September

From The Fifth City Wiki

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."

Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.


"I shall be first among equals," he roars, "Nae gods, nae bishops. This is a church 'o th' free!"[1]

September is a revolutionary and a member of the Calendar Council.

A True Scotsman[edit]

"He is the leader of this small sect of Scots, far beyond the bounds of London."[2]

September is a passionate anarchist and anti-monarchist[3] who leads a faction of Scottish revolutionaries in the village of Crathie, near Balmoral.[4] His upbringing was sheltered and well-educated; he came to be a rebel by choice, and was emboldened after being caught in the Fall of London.[5] He is an advocate for the redistribution of wealth.[6]

September's operations are headquartered in the Septemberist Kirk.[7] The Kirk is explicitly divorced from religion,[8] and is better described as a gathering of intellectuals.[9] They have the ultimate goal of deciphering the cryptic messages of Mr Pages, in hopes of finding a way to fight its censorship.[10] In keeping with this, a book written by September is kept in the Agendums of Ascent that contains a detailed critique and deconstruction of Mr Pages' statements.[11]

September is one of the less trusted and thus less influential members of the Calendar Council.[12] That said, he is close friends with July[13] and August[14][15] and is on generally good terms with April,[16][17] although he tries to sucker up a bit too much for his own good.[18] He respects January's advocacy for the Liberation of Night,[19] but admits to being "a little afeared o' th' dark."[20] January does not reciprocate his respect, however.[21][22]

September Upstairs[edit]

"I'm dead," he whispers. "But no." He shakes his head. "Let's away. Does the heart no good to hear this maudlin speech. I am no that man here."[23]

In the alternate timeline of the Upstairs, September was killed by the forces of the Empress. The surviving revolutionaries rallied in the name of Lost September, forcing the Empress out of London and besieging her last stronghold in Balmoral.[24]

Archie?[edit]

Archie, implied to be a younger September

"Whatever Mr Pages is doing, I did not think it's for our own good. More like it wants tae keep us trapped and confused like creatures in a maze."[25]

While September is described as a wild-haired youth at one point in Fallen London,[26] it is later made clear that he survived the Fall of London decades ago and was in his twenties at the time.[5] It is likely that in his younger days, he was known as Archie. Archie is a young Scotsman with a distinct resemblance to September; he demonstrates the same revolutionary inclinations,[27] including an indication of future support for the construction of the Dawn Machine[28], and the same targeted suspicion toward the Masters[29] and particularly Mr Pages.[30][31]

Due to a strange series of circumstances surrounding which buildings were spared or obliterated in the Fall,[32] and the people who disappeared inside them,[33] many Londoners, Archie among them, were implanted with false memories.[34][35] Archie received some of the memories of an officer named Lucian,[36] and he was left unsure whether the family he remembered from Scotland was real.[37][38] It is possible that this distortion in reality is the reason September has not aged much in the intervening decades.

