The Adulterine Castle
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WARNING: Beyond this point lie spoilers for the Discordant Studies storyline from Fallen London. Do not proceed forward. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here. |
"Everything that isn't here would simply float away (bubbles trapped in the ice rising finally to the surface) were these nonexistent rooms, these transparent towers, unbound from the weightless weight that hasn't sunk like an anchor to the depths beneath the lake; rather, like an Anchoress. Her absence is ever-present when you don't traverse the twisting corridors."[1]
The Adulterine Castle does not exist.[2]
You Are Not Here
The Adulterine Castle is not built far below the frozen surface of a lake near the Hurlers;[2] the lake's surface is not a gateway to the castle.[3] A traveler's mindset shapes what they perceive, and what they do not perceive;[4] thus, if one stares at the ice with the right mindset, one will not enter the Castle.[5][6]
It is not strictly known what is and is not happening within the Adulterine Castle,[7][8] though given that the Castle does not exist, one may reassure themselves that most things they are experiencing are not happening.[9] It must be noted, however, that any events within its walls are not a dream; dreams are "out there" in Parabola,[10] and contain "more substance" than the Castle.[11]
This castle that does not exist features a courtyard,[12] an interior[13] with many halls[14] and rooms,[15] and transparent towers.[16] Plants do not grow here,[17] and snow does not fall throughout.[18] It is inhabited by countless Stewards of the Discordance,[19] who do not study the Discordance[20][21], do not conduct experiments involving its principles,[22] and do not also engage in typical chores and activities, such as laundry,[23] sorting the mail,[24] and dining.[25]
Those who are not visiting the Adulterine Castle will see the frozen lake above them;[26] the standing stones of the Hurlers will be viewed as two teams of goat-demons not playing Hurly-Burly,[27] because the Hurlers are both two rings of standing stones upon a hill and two teams of goat-demons.[28] The Stewards who reside here do not spectate the goat-demons' games, and do not gamble on the games' outcome.[29]
What Is Not Within
The lower levels of the castle do not contain chambers that house a library of empty books;[30] the Stewards that work here study how the Discordance behaves when it is translated from nonexistence to existence.[31] The upper levels of the castle do not feature spiraling staircases, melting windows, and wallpaper that continually shifts its design.[32] The Stewards here do not experiment on goat-demons to perform forbidden research they will not remember, and the goat-demons do not experiment on the Stewards in turn.[33]
Somewhere in the Castle, "where all corridors connect," there is not an Anchoress.[34] She anchors the nonexistent castle in place, preventing it from "floating away."[35] Her dwelling place is not an anchorhold[36] - a locked room with a single window, located deep within the castle,[37] with only a black cat for company.[38][39]
The Anchoress did not build the Adulterine Castle. While she was living in England during the Black Plague,[40] she read and understood the sigils written on the Hurlers.[41][42] This brought her into contact with the Black, a binary Judgement who was erased from reality and history.[43][44] The Black used the Discordance[45] to decree that neither itself nor the Anchoress would never be alone, and also decreed that the Anchoress would always be herself.[46] And so, as she comforted the Black, she became herself: she is the Anchoress and she is the Castle.[47]
References
- ↑ The Adulterine Castle, Fallen London
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Discuss the Adulterine Castle (The Steward), Fallen London "[...] some people do claim there's a castle in the lake, under the ice. I know just how the rumour started too. When something doesn't exist, it's difficult to comprehend."
- ↑ Open your eyes, Fallen London "Stare into the lake's frozen surface. [...] You don't pass through the ice, and the ice doesn't lock overhead. [...] You haven't entered a castle that hasn't been built."
- ↑ Take tea with her 4, Fallen London ""What we perceive is reflected in us," the Steward says. "What we don't perceive is reflected too. [...] If your nightmares reflect a number that's not in your head, then your thoughts will reflect nonexistence. [...] Look into the lake. [...] you won't see anything in the ice – unless you see nothing.""
