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[maskofenigma]

ok another fallen london essay-ramble: numbers!!!!!! (im sorry)

so numerology has for a while been a pretty significant part of occult traditions and practices. the concept of attributing supernatural significance to numbers is (if im not mistaken) as old as ancient egypt if not older, but don't quote me on that. also ancient egypt isn't really a single specific civilization so uhm. whatever. anyways the point is that its old and has a storied history and hit 2009 browser game Fallen London has its own interesting number significance that i want to talk about and maybe have some sort of thesis on idk. the recurrent numbers that ill be focusing on are three, four, and seven

four and three are less obvious because they mostly show up from a mechanical standpoint rather than a narrative standpoint. also, when analyzing numbers as potential motifs, lower integers can be difficult as they could just be coincidence. but i want to talk about them anyway and we'll start with three. three occurs in a few places: there are three aesthetic stats (respectable, bizarre, and dreaded), three defensive stats (insubstantial, innerent, and neathproofed), three gender categories, three accomplices allowed in hearts game, three integrated factions, many carousels have three cosmetic or reward options. these all seem to be primarily out of convenience rather than intending to send some sort of clear message, as three is a good number for these sorts of character choices. it has all the simplicity of a binary while allowing for a bit more variance and interplay. gender moment. on the topic of gender, the reason there are three genders is similar; male and female are the predominant gender roles of society, with nonbinary as the catch-all category for anything that doesnt fit those two definitions. i don't need to spell that out but what im trying to say is there being a nonbinary option isn't the product of some strange worldbuilding esoterica or anything it’s just based. most of these are probably just there, though it is important to note that the defenses, which started as just neathproofed, were expanded to three categories. its probably nothing.

where it starts being something is with fallen london's equivalent to dnd alignment, the chessboard colors. the black represents revolution and the liberation, the white signifies the status quo and the red represents self interest. the conflict between liberationists and the judgements is a really significant plotline in fallen london and its associated games, which definitely makes three an important number here. i do think this isnt a case of three being an ultra special number, though, but rather because of the aforementioned benefits of having three categories. even so, we see it here in the lore, and we see it again with the loom in irem. i actually just recently realized that the different kinds of warp you gather in irem correspond to the three chess colors, bombazine warp representing dark and mysterious futures, silken representing peaceful and lawful futures, and sinewy as a catch all for the weirder futures. most of what i said about the chess colors applies here as well, but this is another good example of the number three making its way into the lore. On the topic of irem, the naturalist’s storyline has three distinct endings, so there’s also that

four is a little more purposeful, in my eyes. there are four main stats, four ambitions, four major menaces, four starting areas. these all very likely due to the choice to have four main stats, as each menace roughly corresponds to a stat, and the ambitions and areas correlate to a specific stat. there are also four default ships and four advanced ships, and four options one’s hearts desire (though there are five treasures). one area where the number four was actually pretty significant was the most recent estival, the coilheart games. there were four major events, with four competitors in each round, and the door to the sixth coil had four sigils. within the sixth coil, there were four burdens you could acquire for special rewards and four areas with their own distinct sub areas. most of these also correspond to the four stats, aside from the competitors in each round, but its interesting nonetheless. you could also make note of the four layers of the labyrinth of tigers that have regular access to humans, but that's pretty weak. If i can be timely (because i forgot this when i initially wrote this mess) hallowmas features a total of four masks and masques, but only three are accessible on any given year, so these numbers absolutely cross over. Three and four also overlap with the aforementioned ships: four total ships, but only three are worth having. Only for the default ships tho i love the fruits of the zee ships equally. But i think the most interesting fact about these two numbers, that points to them possibly being intentional to the narrative of fallen london and not just convenient to the mechanics, is that three and four add to seven. speaking of

im going to be honest if you’re a fallen london player then i dont think i need to explain why seven is significant to fallen london. its seven. shes an icon. seven is the number. but ill talk about it anyway it appears everywhere both on its own and as seventy seven and seven hundred seventy seven and seven thousand seven hundred seventy seven and seventy--- anyway. i havent played through smen or sunless skies, so i dont know the full significance of the number seven, but i can speculate about why its so significant (apologies if i get this wrong). seven is the number after six. fascinating i know. but six has a special degree of significance in symbology and esoterica. it s a number thats significant to the abrahamic religions, which are for better or worse foundational to modern european culture; the world is said to have been made in six days, with the seventh day for rest, and humans were made on the sith day. the star of david and the seal of solomon that features an early instance of said star is six pointed. its a multiple of three, and three was very important to the (specifically christian) scholars and theologians of antiquity because of the trinity. and there is, of course, the mark of the beast, another specifically christian symbol, a brand placed upon the heads of the wicked during the end times. moving outside of the spiritual, six is considered a perfect number, and is the atomic number of carbon, the building block of life. these two arent as relevant, but im having fun.

anyway, i feel like itd be redundant to go through even a sample of the instances of seven in fallen london, its literally everywhere. seven cities, seven players of the marvellous, seven coils to the labyrinth of tigers, i think knife and candle had some seven stuff going on, seven seeking candles, etc. its like i said, seven is the number. its neat! Im sure id get further understanding of its significance if i did smen but i dont have the time to rn ill get around to it eventually. Or give up and read the wiki idc

once again im not sure i have a point here, but i do really enjoy the way these numbers recur throughout the game. it gives a special weight to these numbers, gives them a character and significance. i dont see many games use numbers in this way, which is fair; they’re a pretty easy thing to overlook in that regard. but its a factor that, in a small way, helps to give fallen london its unique and odd personality that is so captivating. get it? factor? like math,,,,,,,

Anyway if there isnt one already we need an exceptional story about some weirdo being obsessed with the relationship between four and three. Make it canon. Thats the thesis ok bye lmk if i missed anything <3