Morucant wrote:

This is a guess, but since there are inklings of NORTH in the Dilmun Club's desire, perhaps they desire the East just the same.

After all, you can choose exactly three sponsors for the Dilmun Club. We all know that Amused Lordship is interested in South and Stone. It could be that each of sponsors has a preference when it comes to the direction in which expedition should go. One for South, one for NORTH, one for East?

Kyron The Wise wrote:

The possibly Is, possibly Is-Not instance was when I acquired my Destiny at Hallowmas for the first time, only last year, and I swore the phrase was mentioned then (I am a Road destiny, obviously, as where else would I sojourn if not the Sky), but my Journal says otherwise.

I meant with the Destiny, maybe that's why you thought there was a traveller returning mentioned in it. I've not played Sunless Sea but I absolutely accept the knowledge of those who have, especially when there's a bunch of folks saying the same thing! I too doubt it refers to Salt in SS and the Bazaar in FL, I just feel the Bazaar going back has a return of the traveler (or at least someone who wandered off) aspect to it, and between that and the text of the storylet perhaps that's why you thought you found a mention but can't locate the actual text of it.

I would love to play Sunless Sea, but I am not very coordinated and the sea travel has frustrated me pretty badly. Seeing all this lore stuff, though...I should give it another stab.

I doubt I could manage to write answers to all the things you say, Kyron, in a reasonable timeframe, so I figure I might more partial analysis of things you say.

Old stuff:


Kyron The Wise wrote:

Something that you need to keep in mind when it comes to the fact that Parabola borders Irem is that it is most likely not in a spatial, walk down the street to your local Fingerking kind of border. The dimensions are weaker there. Further, it isn't hard to get into Parabola. Have a Memory of Light? You go in whenever you're insane then. Hell, an entire profession is able to waltz in there (Glassman/woman). In Sunless, you can take coffee to Irem and go in that way. If you try to go East, you either die by crushing silence (Not a typo, you are literally killed by the weight of silence), or certain parties forbid your passage. Why should you need to sacrifice your entire being, merging with one much larger than your own, when you could just go insane, and move from there? The East is implied to be something entirely...other than the Is-Not of Parabola.

Though I doubt most of these methods would work for a star. How would it drink of honey, or pass through a mirror? Entering the Mirror-Marches via insanity takes a Memory of Light, a personal glimpse of the world behind mirrors. I am uncertain whether Salt had access to it. And I am fairly sure stars are more durable than a human ship, and could withstand the journey EAST.

As for the colours, the issue is that your character names them by those shades. They don't call them Cosmogone or Viric, which they apparently are capable of recognizing through the Curator quest, but those particular shades. The amount of greens...well, could just imply plants. (A current running hypothesis is that the Neathbow is attached to the Seven Treacheries, which you might be interested in.)

I do not agree with this point. While I some of the colours could well be normal greens, the green-and-gold is a clear allusion to Viric and Cosmogone, like how the Nadir replaces Irrigo with Violet or lilac. Every time a Neath-colour is mentioned, it does not have to be named the exact shade (is that an appropriate word for this?) that it is, but a surface counterpart.

And I'm not entirely sure on this, as it has been some time since I managed to accomplish Exaltation, but I recall that the one who gives you the Song makes sure that no other is listening, and one of those listeners it is said it is looking out for (I think) was the Fingerkings.

It is also worth mentioning that the thing that gives you the riddle is one of the serpents, the Fingerkings. Therefore, it is not against their intentions for East-travellers to know the Song. It was also unspecific, saying that "It curls two more [of it's heads] around you, to shield you from the gaze of others."

New stuff:

Kyron The Wise wrote:

It may or may not be an extension of Parabola, though it is unlikely. Parabola is the realm of Is-Not, while the...for lack of a better word, 'normal' world is the realm of Is, ruled over by the Judgements, AKA, Stars. Anything of Is-Not burns away under sunlight, corrodes under starlight (Which does beg the question of how there is a sun in Parabola, but I would conjecture that it is not a Judgement, and perhaps is a simple ball of light that looks like a star).

