is Hour/Secret God number twelve. There are Seven Principles/Hours: Lantern, Moth, Heart, Grail, Forge, Edge, and Knock. As Alexis has described things, each principle seems to be an Hour unto itself, but it's also clear there are many Hours besides the Big Seven. We have Hours like the Witch-and-Sister that seem to embody multiple principles (Edge & Knock) or, like the Sun In Rags, are difficult to place. And there are three additional classifications based on origins: Gods From Light, Gods From Nowhere, and Gods From Blood. A big part of the game is combining different pieces of lore to make rituals and stuff like that. In theory, there could be as many as between 42 to 49 possible basic lore combinations, depending on whether you can combine two pieces of the same lore ( 7 * 6 verses 7 * 7). So there is a lot of space for what one might call "border Hours" - gods and powers that embody more than one occult principle.

4. The Hours are being revealed via a special tarot deck. Tarot decks have 22 Great Trumps:

0 (or 22) The Fool
1 The Magician
2 The High Priestess
3 The Empress
4 The Emperor
5 The Hierophant
6 The Lovers
7 The Chariot
8 Strength
9 The Hermit
10 Wheel of Fortune
11 Justice
12 The Hanged Man
13 Death
14 Temperance
15 The Devil
16 The Tower
17 The Star
18 The Moon
19 The Sun
20 Judgement
21 The World

So we might be looking at around 22 secret gods. The Watchman has the same number as the Magician, whose role involves bridging worlds and divination. The Witch-and-Sister occupy the same position as the Lovers, who are associated with Gemini. And the Sun-in-Rags shares its number with the Hanged Man, which isn't necessarily as bad as it sounds as the Hanged Man is associated with dedication, patience and sacrifice. The Sun-in-Rags is attired like a down on his luck monster clown, which I suppose signals dedication and sacrifice. So the tarot numbers aren't being chosen at random; the Hours have some correspondence or likeness to the Great Trumps of the standard tarot deck. I wonder which Hours will share numbers with Death, the Devil, and the Tower.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/11/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

A Dimness
Posts: 613

8/11/2017

Anne, why don't you make like spacemarine and start a lore blog?

Ooh, you could call it "i'm a cultist"!

--
A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence

+4 link

phryne
Posts: 1351

8/13/2017

Vexpont wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:
I thought the Cannibal Hymn of Unas was a literary reference or something you made up, only to discover that it was an actual hymn in an actual Ancient Egyptian pyramid, which is kind of hilarious. I mean, The Cannibal Hymns of Unas could easily be the title of a Lovecraft story.
It is a genuine ancient incantation about gaining the powers of the gods by cooking and eating them. It contains very few serving suggestions, apart from soup.

Wow.

Egyptians though? Pretty sure the inhabitants of the Third City must've had something like this as well wink

But, soup or... zzoup? :P

Oh yeah, and...

Alexis Kennedy wrote:

If you give a player a toolset and say: Right, you're a cultist, you go away and contact alien gods, seduce disciples into your service, feed your abominable appetites and, ultimately, rain blood down on the world. A lot of people will go: F*** yeah, on principle.

That's just awesome, you know. bow

edited by phryne on 8/13/2017

--
Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition
Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide

+4 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

9/4/2017

I've been playing the alpha as well and it's really quite good. You can easily tell the places where there's more to be added, but for what it was the game was still quite enjoyable and left me wanting for more, which I strongly suspect was the point. Not just for releasing the demo, but thematically as well.

While I was playing it, I quickly started seeing the themes present in the Mr. Eaten and Salt's Song storylines. Play your cards right (*rimshot*) and it's fairly easy to get the option for an ending where you can leave the occult for a steady legit job and a comfortable life. It's the easiest ending besides just dying... and yet during my first couple playthroughs, it didn't even occur to me to pick it. There was so much to learn, I couldn't bring myself to just walk away.

I made tons of money at my day job. But between my bills and buying new occultist reading material, I ended up burning through it as quickly as I made it. I think that's the point of it all, really.

You put yourself through hell, sacrificing everything you've earned for a shot at something you're explicitly told time and time again will drive you mad and probably kill you in the end, but you end up doing it anyway. The option to walk away is always there, but you have to make the conscious choice to turn your back on it. In the end, you know that your downfall is 100% your fault.

Only Alexis Kennedy could make a choice in a game feel so visceral... feel so real.

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this game.

The dawn is coming. I cannot wait to burn in its light.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/4/2017

So sometime after the Kickstarter went live, Alexis and his daughter Sonya did a very cheerful – actually downright adorable - livestream about the project. I didn’t see it while it was actually streaming, but I’ve since watched it and transcribed the most important parts having to do with Cultist Simulator’s lore and game development. I usually don’t have time to watch livestreams or podcasts, so I figured a transcript might be appreciated by the other very busy people of the world.

Word of warning, I probably made one or two mistakes when writing everything down. The video is grainy in places and Alexis is very giddy at times and he talks really fast. There were also a lot of interruptions and unrelated asides, from the chat, from his daughter, and from his own train of thought, which I had to clean up. Adding to these difficulties, Alexis is super British, and during his giddy moments he achieves this kind of max Britishness. While his accent is nice to listen to…it can sometimes be difficult for someone from the Colonies understand. All I can say is I did my best ^_^

Alexis's remarks are in italics.

1. A More Complete Answer to Gonen’s Question

There are five levels in the grand taxonomy of Cultist Simulator.

1. There’s us.
2. There’s the Know, who crossed the Stag Door.
3. There are the Long, who don’t end.
4. There are the Names, who are sometimes the emanations of the Hours.
5. And there are the Hours.

And more will be revealed in the game.

2. Gameplay Details: Play Session Length and Endings

‘How many times,’ somebody asked, ‘am I expected to die in any play through?’ At the end of a play through the game will end either with your death, or assumption, or insanity, or extinction, or consumption, or incandescence, or immolation, or devolution, or sometimes there will be a happy ending. This is really one of the things I want to get into the game. The idea of the possibility of stepping back from a happy ending.

[Alexis gives a lengthy shoutout to paraTactician]

And [paraTactician] gives an account of what I aimed for in the game, which should be the sense that you are dipping into occult lore. You want to find out what lies underneath the skin of the world. And you get a chance of promotion to a really good job, so maybe you want to give up the danger of [your] studies and take the promotion at Glover and Glover and then retire to a comfortable, perfect life.

So at the end of each play through the game will end. I am aiming for, I think, 30 to 90 minutes for a play through. So you’ll kinda die twice or three times in an evening. The model for this is FTL – which you should play immediately instead of watching the stream if you haven’t. If you have, you know how good it is, where you can die in like 15 minutes or you could have a sort of dramatic epic battle that goes onto the end.

[Cute interjection from Sonya. Alexis continues.]

Okay, so in answer to the question, ‘how many times,’ I expect you’ll probably die one or two times an evening, but I’m hoping it’s something you’ll want to play through again and again, sometimes a quick play through, sometimes a long play through, but to see all the content you’ll have to end and begin multiple times.

3. Gameplay Details: Character Creation and Legacies

Character creation process just like in Fallen London – there won’t be! What there will be is when you being the game you’re making choices which are the kind of relatively fundamental choices you’d make in Fallen London and stuff. You very quickly make choices how to allocate your reason, your health, and your passion. So that will direct the course of your life. And is not like Fallen London where you end up doing all the content. Each character will generally only be able to do a bit of content. But when your character dies, or is eaten, or retires to a comfortable life with their family, or becomes president of the bank, or passes through the Spider Door in the Mansus, or becomes one of the Long, or [indecipherable], any of these things…

[Adorable interruption by Sonya. Alexis picks up where he left off.]

So every time your character dies, you get to choose a legacy. There will be three legacies selected from a larger pool of legacies each time. My UI guy Martin Nerurkar – who is really good and you should definitely use him if you want a US interactive freelancer – Martin Nerurkar, Playful Systems. Um, [in] the legacy system you get to choose what your background, your connection with the [deceased/former] character will be like. Somebody who is a noble – a noble? that’s not very 1920s – somebody who is a wealthy 1920s gentleman or lady, who has found your journal at auction – the journal of your previous character. So this goes in a particular direction. Or [you’re] the daughter of your previous character. Or an employee at the bank where you used to work. Or a librarian who has come across materials on them.

4. Alexis: Not a Fan of Stretch Goals

I am very skeptical of stretch goals. I don’t want to get to them. Budgeting a game is very hard. I’ve been budgeting games for eight years, software projects for twenty, and you always go over, it’s super risky, and the idea of taking from your backers and not having a game to show for is a horrifying one, not just for moral and ethical reasons, but also because I would be finished in this industry if I took your money and didn’t give you a game. To date I haven’t done that, so I want to make sure it’s something I can get done. Stretch goals mean you’re doing a second round of budgeting without knowing the details, especially if its stretch goals that are widely ambitious and I know, I don’t want to name names, but I know there are people on the stream who have seen other very promising kickstarters made by well-intentioned ethical people that have gone over because of stretch goals. SO I’m really nervous doing another set of estimations for stretch goals.
…
So, stretch goals… I think I’m probably going to do a stretch goal for a physical, custom Tarot-Hours Deck. And I will – I’m still waiting for an estimate on the cost commissions from my artists. I have an estimate for printing the cards. But I will announce that soon if I’m going to do it. A bunch of people have asked about a physical Deck, so it makes sense, and it’s a nice contained thing to do that doesn’t involve making more game.

5. Short Summaries of Other Remarks

Here are some things I didn’t have time to transcribe, but are worth mentioning.

Alexis also discussed his plans to make the card table less messy and easier to organize. One thing they’re looking at is the possibility of flipping over unused cards, but there might be some interface difficulties that make this a less than ideal approach. Other possibilities are pins for pinning down the cards, coins that you can place on top of the cards, and grid lines for the table.

Over the years Alexis has discovered he has quite a few fans in Russia and Eastern Europe, but the written stories in Fallen London and Sunless Sea are just too large to be involved in translating. The condensed writing of Cultist Simulator thus partly stems from Alexis’s desire to create a game that can be readily translated for Russian and Eastern European players.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/4/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/7/2017

I know the map of the Mansus has been mentioned, but I haven't really seen it analyzed. Here's a version with Alexis's handwriting deciphered by the members of the Delicious Server and put together by Evoro:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Note the Woods at the bottom and the Glory at the top - this answers the question in the quote for the Locksmith's Dream ("All trees reach for light. What does the Wood reach for?"). Also the "Front Door" - the Mansus is the House of the Sun, we're coming in the back door without the permission of the owner. The Second Worm War is interesting, as it's not labeling an arrow but, apparently, a curve. Battle lines, perhaps?

The most notable thing that isn't immediately visible, I think, is that everything explicitly connected to reality is on the right. The Sun, the White Door through which dreamers and the dead enter, and Galmier's Lodge are all on the right. Also the Spider Door, through which Galmier went in 1923, and the "Front Door" through which the Sun presumably enters, though those are not explicitly connected to reality yet. The Mansus is "behind" reality, which is not a literal direction but rather some relation which is somehow analogous to direction - it seems likely that this relation is represented in the map by the Mansus being to the left of reality. And looking to the left of the Mansus, which presumably continues that relation, we see the arrival of the Gods-From-Nowhere. If you go "behind" reality, you end up at the Mansus. If you go "behind" the Mansus, where do you end up? Nowhere, apparently.

This also gives some interesting context to the Second Worm War - it's to the left of the Mansus, which is odd. "We lost the Second Worm War. By then, the worms had learned to work people from the inside." If the worms are working people from the inside, how did the people get there? Or is that the wrong question? Lost as in the ordinary way for a war, or lost as in missing? Did we lose to our opponents (who may or may not have been the worms)? Or did the Second Worm War go missing from history because it went behind reality?

Also, a couple other snippets from the livestream:

There are 30 Hours total, but 6 are missing, which is why we know of 24 hours.

"There are five levels in the grand taxonomy. There's us, at the bottom, then the Know, who have passed through the second door, the Long, who do not end, the Names, who are sometimes the emanations of the hours, and finally the Hours." This is especially interesting given that there are 5 doors to the Mansus, not counting the Front Door.

Edit: It is apparently "reasonable to suspect" that Gods-Who-Were-Flesh come from our reality, possibly originating as human occultists; since each of the other three directions in this theory have a type of God coming from them (Gods-From-Light from "up", Gods-Who-Were-Blood from "down", Gods-From-Nowhere from "behind"), this has some strong implications in favor of this theory. I'm not sure about Gods-From-Stone, though; maybe they come from the Mansus itself?
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/29/2017

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/8/2017

Anne,
I don't know if this clicked for you previously, but the 'Port Noon' update indirectly answered a question you raised from earlier in this thread. You had commented, as Alexis quoted on the blog, "This makes me wonder about Illopoly and Galmier’s relationship. They appear to be contemporaries (their books are all recently published). Were they colleagues? Rivals?"

Now consider the inscription of Galmier's letter, which begins "Christopher, darling" and concludes with "kisses". This can't be coincidental. Theresa Galmier and Christopher Illopoly were clearly intimates - either lovers, or very close friends.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/18/2017

See also (for anyone with both good Latin and very good eyes) 'The Mother of Ants, or Tzicatlinan' (Ioannis Eusebii Nierembergii, Historiae Naturae Lib. XII)
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/interactives/historia-naturae/37.html

Then, possibly related to the former source,
William Walton, in 'Present State of the Spanish Colonies Including a Particular Report of Hispañola, or the Spanish Part of Santo Domingo Volume 2' wrote:

Of harmless snakes there are several kinds, of which the tricatlinan (sic), or mother of ants, is very beautiful, about a foot in length, and of the thickness of a little finger; it lives always in ant-hills, and feeds upon the ants. The maquizcoatl is about a foot in length, and an inch in thickness; it is of a shining silver hue, the tail is thicker than the head, and it moves progressively with either extremity at pleasure.

(Found at https://books.google.com/books?id=seBAS86u3TgC&pg=PA314&lpg=PA314&dq=%22Mother+of+Ants%22&

source=bl&ots=LA6nrIImC1&sig=piFCpcWQjCQwurnVq7jq8gL_sAY&hl=en&sa=X&
ved=0ahUKEwj1r9WJ2K_WAhUJtJQKHTrDDmAQ6AEIZDAO#v=onepage&
q=%22Mother%20of%20Ants%22&f=false)

So that would be both a "mother of ants", and an amphisbaena (moving in both directions) described adjacently.
You are in a maze of twisty literary passages, all different.
(editing to break up the long Google Books URL which is breaking line wrap.)
edited by cliftonr on 9/18/2017

Further edit: My Latin is pretty poor, but I think that it's probably a mistake based on the Eusebius text to take 'Mother of Ants' for a title of the Amphisbaena; I can piece together a little bit of the Eusebius, and I believe this and the William Walton are citing a similar source. In Eusebius, as with the Walton quote, the section on the Tzicatlinan or "mother of ants" (topic 8) comes before the passage on the macacouatl (topic 9), which is followed by the section De amphisbaena (topic 10) which would therefore be referring to the latter based on its description.
edited by cliftonr on 9/18/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/19/2017

I googled "Red Grail" and while most of the results were irrelevant, there's one that (while also probably irrelevant) interests me. Specifically, "The Son of Lancelot" by Charles Williams mentions "A red Grail in an ivory Logres" (Logres being King Arthur's territory). Here's a link to the poem:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zt6ZsddD07MC&pg=PA64

And here's a link to a discussion of themes within the poem: https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/ttl-17-the-son-of-lancelot-by-brenton-d-g-dickieson/

Note the apocalyptic themes; in the pre-alpha summoning the Red Grail (one of the win conditions) results in destroying yourself and everything within several miles, and while I don't remember exactly how things go in the alpha it's apparently how you get the Power ending. Also, on the same page as the mention of the "red Grail", the color red is associated with hunger just as the Red Grail in CS is associated with hunger: "the red glow of brute famine/in the packed eyes of forest-emerging wolves".
I would call this correspondence a coincidence, except this is Cultist Simulator we're talking about here. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence.

Here's a description of the larger work of which The Son of Lancelot is but a part: https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/an-introduction-to-taliessin-through-logres/
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/19/2017

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/23/2017

MACHEN: I've read a lot of Machen and clearly Alexis has too. I think I suggested a year or so ago (on r/weatherfactory) that the flavor of the Noon lore reminded me of Machen more than HPL, and he agreed to that (but noted Lord Dunsany is even more of an influence.) If you have never read any Machen, my favorite book and a great starting point is 'The Three Impostors', a "stories within stories" kind of tale - some fantastic tales of horror, mystery, and adventure, except in context most of them are lies, except the ones that aren't. 'The Great God Pan' is another well worth reading, and there are some good fantasy/horror short stories too. If you keep reading from there, his writing shades gradually from fantasy into realistic fiction - with nice prose, but a lot less memorable. (Just noting for the rest of you, because if you're reading one of his less-known books and wondering "when does the fantasy or horror start?" very possibly it doesn't.)

RENAULT: I know I read a couple of Mary Renault's books in my teens, and they've since gone completely out of my head. It may be that I wasn't ready to appreciate them at that age. [Makes note to schedule one or more for a re-read.]

BEARDSLEY: Beardsley! What more to say? Well, lush, grotesque, decadent-looking art, often vividly erotic, and emphasizing both male and female sexuality as the subject of gaze. His pictures imply bisexuality, though Wikipedia claims he was regarded by his friends as more asexual. I think his choice as icon for Artist and Lover reconfirms that Cultist Simulator will be for all orientations.

HAGGARD: Haggard's 'The Mines of King Solomon' is another rip-roaring adventure read; I read 'She' too, but that was a long time ago. They are 19th century, and you have to be able to tolerate 19th century racial attitudes to get through them, but as I recall Haggard at least demonstrated some genuine respect for the "natives". Generally though I think HAGGARD denotes far-flung adventuring and tomb raiding.

I think WHARTON has to be Edith Wharton, American novelist of manners and short story writer, who was publishing from roughly 1900 through the '30s. I'm afraid I've never read any of her books so I can't comment on them.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/25/2017

Teaspoon wrote:

The only Wharton I've read is Ethan Frome.

Which is the most claustrophobic thing I've ever read - its New England farm isolation is stifling - and the ending *spoilers* rests on home being the place of entrapment that stifles even love.

Thanks for chiming in!

That's very interesting in context. In the web proto, one of the "cards" you start with is "An Ordinary Life". Studying it gives you the action "Consider my life, so cramped, so constrained" and results in "Restlessness", which has the description "You must get out. You can't get out. Must; can't." Trying to get rid of "An Ordinary Life" gives you the action "Rage at my limitations". Together, these very concisely sketch out a sense of frustration and stifled rage driving your character, which was dropped from the graphic prototype.

It sounds from a synopsis as though some of Wharton's other books are about how stifling and strangling upper-class respectability is. Maybe this aspect of the game will fit into game context as one of the pressures driving you to escape into magick, cultism, and madness.
edited by cliftonr on 9/25/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/25/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Edit edit: a quick Google didn't seem to point at all to Charles Williams influencing Tanith Lee. Obviously wolves and blood and snow and hunger are closely related, but when Alexis cites Tanith Lee as an inspiration and talks about those themes in her work while the name of an Hour associated with some of those is in a poem with even stronger examples of those themes, something seems to be up. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence, but also because even with a more mundane mindset there's much to be made of these connections.

It's worth considering that it could be both a completely valid connection, and a completely unconscious one, rather than something he's hiding or for that matter that Tanith Lee was suppressing. This does really happen a lot for anybody who's widely read and doing serious art of any kind. It all goes in there and stews around in the subconscious and gets relinked together in weird ways. (That's even before you start taking into account the Jungian idea of the collective unconscious or Yeats' Anima Mundi.)

A big example I recognized in the Noon setting is Mary Gentle's weird fantasy novel Rats and Gargoyles which takes place in a strange city governed by gigantic gargoyles embodying spirits of the zodiacal Decans, each of which has its own strange character and some of which play an important role in the story. Remind you of the Hours at all? In response (on the Kickstarter comments) Alexis Kennedy wrote:
Decans
oh my God that *is* a bloody inspiration, isn't it. I read it nearly thirty years ago and I'd forgotten it consciously, but I can see now they fed straight into the idea; and it was R&G that first made me aware of Rosicrucian iconography and natural philosophy and all that fine jazz.

Real connection, but I entirely believe him that it was completely unconscious. We should ask him if he's ever read Charles Williams though, I bet he has.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Maybe it's just the Arthurian stuff, but are starving wolves really that closely associated with the birth of Lancelot's son outside of Williams, let alone with the Fisher-King? It doesn't seem like they are.

As far as I know, the theme of Lancelot as a were-wolf is unique to Williams, though Lancelot's madness shows up in many Arthurian versions. But wolves and blood and snow and sex and lust are all definitely oh-hell-yeah there in many of Tanith Lee's books, but in completely independent ways and without as far as I know any of them being related to Lancelot or Arthur or the Holy Grail or the Red Grail at all.

I suppose that makes sense, it's just the combination of those specific themes with that specific phrase that makes it seem intentional. The connection of the phrase "Red Grail" with blood and hunger, sure, if the phrase stuck in his head then those themes are pretty easy to get from the phrase. Connecting the themes of hunger and blood and birth, sure, it's more abstract stuff so it's plausible that they'd. But combining the specific phrase "Red Grail" with hunger and blood and birth seems to go a bit further.

+4 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/29/2017

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/739eih/im_alexis_kennedy_creator_of_sunless_sea_and/

Alexis Kennedy did an AMA on Reddit at 2 pm; he seems to have stopped answering questions around 40 minutes ago, but there's a lot of interesting stuff in his answers.

The most relevant stuff for me (because they're the answers to the questions I asked), are, first of all, that Charles Williams wasn't an intentional inspiration for the Red Grail despite all the correspondences including the literal phrase "red Grail", and second of all that it's reasonable to suspect that Gods-From-Flesh originate in our reality, possibly from human occultists. The former confirms that Charles Williams was under the influence of the Hours when writing Taliessin through Logres, and the latter isn't a direct confirmation but pretty strongly implies my previous ideas about the structure of the Mansus.

Also, birds are a sort of wound in reality produced by the cracking of the egg, which moves as it heals, similarly to certain patterns in Conway's Game of Life.

Edit: It was de-removed just recently, he may be answering questions again.

Edit edit: yep, he definitely is answering questions still.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/29/2017

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/30/2017

The Chamber of Conclusions, anciently called the Concursum

This is how you have a house without walls.

The Concursum was created for Cultist Simulator by Catherine Unger.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/1/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/23/2017

Did a bit of thinking, and think I gained a little Insight into the Forge of Days.

Firstly, my opinion on the whole "is the Forge male or female" debate is that the FoD is whatever it feels like being at that time. As the god of constant change, it's probably a safe bet that if it can be ever identified by a mortal concept like gender, it won't stay stuck one way for long.

Going back and playing the prototype, recruiting followers using objects and lore affiliated with the FoD results in recruiting an anarchist. I get the feeling that the Forge embodies a sort of primal anarchy, in that it ensures no one power remains dominant for long. While the Colonel and the Golden General are the Hours that demand conflict and conquest between peoples, maps are redrawn and empires rise and fall for the Forge. Countless nations and cultures have existed across the globe, never constant for long, always changing with time. The Forge might allow one great nation to dominate the globe for a time, but never indefinitely. Always it will eventually change the status quo, either through destruction, reduction, or by raising an new great nation to replace the current power.

Strangely, the Forge seems to be willing to delay shifting the balance of power a certain way if given ample reason to. Case in point being how in one timeline a group of Long were able to convince it to let England rule the world for quite some time in the Age of Steel. In fact, from the beta it is all but stated the Forge of Days was considered to openly be the patron of England during the Age of Steel.

It seems that the name "Age of Steel" didn't refer to an industrial age as much as it refereed to an Hour reforging England in it's image the way a smith would shape a piece of steel. Additional text added to "A History of the War of the Roads" reveals that whatever the details of it were, deal the Long struck with the Forge seemed to have endowed the Royal Family with it's power, turning them into the "Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame", who "destroyed or changed their enemies". The Sovereigns proceeded to effectively conquer the world and erect great cathedrals to "St. Spark" (three guesses who). However, after a time the price of the alliance with the Forge "began to take its toll". We're not explicitly told the ending, but we can assume eventually they were unable to pay the Forge's price for its support, leading it to turn on them and devour the Long. As is fitting of a god of anarchy, never on one side for long.

This new information is also interesting when considered alongside the new text the Queens of the Rivers and its implied connection to the other secret histories. If we assume the Queen of the Tagus being burnt alive is an allegory to the Forge of Days turning on and destroying the people of the Age of Steel, this might give insight into what went down in the other histories, and why exactly the past was rewritten again at some point. Now the question is whether the queens are a representative of the actual rulers of these histories, or for the societies as a whole? As either would have some intriguing connotations.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/24/2017

So, Apollo and Marsyas - even missing its study conclusion text, what do you think?

In the original myth, Marsyas lost musical contest [sic] and was flayed by Apollo, who later regretted it. In this version, Marsyas' skin has a further history...

Is anyone else reading that implication the same way I am?

[spoiler]Namely, that this is a hint that the flayed skin of Marsyas was made into a drum and actually *became* the Thunderskin?[/spoiler]

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/24/2017

Vexpont wrote:

Speculations on Kerisham and Port Noon:

Of these three people, who must be Know at least, I’m keenest on Mme. Bechet because the purpose and location of both Port Noon and Kerisham are interesting. Functionally Noon is a safe house for the Long, as described at length here. Geographically, it’s on the coast, like elusive Kerisham (except Noon is specifically on an ‘island’, and Kerisham more vaguely on the English South coast).

Etymologically, the name ‘Kerisham’ is linked to the idea of deer/stags/horn, and even anticipating the sort of clue shenanigans likely to occur in this game, it slightly boggles me that it was expected that Googling up the link between the ‘Hotel Ciervo’ that Galmier frequents in Noon, the name Kerisham, the existence of a Stag Door in the Mansus, and the ancient word-root ‘kerh–’, is something the player may possibly do.

The Stag Door connection will no doubt become clear in time. But because Noon has a Hotel Ciervo, I am inclined to infer wildly that Port Noon and Kerisham are in fact in the same place. Just not in the same History, and perhaps, in Noon’s case, not currently in any History at all.

I'm not convinced that Kerisham and Port Noon are the same place. If anything, the names suggest the opposite. Like, the Hotel Ciervo on Mendicant Street is a place where the Long interact with visiting outsiders, presumably many of them Know. The Hotel is also but one part of the town, just as being a Know is presumably one part of the life of a Long. Kerisham's name on the other hand is entirely synonymous with the Stag Door, while Mme. Bechet is a mortal. 1920s Kerisham also seems a bit less obscure than 1930s Port Noon - after all, a notorious literary journal is published in Kerisham. If Port Noon is a town of Longs, Kerisham is possibly a town of Knows.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/25/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

I'm not sure if Lascelles has any significance,

A couple French-English dictionaries translate "La scellés" as "The seals", as in the kind that you put on agreements or documents, not the animals. That makes more than a little sense in the context of a pact with the Sun-In-Rags.

Edit: So in poetic logic, "Poppy Lascelles" could suggest the pair of concepts "Death" "agreement". A very apropos name.
edited by cliftonr on 12/25/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/16/2017

'The Walls of the Mansus,' Hersault begins, 'are the size of starlight.' Many of his directions are equally unhelpful...

'The White is West of the world,' Illopoly remarks, 'and Winter does not wait forever.'

The above reminds me a little bit of this exchange from Eight Bit Theater:

Hardly Knew Ye wrote:

Rogue: What, uh, happened to Beserker?

Sarda: Oh, he's gone to a better place.

Cleric: Like, metaphorically, or...

Sarda: No. Like the beach. But NOT the Moon.

Ranger: Am I the only one confused by that?

Rogue: I'm a little lost on the whole beach/Moon thing as well.

Cleric: Sir, could you be more specific? Thanks.

Sarda: Absolutely. He is locked in perpetual orbit around a point three seconds to the left of the future.

[pause]

Ranger: That didn't help me.

Rogue: He was specific. You have to give him that.

Cleric: What does that mean?

Sarda: It means there's not much point in talking about him.

Also, I continue to hold that the people running the Suppression Bureau are really bad at their jobs:

The Skeleton Songs wrote:

In Arabella's introduction, she explains that the book was to be illustrated, but that the Suppression Bureau would not permit it. She hints that the illustrations still exist somewhere. The book is dedicated to 'Sir Parsival of the Red Cup.'

Sure, you can publish this book of decadent Grail poems brimming with occult lore - but no pictures!

*head desk*

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/16/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/20/2017

I have a strong suspicion that the good Dr. Ibn al-'Adim lacks the "Mortal" aspect because he is a Long, and I suspect he is in fact the original Ibn al-'Adim (b. 1192.) The former is from Aleppo and (going by his commissions) has a particularly strong interest in the secret histories, while the latter was a historian from Aleppo.

An interesting lateral connection - per Wikipedia, the original Ibn al-'Adim's writings are an important source on his contemporaries, the Naziri Ismaili cult of the Assassins or Hashishim. Haven't we just heard something about cults of assassins recently? Ah, yes...

Anne Auclair wrote:

The Victory of Crowns

Card Text: Erratic accounts by one 'Arun', of the hunting and consumption of supposed immortals, by shadowy cults of assassins. Published in the late 19th century.

Study Text: The Assassins are, according to Arun, the agents of a power called the Coronel, a 'soldier of the Secret Masters.' The accounts go all the way back to Roman times.

Ending Text: Arun's scholarship is dubious, but he (she?) writes pithily. Incidents of sudden and violent death are interspersed with aphorisms: 'Hour's don't dream. Long try not to.'

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/12/2018

Lottie Bevan wrote:

Clockwork Cuckoo have been working hard for us, finishing off the icon requests we mentioned last update, as well as starting on a new batch of icons for this month. A lot of these new requests focus on the Magus role, including magic and rituals and ghoulies oh my! I couldn't stop him, so Alexis wrote the commission notes, and they therefore include things like:

"A horrible assemblage of limbs, like the Isle of Man triskele crossed with Hellraiser"

and

"A flapping hairy clawed dancing thing like an animated empty bearskin caught in a hurricane"

And you lot are paying him to do this.

If that's not money well spent then I don't know what is.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

10/26/2017

I have read everyone's posts with interest, and add a few more meanderings. I'm still bothered by the art for The Door in the Eye:

The female figure on the right is holding a gun, and she flashes up for a far briefer time for the male figure on the left – which to me implies that the first shadow that passes is the man’s, and therefore the armed woman is following him. I wouldn’t go as far as to definitely say she shoots the man, let alone shoots him dead.

But still, who are they? Illopoly and Galmier in shadowplay? Galmier lived at least into the 1930’s, after some event serious enough to involve a court case. No such assurances for Illopoly.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

I get the impression that the Intercalate was an actual event or phenomenon in the game’s backstory. We'll find out, I guess.

Thoughts on some other named entities:

‘THE COLONEL (who is scarred/blind/cannot be evaded)’ = ‘The [rather tactile-sounding] Cartographer of Scars’, seems possible, but blind entities that operate by touch are common in fantasy and ghost tales, so this may be wrong.

‘THE FLOWERMAKER (who cannot harm you/cannot find you/has what you desire)' - If CS were a cryptic crossword, the ‘Flowermaker’ would be the Crowned Growth, creator of rivers of...well, it’s best not to speculate of exactly what, but they flow. This is surely 100% wrong, but the ‘Flowermaker’ text is still sinister in the extreme.

A ‘Lionsmith’ who makes monsters has a chimerical tone, and I feel rather more confident about this. Not that it’s likely to be a literal Chimera (mostly lion, with a dab of goatsnake), or be linked to genetic chimaerism (duller than it sounds). But since The Lionsmith ‘makes monsters’ and ‘to at least some extent, at least some of them are lions’, I wonder if it doesn’t have the ability to fuse different beings into one creature. This all sounds a bit like the Witch-and-Sister, I know. But they ‘join what is at rest’, rather than chaotically melding the animate.

I also wonder if the The Beachcrow - no text on this one at all as yet - could be the first definite god-from-nowhere, just because the most famous literary incarnation of the Crow-god is one too. I slightly regret not asking this on the AMA, but live red herrings are more fun to chase.

Of these four speculations, the Lionsmith's seems the most likely to me.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+4 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/6/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

I'm intrigued, but skeptical of a pause button's inclusion in the game. I think the a big draw of the gameplay is its fast pace and deciding what options to take when working with limited time. Events like the authorities and THE RED GRAIL COMES don't give the player much time to respond, which I think is the whole point. When you're faced with a major event, you need to make a fast decision managing your limited resources. If you can just pause the game and come up with a gameplan, the game might as well be a text adventure game on can play at their own pace. I think a far better compromise would be a button that slowed down the game somewhat, or a special item or spell a player could acquire for additional time.

On the other hand I do understand if someone wanted to take a break and didn't want the clock to run down while they weren't in the room.

Well, if they just want to take a break, Alexis is definitely planning to make a complete pause (no interactions while paused) available. That said, I think it's a question of whether or not to make the difficulty of the game be based on your ability to click and drag things quickly and know if it'll work, or whether to make it more based on planning. I personally would lean towards the latter. I think "making choices carefully and waiting for them to come to fruition" would be a better aesthetic for the game than "frantically clicking around and hoping you'll get the things in the right place and the buttons pressed in time".

With a pause button, you still have to be careful about timings relative to the timers, but you don't have to worry about "oops I clicked the wrong icon and tried to put Reason in that important time-limited token that only accepts Funds, now I'm out of time, guess I'll die". Furthermore, the timers in this game obviously go a lot faster than reality. A pause button so that you can deliberate on your choices seems like it would be a move towards realism, if anything. In terms of player choice, you can play on fast-forward without pausing if you want to if there's a pause button, but not the opposite.

Also, I would seriously question your statement that "a big draw of the gameplay is its fast pace". The game as we can play it currently is not, by any definition I would consider using, fast-paced. A substantial portion of the game is waiting for timers to wind down. Also, it has a pause button as it stands. The fast-forward button is the actual change here, and I'll be glad to have it.

Edit: In terms of the super-slow not-quite-pause that he's considering, I think that could well be a good idea, but I'd definitely want to test it out before it was a definite thing. The balance for it would be between "not slow enough to be worth it" and "basically identical to pause so no point in doing it instead of pause", and the question is whether there's actually any point that's in between the two, in the opinions of enough players.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 11/6/2017

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/21/2017

Relevant to certain fan theories about Christopher Illopoly

Fire and transformation have some erotic connotations and Illopoly seizes upon them to justify writing some very intense love poetry to a very special someone (probably Teresa Galmier). Because of course he does :P

TOO MUCH INFORMATION CHRISTOPHER!

Fire is not a toy and you are so going to get burned :P

Also, add the Unburnt God, which seems associated with the Principle of Forge, to the list of unknown Hours.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/4/2017

I did some more research today on a hunch after thinking about a history course I'd taken once, and I think I I've found some more information about my favorite Hour, namely the Red Grail. If what I've found is correct, a lot of the Hour's symbolism is rooted in Egyptian Mythology.

The most clear bit comes from the story of the goddess Nut. The goddess of the sky, she gives birth to the Sun every morning, and then eats him every night, which is why the morning and evening sun appears so red. This also explains why the Red Grail's hour is 5 o'clock, sunset, where the sun appears to be devoured by the horizon and the sky turns bloody red. Nut was also viewed as a protector of tombs, and the worst punishment reserved for grave robbers in Egypt was drowning.

Drowning waters also feature heavily in Ancient Egyptian mythology. The clearest parallel is the story of Osiris' murder. In most retellings, Set throws Osiris into the Nile river where he is drowned. This story spawned the Egyptian belief that those who were drowned in the Nile were sacred. Eventually Osiris is reborn as a god. We also have the book of Exodus, where Pharaoh and his men were swallowed up and drowned by the Red Sea.

I feel like I've had something of a world-shattering revelation of my own the last few days. Once I made the connection between an Hour's placement in the day and their nature everything has just sort of started to click.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+4 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/16/2018

The twitter posts we're all talking about, so no one has to plumb the dark depths of twitter for the eldritch lore:
[spoiler]
There are many ways through the Wood...

Some are less convenient than others...

There are limits to human ambition...

That said, there are ways to surpass "human"...

[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+4 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/27/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

More art ^_^

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
I wonder if those worms are edible.

I have eaten
the worms
that were in
the pyxis

and which
you had labelled
‘for Rite
Intercalate’

Forgive them
I was delicious
so warm
and so real

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+4 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/16/2018

Here's a list of the places I've visited that haven't been compiled in the Kerisham Review yet.

[spoiler]

Rending Mountains

The Eye of Ikirmawi
We have read of a sultan who, eight hundred years ago could sleep only beneath the stars. He ordered the construction of his observatory, so that the stars could be accurately depicated on the ceiling of his bedchamber. Regrettably, the stars they saw were not safe for the unprotected human mind. The sultan’s successor ordered the observatory sealed.

Mausoleum of Wolves
This chilly monument was built long before Rome fell. Stone wolves watch the door. A chamber within was carved from rock, to await fragments of the Sun at its prophesized funeral procession. That procession never came, but still the Dead are drawn here.

Hunter’s Pits
The Tearing Tribes enlarged this cave system, digging shafts, preparing traps. It may have been a place of execution, or a proving ground. In either case it’s sacred, and the tries don’t want us here. If we survive them, there is still one more terror in the cramped tunnels.

Snow’s Keeper
A mountain-peak temple of ill-omened aspect. Jewel-bright fungus-slicks glow in the snow. None has come here in a generation, but still something moves within.

Tombs of the Shadowless Kings
In a rearing outcrop of lion-coloured rock, tombs were carved for the first kings of this land. They had hoped to be immortal, and perhaps one of them is. The others lie among their trinkets. A hereditary order of guardians watches closely.

The Lone and Level Sands

Temple of the Seven Coils
A crumbling temple in a shadowed defile. ‘Seven Coils,’ said our sources, but the idol within is an impossible heap of stone serpent – coil upon coil, a knot that dizzies the soul. Wrgoness squirms in the temple corners.

Star-Shattered Fane
Here was a place sacred to the gods of earth, until a meteor fell on a winter’s night. In time, worshippers crept back to the broken ruins. In time, the meteorite itself came to be worshipped as a bringer of dreams. Somewhere beneath the meteorite’s lair, the old altar may still remain.

Messana
A quietly prosperous village rests in the crook of the river: a surprising splash of green against the dusty land behind. The longevity of the villagers surpasses the natural. What are they hiding?

Lagun’s Tomb
A low slope-sided rectangle of mud brick, in an obscure fold of the desert. It is not remarkable to look at, but Lagun was counted among the immortal Long, and no robber has erver breached his tomb.

Miah
There was a city here. We can pick over its remains like jackals over old bones a wall-corner here, an unsuspected cellar here. Sometimes we may find the knowledge of the dead, and sometimes the dead may find us.

The Evening Isles

The Wreck of the Christabel
A sea-beast came to love this vessel but when she would not return its affections, the sea-beast crushed it. Even now, the east will not leave the ship’s corpse, bedecked as it is with occult treasures. We must dive carefully.

Fort Geryk
Three hundred years ago, a rapacious empire claimed an island ripe with tourmalines. Neither the empire nor the island are mentioned in any reputable history. But the governor’s fortress remains. Perhaps his treasures remain. For that matter, perhaps he does, too.

Raven Isle
An extinct volcano lifts its head from a fervid tangle of emerald jungle. For generations, immortals fallen to the vilest crime of their kind have been exiled here to roost, guzzling the blood and cracking the bones of unwary travelers. They must surely have something interesting.

Port Noon
There is a choice that every immortal must make: enter the service of an Hour, or return to the mortal ranks, or face extinction. The sunny little island-port called Noon is the exile-realm of the immortals who refused all those options.

[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+4 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/9/2018

Enjoying the Mansus, but the expeditions are currently unplayable. "Treacherous Ground" prematurely aborts the expedition. It's supposed to be an obstacle to be countered with Lantern or Forge, but it's coming out as a card instead and crashing the whole expedition, giving me everything back with the addition of a useless card.

[spoiler] We also got a little more interesting information on the histories. The new Secret Histories lore reveals the Hours struggle among each other to write a single golden future, and all events and possibilities are resolved in the narrative... except a few. Might this be why there are multiple Histories? World-shaking events that make it impossible for the future to advance in the direction all the Hours want are excised? Would make sense why the War of the Roads and the Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame were excised.[/spoiler]

The new exploration feature is pretty neat. For those who don't understand it, it's accessed using Secret Histories. The lower level the Lore, the more common the location (and presumably the easier it is to conquer). We start with already ransacked tombs and book collectors' incredibly flammable houses, and then we move on to creepy abbeys on the continent and eldritch locations in "the land beyond the forests" 3000 miles away.

Also, maybe I'm just a bad player, but could someone pleeease tell me how to kill that arse Wakefield as quickly as possible? Grinding lore and followers is a pain when this guy is picking my guys off and is practically unkillable at the start.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Oh, I hadn't seen that, thanks a lot! The colors may not fit as well, but the actual aspect does, it seems. I wonder if the orange still hints at Forge - it still has that association, and the Axe is a metal tool. Changes and endings are obviously connected, so maybe Forge and Winter are even intertwined as principles somehow?

If something is going to be changed, whatever what it was before can be considered to have ended, couldn't it?

Forge is already connected to Winter through the Sun-in-Rags. The Forge split the Sun from it's original form to the wounded, ragged Hour of death it is now. The Axe itself appears to be white, only visible in the very middle between the two shades of light being cast on each of its sides. Odd that they didn't use more White in the card if it's really a winter Hour. Red is the color of a sunset, but the Sun-in-Rag's affiliated color is actually yellow because it was originally the beautiful golden Sun. Maybe like you said it's a metal tool so the Forge helped make it? It gets even weirder when you consider the fact Parsival called it an Hour of the Wood.
edited by Edward Warren on 4/9/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

vellaroque
Posts: 6

3/27/2018

yes more

--
Canon Vella of house Valentine, First of Her Name, the Untainted, Keeper of Secrets, Mover of Pawns, Protector of the Great Game.

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/17/2018

Something further just clicked for me about the game design and how it works thematically.

I've been finding it pretty hard to put together a lot of the summons out of the pieces I have on hand - lore, ingredients, cultists, tools, etc. because of the need to have Knock + at least two other principles in some proportion. Of course to get virtually anywhere, you have to get some kind of other element from somewhere besides your lore and cultists, and so even if it's not what you'd personally prefer you have to send some of your people out to swindle or burglarize others. Even if it's not what your character would prefer, it's for a worthwhile cause.

But of course the corpse summons are easy, and I just thought "Aha, prisoners have several principles!", so if you've got a prisoner to sacrifice then it's much easier to raise something big. And thus the game gently guides you past theft and robbery and on to murder and human sacrifice, all in the pursuit of knowledge and power.

Just as advertised on the package, inn't it? A++ well done.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/18/2018

cliftonr wrote:

But of course the corpse summons are easy, and I just thought "Aha, prisoners have several principles!", so if you've got a prisoner to sacrifice then it's much easier to raise something big. And thus the game gently guides you past theft and robbery and on to murder and human sacrifice, all in the pursuit of knowledge and power.

As a Cultist with Obsession:Enlightment, I just wish I had spare Prisoners to sacrifice. They must be treated with every courtesy, given reading materials, games, and pastimes, reassured that they're actually on a witness protection scheme, and on no account be allowed to become bored. One never knows when the need for Conversation will strike.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

On the other hand, I've been extremely unlucky in terms of not getting a +8 Knock item. I've had all of my Forge and Knock cultists die without getting anything to upgrade to Keys. If you don't get a +8 Knock tool/ingredient it's entirely possible to lose everyone who would be useful. This is particularly annoying since I've gotten to 30 Lantern but I don't have any Lantern Tools as far as I can tell. I might be able to get to 34 by summoning the Baldomerian, but I don't have anyone to steal things so I can't get the remaining couple of points.

Unfortunately, since the glad day when a Consecrated Lintel fell off the back of a lorry, my rolls as a pathologically vain Knock medic have been cursed at the subatomic level, but even if I were a bit more fortunate, finishing the game at present is still Very Hard. Here's the sad best I can currently do in seeking Enlightenment (if I can put Teresa in the empty slot, I get to Lantern 30):

Spoilers to reduce post length.

[spoiler]My Grail and Edge Disciples fail to obtain a living mind for me, three or four times in a row, which would merely be a sub 3%/sub 1% level of poor luck. Have I siphoned all the free-range cogitation from this city? Is it Time to turn on my own flock? I can best spare the Heart crowd, I suppose, though I’ve mixed feelings about optimists, especially Clovette; it would be like snorting icing-sugar. Alas for Inspector Wakefield, whose underpaid synapses would sustain me for weeks. But it is not to be, and I scorn to have him murdered, though I would be tempted if he offered me a coinflip: Excision for me if I lose – or for him, a Conversation with one who truly appreciates his mind. I suppose that classically, the villain should take the initiative. I shall keep a spintria in my pocket, Zachary, in case we ever meet.

I don’t fear the Bureau now. The Rite of the Beast’s Division plus Knock Lore allows me to keep a self-recycling Raw Prophet (messy creatures, but obliging) or a recopying Hint on hand:

Anonymously sending the Bureau an occasional Prophet really quietens them off; I hate to think of their laundry bills. And finally Rose manages to kidnap someone! Things are looking up.

Whoops. I take my eye off the ball on a Hinter summoning!

Olympe Bechet, who obviated her usefulness by teaching me Greek, knows nothing about it as she turns her back to a cheval-mirror. I like to think that Ysabet plays the grieving niece and retrieves Madame’s body. When my ex-tutor takes root, we shall plant her in the yard.

Sadly, Enid and Neville continue to steal like they’re raiding a department-store drunk and blindfold, if the place sold Piebald Pigment, Bitterblack Salts, Greydawn Oil, Rose-Pearl Dust, Labhitic Grains, the Byzantine Tinct and Refulgin (+4 Lantern, nice but no damn cigar). Also a Cinnabar Amulet, a Paradoxical Curio, an Icon of St. Agnes, Stained Gloves and Furious Silver (a magnificent +12 Edge Tool that wants to puncture the universe in the left ventricle, and which I wield like sheep-shears).

Enid nabs the Journal of a scholar of Fucine! I greedily translate the Geminiad, and it helps with Summonings quite a bit, but none of the Lore is Lantern. My Keys then nick:

A Meteoric Bullet
Martensite Paste (perhaps we should start an Armoury...)
A Malleus Imperative
A Bone Flute (...or a Marching Band)
Wolf-Snow
An Elegabaline Manacle
Funds (Why Neville, why?)
Wolf-Snow again
A Kingskin Bodhran (+12 Heart tool. Could be old Jan Zizka himself, if Bodhrans were only a little more Czech)

etc. etfc. I think I must have committed well over 40 acts of larceny (for real, it must be more but I've lost count), and still I cannot get to Lantern 36 even with Teresa. My time on this plane is not indefinite. Even a Disciple-level kidnapper will eventually fail and vanish, leaving me with no Prisoners with which to have nutritious Conversations; I will dwindle to a nagging little gleam, and be snuffed out in the Mansus like rest.

Actually, as some point, I will throw in the ichor-stained towel and generate a suitable card. The burglary system is only a very temporary stop-gap and it can be brutal; I also think that it is perhaps possible to exhaust the possibilities without getting what you need. But I would kind of like to get a natural endgame once.[/spoiler]

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Harvey Hattington
Posts: 13

3/8/2018

Good day my fellow cultists!
I've played CS for some time now and...I'm pretty bad at it. I'm in my third or fourth "full" game now (not counting the very early builds that I played for about fifteen minutes each) and can't seem to make any headway.

I've established a cult, recruited two followers, gained (and lost to the autorities) one pawn and created several rituals that I cannot currently execute. I spent the last hour doing almost nothing but earn a living and try out combinations that do nothing. Therefore, my question: I know that there is a hell of a lot more to be done, that there's lore and followers to upgrade, eldritch beings to summon and so forth. Would anyone in this thread be willing to give me some general pointers on how to proceed? I would be immensely grateful.

(Another problem for me is that I only have a limited amount of time to play, which means that I occasionally forget stuff that I should know by now. Case in point, I know that I already recruited two believers, but I'll be damned if I remember how)

--
Harvey Hattington, an inescapable gentleman: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Harvey%20Hattington
Morgan Adams the Wax Woman. Gone North, gone forever: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Morgan%20Adams

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/9/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

btw, I don't think Theresa is Baldomeria.

I now have a sneaking suspicion that this initial assumption was dead wrong and that there's a reason Baldomeria is mentioned amidst passages on the Forge of Days and the nature of change.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/9/2018

*sing song* I found out how to summon Ezeem! I found out how to summon Ezeem!

Albeit in an incredibly evil way, even by CS standards.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/9/2018

Harvey Hattington wrote:

I've established a cult, recruited two followers, gained (and lost to the autorities) one pawn and created several rituals that I cannot currently execute. I spent the last hour doing almost nothing but earn a living and try out combinations that do nothing. Therefore, my question: I know that there is a hell of a lot more to be done, that there's lore and followers to upgrade, eldritch beings to summon and so forth. Would anyone in this thread be willing to give me some general pointers on how to proceed? I would be immensely grateful.

Apologies if you have already done all this, but have you:

1. Met people with unusual interests by Exploring the city using Passion or Reason?
2. Sent a Follower/Disciple to Explore the City for you?
3. Plumbed your Dreams using Passion and Lore, or if you like to live dangerously, Reason and Reason (don’t do the latter early on, since it’s mainly for sake of the text and warps one of your Reason cards into either Dread or Fascination. Dread is easy to reverse with Contentment, but Fascination is not, and in fact requires Dread to reverse. Ouch)

Like illuminati swag said, getting Acquaintance > Follower just needs a Cult and Notoriety/Mystique, but promoting Believer > Disciple needs a total Aspect score of 7, for which you'll need a +6 Lore (unless the Believer has the same +2 Aspect as your Cult does) and a Tool/Ingredient with a relevant 1 Aspect. It used to not matter what Cult you had, but with one notable exception, this 7 Aspect now needs to match your cult’s Aspect:Veneration.

More stuff. If I'm making glaring errors here (it's been known), I'm sure someone will correct me.

Lore Wrangling

Basic Forge Lore combines with the other basic Lores to makes Rituals, but for everything else, you're AFAIK wasting your time if the Lore Aspects aren't the same -- ie, you're upgrading Lore, not creating exotic hybrids. Despite this, this puckish game will always tell you your Research is Promising, whatever Lore fragments you load up, and then just return your fragments with 'False Turns in the Labyrinth' if it doesn't find an Upgrade match. Ho-hum.

Cult Wrangling

The one Cult I’d avoid is The Unflinching Order/Forge, because basic Forge lore is needed to discover Rites, and high-level Forge lore is also needed to promote believers. AFAIK Forge lore is in limited supply, so there’s a conflict: your finely-crafted +6 Forge lore, scraped together from all the Fragments you've got, can’t be discovering a Rite and Promoting a Believer at the same time. Edit: forgot the Upgrade process now returns your original lesser Lore Fragment. The Intellect's Belated Light! Forge away.

...but also Edit: for the first time in ages, I founded the Winter/Children of Silence cult. And I really would not recommend this, as there seems to be no tome that gives you +4 Winter Lore (whereas there are two that give you +4 Secret Histories Lore), leaving you a bit stranded for Lore to Promote Disciples with. I'll feel mildly foolish if this is A Cunning and Deliberate Asymmetry, and probably people have already reported it in any case, but onto the bug list it goes.

The Cult I prefer is The Formerly-Useless But Currently-Overpowered Society of St. Hydra, which currently has Aspect:Veneration:[Everything but Knock], meaning that you can promote Believers to Disciples at speed: lots of random things are +1 Aspect Tools/Ingredients – health, sickness, starvation, funds, A Peculiar Rumour, and spintriae (a little harder to acquire) – so once you’ve got any +6 Lore that’s not Knock, you can Disciple everyone, thus:

(Cult is St. Hydra, Lore is +6 Moth Ecdysiast’s Parable, Tool/Ingredient is +1 Moth Peculiar Rumour, Cat Caro is +2 Lantern so she doesn't help here)

I have not yet discovered if founding St. Hydra has consequences further down the line (I suspect that Aspect:Veneration scores may later differ, so that St. Hydra can get you to the minor victories fast, but major ones will need an Aspect-relevant cult), but in the current build it’s well worth trying to get a Secret Histories book for a few rounds in order to Found it. If you don’t get lucky, use something else to get culted up, because Wakefield, the Weary Detective, or their pesky Evidence will need dealing with sooner or later.

Note that you have a 30:49:21 chance of success:failure:losing a Follower if you send them on a mission for your Cult. If you send a seasoned Disciple, their chances are 70:21:9.

NB If you want to Summon things, Knock Followers/Disciples are very useful later on. Don’t betray Neville or Enid to the Bureau unless you have no other options. Anyway, Neville would probably have a crise de nerfs and tell that nice Mr. Wakefield all he knows.
edited by Vexpont on 3/9/2018
edited by Vexpont on 3/9/2018

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/6/2018

These are definitely a sample of the mortal world locations we can either visit or pillage. If I had to guess it seems Alexis has expanded a little bit on the real world exploration feature. He's expressed dissatisfaction with the current system of simply sending a follower out and later they come back with the item.

It seems he's fleshed it out a bit by introducing numerous sub-locations in larger regions, as indicated by the line grouping on the sheet.

That surreal Papa Bois tweet shows that Alexis is reading into folklore surrounding hunters and woods, so what's already been said about Zagreus is probably accurate in my opinion.

[spoiler]
I'm sure that one of the locations is "Tombs of the Shadowless Know". It's a reference to the Door-In-The-Eye. Lantern Lore has the Merciless Proclamation: "Mercy is found in shadow". And the ascended Teresa Galmier we meet in the Adept's Build casts no shadow. It seems that at least one of the changes the DITE brings in its followers is the loss of a shadow.

... Or the K could be something completely different and Alexis let us see the K just to screw with us.

Since the "Eyes of Ikirmawi" are listed under locations, I'm guessing it's a cave or mountain that looks like eyes. It's not uncommon for unusual enough rock and cave formations that resemble objects or people to get a name that reflects that.

Bulgaria has a cave called the Eyes of God because it has two openings in the ceiling light comes through, making them look like glowing eyes.

Those are my most definitive theories about the locations. "Foxlily Meadows" sounds to me like either a country club or a cemetery to be. Meaning we'll either be robbing graves again or infiltrating the Bohemian Grove.

Star Shattered Fane seems to be a ruin out in the desert, based on it being in an area with "Sands" in its name and it's early card art showing a broken down ruin with lots of stars visible in the sky, something you don't get in civilization.[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/11/2018

Double post, but the update deserved it's own separate post.

Behold: The Lionsmith and Forge of Days!

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Can't believe I didn't see these. Scrolled through Sarah Gordon's twitter right before bed and these were right in my face.

Lionsmith is either Strength or Judgement, which is odd as it would mean it's sharing a number with the Forge of Days, implying there's some manner of relationship between the two, backed up by the Rite of the Rebel Striving and the fact it's lion monsters are literally robot lions now.
edited by Edward Warren on 3/11/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/13/2018

Somehow, I totally confused my roman numerals and thought that the X was five and not V. I was right the first time, Lionsmith is Death. That makes more sense to me now. Man, how embarrassing...

Tarot XIII, Death, contrary to modern misconception rarely if ever means physical death. Rather, the card usually means a -usually painful- end to a chapter of one's life. This can mean an interest, period of development, or a relationship. While a painful process, this transition results in a person growing all the stronger for it.

This fits Lionsmith perfectly. Every chapter of his story is marked by a significant "death" that made him into the near-unstoppable god of war he is today.

First, his physical "death" in the Tombs of the Shadowless Kings, where his body became dust presumably so he could ascend to godhood.

Then, the Rite of the Rebel Striving, where he sacrificed his most prized possession -his sword- in order to get the power to fight the Colonel.

Now, by constantly creating and then killing his own creations, he constantly increases his battle prowess.

In Tarot, Death is often portrayed in armor surrounded by the dying, usually kings as well as commoners to show his authority over all. His armor signifies his power and invincibility, as no one has ever prevailed over him. He is also often portrayed either clutching or carrying a banner emblazoned with a white rose. This signifies the new life that comes after Death and the purity that comes with it.

Here Lionsmith is decked out in full military regalia and stands triumphant over one of his lion-creatures. Lions are a symbol often affiliated with royalty. Instead of a white rose, he clutches a white hammer to his chest, reiterating both his reasons and the purpose the new life he will create will serve: to continue to fight and grow ever stronger.

Hats off to Sarah Gordon for the phenomenal job with the symbolism here. Definitely one of my favorites.

Also, violent change is territory that overlaps with the Forge of Days, which might be why it's sigil is on Lionsmith's hat and why he now wields a hammer, a tool often used for smithing.
edited by Edward Warren on 3/13/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/14/2018

The number of books in the game is about to more than triple.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
And that's still 30-some shy of the final number.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/15/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
edit: holy shit a Caligine broke free so I fed it the Detective and I got something even stranger out of it, this is a great development

I have yet to have a Caligine summoning where the smokey daemon didn't try and break free of my control :P Like, the Dead, the Hinter, and the Raw Prophets sometimes try and break free, but Caligines always try and break free. They're bad eggs, those Caligines.

It appears that you have found a genuine bug, which is more than I've done recently.

Everything inclined to struggle against your Summons has a 30% of doing so...apart from Caligines, which have a somewhat-uncooperative 220% chance. Ha. If the Struggling didn’t immediately go into a different Action cycle you could never summon a bastard Caligine at all.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/15/2018

JoelMB12 wrote:

Did everyone miss you when he brought up the stag door in the Twitter feed Introduce us the first name? Data mining section he dropped release the process of what is to become a Know

Oh, I noticed. I was just kinda hoping someone else would bring it up so it felt less like I was the only one screaming into an empty void-

-I mean, posting to the thread.

In more hilarious news this is now a feature in the game:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

That's right. In true cult leader fashion, it's now possible to sucker in new devotees by spouting off mystical-sounding nonsense. Hey, if it works for made up religions, why not a honest-to-God eldritch cult, right?

KIFFLOM!

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

2/17/2018

Have now read a lot of interesting discussion about Names, and who they might have once been.

Edward Warren, 2 days ago wrote:

If we can determine who's who, we might have a better understanding of the dynamics of the relationships between each Hour. At least one of the knights has been outright told to us already. We know that Percival is the Red Grail, because Skeleton Songs calls him "Parsival of the Red Cup". Percival is the earliest knight to be affiliated with the quest for the Holy Grail.

I was going to say -- I really think you have identified another possible candidate for a Name.

Because that’s what was niggling me about ‘Parsival of the Red Cup’, to whom Arabella Dusk dedicates her Grail-addled verses: I’d already heard of him (this is a link to a Weather Factory post I’ve linked to before, for convenience, this time with the title):

Around 1890, in the Third History, the Crowned Growth could be perceived through the White Door.

"Oriflamme’s, Lot 5, Auction 5th May ’57. Fragments of the notebooks of ‘Parsival’, recovered from the wreck of Mr Strathcoyne’s private library. Extensive fire-damage, reconstructed in part"...etc. Parsival's horripilating abhuman experiences in the Mansus etc.

Some of this may be outdated (even I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that we start off in the Third History, though the title seems to imply it). But there’s surely reason to suppose that in the game, ‘Parsival’ will be the occult pseudonym of an as-yet anonymous Know (like ‘Baldomera’ is lock-related pseudonym of Theresa Galmier; I don’t think we know Christopher Illopoly’s yet). The occultist called ‘Parsival’ was on this earthly plane as of 1890, so he could still be kicking around in 1920.

Or, given recent stuff suggesting that Names might sometimes be favoured vassals/hapless minions/picked champions of the Hours, it’s entirely possible that ‘Parsival’ might have achieved the Grail-knight ambition that his pseudonym suggests. There is nothing to stop there being other pockets of Arthurian myth in the game, of course, but I have to admit I doubt it will be more than that because there are more than 24 Hours, and also, Arthurian myth is a bit like cloves -- more than a pinch and it takes over the whole cake.

The set of spell icons was posted a bit of a way back now, but it's interesting that this one has now popped up alongside a lot of Lionsmith content:

I know this art is being used as a placeholder for ‘Obsession: Sensation’ at present, described as a Hellraiser-type victory goal for the ultimate aesthete, but I think it’s settled that the ‘Obsession: Sensation’ icon is going to be a gender-randomised skinless bum in frilly smalls, which is in danger of becoming the CS mascot. But that stitched-together head is exactly what I imagined the Lionsmith’s specialism would look like – a warmongering chimerical Frankenstein who doesn’t draw the line at melding different species, or even phyla.
edited by Vexpont on 2/17/2018

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/19/2018

Thinking about the whole Arthurian legend thing, I thought of another Hour that mysteriously hasn't been touched on much.

The Witch-and-Sister is likely a reference to Morgan le Fay. Morgan was King Arthur's sister and was also an infamous witch. Also, despite masterminding the majority of the horrible things that happened to the knights of the Round Table, she somehow managed to get away totally untouched. The Witch-and-Sister can't be touched, remember?

As for why the Mother-of-Ants hates her/their guts, it probably has to do with their respective spheres. MoA opens the way to places for a fee, but WaS just flat out cannot be touched. Ever.

JoelMB12 wrote:

But it would be incredibly dangerous to dream. I wonder why it dangerous for long to dream. If they cannot dream can they still travel MANSUS? See from the Kickstarter page it it seems to imply you can become an Hour.
edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018

The Long seem to have taken it upon themselves to hunt the Hours and their mortal servants, so it's reasonable to assume that the Hours don't exactly like them either, especially the Colonel. I'd think that a Long choosing to dream would essentially be the same thing as them slathering themselves in barbecue sauce, sticking an apple in their mouth, and lying down on the Red Grail's dinner table at suppertime.

Vexpont wrote:

Around 1890, in the Third History, the Crowned Growth could be perceived through the White Door.

I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the Growth post. I totally missed that Parsival was mentioned there. We had so fewer pieces of this puzzle to work with before I just brushed it off with all the other things that lacked meaning without more context.

It seems more likely now that "Parsival" was a mortal servant or less likely perhaps a mortal incarnation of the Grail. Since Galmier is living under a knightly pseudonym now as well, perhaps "knighthood" is a title cultists can obtain through their service to their respective Hours?

What's also interesting about that post is it's offhand references to the Stag Door. It's not explained what it is exactly, but there's something about the process of passing the door that first requires someone to pass through the White Door multiple times. Perhaps there are clues to the Riddle that can only be found on the other side? Maybe what Door you go through determines what entities you contact? Perhaps you need to first build up a tolerance to passing through the Doors, like how people trying to climb Mount Everest have to make trips up and down the mountain constantly to prepare their bodies so they don't die from going so high all at once? Brings to mind the quote from one of the lorebooks in the game "35th time the bud, 36th the blossom".

Also interesting to note that the Bounds are still technically part of the Mansus, but from there Parsival still needs to go through the White Door to... get into the Mansus? That's the sort of dream logic that will drive you insane right there. Adds credence to the idea that there's someone/something on the other side of the Door whose help you need to go any higher in the House of the Sun.

I'd also wager the Higher you go, the more costly the tolls of the Doors become. The many ways through the Wood don't seem to cost much assuming you find them, but start you at the very bottom of the House. Also you have to walk through the Wood, which is well established as chaotic and dangerous. The White Door gets you in the middle of the House, but it takes away your voice, which would likely limit what sort of exploration and interaction you can do on the other side. The Stag Door turns you into a Know, with all the unknown benefits and drawbacks that brings. And the "Front Door"... yeesh.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

2/22/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

And judging by his affiliation with the god of blood. If this guy isn't some sort of vampire, I'll eat my left foot (which would no doubt please The Great Mother immensely).

Well, it’s nice to know that none of your recruits could well be more formidable than you, and scheming to absorb your tender cultlet into their own (that said, I hope this game takes the same firm line on vampires that FL does on Batman). Late Edit: alas, it seems I was wrong, based on the new Grail card. Bloody vampires. I like the Magna Mater dumplings, though. And the pomegranates. I don't think I'll be trying the canapés:

More findings from Cultist Simulator: Down the Wikihole:

‘Megalesian’/‘Mountain-Mother’

From vol. 3 of The Orchid Transfigurations:

"A long dialogue between the Mountain-Mother and the Vigilant Storm describes the ways in which both mountains and storms end, and the protections they use against those ends.”

"'But we must use the knife,' said the Lion-Throned One, 'the noose, the flame, the Waking Word, against those who have passed the Three-Valved Door. And so none may pass: that is our Law, and the Law of the Sun.'"

In Classical mythology, the title ‘Mountain-Mother’ already has a holder, Cybele.

Cybele is usually shown seated on a lion throne, and is ancient: it’s a fair guess that the 8000-year-old cat-enthroned goddess of prehistoric Çatalhöyük could be her. Much later, she became the Roman goddess of city walls – they imported her during the desperate times of Second Punic War, when Hannibal nearly finished them off. The word ‘Megalesian’ refers to Cybele’s Roman rites.

But confusingly, ‘A Megalesian Incantation’ is Grail Lore, with the associated notion in the Orchid Transfigurations that the Mountain-Mother is ancient enough to be midwife at the birth of another Hour:

'Seek the Cup in the birthing-bed,' the Pine-Knight is told. The Midwife at the birthing-bed, to his amazement, is the Mountain-Mother. In a fit of awe, he both gelds and flays himself. The Vigilant Storm bursts joyfully from the remains.'

There is nothing in the current list of Hours that I can definitely match with the ‘Mountain-Mother’, except that she probably can’t be the Red Grail for the reasons above. Cybele is sometimes associated with axes – like every third or fourth ancient deity, really.

The ‘Vigilant Storm’ is another difficulty. The Thunderskin already has one alias – The Heart Relentless – and an overlapping origin-myth involving a flayed skin. But all three could very conceivably be the same Hour, especially as the Thunderskin's card is so storm-ridden.

‘Iguvine’ – refers to only one thing: the Iguvine tablets, seven cast-bronze slabs embossed with instructions for performing sacrifices, in one of the many extinct languages related to Latin. They were dug up in the C15 and originally, there were nine – I wonder where the missing ones are?

Even by early Roman times, few scholars could properly read any of these languages. I thought the match must be exact when I found that ‘Iguvine’ (probably Umbrian, since ancient Iguvium/modern Gubbio is located in Umbria) has links to the notion of Thunder:

The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, "the people of the thunderstorm," after ὅμβρος, "thunderstorm") by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally "the inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus).

But again, the Iguvine Rite is Knock lore, not Heart lore. So perhaps things aren’t quite as obsessively historically-connected as all that.

‘Fucine’ – I don’t think ‘Fucine’ quite refers to a real-life language, but it’s pretty close to being Marsian (which has a name confusingly redolent of Little Green Men, as good a reason as any for not using it). The Marsi were a pre-Roman tribe whose territory contained the Fucine Lake, home of the Witch-and-Sister in CS, and of the cult of the snake-goddess Angitia in the real world, and of another bronze tablet which our forbears seem to have casually dropped here and there like old copies of Metro.

'Intercalate' – others have already mentioned this, but it has a very specific meaning: to insert additional days into a calendar. ‘Give us back our 11 days’ proto-urban-legends aside, the days just get re-numbered. Unless you are mates with something called The Forge of Days, perhaps.

One more picture: the Twin Goddess of Çatalhöyük, who like its big-cat-enthroned Lady is about 8000 years old. Not that I suppose this strange conjoined figurine is the prototype of the in-game Witch-and-Sister, but it does show that it’s hard to be 100% original where weird iconography is concerned:

One link for Anne Auclair, whom sadly we cannot yet recruit in-game:

the Suppression Bureau of 186BC. Now I've seen the Red Grail card, maybe those early Romans had a point.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/23/2018

Oh-ho!

Even besides the fact The Red Grail is my favorite Hour, this card has got to be my favorite of the lot so far. I love everything about this card. Like Alexis said on twitter, the longer you look at it, the more horrible it gets (in a good way). So much symbolism even in such a confined space, such vibrancy even with a limited range of color! It's literally quite a feast for the eyes.

I particularly love how overall the card almost seems to be telling a story with it's use of depth and limited color scheme. The further into the image we go, the clearer it becomes this isn't just a portrayal of an Hour. No, it's also an illustration of a descent into madness.

Between its rich use of reds and position in the forefront, the tempting feast is the first thing the viewer sees when they look at the card. At first glance, all is warm and inviting, and it's tempting to imagine oneself indulging in the spread. This is probably the same thing a beginner occultist might imagine when they first learn of The Grail as well. They imagine the otherworldly power and riches they stand to gain from embarking down this this most foolish of roads. And the patronage of a god whose rites revolve around hunger and feasting does sound appealing... if one doesn't dwell too long on the deeper implications of such powerful desires.

Next we have the two figures directly behind the feast. The deep darkness of their silhouettes draws the eye, and makes them clearly stand out against the background. These two figures symbolizee those who are just beginning or perhaps middling in their rites to the Grail. Seemingly unaware or disinterested in the reality of what's going on around them, they focus solely on satisfying their desires. They eat and drink with wild abandon. It is at this point however the appetites likely set in. For the Grail isn't just the god of feasting, oh no. It is lust, an endless and ever deepening appetite that can never truly be sated. Surely such a god wouldn't be satisfied for long with the indulgence of simple food and drink. Hungers deepen, appetites grow evermore depraved and perverted, and there is an all-pervading need for more...

Finally, we have the late or perhaps final stage of Grail madness. Hidden almost in plain sight by use of shadow and light and faded colors, these figures almost seem to fade into the background. Against the vibrance of the rest of the card, it's almost a conscious effort at first to look at the background and see what exactly is going on. Here we have the grim reality of the Grail, an existence defined solely by hunger taken to its logical conclusion. Here we have people attacking and eating each other in a vampiric display of cannibalism and brutality. All that seems to matter is the satisfaction of these ever deepening desires, that only seem to grow more twisted the further in we go.

And over it all, we have The Face. The disembodies head of a woman is floating over the whole scene. A crown like the lips of a cup adorns her head, and mountains, forests, lions, and waves can be seen in her hair. Her hair seems to arc over and envelop the whole scene, and despite seeming to be in the background a steam of blood from her mouth reaches into the foreground the fill the red cup on the table. There's some nice symbolism in the cup as well, as it casts a long shadow over the rest of the room despite its size, again drawing the eye inexorably through the scene up back towards The Face. This whole section just shows how the Grail's influence permeates everything going in on this scene. It isn't just depraved hungers, it is all hunger.

It's art like this that really gets me sucked into these projects. You can't help but appreciate the amount of detail that the artists put into this work, and you can't help but catch some of that enthusiasm yourself. And I'm just scratching the surface of the symbolism here. I didn't intend this post to be so long, but the more I wrote I just felt this need to continue, and even now I don't feel quite done if anyone else wants to chime in.

[spoiler]
JoelMB12 wrote:

I hate to be that guy but is he eating a phallus? If so it’s still appropriate.

...May The White take you, I can't unsee it now!

It was clearly a hook in one of the early sketches, I'd presume they dulled it and changed it's overall shape to make the Grail=Hook=Eye comparison less obvious. And yes, I can't help but feel it's grossly appropriate if this was intentional.

Ah, Great Mother. How you both attract and repulse me so...
[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/25/2018

"The Fourth Mark is the light that is found in the eyes, but it is very subtle. Most can see it only when the lamps are extinguished or the night is very dark; although when I open my eyes very wide, more light leaks out. I am growing thinner."

Got to admit, having your eyes glow sounds pretty cool.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/28/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Double post, but just saw that Alexis just put a new Tarot out for The Mother of Ants! And man it's really-!

...Wow.

The word you're looking for is "fashionable." That's a classic 20's look!
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Edward Warren wrote:

It's quite shocking considering she was once thought of to be one of the nicer Hours.

Who thought that?! She's a sadistic toll collector! :P
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/28/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/3/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Vexpont wrote:
I looked up your next screenshot.

