Mr Mirrors
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"For years she stalked one Master, Mr Mirrors. It's gone. It's been gone for years. She lured it into dreams. And dreams – nightmares – are her weapons."[1]
"The frangible and the fine!"[2]
Mr Mirrors is a curiously missing Master of the Bazaar.
Merely a Facade
The "Mr Mirrors" that many Londoners are familiar with is actually a persona put on by its former colleague, Mr Cups. The original Mr Mirrors disappeared from the Neath sometime after the Fall of London, and Cups took over its identity in its absence.[3]
Through the Looking Glass
In an age when the Masters still scoured the skies, Mr Mirrors was hunted down and captured for glass-whispering, a mysterious ritual that involved quietly speaking to a shard of a mirror in a hidden cave in an asteroid in deep space.[4] Glass-whispering is considered a sin to Curator-kind, so Mirrors was likely exiled following its capture.[5] Some time after this, an ostracized and heavily scarred Mr Mirrors chose to follow the other Masters beyond the Avid Horizon to join the Echo Bazaar on its mysterious mission. It brought a box containing the Claiming Wind, a tempestuous entity that Mirrors treated as some sort of pet.[6]
Unfortunately for Mirrors, around the time of the Fifth City, it was imprisoned by a woman with an affinity for the Parabolan: October of the Calendar Council. October disguised her identity and won the Marvellous, the Masters' high-stakes card game that grants the winner their Heart's Desire. As an avid revolutionary and opponent of the Masters, she used her newfound power to ensure that Mr Mirrors would be chained in Parabola in a "prison of its own failures," effectively destroying its presence in reality.[1][7]
In the Sunless Skies timeline, Mr Mirrors is called the Saint in the Glass by the Cult of the Sanctified at Avid Horizon.[8]
Dreams Within Dreams
""To be reduced to this," it bemoans. "Undone by a perfidious revolutionary, given to my own pet as a toy—" here, it shoots a wounded look across the moor, to where the Claiming Wind harries the heathers, "—and now at the mercy of some anonymous Parabolan vagrant." It turns its fractured eyes on you. "Miserable.""[9]
Presently, Mr Mirrors is chained to a fence-post in the center of a crossroads on a hill deep in Parabola, serving as a fortification guarding the mysterious Grave of Mirrors. This crossroads is known as the Beggar's Wake,[10] and very little remains of Mirrors itself.[11] Meanwhile, its former pet, the Claiming Wind, has been set free, and it will do anything in its power to ensure Mr Mirrors stays chained, just like it was once chained itself.[12]
Around the Beggar's Wake, other dreams of Mr Mirrors have manifested as physical locations in Parabola: the Court of Honey and Spices, representing its dream of glass-whispering; the Convocation of Runts, representing its dream of the Avid Horizon; and the Pedlar King, representing its ultimate ambition of becoming a great and terrible king.[13] Within all these dreams, the aspects of Mirrors have one trait in common: strange, mirrored eyes.[14][15][16][17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Shallows, Fallen London
- ↑ Mr Mirrors, Fallen London
- ↑ Hand over a multitude of scraps for a Rumourmonger's Network, Fallen London
- ↑ The Court of Honey and Spice, Fallen London
- ↑ A secret about the Masters, Failbetter Games
- ↑ Approach the Convocation, Fallen London "Ahead, a group of hooded, hulking creatures huddles in a circle.[...] One stands before the rest. Its monstrous face is scarred [...] It clutches a heavy box, [...] From inside it, you can hear a howling, like the wind on the moor. "Take me with you," the creature whispers. [...] "We have found a way: through a wound in the sky. You could even bring your pet," [...] something massive looms in the dark of this high wilderness. [...] Spires hang in the gloom. Sigils flare on its skin."
- ↑ Ask about her heart's desire, Fallen London
- ↑ Recite the litany of the dead, Sunless Skies
- ↑ Find the Grave of Mirrors, Fallen London
- ↑ Ambition Nemesis - A Guardian (2), Fallen London "A sudden noise draws your attention. A battered fence-post stands at the centre of a crossroads atop of the hill. Chained to it is an emaciated winged creature, clad in tattered robes."
- ↑ Dreamer's End, Fallen London "I am only a splinter of myself, now. A dream, dreaming. A reflection, cast by nothing."
- ↑ Speak its name, and unchain it, Fallen London "The Claiming Wind is not pleased that you have freed it's toy. It is black and fearsome and full of vengeance."
- ↑ Entreat the Pedlar King to forgo its demands, Fallen London
- ↑ Ambition Nemesis - A Guardian (2), Fallen London "Eyes glint within the hood – eyes of mirrored glass, each missing a chip."
- ↑ Sneak past the serpents, Fallen London "The creature opens its eyes, and its eyes are mirrors, too.[...] "No. Don't want to dream of this again," it whispers. "Take this secret, and go: every dream imprisons its dreamer. Find the prisoner.""
- ↑ The Convocation of Runts, Fallen London "The lone, scarred, whispering one with the box glares at you. Its eyes are mirrors. "What are you doing in my dreams?" it hisses. Its tone is possessive, wheedling, pleading."
- ↑ The Pedlar King, Fallen London "...the King declares, straining at its chains. [...] The shine of your gifts reflects in the kings' eyes, for its eyes are mirrors."
