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Little The
Little The
Posts: 700

2/16/2012
Hm...as previously mentioned, the places across the Unterzee appear to be the remains of previous cities (I am rather intrigued by the possibility of Polythreme being linked to the First City)...except for the Second. The Second City doesn't seem to have a clear link to any of the locations. Which makes me wonder...could its remains be NORTH?

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Quil
Quil
Posts: 39

2/17/2012
Little The wrote:
The Second City doesn't seem to have a clear link to any of the locations. Which makes me wonder...could its remains be NORTH?



... that is quite, quite brilliant.

Could all of the NORTH dreams be related to whatever went wrong in the Second City?

--
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Diptych
Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493

2/17/2012
That... would make a very great deal of sense.

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Rupho Schartenhauer
Rupho Schartenhauer
Posts: 787

2/17/2012
Time for an update of my little list, then...

First City (Nagar, fell ca. 2200 BC):
Survivor: the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel
saved Lover: the Capering Relicker?
Last Remains: some bricks with eyes on them; possibly Polythreme?
Connected Mysteries: who makes the Clay Men?; Hesperidean Cider



Second City (Amarna, fell ca. 1335 BC):
Survivor: the Duchess
saved Lover: the Cantigaster
Last Remains: a sandalwood tree in the far east of London; some Egyptian columns in Spite and other unexpected places; NORTH?
Connected Mysteries: Mr Eaten; Dreams of Death by Water; the Vake



Third City (Hopelchén, fell in the 9th century AD):
Survivor: the Presbyter?
saved Lover: Feducci?
Last Remains: the Elder Country?
Connected Mysteries: Snuffers and Face-Tailors; the Correspondence was probably discovered and/or compiled here for the first time (by humans, at least)



Fourth City (Karakorum [fell 1388] or Xanadu [fell 1369]):
Survivor: the Gracious Widow
saved Lover: the Once-Dashing Smuggler
Last Remains: the Forgotten Quarter; the "Orient"?
Connected Mysteries: Dreams of A Game of Chess; the Correspondence (again); the Year of the Tortoise; the battle that never happened; blood on the troubled garments...
edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015

--
Rupho Schartenhauer has killed a Master, well: most of it.
Cortez the Killer has killed a Master, definitely.
Deepdelver has become the progenitor of London's brightest star. It's... complicated.
Dr. Kvirkvelia, gone NORTH on 23/12/1894.
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Urthdigger
Urthdigger
Posts: 939

2/17/2012
Assuming Mr. Eaten was connected to the second city, the third city cannot be the origin of the correspondence. According to a storylet in the forgotten quarter, Mr. Eaten's name is a symbol of the correspondence.

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Little The
Little The
Posts: 700

2/17/2012
Hm. I believe someone mentioned earlier that they thought the "Even the First City was young when Babylon fell" to be a corruption of the original phrase? I think that would make a great deal of sense. Why would it be important that something was young when Babylon fell? Babylon fell quite a while ago, many places were still young then. I agree that the original phrase was almost certainly "Even Babylon was young when the First City fell." In which case, Jerusalem suddenly becomes a tantalizing possibility...

Edit: Hold on a minute. On the topic of places across the Unterzee being remnants of the previous cities, what's up with the Iron Republic? If Polythreme is the First City, NORTH the Second, the Carnelian Coast the Third, and the East the Fourth, where does the Iron Republic come from?
edited by Little The on 2/17/2012

--
A gentleman of numerous descriptors that change far too often. Second chance and menace reduction invites are welcome.

My journey to Seek the Name is recorded for posterity here. I asked "Who is Salt?"

I am a member of the Temple Club. If you would like an invitation, feel free to request one!

Fallen London is a game of choices. When you make an important one, you can record your rationale here.
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travellersside
travellersside
Posts: 288

2/17/2012
Urthdigger wrote:
Assuming Mr. Eaten was connected to the second city, the third city cannot be the origin of the correspondence.

