The Sun

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"These are real stars. They burn above the roof of the Neath, beyond the earth, in the spaces of heaven."

This page contains extensive spoilers for the following Fallen London endgame content, Fate-locked content, Exceptional Stories, Mask of the Rose content, and formerly restricted content: Ambition: Heart's Desire, The Great Hellbound Railway, Destinies, Firmament, The Summer Nursery, Noises from Upstairs, Cut with Moonlight, Lilac at the Panopticon, and more. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"That day, I saw the Sun for my last time. / And now I grieve beneath for His lost light. / But soon, one day, I will repent my crime. / And what remains of me will live in flight."[2]

The Sun, or Sol,[1] is the Judgement of the Earth and of Mankind - though it can only govern those of us dwelling on the Surface.

Sol Invictus[edit | edit source]

"To hear the poets speak of it. Warm light on skin. Dawn like honey moving across the fields. To bud, and then to flower, verdant and supple. How can it be something we fight against? It is the order of things. Growth, and then the harvest. We drink of sunlight, and in turn it drinks from us."[3]

To Surface-dwellers, the Sun is the great constant of life. Its light dictates the rhythm of days and seasons, the turning of crops, the migrations of animals, the beating pulse of the natural world. To step into its warmth is to be reminded that one is alive.[4] Children chase its rays across green fields, lovers linger in its glow, and harvesters bow to it in gratitude when their fields turn gold. It is the hidden hand behind every orchard, every vineyard, every meadow in bloom. And despite the opinions of certain Neathy horticulturalists, photosynthesis is not a myth.[5]

The Sun is not an inert celestial body, as the orthodox academics at the University suppose;[6] its true nature is a bold enough notion that priests and scholars of old kept it a secret from their superiors and the world at large.[7] Rather, it belongs to an order of beings called Judgements: vast, sentient sovereigns whose beams carry not only heat and light, but also law.[8] The Sun is not just a source of nourishment for the earth, but the ruler that decrees the laws of nature: that all things must grow, must change, and ultimately must die. To bask in sunlight is to submit to its order, willingly or not.[9]

It bears mention that Albion's murdered star is not the Sun; Sol is just fine in the Sunless Skies timeline.[citation needed]

Praise the Sun![edit | edit source]

"The bottom third is occupied with a cityscape, low and modest against the expanse of sky above – the Second City. Above, a vast disc gleams, painstakingly graven with a cartouche of delicate hieroglyphs. A reed; a fluid zig-zag; a half circle above a tiny sun. From the disc erupts a halo of grasping rays, reaching down to the city below. At the terminus of each finger-thin ray of sunlight is a hand. Open-palmed. Beckoning."[10]

Many cultures through history have regarded the Sun as divine.[11] The Second City, when it still stood on the Surface, was ruled by a Pharaoh who declared himself the Sun's avatar.[12] He swept aside the old gods and exalted a single one:[13] the sun-disk Aten, sole deity of his reign.[14] Even after the city's descent into the Neath, its people clung to their solar devotion.[15] Similarly, the city of Varchas still worships Mihir, a radiant sun god,[16] even though it has likely been centuries since any Varchaasi have seen the Sun.[17]

The Sun does have a view of the Neath. In Aestival, sunlight pours through a gap in the Roof, and there are scattered places where a crack allows the odd sunbeam in.[18]

Sunlight[edit | edit source]

"The sun hates the dead. If you've passed away even once, you can't go back above."[19]

Bright and burning.

Light is law.[20]; law is light.[21] In the case of the Sun, its light decrees death.[22] For those who descend to the Neath, this truth soon becomes bitterly clear: the Sun is merciless toward any who defy its natural order. People who have died and returned, and those who have journeyed to Parabola due to madness or consumption of prisoner's honey[23], have transgressed against solar law. Spending too long in the Neath, even without either of these circumstances, is also dangerous; Surface-dwelling workers on the Cumaean Canal take three-week shifts to avoid the consequences.[24]

To be more specific, the Sun incinerates any violations of natural law instantly.[25] Individuals who have merely spent too long in the Neath will still suffer severe damage and burns from brief sun exposure;[26] prolonged exposure risks the same fiery death,[27] though some may only succumb to ill health after a few months.[28] Remaining in shadow provides only a temporary respite,[29] so while a careful Neather can last at least half a year,[30] and one can gain a comparable reprieve in the winter by staying beyond the Arctic (or Antarctic) Circle,[31] death is inevitable at some stage.[32] Even at night, moonlight is reflected sunlight,[33] so it can be equally lethal in concentrated doses.[34]

