The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel

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Spoilers ahead: May include midgame or minor Fate-locked content.

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"In the street, you pass a tall, cheerful man with a brisk manner, a stovepipe hat and a row of bright brass buttons down the front of his coat. He winks familiarly as you pass and spreads his hands: eight fingers."[1]

The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel is the former Priest-King of the First City, and the current operator of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel.

A Merry Gentleman[edit | edit source]

"He also chucks you under the chin, which is a little over-familar, but, well. His buttons are so very shiny. It's difficult to quarrel with a man of such shiny buttons. 'Thank you,' he says. 'I do hope you'll continue to enjoy your stay.'"[2]

The Royal Bethlehem Hotel

The Manager, as his title would suggest, runs the Royal Bethlehem Hotel: half resort, half recovery facility. The Royal Bethlehem is only the latest in a long succession of similar establishments across several Fallen Cities;[3] in fact, the Manager has millennia of experience in the hospitality business (which surely looks good on a resume). He rules with an iron fist and little regard for the well-being of his staff;[4] he hires London's desperate and outcasts, pays them next to nothing to treat patients who are a bit more insane than usual for the service industry, and uses their dependence as leverage to exploit them and enforce their obedience.[5] However, the Manager makes an exception for the Clay Men working at the Hotel, who are treated well[6] and offered additional benefits.[7]

A scarlet lizard.

The Manager roams London at night in search of patients to collect and take to the Hotel for study.[8] He is sometimes accompanied by a pet scarlet lizard,[9] which he has nicknamed his "little pomegranate."[10] He cultivates his choicest selections from his guests in his Garden of Nightmares,[11] a moonlit dream-garden in Parabola.[12] The Manager is intimately familiar with Parabola; he has visited nearly every corner of it,[13] and has dealt with every major Parabolan power. He even claims to have defeated the Red-Handed Queen on her own chessboard.[14] The Manager's mastery over dreams is equally noteworthy,[15] as he can plague his enemies with debilitating nightmares from his Garden[16] and render them completely mad.[17] He is additionally able to manifest through any reflective surface and whisk away maddened targets to his hotel.[18]

In addition to his study of nightmares, the Manager has a great fondness for ancient mysteries and lore.[19][20] He can also consume rather large eggs in one gulp.[21] (How? Why? We may never know.)

Appearance[edit | edit source]

"He would be in red and gold. He would appear alone, and say things that to you would appear strange. This man would have been encountered only in the small hours, usually given only to the dead. Much is changed, but my master knows these are constants."[22]

The Manager is most often encountered by the nightmare-addled[23] as a Merry Gentleman with eight fingers on each hand[24] (though he claims that the number of fingers rises with the viewer's intellect).[25] Viewing him from a distance causes headaches and disorientation.[26] Upon closer and less sleep-deprived inspection, he appears middle-aged,[27] with dark hair[28], an olive complexion,[29] and hands that betray his true age.[27] He dresses like an archetypal Victorian dandy: a stovepipe hat, a frock coat with particularly shiny brass buttons, gloves,[30] a silver-capped cane.[31] Though his wardrobe varied over the centuries, his clothes have always been red and gold.[32]

Personality[edit | edit source]

""What? What? Why should we speak here? No, no. The cats are listening, and we both know they are hardly what they seem. Another tomorrow. Another yesterday." The manager scratches his right ear with the little finger of his left hand, and cocks his eyebrows at you. He strides off, whistling a catchy tune about weasels."[33]

The Manager has a habit of speaking in riddles and metaphors,[34][35] and considers himself a master in the art of being vague,[36] so it can be difficult at times to parse what exactly he means.[37]

He has no compunction about doing actions that may be considered immoral to attain his goals,[38] and considers kindness among the "limp virtues."[39] Despite his affable exterior, he has a melancholic and cynical streak,[40][41] and notes that the only thing he likes about London is its theatrical productions.[42]

History[edit | edit source]

This section contains spoilers for the following Exceptional Stories: My Kingdom for a Pig, Inheritance, and The Season of Ruins (Conclusion). Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

The Manager's Horned Crown.