It is also noteworthy that Archie was a medical student at the time of the Fall; fueled by his curiosity about breaking the laws of science,[39] he had been experimenting with arcane medicines that may extend a consumer's lifespan.[40]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Elect September as Unbishop, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Speak to September, Fallen London
  3. ↑ Speak to September, Fallen London "There he treats you to a private discourse on the evils of ignorance, monarchy and the English. [...] "[...] If th' old queen won't rule in London nor up here, we'd do a better job 'o it ourselves. Besides, London's nivver bin proper English.""
  4. ↑ The Kirk of the Septemberists, Fallen London Crathie -> Visit the Septemberist Kirk
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Spend an evening with September, Fallen London "He tells you a little of his childhood: a secluded life on a baronial estate not far from Balmoral. The discovery of Coleridge, of Rousseau, of Wollstonecraft. ... He studied in Oxford, then London, where he encountered like-minded souls. "And then the brave new world I dreamed of happened. Just no' as anybody expected." Still, he says ... one makes the best of it. The destiny of man is forever towards freedom. And Balmoral is as good a start as any, September believes."
  6. ↑ Consult September, Fallen London "September scowls. "Charity is a paltry salve for th' consciences of the rich. Taxation is the only moral form of recompense. We can do more good wi' th' funds than any bleeding heart toff.""
  7. ↑ The Kirk of the Septemberists, Fallen London "Their current leader is known as September, a wild-haired youth who lectures from the great pulpit. He is there now."
  8. ↑ Visit the Septemberist Kirk, Fallen London "The Kirk has been stripped of adornments – Christ has been quietly taken down and placed in a cupboard."
  9. ↑ The Kirk of the Septemberists, Fallen London "The Old Kirk is the haunt of locals and radicals, gathered among the pews to discuss poetry, philosophy and politics."
  10. ↑ Accept a gift from Balmoral's Castellan, Fallen London "[...] September tells you [...] his great work: the distilling of utopian principles from the dystopian utterings of the censorious Master."
  11. ↑ The Calendar Code, Fallen London "Each section begins with a sentence and a date. You recognise from the lexical quirks that somebody is quoting Mr Pages. What follows is an exhaustive deconstruction of each sentence, highlighting where it diverges from correct syntax and performing cryptographic analysis on each unnecessary superlative. The colour-coded annotations vary from the trivial to the cosmological. There may be wisdom buried here, but the key insight is into the mind of the author."
  12. ↑ Return to September, Fallen London "But I'm only one of twelve, and not, I have t' confess, the most respected o' that august council."
  13. ↑ Persuade July, Fallen London ""Of course! Can I be the Maid of Honour? You did promise." September gives you a sheepish look. "She's right. Ah was verrah drunk at th' time. But a promise is a promise.""
  14. ↑ Persuade September, Fallen London ""Because he's." He stops and stares at the Contrarian, [...] [...] One of my very very good friends.""
  15. ↑ Persuade the Jovial Contrarian, Fallen London "The Jovial Contrarian looks even more jovial [...] Perhaps his heart warms at the thought of someone almost as argumentative [...]"
  16. ↑ Persuade April/Tables, Fallen London "A good colleague, writes April. Not very concise on the board, however."
  17. ↑ Persuade April/Tables, Fallen London "The boy deserves all this and more. September shoots her a surprised look, but April is already writing another note. Don’t thank me yet."
  18. ↑ Proposing the Removal of April, Fallen London ""Ye cannae do that," September says, "She's very important." He looks over at April to ensure she's noticed his show of support. She shrugs. "
  19. ↑ Invite January to the Board, Fallen London "She is an acquaintance of September's. He has mentioned that her views might be of use to you."
  20. ↑ Have a quiet word with September, Fallen London "Why can't he go alone? He flushes a little. "Ah would no like this getting oot, but I'm a little afeared o' th' dark.""
  21. ↑ Persuade January/Tables, Fallen London ""Yes," says January. "Please. If this effects his efficacy, so much the better." September shoots her an extremely hurt look, which she ignores."
  22. ↑ Persuade January/Tables, Fallen London "She says, with a faintly self-mocking expression, that as unlikely as it might seem, she believes September is much too valuable to the board to let go."
  23. ↑ Accompany September, Fallen London
  24. ↑ Accompany September, Fallen London "You overhear fearful whispers [...] And always, mournful laments for Lost September. You walk nearer [...] September listens in fearful wonder. He hears his name said in lament and libation, repetitions of the speech he gave on Pall Mall, of an end to Union and the Empire and thus to all tyrants. He hears of the thundering wheels of the Empress' coach and the long slow starvation in some black cell below the Palace. Now he stands among those who came out to the streets in his name and marched north."
