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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: Other Things of Significance

Apocyan

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"A wakes APOCYAN, the blue of memory and brightest coral."[1]

Apocyanletter

A color of the Neathbow, apocyan is the color of coral, of memory,[2] and of the Zee's waves.[3] The name "apocyan" presumably derives from the color cyan, which has a similar hue, and the Greek prefix apo-, meaning something between "off, away" and "descended from"[4] - like the words "apostate" (gone-away-from-a-cause) or "apocalypse" (un-covering).

Properties[]

Apocyanic light is difficult to contain, even in a mirrorcatch box; it seems to want to release its memory into the world.[5][6] In addition to the Zee, the waters of the Sea of Spines are also apocyan, and filled with memories of past evolutions.[7]

Apocyan has been portrayed as a variety of shades of blue, from teal[8] to azure.

Uses[]

Apocyanic chess pieces are sourced from the Principles of Coral,[9] and Crooked-Crosses often lacquer their crosses in this color.[10] The cross serves as a personal repository of memories and knowledge,[11] and Crooked-Crosses use its apocyanic power to implant memories into convenient gaps, altering history by making it appear as if these memories have always been there.[12][13]

Blue Scintillack is extremely valuable and shines brilliant apocyanic light.[14] And an apocyanic piece of amber could be used as a key to breach the Bazaar...[15]

Apocyan can also be used to create "daguerrotypes" of dreams and certain memories, often by blinking in these dreams to produce flashes of apocyanic light.[16][17] These memories seem to be distorted memories or reflections of the Surface,[18] coalescing into a mysterious and unfamiliar city[19][20] with a large Ferris wheel, a tower whose top shines like an eye, and color everywhere.[21][22] Further exploration reveals a sort of displacement of London,[23] and what appears to be a vision of the city had it remained on the Surface.[24][25] This has something to do with the dreams of one of the Masters.[26][27] The dreams that guide a person toward these vision of a city are fallout from the feud between Mr Wines and Mr Spices over the domain of dreams,[28] but it is not made clear precisely whose dreams these are.[29]

