#the bishop of st fiacre's

[thedeafprophet]

The Players Of The Last Game Of The Marvellous

So last summer I did a lineup drawing of The Light Fingers crew, so i thought it'd be fun to do another lineup this year.

This time i tackled the main characters from Heart's Desire, including my own PC in order to not have the poor monkey tiny on the ground next to everyone

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Re-reading Evolution, and it's even better as a whole with some things from the final chapter in hindsight.

These enigmatic metaphors go too well with the Calendar Council's inspiration from "The Man Who Was Thursday" and what its author said: "You ask me who Sunday is? Well, you may call him Nature, if you like. But you will note that I hold that when the mask of Nature is lifted you find God behind."

My mind is passionately gnawing on an AU (NOT meant to be a theory, just a purely self-indulgent fantasy): what if "Death's twin" is literally Life – which makes December the Creator – and the Judgements are merely usurpers (very befitting their usual role of a flawed and cruel Gnostic demiurge who only pretends to be the highest authority) who deposed December just like they banished the Black King of the Adulterine Castle?

Or, if December isn't a deity, simply a rebellious servant (because the Boatman says "we both served the same table once"), what if it was a forced reduction from the former to the latter as a first-warning punishment?

What if this original god of life-and-death truly cared about all creatures equally, but then the likes of the Sapphir'd King decided to devour souls for more power instead of guiding them through rebirth (which Devils reclaimed + which somehow-December-connected frost moths represent) and devised the Great Chain to justify the right of "greater" beings to prey on "lesser" ones?

What if the Liberation of Night isn't an overthrow of natural order but is a return to what it should always have been (before "then the light came") and it's no coincidence that the Anchoress managed to behold god's love and true design only in the darkness? (High-fiving this @gant-eyed-warden’s post.)

What if the Bishop of St Fiacre’s knows it all – and that’s where his hopeful religious devotion comes from despite being a Neathy creature that would never be forgiven and accepted by the Judgements?

...I definitely want to write something about it, but I already have two WIPs, ooooh...

[gant-eyed-warden]

Hey I was looking at some old posts of yours and you talking about church in FL and you said Fiacre is one of your favorite characters in FL. Would you care for saying why? A lot of the fandom doesn't really like him.

Fiacre is a complicated bastard and I like complicated bastards. I am not surprised people don't like the character, and there are a lot of reasons to be put off by him both narratively (Church faction, Snuffer, generally shady and ruthless) and for metatextual reasons. I'm curious if there are more specific reasons than that, as I am not really tuned in to the fandom.

The narrative around Fiacre is in part I think about the nature of faith. He is a creature textually beyond salvation reaching for redemption and forgiveness anyway. It is also about what you are willing to do to go home again, longing to go home again, even if it's a home you've never actually known.

Early on, I decided Warden is connected to Fiacre and has been since before they came to the 'Neath: they corresponded via post while Warden was still with the Anglican church on the Surface. It wasn't until well after journeying down, meeting him in person, and actually working for him that they learned of his true nature. Their relationship has been complicated shading to contentious ever since, but Warden would still, ultimately, show up for Fiacre if he asked them to.

[freefromlightandlaw]

The Bishop of St. Fiacre's: That's enough, Reginald. Fourteen choruses of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is enough.

[fallenlondonnpcfight]

I’m Sure This Is Fine

[anomalouscorvid]

very awkward things going on in this church

being accused of tax evasion on a thursday afternoon.......

[the-avaricious-meddler]

Name: Alana _____ Monikers:  -The Gambling Former Noble/The Gambling Revolutionary (depending on what circles you're in) -Mr Cards Age: 27 (Main 4 storyline), 34 (Violet Storyline) Species: Transition phase between Human and Curator Gender/Pronouns: Girlthing (She/it) Ambition: Heart's Desire (Power Ending) Profession: Correspondent Lodgings: Suite at The Royal Bethlehem Closest To: Revolutionaries Other Affiliations: The Liberation of Night (Allies), The Masters of The Bazaar (Target), The Cardsharp Monkey (Ally), Mr Pages (Enemy), Virginia (Enemy), The Bishop of St Fiacre's (Rival, One-sided), The Manager of The Royal Bethlehem (Complicated), Rubbery Men, Tomb-Colonists, The Court of The Wakeful Eye, The Dilmun Club (tentatively), The Youthful Naturalist, Polythreme Most Valued Primary Stat(s): Persuasive, Shadowy Most Valued Advanced Stat(s): Artisan of The Red Science, Kataleptic Toxicology Ship: Il-Altun-class Yacht  Estivals Experienced: Horticulture Hell, The Sixth Coil

Exceptional/Premium stories canon to this character: Caveat Emptor

Personality: Well-meaning but selfish, artistically inclined, loyal to allies but not always honest about who those allies are. Has strong revolutionary leanings, and aids The Liberation of Night- though unless you are already enmeshed in revolutionary circles, you wouldn't know it. Nasty gambling habit.

