This page contains spoilers for the following Fallen London endgame content, Exceptional Stories, Sunless Sea content, and Sunless Skies content: The Great Hellbound Railway, Destinies, The Waltz That Moved the World, Zubmariner, and Ambition: the Truth. Proceed at your own risk.
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"Society's law is unjust because natural law is Unjust. Tyranny begins at the top. Not from the factory-owner; not even from the palace of a queen. But in the arch of heaven itself. Those who join us should be prepared to defy the suns. And prepared to win, for our grievances are immeasurable."[1]
"The Sun itself is not beyond your reach. The stars. The Judgements that rule the universe, that seemed eternal: you will end them."[2]
The Liberation of Night is an anarchist plot to blow up the Bazaar and extinguish every light in the Neath; not only this, but it would aim to extinguish all the light in the universe. Thus, this is a Liberation from the tyranny of the most powerful sources of light.
"No one will be free until the stars – greatest of all tyrants – are shaken from their thrones. Existence itself is a chain."[3]
The Liberation of Night is an ancient concept that may have originated in the High Wilderness.[4] It is founded upon resistance against both authority (through both violent[5] and nonviolent means[6]), and light itself.[7] The Liberation's ultimate goal is total freedom,[8] not merely from earthly tyrants, but from the cosmic oppressors that govern reality itself.[9] While the concept of total darkness terrifies many,[10] and even staunch Liberationists admit that they do not know what would come next,[11] it is possible that the Neathbow would become a replacement for light.[12][13]
The center of the Liberationist movement in London is the Calendar Council. While each of the members of the Council has different ideologies, and some are much more hesitant about the Liberation itself, they have fervently spread Liberationist ideals from the Neath to the Surface. This has broadly been successful; the Fall of London left a power vacuum in Europe, and Neathy revolutionaries took advantage of the chaos that followed.[14] Their message has found eager ears among Surface radicals, igniting fresh waves of violence and unrest;[15] cities like Vienna have become hotbeds of Liberationist activity.[16] One of the most ardent of the Calendar Council's Liberationist members is January,[17] an elusive academic who uses a traveling exhibit of injustice to send her message.
"A lot of the Liberationist Tracklayers, they're just in it for the dynamiting things and sticking it to the Masters. Their blood's up, but they wouldn't like the true dark, and they don't think it's coming. But that's only most of them. There's a few that mean it, all right."
As alluded to earlier, across the many facets of revolution and resistance,[18] many find the prospect of complete darkness deeply troubling. Some argue that the Liberation would be no better than the tyranny of the stars;[19][20] they fear the dark,[21] and the horrors that might emerge in such a vacuum are too great to imagine.[22] More moderate revolutionaries still hold faith in rebellion, but do not see the need for the light to go out entirely,[23] They might also see the Liberation as too far flung from the immediate material needs of the oppressed.[24] Some take issue with the Liberationists’ abstract rhetoric, criticizing their inability or unwillingness to articulate their aims and methods to those outside their inner circles[25] - and furthermore, it has become apparent that the faction simply does not have a plan for what happens after they achieve their goal.[26][11] Still others are concerned that many so-called Liberationists are in it more for the thrill of revolt than for the realization of any coherent future.[27] Even the movement's loyal adherents debate endlessly over who among them is the “truest” Liberationist, an impossible question to answer since each person has their own vision.[28]
"They eat light, these things. They're useful in battle - but very far from safe."[29]
Numerous Unclear Bombs are scattered across the zee floor, and anarchists spend much of their resources trying to research unclear devices.[30] These behave similarly to nuclear bombs in our world, but instead of a blinding flash, they release blinding darkness that extinguishes every light in the area.[31] In London, these devices are responsible for occasional, localized blackouts.[32] The revolutionaries whisper of a Device that would be powered by the colors of the Neathbow:[33] an extremely powerful Unclear Bomb meant to bring about the Liberation to the city.[34] Some revolutionaries have turned to researching the Discordance to further the Liberation of Night.[35] The Masters have prepared contingencies should the Liberation succeed, but they doubt even those will hold.[36]
"February hands you each a glass of your Aunt's brandy. "London did approach us about building an Unclear Bomb. We had an enemy in common: the Masters of old London. The Calendar Council helped make them an Unclear Bomb. We used it to blow up the sun."
