Editing Grunting Fen
From The Fifth City Wiki
The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{spoiler}} | {{spoiler}} | ||
{{Neath_Location|image1 = Gruntingfen.png|caption1 = |allegiance = |notable_inhabitants = |location=The Sea of Voices}}<blockquote>''"Flat but lumpy, like an improperly made bed. Marshes groan and gurgle wetly. Why do the Theosophists speak of this place?"''<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Grunting_Fen|Grunting Fen|Fallen London|}}</ref></blockquote>'''Grunting Fen''' is an island in the Sea of Voices near [[Polythreme]]. It is flat and marshy, with only a few little hills dotting the landscape.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Do_a_survey|Do a survey|Fallen London|}} ''"You pace out a section of the island and plot what landmarks you can find – they're few and far between on this flat chunk of land, but you do your best. In the process, you draw a few interesting conclusions. Does the symmetry of those hillocks suggest ritual burial? Or just uniformity of geological forces?"''</ref> Access is permitted to archaeologists working with the [[Dilmun Club]]. | {{Neath_Location|image1 = Gruntingfen.png|caption1 = Art from FL.|allegiance = |notable_inhabitants = |location=The Sea of Voices}}<blockquote>''"Flat but lumpy, like an improperly made bed. Marshes groan and gurgle wetly. Why do the Theosophists speak of this place?"''<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Grunting_Fen|Grunting Fen|Fallen London|}}</ref></blockquote>'''Grunting Fen''' is an island in the Sea of Voices near [[Polythreme]]. It is flat and marshy, with only a few little hills dotting the landscape.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Do_a_survey|Do a survey|Fallen London|}} ''"You pace out a section of the island and plot what landmarks you can find – they're few and far between on this flat chunk of land, but you do your best. In the process, you draw a few interesting conclusions. Does the symmetry of those hillocks suggest ritual burial? Or just uniformity of geological forces?"''</ref> Access is permitted to archaeologists working with the [[Dilmun Club]]. | ||
Like its better-known neighbor, the island of Grunting Fen itself is alive,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/What_manner_of_things_live_here%3F|What manner of things live here?|Fallen London|}} ''"The island teems with life and movement. Everywhere you look, something is scurrying or flitting or squirming. But it's not until you plant your spade in the earth – and the earth talks back – that you realise that not everything that moves here is alive in the strictly... traditional sense."''</ref> and it speaks.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Listen_to_the_island|Listen to the island|Fallen London|}} ''"Waves break on the shore, and pebbles rustle in the receding water as if whispering softly. The boulders on the beach creak and groan in the wind like giants in pain. If you were to give into fancy and imagine these were human voices, they'd be talking in languages you don't know."''</ref> Objects brought here also come to life,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/What_can_you_learn_of_matters_spiritual_and_supernatural%3F|What can you learn of matters spiritual and supernatural?|Fallen London|}} ''"Why does everything move, here? Why do the very rocks and stones seem to be alive? Perhaps the simplest explanation is the correct one. Perhaps they are alive. You observe some rolling pebbles. You catch a clod of mossy earth that's bumbling along the shore, and try dissecting it. Both halves jump out of your hands and go their separate ways. Then your knife follows. You're writing some notes on the possibility that every thing here has a soul, or a spirit, when your quill twists in your hand and starts scrawling gibberish across the paper. The paper resists the ink, crumpling and creasing, but you salvage what you can."''</ref> to the point where even a ship can talk.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/No_more_peculiar_than_anything_else_here|No more peculiar than anything else here|Fallen London|}} ''"After a long while, as if it was gathering its thoughts, or perhaps just bemused by the fact that it now has thoughts, your ship begins to speak. Its voice is a mixture of rusty shrieks, like unoiled hinges, and deep groans like shifting metal plates grinding on rocks."''</ref> While there are scant traces of previous [[Fallen Cities]],<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Knowledge_that_Seeped_into_the_Water|Knowledge that Seeped into the Water|Fallen London|}} ''"Relics of previous cities are scarce on Grunting Fen."''