The Garden: Difference between revisions
Organized the page, added info about the Seven's attempt to access the Garden, corrected information about the permissibility of hunting flying creatures in the Presbyterate, added a Historical and Cultural Inspirations section. Tag: visualeditor |
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Birds and other flying creatures carry the airs of the Garden, and are the only creatures who can freely access it; hence, hunting them is strictly forbidden in the [[Presbyterate]], save for select servants of the Presbyter.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Order_Vespertine,_Perilous|Order Vespertine, Perilous|Fallen London|}}''"You shall harm no thing that flies, for they carry with them the airs of the Garden. No bee, no bird, no bat. Only to my servants is it given to hunt them, and that only for my table."''</ref> The motive for protecting flying creatures may be, however, of a more sentimental nature: [[the Presbyterate Adventuress]] believes it is because the Mountain dreams of [[The High Wilderness|flight]].<ref name="homeland">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Presbyterate_Adventuress|The Last Night: Record her memoirs about her homeland|Sunless Sea|}}''"The story is that they carry the airs of the Garden [...]. But I think it's sentiment. I think the Mountain dreams of flight..."''</ref> | Birds and other flying creatures carry the airs of the Garden, and are the only creatures who can freely access it; hence, hunting them is strictly forbidden in the [[Presbyterate]], save for select servants of the Presbyter.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Order_Vespertine,_Perilous|Order Vespertine, Perilous|Fallen London|}}''"You shall harm no thing that flies, for they carry with them the airs of the Garden. No bee, no bird, no bat. Only to my servants is it given to hunt them, and that only for my table."''</ref> The motive for protecting flying creatures may be, however, of a more sentimental nature: [[the Presbyterate Adventuress]] believes it is because the Mountain dreams of [[The High Wilderness|flight]].<ref name="homeland">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Presbyterate_Adventuress|The Last Night: Record her memoirs about her homeland|Sunless Sea|}}''"The story is that they carry the airs of the Garden [...]. But I think it's sentiment. I think the Mountain dreams of flight..."''</ref> | ||
Sometime before 1877<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.fandom.com/wiki/Rosina%27s_Chambers,_in_Health|Restore Rosina to her role as Healer of the Seven|Sunless Sea|}} Per Rosina: ''"I have been unable to consider revenge these last ten years, for fear of accelerating my condition."'' Sunless Sea's timeline begins in 1887, so while the invasion likely happened more than a decade ago, it was in 1877 at latest.</ref>, though the exact year is not known, the [[The Seven Against Nidah|Seven Against Nidah]] led an attack on the city of [[The Presbyterate#Nidah|Nidah]], with the ultimate goal of accessing the Garden, and letting all share in its immortality-granting powers. Though the group's forces successfully got into the city<ref>{{Citation|1=https://sunlesssea.fandom.com/wiki/Seven_Years_Later|2=Seven Years Later|3=Sunless Sea|4=}} ''"'This is it,' [Batuk] bellows, over the sound of battle. 'The last time, this is as far as we got.'"''</ref>, they ultimately failed, and | Sometime before 1877<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.fandom.com/wiki/Rosina%27s_Chambers,_in_Health|Restore Rosina to her role as Healer of the Seven|Sunless Sea|}} Per Rosina: ''"I have been unable to consider revenge these last ten years, for fear of accelerating my condition."'' Sunless Sea's timeline begins in 1887, so while the invasion likely happened more than a decade ago, it was in 1877 at latest.</ref>, though the exact year is not known, the [[The Seven Against Nidah|Seven Against Nidah]] led an attack on the city of [[The Presbyterate#Nidah|Nidah]], with the ultimate goal of accessing the Garden, and letting all share in its immortality-granting powers. Though the group's forces successfully got into the city<ref>{{Citation|1=https://sunlesssea.fandom.com/wiki/Seven_Years_Later|2=Seven Years Later|3=Sunless Sea|4=}} ''"'This is it,' [Batuk] bellows, over the sound of battle. 'The last time, this is as far as we got.'"''</ref>, they ultimately failed, and were scattered across the Unterzee. | ||
== Historical and Cultural Inspirations == | == Historical and Cultural Inspirations == | ||
Revision as of 20:05, 14 November 2024
