Before you read this, I need to give the most massive of spoiler warnings I physically can. Most of this topic will be a discussion of lore, that requires a basic understanding of a certain questline about seeking something you shouldn’t that requires significant redaction, so I will redact. I do want to say that I am following the spoiler rules here. Nothing I have uncovered came from game files, in any way. This is speculation on my behalf and, whilst I am quite sure of my conclusions, I invite people to share information they think contradicts what I have to say.
So. Without further Ado…
Peligin, what it is, and what it does
This revelation came to me when I found myself ruminating on the idea of Zailors, a thought that comes up often when I play, considering my character is a Monster-Hunter, and closest to The Docks. There’s a significant amount of oblique worldbuilding related to the Zee and its effects. I think many people write off a lof of the individual pieces I present, so I’ll present them one by one, to preface my meaning, before I explain in detail what they mean when put together.
For clarity, I first believed Peligin to be the Light of Transformation/Change. It represented things to me indicative of beastliness, and most things in contact with it seemed to be changed in some way, but I now understand that I was very, very much underthinking this.
I now believe that Peligin is the light of Conveyance.
Conveyance.
Peligin, being the color of the waters of the Zee, is inherently tied to transferring things from place to place. The Zee’s ports act as hubs of information and stories, and such news is borne across the Zee by vessels to other ports, thus, the Zee provides a means of information transferrence. Peligin skin’s effects are explained (contrary to the Wiki’s statements on Peligin Skin) through an interaction with Miriam in Sunless Sea.
“As punishment for our attempt on their city, the Nidaheen promised me to the Wax-Wind. I sought sanctuary in the Fathomking’s Hold, and made an arrangement with His Complexity. He changed me,” she runs a finger down her peligin cheek. “I forget things, now, unless I write them down, or put faces to them.”
Information passes through her, it does not stick. Peligin facilitates information transfer and thus it absorbs the information she otherwise would, It doesn’t ‘retain’ information, like Apocyan (Or Irrigo, as we learn from the Fluke delivery to Station III), it absorbs and transmits information.
The Light-In-Exile constantly exhudes Peligin light, and its primary goal is to communicate and recognize and judge others. Those it accepts glow with (likely Peligin as well) light, and it specifically seeks Exiles to convey its message to, through Peligin. Additionally, its light is used to make judgments legally by the constables of the Evenlode, which tends to be best facilitated through the proper communication of information.
The Revolutionaries, the faction that simultaneously represent “dark” and also have the highest drive to directly convey their message to others, use Peligin lighting as their favored source, due to its pseudo-lighting effects, as Peligin is darker than black.
Color Pairs
We see most Neath-Colors broken into pairs across the entire setting. Cosmogone and Viris work co-operatively to achieve the majority of the depth and complexity of Parabola (though Cosmogone was brought after its origins), Violant and Irrigo have an opposing relationship of memory and forgetfulness… and the two colors of the Zee are Peligin and Apocyan. Peligin as conveyance and Apocyan reflecting memory produces a network of information travelling through the Neath which crests into waves which refract neath-light through Peligin into fragments of Apocyanic memory. It makes sense that Peligin and Apocyan have a similar focus, as they are two colors very often paired together, and looking again to Sunless Sea, the majority of land is shown in an almost Apocyanic glow abreast the Neath’s Peligin Zee. Secrets, News, and Information are the greatest tools of a Zee Captain. The primary thing you’re paid to gather in Sunless Sea is information from these vaguely “apocyanic” islands (Some more than others) for the Admiralty, bringing it home to them on the currents of the Zee itself. Even gathering Sphinxstone to deliver to the Bazaar is described by Penstock as delivering memories that the Bazaar is devouring, unhealthily.
The Understanding of Monsters and Other Things
Peligin seems to have deeper transitive properties than simply implications and the sending of notes across distances. To start, consuming Peligin flesh begets Peligin eyes. This aligns with the understanding Monster-Hunters gain by consuming Peligin flesh. Monster-Hunter Eyes seem to give insight into the nature of monstrosities, evolving into a hightened instinct as to what the monstrous beasts do, which, over time, transits into either an extreme instinctual understanding of their bloodlust and violent nature (Heirarch) or a studied understanding of and ability to tweak the nature of and communicate with the histories and futures of, other creatures (Teratomancer). Peligin gives understanding of other creatures and facilitates the intake of information about them. Peligin eyes, unlike skin (which loses information as we know), would thus take in information at an expanded rate.
