The Fifth City: Fallen London's Lore Wikia
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The Fifth City: Fallen London's Lore Wikia
The Fifth City: The Neath's Lore Wiki
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in: Places, The High Wilderness, Albion

Albion

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"The heart of London's celestial empire, illuminated by the greatest feat of British engineering to date: a clockwork sun! While the cream of society enjoy tea in their salons and scandal in their newspapers, the wheels of British industry thunder."[1]

Albion is the British Empire's domain in the High Wilderness.

An Empire Renewed[]

"When Her Majesty entered Albion, she slew the sun with an experimental weapon: an Unclear Bomb. Then she claimed the sun's throne and dominion."[2]

The hub of Albion is New London - good old Fallen London - which has now been transported into space, brick by brick.[3] Empress Victoria rules here from her Throne of Hours, having gained control over time itself.[4] The region is illuminated by the glorious Clockwork Sun, the new King of Hours and the light that keeps the watches ticking.[5]

The hottest commodity on the market is hours, a material form of time; hours are often gifted as rewards for service[6][7] and to the privileged,[8][9] and can be used to significantly prolong one's life.[10] Hours are mined, licensed, and sent to the royal court where Her Renewed Majesty distributes them as she pleases.[11] However, there is also a rapidly growing black market trade in the stuff across the High Wilderness.[12][13][14]

All space that lies beyond Albion is known as the Reach. Albion and the Reach are linked by a transit relay located near the Brabazon Workworld.[15]

Victorian Ideals Taken To Extremes[]

Sovereigns

Sovereigns, London's new currency.

"We stand in the vault of heaven, and we must defend our way of life against the enticements of the new. A thing is not more precious because it is strange. People forget that."[16]

While London's industry is bigger than ever, its society has become notoriously repressive. Those who fall out of the court's favor are thrown into the Midnight Cells, where every minute lasts a day and only the old and decrepit may leave.[17] The poor are put to work in the Brabazon Workworld, where an accelerated flow of time rapidly ages its workers,[18][19] and whose working conditions would make Mr Fires blush.[20][21] Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Decency has become a paragon of xenophobia[22] hellbent on exterminating all literature seen as "un-British;"[23] whatever survives their censorship is inevitably hopelessly dull.[24][25] Considering all of the above, it is little wonder that most revolutionaries and countercultural elements have fled Albion in favor of freer pastures like Eleutheria.

Locations[]

What Really Happened?[]

Appallingsecret

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

Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, or Sunless Skies. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.


"When a murder is committed correctly, only two creatures know what occurred: one is the murdered; the other..." She says no more, but opens one of her thousand plumed hands... A trophy, plucked from the corpse of a star."[26]

At the turn of the 20th century, London allied with the Khanate[27] to breach the Avid Horizon and escape the Neath, and the Bazaar's influence, once and for all.[28] Once the Horizon was crossed, London rebuilt itself in the sky[3] in the space once ruled by the sun of Albion (the King of Hours), while the Khanate settled in Eleutheria and founded Eagle's Empyrean.[29]

According to official records, Queen Victoria conspired with revolutionaries to use an Unclear Bomb to kill the King of Hours - but the bomb was never used.[30] Albion hides the truth for the sake of its reputation, but the true murderer of the King of Hours was the Sapphir'd King, the sun of the Blue Kingdom,[31][32] and the murder took place centuries ago.[33]

In the King of Hours' place, the Empress erected the Clockwork Sun, a renewed artificial star that would make her will the world's law[5] (never mind the detrimental effects on everyone).[34] With her power solidified, London entered a new age of imperialistic fervor and glory, determined to preserve her grip on the skies for all eternity.[35]

References[]

