"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."
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"The Monster-Hunter winnows the lesser terrors from the true. She has slain That Which Makes Light In The Deeps, eaten of its flesh in remembrance of certain Feasts of the Zee, and fashioned her weapon from its remains. She was human, once."[1]
Monster-Hunters are ferocious warriors who hunt the nightmarish terrors of the Unterzee.
"You rise from the water with your harpoon hooked neatly through the Seal's neck-plates as it follows meekly in your wake. Your bo'sun sees the predator's secrets in your eyes, and lowers his gaze."[2]
Monster-Hunters most commonly roam near the Chelonate, but they can be found all across the zee;[3] their rites are respected even in the civil auspices of London. They can be distinguished by their peligin eyes; they have consumed the flesh of zee-beasts, elevating them to something beyond human.[4]
Monster-Hunters are most famous for their unique and voraciously hungry harpoons, fashioned from the bones of their most significant kill.[5] They make use of a plethora of other armaments as well: explosives,[6] firearms, traps, an arsenal of knives.[7] But preparation is everything, and this is not found solely in one's weapons. On a Monster-Hunter's ship, one might also find maps, bestiaries, specimens, and emergency remedies like antivenom.[8][9] These warriors are experts in dispatching eldritch creatures through unconventional methods; they may be hired to cull invasive species[10] and rampaging predators,[11] retrieve eccentric pets,[12] intimidate and halt the activities of Snuffers,[13] collect venom samples,[14] or escort others through dangerous territory.[15]
The rites of the Monster-Hunter are as esoteric as the dark zee itself, and they must be conducted in absolute silence.[16] Certain phases of the rites, such as the Movement and the Act, must also be performed strictly below the zee's waves, outside the view of any living person.[17] After securing a kill, a Monster-Hunter may also consume the blood of the creature they have slain, as it is their sacrament.[18]
The path of the Monster-Hunter has various branches, but only two are known extensively. Hierarchs of the Hunt devote themselves fully to the thrill and sanctity of the kill,[19] becoming "predator-priests"[20] who can track and hunt monsters born from the metaphysical.[21][22]Teratomancers are "butcher-haruspices" who reshape the beasts they hunt,[23] divine details of the lives of strange and foreign beasts,[24] and correct errors of creation.[25]
All warriors seek a glorious end, and Monster-Hunters are no different. Individuals known as Doomed Monster-Hunters have decided that their lives have ran their course, and as such seek a glorious end. For instance, amalgamating a beast out of previous conquests to create a hunt worthy of dying on,[26] or... being launched out of a specially designed hunting-cannon?[27][28]
↑A Notched Bone Harpoon, Fallen London"Lighter than wood, harder than steel, sharper than the teeth of the thing you wrenched it from, and hungrier than those Who Seek the Name."
↑The Business of a Monster-Hunter, Fallen London"Preparation is everything – and you are prepared. Snares, firearms and silver nets; stoppered vials of antivenom; knives of iron, ravenglass and flint in a hundred evil shapes. [...] Your harpoon, sharp as sin and gleaming."
↑The Monster-Hunter's Labours, Fallen London"On your study wall: a map of the Neath, studded with brass pins to mark sightings. Various academic and amateur papers on anatomy, behaviour and folklore are stacked on your desk. You trawl them for weaknesses that one day might separate life from death."
↑Track down an invasive species, Fallen London"Bloatfingers are native to the Elder Continent. [...] Bloatfingers cannot bear to be seen – they fly into a berserk rage at the feather-touch of another's gaze. But you do not hunt by sight alone. [...] Slow as dusk, silent as shadow, your violent delights take on the weight of sacrament. Abstract; holy; inevitable."
↑Bring balance to a fragile ecosystem, Fallen London"In the silvered glade, it presents as a passable approximation of a very large badger. Within its sett – a void in the uncertain ground where the moonlight will not tread – it is altogether other. [...] All is still when you emerge from the den, and the woods do not exhale until you are gone."
↑Retrieve an escaped darling, Fallen London"The treasured pet of a Wealthy Sybarite has gone missing. Standard fare – except said "precious dear" also happens to be a vast, intelligent monster."
↑Hunt that which wears a human face, Fallen London"Every time a Snuffer sees you (and you make sure they do, again and again) you wear the lightless mask of death. Their death. Your peligin eyes search them out in crowds, unerring. When they leave London, they take tales of your dire presence with them."
↑Extract a catalogue of venoms, Fallen London"You walk in the footsteps of the venomous, as unseen as the wind. As you fill your bandolier of stoppered vials, not one of these creatures knows how close they came to death."
↑Escort academics through the Wastes, Fallen London"It is not only artefacts that leak into the Moulin Wastes. Dream-tainted beasts dredge themselves from the Waswood, the predators of the never-were and used-to-be. [...] Slowly, painstakingly, you avoid anywhere a predator couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't be."
↑Exult in the sacrifice of this rough beast, Fallen London"You are the predator-priest and you sacrifice only to yourself, each strike and scar and open wound a new tenet in your doctrine of strength and cunning. This is the ur-hunt, an apotheosis of meat and metal, your sacerdotal coronation. The Hunting Beast cannot match your fervent ferity. The Hunter's sacrament is yours to perform. You taste of the beast's patchwork self and— Satiation. There is a kind of revelatory stillness that can only follow chaos."
↑Eliminate an epistemological aberration, Fallen London"This is the wild belly of the church, where ideas have teeth. And that which hunts can also be hunted. [...] Something like prey, and something like blood, and something like death, transfigured by the Hunter's rites. You are replete with heresy and stained with rhetoric. The bookshelves shiver as you leave."
↑Protect a vulnerable Midnighter, Fallen London"The evening is a haze of indigo, the details of the job obliviated. But there is a fervent, feral shard lodged within you that has nothing to do with memory."
↑Divine its monstrous nature and make of it a wonder, Fallen London"Shape informs nature. You cut the scarlet chains away, untouchable as smoke, surgeon-sharp. Bloodied futures bloom in the viscera: you see the death of the Aging Laocoonian, and excise it as painlessly as possible. The Hunting Beast changes, and changes again. Nature informs shape."
↑Dissect an anomalous carcass, Fallen London"From spiracle, and statolith, and organs as yet unnamed, you extract a vast and cavernous past. [...] Shoulder-deep in a peligin Methuselah, you hold fast against a riptide of history."
↑Untangle an ancient web, Fallen London"The mind of the spider-schism is [...] warring always against itself. You are a stillness in the arthropod storm [...] There – a convergence of pain, the ragged scar where a zealous seamster wove together beings of incompatible desires. You witness the flight of your harpoon through a hundred eightfold eyes, and spear the spider-schism in two. Silence. And then: new futures bloom in the viscera. A pair of new-split spider-councils whisper warily [...]"
↑A Monster-Hunter's Legacy, Fallen London"The Aging Laocoonian has built a behemoth from the remnants of your shared conquests – and now his body thrashes around in its beartrap maw."
↑Open fire! (Hunting Ketch), Fallen London"The more reckless kind of Chelonite Monster Hunter is notorious for firing themselves out of cannons, harpoon-first, to strike at zee-beasts with the velocity of a cannonball and the fury of a starveling cat."
