Fallen London - Firmament Recap
This is entirely different from my usual ramblings - this post is meant to be a resource to talk about the latest ongoing Fallen London story, Firmament! I would have previously have used cohost for this (rip), but we make do with the blogging tools available.
Chapter 1
Firmament begins with a weird dream sequence about being a book and being followed by fire but weird dreams are old hat to the FLPC. The bigger news is that it's raining. Finding out where the rain comes from is the ostensible impetus behind Firmament - we've gotta explore the Roof of the Neath in order to stop the rain before London drowns! After getting an airship from Station IX, we fly up to the nearest roof location, Hallow's Throat.
We also collect our first two companions for the journey - the Last Duchess, who appears to have some unusual ideas about who should rule England, and Tatterdemalion, whose golden shades quite obviously mark him as someone with some kind of connection to the Dawn Machine. At the Throat, we collect our third, the Forlorn Shepherd, a melancholy starved man with three eyes, who offers to be our navigator and guide to the weird world of the Roof.
The Throat has three structures: The Lung, which is a large, hollowed out stalactite; the Spleen, which is where the Starved effect transformations (and you can too, in Ecdysis); and finally the Gullet. Curiously, the Gullet appears to be identical to the stalactite that crushed the horticultural show.
Meeting with the Starved in charge (to find out about the rain) reveals that they believe London has been destroyed. It comes out that London is still around, thank you very much, which culminates in the (re)dropping of the Gullet. This is done out of a sense of preservation rather than malice - there are different factions of Starved, and one wanted to open an eye in the Roof to let sunlight in and destroy everything - dropping the Gullet is meant to prevent nuclear apocalypse.
Prior to the dropping, a winged thing attacked the FLPC. It's called a guardian by the starved here, but later given the name Vulgate, and it shows up again now, complaining about how you've ruined everything. It also mentions the "scriveners of Zenith" (they'll show up later), and calls itself superior to all of them. Anyway, the gist of all this is that this Vulgate liked this version of history, and so "rewrote" things locally, so that it was true that the Gullet still existed. It tries to write you out of reality. The description of it has made many contemplate whether it is connected to the Scriveners or Scrive-Spinsters of Sunless Skies.
Before you can die in the tragic sequel to the horticultural show, the stalactite is unmade in fire (!), and you're rescued by the airship. Weird! Weirder still, nobody on the ship has any memory of the Gullet - but the FLPC and the Last Duchess do...
Well anyways, the rain wasn't here, so it's time to go further up. Next stop is the Midnight Moon.
Chapter 2
We arrive at the Midnight Moon and see pretty immediately that it's the source of the rain! Wow, this story is gonna wrap up in two chapters I bet. The Midnight Moon is a small little ambergris mining station around this impaled whale, and water is pouring out of the Whale's mouth in incredible quantities.
We assemble a couple of clues - one, some miners disappeared inside the whale and never came out. That's weird, since a whale is only so big. Two, venturing inside the whale reveals that the water is just coming from out of nowhere. And three, on the way up in Chapter 1, we'd had a weird stop at some kind of "grave" - although upon closer inspection, it appeared to be the site of something's entrance to the neath (perhaps the Vulgate's?). Tatterdemalion draws a connection between the emergence of the water and the emergence of whatever it was that came through the grave/gate. Investigating there reveals a clue in the Correspondence; a lock that can only be broken by paradoxes, and an exhortation to "give me back to myself." Well, they've been taking ambergris from the whale - what if we returned some?
Hightailing it back to the Midnight Moon, we get a little more detail resolved - the rain came after an experimental method to induce ambergris production in the already dead whale. The remaining miners blame some "engineer" (who has conveniently gone missing with the rest of the missing miners). The expedition is allowed access to the whale. Bringing pieces of ambergris to the inscribed stalactite causes the gate to ignite in fire, and allow passage to the other side -
- Which leads to maybe the wildest place in all of Fallen London. Someone cheeky has left a little note; they've dubbed this place "Lost Time," where things that can't be allowed to exist are bound into books and shelved (active tense - there are Librarians, who you do not want to cross). Finding the right book will take you into that alternate version of history. All we have to do now is find the book that corresponds to the whale!
Eventually you do so. Bringing the book to the reading room and opening it temporarily undoes the binding that has turned reality into text - and so you and Tatterdemalion and the Last Duchess are taken to another world. In this alternate world, the whale rose all the way to the surface, and found itself in a version of Naples (or more particularly, the Mediterranean).
Lost Naples is a beautiful vacationing spot, but unfortunately we came for business not pleasure. The miners are here, along with their engineer, who gives her name as Summer. She's the one who left us notes on how to navigate the stacks in Lost Time, she reveals that she wasn't responsible for the reappearing ambergris (instead, someone or multiple someones are going around and doing this kind of thing), and most importantly in terms of fixing the problems, she doesn't want to leave until she's acquired a book, since it's one that is impossible in her version of history. Unfortunately, the miners have bribed the bookseller to not sell her the book, so that they can remain here on holiday. After resolving the dispute, the whale is induced to either rise or fall, which severs the connection - the whale is no longer an anomaly, and so the book is no longer needed. This version of history is undone, and we are returned to Lost Time.
