I really don’t like the idea of the Manager as May. If he would be any of the months, he’d probably be October - that book was all about nightmares.
This. I knew there was something else that was putting me off labelling him as May specifically, thinking he might be another month. October’s book does fit him rather better, both in content and in thematic nature of the month.
I think there’s a much simpler explanation to this that explains both the Manager knowing about the key and he himself not hiding it.
It was hidden by the King with a Hundred Hearts. A man who truly has a hundred hands and a thousand eyes.
edited by Hark DeGaul on 7/19/2017
This. I knew there was something else that was putting me off labelling him as May specifically, thinking he might be another month. October’s book does fit him rather better, both in content and in thematic nature of the month.[/quote]
Can I ask why you don’t like Manager as May and do you have a preferred candidate for the position?
I agree that October is a possible fit for Manager, but Manager is concerned with the completely mad and Parabola more than he is with nightmares. He doesn’t even ask about the dreams while you are in the Hotel. Additionally, the book is specifically about nightmares told to physicians and priests: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Menaulon?fromEchoId=9199338 . That points to someone working in that circle, Manager doesn’t. Instead I would propose that October is Dr. Schlomo, a physician focused solely on nightmares, who is (based on) Freud – a man from Vienna (Vienna being related to anarchists both in real world and Neath) with, as far as I understand, anti-authoritarian views. A man whose analysis of your dreams can lead to you gaining suspicion.
Hark DeGaul, I agree that "hundred hands" might be an allusion to the King, but that opens up a lot of other questions, like the location and the timing. Still, Hunter’s Keep is a mysterious place in general and this might be the biggest hint we have.
[li]
I think there’s a much simpler explanation to this that explains both the Manager knowing about the key and he himself not hiding it.
It was hidden by the King with a Hundred Hearts. A man who truly has a hundred hands and a thousand eyes.
edited by Hark DeGaul on 7/19/2017[/quote]
I considered that at first, but the way he phrases it makes it sound more like he’s describing the passage of time by how many people the key has passed through. And then there’s the fact he says he’ll have to give it away ‘again’. Which obviously strongly implies he initially did possess it and get rid of it, rather than his lover.
This. I knew there was something else that was putting me off labelling him as May specifically, thinking he might be another month. October’s book does fit him rather better, both in content and in thematic nature of the month.[/quote]
Can I ask why you don’t like Manager as May and do you have a preferred candidate for the position?
I agree that October is a possible fit for Manager, but Manager is concerned with the completely mad and Parabola more than he is with nightmares. He doesn’t even ask about the dreams while you are in the Hotel. Additionally, the book is specifically about nightmares told to physicians and priests: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Menaulon?fromEchoId=9199338 . That points to someone working in that circle, Manager doesn’t. Instead I would propose that October is Dr. Schlomo, a physician focused solely on nightmares, who is (based on) Freud – a man from Vienna (Vienna being related to anarchists both in real world and Neath) with, as far as I understand, anti-authoritarian views. A man whose analysis of your dreams can lead to you gaining suspicion.
Hark DeGaul, I agree that "hundred hands" might be an allusion to the King, but that opens up a lot of other questions, like the location and the timing. Still, Hunter’s Keep is a mysterious place in general and this might be the biggest hint we have.
[li][/quote]
My apologies, I had a different entry [the previous one in your journal] for October’s book that was more vague and nightmare focused. As I just got done doing my psychodynamic module in my doctorate, I can definitely see how Freu- I mean Schlomo, would be more suited to that text.
I’m close to being convinced about the manager, something is just nagging me about May’s book not quite fitting him. He never really talks about love beyond his own, and even that you have to drag out of him. The line about carnival rides is really bugging me too if it is him, just cannot picture that in Uruk or Mesopotamia even if the time period were more recent. And I doubt his lover spent any time with him at all after the transformation, never having forgiven him for it or the Marvellous.
It might also be that he’s already featuring in another answer, but that’s a silly objection given that a lot of the questions do have some crossover.
Worth mentioning that the port at Grand Geode is called Zelo’s Town, and the passage behind the Dawn Machine is called the Barnsmore Gap.
Are these names based on kickstarter Backers or do they appear anywhere in the lore?
[quote=Indigo Clardmond][li]
My apologies, I had a different entry [the previous one in your journal] for October’s book that was more vague and nightmare focused. As I just got done doing my psychodynamic module in my doctorate, I can definitely see how Freu- I mean Schlomo, would be more suited to that text.
