<blockquote>'''UNDER CONSTRUCTION'''{{Neath Location|image1=spiderflorence.png|caption1=Art from FL|location=[[London]]|allegiance=[['Scholars in their prime']]<br>[['Isolated titan']]<br>[['Smaller spiders']]}}
<blockquote>'''UNDER CONSTRUCTION'''{{Neath Location|image1=spiderflorence.png|caption1=Art from FL|location=[[London]]|allegiance=[['Scholars in their prime']]<br>[['Isolated titan']]<br>[['Smaller spiders']]}}''A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break."''
''A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break."''
''As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have."''<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Sides in a Debate||}} ''"A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break." As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have.""''</ref></blockquote>'''The Spider Symposium,''' was discovered under the Singing Mandrake during Mr Chimes' [[The Grand Clearing-Out|Grand Clearing-Out]].
''As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have."<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Sides in a Debate||}} ''"A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break." As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have.""''</ref>''</blockquote>'''The Spider Symposium''' was discovered under the Singing Mandrake during Mr Chimes' [[The Grand Clearing-Out|Grand Clearing-Out]]. During the clearing, workers almost fell into the cavernous depths below, however, the pub has now been structurally reinforced, with an entrance to the caverns now found in a narrow entrance in the back of the cellar.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Head Into the Cellars, Then Further Down||}} ''"Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out broke the earth beneath the Singing Mandrake (narrowly avoiding it tumbling into the depths). The pub has been shored up, and a permanent – if narrow – entrance remains at the back of its cellar."''</ref> Few, outside of the occasional research assistant<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Accept the contents of a large cocoon||}} ''""Since you're doing such good work for us, we shall aid your own." A brown spider the size of a wine-barrel rolls a cocoon towards you. "I had been saving this, but I am willing to share with one of your prodigious talents.""''</ref> go to the caverns, as the caverns are filled with hungry [[Sorrow-Spiders|sorrow spiders]] in an endless debate over the nature of language and it's relationship to their sapience.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Sides in a Debate||}} ''"A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break." As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have.""''</ref>
Most of London is unaware of the symposium below their feet or of the danger it presents, for if the Spider Symposium were to ever finish there eternal debate, then a horde of hungry spiders will immediately break for "lunch" descending upon the city in search of a prodigious banquet of flesh and bone. <ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Return the Symposium to Deadlock||}} ''"It's all very well winning the esteem of one of the groups or another – but if they all finally come to an agreement, then they will break for 'lunch'. A many-thousand-strong spider gathering would require a prodigious banquet to be sated. For the sake of the Londoners living above, you'd best side against your academic allies to reduce their advantage and ensure that they face a sizeable opposition from their peers, to prevent such a hungry harmony from being achieved."''</ref>
== The Eternal Debate ==
<blockquote>[[File:Spideralonzo.png|thumb|The smaller spiders]]''Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Affronted chittering, indistinguishable from applause||}} ''"Spiders indicate fury, and excitement, and humour, through limb waving and rubbing. This very moment, you are surrounded by thousands of excited, stridulating spiders. Individually, the sound would be somewhere between a cricket's chirrup and a metallic purr. But here, the room reverberates with vibrations, and they're only increasing in pitch. Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'."''</ref>'' </blockquote>Within the Spider Symposium there are 3 factions (the small spiders, the isolated titan, and the scholars in their prime) eternally deadlocked over their position on the importance of language and sapience. As long as no side faction is able to win, the debate must continue, alongside the various rules of debate, with perhaps none so pertinent as the rule that there is to be no meals in the debating chamber.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Affronted chittering, indistinguishable from applause||}} ''"Spiders indicate fury, and excitement, and humour, through limb waving and rubbing. This very moment, you are surrounded by thousands of excited, stridulating spiders. Individually, the sound would be somewhere between a cricket's chirrup and a metallic purr. But here, the room reverberates with vibrations, and they're only increasing in pitch. Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'."''</ref>
Scholars
- The scholars in their prime have arrayed themselves on levels around the chamber as if it were an amphitheatre. To speak for them, you need only stand at the front of one wall. From there, you have hundreds of spiders before you – and at your back.
