Cedric Appleby
Posts: 121
6/24/2012
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The Neath is, of course, full of secrets - that's more or less the point, isn't it? Some are big, some are small. Some are part of unfinished storylines; others have been resolved, or there are hints, at least. But there some events which seem... particularly enigmatic. Things the game doesn't dwell upon and which aren't point of a story line proper, but nontheless... strange. I thought it may be fun to speculate about those topics - or perhaps, someone else picked up hints which I didn't. Below is a small and entirely incomplete list of little enigmas that have been haunting me. Feel free to suggest your own!
- Everything relating to the Leathery Human Hearts. You find one on an Unfinished Man currently operating as Jack-of-Smiles, which is a little unusual to begin with - especially as Jacks of this sort continue operating after you solved the Jack-of-Smiles case - and you can turn five of them in for a small increase in Connected: Revolutionaries. The Professor of Anatomy will apparantly "repatriate" them.
- What exactly do you see when you use that Lens on your own blood? A stark black-and-white-forest filled with skull fragments, inscribed upon one of which is 'AND THIS IS EDEN'? That would seem to suggest you visit the Far Shore, but what sort of afterlife looks like this? Interestingly, the item image for the Primaeval Hint - "an apprehension of something impossibly ancient" - seems to be fitting the description. Not that it helps.
- When you exchange Mourning Candles for Scrutinisers, you learn that the Revolutionaries are apparantly looking for powerful lenses. Why? What are they trying to spy upon? The ceiling of the cavern the Neath is in? A distant land?
- Why is the Gracious Widow smuggling Clay Men out of the city? And where? The Elder Continent, perhaps? But why would they have a need of them?
- Talking to the Sun. This shows up exactly twice - first as the subject of a dream, then when the Provost has someone murdered who tried to do this. Can you actually do that?
edited by Cedric Appleby on 6/24/2012
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That is, in fact, a beak. Tea is difficult.
@21stCenturyBird on Twitter. -- In-game profile.
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Cedric Appleby
Posts: 121
6/25/2012
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Nigel Overstreet wrote:
I reckon it's something to do with this.
Interesting... that might be a possibility. But there's not really enough light in the Neath to make that practicable, is there? Not in comparison to, say, dynamite.
KatarinaNavane wrote:
ending of the Face-Tailor storyline
I have something of a theory relating to this, assembled from a wide variety of snippets; I believe the mystery is frustrating mostly because big pieces of the puzzle are not actually found within the Neath. Be warned: Some speculation ahead. My conclusions may be - indeed, likely are - entirely wrong, but the snippets themselves may still provide a few additional data points to greater minds.
- First of all, let us consider the source of all this excitement - the Liber Visionis, and its author, Benjamin Villein. Mr. Villein is a high-ranking bureaucrat who has been working for the Ministry of Public Decency for twenty-three years, as you may learn if (and only if) you enjoy digging through the comment threads on long-dead Facebook status updates. (I do, fortunately.) The Liber Visionis is, supposedly, "A complete, indeed frank, account of a particular element which moves in Fallen London society: its habits, its superstitions, its attire. (...) The individuals I described garb themselves in exotic mode. I will lay bare their sartorial secrets. I will outline means by which even the layreader may take some limited advantage of similar techniques!"
- So, what does the Liber Visionis allow you to do again? Simple: The page you can hang on to lets you change your face. Now, where have we heard this before? Snuffers. Snuffers can do this. Interestingly, the Scowling Flint Idol is also connected to the matter of face-changing or the wearing of masks - which is what Snuffers call their slightly disgusting habit of wearing human skins. We also know that Snuffers eat candles - foxfire candles, specifically, but they may have an appetite for other types of candles, too. So the vanishing of the candles could be explained as a visit by Snuffers.
- They have a vested interest in keeping their habits a secret, of course - and how they can be spotted. After all, disguise is what they're all about. The Snuffers are, as some of those especially favoured by Fate may know, not entirely unfamiliar to the walks of power; this would perhaps explain how they became aware of Mr Villein's work, and why they wanted to destroy it.
