Editing The Sunken Embassy

<blockquote>{{Neath Location|image1=Sanctum.png|caption1=Art from FL|location=[[London]]|allegiance=[[Devils]] (formerly)<br>[[The Khanate]] (formerly)}}
''"The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground."<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Seeking Documents in the Sunken Embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground. The ruined chambers display battered mosaics and brass-work imitations of Fourth City decor. Every room is clogged with the detritus of diplomacy: papers and journals, brass-bound tomes and broken scrolls. In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell. Which way will you go?"''</ref>''</blockquote>'''The Sunken Embassy,''' formerly '''the Celestial Embassy,''' is an abandoned diplomatic office in [[London]], found below [[Moloch Street]]. During the time of the [[Fourth City]], it was the key liaison between the old [[Khanate]] and [[Hell]]. When London [[The Fall of London|fell]], this building was crushed like most of the Fourth City, and the [[Brass Embassy]] was constructed in its place. The Sunken Embassy was only rediscovered decades later, during the [[Grand Clearing-Out]].<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Beneath_Moloch_Street|Beneath Moloch Street|Fallen London|}} ''" A shaft of light shines down from above – gas lamps and false-stars. But the tunnels leading off in all directions are dark. A few concerned Devils direct Londoners away from digging in directions likely to hit the foundations of the Brass Embassy."''</ref> Both the [[Devils]] of [[Hell]] and of [[Mount Palmerston]] have a keen interest in the documents found within the embassy, and will pay well for their recovery.{{Fact}}

==East or West?==
<blockquote>''"In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell."''<ref name=":0">{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Seeking Documents in the Sunken Embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground. The ruined chambers display battered mosaics and brass-work imitations of Fourth City decor. Every room is clogged with the detritus of diplomacy: papers and journals, brass-bound tomes and broken scrolls. In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell. Which way will you go?"''</ref></blockquote>

The remains of the Embassy's reception chambers lie at the center of the ruins, where citizens and notables of the Fourth City would enter. Records of dealings with the Khanate were secured in the eastern halls; correspondence between the Embassy and old Hell was secured in the western halls.<ref name=":0" />

==The Embassy and the Khanate==
[[File:Ruins.png|thumb|Ruins of the Embassy Reception]]<blockquote>
''"Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls."<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls."''</ref>''</blockquote>
When the Celestial Embassy still stood, it was one of the tallest buildings in the Fourth City, soaring over the parapets and pagodas around it.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Deep, dark|Fallen London|}} ''"The Sunken Embassy is very deep; when it stood, before its fall, it must have soared over the parapets and pagodas of the Fourth City. Antique Hell liked to make its statements. You find yourself navigating a chasm that extends miles deep – until, of course, you fall.  The thought that you are plummeting down several storeys of one of the tallest buildings in that bygone city is of some comfort before your fall is broken by a sturdy pillar. You land on solid ground in a catacomb extending into the chasm, but some of your recovered documents spiral on, down into the yawning dark."''</ref> It now stands in opulent ruins: lacquered walls bulging inwards, buried miles deep underground, filled with traps, forgotten secrets, and deadly chasms.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Broken History|Fallen London|}} ''"Lacquered walls bulge inwards; scroll cases crack like beetle shells beneath your feet. Broken lanterns hang from yawning door frames, illuminating nothing. Guided only by your candlelight, you creep through the sinking darkness of the Embassy, heading ever downward."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Break open sealed chambers|Fallen London|}} ''"The Embassy was crushed between the bed of the Neath and the city that fell down on top. Many of its halls are hazardous. Some are entirely trapped."''</ref>

The entrance to the Embassy features a brass mosaic that seems to have been constructed as an imitation and mockery of the Khanate and the Fourth City.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls."''</ref> Inside lies a cacophony of mazelike halls, passages, and chambers. Individual departments were established for various dissenting groups in the Fourth City, with these groups signified by roses, black spiders, or swords, depending on which enemy force was influencing them.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Hell's relicts|Fallen London|}} ''"The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders.  Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."''</ref> Roses denoted those under the influence of the [[Fingerkings]],<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Hell's relicts|Fallen London|}} ''"The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders.  Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."''</ref> spiders signified allies of the [[Sorrow-Spiders]],<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Hell's relicts|Fallen London|}} ''"The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders.  Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."''</ref> and swords indicated that the dissenters "clung to an old rite and an antique calendar."<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Hell's relicts |Fallen London|}} ''" The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders.  Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."''</ref>

