"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."
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"'It is always only the beginning of the work,' she says. 'A hand up, a word in an ear, a few pages written in a forbidden book. We do not have to complete the work, but we may not set it aside.'"[1]
January, also known as the Masked Curator, is a senior member of the Calendar Council. She is also the founder and guardian of the Museum of Injustice, an institution that exists to document and record oppression.[2][3] She wears a Janus mask, with one side scowling and the other weeping.[4] Her true appearance is left undescribed beyond her artwork.
"We will not even be able to imagine something beyond this hierarchy until we have brought it down."[5]
January is an ardent and outspoken supporter of the Liberation of Night,[6][7] believing it to be the surest and greatest way of dismantling injustice,[8] and fantasizes about extinguishing the Sun and Moon alike.[9]
January is not a light conversationalist; she seems to always be thinking about some deeper subject even while making small talk and sharing stories.[10] Even with those she trusts, she probes for deeper details about their lives and families.[11] When given the opportunity, she is a brilliant schemer, always steps ahead of everyone else in considering the ramifications of a plan.[12][13] She knows August well, though they aren't exactly friends,[14] and she values April as an ally;[15] meanwhile, she seems to see right through September as not being ready to fill his shoes.[16][17]
January critiques the Emancipationist school of thought as championed by Furnace Ancona, on the grounds that they prefer to ignore and escape oppression rather than confront it.[18] She thinks similarly of Cornelius and his Prehistoricists; according to her, they assume mistakenly that higher powers must behave by their own rules.[19] She cannot argue, however, with the unphilosophical desire to lead an army of one's own creations.[20]
In the Sunless Skies timeline, as of 1905, she has left the Neath with December and February. The three revolutionaries reside in Pan in Eleutheria.[21]
A Darkened Path
"January was once the Dean of Benthic. Now she has a great deal to say about the ivory tower, most of it bitter, but she remains unmistakably professorial."[22]
January was the Dean of Benthic College at some point in the past;[23][24] her disdain for the University as an institution suggests that she may not have left her position willingly.[24] A book apparently authored by her, kept in the Agendums of Ascent, discusses methods of radicalizing students of various disciplines.[25] Another of her books documents the injustices perpetrated by the Judgements,[26] and she notes that she has written many others, although they are not printed under her revolutionary alias.[27]
Among many other subjects, she has studied the Discordance, and believes she can use it to further the Liberation of Night.[28]
January's further background is never directly mentioned, but it is made quite clear that she is Jewish. She inherited a shofar from her family[29] and references[30]Pirkei Avot,[31] a compilation of rabbinical teachings on ethics and morals.
Historical and Cultural Inspirations
While January's stated motivations are metaphysical, there were a few real-world events toward the end of the 19th century that could have shaped her perspective and desire to end oppression: for instance, the growing social inequality that came alongside the rise of industry (precipitating the American Gilded Age across the Atlantic), the Victorian uptick in xenophobia and overall political conservatism across Britain (which is reflected in London mostly as antagonism against other species), and the rise of anti-Semitic sentiments and violence beginning in roughly 1881 that drove millions of European Jews to emigrate.
↑Invite January to the Board, Fallen London"Her attention is now turned to curating the Museum of Injustices, a collection for which she is always finding new prospective exhibits."
↑Ask her about the Liberationists (January), Fallen London"At once, the lamplight goes black. [...] No: it isn't enough to say that the light is gone. You must say the darkness is present [...] Your breath slows. Your thoughts clarify. Obligations feel less pressing.Only after a long, sacramental pause does January say, "This is the Liberation." Her voice is deeper and more resonant than when she speaks in the light."
↑The (Alignment) Way/(Liberationist), Fallen London"No one can explain the project of Liberation better than January: it reaches from the present moment to the end of time; from the front door to the farthest reach of the galaxy. The work did not begin with this city and neither will this city do everything that needs to be done. But it has a place, a very significant place."
↑Arrange for January to lead the Tracklayers instead of (Current Leader), Fallen London"She tells how every aspect of the universe is built on coercion and theft. "Nothing will change [...] until we have dismantled the light and the stars entirely. You ask what the world will look like afterward? I don't know! I cannot begin to imagine! Anything that I might imagine now would be tainted by the ideologies in which we were raised. We will not even be able to imagine something beyond this hierarchy until we have brought it down.""
