Xibalba

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The air is crisp – not quite clear, nor free of the humidity that comes from life in a vast, damp, cave. But it is chillingly cold in your lungs, sharp and shocking, icicle-daggers in your throat with every inhalation.[1]

Xibalba is a desolate, mostly uninhabited Tomb-Colony, located a short zee-voyage north of London and dating back to the Third City. The name Xibalba also refers to the City of the White Scorpion, where the God-Eaters reside.[2][3]

Beyond the Land of Scandals[edit | edit source]

Once, there were rivers here. [...] Estuaries, pumped through glass by the bargains of the Priest-Kings.[1]

The Tomb-Colony of Xibalba is located in the icy reaches of the northwestern Unterzee, north of Venderbight and Tanah-Chook.[1] It is a desolate spit of land dotted with limestone temples, built in a Mesoamerican style and eroded with age.[4] Upon closer inspection, however, some of these buildings show signs of regular upkeep.[5]

Near what passes for the island's harbor, there is a crossroads marked by three towering stalagmites.[6] Tradition dictates that visitors should prostrate themselves to greet the lords of this colony,[7] but the apparent human offerings placed in the hollows of each stalagmite are mannequins created for the Priest-Kings' amusement.[8][9] The crossroads marks each of the cardinal directions: to the west is a vein of black ravenglass (obsidian), formed by tectonic activity creating a fissure within a now-dry riverbed.[10] There is a grand arena carved directly into the ravenglass,[11] littered with human remains that may have belonged to faithful followers of the Priest-Kings.[12], but it is unclear whether they were willing sacrifices or political prisoners.[1] To the east is a red road, whose paving stones are engraved with avian designs. [13] A white alabaster road leads north, and a yellow limestone road leads south.[1]

Thanks to a drunk captain and a little intrigue, a group of several travelers once ended up on Xibalba,[14] and (if their recountings are to be believed) even visited the City of the White Scorpion itself.[15][16][17][18] Among the group was the Northbound Parliamentarian, a Seeker of the Name who noted that the God-Eaters were afraid of her and her kind.[19]

Most of the Neath's supply of Ravenglass and Black Lenses is mined on Xibalba.[20][21]

The Case of the Missing Ruins[edit | edit source]

You shamble along darkened causeways, through palace complexes. All here is blood sport and obeisance, black glass temples to the night-suns, to the Serpent, the Bird, the Cat.[22]

Xibalba became the main center of power for the Priest-Kings once the Third City began to decline. The great City of the White Scorpion is now lost,[3] but its ruins are scarce on the island of Xibalba. Instead, the city currently exists somewhere between the Is and the Is-Not.[23] It is dark even for the Neath, and filled with smoke and dust; its sky and all of its structures are made of glass (or ravenglass). [23][24][22] Its streets are inhabited by tomb-colonists, but they are all puppets of the Priest-Kings.[25] In their domain, the power of the Priest-Kings is sufficient to ward out any attempt at telepathy.[26]

Real Life Inspiration[edit | edit source]

Xibalba (shi-bal-ba / [ʃiɓalˈɓa]) is the name of the underworld in Mayan mythology. Translated from K'iche', its approximate meaning is "place of fear." The Popol Vuh describes Xibalba as a court below the surface of the earth; various cave systems across Central America may have been seen as its entrances. It is ruled by the two leading gods of death, Hun-Came and Vucub-Came (One-Death and Seven-Death),[27] and ten subordinate (but still powerful) demons who govern various forms of human suffering.[28]

The version of Xibalba depicted in The Path of Blood and Smoke takes significant inspiration from the description of Xibalba in the second chapter of the Popol Vuh.[29][30] A number of details are paralleled in the Exceptional Story:

  • A river of blood (suggested in Fallen London to be the original name of the obsidian riverbed[31])
  • The red, yellow, white, and black roads; the black road must be followed. In Mayan culture, these colors are associated with the cardinal directions.
  • Mannequins at the crossroads, which exist solely to mock the people who greet them
  • A calabash tree whose fruit resembles skulls[32]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London
  2. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Here, the waters of Shepherd’s Wash transform into the icy depths of Void’s Approach; further North than anybody sensible and warm-blooded would voluntarily live."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London ""Once it was just another tomb-colony. But after the Third fell into ruin and disrepair, the Priest-Kings took it for their own. [...] After that, the people called it Xibalba – 'the place of fright'. [...] It's lost, now. Hidden from the Neath by the arts of the Priest-Kings, a dark haven for them and their faithful.""
  4. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Stepped temple complexes in grey and weathered limestone rise from the ice. Stucco facades depict bulbous scenes, made indistinct by time and moss. Monoliths hewn from darker mineral, black like starlight, dot the landscape, and causeways – paved with flat slabs of blueish rock mined from the Neath itself – criss-cross the wastes."
  5. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Only the altar is clear of moss – clear of any kind of foulness at all. The stone shines as if polished; while the floor beneath your feet is stained with drip-water and time, the altar is clean and bright. This place has seen regular upkeep."
  6. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "They tower stilt-like above the crossroads, glassy black stalagmites."
  7. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London ""Our records say, [...] that pilgrims to Xibalba should first greet its lords.""
  8. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "[...] the figure's head tumbles from its neck. [...] The body creaks in its seat. It's a puppet! Nothing but a wooden mannequin, dressed up in Third City finery."
  9. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London ""Not so much a trial as a cruel joke [...] Thinking they were in the presence of the rulers of their city, they would prostrate themselves before the thrones. [The Priest-Kings] preferred their subjects humiliated; diminished.""
  10. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Soon it becomes clear that the black glassy road is not something embedded into the ground – it has bubbled up from below, a vast flow of ancient ravenglass into which a flat channel has been carved. It shimmers beneath the False-Stars like dark water – a deep and frozen river, forced from the rock by violent tectonics."
  11. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "The space is gladiatorial, cavernous, hewn directly from the colossal vein of ravenglass into stepped arenas of rough-hewn seating."
  12. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Whoever these people were, they were not poor. There is jade and cinnabar and hammered gold here, ear-plugs and torcs bearing the likenesses of Third City deities."
  13. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "The road is vibrant red, engraved with scenes of flight and chase. Avian imagery dominates, great crimson slabs adorned with feathers and wings"
  14. ↑ The Reclusive Turophile, Fallen London ""Whether the captain was a drunken fool or just a drunk, I don't know. But we ended up in the wrong tomb-colony! An awful place. It was bad enough to have to leave at all, but this place! Ruled over by ancient tyrants! Serpent, Red Bird and Cat. He wasn't even a nice cat!""
  15. ↑ The Bawdy Cardsharp, Fallen London ""[...] The place we ended up was called Zi... Zib... something. I don't know how to say these d__ned foreign words. Anyway, I heard from one of the locals that the chaps in charge have been around for near a thousand years. And none of yer funny cider either. They pass from body to body, like rats fleeing a house. Or bats out of a belfry... you can see them sometimes, in the streets, or fancy you can. A sort of smoke, around the bandages. They're not like the other tomb-colonists. But sometimes I wonder if they were the first...""
  16. ↑ The Libertarian Esotericist, Fallen London ""[...] I tried to make notes, but something about the place isn't conducive to a written record... let me see. A river of scorpions: did I imagine that? Was it a metaphor for something? ...no, I can recall quite clearly the sound of the thing. Like a school-yard full of vicious children. They would take bets, you know, on who might sink fastest... but it's the abysm-glass that haunts me. If you ever go there, don't look into it. But don't ever go there." He talks more of the horrors of the City of the White Scorpion. You won't sleep easily tonight."
