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The Fifth City: Fallen London's Lore Wikia
The Fifth City: The Neath's Lore Wiki
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Midnighters

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"The Midnighter performs the unconfessed rites of St Joshua: the secret ministrations of midnight, the holy transition of the owned to the unowned and the unseen to the seen. He has made the unknown known, and toppled an invisible throne."[1]

Three-quarters spy and a quarter priest, Midnighters are immersed deep in the Great Game, gathering intelligence and picking at others' webs in as much secrecy as possible.[2]

A Church of Intrigue[]

Midnighters' ciphers can be hidden anywhere, even the latest revision of the Bible.[3] Perhaps especially the Bible; their rites are religious at their heart, and linked deeply enough to the Anglican Church that Saint Cyriac's Illuminated College doubles as a deposit location for intel.[4] The central tool of Midnighters' duties is a Shrine to St. Joshua, draped in irrigo so that one might forget the rites as soon as they are performed.[5] The memory-eroding effects of irrigo provide solace or deniability - whichever a spy might need.[6]

While Midnighters work in the Neath, their impact reaches as far as the Surface - thanks to diplomatic visits[7] and correspondence in the form of chess games with Surface spies.[8] Their clients may include devils,[9] the Gracious Widow,[10] and even the Scottish independence movement,[11] but destabilizing London's rivals for one's own benefit is not off the table.[12]

The Midnighter profession has two specialized fields. Iniquitors accumulate underlings, chess pieces with which they may play the Game across a wider reach.[13][14] They turn competing spies to their side[15] and promote chaos in order to install their pawns in positions of power on the Surface.[16] Letheologists are experts in the rites of St. Joshua, patron of spies,[17] and use these irrigo-laced rituals to remove and alter memories[18][19] and thus create more effective disciples.[20] They can also utilize the various properties of colors of the Neathbow[21] to witness and analyze the Great Game from above.[22][23]

It is a tradition among Midnighters to cede a twelfth of their secrets to orphans, in the form of stories, every year.[24]

References[]

