New Newgate Prison

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"They built the Fifth City's prison in a stalactite the size of a fair-sized village. Food and prisoners come and go from the city far below in a dirigible. Any corpses reckoned beyond recovery are weighted with dripstone and allowed to plummet into the Unterzee, far below."[1]

New Newgate Prison is London's foremost penal institution, suspended from the Roof of the Neath.

Welcome, Delicious Friend![edit | edit source]

"New Newgate Prison uses a vast number of candles. It is rumoured that prisoners who can arrange for candles to be delivered can gain privileges or even an early release. It's almost as if they eat the things."

A gaoler

New Newgate Prison is a foreboding fortress carved into a colossal stalactite, suspended far above the Unterzee and accessible via airship.[2] Built around 1875 to replace Old Newgate,[3] it now serves as London’s primary correctional facility. Among its stores of supplies, one can be found in curiously vast quantities: candles. New Newgate burns through candles at an astonishing rate (it is dark, after all), and it is whispered among inmates that those who can secure their own supply might earn privileges or even an early release.[4]

Conditions at New Newgate are shabby: fights are a daily occurrence,[5] and bitter gruel is the standard meal[6] if food is provided at all.[7] The walls are scratched with the writings of inmates, despite the overseers' best attempts to suppress any resultant creative freedoms.[8] The lower levels of the prison are filthy, disease-ridden, and crawling with strange vermin;[9] prisoners may volunteer or be assigned to clean them.[10] The tip of the stalactite contains the worst of the dungeons, but is principally used as a solitary confinement chamber[11][12] for someone who has a vast network of intelligence[13] and knows many deep, dark secrets.[14]

The facility is overseen by tight-lipped, hunched gaolers[15] in sackcloth hoods,[16] who warn the inmates that should they ever riot, the stalactite will fall off the Roof into the Unterzee.[citation needed] Priests are allowed to visit and take confessions, though this apparent mercy may be intended to incriminate the population further.[17] Permanently dead prisoners are given a brief funeral and cast into the zee below, weighed down by stones[18] — though some bold and clever inmates have managed to escape by faking their own deaths and exploiting this result.[19] Perhaps the strangest thing about New Newgate's customs, however, is that all prisoners are required to wear satin masks.[20] On an unpleasant and slightly related note, prisoners have been found with their masks missing and swaths of the skin beneath torn away, causing rumors to run rampant[21] (though fights can get brutal, mind you).

The Masks Come Off[edit | edit source]

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"It is said she was the first prisoner to be cast into New Newgate. That her crime is unspeakable. You know her only through her letters, which are neatly-written, filled with lurid detail about her fellow inmates, and stained with candle-wax."

New Newgate's first prisoner

New Newgate has a Snuffer on the loose[22][23] (ah yes... that explains that), which is elusive enough and has extensive enough knowledge of the prison to not have been caught to date.[24] Though it remains hidden in the forgotten corners of the facility,[25] this creature is the primary consumer of the prison's candles.[26] The satin masks the inmates wear are designed to protect them from having their faces ripped off, but this is about as effective as one might expect (i.e. not at all),[27] and the Snuffer sometimes preys on the gaolers as well.[26]

The first inmate taken to New Newgate apparently did something so horrible that it took a secret convention of judges to lay out her sentence.[28]

Upper New Newgate, which consists of the prison's upper levels, is currently under Admiralty control[29] due to an invasion by a band of Starved Men. The Starved come through the windows and perform the Shapeling Arts on inmates,[30] leading the prisoners and guards to use anything they can find to board up the windows and keep the marauders out.[31][32] They are slowly losing ground, floor by floor,[33] forcing them to retreat downward[34] and resulting in a minor overpopulation problem in the remaining segments.[35] News of this invasion has been prevented from reaching London, in an attempt to functionally pretend it does not exist and ostensibly avoid causing mass hysteria.[36]

Historical Inspiration[edit | edit source]

Commissioned by King Henry II, Newgate Prison was initially integrated into the city's defensive walls. Over the centuries, it underwent numerous reconstructions, notably after being destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The prison was rebuilt in 1672 by architect Sir Christopher Wren, and later expanded in the 18th century to accommodate a growing inmate population.

