The Neath

From The Fifth City Wiki
Revision as of 21:28, 28 April 2025 by KestrelGirl (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

"...where Hell is close, immortality is cheap, and the screaming has largely stopped… Welcome. Delicious friend."[1]

The Neath is an immense, impossible cavern that stretches beneath the surface of Earth.

Deep, Dark, and Marvellous

"A cavern the size of Europe..."[2]

The Neath - short for "beneath," and pronounced like so[3] - is traditionally said to be roughly the size of Europe.[4] The known and charted extent of it incorporates two continents, bordered by the vast Unterzee, which is dotted with islands. The cavern has walls[5] and a roof, but because space is highly distorted in the Neath in all four cardinal directions, it is likely far larger than humanity can comprehend. Conventional distances and geography do not apply, and the Neath's position relative to the Surface is bizarre and often contradictory.

A map of the Unterzee. Not always reliable.

London and the Echo Bazaar are located on the western shore of the Unterzee, along the coastline of an unnamed continent. The Tomb-Colonies are north of the city, and the Iron Republic lies to the south. The Hinterlands and Hell are due west of London, further inland. To the southwest, the Dawn Machine has warped spacetime even further.[6] The other primary landmass in the Neath is the Elder Continent, which comprises the southern edge of the Unterzee; its primary landmark, the Mountain of Light, shines from much further south. The northern edge of the Unterzee collapses toward a single point, the Avid Horizon,[7] while the East is a seemingly infinite distortion of spacetime.[8]

Throughout history, there have been many entrances or holes linking the Surface to the Neath; they were a more common sight in the past,[9] and often became the subject of myth and legend.[10] Several of these still remain:

  • The Travertine Spiral is a massive, spiraling stone passage that joins the Neath with the Roof, and the Surface beyond.[11]
  • The Last Labyrinth connects to Shepton Mallet, a town in southwest England.[12]
  • A dumbwaiter links Balmoral to Edinburgh in Scotland.[13]
  • Lake Avernus served as the Roman mythical gateway to the underworld long before the construction of the Cumaean Canal, though the Canal later made passage far easier.

False-Seasons

"The Neath has no sunshine. None of the trappings of the seasons. Still it becomes hotter sometimes, more humid."[14]

Because of the absence of the Sun, the Neath does not experience the conventional seasons seen on the Surface, and instead has its own peculiar cycle of "False-Seasons."[15] False-Summer is the only one referred to by name; during this time, the Neath becomes hotter and more humid,[16] as damp, warm fog blows in from the Unterzee.[17] Certain phenomena also become more common, like wandering Parabolan mirages[18] and outbreaks of spore-fever (ostensibly a fungal counterpart of hay fever).[19] While it is not officially described as False-Winter, every December, "snow" begins to accumulate in London,[20] and the city celebrates Christmas.

Certain seasonal patterns of bat colonies have been observed upon the Roof of the Neath, but these are not extensively described and may be a product of human artistic license.[21]

Origins

"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.


"The Creditor had not expected to be left behind. The Moon had not expected to be riven, or to be dependent on another for its light. The Sun had promised to make a star of them, and instead it made a pale, mocking mirror."[22]

The Creditor

Long ago, the entity that was the Earth[23] served a "fierce and brilliant" Judgement,[24][25] presumably the Sun. It accepted its master's offer to ascend the Great Chain of Being and become a Judgement itself.[26] In an event later called the Cataclysm of Silver,[27] the Sun sent a Courier, a predecessor to the Bazaar, who struck the Earth with tremendous force.[28] This Messenger, now known as the Shattered Herald,[29] tore away a massive chunk of the planet, which rose into the sky and became the Moon.[30][31] The remnants of the Earth which were left behind would become the Creditor, and the vast hollow resulting from the impact solidified into the Neath.[26] The Sun repurposed the Neath as a hidden vault for its experiments (including its children by the Bazaar), placing the Creditor[32] in charge of overseeing and protecting the Shames[33] who were hidden from the Judgements' sight.[34]

Guarding and regulating the Neath are a series of violations against the order of the Great Chain of Being, known as the Treacheries.[35] There are said to be seven Treacheries,[36] of which five are known: Clocks, Maps, Breath, Glass, and Hearts.[37][38]