That wasn't my screenshot. The one with Baldomeria was someone else's screenshot (it seems they used administrative tools). My screenshot was the one with King Crucible (and I managed to get him from playing the game fair and square!).

In hindsight, the esoteric Cultist called 'Butts' should have tipped me off that the summoner probably wasn't you, but I guess the Baldomerian's identity wasn't a 100% unexpected revelation. Clifton Royston's reminder that the Watchman says that 'Mercy is only found in shadow' is nasty, though. Spoilers up:

[spoiler]I feared for Galmier and Illopoly from the day the Door in the Eye card appeared. And this is her description, when you finally meet her as a Name of the Lantern:

"The Baldomerian has the hunched shoulders of a scholar, the clear voice of a school-teacher, and the freckles of a traveller on the Continent. She lacks a shadow."

She has no shadow. And no shadow = no mercy. Oh, no. Nonono. I fear that this is probably the last known image of Teresa's shadow:

[/spoiler]

Anne Auclair wrote:

You can learn a little bit about the Hours from how they are paired together in the Society Dedication descriptions...

(Forge) Forge of Days & Madrugad

(Knock) Mother of Ants & Meniscate

More from 'Cultist Simulator: Everything you wanted to know about pre-classical deities, but were afraid to ask Count Jannings in case he starts saying things like ur-mythos and chaoskampf':

‘Madrugad’ – This title is adapted (I think) from a Portuguese verb, madrugar (to dawn, or get up at first light), but etymologically, it comes from Latin ‘maturare’, which means: to ripen/to hasten. The closest English word is probably the uncommon ‘matutinal’ – ‘pertaining to the dawn’.

Naturally, there is an obscure pre-classical Italic deity at the bottom of this: the Mater Matuta, who was originally a goddess of ripening grain, but by Roman times was a Dawn deity just because the Romans were Lumpers rather than Splitters where deities were concerned, and if a god was half-forgotten, they’d just identify them with a vaguely similar candidate from their current pantheon (in this case, Aurora). Nevertheless, the identification is old enough for the 'matu*' root to now mean both 'ripen' and 'dawn' in many languages.

It’s kind of tempting to conclude from this that The Cleansing Dawn could potentially be an actual Hour, but I’m a bit wary since the Unflinching Order (who venerate the Madrugad) are Forge, and the Lore from The Cleansing Dawn nightmare is Lantern.

‘Meniscate’ – much easier to tackle, and from Greek, where ‘meniskos’ means ‘crescent-shaped’ (literally ‘little moon’). There must be a lunar Hour in there somewhere but I don’t think we’ve met it yet. I wonder it it's connected to Mirrors somehow?

Edmund Warren wrote:

That Black-Flax card is incredibly interesting, especially since this is an Hour that we've had so little information about. Those faces on the trees seriously creep me out. When you explore the Wood in dreams now, you'll occasionally get lines like "is that hair or hanging moss that caresses my face?". Take a close look at the Mansus map, particularly the bottom. Notice those weird caltrop looking things? Look closer and you'll see that they're made up of a jumble of human arms and legs.

That, combined with that vignette of the Wood with the Velvet, I am now entirely certain the Wood is at least partially made up of dead people. Brings to mind the Divine Comedy's forest of suicides.

Yeah, you don’t just accidentally-in-passing slip in a reference to one of its most famous scenes in The Inferno. I don’t think the parallel to the Wood of the Suicides is exact, but it seems likely to me as well that the trees of the Wood beneath the Mansus were once human dreamers; maybe they lingered there too long, in a helpless state of madness or terror, like the one Parsifal found himself in after his botched attempt to pass the White Door. In The Inferno, the trees must be wounded in order to speak, and the trees of the Wood are ‘scar-barked’. The charmers that patrol it are surely these things:“a horrible assemblage of limbs, like the Isle of Man triskele crossed with Hellraiser”. I wonder if they are a literal result of The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, or if they too were once human; perhaps dropping to all fours to duck under branches in the Wood is very inadvisable.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/4/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Maybe this is just my experience, but I haven't had any issues with Wakefield. He slowly builds up evidence leading to a trial - at which point I just sacrifice a Pawn and get away completely free. The only really annoying part of it is when he picks up Mysticism or Notoriety that I was planning to use to recruit someone to a cult. Unless it's possible to run out of hangers-on, this seems like it should always work - I have 5 Pawns right now, and it's free to upgrade hangers-on to Pawns as long as you have the Reputation (or, in general, to upgrade anyone as long as you have the resources).

That's a very helpful play tip - it points up that I actually need to spend much more of my time blabbing about occult secrets to make more acquaintances and hangers-on so that I build up my Followers and Pawns faster. I'd been avoiding too much of that because of all the problems Wakefield was giving me with Notoriety, but if I can keep getting Pawns to sacrifice as scapegoats, then I don't need to worry about that.

Yes, it's definitely a good idea to keep looking for acquaintances. Heart followers (preferably Disciples, if you've got the requisite levels of lore etc) can also destroy Notoriety, so it's not even as much of a threat once you get to that point, and as mentioned Moth and Edge Disciples can destroy evidence and hunters respectively. I've just had Eldrige murder both Wakefield and the Detective; we'll see if they care to send anyone else after that.

Edit: Apparently "this can only exist once" on the Weary Detective is a bit of a misnomer, given that he has just shown up again despite the fact that I murdered him and called the power of the Ring-Yew into his dead body to summon a Burgeoning Risen. If he comes back after I murder him this time, maybe I'll send his own reanimated corpse to kill him - I can make it last as long as necessary by repeatedly trying to talk to it, although I haven't found anything to do by talking to it yet.

Edit 2: He came back almost immediately afterward, so I didn't even need to preserve the thing which was his body. Unfortunately it failed to kill him, and then I lost Victor to him, so I've decided to stick with destroying the evidence instead of killing the hunters. That said, I think it's a bit bizarre to say that he's unique and can only exist once when he keeps dying and coming back. Unless he's secretly got an army of body doubles that he's willing to sacrifice, I guess.

Edit 3: Oh, god damn it, it's a Sherlock Holmes thing, isn't it? The author writing about the Weary Detective can't just let me kill him off, so he comes back after getting apparently killed. I didn't think Moriarty ever tried to resurrect Holmes as a zombie to kill his still-living self, but then again I haven't read every single bit of Holmes content that Doyle wrote.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/5/2018

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/5/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

I think failures in this don't necessarily seem to lose you the follower, the way it does when you fail to destroy evidence or assassinate a detective. However, I must warn you that Pope Clifton may go mad and turn into a useless lunatic if he fails in his attempts to scry out favorable "airs" for the cult.

I've had more than a few failures where the follower either dies in an accident or skips town. I'm very glad it's just a placeholder feature, as it's very nerve-wracking waiting for one of your small, limited pool of followers to return, especially in the early game where Wakefield can very easily gather evidence on you while your setting things in motion, costing you more followers. Definitely think like any good semi-scam religion that there should be an infinite number of possible recruits, but a limited number of potentially useful named followers.

Well, lunatics aren't entirely useless. Cultists that bear the Third Mark of the Red Grail are more than happy to meat and make use of Lunatics. Anything to satisfy the cravings.

Also, Title Screen Girl -whose name is Iris according to twitter apparently- is no longer a smol girl. I am somewhat disappointed.
edited by Edward Warren on 3/5/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/6/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Oh look, another peek at the Magic Spreadsheet!
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

I think the last line confirms conclusively that these entries all relate to non-Mansus (i.e. physical world) explorable locations. That was a pretty obvious assumption anyway, since we know that's the next major area of the game he's working on, but ages ago Alexis specifically mentioned that in the game we'd be able to "Locate and pillage the Star Shattered Fane" and there it is.

It's interesting that these seem to be grouped, perhaps into regions? There's an actual mountain range called the Zagros mountains, which name one scholar tried to relate to the name of the god Zagreus, the Orphic version of Dionysus, but others relate Zagreus to an archaic Greek word for a hunter who traps live animals in pits. And look, there's the "Hunter's Pits". Someone's been reading religious etymologies. We're onto you, Kennedy. (Well on that one anyway; the rest of the locations have me as lost as poor Neville.)
edited by cliftonr on 3/6/2018

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/7/2018

Did some reading on Papa Bois, and found disappointingly little more about him than Alexis tweeted. He's a shapeshifting forest god that protects animals from hunters. He likes pulling cruel tricks on people like blowing his horn to warn a hunter's prey of the hunter's presence, or turn himself into a deer to lure pursuers deep into the forest.

After a bit of cursory reading I found myself far more interested in his wife, Mama D'leau. Her name translates to Mother of the River, and when she gets angry she turns into a woman with snakes for hair.

Assuming this is being adopted into CS lore, the Mother of Ants certainly seems to have her fingers in a lot of folklore pies, doesn't she. As expected of a goddess with four arms.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/7/2018

Here's a little alchemic ingredient that might shed some light on the Mausoleum of Wolves.

Wolf-Snow (Winter 8)
Far too cold ever to melt in anything but the hottest noonday sun. It will, very gradually, consume human flesh.

btw, escaped summons will attack Patrons. I had the bad luck of one of my summons escaping and killing Count Jannings right as I finished an extensive commission for him on the practices of the Edge. Ouch.

Which confirms that any character with a Mortal icon is vulnerable to harm. And so far the only fully implemented NPC without a Mortal icon happens to be...Dr. Ibn al-Adim. The Long seem pretty tough.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/17/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Meet your new worst enemy: Mr. Alden is your boss over at Glover and Glover. He also absolutely hates your guts and wants you gone. Try to actually make some money over there? Mr. Alden demands you put in more Reason and work overtime for your salary, an extra twenty seconds. Don't want to? You'll get a condescending little message an only half your pay. He still keeps you over for another twenty seconds by the way, while time is still passing and you desperately need to pay the bills. He doesn't think you should have been hired in the first place, so he keeps you from getting promoted.
There is one life line in this however: "He has a redeeming quality." Alexis hinted on Twitter. Finding it is implied to be the only way to get him to leave you alone.

Mr Alden's redeeming quality is that he's driven not by malice but by extremely high standards. If you meet his expectations he'll eventually retire and recommend you as his replacement.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/11/2018

Greetings once more, my brothers and sisters in the Invisible Arts. I have descended from the Upper Rooms of the House of the Sun to share with you some of the mysteries I have learned.

Alexis and Lottie were very tricky this update. To keep us from getting the answers to some of the big secrets of the game a lot of the flavor text has been withheld from this build. There are still a few tantalizing hints that can be revealed here and there, and even a few big answers to be found if you go deep enough.

I've learned a great deal and lost the game before I could go all the way to the end, but I'll touch on a couple of big ones. I'm recounting this from memory, so if a few details are off I apologize.
[spoiler]
Once again I embarked down the path of Sensation. Grail is actually a very useful cult for exploration, as Raw Prophets alone carry enough Moth and Grail to overcome most obstacles and seduce most mortal guardians in the early locations. As long as you have a Locksmith's Secret you can pretty much summon an infinite number of them using the Sunset Rite, with your first Raw Prophet as your assistant.

It's apparent to me now that the path of Sensation is the path of becoming a Thirstly, a Name of the Red Grail. After completing Rite of the Crucible Soul, the Marks of the Grail grained through further cannibalism make one grow taller, redder, and thirstier. Feast of the True Birth is probably the final ascension to demi-godhood, but I didn't make it that far because it requires a grand total of 36 Grail.

It's much easier to conduct summonings now that I don't have to send out cultists to hoodwink or murder people, something that causes them to vanish or die the vast majority of the time. I summoned Ezeem, although I failed the first time and he tried to eat me before he returned to the Mansus. I did it again, successfully this time, and he seems to be a nice enough guy if you can get past the blood drinking part. Worshipers of the Great Mother get used to this sort of thing.

He taught me Phryigian, the mother tongue of the Red Grail, who turns out to have been the very first god-from-blood. Phyrigian is an ancient dialect based in Greek. Because the Great Mother is so old, people sometimes mistake her tongue for the first language ever spoken. It's not, but the foolishness of the mortal Pharaoh that proclaimed it so amuses Ezeem and the Great Mother greatly. More on that later...

Speaking of gods, the Witch-and-Sister is a Grail Hour now. Makes sense when one considers the St. Agnes post mentions them inspiring passions and odd births. Fucine is called the dry tongue for a reason, as it literally and rapidly parches the mouth when spoken. It can only be spoken when one has access to a large body of water, like a lake. The people of Fucio, land of the WaS, grew infamous for a wide variety of love and lust spells they created in this language.

But back on topic. I conducted a thorough exploration of the Mansus, and I believe I've gone as far up as it is possible to go. In the new Stag Door card, we learn Ghirbi cries when we enter through the Door because he can't go any further up, which might be a clue as to what Hour he belongs to. There are an additional two areas of the Mansus now in addition to the as-of-yet-unseen Painted River. The Silken Sands are access through the Spider Door, which can be accessed through either Grail or Lantern. The Spider Door is always THIRSTY (the game itself emphasizes the caps), and requires human sacrifice to open. From here one ascends to Glassgarden, home of the Brighter Hours. This is where the Peacock Door is, and judging from the Mansus map also where the Sun-and-Rags and the Maid in the Mirror reside. The place isn't actually made of glass, but ice. It's a giant field of flowers made of ice, a pretty big clue this is where the Sun-in-Rags lives, since ice is crisped by his light the same way the real Sun sustains flowers.

The Peacock Door, we're informed, does not open. However, I happened to already have the "key" to bypass it. Bringing a Watchman's Glass before it caused it to swell and tremble with joy enough for me to slip past it into the Upper Rooms of the House. I only reached this height once, but I look the known option and gained the Scholar: Vak trait.

This is where I started making the greatest discoveries, starting with the fact that Vak is The First Language, the language of the House of the Sun itself. It existed before gods rose from blood and even before apes walked upright, meaning the Mansus predates the dawn of man. The oldest texts of the game are written in Vak, and these books yield MAX LORE when translated and read:

Edge: The Mysteries of Force- The Colonel and Lionsmith are gods-from-flesh, but the third Hour of the Edge is the Wolf Divided, a god-from-blood. His is the third trait that brings strength: AGONY.

Lantern: ????- The Forge of Days, the Meniscate, the Mandrugad, and the Flowermaker are the gods-from-light. The Watchman isn't from light, but shares in their underlying principles.

Knock: ????- The Mother of Ants is the child of two rivers, the Horned Axe is the last god-from-stone.

???- The Moon is an Hour

Again, this is from memory so some names are missing, but these are the key reveals. These are pretty big reveals. I also found information on some other Hours that Alexis hid well, but I think I reasoned out:

Xantatic and Iotic Essences make reference to the Meniscate and Mandrugad yielding to the "true forge", suggesting perhaps they share a similar function to the Forge of Days.

Secret Histories lore when researched enough produces a Vagabond's Map. From this we learn the Vagabond is the only Hour not in the Mansus, but she can go anywhere else. She alone knows all five histories, and occasionally she allows someone to record her travels.

One of the texts in Vak is The Five Creations. If I'm right and this means the Five Histories, it means A.) the Vagabond is very, very old. B.) there have been five Histories since the beginning, and the Hours switching between them is nothing new.

Combining two Vagabond Maps gives you the Way to Port Noon. The Evening Isles are this History's version of our Caribbean, making Port Noon a literal tropical resort for immortals. Not a bad spot to retire, I must say. This is where the Long go to drink from the Spring that makes them forgotten. You don't actually go there (because the Long would probably kill you or worse), but the Evening Isles around the Port itself are home to some outright active supernatural locations and beings, not just wasted ruins. Witch-and-Sister has a monastery here, literally hanging over the ocean, kept attached to the nearby island solely by the power of the nun's ritual sacrifices.

The final god-from-light, the Flowermaker... likes to make flowers. Makes sense for the Sun's offspring to nurture plants, but it proves its kinship with the Grail with both the Vanderschaff Collection and Foxlily Meadows. Smelling the Flowermaker's creations induces ecstasy and an extremely self-destructive need for pleasure. These outbreaks of sudden hedonism are strongly implied to include extreme self-mutilation and worse. The treasures from Foxlily Meadows are mostly the discarded possessions of would-be treasure hunters who died where they stood after smelling the foxlilies. Worse yet, the locals intentionally plant these things to kill people.

The Mother of Ants has Younger Sisters. She was born from Medusa's venom alongside vipers, and while those serpents didn't ascend to godhood they still bear immense power. At least one of these giant quasi-Hours is waiting for you at a certain location (whose name I won't reveal to give you a special surprise). Hope you like behemoths with "scales of black jade, with eyes like floodlamps". smile

Several locations and Vak book titles make reference also to "the Centipede" born from the desert through which the river that is history flows. This is probably another Hour Alexis doesn't want us to know more about.

Exploration also gives away some information on the Hours, as the higher your score in different principles, the greater the Names and the protections you can call upon through prayer.

Overcoming curses using Heart reveals the name of a new Hour aligned with the Heart principle: the Laughingthrush, who cannot be exhausted.

Using Knock to open Hidden Doors calls on the Beachcrow, who opens the earth, who knows what is lost, and to whom all things that are lost belong.

Horned Axe is a girl, she waits at the threshold, and she permits entry only when entry is to be permitted. Explains why she keeps the Growth from spreading wherever it pleases without permission.

Sorry Clifton Royston, but the Elegiast is the Ivory Dove. The Ivory Dove is the name called on when one needs to command the Dead, and Elegiast is the name called when expeditions need to overcome curses. He cannot be deceived, he knows what has been lost, and nothing more can be taken from him.

Not sure why he's sharing a number with the Colonel, but this is the same thing with the Horned Axe and the Lionsmith. Perhaps there's significance to be found in War and Death sharing numbers? Also, a nice subtle detail I just noticed in the Lionsmith card is that he's XIII Death, and he's carrying around a White hammer now.

The Colonel is of the Edge, but he's also a brighter Hour. He is scarred, he has survived worse.

There's probably more mysteries to be unraveled from the exploration feature, but I suspect Alexis whited this out too. For example, for certain obstacles that are also conveniently missing flavor text, a high enough Winter score calls upon... Witch-and-Sister? I think it's a placeholder so he can avoid giving away the Names of some powerful Spoiler-Heavy Hours.

The last, biggest piece of CRUCIAL LORE I uncovered comes from the Mausoleum of Wolves. The mausoleum is decorated with stone wolves this is where the fragments of the Sun were to be brought by it's funeral procession upon it's prophesied death, but they strangely never came.

The big thing here is that the Sun was divided into fragments, as in there's more than one or two pieces of the fragmented Sun going around down here, and they didn't die like they were apparently supposed to when it was split. Besides Sun-In-Rags, how many Hours are Sun Fragments?

This sadly was the limit of what my poor cultist could take. Delving into the upper rooms and reading the raw, undisguised truth contained in the books of Vak produces Despair and Fascination like crazy, causing my poor character to totally lose it and kill himself before he could finish the Great Work. Way to turn Despair from a minor threat to a potent anti-grinding feature.
[/spoiler]
edited by Edward Warren on 4/11/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/3/2017

Thought a bit about the hours of The Moth and Sun-in-Rags. At first I thought it was a little weird that those two Hours received special attention, but the more I think about it the significance and placement of both makes the most sense.

Hour 0, The Moth, is the Fool. It is the moment where the previous day officially ends, and the new day officially begins. Midnight marks the start of the day, the beginning of the Sun's journey across the sky. Before the Sun arrives, the day begins in total, blinding darkness, likely another allusion to the blind naivety of the Fool. Midnight might also signify the brief moment where yesterday and today briefly overlap -exist as one as it were- which might be why the Witch-and-Sister seems to also have some level of influence here outside of her/their own hour of Six o'clock, hence our need to use the Recitation of Amethyst to create the Society of Midnight.

Hour 12, The Sun-In-Rag's hour is Noon. The Hour of cold and fading light holding dominion over the brightest and warmest point of the day might seem odd at first, but makes more sense after a moment of contemplation. Here the Sun is at its zenith, the highest point. Like Midnight, this is another important moment of transition in the order of the day. The day is no longer beginning, it's officially starting to end. In that brief, fleeting instant between it's rise and fall, the Sun could be said to be the most beautiful. But after reaching it's zenith, the Sun can no longer rise, only fall. Slowly it grows distant, not as it was. It's light and warmth begin to fade from a glorious gold to a baleful red, until eventually it disappears entirely over the horizon, ending the day in total darkness. In silence and stillness. Everything about this practically screams everything we know up until now about the SiN.

This also plays into the theme of the twelfth Arcana of Tarot: the Hanged Man. This Tarot can mean sacrifice, but it also represents surrender, letting go. Accept the end, acknowledge your mortality. All things must end. Just as the Sun rises it must at some point set. Even the Long are shown to die, eventually. We can no more avoid the end forever than we can stop the Sun from disappearing over the horizon.

The Moth journeys out of the dark of night into the warmth and light of day, and as it sets The Sun-In-Rags takes the world back from warm and bright to dark and cold... And then it all starts over again.

And that is very beautiful.
edited by Edward Warren on 12/3/2017

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/30/2017

As an impoverished scholar of the invisible arts, you might of course benefit from the opportunity of commissioned work. We might recommend these individuals in particular:

Mme Olympe Bechet, editor of the “Kerisham Review”. The Review publishes material too ghastly, thrilling or perilous for other literary magazines. Kerisham has been located on the south coast of England, but is notoriously difficult to find.

Count Gottlob Jannings, a gentleman from the Continent who represents a certain confraternity of duellists and physicians. The Count has an interest in novel medical theories, and also in esoteric martial techniques.

Dr Ibn al-Adim, sometimes called the Aleppine. The good doctor has an interest in overlooked histories. He’s a newcomer to the city, but speaks fondly of his memories of previous visits, long ago.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/30/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/2/2017

Carns wrote:

The name Ibn al-Adim reminds me of Lovecraft, with Abdul Alhazred, the writer of the Necronomicon/Al-Azif. Perhaps there's a connection or homage there.

*shakes head* Not with Alhazred. There was a 13th century historian and diplomat named Ibn al-Adim from Aleppo who wrote a history titled Everything desirable about the History of Aleppo. Doctor Ibn al-Adim is implicitly claiming to be that Ibn al-Adim in some form.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/5/2017

There is now a fourth way of gaining funds. You can do a token amount of work while begging your parents for money.

It's kind of funny imagining a family allowance funding a potentially world ending cult.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/22/2017

There's a new book!

The Humours of a Gentleman

Card Description: Samuel Savage's satirical comedy, on the intrigues of the ailing, but cunning John Sonne, his mistress Maevelin, her lover Leo, and the upstart Corvino.

Alexis: It's not *all* dusty tomes crammed with bloodstained etchings of blasted ruins in Cultist Simulator.

Which makes sense - as the Principles of the Hours are in everything material, you could presumably learn about their natures, domains, and influences by consulting non-occult works as well. You'd just have to know what to look for. References to Don John of Austria or maybe the Don John character of Much Ado About Nothing. Samuel Savage sounds a little like Jonathan Swift.

***************************************************************************************************

Alexis has also posted a Kickstarter update with the following Q/A format:

If I backed the game on Kickstarter, will I get access to the beta build?

Yes.

If I pre-order the game now, will I get access to the beta build?

Yes.

If I pre-order the game after the beta comes out, will I get access to the beta build?

Yes.

So there's no difference between backing on Kickstarter, pre-ordering now, and pre-ordering after the beta comes out?

No difference at all.

And if I do any of these things, I get Perpetual Edition, i.e. any and all DLC forever?

Yes.

Where's the link?

Right here.

And if I don't like pre-orders?

That's fine. The game's out in April 2018, though it might slip to May 2018. Not much longer now.

Is it true that Christopher Illopoly, sometimes called 'the only readable occultist', devoted a considerable portion of the third volume of his diaries to erotic poetry dedicated to one 'Baldomera'?

Absolutely.

***************************************************************************************************
So Christopher published that poetry in his third diary. It will be interesting to look at Teresa Galmier's Trespasses, which was probably written around the same time, to see if there are any additional hints about what was going on.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/22/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

11/22/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

There's a new book!

The Humours of a Gentleman

Card Description: Samuel Savage's satirical comedy, on the intrigues of the ailing, but cunning John Sonne, his mistress Maevelin, her lover Leo, and the upstart Corvino.

Alexis: It's not *all* dusty tomes crammed with bloodstained etchings of blasted ruins in Cultist Simulator.

It sounds like an allegorical Comedy of Humours, where each character is formally identified with an attitude or philosophy. The characters could easily all be Hours allegories, but I'm only willing to bet on one:

John Sonne, cunning but ailing – The Sun-in-Rags, IMO. Busy old fool, unruly sun.

Maevelin - I haven't a clue. The name Maeve is rooted in the idea of intoxication, though, especially through mead.

Leo - The Lionsmith?

Corvino – The Beachcrow? (also, an upstart. Ha. May be a red herring. Let's see)

There is a definite poetical theme emerging. 'The poet makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses' - poets are at risk of opening certain avenues of dodgy esoteric insight -- either knowingly, or in the pursuit of art.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/23/2017

By the way, I looked up "Baldomera", the (clearly fake) name of the person to whom Illopoly addressed his poetry, and the main results were a book of that name by Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco and Baldomera Larra Wetoret, who apparently invented the pyramid scheme.

+3 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

11/25/2017

Vexpont wrote:

Alice Lutwidge wrote:
That being said, I haven't seen anyone talk about this and I've been wondering... has anyone else discovered/learned how to work the debug panel in the prototype? It allows access to some pretty interesting things--not a whole lot, of course--but I've been debating about how to go about talking about some of the stuff I've found, and if it's even acceptable to do so.

I’d say that winnowing a game using debug shows a level of interest more likely to encourage than annoy its creators. Besides, so far we’re only as collectively devious as a 3-year-old child.

That was my reasoning as well, plus it was surprisingly easy to poke through the files. But still, the one major thing I found regarding a previously unmentioned Hour made me hesitant. :P But regardless, permission from the Tiger Keeper has been granted. He said he didn't put anything in the files that he wouldn't want players to know, which is a relief because, assuming that still stands with the beta, I'm definitely going to poke through that build as well haha. Still spoilering everything though, and of course this is all subject to change since the most recent alpha build is about 5 or 6 months old now.

[spoiler]The aforementioned Hour is, interestingly, The White, "the Hour of the cold that ends," and its principle is Winter. Founding a society with its lore item, The White Ceremony, creates the cult The Children of Silence.

There's a handful of unused lore items, and one implies that, in the full version, we may be able to base our societies around other forms of esoteric knowledge rather than a specific Hour. For example, founding a cult using an Occult Scrap creates the Society of St Hydra, which is based on the Secret Histories.

Spawning the Scholar: Fucine card allows translation of the Geminiad, which gives the Witch-and-Sister's lore item, the Recitation of Amethyst. The Witch-and-Sister's society is the Society of Midnight.

Galmier's third book, Trespasses, is readable:

The Thunderskin/Heart Relentless' lore item is The Words that Walk, and its society is The Temple Unceasing:

Off the top of my head I can't think of which Hour Knife-Patterns or its society corresponds to, but here they are:

And I think that's about it for now, until the beta is released at least. The Waking Word shown above is, I think, probably just a dev tool; no art nor description, using it to found a society just gives the Unflinching Order (same as Ardent Prayers), and studying it gives the Rite of the Watchman's Sorrow.[/spoiler]

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/25/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

120 books! The final game will have around 120 books! ^^

Alexis has since raised the total number of books to 150 ^_^

The Beta is going to have between 24 and 33 new occult texts (the alpha currently has only 7). So there's going to be a lot for us to chew on come mid-December.

One of the new books is De Bellis Murorum - which I think means War of the Battlements? Hmmm, two Worm Wars, a War of the Roads, now a War of the Battlements...the Hours have a lot of wars, it seems.

Alexis also posted a clip from the third volume my favorite weird text, The Orchid Transfigurations:

The Cup is obviously the Red Grail, which is actually referred to as ‘the Red Cup’ when you’re slowly starving to death (the Cup seems to be the least discrete Hour, befitting hunger, which is powerful and incessant). The Pine-Knight strikes me as a distinctly Woodsy Hour – probably the Ring Yew, as pine trees and yews are both conifers. The Midwife Mountain-Mother is clearly another version of the Mother of Ants, who presides over wounds, openings, and bringing children into the world. Here her presence involves/inspires all three. The Vigilant Storm bares a very clear likeness to the Thunderskin. Consider, the Thunderskin is symbolized by storms and it vigilantly guards the skin of the world; the Vigilant Storm is “joyful,” while the Thunderskin “demands the dance” – and a rather frenzied dance at that; and lastly, the Vigilant Storm bursts out of the Woody Pine-Knight and the Thunderskin resides “in the Wood below the world.” Interestingly, the Thunderskin’s tarot card shows it tied to the trunks of two ruined trees, surrounded by a clearing of other ruined trees.

So that’s who everyone is. So what are they doing? Well, as this is an allegorical account of an alchemical ritual: the figures might, for instance, represent the forces at work within some laboratory vessel (or alternatively, in the purely spiritual types of alchemy, the soul). Now, assuming these alchemical forces are reflections or extensions of the relationships that the Hours have with each other, we can learn a few things about said relationships. The Pine-Knight is pursuing some version of the Arthurian Grail quest, though the larger purpose remains unknown (that might be in book 2). The Cup being in the birthing bed attended by the Midwife is suggestive of the Grail/Mother of Ants relationship/alliance we’ve been speculating about since Sir William Hoare’s testimonial concerning Saint Agnes of the Serpent. It also handily explains why some thought Saint Agnes was the Grail – the Grail and the Mother of Ants share the same territory, though it’s significant that it’s the Grail that’s actually in the birthing bed while the Mother of Ants is merely the midwife besides the bed. The whole thing with the the Grail, the Mountain-Mother, the Pine-Knight, and the Vigilant Storm sounds like an allegorical creation myth for the Heart Relentless, wherein it is in some sense the progeny of the Ring-Yew and the Mother of Ants.

This highlights just how much complexity the Mansus has. There are 24 ruling Hours and 6 other Hours. So each Hour has 29 relationships. And this is without taking into account the Names, the Long, the Know, the Dead, and whatever the Worms are. In this instance, the Mother of Ants seems like an Hour who would be at odds with the Heart Relentless - the Heart preserves the world's skin, the Mother cuts said skin. But here she is as the cause of the Heart. Perhaps, before you can open the way, there need to be barriers.

Btw, the Mother of Ants seems like a pretty powerful Hour, doesn’t she?

btw2, speaking of the Grail - it's the Hour of birth, blood, hunger, lust, and the drowning waters. The first four are straightforward, but does anyone have any idea as to what the "drowning waters" are, exactly?
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/25/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/26/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

The Humours of a Gentleman

Card Description: Samuel Savage's satirical comedy, on the intrigues of the ailing, but cunning John Sonne, his mistress Maevelin, her lover Leo, and the upstart Corvino.

Alexis: It's not *all* dusty tomes crammed with bloodstained etchings of blasted ruins in Cultist Simulator.

Which makes sense - as the Principles of the Hours are in everything material, you could presumably learn about their natures, domains, and influences by consulting non-occult works as well. You'd just have to know what to look for. References to Don John of Austria or maybe the Don John character of Much Ado About Nothing. Samuel Savage sounds a little like Jonathan Swift.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Vexpont wrote:
The characters could easily all be Hours allegories, but I'm only willing to bet on one:

John Sonne, cunning but ailing – The Sun-in-Rags, IMO. Busy old fool, unruly sun.

That seems like a pretty safe bet. Sonne is apparently an obsolete term for both son and sun. I think this double meaning (son/sun) is pretty intentional, especially if you think the Sun-in-Rags is the product of the True Sun being split or divided in some way.

Omigawd, I can't believe I missed this, given how Clifton Royston has pointed it out - the author of The Sun Rising is John Donne!!

So, yeah, it seems like a pretty safe bet that John Sonne is the Sun-in-Rags. (At the very least John Sonne is definitely something sun related).

Now I wonder if this was planned from the start or if Alexis noticed the poem in Clifton's encyclopedia, liked it, and saw a great opportunity for a literary reference, a shout out, and a play on words, one that could easily be accomplished by simply changing a D to an S.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/26/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/28/2017

Some more thoughts on the debug revelations, this time having to do with what they can possibly tell us about occult societies.

[spoiler]Occult societies are going to be a big part of the game. Founding, building, instructing, governing, and utilizing your society is presumably what the Guru role is all about. Your choice of society will also no doubt lead you in certain narrative directions. So the subject and purpose of your society matters quite a bit. And this is more than just a matter of different Hours/Principles - not only the subject, but the very approach that your society takes to the subject can vary considerably. A society might deal with plural Hours, single Hours, place linked Hours, free ranging Hours, the Hours directly, the Hours through their domains, the collective work of all Hours, and so on. It all amounts to a pretty considerable variation.

Of the societies we know about, there seem to be four distinct types:

1. Societies dedicated to the Hours of a specific otherworldly place:

The Mirror of Glory
An occult society dedicated to the understanding of the Light that leaks from a fiercer place.

The Wildwood Club
An occult society dedicated to chaos, and the unexpected Hours.

The Church of the Bright Edge
An occult society dedicated to the Hours of struggle and conquest.

The Glory, the Woods, and the Edge, along with all the Hours associated with these respective places. Worth noting that these societies seem fairly ideological– they’re also dedicated to the Light, to chaos, and to struggle, respectively (light probably represents order). These seem like factional power centers.

2. Societies dedicated to the mysterious supernatural forces associated with a particular Hour:

Temple Unceasing
An occult society dedicated to the drumbeat which can never end.

The Unflinching Order
An occult society dedicated to the fire that changes and remakes.

The Order of the Bloody Cup
An occult society dedicated to the mysteries of birth, blood and appetite.

These societies are concerned with the larger domains of the Heart Relentless, the Forge of Days, and the Red Grail. Emphasis on domains – music, fire, blood – which somewhat eclipse their individual Hours. One says the drumbeat, not the Hour of the drumbeat; the fire that changes and remakes, not the Hour of the fire that changes and remakes; the mysteries of blood, not the Hour of blood. These Hours are presented as the sources of powerful but diffused influences which your occult society is trying to understand and master.

3. Societies explicitly dedicated to a single, individual Hour:

The Society of Midnight
An occult society dedicated to the Hour at night's heart, on which the world turns.

Children of Silence
An occult society dedicated to the Hour of the cold that ends.

The Moth and the Sun-In-Rags, specifically. It’s worth noting that these two Hours are portrayed as concentrated, solitary, decisive powers. The world somehow turns on the Hour of midnight, while the Hour of the cold makes endings. As a result these Hours get more individualized worship (if worship is the right word).

4. Societies dedicated to other things:

Society of St Hydra
An occult society dedicated to the study of the thousand unknown histories.

Features of the universe not particular to any one Hour or any one group of Hours.

So, to sum up:

1. Specific places/ideas
2. Spread out influences
3. Concentrated power/responsibilities
4. Universal elements[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/28/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/22/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

and the Unburnt God if that's not another name for the Forge of Days (or maybe another hour, but Forge of Days seems like the most likely one, if it's a duplicate). Are there any others whose names we know?

I considered that as well, but t I'm not so sure the Unburnt God is the Forge of Days. Obviously this god partakes in, or has some relationship with, the Principle of the Forge, but a Forge isn't unburnt...it literally is burning.

Do you think "unburnt" when you think "forge"? Actually, Unburnt seems to suggest a deity in opposition to the Forge of Days - one who cannot be consumed or transformed, even by that which yearns to consume and transform everything. There are still eleven Hours as yet unaccounted for after all.

Anne Auclair wrote:

The Orchid Transfigurations (‘a feast’)Card Text: An original edition of a compilation of quasi-Rosicrucian allegories, supposedly by Robert Fludd. This is the original Latin.
...
The Orchid Transfigurations is a very weird text. It is definitely not the work of a single author, as its attribution to Robert Fludd is clearly bogus and your character identifies the work itself as a “compilation” of texts pretending to be something they’re not (in this case, Rosicrucian). It sounds a little bit like the Corpus Hermeticum, where a number of diverse texts arising out of a shared intellectual milieu were later combined together into a single invented tradition and wrongly ascribed to a single author. As the common milieu of the Orchid Transfigurations is sixteenth century alchemy, it seems safe to assume that all the volumes explicitly deal with the subject of perfection and transmutation. The hodge-podge nature of the compiled sources however means that the nature and intent of these transmutations could vary pretty widely. Yet the compiler must have had a larger purpose in mind when making the selections that they did. Personally, this series is my favorite so far, as I just love strange stuff like this.

Someone I only just noticed. After you translate the The Orchid Transfiguration's into English, the card text changes to:

Part of a compilation of quasi-Rosicrucian allegories, supposedly by Robert Fludd.

Confirming that this book is part of a larger series.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/22/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

11/22/2017

Alice Lutwidge wrote:

That being said, I haven't seen anyone talk about this and I've been wondering... has anyone else discovered/learned how to work the debug panel in the prototype? It allows access to some pretty interesting things--not a whole lot, of course--but I've been debating about how to go about talking about some of the stuff I've found, and if it's even acceptable to do so.

I’d say that winnowing a game using debug shows a level of interest more likely to encourage than annoy its creators. Besides, so far we’re only as collectively devious as a 3-year-old child.

I used debug to fastforward. Also to play when deceased, just to observe that Glover and Glover don’t notice, and Acquaintances are keen as ever. I wish this ‘Cool Air’ style scenario was possible in-game; it would actually be a relevant use for a strict timer (like a lot of people, it seems, I don’t favour them as a pacing mechanism).

Whilst fiddling about using debug, which may or may nor be relevant, I once got a blank card called ‘The Waking Word’ – if this has been mentioned before, I’ve forgotten it. No image or text. ‘Studying’ it on its own generated The Rite of the Watchman’s Sorrow, without needing to combine any ordinary sorts of Lore:

The Waking Word is scored as 5 Forge, 5 Lantern, and 5 Lore, which seems quite substantial for anything in the alpha. I doubt it’s an Hour – it’s high, but not god-tier? - though I suppose it could be. A weapon or spell (more probable)? Something else? I’ve been sadly unable to find it again.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Do you think "unburnt" when you think "forge"? Actually, Unburnt seems to suggest a deity in opposition to the Forge of Days - one who cannot be consumed or transformed, even by that which yearns to consume and transform everything. There are still eleven Hours as yet unaccounted for after all.

Given the traditional symbolism of moths to flames,and that Illopoly himself is linked to the Wood, like the Moth (studying the first part of Travelling at Night gives you Wood-Whispers,and the Moth 'seeks among the trees of the Wood'), I wonder if the Unburnt God could be linked to The Moth and the Black-Flax, on the basis of the snippet that you long ago recorded from de Horis:

“The Glory is a question, and the Moth always answers Yes. The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.”

Which might make the Unburnt God the one that gives the opposite answer, the mysterious Black-Flax. Maybe.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/10/2017

New Contentment art. Nicely symbolic, contentment as a fleeting moment in a larger journey. You pause to take in the tree, the gazebo, the sky, the clouds, the distance you've covered...and then you continue on your way.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/3/2017

The Lionsmith, sometimes called the Golden General
The Colonel, sometimes called the Cartographer of Scars

There's an interesting symmetry between these two. Each is known by two names: a sort of descriptive title and a military rank. The Lionsmith is known first and foremost by his functional title, secondarily by its rank, where it's the exact opposite with the Colonel/Cartographer.

Lionsmith: A lion who smiths
Cartographer of Scars: A mapper or creator of scars

These describe what the two Hours more or less do. The Lionsmith forges monsters, while the Cartographer receives and inflicts scars (presumably from and on said monsters, mostly).

The Golden General
The Colonel

The Lionsmith obviously assumes the role of General when commanding its self-forged monster army. Where the Colonel's rank factors into its activities is a little more ambiguous... Perhaps the title is a mortal bestowment in appreciation of the Colonel's violent, determined yet honorable nature.

Completing the symmetry, the Golden General's power flows from its multitude of soldiers, whereas the Colonel seems a much more singular entity, capable of withstanding infinite punishment while dealing out attacks that "cannot be evaded." A limitless force meeting an immovable object.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/3/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

10/10/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Here are my various Lantern and the Glory thoughts.

According to the alpha description, Lantern is the principle of the Mansus, and the light above it. So the Lantern Principle definitely originates from the Glory, which is the fierce source of the world's light and the place from which the gods-from-light descend. The Glory is directly tied to the Sun in that the Lantern is also the principle of the Mansus, which we know "is the House of the Sun." Crucially the Mansus has a front door facing the Glory.

But what is the Sun? Well, it seems to be an Hour, as it partly resides within and rules the Mansus, which it probably created or at the very least designed (House of the Sun/Lantern is the principle of the Mansus). You have a dream encounter with the Sun when you have a nightmare of the Cleansing Dawn - its light burns your bones and can give you a Mansus Glimpse. The Sun is highly regarded by the Long at Port Noon (They always pay their respects to the Sun here) and might even have some degree of extra presence (The sun is punishing). Its influence is essential to life: ‘Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.’ On the map it is shown straddling or patrolling the boundary between the Glory and the Mansus. It is not to be confused with the Sun-in-Rags, which is a completely different and rather bloody power.

All in all, the Sun appears to enjoy the most preeminent position amongst the Hours, suggesting it is the first and strongest of the secret gods as well as the foremost god-from light. The Sun is also very close to the Glory in symbolism and proximity. Right now I have a hard time distinguishing the two, as the Glory and the Sun are both sources of light. Maybe there is no real distinction - the Woods being below the Mansus does not prevent the Hours of the Wood from residing within the Mansus, so why would Hours of the Glory be prohibited? Just as the Ring-Yew, Black Flax and Moth have their Wood, so the Sun has its Glory. Alternatively, remember how some of the Hours have direct emanations amongst the Names, as well as mortal incarnations who influence human history? So it's possible that the Sun could in turn be a direct emanation of whatever ruling power is, or resides within, the Glory. Meanwhile, the visible ball of gas sun that warms the mortal world is probably a direct emanation of the Sun in the Mansus.

The thing is, I think the Sun is more than an Hour. The Mansus is the House of the Sun specifically rather than the House of any of the other Hours, and the Sun is labeled separately from the Hours on the map. Perhaps even more importantly, the hours of the temporal day are produced by the Sun, which seems like very strong evidence that it's something greater. If anything, I would expect the Sun to be that ruling power within the Glory, from which all the Hours are emanations. In terms of the nature of the Glory, I'd say it's basically a location, similar to the Wood, the Mansus, our reality, and nowhere. All of those allow plenty of room for debate as to whether they're really locations, of course, but they're in some sense analogous to locations, which is what matters. The Glory may be a "greater" place in some sense, but it's still a similar sort of thing.

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

1/21/2018

Hey, hey, here's another couple of surreal pieces of art, this time with some interesting stories to go with them.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
The first two are illustrations of Norwegian fairy tale "The Three Princesses of Whiteland".

In it, a boy is whisked away to the titular mysterious land and marries a princess. After being magicked home, he sets out to find his way back. Along the way he meets with several kings separately to ask if they know the way to Whiteland, among them the King of all the Beasts of the Wood. The Kings each give him pair of snowshoes to reach the others... And note how the setting sun is looming directly him in the background of the snowscape.

When he finally starts on the way back to Whiteland, he learns that his queen is set to marry another prince. He makes a deal with the North Wind, who then swoops up and carries away the other prince. The rightful prince remarries his queen and they live happily ever after. Again, note how the Prince-Killing Wind appears to come from the red setting sun in the second painting.
The last piece of art he posted is from "The Lassie and Her Godmother". A poor family gives their baby daughter to a mysterious beautiful woman. The woman takes the girl to a mysterious house and raises her there, but kicks her out after she discovers that The Sun, Moon, and Stars were living there as well and accidentally lets them out. Thrown out of the house and into The Wood, she eventually climbs a tree over some water and falls asleep.

Eventually a Prince comes along for a drink and spots her reflection. He finds her and takes her to his castle to be his queen. His mother objects, because she thinks this beautiful woman from the water might be a witch. He marries her anyway, but she's later almost executed when her stepmother returns, smears her mouth with blood, and makes it look like she's eaten her own children. The stepmother is finally revealed to have been the Virgin Mary the whole time.

I generalized in a few places, but it's really spooky how these stories line up with what we know of the Hours. Anyway, it was fun to share with everyone.

If I'm having this much fun deciphering the mysteries of the twitter page, I can't wait to play the actual game.
edited by Edward Warren on 1/21/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/30/2018

In the spirit of the Scholar Build, I have transcribed all the lore text for evaluation, comparison, discussion, and speculation.

[spoiler]
Lantern

A Watchman’s Secret
It has been expressed like this: ‘Each Hour has its colour, but colour exists only where there is light.’

A Mansus-Glimpse
A snatch of poetry; a single memory of a certain house that all of us visit twice in our lives. A rite that opens the way to the Mansus must begin with this lore.

An Unmerciful Invocation
‘Mercy,’ saith the Watchman, ‘is found only in shadow.’

Study Text
There is a proverb among the practitioners of the invisible arts: ‘Glory visits the house without walls.’ I would like to know about glory.

Moth

A Barber’s Warning
A power of the Wood enjoys the separation of the lock from the scalp. For attention, burn it. For opportunity, bury it.

A Wood-Whisper
Lie awake, and listen. The wind speaks in the branches. The house cries out in its sleep. These are the roads that chaos ride.

An Ecdysiast’s Parable
The Ecdysiast’s Riddle is ‘hat may be lost?’ Each Ecdysiast’s Parable is an attempt to answer the Riddle.

Study Text
[Missing, for whatever reason.]

Knock

A Locksmith’s Secret
Sooner or later, every locksmith has the dream.

An Iguvine Rite
Every door in the Mansus requires its sacrifice before it will open. The Iguvine Rites proscribe the manner of the sacrifice.

A Consent of Wounds
To open certain Ways, one must first open oneself. This practice outlines that opening, in the name of the Mother of Ants.

Study Text
These are incantations of unseaming, where the space between the words is as potent as the actual syllables.

Grail

A Red Secret
Some words are spelt correctly only when the proper ink is used.

A Megalesian Incantation
The Great Mother remembers.

A Delightful Sacrament
So pleasant upon the ear. One could listen over and over. These are the words that make sacrifice sweet.

Study Text
Certain words beg to be spoken. It is tempting to spend time in their consideration – tempting, and perhaps useful.

Forge

A Smith’s Secret
In five continents, smiths have whispered the same words to the iron. Murders have been known to whisper these words too. And adepts, of course. These words are spoken in ritual to inspire an unmerciful Change.

An Ardent Orison
When we watch a fire, what are we watching for? When we find it, these are the words it will speak: a word that sanctifies the change that comes when the seared skin peels.

A Shaping Chant
The proper words must be employed when the Change comes.

Study Text
Very few know that smiths and murderers speak the same prayers. I will examine those prayers.

Edge

A Knife’s Secret
When our ancestors’ forged swords, taught the arts of martial movement, spoke curses on the eve of battle – all these things shared certain patterns.

Chiliarch’s Lesson
This is the bone-deep story the thousandman learnt in antiquity, of blood and its exits. To speak it aloud is to hear the sword hiss.

An Operation of the Lion
A series of mystic exercises that requires both dedication and terror.

Study Text
All of the greatest struggles end in death. The lore of the knife holds the lessons of those struggles.

Heart

A Thunderous Secret
There are common sentiments in every thunderclap. Let us acknowledge them.

Words that Walk
The syllables of this formula are compelling. I find myself snapping my fingers to its rhythm. It desires not to cease.

Study Text
There are lessons the anatomist, the dancer and the shaman all learn.

Winter

A Sexton’s Secret
Certain knowledge, it is said, can be experienced only through the particular quality of silence. It has been suggested that one can only read such knowledge with one’s eyes closed, but only by mischievous commentators.

A White Ceremony
When I speak it, my lips don’t crisp with frost. Each time, this is surprising.

Study Text
These are the words which chill the air and drink the colour of my skin.

Secret History

An Occult Scrap
Secret histories are layered beneath the one we know, like the notes in rare wine. This is a detail from one of those histories.

A Furtive Truth
A detail smuggled in from an adjacent narrative. Don’t speak this where you may be overheard.

A Forgotten Chronicle
A story of a city without a gate, of a queen who was not born, of a war which was not fought.

Study Text
History is less certain than we are taught. I can learn from the study of its blurred edges.[/spoiler]
Also, here are the CS spreadsheet tabs that Alexis recently posted to twitter, for those who don't want to hurt their eyes squinting.

CS Spreadsheet wrote:

Economy
The Hours
Overview
Roles Goals & Tiers
Ritual Architecture
Endgame Magic
Tools and Ingredients
Tomes
NPCs
Recruitment & Promotion
Investigators & Rivals
Prisoners
D-G Research
[3] Locations
Mansus Exploration
Legacies
Mundane Careers & Crises
Appetites

lol, mundane careers & crises! As opposed to the other kinds ^_^

Looking at this list makes you realize just how big this game is. Like, Mansus exploration, endgame magic, ritual architecture, prisoners, appetites - none of these things have been implemented yet! The Scholar's Build is essentially Sunless Sea with just Venderbight, Demeaux Island, and Whither (with maybe some bats).
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/30/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

1/31/2018

https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/958722202937057281

This is the top of a thread on the Weather Factory Twitter in which Alexis shows off summoning mechanics. First he tries to summon one of the Voiceless Dead, using the fragility of Neville's sanity, but it starts struggling so he sends it back. Then he uses a Cindered Crown along with Neville to summon something called a Caligine, which starts struggling as well. However, he's already sacrificed the Crown, so he doesn't want to let it go, and he really doesn't want a Caligine running loose, so he uses Passion to force it to his will, which is luckily successful. Neville is apparently no worse for wear, but Alexis's Passion is turned to Fascination in the process of asserting his will.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/31/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/958722202937057281

This is the top of a thread on the Weather Factory Twitter in which Alexis shows off summoning mechanics. First he tries to summon one of the Voiceless Dead, using the fragility of Neville's sanity, but it starts struggling so he sends it back. Then he uses a Cindered Crown along with Neville to summon something called a Caligine, which starts struggling as well. However, he's already sacrificed the Crown, so he doesn't want to let it go, and he really doesn't want a Caligine running loose, so he uses Passion to force it to his will, which is luckily successful. Neville is apparently no worse for wear, but Alexis's Passion is turned to Fascination in the process of asserting his will.

Let's make this easier to follow.

[spoiler]
Now we're talking (although they're not)

It won't work without some Knock in the mix, though. You always need to open the way.

if you don't have the Locksmith's Secret, which invokes Knock? There are other ways! Here, I'm using the assistance of my disciple Neville - don't move, Neville - whose fragile sanity means he brings Knock aspect to the rite.

right, yes. If you were planning to summon mute but ravenous dead chez toi, we should probably have mentioned that this might happen.

good good, we had a spare Reason card knocking around

That could have gone better. But we do *also* have this Cindered Crown knocking around, and Neville is still on shift, so let's see if this goes better

for *****'s sake*

Neville I said *stand still*

This is a Caligine, and I don't want one of those loose in the house. On the other hand, I put my Cindered Crown in a sacrifice slot, so it's already gone, and if I shut down the summoning it's a wasted treasure.

this is fine

RIGHT YOU SMOKY TROUBLEMAKER SETTLE DOWN

that Passion I invested has been turned into Fascination, which is not great, but I should get that back if things work out okay

GET IN.

that could have gone worse. Contending for mastery is an ante-up mechanic, so if it keeps struggling, you have to keep investing the Passion, until you run out.

that's it for now! Wishlist here if this sounds like your thing:

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/31/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/4/2018

Take a little break from CS, and look how much has changed!

Surprised that Erzeem seems to be affiliated with the Forge of Days, as I would have thought a being that has Thirst in its species' name would be affiliated with the Red Grail.

The line 'Even after the Sun's division, the mortal pawns of the Forge of Days recalled it fondly' gives a little insight into the nature of the Division.

First, it indirectly confirms that the Division was an actual event. It wasn't some Book of Genesis-esque story that took place before history. The Sun was actually entirely whole up to a certain point in history.

Also, it gives us an idea of just how revered and important the Sun is in the CS mythos. It says a lot about the Sun that the followers of the Forge of Days -the Hour of anarchy, chaos, and constant change- look back on the undivided, up to that point unchanged Sun and say "Yeah, we really had a good thing going there, didn't we?"

Also, I had another realization. It's notable that since the beta the different types of lore have all had their names changed. Nearly all of them are called "Secrets" (a Watchman's Secret)... except one. The lore for the Wood is called a Warning. As in "don't you even think of doing trying this, you idiot."

I asked myself what a Barber had to do with the Hours of the Wood, then thought about the depiction we have of the Moth:

Notice the scissors and lock of hair? It's a lot more important than you think.
A Barber’s Warning
A power of the Wood enjoys the separation of the lock from the scalp. For attention, burn it. For opportunity, bury it.

I don't remember which book exactly, but there's a history book in the game now that discusses the advances of the "barbarians" and their uncouth gods. Whenever the lore brings up barbarians, it might be a form of code to get the Hidden Lore past the censors. "Barbarian" isn't referring to savage tribals, it's referring to "Barbers", perhaps again alluding to beginning practitioners of the Invisible Arts and their strange gods.

I don't know if Galmier realized this, but there seems to be a whole other dimension to the Lock than just the mechanical ones we use on physical doors. If I may theorize a minute, it might be that in metaphysical plane like the Mansus, it might not matter the specific type of lock, just the concept of one. Removing a lock of hair might be the same thing as removing the lock on the door of your mind, opening yourself to entities and alien truths that wouldn't have access otherwise.

Can anyone else think of any other potential double meanings in the lore of the other Hours?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

2/7/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

What's interesting about Ezeem is that he first requests that you change him. In most other depictions, the Unmerciful Change is done by the practitioner of the Forge principle to others, and not by other parties to the practitioner. Tristan, the Forge-aligned Mortal, is said to despise distraction, trying to distance himself from outside factors. When the Change does affect practitioners, it us quite unpleasant (see: WAR OF THE ROADS, I think? The Secret History where Victorians made a deal with the Forge for extreme industrial might or smth. It doesn't end well for them.)

Before assuming anything about Ezeem's desire to be Changed, we surely need to consider the Hellraiser-esque implications of ‘Now, my turn’. Having read everyone's points, I suspect that Ezeem will turn out to be evenly-balanced in both Forge and Grail, and pretty formidable in both. All creatures summoned in demonstrations have had the exotic thing that so far hasn’t appeared in any Lore (though I'm sure it will): hybrid Principles. The Maid in the Mirror has a swingeing 10 Winter...and also, 10 Edge. On the basis of the Dread Twitter Summonings, the likely dual-Principle scores for lowlier creatures seem to be 8, 6, and 2.

Rites don’t carry any Lore or Principle score of their own at present, just 1 Ritual. So we can work out the Principle scores of Neville’s Mystery Summoning, even though it failed, by examining the icons at the bottom of the panel: 1 Ritual, 1 Tool, 2 Heart, 1 Lore, 4 Winter, 2 Follower, 1 Mortal, 4 Knock.

1 Ritual = The Rite of the Smith’s Sacrifice; 1 Tool, 2 Heart = an unknown Tool; 1 Lore, 4 Winter = A White Ceremony; 2 Follower, 1 Mortal, 4 Knock = Neville, and what's left of his sanity.

When Reason is used in Work (I think) to dispel the summoning, Work's slots change to read thus:

The only things that change are the 1 Insight generated by Reason, Winter shoots up to 10, a generic ? icon (that of the unknown beastie) appears, and also an additional 6 Moth. So, whatever was coming from the Mansus, baited by the scent of Neville’s madness, would have scored a respectably horrific 6 Winter, 6 Moth. I wonder what it was; unlike the Caligine it doesn’t have any identifying art yet, just the ? placeholder.

Compare the starting and ending slot stack for Summoning the Caligine with the same Ritual, same subject (Neville), but a sacrificial item (a Cindered Crown) and not a random Tool. Start:

End, after successfully cowing the captious Caligine with sweet, expensive Reason:

The incoming Caligine would seem to score 8 Forge and 8 Moth, which makes sense as it took a sacrificial item – a Cindered Crown at 1 Tool and 8 Forge a pop – to summon it, whereas formerly, poor underappreciated Neville was working with whatever 2 Heart tool he could scrounge. I was confused for a bit by 9 Moth, but the extra 1 Moth is coming from the Reason card, now transformed to Fascination.

The only 2-Principle creature mentioned so far is the Burgeoning Risen, with a Principle-score of 2 Edge and 2 Winter, which seems a bit curious for a hapless detective's corpse quickened by Woody Moth-power, as set out here on Twitter (where it can also be seen that the Caligine does indeed have a Principle-score of 8 Forge and 8 Moth).

May all our wishes come true, apparently. Well, I've always wanted green fingers.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/11/2018

I can't overstate how excited I am to see that map of the Mansus. Catherine Unger's art style is fantastic and utterly perfect for this game. So beautiful, but just surreal enough around the edges that it's unsettling even when nothing too unnatural seems to be going on.

As fun as it was imagining the landscape of the dream world, it's nice to see it fleshed out and given some depth. It gives a much needed level of scale that establishes just how large the place is and how varied the geography of the "house" is. It really drives home how small these beta builds are and how massive the finished game actually will be.

All this Catherine Unger, bizarre houses, and alien gods are giving me A House of Many Doors flashbacks, which is an UTTERLY AMAZING game I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Failbetter's work.
[spoiler]
I was very interested to see that the Tree of Lights and the Red Church are actual places in the Mansus and not just strange dream analogies. I look forward to see how exploration and interaction with the hidden world will go, as we've got art for rooms and a navigation map now. Perhaps we'll have a Rogue-esque text adventure in the Mansus and the card interface in the waking world? I'm very interested in learning what the inhabitants of the Mansus will have to say, as what little occult lore we can scrounge out of our texts is heavily coded and riddled with metaphor to avoid the censors. Some raw, undiluted truth that-should-not-be-known will be refreshing.

Some speculation on the map:

Assuming they're an accurate depiction (questionable since it's dreamland), the unlabeled illustrations of the map raise some interesting questions on their own. As we've already learned we've got The Glory at the highest point of the Mansus where the Sun presumably resides, yet we've also got two Sun-looking balls of fire floating in the sky, one well defined and with a face and a faded one lingering in the far upper left corner. We've also got an ominous volcano looking structure looming outside The Bounds of the Mansus, with a strange one-eyed smoke skull giving the house a once-over. What could that be all about?
There is a WELL in the Wood. The Fallen London references continue. Is there something deeper a work here?
The Worm Museum- As the Worms aren't Hours (as far as we know) it's interesting to know they reside in an upper portion of the Mansus. It's even more interesting to note that their domain is called the "museum", a place where history is put on display. We know that we can establish cults that don't worship an Hour or set of Hours but choose to studying the forbidden histories. Perhaps these cults revolve around the Worms? What strange blessings (and curses) would come from affiliating with these strange and seemingly malevolent beings?
The geography is all over the place, which is to be expected for a dreamscape but painful to look at nonetheless. In addition to the established stair and wood areas, we've now got a water area. It's interesting that it's called the Painted River, (Queens of the Rivers, anyone?) and as we know painting can play a large part of our occult dabbling. Despite being called a river, it's divided down the middle by what appears to be a crevice that goes all the way up to the Glory. We've also got boats on it, something we've never heard of before. Perhaps we can find the Beachcrow on the River's shores?
Death is down- I noticed a clever little touch in the layout of the House. The Red Church where people are born is high up in the Mansus, and the Wood -particularly the places where it turns white- are at the bottom of the map. We know that our lives will end in the Wood, so a person must descend in order to get there.
The Temple of the Wheel- Mostly speculation on my part, but I suspect this is where we'll find The Thunderskin and/or the Ring Yew. A circle has no beginning or end, it just continues on forever. Fits clearly with the Heart Relentless' motif of unceasing motion.

Now to analyze those delicious early tarot cards.

It took me a moment to realize The Mother of Ants has extra arms, which really freaked me out for a moment. She's also portrayed as covered in serpents and wearing a nun-like headdress, so it's all but confirmed who St. Agnes really is. We've her holding keys and stairs in the background, which play into how she "guards the way up and down". What's interesting are those severed hands, which if I'm not mistaken is something we haven't seen before in her symbolism. Perhaps a reverence to voodoo or "Hands of Glory"?
The Red Grail is unsurprisingly portrayed surrounded by indulgence and excess. The red cup runneth over amidst a massive feast. The scene is at first glance warm and inviting, until you notice the people are either incredibly fat or noticeably emaciated and gaunt like the figure on the center right. The figure on the center left is about to eat a hook. The seemingly inviting cup is being filled with blood coming from a woman's face embedded in the ceiling. The card is clearly unfinished, so if there is more symbolism to be analyzed, we'll have to wait until the details are filled in.
Note the emaciated figure again. Is that other person grasping them embracing them or eating them? Notice the slight red tint on the first guy's neck where the other guy's mouth is. The Red Grail is just so F U N.
The Hook is a symbol shared between the Watchman and the Red Grail it seems. Either one or both of them killed the Queen of the Dneiper in her history. We've now got Worms, Hooks, and people eating both. Is this a biblical "fishers of men" reference?
The Forge of Days card is surprisingly sparse in the way of symbolism, even as a rough draft. The Forge is very spooky looking, it almost looks like a humanoid with a overly large head embracing (or alternatively straddling) the Sun at first glance. We've got a bucket on the floor, and craftsmen tools on either side of the Forge. They seem to from the pattern: Y I X X I I

[/spoiler]
edited by Edward Warren on 2/11/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/13/2018

Double post, but according to Alexis' twitter, we've got some more Red Grail goodness coming to us in the next build. Some of the new rituals will allow us to get some new occult endings!
[spoiler]

Shame about our humanity, though...[/spoiler]
edited by Edward Warren on 2/13/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/14/2018

Did some thinking on the whole Knight angle, and I think I've uncovered yet another level of symbolism in the game. Just how far down does this rabbit hole go? Alexis said in an interview about Cultist Simulator:

"I have read a certain amount of Arthurian poetry and commentary (Ritual to Romance, Green Knight, and so forth...."
I wondered a bit about the Galmier's connection to the Sage Knight and did some digging into Arthurian Legend, and found something very interesting.

Discounting King Arthur, there are twenty-four knights of the round table.

A round table is essentially just a flat circle. Know what else is a flat circle? A clock.

Each of the Hours is -or is at least symbolized by- a knight of the round table, and The Sun is their King.

If we can determine who's who, we might have a better understanding of the dynamics of the relationships between each Hour. At least one of the knights has been outright told to us already. We know that Percival is the Red Grail, because Skeleton Songs calls him "Parsival of the Red Cup". Percival is the earliest knight to be affiliated with the quest for the Holy Grail.

This is important because if we can match up the knights, we might have an idea of who Lancelot is. Lancelot is the knight that betrayed and helped kill King Arthur. We know that at least one of the Hours attacked and split The Sun, but we don't know exactly who it was.

It's also worth noting that before Arthur could truly die, he was taken to Tir na Nog -also called Ildathach, multicolored place, remember that colors beneath the world's skin angle- and it was said he would one day come again in glory. Discounitng whayever the Sun-in-Rags is, the real Sun is conspiculously absent from its own house, supposedly choosing to reside far away in the Glory. Perhaps that's what we'll do when we bring the Dawn? Restore and return to power the Once and Future King?
edited by Edward Warren on 2/14/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/20/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

- Studying the book on the Unburnt God has the outcome text "Jensen hypothesizes a pre-Zoroastrian fire deity, whose rites were the rites of smiths." This implies that the Unburnt God is another name for the Forge of Days.

I agree with your conclusion. Somewhere in there (missing a cite for where I saw it) it also says that contrary to scholars' expectations the fire deity appears to have been a Goddess rather than a God. So perhaps the Forge of Days is female, to the extent that powerful supernatural beings have a gender identity.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/20/2017

JoelMB12 wrote:

A mercenary Hour/god very interesting concept indeed. Then what do give him as playment?

Oh, barter and favors for favors, probably. But the Hours and/or Names having their own sort of money isn't completely out of the question. I mean, they live in a House after all. And humans use money all the time. Regular people use mundane currencies, while participants in the invisible world use spintrias. All this coinage must be a shadow or reflection of something.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/19/2017

Something that I've noticed. All your acquaintances/followers have a "Mortal" icon on their card. Mme Olympe Bechet and Count Gottlob Jannings have Mortal icons. Even the ominous Poppy Lascelles is signified to be Mortal.

Dr Ibn al-Adim is not marked as Mortal. Just throwing that out there.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/19/2017

DSPaul wrote:

What can all this tell us about the Colonel/Coronel/Tribune? First, most obviously, that he is a military commander: an authority figure who directs lesser forces of violence. But the other common theme that emerges is that he is not a supreme commander, but one of middling rank; not a king or a general, but a deputy to kings or generals. Which raises the question: whose deputy?

Well, he doesn't have a single commander - he serves Masters plural. They're also Secret, so for all we know their identities could be constantly shifting. Maybe the Colonel is just an out and out mercenary, his services and helpers available to any power willing to pay.

Take the hunting of the Long. That sounds like something the Sun-In-Rags would want to do - he's the god of endings and Long don't end on their own, which the Chilly Sun would presumably find annoying. Then there's the Forge of Days, which we know has a taste for the Long (notice that the Long aren't just killed but also consumed). And this is just considering the Long as an abstract whole, as opposed to a collection of completing factions and individuals. An overly bold, careless, or unfortunate Long could presumably find themselves a target for quite idiosyncratic reasons. A group of Long might easily and unwittingly find themselves on the wrong side of some greater struggle.

This is probably one of the reasons that semi-retired Long like to cluster in Port Noon. Safety in numbers.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/17/2017

Exhibit C that the Suppression Bureau is completely incompetent and totally corrupt.

The Ecdysis Club. Everything about the Ecdysis Club. A lot of Investigators are getting rich off letting that place stay open. They probably shake down the owners and every so often the clientele.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Ecdysis Club; it's a pretty wild ride.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/14/2017

Alexis tweeted this out a little while ago:

Winter by Utagawa Hiroshige.

Notice something familiar?
edited by Edward Warren on 12/14/2017

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/25/2017

Christ is a son who had a lot to say about endings.

Also, he was a rather poor king who bled. Hmmmmm.

edited by Anne Auclair on 12/25/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

1/5/2018

I'm still wondering about that spot within the Mansus which is labeled simply 'Knives'. Maybe it's just where the Sun keeps its kitchen knives, but it sounds a bit worrisome.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/15/2017

http://weatherfactory.biz/the-scholars-build/

The beta has released! Backers have received an email with an itch.io key for it. The text of the blog post is as follows:

Lottie Bevan wrote:

Who doesn’t want to roleplay a lonely, maladjusted intellectual with a well-stocked local bookshop? Exactly. Cultist Simulator’s first public beta – the Scholar’s Build – is all grimoires by candlelight, feverish translation and/or Faustian pacts with your gran. Get it now on itch.io!
(And if you like it, wishlist us on Steam!)
The Scholar’s Build is first and foremost a development build. It gestures in the general direction of the final game. But it has ~20% of the final content, and little polish. (AK was stricken this week with the Lurg, so we expect to release a Scholar’s hotfix with more polish next week.)
We’d love to get feedback and bugs at support@weatherfactory.biz, where I shall a) receive them gratefully, knowing they are vital to the quality of the game b) weep, softly, into my keyboard. It’ll make my job a lot easier if you could send one bug per email, too. Thank you!
If you’d like to discuss Cultist Simulator with fellow intellectuals, we have a few hotspots: Steam forums, now our page is live; the Weather Factory subreddit; the Kickstarter comments page, if you’re a backer; and our Twitter, should you dare ask the Pink Logo a Question. Go on: be bold.

[image removed due to messing with page layout, it was a header saying "Scholar's Build"]

It’s primarily a UI update, but it adds mechanics for eking out a living as a scholar. Key features below.
There are many more books now available to read. (And many more to come.)

You can name your character. (We suggest you name your character.)

Three different Legacies allow three different game starts. (There is not yet any relationship between the ending you experience and the legacies available.)

The game saves when you exit, and auto-loads when you return. (If you end up with a borked save, you can delete save.txt from c:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Weather Factory\Cultist Simulator, or use backup_save.txt).

It’s possible to research lore to gain access to higher levels of understanding. (The framework is in place, but the content here is about half-finished.)

There’s more art, and more content. (Particularly, more ways to gain Passion, Reason or Health, as well as more ways to destroy yourself.)

Dr Ibn al-Adim, Count Gottlob Jannings, and Madame Olympe Bechet may employ you to write articles or monographs for them. (They may have other functions, later.)

If you’re a Bright Young Thing, you may visit the Ecdysis Club, and Oriflamme’s Auction House, as well as meeting your friend and mine, Poppy Lascelles. (But allof these will be available to other Legacies, later.)

Notably absent: the ability to navigate the fringes of the Mansus in dreams. (This is partly because illness slowed my work this week, but also because we’ve had an interesting idea for how this would work which we’d like to explore further with our artists and UI developer, to see if it’ll work.)

There is music. (Seven tracks from the enigmatical Maribeth Solomon and friends, who created the Sunless Sea and Fallen London soundtracks.

edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 12/15/2017

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/20/2017

The story set-up and new locations for the Bright Young Thing really do a lovely job of suggesting the feel of the '20s decadent set, don't they? It has very much the tone of early Evelyn Waugh, 'Decline and Fall' or 'Vile Bodies'.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/24/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:
(It is kinda amusing for me that the Red Grail could be one of the more conservative hours, trying to stay away from deviant children and supporting a church of a chaste virgin saint. Guess all the fasting, flagellation and general higher-power-seeking that went on are a really big draw for the Hour of Hunger.)

Well, the Red Cup is the god of blood, birth and appetite - not lust.

This is one of the things I'm not sure about. The description of the Grail principle includes lust and says it's the principle of the Red Grail, and seems to be conceptualizing the appetites which the Red Grail oversees as including lust. I haven't seen anything that implies the Hour is separate from the Red Grail - the description of Grail mentions a "red cup" with no capitalization.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/25/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Another little tidbit: from a recent comment on Kickstarter, it sounds like our characters are going to be able to write books in the game.
Alexis Kennedy wrote:
... One of the *possible* features on my list is allowing players to name cults they create and books they write.

Maybe they'll become legacies.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/30/2017

Quickly noting down for reference some extra lore-related bits that came up in the AMA (apart from what illuminati swag already pulled in):

Q: A lore question- Is the House the true dwelling of the hours, or simply the representation that we choose to project on to it? As an extension of that, are the Hours truly knowable by a mortal?
A: (a) yes (b) is the Mansus truly knowable by a mortal?

Q: Was the Great War a victory, defeat, or inconsequential to the various hours?
A: Depends on the History. But to be less coy, events at that level are of direct interest to the Hours.

Q: What is depicted upon the tarot-like cards of the Hours? Is it the Hours themselves, a symbolical transfiguration of their core concepts, or only some of their more common Names?
A: A symbolical transfiguration. Their Names are mostly not present, but sometimes the boundaries blur.

Q: [...] is the Gelatinous Worm God likely to feature in game in CS? It seems almost a shame for it not to in a way!
A: It's increasingly possible!

Q: What manner of beings are crafted / spawned / shaped / pulled-into-existence by the Lionsmith? To what extent are any of them, ah, lions?
A: The things he sends against the Colonel, IIRC. To at least some extent, at least some of them are lions.
Q: That begs the question who is the Colonel?
A: The Lionsmith's opponent.
(This is interesting, as a couple more clues to two of our less-known hours!)

Q: What exactly are the Hours? What’s the Mansus? What is air? What’s eight divided by zero?
A: The enumeration of action. The House of the Sun. Unheard music. A feast untouched.

Edit: He was still answering questions intermittently as of this morning, so I threw a pair of questions in.

Q: Will we get more bits of lore from Noon doled out to us during the development period? In particular, will we learn more about Teresa Galmier or Christopher Illopoly either within the game itself or from external lore?
A: I'll absolutely continue to emit lore snippets; no commitments on what and when though!