Newgate was notorious for its deplorable conditions. Overcrowding, disease, and violence were rampant. Prisoners often had to pay for basic necessities, and corruption among jailers was common. The prison housed a wide range of inmates, from debtors to murderers, and was a site for public executions until 1868 (after which executions were conducted within the prison walls). Newgate's grim reputation permeated literature and public consciousness, and the term "Newgate novel" even emerged to describe a genre focusing on criminal lives and prison experiences. The facility featured in works by authors like Charles Dickens, used as a symbol for the harsh realities of the justice system.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Where is New Newgate Prison?, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Sidebar Snippets: Where is New Newgate Prison?, Fallen London "They built the Fifth City's prison in a stalactite the size of a fair-sized village. Food and prisoners come and go from the city far below in a dirigible. Any corpses reckoned beyond recovery are weighted with dripstone and allowed to plummet into the Unterzee, far below."
  3. ↑ Hunt Bees in Old Newgate, Fallen London "Old Newgate, sealed away in 1875, has been left to its own devices. Its usage as a prison in the Neath was brief."
  4. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Why does the prison need so many candles?, Fallen London "New Newgate Prison uses a vast number of candles. It is rumoured that prisoners who can arrange for candles to be delivered can gain privileges or even an early release. It's almost as if they eat the things."
  5. ↑ Imprisoned! Again!, Fallen London "Back to New Newgate Prison, where the street-gangs and dock-gangs spend the days trying to stab each other."
  6. ↑ A Note in the Gruel, Fallen London "New Newgate gruel is bitter stuff. But this pot of it seems worse than usual. [...]"
  7. ↑ Starvation day, Fallen London "No food today. Perhaps they meant it that way. Perhaps the supply dirigible hasn't come. Perhaps you'll be fed tomorrow. Adversity draws the inmates together. There are rumblings of riot."
  8. ↑ Scratch a ribald ballad of your own, Fallen London "Other miscreants take up your verse about the 'bat in a bate' and turn it into a work-song of sorts. Much later, you hear, its recitation becomes a flogging offence. The wheel turns."
  9. ↑ Volunteer, Fallen London "There are things in here the Department of Menace Eradication never expected. Rat-worms as big as kittens. Kittens blind and savage as razor-moles. A sort of blue fungus that disguises itself as hair. And […] enough human filth to give you diseases […]."
  10. ↑ Bilge duty, Fallen London "The depths of the prison get somewhat unhygienic. Volunteering to clean them out will gain favour with the authorities, even if it is disgusting. And your fellow inmates will be glad that they didn't have to do it."
  11. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: A thing about New Newgate Prison, Fallen London "The windowless tip of the stalactite which contains the prison is for solitary confinement, and the oubliettes."
  12. ↑ One Who Pulls the Strings, Fallen London "They reside in the deepest cell in New Newgate. It does not disadvantage them."
  13. ↑ Someone Wants a Word, Fallen London "There are whispers of a prisoner kept isolated in the depths of New Newgate. They say the prisoner knows all that happens in London; that they are playing games even the Gracious Widow is unaware of. And they say the prisoner is interested in you."
  14. ↑ Voice from the oubliette, Fallen London "The tip of the prison stalactite holds an oubliette. You are passing the entrance when you hear a voice from within. The voice whispers secrets of a kind which encourage you to leave the stalactite tip at once, and incline you against returning."
  15. ↑ The talkative gaoler, Fallen London "Most of the hunched, shuffling gaolers have no interest in conversation. [...]"
  16. ↑ Observe the gaolers, Fallen London "The sacks […] make telling them apart impossible. […] When not drinking, dicing or patrolling, one sits outside your cell and indulges in a discreet nap. If it weren't for the snoring, you wouldn't be able to tell. […]"
  17. ↑ Lament your sins, Fallen London "You confess your dark deeds and lament your life of crime and iniquity. The priest offers you comfort, but you suspect he may be reporting to the authorities."
