Category:The Elder Continent

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?" 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.

"Why do they call it the Elder Continent? That vast continent to the South with a glowing mountain at its heart - where the Presbyter has ruled for a thousand years - is older by far than any of London's civilisations. Which is embarrassing."

The Elder Continent is a vast landmass to the south of the Unterzee; it is the location of the Garden andthe Mountain of Light, and it may be older than the Bazaar. Varchas is its most well-known and accessible city, and London has an imperial possession here in the Carnelian Coast. The hidden city of Arbor also has strong ties to this place. 

Adam's Way

"On a bed of monumental ruins, warehouses and waystations of shroom-timber rise."

Adam’s Way, the estuary of the blood-tinged Nameless River, is the gateway to the Elder Continent. Only living ships may pass through it; the blood of Stone corrodes and destroys any metallic ships try to venture SOUTH. It leads to the port of Apis Meet.

Apis Meet

"All ships that approach Adam's Way are intercepted by the Gracious - the Presbyterate's splendidly head-dressed coastguards. A quaint but inviolable tradition governs entry: you must tell them one of three stories. In return you will be permitted to spend a single day in the port."

The port of Adam's Way is busy and riotous, but also surprisingly exclusive. In order to enter, one must tell a story to the Gracious, the Continent's coastguard, of either London, Hell, or a tale that remains unfinished (endings disappoint, they say). According to the Gracious, prolonged exposure to the soil of the Continent can cause "hysteria, rapture, [and] animescence". Because of this, foreigners can only stay at Apis Meet for one day exactly. Their time spent here is measured using Trees of a Single Day, which grow, bud, and wither over the course of twenty-four hours. Visitors must leave before the tree bends over and breaks.

Apis Meet is home to numerous markets and attractions. Business is often conducted here, and curious Londoners can observe the strange exhibits of the Sober Showman, who peddles Snuffers, Starved Men, and more.

The Garden

"There are a thousand speculations on why Death is strange in the Neath. Perhaps one is true."

The Garden’s presence in the Neath may predate the Bazaar's. Only flying things may enter it, and to harm one of these is considered a crime. Snuffers once walked freely in the Garden, but were cast out. Sounds familiar. Perhaps this place is Eden, but far more mysterious...

The Garden provides a strange source of vitality to the entire continent; fruit can grow from rocks, bones can sprout from the soil, and in some cases, inanimate objects have minds of their own. The source of this unnatural exuberance is the Mountain of Light, the daughter of the Bazaar and the Sun. An area's "liveliness" depends on its proximity to Stone, so people who die in far away places across the Unterzee often die permanently, while those who live on the mainland (such as Londoners) can often recover from death with nothing but a bad headache, and people who originate from the Elder Continent itself can live up to a hundred and still look good. Stone's glow bathes the entire Continent in a soft light, and she is the source of the Wax Wind, a storm of molten wax that can engulf and destroy entire ships.

Dark-dewed cherries and St. John’s lilies both come from the Elder Continent, and Hesperidean Cider - the drink of immortality - is made from apples which grow in the Garden.

The Presbyterate and the College

"The Presbyterate is not the Continent, but it dominates it. The Presbyterate's genius is its extraordinary heterogeneity. Seventy-seven kingdoms – men, Beasts, stones, flowers – a hundred schools of war and a thousand schools of thought – but all united under the Presbyter's word. And behind the Presbyter, the College of Mortality."

The Presbyterate is the central power in the Elder Continent, ruling over its territory of the same name. Seventy-seven kingdoms consisting of diverse individuals are under its banner, and it has a strong connection to Stone. According to the Bishop of St Fiarce's, the game of Knife-and-Candle is actually a corruption of the Presbyterate's rites and laws. It elects a leader, called a Presbyter, through a ceremony that seems permanently fatal to anyone who isn’t from the Continent. After the Presbyter’s time in office is up, he lives nameless among the College of Mortality.

The College is a necessity due to the increased vitality of basically everything on the Elder Continent. Even for denizens of the Neath, the Presbyterate's citizens are difficult to kill permanently, so to prevent overpopulation, the College of Mortality makes sure no person lives longer than they should (usually a thousand years). Feducci is an example of how hard they are to kill, though since he's the only person from the Elder Continent who is known to be repeatedly harmed fatally and come out unscathed, it is unknown whether or not his amount of vitality is considered normal there. The Presbyterate Adventuress's father lived longer than his allotted time, living for twelve extra years, so the College punished his transgression by forcing his children to die at a hundred. In the words of the Bishop, "death is the fist of the Presbyterate", and the College ruthlessly hunts down anyone who breaks their imposed laws.