Apocyan is one of the few Neathbow colors that also appears in the High Wilderness; specifically, it lights the pyres of a colony of Rubbery Men living in the depths of the House of Rods and Chains.[30]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. ↑ A Page from 'The Neathbow': Apocyan, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ A Page from 'The Neathbow': Apocyan, Sunless Sea "A wakes APOCYAN, the blue of memory and brightest coral."
  3. ↑ Sunless tattoo, Fallen London "Neath-colours: apocyanic for the wave-tips; peligin for the deeps."
  4. ↑ Origin and meaning of the prefix apo-, Online Etymology Dictionary
  5. ↑ Apocyan-filled Mirrorcatch Box, Fallen London "It is difficult to keep it closed. The lid keeps threatening to burst off and flood the room with light and recollection."
  6. ↑ Empty an apocyan-filled box, Fallen London "You unhook the lid and the box gleefully pops open, filling your vision with with an apocyanic glare."
  7. ↑ Tell the Viscountess about the Sea of Spines, Fallen London "You describe the apocyan waves; the memories that drift in the water; the recollection of many earlier evolutions."
  8. ↑ Per Bruno Dias on the FBG Discord, regarding color choices of advanced stat icons: "Apocyan (teal)"
  9. ↑ Apocyan Chess-Piece, Sunless Sea
  10. ↑ A Crooked Cross, Fallen London "You've had it in lacquered in pleasing tones of blue and apocyanic. An immeasurable improvement."
  11. ↑ Canonise Saint Spicula within the main body of the Church, Fallen London "The apocyan of your cross is not merely ostentation. It is a sacred, curated, repository of truths, all of your jewelled treasures of history imprinted into apocyan filigree and shimmer."
  12. ↑ Canonise Saint Spicula within the main body of the Church, Fallen London "There is holy beauty to the interplay of truths, the gaps between what Is and what Is Not. It is not the facts that are important, but the spaces between [...] Like stars describing complex constellations by their connections through the void, so can the orientations and proximities of truths describe new beliefs. [...] Drawing on the wellspring of memory housed within your cross, you rearrange the heavens. For the briefest moment, truth and belief are malleable as clay. You speak; the world listens."
  13. ↑ Canonise a virtuous ancestor, Fallen London "Under apocyanic light, you swim in the waters of the Devout Ancestor's memory. Her devotion is tangible, a vast upswelling in the tide. Compassion; belief; pragmatic philanthropy. A true unsainted saint of the Fourth City. The shape of her holiness is already present in the facts of her life – except she has been unjustly forgotten. Truth flows into place, after too long spent diverted from its true course."
  14. ↑ A Lump of Blue Scintillack, Sunless Sea "It blazes with apocyanic radiance."
  15. ↑ 'I bring the Bazaar.', Fallen London "[...] this throbbing chunk of altered amber could be the key to the Bazaar's defences. [...] You paid dearly to get this apocyanic lump into the spire, and more dearly still to get it out, once it had absorbed the imprint you needed."
  16. ↑ Cast a flare into the shadows., Fallen London "The torch bursts into flames, which crackle and burn fierce apocyan. The figure starts to run towards you [...] You blink. The image remains, captured. You have a new daguerrotype, a page to add to your others. You will remember this figure. Will you remember what it is they want to burn? Will you remember to flee from them?"
  17. ↑ Ask what the apocyanic light does, Fallen London "Apocyan light allows me to take a moment of memory and preserve it. It can freeze a memory in time, just as a daguerrotype captures a moment of light forever. I have shone apocyan light into your dreams, to see what you saw. This is a very successful procedure! I have performed it countless times."
  18. ↑ Watch the fireworks, Fallen London "The buildings are edged in apocyanic light, in a way that's reminiscent of... something you haven't thought of for a long while. When you place the memory, it's a surprise. It's like a sunrise. But sunrises weren't that colour, were they? Some of the buildings are the familiar ones you know, but some aren't. They're taller, Sharper."
  19. ↑ Wait for the sunset (candle), Fallen London "In the last rays of the sun, the lake is lit – just for a moment. The shapes of the other city's skyline, illuminated in a dying apocyan sun, are unfamiliar."
  20. ↑ Get closer, Fallen London "You hold your hands up in front of you, and as you blink, you see the skyline of the strange city you've seen before. The Other City. The tower that reflects the sky is there. Palaces and bridges, streets and squares. A tall dome, and a squat one."
  21. ↑ Feed the flames., Fallen London "There is a tower, now, its walls reflecting the red sky, a light like an eye shining at its peak. Across the river is a huge machine made of spokes. Enormous cubes are stacked upon other cubes, glowing alternately cosmogone, rose, apocyan, viridian."
  22. ↑ Throw yourself in!, Fallen London "When you open your eyes flames are all around you, flickering green, apocyan, even peligin. You look up at the Other City through the fire. There is the tower of the eye, the stacked cubes, a vast wheel turning on the water. Four white towers jutting into the sky. People crowd the banks of the river, milling around beneath strings of coloured lights."
  23. ↑ Gaze into the depths, Fallen London "You can make out a lacuna at the heart of the city, an empty space where something grandiose should be. The whole of London is hollowed out, a shell, all life gone. Now it is just a ruin for the Drownies to play in."
  24. ↑ Gaze into the depths, Fallen London "[...]soon the whole sky is a bright apocyan, and you can see the Other City once more. The tallest tower glows brightly in the centre. Some of this place looks familiar - buildings reminiscent of Spite and Ladybones are there, but crumbling with age."
  25. ↑ Ask about the Other City, Fallen London "It is a place that can never be, now. Once a city has fallen, other possibilities for it cease to exist – at least in one sphere of our experience. But our dreams can be guided there."
  26. ↑ Decide on your response, Fallen London "The creature fidgets, irritably. Talons squeal on the marble floor."
  27. ↑ No, wait..., Fallen London "The robed figure crosses its long arms with a leathery flap, and sighs."
  28. ↑ Tell him about your dreams of ice and fire, Fallen London "A paradox. The irresistible force and the immovable object. The vine and the honey-bee: so many centuries of conflict! At the violet hour, two of Dionysus' many faces. Entwined, symbiotic, in an orbit of hatred whose parabola describes fixated love... I can think of two who might be interested in the details of this. But perhaps I should tell only one, heh heh."
  29. ↑ Demand to know what is going on 2, Fallen London ""You have seen the Other City, and now you will give those memories to me. It is all very hygienic. I'll simply remove them from your eyes..." It gestures with the apocyan lantern and taps its claws together, "...thus.""
  30. ↑ Deep in the Spawning Morass, Sunless Skies "Down here the Rubbery Men commingle in quivering colonies and leech from weeds that sprout from [...] ammonia. The only light comes from smouldering apocyan pyres, each attended by a rubbery chorus howling an endless lament."
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