It’s a running theme through Fallen London that Neathy citizens tend to dispense with their names and take new identities. It’s also a running theme that many of the major, recurring characters in Fallen London are inspired by individuals from real history! It’s a favourite hobby of mine to try and figure out their identities, and so I thought I would present some of my ideas (and reasoning) behind them. To preserve the delicacy of the matter I shall encase it in a spoiler.
The Traitor Empress and The Prince-Consort
This particular woman needs no introduction and I can’t even call this one a ‘theory’. She is Queen Victoria, namesake of the Victorian Era. Her husband, the man for whom London was sold, is Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who in the real world, died in 1861, the cause still a debated issue.
The Captivating Princess
The game states that this mysterious and frankly terrifying woman was born in the year of the Fall. I can’t, offhand, remember the actual year of the Fall, but it’s clearly before 1861! Now, we can assume she is one of Victoria and Albert’s children (being a Princess), and that narrows the field of candidates somewhat. In fact, the only one born near the date of 1861 is Princess Beatrice, who was born in 1857. I would thus propose she is either Princess Beatrice or an entirely fictional construct, but it is difficult to tell. Her personality, such as it is shown, is nothing like what we know of Princess Beatrice’s own, at the very least, but this could just be due to the wildly different circumstances in their respective lives.
Dr. Schlomo, the Neathy Wizard
The identity of this particular character is more of an open secret by this point. He is clearly inspired by Dr. Sigmund Freud, considered a father of modern psychology, even if all his theories have been disproved by this point.
M. Pleat
I was curious about the identity of M. Pleat, and so I delved into a little Wikipedia searching about the history of hypnotism, specifically the origin of the word ‘mesmerism’. It is derived from one Franz Mesmer, a slightly crackpot gentleman who proposed a theory of human health that relied on a magnetic ‘fluid’-like field of energy. However, he cannot be M. Pleat, for he died in 1815, long before the Fall. The next name to come to my attention was that of the surgeon James Braid, who studied Mesmer’s works and found some merit amidst the madness. It is he, in fact, who developed the form of stage hypnosis we are familiar with today. We still run into issues with the dates, however! In real life, he died in 1860 at the age of 64, which would make him currently in his mid-nineties if he is indeed M. Pleat. The third name on the list, and the one I believe most likely to be the actual candidate (if not the only candidate), is Pierre Janet, a French psychologist who greatly influenced Freud and Carl Jung, among others. His appearance, too, matches the portrait of M. Pleat, which for me is evidence enough!
February, of the Calendar Council
My thoughts wandered today to the identity of members of the Calendar Council, and the fact that the only two members I recall meeting in my journeys through Fallen London are February and December. December is a complete enigma, I imagine deliberately so. We are not even sure of his or her gender and/or state of rubberiness. February, on the other hand, is perhaps a little clearer. My mind turned immediately to Emmeline Pankhurst, the famed suffragette. As with M. Pleat, her portrait and appearance do coincide enough that one could be said to have inspired the other, and she remains one of the few notable female "revolutionary" figures of the Victorian Era.
These are the names that spring immediately to mind at the slightly sleep-addled time of my composing this post. I’ll return some other day with further names! Feel free to discuss and post your own ideas and theories on individuals below.[li]
