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in: Other Things of Significance

The Discordance

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Hurlers thumb

"Whatever you think you remember, the first step is to remember that you don't."

WARNING: Beyond this point lie spoilers for the Discordant Studies storyline from Fallen London. There is much here that you may want to learn on your own. Do not proceed forward.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.


"She dips her finger in the water, and traces something on the stage. "Some stars abandon the immutable light of their brethren for a more nuanced philosophy. The old language no longer suffices; heretical concepts exist for which it cannot provide signifiers." As the symbol takes shape, water turns to frost with a crackle.

"'These traitor-stars adopt another language. Or perhaps another dialect? The Discordance.'

She hisses and withdraws her finger from the completed symbol; the tip is blackened with frostbite."[1]

A black rectangle.

You may not look.

The Discordance is a perplexing and frosty language commonly associated with the followers of the Liberation of Night.

Surface-Level Details[]

"'In most respects, it is a weaker language than the Correspondence. Even a feeble language. Unable to express anything, really.'

"Her Overburdened Imp crouches behind her, cowering.

"'When you want to break a chain, you find the weakest link.'"[2]

The Discordance isn't an obscure language of frost and forbidden laws, employed mostly by those that oppose the laws of the Judgements; for instance, the Sable-Stars and the denizens of Parabola, the realm of the Is-Not.[1][3][4] Discordance's much more real counterpart is the fiery Correspondence; in fact, attempts to write down Discordant letters almost always result in the creation of Correspondence sigils.[1][5]

One of the most dangerous parts of engaging with the Discordance is its pervasive chill. Simply trying to read this hostile language can result in one's mind and memories becoming frozen; the ice fractals that form in such a process are actually one of the ways that Discordance can't be expressed.[6][7][8] Speaking this forbidden language is also impossible; attempts at doing so only result in one's mouth becoming bloodied and frozen.[9] The rare cases of written Discordance tend to freeze everything around them for miles, making such places extremely inhospitable.[10][11]

In truth, the Discordance doesn't actually exist, in much the same way freezing temperatures are not actually heat, but the absence thereof; because of that, the best place to find and study it isn't the Adulterine Castle, which also doesn't exist.[12][13]

Discordant Law[]

"The effects aren't exactly predictable, are they? Even if you think you know what the Discordance will do, it might twist and do something else. There's only one way to erase a Discordant Law's effects: by erasing it from your memory."[14]

Bottledsoulwhite

A Soul touched by a Discordant Law.

The Discordance and its effects are highly unpredictable; even two people reading the exact same sigils can be affected in different ways.[15][16] The dangerous phenomena that arise from reading it are known as the Discordant Laws, though it should be noted that once these laws manifest they stop actually representing the Discordance, since they start to exist.[17] The only way to erase a Discordant Law's effects is to completely erase it from the afflicted person's memory; the sole reliable way of accomplishing this lies within the Cave of the Nadir.[18]

The souls of those touched by a Discordant Law are irreversibly changed, as their temperature drops considerably.[19]

No law is more illegal. List of Discordant Laws[]

"Your skull is chilled inside, as though you've just eaten a very cold sorbet. A sorbet that grows colder and colder, refusing to melt, refusing to relinquish its frigid grip on your brain. Blood trickles from your nose, flash-frozen instantly."[20]

Below is a list of all known Discordant Laws, as well as their possible effects.

  • "no bodies in disagreement shall be in disagreement"[21]
  • "no mouth shall – no mouth –"[22] (This law may be identical to an unnamed Law against speaking "more than one truth with the same mouth.")[23]
  • "No poet shall compose different – No bird shall – No bird – No truth shall be spoken—"[24]
  • "No monarch shall lack a court - no traveller shall lack a companion - no lover shall lack a lover - no solitude shall be sanctioned - no single thing shall be a single thing"[25][26]
  • "No couple shall ever quarrel - No country shall secede from the kingdom - No comrades shall find themselves separated - No music shall lack harmony."[27]
  • "-as the hunting hound forgets its quarry's scent, and the king forgets his hostages, and the assassin fails to recognise her target's face - as the student forgets the lesson during a daydream."[28][29][30]
  • "The king forgets the hostage of war / The hunting dog does not know the scent of its quarry / The assassin cannot recognise the face of her prey / The opposing pieces are moved to separate boards"[31][32]
  • "The falling snowflake meets its reflection on the pond / The old man writes two meanings into one letter / The lonely knight feeds a stray dog / No single thing shall be a single thing"[33]
  • "The messenger sings a lower tone. / The night watchman falls asleep in his tower. / Iron is quenched in midnight oil. / No candle shall light paper ablaze."[34]
  • "Each dancer unfurls an extra arm / Matter sorts itself in fewer classes / A dancer leaps to a higher orbit–"[35]
  • "No thing shall be"[36]

