Bats carried London down from the Surface?

[OldSchoolKicksAss]

Can anyone elaborate? Also, whats this false star all about?

[Bobert]

Originally posted by OldSchoolKicksAss:

Can anyone elaborate? Also, whats this false star all about?

I can't remember what the bat thing was about but I think it involed the queen and making a deal with the devil.

But for the false stars, there the ceiling of the caves that glow. Almost being like stars but not like stars.

There is a ton of more detail then what I said but that's what I can think on the top of my head.

[Elitewrecker PT]

The queen made a deal with the bazaar, basically trading the city for saving her husband's life from disease. Now, how the logistics of "bats carrying the city down" I have no idea.

[CB1000X]

Seeing as how the city has been broken up into various scattered pieces, I feel like "Carried" is an understatement. More likely that they were directly responsible for London's fall after the deal was made with the masters of the Bazaar.

[Ellixer]

The Masters of the Bazaar offered to save Albert's life if Queen Victoria sells them London. She accepted, and after seven days the city sunk into the Neath.

The Masters of the Bazaar are massive alien bats under their robes, so I didn't think this was that literal at first. I thought by bats they referred to the Masters. However, information from the Silver Tree seems to imply it might be exactly what happened.

So London is the Fifth City that was sold to the Bazaar. The Fourth City was Karakorum, the once capital of the Mongol Empire. You may recognize this city in-game as the Khanate. A large part of the city started a revolution and escaped to zee. The remaining part was crushed when London came down. The Silver Tree is another game by FBG (I don't recommend it unless you're a Fallen London lore enthusiast) which takes place before Karakorum was sold to the Bazaar. In some of their endings you witness the city be taken away. Here is the text:

Context: Karakorum is about to be invaded and sacked by an enemy army. A Master of the Bazaar, Mr Wines, offers to buy the city so it could avoid this fate and survive the attack. In this ending, the Khan accepts.

I threw my lot in with the Emissary

He could save the city from the armies of Cathay. Whatever the price, it had to be done. Better sold than burned and sacked.

Whatever would he do to the city? “You’ve seen it already,” he chuckles. “Karakorum won’t die. The Silver Tree may still stand a thousand years from now. We of the Bazaar are good to the cities we collect: they will live far longer than they would a-surface. I will show you the stepped temples of the Third City. I will toast you in the river-beer of the Second. I will show you the crossroads that was shaded by cedars so very long ago….”

“We will take good care of Princess Cheren. She will continue her life’s work, her distillations and refinements. I myself am particularly concerned with wines and liqueurs: we will get along splendidly, she and I. In fact, you may call me by my name from now on. Address me as Mr Wines, if you please. Now come. I hear the wings of my colleagues’ approach.”

I hear nothing. Nothing at all. Even the sounds of battle have died away. He leads me outside, and I see that the battle has fallen silent, while both armies stare at the sky. A darkness moves there: a million million wings. Now I hear the sound, like the whisper of a dying sea, like the wind in the bones of a tired god. Eyes flicker there in the darkness. Beneath my feet, the earth moves, like an animal.

“'All shall be well,” says the Emissary, rapturously. “All manner of things shall be well.” Black mist descends as the city moves. The Echo Bazaar is merciful; it makes us calm. Afterwards, no one can really remember what the Fall was like. Our home is the Neath: a cave. The skull of a long-dead god, so they say.

The Emiss… Mr Wines is a benevolent patron. He lets me live in a very nice spire at the Bazaar, and keeps me well supplied with apple-brandy. The years slip by rather easily.

Sometimes, I am summoned to Mr Wines’ revels. I am called upon to tell tales of Karakorum before its Fall, and rewarded with fine wines. I look for the Princess’s face at every gathering, but if she is here, she eludes me. I hear stories, though. Mr Wines’ apple juice is not the only restorative in the Neath.

As you can see, the bats are very literal, though the details are vague. I suspect the same happened to London.

(Inconsequential nitpick that won't mean much to anyone I'm just angry lore person shaking my fist: He shouldn't be called Mr Wines! Mr Something are the Masters' names in London! Mr Wines during the time of the Fourth should be called the Khan of Dreams this was confirmed elsewhere in Fallen London! Shake fist shake fist!)

[Ellixer]

The False Stars are another can of worms. Short version: There are weird massive crab-like creatures that live on the roof. They produce a gem-like materials called Glims on their skin. These Glims are shiny enough to be seen down below and they look like stars. That's it.

Long version: Before the 1st City there was a kind of 0th City. The Bazaar is a creature from outer space, possibly the Fallen London universe's equivalent of a comet. On its way to Earth, it stops on a planet called Axile. This is where the Flukes and Rubbery-Men came from. The Masters of the Bazaar, particularly Mr Candles, made a deal with them (we don't know exactly what it involves) and the Bazaar takes with it Flukes and Rubbery Men to the Neath. The Moon-Misers almost certainly came as part of the package, as the Rubbery Men and/or Flukes seem to use them as mounts. So that's where the Moon-Miser came from. Axile is a very obscure lore area there isn't really a working theory at the moment.

Long story short, False Stars are Glims produced by Moon-Misers. Moon-Misers came from another planet, taken to the Neath by the Bazaar.

[OldSchoolKicksAss]

Interesting, that fills in a lot. Thanks!

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by Ellixer:

(Inconsequential nitpick that won't mean much to anyone I'm just angry lore person shaking my fist: He shouldn't be called Mr Wines! Mr Something are the Masters' names in London! Mr Wines during the time of the Fourth should be called the Khan of Dreams this was confirmed elsewhere in Fallen London! Shake fist shake fist!)

Albert, not Halbert :P The ending of that story makes it sound like it's being told much, much later, possibly after London's Fall. It's flimsy, but that could be the reason he gets The Merciful One's name wrong.

Originally posted by Ellixer:

The Bazaar is a creature from outer space, possibly the Fallen London universe's equivalent of a comet.

If comets were giant space crabs.