Starved Men

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously." Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"The Starved Man is alone. And he is putting himself through an exquisite torture. His frame shudders with beloved pain, his joints twitch every strange way they can; his tendons stretch to breaking, his body excretes in the convulsions. The melted amber does not eat his flesh, but quickens it; the Starved Man stretches his limbs like toffee, changing himself as he wills."

Starved Men are practitioners of the Shapeling Arts who inhabit the Roof of the Neath.

SO ARE WEE SHAPEDE

"Push the boundaries of flesh. Transform, rather than conform. Shatter the Chain."

The Roof of the Neath

Starved Men are humanoids who dwell on the Roof of the Neath, within massive citadels carved into its many stalactites. They make prolific use of the Shapeling Arts to warp and twist themselves into new and unfamiliar shapes; this practice involves applying heated amber to a joint or some other part of the body, allowing them to plasticize and reshape themselves at will. The process has a drug-like effect: it is often slow and painful, but extremely pleasurable. The Starved utilize their inhuman mobility to climb "spider-like" across their environs, or rely on rope bridges and makeshift blimps.

Historically, London has had limited contact with the Starved. Some academics at the University were interested in learning of them and their arts, while others simply did not believe they existed. Naturally, the events of the London Horticultural Show changed this status quo significantly. The Starved living near New Newgate Prison are at war with the prison's guards, and are slowly conquering the stalactite floor by floor.

Appearance and Biology

"No two are the same. They have many-jointed limbs (except those with appendages that are short, stubby, or altogether absent). They have eyes wherever it is convenient (except those that eschew them altogether). They cannot, or choose not to, speak (except the ones who make those noises, but they still do not seem to hear you)."

"No two Starved Men respond to the onslaught in the same way. Some attempt to reshape themselves, even as your barrage tears great ragged holes in their bodies – flesh knits back together, bones unbreak with sickening jolts, cartilaginous armour-plating bubbles to the surface of their skin."

Most if not all Starved are human in origin. They generally resemble humans, but with heavily modified features: these may include elongated or altered skulls and faces, extra or missing limbs, extra joints, and widened maws. As a consequence of their reshaping, they may also display protruding bones, stretched and translucent skin, or repositioned internal organs. Most also lack hair and do not wear clothes. Starved are typically larger than the average person, and a few are large enough to dwarf a cargo hoist.

Amber

In addition to their bizarre (by London's standards) physicality, Starved Men are strong and durable to a superhuman degree, able to survive seemingly fatal attacks. They are apparently vulnerable to head trauma, for instance a bullet to the brain, and when they die, they have been observed visiting the Silent River. The Starved can also use the Shapeling Arts to gain other superhuman abilities, and can adapt themselves on the fly given a supply of amber. They may grow elongated limbs to strike targets, bone and cartilage plating to serve as armor, fins and webbed limbs for swimming (though water washes away amber, halting any reshaping), or various modes of conditional flight, such as wings, feathers, or air sacs. They are also capable of repairing their own wounds and broken bones, and can even use the Shapeling Arts to reposition stalactites on the Roof.

Starve-Hounds are known to exist, but it is unknown if any other Starved creatures are common.

Culture and Society

"You have gone farther than all but a few into the hushed dominion of the Starved Men. To show for it, you have a handful of charts and maps: approximations and guesswork, but more accurate than most. Demarcations of territory, suggestions of division, hints of religion, schism and Red Science amidst the pale and lonely citadels."

"The Starved Men cut a tremendous gallery around the whole root of the stalactite, leaving a vast central pillar to support its weight. In its day, the view must have been unrivalled. Remnants of salvaged glass and wooden eating-houses, viewing-booths, sight-temples still cling to the edges - but the root has been shattered, and the stalactite fell."

The Starved Men have various communities and societies, each with its own territories, conflicts, religions, and perhaps even Red Science practices. The Starved can be bellicose, and violent clashes between groups of Starved seem to be quite common. During one war, an inhabited citadel was bombed and fell to the Unterzee, creating Godfall. The Starved also do not tolerate intrusions from the lands below, and attack and harass trespassers. While some may volunteer to join their ranks, captured prisoners from the downlands have been forced to "submit to the Shapeling Arts" and become Starved Men, their willingness notwithstanding. These converts may retain memories from their past lives, as well as possessions such as pocket watches or glasses.

A False-Star Chart.

Despite their grotesque appearances, the Starved have lost none of their human intellect. They do not typically speak languages such as English, and instead communicate through vocalizations, utterances, gestures, and body language. It is implied that many Starved have reshaped their vocal cords; if necessary, they may adjust their voices to speak English or other languages with perfect clarity. The Starved also have unique forms of writing, with inscriptions found on amber, rock, and bone, and they can draw diagrams with immense detail, like records of the movements of the False-Stars.

Godfall

Starved Men possess social hierarchies that include rulership, an understanding of deals and deception, and the capacity to build complex citadels with sprawling tunnels. Godfall was an achievement of Starved architecture before its destruction: it had a central support pillar, a chapel, clusters of dwellings, dining halls, furniture, mechanical gates, a viewing gallery of the citadel's surroundings, and murals of the zee below. Some Starved hold specific societal or military roles which may be reflected by their anatomy. Miser-myrmidons have armored forearms and a lower body specifically suited for mounting and riding Moon-Misers. Spire-sappers can "splice" stalactites and drop them on the grounds below. Stone-seers study the rock of the Roof of the Neath to divine the future, a practice colloquially called "lithology."