The First Curator, likewise uses a Hunter’s Eye to “see within”, before experiencing monstrosities and understanding through the Peligin he inserts into his eye-socket.
But why? Why does Peligin absorb information at all? What do I base this assertion on, I hear you ask?
The Absorbing of Light
There exist two items in particular that I believe reveal quite a bit about the nature of Peligin. One operates in a positive manner. The other I would consider an inverse proof.
The Night-Trimmed Frock Coat, an item that can simply be bought from the Bazaar, does not explicitly state that it is colored in Peligin, however its description reads that it “absorbs light like water”. Water, famously, does not absorb light under normal circumstances, but it does in the Neath, where water is Peligin. It’s safe, therefore, to assume that this piece of clothing is colored Peligin. Peligin absorbs light. It absorbs law and nature and it gets heavier for doing so. The description of a coat being ‘troublesome by by night’s end’ may seem to indicate that it is always heavy, but I’d like to offer an opposing theory, that the light absorbed possesses weight which grows over a night. To confirm this theory I present;
The Gant-Filled Mirrorcatch Box. This clever little piece of worldbuilding is indicated to be lighter than when the Gant was not present. Gant, being the absence of all color (and remaining when all colors are eaten) is also representative of the lack of light, including Peligin. If a lack of light and absence of color makes things lighter, then it stands to reason that absorbing light and color (and thereby memory and law) would cause weight to increase over time, thus providing inverse proof that Peligin must grow heavier as it absorbs light, and therefore law and information.
If it absorbs information, it can transfer that information in some way, as we’ve learned of Irrigo (Fluke delivery, Station III) and Apocyan (Holding a chess piece grants memory to the holder). The primary difference appears to be that Peligin specifically exists to absorb and transmit information, rather than retain (as Apocyan), consume (as Irrigo), enhance (as Violant), highlight/focus/shift (as Cosmogone), divert attention from (as Viric), or erase (as Gant) information.
Why transmit, rather than Absorb? Well for one there’s the aforementioned example of Peligin Skin, but in a similar vein, I would put money on the notion that the Dark-Spectacled Admiral’s spectacles are Peligin lensed and that that is why it is noted that he does not remove his spectacles when reading reports. He’s using the advantages of Peligin to absorb the information better by reading it through Peligin glasses.
When bathed in Peligin light, one experiences the sensation of being a spider at the center of a web, or an anemone reaching out and grasping. Fittingly monstrous, but also notable as both of these creatures are at the center of a large information gathering apparatus, trying to draw in as much information to act on as possible through building or making of themself such a network that reaches in all directions. Peligin, like these creatures, draws in light and devours information. Filtering things through Peligin would allow them to be absorbed better. Wearing Peligin would absorb attention (a “Dramatic” effect worth +8 Persuasive, apparently).
Additionally, the lacre that The Bazaar cries during the coldest and loneliest months of the year does eventually melt into the water of the Unterzee, carrying with it the meloncholy and misery of the Bazaar as it goes. This is also the eventual destination of any traits or items you shore up the meaning of or existence of a Noman with, when it inevitably melts and flows invariably to the Zee. The information of human nature, the information of what it means to be alive flows back to the Zee, to be absorbed and dispursed through the whole of it, affecting the understanding of all things that commune with or inhabit it. The Bazaar’s function is also exceedingly well served by the production of a substance that is useful for absorbing and transmitting information, as a messenger should.
Making and shoring up and filling a Noman with traits is giving information to frozen Peligin water infused with the bitter soapy sadness of the Bazaar. Understanding the Taste of Lacre is drawing information about the Bazaar from the frozen Peligin water infused with its bitter soapy sadness.
It all flows together swimmingly.
Communing With the Zee
Like many people, I dismissed the idea of communing with the Zee as something of a Zailors’ superstition. I knew the Orphans commune with Storm, normally, and the Guano-Spattered Heirophant in Gaider’s Mourn specifically talks of communing with the Zee like it’s possible, but knowing what we now know, it seems very likely that the Peligin of the Zee conveys information directly to the sensitive. The communing with the Zee is particularly strong among Zailors, who know just enough to be superstitious and afraid of the majority of such interactions. And speaking of Zailors and superstitions…
Zailors Have a Surprising Amount of Knowledge for People Who Aren’t Generally Well Educated, Now Don’t They?