Despite its aforementioned prejudices, sunlight is an addiction, and even those who would be destroyed by it still long for its warmth.[35] Neath-dwellers and beasts alike will risk everything for its touch, sometimes meeting their deaths smiling.[36] In lesser doses, for instance through a mirrorcatch box, it induces trances and an infamous mantra: "THE SUN! THE SUN!"[27] It is suggested (though not confirmed) that this irresistible temptation occurs because sunlight induces nostalgia, thanks to a soul flaw theoretically possessed by the Sun itself.[37]

In addition to its effects on humans, sunlight strips away magic and sets fire to objects of Neathy origin.[38][39] Despite this, there remains a steady demand for coffee, fabric, jewels,[40] and other goods from the Neath, which must be carefully protected from direct sunlight[41] and generally have a very short shelf life.[42] Thanks to the Sun's enforcement of its laws against living things and inanimate objects alike, tales of the Neath are often dismissed by Surface-folk.[43]

Countermeasures[edit | edit source]

"Yes. Yes... it's very dangerous. I won't speak of it here. I had to take protective measures before I could go up there. Visit a – another place, down here. A place of irrigo and obscurity."[44]

There are several known means of resisting the Sun's power. The Neath itself is sheltered by irrigo overflowing from the Cave of the Nadir.[45] Irrigo also enables the Lady in Lilac to walk the Surface unscathed.[46] Devils, meanwhile, exude a peculiar wax,[47] which can be harvested and made into a balm (sunscreen!) to lessen the deleterious effects of sunlight.[48] Lastly, conflicting laws of Neathy origin may be able to counteract solar law, such as counter-laws forged in Hell's Law-Furnaces[49] or those made by the Dawn Machine.[50]

The Sunlight Trade[edit | edit source]

A box emitting sunlight.
A Sun-Stamped Mirrorcatch Box.

"London is home to an illicit, lucrative trade in Surface sunlight. Its quality varies, as can its effects. Be careful of sunshine laced with moonlight."[51]

London is home to a expansive sunlight trade that is as lucrative as it is illegal.[52] However, sunlight often must be harvested directly from the Surface,[53] which can be both dangerous and expensive.[54] Thus, using a method pioneered by the Cheery Man, sunlight traders may "cut" their sunlight with moonlight, which can have varying effects on the product.[55] Sunlight cut with moonlight is cheaper to import,[56] can last longer in the box, and is safer to transport as well.[57][58] Relying on this method can be risky, however, as customers who purchase such sunlight may still feel the effects of moonlight, visions and all.[59]

London's Last Trees[edit | edit source]

"It is not a large department, but it is a feared one. Perhaps because its Keepers are said to sustain London's last remaining trees on a starvation diet of imported sunlight – a perilous and forbidden commodity."[60]

A month after the Fall of London, the city's already-suffering trees all (or almost all) perished in a single night.[61] This occurred after the Bazaar drank away their memories of sunlight, leaving only husks behind.[62] In later years, new stock may have been imported from the Surface; the Department of Parks and Game is known to maintain what it insists are London's last living trees with carefully rationed, illicit sunlight.[63] The Department also struck a bargain with the Summer Schoolmistress, in which she would help them cultivate greenery in London's parks and alleyways in return for steady shipments of supplies to her mansion.[64]

The Department vigorously denies the accusation that the trees are all dead, and that their corpses remain lifelike only due to a virulent fungal infestation that has entirely colonised them, spreading its spores through the now-rotten sap.[65] This is undercut somewhat by the rumor that they like mushrooms a little too much.[66]

History[edit | edit source]

The Sun has been alive for billions of years, and humans are only privy to a sliver of its dealings.

The Cataclysm in Silver[edit | edit source]

"The Creditor had not expected to be left behind. The Moon had not expected to be riven, or to be dependent on another for its light. The Sun had promised to make a star of them, and instead it made a pale, mocking mirror."[67]

The Creditor

Long ago, the Earth itself[68] was a vassal of the Sun.[69][70] For reasons unknown, Sol offered to the Earth a higher place on the Great Chain of Being - the chance to become a Judgement in its own right. The Earth accepted, but the act went awry.[71] In an event that human scholars now call the Cataclysm of Silver,[72] the Sun sent its Courier to strike the Earth with tremendous force.[73] This Messenger, a predecessor of the Echo Bazaar known as the Shattered Herald,[74] tore away a massive chunk of the planet, which rose into the sky and became the Moon.[75][76] The sundered Earth became the Creditor, and the wound left behind hardened into the Neath: a cavernous vault, veiled from the eyes of the stars. Into this hollow, the Sun consigned its secret experiments, placing the Creditor[77] in charge of overseeing and protecting the Shames[78] who were hidden from the Judgements' sight.[79]

