Speculation without my two farthings? Nonsense!
Incoming text wall of China.
[spoiler]I. From the Firmament - the Masters of the Bazaar
The Correspondence seems to be the language that is used by certain celestial bodies, such as the "Judgements" and the Bazaar itself. As such, it is unlikely that the Masters are native speakers, but certain storylets reveal that the Masters write and read the Correspondence quite fluently, and that - between stars - they are also able to speak it.
The Masters have an interesting physiognomy, to say the least. Clawed feet and wings - or rather, vanes - are involved. They seem to be used to flight more than to walking on the ground, and it has indeed been implied several times that the Masters have something bat-like about them.
As for how they gained control over London, it probably happened through the main faculty of the Masters: assessing someone’s desires, and trading them in for whatever they want out of that person. It’s likely that the Masters bought the upper echelons of Fifth City society early on and, if there were any early insurrectionary hiccups, quickly and mercilessily made examples of them.
II. Into the Dark - the Lorn-Flukes
Personally, I believe that the Lorn-Flukes were originally Bazaarine lifeforms. If you compare the artwork for the Flukes with the artwork of the Bazaar in front of the Sun, both look like spiny fractal sea urchins. The Lorn-Flukes also seem to hold a grudge against the Bazaar, and - even though it is Fate-locked to say how, why and what - I believe the Lorn-Flukes may not be strangers to the state between stars.
As for the origin and purpose of Deep Amber…both are Fate-locked, so I can’t say anything other than point out some obvious things that may bring you closer to insights. The Rubbery Men bring Deep Amber to London. They sell it and give it away, and eventually, they buy it back again. They seem to be awfully keen on it passing a lot of hands, and they like to buy back Warm Amber the most. As for what Deep Amber is…all amber is a petrified organic resin, and all amber may contain inclusions. Among jewelry makers, amber with certain high-quality inclusions is considered of a higher value. Perhaps the same holds true for Deep Amber?
As for certain other kinds of Deep Amber, perhaps other kinds of inclusion are responsible. Particularily those who are tinted in exotic colours. But what is the purpose of capturing those colours in the amber?
III. The Light and the Glass - the Fingerkings
I have a bit of a pet theory about the Fingerkings. I’ll write it in cursive, since it’s so much conjecture, but I think it makes sense to some degree.
The Fingerkings are the native inhabitants of Parabola, a world that was once separate from ours but somehow became entangled with it through dreams and mirrors. The Fingerkings live in a world of illusions, where there are no "real" things, and where everything that the Fingerkings may wish for can be created, but not "really". (Sandwiches in Parabola, anyone?)
At one point, the Fingerkings became aware of the world we live in, and they fell in love with its reality, its matter, its limitations and immutable character. If a Fingerking wants a sandwich, he creates it - but it’s not a real sandwich. If we want a sandwich, we will have to labour to make it, but it is the epitome of a sandwich. The Fingerkings also fell in love with us. They created prisoners honey and gaolers honey (with the help of "the grumpiest bee in both worlds") to bring some of us to adore and entertain as honoured visitors. But of course, they wanted to visit us as well. Beings of idea as they are, they cannot enter a world of matter all by themselves. So they take some of their honoured guests as vehicles, and set out into our world.
But the way they love us is twisted - they love us for our hylic, limited, non-transcendent character; something that doesn’t change if we are subject to pain, misery or death. So there’s no incentive for them to keep us from those things. And in time, their love becomes jealousy. They want to rule this world and live in it: "We are the real kings of London", "We will exist! Clothed in jade and clothed in mud!" (What if Unfinished Men are Fingerkings hijacking the children of the King with a Hundred Hearts when he has nightmares of Parabola?)
IV. Brass Bones - the Devils
Good point there about the Devils existing outside of time.
A recent new honey dream reveals to us visions of devil-like beings that look vaguely "inhuman" - their faces lacking guile, their movements being jerky and irregular - who may have been (if that tense can be applied to timeless beings) a sort of "proto-Devil", which is of course at this point only conjecture on my side.
I think Devils are connected in some way to fire, in a very intrinsical way. It is implied that burning the reported location of a former prince of Hell might be a bad idea in that whatever has been written there may become public to the Devils. And one should never burn one’s letters, either.
Is that why the Devils look into the Correspondence? Clearly, no other script burns as much and as often as it does, and the Devils must be vexed by its mystery much more than we are. Perhaps it might even hurt them to see it. Perhaps it might even be why they are so hot to the touch. But do they really want to just rid themselves of it or do they seek a more nefarious purpose? Devils are not to be trusted and not to be underestimated. After all, the Correspondence can be utilized to speak with the Judgements, who seem to have a certain faculty ascribed to the prime enemy of the Judeo-Christian "devil". At the same time, the prime devil of Judeo-Christian tradition, Helel or Lucifer (when not read in its appropriate context as mocking invective against a Babylonian king, of course) is known as the Morning Star and the Light-Bringer, which would clearly place it among the Judgements.