↑Gather January's view on the Sun and Moon, Fallen London""Rather milky figure, the Creditor," says January, when you've told the whole tale. "I'd have flung the faithless Moon right in the Sun's eye. Take out both enemies at once.""
↑Take comfort in companionship (January), Fallen London"Her conversation is a little nervous, a little gruff. [...] She fills the air with anecdotes – from her girlhood, or from last week, it doesn't matter which – but you have the sense always of her mind running on a second track at the same time."
↑Take comfort in companionship (January), Fallen London"She teases out of you as much of your past as you're willing to share; she takes an avid interest in your Aunt. In someone else, you might suspect you were being drained of information. But you sense a real affection from her, at last."
↑(Assist with sabotage of the Masters) (Liberationist), Fallen London"January's attention is always three steps ahead of yours. When you are imagining victories in the Neath, she is imagining their influence on the Surface; when you think of the Surface possibilities, she has already moved on to planning for the High Wilderness."
↑Reveal the rifts within the Bazaar, Fallen London"January places new names on her wall, and updates the connections between them: velvet ribbon for passionate allegiance; rough twine for divisions growing wider; plain cording for the connections enforced only by law or some external power. How do the Masters relate to one another now, and how will they in twenty years' time?"
↑Persuade the Jovial Contrarian, Fallen London"What? […] January is an old and dear friend– well, no. January is a–. January will be difficult if you offend her. […] I've done it many times […] It's such a bother making one's apologies and I really recommend that you avoid the necessity."
↑Persuade January, Fallen London(Upon failure to convince her to remove April from the board:) "January notes that she considers April a valuable ally."
↑Persuade January/Tables, Fallen London""Yes," says January. "Please. If this effects his efficacy, so much the better." September shoots her an extremely hurt look, which she ignores."
↑Persuade January/Tables, Fallen London"She says, with a faintly self-mocking expression, that as unlikely as it might seem, she believes September is much too valuable to the board to let go."
↑Ask her about the Emancipationists (January), Fallen London"They understand work, but they do not understand the philosophy or the strategy of what lies before us. They would rather escape their oppressors than confront them and cast them down. [...] How many villages of the downtrodden do we scatter across the Neath, while the Masters, and higher powers still, go on as they have been? Forever producing new victims? The Emancipationists have no answer for that.""
↑Ask her about the Prehistoricists (January), Fallen London""Their philosophy is ingenious and foolish," says January. "The Prehistoricist thinkers believe that they can shame the great powers, shame the stars themselves, into acting according to their own rules. [...] But which of those above us ever intended to be fair? They don't ask themselves this, and they don't begin the true work; they dabble in experiments that help no one.""
↑Ask her about the Prehistoricists (January), Fallen London"A second thought occurs to her. "Their unphilosophical members are on more solid ground. They believe it would be entertaining, and that it would spare them considerable effort, if they commanded an army of ferrous beasts. I offer no counter-argument there.""
↑Winter's Reside, Sunless Skies"Three of the revolutionaries' governing Calendar Council live here: February, January, and ineffable December."
↑ 24.024.1Invite January to the Board, Fallen London"January was once the Dean of Benthic. Now she has a great deal to say about the ivory tower, most of it bitter, but she remains unmistakably professorial."
↑The Calendar Code, Fallen London"This is not a true textbook. It presents key concepts from a multitude of different subjects, but only in summary. The bulk of the text dwells on methods to radicalise students of that discipline; lines of argument which lead the listener to feelings of dissatisfaction and righteous outrage."
↑Ask about what she found at Hurlers (January), Fallen London"Nothing," says January. "I did not find an old ally; I did not learn anything of its history, nor observe the nature of its solitude. I did not learn to dine on shadows, or find sustenance in the dark. I did not experience a miracle of providence. And so the Liberationists to come will not benefit from what I have not learned."
↑Grant January the right, Fallen London"The ram's horn is longer than her arm. "It has been in my family a long time[…]" She lifts the horn and blows, a blast that goes on and on, more and more loudly, until it seems impossible for anyone to keep blowing; but she continues anyway." (T'kiah gedolah!)
↑Ask about her goals (January), Fallen London""It is always only the beginning of the work," she says. "A hand up, a word in an ear, a few pages written in a forbidden book. We do not have to complete the work, but we may not set it aside.""
↑Pirkei Avot:"It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it."