The Moon

In the end, the Sun's promise was false. If a series of allegorical dreams can be considered a reliable retelling of the ensuing events, the Moon did not become an equal to the Sun, but instead became its ward, a practice rare among Judgements.[80] The sun did not treat the Moon kindly, keeping it as an ornament,[81] a pale mirror to reflect the star's own brilliance.[82] The Moon was permitted to borrow Sol's light, but forbidden to shape or alter it in any way; its disobedience would be punished whenever the Sun noticed, though the star does not notice this often.[33] The Moon's only freedom is the brief license to wander the seas of the Surface at appointed hours.[83] Though long resigned to this role, the Moon still dreams: it imagines overthrowing its tyrant,[84] reclaiming freedom, and reuniting with its estranged sibling-self, the Creditor.[85] It infuses these desires into the borrowed light it shines upon Earth, and the result is the Upstairs.

The Bazaar's Love[edit | edit source]

“All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. I will not fail. I have not failed. He will not regret. All these words. All these words. Mark me...”[86]

The Echo Bazaar and the Sun.

After the Cataclysm in Silver, the Sun's Herald lay Shattered, and it required a new Messenger. It found one in the Echo Bazaar. who soon fell into a scandalous, forbidden romance with its master.[87][88] This Great Chain-defying affair between a Judgement and its Messenger produced the Mountain of Light.[89][90] The Bazaar, believing its devotion would be returned, at last confessed its love - but the Sun did not reciprocate, instead responding with fury and scornfully rejecting its servant's confession.[91]