"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."[43]

Long ago, a merchant from the East (likely ancient China)[44] traveled westward in a trade caravan bound for Mesopotamia.[45] Misfortune struck the caravan, forcing them to seek shelter in the nearest town.[46] It was there that the merchant met and fell in love with the town's priest-king - the man now known as the Manager.[47] In the midst of their joyful time together,[48] the merchant eventually promised that he would remain with the priest-king forever rather than returning home with the caravan;[49] in return, the priest-king swore his eternal love[50] beneath the cedar trees,[51] and the cedar-spirit bound his oath.[52]

As fate would have it, the couple's happiness did not last, as the merchant fell gravely ill.[53] Seizing this opportunity, two Masters of the Bazaar (Candles and Cups) approached the priest-king with an offer: in exchange for selling what would become the First City, they would grant him a way to save his lover’s life.[54][55] 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.[56] The merchant became immortal, but he began to grow, slowly and painfully, until he became the living island of Polythreme.[57] The fragment of Stone within his chest became the source of the island’s unnatural vitality.[58]

An astronomer warned the First City's populace before its Fall, having foreseen its impending doom, and many of its citizens fled.[59] The priest-king, blaming the astronomer for jeopardizing the deal and (in his mind) causing his lover’s transformation, punished her with imprisonment in a dark cell.[60] He then handed her over to the custody of Mr Apples, who ensured she would suffer further.[61]

The King with a Hundred Hearts

To make matters worse, the merchant who became the King with a Hundred Hearts blamed his lover for the monstrous scale of his new existence.[62] To this day, the Manager is unsurprisingly barred from Polythreme,[63] and his ex-lover is still so furious at him[64] that he sends Clay messengers to deliver emotionally charged and insulting gifts to the Manager.[65][66] The Manager, for his part, accepts the gifts as a form of penance.[67] 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.[68][69] However, when the Manager attempted to invade Nidah completely alone to reach the Mountain of Light (possibly in an attempt to gain a shard to implant in his own heart), it was the King who intervened to save him.[70]

The Manager does not regret doing what he did to save his lover,[71] but is haunted by his past; the indelible images of the merchant's blue silk robes and the sickly blue of his lips as he lay dying have led the Manager to avoid the color blue entirely in his hotel and personal life.[72] He is still madly in love to the point of obsession,[73] keeping his promise from millennia ago,[51] and plays the Marvellous to win a chance to share the King's fate and become a second living city.[74] The Manager himself admits that even back then, the King once expressed exasperation at his overenthusiastic love.[75] He rejects all romantic advances to this day,[76][77] and looks down on people with a tendency to sleep around, such as a certain nobleman.[78][79]

Personal Life[edit | edit source]

"The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem doesn't look upset as you exchange two tons of scrap in his lobby. In fact, he seems pleased to see the Capering Relicker. […] "How are things, venerable uncle? Still in the booze business, I hope? […]""[80]

The Manager has one known living relative: his uncle, the Capering Relicker, the man who brewed the first Hesperidean Cider. Their relationship appears cordial, if eccentric.[81]

The Manager was also a close friend of the man now known as the Sleeping Merchant. During the days of the First City, the Manager granted the Merchant permission to lead a caravan westward into the Hinterlands.[82] The Merchant expected to return with riches, but instead, the events that transpired culminated in his being placed in an eternal slumber; he has long since slept away the lives of all his loved ones.[83] Of those who knew him in life, only the Manager remains.[84]

The Calendar Council[edit | edit source]

This section contains spoilers for the following Exceptional Stories: The Calendar Code. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"If our waking lives are enchained, then to dream is an act of revolution."[85]

The Manager acts as May of the Calendar Council[86] and gives this alias freely to strangers.[87] Dissatisfied with the bargain he made with the Masters, he began to oppose their rule, becoming one of the founding members of the Council.[88] Like most of the Council, he supports the Liberation of Night, but does not expect the Liberation to fully free everyone, himself included.[41] His book in the Agendums of Ascent records stories of forbidden and tragic passion.[89] The Manager was the campaign manager for his fellow Council member, August, in his first bid for Mayor of London, but August's opposition to the Liberation caused friction between them, and the Manager eventually quit.[90] By contrast, he has a friendly relationship with October, who owns a room in his hotel;[91] he considers October an advisor[92] and fulfills her requests zealously and personally.[93]

The Marvellous[edit | edit source]

"Oh, I'd play the Marvellous if I could. I've suffered at their hands longer than anyone. But if they could give me... yes, I would play."[94]

