The Nacreous Outcast

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"A Rubbery Man rises from a cyst in the floor. An iridescent cicatrice crosses its face. Even in this flood of silvery light, it pulses like a fevered moon."[1]

The Nacreous Outcast is a Rubbery Man from the Principles of Coral.

A Star-Crossed Creature[edit | edit source]

"Flif your hanf on the ftool. Farphaf! Ophen your eyess."[2]

"I ushed to love - "[3]

The Nacreous Outcast's most striking physical feature is a scar glowing with silver light. Unlike most Rubbery Men yet encountered, it can speak both English[4] and the Rubbery language,[5] though its speech in the former can be difficult for some to understand.[6] It is familiar with esoteric culinary arts,[7] though it prefers its food uncooked.[8] It is typically very terse[9] and shy.[10] In addition to its home in the Principles, it has a residence in a run-down nook of London, where it entertains itself with art and song.[11][12]

The Outcast was exiled on account of multiple crimes, most of which cannot be described by human languages. One of them was love,[13] which is forbidden among the species of Axile,[14][15] and it is implied that the recipient of its affection was a Fluke.[16] As punishment, the Outcast was abandoned at Port Cecil, where it became an emissary[4] to the entity whose mind suffuses the Principles of Coral.[17]

An End, Averted?[edit | edit source]

This section contains spoilers for the following Sunless Sea content: The Pulse of the Principles. Proceed at your own risk.

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"Zhis ish hhwat it hwanted. Zhis ish not ffwaht it hhwanted."

"Am fflike zhis, becoshh offh Prinshhipulssh. Washh not hhwaht I hwanted."[18]

A coral reef shaped like a chess piece, with some settlements nearby.
The Principles of Coral

The Principles of Coral wished to descend the Great Chain of Being[19] and free itself of thought forever.[20] To this end, the Outcast was ordered to gather materials[21] for a chess game[22] against an outside opponent,[23] and act as a surrogate for its master.[24] It was to lose on the Principles' behalf, upon which the minds of both beings would perish.[20][24]

Of course, the Outcast feared this fate,[20] but in the Fallen London timeline, events played out a bit differently than expected. Somehow, the Principles was significantly weakened,[25][26] while the Outcast, now called the Nacreous Survivor, was spared its demise.[27] However, this meant that by 1899, the Principles could no longer defend its reef from exploitation.[28] The Survivor is dismayed at the ill treatment of the being that once gave it a home,[29] but it feels a mixture of grief and relief, both for itself and the purpose it once bore.[30]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Offer assistance with dissolution, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Increase your Hearts, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ Invite it to dine with you (2), Sunless Sea
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Offer assistance with dissolution, Sunless Sea "A Rubbery capable of human speech [...] "My emissary," the cave whispers. "Treat it gently." The whisper follows you back up the steps."
  5. ↑ Overheard at Zee: Materials, Sunless Sea NACREOUS OUTCAST: Fotharoothathoth! [...] Etha! Ssithakothothooth!
  6. ↑ Offer assistance with dissolution, Sunless Sea ""Shalt-Flions," it wheezes. Unprecedented! A Rubbery capable of human speech (in however debased and pitiful a mode!) "
  7. ↑ Increase your Hearts, Sunless Sea "The Outcast has gnostic secrets of profound culinary import to impart. Even its lesser revelations are enough to touch your dreams with the dread of drowning."
  8. ↑ Invite it to dine with you (2), Sunless Sea "Where did it learn to cook? Not in its amber-smeared home-tunnels, because it obviously prefers its food raw. Between gulps and flabbers, it attempts to chat."
  9. ↑ Let the Nacreous Outcast approach the altar, Sunless Sea ""Imitatorsh," the Outcast burbles. "They shtole our Axile artsh. They fought. They would be ush. [...] Shtill, the change remainsh. The change remainsh!" It's the longest speech you've ever heard from it."
  10. ↑ Invite it to dine with you, Sunless Sea "[...] and besides, it's terribly shy."
  11. ↑ A visit to the Outcast, Fallen London "Childish depictions of men and women are drawn in a soot-darkened window. The Outcast's great eye peers at you through the grime."
  12. ↑ Collect a Confession from the Nacreous Outcast, Fallen London "Today, you will head down a dark alley avoided by even the dregs of society. At the end there is a shoddy tenement. Somewhere within, the Nacreous Outcast tries to sing."
  13. ↑ Invite it to dine with you (2), Sunless Sea "It begins to say "I ushed to love - " and then suddenly excuses itself."
  14. ↑ Give the Principles Heartmetal, Sunless Sea "I was forbidden love, by the Bazaar, when I left the world Axile. But I don't regret it. I never regret."
  15. ↑ Give the Principles an Ambiguous Eolith, Sunless Sea "Kneel, kneel, and my Emissary will gift you Scintillack. The secret. The Bazaar brought me; brought us all, all us shapelings, Axiles. The Flukes, the misers, even my Emissary. Why? Too deep a secret for me, my friend. Even here, too deep for me. Perhaps when you end me..."
  16. ↑ A visit to the Outcast, Fallen London "[...] the Outcast lopes toward a mirror, and wheezes against the glass. [...] A foggy circle forms. [...] [It adds] a border of spikes to the circle. The Outcast [gestures] [...] A forlorn lover? [...] A foolish partner?"
  17. ↑ Invite it to dine with you (2), Sunless Sea "The Principles found it an apt tool, and has been its patron ever since."
  18. ↑ Speak with the Nacreous Survivor, Fallen London
  19. ↑ Give the Principles a Wakeful Idol, Sunless Sea "I will devolve [...] To satisfy the Chain, we must have an ascension."
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 The Last Game, Sunless Sea "The Emissary, trembling, takes his place across the board from you. "He will dissolve with me," the Principles tells you, consolingly. "It's for the best. You must win the game. Defeat him, and he and I will end. I will leave treasure. Hurry. My thoughts grow burdensome.""
  21. ↑ Offer assistance with dissolution, Sunless Sea "A Rubbery Man rises from a cyst in the floor. [...] "My emissary," the cave whispers. "Treat it gently." The whisper follows you back up the steps. "Take it to the Salt-Lions...""
  22. ↑ "Shalt-Flions", Sunless Sea "It holds a sphinxstone chess-piece aloft in its hand... "Principles," it wheezes."
  23. ↑ Setting up, Sunless Sea "Yes. I'll need to complete my chess-set. And then you'll need to defeat me."
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Win the match, Sunless Sea "The Principles will be reduced, as it desires, to a mindless hump of coral. The Outcast stands trembling behind the board, ready to enact the Principles' moves: its mind will be destroyed with its master's."
  25. ↑ Ask around town about the scintillack refinery, Fallen London "[...] the Principles ain't wot they were.""
  26. ↑ Meet with a bright and fading mind, Fallen London "—o my piece, [...] I yearn to topple still..." [...] The Fading Mind flutes a sigh [...]"
  27. ↑ Nacreous Survivor, Fallen London "What has changed this Rubbery Man?"
  28. ↑ Ask around town about the scintillack refinery, Fallen London "Used to be the reef [...] rise up against thieves, but the Principles ain't wot they were." [...] someone breaks off [...] coral without [...] eyes all burned out. [...] London's [...] on our doorstep."
  29. ↑ Speak with the Nacreous Survivor, Fallen London "The [...] Survivor runs a tentacle over [...] rock, [...] "Zhis ish hhwat it hwanted.""
  30. ↑ Speak with the Nacreous Survivor, Fallen London ""Am fflike zhis," [...] "becoshh offh Prinshhipulssh." Anger; grief; relief. "Washh not hhwaht I hwanted.""
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