The Fathomking
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"This is the salt-blown heart of the Hold. The Fathomking floats in his throne: a gem-starred bowl of sea-stone, the size of a banqueting table. He's wearing a dressing gown of purple brocade, soaked dark with salt water. He leans his chin calmly on his hand. Beneath the surface of the water in his throne, his hidden regions pulse, constantly, insistently."[2]
The Fathomking is the mysterious and notoriously unpredictable ruler of the Drownies.
The Zee's Wild Card
The Fathomking himself is quite the character; his favored term of address is "Your Complexity". Above all, he values a good story, and of course zailors have plenty of stories to tell. As such, receiving an audience with His Complexity during the "hour of audience" is quite easy. During this hour, the King pays handsomely for information and stories. People from Visage wearing crocodile masks sometimes arrive to make offerings to him[3], and occasionally he gets a visitor from The Khanate[4]. Executions seem to be commonplace in response to certain transgressions, such as buying silk from spiders[5], and he really doesn't like it when the Chelonites get too entitled[6]. Visitors may bear witness to executions of unfortunate transgressors at the throne-cyst.
The Fathomking is capable of reviving the deceased, albeit for a very steep price[7]. He may have something special for The Nacreous Outcast in particular...[8]
It's also possible to bring the Fathomking a spore from the Uttershroom. He will proceed to drop it to his nether regions. Well, who knows what he does with that. The Fathomking in general seems to like "gifts from the Myceligaean Mother" (read: blemmigans).
The Fathomking's wife is a Lornest-Fluke[9], and it's implied that this union is what made him into the intriguing creature he is; prior to this he was merely a human, depressingly low on the chain. As a side effect, Stone is his sister-in-law, so it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to bring him something like the heart of Mt. Nomad.
The Fathomking's Hold
"Like an iceberg, like a Bazaar-Master's scheme, like the Neath itself, most of the Hold is invisible."[10]
The Fathomking's Hold is an enormous coral structure that lies within the Promised Sea. Like an iceberg, most of the Hold is hidden, and it is lit with Phospher-cells. It's possible that the Hold may be the Fathomking himself, with all that that implies[2].
- ↑ Greet the Fathomking, Fallen London "You know the King-in-Coral by another name. This is the Fathomking [...]"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Fathomking, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Watch a Crocodile-Masked Visitor make an offering, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Listen to a Khaganian Emissary, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Witness an execution, Sunless Sea "Two silent guards in thorned exoskeletons drag a babbling Drownie forwards. "No!" she shrieks. "I am no friend of spiders! I have never purchased silk! [...] The guards fling the Drownie into the pool. [...] "Next," the King says peaceably."
- ↑ Listen to a Chelonate Envoy, Sunless Sea "The King watches in satisfaction as they swarm the hunter, snipping the flesh from his bones."
- ↑ "I have come to plead for a zailor's life.", Sunless Sea "Game note: This is an expensive way to gain crew."
- ↑ "Give me back my Outcast.", Sunless Sea
- ↑ Ask about the mind at the bottom of the trench, Fallen London
- ↑ The Fathomking's Hold, Sunless Sea
