The Unseen Queen

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"I saw it! Ask anyone! ...except her. Don't ask her."

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"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"

This page contains spoilers for the following Sunless Skies content: Ambition: The Martyr-King's Cup. Proceed at your own risk.

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The Unseen Queen is a former celestial being and the daughter of a Judgement. She seeks to regain her glory by recruiting a loyal quester to travel the skies and uncover a magical artifact said to be able to grant immortality, called the The Martyr-King's Cup.

Quasi una fantasia[edit | edit source]

"I always wondered why I was born. Apparently, I was a contingency. As he died, he stole the moment of my birth and used it to preserve the moment of his death. Now he is forever dying, forever in torment, but never dead. A shadow. "And what does that make me? He erased me. He stole my existence to preserve his own. I am not even the shadow of a shadow. But I will claw my way back."[1]

The Unseen Queen, the daughter of the King of Hours, is a flirtatious spirit who manifests as a painting of a noblewoman with her face scratched out.[2] Sometimes called Albion's moon, she is heavily associated with moonlight; in the moonlit world of what Should-Be, the Queen is tangible, powerful, and her kingdom is perfect and eternal. In reality, however, she is trapped in this damaged painting and must rely on mortals to do her bidding.

When the King of Hours was assassinated by the Sapphir'd King, he stole the moment of his daughter's birth to evade death and transform into the Storm that Speaks - functionally erasing her in the process.[3] The Unseen Queen heavily resents her father for creating the endless day where she never shone, as well as for using her as a contingency to escape his death. She lingers out of sight in the underworld of New London[4] - and one day, she may take her revenge.[5]

The Quest Begins[edit | edit source]

In order to reforge her own existence, the Unseen Queen must destroy all that remains of her father. She recruits mortal champions to collect fragments of the Minute to Midnight, the "shard of killing time" that served as his murder weapon. She must also recover an artifact called the Martyr-King's Cup, which the King of Hours forged using the last remnants of his eternal Golden Day.

Despite her current state, the Queen has a powerful tool of leverage over the mortals she recruits. She utilizes moonlight to show them the world as she thinks it should be and manipulates them into believing that they are her loyal knights in an Arthurian tale. Outside the influence of moonlight, the shards of the Minute to Midnight appear to be mere refuse, and the Queen herself is surrounded by rats and garbage - but those under her sway see swords, banners, and courtiers at a grand tournament ground. Additionally, the Queen claims that reenacting her father's final moments using the Martyr-King's Cup can grant a person immortality:[6] a powerful promise, however unattainable it may be in reality.

An erstwhile quester for the Cup, and one of the most successful before they were trapped at Piranesi, says that the Queen "is nothing; she is less than nothing. She never existed."[7]

Cultural Inspirations[edit | edit source]

The quest for the Martyr-King's Cup takes heavy influence from Arthurian legend; the search for the Holy Grail and the immortality it grants its owner is a central theme of many of the stories. This inspiration can also be seen in motifs like the reforging of a magic sword, a battle against a questing beast, earning the favor of a noble lady through loyal service and victory in combat, and the valiant effort to restore a lost kingdom to its former glory.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Ask about the King of Hours, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ The Portrait of the Unseen Queen, Sunless Skies "A silver-framed portrait hanging outside the door to your quarters. It depicts a noblewoman, face scratched out, sitting beneath a crescent moon. Your crew don't like it when you while away the hours in conversation with her."
  3. ↑ Ask about the King of Hours, Sunless Skies "As he died, he stole the moment of my birth and used it to preserve the moment of his death. Now he is forever dying, forever in torment, but never dead. [...] And what does that make me? He erased me. He stole my existence to preserve his own. I am not even the shadow of a shadow. But I will claw my way back."
  4. ↑ Try to find a path to the castle, Sunless Skies "After a few hours of searching, you come across a curious sight. A section of the rubbish-heap has been assiduously cleared and flattened. The pieces of rubbish that remain seem to have been carefully chosen for aesthetic reasons – piping, wire, scrap metal – and assembled into something approaching a throne. And sitting in the throne, a faded old portrait."
  5. ↑ Ask about the Golden Day, Sunless Skies "How I hated it. What use am I, during an endless day? Where is my light to shine? Even before I was unmade, I was unseen. Blame my father's arrogance. He couldn't bear to conceal his light, even for a moment."
  6. ↑ Ask her about the Cup, Sunless Skies "This Cup holds the moment of my father's death and the final gasps of a dying realm, after all. Immortality requires a complex ritual. We must take the Cup before the Storm That Speaks and recite the poisoned words that killed my father."
  7. ↑ Ambition: Give a Captivating Treasure to the Conformer, Sunless Skies "It is impossible for any mortal to access. I advise you to give up. The Queen is not worth dying for. In fact, she is nothing; she is less than nothing. She never existed."
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