"She shrugs. "But that's ancient history. Not sure why you bothered me with all this. Still, shall we raise a toast? To old acquaintances never forgot.""[37]
In the Sunless Skies timeline, London has escaped the Neath to the High Wilderness, and the Great Work has begun. The Empress, using an Unclear Bomb, managed to murder a distant star called the King of Hours. Its realm, what would soon become Albion, was then colonized and subjugated after Her Renewed Majesty led an exodus through the Avid Horizon.[38][39]...or at least, that's what London would have you believe; Albion's sun was in fact poisoned to death by another force. The bomb, which never actually had to be used, still exists and is now housed in the Most Serene Mausoleum.[40] Meanwhile, Albion's Judgement was replaced by the Clockwork Sun, solidifying the victory of the New Sequence.[41]
The region of Eleutheria stands as a bastion of the Liberation. Its star, the Halved, radiates darkness and allows its realm to become as dark and chaotic as possible - including allowing a few of the Calendar Council to take up residence in Pan.[42]It has already murdered another star called the Garden-King, causing the Reach to become overgrown[43] and exacerbating a bloody interstellar war. In Eleutheria, skyfarers known as Dousers travel around with the goal of extinguishing every light,[44] especially the electric bulbs of Eagle's Empyrean.[45]
All this being said, we must consider the fact Eleutheria is dark because The Halved has decreed it must be so. It claims not to be a king anymore, but still enforces laws[46] (evident by the fact it arrests people who violate its laws), and it just so happens one of those laws is Night. There is another place in the High Wilderness where there are truly no Judgements, called the Graveyard of Stars, a cold, barren wasteland devoid of life and stalked by hateful winds. This begs the question of what total Liberation might look like, and if alliances with dark suns are required for the aftermath of extinguishment to be sustainable.
All the while, the Judgements have taken up arms against each other, following the rules dictated by the Courtesy.[47] The record of slain Judgements could fill, and does fill, an entire library.[48] It may be the case that the true enactors of the Liberation were the tyrant stars themselves.
The political philosophy of anarchism developed in the 19th century as a response to a variety of sociopolitical factors. Industrialization had led to poor working conditions, urban poverty, and the exploitation of labor on a massive scale. At the same time, European empires were expanding their reach through violent colonial campaigns, justifying their actions through racial hierarchies and economic extraction. For many, attempts at reform such as parliamentary action or incremental labor laws seemed too slow or compromised to address these deep structural issues. The first anarchists rejected the idea that existing institutions, such as the state, capitalism, or organized religion, could be reformed into just institutions. Instead, they argued that these systems were inherently oppressive and should be abolished altogether. They envisioned decentralized, cooperative societies instead, based on voluntary participation and mutual aid. 19th-century anarchism had a stronger foothold in a few countries, like France, Italy, and Russia, but in Britain and around the world, it became a subject of fear and public anxiety. British newspapers frequently depicted anarchists as violent extremists, foreign agitators, or nihilists bent on destroying civilization. These portrayals were often exaggerated, but they helped shape a lasting stereotype: the anarchist as a bomb-thrower, an enemy of order and stability. Such stereotyping has continued to the present day, enabled further by the rise of late-stage capitalism; Western politics and media are consequently manipulated by extremely wealthy owners and donors, demonizing (and frequently disposing of) ordinary people who take even nonviolent action against conventional power structures.
The Liberation of Night is essentially an application of early anarchist theory, with its core ideas stretched to their extremes and placed within a radically different and fantastical context. At its heart lies a foundational anarchist belief: that power structures, especially those which cannot justify their existence, must be dismantled. In the reality the Liberation exists in, those structures are not merely political or economic, but cosmic. The Judgements enforce an order that sustains themselves, and perpetuates suffering among those bound to its lower rungs. The Liberation responds not by trying to reform their system, but by seeking to destroy the foundation of their power altogether. It is not a political coup or revolution in the traditional sense, but the rejection of the entire framework of rule - aligning with facets of anarchism that eschew political organization and long-term planning in favor of immediate disruptive action. The Liberation has generated a great deal of community fascination (and discourse) because of its refusal to offer comfortable moral positions; it is a reckoning with the limits of reform, the cost of freedom, and the terrifying possibility that total destruction may be the only path to liberation.[49]
↑Agree to carry the message, Sunless Sea""The Liberation of Night began long ago," the veiled creature pipes. "Tell whoever you choose, or do not. You are the message. Those who must know, will know.""
