Admittedly, it could simply be that cinnabar was common in the Neath when the Third City was there. Perhaps it still is, but is more commonly processed into vermillion or smelted for mercury rather than carved.
Some new information from the Unfinished storyline:
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]“THE KING WITH A HUNDRED HEARTS IS OUR MAKER AND OUR SOUL. HE DREAMS US TO BEING. BUT NOT ALL HIS DREAMS ARE PLEASING. THE KING REMEMBERS DAYS OF SUNLIGHT AND FLESH. WHEN YOUR CITIES WERE YOUNG. HE UNDERTOOK A GREAT JOURNEY WESTWARDS, PAST THE END OF THE WORLD. HE DREAMS OF THE HORRORS OF THAT JOURNEY, AND THE UNFINISHED COME.”[/color]
This means the map from China to the Caspian almost certainly actually of [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]the King’s journey[/color]. It also shuts down the Pygmalion theory, since [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]he was once flesh[/color].
Hmm. A journey from China to the West. You don’t suppose this has anything to do with that Journey to the West, do you? Well, probably not, since that one ended in India.
edited by Patrick Reding on 3/29/2012
I’m not sure how this fits, but smashing the black lens in the Fidgeting Writer story increased my Walking the Falling Cities from 4 to 14 and gave me this intriguing snippet: [[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]It shatters, and you hear you hear the giants scream across eight hundred years. The Fidgeting Writer collapses. When he recovers, he’s different. He rarely dreams of giants, now. He takes a job in a tallow factory and never lifts a pen again. It’s no worse than many lives.[/color]] I’m trying to figure out what the significance of 800 years ago was to the fallen cities, but my knowledge of history is terribly disjointed.
There’s been an interesting twist with the new storyline involving The Numismatrix, about the truth of First City Coins, that muddles things up much more: [ [color=#ffffff]“Something different now. Have you heard of the First City Coins? Little silver things, cedar tree on one side. I deal in them occasionally. They’re not from the First City itself, of course. The actual coins are no more than thirty years old. But they represent something ancient. Fragments of some primal power, locked away in the Masters’ vaults since the deal that bought the First City. Of course, the Masters don’t buy or sell that stuff any more. They gamble it sometimes, though. A game called the Marvellous.”[color=#000000]][/color]
[/color][color=#000000]
Meaning, now, how much do the coins themselves have to do with information about the First City itself?[/color]
Th- thirty!? I imagine the development team was trying to dodge the “Were coins invented yet?” problem, but still, that’s a little nuts. I guess it still works, though, if they were minted in Polythreme, which can still reasonably be considered the First City. It’s also interesting they were minted right after (or before?) London’s Fall.
Of course, now I hate the Numismatrix even more for grotesquely overcharging me for those coins.
edited by Patrick Reding on 4/3/2012
Why hate her for the high price? it sounds like those of us who are trying to play the Marvellous have a chance to win this primal power off of whatever Master(s) we’ll be gambling against. I for one find that delicious, and a good reason to try to accumulate a large stockpile of first city coins in case 77 prove to be insufficient
The issue with them being thirty years old is that most of my First City coins were found deep under the city, where they had quite obviously been for significantly longer than a paltry few decades. I can accept that perhaps most of the ones in circulation are recently minted, but mine most certainly aren’t.
“[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]For centuries, Flute Street has been built up on layers of earlier remains, so the lower the tunnels the older they are. You pass through the Bazaar’s known history as you descend… The lower levels now… Something gleams in the walls. Coins. One of them is only half-swallowed by the amber. You prise it out.[/color]”
It does look like an attempt to cover up a mistake in the background, which by the very fact that it’s being covered up, indicates that the First City predates actual coinage. After all, if it didn’t, why bother with that rather clumsy cover-up? Contradicting rumour is fine, but this contradicts established lore. FBG are usually better than that. Better to have said something like “They’re not old enough to be from the First City, of course - no coin is; but they’re old enough that the mistake is understandable.”
Having been to Flute Street myself, I know what you mean, but it can’t have been there TOO terribly long, or wouldn’t the amber have swallowed it entirely? And I realize that what the Numismatrix says is somewhat contradicted by The Bishop of St. Fiacres in the Heart’s Desire ambition, but how do we know that he was being truthful? If what the Numismatrix says is accurate, the Marvellous has something to do with some power held by the Masters, which would seem to mean that the REGULAR players of the game have some sort of association or agreement with the Masters. What if it suits their purpose for people to believe the coins are actually that old? Of course, this is assuming that the Numismatrix is being truthful, but considering her work, it’s harder to see her being dishonest about currency, where as the Bishop is… strange. At best.