I’m close to being convinced about the manager, something is just nagging me about May’s book not quite fitting him. He never really talks about love beyond his own, and even that you have to drag out of him. The line about carnival rides is really bugging me too if it is him, just cannot picture that in Uruk or Mesopotamia even if the time period were more recent. And I doubt his lover spent any time with him at all after the transformation, never having forgiven him for it or the Marvellous.
It might also be that he’s already featuring in another answer, but that’s a silly objection given that a lot of the questions do have some crossover.[/quote][/li][li]I really don’t think any apologies are necessary. We are both just trying to figure out the answer with the information we have right now. I think part of the problem is that some information necessary for answers is still absent. This exceptional season, however, has the Manager in it, so we will probably learn a bit more about him. I agree some details don’t fit perfectly, but some are just too accurate for me to imagine anyone else. Still, that doesn’t mean I am correct.[/li][li]
[/li][li]
[quote=Infinity Simulacrum]Worth mentioning that the port at Grand Geode is called Zelo’s Town, and the passage behind the Dawn Machine is called the Barnsmore Gap.
Are these names based on kickstarter Backers or do they appear anywhere in the lore?[/quote]
Probably backer names. Though that’s no guarantee that it’s irrelevant to the lore - see the most recent ES, after all :P
[quote=Optimatum][quote=Infinity Simulacrum]Worth mentioning that the port at Grand Geode is called Zelo’s Town, and the passage behind the Dawn Machine is called the Barnsmore Gap.
Are these names based on kickstarter Backers or do they appear anywhere in the lore?[/quote]
Probably backer names. Though that’s no guarantee that it’s irrelevant to the lore - see the most recent ES, after all :P[/quote]
I’d say good ol’ Freddy is an exceptional case, seeing as he’s an exceptional person. I’ll keep it in mind though.
It’s definitely still possibly the Manager, but if he did give it away to anyone wouldn’t his lover be the most likely recipient. Also if May is the Manager as many on the forum are suggesting it would be a little bizarre to make him the answer of so many questions. (As someone who picked Nemesis and Light Fingers for my mains I feel I might have drawn the short straw when it comes to Mysteries-specific lore)
[quote=Infinity Simulacrum]Worth mentioning that the port at Grand Geode is called Zelo’s Town, and the passage behind the Dawn Machine is called the Barnsmore Gap.
Are these names based on kickstarter Backers or do they appear anywhere in the lore?[/quote]Zelo is a Latin word, an ancestor to the English "zeal", as I understand it. This matches the New Sequence quite nicely. The only result I found for Zelo as a person is a Korean rapper, and so it’s likely safe to say that it, as of now, has no major role in the lore.
Barnsmore Gap might be a reference to Barnesmore Gap in Ireland, but it’s more likely to be a Kickstarter backer, honestly.
–
[quote=Sinnouk][quote=Amélie Vaincœur]As for the architect of the Dawn Machine, I don’t have a theory, but something like a hunch: December.[/quote]Oh, I thought the Council were trying to reverse-engineer the Dawn Machine in the Calendar Code (which I don’t have access to durhur)[/quote]This is the relevant text. They have complex and detailed diagrams for these "wheels of fire", which seems a bit further than reverse engineering. It’s been a few months, so I don’t know if there’s any further evidence for this being the Dawn Machine (since it’s vague and can be interpreted otherwise). It should be noted, though, that this is in the Summer Collection, not Winter (for December) or Spring (for April), and neither July nor August are likely to have made them.
I really like the idea of December being the architect of the Dawn Machine, though, even if it’s almost certainly wrong. There’s a certain irony in the leader of anarchists devoted to darkness creating a machine for authoritarians devoted to light.
So Mr. Candles advocated for the Horn-Flukes (space sea-urchins), promising them a higher place on The Chain.
They bargained with The Bazaar but somehow got swindled into accepting a rather one-sided deal, moving them up on The Chain only marginally enough to leave their home world Axile and come to Earth.
Despite this, the Horn-Flukes kept their part of the bargain: to never love.
And… somehow… the Rubbery Men are… avatars for the Horn-Flukes?
Well, if we go by the carnival reference, how about Mrs. Plenty?
I don’t know if this is a stupid question because I’m a newer player, but do we have an idea as to what the great game is played for? I’ve been under the impression that there isn’t necessarily a point, it’s played because it’s fun/it’s a good way to not be bored as heck when you’re a giant floating ball of reality wandering around eating things.
