The God-Eaters

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"Whether the captain was a drunken fool or just a drunk, I don’t know. But we ended up in the wrong Tomb-Colony! An awful place. It was bad enough to have to leave at all, but this place! Ruled over by ancient tyrants! Serpent, Red Bird and Cat. He wasn’t even a nice cat!"

The God-Eaters are a trio of immortal beings who were the rulers of the Third City.

Chained

"There's something about this poem-cycle and its convoluted stanzas about gulfs of time and predatory eyes that's d—nably familiar. But you just can't place it!"

"We are so hungry. Feed us. Feed us."

The God-Eaters are said to be the very oldest of the tomb-colonists, and they reside in their own private tomb-colony of Xibalba. Unlike other tomb-colonists, they're unambiguously immortal, and are said to be over a thousand years old. Furthermore, while they appear humanoid, they're also described as monstrous, with gigantic statures and animalistic features,

Despite all this, however, they still enjoy a good game of cards, and don't even cheat. In spite of their great power, they also have a strange aversion to those who seek a mysterious and oddly important name.

The Three

"The Mottled Man, the Cinnabar Bird - you're on the edge of a deep mystery, here..."

"We sit around the well, and wait. Our stomachs growl. Our knives are sharp. We are so hungry. So hungry."

The God-Eaters have three members, and their true names are unknown. They are, however, known colloquially as the Mottled Man, the Red Bird, and the Serpent-Handed.

The Mottled Man

"'The Mottled Man?' That's a familiar phrase..."

The Cat

The Mottled Man, also know as the Cat, is a member of the God-Eaters who is said to possess jaguar-like features, such as sharp teeth, spotted skin, and a powerful roar.

While the God-Eaters seem to lack any apparent hierarchy, the Mottled Man appears to be the foremost member of the God-Eaters to a certain extent, or at least the most well-known of the bunch. Tales of the Mottled Man permeate regularly throughout Fallen London, written by the very maddest of poets.

The Red Bird

"The stone knife is hot in your hand. The red bird waits high in the sky. You are a priest. Its priest. You are doing what must be done."

The Red Bird

The Red Bird, also called the Cinnabar Bird, is a member of the God-Eaters who is said to possess "red feathers" that "whisper like a crowd of murderers". When the Third City was still on the Surface, the Red Bird commanded a group of priests wearing feathered headdresses who would carry out ritual sacrifices on his behalf. Following the Fall of the Third City, these priests venerated Mr Veils, as well as the other Masters, as deities.

In the present day, these priests have long since died, and are now known as the Long-Dead Priests of the Red Bird. They now wander the realm of Parabola, their number varying from seven to four to one at any time. If the Long-Dead Priests are offered a suitable dreamer, they harvest the dreamer's dreams with their knives from the fabric of Parabola itself, taking a part of the dreamer's identity in the process.

The Serpent-Handed

"It is gone, now. We gave it up, so we could persist. And now I wonder if it is better to be consumed than to endure."

The Serpent

The Serpent-Handed, also called the Snake, is a member of the God-Eaters who, as his name may suggest, is said to have serpents for hands.

Despite gaining immortality, the Serpent-Handed is not as thrilled with his situation as he may have hoped. He still wonders if gaining immortality was a curse in disguise, and that, perhaps, he should have let himself be consumed rather than continue to live. However, he still feels a sense of superiority over all other men: if there was any man worthy of immortality, it was him, therefore, any crimes he would commit for his lofty goal would be justified. But, even today, the regret never quite left him.

Xibalba

"That d–n fool of a captain got us lost, and we ended up in some uncharted, miserable Tomb-Colony. Worse than usual. Dust and death and smoke and glass. Dust and death and smoke and glass..."

Off the coast?

Xibalba is a mysterious tomb-colony that serves as the home for the God-Eaters. It is said to be a place almost frozen in time, from when the God-Eaters were still glorious, and is littered with glass gates, pillars, smoke, dust, and death. Other landmarks include the City of the White Scorpion, which apparently contains rivers full of scorpions that chatter like a large crowd and place bets on which nearby ship would sink the fastest.

