Editing The Principles of Coral

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Nonhuman]]
{{Neath_Location|image1 = <gallery>
PrinciplesFL.png|FL Header
Portcecilgaz.png|SSea Gaz
</gallery>|caption1 =|location = [[The Unterzee]]|allegiance = The Principles of Coral|notable_inhabitants = The Principles of Coral<br>
The Disillusioned Grandmaster|music = [https://failbettergames.bandcamp.com/track/benthic Benthic]|image2=|caption2=|port=Port Cecil}}<blockquote>''"Rumpled convolutions of coral fill the water, glimmering with silvery light. The harder you look, the more you see shapes amid the chaos, almost as if they were sculpted. This one could be a crenellated castle: that one, a horse's head."''<ref name="port cecil">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Port_Cecil|Port Cecil|Sunless Sea}}</ref></blockquote>

'''The Principles of Coral''' is a massive coral reef in the [[Unterzee]]. Its primary port is '''Port Cecil.'''
==A Dying Reef...==
<blockquote>''"Beneath the beckoning light of the Impostor Moon, the shining body of the Principles of Coral is being chased beyond the waterline. The old peace of Port Cecil has been transformed by the push and pull of tide and industry."''<ref name=":0">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Cast_your_eyes_over_to_the_tide_pools|Cast your eyes over to the tide pools|Fallen London}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>''"Used to be the reef itself would rise up against thieves, but the Principles ain't wot they were. ... Happened all at once. One day, someone breaks off some coral without gettin' their eyes all burned out. The next, London's maw opens on our doorstep."''<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Ask_around_town_about_the_scintillack_refinery|Ask around town about the scintillack refinery|Fallen London}}</ref></blockquote><blockquote>"''A bright crag of silver coral. Once, a sleepy Imperial outpost. Now, a new piece in the great game of industry and capital."''<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Destination:_The_Principles_of_Coral|Destination: The Principles of Coral|Fallen London}}</ref></blockquote>

Today, the Principles of Coral are abuzz with industry, causing Port Cecil to be notorious for its queues and competition for moorings.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Decipher_a_lesser-known_route_to_a_busy_port|Decipher a lesser-known route to a busy port|Fallen London}}''"The queues for moorings at Port Cecil are notoriously interminable. But these maps suggest a back way through the knife-sharp reef – one that could dodge the rush."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Zail_to_Port_Cecil|Zail to Port Cecil|Fallen London}}''"What was once a sourceless pool of silver light is now also a scrum of ships competing for moorings. Port Cecil is impossible to miss."''</ref> But until recently, there was only a small [[Rubbery Men|Rubbery]] population at Port Cecil,<ref name="labyrinth contact2">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Interactions|A contact in the labyrinth|Sunless Sea|}}''"Here is a Rubbery Man [...] “Otharooth,” it pipes, cheerfully. It hands you a page of notes smeared with tangerine goo."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Sit_down_with_a_local_to_play_chess|Sit down with a local to play chess|Fallen London}} ''"Your opponent is a Rubbery Man crowned with coral."''</ref> and a similarly small community of coral-encrusted humans;<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Instruct_the_lamp-cats_in_the_coral_calcification_of_the_locals|Instruct the lamp-cats in the coral calcification of the locals|Fallen London}} ''"The silver calices that flower on Port Cecil lifers are not foreign growths, but their own biological matter [...] Their movements are slow and grinding, their coral an inconvenience. [...] This is the price of communion on the Principles' terms."''</ref> other factions from around the [[Neath]] merely gathered here to play chess and hold diplomatic meetings.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Assist the Gnomic Gallivant in his revolutionary scheme|Sunless Sea}} ''"Ten diplomats and dignitaries are gathered around a chess table."''</ref> The past several years have seen a wave of settlement across the Principles,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Explore_Port_Cecil|Explore Port Cecil|Fallen London}} ''"Port Cecil wears its recent population boom like a tumour. Some houses are clearly older [...] But the land around these buildings has been scoured clean of its chaos of silver coral, replaced by an unfettered explosion of rickety shacks and lean-tos [...]"''</ref> as [[Iron & Misery Company]] has begun mining its coral, and has built refineries to extract valuable scintillack.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Ask_around_town_about_the_scintillack_refinery|Ask around town about the scintillack refinery|Fallen London}} ''"The Iron & Misery Co. Clarifying Station squats atop Port Cecil's highest cliff like a soot-blackened spur castle, pouring grey fumes across the zee. Access is strictly prohibited."''</ref>[[File:Lampcat.png|thumb|A lamp-cat. Art from FL.]]A new animal arrival on the reef are the '''lamp-cats,''' foraging felines with gills and glowing lures on their heads. They are emissaries of the [[The Light-in-Exile|Light-in-Exile]], the giant anglerfish that dwells under the [[Magistracy of the Evenlode]].<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Observe_the_comings_and_goings_of_the_gilled_lamp-cats|Observe the comings and goings of the gilled lamp-cats|Fallen London}} ''"You know them to be the emissaries of the Light-in-Exile, that distant light that makes friends of outcasts. Port Cecil is crawling with them. What are they after?"''</ref> They work alongside the Rubbery locals to claim the silvery coral for themselves, stopping the miners and preserving the reef.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Observe_the_comings_and_goings_of_the_gilled_lamp-cats|Observe the comings and goings of the gilled lamp-cats|Fallen London}} ''"They twine around lambent outcroppings of coral, rubbing against them with whiskered cheeks, licking them with rough little tongues [...] Where the lamp-cats focus their efforts, the coral slumps, coaxed into zee-foam and lapped dutifully up. The shoal of lamp-cats is consuming the treasured scintillack..."''</ref>

