Snuffers

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“A colloquial term for the tribe of face-thieves that prowls the back-rooms, parlours and sculleries in Fallen London. They are named for their appetite for candles, which they devour – though none knows whether they crave the wax, or the flame. They are searching for something, or perhaps somewhere. Facts are elusive, for they change faces as often as a gentleman changes his waistcoat.”[1]

Snuffers are humanoid creatures with a predilection for ripping unfortunate humans' faces off and adopting them as their own. They get their popular name from their diet of candles.

They Look Like Everyone Else![edit | edit source]

"I think you know who my people are. Yes, we're what the Presbyter calls Snuffers. We hail from the Elder Continent. We have been denied. Our masks hide us from the boatman. We do not Partake. But perhaps, one day, we will."[2]

Snuffers are infiltrator-creatures from the Elder Continent,[3] who have settled in possibly every major community in the Neath.[4] They can disguise themselves as any person whose face may be made available,[5] and are consequently considered an immense danger to anyone around them.[6] London's Department of Menace Eradication and the Presbyterate spend a great deal of time and effort into rooting out Snuffers,[7][5][8] but their numbers remain impossible to determine. Despite the rampant prejudice against them, several elements in London, from criminal organizations to members of London's elite, use Snuffers as their ideal spies and informants.[9][10][8]

Snuffers are surprisingly fast and strong for their size, and a single individual can easily overtake their opponent in a one-on-one fight, even if caught off guard.[11] However, unlike humans, Snuffers do not return from death;[12] their masks "hide them from the Boatman."[3] Their actual "faces" appear to be solid, pulsating knots of red muscle,[13][14] albeit with disturbingly human eyes.[15] The Snuffer diet consists primarily of candles,[16] for multiple reasons; neither of these facts has been elaborated upon in depth, but it appears they are both made of wax and sustained by the memory of wax, so candles are a literal source of nutrition.[17] This also lends their breath a waxy odor.[17]

Snuffers can take faces from both living and dead humans.[18] The process is hardly esoteric; generally, they simply cut it off with a blade.[19] In the case of a willing victim, they may apply a numbing ointment during the process.[20][21] Regardless, the Snuffer then affixes the stolen face over their own, securing it with a different ointment to merge it seamlessly.[22] A Snuffer can also change the rest of their physical anatomy to match their new identity.[23] Snuffers are able to reproduce with humans,[24][25] though such an act is considered blasphemous by the Judgements.[26] The resultant half-Snuffer offspring are able to change their faces at will, rather than having to take a face from a victim.[27][28]

A Snuffer eating a candle
A Snuffer unmasked

Amongst Themselves[edit | edit source]

"In her deep wombs, she fosters life that would not be permitted above. The Garden was one of those wombs. And we long to return to it, we Cousins. How we long for it."[29]

Snuffers, who call themselves Cousins,[30] are the progeny of the mysterious and legendary Thief-of-Faces.[31] At least some Snuffers wish to return to the Garden,[30] from which they were cast out after the Thief-of-Faces assaulted Stone.[32] The Snuffer employees of the Foreign Office have a chapel that features of icons of birds, bees, butterflies, and angels:[33] creatures that can fly, and thus "carry with them the airs of the Garden."[34]

According to the Bishop of St Fiacre's, Snuffers were made as mockeries of humans, and envy them.[35] They remember being cast out of the Garden; humans are also barred, but do not remember what happened.[36]

It is possible for humans to learn the face-stealing arts of the Snuffers, as it was once taught by the Thief-of-Faces to his disciples. One former employee of the Ministry of Public Decency, who now goes by the moniker of the Face-Tailor, has managed this feat.

Notable Snuffers[edit | edit source]

Snuffers are excellent at hiding their identities, but several hold prominent places in various spheres:

  • The Bishop of St. Fiacre's is a Snuffer[37], although he is not particularly pleased with this fact about himself. He has cut ties with most of his family and wants to use essences to become something, anything other than a Snuffer. Until then, he takes faces from corpses and the willing. His sister is the Woman in Yellow.
  • The Big Rat is a notorious criminal who commands an army of rattus faber and uses them for his bidding. He rarely makes appearances in person, but when he does, he wears a mask made out of rat faces. Despite being at odds with the Bishop of St. Fiacre's, he appears to hold respect for him and makes sure not to target the Cathedral of St. Fiacre's in his heists. He seems to be fond of wine.
  • The Scarred Naturalist lives deep in Bugsby's Marshes. He is said to be the last man alive to have seen the Vake and lived to tell the tale.
  • The Teeth of the Foreign Office is composed entirely of Snuffers.
  • The Moth-cloaked Vandal is half human and half Snuffer.
  • The Bishop of St. Fiacre's
    The Bishop of St. Fiacre's
  • The Woman in Yellow
    The Woman in Yellow
  • The Scarred Naturalist
    The Scarred Naturalist
  • A Snuffer from the Teeth wearing a comfortable face.
    A Snuffer from the Teeth wearing a comfortable face.
  • The Moth-cloaked Vandal, a half-Snuffer
    The Moth-cloaked Vandal, a half-Snuffer

