The Obstinate Adoratrice

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"Behold, the last Adoratrice of Amun in the Second City, Second Eldest Daughter, beloved be her name."[1]

The Obstinate Adoratrice was once the last priestess of Amun in the Second City[2] and the second eldest daughter of the Pharaoh.[2] While the city still stood on the Surface, she quarreled with her father (who had imposed the sole worship of Aten, the sun disk) and was ultimately banished. Though she returned before the city's Fall and was transported to the Neath alongside her sisters, it was too late to reconcile.[3] In Parabola, she appears as an old woman crowned in the regal style of the Second City.[4]

The Adoratrice believes that two of her sisters are dead: the youngest on the Surface, and the eldest within the House of the Feather.[5] She has no knowledge of any of her other sisters' fates or whereabouts.[6] Her older sister, the Poisoned Priestess (who is alive... after a fashion), calls her "old stiff-neck."[7]

A Solitary Pharaoh[edit | edit source]

"A haven of Second City opulence, and at its heart, a woman alone. She sits on a lacquered throne, as though expecting you."[8]

At some point after trapping the Masters of the Bazaar, the Adoratrice and her sisters ventured into Parabola and constructed the Skin of the Sun, an artificial sun that shines over the land of dreams.[9][10] After this, they planned to build the Palace of the Rising to grant a sunlit shelter for the people of the Second City.[11] But when the Masters escaped their imprisonment sooner than expected, the Adoratrice's surviving sisters were forced to flee, leaving the Palace unfinished.[12]

Despite opposing the Palace's creation, the Adoratrice remained in Parabola, determined to complete the complex as a monument to her lost sisters, and perhaps one day also as a refuge for new dreamers.[13] She became the Palace’s sole architect,[14] directing its construction with her army of ushabtiu,[15] and ruling from a throne in its innermost chamber.[16] However, she faces the challenge of the gradual decay of the Parabolan sun; it may eventually fail entirely, plunging the region once more into twilight.[17]

The Adoratrice interred her ushabti attendants[18] in an unfinished section of the Palace.[19] These funerary vessels were designed to house the preserved bodies of the Second City's people, allowing their minds to wander freely in Parabola. However, the Adoratrice could not have accounted for the surge of lacre that annihilated most of her subjects' physical bodies alongside the rest of the Second City; the few who survived were changed irrevocably.[20] The ushabtiu that remain are able to retain their memories while sealed,[21] but sometimes the Adoratrice opens them in grief or longing.[22] Their minds fragment, their memories vanish,[21] and they often turn on her with unknowing fury.[23]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Attendants, Fallen London "Behold, the last Adoratrice of Amun in the Second City, Second Eldest Daughter, beloved be her name."
  3. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "She says she is the ill-favoured daughter. When still on the Surface, she quarrelled with her father and was banished, I think. She returned before the city fell, although too late to repair her relationship with the king. She was the second of six daughters."
  4. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "[...] Nearby, an elderly woman in a Second City crown is considering the architectural plans that have been unrolled on the floor. [...]"
  5. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "I was the most difficult of my father's daughters. I disagreed with his decisions and later my sisters, after his sudden death. But they could count on my support. Always. I was the second of six. [...] I am the only one left now. The youngest of us perished on the Surface, the eldest in the House of the Feather. The rest are lost to me. I keep this place in their memory."
  6. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "She is the only one left. One died on the Surface, and one in a House of Feathers? The others are lost to her. She keeps this place for them."
  7. ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London "Old stiff-neck is still kicking about. I suppose the fall of three cities couldn't bend her spine." The Priestess chuckles to herself [...]"
  8. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London
  9. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "We found it in dreams and brought light to it."
  10. ↑ Climb the dome itself (Fingerkings), Fallen London ""The sun was born," [...] "With certain modifications. Those women augmented it in the shell.""
  11. ↑ Search for a pool that meets the description, Fallen London "[...] And then, hidden in a glimmering crevice, you see it: a Second City Palace, blue as the Ishtar Gate. Around it a river of serpents rises: the Writhing River."
  12. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "But the House of the Feather was opened before the Palace was completed. We four survivors fled."
  13. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "[...] But this Palace was never completed. Had I made my objections more strongly, had I fought harder… I cannot restore what was lost. But this might be a monument to their memory, and my burden as its final custodian. Perhaps one day others might walk here."
  14. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "[...] She maintains this place even though she did not approve of its construction. She wants to see it finished. [...]"
  15. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "The Obstinate Adoratrice is consulting the plans of the palace [...] Only the great bulk of the Adoratrice's ushabti remains to watch over you. It gazes at you sightlessly. Occasionally it raises a hand, as in the roof above, the construction continues apace."
  16. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "Beyond the doors are chambers, divided in six so that each segment of the Palace has its own style, decoration and atmosphere. Five such segments are covered in dust, even here, in dream. Only the last and most innermost is occupied. A haven of Second City opulence, and at its heart, a woman alone. She sits on a lacquered throne, as though expecting you."
  17. ↑ The Attendants, Fallen London "We found it in dreams and brought light to it. [...] The sisters found it in twilight and in dreams. [...] This was a twilight place that the Second City made brighter."
  18. ↑ Let the Dreaming Priest rest, Fallen London "The Adoratrice nods, and with a sigh, replaces the ushabti in its aperture. A cylinder turns in its groove and the shelf rotates, receding into the walls. How many remain in the hollows of the Palace of the Rising? How many have gone before? The Adoratrice offers neither solace nor explanation. [...]"
  19. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "The Obstinate Adoratrice motions for you to follow her. She draws you deep within the Palace, to a staircase that winds its way up through level after level, to where the lapis ends and the sandstone, half-constructed, begins. There, in a deep recess of the palace, the ushabti wait."
  20. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "I did not mean for them to die. Our bodies were meant to endure in the Second, while our minds ranged, free. But we did not predict the lacre. The greying of the bodies that survived. The effect it had on my attendants."
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "In dreams they wander, and are lost. But in clay, even here, they remain themselves. The ones I have known for centuries."
  22. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "Sometimes my resolve breaks and I let one free. [...]"
  23. ↑ The Palace of the Rising, Conquered, Fallen London "[...] They come back, though. Vengeful amnesiacs, forgetting my love in place of their hate."
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