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Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, or Sunless Skies. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here. |
"Piranesi. A prison without doors!"
"A stoker sings: 'Prideful, a prince was locked in the dark; while a poet was set free. I was the prince, alone and forgot; the poet, too, was me.'"[1]
Piranesi is a labyrinthine and perhaps even unmappable prison in Eleutheria.
A Prison of Mazes[]
"Polyhedric sculptures, the dimensions eye-wateringly off. Grass of uniform colour and uniform length. Placid canals, criss-crossed at right angles. All bisected by a pale gravel path, leading to the door of a broad ivy-shrouded mansion. Only its lack of windows betrays Piranesi as a prison."[2]
On the outside, Piranesi resembles a large, windowless mansion surrounded by a weed-filled garden. Within the garden lie statues so alien that Euclid would have a stroke just by looking at them.[3] Nearby the prison lies a cottage that houses the four chaplains of Piranesi; these individuals act as tour guides for visitors.[4]
Indeed, only a portion of it can be reached by its own chaplains. Tours are, as would be expected, held very infrequently.[5]
This prison was made by the Halved, to serve three purposes[6]:
- An experiment in the breaking of taboo.
- An insult to those who follow the fundamental laws.
- A question; "If I can change, why can't you?"
The Rules[]
There are three rules of Piranesi, and those that break them are instantly imprisoned. Unfortunately, there's also a fourth unwritten rule that the chaplains cannot explain the rules to the visitors, which leads to some unfortunate Monty Pythonesque situations...[7]
- Don't look back.[8]
- Don't give names to the nameless.[9]
- Don't learn the Third Rule.[10]
That being said, the Halved is still the highest authority in Eleutheria, hypocrisy aside, and it's capable of locking up anyone that angers it. For example, allying with the the Sapphir'd King can land you here for an entire century worth of changes.[11]
The Chaplains of Piranesi[]
"The only sound in the cottage is that of a teaspoon clinking against porcelain. A group of brown-robed figures turn to regard you. One – grey-haired, grey-eyed – offers you tea. "We are the Chaplains," she says. "Our role is to help inmates reach egress. You must understand: none may leave Piranesi unaltered." "We can be your guide," pipes another. "Two tours per visit. Choose your chaperone, and take care to follow the rules.""[12]
The prison is staffed by four chaplains. All four of them are ex-prisoners, altered by the nature of the prison.[13] Each of them encourages the prisoners to change in a different way.
- The Gallant Reformer persuades prisoners to confess their sins, to redeem themselves so that they can change for the better.[14] His tour takes one to the Statuaries, "a forest of jutting stone limbs and impassive heads."[15]
- The Glistening Deformer cajoles the prisoners to alter their physical forms like itself.[16] His tour takes one to the Warrens, an enormous pit with a single honeycombed column in the center.[17]
- The Grey Conformer encourages the prisoners to forget their old identities. She handles inmates in the Flooded Cellars, where "the most deeply condemned wallow".[18]
- The Glib Performer forces prisoners to change through torment in the Bridges and Balconies. You don't want them as your tour guide; they'll trick you into landing in a cell.[19]
An Identity Uncovered![]
"the Reformer. Well. [...] The oldest. The one for whom this prison was built, the one who changed the most severely. And for all that he prattles about redemption, he never mentions that he once was the worst of monsters. Imprisoned here for depravities beyond my understanding. Theft of hope, perversion of worlds. Several extinctions."[16] This is a fairly odd thing to say, since if the Reformer was so terrible, and yet was redeemed by Piranesi, then that makes his argument that Piranesi can redeem any prisoner more true, not less. There isn't enough information to identify the Reformer's old identity, but it seems he left a mark on the skies that is still remembered.
"The Deformer was the rebellious servant of a lightless star. Its sentence was harsh. It changed itself to become human, then less than human." This clearly means the Deformer once served the Halved, but is less clear on what capacity it served in. Perhaps the Deformer was one of Mr. Barleycorn's litter; we do not know the names or fates of three of them. Perhaps the Deformer was once the Messenger itself, though it's not clear whether or how it could enter Piranesi and still leave a corpse hanging in the sky.
"The Conformer was a legendary piratess, dashing, extraordinary, heroine of a dozen skies. Piranesi extinguished her." We don't have enough information to identify the Conformer's past life. It was long before the ascension of Albion, and not world-shaking enough to leave legends. Beyond this, all we know is that she was one of the first to seek the Martyr-King's Cup, and one of the most successful questers.[20][21]
"The Performer... I know less, except that he fled from Old London, escaping the wrath of a false god. I remember what he was like when incarcerated - courteous, circumspect, and though he had the bluest eyes you ever saw, he hid them behind dark spectacles. The eyes changed first."[14] The Performer is almost certainly The Dark-Spectacled Admiral, who fled the victory of the New Sequence as London ascended to become Albion.