Category:The Elder Continent: Difference between revisions

"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.

"Why do they call it the Elder Continent?"

"That vast continent to the South with a glowing mountain at its heart - where the Presbyter has ruled for a thousand years - is older by far than any of London's civilisations. Which is embarrassing."^[1]

The Elder Continent is a vast, warm, and humid landmass serving as the South border the Unterzee, bathed in the soft glow of the Mountain of Light. Being older than any of the Fallen Cities, the Continent is home to wildlife, demographics, and kingdoms the likes of which London has only began to dream of.

The coast of the Elder Continent is home to Port Carnelian, London's sole imperial possession, and the mirrored city of Varchas. The hidden city of Arbor also has strong ties to this place.

Adam's Way

"To the south: the Elder Continent, and the seventy-two cornucopian kingdoms of the Presbyterate. Are the stories true - rivers of honey; castles of ivory?

Who can say? Foreigners (that's you) are forbidden from the interior. The closest most get is Adam's Way: a shouting, feasting, thieving riot of a port."^[2]

Adam’s Way, the estuary of the blood-tinged Nameless River, is the gateway to the Elder Continent, flanked by two massive statues of stone bees. Only living ships may pass through it with some semblance of safety; the red blood of Stone corrodes and destroys any other ships try to venture SOUTH.^[3]

Apis Meet

"All ships that approach Adam's Way are intercepted by the Gracious - the Presbyterate's splendidly head-dressed coastguards. A quaint but inviolable tradition governs entry: you must tell them one of three stories. In return you will be permitted to spend a single day in the port."^[4]

The port of Adam's Way, Apis Meet, is always well-populated and busy. In order to enter, a visitor must tell a story of intrigue to the Gracious, the Continent's coastal guard. According to the Gracious, prolonged exposure to the soil of the Elder Continent may cause "hysteria, rapture, [and] animescence", so foreigners may only stay in Apis Meet for one day per visit, and cannot venture further South without permission. The duration of their stay is measured using the aptly-named Trees of a Single Day, which grow, bud, and wither over the course of twenty-four hours. Visitors must leave before the tree bends over and breaks.^[4]

Apis Meet is home to numerous attractions enjoyed by visitors and locals of all stripes and origins. It is a thriving business hub, and Londoners with a fascination for the grotesque can observe the strange exhibits of the Sober Showman, who showcases Snuffers, Starved Men, and more.^[5] It is also home to the Temple of the Mountain's Mother, which is dedicated to the Echo Bazaar and accepts deliveries of the mysterious sphinxstones.^[6] Soldiers of the Elder Continent known as the Replete occasionally host Funeral Feasts in Apis Meet; unfortunately, the central dishes of these feasts are the Replete's recently deceased.^[7]

The Presbyterate

"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.

"The Presbyterate is not the Continent, but it dominates it. The Presbyterate's genius is its extraordinary heterogeneity. Seventy-seven kingdoms – men, Beasts, stones, flowers – a hundred schools of war and a thousand schools of thought – but all united under the Presbyter's word. And behind the Presbyter, the College of Mortality."^[8]

The Presbyterate is a major power in the Elder Continent, ruling over its territory of the same name. Seventy-seven kingdoms answer to its banners, and it has a strong connection to the Mountain of Light.^[8] Notoriously secretive and oftentimes snobbish, there is far, far more to the Presbyterate than meets the eye.

Culture

The Presbyterate is known for its less-than-mortal populace, being far beyond normal Neathy immortality in, say, London. People from this place can be killed several times over,^[9] live to a hundred,^[10] or be sliced into mincemeat,^[9] and still recover with barely a headache. That being said, even they have a limit before they succumb to death like everyone else.^[11] The Presbyterate's language is described as one that "jangles like bells of bronze",^[8] and certain Presbyterate Passphrases are composed of bits of English, Latin, and the Correspondence.^[12] In spite of, or perhaps because of, the prevalence of immortality in the Presbyterate, belief in the afterlife is rare.^[13]

The Order Vespertine, a powerful group of Knife-and-Candle players, based their traditions and fighting techniques on the Presbyterate's traditions and rites.^[14]

The Mithridate Office is a branch of the Presbyterate, based in Apis Meet's Surcease Street, that fabricates false stories of the Elder Continent to confound and mystify foreigners; hilariously, they often employ foreigners themselves for this very purpose. Their workers, Mithridites, pay foreigners with Formulums, which probably don't exist anyway.^[15]