  1. ↑ Albion, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Contemplate the dead sun, Sunless Skies
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Explore London, Sunless Skies "Liberated from her prison below the earth and elevated to the heavens. [...] Here are old, proud buildings, transported block by pale block to the sky. Here are new edifices of soaring steel and stone and gleaming glass! The ultimate achievement of Victorian ambition, unhampered by terrestrial concerns."
  4. ↑ London, Sunless Skies "The heart of London, where Her Renewed Majesty reigns from her Throne of Hours."
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Write a Port Report, Sunless Skies "The Clockwork Sun is the pre-eminent symbol of the Empire's heavenly dominion. The newspapers in London call it enduring, everlasting, eternal."
  6. ↑ Charm the servants, Sunless Skies "You quickly learn that many of the Servants are in Perdurance as a reward for some special service to the Empress. Some volunteered to come because their illnesses can be deferred indefinitely – each night, Perdurance's looms spin the same day backwards, so its inhabitants never age or decline."
  7. ↑ Courting the Deathless, Sunless Skies "The Most Serene Mausoleum houses more than just the Prince Consort. Under its soaring spires, the Empress keeps her most favoured courtiers. These lucky few are provided with every luxury they might wish, and a generous stipend of hours. The only condition of this bounty is that they are dead. [...] They are the Deathless."
  8. ↑ Albion, Sunless Skies "The Empress Victoria reigns from her Throne of Hours, exerting authority over time itself. Her favourites are rewarded with freshly-minted months to prolong their lives [...]"
  9. ↑ Ask her what she does, Sunless Skies "I keep this d_mned place running is what I do. Do you think the looms ravel their own time, or untangle knotted skeins, or order new consignments of hours to make sure Them Above [the wealthy youth of Perdurance] don't go wanting for their precious, perfect day?"
  10. ↑ Ask about the nature of Hours, Sunless Skies "But with the use of hour-looms, a week's journey can be made to take a day, or a prisoner can endure the ten years of his sentence while only one year passes outside his cell. A workworld can perform a month's labour in a week. A lifespan can be stretched. The Empire runs on hours."
  11. ↑ Albion, Sunless Skies "Unseasoned hours are mined in the Reach, then shipped to Albion to be refined on soot-choked workworlds. Casks of stamped and seasoned hours are then delivered to Her Majesty, to be dispensed at her pleasure. "
  12. ↑ Investigate the rogue hours trade (Brabazon), Sunless Skies "A group of sooty youths guards their loom protectively. "Please, Inspector. You've seen how things are. We're spending the best years of our lives working here. We just wants a few of 'em back.""
  13. ↑ Investigate the rogue hours trade (Port Prosper), Sunless Skies "A local criminal has tired of bribing the local magistrates to get his thugs' sentences reduced. Instead, he spins pockets of hours and smuggles them into the prison, so their incarceration speeds by."
  14. ↑ Investigate the rogue hours trade (Carillon), Sunless Skies ""They're for the clientele," explains a cornered devil. "Some of them don't appreciate their treatments and will pay handsomely to get them over with. [...] No real harm. At least, none that the customer hasn't decided to inflict upon themselves."
  15. ↑ The Brabazon Workworld, Sunless Skies "The Albion-Reach Transit Relay is located very near to this port. "
  16. ↑ What does the Ministry consider an enemy?, Sunless Skies
  17. ↑ Albion, Sunless Skies "The Empress Victoria reigns from her Throne of Hours, exerting authority over time itself. [...] those who displease her are condemned to the Midnight Cells, where every minute lasts a day, and no one leaves until their hair is white and their bones are bent. "
  18. ↑ Airs of Brabazon, Sunless Skies "Two Overseers nearby join you in waving. They plaster false smiles on their faces. Once the children are gone, one says: "Some of them won't stop crying about the nannies. But the alternative was so much worse. To see your parents wither into old age? They are too young to understand.""
