Mysterious Gentleman
Posts: 19
12/21/2012
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I'd like to try and collate everything we know and reckon about the Correspondence, if at all possible. I've gone to the end of any storylines concerning it and I have no definitive answers.
- It's used by the Masters to communicate via couriers (the couriers 'never looked so relieved to be robbed' when you jump them).
- It's inscribed on the spires of the Bazaar, and about various buildings of the Fifth city (and in the Fourth City).
- If you say it incorrectly, you can set people on fire, and if you learn too much you can send yourself insane. And the Masters occasionally use it to torment captives (this happens if you fail in robbing the Bazaar).
- Things inscribed with symbols of the Correspondence appear to illuminate, or glow (the Everlasting Candle has 'tiny symbols of the Correspondence').
- Interestingly, despite the fact that whole Correspondence symbols seem to translate into phrases rather than specific words, it is noted to have a grammar.
- The Correspondence is not limited to symbols or written language; those who have journeyed on the Sea of Voices know what I mean (perhaps it has a connection to Polythreme's vitality?)
- There are loads of hints; it's called the 'mathematics of hell', the diary of Jack-of-Smiles and the letters leaders of former Fallen cities/prospective Fallen cities wrote to the Bazaar
My theory: The Correspondence is the language of the Bazaar, which we know to be sentient in some manner. Since the Bazaar feeds upon love stories, might the Correspondence be the manner in which those stories are translated by the Masters for its delectation? Could the language be the Correspondence between lovers? Love too, can send people insane, or set them ablaze. On a final note; their are hints at a connection with the sun, and with Icarus. Icarus burned up in the sun because he was in love with himself.
edited by Mysterious Gentleman on 12/21/2012
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Passionario
Posts: 777
1/8/2013
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Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook wrote:
It seems clear to me that the Correspondence is the language of intelligences incomprehensibly vast and ancient compared to our own tiny lives - possibly even the language of reality itself.
My theory is that the Correspondence is not merely the language - it's a living, vast and ancient intelligence in its own right.
Although this entity's organism is composed of ideas and concepts rather than flesh and blood, it still wants to live and grow. And that's where we come in. The Scholars, the Masters, even the Bazaar herself - we're all mere hosts for the Correspondence to infect (or, if your prefer a different term, possess).
We read the symbols and they take root in our minds. We suffer from nightmares as these memetic seeds absorb concepts from our memories and germinate. Finally,when they're ready, they burst forth as we cover the plaques and spires with new symbols. In this manner, Correspondence continues to grow and live and endure. Those packages the couriers carry? Think of them as pollen for Correspondence. That glowing effect? A mechanism to attract new carriers.
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Passionario: Profile, Story, Ending
Passion: Profile, Appearance
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
12/22/2012
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It seems clear to me that the Correspondence is the language of intelligences incomprehensibly vast and ancient compared to our own tiny lives - possibly even the language of reality itself. A complete sentence of the Correspondence can alter reality - an example seen in both the Everlasting Candle and the Zubmarine is a flame that burns without fuel or smoke. An improperly inscribed sentence of the Correspondence explodes... if you're lucky. From our perspective, the Correspondence may appear to be a form of magic, but it's more likely that it represents our toying with something far more powerful than our brains or souls can handle.
(Incidentally, I wouldn't wonder if, in addition to being a form of lettering, the Correspondence relates to the Hermetic or Swedenborgean theories of Correspondence - that the laws which dictate the microphenomena of our caprices, fancies and, well, loves, equate to the laws which dictate the macrophenomena of physical laws, stellar movements, chemical reactions, and the behaviour of creatures over millennia.)
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Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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Spacemarine9
Posts: 2234
12/23/2012
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Mysterious Gentleman wrote:
- If you say it incorrectly, you can set people on fire
i want to know what definition of "incorrectly" you're using here
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my rats will blot out the sun
Ratgames
FL lore/mechanics questions and answers
#FallenLondon IRC (irc.synirc.net) Channel! Click to join via Mibbit.
#SunlessSea IRC channel! Like the above, but zee-ier.
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Alexander Feld
Posts: 348
12/23/2012
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There are lots of references to the correspondence, most of which are probably false, but this one struck me as important:
"I love the thunder. The thunder tells stories to those it loves. The thunder tells me of the correspondence between lover and loved and invites me into its heart. I see with the thunder's eyes. I demand to be loved!"
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I am a star-gazer, story-eater, and a smelter of words.
I filch hidden things from hidden places, to hide once more in my dark cabinet of curiosities
Alexander Feld, the mad, damned, lord of seekers.
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