Leadership

""...each Presbyter is different, but each takes the identity of the last. Presbyters never truly die, even after a thousand years. At their 'deaths' they give up their names to join the College, who live nameless. The rebels who serve the Thief-of-Faces - they live faceless. I'm no friend to the College, you know that, but they have served our realm well - they are just...""^[16]

The Presbyter, or Prester, is the leader of the Presbyterate, elected and dismissed through a ceremony that would be very fatal on the Surface.^[17] After a Presbyter's term expires, they are sent to live nameless within the College of Mortality, the Presbyterate's backbone and authority on life and death, and their successor inherits their identity.^[16]

The College of Mortality is particularly infamous for a certain decree: None shall live a thousand years. Not even the Presters themselves are exempt from this rule, but, as stated above, they do not truly die when their time is up. The Presbyterate Adventuress's father lived for twelve extra years, so the Presbyterate punished his transgression by forcing his children to live up to only a hundred. Anyone who lives longer than they should is ruthlessly hounded and arrested by the Presbyterate's powerful assassins,^[16] and in the words of the Bishop of St. Fiacre's: "Death is the fist of the Presbyterate. One may not oppose death".^[8]

Nidah

Nidah is the capital of the Presbyterate, located in the deepest regions within the Elder Continent. Apparently, this city is from where the Presbyterate sources its immortality.^[18] Nidah is surrounded by massive basalt walls, and only its Persimmon Gate can serve as a point of entry. While the city is described as a paradise, gorgeously paved with gemstone roads, it is also located dangerously close to the Mountain of Light. Eye protection is required to avoid certain doom.^[19]

To reach Nidah by land, one must brave the following challenges:^[20]

• The Desert of Eyes, which incites a sense of severe self-consciousness.
• The Listening Desert, plagued by earthquakes.
• The Desert of Delights, with captivating sands.

Within Nidah lies the College of Mortality, grim and grey on the outside, heaven itself on the inside. Within the College lies a door to the Garden, where true immortality can be found.^[21]

THE PRESTER SAITH

• No Man Shall Live a Thousand Years^[22]
• She Who Commands The Principle Of Victory May Feast On Its Spoil (The Privilege of Victory)^[23]
• She Who Hath Become A Tyrant May Be Toppled To Dine Upon The Ashes (The Edict of Policraticus)^[24]
• She Who Rules in Deed, Rules in Law (The Doctrine of Eminence)^[25]
• 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. Yet I am generous: all shall feast.^[26]
• The Thief-of-Faces shall not be suffered to return to the Garden, nor its chattels, nor its children. It has taken from us that which is precious and returned only lies and empty fires. It shall be locked in a prison of flint, and it shall know no light.^[27]
• When I die, yet shall I not die. The hour of my death shall be chosen, yet no man shall choose it. I am eternal, and yet my reign in circumscrib'd by law and Fate. I will feast at my funeral, and my child shall be my cup-bearer.^[28]
• In the Garden is the Design; in the Garden occured 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.^[29]

The Three Oaths

"...that my word shall bind me. My promise shall outlast my flesh, and the very flesh of the world. Even when I am dust it will bind me, with red gold and a wind of wounds. If I break it, let my crown burn. Let my flesh run like wax. Let me hunger, and let nothing sate my hunger except my own skin and the marrow of my bones..."^[30]

The Garden

"There are a thousand speculations on why Death is strange in the Neath. Perhaps one is true."^[31]

"THIS COUNTRY - MOUTH-OF-THE-RIVER - THIS WAS THE PLACE OF HER OVERTHROW"^[32]

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 (hah) can enter it freely at the moment.^[33]

The Mountain of Light, daughter of the Sun and the Echo Bazaar, provides a strange vitality to the Elder Continent; fruit can grow from rocks, bones can sprout from the soil, and in some cases, inanimate objects have minds of their own.^[34] An area's "liveliness" depends on its proximity to Stone, so people who die in far away 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, and people who originate from the Elder Continent itself can live up to a hundred and still look good.^[10]

