Fallen London / Characters

The Fallen London franchise

The Silver Tree | Mask of the Rose | Fallen London | Sunless Sea | Sunless Skies

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You

Four decades ago, London was stolen by bats. Dragged deep into the earth by the Echo Bazaar. The sun is gone. All we have is the gas-light of Mr Fires. But Londoners can get used to anything. And it's quiet down here with the devils and the darkness and the mushroom wine. Peaceful.

But then YOU arrived.

The Ace: Especially when you have all four core stats high/maxed out. But even with only one stat high, you are still one of the best people in that field/profession.
Affably Evil: You can play as such if you have high Heartless and Steadfast at once (being cruel and self-serving even against people who haven't hurt you, but staying honourable to those who have helped you) or have high Ruthless and Magnanimous at once (being cold-hearted whenever it brings you benefits, but often going out of your way to show kindness to strangers).
Ambiguous Gender: An option, you can go by completely gender-neutral pronouns at will, and no one will bat an eye at the fact they don't really know if you're male or female. Plus they have bigger things to worry about.
Authority in Name Only: At the end of The Sinking Synod Exceptional Story, you have the option to name yourself Bishop of Watchmaker's Hill if you accumulated enough Synod Influence. Later, a letter arrives to tell you that you cannot take up regular duties as a Bishop since you don't meet the prerequisites, but since you were appointed by Act of Synod, you're still entitled to use the title 'Bishop of Watchmaker's Hill' in perpetuity.
Badass Bookworm: Having Watchful + Dangerous, and perhaps a Scholar of the Correspondence. Especially true down the line once the Laboratory is unlocked, as more than one line of investigation needs you to hunt down dangerous, entirely unreal creatures in Parabola, as well as several reagents having risky sources.
Benevolent Boss: You can play as this once you own your Railway Company, taking every opportunity to improve working condition for your tracklayers and choosing paths that are less taxing on them. Possibly deconstructed however, as if the player expresses surprise at Furnace Ancona's workers' strike even after they have been so nice to their workers, Ancona retorts that your generosity means little if you offer "candies and trinkets while denying their rights", until you allow all workers a share of ownership in the company and a stake in its success.
Bio-Augmentation: Shapeling Arts represents your skill in using the Rubbery Men's abilities to genetically modify others, including dead body parts.
The Casanova: Dozens of people are, at the very least, attracted to you, and may quite possibly hook up. Sometimes they may have ulterior motives, though.
The Chessmaster: A player with high Player of Chess skill. A Player Of Chess represents your reputation and knowledge of The Great Game between spies and assassins. A PC that's trained this skill can both weave together complex plans that go off without a hitch with hardly any intervention, work the Chessboard in Parabola until it affects real-life affairs, and simply play people against each other on the spot to make them do what you want.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Maybe, or maybe not, but you can certainly give off the utterly eccentric airs of one with high Bizarre scores. When fear and respect won't do, sometimes just plain being weird will.
Correspondence Course: 'The Adventuress' Correspondence Course' is one of these fighting traditions you can select during the 'Making Your Name: Dangerous' storyline. Said course was apparently set up by The Presbyterate Adventuress, and it seems to be both in-depth and effective, given the feats you accomplish in the game.
Determinator: Your character will have to be this if they are to have any hope of reaching the end of their Ambition or the Seeking Mr Eaten's Name questline.
Dream Walker: Once you have a Parabolan Base Camp, you can start traversing the Dream World properly, and weave in and out of the dreams of other people. They rarely remember you were involved, but you can profit nonetheless.
Dream Weaver: Glasswork represents your ability to control yourself and the environment while in dreams. Someone trained in Glasswork can manipulate their own dreams and those of others in unexpected ways, as well as traverse Parabola and understand the many metaphors that make its geography.
The Dreaded: An actual mechanic. How feared you are is a quality modifiable by your equipment, companion, affiliations, etc. Narratively, this is also true for certain Ambition endings. If you kill Mr Cups, the other Masters do not seek retaliation in what is implied to be out of fear that they might be next. If you kill Mr Veils completely, everyone is terrified of your accomplishment, something you make use of by openly flaunting the Vake's head. If you win the Marvellous and choose Power at the end of Heart's Desire, Londoners recognize you as one of the magnificent and terrible Masters of the Bazaar and wisely get out of your way.
Exact Words: The skill Mithridacy is described as the player's ability to use this trope to their advantage.
The art of confusion and deception, of misleading the listener without a single false word.
From Nobody to Nightmare: You begin jailed in New Newgate. Eventually, you can become a criminal mastermind, or a master duelist, or help one of the multiple powers in London reach the top. This is true for most Ambition endings, e.g. for one particular ending of Heart's Desire, you can become a Master of the Bazaar.
The Hedonist: Your Hedonist quirk measures how much you engage in this, to nobody's surprise.