- This leaves the question Scowling Flint Idol itself. It is, we may presume, is from the Elder Continent - it fits the other little square granite gods they seem to favour over there. The place is also crawling with Snuffers, which are apparantly in opposition to a party known as the Presbyter, and/or the Presbyterate. Remember the details of the dream? A mountain? Colourful birds and lush tree life? A paradise you are banned from because you are not wearing the right face? I'm jgoing to drop a secret here - there's perhaps a half-dozen hints across the Neath, but you may still want to stop reading. Alright? Still with me? The Bishop of St Fiacre's is almost certainly a Snuffer. And he is a member of the Dilmun Club, which seeks the secret of immortality. Snuffers are not welcome in the Presbyterate - indeed, they are killed on sight - and the Mountain is probably the source of the place's strangely death-defying qualities.
- So, in conclusion, I believe that the whole mess is the result of two conflicting agendas. My theory is that Mr Villein came into the possession of the Scowling Flint Idol by accident - "Face-Tailor" being an unflattering nickname for him, perhaps - and used it in his research into the nature of Snuffers; a rather too successful research for their tastes. They intervened, recoverd the idol and destroyed the Liber Visionis.
You may feel free to don your tin hats now.
edited by Cedric Appleby on 6/25/2012
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That is, in fact, a beak. Tea is difficult.
@21stCenturyBird on Twitter. -- In-game profile.
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
6/29/2012
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Curses wrote:
SLOWCAKE THINGS
My theory is that Slowcake's Exceptionals is a way for devils to publicly communicate to each other about which citizens have an exceptional soul that is worthwhile for devils to work for.
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Urthdigger
Posts: 939
6/29/2012
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My theory on the leathery human hearts is quite simply that it's abandoned content.
The most important part of the hearts is that they are branded "WOLFSTACK". You receive them in the final storylet available at Watchmaker's Hill, and in this way it prompts you to journey on to Wolfstack Docks to continue the dangerous line, much like how the latter part of the Veilgarden storylets involves becoming well known enough to be able to visit the Shuttered Palace.
The problem is that nothing is done with this lead. You go to Wolfstack docks, and while there are plenty of interesting things with strikes, duels to the death, and hunting monsters, you don't get to follow up on seeing what's with the hearts. Their use in the university strikes me mostly as a way for folks to get rid of them, particularly due to the extremely low reward for doing so.
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Looking for second chances to maximize your loot output from those troublesome storylets? Check out our handy gang of volunteers in this thread, or even volunteer yourself!
@Urthdigger on twitter
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streetfelineblue
Posts: 1459
6/29/2012
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Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook wrote:
Yes, that's what upset my original idea - hence the "replacement" or "conversion" ideas, but they're pure speculation. I do wonder that they left the option to get them if it were abandoned content - why not just cut them entirely?
Maybe to avoid them to become rare, prized collector's items? XD
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Twitter: @streetfelineblu
Blue's LiveJournal
Blue's Echo Bazaar profile
Blue's Night Circus diary
Link to Ocelot's Enigma Ambition hint page; PM for clarification. No direct solutions provided.
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Abraham Bounty
Posts: 251
7/5/2012
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Twoflower wrote:
Has snow in the Neath been explained?
Bat dandruff. At least it's not guano.
My slightly more serious theory is that it actually is snow, but not from ordinary water. The snow comes from The River. That's largely speculation as I have nothing to point to that lends this theory credence, but I have yet to hear a more valid theory, or anything that invalidated this one.
As for The Iron Box, I believe it is a more elaborate version of the standard Boxed Cat. Whatever infernal/divine feline it contains, it probably eats Glim (as during the storyline you can open a small section of the box and find Glim. Clearly it is a feeder tray for what is effectively a travel cage.).
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News in the Neath: Noted citizen of Fallen London, Abraham Bounty, has acquired six hundred and sixty six souls. Additionally rumour has it that the lion's share of those souls was from a theft of The Brass Embasy itself. We are quite certain that this portents nothing ominous for him. Well, nothing unusually ominous anyway.
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
6/29/2012
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Cedric Appleby wrote:
- Everything relating to the Leathery Human Hearts. You find one on an Unfinished Man currently operating as Jack-of-Smiles, which is a little unusual to begin with - especially as Jacks of this sort continue operating after you solved the Jack-of-Smiles case - and you can turn five of them in for a small increase in Connected: Revolutionaries. The Professor of Anatomy will apparantly "repatriate" them.
