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 stalactites drip down all around. There is nary a bat, nor the faintest wind. Here is a peace which one can never know in London, where there is always the maddening crowd bustling by, or hawkers screeching the virtue of rotten meat, or marsh-wolves interrupting your afternoon picnic."[2]
The Roof of the Neath is the boundary that separates the Neath from the Surface.
"The ceiling grows ever closer. The false-stars shine ever brighter. You are among stalactites which glisten with iridescent shine, and the unknown wonders of the upside down world!"[3]
The roof of the Neath is made of rock said to be "unfathomably" deep.[4] Its underside is dotted with stalactites,[5] many of which are large enough to accommodate entire communities.[6][7] Stalactites often fall from the roof to the lands down below;[8]Godfall was one such stalactite that landed in the Unterzee.[9] Falling stalactites are a known hazard in London, with Smashtile Alley[8] and Stonefall Copse in the Forgotten Quarter being particularly infamous for this.[10]
The roof can be accessed via dirigible, though London's dirigibles are managed by Mr Fires, and unsanctioned trips to the roof are forbidden.[11] London's contact with the roof is largely minimal[12] barring enterprising academics[13] and failed expeditions;[14] London's only known holding here is New Newgate Prison.[15] While the roof is extremely resilient, it has a few breaches: the Travertine Spiral and the Cumaean Canal can be used to travel to the Surface,[16] and Aestival is an island in the Unterzee lit by sunlight from a hole in the roof above.[17]
Inhabitants
"Bats flock around the dirigible as it rises toward the roof. The glimmer of the False-Stars becomes a glare. Stalactites hang like icicles of bone, the citadels of the Starved Men carved into them, empty windows like yawning eye sockets."[18]
A shard of glim.
The roof may seem barren and remote,[5] but it is in fact teeming with life. Moon-misers are large insectoids that emit a bright glow seen from the ground, known in London as "false-stars."[19][20] They travel across the roof by digging their legs into rock,[21] and shed their carapaces in a process called "glim-fall," raining down shards of glim for gatherers to collect.[20][22] The roof is also inhabited by Starved Men, who use the Shapeling Arts to warp and transform themselves.[23] They travel the roof via blimps,[24] rope bridges,[25] or by climbing "spider-like,"[26] and they carve and tunnel through stalactites to form massive citadels to reside in.[7][27]
During the events surrounding the London Horticultural Show, a massive stalactite was dropped onto London by invading Starved Men,[28][29] who sought to reshape the city to survive the Fall of the Sixth City.[30][31] After these Starved were forced to surrender,[32] the Starved Lithologer revealed that another group of Starved were planning on boring a hole in the roof to direct sunlight onto London. Their weapon was an oculus of shaped flesh through which they would focus sunlight,[33][34] and though the roof was successfully breached,[35] the weapon was ultimately thwarted.[36][37] In the aftermath, Starved Men worked to repair the gap using the Shapeling Arts. However, according to the Lithologer, the roof would have healed on its own anyway; in their words, this is because the roof, and the Neath itself, are alive.[38]
↑ 8.08.1Smashtile Alley, Fallen London"Here the kiln-tenders bake brick, to feed the endless appetite for roof-tiles. One of the many perils of the Neath: stalactites that fall like god-flung stones [...]"
↑Stonefall Copse, Fallen London"A stalactite-pocked crater on the fringes of the Forgotten Quarter. Previously a place to avoid, lest one get one's skull caved in [...]"
↑Upwards (Story), Fallen London"A Probationary Professor is looking for assistants for a perilous venture. [...] she's looking to lead an expedition to the cavern roof."
↑Wander as lonely as a cloud, Fallen London"[...] a smaller experimental balloon from London, caught on the jagged edges of an unseen stalactite. It has been deserted for some time."
↑Eminently respectable?, Fallen London"I've not got overwhelming evidence yet, but I think that they've been purposefully bred. [...] part light fitting."
↑ 20.020.1Eminently respectable?, Fallen London"Do you know about moon-misers? They're the false-stars on the cavern roof. [...] they're like giant insects. Size of a cow [...] Glim is the bits of their carapaces they shuck off."
↑Wander as lonely as a cloud, Fallen London"The Starved Men have their own method of flight. Two oblong sacks are sewn tip to tip, [...] inflated [...] affixed with six slim rods, [...] a kind of cage the Starved Men fit into; they then propel themselves from stalactite to stalactite, floating across."
↑Upwards (Story), Fallen London"Stalactites hang [...] the citadels of the Starved Men carved into them, empty windows like yawning eye sockets."
↑Stalactite, Fallen London"Stalactite [...] A plunging eclipse. [...] Piercing pillar of rock. [...] A vasty knife to pierce London's skin."
↑State of Emergence, Fallen London"The inside of the stalactite drips with amber. A hand emerges [...] Another hand [...] A gangly figure [...] Another follows, then another [...] more figures extrude themselves from fissures in the rock. [...] Starved Men. You've seen them [...] on your expeditions to the roof."
↑The War in London 2, Fallen London"London is overrun. Buildings, their quoins and cornice stones made flesh, ripped open and left to bleed."
↑Ask why the Starved Men attacked, Fallen London""What is seen can be changed. All things can be changed. [...] this body, it has fared ill with past changes." [...] "This is not a body, it's a city," blusters the Commodore. [...] "Yes. We sought to reshape the city, to help it avert a greater change which it could not endure. [...] We were helping—" [...] "You were tearing down our homes and tearing up our people." [...] a flash of a very human expression. Shame. "We wished to prevent [...] The city's next great change, [...] How many has it been now? Four?" [...] there was no time – we had to act, before..." [...]"
↑Give the order, Fallen London"There. Walking out of the shadows. Six of them, [...] "Hold," says your gruff second. "I think... I think they're surrendering." [...] They cooperate as the monks of Godfall bind their many hands at the wrists. [...] they do their best to show willing, the hairy one generally guiding the others."
↑Look up (What Lies Above), Fallen London""They are preparing," says the Starved Lithologer. "We were not fast enough. We did not do enough." [...] "They have been digging upwards. They mean to... assist the city in a thorough metamorphosis." [...] "The sun," says the Commodore. "The b____y sun.""
↑Also Into You, Fallen London"A great ocular mass. A distended cornea the size of the [airship] itself [...] Helping these things hold their strained shape as they prepare to channel inimical sunlight."
↑Last Orders, Fallen London"The skin on the ceiling parts, [...] a core of stone – falls from the roof. And what follows [...] Sunlight. A tiny beam [...] The light touches the rock [...] From being magnified and projected down, even as it burns out its channel."
↑An End, at Last, Fallen London""I know what it looks like when a city ends. It looks worse than this from here." [...] "And better.""
↑Inquire about the state of the Roof, Fallen London"When last you saw it – in a blaze [...] golden light – it was in a state of [...] disrepair. [...] "The Roof is healing." [...] "It is like a body." [...] "The oculus was a wound. The light, an infection. We help, too," [...] "with amber from the forgetting-places, and arts of unscarring. But the wound would heal without us." [...] "The Neath lives. This is one of the things we know that you, perhaps, do not.""