The reef is lit by the mysterious '''Impostor Moon''', which is seemingly a sentient creature.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Investigate_the_Impostor_Moon|Investigate the Impostor Moon|Fallen London}} ''"To your eye it is undeniably inquisitive; intelligent. If it seems kin to the speckled lights of the false-stars, scuttling up and down a stalactite, then it is vast in comparison to its fellows."''</ref>
==...And a Dying Art==
{{Spoiler}}
<blockquote>''"A sourceless silver glow. A haven for players of games."''<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Port_description|Port description|Sunless Sea|}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>''"You don't often look at chess-pieces: not really look. The Bishops, with their hooks. The Night, with its mane and teeth. The Kin and the Cream, white mingled with red. The Roots that pin the corner of the board down, to keep you safe from your opponent. You lift a Paw to toy with it: touch its velvety pads."''<ref name="chess">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Interactions|Chess|Sunless Sea|}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>''"Checkmate. Look too closely, did we? You need to be careful with scintillack chess-sets."''<ref name="chess" /></blockquote>
[[File:Coralperson.png|thumb|The Disillusioned Grandmaster. Art from FL.]]Once upon a time, the Principles was bathed in a dreamlike soft silver light. Its few inhabitants were strangely fond of chess, playing obsessively as if under a hypnotic spell and watching as their pieces seemed to enact their own individual agendas. Their games mirrored the power struggles of the [[Neath]], between the [[Lorn-Flukes]], the [[Echo Bazaar]], [[Mt Nomad]], the [[Gods of the Unterzee|zee-gods]], the [[The Fathomking|Fathomking]], the [[Khanate]], the [[Surface]].<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Chess|Sunless Sea}} ''"But you have begun to realise that your moves recapitulate the movements of the powers of the Neath: the Flukes and their shapelings. The Bazaar that lurks in London. Mt Nomad, that prowls the sea. Salt, Stone, Storm. With every move you take, the shape of it becomes clearer in your mind, sharper. "''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Gather intelligence|Sunless Sea}} ''"The older inhabitants of Port Cecil  [...] Sometimes, they speak of things far away: the Khanate's work, the smuggler wars, the Fathomking's secrets. Perhaps it's not all invented... "''</ref> For the reef was the true center of the [[Great Game]] - and it still is yet.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Why_not_just_sell%3F|Why not just sell?|Fallen London}} ''"This is my home. You should have seen this place in its prime. Through the Principles we could see the game of creation unfolding. [...] The pace of the game, the slow growths of the scintillack, the long pulses of thought and light – all rules and moves that I understood. The prospectors, the miners, the Masters, even that plague of cats – none of them see that this" – she gestures at the chessboard – "is the heart of this place.""''</ref> Though it remains a microcosm of the Game, chess is now a rare art in the reef, though the '''Disillusioned Grandmaster''' stubbornly hangs onto her chess club, '''the Poisoned Pawn.<ref name=":1" />'''[[File:Chesspiece apocyan.png|alt=A bright cyan knight chess piece.|thumb|An [[Apocyan]] Chess Piece.]]Chess played in the Principles (and by very specific agents of the Game, as well)<ref name="play coded chess">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Play_coded_chess_with_an_anonymous_opponent|Play coded chess with an anonymous opponent|Fallen London}}</ref> is quite dissimilar to the game familiar to those from [[London]], as the pieces seem to take on slightly different, but still recognizable, forms.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Chess|Sunless Sea}} ''"You don't often look at chess-pieces: not really look. The Bishops, with their hooks. The Night, with its mane and teeth. The Kin and the Cream, white mingled with red. The Roots that pin the corner of the board down, to keep you safe from your opponent. You lift a Paw to toy with it: touch its velvety pads."''</ref> The pieces are typically made of the [[scintillack]] that covers the reef, though it may be substituted for other materials, perhaps for the sake of symbolism or practicality.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Setting up|Sunless Sea}} ''"Bring me a Wakeful Idol, to be my new Bishop.  Bring me a monster's tooth, to be my new Night.  Bring me a heart-shelled silver, to be my new Root.  Bring me a little flint, to be my new Paw.  And bring me a Fluke-Core. For my Kin."''</ref>
