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The Fifth City: Fallen London's Lore Wikia
The Fifth City: The Neath's Lore Wiki
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in: Other Things of Significance

The Neathbow

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"A dazzling contraption for safely viewing and displaying those colours that are unique to the Neath. Delightful at parties. WARNING: Do not gaze onto the device for longer than seventy-three seconds."[1]

The Neathbow is a set of seven impossible colors.

Nightlights[]

"A book for children. One page is devoted to each of the colours of the Neath, which are not found on the Surface."[2]

A woman surrounded by inks.

Shades.

The Neathbow is the collective term for seven colors which cannot be seen on the Surface. They are commonly observed in the Neath, hence the name,[3] but they also appear in places like Parabola[4] and the High Wilderness.[5][6] The origin of the Neathbow is unknown, but the colors seem to arise from properties of light that only exist "in the dark."[7][8] Each Neathbow color has unique effects on those exposed: for example, irrigo light induces memory loss,[9] viric light induces drowsiness,[10] and violant ink is hard to forget and nearly impossible to erase.[11][12] Neathbow light can also be trapped and transported in devices called Mirrorcatch Boxes.[13] Given these properties, Neathbow colors have many applications, including art,[14] technology,[15] and esoteric rites.[16]

Neathbow colors are not strict hues; they include shades like normal colors do.[17] Thanks to this and the fact that they are "impossible colors" distinct from the spectrum of visible light, their depictions often vary between illustrations.[18]

Colors[]

Historical, Cultural, and Scientific Inspirations[]

The Neathbow as a concept was likely inspired by impossible colors. The specific shades of the Neathbow were likely inspired by the additive (for light) and subtractive (for pigments) color wheels.

Below is fanart of the Neathbow arranged to correspond with the additive and subtractive color wheels:

Name Origins[]

Each Neathbow color's name has at least one potential inspiration:

  • "Irrigo" is a Latin word meaning to "flood or overwhelm," or to "diffuse or shed"
  • "Violant" suggests violent and violet
  • "Cosmogone" may be derived from cosmogony, the study of the origins of the solar system, and cosmos and gone
  • "Peligin" is a portmanteau of the Latin pelagus, meaning "sea," and the color fuligin. Fuligin is darker than black and is derived from the English word "fuliginous" meaning soot-like; this color was used by Gene Wolfe in his science fiction novel The Shadow of the Torturer.
  • "Apocyan" comes from the color cyan, which has a similar hue, and the Greek prefix "apo-", meaning something between "off, away" and "descended from" - like the words apostate (gone-away-from-a-cause) or apocalypse (un-covering)
  • "Viric" is derived from the Latin viridis, meaning "green, blooming, vigorous;" this word is also the source of the similar color viridian
  • The origin of "gant" is unknown other than its resemblance to the word gaunt

Gant's beige shade may have been inspired by the color eigengrau, which people reportedly see in the absence of light.[19] It may also be a reference to cosmic latte, the beige-like average color of the universe.

References[]

Color wheel art by MidnightVoyager.

  1. ↑ F.F. Gebrandt's Patent Neathoscope, Containing and Displaying All Seven Colours of Exotic Light, Fallen London
  2. ↑ THE NEATHBOW, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ THE NEATHBOW, Sunless Sea "[...] each of the colours of the Neath, which are not found on the Surface."
  4. ↑ Parabola tattoo, Fallen London "There are colours which can only be seen in sleep [...] Cosmogone and viric."
  5. ↑ Approach the Gate, Sunless Skies "Two vast winged shapes guard a gate of something like resin, smooth but uneven. It is deep gant [...]"
  6. ↑ Story description, Sunless Skies "The only light comes from smouldering apocyan pyres [...]"
  7. ↑ The Prelapsarian Museum: Optical Exhibits, Fallen London "The centrepiece of this wing will be a series of exhibits on neathy optics – the properties of light that can only exist in the dark."
  8. ↑ Whoever you can, Fallen London "[...] the variant spectrum of night: the colours called irrigo, cosmogone, violant, apocyan."
  9. ↑ Empty an irrigo-filled box, Fallen London "The light scrapes a few immediate plans from your mind, the names of a passing acquaintance or two."
  10. ↑ Empty a viric-filled box, Fallen London "The light lazily seeps out of the box when you open it, or as lazily as light can move. You let out a long, languid yawn."
  11. ↑ Item description, Sunless Sea "It's very hard to forget anything you've written in violant ink...""
  12. ↑ Write something to sear the eyes of fools and lift up the great powers, Fallen London "The ink makes the whole indelible."
  13. ↑ Mirrorcatch Box, Fallen London
  14. ↑ Shades of Yesterday, Fallen London "Artists and the literati rejoice — a pen show visits London! [...] Inks, in all the wild colours of the Neath! Try them to your hearts content! [...] look at all the lovely pens."
  15. ↑ Crack open the Sounder and capture its operating principle, Fallen London "It contains a connection that cannot be easily severed. [...] You will always get a Violant-filled Mirrorcatch Box."
  16. ↑ Shrine to Saint Joshua, Fallen London "It is carefully concealed and draped with veils of irrigo, so that you forget the hidden rites almost as soon as they are performed."
  17. ↑ Bruno (FBG), Failbetter Games Discord Server "The neathbow colors contain different shades, just like real colors"
  18. ↑ Bruno (FBG), Failbetter Games Discord Server "We are and have been inconsistent in how we represent neathbow colors visually in the games ... Neathbow colors not being real means that we are inherently fudging when we portray them visually."
  19. ↑ Eigengrau, Wikipedia
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