The Mithridate Office is another arm of the Presbyterate; its aim is to confuse foreigners by spreading false stories of the Elder Continent.

Strange Dangers

"Animescence is a rare disease of the Elder Continent. A slow combustion of the soul, gradually baking the vital organs. Poets suffer worse than most; lovers worst of all. The blistered monks who run the hospital will accept any assistance."

There is a disease endemic to the Continent that sets souls on fire, called animescence. Even for people raised in the Continent, this is invariably fatal. Unusual fungal infestations are also commonplace; anyone who harvests fungi will almost definitely harbor a very severe infestation that may make them more mushroom than human.

Tigers are a powerful and influential faction here; it is advised that one does not press their luck with them. Currently, they are vying for control against London and the Khanate for the Carnelian Coast.

Beyond the Way

"Your road runs beside the nameless river that flows from the Mountain to the zee. The waters are thick with blood – thicker still as you travel South. Scabs float on the water like foam. The coppery scent of it rises about you."

Those who venture beyond Adam's Way into the heart of the Continent will encounter wonders and dangers beyond anything they could ever imagine.

Caution

"Caution, the City of Beasts, the City of a Hundred Tongues. Its spires rise through the forest canopy; a hundred, one for every tongue – scarlet, dusky green, royal blue. This close, the spires are less like coloured glass, more like glossy crabshell. The Menagerie sets up in a gently sobbing meadow just north of the Pilgrim Gate."

Caution is a city in the center of the Presbyterate, home to over a hundred different species of citizen. In order to enter through the Pilgrim Gate, one must first deal with the Pilgrim-Walkers, bird-like beings who demand to know if a visitor has lived long enough to enter. The Beasts of Caution can take on many animalistic forms, such as "Boars, Wolves, Tortoises, [and] Lions", and many take up residence within the city's grand mansions. However, they all have human eyes, and some show familiarity with the lands beyond the Continent. In the center of Caution lies the Temple of Meetings, where one can interact with Caution's various factions and citizens.

The Bleeding Forest

"The Wakers speak of the Bleeding Forest's temptations and dangers. They name the chert, the flinty principle which stifles the heart; the Huz whose stings bring weeping death; the Accidental Men; the Road-of-Seven. They name other things besides, but their words sink beneath your memory like stones into water. They cackle as they name them. 'You may end in the Forest,' one advises you, 'but now it will not be our fault.'"

The Bleeding Forest is a notoriously dangerous forest that lies beyond the safety of Caution. Those who enter the forest will be greeted by flora made of humanistic organs and flesh, such as eyes or hands. Anyone brave (or foolish) enough to venture past that will encounter the Road-of-Seven, which contains information related to the Kings and Queens from the times of old. Venturing further will lead to a vale where the trees blur the line between animate and inanimate, made of both flesh and stone. Deeper still lies a village, built within the chambers of a colossal fruit. Finally, near the Forest's edge, lies the Horned Maze, a labyrinthine plant which lures trespassers into its gaping maw.

Within the Forest lies a race of sentient bees known as the Huz. Offering them one's tears, and perhaps doing them a favor, may let a wary traveler receive crucial information regarding the Forest's dangers. Getting on their bad side, however, will earn a traveler a slow and sorrowful death.

The Prison of Flint

"Here the colours are grey and green. A narrow portal pierces a high and flint-thorned hedge. A crowd of lumpen figures muffled in grey wool guard the portal with weapons of fanged wood."

"One offers you a thumb-sized vial. The others close ranks. It seems that to enter, one must drink."

The Prison of Flint was built to hold a pretender-god, the Thief-of-Faces. As of now, the Prison is currently inhabited by a group of beings called Vignerons (winemakers), who wear grape-masks and are completely covered in wool (as in, not an inch of skin is visible). In order to enter the ranks of these beings, a newcomer must drink the wines that are offered to them. The wines created here are capable of transmitting messages solely through taste, such as warnings or welcomes, and a certain type of wine, the griswine, will turn its imbiber into a statue, and they will join the dozens of other statues that lie within the vineyard. The taste of any other wine will free them, but those who are petrified here must wait until they are freed by another.

Original by NiteBrite/Mrs. Brite