The Celestial Embassy was a particularly treacherous space, riddled with spies, hidden spaces, and mirrors that led to a reflective lake deep in Parabola.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|What must be concealed|Fallen London|}} ''"The Sunken Embassy was riddled with spies. One could not take a meeting without being observed, from under the marble paving stones or in the lacquered walls or even via a series of mirrors, both facing a reflective lake deep in Parabola. Devils spied on their guests, and upon each other.  Crawling under the toppled masonry via crawlspaces and brasswork shafts concealed in pipes, you're able to navigate the interior of the Embassy. In its secret places, Antique Hell took careful notes on the qualities of its Fourth City counterparts, knowingly and otherwise."''</ref> Devils and Khanate officials spied on each other, and the Devils upon themselves, each side laying traps designed to catch both wandering staff and unwanted visitors of the embassy.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Dead places  |Fallen London|}} ''"Demons scowl down at you from the walls, the inhabitants of Hell rendered comprehensible to their Fourth City observers. The chambers ahead narrow; constricting you as you progress. It is as though being squeezed down the gullet of a great beast.  The walls taste your skin, your sweat, they drip with the condensation of your breath. Eventually, you can go no further; your satchel tears as you squeeze your way back. Was this a trap for wandering staff? Or visitors to the Embassy, to be lost in the dark for good."''</ref> Espionage, misinformation, and influence were the main responsibilities of the Celestial Embassy, with the beliefs and rituals of the Fourth City being favored tools of the diplomatic core of Old Hell;<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The currency of lies|Fallen London|}} ''"The Sunken Embassy practised a variety of falsehoods upon its Fourth City counterparts. Belief and ritual were tools in the trade of Old Hell's diplomatic corps, distorted facsimiles of the Fourth City's own. You sift through documents that parody the processions and masques of the Fourth City, leavened with spite and irony. It is arduous work. But, eventually, you come across a few observations that seem like they contain a grain of truth."''</ref> as such, the Embassy served as a trove of careful notes on the Khanate and its people.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|What must be concealed|Fallen London|}} ''"The Sunken Embassy was riddled with spies. One could not take a meeting without being observed, from under the marble paving stones or in the lacquered walls or even via a series of mirrors, both facing a reflective lake deep in Parabola. Devils spied on their guests, and upon each other.  Crawling under the toppled masonry via crawlspaces and brasswork shafts concealed in pipes, you're able to navigate the interior of the Embassy. In its secret places, Antique Hell took careful notes on the qualities of its Fourth City counterparts, knowingly and otherwise."''</ref>

Deeper within the Celestial Embassy, there is a Bureau that was once used to process, contain, and display the endless gifts of artwork and artists offered by the Fourth City.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The spider's web  |Fallen London|}} ''"The Fourth City offered the Sunken Embassy many gifts: statues and mosaics, artists, choristers, dancers and instruments. Such lavishness required both containment and display – the Sunken Embassy was forced to create a Bureau for the processing of such municipal munificence.  From your investigations of this department, it is clear that the Fourth City was not just generous. It sent its best, ferried inside hollow statues or the carriers who bore them in, disguised – and through persuasion, eventually within the hearts of some of the bureaucrats themselves. You find evidence of this inside the statues whose occupants were unlucky enough to be caught."''</ref> However, this lavishness was not solely out of generosity; there is evidence of a sort of Trojan-horse scheme, in which the Fourth City sent spies masquerading as artists and hiding inside statues.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The spider's web  |Fallen London|}} ''"The Fourth City offered the Sunken Embassy many gifts: statues and mosaics, artists, choristers, dancers and instruments. Such lavishness required both containment and display – the Sunken Embassy was forced to create a Bureau for the processing of such municipal munificence.  From your investigations of this department, it is clear that the Fourth City was not just generous. It sent its best, ferried inside hollow statues or the carriers who bore them in, disguised – and through persuasion, eventually within the hearts of some of the bureaucrats themselves. You find evidence of this inside the statues whose occupants were unlucky enough to be caught."''</ref> 

