The King with a Hundred Hearts

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"The King with a Hundred Hearts is old. As old as the Bazaar's first dealings with men. Was he once a man? That isn't clear. But what you do know is the Hundreds is the soul and animus of Polythreme. A Clay Man is birthed by splitting off from the Hundreds, and it's his influence that makes walls shuffle and flagstones moan. Much of Polythreme is strange to men. But is there any way to deal with someone of this scale? Would you recognise his wishes, his words, his dreams?"[1]

The King with a Hundred Hearts is the ruler of Polythreme and the progenitor of the Clay Men.

The Fisher King[edit | edit source]

"The King with a Hundred Hearts rules with a light touch. He isn't seen on Polythreme's streets, and few are called to audience at the villa overlooking the town. The locals call him the Hundreds when they speak of him, which is rarely. But then again, the Clay Men are a peaceful, docile people. How much governance can they need?"[2]

A Clay Man

The King with a Hundred Hearts, also called the Hundreds by his subjects[3] and the Diamond King by pilgrims from the Elder Continent,[4] is the sole and absolute monarch of Polythreme. However, it would be more accurate to say he is Polythreme, because the island is his body, and it is governed entirely by his whims and moods.[5][6] As a consequence, though the King is never seen and audiences with him are selective at best,[7][8] his presence is inescapable; his attention manifests as the sensation of being watched,[9][10] and he can project his voice from any surface on the island.[11] He makes no treaties with other lands except for the Bazaar, and his dominion is otherwise insular and autocratic.[12][13] In addition to the island of Polythreme itself, the King controls an enormous Clay colossus stationed in the Sea of Voices.[14]

The King is the progenitor of the Clay Men,[15] who are born from his dreams; more specifically, they are formed when fragments of his dreaming self break off from Polythreme.[16] When the King suffers a nightmare, the result is an Unfinished Man, a Clay Man with physical or psychological irregularities that reflect the horror of that dream.[17][18] There is also a group of favored Clay Men who serve the King and are made in his image;[19] if his own recollections[20] and the Manager's memories are to be believed, then the King was quite the sight in his youth.[21] Some Clay Men born from the King's Memory Garden,[22] filled with statues of people he has known and remembered,[23] inherit the King's memories.[24]

The unique vitality of Polythreme, which causes inanimate objects to come to life in close proximity to the island, is also governed by the King's will alone.[25] He guards this power jealously,[26] and orders the destruction of any animated objects created by other parties.[27][28] Any object that comes to life outside Polythreme also falls within the King's jurisdiction.[29]

Pygmalion[edit | edit source]

"I no longer love him. How could I, after what he had done to me? But his love abides, over the sea in London. I am his heart's desire."[30]

Moss, a Clay Man bearing the King's original appearance

The King with a Hundred Hearts is thousands of years old, and a survivor of the First City. Long ago, he was a human merchant from the East, likely ancient China,[31] who journeyed westward with a trade caravan bound for Mesopotamia.[32] Misfortune struck the caravan, forcing them to seek shelter in the nearest town.[33] It was there that the merchant met and fell in love with the town's priest-king, the man now known as the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel.[34] In the midst of their joyful time together,[35] the merchant eventually promised that he would remain with the priest-king forever rather than returning home with the caravan;[36] in return, the priest-king swore his eternal love[37] beneath the cedar trees,[38] and the cedar-spirit bound his oath.[39]

As fate would have it, the couple's happiness did not last, as the merchant fell gravely ill.[40] Seizing this opportunity, two Masters of the Bazaar (Candles and Cups) approached the priest-king with an offer: in exchange for selling the First City, they would grant him a way to save his lover’s life.[41][42] They gave him a jewel from from the Mountain of Light and instructed him to carve out the merchant’s heart and replace it with the sherd. The process was horrific, but successful, at least at first.[43] The merchant became immortal, but he began to grow, slowly and painfully, until he became the living island of Polythreme.[44] The fragment of Stone within his chest became the source of the island’s unnatural vitality.[45]

The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel

The man who became the King with a Hundred Hearts blamed his lover for the monstrous scale of his new existence,[46] and to this day he is still so furious at the Manager[47] that he sends Clay messengers to deliver him emotionally charged and insulting gifts.[48][49] The King also continually attempts to forbid the Manager from playing the Marvellous, knowing that if the Manager won, he would ask for his beloved back.[50][51] However, when the Manager attempted to invade Nidah completely alone to reach the Mountain of Light, it was the King who intervened to save him.[52]

