Hello Failbetter community!
When I play Fallen London, I try as much as possible to take actions that I personally would consider morally justifiable (basically, play as if I were really there making choices). Like for example, I refused to steal if I could help it, so grinding my shadowy skills were a bit of a challenge.
But everything is so mysterious that even with reading spoilers in the wiki, it is hard to really be certain if I’m in the right in some circumstances. You would think that the masters would have some kind of education (propaganda) system going, but they don’t even make an effort to even paint a favorable image of their actions (I’m sure there would be fewer revolutionaries if they at least made an effort).
Seems very much like they like mystery for mystery’s sake.
From what I do see, the masters are evil for the same reason governments are evil; they rely on coercion to extract taxes and get things done. But there remains tiny hints that the masters are holding in check something worse.
Is it moral to oppose the masters, or morally better to align with them?
Anyone have any thoughts (I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with my anarchist position, so let’s focus on the morality of it, and what the moral choices would be for various situations). edited by KrofGninut on 7/7/2014
If you want to play a truly moral character and not risk it turning into an "oh god what have I done?" character it might be best to stay uninvolved until you have a full understanding of what both the Masters and the Revolutionaries have planned and can make an informed decision.
That involves the deep lore of the game and is not easily answered on behalf of someone else; I agree with Sara Hysaro that staying uninvolved until you can make up your own mind is probably the best course for now.
When it comes down to brass tacks, in pure mortal human moral compass judgement? The Masters are pretty evil.
THAT SAID, that’s thinking too narrow. There are forces at play here whose perspective is so divorced from ours that trying to quantify it in that way is useless. It’s a tricky needle to thread.
according to the destiny-related storylets,it seems like more of a choice of siding with masters, create MAD DESTRUCTION!!! with the anarchists, join the flukes and turn into a monster(or help them destroy the bazaar by awakening them?), or stay neutral and profit from them.
of course there’s the other destinies where you go screw yourself or get screwed by the various factions above. or so i read from the wikia.
[spoiler]The Masters have their mysterious mission, and I don’t think they’d hesitate to see every single one of us dead - or melted down into lacre, or gibbering on miser-milk, or worse - if it led to achieving their goal. The Calendar Council have that unbounded enthusiasm peculiar to revolutionaries - not only are they committed to utterly wiping out the powers that be, whatever the cost, but they’re perfectly willing to support any cause that can be construed as radical, egalitarian or liberating, however undesirable the result may be to those who actually have to live with it.
So, which is the better bet? I have no idea - the Liberation of the Night might keep London alive a little longer, albeit in greatly reduced circumstances, but in the long run, I think we’d better start finding third options. And follow the New Khanate’s lead and find somewhere safer to live…[/spoiler]