The Halved

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

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"A black and seething sun! The Halved sheds no light, and no law."[1]

The Halved is a Judgement that presides over the region of Eleutheria, in the High Wilderness.

WE ARE BEHELD[edit | edit source]

"The attention of the Halved falls briefly on your vessel. Your crew wail as its eye fills your windows! The Halved! The sun turned to night!"[1]

The Halved watches over its kingdom of Eleutheria, but sheds no light and thus does not enforce cosmic laws across the region.[2] The Halved spreads the mission of The Liberation of Night and despises its nearby rival stars, and it will not hesitate to send loyal servants of the Sapphir'd King[3] or the Clockwork Sun[4] to its cosmic prison, Piranesi. The Halved's own underlings watch over its territories in Eleutheria, notably in Pan, where a faction called the Word-Eaters enforces a ban on storytelling.[5]

The Halved murdered its own Messenger, the House of Rods and Chains, for defying its command.[6] Mr Barleycorn, a Curator who previously served the House, is still loyal to the Halved, but the rest of its entourage have fled for greener pastures.[6]

An Eye on the Neath[edit | edit source]

The Eye in the Zee

The Halved has strong ties to the Liberation of Night, possibly to seek revenge upon other Judgements. One star, the The Garden-King of the Reach, has already fallen victim to its machinations.[7] The Halved also promotes the cause by keeping an eye on the Neath, through a giant eye located at the bottom of the Unterzee; one zailor foolish enough to dive into the Eye discovered that it was a portal to the House of Rods and Chains,[8][9] and reported an encounter with a curious entity that asked them to deliver a message to the Neath.[8]Those servants recruited from the Neath bear an eye tattoo that summoned them to Eleutheria upon their arrival in the High Wilderness and displays their allegiance. [10] Some characters bearing eye tattoos can be found at Langley Hall and the Wreck of the Berrenger, among other places.

The Sun Turned Black[edit | edit source]

"You see a blazing, golden sun, so close it fills the sky. It shudders. It dims. You watch as it draws its fires into itself, becoming sullen, crimson coals. Its surface cools, scabbing over with a black crust. Shadows flood this region of the sky."[11]

The Judgement we know as the Halved was once part of the Binary; together, this binary star governed distance and measures.[12][13] While this is considered the Halved's former domain because it has now rejected law, it certainly has not lost all its power over the concept, as the prison of Piranesi defies all notion of size or distance.[14]

The other half of the Binary, the King who Speaks, was betrayed and murdered as it attempted to swear fealty[15] to the Prophet Exile of the would-be Solonacean Conjunction.[16] The surviving half, the King who Wars, went on a fiery rampage across Eleutheria[17][18] as it destroyed the Prophet Exile and his followers.[19] The Prophet Exile had claimed some of the Binary's servants, the devils, as his followers,[20][21] and a few devils whose remains are now scattered around Pan were likely killed in this rampage.[22][23] The Prophet himself was turned into a living story as a punishment for the murder.[24] Speaking the Halved's former name is another excellent way to offend the star and find oneself in Piranesi.[25]

To prevent further rebellions, the King Who Wars forbade all storytelling in his domain.[26] However, one of the King's trusted advisors, an individual now known as the Second Storyteller, violated this law;[27] the story he told unintentionally caused the King to immediately turn dark and stop radiating light.[28] Either as a form of gratitude or punishment, the now Halved sun turned his advisor into the first of the plants known as the Heart-Catchers,[29] and granted it eternal life.[30] The darkened realm of Eleutheria became a haven for all kinds of rebels, outcasts, and anarchists, but storytelling remains forbidden in Pan as a consequence of the upheaval wrought by the First and Second Storytellers.[31]

The Halved has completely turned its back on its former brethren and murders other stars. Killing each other isn't unusual behavior for Judgements, except that the Halved does not always follow the accepted rules for such unpleasantries.[32]

Hypocrisy?[edit | edit source]

Despite the Halved's attempts to enforce a radical new order of things, one of its disgraced and imprisoned advisors claims that the star has not changed "half as much as it pretends" since the death of its twin.[33] Given the fact the Halved binds people in servitude and maintains a state prison over which it is the sole judge, one may wonder if it truly is "no king" in more than just name. Eleutheria is dark because the Halved emits darkness. What would happen if one day, it decided it no longer wanted its kingdom to be night?