Starved Philosophies

"What my kin believe? You might as well ask me to mark the final resting-place of the tide. We believe in changing. Nothing is still or static; our beliefs change with our shapes."

"My separation from those above occurred long ago. But everything we do is in pursuit of transformation. Alteration is who we are. And change has texture. It has meaning. Sudden change you might call violence. Gradual change you might call growth. But after both, things are different. After both, something is communicated."

The Hanging Mountains

The Starved, or at least those willing to communicate with Londoners, offer a unique point of view regarding life and the world around them. They express a strong belief in change and its pursuit: change is a self-justifying act, whether suddenly through violence, or slowly through growth. Along these lines, some Starved revere the wind for being formless and always changing, while others despise it for this reason. They also view the world through a biological lens, seeing London as a large organism whose citizens are cells, and the Neath itself as a living being. Some Starved opine that their organs have uses beyond the "usual" purpose, such as using their stomach to store objects than solely for digestion. When Starved dream, they go to the foothills of the Hanging Mountains, where they dream of amber and honey and the "looseness of forms." Conversely, their nightmares involve the unchanging.

The religions and beliefs of the Starved are closely tied to the inhabitants of Axile and the Shapeling Arts. Shaping is viewed with veneration and devotion, and disrupting the process is a great insult. The Starved also hold great respect for the Moon-Misers, with whom they coexist. They venerate and tend to Moon-Mothers, the broodmothers of the species, and ensure the Misers are well fed by sacrificing human prisoners to satisfy their hungers. The Rubbery Men, for their part, view the Starved as imitators and amateurs of the Shapeling Arts.

The Horticultural Show

During the London Horticultural Show of 1899 (2023), a massive stalactite fell upon the event hall, revealing a horde of Starved Men within. Six smaller stalactites soon followed, as well as Starved Men descending in blimps or through their own anatomical abilities. The invading Starved immediately began reshaping London by molding buildings, roads, and the waters of Wolfstack Docks with their palms, transmuting the infrastructure into predominantly organic substances. As might be expected, this caused widespread chaos throughout the city, and London’s populace warred with the Starved.

The Starved did not deliberately target civilians unless they were attacked or their work was disrupted, but they fought back fiercely when confronted. Some unlucky citizens found themselves in the path of the Starved and were inadvertently reshaped. The Admiralty attempted to send agents to parley, but they too met the same fate.

Initially, the Starved held the advantage thanks to the element of surprise and their superhuman abilities and durability. Eventually, however, London managed a counterattack by withholding its supply of amber, and many Starved were forced to retreat. However, one group remained, still working furiously on their plans to reshape London; these were soon cornered, and after their surrender, they were taken prisoner by the Admiralty. The apparent leader of this group was the Starved Lithologer, who reshaped their vocal cords to reveal the truth about the Starved invasion: the Sixth City was due to fall, as foretold by the shifts of the Roof, and the Starved wanted to reshape London to withstand this catastrophe. The Lithologer expressed shame for the destruction and deaths their group had caused.

The Lithoger also revealed that another group of Starved Men, who still resided on the Roof, had their own plans. This group was an advocate for catastrophic change, and wanted to accelerate London’s destruction. They viewed London itself as a body to be changed, whereas its citizens’ survival was a secondary concern for them. To this end, they built a weapon, a cornea of shaped flesh that would bore a hole in the Roof and focus the resulting sunlight directly onto London. Faced with this threat, the Admiralty commissioned an airfleet to locate and destroy the Starved weapon, and the Lithologer and their group pledged their assistance. The Lithologer's group helped with the airfleet’s construction, and a massive Starved Man even caught an aircraft that was about to float away without its crew.

Eventually, the weapon was located and the airfleet made for the Roof to destroy it. However, Starved Men on the Roof immediately attacked the airfleet, raining down debris and boarding airships. They deployed an airship of their own, its hull made from Starved Men and its air envelope made from massive lungs; however, this was quickly destroyed by a living airship from Polythreme.

At last the airfleet reached the Starved weapon: a cone of shaped flesh made of fused Starved Men, with an oculus to focus the beam of sunlight. The actions of this radical group of Starved had airs of both immense sacrifice and immense mercy, and the weapon itself would likely be destroyed upon contact with sunlight. As the Roof was breached and the weapon was ready to fire, a lone airship sacrificed itself to blow the weapon up, ending the threat.

After the incident, the Starved Lithologer appeared at the reprisal of the London Horticultural Show. Initially they were alone, but they were joined by another Starved Man who sought to contribute a Starved Rose, a rose of shaped flesh, to the community garden. The Lithologer also organized the Starved Embassy to prevent future conflict between London and Starved, and to facilitate a cultural exchange between the two. The Starved in attendance conveyed education of their perspectives and practices, and made efforts to effectively engage with Londoners; they also seemed very impressed by London’s outfits, and the potential of expressions through clothing.