The Echo Bazaar

"The Bazaar is traditionally spoken of as if it's a single living thing. Women call it 'he'; men call it 'she'. The Masters of the Bazaar style themselves 'Mr', but no-one seems to think they're actually men."

"The Bazaar is located at the heart of Fallen London, in the Neath, a cavern of impossible size, by the Unterzee, a tremendous saltwater lake. They say it's the skull of some defunct pagan god. That doesn't sound very likely. Although it would explain the dreams."

The Echo Bazaar is the center of commerce in Fallen London.

We Look Forward to Meeting Your Money

Almost all legal commerce takes place beneath the auspices of the Bazaar's spires, but few people are privileged enough to venture inside. From here, the Masters exercise their rule over the city.

People from all walks of life are free to buy and sell their wares here (including people straight out of New Newgate). Those of some importance are welcome to walk the side-streets and purchase higher-end goods found there. The Bazaar traffics in many things, from more common items like clothing or pets to the more intangible such as secrets and souls. Stories of love seem to be of particular interest.

A Spire-Emporium at the Bazaar.

It is even possible to visit the Masters inside the Bazaar. One may enter through their choice of seven doors, each of which is made of a different material: Ormolu, Teeth, Copper, Glass, Ivory, Paper, and Steel.

The Bazaar deals in commerce on a far greater scale than these goods, however. Its vaults are far too extensive and secretive to be merely mundane. People of exceptional skill and fame may bargain for esoteric knowledge to push their training even further.

It’s tempting to ask why all this is how it is, but good luck trying to find answers. There are powerful people who’d like to keep it secret.

The Side-streets

"What can you find in the Bazaar Sidestreets? Respectable firms crammed into ramshackle workshops and poky offices. The rent here is astronomical. But the quick and the hungry turn profits in the shadows of the spires. Just keep your eyes off the carvings up high. And whatever you do, don't fall in love."

The Bazaar Side-streets are only accessible to those of some importance, but they have quite lucrative business opportunities for these well-known figures.

By the way, why shouldn't you fall in love in the Bazaar? You see, the Masters like love stories...

Notable Businesses and Locations

Main Shops

Premises at the Bazaar, a very expensive place to live.

• Carrow's Steel: "Self-defence for the discerning gentleperson."
• Maywell's Hattery: "Your crowning glory."
• Dark & Savage: "Grace your hands with the finest and most attentive gloves in London."
• Gottery the Outfitter: "We are always sufficient."
• Nassos Zoologicals: "Pets for all! Be brave."
• MERCURY: "Boots out of legend!"
• Nikolas Pawnbrokers: "Best wares. Best prices. No spiders."
• Merrigans Exchange: "Wholesale Agents to the Bazaar. Celebrating Twenty Years Without An Apostrophe."
• Redemptions: "A labour exchange. Of sorts."
• Dauncey's: "For Gentlemen."
• Fadgett & Daughters: "By Appointment to the Shuttered Palace."
• Crawcase Cryptics: "Secrets, Papers, Truths, Mistruths, Rumours, Lies, Prayers. Books."
• Penstock's Land Agency: "Exceptional Dwellings for Exceptional People!"
• Harbour Provisioners: The Iron Republic only, long story.

The Sidestreets

• Empire Adornments, a jewelry dealer.
• Blackfinger Street, where publishers and writers do business.
• The Horse-Steak Club, a tavern of some note.
• Baseborn and Fowlingpiece, the Neath's best provider of legal documents and permits.
• The Great Downward Engineering Company, hawking interesting contraptions and cheap labor.
• The Bridge Without, another tavern of some note.

The Courier

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?" Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"In the deepest matters of the Bazaar, always look to love. Always."

Before it came to the Neath,, the Bazaar was a messenger of the stars. Its true form is that of a giant space-crab, covered in seven spires inscribed with the maddening Correspondence. It gets around using thrusters called Stone Pigs, which were duplicated to form the Fulgent Impeller. It's very much alive, and rather upset with its situation. Nowadays, it just chills in London while getting high on the sphinxstones from the the Salt Lions, a drug that induces nostalgia for better days.

The Bazaar's Backstory

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy that's most likely our own, the Bazaar and the Sun got together and had some really weird rock offspring (including Stone). The Sun then fell in love with a different star, and to add insult to injury, sent the Bazaar (who's the Judgments' messenger by the way) to give the other star a love letter. This other star, unfortunately, rejected the Sun in her reply. The Bazaar begged for extra time to deliver the rejection notice. So it has seven cities' time - ordered by the space dragons (like Storm), who will execute both the Bazaar and the Sun if the letter isn't delivered in time - to find seven cities' worth of love stories to boil down into the Ultimate Love and prevent the Sun from drowning in its own tears. (And also, perhaps, to get some more space fook, though this is most likely not possible.)

A More Relatable Love Story

In case any of this is confusing, here's the high school version written by fellow lore nerd Manfred on the Delicious (Discord) Server. A shy nerd (the Bazaar) is in love with a popular kid (the Sun) and they have a fling, but then the popular kid turns out to be a jerk and asks the nerd to give a love note to their new crush (another popular kid; the other star) for them. The nerd is devastated but does it anyway. EXCEPT the other popular kid has actual common sense and says "fuck no I'm not going out with that asshole", leading the nerd to become trapped with the dilemmas of both their own broken heart and the soon-to-be-broken heart of their crush. And PLOT TWIST! the nerd got pregnant and the baby's other parent is the jerk crush, but they don't want anything to do with the nerd or the baby so the nerd has to keep it a secret, and if anybody finds out they'll both get expelled or something. Then the nerd enlists the help of a group of shitty freshmen who everyone else hates (the Masters) by offering them money to find out how to tell the popular kid about the situation without them getting super pissed. But they only have until the end of the year, because the nerd and popular kids will graduate then and as we all know nobody talks to anybody they knew in high school after they graduate. The freshmen also have their own relationship drama and at some point one of them gets actually murdered for real.

We used to think that the Bazaar was collecting love stories to prove to the Judgements that love between links of the Great Chain (the Sun is above her on this Chain) is permissible, but upon careful inspection of a certain forbidden play, this is a misconception.

The Bazaar's tears.

The Bazaar's tears are liquid sadness: touching the cork of the bottle will induce weeping, and if drunk, the liquid will consume the drinker with melancholy. Every Christmas or so the Bazaar occasionally floods London with its unique form of snow, called Lacre. This odd substance can transform life forms into miniature copies of the Bazaar, or spired crustaceans basically.