We can take this to make it unlikely that the East is part of Parabola, since we know that Salt, a rouge Judgement, traveled to the East (might still be there, still working back to Exaltation in SS). If the East was part of Parabola, well, it would have been burned away, or at least damaged by his presence, though I am curious if a Judgement could be overwhelmed by a deluge of Is-Not, to the point where it no longer Is. So while it is indeed possible that the East could be some as of yet unseen Parabolan Realm, given what we know, it is unlikely.

It is worth mentioning that Parabola possesses trees marked with the Correspondence, which might indicate that it can, indeed, work with at least a part of the law. Further still, the sigil stands for a process only possible in Parabola, which implies that something that can speak the Correspondence to the point of creating new words, witnessed it at some point to name it. The Masters have been frequently mentioned as interacting with Parabola, such as Mr Spices' and Mr Wines' War over it or Mr Wines in the Huntsman destiny, but they only use a simplified form of the language in question. I doubt that they'd be the ones to name it.

Finally, we know that there is a Riddle, as mentioned when you rescue the Genial Magician in the Wednesday in Parabola Destiny Storylet. The Magician is referenced has having solved/solving/will be solving the Riddle of the East of Everything. A connection to draw here is that Irem is well known for Riddles, and it is also will be (already is, has been) a location to sail to at Zee, so Irem may be/might have been/might be a stepping-stone/connection in this Seeking.

One other point with the Riddle is that it says that when the Magician solved/is solving/will solve it, he might flee here, with here implied to be Parabola (You are/always have been/will be the Huntsman for the Finger-Kings, which I just realized are two letters off from Fisher-Kings). One conclusion to draw from this is that Parabola and the East are the same, which is indeed possible, though unlikely. Another conclusion is that he solved the Riddle, but for reasons, did not go East. This does tie in with the trend that going East tends to require you giving up your identity, but I'll save that for a later post.

I have a slight suspicion that the Riddle in question might be the way to get Salt's Song in Irem from the Seven-Serpent, because it takes on the usual format of question-answer. ("What is the price?" and "There is no price" being the question and the answer respectively) This particular piece of theory is very shaky, and mainly stands on the fact that there aren't any Irem-specific riddles that you are required to solve for the Song, as far as I know.

As for the unsubstantiated Easty things, there is the idea that the Widow gets her super magical brandy from there. This brandy, supposedly made from the Peaches of Immortality, is capable of healing your wounds, to the degree that in drinking some, getting caught in the process, and getting beaten, leads to you healing so fast that you heal faster than the assailants can wound you, and even heal a little extra. It also tastes like 'fire and mountain-tops'. Supposedly, it makes you younger, and is a competitor to Hesperidian Cider. I question this last part, as you can't even buy the stuff (How is it a competitor if the average Sir Donnely can't find it at the store), and your character remarks on how they don't feel any younger. Furthermore, if this stuff was so good, why is a random off the street guarding etc, etc. To get back on topic, as the brandy is obviously special in some way, one might wonder where the non-watered down version goes, or where the brandy you are moving goes, as it definitely isn't the stores you frequent.

Another thing that I would like to mention is that in Irem, after paying coffee to go to Parabola, you can trade a Searing Enigma for a single Hesperidean Apple. Their common life-giving potential implies to me that they come from the same source (possible the Garden), and that source can be reached through Parabola. My memories of actually getting one of the apples is a bit dull, so I might've missed something.

Another piece of info that I would like to add is that you frequently meet your reflection in Frostfound, the Salt-Centric Location, and it acts independently from you. In fact, it happens during the Sigil-Ridden Navigator's story, and there is an entire part of the journey through Frostfound dedicated to it. Also, 2/3 of the results for Fumbling in the Darkness refers to what presumably is Salt as a Hungry Monarch, fitting in with the Beleaguered King and the Red-Handed Queen of Chess-Dream fame.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 9/3/2016