December
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"They wear a curious mask: not quite a fox, not entirely a wolf. All white."[1]
December is the elusive leader of the Calendar Council. Their species and background are unknown; their true name cannot be pronounced by humans, and their canine mask may be their actual face.[2]
December knows a great deal about the Judgements,[3] and has detailed knowledge of the Courtesy.[4] A book they authored, kept in the Agendums of Ascent, is a very old text on astronomy, which also discusses the motivations of the stars as if December knows them personally.[5]
The Curt Relicker was a member of the Calendar Council who fell in love with December. December did not return his feelings, and had him expelled from the Council. While disinterested in romance, December speaks to their followers warmly and seems to genuinely care for the rest of the Council.[6] However, they can only get away with such genial conversation because any other parties involved will not remember the details afterward.[7][8]
According to the Bishop of St Fiacre's, December is the sibling of the current Boatman, and they attained their current nonhuman form by breaking the Great Chain.[9] December's effects on memory are comparable to those of the Lady in Lilac, who is infused with irrigo - but these effects appear to be a consequence of December themselves being literally incomprehensible instead.[10]
In the Sunless Skies timeline, as of 1905, December has left the Neath with January and February. The three revolutionaries reside in Pan in Eleutheria.[11]
References
- ↑ Converse with a stranger, Fallen London
- ↑ Winter's Reside: Something More Than Revolutionary (December), Sunless Skies "'December' is not their real name, of course, but that name was not made to be spoken with tongue and lips and a throat. Their face is long and serene, like a Borzoi hound, with the same soft nose, the anxious grin. Is that their mask, or their face? You do not recall them removing it to eat."
- ↑ Converse with a stranger, Fallen London "They discuss things you know - the Chain, the Liberation of Night, London's place in it, your own role in preserving the city for that appointed hour. And they discuss things you don't: the Unrest of Hours, the vendettas of the Judgements, December's own origins."
- ↑ Ambition: Ask "What is the Courtesy?", Sunless Skies "December [...] speaks of a time when [...] when constellations and conjunctions went to war. The Courtesy was the agreement that ended it. The stars agreed a set of permissions and ceremonies that must precede any murder of a star. Now, the sky is littered with dead suns, but all agree that the murders were committed with a due sense of decorum. [...] There is more, they say, but to speak it would hasten a battle December is not yet willing to fight."
- ↑ The Calendar Code, Fallen London "Here is a chart of conjunctions, and here a timetable for the appearance of comets. The paper is dry, crumbling beneath your fingers. It would not survive being removed from the library. The concluding sections seem more philosophical, correlating the movements of celestial bodies to the affairs of London. [...] the final chapter explains the motivations of stars as if the author knows them personally."
- ↑ Converse with a stranger, Fallen London "They greet you warmly, as a comrade, and discuss the matter of London. They ask how you have found the other months. Has February softened? Not much. Has September gotten into any trouble? Some. Is August too crestfallen that there will not be another Election? Hard to say."
- ↑ Converse with a stranger, Fallen London "In the dream, those ideas seem solid, almost self-evident. But when you awake, you are left with your mind searching for them like a tongue probing the gap where a tooth used to be."
- ↑ Dine with December, Sunless Skies "December spoke about the edifice of the universe [...] Of a great Chain that binds us all in our place. It all made sense at the time [...] Now, you would struggle to tell it to others. It is as if you were both speaking in another language, which has now fallen from your mind."
- ↑ Speak with the Bishop of St Fiacre's (Aboard the Noble Garter), Fallen London "Death's sibling is a Chain-Breaker. Sometimes they conspire as the Twelfth Month. Whenever they visit London, we take tea."
- ↑ Return to Corncrake House, Sunless Skies "Spending too long in December's company is taxing. The mind tries to hold more than it was made to. It begins to crack."
- ↑ Winter's Reside, Sunless Skies "Three of the revolutionaries' governing Calendar Council live here: February, January, and ineffable December."