the-perspicacious-mercenary

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

I think having "Nightmares" encompass all psychological troubles is an interesting and honestly pretty fitting decision for the game, given the time period. With Freud being on his peak nonsense at the time, ascribing lots and lots of meaning to dreams was becoming fashionable, and there's a certain elegance to considering yourself to be Plagued By Dread Visions! instead of just...coming apart at the seams from the stress of it all. You're losing sleep because of the nightmares, not because of the things that caused them and their effects on you. You're mumbling to yourself and jumping at shadows because of the lost sleep, not because of that other stuff. Just get somebody or take something to fix the dreams, that's the trick! Nothing you have to acknowledge. Nothing unseemly, and nothing outside of your control. It's so very Victorian. It's sad, in a way, when you see it as an attempt to apply a cultural attitude of denial and carefully constructed (performative) self-mastery - that already didn't work well for the real time period it came from, mind you - to life in a cave that kills and traps you and is filled with horrors both beyond, and unfortunately well within, your comprehension.

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

okay after bringing it up, now im curious Bag a Legend Crowd

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Do we know that Sol literally lied?

On the player's part, The Solicitor-Baroness confirms that the 'marriage contract' as written allows you to city-fy almost anyone. If you pick someone who isn't Furnace though, the Creditor is furious about the switch because written or not, it was pretty clear about it's interest in Furnace.

So I'd say it's well in-character for the Creditor to feel betrayed over a heavy enough implication, no explicit words required. (Personally I think its real anger is that Sol reduced their relationship to a contract that could have loopholes poked in it.)

But yeah none of that explains why Sol needed the Proto-Creditor to be an enthusiastic participant in, uh, having a crab thrown at it. There's something going on in that fiery legal head for sure.

Railway spoilers and more

There's something about the Creditor's story that has always bothered me. I believe its account of what occured, but... its obviously a rather sore subject for it, and there's one detail that simply doesn't make sense to me—

The sun.

Sol made a promise to turn the protocreditor into a judgement, it seems. But instead the protocreditor was shattered, with the moon ascending and the creditor being left behind. This is what happened, but.... why would the sun lie?

Judgements do not need to lie. They have absolutely power and authority and abuse it all the time. So why make a promise and not fulfil it? The only answer seems to be "to be a dick". The sun knowing it was never going to turn the earth into a judgement, yet lying, because it's funny.

If the sun never intended to ascend the protocreditor, why answer it at all? It could have ignored it forever. Thrown the Herald without explanation. If the answer is "sol is an dickhead who is cruel without purpose" I'll be really let down

But.... Promises and words are a Big Deal in the high wilderness. Mr Wines giving its word and not fulfilling it is what led to its downfall down the chain. Words can be poisonous, hold beings in horrific bargains, define what Is and Isn't. Reality is made of the laws Judgements speak and extrude through their light.

A lot of this is more interpretive than hard canon, but i think theres enough evidence to say that a promise is a binding agreement. Even judgements are subjects of the chain and order they enforce. Promises often have consequences for being broken— so why would Sol ever risk it? Why do a cruel joke in such an important medium as language?

(Crossing more into headcanon, I am not sure Judgements strictly can lie— consider mithridacy. Lying without lying. What judgements say is LAW and TRUTH, so can they actually speak an unTRUTH? A lie Is-Not, while Judgements are firmly rooted purely in the Is.)

I think the Creditor is bitter about what occurred, and can only see Sol as cruel and a liar. But... it doesn't make sense to me that it was simply lying.

What was it doing instead? I don't know. I don't know the sun

I think there's room to guess that perhaps it sincerely tried and sincerely failed. Ascension up the chain is not easy, and we do not know how Judgements became Judgements, if and when any were lower on the chain.

It might be that it wasn't a lie, because the moon was made— our knowledge of moons is rather uncertain still, but one is the daughter of a sun, and elsewhere there's another daughter of the sun who doesn't seem to be a moon, but does resemble a young Judgement. It could be that eventually Luna might become a Judgement, or take over Sol's throne and position as one.

I don't know what to make of the shattered herald being involved. The fact it is a Messenger feels significant, considering the Bazaar was the only Messenger of Sol we knew of until this reveal. I'll thrown in my stupidest pet theory out at the end here, which is that the Sun might have sincerely been trying to create a judgement — and test driving it with the Herald, not specifically the Creditor. It went very wrong. But maybe it had hoped in the collision, the resulting being would retain more of the Herald.... and serve as a blueprint to create a new judgement out of a DIFFERENT crab. If the sun love(d/s) the bazaar back, the only way they can legally be together on the chain would be if she was also a judgement.

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

cage gardens real not clickbait?????????

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

For the Glorious 25th of May I would like everyone to imagine Sam Vimes and Furnace Ancona in the same room.

That is all.

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

everyone say THANK YOU STONE PIGS everyone say DONT EXPLODE ME STONE PIGS

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Stone pigs mention!

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Tetra uses to have a very simple relationship to romance and relationships. First e didn't want to reveal es most obviously non-human features to a zailor who might be superstitious about it. Then e was busy. Then e knew what the Bazaar wanted from the fallen cities and it made the whole concept feel tainted...

Then Chrys had some personal friends actually get married, which forced en to actually consider some things. Some people seem to be drawn towards relationships of their own accord, while one person who seems to share es distance from the concept is perfectly confident they will never be in a relationship. That's when things became complicated, because now Chrys is simultaneously aware that e doesn't feel these things normally, and that... e's jealous of people who are happy with their spouses.

As for sexuality, it's a tool to influence people. As Tetra got better practised in methods that don't require getting quite so close to a target it's one e prefers not to resort to, but better to achieve your goals than not.