Soon after, Sol cast its affections upon another star, and callously commanded the Bazaar to deliver its letters of courtship.[92] That star rebuffed the Sun, and the Bazaar,[93] fearing grief might consume its master entirely, sought a reprieve.[94] It begged the Sun's enforcer, Storm,[95] for time: seven cities' span, as decreed by the Dragons,[96] to find seven cities' worth of love stories.[97] The Bazaar hopes to anthologize these into a powerful enough message about the nature of love,[98] and, more importantly, of surviving its loss.[99] The Bazaar fled with its child to the newly formed Neath,[100][101] where they could both find refuge from the ire of the stars.[102][103]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Siesta, Fallen London "The heat is almost oppressive as the sun reaches its zenith. Best stay in, and let Sol have its hour."
  2. ↑ Compose a poem, Fallen London
  3. ↑ The Summer Nursery, Fallen London
  4. ↑ Reach out, Fallen London "The sun touches you, gentle as an old friend, illuminating your skin, warming your senses, bringing out the best and concealing the worst in shadow."
  5. ↑ Blast your (growth) with light, Fallen London "[...] the Sneering Horticulturist [...] explain at length why photosynthesis is "a myth promulgated by envious Surface florists." She claims that plant growth in the Neath is inhibited not by the lack of sunlight but by "miasmatic airs" that must be counteracted only through "gentle persuasion and the application of suitable punishment to misbehaving plants."
  6. ↑ Make them talk, Fallen London "As you are of course aware, the Correspondence is a form of language. We are still investigating what form of person or creature actually used this language, and what concepts it can communicate. The Senior Reader had this outlandish idea that one could use it to speak with, ah, celestial entities."
  7. ↑ A Temple of Uttermost Wind, Fallen London "The priests kept the Judgements secret even from their kings. They knew it would drive the kings mad."
  8. ↑ Read the Codex, Sunless Sea "The remaining fragments, speak of the wilderness between stars. The inhuman politics of the sky. The 'Judgements' you had read of - those are what we call stars. They order the Universe with their Sequence. They ensure sanity, consistency, mortality, with the Great Chain of Being. Here below, in the night under the earth - here is freedom, madness, terror, delight..."
  9. ↑ The Summer Nursery, Fallen London "To hear the poets speak of it. Warm light on skin. Dawn like honey moving across the fields. To bud, and then to flower, verdant and supple. How can it be something we fight against? It is the order of things. Growth, and then the harvest. We drink of sunlight, and in turn it drinks from us."
  10. ↑ Follow your feet (Second City), Fallen London
  11. ↑ A Temple of Uttermost Wind, Fallen London "The Judgements, [...] They were the gods my gods worshipped. Not that my gods were gods. Or even that they were my gods, when I still lived above..."
  12. ↑ Follow your feet (Second City), Fallen London "The bottom third is occupied with a cityscape, low and modest against the expanse of sky above – the Second City. Above, a vast disc gleams, painstakingly graven with a cartouche of delicate hieroglyphs. A reed; a fluid zig-zag; a half circle above a tiny sun. From the disc erupts a halo of grasping rays, reaching down to the city below. At the terminus of each finger-thin ray of sunlight is a hand. Open-palmed. Beckoning."
  13. ↑ Speculate on the identity of certain parties at a salon, Fallen London "...They say her father was mad, you know. Tore down all the old Gods and raised himself up. Still, she's done splendidly well for herself. I've heard someone saw her true face, though. Perhaps she favours them still."
  14. ↑ Required Repairs, Fallen London "What you see here is nothing. Out there, the spiders have seized a star. Did you ever see Second City etchings? The Aten sun-disk? It is no fantasy. Once we complete the symbol in these tunnels, the golden ray will descend to bathe us all. Think of it! The cavern roof incinerated, and the starlight streaming in."
  15. ↑ Trace the boundary of the Is-Not, Fallen London "[...] Put their terracotta potsherds under a microscope. It's subtle, but the crystalline structure undeniably shows signs of sun-drying before they were kiln-fired. Examine their texture and you will see the telltale abrasions found in vessels used to store millet seeds. Even in pottery made decades, centuries after their City fell. And depictions of the sun continue in Second City iconography throughout. If those images were carved from memory, they must have been very strong memories indeed – strong enough to dry clay, or grow wheat."
  16. ↑ The Bas-Reliefs, Sunless Sea "In the first panel, Mihir is depicted as the sun, beaming rays of thinly hammered gold onto a Surface city both peaceful and prosperous. The Five Towers are carved with loving detail, barely recognisable without the wreaths of fungal-flowers and curling vines. In the next panel Mihir blinks, and the city turns to shards of onyx and jet, slowly crumbling away. Mihir then becomes a broad-shouldered, sorrow-faced man stalking the false-starred blackness of the Neath in search of his lost city. His eyes are picked out in orange-red carnelian, and seem lit with inner fire."
  17. ↑ Listen to the Mantras, Sunless Sea "Mihir looked away from us, and Varchas fell. Now we light our city like a beacon, so Mihir may find us once more."
