Rupho Schartenhauer
Posts: 787
6/19/2012
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SPOILER if you haven't been to Mutton Island yet!
[spoiler]The priestly fellow is wearing an elaborate feathered head-dress and little else. The other locals surround him in a circle, hunched over in hooded robes. One holds an ear of corn, another a stone jug, another a clay tablet. The priest speaks to his congregation. He persuades, cajoles, demands. You can't make out the details. The bent robed figures answer him in hissing whispers.
Finally, they nod in agreement. The circle turns as one to grab one of their number, a man (or woman?) with a lamp. They carry him (or possibly her) to the edge of the cliff and hurl the flailing body over the edge, down into the oily black waves far below. [/spoiler]
So, is this a re-enactment of The Drowning? The "robed figures speaking in hissing whispers" are most certainly meant to be Masters. The one with the ear of corn could be Mr Apples, who was known as Mr Barley once. The others would be Mr Wines and Mr Pages, I suppose. But who is the priest with the feathered head-dress? The Pharaoh?
Even more interesting is the fact that the drowned figure is holding a lamp. Is this is a hint to Mr Eaten's former identity? Candles do play an important part in the SMEN storyline. [Edited:] Though Mr Fires deals in candles nowadays, maybe "luminosity" was originally Mr Eaten's portfolio?
Of course, the ceremony might not be exactly recreating the original circumstances. Maybe some details were lost. Maybe the whole thing is made up. But the Custodial Chef does take tradition very seriously, as we see with the well-water and the Rubbery Lumps.
And yes, this would also provide a (very worrying) backstory for the origin of Rubbery Lumps, and why they call him Mr Eaten. I shall leave the details to your imagination...
edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 4/4/2015
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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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Zeedee
Posts: 276
4/1/2013
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It's the re-enactment of an employee being booted off the proverbial cliff by his colleagues and employer.
The Masters are the contracted servants of the Bazaar. Roughly 1/3 of the way through his contractual period, Mr Eaten was fired -- and not in the usual way he liked, but the "discharged and laid off" sort of "fired". His well is the proverbial alcohol-infused "drowning of woes". Mr Eaten isn't as upset about being fired as he is about the lack of severance pay. In a fit of drunken rage, this disgruntled ex-employee will return to the Bazaar for his pension pay even if it means devouring the Neath to do it. He'll probably shout something like "Yoush promisshed me aaall shaaall be weeeell!" when he does it. The current Masters don't want to see him back because it'd be an awfully awkward and embarrassing reunion for all involved.
Mr Eaten's successor, Mr Fires, should watch his back. He'll be the new sacrificial scapegoat when the next centennial financial report comes out red. The Mutton Island scene isn't about an esoteric and occult ritual of power, deceit and blood. It's about office politics... And before anyone says it, yes, they're sometimes linked. :P
I'd better stop speaking of these Bazaar contracts. Supposedly, someone was hung and shipped to the Tomb Colonies decades ago for mentioning them.
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Please do not send me monstrous invitations tinged with the inks of the undernight or Boxed Cats. (I rotate my Starveling list, so it might take me a while to reach your name. I haven't forgotten anyone!)
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al2o3cr
Posts: 66
9/3/2016
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There's a definite connection between "corn beer" and the Seeking storyline.
[spoiler]
The process to get a second Weeping Scar involves seven tankards of "sacramental beer brewed with corn".
http://fallenlondon.wikia.com/wiki/A_drink_before_you_go
[/spoiler]
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Teaspoon
Posts: 866
9/3/2016
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I'm raising a thread from the dead, I know, but...something odd has occurred to me. It's mentioned several times that Mutton Island has *corn* beer, which isn't a British thing in particular. What it is is Mesoamerican in origin.
Aside from affirming the Third City links already made here, it makes me wonder; how long has there been a Mutton Island in the Neath? I'd thought it was a bit of London suburb caught out at Zee, but that seems dubious in light of the backstory.
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Truth lies at the bottom of a well.
