The King of Hours

From The Fifth City Wiki
(Redirected from King of Hours)

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

This page contains spoilers for the following Sunless Skies content: Ambition: The Martyr-King's Cup and Your Inconvenient Aunt. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"The body of the sun is still cooling. A few embers continue to glow at its core, a low and sullen red."[1]

The King of Hours, also known as the Martyr-King, was the Regent of Albion, or at least the space that would become it.[2]

Eternal No More[edit | edit source]

"The day that lasted a thousand years. ... The people loved it, of course, because they did not age. When he died, of course, time caught up with them, and they became less than dust."[3]

During his reign, this Regent used his power as the king of all time to hold his realm in a state of eternal daylight, a Golden Day.[4] The Sapphir'd King adheres to the Amaranthine Conjunction,[5] the belief that all things must end;[6] dissatisfied with his rival's state of affairs, he had the King of Hours murdered[7] using poisoned words.[2] Some time after the King of Hours' death, the Clockwork Sun took over his domain, and Albion took all the credit.[8] In fact, the murder occurred centuries before Albion entered the picture;[9] while the devils have also claimed credit for the murder, theoretically placing it within the time frame of their rebellion against the Judgements.[10]

The Unseen Queen[edit | edit source]

The King of Hours had a daughter called The Unseen Queen. Sometimes called a moon, she was never allowed to shine during his Golden Day. When the King of Hours was overthrown, in his final moments, he used his last remnants of the Golden Day to create the Martyr-King's Cup, an artifact that can grant the imbiber immortality.[11] The King stole the moment of his daughter's birth to evade death and transform into the Storm that Speaks - functionally erasing her in the process.[12]


References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Contemplate the dead sun, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Investigate what killed the sun of Albion, Sunless Skies "Examining it through a microscope, it is immediately apparent that the sun of Albion wasn't killed by munitions, but by poison. It has worked its way into every golden cell."
  3. ↑ Ask about the Golden Day, Sunless Skies
  4. ↑ Ask about the Golden Day, Sunless Skies "The day that lasted a thousand years. [...] The people loved it, of course, because they did not age. When he died, of course, time caught up with them, and they became less than dust."
  5. ↑ Enquire about the Forge of Souls, said to dwell within Lyceum, Sunless Skies "The Forge is under the Amaranthine Edict [...] For your benefit, that means that the Sapphir'd King has taken it under his protection to prevent against unwise use."
  6. ↑ Deliver your findings to the Bedevilled Didact, Sunless Skies "[...] while their counterparts, the Amaranthine Conjunction, believe in culmination, and bringing things to c-completion."
  7. ↑ Hand over the Dignity of Albion Bill, Sunless Skies ""We know. There is an order to creation; a Chain of Being. Things such as you cannot be the death of things such as we. [...] When a murder is committed correctly, only two creatures know what occurred: one is the murdered; the other..." She says no more, but opens one of her thousand plumed hands [...] A trophy, plucked from the corpse of a star."
  8. ↑ Contemplate the dead sun, Sunless Skies "When Her Majesty entered Albion, she slew the sun with an experimental weapon: an Unclear Bomb. Then she claimed the sun's throne and dominion. Leaving the remains here is a clear message: not even the suns are above the Empire's reach."
  9. ↑ Use your reputation to help skip the queue, Sunless Skies "Using the telescope, he was able to locate the last light cast by Albion's old sun, the one the Empire claims to have defeated 5 years ago. But according to his calculations, the light is centuries old. Albion's sun was dead long before the Empress came to the skies."
  10. ↑ Discovered: A Brilliant Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 1:3: AND THUS SPAKE THE KING OF HOURS: “For those who wear crowns, let their kingdoms be counted; and for those who wear ashes, let their miseries be counted; and for those who keep this tally, let their debts be counted.” Upon hearing this, the people struck him down." (The Book of Roses is an approximate chronology of the history of the devils. Ensuing excerpts recount their exile in Parabola, then their journey through the Neath to found Hell. The devils take undue credit for the murder here.)
  11. ↑ Ask her about the Cup, Sunless Skies "This Cup holds the moment of my father's death and the final gasps of a dying realm, after all. Immortality requires a complex ritual. We must take the Cup before the Storm That Speaks and recite the poisoned words that killed my father."
  12. ↑ Ask about the King of Hours, Sunless Skies "As he died, he stole the moment of my birth and used it to preserve the moment of his death. Now he is forever dying, forever in torment, but never dead. [...] And what does that make me? He erased me. He stole my existence to preserve his own. I am not even the shadow of a shadow. But I will claw my way back."
Retrieved from "https://thefifthcity.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_King_of_Hours&oldid=22739"