(Oh good, I can continue to satisfy my addiction from time to time!)
edited by cliftonr on 10/2/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/4/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Quickly noting down for reference some extra lore-related bits that came up in the AMA (apart from what illuminati swag already pulled in)

Here are the questions & answers relating to game mechanics and design intent.

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

***

Q: Will some quests in 'Cultist Simulator' be able to surpass the disturbing nature of 'Seeking'?

A: [...] 'able to surpass' - I'll do my best! What it can't have is the effect of pouring, sometimes, years of Fallen London levelling and grinding and accumulating into one crazy quest, because in CS the sessions are short and, you know, you could always hack your save file. But the whole intention of this was basically 'Seeking, the game', so I hope so.

***

Q: In contrast to Fallen London (where the player encounters a fixed set of content that occurs sequentially in a fairly consistent way over the course of a single extended playthrough), it looks like you're aiming for a more roguelikelike experience enabling multiple shorter playthroughs which can be different each time. This appeals to me a lot actually, but it seems like it could be hard to make happen with a fixed set of cards. What are your thoughts about how to ensure different playthroughs drawn from the same pool of content remain fresh and engaging (e.g. after having memorized various cards and how to drag what where)? Conversely, how to ensure the cards encountered in a given playthrough can remain relevant to what the player is trying to do? (In the alpha I ended up with numerous volumes of unread Essays, so if drawing randomly from a large pool of cards I'd be worried many of them might end up being superfluous or irrelevant to your current situation at the time.)

A: ...this is a potentially essay-length answer. Some bullet points.

wrangling the Opportunity Deck in FL, and particularly the smaller op pools in things like Heists and Expeditions, gave me a good feel for some techniques, though I could do with better maths.

in the alpha, Essays are what you get as the default option if no other books show up, and once other books are exhausted, so that's a particular problem

I'm dividing rewards into a variety of decks/pools (there's only one reward pool in the alpha).

***

Q: Game question: Why did you choose to explore the narrative of CS using a solitaire mechanic? Was there something about the laying out of cards that appealed to you or was it more that a more involved "navigation" would distract from reading the core text snippets?

A: I love cards as a metaphor for events and for resources, so cards were always likely to be a part of it. It was much more about moving cards from one tray to another initially, though, until Martin, my UI freelancer, had the idea of the more freeform, table approach (he may be along to talk about it too).

I didn't initially think of people reading it as solitaire, per se, but of course that makes sense. Hand of Fate was also an influence, in that it has a sort of semi-diegetic context that doesn't commit to exactly where the player is and how they interact.

But above all, it allows me to focus on the text, and you say, as the simple art, without making it look cheap, and with it feeling tactile.

***

Q: What would you say has been the hardest part about creating cultist simulator so far, and what do you think is going to be the hardest part in the future?

A: The hardest part so far has been figuring out the UI. I had a clear idea of the underlying system and model, but making that work in an interface meant a lot of back-and-forth, in which my freelance UI chap, Martin Nerurkar, has been invaluable. (And the UI has in turn informed the model, and so on.) But we're mostly there. We're doing a bit more tidy-up this week, using the feedback we've garnered so far.

The biggest challenge I'm worried about in the future is getting the balance, pacing and economy right. This is very much something I'm, like, journeyman-level at. I learnt a lot from FL and SS, and I'm applying those lessons here, but when it's a non-linear progression system, it's tricksy.

***

Q: 30 and 7 Why seven is there any hidden meaning or is it just for luck?

A: Seven is a number with a loooong history in Fallen London lore, my work generally. In particular, it was significant in Seeking Mr Eaten's Name, a notorious FL/SS plotline/concept/quest to which CS is sort of the spiritual successor.

***

Q: What do you think about the principle of redemption in your games? Is there a reliable mechanism for it?

A: I dislike the idea of the player being irredeemable. Partly this is a technical, craft objection: it's hard to maintain interest in a choice-driven story if there's no way out. Partly it's because I can't imagine anyone being incorruptible under all circumstances, so I think the reverse should apply.

I think remorse is important and so is restitution, even if it's only symbolic; I don't see redemption without those two things.
.

edited by Anne Auclair on 10/4/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/7/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

I recently added a note on this bit to the massive "Speculation on the Hours" post, since I think it bears on the Hours as well as game-play.

I feel fairly sure "Poseidon is not the only God in the sea" alludes specifically to Mary Renault's The King Must Die which Alexis has been raving about recently, and where (without being too spoileriffic) it becomes important that there is a Goddess of the sea worshiped elsewhere than Greece, completely unrelated to Poseidon.

Oh, so that's where that's from.

Clifton Royston wrote:

I'd interpret this therefore to mean that there might be two or more different Hours associated with the same single Principle, but each interpreting it or expressing it completely differently. That in turn could affect game play, as you're suggesting, if founding a particular cult gives you an advantage in access to certain Hours - possibly several different ones. (Or conversely, it might give them an advantage in accessing you!)

I think it’s a bit more complex than that. Five of the seven occult Principles are fully embodied by an iconic Hour: Lantern has the Glory, Heart has the Heart Relentless/Thunderclap, Moth is the Moth (naturally), Grail the Red Grail, and Forge the Forge of Days. Knock and Edge aren’t as fleshed out, but from what we currently have it doesn’t look like they’ll be any different.

While Edge sounds like a place rather than an entity, I can’t help but notice that its description jives pretty well with the description of the Colonel:

Edge – All conquest occurs at the Edge. The one who dwells there cannot see and cannot hear; cannot be wounded and cannot be denied. [Edge is the principle of contention and battle]

THE COLONEL IS SCARRED. THE COLONEL IS BLIND. THE COLONEL CANNOT BE EVADED.

So I’m pretty sure the Colonel is the Edge. It’s really hard to imagine an Edgier Hour than the Colonel.

Meanwhile, although one might initially read Knock as a state of mind, the way it is described sounds very much like a distinct cosmic power with a will of its own:

Knock – The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [the knock is the principle that opens doors and exposes secrets]

We’ve yet to encounter any descriptions of the Knock. Maybe Alexis just hasn’t introduced this exact Hour to us (we’re missing quite a few). Or maybe the Knock largely goes by another name, just as the Lantern represents the Glory and the Heart Relentless is interchangeable with Thunderclap. The Mother of Ants seems a good candidate, given her importance in the Consent of Wounds and the Injury card, but at this point that’s just a guess.

What if the seven Principle Hours are inseparable from Lantern, Moth, Grail, Forge Heart, Knock, and Edge because these respective Hours were the very first Hours, the most primordial and Titanic, and all subsequent Hours arose, directly or indirectly, from the interactions, machinations, and creations of the original seven? Sort of like how much of the greater Olympic pantheon were descended in various ways from the seven children of Cronus (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Chiron). And by extension the entire Mansus and the visible world are descended from these original seven. So while, say, the Wildwood cult is dedicated to Moth, it’s also dedicated to every god that shares the Principle of Moth. This would match the description we’re given in the alpha:

The Wildwood Club
An occult society dedicated to chaos, and the unexpected Hours.

For me though, the biggest takeaway from Alexis’ answer was: “There are seven [cults] so far.” This suggests that Alexis is thinking about or already planning an increase in the number of cult societies. Furthermore, “things are different since the Intercalate” – intercalate is an insertion between two different layers. So he’s made new plans for the cult system since the Kickstarter.

Now, when working, dreaming, painting or studying lore, you begin the process with a starter card and then you have the option of changing things a bit by introducing a second card. It follows that one could use one lore card to create a cult, or add in a second lore card to create a somewhat different sort of cult.

So how many cults could there be? Well, let’s look at rituals, which are created by combining two different lore cards. At the maximum there could be between 42 (7*6) and 49 (7*7) different rituals the player could discover. Now, I suspect the actual number of rituals will be well below this maximum. But then Alexis is planning for there to be 120 different books in the finished game and who knows how many artifacts and demons (giving us some idea, Alexis has to find homes for 227 total stolen names), so 40-some rituals isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility. So there could be up to 42 cults, but then there’s the further limit of there only being 30 Hours. So, in theory, the maximum number of possible cults could be as high as 30 – one for each Hour, though again it could easily be much lower as related Hours can be grouped together ('unexpected Hours, Hours of the Wood...').

As an example of how this system could work, take the Sun-in-Rags. This Hour embodies two Principles, Lantern and Moth, representing his mixed status as both an inspiring god-from-light and a deathly god-from-blood. One could start with a Mansus Glimpse (Lantern), which left on its own would create the Mirror of Glory (dedicated to the light of the true Sun). Adding in a Wood Whisper (Moth) as the second card would then create the…I don’t know, the Troupe of the Motley Sun, dedicated to the Sun-in-Rags, its beautiful endings and a number of allied gods.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/7/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

10/8/2017

More thoughts based on snippets from the first prototype:

The Mansus-Glimpse description is "Behind the world is the Mansus, the lair of the Hours, the house of the Sun. Its corridors are the angles of time." Studying a Mansus-Glimpse is "What is the Lantern? (I might think about lantern-light.)" and the result is: "On the borders of our dreams we find the Mansus, where the Watchman walks the corridors. Light goes before him and shadow behind. He must not see you. [Lantern is the principle of Dreams and the Mansus.]" So the Principle of Lantern is specifically connected to Dreams and the Mansus and to the Watchman - of course, the Watchman carries a lantern - while the Door-in-the-Eye description implies the Watchman is one of that Hour's names.

The Fistulous Invocation description is: "The Hour called Knock ends isolation; breaks seals; he brings the gift of secrets." Studying a Fistulous Invocation is "What is Knock? (I hear it in the moments before I wake.)" and the result is: "The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [The Knock is the principle that opens doors and exposes horrible secrets.]" So this says there is an Hour actually called Knock, though it might have another name or names.

I think Anne - and Joel - are right about the Colonel being the Hour of 'Edge' though. Those descriptions seem to line right up.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Jermaine Vendredi
Posts: 588

9/24/2017

A good collection of Charles Williams's books (out of copyright in Canada and the EU, but not in the US) can be found at the following Canadian site:
http://www.fadedpage.com/index.php
Also at Project Gutenberg Canada:
http://gutenberg.ca/index.html

NB Arthurian Torso includes a discussion of his Arthurian poetry by C. S. Lewis.
edited by Jermaine Vendredi on 9/24/2017

--
No plant battles, please.
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Jermion

+3 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

9/23/2017

I’ve read Haggard’s first two She novels.

The first was a riproaring “two heroic Victorians exploring Africa” tale, about using academia to discover Dangerous Truths, a tale of an eternal love that endured throughout millenia, and a very intelligent empress who has plans to take over the world that are undone only by said love. There is a hint of a three-way love affair, for She’s beauty is such that even the middle-aged Conan Doyle type narrator can’t quite resist her charms.

The second is set twenty years later, somewhere in Tibet, and is rather more meditative. Eons-old conflict, discussions of reincarnation, rather more hints of the triple love affair, and She gets an even better plan together to take over the world…which is undone by love. Again.
edited by Teaspoon on 9/23/2017

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/23/2017

I've been looking through Charles Williams a bit more and I've found a couple more correspondences in the vein I described: https://books.google.com/books?id=Zt6ZsddD07MC&pg=PA66

"the Grail cooped for gustation and God for his glory" (page 67), "the red carnivorous violation of intellectual love, and the frozen earth on which they ran and starved" (68), and the bit about King Pelles, who is wounded and bleeding and, in his delirium, has the hungers of a wolf (65-66).

There's a lot of stuff about wolves and werewolves which ties into the hunger and such - is there any hint of anything related to that part in Cultist Simulator?
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/23/2017

+3 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

9/23/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

XVII. The Red Grail.
Hour of time = possibly 5:00 pm.
Possible Tarot correspondence = XVII. The Star (Aquarius; the Aquarius correspondence really doesn't work for me!) However, in some illustrations (e.g. the Thoth deck) the Star is shown as a naked woman pouring from an elaborate chalice, though in most she is pouring water out of pitchers or jugs.
Lore: "The Red Grail seeks to devour and be devoured." [Kickstarter page]
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” [The Orchid Transfigurations]
"I need rest and nourishment, if I am to recover. But when my mouth waters, when my vision swims, I see the red cup, and now and then it will speak to me." [Starvation card text]
"Here am I, alone on the night of my victory, my end. The Grail has opened its mouth. It will not forget my savour. It will not forget." [Victory text, web prototype]
"Hersault says the Red Grail split the sun. Coseley proposes it was the Forge of Days. They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon." [Noonstone text, web prototype]
The principle of Grail – Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. "The principle of the Red Grail demands to be fed."
Search: illuminati swag (Benthic) found a passing reference to a 'Red Grail' in the Charles Williams poem 'Son of Lancelot', in a context where red means hunger - very interesting. Might be more to find, if we dig further.

Speculations: In the web prototype, of course, we learn a lot about the character of the Red Grail and one form of dangerous relationship to it - opening ones mind to it is spectacularly deadly for oneself and others, in full apocalyptic style. I speculate that a less disastrous relationship with the Red Grail might be possible for the particularly skilled and well-balanced mage who could keep its allure at arms' length, at least for a while, though it will always be a particularly dangerous Hour. It is at least plausible to some of the Know or Long that it is powerful enough to damage the sun.

Worth adding that the Red Grail also oversees birth:

WHAT IS BELOW CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE (power ending) wrote:

The Red Grail is the Hour of blood and of birth. It has touched me, and I've gained a little of its power. If I had more time, I could draw disciples to me; grow fierce with blood and delight; be the herald of a new age; use that power to ascend to a secret throne, one day.

The Orchid Transfigurations wrote:

“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” (I know it's only a passing reference, but it links birth and consumption, the hour's main other theme, together.

This becomes particularly interesting considering the fact that the Witch-and-Sister's titular Witches,

Addendum excised from Sir William Colt Hoare’s Hints to Travellers in Italy, 1815. wrote:

On the matter of the witches. They are seen in dreams, particularly when one dreams before a cracked and uncovered mirror. On nights of the greater moon they arise from the lake and generate unwanted multiple births, inspire follies of passion, and blend flesh to flesh. The locals turn for protection to St Agnes, but I have seen that they also make poppets – of two heads and four arms – to placate the lake-witches.

Are, as stated above, known to cause multiple births, perhaps inflicting a condition similar to the Witch-and-Sister's depiction on the tarot card?

If the Red Grail is indeed connected to the Church of St Agnes and the Serpent, this could illustrate some of the differences between the Red Grail's and the Witch-and-Sister's takes on childbirth, love, lust and other such matters.

(It is kinda amusing for me that the Red Grail could be one of the more conservative hours, trying to stay away from deviant children and supporting a church of a chaste virgin saint. Guess all the fasting, flagellation and general higher-power-seeking that went on are a really big draw for the Hour of Hunger.)
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 9/23/2017

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+3 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

9/24/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

MACHEN: I've read a lot of Machen and clearly Alexis has too. I think I suggested a year or so ago (on r/weatherfactory) that the flavor of the Noon lore reminded me of Machen more than HPL, and he agreed to that (but noted Lord Dunsany is even more of an influence.) If you have never read any Machen, my favorite book and a great starting point is 'The Three Impostors', a &amp;quotstories within stories&amp;quot kind of tale - some fantastic tales of horror, mystery, and adventure, except in context most of them are lies, except the ones that aren't. 'The Great God Pan' is another well worth reading, and there are some good fantasy/horror short stories too. If you keep reading from there, his writing shades gradually from fantasy into realistic fiction - with nice prose, but a lot less memorable. (Just noting for the rest of you, because if you're reading one of his less-known books and wondering &amp;quotwhen does the fantasy or horror start?&amp;quot very possibly it doesn't.)

RENAULT: I know I read a couple of Mary Renault's books in my teens, and they've since gone completely out of my head. It may be that I wasn't ready to appreciate them at that age. [Makes note to schedule one or more for a re-read.]

BEARDSLEY: Beardsley! What more to say? Well, lush, grotesque, decadent-looking art, often vividly erotic, and emphasizing both male and female sexuality as the subject of gaze. His pictures imply bisexuality, though Wikipedia claims he was regarded by his friends as more asexual. I think his choice as icon for Artist and Lover reconfirms that Cultist Simulator will be for all orientations.

HAGGARD: Haggard's 'The Mines of King Solomon' is another rip-roaring adventure read; I read 'She' too, but that was a long time ago. They are 19th century, and you have to be able to tolerate 19th century racial attitudes to get through them, but as I recall Haggard at least demonstrated some genuine respect for the &amp;quotnatives&amp;quot. Generally though I think HAGGARD denotes far-flung adventuring and tomb raiding.

I think WHARTON has to be Edith Wharton, American novelist of manners and short story writer, who was publishing from roughly 1900 through the '30s. I'm afraid I've never read any of her books so I can't comment on them.

Haggard i'm guessing it's a combination of the far flung on the 19th centuries adventures what you got to put in the ghoul dimension there. The Kickstarter reference is a natural appetites so it could be the price of power or immortality as we sing and She i'm just gonna limp here.

Wharton has nothing remotely adventurous mystical or anything At all like that. The majority of her novels and Novelas Are about upper class drama of New York society in the early 20th century being a woman during the social climbing the drama of marriage etc. but she also wrote many books about Interior designing and house management. This implies there's gonna be a lot of drama around relationships interesting ways of interacting with property and the drama involving a that. And mind you this game does take place in the 20th century and mostly Mediterranean Or western cities. I can see this cutting into having a marriage as a cover for your more homoerotic affairs. There's a lot of narrative room in this for the mundane alone. Mind you I'm speculating from reading what her books say about her in her Wikipedia page.
edited by JoelMB12 on 9/24/2017
edited by JoelMB12 on 9/24/2017

+3 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/24/2017

I've been trying to see what the easiest way to get my hands on Taliessin through Logres is, but unfortunately it looks like the best option, unfortunately, is the Google Books preview I linked, since it's pretty expensive to buy: lowest cost is in the $20s and I don't know what condition that's in, most expensive includes some other relevant essays and is $90. The libraries in my area don't have it for checkout, there's one copy in a library 20 minutes away that I could read in the library but couldn't take with me. The Google Books preview will suffice, it's just a bit annoying to work with, and there's no public domain pure text version as far as I can tell. It seems like it probably went public domain in 2015 but hasn't been made available in that way, I guess.

If anyone has any suggestions for free or cheap ways to get it outside of the Google Books preview, preferably something where the text can be copied, I'd be very interested.

Also, did anyone transcribe/summarize the livestream in which he describes his literary influences? I'd like to hear what he has to say about Williams; if Williams isn't mentioned there then that's even more interesting.

Edit: while skimming through the stream to see if he mentioned Williams (he didn't), I noticed something very interesting in his discussion of Tanith Lee - her writing apparently had a lot of themes of "priests and wolves and blood and snow, and sex". This is pretty much exactly the stuff I've been noticing in The Son of Lancelot. So maybe it wasn't so much an intentional omission as a longer trail of influences. Maybe Tanith Lee was influenced by Charles Williams or maybe they were both influenced by the Red Grail but either way that's a mention of wolves and snow in connection to CultSim and especially in the context of stuff associated with the Red Grail. It's a bit too late for me to think about the full implications but there's definitely something important there.

Edit edit: a quick Google didn't seem to point at all to Charles Williams influencing Tanith Lee. Obviously wolves and blood and snow and hunger are closely related, but when Alexis cites Tanith Lee as an inspiration and talks about those themes in her work while the name of an Hour associated with some of those is in a poem with even stronger examples of those themes, something seems to be up. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence, but also because even with a more mundane mindset there's much to be made of these connections. Maybe it's just the Arthurian stuff, but are starving wolves really that closely associated with the birth of Lancelot's son outside of Williams, let alone with the Fisher-King? It doesn't seem like they are.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/24/2017

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/18/2017

Vexpont wrote:

edit: Mother of Ants is very likely to be a straight pull from Borge's 'Book of Imaginary Beings'. I have a copy knocking about. Time to blow the dust off, I fancy.

Bloody repeat-offender Borges bootlegger. Fool me once, shame on you...

There is a whole interesting web of Borges connections here. I finally recalled what had been nagging at me about the reference to Elagabalus/Heliogabalus - he makes an appearance in Borges' story 'The Lottery of Babylon' (found in Ficciones, among other collections) so I thought I should check that out for possible connections:

In 'The Lottery in Babylon', Jorge Luis Borges wrote:

Some distorted echo of our custom seems to have reached the Tiber: In his Life of Antoninus Heliogabalus, Aelius Lampridius tells us that the emperor wrote out on seashells the fate that he intended for his guests at dinner--some would receive ten pounds of gold; others, ten houseflies, ten dormice, ten bears. It is fair to recall that Heliogabalus was raised in Asia Minor, among the priests of his eponymous god.

I'm not sure whether that points us to anything helpful about the Sun-In-Rags or the Know.

On the Amphisbaena, Borges' Lovecraftian pastiche 'There Are More Things', in The Book of Sand, also references an amphisbaena, or something that has the general form of one:

In 'There Are More Things', Jorge Luis Borges wrote:

I now recall a long U-shaped piece of furniture, like an operating table, very high, with circular openings at the extremes. It occurred to me that this might be the bed used by the resident of this house, whose monstrous anatomy was revealed obliquely by this object in much the way the anatomy of an animal, or a god, may be known by the shadow it casts. From some page of Lucan, read years ago and then forgotten, there came to my lips the word amphisbaena which suggested (though by no means fully captured) what my eyes would later see.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/22/2017

Wow, that is a pretty impressive compilation! Thanks for doing that!

Here are some comments and additions.

Clifton Royston wrote:

II. The Black-Flax.
Hour of time = possibly 2:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = II. The High Priestess (Moon)
Lore: "The Glory is a question.... The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.” [De Horis vol I]
It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
It's an older Hour, and opposes the Crowned Growth. "I thank the Sun for the Horned Axe, the Black-Flax, the other older Hours. Without them I wonder whether we might not all be the Growth." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Search: I can't find anything seemingly meaningful by searching for black flax or Black-Flax, just information about decorative varieties of flax plants or flax clothing.

Wild speculation: On that "No"... perhaps this Hour's nature is that it seeks to freeze and preserve things exactly as they are, or allow them to change only at a glacial rate? That would make it an opposite of Moth, in one sense, and also make it an opponent of the Crowned Growth. Or perhaps (drawing from the High Priestess symbolism) it seeks to protect Mysteries and keep them from investigation and encroachment.

Since the Moth answers "Yes" to the question of the Glory and seeks the Light, to a seemingly self-destructive degree (Moth to the candle flame), I think the Black-Flax's "No" indicates that it actively moves away from or avoids the Light. Which seemingly puts it at odds with not only the Moth but also the rest of the Woods, which arises from the foundations of the world and reaches towards the Glory.
.
Clifton Royston wrote:

III. The Ring-Yew.
Hour of time = possibly 3:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = III. The Empress (Venus, femininity)
Lore: nothing at all as yet?

It's an Hour of the Wood (De Horis).

Clifton Royston wrote:

IV. The Thunderskin.
...
Wild speculation: "He demands the dance." Might one of the Thunderskin's particular dangers be as the source of the Tarantella, the fairy-tale-like (but historically attested) contagious mental disease causing people to dance themselves to death? Perhaps then along with coffee, he would also be the source or patron of MDMA and other stimulant drugs?

That seems a good bet. Presumably depressants and hallucinogens are patronized by opposing powers, as they make you still or take you out of the world. I also wonder if the Heart Relentless being the patron of coffee means that it is actively hostile towards dreaming. For it is within dreams that you glimpse what lies beneath the skin of the world, and the Heart wants the skin preserved.
.
Clifton Royston wrote:

XXII. The Forge of Days.
...
Speculation: "The winter that warms and spring that consumes" is fascinating - at first glance one might read it the natural way (it warms the winter) but it's saying the opposite. It's clear from the very little we know that this must be another particularly dangerous Hour. Coseley (a Know and probably a Long) argues that it split and damaged the sun, and it "devoured" the greatest among a group of powerful Longs.

It might also have ultimately consumed Coseley as well. It's one of the last things he wrote about before...well, whatever happened to him (Coseley’s tone is urgent – as if he suspected he might have little time left.), and his letters are explicitly about the costs of the invisible arts...

Clifton Royston wrote:

V. The Mother of Ants.
...
(missing lore text) [something in Consent of Wounds]

To open the way, one must first open oneself. This practice outlines that opening, in the name of the Mother of Ants.

Clifton Royston wrote:

XVII. The Red Grail.
Lore: "The Red Grail seeks to devour and be devoured." [Kickstarter page]
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” [The Orchid Transfigurations]
"Here am I, alone on the night of my victory, my end. The Grail has opened its mouth. It will not forget my savour. It will not forget." [victory text, web prototype]
"Hersault says the Red Grail split the sun. Coseley proposes it was the Forge of Days. They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon." [Noonstone text, web prototype]
The principle of Grail – Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. "The principle of the Red Grail demands to be fed."

Starvation card text: I need rest and nourishment, if I am to recover. But when my mouth waters, when my vision swims, I see the red cup, and now and then it will speak to me.

Clifton Royston wrote:

XII. The Sun-In-Rags.
...
Speculations: Might the existence of the Sun-in-Rags have something to do with the Sun itself having been "split" as noted in the Lore for the Forge of Days and Red Grail?

Maybe the Forge of Days and the Red Grail teamed up to split the Sun. That would explain why the Sun-in-Rags is associated with both Light and Blood.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/22/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/10/2017

Benthic wrote:

(Quote from the Orchid Transfigurations)
["We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn."] "Undevoured" and "unborn" can be verbs, in which case it would of course not be possible, you can't go back once that happens. But you can also look at them as adjectives. You cannot be unborn because you don't exist before that, you cannot both exist and not be born. Where does that point for "undevoured"? Why is it impossible to be undevoured? Do you need to be devoured to exist, or is there another relation? Is this a perspective rooted in time, or looking at it from a perspective outside of time? In the latter case it can be explained as saying that we must be born, yes, but we must also die, which would imply that death is a being-devoured. Consider the implications of this for the Long, who do not end, especially if they don't end in either direction and would therefore be unborn and undevoured. But then again, if being-devoured is death, why must we devour to be devoured? I could probably think about this in more detail but maybe not right now.

I always thought that "to be devoured" is akin to some form of baptism, as the book speaks in "quasi-Rosicrucian allegories." When someone accepts baptism into the Church they're "born again," free of sin. But since they can only do that once, they'd better start living a moral Christian life afterwards ("can't be unborn"). Furthermore, in the Catholic faith, when you join the Church and take communion you consume the blood and flesh of Christ, which has been transfigured from the communion wine and the communion bread. The writer of The Orchid Transfigurations was writing in 1500s Europe to "Christian" readers who would have intimately understood the significance of this symbolism. I think what the writer is saying is that once you have devoured to be devoured, there's no turning back. You're in it to the end, it can't be taken from you and you can't escape from it.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/10/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/17/2017

Some quick thoughts on various topics.

First, while visiting Port Noon, Galmier rents a room at the Hotel Ciervo on Mendicant Street. Ciervo is Spanish for deer or stag, while a mendicant is someone "who lives by begging." Often mendicant word describes a type of religious beggar (say a wandering monk, dervish or Franciscan friar). So Galmier is staying in the Stag Hotel on Beggar Street. This offers both a portrait of the types of people who visit Port Noon (the Know) and what the retired Long think of them (not much). The Know, in their proper place according to the Long, essentially live by begging things from those who are more powerful than them (Long, Names, Hours...). As it happens Galmier is in Port Noon to "put [a] proposition" to one of them, so she is certainly playing her assigned role.

Second, about a week ago, I asked Alexis the following:

Who are the Hours who oversee, or created, or emanated, or have domain over, or responsibility for, coffee?

Yes, I got the opportunity to ask one lore question, and I asked about coffee, because of course I did. Anyway, his response was: "And the answer to the question has to be the Thunderskin. "

So the Thunderskin is responsible for my espresso? All hail the crazy dancing heart god!

Lastly, although I refer to the Sun-in-Rags as the Sun when talking about the Roman Sun cult, I'm pretty sure the Sun-in-Rags isn't related to the actual physical Sun, nor the metaphysical Sun who owns the Mansus ('the Mansus is the House of the Sun'). That Sun, the true Sun, the source of Light, the master of the Mansus, is probably the Glory. The Sun-in-Rags, which presents itself or masquerades to mortals in the forms of various sun gods, is really a sort of a diminutive, impoverished progeny of light and blood. One of his portrayals shows him covered in rags (which brings to mind a wandering actor in poor motley), another portrayal shows him bleeding from cracks (which brings to mind a wandering actor with a cracked mask). Both show him surrounded by snow and skulls. He's not a real sun, his light is cold, but he's good at playing on mortals image of the sun: Sol Invictus, Mithras, Hercules, Apollo, Helios, and getting them to act out the dramas he has written for them. That's at least what I suspect anyway.

Clifton Royston wrote:

We got some hints about this in the first gray-box prototype which didn't carry over into the second. In short, it appears that the Long may have the collective power to change and rewrite the past - not just change what's in print about it, but change the actual history.

I think only the Hours have that power, as its their consensus and conflicts that determine the content of the Histories ("The history we know arises from the struggles of the secret gods called the Hours" / "The Histories diverge much more recently than 1927, and it’s not surprising that a minor urban centre would be out of luck in the Hours’ consensus"). The Long have access to this power though through their relationships with the Names and Hours. Imagine a powerful courtier who is on the margins of a royal court. Said courtier might be able to leverage his connections with the dominant faction of the inner court to have one of his enemies condemned and executed, one of his protects sponsored, or one of his friends rewarded. In return for this patronage, the courtier and his friends would provide various sorts of support to their superiors. In other words, a sort of supernatural clientelism.

Edward Warren wrote:

What's also interesting is that this update is supposed to contain a second Hour, but none is referenced by name. The closest we get is repeated reference to the church of "St Agnes of the Serpent". While there is certainly something unnatural going on at the church, it doesn't seem to be overly occult. I believe this might have to do with the Christianization of local culture. If one of the local cults was also assimilated in such a fashion, then whatever "Saint of the Serpent" the local Christians are calling upon is likely an Hour whose true name and nature has been forgotten. Whatever power is at work there seems to at least offer protection from the Witch-and-Sister, but I doubt it's doing so out of benevolence as much as it's out of opposition of a rival Hour. In any case, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the next Hours to be introduced has something to do with snakes.

The unnamed Hour is definitely the Mother of Ants. Wounds being sacred to St Agnes is a total giveaway. Though I wonder why the Mother of Ants or Agnes has issues with the Twins when the Geminiad's pages are so sharp that they can easily cause life threatening wounds...you'd think the two would be friends. Also, no idea what the snake thing is about. Saint Agnes probably has a precarious relationship with the overall Church as Alexis refers to her as a "contraband saint," which makes her sound like something that sort of snuck or slithered into Marruvium when no one was watching.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/17/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Gul al-Ahlaam
Posts: 225

9/7/2017

Noticed we were only one minimum pledge away from the Fucine stretch goal, and decided to back. ^_~

Very excited to see what wonders he can work!

edited by Gul al-Ahlaam on 9/7/2017

--
The Uncanny Hierophant.
The Jewel-Eyed Prince.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/6/2017

Alexis Kennedy Livestream wrote:

So at the end of each play through the game will end. I am aiming for, I think, 30 to 90 minutes for a play through. So you’ll kinda die twice or three times in an evening. The model for this is FTL – which you should play immediately instead of watching the stream if you haven’t. If you have, you know how good it is, where you can die in like 15 minutes or you could have a sort of dramatic epic battle that goes onto the end.

Here's a comment Alexis made on the kickstarter that adds emphasis to the above passage:
.
Alexis Kennedy Kickstarter Discussion Comment wrote:

I am aiming for *roughly* 30-90 mins. The model is FTL: several sessions in an evening, or one long very successful one. Because there's a legacy system, each character has a limited connection with the next, and you'll need multiple playthroughs (......................30 hrs??? no commitment here) to see everything.

If FTL is the model, then the game is probably going to be really challenging, and that long list of (mostly unpleasant) things that can happen to you...

Alexis Kennedy Livestream wrote:

At the end of a play through the game will end either with your death, or assumption, or insanity, or extinction, or consumption, or incandescence, or immolation, or devolution, or sometimes there will be a happy ending.

...is not a case of comical exaggeration.

But, like in FTL, it will be easy to pick yourself back up when one of your less fortunate cultists gets eaten by a demon they so foolishly summoned without the proper preparations. But whereas FTL has ship types, the number and variety of which can be increased over successive (even ultimately unsuccessful) play-throughs, CS will have legacies that you will win or stumble onto over the course of your successive failures, Pyrrhic victories, "happy endings," and occasional (extremely satisfying) triumphs.

The legacy system is also a nice simulation of how you and your characters will gradually come to learn more about the Mansus and its inhabitants. No occultist can hope to learn all the secrets of the Invisible World by themselves - fortunately they have a journal, fortuitously attained, which tells them many things that they wouldn't have been able to learn otherwise. They will in turn leave their own journal, containing the sum total of their knowledge, to enlighten a third (un)fortunate, and so on. So what in another game would be the simple accumulation of out-of-character knowledge, instead becomes a progressively increasing inheritance of arcana.

Anyway, I should probably mention that as of today, five days after going live, Cultist Simulator is more than 200% funded. Alexis has promised that should one hundred pounds be donated, he will create a tarot deck of Hours and...six other assorted entities for those who like cards.

Culitst Simulator Stretch Goals wrote:

I'll print a 36-card set featuring the Hours and six other entities, available as a pledge add on or for purchase later.

edited by Anne Auclair on 9/6/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

9/7/2017

I gotta say I'm really liking these letters we're getting as stretch goals. They're tasty little bits of lore and keep me pumped for the full release. I like how this one really gave us some good lore and clarified a few questions about the Hidden World:

The Hours aren't a unified front. Some Hours are in opposition to each other, and without them keeping others in check some of them could end up overtaking the world.
The Crowned Growth is presumably a god of disease that wants to spread. It can actually take over the bodies of others and use them as puppets to further its will. Whether this is an ability unique to this Hour or something they can do in general is unknown.
The afterlife is a terrible place in the CS universe. Depending on whatever door you're unlucky enough to enter the House of the Sun through, you could end up suffering the loss of some of your faculties, such as your voice in the case of the White Door. Not to mention you're at the mercy of the Hours, who can torment and/or possess you at their leisure. No wonder why some cultists want to find a way to enter the Mansus on their own terms.

A few new questions have been raised as well:

Will divine possession be a hazard in the game?
Will our goal influence our standing among some Hours? Now that we know some Hours oppose each other, it makes sense that depending on our goals for each play through some would be more inclined to help up us while others would hinder us. Example: from what we know a cultist that wanted to end the world would do well to seek the blessings of the Sun-in-Rags, and would likely become an enemy of the Thunderskin, who demands the dance continues. But in another play through the Thunderskin might prove to be an ally in the quest for enduring life and immortality.
Is the Gelatinous Worm God a hidden Hour or one of the other six supernatural entities hinted by the Tarot cards?
Why is there more than one History?

edited by Edward Warren on 9/7/2017
edited by Edward Warren on 9/7/2017

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

9/9/2017

Wait, is there more than one prototype? I've been playing the alpha at https://alexiskennedy.itch.io/cultist-simulator-prototype, but is there an updated version somewhere else? I'm so jazzed about the game I'd love to play it if there is.

Also, I love the way the Long are portrayed in the Port Noon snippet. A bunch of dignified old chaps enjoying a nice long retirement in their own sleepy little town. I guess when you've got all eternity to look forward to, you don't have to waste time on the theatrics and mystique mortals associate with ancient, all-powerful sorcerers.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

9/9/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

We got some hints about this in the first gray-box prototype which didn't carry over into the second. In short, it appears that the Long may have the collective power to change and rewrite the past - not just change what's in print about it, but change the actual history...

Edit: This is surely a factor in Alexis suggesting that it would be a bad idea to draw too much attention from the Long. Rather than do something minor like kill you, they might decide it's safer to prevent you from ever having existed.
edited by cliftonr on 9/9/2017

The snippet about The Orchid Transfigurations being unconvincingly attributed to Robert Fludd suggests that you could be onto something. It tangentially reminded me of Faction Paradox from Doctor Who (books but never TV, I think), who get rid of their enemies by retconning the target out existence, in a pretty standard don’t-overthink-this way.

The more interesting side-effect is that a victim’s writings, discoveries, artworks etc. generally survive their erasure at least partially, and end up being by someone else. This continuity healing works fine if they’re moderately obscure ('It seems unlikely that this is Fludd. Fludd would write better Latin' - maybe?), but becomes risky if they’re as colossally influential as, for example, Isaac Newton. Some people are just too well-known to safely erase.

Unfortunately, in order to be safe from an attack of this type, you probably need to be a household name to people totally outside your area of work, in multiple countries, with a fame that will last at least a generation after your death and preferably for centuries. That’s a pretty select crowd.

Prudence for the rest of us seems a sensible course, but of course, some of us are not sensible.

Benthic wrote:

How bad is it to have a worm working one from the inside?

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/9/2017

(I'm foolhardy enough to try to reconstruct the post again, despite the implied warnings. Perhaps excising me will be marginally more trouble than tolerating this post for the time being.)

I fired up the web prototype and was lucky enough to find the book quickly.

Initial text on finding it:
This is not only a phantasy. The author was condemned and excised, but I may go further.
(+1 'A History of the War of the Roads, 1450-1480' [CENSORED EDITION]

On preparing to study it:
Aspects:
Lantern 1
Secret Histories 1
Forge 1
'A History of the War of the Roads, 1450-1480' [CENSORED EDITION] 1
These aspects mean I will Study 'The War of the Roads' (This book speaks of only one History, but a significant one.) [2 m]

Result of studying:
In this past, a score or more of Longs were made. They brokered peace with the Forge of Days, long enough to set England on a path of early conquest and eventual destruction. The Forge itself devoured the greatest among them.
(+1 An Incendiary Prayer, +1 Mansus-Glimpse, +1 Occult Scrap)

Thoughts: The protagonist's musings refer to the author as "excised" not "executed". (Excised is used in some time travel SF to refer to eliminating a possible timeline or eliminating something/someone from a timeline.) Then "This book speaks of only one History" and "In this past", and objects may have a "Secret History" aspect. I've inferred it was the Long responsible for changing this history, but there are other possibilities.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+3 link

xKiv
Posts: 846

9/4/2017

...
It's actually possible to understand words at that speed???????????
(often, an entire sentence slips through in the space my brain allots for a single wordalike)
(Look, it's an Alot of words!)

--
https://www.fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/xKiv - a witchful, percussive, dangermous and shadowry scholar of coexplodence, hopsidirean, and walker of fallen kitties.

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/29/2017

How is that too many? My personal library has around several hundred books :P

I'm pretty sure he means actual in-game occult books for the player character to acquire. The seven occult books in the alpha aren't that large. The Geminial has the most text and that amounts to a mere 95 words.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/11/2017

Infinity Simulacrum wrote:

Anne, why don't you make like spacemarine and start a lore blog?

Ooh, you could call it "i'm a cultist"!

Oh, it's much too early for something so elaborate.

Anyway, here's an attempt at some good old fashioned numerology.

In tarot decks there are 21 Great Trumps + the Fool. The Fool is usually an unnumbered card or a zero, so let's set it aside for now. That leaves 21 Hours/Secret Gods. There are three categories of divine origin: Gods From Light, Gods From Blood, and Gods From Nowhere. There are seven occult Principles: Lantern, Moth, Heart, Forge, Edge, Knock, and Grail. 7*3 = 21.

So it seems likely to me that there are seven Gods From Light, seven Gods From Blood, and seven Gods From Nowhere. More speculatively, there might be three Hours per each of the seven Principles (three Hours of the Lantern, three Hours of the Moth, and so on). Even more speculatively, of every three Hours, one might be a core Hour that fully embodies its home Principle while the other two might have responsibilities or interests that involve them to lesser degrees with other Principles. Anyway, the point of this speculation is to give us some idea of the sheer size and complexity of the divine world in Cultist Simulator. And this is before we've even entered into all the alternative-aspects, emanations, servants, alliances, and antipathies that gods are so well known for.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/11/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/12/2017

Alexis recently conducted an interview with PC Gamer. Here are the sections where he talks about Cultist Simulator:

************************************************************************************

So, Cultist Simulator. It's the next big thing.

Yeah, well it's the next medium-sized thing.

Tell us everything we need to know.

Commercially and critically, I want to do two things that intersect. Commercially: I'm interested at the moment in making small, good, well-defined games. There's always this rising tide of quality and scope with indies now—I've just played Pyre last week and, oh my god, you've seen the level of polish on that. I don't want in the near future to run a team that is expected to produce anything of that quality. Sunless Skies, which is a bigger proposition from what Sunless Sea was, from what I've seen is coming along extremely polished. If I want to do things that other people haven't done with a smaller team of freelancers, and I can give people a good product that they enjoy, and then move the hell on and do something more difficult—that's really what I'm after, this modest scope.

Having a modest scope means I only have to have a modest success in order to keep making games. From a creative perspective, I want to keep on making stuff that serves two purposes: One, it's an overlap between game design and story—so there's a lot of resources management alongside story. And two, it freaks people the **** out. My creative calling is very much to freak people the **** out. One of the things that was constant with Fallen London and Sunless Sea was that there's this back and forth between: It's terrible, but it's kinda funny; it's really horrible, but it's kind of daft. That's what I always say about cannibalism. Of course eating people is wrong, but funny, but wrong. It's a serious issue—it's the basis in English case law for the defence of necessity not being available for murder, but it's also monstrous.

With Cultist Simulator what I wanted was to get back to that space so that you are living in Cultist Simulator as someone who is digging into the things that they need because they can't be satisfied in the real world. That's what I was getting at with apocalypse and yearning—you want to do something abominable. If you give a player a toolset and say: Right, you're a cultist, you go away and contact alien gods, seduce disciples into your service, feed your abominable appetites and, ultimately, rain blood down on the world. A lot of people will go: **** yeah, on principle.

A lot of people will do those things, but think about why it is you want to do them—not to get moralised by it but think about whether it's about power or revenge or curiosity or just because you don't give a ****. And then, have a lot of narrative elements around it that ground that player's quest, to give them the opportunity to turn sides, or to double down, or to switch motives. One of the things you can do in the game at that moment is that you can choose either enlightenment, or power as your motive in seeking occult knowledge. If you change your mind you can switch and that changes your victory conditions.

...

Cultist Simulator strikes me as something Failbetter could have lent its name to. You could have, for example, taken a sabbatical and returned with this. Why was going it alone and starting again important to you?

There's two things that I couldn't do with Failbetter that I'm doing with this. First of all: Failbetter makes a particular kind of game these days and it's very hard to step away from that world and that game. I don't know, I'm not sure the guys know, that the next game will be in the Fallen London universe or not. I'd been writing Fallen London for seven years and I felt pretty much done with it. There's that and there's a whole infrastructure of expectation and technology about the way stories work, the quality, the choices, the very specific things that [their] playerbase expect. It's very interesting having worked at BioWare, it's a similar sort of thing—they want to do something new with each game but at the same time they have this huge burden of expectation from their playerbase who get quite frantic if they're not getting the game they expect. I knew there was going to be that kind of expectation with more games from Failbetter.

And the other thing is, I wanted to get my hands dirty making games myself. I was doing less and less writing, I hadn't done any coding in years and I do enjoy that. I was managing people who were managing people. I'm very happy to go back to running a team again, I missed that. But I think once you get to the point where you've got two layers of management underneath you without realising you've allowed that to happen then you head back. We could've hired a professional CEO and I could've taken a step back from the business and became the creative director, but that's obviously a tricky route to take.

My reaction when I'm faced with a difficult situation has often been to do something slightly nuts, like selling a company and going off on my own. That was very much how Failbetter was founded in the first place when I left a company as a software consultant to start this ridiculous which, at the time, wasn't even a games studio—it was this sort of transmedia thing that did some sort of web thing. But yeah, I'm really enjoying the independence, Failbetter is a great studio and I'm still very much in touch with the folks there.

…

Back to Cultist Simulator. There's a Kickstarter in the works?

Yes, there is. If anyone interested visits my Twitter or the Cultist Simulator website, there are links to the various things, and I've got some social media stuff running ahead of the Kickstarter. We've got the Kickstarter in September for a launch in February. There's a couple of things about the Kickstarter and launch which are slightly unusual.

First of all, I am deliberately running a modest Kickstarter—I think I'll probably be looking for around £30,000, which is half of what Sunless Sea looked for three years ago. I want to pay my artists and my UI freelancer. I can support myself for a while but I want to get as much third party resources as I can. That's the goal for funding: To make the game as good as it can be. Consequently, I'm managing my and everyone's expectations and a lot of the rewards—I'm not offering all the rewards you might expect from a regular Kickstarter, I'm focusing on making it simple for people to understand and simple for me to provide.

Some of the rewards are dafter than others. To my girlfriend's consternation, the £5,000 reward is allowing a backer to choose which piece of game art I'm going to have tattooed on me. Although my other half gets a veto. That's the high end one. But I'm really looking for something that's clearer and modest in scope rather than something bigger. It's always tempting when you're doing a Kickstarter to bang the drum as hard as you can and try to run that funding total up. The thing is, everything you offer in a Kickstarter you're writing a cheque for. I don't want to promise anything I'm not confident that I can achieve.

Also, there will only ever be one version of Cultist Simulator until full launch. There will be no backers' alpha, backers' beta, or separate early access version—if you back it on Kickstarter or subsequently buy it on Steam Early Access or GOG Games in Development on on Itch Refinery or any of that stuff, then what you get is access to the current build and a guarantee that you'll get all the additional content and DLC forever. It gets so complicated from the dev side keeping track of who's bought into the alpha, who's bought into the beta, dealing with people asking whether getting the early access version is the same as getting access to the Kickstarter version, that I just wanted to say: Here's the simplest thing possible, I want to provide extra value to the people who back the game early.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/12/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

8/12/2017

Has anyone else played the prototype?

I submit a report from the current incarnation of Cultist Simulator, which I’ve mentally redubbed as Alexis Kennedy’s Desk of Doom. Fair warning, the UI looks like this:

Three Rounds with the Desk of Doom:

Character-wise, the PC is a bit less of a misanthrope than their earliest incarnation, when everything was graphics-free. But my own disposition sours a tad when I find you have to completely unload all cards from the slots in the Timers to get their mechanics to reset. I twig, but die of starvation too fast to benefit.

I start again and get an illness, which goes untreated and grants me the boon of death, only quicker. I die gnawing on an old paintbrush, having stupidly attempted to sustain myself by selling art. Restarting again, it’s time to get a job and only one place is hiring: Glover and Glover.

Meanwhile, on the Desk of Doom interface, everything careers everywhere and I forget where I’ve put stuff. It’s almost like having an actual desk.

I encounter ephemeral meat tools...I mean people...with 1920’s names. I talk to Victor. I talk to Enid. I talk to Neville, who looks like the Fifth Beatle. To be more precise, I talk at them. Judging by the parted lips and glittering eyes, I suspect they reckon all this natter about Glimpses and Passion has carnal relevance. I am starting a cult, not a dating agency. And if my eyes are glittering for anything, it’s a sandwich.

Having risen as high as I can at Glover and Glover without becoming a mere drone, I fantasise about murdering the younger Glover and getting promoted. I don’t need to magic him to death or anything, I’ll just lock him in a broom cupboard for ten minutes, and wait. It seems to work on me.

The Authorities become suspicious of me, which is reasonable. I buy books from Morland’s – De Horis, Six Letters on Necessity, The Orchid Transfigurations. And a Latin grammar, handier than it first appears. And a shedload of Essays and Poetry. The coral-encrusted grimoire written in Fucine never appears for me, alas.

I generate a piece of Lore by reading De Horis: a Wood-Whisper. And a piece of Erudition. Go, Team Oblivion, go!

On the Desk of Doom, stuff gets stacked on other stuff, tomes go awol. A Book of Essays costs three Eruditions to craft from, and I scrabble for more Erudition as timers tick down inexorably. It reminds me of that time I decided the Pomodoro technique was a fine idea.

With a Book of Essays and three Eruditions, I craft a card: a single, new-minted Reason.

But the Authorities are breathing down my neck and I try to sic the blame on Victor. If he were a Follower of mine, I could, but I can’t manage to make anyone a Follower, either by talking or dreaming or studying. I am stuck as a no-mates unicultist, forced to pay off my accusers and reschedule my plans for the End Times.

I finally come up with a Study combination for Lore that offers to do something: The Delightful Sacrament (absolutely not about eating anyone) and A Collection of Poetry. Entertainingly, it starts ticking away on its own. Will I reconstruct the Cannibal Hymn of Unas from first principles...or the chorus of Eating People is Wrong? Well, it does nothing at all, and neither does any other combo of Lore/Lore, Lore/Books or Lore/Anything I can devise. Also, it’s possible to load Lore cards into the Dream timer, though I suspect it shouldn’t be.

That canny old bird Morland only sells me Essays and Poetry now; she knows a mark when she sees one. It’s frustrating. Eventually, the Authorities catch me out, by deviously starting their Investigating timer below my eyeline so that I never have time to buy them off. I’m slung into the hoosegow, where I doubtless turn into Noon-world’s version of Renfield.

I have subsequently had a slightly more successful game where I actually did manage to craft a Rite from Lore and make stuff in my Dreams, but this is long enough already. I’ll put up what I found if anyone’s interested.
edited by Vexpont on 8/12/2017

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/12/2017

Vexpont wrote:

I have subsequently had a slightly more successful game where I actually did manage to craft a Rite from Lore and make stuff in my Dreams, but this is long enough already. I’ll put up what I found if anyone’s interested.
edited by Vexpont on 8/12/2017

Sure ^_^

Vexpont wrote:

I finally come up with a Study combination for Lore that offers to do something: The Delightful Sacrament (absolutely not about eating anyone) and A Collection of Poetry. Entertainingly, it starts ticking away on its own. Will I reconstruct the Cannibal Hymn of Unas from first principles...or the chorus of Eating People is Wrong?

I thought the Cannibal Hymn of Unas was a literary reference or something you made up, only to discover that it was an actual hymn in an actual Ancient Egyptian pyramid, which is kind of hilarious. I mean, The Cannibal Hymns of Unas could easily be the title of a Lovecraft story.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/1/2017

The Watchman is the Door in the Eye. He opens the way for the willing and for the unwilling. He is often the first Hour that we supplicate. He is always in white.

Alexis has begun working to get the word out in earnest. Anyone who is into social media might be interested in this here.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/1/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+3 link

Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374

8/8/2017

Rook Crofton wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

Just thought I'd point out that you were tweeted about by Alexis himself:
https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/893733241429032960

Nice going!

Hello all! Yes, I saw some traffic coming from here, and I enjoyed AA's posts (which doesn't mean they're entirely correct, of course).

I've started adding fan contributions to the CS blog when I'm particularly impressed with them (eg http://weatherfactory.biz/cultist-simulator-a-field-report-part-1/ ). AA, if you'd like to see your exegeses up there, it'd be nice to have them! Drop me a line at noon@weatherfactory.biz .

+3 link

Arcanuse
Posts: 89

7/25/2017

Here's one that's been bugging me.
What WAS the name? It was Mr Candles. It currently is Mr eaten.
But what was their name before the first city fell?
Before the Bazaar even entered the Neath?

For all of the Seeking Mr. Eaten's name, I don't think we ever find out what the name actually is.
Or was, considering circumstance.

--
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Arcanuse

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/7/2017

Rook Crofton wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

Yes he is. My favorite part of the Cultist Simulator prototype is the books.
[snipped: Anne Auclair's painstaking transcription of every book in the alpha]

Agreed! And thank you for this. The books (and dreams!) are so tantalising.

You're welcome ^_^

Rook Crofton wrote:

snip Galmier spoiler

[spoiler]Hypothesis confirmed.[/spoiler]
Galmier might be a reoccurring character. According to the map, Galmier's Lodge is a location in the Wood.
.
Rook Crofton wrote:

Just thought I'd point out that you were tweeted about by Alexis himself:
https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/893733241429032960

Nice going!

I saw. And I was pretty surprised! I guess that means I did a good job.

Here's my analysis of Traveling at Night and Six Letters on Necessity. I had to think about these a bit more than the others.

Traveling at Night (Vol. 1)

The key word in its title is traveling. Illopoly’s work is a night by night travelogue of his dream journeys. And like any journey, there is movement from point A to point B - in this case, from the margins to the center. The first volume begins naturally enough with Illopoly on the outskirts of the invisible world, introducing the Wood. Later volumes will probably focus on Illopoly’s journey through the Wood towards the Mansus. Will he find a way to open its doors? That seems the real question. Consider how much time, effort and research it took Teresa Galmier to gain entrance.

Speaking of Galmier, her methods contrast markedly with Illopoly’s. Galmier began by intensely studying the mystical dreams of others and then theorizing about them, before taking the plunge herself (presumably the subject of her third book). Although Illopoly has done his share of preparatory reading ("as any student of the Histories knows"), he’s far less academic and much more learn from experience. The dreams he studies and utilizes are principally his own. This more narrative approach seems to have made Illopoly’s work more popular than Galmier’s – although Illopoly’s book is “bewildering,” he is "sometimes called the only readable occultist,” which leads me to suspect that he has a larger audience.

This makes me wonder about Illopoly and Galmier's relationship. They appear to be contemporaries (their books are all recently published). Were they colleagues? Rivals? Did they have any encounters, in the visible world or in the Wood?

In the Alpha it is possible to get lore from both studying and dreaming. Perhaps Galmier and Illopoly are each meant to represent these two different methods of progressing in the invisible arts.

Julian Coseley's Six Letters on Necessity

There isn’t really anything I can say about the book that isn’t already provided by its description. So instead I’m going to focus on how your character makes use of Coseley’s work. There is a major conflict between the clear intent of Coseley’s Six Letters and how the protagonist chooses to use them. Coseley is writing on the eve of personal catastrophe to warn one of his students away from the seductive and terrifying power of the secret arts. So, what is the quote that the game uses to sum up what your character learned from reading the Letters?

“Even the Sunne can be divided, though it require the Forge of Dayes for its division.”

And they get Ardent Prayers, lore which is about destructive/self-destructive transformation. Meaning your character has flipped or reversed Coseley’s warnings about the dire costs of occult power, turning them into instructions on how to acquire and pay for said power! Adding to the irony, Coseley’s student might have had the same idea when he compiled and published his masters's Letters. 'Look how awesome my teacher was! He knew how to split the sun!'

‘Do not do this cool thing’ fails yet again. I suspect it won't be the last time.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/9/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/8/2017

The Witch-and-Sister unites what is at rest. She is sought at the water’s edge and beneath the moon. She cannot be touched; she cannot be separated; she is pearl, coral, amber.

I think the Witch-and-Sister (which one is the Witch and which one the Sister?) are an Hour of the Edge. Compare the above description to the description of the principle of Edge:

Edge wrote:

All conquest occurs at the Edge. The one who dwells there cannot see and cannot hear; cannot be wounded and cannot be denied. [Edge is the principle of contention and battle]

Witch and Sister wrote:

The Witch-and-Sister unites what is at rest. She is sought at the water’s edge and beneath the moon. She cannot be touched; she cannot be separated; she is pearl, coral, amber.

I'm also now 100% confident that the Geminial is about them. First, the astrological sign of Gemini is represented by two twins. Second, the Geminial is decorated with "twinned shapes of sad and luminous beauty," coral and all the phases of the moon. Third, its pages have incredibly sharp edges. Fourth, it is written in the language of Fucine, 'the tongue of witches,' who were in turn named after the nearby lake of Fucino. So twins, coral, moons, edges, witches, water...it's their book. The only question is, why does the book also have the principle of Knock? Is it because the Witch-and-Sister unite rather than separate, so they aid those who try to overcome the barriers that separate them from knowledge?
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/12/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Kylestien
Posts: 749

7/25/2017

(Any ernest but broke fans who have a question they're dying to ask?)

Is A Paramount Presense in game and can it be accesed by people? People have kinda given up on ever finding it.

--
I will accept all actions, though I hold the right to refuse for my own reasons. However, if you explain WHY you send me a harmful action like Loitering or Dantes,And I feel the reason good, I will consider it more. http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Kylestien

Persuasive patron. You want a lesson, send me a message asking for one.

+2 link

Luminen Walker
Posts: 172

7/25/2017

Teaspoon wrote:

(Any ernest but broke fans who have a question they're dying to ask?)

Will everything truly be well in the end?

--
1 - Cpt. Martin Walker, a Paramount and Marvellous Dreamer.
2 - Ariana Crivelli, a silent and sagacious lady.

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

8/13/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

I thought the Cannibal Hymn of Unas was a literary reference or something you made up, only to discover that it was an actual hymn in an actual Ancient Egyptian pyramid, which is kind of hilarious. I mean, The Cannibal Hymns of Unas could easily be the title of a Lovecraft story.

It is a genuine ancient incantation about gaining the powers of the gods by cooking and eating them. It contains very few serving suggestions, apart from soup.

Long, long post. Unlike yourself I have screengrabbed some of the text because I, alas, am lazy.

Desk of Doom 2: Death to Neville

To start with I used Dreaming to cure myself of Afflictions by loading up Affliction alongside a bag of Funds. As others have no doubt discovered, it turns out that you can do things in your Dreams by starting with a Reason card, and when it’s run through its initial timer, putting another card into the slot revealed (unlike dreaming of Passion, which just gives you Contentment). Dreams that are not the standard Tree of Lights:

Using Reason + Reason

Hersault’s Nightmare [Edge]
Success gives: Insomnia [Edge] + Consent of Wounds Lore [Knock] + Reason
Failure gives: Insomnia [Edge] + Reason

alternate result:

The Cleansing Dawn [Lantern]
Success gives: Fascination [Lantern] + Mansus-Glimpse Lore [Lantern] + Reason
Failure gives: Fascination [Lantern] + Reason (probable, but haven’t done it yet)

A Journey in a Window (this uses a Fleeting Memory somehow, but I'm damned if I can make it happen again. No Failure, I think)

Screengrab of the result for Hersault, the Dawn, and Journey in a Window:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

So, I don't much like babies, and I want revenge on the Universe for making my existence possible. Maybe. Other dreams:

Composure (Insomnia/Fascination card regeneration with no Failure. I have not found any uses for Insomnia/Fascination)
Insomnia/Fascination + Contentment > Reason (this regenerates your original Reason card)
Insomnia/Fascination + Fleeting Memory > Reason (this regenerates your Reason too)

Having found a use for them, I put useful evanescent cards like Contentment on ice in random timers I’m not using currently. The utility of this dodge is debatable.

I’m a slow student, but I finally manage to create a Rite of the Crucible Soul from Studying two pieces of Lore – Ardent Prayers and what I think must have been my Delightful Sacrament, since it’s not there any more. I think I should be able to see a storylet called ‘The Key to My Heart’ if only I can slot said Rite into its correct timer, but none of the timers obey me. (I suspect this is due to my failure to recruit Followers, so that the proper timer hasn’t been generated yet).

The nameless and probably pointlessly unpleasant ceremony I can see by slotting Rite of the Crucible Soul into Studying will require a sacrifice.

Now, this is more like it. I shall cast shy, awkward Neville in the role he was born for. To watch his realisation as the inner flame takes hold...

I can’t do it.

But not for want of trying. I can’t do it. I still cannot recruit Followers. Talking to Acquaintances with an eye on the timer doesn’t reveal another slot to bung Mystique or Notoriety at them before they generate more, and neither does my backup plan of approaching Neville on an unexpected Pleasant Day.

If it turns out that this is a blindingly simple task that I’ve overlooked it in favour of futile tinkering...well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Other Things I Cannot Do: I have yet to devise a repeatable source of Glimmering or Erudition. You can craft more Reason and Passion cards by reading Essays or Poetry, respectively. In order to read Essays or Poetry you need Glimmering or Erudition. But I could only manage to get Glimmering or Erudition by reading esoterica bought from Morland’s, and after a bit she would only sell me...Essays or Poetry. Damn the woman.

Being investigated by the Authorities works weirdly. Like the ‘Time Passes’ timer, which auto-draws Funds cards to sustain you, the Investigated timer is 'greedy'; it auto-draws Notorious cards, and if there isn’t a Notorious card on the desktop, it generates one. Getting rid of Authorities gives you two Notorious cards, but they stay in the dead Timer of the now-defused Investigation; you’re not forced to put them on the desktop. Eventually the right corner of my desk looks like this:

At this point, I fumble a card straight onto a timer, and as A Dimness warned, the game crashes leaving me unable to pick up or move cards, while the timers carry right on ticking. Paralysed, I catch an Affliction and die.

Knowing I risk Starvation, I cut things close Funds-wise to get to the interesting part again, catch a simultaneous Affliction, and die like this, which I consider unsporting of the RNG:

Basta! And Neville lives on, his innocence wasted on the quotidian, rather than flaming out as it should. Curses.

Verdict: definitely not the FL Universe (‘Hours’ are basically gods here, whereas in Sunless Skies, they’ll be chunks of transferable lifetime, I think). I am more than ready for IF crossed with proper cardplay, and maybe this will have the latter, but I’m not holding my breath. It’s odd what a difference first-person voice makes to a game, and the personality of the protagonist is very different, more like one of Arthur Machen's dangerously inquisitive artist types than the randy, swashbuckling academic of FL.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

A Dimness
Posts: 613

8/13/2017

Oh, to recruit followers you need to use "Mystique" in the "Work" tab, after your society is funded, you get a new tab with about 10 seconds to use a Lore item (ie "consent of wounds") to decide what kind of society you wish to fund. Once you have a society you can use it as first card when using the Talk function, along with notoriety/mystique and an Acquaintance, using all three will result in your Acquaintance becoming a Believer and thus a usable follower.

So far I've only managed to fund a Society of Midnight with the Consent of Wounds, and according to flavour all societies so far are identical in function, still curious as to what all the different society names are though.
edited by A Dimness on 8/13/2017

Oh, and I've found out that if you do menial work (using Health in the "Work" tab), you can get An Injury, which is apparently something the Mother of Ants looks upon with favour. There might be some interaction between Consent of Wounds and an Injury to be found.
edited by A Dimness on 8/13/2017

There seem to be six acquaintances in total which are matched in male/female pairs. Leo and Dorothy, the yellow acquaintances are both described as gullible and earnest, Enid and her partner which I've not so far met seem to be both mystic and dreamy, and Victor and his partner whom's name I've forgotten are sly. Mechanically, all companions seem to function the same, though I suppose in the future you'll only be able to recruit sly companions with Notoriety and dreamy companions with Mystique, while gullible companions with both?
edited by A Dimness on 8/13/2017

--
A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/13/2017

Vexpont wrote:

The Cleansing Dawn [Lantern]
Success gives: Fascination [Lantern] + Mansus-Glimpse Lore [Lantern] + Reason
Failure gives: Fascination [Lantern] + Reason (probable, but haven’t done it yet)

The Cleansing Dawn is currently bugged and gives you the same reward whether you fail or succeed in the dream. When you fail the Sun's light just makes your bones ache. When you succeed, the Sun's light actually inscribes writing on your dream skeleton (and maybe a little on your actual skeleton, seeing as how your bones ache for days afterwards...).

A Dimness wrote:

Oh, and I've found out that if you do menial work (using Health in the "Work" tab), you can get An Injury, which is apparently something the Mother of Ants looks upon with favour. There might be some interaction between Consent of Wounds and an Injury to be found.
edited by A Dimness on 8/13/2017

Ooooh, that's very interesting. I missed that.
.
A Dimness wrote:

There seem to be six acquaintances in total which are matched in male/female pairs. Leo and Dorothy, the yellow acquaintances are both described as gullible and earnest, Enid and her partner which I've not so far met seem to be both mystic and dreamy, and Victor and his partner whom's name I've forgotten are sly. Mechanically, all companions seem to function the same, though I suppose in the future you'll only be able to recruit sly companions with Notoriety and dreamy companions with Mystique, while gullible companions with both?
edited by A Dimness on 8/13/2017

Enid and Neville, Victor and Rose. It's only Leo who really seems gullible to me. Dorothy has an eclectic reading habit, so she strikes me as rather clever (but then, I have an eclectic reading habit too - so I would think that, wouldn't I?). There is currently only one real difference between the six believers: Victor and Rose are very good at stealing stuff. You can use Enid and Neville or Leo and Dorothy for burglary, but these attempts will most likely end in failure after failure. If you have a job that requires a sly opportunist, then give it to Victor and Rose, they'll get it done. This indicates that believers will have different specializations based upon their defining occult principle. It follows that some might be better suited for certain cults and rituals than others.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/13/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Shalinoth
Posts: 493

8/27/2017

The lore dump has been relentless lately. And it feels a bit like a Mothman prophecy in its scope, documenting a psuedo-history of literary adventurers. For the briefest of moments I thought he was talking about actual occultists and their actual travels through merry olde England, seeking locked up tomes to transcribe on the sly. *Shakes a fist* Well played, sir. Well played.

--
Profiles: Shally, Chimes & Jack~of~Smiles . . . Current Goal:

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

Gonen wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:
Gonen wrote:
Anne Auclair wrote:

XII. The Beachcrow.

Isn't that the Sun-in-Rags, according to the card?
Or I misunderstood something (I am waaaaay behind on understanding this lore)

Oh yeah, XII is the Sun-in-Rags. Alexis no doubt made a mistake in his Roman numeral countdown, which was more like a Roman numeral skip. Maybe the Beachcrow is XIII or XI.

Can the numbers in the Tarot be other than the number of the hours?
Are there 30 Tarot cards in a deck?

I'm pretty sure the card numbers are also the number of the Hours (hence Moth, Midnight, is Zero). Traditional tarot only has 21 cards, so a deck of 30 cards would be nine more cards than a normal tarot deck - though since a day only has 24 hours, it seems only 24 Hours actually participate in ruling the Earth, while the remaining 6 are...doing something else.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

Gonen wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

...hence Moth, Midnight, is Zero...

So moth is the... XXIV hour? At a 30 hours universe?

The Moth is the first Hour in a 24 Hour universe.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

9/1/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Gonen wrote:
Anne Auclair wrote:

...hence Moth, Midnight, is Zero...

So moth is the... XXIV hour? At a 30 hours universe?

The Moth is the first Hour in a 24 Hour universe.

So, cards go all the way to 29, then. Total of 30.
XXIII is 23:00, XXIV to XXIX are the hidden ones.
Got it.

--

The Ashen Anesthesiologist - Paramount Londoner

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.

The long journey to eccentricity:
On March 10th, 2018, reached 15 on all quirks, simultaneously. The Quirky Anesthesiologist

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

Gonen wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

Alexis wrote:
SOL INVICTUS

...and at least to have been accounted a Know.

Anne, what does THAT mean?

He achieved some level of initiation into the divine mysteries - i.e., he knew things. He didn't become a Long, because he died.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Catherine Raymond
Posts: 2518

9/9/2017

Benthic wrote:

How bad is it to have a worm working one from the inside?

That...snail-thing is one of the creepiest sights I've seen in these Forums. Frankly, it looks more like something from Mutton Island than a refugee from Cultist Simulator. But it's appropriate for one of the games at least! Thanks for posting it. I. Think.
edited by cathyr19355 on 9/9/2017
edited by cathyr19355 on 9/9/2017

--
Cathy Raymond
http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355

Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/8/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Anne,
I don't know if this clicked for you previously, but the 'Port Noon' update indirectly answered a question you raised from earlier in this thread. You had commented, as Alexis quoted on the blog, "This makes me wonder about Illopoly and Galmier’s relationship. They appear to be contemporaries (their books are all recently published). Were they colleagues? Rivals?"

Now consider the inscription of Galmier's letter, which begins "Christopher, darling" and concludes with "kisses". This can't be coincidental. Theresa Galmier and Christopher Illopoly were clearly intimates - either lovers, or very close friends.

Oh, I saw! And I'm enjoying them ^_^ I've just been a little busy and decided to wait for all three stretch goal lore posts, just in case the third had a telling detail that illuminated something in the first or second.

Given they were contemporaries, it would have been incredibly strange for them not to have known each other! Well, they were definitely colleagues, even confidants, and appear to have been working together (at least at this point). They could have been devoted pen-pals (remember the alpha begins with a note informing you of the death of "your corespondent," who you apparently never met in the flesh - later you inherit something from him) or actual lovers. They might have been a part of the same occult society or lodge, or they might have only met each other in dreams.

This section here made me laugh:
.
Poor Noon wrote:

Talking of which, I hear that our acquaintance is still on the island. She lives in the hills, but she comes into town for tinned goods and toiletries. I have enough funds to wait for a couple of weeks. If she makes an appearance, I’ll put our proposition to her, and if she doesn’t – well, I’ll think of something.

'I have enough funds to wait for a couple of weeks' - that's the Time Passing mechanic in operation. Galmier is also playing Cultist Simulator. If she waits too long she'll have to start dealing with starvation!

btw, this makes me wonder if the player character will be able to publish occult books themselves, for money or renown or just to spread word of their ideas/experiences, like Galmier and Illopoly did.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/8/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

absimiliard
Posts: 759

9/9/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Edit: This is surely a factor in Alexis suggesting that it would be a bad idea to draw too much attention from the Long. Rather than do something minor like kill you, they might decide it's safer to prevent you from ever having existed.
edited by cliftonr on 9/9/2017

Now that is an intriguing thought. Combining that with the many pasts but only one future idea is not just intriguing, it's also fascinating!

(quick, someone get me some contentment, I feel my reason slipping away...)

--
"Because, Parabola!" -- the Curious Captain
Eating nightmares from friends -- and I'm easy to befriend.
Absimiliard: the Black Rose of Wolfstack Docks

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/17/2017

I think there's also a good argument that the opposing hour is the Red Grail. With the priest fastening on the wound to drink the blood, it had seemed totally obvious to me that the Red Grail was involved, until I saw your argument that it's the Mother of Ants. Now I'm not sure which to think.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/10/2017

There are specifically five Histories. I just tracked down this tweet: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/905153598123888640
"A Kickstarter update! With five things, one for each of the Histories."

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/10/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

There are specifically five Histories. I just tracked down this tweet: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/905153598123888640
"A Kickstarter update! With five things, one for each of the Histories."

It seems that, in Cultist Simulator, five is the number. Five Histories, five levels of being, 5+1 doors to the Mansus (the extra one being the "Front Door", so there are five back doors), and so on.

+2 link

menaulon
Posts: 112

9/15/2017

The Fucine is out - http://weatherfactory.biz/fucine-was-spoken-in-the-dry-country-it-is-the-language-of-witches/ . The witches seem more like manifestations of an Hour than actual witches. The Hours are once again in opposition.

--
Menaulon
Open to social actions, but would prefer to be betrayed in the search for Photographer.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/11/2017

I started playing FTL: Faster Than Light and Sunless Sea around the same time and they are two of my favorite games. So I’ve been rather intrigued by FTL being a model for Cultist Simulator despite it being, well, a very different sort of game. This led me to think about which aspects of FTL’s rather unique gameplay could apply to Cultist Simulator and, in turn, how these aspects might faintly illuminate the final form that Cultist Simulator is intended to take. So here they are:

1. Challenge and reward scaled to progression – FTL requires you to traverse eight sectors. As you advance from sector to sector, enemy ships become stronger, more advanced, and better armed, while rewards become correspondingly more substantial. The more scrap you have, the better you can upgrade and outfit your ship, and hence the more options you have in dealing with the enemy. Much of the game is something of an arms race between you and the enemy ships, with you trying to keep your ship equal or ahead of the enemy’s capabilities. In Sector 8 you fight the Rebel Flagship, the single hardest enemy in the game, which combines everything that was thrown at you between sectors 1 through 7.

Cultist Simulator has at least two areas and six doors: the Wood, the Bound, the White Door, the Stag Door, the Wrong Door (??), the Peacock Door, the Spider Door, and the Front Door. There might be more locations. There are also at least five levels of occult initiation: the living & dead, the Know, the Long, the Names, and the Hours. Travel through the various dreamscapes, doors and occult levels could play the same role as FTL’s sector; with each otherworldly area traversed/Mansus door passed through, the game’s challenges and rewards could correspondingly increase.

