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"The attention of the Halved falls briefly on your vessel. Your crew wail as its eye fills your windows!
The Halved governs distance and measures, and it has an array of servants, just like the other Judgements. In fact, the Halved murdered its own space-crab messenger, the House of Rods and Chains, for defying its command.[2] The Halved is directly responsible for Eleutheria's lawlessness, as it radiates darkness instead of light. The Halved is also the leader of the many organizations in its realm, such as Piranesi and Pan, and it is the arch-enemy of the Sapphir'd King.[3] The Halved claims to have changed, but perhaps not as much as it thinks.[4]
The Sun Turned Black[]
"You see a blazing, golden sun, so close it fills the sky. It shudders. It dims. You watch as it draws its fires into itself, becoming sullen, crimson coals. Its surface cools, scabbing over with a black crust. Shadows flood this region of the sky."[5]
The Halved is a former binary star, and as such the star we know was once half of the Binary; its other half, the King who Speaks, was betrayed and murdered as it attempted to swear fealty[6] to the Prophet Exile of the would-be Solonacean Conjunction.[7] The surviving half, the King who Wars, went on a fiery rampage across Eleutheria[8][9] as it destroyed the Prophet Exile and his followers.[10] The Prophet Exile had claimed some of the Binary's servants, the devils, as his followers,[11][12] and a few devils whose remains are now scattered around Pan were likely killed in this rampage.[13][14] The Prophet himself was turned into a living story as a punishment for the murder.[15]
Against all odds, another storyteller was somehow able to persuade the King who Wars to change its views. The King abandoned its law, and started to actively radiate darkness instead of light. This is the reason for Eleutheria's bizarre and Revolutionary-friendly nature. Either as a form of gratitude or punishment, the now Halved sun turned this storyteller into the plant now known as the Heart-Catcher.[5] Speaking the Halved's former name is a one-way ticket to Piranesi, as is the crime of storytelling in its presence.[3]
The Eye in the Zee. Art from Sunless Sea.
It is heavily implied that the colossal Eye that lies beneath the Unterzee is the Halved; this curious entity sprouts extra eyes on the bodies of zee-captains as a form of "message" to the Neath. One zailor foolish enough to dive into the Eye claimed that it serves as a doorway to the House of Rods and Chains,[16][17] and it would seem that this claim is true.[18][19]
The Halved has strong ties to the Liberation of Night, possibly to seek revenge upon other Judgements. One star, the Green Regent of the Reach, has already fallen victim to its machinations.[20]
↑Talk with Mr Barleycorn, Sunless Skies"There were seven of us, once. Outcasts, bound to this Messenger's service. But the Messenger defied the Halved's command, and the Halved slew it."
↑The Venerable Flautist, Sunless Skies"But I remember the Halved before the death of its twin. It hasn't changed half so much as it pretends. So I won't either."
↑VI. The King In Mourning, Sunless Skies"The obsidian throne of the King of Light has crumbled. The hall shakes with the KING WHO WARS' fury. Burning marble rains down from the ceiling, exposing a blood red sky."
↑The King Who Wars mounted his chariot, Sunless Skies"The King Who Wars' chariot thundered through the sky / The night burned crimson, the forests became ash / This was how a King fought, with fire and light [...]"
↑The King Who Wars mounted his chariot, Sunless Skies"This was how a King fought, with fire and light / And the Princes learned the folly of their youth. [...] THE KING WHO WARS: Scream not for the comfort of oblivion / Such mercy is not for traitors to know / As you burn forever in my palace / In the flames of anger you have ignited."
↑Listen to the lecture on 'the Binary', Sunless Skies"The Supplicant speaks of devils in the Binary's service, responsible for preparing a raiment of killing light for one of their masters before he went to war, and a mantle of merciful radiances when the other went to parley. "But they betrayed their master," she says."
↑The Prophet Exile spoke to the Princes of Light, Sunless Skies"My Apostle. The first to shield me from the light that burned away my existence. The light of the arrogant Kings. Their Princes were not willing to languish in service in the hope of a glory that the Kings would never offer them. Ah, but wrapped up in stories of inevitable victory and cowering bravely behind my figurehead, their resentment became my serrated blade."
↑The Ballad of the Solonacean Conjunction: Act VII. Fall of a Prophet, Sunless Skies"Let Justice be done, and all gathered bear witness / As we cast this outsider into their final rest / Let their flesh rot till all that's left is a cry / That shall never escape this echoing place / A story to rage in the darkness, never to be told [...]"
↑Adrift On A Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies"In the darkness— In the darkness, an eye! It opens and the world is upside down. You fall to the floor of Mr Barleycorn's study, coughing up water."
↑Airs of Blind Hermits (Description), Sunless Skies"The Hermit lingers at the edge of sight, their rags the remnants of a zee-captain's uniform. Two of their eyes are closed tight. The third, carved with scars into their arm, seems to stare through you."
↑Airs of Blind Hermits (Observe), Sunless Skies"The Hermit whispers to the darkness. They pay you no mind as you look at their few remaining possessions. A trading log from a place far away, a faded photo of a love last seen in Old London. A diary that begins with scholarly descriptions of Eleutherian wonders and ends with nothing but scribbles of the same eye carved into their flesh. The last coherent entry is dated November 1886."
