There are knives on the way. Slicing, flensing, flaying. Ribbons of you flutter behind, like gaudy banners. Everywhere you look, there you are.
Firmament Chapter Seven has arrived! Travel east, and follow the intrusions of Lost Time to the red, red ruin of Queeneater’s. Search for the breach at the heart of this hungry castle, wake the power whose dreams spill over into your own, and walk the stage of the Queensmen, who perform bloody tragedies to the listening Roof.
Firmament is Fallen London’s current major expansion, a main story arc that’s free to all players. It begins once you have progressed the Railway as far as Ealing Gardens, although requires more progress in the Railway as chapters progress.
As part of this chapter, you’ll unlock permanent access to a new location: Queeneater’s Castle, a ruined holdfast of masked actors and crimson performances. Take a starring role in tragedies and comedies, and learn the truth of the absent mistress for whom they perform.
Continue the story of Firmament from ‘To Queeneater’s Castle’, in Burgundy. If you’ve not yet begun Firmament, look for a card in London named ‘The Fire in the Looking Glass.’
Leaving the plot aside for a moment just to Try being a theater person, it’s kinda neat(h) (if inevitably-eventually profit-optimized) the central “focus” on the Blood Oath as pseudo-currency.
Update: I am at the classical stage of “I have no idea what I’m doing” but it’s still fun.
Wondering how much of a slog/vanity will be getting the Oaths necessary for buying all the equipment considering The Stage-play gives you about 30 Oaths. There might be some other things to do, though.
You can sell things for Oaths in the bazaar tab. I had about 800 worth of stuff on hand.
Heads up for the Haters: good Hater option ahead. I’m not that type of Hater, but the game is better for having them here. And this one is an all-time Hater option. Absolutely incredible.
Really like the lovecraftian build up to the castle. Remain a little annoyed by having paths closed by decisions I made ages ago (like giving Summer the fake book, because I didn’t bring enough money to buy the real one), but it’s a thin line between making choices feel impactful, and making me feel like I locked myself out of things before I understood them, so I’ll get over it.
I completed part of the previous chapter so late that I was able to gain (what I considered to be) important information from the Wiki re. some of those decisions. For example what the outcome for the survival (or not) of the alternate Calendar Council would be. It felt like cheating, but seemed quite an important thread in the plot.
Cross-links in decision trains are probably unavoidable in major projects like this, but I did have the experience of Evolution to look back on.
Yeah, I think it’s not so much that I don’t understand it as much as the time gulf gives me a lot of time to change my mind on characters. Thus, I really like teh developments with the Duchess and Shepherd (which seem very fluid and give you lots of chances to step in, using your previous choices to make tests easier or give you alternate routes) and a little frustrated that some of the calendar council stuff seems comparatively rigid and on rails.
That said, it may be the wiki making me feel this way. Because I can see all the options and pathways of the story, I’m effectively playing against a version of myself who made all the ‘right’ decisions (I was particularly galled to discover that I could have saved the extended calendar by killing them all then reversing it with the vulgate for example).
Yeah, I guess it’s less that there are cross-linked decisions, and more when the cross-linked thing comes so early in a particular plot and doesn’t have impact till months later. I don’t tend to mind the end decisions (like making various shepherds or who the duchess is) being crosslinked so much, but I also notice them less, I imagine.
EDIT: Just realised I should clarify which Calendar council as I could be referring to two different points now (hooray!)
Right now what i am most curious about is the “Reorientation” curiosity and how is it going to be use, considering you (will?? might??) “lose” “crew” even before this chapter.
Agh, I don’t know whether to choose Summer or St. Valentine for the Rites of Ruby. The wiki says Summer might or does leave if you don’t choose her, which I don’t want, but St. Valentine’s story seems more directly entwined with all this Queeneater stuff, so he kind of makes more sense. I’d also rather not get anyone killed. I haven’t barrelled through this chapter as quickly as previous ones, so I have a bit more wiki guidance than I sometimes have, but never quite enough. Though, even with full wiki, I often have a hard time with these big choices.
I agree with you by and large - while I think Firmament’s intricate webs of reverberating decisions have been largely quite well-handled, the specific thing you mentioned about the Council was also frustrating to me. I thought the return of the Vulgate was a very clever way to allow you to change decisions you might now regret, which made it all the more confusing that in the matter of the Council, it allowed you to change the decision you made five or so actions ago, but not the one made in the previous chapter. It seemed like such an obvious oversight - I’m not sure why anyone would choose to kill the whole Calendar then immediately have a change of heart and decide to save them or vice versa, and I didn’t even think about the strange fact that that might actually allow you to save more of them than if you’d just tried to spare them in the first place. Honestly I almost hope Failbetter edits that scene slightly to make the choices for someone who wants the Calendar to live more intuitive, even it’s too late for me to benefit from it.
Other than that though, I’ve been really enjoying Firmament on the whole, especially now that several chapters in I have a better idea what is going on! I’m not done with this new chapter yet but my explorations of the Keep thus far have been fun and wonderfully unsettling.
Absolutely! I feel like I’m a little overfocusing the negative, just because it takes longer to describe, but the vibes on Queeneaters are absolutely immaculate, the story of the Duchess and the Duke has a lot of satisfying weight to it, and I’ve found my crew really growing on me, despite my suspicion of them.
Definitely going to wait to grind blood-oaths until there’s time to go back and optimize that!
I’m having fun not worrying too much about alternate paths. It’s all pretty confusing and I feel like I’ve changed my mind on all the characters a bunch of times - back in the start of the Burgundy section I kind of hated the alternate calendar and wanted to smack them all but by the second half of burgundy I didn’t mind them and even took Valentine along in this one, I remember being really annoyed by Summer earlier but now I’m fine with Summer, etc. So it’s all kind of random who likes me and who doesn’t and I’m ok with that for now.
also stuck on this right now lol, I’ve been monitoring this thread, the reddit, people on tumblr, and of course the wiki in the hopes that, once enough collective knowledge is gained, someone will put out a explanation or something of the sort to help poor folks like me
I enjoyed this one, if enjoyed can be the right word for such a gruesome episode. It wandered a little into the obscure again compared to some of the more recent chapters, but not too much, imo; I’d say it’s within the normal level of opaqueness Fallen London sometimes has, rather than the excessive level Firmament reached in some of the earlier chapters. There was some seriously beautiful(ly horrible) writing, some really cool moments with the Calendar Council and with the Queen , and I’m continuing to really love the character focus with our crew. Their stories are fascinating and I’m growing quite attached even to the ones I’m very suspicious of. The new carousel is quite engaging - but hard! No matter which stat I emphasize, I never manage to avoid some uncomfortably hard challenges.
Some bits I liked:
“Doors and halls and boundary-places and sudden, hungry drops. A low, incessant drumbeat, felt through the boots as much as heard.”
February’s “Well no one can accuse you of not having guts,” she says. “I should like to see them someday”
Getting to see another side of Tatterdemalion - I think he’s grown on me the most of all the characters, the little moment with the Shepherd, and Summer’s triumph over the Council.
I went with Summer, and it wasn’t too difficult to make sure she survived. Still would love to know how it would have gone with Valentine, and if I could have kept Summer if I did.
