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 kingdom is called Grandinia," says the Mithridate. "And it lives. Rotting, entombed, Grandinia lives on.""[1]
Grandinia is a Presbyterate kingdom deep within the Elder Continent, weeks of travel away from the coastline.[2] Once a realm of splendor, its cities adorned with marble palaces and towering spires, Grandinia is now entombed in a bristling fungal overgrowth.[3] The air there is choked with spores. Mildew drape across what were once sparkling fountains and serene lakes. Fungus-pillars, vaster than towers, churn through paving stones. Its people, still very much alive and aware, are trapped under mounds of mould.[4] The entire kingdom swallowed whole by mushrooms.[5]
The fungus that has infected Grandinia, the cause of the kingdom's desolation, is called the Homesick Deceiver.[6] Its spores infiltrate the lungs of living beings, sapping their strength,[7] rendering them mute and immobile, but leaving the victim conscious beneath the Deceiver's tendrils.[8] The spores then create a simulacrum, a fog-like cloud of spores, which mimics the victim's shape, memories, and even their sense of identity. This doppelgänger returns to the host's home, unknowingly spreading the infestation further.[9] But the Deceiver’s creations are unstable. When a spore-simulacrum becomes aware that it is not the original, or feels like it truly belongs,[10] it erupts in a fungal explosion,[11] scattering spores across the environment and infecting all nearby life.[12] However, if the original host was severely disconnected from reality, their spore-self will inherit this mental dissonance. These simulacra are effectively unexplodable, as they never achieve the self-awareness needed to trigger detonation.[13]
The Homesick Deceiver thrives on the light of the Mountain. Stone's light empowers the spore-clouds, allowing them to exert physical influence: lifting objects, manipulating their surroundings.[14] Closer to the Mountain, the fungus is strong enough to infect humans and larger beings. Far from Mountain, its power wanes: it can still infest small animals, but is too weak to harm larger hosts in any significant way.[15]
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"[...] A tenuous picture takes shape in your mind; in the Elder Continent, distance is measured not in miles, but in time and brightness. Judging by the Mithridate's description, the kingdom that devoured the Grandmaster is bright, but not blinding, and requires weeks of travel from the coastline."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"[...] I continued travelling for weeks, deep into the Presbyterate. Eventually I found myself in a kingdom of silence and rot. The air was thick with choking grey dust. The cities were magnificent, once – grand spires, marble palaces – but they were all entombed in bristling fungus."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"Air choked with spores that settle in the lungs. Pillars of fungus, vaster than towers, their roots churning paving-stones aside. Shrouds of mildew, draped across fountains and lakes. Occasionally, staring frantically from a mound of rot, a pair of eyes."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"The prey is rendered mute, immobile, imprisoned. Yes, under the layers of rot, the bristling mould, the burrowing tendrils, a heart beats. An eye blinks. A mind thinks. At that point, don't you think, one might as well be dead? The Mountain's mercy is not always merciful."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"[...] its spores assume the prey's shape and consciousness just long enough for the confused doppelganger to journey home and spread the infestation there."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"Then, with an eardrum-bruising noise that can only be described as fwoomph, the Fog explodes. Choking spores fly in all directions, settling in the walls, the ceiling, the floor. A coat of bristling mould creeps over the furniture; mushrooms erupt through the carpet."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"[...] As far as you can tell, he's the first cloud of Deceiver spores to avoid reaching an existential crisis. It's a profound victory for the truly un-self-aware, you muse aloud."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"The homesick deceiver thrives on the light of the Mountain [...] Every spore glimmers with it. The sheer vitality of that light is how a spore-cloud is able to exert physical influence on the world: picking up objects, and so on."
↑The Thing That Came in From the Fog, Fallen London"Because the light in London is so pathetically negligible, the deceiver will be much less dangerous than if we were on my native soil [...] Perhaps it could infest a smaller animal, such as a mouse or a bird, but it will not be able to produce enough spores to infest a human. [...]"