The Marvellous

The Masters became deeply wary of the Manager over time. He had openly declared himself their enemy and been an unrelenting thorn in their side for centuries. This was one of the motivations for the Marvellous: a game where the victor would be granted their heart’s desire, but only the winner could leave. This was an irresistible lure for the Manager, whose interest in the new game also conveniently made him trouble the Masters much less frequently.[95]

Despite the best efforts of the King with a Hundred Hearts,[96] the Manager has been playing in the Marvellous[97] for centuries;[98] he has gained extensive experience in the process,[99] but not enough to win and free himself.[100] Though denied the final prize, he sometimes claims the stakes of those he defeats. For instance, Tristram Bagley staked his mind against the Manager and lost; Bagley is now known as the deranged Topsy King.[101] By claiming his mind, the Manager also gained the ability to read his every thought, ensuring that Bagley could never win against him in a future match.[102]

Historical and Cultural Inspirations[edit | edit source]

If the Crossroads Shaded by Cedars (the First City) is Uruk - though there are other candidates, since we only know it was in ancient Mesopotamia - then the Manager would be Gilgamesh, the King with a Hundred Hearts would be Enkidu, and the Capering Relicker would be Utnapishtim. These three are key players in the Epic of Gilgamesh. While the Manager and the Capering Relicker are similar enough people to their mythological counterparts at some stage, the King with a Hundred Hearts and Enkidu are entirely different. It's almost as though the story of the First City goes out of its way to avoid giving Gilgamesh the character development he experiences in the epic, resulting in an entirely opposite ending and moral. Furthermore, the King acts more like a manifestation of the supreme and immortal ruler that Gilgamesh aspired to be before the gods intervened. It's difficult to tell whether such a deliberate divergence is because the First City isn't Uruk, or because it's simply a very different Uruk.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ A merry gentleman, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Thank the manager, Fallen London
  3. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "Not to be blunt or invasive, but what is the Seamstress? "Senior Staff," she says, "I have followed the Manager from hotel to hotel. Before the Beth, we worked in many fine establishments. This might be the finest. I really like the crown moulding.""
  4. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "You're instructed how to serve guests, how to smile, how to bite your tongue until you taste blood, if it's necessary. Satisfy all requests. Manifest luxury. Keep your outfit pristine."
  5. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "Nobody important knows that the Khaganian Pâtissier works here except Management, obviously. She's in hiding from the Taimen Clan (bad blood involving a crème brulée). After an impromptu exodus in a tramp-steamer's funnel, she couldn't get the right stamps applied to the right papers. But the Manager won't tell anyone. She won't give him a reason to tell, will she?"
  6. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "THE GUESTS DON'T MAKE IT EASY, BUT I LIKE IT HERE. THE MANAGER IS KIND TO ME. OTHER PEOPLE CAN BE SO DISRESPECTFUL. EVEN MY KING ACROSS THE ZEE FROWNS ON CLAY MEN WORKING AT THE BETH. BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE IN LONDON. THE MANAGER TREATS US WITH DIGNITY. AND HE PAYS OVERTIME"
  7. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "The Impatient Rotisseur is complaining. Overtime? Who's ever heard about that? Only the Manager's favourite Clay Men. They get special treatment. Bully for them! Everyone else has to kowtow to the clocks, and the clocks in the Beth rarely stick to the schedule. Take a glance, and the workday is over in five minutes, take another, and it's five more hours."
  8. ↑ Ask where you can locate the players, Fallen London "The Manager: often perambulates London at night, searching for those afflicted, to collect for his hotel. You will need to be more than a little mad to find him."
  9. ↑ Ambition: Meet with the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem, Fallen London "He is out walking his scarlet lizard, searching for new guests for the hotel."
  10. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "Almost always. See the beautiful scarlet scales? And they turn gold when my little pomegranate moults. Lizards with those colours hibernate for months at this time of year."
  11. ↑ Ambition: Arm Yourself Against the Garden of Nightmares, Fallen London "The Manager's position affords him many privileges. One of the chiefest is his opportunity to harvest choice nightmares from his guests. Once he has studied, categorised and collected them, he fosters the most lurid and horrid in a hidden sanctuary: the Garden of Nightmares."
  12. ↑ Ambition: The Garden of Nightmares, Fallen London "A silver gate leads to the Garden's Heart. It creaks musically as you push it open. Jade-green grass is bathed by silver moonlight. Violet roses and amber poppies peek from the flowerbeds."