  19. ↑ The Last Day, Sunless Skies "Those Workworlders lucky enough to have reached the end of their service blink in the light of freedom. They were young when they first arrived. Now their skin is calloused and wrinkled; aged not only by hard labour, but the slow-burning light of the Clockwork Sun."
  20. ↑ Exploring Brabazon, Sunless Skies "Weary workers struggle to their first shift, grey as ghosts in the smog. They struggle under heavy tool bags, and heavier debts. The debtor's court does not give a good rate of exchange on sovereigns owned to years worked."
  21. ↑ Secure a worker medical attention, Sunless Skies "A worker has been injured in a factory accident. A common occurrence. So common that she can't be seen until the doctor next visits."
  22. ↑ What does the Ministry consider an enemy?, Sunless Skies "Oh, the obvious, of course. Revolutionaries. Rebels. Strikers. The morally depraved. Those who besmirch Her Renewed Majesty [...] But there are newer, more seditious dangers, too. [...] we must defend our way of life against the enticements of the new. A thing is not more precious because it is strange."
  23. ↑ Ask what the Ministry does, exactly, Sunless Skies "We make Britishness. A priceless commodity here in the heavens. It must be cradled, nurtured and nourished. Without it, we would lose ourselves. [...] We are very small, do you see? And the sky is so very big."
  24. ↑ Lower unrest with patriotic literature, Sunless Skies "Perhaps the literature has stoked the fires of patriotism, and inspired them to dutiful work. Perhaps it is so turgid that they have been reduced to a soporific obedience. The effect is the same."
  25. ↑ Provide books to a school, Sunless Skies "The children fall upon anything that's new. Their old book of morally-appropriate fairy tales has been read so much that its pages are now fragile as tissues. You spend an hour watching them read the new works (which mostly consist of sermons) [...]"
  26. ↑ Hand over the Dignity of Albion Bill, Sunless Skies
  27. ↑ London's Enclave, Sunless Skies "London and the Khanate worked together to enter the High Wilderness; but their alliance since has been tenuous."
  28. ↑ The Eleutheria Transit Relay, Sunless Skies "He apparently feels no need to be polite about London's once-ally, even though it was Empyrean technology that helped open the door to the heavens."
  29. ↑ Eagle's Empyrean, Sunless Skies "The Eagle's Empyrean has been hung here like a lamp, amidst the fathomless dark of Eleutheria. This part of the sky has been claimed by the Eagle Khan."
  30. ↑ Approach Her Renewed Majesty, Sunless Skies ""Your Majesty. We found the Unclear Bomb. It's unused. I must surmise that we did not kill Albion's sun. Thus, we did not claim Albion by conquest – and owe the Revolutionaries no debt. [...] Am I correct?" Victoria laughs. Her laughter is bright. "Oh, well done. Yes. We enlisted help, but the situation on the ground turned out to be quite different from what we'd expected.""
  31. ↑ Ask about the King of Hours, Sunless Skies "The King of Hours was betrayed and murdered by the Blue Kingdom."
  32. ↑ Hand over the Dignity of Albion Bill, Sunless Skies ""We know. There is an order to creation; a Chain of Being. Things such as you cannot be the death of things such as we. [...] When a murder is committed correctly, only two creatures know what occurred: one is the murdered; the other..." She says no more, but opens one of her thousand plumed hands [...] A trophy, plucked from the corpse of a star."
  33. ↑ Use your reputation to help skip the queue, Sunless Skies "Using the telescope, he was able to locate the last light cast by Albion's old sun, the one the Empire claims to have defeated 5 years ago. But according to his calculations, the light is centuries old. Albion's sun was dead long before the Empress came to the skies."
  34. ↑ The Glasshouse, Sunless Skies "Some of the prisoners are shining at the seams, some have eyes of curdled glass. A fractured face turns to watch you. A few are singing in praise of the Sun, mouths bloody and throats tattered."
  35. ↑ Approach Her Renewed Majesty, Sunless Skies "Not that anyone's motivations matter so much anymore. One is timeless. One's dominion is history itself. Chronology bows before one. One is Eternity's Mistress." She smiles, serene and radiant. She waves her hand: you are dismissed."
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