For RP reasons, I’ve been keeping my Route to the Nadir undisclosed but that may change since my lore-reading tells me that:
So delicious friends, is it a good idea to side with our Revolutionary friends now or is there a fourth option I’m not aware of?
In game my character has not discovered the purpose, let alone end result, of the Liberation of Night. She just knows that while unsavory the Anarchists happily make use of her excess Mourning Candles.
That being said if she did discover in-game what they were up to the candles would find new homes elsewhere.
I have played through the Anarchist storyline in Sunless Sea. Doing it gets you Favor: Calandar Council, so they are linked to the Revolutionaries.
If you help the Revolutionaries take over London, you get an item that lets you turn out lights for both you and your enemy’s ships. all the lights in London are also broken and dark. My guess is that the “Liberation of Night” is the end of light, allowing darkness to reign once more.
Personally, I don’t trust them.
Here’s a broad summary of what we know about the Calendar Council and the Liberation of Night. Some major spoilers within.
[spoiler]One of the curious facets of Fallen London lore is that the laws of nature are not simply universal constants, but are actually produced by divine beings called Judgements. We know these Judgements as the stars in the sky, and their light is their law. The Neath is a place somehow shielded from the sun’s light - more so than the conventional darkness known on the Surface - and so the Judgements’ law is felt less strongly. Thus, Fallen London, in all its strangeness.
The Calendar Council are anarchists who oppose not only the laws of mortal governments, but also the laws of the Judgements. The Iron Republic is their collaboration with Hell to experiment with breaking these laws - which is why the Republic is even weirder than everywhere else around. Their ultimate goal (or, at least, that of their more militant faction) is to somehow assassinate the Judgements and free the universe from divine law. What would that mean? It’s possible the answer to that question is entirely beyond our power of comprehension. Life and light could be entirely changed. We get glimpses of a future where they’ve succeeded in banishing conventional light within the Neath itself, but all we know for sure is that it’s a terrifying experience for most of the populace.
The Council has its rivals in what we might call metaphysical politics. The Dawn Machine; the Masters; the Bazaar itself; Parabola; whatever Hell’s other interests are beyond the Iron Republic. It also suffers from a deal of infighting. It’s up to you to decide which groups’ agendas would be best for the people of the Neath, if any.[/spoiler]
[quote=Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook]Here’s a broad summary of what we know about the Calendar Council and the Liberation of Night. Some major spoilers within.
[spoiler]One of the curious facets of Fallen London lore is that the laws of nature are not simply universal constants, but are actually produced by divine beings called Judgements. We know these Judgements as the stars in the sky, and their light is their law. The Neath is a place somehow shielded from the sun’s light - more so than the conventional darkness known on the Surface - and so the Judgements’ law is felt less strongly. Thus, Fallen London, in all its strangeness.
The Calendar Council are anarchists who oppose not only the laws of mortal governments, but also the laws of the Judgements. The Iron Republic is their collaboration with Hell to experiment with breaking these laws - which is why the Republic is even weirder than everywhere else around. Their ultimate goal (or, at least, that of their more militant faction) is to somehow assassinate the Judgements and free the universe from divine law. What would that mean? It’s possible the answer to that question is entirely beyond our power of comprehension. Life and light could be entirely changed. We get glimpses of a future where they’ve succeeded in banishing conventional light within the Neath itself, but all we know for sure is that it’s a terrifying experience for most of the populace.
The Council has its rivals in what we might call metaphysical politics. The Dawn Machine; the Masters; the Bazaar itself; Parabola; whatever Hell’s other interests are beyond the Iron Republic. It also suffers from a deal of infighting. It’s up to you to decide which groups’ agendas would be best for the people of the Neath, if any.[/spoiler][/quote]
That makes the choice even harder since my character is at least on good terms with some of the factions that you speak of. Still, I think I can RP that my character is a part of the moderates of the dynamite faction…
@th8827 Thank you for that delicious snippet! At least now I know one faction’s endgame isn’t at the end of the Universe level.
For RP I assume my character just enjoys playing all those factions against each other. She doesn’t believe the Liberation of Night could actually be achieved, so she doesn’t really take the Revolutionaries seriously.
I was quite attracted to the Dawn Machine movement (is that what it’s called?) in Sunless Sea, but I haven’t learned much about them in FL yet. Do we know what they’re actually about (beyond the fact that they seem to really really like Light)?
[quote=Pyrodinium]
@th8827 Thank you for that delicious snippet! At least now I know one faction’s endgame isn’t at the end of the Universe level.[/quote]
The world itself does not end, but the London government does. The worst repercussion is that you no longer have access to the Admiralty, meaning that you lose access to easy, free fuel and cheap ship repairs, as well as a good source of Echos. The population is terrified, but life goes on.
You also gain a permanent +25 Irons (Sunless Sea’s equivalent to Dangerous) for all future Captains, which is nice.
The faction of Anarchists that you are helping are actually based in Vienna, on the Surface, with agents in Fallen London waiting for deliveries. Things look pretty grim up there, too. They have been smashing streetlights regularly, leaving the place dark and gloomy, which is actually beneficial to Neath-dwellers who can’t stand bright lights.
