Albion
"Your engine lumbers around. The stellar gleam of the Clockwork Sun fills your windows. You'll be in Albion a while yet."
Albion is the British Empire's domain in the High Wilderness.
An Empire Renewed
The hub of Albion is New London - good old Fallen London - which has now been transported into space, brick by brick.[1] Empress Victoria rules here from her Throne of Hours, having gained control over time itself.[2] The region is illuminated by the glorious and very dangerous Clockwork Sun, the new King of Hours and the light that keeps the watches ticking.[3] The booming trade industry is hours, a material form of time that's often gifted to the privileged and pleased, and which can be used to significantly prolong one's life. Hours are mined, licensed, and sent to the royal court where Her Renewed Majesty distributes them as she pleases. However, there is also a rapidly growing black market trade in the stuff.
While London's industry is bigger than ever, Albion is notoriously repressive as a society. Those who fall out of the court's favor are thrown into the Midnight Cells, where minutes can last days. Others are put to work in the Brabazon Workworld, where hours can also last however long the managers please, not to mention that the working conditions would make Mr Fires blush. Meanwhile, the newly-managed Ministry of Public Decency is hellbent on exterminating all literature seen as "un-British", and literature that survives their censors is seen as hopelessly dull. Considering these factors, it's not surprising that various Bohemian and Revolutionary factions have fled Albion in favor of freer pastures like Eleutheria.
All space that lies beyond Albion is known as the Reach. Albion and the Reach are linked by a transit relay located in Brabazon.
Locations
- New London
- Avid Horizon
- Clockwork Sun
- Brabazon Workworld
- The Most Serene Mausoleum
- Worlebury-juxta-Mare
- Floating Parliament
- Perdurance
- The Royal Society
History
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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. |
At the turn of the 20th century, London allied with the Khanate to breach the Avid Horizon and escape the Neath, and the Bazaar's influence, once and for all. Needless to say, they succeeded. Once the Horizon was crossed, London rebuilt itself in the sky, brick by brick, in the space once ruled by the sun of Albion (the King of Hours), while the Khanate settled in Eleutheria and founded Eagle's Empyrean.
According to official records, Queen Victoria conspired with revolutionaries to use an Unclear Bomb to kill the King of Hours, but that's not exactly what happened.[4] Albion would never let you know this, but the true murderer of the King of Hours was actually the Sapphir'd King, the sun of the Blue Kingdom.[5] The Unseen Queen who currently lives in Underlondon is the King of Hours' daughter, and was formerly Albion's moon.
In the King of Hours' place, the Empress erected the Clockwork Sun, a renewed artificial star that would make her will the world's law (never mind the detrimental effects on everyone). With her power solidified, London entered a new age of imperialistic fervor and glory, determined to preserve her grip on the skies for all eternity.[6]
References
- ↑ Explore London, Sunless Skies "Liberated from her prison below the earth and elevated to the heavens. [...] Here are old, proud buildings, transported block by pale block to the sky. Here are new edifices of soaring steel and stone and gleaming glass! The ultimate achievement of Victorian ambition, unhampered by terrestrial concerns."
- ↑ London, Sunless Skies "The heart of London, where Her Renewed Majesty reigns from her Throne of Hours."
- ↑ Write a Port Report, Sunless Skies "The Clockwork Sun is the pre-eminent symbol of the Empire's heavenly dominion. The newspapers in London call it enduring, everlasting, eternal."
- ↑ Approach Her Renewed Majesty, Sunless Skies ""Your Majesty. We found the Unclear Bomb. It's unused. I must surmise that we did not kill Albion's sun. Thus, we did not claim Albion by conquest – and owe the Revolutionaries no debt. [...] Am I correct?" Victoria laughs. Her laughter is bright. "Oh, well done. Yes. We enlisted help, but the situation on the ground turned out to be quite different from what we'd expected."
- ↑ Ask about the King of Hours, Sunless Skies "The King of Hours was betrayed and murdered by the Blue Kingdom."
- ↑ Approach Her Renewed Majesty, Sunless Skies "Not that anyone's motivations matter so much anymore. One is timeless. One's dominion is history itself. Chronology bows before one. One is Eternity's Mistress." She smiles, serene and radiant. She waves her hand: you are dismissed."