  13. ↑ Variable Interactions: May's Responses, Mask of the Rose "May: You speak to one who has traversed the Wanting Way. Swum the Writhing River, conquered the Castle of Forests and smoked out the Smoking Shores.
  14. ↑ Variable Interactions: May's Responses, Mask of the Rose "May: Have you defeated the Red-Handed Queen on her own board? I thought not.
  15. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "You will look away while your eyes yet have light to see. Though threat be empty, boastful pride runs ahead. But in dream, where I remain master and, I fancy, king – You'll get yours. And in the meantime this I shall perform privately."
  16. ↑ Inform the lizard that it has mistaken the time of your appointment, Fallen London "[...] Your head aches terribly, and you help yourself to glass of something medicinal. [...] It's difficult to think clearly. Your carpet is still a vivid and distracting shade of red. And you think there is something different about your stairs [...] Surely it used to be the other way around. And who has been hiding your biscuits? Why are they in this tin? Who has been here? Was it the lizard? Something is wrong. There is something else you are meant to be doing, you're sure, but the more you try to remember what it is, the harder it becomes. And you're not likely to get to the bottom of it while someone keeps changing your stairs and hiding your biscuits in ridiculous places."
  17. ↑ Go for a walk, Fallen London "[...] The people you pass on the street – In their tall, chimney-like hats and their long coats that drag behind them like folded wings – they thìnk you can't tell that they're watching you. But you can! You catch the spiteful gleam in their brassy eyes. And that's not all. Someone has rearranged London's streets again. How else could you be so impossibly lost? [...] You follow a trail of brass buttons on the cobbles – but they lead you towards the Royal Beth and you do not need to visit the Royal Beth at the moment, thank you very much. It takes you all night to find your way home. [...] There is something you are meant to be doing, but it eludes you. You couldn't concentrate on it properly anyway, what with people moving the streets around, and those slouching, brass-eyed things progressing past your window!"
  18. ↑ Memories of Mozart, Fallen London "The mirrored lenses of the Monitor's mask crack, then shatter. This cell is the Manager's territory now. Here he is; brass buttons gleaming like teeth. Time unspools. Red and gold wallpaper. A fountain in a lobby. Most peculiar guests. The Monitor merits a private suite on the upper floors. Permanent, the Manager says. For the good of his health."
  19. ↑ Buy a permanent reservation at the Royal Bethlehem Hotel, Fallen London "The Merry Gentleman is known to have a taste for mysteries. [...] this will allow you to purchase a Reservation at the Royal Bethlehem for less than the Bazaar price." [Requires Antique Mysteries]
  20. ↑ Convince the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem to train you, Fallen London "The Manager listens [...] as you relate the glories of ancient cities. [...] When you finish, he applauds – the sound echoing in the dark and quiet London streets. "One day," he says, "I shall join their ranks. Oh, what a romantic ruin I'll make.""
  21. ↑ Take tea in the parlour, Fallen London "As you make your exit, the Merry Gentleman gives a wry nod as he takes out a large Scarlet Egg and eats it whole." [Editor's Note: Scarlet Eggs (and other Whitsun eggs) are at least the size of ostrich eggs]
  22. ↑ May: Introduction, Mask of the Rose
  23. ↑ A merry gentleman, Fallen London "In the street, you pass a tall, cheerful man with a brisk manner, a stovepipe hat and a row of bright brass buttons down the front of his coat. He winks familiarly as you pass and spreads his hands: eight fingers." [Game Instructions: Your Nightmares are reaching a dangerous level.]
  24. ↑ The Feast of the Rose: Epilogue, Mask of the Rose "Once in a great while, I wake from a dream of a man with eight fingers on each hand. A man in a bright-buttoned coat."
  25. ↑ The Murder Trial: May's Testimony, Mask of the Rose "May: How many fingers am I holding up? Archie: A dozen! A dozen at the least! Judge: His hands are entirely ordinary. May: My fingers multiply with the wit of the viewer to perceive."
  26. ↑ Approach the Merry Gentleman, Fallen London "At this distance there's something migrainous and vague about his outline. It hurts your eyes."
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Give him your dreams, Fallen London "[...] The Manager examines his fingernails for a length of time that goes beyond rude. While his face is no more than middle-aged, his hands are those of an old man. They have an olive complexion that suggests he's not a local."
  28. ↑ Take your seat (2), Fallen London "His dark hair is silvered in the beams of light from above..."
  29. ↑ Give him your key, Fallen London "For a moment, his airs leave him, and the fearsome manager is merely an old, olive-skinned man in a ridiculous frock coat."
  30. ↑ Is he here too? Even here?, Fallen London "Outside the station, you pass a tall, cheerful man. His buttons wink. His gloves... yes. Eight fingers. Of course."
