The Lady in Lilac

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"These are real stars. They burn above the roof of the Neath, beyond the earth, in the spaces of heaven."

This page contains extensive spoilers for the following formerly restricted content: Lilac at the Panopticon. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"Messengers are sacred in the Neath, you know. Messengers like the Echo Bazaar. My mother forged an alliance with the Bazaar. That's how she came to learn the Great Signs, the tattoos no one wears."[1]

Millicent Clathermont, also known as the Lady in Lilac or simply Lilac, is the gifted tattooist behind many of the Clathermonts' designs.

Was Someone Here?[edit | edit source]

That winter, you saw the woman in the lilac dress everywhere: whispering urgently in the stalls at Mahogany Hall, striding along the Haymaker Road with compass in hand, watching the executions at Hangman's Arch with an unreadable expression.[2]

The Lady in Lilac travels freely between the Surface and the Neath, studying the secrets of the Judgements among the monks of Mongolia's High Lakes.[3][4] She returns to London every year for the Feast of the Exceptional Rose.[5] She often makes the trip in borrowed vehicles,[6] whose captains or drivers later complain of amnesia and journeys they cannot entirely remember.[7][8]

During the Feast of the Rose, Lilac serves as a "mistress of ceremonies,"[5] playing the role of matchmaker (not necessarily a romantic one) in exchange for some form of proof that one is desired - a love letter, a confession, et cetera.[9] Throughout the season, she also offers her services as a tattooist from a discreet parlor in the Forgotten Quarter.[10]

History[edit | edit source]

"I have no inclination to modesty. Yes. Yes, my husband does his best, but at the beginning, he handled the clients and the... messages... and the art was mine. It was the messages on the skin that came to the attention of a Power. A wonderful Power."[11]

Mr Clathermont, Lilac's estranged husband.

At the time of the Fall of London, Millicent and her husband Mr Clathermont were both in the city.[12][13] Before the couple met, Millicent worked as a spy;[14][15] at some point after they met, they opened Clathermont's Tattoo Parlour, which catered not only to the artistic whims of polite society, but also to the covert needs of the Great Game's agents.[16] Mr Clathermont served as the face of the establishment, while Millicent was its tattooist.[17] Over the course of her career, Millicent has tattooed a number of notable individuals, including the Veteran Privy Counsellor[18] and Sinning Jenny.[19]

As the business prospered, Millicent took on three apprentices - Edie, Lily, and Myrtle - and claimed that they were the couple's daughters to deflect scrutiny.[20] Under her tutelage, they learned the intimate, coded language of her craft.[21][22] However, Mr Clathermont began extramarital affairs with all three of the apprentices.[23][24] Unsurprisingly, Millicent did not forgive such trespasses;[25] her absences from the Parlour grew longer, and her returns fewer, until she left her husband behind for good.[26][27]

The Echo Bazaar

It was during this period of estrangement that Millicent attended a rare and illicit[28] performance of The Seventh Letter.[29] It was here that she learned the story of the Echo Bazaar and its cosmic quest for love, and she found herself moved by its passion and persistence.[30][31]

Fortunately for Millicent, her work drew the Bazaar's attention. It extended an invitation,[17] and a promise to teach her the Great Signs - tattoos with meanings greater than any used in mortal espionage.[32] Guided by Penstock, Millicent descended into the Bazaar's lacre-vats to seal their bargain.[33] She (most likely) agreed to serve as mistress of ceremonies at the Feast of the Rose,[5] in exchange for two things: that the Bazaar reciprocate her love,[34] and that a performance of The Seventh Letter be allowed during each year's Feast.[29]

In pursuit of greater mastery over her art, Millicent roamed the Neath,[35] learning to ink in every hue of the Neathbow - yet she yearned for more. So that she could ascend to the Surface safely, she journeyed to the Cave of the Nadir, where she steeped herself in the memory-draining radiance of irrigo.[36][37] She was suffused with its unmistakable violet glow, granting her freedom from the lethal touch of sunlight,[38] and cloaking her in forgetfulness: all who see her forget her soon after she departs.[39] This was how Millicent became the Lady in Lilac.