The Neath is replete with stories of Zeefarers who border on the monstrous. The man with the Chelatic Mitten has an instinctual understanding of how to use it, being able to hold many things at once without even a hand. The Guano-Spattered Heirophant can read the birds and tell who’s supposed to die from them. The Pirate Poet, frequently upon the Peligin Zee, writes words into her skin of information to share it with others.
The trade of the Zee is almost entirely in stories and riddles, the former of which are only of meaningful value to those with the wherewithal to understand them and the latter are primarily of value to the erudite as a challenge. Zailors have a bizzare, instinctual grasp of many, many things… which brings us to…
Why Are the Docks Considered a Separate Faction Anyway?
The Docks do seem to have, on a surface level, much in common with the Revolutionaries, as they don’t get along with the agents of order, constantly combating the Neddy Men and fighting over resources and against regulation and control. Sure, there’s a different flavor to them, but it’s more than that. The Docks have a very specific purpose within the story of Fallen London. Prior to the Raiload Venture, Prior to the ability to align with Red on the Moonlit Chessboard, The Docks offered players a way to align with a faction that wasn’t married to the status quo, but didn’t have the Liberation of Night in its sights. Part-criminal, Part-admiralty, not necessarily outside the law, but not aligned with the forces arrayed against the light. But then, why aren’t they taking up cause with the Revolutionaries, or for that matter, the New Sequencers? This is where I need to get into a topic that will lead to the ‘heavily redacted’ section of this explanation.
The Zee and Instinctual Understanding.
My theory for the allegiences of the docks is that prolonged exposure to the Zee causes an instinctual understanding of the goings-on in the Neath (And their greater implications). The Peligin soaks the bones, as a chill wind would at sea, and in the depths of the Neath, the information of all things flows into the depths to be distilled into the subconscious of those borne upon them. Zailors reflect this information in their dreams and supers/titions, and I think I can prove that in a rather decisive and convincing manner. Unfortunately, this is where I have to start heavily redacting my final point.
Peligin, Zailors, Bats and Mr. Eaten
Many Zailors’ superstitions focus on bats. White Bats, explicitly, are said to be the messengers of Salt, indicating that a Zailor will never see home again. While the bats of the neath demonstrate remarkable emotion and intelligence (Also see the entire concept of the Zee Bat from Sunless Sea) they seem to be sometimes directed by higher powers to specific purpose, as with the White Zee-Bat example. This does not, however, count for the Zailor’s most staunchly held belief.
The Zailors’ most firm belief, more than anything else, according to their faction card is the belief that one should never bring harm to a bat.
This aligns with a certain very important piece of information. Namely that Mr. Candles, the famed character at the heart of the Mr. Eaten storyline, was, himself, a bat. A bat that was, coincidentally, eaten, just as you devour a bat to cut ties with the Docks. A bat that’s death is the most dangerous thing that’s ever happened in the neath, as we know from the process and outcomes of Seeking.
So, how do the Zailors gain this instinctual understanding? Through the Peligin of course. It’s stated that the Masters drowned what remained of Mr. Candles after he was fed to the God-Eaters in a lacre-well, which I strongly believe to be the literal Well on Hunter’s Keep. Frost-Moths are attracted to Candles, and grow out of the dead. Hunter’s Keep lies to the north of London, which fulfills the understanding that Mr. Eaten was buried in the northern part of the Unterzee, which is correct. The Well consumes whatever enters it, all information vanishing, like Peligin with nowhere to go, no connection to the Zee. This lack of connection can logically be derived from the fact that a well that was used to drown something as powerful as Mr. Candles would have been (even in a weakened condition), needs to ensure no exit. All information regarding Mr. Candles was likely thrown in the well after him, to ensure it vanished into what lay beneath as the Bazaar’s Lacre melted into information absorbing Peligin. The Sisters of Hunter’s Keep have been routinely drowning people in the well and drinkng of its waters to keep their stories and news. In the process, they’ve learned much of the greater schemes Mr. Candles would have, himself, known as well.
