For those who may not know, Alexis Kennedy, the creator of the Fallen London universe is running a Kickstarter for his new game. As one of the rewards he will answer any lore question from his games that are not covered by an NDA. Fallen London and Sunless Sea are obviously included. So this is a thread for brainstorming such questions and for Prophet level supporters to volunteer their question slot.
[quote=sekar]Are all members of the Calendar Council aware of the Eye at the zee-floor, and that they are being used for the Sable Sun’s goals?
Is the Sable Sun the ultimate mastermind behind the Liberation of the Night? Or are they not alone?
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As something that might well come up in ES or Sunless Skies I get the feeling these might be NDA covered, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
I agree with you there! as I chose that ending for my alt when she went NORTH. I have my own theories, but they don’t quite satisfy even me, and I came up with them.
Before we get too carried away, do note that Alexis said that he would answer a question about the lore of any game that he worked on. He did not work on Sunless Skies. Much of that is likely new.
For example, when the original Sunless Seas Kickstarter has the Castles on the Roof expansion stretch goal, they had virtually no lore about that content. So it’s likely most of the lore pertaining to Sunless Skies is post-Alexis
By what exact methods can the Liberation of Night be fully realized? How does it work?
What are the requirements for a soul to undergo apotheosis and become a Judgement?
Why do souls exist independently of their hosts? Why are we not our souls? How are they formed?
Why do the Fingerkings want the Mountain of Light?
Why do the colors of the Neathbow exist? Are there things that unconditionally exist underneath the Law of the Judgements, that are simply suppressed and covered up by them? Does this mean there was another cosmic cycle before the Judgements existed?
Where does Irrigo come from, and how was the cave of the Nadir created?
What is the Sable Sun?
What role do the Masters’ kind play in the High Wilderness? What do they hunt?
What are Dragons, and how to Judgements manage to control them, when they have the power to kill them?
What are the human limits for the use of Correspondence? Could humans achieve true reality warping with it, given enough knowledge? edited by Addis Rook on 9/22/2017
[quote=Addis Rook]By what exact methods can the Liberation of Night be fully realized? How does it work?
What are the requirements for a soul to undergo apotheosis and become a Judgement?
Why do souls exist independently of their hosts? Why are we not our souls? How are they formed?
Why do the Fingerkings want the Mountain of Light?
Why do the colors of the Neathbow exist? Are there things that unconditionally exist underneath the Law of the Judgements, that are simply suppressed and covered up by them? Does this mean there was another cosmic cycle before the Judgements existed?
Where does Irrigo come from, and how was the cave of the Nadir created?
What is the Sable Sun?
What role do the Masters’ kind play in the High Wilderness? What do they hunt?
What are Dragons, and how to Judgements manage to control them, when they have the power to kill them?
What are the human limits for the use of Correspondence? Could humans achieve true reality warping with it, given enough knowledge? edited by Addis Rook on 9/22/2017[/quote]
Answering some parts of questions number 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 (some spoilers ahead from Sunless Seas, SMEN, and the fate-locked ES Discernment)
In Sunless Seas there’s an Unclear Device, probably made by the Revolutionaries. It works by sucking the light from the enemy ship. A much bigger and more sophisticated version would then be able to suck the light or life force from a Judgement, thus exterminating it.
After a soul has been matured enough through centuries of recycling and refining, by inserting it into humans who would lead on extraordinary lives or through some unknown infernal refinery methods (it is also implied that the Wind of Ages’ effect of rapid maturation is attractive for the devils, presumably for that purpose), it would become a Judgement’s Egg. A vision in Frostfound seemed to show a released Judgement’s Egg quickly growing up to be a Judgement within Frostfound’s chambers, so probably given the right conditions it doesn’t even need to be in the High Wilderness to hatch and grow.
