The Fall of London: Difference between revisions
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{{Event | |||
|title1 = The Fall of London | |||
|image1 = | |||
<gallery> | |||
Fall.png|Immediate aftermath | |||
Panorama.png|Months after | |||
</gallery> | |||
|date = February 14th, 1862 | |||
|alias = The Fall | |||
}} | |||
''"Forty years ago, London was stolen by bats."'' | ''"Forty years ago, London was stolen by bats."'' | ||
Forty years ago - give or take - [[London]] found itself in a terrible predicament. The Prince Consort of Britain was gravely ill, and [[The Empress|his Queen]] was terribly distraught. | Forty years ago - give or take - [[London]] found itself in a terrible predicament. The Prince Consort of Britain was gravely ill, and [[The Empress|his Queen]] was terribly distraught. Her love for him was so great, so desperate, that she was willing to do anything to save him. It was that love that drew the attention of the Masters of the Bazaar.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Mr_Pages#confirming_purchase Mr Pages: Theories or Manifesto for Archie, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"We performed the acquisition. I was not alone in the emporiance. My influence was greatest in the matter of selection. Mr Iron opposed me. It is antiverbiant."''</ref> They came with an offer. They would preserve the life of her beloved in exchange for everything she owned. And that included London.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Mr_Pages#confirming_purchase Mr Pages: Theories or Manifesto for Archie, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"Her consort was dying. A loss not to be contemplemitted. We preserved him. In exchange: everything else she possessed. London and all that lies in fluminate propinquity, together with the oddments of the imperial hoard."''</ref> | ||
So it was that on February 14, 1862,<ref>{{Citation|https://images.mmorpg.com/features/7108/images/fallenlondon2.jpg|"London Stolen By Bats!"|Failbetter Games}}</ref> the Masters of the Bazaar came to London and took it downward into the vast, lightless cavern known as [[the Neath]]. | |||
==During the Fall== | |||
On the day of the Fall, the sun began to fade around three o’clock in the afternoon, the sky turned a deep red. A tremendous, dreadful “bang” erupted from the direction of Westminster, sending up a cloud of dust and prompting the tolling of bells. In the midst of the ensuing panic, a horseman clad in the regal attire of the palace rushed through the streets, commanding everyone to go indoors in her Majesty’s name. Almost immediately after, the sky was swarmed by bats: an overwhelming, almost unimaginable number that blanketed the heavens.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Introduction Recalling the Past: Introduction, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"The dimming of the sun at three in the afternoon. The sky turning the colour of rust. The horrible bang and the cloud of dust from the direction of Westminster. The tolling of the bells. The horseman who rode down the street, liveried in the garb of the palace, shouting: In her Majesty's Name, go indoors! And then the sky was full of bats."''</ref> | |||
As the citizens scrambled for safety, many rushed indoors; the homeless crowding into churches and under bridges.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Introduction Recalling the Past: Introduction, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"People went indoors then. If they'd ignored the criers. Those that had no house crowded into the churches and under the bridges."''</ref> Amidst the panic, key symbols of London’s stability faltered: Parliament and Elizabeth Tower swallowed by the Thames.<ref>''"The building that was Parliament is now drowned in the Thames. No one alive can give a good account of it."''</ref> The city of London and Balmoral (the Crown's Scottish holding) was brought down to the Neath,<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Mr_Pages#confirming_purchase Mr Pages: Theories or Manifesto for Archie, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"London and all that lies in fluminate propinquity, together with the oddments of the imperial hoard. A Scottish castellation, flocks of swans, a bowl of tenants' peppercorns."''</ref> but the rest of England was spared.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Griz#Surface_Contact Griz: Surface Contact, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"The rest of the world is all still there. The remains of England, France, all the rest as it was. Only London was abstracted."''</ref> | |||
==After the Fall== | |||
Countless people vanished the wake of the catastrophe, their fates reduced to fragments of memory and scattered corpses discovered the following morning.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Introduction Recalling the Past: Introduction, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"So many people vanished that night and have never been found since. Only a few of them left corpses in the morning."''</ref> In the days that followed, the sun did not shine on London again, the survivors found themselves trapped in a limbo of trauma. Many locked themselves in their rooms, both because of the psychological wounds left by such an event, and because of the dangerous and alien environment outside. | |||
The citizenry began to have encounters with the supernaturality of the Neath. Corpses with their faces missing, taken by creatures that London would later call Snuffers.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Horatia_offered_Harjit_a_place_to_bring_the_wounded Recalling the Past: Horatia offered Harjit a place to bring the wounded, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"One young man was crushed by a beam across the middle. Someone had come and taken off his face."''</ref> Streets shifted and changed without rational explanation.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Introduction Recalling the Past: Introduction, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"Once, around midnight, Griz went upstairs and opened the door to the street, but she came right back down again. She said the cobbles were galloping about. It wasn't safe to walk outside."''</ref> Sightings of Parabola in mirrors.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#I_glimpsed_something_in_a_bit_of_mirror Recalling the Past: I glimpsed something in a bit of mirror, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"In a mirror, I saw something that wasn't my reflection. A Mongolian woman. She sat at a desk in a flooding palace, and the milky water had come level with her knee. She wrote in haste; her hands were gory with ink; ink stained and dimmed the firebirds embroidered on her sleeve. The glimpse of me goaded her. The ink bottle upset; blue-black bloomed in the floodwater."''