Messengers

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"Vast celestial crustaceans who carry messages from one star to another. Colonies of lesser creatures (like Rubbery Men or Curators) often populate and build on their shells, riding them through the sky."[1]

Messengers, also called Couriers, are vast celestial crustaceans that ferry messages between the stars.

Mail-Crabs?[edit | edit source]

Messengers traverse the High Wilderness to facilitate the Correspondence of the Judgements, serving as living instruments of cosmic communication.[2] A single Judgement may command multiple Messengers at a time.[3] These beings are renowned for their loyalty, fulfilling their master's command even at the cost of their lives;[4] however, there are at least one account of a Messenger defying its Judgement, which led to its execution.[3][5]

Many Messengers host entire colonies of lesser beings upon their immense shells. These creatures build homes and structures on the Messenger's back, journeying with them across the heavens, and they typically perform any tasks that their immense masters cannot.[2] Among Curators, serving a Messenger is both punishment and pardon: exiles and criminals are sometimes offered service as a means of redemption.[6][7]

Biology[edit | edit source]

The Bazaar's tentacles.
Messenger tentacles.

Messengers appear somewhat similar to crabs,[8] with extraordinary durable carapaces.[9] Their shells are inscribed with glowing sigils of Correspondence[10][11] and can be composed of diverse materials: chitin,[12] obsidian,[13] copper,[14] or stranger celestial elements still.[15] The Echo Bazaar and the House of Rods and Chains each have sets of seven doors carved into their bodies,[16][17][18] and spire-like structures rising from their shells.[19][13] The corpse of the Messenger at Faith's Fall, however, bears neither doors nor spires,[20][21] so these traits are not universal. The underside of a Messenger's body bristles with tentacles[22] or tendrils,[23] capable of burrowing, grasping,[24][25][26] and telepathic communication.[27] Though seemingly fleshy, these appendages are remarkably durable.[28] Messengers have an instinctive urge to wander, rarely lingering long in one place;[29] they are propelled by living, semi-independent engines.[30] The engines of the Bazaar are known as the Stone Pigs.[31]

The inside of a Messenger's body contains vast hollows that serve as dwellings for their attendants.[32] Their hearts are multi-chambered[33] and surrounded by fire and intense heat;[34][35] when overwhelmed by grief or guilt, a Messenger's heart can be clogged by cancerous growths, causing a slow death.[36][37] Messenger blood is molten,[38] and possesses strange properties: it induces a burning wanderlust[39] in those it touches, and may even confer a kind of immortality.[40][41] The immense cavity within these creatures' bellies[42] is a source and reservoir of lacre,[43] a corrosive substance that smells of ammonia.[44] Known colloquially as the "tears" of Messengers, lacre accumulates in hexagonal vats reminiscent of honeycombs.[45] Little is known about Messengers' diets; they do not eat human food,[46] but produce waste in great quantities.[47] Their excrement is highly combustible, and is used by humans as fuel,[48] a component in explosives,[49] and a potent fertilizer.[50] It also may contain parasites.[51]

Messengers are capable of reproducing through more than one method. The Echo Bazaar has produced offspring with a Judgement,[52][53] and also lays parthenogenetic eggs that hatch into various beings. Some of the latter offspring resemble their progenitor,[23][14] while others are entirely different.[54]

