Salt
"A zailor has grown fretful and disobedient, reluctant to go on deck, even in port."
"There's a white zee-bat watching me up there. Salt's messenger. Salt's got its eye on me. I'll never see home again!"[1]
Salt is one of the three Gods of the Unterzee.
The God of Farewells[edit | edit source]
"Out here, a captain needs all the help he can get. Even from sad strange gods of farewells."[2]
Salt is the nameless god of farewells[2] and of the horizon.[3] Fond of change,[4] it is seen as a patron of travelers,[5] and additionally associated by some with lost faces.[6] Its domain lies in the Uttermost East.[7]
Salt's Song is a light on the horizon, a sea breeze, a splash in the distance;[8][7] it tempts travelers to venture East, especially if they lack a home.[9][10] It is always approaching, and never arriving;[11] it may provoke intense melancholy[12] or convey prescient dreams.[13][14] Where its influence is felt, a message is often found: "TRAVELLER RETURNING."[15][16]
Salt's hum[17] permeates the wind near the eastern Unterzee[18] and the sound of the zee's waves,[19] giving listeners strange dreams of its domain.[20] Anyone who zails too far East will find themselves under Salt's scrutiny, which silences all sound.[21] Here Salt's light blooms from the Unterzee, and any unworthy travelers will be forced to turn back.[22]
White zee-bats are Salt's messengers. Being watched by a white zee-bat is an ill omen, as the subject may never reach home again.[23] Feeding a white zee-bat incurs Salt's favor and may cause other strange occurrences,[24] while harming one incurs Salt's wrath.[25]
Salt is connected to Irem[7] and Kingeater's Castle,[26][27] two of the easternmost locales in the zee.
Worship[edit | edit source]
"The face of the northern sphinx is all but gone. Lost faces are sacred to Salt, they say. You are drawn there. To what end? Salt's voice is distant, but clear..."[6]
Salt is worshipped by zailors, who make offerings to it by dropping treasures,[28] such as moon-pearls, into the Unterzee.[29] Zailors also maintain shrines to Salt;[3] one known example is constructed of a circle of salt and an arrow marked in chalk.[30] The House of the Question in Whither has a shrine to Salt with walls inscribed with stories. Providing stories for the shrine grants Salt's favor, but seeing where the tale will be written is considered bad luck.[31]
Salt's favor has varying effects. Beseeching the zee-god may grant mind-bending revelations,[32] and its voice may hint of treasure near its hallowed places.[33] However, in times of crisis, Salt has its own ideas of "help;" for instance, it might summon a Tyrant-Moth to accost the unlucky.[34]
There has been one recorded instance of a willing follower of Salt being transformed by the zee-god into a pile of salt.[35]
Salt's Curse[edit | edit source]
"You won't take me? Well, you'll take my curse! Salt, witness me! My curse on this captain without charity! Others will abandon you, as you abandoned me! Curse you! Curse you!"[36]
Salt's curse is feared by zailors; they would rather sacrifice transgressors to the Unterzee than risk its dire effects.[37] This curse falls upon anyone who kills a white zee-bat,[25] or steals from half-drowned shipwrecks.[37] Zailors can also invoke its curse upon others as punishment, in response to whatever method of communication with it is most convenient.[38][39][40]
A victim of Salt's curse may find their family gone upon returning home. They may receive the comfort of a farewell note,[41][42] or their loved ones might vanish entirely, leaving behind nary a trace besides Salt's mark.[15]
It is possible to lift Salt's curse, but only at the House of the Question in Whither. The performer will not remember the ritual, so no details are known, but a white flower petal appears afterwards to signal that the curse has been lifted. (All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.)[43]
The Traveler's Journey[edit | edit source]
"Recall who sent you here. That fierce old thing in the dark."
"Find her, and you will find the treasures. Go down. You need only take a little. My aid is cheap. You will have what I promised."[44]
Salt was once an exiled Judgement from the High Wilderness.[45] It visited the palace of the White[46] and was tasked with finding what the Sun had hid in the Neath;[47] this may have been Stone herself.[48] The White promised a treasure at the end of the search, and may have promised some other boon. Salt did not know anything about the Neath at the time,[44] and feared it may never come back from the journey, but a "need" drove it to accept.[46]
En route to the Neath, Salt was hunted down[49] by beasts of the High Wilderness; it killed most if not all of them, leaving their gigantic carcasses drifting in space.[50] Salt then entered the Neath in a painful process[51] that may have involved the Red Science.[52][53]
The Castle of Ice[edit | edit source]
"Long ago a hungry monarch built a castle. The monarch saw a light in the south, in the palace of the south's queen. In those days, hungry as the monarch was, that light provoked nothing but appetite. But she was too far to devour. Over time, their correspondence calmed the monarch, and when the time came for the monarch to depart, the monarch's appetite was transformed, like blood into tears."[54]
After Salt entered the Neath, riding a "dead wind" from the North, it built a castle of ice out of its own memories[27] that is now called Frostfound.[55] The once-star was famished, and saw Stone's light to the South, finding it appetizing.[56] But Stone was too far to reach, so Salt corresponded with her instead. Their exchanges calmed Salt, and over time, its hunger was transformed, like "blood into tears."[57]
Salt also sent several messengers, including beings from Axile, to communicate with Storm, but Storm devoured them all. Salt then found Storm's true name, and Storm had to take heed. What transpired next is unknown, but it was not beneficial to either of them.[58]
It is implied that Salt made a deal with the Presbyterate before the Echo Bazaar came to the Neath,[59] and it may have made a later deal with the Bazaar,[60] but neither claim is confirmed.
The Horizon's Road[edit | edit source]
"Long ago, a traveller went East, seeking something that could not be found in the black and starry kingdoms of the High Wilderness, nor in the irrigo temptations of the Nadir. Not in the glow of the Forge nor the crushing silence of the Unterzee deeps. Not in the shapeling citadels, not in the light of the South, not of the Sundered Sea. The traveller went East, and others may follow."[54]
"To travel is to change. Travel further; change more. This is the winnowing before the spring, the shearing of selves; the cold scarring of alteration. A stranger savours a warm breeze on a golden shore, and forgets all that they no longer are."[61]
The Traveller called Salt wandered the Neath to satisfy its "need," but no place it visited provided fulfillment.[62] Then it looked East, and it was fascinated by the horizon.[63] No one travels East without a hole in their heart, however,[64] and so the Traveller decided to change itself completely and utterly,[65][66] and sacrifice its past and future at Kingeater's Castle.[67][68] The last remnants of Salt's former self, and its former name, the Name-Which-Burns,[69] are stored in Frostfound.[70][71]
No one truly knows where Salt is, or what its future holds. Legend has it that it rests on the shore of the Uttermost East, recalling the stars it left behind;[72] and yet they say it has forgotten all that it once was.[73] It is always sailing onward, seeking new horizons;[74] and yet the Traveller is always returning.[75][76] It is perpetually in movement, and yet it stands still.[77]
Salt's followers say that one day it will return to Kingeater's Castle,[78] and the last of seven Witnesses will observe something impossible.[79] And they say that one terrible day, the Traveller will rise to face the White in its hall of poisoned crystal.[47] There is no happy ending.[45]
References[edit | edit source]
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