Appearance[edit | edit source]

"But at last you're quite certain. The description of the Lady in Lilac, who haunts London at festival-time, matches Millicent Clathermont too well. It must be her...although Clathermont did say her eyes were sky-blue, and all agree that the Lady's eyes are a rich deep violet. Perhaps that's just another outbreak of wishful thinking on his part."[40]

Lilac is a slender woman[41] who dresses almost entirely in shades of purple[42] - though she also wears sapphire jewelry,[43] and sometimes conceals herself beneath a long black coat when she wishes to go unnoticed.[44] Her eyes were once blue,[45] but are now tinged with violet irrigo.[46][42] Unsurprisingly, her perfume smells of lilacs.[44]

Personal Life[edit | edit source]

What does the Lady in Lilac do, when she's not being the Lady in Lilac?[47]

Lilac no longer associates with the Clathermonts, and avoids Ladybones Road entirely.[48] Mr Clathermont, now effectively her ex-husband, still longs for his estranged partner.[49] Each Feast, he searches for her in vain,[50] his efforts thwarted by the Bazaar's agents and by Lilac's own use of irrigo to obscure her whereabouts.[45] As for the three "daughters," Lilac despises them for their betrayal and forbids any mention of them in her presence.[25]

Maybe's Daughter, and Lilac's too.

Lilac does have an actual daughter. During a sojourn in Parabola, she had an affair with a cat named Maybe;[51] this resulted in the birth of a girl known only as Maybe's Daughter,[52] who has now grown up to be a talented engineer.[53] Owing to the unusual circumstances of her conception, Lilac neither met her daughter nor knew of her existence for many years.[54] They eventually reconnected at some point, but their relationship remains distant.[25]

Outside of her work, Lilac lives much like any other independent woman in London: she visits art galleries, prays in quiet churches, eats lunch alone at small cafés, and so on.[55] In addition to her interest in tattoos, she is intrigued by the concept of passion itself.[56] Each Feast, she conducts interviews with those who spark her interest, asking what love means to them and recording their words in a book.[57][58] In Lilac's own view, however, all love is transactional.[59]

QUEEN OF INKS[edit | edit source]

Spoilers ahead for Fallen London's most infamous storyline: Seeking Mr Eaten's Name. Turn back now.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"(I was given up, you know. I am that part of her that does not remain. That part that never learnt to love a monster.)"[60]

St Erzulie's Candle.

Before her visit to the Cave of the Nadir, Millicent took an interest in the rumors surrounding the strange and grisly congregation at the Chapel of Lights, who inked the flayed skins of their sacrifices with esoteric tattoos. To learn more, she went to dwell among them for a time. However, she found their art crude, and the Chapel itself unpleasant.[61][62] The flock at the Chapel venerated a Drowned Man, and in her search for knowledge, Millicent discovered far more than she intended.[63] (The Drowned Man makes no promises to us, only lessons.) She became a Seeker of the Name, and advanced far along the Seeking Road[64][65] - but her devotion to the Bazaar eventually stayed her hand, as she came to realize the end of the Seeking Road would mean nothing good for her beloved.[citation needed]

