Peligin
"P drowns in PELIGIN, the colour of the deepest zee."[1]
Peligin is a color of the Neathbow that is associated with the Unterzee. The term "peligin" is seemingly a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek "pelagos" (πέλαγος), meaning "sea," and the color fuligin. Fuligin, in turn, is darker than black, and is derived from the English word "fuliginous," meaning soot-like; this color was used by Gene Wolfe in his science fiction novel The Shadow of the Torturer.
Properties
Peligin is a dark, dark black, beyond the reach of any light.[2] It is the hue of the waters of the Unterzee and those of the land of the dead;[3] the flesh of zee-monsters is also infused with peligin.[4]
Peligin has been portrayed as a range of different shades, from black to cyan to purples,[5] but always feels "monstrous."[6]
Uses
The eyes of Monster-Hunters turn permanently peligin after they consume the flesh of a zee-monster.[7][8] The Fathomking is able to turn his prisoners' skin peligin, though the precise effects of this are unknown.[9] Zee-monster ink can be used as a peligin dye for clothing.[10] Oddly, but peligin can be seen as light: in deeps of Evenlode, collected in mirrorcatch box or even produced from lamps made by certain Revolutionary groups. Peligin photography, as well as peligin lamp's light, makes shadows more visible and monstrous.
Gallery
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The broad, dark Unterzee. -
Feducci, with peligin eyes. -
A Hunter's Eye. -
Mariam, the Schemer, with peligin skin.
References
- ↑ A Page from 'The Neathbow': Peligin, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Commission a set of fine clothes, Sunless Sea "It is not merely black, the classic black of style and class, but the deep peligin that is blackness beyond the reach of light."
- ↑ A Chess-Piece tattoo, Fallen London "Deep peligin, the colour of the River. Glinting accents that recall the light on the Boatman's bony hands."
- ↑ Eat your main course! (Surface), Fallen London "The taste of its flesh is not like the fish you have here. It is meaty, yes, but it seems to be missing something. Perhaps it is somehow lacking without the peligin."
- ↑ Bruno (FBG), Failbetter Games Discord Server "But all the neathbow colors are sort of a range... viric runs from forest green through emeralds through chartreuse; peligin runs from black to cyan to purples"
- ↑ Bruno (FBG), Failbetter Games Discord Server "Ultimately whether a given real color can be 'peligin' is not about whether it's in some range of hex values, it's about whether it feels (in a given context of use) 'monstrous'"
- ↑ Become a Monster-Hunter, Fallen London "The thing's flesh is peligin, [...] when you are finished, so are your eyes."
- ↑ Hunter's Eye, Sunless Sea "Eat the flesh of the deep-lurkers, and your eyes will change."
- ↑ Mariam, Sunless Sea "Her skin is the exact black-blue of the bone walls."
- ↑ Commission a set of fine clothes, Sunless Sea "The Modiste's hands grip the creature's gelatinous mass, squeezing out every drop of ink into a waiting bowl. It is not merely black, the classic black of style and class, but the deep peligin that is blackness beyond the reach of light. This will be an outfit the envy of any in London society, once the fish smell has faded."
