Why are no players born in the neath, why does the majority of the populace (which is probably us players) of Fallen London start off as prisoners, did the Unterzee exist before london fell? This thread is about those kind of questions and the speculation to what the answers are. Feel free to share questions, theories and fan fiction about the world of Fallen London here, but try and keep it to the source matter.
As to the Unterzee, it has existed a long, long time. Before London ever fell, several other cities met the same fate - landing on the same briny subterranean shore.
There’s a lot of things in Fallen London that as a game leaves it to the player to interpret what kind of life the character had before falling into Neath. As Professor Sketch pointed out, it’s why there’s a lot of the same problems and expanding that titles for NPCs too. (Ex: There’s probably more than one Revolutionary Firebrand, etc.) But to me that also means player interpretation of the Surface too.
Consider this: Fallen London takes place in a world where the Bazaar is a living, eldritch entity that claims cities and has been doing so far longer than the 3-4 years it claimed London. I like to think that alone means that the Surface has probably been shaped and changed by each city that is claimed. Maybe this means supernatural entities do exist and roam the world and not just in the Neath. Maybe that means monster hunting is a profession both in the Neath and the Surface. I feel like in that aspect roleplayers can easily take liberties to describe what their character’s life was on the surface and expand the world to suit their character.
I mean, even if you argue that the judgements would incinerate any monsters, the dark crawlies could live at the bottom of the ocean, surfacing at night to prey on unsuspecting ships. Miners have to be careful not to dig too deeply, or they could stumble upon something they really shouldnt have. And who knows if thats a natural cave, or a hidding place ecked out by something to survive up here. I don’t know. I kinda like the idea. And hey, everyone knows that king built a huge basement for…something. But we dont go there.
edited by suinicide on 7/14/2016
I’m going to up the intensity of this conversation to go ahead and ask what the deal is with the giant wall on the western end of the Iron Republic.
Either the edge of the city, or has hidden Correspondence in it that dictates law shifts, or Gigagoats.
I like the idea of Gigagoats personally. Though on the Unterzee, I haven’t played through SS yet. But I always wondered how expansive it must be. It feels like to me in encompasses the entire world if there’s such a vast network going on for several countries and islands to be under.
[quote=Professor Sketch]Some people are born in the Neath. However, London hasn’t been underground for an extremely long time. Anyone above the age of thirty has to have been born on the Surface. The majority of the populace start off as prisoners for the same reason as the majority of the populace is having the same affair with the same person, and is all dueling Feducci at once, and so many people are petitioning for a Department of the Correspondence but no one gets it. The world of Fallen London is tailored to the individual player - usually you have to tweak things a bit when role playing with others or trying to imagine London as a whole if you want to be respectful to other player’s storylines. For example, most people roleplaying as scholars make up some major other than the Correspondence (Ingame, Edward Sane studied the Correspondence like everyone, but canon, they taught marine biology) so that there aren’t a thousand professors of the Correspondence all conflicting with each other’s canon and storyline.
edited by Professor Sketch on 7/14/2016[/quote]
Yeah. I also develop little work-arounds for things like this- like the alternative to Correspondence scholars you mentioned.
I have an OC who’s based on the Affectionate Devil, rather than saying he is the one and only Affectionate Devil. I figure there are a lot of devils in London pretending to be affectionate, running around courting and romancing people, anyway. (I kind of want to see a roleplay where a bunch of people who had run-ins with the Affectionate Devil all think they’re inviting the same devil to their dinner party, and it turns out to be like, twelve different devils.) And I do that with most of the major NPCs, except the Duchess and His Amusing Lordship, who don’t seem quite as replaceable (replicatable?) In which case I keep my character’s association with them vague.
I also headcanon the whole "everyone comes to London through Newgate" thing as "New Newgate has a quota to fill and newcomers are easy pickings." Alternatively, "story fodder." Making things difficult for people seems to be one of the go-to ways the agents of the Bazaar generate stories.
[quote=Amelia Syrus]There’s a lot of things in Fallen London that as a game leaves it to the player to interpret what kind of life the character had before falling into Neath. As Professor Sketch pointed out, it’s why there’s a lot of the same problems and expanding that titles for NPCs too. (Ex: There’s probably more than one Revolutionary Firebrand, etc.) But to me that also means player interpretation of the Surface too.
hConsider this: Fallen London takes place in a world where the Bazaar is a living, eldritch entity that claims cities and has been doing so far longer than the 3-4 years it claimed London. I like to think that alone means that the Surface has probably been shaped and changed by each city that is claimed. Maybe this means supernatural entities do exist and roam the world and not just in the Neath. Maybe that means monster hunting is a profession both in the Neath and the Surface. I feel like in that aspect roleplayers can easily take liberties to describe what their character’s life was on the surface and expand the world to suit their character.[/quote]
I’m not going to tell anyone what they can and can’t do with their characters, but the reason we have eldritch and supernatural things in the Neath is because the sheer amount of irrigo from the Cave of Nadir blocks the Neath from the sight of the Judgements, so that they can’t enforce Laws here. For me, personally, this would break canon in a major universe-bending way, so it’s not something I would personally choose to incorporate into my own characters’ stories.
I suppose it’s prudent to remind myself that a lot of players don’t have access to late game lore, too. I don’t think Fallen London was designed with roleplayers in mind, considering major details of how the world works are incorporated into secret hints that you have to play extensively to find, and think creatively to put together (or else binge on the wikis and saint-arthur’s blog).
edited by Lamia Lawless on 7/14/2016
But we have also seen irrigomancers. Something like that could live on the surface.
I don’t think the amount of irrigo one person- or even many people- could generate would be enough to re-shape the Laws of the Surface and introduce supernatural creatures under the Judgements’ gaze. But if people have more fun toying with ideas like that I don’t want to hold them back.
No, I was just thinking a creature could be soaked in irrigo, and so the judgements couldnt see it.
Hm… maybe. I don’t think there’s anything in the text that indicates how Judgements react to smaller amounts of irrigo.
I’ll admit, I haven’t played through all of Fallen London or even touched SS yet. So I’m still new to discovering a lot of the content like the Cave of Nadir or what the Judgements do. I only purposed an idea without that knowledge. I’m not here to put precedents on the lore but just discuss an idea so I’m sorry if I offended you.
I’m not offended, and I’m not sure what it is in my speech that made me sound that way.
Your wording just seemed a bit strong to me. Adding that “I suppose it’s prudent to remind myself that a lot of players don’t have access to late game lore, too.” made me assume you were personally offended about it. But if that’s not the case than I assumed wrongly.
Yeah, I was just conscious that me saying "actually, but the lore says this" might come across as shooting down your idea, so I was trying to soften the message and admit that my approach isn’t necessarily feasible for a lot of people.
Then it’s ok. I think this goes to prove that not only is the in-game lore important. But also a lot of people might interpret the more vague material differently too. So hopefully this can help clear out the confusion while discussing the different, vague aspects of the world too.
Right.
And thank you for giving me feedback on how I sounded. I don’t always know how my words come across to other people, and it’s nice to have an opportunity to clarify what I really meant.
LL and AS having a minor miscommunication and quickly amending it is the closest I’ve ever seen to a “flame war” on the forum. I love this place