The location of Xibalba is unclear, though it's accessible via ship across the Unterzee, off the main shipping lanes of the more well-known tomb-colonies.

The Deal

"In the migrainous straits of deep sleep, there is a marsh where candle-flames buzz like wasps." WARNING: Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London's most infamous storyline: Seeking Mr Eaten's Name. Turn back now. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"A celebration! The God-Eaters lick their fingers, not to waste a scrap. They will live forever now. Much good will it do them. Perhaps they will eat you, one day. Perhaps. If they know you. If you travel to their lairs of dusty stone."

"Come back here. Give us meat. We made a deal. We have to eat."

Ruins of the Third City.

Back when the Third City was still on the Surface, the City's rulers, three priest-kings, relentlessly hunted down any beast, any meat, anything that would sate their endless hungers. And still, they remained unsated. Meanwhile, the Masters of the Bazaar recently escaped from the Second City, having been trapped there for centuries. The priest-kings knew of the Masters and their nature, and thus arranged with them a dangerous bargain.

The bargain was simple, the Masters were to feed the priest-kings a new meat, a form of transcendent flesh. To the Masters, this price was manageable, as they had someone who could pay the price for them. This being was none other than Mr Candles, the weakest of the Masters, who was lured to the priest-kings by Mr Veils. The priest-kings promptly ensnared Mr Candles, cut him open with their knives of obsidian, and greedily consumed his flesh, even as he screamed, even as the bats rose from beneath the ground, even as the world opened up and the Third City fell.

After the Fall

"As you look into the glass, something draws your eye. Hunched figures, like shadows cast on a cave wall, sit in perfect stillness. There are three, at least. They shuffle away from the glass, and are swallowed into the dark."

A relic of the Third City.

After their infamous feast, the God-Eaters were able to incorporate parts of Mr Candles into themselves, allowing them to ascend the Judgements' Chain and gain immortality and great power. They would then go on to rule the Third City in the Neath, acting as living gods and ruling through possession of hidden knowledge and rituals rather than by pure force. Later, during the time of the Fourth City, the God-Eaters managed to enthrall several of the citizens there to do their bidding, forming the group of warriors and enemies of the Khan known as the Copper.

The Fidgeting Writers

"A Fidgeting Writer and an anonymous Surface poet have written - years apart! - about watchful giants: a mottled man, a bird of cinnabar, another with snakes instead of hands. You've a copy of the surface poem in your collection - it's signed with a strange ideogram..."

However, the God-Eaters' greed and lust for power came back to bite them in a way even they couldn't anticipate: as time went on, their bodies grew old and withered, and what's left of the once-mighty God-Eaters are little more than husks. Their fearsome appearances may in fact just be illusions: the Mottled Man may just be wearing the skin of an exotic animal, the Red Bird's feathers may just be a headdress made of cinnabar beads, and the Serpent-Handed may merely be a man wielding a snake-headed staff. Now, the God-Eaters starve for eternity in their home of Xibalba, unable to sate their still-endless hunger, and they can only hope to communicate with the rest of the world through mysterious lenses made of black glass.

A Fidgeting Writer.

However, the God-Eaters have a way to bypass this problem, in their typical diabolical fashion. They do so by invading the dreams of certain unfortunate individuals in the Neath and even the Surface, giving them horrifying nightmares of bestial giants consuming them bit by bit. As the victim succumbs, they descend into near-insanity, writing madly of the God-Eaters terrifying forms and the feeling of being watched, their condition worsening as the more they write. These Fidgeting Writers are then usually taken to a special wing of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel where they spend the last of their days away from any pens, but some of them embark on trips across the Unterzee to Xibalba, where the God-Eaters snatch and take over their bodies like blood filling a cleft.

"We will find you again. You cannot run away. We will find you, and feast in your skull when you sleep. You cannot run away from a dream."