  25. ↑ Archie, Mask of the Rose
  26. ↑ The Kirk of the Septemberists, Fallen London "Their current leader is known as September, a wild-haired youth who lectures from the great pulpit."
  27. ↑ Archie: Manifesto, Mask of the Rose "I feel it's the sort of think I ought tae write myself. Sit down and think out how London's tae be saved, as though she were a patient with a heap of concerning symptoms. [...] I feel like I'm a church bell ringing the alarm. Or the dog that barks, or the flock overhead that flies before the storm. The fear is strung through every limb and it jangles me constantly. But there's nae peace for thinking what next. And by itself, the ringing bell's no use at all."
  28. ↑ Archie: Manifesto, Mask of the Rose "I don't see many old housemaids and costermongers turning to our cause. But it might do for the philanthropic sorts, aye? And the benefits of it'll come down to them in the end, when someone invents a false-sun. We could do with one of those."
  29. ↑ Archie: Manifesto, Mask of the Rose "Sounds like it still casts us all for parts in the Masters' play. If we're all doing as they say, and just planning tae strike at some future day."
  30. ↑ Archie: Storycrafting, Mask of the Rose "Whatever Mr Pages is doing, I did not think it's for our own good. More like it wants tae keep us trapped and confused like creatures in a maze. "
  31. ↑ Archie: Other Inquiries, Mask of the Rose "It might not like me looking into its business. Might be it wanted me arrested. [...] I've had a good deal tae say about the Ministry, but who'd listen tae the ravings of a doctor that had been arrested for murder?"
  32. ↑ Harjit: Ministry Theories, Mask of the Rose "(Player:) The night of the Fall, I saw something drawing symbols on the walls of a house. And after the Fall was over, that house was gone entirely."
  33. ↑ Harjit: Revelation, Mask of the Rose "A thing that should not be here if he did not exist. A thing that might be edited out of the Neath, in time. I think when I forget him, I will also vanish."
  34. ↑ Archie: High Trust Inquiries, Mask of the Rose "The conversation ranges over all of Archie's favourite subjects. We talk of things he read and saw long ago: stories of storms in the Scottish mountains, and marriage customs in the Punjab, and the western frontiers of America."
  35. ↑ Archie: High Trust Inquiries, Mask of the Rose "We talk of recollections again, and this time they are particularly surprising. Archie describes [...] the struggles of a ship around the southern tip of Africa [...] When I ask how and when he left Britain, he shrugs, and says that he never left before now. And that the story must be something he read, or heard from another medical student. But he told it in such a way that I could almost smell the brine."
  36. ↑ Harjit: The Census, Mask of the Rose Harjit: "My companion was not a lady. He was an officer who came to the Punjab. [...] I followed him here, away from my own country and everything I knew. To the home of my former enemies."
  37. ↑ Harjit: Concerns, Mask of the Rose "Archie's family is in Scotland. Everyone says that only London fell below, but Archie is afraid that something happened to them too."
  38. ↑ Archie: High Trust Inquiries, Mask of the Rose "We turn the subject to how we each grew up. Archie tells stories as fragments, rather than as anecdotes. Not whole, stitched-up narratives of things that happened when he was a child or a young man, but impressions only. [...] Sometimes, with inquiry, he will go as far as to describe some habit he used to have. But the particular characters in his family, or the incidents of growing up, remain a little shadowy."
  39. ↑ Archie: High Trust Inquiries, Mask of the Rose "The conversation turns to medicine [...] In childhood [...] he was fascinated with Frankenstein and with the stories of the Resurrection Men in Edinburgh, pulling bodies out of graves. These elements mingled into curious fantasies of the scientific inventions that he would one day achieve. Adulthood and a bit of experience in the world may have tempered his expectations, but he still turns excitable at possibilities outside our current imaginings."
  40. ↑ Archie: His Alibi, Mask of the Rose "There's an old medicine in the pharmaceutical books. Venetian Treacle was its common name. Theriac Mithridatium to those that had some teaching. It's said tae cure every sort of ailment at once. And ward off poisons too, while you're about it. You needed a lot o' strange ingredients, but it seemed tae me the Neath has new complaints we haven't seen on the Surface. So we could do with a bit of a cure-all, long as we haven't worked out the particular science."
Retrieved from "https://thefifthcity.wiki/w/index.php?title=September&oldid=20104"