The Garden is actually one of Stone's many, many wombs, where she fosters life that would not be allowed on the Surface. The waxen beings now known as Snuffers once roamed the Garden freely;^[35] unfortunately, they were cast out of it when the Thief-of-Faces stole jewels from Stone's wombs.^[36] To this day, all Snuffers still hope to return to the Garden, but their aspirations seem all but impossible.^[37]

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,^[38] grants them a free escape from the slow boat,^[39] and plagues them with mysterious visions of the Garden and the Mountain.^[40] Following these visions may grant an imbiber a more permanent form of immortality.^[41] The Masters of the Bazaar have stores of this precious drink,^[42] and the Capering Relicker managed to brew a batch before the First City fell.^[41]

In ages past, birds stole seeds from the Garden. One of these seeds, now a tree, resides deep within the Mirror-Marches of Parabola.^[43] Birds, and other flying creatures, carry the airs of the Garden, hence hunting them is strictly forbidden. Apparently, this is because the Mountain dreams of flight.^[16]

Strange Dangers

"On rare days, an impossible tempest sweeps out of the Elder Continent: a wild wind carrying the scent of boiling honey and a storm of molten wax. Ships that fall prey to the Wax-Wind float like filthy icebergs in the Unterzee, their crews confined in wax, mouths fixed in endless screams."^[1]

The Elder Continent is not a very safe place, that should go without saying. People who harvest the massive mushrooms that grow here often suffer from Lung-Bloom, especially in places like Varchas where fungal blooms are common. Being a chronic condition, Lung-Bloom begins as a bad cough, but soon progresses into horrific molds and fungi growing on one's hands and feet, before sprouting out of other orifices. Yikes.^[44]

The Wax-Wind is a flood of molten wax that can engulf entire ships that zail near the Elder Continent.^[1] Contact with the Wind is invariably fatal, as it can melt the very skin off one's bones,^[45] and the Presbyterate is capable of invoking the Wax-Wind against its enemies, whether as a form of warfare,^[46] or as a means of execution.^[47] Strangely, this wind may manifest in far-off places like Polythreme; this may have something to do with the unnatural vitality there.^[48] According to certain stories, the Wax-Wind is actually the weeping of Stone.^[49]

Falling asleep in the deeper regions of the Elder Continent can be dangerous, as one might encounter the Conjunction of Fancies, where the dream-realm of Parabola presses against the skin of the world.^[50]

Flora and Fauna

"What can you find on the Elder Continent?"

"Travellers tell of strange tribes and incomprehensible religions, carnivorous flora, pygmy elephants and giant mice. But no-one believes travellers' tales, do they?"^[1]

Tigers are a powerful and influential faction here; it is advised that one does not press their luck with them. Currently, they are vying for control against London and the Khanate for the Carnelian Coast.^[51] Heart-Takers are also endemic to the Elder Continent, being as dangerous as they usually are.^[8]

A species of birds called Blue Prophets flock near the Elder Continent; these birds are known for their sky-blue feathers and a superstition that they can prophesize the deaths of certain individuals by crying out their names.^[52]

An interesting fruit that grows in the Elder Continent is the chertapple, known to be nourishing "to the bone", and they taste like earth and cause dreams of the South.^[53] The trees they come from are often plagued by creatures known as bloatfingers, which are serpentine creatures so enraged by their own ugliness that they lash out on all who look at them. Also, apparently chertapples can be used for navigation.^[54]

Animescence

"Animescence is a rare disease of the Elder Continent. A slow combustion of the soul, gradually baking the vital organs. Poets suffer worse than most; lovers worst of all. The blistered monks who run the hospital will accept any assistance."^[55]

There is a disease endemic to the Continent that sets souls on fire, called animescence. Even for people raised in the Continent, this is can be permanently fatal. Symptoms generally include a cripplingly high fever,^[56] injury to vital organs, severely dry skin, and wayward passions,^[55] culminating in spontaneous metaphysical combustion. The disease can be highly contagious if another person is caught in the explosion; in fact, the Presbyterate occasionally uses ailing animescence patients as bioweapons during times of warfare.^[57]

The disease itself can be highly dependent on one's emotional state; being emotionally vulnerable or overly optimistic can make one more susceptible to the disease.^[58] Passion, in any form, can speed up the disease progress, so patients often have to make an effort to remain as passionless as possible.^[59] Of course, for poets and lovers, being passionless is easier said than done.^[60]