The King's main statue body, which bears his original appearance,[53] is a marble statue located at the center of his villa.[54] Each Clay Man has a tiny fragment of the King's heart shard within their chest,[55] serving as their primary source of vitality.[56] When a Clay Man dies, their heart shard is supposed to be collected and sent back to become one with the King again.[57] The shared source of their diamond hearts connects every non-Unfinished[58][59] Clay Man in a crystalline psychic network.[60][61] To be part of this network is to obey and exist in harmony with the King and his commands.[62] Those who disobey the King or sever themselves from the network are exiled and reviled.[63]

Historical Inspirations[edit | edit source]

If we follow the hypothesis that the First City was Uruk and the Manager is Gilgamesh, then the King with a Hundred Hearts would be Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s companion and lover. Enkidu was fashioned from clay and divine saliva by the goddess Aruru to oppose Gilgamesh’s tyranny, making him, quite literally, the first man of clay. The Epic of Gilgamesh likely provided some inspiration for the relationship between the Manager and the King, but the King has much less in common with Enkidu than the Manager does with his counterpart. Enkidu begins as a wild and bestial figure who only becomes "civilized" after spending time with a temple prostitute. He is a foil to Gilgamesh, meant to challenge all of his flaws and... well, bring him back down to earth. Rather than being a creator figure, Enkidu is the sparking point of the epic's themes of mortality and the acceptance of death.