Now…why do Devils collect souls? Have we actually ever seen them eat souls? My own theories about the life cycles of souls and stars and gods and Judgements would point towards them being the fabled "God-Eaters" if it so were, but I don’t quite buy it yet. But what else do they do with things that only sadness in sufficient quality and quantity may destroy? It seems that "truly immortal souls" are of an even higher value to them. Is there some quality of sadness to Devils that we do not yet know of that allows them to "digest" souls, if you will? Or are souls of a completely different use to them? If so…I don’t know what it is. Unless they try to hatch them and create their own Judgement? Unlikely.
V. North Star, Inverted - Mr Eaten
Why is Mr Eatens name a number, and why is that number seven? Seven seems to be the number when a few other things are concerned, most egregiously perhaps in the amount of cities that need to be acquired by the Bazaar before it may return whence it came.
Perhaps seven of the Masters (perhaps there were seven Originals, and five were recruited later?) are tasked with the responsibility of acquiring the cities, and consequently are given some sort of responsibility over the deal? It seems that the First City was acquired by Mr. Cups (which is quite appropriate considering the prominence of pottery in Mesopotamia) and perhaps the Fifth City was acquired by Mr Fires (given his love for the city and the prominence of steam-powered industry in Britain).
Perhaps Mr Eaten acquired the Second City, and was held responsible for its betrayal. Leave it to the Masters to repay in kind.
(Not sure if Egypt had a lot of candles…I’m not a student of Egyptology, but I know they had apiculture enough for wax.)
And why is he NORTH? If the Neath is below the Surface, and the world is still spherical, then the cardinal directions might still hold true in the Neath as they do on the Surface (just one layer below). As such, it might be that Mr Eaten is far below the North Pole. But what is the significance of this?
VI. What the Thunder Said - the dead god of Thunder
God of thunder. It might be worth noting that there is a certain recurrent theme in Indo-European (but not exclusively!) mythology that has been termed the "Chaoskampf": the defeat of a primordial sea monster at the hands of a heroic thunder god.
Examples:
Thor vs. the Jordmundgandr (Norse)
Zeus vs. Typhon (Greek)
Tarhunta vs. Illuyanka (Hittite)
Perkwunos vs. Kormis (Lithuanian)
Perun vs. Veles (Slavic)
Ba’al Hadad vs. Yam (Canaanite)
Marduk vs. Tiamat (Babylonian)
Yahweh vs. Leviathan (Hebrew)
Indra vs. Vritra (Vedic)
It seems that the God of Thunder we know of in the Neath is the archetypical Chaoskampf fighter from which all these reverberations come.
Now: usually I loathe the mixing of settings and universes but I know of a concept that I feel would be interesting to bring up here, from another setting.
Some of you may know that The Elder Scrolls has a sort of metaphysical underbelly, the levels of theorizing which are done on which come close to theorizing on Fallen London. Just to throw out a few metaphysical terms of TES lore: the Amaranth, the Enantiomorph, CHIM, zero-summing, the Tower and the Wheel, the Shezarrine(s), mantling.
"Mantling" is the term I feel need to explain and bring into context with discussion of the dead god of thunder.
In the Elder Scrolls world, "mantling" is the process of B becoming A by way of being so much like A that eventually the universe itself registers B as being A. Mantling has occurred a few times in Elder Scrolls history (Tiber Septim mantling the trickster-creator god Lorkhan and becoming the god Talos, the Nerevarine mantling Indoril Nerevar as a self-fulfilled prophecy, the Hero of Cyrodiil mantling Sheogorath etc.)
Mantling becomes easier when the person who is mantled is dead, since A is now literally more like B than B currently is (It’s helped by how "death" in TES is essentially defined as "to be is-not").
A common description of mantling is: "walk like them until they must walk like you".
In our recurrent dreams of What the Thunder said, we are walking like the dead thunder god.
We are walking in the footsteps of the dead god so convincly and so accurately that we eventually "mantle" him a bit. This is what becoming "Storm-Eyed" means.
As to who he was and what his relation to the Judgements and the Neath is, I wish I knew. It is said that the Neath is the skull of a long-dead god, and Grunting Fen one of his teeth.
VII. Son et Lumiere - the Bazaar
The Bazaar. I like to call it the bell-turned-knife. Tristram Bagley wrote an opera on forbidden love between celestial bodies, gathered from Correspondent sources. He named it The Bell and the Candle. The Candle, without a doubt, is a representation of a source of Light, and most likely therefore the Sun.
As for why the Bazaar became a knife when he fell to the Neath, I don’t know. But a Rubbery Man in the Cave of the Nadir (IIRC) provides us with pictographic evidence of the Sun and a jagged triangle side to side.
Why was the Bazaar a Bell? Because the Judgements have a language, but no voice. They require messengers, angels. The Bazaar can display Correspondence signs on its skin. Bazaarine lifeforms like it travel between stars, with messages. One day, our delicious host will bring a message from the Seventh to the Sun.
"[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]"Do you recall how we came to that place? And they sang of their lightnings and shapeful disgrace? And we tilted our vanes and ennobled our spires. They welcomed us then and commingled all choirs. And not enough, not enough. Still It mourns, and still waits the Sun."[/color]
"And commingled all choirs. And not enough, not enough."
Are we not providing enough stories for the Bazaar to soothe its pain? To hide its shame?[/spoiler]
I must now be off to indulge in Christmas festivities. Coming soon: on the Stone-Pigs, the Sun and the Judgements.[li]