The Cladery Heart

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"You edge by the frozen castles of the North, and pass through the skeleton of a vast beast. Finally: a gigantic stalagmite. And – there! A crack large enough for your ship to enter. The glim-light shines along your path. Zailors gather on the deck as you navigate the twists and turns – and there it is. Throbbing, stinking, beautiful, abandoned – the Heart."[1]

The Cladery Heart is a living ship made from an organ of the Echo Bazaar.

Extracted[edit | edit source]

"It thrums. It wanders. It has a delightful stink."[2]

A woman with a top hat and hair covering one eye.
The Cladery Heir, daughter of the Surgeon's Child.

In the ancient era of the First City,[3] the Surgeon's Child removed the Echo Bazaar's cladent lobe to relieve it of its urge to wander. In the process she was exposed to the Bazaar's ichor, which "changed" her and turned her immortal.[4][5] She studied the lobe with the help of Mr Iron, but once she realized that it still had a need to move, she either fashioned it into a living ship or built one around it.[6] She captained this ship to visit places she dreamt of, without following any established paths or trade routes.[7]

Like most ships, the Cladery Heart has an engine room and relies on machinery to function.[8][9] Unlike most ships, it also has a rancid odor,[10] a "ventral chamber," and lower decks that are swamped with ichor.[8] As a living ship, it pulsates like an actual heart,[11][12] and it is capable of zailing up the Nameless River without risking severe damage.[13][14] Ships that moor near the Heart tend to zail faster and less steadily immediately afterwards.[15] The Heart also displays autonomous behavior:[16] it can travel long distances with minimal crew,[17] will always return to its owner,[18] and may goad its captain to explore certain locations.[19] It also may parley with Mt Nomad for unknown reasons, possibly to communicate with her.[20]

Final Fate[edit | edit source]

"Yes, it was here. A previous owner zailed it as far up the river as it would go, and then submerged it and covered its resting place in reeds. There its ichor bled into the water. The river fish began to throw themselves on shore and hobble about on their fins. At first the local fishermen welcomed an easy harvest, but in time they came to dislike the disruption and the permanent rotting smell. Then... ah, but how the Heart departed and where it went are another story."[21]

"She made the other ships restless. In the end we had to repair her enough to let her go on. She turned north, with the last of the crew that still lived on her. But she sailed too close by Frostfound, and the ice swallowed her. At least, that is the story that has come back to us."[22]

The Surgeon's Child eventually lost track of the Cladery Heart.[6] During the era of the First City in the Fallen London timeline,[23] she abandoned it at the location of her "final dream,"[24] which was inside a stalagmite in the northern Unterzee.[25] The Rosers sought to claim the living ship for themselves,[26] but could only obtain a list of its destinations,[27] which they hid in a temple dedicated to the God-Eaters.[28][29]

