"Death in the Fifth City isn't necessarily the end. If you're stabbed or shot, someone may come along and sew you back together soon enough. If you're drowned, you'll wake with a hangover. If you die of old age or disease, or if you're hacked to pieces, it's a more serious matter. But in any case, once you die and return to life down here, you'll never be permitted to return to the surface...unless you're one of the few who find a way to immortality."[1]
Death is the end to all things. But in the Neath, and beyond, death can be, for lack of a better term, quite strange.
"Your wounds have proven too much for you! You collapse. It's like going to sleep. If going to sleep really hurt."[2]
Thanks to the light and vitality of Stone, death is not always permanent in the Neath. Londoners tend to recover unless they have been literally dismembered, while those who die far out in the Unterzee often aren't so lucky.[3] The newly impermanent nature of true death has caused some... changes in London's society. Serial killers like Jack-of-Smiles aren't nearly as feared as those on the Surface, and the newly devised game of Knife-and-Candle essentially consists of players competitively murdering each other. And God's Editors have had to significantly revise the Bible in the wake of this strange new status quo.
There are still a few things that can tighten mortality's grip on a Londoner permanently, however. Generally, if one has lost their heart or head, or otherwise been chopped up into mincemeat, they are very, very unlikely to return to life. Cantigaster venom is also a convenient tool with which to end someone's life for good. Death of natural causes and old age create varying results; the would-be deceased usually becomes a tomb-colonist if they don't die permanently of illness.[1]
The Boatman
"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"
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"Well, apparently he plays chess in paintings and folk-songs. Which are always accurate, of course."[4]
"'Enjoy it while it lasts,' he growls. 'You're all of you mine in the end.'"[5]
The Boatman's Hat
The Boatman is the Neath's Grim Reaper; it is his job to ferry the spirits of the dead across the river to the far shore. The Boatman appears to the dead as a skeletal figure, always wearing a brimmed top hat and possessing a softly glowing lantern.[6] He has a special fondness for chess and dice,[7] and winning against him may grant a spirit a little more time in the lands of the living.[8] He also seems to like weasels and bats.[9]
The Boatman has hinted that he may answer to a higher power, possibly even the Judgements themselves.[10] However, he has also stated that he "failed" these powers in some way, forcing him into exile to fulfill his duty as best he can under the circumstances of the Neath.[11]
The Boatman's Lantern
The job of the Boatman seems to be a bequeathed one to an extent, as the current Boatman is capable of passing on his position to those who seek it.[6] Taking up the Boatman's oars gives the recipient a uniformly skeletal appearance,[12] though those who have died several times are sometimes capable of telling the Boatmen apart.[13] The Boatman is actually capable of looking into the memories of the dying, which can be useful for gathering intelligence,[14] and he is held in his boat by a mysterious force: there must always be a Boatman, to prevent the dead from piling up on the near shore.[15]
A Slow Boat
"Placid black water. Barren trees. A boat filled with pale and shivering passengers. That must be the place of the dead, over there on the far bank. Oh good."[8]
"Where was it you left your body, now? In the street? At home in bed? How is the old thing getting on?"[16]
People who die in the Neath, whether temporarily or permanently, end up on a slow boat passing a dark beach on a silent river, a limbo of sorts. The dead await the boat on the near shore, and travel to the far shore to rest forever. Those who come to this place often have neither their bodies nor their souls, as both facets of their being still exist in the world of the living.[16]
The land of the dead is almost completely disconnected from the land of the living, though on occasion, items such as spectacles may cross over.[17] The land also has five rivers,[18] implying similarities to the Greek Hades, and it's implied that it may have ties to the place beyond mirrors.[19]
The Constables have agents that die and return regularly to ensure that certain personages stay dead permanently. Such a task is extremely mentally taxing, for obvious reasons.[20]
The Far Shore
"The ground erupts. Grey, wizened figures scrabble from walls of meat, clawing at one another, fingers locked in bone and socket, dragging at your wrists and ankles, tangling hair and tendons. With cracked tongues they beg for transport, promising grisly favours for one day's respite."[21]
The Far Shore, also called the Far Country, is where the permanently dead linger: a purgatory of lost, tormented souls, desperate for a second chance.[22] The dead are packed together like sardines, only split by the occasional jagged ancient ruin.[23] The most determined scramble to the tops of the ruins, hoping for an impossible salvation above the tide of the damned.[24] The entirety of the Far Shore is shrouded in a thick and shifting darkness.[25]
For the fortunate dead who are able to return to the world of the living, this place lingers only as a half-remembered nightmare.[26]
Other Locations
Death's Country remains unexplored - or at least, little word has reached us from those who have explored it. Its inhabitants tell of places wondrous as they are macabre: the Onyx Isles, the Last Empire's End, the Wormwood Eclipse, the Colossus of Dust, Winter's Tomb, St Rictus' Feast, the Citadel of Liver. Far from a dead place, these are locations with an active economy, and their own... delectable...? wonders such as blood-clot tea.[27][28] The nonhuman creatures of the Neath know more of these locales, and some are even traded there by other boatmen seeking an opportunity for profit.[citation needed] It may be a blessing that we humans cannot perceive these locations, as they are hidden under a layer of slobgollion.[29]
The Deep, Dark Zee
"You, and all your crew, are gone. London will speculate in vain as to how you might have met your end."[30]
"A wall puckers open, and a guard in a thorned exoskeleton brings in a shivering zailor."
