Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
7/11/2013
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Between the Photographer, last Christmas, the Underground Leagues and the Forgotten Quarter, we're seeing more and more of the Calendar Council. So, just who is the Calendar Council? What are they, that all our Constables demand them? The Contrarian suggests that they are a series of revolutionary cells, each under a different leader and operating under a different ethos - presumably, there are twelve such cells, though given that certain Neathy anarchists are as keen to abolish the tyranny of months as much as those of money or Masters, we can't take too much for granted.
So, who appointed these leaders and convened this council, if anyone? What shared goal do these leaders share - or else, who do they bother joining council at all? To what degree can we assume they follow the form of Chesterton's Council of Days - is every cop a criminal, and all the sinners saints? We learn a little of the Months... the Cheery Man describes December as a rival of the underworld, and a right wrong'un. March seems a bloodthirsty type - compared unfavourably to April and September, though riots in Watchmaker's are known as "April Riots." And February... she is intimately involved with the revolutionaries' Great Work, with the complexities of light, with forgetfulness and lacre and loss. And, for whatever reason, she chooses to patronise the Game of Knife and Candle - perhaps she simply likes to see Mr Iron's favoured sliced up like so much stone ham?
I haven't taken every Revolutionary step that can be taken - for instance, I threw my lots in with Benthic and with the Urchins last Christmas - and not every month lends itself to ferreting through the Wicked Book - looking at you, March and May. Does anyone know anything else about this sinister subset of the dynamite faction? Just what do they have in mind for the future of the Neath?
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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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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/9/2013
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If no one minds, I think this thread deserves to be retrieved from the Boatsman for a bit.
More knowledge and more hints about the Calendar Council have since been unearthed. Further, the Great Work, the Dawn Machine, and the Liberation of Night have been confirmed to be aspects of one theme; the Great Work being the concept, the Dawn Machine being the tool, and the Liberation of Night the ideological goal.
We know now that the Liberation of Night is the extinguishing of all Light in the Neath, and not as Zeedee (and initially I as well) presumed, an inundation of the Neath in Light. But how?
NB: spoilered below is a wall of text.
[spoiler]The Dawn Machine. A device assembled from luciferous items and those that amplify Light. It would appear that such a machine would be best suited for creating light, not snuffing it. But it turns out that apparently we're all fools to believe that. How does it work? From the description of certain Destinies, it seems to have "broken" Light in the Neath. Fire still burns, but gives off no light. Maybe the Dawn Machine created such a ridiculously intense light as to have created a sort of "stack overflow" error in the fabric of reality? I know I'm stretching it a bit here, but how else would a machine that is seemingly used to create light result in the effects we have dreamed?
Colours seem to be involved. Colours of course being light, split up in different wavelengths. I am led to believe that the Neath holds to different sets of visible colour spectra, and accordingly, perhaps two different sets of light. Our mundane set being "white light", broken up into red, orange, yellow, blue, green, blue, indigo, violet, as well as some errata invisible to the human eye.But what of irrigo, apocyan, cosmogone and violant? Colours that appear to have certain metaphysical qualities to them - irrigo being the colour of forgetfulness, and apocyan perhaps being that of memory. Do these colours leave the prism originating from another light? Is that light "white" as our mundane light is, or is it perhaps a succulent and almost obscene "pseudo-green" like the Memories of Light? I think that the Gleam destiny among the Liberation of Night shows that these metaphysical colours are not affected by the Liberation of Night. It explains why February is so interested in a certain place painted in irrigo. But not to digress from the question that comes to mind here - where do these colours come from, if not from the Sun?
Speaking of February: she appears to be the mastermind behind the Liberation of Night, and perhaps the most uncompromising and implacable among all anarchists. I doubt there's much of Goldman, of Stirner, of Rand, or of Bakunin in her ideology, although she is perhaps the culmination of all individualist anarchism that Stirner never could have dreamed of. Unabashedly anomist, she's not content to abolish government or justice - she plans on destroying the very origin of natural law, which she apparently has isolated to lie, oddly enough, in Light. But Light being what it is - exuded by stars - and stars being what they are - something I am not Fated to say - she may have a point.
As a friend of mine said: "Girl has ambitions." Once London is doused in Night, it'll be time to emancipate the Surface from the Light. And perhaps, down a Long Road, the assassination of all the stars in the night sky might bring anarchy and anomy to the totality of the universe.
