"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."
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.
"This is the salt-blown heart of the Hold. The Fathomking floats in his throne: a gem-starred bowl of sea-stone, the size of a banqueting table. He's wearing a dressing gown of purple brocade, soaked dark with salt water. He leans his chin calmly on his hand. Beneath the surface of the water in his throne, his hidden regions pulse, constantly, insistently."[2]
The Fathomking is the mysterious and notoriously unpredictable ruler of the Drownies.
The Fathomking himself is quite the character; his favored term of address is "Your Complexity". Above all, he values a good story, and of course zailors have plenty of stories to tell. As such, the Fathomking has designated time for receiving visitors, during which His Complexity pays handsomely for information and stories.[3] He allows all comers from across the Unterzee - from Visage's crocodile-masked envoys[4] to Khaganian emissaries.[5] Executions - which are held in front of all guests - appear to be commonplace in response to certain transgressions, such as buying silk from spiders,[6] and His Complexity particularly dislikes when Chelonite visitors get too entitled.[7] Conversely, he particularly appreciates "gifts from the Myceligaean Mother," like blemmigans[8] and other mementos from the Uttershroom.[9]
The Fathomking is capable of reviving the deceased, albeit for a very steep price.[10]
The Fathomking's Hold[]
"Like an iceberg, like a Bazaar-Master's scheme, like the Neath itself, most of the Hold is invisible."[11]
The Fathomking's Hold is an enormous coral structure that lies within the Promised Sea. Like the base of an iceberg, most of the Hold is hidden,[12] and its depths are lit a bioluminescent green.[13] It is implied that while the King can travel as he pleases - albeit with some help to move about on land[14][15] - a portion of his consciousness and/or power may lie within his Throne-Cyst or some other part of the Hold itself.[16][17]
The Pentamerous Bride[]
The Fathomking's partner, the Pentamerous Bride, is an extremely powerful Fluke.[18][19][20] He readily admits that she is the source of the majority of his power.[21] She cannot feel love, but the Fathomking loves her deeply, and established the Fruits of the Zee Festival and all its strange traditions to bring her joy.[22]
It is implied that the Fathomking's partnership with his Bride is what reshaped him from an ordinary human into the intriguing creature he is today.[23][24] As an incestuous side effect of this union, Mt Nomad is both the niece of the Fathomking and his Bride,[25] via her mother Stone,[26]and their grandniece via her father the Thief-of-Faces (who is in turn a child of the Flukes).[27] It would thus be doubly unwise to harm Mt Nomad on the Fathomking's watch.
āWitness an execution, Sunless Sea "Two silent guards in thorned exoskeletons drag a babbling Drownie forwards. "No!" she shrieks. "I am no friend of spiders! I have never purchased silk! [...] The guards fling the Drownie into the pool. [...] "Next," the King says peaceably."
āGive the Fathomking an Uttershroom Sporule, Sunless Sea"The Fathomking's chamberlain takes the Sporule from you [...] accepts the gift, and abruptly drops it into the throne-pool. It disappears into the churn of the King's under-regions. The King sits upright, blinking. "My," he says. "The saucy old creature. Perhaps I should not share this story with my Bride. A very satisfactory service, Captain! I will have you sent certain leaves from my library. And you have fulfilled my request..." "
āThe Fathomking's Hold, Sunless Sea"Like an iceberg, like a Bazaar-Master's scheme, like the Neath itself, most of the Hold is invisible. You see only a tiny portion of sculpted coral - the rest waits below the surface. The Fathomking's bone-rooms and aquaria. His pearl-snares and his dining-chambers..."
āAn Audience with the King-in-Coral, Fallen London"In the shadows of a lesser-visited cove, the kelp-draped litter of the King-in-Coral rests. His attendant Drownies mill by the water's edge. From within the litter's scalloped shell rises a vast and lumpen bulk ā barnacle-clad and salt-bitten, crowned with branching coral. His skin is green as kelp, and a damp mask has plastered itself to his face, but there is no denying it."
āGreet the Fathomking 2, Fallen London"The Fathomking's litter is cumbersome and huge, and requires four Drownies to manoeuvre it around the revels. The Fathomking himself is buttoned into a straining dinner jacket that hides the majority of his more unusual appendages."
āLeave, Sunless Sea"The light is the familiar glow of false-stars, not the piercing green of the Hold's eyes."
āBear witness to the Principles' End, Sunless Sea""My Bride's family," he tells you. "They have long grown eccentric, and the Principles was the most eccentric of all. Yes, that is sufficient. Come closer, and I will tell you something of other dissolutions..." "
āAsk about the mind at the bottom of the trench, Fallen London""My bride [...] I thank you for visiting her. Her kind have ever been prone to change, and unalloyed they become eccentric. Paranoid, even. [...] It is not her fault. She was taken advantage of, by a deal struck in desperation. Now she and her kin are permitted little else but grief and anger. Such sentiments have shaped them so very cruelly.""
āAccept a briny gift, Fallen London""Many kings would be too proud to admit such a thing." The King-in-Coral straightens. [...] "But not I. The truth is, my Bride is the source of much of our power. This," he spreads his arms wide to encompass Mutton Island, its revellers, the remnants of its devotions to the zee, "was all for her.""
āAccept a briny gift, Fallen London""Many kings would be too proud to admit such a thing." The King-in-Coral straightens. [...] "But not I. The truth is, my Bride is the source of much of our power. This," he spreads his arms wide to encompass Mutton Island, its revellers, the remnants of its devotions to the zee, "was all for her.""
āListen to the Drownies' songs (Restored), Fallen London"They sing of the Fathomking's intemperate, obdurate love for his bride. They praise her immeasurable age, her fivefold symmetry, her star-travelled wisdom. She gives of her flesh, and he of his heart."
āPresent Mt Nomad's Heart, Sunless Sea""Were you aware," he enquires, "that this is the heart of my niece? By marriage, not by blood; and I doubt you have truly ended her. She is robust. Nevertheless...""
