#anti smen

[the-avaricious-meddler]

I think I've reached a point of disliking SMEN where it being suggested for a character kinda makes me roll my eyes

Like, yeah sure it's depressing and tragic, but not in... A fun way. It's just an overexaggerated, drawn-out misery-fest with an unsatisfying "gotcha, bet you didn't see that coming" ending. And that's coming from someone who likes tragedies.

[thedeafprophet]

My evening be so fine and then someone brings up smen connected stuff in my notifications

[thegreatyin]

okay so. winking isle is funny. because it demands you start treating your inventory like a garage sale.

and by that, i mean Everything Must Go!

everything.

[thedeafprophet]

LOOK i was never saying Plenty isn't iconic! She's a beautiful women and we Stan a career running girl boss

But regardless of anything else, she's associated with SMEN and by the matter it means I can never, ever, ever vote for her. She can't recover from that

A Moment’s Peace? We’ll See About That

[violant-apologia]

i think renown is like base stats. for a given character, you have to have to conceptualise it differently across the different factions. so uh. here's what high renown with each faction means for briar!

bohemians: this one's the most straightforward – briar is, in fact, renowned in many bohemian circles. many don't agree with him; many don't like his art, but none can deny that he is a prolific and talented artist.

constables: while briar has some qualms with london's constabulary (and they, thus, have some qualms with him) ultimately briar is a lawful guy and has assisted the constables more than his share of times. plus his connections with the masters gives him a level of unofficial authority over a lot of the constables.

criminals: briar used to be part of the underworld of london – nobody particularly important, but he had his own little gang and connections with bigger criminal names. even though he's cut out that part of his life, he's kept the connections.

hell: similar to criminals! he used to be in good with them, before realising they might not have his best interests in mind. he never really had connections with hell, though, so his renown mostly comes from their begrudging respect for his position in the GHR and aptitude with the terpsichore.

revolutionaries: it's not something briar publicises, but he is sympathetic to some revolutionary causes. the emancipationists and the prehistoricists, specifically. while most revolutionaries are anti-briar due to his wealth, respect for law and closeness with the masters, those who reside in the hinterlands view him a little more favourably – and he has substantial influence in pilgrim's dawn, too.

society: briar makes all the appearances he needs to to stay in the good graces of high society. he's viewed by them on the whole as "a bit of an odd one but generally alright". even the ones that look down on his lack of generational wealth have to respect the amount of personal power he's obtained.

the church: briar's efforts with the church at burrow are the primary angle that he relates to the church in london. while its beliefs certainly aren't christian, it still promotes many values that the london clergy find admirable. plus he's technically a bishop

the docks: while he doesn't often spend time with the dockers, briar is far-travelled, has an excellent boat and pays his employees handsomely. even though many dockers will slag him off behind his back, they'll still be clamouring to join up when he wants to hire on more crew.

the great game: this one's obvious. briar has a lot of power and influence in the world of spies – and he takes an active interest in using it. he might not personally be exchanging whispered passphrases or making covert pickups, but that's only because he's got his own pieces to do that for him.

the tomb-colonies: briar's spent decent stretches in the tomb-colonies a few times – after being kicked out of the court, after SMEN, etc.. his fighting style was also developed, in part, from duelling with the colonists – so he's known as an accomplished fencer there, too.

urchins: briar only really engages with urchins when he needs something, but work from him is known among them to be respectful, lucrative and often fun. he respects them in a way few adults do, having been in a similar position himself.

[house-of-mirrors]

I am, at long last, home from my residency, and my brain is stuck in grad school mode, so I have been decompressing by writing a critique of SMEN as if it was submitted to a workshop I was in:

You have a strong hook to grab your reader, and splitting things into shorter sections holds their attention for longer. You also have fascinating worldbuilding and I look forward to seeing how you develop it! Very creative. That being said, it feels like this falls into the trap that many fantasy writers struggle with of having strong worldbuilding but a weak plot. It felt like all the action happened in the flashback scenes. What reason do the readers have to care about what’s happening in the present? Your characters’ goals are vague, and I’m not sure what the main conflict was supposed to be or who the antagonist was. If the reader can’t tell why the characters care about the story, they won’t care about the story. I also noticed a lot of purple prose, and you don’t want to lose your ideas beneath flowery words the reader can’t understand. Precise language. Consider also the Chekhov's gun device: if detail isn't necessary to move the story forward, it can distract your reader.