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Regarding “Snuffers”, Failbetter Games
  2. ↑ Mysteries of the Foreign Office, Fallen London
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mysteries of the Foreign Office, Fallen London "I think you know who my people are. Yes, we're what the Presbyter calls Snuffers. We hail from the Elder Continent. We have been denied. Our masks hide us from the boatman. We do not Partake. But perhaps, one day, we will."
  4. ↑ Snuffer Hunting, Sunless Sea "The docks throng. The streets bustle. The Blue Bazaar heaves. Thousands upon thousands of faces. The snuffer could be hiding behind any one of them. How will you find it?"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 To hunt a Snuffer, Fallen London "[…] an unusual commission. A Snuffer. They remove the faces of men and wear them, being themselves monstrous. This one wears a new face every week, but is involved in the smuggling of honey. Dispose of it. Permanently, and quietly."
  6. ↑ A Discarded Face, Sunless Sea "“Captain! I found this afloat in the bilges.” The zailor holds it out, grimacing: a sheet of human skin with holes for eyes, nose, mouth... You recognise the moustache clinging to its ragged lip: the moustache of the ragged crewman you rescued! He must have been one of the face-stealing abominations they call Snuffers. But whose face is the Snuffer wearing now?"
  7. ↑ Accept the Avuncular Broker's commission, Sunless Sea "Doing the Prester's work" "Tell me: what do you know about the disciples of the Thief-of-Faces? Or 'Snuffers' to children and Londoners. Awful creatures. Eat candles. Steal faces. Erasing them is a sacrament. [...]"
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Confession of the Bishop of St Fiacre's, Fallen London "The Bishop of St Fiacre's reports regularly to Eradication Officers. […] He feels particular pain when he must give them information on members of his family. […] His confession is about the ease with which he can sometimes hand over a cousin. […]"
  9. ↑ The Avuncular Broker's second commission, Sunless Sea "[...] The Snuffer you caught was extremely surprised by its interrogation: it was under the impression that it was working for us. One of our London diplomats has decided that the expedience of using Snuffers outweighs the prohibition on associating with them. He is incorrect."
  10. ↑ Attend the Bishop's bridge meeting, Fallen London "The others are already here. You recognise the Bishop, of course, but also a respected officer of the Admiralty, a gentleman in prison-guard's uniform, a celebrated poet of the Bazaarines, an anonymous clerk at Baseborn & Fowlingpiece. They watch you warily as you pull up a chair."
  11. ↑ Attack, Sunless Sea "The Snuffer is terribly strong. She smashes away your cutlass with the back of her hand. With her other hand, she peels away her face like the mask it is. Beneath it is a weeping gnarl of hungry red flesh. It's the last thing you ever see."
  12. ↑ To Hunt A Snuffer, Fallen London "It dies, quite permanently. A man would have easily returned from such a wound."
  13. ↑ Attend the Bishop's bridge meeting, Fallen London "[...] One by one, everyone at the table reaches up and removes their face. Human features fall away, revealing the knotted, squirming muscles of Snuffers. The inhuman faces turn, expectantly, to you. You pull your false-face away... and expose a writhing mass of living scarlet muscle. This was the second face you commissioned – a Snuffer-face. [...]"
  14. ↑ Complete your escape with the Presumptive Heiress, Sunless Skies "When the incision is complete, the Doctress reaches up and, with a tug, slides off her own face. Behind it is a solid knot of muscle, palpitating and inhuman. Like a magician whipping a tablecloth from beneath a set of crockery [...]"
  15. ↑ To hunt a Snuffer, Fallen London "You have to be sure, so you grab at the thing's face. It comes off, beard and all, with a moist tearing noise. The thing underneath is far from human, despite the eyes. It produces a blade, but you anticipate the cut up at your jawline, and strike back. It is no match for you in a brawl, and you quickly stab it. It dies, quite permanently. A man would have easily returned from such a wound."
  16. ↑ The same way you entice any prey: with bait, Sunless Sea "You create a false chapel and fill it with candles. They stand tall on stands, blaze in candelabras, float in copper bowls. Scented candles and coloured candles: red as meat, white as bone, green as emeralds, black as a funeral. A hot wax smell pours from the doors and down the street. There are so many! the Snuffer must think. Who would miss one? He does not know you are hiding in the confessional. You emerge when you hear him gobbling between two pews. Melted wax encrusts his chin. A scrap of wick is caught between his teeth. [...]"