Gallery[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Ten Discoveries to Find in the Heavens: Messengers, Skyfarer Sky-Stories Supplement
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ten Discoveries to Find in the Heavens: Messengers, Sunless Skies "Vast celestial crustaceans who carry messages from one star to another. Colonies of lesser creatures (like Rubbery Men or Curators) often populate and build on their shells, riding them through the sky."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The House of Rods and Chains, Sunless Skies "You near the House of Rods and Chains, a ruined complex atop a great, dead beast. Once it was the favourite Messenger of the sun. Before it disobeyed."
  4. ↑ Percipient Cricketer, Fallen London "There's no Correspondence writing on the cuirass – and no unwritten forms either, she says. But under her hands the metal thrums with the path taken, with the memory of flight and distorted orbit and impact. "It's as if you had a ball that halfway through its flight decided to swerve, because the batter shouted at it. And because it was too devoted to disobey.""
  5. ↑ The Carapace, Sunless Skies "Vast, desolate, broken. Once, this creature flew majestically through the heavens. Now, it floats in silence, a monument to a Judgement's wrath."
  6. ↑ A secret about the Masters, Failbetter Games "Firstly, that the Masters' kind are denizens of the High Wilderness. [...] they accepted the position as emissaries of the Bazaar in order to escape misfortune, failure, and fruitlessness."
  7. ↑ 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."
  8. ↑ advinstaroutstar, Fallen London "Something like a crab, but not very like a crab. The smell is not pleasant. It swivels an eye at you, as if to inquire "Yes? What of it?" It nestles into the folds of your sleeve."
  9. ↑ "You authored me. But the Bazaar made me.", Fallen London "It takes the knife in both hands, glances up and down the street, and leans its weight into carving a slash down the skin of the Bazaar. The knife barely penetrates – all the bombs of the anarchists have barely marked the Bazaar! –  and the glossy demi-masonry closes up behind it."
  10. ↑ Repair your locomotive, Sunless Skies "It is several hours' gruelling effort to remove a piece of chitin. Your crew destroy two saw blades and one friendship in the process. You are forced to organise them into shifts. It takes even longer, but at last you haul away a vast sheet of shell. Strong, broad and bereft of sigils."
  11. ↑ Faith's Fall, Sunless Skies "What remains of the behemoth's carapace is scarred with sigils. Most are marred and broken, some still holding a sullen, resentful power."
  12. ↑ Repair your locomotive, Sunless Skies "The creature's chitinous shell is as hard as bronzewood. If you can hack off a few sections, you could patch your engine."
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Spire of Inches, Sunless Skies "Seven obsidian spires once stretched into this sky."
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Study your Copper-Speckled Crustacean, Fallen London "Where does the copper come from? Is it age? Specimen? Diet? Personal eccentricity? Could its speckles change colour? You try it on an assortment of fishmeals and take meticulous notes. The speckles multiply."
  15. ↑ Ask her to help with unusual research, Fallen London "The metal isn't steel. It also isn't any of the precious metals typically used for coins. But she wouldn't be surprised if it were something more valuable. Both the feel of the material and the stamping of the sun on the front remind her of the currencies of the Bazaar."
  16. ↑ Ambition: Nemesis - the Glistering Spires, Fallen London "The Bazaar has seven doors. The Copper Door opens to tales of blood and peril."
  17. ↑ Sidebar Snippets, Fallen London "The Bazaar has many doors. Copper, ivory, glass, ormolu, steel. If you must go in, choose your entrance carefully."
  18. ↑ The House of Rods and Chains, Sunless Skies "Doors of Leather, Rubber, Chitin, Scale, Fur, Flesh and Feather lead inside, each of them carved and branded with a letter of the Correspondence."
  19. ↑ Tiles and a Yacht, Fallen London "Mr Apples is holding court in a cramped and dripping cellar beneath the Bazaar spires."
  20. ↑ Faith's Fall, Sunless Skies "Your locomotive is stopped on a broad, flat section of the shell. The few sigils nearby are too cracked to risk much harm."