This was merely an acceptable part of an ancient [[The Great Game|Great Game]], however; in truth, relations between Old Hell and the leadership of the Fourth City were amicable enough that the Celestial Embassy could be used as a refuge for the city's rulers in case of emergency.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Locate an inner sanctum |Fallen London|}} ''"In times of crisis, the rulers of the Fourth City sheltered in the Embassy. Perhaps you can find those protective chambers. What might yet remain?"''</ref> Hidden in the basement of the Embassy, the chambers of the Khans were furnished with ornate mirrors, and equipped with lavish costumes so that Embassy staff could entertain visiting Khanate royals.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Deeds that were done|Fallen London|}} ''"The chambers of the Khans lie under a floor of cedar, each room furnished with vast and elaborate mirrors. There are costumes, made for Embassy staff, in silk and copper and floral design. Notes pinned to the costumes make clear which is most pleasing to which member of the ruling family.  You also uncover a particularly hardy set of shears, forged in violant. They are too brittle to remove, and flecked with ancient venoms. In an adjoining room, shed snakeskin surrounds a crumbling throne. All bear the marks of long abandonment."''</ref> In one chamber, a peculiar set of shears was found - forged in violant, dappled with old traces of venom, and near an adjacent throne room full of shed snakeskin.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Deeds that were done|Fallen London|}} ''"The chambers of the Khans lie under a floor of cedar, each room furnished with vast and elaborate mirrors. There are costumes, made for Embassy staff, in silk and copper and floral design. Notes pinned to the costumes make clear which is most pleasing to which member of the ruling family.  You also uncover a particularly hardy set of shears, forged in violant. They are too brittle to remove, and flecked with ancient venoms. In an adjoining room, shed snakeskin surrounds a crumbling throne. All bear the marks of long abandonment."''</ref>

In the concealed heart of the Celestial Embassy lies the Mocking Tree, a great brass tree. Its leaves are pages from the deepest of Hell's archives, documenting some of the Fourth City's most sacred records.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The hidden embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The texts are ancient; some written when the Fourth was at its height, others from the comfort of Hell in the aftermath. You must work out what is gone, so that you can focus on what remains, not search for that which is lost.  The Mocking Tree still stands at the Embassy's concealed heart, its many twisted branches gleaming in untarnished brass. From each hangs a different leaf – each a page from the vaults of Hell's archives, charting the forgotten cosmologies of the Fourth City. There are too many to take all, but you recover what you can."''</ref> 

==The Embassy and Hell ==
<blockquote>[[File:Hellgate.png|thumb|Ruins of the Innermost Chambers]]''"The western chambers are dominated by ivy and white stone, in reflection of old Hell. Brass fixtures are functional and unembellished, in contrast to the marvels of stonework. Masonry flourishes in architectural follies, statues and intricate fretwork. Roses cling to the upper walls – still blooming and clustered tight as spiderwebs."<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy|Fallen London|}}</ref>''</blockquote><blockquote>''"The inner courts of the Sunken Embassy are wreathed in webs and roses. ... There are cells there; writing on the walls in Fourth City scripts. The oldest have faded with time but the newest record how the devils recruited from the factions of the Fourth: the Rosers with their mirrors, the Copper with their burning dreams. The government of the City sought to plant spies there so that the unknowing Embassy would recruit from their own. The success of that scheme is attested in these lonely cells.."<ref name=":1">{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The spider's web|Fallen London|}} </ref>''</blockquote>The western halls of the Sunken Embassy contained its internal affairs, and served as a base of spycraft.''<ref name=":1" />'' Deeper within this wing are the Khatun's Gardens, now overrun with poisoned flora;<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The hidden embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."''</ref> near the garden's entrance, there is a storehouse of prophecies and predictions that could be leveraged at the right time for political advantage.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The hidden embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."''</ref> From the storehouse, a still-intact hidden access point leads to the ministerial suites. Here, the devils kept records on the quirks of each of the Hellish ministers and the best ways to exploit them.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The hidden embassy|Fallen London|}} ''"The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."''</ref>  