- ↑ Discuss the Hurlers again 2, Fallen London "As she speaks, your skull grows steadily colder. [...] the next time you visit the lake. The Hurlers are reflected in the ice, but only when your thoughts reflect them too. Now your thoughts will." (Crystalline Knowledge set to 3)"
- ↑ Open your eyes, Fallen London "Stare into the lake's frozen surface. [...] Unlocked with Crystalline Knowledge 3-6 [...] You have not entered a new area."
- ↑ Absence, Fallen London "If you aren't here, perhaps you're somewhere else."
- ↑ Concentrate more, Fallen London "Imagine the possibilities. You might be dancing. You might be dining. [...] You only have to picture it, and there you are again, even if you have never been there."
- ↑ Open your eyes, Fallen London "Reassure yourself: this isn't happening."
- ↑ The Castle That Isn't Here, Fallen London "Perhaps you think this is a dream. [...] this isn't a dream. The dreams are out there, coiling in the jungle."
- ↑ Leave through the Mirror-Marches, Fallen London "Even dreams have more substance than this castle's chambers. "
- ↑ Enter the courtyard, Fallen London "In order to walk outside, one has to walk further inside. [...] Entering the courtyard [...]"
- ↑ Enter the Adulterine Castle, Fallen London "You've never been inside this building before."
- ↑ Echoes, Fallen London "Did you hear something? A footfall in the empty halls?"
- ↑ The Adulterine Castle, Fallen London "Everything that isn't here [...] these nonexistent rooms [...]"
- ↑ The Adulterine Castle, Fallen London "Everything that isn't here [...] these transparent towers [...]"
- ↑ Fruitful Symmetry, Fallen London "Plants don't flourish in the bitter cold. Trellises [...] aren't entwined with branches and vines that won't bloom."
- ↑ Snowfall, Fallen London "It isn't snowing."
- ↑ Consult the Stewards of the Discordance, Fallen London "Consult the Stewards of the Discordance [...] There are more in this castle than you could begin to number."
- ↑ Open your eyes, Fallen London "This isn't where the Discordance is studied, because it cannot be studied."
- ↑ Consult the Stewards of the Discordance, Fallen London "Deadly Grammar Lessons [...] Nobody can fully understand the Discordance. The Stewards [...] Whenever one attempts to study a sigil, another waits nearby with a weapon. [...] Steward starts to comprehend too much, the second Steward employs the weapon."
- ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "These Stewards aren't gathering data or conducting linguistic research with peculiar instruments."
- ↑ Laundry Day, Fallen London "Laundry Day [...] All the Stewards in this castle wear identical clothing. [...] they're not soaking their robes in great tubs or scrubbing their wimples [...]"
- ↑ Sorting the Mail, Fallen London "Sorting the Mail [...] Discordant Missives are never delivered to the Adulterine Castle. [...] it isn't your responsibility to help the other Stewards sort the envelopes."
- ↑ Fasting and Forgetting, Fallen London "The Stewards don't assemble at a long table to eat [...]"
- ↑ Beneath the Standing Stones, Fallen London "When you aren't in the castle, you can gaze upward and study the lake's underside."
- ↑ Beneath the Standing Stones, Fallen London "Beneath the Standing Stones [...] When you aren't in the castle, you can gaze upward and study the lake's underside. You can see the Hurlers, two stone circles [...] but they aren't stone circles. Each stone is a goat-demon. [...] their game has been frozen, their two teams locked mid-play beneath the ice."
- ↑ Don't talk about the game, Fallen London "Because these are the Hurlers. Because there is no difference between the standing stones atop the hill, and these goat-demons."
- ↑ Don't talk about the game, Fallen London "The Stewards are accepting bets on which hurling team won't score higher [...] that is to say, they aren't accepting bets. The Anchoress doesn't condone gambling."
- ↑ The Lower Castle, Fallen London "The Lower Castle [...] Chambers don't open around you. Stewards don't move through these chambers, reading books without pages, calculating figures without digits or values."