  21. ↑ Faith's Fall, Sunless Skies "You hand-pick a few of your crew. Their expressions are grim. Together, you make your way to a crevice in the carapace and secure a rope. You lower supplies down first; it would not do to be caught unprepared."
  22. ↑ Deliver the Sphinxstone, Sunless Sea "The Bazaar is the enemy of our Light. It's the enemy of anyone with eyes, too. Nasty greedy tentacled thing. [...]"
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Dark-Carapaced Crustacean, Fallen London "A lumpen, vicious, scuttling thing, patched with fur and fronded with light-tipped tendrils. It moves as if in pain. It's savage, and oddly loyal. It smells faintly of fish."
  24. ↑ Horatia: Fresh Supplies, Mask of the Rose "Horatia: Something lives in the ground. Its arms grow under the city. Its tentacles reach into our basement. But it can be found in many other places too. It cleared out the crypt of Saint Alban's, I wouldn't wonder."
  25. ↑ Horatia: Fresh Supplies, Mask of the Rose "Horatia: Oh, no. My tentacular friend is a benefactor. I gave it gifts and it has repaid me."
  26. ↑ Horatia: Powers, Mask of the Rose "Horatia: When I understood what he had done to London, how he was stretching his arms beneath it, how he was rearranging its streets..."
  27. ↑ Horatia: The Basement, Mask of the Rose "Something has wrapped around my ankle. Something has half-recognised me. It speaks of the sun, cruel and furious. The sun, rejecting. Cold in the dark No heat at all. London, spread out like a coverlet: reassuring? stifling? Its spire overlooking the city. Its servants, hooded. Then, just as quickly, it withdraws. I am refused. I am not Horatia. It expected something from her; it did not receive it from me. The tentacle is gone and there is only an empty hole in the wall."
  28. ↑ Horatia: Her Hallowmas Confession, Mask of the Rose "Horatia: I told myself I was doing it because then I could kill it and we could eat it. Lots of meat in that tentacle. That was the story. When it came back, I did try a knife on it – but I wasn't surprised the blade didn't go through."
  29. ↑ Explore her Surgery, Sunless Sea "Did you know my mother operated on the Bazaar itself? She cut away its cladent lobe so that it would be at peace and not have to wander on and on. But the operation changed her. She got some of the ichor on her skin."
  30. ↑ Inquire about the Stone Pigs, Fallen London "Pages seizes on an opportunity to exposificate: "The Bazaar is in a great deal of pain. Imagine if your spleen were trying to escape. Now imagine your spleen is a subchthonic thing that burrows through the ground in search of a truffle.""
  31. ↑ Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea "I talk about engines. All the time. I'm sure you've noticed. And I dream about them. I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. (Did you know they did that?) And they sleep, so the Fingerkings can crack their dreams open. So the Fingerkings recruited me."
  32. ↑ Delve deeper still, Sunless Skies "The tunnel widens into a vast chamber. Something must have made its home here, once, in the living passages of the behemoth: just by the entrance, there is a collection of tools the colour of amber. The pile is pinned down by flesh long-collapsed from the roof above. Further off, the room has been riven in two. Your route is blocked by a yawning crevasse – your rope will not reach even halfway across, but you could climb down."
  33. ↑ Ambition: in the Heart of the Bazaar, Fallen London "The heart of the Bazaar contains several chambers. Mr Hearts escorts you to the chamber that is reserved for the Marvellous: a close, fibrous room the approximate shape of a garlic bulb. [...]"
  34. ↑ Search for its heart, Sunless Skies "You squeeze through a cranny into a oval-shaped chamber. A stultifying heat presses down. You are in a ventricle of the heart."
  35. ↑ The Season of Adorations, Fallen London ""You see why I need the stories? The heart is completely still! It's been like that for over a month." She gestures at the fire surrounding the coracle. "The flame's not gone out at least, but hearts ought to beat. Got to do something about that.""
  36. ↑ Search for its heart, Sunless Skies "The heart is clogged with hard, black, cancerous polyps. Each is scored with a sigil of guilt. They have grown in such abundance that the heart is distorted; they have torn a hole in the muscle wall. Is this what killed the behemoth?"