At the heart of this wing lies a [[Law-Furnaces|Law-Furnace]], still operational, which is in the process of erasing certain records from ever having existed.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Locate an inner sanctum|Fallen London|}} ''"Every Embassy has its heart, even a sunken one. Political control of the law-furnaces in Hell determines the existence of this one. A law must have changed there, for the way to the Concordium yawns open."''</ref> These pages, marked by a sigil, have complicated the collection of Hell's documentation; an uncountable number of documents have been incinerated, defaced, or otherwise erased by the law-furnaces handiwork.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Hell's relicts|Fallen London|}} ''"Hell's documentation is erratic. Much has been incinerated, defaced or otherwise erased. A still operational Law-Furnace deep within the Embassy is in the process of erasing certain records from ever having been; several disappear in your hands. You'll have to find paperwork that's likely to continue existing. Eventually, you're able to recognise the sigil which marks pages for destruction: avoiding those, you recover a slim sheaf of correspondence"''</ref> Old Hell was rife with infighting, and each department within the Embassy fought against the others for ideological supremacy; it is implied that the department that eventually "won" this fight was the one that built the law-furnace inside the west wing, as they were simply able to eliminate their enemies through the sheer power of law.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|The currency of lies|Fallen London|}} ''"If its correspondence is to be believed, Old Hell was a fractious place. Every department within the Embassy was staffed by liars, each keen to promote their own value while denigrating those both above and below them. A series of texts stuffed in a sagging-open vault suggests a connection between the law-furnaces in Hell and one particular department's success. Those who could not live up to the legal claims they'd made found themselves swiftly and spectacularly extinguished."''</ref> Of course, though, one cannot get rid of opposing ideas entirely; a sealed vault has been discovered,<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|What must be concealed|Fallen London|}} ''"Below hidden passages, sunk deep in the stone, the Sunken Embassy concealed sealed vaults. You must breach marble and brass to reach them. Roses and thorns cover the space, thick as cobwebs and suspended from the high arches above. You must dangle from them to make your way down. Here the Embassy stored a fraction of its old laws; broken edicts and shattered clauses, contradictory rites and observances. Taking only that which can be carried, you discern that the chief preoccupation of these Byzantine instructions was the behaviour of the Embassy's staff themselves."''</ref> storing remnants of the old and contradictory laws of Hell that seem to predicate upon the behavior of the Embassy's staff.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|What must be concealed|Fallen London|}} ''"Below hidden passages, sunk deep in the stone, the Sunken Embassy concealed sealed vaults. You must breach marble and brass to reach them. Roses and thorns cover the space, thick as cobwebs and suspended from the high arches above. You must dangle from them to make your way down. Here the Embassy stored a fraction of its old laws; broken edicts and shattered clauses, contradictory rites and observances. Taking only that which can be carried, you discern that the chief preoccupation of these Byzantine instructions was the behaviour of the Embassy's staff themselves."''</ref>  

One last treasure lies within the west wing: the Concordium, a great Hellish pipe organ,<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Deeds that were done  |Fallen London|}} ''"The Concordium opens around you like an unfurling rose. Despite the damage the Fall did the Embassy, this place of soaring pipes and sonorous brass machinery remains intact. Great bellows pump. The floor, which is hot brass, shifts below you like the twitch of a heart. The pipes resemble a church organ; the air blowing through produces the cadences of a lullaby.  On a lectern carved with the heads of Goat Demons nearby, is old sheet music – an attempt at recording the notes. The final pages are scorched and the tune would require more limbs than you possess to play."''</ref> accompanied by scorched sheet music that requires an inhuman number of limbs to play.<ref>{{Citation|https://www.fallenlondon.com/|Deeds that were done  |Fallen London|}} ''"The Concordium opens around you like an unfurling rose. Despite the damage the Fall did the Embassy, this place of soaring pipes and sonorous brass machinery remains intact. Great bellows pump. The floor, which is hot brass, shifts below you like the twitch of a heart. The pipes resemble a church organ; the air blowing through produces the cadences of a lullaby.  On a lectern carved with the heads of Goat Demons nearby, is old sheet music – an attempt at recording the notes. The final pages are scorched and the tune would require more limbs than you possess to play."''</ref>  

==References ==
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