History:

Born on the surface in 1868 to a declining noble family.  Despite this, they still had a sizable estate, though they were frequently forced to use 'less than desirable' means of moneymaking to preserve their wealth. Her father was a factory-owner, and wanted her older brother to inherit it, whilst she was to be wed to a more successful family to boost the wealth of her own. She frequently witnessed the poor treatment her family's servants- and the factory's workers- were put through, causing her to become jaded to her way of life.

When she was 16, she turned to gambling, and through this she met a group that would permanently alter the course of her life- a small band of Liberationists that still lived on the surface. She joined them in secret, knowing there would be consequences should her family learn of her association. And eventually they did, and there were. At 18, she was discovered and fully disowned, ousted with little more than the clothes on her back.

She would remain on the surface for 7 years more, before deciding she could do more for her cause if she moved out of the Stars' sight. And so at age 25, she descended to The Neath, taking up residence in a cheap rookery somewhere between Veilgarden and Spite. It was around this time she learned about The Marvellous, and began to hatch a plan: she would find a way into this game, win at whatever cost, and use this victory to gain Power. Status. Enough to get into ranks high enough to consort with the Masters of The Bazaar. And from there, she would subvert, sabotage. Use that power to tear them apart from the inside.

Two years of searching. That was how long it took for her to get a potential in to the Marvellous. And how long it took for her to learn she'd have to wait five more if she wanted to play by the game's usual rules. But she wasn't interested in waiting that long. So she set about 'gently encouraging' the current set of players to begin the game early.

(Major spoilers for Ambition: Heart's Desire below)

A peculiar monkey, Intelligent beyond what it should be though not keen on communication, became her companion in this endeavor.

And her attempts, though tiresome and annoying, and requiring her to convince an imprisoned former Prince of hell to pretend to pretend to be freed and make an even further enemy out of the deviless Virginia, were ultimately successful. She convinced almost every player.

And then a larger obstacle presented itself: a Master of The Bazaar was a player. One Mr Pages, whom she already disliked, at that. She unfortunately needed to get its attention. But how?

It was then an individual she would come over time to despise showed up at her door. They introduced themself with no name, only a moniker: The Avaricious Meddler. A moniker she had heard before, not long after she'd descended to the Neath. One many disparate individuals had taken up over the decades with seemingly no connection.

They offered her a deal: They would help her with her goals, if she just did them a little favor later down the line. Not trusting them, but not having many other options, she agreed. 

They told her the location of a long-inactive cell of revolutionaries, and what to tell them to get them into action. What to do to target The Bazaar itself. 

Of course, before any part of this plan could be carried out, none other than Pages itself showed up. And it asked her to join the Marvellous. ...How convenient.

She agreed, of course. One doesn't turn down that kind of convenience when it quite literally comes knocking at one's door.

Being the one to disrupt the players' lives by starting the game up five years early, it fell upon her shoulders to put in the footwork to actually get things going. She would find a venue that fit with everyone's requirements, and convince whomever owned it to let them play there.

Of course, that location ended up being Arbor, one of the most irritating places to travel to. She was not unconvinced she was in some way being punished for her insistence.

(To be continued...)

[house-of-mirrors]

On Unconscious Bias in Evolution (Under the cut for discussion of racism)

[Disclaimer that I am white]

I know the game doesn't get into time period discrimination, but the story is called Evolution, the protagonist is a Black man, and the Great Chain already functions as a metaphor for Social Darwinism. Instead of this story challenging the Great Chain, the game presents a narrative in which the only way to escape this oppressive system of predeterminism is to go through torture and sacrifice your humanity, and for whatever reason the revolutionaries are on the side of 'fate' on this one. Ignoring everything else that I'm about to discuss, it was jarring for me because the theme of the games in recent years generally has been "Great Chain bad and you have the power to be whatever you want"

I tried to think of how many other named Black men characters there are in the game. I can only think of the Bishop of St Fiacre's off the top of my head, but he isn't human, and… steals faces. How about Black women? Horatia comes to mind right away… and she's in a caretaking/housekeeper role. Hm. Oh yes and the Implacable Detective is a cop

This is a horror game, and most characters will not have a happy ending. However, I feel like the Youthful Naturalist got a much bleaker story than most of the characters in FL. Railway had multiple methods for saving Furnace at the end, but Evolution had powerlessness. The Youthful Naturalist also experiences more visceral body horror than many other characters in the game. If you get down to it, it's a story about a Black man suffering and failing to escape suffering. I might feel different if he wasn't one of the only Black characters. While typing this post, I realized becoming the boatman means being forced into servitude... Yikes™️

When I pick apart work, I try to be gracious and assume ignorance instead of jumping to maliciousness. Given that fbg is mostly white authors, it's likely no one stopped to consider how this would come across. Imagine you're sitting down to write a story, you plot it out and decide a character happens to belong to a certain minority group. Here, we have a story exploring a loose end in HD and the shapeling arts with a main character that happens to be Black. Tropes have vastly different origins and consequences for different demographics, however. A story about being forced into fate and servitude has worse implications and ties to real-world oppression for a Black character than a white character. Once I saw someone describe fbg with "clumsy attempts at diversity" and yeah!