  37. ↑ The Season of Adorations, Fallen London "The tunnel meanders; in the nooks, the liquid has pooled and grown stagnant. The coracle cuts through the thin crust that has formed on the river. The smell is the copper rich tang of blood, but there is a sourness to it. It is like paddling on a rank canal."
  38. ↑ The Season of Adorations, Fallen London "The path ends at a jetty – bone-white, its planks curved like pieces of rib. It thrusts out into a river the colour of hot coal. It is molten, as bright as the metal in a smelting furnace, and as slow-moving as treacle."
  39. ↑ The Season of Adorations, Fallen London "The Convivial Charlady senses your discomfort. "Just be glad it hasn't touched you. The blood scalds, but that's not all. I hear that the slightest contact causes an insatiable wanderlust. Wherever you go, you'll never be happy." She smiles, as if this should be reassuring."
  40. ↑ Explore her Surgery, Sunless Sea ""There's more difficult work I could be doing." [...] "Did you know my mother operated on the Bazaar itself? She cut away its cladent lobe so that it would be at peace and not have to wander on and on. But the operation changed her. She got some of the ichor on her skin.""
  41. ↑ Mr Iron? Truly?, Sunless Sea "She was in her third millennium when she bore me."
  42. ↑ The Drowning Coils, Sunless Skies "The House's arteries are the size of corridors, many of them filled with stagnant sweetwater and held open with arches of bone ivory. The walls are primarily polished chitin that resembles mahogany, though years of rot and decay have left many gaps to glimpse the dried out fat and muscles behind."
  43. ↑ A Sundered Sea, Fallen London "Sigils beat in the ceiling of these caverns – letters of fire, pulsing and fading, passing like glow-flies beneath the skin of the rock. Their light is reddish, but the lacre spuming below takes the red light and returns it, somehow, as purest white. Distance is difficult to judge, but this space would handily absorb a cathedral or two."
  44. ↑ Explore the vast cavern, Sunless Skies "Rot and ammonia. The air down here is slowly melting the House's innards, collapsing lost rooms and corridors into one rank, endless cavity lined with calcified abscesses. The foul liquid regularly rises to your knees; an itchy rash develops where it touches. [...]"
  45. ↑ A Sundered Sea, Fallen London "It's a second sea, but a divided one. The lacre foams in cells and pits like a horizontal honeycomb. Pillars, curtains, buttresses of rock elaborate it into a maze. You pick your way carefully across, round the edge of lacre pits, through half-natural gates in flowstone curtains. Very carefully. It is unlikely that it would particularly benefit you to fall in."
  46. ↑ Horatia: Fresh Supplies, Mask of the Rose "Horatia: It doesn't share what we eat."
  47. ↑ Nightsoil of the Bazaar, Fallen London "Collected from the Sidestreets. Eyewateringly pungent"
  48. ↑ The Rubbery Market, Sunless Skies "The Rubbery Trader organises a pair of its kinfolk to deliver the fuel to the train. It cannot answer what part of the House it was mined from. Perhaps that's for the best."
  49. ↑ Create a lot of Perfumed Gunpowder, Sunless Skies "It might be best to leave this in the hands of more junior contributors to the lab. Oversee them, but from outside the blast radius. Later in the week, the preparation is ready. [...] It would be wise to avoid open flame for a few days."
  50. ↑ Buy already-picked mushrooms with Nightsoil, Sunless Skies "They have an infinite need for the stuff."
  51. ↑ Caveat Emptor, Fallen London "Probably a tapeworm, [...] You should see how big those things can grow. Unless maybe you shouldn't. The Vicomte de V____ isn't the only parasite that hitched a ride with the Bazaar. But don't worry. The biggest ones tend to burrow. Won't meet those without a little spelunking."
  52. ↑ Watch the play for a little while 4, Fallen London "They drag the Messenger screaming, [...] where the Chained Sun and the Messenger's Daughter wait."
  53. ↑ Go ashore with the Adventuress, Sunless Sea "The Bazaar is the Mountain's mother, they say. Or her father. I don't understand how these things work. I wonder if she ever complains about her parents."
  54. ↑ Confirm that the Grey Man will no longer prey on the city, Fallen London "Some of the Bazaar's menagerie lower their snouts to the earth; some paw at the floor. The question is, it seems, embarrassing. The Grey Man is not one of their siblings, not born from the Bazaar at all. It is a construct ("an excrescence," corrects one of the more discriminating cuttlefish)."
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