Finally, I have to make a note on diversity and inclusion. The “tragic backstory” you've selected for your main character perpetuates a sexist stereotype. You also want to be very careful when depicting an indigenous culture in your work. I noted some spots in the text where the descriptions fell into colonialist stereotypes that are incredibly harmful and you absolutely do not want to include. I'd suggest either cutting those parts out entirely or at the very least doing a lot of research to revise them.

Overall, great worldbuilding and great hook, you can really lean into that to capture your readers’ attention and keep them guessing! I'd suggest strengthening your plot, trimming the purple prose, and assessing your work for biases. Ask yourself what parts of this may not be your story to tell and consider removing them.

[the-avaricious-meddler]

Admittedly, I also heavily dislike smen, I only like the vague ideas of what it could have been... If it was. Yknow. Completely different in almost every way and not written by a shitty racist predator.

[thedeafprophet]

Quickly turns off reblogs on the post to avoid any risk of smen related conversations on my posts

[thedeafprophet]

That's cool but I'd die before I'd play anything related to seeking ajdjfkgkh

if i knew any programs to use to make interactive stories i think it'd be fun to make one where u could go on a short heist with Alex lmao

[thedeafprophet]

wow i cant believe Candles was actually another masters kid this whole time, totally adds to the whole situation (joking) ( mocking candles) (i could make way worse jokes dont tempt me)

[thedeafprophet]

Ajsjdkfkgkghkh I swear, I have like 10 different words used to filter smen (including just. The word seeker. Yes i hate hearing about it that much) in the filtered tags and words sections, and the post still end up unfiltered

Note for general filtering: put things in both filtered tags and filtered words because people often won't tag things

[house-of-mirrors]

Warning: bad things happen here. Looking into the mirrors is the prerogative of the foolish.

Contrary to the description from the game, nothing bad happens here, unless you count Bad Post Sunday. You can call me R. they/them guy. I’m in my 20s, I’m disabled, I’m queer, and I live in the United States. Currently in grad school for an MFA. You can also find me on pixel cat's end as acetimetraveler.

If you ever tag me in something or send an ask and I don't respond, please let me know because tumblr is a webbed site and I don't always get notifications!

Find me on AO3 (snow_and_moon)

I mainly write about OCs, the Masters, revolutionaries, judgements, and sunless skies. My interest tends to lie in the higher level lore and I'm always happy to have a conversation about it.

Editing Commissions:

I'm happy to provide grammar editing and/or content editing for fic or original writing! Please DM me if you're interested. We will negotiate a price based on the length and detail of the project.

My OCs:

Please send calling cards to the 4! Their profiles are their first and last names as listed here.

The Preoccupied Professor, Orsinio Elderwood, and the story of his journey through Nemesis

The Laconic Captain, Samuel Weatherbee, and his connections to the East

The Tenacious Doctor, Lucretia Doherty

The Avid Apprentice, Miles Darlington. Rumor has it that Miles used to go by the name Lovelace before vanishing into the North. Don’t pay that much mind. All shall be well.

The Intractable Storyteller, Captain Min, my sunless skies OC (this is an old post and needs updating)

Compilation of reference images, and Compilation 2

Moodboards for my OCs and my ocs in historical picrew

Highlights of Lore Discussion:

A retrospective on Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name

A retrospective on Ambition: Nemesis

Headcanons about Mr Wines my favorite evil bat whom I love to torment

Not a theory about the Discordance

Some fanmade futures and destinies after the launch of Irem

Picrews I made of the Judgements

Tag list below the cut:

Ask box is open, and if you need a specific trigger tagged, just ask me.

I try to tag: firmament spoilers, fl spoilers, es spoilers, hd spoilers, lf spoilers, bal spoilers, hd spoilers, railway spoilers, nemesis spoilers, smen spoilers, irem spoilers, sunless skies spoilers. But be aware I can’t catch everything and this is not a spoiler free blog.

I post mature content from time to time, typically tagged with #suggestive.

I tag #sskies playthrough for my liveblogging of the game and #lore discussion for deeper analysis of the games. For skies, I tag #the martyr-king's cup or #truth ambition for spoilers.

For the periodic negative rambling, I also tag #fl crit, #fl negative, #anti smen, #motr crit if you want to filter those.

More random/personal things are tagged as: #from the desk of R or #disability tag. Stuff made in cahoots with Prophet is tagged with #two of them and/or #my step blorbos. Check #meme archive or #bad post sunday for funny times.

I use the tag #made for me to organize all the lovely gifts people have given me ^^

A little more about me:

I started playing Fallen London in December of 2020 after being recommended to it by a friend, and since that day it has consumed my waking thoughts. I’ve done more or less everything in both Fallen London and Sunless Skies to this point. Don't intend to play Sunless Sea. Still working my way through Mask of the Rose... I wasn't a huge fan of it lol but still don't want spoilers for it.