The King with a Hundred Hearts is more comparable to what Gilgamesh aspired to be before the gods intervened. He is a demiurge: a lofty, detached, immortal ruler, jealously controlling all life within his domain.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Look to buildings, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Ask around, Fallen London
  3. ↑ Ask around, Fallen London "The King with a Hundred Hearts rules with a light touch. He isn't seen on Polythreme's streets, and few are called to audience at the villa overlooking the town. The locals call him the Hundreds when they speak of him, which is rarely. But then again, the Clay Men are a peaceful, docile people. How much governance can they need?"
  4. ↑ Speak to those who know, Fallen London "[...] Scared the wits from them Presbyterate pilgrims come to see 'The Diamond King' when they last showed up. Dunno why they call him that. He's more marble, really.""
  5. ↑ Moss, Mask of the Rose "The system is the King. His wishes, his will, his whims. Such as they are. In practice, they have formed a sedimentary layer of procedures, traditions, and circumstances. Audiences, laws, times when the King is at ease, times when the King is in his majesty. Those are frightening times. But splendid, in a chilly fashion."
  6. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "[...] Down below you, the town of Polythreme weeps and screams for its king."
  7. ↑ A gift for a king, Fallen London "The Clay Broker leans heavily on his copper staff, which bends under his weight. 'The Manager sent you, didn’t he? The King doesn’t want to see you. You’ll have to bring a gift. Something ridiculously expensive. Something from the East, perhaps. He likes things that remind him of his travels.’"
  8. ↑ An audience with the King with the Hundred Hearts, Sunless Sea "The Clay Broker, leaning on his copper staff, examines you coolly. "The King will see your little friend," he says. "No, he won't see you: not just now." He gestures for you to hand him the Watchful Curio."
  9. ↑ The walls are rattling, Fallen London "The stones shake and grind, sending puffs of white dust out into the still air. After minutes of heaving, the masonry is still. A great weight of attention falls upon you, although nothing visible changes. Something will happen here, but not while you're watching. Good manners force you to tip your hat and depart."
  10. ↑ Eyes Everywhere, Fallen London "In Polythreme, someone or something is always watching you. But you feel the attention more keenly of late."
  11. ↑ Upwards, Fallen London "The voice is human, but there's nobody here to speak it. It comes from the statues, the walls, the fountains. 'Welcome to me. I have a good idea why you're here, but that was such a splendid gift. I drank something like it a long time ago, in a dusty tent. Let me show you a few things, and then we can talk about... business'"
  12. ↑ Moss, Mask of the Rose "The King is like and unlike me. He made me in his image. I was not the only clay simulacra he made. There are many. All laws, all governance flows from him."
  13. ↑ Moss, Mask of the Rose "In Polythreme, what the King wishes to occur, occurs."
  14. ↑ A Confrontation with the King, Fallen London "A colossus of stone has raised an enormous hand twenty feet above the Zee, as if it means to drag you beneath the water. Two eyes like sickly fires burn beneath the water. And there is a voice – a voice speaking Loamsprach so deep and slow it blurs into a rumble."
  15. ↑ Go looking, Fallen London "THE KING WITH A HUNDRED HEARTS IS OUR MAKER AND OUR SOUL. HE DREAMS US TO BEING. BUT NOT ALL HIS DREAMS ARE PLEASING."
  16. ↑ The walls are rattling, Fallen London "The stones of one wall collapse into dust, leaving a naked Clay Man sprawled in a heap. The Clay Man looks at his hands, horrified. "I AM ONE," he rumbles, "I AM NOT WE NOW. I HAVE BUT ONE HEART.""
  17. ↑ But where?, Fallen London "You race over to the street of crumbling white walls. One shatters into dust and stone shards and a Clay Man. He screams, "NO! THE MOTHS ARE EATING ME! GET THEM OFF!" You can see that the Clay Man is Unfinished – he is missing tiny chunks from myriad places, all over his stony body."
  18. ↑ Go looking, Fallen London "THE KING REMEMBERS DAYS OF SUNLIGHT AND FLESH. WHEN YOUR CITIES WERE YOUNG. HE UNDERTOOK A GREAT JOURNEY WESTWARDS, PAST THE END OF THE WORLD. HE DREAMS OF THE HORRORS OF THAT JOURNEY, AND THE UNFINISHED COME. THE UNFINISHED ARE NOT MEEK. WE ARE NOT SATISFIED. WE WILL BRING CHANGE TO OUR BROTHERS."
  19. ↑ Moss, Mask of the Rose "In Polythreme, our King rang a hollow bronze chime to summon us when required. His favoured servants all bear his own image, so both our station and our duties are clear to all."
  20. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "The traveller must be the King with a Hundred Hearts, back when he was a man. He was certainly handsome – if his memories are to be trusted."
  21. ↑ The Season of Ruins, Fallen London "[...] An impossibly beautiful man leans over to kiss the juice from the Manager's lips. Behind you, the Manager gasps as if struck."
  22. ↑ Give surface-silk to Clay Men, Fallen London "HE WAS SEPARATED FROM THE STATUE GARDEN, [...] HE KNOWS THE OLD THINGS WHEN WE WERE ONE."
  23. ↑ Upwards, Fallen London "There are dozens. Most are men, but there are a few women, some birds, a horse. A few are beautiful, but many are scarred or pockmarked or otherwise unlovely. None of them are moving."
  24. ↑ Give surface-silk to Clay Men, Fallen London "A Clay Man runs the silk length through his thick fingers. His lips crack in a smile and he closes his eyes. He speaks in the voice of a human man. "Silk, silk. So long ago. Such a journey westward with the precious cargo. They said the world wasn't that big, but we came to the shores of the inland sea, where they'd never even seen silk..."  He falls silent, and his brethren gaze on him in wonder and awe."