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Why do Snuffers eat candles?, Failbetter Games "For the wax/because they’re made of wax/they’re sustained by the memory of wax"
  18. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "("You're a Snuffer. A Cousin.") "I am. I trust you'll keep it to yourself. [...] I only borrow my faces from those already dead, or those who choose to surrender them.""
  19. ↑ The brave prisoner, Fallen London "You set candles around an abandoned portion of the prison. One by one they go out. As the last one is snuffed, you make your move. You leap on the thing in the darkness. Instantly it has a blade at your face. Blood spurts – it's trying to cut your face off!"
  20. ↑ Complete your escape with the Presumptive Heiress, Sunless Skies "The Doctress removes an unguent from her bag and begins rubbing it into the Heiress' temples, along her hairline, behind the ears, and under the jaw. [...]"
  21. ↑ Complete your escape with the Presumptive Heiress, Sunless Skies "Sitting astride the Heiress, she pushes her sharp fingernail into the skin of the girl's temple and slides it like a scalpel around her face with a sound like tearing paper. "I can't feel it. Why can't I feel it?" the Heiress gasps. The Doctress shushes her."
  22. ↑ Complete your escape with the Presumptive Heiress, Sunless Skies "[...] she swaps her face and the Heiress'. A few pinches and tucks, the application of ointment from another jar, and the process is complete."
  23. ↑ Have the ship's doctor examine your crew, Sunless Sea "Snuffers are more malleable than men. This one has relocated its internal organs for its own convenience: your physician identifies an errant lung and shouts the alarm! [...]"
  24. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London "If you're right, and the Topsy King is right, then the Vandal had an odd parentage. She was born from the forbidden love of a priest and a Snuffer. "
  25. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London ""This beard is hopeless. I should just put on a new face," mutters the Scoundrel, folding away his mirror. ... "Snuffers don't belong up there, nor half-snuffers neither. We'll charter a boat and sail to Zee. Find somewhere we can flourish, father and daughter, like it always should've been." "
  26. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London ""Because of my heritage, I am as much a blasphemy as these moths," she says. "Soon I'll catch a ferry to the surface, and together we'll be judged in the light of day. I don't expect to survive.""
  27. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London "She turns her coat inside-out, pressing trembling moth-wings inward, and her face changes almost imperceptibly — the colour of her eyes, the contour of her chin. She slips into the dark."
  28. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London "You and the Moth-cloaked Vandal approach the ferry. The conductor glowers suspiciously, but she has already changed her face. Wide eyes, chubby cheeks: the very picture of innocence."
  29. ↑ Flint, Fallen London
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Flint, Fallen London "In her deep wombs, she fosters life that would not be permitted above. The Garden was one of those wombs. And we long to return to it, we Cousins. How we long for it."
  31. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "[...] They have fallen far from what they were – and that thing had fallen farthest of all. But their progenitor, the Thief-of-Faces, was an extraordinary creature. It stole essences from the Mountain herself, the heart of the South. [...]"
  32. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Mountain cast us all out of the Garden, when it found that our progenitor had taken jewels from its wombs [...]"
  33. ↑ Taking a look, Fallen London "The chapel is far from orthodox. There are no crosses or crescents or stars. But there are statues of angels. Stained-glass birds. Tiny golden bees. A butterfly in marble."
  34. ↑ Order Vespertine, Perilous, Fallen London "You shall harm no thing that flies, for they carry with them the airs of the Garden. No bee, no bird, no bat."
  35. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "We envy humans, my Cousins and I. How could we not? We were made in your shape, but we lack your souls and your lives. We are mockeries [...] We are both barred from the Garden, but we remember it and you do not. We steal your skins for safety, but also because we long to be you."
  36. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "We are both barred from the Garden, but we remember it and you do not."
  37. ↑ Attend the Bishop's bridge meeting, Fallen London
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