""Go," the Fathomking says languidly. "I won't release her twice.""[31]
Lost with all hands...
Zailors who die on the Unterzee generally do not return. Some may turn up as Drownies, especially if they ate genuine rubbery lumps.[32]
The Fathomking is considered by some to be the lord of the Zee's dead.[33] He is the ruler of the Drownies, and he is actually capable of reviving the dead, for a price.[31] Sometimes, the Fathomking may add "enhancements" to those he revives; for example, he may cure a native of the Elder Continent of their animescence,[34] or grant a Rubbery Man the soul of a Lorn-Fluke.[35] That being said, His Complexity's revivals are not always completely perfect. There may be differences, noticeable or not.[36]
Those who spend too long in the depths of the Unterzee may meet the spirit Lady Black instead.
Death in the Heavens
"The Ephemera are the many, many dead who have come to the Blue Kingdom to enter by Death's Door. They are Ephemera only until they pass through, and then... but it is forbidden to speak of that higher mystery."[37]
A Shade. Art from Sunless Skies.
Dying in the High Wilderness sends a spirit to the Blue Kingdom, an enormous bureaucracy that processes and judges the dead.[38] The spirits who roam the Kingdom are called shades, and they often wear white, porcelain masks.[39] All kinds of creatures can end up becoming shades, including animals, plants,[40] and even Rubbery Men.[41]
The dead are sent to the Toll-Tower near Sky Barnet[42] and stand before the House of Days to be considered Ephemera, and thus properly registered, by the Kingdom's bureaucracies.[37] Following that, they must face final judgement by the Stone-Faced Court near the White Well;[43] those who are deemed worthy are granted the privilege of passing through Death's Door to an unknown fate.[37] However, certain individuals, such as immortality seekers, end up imprisoned forever within the Well,[44] and the dead who linger in the Blue Kingdom for too long often simply fade into nothing.[45]
Resurrection
There are indeed ways to bring the permanently dead back to life, but they are prohibitively expensive and come with significant caveats:
The first method is an esoteric ritual requiring: the corpse of the deceased, a copper bathtub crafted to match their precise body dimensions,[46] exactly 777 Mourning Candles,[47] and, most ruinously, a quantity of Hesperidean Cider sufficient to fill the tub.[48] The ritual proceeds as follows: the corpse is placed in the bathtub,[49] which is then filled with the Cider.[50] The candles must be arranged around the tub[46] in a Correspondence pattern resembling a constellation to prevent the dead from "waking cold," which carries catastrophic consequences;[51] they are then lit simultaneously.[47] Finally, fresh blood from a Curator, freely given, are added to the mixture.[52] If all is performed correctly, the dead will rise fully restored, even if they had previously decayed to bare bone.[53] The biggest drawback (aside from the exorbitant materials) is that the resurrected will have no memory of their former identity or loved ones.[54]
The second method, used by the Masters to revive the dead Consort[55] of the Empress in exhange for the city of London and everthing else she owned.[56] The exact process remains unknown, but it returned a semblance of life to the man. Upon ressurection, he was vigorous enough to resume marital activities with his overjoyed wife.[57] Yet some 40 years later, he has deteriorated to a vegetative state:[58] unresponsive, ghastly in appearance, unable to move or feed himself.[59]
The third method is yet another ritual, this one to create a Noman from the remains of the deceased. It must be performed in a place of sufficient cold, such as the Avid Horizon.[60] The physical remnant of the dead[61] is buried in a mound of lacre-snow,[62] Human blood must then be spilled onto the mound;[63] blood from any other source will fail to animate it.[64] From this, a Noman forms bearing the memories of the deceased.[65] But like all Nomen, it is doomed to melt after a time.[60] Luckily, there is another ritual to keep it from dissolving into a puddle. The Noman must first possess knowledge of a grudge, something bitter enough to linger. Then, a heart of Heartmetal must be embedded within it. The grudge anchors the being; the Heartmetal preserves it.[66] With both in place, the Noman ceases to melt and will even begin to heal.[67]
↑ 6.06.1The Shallows, Fallen London"That skull looks directly at you. Those fingerbones beckon you forwards. Into your left hand, he places his lantern [...] Into your right hand, he places his oar [...] he lifts the hat from his head and places it on yours."