Treating animescence is a daunting task. Traditional medicines such as ointments, posturing, and poems only slow down the disease; they do not cure it. Rosina of the Seven Against Nidah managed to sharpen her spleen in Anthe to repress her anger, but she is still vulnerable to other passions and was forced to immobilize herself in an ice bath to prevent her demise.^[59] However, using works of literature that she is positively indifferent to may allow for a full recovery.^[61] Meanwhile, the Brisk Campaigner may be able to use a treatment derived from solacefruit and scintillack,^[62] or just get rid of her soul entirely and get a new one,^[63] to cure her affliction, but these treatments are not reproducible.^[64]

Beyond the Way

"Your road runs beside the nameless river that flows from the Mountain to the zee. The waters are thick with blood – thicker still as you travel South. Scabs float on the water like foam. The coppery scent of it rises about you."^[8]

Those who venture beyond Adam's Way into the heart of the Continent will encounter wonders and dangers beyond anything they could ever imagine. Described below are some of the settlements and locations that are known of beyond the Way.

Caution

"Caution, the City of Beasts, the City of a Hundred Tongues. Its spires rise through the forest canopy; a hundred, one for every tongue – scarlet, dusky green, royal blue. This close, the spires are less like coloured glass, more like glossy crabshell."^[8]

"Turn back, turn back. You have not lived enough. Learn Caution."^[8]

Caution, the City of Beasts, is a city in the Presbyterate, home to a hundred different tongues.^[65] As a part of the Presbyterate, Caution is inaccessible to outside visitors, unless one can procure a special invitation or pass.^[66] Reaching Caution is quite the challenge, but a mysterious, powerful passphrase known as the Word of Caution can be used to gain entry into the city itself.^[67]

Wombwell and Stark's Travelling Menagerie is a traveling troupe of animals and exhibits that frequently visits Caution, showcasing wildlife from throughout the Elder Continent. The two proprietors of the Menagerie are Mr Wombwell^[68] and Profressor Stark, the latter of which is deathly poisonous. Best not to shake her hand.^[1]

Within Caution lie spires for each of the hundred tongues, less like glass, more like crabshell, each one having its own color: scarlet, green, blue, and so on.^[69] In order to enter through the Pilgrim Gate of Caution, one must first deal with the Pilgrim-Wakers, bird-like beings who demand to know if a visitor has lived long enough to enter.^[70] To get past them, one must either share their deepest regrets,^[71] or utilize the aforementioned Word of Caution.

The Beasts of Caution make up the vast majority of its population, and can take on many animalistic forms. However, they all have human eyes.^[72]

The Beasts of Caution are:

• Lions, which boast of their skills and deeds in the aptly-named Boasting Ring. The strongest Lion in the Ring wins a prize of the weakest's Name.^[73]
• Parakeets, the journalists and gossipers of Caution.^[74]
• Apes, the scouts, watchmen, and poets of Caution.^[75]
• Wolves, which provide guidance and comfort.^[76]
• Panthers, who are not permitted to enter water.^[77]
• Striped Horses, who build the spires (and tongues) of Caution.^[78]
• Tortoises, who claim to from none other than Fallen London!^[79]
• Salamanders, Caution's soldiers.^[80]
• Boars, who write the histories of Caution in blood.^[81]
• Leopards, who drink blood.^[82]
• Serpents, not expanded upon.^[83]
• Mice. No one really knows what they do, but they like scary stories.^[84]

In the center of Caution lies the Temple of Meetings, where one can interact with Caution's various factions and citizens. This location is also where Beasts are born from Men, in a process that remains unseen.^[85]

Once, when there were Kings in Caution, a King would stand vigil in the Temple of Meetings, with a mirror, crown, and dagger of flint.^[86]

The Bleeding Forest

"The Wakers speak of the Bleeding Forest's temptations and dangers. They name the chert, the flinty principle which stifles the heart; the Huz whose stings bring weeping death; the Accidental Men; the Road-of-Seven. They name other things besides, but their words sink beneath your memory like stones into water. They cackle as they name them. 'You may end in the Forest,' one advises you, 'but now it will not be our fault.'"^[8]