*'''Nights''' are said to have manes and sharp fangs, and may wound those who move them.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Move a Night|Sunless Sea|}}''"The Nights are fanged like lions. A touch will wound you."''</ref> The Principles considers them ornamental, but such ornaments are, after all, vital in chess.<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Give the Principles a Hunting-Trophy|Sunless Sea|}}''"This is ornament. But ivory in chess is asked, aren't we?"''</ref>
*'''Bishops''' appear to take on a spiraling shape<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|The Pulse of the Principles|Sunless Sea}} ''"You see the spiralling Bishops [...]"''</ref> and possess sharp hooks.<ref name=":2" /> The Principles of Coral uses its Bishop as a counterweight for its descent down the Great Chain of Being.
*'''Roots''' are the corner pieces of the chessboard,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|The Pulse of the Principles|Sunless Sea}} ''"[...] the corner Roots, [...]"''</ref> and serve as protection from a player's opponent.<ref name=":2" /> The Principles uses its own Roots to protect against its troublesome, but incurable, fear of its own impending descent.<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Give the Principles Heartmetal|Sunless Sea|}}''"I long for my ending, but I fear it beside. This is needed to encase my fear."''</ref>
*'''Paws''' are considered relatively safe pieces to move,<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Move a Paw|Sunless Sea|}}''"The Catspaw, perhaps, or the Skinspaw. This is a safe move."''</ref> and the Principles seems to use Paws to represent the works of its servants, such as the [[Rubbery Men]].<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Give the Principles an Ambiguous Eolith|Sunless Sea|}}''"This is for I have sent my Emissary. He knows. This is one of his."''</ref>
*The '''Cream''' is described as a "terrible" piece, implying its great power but saying nothing of its purpose.<ref name="pulse story description">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|The Pulse of the Principles|Sunless Sea|}}''"[...] the Kin and the terrible Cream [...]"''</ref>
*The '''Kin''' is the most important of the chess pieces, and its victory or defeat can determine the outcome of a chess match.<ref name="win the match" /> The Principles of Coral seems to use its Kin as a representation of what it once was.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Bear_witness_to_a_lamp-cat_ritual|Bear witness to a lamp-cat ritual|Fallen London}} ''"A jagged crown resolves from the mass – the shape of the Kin, fragile, ridged with spines. [...] Something silver is frothing from the Kin's vast, ocular heart. An old and grievous yearning rises from it like a scent. [...] The coral Kin is gone, commingled with the zeefoam. The cat nods to you with slow solemnity, weighed down by the world it carries in its light."''</ref><ref name=":3">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Meet_with_a_bright_and_fading_mind|Meet with a bright and fading mind|Fallen London}} ''"—o my piece, my peace, I yearn to topple still..."''</ref>
==The Shining Mind==
{{Major spoiler small}}
{{Character|title1 = The Fading Mind|image1 = Cavelake2gaz.png|caption1 = The Pulse of the Principles.|location = The Principles of Coral|allegiance =Independent |relationships = [[The Flukes]]<br>[[The Nacreous Outcast‎]]|alias=The Shining Mind<br>
The Principles of Coral}}
<blockquote>''"Between stars. Descend the chain. I rest here. I forget."''<ref name="gather scintillack">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Interactions|Gather Scintillack|Sunless Sea|}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>''"The game soothes the pangs of dissolution in. But I want so to be less. I am tired of thought. Will you help me? Sleep will not enough. I desire no dreams. Will you help?"''<ref name="move a paw">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Move a Paw|Sunless Sea|}}</ref></blockquote>