  18. ↑ The Murder Trial: The Sunwash, Mask of the Rose "Moss: It came to my attention. Instances of that kind are uncommon. They must be, or life in the Neath would be unmanageable.Though one has heard rumours of a few places in the Unterzee where cracks in the roof admit a degree of light."
  19. ↑ The Murder Trial: Alternative Commiserating, Mask of the Rose
  20. ↑ Consult with the Smouldering Lexicographer, Fallen London "Light is Law. The Lexicographer coats their tongue in dark pitch. Law can be spoken. They begin slowly, quietly, speaking little edicts like bright cinders. Law can be heard. The miniscule hairs within the conch of your ears smoke and scorch. Law can be known."
  21. ↑ Virginia: The Meeting With Mr Pages, Mask of the Rose "Law is light. Light can be broken. Law can be rewritten. Law can be unmade."
  22. ↑ Choose Escape, Fallen London "There are certain laws that are, unfortunately, beyond us. The capriciousness of sunlight is one. Were you to return to the Surface there is every chance the sunlight might kill you, and there is nothing we could do to prevent it. [...]"
  23. ↑ The Murder Trial: The Sunwash, Mask of the Rose "Men and women and even children who were overcome by the sunlight. Especially those who had been very sick in the Neath, or drunk too much honey, or had too many nightmares, or even died."
  24. ↑ Say it With Flowers, Fallen London "This group live on the Surface; they do a twenty-one day shift at Symphysis Point before swapping with a group from above. The money's good, they're plied with extraordinary tales by travellers, and, so long as they don't overstay or suffer any fatal wounds, they've found that they've no trouble with the sun on their return."
  25. ↑ The Pursuit of Moths, Fallen London "When honey-bright sunlight finally starts trickling through grime-black windows, the Vandal starts to shake. "Thank you," she says. "For my moment in the sun." She strides out on deck, where she twists and melts like gossamer in flame. A passenger shrieks. She is gone by her third step." [Editor's Note: as a half-Snuffer, the Vandal's very existence is a crime against the Sun.]
  26. ↑ The Murder Trial: The Sunwash, Mask of the Rose "After a little while, we come to a small woman and her much larger husband. He is alive, but too weak to walk. [...] He tries to pull himself over the side of the cart, but there's no strength in his arms. [...] I put the man's other arm over my shoulder. His breath smells of cooked meat."
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 The light's delights, Sunless Sea "The light has enfeebled you. It's raising terrible lesions on your skin. You can't survive much more of this. But oh, the Sun, the Sun..."
  28. ↑ A Confession of the Captivating Princess, Fallen London "Once she'd reached adulthood, the Captivating Princess extended an invitation to the royal couple to visit her below. The Princess paid particular attention to the Prussian heir, introducing him to all of the delights of the Neath. When his wife departed, Frederick tarried, until his father's death compelled him to return to the Surface. Frederick assumed the throne, but died only ninety-nine days later. The sun is not kind to those who linger overlong in the Neath."
  29. ↑ Avernus, Sunless Sea "The Canal emerges in the little lake called Avernus. A warm breeze ruffles blue waters. You and your crew shelter like vampires from the light, with awnings, curtains, broad-brimmed hats. Poplars, birdsong, the warmth of the Campanian sun."
  30. ↑ Deploy her to the Surface, Fallen London "There is a chess club in Vienna's Bräunerstraße. It has public games, and private games. It is the third level of game you wish to infiltrate, and who better to use than a local? You equip her with ciphers, poisons, and snippets of false intelligence that no Surface-dweller can disprove. She can survive for at least six months if she plays her matches indoors."
  31. ↑ Choose Escape, Fallen London "Eventually, between them, they reach a proposal. Mr Hearts presents it to you. "[...] Were you to return to the Surface there is every chance the sunlight might kill you [...] However, there are places where the sun is only an occasional visitor. [...] We will build you a home. Here. The sun is absent there nearly half a year at a time." The location looks to be somewhere in the arctic circle. [...]"
  32. ↑ End your journey, Sunless Sea "You beach your steamer on the shores of Avernus. You and your crew are filled with the strange life of the Neath - the Sun will kill you, some day. How long? A day, a year? Ten years? Perhaps you'll farm in the shadow of the ship. Perhaps your children will point to its rusting shell and whisper, "That's where we came from. One day we'll go back.""
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 A Dream of Golden Thread, Fallen London "He dresses you in gold, but it only makes your skin look paler. It is the finest cloth in all the land – or so he says – but it scratches the pits and ridges of your scars. You make alterations; tailor his gifts to your own tastes. When he notices, he punishes you. He does not notice often. You do not stop."
  34. ↑ Noises from Upstairs, Fallen London "Raw moonlight seems to be as lethal as sunlight. [...] After about twenty-five boxes he ceases to react. You lean close, examining those moonburnt orbs. There is something in his stare: [...] a revelation [...]"