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"There are a thousand speculations on why Death is strange in the Neath. Perhaps one is true."[1]
"THIS COUNTRY - MOUTH-OF-THE-RIVER - THIS WAS THE PLACE OF HER OVERTHROW"[2]
The Garden, hidden deep within the Mountain of Light, predates the Bazaar's presence in the Neath by a wide margin. Its precise location is unknown, and it may not even be a true garden, but it is heavily sought after by those who know of its power, as they see it as the ultimate source of Neathy immortality. Unfortunately for them, only the birds and the bees (and other flying things) can enter it freely at the moment;[3] the Presbyterate's College of Mortality guards the entrance.[4]
Source of the Continent's Vitality
"In the Garden is the Design; in the Garden occurred the Ascents; in the Garden were selected the Shames. Therefore none shall enter it without that they be blinded with thorns and bound with the Three Oaths. And should any seek to alter the Design or repeat the Ascent or uncover the Shames, they shall be given to the Wax-Wind."[5]
The Mountain of Light, daughter of the Sun and the Echo Bazaar who is worshipped as Stone, provides a strange vitality to the Elder Continent. Fruit can grow from rocks, bones can sprout from the soil,[6] and inanimate objects have minds of their own.[7] An area's "liveliness" depends on its proximity to Stone, so people who die in faraway places across the Unterzee often die permanently, while those who live on the mainland (such as Londoners) can often recover from death with nothing but a bad headache. People of the Elder Continent itself can live a century and still look good.[8]
The Garden is the source, or perhaps one source, of this vitality. It is in fact one of Stone's many, many wombs, where she fosters life that would not be allowed on the Surface.[9] The waxen beings now known as Snuffers once roamed the Garden freely;[9] they were cast out of it when the Thief-of-Faces stole jewels from Stone's wombs.[10] To this day, the Snuffers remember the Garden,[11] and long to return to it, but their aspirations seem all but impossible.[12]
A Certain Fruit
One of the most coveted treasures in the Neath is Hesperidean Cider, brewed from the golden, robust Hesperidean Apples of the Garden. When drunk, Hesperidean Cider immediately restores its imbiber to their physical prime,[13] grants them a free escape from the slow boat,[14] and plagues them with mysterious visions of the Garden and the Mountain.[15] Following these visions may grant an imbiber a more permanent form of immortality.[16] The Masters of the Bazaar have stores of this precious drink,[17] but the Capering Relicker was the first to brew it.[16]
In ages past, birds stole seeds from the Garden; one of these seeds, now a tree, resides deep within the Mirror-Marches of Parabola.[18]
Strictly Guarded
Birds and other flying creatures carry the airs of the Garden, and are the only creatures who can freely access it; hence, hunting them is strictly forbidden in the Presbyterate, save for select servants of the Presbyter.[19] The motive for protecting flying creatures may be, however, of a more sentimental nature: the Presbyterate Adventuress believes it is because the Mountain dreams of flight.[20]
Sometime before 1877[21], though the exact year is not known, the Seven Against Nidah led an attack on the city of Nidah, with the ultimate goal of accessing the Garden, and letting all share in its immortality-granting powers. Though the group's forces successfully got into the city[22], they ultimately failed, and were scattered across the Unterzee.
Historical and Cultural Inspirations
See Also: The_Presbyterate#Historical_and_Cultural_Inspirations
Through its theme of immortality, the Garden shares an undeniable link with the Abrahamic religions' Garden of Eden, within which the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were immortal, before being banished from it as punishment for a crime; much like how, in the FL universe, Snuffers were banished from the Garden for stealing from the Mountain's womb. Additionally, the presence of the life-giving Hesperidean Apples recalls the biblical Tree of Life, or even the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Garden is but one of the Elder Continent's many direct parallels to Abrahamic religions, from the word "presbyter" designating a member of the Christian clergy, to the Presbyterate's language being described as "the language of Adam,"[23] to the many allusions to the medieval legend of Prester John, a Christian presbyter, who is said to have established a kingdom somewhere in the Orient.
References
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