The Principles of Coral itself is actually a sentient, chess-loving being, that is also called the '''Fading Mind.'''<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Meet_with_a_bright_and_fading_mind|Meet with a bright and fading mind|Fallen London}} ''"The Fading Mind flutes a sigh through hairline cracks in stone and coral."''</ref> Once waited on by [[Rubbery Men]] with glowing scars,<ref>{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Offer assistance with dissolution|Sunless Sea|}}''"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. It shuffles closer."''</ref><ref name="labyrinth contact">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/Port_Cecil#Interactions|A contact in the labyrinth|Sunless Sea|}}''"The pearly glow of the coral throbs from a seam along its shoulder, its arm - pulses in its face-fronds."''</ref> and formerly called the '''Shining Mind,''' the Mind is the source of the silver glow that once lit Port Cecil from beneath.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Port Cecil|Sunless Sea}} ''"The silver light is strong here, and it grows stronger with each step downwards."''</ref> It would rarely speak, almost telepathically, to certain visitors that drew its attention.

The [[scintillack]] pebbles that dot Port Cecil are broken bits of the Mind, and they are as alive as their host, with none of the experience or weariness that once troubled the Principles.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/Port_Cecil|Gather scintillack|Sunless Sea}} ''"They broke from the Shining Mind: they have its vitality, but not its weariness or experience. You will have to lock them in a separate boxes, lest they peep at you when you're bathing, and see who you are."''</ref>

The Fading Mind was once a (likely very ancient, if not primordial) [[Flukes|Fluke]],<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Commune_with_the_Novice_Lamp-Cat|Commune with the Novice Lamp-Cat|Fallen London}} ''"[...] Your fronds are twisting in a deep abyss, coiling around sunk ships and ancient bones. [...] Spikes protrude from your spine. Eons pass in a blink: cliffs toppling, seas boiling, tides withdrawing from your coral skin. [...] Even these ancient bones are new. You push them aside and stretch your fronds deeper. Before the Bazaar. Before the Sun opened its flaming eye. You are a polyp. You are a [https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles pulse]."''</ref> but it grew exhausted as time went on.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Move a Paw|Sunless Sea}} ''"I am tired of thought. Will you help me? Sleep will not enough. I desire no dreams."''</ref> To free itself of its sentience, it strove to descend a few rungs down the [[Great Chain of Being]],<ref name="give wakeful idol">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Give the Principles a Wakeful Idol|Sunless Sea|}}''"I want to be less than I am. I want to be only coral."''</ref> and by 1887 it was already much of the way there; hence why it appears inanimate, but is still very much alive.<ref name="give fluke core">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Meet_with_a_bright_and_fading_mind|Meet with a bright and fading mind|Fallen London}}''"The water whispers in and out with long, shallow breaths. A ragged multivalence, raised in weak entreaty."''</ref> To continue its descent, the Mind had to lose a chess game, with the [[Nacreous Outcast]] serving as its surrogate;<ref name="win the match">{{FLCitation|https://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Win the match|Sunless Sea|}}''"The Emissary whimpers and topples his own Kin; he begins to melt like snow in a desert wind."''</ref> it also had to provide a second creature, acting as a "counterweight" of sorts, with an ascension, thus satisfying the Chain's arcane rules and weakening the Principles significantly. The Mind was supposed to have been destroyed,<ref name="give wakeful idol" /><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Move a Paw|Sunless Sea}} ''"But I want so to be less. I am tired of thought. Will you help me? Sleep will not enough. I desire no dreams."''</ref> but this was not the actual result.<ref name=":3" />

Perhaps most importantly, the Mind ''never'', ''ever'' felt regret. Not even when it left [[Axile]] with its fellows on the behest of the [[Bazaar]];<ref name="principles heartmetal2">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|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."''</ref><ref name="eolith">{{Citation|https://sunlesssea.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Pulse_of_the_Principles|Give the Principles an Ambiguous Eolith|Sunless Sea}}''"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..."''</ref> not then, and certainly not as it willingly sank into near-oblivion.

In its weakened state, the lamp-cats have preserved the Fading Mind's memories of Axile.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Bear_witness_to_a_lamp-cat_ritual|Bear witness to a lamp-cat ritual|Fallen London}} ''"A memory overtakes you of a dark world adumbrated with lilac fires. Mauve thunderheads pile on the horizon, anvils upon which to hammer out the lament of a lightless sky. Thought and time are thick as treacle. Your resinous fronds shiver in pleasure—"''</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:Places]]
[[Category:The Unterzee]]


[[Category:The Neath]]