The Fathomking

"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.

"Like an iceberg, like a Bazaar-Master's scheme, like the Neath itself, most of the Hold is invisible. You see only a tiny portion of sculpted coral - the rest waits below the surface. The Fathomking's bone-rooms and aquaria. His pearl-snares and his dining-chambers..."

The Fathomking is the mysterious and notoriously unpredictable ruler of the Drownies.

The Zee's Wild Card

"This is the salt-blown heart of the Hold. The Fathomking floats in his throne: a gem-starred bowl of sea-stone, the size of a banqueting table. He's wearing a dressing gown of purple brocade, soaked dark with salt water. He leans his chin calmly on his hand. Beneath the surface of the water in his throne, his hidden regions pulse, constantly, insistently."

The Fathomking himself is quite the character; his favored term of address is "Your Complexity". Above all, he values a good story, and of course zailors have plenty of stories to tell. As such, receiving an audience with His Complexity during the "hour of audience" is quite easy. During this hour, the King pays handsomely for information and stories. People from Visage wearing crocodile masks sometimes arrive to make offerings to him, and occasionally he gets a visitor from The Khanate. He seems to be rather fond of punishing his courtiers for transgressions, such as buying silk from spiders, and he really doesn't like it when the Chelonate gets too entitled. Most visitors are witness to executions of unfortunate transgressors at the throne-cyst.

The Fathomking is capable of reviving the deceased, albeit for a very steep price. He may have something special for The Nacreous Outcast in particular...

It's also possible to bring the Fathomking a spore from the Uttershroom. He will proceed to drop it to his nether regions. Well, who knows what he does with THAT. The Fathomking in general seems to like "gifts from the Myceligaean Mother" (read: blemmigans).

The Fathomking's wife is a Lorn-Fluke, and it's implied that this union is what made him into the intriguing creature he is; prior to this he was merely a human, depressingly low on the chain. As a side effect, Stone is his sister-in-law, so it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to bring him something like the heart of Mt. Nomad.

The Fathomking's Hold

The Fathomking's Hold is an enormous coral structure that lies within the Promised Sea. Like an iceberg, most of the Hold is hidden, and it is lit with Phospher-cells. It's possible that the Hold may be the Fathomking himself, with all that that implies.