Personally, I used to assume that these were the 'Hearts' as in 'King with a Hundred', but I believe we've since learned that this title's not so literal. Perhaps these specimens are implanted in Clay Men intended for servitude to the Masters, which would be many of those living in London that Jack might get hold of? Perhaps a new heart to bind them to Wolfstack, as their old one made them part of Polythreme? Though in that case, I'm not sure why a Revolutionary-aligned academic would want to "repatriate" them. Is he returning them to the Clay Men? To their human owners? If humans can be Clay-ified, as the Comtessa arc suggests, were these former human Clay Men who might, say, be reanimated with the return of their Hearts?
Lots of people wrote:
I don't know how or why, but it seems to be the language of creation itself - or at least of entities vastly greater in scope and scale than we mere mortals. That every star should be a godlike creature whose very words can make or unmake the universe, and our hubris in attempting to understand and use them more easily drives us mad or destroys us than not - well, it's a very classical situation to find ourselves in!
Cedric Appleby wrote:
Agreed on all points. This entire arc seems to be a string of well-hidden clues pointing toward the Elder Continent's mysteries.
Byron Man wrote:
- My theory is that Slowcake's Exceptionals is a way for devils to publicly communicate to each other about which citizens have an exceptional soul that is worthwhile for devils to work for.
I like this theory! Given how detailed a profile they like to build up of the souls they harvest, this fits the bill very nicely.
edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 6/29/2012
--
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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Curses
Posts: 32
6/29/2012
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Perhaps there's an answer to this somewhere, but I remember a card which gives the opportunity to search for "Mr. Slowcake," the author of a book which details the names in high-society. When pursued, it's discovered that Mr. Slowcake Exceptional is actually run by the Brass-Embassy. The reason why they would spend time on such trivial matters eludes me, although I certainly have suspicions. Perhaps devils need to know fashionable footwear, aswell. Or, of course, in a much less likely scenario, it's some rouse to steal souls. But that seems unlikely 
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"Before a desire is sated, it is everything. Afterward, it is nothing." ~Mr Wines
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Twoflower
Posts: 264
6/24/2012
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I'd like to know more about Spider-councils - we know that they're a bunch of sorrow-spiders forming one big spider, but why? Why do they care about the Correspondence? What does "apples for the tree" mean?
Come to think of it, the Correspondence is another. For being a Scholar of the Correspondence, I hardly know much about the ruddy thing. All I really know is that it's a language that has words for oddly specific situations, it can set people on fire, and that it's somehow connected to the Name.
Also, there's precedent for talking to the weather, so talking to Sun might not be as absurd as it sounds - What the Thunder Said, anyone?
EDIT: And another thing - pretty much all of the ending of the Face-Tailor storyline.
edited by Twoflower on 6/24/2012
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Twoflower
Posts: 264
6/24/2012
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Byron Man wrote:
Twoflower wrote:
I'd like to know more about Spider-councils - we know that they're a bunch of sorrow-spiders forming one big spider, but why? Why do they care about the Correspondence? What does "apples for the tree" mean?
EDIT: And another thing - pretty much all of the ending of the Face-Tailor storyline.
Spider-councils are actually explained in detail already, although it might not be immediately obvious. If you have access to the House of Chimes, a certain lady there can shed light on Spider-Council and their motives in a easy, simple terms (at the end)
Sadly, I did the story before I got the Arachnologist quality, and as far as I know, there's no way to replay it.
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Nigel Overstreet
Posts: 1220
6/25/2012
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Cedric Appleby wrote:
When you exchange Mourning Candles for Scrutinisers, you learn that the Revolutionaries are apparantly looking for powerful lenses. Why? What are they trying to spy upon? The ceiling of the cavern the Neath is in? A distant land
I reckon it's something to do with this.
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The Romantic Egotist: Most Hedonistic Man in All of Fallen London
Are you or someone you know Overgoated? Please, let me know!
Cider Club
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Valquinn
Posts: 8
6/25/2012
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I am fairly new here . One thing I wnt to find out is why there are no foxes in the Neath? What are the foxfire candles made of? What are really the glim? The jade is really souls? Why the drownies act so different from other "people that had experienced death? let's say tomb-colonists? and many other perhaps tiny but interest secrets...
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Twoflower
Posts: 264
6/25/2012
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Valquinn wrote:
I am fairly new here . One thing I wnt to find out is why there are no foxes in the Neath? What are the foxfire candles made of? What are really the glim? The jade is really souls? Why the drownies act so different from other "people that had experienced death? let's say tomb-colonists? and many other perhaps tiny but interest secrets... '
If you're pursing the Light Fingers ambition, you'll learn about glim and the Drownies.
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