  31. ↑ Release the Manager from his promise, Fallen London "You meet him at the carnival, where his stovepipe hat bobs above the heads of the seething crowd. [...] "Marvellous!" he laughs, twirling his silver-capped cane."
  32. ↑ May: Introduction, Mask of the Rose "Horned Crown: He would be in red and gold. He would appear alone, and say things that to you would appear strange. This man would have been encountered only in the small hours, usually given only to the dead. Much is changed, but my master knows these are constants."
  33. ↑ There he is!, Fallen London
  34. ↑ Spend the evening with the Manager, Fallen London "Everyone has needs [...] Every need has its origin. Desire is a wellspring, a font without cease. Those who go unfulfilled, inevitably I snatch up, poor loves. My needs? [...] Beauty in proportion. Liminal in its nature. Somewhere that is not as it seems."
  35. ↑ There he is!, Fallen London "Poor, dear Tristram. Bumps in his noggin like the hills of his homeland. Likes to be up high. Sees further than you or I. Sees the nose of the moon. But away with cag-maggery and humbug! He is to be tempted! Scraped up and glued and fried to a crisp. The marbles polished and spun. I know the way, of course. I've always known. Not in a professional capacity, you see. I merely observe. But one cannot give when others sell. Why, Dr Schlomo and Mrs Plenty would roast my hat! Here is my bargain and my downfall."
  36. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "Me: Did you perhaps mean iron or bronze? Those work better for your metaphor. May: I am familiar with these lesser metals. Our connection is precious, and currently fragile. But it has value. More than the King holds us in. There, now you have made the master of the art explain his metaphor."
  37. ↑ There he is!, Fallen London ""What? What? Why should we speak here? No, no. The cats are listening, and we both know they are hardly what they seem. Another tomorrow. Another yesterday." The manager scratches his right ear with the little finger of his left hand, and cocks his eyebrows at you. He strides off, whistling a catchy tune about weasels."
  38. ↑ May: Introduction, Mask of the Rose "Please do not assume I care for morality. My ethics are a line and a lure. To catch my heart's truest desire."
  39. ↑ May: Conclusion, Mask of the Rose "Kindness? It follows niceness in the catalogue of limp virtues."
  40. ↑ May: Conclusion, Mask of the Rose "Look around your fair city. So many of you crammed in this warren – And how many of them, would you say, have found happiness? Companionship?"
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Try your best to sleep, Fallen London "A man [sits] with you. […] You must last until the Liberation." […] "I am weary. I suspect that, even after the Liberation, I still will be. It may free everything, but not everyone." He plucks two brass buttons from his coat and lays them over your eyes."
  42. ↑ May: Conclusion, Mask of the Rose "It has a better class of theatre. I shall allow that much."
  43. ↑ Looking in the garden, Fallen London
  44. ↑ 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. [...]"
  45. ↑ Crouching in a low stone building, Fallen London "[...] the land between the Caspian and Mediterranean seas [...]"
  46. ↑ 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."
  47. ↑ 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."
  48. ↑ 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. [...]"
  49. ↑ 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."
  50. ↑ 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."
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 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."
  52. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "Eternity is my sentence, mine alone to bear. The law of the cedars yet holds."
  53. ↑ 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. [...]"
  54. ↑ 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...""
  55. ↑ 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."
  56. ↑ 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."
  57. ↑ 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."
  58. ↑ 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."
  59. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "Astral clouds are billowing over the desert. The heavens are churning. You hurry back to the city and warn people that a calamity is coming. Many leave. The king summons you. Thinking he wants your help to evacuate, you go willingly. You are wrong. He has sold the city, and its people were part of the price. You have put the deal in jeopardy."
  60. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "So dark is your prison that at first, you do not realise you are underground. One night, the king visits you. He exchanged the city for his lover's life, but something went wrong. Perhaps if there had been no exodus, his lover would not be – as he is."
  61. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "The king gives you to a cloaked figure and asks it to make you feel his grief. The creature promises to prolong your torment. It knows about such things. The creature grinds a mountain into you and drowns you in memory-snow until you are filled with the sadness of the whole city. You never see the king again."