↑Bomb a meeting of financiers, Fallen London"Bits of banker fly everywhere! Some of those fat financiers won't be coming back. Long live the revolution! You are sure to be the talk of anarchist cells all across the Neath."
↑Ask about her goals, Fallen London"It is always only the beginning of the work [...] A hand up, a word in an ear, a few pages written in a forbidden book. We do not have to complete the work, but we may not set it aside."
↑Ask her about the Liberationists (January), Fallen London"At once, the lamplight goes black. [...] No: it isn't enough to say that the light is gone. You must say the darkness is present [...] Your breath slows. Your thoughts clarify. Obligations feel less pressing.Only after a long, sacramental pause does January say, "This is the Liberation." Her voice is deeper and more resonant than when she speaks in the light."
↑Try your best to sleep, Fallen London"Your bed is soft, but it is hard to sleep with the noise. Someone is shouting. You must become accustomed to such noise: when the liberation comes, many fools will call out in fear."
↑ 11.011.1Arrange for January to lead the Tracklayers instead of (Current Leader), Fallen London"She tells how every aspect of the universe is built on coercion and theft. "Nothing will change [...] until we have dismantled the light and the stars entirely. You ask what the world will look like afterward? I don't know! I cannot begin to imagine! Anything that I might imagine now would be tainted by the ideologies in which we were raised. We will not even be able to imagine something beyond this hierarchy until we have brought it down.""
↑Supply scarabs to the Liberationists, Fallen London"One of the city's buildings has been set up as a nursery for them – selectively breeding glowing beetles for different colours and affects. One of the tracklayers is now pursuing their true calling as an entomologist. "We're hoping that in a few years, they might be able to produce peligin, maybe even irrigo.""
↑Reshape the boundaries of sight, Fallen London"The Liberationists experiment with lights not found on the Surface - peligin, irrigo, violant. You investigate alternatives to illumination: bending the space of a street so that it is impossible to stumble or get lost, even in the dark; extending the reach of touch, or sound, or memory…"
↑The Waltz That Moved the World, Fallen London"After London fell, Europe grew ugly. A great power vanished; the wars to replace her destroyed what was left. Politics. And when the dust settled, did we have peace? No; revolutionaries crept up from the bowels of the earth, to bomb the few cities left untouched. That was what brought me into the Game. But things are even worse today than twenty-five years ago. I'm glad I can't see what they've done."
↑The Waltz That Moved the World, Fallen London"We were splendid, once. Not so now; not with those hateful anarchists – playing with their dynamite, destroying homes. But those people are all over Europe now. The whole continent is painted with their awful slogans – 'Unity or Death!'; 'The Liberation of Night!'"
↑The (Alignment) Way/(Liberationist), Fallen London"No one can explain the project of Liberation better than January: it reaches from the present moment to the end of time; from the front door to the farthest reach of the galaxy. The work did not begin with this city and neither will this city do everything that needs to be done. But it has a place, a very significant place."
↑Comfort a sufferer, Fallen London"He does not belong to any of the traditional categories. He isn't a widow, or an orphan, or aged, or the victim of unspeakable crime, or a member of the Deserving Poor. He is only a man who hates the dark, and who would be mocked for saying so. Let him confide in you where no one can see."
↑Your beloved, Fallen London"You've left the Neath behind: but not the Liberation of Night. You and your beloved may be the only Surface-dwellers who know what the Device does. At all costs, you must keep the world illuminated…"
↑The Jovial Contrarian's Campaign 1, Fallen London"[...] The cheque has been scrawled over crossly, with words in an altogether more untidy penmanship, reading 'The light need not necessarily go out.'"
↑Ask her about the Liberationists, Fallen London"[...] You ask for a decent meal for your workers and you get back a load of high-flown rhetoric about how we're trying to tear the stars out of heaven."
↑Ask him about the Liberationists, Fallen London"The Liberationists could be much better at explaining themselves. Putting their program in a way that the common tracklayer can relate to. Most of us don't want to stumble around in total shadow. Is that what they're offering? And if it isn't, why can't they explain themselves better? Not even Furnace's Liberation face is any good at making the case for it. Believe me, I gave her the opportunity."