I'm not saying you can't write minorities in horror. The horror genre belongs to all of us and the alternative is only having white dude characters forever. You just gotta be aware of pitfalls, especially when you're writing about a demographic you aren't a part of. Especially when you have hardly any other characters of that demographic.

I'd like not to believe the writers had intention to come across poorly, but that's why it's called unconscious bias. Creators need to do their due diligence with sensitivity and bias training. In 2023, there's no excuse for it in a world where you can quickly google "racist tropes in the horror genre." Stop for a second while writing and reflect on how you're portraying a character from a demographic you aren't a part of. I do it all the time in my own work. As fiction writers, we create a world where anything can happen, and it's essential to carefully consider diversity and inclusion.

[leahazel]

The Bishop of Southwark - Fallen London

For this character meme.

First impression: ...like many of FL's players, I'm not a great fan of the C of E. The Bishop, though amusing in his mannerisms, didn't quite suit the kind of company I wanted for my hedonistic, unrestrained main.

Impression now: well, at least he doesn't eat people's faces.

Favorite moment: wrestling him at the Labyrinth is priceless.

Idea for a story: pit him against the Regretful Soldier, who also has a thing or two to say about the campaign against Hell.

Unpopular opinion: I think he's more well-meaning than people give him credit for. And in FL, no one is totally clean.

Favorite relationship: I tend to dismiss his card in the Upper River, but his conflict with the Bishop of St. Fiacre certainly has some crunch to it.

Favorite headcanon: I imagine he must've tried to convert some devils, at one point or another. Before adjusting to "making the Good Book better", I mean. You wouldn't try to baptize alien bee people, no. But if you thought they were fallen angels? It's hard to reconcile.

[thegreatyin]

my god. that really is the middest man in the universe. my condolences

my personal joke conspiracy theory with zero basis in reality is that every single horny reader insert imagines blog in existence hasn't actually read any of their source materials and they just. have a template they copy-paste character names into whenever people request yandere headcanons and whatnot. i am entirely joking with this statement but also i believe it wholeheartedly

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Just a quick Evolution moodboard.

Processing the Youthful Naturalist's story (in addition to all that) also motivates me to write/draw/make something in memory of all my relatives who passed away, especially my father who took his life last year.

Plus the involvement of the Bishop of St Fiacre's makes me remember Heart’s Desire -> the Manager (not like I ever forget him, huh) -> despair of wishing to save a dying loved one, and inability to get over it long after, and depression (theirs too, in my latter case), and so on.

Though I don't know exactly what. Yet. But I guess I really need to think about it.

[warabola]

2, 10, 12, 25!

Ask game time!

2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

Maybe this is just me, but have you ever met that person that says your name regularly in conversation, or uses endearments, or finds small chances for respectful physical touch (a pat on the shoulder, back, etc) and somehow makes you feel incredibly seen, heard, or like the center of the world when you talk to them? That's the Director. Specc'd fully into emotional/social intelligence and uses it entirely to get away with being a menace or to find things that annoy their acquaintances. Joking aside, networking is their livelihood, and they use 'friend' fairly freely (and sometimes pointedly). They "know a guy", they "have a friend in that business", they "would be willing to help a friend out".

The Silvered Assistant, meanwhile, is the exact opposite, and reacts to calling someone a friend the same way someone else might receiving a heartfelt confession.

10. What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

Oh boy. While it doesn't really count as a fact, The Silvered Assistant, when not working for the Director or attending to her business as an Oneirotect, is a researcher and adjunct professor at the University for Glasswork Studies. She tempers her excitement and interest around most folk out of habit, but has a hard time containing herself if the subject of advanced applications comes up. If in the presence of other academics or experts in the field, she will launch into a dissemination of glasswork applied to their field, the application of palindromes in Red Science, anything she's been working on recently. The Stalwart Scholar receives most of this enthusiasm.

The Indefatigable Doctor loves to bring up that one of their rubbery companions overdosed when partaking in amber. Opposite of a fun fact. They'll often have a medical fact pertaining to the limits of the body to share as well. It's best they don't talk.