  62. ↑ 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."
  63. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "The truth is awful! That particularity does not make it less true. Best to hear it from someone who understands. Than board the first ship to Polythreme and find all gates barred..."
  64. ↑ 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. [...]"
  65. ↑ 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."
  66. ↑ 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."
  67. ↑ May, Mask of the Rose "I am not worthy of this crown. Least among men, for pain was my gift to you. You send this to mock me, but I will wear it with pride. For I saved the best and most beauteous of men. And if this is my punishment, let it be so. But accept my prayer that in the long centuries, my suffering might be enough. So that as I place this crown upon my head, we might across the vast zee, at last regard each other."
  68. ↑ 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."
  69. ↑ 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."
  70. ↑ 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. [...]"
  71. ↑ The Season of Ruins, Fallen London "I have wondered, you know, about redemption. [...] But I would make the same decision. I could not keep watching him die."
  72. ↑ Reach out and touch it, Fallen London "–red and gold. Make it red and gold, not blue, never blue–"
  73. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "You loved me once, long ago. I was a priest, but you supplanted my god from the day I saw you. The fever on your brow that flushed your cheek. The bands of bronze upon your chest. A traveller, returning from who knows where, stumbled into my camp. Such a simple beginning for so grand a thing. Such epics we wove, when we were two. This tragedy a monument to our love. For the world could not abide such a story as we."
  74. ↑ Ask about the Manager's heart's desire, Fallen London "My needs are simplicity itself. I want a bright diamond. I will make it my heart and grow from there into something strange and wild. Like my beloved. I will carry the seed of a new city. Perhaps I could be of sandstone and gold. That would look very splendid, don't you think?"
  75. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "The King once said he found my enthusiasm for him overeager."
  76. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "Me: This is an elaborate way to catch my attention. May: Oh, your attention is the last thing in the world I desire."
  77. ↑ May: Meeting, Mask of the Rose "Me: Well now it is just the two of us... May: The King once said he found my enthusiasm for him overeager. I had centuries to consider what he meant - But no instruction has been better than your comment just now."
  78. ↑ Ask him about prior winners, Fallen London "At last he turns to your question. "I did not like him. The winner. I found him vulgar. As a devotee of a singular love (and how singular it is!), I found the profligacy of his affection abhorrent." His vinegar vented, the Manager returns to contemplation of his diamond."
  79. ↑ Piece your clues together, Fallen London "The Manager stated an intense dislike, derived from the profligacy of this winner's affections – that could refer to anyone in London. However, the Bishop referred to this person as a colleague – and not in the cloth. You're aware of a certain club to which the Bishop belongs [...] That leaves His Amused Lordship [...]"
  80. ↑ Hand over a roomful of scraps for a Coruscating Soul, Fallen London
  81. ↑ Hand over a roomful of scraps for a Coruscating Soul, Fallen London "The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem doesn't look upset as you exchange two tons of scrap in his lobby. In fact, he seems pleased to see the Capering Relicker. […] "How are things, venerable uncle? Still in the booze business, I hope? […]""
  82. ↑ Let the Efficient Commissioner ask questions while you walk, Fallen London "He was happy, before the fall. A good friend to me, and a benefactor to the people who knew him. The Fall into the Neath took it all away. [...] After we came below, he tried to... compensate. To provide for everyone in his care. But he no longer had trading partners, or flocks, or fields. So he begged my permission to begin a new caravan, to re-establish his wealth here in the Neath. [...]"
  83. ↑ Allow the Woken Merchant to break the seal, Fallen London "No, your wife is not here, and she cannot help you. Though she would dearly have wanted to. She watched your sleep for many years. She read to you, and thought you heard her in your dreams. No one had the heart to tell her otherwise."
  84. ↑ Let the Efficient Commissioner ask questions while you walk, Fallen London "Of everyone who knew him then, I alone still live."
  85. ↑ A merry gentleman, Fallen London
  86. ↑ Who is May?, Failbetter Games "The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem/the Merry Gentleman"
  87. ↑ May: Introduction, Mask of the Rose "A good evening to you! I find myself caught on dusk's wing. Like a firefly, whirled upon a zephyr. A pleasure to encounter another of twilight's walkers. You may call me May."