The Bleeding Forest is an extremely dangerous forest that lies beyond the safety of Caution, filled to the brim with flora made of humanistic organs and flesh, such as eyes or hands.^[87] Being far into the Elder Continent, the Bleeding Forest is often plagued by strange sights that blur the line between reality and imagination; for example, a well-furnished bedroom that wouldn't seem out of place in a London townhouse appearing in a clearing, made out of plants and refuse.^[88] Other dangers include the aforementioned Heart-Takers, the Conjunction of Fancies, and swarms of bloatfingers. Other oddities include sights similar to those in Polythreme, such as cliff-faces... with faces.^[89] 

A notable landmark in the Bleeding Forest is the Road-of-Seven, a mysterious road paved with seven-sided tiles, which do not tessellate in real life.^[90] Being a road of impossible stones, the Road-of-Seven often warps and twists when one is not attentive. And sometimes, it may disappear entirely.^[91] It turns out the Road-of-Seven is where the counsel-trees keep their stories, such as tales of the old Kings and Queens of the Elder Continent.^[92]

Venturing further will lead to a vale where the trees blur the line between animate and inanimate, made of both flesh and stone. These trees can sometimes imitate the faces of those who have traveled the Bleeding Forest. Mysterious!^[93] Strange beings that take on the forms of youthful and fantastically beautiful humans also lurk within the Forest, their presence marked with painted markings on the stone trees. These individuals ask that a traveller weep into an offering-chalice.^[94] In exchange, they may provide their protection.^[95] Refusing them, however, will cause them to take on more withered and aged forms. Assuming they're even real at all.^[96]

A notable threat within the Bleeding Forest is the Horned Maze, a labyrinthine plant which lures trespassers into its gaping maw.^[97] Another dangerous threat are the Tigers of War, enemies of the Salamanders. These feral cousins of the more civilized Tigers of the Carnelian Coast live within a large flooding pool in the Bleeding Forest, and often engage in destructive battles with their amphibian foes.^[98]

Civilization in the Bleeding Forest is rare, as one would expect. The Village-Fruit is an enormous fruit that, well, houses a village,^[99] inhabited by the, you guessed it, Fruit-Dwellers.^[100] These individuals notably do not speak Presbyterian; rather, they communicate in a mixture of English, Latin, and the Presbyterate languages.^[101] They also use poisoned thorns as projectiles to ward off attackers and other dangers.^[102] Another settlement is the House of the Map, a run-down shack near a stream filled to the brim with paintings of the Elder Continent. The airs of this place provide a comfortable, homely feeling. Best not to stay too long, else one will end up like the painter of these maps: a shriveled coal of a man.^[103]

The Prison of Flint

"Here the colours are grey and green. A narrow portal pierces a high and flint-thorned hedge. A crowd of lumpen figures muffled in grey wool guard the portal with weapons of fanged wood."

"If the Surface sunset was the blood of the Sun; if it pumped out its heart's last dregs into the mild sea; if the waters stank of copper and the sky was a shroud; then this water would be the colour of a sunset. It is red, red, red."

Where the Bleeding Forest ends, where the colors are green and grey, where the Mountain's light shines once again: the Prison of Flint was built to hold a pretender-god, the Thief-of-Faces.^[104] Said god is long gone, of course; the Prison is currently inhabited by a group of beings called Vignerons (winemakers), who wear masks evocative of grapes and are covered head to toe in wool.^[105] In order to enter the Prison of Flint, one must consume the drinks they offer; these drinks are capable of communicating messages and warnings that one must heed. Notably, visitors are not permitted to touch the fruits of the vineyard.^[106]

Mysterious statues holding cups to their lips pepper the Prison's vineyard. As it turns out, these individuals drank a grey-colored griswine that turned their bodies into flint, and they are sentenced to stay within the Prison until they are freed by a taste of any other wine. Any visitor can partake in this if they choose of course, and anyone can free any statue of their choosing.^[107] This process is especially dangerous for Snuffers, as one would expect, as it leaves them even more faceless than they were before.^[108]

Within the central knoll, where the Vignerons daren't approach, lies the Lesser Wound, a red spring that flows a much deeper crimson than the Nameless River.^[109] Terrifying creatures known as Shames, the children of the Mountain, inhabit these waters; they are powerful beings of stone that protect the Lesser Wound.^[110] Within the Lesser Wound are the Essences that can change a being rather drastically; the red waters taste of blood and can warp a person's face,^[111] as the Lesser Wound leaks life.^[112]

To leave the Prison of Flint, one must pass through the Violant Gate, the color of troublesome but necessary connections. Heptagonal tiles, impossibly tessellated, make up the inside of the tunnel, and various mottoes and graffiti cover the walls within.^[113] Assuming, of course, you want to leave the Prison of Flint the first place. It's peaceful here, stay a while.

