Saviour's Rocks
"The sound of their constant motion is like pebbles on a beach..."[1]
Saviour's Rocks is a chain of islands located to the East of the Unterzee, filled to the brim with sorrow-spiders.
The Nativity
Saviour's Rocks is the largest grouping of sorrow-spiders in the Neath. The few humans living in the Nativity, the only human settlement here, refuse to speak of their arachnid companions, only referring to them as their "generous neighbors of whom they will speak no ill."[2] The sorrow-spiders see and hear everything, and those who transgress are soundly punished. But spider territory is not forbidden ground; on occasion, people may venture into the pitch-dark Scuttering Reaches to gather silk in preparation for their festivities.[3]
The inhabitants of the Rocks are divided into two groups based on their functions: the Weavers, who tend the webs, and the Widows, who care for and feed the spiders.[4] Luckily for visitors, the spiders have instituted what they call the Accord of Grace, which usually lets visitors commune with the humans here unscathed. Usually.[2] Silk traders are common here, but they're notoriously tight-lipped and artificial, arguably even robotic.[5]
The main human contact in this wretched place is the rather passive-aggressive Emissary of Spiders. This eyeless but well-informed individual is willing to conduct business with zee-captains; he acts as the "mouth" of the spider-council here, and he also occasionally acts as a tour guide for visitors.[6]
The Festival of Silk is a much-awaited annual event where the inhabitants of the Rocks can finally let loose and have a good time, before going back to their colorless lives.[7]
Near the Rocks lies the wreck of the Nocturne, a ship that the spiders emptied and covered in webs.[8]
Webbed Secrets
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"You've heard somewhere that sorrow-spiders can travel between mirrors. Did you read it in some weighty book on cryptoarachnology, or was it the rant of a beggar in the Flit? Why does the phrase 'tree of ages' come to mind?"[9]
"Branches of webs hang in their thousands from the colossal statue of some being as far from an angel as an angel from a man. The spider-council has made its home in the chipped out eyes, surrounded by its lessers and a precious collection of ensnared unfortunates. Hundreds of these captives dangle in silk cocoons, the sane and still-living tended to just enough to serve their full measure of both use and suffering."[10]

Sorrow-spiders have the mysterious ability to travel between mirrors, which can be useful for infiltration and assassinations.[11]
The spiders of Saviour's Rocks formed an alliance with an avaricious Lorn-Fluke. The Fluke would blind a zee-beast that knows the Correspondence, and the spiders would give it troves of secrets in return.[12] The Fathomking seems to have a strong enmity with the sorrow-spiders, and Drownies who dare trade with them are promptly executed in his court.[13]
Saviour's Rocks is guarded by the Tree of Ages, a living ship of huge spider-councils, made from a complex series of deals the spiders struck and betrayed.[14] Eventually, they seek to become the Tree of Epochs, which will "stretch through the Neath to become the perfect geometry of sorrow".[15]
Another spider-council on the Rocks is the Tree of Seasons, which is smaller but arguably even worse. The Tree of Seasons resides within the Web of Stone, which is also home to various eyeless cultists. It has trapped several unfortunate beings within cocoons to extract their secrets, and these poor souls' only refuge is death itself.[10]
Mysteriously, Saviour's Rocks also has architecture that evokes the Third City.[16]
References
- ↑ Port description, Sunless Sea
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Assist with festival preparations, Sunless Sea
- ↑ The Scuttering Reaches, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Spy on the Weavers and Widows, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Compile a Port Report, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Meet with an Emissary of Spiders, Sunless Sea
- ↑ The Festival of Silk, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Wreck of the Nocturne, Sunless Sea
- ↑ A matter of spiders, Fallen London
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Behold the Tree of Seasons, Sunless Sea
- ↑ The great work?, Fallen London
- ↑ Spying: On the grand spider-council, Sunless Sea "They speak [...] century of stolen secrets, [...] almost as long regretted promise made to a great zee-beast. [...] greed for knowledge, for which it willingly blinded another creature with the light of the stars. [...] secrets, eagerly grasped, reluctantly relinquished. [...] the curse of curiosity. [...] they speak of a trap, yet to be baited."
- ↑ Witness an execution, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Spying: On the Tree of Ages, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Spying: On the subject of eyes, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Take in the surroundings, Sunless Sea