"Two basalt beasts, cathedral-sized. They frown eternally at each other across the black waves. The north one carries an encampment: creeping human figures eat away at its features like rot, pick-pick-picking. There's a supply dock below."[1]
The Salt Lions are two giant basalt lions that face each other across the Zee.
Station IV[]
The Salt Lions are in the process of being disassembled by the Unmakers; these workers led by the Unctuous Overseer have been sponsored by the Echo Bazaar to bring the Lion's building blocks back to London.[2]
The material the Salt Lions are made of is called sphinxstone, and it possesses several unique properties; most prominently, it induces nostalgia and longing for home in those nearby,[3] and the effect is magnified by consuming the substance.[4] F.F. Gebrandt asserts that Sphinxstone absorbs some element of passing time.[5] Sphinxstone also sometimes weeps tears, which can flood the hold of a ship transporting it.[6]The Echo Bazaar is not the only force that wants to acquire this peculiar stone for itself; agents of the Great Game,[7]the New Sequence[8] and the servants of all three gods of the Unterzee are known to use sphinxstone in their plans and rituals.[9][10][11][12]
↑Homecoming, Fallen London"you consider your feelings. They are not your own in this place. It is as if the Nostos is saturated with nostalgia, and in being within its walls, you have absorbed the sensation, growing heavy with longing for a time you will never see again.(...)The Nostos is built from Sphinxstone, stolen from shipments meant for the Bazaar!"
↑Homecoming, Fallen LondonBefore you can offer the stone to Mr Spices upon your open palm, it grabs your hand, jerks your arm towards its mouth, and – not caring that your fingers are still wrapped around it – clamps its jaws shut upon the Sphinxstone.