</ref> The Masters of the Bazaar<ref>''[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#Something_troubles_me_about_the_stranger_who_marked_the_curb Recalling the Past: Something troubles me about the stranger who marked the curb, Mask of the Rose] "Once I peered out of the basement window and saw a figure walking down the street. [...] It was a Master of the Bazaar, a creature the height and shape of Mr Pages. But its robes were sooty, not stained with ink – as I recall."''</ref> wrote commands in the Correspondence<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#There_was_a_stranger_across_the_way Recalling the Past: There was a stranger across the way, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"It paced out deliberate steps to the kerbstone opposite Mrs Chapmans, and on the stone face it wrote letters of fire."''</ref> that disappeared structures.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#There_was_a_stranger_across_the_way Recalling the Past: There was a stranger across the way, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"Come the morning, that house was gone, and its neighbours on each side were sharing a party wall."''</ref> Talking animals.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Ferret#More_Newfound_Animal_Skills Ferret: More Newfound Animal Skills, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"They can talk. Not those ones. They ran away when we took the wall down. But others what I met afterward. One of 'em up and says to me, 'Where d'you think we got the notion to build traps then?' Only it was more fancy-spoken. Whoever taught it English, taught it to talk posh."''</ref> etc. | |||
Nature, too, was not spared. A month later, on the 20th of March,<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#A_month_or_so_after_the_Fall,_all_the_trees_died Recalling the Past: A month or so after the Fall, all the trees died, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"March 20. Equinox."''</ref> entire trees that once symbolized life in London withered and died overnight,<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#A_month_or_so_after_the_Fall,_all_the_trees_died Recalling the Past: A month or so after the Fall, all the trees died, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"Griz: Nonsense. The trees were already half dead. Harjit: Half. They'd been withering and losing leaves slowly. Now look at them. Overnight, they're all dead. And in some places they're gone entirely."''</ref> their decay caused not just by the deprivation of sunlight, but something else as well.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Recalling_the_Past#A_month_or_so_after_the_Fall,_all_the_trees_died Recalling the Past: A month or so after the Fall, all the trees died, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"There was a notice in the broadsheets about the phenomenon. And a profile of the Totteridge Yew, the northernmost tree to have fallen with London. 'Overnight, something drank that tree to her dregs, consuming all that the Sun had endowed, leaving only bitterness.'"''</ref> | |||
As the city's stored supplies of food ran out, starvation soon became an issue.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Griz#Extra_Supplies Griz: Extra Supplies, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"The first few days weren't bad. People had food in their pantries still. Old loaves of bread, leftover joints, roots and jams. But nothing new was coming into the markets: no new fish, no vegetables from the farms."''</ref> Hunger drove people to start eating the animals they could find, pets included.<ref>[https://maskoftherose.miraheze.org/wiki/Griz#Extra_Supplies Griz: Extra Supplies, ''Mask of the Rose''] ''"When they got hungry, people turned inventive. All the pigeons around Saint Paul's, they caught and plucked. More than one society lapdog was turned to stew."''</ref> Meat from dubious creatures fished from the Thames.<ref>"The Masters warned me against eating things from the river."</ref> | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
{{ | {{Scroll box|text = <references/>}} | ||
[[Category:Other Things of Significance]] | [[Category:Other Things of Significance]] | ||
Revision as of 11:20, 11 March 2025
"Forty years ago, London was stolen by bats."
Forty years ago - give or take - London found itself in a terrible predicament. The Prince Consort of Britain was gravely ill, and his Queen was terribly distraught. Her love for him was so great, so desperate, that she was willing to do anything to save him. It was that love that drew the attention of the Masters of the Bazaar.[1] They came with an offer. They would preserve the life of her beloved in exchange for everything she owned. And that included London.[2]
So it was that on February 14, 1862,[3] the Masters of the Bazaar came to London and took it downward into the vast, lightless cavern known as the Neath.
During the Fall
On the day of the Fall, the sun began to fade around three o’clock in the afternoon, the sky turned a deep red. A tremendous, dreadful “bang” erupted from the direction of Westminster, sending up a cloud of dust and prompting the tolling of bells. In the midst of the ensuing panic, a horseman clad in the regal attire of the palace rushed through the streets, commanding everyone to go indoors in her Majesty’s name. Almost immediately after, the sky was swarmed by bats: an overwhelming, almost unimaginable number that blanketed the heavens.[4]
As the citizens scrambled for safety, many rushed indoors; the homeless crowding into churches and under bridges.[5] Amidst the panic, key symbols of London’s stability faltered: Parliament and Elizabeth Tower swallowed by the Thames.[6] The city of London and Balmoral (the Crown's Scottish holding) was brought down to the Neath,[7] but the rest of England was spared.[8]
After the Fall
Countless people vanished the wake of the catastrophe, their fates reduced to fragments of memory and scattered corpses discovered the following morning.[9] In the days that followed, the sun did not shine on London again, the survivors found themselves trapped in a limbo of trauma. Many locked themselves in their rooms, both because of the psychological wounds left by such an event, and because of the dangerous and alien environment outside.
The citizenry began to have encounters with the supernaturality of the Neath. Corpses with their faces missing, taken by creatures that London would later call Snuffers.[10] Streets shifted and changed without rational explanation.[11] Sightings of Parabola in mirrors.[12] The Masters of the Bazaar[13] wrote commands in the Correspondence[14] that disappeared structures.[15] Talking animals.[16] etc.
Nature, too, was not spared. A month later, on the 20th of March,[17] entire trees that once symbolized life in London withered and died overnight,[18] their decay caused not just by the deprivation of sunlight, but something else as well.[19]
As the city's stored supplies of food ran out, starvation soon became an issue.[20] Hunger drove people to start eating the animals they could find, pets included.[21] Meat from dubious creatures fished from the Thames.[22]
References
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