↑Your move..., Fallen London"He enumerates the souls that have passed down this river [...] into final dissolution. [...] "Each time, the extinction of a star that might have been [...] They would have been luckier if Parabola had rotted their lights. I am one tip of one finger. Everything is owed...""
↑The Season of Family Ties, Fallen London""I disappointed them. I failed in my service, and this is my exile." He surveys his boat and its passengers. "Now, I fulfil my duty as well as the Neath permits. But it will never be enough." He grins – but then he always grins."
↑The Shallows, Fallen London"You have taken on the mantle of the Boatman. To the dead, you will appear skeletal, sinister; the embodiment of Death."
↑The Shallows, Fallen London"When you concentrate, you share the images he sees. [...] Is this some power the Boatman holds?"
↑The Shallows, Fallen London"You can't seem to leave the boat and walk towards the realms of the living. What is this force that holds you? "There has to be a Boatman," the previous Boatman says. "Otherwise, the dead would simply build up here, on the border.""
↑The Shallows, Fallen London"The Skittish Engineer waves his spectacles [...] "Incredible that these passed over with me. I can't tell if they're clean or not.""
↑The Season of Family Ties, Fallen London"There is a tumult of screamed pleas. "-do anything! Take me back!" "I'll go back to the Orphanage – I'll be good..." "Tell the devils I'll row! Send their Trireme! I'll row!""
↑The Season of Family Ties, Fallen London"From here, you can make out the shore. Grey figures squeeze close to one another, packed like preserved meat, flesh against flesh. Spindly ruins punctuate the sea of bodies. The stone columns are uneven and pock-marked, harrowed by time."
↑The Season of Family Ties, Fallen London"You can make out figures clinging like spiders to the tops of the stone pillars, watching. One squeals at the sight the boat; the crowd reacts violently. It surges towards you. A woman forces herself to the front of the mass. "Take me with you! You cannot leave me here." She is hauled back by her hair, another takes her place."
↑The Season of Family Ties, Fallen London"The far country is veiled in a restless dark. Its shore is thick with shadows. As you watch, they undulate like a dying earthworm. A throbbing hiss fills your ears."
↑You can almost see details., Fallen London"All around you, the dead cringe low and moan in desperate fear. You'll carry only a few desperate fragments of what you saw back to the land of the living. If you get there. Perhaps that's for the best."
↑Slobgollion, Fallen Londonand the prices these products might command at St Rictus' Feast, the Citadel of Liver, or even the far-flung Onyx Isles.
↑Slobgollion, Fallen Londonyou finally know what 'slobgollion' means. It's the colour that oozes between life and death. Most humans will never perceive it, but for the first time, you're aware when you cross the threshold. Death's Country is always right here, cloaked by a colour that no living mind can fathom.
↑ 46.046.1Assist in the preparations, Fallen London"Mr Cups has measured the proportions of the tub, compared against the complexity of the subject's physiology. The candles must be precisely arranged, according to sigils once whispered in the draughty gulfs of heaven."
↑ 47.047.1Ambition Nemesis – A Bath of Cider, Fallen London"When the candles are all in place, it is time to light them. They must all be lit at once, Mr Cups tells you. It is an impossible task for two – the Capering and the Shivering Relickers emerge from the shadows to assist. Seven hundred and seventy seven candle flames soon flicker in the copper reflections of the tub."
↑Approach Mr Cups, Fallen London"[...] a slim copper bath, a staggering number of sombre Mourning-Candles, a stack of small kegs (carried so carefully you would think they contained glass, or gunpowder), and – lastly – a sad, anonymous shape, wrapped in a stained bed-sheet."
↑Approach Mr Cups, Fallen London"The Coquettish Relicker unwinds the bedsheet, and begins gently placing the remains they held into the bathtub, ensuring that all the parts are appropriately arranged. You glimpse a tangle of soil-stained bones, still wound in their burial garments"
↑Assist in the preparations, Fallen London"The Relickers manoeuvre the casks to the edge of the tub, and begin to pour. They handle it with the utmost care, reluctant to lose even a drop of the content. [...] It is Hesperidean Cider. A single jug of it has been known to bankrupt entire well-to-do aristocratic lineages. And here is enough to fill an entire bath. You could buy a nation with this."
↑Assist in the preparations, Fallen London"Meanwhile, you help arrange the candles according to Cups' exact instructions. It is important, says Cups, that the dead do not wake cold. It shudders at some distant memory. The arrangement of the candles resembles a zodiac; constellations of candles orbiting the copper tub. [...]"
