The Thief-of-Faces

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"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.

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"The Mountain cast us all out of the Garden, when it found that our progenitor had taken jewels from its wombs, to make a weapon to serve its hatred."[1]

While the Snuffers have no real organization (at least one apparent to the common man), it is widely recognized that the legendary Thief-of-Faces, their progenitor, holds sway over many of them.[2] His and his children's goals are not made clear, although they may have to do with Stone and perhaps the Judgements themselves.

The Thief-of-Faces is a powerful shapeshifter; he is capable of warping his body into anything he so pleases.[3] As punishment for a crime against Stone, the Thief was captured in a prison of flint.[2] He soon broke out, however, and even the Masters of the Bazaar fear his infiltrative capabilities. As such, they have dedicated a section of the Tragedy Procedures to detailing what should happen if the Thief is impersonating a Master.[4]

A Being of Hatred

"The Thief-of-Faces. It is old almost as the Axiles, the things you call Flukes. It is their child. It engendered us when it came to the Garden, but it is so much greater. It changes both its shape and its self."[1]

The Thief-of-Faces was born of the Flukes,[5] and is thus an older or younger "sibling" of the Rubbery Men (although the Rubberies consider him their cousin)[6] and Stone's nephew.[7] He is consumed by self-hatred and hatred of everything around him, including the Bazaar (his grandparent), the Flukes, and Stone.[8]

After he raped Stone ("taking the jewels from her wombs"), she cast the Snuffers out of the Garden.[9] Stone bore the furious, roaming Mt Nomad; to the Thief-of-Faces, this was "a weapon to serve its hatred." The Thief uses Mt Nomad as a hiding place in which to change identities.[10]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Flint, Fallen London
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Flint, Fallen London "The prison of the Thief-of-Faces. Not a name that is often spoken aloud. He’s a god of sorts, to the sad and faceless folk."
  3. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "It changes both its shape and its self."
  4. ↑ The Waltz That Moved the World, Fallen London "In the event of suspected impersumption by the Thief-of-Faces, convene the Committee for the General Benefit. All Masters to submitify themselves to the Presumption, the Red Levy, and the Caged Choir."
  5. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Thief-of-Faces. It is old almost as the Axiles, the things you call Flukes. It is their child. It engendered us when it came to the Garden[...]"
  6. ↑ Flint, Fallen London ""Thief-of-Fashes," it confides. "Their enemy. Our coushin.""
  7. ↑ Present the Fathomking with a Mountain-sherd, Sunless Sea ""The God called Stone," he says. "My sister by marriage. Of all of us, she is the best. [...]"" (The Fathomking's Bride is an ancient Fluke.)
  8. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Whatever it is, it hates, and whatever it has been, it hates and will work to destroy: it will change endlessly and never be satisfied. And it hates the Bazaar. It hates the Flukes, and the Mountain."
  9. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Mountain cast us all out of the Garden, when it found that our progenitor had taken jewels from its wombs [...]"
  10. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "[...] to make a weapon to serve its hatred. I will tell you of the weapon it made." [...] you see the black glass shadow on the green glass of the zee. [...] You see its father the Thief-of-Faces, coming and going, dwelling in it for a time like a maggot in a peach. You cannot see the Thief's shape clearly: but you can see his old shapes slough from him, like flakes of flint."
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