The Chelonate

"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.

Waves lap the slabby sides of a vast turtle-shell - bigger than any cathedral. Chelonites loaf on wooden docks around the shell-sides, staring sullenly. Lamps hang like decorations in a festive butcher's window. All around you, the sea is rank with scraps of ancient flesh.

The Chelonate is an island-sized, rotting zee-turtle corpse inhabited by monster-hunters called Chelonites.

Live Bait

"A shell as big as a wild dream?"

The Chelonate is a settlement built on a zee-turtle corpse called the Shell, the smell of rot so overpowering it overwhelms the mind, to the extent that the Chelonites frequently duel and brawl where the stench happens to be the foulest. Despite the fact that it's located near the Gant Pole, where zee-monsters go to die, the Chelonites are very quick to point out that their ancestors valiantly slew the zee-monster they're living on, and they will point this out with whatever weapons happen to be nearby.

The Chelonites' culture is naturally based almost entirely on monster-hunting, and they regularly engage in incredibly violent hunts that can span all across the zee. According to rumor, Chelonites that "die cowards" are not permitted to rest at zee; instead they're buried in any spat of land that will accept the bodies. Being monster-hunters, the Chelonites' diet is almost entirely meat-based, as to be expected, including viscera from the Gant Pole. This includes their beer, which is apparently made of eel-blood and zee-fungus, among other ingredients that are perhaps best left unspecified.

Unfortunately, the Chelonites' violent tendencies regularly brings them into conflict with other factions of the Unterzee, including the Khanate, and they may extend these tendencies to unfortunate visitors of the Shell. They also seem to have an enmity with the inhabitants of Polythreme, and the Chelonites use agents called Sniffers and Sounders to root out any potential spies. The Chelonate has an interest in conquering Aestival, but the dangerous sunlight there naturally makes such a campaign incredibly unfeasible.

The Eater of Names

"Zailors tell tales of the great zhip made of bones. Bones of those who are lost to the zee..."

The Eater of Names

A dangerous priest-ship called the Eater of Names patrols the waters of the Carrion Sea. Drawn by enormous worms and manned by seventy-seven Chelonite zealots, it is apparently built from the bones of the creatures it has slain. It has plundered decades worth of zee-treasures, fighting endlessly in the name of the Shell and Death; in fact, each time the Eater is destroyed, a new one will inevitably rise again.

The Eater of Names' figurehead is made of gant, the color that remains when all others are eaten, and its figureheads are apparently sourced from the nearby Gant Pole. Interestingly, in Chelonite culture, close proximity to the Gant Pole forbids the usage of names, for reasons that remain unknown.

Monster-Hunters

"The Monster-Hunter winnows the lesser terrors from the true. She has slain That Which Makes Light In The Deeps, eaten of its flesh in remembrance of certain Feasts of the Zee, and fashioned her weapon from its remains. She was human, once."

A Hunter's Eye.

Monster-Hunters are incredibly ferocious warriors that hunt the nightmarish terrors of the Unterzee. They are most commonly found near the Chelonate, but they can be found all across the zee, their rites respected even in the familiar territories of Fallen London. What separates a true Monster-Hunter from a common zailor, aside from the skill and brutality, is their extremely unique choice of dietary supplement: the peligin flesh of slain zee-beasts, which stains their eyes the same color and elevates them to something beyond human.

The rites of the Monster-Hunter are as esoteric as the dark zee itself, but they must be conducted in absolute silence. Certain phases of the rites, the Movement and the Act, must also be performed strictly beneath the zee's waves, outside of the view of any living person. After securing a kill, a Monster-Hunter may also consume the blood of the creature they have slain, as it is their sacrament.

A Notched Bone Harpoon.

Monster-Hunters are most famous for their unique and extremely hungry harpoons fashioned from the bones of their most significant kill, but they also make use of other practical weaponry like depth charges and razor wire. They also gather zee-maps and anatomical data to aid in their hunts, because the wise Monster-Hunter knows that preparation is key above almost all else.

All warriors seek a glorious end, and the Monster-Hunters are no different. Doomed Monster-Hunters have decided that their lives have lived their course, and as such, seek a glorious end at the zee. Maybe being launched out of a specially designed hunting-cannon is enough for them?

The Bone Men

"The Bone Man awaits you. His face and chest are streaked with white clay. His forehead bears a glyph, in the deep code of the void. Long ago, his mother ritually severed his littlest finger."

The Bone Men are responsible for managing the Chelonate's temple dedicated to Storm. These warrior-priests are covered in white clay, have sigils in the Correspondence etched into their skins, and have had their littlest fingers severed by their mothers at a young age. The Bone Men are also infamous for their violent temperaments, and seem to have a direct connection with Storm himself, worshipping the god of the roof with violent, bloody rituals. The Bone Men are also extremely skilled butchers, and they can reduce almost any meat to cutlets with mind-boggling precision.

The Bone Men are responsible for hoarding the various treasures of the Chelonate within the Great Shell, including the riches of Doomed Monster-Hunters. They do not give up their treasures lightly however, not even for riches or other hunting trophies, but they do harbor a strong, almost sentimental, bond for certain treasures, even to the extent of giving up other treasures for their return, should they be lost.

The Glory

"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.

"I've long sought the tale of the Glory's end - Glory's what we call this beast. None still live from those days when we slew her. But the saying is: the tale still lives on history's beach. Bring me that tale, zee-captain. Please."

"I broke my first shell. I roamed to the Unterzee. I feasted on monsters. I battened on whales. I grew city-vast. I sickened. The Gant Pole drew me, and there I died of age and weariness, turning on my back to rot until the hunters found me."

The Chelonites are proud of their ancestors' achievement in killing in the Glory, the zee-turtle that would become the Chelonate. In fact, they're so proud of this achievement that they occasionally host historical plays in Scrimshander depicting the zee-turtle's defeat at the hands of heroic hunters. Furthermore, they developed a deal of unknown terms with the Fathomking on the basis of this incredible killing, though they occasionally suffer diplomatic tensions regarding the Chelonites' donation of tribute.

The Gant Pole

But this tale of strength and bloodshed is in fact a lie, concocted by historical revisionism magnified throughout the ages. The Glory was actually a zee-turtle born within Parabola, where it hatched from a massive, violet egg and roamed throughout the Unterzee, growing more and more massive with each passing year. As it feasted on zee-beasts and hunted down entire whales, it eventually grew sick and weary, and soon wound up near the Gant Pole, where the zee goes to die. It flipped over on its shell to finally rest at last, and a starving hunter later arrived at the morbid scene, founding a settlement there. The Chelonate's false pride is as vacuously empty as the Shell itself - the tribe is full of mere tomb-robbers, not champions.