2. Frontloaded difficulty - The first half of FTL is often the most difficult, as it is in early sectors that you are at your most unprepared and vulnerable. You have rudimentary systems, glaring ship weaknesses, a small inexperienced crew, and only one way of really defeating hostile ships (so it’s possible to encounter enemies who are effectively invulnerable). Early enemies, while less well armed than later ones, don’t mess around, and a single mistake or unlucky shot can end with them heavily damaging, if not outright annihilating, your ship.

How you do in the early sectors really impacts the later game. While a poor early performance by no means dooms you to defeat, it does mean you’ll have a subpar ship through much of the middle and maybe even the late sectors, which greatly increases your chances of dying (either by being badly outclassed in battle or being worn down by hazards and the rebel pursuit). Conversely, a very good early performance means a more upgraded ship, a more experienced crew, and a greater versatility in systems (more ways to defend oneself and take down enemies).

According to Alexis, Sunless Sea apparently had a similar setup, as will Cultist Simulator:

Alexis Kennedy Cake Livestream wrote:

When I designed Sunless Sea, which I know many people still consider too difficult and too slow, and I think there is truth in there [indecipherable]. But, different tastes. We deliberately started as mean as possible because if you wake up and you’re trapped in a vise that is constricting arteries, when the vise loosens you’ll feel good, but if you wake up and are being messaged with feathers, when you are suddenly clamped in a vise, you’ll feel worse. So when you’re going through and beating the perpetual edition, you can expect it to be meaner then it will be later on and for things to loosen up, especially as there will be increasingly more ways to get stuff.

3. Intense resource management – When playing FTL on normal or hard difficulty, you will almost never have enough scrap, which is used to upgrade the ship, repair the ship, hire crew, help friendly ships for possible rewards, and purchase vital supplies/systems/weapons. And even if you do acquire enough scrap to satisfactorily upgrade and outfit your ship, you will certainly not have enough power to supply all of those energy hungry systems. You also have to deal with a limited crew compliment, so every new recruit has the potential to make you reevaluate everyone’s respective usefulness.

When it’s not an RPG or a rogue-like, Sunless Sea is pretty much all about resource management. Besides the various story fragments, trade goods and rare items you’ll find yourself transporting around the Neath, there’s also fuel consumption, food management, crew compliment, ship parts, and cargo space.

With Cultist Simulator Alexis has expressed a desire to completely unify the game’s resources and narrative. When you make a decision concerning a particular card, you’ll also be making a decision regarding the story: “Every choice you make, from moment to moment, doesn't just advance the narrative - it also shapes it.” So you won’t just be managing, combining and wagering limited resources, you’ll also be managing, combining and wagering story, and there will only be so much story for you to use.

The alpha has a very small sample of this resource/narrative scarcity in the creation of rituals. As there is only one Ardent Prayers card, you have to choose between discovering either the Watchman’s Sorrow or the Crucible of the Soul. Once you have discovered your ritual, there is no turning back short of giving up on occultism altogether and committing yourself to Glover and Glover or letting the Authorities catch you. In addition, if you choose the Crucible of the Soul, there is a built in limit on how many times you can get it wrong as you can only sacrifice so many Believers. Furthermore, if you sacrifice Victor or Rose, you will have one less cunning follower for jobs like burgling Mr. Strathcoyne’s house.

So very faintly you can see the pathways narrowing. The rituals will put you in contact with different occult power. If you choose Crucible of the Soul, the path further narrows with the sacrifice of Believers, essentially trading any future companionship and assistance they could provide for…whatever it is you get out of the ritual (possibly nothing, should you screw it up…or possibly something really terrible, should you really screw up).

4. Expanding the game through achievements – In FTL ships are unlocked by certain actions/encounters during the game and/or by achieving victory with certain ships. FTL’s ships are asymmetrical – some are clearly better than others. All require different strategies and appeal to different player preferences, adding vital variety to the game. In this way, FTL's ships are somewhat similar to Cultist Simulator's planned legacy system, which in turn bears a marked resemblance to the legacy system in Sunless Sea.

Sunless Sea has a simple legacy system. Upon the death, retirement, disappearance, or triumph of your captain, you select one of five “Redemption” legacies to determine which stats, resources, and advantages are to be passed on. If you are fortunate enough to have gotten a heir during one of your previous games, you instead get to select from two legacies. If during your play-through you also attained an ironclad will alongside some real & movable property, you’d also get your former captain’s house and collection. Then there are the permanent legacies you could earn from completing special challenges or alternative endings during a play-through. The practical effects of these in later games are predominately limited to stats boosts and trophies. I’ve generally sought out these endings more for the story or challenge than the reward, although achieving them will give later characters a perpetual leg up, which is nice.

From how it’s been described, Cultist Simulator’s legacy system will share a number of features with Sunless Sea’s legacy system and FTL’s ship hanger. That you will select three legacies from “a large pool” suggests a not inconsiderable number of legacies are planned (far more than the five Redemptions you pick from in Sunless Sea).

Cultist Simulator Kickstarter Description wrote:

But there are other endings - some more victorious than others. Retire peacefully. Start a family. Die, but haunt the dreams of others. Disappear, but leave your journal for another seeker. Betray your kind to join the Suppression Bureau, which prosecutes those criminals whose crimes exist only in dreams.

Why would you do this? Often, because the story's led you to a place that feels like an interesting choice. But also, because it affects future characters. Legacies allow you to leave something behind for another character - a journal, a bequest, an orphan. The Adversary who destroyed you may remain - a threat but also a promise, like a story-driven corpse run. And you may become a Haunting - a shell of your former self, there to torment or assist the new character.

So you’ll earn legacies via alternative endings, much like in Sunless Sea, and then choose which three you want active in the next game, not unlike Sunless Sea’s Redemption system. These legacies however will function more like the ships in FTL; instead of merely boosting character stats, they’ll give you additional narrative resources or challenges. Just like FTL’s ships, the legacies will let you choose how you want to vary your game.

5. A large amount of luck based gameplay – A lot of FTL is combat skill, navigation and resource management, but the game is also a rogue-like, so a big element is either making the best of what the RNG gives you or maximizing your odds of a successful dice roll. The campaign map is somewhat randomized, sector maps are randomized, and many events have a certain degree of random chance. Whether you win or lose the main campaign, or succeed or fail at a side quest, can be the result of the randomly generated map, a fortuitous random event, or an unlucky random encounter. You might find a really good weapon floating in space, that Federation base you were counting on might be empty, the ship you offer to help might be leading you into a trap, and so on.

Luck based gameplay can be a very difficult thing to balance with skill based gameplay. Too little and the game becomes a set of boxes to check and patterns to memorize. Too much random chance and the player feels like a marionette strung along by the strings of fate (you don’t win the game, the game decides when you win). What makes FTL such a good game is that it manages to hit that sweet spot where victory results from a combination of the player doing the right thing and the right things happening for the player. The amount of chance in FTL encourages you to stay alert and be ever on the lookout for situations where your luck might change, for better or worse.

Now, Sunless Sea has some rogue-like elements, mostly related to the placement of islands and underwater bases. But it is nowhere near FTL’s level. So the big question becomes “how much of FTL’s luck based gameplay will there be in Cultist Simulator?”

Well, in his latest livestream, Alexis provided an answer – it will have quite a lot:

Alexis Kennedy Cake Livestream wrote:

Somebody did use the forums to ask a question beforehand so I should answer. They asked how difficult the game is going to be and what I was aiming for. Uh, there is more randomness in it then there is in Sunless Sea because the game is so much shorter. The expectation is that you might die or end the game multiple times in an evening, so you might get a good run or a bad run, and its intended to be uh, uh, mean, but not intended to be unfair.

To fully consider how much randomness the game could have, here’s a complete list of alpha events that have either variable outcomes or the possibility of future variable outcomes.

1. A Legacy Arrives – “In the full game, this might contain a variety of different things each play through.”

2. Painting a picture – not only whether the picture will sell, netting you Mystique and two Funds. In event that you successfully sell your painting there’s also apparently a slight chance of the Acquaintance event being triggered.

3. Exploring your instincts (exploring with Passion) – chance of gaining either Mystique or Notoriety.

4. Exploring your possibilities (exploring with Reason) – chance of gaining Mystique, Notoriety, or Fleeting Memories.

5. Buying books at Morlands – you spend funds and purchase an RNG chosen book.

6. An Acquaintance event – both the timing of its occurrence and the person being met are up to the RNG, but some people may be more likely than others. Sometimes you don’t meet anyone of any importance, in which case you merely gain Mystique.

7. Dreams of a Glory – this decides which dream place you find yourself in. In the alpha there are only two possibilities, the Tree of Lights and the Journey in a Window. In the full game there could easily be more.

8. The Tree of Lights/Cleansing Dawn – currently bugged. Failure should transform one of your Reasons into Fascination, while success should give you Fascination and a Mansus Glimpse.

9. A Journey in a Window/ Hersault’s Nightmare – If you succeed you gain a Consent of Wounds and one of your Reasons transforms into Insomnia. If you fail, you just suffer Insomnia.

10. Speak of Esoteric Matters – produces either Mystique or Notoriety. Every time you have a lecture there’s a slight chance of the Acquaintance event being triggered.

11. Discuss Occult Business – produces either Mystique or Notoriety.

12. Discus Our Business – produces either Mystique or Notoriety.

13. Send a follower to explore – “Buried knowledge, sealed tombs, allies, rivals, lesions in the world’s skin.”

14. Burglary – if you succeed you get a rare, RNG chosen book or treasure. If you fail, something bad happens (in the case of Strathcoyne’s, the Authorities are alerted). Cunning followers have a better chance of success.

15. Whether something like an Investigation, an Illness, or a Pleasant Day happens to you is determined by the RNG.

16. Reading Poetry – there’s a chance it will consume your Glimmering without giving you anything in return.

17. Rituals – presumably. The two rituals in the alpha don’t have an RNG aspect. Rather, they do have a light puzzle aspect and it’s possible for them to fail if you do the wrong thing or don’t have any Reason or Passion in the final stage (though why wouldn’t you?). But it’s pretty easy to see where chance could potentially play a role. With the Rite of the Watchman’s Sorrow you could potentially see any of number of things while on your nightly excursion across the Bounds (or, alternatively, any number of things could see you…). With the Rite of the Crucible of the Soul, who is to say that the Red Grail’s impact on your body will always be the same? And these are merely two beginning rituals.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/11/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/22/2017

I just realized: Actually there is a possible connection between the Red Grail and the Star tarot card, which I had missed.

In some illustrations (e.g. the Thoth deck) the Star is shown as a naked woman pouring out an elaborate chalice, though in others she's pouring water out of a pitcher or jug. It's more tangential than essential, but interesting.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/23/2017

Alexis has released a tentative, preliminary outline for a possible schedule, sharing some more future game content in the process.

The Mucal Rose Update wrote:

Core roles and the Earliest Perpetual Edition

I'm determined not to nail down a project schedule until I have final budget at the end of this month, but I'm not going to sit on my hands either. So this is my current thinking about the content side of the schedule. Each 'role' is a general activity in the game. They're not character classes - you may switch many times between these activities.

October, MACHEN: the Scholar role.
November, RENAULT: the Magus and Guru roles.
December, BEARDSLEY: the Artist and Lover roles.
January, HAGGARD: the Explorer and Ghoul roles
February, WHARTON: Householder and Family content

I'd expect to get an itch.io Refinery, early early access, more content to come, Perpetual Edition build in your hands around February, before or after Wharton (probably after, if it slips, and I think my planning for December is optimistic). But this is TBC.

It is very possible I'll put a build out earlier. It depends how fun the game is as I go, and how much I need feedback. There's a tradeoff here between providing early builds and getting valuable feedback, and getting more work done sooner.

I have thoughts about what comes after February, but I'll talk about those another time.

Machen is clearly Arthur Machen, the author of The Great God Pan (which I've read elsewhere was one of the influences behind the Captivating Princess - does anyone know if that is true?) and many other tales of secret supernatural things. He also apparently published some "scholarly" work on the Celtic Church and the Holy Grail, so he fits the scholar role fairly well.

Renault is Mary Renault, who Alexis praised pretty intensely in his book livestream:

Alexis Book Livestream wrote:

"She was a first half of the Twentieth Century writer who produced beautiful novels, largely about Ancient Greece, with a very lucid, compelling, evocative prose and she did - she had a particular conception of the way the gods worked and the kinds of interactions that people had with them, taking them way seriously without being entirely sure they were real. That influenced Salt, Stone, and Storm in Sunless Sea and has been a substantial influence in the Hours, the secret gods of the Cultist Simulator setting. She's a really fine writer. She was a proper scholar, she is very compelling narratively, and she was a early LGTBQA author, if that's relevant to you."

In being the face of the Magus and the Guru, i.e. the magician and cult leader, Mary Renault is being given real pride of place in the lineup.

Next, representing artists and their lovers, we have the great illustrator Audrey Beardsley, who among other things illustrated a cover for The Great God Pan:

For the explorer and ghoul roles we have the author Sir Henry Rider Haggard, who apparently helped pioneer the lost world genre? I confess to being completely unfamiliar with him. Is anyone here familiar with his work?

Wharton is the name attached to householder and family content... Um, perhaps Duke Philip Wharton, one of the founders of the infamous Hellfire Club, which despite it's name was little more than an elite English drinking society?
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/23/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

menaulon
Posts: 112

9/15/2017

Benthic wrote:

Given that they are witches, and the references to "multiple births", "blend[ing] flesh to flesh", "two heads and four arms", and a strange "companion", it's clear that they are in some way related to the Witch-and-Sister. Possibly they're emanations of the Witch-and-Sister, and therefore Names, or perhaps only one Name which, being an occult being beyond our comprehension, is not bound to being a single entity. They seem to be making people conjoined, or maybe causing them to have sex which results in the births of conjoined twins, or maybe both. There's a strong association of them and the Witch-and-Sister with sexuality ("blend flesh to flesh", "follies of passion", etc), which explains why the priest of the church of St. Agnes, patron saint of chastity, rejected someone who had "kissed the Twins". Also, it's called "St. Agnes of the Serpent", which is interesting because I can't find any association with serpents with any St. Agnes.

edited by Benthic on 9/15/2017

Witch-and-Sister does seem like an obvious answer. St. Agnes also seems like it's Hour or Hour-adjacent, given the priest's actions.

Weather Factory wrote:

Still when I came there the priest would not bind my injury, averring that wounds are holy to Agnes. He promised to draw the poison from my flesh and I sat upon the altar steps and he set his mouth to the wound

Is it perhaps connected to the Grail, that devours and is devoured?

--
Menaulon
Open to social actions, but would prefer to be betrayed in the search for Photographer.

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

9/15/2017

For those who can parse John Keats, I suggest reading the Eve of St. Agnes. It's referenced by the church of St Agnes and the serpent in the kickstarter lore post, and the whole poem is filled with the moonlight-and-witchcraft aesthetic of the Witch-and-Sister.

Even if it doesn't count as actual lore, it is still a source of inspiration for the Hour, and I'd like to think that Alexis wouldn't throw a reference like that in willy-nilly, especially for a game a game like Cultist Simulator.
Reading it (or trying to read it) also prompted me to dig around some more, so here's some bullet-fire information from a late evening's digging around (read: Mostly notes for myself in the future and other noble souls in regards to extra reading material):

1) Locksmith's Dream (1923 edition) wrote:

Galmier actually lived in Camden for a couple of years, after the court case, tutoring undergraduates in Italian and writing furious letters to the local paper.

'The court case' presumably refers to the Camden Town Murder of 1907, which would put Teresa's stay in Camden ~15 years before the start of her career as an occult writer! Not significant in learning the cosmology, but it's nice to know more about the life of one of the most important characters of the setting.

2) While there's no William Colt Hoare, there is a Richard Colt Hoare who wrote a Hints to Travellers in Italy. A sign of interference from the Long? Probably worth at least skimming the actual work for context.

3) Robert Fludd apparently had an interest in the writings of natural magicians and, more importantly for us, in numerology. His theories on the microcosm/macrocosm also seem relevant to the Glory, which is described as a Sun in the game.

P.S. Contrast
"Fludd concluded, from a reading of Psalm 19:4—"In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun"—that the Spirit of the Lord was contained literally within the sun, placing it central to Fludd’s model of the macrocosm. [...] As the sun was to the earth, so was the heart to mankind. The sun conveyed Spirit to the earth through its rays, which circulated in and about the earth giving it life."
from wikipedia's summary with
"Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us."
used to describe the Lantern principle in the Alpha.

4) Cultist Simulator wrote:

Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.

Thomas Browne, or, more specifically, his Hydriotaphia, is the source for the quote used on the Lantern principle. Another piece of work to check out at some point.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 9/17/2017

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

9/16/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Shalinoth wrote:
But the artwork and music has such great ambience it seems a shame to 'waste' it on icon sized cards.

Don't sneeze at the aesthetic power of icons - Medieval Christianity had a number of nasty schisms over iconic art.

edited by Anne Auclair on 8/27/2017

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis_(Eastern_Christian_theology) interesting use that because it goes into a similar mechanic in the game since the game definitely implies at least the kick starter that you can become a Hour. It's interesting to use the symbolism of the merging of gods essence of the man in the process of that vs with game Lore taking the dark step of become some much more at cost of your humanity. You see the steps from Us,Know, Long, Name, and Hour.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/16/2017

I suppose this leads us into the question of what is a Beautiful Ending, at least as far as the Sun-in-Rags is concerned (as it is the god of beautiful endings, its definition is final no matter how expansive, capricious or arbitrary). Elagabulus seemed to believe a beautiful ending was something sensually and aesthetically pleasing, a natural progression from his sensually and aesthetically pleasing life. I'm inclined to give him a certain benefit of the doubt, because he was a mortal incarnation and a Know, so he knew things. Elagabulus was very clearly trying to mimic the Sun: a beautiful rise, a beautiful journey across the sky, and a beautiful sunset. But you're right, the Sun-in-Rags could (and probably would) appreciate or prefer more theatrical forms of beauty, with violent reversals of expectations and dramatic irony. Or maybe the game was rigged for poor Elagabulus no matter what - as a mortal incarnation, regardless of how he died, his death would be beautiful to the Sun by some definition (triumphant, sensual, ironic). Poor Elagabulus was not wrong, his knowledge was just incomplete (he also still epically failed to die how he wanted to though :P).

A love for poetic irony might explain why the two other emperors who put their faith in the Sun, Aurelian and Julian, died so ignominiously, with brilliant reigns full of promise suddenly cut short. Let's compare: Elagabulus suddenly rose to power, tried to live pleasure to its utmost, and was killed after roughly a four year reign. Aurelian suddenly rose to power, reunified the Roman world, and was killed after roughly a five year reign. Julian suddenly rose to power, restored Paganism, and was killed after a roughly two/three year reign. Constantine was also fond of the Sun, before he became a Christian and undertook the destruction of Paganism - though the significance of that can only be guessed at (maybe he just realized the Sun was unreliable, or maybe in helping bring the world of antiquity to an end he was acting as intended).
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/16/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

9/18/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:
In the current version, and most promotional material Alexis has put out, being a Know means having passed through the Second Door (presumed to be the Stag Door, but not confirmed).

The SOL INVICTUS email and the big livestream confirmed it was the Stag Door.

JoelMB12 wrote:
I asked him he said Know Knows Long remains. So do you guys actually wonder what Know,Long,Name are.

Oh, that was you on the livestream?

That was me I asked about their nature. Gave that little rhyme. 1. There’s us.
2. There’s the Know, who crossed the Stag Door.
3. There are the Long, who don’t end.
4. There are the Names, who are sometimes the emanations of the Hours.

I was not able to hear him clearly because of his connection and his exuberance excitement.

And I got to say your idea about The chain patronage throughout the cosmic hierarchy CS was brilliant!!

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/24/2017

1. See if you can borrow it through inter-library loan? Nearly all public libraries participate and it's awesome.
2. It looks like AbeBooks has one used copy of the same edition I have, for $11. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=Charles+Williams&tn=Taliessin+through+Logres
3. Otherwise, if you can do Kindle content (e.g. on your phone) then there's this for $7: https://smile.amazon.com/Taliessin-Through-Logres-Region-Summer-ebook/dp/B01N7BQXLS/ref=sr_1_12?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1506228240&sr=1-12&keywords=charles+williams

If you're going to read 'Taliessin through Logres' you might as well try read 'The Region of the Summer Stars' too; they're mystifying and amazing, and I can't say I understand them but I mostly kind of let them wash over me.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/24/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

1. See if you can borrow it through inter-library loan? Nearly all public libraries participate and it's awesome.
2. It looks like AbeBooks has one used copy of the same edition I have, for $11. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=Charles+Williams&tn=Taliessin+through+Logres
3. Otherwise, if you can do Kindle content (e.g. on your phone) then there's this for $7: https://smile.amazon.com/Taliessin-Through-Logres-Region-Summer-ebook/dp/B01N7BQXLS/ref=sr_1_12?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1506228240&sr=1-12&keywords=charles+williams

If you're going to read 'Taliessin through Logres' you might as well try read 'The Region of the Summer Stars' too; they're mystifying and amazing, and I can't say I understand them but I mostly kind of let them wash over me.

Thanks a lot for the recommendations! I'm sure I can't borrow it through inter-library loan - I'm not sure whether there's one copy or a few that are different editions but all at the same library, but either way they're filed under "Reference" and, as far as I can tell, not allowed to be taken from the library at all.

I happen to have a Kindle, and that would be a much better interface than the Google Books so maybe I'll just drop the $7 on that version.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/23/2017

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Worth adding that the Red Grail also oversees birth:

WHAT IS BELOW CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE (power ending) wrote:
The Red Grail is the Hour of blood and of birth. It has touched me, and I've gained a little of its power. If I had more time, I could draw disciples to me; grow fierce with blood and delight; be the herald of a new age; use that power to ascend to a secret throne, one day.

The Orchid Transfigurations wrote:
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” (I know it's only a passing reference, but it links birth and consumption, the hour's main other theme, together.

This is really important, actually, as a confirmation of the connection between the Red Grail and Charles Williams - the specific poem from which I've been drawing the Grail quotes is about the birth of Lancelot's son, and connects the birth with the themes of hunger (through wolves and the Lupercal).

If the Red Grail is indeed connected to the Church of St Agnes and the Serpent, this could illustrate some of the differences between the Red Grail's and the Witch-and-Sister's takes on childbirth, love, lust and other such matters.

(It is kinda amusing for me that the Red Grail could be one of the more conservative hours, trying to stay away from deviant children and supporting a church of a chaste virgin saint. Guess all the fasting, flagellation and general higher-power-seeking that went on are a really big draw for the Hour of Hunger.)
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 9/23/2017

St. Agnes is the Mother of Ants rather than the Red Grail, but that's definitely an interesting comparison to draw. The "red carnivorous violation of intellectual love" in The Son of Lancelot seems to suggest that the Grail isn't particularly chaste, though.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 9/23/2017

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/24/2017

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

(It is kinda amusing for me that the Red Grail could be one of the more conservative hours, trying to stay away from deviant children and supporting a church of a chaste virgin saint. Guess all the fasting, flagellation and general higher-power-seeking that went on are a really big draw for the Hour of Hunger.)

Well, the Red Cup is the god of blood, birth and appetite - not lust. And when it comes to appetite, the Grail is a god of extremes, a deity that presides over both starvation and gluttony. The Catholic Church has many mystics and saints who starved themselves to be closer to god, while plump overeating monks were something of a medieval stock character (Friar Tuck anyone?). So, in the Church you literally have two sides of the same coin, fasting and feasting. And when considering blood and appetite together, I'm somewhat reminded of this little piece of medieval Catholic communion propaganda:

[A] woman cooked a girdle cake which a priest then consecrated on the altar. When she saw this, the woman burst out laughing.

"It seems the girdle cake I made has become the body of Christ. That makes me laugh."

But she wanted to take communion just the same. So the priest prayed God to perform a miracle: and when the priest gave the woman communion, the cake-cum-Host took on the appearance of a child's finger and the consecrated wine in the chalice looked like coagulated blood. The woman was terrified! She communicated all the more devoutly.

It wouldn't be hard to interpret stuff like this as the Red Grail finding a discrete place for itself. Not hard at all.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

If the Red Grail is indeed connected to the Church of St Agnes and the Serpent, this could illustrate some of the differences between the Red Grail's and the Witch-and-Sister's takes on childbirth, love, lust and other such matters.

St. Agnes is the Mother of Ants rather than the Red Grail, but that's definitely an interesting comparison to draw. The "red carnivorous violation of intellectual love" in The Son of Lancelot seems to suggest that the Grail isn't particularly chaste, though.

The world is ordered by the Hours' consensus and maneuvers, so a number of them must work together to some extent. What would be a more natural alliance than one between the God of Wounds and the God of Blood? So while Saint Agnes is definitely some sort of servant or incarnation of the Mother of Ants, the Grail having something to do with that little Church isn't out of the question either.

Where the Hours are concerned I think we should keep in mind the words of the Principles of Coral in Sunless Sea:

The Principles wrote:

"My Emissary has your payment. A little of me. There. There I shine. And a secret: the spiders of Saviour's Rocks (crush them; crush them) made arrangements with my cousin. Bargains to blind a monster... remember that. There are many alliances."

There are many alliances. With 24 ruling Hours , 6 extra Hours, and who knows how many Names, Long, Know, and curious ordinary Mortals...there simply have to be alliances.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/24/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

9/24/2017

The only Wharton I've read is Ethan Frome.

Which is the most claustrophobic thing I've ever read - its New England farm isolation is stifling - and the ending *spoilers* rests on home being the place of entrapment that stifles even love.

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/23/2017

Only one more week to go. If you're not usually a kickstarter person, but think you'll buy the game, then you should totally contribute 10 pounds (approximately 13 dollars American) for the Believer package and its Perpetual Edition. You'll get all future Cultist Simulator DLC free forever, making it a pretty good deal.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/25/2017

Another little tidbit: from a recent comment on Kickstarter, it sounds like our characters are going to be able to write books in the game.
Alexis Kennedy wrote:

... One of the *possible* features on my list is allowing players to name cults they create and books they write.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/25/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Edit edit: a quick Google didn't seem to point at all to Charles Williams influencing Tanith Lee. Obviously wolves and blood and snow and hunger are closely related, but when Alexis cites Tanith Lee as an inspiration and talks about those themes in her work while the name of an Hour associated with some of those is in a poem with even stronger examples of those themes, something seems to be up. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence, but also because even with a more mundane mindset there's much to be made of these connections.

It's worth considering that it could be both a completely valid connection, and a completely unconscious one, rather than something he's hiding or for that matter that Tanith Lee was suppressing. This does really happen a lot for anybody who's widely read and doing serious art of any kind. It all goes in there and stews around in the subconscious and gets relinked together in weird ways. (That's even before you start taking into account the Jungian idea of the collective unconscious or Yeats' Anima Mundi.)

A big example I recognized in the Noon setting is Mary Gentle's weird fantasy novel Rats and Gargoyles which takes place in a strange city governed by gigantic gargoyles embodying spirits of the zodiacal Decans, each of which has its own strange character and some of which play an important role in the story. Remind you of the Hours at all? In response (on the Kickstarter comments) Alexis Kennedy wrote:

Decans
oh my God that *is* a bloody inspiration, isn't it. I read it nearly thirty years ago and I'd forgotten it consciously, but I can see now they fed straight into the idea; and it was R&G that first made me aware of Rosicrucian iconography and natural philosophy and all that fine jazz.

Real connection, but I entirely believe him that it was completely unconscious. We should ask him if he's ever read Charles Williams though, I bet he has.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Maybe it's just the Arthurian stuff, but are starving wolves really that closely associated with the birth of Lancelot's son outside of Williams, let alone with the Fisher-King? It doesn't seem like they are.

As far as I know, the theme of Lancelot as a were-wolf is unique to Williams, though Lancelot's madness shows up in many Arthurian versions. But wolves and blood and snow and sex and lust are all definitely oh-hell-yeah there in many of Tanith Lee's books, but in completely independent ways and without as far as I know any of them being related to Lancelot or Arthur or the Holy Grail or the Red Grail at all.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

10/7/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Five of the seven occult Principles are fully embodied by an iconic Hour: Lantern has the Glory

The Glory isn't an Hour, I'm pretty sure. The map of the Mansus suggests that it's a location, which is "above" the Mansus in the same way that the Wood is "below" it. The Wood reaches for the Glory, and it's the origin of the Gods-From-Light as the Wood is the origin of Gods-Who-Were-Blood.

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

10/8/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

The Glory isn't an Hour, I'm pretty sure.

I think the Hour of Lantern might be the Door in the Eye, as the Watchman. While I don't recall the exact details, there were things in the web proto which seemed to point that way such as Mansus-Glimpse having Lantern, and Dream plus anything with Lantern aspect enabling you to "Dream of the House in the Wood", with the Watchman coming into it somewhere.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

The map of the Mansus suggests that it's a location, which is "above" the Mansus in the same way that the Wood is "below" it.

On that map of the Mansus - when I first looked at it, I was taking the dashed-line curve through the top as being a dividing line between the Wood and the Glory. Looking at it again more recently, though, it seemed to me that instead it's the path the Sun takes through the Mansus: in at the Front Door, through a small portion of the House, and out again to the Glory. How did the rest of you interpret that?

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

10/4/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Here are the questions & answers relating to game mechanics and design intent.

Thanks for pulling that together!
Anne Auclair wrote:

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

edited by Anne Auclair on 10/4/2017

I recently added a note on this bit to the massive "Speculation on the Hours" post, since I think it bears on the Hours as well as game-play.

I feel fairly sure "Poseidon is not the only God in the sea" alludes specifically to Mary Renault's The King Must Die which Alexis has been raving about recently, and where (without being too spoileriffic) it becomes important that there is a Goddess of the sea worshiped elsewhere than Greece, completely unrelated to Poseidon.

I'd interpret this therefore to mean that there might be two or more different Hours associated with the same single Principle, but each interpreting it or expressing it completely differently. That in turn could affect game play, as you're suggesting, if founding a particular cult gives you an advantage in access to certain Hours - possibly several different ones. (Or conversely, it might give them an advantage in accessing you!)

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

lady ciel
Posts: 2548

10/1/2017

Looks like Alexis will be Live Streaming at the end. Approximately 30 minutes to go if you haven't backed yet.

--
ciel

Sorry RL means I am not a very active player at the moment. No social actions unless you are prepared to wait and definitely no sparring or other mult-action things.

No Calling Cards or boxed cats please. Will take dupes on the affluent photographers. Other social invitations welcome. Parabolan Kittens usually available, send me an in-game social action saying you want one and I will get one to you as soon as possible.

storynexus name - reveurciel

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/3/2017

Alexis has made an update on the work-in-progress legacy system via twitter.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

A Dimness
Posts: 613

9/30/2017

A friendly reminder that today is the last day of the Kickstarter.
If you still want to be a backer, now's your chance.
edited by A Dimness on 9/30/2017

--
A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence

+2 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

9/30/2017

Backed it. Now trying to play the game.

Is there any way to play this if you don't possess a mouse with a scroll wheel?

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

12/23/2017

I enjoy reading other peoples' post-beta speculations. Here are some more:

Clifton Royston wrote:

The story set-up and new locations for the Bright Young Thing really do a lovely job of suggesting the feel of the '20s decadent set, don't they? It has very much the tone of early Evelyn Waugh, 'Decline and Fall' or 'Vile Bodies'.

The worst doom conceivable: The Man Who Liked Dickens, except that you’re also immortal.

Speculations on our new contacts Dr. al-Adim, Mme Bechet, and Count Jannings

Ibn al-Adim: Agree with everyone who thinks this guy is one of the Long, and given his interest in ‘overlooked histories’ (the sort of thing that gets you Excised), and the thing about ‘a newcomer to the city’ who has ‘fond memories of previous visits, long ago’, I’m a bit doubtful that he even originates from our own timeline (our al-Adim was an active diplomat into his late 60’s; this one looks younger). Why an immortal rogue historian would use his original name is another thing entirely and I’m going to invoke Plot Reasons here.

Count Gottlob Jannings: someone representing ‘a Continental confraternity of physicians and duellists’ sounds suspiciously like an agent or devotee of either the Cartographer of Scars or the Lionsmith, who are the most famous pair of duelling Hours in CS so far (though not the only ones: the Witch-and-Sister, or perhaps their unknown flipside the Sister-and-Witch, seem to have feuded with the Horned Axe as described in de Bellis Murorum).

Olympe Bechet: operates out of Kerisham, which is ‘located on the south coast of England, but is notoriously difficult to find’ – and likely to be the un-named seaside town that was the last known location of Teresa Galmier. Given the fact that Galmier made a visit to Port Noon and lived to tell the tale, people can perhaps travel between Noon and Kerisham when the conditions are right. At least it would explain why Bechet is running her highly-flavoured arcane Review from a backwater no-one can find.

Speculations on Kerisham and Port Noon:

Of these three people, who must be Know at least, I’m keenest on Mme. Bechet because the purpose and location of both Port Noon and Kerisham are interesting. Functionally Noon is a safe house for the Long, as described at length here. Geographically, it’s on the coast, like elusive Kerisham (except Noon is specifically on an ‘island’, and Kerisham more vaguely on the English South coast).

Etymologically, the name ‘Kerisham’ is linked to the idea of deer/stags/horn, and even anticipating the sort of clue shenanigans likely to occur in this game, it slightly boggles me that it was expected that Googling up the link between the ‘Hotel Ciervo’ that Galmier frequents in Noon, the name Kerisham, the existence of a Stag Door in the Mansus, and the ancient word-root ‘kerh–’, is something the player may possibly do.

The Stag Door connection will no doubt become clear in time. But because Noon has a Hotel Ciervo, I am inclined to infer wildly that Port Noon and Kerisham are in fact in the same place. Just not in the same History, and perhaps, in Noon’s case, not currently in any History at all.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/24/2017

We've also got references to the Sun's "failed romance" with winter.

I'm not sure if Lascelles has any significance, but poppy flowers are typically affiliated with death. Also, it's interesting that the SiR's lore item is called a Sexton's Secret. A sexton is an employee of a church in charge of the upkeep of sacred grounds, but the most common service they provide is the digging of graves.

Yeah, it seems like the SiR has a lot in common with death. However, it's interesting that when Poppy takes us away in one of the endings, we're taken to the UPPER rooms of house. If death is down, why is the Hour of the end so close to the Glory?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/25/2017

Didn't the priest of St Agnes of the Serpent outright refuse to bandage poor Sir William Hoare's cut? She doesn't strike me as that great of a healing deity.

Though I suppose with big events like Jesus it would make sense for there to be multiple powers involved in the production, so the point stands.

But seriously though, endings:

Matthew 24.1 - 24.3 wrote:

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Another thing to take into account, Sol Invictus worshiping Constantine supposedly seeing a cross in the sun, of all places.

[Whispers] Hey, hey Constantine, hey - End Paganism. Just a suggestion. You're looking great by the way.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/25/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

1/10/2018

As someone who occasionally peeks at Alexis' twitter page, he's got some interesting stuff over there. In particular he has a strange tendency to re-tweet pieces of artwork with some particularly... disturbing
undertones.

Take this beauty for example: [spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Say hello to The Raft of the Medusa. Quoting the tweet : "Gericault's epic The Raft of the Medusa (1819) drove him to a nervous breakdown from which he died. It depicts the survivors of an actual shipwreck who were driven to cannibalism. For it Gericault studied severed heads & limbs. His last images were of the insane. He died at 33"

I wonder which Hour would have a particular interest in a horrific incident in which over 130 people either starved to death, resorted to cannibalism and brutally murdered each other, or drowned in the ocean?

I'm starting to think there's a particular reason why your character can spend so much time painting in CS.

edited by Edward Warren on 1/10/2018
edited by Edward Warren on 1/13/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/25/2017

Adding this quickly because I keep forgetting to jot it down here for exploration:

The "red church" mentioned in the 'Light through Stained Glass' dream as the place of birth seems like a simple association to the Red Grail as governing birth.

However, there's also a classic picaresque weird fantasy novel Peregrine: Primus by Avram Davidson, and "red church" brings it very strongly to mind, because in that book the phrase "red church" keeps coming up over and over. Indeed, it's in the context of a disturbing secret cult who recite a passage, something like "In the red forest there is a red church; in the red church there stood a red altar; on the red altar there is a red knife. Take the red knife and cut red bread."

Now if that doesn't sound like the Red Grail's very own cannibal murder-cult, I don't know what does.

(I seem to remember that passage might have actually come from some occult text; from Googling, I think it's the pseudo-Albertus Magnus text which became part of Pennsylvania Deutsch hexerei.)
edited by cliftonr on 12/28/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

12/14/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Poor Alexis has come down with a winter fever. I've had those and they're not fun.

Out of nowhere, I’m reminded of maybe the most entertaining cover of all time, courtesy of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine (NSFW profanity, and apologies for my questionable taste in music).

Anne Auclair wrote:

Fun fact, an ecdysiast is literally a strip-tease artist . "What may be lost?"

The book-burning striptease nightmare from FL is, perhaps, along these lines.

HL Mencken’s ecdysiasts aside, ‘ecdysis’ is a term mainly used by entomologists. I’m not sure where all this divesting and peeling will end up but I wonder if the the ‘moth-ness’ of Moth lore is perhaps more than metaphorical. After all, that moth on The Moth card has human hands. Also, there's this:

IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI

Which means “By night we go into the gyre, wherein we are consumed by fire”. Kind of. For a palindromic riddle, it’s impressively lengthy. Anyway, the answer won’t startle any CS enthusiasts.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/14/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/941377148560007170

Here's the full list of content that will be contained in the beta when it releases.

Let's put that in an easier to read format.

Incoming build exegesis. wrote:

You can name your character. (We suggest you name your character.)

Three different Legacies allow three different game starts. (There is not yet any relationship between the ending you experience and the legacies available.)

The game saves when you exit, and auto-loads when you return. (If you end up with a borked save, you can delete save.txt from c:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLaw\Weather Factory/Cultist Simulator, or us backup.save.txt).

It's possible to research lore to gain access to higher levels of understanding. (The framework is in place, but the content here is about half-finished.)

There's more art, and more content. (Particularly, more ways to gain Passion, Reason or Health, as well as more ways to destroy yourself.)

Dr Ibn al-Adim, Count Gottlob Jannings, and Madame Olympe Bechet may employ you to write articles or monographs for them. (They may have other functions, later.)

If you're a Bright Young Thing, you may visit the Ecdysis Club, and Oriflamme's Auction House, as well as meeting your friend and mine, Poppy Lascelles. (But all of these will be available to other Legacies, later).

Notably absent: the ability to navigage the fringes of the Mansus in dreams. (This is partly because illness slowed my work this week, but also because we've had an interesting idea for how this would work which we'd like to explore further with our artists and UI developer, to see if it'll work.)

There is music. (Seven tracks from the enigmatical Maribeth Soloman and friends, who created the Sunless Sea and Fallen London soundtracks.)

edited by Anne Auclair on 12/14/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/17/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

A full analysis of the new books is something that someone should do at some point, but it would be a very large undertaking so for now I'll just mention a few things I thought were particularly noteworthy:

- The Colonel apparently runs or ran assassin-cults which hunted and ate the Long, according to the Victory of Crowns.

The Victory of Crowns

Card Text: Eratic accounts by one 'Arun', of the hunting and consumption of supposed immortals, by shadowy cults of assassins. Published in the late 19th century.

Study Text: The Assassins are, according to Arun, the agents of a power called the Coronel, a 'soldier of the Secret Masters.' The accounts go all the way back to Roman times.

Ending Text: Arun's scholarship is dubious, but he (she?) writes pithily. Incidents of sudden and violent death are interspersed with aphorisms: 'Hour's don't dream. Long try not to.'

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/16/2017

A full analysis of the new books is something that someone should do at some point, but it would be a very large undertaking so for now I'll just mention a few things I thought were particularly noteworthy:

- The Colonel apparently runs or ran assassin-cults which hunted and ate the Long, according to the Victory of Crowns

- The "comedy of humours"-type book, I forget the title, implies that the Beachcrow is connected to the worms, whatever they are, in some sense. By "connected" I specifically mean "eating", which could be a hostile action, an internalization, or a hostile action resulting accidentally in internalization.

- Studying the book on the Unburnt God has the outcome text "Jensen hypothesizes a pre-Zoroastrian fire deity, whose rites were the rites of smiths." This implies that the Unburnt God is another name for the Forge of Days.

+2 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

12/18/2017

Also apparently the other name for the Colonel is the Tribune.

+2 link

DSPaul
Posts: 1

12/18/2017

The word "colonel" or "coronel" has an unusual and somewhat disputed etymology. It first appears in the 16th century in the Italian form colonnello, which seems to mean "leader of a (military) column." At about the same time, however, we have the Spanish army using the military rank coronel. This may derive from the Italian, but it also suggests an alternative interpretation as "officer of the Crown." The modern English word takes its spelling from the Italian form, but its pronunciation from the Spanish.

"Tribune," or the Latin tribunus, has an even more complex history. Literally it meant "leader of a tribe," and may have referred to the wartime leaders of the three tribus founded by Romulus. Over the lengthy and complex history of Roman government, both tribus and tribunus changed meaning. By the time of the late Republic, tribunus had come to refer to two separate offices. The more famous of these were the tribunes of the plebs, elected by an assembly of the plebeian class, who had the power of veto over any act of the Senate. The other were the military tribunes, army officers who ranked above centurion but below legate. This, I think, is the meaning relevant to the Hour in question.

What can all this tell us about the Colonel/Coronel/Tribune? First, most obviously, that he is a military commander: an authority figure who directs lesser forces of violence. But the other common theme that emerges is that he is not a supreme commander, but one of middling rank; not a king or a general, but a deputy to kings or generals. Which raises the question: whose deputy?

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/20/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

- Studying the book on the Unburnt God has the outcome text "Jensen hypothesizes a pre-Zoroastrian fire deity, whose rites were the rites of smiths." This implies that the Unburnt God is another name for the Forge of Days.

I agree with your conclusion. Somewhere in there (missing a cite for where I saw it) it also says that contrary to scholars' expectations the fire deity appears to have been a Goddess rather than a God. So perhaps the Forge of Days is female, to the extent that powerful supernatural beings have a gender identity.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. This being Hours it's presumably some sort of incomprehensible complex property which merely happens to be analogous to something like gender, in roughly the same way that the Mansus is analogous to something like a House and so on. But insofar as we can talk about any properties of anything at that level, the Forge of Days is female.

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

2/14/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

This is presumably not 100% canon anymore, but I'm sure there are some interesting points to be drawn from the differences between this and the new one. The new one is a lot less square; I had a theory about four cardinal directions from the Mansus (and then the fifth one being the Mansus), but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the new map, so I'm not sure how solid of ground it's on. It looks like the "Wrong Door" may have been replaced with the Wood, and the "Front Door" given an official name of the Tricuspid Gate. Anyone have anything else to suggest? I'm sure that's not everything.edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/12/2018

The White Door was originally going to be the one with the valves, I think; now it’s like a pair of crossed tusks or teeth, and the valves belong to the Tricuspid Door. To me, the Mansus map now looks like a bit like a cross-section of the Great Pyramid of Giza:

And on the far-right of the Mansus map, there's a Mount Doom-style peak belching out smoke. First notion: of course that's where the Forge lives; second notion: maybe not. Could it possibly be another Mansus in the throes of destruction? I dunno.

There are also the two curiously-shaped floating blocks, one labelled the Worm Museum, and the other, The Malleary(?) - a name which would seem to suggest Forging things. They're not directly connected to the Mansus but they have the same sort of stepped outline, which makes me wonder of they could be visible entry points to alternative Histories.

The face on the right looks like the stable complacent Sun of Tarots and sundials, and is helpfully labelled 'Sun' in the original sketch; the face on the far left looks like a ragged mutable thing that I'm tempted to conclude might be Winter/the White.

RE: The Mother-of-Ants. I don’t know how reliable a source Theresa Galmier is once she gets to Volume III of The Locksmith's Dream, but I got the impression that the Mother-of-Ants has two heads: 'The stairways of the Mansus go ever up. Death is down. The Mother of Ants guards both directions with each of her heads, and so the passage must always be through a wound.' Apart from the strong implication that the player must Dream about their Injuries, what gives? Either the lady has a second head on her unusual shoulders, or she’s something along the lines of this (but maybe longer in the middle):

...or I’m being excessively literal. After all, she's clearly not all snake, all the time. I do see some possible ants, though, on her robes.

Edward Warren wrote:

Double post, but according to Alexis' twitter, we've got some more Red Grail goodness coming to us in the next build. Some of the new rituals will allow us to get some new occult endings!

There’s only one Grail for the discerning Bacchanalian: the Lycurgus Cup, in the British Museum (may involve some waiting time. Or a highly-skilled burglar).

Despite looking like a film prop, this is a genuine Roman sacramental vessel, and was probably crafted without a foot, so it couldn't be laid down until it was drained. The exact chemistry of the glass wasn't worked out until the C20, and there is no other piece like it in the world.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/11/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Oh, and here's a new update from the Weather Factory blog!

[snip - entire blog post]

You don't have to repost the entire blog post :P

Well, it's spoilered, so it shouldn't be taking up too much space. I figured some people might want a quick version without having to go through the link, and it's not like it was particularly difficult on my part to copy and paste the post.

Kylestien wrote:

So I've been meaning to ask: What is this? Is it easy to get in to or start off? What do you do? How is it played? I've been on and off curious for a while now, but with the dlc for life offer ending soon I was thinking about taking a look. Anyone got some footage too, preferably not of the corrupted to turn people to darkness variety?

This is Cultist Simulator. It is a game about secrets behind the skin of the world. I think it's fairly easy to get started in, but I got started early enough that I don't actually know if it is. You buy ancient texts to learn secret knowledge, recruit cultists to assist you, get investigated by authorities, and so on. (The next build will include more stuff involving the performance of forbidden rites to, for example, summon the power of the Ring-Yew into the body of the formerly troublesome investigator to animate it for a short time before it sprouts roots.)

The way you play is that there are two sets of things - cards, or objects, and tokens, or verbs. Each token has a slot to hold a card, and certain cards, when put into tokens, open up extra slots. You put a card into a token to do the verb with that object, which means there are multiple options - for example, you could Study with a book to learn secret lore, or Study with secret lore to learn a ritual. Or you could Work with a job to make money, or Work with secret lore to write an essay on it, and then Talk with a potential patron to sell them the essay. Part of the game is to find out what you can do with your tokens and cards, so make sure that you try as many things as possible.

Here's a video of someone playing it for what I think is the first time. There isn't really a "corrupted to turn people to darkness" path in the game, but neither is there really a "not corrupted to turn people to darkness" path. Cultist Simulator doesn't really care about good or evil. Maybe you just want to learn ultimate truth, maybe you want to gain unearthly power, but neither of those is really "good" or "evil", and the game plays out the same way regardless.

The DLC for life offer is ending soon for the pre-release period - it will also come with any purchase in the first week after release. Buy it then if you want a finished game; buy it now if you want to help test the game and give feedback to the devs.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/11/2018

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/12/2018

Bright Young Thing Legacy wrote:

Endowed from birth with wealth and talent. A life of ease, comfort, and delight stretches ahead like an amber carpet.

I wonder if the Grail ever gets mad at the Sun-in-Rags for stepping all over her turf. Like, the two beautiful endings that we know of (Elagabalus, the BYT) involve people being duped into lives of pleasure and excess that ultimately conclude with premature death. Of course they might be working together, but the Grail seems to hang out an awful lot with the Thunderskin, who abhors endings.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

2/12/2018

Alexis referenced this thread for somebody on Twitter who was wondering why 'Mother of Ants' had serpents rather than ants. Yay us!

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/12/2018

I just checked Alexis' twitter, and totally freaked out when I saw that as well. Uh, hi Alexis!

I was checking out some of Catherine's art, and I just realized that the Glory was teased to us months ago, and we just didn't know what we were looking at!

Take a look at the Concursum again and compare it to the Mansus map. What I assumed to be some sort of massive window in the background is actually The Glory! This room has to be really important to be located practically at the door of the Sun's sanctum sanctorum.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/8/2018

A new twitter thread! This one is about randomized skinless bums. Text dumped below, along with a single icon of a skinless but clothed bum:

[spoiler]my beloved is drawing the man bums for the Cultist Stimualtor
thread: why the man bums? there are three likely goals (and a number of other endings) in CS: Power, Knowledge, and Sensation. this was a likely candidate for the Sensation goal. It was an alternative icon for the Ecdysis club. You'll notice it reads clearly as 'lady' rather than 'mans'. You'll also notice it is implied possibly to be skinless.

so this is a good start for our self-destructive Notion: Sensation, in that Hellraiser SM sort of way. There are even constant references in the CS lore to 'peeling back the skin of the world'. of course, it is a lady bottom, and some people prefer the bottoms of mens to the bottoms of ladies. maybe that's not a problem! It could be the bottom of the protagonist, for instance. It could be a general standin for people's bottoms, and I think, on purely aesthetic grounds, the general cultural consensus has been that lady bottoms > mans bottoms. but at the very least it could be *read* as imposing sexual preferences. I (a man) chatted to Lottie (a lady) and we thought it was probably okay, but not definitely okay. a relevant point here is that art time is at a bit of a premium. @cuckooclockwork are turning out magnificently horrible icons for us at a good clip, and thanks to the Kickstarter's success we have a bigger art budget than we expected, but there are a finite number of working days between now and May 31st, and for both pragmatic and quixotic reasons we dislike being late. There are, consequently, a determinedly finite number of bottoms that can be drawn by freelancers with other commitments. CS involves a lot of very similar icons - eg there are >100 different occult tomes, not all of which need to be immediatley unique, and a whole range of things like Rites and Commissions which are *supposed* to be similar. So Lottie is already doing some art tweaking, and she was up for drawing a mans bottoms. imagine.
Lottie has now drawn (subject to searching creative review) a mans bottoms, and this solves the asset problem, but what about the design problem? CS takes my usual approach in being agnostic about the gender and sexual preferences of the protagonist. So if there is a lady bottom and a man bottom, we don't particularly want to bring the narrative to a halt and say 'indicate your bottom preferences'. so what I am *inclined* to do is to randomly assign a bottom variety each playthrough. If you end up with a man bottom and you prefer a lady bottom, RP it; and vice versa. I will probably allow a, ah, back door to let people swap the one for the other, if only to cut down on the trickle of occasional very cross emails. I may *also* just offer a narrative choice framed in a relevant way: 'at the Ecdysis Club, do you choose this companion or that companion'. It's a bit micro compared to the rest of the game, but it might fly. anyway, we can now announce definitively the presence of multiple bottoms in Cultist Simulator.
[/spoiler]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/8/2018

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

2/4/2018

Several small additions to your post:

Barbers tie into the Ecdysist's Riddle, as they help and allow people to lose things. Those things are, normally, hair, but supernatural occult barbers might be able to cut off more than that.

the lock in Barber's Warning may refer to the effort to stop people from knowing about Secret Histories and/or becoming Know, "Each fruit is an eye, but each eye is closed" and eyes first need to be cut open as a sacrifice to the Watchman to see a door (presumably the Stag Door) in one's dreams (see: Physician Legacy).

There is another basic lore that isn't called a Secret: The Occult Scrap, the base lore of Secret Histories. Whether this links the two types of lore or is merely a coincidence is up to you.

What's interesting about Ezeem is that he first requests that you change him. In most other depictions, the Unmerciful Change is done by the practitioner of the Forge principle to others, and not by other parties to the practitioner. Tristan, the Forge-aligned Mortal, is said to despise distraction, trying to distance himself from outside factors. When the Change does affect practitioners, it us quite unpleasant (see: WAR OF THE ROADS, I think? The Secret History where Victorians made a deal with the Forge for extreme industrial might or smth. It doesn't end well for them.)

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/5/2018

Weather Factory‏ wrote:

gearing up towards our next big content milestone, the ADEPT'S BUILD, which will focus on the magic in the weft of the world. see if you can work out a few spells, rituals and incantations from @cuckooclockwork's assets...

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

btw, I have the distinction of posting Cultist Simulator's very first Steam screenshots. I mostly focused on the art. I particularly like the new Ecdysis Club art. I was a little skeptical about the leg, but it looks way better on a card than I thought it would.

btw2, Oriflamme's Auction House now features a mummified hand with a painting on its palm in a glass display case. In Sunless Sea, the Venderbight Curator will reward you with a mummified hand with a painting on its palm if you bring him a pot of violant ink. Alexis sure likes his mummified hands with paintings on their palms.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/5/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/7/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Surprised that Erzeem seems to be affiliated with the Forge of Days, as I would have thought a being that has Thirst in its species' name would be affiliated with the Red Grail.

I'm pretty confident he is affiliated with the Grail. But, maybe he doesn't want to be? He might not find his current position all that pleasant or comfortable. Or maybe he wants a promotion? He is after all only the Second Thirsty and we have no idea where the Thirsties stand in the overall hierarchy of Names. Maybe he'd even like to replace the Grail...or become something less, like a mortal (consider the Principles of Coral in Sunless Sea). Maybe there's something he needs to do that requires a change in form. Whatever it is, the fact he's asking a Know for help him implies that it's off the books, so to speak.
Edward Warren wrote:

The line 'Even after the Sun's division, the mortal pawns of the Forge of Days recalled it fondly' gives a little insight into the nature of the Division.

First, it indirectly confirms that the Division was an actual event. It wasn't some Book of Genesis-esque story that took place before history. The Sun was actually entirely whole up to a certain point in history.

Well, technically it took place before the current history :P So it's not so much in the past as in the past and very sideways.

The idea of a multitude of adjoining, equally true but no longer real histories brings to mind John Crowley's AEgypt Cycle. To take one example from the series, in the world of AEgypt the Ptolemaic earth-centered solar system used to be 100% true. When Copernicus discovered our solar system was heliocentric, he did so not because past astronomers had been incorrect for thousands of years, but because the nature of reality had recently changed and now the solar system was heliocentric. These changes in reality affect not just the present and future, but also retroactively change the past as well, creating a new past where Ptolemaic astronomy was always wrong. This is equally true with stuff like Alchemy - in one age it was possible (albeit extremely difficult) to turn lead to gold and create things like the philosophers stone. In the new age, all that alchemic science is absolute rubbish and always has been. Periods of changes, where one age/history transitions to another, are particularly contentious, because in this in-between state past histories resurface and all possible futures can be glimpsed. So, that medieval rite to call down a demon that, as far as your reality was concerned, never worked...will suddenly start working...and the demon will be very real...and probably not very friendly. Also, it's possible for pieces of previous ages to be preserved into later ages - fossils of what once was - and knowledgeable persons might seek to create these so as to enlighten future people or just to avoid having their worlds totally erased.

Edward Warren wrote:

Also, I had another realization. It's notable that since the beta the different types of lore have all had their names changed. Nearly all of them are called "Secrets" (a Watchman's Secret)... except one. The lore for the Wood is called a Warning. As in "don't you even think of doing trying this, you idiot."

Another thing is that every level 1 lore save two has an occupation associated with it in the title and/or its descriptions: watchmen, barbers, locksmiths, smiths, murders, adapts, warriors, weapon-makers, anatomists, dancers, shamans, and sextons. The first exception is the Occult Scrap, for obvious reasons (Secret Histories lore really seems the odd duck out, doesn't it?). The second exception is the Red Secret. Like, no occupations are connected with it...it just is. The Grail seems much more of the world than the rest of the Hours. All the other archons have specific mortal domains or interests, while the Grail's position seems much more foundational: birth, life, hunger, thirst, sex - the mortal world itself.

Edward Warren wrote:

I don't remember which book exactly, but there's a history book in the game now that discusses the advances of the "barbarians" and their uncouth gods. Whenever the lore brings up barbarians, it might be a form of code to get the Hidden Lore past the censors. "Barbarian" isn't referring to savage tribals, it's referring to "Barbers", perhaps again alluding to beginning practitioners of the Invisible Arts and their strange gods.

The book is William Gore's Wainscot Histories, which sounds rather Borgesian (maybe Gore is this history's Borges).

The Wainscot Histories

Card Description
Subtitled 'Stories from Behind the Walls': a miscellany of non-traditional histories complied by William Gore, including battles not generally aknowledged and countries which appear on no map, told in a playful, apparently fictional manner.

Studying Description
Gore does not mention the Mansus directly, but constant coy metaphysical references to 'Ascending the Staircase of Years,' to 'the Doors of Sleep,' and to 'the Blue Light of Dawn' suggest he had commerce with the unseen world.

Final Description
'It was common in that time to speak of the Division of the Sun; by which Contemporaries understood, the irruption of Barbarian Forces, and of their uncouth Gods.'

I'd be a little hesitant to hang speculation on something so coincidental as a superficial similarity between two English words. The word barbarian and the word barber come from different places, linguistically. I also don't buy it as code for "getting past the censors," as much bigger liberties have been taken in other books and were somehow okay (Skeleton Songs, I'm looking at you!). Though given how the world works, one can't completely dismiss the possibility of some sort of relationship between barbarians and barbers either...

Let me just say then that I think the 'Barbarians' that William Gore writes about were both real and incredibly violent.

I know that in certain quarters of the scholarly world there is a theory that the Aryan invasions and subsequent colonizations dramatically changed the nature of religion in a number of regions, among them Greece. The indigenous pantheons were primarily maternal, while the invaders pantheons were patriarchal. So the earth goddesses of the conquered were married to the sky gods of the invaders, or relegated to out of the way places (such as oddly primordial deities like Hecate, goddess of crossroads). That's the gist of it anyway. It's really not hard to imagine such a thing happening in one of the earlier Histories of CS.

Now, if we were to look at it in a more occult direction, one might interpret the causations differently - the barbarians triumphed because their uncouth gods triumphed. Consider the mythological Trojan War, where the cause of the war, the course of battles, and the ultimate fate of the city are determined by the intrigues of the Olympians.

Clifton Royston wrote:

Q: Was the Great War a victory, defeat, or inconsequential to the various hours?
A: Depends on the History. But to be less coy, events at that level are of direct interest to the Hours.

However, something that should be pointed out - Gore doesn't seem to be saying that the Barbarians and their Gods caused the Sun's division. Rather, their appearance seems to have been a direct result of said division.

Edward Warren wrote:

Also, it gives us an idea of just how revered and important the Sun is in the CS mythos. It says a lot about the Sun that the followers of the Forge of Days -the Hour of anarchy, chaos, and constant change- look back on the undivided, up to that point unchanged Sun and say "Yeah, we really had a good thing going there, didn't we?"

What exactly happened to the Sun seems to be the central mystery of the game.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/7/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/2/2018

New twitter thread! This time showing an investigation, and a new way of throwing it off. First Alexis sends Neville to go murder Inspector Wakefield, but he has no Edge and thus is unsuccessful. This attracts even more unwanted attention and also Neville disappears. Poor lad. So then Alexis brings out the big guns - a being called a Maid-in-the-Mirror, who seems to be one of the Dead who has passed the Knives and the Peacock gate and serves the Sun-In-Rags. She has 10 Edge and 10 White, and some other aspects that aren't clear. She easily kills Wakefield, bringing back a human corpse and some notoriety. Spoiler below has several large embedded images showing this.

[spoiler]
The captions don't say anything not clearly visible in the images, so I'm not bothering to transcribe them.

[/spoiler]

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/2/2018

Also, https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/959435217034514432

A new Rite, the Rite Intercalate, "recapitulates the Sun's abominable fate. It is used in extreme times by foolish adepts." Who's ready to learn Long division?

Edit: Alexis appears to be in quite the teasing mood. https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/959483820113264647 You can use the Rite of the Mother's Mercy to, among other things, raise a corpse to life with the help of the Ring-Yew. In this case it seems to be raising the thing via making it part tree, so it will eventually take root, but it's apparently quite helpful until then.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/2/2018

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/31/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

First he tries to summon one of the Voiceless Dead, using the fragility of Neville's sanity...

I told you he's too useful to be gutted on the altar!

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/30/2018

This is the Percussigant. It remembers fondly the flaying of Marsyas by the Mother of Mountains, and so it will not

will not

will not stop dancing.

'Change me,' says Ezeem, the Second Thirstly.

'Change me. Change me. Change me harder.'

'Now,' Ezeem says, 'my turn.'

'The ascent is glass. The walls are knives. Each step is blood.' The Dead who rest before a new-cracked mirror, who pass the Peacock Gate, who climb the Sharp Stair: they enter the service of the Sun-in-Rags.

From the Weather Factory twitter: Percussigant, Ezeem, the Sharp Stair.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/30/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

1/25/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

"A flapping hairy clawed dancing thing like an animated empty bearskin caught in a hurricane"

Seems to be the Lesser-Horned Swastika Flatbear:

Onwards. A belated insight about Illopoly's not-so-mysterious inamorata, ‘Baldomera’:

St. Baldomer is, unsurprisingly in hindsight, the patron saint of locksmiths. Finally I, twig lockd

. Finally.

Back to speculation, and the Weather Factory Twitter page (O shapeless gods, how I hate Twitter...

Anne Auclair wrote:

This makes me wonder when exactly the Sun was divided. Was Coseley writing about something that happened in the distant past or something that had happened much more recently? Also, what if the Sun had been divided into multiple entities - each aspect becoming its own independent personality, with the original correspondingly faded and diminished. For those who have quested after the Marvelous, consider how the King With a Hundred Hearts lost his curiosity, which became the heart of a sentient building in Spite.

I'm taking with a pinch of salt all that the reputedly-immortal Julian Coseley wrote, since his erstwhile protégé Hersault denounced him as a 'Worm of Worms', and we know that at some point, Worms (whatever they are) 'learned to work people from the inside'. I wonder what became of Coseley in the end.

'Even after the sun's division, the mortal pawns of the Forge of Days recalled it fondly' sounds rather like a snippet from Galmier's report to Illopoly on the Long who live in Port Noon (the 'letter' - written from Noon's Hotel Ciervo in 1932 - was recently put up on the Weather Factory's twitter, but the text is in plain form here). Galmier writes:

"They always pay their respects to the Sun here. At dawn they’ll lift a glass of tea or a coffee-cup, and at sunset they will pour out a little wine. It’s not exactly a religious effect – it’s more like the due one owes an absent friend."

Coseley's claim that 'Even the Sunne can be divided, though it require the Forge of Dayes for its division' (the insight from reading 'The Six Letters on Necessity') sounds to me as if C17 Coseley is saying it can be done, but not exactly admitting that it's been done already. If he knows for a fact that it's possible, he's not telling.

..and where in the arcane spacetime of the Five Histories is Port Noon?)

This is still bugging me. The idea that there could be several routes into Port Noon and that the Hotel Ciervo/Kerisham is in some way the Stag Door's particular connection, at least in England, is something I hadn't considered; it seems a very good line of attack. But what niggles is this:

When the game begins using the no-legacy character, we get a date, and it's January the 18th, 1920. At this point, the Player can already access 3 books written by Theresa Galmier (definitely then still alive, according to info from the Weather Factory site), and 3 by Christopher Illopoly (no data on him). The last of Galmier’s books that you can obtain in-game implies that by 1920, she’s already done more occult research than is compatible with sanity.

But when she’s writing to Illopoly from Port Noon in some version of 1932, Galmier sounds lucid, though maybe a bit cocky. Perhaps she just made a good recovery over the 12+ years between publishing her last mad tome, and Illopoly is still her lover and colleague 1932. That would be...nice. Heartwarming. I don't really buy it. I could be wrong.

And then there’s a mention of “this little port of sun and intrigue and eternity", relayed on the Weather Factory twitter, and a resonant phrase. Mild SMEN spoilers ahead for ‘Who is Salt?’, and a pre-emptive link to a Reddit AMA, since links don't work in spoilers.

[spoiler]When he did his AMA, Alexis Kennedy mentioned that the finales of Seeking had still not been spoiled. This is kind-of true, as no-one’s plastered the three possible endings all over the place, but unique-phrase searches have brought each one up in Journals for a while, and at least one place collates them all. Anyhow, since the unique phrase “this little port of sun and intrigue and eternity” – from the ‘Who is Salt?’ ending – now appears in the Weather Factory’s Twitter, I reckon that’s a green light for anyone who hasn’t already done so to go a-Googling (NB: following this up will lead to the complete end text of ‘Who is Salt?’)

The place the player ends up in does sound a lot like Galmier’s description of Port Noon. And as they return, they recall their role as an agent or supporter of the White. So I was wrong about there being no connection between FL and CS at all: there is at least one, the White. But I don't personally think that the White is either the Sun-in-Rags (whose given colours are red-and-gold, even though its Lore appears to be Winter) or the Door in the Eye (who always wears white). Hmmm.[/spoiler]

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/14/2018

Woooooooo! This thread just got 20,000 views!

Um, how is that calculated anyway?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/18/2018

Investigations will be getting more complex.

Wait a minute, the Suppression Bureau actually cares about evidence?! They don't just grab the most gossiped about person and declare "if ye float ye be a witch but if ye sink ye be human!"? The modern age is truly full of wonders :P

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/19/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/10/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Perhaps even more importantly, the hours of the temporal day are produced by the Sun, which seems like very strong evidence that it's something greater.

Temporal hours aren't produced by the Sun though, they're divisions of time that merely correspond to the Earth's rotation. Using the Gregorian system, tomorrow's 1 pm will be 1 pm regardless of what the sun does. You can have a perfectly fine 24 hour day, or a 30 hour day, without the sun. And while it might seem a little strange for the Sun to be a single Hour, universal features of the world like birth, hunger, and blood have their source/ruler in the Hour of the Red Grail. Birth, bleeding, and hunger don't just happen at 5 pm (the Hour of the Grail), so the duration of the material sun's light wouldn't be restricted either.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

If anything, I would expect the Sun to be that ruling power within the Glory, from which all the Hours are emanations.

The Hours seem to come from a variety of places, with only the gods-from-light descending from the Glory.

"GODS-FROM-LIGHT DESCEND."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-FLESH REMEMBER."
"GODS-FROM-STONE REMAIN."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-BLOOD CONSUME."
"GODS-FROM-NOWHERE; GODS-FROM NOWHERE."

My theory is that the Lantern, the Forge, the Heart, the Grail, the Moth, the Knock, and the Edge were the very first Hours to appear, hence why everything in the visible world, even other Hours, bears their imprint. Although I suspect that the Lantern was the first of the first, given that its also the principle of the Mansus. Being the principle of the Mansus gives the Lantern a fairly privileged position relative to the others and suggests it has some sort of seniority, you know?

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

In terms of the nature of the Glory, I'd say it's basically a location, similar to the Wood, the Mansus, our reality, and nowhere. All of those allow plenty of room for debate as to whether they're really locations, of course, but they're in some sense analogous to locations, which is what matters.

Yeah, that makes sense...well, except for Nowhere being a location or analogous to one. There are some problems with that.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/10/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/9/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Q: Was the Great War a victory, defeat, or inconsequential to the various hours?
A: Depends on the History. But to be less coy, events at that level are of direct interest to the Hours.

I'm really glad this question got asked. When you stop to think about it, the First World War is really important to the setting: its a mystery, a part of the background, a potential source of motivation, and a likely battlefield.

The game takes place sometime in the 1920s. Crucially, the History we know has changed since then, so a lot of basic events are up in the air and we don't really know what happened or how bad things are. If the war happened, then it's only been a few years since the formal end of hostilities. Now, one of the hallmarks of the postwar world was a tremendous sense of loss and a strong current of pessimism, disillusionment, and anxiety, with many people fearing for the future of civilization. You know, just the sort of atmosphere that would be very conductive to occultism, cult recruitment, and miracle seekers. But the war isn't just an implicit part of the underlying setting, it also hangs over your own character's motivations. They lived through the cataclysm, probably knew people who died, and might even have fought in it. Have they given up on the material world, which they perceive as entering a new dark age? Are they seeking enlightenment because they want to discover the forces that are truly responsible for what happened? Do they want power so that they might surpass the kings and generals who so recently turned their life upside down? Do they want to reverse, rewrite or otherwise undo their country's defeat? Or do they feel that their country's victory wasn't great enough? Or, looking into the future, do they want to foresee, influence, and prevent/shape the next great world conflict? Another hallmark of the 1920s was that it was a period sandwiched between wars. Given how the Hours can change history and time like humans edit wikipedia, both wars, past and future, are potential sources of conflict and struggle.

Then there is the degree of correspondence to consider. Does violence and transformation on earth reflects violence and transformation in the other world? Was the Great War, with all its revolutionary destruction, a war in heaven as well?
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/9/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/11/2017

The Legacy system prototype in action.

Alexis: [H]ere's the legacy screen working! That's placeholder graphics in there; the card placement on game start is wonky; and you can't currently choose an existing card from your previous game, only a menu of starting options; but it's pulling content through from the content files and applying it meaningfully. I wanted to get it up and running ASAP so I could test out the content with the whole loop.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/17/2017

Alexis seems pretty busy with MACHEN, the legacy system, and brand new card art. I think there's a second live stream coming up in another week or two, but I can't remember the exact date?

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Temporal hours are, in fact, generated by the sun. They're the divisions of the day, which is produced by the sun. It is noon when the sun is at its highest point, and everything else follows from that. If you have some better method for measuring the rotation of the earth, you can define it differently, but most people throughout history have not had a better method, so the sun is the easiest way to accurately define that. Obviously time zones don't necessarily match up exactly to that, but specifically defined time zones are a modern innovation and we shouldn't be surprised that regularizing things makes them not quite as accurate - that's a tradeoff for the other benefits of regularized time, which among other things include making it possible to have a well-defined time without making specific reference to the sun. Birth, bleeding, and hunger can't be used to define the day and the time of day.

Hours are divisions of time that are applied to the day/night cycle and the movement of the sun. They aren't produced by the sun. If the sun went dark, our system of regularized time would keep working. If a person took up residence in an underground cave with no access to the sun's light, a system of 60 minute hours would still be a viable way of keeping track of time. An hour is an hour is an hour. Also, there are spare Hours which aren’t part of the normal 24 hour day. To me this all suggests that each individual Hour has a certain amount of independence and autonomy.

The fact that the 24 hours of mortal time are organized around the sun’s movements seems to me to be an “as above, so below” reflection of the Sun’s privileged position. As the Sun is the ruling Hour, everything is arranged around pleasing the Sun in its regular promenades through the Mansus, just as the mortal day is organized around the sun’s movement through the heavens. Or Versailles was organized around King Louis XIV. When we look at the kickstarter release description of the Mansus:

"BEHIND THE WORLD IS THE MANSUS."
"THE MANSUS IS THE FORTRESS OF HOURS."
"THE MANSUS IS THE HOUSE OF THE SUN."
"ITS CORRIDORS ARE THE ANGLES OF TIME."
"LIFE BEGINS IN THE MANSUS; MEMORY ENDS THERE."

It’s notable that the Mansus is the Fortress of the Hours before it is the House of the Sun. Its shared status takes precedence over its dominant power. If the Mansus was first and foremost the Sun’s place, then House of the Sun would be second, but Fortress of the Hours is second, indicating the Sun is an Hour. Next, the layout of the Mansus as “the angles of time” follows from the Sun’s mastery, as the Sun governs the apportionment of the corridors and when it travels through them. And from this Time is beget, among other things, the descent of souls into mortal bodies and their eventual return.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/17/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

10/17/2017

I lean towards thinking that the Sun is something beyond and above the Hours, but if we keep arguing about it in the absence of more lore on this subject, we're going to end up burning each other as heretics before we know it.

And then won't we all feel silly if it turns out it's completely different from what any of us thought?

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

10/18/2017

I've been thinking about the Red Grail lately. I don't know if its my own admittedly ravenous appetite or my more... interesting experiences in Sunless Sea, but there's something about the blood god that intrigues me greatly. This is mainly speculation on my part, but after analyzing the few snippets we have about it I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this particular Hour is an enemy of the Long.

We know that the Long are altering history towards an unknown end, creating and re-creating histories with the help of the Forge of Days. We also know that something about the Port of Noon can cause people to be forgotten. Additionally we know that the Long punish those that interfere with their affairs with "excisement", essentially altering history so that they never existed. This fate is probably shared with all the people that lived in the previous histories whenever the Forge creates a new timeline. I doubt the god of birth is pleased with lesser beings making it so that people were never born. If someone wasn't born, they cannot be eaten, can they?