  88. ↑ Moss: Purloined Books, Mask of the Rose "[...] It is a transcription of a wax tablet. It details the activities of a man from a prior city. It seems he made a bargain with the Masters, and later recanted it. It seems he became their enemy. In an older city, in another age, he helped found a body that opposed the Masters. In number, and in method. The device of the calendar was chosen as an alias, to keep this council small, and in equal number. [...]"
  89. ↑ The Calendar Code, Fallen London "These are powerful tales: of hands touching for the first time on carnival rides; of intimacies stolen by doors which listen. The ecstasies captured in the middle section give way to a sombre conclusion: stories of old lovers separated by dark waters, and of hearts turned to stone."
  90. ↑ Choose a Target: The Jovial Contrarian's Campaign, Fallen London "The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem is always at the Contrarian's side. They are both convivial when they think themselves observed. But once, you spot them in a dark corner, arguing. "Between this and the Bazaar, there is no third way," the Manager says. "You will be neither forgiven nor thanked.""
  91. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "Room 10 [...] the booking is reserved for one specific guest. It can stand empty for years when she doesn't visit."
  92. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "October in Red and Gold [...] I've worked with the Manager before. He claims to respect my advice. I told him not to renew the lease. So much for that. [...] I can't deny the Manager knows how to colour-coordinate. One of his deadliest talents. [...]"
  93. ↑ The Bloody Wallpaper, Fallen London "[...] Management has no patience for guests with personal requests. [...] Room 10's guest is another matter. The Absent Lady could ask for the Moon, and the Manager would snap his fingers to make the Staff jump high enough to pull it down. He might even climb a stepladder himself."
  94. ↑ Looking for the Manager, Fallen London
  95. ↑ Moss: Purloined Books, Mask of the Rose "[...] It is a transcription of a wax tablet. It details the activities of a man from a prior city. It seems he made a bargain with the Masters, and later recanted it. It seems he became their enemy. In an older city, in another age, he helped found a body that opposed the Masters. [...] As for the man himself, the Masters were able to beguile him with games and follies, until he preferred that which was not to that which is. He is permitted to continue to play their game, for they have no more fear of him."
  96. ↑ 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."
  97. ↑ Heart's Desire – Back to the Manager, Mask of the Rose "You have four players for the Marvellous. Yourself, a monkey, the Bishop of St Fiacre's and the Topsy King. Now for the fifth – the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel."
  98. ↑ Looking for the Manager, Fallen London "Oh, I'd play the Marvellous if I could. I've suffered at their hands longer than anyone. But if they could give me... yes, I would play. [...]"
  99. ↑ Study the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem, Fallen London "The Manager's style is infuriatingly languid. He considers his hand minutely before every bid. When he raises, he counts his coins with plodding deliberation before committing them. And then, half the time, he reveals he has nothing better than a Remorse of Sisters or a Roser's Retreat! Except, apparently, when someone thinks they have him figured out and calls his bluff, only to walk right into a Peace of Hell or an Black Glass Mirror. The Manager likes to keep his opponents guessing."
  100. ↑ Ask Mr Pages about the previous seventh player, Fallen London "The seventh player? Why, he won! [...] Having achieved his heart's desire, he has no need to play again. This is protocol: when a player wins, they depart. A new candidate is found, or occasionally, like your delecterious self, presents themselves." Pages lets out a long faux-melancholy sigh. "The rest of us must keep playing, of course. Victory is the only escape."
  101. ↑ Not at home to visitors, Fallen London "You find the Topsy King... but this isn't the Topsy King. This fellow is Tristram Bagley. [...] "We don't have long. I can feel them coming back. The letters, the shapes, the words in the sky... [...] Perhaps I can get them out. [...] Even when I become him again, I'll play. I'll remember. Tell my sister that I love her. And tell the Manager that I won't fall for that bluff again." Tristram Bagley looks down at his feet. [...] The Topsy King looks up at you. [...]" "
  102. ↑ Seek out Tristram Bagley, Fallen London ""I lost," the King says, his voice bleak. "He had my marbles, you see. All pretty and shining they were in his hands. I can't trick him when he has my marbles. Tristram, he said, Tristram I think you're losing. And I did. Lost and lost and lost." How could Tristram ever have won? His lost his mind to the Manager, after staking it in a previous tournament. The Manager has it in his keeping, now. No doubt he could foresee every play Tristram made."
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