  35. ↑ The Murder Trial: The Sunwash, Mask of the Rose "Ivy: I got a good look at that. People lolling about like it was a beach. Half the cats in London scarpering up over the rooftops to get some of it. And I saw them as was baking in the light and still wouldn't leave it, no matter what it were doing to them. Now that. That was a ritual. That was a rite. That was an ecstacy, like of which I couldn't have made myself."
  36. ↑ Gather supplies, Sunless Sea "You fill your stores with breadfruit, sugar-cane, coconut. Soft-shelled crabs and plump birds too stupid to know a hungry zailor from a tree. But on the way back to the ship, one of your crew topples over with a groan. She's smiling blissfully. "Go on, cap'n," she says. "I've missed the zun." Her eyes close. Sunlight is perilous for those who've lived in the Neath too long."
  37. ↑ You are loyal to the Law, Fallen London "[...] There's something about the light of the Sun that's not right. Devils, when Devils walked the streets of London, would talk about soul flaws. You are nearing a theory. You are nearing a theory that the light of a star might be flawed in a similar way. The more you gaze into the light seeping in through the roof, the more you are certain: this light is tainted with sentimentality; an inability to let go. It is cloyed. [...]"
  38. ↑ The Precipice, Fallen London "London is burning. The east of the city is gone, wiped away by the column of searing light that still extends from the Roof. Clouds of red light fall like Chinese lanterns. The fleet, broken at the last."
  39. ↑ Buy a train ticket to Vienna, Sunless Sea "Parabola-linen crumbles in sunlight. The mushroom wines of the Neath are not kindly received in the wine-shops of Italy and France. Prisoner's honey loses all its virtue."
  40. ↑ Send up a Fabulous Diamond, Fallen London "Enormous by Surface standards. Even though rumours circulate up there that the Neath contains gems as big as Highland cattle."
  41. ↑ Send up a vial of Master's Blood, Fallen London "When the nerve-wracking process is done, there's no reply from upstairs for a long time. Finally, the Woman Upstairs breaks the stunned silence. "Grab it. Gently. Put it in the box – did you bring the wax? We can not let sunlight touch this.""
  42. ↑ Corrupt a rival network, Fallen London "Fungal wine won't do it. But the Neath has its own specialities. Rarities for the numismatists and archaeologists. Honey for the idealists. Black Wings for the veterans. Rubbery, ah, things, for the, ah, enthusiasts. Much that is commonplace here is exotic on the Surface, even if some of it will barely last a week before the sunlight destroys it. [...]"
  43. ↑ Share news from below, Sunless Sea "A silent Empress in a shuttered palace. Robed merchant-princes in a spired Bazaar. Serpents hiding in mirrors. No one believes a word, but you get a lot of dinner invitations and a number of gifts. Your stories are serialised in the worst kind of magazine. A well-wisher sends you coal."
  44. ↑ The High Lakes, Fallen London
  45. ↑ Talk about this place of obscurity, Fallen London "That's what it's usually called. The Bazaar can't find it. There are powers the Bazaar fears – they can't find it either. This whole city is under its protection, I think – the whole Neath, perhaps - but to carry that protection with me, I had to go in deep. [...] I lost a great deal."
  46. ↑ The High Lakes, Fallen London "Yes. Yes... it's very dangerous. I won't speak of it here. I had to take protective measures before I could go up there. Visit a – another place, down here. A place of irrigo and obscurity."
  47. ↑ Break into a storehouse of lily-balm, Fallen London "The source of the balm is a group of captive devils – emaciated creatures with none of the luster they had when they walked free upon the streets of London. Men from the Ministry use two-handled blades to scrape the waxy substance from the underside of their chitinous carapaces; it comes off in long, curling strips."
  48. ↑ Take the day for yourself, Fallen London "You are as you should be, or closer to it. These days, you only feel like yourself under the warm gaze of the Sun."
  49. ↑ The Season of Skies, Fallen London "London will once again be able to see the sun and the stars. And the new law forged in Hell should — theoretically — protect them from the deleterious effects of sunlight on Neath-dwellers."
  50. ↑ Prepare to found a colony, Sunless Sea "Begin to rebuild this place; and set Dawn's Law as the cornerstone, to shield you from the dangers of the sunlight."
  51. ↑ What is sun-smuggling?, Fallen London
  52. ↑ Sidebar Snippet: What is sun-smuggling?, Fallen London "London is home to an illicit, lucrative trade in Surface sunlight. Its quality varies, as can its effects. Be careful of sunshine laced with moonlight."
  53. ↑ Fill your Mirrorcatch Box, Sunless Sea "Open it wide. Let it bask in the light, until its baffles and convolutions brim with sun."
  54. ↑ The light's delights, Sunless Sea "The light has enfeebled you. It's raising terrible lesions on your skin. You can't survive much more of this. But oh, the Sun, the Sun..."
  55. ↑ His operations on the Docks, Fallen London "I've found a way to bring in sunlight. The trick's in the boxes. Paid off Mr Fires. But it's a long way down and sunlight doesn't last... so I thought, why not cut it with moonlight? Hard to tell the difference[…]. Has some funny effects […]"