The Orchid Transfigurations wrote:

“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.”

That which has been devoured cannot be undevoured, as they had to have existed in order to have been eaten in the first place.The Hours are not inherently evil. While the Red Grail's desire to devour might make it one of the more dangerous Hours, it might not be inherently malicious. If the Long see excisement as a punishment, the following line could be read like a reassurance, a promise that the Grail will keep one's memory alive.

web prototype victory text wrote:

"Here am I, alone on the night of my victory, my end. The Grail has opened its mouth. It will not forget my savour. It will not forget."

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/2/2017

There's nothing asking me not to share it, so here it is.

Survey List wrote:

The Moth
The Door-in-the-Eye, sometimes called the Doorkeeper
The Thunderskin, sometimes called the Heart Relentless
The Mother of Ants
The Witch-and-Sister
The Sister-and-Witch
The Lionsmith, sometimes called the Golden General
The Colonel, sometimes called the Cartographer of Scars
The Beach-Crow
The Sun-in-Rags
The Horned Axe
The Red Grail
The Flowermaker
The Forge of Days
The Rising Spider
The Crowned Growth

Only a little we didn't already know. The Door-in-the-Eye has a third name, the Doorkeeper (he's also called the Watchman). The Witch-and-Sister has a second aspect where top billing is flipped. The Lionsmith and the Colonel both have alternate names.

I've decided that my name is going to be associated with the Sun-in-Rags. A ragged Sun is better than no Sun.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/2/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

menaulon
Posts: 112

11/5/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

Is there a poll going somewhere?

I've been away for a few days, so if there's CS stuff going on somewhere, I'd love to give my opinion on my favorite Hour if there is.

If you've backed at the level sufficient to have a name included into the game, you can choose what Hour to associate the name with through the recently sent poll. The poll is thus for Stolen Name backers only.

Anne Auclair wrote:

What do people think about this?

At first I was a little wary of this idea, but now I really hope Alexis actually tries it because I'm rather eager to test it out.

I feel this is an idea that might turn out well, but a lot depends on how exactly it ends up working in context. I think I won't know what to think until I actually play the game with it and feel how it interacts with other timer mechanics. It could a sense of creeping urgency. It could just lead to clicking escape and then deciding what to do.

--
Menaulon
Open to social actions, but would prefer to be betrayed in the search for Photographer.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/22/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
and the Unburnt God if that's not another name for the Forge of Days (or maybe another hour, but Forge of Days seems like the most likely one, if it's a duplicate). Are there any others whose names we know?

I considered that as well, but t I'm not so sure the Unburnt God is the Forge of Days. Obviously this god partakes in, or has some relationship with, the Principle of the Forge, but a Forge isn't unburnt...it literally is burning.

Do you think "unburnt" when you think "forge"? Actually, Unburnt seems to suggest a deity in opposition to the Forge of Days - one who cannot be consumed or transformed, even by that which yearns to consume and transform everything. There are still eleven Hours as yet unaccounted for after all.

Yeah, I don't think it's particularly likely to be a duplicate, I just think that the Forge of Days is the most likely candidate if it is a duplicate. The point of a forge is that the forge itself doesn't burn, so that you can get the intense heat necessary to shape metal easily.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/22/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Relevant to certain fan theories about Christopher Illopoly

Fire and transformation have some erotic connotations and Illopoly seizes upon them to justify writing some very intense love poetry to a very special someone (probably Teresa Galmier). Because of course he does :P

TOO MUCH INFORMATION CHRISTOPHER!

Fire is not a toy and you are so going to get burned :P

Also, add the Unburnt God, which seems associated with the Principle of Forge, to the list of unknown Hours.

Interesting. Right now, I think we have the names of 19 or so Hours, some of which may be duplicates. 16 of them are from the backer survey:

Survey wrote:

The Moth
The Door-in-the-Eye, sometimes called the Doorkeeper
The Thunderskin, sometimes called the Heart Relentless
The Mother of Ants
The Witch-and-Sister
The Sister-and-Witch
The Lionsmith, sometimes called the Golden General
The Colonel, sometimes called the Cartographer of Scars
The Beach-Crow
The Sun-in-Rags
The Horned Axe
The Red Grail
The Flowermaker
The Forge of Days
The Rising Spider
The Crowned Growth

The ones not mentioned here of which I am aware are the Ring-Yew, the Black-Flax, and the Unburnt God if that's not another name for the Forge of Days (or maybe another hour, but Forge of Days seems like the most likely one, if it's a duplicate). Are there any others whose names we know?

Also, I am absolutely certain that nobody would dream of writing their interpretations of said poetry, especially not with all words which cannot be used in polite society euphemised with the names of Hours. This would be both scandalous and foolhardy.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 11/22/2017

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/16/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

A screenshot of Cultist Simulator's challenge/combat system.

One thing is definitely clear, whatever the exact History currently in force, this 1920s is a period of widespread insecurity and pessimism about the future of civilization:

The Dark Beyond the Walls wrote:

There are too many uncertainties; too many fears of the future; too many crushing terrors of possibility. I hardly dare learn these lessons.

Bad enough to fill a sensitive soul with explicit existential horror:

Dread wrote:

I've seen too much. A nameless gnawing fear has its teeth in my hopes; an existential horror.

Which is not all that different from Britain's current History, come to think of it. Of course a civilization standing on multiple precipices would be a powerful motivator for one who is seeking power or escape. It also raises the stakes of your research. Whether from some inner irresponsibility or violent nihilism, you might easily become the one who gives your tottering civilization its final push (well, not final from the Hours' perspective - they'd just change the History like they did with England's Age of Steel - but it would be final from a purely linear mortal perspective, probably).
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/16/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/17/2017

I've been doing some research into the Depression era consumer economy of the Pacific Northwest, which involves looking through lots and lots of newspapers. Anyway, I found the following editorial in a small town paper, dated September 1936.

Frocks and Futures

Gradually we have become accustomed to women's clothes that reveal the wearers with increasing frankness. But now the Parisian dressmakers are promoting an idea that brings a chill of apprehension.

They propose to reveal through clothes not only the external woman, but the innermost secrets of her heart and the fabric of her being. All this by working into the clothes the celestial symbols and astrological dingbats which the dressmaker's own private astrologer says govern the lady's personality and future.

Go slow, ladies! Picture yourself at dinner with that man to whom you are being especially sweet. He casts a wayward eye at a frilled ruffle or embroidered border of madame's costume, and if he's a student of the stars, the symbols may terrify him.

Think twice, Mr. Parisian dressmaker, before you make clothes more revealing than even your most exhibition-minded client might wish!

Color me skeptical that astrological signs would actually scare off a significant number of men :P Chinese restaurants have zodiac menus and fortune cookies, newspapers have horoscopes, and carnivals have palm readers because people like that sort of thing and see what they want in it. And I say this as a Scorpio, the one sign that should honestly scare people :P

But it got me thinking, instead of harmless old astrological signs, what about a dress that symbolically conveys the Hour of your birth? For someone in the Know, such a dress could be pretty terrifying. A bad date or a tumultuous relationship would be the least of the potential trouble.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/17/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/21/2017

A new update about the upcoming beta build!

http://weatherfactory.biz/this-the-season-cultist-simulator-beta-build-soon/

In case you don't want to or can't click through for whatever reason:

Alexis Kennedy wrote:

I committed to getting a beta build of Cultist Simulator out by the end of the year. I’ve been tidying up my task list, and I can say it’s going to be significantly earlier than the end of the year – you should see it by mid-December.
This is still an early build, but when it goes live I’ll be happy to call it beta, not just alpha. It’ll be available to everyone who backed the game on Kickstarter, and everyone who’s pre-ordered it: as ever, this is the Perpetual Edition, meaning that anyone who purchases now gets the same basic perks (dev builds, free DLC forever).
What does it bring?
- Lots and lots and lots of UI improvements from the alpha

- Game is now loaded and saved

- Your character can be named

- Much smoother game intro

- Legacies – starting over with different beginnings – now work, though there are only a couple of them

- Scholar work: solve conundrums, compose new works, publish them for funds

- Dreamer activities: begin to explore the Mansus

- New menaces: Dread and Fascination

- A miscellany of further content

- Basic indicator of whether an activity will END THE GAME

- A double-speed fast-forward button!

edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 11/21/2017

+2 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

11/28/2017

Only just now getting caught up with the recent updates, and I'm really excited about the amount of books that'll be in the beta--and that we'll be able to publish some ourselves! Though I imagine becoming a published author will undoubtedly attract attention, wanted or not. And that we'll be able to "begin exploring the Mansus," which makes me wonder exactly how far we can go, and how much farther we'll be able to in the final game.

Edward Warren wrote:

Those lore items are certainly very interesting. Thank you.

*spoiler*

No problem!

[spoiler]True, I maaay have gotten a lil excited and assumed that the Hour is called the White, when that could possibly just be a descriptor; the Sun-In-Rags does seem fitting, now that you mention it. But at the risk of sounding crazy, when I recently re-read Galmier's letter describing Port Noon, I was sort of reminded of the "Who is Salt?" SMEN ending (...I hope that isn't too telling, is it? I can explain further via PM if anyone wishes, but of course I don't want to publicly say anymore than that). I know Alexis stated early on that Noon and Fallen London were separate universes, but... I just can't help this niggling feeling that there may be a connection there, somehow. But I know that I may be reaching there :P

And I think simultaneous worship of The Colonel and The Lionsmith can maybe be possible; perhaps if their followers view them as a sort of duality? Thinking about it, in a way I'm reminded of the God and Goddess duality present in some pagan religions, most notably Wicca.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Occult societies are going to be a big part of the game. Founding, building, instructing, governing, and utilizing your society is presumably what the Guru role is all about.

Definitely, and I'm eager to see how it all works. While not actually executable in the alpha, the game's files do make references to more interaction with one's society, such as promoting members, finding a suitable premises, and possibly even having different categorizations, such as a Clique or an Order--or perhaps our cults will begin as a Clique and evolve into an Order, once more believers are recruited and initiation rites (also mentioned) are established? It's hard to tell, but the "clique" description is: "An earnest and informal club. Set the correct rite at its heart, and it will grow to become both weapon and fortress." (Forgive me if all of that is available in the browser prototype--I honestly couldn't get that far into it, but I have noticed some content from the browser version is present in the alpha's files :P)
[/spoiler]
edited by Alice Lutwidge on 11/28/2017

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/29/2017

Ain't that the truth.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

11/30/2017

*sigh*

Wish I wrote like that.

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/25/2017

Vexpont wrote:

This is bothering me too, and I'm a hopeless mythology nerd. It may be possible to integrate freestanding fantastical lore with existing myths and allegories, but it's surely not going to be easy and I wonder if it'll put some players off. Just exactly how arcane is, well, a bit too arcane?

Personally, I don't find it difficult? It's mostly a matter of patience, really. If you don't understand something at first, eventually you will.

I'm getting a pretty strong sense that the universe will be self-contained. Although connections with real world mythology are fascinating, I don't think they'll actually be necessary to understand things once the game is fully complete? We find them useful because we're discussing very small fragments of the game, you know? So I don't think that's going to be something the average player will have to deal with unless they want to.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/25/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

11/26/2017

Those lore items are certainly very interesting. Thank you.

[spoiler] Are we sure that the hour of cold is actually named "The White"? If we are, then that would definitely be a BIG DEAL since that's the name of a mysterious entity involved with Salt in Sunless Sea. If not, then I'd be willing to bet then that's the lore of the Sun-In-Rags, the false-sun that's always depicted in a snowscape that desires beautiful endings. It was the Alpha, so I'd reckon that The White is either another name of SiR, or a placeholder name/easter egg.

The Society of St. Hydra was definitely an interesting development, as every other lore snippet involved in the founding of every other society included in the alpha implies each cult is centered around the worship of a certain Hour or Hours. I also wonder what other lore and societies he might add later that he didn't feel comfortable giving away now.

Knife-Patterns seems to be the lore of The Colonel and The Lionsmith (aka The Golden General). The society having Edge in it's name all but confirms the involvement of the Colonel. The two of them are locked in a never-ending battle with each other, it makes sense for their spheres of influence to include struggle and conquest. This is interesting, as again we have a society based around the worship of numerous Hours at the same time. How one would go about conducting a society that reveres two opposed forces at once is interesting to imagine. [spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/26/2017

Thinking About the Suppression Bureau

Investigations in the alpha happen in three stages. First, the authorities start paying Attention to your activities. This can be triggered either by the RNG or from a failed burglary. Presumably in the full game there will be a broader range of triggers. If you have a Notoriety card laying on the table, this will go into the Attention token and lead to the Suppression Bureau opening an Investigation. You can stop the Investigation by bribing them with funds or by sacrificing a follower, but if you don’t get the investigators off your back then things proceed to the third stage, the actual Trial. At the Trial, as with the Investigation, you can bribe the authorities or place all the blame on a follower. If you fail to stop the Trial you are convicted and the game comes to an end. Should the investigation end at any point short of conviction, the investigation token produces a second Notoriety card.

In true witching hunting fashion, Investigations narratively begin with “rumor squat[ting] on rooftops and flutter[ing] in gutters.” People are talking about you and it’s not good, leading the authorities to start asking questions. If there is a particularly notorious story floating around somewhere – about your Society meetings, your esoteric lectures, your outrageous behavior, your recent burglary attempt – people tell the the investigators and this leads them to begin actively digging into your activities.

As many of the things that earn you Notoriety aren’t technically illegal, you are for the most part investigated on the basis of your public reputation alone, as opposed to any specific crime. But, there might be a bit more to the Bureau’s methods than first meets the eye. Perhaps the Suppression Bureau has its own special ways of divining your guilt once you have been brought to their attention. Presumably their investigators would have access to the same books and the same dreamscape as the people they are investigating… Although the image of the Suppression Bureau as a gang of diviners is somewhat undercut by how easily you can pin all blame for your activities on a willing patsy…you’d think they’d see through such a ruse.

Anyway, regardless of whether they’re going after you on the basis of rumor or magic, it is explicit that an actual physical crime is wholly unnecessary, for the Suppression Bureau “are charged with suppressing the less usual type of criminal – the criminal whose crimes may exist only in dreams.” So thought crimes, essentially - though with the added twist that your dreams happen in an actual, objectively existing place, the Woods and the Mansus, where your private thoughts and desires have an impact outside your head. Because of this distinction, it might be better to think of these transgressions as more astral crimes, immaterial crimes, or invisible crimes. These are the crimes you commit in trying to go beyond the world's skin, just as real as a murder or a robbery.

These immaterial crimes are also state secrets and their existence is actively hidden from the general public:

The Trial wrote:

My trial has begun, in a closed court. There are crimes whose existence the state does not admit.

You aren’t even fully informed of the charges against you. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the judges don’t even understand what you are being accused of:

Conviction wrote:
The nature of my crimes was vague, and the trial contentious. But there was a consensus that I have done something I should not.

It all seems to come down to whether or not there is something…off…about you. And of course there has to be something off about you in order to bring the attention of the Suppression Bureau. QED.

This is an organization that is very much a law unto itself. As suspicion is all that is really needed to establish guilt, conviction is always assured. Unless, that is, you pay, for the Bureau’s power is second only to its incredibly pervasive corruption. Their demands aren’t cheap – a single funds card is enough to keep a person in reasonable comfort for a significant period of time. But they aren’t particularly exorbitant either, costing about as much as a shopping trip to Morlands or a selection of specialty candles. Anyone with a steady and reasonably paying job, or a significant amount of inherited wealth, can easily buy them off.

There is an interesting contrast between the vast powers of the Suppression Bureau and just how easily they can be financially induced to leave you alone. These two features, its unchecked power and its unchecked corruption, are very much interlinked. The secrecy that makes the Bureau so menacing is also what ultimately makes it so ineffective. It’s the rumor based investigations, secret laws, otherworldly jurisdictions, opaque court system, and vague charges which enable the pervasive corruption that undercuts its core mission. If you can be jailed for a vague, unspoken, and secret reason, you can just as easily be let off for a vague, unspoken, and secret reason. Thus a system designed to keep occult matters hidden from the public is what allows an underground occultism to flourish.

Based on your interactions with it, I suspect that the Suppression Bureau spends most of its time blackmailing and extorting various collectors, writers, nonconformists, and dabblers, as opposed to locking up actually dangerous occultists. I’m reminded somewhat of the U.S. Prohibition Bureau, the corrupt, undermanned Federal agency that was good at raiding and shaking down speakeasies but utterly ineffective at enforcing real prohibition or combating organized bootlegging by criminal syndicates. I wonder if there is a similar dynamic at work in Cultist Simulator, with the reportedly immortal Long taking the role of occultist gangsters. It would fit the general 1920s atmosphere. Miss Morland’s shop has always struck me as having the same atmosphere as a speakeasy, from the dingy location, lack of advertising, and stated policy of never learning the patron’s names.

Maybe the Bureau will get a bit more serious when the bodies start piling up and the world’s skin begins to tear – this would make sense both narratively and in terms of difficulty. When you start off you’re just dreaming, gathering disciples, collecting books, committing minor burglaries – small stuff, really. Bigger things, like say summoning an Hour via human sacrifice, would presumably risk getting the attention of the Bureau’s top most people – the Untouchables of the Cultist Simulator world.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/26/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

11/25/2017

My god...
Will I even have the chance to understand those texts when I receive the game?
If this allegory continues, I will probably stop playing after 10 minutes upset

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/23/2017

Vexpont wrote:

It sounds like an allegorical Comedy of Humours, where each character is formally identified with an attitude or philosophy.

Oh, wonderful observation!

Vexpont wrote:

The characters could easily all be Hours allegories, but I'm only willing to bet on one:

John Sonne, cunning but ailing – The Sun-in-Rags, IMO. Busy old fool, unruly sun.

That seems like a pretty safe bet. Sonne is apparently an obsolete term for both son and sun. I think this double meaning (son/sun) is pretty intentional, especially if you think the Sun-in-Rags is the product of the True Sun being split or divided in some way.

Vexpont wrote:

Maevelin - I haven't a clue. The name Maeve is rooted in the idea of intoxication, though, especially through mead.

I'm thinking either the Grail, which has a aspect that one might characterize as intoxicating ('blood and delight' - 'the Delightful Sacrament'), or someone we haven't seen yet. Maybe a rival to the Thunderclap, which is the god of coffee and other stimulents.
Vexpont wrote:

Leo - The Lionsmith?

It certainly seems rather leonine.

Vexpont wrote:

Corvino – The Beachcrow? (also, an upstart. Ha. May be a red herring. Let's see)

Since Corvino is derived from the Latin corvus, which means raven/crow, this seems an even safer bet than John Sonne. There's only one crow themed Hour.

Vexpont wrote:

There is a definite poetical theme emerging. 'The poet makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses' - poets are at risk of opening certain avenues of dodgy esoteric insight -- either knowingly, or in the pursuit of art.

Poets seldom do so knowingly, at least if Socrates/Plato are to be believed:

For after the public men I went to the poets, those of tragedies, and those of dithyrambs,and the rest, thinking that there I should prove by actual test that I was less learned than they. So, taking up the poems of theirs that seemed to me to have been most carefully elaborated by them, I asked them what they meant, that I might at the same time learn something from them.

Now I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen; but still it must be told. For there was hardly a man present, one might say, who would not speak better than they about the poems they themselves had composed. So again in the case of the poets also I presently recognized this, that what they composed they composed not by wisdom, but by nature and because they were inspired, like the prophets and givers of oracles; for these also say many fine things, but know none of the things they say; it was evident to me that the poets too had experienced something of this same sort. And at the same time I perceived that they, on account of their poetry, thought that they were the wisest of men in other things as well, in which they were not. So I went away from them also thinking that I was superior to them in the same thing in which I excelled the public men.

Apology, 22a-22c.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 1 translated by Harold North Fowler; Introduction by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1966.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/23/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/7/2017

There is now a Steam page, and a listed release date of May 8, 2018: http://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/8/2017

The Beta is currently scheduled for release at the end of next week.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/3/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Fun fact, an ecdysiast is literally a strip-tease artist . "What may be lost?"

Why is this so clever? In Hermetic and Gnostic theology, the descent of the pure soul to Earth is marked by passage through various heavenly doors/spheres. As it descends through these gates the soul acquires various burdensome vices and material desires - much like putting on clothes. These vices and desires serve to bind the soul to Earth and the movement of the heavens (i.e. fate and the whim of its rulers). In order to reascend, the soul must cast off these extraneous burdens as it passes back through the heavenly gates.

What I think is going on: The Ecdysiast's Riddle asks you what you can give up. The result is a succession of parables where you strip yourself down to your most fundamental elements. You're casting away all that is unessential, all that covers up the soul. Casting it all away, piece by piece, until there's no more that can be lost - the true you, free at last (the Moth is chaos). Characterizing it as an erotic dance makes it all sound kind of cute, until you realize that this stripping down won't stop at metaphorical clothes, but go much, much deeper...

A response to Alice:
[spoiler]Alice Lutwidge wrote:

True, I maaay have gotten a lil excited and assumed that the Hour is called the White, when that could possibly just be a descriptor; the Sun-In-Rags does seem fitting, now that you mention it. But at the risk of sounding crazy, when I recently re-read Galmier's letter describing Port Noon, I was sort of reminded of the "Who is Salt?" SMEN ending (...I hope that isn't too telling, is it? I can explain further via PM if anyone wishes, but of course I don't want to publicly say anymore than that). I know Alexis stated early on that Noon and Fallen London were separate universes, but... I just can't help this niggling feeling that there may be a connection there, somehow. But I know that I may be reaching there :P

I think the White might be a location? Like the Mansus, the Wood, and the Edge seem to be?

In A Journey in a Window, your character is shown their death "where the woods turn white." The Mansus also has a White Door, which is the door through which the dead and dreamers enter.

Parsival's Notebook wrote:

In preparation for the Riddle of the Stag Door (which I will describe later) a dreamer passes through the White Door, not once but many times. The White Door was known anciently as the Bone Door or the Ivory Door. Speech may not pass its valves, and dreamers are mute when they enter the House.

Connecting the White to the White Door is the fact that using the White Ceremony to create an occult society gives you the Children of Silence.
[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/30/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Dr Ibn al-Adim, sometimes called the Aleppine. The good doctor has an interest in overlooked histories. He’s a newcomer to the city, but speaks fondly of his memories of previous visits, long ago.

Such wonderful ambiguity here. Is he claiming that he knows his alternative selves? Is he saying he's a reincarnation of a past Ibn al-Adim? Or is he hinting that he's an immortal?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/5/2017

http://weatherfactory.biz/the-thing-on-the-doorstep/

Lottie Bevan (former producer at FBG, romantically involved with Alexis) has just joined Weather Factory as a co-founder alongside Alexis. She'll mostly be working on the things that aren't in Alexis's main wheelhouse of writing/design.

Additionally, there is now a Weather Factory twitter: https://twitter.com/factoryweather

Finally, there are some new screenshots on the Cultist Simulator page, showing the updated interface (substantially similar to the existing alpha, but seems more spacious, and has a very nice infobar at the bottom).
http://weatherfactory.biz/cultist-simulator/
https://i1.wp.com/weatherfactory.biz/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/screenies-5-alpha.jpg
The stuff on the desktop is mostly stuff we've seen, at least in the trailers, although I don't think we'd known that Ezeem the Second Thirsty has an expiration date - that could just be a dematerialization timer, if we're lucky. (Which we probably are, there isn't anything else that has a particular effect when it expires.)
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 12/5/2017

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

5/13/2018

The Flowermaker, a greedy power of things too wonderful to bear.

[spoiler]

"THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT HARM YOU. THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT FIND YOU. THE FLOWERMAKER HAS WHAT YOU DESIRE."[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 5/13/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/17/2018

With all the big systems firmly in place, the details are getting a rework. There are now skill cards you can earn and these are necessary for increasing Reason, Passion, Health. The menace cards are a bit more common and consequently more deadly (though Fascination also decays now). Working at G&G now has a narrative. Dreaming is being filled out. The Old Man at the hospital now gives you a fairly sizable amount of money (9 funds to be exact). And the cult creation and recruitment system is a bit more involved (founding an Unflinching Order required the sacrifice of a Health into a Wound).

The last few days have seen a dizzying number of updates!
edited by Anne Auclair on 4/17/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/20/2018

I drew a thing:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

4/24/2018

Alexis tweeted out a link to this, which explains exactly where the name Poppy Lascelles came from. If you don't want to click, spoilers below.
[spoiler]
It's a backer name. "Poppy" is her middle name and "Lascelles" is a family name. It has no intentional significance. Now, this being Cultist Simulator, it would be vastly unwise to rule out unintentional significance, but it was not added on Alexis's discretion alone.
[/spoiler]

+2 link

Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783

6/9/2018

I am similarly frustrated with the game. Would it be too much to ask that the fallen characters leave you something to work with, so you do not start from scratch EVERY time? I have obviously backed the game because I love the creators' words and the eldritch world he half-conjures. The way the game is set, I have to sink way too many hours just to get a glimpse of what I thought I was purchasing during the KS.

One thing I liked about Sunless sea, which I found 2 years ago: you could play the hard way and grind endlessly like an actual sailor... or you could choose to allow saves and be safer to explore the world. CS currently has no such option. Thus I have to play the boring part again and again and again, till I get to the part actually promised.

--
Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/6/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
Oh look, another peek at the Magic Spreadsheet!
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

I think the last line confirms conclusively that these entries all relate to non-Mansus (i.e. physical world) explorable locations. That was a pretty obvious assumption anyway, since we know that's the next major area of the game he's working on, but ages ago Alexis specifically mentioned that in the game we'd be able to "Locate and pillage the Star Shattered Fane" and there it is.

It's interesting that these seem to be grouped, perhaps into regions? There's an actual mountain range called the Zagros mountains, which name one scholar tried to relate to the name of the god Zagreus, the Orphic version of Dionysus, but others relate Zagreus to an archaic Greek word for a hunter who traps live animals in pits. And look, there's the "Hunter's Pits". Someone's been reading religious etymologies. We're onto you, Kennedy. (Well on that one anyway; the rest of the locations have me as lost as poor Neville.)
edited by cliftonr on 3/6/2018

Google doesn't get me anything for Mausoleum of Wolves, but it could be a translation? Seems unlikely, though. Probably made up. Snow's Keeper is a backer name of an occultist, as per the post on names, so these aren't all locations; that's probably someone you can meet in the Mountains. Eye of Ikirwami is maybe either an item, or some sort of weird being? Not sure. Ikirmawi isn't anything significant; Google gets me random Facebook pages, so it's probably a backer name. I think Foxlily Meadows is another backer name (Lily Fox and Snowskeeper both liked a reply I made to a Weather Factory tweet).

The second from the bottom looks like it says Shadowless Kings? Googling "shadowless kings" gets me mostly gibberish from SEO spam sites, but also a description of an obscure ballet called Les Metamorphoses (ctrl+f 'shadow'), by Paul Taglioni and Cesare Pugni, about a student named Karl who lives in a ruined castle and studies "the mysteries of the shadowless kings of perdition". Then a shape-shifting spirit decides to dissuade him from the pursuit of dark magic, and plays various pranks on him which eventually save him from his dangerous studies. Clearly relevant, especially since Zagreus apparently shape-shifted to try and avoid being killed by the Titans, but maybe not intended. Alexis also tweeted about Papa Bois, who according to Wikipedia is known to have the power of metamorphosis. I'd shy away from reading too much into the obscure ballet, but shapeshifting does seem relevant here.

Star-Shattered Fane has been mentioned; alongside its mention in the Kickstarter, it says you'll be able to pillage the Tomb of the Long. Maybe the Long are the Shadowless Kings? Maybe it's not Kings?
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/6/2018

+2 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

2/15/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
JoelMB12 wrote:
Did everyone miss you when he brought up the stag door in the Twitter feed Introduce us the first name? Data mining section he dropped release the process of what is to become a Know

Oh, I noticed. I was just kinda hoping someone else would bring it up so it felt less like I was the only one screaming into an empty void-

-I mean, posting to the thread.

In more hilarious news this is now a feature in the game:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

That's right. In true cult leader fashion, it's now possible to sucker in new devotees by spouting off mystical-sounding nonsense. Hey, if it works for made up religions, why not a honest-to-God eldritch cult, right?

KIFFLOM!

I was considering posting it, but I had posted the last few Twitter updates so I figured someone else could get this one. Anyway, the Stag Door being a Name is a really interesting development, particularly given that the current build has pieces of content that say that a. becoming a Know is passing through the Stag Door and b. that you, the cultist, are already a Know, and what distinguishes you is your knowledge of the Secret Histories. I wonder if the implication is that you have previously passed through the Stag Door unintentionally in dreams, and that's what sparked your interest in the Mansus.

I do kind of like that beer you like subconsciously you pass through it. But now you’re doing It fully. And it implies that become Know is the first shred of humanity ripped away considering you can develop unnatural appetite. This is the step he gave. Choose the notion talk to any patrons about Clues for that notion. 2 reforge that notion to a dedication to passing through the stag door. Oh ritual with that dedication at it’s redacted reverts to obsession. 3 Obsessions can lead to cravings during seasons of appetites.

names are what aspects of Hours but ask the only thing the Hours could Fear. They seem to serve particular roles. And he did say the possibility in the future that could maybe be playable.

I love it means we pillage the bookstore so thoroughly that we know enough of occult knowledge Least spout mystifying sounding bullshit.
edited by JoelMB12 on 2/15/2018

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/6/2018

Oh look, another peek at the Magic Spreadsheet!
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
edited by Edward Warren on 3/6/2018
edited by Edward Warren on 3/6/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/24/2018

Hey everyone, the Adept’s Build is scheduled for release next week ^_^

Also, the Society of Midnight has been changed to the Society of the Holy Wound, which is "dedicated to the Hours which open doors.” Not surprising, as the Hour of Midnight was later determined to be the Moth, which didn’t really fit Knock when it was already the defining Hour of the Wood.

Interestingly, I stumbled onto the following Knock prayer due to what is probably a bug with the Disciple promotion process:

'To she who was flesh, I offer my wounds. To she who was stone, I offer this moment, where my old self divides from my new. To she who came from Light, I offer my secrets. The door is opened.”

A whole lot of goddesses. The first one is obviously the Mother of Ants. I’m pretty confident that the second one is the Twins (it's not just the division of two selves that gives it away, but also “pearl, coral, amber” - stone). The third goddess though is a complete mystery, one of the many Hours we have yet to learn about.

Lastly, here's a compilation of the last week's worth of screenshots, with some added comments (by me). Most of the art is placeholder, but the writing is great.

[spoiler]The path of the Wood is really metal; it brings to mind a sort of bizarro Buddhism, where you obliterate yourself by removing everything except your deepest, most destructive desires and cravings. You cut away everything that prevents you from throwing yourself into the flame.

So the Lionsmith is one of the youngest Hours (perhaps the youngest, period), while the Colonel is among the most ancient. There are two things to take away from this. First, the Edge has not always been defined by an unrelenting civil war – as with the Sun’s Division, this is a relatively recent occurrence. Second, the conflict in the Edge has elements of a generational struggle, with one of the oldest Hours and his Names pitted against one of the youngest Hours and his Names. I also wonder if this war is being fought for a higher purpose than deciding who dominates, Colonel or Lionsmith. Does the conflict have any larger implications for the structure and governing of the House?

There was a headquarters mechanic in the pre-Alpha, requiring your cult to find a home before it could do certain things. That mechanic was absent from the Alpha and has been so far absent from the Beta, but it seems set to make a comeback in the Adepts build.

The various ins and outs of managing your followers are becoming clear. While all followers are capable of performing any given occult task, some followers are far better suited to certain tasks than others owing to their respective governing principles. If you want an assassination or a burglary, you’d have the highest chance of success sending a cunning follower – which means someone aligned with the Edge. If you need to lure more people to your cult, then a follower with a charismatic and enticing presence is what is called for – and the Grail is the principle of seductive traps. Followers will also assist you when performing rituals – if a ritual, say, called for a level 4 Moth and you happen to have Porter as a Disciple, you could get the requisite Moth power through having Porter assist you, willingly or otherwise.

Power can come from artifacts, ingredients, lore, influences, followers, and daemons – what seems most important is that you get the principles and numerical quantities right.

More books!

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/24/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/24/2018

The Adept's Build is going to have a lot of new cultists. Here's a few of them ^_^

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
I think Violent easily eclipses Tristan for the title of creepiest Cultist - though Saliba is a close second and may yet surpass her.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/24/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

PsychicNRG
Posts: 10

2/24/2018

Just going to point out this cultist who's hiding behind the token window in a couple of screenshots.

Given that she is called "a Reshaper", I'm guessing she's a 3rd level follower, like Violet's final form, or Renira, and has the principle of the Forge.
edited by PsychicNRG on 2/24/2018

--
PsychicNRG. Gone North (spoilers on profile)
An Unnamed Hunter. Came to the Neath seeking bigger and more dangerous game.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/6/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

I think that's actually a bug because 1) Health is marked as an ingredient, so it should be usable. And 2) You can use Illness and Wounds, so it's kind of strange you can't use Health. This bug also seems to effect Reason and Passion.

It seems intended that recipes can work even with unnecessary ingredients, and, given that recipes can work with unnecessary ingredients, some recipes should obviously be prioritized over others. The issue is that Unskilled Labour is higher-priority than summoning the Voiceless Dead. I can see arguments either way for whether or not that counts as a bug, but either way it should be fixed and I've reported it to support@weatherfactory.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/6/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

snip

[spoiler]The tweet as I read it wasn't saying there would be a route based on the works of Elgar, it was saying there would be something similar to Fallen London's version of the Elgar Variations. So there'll be some dev commentary if you know where to look, I expect. The real question is how that's going to work with Cultist Simulator - Fallen London has ways of making there be content embedded in the game which is not actually accessible in-game, but I haven't seen anything analogous with CS. On the other hand, CS has more open-ended actions than FL, which makes it much easier to put in-game hidden content in something you would never actually think to do if you weren't looking for it.[/spoiler]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/6/2018

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/5/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

I didn't think Moriarty ever tried to resurrect Holmes as a zombie to kill his still-living self, but then again I haven't read every single bit of Holmes content that Doyle wrote.

I’m mildly curious as to where ‘your own reanimated corpse tries to kill you’ falls on a Detective’s Tentative>>>Damning evidence scale. “Well, Sergeant, that’s certainly one for the books but I wouldn’t call it conclusive”.

Perhaps unwisely, I have been thinking about Clifton Royston's surefire route to madness:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Clifton Royston wrote:

The bits visible in the left column suggest that that column is locations - seems to contain the tail end of the words "[Treach]erous Ground", "[pl]ains", "[d]esert", "sea", "[something] Door" as well as several without enough letters to guess at. My guess is that each row has the name of a different type of artifact in a column off somewhere to the left of this excerpt, and these are the locations where we might find these types of artifacts while Exploring, and their associated Lore Aspects.

They do look like location names. Two of them are ‘[mysterious] Door’, and both those two list Knock first as their aspect. Even though the first two Doors haven’t needed it, I would be a bit surprised if a Knock aspect was not a requirement to pass certain Mansus Doors, rather than an aspect of a reward for passing them. So I wonder if they're not all requirements to get somewhere.

Of the visible letters in the list, the line that can be unambiguously read is ‘–esert’: assuming it’s English (not certain), the only fit is indeed ‘desert’ (if you need to cudgel your brains for ‘words starting with/ending with’, https://www.thefreedictionary.com is good).
So now I vaguely wonder about the woman in the sand-coloured robe, who is a new figure from the hotfixed version of the Locksmith’s Dream III:

Handwaving time: if there is a desert (among other places) connected to the Mansus, in the case of the desert you might conceivably need Forge and Grail to get there, which the text maybe-kind-of-obliquely hints but it's a bit iffy frankly, why you might want to go there is at present mysterious, and this could all very well be a dreadful soufflé of half-digested rumour in any case.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/5/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Would someone mind posting the recipe list for the different rituals? I've tried literally every combination I've got with lore and yet have only three rituals. I know there's more I can get with what I have because I've gotten them in other playthroughs. Do I need to have certain amounts of each lore or am I bugged?

[spoiler] Grail + Forge= Rite of the Crucible Soul or Rite of The Watchman's Sorrow

Forge + Edge = Rite of the Rebel Striving [/spoiler]

Spoilers, the tags weren't working so I deleted them.

I have two :

Knock + Forge = Rite of the Mother's Mercy - I think I did this with level 4 lores
(I think Moth but I forgot to write it down) + Forge = Rite of the Map's Edge
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/5/2018

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/4/2018

I'm not sure if anyone noticed it yet, but there's a new post on the weather factory website detailing the design process for the Mother of Ants.

http://weatherfactory.biz/mother-of-ants/

A few important points to take away:

There's a SUPER SECRET reason she's called the Mother of Ants
The snake motif in her image originates from Medusa. Might also be why she's chopping her own head off.
Blood snakes were originally supposed to be coming out of her neck, but Lottie thought it would make her look like a lady snake pinata.
Alexis wanted her card to have purple colors to go with the Knock. Her second name?
Her expression and perhaps design are based on a pissed looking girl from the movie Seven Chances starring Buster Keaton!

My Brothers and Sisters in the Invisible arts! I give you the Mother of Ants: animated!

[spoiler]In mythology, Medusa's blood turned into coral when combined with seaweed. Witch-and-Sister anyone? It also spawned poisonous vipers, and the Amphisbaena, aka the Mother of Ants.
[/spoiler]

Also, Lady Snake Pinata is her (un)official third name for me now.
edited by Edward Warren on 3/4/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/2/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

On the topic of the crown, rejection - specifically rejection of self - is a running theme in Moth content. Higher-intensity Moth Influences and items speak with a possessive We, and the text given for becoming a Skintwister (meddling with either the Skin of the World or one's own skin) is all about giving up oneself to the point you don't even exist anymore:

[spoiler](Also, strangling the light, which means strangling the Glory. War against and deconstruction of the Glory and the Mansus are semi-common themes in Moth. The Ring-Yew is a force of renewal and growth, while the Forge of Days mercilessly transforms and destroys (Smith's Secret uses the word 'unmerciful', and An Unmerciful Mantra brings up that ruthlessness itself is part-and-parcel for the Glory/Mansus, and that mercy may only be found in the Shadow - i.e. The Wood.)

There's more to talk about in the rivalry, like the Witch-and-Sister/Sister-and-Witch contrasted with the Mother of Ants/Daughter of Venoms, the fact that 'a power of the Wood enjoys a separation of the lock from the scalp' in the context of all the sacrifice-demanding doors of the Mansus, and the focus on the forbidden nature of the Moth 14 lore (which I am not posting for the sake of intrigue. Feel free to shout if you want to see it.).[/spoiler]

An interesting take on the matter comes up in Moldywarp's Admonitions. (Moldywarp herself I am beginning to consider a Name of the Velvet now.)

Moldywarp, most notably, keeps her crowns in the moss, which strikes me as similar to the Skintwister's oath of setting their clothes aside. The Velvet artwork, too, features a crown lying in some foliage, as well as trees and teeth (both invoked by the 'trees locked jaw-tight' phrase). Also, both the Admonitions and the Barber's Warning being some of the only warnings to the player ties back into your theory about the Velvet's connection to barbers-as-tooth-extractors.

I'll have to potentially disprove the tree-aspirants theory (and confirm Velvet = Black-Flax), though: The Velvet's No is considered pretty safe as far as No's go.

I hadn't gotten to any of these cards yet, but 'Moldywarp' is an older English word for a mole - as I observed 'Velvet' can be - so at this point I think we're safe in saying 'Moldywarp' and 'Velvet' and 'Black-Flax' are all alternate names of the same hour, that she may take on the form of a mole, and that "her crowns in the moss and her feet in the dirt" are exactly what we're seeing in that picture.
edited by cliftonr on 3/2/2018

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/2/2018

That Black-Flax card is incredibly interesting, especially since this is an Hour that we've had so little information about. Those faces on the trees seriously creep me out. When you explore the Wood in dreams now, you'll occasionally get lines like "is that hair or hanging moss that caresses my face?". Take a close look at the Mansus map, particularly the bottom. Notice those weird caltrop looking things? Look closer and you'll see that they're made up of a jumble of human arms and legs.

That, combined with that vignette of the Wood with the Velvet, I am now entirely certain the Wood is at least partially made up of dead people. Brings to mind the Divine Comedy's forest of suicides.

Tarot 2 is The High Priestess. This card represents wisdom, unconscious knowledge, and serenity/contentment.

The Velvet seems to be the antithesis of the Moth based on these attributes alone. The Moth is a restless little mote of Freudian ID obsessed reaching The Glory. The Velvet on the other hand is smart enough to know to stay the hell away from whatever it is that's waiting for us up there.
That dappled mask card makes it clear that the branches of the Wood are interwoven so finely light from above can't penetrate it. Perfect spot for an Hour that hates light to live, assuming it's chained up by choice.

Moth Principle is about shedding traits, identity, skin, and eventually all sense of self in pursuit of ascension. The Velvet is a pack rat. It's content to hoard it's possessions to itself far out of sight of prying eyes. The fact it's weighed down literally in addition to metaphorically is just the cherry on top of the metaphor.
I don't want to dive too deep into the realm of speculation lest I risk losing the scent, but this is very reminiscent of a common theme in religion. The notion that one must shed worldly concerns and possessions to "ascend" in death is far too similar to the differences in The Moth and The Velvet to not mention in this context.

Clifton Royston wrote:

P.S. You guys are so far ahead of me in the game, it's unreal. I'm still trying to figure out how to do much of anything new in this version, and my initial aspirant died rapidly due to that funds-consumption bug.

Oh yes, that bug has been a source of much consternation with me as well. A good tip to avoid it: the game no longer snatches cards out of your "hand". Whenever time is about to run out on the time passing card I pick up all my funds and hold it for a few seconds to make sure it doesn't get sucked up. The card seems to work normally after that brief moment where it refreshes.

I'm still getting a handle of the new build myself, but I think I've done alright for myself so far. Below is my account of my current most successful playthrough of Adept's Build. Beware, spoilers abound!

[spoiler] The best way I've found to play the game so far is either as an Adept or Physician. Bright Young Thing has some interesting story going on, but between Oliflame currently just being a potentially insanely more expensive version of Morlands and the lack of starting Reason, I steer clear.

Physician stars you off with a job and three Reason already, so it's the quickest way to dive into the meat of the game without the initial startup period. Use the reason immediately to grind a senior position at glover and glover for maximum money gain, and insert reason into the temptation hook slot when it appears for some free Lore and starting Notion. Glimmering and Erudition can now be turned directly into Passion and Reason with gold now if you didn't know, making those essays and poetry even more useless.

As a big fan of the Red Grail, I chose to go the way of the Sensation ambition. You get this ambition by dreaming about your current desire, then inserting Health. Then, you need to insert a piece of Grail lore to lock you in and set you on the next step. From there, you're tasked with becoming a "master of the mansus" and learning a rite that can make you palatable to The Grail. The first step is to pass through the Mansus. Dreaming using lore will give you the Way: The Wood card. Next time you dream, first insert this card to progress to the White Door. And so on, and so on. Finally, you'll reach the Stag Door, which will require you to answer a riddle continue. In the interest of being fair, I won't mention the riddle or my answer. Alexis' remarks on twitter suggest there are multiple riddles to the door and you get a different every playthough, but I haven't played enough to confirm this.
After passing the Door, you are officially a Know. You're now smart enough to be worth your patron Hour's time. Now for the ritual.

It's preferable for you to have already gathered a sizable following prior to attempting the rite, you'll see why in a minute. During you journey to the Door you probably have some nice Lore stockpiled by now from all your cash. Studying Forge and Grail will create Rite of the Crucible Soul. This rite summons an Hour an allows it to inhabit your body, allowing you to share in their powers. This is how you get a Notion: Power victory without going full dedication to the Forge. But we're not looking for power, the Grail will use the rite to... season us.

Pour as much Grail into the rite as you can and execute it. You're not done yet though, as I was surprised to learn. Your Dedication:Sensation card is now Obsession: Sensation. You now bear The Third Mark. This is where your cultists come into play as the game suddenly becomes much more difficult. Over time the Mark begins to... alter you in the image of The Grail. You feel it's endless hungers, and it compels you to do horrible things. Now in addition to dealing with the Suppression Bureau, you'll occasionally need to eat either prisoners, corpses, or "lunatics" (which I could not find anywhere, leading me to believe they're not in the game yet. Fail to eat someone when the urge arises and you'll start to eat yourself, draining Passion.

Examining the Rite of the Crucible Soul reveals the Ultimate Goal of the Sensation aim is to gain the Seventh Mark: The Feast of the True Birth. But first you'll need to find and receive the Sixth Mark and...

... And this is where the wheels came off and I had to restart. The random number gods were not kind to me, and the followers in charge of getting me tools and corpses all constantly came back empty-handed then eventually not at all. I ate my best disciple in order to power the Rite, thinking I'd win right there only to learn there was more game to play. And that damnable Wakefield managed to best every cultist and plant-zombie I threw at him again and again. The Surpression Bureau is secretly in bed with The Colonel I swear.

So, if anyone could point me in the direction of the Sixth Mark so I can complete my unholy ascension and become a full-fledged inhuman abomination intent on devouring all that is good and decent, I'd really appreciate it! [/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/2/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

That Black-Flax card is incredibly interesting, especially since this is an Hour that we've had so little information about. Those faces on the trees seriously creep me out. When you explore the Wood in dreams now, you'll occasionally get lines like "is that hair or hanging moss that caresses my face?". Take a close look at the Mansus map, particularly the bottom. Notice those weird caltrop looking things? Look closer and you'll see that they're made up of a jumble of human arms and legs.

That, combined with that vignette of the Wood with the Velvet, I am now entirely certain the Wood is at least partially made up of dead people. Brings to mind the Divine Comedy's forest of suicides.

Tarot 2 is The High Priestess. This card represents wisdom, unconscious knowledge, and serenity/contentment.

The Velvet seems to be the antithesis of the Moth based on these attributes alone. The Moth is a restless little mote of Freudian ID obsessed reaching The Glory. The Velvet on the other hand is smart enough to know to stay the hell away from whatever it is that's waiting for us up there.
...

Good call on the High Priestess connection - I had been thinking about that myself and almost brought it up! Particularly in the context that The Black-Flax seems to be trying to conceal that container of something that she has clutched to her body, which is part of the role of the High Priestess.

Come to think of it, compare The Velvet card more closely to the Waite-Rider iconography for the High Priestess:

The Velvet is holding the container against her body as the Priestess does the scroll; she's between two trees, paralleling the two columns; and her crown is on the ground as is the Priestess's golden moon. I think some of these must be intentional visual references.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

3/2/2018

The Rite of the Watchman's Sorrow is actually, for some reason, Grail + Forge. The first time you study the two you'll get the Rite of the Crucible Soul; study them again and you should get Watchman's Sorrow. I was (surprisingly, to me) able to create both without using dev commands.

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/3/2018

Cultist Simulator won the award for best game design today at the Emotional Games Awards. Congratulations Alexis and Lottie!

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/3/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

The Velvet seems to be the antithesis of the Moth based on these attributes alone. The Moth is a restless little mote of Freudian ID obsessed reaching The Glory. The Velvet on the other hand is smart enough to know to stay the hell away from whatever it is that's waiting for us up there.
That dappled mask card makes it clear that the branches of the Wood are interwoven so finely light from above can't penetrate it. Perfect spot for an Hour that hates light to live, assuming it's chained up by choice.

Moth Principle is about shedding traits, identity, skin, and eventually all sense of self in pursuit of ascension. The Velvet is a pack rat. It's content to hoard its possessions to itself far out of sight of prying eyes. The fact it's weighed down literally in addition to metaphorically is just the cherry on top of the metaphor.

I don't want to dive too deep into the realm of speculation lest I risk losing the scent, but this is very reminiscent of a common theme in religion. The notion that one must shed worldly concerns and possessions to "ascend" in death is far too similar to the differences in The Moth and The Velvet to not mention in this context.

The Black Flax might not be so much opposed to the Moth as symbiotic or parasitic. Think about it, the reason the Woods is so dark, so relatively free of the Glory’s Light, is because the Trees reach for that Light and, as trees do, create a dense canopy that darkens the forest floor. So it is the questing for the light that creates the very darkness that the Velvet values.

The Moth is all about cutting away your false identities, possessions, and forms. Well, if those things are being discarded, then they are available for someone else to gather up, collect, use, and horde, right? Notice how the Flax, on closer inspection, seems like such a miscellany of random, contradictory things. So the Black Flax doesn’t really get anything out of actively opposing the Moth’s desire for the Glory. Instead, it profits from it.

The symbiotic reading of this relationship would be the Velvet’s scavenging removes the temptation for resuming what was abandoned. Or maybe he creates a collection that others can use – it’s implied the path to giving up your identity/possessions is switching them around and realizing just how interchangeable, and hence meaningless, they really are ("Oh, the friends that we played and the skins that we made"). The parasitic reading is that the Velvet is just a thief or pack-rat who is grabbing things for its own purposes.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/3/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/3/2018

You can learn a little bit about the Hours from how they are paired together in the Society Dedication descriptions.

(Lantern) Watchman & Flowermaker

(Moth) Moth & the Witch-and-Sister

(Grail) Red Grail & the Sister-and-Witch

(Forge) Forge of Days & Madrugad

(Heart) Thunderskin & Velvet

(Knock) Mother of Ants & Meniscate

(Winter) Sun-in-Rags & Horned Axe

(Edge) Colonel & Lionsmith

Now, this isn't close to a complete list, there are only 16 Hours accounted for here and all the descriptions contain "...among others." Also, just because two Hours are paired together that does not mean they are friends or allies; the Colonel and the Lionsmith are anything but. This pairing only means that these are the Hours most important to a particular principle. There's also a fair amount of overlap - the Velvet and Horned Axe are Hours of the Wood, while the Meniscate is probably a god-from-light (Glassmaker's Toxin, which is important to the Meniscate, is a Lantern ingredient, and the Holy Wound's Oath mentions a goddess who came from light), the Lionsmith seems pretty close to the Forge, and the Twins are also involved with Knock and Heart and maybe even Edge...they're kinda all over the place.

The Velvet being paired with the Heart suggests that it's hording in the Wood is not done to help the Moth, but maybe lead people away from the Moth's stripping away of everything through the opposite approach: accumulation of identities, forms, flesh. Such would obviously help maintain the skin of the world, which is what the principle of the Heart is all about. Whenever your character is clearly losing it, they take shelter in memories of happier times and their diaries, which reestablishes a sense of self.

btw, I found another book! Well, it's title anyway. When you learn Aramaic from Dr. Ibn al-Adim, you get the following text:

The language of the Visions of Amram, of the Book of Daniel, of the Account of Kanishk at the Spider's Door.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/3/2018

Imprimis, Cultist Simulator won the Emotional Games best game design award last night, before even being completed. Woo!

Secundus, a fresh tweet from Alexis last night a little before that says "this one goes out to the most feverishly theorising #cultistsimulator enthusiasts". That would be us! It offers hints on new Lore content with a snippet from his magic spreadsheet:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

The bits visible in the left column suggest that that column is locations - seems to contain the tail end of the words "[Treach]erous Ground", "[pl]ains", "[d]esert", "sea", "[something] Door" as well as several without enough letters to guess at. My guess is that each row has the name of a different type of artifact in a column off somewhere to the left of this excerpt, and these are the locations where we might find these types of artifacts while Exploring, and their associated Lore Aspects.

I find it particularly interesting that everything here has two different Aspects - some of you may remember that was true of the Noonstone, the one powerful artifact you could find in the initial web game prototype, which had a lot of both Forge and Grail power to it.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/3/2018

Well, summons have multiple principles - it's one of the things that makes them so useful. Really, really hard to get artifacts would presumably have similar features. Alternatively, it could be a list of which locations are connected to which Principles. The Ecdysis Club is both Moth and Grail (primarily Moth, hence the name) and it gives you Moth and Grail Influence. But trying to guess an incomplete spreadsheet (especially one so clearly photographed to be as cryptic as possible) seems like the road to madness :P

Speaking of the Noonstone, it's one of the few tools with art that isn't placeholder.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/25/2018

Me this time tomorrow:

*Two suppression bureau agents sitting at a park bench.*

Suppression Bureau agent 1: Oi, mate. There's this guy going around town lately. Started a dinner club called "The Society of the Bloody Cup". I heard he's been going around talking about "the coming of a higher power"... Think we should investigate him?

Edward Warren: *runs by* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lct6x-XqWrw

Agent 2: *pauses, pulls out and counts a wad of cash* Nnnnoopppe.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/27/2018

Vexpont wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
Digging the new build, really getting into the meat of it now. Could do with Wakefield being less of an omnipresent, unavoidable threat that would put The Colonel to shame, though. Without a way to destroy evidence, the man is practically jumping down my throat the second I have a single scrap of notoriety, and it's only a matter of time till he nails me...

Also, how does one upgrade the recruits? I'd like to make sure Tristain is strong enough for the job before I send him over to say hello to the good detective.
edited by Edward Warren on 2/27/2018

The hint for upgrading from Follower to Disciple is this:

To promote a Believer to a Disciple, I'll need to provide an appropriate aspect for the cult, to at least the seventh intensity. (NB 'Aspect' is what I've generally been calling 'Principle-score' so far, and is cumulative between all slots). Disciple to Final Form needs a whopping Aspect score of 21, which I assume is possible but have yet to do).

Let's promote Elridge, since I have him in hand. Apologies if you wanted to make Disciple Tristan an Assassin and this is all old news.

[spoiler]Elridge is what Inspectors in another version of London would call 'A bit tasty with a shiv'. Sadly, he is not very clever. In the Church of the Bright Edge, we must work with what we have:

Despite the fact that my Cult is Edge, I can't use it to get Aspect:Edge to 7. But Elridge the Follower is Edge 2, my Lore is a Chiliarch's Lesson at Edge 4, and so I just need an Edge Tool - an Iron Spintria (lots of other things are Tools now, in different Principles, as seen above). Off we go:

Inspector Wakefield wonders what we're up to, Elridge. Would you use your new-found skills to demonstrate?:

A prisoner? A live prisoner? My fault, Elridge. I should have been more specific. Perhaps we'll find a use for him:

Or perhaps not, since these apparently mundane Bureau types can sometimes be just as much trouble in fetters as walking around freely. You didn't know that some Inspectors can astrally project? Sometimes I envy you, Mr. Eldridge -- you really do learn something new every day:

(it's confirmed that Hunters should not in fact be able to Hunt when imprisoned, but it was quite fun to laboriously capture Wakefield and find it did me no good at all).[/spoiler]

I notice a timer on Wakefield in prison there; does that mean that he'll die when it runs out, or are there now other things which can occur when card timers run down?

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/27/2018

I finally caught him. He dies when the timer runs out, but in the current build an investigator who's a prisoner acts just like an investigator that isn't unfortunately. Wakefield still converts notoriety to evidence and poses just as much of a threat.

To kill him, you either need to wait until the timer runs down, or sacrifice him in a ritual. Would be nice if there was just an option to execute a prisoner.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/27/2018

The prayer of The Red Grail:

In pain we are born. In hunger we are embraced. In delight we are devoured. These are the gates of the body, and this is Her promise: not all that is born decays. In remembrance of that promise, we give ourselves to the Feast.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/18/2018

Been waiting to talk about this one. While #buttgate 2, cultist boogaloo continues raging on Alexis' twitter, there's a piece of art he shared that seems to have slipped under the radar, even though it has some very interesting implications.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
*dabs forehead with handkerchief*
Ehem, I'm actually not sure I can post this one here, for... uhm...two very big, very prominent reasons.

The painting is "Truth coming out of her well to shame mankind". The title is quite self explanatory. A very... formidable looking angry woman coming out of a well armed with a whip screaming in the direction of the viewer. Like The Wreck of the Medusa, this painting has a creepy backstory to it too. The painter apparently slept with this painting, and when he died his body was found staring right at it waving goodbye.

Guess we know what that Well out in the Woods is for now, don't we?

The painting's title comes from the ancient line "truth lies at the bottom of a well" which means that the naked truth is concealed far from view by a mire of falsehoods and deceptive half truths, and to not draw conclusions without all the facts. In the context of cultist simulator, the quote could mean that the true nature of the world is hidden beneath the veil of the Mansus and the historical deceptions of the Long, and to question your preconceived notions of the "mundane" world.

It also means that the "Truth" in this case absolutely hates your guts and will royally mess you up once one of you gets your hands on the other.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/16/2018

JoelMB12 wrote:

https://mobile.twitter.com/factoryweather/status/964543338983673856

In case you can't/don't want to go through to see the thread, it's a series of screenshots showing increasing levels of Edge lore. Starting with a Knife's Secret and a Chiliarch's Lesson, which are in the game, followed by an Operation of a Lion (which may already be in game? seems like it's the level 6 Edge, which I haven't seen, but should exist).

The rest are the Lionsmith's Names ("The Lionsmith is young by the standards of the Hours, but old by the standards of war. His Names are recent recruits, and their recitation has a savage power"), the Colonel's Names ("The Colonel has been many things in many ages. He is blind; he is deaf; he cannot be wounded; he cannot be denied. His Names are cunning as only the very old can be"), and the Alignments of Murder ("These are the arts which ensure an ending"). The screenshots also have, in the corner, a card called "Obsession: Sensation", with an icon of a stiched-together face.

Image below is the last screenshot, which shows all the lore cards but not much of Obsession: Sensation.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Obsession: Sensation is probably an Appetite, pretty self-explanatory in terms of what it is. This has no clues as to what exactly it would do, though. But the main reason I'm putting the image here is that the level of the lore is indicated on the card by a circle of ticks around the central knife icon, which has a number highlighted equal to half the level of the lore (lore levels go up by 2 each time). But the Alignments of Murder is only halfway around the circle, which suggests that, as powerful as the Alignments of Murder may be, there's a lot further to go. The highest level, if the Alignments of Murder are halfway, would be 24. Very suggestive.

Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I'd be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I've quit Discord recently for productivity reasons.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/16/2018

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

2/16/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I'd be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I've quit Discord recently for productivity reasons.

demiurge,on the CultSim server wrote:

as was promised:
- The Amethyst Imago is a Name of the Moth. She fell into the butterfly net of a particular Long. -

Kinda surprised to hear the Imago isn't of the Witch-and-Sister, but I'm always happy to have more Moth content.

Notes:
You may remember the Imago from this post on the weatherfactory site, which also gives us another name (the Long?): Matthias
'Amethyst', a performance at the Ecdysis Club, depicts the catching of the semi-titular Amethyst Imago.
A translated Geminiad was found to give a Recitation in Amethyst back when we first discovered the dev console.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/16/2018

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/16/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I'd be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I've quit Discord recently for productivity reasons.
demiurge,on the CultSim server wrote:
as was promised:
- The Amethyst Imago is a Name of the Moth. She fell into the butterfly net of a particular Long. -

Kinda surprised to hear the Imago isn't of the Witch-and-Sister, but I'm always happy to have more Moth content.

Notes:
You may remember the Imago from this post on the weatherfactory site.
'Amethyst', a performance at the Ecdysis Club, depicts the catching of the semi-titular Amethyst Imago.
A translated Geminiad was found to give a Recitation in Amethyst back when we first discovered the dev console.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/16/2018

Huh, interesting. If the Amethyst Imago was captured by a Long, that would probably be part of the reason why the Names fear the Long. I wonder if the Recitation in Amethyst is a hint toward a potential connection between the Twins and the Moth - can Names be emanations of multiple hours?

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/16/2018

JoelMB12 wrote:

Amethyst Imago where is she in the game not mind me asking or is she buried in lore?

As Vavakx Nonexus said, she's mentioned in one of the Ecdysis Club performances. But mostly she's in out-of-game text, so far.

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/15/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

The Adept's Build is beatable. So has anyone gotten a victory without cheats?

I have also been wondering about this and present my adventures in trying to play CS pseudo-honestly – but I value my time, we are warned that things are unbalanced at present, and I don’t want to accidentally pilot a promising game into what turns out to be an unwinnable state.

I guess there’s 2.5 ways of cheating: a) devpanel fiddling b) checking out hunches in Resources, c) copying saves which is surely only mildly dastardly at this stage, so I am only totally forbidding myself a) (or I did until Study nixed my Essays and Glimmering four times in a row, after which I gave myself leave to generate Glimmerings until I succeeded; so much for high-minded honesty). In terms of looking behind the curtain, I checked to see if we can officially learn Fucine yet – not unless you’re very fortunate, I think. And I do check to see if I’ve just been so stupidly unlucky it’s a bug; usually the answer is ‘just unlucky, stupid’.

Everything is in spoilers mostly because this is long. None is likely to be a revelation.

[spoiler]Finding 1: Do not be a Bright Young Thing, unless IRL mental torment is your jam.

Anyone using BYT as their Legacy and playing without artificially generating any cards at all has my admiration; my attempts usually go 1) snag a victim for Poppy, 2) burn through her blood-money trying to gain Erudition in a clip joint whilst painting badly, 3) die. It also seems to me that missing out on even a few important tomes at Oriflamme’s would render the game unwinnable; if you lose an auction, the book really is gone forever.

Finding 2: St. Hydra is fun but I was very wrong to call it overpowered; it would be exceedingly hard (if not strictly impossible) to get to a Minor Victory with it. The easiest cult appears to be the Knock one.

Having seen what there is to see with St. Hydra which is a fast way to explore the early game, but runs out of steam because you cannot Exalt anyone, I put aside my doomed Wintercult and switched to The Society of the Holy Wound: starter Knock and Lantern Lore as a Physician, the Geminiad is +2 Knock, the gentler of the +2 Lore-generating nightmares is Knock, Knock Followers bring their valuable Aspect to summonings, and Exalted Knock Followers (Keys) are unstoppable theft machines.

So after Dreaming with Reason, and pulling the second Reason like a coward if it was going to give me Cleansing Dawn/Lantern/Fascination rather than Hersault’s Nightmare/Knock/Dread, and lucking out by stealing a +8 Knock Tool, I used it with my +8 Knock fragment to get Key Neville and Key Enid:

But there’s being a metaphysical Passepartout, and there’s having a practical eye; both Neville and Enid are magpies who’ll steal any old tat. Somewhere in Morland’s there’s probably a book called ‘For Fun and Prophet: How to Steal the Crap you Need Right Now’ – if I could only persuade either of my Keys to nab it.

Finding 3: the easiest current cult/legacy/victory goal combination is possibly, a Knock cult, the Physician Legacy, and the Enlightenment victory. So that’s what I’m playing.

I haven’t done it yet but I reckon you can get one or more Exalted Followers in things other than Knock if you are patient and your Moth/Knock/Forge Disciples are wildly fortunate with stealing/blagging/earning relevant +12 ingredients or tools (Knock Disciples are pretty much not worth risking, though, and the Summoned won’t steal for you – either due to surprisingly lofty principles when it comes to theft, or maybe just a lack of appendages). Even then, Exalteds gained by this laborious, frustrating route would be mostly not as useful as Keys. Skintwisters are currently like Keys with the ability to nix evidence, but without the usefulness as Summoners; Seers can’t yet (I think) give you access to really potent Influences; Assassins mostly kidnap Prisoners; Exalted Winters ‘obtain’ (ahem) Corpses, Tarantellists...do some sort of interpretive-dance PR, I guess.

The exceptions are Reshapers who currently do flawless labwork and get paid in random stuff, making them Keys without the Summoning perk, but who also score 10 in Forge, and Cyprians who are sexpot kidnappers, but also score 10 in Grail. If I try again for a Forge or Grail victory this will no doubt be more relevant. Compared to a Lantern victory, a Forge victory would be difficult, and a Grail one – devoid of any Follower who can steal/con/earn Tools or Ingredients for me with 100% success – would be ‘you gotta be kidding’ difficult, especially from the tempting BYT Legacy start.

Finding 4: Ending the game is a bit of a slog at the moment.

I am now ready to power-thieve my way to getting enough high-tier items to complete the game. I will also (I think) need the Rite Intercalate, because it’s a horrifyingly dangerous rift in reality/it has five slots:

Again, the Summoned are great for boosting Rituals but apparently they are not dumb enough to trifle with the Intercalate, so my lovely assistant will have to be the ill-starred ‘Pope’ Clifton at +5 Lantern. I’m sorry, Clifton. I won't be far behind you.

I think Enlightment must be the easiest victory because you can Dream to generate extra Lantern lore, albeit at the cost of a Reason card which will become Fascination and promptly be grabbed and neutralised by A Season of Visions. When you start becoming a properly Enlightened horrible mindflayer you get an extra Reason card for every sap whose psyche you guzzle in order to raise/maintain your Mark at 6 (diet tip: always keep a Prisoner in your snack cupboard).

And now I’m stuck at getting to the Seventh and final Mark, using all the Lantern aspect I can scrape together in the Rite Intercalate, with my honed Summoning skills being not much use in the current endgame. The Aspect Number I’m aiming for is 36, apparently to be made up any way that falls to hand.

I cannot for the love of me work out how to get the game to tell me this information, though it’s quite possible it did so in a one-time panel I failed to read properly – I looked through Resources for the words ‘thirty-six’ on a Hersault-inspired hunch (Late Edit: the Rite Intercalate generates six slots; the one for the Obsession card is right on the very bottom and fascinatingly, you need to use the scrollbar to notice it, load the Obsession card, and get your helpful hint). With only theft to gain me Tools, potions etc. and The Cleansing Dawn nightmare to generate a trickle of Lantern lore it may be rather slow going until I get my Seventh Mark and the Watchman comes for me. Unless I’m missing the obvious, yet again.

I’ve still got Wakefield on my case, since the respawning Weary Detective needs more skill to juggle than I possess, so I tend to stick with Moth-Eating Tentative Evidence and slinging the Bureau the occasional Scapegoat...who as a result of a fun bug does not have to be even approximately human:

“...and that, Sergeant, is why most of us on the Bureau wear galoshes these days.”
edited by Vexpont on 3/15/2018

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/11/2018

Man, so much changes in just a few days.

It's really interesting how we're now getting hints of Hours that might share traits with several of the big names at once. I figured it would have to happen at some point, as traits like "hunger" and "to continue living and not die" are too general to not be shared by any other Hour, especially when there's like thirty of them.

On the Ivory Dove, I'm certain it's some sort of Hour now. At first I thought it might be the alternate name of the SiR, but then we got the Wolf and the White, implying that there's more than one winter Hour. Alexis was very sneaky in how he did it, but he indirectly confirmed it. The exploration preview Alexis gave us on the weather factory website demonstrates several hazards, which must be defeated by using a cultist with a certain aspect. When using Forge to open a Door, it displays the text "we call upon the Forge of Days, who ends what will not change". Another obstacle is a swarm of Dead, which can be defeated either by Edge or Winter. On the website he only shows the result for Edge, but on twitter the tweet the Ivory Dove is invoked in includes it "penetrating the Dead", meaning the Ivory Dove must be the winter affiliated Hour used to command the Dead.

That would also play into that "Three Princesses of Whiteland" art he retweeted a while back, where there's a man with bird wings portrayed right next to what is clearly meant to be the SiR.

Very interesting how the Sun-In-Rags was at first assumed to be THE winter Hour, and now we're seeing all these other Hours on its turf. Perhaps the "Aspect Hours" (The Forge, Heart, Grail) are the bosses of the Hours that they share these traits with?

It's safe to assume that the Wolf Divided is the other half of the Sun-in-Rags, unless the Forge has been splitting other Hours we don't know about in addition to the Sun (whose proper name might be the "Sun-in-Splendour" now). Which begs the question: What exactly is the Sun we see in the mortal world? What is living in the Glory if what's left of the Sun is going around in multiple pieces down here?

Also, the Wolf is totally a Fenrir reference. Immediately prior to the release of Fenrir and the beginning of Ragnarok, there is the Fimbulwinter or "Great Winter" that will end all life on earth. Also, they just quoted Beowulf on the Weather Factory site, adding Norse Mythology to the ever-increasing number of mythos' involved in CS.

http://weatherfactory.biz/march-1-eliot/

Also from that update: Lionsmith, Ring Yew, and finished Beachcrow tarots are coming soon!

Want to avoid speculating too hard on the Beachcrow until it's card is finished, but already there's so much going on there's just a few things I wanted to point out.

Tarot 10 is the Wheel of Fortune, which represents change, luck and destiny.

We clearly see the Crow placing people shaped figures alongside game pieces in its nest. It seems to play a role in deciding who will amount to mere pawns, and who will be pieces of greater significance.
It's wearing some manner of jewelry, which isn't surprising considering crows like shiny things.
It's wearing a plague doctor mask with straps behind it's head. It's surprisingly unsettling imagining what's really under there, or if there is anything under there.
It's combing a beach for trinkets. Is this the Painted River area of the Mansus portrayed at last, the same way the Velvet gave us a look at the Wood?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/13/2018

...holy shit the Geminiad is powerful as hell. I thought it would be giving me another little piece of Knock lore, which would have been cool, but no, it goes way further. And you get to keep the book when you're done, too.

+2 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

3/13/2018

There are 10 rites total so far, but only 8 of them can be created with Forge. The last two are:

[spoiler]Rite of the Beast's Division (Winter+Grail) and Rite Intercalate (Winter+Secret Histories)[/spoiler]

Edward Warren wrote:

Somehow, I totally confused my roman numerals and thought that the X was five and not V. I was right the first time, Lionsmith is Death. That makes more sense to me now. Man, how embarrassing...

If it helps you technically weren't wrong haha, I think I see how you got confused. The first Lionsmith draft Sarah posted did have the number VIII, but in the final version Alexis posted his number was changed to XIII.
edited by Alice Lutwidge on 3/13/2018

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+2 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

3/11/2018

Nice find! I guess I need to start paying more attention to her twitter; apparently those were shared a day before The Beachcomber's draft was posted. And I have a suspicion that the second one may actually be The Colonel, even though the tweet itself suggests otherwise.
edited by Alice Lutwidge on 3/11/2018

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/12/2018

https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/973163342738096128 I was right, it was Shadowless Kings!

"The Nature of the Lionsmith is to be stronger; to be seamless; to make monsters. It has been suggested that his flesh became dust in the Tombs of the Shadowless Kings."

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Also, there will be a release livestream here: https://live.kickstarter.com/alexis-kennedy/live/the-dawn
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/12/2018

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/10/2018

Damn it, what the hell kind of man is Wakefield? I've sent in succession Violet (a Winter 5 disciple), Eldridge (an Edge 5 disciple), a Burgeoning Risen, and a Hint (Edge 8), and they all just bounced right off him.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/10/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

Damn it, what the hell kind of man is Wakefield?

A man who is very good at his job?

Though if you manage to kill him, he is quickly replaced. And if you take out the replacement, they are quickly replaced. And if you take out the replacement's replacements, they are quickly replaced. If the Suppression Bureau's first weapon is talented men like Wakefield, it's second weapon is sheer numbers. So killing Wakefield won't do you much good if you can't replicate this success.

I found that out the hard way when I somehow killed Wakefield on my first try with a Pawn. The Weary Detective showed up and I was like "Oh cute, like he'll be a problem." And before I knew it my cultists being jailed left and right :P

Keeping suspicion low and destroying evidence might be a better early strategy - the Dead aren't hard to summon and they're cunning so they have a decent chance of succeeding.
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/10/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/10/2018

We do happen to have a lupine Winter hour, even if it doesn't come up until the very, very late game: The Wolf-Divided.
[spoiler]

Worth mentioning that the Wolf also makes an appearance in the Edge 14 lore, making it a Winter/Edge(/possibly Grail?) Hour.[/spoiler]
As for the White, it might be the principle of Winter itself: The Sun-in-Rags is associated only with Winter, making it the principle's mascot hour, and it most probably only acquired the position after being Divided.

Thus, the 'doomed romance' - The closer the Sun-in-Rags gets to Winter, the closer it is to its own destruction. To return that love, fully, is to be destroyed, fully, to end beautifully.