== References ==
== References ==
Revision as of 16:02, 27 January 2024
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break."
As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have."[1]
The Spider Symposium was discovered under the Singing Mandrake during Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out. During the clearing, workers almost fell into the cavernous depths below, however, the pub has now been structurally reinforced, with an entrance to the caverns now found in a narrow entrance in the back of the cellar.[2] Few, outside of the occasional research assistant[3] go to the caverns, as the caverns are filled with hungry sorrow spiders in an endless debate over the nature of language and it's relationship to their sapience.[4]
Most of London is unaware of the symposium below their feet or of the danger it presents, for if the Spider Symposium were to ever finish there eternal debate, then a horde of hungry spiders will immediately break for "lunch" descending upon the city in search of a prodigious banquet of flesh and bone. [5]
The Eternal Debate
The smaller spiders
Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'.[6]
Within the Spider Symposium there are 3 factions (the small spiders, the isolated titan, and the scholars in their prime) eternally deadlocked over their position on the importance of language and sapience. As long as no side faction is able to win, the debate must continue, alongside the various rules of debate, with perhaps none so pertinent as the rule that there is to be no meals in the debating chamber.[7]
Scholars
- The scholars in their prime have arrayed themselves on levels around the chamber as if it were an amphitheatre. To speak for them, you need only stand at the front of one wall. From there, you have hundreds of spiders before you – and at your back.
References
↑Sides in a Debate, '"A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break." As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have.""
↑Head Into the Cellars, Then Further Down, '"Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out broke the earth beneath the Singing Mandrake (narrowly avoiding it tumbling into the depths). The pub has been shored up, and a permanent – if narrow – entrance remains at the back of its cellar."
↑Accept the contents of a large cocoon, '""Since you're doing such good work for us, we shall aid your own." A brown spider the size of a wine-barrel rolls a cocoon towards you. "I had been saving this, but I am willing to share with one of your prodigious talents.""
↑Sides in a Debate, '"A sorrow spider the size of a Great Dane sidles up to you. "Are you refreshments?" Its many eyes peer hopefully at you, and then behind you. "We are long overdue a break." As one of the younger members of the Symposium, this spider is rarely permitted the floor. Prohibited from addressing its fellows, it turns to you. "The subject is language, and its relationship to our sapience. We're meant to be agreeing conclusions. And I'm not allowed to scuttle out for an eyeball till we have.""
↑Return the Symposium to Deadlock, '"It's all very well winning the esteem of one of the groups or another – but if they all finally come to an agreement, then they will break for 'lunch'. A many-thousand-strong spider gathering would require a prodigious banquet to be sated. For the sake of the Londoners living above, you'd best side against your academic allies to reduce their advantage and ensure that they face a sizeable opposition from their peers, to prevent such a hungry harmony from being achieved."
↑Affronted chittering, indistinguishable from applause, '"Spiders indicate fury, and excitement, and humour, through limb waving and rubbing. This very moment, you are surrounded by thousands of excited, stridulating spiders. Individually, the sound would be somewhere between a cricket's chirrup and a metallic purr. But here, the room reverberates with vibrations, and they're only increasing in pitch. Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'."
↑Affronted chittering, indistinguishable from applause, '"Spiders indicate fury, and excitement, and humour, through limb waving and rubbing. This very moment, you are surrounded by thousands of excited, stridulating spiders. Individually, the sound would be somewhere between a cricket's chirrup and a metallic purr. But here, the room reverberates with vibrations, and they're only increasing in pitch. Perhaps some of the spiders appreciate your intervention. But certainly not all. It would be best to make a swift exit before they forget their rule: 'no meals in the debating chamber'."
