Good evening (it’s always evening down here, isn’t it?), delicious friends!
I started playing Fallen London in january and in the last 2-3 months I began to reach the content boundary of many storylines (my Ambition, Dilmun Club, the University, etc.), although I still don’t have an Iron Republic safe conduct and haven’t reached the end of the Dangerous "making your name".
However, as I read the forum, I see that the Neath has many secrets I never even guessed the full extent of. I’m talking about the true nature of the Correspondence, the Judgements/stars, the bazzar (which has a mission?), Parabola, the admiralty and, apparently, something called the Dawn Machine.
I’m sure that the info on many of these comes mainly from the community gathering hints and bits of knowledge (and making deductions), but I’d like to know which storylines (including fate-locked, or even from Sunless Sea) "introduce" these topics, because I’d like to experience them first-hand before reading the conclusions our fellow londoners reached.
A lot of really high end lore is available during the main festivals - Hollowmas, Sacksmas, the Feast of the Exceptional Rose - and through Destinies (which are available during Fruits of the Zee, Hollowmas and Sacksmas, I think). Others will, I’m sure, have more topic-by-topic breakdowns of what is covered where, but a whole lot of really interesting stuff is introduced and expounded upon in seasonal content, as well as the more sparse and obscure bread-crumb trail that one has to piece together in the regular, day-to-day endgame content. edited by Barselaar on 8/31/2016
Sunless Sea is the best place to learn about the Dawn Machine - there’s not much info in FL. I believe Parabola and the admiralty each have their own fate-locked stories which would be the best place to look for information. Destinies are the best places to look for information on Judgements/Stars/Bazaar. Unfortunately I haven’t come across anything about the Correspondences true nature yet.
The Archaeological Expedition to the Temple of Uttermost Wind tells you some stuff about Judgments. Lost in Reflections has a lot of Parabola.
How much fate-locked content have you accessed so far? I would say the paid content tends to have more deep lore in general. Not necessarily every time, but if you pay for it, it’ll be juicy.
A lot of the stuff was hinted at in the content you may have already read - I know a lot of the time I didn’t even pick up on a lot of the stuff that was mentioned in stuff I already read. There’s some stuff about Parabola and the Fingerkings in Mahagony Hall for sure, but it’s all pretty vague and not direct in any way. I didn’t really get it until people spelled it out for me, haha.
The Dawn Machine was referenced in one of the recent Exceptional Stories, I believe, the Calendar Council one, though perhaps not explicitly by name. (I think)
I’m sort of in the same position as you right now, I’m only just touching this "End Game" plot, and I do think a lot of it is really just here and there and blink and you miss it.
If you want to learn mysteries of a higher caliber, some choices are better than others.
In Cut with Moonlight, you learn a little of The White, that most elusive hand in the Great Games, and then some. Judgments, Revolutionaries, the Sunlight-Trade, and probably some more; I haven’t played it yet, so there’s probably even more.
Thanks for all your replies! My experiences with paid content so far have been limited to the last three Exceptional Stories (in fact, I only learned the Dawn Machine exists by reading the Calendar Code thread).
I’ll be able to buy some fate-locked stories by the end of the year, so the ones you guys mentioned will be my priorities (and since Temple of Uttermost Wind is relatively cheap, I’ll probably buy it sooner than that).