The Brazen Brigade

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"The Brazen Brigade break with the conventions of Hell and exalt their fallen aristocracy. They worship them as saints, and plot to free them."[1]

The Brazen Brigade is a group of devils who venerate the Saints of Hell, visiting and tending their resting places and prisons[2] throughout the Hinterlands.[3]

The Loyalists[edit | edit source]

"These kings of old years would demand our service. That is not our purpose anymore. We are ministers now, and we must bring them into the light."[4]

The Brazen Brigade once served as the Saints' palace guard, until the Saints were deposed and the Brigade themselves were exiled from Hell.[2] During the Campaign of '68, the Brigade allied with London in its ill-fated invasion of Hell,[5][6] and found the occasional desperate human convert in the carnage of the battlefield.[7]

The general of the Brazen Brigade is known as the Scarlet Condottiere.[8][9] They are headquartered at the tomb of the Chandler near Marigold Station,[10] where they keep an eye out for Marigold Knights - exiled dissenters from Hell's republic who may prove useful to their cause[11] - and recover the emblems of dead Knights.[12][13] According to the Cerise Condottiere, who could perhaps be called the minister of their church-tomb,[14] the Brigade does not seek to once again swear fealty to the Saints of Hell, but simply wishes to "bring them into the light" as a religious mission.[15]

The Saints Liberated[edit | edit source]

"Walk in the fiefdom of the Brazen Brigade, the devils that aspire to seize Heaven's thrones."[16]

In the Sunless Skies timeline, the Brazen Brigade have settled in Pan,[17] where they tend the tombs of fallen Grand Devils[18][19] who were killed in the rebellion against the Judgements.[20] They also hold feasts to honor the saints, placing reliquaries in each seat at the table.[21] The central temple of their settlement in Pan is the Adamant Idol, the prison of one of the Brigade's Saints.[22] Inside the idol is the Piper, who is venerated for her role in the devils' rebellion and ensuing flight to Parabola, but resents being brought back to the skies.[23] The Drummer has also been liberated, and now resides in Caduceus elsewhere in Eleutheria,[24] but it is unclear whether the Brigade was responsible for this.

The Brazen Brigade act as the time-keepers of Pan, since clocks are forbidden,[25] by decreeing the Hour as spoken by the Piper.[26] They are also the settlement's enforcers.[27] During the Hour of Trumpets, they fiercely hunt down their republican enemies[28] and anyone particularly bothersome.[27]