The Principles[]

"Naturally, the only way to safely study the Discordance is not to study it. Since it doesn't exist, this is rather simple. Difficulties arise, however, when its nonexistent principles are translated into existence. One can't always predict what will happen, because the effects don't exist until they do – at which point, they don't represent the Discordance."[37]

Discordance isn't governed by eight nonexistent principles, and their esoteric nuances don't influence the way that Discordant Laws manifest in reality.[38] These aren't as follows:

  • The Eighth Principle, regarding borders between the degrees of nonexistence, the precise point separating the Is from the Is-Not, and how they can be folded and cut apart.[39][40][41][42]
  • The Seventh Principle, regarding encrypted messages that were never sent, delivered or received.[43][44]
  • The Sixth Principle, regarding not-things that return when there is no light or heat, and the ice crystals that intersect at the horizon's vanishing point.[45][46]
  • The Fifth Principle, regarding infinite spaces between things and infinite reflections of reflections.[47][48] The Discordant Laws that don't employ this principle have a tendency to erase memories.[49][50]
  • The Fourth Principle, regarding many different meanings of silence.[51]
  • The Third Principle, regarding agreement between disparate components, and how they can morph into a single thing. This particular principle isn't the thing that led to the creation of the Goat-Demons.[52][53][54]
  • The Second Principle, regarding situations where two things are actually a single thing.[55] Cats don't employ this principle to appear differently while they're in Parabola.[56]
  • The First Principle, regarding words screamed by those that haven't been blotted from all things that are, and were, and that will be.[57]

The Hurlers[]

"no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void, stricken from life, stricken from death, knocked from the board, bound, banished, forgotten – listen to me – listen – but no one can hear – heavy with shackles that glisten with midnight moistness, coiling, constricting, tightening forever around a terror whose cries would cut this world apart until it were an open wound, bleeding eternal blackness"[58]