</ref> nature remembers all<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/No_more_peculiar_than_anything_else_here|No more peculiar than anything else here|Fallen London|}} ''"But at least you can understand its words – it must have learnt to speak from you and your crew. It tells you that a terrible bargain was made once in a far dry place, and that all water still remembers it because all water contains something that was once well-water. Your ship falls silent, unused to this kind of effort."''</ref> - and one pond is old enough to remember the [[Duchess]], the [[Cantigaster]], and the [[Second City]].<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Untapped_wealth|Untapped wealth|Fallen London|}} ''"Most of it is nonsense, of course – petty grumbles about the effects of the briny zee air or territorial bickering between rocks. But a deep pond comes up with something startling. It claims to remember when the Cantigaster was 'his real self, before the asp bit and the pact was sealed. That's why they won't abide talk of that place, you know. She's still there, though, isn't she? Sending him to Parabola when she wants, no doubt. Sometimes the Clay come back here and tell the rest of us these things. Don't you go thinking we live in the past all the time.'"''</ref> | Like its better-known neighbor, the island of Grunting Fen itself is alive,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/What_manner_of_things_live_here%3F|What manner of things live here?|Fallen London|}} ''"The island teems with life and movement. Everywhere you look, something is scurrying or flitting or squirming. But it's not until you plant your spade in the earth – and the earth talks back – that you realise that not everything that moves here is alive in the strictly... traditional sense."''</ref> and it speaks.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Listen_to_the_island|Listen to the island|Fallen London|}} ''"Waves break on the shore, and pebbles rustle in the receding water as if whispering softly. The boulders on the beach creak and groan in the wind like giants in pain. If you were to give into fancy and imagine these were human voices, they'd be talking in languages you don't know."''</ref> Objects brought here also come to life,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/What_can_you_learn_of_matters_spiritual_and_supernatural%3F|What can you learn of matters spiritual and supernatural?|Fallen London|}} ''"Why does everything move, here? Why do the very rocks and stones seem to be alive? Perhaps the simplest explanation is the correct one. Perhaps they are alive. You observe some rolling pebbles. You catch a clod of mossy earth that's bumbling along the shore, and try dissecting it. Both halves jump out of your hands and go their separate ways. Then your knife follows. You're writing some notes on the possibility that every thing here has a soul, or a spirit, when your quill twists in your hand and starts scrawling gibberish across the paper. The paper resists the ink, crumpling and creasing, but you salvage what you can."''</ref> to the point where even a ship can talk.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/No_more_peculiar_than_anything_else_here|No more peculiar than anything else here|Fallen London|}} ''"After a long while, as if it was gathering its thoughts, or perhaps just bemused by the fact that it now has thoughts, your ship begins to speak. Its voice is a mixture of rusty shrieks, like unoiled hinges, and deep groans like shifting metal plates grinding on rocks."''</ref> While there are scant traces of previous [[Fallen Cities]],<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Knowledge_that_Seeped_into_the_Water|Knowledge that Seeped into the Water|Fallen London|}} ''"Relics of previous cities are scarce on Grunting Fen."''</ref> nature remembers all<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/No_more_peculiar_than_anything_else_here|No more peculiar than anything else here|Fallen London|}} ''"But at least you can understand its words – it must have learnt to speak from you and your crew. It tells you that a terrible bargain was made once in a far dry place, and that all water still remembers it because all water contains something that was once well-water. Your ship falls silent, unused to this kind of effort."''</ref> - and one pond is old enough to remember the [[Duchess]], the [[Cantigaster]], and the [[Second City]].<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Untapped_wealth|Untapped wealth|Fallen London|}} ''"Most of it is nonsense, of course – petty grumbles about the effects of the briny zee air or territorial bickering between rocks. But a deep pond comes up with something startling. It claims to remember when the Cantigaster was 'his real self, before the asp bit and the pact was sealed. That's why they won't abide talk of that place, you know. She's still there, though, isn't she? Sending him to Parabola when she wants, no doubt. Sometimes the Clay come back here and tell the rest of us these things. Don't you go thinking we live in the past all the time.'"''</ref> | ||