- ↑ Consult the Lower Stewards, Fallen London "Consult the Lower Stewards [...] Discuss what isn't being studied in the floating libraries. [...] the only way to safely study the Discordance is not to study it. [...] Difficulties [...] when its nonexistent principles are translated into existence. One can't always predict what will happen [...] effects don't exist until they do – at which point, they don't represent the Discordance. They are a distortion, twisted into [...] something that's real. [...] In this nonexistent castle, Stewards work to study how effects might manifest. [...] an approximation still might be approached."
- ↑ The Upper Castle, Fallen London "The Upper Castle [...] Staircases don't spiral [...] above your head. Windows don't melt and pool [...] the wallpaper keeps changing into other wallpaper."
- ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Quite a few Stewards aren't dragging goat-demons by their horns into various laboratories. It would seem that, in order to research Discordant phenomena, test subjects aren't necessary. Quite a few goat-demons also aren't dragging Stewards into various laboratories by their wimples. Research that could never be conducted elsewhere can't be conducted in this castle either, which is why so much research is not being conducted here."
- ↑ Approach the Anchoress, Fallen London "Approach the Anchoress [...] She doesn't dwell at a centre where all corridors connect."
- ↑ The Adulterine Castle, Fallen London "Everything that isn't here would simply float away [...] were these nonexistent rooms, [...] unbound from the weightless weight that hasn't sunk like an anchor [...] like an Anchoress. Her absence is ever-present when you don't traverse the twisting corridors."
- ↑ Approach the Anchoress 2, Fallen London "You're looking through a prison window. [...] the Anchoress will never leave her anchorhold. She cannot leave, because she isn't there."
- ↑ Approach the Anchoress 4, Fallen London "You haven't opened deeper corridors in this castle. You can't walk down those corridors to find a [...] little room, which you cannot visit now. [...] The Anchoress is not expecting you. [...] There is not a window here for her to see the sky. It isn't a very small window, outfitted with bars [...] It is an enormous window, larger than this [...] room can hold, thrown open to the star-drenched universe."
- ↑ The Anchorhold, Fallen London "The Anchoress [...] A little black cat isn't curled on her lap, her only companion in this tiny room."
- ↑ Leave the anchorhold, Fallen London "The Anchoress doesn't lift a hand to bid goodbye. Her hands are clasped eternally in prayer; she could not lift one if she wanted to. [...] She will never have any company except her cat."
- ↑ All Dark in the Chamber, Fallen London "Living when rats swarm through every gutter, when a plague sweeps the city, and still lighting a candle in your window every night: [...] she did it.""
- ↑ Light a candle (All Dark in the Chamber), Fallen London ""Anyone would've agreed to read the stones. But not everyone would have tried to understand them.""
- ↑ Enter the courtyard (The Black Castle), Fallen London "[...] the Anchoress does come closer, walking toward the standing stones and their screaming sigils."
- ↑ Walk the upper galleries, Fallen London "[...] a double star. No light twinkles through them. "I saw the absence. Now you see it too.""
- ↑ Before the Black Throne, Fallen London "no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void, stricken from life, stricken from death, [...] forgotten [...]"
- ↑ Meditate upon the Upper Principles (The Upper Castle), Fallen London "You have risen to such heights that they have cast you down, but you have learnt to speak even without a voice. [...] you have beckoned with no sceptre, worn no crown [...]"
- ↑ Enter the courtyard (The Black Castle), Fallen London "The Discordant Law [...] and you will never be alone – and we will never be alone – [...] the Anchoress does come closer, walking toward the standing stones [...] by our decree, you shall still be yourself"
- ↑ Enter the courtyard (The Black Castle), Fallen London "[...] she becomes herself [...] she fills the castle with herself – until she herself is the castle, and the castle has become herself. And kneeling amongst the stones, she cradles no frozen king whose body [...] shivers in her embrace."