Staying with opposition to the Sun, but leaving behind the Liberation of Night: December, the masked member of the Calendar Council (that we know of). Although I do not recall where exactly, I could swear that somewhere I saw the Mountain and the secret to eternal life as being described as "the cruel experiment of the Sun". December, curiously, doesn't so much care about whether you bring the secret of eternal life to all, or whether you destroy it. He merely opposes it falling into the hand of a chosen few. Could this be an ideological opposition? If you dreamed of destroying the mountain and preserving life as it is, he tells you that you will be the "only truly free beings in the cosmos".
If the mortals are free, are the immortals not? What does this mean regarding the immortality of souls?
Notably, December is also much more affable than the Cheery Man made him out to be. When I first heard about him, I assumed he'd be an independent kingpin crime lord, affiliated with the Calendar Council as a means to cash in on the revolutionary potential for crime. But he seems to be an actually decent sort, though obviously not a smidgeon less violent than the rumours say.
Freedom seems to be what joins the Calendar Council. February seeks the very platonic ideal of freedom: to be free from everything, the end of all law and all "ranking" - no Gods, no Masters, no Laws, no Light. December seeks freedom from the threat of immortality - perhaps, in a slightly Gnostic interpretation, the idea of being forever bound to a material existence, a sort of hylic prison.
A little bit of March has been seen before - bringing Darkdrop Coffee to the citizens of London, at a discount price and snubbing any of Mr. Wines trade monopolies and restrictions. March could very well be a sort of market liberal (or, may God have mercy on us all, an anarcho-capitalist) who opposes the Masters and the Bazaars on an economic level, being a bit of a mercantile trickster. But then again, his ambitions could very well be bigger, and different, and simply not yet fully understood by me.[/spoiler]
I do admit the flaw of being a relatively recent arrival to the Neath, having missed out on no doubt many potential prior encounters with the Council, still not eligible for others, and lacking perspective compared to bigger pictures out of my sight. But here are my musings on the Calendar Council, delicious and most prized friends, and I hope they please and vex you.
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Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/16/2013
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Everyone. Enjoy the fruits of my labour and stupidity. I spent a good half-hour rewriting the lyrics to "Colours of the Wind" from Pocahontas, and I hope at least it makes you chortle.
The Colours of the Neath:
You think I'm a honey-mazed madman,
And you've learned so many secrets,
I guess it must be so.
But still I cannot see
If the madman's really me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
...you don't know...
You think you can make waves by solving riddles,
The Neath is just a stage to win you fame,
But I know every lady and gent and urchin
Who's chained, and stained, and scarred, and seeks the Name.
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who have faces, just like you
But if you talk to Rubberies down in Flute Street
You learn things you never knew
...you never knew...
Have you ever heard the glimfall on apocyan zees?
Or asked the Topsy King about his speech?
Can you sing with all the voices of a storm god,
Can you paint with all the colours of the Neath?
Can you paint with all the colours of the Neath...
Come run the mushroom race tracks of the lumpen,
Come taste the dark-dew cherries behind glass,
Come feel the hospitality of devils,
Smuggle souls, bottle yours, sell it for brass.
The Wolfstack Docks are ruled by Mr. Fires,
The Masters bought all the cities that fell,
And from the Bazaars highest, darkest spires
Correspondence signs tell us all shall be well.
Have you ever heard the glimfall on apocyan zees?
Or played the Great Game with the Face and Teeth?
Can you sing with all the voices of a storm god,
Can you paint with all the colours of the Neath?
Can you paint with all the colours of the Neath...
How far does the Mountain's light glow?
If you blow it up, then you'll never know...
And you'll never hear the glimfall on apocyan zees,
And whether we are bandaged, or still breathe,
We need to sing with all the voices of a storm god,
We need to paint with all the colours of the Neath...
You can love the Sun, and still
Go without the Sun until
You can paint with all the colours of the Neath.
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Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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DukeLawliet
Posts: 121
12/10/2013
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Well, I forget where, but I personally remember Neath light being reffered to as "the invisible spectrum". This has lead me to believe that while it may have a hue, or be coloured individually, together, the Neathy colours produce "anti-light", an anti-energy similar to anti-matter. A sort of equal and opposite reaction. My theory on the Dawn Machine is that it is a collection of stored sources of Neathy light-one of each colour. It's effect, releasing all the colours at once, would be to cancel traditional light out, in some reaction similar too (but hopefully less violent than) matter anihilation.
