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"Far calmer than any surface sea: black glass stretching to the fathomless depths of the Neath, glimmering with the light of false-stars. Beautiful in the way that only mirrors are, and deserts. Also positively stuffed with monsters and nine kinds of pirate."[1]
The Unterzee is a massive underground ocean in the Neath.
The Unterzee, teeming with life in its peligin waters, stretches across much of the Neath.[2] It is roughly shaped like a wheel, and its currents spiral counterclockwise; at the center of the wheel is a treacherous region called the Snares.[3][4] The currents of the Zee (as it's called for short) are said to carry regrets, hopes, sorrows, and yearnings, drawing all things inward toward the Snares.[5] Dotted around the Zee are stalagmites poking up from the zee floor, massive geodes, and the gigantic natural pillars that hold up the cavern roof.[6]
The name "Unterzee" was coined by a group of Dutch explorers who established relations with the Tomb-Colony of Venderbight in 1867. Their linguistic legacy lives on in Neath’s nautical vocabulary: zailors, zee-ztories, and zubmarines are common parlance, though such excessive “Z” usage is often mocked as the habit of landlubbers.[7]
The Unterzee is dark, perilous and unforgiving.[8] Countless zailors have vanished into its depths, claimed by dangers above and below the surface. For a brackish lake sealed within a cavern far beneath the Earth, it harbors a surprising abundance of life...[9] most of which is vast, hungry, and tooth-laden enough to swallow a glim-steamer whole.[10] The siren songs of the Drownies drift across the still waters, luring the unwary to a gasping death beneath the zee.[11] From the cavern Roof, massive boulders of glim occasionally plummet into the sea without warning.[12] Ill-prepared voyages often end in starvation, and worse.[13] And of course there are pirates, prowling the currents in search of vulnerable prey.[14]
There is not much weather to speak of, however; winds are uncommon and usually mild (except when they aren't),[15] rendering sails useless in favor of steam engines and oars.[citation needed] A few private individuals operate clandestine zubmarines, in a violation of the Agreement About Nothing of Consequence. In keeping with the lack of wind, the Unterzee's waters are usually placid, though some regions have choppier waves.[16] When perfectly still, the surface of the Zee can act as a giant mirror, revealing glimpses of Parabola, the realm of dreams.[17]
The Powers
Zailors are famously superstitious, and their beliefs in the Neath are typically associated with the three Gods of the Unterzee. None of these deities is particularly benevolent or malevolent, but zailors try not to provoke their ire.
Storm, god of violence, valor, and the crash of waves. He is said to reside in the Roof of the Neath.
Salt, god of horizons, partings, and the restless urge to depart. Their domain lies in the Uttermost East.
Beyond gods, there are other entities that rule over the Zee:
The Fathomking, sovereign of the Drownies, holds dominion over all who perish at zee.
Lady Black, a solitary and lonely spirit, rules the Under-Unterzee and claims all who sink into its dark depths.
The Treachery of Maps
Demeaux's Navigational Chart of the Known UnterzeeIn-game map
Thanks to the Treachery of Maps, a peculiarity of Neathy geography, the Unterzee defies conventional cartography. Its islands tend to shift, and only a few landmarks stay fixed, making most charts unreliable.[18] Zailors deal with these alterations on the fly by relying on the false-stars, landmarks,[19] or simply their intuition.[20] Still, some regions remain relatively constant:
London and its neighboring settlements are on the western shore of the Zee.
Deep beneath the Unterzee’s surface lies the Under-Unterzee, often simply called the Below. This abyssal realm is ruled by its own strange laws and even stranger denizens.[citation needed]
↑On charting a course, Fallen London"The Zee is shaped like a wheel. [...] The Snares, the most dangerous waters in the Zee, are the "hub" of this wheel, in the centre. [...] If you need to travel to a further part of the Zee, your route will circle around the dangerous Snares – anticlockwise motion, along the Zee's currents [...]"
↑Plot your zailing route, Fallen London"These give me a general sense, but we'll need to chart the currents. The Unterzee flows in a spiral, you know. Shepherd's Wash to the Sea of Voices to the Salt Steppe; then the Pillared Sea, Stormbones, the Fifth City's Home Waters – and back into Shepherd's Wash; with the Snares in the centre, of course."
↑Plot your zailing route, Fallen London"London's misery flows into Shepherd's Wash: despairs borne by sickly amber tides, polluted with debris that keens off Polythreme's coast. Khaganian vessels cut through hopes lost overboard – hopes that will float, frozen, drowned, toward Irem. North. Northwest. Corpses for the Stormbones. Dead dreams. Strangled truths. Regrets. Back around the Snares, sinking deeper with each wave that pushes them down, like a victim forced underwater, struggling in a bath, until the struggling stops. Sweet silence as the blood circles the drain."