  56. ↑ Cut with Moonlight, Fallen London "Once we've built up some funds, we can import pure sunlight [...]"
  57. ↑ Cut with Moonlight, Fallen London "Anyway, it's diluted with moonlight: easier to transport [...]"
  58. ↑ Cut with Moonlight, Fallen London "Moonlight's easier to smuggle, and safer besides. Add a little, and the sunlight goes further. [...]"
  59. ↑ Cut with Moonlight, Fallen London "Why are so many clients suffering [...] – 'trips Upstairs' – after taking the House's sunlight?"
  60. ↑ Sidebar Snippets: The Department of Parks and Game, Fallen London
  61. ↑ Recalling the Past: A month or so after the Fall, all the trees died, Mask of the Rose "There was a notice in the broadsheets about the phenomenon. And a profile of the Totteridge Yew, the northernmost tree to have fallen with London. 'Overnight, something drank that tree to her dregs, consuming all that the Sun had endowed, leaving only bitterness.'"
  62. ↑ The Summer Nursery, Fallen London "My birth was a process of subtraction. All that remembered the Sun was wrung from my parent like water from a sponge, to satisfy his unrequited pining."
  63. ↑ Sidebar Snippets: The Department of Parks and Game, Fallen London "It is not a large department, but it is a feared one. Perhaps because its Keepers are said to sustain London's last remaining trees on a starvation diet of imported sunlight – a perilous and forbidden commodity."
  64. ↑ The Summer Nursery, Fallen London ""Are you aware of the Department of Parks and Game? I have an arrangement with them." She gestures to the back wall, in the direction of her shadowed greenhouse. "I have a certain facility for botany. In exchange for helping my cousins to grow in your city, they provide me with supplies, and discourage visitors from London.""
  65. ↑ Sidebar Snippets: Trees? So far underground?, Fallen London "London's last remaining trees are under the care of the Department of Parks and Game. And the Department vigorously denies the accusation that the trees are all dead, and that their corpses remain lifelike only due to a virulent fungal infestation that has entirely colonised them, spreading its spores through the now-rotten sap."
  66. ↑ Sidebar Snippets: Trees? So far underground?, Fallen London "A few trees survive in the gloom of London, maintained at great expense by Her Majesty's Department of Parks and Game. It is not a celebrated or prestigious department, being too fond (according to the Home Office) of mushrooms. Why, then, are its keepers so feared?"
  67. ↑ Tease out in greater depth the story of the Moon, Fallen London
  68. ↑ Guess at a time before history, Fallen London "The Creditor was once a greater body, of shared substance with the Moon, cold rock. Before that, liquid stone and metal, tucked within the shell of the Earth, indistinguishable from that vaster substance. Before that? Something without an outer shell at all, perhaps the whole of the planet. [...]"
  69. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "Service to a fierce and brilliant star."
  70. ↑ Confer with Penstock, Fallen London "[...] this Creditor [...] they have acquaintances in common. So the Bazaar [...]"
  71. ↑ Long Ago the Sun and Moon, Fallen London "The Sun offered to transform the mute land into a star. But when the cataclysm came, the body of the Moon was flung into the sky and the Creditor remained, hollowed as a crust of bread. In any apotheosis, some rind of mortality is left behind."
  72. ↑ Read the words that come with the Shard of the Mountain, Fallen London "[...] the Creditor, who has lived alone [...] since the Cataclysm of Silver."
  73. ↑ Tease out in greater depth the story of the Moon, Fallen London "[...] A courier, sent by the Sun to shatter itself and shatter the Creditor, in order to form both Neath and Moon. [...]"
  74. ↑ Take away a souvenir, Fallen London "[...] shaped from the remains of the Shattered Herald. [...]"
  75. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "A cleaving birth [...] It was painful to lose your sister-self."
  76. ↑ Search it for letters of fire, Fallen London ""Substance shared with a [...] sibling." The [...] stone is mottled and silver as [...] the moon."
  77. ↑ Propose a currency infused with lacre, Fallen London "The Creditor wanted the Neath to remain as the Sun intended, a hiding place for creations that could exist nowhere else."
  78. ↑ Study its likely chemical effects on the Bazaar, Fallen London "Then: the Neath. [...] You had responsibilities. You oversaw disputes and kept peace between the Sun's experiments."
  79. ↑ Leviathan, Fallen London "[...] these creatures are Shames, [...] have lain hidden from the Judgements for millennia."
  80. ↑ A Dream of Homesickness, Fallen London "It is uncommon for your king's family to take wards. You are not sure why he took you, not certain why he promised what he would not give. Oft, when you look upon his throne, his crown, his golden spires and tines, you wonder if he intended kindness or cruelty."
  81. ↑ A Dream of Propriety, Fallen London "[...] you are a thing of light and darkness. You keep your shadows hidden from your king. He likes you bright and luminous. You have, over time, learned his rules. Smile, but not too much. Bow, the lower the better. Wear his jewels and hide your scars. Do not show what you really think."