Some of my favorite things in the game are the Calendar Council, the cosmic chessboard, the Lady in Lilac, Irem, and the Masters. Love the revolutionaries but love villains too. The Masters are scary powerful, the Masters are cartoonishly evil, the Masters are fluffye, the Masters are comically incompetent clowns, etc etc. And.... Judgements hot

In addition to Fallen London, I love math, literature, and history. Looking at social issues in fiction is important and interesting to me. I'm gay for space.

Here’s my first OC introduction post for the archives, although it’s quite outdated at this point.

A final note:

By nature, this blog is an inclusive space. No sort of bigotry or harassment is tolerated here, nor is any sort of “fandom discourse.” I’m too tired for that. It isn’t anyone’s business what fiction someone consumes in their personal time, and it’s your responsibility to avoid content you don’t want to see, and that’s the end of the argument.

[house-of-mirrors]

Smen spoilers with no context

from Hannah FBG’s latest newsletter, I went to look at the linked wikipedia page of the supposed book ‘ regarded as one of the worst books ever written ‘ and I- 

[house-of-mirrors]

 I know this is kind of a weird ask to get, rest assured I would not be sending it to you if I had found it another way but even after the Smending information ban was lifted, I still cannot find this information, and I saw that you completed seeking so I figured I would ask you.

What is traveler returning? Or more specifically, what does it mean, what is it about? I have deciphered the other endings frustratingly ambiguous writing style, but I still cannot understand traveler returning. What does it mean? 

Let me tell you a secret, my friend: I don't think anyone, myself included, has a flying clue wtf the "who is salt" ending of smen MEANS. It has very little connection to going East in ssea or with Irem in FL. It's its own thing (derogatory).

I remember reading a blogpost where AK said he didn't think anyone would actually pick that ending and so threw that together and I guess that's why it's drivel? What did I call it again? Making fridge magnet poetry behind your back in the dark? Yeah

I've seen one interpretation that it's meant to break the fourth wall and imply the player has secretly been Salt all along. And honestly? I personally like that less than it being nonsense (no hate if u like that theory). I don't like meta reveals like that when there's no foreshadowing. Feels like a cop out. And also... why does the player have to be an otherworldly being to be special? Who is Salt? Well it certainly isn't me!

That theory aside, doing a strict reading of the text and ignoring meta stuff, interpreting its meaning as precisely what it says... it means all of nothing.

I did the Hate ending and thought that was the most interesting of the 3. Grieve, sure, fine. Who is Salt? [long fax machine noises]

(I gotta tell you I laughed SO HARD getting this because I'm always joking with my friend about "who is salt" being incomprehensible XD)

Disclaimer this is just my opinion etc, but as someone pursuing an MFA in writing with a good bit of experience in editing: this would NOT fly if it came across my desk. Even if your story is meant to be punishing and has "no good things at the end," I feel like you still have an obligation to have a narratively satisfying conclusion.

In summary: you can't figure it out because there's nothing to figure out, pat yourself on the back and treat yourself to your favorite snack and/or beverage

Ignoring the ending and going off lore, "Traveller Returning" means... (major spoilers for sunless sea under the cut)

Traveller Returning is an epithet for one of the zee-gods, Salt. Salt, god of farewells, of travellers, of the Uttermost East. The Hungry Monarch. There's a hidden ambition revolving around it in Sunless Sea. In summary, Salt was an emissary sent by the White to the Neath to find out what sort of Shames and various crimes the Sun was keeping hidden. Salt has not yet returned with its report, instead disappearing into the East. Now, the Sunless Sea quest actually follows a narrative of the player becoming an avatar for Salt and this makes a lot more sense in its execution than the smending. The Eastern horizon is called the "Deconstruction," a sort of endless horizon in Green and Gold where the laws of space and time get really weird. Imagine a function undefined at a single point, or a tangent line that goes to infinity. I'm not sure how to explain it beyond here because I don't have a firm grasp on it myself; there's not a lot of solid info.

We still know painfully little about Salt and I really, really hope the lore declassification means we'll get more material soon. Well-written material. What's up with Salt, what about the White, what about the Woods in Winter, what is the nature of the Old Man in Vienna, etc.

[house-of-mirrors]

This was sent to my main blog because that was the url credited with the meme, but I’m answering it here since this is my Fallen London blog.

Yeah lmao I intentionally left SMEN out because I didn’t like it. To say the canon material is dubiously written is an understatement, and there’s All of That with AK