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eleutheria, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Spectacles, Sunless Skies "A black and seething sun! The Halved sheds no light, and no law."
  3. ↑ Claim you are beloved of the Regent of the Blue Kingdom, Sunless Skies "For behold! You are Yoked to His service, and bear an Indulgence issued in His Name. [...] Above you, the midnight sun of Eleutheria [...] fixes its vast eye on the two of you. [...] The ground opens beneath you [...] and you are plunged down, down into the black belly of Piranesi."
  4. ↑ Claim credit for the current strength of the Clockwork Sun, Sunless Skies "Because of you, the bleached light of the Clockwork Sun pricks even at the heavens of Eleutheria. [...] Above you, the midnight sun of Eleutheria [...] fixes its vast eye on the two of you. The ground opens beneath you [...] and you are plunged down, down into the black belly of Piranesi."
  5. ↑ Avoid them as you go about your business, Sunless Skies "During the other hours, the Word-Eaters are everyday citizens of Pan. But when the piping permits, and their faces are grey with ash, they serve only the Halved Sun of Eleutheria."
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Talk with Mr Barleycorn, Sunless Skies "There were seven of us, once. Outcasts, bound to this Messenger's service. But the Messenger defied the Halved's command, and the Halved slew it. We were free. My colleagues, fled. But I remained to serve the Halved."
  7. ↑ Strive to hear the death-cry of a fallen sun, Sunless Skies "You hear distant, thundering words, accompanied by blazing visions. They rage against the sun's death at the hands of a half-sun, a midnight murderer."
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Under Sunless Skies, Sunless Sea "The creature [...] carries what looks like a measuring rod, notched with unfamiliar enumerations. Its voice is shrill. "Welcome, Trespasser, to the House of Rods and Chains. Your daring is notable, and rare. My employer [...] would like you to deliver a message to the Neath. You will be compensated.""
  9. ↑ Adrift On A Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies "In the darkness— In the darkness, an eye! It opens and the world is upside down. You fall to the floor of Mr Barleycorn's study, coughing up water."
  10. ↑ The Message In The Water, Sunless Skies "We reached out and set his mark on those who trespassed on the wound. They became our Messages, and when they found their way to the skies their marks led them here.”’’
  11. ↑ Drink from the bitter waters, Sunless Skies
  12. ↑ I. A Prologue, Sunless Skies ""[...] Where the Twin Kings of Measure and Distance reigned [...]""
  13. ↑ Consider Eleutheria's black sun, Sunless Skies ""My Lord. The Halved. Once-Judgement of Measures and Distance." Mr Barleycorn bows to it."
  14. ↑ Why do you need a guide?, Sunless Skies "Do not attempt to judge size or distance here. Piranesi is unmapped and unmappable. There are only a few areas we know how to reach."
  15. ↑ The Prophet took the King Who Speaks' Fealty, Sunless Skies "THE KING WHO SPEAKS: You have my sword. You have my pledge. You have my service. From now until my darkening."
  16. ↑ The Ballad of the Solonacean Conjunction: Act V. A Night Of Transfiguration, Sunless Skies "The PRINCES OF LIGHT and the PROPHET EXILE welcome their latest Disciple — the KING WHO SPEAKS. [...] At their Prophet's signal, the Princes drew their knives! They stabbed the King's unprotected soul."
  17. ↑ VI. The King In Mourning, Sunless Skies "The obsidian throne of the King of Light has crumbled. The hall shakes with the KING WHO WARS' fury. Burning marble rains down from the ceiling, exposing a blood red sky."
  18. ↑ The King Who Wars mounted his chariot, Sunless Skies "The King Who Wars' chariot thundered through the sky / The night burned crimson, the forests became ash / This was how a King fought, with fire and light [...]"
