Mr Veils

"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.

"A scream is just an imperfectly tuned song. And we all have a song in our hearts."

"Mr Veils deals with clothing and fabric, and takes a close interest in the silk-weavers of Spite. But not in any of the more dubious activities in the district of Spite! The mere suggestion is slander!"

Mr Veils is a rather belligerent Master of the Bazaar.

Not the Kindest

Duplicitous and impatient, Mr Veils is best known for its enjoyment of hunts and songs, and is in charge of trade in clothing and fabrics. Zailors sometimes misattribute Mr Veils as being in charge of Mr Wines' ladies of the evening in their zee-zongs. This Master may (or may not) be responsible for a certain betrayal of which we will not speak.

Veils was known as the Khan of Silks during the time of the Fourth City, and is called the Masquerader Saint by the Cult of the Sanctified at Avid Horizon in the Sunless Skies timeline.

A Bat of Many Faces

Like a respectable lady's petticoats and skirts, there are still more layers to this Master. The Vake is but one of its alter egos, the many different masks it has worn across cities - and sometime after the fall of London, this one took over. Veils' identity as a Master... dissolved into the background, really. This had almost no effect on its reputation in London; after all, it has always been cryptic, and no one will notice that anything has changed beneath its heavy cloak. Mr Wines did notice, though, and has been forced to reconsider its relationship with Veils.

At its core, despite all these masks, Veils/the Vake has only three selves:

• Veils the Curator is the most primal and savage form of Mr Veils, desiring only to fly, hunt, and kill, showing itself most easily in the Vake as we know it.
• Veils of the Third City was a feathered god-priest of blood, who saw a special beauty in violent sacrifices and gory rituals. It still lives, and it follows this crimson path to the end, to reckoning.
• Veils the Intriguer is no less vicious than the other two, but stands as an outlier: it has no claws or wings, nor a hunger for blood... at least not directly. The Intriguer is a grand manipulator, a mastermind behind the chessboard, who makes its pawns do all sorts of nasty things. The reason for its relative pacifism is that the Vake's hunt for those who would seek to slay it has changed both its prey and the Vake itself, to become more like each other. Thus, in a way, the Intriguer is more human. And that has baffling implications indeed.