"I have, I fear, at last determined the cause of our poor Leopold’s sad disappearance. You will recall that I sent by the Borneo a very considerable collection of [illegible] … identified one variety as the sinister exile’s rose of the Bosphorus. Sophia had long admired their colour [illegible] … gardens here about the Government-house [illegible] … although here they call it ‘lion’s rose’. Singapura is Lion City in the Sanskrit [illegible] … There are of course no lions here, though many tigers. I would not mention this except that when I dream of Leopold, as still I often do, it has always seemed to me that there is an great cat present, the colour of sunset, which is also the colour of the roses…"
That this is an (imaginary) letter fragment of Sir Stamford Raffles, probably sent to his only surviving child, Ella, is quite clear. He’s also mentioned in another sidebar: "What is the Correspondence? They say it’s the letters Raffles wrote about the Cat that never were published." As founder of the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo, we could call him "the man who brought the tiger to the Labyrinth." But beyond that? Is he just an elaborate in-joke to lead us astray? Or is there more to this, maybe in connection with the Exceptional Rose? Or even, Parabola? edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015
The cats live in the Mirror Marches, don’t they? Also, if you’ve been to the Third Coil, you should know the tigers and the Fingerkings do not get along.
I’m far from having any conclusive theory about this whole Fingerwork/Wars of Illusion/Gates of the Garden thing. Or how Raffles could be connected, if at all. If you have an idea, or just some lunatic ramblings even, feel free to share… ;-)
In case it has any connection with real life events in Singapore; 1821 equals the year of 1943 if you use the same time exchange as is done with other journal scraps.
Though I’m very little into the history of Singapore… Also, since it’s only a letter that could be insignificant.
[quote=Aximillio]In case it has any connection with real life events in Singapore; 1821 equals the year of 1943 if you use the same time exchange as is done with other journal scraps.[/quote]No, you’re on the wrong track there… read the wiki article on Raffles (it’s linked in the first post)
[color=#009900]This is a point of crossover between Fallen London and Prisoner’s Honey - which may launch some day, but which for now has been superseded by Varytale. [/color][color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]It is however EBZ canon and ties into existing mysteries.[/color]