There’s another thought, which is that the latest minting of First City Coins is less than thirty years old. With the various ways they may become lost, it’s not impossible that they may need to make more every so often.
edited by Allanon Kisigar on 4/4/2012
[color=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Oh sure, there could have been multiple mintings but the point is that if anyone in the game is wrong, it has to be the Numismatrix, because it cannot be the case that “The actual coins are no more than thirty years old.[/color]” She was talking about all of them - every last coin we find being created within that span. And that is clearly nonsense. So, she’s either lying or mistaken or it’s a bad patch job in response to a recently realised anachronism regarding the First City (possibly discovered while reading this thread, which is why I’m enthusiastically in favour of the First City being a pre-currency city now).
Establishing a character as a definitive authority on something is a great idea, but they shouldn’t then say something nonsensical about their specialist sphere!
Unless she only has personal experience with the new coins, and is unaware of the older ones that can be found in Flute Street. It’s not as if Rubbery traders know the archaeological goldmine they’re sitting on.
Unless she only has personal experience with the new coins, and is unaware of the older ones that can be found in Flute Street. It’s not as if Rubbery traders know the archaeological goldmine they’re sitting on.[/quote]
While the Numberminimatrix strikes me as a knowledgeable person, I can’t imagine she walking in Flute Street digging up coins :)
Bizarre, probably incorrect theorising regarding the Numismatrix’s statement: Taking her words about the Coins simply being tokens representing some primal power, perhaps they were placed beneath Flute Street intentionally? By the rubbery men for some strange reason? Hidden or lost there by a previous visitor perhaps? Maybe it could be that the vault in which whatever the coins represent is stored is actually located so far beneath the Bazaar as to actually be below Flute Street?
The Rubbery Men are collectors of ‘vital essence’ … could the primal power behind the coins be the same?
This is new… I was in the Suttered Palace when i came across gravestones that might explain the flooding of the second city!
The symbols on the gravestones aren’t words at all, they are rows and rows of precisely-carved images. Stylized hawks and over-sized lizards; something which must surely be the sun; a boat with a single sail; water poured from a jar. Everywhere, twined around and between everything, there are cats curled up as if asleep. And what’s that in the corner of the oldest stone? A row of tiny cloaked and hooded figures, one bearing a goblet?
This might sound silly but what if The Duchess had a magical jar that when opened created the Underzee?
[quote=Jack Blackstone]This is new… I was in the Suttered Palace when i came across gravestones that might explain the flooding of the second city!
The symbols on the gravestones aren’t words at all, they are rows and rows of precisely-carved images. Stylized hawks and over-sized lizards; something which must surely be the sun; a boat with a single sail; water poured from a jar. Everywhere, twined around and between everything, there are cats curled up as if asleep. And what’s that in the corner of the oldest stone? A row of tiny cloaked and hooded figures, one bearing a goblet?
This might sound silly but what if The Duchess had a magical jar that when opened created the Underzee?[/quote]
That… does sound silly. The symbols are clearly meant to be heiroglyphics, likely meant to be read phonetically. If you dig up one of the little graves, you find [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]a mummified cat, although the narration doesn’t recognise it for what it is[/color].
edited by Patrick Reding on 4/15/2012
On the subject of First City coins…wouldn’t it be plausible if most of them were indeed forged, as the Numismatrix’s boasts, but these copies would originate from authentic coins ? It could explain why we can find some in Flute Street.
So, assuming any of the hieroglyphics described are the result of the development team actually translating some clues into hieroglyphs, I can pull out my books and my dusty memories on how to read them if we can compile them in a list. Could be fun, could be pointless, but I’d certainly like to give it a try.
Well, after having finally visited Polythreme, and a meeting with the Numismatrix, I am more certain than ever that my theory Nagar-Amarna-Hopelchén-Xanadu is correct. The biggest problem with it was the age of the First City coins, but that has been fairly dealt with. Nagar/Tell Brak lies right in the middle between the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea, and on the Silk Road as well. And I already said in an earlier post (my, this thread is getting really long :)) that I do not believe the tree in the Forgotten Quarter to be the one from Karakorum, but one built/created after the Fall of the Fourth City instead.
Also, from a storylet in "Cobblestone rogues and backalley saints" I gleaned the information that at least once someone was brought back from Hell. There’s a fairly good chance that was Kubla Khan…
edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015
And as Wikipedia notes, it also had a very prominent Eye Temple. I agree strongly with your Nagar theory. It doesn’t really tell us much about the King or his lover, but perhaps we can safely assume those details are “lost to history”.
Not just wikipedia, even the much more renowned Encyclopædia Britannica references the Eye Temple of Tell B(i)rak.
Btw, isn’t it curious that after so many people on this thread pointed out the coinage problem, the Numismatrix turns up with an explanation? And that, after mentioning here that Kublai Khan would’ve been already dead at the fall of Xanadu, we get to know that “someone was brought back from Hell”. The question is: had the writers thought that all through from the beginning (which would increase my respect for them even more) or are they actually very carefully reading this thread to spot possible “historical plot holes” and fix them in time (which would also be very clever)? :)