That's not entirely true. Of course, I don't actually believe that the Correspondence is anywhere near that recent - I think that it predates the First City by eons - but reason compels me to note that other symbols have included:
breath
death by water
an exchange
love
and many others. All of these concepts would, by necessity, predate even the First City. As such, it's possible that Mr. Eaten's name is in fact something like Endless Hunger, or Forever Lost (depending on interpretations) and that concept was included when the Correspondence was compiled.
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Quil
Quil
Posts: 39

2/17/2012
Little The wrote:

Edit: Hold on a minute. On the topic of places across the Unterzee being remnants of the previous cities, what's up with the Iron Republic? If Polythreme is the First City, NORTH the Second, the Carnelian Coast the Third, and the East the Fourth, where does the Iron Republic come from?
edited by Little The on 2/17/2012


It's an outpost of Hell, so perhaps it's not linked to human cities?

Though the fact that it's described (in the Iron Republic dream as part of the Nemesis ambition) as thick with a choking fog makes me think of the famous smog of Victorian London...

EDIT: Just checked the list of locked places across the Unterzee, and the other one that hasn't been mentioned here is "the Pillars". I can only find one other reference to this place, on the 'Gather Round Me Bully Boys' zailor card - "The evening finishes with a fist-fight over the nature of 'the Pillars': a formation in a desert, an abandoned city of glass or a village of savage women." . More mysteries...
edited by Quil on 2/17/2012

--
Quil, a midnight, sinister, inescapable and sagacious gentleman.
Twitter: @HelenKeeble
Always available for a rousing game of Pass the Cat!
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Diptych
Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493

2/18/2012
Quil wrote:

Just checked the list of locked places across the Unterzee, and the other one that hasn't been mentioned here is "the Pillars". I can only find one other reference to this place, on the 'Gather Round Me Bully Boys' zailor card - "The evening finishes with a fist-fight over the nature of 'the Pillars': a formation in a desert, an abandoned city of glass or a village of savage women." . More mysteries...


Iram of the Pillars, lost city of the Empty Quarter?

--
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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Patrick Reding
Patrick Reding
Posts: 440

2/18/2012
Eh, it's a strech. At this point, we don't even know if they're actual pillars.

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http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Profile/Yana
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theodor_gylden
theodor_gylden
Posts: 117

2/22/2012

Something I discovered upon inviting a friend from the surface to discuss proscribed literature:

'...one hears that the Masters of the Bazaar stayed in the Second City far longer than they intended. Perhaps that's something to do with their disdain for Egypt...'



This explains the curious gap between the Second City and the Third, if our dates are correct.


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Rupho Schartenhauer
Rupho Schartenhauer
Posts: 787

2/23/2012
theodor_gylden wrote:

Something I discovered upon inviting a friend from the surface to discuss proscribed literature:

'...one hears that the Masters of the Bazaar stayed in the Second City far longer than they intended. Perhaps that's something to do with their disdain for Egypt...'



This explains the curious gap between the Second City and the Third, if our dates are correct.



VERY interesting! One hardly dares to think it, but were they held..... captive?
And maybe the Second City is still in the North -- I feel that the Duchess would've done anything to preserve her father's city for eternity... maybe she finally went with the Masters as a kind of hostage... maybe that's why she's never seen outside the palace...

--
Rupho Schartenhauer has killed a Master, well: most of it.
Cortez the Killer has killed a Master, definitely.
Deepdelver has become the progenitor of London's brightest star. It's... complicated.
Dr. Kvirkvelia, gone NORTH on 23/12/1894.
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Patrick Reding
Patrick Reding
Posts: 440

2/23/2012
Wieland Burandt wrote:
theodor_gylden wrote:

Something I discovered upon inviting a friend from the surface to discuss proscribed literature:

'...one hears that the Masters of the Bazaar stayed in the Second City far longer than they intended. Perhaps that's something to do with their disdain for Egypt...'