The Brigade has the ultimate goal of conquering the thrones of the Judgements.[29] Despite the Piper's own wishes,[30] the Scarlet Condottiere believes she will lead the Brigade to the rest of the lost Grand Devils: "when the Saints go marching, Heaven will fall."[31]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Deed: A Knight of the Brazen Brigade, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Permit the pilgrims entry, Fallen London "Once you promise them entrance, the devils become more voluble. They are of the Brazen Brigade, they tell you. Once they were the palace guard of their Hellish saints. Now they are exiled from Hell and forbidden from their worship. They make journeys across the hinterlands, preserving the sites and shrines of their dead."
  3. ↑ The Twelve-Fifteen from Moloch Street, Fallen London "There is a princess on the other side of the gate."
  4. ↑ Ask about the Mandolinist, Fallen London
  5. ↑ The Remembrance of the Rose, Fallen London "Hell's enemies – and your allies – the Brazen Brigade are at your side. You feel –"
  6. ↑ Fear and mistrust for them, Fallen London "They move through the ravaged temple with undue reverence. Their commanders pray before graven idols, and waste time righting toppled altars. They leave lilies before hateful statues and sing eery ululating prayers before they light their muskets and let fly the lily bombard. You creep behind, the ragged remnant of London's once finest regiment."
  7. ↑ The urge to defect, Fallen London "You wait till your battalion has rushed ahead [...] You hear them dying on the brazen steps. [...] The Brigade are more cautious. They have been whittled by decades of revolution to the sharpest edge of the blade. They do not slip in the blood and bone. They do bid you kneel, and swear upon a sword hewn from starlight and seared in the Discordance. They plant lilies in your ears, and your eyes. [...] They have no need of your soul, your oath is bond enough."
  8. ↑ Encourage the pilgrims to patronise the church instead, Fallen London "After some debate, their leader, a Scarlet Condottiere [...]"
  9. ↑ Join the Brigade, Sunless Skies "When you arrive at the sepulchre, you find someone is already kneeling before the altar. They rise: it is the Scarlet Condottiere, the bloody-handed general of the Brazen Brigade."
  10. ↑ Call in favours (Null and Void), Fallen London "You lead the Dauntless Knight through the Lamentation of Violets [...] You pass the shattered palace, frozen in the last moments of a Saint's demise: an eternity caged in a moment. She follows you along the rose-strewn trenches of the battlefields [...] You return to the old chapel of bone – once mighty, brought low. A Cerise Condottiere waits before the facade."
  11. ↑ Consult the Condottiere, Fallen London "Despite our differences, we bear the Marigold-bearers no ill will. You are more of puzzle than irritation: why seek rapprochement with Hell, if you have the freedom to leave on some quest? But we won't stand in your way."
  12. ↑ The Obligation of the Chandler, Fallen London "The Cerise Condottiere closes his eyes and mutters a silent prayer as you approach. He produces a pair of silken gloves and carefully dons them – for respect, he says. For remembrance."
  13. ↑ Surrender the Marigold Emblem 5, Fallen London "The Cerise Condottiere [...] does not speak, only holds the badge and stares. Later, he asks you to pray with him in a bone-covered side chapel. Marigolds are twined among the bones, which are marked with names scored into the marrow."
  14. ↑ Bear witness (Chandler), Fallen London "The Condottiere will beseech the Chandler from beyond the grave."
  15. ↑ Ask about the Mandolinist, Fallen London "The Brigade must be vigilant. These kings of old years would demand our service. That is not our purpose anymore. We are ministers now, and we must bring them into the light. [...] That is our lord's will."
  16. ↑ Enter the Grove, Sunless Skies
  17. ↑ The Brazen Brigade#The Grove of Far-Too-Late, Sunless Skies "Here, the Brazen Brigade venerate the Saints of Hell. Reliquaries speckle the ground like gemstones on a cardinal's vestments."
  18. ↑ Find the tomb of the Mantle-bearer, Sunless Skies "Somewhere in Winter's Reside lies the corpse of the armourer-saint, once squire-sommelier to the Binary, the twin kings of Eleutheria."
  19. ↑ Return to the Scarlet Condottiere (Chorister), Sunless Skies "Of course you encountered one of his shells. The meat of him is elsewhere. Our Chorister was not so easily vanquished."
  20. ↑ Spy on the leaders of the Brazen Brigade, Sunless Skies "Looking down you see you are walking across not stones but graves, each carved with the name of a Saint. "Each of these died before the devils fled Caduceus," [...]"
  21. ↑ Spy on the leaders of the Brazen Brigade, Sunless Skies "Within, the Brazen Brigade are preparing a feast. A table laden with souls and spices; mock thrones for every chair. At each table setting is placed a reliquary: a finger, a faceted eye, a variegated limb. The devils recreate a heavenly court, with their saints seated as masters."
  22. ↑ The Adamant Idol, Sunless Skies "Here, at the heart of Pan, is the Adamant Idol. Pinned to a blackened rock; it perhaps resembles the saint it confines. At its base are doors of burnt gold; they are bound shut."
  23. ↑ Entreat the Piper to emerge, Sunless Skies "[...] she will not emerge today. Nor any day, if she can help it. Once, she helped lead a rebellion against the Judgements. When it failed, she found a way for the devils to escape to the land behind mirrors. She is not pleased that the Brigade have returned her to the heavens she fled, and has no intention of leaving the confines of her idol. But she is merciful today, and sends you on your way."
  24. ↑ Entreat the Drummer, Sunless Skies "Below Caduceus, the Drummer plays. One of the greatest Saints of Hell, all Caduceus dances to his beat."
  25. ↑ The Hour in Pan, Sunless Skies "Clocks are not welcome in Pan. Instead, the musical piping that emits from the Adamant Idol dictates the time. The devils of the Brazen Brigade interpret it and inform the city of the current hour and the activities associated with it. An hour may be of any duration (the longest one on record lasted a month) and they occur in no fixed order."
  26. ↑ The Brazen Brigade, Sunless Skies "This clot of sable groves is home to the devils of the Brazen Brigade. At its heart stands the Adamant Idol, whose arrhythmic piping determines the current hour in Pan. The Brazen Brigade are its interpreters. They promise they are utterly impartial."
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 The Hour of Trumpets, Sunless Skies "Prisons are forbidden in Pan. Instead, those who aggrieve other citizens too persistently are branded with the Calf-sign. Then, during the Hour of Trumpets, the Brazen Brigade hunt. Their quarry is supposedly only those bearing the Calf-sign, but when the devils' blood is up they don't always discriminate."
  28. ↑ Enter the Grove, Sunless Skies "A troupe of devils thunder past. A single devil in a suit is their quarry. They pursue him to the boundary of the grove, where he disappears in the mists. "They hate the republicans of their kin," the Dilettante whispers. "They will not suffer equality here.""
  29. ↑ Enter the Grove, Sunless Skies "Walk in the fiefdom of the Brazen Brigade, the devils that aspire to seize Heaven's thrones."
  30. ↑ Ambition: Ask "What is the Courtesy?" , Sunless Skies ""They exchanged war for murder," the Piper's droning voices say. "And that is half your answer. The other half, even I cannot say." She rebelled against the Judgements once before. She will not risk it again."
  31. ↑ Return to the Scarlet Condiottere, Sunless Skies "She shall rise again. She will guide us to the trapped saints in Caduceus and the Well and all the rest. When the saints go marching, Heaven will fall."
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