  17. ↑ The Cat-Beset Perfectionist , Fallen London ""[...] The port where we put in... like a slice out of a different time, do y'see? A time before the Kings shrivelled. Glass gates, glass pillars... I tried to paint it. I tried.. The canvas isn't safe to burn, what's left of it. I keep it in my lumber-room, where I can't hear it of a night.." There's more, though the details become incoherent. Was this a real voyage or a honey-dream?"
  18. ↑ The Paronomastic Newshound, Fallen London ""[...] We didn't know what we were seeing. Dust and death and smoke and glass. Dust and death and smoke and glass..." [...] his voice acquires a sing-song rhythm: but then he snaps out of it. "Three of them: the Snake, the Red Bird, the Cat. I think they started human, but it's hard to tell now. We came knocking, and they gave us water, and their price wasn't so very high. Write a headline for that, eh? But listen: if you ever end up there, know this. They play games, and they don't cheat. We only got out because the Cardsharp beat them at rummy.""
  19. ↑ The Northbound Parliamentarian, Fallen London "'I got the captain drunk enough and he took us right there. They feared me, you know. They fear those who seek the Name. Perhaps we can undo everything they've built. Perhaps they know the Name. Perhaps they took it and hid it behind a black mirror. What do you think of that, eh?'"
  20. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London ""Most of the ravenglass in the Neath is mined from here," says the Lace-Wrapped Emissary. "They send workers from Venderbight to chip it away. When they can be spared from constructing the Sanatoria.""
  21. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Soon, the ravenglass will be mined again, chipped into knives that thirst and lenses that beguile."
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "You shamble along darkened causeways, through palace complexes. All here is blood sport and obeisance, black glass temples to the night-suns, to the Serpent, the Bird, the Cat."
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Dust and death and smoke and glass. This place is insubstantial as a dream – as a city glimpsed through a conflagration. A word rises unbidden in your mind: Xibalba. The lost tomb-colony, nestled here between Is and Is-Not."
  24. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "Glass gates and glass pillars shimmer in the smoke. Above, a black glass sky. The reflections of false-stars glitter like sharpened knives over the City of the White Scorpion."
  25. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "This is no one, a shell hollowed out by the voracious minds of one of this place's lords, the rulers and only inhabitants, a thousand times over, of this black lost kingdom. Other bodies shamble around the City of the White Scorpion, leaking trails of vapour, the traces of a Priest-King's inhabitation. Once, perhaps, these were people, whole and entire, selfhoods full to bursting with idiosyncrasy. No longer; they have been eaten from within. Now only a hollow is left, barren enough to house your visiting mind without complaint."
  26. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "You do not belong here. Minds vaster and more ancient than your own swirl like an ill wind, driving you out, out, lest they take you within their fangs and—"
  27. ↑ Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People (trans. Allen J. Christenson), MesoWeb Publications "Thus the lords of Xibalba, One Death and Seven Death, heard them [...]"
  28. ↑ Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People (trans. Allen J. Christenson), MesoWeb Publications "These, therefore, were the great judges, all of them lords. Each was given his task and his dominion by One Death and Seven Death: [...] Flying Scab and Gathered Blood [...] Pus Demon and Jaundice Demon [...] Bone Staff and Skull Staff, the staff bearers of Xibalba [...] Sweepings Demon and Stabbings Demon [...] Lord Wing and Packstrap [...]"
  29. ↑ Popol Vuh (1954 Translation), Biblioteca Pleyades
  30. ↑ Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People (trans. Allen J. Christenson), Mesoweb Publications pp. 107-113
  31. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London ""This would have been... the River of Pus, I think. Or perhaps the River of Blood. [...] It is difficult with these ancient texts to separate the allegorical from the literal.""
  32. ↑ The Path of Blood and Smoke, Fallen London "The leaves are brittle and grey, and hanging pendulously from each black-boned branch is a fruit as white as ivory, and familiarly shaped. "The stories say each fruit is the skull of a hero who stood against the lords of Xibalba.""
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