(I have not mentioned gender. Tetra has been putting off gender decisions for a while and isn't about to stop now.)

#7

What is your character's relationship to gender? Romance? Sexuality? Are there any modern terms that you would use to describe them? Are there any historical terms or descriptions they'd use for themself? Has your character's relationship with these things changed over time?

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

What does the Slow Boat do to like lower your wounds? What's happening to the actual body while you're there? Does it patch itself up just by itself? Does that cause problems if there's no one to guide the body through healing (think how you need a cast to heal a broken bone, it puts the bone in the place it should heal in, what if that doesn't happen?)

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Well since you brought it up, lets run the numbers.

A day should be long enough to fit a carousel, so:

Wilmots End -- 11 actions

Assassins single round -- 11 actions

Box -- 14 actions

Balmoral woods -- up to 19 actions

And the one that explicitly takes place over the course of a day:

Flute Street -- 24 actions, plus 15 travel.

I don't think actions are 1:1 time, partly because time isn't real to begin with and partly because you can get extra actions by drinking coffee. 3 actions and 5 actions probably fit into about the same time depending on how hard your character is hitting the grind.

So if 40 actions is a ram-packed day with an early start (Flute Street), 24 for a quiet day and 32 for a full schedule is probably the 'normal' range. Seems reasonable in terms of standard carousel length too -- one or maybe two depending on exact length and how much time you want left over for other tasks.

While it probably is more logical to assume 1-3 actions = one realistic day in-game, it is endlessly funnier to imagine 20 actions per day

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Tetra lives not in one lodging, but within an extensive network of safe-houses. The largest boast a collection of animal pens, a kitchen large enough to entertain guests, a 'dressing room' that is mostly a second front hall for anyone travelling by mirror, a storage cellar, an actual dressing room filled with tools of disguise, a bathroom, and a bedroom; smaller locations (those within city limits) have only the most important rooms, and often simple lavatory in place of a full bathroom. Each room shares a floorplan with its fellows from a different lodging, but the furnishings themselves differ by location. The home built into a zee-znail zhell, for example, has furniture moulded from solid bone using the shapeling arts, and the one in Rebel's Ensconce follows the conventions of that city with brass fittings and enameled surfaces.

For the most part these addresses are secret. Correspondence from strangers or loose acquaintances goes to either the Forensic Oneirology office on the flanks of the Bazaar, or to Tetra's ship at Wolfstack.

But like any thief, Tetra knows better than to trust passive security -- anything e truly couldn't stand to loose is stored in a locked safe behind the defences of es parabolan base-camp.

#5

Where does your character live? What are their lodgings like? Do they have more than one home? Do they share their home with other people, or do they live alone? Do they like their home?

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

You know what I want? A way to turn your moon-miser from Firmament into a Transport.

It's canonically rideable and I bet you could wedge a lot of extra gizmos under its wing-cases. Cushions. Luggage. Weapons.

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Tetra was orphaned when es parent's ship was lost at zee.

(I say lost. The truth is that Andrea Leslie, the Captain and Tetra's mother, crossed too many lines in the name of science and was lynched by her own crew. Theodore M_____, the chief engineer and obviously her kid's father to anyone who paid attention, was killed in the subsequent brawl for taking her side.)

Tetra's fondest memories are of Theo. He never slept, which left him plenty of time to teach little Hyacinth all about engines.

By the time Hyacinth was forming solid memories, Andrea had begun to lose herself to the sort of knowledge humans were not meant to possess. She was also a candle, which didn't help. Tetra is very much like her though. In curiosity, in obsession, even in that streak of cold ruthlessness; though Tetra's is buried deeper.

To complete the list of Tetra's biological family: The Principles of Coral (by way of its Nacreous Survivor). The short explanation is 'Necromantic Shapeling Hybridisation'. The long explanation is written on the spires of the Bazaar; a story about the love of a parent towards the child he could never publicly acknowledge as his own, and the natural laws broken for the sake of that love.

As for a chosen family... Well choosing people is one thing. Enticing them to choose you back? Tetra hasn't quite got the trick of that.

#3

What is your character's family like? Do they get along well with their family, or are things more strained? How frequently do they interact? Do they have a found family? Do they have no family at all? Have they picked up any specific traits from their family?

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Liberation of Night-core: Broken lamps, guttered candles, a gun

Liberation of Nightcore: The above, but faster.

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

Chrysoprase Tetra, Forensic Oneirologist

Officially es expertise is seeking truth in dreams, whether in detective work or providing parabolan research to various labs in the university.

Under the table, Tetra goes on to apply this knowledge in less savoury situations. Infiltration, sabotage, impersonation... By knowing someone from the inside, you can plan the perfect strike against them. And if they have anything worth stealing while you're there, why let it go to waste?

The whole thing works well enough, if only as a excuse for Tetra to be a little unworldly in polite society. What else can you expect from someone who spends half es time not truly existing? But in the end it's a comercialisable tangent to es true interest of plumbing parabola for scraps of impossibility e can weave back into real-world constructions. The only person who has much use for that, so far, is April; the same person who inspired Tetra to follow this path to begin with.

(E doesn't know it, but by using parabolan knowledge to fuel forbidden sciences Tetra is living up to es father's legacy. Funny how these things turn out.)

#2

What does your character do for a living? Do they enjoy it? Are they good at it? Is it working out well for them, or not going so great?

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

feels so much better to drink laudanum to cure your nightmares than talk to someone about it like a freak

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

#1

What does your character look like? Do they have any notable physical characteristics? Do they have a set colour-scheme? What's their posture like? How old is your character?