The Sigil-Ridden Navigator

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"When you ask about his past, he winces. '[...]This -' he taps the livid sigil on his temple, which twitches like a scorpion's sting '-has burned away my memories.'"[1]

The Sigil-Ridden Navigator is a nervous and timid zeeman, whose right temple is marked with a sigil of the Correspondence.

A Wretched Past[edit | edit source]

"I regret it all. I will do anything. Please."[2]

Sometime before 1887, the Navigator and his brother, Richard, were both engaged aboard the Bonny Swan.[3] The ship passed beyond Kingeater's Castle, hoping to find another port[4] - but the Navigator made a critical error, and the crew found themselves with no supplies and no sign of land.[5]

The crew were forced to turn to cannibalism in order to survive, drawing lots to determine who would meet this fate.[5] The first to be eaten were the ship's captain, Swinburne,[3] and the Navigator's own brother.[6] By the time the Bonny Swan returned to port, seven of her crew had been eaten.[7] Although the survivors vowed silence, one of them confessed, and the Navigator returned to zee in order to avoid execution for his crimes.[8]

Almost Never Remembered[edit | edit source]

"If I cannot be forgiven, then I will forget. The Chapel of Lights will help me, for a price."[9]

Almost Never Remembered, the sigil on the Navigator's temple.

Overwhelmed with guilt, the Navigator zailed to the freezing Avid Horizon, and recorded his name and deeds at its dock[10] for a chance at clemency from the Admiralty. He was not selected for a pardon; in his desperation to simply forget what had happened, he turned to the Chapel of Lights,[11] paying them to inscribe a sigil of the Correspondence on his forehead. The sigil, which means "Almost Never Remembered,"[12] has erased the Navigator's memories of the incident as well as much of his past.[13] He now mistakenly believes that someone has cursed him with the sigil, but cannot say who.[14]

Historical Inspirations[edit | edit source]

The legal case R v Dudley and Stephens (R being Queen Victoria) took place after the starving crew of the yacht Mignonette killed and ate their cabin boy, and established in British legal precedent that necessity was not a valid defense against a charge of murder. John Franklin's voyage to the Northwest Passage, in the Canadian Arctic, infamously also resulted in what is known as "survival cannibalism."

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Read the third page, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Read the first page, Sunless Sea "In May, my brother Richard and I took service on the Bonny Swan - he as bosun, I as navigator. The captain, Swinburne, was a good man, but ambitious."
  4. ↑ Read the first page, Sunless Sea "When we reached Kingeater's Castle our supplies were low, but we pressed on in the hope of finding land. There was none."
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Read the second page, Sunless Sea "I mistook my readings and set a bad course. [...] Our supplies ran out, and still no sign of port. [...] Ravening, desperate, raving, we agreed to draw lots, with the loser giving up life and flesh so the others could go on."
  6. ↑ Read the third page, Sunless Sea "The first of us to draw the short straw was the captain. The second was my brother."
  7. ↑ Read the third page, Sunless Sea " Seven times we drew. Seven of our number went into the pot, and not a one of them quietly."
  8. ↑ Read the third page, Sunless Sea "Those of us who made it back to port swore never to speak of our crime, but one of us - someone whith a keener conscience than mine - confessed. I fled the noose to zee again."
  9. ↑ Read the fourth page, Sunless Sea
  10. ↑ Lead the Sigil-Ridden Navigator to a certain dock-pillar, Sunless Sea "Your Navigator hunts through the slips of paper. [...] He stops, stares at one, pulls it free. 'This is mine,' he says. 'I wrote this.' It is a confession."
  11. ↑ Read the fourth page, Sunless Sea "You did not answer. If I cannot be forgiven, then I will forget. The Chapel of Lights will help me, for a price."
  12. ↑ Show the squatters your Navigator's sigil, Sunless Sea "A vertical sheet of ice rises before you, reflective as a conjurer's glass. Engraved upon it, twenty feet high, is the Navigator's sigil. [...] 'It means Almost Never Remembered.' "
  13. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea "When you ask about his past, he winces. "I can't say. This -" he taps the livid sigil on his temple [...] "- has burned away my memories. I recall I have a brother but not his name or where he is. I remember the names of the ships I've served on - the Implicit, the Bonny Swan - but not their crew.""
  14. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea "How did he come by the sigil? He clutches his head. 'I don't know, I don't know. Thinking about it is like fire in my skull.' He grits his teeth. 'Someone must have hated me very much to curse me with it. But I can't even remember my enemy.' "
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