12. What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

The Heedless Novice loves when people try to come at her or her reputation only to fail miserably, or to fall into a pit of blackmail and politics. There's a reason why she fixated so strongly on the Bishop of St Fiacres after their round in the Marvellous– the moment he started to realize what she did to him was, in essence, pure delight for her.

The Director laughs easily, but you can guarantee a genuine smile from them by: riling up the Bishop of Southwark (particularly embarrassment or harmless things that get him heated); catching the Stalwart Scholar off guard or managing to give him a good case of fuckor; or teasing their newest victim, the naive himbo Uranist Sybarite. That said, all of the above need to be in good humour.

(He's so easy to tease.)

25. What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot?

The Director: Very dependent on what you'd consider useless. They tend not to get into things excessively unless it's for a purpose, and there's a whole lot of things they've researched that might seem entirely inane to a bystander, while actually building a very specific identity in the Cabinet Noir. If asked however, they'd likely insist any in-depth knowledge they have regarding Christianity and the workings of the Anglican clergy to be useless and learned largely against their will. The Bishop of Southwark would probably burst a blood vessel to hear his envoy say it.

The Heedless Novice is, unsurprisingly, rather versed in all things ecclesiastical, but particularly the politics of Anglican circles on the surface, as well as the workings and broader politics of other Christian denominations. With how often the scripture is adapted and interpreted in the Neath to account for their... unique situation, however, she rarely has to rely on this expertise in order to perform her work as a Crooked Cross. Memorization and recitation does not serve her purposes as well as mithridacy or being underestimated would; she finds being adaptable and personalizing the methodology to the listener goes much further. She still keeps up with the politics for fun, however.

The Silvered Assistant doesn't have a remarkable singing voice, but does know quite a few sea shanties, urchin chants, and drownie songs, as well as how to emulate the warbling of the latter. She's also by osmosis quite knowledgeable about the trends, artists, and art forms of all the popular artistic movements in London.

[freefromlightandlaw]

Virginia: Doesn't your Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?

The Bishop of St. Fiacre's: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.

[irrigos]

ive been looking at a google doc with all the text lmao.

It doesn't say anything about Parabola... the only mention of the council is in this line:

"You’ve become something of a leader almost by accident - to Devils, Rubberies, criminals, trade unionists, revolutionaries. The five remaining members of the Calendar Council (that you know of) and the Bishop of St Fiacre’s."

October would probably be safe from the machinations of the Dawn Machine and the threat of sunlight.... I wonder if there are mirrors enough for her to be in easy contact? It also doesn't really say how the Hinterlands have been effected by things, so I wonder if Balmoral (and by extension, September) is alright... much to think about!!!!!

obviously still thinking about the 5 remaining members of the Calendar Council in the Bright Future. admittedly, it says there's 5 that you know of, so its very possible the rest are still alive, and just in hiding or have quit the council... anyway the ones i think are still around are:

December (not a human) May (already immortal) February (it says they're hiding out near the cave of the Nadir, and you can sell her the location after you find it, so I think she would be safe) January??? (the destiny you get here is called The Mask, and she's always wearing that Janus mask, so that might be fun) August (can't get rid of him)

[fallenlondonnpcfight]

Bracket Announcement

Submissions on this blog for propaganda have been turned on. The first round will be broken up over four days. The individual matchups are as follows:

Day One (October 2)

The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel vs The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle

The Clay Highwayman vs Poor Edward

Mr Hearts vs Lettice the Mercy

February of the Calendar Council vs Mrs. Miriam Plenty

Day Two (October 3)

The Captivating Princess vs Mr Iron

The Quiet Deviless vs December of the Calendar Council

Furnace Ancona vs the Paisley

The Bishop of Southwark vs Virginia

Day Three (October 4)

The Jovial Contrarian vs the Dawn Machine

September of the Calendar Council vs Mr Wines

The Affectionate Devil vs the Lady in Lilac

April of the Calendar Council vs the Bishop of St Fiacres

Day Four (October 5)

Sinning Jenny vs the Tentacled Entrepreneur

Feducci vs the Solicitor-Baroness

The Gracious Widow vs the Anchoress

The Once-Dashing Smuggler vs the Youthful Naturalist

[neathbound]

If Maiserel were a Railway Board member, they'd be against Revolutionary Interests, for Labour, and would actually be more convinced the more expensive a proposal is. If they're voted off and re-invited to the Board, their opinions on other factors (Crime, Society, the Bazaar) will be slightly different.

They're swayed by bribery, but only because they respect the initiative; on proposals that they agree with, they'll give you an initial boost on bribery just to help out. They have special interactions with the Drummer (they offer alternate interpretations of his drumming, insisting that they're more accurate) and the Bishop of St Fiacre's (they can't resist alluding to the fact that they know secrets about him).