Cosmogone

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"C lights COSMOGONE, the colour of remembered suns. The fecund, the foetid, the fungal: these flourish in the glow of cosmogone."[1]

A shade of the Neathbow heavily associated with Parabola, cosmogone is the color of remembered sunlight. The name "cosmogone" probably comes from the words "cosmogony", the study of the origin of the solar system or of the universe, and "gone".

Properties[edit | edit source]

"The light washes over your face like a wave of heated honey. But there's a coldness inside that warmth – like the taste of saccharin to sugar."[2]

Cosmogone light is warm,[3] albeit with a touch of coldness,[4] and encourages the growth of flora and fungi alike.[5] It is the color of the Parabolan sun, the Skin of the Sun, and is irresistible to the denizens of mirrors.[6]

Cosmogone is consistently portrayed as a shade of golden yellow or orange.

Uses[edit | edit source]

"The lenses are the colour of remembered sunshine, which the things behind mirrors find irresistible."[7]

Cosmogone is the most prominent color in Ray-Drenched Cinders,[8] which also contain the radiances of other Neathbow colors like irrigo and violant.[9] It is also the tint of a Silverer's spectacles, thanks to its effect on Parabolan creatures.[6] Cosmogone film provides "luminous highlights"[10] and makes pictures seem idealized and sentimental.[11][12]

The Legenda Cosmogone is "a compendium and denunciation of false saints," including the Saints of Hell, the testaments of St. Joshua that dictate the rites of Midnighters, the Seven Saints of Appetite, and "other fabricated martyrs"[13] (e.g. the creations of Crooked-Crosses). It is written in violant ink and illustrated in gold and cosmogone, and was apparently quite the perilous task for the monks of Godfall to write.[14] It would seem that the illustrations provide the reasoning behind the title of the book.

Gallery[edit | edit source]

  • A Silverer's Spectacles.
    A Silverer's Spectacles.
  • The Mirror-Marches, bathed in cosmogone light.
    The Mirror-Marches, bathed in cosmogone light.
  • The Cosmogone Crown mask, worn for Hallowmas.
    The Cosmogone Crown mask, worn for Hallowmas.
  • A Ray-drenched Cinder.
    A Ray-drenched Cinder.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ A Page from 'The Neathbow': Cosmogone, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Empty a cosmogone-filled box, Fallen London
  3. ↑ The Calendar Code, Fallen London "The room of Summer swelters in darkness. It is alive with the memory of a faraway sun."
  4. ↑ Empty a cosmogone-filled box, Fallen London "The light washes over your face like a wave of heated honey. But there's a coldness inside that warmth – like the taste of saccharin to sugar."
  5. ↑ A Page from 'The Neathbow': Cosmogone, Sunless Sea "The fecund, the foetid, the fungal: these flourish in the glow of cosmogone."
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Set of Cosmogone Spectacles, Fallen London "The lenses are the colour of remembered sunshine, which the things behind mirrors find irresistible."
  7. ↑ Set of Cosmogone Spectacles, Fallen London
  8. ↑ Ray-Drenched Cinder, Sunless Sea "Sizzling with cosmogone light. It has absorbed radiation not of this earth."
  9. ↑ Ray-Drenched Cinder, Fallen London "Sizzling with violant and irrigo light."
  10. ↑ Purchase a reel of Cosmogone-emulsion film, Fallen London ""Luminous highlights. Ideal for outdoor scenes, if, uh, we only had any.""
  11. ↑ Develop the reel you exposed in Hallow's Throat, Fallen London "This scene is cast in a hazy, soft glow that suggests [...] nostalgia. Like an old tintype or a romantic cameo pendant, set to motion. The Starved Men – their ambered features, their odd-jointed bodies – seem nearly to glow in the light of the False-Stars. And in the distance, those stars are themselves moving in a slow dance."
  12. ↑ Develop the reel you exposed in Hallow's Throat, Fallen London "This vision of the city centres on Veilgarden – and what a vision of Veilgarden it is! Never have the Bohemians looked so fiery and so fey [...] Their every expression – expanded to the size of the screen, their eyes enormous pools of light – threatens to make the viewer fall in love on the spot."
  13. ↑ Legenda Cosmogone, Fallen London "A compendium and denunciation of false saints, their advocations, miracles and iconographies. Inclusive of the Saints of Hell, the hidden hagiographies of Saint Joshua and the Seven Saints of Appetite, among many other fabricated martyrs. The theological equivalent of a hammer to a plaster idol."
  14. ↑ The Legenda Cosmogone, Fallen London "The pages are Goat-demon vellum; the ink violant [...] the illuminations are rendered in gold and cosmogone. Each page was copied in Godfall [...] The scribes were isolated from each other until the completion of the text, to avoid contamination. Each and every one went mad before the process was done."
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