A quick aside on Summer; there are a few hints that she might be June, one of the months of the Calendar Council, about whom very little is established; previous text establishes that June is the engineer of the Dawn Machine, and that she can't be trusted (presumably for this reason). An old Exceptional Story, the Calendar Code, takes you to a library where the book corresponding to (/ authored by) June is a "collection of ideas for frivolous amusements," connected in game mechanics to the Hedonist quirk. The text also suggests that the author is trying to chase away "dangerous introspection" by planning all these little diversions. That's pretty much it (she has one of the shortest wiki entries of the 12 councilmembers).
So why do we think Summer might be June? Mostly circumstantial evidence - Summer is clearly knowledgeable about the Correspondence and a capable Red Scientist, qualities we would expect to find in June. Summer is enjoying a life of luxury, and seems to be rather epicurean in her tastes - we don't quite get a sense of her desperate avoidance of introspection, but there is perhaps a link to "hedonism." The book Summer desires is (probably) The History of the Two Republics, an unreal book apparently by Garibaldi, about overthrowing the Sicilian Monarchy. In our world, that did really happen, although unified Italy became another kingdom. Summer's interest in the book (and in Lost Time, more generally) is about using the laws of reality against themselves, with a very revolutionary bent (since in Fallen London, the laws of reality are the laws of the highest monarchs, the Judgments); according to Summer, "Even a prison contains the key to its cells, and law contains its own shadow: anarchy." Also in chapter 3 we learn that Tatterdemalion is beefing with her. Anyway, certainly not conclusive; I'm looking forward to learning more about Summer in the coming chapters.
When we return to the Midnight Moon, the last of the water is already falling away! Problem solved. Except that that weird dream about fire comes back - this time, declaring that the FLPC, personally, is in grave peril. I guess the story can't be over yet. We wrap up with a quick debrief with the team: Tatterdemalion is gung ho, the Shepherd is pensive about returning to Zenith (where he's from, it turns out), and Summer invites herself to the party. Most notably, the Last Duchess says she had precisely the same dream... Wonder what's going on there.
Chapter 3
The Forlorn Shepherd has negotiated our passage to Zenith! But it turns out that he's persona non grata among the starved who live here. They call themselves the Illuminated, and they have some rites involving moon misers and the violant light that suffuses this place. The Illuminated worship a figure that they call the Immanent, and believe his emergence from the sanctum in Zenith is nigh. In fact, our arrival is meant to herald his coming. Well, our dream also involved a prisoner in Zenith. So, good news?
In the course of learning about this place, we also get some of the Shepherd's backstory; the rites seem to involve killing one's chosen moon miser. He wanted to refuse, but found himself unable to. The shame and regret drove him to flee. He's been dubbed "the Hollow One" on his return, but his understanding is that that title is reserved for someone who drowned themselves instead of their miser. Although he floats the possibility that perhaps time wobbliness is to blame, in actuality, it's a calculated move on behalf of the Illuminated; they venerate suffering, believing that it will be transmuted into "radiance," and he was chosen to receive this honor. This might have been to intentionally create a "hollow" vessel that the Imminent could then fill, as a means of escape - I didn't read the text this way, but it does give some of the Shepherd's lines and other interactions a particular resonance. Also the misers don't actually die, but are changed by exposure to violant. Just calling it out because I found the writing around this plot point to be a little tough to decipher!
We complete the rites, and use them as a distraction to sneak in to the sanctum. Inside, we're greeted by the Illuminated's Pastor, and he takes us on a little tour before revealing that actually, he is the Immanent. He took on the guise of the Pastor (who was allowed access, because the Moon Miser rite and the resulting violant milk is necessary to keep the apocrypha imprisoned here), and in this disguise, orchestrated events so that we would be granted passage, so that we could free him. Anyway, inside we get some more hints - the Last Duchess sees that the Vulgate have taken an interest in her home (which is revealed to be Ghent, and somehow accessible from the Neath, apparently).
The Immanent himself is rather notable. He appears to be some kind of immensely powerful being, high up on the chain, the Herald of a Prince. Further examination of his memories suggest that he might be a part of or emanation of a dragon (perhaps even Storm). We get a classic tragic FL love story - the Herald, exposed to the Neath, began to dream (which isn't supposed to happen) and then love his prince (which really isn't supposed to happen. As of this chapter, there's a lot we don't know, precisely. My suspicion is that he is apocryphal, a self taken from another time.
Here, the story features its first major split - to progress, we must interfere with the Immanent's memories, in order to change him, so that he might escape the prison (only things that have changed are allowed to leave, and the violant here keeps most things perfectly connected to themselves). It's possible to doom him to irrigo and forgetfulness - it's possible to cause the Immanent and the Shepherd to merge! And it's of course possible to change him as he asked, setting him free to wreak havoc and bring obliteration to the Neath, since he despises the lawlessness of this place. Oops!