This explains the curious gap between the Second City and the Third, if our dates are correct.



VERY interesting! One hardly dares to think it, but were they held..... captive?
And maybe the Second City is still in the North -- I feel that the Duchess would've done anything to preserve her father's city for eternity... maybe she finally went with the Masters as a kind of hostage... maybe that's why she's never seen outside the palace...

Then perhaps Mr. Eaten was banished to the well because it betrayed its bretheren to the Duchess! Fascinating!

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http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Profile/Yana
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Allanon Kisigar
Allanon Kisigar
Posts: 164

2/23/2012
Going back to the various associations with the number seven... [SPOILERS!] The number of candles that lead towards Mr. Eaten's true name seems to be seven, at least as far as the storyline goes...

Also, one thing that's very strange, and in seeming relation to the stone pigs, and the number of current and possibly future cities is an opportunity card found while journying towards Flute Street... perhaps someone can connect it somehow? [MORE SPOILERS] A Stone Pig?

The hairy stone wall goes for a hundred yards in each direction. The edges are fast against the stone, but there's something here, fifty yards on.
It's an altar. No, it's a sideboard. The sort that graces half the parlours in London. Next to the sideboard, the hairy stone is pierced and crumbling. Is this a Stone Pig? If it is, what happens here?
You spot something else fifty yards away. High up on the hairy flank are seven marks. The symbols are too far up to see with a candle, but you can tell that five of them have been defaced. Struck through by what could be great claw marks.
edited by Allanon Kisigar on 2/23/2012

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    Rupho Schartenhauer
    Rupho Schartenhauer
    Posts: 787

    2/23/2012
    Patrick Reding wrote:
    Rupho Schartenhauer wrote:
    theodor_gylden wrote:

    Something I discovered upon inviting a friend from the surface to discuss proscribed literature:

    '...one hears that the Masters of the Bazaar stayed in the Second City far longer than they intended. Perhaps that's something to do with their disdain for Egypt...'



    This explains the curious gap between the Second City and the Third, if our dates are correct.



    VERY interesting! One hardly dares to think it, but were they held..... captive?
    And maybe the Second City is still in the North -- I feel that the Duchess would've done anything to preserve her father's city for eternity... maybe she finally went with the Masters as a kind of hostage... maybe that's why she's never seen outside the palace...

    Then perhaps Mr. Eaten was banished to the well because it betrayed its bretheren to the Duchess! Fascinating!



    .... and Mr Wines created the Vake in order to take revenge on the Duchess. It killed all her sisters (and the Pharao too, probably, though not "completely"), but for some reason couldn't kill her!
    edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015

    --
    Rupho Schartenhauer has killed a Master, well: most of it.
    Cortez the Killer has killed a Master, definitely.
    Deepdelver has become the progenitor of London's brightest star. It's... complicated.
    Dr. Kvirkvelia, gone NORTH on 23/12/1894.
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    merusdraconis
    merusdraconis
    Posts: 52

    2/26/2012
    I would be very surprised indeed if the Correspondence came from an earthly city - it seems to be from the same place as the Bazaar is. I suspect that the 'between stars' reference refers to gravity, which is, after all, a kind of attraction.

    Moreover, if the cities people have posted are accurate we should be able to find a historical figure who would have made the same compact as the Traitor Empress did, and for the same reasons. The Bazaar buys stories of love, such as the love between the Empress and her Consort, which suggests that the other four cities also have a love story at their heart.

    I naturally jump to Antony and Cleopatra for the Second City, which would suggest the Masters' annoyance has to do with Rome declaring war on them, although the hints we've gotten regarding the Duchess suggest that instead we're looking for a mother and her child.
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    The Bluejay
    The Bluejay
    Posts: 2

    2/27/2012
    Wieland Burandt wrote:
    Time for an update of my little list, then...