  19. ↑ The King Who Wars mounted his chariot, Sunless Skies "This was how a King fought, with fire and light / And the Princes learned the folly of their youth. [...] THE KING WHO WARS: Scream not for the comfort of oblivion / Such mercy is not for traitors to know / As you burn forever in my palace / In the flames of anger you have ignited."
  20. ↑ Listen to the lecture on 'the Binary', Sunless Skies "The Supplicant speaks of devils in the Binary's service, responsible for preparing a raiment of killing light for one of their masters before he went to war, and a mantle of merciful radiances when the other went to parley. "But they betrayed their master," she says."
  21. ↑ The Prophet Exile spoke to the Princes of Light, Sunless Skies "My Apostle. The first to shield me from the light that burned away my existence. The light of the arrogant Kings. Their Princes were not willing to languish in service in the hope of a glory that the Kings would never offer them. Ah, but wrapped up in stories of inevitable victory and cowering bravely behind my figurehead, their resentment became my serrated blade."
  22. ↑ Find the tomb of the Mantle-bearer, Sunless Skies "Somewhere in Winter's Reside lies the corpse of the armourer-saint, once squire-sommelier to the Binary, the twin kings of Eleutheria."
  23. ↑ Sanctify the corpse of the Chorister Saint, Sunless Skies "You daub its lips with some of the vial of souls, and anoint its armour as it would have done when it accompanied the suns to war."
  24. ↑ The Ballad of the Solonacean Conjunction: Act VII. Fall of a Prophet, Sunless Skies "Let Justice be done, and all gathered bear witness / As we cast this outsider into their final rest / Let their flesh rot till all that's left is a cry / That shall never escape this echoing place / A story to rage in the darkness, never to be told [...]"
  25. ↑ Name the Nameless, Sunless Skies "Speak the true name of Eleutheria's sun. The name it shared before it was Halved. [...] You speak one harmony of the first syllable. [Your friend] pronounces the other. The midnight sun of Eleutheria shudders, and fixes its vast eye upon you. Something closes, cold, about your wrist. A lamp is shackled to your arm. The ground opens beneath you both, and you are plunged down, down into the black belly of Piranesi."
  26. ↑ Dramatis Personae#II. The Forest Of Burning Twilight, Sunless Skies "And so the Conjunction was ended, and the King made the decree That all stories be forbidden in Eleutheria's domain To prevent further treason, or call for revolution."
  27. ↑ Today's Lecture, Sunless Skies
  28. ↑ Today's Lecture, Sunless Skies "You see a blazing, golden sun, so close it fills the sky. It shudders. It dims. [...] When you wake, the head's eyes – grey as ghosts – are watching you. "The story you tell might not be the one that others hear," it says. Its eyes close again."
  29. ↑ The Second Storyteller, Sunless Skies "The oldest of the Heart-Catchers is a crooked tree, roofed with rattling leaves. [...] All but one of its heads has grown huge, grown old, and died. Now they are great, grinning skulls. The last living head rests on an altar."
  30. ↑ Eavesdrop as it slumbers, Sunless Skies "As you are preparing to leave, its eyes snap open. "The first storyteller began a war and was cast into a well," it says. "The second turned a sun to night and was cursed to live. What will the third do, and how will they end?""
  31. ↑ The Hour of Veracity, Sunless Skies "Twice, Eleutheria has been turned upside-down by storytellers. Now, the profession is prohibited in Pan. During the Hour of Veracity the Word-Eaters bare their feet, cover their faces with ash, and roam the city, confiscating stories."
  32. ↑ The Last Testament , Sunless Skies "A lawless killing! A shameful death, enacted without due ceremony!”’’
  33. ↑ The Venerable Flautist, Sunless Skies "But I remember the Halved before the death of its twin. It hasn't changed half so much as it pretends. So I won't either."
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