They probably have different goals than the Revolutionaries based in London.
edited by th8827 on 11/17/2015
The New Sequence began as a reactionary conspiracy within the Admiralty to usurp the power of the Bazaar by funnelling resources into the construction of an artificial Judgement. This, they imagined, would allow them to restore London to its former glory, with humanity once again in control and light restored. Things got out of hand - it turns out that, being a mechanical god who radiates pure power, the Dawn Machine was able to, shall we say, set the agenda for the proposed new government.
[quote=phryne]
I was quite attracted to the Dawn Machine movement (is that what it’s called?) in Sunless Sea, but I haven’t learned much about them in FL yet. Do we know what they’re actually about (beyond the fact that they seem to really really like Light)?[/quote]
From what I understand, it is an artificial sun. It is not fully functional, but it occasionally turns on, creating an artificial sunrise. It is an entity on the same level as the Bazaar, and is possibly a rival to it.
This is just conjecture on my part, but I think that the mind-controlled worshippers of the Dawn Machine (including the rogue branch of the Admiralty) serve the same purpose to the Dawn Machine as the Masters do to the Bazaar. Just like the Masters HAVE to do the bidding of the Bazaar, even if they don’t want to, the same goes for the servants of the Dawn Machine.
Whoops! Well, no mecha-gods for Phryne, thank you very much. Just shows she’s right by keeping to her own agenda!
I sided with the revolutionaries hoping for a better answer to the horrible things the Bazaar and the Masters did to the cities, not to make it worse, so much for all that hope sigh.
[quote=th8827]
From what I understand, it is an artificial sun. It is not fully functional, but it occasionally turns on, creating an artificial sunrise. It is an entity on the same level as the Bazaar, and is possibly a rival to it.
This is just conjecture on my part, but I think that the mind-controlled worshippers of the Dawn Machine (including the rogue branch of the Admiralty) serve the same purpose to the Dawn Machine as the Masters do to the Bazaar. Just like the Masters HAVE to do the bidding of the Bazaar, even if they don’t want to, the same goes for the servants of the Dawn Machine.[/quote]
The Masters, while having a job they must do, are free to have independent thoughts. The one serving the Dawn Machine do not.
Not sure if its a help to the discussion- but there also appears to be some level of collaboration between the Empire of Hands and the Calendar Council -
Delivering the Monkey Emperor’s parcel to London at the end of the Zeppelin storyline in Sunless Sea is another way to help bring on The Liberation of Night- if I understood it all correctly.
edited by Charlotte_de_Witte on 11/17/2015
[quote=Charlotte_de_Witte]Not sure if its a help to the discussion- but there also appears to be some level of collaboration between the Empire of Hands and the Calendar Council -
[redacted spoiler]
edited by Charlotte_de_Witte on 11/17/2015[/quote]
The way I understand it,
it raises Supremacy: The Anarchists to 10, but doesn’t actually bring the Liberation of Night’s success event. So that’s purely cosmetic. I’m going only on secondhand accounts, though, as I haven’t delivered the Wrath of the Monkey Emperor myself
edited by NotaWalrus on 11/18/2015
edited by NotaWalrus on 11/18/2015
Something I feel that is worth noting:
[spoiler]Not all laws are the laws of Judgements, nor are they the only source of light. There is at least one Enemy Kingdom after all, and who is to say that there are not more out there in the vast reaches of the High Wilderness? It’s possible (if unlikely). And while the Liberation of Night (LoN) does a very effective job of bringing about the downfall of the Kingdom and rule of the Judgements, it does not succeed in removing all light from the universe. Irrigo and other colors of the Neathbow live on in the post LoN world. LoN overthrows the judgements and people seem to have a bad time without them, but given there are others out there capable of taking their place, maybe the bad times won’t last forever.
I can just picture it now, the Sun replaced with an unknowable Sovereign of Irrigo. Who wouldn’t enjoy that? It might take a bit of the Red Science to get there, but it’s probably possible. Probably.[/spoiler]
edited by NiteBrite on 11/18/2015
Puts tinfoil fedora on
What if the Neathy lights were the remnants of the enemies of the Judgments? What if they were the Revolutionaries back then and we are just repeating the cycle. After all, it’s typical for Surface revolutionaries to enact even stricter laws after toppling a corrupt regime.
This thread is one I’ve been looking to see for a while now, as I’ve been on the fence about the LoN for some time. (Love your ‘tinfoil fedora’ comment btw, Pyrodinium… Hopefully someday we’ll learn more in the story, and find out whether your theory is correct or not. ^_^ )
It’s entirely possible that what the Council propose would change those requirements. Life everywhere could become even weirder than the weirdest parts of the Neath are now. In short… they mean to kill Science itself!
edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 11/18/2015
If you are talking about the New Khanate, they are actually refugees from the Fourth City, who discovered that their city’s end was coming and left before everyone was crushed by London. They hate the Masters and the Bazaar because of what they did to the Old Khanate (now the Forgotten Quarter).
I do wonder where the Presbyterate came from, though.
[li]
I think I remember certain folks from the Presbyterate have links to the third city