The Displeased

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"Your heart betrays you. It teaches you a lesson. Listen to it. Our innermost selves are the worst traitors of us all. Against that betrayal, there is only one defence: self-denial. Once you enter the cycle of betrayal and betrayal in turn, you will begin to understand."[1]

The Displeased are a cult that has risen to prominence among Albion's outcasts. They reside on the flotilla of abandoned ships that drifts on the Quiet Sea, just past the Avid Horizon.[2]

The Displeased treat betrayal as the ultimate rite. They have been driven to bitter hatred after being rejected by London, and they have every intention of repaying the deed.[3] To this end, they practice self-denial[4][5] to cultivate their resentment and find "the truth."[6] Rather than find any sense of community, the Displeased are compelled to avoid[7] and compete against each other.[8] They may also turn against other cults' acolytes[9][10] and even commit treason against the Crown.[11][12]

Their leader, the Careful Masquerader,[13] is a slim, masked woman[14] who resides in an empty abandoned steamer.[15] She claims that everyone who comes to the flotilla ends up with the Displeased eventually, as they learn the Horizon's "true lessons."[16] The Displeased and the Cult of the Sanctified have something of an uneasy alliance; the Displeased harbor some of the Sanctified's truths,[17][18] and the Displeased must share with others despite their beliefs in order to survive.[19]

Since an exile from the Sanctified and member (after a fashion) of the Displeased is the only person who knows Mr Eaten's name,[18][20] it is possible that the rites of the Displeased have something to do with this lost Master of the Bazaar and his obsession with betrayal.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Give a confession (of sentiment), Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Aboard the Flotilla, Sunless Skies "Here, among abandoned boats on the Quiet Sea, the similarly abandoned and forgotten of Albion have made their homes. The cults share this space; for warmth and for shelter. Some boats are covered, others converted into makeshift anchorages, refectories and cells."
  3. ↑ Inquire about the Displeased, Sunless Skies "We are the abandoned, who in turn, shall abandon. We are the betrayed, who in turn, will betray. We are the despised, who in turn, shall despise. [...] London left us behind, decided we were unworthy, unwanted. We have spent the intervening years sharpening that rejection. It is who we are. All else is chaff."
  4. ↑ Give a confession (of sentiment), Sunless Skies "Our innermost selves are the worst traitors of us all. Against that betrayal, there is only one defence: self-denial."
  5. ↑ Dine at the feast, Sunless Skies "All around you, Supralapsarians and Sanctified gorge themselves [...] stuffing their mouths with stolen wine and plundered meats. You will not partake. Your stomach growls, betrayed."
  6. ↑ A Conversation with a Careful Masquerader, Sunless Skies "We are the Displeased. With us you will find hardship, sorrow and the only truth there is."
  7. ↑ Where will you lay your head at night?, Sunless Skies "After a brief moment of awkwardness when one of the Displeased climbs into the nest, sees you, and then immediately descends into the mists again, you spend a chilly and undisturbed evening alone."
  8. ↑ One last betrayal, Sunless Skies "You will know what to do."
  9. ↑ What will you do with the confession you've heard?, Sunless Skies "You locate the person most invested in hearing the confession, and reveal it. [...] Gossip and recrimination ignites across the flotilla. Faces redden, arguments break out. No one seems to remember that you were the source."
  10. ↑ Betray the Sanctified, Sunless Skies "The Careful Masquerader looks at you expectantly. You reveal all. At last, she smiles. "Then you have performed our sacrament: as we were betrayed and abandoned, so we too shall betray and abandon.""
  11. ↑ Commit treason, Sunless Skies "Let us test the severity of action you're willing to undertake. The Crown issues dispensations for exceptional service. Perhaps this will be easy for you. Perhaps not."
  12. ↑ Commit treason, Sunless Skies ""When I was favoured by the Empress, before she left me to rot in this wasteland, I would have killed for such secrets as these." She looks straight into your eyes. "I can only imagine how much this cost you." She throws the sheaf of documents into the fire. "Does that hurt you? It certainly hurt me. Do you understand?""
  13. ↑ Aboard the Flotilla, Sunless Skies "The Displeased, who follow the Careful Masquerader, treat distrust as a virtue and betrayal as a sacrament."
  14. ↑ A Conversation with a Careful Masquerader, Sunless Skies "A slim woman lowers her mask to gaze upon you. Her expression is stark."
  15. ↑ The Careful Masquerader, Sunless Skies "She roosts in an abandoned steamer at the edge of the flotilla. Her cabin is parodically spartan. A battered wooden mask lies forlornly on the floor. Her one concession to comfort is an open fire."
  16. ↑ The Careful Masquerader, Sunless Skies "You want to know more. All who come to the Horizon end in our ranks eventually. Only we have learned its true lessons."
  17. ↑ Where will you find the names of the missing saints?, Sunless Skies "I must ask you to commit treachery! Though for a good cause! Gain the trust of one of the other cults – one of their number will remember the names. The Displeased I would suspect. One of their number was once one of ours. She earnt her place with the Displeased through the selling of our secrets."
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Inquire about the name of the lost saints, Sunless Skies "The woman is a pariah among the acolytes. The Displeased trust her even less than their fellows; [...] to the Sanctified she is anathema [...] She rasps her secrets to you, pleased to have someone listen. "Both traitor saints.""
  19. ↑ Accept and be greeted, Sunless Skies ""We have been forced to share in order to survive," the Careful Masquerader says as you descend. "It is a precarious situation.""
  20. ↑ Recite the litany of the dead, Sunless Skies "It's true. They were lost before the rest. The Saint of Tapers and the Saint in the Glass. We never speak their names. One we have hope of seeking [...]"
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