The Storm-Bird

"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.

"Raise your arms to the sky and it will come for you. It will lift you away. Its talons are ice, and they protect you. Its wings are frost. Its eyes are two holes. It has only to look at the flames and they are quenched."

The Storm-bird is a mysterious avian creature that patrols the lands of Parabola.

A Rescuer of Dreams

"Perhaps you have already seen: a nightmare cannot be killed permanently without changing the dreamer. Often the battle must happen many times over. But we can fight some of them, and defend against others. Not all of this work need be left to the Storm-Bird."

The hellfire of horror.

A known fact of life is that nightmares and other dangerous thoughts are almost always just that: thoughts. But in Parabola, rules are made to be broken, and sometimes, the horrors that the mind can dream up forget to stay confined in the head, resulting in conflagrations and other disasters that can place all forms of Parabolan life in mortal danger. The Storm-bird is a large being with a wide wingspan, visually similar to an avian, that is drawn to these firestorms of fear. It does not appear to be malevolent, merely curious, and it can help rescue unwary travelers from these wildfires, dousing the flames with merely a glance. However, this help comes at a price, of knowledge or perhaps something else entirely.

Appropriately, the Storm-bird resides in its Cloud, a cold, wet, and foggy location, where it apparently collects mechanical trinkets such as scraps of metal, intricate whirring contraptions, or expertly crafted model ships. Interestingly, Fingerkings actively avoid the bird, regardless of whether or not the bird tries to repel them; apparently, this is because the bird "partakes too much of the Is-Not already".

Biology

"Its eyes are pits of darkness. It is drawn to fear, curious, not always able to read what it means."

Storm-birds are biologically unique even when compared to creatures of Parabola. Their eyes are dark and their wings are cloud-colored, with a texture like the very soft down of a young chick. The birds also emit an aura of frost with feathers and talons of ice, and they can even weep snow when severely distressed. When multiple Storm-birds are assembled, they behave as if they cannot see one other, or indeed as if the others are not there at all.

When removed from Parabola they slowly fade from existence; apparently this is because their essence is so intertwined with dreams that they cannot exist for long outside of them. This is because Storm-birds aren't "real" at all; they're "dream-projections": beings that can manifest in Parabola from the dreams of a much greater being. Interestingly, Storm-birds have a unique reaction to the Private Stash belonging to Mr Spices; when exposed to the drug, the bird may find its senses heightened and its wingspan significantly expanded. Furthermore, they cast a shadow that appears more chiropteran (bat-like) than one would expect, similar to a young Master, and when allowed to fly freely, they always seem to tend towards the Bazaar...

A Story of Spices

"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 Storm-bird gives a pleased cry you've never heard before, and tries to snuggle its head against Mr Spices."

"Mr Spices is taken aback. It seems to want to comfort the bird without getting too close. "Do you have a toy?" it asks you urgently. "A miniature train, or a model motorcar, perhaps?""

Mr Spices

The Storm-bird's shadow resembling a young Master isn't a coincidence, it's implied that the bird may be a dream-projection from the unborn progeny of none other than Mr Spices! Some time ago, Mr Spices was romantically involved with and impregnated by a Baroness from Hell; unfortunately this relationship apparently ended rather poorly. Regardless, Mr Spices is considered by his colleagues to be of ill health at the moment, and it regularly takes the drugs from its Private Stash to soothe itself and ensure its child is born healthy, and perhaps dream more deeply than it normally would; this may explain the Storm-bird's unique reaction to said drugs.

In the presence of Mr Spices, the Storm-bird is unusually happy and affectionate; Mr Spices itself shows some awkward affection in return, but in close proximity the Storm-bird eventually melts away, in the manner of a dreamer's dream-persona fading as it approaches its "real" body.

A Winged Creature of Considerable Speed.

Amusingly, given its baby's circumstances of conception, Mr Spices sometimes needs to deal with its unique form of what may be pregnancy cravings, such as thoughts about collecting various transportations as well as thoughts "devils have", like the baby being born with mandibles. Given that Curators, including the Masters, are known to obsess over amassing a collection of certain items,^{[citation needed]} it can be inferenced that the child of Spices will have an affinity for collecting various forms of transport, like carriages and landaus, with a special preference for mechanical vechicles; to reflect this, Storm-birds seem fascinated by trains, and some like to race the engines that run through the Great Hellbound Railway, their only competitor in sheer speed and booming sound.