Souls are formed in the Forge of Souls, somewhere in the High Wilderness. Souls seem to give its bearer loftier aspirations, exalting the mood and quality of the person, but it isn’t a compulsory requisite for life, at least in the Neath. Iirc, souls of average quality are barely distinguishable from each other, so an average soulless person can reinsert a random average soul and feel confident that they are back to their old happy, soul-having self.
Judgements surely come in different shapes and personalities, just like you and I. It’s often mentioned that Judgements have their own factions, thus different goals. The Sable Sun, as the mastermind behind the Liberation of the Night (or one of the masterminds), furthers its goals in the Neath through a portal in the zee-floor, similar to the way White furthers its goals in the Neath through the Avid Horizon. The Sable and the White might or might not be the highest rivals on the chessboard hinted throughout the Dreams of Chess. The Eye - Official Sunless Sea Wiki
The space bats are referred to as echo hunters in Sunless Seas’ Chapel of Lights. Echoes are likely to be the currency used throughout the Great Chain in the High Wilderness. I don’t know what shapes the actual Echoes take, though.
[quote=sekar][quote=Addis Rook]By what exact methods can the Liberation of Night be fully realized? How does it work?
What are the requirements for a soul to undergo apotheosis and become a Judgement?
Why do souls exist independently of their hosts? Why are we not our souls? How are they formed?
Why do the Fingerkings want the Mountain of Light?
Why do the colors of the Neathbow exist? Are there things that unconditionally exist underneath the Law of the Judgements, that are simply suppressed and covered up by them? Does this mean there was another cosmic cycle before the Judgements existed?
Where does Irrigo come from, and how was the cave of the Nadir created?
What is the Sable Sun?
What role do the Masters’ kind play in the High Wilderness? What do they hunt?
What are Dragons, and how to Judgements manage to control them, when they have the power to kill them?
What are the human limits for the use of Correspondence? Could humans achieve true reality warping with it, given enough knowledge?
edited by Addis Rook on 9/22/2017[/quote]
Answering some parts of questions number 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 (some spoilers ahead from Sunless Seas, SMEN, and the fate-locked ES Discernment)
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Well those sure are some assumptions.
A much bigger and more sophisticated Unclear Device could, potentially, suck the light or life force from a Judgement. But Judgements are vastly more powerful than an enemy ship, and I expect that such a device would need to be so much more advanced than the Unclear Devices we’ve seen that using the same name would be inaccurate. Plus the Liberation might not use such technology at all while dealing with the Judgements. One possibility is that they could manipulate one Judgement’s Dragons into killing rival Judgements.
We don’t know if souls pass between humans before returning to the Judgements and getting eaten. We don’t know if human souls can become Judgements ‘ Eggs, nor do we know if Judgements’ Eggs were originally something different. We don’t know if the vision in Frostfound is of a Judgement itself (as opposed to some small part of one), we don’t know if a single Judgements’ Egg would be enough to make a real Judgement, we don’t know if there’s other necessary ingredients for the process, and we definitely don’t know whether a Judgement could even exist outside the Wilderness. Personally I’m pretty certain that last bit is impossible, since weird ice castles full of dreams and symbolism probably aren’t accurate to reality.
This all seems correct to me, though as I understand it, the last part could be more a gameplay simplification than story canon.
I doubt that The Eye actually physically leads somewhere like the Avid Horizon does. Given that only your captain is transported to meet the Sable Sun and that afterwards you wake up right back on your ship where it was, I’m inclined to say it’s some form of vision.
What are the seven Labyrinths?[/quote]We already know what devils get up to with souls! They either go to the soul-factories and used in the production of new Laws (see: 12:15, Trial and Error) or, based on lore in Sunless Skies’ Carillon, they cleanse souls for the sake of generation Penances, which I Do Not At All Understand.
I do love the seven labyrinths question, though! It’s the sort of off-the-way lore that might be v interesting to learn.
Where actually is the Travertine Spiral? It gets mentioned occasionally, but unlike the Cumean Canal, we have zero idea where it is in relation to other landmarks.