The Clockwork Sun and the Mother of Mountains

Sunless Skies
1

The kickstarter page for Sunless Skies has some interesting hints to speculate on, and I didn’t see any other topic that covered it.

First off, we see mention of a clockwork sun. This practically screams of the Dawn Machine and the New Sequence, but there isn't much detail to go on.

A far more interesting subject, though, is that &quot[color=rgb(53, 53, 53)][font=&quotHelvetica Neue&quot, Helvetica, Arial, &quotLiberation Sans&quot, FreeSans, sans-serif][i]The Empress Victoria reigns from her Throne of Hours, possessing authority over time itself. Her favourites are rewarded with freshly-minted months to prolong their lives, while those who displease her will find their stay in prison inconceivably long.&quot[/i][/font][/color]
So we know that Victoria has the power to add hours on to people's lives, for better or worse, and that these Unseasoned Hours are sourced from a place called the Mother of Mountains.

What else do we know of that has to do with both mountains and life? The only contender (That I know of) is Stone, the Mountain of Light and daughter of the Sun and the Bazaar.

My theory is that this &quotMother of Mountains&quot is none other than the Earth’s own sun.

2

Quite probably one of the things/powers involved in the construction of the Throne of Hours comes from the latest Exceptional Story:

The player character is given a choice whether to give the Empress something called the Wind of Ages, which comes to the Neath via the Gate-Prophet from the High Wilderness. The Wind, left to its own devices, wreaks havoc, causing some people to age rapidly and some to get younger. I suspect that this Wind may the the thing that allows the Empress to &quotSeason&quot the Hours.

As for the Mother of Mountains, from the info we already have, that seems like a pretty good guess! I wouldn’t be surprised if that turned out to be the case, although a part of me hopes for something radically new.
edited by Barselaar on 1/30/2017

3

Don’t we have someone in Sunless Sea who has a mountain child, and a mountain grandchild?

4

The Bazaar wouldn’t have the necessarily cosmic influence for granting extra life. Though Stone is the mother of Mount Nomad and could be the Mother of Mountains as such, despite being a mountain herself.
edited by Optimatum on 2/1/2017

5

The Clockwork Sun is probably a artificial judgement. That does not have its own agenda. And is controlled by the space admiralty.

6

Well, at least that’s the most probable explanation.

7

That’s what it tells THEM to think, at any rate. ;)

8

Yeah the implication of a clockwork sun got my attention too. The Dawn Machine would be the most obvious answer wouldn’t it? If it is though it probably means the Sequencers won which would be… unnerving. Definitely siding with the seperatists this time if that seems to be the case.

We know Stone can give or radiates immortality and she has given birth to Mt Nomad so she could qualify but “Unseasoned hours are mined in the Reach, then shipped to Albion to be refined on soot-choked workworlds” unless they dragged her into the High Wilderness I dunno.

Maybe that perfect love story was so perfect our sun just ditched the others and decided to help out humanity. Or maybe it was trapped:

“They are the Judgements: vast intelligences that govern all things. But they are dying. One by one, something is snuffing them out, leaving their thrones empty.”

“The Empress Victoria reigns from her Throne of Hours, exerting authority over time itself.”

Maybe the story was trapped, ganked the sun and Victoria swooped in and took the throne. But if that’s the case then why the necessity for a clockwork sun? What role is she filling in this power over time thing anyway? If it’s being mined and refined is her power derived from controlling the means of production ie theoretically anyone could do it? Or is it more complicated?

9

I want more information about the Dawn Machine. Once I learned about the Dawn Machine, I forgot everything about the game and started speculating about it.