Historical and Cultural Inspirations

Across ancient civilizations, the idea of subterranean realms and underworld afterlives has appeared again and again. In Greek and Roman mythology, there was Hades, the shadowy land of the dead. Norse mythology spoke of Svartálfaheimr, the realm of dwarves hidden deep beneath the earth. In Hindu belief, Patala was an underground domain inhabited by serpents and demons, while Tibetan tradition told of Shambhala, a secret kingdom hidden beneath the Himalayas. The Neath draws from these mythological traditions, with notable similarities to Hades; much like the ancient warnings about the food of the dead, Surface travelers in the Neath are advised not to eat its food or linger too long if they hope to return to the Surface. It is a realm populated by all the strange, otherworldly, monstrous, and treacherous beings that one might expect from a mythical underworld.

However, the Neath is also influenced by theories from the days of the Scientific Revolution, notably Edmond Halley's Hollow Earth theory, which suggested that the Earth was made up of concentric hollow shells that each had their own atmosphere and possibly even their own forms of life. Halley had suggested this model to account for anomalous compass readings, but further experiments demonstrated the Earth's dense mass and disproved the hypothesis by the end of the 18th century. Modern geology and seismology have since confirmed that Earth possesses a solid inner core and a molten outer core, structures wholly incompatible with a hollow interior.

Despite being scientifically debunked, the Hollow Earth theory captured the imagination of writers and the public alike. It inspired a wealth of literature, famously including Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was published in 1864 and popularized the idea of subterranean adventure. In the 1940s, Richard Sharpe Shaver published stories of ancient beings living in underground caves and secretly influencing human affairs; he claimed to draw from personal experience and encounters with the supernatural, and his ideas have inspired New Age imaginations — and conspiracy theories — ever since.

The persistence of these ideas suggests that there is something profoundly compelling about the mysteries that lie beneath our feet. Perhaps humanity is drawn, instinctively, to investigate anything hidden beyond its reach: anything deep, dark, and marvelous.