As to how this will defeat the Masters: I am hopeful on this front. The Masters exist to serve the Bazaar, which, according to all data I've found, is some form of sun diety (or the sun itself) and some form of love deity. This extinguishment of light, of the sun, of the stars, would certainly separate the Master's from their power source. There would be no need to assassinate them. They would be completely ineffectual.
As for my thoughts-I am of a split mind. While I detest the masters, tire of their cruel manipulations of the populace, and their ignorance towards the plight of the common man, the liberation of night is NOT a truly freeing act. Surely, the revolutionaries, prepared for the eventuality of the extinguishment of all light in the Neath, would have contingency plans to amass power?
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varinn
Posts: 53
12/16/2013
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I think, in a sense, it is the discovery of the Neathly color spectrum and the idea of places like Parabola and Hell that created the Revolutionaries. They've seen the Surface from the outside, and realized there's a whole other slew of things out there, that the Surface world they knew is arguably, a caged in little environment. So they're rebelling against the government of the reality they used to live under. When you find out that Mortality is a law created by the Sun, how does it seem any different than laws created by a King?
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Varinner
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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/16/2013
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Hmmm...as for exotic colours, there's irrigo, cosmogone, violant, apocyan, gant and peligin.
In looking up that set of colours, I noticed something: each of the new tier 4 professions is associated with one of those colours:
- the Correspondent writes in violant ink
- the Midnighter has a shrine draped in irrigo
- the Crooked-Cross owns a cross lacquered in apocyan
- the Monster-Hunters eyes turn peligin
- the Glassman has spectacles of cosmogone
- the Licentiate owns a list writ in gant
Do you remember? What we were told about the less spectacular professions?
"...and minimises entanglement in whatever the Bazaar is plotting here."
What is the Bazaar plotting? Why did it give us these colourful gifts? Of course it's not altruism (although it may be love), and certainly that wretched messenger has introduced these colours into circulation to make us pawns in its new colourful schemes.
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Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/18/2013
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Myke Harryson wrote:
Not sure if its been mentioned yet, but one of the destines (Backstage) involves a meeting with a wide variety of members of the Neath. This includes devils, random men and women, and December. Sadly, December thought me mad, and is no longer with us. Well, perhaps just THAT December....
Either way, my Master of Assassins had a..... chat with him.
December likes his dealings with immortality like a man plays cards - all or nothing.
Alas, you were less orthodox than him and one of you had to go.
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Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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Zack Oak
Posts: 205
7/15/2013
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From what I can tell, there are 12 cells, and making a bit of a guess, each cell is opposed to a particular master. 12 months, 12 masters (excluding Mr Sacks and Mr Chimes, but I have my own theories about their natures). February is traditionally Mr Iron's opponent, which leads me to believe that the other months might have it out for other Masters. As for the nature of The Device, I think the light and lenses involved with it are a little more complex than just the light from The Mountain. That said, the light from The Mountain is very much involved, but otherwise, I'm not sure what the device will do.
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Roland Banning, The Ambitious Operative (Profile)
Tumblr RP Account
Ask me about the Delicious Friends RP group!
Open for social actions (no cats or photographers, please. Currently taking a break from K&C.)
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Inky Petrel
Posts: 370
12/10/2013
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Oooh, I like this! *gnaws on delicious theories* I'm afraid I'm not terribly good at contributing to such things, I have a memory like a sieve, which doesn't help in piecing mysteries together, but I will read and watch this discussion with enthusiasm! The Calendar Council is one of the 'Neathy things I'm very intrigued by.
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Re: Fallen London, please don't invite me to things or send me things, I'm only on occasionally, so you will waste your candle  Thank you.
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Flyte
Administrator
Posts: 671
12/10/2013
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DukeLawliet wrote:
the Neathy colours produce "anti-light", an anti-energy similar to anti-matter. A sort of equal and opposite reaction. My theory on the Dawn Machine is that it is a collection of stored sources of Neathy light-one of each colour. It's effect, releasing all the colours at once, would be to cancel traditional light out, in some reaction similar too (but hopefully less violent than) matter anihilation. I'm not sure I buy this: the apocyan of a Crooked-Cross's crucifix and the peligin of a Monster-Hunter's eyes are visible under ordinary London light -- dim but present, and largely belonging to our customary spectrum. So a degree of co-existence is possible. I suspect the special lights of the Neath are suppressed by starlight, though; that would explain their absence from the surface, and fits with the connection between stars and Judgements and what is permitted to exist.