"Phoebe has a story to tell: of two lovers parted by water, of a raven that carried messages, of a fragment of the moon. She beats time on the table as she speaks, as if to a song only she can hear. The effect is hypnotic […] ‘The storm came,’ says Phoebe quietly. ‘Everything changed.’ "
The Bazaar, The Sun, Stone, A song, Storm’s arrival.
"Her eyes are wide and blue: her hair is wild and tangled. Bats might nest in it. It seems to you that you are sitting on a hillside, above a wide blue lake, listening to a story of a murder. An axe. A net. Blood on scented water. […] ‘You can’t be hungry. It’s not safe to be hungry.’ "
The Bazaar (Bats ‘nesting in it’) hearing about the murder of Candles, the method, the Means of Restraint, blood in its own Lacre. She also knows what Unaccountable Peckishness is.
“[…]a complex story about a butler, a pig and an inheritance. You don’t follow all the details of the plot, but somehow the pig ends up in an attic and the butler in a vicar’s bed.”
Lucy’s story likely comes from a more pleasant memory, from the same source, as one who had access to my proposed information it relates to would have to have been a Master himself. It reminds me of the Bishop of Southwark working with Mr. Apples on his feeding/breeding project, notably taking place in the Labyrinth of Tigers. If the Butler represents Mr. Apples, it’s likely the Pig represents another master. The matter of Inheritance, therefore, could relate to the division of Mr. Mirrors’ estate after October imprisoned him in Parabola. Mr. Apples is around the vast quantities of mirrors in the Labyrinth of Tigers (in bed with a Vicar), and Mr. Cups went on to take Mirrors’ position in the public spotlight (In an attic), trying to figure out what to do with his vast storehouse of possessions (the inheritance).
We can deduce, reasonably speaking, that the Fingerkings are lured by this likely Peligin ‘dream-water’ as it contains vast quantities of information and represents a massive degree of pathos and thoughts, something that would be useful when using a duplicate of yourself to trick a specific dream-snake into, as the Genial Magician wants.
As such, we can reasonably assert that the well’s water is a disconnected pool of pure Peligin, in which possibly rests the long-since ‘emerged’ body of Mr. Candles, and the Frost Moth that burrowed its way out of his chest, continuing to consume the memories of those that are drowned in the well and anything sent into the Peligin below. This terrible secret doesn’t stay imprisoned in the well entirely, though, as not only does the Bazaar know of it (and thus, it leaks to the Zee through its Lacre) but Frost-Moths are drawn to candles, and thus partially connected to the concepts bound up in Mr. Eaten’s story.
This instinctual understanding that something was violated permeates the Zee. Zailors know that going NORTH is bad. Zailors know that harming bats brings bad endings. The Zailors know, instinctually, through the Peligin (though not the dream-like specifics that the Sisters know), that something wrong was done by the Bazaar (or at least those in its employ), and as such, they don’t fully align with it. Likely their understanding from the Peligin steers them away from many other dangers (such as angering Storm, Stone or Salt, or The Dawn Machine, or even The Liberation of Night’s influence) due to an understanding that something is distorting said information flow or the ability to interpret signs of the past that are instinctively inculcated and passed between Zailors over time through their shared connection to the Peligin light of the Zee.
This is why The Docks are specifically one of the factions you can investigate Mr. Sacks with and the one you can throw Mr. Eaten out of your house with, which gives you vast quantities of Lacre understanding, which (as we fully understand now) is also Peligin understanding.
This is why The Docks are a faction in the first place. They don’t believe in the cause of the Revolutionaries as their cause is unnatural and foreboding. They don’t fully trust the Bazaar, because they have an instinctual understanding that its command has lead to horrible violations of cosmic law. They don’t align with The New Sequence because they fully understand that it’s distorting what is the natural flow of emotion and sense and they don’t align with the Urchins as they’re not beholden to Storm. They legitimately are the ‘common man’s common sense’ faction (even though I think that trusting the Bazaar is probably the best choice, it’s not one made from common sense, but significant understanding garnered over years). As violent and rowdy as they can be, their commonalities are facilitated and grown through shared exposure to the Peligin waters and their (and it’s) conveyance of emotion and understanding.
And that, delicious friends, is the case for Peligin as The Light of Monstrous Conveyance and Understanding. Thank you very much for reading.
-From the desk of The _____ Captain, Northern Wind.