↑Conclude the rite, Fallen London"[...] Its right side, however, is still flesh, with blood coursing beneath the surface. You make a precise incision. A stream of Master's blood pours into the tub. It clouds in the cider, which begins to froth and boil. [...]"
↑Watch what ensues, Fallen London"[...] skeletal arms reach forth, grasping for the sides. They are followed by a grinning skull. Blindly, the skeleton gropes about it. You watch as muscles, skin, sinew and flesh grow on the bone like sugar being spun. [...] Hair sprouts from the roots. Skin crawls across muscle, bone, and sinew, hiding away all the grim machinery of mortality. [...]"
↑Ambition Nemesis – A Bath of Cider, Fallen London"[...] They do not remember you. They turn to you, smiling, and then look up at the cavern roof, speckled with false-stars. They gasp. They do not remember you."
↑My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London"...enjoyed such invariable good health... and lived so regularly all his life, that the public thought nothing of his illness until they were startled yesterday morning by the bulletin announcing a restless night and the appearance of unsatisfactory symptoms..." [Editor's note: This is a snippet from a real newspaper announcing the death of Albert in 1861.]
↑Mr Pages: Theories or Manifesto for Archie, Mask of the Rose"Her consort was dying. A loss not to be contemplemitted. We preserved him. In exchange: everything else she possessed. London and all that lies in fluminate propinquity, together with the oddments of the imperial hoard."
↑My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London"Listen: this is how love sounds. Excessive love and affection. Heavenly love and happiness. Beauty, sweetness, gentleness. My dearest, dearest, dear husband! How can I ever be thankful enough? He clasps her in his arms, and they kiss each other again and again. Their daughter watches through curtains whose folds fall black and heavy from the canopy."
↑Pose as a servant, Fallen London"Steps in the throne chamber. She's left – but for a moment, perhaps to recompose herself. Your chance. You walk in. The Consort is still on his throne, a placid porcelain mask covering his features. He doesn't move, or make any sound at all. [...]"
↑A Trade in Faces, Fallen London"[...] The Consort leans forward. He wears a death-mask of perfect porcelain, serene and smiling. [...] The face beneath is a rotten grey, the colour of dead fish on a beach. When he sips, tea dribbles through his beard. She dabs it away with the lace of her sleeve. "Wait," she tells him, "ein Kuss." Tenderly, she kisses his ragged lips, then slides his mask back down."
↑The Third Delivery, Sunless Sea"Mr Sacks is staring at a small wooden box as you enter the hold. Inside, wrapped in a few pitiful scraps of velvet, is a lock of blonde hair and a set of teeth. Carefully polished. Barely used. “The winter was harsh. The fire went cold. Later, the mother wished to forget. A convenient tragedy.”"
↑Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea"As soon as you dock, Mr Sacks lumbers ashore. It has been preparing for this. Plunging a hand into its cloak, it removes a handful of ammonia-scented snow. It places it on the ground and adds another on the top. Into this one it presses the teeth and the hair from the small box. Potential. Substance. [...]"
↑Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea"You nick your hand with a blade and hold it above the frozen mound. A drop wells up and falls. More follow. They fizz in the lacre, which softens and melts into a puddle of snow; a puddle from which a hand emerges. Then a head. Then another hand; stretching as it clambers up from nowhere. The shape of a child [...]"
↑Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea"You move to cut your hand with your pocketknife, but the vial clutched in your palm keeps the blade safely from your flesh. You tip it carefully, dripping a few drops of the thick blood into the pile. [...] A hand emerges from it. Then a head. [...] The twisted face of a gargoyle, rippled with red blood. It screams. [...] Just as abruptly as the scream began, it stops. The shape collapses, melts."
↑Ask the Snow Child about home, Sunless Sea"London? London! Yes! I wanted to play on the roof-tops, but it made mother cry. She cries a lot, but she says it's not my fault. She'll be worried. Wait - you're not a devil are you? Mother says to look out for devils." It gives you a suspicious sniff. "No. No eggy smell. You can take me back, right? I've always wanted to go zailing."
↑Seek help for Sacks and Snow: The Snow Child's Name, Sunless Sea"[...] Ice must melt and snow must thaw, but nothing lingers quite like a good, hard grudge. [...] The devil whispers something not for your ears. The Snow Child's face fills with captivated horror. The devil smiles. "Just so! Now, to hold it in place, I recommend... oh, what do you call it? Heartmetal. [...]""
↑Find assistance for the Snow Child, Sunless Sea"Fitting the heart is an unpleasant matter for all concerned, but what must be done is soon finished. At first, nothing seems to have happened. Soon, though, the drips stop. The wound heals. [...]"