  25. ↑ Look to buildings, Fallen London "The King with a Hundred Hearts is [...] the soul and animus of Polythreme. A Clay Man is birthed by splitting off from the Hundreds, and it's his influence that makes walls shuffle and flagstones moan. [...]"
  26. ↑ Take tea with the Burly Lieutenant, Fallen London "Our Clay Laird used th' Mountain-Sherd to fashion a companion for hisself – someone to hold as his own. [...] The King was nae having nonesuch challenges to his domain." [See also The Clay Highwayman]
  27. ↑ Moss, Mask of the Rose "Only the King has the means for such a thing. I have not permission, even if I did know how. If they did, somehow, rest assured I would destroy them immediately. I have a hammer for such ritual purposes."
  28. ↑ The Clay Highwayman, in his own words, Fallen London "When the King learned of this, he made the Highwayman unmake his companion and cast the pieces [...] into the sea. [...] "His heart went into the zee [...] I went into the zee after it." He points to [...] his chest [...] I took the heart into myself.""
  29. ↑ Paisley, Fallen London "[...] his outfit violates territorial sovereignty. Sentient non-living items fall under Polythreme's jurisdiction. For a clothes-colony to gain consciousness inside London represents a potential invasion. [...]"
  30. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London
  31. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "[...] You see a group of travellers in the dress of ancient China, haggling for water at a desert spring. A few more steps and the same group are laughing and eating fruit in an orchard. [...]"
  32. ↑ Crouching in a low stone building, Fallen London "[...] the land between the Caspian and Mediterranean seas [...]"
  33. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "[...] A few steps more, and one of that group, wounded and desperate, looks down a road at a mud brick town next to a cedar grove. Hot, dusty plains stretch to the horizon."
  34. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "More steps down the path. A priest-king receives the traveller, in a temple painted with eyes. The priest-king's court are amazed at the traveller, and especially impressed by his silk clothes. The priest-king wears white linen, and many layers of shining copper and brass jewellery. He is unmistakably the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel. More steps. The priest-king's court feasts in the open air, under cedar trees. The priest-king and the traveller are seated together, laughing and kissing."
  35. ↑ The Season of Ruins, Fallen London "A laugh alerts you to a picnic. Two men lounge in the dappled sunlight. A white cloth is strewn with bread and fruit; ripe figs are laid out on fig leaves, plums nestle in a copper bowl. The Manager, in brass jewellery and once-white linen is scowling – the juice of a dark purple fruit stains his chin and the front of his robe. An impossibly beautiful man leans over to kiss the juice from the Manager's lips. [...]"
  36. ↑ The Season of Ruins, Fallen London "It was the first time that he told me that he loved me. It was the time when he promised he'd stay. [...] I was a leader. Yet I was a fool. Never trust a promise that's not within the person's control to keep. [...] He believed what he said. He did love me, then."
  37. ↑ Moss: Conclusion, Mask of the Rose "I speak words that were spoken long ago. I speak with the voice of twin cedars, still unbowed. I speak a king to a priest. I commanded him once to love me until our hearts were mingled dust."
  38. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "Now I must begin the ritual to signal my acceptance of this gift. There are much easier ways - but my love is a traditionalist. And these were written on the boughs of the twin cedars long ago. The rules of courtship, as sacred in the observance as in the act."
  39. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "Eternity is my sentence, mine alone to bear. The law of the cedars yet holds."
  40. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "The path goes into a cave. Now you're in an underground chamber. A cellar perhaps, or some place of hidden rituals. The traveller writhes and twitches on a stone slab, in some kind of fit. He looks wretchedly thin and haggard. A short step from death. The priest-king weeps over him. [...]"
  41. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "[... ]Two figures step into the chamber, hunched and garbed in many-petalled black cloaks. Masters of the Bazaar. One carries a clay cup, the other an unlit candle. The one with the cup says, "I think we can be of service to each other. Allow me to propose an exchange...""
  42. ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "One clay cup. One candle, still unlit. One promise to preserve this moment forever, in stone. Death needn't come so fast. Keep it at bay. Love needn't leave so fast. Yes, let it stay. We'll need your agreement, of course. Make your mark here. Remember, always remember, the shade and the cedars."
  43. ↑ My Kingdom for a Pig, Fallen London "[...] this moment when a priest-king bends to kiss his lover's lips. Cold lips. Stone lips. Lips that scream. Carve out his heart. Replace it with a shard that shines and blinds [...] you as you watch the candle burn and blood trickle into the cup."
  44. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "The king comes to your cell every day to lament his lover's worsening condition. Had it not been for the fall of your city, you would not believe the nature of the lover's malady. Their relationship will not survive it."