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern
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LucasDixon
Posts: 5
8/11/2012
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Just a theory. If the masters are indeed angels like several have been speculating and this is a reenactment of the drowning then it follows that eaten might in fact be Lucifer who's name roughly translates to, if I remember correctly, morning star and has been called the bringer of light . Like I said it's just a theory but it does make you wonder.
edited by LucasDixon on 8/11/2012
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streetfelineblue
Posts: 1459
6/20/2012
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Wieland Burandt wrote:
Of course, the ceremony might not be exactly recreating the original circumstances. Maybe some details were lost. Maybe the whole thing is made up. But the Custodial Chef does take tradition very seriously, as we see with the well-water and the Rubbery Lumps.
And yes, this would also provide a (very worrying) backstory for the origin of Rubbery Lumps, and why they call him Mr Eaten. I shall leave the details to your imagination...
edited by Wieland Burandt on 6/19/2012
That would be outright creepy! But I think it's quit established that the lumps themselves aren't particularly exotic in origin - as long as tentacular monters of the deep go in the Neath; it's the water they're boiled in that does the trick.
I just read the update in the Fingerkings thread, and I was thinking... All the pantomime does seem Aztec-like, from the feathered head dress to the human sacrifices, and for what we know about the Fingerkings, they live in a place resembling a lush pluvial forest, and, according to a Newspaper storylet, they actually look a bit like Quetzalcoatl, the bird-serpent. Wild guessing - what if the whole ritual was about the Fingerkings, and not the Masters? Wilder guessing: we know that the Masters don't react politely to any mention of Mr Eaten, probably because he committed a great crime and they punished him. But what if the Fingerkings were actually responsible for Mr Eaten's demise, and the other Masters are trying to cover up the story to cancel the stain of their first (only?) sound defeat at the hands of other entities?
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Twitter: @streetfelineblu
Blue's LiveJournal
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Link to Ocelot's Enigma Ambition hint page; PM for clarification. No direct solutions provided.
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Teaspoon
Posts: 866
9/3/2016
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Yes, I did know that. But it still makes more sense to me that they're drinking a Third City drink to go with their Third City re-enactment. At least, I find it more exciting that way. Wheat beer wouldn't have any particularly interesting lore connotations.
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Truth lies at the bottom of a well.
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alt%20Ern
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phryne
Posts: 1351
9/3/2016
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In a rare success for speaking to the incognito Master at the Carnival, Mr Wines explicitly mentions the maize-wine of the Third City.....
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Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition
Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide
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phryne
Posts: 1351
9/3/2016
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Robin Alexander wrote:
phryne wrote:
You do know that in British English, "corn" doesn't mean "corn" but "wheat"? What Americans call "corn" is "maize" in Britain... 
I'm confused?
'Wheat' in Britain is just 'wheat' . . . we don't call it 'corn': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat#Naming
"Maize" is fair enough . . . I guess for us 'corn' is more sweetcorn.
Maybe where you live
Mind you, I'm not British myself... the reality seems even more confusing though: according to the wiktionary definition, corn can mean wheat, barley or even oats, depending on where you are!***
So the "corn beer" of Mutton Island could be regular barley-made as well as wheat beer... but I really don't believe that "corn" here is used in its US meaning, since the whole game is explicitly written in British English.
*** though maybe those definitions are dated and current usage differs widely....?!
edited by phryne on 9/3/2016
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Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition
Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide
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Lord Hoot
Posts: 47
9/3/2016
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Corn is a general term for cereal crops, but it's also understood as a synonym for maize. All beer is made from some kind of cereal so I don't think it would be a detail worth mentioning unless it was specifically corn/maize, which is very unusual.
On the other hand they don't really drink much beer of any sort in the Neath, presumably because they need plants to make it with.
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Rupho Schartenhauer
Posts: 787
3/5/2013
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Rupho Schartenhauer wrote:
Even more interesting is the fact that the drowned figure is holding a lamp. Is this is a hint to Mr Eaten's former identity? [...] Though Mr Fires deals in candles nowadays, maybe "luminosity" was originally Mr Eaten's portfolio?
So I was on the right trail after all...
edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015
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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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Rupho Schartenhauer
Posts: 787
3/6/2013
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Alexander Feld wrote:
Did you ever ask the Sacks in white what his name was at Christmas?
That's exactly what I was hinting at.
--
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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