To rid herself of the Name, Millicent descended into the Nadir, offering much of herself to the irrigo.[36][37] What she sacrificed was the part of her that could not love the Bazaar (the monster): the Seeker within her who despised it,[66] and the piece of herself that mourned the disastrous fate of her marriage.[67] These pieces remain within the Nadir as an irrigo wraith of Millicent; this wraith guards a blood-red candle, its flame burning with one of the sigils of the Name.[64]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ "I don't have a tattoo.", Fallen London
  2. ↑ The Lady in Lilac, Fallen London
  3. ↑ The High Lakes, Fallen London "In Asia – Tartary, or China. I'm not certain. I travelled with a guide, not a map. A hostile place, the Surface. Colder than the Neath, and so exposed. But I miss it. I always feel cramped down here, now."
  4. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "She returns to the Surface, again and again. Parnassus, they say. Mongolia. But she always passes through here first."
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 How long has she been in London?, Fallen London "I prefer the Surface. I am given dispensation to travel, to learn a certain art taught only in the country of the High Lakes. I return to serve as a mistress of ceremonies. As you know. I don't miss London, but I am fond of its inhabitants. Some of its inhabitants."
  6. ↑ Surrender a Heartwood Hearse, Fallen London "It's been a long time since I've required my own transport. I'm in the habit of hitching rides. Travelling can be a lonely business – on occasion I appreciate temporary company."
  7. ↑ Ask her to stay with you..., Sunless Sea "You fumble awake through a thick haze of dried dreams. Someone was here with you, last night: but there's only one plate on the cabin table. Your hands tremble. You're weak and desperately thirsty. What happened here? Perhaps nothing at all, perhaps only the endless phantasms of the Unterzee. You clutch at memories. They slip away like wet driftwood."
  8. ↑ Examine your tongue, Fallen London "Searching the ship, you uncover a log, written in your own handwriting. It has scant information, beyond the date: it is a month later than it should be. Someone has stolen time from you. You'll need to recover your lost memories to find out what Lilac told you, and what happened to you. But first, you're going to need to get back to London. Luckily, you have a ship already..."
  9. ↑ Arrangements for what?, Fallen London "The algebra of desire requires substitution. That's my study, this season. To put it plainly: surrender gifts to me, and I'll see what company I can arrange for you. No, I'm not a pander. I'm a match-maker. And an artist."
  10. ↑ Millicent's Parlour, Fallen London "You've come to a refurbished caravanserai at the Quarter's edge. In the half-abandoned out-buildings, a single light glows like a cold eye. Millicent Clathermont is here, sometimes. You told her what you knew of love: and she's offered you one of her extraordinary tattoos."
  11. ↑ Talk about tattoos, Fallen London
  12. ↑ Surrender a Rusty Census-Taker's Badge, Fallen London "Does Lilac recognise this? Is she old enough to remember the Fall?" "Fishing to discover my age? [...] Pity it's not been better cared for. It's a fine relic. A reminder that the Masters might not have got all they hoped, with London."
  13. ↑ The Murder Trial: Murder, Mask of the Rose "Ivy: Does the name 'Clathermont' signify anything to you?"
  14. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "She was a spy, once, I think. I think she might still be one. Well, a lot of us are. Freelancers, anyway. Look, perhaps you shouldn't say that to anyone at the Admiralty. I do talk nonsense when I'm nervous."
  15. ↑ The dance goes on, Fallen London "You saw the palace lights through the woods. The waltz, distant on the chilly air. She leant on the balustrade, smiling, snug in fur. Eyes dark under the moon as they were blue beneath the sun. Are they blue still?"
  16. ↑ A Visit to Clathermont's Tattoo Parlour, Sunless Sea "Some of Clathermont's tattoos are coded messages for spies. Perhaps you have a hidden motive."
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Talk about tattoos, Fallen London "I have no inclination to modesty. Yes. Yes, my husband does his best, but at the beginning, he handled the clients and the... messages... and the art was mine. It was the messages on the skin that came to the attention of a Power. A wonderful Power."