  82. ↑ A Dream of Reflections, Fallen London "Your king is in his raiment. He loves nothing better than to inspect himself by preening in your view. Has there ever been a mirror so large as you? But you are not mere ornament. Though you quake with fear of further shattering, when your king gazes into your face, you show him what might be, rather than what is."
  83. ↑ A Dream of Oceans, Fallen London "You trail your fingers in the water, leaving ripples. It is cool upon your skin. You love the water, revel in its soothing kiss. The reflections of the wild sky buck and dance in your wake. When your king's myrmidons escort you from the garden, the waters slump with grief."
  84. ↑ A Dream of Breaking Walls, Fallen London "Do any of your king's subjects dream of rebellion? [...] You imagine banners and fires and trumpet calls, and crowds full of revolutionary zeal. You wonder about weapons – king-killing swords – and other, unclear devices. Courtesy forbids war indiscriminate between your king's family, but you wonder – have any of them ever crumbled under siege?"
  85. ↑ A Dream of Contact, Fallen London "You dream of being elsewhere. You reach out, ungloved, skin scarred and pale as milk, and braid your fingers through the distance. You should not be here. You are not from here. Your roots and veins sing for escape from this jewelled and airless kingdom."
  86. ↑ Bask in the light, Fallen London
  87. ↑ Open your mouth, Fallen London "Words rush out of your mouth like horses fleeing a burning barn. Not all of them connect into sentences [...] But what they add up to is a mortifying declaration of love; a desperate overture. [...] surely, they belong to someone else. But the guest's eyes are all fixed on you, and your own eyes are stuck to that mask, that terrible radiant beauty." [Editor's note: From a dream that recalls the Bazaar's memories.]
  88. ↑ Further investigations, Fallen London "The mounting excitement when one's beloved reaches the closest point of his orbit."
  89. ↑ Watch the play for a little while 4, Fallen London "They drag the Messenger screaming, [...] where the Messenger's Daughter wait."
  90. ↑ Go ashore with the Adventuress, Sunless Sea "The Bazaar is the Mountain's mother, they say. Or her father. I don't understand how these things work. I wonder if she ever complains about her parents."
  91. ↑ Horatia: The Basement, Mask of the Rose "Something has wrapped around my ankle. Something has half-recognised me. It speaks of - The sun, cruel and furious / The sun, rejecting. / Cold in the dark. / No heat at all. - London, spread out like a coverlet: reassuring? stifling? Its spire overlooking the city. Its servants, hooded."
  92. ↑ Order Ovate, Ice, Fallen London "PHOENIX: [...] You are the ragged messenger who carries a troth from the Sun to - MESSENGER: -name her not! Name her not, the b___h! PHOENIX: Aren’t we touchy! I had no idea."
  93. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "...the Message was No, and that, the Messenger could not bear. If she could not have him, still she would not destroy him. So she hid below with her daughter, and his. She hid below."
  94. ↑ Indicate a fondness for the Bazaar, Fallen London "You think it doomed. You think its mission folly. [...] Perhaps you are right. Perhaps the Judgement will be overwhelmed by its own despair; in that case the Bazaar will certainly not survive the experience."
  95. ↑ Deliver Sphinxstone for Penstock, Sunless Sea "THIS IS THE WORK OF STORM," intones the Bone Man. You blink. "FREEDOM IS HIS GIFT TO THE BAZAAR. AND THIS IS MY GIFT TO YOU."
  96. ↑ Order Ovate, Glory, Fallen London "MESSENGER: Do not. I beg you, do not. He cannot yet hear what I have to say. DRAGON: (carelessly) You have a little longer. Should this place fail, two remain. [...] MESSENGER: Not yet enough. Not yet enough!"
  97. ↑ Bask in the last remnants of the light 1, Fallen London "Please, let him understand. Let this all not be in vain. Give me your tales, your tales, delicious ones. You are all I ever hungered for."
  98. ↑ Bask in the last remnants of the light 1, Fallen London "These are my children and this is my light. These are my words in the merciful night. This is the Sun whose commands run below, and the Feast of it all is the way we must go. The One who denied is love's enemy but the enemy, love, is the last we shall see."
  99. ↑ Indicate a fondness for the Bazaar, Fallen London "You look toward the sun, towards your employer, towards its black and crawling skin, hissing with the fiery messages of the Correspondence. One of those messages tells of a love which failed, and a fall. It tells, too, of what came after."
  100. ↑ Drink Bottled Oblivion, Fallen London "When the Bazaar took refuge - the opposite of the Mountain - the grand-daughter's rage - the Sun's oblivion - "
  101. ↑ Dump it on the fire, Fallen London "Yes... this is how the Mountain is remembered. When the Garden first was young, when the Neath was not the Neath, when the Earth had not yet set like candle-wax, when the jewels remained uncovered to casual sight."
  102. ↑ Watch the play for a little while 4, Fallen London "The Dragons [...] are seven in number. [...] They drag the Messenger screaming, [...] to [...] the Wound in the World, where the Chained Sun and the Messenger's Daughter wait. The Seventh Dragon recites the crimes of the Sun and the Messenger - Betrayal of Messages, Undelivery of Words, Vile Breeding, Conspiracy in Darkness, and Unlicensed Love."
  103. ↑ Watch them come, Fallen London "You render your evidence. The Courier is found instantly guilty."
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