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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. |
"'Coal, gas, candles. Warm yourself.'"[1]
"Not bad, my little one. I’ll be keeping an eye on you."[2]
Mr Fires is a charming but ruthless Master of the Bazaar.
The Boss[]
Ember-eyed and honey-voiced,[3][4] this Master governs trade in coal, gas, and candles,[1] along with the Neath's unique form of railway steel.[5] It also presides over several of the factories in Fallen London, and many of the workers at Wolfstack Docks, with an unwavering grip. It can usually be found near its office in Wolfstack,[6] and it is also in command of London's dirigible system, a position that apparently required quite a lot of effort on its part to acquire.[7] Mr Fires also dabbles in weapon and engine manufacturing, under the company Caminus Yards.[8]
Fires is known to deny its laborers many basic necessities, like safe working conditions and fair pay. It often uses the Masters' enforcers, the neddy men, to quell and dissipate any protests, unions, or revolutionary activity it deems troublesome.[9] Furthermore, its factories are heavy polluters, spewing several pounds of noxious waste into the air and waters of London and beyond.[10] All these factors make Mr Fires notorious, especially among those of a revolutionary bent, as one of the most antipathetic and poor-tempered Masters.
Every seven years, Mr Fires is obligated to write a letter to the Bazaar; this letter is usually a love story, as would be expected, but sometimes Fires likes to change it up a little and submit an editorial on Fallen London based on the opinion of one of London's intrepid citizens.[11] By writing the letter in this manner, Mr Fires wishes to change the course of London's fate by influencing the Bazaar's opinion on some unspecified issue. Does this place Fires in the same boat as the revolutionaries it seeks to destroy? Probably not.[12]
Oh, and it considers London escaping to the skies a spectacularly bad idea.[13]
Mr Fires resides in several apartments that blaze in various hues of light so bright they recall the Surface: gas, candles, dazzling stones, and strange light bulbs.[14]
Mr Fires was known as the Khan of Fire in the time of the Fourth City.[15] In the Sunless Skies timeline, it is called the Saint on the Pyre by the Cult of the Sanctified at Avid Horizon.[16]
A Payment in False Coin[]
"ONE DAY YOU WILL FORGIVE is stamped on the back. It is a commandment as much as a promise."[17]
"It looks much like a real Justificande, but it doesn't have the same effect on nearby clocks."[18]
Forged Justificande Coins
Mr Fires is known to conduct several independent schemes that often come into conflict with its colleagues, like Mr Wines, Mr Spices, and Mr Stones. It commissioned the Dean of Supernumerary Fellows at the University to investigate the private stash of mysterious sedatives that Mr Spices (possibly) consumes but does not sell,[19] and it paid the Dean in several forged Justificande Coins, the mysterious currency of Irem.[20]
To produce these coins, Mr Fires made an arrangement of sorts with Mr Veils to take over one of its neglected workshops from the Fourth City.[21] Fires converted this workshop into a coin fabrication factory, while Veils retained ownership but would not visit.[22][23] Within this workshop lies an automaton imitation of Mr Veils (yes, seriously) to fill in its position in its silk shops should the real Mr Veils ever meet its end or go missing.[24] Given its activities, Veils' demise seems inevitable...[25]
A Moon of Misery[]
""Once a suitable love story is found, it’ll be the end of London. Can you imagine?" The lamp trembles in its hand. Its voice rises an octave. "The end of London! I couldn't bear it! I love this city. It's my sole comfort, the greatest joy I have discovered in all my centuries. I'd do anything to preserve it.""[26]
"Since the very beginning, I have had the best interests of London at heart. In the longer term, the Hybrid's milk is the only thing that can save the city. Once seeded across the populace, all love stories will be rendered suspect. Any love, no matter how pure or moving, could simply be the symptoms of an aberration's venom. Love will be robbed of its allure. The Bazaar will not know which stories it can truly believe in."[27]
A shard of glim, sheddings from a moon-miser.
Deep within Mr Fires' soot-blackened heart lies a surprisingly genuine love for London as a city; this puts it at odds with its colleagues, many of whom seek to end their service to the Bazaar as soon as possible. As a result, Mr Fires regularly sabotages the love stories procured by Mr Wines and Mr Spices, and it is responsible for interfering in Mr Stones' plan to sell moon-milk to an exiled captain from Hell; this would have persuaded the captain to destroy London in an apocalyptic war.[28][29]
But Mr Stones isn't the only Master interested in using moon-milk for its own ends; Mr Fires itself has conducted several experiments on moon-misers and their milk within the walls of the Orphanage, a laboratory that uses political prisoners and other unfortunate victims as guinea pigs. Its inhumane investigations revealed that unaltered moon-milk caused only shallow obsession, not true love - so it was worthless for forging love-stories, and the obsession faded after a few years anyway, to say nothing of the awful side effects it had on its imbibers.[30]
Fires always has a backup plan, however, and this one is ghastly: what if it crossbred a moon-miser with a human? The resultant hybrid might secrete a special strain of moon-milk that induces true love, or at least a form of love that the Bazaar cannot distinguish from true love. Fires theorizes that adding this new moon-milk to London's water supply would render all future love stories worthless, frustrating the Bazaar's mission to collect them.[27]
References[]
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