Vesture

"The tapestries are luxurious. Patterned backdrops enrich foregrounds in lustrous carmine, lush verdure and luminous cerulean. Unicorns vie with spiders for dominance of web-haunted forests, while weavers enter spider-shrouded palaces with torches to draw out new silk. A coat of arms of three spiders on a burning field appears on each tapestry."

"The same coat is emblazoned on the woman's mail. Seeing your interest, the Injurious Princess introduces herself. She is the exiled heir to the throne of Vesture, the kingdom represented in the tapestries. She's in London to raise the capital and information required for a successful invasion of her homeland."^[114]

Vesture is a kingdom in the Elder Continent that serves as the silkweavers for the Presbyterate, as the name would imply. It's capital is called Vestment, and its coat-of-arms is three spiders on a burning field.^[115]

Recently, Vesture fell victim to a coup, and the rightful heir to its throne, the Injurious Princess, was deposed and exiled.^[116] A skilled player of chess and a force to be reckoned with,^[117] she now seeks to regain her lost seat, either by force or by sheer cunning.^[118] Before the coup in Vesture, the queen, the Injurious Princess's mother, loved indulging in royal luxuries, leading to a populist uprising known as the Bakery Riots.^[119] Meanwhile, the Princess's cousin, her former regent, was able to exploit a disagreement amongst the weavers to plunge the city into civil war and claim the throne for herself.^[120]

Each palace in Vesture specializes in a very specific form of weaving; duplicates are not allowed. If a palace's weavings are not up to code, that palace is torn down unless it can improve in time.^[121] Being a city based on silkweaving, enormous spiders naturally have a huge role in Vesture's textile industry. These spiders are brought to Vesture as larva from the nearby forest by the royal family, and each palace in Vesture has its own archanid matriarch.^[122] The only exception is the royal palace, which sits near the Nameless River.^[123] That's not to say the spiders appreciate having their larvae stolen; venturing into the forests can be quite dangerous, as the spiders are distrustful of humans for obvious reasons.^[124] The House of the Loom is the oldest building in Vesture; it serves both as a burial ground and the place where new weavers create their first looms.^[125] Every year, the palaces gather together to offer their silks for the Presbyterate and royal house to judge and take as tribute. Notably, tapestries depicting flattery or human forms are forbidden.^[126]

Huz

"You cross the clearing slowly, resisting the urge to swat away bees. "Excuse me," you say. "Pardon me." "May I—"

The bees swirl curiously around you. They crawl through your hair. They infiltrate your outer garments. "Huz," they say. "Huz." But they do not harm you."^[8]

Huz is an infamously noisy city located deep in the Elder Continent.^[127] Its soldiers, sapient bees, can be found in the Bleeding Forest, where they ask travelers if they may drink their tears. Upon doing so, they gain the ability to speak, and offer their services against the Bleeding Forest's many dangers.^[128] In order to do so, however, they must take up residence in the traveller's body. Being covered in beeswax and honeycombs after a Huz infestation is not uncommon.^[129] Angering these bees can be dangerous, however, as their stings can cause intense melancholy and even death.^[130]

Huz bees can also be found in Arbor, where they assist in extracting that city's currency, attar, from people's eyes.^[131] Human soldiers of Huz known as the Huzzite Guard also can be found in Arbor.^[132]

Skite

"No. I am Skite. We do not heal. We are not reborn. I won myself these years. Now it's over."^[8]

Skite is a mysterious city located deep in the Elder Continent. Not much is known of this place. People from Skite are often covered in deep scars, as those from Skite lack the ability to heal or rejuvenate themselves.^[133]

In ages past, the Queen of Skite fell in love with the King of Statues. So she took a hammer and struck him seven times. From the first strike, she made an axe. The second, a sword. From the third, a knife-of-power known as the Knapt. The fourth strike, a stylus. The fifth strike produced an unforgable seal. The sixth strike only produced a needle. And from the seventh, nothing.

"I love you," she said to the wind.^[8]

References