Stone Pigs
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"I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. (Did you know they did that?) And they sleep."[1]
The Stone Pigs, which are not actually pigs, are the engines of the Echo Bazaar.[1]
Sleeping Beasts
The Pigs once propelled the Bazaar through the High Wilderness, but they have been grounded for quite a long time by now. They were responsible for the creation of the Cumaean Canal,[2] and they churn and grind a city into nothing whenever a new one is about to Fall.[3] Fortunately for humanity, they spend most of their time asleep these days, sedated by lacre.[4]
The Stone Pigs are some of the most bizarre and eldritch creatures in the Neath, and to describe them would be a taxing challenge. They are vast and hairy, but they are not pigs.[5] They do, however, consume fungi like pigs (pigs love truffles after all).[6] The Pigs will never drown in lacre, only slumber in it,[4] and they obey no master when they are hungry; if they are starved, they will seek out food on their own.[7] If a creature, or perhaps specifically an ordinary pig, is fed the same food as the Stone Pigs, it may become a Stone Pig itself.[8] (Neathy taxonomy is weird.)
The Stone Pigs do not have hearts of their own. Their shared heart is a fungus that was once greater than a city, but the organism has been butchered and consumed over the course of eons.[9] This fungus is bloated with the memories of the five Fallen Cities;[10] it is also dead, but will live on through its poetry.[11]
The Tireless Mechanic managed to cheat a secret of the Stone Pigs from the Fingerkings,[12][13] and stored it within Frostfound.[14] Through an esoteric combination of ingredients, including a heart (as this is destiny's engine),[15] he created the Fulgent Impeller, an extremely powerful engine that runs as hot as the forces that drive the Bazaar.[16]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Travel to the Surface, Sunless Sea
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "Some people call them Stone Pigs. When the Fifth City fell, they awoke. That's why the Fourth City doesn't exist anymore. They churned it into the ground."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Putting the Pieces Together: the Taste of Lacre, Fallen London
- ↑ Flute Street, Fallen London "The hairy stone wall goes for a hundred yards in each direction. The edges are fast against the stone [...] the hairy stone is pierced and crumbling. Is this a Stone Pig? If it is, what happens here?"
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "If something looks like a mushroom, call it a mushroom. If something wants to eat mushrooms, call it a pig."
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "[...] their hungers must be satisfied again, or they will break away to feed themselves. They will obey no master without food."
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "Her pupils are wider than pies, and her whites milky-blue. She isn't stone. Perhaps she's not a pig either. Taxonomy, in the Neath, slips like a snake in your hands: even if you get a grip, you might get bitten too."
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "The Stone Pigs do not have a heart. The heart they do not have is here. It speaks to you. It is a fungus too. Once greater than a city, now butchered and shrunken and small. Only a quivering lump smeared on the altar and skewered."
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "What was lost still echoes here. Thoughts that rumble and congeal. Material for me to weave [...] Cataclysms when five cities fell [...] when they were crushed [...] here underground. My memories. They are mine now. Soaked into my mycelium."
- ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "They will not die. A memory, their poetry, survives."
- ↑ Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea ""I talk about engines. All the time. [...] And I dream about them. I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. [...] And they sleep, so the Fingerkings can crack their dreams open. So the Fingerkings recruited me.""
- ↑ Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea "I stole a secret from the Echo Bazaar. With the help of the Fingerkings. You know, the serpents who rule dream. Then I reneged on the Fingerkings. [...] Would you rather I'd given them the secret?"
- ↑ Objective: The Mechanic's Secret in Frostfound, Sunless Sea "I had to hide the secret somewhere the Fingerkings couldn't go. I hoped they'd leave me alone then. So I put it in Frostfound. [...] quite close to the heart."
- ↑ Construct the Fulgent Impeller, Sunless Sea ""Yes, I know," the Sage says, a little sadly. "The heart is destiny's engine." He climbs into the capsule at the Impeller's heart, and locks the framework into place behind him."
- ↑ Construct the Fulgent Impeller, Sunless Sea "The capsule, instantly incandescent with heat, seals shut forever. With a ticking sound, it slowly begins to cool. The Impeller stands radiant and whole before you: a jigsaw of heatlessly blazing ivory, with a martyr at its core."
