Flukes
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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. |
"Crushing black silence. Thoughts like mud. Focus on light. Recall the surface. Recall the Surface! You are human. Three great presences. Deep as stone.
"The Drowning Feast. The greatest yet. Dishes like treasures. Gifts from above. Gold, wood, brick. Flesh, hair, eyes. Words, rhymes, thought. Why remain below? Flee far above. The wrong place. The wrong time. Abandon your plan. Or be resolved.
"WHAT HAVE YOU BROUGHT US? Voice in bones. Words in water. Answer in haste. They are hungry."
Flukes are monstrous, primordial creatures that generally resemble sea urchins.
Spiky Creatures
Flukes originated on the planet Axile, and are also formally called Axiles. They vary widely in size, from mere lumps to the size of a ship. They can be pretty friendly, all things considered; the more benign Flukes congregate and occasionally commune with humans in Flute Street. They're responsible for the creation of Flute Street's better-known residents, the Rubbery Men, which were made in an attempt to better communicate with humans. It's hinted that a certain Master may be responsible for bringing both the Flukes and the Rubbery Men to the Neath.
When killed, some Flukes leave behind a core which glows irrigo, the colour of forgetfulness, and is made of the souls of the creature's victims. It may be possible for individual humans to be transformed into Flukes as well. One man, The Fathomking, actually married a Lorn-Fluke; this possibly made him the "complexity" he is now.
The Flukes are experts of a rather horrific practice known as the Shapeling Arts. This allows a being to warp and stretch their body however they please, for the sake of pleasure, pain, or both. The Starved Men are the most notorious practitioners of this art.
Some Flukes give themselves up to become genuine Rubbery Lumps over at Mutton Island. Eating these lumps can turn people into Drownies.
What Lies Below
"The oldest Lorn-Flukes. Too vast now. Swollen with hate. Swollen with wisdom. Tendrils glisten dully. Light contracts nodules. Watch them flex."
There lurk Flukes in the waves of the Unterzee, of which even the most grizzled zailor will hesitate to speak. These Lorn-Flukes can easily overwhelm ships, both by physical destruction and by terrifying the crew by speaking words of Correspondence. As the splinter faction of the more mundane Flukes, they are enemies of the Masters and seek to control or destroy the Bazaar. There are many other varieties of Flukes that menace the zee, such as the Dawn Flukes, which fell under the spell of the Dawn Machine, and the Lornest-Flukes, found only in the blackest of depths.
There is a captive Lorn-Fluke in the Cave of the Nadir, and an enormous Lorn-Fluke is responsible for the wreck of the Fortas Kettle, leading to the creation of Aigul.
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A Lorn-Fluke. Art from Sunless Sea. -
A Dawn Fluke. Art from Sunless Sea. -
A Lornest-Fluke. Art from Sunless Sea. -
Dead Flukes. You can still hear them. Art from Sunless Sea.
What Lurks Above
"You can smell the Fluke's dying wishes, are ravaged by its regrets: the search it leaves incomplete; its fear that the search is impossible and will never end; the jagged, excruciating recollections of being outcast and the certainty that only the outcast have a chance of success."
Veteran zailors who hoped to escape the Flukes upon crossing the Avid Horizon will be sorely disappointed, as certain Flukes have taken to the skies as exiles of their kind. These Scorn-Flukes are even more dangerous than their Neathy counterparts, and they're beyond furious, screaming Correspondence with unprecedented fluency as their ritually scarred bodies undulate through the star-maddened skies. It's implied that their rage is a result of their futile search to find Axile again and return home.
A Scorn-Fluke is responsible for the strange, grotesque, and honestly hilarious phenomena at Worlebury-juxta-Mare.