  18. ↑ Try to discover his reasons, Fallen London "You sniff out rumours […] He has taken a few discreet coach trips to the University […] He attends meetings on the palace roof […] No-one else ascends the stairs. […] a tattoo from Clathermont's, identified only as 'C. special, 1: faith kept, aeons.'"
  19. ↑ Surrender a Gold-Spiked Rosary, Fallen London "Jenny's Coursers, they call them, the nuns who make these. You know why? Well, I won't spoil it for you. And I won't spoil Jenny, either. She has a particular illumination... but that's a secret permitted only to her clients."
  20. ↑ What's going on?, Fallen London "Clathermont is beside himself. You're fairly sure that Mrs Clathermont is no more the mother of the triplets than you are, but they are weeping nonetheless. Is this something to do with spies, or that business about Illumination? Either way, you'll get to the bottom of it."
  21. ↑ Dropping a few eaves, Fallen London "...and I don't know why she taught you the Singer of Roses and not me. It's simply not fair."
  22. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "Force: force is always the answer. My mother wouldn't tell me. But her other daughters knew her secrets."
  23. ↑ Get casual work sweeping the parlour floor – and listen in, Fallen London "[…] Clathermont has three glum triplets who serve as his assistants. Some say they're his daughters, but you've seen him exchange undaughterly kisses with them."
  24. ↑ What's so special about Clathermont's Tattoo Parlour?, Fallen London "Letters in and out of the city are routinely read. But one does not often intimately search a gentleman, and never a lady. So, the rumour has it, Clathermont and his three glum-faced tattooists - triplets, who some say are his daughters - although some hint at a more intimate relationship - hm - where was I? Ah yes. The rumour has it, spies come to Clathermont's to have messages tattooed in less public areas of their skin. This has, of course, been responsible for a scandalous vogue for secret tattoos."
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Prevaricate. Does she miss her three daughters?, Fallen London "I have but one daughter, [...] And I can never trust her. For the longest time, I thought I had none at all. Do not speak to me of those three."
  26. ↑ What's going on?, Fallen London "'It's Mrs Clathermont. My Millie. She's not coming back! Oh, she goes away, but she always comes back. And this time she's gone! She's gone forever!'"
  27. ↑ Love is loyalty, Fallen London "Love is the eternal fulfilment of a promise. She and Clathermont – they were married once. She should not have left him. She watches you for a little while. "Have you never done worse?" she asks. "I left him, because I couldn't stay with him. He took up with those—""
  28. ↑ Watch the play for a little while, Fallen London "The Seventh Letter has long been banned by the Ministry of Public Decency: but the story goes that Mr Wines enjoys it, and bribes them to wink at the ban, now and then."
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 To see the play, Fallen London "I requested a special dispensation, at the Feast. It has sentimental significance for me. It was the only payment I asked, for my work. And I will ask only one payment for your time here. Tell me, in this time of festival: what is Love?"
  30. ↑ Talk about the Courier, Fallen London "Is that so strange? Perhaps. But I'm not the only one. Penstock, too. There are others... some of us came to it naturally, some with assistance. But the passion in those spires! [...] It cannot be denied forever."
  31. ↑ Watch the play for a little while, Fallen London "I think that had the Messenger succeeded, I would not love it so – but I know that had it given up, I would despise it—"
  32. ↑ Let her go down under the Bazaar, Sunless Sea "I want to match my mother, [...] I want to learn the Great Signs. The Courier - the Bazaar - is the only one who will teach me. I have to go."
  33. ↑ Penstock's Wicket, Sunless Sea "The Daughter follows Penstock back into the shop, to a redly lit grotto hollowed from the Bazaar's carapace. A heavily chained cage-lift awaits you there. It must descend into the most secret spaces of the Bazaar. "Penstock's Wicket," she says. "He has an understanding with the Bazaar. He let my mother pass through, long ago, to make her bargain. Now I will follow." Is that really such a terribly good idea?"
  34. ↑ Ask what all this business at the Feast is, Fallen London "One whom I love asked it of me. The Courier. I have received payment... but most of that payment is love."