  45. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London "So, you've seen my story. China and then the Crossroads Shaded by Cedars. And then the Masters of the Bazaar. My lover saved me, in a manner of speaking. My fits would have killed me, so he bargained that we should both endure the ages, in return for his city. But the Bazaar isn't kind. Look what it did to me. The Masters took a diamond from the great glowing mountain in the South and gave it to me for a heart. They made me like this."
  46. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "I no longer love him. How could I, after what he had done to me? But his love abides, over the sea in London. I am his heart's desire. I will allow him to play the Marvellous, on one condition."
  47. ↑ Speak to those who know, Fallen London "I've heard tell that the Hundreds was bound up in a bargain with them Masters long ago. And that's how Polythreme came to be. Summat about love and a statue. Can't say I know the truth of it, but I'll say this. You don't talk about love to the Hundreds if you know what's good for you. And he curses the name of someone who still lives in London. Fair rattles the island when that happens. [...]"
  48. ↑ Supervise a religious visit, Fallen London "The Clay Men do not need to undergo meditation to speak to the Manager-city. You cannot tell what they are saying, only that they lay out before the shrine a very ancient Polythremean hat and a heap of broken marble. Afterward, the city is in a mood for days."
  49. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "I am the intended recipient of the crown you bore. A gift chosen for its cruelty, a representation of all I lost so he could gain what he casually discards. A cruelty I have earned. Indeed I savour its every cut. I thought our tradition was ended long ago. Yet by chance, it continues with you."
  50. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "The gifts my lover sent were contingent upon my good behaviour. And my abstinence from a certain game of high stakes. My love knew that, were I to win, I'd have his heart. Therefore he forbade me from playing."
  51. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "I no longer love him. How could I, after what he had done to me? But his love abides, over the sea in London. I am his heart's desire. I will allow him to play the Marvellous, on one condition."
  52. ↑ Study the diplomatic overtures of cities past, Fallen London "There is a fragment of a tablet that records the journey of a priest-king of the First deep into the Presbyter's territory. It was said he tried to storm Nidah alone, and only an intervention from the zee, diamond-hard, prevented his annihilation. [...]"
  53. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "At the end of the path is a statue. A handsome man of the Orient. The traveller. The King with a Hundred Hearts."
  54. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "The King is an animated statue, finer-featured than his Clay progeny, and made from marble. He motions you to sit with him on a pile of cushions."
  55. ↑ Meeting the King, Fallen London "The diamond that is my heart shattered long ago. A speck of diamond dust is in each of my children. [...]"
  56. ↑ Ask what he means by 'blasphemy', Fallen London "[...] The Clay Culprit [...] describes the land and regent of his home: Polythreme, and the King with a Hundred Hearts. He depicts, in graven tones, a vital and glittering diamond, riven with cracks but ever-growing new facets. His Clay brethren, he says, are born from the land, which is Polythreme and also the King, each of them containing a single mote of that diamond. "HIS HEART IS OUR HEART. AND OUR HEARTS ARE FACETED LIFE.""
  57. ↑ Ask what this has to do with the puppets, Fallen London "WE ARE SUPPOSED TO GO HOME, WHEN WE ARE DEAD, OR BROKEN. TO RETURN TO THE KING OUR HEARTS."
  58. ↑ From across white walls, Fallen London "The newborn Unfinished Clay Man is wary and doesn't seem to sleep, but he's also staying away from his Clay brethren. Perhaps it's them he wants to avoid."
  59. ↑ From across white walls, Fallen London "TAKE ME FROM HERE. I WILL NOT BE A SLAVE TO THE BAZAAR. I WILL SMASH MY HEAD FIRST. THE BAZAAR WANTS US. THOSE WHO ARE BORN OF NIGHTMARE. WE ARE STRONG AND WE UNDERSTAND FEAR. WE KEEP THE OTHER SLAVES FRIGHTENED."
  60. ↑ Sever unwanted allegiances, Fallen London "All minds are susceptible to the shifting shapes of truth – this is fundamental to your craft. All opinions can be changed; all intent diverted. But within the heart of the Solitary Clay Man is something crystalline and geological – a sliver more like geography than psychology, reaching out and connecting him to his peers. Its bright tectonics will not be swayed by your words, no matter how cunning"
  61. ↑ Sever unwanted allegiances, Fallen London "The Solitary Clay Man describes his connection to his kind: a web of glimmering motes, each a mind, stretching back to his fatherland. "IT IS SO... NOISY," he rumbles."
  62. ↑ Moss: The Census, Mask of the Rose "I am not Unfinished. I still serve the King. To be Finished is to be complete. To be complete is to be in harmony with His grace."
  63. ↑ Moss: Concerns, Mask of the Rose "All I could remember in that moment is the face of my King - That last day I was in Polythreme. We were in his garden. Surrounded by his statues, all bearing his face. I disagreed with a principle of his, for the very first time. What, I barely remember. I realised in one, wonderful, moment that I was not him. I was separate. Myself. I came to him in all innocence, eager to tell him this new, splendid thing. You can imagine, I think, his reaction. The next day, a ship waited to carry me here. I thought I could still prove my worth and finish the task."
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