The flock of Vulgate finally catches up at this point, and we're forced to flee. Either the Immanent or the mysterious fire drive off our pursuers, but we're left with a sense of impending doom. Both the FLPC and The Last Duchess are apparently of interest to these timeline altering jerks. The Illuminated Shepherd, if you joined the Shepherd and the Immanent into a single being, reveals that if the Vulgate succeed in their grandest endeavor, then his old prince will be awakened, which would surely doom everyone. Uh oh! Next time, apparently, we get to go to Ghent and find out what the heck the Last Duchess' deal is.
That's it for the story so far! I thought I would also make a little section of what appears to be "tracked", for ease of reference wrt some decision points.
Qualities from Chapter 1:
The Regard of the Dawnseeker, The Admiration of a Duchess, and The Hopes of a Shepherd: These all track how your crew are feeling about you. There are a few mutually exclusive points (e.g., going with Tatterdemalion's plan gives you a point of Dawnseeker regard, but declining his plan gives you Duchess admiration). These have a few "spends" in the current slew of chapters; predominantly, if you would like to exert your will over theirs, you can spend their friendship points to get the outcome you prefer. These are scattered throughout, and while not always signposted, usually pretty clear. Weirdly, these are all hidden, so you won't find them in your "Self" tab.
Menial Decision: Tracks whether you had the Last Duchess' attendants stay (as the Duchess orders) or if you countermanded her and told them to go. Impacts a small scene after being rescued, but also seems to have changed their opinion of you - it's possible this might come up in Ch. 4.
Vulgatis: Tracks whether you convinced the Vulgate who accosts you in Ch. 1 to escape, or simply left it to its fate. No use, yet.
Qualities from Chapter 2:
A History of the Two Republics: Tracks which version of the book you gave to Summer - the real or the replica. Impacts whether Summer sings the whale up or down. She doesn't seem too put out by the fake, but I wouldn't be surprised if this come back later.
And did they return?: Tracks whether the ambergris miners returned or stayed. Impacts a line when you return to the Midnight Moon yourself.
The Leviathan's Call: Tracks whether the whale rose or fell. There are some associated hidden qualities (like Summer Sang or Tatterdemalion Sang, etc), but nothing tracks specifically whether you had the Duchess or Tatterdemalion "sing other than they would" (those choices just eat up the character's "Regard" quality). No idea if this will come back later.
Qualities from Chapter 3:
A Dream of Summer: this appears to me to be Summer's "friendship points" quality, but so far there is only one opportunity to acquire this single point - going with her distraction over Tatterdemalion's. Oddly, it is not hidden, unlike the other members of that "family."
Flammier or Lucifier: Two different qualities - you'll get exactly one or the other. Tracks whether you "heeded" the flame (Flammier), or interrogated the flame & prisoner in your dream (Lucifer). No uses yet, which makes me awfully suspicious.
The Secret Ways of Zenith: Tracks whether you intervened in a scene by the rockpools. This has impacts on what happens to the Forlorn Shepherd, by way of the qualities below (Revelations and Rejections).
The Shepherd's Revelations and The Shepherd's Rejections: two different qualities that play a large part in how the chapter resolves. There are three opportunities to raise one or the other: Telling the Shepherd that the Hollowed One is heroic, that you don't know what happens to the Moon Misers in the rites, and intervening in the Secret Ways of Zenith) raise Revelations; saying that the Hollowed One is a victim, that you know the fate of the Misers, and not intervening raise Rejections. Whether Rejections or Revelations is higher will impact the Immanence quality (technically, they impact The Forlorn Shepherd quality, which is then used).
Hollowed: Tracks whether you told the Shepherd about what you saw in the pools (that his miser lived). Telling him keeps a particular outcome for the Immanence quality open (or rather, not telling him prevents you from those Immanence quality outcomes). Either option will change how he reacts when he is reunited with his Moon Miser.
Immanence: Tracks what became of the Immanent. You can choose to remove two of his memories (he "changed enough to escape Zenith"); you can choose to remove all three of his memories (causing him to remain); or, in special cases and with particular combinations of Revelations and Rejections, he can merge with the Shepherd. With two memories removed, Hollowed 1 (you told the truth) and Shepherd 25 (Revelations higher than Rejections), he will seize what he thinks is his destiny as the Hollowed One, and force the Immanent to merge with him. With the special "try to remove only one" storylet, removing the memory of stars, Hollowed 1, and Shepherd 25, the two consensually merge. If they merged, you get a new quality, Navigator: The Illuminated Shepherd (and you lose your previous Navigator: The Forlorn Shepherd quality). All of these outcomes have impacts on what happens directly next, to conclude the chapter, and presumably will continue to impact chapters going forward.
Redacted: A Memory of Love / Death / Distant Starlight: These are three different qualities that you acquire by removing the corresponding memory from the Immanent. So far, there appears to be one use (you can only get the consensual merging with redacted starlight, I think), but it seems like these could potentially impact the Immanent's appearances in future chapters.
Marked by Zenith: Acquired by entering the rites without the protective layer of counterfeit emotions. This has the "we told you it'd be bad!" bold & italicized text warning, so this will be used somewhere down the line. The consequences are, for now, uncertain.
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