  35. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "I couldn't understand why she came here to begin with, but [...] It's all tattoos. The alphabets of bone and flesh. That's what our family keeps coming back to. [...] Our family is strange in every way imaginable."
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Give up your Tattoo, Fallen London "(I learnt – the real me learnt – to tattoo in all the colours of the Neathbow, did you know that? And then I came to the Nadir. For a similar reason to you, I suppose, but passing in the opposite direction, as it were. And I sloughed me off like a snakeskin.)"
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Talk about this place of obscurity, Fallen London "That's what it's usually called. The Bazaar can't find it. There are powers the Bazaar fears – they can't find it either. This whole city is under its protection, I think – the whole Neath, perhaps - but to carry that protection with me, I had to go in deep. [...] I lost a great deal."
  38. ↑ The High Lakes, Fallen London "Yes. Yes... it's very dangerous. I won't speak of it here. I had to take protective measures before I could go up there. Visit a – another place, down here. A place of irrigo and obscurity."
  39. ↑ Ambition Nemesis – What Lilac Said, Fallen London "You have retraced your steps. You have journeyed far and wide across the Neath and beyond to find what was lost in your missing month with Lilac. You've recovered all that you can. Some will always remain lost. There is a price to association with the Lady in Lilac."
  40. ↑ Bend your efforts to finding her, Fallen London
  41. ↑ A Weeping Tattooist, Fallen London "He's pushing through the crowd after a slender woman – you catch a flash of lilac as she turns. "No!" he shouts. "Don't go near it! They're not tattoos! They're something else!" Then the crowd closes in."
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Plan your next move, Fallen London "In the Daybook; the poison-warded calendar of the Masters of the Bazaar, you learnt that Mr Mirrors keeps a regular appointment with 'Lilac'. There is only one Londoner who answers to that pseudonym: the Lady in Lilac – the woman in purple whose eyes are deepest irrigo, and whose conversation is preoccupied with love."
  43. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "This one's a slender lead. She's been seen wearing sapphires." The Daughter shrugs. "This is where sapphires come from. Look, you were heading this way anyway, weren't you? (Weren't you?)"
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Find Lilac, Fallen London "It is not long before you see a woman in a hooded black coat approaching your doorstep, a copy of your tome in her arms. Your head swims in irrigo; the scent of lilac on your doorstep is overpowering—"
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Ask how she evades notice so effectively, Fallen London "Yes. The agents of the Bazaar protect me, during the Feast. But more, there is a place, down here... it's difficult to describe. It's a place where everything is forgotten, eventually. It was founded for protection. Before I started to spend time there – before that [...] my eyes were blue."
  46. ↑ Bend your efforts to finding her, Fallen London "But at last you're quite certain. The description of the Lady in Lilac, who haunts London at festival-time, matches Millicent Clathermont too well. It must be her...although Clathermont did say her eyes were sky-blue, and all agree that the Lady's eyes are a rich deep violet. Perhaps that's just another outbreak of wishful thinking on his part."
  47. ↑ Follow her, Fallen London
  48. ↑ Desired?, Fallen London "She examines you carefully. Her eyes swim with glints like violet wine... "All right," she says. "If you change your mind, let's speak again. You might find me anywhere except Ladybones Road.""
  49. ↑ What is she to him?, Fallen London "Yes, she was always ten times the artist I was. And it would be marvellous to have her back here with her needles. I won't deny it. But I— D__n it, I'm not ashamed. I love the woman! If she wanted me to keep her in comfort – if she never drew another line – still I'd give anything to have her here again. Do you believe me? You must believe me."
  50. ↑ News at Clathermont's, Fallen London "[…] Clathermont seizes you, his eyes brimming with tears. "She's here again! I thought I saw her, the last Feast of the Rose... and now I'm certain. But I can't get close. She just... she's gone into the crowd. Like mist. She won't look at me […]""
  51. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "She comes here, I know. She's always been fond of cats. Well, my father was something of a cat. And a very noble one, at that."