↑Ask him about the Liberationists, Fallen London"A lot of the Liberationist Tracklayers, they're just in it for the dynamiting things and sticking it to the Masters. Their blood's up, but they wouldn't like the true dark, and they don't think it's coming. But that's only most of them. There's a few that mean it, all right."
↑Drained, Fallen London"[...] Rifts appear even among the staunch Liberationists: these want to put out all light, those to abandon even the words for the concept of law. Scuffles break out over who is the truest Liberationist."
↑Day from night, Sunless Sea"Inside is a lead-lined casket. Wisps of smoky darkness escape it. “Anarchist work,” the whisper goes up. They eat light, these things. They're useful in battle - but very far from safe."
↑Scavenge a mechanism from the device, Sunless Sea"[...] An expulsion of silent blackness engulfs you. It devours the light of your ship's beams like a glutton at Sunday dinner. In an instant it kills every lamp on board, every filament-bulb. A passing school of pilot fish are extinguished. Your panicking crew winch you back aboard, and you flee through the pitch dark until your lights begin, limply, to return."
↑Ask him about the Liberationists, Fallen London"Mr Fires says they won't come to much, but it keeps an eye on them anyhow. Did you know there are dark outbreaks even in London? You could be standing under a gaslamp but paff! Dark as the middle of the Unterzee. Lamp-post's still there, it's still burning, but you can't see a thing."
↑A fair exchange, Fallen London"We had been intending to use this in the Device... but secrecy is more important. And with luck, these, ah, arcane crania will afford us that secrecy."
↑Plant the seeds of the Great Work, Fallen London"And then, when there are no more shores to liberate in the Neath, you will zail to Irem. [...] From the dark knot that is the detonation of the Unclear Bomb, many threads will splay out. [...] You will take these thin, dark strands and weave them into rope – to tug at the hands of the clock, to pull down the idols of the stars, to drag the Judgements out of their thrones."
↑Ask about what she found at Hurlers (January), Fallen London"Nothing," says January. "I did not find an old ally; I did not learn anything of its history, nor observe the nature of its solitude. I did not learn to dine on shadows, or find sustenance in the dark. I did not experience a miracle of providence. And so the Liberationists to come will not benefit from what I have not learned."
↑Make discreet inquiries into the Tragedy Procedures, Fallen London"Ah, yes, 'NIGHT, IMMINENT LIBERATION OF,' a perennial favourite. There's a lot here about the city's supply of candles, turning one of the Bazaar's spires into a massive lighthouse, importing more fuel from Hell. I believe this scrawling on the margin here means 'WILL THIS ACTUALLY WORK?', or something to that effect."
↑Winter's Reside, Sunless Skies "Three of the revolutionaries' governing Calendar Council live here: February, January, and ineffable December."
↑Strive to hear the death-cry of a fallen sun, Sunless Skies"You hear distant, thundering words, accompanied by blazing visions. They rage against the sun's death at the hands of a half-sun, a midnight murderer. [...] A lawless killing! A shameful death, enacted without due ceremony!"
↑Douser, Sunless Skies"The Dousers are fanatical devotees of the Liberation of Night. They attack any engine that dares poison the dark with its light.""
↑The Venerable Flautist, Sunless Skies"But I remember the Halved before the death of its twin. It hasn't changed half so much as it pretends. So I won't either."
↑Ambition: Ask "What is the Courtesy?" (The Piper), Sunless Skies"Once, the stars went to war with themselves. The Courtesy was the agreement that ended it: thereafter, the stars were permitted to kill each other so long as they adhered to the formalities and procedures set out in the Courtesy. They exchanged war for murder" [...]
↑Return to the Lamentation, Sunless Skies""I think— [...] a great many stars have died under the veneer of this 'Courtesy'. Hundreds of them, in fact." [...] "That chamber? One annex of Roll of Ash. Annex thirty-four," she says, "of two hundred and seventy-eight.""
↑Bruno Dias (former FBG designer), Cohost"The Liberation is meant to retain a little edge, even if you’re sympathetic to it. One of the thematic ideas it plays with is the sense of examining one’s political discomfort – “is this too extreme or am I not radicalized enough.”"