↑Z?, Failbetter Games""...in 1867, after the triumphant return of the Vogelstruis from Venderbight, that 'zee' entered the popular usage. Euphoria! The Difficulty with the Bandages had been resolved. Disfigured and unbreathing friends and relatives boarded the steamers for the tomb-colonies in their hundreds. Box-rooms were empty again. Grave-yards were quiet. And sailors were the heroes of the hour.Or, as they quickly became known, zailors. The 'zee-zongs' of Mahogany Hall may be credited for the change, especially 'The Fluke and the Fancy Mare' and 'Eat Our Hearts, My Darling' (which latter this author finds, to this very day, infuriatingly 'catchy'). They were popular at the docks, and no wonder! considering the heights to which they praised the sea-venturers! Steamer-crews adopted the habit as a means to differentiate themselves from their surface cousins. 'Zailors' disdained the gaudy blue of sky and sea and praised the subtleties and silence of life below. It has been claimed that the 'z' resonates more powerfully than the 's' in an underground space, though I remain sceptical.Seas may alter: human nature does not. As it became fashionable to 'zpeak' of 'zteamers', 'ztowaways' and even 'zhips', seamen disdained the appropriation of their argot. They identified over-use of the 'z' as a landlubber's mark. They reserved the 'z' for 'zee', for 'zailor' and perhaps for 'zong'. (And 'zubmarine', though many zailors consider this a dubious and even impious innovation.) They sneered at the swells who affected the 'zpeech'. Yet their own rules remain frustratingly inconsistent. Is zee-bat a pretension or the correct term? Does a zailor refuse to drink sea-water or zee-water? Accounts vary.This alone is 'zertain': the zailors defend their prerogative to 'z' or not to 'z' with ferocity. Correct a zailor's usage, and suffer a scowl. Refuse a zailor's own correction, and suffer indignities amounting almost to an ambush!" - P.F. Fulchard, 'Engaging Customs of the Underclasses', 1878"
↑Sign on to a glim-steamer, Fallen London"The work is hard and cold and often wet. The Unterzee is brutally dangerous, for all it lacks the savage storms of the surface. [...]"
↑Hunting the Beasts of the Zee, Fallen London"For a still brackish lake in a cavern beneath the Earth, the Unterzee harbours a great deal of life. Much of it has an improbable number of teeth."
↑What do the Drownies Sing?, Fallen London"A song rises from the calm waters. The eerie singing of the drownies is known to lure men to their doom; one Zailor is already leaning over the parapet."
↑Creaking from Above, Fallen London"You can see the purple haze that marks the glim-fall. A diaphanous lavender curtain over the black waters. Quite beautiful, until you're under it. It falls by the crashing handful into your nets. A zailor screams as a sharp little stone rips through his forearm. Still, there's a decent haul here."
↑A Worrying Appetite, Fallen London"The ship's stores of food are bare. The zailors have started looking at you in an unsettling way – basting you with their eyes."
↑A Pirate Steamer!, Fallen London"The Snares are a nest of pirates and cutthroats, zailing stolen vessels to and from their hunting grounds in the trading lanes between London, Port Carnelian, and the Khanate. They are not above accosting an innocent vessel who dares sneak through their territory – like yours."
↑The Killing Wind, Fallen London"There is little breeze on the Unterzee. But the Killing Wind, when it comes, is filled with tiny razor stones from the Elder Continent. It can flay a man to the bone faster than a piranha."
↑A Wind from the North, Fallen London"The northern reaches of the Zee are choppy and vicious, unlike its usual placid surface. Rough winds blow; the air is cold and thin. The weather makes men fearful, or worse, maudlin. Work slows. The helmsman's hand drifts."
↑Becalmed, Fallen London"The Pillared Sea is ordinarily choppy and rough, driven to turbulence by the cold winds that blow from the northern edge of the Neath. But sometimes one finds patches of stillness; places where the Zee is so glassy, it reflects the false-stars above like a mirror."
↑A Navigation Error, Fallen London"The Zee is treacherous; maps of the zee, doubly so. The motions of the false-stars disagree with your dead reckoning: you are not where you thought you were."
↑Listen to the Zee, Fallen London"You stand at the prow and concentrate on the motion of the waves and currents, the light of the false-stars above, the faint noise of the water as it follows the currents of the Zee. After a few moments, you give the helmsman a new heading – an accurate one."
