Every now and again cards speak of people coming to the Neath from the Surface. My character’s aunt even came to visit and has not left yet! And our characters started in New Newgate. Has the devs ever revealed how people come to the Neath? Do they take a train to Moloch Station?
This has probably been addressed somewhere else already, but this thread made me wonder: given the apparent inconvenience of travel between the surface and the Neath, just how much does London still participate in international politics? The Great Game is obviously international, and plenty of surface currency manages to find its way down, but is London still the heart of the British Empire? Did the British Empire even survive the abrupt subterraneanization of its capital, or has it fragmented, in whole or in part?
Basically what I’m wondering is, how much impact has London’s Fall had on the historical timeline?
Failbetter have always been deliberately vague about life on the Surface, the precise effects of the Fall, the continuation of the British Empire, and so forth. There’s very much room for speculation, but it seems that the story they’re immediately interested in telling is the story of the Neath. Surface-Britain seems to hobble along one way or another - travellers and goods come and go - so presumably there’s some sort of governance taking place, either from London or from some surface city.
[quote=Alexis Kennedy]Alexis Royce asked: I’m really interested in the unfallen world’s reactions to the thefts of the cities. Do other places attempt to take precautions against metro-napping, or do they have no idea what’s been going on?
Oh, who knows what’s going on up there. Everything interesting happens down here.
Read the surface news in the back pages of the Gazette sometime: a declaration from Ruskin that he intends to paint the Unterzee despite his recent collapse; a human interest piece on a lady from Prague unable to pay for the ticket she needs to join her fiancé in the Neath; a fire-and-trumpets Roman priest preaching that his city has already fallen. There’s a theme. If the people of the surface would all rather be here than there, there’s clearly nothing up there to concern us.[/quote]Source. Personally, I think the indefiniteness of surface politics is a serious problem for FL’s Great Game. Wilmot’s End is at once a tissue of abstract espionage motifs, and the locale that’s least popular with players.
I’m glad of the focus on the Neath, even so; alternative history is difficult and its neathy ramifications limited, and like most everyone else, I’d rather send my character to the Elder Continent or a far Khanate than to Shropshire, Alexandria, Vienna.
edited by Flyte on 10/2/2013
Well, there’s of course the question of the exact location of Fallen London to wonder about as well - clearly it’s not just where London was, but underground, as then it would not be right next to the Fourth City. When someone from the surface wants to travel to the Neath, where do they go?
Now, I know these questions aren’t terribly important to the game, and I’m sure they’re kept intentionally vague in part because coming up with a good answer to them isn’t really possible given the way things are set up now. Still, it’s interesting to consider them.