The Piper

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"Her innumerable voices are so thorough, so precise in their gestalt descriptions, that it is as if she was drawing a map on the fabric of your memory."[1]

The Piper is a Grand Devil, one of Hell's imprisoned saints. She was a witness to (if not a participant in) the war between the Solonacean Conjunction and the Binary[2] that resulted in the murder of the King Who Speaks, forming the Halved.[3] This led to Hell's rebellion against the Judgements, of which she was a leader; after it failed, she found a way for her kind to enter and hide in Parabola.[4] She is now interred beyond a gate at the bottom of the gorge at Henlys, not too far off the Moloch railway line.[5] Someday, her followers will free her and rejoice in her music.[6] The Drummer was once her paramour.[7]

In the Sunless Skies timeline, the Brazen Brigade has liberated the Piper and brought her to their base near Pan, where she resides inside their Adamantine Idol. She is not happy with this change of scenery,[8] and does not wish to defy the Judgements again,[9] to the disappointment of her followers.[10]

The Eglantine Regent?[edit | edit source]

"AND THE EGLANTINE REGENT SAID unto the people: “I have signed a bargain with serpents; and I have given us a road to walk; and the mirrors shall open to us; and there we shall make new law; and there we shall draft the plans of a city that is already ours.” And upon hearing this, the people rejoiced."[11]

While there is no direct confirmation, it is highly likely that the Piper is the Eglantine Regent described in the Book of Roses. Like the Piper, the Regent was one of a few leaders among the devils in the wake of their rebellion.[12] She signed a bargain with the Fingerkings,[13] allowing the devils to stay in Parabola, and keeping their resolve high[14] while they crafted plans for their new home;[15] this is also a feat attributed to the Piper. The Fingerkings' side of the bargain was that they would use the devils as hosts to enter reality[16] - but when the time came, the Regent revealed that she knew all along that the devils could not host them, as the powerful Fingerking with which she had bargained perished inside her body.[17]

After leaving the Fingerkings behind in Parabola, the Eglantine Regent led her people to Irem,[18] then across the Unterzee[19] and westward from the coast to where Hell now sits.[20] At last, when the city of Hell was completed, she declared herself ruler, and was "struck down."[21] While this could have been the event that resulted in her being killed and entombed at Henlys (assuming she is the Piper), among other options, it is also possible that this last segment is a degree of more recent revisionism alluding to the Season of Revolutions.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Trade mysteries with the Piper, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Find the tomb of the Mantle-bearer, Sunless Skies "The Binary went to war. Against the storied sons of the Solonacean. And the Bellows Saint did mantle the king in a raiment of killing light."
  3. ↑ Trade mysteries with the Piper, Sunless Skies "When you are done, she tells you of a great war fought before the devils fell; of a new Conjunction in heaven; of diets of war and of peace; of counsels betrayed and feasts where the sky ran with spilt starlight; of the death of a king, and the end of all idylls in Eleutheria."
  4. ↑ Entreat the Piper to emerge, Sunless Skies "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."
  5. ↑ The Twelve-Fifteen from Moloch Street, Fallen London "There is a princess on the other side of the gate."
  6. ↑ The Twelve-Fifteen from Moloch Street, Fallen London "Her devotees will find her again, with thyrsus and stones, and they will play their music."
  7. ↑ Return the message, Sunless Skies "Now you have the missive from her old paramour, you must deliver our message to the Piper in the Adamant Idol [...]"
  8. ↑ Entreat the Piper to emerge, Sunless Skies "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."
  9. ↑ 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."
  10. ↑ Return to the Scarlet Condottiere, Sunless Skies "So be it. [...] 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."
  11. ↑ Discovered: A Dark Future, Fallen London
  12. ↑ Discovered: A Chilly Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 2:1-3: AND AMONG THE PEOPLE AROSE a great and fearful clamour, for they did not know what fate awaited them. And from this clamour arose a few great voices to lead them. And among these great voices arose the Eglantine Regent, she who bargains with serpents."
  13. ↑ Discovered: A Dark Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 3:7: AND THE EGLANTINE REGENT SAID unto the people: “I have signed a bargain with serpents; and I have given us a road to walk; and the mirrors shall open to us; and there we shall make new law; and there we shall draft the plans of a city that is already ours.” And upon hearing this, the people rejoiced."
  14. ↑ Discovered: A Discordant Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 4:6-7: AND THE PEOPLE SHED THEIR SKINS to squeeze through mirrors. [...] the people faltered and regretted their flight. And the Eglantine Regent said unto them: "This place Is Not; and what Is Not may not harm us. For we do exist, and we exist more than anything in existence.""
  15. ↑ Discovered: A Jewelled Future, Fallen London "The Book of Roses 5:4-5: [...] And said the Eglantine Regent: "Here we shall make camp, but we shall not build our city; for our city has always lain elsewhere.""
  16. ↑ Discovered: A Nearby Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 6:5-7: AND THE PEOPLE BUILT FURNACES and made maps. They devised new numbers with which to calculate the position of their home. [...] And so said the Eglantine Regent: “Soon we will arrive in Hell.” And the Parlous Knot rejoiced, for it believed that it would accompany them."
  17. ↑ Discovered: A Neon Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 7:7-9: AND WHEN THE TIME CAME for the people to depart the Is-Not, they made their passage through Irem. [...] And so said the Eglantine Regent: “For the future to arrive one must have a present.” And the Parlous Knot cursed the name of the Eglantine Regent. And the Parlous Knot perished."
  18. ↑ Discovered: A Ruinous Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 8:4-6: AND THE PEOPLE FOUND in this place the broken form of a stone serpent. And said the Eglantine Regent: "Let us repair this serpent of the Will-Be, as tribute to the future that shelters us.""
  19. ↑ Discovered: A Silvered Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 9:4-5: AND THE PEOPLE STOPPED before a cold and sunless sea. And they saw that the marvels around them were like those in dreams. And some among the people doubted whether they had left the Is-Not. Upon hearing this, the Eglantine Regent struck down one of the doubters, and made things plain."
  20. ↑ Discovered: An Abyssal Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 10:2-3: WHEN THE PEOPLE CAME TO THE END of their voyage west, they set down their baggage and began the work of building a new city."
  21. ↑ Discovered: An Altered Future, Fallen London "Book of Roses 11:5-7: AND WHEN THE LAST BRICK WAS LAID on the last wall of Hell, there arose a great and joyful clamour among the people. And there the Eglantine Regent lit the furnaces once again, so that those great voices among the people might devise new laws. And there the Eglantine Regent made a proclamation of her rulership. Upon hearing this, the people struck her down."
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