And, no. Auclair does not clear up how Winter followers kill people.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/8/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Oh, look!

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Oh yay, we'll be able to visit Kerisham! Maybe we'll be able to drop in on the Review. Though "decaying" makes it sound like kind of a dump...though that makes sense, towns would probably decay pretty quickly if people were unable to reliably find them in guides and maps.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/8/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Another post, we've got what looks like a new Rite with 1 Winter.

We've also got another Hour affiliated with Winter or perhaps a Name of the Sun-In-Rags: the Ivory Dove.

A Name, I suspect.

Edward Warren wrote:

It apparently has a thing for penetrating dead people.

Yikes. That was quite the timely spot of proofreading.

Can I pick the brains of the thread on another matter of proofing/utter pedantry? Because I am not going to make a numpty of myself by posting this anywhere else. Both volumes of ‘De Horis’ include the description:

‘A nineteenth-century reprint of a fourteenth-century Latin translation of a fourth-century work.’

There used to be a superfluous ‘in Latin’ at the end of one of the volumes’ descriptions, but this has been corrected. But there’s still (I think) a niggle with what the language-study success texts say about the book:

Study Latin: "The language of Lucretius' 'On the Nature of Things', of Aquinas' 'Summa Theologiae', and of the notorious 'De Horis…'"
Study Greek: "The language of the Metaphysics, of Procopius' 'Secret History', and of the menacing 'On What is Contained by Silver'…"
Study Aramaic: "The language of the Visions of Amram, of the Book of Daniel, and of the Account of Kanishk at the Spider's Door"

Every one of those first two real-life works was originally penned in the relevant language (The Visions of Amram is a nice touch, as our Cultist shouldn’t really be aware of these texts, known only from fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1952 – but they evidently are). You’d expect the fantastical tomes to follow suit.

But…if you tell me that a book was translated into Latin in the 14th Century, I’m going to assume that it wasn’t originally written in that language in the 4th: ie, Latin is definitely the language of 'On the Nature of Things' and 'Summa Theologiae', but I don’t see how it can be the language of ‘De Horis’. I might own the works of Flaubert in translation, but that doesn't mean the language of Madame Bovary is English.

Is this correct? Or do I need to lie down for a rest with a soothing cup of Dread?

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/8/2018

The original De Horis was probably written in Hellenic Greek, like 'On What is Contained by Silver.' After the Byzantine Empire was defeated by the early Caliphate, surviving copies fell into Islamic hands and were translated into Arabic. A lot of Greek texts lost in the West were preserved this way, though the process introduced some misunderstandings here and there (Plotinus was confused with Aristotle, for instance). At some point the Greek originals were completely lost. In the 14th century, the Arabic texts were translated into Latin by Renaissance occultists, and this Latin translation became the definitive European version.

Unlike the De Horis, 'On What is Contained by Silver' in the original Greek probably had the good fortune of being preserved in a Byzantine library.

Vexpont wrote:

The Visions of Amram is a nice touch, as our Cultist shouldn’t really be aware of these texts, known only from fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1952 – but they evidently are.

They'd be aware of them if they were discovered earlier.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/8/2018

The [Ivory] Dove is also mentioned in one of the Grail Cult's Oaths (and one of the Winter lores, the Invocation of the Ivory Dove). Also, the two other corpse-'revival' rituals we've seen had been linked to Hours (Cartographer of Scars, Ring-Yew), not Names, so I suspect the Ivory Dove is a new Winter/Grail Hour.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/8/2018

Big update on the Weather Factory blog explaining the gameplay mechanics of expeditions.

I can see it bears a distant relationship to the one expedition in the web prototype, but a much expanded and more complex version - you will have to commit followers and funds to it and see them through various perils and obstacles, possibly including deadly guardians, in order to reach your reward.

It looks pretty great, go read: http://weatherfactory.biz/the-explorers-build-expeditions-preview/

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/8/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

We've got a prototype for another card inbound! This time, it's the Beach-Crow/Beachcomber:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Are those people? It looks like it might be picking people up off the beach and dropping them into its little cache as figurines or pawns?

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/19/2018

A few thoughts on choice of cult:

I think the easiest cult to Exalt with would be Lantern, since you can get a level-8 Lore and summon a Hinter to be able to Exalt disciples. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly useful cult to Exalt disciples in, since the only thing they can do at the moment is produce Influences. Influences have their uses, but Ingredients and Tools are a lot better. Also, Lantern lets you get Disciples as soon as you get to a level-6 Lantern lore using Contentment, which is pretty useful. Lantern Exalted aren't necessary to win the game, since you can summon the Baldomerian, but if you have one it's a lot easier to summon her without having to e.g. sacrifice lores.

The Holy Wound lets you get similarly high lore quantities, but no summons have Knock as far as I know, so you have to rely on Disciples to get you a +8 Knock item to get Keys. If you get Keys they'll be able to steal lots of items, of course. I don't think they're the most useful for rituals, though, since you only need a small amount of Knock to do things. You can get Disciples using Injuries, which is pretty decent.

I'm using the Wildwood Club this run and I'm thinking it might be a mistake but I'm not sure. Skintwisters are probably the most useful Exalted right now, since they can get items and destroy evidence, whereas any other Exalted can only do one thing. It's possible to summon beings with high Moth, so theoretically if I could get level-8 Moth lore I'd be able to get Skintwisters. However, I misremembered how much Moth lore you get from normal books, so right now I'm stuck at 6. The Geminiad gives Moldywarp Admonitions if you research it, but that requires getting the Fucine textbook. I've done a bit of snooping around and it's about as common as any particular level-4 item, so it's more likely to get it than it is to get a level-8 Knock item specifically, but it's still risky and not at all guaranteed. You can get Disciples using Peculiar Rumours, and if you kept your head down during the early game you should have accumulated a good supply of them, and they aren't likely to be very useful for anything else.

Forge can promote Disciples via Funds, which is quite good, and certainly easier than Injuries. It only goes up to level-6 Lore from books, but there's a summon with 12 Forge so, if you manage to amass the aspects required to summon it, you can get Reshapers. Forge cultists get items so Reshapers should be up there with Keys in terms of how useful they are. I haven't ever tried summoning King Crucible but it should be possible with a Caligine and a few other items. You might need the Intercalate to get it all together but you shouldn't have to sacrifice anything that isn't replaceable, if I have this right. Honestly this might be the best combination of Exalted utility and ease of Exaltation.

EDIT: I was wrong. It turns out you can get another piece of Moth-lore from the Tree of Lights, by not putting in Reason for the Cleansing Dawn. Unfortunately, this means that you can't ever get the Tree of Lights again, so no more Cleansing Dawn and Lantern-lore once you do that, but it means that you can get to 8 Moth-lore and therefore upgrade without taking any items, and without any cost other than time if you wait to get as much Lantern as you want out of it. Thanks to Lapis on the Discord. Also, I was a bit mistaken in my assumptions about how best to summon King Crucible - since Funds are an Ingredient rather than a Tool, you can't stack them with Injuries, so you might have to sacrifice something small to get him the first time. These two facts mean that Moth is indeed the most useful cult at the moment, if I'm right about all of this. That said, Skintwisters may not be quite as useful as I thought - if some people on the Discord are right, they have a 100% chance of destroying evidence. But they should still have a 100% at getting items, which is the main reason they're good, and you can summon Raw Prophets infinitely to throw at evidence. Glory be to the Moth, in whose Hour I now Exalt my Skintwisters.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/21/2018

+2 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/21/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

EDIT: I was wrong. It turns out you can get another piece of Moth-lore from the Tree of Lights, by not putting in Reason for the Cleansing Dawn. Unfortunately, this means that you can't ever get the Tree of Lights again, so no more Cleansing Dawn and Lantern-lore once you do that, but it means that you can get to 8 Moth-lore and therefore upgrade without taking any items, and without any cost other than time if you wait to get as much Lantern as you want out of it.

Thanks for this, it was doing my head in. I was quite sure that I'd been able to generate more than one +2 Lantern Lore from The Cleansing Dawn in the past, only to find myself stumped in this game - it would be this game. The Tree of Lights dream was the culprit.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

That said, Skintwisters may not be quite as useful as I thought - if some people on the Discord are right, they have a 100% chance of destroying evidence. But they should still have a 100% at getting items, which is the main reason they're good, and you can summon Raw Prophets infinitely to throw at evidence. Glory be to the Moth, in whose Hour I now Exalt my Skintwisters.

1) Yep, Skintwisters currently are nerfed to only destroy Evidence with the same 70% success rate as a Raw Prophet, Voiceless Dead or Caligine, and with the same 9% chance of a Follower wipeout. Too risky IMO. They are still flawless con-artists.

Other thoughts:

2) Only Knock, Moth, and Forge Followers can pull items from the stop-gap Inventory vault, and only Exalted K/M/F Followers can do so flawlessly. Winning with a non-K/M/F Cult might be possible with crazy luck, but I'm disinclined to try.

3) The current game must be more beatable – though duller – if you don’t activate Obsession until you’re closing in on Aspect:36 in your chosen Ambition.

4) Caligines are to be avoided until further notice. They always rebel, so you flip straight to a 30% chance of ‘A Breach!’, and then a 50% chance it will grab a Mortal to try killing them.

5) I got the paranoid impression that when searching for a Mortal victim, ‘A Breach!’ works from the perimeter of the screen inwards looking for cards to pull, and kept my Exalteds corralled within other Mortal cards. I am a highly rational being with no superstitions at all.

I’ve now beaten the game naturally, days after most people inclined to try have probably done so.

The Luminously Cursed Adventures of an Occasional Idiot: part III
(spoilers for length, and also for the identity of the Baldomerian, I guess)

[spoiler]That recently-stolen Kingskin Bodhran must be hexed: firstly, Rose, Victor and Renira vanish in quick succession, leaving me just Saliba and Elridge to kidnap mind-fodder. Once I lose those two, I’ll have to turn on my own Followers, and after a while they will probably notice.

Secondly, a Hint breaches its resummoning again, just as I was going to pack it off to the Bureau, ensuring no-one there dared look in a mirror for weeks. I am forced to send them Leo, while the breached Hint selects...Count Jannings!

The Count sensibly starts hanging out at tea dances a-whirl with the human gaze, but the Hint gets the drop on him from a chandelier. Everyone who’s taught me a language, and isn’t Dr. al-Adim, has now been murdered by Lantern-things – though curiously, there is no record of them ever being buried. Ysabet has a surprising number of Continental aunts and uncles, it seems.

Incessant thieving makes us Notorious, Notoriety breeds Tentative Evidence, and Raw Prophets/Voiceless Dead are the only biddable Summoned who have Moth and can thus dispose of Evidence (Caligines are are too risky to Summon at present IMO). I’d rather not risk Ysabet – my only surviving human Moth Follower – on Evidence runs, so I Summon away like the sorceror’s apprentice I am. Breaches are possible.

Neville – it would be him – puts me on the spot by stealing the Frangiclave, a +12 Knock tool. A Key To Everything is as close as I’m going to get to in-game permission to cheat; I keep it as a back-up plan. In addition to the Frangiclave I now have +12 Edge Furious Sliver, +12 Forge Carcass Spark, and that bloody +12 Heart Kingskin Bodhran. Are they germane to my plans? No, and moreover, Clovette has taken to drumming as a hobby. Saliba leaves one evening and never comes back. I can't blame him.

Another Summoning breach! This particular Hint fixates on Elridge, just as I was going to upgrade him to a Disciple, and bizarrely, the destructive Edge power of an Escaped Summoning combines with any Edge possessed by its victim, in a single slot. Elridge’s +2 Edge and the Hint’s +8 Edge combine to give +10 Edge, which is currently rated as Certain Death (the Maid has +12 Edge/+12 Winter but she’s not actually any deadlier than this odd scenario).

FNORD: a word that describes my feelings exactly. My last available kidnapper dies, passing no remarks:

After a brief second career as a wood-zombie, Elridge is planted out next to Count Jannings and Mme Bechet, in what is becoming a regrettable little grove. I take up topiary as a cover story.

Gods’ elbows! A Breach again. But this Voiceless Dead wants me for lunch, which is vaguely flattering – and far more convenient. I’ve let my Obsession:Enlightenment level slip to 3, I’m in the mood to obliterate something, and Today’s Special is a brisk exorcism served on the sharp end of the Geminiad. Fuelled by the sense that I want to see everything, Enid and Neville have now stolen +12 Tools in every Principle, apart from Secret Histories (which may not have one) and bloody Lantern:

Finally Enid steals a highish-level Lantern Tool, a Wildering Mirror at Lantern 8, giving me a potential win state if I use the Rite Intercalate with the Baldomerian – who in this game, I’ve yet to actually meet – in the Follower slot. But I cannot (I think) raise said Baldomerian with any standard Ritual, equipped only with a +2 Secret Histories Paradoxical Curio, a +8 Lantern Hint, +8 ad lower Lantern Lore, 2 +8 Lantern Ingredients, a +8 Lantern Tool and the tiny +2 Lantern Influence obtainable at the White Door, which now feels like a personal assessment of my worth from the Watchman.

It will be necessary to perform the Rite Intercalate twice.

Oh no. Oh, Neville and Enid. It’s not Clifton who has to go before me, though the poor devout fellow is willing – but without him, who’ll be left to spread the gospel of Light? He has the makings of a proper Seer, which is more than you or I ever will. And though I could use one, I don’t trust the Hinter one bit. Faithless Edge-contaminated things, and having already died once, I suspect they’re not keen on an encore.

As I ponder how to break this, my need for Conversation returns with a vengeance. Tristan and Violet go into the Cupboard of No Return, and finally, Clovette is invited to give me a private concert on her Bodhran. It is not a merciful concert, but it is a short one, and I am once again at Obsession:Lantern:6

I toss a coin. Neville.

Hello, Teresa. We haven’t met before but I’ve read every word of your books. I suppose you know why you’re here.

And that is roughly that, Inspector. Somewhere out there are Pope Clifton and Cat Caro, brewing up some fever-dream of Catholicism and cartomancy; I’m sure it’ll be a grand success, such rubbish always is. And somewhere out there is Enid, armed with the Frangiclave in loving memory of Neville, giving her a Knock of 22, at which point one is basically a neutrino with consciousness. ‘Master criminal’ doesn’t really describe what she has become – and Zachary, I think she likes you.[/spoiler]

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+2 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/21/2018

Note: Winter followers also bring back items from the stop-gap Inventory vault, but they also get both Corpses and Notoriety, which are both Reputations and serve to generate Evidence against you. The other 3 Inventory-Cults are still better, but at least there's a theoretical 4th option now.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/26/2018

Groundbreaking, world-shattering news out today:
[spoiler]

CONGRATULATIONS ALEXIS AND LOTTIE!!![/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/27/2018

vellaroque wrote:

*le malachite*

And the creepiest card design yet award goes to....

Tarot Three is the Empress, representing fertility, growth, and the creation of new life.

The card is again rife with symbolism. The tree and the bees are lifted from Celtic and druid symbolism. A yew tree decays, hollows, and a new tree sprouts from the trunk. As a result, the yew has traditionally been considered to be a symbol of death and rebirth. Bees are also affiliated with brightness, prosperity, the sweetness of life, and the Sun.

A ring is loop, never-ending. It symbolizes that life never truly ends, just continues to change from one form to another. An unending cycle of death and rebirth.

Malachite is also a powerful symbol of life and transformation. It is regarded as a protection stone, drawing out and absorbing negative energy and as a result bringing positive change to those who use it. It also is said to ease birthing pains, playing back into the fertility of the Empress card. Also note that the tree is totally green here. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ring-Yew is an animate, living tree made of malachite.

From the card alone, I'd say the Malachite is a God-From-Stone, who remains.

Of course, none of this means that the Malachite isn't dangerous. It is still an Hour after all, a living manifestation of primal desires too strong for mortals. Yew trees are also poisonous, meaning they're just as affiliated with death and funerals as they are with rebirth. Again we've got traces of human faces on the bark of the tree. That, combined with the fact she likes to raise the corpses of the dead into Burgeoning Risen, leads me to believe she's responsible for the people-trees that comprise the Wood beneath the House.

And then we've got that arm. At first it looks like a pale, blood drained corpse has been stuffed into the tree, but upon closer examination I noticed the surface is of the arm is cracked and made of stone. Perhaps it's made of marble, another symbol of purity and immortality. The question is what is it doing there? Is it being birthed from the tree? Has the tree sprung up and encapsulated it, making it the original Malachite? So many questions.

Also, look at the wall behind the tree (which is significant on it's own since the House has no walls). The symbols of the Heart, Moth, and Grail have been drawn on it with honey, and the arm seems to be pointing to them. Perhaps this indicates some form of relationship between the Ring-Yew and these other Hours which makes sense as she seems to intersect the underlying principles of each of them (enduring life, shedding of the self/transformation, and birth).

Note Winter and Forge are absent however. Likely because Winter is finality and death, and the Forge is fire and transformation through violent destruction, neither are things that mix with an immortal tree.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/27/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

And the creepiest card design yet award goes to....

I don't agree, I think the tree's bright, warm colors make it feel rather friendly and reassuring.

Edward Warren wrote:

Also, look at the wall behind the tree (which is significant on it's own since the House has no walls).

That wall is even more puzzling, given that Illopoly tells us "As any student of the Histories knows, the Wood has no walls." So why is there a wall there?

I think the wall might symbolize the world. First, the world is actually partly defined by the barriers separating it from everything else (it's skin, its walls). Second, the Woods is the closest place to the world, as its the first area you traverse in dream. Third, the Grail, the Heart and the Moth are each deeply involved in the world in some way (the Moth is the Hour of cutting away the world's accumulations, but that requires a world in the first place).

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

qwints
Posts: 11

3/30/2018

Finally, had to wade through a lot of intense conversations while waiting for Neville to find the key ingredient.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/17/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Since it's only possible to have one spoiler per post, my guesses for which phrases are from actual Tantra are below.

I was looking at those earlier and would guess quite differently, almost the opposite in fact.

[spoiler]
"That which does not cease, is not ceased" is possible but seems a bit too pithy and apt, which is why I'd guess it to have been written for CS. Compare "we must devour to be devoured; we cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn". Shaven Lock seems like very Alexis-y prose, so I'd expect it to have been written by him. The Devoured Tantra and the Furious Tantra sound, in my opinion, the least like Alexis's style, and thus the most likely to be actual tantra. The Devoured Tantra sounds like a description of a demon, which feels plausible to the translations I've read of some Indian texts, and similarly with the Furious Tantra.
[/spoiler]

+2 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

4/6/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

That's supposed to be the Emperor as Vertumnus, god of the seasons.

I rather like John Crowley's saturnine portrait of the occultist Emperor in Love & Sleep:
edited by Anne Auclair on 4/1/2018

Be still, my heart!

Seriously, I adore virtually anything written by John Crowley, and the Aegypt quadrology includes some of his finest work.

On a totally different topic, Alexis recently tweeted a screenshot of a huge hunk of the spreadsheet for the unfinished books, at a horribly minimized resolution. If you blow it up you can make out some really tantalizing details, at the cost of severe eyestrain.

Some things you can glean from it:

It looks like some of the books in the more exotic languages will give you really high-level lore compared to what we've seen from tomes so far, maybe in the range 8-14? - for example, "The Colonel's Names", "Formulae Vigilant", "Devouring Mysteries"
It appears some of them will also give you menaces on translating or studying them - Dread, Fascination, or possibly both.
Looks like many of the books may use backer Stolen Names and some of the books will go to as-yet-unassigned Stolen Names: "(backer name is Spared Alchemist)"
Lots of outlines of lore we haven't yet seen and expanding on what we already have. Tidbits regarding Gods-from-Nowhere, entry of the Gods-from-Light, the 'Crime of the Sky', the Intercalate, Gods-from-Stone and prehuman civilizations, the Vagabond (who is "She"), the Leashed Flame, the origins of the first Long, and The Book of the White Cat with mentions of a blind white cat - a possible hint at a new hour?

https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/982187765386199042

(I also feel like the author of 'My Deeds, My Powers, My Achievements, and the Injustices Perpetrated Against Me' would make himself right at home on Twitter, if he isn't there already.)
edited by cliftonr on 4/6/2018

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/2/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

[
Looks like the player is consuming Influences to open up location slots, into which items can be put? Interesting.

The text on twitter says "choose from what is known, or choose from what is unknown.

It seems more like the player is given a choice from three cards, one whose contents are known and two mystery ones. You can pick one to keep, and the other two are destroyed. Sounds like an interesting way to add a bit of gambling and risk to choosing a reward.

Is this all we'll do from the Mansus map? Does the location on the map the card is position indicate what the Lore type of the card will be? Will menace and appetite cards be in the deck as well to add some extra risk?

So many tantalizing questions...

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/5/2018

SAYING THE WORDS WITH THE PROPER VOLUME IS OBVIOUSLY CRUCIAL.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

4/9/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Enjoying the Mansus, but the expeditions are currently unplayable. "Treacherous Ground" prematurely aborts the expedition. It's supposed to be an obstacle to be countered with Lantern or Forge, but it's coming out as a card instead and crashing the whole expedition, giving me everything back with the addition of a useless card.

[spoiler] We also got a little more interesting information on the histories. The new Secret Histories lore reveals the Hours struggle among each other to write a single golden future, and all events and possibilities are resolved in the narrative... except a few. Might this be why there are multiple Histories? World-shaking events that make it impossible for the future to advance in the direction all the Hours want are excised? Would make sense why the War of the Roads and the Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame were excised.[/spoiler]

The new exploration feature is pretty neat. For those who don't understand it, it's accessed using Secret Histories. The lower level the Lore, the more common the location (and presumably the easier it is to conquer). We start with already ransacked tombs and book collectors' incredibly flammable houses, and then we move on to creepy abbeys on the continent and eldritch locations in "the land beyond the forests" 3000 miles away.

Also, maybe I'm just a bad player, but could someone pleeease tell me how to kill that arse Wakefield as quickly as possible? Grinding lore and followers is a pain when this guy is picking my guys off and is practically unkillable at the start.

If you kill him, he'll just get replaced. If you can summon one of the Voiceless Dead, which shouldn't be too hard if you're at the point of building up followers, you can use it to destroy evidence, which will keep him off your back just as effectively.

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/10/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Enjoying the Mansus, but the expeditions are currently unplayable. "Treacherous Ground" prematurely aborts the expedition.

This has been fixed.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/16/2018

Alexis just tweeted he's sending Sarah Gordon centipede pictures for art references. The Centipede confirmed for a new Hour.

Only one more month before the arrival of the finished game! As of right now based on Alexis' previous statements, what's next to be added in the game might include:

New careers, and potential dialogue "boss fights" literally with your bosses. And you thought serving an Hour was tough!
New nemesis' in the form of rival cults, concerned loved ones of your victims and cult members... and possibly Indiana Jones.
Romance options with your nemesis, the ability to have children, and the option to end the game a family man/woman, with your child continuing your work.
Refined Legacy System- Previous characters are mentioned or play some role in each new playthrough's narrative. A dead cultist might come back as a ghost to help or hinder, same with cultists that have entered the Mansus permanently, family will play some role.
New endings- The ability to join the Long, the Suppression Bureau, and possibly destroy the world.
Dialogue options possibly, something along the lines of Poppy Lascelles.
The ability to explore and find locations like Edycis Club and Oliflamme's in playthroughs other than Bright Young Thing.

That's what I've got, anyway. Some of these features haven't been mentioned for some time, so they might not make it to the finished game. Perhaps DLC, then?

We're also done with Builds! From now on Alexis will be directly patching the game to update content, so we'll be getting more and more of the the game game up until launch.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/17/2018

So the game was updated today, and it's been a very interesting experience so far. Numerous features have received an entire overhaul. I'm not sure how this will affect the future of the game, but everyday life has now become very, very difficult.

I'm sure these features will be mediated by other additions as Alexis is currently adding to the game as he puts the work in, but this was quite a surprising update to say the least. I'm sure the Sun-In-Rags is best friends with me right now for the number of cultists I've sent to their deaths.

Welcome to Cultist Simulator: Prepare to Die Edition.

Injuries and illness now decay rapidly, leaving nothing behind when they disappear.
Injuries and Illnesses can no longer be cured by simply putting money into them. Putting money into them results in you deciding to buy laudanum instead of resting and healing. This gives you contentment, and gives back the cards that are still decaying.
Injuries and Illness can only be healed by inserting Vitality, which pops up entirely by chance either on it's own or in the 1/3 guess in the Mansus.
Meet your new worst enemy: Mr. Alden is your boss over at Glover and Glover. He also absolutely hates your guts and wants you gone. Try to actually make some money over there? Mr. Alden demands you put in more Reason and work overtime for your salary, an extra twenty seconds. Don't want to? You'll get a condescending little message an only half your pay. He still keeps you over for another twenty seconds by the way, while time is still passing and you desperately need to pay the bills. He doesn't think you should have been hired in the first place, so he keeps you from getting promoted.
There is one life line in this however: "He has a redeeming quality." Alexis hinted on Twitter. Finding it is implied to be the only way to get him to leave you alone.
The Wolf Divided also hates your guts and is out to get you. Despair no longer disappears after a single Contentment is inserted into it. The number of dread or injuries needs to be countered by the same number of Contentment.
Instead of disappear entirely certain cards transform into new ones on their own if left alone too long. Unhappy Far Off Things randomly appears when you dream or study, which gives you Restlessness, which decays and transforms into more Dread.
On a more positive note: you can now find those locations from Bright Young Thing by exploring the city, such as Oliflamme's.

Needless to say these factors can make life very unpleasant. It's possible to die simply from bad chance in seasons or Dread literally popping up out of nowhere and you losing more cards than you can possibly recover from. Having a way to get manually create contentment is nice, but I'm not sure if I should have to trade my health for it. Perhaps a sinister but otherwise normal mortal drug dealer should be added, and purchasing and using enough times will cause some nasty effects, like how Health can be used for manual labor only so many times before it becomes an injury now?

I'd also think that illness and injury would turn into health on their own after they decayed, like how Restlessness turns into even more Despair.

I'm not sure how to find the way to get rid of Mr. Alden yet, which is crucial as he makes working at Glover and Glover utterly unfeasible unless you want to literally live paycheck to paycheck without being able to afford any occult stuff... right up until the random number god decides to troll you and drop two consecutive seasons of illness on you or bombards you in dread. Surprised I can't just send a follower to murder him or just do it myself, because I'm honestly ready to reenact the Rite of the Rebel Striving over here.

Want to know the difference between Mr. Alden and the Wolf Divided?
[spoiler] The Wolf Divided just wants to kill and eat you. Mr. Alden wants to keep you alive just so you can continue to suffer under him. The man's evil literally surpasses that of an Hour of death itself. [/spoiler]

Also, we can now be visited by the Beachcrow in our dreams, who can take on a mortal form to creep on us.

An Early Night wrote:

Sometimes, I have dreamt of a tall woman in a sand-coloured coat, who stands at the foot of my bed, smiling as she watches me sleep. In that dream, she turns her head with the swiftness of a bird, and her fingers flex like talons. I do not think I dreamt of her last night. If I had, I could not have slept so soundly.

*shudder*
edited by Edward Warren on 4/17/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/7/2018

From the Atlas of Dreams and the Incursus we know that the Mansus is the only real constant in the CS universe. The House of the Sun always is, and the Hours determine among themselves what the waking world will look like. How and why they switch between Histories is anyone's guess.
If I had to put it in an analogy, the Sun is the light, and the "real" world is the shadow cast against the Mansus. The Hours cannot destroy their shadow, but they can choose to change its shape as they see fit.

Because the Mansus is the only constant, keeping track of mystical events like the Worm Wars and the Crowned Growth's movements are a pain to track. While the Growth popping up was a major occult event in 1890 in the Third History, 1890 might have been a totally uneventful year in the Second one, and so on.

After reading more into the lore, I'm not sure how accurate Hersault's assertion the Second History is the "real" one is. For all we know the reason he thought the second one was real was because he lived in it, and as such the other histories and their events and people didn't matter as much because they might as well not exist. Does the existence of a small country like Mozambique or the life of someone ages dead matter for someone in the present? Does one think of them in same way one thinks of their living neighbors?

I'm particularly vexed by the information revealed by Amaranthine Nectar, that it would grant immortality in another history. It implies that magic and the occult might exist at different levels in different histories, and might be even be openly accepted to an extent. There's hint of it in the existing lore, but I've only started noticing it now. The Age of Steel had the Forge of Days as the god of England and the Soveriegns of the Leashed flame going around doing literal magic on their enemies in broad daylight. The Sun-in-Rags was openly worshiped in Rome for a time in the Second. The Crowned Growth trolled everyone by blocking the White Door in the Third. And whatever History she was in Theresa Galmier visited a whole town of Long, where here the only Long we know is keeping their identity as an immortal secret.

That fancy printed letterhead for a hotel in what we assume to be a super secret town of immortals in the visual for Galmier in Noon has me thinking that immortals are either more common or perhaps easier to find in her history than in the one the game takes place in.

Also, Lionsmith is back with yet another revision to his card, and we can now dream of the Worm Museum.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Alexis has some knicknack pictures on twitter he says inspiration for the museum exhibits came from, but that golden beetle sounds a lot like one of the things the Velvet was carrying in their card.

Lionsmith now has the broken sword again. Nice sword in the stone imagery for the King Arthur angle.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/8/2018

Oh wow!

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Two new Hour cards today!

The first one is the ninth Hour: the Elegiast. And elegiast is a person who writes elegies, songs or poems for the deceased. Judging from his profession, the predominant use of white in the coloring, fact they're literally a skeleton with bird skull for a head, and he/she is standing in a tomb, it's safe to assume this is a Winter Hour.
Also, I just realized that Teeth are a symbol of Winter and death. We've got the Ivory Dove, the White Door which appears to be made of tusks, the dread card gives us the text "a nameless gnawing fear has it's teeth in my hopes", and we've got teeth in the Elegiast card just beneath the faces in the ceiling. Not sure if this means the Velvet is a Winter Hour too, or if their just a pack rat.

Hour IX is the Hermit: which stands for meditation, soul-searching, introspection, and solitude. Fitting.

We've also got the Horned Axe whose tarot is.... Death? Again?

Not sure if that's an error of if there's special significance to two Hours sharing a number.

Not sure what to make of this one to be honest, since we know so little about the Axe's nature. What is very interesting about this card is the use of both orange and purple for coloration, colors affiliated with both the Forge and the Knock. Perhaps this is a Hour that overlaps in the territories of the other major Hours?

We also have more of those creepy goast cats from the Mansus map on the left and Great Horned Owls on the right. Maybe Alexis needs them to keep the rats out?

Judging by the fact the cats show up in the Bounds on the map and we've got some rocky uneven terrain on the right, the Axe probably resides in the Bounds of the Mansus. Perhaps it's some sort of doorman for the lowest doors into the House? Would explain why there's a Door on it's card, it has Knock colors, and it has an interest in keeping the Crowned Growth from blocking the Doors.

We also have some news on the upcoming explorer build set to drop this week! Some expeditions with have powerful guardian entities the player will have to defeat to progress, which should spice things up nicely. Also a tiny bit of information was leaked about the mysterious Mansus exploration feature: we can now enter through the Spider Door, which is a Very Bad Idea if you have arachnophobia, for obvious reasons.

Finally, Lottie wants us to pick between the Horned Axe or the Elegiast. A painful choice, the Elegiast is very pretty, but I enjoy the symbolism and hints of duality in the Horned Axe card just a bit more.

CHOOSE YOUR SIDE!
edited by Edward Warren on 4/8/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+2 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/8/2018

More art, more art! ^_^

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

4/9/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Oh wow!

[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
Two new Hour cards today!

The first one is the ninth Hour: the Elegiast. And elegiast is a person who writes elegies, songs or poems for the deceased. Judging from his profession, the predominant use of white in the coloring, fact they're literally a skeleton with bird skull for a head, and he/she is standing in a tomb, it's safe to assume this is a Winter Hour.
Also, I just realized that Teeth are a symbol of Winter and death. We've got the Ivory Dove, the White Door which appears to be made of tusks, the dread card gives us the text "a nameless gnawing fear has it's teeth in my hopes", and we've got teeth in the Elegiast card just beneath the faces in the ceiling. Not sure if this means the Velvet is a Winter Hour too, or if their just a pack rat.

Hour IX is the Hermit: which stands for meditation, soul-searching, introspection, and solitude. Fitting.

We've also got the Horned Axe whose tarot is.... Death? Again?

Not sure if that's an error of if there's special significance to two Hours sharing a number.

Not sure what to make of this one to be honest, since we know so little about the Axe's nature. What is very interesting about this card is the use of both orange and purple for coloration, colors affiliated with both the Forge and the Knock. Perhaps this is a Hour that overlaps in the territories of the other major Hours?

We also have more of those creepy goast cats from the Mansus map on the left and Great Horned Owls on the right. Maybe Alexis needs them to keep the rats out?

Judging by the fact the cats show up in the Bounds on the map and we've got some rocky uneven terrain on the right, the Axe probably resides in the Bounds of the Mansus. Perhaps it's some sort of doorman for the lowest doors into the House? Would explain why there's a Door on it's card, it has Knock colors, and it has an interest in keeping the Crowned Growth from blocking the Doors.

We also have some news on the upcoming explorer build set to drop this week! Some expeditions with have powerful guardian entities the player will have to defeat to progress, which should spice things up nicely. Also a tiny bit of information was leaked about the mysterious Mansus exploration feature: we can now enter through the Spider Door, which is a Very Bad Idea if you have arachnophobia, for obvious reasons.

Finally, Lottie wants us to pick between the Horned Axe or the Elegiast. A painful choice, the Elegiast is very pretty, but I enjoy the symbolism and hints of duality in the Horned Axe card just a bit more.

CHOOSE YOUR SIDE!
edited by Edward Warren on 4/8/2018

Well, we know the Horned Axe is into separation and is fighting the Wars of the Walls against the Witch-and-Sister/Sister-and-Witch because of that, so if it's trying to keep the doors shut then that would explain why it doesn't want the Crowned Growth going out. I'm honestly a bit surprised it's got Knock there, since Knock is all about opening things up. Maybe there's something in the two sides? The purple side has what looks like faces embedded in stone, or maybe peering out of caves.

The other side looks like Forge-colors, so I'm not sure what to draw from that. The ruins could be read as the result of a change and therefore fitting with the Forge, but that's not a particularly strong interpretation. You could also read sunset/ending/Winter, but the colors don't fit as well. Not sure what's sitting on the pillars - my first thought was Great Horned Owls, but I'm not sure about those eyes. (edit: oh, probably it's the cats on the Bounds of the Mansus. That ties in with the next paragraph.)

The stairs on the sides of the Axe remind me of the map of the Mansus, which is similarly divided into two rising stairs, and the bushes remind me of the Wood, which grows under this division and bypasses it. The Wood grows around the walls of the Mansus, but the Mansus has no walls - the division between the two halves of the Mansus might function as a wall, but because it's a void it isn't, technically speaking, there. This would explain why the Sister-and-Witch (who is associated with Knock and the Wood) is fighting the Horned Axe, since the Wood goes around the wall and unites the two halves. We might also note here that the Malleary is on the right of the map, which is the Forge-colored side on the Horned Axe's card, and four of the five or six doors (depending on how you count) are on the left of the map, which is the Knock-colored side on the card.

Since the new map of the Mansus came out, I've been more doubtful about my theory of the cardinal directions of the Mansus, because the new map doesn't have as much evidence in favor of it. But the Sun, the Bounds, and the Lodge are still roughly on the right, the Worm-stuff is still on the left, and the Glory and Wood are still at the top and bottom, so there's not anything in particular that contradicts it, either. If we roll with it, we can look at the left and right halves of the Mansus in this light. Left/right as I conceptualize it is roughly an unreality/reality axis (where by "reality" I mean our world), and I'm not sure what the significance of that would quite be - but we can maybe associate Knock with unreality and Forge with reality? The Forge did directly intervene in reality in one of the Histories, so that would fit, but I'm not sure if the Knock correspondence makes sense.

Edit: Also, the Explorer's Build is out! Most of the things listed in the patch notes have been teased already - exploring the world and the Mansus, fixing mirrors, updated icons and text. Go check it out!
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 4/9/2018

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

4/9/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

You could also read sunset/ending/Winter, but the colors don't fit as well.

You could most definitely read that as Winter.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

4/9/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
You could also read sunset/ending/Winter, but the colors don't fit as well.
You could most definitely read that as Winter.

Oh, I hadn't seen that, thanks a lot! The colors may not fit as well, but the actual aspect does, it seems. I wonder if the orange still hints at Forge - it still has that association, and the Axe is a metal tool. Changes and endings are obviously connected, so maybe Forge and Winter are even intertwined as principles somehow?

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

4/6/2018

http://weatherfactory.biz/threesecrethistories/

This is just links to the snippets that we already got about Fucine, the Crowned Growth, and Galmier in Noon, so not much new information if you've already been following along with things (though a good pace to start if you haven't). However, it does imply that these are set in separate Histories, which is quite interesting. The Crowned Growth thing is stated to be in the Third History, but I don't know what distinguishes the Histories so I can't speculate about which Histories the other two are in. Which History was the one Hersault thought was the 'real' one? Was that the Third?

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

4/6/2018

Hersault considered the Second the only true History.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

4/7/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

SAYING THE WORDS WITH THE PROPER VOLUME IS OBVIOUSLY CRUCIAL.

Great, another language that probably ignites when you try to study it: a crash course in thaumaturgical Mandaic, taught by Brian Blessed on fire. ‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU BUGGER UP THE SUFFIXES, MORTAL. HAVE SOME CALAMINE’.

Having ventured onto Twitter, I reckon it’ll be a darned shame if you can’t find an old-fashioned Babylonian demon trap somewhere, complete with charming sketchy demons. I guess that’s how they convince you they’ll be no trouble at all.

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Hersault considered the Second the only true History.

Yep, the True History is the second one, if you trust Claude Hersault in the tersely-named ‘Introduction to Histories':

"Hersault identifies Blood, Silver, Design and the Worms as the central axes of each of the Histories, and claims that the so-called Second History is the true one. "

IMO all three documents linked here could still be from the same major History (of which there are 5 – according to both Hersault, and also the text you get for founding the Society of St. Hydra). Presumably the 1957 Oriflamme’s catalogue is from a version of a History where the PC didn’t succeed in unravelling the sinews of reality, though they seem to have successfully burgled Mr. Strathcoyne.

It’s interesting that Hersault, a native of the C17, states that there are five major histories – and there are still five (not necessarily the same ones) in 1920, when you can found St. Hydra, the Secret Histories cult. That’s odd. I mean, I had sort of assumed that on the rare occasions that someone perpetrates an an Ultimate Feat of Reality-Warping Magick, the timeline splits. But maybe not. Maybe there have been five Histories for ages, contesting for mastery, and most of the Secret Histories are only sorties; little pockets of combative variation that end up nowhere. The ‘There is one future. There is not one History’ quote was prevalent when CS launched, but I had kind of forgotten about it until I went to check what it said, word for word.

But in spite of all the coyness about naming nations and places, unless CS involves some hardcore magic that affects the existence of grammar textbooks (even I do not think this probable), it seems to me that the History in which CS is set must be pretty similar to our own.

Reasoning thus: in 1890, a real-life person called Gerth published an expanded version of a book called ‘Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache’, originally written by a real-life person called Kühner; Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar is also real and slightly older, published in 1867. It’s possible to read too much into details, but it wasn’t necessary for the unlocking tomes for reading Latin and Greek in CS to be real textbooks by real latter-C19 people. Granted, it’s quirky. Locations with a suspicious resemblance to Brittany and the Caribbean must never be called by those names; real places like England, Vienna and Rome are currently mentioned only in connection with Secret Histories books/items – but the ‘Ausführliche Grammatik’ and Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar are allowed to strut their stuff, defiant artefacts of something very like our own timeline.

Which could leave as little as 30 years’ divergence (though potentially more) between 1920 as we know it, and 1920 as the PC knows it. What happened in that time? The Intercalate? A Worm War, a phenomenon the PC seems to be more familiar with than any of us are? Is our own current timeline just one of many little historical pocket pieces, of interest only to Secret Histories nerds with time to burn like Dr. Al-Adim? Frankly I haven’t a clue.

The next CS iteration will apparently allow access to every language:

Alessandro Torlonia was a real C19 Italian grandee (and a distant ancestor of Brooke Shields, apparently), and really had a museum in which he kept a bronze tablet engraved in Marsian, although he probably didn’t write a handbook on it. Oddly, Gartside’s Sanskrit Reader does not appear to be a real late C19/earlyC20 Sanskrit textbook, though there are plenty to choose from. Hmmm.

Also, there's this:

Morte d’Arthur. Well, I’ll be damned. Score one point to Edward Warren, Arthuriana, and Thomas Mallory, and none to me.
edited by Vexpont on 4/7/2018

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/30/2018

Oh wow what an infodump.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

A stone tree, laden with dripping hives and fallen pieces of comb. What bees might live upon a tree so unusual? From what flowers might they drink? What honey might such nectar produce?

Sounds like the work of the Flowermaker.

Speaking of whom, sounds like he/she'll be playing a role in the game starting the Explorer's Build:

Vanderschaaf Collection

A cramped little museum in a provincial town, long closed to the public since an outbreak of peculiar rapture in the room where they keep the pressed flowers. Only those with access to rare knowledge would ever consider the place, with its close-warded store-room of ill-omened treasures.

An outbreak of rapture? What could that mean? Reminds me of the Crowned Growth and its rivers of joy-pus.

Thoughts on a couple of those items Anne helpfully listed:

Sthenic Venom- This is another callback to Medusa. Stheno was one of the three original gorgons along with her sister Medusa. "Daughter of Venoms" is likely another Amphisbaena reference. In one legend she was born of Medusa's blood, and in another Medusa's blood was both a deadly venom and a cure-all.

Xanthatic and Iotic Essences- The closest I could find to Meniscate is a translation to "resembling a crescent". Since we're talking about the moon here, Mesicate is probably some term for nighttime. Madrugad is a play on the word "Madrugada", which means "early morning". Sounds like we're talking about transitions between different times of day, fitting that the Forge of Day is referenced in the transformation. But what could "yield to the true Forge" mean? As Hour 20, it's time of day is pretty late at night for the early morning to "yield to it".

Also is it just me, or does Mansus sound a bit like Meniscate and Mandrugada merged together?

Labhitic Grains- Again we have the Lionsmith referenced in regard to youth and beauty. It plays into his contrast with the Colonel. The Colonel is old and covered in scars and his strength comes from his experience, while Lionsmith is young and his power comes from his strength strength, and he wants to be seamless/scarless, which would probably make him a lot more beautiful to look at then the Colonel.

It might be a coincidence, but Vexpont brought up Mater Matura the god of grain earlier and now here we've got grains.

Amaranthine Nectar- Flowermaker is finally referenced directly in the game here, and it's with the Red Grail. Fitting, since the Flowermaker seems to be in the business of gifts, delicacies, and desires, things that play right into the endless lusting of the Grail. The most interesting line here is that if this were another history, it would give people immortality. Not only does this mean that the power of the occult seems to wax and wane depending on the history we're in, it makes this history sound pretty sucky.

Bledde's Blade- More Arabic referenced with the Edge. From Victory of Crowns we know that the Colonel is involved in running assassin cults. It seems to much of a coincidence now that our own world's Hassassim of the Middle East were run by the "Old Man of the Mountain".

Furious Sliver- And here's the last piece of the puzzle regarding the Colonel and Lionsmith's relationship. The Lionsmith originally knelt before the Colonel, but the Colonel did something that angered the Lionsmith so much he's now rebelling against him, hence the Rite of the Rebel Striving.

Kingskin Bohdran- A Bohdran is an Irish drum. Since it was "stolen by an empire", that means it was either taken by England or perhaps even the Romans, who considered an invasion of Ireland during the time they were in Europe.

Whispering Amulet- "It knows what I desire". Flowermaker again. Certainly seems to be an ally of the Grail.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/31/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:
Here are all the items in the Adept's Build, on the age old belief that you can learn a great deal about the gods from their objects of power.
1) There's also a Histories 8 tool:

Atlas of Dreams
The shape of the world changes in each past, but the shape of the Mansus is reflected in all of them. One cannot map the Mansus, but one can make an attempt to map its reflections.

2) The CultSim discord has already compiled most of the game text (Tools, Ingredients, Influences, Followers, Summoned spirits, etc):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7hD4Dn1sSz8I3p9Vi6pfELyWFEsBDLEt0p6hsh_1g0/edit?usp=sharing
I figure that reinventing the wheel isn't the greatest idea, and other people have already went through the work of collating game info.

Way to make me feel redundant :P

*reads the lore fragments*

[spoiler]What the hell, the Forge of Days is a God-From-Light?! Well, that would explain why the Caligane description refers to the Forge as "the Glory's fire." And the Forge's specialty is "unmerciful change," as opposed to merely hunger.

Why is the Watchman assumed to be a God-From-Blood if he isn't a God-From-Light? He could be Stone (he remains in the Mansus) or Flesh (he remembers his great Sorrow).

The Sister-and-Witch is Heart and Grail. The Witch and Sister is Moth and maybe Heart. The Witch Twins together might have a little bit of Knock as well, what with their book and all. I wouldn't be surprised btw if they had their fingers in a lot more pies, being the goddesses of unifications and crossways and the like.

I'm a little surprised the Sun-in-Rags has been unreservedly classified in the Discord Doc. as a God-From-Blood. His description, blood and light, has been pretty ambiguous from the start and he is heavily implied to be a fragment of the Divided Sun. Take the Flowermaker, a God-From-Light who is associated with the Grail through its greed.[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/31/2018

I scrolled down really fast and that picture almost made me jump out of my chair holy shit.

Looks like Red Grail-o-vision.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/1/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

I scrolled down really fast and that picture almost made me jump out of my chair holy shit.

Looks like Red Grail-o-vision.

That's supposed to be the Emperor as Vertumnus, god of the seasons.

I rather like John Crowley's saturnine portrait of the occultist Emperor in Love & Sleep:

Valetudo, Chapter Four wrote:

Earthly empires pass. But Rudolf’s empire had been instituted by God; like Christ’s Kingdom, it was not, or not entirely, of this world. No matter how his sway was challenged, no matter how many lands were hived off from it, the Empire itself could not die. It would contract for a time, shrinking like a snail; its peopled lands, governments, armies, navies, would be distilled into potent symbols small enough to be carried in procession, carved onto jewels, worn around the neck of the Emperor. Though it contracted so far, even to the compass of his own sacred person, still it contained within itself the power of sublimation, and when a new age had come it would regrow all its parts from the seeds, the jewels and the symbols, which the Emperor kept in his caskets. No matter what they thought, those contentious bishops, princelings, reformers, nuncios, truculent populaces of walled cities, they all still lived within the One Holy Roman Empire.

Meanwhile the Emperor himself, in advance of his Empire, had been withdrawing from visibility. He would not marry, despite his counselors’ pleadings. He had left his city of Vienna, seat of his ancestors, and removed his court to Prague. He retreated into his castle, into his private apartments, his bedchamber, his bed often enough. Like many who suffer from melancholy, his spirit tended to become fixed on unanswerable questions. How was the essence of Empire contained in a jewel cut with an emblem? What counted more, the nature of the jewel or the construction of the embalm? And when he sought distraction from his obsessions, in his collections, his clocks, in paintings, metallurgy, genealogy, the distractions tended to become obsessions too. He gave more and more time to less and less.

He had lately conceived a plan for making an automation which could replace himself at his official duties: processions, christenings, feasts, masques and Masses. Clockwork could animate it, prayers and conjurations (white ones, white ones) done in the proper times could give it a temporary intelligence. But what could be done with it so that its touch was healing, its prayers were heard by God, its blessings efficacious?

A jewel, the right jewel, carved with the right sign, enclosed in its empty heart of hearts.

The Jews of the city were rumored to be able to make a man of dirt, who would be given life when the right Hebrew letters were marked on its brow. What heart was it given? When its tasks were done the rabbi erased one letter of the word on its forehead (what word? The emperor could not remember) and changed the word to Death.

He might talk to the Great Rabbi, ask him the trick of it. He had not yet, but he might. He thought about it, and waited for his gemhunters to come back from their expeditions in the Giant Mountains. When they came back with nothing, nothing of extraordinary value, the Emperor went to bed again.

He was the most famous melancholic in Europe, and employed a dozen doctors of several nations and schools, listening to all and to none, and always ready to hear others. The regiments they prescribed appalled his torpid heart: diets, exercise, abnegations, copulation with young women, music while he slept, tiger’s milk taken in wine wherein a pearl has been dissolved, a man would have to have an unappeasable lust for life to be willing to undertake all the bother of it. As the disease was obscure, ramifying, and mutable, there should be one, simple, pellucid medicine; the Emperor was certain such a medicine existed, and that it was his curse to need it, and his destiny to find it. His doctors told him that to believe so was only a further symptom of his condition; but the medicine, of course, would cure that too.

edited by Anne Auclair on 4/1/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/1/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:
Why is the Watchman assumed to be a God-From-Blood if he isn't a God-From-Light? He could be Stone (he remains in the Mansus) or Flesh (he remembers his great Sorrow).
Problem with that is there's only one God-from-Stone left: The Horned Axe.

I suppose the all consuming fascination that his light provokes is pretty God-From-Blood.

I'd recommend though putting a question mark next to the Sun-in-Rag's God-From-Blood status and marking him as a possible God-From-Light as well. All the descriptions of him have been pretty ambiguous on this point, intentionally so I think. As I recall, Alexis tweeted "When your heart says god-from-light, but your head says god-from-blood." The heart might very well be right. Or something more complicated might be going on.

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Recitation of Lost Hours wrote:
Six are gone. Five came from Stone and one from Light. All went to Nowhere. Still their memories have power, and now we call upon it.
There's a bit of uncertainty about the Mother of Ants belonging to Flesh, but the other five Hours have confirmations in 14-lore.

The Mother of Ants was stated to have once been Flesh when the Thunderskin's portrait was revealed.
edited by Anne Auclair on 4/1/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/2/2018

MANSUS EXPLORATION PREVIEW

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/980822543274795009

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/30/2018

Here are all the items in the Adept's Build, on the age old belief that you can learn a great deal about the gods from their objects of power.
[spoiler]Ingredients

Refulgin, Lantern 4
A white so pure that it remains visible even in utter darkness.

Glassfinger Toxin, Lantern 8
‘What is without, within.’ A poison sacred to the votaries of the Meniscate.

Ichor Vitreous, Lantern 12
A pale and watchful fluid that can be gathered, sometimes, when the Door-in-the-Eye is opened.

Piebald Pigment, Moth 4
From the crushed wings of rare lepidopterans. ‘Painting black, or painting white, this is the stuff that’ll see you right.’

Leathy, Moth 8
A dark and syrupy liquor favoured in unnamed forest villages. ‘The gontue and the eye, and now we begin! Forget your name, forget your skin.’

Holiest Hemolymph, Moth 12
Faint traces of an enigmatic substance spilt in the commission of an ancient crime, tightl sealed in a glass ampoule. ‘Who will remember the barber’s son?’

Byzantine Tinct, Knock 4
The profound purple worn in only Histories, where Tyrian dye was not rich enough for emperors. It is difficult to bar entry to one wearing this colour.

Sthenic Venom, Knock 8
From time to time, the Mother of Ants has also been called the Daughter of Venoms. This substance opens the body in uncountable places.

Azoth, Knock 12
Store this only in containers of a pure element, and never permit it to grow warm. Perhaps it isn’t the final solvent that the alchemists sought. But it will do, for our purposes.

Bitterblack Salts, Forge 4
No ordinary chemist could produce these dark-gleaming crystals – not without the touch of the Forge.

Xanthotic Essence, Forge 8
In certain operations of the Forge, sunlight is said to overcome moonlight, as we pass from the Meniscate to the Madrugad. This essence was mercury, once, but now it’s the rich gold of a summer afternoon. Pretty.

Iotic Essence, Forge 12
In the later operations of the Forge, the Madrugad yields to the true Forge of Days, and the essence begins to redden. Some day, perhaps, it will not, but for now we have this.

Martensite Paste, Edge 4
The sacred chrism of the sword. Also an attractive silver-green.

Labhitic Grains, Edge 8
Labhites are the youngest of the Lionsmith’s servants. When rendered to powder, they retain their potency but not their beauty.

Skaptodon Fang, Edge 12
It is rare for the Lionsmith to make skaptodons, now; but they are difficult to kill, and they live a very long time.

Greydawn Oil, Winter 4
The precise colours of the hours when one cannot sleep.

Wolf-Snow, Winter 8
Far too cold ever to melt in anything but the hottest noonday sun. It will, very gradually, consume human flesh.

Watch-Worms, Winter 12
A tiny pot of stunted, desiccated larval remnants from the First Worm War, rank with the power that inhabits dead Hours.

Vital Pigment, Grail 4
It is not usual for a red this red to survive the death of the body.

Amaranthine Nectar, Grail 8
One of the Flowermaker’s many gifts. In a brighter age, it might have bestowed immortality. In this blighted History, it is still an unparalleled sweetness.

Writhing Caul, Grail 12
Lay your had on these tattered folds and feel their warmth; leave your hand upon it, and it will explore the possibilities of embrace.

Rose-Pearl Dust, Heart 4
Pearls are sacred to the Witch-and-Sister, especially those of this colour. They have been used in protective rites, among others.

Witch-Kissed Oil, Heart 8
The formula remains unchanged since the days Hecate was worshipped at the crossways.

True Blood of St Januarius, Heart 12
The Thunderskin protected the one they called Januarius, against perils from every past. To this day his blood keeps dancing.

Tools

Noonstone, Lantern 4
Noon, the saying goes, is not what it was.

Wildering Mirror, Lantern 8
A multiplicity of vistas! A bewilderment of views! Gaze upon me, and rejoince in the dissolution of your senses!

Watchman’s Glass, Lantern 12
This is the mirror into which one does not look twice.

Winged Doll, Moth 4
In an attic above a skeleton house there was a window. Beside the window there was a box there was a bandage. In the bandage was a twist of clotted hair. In the hair was wound a doll, because the window had never been opened.

Dappled Mask, Moth 8
In the forest where the moon couldn’t go, the boughs of the trees were woven together like bandages or lovers. The moon might change herself to an ant or a bird or to her sister, but the forest would not yield to her penetrations, no matter her caresses. One day we came with our scissors, and we severed the braches until the moon and the blood dappled the rotting leaves on the forest floor.

Alakapurine Shears, Moth 12
In the North there is a city of great wealth where dwelt a protector of the world. One day he fell silent. These shears were used to take from him first his hair and then his fingers and then what remained.

Icon of St Agnes, Knock 4
St Agnes of Bohemia was renowned for her pious dedication to the mortification of the flesh. This icon makes for grisly viewing.

Consecrated Lintel, Knock 8
This is the skull of a door through which power has passed.

Franglclave, Knock 12
There are keys that open doors; then there are keys that destroy them.

Cinnabar Amulet, Forge 4
Scarlet is the colour of heat. Mercury holds one key to an ultimate dissolution.

Malleus Imperative, Forge 8
A tiny ear-bone, blackened by intense heat. Applied correctly, it can crack stone.

Carcass Spark, Forge 12
A remnant of a greater radiance, glowing softly as decay, just possibly, a mote of the divided Sun.

Meteoric Bullet, Edge 4
Taenite-iron bullets are occasionally dug from the skeletons of unusual beasts, across Europe, the Middle East and India. Someone has been hunting monsters.

Bledde’s Blade, Edge 8
A cut from this blade will not cease bleeding until the wound is healed. One account has it that Bledde was a knife-collecting surgeon-highwayman in eighteenth-century Toulouse. Another claims Bledde is only the bastardisation of an Arabic word for ‘mosquito.’

Furious Silver, Edge 12
When the Lionsmith turned against the Colonel, he crushed his own sword in his fist. Each tiniest fragment of that weapon still thrills with rage.

Bone Flute, Winter 4
Its sound will cease.

Elagabaline Manacle, Winter 8
It does not relinquish its grip.

Division Bell, Winter 12
First, its voice, and after, nothing.

Stained Gloves, Grail 4
What uses have these known? What lessons might they teach my hands?

Hallowed Polos, Grail 8
The ring-crown of a savage mother, stained with essence, woven with scraps of hair and blessed with flecks of skin.

Chalice Murmurous, Grail 12
On those nights when we drink from the chalice, we are not certain, afterwards, what we have done. But, we may [be] assured, it what always has been done, and if we do not remember, our children will, in their redmost dreams.

Marruvine Idol, Heart 4
The Marruvil would make little wooden idols to placate the witch-twins they feared in their lake. The lake is almost dry now, but the idols and the witch-twins yet remain, yet shadowed with the aspect of the Heart.

Wakeful Tympanum, Heart 8
In the grove where they flayed the thunder, they rattled their instruments to rouse the frenzy. The power still clings, like scent.

Kingskin Bodhrán, Heart 12
In the deep forests, the monarch gave up the last thing they had to give, and so the tool was shaped to keep their land forever safe. Then, of course, an empire stole it, as empires do.

Paradoxical Curio, Histories 4
Sometimes, it is hard to be sure if an arrow slew the Empress Herodias or the Empress Eudokia. Sometimes, it is possible that an ormolu clock was stolen in the sack of Vienna even as it rested safe in the vaults of Rome.

Whispering Amulet, Moth 2 Grail 2
It knows what I desire; or I imagine that it does.[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/30/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/30/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Here are all the items in the Adept's Build, on the age old belief that you can learn a great deal about the gods from their objects of power.

1) There's also a Histories 8 tool:

Atlas of Dreams
The shape of the world changes in each past, but the shape of the Mansus is reflected in all of them. One cannot map the Mansus, but one can make an attempt to map its reflections.

2) The CultSim discord has already compiled most of the game text (Tools, Ingredients, Influences, Followers, Summoned spirits, etc):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7hD4Dn1sSz8I3p9Vi6pfELyWFEsBDLEt0p6hsh_1g0/edit?usp=sharing
I figure that reinventing the wheel isn't the greatest idea, and other people have already went through the work of collating game info.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

3/26/2018

D'awwwww

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/27/2018

More art ^_^

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
I wonder if those worms are edible.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/10/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

Before then, it can be a challenge to find an extra Knock item to add in; once I'd upgraded Enid and Neville, my two Knock cultists, I kept creating Injury (+2 Knock) and using that, but sometimes Despair would appear and snatch it away before I could use it, which was aggravating.

The Geminiad has 2 Knock, so once you burgle Strathcoyne you'll only need level 6 lore to upgrade cultists.

Clifton Royston wrote:

I haven't yet done anything substantial towards my ambition so I can't yet say how that goes.

Ambitions are easy to get to stage 3, where they start becoming appetites, just by using the right rites with enough of the relevant principles. It's difficult to proceed past there, though. I think it may involve stuff other than rituals, until you get to level 7 which I think is final from the hint I got. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to go through levels 4 and 5, or if it skips to level 6.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/10/2018

+1 link

Harvey Hattington
Posts: 13

3/10/2018

Thanks to everyone who gave advice! As of writing this, I have built a pretty sizeable cult (18 members, 12 of them disciples plus 5 pawns), gotten every single book I could get my grubby little hands on and become a Know. I am currently toying with the idea of getting rid of Wakefield and trying to figure out how to destroy evidence. Sacrificing a pawn every other hour isn't exactly a problem, but it's slightly inconvenient.

The biggest roadblock right now is, that I have to grind up some erudition and glimmering every time I try to upgrade my lore or create a ritual, but that's a small sacrifice to be made on the way NORTH... ahem, I mean towards enlightenment.

--
Harvey Hattington, an inescapable gentleman: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Harvey%20Hattington
Morgan Adams the Wax Woman. Gone North, gone forever: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Morgan%20Adams

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/11/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Lionsmith is either Death or Judgement, which is odd as it would mean it's sharing a number with the Forge of Days, implying there's some manner of relationship between the two, backed up by the Rite of the Rebel Striving and the fact it's lion monsters are literally robot lions now.

The robot lions were always implied by "[t]he Lionsmith makes monsters, that he may grow strong and stronger." Granted, there are lots of ways to make monsters, but a smith would smith them into existence. Of course said robotic appearance is merely a symbolic image of their underlying nature, so they aren't literally robots. But then, since everything in the visible world ultimately originates from the invisible world, the mortal idea of robots and mechanical beasts would presumably originate from the Lionsmith's servants... Hmmmm.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/7/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

These are definitely a sample of the mortal world locations we can either visit or pillage. If I had to guess it seems Alexis has expanded a little bit on the real world exploration feature. He's expressed dissatisfaction with the current system of simply sending a follower out and later they come back with the item.

It seems he's fleshed it out a bit by introducing numerous sub-locations in larger regions, as indicated by the line grouping on the sheet.

That surreal Papa Bois tweet shows that Alexis is reading into folklore surrounding hunters and woods, so what's already been said about Zagreus is probably accurate in my opinion.

[spoiler]Good point on the shadows. Definitely something Watchman-related. Could be Kings, Know, Katabasists, Kantians, could even be merciless Shadowless Killers.
Also, I don't think the Eyes of Ikirmawi are definitely listed as a location. They're in the same section as Snow's Keeper, which Alexis has specifically listed as a backer name for an occultist - that is, an individual. It may still be a location, but it might not be.[/spoiler]

+1 link

Catherine Raymond
Posts: 2518

3/12/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
Lionsmith is either Death or Judgement, which is odd as it would mean it's sharing a number with the Forge of Days, implying there's some manner of relationship between the two, backed up by the Rite of the Rebel Striving and the fact it's lion monsters are literally robot lions now.

The robot lions were always implied by "[t]he Lionsmith makes monsters, that he may grow strong and stronger." Granted, there are lots of ways to make monsters, but a smith would smith them into existence. Of course said robotic appearance is merely a symbolic image of their underlying nature, so they aren't literally robots. But then, since everything in the visible world ultimately originates from the invisible world, the mortal idea of robots and mechanical beasts would presumably originate from the Lionsmith's servants... Hmmmm.

In the Tarot (at least as Waite realized it) XIII is Death. XX is Judgment, and that's the number on the Forge of Days, which is shown in a later post. But then, I would not expect anything Alexis might write to follow any existing system too closely (though he is certainly mining existing systems for symbolism and nuance).
edited by cathyr19355 on 3/12/2018

--
Cathy Raymond
http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355

Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/12/2018

So, Lionsmith is definitely the Strength Tarot. Figured I got my numbers mixed up there.

Strength usually has a lion somewhere in the depiction, so it makes sense. The subversion here however is that Strength typically promotes a sort of inner strength, not the physical sort. In the art for a Strength Tarot, the lion is usually shown as submissive towards a woman, denoting the greater value of compassion and determination over brute force.

Here the Lionsmith is dominant over the lion because he just finished beating the thing senseless with a massive hammer.

Those towers in the background clearly are meant to look like knives, denoting the Edge. Biplanes in the sky definitely gives the card a WW1 feel, but the robotic lions running around definitely make it clear the war going on here is not of this earth. Perhaps this is a war from another History, or what the Edge portion of the Mansus looks like?

In one of the older drafts of the card the Lionsmith has a broken sword at his feet in a reference to the Rite of the Rebel Striving, where he supposedly broke his sword to "achieve his greatest goal". There's still some sharp-looking bits sticking out of the sand behind him, perhaps that's where the sword is now? Also note that the same triangular symbol engraved on the Forge of Days is on his hat, meaning there's definitely some sort of relationship between those two (and possibly the Knock, as the Key is their defining symbol). Also note that the Golden General's physical body supposedly turned to dust in the Tombs of the Shadowless Kings, yet he casts a shadow in this depiction.

And finally, we learn he wants "to be seamless". No wonder, considering what Alexis just revealed about the Worms on twitter.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/12/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/973163342738096128 I was right, it was Shadowless Kings!

"The Nature of the Lionsmith is to be stronger; to be seamless; to make monsters. It has been suggested that his flesh became dust in the Tombs of the Shadowless Kings."

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

He's dressed like a WWI officer and those are WWI planes flying in the background. Yeah, I think the Great War happened.

The story of the Rebel's Striving indicates that the Lionsmith traded his sword for that hammer, though he has yet to achieve what he desires, because the Colonel hasn't been defeated yet.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/12/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

edit: holy shit a Caligine broke free so I fed it the Detective and I got something even stranger out of it, this is a great development

I have yet to have a Caligine summoning where the smokey daemon didn't try and break free of my control :P Like, the Dead, the Hinter, and the Raw Prophets sometimes try and break free, but Caligines always try and break free. They're bad eggs, those Caligines.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/13/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:
illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
edit: holy shit a Caligine broke free so I fed it the Detective and I got something even stranger out of it, this is a great development

I have yet to have a Caligine summoning where the smokey daemon didn't try and break free of my control :P Like, the Dead, the Hinter, and the Raw Prophets sometimes try and break free, but Caligines always try and break free. They're bad eggs, those Caligines.

They always try, but this one managed it even with Passion. And then gave me a Hinter when I fed it the Detective. What I like about Hinters is you only need to add Knock to summon new ones, so you can get new ones without any sacrifices other than time.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/12/2018

That's the summoning system being either bugged or unfinished. Right now you add Passion and you have a chance of succeeding or failing. What's supposed to happen is each Passion has a chance of quelling the daemon and if it fails you have to contribute more Passion to try again. And at the end of the Summoning, all the contributed Passion becomes Fascination (right now the Fascination icon appears when you add in Passion, but nothing happens). And of course any breach currently results in a Hinter, regardless of whatever it was you summoned.

There are currently two types of dangerous Summons - devourers and deceivers. Devourers have Edge and will kill mortals and Wound you. Deceivers have Moth and will drive mortals insane (presumably turning them into Poor Lunatics) and probably do something to your Reason (turn it into Fascination maybe?).

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/13/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Here the Lionsmith is dominant over the lion because he just finished beating the thing senseless with a massive hammer.

Rather fitting for an Hour whose Names are known for their "savage" strength, in contrast to the "cunning" of the Colonel's Names.

Edward Warren wrote:

First, his physical "death" in the Tombs of the Shadowless Kings, where his body became dust presumably so he could ascend to godhood.

Presumably that's a location we can visit. Huh, I wonder if we'll be able to collect some of that dust...

Edward Warren wrote:

Then, the Rite of the Rebel Striving, where he sacrificed his most prized possession -his sword- in order to get the power to fight the Colonel.

The Rite's description and the Exalted Oath of the Bright Edge indicate it was a little more complex than that. The Lionsmith - presumably before he was the Lionsmith - broke his sword when he submitted to the Colonel's superior strength. But the destruction of the Lionsmith's precious sword, overtly an act of surrender, was really a sacrifice to the Forge of Days aimed at bringing about the Lionsmith's eventual victory. What appears a defeat was really a deliberate ploy to one day become stronger and overcome the Colonel.

So the Lionsmith isn't just savage and brutal - he's also cunning and duplicitous. Another thing to consider, the fact he's now back to openly warring against the Colonel suggests that while he still cannot defeat the Colonel, the Colonel no longer has the strength to subdue him.

btw, his relationship with the Forge probably predated his elevation and war against the Colonel. When you're seeking Power, the Forge is the Hour you end up petitioning. I suspect it's not an accident that the Lionsmith's original body became dust - as if it were burned up. Also, the background is a burning desert ruin. When you summon King Crucible, the Name-emanation of the Forge of Days, it declares: "In the desert I wait, in the ruins I burn."

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Lord Alexander Alderman
Posts: 62

3/14/2018

Sorry for possibly interrupting the flow of theory-craft (I hope for the day we can get an actual CS site) But I would like to start looking into the deeper parts of the lore but don't know what would be the best way to start (Waiting for the full release date) So just a few tips would be nice. And one question, when and where did Winter first appear and what is it? It seems to be similar to a Principle such as Grail but I'm not sure, was it revealed suddenly in an update? Is it odd to even try to get into the lore without playing the early access?

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/15/2018

Lord Alexander Alderman wrote:

Sorry for possibly interrupting the flow of theory-craft (I hope for the day we can get an actual CS site) But I would like to start looking into the deeper parts of the lore but don't know what would be the best way to start (Waiting for the full release date) So just a few tips would be nice. And one question, when and where did Winter first appear and what is it? It seems to be similar to a Principle such as Grail but I'm not sure, was it revealed suddenly in an update? Is it odd to even try to get into the lore without playing the early access?

It just materialized in one of the updates and then was revealed to be associated with the Sun-in-Rags, who we already knew about. If you want lore information, I'd suggest reading through this thread and old Weather Factory posts - the ones on the Tarot cards for the Hours are very interesting. The Early Access has a lot of lore information but until it comes out I think your best bet to learn about it, if you don't have it, is to look at what's posted here; there's plenty of information from before this build.

Unrelatedly, here's a Weather Factory post on the development of Iris.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/15/2018

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/15/2018

Vexpont wrote:

In terms of looking behind the curtain, I checked to see if we can officially learn Fucine yet – not unless you’re very fortunate, I think. And I do check to see if I’ve just been so stupidly unlucky it’s a bug; usually the answer is ‘just unlucky, stupid’.

I've apparently been quite lucky in this one regard. I got a book that let me study Fucine. The Geminiad gives 3 level-8 lores (Heart, Moth, Grail) when read, along with a version of the book that still has the Knock aspect but can't be read again.

Finding 2: St. Hydra is fun but I was very wrong to call it overpowered; it would be exceedingly hard (if not strictly impossible) to get to a Minor Victory with it. The easiest cult appears to be the Knock one.

Having seen what there is to see with St. Hydra which is a fast way to explore the early game, but runs out of steam because you cannot Exalt anyone, I put aside my doomed Wintercult and switched to The Society of the Holy Wound: starter Knock and Lantern Lore as a Physician, the Geminiad is +2 Knock, the gentler of the +2 Lore-generating nightmares is Knock, Knock Followers bring their valuable Aspect to summonings, and Exalted Knock Followers (Keys) are unstoppable theft machines.

So after Dreaming with Reason, and pulling the second Reason like a coward if it was going to give me Cleansing Dawn/Lantern/Fascination rather than Hersault’s Nightmare/Knock/Dread, and lucking out by stealing a +8 Knock Tool, I used it with my +8 Knock fragment to get Key Neville and Key Enid:

On the other hand, I've been extremely unlucky in terms of not getting a +8 Knock item. I've had all of my Forge and Knock cultists die without getting anything to upgrade to Keys. If you don't get a +8 Knock tool/ingredient it's entirely possible to lose everyone who would be useful. This is particularly annoying since I've gotten to 30 Lantern but I don't have any Lantern Tools as far as I can tell. I might be able to get to 34 by summoning the Baldomerian, but I don't have anyone to steal things so I can't get the remaining couple of points.

Edit: I did a little stuff to check if there are Influences beyond level 6, since they're the only thing I can get at this point. The answer seems to be "no", which means I literally cannot win right now. I have no way of getting a Lantern Tool or a better version of anything else. I could have won if I hadn't used the Noonstone in a ritual a while ago, so I'll probably cheat it back in to see what happens and then start a new game which is what I would have done anyway.

Finding 4: Ending the game is a bit of a slog at the moment.

I am now ready to power-thieve my way to getting enough high-tier items to complete the game. I will also (I think) need the Rite Intercalate, because it’s a horrifyingly dangerous rift in reality/it has five slots:

Again, the Summoned are great for boosting Rituals but apparently they are not dumb enough to trifle with the Intercalate, so my lovely assistant will have to be the ill-starred ‘Pope’ Clifton at +5 Lantern. I’m sorry, Clifton. I won't be far behind you.

At least some Summons have the Follower aspect and can go in that slot. The Hint definitely does, and I suspect most of them do. That means you can get, at minimum, a Hint for +8 Lantern, and maybe the Baldomerian for +12 if she also has that aspect. Edit: Yes, she does.

I think Enlightment must be the easiest victory because you can Dream to generate extra Lantern lore, albeit at the cost of a Reason card which will become Fascination and promptly be grabbed and neutralised by A Season of Visions. When you start becoming a properly Enlightened horrible mindflayer you get an extra Reason card for every sap whose psyche you guzzle in order to raise/maintain your Mark at 6 (diet tip: always keep a Prisoner in your snack cupboard).