  18. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: Where is New Newgate Prison?, Fallen London "They built the Fifth City's prison in a stalactite the size of a fair-sized village. Food and prisoners come and go from the city far below in a dirigible. Any corpses reckoned beyond recovery are weighted with dripstone and allowed to plummet into the Unterzee, far below."
  19. ↑ The even more daring escape!, Fallen London "You arrange to 'die' in a knife fight […] The Troubled Undertaker pronounces you dead. There is an insultingly cursory funeral service, and then the snuffling gaolers fling your corpse over the railings into the Unterzee far below. […] You are free!"
  20. ↑ Prisoner's Mask, Fallen London "For some reason they make these things out of satin."
  21. ↑ Ask around, Fallen London "The Museum of Mistakes pays for faces," a padsman tells you. "Something out of the South," insists a kifer-maker. "It's the Masters' punishment," says another. […] The prison chaplain will say only that "the Adversary wears many faces."
  22. ↑ Tracking the tooth, Fallen London [...] The whisper is that the Snuffer – the thing loose in the dark places of the prison that eats candles and occasionally gaolers – has it.
  23. ↑ Listen to his woes, Fallen London "You nod and smile. Although the monologue is generally awful, you do pick up a few things. Most notably, it seems that the gaolers are concerned about a creature loose in the prison that eats candles. […]"
  24. ↑ The Snuffer, Fallen London "Whatever this thing is, it's scared of you. The Snuffer knows the prison's secret ways and it keeps one step ahead of you. You don't catch it."
  25. ↑ Ambition: Bag a Legend! 20, Fallen London "[...] It lurks in the forgotten corners of the prison."
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 The Snuffer, Fallen London "The warden has a problem. The gaolers are complaining of 'the Snuffer' - some kind of beast loose in the prison that eats their candles and occasionally them. The warden offers a little remission on your sentence if you deal with it."
  27. ↑ The screaming prisoner, Fallen London "A prisoner is screaming. His mask has been torn off and a long swathe of the skin beneath has been stripped away like apple-peel. Other prisoners crouch and shiver. What happened to him? You have to get out of here."
  28. ↑ Regular Correspondence with an Incarcerate, Fallen London "It is said she was the first prisoner to be cast into New Newgate. That her crime is unspeakable. You know her only through her letters, which are neatly-written, filled with lurid detail about her fellow inmates, and stained with candle-wax."
  29. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "Welcome to Upper New Newgate. [...] You're under Admiralty jurisdiction in this section. It's not run like that bit below."
  30. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "The spy told me that monsters come from the roof. The guards cannot drive them back, so they retreat. Floor by floor. The Banded Cousin thinks she has the power to pick and choose from what those roof monsters do to her. The spy would never take that risk."
  31. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "[...] you pause to glance down a corridor swarming with prisoners carrying furniture – half-made bedframes, a chipped wash basin [...]"
  32. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "Come on you lot! It's window day! [...] You've gotta board all the windows shut before we can make the move. [...]"
  33. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "And we're not on the top floor. There are several above us, no longer in use."
  34. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "We're being moved because they are afraid. The guards fight a battle for this stalactite, and they are losing. [...] A slow defeat, retreating a floor at a time over months. And there are hundreds of floors here. It might take years."
  35. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "But the gist of it is this: due to circumstances, we need to vacate a floor of the upper prison. There are fewer cells on the floor below. To make up for the lost cell capacity, we're compelled to release a prisoner. [...]"
  36. ↑ A Stretch in the Sky, Fallen London "Look. We are strongly discouraged from asking certain questions. And I'd like to remain in the establishment's good books. I think their rationale is: 'if no one talks about them, then we can pretend they don't exist. And if they don't exist, there's no risk of the news getting back to London'."
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