    First City (Nagar, fell ca. 2200 BC):
    Survivor: the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel
    saved Lover: the Capering Relicker?
    Last Remains: some bricks with eyes on them; possibly Polythreme?
    Connected Mysteries: who makes the Clay Men?; Hesperidean Cider



    Second City (Amarna, fell ca. 1335 BC):
    Survivor: the Duchess
    saved Lover: the Cantigaster
    Last Remains: a sandalwood tree in the far east of London; some Egyptian columns in Spite and other unexpected places; NORTH?
    Connected Mysteries: Mr Eaten; Dreams of Death by Water; the Vake



    Third City (Hopelchén, fell in the 9th century AD):
    Survivor: the Presbyter?
    saved Lover: Feducci?
    Last Remains: the Elder Country?
    Connected Mysteries: Snuffers and Face-Tailors; the Correspondence was probably discovered and/or compiled here for the first time (by humans, at least)



    Fourth City (Karakorum [fell 1388] or Xanadu [fell 1369]):
    Survivor: the Gracious Widow
    saved Lover: the Once-Dashing Smuggler
    Last Remains: the Forgotten Quarter; the "Orient"?
    Connected Mysteries: Dreams of A Game of Chess; the Correspondence (again); the Year of the Tortoise; the battle that never happened; blood on the troubled garments...



    edited by Wieland Burandt on 2/26/2012


    This has probably been addressed already, but surely the first two cities can't be that old? I think I'm right in saying that the game specifically mentions First City coins - but coins weren't invented until around 700BC at the earliest. This would, of course, reconcile the "The First City was young when Babylon fell" clue, since Babylon was razed by the Assyrians in 689 BC.
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    Rupho Schartenhauer
    Rupho Schartenhauer
    Posts: 787

    2/28/2012
    The Bluejay wrote:
    This has probably been addressed already, but surely the first two cities can't be that old? I think I'm right in saying that the game specifically mentions First City coins - but coins weren't invented until around 700BC at the earliest. This would, of course, reconcile the "The First City was young when Babylon fell" clue, since Babylon was razed by the Assyrians in 689 BC.

    I actually did address this earlier in this thread, but thanks for pointing it out again. It certainly gives me a headache, especially when everything else seems to fit in so nicely... there's really no other mention of an "eye temple" anywhere but the one at ancient Nagar, and Amarna fits best of all Egyptian cities. Also, the Vake is mentioned to be more or less exactly 3,000 years old, so if the theory that it comes from the Second City is right then the First City has to be even older...
    But the coinage matter is certainly a problem. Maybe it will be addressed in the game itself at some point?


    EDIT: Thinking about this, I guess the Bazaar would've simply introduced money to the First and Second City... waiting for mankind to discover it for themselves doesn't strike me as the Masters' style. After all, we don't even know if the First City had had coins before its fall.
    SECOND EDIT: Maybe this means that money is no earthly invention at all? Money from outer space? Talk about "root of all evil" and all that...
    edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015

    --
    Rupho Schartenhauer has killed a Master, well: most of it.
    Cortez the Killer has killed a Master, definitely.
    Deepdelver has become the progenitor of London's brightest star. It's... complicated.
    Dr. Kvirkvelia, gone NORTH on 23/12/1894.
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    Guest

    2/28/2012
    Were there any "coin-like" things used by people dating that far back for other purposes that might be a fit for First City "coins"?
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    The Bluejay
    The Bluejay
    Posts: 2

    2/29/2012
    Were there any "coin-like" things used by people dating that far back for other purposes that might be a fit for First City "coins"?


    Well, the first form of currency was introduced in 2000BC (receipts for grain)

    See, the issue I have with the Masters introducing the First City Coins themselves is that their prefered medium of exchange appears to be echoes. Therefore, surely any First City coins would have to predate the falling of the city itself, otherwise they'd simply be echoes?

    Then again, since the Masters swapped pounds for echoes in the case of London (with the currency bearing a fair resemblance to 19th cenury currency in general) they have form for introducing new currencies, so they could just be archaic echoes. So you're probably correct.
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