The Masters exist to serve the Bazaar, which, according to all data I've found, is some form of sun diety (or the sun itself) and some form of love deity. This extinguishment of light, of the sun, of the stars, would certainly separate the Master's from their power source. There would be no need to assassinate them. They would be completely ineffectual. The Bazaar certainly isn't the Sun, or a sun god. They have conflicting motivations and different roles in the Neath's lore and back story. [spoiler]The Chilly Destinies from Hallowmas probably demonstrate this most clearly, but there's also evidence in the University storyline and Knife-and-Candle lore. The astronomical entity and deity the Bazaar most resembles is Mercury, the messenger. Karaeir has pre-empted me on the relationship between the Masters and the Bazaar, so I'll just point out that the Vake, which is... anatomically similar to the Masters, hunts very effectively in the dark.[/spoiler]
edited by Flyte on 12/10/2013
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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/10/2013
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DukeLawliet wrote:
As to how this will defeat the Masters: I am hopeful on this front. The Masters exist to serve the Bazaar, which, according to all data I've found, is some form of sun diety (or the sun itself) and some form of love deity. This extinguishment of light, of the sun, of the stars, would certainly separate the Master's from their power source. There would be no need to assassinate them. They would be completely ineffectual.
Personally I believe that the Dawn Machine is more of a metaphysical tool than a weapon against the Masters. As we know from the Iron Republic, it is apparently possible to create spaces bereft of natural law, and February seems to be simply working towards the end of making all of the Neath (then the Surface, then all the cosmos) into such a lawless zone. So that seems to be the primary purpose of the Dawn Machine.
As for how the Masters will be defeated...the Liberation of Night we dreamed of was certainly nothing for the faint of heart. Darkness, and only screams. February has been said to have a veritable army of fiercely loyal anarchists under her command, and it seems that they - equipped with irrigo goggles - could easily purge London of all constables, soldiers, neddy men and of course everyone caught inbetween or opposed to the liberation. Left without their forces...we've dreamed that Mr Pages could apparently be slain by a competent Londoner, and the Calendar Council have a reputation for savagery and martial prowess (February especially, and what not with her apparently having drained a Master of a liquid souvenir).
An interesting tidbit: selling a Memory of Light to the Bazaar yields the statement that the obscene, rotting light we can remember is "the light of Parabola". It would make sense for the alternate spectrum of Light to be from another world entangled with ours, but I suppose someone else might lead the investigation there. I am not so much educated on the matters behind mirrors. Plus, the Finger-Kings give me the creeps.
edited by Nathanael S. Wells on 12/10/2013
--
Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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varinn
Posts: 53
12/16/2013
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Fallen London's revolutionaries are anarchists in the most pure sense. They've upgraded from surface anarchists, who just rebel against social structures, to become more literal in their desire to destroy law and order.
Each of the Months seems like they have their own pet project, though, and maybe even a rival Master?
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Varinner
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Nathanael S. Wells
Posts: 80
12/18/2013
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After realizing that I can't count, and coming to the decision that green-ish is not white (two world-shaking discoveries, I know) I have come to the conclusion that the missing seventh colour has to be the green-ish light of the Memories of Light, the light of Parabola.
It might be interesting to set up a base camp there, now...isn't it wonderful how all the mysteries in Fallen London are intertwined? Here I am, writing about Parabola in the speculation thread about the Calendar Council!
edited by Nathanael S. Wells on 12/18/2013
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Nathanael S. Wells, the Epicurean Polymath.
Founder and Patron of the Damnation Army, a philanthropic society devoted towards bringing food and clothes to the destitute and impoverished Seekers! Consider donating food (no Rubbery Lumps, please!) or clothes (no Veils-Velvet, please! We don't need another incident.)
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Theus
Posts: 311
12/18/2013
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There are 4 primary stats. There are 6 unique ways to combine a set of 4 into a grouping of 2.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Hefty~Harrison
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