Apocrypha

From The Fifth City Wiki

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"

This page contains spoilers for the following Fallen London endgame content: Firmament. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"So: the Apocrypha. Pieces of our past, or our future, or our present. They can be a person or a place, a thing that could have happened or a thing that might happen. Their only commonality is that they have been excised."[1]

Apocrypha (singular: Apocryphon[2]) are events, places, or people whose existence has been retroactively removed from reality by a higher power.[3] This removal extends backwards into history; most observers will not be aware of the redaction, or even remember an Apocryphon ever having existed in the first place.[4][5]

Apocrypha are not necessarily lost for good; redaction does not involve destruction, but instead a separation from primary reality (the Is) and internment somewhere else, usually Lost Time.[citation needed] Individual Apocrypha may return to existence through the intervention of others, or sometimes through their own agency.[6]

Enforcement[edit | edit source]

"A schism amidst the Stacks where feathers fall and shoulders split on spurs of skin and bone. The Vulgate and the bone-folders, once editors and redactors, now editors against archivists. And the fierce beauty of the unfolding Apocrypha was too wonderful for the Vulgate to abandon: there was no truce in the Stacks, only blood and bone and feather."

As with much else in the Neath, the enforcement of the rules of reality is delegated to agents with interests of their own. The process of redaction and the maintenance of Apocrypha were originally the charge of the Bonefolders and the Vulgate, who jointly presided over the process within Lost Time. However, a difference of opinion resulted in the violent expulsion of the Vulgate.[7] The Bonefolders now serve as the "gaoler-librarians" of Lost Time, and are mostly successful in keeping Apocrypha safely contained from reality.[citation needed] The Vulgate, however, now opposes the Bonefolders by striving to release and reintegrate Apocrypha into the Is.[8]

Apocrypha who have been reintegrated into an inconsistent reality are at risk for their removal from the timeline once again, but the Vulgate may "edit" or engage in further redactions to mitigate those inconsistencies and preserve the Apocrypha.[9][10] While redactions fall within the Vulgate's domain,[11] it appears to disagree that Apocrypha should be removed altogether from the Is.[7][12]

Notable Apocrypha[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Look for a deeper insight, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Apocrypha, Wiktionary "Properly plural (the singular would be apocryphon)"
  3. ↑ Look for a deeper insight, Fallen London "So: the Apocrypha. Pieces of our past, or our future, or our present. They can be a person or a place, a thing that could have happened or a thing that might happen. Their only commonality is that they have been excised."
  4. ↑ Consider what you have learned, Fallen London "As you recount events, it becomes apparent that only you and the Last Duchess have any recollection of any of it."
  5. ↑ Set a course for the Sous, Fallen London "He looks perturbed for a moment. "I wish we could remember who we've lost. Godspeed to you [...]""
  6. ↑ Look for a deeper insight, Fallen London ""Our Apocrypha are those excisions that have escaped.""
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Vulgar Phantasms, Fallen London "A schism amidst the Stacks [...] The Vulgate and the bone-folders, once editors and redactors, now editors against archivists. And the fierce beauty of the unfolding Apocrypha was too wonderful for the Vulgate to abandon: there was no truce in the Stacks [...]"
  8. ↑ Vulgar Phantasms, Fallen London "And in the wide world, these stolen Apocrypha flourish. Expand, elaborate. [...] They are so very beautiful. Perhaps they could be preserved; made safe. Somewhere like the Library. But not the Library."
  9. ↑ Hoc Vectigal, Fallen London "I am Vulgate. Do not fear. I will fix this unstitching and perfect the error, as I have done before."
  10. ↑ Spirefall, Fallen London "I have kept this morsel of excised material from truth's arrow. You have spoken what you should not in a place that is not. It will not survive you. Therefore, as Vulgate, I must write you out."
  11. ↑ Firmament: Consult the Duke at War, Fallen London "A circle of gold hems in the city to the east, where the false wood still stands. It occupies the Vulgate for now: so many errors to redact, and no redaction is immediate. Excision is a polite word for cutting, and cutting takes time."
  12. ↑ Spirefall, Fallen London " No! This is my domain. You shall not take it from me. Take them eat them leave this apocrypha–"
Retrieved from "https://thefifthcity.wiki/w/index.php?title=Apocrypha&oldid=22818"