I think you can only generate one extra Lantern lore, since the Tree of Lights only happens once. Unless I'm mistaken about that, but I certainly haven't seen it multiple times, and some other people had the same impression as me. It'll get you to +8, but that's it. I also suspect that Hersault's Nightmare is only successful once, unless I'm being extremely unlucky trying to get more stuff out of it.

And now I’m stuck at getting to the Seventh and final Mark, using all the Lantern aspect I can scrape together in the Rite Intercalate, with my honed Summoning skills being not much use in the current endgame. The Aspect Number I’m aiming for is 36, apparently to be made up any way that falls to hand.

I cannot for the love of me work out how to get the game to tell me this information, though it’s quite possible it did so in a one-time panel I failed to read properly – I looked through Resources for the words ‘thirty-six’ on a Hersault-inspired hunch (Late Edit: the Rite Intercalate generates seven slots; the one for the Obsession card is right on the very bottom and fascinatingly, you need to use the scrollbar to notice it, load the Obsession card, and get your helpful hint).

You can also put the Obsession into any Rite with a Desire slot, such as the Watchman's Sorrow. That will give you the same hint.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/15/2018

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/16/2018

Weather Factory post on Sanskrit text from some of the books in the next update.

And a new image from Twitter, apparently listing some of the new books with their authors:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/16/2018

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/17/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Since it's only possible to have one spoiler per post, my guesses for which phrases are from actual Tantra are below.

I was looking at those earlier and would guess quite differently, almost the opposite in fact.

[spoiler]My guesses for the two real ones would instead be the CeaselessTantra (“That which does not cease, is not ceased.”) because it just sounds like traditional Indian metaphysical reasoning, and The Shaven Lock Tantra / The One Who Has Shaven His Hair (“Whisper your secrets into the earth, burn them in fire, scatter them in the sea. Still they will cling to your hair.”) because shaving ones head is an important traditional sign of asceticism, Hindu or Buddhist. [/spoiler]

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/16/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

My source for all of this is the description of the "Secret Histories" property of certain lore items:
Secret Histories text wrote:

So many pasts. We could suffocate beneath them. [The Secret Histories are the hidden lore that distinguishes the Know, like yourself.]

That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories.

I think that line was written in expectation of you becoming a Know and needing to use the Secret Histories for something. There has been talk of becoming a Long or Name as alternative endings, so by inference we always end up playing a Know, as going higher means ending the game.

But you don't show any signs of Knowing in any of the Legacies. In the Aspirant legacy you're essentially recruited by a declining cultist after you care for him in the hospital and he judges you have potential. In the Physician legacy you treated one of your former characters, who died horribly, and recollecting about the experience awakes something in you. In the BYT, your occult interests are strictly faddish until your father dies and you find out his occult interests were far more serious (oh, and you're also broke)... You don't really Know anything in any of these and you need to find out.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/16/2018

Something I only just noticed.

Sir William Colt Hoare’s Hints to Travellers in Italy, 1815 wrote:

The locals turn for protection to St Agnes, but I have seen that they also make poppets – of two heads and four arms – to placate the lake-witches.

The Twins have four arms and two heads. The Mother of Ants has four arms and two heads (or faces - perhaps a second face on the back of her head). Both are entities of the number two, but whereas the Twins are two separate Hours fused, the Mother of Ants is a single Hour with two aspects.

If the double nature of the Mother of Ants is related to her threshold status, her command of doors, passages, and openings (btw, Hecate the Grecco-Roman Goddess of crossroads had three heads, as did Cerberus, while Janus the Roman god of doors, doorways, and gates had two faces), then the same could be the case with the Twins. The Mother of Ants's apparent rivalry with or bad feelings towards the Twins might have arisen from the Twins providing alternative ways into the Mansus. Supporting this is the fact that the Geminial's pages are razor sharp and its magic contains the principle of Knock, so you can use it in a ritual to open the flesh or open the way. Gods tend to be jealous of their domains.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

In case you can't/don't want to go through to see the thread, it's a series of screenshots showing increasing levels of Edge lore. Starting with a Knife's Secret and a Chiliarch's Lesson, which are in the game, followed by an Operation of a Lion (which may already be in game? seems like it's the level 6 Edge, which I haven't seen, but should exist).

I've seen it. It's in my list.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

The rest are the Lionsmith's Names ("The Lionsmith is young by the standards of the Hours, but old by the standards of war. His Names are recent recruits, and their recitation has a savage power"), the Colonel's Names ("The Colonel has been many things in many ages. He is blind; he is deaf; he cannot be wounded; he cannot be denied. His Names are cunning as only the very old can be")

The Golden General sounds like a bit of a parvenu, doesn't he? :P

btw, the GG's relative youth does not make him more sympathetic to newcomers. In fact, there are hints that he compensates for his by making the cosmic boundaries even harder to cross.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

and the Alignments of Murder ("These are the arts which ensure an ending").

Ensuring an ending...more jurisdiction friction!

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

But the main reason I'm putting the image here is that the level of the lore is indicated on the card by a circle of ticks around the central knife icon, which has a number highlighted equal to half the level of the lore (lore levels go up by 2 each time). But the Alignments of Murder is only halfway around the circle, which suggests that, as powerful as the Alignments of Murder may be, there's a lot further to go. The highest level, if the Alignments of Murder are halfway, would be 24. Very suggestive.

And an Edge of only 10 makes you a nigh-unstoppable killer...
JoelMB12 wrote:

I pretty sure Long are playable become Name is different story. Thinking of how many legacies will their be?

Alexis said becoming a Long was an alternative ending in his last livestream.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/17/2018

I may actually have been thinking of the Kickstarter page.

Victory? wrote:

You’ll face trials and temptations. You’ll be destroyed by inner demons, or torn apart by the red powers of the night, or ascend to the ranks of the Long and the Names and the Hours. But your heirs and students and victims may succeed where you failed.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/16/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

The Worm Museum- As the Worms aren't Hours (as far as we know) it's interesting to know they reside in an upper portion of the Mansus. It's even more interesting to note that their domain is called the "museum", a place where history is put on display.

Or maybe the museum is where the Hours keep their worm related trophies or prisoners.

Edward Warren wrote:

The geography is all over the place, which is to be expected for a dreamscape but painful to look at nonetheless. In addition to the established stair and wood areas, we've now got a water area. It's interesting that it's called the Painted River, (Queens of the Rivers, anyone?) and as we know painting can play a large part of our occult dabbling. Despite being called a river, it's divided down the middle by what appears to be a crevice that goes all the way up to the Glory. We've also got boats on it, something we've never heard of before. Perhaps we can find the Beachcrow on the River's shores?

I think it would be more surprising if there wasn't a river of any sort. Styx, anyone? And don't forget Charon, the Ferryman.

Edward Warren wrote:

What's interesting are those severed hands, which if I'm not mistaken is something we haven't seen before in her symbolism. Perhaps a reverence to voodoo or "Hands of Glory"?

Generally gatekeepers extract tolls from those who need to pass, in this world and the next. The most basic example is how the Classical Greeks buried their dead with a coin under the tongue in order to pay Charon for their passage across the river. In the Gnostic afterlife things were more elaborate, with multiple obstacles and powers blocking your way. In Mandean mythology, for example, there are seven toll gates that stand between the soul and its true salvation and in order to pass you need to have lived a life that has made you capable of paying your way. In Gnostic systems, if you haven't lived a good life, if you haven't received the proper baptisms, if you haven't learned the passwords, then the gatekeepers will detain you and do really awful things in order to collect their fee. Most souls are swallowed up by these demonic "penal stations":

The Mandean Book of the Songs of the Dead wrote:

"The way we must take is long and has no end. Parasangs are not measured on it, and it is not marked by milestones. Torturers are left behind on it, watch-house keepers and toll-keepers sit on it. The weapons are forged and held in readiness, the irons are polished and set at hand; the cauldrons, which guard the soils of the wicked, simmer. On the road is an ocean which has no passage. Each one is brought to it and conveyed across by his own donations and alms-giving. His works precede him as his as his messenger. The way which we must take is crammed with thistles and thorns. Seven walls encircle it and mountains, in which there is no gap. The scales are set up there and from 1,000 souls they chose one soul that is good and enlightened."

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that if you want the Mother of Ants to use those keys of hers to open doors for you, you'll have to pay her. A lot. And if you try and skip out on paying her, she will not be happy. So I guess the question is, are those severed hands from the travelers who paid or the travelers who didn't pay?

btw, I can't help but suspect that the "ants" crawling all over her represent those who need to use the doors and passages that she guards :P

btw2, the Mother of Ants has four arms, which could be one arm for each "door" - the White Door, the Stag Door, the Spider Door, and the Peacock Door. Though her key ring only has three keys on it, perhaps indicating that one of those doors (the White Door?) is unlocked.

Edward Warren wrote:

The bunch of symbolism in each card is just a giant summation of what each Hour wants. The Red Grail wants to eat everything...

And be eaten. She's very cyclical like that.

Edward Warren wrote:

Also, I just noticed that there's rain in the Mother of Ant's picture. Does that mean that the "House" is big enough to have its own weather? What bizarre sorts of weather can happen in a dream world? Is that going to be a factor in the game?

The rain might hint at her relationship with the Thunderskin. She has to have some sort of relationship – the Thunderskin works to preserve the skin of the world, while the Mother of Ants presides over openings in said skin (in a sense the first door you go through is not the Stag Door, but rather the opening you make between the world and the Mansus). So part of the Mother of Ants domain exists because of the Thunderskin and possibly in defiance of its wishes.

The Thunderskin is an Hour with some really interesting, complex relationships: the Ring-Yew, the Red Grail, the Sun-in-Rags, and the Mother of Ants. One might think of the Thunderskin as a sort of an intersection Hour. He nestles in a ruined wood beneath the world (Yew), he plays a fundamental role in mortal life (alongside the Grail), he is the Hour of that which does not end (opposite Sun-in-Rags), and he works to preserve the world's skin (whereas the MoA sees to the openings in said skin).

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Anyway, the Stag Door being a Name is a really interesting development,

I don't think the Stag Door is a Name, but rather guarded/commanded by a Name: Ghirbi. In a declivity besides the door rests a vast and wounded golden Head. Not the door itself.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

particularly given that the current build has pieces of content that say that a. becoming a Know is passing through the Stag Door and b. that you, the cultist, are already a Know, and what distinguishes you is your knowledge of the Secret Histories. I wonder if the implication is that you have previously passed through the Stag Door unintentionally in dreams, and that's what sparked your interest in the Mansus.

I don't see anything indicating that you start out a Know (in Physician and BYT you start out totally ignorant, as an Aspirant you've had some bare-bones dreams in the recent past). At the start of the game you simply don't know the Secret Histories. You can read about them in the works created by Knows or other people who have also read the Knows, but this is not remotely the same thing as Knowing. The difference is essentially that between secondary and primary research. Secondary research is reading, say, John Lukacs' The Last European War, while primary research is actually going through the various WWII archives yourself. You don't actually Know the Secret Histories until you can do the primary research and you can't do the primary research until you get past the Stag Door.

To put it another way, does someone become a historian simply from reading a book about history? Does someone become a chemist from simply reading a book about chemistry? Does someone become a Know simply from reading a book about the Secret Histories?

And finally, some more twitter pictures! First, the headquarters mechanic that was present in the grey box pre-Alpha has apparently made a return in the Adapts Build. Second, the concluding text of Apollo and Marsyas, which was missing from the Scholar/Neville Builds owing to a bug, is now available.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/16/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/16/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

I don't see anything indicating that you start out a Know (in Physician and BYT you start out totally ignorant, as an Aspirant you've had some bare-bones dreams in the recent past). At the start of the game you simply don't know the Secret Histories. You can read about them in the works created by Knows or other people who have also read the Knows, but this is not remotely the same thing as Knowing. The difference is essentially that between secondary and primary research. Secondary research is reading, say, John Lukacs' The Last European War, while primary research is actually going through the various WWII archives yourself. You don't actually Know the Secret Histories until you can do the primary research and you can't do the primary research until you get past the Stag Door.

To put it another way, does someone become a historian simply from reading a book about history? Does someone become a chemist from simply reading a book about chemistry? Does someone become a Know simply from reading a book about the Secret Histories?

My source for all of this is the description of the "Secret Histories" property of certain lore items:
Secret Histories text wrote:

So many pasts. We could suffocate beneath them. [The Secret Histories are the hidden lore that distinguishes the Know, like yourself.]

That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories. I'm just as surprised as you. It could, of course, be an oversight of content left from a previous version (I just confirmed that the description goes back to the pre-alpha), but at the moment it is still in the game.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/16/2018

+1 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

2/16/2018

https://mobile.twitter.com/factoryweather/status/964543338983673856

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/15/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

JoelMB12 wrote:
Did everyone miss you when he brought up the stag door in the Twitter feed Introduce us the first name? Data mining section he dropped release the process of what is to become a Know

Oh, I noticed. I was just kinda hoping someone else would bring it up so it felt less like I was the only one screaming into an empty void-

-I mean, posting to the thread.

In more hilarious news this is now a feature in the game:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

That's right. In true cult leader fashion, it's now possible to sucker in new devotees by spouting off mystical-sounding nonsense. Hey, if it works for made up religions, why not a honest-to-God eldritch cult, right?

KIFFLOM!

I was considering posting it, but I had posted the last few Twitter updates so I figured someone else could get this one. Anyway, the Stag Door being a Name is a really interesting development, particularly given that the current build has pieces of content that say that a. becoming a Know is passing through the Stag Door and b. that you, the cultist, are already a Know, and what distinguishes you is your knowledge of the Secret Histories. I wonder if the implication is that you have previously passed through the Stag Door unintentionally in dreams, and that's what sparked your interest in the Mansus.

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

2/23/2018

Vexpont wrote:

‘Iguvine’ – refers to only one thing: the Iguvine tablets, seven cast-bronze slabs embossed with instructions for performing sacrifices, in one of the many extinct languages related to Latin. They were dug up in the C15 and originally, there were nine – I wonder where the missing ones are?

Even by early Roman times, few scholars could properly read any of these languages. I thought the match must be exact when I found that ‘Iguvine’ (probably Umbrian, since ancient Iguvium/modern Gubbio is located in Umbria) has links to the notion of Thunder:

The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, "the people of the thunderstorm," after ὅμβρος, "thunderstorm") by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally "the inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus).

But again, the Iguvine Rite is Knock lore, not Heart lore. So perhaps things aren’t quite as obsessively historically-connected as all that.

There's something to be said about how the Knock principle is generally associated with peeling back the skin of the world (which is in turn governed by the Heart principle and the Thunderskin) to unlock greater mysteries and how that might be mirrored by Ombrii being survivors of a thunderstorm-caused (again, Thunderskin) natural disaster.

Both can be interpreted as a fight against aspects of the Hour and winning: Either by unlocking the Rites needed to open Doors into the Mansus or living through a nation-defining deluge.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/21/2018

confounding wrote:

Excuse me from distracting from the lore but as someone who was too late to back the kickstarter(and can't buy from itch.io), how much will the game cost at launch(on steam)? Can I presume that the Perpetual Edition will be priced differently from what it costs now?
Anyways back to lurking.

Perpetual Edition will be the available option for a week after launch. It will probably cost slightly more than the itch.io version, but not a huge amount. $20 at most, I would expect, but maybe less.

Also, I have received confirmation that the bit about the player being a Know and the Know being distinguished by the Secret Histories is, indeed, a leftover from the original version, and will be corrected with the Adept's Build to fit with current canon.

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/28/2018

Witch-and-Sister has to be an Hour of the Wood, which is why she seems to be interwoven with The Moth. The Rituals of the Sea in the new build call on the Witch and Sister, and show that like the Mother of Ants, she can use her ability to permit exploration of the unknown. The big difference between the two is that the Mother of Ants demands a "wound", severing ties so that one may explore by slipping through, Witch-and-Sister joins where you are with where you want to go.

Rite of the Sea's Feasting calls on Witch-and-Sister to join what is with what might be, and Rite of the Sea's Marriage makes the participant into the "bride to the unknown". Both of these rituals imply a degree of chaotic transformation and exploration of the unknown, principles shared with The Moth.

That Dappled Mask card definitely tells the story of WaS and The Mother of Ants.

"The boughs of the trees were interwoven like the bandages of lovers."

The Witch-and-Sister cannot be separated.

The moon might change herself to an ant or to a bird or to her sister, but the forest would not yield to her penetrations, no matter her caresses.

The moon in this story is definitely The Mother of Ants, whom I suspect is alternatively called The Knock. We know the two names of the Door in the Eye, and Mother of Ants is seen in her Tarot holding keys, the symbol of The Knock. She opens the way to places, but The Witch-and-Sister does not permit others to separate or reach them, hence their conflict. The big wham line here is that The Mother of Ants might be WaS' sister, or MoA has another powerful sibling that can't penetrate the Wood either.

One day we came with our scissors, and we severed the branches until the moon and the blood dappled the rotting leaves on the forest floor.

The 'we' in this story is clearly us, or alternatively The Moth. By cutting ourselves with scissors, we create the wounds that allow both us and the Mother of Ants access to forbidden places.
edited by Edward Warren on 2/28/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/28/2018

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

The Witch-and-Sister feature the moon pretty heavily in their depictions and the depictions of their followers, which is why I made the assumption that the Moon would be the Witch-and-Sister in this allegorical tale.

I agree that the moon is very important in the Witch-and-Sister's sphere, but I don't believe that means she is the moon. That talk of penetrating an impenetrable forest seems to go against her nature. I think it's more likely that it's a red herring, or more likely the symbol of her luminous rival in opening the way: The Mother of Ants. Like how MoA's card has the Mansus in the background and the Sun-in-Rags looks like the Sun, they're involved with both, but have no real power over them. The moon has influence over the tides of the ocean. And when we dream using passion in the game, the moon briefly appears in the background. I think that invocation definitely gives the moon away as the sphere of MoA:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

The Witch-and-Sister seems to have more in common with ocean, or at least large bodies of water. The Rites of the Sea involve sacrificing people and artifacts to water, WaS is holding seaweed in her Tarot, and her witches come out of lakes to torment people.

I like the idea that she's the sister of the Mother of Ants, and that's why they both have ties to Fucio and partially why they fight each other. I always found WaS' name very odd. One part of WaS is a witch, and the other half is... her sister? That mask lore has me thinking: What if her/their name means instead that she/they're not just a witch (powerful in her/their own right), but also Mother of Ant's sister? Two Hours being blood related isn't something we've seen before, which would make the distinction noteworthy.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/26/2018

Does anyone have a clue how to get any of the rituals? Studying each piece of lore alone does nothing for me, and when I combine lore I either get nothing or a slightly better single piece of lore that does nothing for me. Help?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

2/26/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Does anyone have a clue how to get any of the rituals? Studying each piece of lore alone does nothing for me, and when I combine lore I either get nothing or a slightly better single piece of lore that does nothing for me. Help?

Using two of the identical lore type will always get you the next higher upgrade to that Lore type, instead of a ritual. (There were a few certain other combos which also gave you an upgraded Lore, previously - for example Watchman's Secret with either Barber's Warning or Locksmith's Secret would give you a Mansus-Glimpse, same as studying two Watchman's Secrets.) While the details of which Lore gets you a ritual might have changed, what with the addition of many new rituals, each time it's involved a combination of two different types of Lore.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

2/26/2018

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dmz0HJ_XSWja22Ut-FnjhVJjHBenGz1c8OO-eNkJUW4/edit

I made a google doc with the text for all the followers. It's currently got all Acquaintance and Believer descriptions, as well as Disciple texts for Moth Followers. The doc is open to editing, so feel free to fill in any missing info.

EDIT: Now includes Disciples and Skintwisters.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/27/2018

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

2/27/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Digging the new build, really getting into the meat of it now. Could do with Wakefield being less of an omnipresent, unavoidable threat that would put The Colonel to shame, though. Without a way to destroy evidence, the man is practically jumping down my throat the second I have a single scrap of notoriety, and it's only a matter of time till he nails me...

Also, how does one upgrade the recruits? I'd like to make sure Tristain is strong enough for the job before I send him over to say hello to the good detective.
edited by Edward Warren on 2/27/2018

The hint for upgrading from Follower to Disciple is this:

To promote a Believer to a Disciple, I'll need to provide an appropriate aspect for the cult, to at least the seventh intensity. (NB 'Aspect' is what I've generally been calling 'Principle-score' so far, and is cumulative between all slots). Disciple to Final Form needs a whopping Aspect score of 21, which I assume is possible but have yet to do).

Let's promote Elridge, since I have him in hand. Apologies if you wanted to make Disciple Tristan an Assassin and this is all old news.

[spoiler]Elridge is what Inspectors in another version of London would call 'A bit tasty with a shiv'. Sadly, he is not very clever. In the Church of the Bright Edge, we must work with what we have:

Despite the fact that my Cult is Edge, I can't use it to get Aspect:Edge to 7. But Elridge the Follower is Edge 2, my Lore is a Chiliarch's Lesson at Edge 4, and so I just need an Edge Tool - an Iron Spintria (lots of other things are Tools now, in different Principles, as seen above). Off we go:

Inspector Wakefield wonders what we're up to, Elridge. Would you use your new-found skills to demonstrate?:

A prisoner? A live prisoner? My fault, Elridge. I should have been more specific. Perhaps we'll find a use for him:

Or perhaps not, since these apparently mundane Bureau types can sometimes be just as much trouble in fetters as walking around freely. You didn't know that some Inspectors can astrally project? Sometimes I envy you, Mr. Eldridge -- you really do learn something new every day:

(it's confirmed that Hunters should not in fact be able to Hunt when imprisoned, but it was quite fun to laboriously capture Wakefield and find it did me no good at all).[/spoiler]

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/1/2018

I managed to initiate two Assassins thanks to a summoning of King Crucible (my god, the Forge of Days is so arrogant - this emanation was actually wearing a bloody crown!!). King Crucible provided the lighting and atmosphere for the initiations, allowing me to get to 21 Edge (he also helped me find the White Door, but that's a different story).

Assassins have an Edge of 10 btw - they swat Investigators like flies. They're actually more lethal than all the low level daemons you can summon, probably because those daemons aren't in their usual environment and have some pretty glaring weaknesses in the mortal sphere (the Hinter shatters from a mortal's gaze, the Percussigant won't stop dancing). Assassins in contrast have attained supernatural murder powers while remaining in their element. If you have an Assassin, the Suppression Bureau can't touch you.

Anyway, here are the prayers of the Church of the Bright Edge and the Assassin descriptions, for those who are so interested:

[spoiler]
Disciple Prayer
'My scars are weapons. Through striving I rise to victory. There is no defeat but annihilation. In the light of the Bright Edge we know ourselves. I pledge myself to the service of the strongest.'

Assassin Prayer
'As the Lionsmith knelt to the Colonel, so now I kneel. My service ends in death, or in the resolution of strengths.'

Rose
The night before Rose meets her subject, the subject will receive a package with a single yellow rose.

Elridge
Elridge is never seen with a spot of blood upon his person. Not a spot.[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/1/2018

See, a crown, a bloody crown!! Pretentious, self-important elemental. Well, a mortal just summoned you and you're going to provide background lighting for our little ceremony. How do you like that?!

btw, I don't think Theresa is Baldomeria.
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/1/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/1/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

What is this~?

I'm also fascinated with this image - completely new, and there's a lot to unpack there. Here's a quick exegesis of some things I see in the iconography of the card:

We had it from elsewhere that Hour II is the Black-Flax, so "The Velvet" and "The Black-Flax" must be alternate names of the same thing, and it's clearly in the Wood which also matches what we know from De Horis vol I.

The central creature looks a little like an elongated version of a star-nosed mole - which themselves look like unearthly tentacled creatures * - with a mole's enormous claws but with roots instead of its hind feet, and with branches of some kind growing out of its back, as well as moss growing on it. "Velvet" is a traditional description of a mole, so that fits.** I surmise that must be the Black-Flax itself, that it's half plant and half animal in nature. There's some kind of thread or web strung through its branches - flax thread, maybe? Or something else? It's carrying some sort of vessel or urn with the symbol of a beetle on it, which perhaps contains a glowing liquid, cradled in its arms as if it's trying to hide it.

"The Glory is a question....The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.” Its leg appears to be heavily chained to a boulder, as if to keep it from rising or being lifted to the Glory. Looking closely at the surroundings, there are sad or tired faces in the trees - perhaps aspirants who've been imprisoned in or turned into trees to prevent their ascent?

The trees are also black and the surroundings are very dark - because it's an hour of the night, maybe. There are discarded teeth on the ground, probably human teeth - this could be connected with the Barber's Secret, since in ancient times barbers used to also be tooth-extractors. There's a crown discarded on the ground, becoming overgrown with vines; this could again perhaps symbolize rejection of ascent, but there may be more to it than that. Finally, I could be imagining it, but it looks as though there might be a tiny pair of eyes in that shrub or bush, whatever it is in the lower right.

* https://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2017/02/star-nosed-mole.jpg.638x0_q80_crop-smart.jpg

** Too good a tangent to resist: "[King William III's] demise was the direct result of a fall from his horse which stumbled on a molehill, throwing its royal rider. ...This is why, for many years afterwards, his Jacobite enemies would raise their glasses and toast 'the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat'."

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/1/2018

P.S. You guys are so far ahead of me in the game, it's unreal. I'm still trying to figure out how to do much of anything new in this version, and my initial aspirant died rapidly due to that funds-consumption bug.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/1/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
Double post, but just saw that Alexis just put a new Tarot out for The Mother of Ants! And man it's really-!

...Wow.

The word you're looking for is "fashionable." That's a classic 20's look!
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Pulling off or carrying ones own severed head is a classic fashion look that will never go out of style.

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5a8dcfcc2000007d06eaf91b.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale

edited by cliftonr on 3/1/2018

Sorry, couldn't get the stupid spoiler tag to work with the image I was trying to post...
edited by cliftonr on 3/1/2018

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

3/1/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

See,a crown, a bloody crown!! Pretentious, self-important elemental. Well, a mortal just summoned you and you're going to provide background lighting for our little ceremony. How do you like that?!

btw, I don't think Theresa is Baldomeria.
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/1/2018

I looked up your next screenshot. Many congratulations; the Baldomerian has not yet deigned to manifest for me.

[spoiler]That’s where she went, then. Or part of where she went, since she’s also Secret Histories. I wonder what Teresa Galmier’s timeline looks like (and why I've kept spelling her with an 'H' all this time). I also wonder what the price was to go as far as she did, because as well as being unmerciful, I suspect the Watchman of being jilted: he is sorrowful, and always in white. No Hour is safe of course, but I suspect he may be a particularly unsafe one for lovers to invoke.

At some point in 1927 Galmier perhaps visited Kerisham, apparently sane and human enough to not cause people to have her sectioned/flee in terror, though I guess you see some serious eccentrics in Kerisham. And there is that mysterious fourth book.

It’s all quite ominous, and I’m increasingly inclined to believe that when the game begins, Christopher Illopoly is deceased. I wonder if we can still meet him too, somehow? Is there some blend of Moth, Forge and Winter that would appeal? I doubt that even being rendered mute would shut the man up, he’d just communicate in irrepressibly sarcastic visions.[/spoiler]

NB If (like me) anyone is annoyed by Twitter's default gargantuan image sizes, but also doesn't want to immediately rehost original custom art just so as not to break the forums, image size is controlled by a suffix at the end of the URL, editable in html view. There aren't many sizes: large, small, thumb, tiny, and orig/[no suffix] which is still pretty big usually. For example, the Velvet's image can be altered like so:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXJ3D8ZX4AE6snp.jpg:large (vast)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXJ3D8ZX4AE6snp.jpg (standard)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXJ3D8ZX4AE6snp.jpg:tiny (almost impossibly miniscule)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXJ3D8ZX4AE6snp.jpg:small (about right for forums, as shown below)

Clifton Royston wrote:

P.S. You guys are so far ahead of me in the game, it's unreal. I'm still trying to figure out how to do much of anything new in this version, and my initial aspirant died rapidly due to that funds-consumption bug.

Well, I'm not particularly ahead; I seem to play like the cultist version of Professor Branestawn. In recent news, Disciple Laidlaw gallantly expired in a horrific crucible explosion, and Inspector Wakefield waltzed in and snatched the still-smouldering corpse. He died a martyr for Knowledge, you awful jobsworth; of course I did not murder him. Also, I was going to use him for parts.
edited by Vexpont on 3/1/2018
edited by Vexpont on 3/1/2018

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/1/2018

Vexpont wrote:

I looked up your next screenshot.

That wasn't my screenshot. The one with Baldomeria was someone else's screenshot (it seems they used administrative tools). My screenshot was the one with King Crucible (and I managed to get him from playing the game fair and square!).

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/1/2018

Clifton Royston wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
What is this~?

I'm also fascinated with this image - completely new, and there's a lot to unpack there. Here's a quick exegesis of some things I see in the iconography of the card:

We had it from elsewhere that Hour II is the Black-Flax, so "The Velvet" and "The Black-Flax" must be alternate names of the same thing, and it's clearly in the Wood which also matches what we know from De Horis vol I.

The central creature looks a little like an elongated version of a star-nosed mole - which themselves look like unearthly tentacled creatures * - with a mole's enormous claws but with roots instead of its hind feet, and with branches of some kind growing out of its back, as well as moss growing on it. "Velvet" is a traditional description of a mole, so that fits.** I surmise that must be the Black-Flax itself, that it's half plant and half animal in nature. There's some kind of thread or web strung through its branches - flax thread, maybe? Or something else? It's carrying some sort of vessel or urn with the symbol of a beetle on it, which perhaps contains a glowing liquid, cradled in its arms as if it's trying to hide it.

"The Glory is a question....The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.” Its leg appears to be heavily chained to a boulder, as if to keep it from rising or being lifted to the Glory. Looking closely at the surroundings, there are sad or tired faces in the trees - perhaps aspirants who've been imprisoned in or turned into trees to prevent their ascent?

The trees are also black and the surroundings are very dark - because it's an hour of the night, maybe. There are discarded teeth on the ground, probably human teeth - this could be connected with the Barber's Secret, since in ancient times barbers used to also be tooth-extractors. There's a crown discarded on the ground, becoming overgrown with vines; this could again perhaps symbolize rejection of ascent, but there may be more to it than that. Finally, I could be imagining it, but it looks as though there might be a tiny pair of eyes in that shrub or bush, whatever it is in the lower right.

On the topic of the crown, rejection - specifically rejection of self - is a running theme in Moth content. Higher-intensity Moth Influences and items speak with a possessive We, and the text given for becoming a Skintwister (meddling with either the Skin of the World or one's own skin) is all about giving up oneself to the point you don't even exist anymore:

[spoiler](Also, strangling the light, which means strangling the Glory. War against and deconstruction of the Glory and the Mansus are semi-common themes in Moth. The Ring-Yew is a force of renewal and growth, while the Forge of Days mercilessly transforms and destroys (Smith's Secret uses the word 'unmerciful', and An Unmerciful Mantra brings up that ruthlessness itself is part-and-parcel for the Glory/Mansus, and that mercy may only be found in the Shadow - i.e. The Wood.)

There's more to talk about in the rivalry, like the Witch-and-Sister/Sister-and-Witch contrasted with the Mother of Ants/Daughter of Venoms, the fact that 'a power of the Wood enjoys a separation of the lock from the scalp' in the context of all the sacrifice-demanding doors of the Mansus, and the focus on the forbidden nature of the Moth 14 lore (which I am not posting for the sake of intrigue. Feel free to shout if you want to see it.).[/spoiler]

An interesting take on the matter comes up in Moldywarp's Admonitions. (Moldywarp herself I am beginning to consider a Name of the Velvet now.)

Moldywarp, most notably, keeps her crowns in the moss, which strikes me as similar to the Skintwister's oath of setting their clothes aside. The Velvet artwork, too, features a crown lying in some foliage, as well as trees and teeth (both invoked by the 'trees locked jaw-tight' phrase). Also, both the Admonitions and the Barber's Warning being some of the only warnings to the player ties back into your theory about the Velvet's connection to barbers-as-tooth-extractors.

I'll have to potentially disprove the tree-aspirants theory (and confirm Velvet = Black-Flax), though: The Velvet's No is considered pretty safe as far as No's go.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/3/2018

Makes sense that the Mansus will be divided into different areas. I'd assume that once Mansus exploration is added to the game, we'll be able to use the Way cards to determine which part of the Mansus we want to visit each night. Notice that on the early Mansus map certain locations are directly lined certain doors. We'll have to pick which Hour or Area we want to contact each night. Otherwise any amateur could start at the Wood and climb to the Stag Door in a single night.

I have to say that I'm looking forward to the Mansus exploration expansion with baited breath. The Catherine Unger art of different rooms and the unique interface complete with map have me hoping Alexis and co. have something more immersive than cards in store for us, something along the lines of HoMD. I've been loving the game so far, but it's my nightmare that exploring the Mansus for ritual ingredients will boil down to clicking on a part of the map, then getting sent back to the regular card table and getting a card that says "Tonight I dreamed of the domain of Hour *insert name here*, *insert sentence detailing surroundings here*. While I was there I tripped over a rock and found *insert ingredient name here*. Then I woke up." I know Alexis won't let us down!

...Also, look at the section of the Mansus Map containing The Bounds. I just noticed something weird about them after I saw the *shudder* limb-trees in the Wood. Is it just me... or are those flying cats?

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

How long until I can summon a swarm of those to kill Wakefield, Alexis?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/2/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Has anyone been able to create the rite of the Watchman's Sorrow? I keep researching A Watchman's Secret with a Smith's Secret, but the game acts like these two are incompatible...
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/2/2018

There's a bug that makes Watchman's Sorrow rite impossible to create via Studying. You pretty much have to either summon it in with the dev console or just use one of the other nine.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/4/2018

...Hey so, little embarrassed here. This might seem like a dumb question, but could someone explain to me the god-from-xxxx distinction again.

I thought formal mortal= flesh
Offspring of the Sun= light
???=nothing

And that's it.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/4/2018

"GODS-FROM-LIGHT DESCEND."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-FLESH REMEMBER."
"GODS-FROM-STONE REMAIN."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-BLOOD CONSUME."
"GODS-FROM-NOWHERE; GODS-FROM NOWHERE."

The Grail and the Moth are all Gods-Who-Were-Blood; they each consume others, albeit in very different ways. They also seem to consume themselves in their drive to do what they do. The Sun-in-Rags is also placed among the God-Who-Were-Blood and this seems proper, as he certainly consumes/self-consumes in a way not dissimilar from the Moth and Grail. But the Sun-in-Rags case is rather ambiguous as he has also been classified among the Gods-From-Light - and not without reason, as he gives off a light that crisps snow and it's stated that "he is not as he was," which suggests he might have descended at some point and been transformed. If the Witch-and-Sister tell us anything, it's that there are Hours who can be very hard to neatly categorize.

I think the Black Flax is a pretty good candidate for a god-from-stone, and not just because a large part of him seems literally made out of it. If any Hour is remaining where they are, it's him. He's even chained to a boulder (or part of his body is a chained up boulder, hard to say).

It's hard to tell what is meant by "Remember" though. Remember what? The secrets of the Sun? Their existence before they became Hours? The mortals they deal with?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/4/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

Digging the new build, really getting into the meat of it now. Could do with Wakefield being less of an omnipresent, unavoidable threat that would put The Colonel to shame, though. Without a way to destroy evidence, the man is practically jumping down my throat the second I have a single scrap of notoriety, and it's only a matter of time till he nails me.

I rather like the threat he poses - he feels very much like a real adversary. At least in the early game, because once you start summoning daemons the threat he poses diminishes significantly. He is pretty tough though - you'd think several zombies with blades for hands and feet would be able to take him out, but you'd be wrong. He even managed to defeat a Hinter I sent at him in my second game - unfortunately for the good detective I had summoned four of them (he'd arrested four or five members of my society at that point, albeit three or four of them pawns, and I really wanted him dead).

Hilariously enough though, my very first encounter with Wakefield was somewhat anticlimactic. He got damning evidence faster than I thought he would, I panicked and sent a Pawn to murder him...and the Pawn somehow succeeded! But then the Weary Detective showed up and picked up right where Wakefield had left off and he proceeded to devastate my little cult to such an extent that I was on the brink of giving up occultism altogether and surrendering to Glover and Glover when the funds bug killed me (I hadn't noticed it yet).

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

3/4/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Maybe this is just my experience, but I haven't had any issues with Wakefield. He slowly builds up evidence leading to a trial - at which point I just sacrifice a Pawn and get away completely free. The only really annoying part of it is when he picks up Mysticism or Notoriety that I was planning to use to recruit someone to a cult. Unless it's possible to run out of hangers-on, this seems like it should always work - I have 5 Pawns right now, and it's free to upgrade hangers-on to Pawns as long as you have the Reputation (or, in general, to upgrade anyone as long as you have the resources).

It is actually possible to run out of pawns. The follower pool has like 8 hangers-on in it, and you won't get any more outside those 8. When you do fully exhaust the pool, you'll start getting Cases of Mistaken Identity, not Hangers-on.

Still, 8 should last you a long time, hopefully enough for you to set up shop and start periodically summoning Moth mansus-creatures to eat away evidence for you.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/4/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Maybe this is just my experience, but I haven't had any issues with Wakefield. He slowly builds up evidence leading to a trial - at which point I just sacrifice a Pawn and get away completely free. The only really annoying part of it is when he picks up Mysticism or Notoriety that I was planning to use to recruit someone to a cult. Unless it's possible to run out of hangers-on, this seems like it should always work - I have 5 Pawns right now, and it's free to upgrade hangers-on to Pawns as long as you have the Reputation (or, in general, to upgrade anyone as long as you have the resources).

That's a very helpful play tip - it points up that I actually need to spend much more of my time blabbing about occult secrets to make more acquaintances and hangers-on so that I build up my Followers and Pawns faster. I'd been avoiding too much of that because of all the problems Wakefield was giving me with Notoriety, but if I can keep getting Pawns to sacrifice as scapegoats, then I don't need to worry about that.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/5/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Ah, that makes sense. I've already got all of my cultists upgraded to Disciples, although I lost Neville in an early burglary attempt and I've lost both of my Forge cultists in accidents while trying to get more materials for rituals. I haven't gotten a Moth acquaintance or another Knock acquaintance, unfortunately. Right now I'm not able to do summonings because apparently 8 Knock isn't enough power to run either of the rituals I've made yet (Mother's Mercy and Map's Edge), so I'm just trying to upgrade all my lore to the highest levels I can get.

If you've got any Moth and Knock followers or disciples, it's helpful to start sending them out on errands for the cult. They'll respectively hoodwink or burglarize people and if they succeed, they'll bring you back various magically charged items which you can use to help boost the power of your rituals or upgrade attempts. (There seem to be a lot of people around London with magic items just sitting around.)

I think failures in this don't necessarily seem to lose you the follower, the way it does when you fail to destroy evidence or assassinate a detective. However, I must warn you that Pope Clifton may go mad and turn into a useless lunatic if he fails in his attempts to scry out favorable "airs" for the cult.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/6/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

(and of course spoiler tags are broken again for me)

[spoiler]...Yes. I know what the Variations are. That was me trying to indirectly indirectly refer to the feature-that-must-not-be-named.

If I had to guess we'll be putting cards in slots one wouldn't normally think to put them for a secret result based on clues in the lore. For example, "Hour ### likes people who think of money while painting." We put money in the slot for inspiration, and we'll get a special painting with text in the description pointing to the next clue. That's the way I'd imagine a secret path would play out.[/spoiler]

I think you get one spoiler tag per forum post now. You have to remove the spoiler tags from the quote or just not directly reply in order for it to work.
edited by Edward Warren on 3/6/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/6/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

I think you get one spoiler tag per forum post now. You have to remove the spoiler tags from the quote or just not directly reply in order for it to work.

Thanks, fixed.

[spoiler]
It's not really a feature not to be named. You can name it all you want, there's even a page on the FL wiki for it. Anyway, yeah, that's probably how it'll go. Since cards open up auxiliary slots even in the wrong tiles, it could be Exploring instead of Working with the Rite of the Mother's Mercy, with fully upgraded Neville as an Assistant, a level-10 Lantern Lore as Invocation, and no offering, but you have to be in the Worm Museum when you do it, or something like that.
[/spoiler]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 3/6/2018

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/6/2018

[spoiler]For big fans of Fallen London, Alexis just revealed on Twitter there will be a special secret route through the game based on the work of Edward Elgar.

Because a game all about the Mr. Eaten-eque goal of peeling back the world's skin wouldn't be complete if you couldn't go waaaaay off the beaten path.

Hidden Hour route confirmed?[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/6/2018

You might need one more Heart. I recently summoned one of the Dead using the Rite of the Crucible Soul, a White Ceremony, a Hapless Prisoner, and the Geminiad (that book is really useful! ^_^). Essentially I slashed some poor sap's throat with a torn page and then said some frosty words as his warm blood formed a little pool. The relevant total comes to 4 Winter, 3 Heart, and 2 Knock.

EDIT: No, that's not it! I can summon one of the Dead using the Sunset Rite, a White Ceremony, a Trembling Air, and level 1 Neville. I think Neville cries remembering a wonderful but fleeting experience he had and then I speak the cold words over the still warm tears. That comes to 4 Winter, 2 Heart, and 2 Knock.
edited by Anne Auclair on 3/6/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

3/6/2018

I think that's actually a bug because 1) Health is marked as an ingredient, so it should be usable. And 2) You can use Illness and Wounds, so it's kind of strange you can't use Health. This bug also seems to effect Reason and Passion.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

3/7/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Google doesn't get me anything for Mausoleum of Wolves, but it could be a translation? Seems unlikely, though. Probably made up.

Check what you get under Google Image search for Mausoleum of Wolves! Not specifically CS related, but the entire first page of results is just Goth AF. (While it may not be relevant, the first image is actually a mausoleum with wolves - a stock photo of a mausoleum from Kazakhstan which has a couple of wolf statues in front.)

On the backer names, they could still be places! I'm entirely delighted to have become a potential follower in the game, but being a cave, a mountain, or something else would have been cool too, and some backers may have been good with that.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

3/7/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Here's a little alchemic ingredient that might shed some light on the Mausoleum of Wolves.

Wolf-Snow (Winter 8)
Far too cold ever to melt in anything but the hottest noonday sun. It will, very gradually, consume human flesh.

btw, escaped summons will attack Patrons. I had the bad luck of one of my summons escaping and killing Count Jannings right as I finished an extensive commission for him on the practices of the Edge. Ouch.

Which confirms that any character with a Mortal icon is vulnerable to harm. And so far the only fully implemented NPC without a Mortal icon happens to be...Dr. Ibn al-Adim. The Long seem pretty tough.

Anyone want to take bets on the odds that we'll be able to get Wolf-Snow from the Snow's Keeper at the Mausoleum of Wolves? Also, shattered Risen in that screenshot seems potentially relevant to the Star-Shattered Fane. Maybe it'll have Lantern and Edge-related items, or whatever is necessary for summoning a Shattered Risen.

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/7/2018

Oh, look!

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

3/7/2018

Another post, we've got what looks like a new Rite with 1 Winter.

We've also got another Hour affiliated with Winter or perhaps a Name of the Sun-In-Rags: the Ivory Dove.

It apparently has a thing for penetrating dead people.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
edited by Edward Warren on 3/7/2018

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

hwoosh
Posts: 104

6/10/2018

hwoosh wrote:

Frankly, I find Alexis's mini-ARG secret puzzles tedious and irritating, not for the lore/content itself, which is always excellent reading, but for the air of insufferable smugness around the whole thing.

I found all of the Enigma content in FL entirely on my own, and I've made it halfway through the whole bird/worm mystery, but at this point I really just want to be spoiled so that I can read the interesting words at the end of the tunnel and get on with my life. (It doesn't help that I'm far less emotionally invested so far in the world of CS, into which I've put 20 hours of my life, than that of FL, into which I've put literally thousands at this point.)

I've found

[spoiler]the secret webpage from the clue in the save file], but I don't see how I can "indicate my choice." I suspect it has something to do with a certain e-mail address[/spoiler]

, but since there's presumably a human being at the other end of that and they're super busy with post-release, I don't want to send guesses there willy-nilly. If anyone on this forum is inclined to honor my request to be spoiled or at least hinted, PM me please!

Update: I got there on my own, with just checking my guess with a kindly soul on the Discord channel to make sure I was correct.

My disillusioned attitude towards this style of puzzle and my philosophical disagreement with creator-requested secrecy has not changed. I'm not going to share the answer(s) publicly, but if you're as cynical as me and don't wish to bang your head against the wall, feel free to shoot me a PM. (The same goes for Enigma in FL and the "secret" easter egg in "Where You and I Must Go". I'd add the endings to SMEN, but my Seeker hasn't gotten there yet.)
edited by hwoosh on 6/10/2018

--
Persona: hwoosh
R Fellow Oswho. Don't ask what the "R." stands for. The poor fellow is sensitive about it. And violent.
Most social requests gladly and promptly answered.

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

6/15/2018

The gateofhorn beta branch of CultSim on Steam has had basic modding support for a few days now, and I have created a series of small-to-medium mods about the Sea-Dragon's Palace, a fan Mansus created by folks over on the CultSim discord server (these mods include a new expedition with a unique obstacle, a new ascension, and a series of seven books), as well as a Ysabet dating mod. All of the mods can be downloaded from this link:

https://github.com/evoroxv/CultSim-Fansus-Mods/tree/master/amets
or just the Ysabet Dating mod over at
https://github.com/Amets-Estibariz/Ysabet_Dating

Mods are installed by throwing the provided files into Cultist Simulator/cultistsimulator_Data/StreamingAssets/content which can in turn be accessed by pressing the 'Browse Local Files' button in Steam's properties menu (available by right-clicking Cultist Simulator and pressing the Properties button).

In-game, mods are activated by first exploring with a Fleeting Memory, which creates a new verb, Fancy, which will give you an explanation of what items need to be put in it to activate specific mods (You'll need to Fancy Ysabet, a Skintwister, to begin your romance with her, and to Fancy your current Desire to get Temptation: Beauty).

All this stuff has been written by me in a few days, so it's likely going to be quite rough around the edges. Any feedback would be appreciated!
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 6/15/2018

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/6/2018

More rival previews.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/24/2018

This is a pretty cool review. Recommended for anyone on the fence about the game ^_^

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/24/2018

New Cultist Simulator art!

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783

12/24/2018

Beautiful!

--
Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/28/2019

Lottie Bevan's January 25th email wrote:

Catherine Unger, our very talented tame artist who created all our hero art, drew a stylised portrait through the ages for each of our Long. They're bootiful and I'll likely release hi-res versions of them as wallpapers some time.

Thought I'd post about the new Long paintings!

First up, and my personal favorite, is a sophisticated Cubist portrait of the so called "Diarist."

Lottie calls this work "Picasso-esque," but for me it most brings to mind Juan Gris's 1912 Man in Cafe.

Just yellow & orange instead of black & white.

Next we have a more traditional 17th century oil painting of a Long named Welland. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about him looks familiar...

Oh, I know! The weird unearthly orange, the scowling continence, the creepy stare, the military uniform. It's everyone's favorite psychopath, good ole Vigo the Carpathian!

Call it a hunch, but I don't think Welland is all that nice a guy. Also, something seems off about Welland's hand... It's black, but he doesn't look like he's wearing a glove...

Next we have a REALLY CREEPY Byzantine icon of Lady Tryphon. I mean, look at it!

Lips don't go there! Brrrrr.

And last, but not least, we have JC, whose style Lottie describes as "all art deco, baby."

Nothing much to say, except the symbols in this are not like the others (also, JC seems like an absolute joy to have around, good lord).

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/29/2019

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783

3/5/2019

Argh. I enjoy everything about this game - the art, the music, the hints, the tiny stories... everything but the game itself. Am I doing something very wrong?

--
Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan

+1 link

Meradine Heidenreich
Posts: 468

5/23/2019

Now that I want to see!

--
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Meradine%20Heidenreich

The Starveling kit
Gobbled up the bit
of cheese on my tray ..
"O Weh!"

No plant battles, please.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

5/12/2018

The first tarot of one of the secret Hours.

[spoiler]

His the power of lust and disease, his the will to infect and become. Do not permit him to touch you. Do not even look upon his face.

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 5/13/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

4/21/2018

New Icons!
[spoiler]

Bledde’s Blade, Alakapurine Shears, Chalice Murmurous, Kingskin Bohdran, Carcass Spark, Poppy Lascelles, Thugs/Hostile Villagers, Younger Sisters, Fretful Dead, Witch and Sister Nuns, and Abbey Monks. [/spoiler]

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

4/19/2018

JoelMB12 wrote:

So Ghoul DLC is you playing as one of your summoning it’s a both mechanical add to the game and A legacy.

Where'd you get that?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

4/17/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

Mr Alden's redeeming quality is that he's driven not by malice but by extremely high standards. If you meet his expectations he'll eventually retire and recommend you as his replacement.

His other redeeming quality is that he's not immune to cold steel, the pleasures of the flesh (it's always the quiet ones), or discombobulating hijinks from Team Moth. I sent my favourite minion, the ever-obliging Raw Prophet, to drive him insane. Rather disconcertingly, the thing had other plans:

Specialist tastes, indeed.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

5/13/2018

The Sister-and-Witch, the moon and the sea, pearl and eternal, entwined.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

5/21/2018

The lovely Meniscate, whose fingers remain in your hair.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

5/21/2018

For some reason, this name seems familiar.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/3/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

The Moth journeys out of the dark of night into the warmth and light of day, and as it sets The Sun-In-Rags takes the world back from warm and bright to dark and cold... And then it all starts over again.

Oh, that's clever! Well said ^_^

Edward Warren wrote:

Midnight might also signify the brief moment where yesterday and today briefly overlap -exist as one as it were- which might be why the Witch-and-Sister seems to also have some level of influence here outside of her/their own hour of Six o'clock, hence our need to use the Recitation of Amethyst to create the Society of Midnight.

Maybe, but the Recitation of Amethyst is also a very unfinished card and the Society of Midnight could easily be a placeholder for a society card missing from the alpha.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/3/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/1/2017

Fun fact, an ecdysiast is literally a strip-tease artist . "What may be lost?"

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/12/2017

Anyone else wondering what the SMEN quest line for this game will be? I know this game is all about capturing that general feel of sacrificing everything in the name of a yearning that can never truly be filled, but what would be the end-all quest? What unfathomable horror could be considered to be the most foolhardy endeavor in the world of the invisible arts?

Also, the Society of St. Hydra's name has me thinking. From what we've learned, it seems that the different histories seem to share some constants, such as certain people and countries. The hydra is a creature who grows two heads from the stump of one. Does that imply that there wasn't just a first history, but a certain date from which multiple alternate histories divereged? When did the Hours first start changing history? Why? What determines what's shared between histories and what's erased?
edited by Edward Warren on 12/12/2017

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Daedalus_Falk
Posts: 234

12/13/2017

As I understand it, the entire game is the SMEN questline writ large. Or, more precisely, any ending other than giving up your dread curiosity and making a living as a clerk leads to madness in the Kennedy style.

I could be wrong, of course, but that's the impression I get.

--
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Daedalus_Falk

----

For I was hungry, and you gave me rats. I was thirsty, and you gave me rats. I was naked, and you gave me rats. The rodents were gathered together, the cats slept in the Sun’s blindness, and the rats rose like the Moon, in the light at the edge of the cheese.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/13/2017

Poor Alexis has come down with a winter fever. I've had those and they're not fun.

@factoryweather wrote:

Cultist Simulator nuncio @alexiskennedy is soaked in fever. Which will probably improve the eventual standard of content, and probably won't delay Friday's dev build, but might make the dev build a little lighter.

There's some new information here in that the release of the Beta is scheduled for Friday. In the meantime, brace yourself for slightly fewer books.

Anyway, Alexis's illness got me thinking a little bit about disease in Cultist Simulator.

'An Illness' is the only menace card in the Alpha that doesn't have an Hour or Principle attached to it. Wounds are sacred to the Mother of Ants, the Grail comes when you are Starving, your mind is full of Light when you're Fascinated, and Insomnia puts you on Edge. This is in line with the metaphysical rule of "That which is below cannot escape that which is above" - i.e., the components of the material world are but a pale reflection/expression of higher divine ideas/powers. So it seems pretty safe to assume that the Illness card will also have some connection to a higher power. Based on Parsival's account, I suspect Illnesses will be an expression of the Crowned Growth, which is outright likened to an infectious disease:

Parsival's Notebook wrote:

The Rising Spider wishes dominion, but the Growth wishes only to infect and become. I do not believe the Bounds are the limbs of the House, but I must aver that the Dead that night had become the limbs of the Crowned Growth. Should you meet them, do not permit them to touch you. Do not even look upon their faces. I thank the Sun for the Horned Axe, the Black-Flax, the other older Hours. Without them I wonder whether we might not all be the Growth.

What's interesting is that the Growth is Hour 27 - which seems to indicate that the secret, non-ruling Hours have a major influence upon the world, even when they are actively opposed by many older and presumably more powerful Hours.

It's also worth noting that in the Alpha Illness is the most dangerous of the menace events, striking ferociously and without warning, compounding the dangers of poverty and underground activities. If you're not careful with your health and funds, or just particularly unlucky, Illness will kill you outright. Alternatively, it will put you in a no-win situation where you have to choose between dying of sickness or starving to death/going to jail. Every time I've either died or failed, Illness was somehow involved. It seems the providence of a particularly hostile and malevolent power, doesn't it?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/8/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Edward Warren wrote:
Midnight might also signify the brief moment where yesterday and today briefly overlap -exist as one as it were- which might be why the Witch-and-Sister seems to also have some level of influence here outside of her/their own hour of Six o'clock, hence our need to use the Recitation of Amethyst to create the Society of Midnight.

Maybe, but the Recitation of Amethyst is also a very unfinished card and the Society of Midnight could easily be a placeholder for a society card missing from the alpha.

Based on some of the Steam page text, it looks like the Recitation of the Amethyst will allow for the creation of an eleventh occult society, this one dedicated to the Witch-and-Sister.

Key Features wrote:

Found a cult, dedicated to the Red Grail, or the Witch-and-Sister, or the Forge of Days.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

12/5/2017

Some cryptic new additions:

- The Ecdysis Club
- Ghastly News for a Bright Young Thing
- the ominous Poppy Lascelles

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/5/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

11/25/2017

De Bellis Murorum means 'On the Wars of the Walls', I think.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Alexis also posted a clip from the third volume my favorite weird text, The Orchid Transfigurations:

That’s quite an act.

There is a thematic link to the Greek legend of Attis and Marsyas. Short version here. More detailed is The Golden Bough, by myth-theorist and erudite gorehound, James Frazer, who devotes three consecutive chapters to the cheerful topics of self-castration and ritual flaying:

The Myth and Ritual of Attis (Paras 1 & 2)

Attis as a God of Vegetation (Para 1)

Human Representatives of Attis (Paras 1 & 2, and maybe 3 except Frazer starts digressing like he always does. It’s not necessary to read about all the no-good things done by the Bagobos of Mindanao)

Apart from the Grail and the Thunderskin I’m uncertain about the Hour identifications (I've barked up the wrong tree before, and also I'm sure there is going to be some fun misdirection afoot). 'Mountain-mother' sounds as if it's perhaps something we haven't yet encountered, since her presence is surprising (and how), and the presence of the Mother-of-Ants would perhaps be expected. The self-mutilating Pine-Knight is curious. On its card, it's The Moth - rather unexpectedly - that is associated with cutting off part of yourself under a tree, though mercifully in this case it’s just plaited hair and the trees are decked with lots of scissors.

Alice Lutwidge wrote:

But regardless, permission from the Tiger Keeper has been granted. He said he didn't put anything in the files that he wouldn't want players to know, which is a relief because, assuming that still stands with the beta, I'm definitely going to poke through that build as well haha. Still spoilering everything though, and of course this is all subject to change since the most recent alpha build is about 5 or 6 months old now.

Yep, the terrific mystery of The Waking Word turns out to be that it's a dev tool and doesn’t do much. Your efforts are vastly more interesting (the Mother-of-Ants definitely sounds like a traditional D&D-style two-headed snakething). Also, a while ago man bought high-level Kickstarter backing as a present for his bride-to-be, and they were linked to a story called Matthias and the Amethyst Imago, which judging by this newfound material means that whatever fate is going to befall them will involve the polydactylously purple Witch-and-Sister and their Recitation of Amethyst.

Gonen wrote:

My god...
Will I even have the chance to understand those texts when I receive the game?
If this allegory continues, I will probably stop playing after 10 minutes

This is bothering me too, and I'm a hopeless mythology nerd. It may be possible to integrate freestanding fantastical lore with existing myths and allegories, but it's surely not going to be easy and I wonder if it'll put some players off. Just exactly how arcane is, well, a bit too arcane?

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/27/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

the Sun-In-Rags, the false-sun that's always depicted in a snowscape that desires beautiful endings.

I fear I must come to his defense and say the Sun-In-Rags is not a false sun ^_^

He might be cold and distant and bloody, but he gives off light. He's an evening sun, a setting sun, a winter sun, a dying sun, the last sun you see before the dark and cold. Your heart wants him to be a god-from-light...and then your head notices that something's not as it should be. The light is leaving, not arriving, and it's getting colder.

Thinking about him some more...

The Sun-In-Rags is setting because he ends things. That's his domain. He ends periods of time: days, seasons, years, landmarks. He ends artistic creations: novels, plays, symphonies, games, fashions, moving-pictures. He ends things we wish he wouldn't: lives, eras, civilizations, peace, health, prosperity, generations. But he also ends terrible things that can't depart soon enough: wars, plagues, famines, tyrannies, sorrows. On a more metaphysical level, the Histories the Hours write also have an end to them. For things to begin, there have to be endings. You can't have spring without winter, you can't have a sunrise without a sunset. As awful as it sounds, the old world has to end in order to make way for the new. He' also strikes me as a fairly egalitarian deity - death usually is.
I'm reminded of a small section from John Crowley's Love & Sleep:

There are many Monarchs, and many Princes, but only one Emperor. Rudolf II, King in his own right of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, became Emperor by election and the chrism with which the Pope had anointed his head: Singular and Universal Monarch of the Whole Wide World. Or at least his shadow.

His grandfather Charles, who had been king of all the lands Rudolf was king of, had been king of Spain too, ruler of the Netherlands and Low Countries; he had been king of Savoy, lord of Naples and Sicily, he had had the Pope at his feet and sacked His City. Rome. God's scourge. Charles had had a device made for him, of all the famous devices and signs and emblems of great rulers the most famous, known and seen throughout Christendom and in lands around the world that the old emperors in Rome had never known existed. Charles's emblem showed two pillars - they were the Pillars of Hercules that stand at the Gates of the Sea, the gates to the New World. Around these two pillars ran a banner, that bore these words: Plus ultra, "Even farther." The emblem was cut on medals and embossed on shields and breastplates, it was engraved in wood and printed on the title pages of geographies of the New World, and it was stamped on coins made of gold that was dug on the other side of the world. This emblem was so famous that it went on being stamped on gold coins long after Charles was dead, for so long that the dies lost their detail, and the words of the motto were worn away, and still it kept being stamped on Spanish coins, though all that was left to be seen were the two pillars and the twinning banner, no longer meaning "Empire" or "Charles" or "Even farther" but only "dollar":

No kingdom is eternal.

This is sort thing I imagine when I think of the Sun-In-Rags, anyway.

And through it all he has the challenge of having to end works predominately created by others. Because he's not the author of the beginning or the middle of the stories that come to him. The other 23 to 29 squabbling Hours are the ones who battle to provide that content...only the final part is the Sun-In-Rags domain. If the stories themselves are immoral and twisted and unfair, that's not really his fault, is it? He takes what he is given and does the best he can to make it all aesthetically pleasing, because the alternative is just to have a great big ugly mess with no significance. So there's no sense in cursing your fate when he shows up - the real malefactors are elsewhere.

One thing I've been wondering though...can the Mansus end? Or the Woods? Or the Hours? Does the Sun-In-Rags ever wonder about that? Then there's the Long - "the Long, who do not end" - it seems doubtful they'd really get on with the Hour of Endings, doesn't it?
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/27/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/27/2017

Here are my thoughts on what Alice found ^_^

[spoiler]
I love all the new stuff, particularly the White Ceremony and Knife-Patterns! The White Ceremony is both intriguing and ominous, while Knife-Patterns summons to mind bronze clad warriors and ferocious ancient wars.

The big takeaway is the existence of three additional types of lore, one with its own principle: Winter. This brings the total number of occult principles from seven to eight. It also completely throws off all my prior speculations, which assumed that there would only be seven pieces of basic lore. Numerology fails yet again, when will we learn? Anyway, this ties into Alexis' AMA response when asked about the number of cults in the game:

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

At the time I assumed he meant there would be more than seven cult types - and with the Society of St Hydra and the Children of Silence, we see that that there will be. But it's now apparent he also meant that there would be more than seven occult principles.

This increases the games depth and complexity, so yay ^_^ I wouldn't be surprised if Hours like, the Crowned Growth and the Rising Spider get their own principles, seeing as how singular they are (and how hostile their agendas).

I've been thinking a bit about the lore cards. Their described origins differ rather markedly at times. I'm not sure you always learn about them directly from the books you study and the dreams you have. Sometimes, it's more like your studies and dreams give you what you need to in order to find, remember, reconstruct, or reinvent these pieces of lore yourself.

So far there seem to be five distinct lore types:

1. Lore gained or expressed through remembering:

Mansus-Glimpse
A snatch of poetry; a single memory of a certain house that all of us visit twice in our lives.

You're remembering with your soul.

2. Lore gained or expressed through demented ritual actions.

The Consent of Wounds
To open the way, one must first open oneself. This practice outlines that opening, in the name of the Mother of Ants.

Notice its description calls it a practice, meaning its something like a ritual performance. Sounds like you're cutting yourself...eek.

3. Lore gained or expressed through formal prayers and magical declarations.

The Delightful Sacrament
So pleasant upon the ear. One could listen over and over.

The White Ceremony
When I speak it, my lips don't crisp with frost. Each time, this is surprising.

The Words that Walk
The syllables of this formula are compelling.. I find myself snapping my fingers to its rhythm. It desires not to cease.

You get these from the books. Notice how all these words have a subtle supernatural effect on you.

4. Lore gained or expressed from recognizing certain hidden messages embedded in the world's structure:

Wood Whispers
Lie awake, and listen. The wind speaks in the branches. The house cries out in its sleep. There are the roads that chaos ride.

Knife-Patterns
When our ancestors forged swords, taught the arts of martial movement, spoke curses on the eve of battle - all these things shared certain patterns.

These are more primitive powers, though also seemly more approachable.

Ardent Prayers
When we watch a fire, what are we watching for? When we find it, these are the words it will speak: a word that sanctifies the change when the seared skin peals.

You spend time staring intently at the fire, hoping it will speak a prayer. Sometimes it does.

5. Miscellaneous - need more information.

Occult Scrap
Secret histories are layered beneath the one we know, like the notes in rare wine. This is a detail from one of those histories.

The Recitation of Amethyst
Clearly unfinished, with placeholder text.[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/27/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Alice Lutwidge
Posts: 43

11/16/2017

I've been keeping an eye on Cultist Simulator for some time; unfortunately I couldn't contribute to the Kickstarter, but I'm definitely hyped and will be snatching up a copy of the Perpetual Edition when its released. I don't even know how much time I've spent pouring over the alpha prologue in the meantime :P

That being said, I haven't seen anyone talk about this and I've been wondering... has anyone else discovered/learned how to work the debug panel in the prototype? It allows access to some pretty interesting things--not a whole lot, of course--but I've been debating about how to go about talking about some of the stuff I've found, and if it's even acceptable to do so.

--
Professor Alice Lutwidge
Poet-Laureate, Correspondent, Legendary Charisma

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/17/2017

I don't know. You could always ask Alexis on the CS Reddit whether he'd be cool with that. At the very least, spoiler warnings and tags should definitely be used.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/5/2017

menaulon wrote:

The poll is thus for Stolen Name backers only.

Well, Stolen Name and above, so Prophets, Stone Gods, and the one God-From-Light have gotten it too.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/5/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/4/2017

Alexis is surprised that, so far, the Mother of Ants is the leading Hour. Based on some comments during the last livestream, I think he was expecting the Red Grail to be the big one.

I wonder why this is. Maybe people liked Saint Agnes of the Serpent. Maybe those who wanted an Hour of Knock chose the Mother of Ants because she's the only one explicitly identified with Knock. Maybe a lot of Stolen Namers believed, like Alexis, that the Grail would be very popular, so they went with their second choices instead.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/5/2017

The Renewal of Skin wrote:

And Pause is still just Pause. I *may* still experiment with uber-slow-not-quite-pause (and a hard pause if you hit escape, to answer the door or change babies, which locks out the UI until you unpause), but that will be an experiment to gauge feedback, because a lot of folk were worried about it.

What do people think about this?

At first I was a little wary of this idea, but now I really hope Alexis actually tries it because I'm rather eager to test it out. Thinking over my initial reaction, my wariness might simply have been due to its unfamiliarity and avant-garde nature. Like, focus groups when confronted with new ideas often get them wrong; imagining things simply isn't the same as actually trying them out. Also, small games are rather ideal for small UI experiments.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/14/2017

A screenshot of Cultist Simulator's challenge/combat system.

Also, you're now given information on what certain actions might do and their respective odds of succeeding or backfiring.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/15/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/15/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

In terms of the super-slow not-quite-pause that he's considering, I think that could well be a good idea, but I'd definitely want to test it out before it was a definite thing. The balance for it would be between "not slow enough to be worth it" and "basically identical to pause so no point in doing it instead of pause", and the question is whether there's actually any point that's in between the two, in the opinions of enough players.

I think the sweet spot for a super-slow but not-quite-pause speed would be something that creates an enjoyable tension without causing you to stress or rush through the story. It would give you plenty of time, but make that time feel more significant. When I think about how this would work, the example that comes to my mind is the fire pit puzzle in Portal. Now this is a fairly simple puzzle to solve in the amount of time you are given, but by creating danger and actually putting a limit on your escape time, the experience is made to feel a lot more rewarding. The same goes for the boss battle with GLaDOS. Initially the plan was to have a very action packed battle with the player being forced to dodge all kinds of projectiles. But after testing this out the developers realized this battle was just too busy, there was too much to keep track of, and consequently it was not all that enjoyable an experience. So they created another timed puzzle, where the player knocks emotion cores off GLaDOS and then incinerates them before the room fills with a deadly neurotoxin. Again, a fairly straightforward puzzle, made more exciting from the combination of danger and a time limit.

Now, a time limit in a first person puzzle platformer would be fairly different from one in a narrative crafting digital card game. The narrative crafting card game is way more complex and requires more thought and planning, to take one example. But the basic principle is the same.

So, I kind of imagine super-slow but not-quite-pause as a sort of psychological spice. Something that could potentially enhance the feel of the game, deepen the atmosphere, make the challenges more exciting/rewarding, and give your narrative crafting greater momentum - stuff like that. I think it's worth testing out.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/21/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

11/6/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Also, I would seriously question your statement that "a big draw of the gameplay is its fast pace". The game as we can play it currently is not, by any definition I would consider using, fast-paced. A substantial portion of the game is waiting for timers to wind down. Also, it has a pause button as it stands. The fast-forward button is the actual change here, and I'll be glad to have it.

Edit: In terms of the super-slow not-quite-pause that he's considering, I think that could well be a good idea, but I'd definitely want to test it out before it was a definite thing. The balance for it would be between "not slow enough to be worth it" and "basically identical to pause so no point in doing it instead of pause", and the question is whether there's actually any point that's in between the two, in the opinions of enough players.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 11/6/2017

I apologize for not being clear enough in my complaint. I didn't mean that the game was particularly fast paced, but I do think that when you have limited resources and multiple important events counting down at once, it puts pressure on the player to prioritize the options that matter. If for example in the finished game we need to quickly complete a occult ritual while the authorities are at our heels and barely enough time to scrounge up resources, the player needs to do some quick thinking as to what options to take lest they need to start over or lose the game. If by chance the player thinks fast and manages to get the resources to pull both off before the clock winds down, I think that would be a really fulfilling experience that makes people feel good about themselves.

It might feel fulfilling if you succeed, but it would really suck to lose the game when you knew exactly what you needed to do but you just didn't click through the options in time. I think that with a pause button, you can still have the tension of having to scrounge up resources to perform the Rite of the Stag Door and escape from the authorities into the Mansus, it would just mean that the limiting factor is the actual options you have rather than your ability to click around the interface as fast as possible. The interface in the alpha version, at least, is not the sort of interface where I think that testing players' ability to navigate it is fun or helpful, and I doubt the final interface will be that different. (For an example where testing players' ability to navigate an interface is fun: the interface of a crosshair where you have to take the precise actions to aim it.)

Also while the game does run slow most of the time, I kinda thought that was the point. Just like Mr. Eaten, the game's largely a grind, a slow descent into madness as we go through the motions of daily life. Every day we scrounge the resources we need to peel back the world's skin just a little bit more. I don't think it's well conveyed in the little bit of content we have in the demo, but the gist of what I got of it was the game was like an avalanche, starting slow than gradually building until it's rushing at you full force. We start as some random nobody working a miserable job and working in dabbling in magic in our spare time, and by the end of the full game we're running a massive secret society and summoning eldritch horrors into our world.

Sure, but I think there should be the option to be deliberate and careful about how you run the secret society and how you perform the relevant rituals and so on, rather than being stressed out by whether or not you can drag such-and-such resource into the ritual interface in time.

To that end I think the slow game punctuated by sudden unexpected bits of action was is intent for the beginning and middle of each session. If there's a fast forward button, then the tense atmosphere the countdown creates is somewhat ruined if someone who played before is rushing through.

*Does X, does Y, does Z* = Congratulations, you ended the world!

If there was a pause button that didn't allow the player to manage cards while they used it, and a fast forward feature that automatically wound back to normal time when an action was completed or a menace popped up, I think that would be better than what I feel is being proposed.

Fast-forward would just be something like 2x speed from the way Alexis has described it, it's inspired by the different speed options in Paradox games. If it automatically wound back to normal time, it would just be irritating to have to click on it again every time anything happened.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/2/2017

The cards are now winking at you (or maybe spying).

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/19/2017

Edward Warren wrote:

We know that the Long are altering history towards an unknown end, creating and re-creating histories with the help of the Forge of Days. We also know that something about the Port of Noon can cause people to be forgotten. Additionally we know that the Long punish those that interfere with their affairs with "excisement", essentially altering history so that they never existed. This fate is probably shared with all the people that lived in the previous histories whenever the Forge creates a new timeline.

It's a bit more complicated than that. The actions of all the Hours shape reality, not just the Forge.

CS Kickstarter wrote:

The history we know arises from the struggles of the secret gods called the Hours: the Sun-in-Rags, the Red Grail, the Mother of Ants, the Witch-and-Sister, the Lionsmith...

The Orchid Transfigurations, on the South Coast wrote:

Firstly, the town named on the postcard doesn’t exist on any map of the UK. This is unnerving, but it’s to be expected. The Histories diverge much more recently than 1927, and it’s not surprising that a minor urban centre would be out of luck in the Hours’ consensus.

It's also primarily the Hours that make the Histories. To the extant that the Long shape the Histories, it's apparently in allying with certain patron Hours and somehow shifting the consensus or balance of power in a favorable way (dramatically so, in some cases). Presumably the player character will be able do stuff like this too.

I 100% agree with this though:

Edward Warren wrote:

I doubt the god of birth is pleased with lesser beings making it so that people were never born. If someone wasn't born, they cannot be eaten, can they?

