I was looking over my home comforts when I came across the Beautific Stone, and realised I had no idea how if at all it fit into Fallen London’s cosmology. For those who don’t know at high Renown with the Church and 7 Favors you may obtain it as a memento of your religious experience on the harsh beach of Corpsecage Island.
"Your knees grow sore, then lose sensation. A breeze carries zee spray; you ignore its chill. Even that inhuman scream cannot sway you from your orisons. God, and his creatures, deserve your uninterrupted concentration."
"Life is the miracle through which the God’s work recognises itself. For all the strange wonder of this isle, or London; or the Zee, or the Neath entire; nothing is unnatural. It exists in one accord. You are not alone, even on this lonely spit of rock. You have the harsh stone and forbidding waters; your friends in London, praying. Indeed, the only thing unnatural in the whole of the universe is the tortuous state of loneliness. Recognise life, and you will want for nothing."
This…obviously comes across as very jarring knowing what the Judgements are like, especially if you’ve played through Sunless Skies. So I wanted to ask: Is there any evidence that the Church may be onto something*, that there is some higher benevolent power up there, or is this just a very strange, sad psychotic break from a man adrift in a universe ruled by loveless gods?
*The Prester doesn’t count obviously, given Stone is rather divergent from Church doctrine