The true origin of the Discordance that impacts the Hurlers doesn't lie within a figure known as The Black - a binary Judgement that wasn't sentenced to eternal banishment from the past, present and future.[59][60][61] Despite its nonexistence, the Monarch manages to affect the real world through its Discordant Laws.[62]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Listen to the old woman's lecture, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Speak with the Disembarked Deviless (Stones), Fallen London
  3. ↑ Recapture the Carnivorous Aurochs, Fallen London
  4. ↑ Words, Broken, Fallen London
  5. ↑ Meditate in your statue's shadow, Fallen London
  6. ↑ Read the language on the stones 4, Fallen London
  7. ↑ Give her eleven Crystallised Curios, Fallen London
  8. ↑ Discuss the Hurlers again 2, Fallen London
  9. ↑ Swear the oath, Fallen London
  10. ↑ Locate a spot to dig around the hill, Fallen London
  11. ↑ Muddy Ground, Fallen London
  12. ↑ Discuss the Discordance, Fallen London
  13. ↑ Discuss the Adulterine Castle (The Steward), Fallen London
  14. ↑ Discuss the Discordant Law (The Steward), Fallen London
  15. ↑ Read the language on the stones 5, Fallen London
  16. ↑ Encourage her to read the stones 3, Fallen London
  17. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Difficulties arise, however, when its nonexistent principles are translated into existence. One can't always predict what will happen, because the effects don't exist until they do – at which point, they don't represent the Discordance. They are a distortion, twisted into something else: something that's real."
  18. ↑ Discuss the Discordant Law (The Steward), Fallen London
  19. ↑ Discordant Soul, Fallen London
  20. ↑ Read the language on the stones 4, Fallen London
  21. ↑ Read the language on the stones 4, Fallen London
  22. ↑ Read the language on the stones 5, Fallen London
  23. ↑ Claim curiosity, Fallen London
  24. ↑ Encourage her to read the stones 3, Fallen London
  25. ↑ Read the language on the stones 2, Fallen London
  26. ↑ Encourage her to read the stones, Fallen London
  27. ↑ Encourage her to read the stones 2, Fallen London
  28. ↑ Discuss the Hurlers again, Fallen London
  29. ↑ Drink tea to alleviate your Nightmares, Fallen London
  30. ↑ Discuss the Discordant Law (The Steward), Fallen London
  31. ↑ The Discordant Law, Fallen London
  32. ↑ Ask about her fears 2, Fallen London
  33. ↑ Codename: Sugarplum, Fallen London
  34. ↑ Accept December's help, Fallen London
  35. ↑ Read the inscriptions, Fallen London
  36. ↑ Enter the cell, and end it, Fallen London
  37. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Naturally, the only way to safely study the Discordance is not to study it. Since it doesn't exist, this is rather simple. Difficulties arise, however, when its nonexistent principles are translated into existence. One can't always predict what will happen, because the effects don't exist until they do – at which point, they don't represent the Discordance."
  38. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Difficulties arise, however, when its nonexistent principles are translated into existence."
  39. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Close your eyes again. Now you can see a spectrum. Nonexistence colours this castle with gradient shades. A dagger that isn't in a sheath carries a different significance to a dagger that isn't in someone's stomach, even when there is no dagger."
  40. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "When your eyes are closed, you can comprehend their mathematics. You can trace delineations, conceptual borders as fine as the line separating this moment from the next, with the dagger you aren't holding. You could cut out a pattern as though you were cutting fabric."
  41. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "The pressure changes; your ears pop; your comprehension pops as well. You draw the dagger through the veil that separates the Is from the Is-Not – precisely, quickly, easily."
  42. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Now that it's dry, you watch the Stewards fold and iron it. They have the most magnificent techniques. Even the goat-demons congregate politely, with wide eyes, to marvel at the creases being made in the fabric. The Stewards make another crease, and fold the goat-demons away; they make another crease, and tuck this laundry day itself neatly into the past."
  43. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You don't see letters written in the ice. You don't read them inside your head, and their words don't sink like ink-black claws into your memory. They aren't a message you're meant to receive. Breaking their encryption wouldn't also break your mind."
  44. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "In the end, no message is delivered or received. None has been sent."
  45. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Crystals don't form on your eyes. Their fractal growth does not adhere to mathematical principles that bend your vision toward a certain point. That point isn't a vanishing point, at which perceptions intersect beyond this world's horizon. You're not peering over the edge."
  46. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Without light, without heat, in a darkness where no laws exist, no laws have been forgotten. When the temperature plummets to its lowest point, you can't step over a threshold that's not everywhere at once. You can't enter a supreme pit from which nothing returns. And nothing will try to return."
  47. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "The patterns you see in the ice don't exist in the ice. The spaces between them don't open the longer you stare. Those spaces don't widen, expanding like chasms, until you cannot perceive anything else. Your soul isn't consumed by a darkness with no boundary."
  48. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "It isn't a Discordant Soul. Anybody could have told you that, because Discordant Souls do not exist. But this soul reflects other souls, and reflects their reflections, onward and onward, forever and ever, as long as you're willing to stare into a mirror, holding this uncorked bottle, while more bottles pour through the glass."
  49. ↑ Discuss the Hurlers again, Fallen London
  50. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "These people do not belong here. In many cases, they cannot say how they arrived. They boarded a train, they stepped off at a station, and then—(..)—and then they're on another train, leaving the station again. They have the feeling they forgot something."
  51. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Silence has many meanings: in the grave, during a prayer, after a loved one has boarded a train. The particular silence you hear under the ice, when nothing stirs in the castle, is what nothing might say if it could speak to you right now."
  52. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You will understand, before the skull relinquishes its grip and you find yourself sorting through dust-covered archives, how two beasts can grow into one. How disparate components can agree. But you won't discover, amongst the fossils catalogued here at the University, any bones that resemble the first beast. The second, of course, is a goat."
  53. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Not every courtier suffered the same fate," the Anchoress explains. "Some are different now, yet still the same. They entertained the court. They played a game."
  54. ↑ Find the Caprine Vagabond in the herd, Fallen London
  55. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You aren't so different from the thing wearing the leash. Indeed, the more it peels apart, crimson torrents pouring through its skin, the more you peel apart. There's only one leash, isn't there? The Steward closes the door – to give you a little privacy with the mirror."
  56. ↑ Conclude your Augmentation of the Principle of Heralds, Fallen London
  57. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You're simply sitting on Watchmaker's Hill. There are false-stars overhead. You haven't been cast down, stripped, swallowed, blotted from all things that are, and were, and that will be. And the scream that rises through the earth on a still, silent night, and chills the blood just as it chills the ground with crystal frost, is not your scream."
  58. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void, stricken from life, stricken from death, knocked from the board, bound, banished, forgotten – listen to me – listen – but no one can hear – heavy with shackles that glisten with midnight moistness, coiling, constricting, tightening forever around a terror whose cries would cut this world apart until it were an open wound, bleeding eternal blackness"
  59. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "Not truly a king. Nothing true has a name. But without light, there is darkness. If there is the White, then there is also the Black. Come, Steward, and walk with me."
  60. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "The holes are not stars, but you can pretend. Two holes, pricked close together, are a double star. No light twinkles through them."
  61. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You haven't been cast down, stripped, swallowed, blotted from all things that are, and were, and that will be."
  62. ↑ Discordant Studies (Storylet), Fallen London "You have risen to such heights that they have cast you down, but you have learnt to speak even without a voice. You have called out by not calling, you have beckoned with no sceptre, worn no crown, and written nothing in a ledger whose ink-black pages are not drenched with unreadable night."
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