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WARNING: Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London's most infamous storyline: Seeking Mr Eaten's Name. There is much here that you may want to learn on your own. Turn back now. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here. |
"Clocks, Maps, Breath, Glass – and the three beyond. This is what protects the Courier and its toadies. You cannot end that. You cannot."[1]
"—clocks, maps, glass, breath, hearts—"[2]
A Treachery is an anomaly in the laws of physics, created by a obscurant that prevents the laws of the Judgements from applying within a certain area. The Red Science is also capable of enforcing Treacheries through its mysterious practices and devices.
The Neathy Treacheries[]
"The Seven Treacheries guard the Neath, but there is one place more closely guarded still: a place the Masters can't touch, a place the Bazaar can't see, a place beneath St Cerise's well. This is the wound of which Cerise's redness is only a shadow. The place where hearts go. The Nadir."[3]
The Neath is protected by seven Treacheries, five of which are known, and two of which are not.[1][2] These Treacheries are a result of the strong concentration of irrigo within the Cave of the Nadir,[4][5] which prevents the Judgements from seeing within the Neath, keeping the Echo Bazaar's activities hidden from their sight.[6][1]
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The Treachery of Maps is responsible for the unreliability of maps in the Neath. It can be extremely difficult to assemble a map of the Neath sensibly,[8] assuming they make any sense in the first place.[7] This Treachery can also cause seemingly immobile objects, such as ports or islands, to inexplicably drift in location. For example, a zee-captain may find Demeaux Island to the north-east of London, while another will report it due East.[9] This anomaly may also affect the more chaotic and sunless regions of the High Wilderness, such as the Reach.[10] The Treachery of Maps may additionally blur the definition of the word "here". Through esoteric rituals, it may be possible for a being to exist in two places at once.[11] | ||
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The Treachery of Clocks is responsible for the strange behavior of time and causality in the Neath. Causes will usually precede effects, and events that happened will usually remain happened, but sometimes, there may be exceptions, as history and memory are mutable.[13] Furthermore, doing the exact same task repeatedly may yield different results, contrary to typical common sense.[14] Sometimes, the Treachery of Clocks may also manifest in the forms of visions in certain situations of various potential futures,[15] visions so engrossing that an individual may forget the events of the present.[16] Interpretations of time can get quite interesting when an individual resides in a place where time is mutable. An unenlightened mind may see time as a simple wheel, but the Fingerkings of Parabola see it as a flame: coolest at its heart, and wildest near the edges.[12] Certain artists of the Neath may also represent the Treachery of Clocks through paintings, such as via a depiction of a landscape that shifts based on viewing between unfinished, complete, or ruined structures.[17] | ||
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The effects of the Treachery of Breath are largely unknown, but it likely has something to do with the fact that citizens of Fallen London can return from death.[19] | ||
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The Treachery of Glass is related to Parabola, and is likely related to the opening of the mirrors by Mt Nomad.[20][21] This Treachery may also manifest when traveling carelessly through mirror-walled hallways, resulting in feelings of disorientation and the apparent warping of paths and directions.[22] | ||
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Not much is known of the Treachery of Hearts, only that it is positioned as the fifth in a list of known Treacheries.[2] | ||
Other Treacheries[]
"Your current work belongs to a form of science generally hidden even from avid University researchers."[23]
There exist Treacheries which may or may not be part of the seven that protect the Neath.[1] These Treacheries warp reality in their own unique ways, and may manifest in lawless places such as Eleutheria,[24] or through the Red Science.[25]
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Not much is known about the Treachery of Shapes, but it is apparently of interest to some elements within the Tracklayer's Union.[27] If "inverted", the Treachery of Shapes can cause difficulty communicating, in addition to the other usual effects of the Discordance.[28] | ||
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The Treachery of Distance is known to cause oddities regarding the measurement of the volumes of interior spaces compared to their corresponding exteriors. One such example of this Treachery is Langley Hall, a structure of respectable size on the outside, but possibly infinite on the inside.[24] | ||
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The Treachery of Measures may be exploited to modify the volume, and apparently even the mass, of objects. Objects can be made larger or smaller regardless of their original size, and the results vary from the size of a fingernail (or smaller) to the size of a large room (or larger).[25] The Betrayer of Measures is a powerful Red Science tool that has the appearance of a ruler or scale inscribed with the Correspondence.[30] It can be used to adjust the size of objects via the Treachery of Measures,[25] but, as befitting something with such power, it is also very dangerous. Any object that makes contact with it will have its dimensions changed,[31] and handling it unsafely can cause severe personal injury.[30] | ||
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There are "lesser-known" Treacheries as well. For example, ordinary routines can be extrapolated from information that would seem completely unrelated. | ||
Historical and Cultural Inspirations[]
The concept of "Treacheries" may be inspired by the painting The Treachery of Images by René Magritte, perhaps more famously known as This Is Not a Pipe.