The Orchid Transfigurations wrote:
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.”
That which has been devoured cannot be undevoured, as they had to have existed in order to have been eaten in the first place.The Hours are not inherently evil. While the Red Grail's desire to devour might make it one of the more dangerous Hours, it might not be inherently malicious. If the Long see excisement as a punishment, the following line could be read like a reassurance, a promise that the Grail will keep one's memory alive.

web prototype victory text wrote:
"Here am I, alone on the night of my victory, my end. The Grail has opened its mouth. It will not forget my savour. It will not forget."

A kind of immortality is definitely the subtext of the Grail's offer.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/19/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

10/26/2017

I apologize if already this topic has surfaced.
There is a new (?) game at Google store which is very similar - Cult leader, the return of gods, playing via cards..
Named Underhand.
Someone got inspired and took Alexis' idea? Just coincidence?

--

+1 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

10/27/2017

Vexpont wrote:

I have read everyone's posts with interest, and add a few more meanderings. I'm still bothered by the art for The Door in the Eye:

The female figure on the right is holding a gun, and she flashes up for a far briefer time for the male figure on the left – which to me implies that the first shadow that passes is the man’s, and therefore the armed woman is following him. I wouldn’t go as far as to definitely say she shoots the man, let alone shoots him dead.

But still, who are they? Illopoly and Galmier in shadowplay? Galmier lived at least into the 1930’s, after some event serious enough to involve a court case. No such assurances for Illopoly.

Anne Auclair wrote:

Q: There are 7 occult principles which you can use to found of cult. Each principle is represented by a sort of iconic Hour. Then there are 23 additional Hours, each with very distinct desires and personalities. Then there are the Names. How are you planning on channeling all this cosmic diversity through seven cult choices?

A: There are seven so far; also Poseidon is not the only God in the sea; also, things are different since the Intercalate.

I get the impression that the Intercalate was an actual event or phenomenon in the game’s backstory. We'll find out, I guess.

Thoughts on some other named entities:

‘THE COLONEL (who is scarred/blind/cannot be evaded)’ = ‘The [rather tactile-sounding] Cartographer of Scars’, seems possible, but blind entities that operate by touch are common in fantasy and ghost tales, so this may be wrong.

‘THE FLOWERMAKER (who cannot harm you/cannot find you/has what you desire)' - If CS were a cryptic crossword, the ‘Flowermaker’ would be the Crowned Growth, creator of rivers of...well, it’s best not to speculate of exactly what, but they flow. This is surely 100% wrong, but the ‘Flowermaker’ text is still sinister in the extreme.

A ‘Lionsmith’ who makes monsters has a chimerical tone, and I feel rather more confident about this. Not that it’s likely to be a literal Chimera (mostly lion, with a dab of goatsnake), or be linked to genetic chimaerism (duller than it sounds). But since The Lionsmith ‘makes monsters’ and ‘to at least some extent, at least some of them are lions’, I wonder if it doesn’t have the ability to fuse different beings into one creature. This all sounds a bit like the Witch-and-Sister, I know. But they ‘join what is at rest’, rather than chaotically melding the animate.

I also wonder if the The Beachcrow - no text on this one at all as yet - could be the first definite god-from-nowhere, just because the most famous literary incarnation of the Crow-god is one too. I slightly regret not asking this on the AMA, but live red herrings are more fun to chase.

Of these four speculations, the Lionsmith's seems the most likely to me.

The lionsmith creates monsters to combat the Colonel

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/2/2017

The Stolen Name surveys have been sent out. Alexis would like them returned as soon as possible, but you have till December 31st at the latest.

btw, this here:

Vexpont wrote:

‘THE COLONEL (who is scarred/blind/cannot be evaded)’ = ‘The [rather tactile-sounding] Cartographer of Scars’, seems possible, but blind entities that operate by touch are common in fantasy and ghost tales, so this may be wrong.

Turned out to be right on the money.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

11/2/2017

In the Stolen Name Survey, you can choose to associate your name with a particular Hour. Alexis provides a list of 16 Hours to choose from. However:

Survey Instructions wrote:

Not all Hours are listed here. If you've learnt another Hour's name, feel free to specify it under Other; invented or mistaken Hours will be ignored.

The only two Hours we know of who are not on the list are the Black-Flax and the Ring-Yew, both associated with the Woods. Here is all the available information we have on them:

Clifton Royston wrote:

II. The Black-Flax.
Hour of time = possibly 2:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = II. The High Priestess (Moon)
Lore: "The Glory is a question.... The Black-Flax’s answer is No, and that is always its answer.” [De Horis vol I]
It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
It's an older Hour, and opposes the Crowned Growth. "I thank the Sun for the Horned Axe, the Black-Flax, the other older Hours. Without them I wonder whether we might not all be the Growth." ['Around 1890, in the Third History...']
Search: I can't find anything seemingly meaningful by searching for black flax or Black-Flax, just information about decorative varieties of flax plants or flax clothing.

Wild speculation: On that "No"... perhaps this Hour's nature is that it seeks to freeze and preserve things exactly as they are, or allow them to change only at a glacial rate? That would make it an opposite of Moth, in one sense, and also make it an opponent of the Crowned Growth. Or perhaps (drawing from the High Priestess symbolism) it seeks to protect Mysteries and keep them from investigation and encroachment.
Anne Auclair: Since the Moth answers "Yes" to the question of the Glory and seeks the Light, to a seemingly self-destructive degree (Moth to the candle flame), I think the Black-Flax's "No" indicates that it actively moves away from or avoids the Light. Which seemingly puts it at odds with not only the Moth but also the rest of the Woods, which arises from the foundations of the world and reaches towards the Glory.

III. The Ring-Yew.
Hour of time = possibly 3:00 am.
Possible Tarot correspondence = III. The Empress (Venus, femininity)
Lore: It's an Hour of the Wood. "This volume deals mostly with the Hours of the Wood: the Moth, the Black-Flax, the Ring-Yew, among others." [De Horis vol I]
Search: I can't find anything seemingly meaningful, other than bow-makers discussing the importance of following the rings in the wood when making a bow from yew. Or is it about yews planted in a ring, as one does, if one is a Druid?

No speculations as yet.

Counting these two, we now have the names of 18 different Hours, more than half of the total number.

Those at the Prophet level tier could presumably ask for the names of additional Hours.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

11/2/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

In the Stolen Name Survey, you can choose to associate your name with a particular Hour. Alexis provides a list of 16 Hours to choose from.

Could you/Are you allowed to post the names of these hours for reference? The Survey seems like a good reference point, and apparently mentions several names per hour if it can confirm Coloner = Cartographer of Scars.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/18/2017

I have some thoughts on what the Journey in a Window dream can tell us about fate, mortality, the Grail, the Sun-in-Rags, the Glorious Sun, and maybe even the Witch-and-Sister.

A Journey in a Window wrote:

A dream: the stained glass of a my life, in a series of windows. Here I'm born, pink and appalling. Over there, I'll die. The sunlight slants to brighten the white boards of the floor with colour. Elsewhere they're pale as bone. A curious dreamer might lift them. Most would examine their life in windows.

They've shown my birth in the red church and my death where the woods turn white. The longer I look at the panes between, the brighter the sun. [gives you Contentment (Lantern and Heart)]

In this dream the protagonist catches a glimpse of her fate, which appears to have been unalterably planned out from on high. Their life begins with birth in the "red church" of the Red Grail and ends in a white woods, which might symbolize the Sun-in-Rags (death is an ending and in both depictions of the ragged sun there are snow covered trees in the background - a woods turned white). Red is the color of life, which is also defined by blood and hunger (for one to live one must bleed and eat). White is the color of death: the Sun-in-Rags is surrounded by snow banks, snow covered trees, and sun bleached skulls; the dead enter the Mansus through the White Door; and the floorboards that the protagonist entombs themselves under in Hersault's Nightmare are likewise bone white. The events between the red start and the white ending are obscured by the sun's light, preventing the protagonist from deciphering their fate. However, this same light dazzles and attracts the dreamer while hiding the true nature of the floor ("most would examine their life in windows"). The experience leaves the dreamer feeling contented, at peace with a fate that has remained largely hidden from them.

All in all, the Journey in a Window is a very deceptive dream. It promises you more than it delivers and leaves you feeling that you received more than you actually got. While the Red Cup might be the start, the Sun-in-Rags the end, and all the other Hours parts in-between, the Sun presides over the whole process, illuminating, blessing and obscuring. We don't even know how absolute this fate is; the Sun's rays might hide the journey so as prevent the dreamer from learning about and escaping their fate, but the intent could just as easily be to hide changes, disputes, and panels that are 'to be determined' and thereby give a more omnipotent impression of the Powers That Be.

Finally, as fate begins with birth in the red church, this provides one possible explanation for why the Grail/Mother of Ants influenced Church of St Agnes has a problem with the Witch-and-Sister.

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

Worth adding that the Red Grail also oversees birth:

WHAT IS BELOW CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE (power ending) wrote:
The Red Grail is the Hour of blood and of birth. It has touched me, and I've gained a little of its power. If I had more time, I could draw disciples to me; grow fierce with blood and delight; be the herald of a new age; use that power to ascend to a secret throne, one day.

The Orchid Transfigurations wrote:
“We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn.” (I know it's only a passing reference, but it links birth and consumption, the hour's main other theme, together.

This becomes particularly interesting considering the fact that the Witch-and-Sister's titular Witches,

Addendum excised from Sir William Colt Hoare’s Hints to Travellers in Italy, 1815. wrote:
On the matter of the witches. They are seen in dreams, particularly when one dreams before a cracked and uncovered mirror. On nights of the greater moon they arise from the lake and generate unwanted multiple births, inspire follies of passion, and blend flesh to flesh. The locals turn for protection to St Agnes, but I have seen that they also make poppets – of two heads and four arms – to placate the lake-witches.

Are, as stated above, known to cause multiple births, perhaps inflicting a condition similar to the Witch-and-Sister's depiction on the tarot card?

If the Red Grail is indeed connected to the Church of St Agnes and the Serpent, this could illustrate some of the differences between the Red Grail's and the Witch-and-Sister's takes on childbirth, love, lust and other such matters.

The beef with the Witch-and-Sister might be that these nocturnal, moon-lit episodes of twin propagation screw up fate, by dividing one soul into two people. The life that was planned out for a full soul in a single person no longer applies. Instead, the fate has to be divided, along with flesh and soul...but who gets what? And when you have identical or Siamese twins, who is to say fate won't get confused? Which one is the Witch and which one is the Sister?
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/18/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Addis Rook
Posts: 125

10/9/2017

...just gonna leave this here...
edited by Addis Rook on 10/9/2017

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

10/10/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
Perhaps even more importantly, the hours of the temporal day are produced by the Sun, which seems like very strong evidence that it's something greater.

Temporal hours aren't produced by the Sun though, they're divisions of time that merely correspond to the Earth's rotation. Using the Gregorian system, tomorrow's 1 pm will be 1 pm regardless of what the sun does. You can have a perfectly fine 24 hour day, or a 30 hour day, without the sun. And while it might seem a little strange for the Sun to be a single Hour, universal features of the world like birth, hunger, and blood have their source/ruler in the Hour of the Red Grail. Birth, bleeding, and hunger don't just happen at 5 pm (the Hour of the Grail), so the duration of the material sun's light wouldn't be restricted either.

Temporal hours are, in fact, generated by the sun. They're the divisions of the day, which is produced by the sun. It is noon when the sun is at its highest point, and everything else follows from that. If you have some better method for measuring the rotation of the earth, you can define it differently, but most people throughout history have not had a better method, so the sun is the easiest way to accurately define that. Obviously time zones don't necessarily match up exactly to that, but specifically defined time zones are a modern innovation and we shouldn't be surprised that regularizing things makes them not quite as accurate - that's a tradeoff for the other benefits of regularized time, which among other things include making it possible to have a well-defined time without making specific reference to the sun. Birth, bleeding, and hunger can't be used to define the day and the time of day.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
If anything, I would expect the Sun to be that ruling power within the Glory, from which all the Hours are emanations.

The Hours seem to come from a variety of places, with only the gods-from-light descending from the Glory.

"GODS-FROM-LIGHT DESCEND."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-FLESH REMEMBER."
"GODS-FROM-STONE REMAIN."
"GODS-WHO-WERE-BLOOD CONSUME."
"GODS-FROM-NOWHERE; GODS-FROM NOWHERE."

My theory is that the Lantern, the Forge, the Heart, the Grail, the Moth, the Knock, and the Edge were the very first Hours to appear, hence why everything in the visible world, even other Hours, bears their imprint. Although I suspect that the Lantern was the first of the first, given that its also the principle of the Mansus. Being the principle of the Mansus gives the Lantern a fairly privileged position relative to the others and suggests it has some sort of seniority, you know?

"Emanations" is a bit loose there. We don't really know that much about the Hours - they come from various places, but not all of them always had such power, and it's not clear where that power comes from. Maybe the Glory, maybe the Mansus, I don't know. Or maybe not all of them come from the Sun, and the ones which don't come from the sun come in some way from opposition to the Sun (in the way that night is opposite the sun). Either way, I'd say it's more likely that all of the Hours are defined by their relationship to the Sun than that the Sun is one of the Hours.

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
In terms of the nature of the Glory, I'd say it's basically a location, similar to the Wood, the Mansus, our reality, and nowhere. All of those allow plenty of room for debate as to whether they're really locations, of course, but they're in some sense analogous to locations, which is what matters.

Yeah, that makes sense...well, except for Nowhere being a location or analogous to one. There are some problems with that.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/10/2017

"Nowhere" being defined as "where the Gods-From-Nowhere come from on the map", which is analogous to a location by virtue of being on a map.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 10/11/2017

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/25/2018

factoryweather wrote:

In #cultistsimulator, you can guide your followers to especial heights, or allow them to descend to particular depths.

Thinking about it, do we actually know if "heights" are good and "depths" are bad?
[spoiler]

He sounds nice! And unexpectedly polite.

She's some sort of primordial folk dancer. Also worth noting, she sounds legitimately happy! That is very rare in CS, where almost every character seems driven by some form of cosmic paranoia or quiet desperation. The Neoplatonists liked to argue that happiness came from keeping in harmony with the cosmic dance - I guess Clovette has taken such teachings literally.

Both sound good! But if only there was a way to combine the constructive power of the smith with the destructive power of the bomb maker...and reshape the world, if you will.

Is it just me, or does Tristan somehow seem even creepier than Victor? Those eyes. *shivers*[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/25/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/27/2018

I've made my first post on the CS Steam forum. Naturally I start by asking about the most important thing ever.

Meanwhile, Lottie Bevan has posted an update with some very lovely art. CS really wouldn't be the same game without Clockwork Cuckoo and Catherine Unger. They've helped to create a really unique look for it.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

btw, Dr Jannings knows Latin, Mme Bechet is an expert in Greek, and Ibn al-Adim (unsurprisingly) speaks Aramaic.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/31/2018

Neville's Build wrote:

This version is named for the hapless cultist that people keep trying to use as currency.

lol, I don't know about the rest of you, but for me it's always Leo who's the first on the chopping block :P Neville is "sensitive to deeper matters" while Leo is merely "enthusiastic." There's just no competition.

There are new books in this build (not sure how many, I've only found one so far - it was very interesting).

The Neville Build is a little more gritty than the Scholar's Build. Like, the Scholar's Build was like a patient between surgeries. Neville is more like a patient in the middle of surgery, open heart and everything. I've played four games so far, three of which have essentially crashed.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/31/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/3/2018

Hmmm, what's to stop some other magician from sending one of those "Unstoppable Forces" after you and then animating your mangled corpse to be their woody servant? Protecting yourself is going to be a matter of serious importance.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

2/1/2018

Anne Auclair wrote:

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:
https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/958722202937057281

This is the top of a thread on the Weather Factory Twitter in which Alexis shows off summoning mechanics. First he tries to summon one of the Voiceless Dead, using the fragility of Neville's sanity, but it starts struggling so he sends it back. Then he uses a Cindered Crown along with Neville to summon something called a Caligine, which starts struggling as well. However, he's already sacrificed the Crown, so he doesn't want to let it go, and he really doesn't want a Caligine running loose, so he uses Passion to force it to his will, which is luckily successful. Neville is apparently no worse for wear, but Alexis's Passion is turned to Fascination in the process of asserting his will.

Let's make this easier to follow.

[spoiler]
Now we're talking (although they're not)

It won't work without some Knock in the mix, though. You always need to open the way.

if you don't have the Locksmith's Secret, which invokes Knock? There are other ways! Here, I'm using the assistance of my disciple Neville - don't move, Neville - whose fragile sanity means he brings Knock aspect to the rite.

right, yes. If you were planning to summon mute but ravenous dead chez toi, we should probably have mentioned that this might happen.

good good, we had a spare Reason card knocking around

That could have gone better. But we do *also* have this Cindered Crown knocking around, and Neville is still on shift, so let's see if this goes better

for *****'s sake*

Neville I said *stand still*

This is a Caligine, and I don't want one of those loose in the house. On the other hand, I put my Cindered Crown in a sacrifice slot, so it's already gone, and if I shut down the summoning it's a wasted treasure.

this is fine

RIGHT YOU SMOKY TROUBLEMAKER SETTLE DOWN

that Passion I invested has been turned into Fascination, which is not great, but I should get that back if things work out okay

GET IN.

that could have gone worse. Contending for mastery is an ante-up mechanic, so if it keeps struggling, you have to keep investing the Passion, until you run out.

that's it for now! Wishlist here if this sounds like your thing:

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 1/31/2018

Neville old boy you just can’t keep it together. Also the colonel everyone of his scars as a weapon. I wonder if that means every moment of calm that he gets better killing people? If I had to guess I think he embodies everything that is combat from wars to battles to curses.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/1/2018

Alexis has posted some details about the upcoming magical rites on the Steam forums.

Alexis Kennedy on Steam wrote:

All rite creations need Forge in the mix somewhere (the aspect of remaking). But there are only two rites in there now; if you stick around for the Adept's Build, there'll be another six, and some more clues about making them.

currently in game:

Rite of the Crucible Soul
Rite of the Watchman's Sorrow

TBC list of rites that I'm implementing right now:

The Rite of the Sea's Feasting
Rite of the Map's Edge
Rite of the Smith's Striving
Rite of the Mother's Mercy
The Rite of the Sea's Wedding
Sunset Rite
Rite of the Wolf-Divided
Rite Intercalate

...[what the rite does] depends what you put in it; so depending on what resources you have access to, in theory most rites can do most things...

Alexis also answered my coffee inquiry with a non-answer, so if you have any questions the Steam forum is definitely the place to pester him :P

Also, be sure to check out this very entertaining essay on historical occult names and the challenges of evaluating/using Stolen ones. It's pretty hilarious in places:

Alexis Kennedy's Names Essay wrote:

Some occult or esoteric writers were poseurs and dilettantes. Some were intensely focused scholars who took their work extremely seriously. Some of them picked pseudonyms as casually as a fifteen-year-old might pick a gamertag now: they banged some syllables together and picked a sound they liked. Some of them were elaborately chosen for specific reasons (that might still fall apart under the gentle pressure of actual scholarship). Some of them use nicknames, some of them have been given identifiers by subsequent scholars, some are possibly, but not definitely, fictional: Hermes Trismegistus, Satoshi Nakamoto.

...

So practically anything, even something quite high-fantasy-looking, might go in as a pseudonym. But if someone thinks [not actual example] Masticus Indomitablus looks like a really cool name, and I use it as the name of a notorious charlatan who made up their name after four absinthes too many, that’s going to be unfortunate.

Also, if you missed the cutoff for contributing a Stolen Name, Alexis will be willing to let that slide if you send him the survey "quick." Though I'd recommend reading the above essay first, to get a good idea of what he's looking for.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/1/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/9/2018

New Twitter post with an image of the map of the Mansus in-game.

"There are map-legends, there are maps of legends, and there are legends of maps. Aspects of the Mansus subsist in all of these, in much the same way that you find water in a swamp and in a cup and in the sky." - Lars Westergren, explorer and murderer.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/9/2018

Oh, and here's a new update from the Weather Factory blog!

[spoiler]

OH MY GOD HOW ARE WE IN THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY ALREADY
Actually this is fine. Because oh boy do we have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. In fact it’s quite disgusting really we are basically a Red Grail Ratatouille and we should be stopped.
Firstly, we found out this sprint that not only is Cultist Simulator nominated for ‘Best Emotional Game Design’ in the Emotional Games Awards (along with games like Hellblade and INSIDE and oh my god), but we got a – wait for it – FOUR PAGE SPREAD in this month’s PC Gamer, with a v positive preview write-up. Pick up a copy if you like! Both AK and I give good quote.

Aside from this very pleasant news, the first thing we did this sprint was release the palpitating NEVILLE’S BUILD. Which turned out to be a bit buggier than expected, but nevermind. Thank you to everyone who sent in bug reports (stack overflows, who knew)! We’ll be spending a bit more time on bug fixing next sprint to the next build you get is stabler, shinier, flexier, mmmm.
We also sent out Steam keys to all our Kickstarter backers, so I am delighted to now be seeing delectable activity on our Steam forums and stats (emoji deleted because jesus Christ that did not format well on the forum) on our store page like these:

I choose to interpret this as 3,500 people have played Cultist Simulator for one hour each. Right? Right?! Anyway, our forums are a great place to ask advice on strategy, lore and whether or not that stupid Inspector Wakefield bug which crashes the game is just you or everyone, so I would encourage you with all the dark heart-ravens of my soul to scope it out.
We also have a big new influx of art coming your way. Clockwork Cuckoo started on a new back of Adept-focused assets – lots of Rites (of the Sea’s Wedding, of the Crucible Soul, of the Wolf-Divided) – while I revamped some of our existing book assets to better reflect their principle colours (colour theory is IMPORTANT), and to use some new assets from Tom and Sophie.

Also, I also played around with the infamous man-butt. As it were.

Moving swiftly on, I’m delighted to announce that Sarah is back, producing NEW HOURS CARDS! Which is glorious in every respect. See below for some (very!) early sketches for three biggies: the Mother of Ants, the Red Grail and the Forge of Days.

Finally, we also have some extremely exciting news from Catherine, who has been secretly working away at an entirely new feature in the game: a navigable map of the Mansus, accessible through dream, where you’ll be able to gather lore you can’t get in the real world. See below for a mocked-up screenshot of the map in-game (please note: this won’t be actuallyin-game for a good while yet, but we wanted to whet your appetite).

She’s also produced some up-to-date game mock-ups that I am totally going to PLASTER over everything because they’re so beautiful. Catherine, I salute you.

Martin, meanwhile, has been doing an amazing job improving our existing UI (e.g. better token placement), adding in entirely new and exceedingly pretty inspection windows, fixing some bugs with the new ‘Collect All’ system, and entirely revamping the title screen and main menu design. You’ll see all of his hard work in the next build, and it should be a biiiiig improvement.
Finally, the King of Cults – that’s AK to you – has written part of our endgame magic, part of Appetites – which are horrible – and designed and implemented the full ritual architecture for summoning ghoulies and using spirits to help you and/or hinder your enemies. For, of course, a price.
Did I mention the Appetites being horrible?
“‘Extensions and eruptions’ is the nick-name for the Fifth Mark. I have developed two new fingers, and only one is on my hand. I have a fistula in the crook of my knee. Pressure upon its edges is a soft glow of pleasure. I think that the bulge at the small of my back is a new organ.”
Stay tuned next sprint, where we should be finishing off the last bits of the next big milestone: the Adept’s Build (formerly the Magus’s Build, but murdered for Euphony).
A final thought to leave you with: AK gave me a pleasant pep-talk this morning about how running a studio constantly pits your linear, immutable time against the 20248234328 things you could be doing, asking you constantly to make difficult decisions and choose only two or three of those 20248234328 things at any given time. Sound familiar to anyone?

[/spoiler]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/9/2018

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

2/7/2018

Vexpont wrote:

The only 2-Principle creature mentioned so far is the Burgeoning Risen, with a Principle-score of 2 Edge and 2 Winter, which seems a bit curious for a hapless detective's corpse quickened by Woody Moth-power, as set out here on Twitter

It will probably become a bit more Mothy and Woody when it actually transforms into a tree. Though its creation rite did have a Moth of 8 - which came from the Caligine. So the magician got his knowledge of how to call upon the Ring-Yew from the smoke demon.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/8/2018

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/12/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

I just checked Alexis' twitter, and totally freaked out when I saw that as well. Uh, hi Alexis!

I was checking out some of Catherine's art, and I just realized that the Glory was teased to us months ago, and we just didn't know what we were looking at!

Take a look at the Concursum again and compare it to the Mansus map. What I assumed to be some sort of massive window in the background is actually The Glory! This room has to be really important to be located practically at the door of the Sun's sanctum sanctorum.

Given the new map of the Mansus, it's probably worth bringing up the old map:

This is presumably not 100% canon anymore, but I'm sure there are some interesting points to be drawn from the differences between this and the new one. The new one is a lot less square; I had a theory about four cardinal directions from the Mansus (and then the fifth one being the Mansus), but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the new map, so I'm not sure how solid of ground it's on. It looks like the "Wrong Door" may have been replaced with the Wood, and the "Front Door" given an official name of the Tricuspid Gate. Anyone have anything else to suggest? I'm sure that's not everything.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/12/2018

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/12/2018

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Given the new map of the Mansus, it's probably worth bringing up the old map:

This is presumably not 100% canon anymore, but I'm sure there are some interesting points to be drawn from the differences between this and the new one. The new one is a lot less square; I had a theory about four cardinal directions from the Mansus (and then the fifth one being the Mansus), but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the new map, so I'm not sure how solid of ground it's on. It looks like the "Wrong Door" may have been replaced with the Wood, and the "Front Door" given an official name of the Tricuspid Gate. Anyone have anything else to suggest? I'm sure that's not everything.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/12/2018

[spoiler] The White Door and Tree of Lights seem to be on the opposite side of the map now as well. Additionally, the Painter River area isn't even included in the early map.

Also, "Galmier's Lodge" is notably absent from the map. What is there however is The Lodge of the Sage Knight. Assuming Galmier hasn't been cut, we can assume that she successfully entered the Mansus and became a Knight, whatever that means. That term comes up a few times in the lore books, with the Pine Knight and Sir ____ of the Bloody Cup. Is that a state of being in the hierarchy like Long and Names? And alternative title for one of those?

On the subject of the House changing shape, anyone else just notice it looks vaguely similar to the All Seeing Eye now?

Keep in mind that while it's more fleshed out now, it's still an early map. We know from the Chamber of Conclusion that there are still more locations we'll visit beyond the ones on the map. Perhaps we'll unlock them on the map as we discover them in our exploration, and we'll be able to view and fast travel there from the map from thereon out? I'd love to see a CA rendition of the Red Church or Worm Museum.[/spoiler]

On an unrelated note, there are now 108 days until the release of the finished game!

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

2/14/2018

Edward Warren wrote:

This is important because if we can match up the knights, we might have an idea of who Lancelot is. Lancelot is the knight that betrayed and helped kill King Arthur. We know that at least one of the Hours attacked and split The Sun, but we don't know exactly who it was.

The Forge of Days divided the Sun. We know that with quite a bit of certainty, I think. The Seven Letters on Necessity say that the Sun can be divided, but requires the Forge of Days for its division, and there's a quote somewhere - maybe in a Weather Factory post - that mentions that, even after the Sun's division, the mortal pawns of the Forge of Days remembered it fondly.
Vexpont wrote:

RE: The Mother-of-Ants. I don’t know how reliable a source Theresa Galmier is once she gets to Volume III of The Locksmith's Dream, but I got the impression that the Mother-of-Ants has two heads: 'The stairways of the Mansus go ever up. Death is down. The Mother of Ants guards both directions with each of her heads, and so the passage must always be through a wound.' Apart from the strong implication that the player must Dream about their Injuries, what gives? Either the lady has a second head on her unusual shoulders, or she’s something along the lines of this (but maybe longer in the middle):

The Mother of Ants derives her name from the amphisbaena, a mythical snake with a head on both ends. There was a discussion of this at some point in this thread that should have more details, but it's entirely expected that she has two heads.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/14/2018

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

2/14/2018

Yeah, it was probably the Forge of Days. It was a bit poorly phrased on my part, but what I found the most interesting about the whole Lancelot angle is how it could shed some light on the reasons behind the Division. Because remember, even the Forge didn't immediately change The Sun, something changed between them at some point that prompted the Forge to do it.
We've known for awhile that love and perilous longing are big themes in Alexis' work, and this fits perfectly in with the story of Lancelot. In Arthurian legend Lancelot betrayed Arthur because he was having an affair with his wife Guinevere. When they were found out, Arthur tried to burn his wife alive, forcing Lancelot to rescue her.

I assume the Arthurian narrative isn't being followed exactly here, but the connection is too big to be ignored. If the Forge is Lancelot, who is Guinevere? We know already from The Thunderskin that the Sun has some serious issues when it comes to former lovers. Attempting to burn its "wife" alive is totally the angry, lovecraftian Sun would do if it discovered it was being betrayed. What other Hours have ties to the Sun? The Grail? A Hidden Hour?

On the Mother of Ants thing, I agree that the Tarot image probably isn't supposed to be a 100% accurate representation of her. The Hours are outright stated to be utterly incomprehensible to mortals, and the only way we can get any idea of what they are and what they want are through symbolism and only the broadest definitions of their desires. The bunch of symbolism in each card is just a giant summation of what each Hour wants. The Red Grail wants to eat everything, The Thunderskin wants constant motion. If that Tarot is in any way an accurate portayal, it's probably a Name or some sort of lesser incarnation that the Mother of Ants uses to communicate with people. Who knows, maybe there's another face on the back of the woman in the card's head? Maybe that's what the nun headdress is for?

Also, I just noticed that there's rain in the Mother of Ant's picture. Does that mean that the "House" is big enough to have its own weather? What bizarre sorts of weather can happen in a dream world? Is that going to be a factor in the game?

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

12/20/2017

illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

Clifton Royston wrote:
illuminati swag (Benthic) wrote:

- Studying the book on the Unburnt God has the outcome text &quotJensen hypothesizes a pre-Zoroastrian fire deity, whose rites were the rites of smiths.&quot This implies that the Unburnt God is another name for the Forge of Days.

I agree with your conclusion. Somewhere in there (missing a cite for where I saw it) it also says that contrary to scholars' expectations the fire deity appears to have been a Goddess rather than a God. So perhaps the Forge of Days is female, to the extent that powerful supernatural beings have a gender identity.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. This being Hours it's presumably some sort of incomprehensible complex property which merely happens to be analogous to something like gender, in roughly the same way that the Mansus is analogous to something like a House and so on. But insofar as we can talk about any properties of anything at that level, the Forge of Days is female.

If you’re going to slap a gender on to a forge female seems appropriate. Especially since it it creates. Maybe they are the womb of the world.

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

12/18/2017

The Queens of the Rivers

Card Text: A surreal contemporary play by the enigmatic Monica Medina, in which the Queens of the Rivers are murdered, one by one.

Study Text: The Queen of the Vistula is poisoned. The Queen of the Dnieper chokes on a fish-hook. The Queen of the Tagus is burnt alive...

Ending Text: The culprit, it transpires, is the audience. The surviving Queens are directed to execute whatever audience members do not escape. A surprisingly lucid epilogue suggests that the correspondence of river-names with historical events does provide clues to secret histories behind our own.

THOUGHTS ON THE QUEENS OF THE RIVERS:
The Queens of the Rivers is interesting in that it is a work written by a Know (or higher. The Long might also take interest in writing.) that is accusatory of other Know - the audience:
1) Secret Histories are the clearest division between the Know and Us(?), and this play gives you an Occult Scrap, a Secret Histories lore, confirming that, yes, you are one of the Know.

2) The deaths of the Queens are (mostly?) related to CultSim's occult practices (out of order for better reading):
The Queen of the Tagus' death is pretty obviously related to the Forge Principle (which governs unmerciful changes, destruction and fire).

As for the Queen of the Vistula... The Mother of Ants? The Fucine short story showcases an association of St Agnes to poisons. Other than that, it seems the plainest death out of the three mentioned.

The Queen of the Dnieper is a bit more interesting: The Watchman's Eye event, which uses a unique icon of a Red Hook, involves you unlocking your own eye, which requires a tiny sacrifice (a point of Reason), and grants you Passion as well as a Watchman's and Locksmith's Secrets.

The Watchman's Eye wrote:

Reason Text: The Watchman is the Door in the Eye. To unlock my own eye, there must be a tiny sacrifice.

Ending Text: I wielded a knife in sleep. There is pain, but even the pain is a signpost. I have bound the wound. I'll tell them it was an accident. In the dream, I saw the Door. Some day soon, I'll pass it.

A Tree of Lights mentions that 'Each fruit is an eye, but each eye is closed.', telling us that those with opened eyes are in the minority.
I suspect that the process of opening one's eyes is, in turn, related to, if not synonymous with, becoming one of the Know.
The Queen of the Dnieper, then, died during the process of trying to improve her understanding of the Mansus and get the Dream.

This seems like a really coincidental death: She either literally choked on a fish-hook or died pursuing enlightenment, what've we to do with it? - but all 3 legacies start their occult career by an outside push: The Aspirant gets the Bequeath from their correspondent, your previous Player Character (unless beginning a new set of legacies and a previous playthrough is not present), the Bright Young Thing's Father took notes on your PC, and the Physician treated your PC in the Institute and heard your ramblings about the Mansus.

In all of these, your actions have unwittingly started others on the very dangerous path to knowledge.

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

12/14/2017

https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/941377148560007170

Here's the full list of content that will be contained in the beta when it releases.

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

12/25/2017

He also gained a lot of wounds in order to pay for humanity's sins. He also healed a lot of grievous ailments in life. Sounds more like the mother of ants to me.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

1/5/2018

The Sun's kitchen knives would probably be very worrisome.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

12/23/2017

Interesting observations on the Forge!

if the Tagus had been an English river I'd feel a little more certain of that last part, but it's still possible that the rivers aren't supposed to correspond geographically to the events suggested.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Teaspoon
Posts: 866

9/30/2017

Got the hang of it eventually! Pause is very useful.

Although my attempt to do a rite blew up in my face and didn't seem to let me do another. Aw.

--
Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

10/8/2017

Here are my various Lantern and the Glory thoughts.

According to the alpha description, Lantern is the principle of the Mansus, and the light above it. So the Lantern Principle definitely originates from the Glory, which is the fierce source of the world's light and the place from which the gods-from-light descend. The Glory is directly tied to the Sun in that the Lantern is also the principle of the Mansus, which we know "is the House of the Sun." Crucially the Mansus has a front door facing the Glory.

But what is the Sun? Well, it seems to be an Hour, as it partly resides within and rules the Mansus, which it probably created or at the very least designed (House of the Sun/Lantern is the principle of the Mansus). You have a dream encounter with the Sun when you have a nightmare of the Cleansing Dawn - its light burns your bones and can give you a Mansus Glimpse. The Sun is highly regarded by the Long at Port Noon (They always pay their respects to the Sun here) and might even have some degree of extra presence (The sun is punishing). Its influence is essential to life: ‘Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.’ On the map it is shown straddling or patrolling the boundary between the Glory and the Mansus. It is not to be confused with the Sun-in-Rags, which is a completely different and rather bloody power.

All in all, the Sun appears to enjoy the most preeminent position amongst the Hours, suggesting it is the first and strongest of the secret gods as well as the foremost god-from light. The Sun is also very close to the Glory in symbolism and proximity. Right now I have a hard time distinguishing the two, as the Glory and the Sun are both sources of light. Maybe there is no real distinction - the Woods being below the Mansus does not prevent the Hours of the Wood from residing within the Mansus, so why would Hours of the Glory be prohibited? Just as the Ring-Yew, Black Flax and Moth have their Wood, so the Sun has its Glory. Alternatively, remember how some of the Hours have direct emanations amongst the Names, as well as mortal incarnations who influence human history? So it's possible that the Sun could in turn be a direct emanation of whatever ruling power is, or resides within, the Glory. Meanwhile, the visible ball of gas sun that warms the mortal world is probably a direct emanation of the Sun in the Mansus.

I don't believe the Watchman/Door-in-the-Eye is the iconic Hour of the Lantern. Among other things, he explicitly walks "behind light" and is largely preoccupied with paroling the Mansus. He's a guard and a gatekeeper, not the master of the house.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/8/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

JoelMB12
Posts: 43

9/18/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

Besides the very strong cases Vexpont and Anne have made, I now realize there's another indirect pointer that the second Hour is the Mother of Ants, not the Red Grail:

In the Kickstarter update Alexis wrote, &quotIt references two Hours, one of which has been slightly more obscure to date, as well as a number of setting details. Enjoy!&quot

The Red Grail is anything but obscure, for anyone who played the first prototype. The Mother of Ants, on the other hand, *is* much more obscure as yet; we previously knew virtually nothing about her (it?) except the &quotConsent of Wounds&quot and the &quotInjury&quot text. That makes for a much better fit.

It's she one of chief God from flesh she specializes it seems like openings of oneself or opening things to others. By it being wound it very nature a painful process. You could arguably link it with the wound causing of motherhood combined with the in numerous legion of workers the queen give birth too.
edited by JoelMB12 on 9/18/2017

+1 link

Edward Warren
Posts: 120

9/16/2017

The release was definitely mainly about the Witch-and-Sister. We got some interesting details about her/their/it's MO and influence.

The Witch-and-Sister is the patron of witches and witchcraft. Whether this is their sole function or if the witches are a byproduct of their machinations is unknown.
We learn another way to at least exit the Mansus, used by at least Witch-and-Sister. Broken mirrors and moonlight let the witches into people's dreams. A full moon on Lake Fucino allow the witches to physically exit the Mansus and terrorize the countryside. Whether the witches are mortal followers of the Hour, or if they're mortal incarnations of it is unknown.
The Geminiad is, predictably, the book of Witch-and-Sister.
Directly interacting with the artifact, and/or the followers of an Hour might allow it to influence one's dreams to some extent. Perhaps the degree of knowledge one possesses about the occult plays a role? Is this is why Galmier needed to craft wards before she could think about her contact?

What's also interesting is that this update is supposed to contain a second Hour, but none is referenced by name. The closest we get is repeated reference to the church of "St Agnes of the Serpent". While there is certainly something unnatural going on at the church, it doesn't seem to be overly occult. I believe this might have to do with the Christianization of local culture.

Christianity often incorporated figures and customs of locals into their own tradition in order to ease them into conversion. For example, the pagan goddess Brigid is believed to have been incorporated into Christianity as Saint Brigid. If one of the local cults was also assimilated in such a fashion, then whatever "Saint of the Serpent" the local Christians are calling upon is likely an Hour whose true name and nature has been forgotten. Whatever power is at work there seems to at least offer protection from the Witch-and-Sister, but I doubt it's doing so out of benevolence as much as it's out of opposition of a rival Hour. In any case, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the next Hours to be introduced has something to do with snakes.

--
WHAT IS BELOW CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT IS ABOVE

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/16/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Wounds are sacred to the Mother of Ants, while blood and appetite are sacred to the Grail. It's not surprising that an Hour or two would piggyback on a Catholic Saint. The Sun-in-Rags had a mortal incarnation in the Emperor Elagabulus...though it doesn't seem to have gone very well for anyone involved. Not only did the priest of the Unconquerable Sun fail to conquer, he was also denied the beautiful ending that the Sun-in-Rags desires so very much...

The Story of Civilization III: Caesar and Christ, by Will & Ariel Durant, published 1944; Chapter XXIX: The Collapse of the Empire; Part I: A Semitic Dynasty; page 624 wrote:

... Told by a soothsayer that he would die a violent death, he prepared worthy means of suicide if occasion required: cords of purple silk, swords of gold, poisons enclosed in sapphires or emeralds. He was slain in a latrine.

That's what we call epic fail. Elagabalus does live it up though, doesn't he? Almost as if deep down he were a ragged fellow who had just been given his first taste of real luxury.
...
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/16/2017

I think that could be regarded as a most poetic and beautiful ending - what a dramatic contrast! Perhaps that's exactly what the Sun-In-Rags had in mind for him all along. That is after all the main problem humans have with Gods. as with oracles - you can't expect the view of things from the eternal perspective to coincide with your own set of priorities.

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Zi wrote:

Heaven and Earth are ruthless: they regard all things as straw dogs.

The Hours too are ruthless, like the hours.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/19/2017

So researching these allusions is going to pull me through rereading Charles Williams' Taliessin through Logres and the rest of the Arthurian cycle, as well as rereading Borges? I guess I can't complain about either of those.

Note that in the Kickstarter introduction Alexis specifically references 'The Battle of the Trees' as an inspiration for the Noon setting. That poem identifies its author and narrator as... Taliessin.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/11/2017

Great exploration of possibilities, Anne!

BTW, given its presence (though tenuous) in the non-graphic prototype and given that AK has mentioned it several times, I think you can add to the list of random factors the possibility of "Romantic Attention" and romantic affairs, probably conflicting with the goal of gaining occult power.

Two other potential random factors from the non-graphic prototype were Explore options which let you browse flea markets for potentially magic items like a Cinnabar Amulet - I won't be surprised if that returns in the full game - and the possibility of randomly discovering a Tattered Map, which would allow you to send your followers on expeditions to discover more powerful items. Those could easily play an expanded role.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/15/2017

menaulon wrote:

The Fucine is out - http://weatherfactory.biz/fucine-was-spoken-in-the-dry-country-it-is-the-language-of-witches/ . The witches seem more like manifestations of an Hour than actual witches. The Hours are once again in opposition.

Given that they are witches, and the references to "multiple births", "blend[ing] flesh to flesh", "two heads and four arms", and a strange "companion", it's clear that they are in some way related to the Witch-and-Sister. Possibly they're emanations of the Witch-and-Sister, and therefore Names, or perhaps only one Name which, being an occult being beyond our comprehension, is not bound to being a single entity. They seem to be making people conjoined, or maybe causing them to have sex which results in the births of conjoined twins, or maybe both. There's a strong association of them and the Witch-and-Sister with sexuality ("blend flesh to flesh", "follies of passion", etc), which explains why the priest of the church of St. Agnes, patron saint of chastity, rejected someone who had "kissed the Twins". Also, it's called "St. Agnes of the Serpent", which is interesting because I can't find any association with serpents with any St. Agnes.

Also relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucine_Lake

The lake was drained completely in 1877, which means this bit was presumably written before then, especially as Strathcoyne didn't have the Geminiad yet.
edited by Benthic on 9/15/2017

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/10/2017

Benthic wrote:

Yeah, that's the obvious interpretation - once you've been devoured you can't undo it. You can be unbaptized as an adjective, if you haven't yet been baptized, but you can't be unbaptized as a verb. But the comparison with "unborn" made me wonder whether there was something deeper going on. You can't go back from being born, yes, but you also can't be unborn as an adjective. Does that also hold for being undevoured?

Well, Jonah was swallowed by a giant fish and then spit out, so there is a literary tradition of people being undevoured, if not undigested.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/10/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Benthic wrote:
Yeah, that's the obvious interpretation - once you've been devoured you can't undo it. You can be unbaptized as an adjective, if you haven't yet been baptized, but you can't be unbaptized as a verb. But the comparison with "unborn" made me wonder whether there was something deeper going on. You can't go back from being born, yes, but you also can't be unborn as an adjective. Does that also hold for being undevoured?

Well, Jonah was swallowed by a giant fish and then spit out, so there is a literary tradition of people being undevoured, if not undigested.

Well, I'd question whether that really counts as being devoured, but more importantly the quote says that one cannot be undevoured. So, if you can't be undevoured, the question is why that would be, and whether it's simply that you can't go back once you are devoured, or if it's like the impossiblity of being unborn and is a necessary condition of existence.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/17/2017

The blood might be a clue that the Red Grail is also involved (hey, can't have wounds without blood!). Or it might be an unintentional red herring and the priest is just cleaning the wound with a common erroneous folk remedy. But Saint Agnes of the Serpent having a thing for wounds is a pretty definitive sign that the Church and priest have some sort of relationship with the Mother of Ants. When you get an injury in the alpha, the Injury card explicitly states that wounds are sacred to the Mother of Ants: I need rest and nourishment, if I am to recover. But the Mother of Ants looks kindly on wounds.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

9/17/2017

Clifton Royston wrote:

I think there's also a good argument that the opposing hour is the Red Grail. With the priest fastening on the wound to drink the blood, it had seemed totally obvious to me that the Red Grail was involved, until I saw your argument that it's the Mother of Ants. Now I'm not sure which to think.

We can work out who ‘St. Agnes of the Serpent’ is, mythologically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angitia

wikipedia wrote:

Her myths vary. According to Gnaeus Gellius (late 2nd century BC), Angitia was one of the three daughters of Aeëtes, along with Medea and Circe, two of the most famed sorceresses of Greek myth. Circe, as widely known from the Odyssey, practiced transforming spells; Medea ended up in Italy, where her son ruled over the Marsi. Angitia lived in the area around the Fucine lake and specialized in curing snake bites.

It also says that some Classical authors identify Angitia directly with Medea, sorceress supreme, and it’s common for mythological figures to sprout siblings that are basically a single aspect of themselves – in this case, joining/healing.

But in that case, why would the priest be so horrorstruck by contact with ‘the Twins’? So perhaps Agnes is a related but opposing force to the Witch-and-Sister (and a small treat for mythology nerds).

Known Hours yet to de described in detail:

XXVII. The Crowned Growth
XXII. The Forge of Days.
XVII. The Red Grail.
XII. The Beachcrow.
IX. The Cartographer of Scars.
V. The Mother of Ants.
III. The Ring-Yew.
II. The Black-Flax.

If CS is a real myth mash-up in the style of Hunters Keep, there are very famous health deities associated with snakes (in numerous cultures, even), notably Asclepius and his daughter Hygieia. Hygieia’s symbol is a snake twined round a cup.

I’m going to go out on a mangled limb, theorise wildly, say that one opposing Hour to The Witch-and-Sister is The Red Grail (and that to no-one's surprise, healing/life force deities aren't very benign in CS)...

...and probably be completely wrong.

Also, 'Addendum excised from Sir William Colt Hoare’s Hints to Travellers in Italy, 1815' is a pretty sweet MR James pastiche, complete with epiphany in ghastly italics, and there can hardly be too many of those.
edited by Vexpont on 9/17/2017

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Vexpont
Posts: 137

9/17/2017

Gonen wrote:

Vexpont wrote:

XII. The Beachcrow.

That would be the Sun-in-Rags...

Yep, sorry.

I doubt there's a clue to an Hour that hasn't been mentioned even in passing, which is why I copied Anne's list -- but I forgot you'd spotted that numbering blip before. Which presumably means that the Beachcrow's number isn't known yet?

Also possibly of tangential interest: the real-life snaketastic festival of St. Dominic, gallantly standing in for Angitia because otherwise all this unapologetic serpent-worship would be even more dubiously Christian than it is at present.

--
Dangerous to my enemies; loyal to my friends. Not too handy at telling the difference.

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Vexpont

+1 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

9/17/2017

Vexpont wrote:

Which presumably means that the Beachcrow's number isn't known yet?

Well, that list was taken from Alexis' twitter (right?) as a countdown to the Kickstarter.
Anne proposed a theory that the Beachcrow is actually XI or XIII, confused with the XII.
Sounds logical and narrows our hunt smile

+1 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

9/17/2017

When does one becomes a Know?
Is a CS player a Know? Should one actually NEEDS to travel towards the Mansus or enter a door to become a Know? Does reading it on forums and computer game enough? Does one need to gather little information of every Hour or a lot of only two of them?

--

+1 link

Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892

9/17/2017

Gonen wrote:

When does one becomes a Know?
Is a CS player a Know? Should one actually NEEDS to travel towards the Mansus or enter a door to become a Know? Does reading it on forums and computer game enough? Does one need to gather little information of every Hour or a lot of only two of them?

In the oldest prototype (grey boxes), being a Know means that you're aware of the Secret Histories (reading about it in an indie game should be enough, if you believe in it!). You start as a Know, and your followers also join the ranks when you share lore with them.

In the current version, and most promotional material Alexis has put out, being a Know means having passed through the Second Door (presumed to be the Stag Door, but not confirmed). Neither you nor your followers are Know, as far as we are aware (We are somewhat likely to be unaware. We never actually got a description of how a Know looks like, did we?).

--
Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.

Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.

Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/18/2017

Vavakx Nonexus wrote:

In the current version, and most promotional material Alexis has put out, being a Know means having passed through the Second Door (presumed to be the Stag Door, but not confirmed).

The SOL INVICTUS email and the big livestream confirmed it was the Stag Door.

JoelMB12 wrote:

I asked him he said Know Knows Long remains. So do you guys actually wonder what Know,Long,Name are.

Oh, that was you on the livestream?

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/18/2017

Vexpont wrote:

Clifton Royston wrote:
I think there's also a good argument that the opposing hour is the Red Grail. With the priest fastening on the wound to drink the blood, it had seemed totally obvious to me that the Red Grail was involved, until I saw your argument that it's the Mother of Ants. Now I'm not sure which to think.

We can work out who ‘St. Agnes of the Serpent’ is, mythologically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angitia

wikipedia wrote:
Her myths vary. According to Gnaeus Gellius (late 2nd century BC), Angitia was one of the three daughters of Aeëtes, along with Medea and Circe, two of the most famed sorceresses of Greek myth. Circe, as widely known from the Odyssey, practiced transforming spells; Medea ended up in Italy, where her son ruled over the Marsi. Angitia lived in the area around the Fucine lake and specialized in curing snake bites.

It also says that some Classical authors identify Angitia directly with Medea, sorceress supreme, and it’s common for mythological figures to sprout siblings that are basically a single aspect of themselves – in this case, joining/healing.

Oh, I like this!

That does explain why the priest treats the possibly infected wound like a snake bite, sucking the infection out.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

suinicide
Posts: 2409

9/7/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Carns wrote:
Edward Warren wrote:
Will the Gelatinous Worm God a hidden Hour or one of the other six supernatural entities hinted by the Tarot cards?

No, it doesn't seem like it. Underneath the stretch goals section on the kickstarter's main page it says it's a giant gummy worm.

I'm betting on a Worm God as one of the six (&quotWe lost the second Worm War.&quot and so forth). It may or may not be gelatinous.

Likely related to the jam lords...

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/profile/sunnytime
A gentleman seeking the liberation of knowledge, with a penchant for violence.
RIP suinicide, stuck in a well. Still has it under control.

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/8/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

btw, I hope she eats that giant worm straight away. When I was little, this boy I liked got me a giant peppermint candy cane for Christmas and I wanted to save it for a special occasion and so I put it under my bed and it went rotten.

Oh, that's sad. The question in this case, though, is: how dangerous is the Gelatinous Worm-God? The worms, it is said, have learned to work people from the inside. To eat something is to put it inside oneself. How bad is it to have a worm working one from the inside? Maybe that's not how it works specifically, but I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, and it's better to be safe than sorry (though maybe it's better to be eating a Gelatinous Worm-God than safe, honestly).
edited by Benthic on 9/8/2017

+1 link

Ragnar Degenhand
Posts: 197

9/7/2017

There's an image in the latest project update (#7). It's maybe 60-80 cm long, a couple inches in diameter, two colours (red merging into black at the half way mark). Smooth on the bottom and a series of round bulges along the top. Red end has eyes, can't be sure with the black end, but maybe it's double-headed.
edited by Ragnar Degenhand on 9/7/2017

--
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Ragnar%20Degenhand

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/7/2017

Gonen wrote:

Just starting to built my understanding of this.. so I'm a bit slow here. The gods (Light, Nowhere, Blood, etc) became/are the Hours? What is the relationship of gods and hours?

"The Hours are the secret gods of the Cultist Simulator setting." We know very little about the beings below the Hours, but several of the Hours are confirmed to be Gods-From-Light, Nowhere, etc. and as far as I know nothing that isn't an Hour has been said to be a god.

+1 link

illuminati swag (Benthic)
Posts: 137

9/9/2017

If the Long are potentially editing history, this brings to mind some interesting possibilities regarding them. Their distinguishing feature, apparently, is that they "do not end" - obviously this means that they are immortal, but what if they don't end in either direction?

Also, it's interesting that the Long seem to be human in appearance - ""They all look Long, which is to say they all have the limber bodies of well-kept gentry on the precipice of late middle age."

Some more thoughts, collected from various times; the ones which are not original to me are in brackets with attribution in parentheses:

(The Fervent Scholar on Discord)
[The Hours fear the Names, the Names fear the Long, etc. This implies that there is potentially some sort of usurpation going on.] Possibly all the levels above the Know are limited in number and the level below can rise up but only by removing one of their erstwhile superiors? The Know aren't mentioned as fearing us, even though humans can definitely become Know, so they're presumably not.

(Quote from the Orchid Transfigurations)
["We must devour to be devoured. We cannot be undevoured, as we cannot be unborn."] "Undevoured" and "unborn" can be verbs, in which case it would of course not be possible, you can't go back once that happens. But you can also look at them as adjectives. You cannot be unborn because you don't exist before that, you cannot both exist and not be born. Where does that point for "undevoured"? Why is it impossible to be undevoured? Do you need to be devoured to exist, or is there another relation? Is this a perspective rooted in time, or looking at it from a perspective outside of time? In the latter case it can be explained as saying that we must be born, yes, but we must also die, which would imply that death is a being-devoured. Consider the implications of this for the Long, who do not end, especially if they don't end in either direction and would therefore be unborn and undevoured. But then again, if being-devoured is death, why must we devour to be devoured? I could probably think about this in more detail but maybe not right now.
(Cartuxu/The Soft-Hearted Revolutionary on Discord)
[The Mansus is not our House - we are not coming in the Front Door, we are coming in through one of the side/back doors, and I doubt we're asking the permission of the owner. Occultism as burglary (of knowledge, from the Sun), whether it's cat burglary or a smash-and-grab job.] Or maybe occultism as ants coming in to eat the crumbs left by the people in the house. What's the relationship of the various beings to the Sun? Are the Hours there with the permission of the Sun? What's the Sun's opinion on us?

(The Fervent Scholar on Discord, referring to my previous theory about left/right mapping to reality/unreality in the map of the Mansus)

["I doubt Alexis would go for a simplistic good/evil contrast, so then we have the Gods-from-nowhere and the worm war as left-hand path, that is the breaking of taboos and boundaries, and the Lodge, the Spider and White Door and the Sun as right-hand path, that is the adherence to a sort of moral or ethical code...
...yeah, I think that one's a dud, that doesn't make sense, lol"]

Generalize this, not just adhering to a sort of moral code but rather to rules in general. Reality is bound by laws of varying degrees of strength, from fundamental physical laws (gravity) to emergent statistical properties (ideal gas law) to "laws of nature" (evolved mechanisms) to human laws. Some of those laws definitely don't apply in the Mansus, and it's plausible that "Nowhere" has no laws at all - according to the ordinary laws of logic nothing can come from nowhere, but try telling that to the Gods-From-Nowhere.
edited by Benthic on 9/9/2017

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/9/2017

Vexpont wrote:

The snippet about The Orchid Transfigurations being unconvincingly attributed to Robert Fludd suggests that you could be onto something. It tangentially reminded me of Faction Paradox from Doctor Who (books but never TV, I think), who get rid of their enemies by retconning the target out existence, in a pretty standard don’t-overthink-this way.

The more interesting side-effect is that a victim’s writings, discoveries, artworks etc. generally survive their erasure at least partially, and end up being by someone else. ...

Your suggestion is intriguing! I had not thought of that possible explanation for the false attribution to Fludd.
I had assumed it was just a typical false attribution to gain prestige or plausibility, such as all the alchemical texts and later medieval spell books attributed to "Albertus Magnus" - actually a philosopher and Catholic theologian - or the grimoires attributed to King Solomon, or the alchemical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, etc.

(I keep seeing Robert Fludd name-dropped in various occult contexts - someday I should look up some of his actual writings, though they'll probably turn out to be utterly dull and muddled as such things frequently are.)

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/10/2017

Here are a few more tidbits from the early prototype, which seem like they might bear on things we've learned recently:

Text for studying your Noonstone:
Aspects:
Forge 3
Grail 3
Tool 1
Noonstone 1
These aspects mean I will Study your Noonstone
(Perhaps this really did originate in the springs of Noon.)

"Hersault says the Red Grail split the sun. Coseley proposes it was the Forge of Days. They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon."

Thoughts: A Noonstone originates in the springs of Noon? As in the Spring in Port Noon that Theresa Galmier was astonished to find out in the open, apparently unguarded? If it's reputed to create powerful artifacts, her surprise is perhaps explained.
In the second quote, we know of Hersault through Hersault's Nightmares, so presumably he (or she) is at least a scholar of occult dreams, and we know Cosely as a mage, reputed immortal (so perhaps a Long?) and the author of the Six Letters on Necessity. I was misremembering the end of the passage as they "agree it's sunset at noon", but it says "They both agree that now, it's sunset at noon." That's really intriguing. So perhaps in this world the sun (small s) now has something wrong with it, because one of the Hours split it, and is much dimmer than it should be? This makes the brightness of the sun in Theresa's visit to Port Noon seem suddenly more significant.

Edit: It did formerly say: "They both agree: it's sunset at noon." I had a copy and paste of it in the notes I was keeping on valid combinations and object information. So at some point the text was changed to include "now", to suggest that "it" means the current state of affairs.
edited by cliftonr on 9/10/2017
edited by cliftonr on 9/10/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/9/2017

It appears the content of my previous comment got automatically excised by the forum software. That's a bit concerning, given the subject under discussion.

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Clifton Royston
Posts: 110

9/9/2017

The first prototype, something like a year ago, was an intentionally ugly "gray box" web-based game - no graphics, rudimentary user interface - which nonetheless introduced some fascinating lore and the basic idea of crafting with a limited selection of verbs - Work, Dream, Study, Explore, Talk, Assign, Renounce in the prototype - and a lot of things you can apply them to, which get created by using other things or combinations of things with the various verbs.

It's still up, for the time being! You can find it here:
http://weatherfactory.biz/cs/main_ui.html
If you get stuck, as I did for a while - you can find discussion and some hints in the earlier posts on the Weather Factory subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/weatherfactory/?count=50&after=t3_51x6rd
edited by cliftonr on 9/9/2017

--
A person of little significance:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/cliftonr

Currently accepting all non-harmful social actions, at least until I learn better.

+1 link

Corvo
Posts: 221

9/2/2017

I started playing the ALpha version today and I'm insanely hyped for this game now! Even if I am having some troubles with gettign the hang of a few things lol

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/raaret

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/4/2017

No idea. The one about the Crowned Growth just got met though, so I suppose we'll find out. I wouldn't be surprised if it's some sort of blog post :P

Personally, I think the game is ambitious enough and it doesn't need real stretch goals. The ambition isn't in the games size, but rather its "narrative crafting" combined with "quick FTL style gameplay." I don't think anything quite like this has been done before?
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/4/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

crazyroosterman
Posts: 187

8/30/2017

have you seen the other piece of art work for the sun in rags anne? I don't know if there's anything revelatory about but It looks fantastic.

+1 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

9/1/2017

Good luck, Alexis!!!

--

+1 link

gronostaj
Posts: 403

9/1/2017

crazyroosterman wrote:

pretty good to me not really experienced with kick-starter so I don't know if that's a good turn out for the day of launch.

it's very good, given the end-goal is 30k. the only thing left to gamble on is whether it'll be funded in first 24 hours or in 48 hours, and my money's on the former. We're defininitely gonna be cultists y'all!

--
Gronostaj (pl. Ermine), a decadent duellist of mysterious and indistinct gender. Seeker. Willing to die- but not of boredom. Open to all social actions, including the harmful ones.
Soft-Spoken Surgeon, a doctor who owes an onerous debt. Professor of medicine at the University by day, at criminal employ by night. Open to all non-harmful social actions.

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

As of this post, there's only about $2,000 more to go before they hit the kickstarter goal. For those who are so obsessed with Fallen London lore to the point that they are willing to pay 150 pounds, there are still 71 slots available for Prophet. Stolen Name still has a lot of available space. But with almost 100 takers there are going to be a LOT of names in the game.

Just before the kickstarter went live, Alexis tweeted the names of a few Hours as a sort of countdown ^_^

XXVII. The Crowned Growth
XXII. The Forge of Days.
XVII. The Red Grail.
XII. The Beachcrow.
IX. The Cartographer of Scars.
V. The Mother of Ants.
III. The Ring-Yew.
II. The Black-Flax.

One of his promotional emails also had information on two Hours he has yet to mention elsewhere:

"THE COLONEL IS SCARRED."
"THE COLONEL IS BLIND."
"THE COLONEL CANNOT BE EVADED."

"THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT HARM YOU."
"THE FLOWERMAKER CANNOT FIND YOU."
"THE FLOWERMAKER HAS WHAT YOU DESIRE."

Soon, soon I shall have them all. And when I have them all I...I...I don't know what I will do. No one ever does.

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/1/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

crazyroosterman wrote:

have you seen the other piece of art work for the sun in rags anne? I don't know if there's anything revelatory about but It looks fantastic.

Oh yeah, I saw it. But the only finished picture was on the rough draft kickstarter page and Alexis asked us not to share kickstarter content until it was ready. Well, after the kickstarter went live Alexis sent out an email devoted entirely to the Sun-In-Rags, so here it is.

Alexis wrote:

SOL INVICTUS

This was the title of Mithras, but also Hercules, Apollo, and of course Heliogabalus / Elagabulus, who was briefly worshipped in Rome. Briefly along the Second History, anyway. His mortal incarnation was a pretty sorry specimen, although he's believed to have passed the Stag Door, and at least to have been accounted a Know.

The Mansus, of course, is both the fortress of the Hours and the House of the Sun.

Inscribed on a second-century phalera: "Inventori Lucis Soli Invicto Augusto", which can be translated as a dedication to the Contriver of Light, the Imperial Unconquered Sun.

The email also reveals that the Sun-In-Rags occult principles are the Lantern and the Moth, confirming my theory that there are gods with multiple and ambiguous aspects/responsibilities ^_^
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/1/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

A Dimness
Posts: 613

9/1/2017

As of 12 hours, 27 minutes from launch, the Cultist Simulator kickstarter has been fully funded. Further goals should be forthcoming.

--
A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence

+1 link

Gonen
Posts: 817

9/1/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

XII. The Beachcrow.

Isn't that the Sun-in-Rags, according to the card?
Or I misunderstood something (I am waaaaay behind on understanding this lore)

--

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

9/1/2017

Gonen wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

XII. The Beachcrow.

Isn't that the Sun-in-Rags, according to the card?
Or I misunderstood something (I am waaaaay behind on understanding this lore)

Oh yeah, XII is the Sun-in-Rags. Alexis no doubt made a mistake in his Roman numeral countdown, which was more like a Roman numeral skip. Maybe the Beachcrow is XIII or XI.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Shalinoth
Posts: 493

8/27/2017

Maybe one way to escape the Desk of Doom claustrophobic vibe could be to do brief cut-scenes of [skippable] NPC exchanges.

Like those anime games which have 2D characters fading in as an overlay to a static location background, conversing via text or voice-acting, then fading out again. It could be your player-character sending cultists out on a library raid or something. Then we return to the desk, with timers resuming, having paused during the scene.

Maybe this would be more distracting than helpful, in terms of juggling multiple countdowns. But the artwork and music has such great ambience it seems a shame to 'waste' it on icon sized cards.

--
Profiles: Shally, Chimes & Jack~of~Smiles . . . Current Goal:

+1 link

Shalinoth
Posts: 493

8/27/2017

Now that's an iconic battle.

--
Profiles: Shally, Chimes & Jack~of~Smiles . . . Current Goal:

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/27/2017

120 books! The final game will have around 120 books! ^^

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/15/2017

Teresa Galmier's story continues. As I suspected, there is a third, vaguely supernatural book about her entrance into the Mansus - Trespasses. But it wasn't her last work. She also wrote a fourth volume...and I'm honestly a little apprehensive about that one. If Trespasses is uncomfortable and outright dangerous to read, what should we expect from her final book?

Alexis Kennedy August 9, 2017 wrote:

THE LOCKSMITH’S DREAM (1925 edition)

Last week I shared an image of the 1923 two-volume edition of the Locksmith’s Dream – ‘The Light through the Keyhole’ and ‘Portions and Proportions’.

I was aware that the first three volumes were republished as separate editions, but I hadn’t expected ever to see them. I was excited – but also rather alarmed – to receive a package from ‘A Well-Wisher’ containing volumes 2 and 3. It doesn’t mean I’ve been stalked -my studio’s mailing address is easily available online – but I don’t really want the Long to take an interest.

I may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. Here are the volumes I received.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

I can see why ‘Trespasses’ has the reputation it does. It’s not an easy read, and Galmier’s sense of humour has begun to fray. She’d been through a lot, I guess. Obviously there are dangers in reading about dreams of this nature, but I’m taking the necessary precautions.

There was a postcard in the package, from a certain seaside resort on the south coast of England: but ‘Well-Wisher’ has asked me not to reproduce it or to name the town. I can say that it appears to have been sent by Galmier, in 1927, after the final volume – the fourth – was released. I can’t authenticate it. I’d like to believe it’s really her. She writes very winningly about the wind.

edited by Anne Auclair on 8/15/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/17/2017

A new article has just been published over at PC Gamer: Do games have enough respect for your spare time? In it they talk to Alexis and he uses the opportunity to talk some more about what he hopes to do with Cultist Simulator. Here are the relevant passages:

Samuel Roberts, PC Gamer wrote:

Roguelikes, or games with roguelike elements, are repetitive by design. I love FTL, even though I've tackled the same intergalactic moral conundrums a bunch of times and memorised all the various ways they play out. With such light touch writing, though, I can blitz through them and focus on accumulating a large crew and decent ship upgrades for the game's final battle.

Presenting the same chunks of story over and over again can still be a test of the player's patience. In the roguelike narrative game Sunless Sea, permadeath meant repeating chunks of text-heavy scenarios. Alexis Kennedy, the game's creative director, is frank about that. "I think having long negative spaces between events in Sunless Sea made the game, but one thing I regret most, by a long way, is making players repeat content after permadeath. That was just me trying to make two different kinds of games at the same time. It’s not a mistake that I hope I’ll make again." It's something that Failbetter's promising-looking space-based follow-up, Sunless Skies, is looking to avoid. It's even mentioned in the game's Kickstarter pitch video.

"FTL was one of my influences on Sunless Sea, but we didn’t do a lot of the things FTL did well. You might play five games, or you might settle down and have a dramatic game that lasts all evening. Cultist Simulator is something much more lightweight: something that you could play over evenings and evenings and get hundreds of hours of play out of it, but you can finish the game in the evening."

Cultist Simulator is a narrative board game, the prototype of which you can download now. To avoid repetition, Kennedy is looking at including a legacy system similar to Sunless Sea, only with a few additions—that is, you play as a successive character each time, so there's a sense of continuity between playthroughs, but more random elements shape your protagonist so the game feels different from the start.

...

I'm convinced that some of the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is down to the way it respects your time as a player. Games last around 20 or 30 minutes and the matchmaking is quick, making it the most concentrated and gratifying form of battle royale around. "I was actually thinking about that as well when I was making Cultist Simulator," Kennedy says. "The games are almost in no sense alike and they’re at the opposite ends of the market, but you know what you’re getting into. It’s not just that it’s something that takes up a short period of time—a lot of games are short and not interesting—it’s that at least I know how much time I’m going to have to invest in it."

edited by Anne Auclair on 8/17/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/23/2017

The Thunderskin is the Heart Relentless, who does not permit conclusion. With the Mother of Ants, he is among the chiefest Gods-from-flesh. He cannot be stilled; he demands the dance; he is beaten, like a drum. Red and blue are his colours. He is heard in the Wood below the world.

A few thoughts.

First, I was really surprised by this card! In the text given to us in the Alpha, the Heart Relentless sounded like one of the nicer, less forbidding Hours:

The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand. [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves]

'Protects, continues, and preserves,' this description makes you envision a rather mellow and caring deity, doesn't it? All the more so when it's the principle associated with your health. Well, those expectations couldn't be more wrong! The Heart is actually some sort of demonic drum, who's chthonic rhythms trap the mortal world in a living nightmare of endless storms and a never ending dance. See those poor souls cavorting around him, buffeted by wind, soaked by rain, menaced by lightening, compelled to a lifetime of constant movement for reasons they cannot possibly comprehend - that's you. That's your life.

Second, this has got to be the most Jazz Age tarot card yet. It's both primordial and very Roaring 20s at the same time.

Third, the Heart Relentless is a God-from-Flesh. I wonder if that's the same thing as a God-from-Blood or if there's a small but very significant difference between the two.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/23/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/25/2017

The Moth’s Hour is midnight. It is the first God-who-was-blood. It seeks among the trees of the Wood; it beats within the skull; it is dappled.

Look at those hands! Brrrrrr.

It seems I was wrong to assume there'd be no Fool in this Tarot deck - the Moth is the Fool, i.e. the wildcard. I thought the Fool might be the protagonist, as is the case in traditional tarot.

It's interesting that it is the Society of Midnight that is dedicated to the Moth, not the WIldwood Club:

The Society of Midnight
An occult society dedicated to the Hour at night's heart, on which the world turns.

The Wildwood Club
An occult society dedicated to chaos, and the unexpected Hours.

Perhaps this is because the Moth is more a seeking deity than a chaotic one. As De Horis says: “The Glory is a question, and the Moth always answers Yes." Moths love light and they will head towards it, even if it kills them. I suppose that in this way the Moth does bare a resemblance to those protagonists who self-destructively seek the mysteries and thus occupies a place symbolically akin to tarot's Fool.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/25/2017

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215

8/26/2017

I'm pretty sure that "bringing the dawn" would be a bad thing.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair

+1 link

dov
Posts: 2580

7/25/2017

The Soft-Hearted Revolutionary wrote:

Paramount Presence is already in the game, or something like it anyway.
Try overcapping a stat to 215 and check the Unfinished Business of that stat

There's absolutely no evidence yet that Paramount Presence exists in the game, let alone that the new additions to Unfinished Business lead to it.

However, *if* it exists, the new additions are probably the most likely path to it.

--

Want a sip of Hesperidean Cider? Send me a request in-game. Here's an_ocelot's guide how.
(Most social actions are welcome. Please no requests to Loiter Suspiciously and no investigations of the Affluent Photographer)

+1 link

Barse
Posts: 706

7/17/2017

It's been dormant for a while (since until a week or so ago there was very little activity in development) but there is a fledgling thread for it over here as well. smile

The Kickstarter is definitely worth keeping an eye on, even for FL-only fans - Alexis floated the idea that one of the reward tiers might be him answering any question (NDAs notwithstanding) about any game he's worked on.
edited by Barse on 7/17/2017

--

The Scorched Sailor, up for most social actions and RP. Not as scary as he looks.

+1 link

A Dimness
Posts: 613

7/18/2017

Alexis will resume work on it in August, he's currently occupied with a stint over at Bioware, IIRC.

I like the concept of the game, and the Alpha seems promising. But that's about all it seems, since I can't get past the first 10 minutes of play because eventually the b____y game ends up freezing or getting stuck.
To anyone playing the alpha: take extreme care not to drop the cards over any of the token fields, else you'll be unable to pick up or drag cards anymore and restarting will be the only remainder option.

--
A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence

+1 link

Skinnyman
Posts: 2133

7/18/2017

Probably he's sometimes like Oatmeal (the panel above the share ID) so I'll just wait here for more newsletters from TWF. Even if it's not a fascinating NL, Alexis sure offers an interesting palette of subjects; specially that tween where he mentioned John Carpenter (worth checking him out)!

--
ESs items and quality requirements sheet. Please check if there are errors or if something is missing
Achievement list if you're feeling bored!
I am accepting Plant battles, Neath's Mysteries card, Starveling Cats and boxed cats.
No suppers, no second chances gain and no need to cure my menaces!

+1 link

Frederick Metzengerstein
Posts: 69

8/6/2017

Anne Auclair wrote:

Everything in the visible world has some sort of relationship with the powers of the invisible world. (“Thus the essence of these visions: what is below can’t escape what is above.”) Like to like is very much in effect.

Like to like?

+1 link

Failbetter Games Community

Home ▶ Fallen London » Off topic: The Surface

Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator