Aigul

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"The station is pinned to the surface of Aigul. Once it was a roving vessel, the Fortas Kettle, and floated freely from place to place. Now it is stuck on spines of fluke-rock."[1]

Aigul is a huge, stationary Lorn-Fluke. When a British zubmarine, the Fortas Kettle, was sunk by its spines, London's Admiralty turned the whole mess into Station VI.

The Stranded Crew[edit | edit source]

"When there is nothing left of my skin but the spines of Aigul, then I will be allowed to rest," says the First Mate. "Until then, if I cannot alleviate these sorrows, I must at least bear witness."[2]

The crew of the Fortas Kettle, using Rubbery rituals not unlike the Shapeling Arts, have developed the ability to grow regrets into spines like those of the Lorn-Fluke itself. The Kettle's First Mate has partaken extensively, and has grown many calcified patches and protuberances upon their skin[3] where they had previously sprouted and removed their own spines.[4] They would like to keep experimenting with the spines until they can no longer do so,[5] and are clearly very determined to be the bearer of others' regrets.[6]

Aigul's purple-black spines can store regrets, and are ground down into a silvery powder[7] that is sold and shipped to Station III.[8] (We allow the silver to be harvested.) The powder can also be reused to grow more Needles.[9] The needles can also store and deposit regrets,[10] and the First Mate has amassed an enormous quantity of them for their experiments.[11] They remember every single one.[12] (For us.)

The Fortas Kettle's Captain and First Mate were once engaged to be married,[13] and still love each other, although their feelings have become complicated by their predicament.[14] The Captain of the crew was always a jovial man,[15] and remains chipper despite being in a state of perpetual ailing and injury.[16] He cares greatly for the First Mate, but acknowledges that his partner is inconsolable.[17] (We are dear to them.) The First Mate insists that if no one asks about the Captain, he will never be healed;[18] however, this is probably because they are fully in the clutches of Aigul.[19] (Ask in our hearing and we, too, will answer.)[20] Aigul knows full well that the First Mate's love is exactly what is hurting the Captain, as his wound reopens every time the First Mate grows another regret[21] - but the Fluke has kept the First Mate from realizing the harsh truth of their addiction.[22] (We have helped them not to understand. It is our gift.)[23]

(The First Mate would give up anything for the Captain, except us.)

A Postscript[edit | edit source]

"That must be the Fortas Kettle," says the Naturalist. "I read about this in the files from the Admiralty. The crew survived – for a time. They were still in contact with Station III, even harvesting Fluke Spines to export. But I'm not sure that's the case anymore."[24]

The Fortas Kettle lost contact with Station III at some point between 1887 and 1899. Its crew are presumed lost.[25]

The Great Urchin[edit | edit source]

"There is a scent of green bitter things, of fermentation. (Cactus pulp renders an acceptable wine.) Someone once died in a desert and you are traversing the cause of their death. (They lived long enough to regret.) Here is the memory of a dying man seeing a vulture overhead. (The sky.)"[26]

The engine room of the Fortas Kettle, pierced by an enormous spine, is as close as one can get to the Lorn-Fluke called Aigul.[27] Aigul is filled with an enormous quantity of regrets,[28][29] taken from beings all across the Great Chain,[30] and amassed over time when someone is stabbed by one of Aigul's many spines. This process also relieves a person of their regrets; as a result, people from all across the Unterzee travel here to let themselves be pierced and freed from bitter memories.[31][32]

Historical and Cultural Inspirations[edit | edit source]

Aigul is a Turkic feminine name meaning "moonflower"/"flower of the moon."[33]

Aigul's effects are similar to those of Midnight, the sentient plant that has overrun a monastery in Achlys in the Sunless Skies timeline.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Aigul, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Consume ten Needles of Fortas, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ Bribe the First Mate, Sunless Sea "The First Mate's features are softer than the average Londoner's, as though they have become part Rubbery Man. Their skin is marked in dozens of places with shiny, calcified ovals, around which the skin is reddened."
  4. ↑ Observe the First Mate in research, Sunless Sea "The First Mate touches the spine, and for a time their spirit is absent. Then, from one of their few patches of unmarked skin, they grow a needle-shaped protrusion and snap it free. "A memento of what I saw when my mind was with Aigul.""
  5. ↑ Consume ten Needles of Fortas, Sunless Sea ""When there is nothing left of my skin but the spines of Aigul, then I will be allowed to rest," says the First Mate. "Until then, if I cannot alleviate these sorrows, I must at least bear witness.""
  6. ↑ Help pack the exports, Sunless Sea ""Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask," the Tomb Colonist says. "But there's no need for wearing the scars of other people's wounds, on top of your own.""
  7. ↑ Help pack the exports, Sunless Sea "Bottles and bottles of silver powder, ground from Aigul-spine, wait to be sent away. "
  8. ↑ Observe the First Mate in research, Sunless Sea "The spine is purple-black, but the crew have been working at it with planes, grinding away a silvery powder. [...] "Our export," the First Mate explains. "It goes to Station III.""
  9. ↑ Help pack the exports, Sunless Sea "Looks poisonous, but there's no harm in it. The First Mate uses some of it to make the Needles, and sells the rest.""
  10. ↑ Consume three Needles of Fortas, Sunless Sea "Here is a prisoner's breath of fresh air after fifty years in the cell. Here's a proud father, summonsed to court in a sordid case against his son. Here's lavender water on a widow's kerchief, and the square of light on the wall of an empty bedroom."
  11. ↑ Explore the supply rooms, Sunless Sea "There are glass jars, stoppered with wax, where the First Mate keeps yet more Needles, labelled in writing that is too faded to read. This business of growing and collecting the Needles has been going on for a very long time, it appears."
  12. ↑ Help sort needles, Sunless Sea "The First Mate remembers each of them: when it was grown, how long ago, what regret it captures."
  13. ↑ Dine with the crew, Sunless Sea "The crew gather and tell stories of when the Fortas Kettle was still free to roam the sea floor. The Captain was a jolly man, fond of a drink, who laughed at icebergs. The First Mate was everyone's confidante. The two were meant to be married, even, when they got back to London."
  14. ↑ Consume a Needle of Fortas, Sunless Sea "Faintly overlying this is the First Mate's reaction [...] a tangle of feelings about a different broken relationship, between themselves and the Wounded Captain."
  15. ↑ Dine with the crew, Sunless Sea "The Captain was a jolly man, fond of a drink, who laughed at icebergs."
  16. ↑ Pay a visit to the Wounded Captain, Sunless Sea "The Wounded Captain's bed is a tangle of blankets and bandages. A tripod of myrrh does not wholly mask the festering scent. But the Captain's eye is bright and his laugh is hearty. [...]"
  17. ↑ Pay a visit to the Wounded Captain, Sunless Sea "I won't say you've cheered up my First Mate, as we both know that can't be done! But you've come as close as anyone could."
  18. ↑ Share the Brother's regret with the First Mate, Sunless Sea "You do not ask me about the Captain. Someone must ask about his wound, or he will never be healed."
  19. ↑ Convince the First Mate to stop harvesting Aigul, Sunless Sea "(We will not let them go easily!) "
  20. ↑ Ask the First Mate about the Captain, Sunless Sea "(Ask in our hearing and we, too, will answer.) "
  21. ↑ Ask the First Mate about the Captain, Sunless Sea ""It seems every time I return to him, his wound has reopened." (The spines in the First Mate's flesh are a lance in the Captain as well.)"
  22. ↑ Ask the First Mate about the Captain, Sunless Sea ""If there were anything I could do..." (The First Mate would give up anything for the Captain, except us.)"
  23. ↑ Convince the First Mate to stop harvesting Aigul, Sunless Sea "Their pity helps no one. And is it worth the fresh lance in the Captain's thigh, each evening? Isn't it clear how he is wounded? (We have helped them not to understand. It is our gift.)"
  24. ↑ Look through the porthole, Fallen London
  25. ↑ Look through the porthole, Fallen London ""That must be the Fortas Kettle," says the Naturalist. "I read about this in the files from the Admiralty. The crew survived – for a time. They were still in contact with Station III, even harvesting Fluke Spines to export. But I'm not sure that's the case anymore." Rust has devoured the wreckage, along with algae, coral, moss. There are no lights in the ship."
  26. ↑ Descend, Sunless Sea
  27. ↑ Ask the First Mate for help finding the regret of the Sensitive Brother, Sunless Sea "At last, you come to the engine room where a spike of Aigul jabs through the hull. The engine is thoroughly destroyed [...] The surface of Aigul is exposed to your touch. It shimmers. (We make it beautiful on purpose.) [...] Touch it with one hand. (Touch our face.) "
  28. ↑ Only forward exists, Sunless Sea "A recollection the length of a hatpin. It would have been a baby."
  29. ↑ The tunnel branches, Sunless Sea "Here is the smell of a cloying perfume. A woman left her husband for a scoundrel. (In a few years she was poor and alone.) "He seemed like a good man. How could I have known?" (Of course she knew.)"
  30. ↑ Note the regret but leave it where it lies, Sunless Sea "But you can take a different regret instead, the star-white shard by your left hand. (Not human!) It stings - And you know a sorrow that is shaped like an ellipse, the sorrow of a long approach that also hastens departure. (And all the while you travel, you are melting.) Would it have been possible to crash, and arrest the trajectory? (During your first orbit, you are so bright that you cast a shadow in daytime.)"
  31. ↑ Observe the First Mate with a Pilgrim (Visage), Sunless Sea "The First Mate leads the Crocodile to a makeshift bed. Attendants wrap the Crocodile's hands in silk and set them on a spike of Aigul. The Crocodile weeps copiously through the eye-holes of its mask. Then it goes to sleep. [...] An hour or two later, the Crocodile comes out again, cheerful and refreshed."
  32. ↑ Observe the First Mate with a Pilgrim (Dahut), Sunless Sea "The postulant's Zubmarine has come straight from Dahut. "
  33. ↑ Aygül, Behind the Name
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