The Salt Lions
"Two basalt beasts, cathedral-sized. They frown eternally at each other across the black waves. The north one carries an encampment: creeping human figures eat away at its features like rot, pick-pick-picking. There's a supply dock below."[1]
The Salt Lions are two giant basalt lions that face each other across the Zee.
Station IV
The Salt Lions are in the process of being disassembled by the Unmakers; these workers led by the Unctuous Overseer have been sponsored by the Echo Bazaar to bring the Lion's building blocks back to London.[2]
The material the Salt Lions are made of is called sphinxstone, and it possesses several unique properties; most prominently, it induces nostalgia and longing for home in those nearby,[3] and the effect is magnified by consuming the substance.[4] Sphinxstone also sometimes weeps tears, which can flood the hold of a ship transporting it.[5] The Echo Bazaar is not the only force that wants to acquire this peculiar stone for itself; agents of the Great Game,[6] the New Sequence[7] and the servants of all three gods of the Unterzee are known to use sphinxstone in their plans and rituals.[8][9][10][11]
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Bad Memories
The Salt Lions were built long ago by the Second City,[12] which used the sphinxstone's nostalgia-inducing qualities to trick the Masters of the Bazaar into entering the vaults inside the Lions, and trapped them there for centuries.[13][14] This greatly extended The Second City's stay in The Neath - and ensured the Masters' eternal hatred toward anything associated with it.[15]
References
- ↑ Salt Lions, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Visit the Unmakers, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Homecoming, Fallen London "you consider your feelings. They are not your own in this place. It is as if the Nostos is saturated with nostalgia, and in being within its walls, you have absorbed the sensation, growing heavy with longing for a time you will never see again.(...)The Nostos is built from Sphinxstone, stolen from shipments meant for the Bazaar!"
- ↑ Homecoming, Fallen London Before you can offer the stone to Mr Spices upon your open palm, it grabs your hand, jerks your arm towards its mouth, and – not caring that your fingers are still wrapped around it – clamps its jaws shut upon the Sphinxstone.
- ↑ Visit the Unmakers, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone for Penstock, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver the Sphinxstone, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone to the boy Slivvy, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone for Penstock, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone for Penstock, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone for Penstock, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Homecoming, Fallen London You pull the Thirsty Bombazine pouch from your pocket, and open it just wide enough for a plane of smooth black stone to appear. Mr Spices recoils, tripping on the carpet. "The Second City," it rasps from the floor.
- ↑ Homecoming, Fallen London Together you watch as a funerary procession makes its way towards a temple. A group of hooded creatures with clawed feet are led inside, and do not emerge for centuries.
- ↑ Homecoming, Fallen London "How dare you", rasps Mr Spices, though it lacks the will to punish the transgression. "You can't imagine it. Tricked by creatures as low as you. Led into a trap. Imprisoned for aeons. The furthest I have ever been from home. Forced to sacrifice—" Its words catch in its throat.
- ↑ A peculiar antipathy, Fallen London