References

  1. ↑ Home Page, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Recall where you are (Unfairly imprisoned), Fallen London
  3. ↑ neath, Cambridge Dictionary
  4. ↑ Recall where you are, Fallen London "A cavern the size of Europe..."
  5. ↑ Persuade the Tower to move, using the persuasions of clock and schedule, Fallen London "The Tower is... sideways. Somewhere at the very edge of the Neath, stuck in a cave wall. What was the east wall is now your floor."
  6. ↑ Unborn time, Sunless Sea "The Dawn Machine's roots extend here, into a luminous, impossible space. You breathe gold. You think light."
  7. ↑ The place that is no place, Sunless Sea "The unterzee has no northern shore. Space is forbidden. Time contracts to a single frozen instant. There is only one way North."
  8. ↑ Measure the measureless, Fallen London "[...] They say that the East is a plane that extends infinitely in that direction, and also a sharp line where existence halts. [...] They say, alarmingly, that it is terribly beautiful there."
  9. ↑ A Devil's Due, Fallen London "It is neither proper nor safe for a Devil to visit the Surface. Unheard of in these times. But in the days of the Second City, the Laws used to be softer. [...]"
  10. ↑ A Devil's Due, Fallen London "[...] A different time – the world was bigger. The Neath was more permeable. Every cave, grotto, or hole in the ground in Europe has a legend that claims it is a passageway to Hell. Some of those stories used to be true."
  11. ↑ Fly past the Travertine Spiral, Fallen London "A great spiral of white stone, joining the ground of the Neath to the Roof – and the Surface beyond."
  12. ↑ Your beloved, Fallen London "But you have the key to the Last Labyrinth [...] You pass through the fungus-choked corridors, the pits where the Inhabiters walk, the broken gates. [...] You breach the surface, at last, in an apple orchard just outside Shepton Mallet, through a Neolithic tomb of unlikely age. It's night, but the air is warm, and scented with summer."
  13. ↑ The Dumbwaiter of Balmoral, Fallen London "Due to an accidental entanglement during the Fall, the Balmoral kitchen dumbwaiters connect not to another part of the Castle, but to a modest-sized townhouse in Edinburgh."
  14. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: False-summer, Fallen London
  15. ↑ The False-Season:, Fallen London
  16. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: False-summer, Fallen London "The Neath has no sunshine. None of the trappings of the seasons. Still it becomes hotter sometimes, more humid. [...] Whatever the reason for these hot spells, they make the chiller fogs of the Neath a distant, pleasant memory."
  17. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Heat and Dust, Fallen London "The Neath's roughly-annual false-summer brings with it many inconveniences, not the least of which is the proliferation of damp, warm fog. It blows in off the Unterzee, when the breeze is in the right direction. Finding yourself out in it is akin to trying to walk through a hot, wet blanket. One that has recently been used to dry a hot, wet dog."
  18. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: The Wandering Mirage, Fallen London "Nasty, shimmering patches of air float along the streets in the false summers of the Neath. Strange lights sometimes dance in attendance. Far-off places can be glimpsed. Don't walk through these. There are worse places than Fallen London."
  19. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Spore-fever, Fallen London "Spore-fever. False-summer would not be the same without it. All of Fallen London is stricken, at once: sneezing, wheezing, eyes streaming. Handkerchiefs are brandished; eyes are concealed behind smoked glass pince-nez; F.F. Gebrandt sells out of remedies, whether they are intended for spore-fever or not. A city is united in self-pity. There are real cures, but their side-effects are nastier than the symptoms."
  20. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Snow in the Neath?, Fallen London "The snow that falls in the Neath every December is something of a mystery. Condensation from the cavern's roof, the sloughed chitin of enormous insects, or the dandruff of a tonsorially careless God? In any case, catching snowflakes on your tongue is probably a bad idea."
  21. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Divination and chiropteromancy, Fallen London "Astrology without stars? The movements of bats up in the far reaches of the cavern roof are mysterious, but seasonal patterns can be observed. There is a shape often seen in winter that looks just like a sleeping cat; one in spring that could be a lovers' embrace. [...]"
  22. ↑ Tease out in greater depth the story of the Moon, Fallen London
  23. ↑ Guess at a time before history, Fallen London "The Creditor was once a greater body, of shared substance with the Moon, cold rock. Before that, liquid stone and metal, tucked within the shell of the Earth, indistinguishable from that vaster substance. Before that? Something without an outer shell at all, perhaps the whole of the planet. [...]"
  24. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "Service to a fierce and brilliant star."
  25. ↑ Confer with Penstock, Fallen London "[...] this Creditor [...] they have acquaintances in common. So the Bazaar [...]"
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Long Ago the Sun and Moon, Fallen London "The Sun offered to transform the mute land into a star. But when the cataclysm came, the body of the Moon was flung into the sky and the Creditor remained, hollowed as a crust of bread. In any apotheosis, some rind of mortality is left behind."
  27. ↑ Read the words that come with the Shard of the Mountain, Fallen London "[...] the Creditor, who has lived alone [...] since the Cataclysm of Silver."
  28. ↑ Tease out in greater depth the story of the Moon, Fallen London "[...] A courier, sent by the Sun to shatter itself and shatter the Creditor, in order to form both Neath and Moon. [...]"
  29. ↑ Take away a souvenir, Fallen London "[...] shaped from the remains of the Shattered Herald. [...]"
  30. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "A cleaving birth [...] It was painful to lose your sister-self."
  31. ↑ Search it for letters of fire, Fallen London ""Substance shared with a [...] sibling." The [...] stone is mottled and silver as [...] the moon."
  32. ↑ Propose a currency infused with lacre, Fallen London "The Creditor wanted the Neath to remain as the Sun intended, a hiding place for creations that could exist nowhere else."
  33. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "Then: the Neath. [...] You had responsibilities. You oversaw disputes and kept peace between the Sun's experiments."
  34. ↑ Leviathan, Fallen London "[...] these creatures are Shames, [...] have lain hidden from the Judgements for millennia."
  35. ↑ Cheat (The Mind of London), Fallen London "The Treacheries are transgressions against the Chain. [...]"
  36. ↑ St Erzulie's Candle (Action), Fallen London "The Seven Treacheries guard the Neath [...]"
  37. ↑ Look up (SMEN), Fallen London "Clocks, Maps, Breath, Glass – and the three beyond. This is what protects the Courier and its toadies. You can end that. Your hand, your mouth, your voice. Ask the Question. Open the Gate. Advance."
  38. ↑ Examine a sealed door to the (direction), Fallen London "—clocks, maps, glass, breath, hearts—"
Retrieved from "https://thefifthcity.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_Neath&oldid=19688"