The Roof of the Neath
"The stalactites drip down all around. There is nary a bat, nor the faintest wind. Here is a peace which one can never know in London, where there is always the maddening crowd bustling by, or hawkers screeching the virtue of rotten meat, or marsh-wolves interrupting your afternoon picnic."[2]
The Roof of the Neath is the boundary that separates the Neath from the Surface.
Lofty[edit | edit source]
"The ceiling grows ever closer. The false-stars shine ever brighter. You are among stalactites which glisten with iridescent shine, and the unknown wonders of the upside down world!"[3]
The roof of the Neath is made of rock said to be "unfathomably" deep.[4] Its underside is dotted with stalactites,[5] many of which are large enough to accommodate entire communities.[6][7] Stalactites often fall from the roof to the lands down below;[8] Godfall was one such stalactite that landed in the Unterzee.[9] Falling stalactites are a known hazard in London, with Smashtile Alley[8] and Stonefall Copse in the Forgotten Quarter being particularly infamous for this.[10]
The roof can be accessed via dirigible, though London's dirigibles are managed by Mr Fires, and unsanctioned trips to the roof are forbidden.[11] London's contact with the roof is largely minimal[12] barring enterprising academics[13] and failed expeditions;[14] London's only known holding here is New Newgate Prison.[15] While the roof is extremely resilient, it has a few breaches: the Travertine Spiral and the Cumaean Canal can be used to travel to the Surface,[16] and Aestival is an island in the Unterzee lit by sunlight from a hole in the roof above.[17]
Inhabitants[edit | edit source]
"Bats flock around the dirigible as it rises toward the roof. The glimmer of the False-Stars becomes a glare. Stalactites hang like icicles of bone, the citadels of the Starved Men carved into them, empty windows like yawning eye sockets."[18]
The roof may seem barren and remote,[5] but it is in fact teeming with life. Moon-misers are large insectoids that emit a bright glow seen from the ground, known in London as "false-stars."[19][20] They travel across the roof by digging their legs into rock,[21] and shed their carapaces in a process called "glim-fall," raining down shards of glim for gatherers to collect.[20][22] The roof is also inhabited by Starved Men, who use the Shapeling Arts to warp and transform themselves.[23] They travel the roof via blimps,[24] rope bridges,[25] or by climbing "spider-like,"[26] and they carve and tunnel through stalactites to form massive citadels to reside in.[7][27] The powerful zee-god Storm is said to be the "god in the roof",[28] but the details of this are... unclear.[29] Regardless, certain objects that fall from the roof are considered "gifts" from Storm by Urchins.[30]
During the events surrounding the London Horticultural Show, a massive stalactite was dropped onto London by invading Starved Men,[31][32] who sought to reshape the city to survive the Fall of the Sixth City.[33][34] After these Starved were forced to surrender,[35] the Starved Lithologer revealed that another group of Starved were planning on boring a hole in the roof to direct sunlight onto London. Their weapon was an oculus of shaped flesh through which they would focus sunlight,[36][37] and though the roof was successfully breached,[38] the weapon was ultimately thwarted.[39][40] In the aftermath, Starved Men worked to repair the gap using the Shapeling Arts. However, according to the Lithologer, the roof would have healed on its own anyway; in their words, this is because the roof, and the Neath itself, are alive.[41]
References[edit | edit source]
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