A castle made of ice with two towers.
Frostfound

In the Sunless Sea timeline, it is not stated how the Surgeon's Child and the Cladery Heart separated.[6][30] According to a storyteller, an unknown party zailed the Heart up the Nameless River as far as it would go, submerged it, and covered it in reeds. Its ichor suffused the water, causing nearby fish to wash ashore and pile up in rotting heaps. The villagers nearby initially enjoyed this unexpected bounty, but soon grew tired of the Heart's presence,[31] so they repaired it and forced a small crew to zail north as far out of the Elder Continent as possible.[32] Eventually, the Heart ended up in Khan's Shadow, a frequent resting place for shipwrecks.[33] The locals had to exile the vessel because it made the ships there too "restless," so it and its remaining crew zailed north. However, they veered too close to Frostfound, and the Heart was left frozen and inert, waiting to thaw so that it may travel yet again.[34][35]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ Invite her to dine with you, Sunless Sea "My mother was the child of a surgeon in the First City. You might say that knifework runs in the family."
  4. ↑ Explore her Surgery, Sunless Sea ""Did you know my mother operated on the Bazaar itself? She cut away its cladent lobe so that it would be at peace and not have to wander on and on. But the operation changed her. She got some of the ichor on her skin.""
  5. ↑ Mr Iron? Truly?, Sunless Sea "She was in her third millennium when she bore me."
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 What happened to the cladent lobe?, Sunless Sea "Mother experimented on the lobe, various ways, with Mr Iron bringing her new implements. It wanted to be on the move, however, and in the end she put it on a ship, or built a ship around it: the Cladery Heart. But it got away from her."
  7. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London ""It's the account of the movements of a zee ship long ago. Captained by the Surgeon's Child. Took erratic paths, didn't follow trade routes and so on," [...] This Surgeon's Child travelled in a piece of the Bazaar. The Heart is a ship – and you, Captain, now have the record of its final destination. She travelled to places she'd dream of; and we have the record of her final dream.""
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Consult the Cladery Heir about her future, Sunless Sea "You find her deep in the engine room of the Cladery Heart. [...] the floor is slick with ichor. [...] "I need to see what is in the ventral chamber.""
  9. ↑ Keep the Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea "But that night she sleeps in its engine room, between the boom and the throb. If you stand outside the door you can hear her gulping sobs even above the machinery noise."
  10. ↑ Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea "It thrums. It wanders. It has a delightful stink."
  11. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "The Heart, that throbbing, ancient organ, slowly propels itself through the water."
  12. ↑ Bring it back to health, Sunless Sea "The Heart beats twice before taking a new heading."
  13. ↑ Way Upstream, Sunless Sea "They say that only the captain of a living ship can dare the waters of Adam's Way."
  14. ↑ The Mountain's Blood, Sunless Sea "Note: Getting the The Cladery Heart allows you to bypass the Veils check and retain your hull when sailing to the south."
  15. ↑ Description, Sunless Sea "It is drawn up at the dock, waiting for its owner. No one dares touch it, but the ships that berth near her travel faster and less steadily thereafter."
  16. ↑ Bring it back to health, Sunless Sea "[...] the Heart begins to thrum again. It wants to be free of the ice. It wants to move. It wants to swim."
  17. ↑ Bring it back to health, Sunless Sea ""South," says the Heir. "Wait for us in Port Carnelian. It isn't safe to change ships here." The Heart beats twice before taking a new heading."
  18. ↑ The return of the Heart, Fallen London "It will always come back to you. [...] The Wizened Navigator stands by the gangway. "Welcome back, Captain," he says. "We've been waiting for you." But some of the younger faces in the crew are new to you."
  19. ↑ The Heart's suggestion, Fallen London "The floor pulses. Does your ship have something to show you? [...] The Heart rounds the island, and enters a cave."
  20. ↑ 'Hold!', Fallen London "The Mountain seems to be slowing – the Heart too, feels reluctant to press forward. What's going on? [...] "I never saw Nomad so close," [...] the looming Mountain. The waters and the world are silent. And then, all at once, the Heart skirts along the Mountain, and brings you back onto course."
  21. ↑ Ask storytellers about the Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea
  22. ↑ Ask about the Cladery Heart among the Shipwrights, Sunless Sea
  23. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "You carried a stack of clay tablets out of the Temple. They are records: a partial Third City translation – into hieratic code – of a First City cipher."
  24. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "This Surgeon's Child travelled in a piece of the Bazaar. The Heart is a ship – and you, Captain, now have the record of its final destination. She travelled to places she'd dream of; and we have the record of her final dream." He pats the tremendous stack of paper."
  25. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "Your voyage takes you far from London. [...] You edge by the frozen castles of the North, [...] Finally: a gigantic stalagmite. And – there! A crack large enough for your ship to enter. [...] there it is. [...] the Heart."
  26. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "It goes on to relate that the Rosers were hunting for it, too. [...] "They have hidden what they have learned. Their shrine is the lock. Honey, the key." The rest of the account concerns his search for a Roser shrine."
  27. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "This is an account of the travels of a ship called the Heart, across all reaches of the Unterzee."
  28. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "The Heart was a – fragment? An organ? A lobe? – of the Bazaar, extracted by the Surgeon's Child. The Rosers believed it lay in a temple of the Third City: "beneath the feet of the mottled man" [...] Time to make your way there!"
  29. ↑ The Surgeon's Child, Fallen London "Beneath the pedestal of a mottled statue, [...] The treasure must be below! [...] But at last the statue is across the floor. You throw open the hatch, and – a pile of tablets shine in your candlelight. It was too much to hope the Heart would be here."
  30. ↑ Where is the Cladery Heart now?, Sunless Sea "Last my mother heard, it was in Adam's Way, or somewhere further into the Elder Continent. It might still be zeeworthy."
  31. ↑ Ask storytellers about the Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea "The Cladery Heir insists it was last seen in the Elder Continent. [...] Yes, it was here. A previous owner zailed it as far up the river as it would go, and then submerged it and covered its resting place in reeds. There its ichor bled into the water. The river fish began to throw themselves on shore and hobble about on their fins. At first the local fishermen welcomed an easy harvest, but in time they came to dislike the disruption and the permanent rotting smell."
  32. ↑ Ask storytellers about the Cladery Heart's departure, Sunless Sea "The people who lived on the banks of Adam's Way brought the Cladery Heart to the surface and made it fit to zail again. But there was no one who wanted to voyage in her. So they chose a crew by lot and chained them to the deck, ordering them to zail north until they had left the Elder Continent, and then to keep zailing as far as they could go."
  33. ↑ Ask storytellers about how to retrieve the Cladery Heart, Sunless Sea "[...] ships that cannot zail any longer often find themselves huddled into Khan's Shadow. You might look there. Perhaps the presence of the Cladery Heart would even make those other broke-down ships eager to move again."
  34. ↑ Ask about the Cladery Heart among the Shipwrights, Sunless Sea ""She made the other ships restless," [...] "In the end we had to repair her enough to let her go on. She turned north, with the last of the crew that still lived on her. But she sailed too close by Frostfound, and the ice swallowed her."
  35. ↑ Event description, Sunless Sea "The Cladery Heir has sliced away great blocks of Frostfound ice and piled them into a wall. Behind them, the shape of the Cladery Heart is evident, but the hull-flesh is blue with cold."
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