Also:
[quote=Indigo Clardmond]As for my answer for who May is, I’ll spell it out, since there seems to be a few good referential or punny ones besides mine, and I feel like I’ll be proved wrong over the course of the year:
The Curt Relicker. He loved December.
Therefore if he was May, it would be a May-December Romance. 8D[/quote]
But have you considered: come here and fight me for making that awful, awful pun.
Well, if the Judgment version reflects the Neath version, and I feel safe assuming this is the case, then it’s all about the balance of power.
And sometimes, making sure that there is still a balance of power rather than an all out-war, which much of Victorian England’s European policy was based on preventing (why exactly something as stupid as the Crimean happened, for instance; fighting a supposedly-limited war to prop up the Ottomans. None of which worked out quite as planned, but in the European theatre, it’s a relatively consistent policy…and I have clearly lost track of this metaphor).
edited by Teaspoon on 7/19/2017
Something to be considered is that we may not have all the answers now. The mysteries tab is to run for a year and Failbetter is doing the reworks as well as releasing Exceptional Stories, so some information/lore may be forthcoming. Maybe in ambition updates…
As for for what the Great Game is played for: keeps.
[quote=SpectralDragon]I don’t know if this is a stupid question because I’m a newer player, but do we have an idea as to what the great game is played for? I’ve been under the impression that there isn’t necessarily a point, it’s played because it’s fun/it’s a good way to not be bored as heck when you’re a giant floating ball of reality wandering around eating things.
Also:
[quote=Indigo Clardmond]As for my answer for who May is, I’ll spell it out, since there seems to be a few good referential or punny ones besides mine, and I feel like I’ll be proved wrong over the course of the year:
The Curt Relicker. He loved December.
Therefore if he was May, it would be a May-December Romance. 8D[/quote]
But have you considered: come here and fight me for making that awful, awful pun.[/quote]
Historically the Great Game was played over Afghanistan and other territories in Central and Southern Asia, largely between Russia and Britain. I suggested it still is even in the Neath because we need to get our tea from somewhere.
And have you considered: you have the Iron, and the Stones, but let us not be caught up in the Fires of fury or the Veils of violence, for we would otherwise engage in Pages of posts trying to capture the Hearts of all around us, Mirrors to each other’s antics. Instead, let us drink deep of the Wines and Spices of the various theories around us, filling our intellectual Cups to the brim.
…How do you like them Apples? ;)
[quote=Azothi][quote=Sinnouk][quote=Amélie Vaincœur]As for the architect of the Dawn Machine, I don’t have a theory, but something like a hunch: December.[/quote]Oh, I thought the Council were trying to reverse-engineer the Dawn Machine in the Calendar Code (which I don’t have access to durhur)[/quote]This is the relevant text. They have complex and detailed diagrams for these "wheels of fire", which seems a bit further than reverse engineering. It’s been a few months, so I don’t know if there’s any further evidence for this being the Dawn Machine (since it’s vague and can be interpreted otherwise). It should be noted, though, that this is in the Summer Collection, not Winter (for December) or Spring (for April), and neither July nor August are likely to have made them.
I really like the idea of December being the architect of the Dawn Machine, though, even if it’s almost certainly wrong. There’s a certain irony in the leader of anarchists devoted to darkness creating a machine for authoritarians devoted to light.[/quote]
While it would be cool if a fighter for the freedom of darkness ended up creating an artificial god of light, it is important to note that revolving circles around a center have been used in holy context before. The Thrones or Ophanim of the Abrahamic faiths are described as two burning wheels with one cycling within the other, and Dante of the Divine Comedy describes his vision of God as three gold rings occupying the same space with a book surrounded by love at the center. You could make the argument for both cases that the diagram was either an image of their enemy the Judgements or a blueprint for an usuper-God. Both are equally confusing, so I’m holding out for further content to show some light on the answer.
edited by Sir Joseph Marlen on 7/19/2017
I believe The Great Game is played for the Bazaar’s vaults, as shown here. The fierce old man in Vienna is a major Player of the Game so it seems likely to me. Also, for the key in the well, if you have Ambition:Nemesis, you’ll discover that it used to belong to roses, who are possibly the Rosers, and they needed it for something. Also, The Dreaming Scholar(also from this ambition)knows about the key and its use in the Iron Republic so maybe she’s related to it somehow.
edited by Carns on 7/20/2017