  1. ↑ Become a Midnighter, Fallen London
  2. ↑ The Business of a Midnighter, Fallen London "The work of a Midnighter should always pass unnoticed. A word here, a small deception there, and the course of history shifts. To those outside the Great Game, these events are random, chaotic, inevitable. To those within, each is a calculated move on the Chessboard."
  3. ↑ Exploit God's Editors, Fallen London "A couple of weeks later you receive the latest revisions and see that God's Editors have used the precise phrasing you require. That message you sent three weeks ago will now be decryptable, just in time. Ingenious, if you say so yourself."
  4. ↑ The Midnighter's Currency, Fallen London "Saint Cyriac's Illuminated College has never officially recognised St Joshua's canonisation, but it is to their cedar door that you deliver the packages, when the night is deep and the bells silent."
  5. ↑ Shrine to Saint Joshua, Fallen London "It is carefully concealed and draped with veils of irrigo, so that you forget the hidden rites almost as soon as they are performed."
  6. ↑ The Business of a Midnighter, Fallen London "It is a life steeped in unreliable information and shifting allegiances, a life of cold acts and self-knowledge. For solace or deniability, there are the rites of St. Joshua, and irrigo-tinged oblivion."
  7. ↑ Catch up with international affairs, Fallen London "[...]you hear anti-Ottoman sentiment from the Bulgarian ambassador. Two rooms over, a German hums to herself as she works late on her strategy for tomorrow's trade negotiations. And unscrewing the French representative's chandelier-fitting provides an overhead view of liaison work which will certainly not make it into official minutes."
  8. ↑ Play correspondence chess, Fallen London "Your opponent, another participant in the Great Game, will receive her subscription issue in Brussels. Weeks later, the following issue will arrive here. To spectators, the game is a simple exchange between newcomers who often make amateur mistakes. But each misplay encodes a new piece of intelligence. You move the queen's bishop to the king's rook file, restricting its effectiveness. The message will be clear."
  9. ↑ Catch up with international affairs, Fallen London "Many visiting diplomats stay at the Actaeon Hotel. In their private rooms, they often make unguarded remarks; remarks a Worldly Devil will pay for."
  10. ↑ Deal with Peach Brandy pirates, Fallen London "Your agent within the smuggling networks of Cathay confirms that these 'pirates' never strike anything except the Widow's shipments. And the brandy never shows up on the market. [...] you activate a long-hidden contact within the Widow's organisation. The truth comes out. One of her own people substituted bottles of cold tea for the last three shipments before they were loaded. [...] You meet the Gracious Widow in a shadowed chamber, and share the name of her traitor."
  11. ↑ Infiltrate Scottish politics, Fallen London "The fall of London has weakened the bonds holding the Union together. The Balmoral dumbwaiter offers you a chance to build a power base on the surface. [...] Without the influence of Westminster, appetite for independence is gathering in Scotland. [...] an unofficial government-in-waiting is taking shape behind its walls."
  12. ↑ Destablise the Khanate, Fallen London "Your scheme works. The clans accuse one another of collaborating with London and all electric lighting is ripped out of the palaces until they can be completely rewired. Tensions run high, and a satisfying number of Khaganians fall into the canals."
  13. ↑ Deploy her to the Surface, Fallen London "You will become an Iniquitor, powerful and elusive, accumulating pieces to play the next level of the Great Game."
  14. ↑ Deploy her to the Surface, Fallen London "There is a chess club in Vienna's Bräunerstraße. It has public games, and private games. It is the third level of game you wish to infiltrate, and who better to use than a local? You equip her with ciphers, poisons, and snippets of false intelligence that no Surface-dweller can disprove. She can survive for at least six months if she plays her matches indoors."
  15. ↑ Corrupt a rival network, Fallen London "Fungal wine won't do it. But the Neath has its own specialities. [...] Much that is commonplace here is exotic on the Surface, even if some of it will barely last a week before the sunlight destroys it. All the better. You will become their supplier, and you will set the price. You send the shipment by steamer, and a few weeks later you hear from the Actuary. Your plan is a staggering success and the rival network has been penetrated through three separate individuals."
  16. ↑ Manipulate a European power, Fallen London "A junior secretary is quickly promoted to ministerial rank on the strength of a background so tedious as to be unassailable. He is, of course, an impostor – and part of your network."
  17. ↑ Hone her instincts with the Rites of St Joshua, Fallen London "You will become a Letheologist, zealous and independent, immersed in the deeper rites of St. Joshua."
  18. ↑ Hone her instincts with the Rites of St Joshua, Fallen London "Irrigo is a treacherous tool, coaxing you to forget how to use it even as you wield it. There are rites too dangerous for the simple Canons of St Joshua, rites that require such surgical precision, such mastery over memory and loss, that they endanger all of the Midnighter's selfhood. [...] the gaps you leave in the Actuary's mind soothe her cares and sharpen her senses. The irrigo will erase her memory of the deed. But she will always feel the unease, deep down; and it will make her a piece to be reckoned with."
  19. ↑ Take confession from a Bohemian Intelligencer, Fallen London "You let him weep, then trace the closed eye on his forehead and bathe his face in merciful irrigo. Neither of you will remember this."
  20. ↑ Hone her instincts with the Rites of St Joshua, Fallen London "She trusts you. She feels too much. It is a weakness you must eliminate, for your sake as well as hers."
  21. ↑ Perform a Gibeon ritual, Fallen London "The formula is very precise: mostly irrigo and violant inks, with only a drop of gant. You translate the ritual one last time to be sure you are literally supposed to bathe your eyes in the resulting solution. Then you lie down, open wide and pour it in."
  22. ↑ Perform a Gibeon ritual, Fallen London "The more obscure rites of St. Joshua can provide penetrating insight into the information and power structures around you."
  23. ↑ Perform a Gibeon ritual, Fallen London "London is a chessboard. The Bazaar is an impractical, immense black king looming over the moves of bishops and twitching knights. The Traitor Empress is an entrenched queen. Each square holds a sub-board [...] Each minor piece incorporates a microscopic board of personal, psychic struggle. The vision seizes you, wrenching you up and away. London is a dark square on Europe; Europe, a light on the Earth. And your world becomes four corners of flickering shade beneath the machinations of the cosmos."
  24. ↑ Tell a story to orphans, Fallen London "Midnighters cede a twelfth of their secrets to orphans every year, in the form of a story. It's time you performed."
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