  52. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "She's known to visit. I think she must have come here when I was - ahem - conceived. It's close to dreams. [...] I love this. It's like coming home."
  53. ↑ Maybe's Daughter, Sunless Sea "A smile, a wink, a butterfly tattoo. An intense and detailed knowledge of weaponry and engines."
  54. ↑ About her mother..., Sunless Sea "We've never met. So we were never close. But I'm not close to many people. Honestly, I think that's her fault: I think she sold something of what I was."
  55. ↑ Follow her, Fallen London "Matters both temporal and spiritual, apparently. She queues with the rest at the portrait gallery at Hastings Place. (You watch from a safe distance as she frowns at dark oils of ruffled Dutchmen.) She enters the Abbey down the road to pray. (You wait at the back as she makes her devotions.) She eats lunch alone in an unremarkable café by the bridge. (Elderly Surface greens with zee-fish.) Then, quite abruptly, she loses you. You have your eyes on her, you're certain of it – the pavement is almost empty – but you find yourself turning a corner unexpectedly. There is a sputtering irrigo gap in your memory."
  56. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "“I don't know why anyone would come here. But she does. Something about questions.” The Daughter shivers. “You know: she asks people about love? All the time? And writes down the answers in her nasty little book. Love.” The Daughter's mouth twists."
  57. ↑ Is this a test?, Fallen London "Don't worry. There are no prizes here. But I am interested in your answer, and in the answers of others. I was a scholar of ink, and now I am a scholar of amorous intrigue. Perhaps they will affect my own decisions: perhaps not. And I would think, too, you might be interested in your own answer."
  58. ↑ Love is the devil, Fallen London "She makes a note in a book bound with shark-leather. [...] "Next!" she calls to the Burly Assistant. The interview, it seems, is over."
  59. ↑ What is love to her?, Fallen London "A price. Or so I fear. I have two loves. Deep true ones. Let us call them the Artist, and the – the Courier. (Though neither has proven successful in their roles.) They love me, and I love them. Each of us wishes something of the other. If I give up that thing – if I give it up—[...] If I give it up, then love will be satisfied. It's always a transaction, is love, even outside the establishments of professionals."
  60. ↑ Give up your Enigma, Fallen London
  61. ↑ St Forthigan's Candle, Fallen London "(The Chapel!) she says. (I went there, before the Nadir. I had heard they kept the skins of less fortunate visitors, and marked them. But their arts were crude. Still, it is a place sacred to our patron. [...])"
  62. ↑ Step back into the other room, Fallen London "(Are we finished here? I can't pretend I like the place.)"
  63. ↑ Attend a service at the Chapel, Fallen London "The first descent was that which was given for that which was promised. (The Drowned Man makes no promises to us. He gives us only lessons.) For the second, the hunters of echoes remembered the ways of sunlight, and learnt the stories of the heart. (The Drowned Man's heart was flensed, and we will taste it.) The third: O, the treacherous walkers of the river's shadow! They snared the echo-hunters! (This began the chain of tales which concluded in the Drowned Man's first-feast. So praise that treachery.)"
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 Give up your solitude, Fallen London "(You can take the candle. But I can't give it up. All I am left is its watcher. Take it, and you take me too. You'll never be alone again.)" You've gained 1 x St Erzulie's Candle [Editor's Note: Similar to Mrs Plenty, the remnants of Millicent became a watcher of a Seeking candle, and since St Erzulie's Candle is the fifth of seven, it's safe to conclude that she got pretty far before stopping]
  65. ↑ Surrender a Well-Song, Fallen London "She pales. Her hand trembles in yours. "So be it. Run. Run now. Don't look. Don't listen. Don't stop." She pushes you away, and takes a first faltering step towards the keening well..."
  66. ↑ Give up your Enigma, Fallen London "(I was given up, you know. I am that part of her that does not remain. That part that never learnt to love a monster.)"
  67. ↑ Attend a service at the Chapel, Fallen London "(Grief and hate are all that's left to me. Which will you choose, when you open the Gate?)"
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