Humanoid Abomination: In explicit gameplay terms, enough levels in Monstrous Anatomy can be less of a skill and more or a mutation; the game does explain that sometimes, improving your Monstrous Anatomy just means your Anatomy is now more Monstrous. It's made utterly explicit, however, with Monster-Hunters; they have abilities they cannot let normal people witness, get their title by eating a subaquatic monstrosity raw, and with their unique jobs and capabilities they sometimes seem more Monster than Hunter.
''Empty the laboratory; sit on the floor. Close those peligin eyes; empty yourself, too. Feel the restlessness of your bones, the shapes they would be if you let them. Feel the thoughts that can't be formed into words bubble up, from the deep place in the base of your skull. Taste the air; the heat radiating from the rats in the walls. Listen.
Hunter of Monsters: Monstrous Anatomy represents your knowledge of monsters' strengths and weaknesses. You will need to train this if you want to hunt the impossible beasts of the Neath, but someone skilled in Monstrous Anatomy can take down impossible beasts and monstrosities dozens of times bigger than themselves by having the right know-how.
Metaphorically True: Mithridacy represents your ability to craft and detect half-truths. The skill is explicitly acknowledged as the ability to mislead people saying nothing untrue, and spot when this is being done back to you to avoid being misled in turn. Someone skilled in Mithridacy can fool anyone while never telling a single lie, be it with their words, in text, or even in forgery of skeletons and labwork.
Kick the Dog: Heartless measures how often, and how willingly, you do this. Ruthless is when you do this for a specific goal/money. It can range from Heroic Comedic Sociopath to downright disturbing. Many times you can take advantage of mobs that are attacking Rubbery/Clay Men to steal whatever they may be carrying. They don't always make it out.
Lack of Empathy: The higher your Heartless, the more likely you will suffer from this.
Mad Scientist: It is very much possible to engage in dangerous and impossible science, often beyond the point of logic, and sometimes at great cost to your mental and physical health (and sometimes even others'). Considering what they are capable of, the skills Artisan of the Red Science and Shapeling Arts might well be this too.
Master of All: Progressing in the story requires you to be good at everything.
Master Poisoner: Kataleptic Toxicology represents your ability to analyze, craft, and counteract the Neath's supernatural poisons.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: As your Lab advances, you need to become one of these. Paleontologist, armament manufacturer, biologist of anatomies normal, Rubbery, Neathy and Parabolan, chemist of both the normal and Kataleptic sorts, mathematician of the possible and impossible, cartographer of the Neath and Parabola, and general physicist working in five or six different frameworks of overlapping reality. And you can get good enough at it and have enough works you can fill an entire eight-volume encyclopedia and beyond all by yourself.
Pirate: What other piratical tropes apply will depend on you, but you can become a full-fledged Corsair of Gaider's Mourn and pillage vessels of London, Hell, the Khanate and Polythreme alike, along with sending everyone else that crosses your path to the depths (albeit the Fathomking's own rather than Davy Jones' Locker).
Playing Both Sides: Often possible. It's explicitly so in the Railway storyline if you start cooperating with the Clay Highwayman, as you're both the lieutenant to one of the biggest available threats to the Great Hellbound Railway and its head director, basically looting your own trains.
Rags to Riches: You begin the game escaping from prison and living on the streets. Go far enough and you essentially garner enough wealth to effectively be the 1% of London.
Rags to Royalty: You can be made part of the royal family in one outcome of Heart's Desire. It is implied that you might even be made the heir of London, due to the other royals'... condition.
Really 700 Years Old: Not as you are, of course. But you can find futures in Irem where you join the Bazaar's throngs of people that've outlasted the cities they came in. The Neon Future makes it explicit in that you've lasted well over a century to make it to the Seventh City.
Refuge in Audacity: In Station VIII, the player can choose to build a statue "honoring" Mr Cups or Mr Veils, even after killing the Master themselves.
Renaissance Man: Or woman, or what have you. Just advancing through the early game stories for all four stats requires you to prove yourself as a detective, poet, prose author, lover, socialite, exterminator, ring fighter, and burglar. Most stories give you options to use two different stats to progress or even get different outcomes altogether, encouraging you to develop a well-rounded set of skills.
Science Wizard: Artisan of the Red Science represents your knowledge of reality-warping sciences. To break the laws of reality or simply work around them, you have to know them very thoroughly, along with the principles that let you crack them. But if you're skilled in the Red Science, you can craft impossible devices that break physics as casually as you could break glass, and when put on the spot, you can do that all by yourself, outlining every principle and concept and the way you're subverting it all through.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: If your connection to The Masters is high enough, you can get off scot free for whatever crime(s) you may have committed. Getting it high enough, however, is a long, potentially expensive process.
The Social Expert: High-Persuasive characters are very good at convincing people to do what they will, and can navigate the battlefield that is London's high society with little trouble.
The Spymaster: In the late game, you can start your very own spy network in the Khanate, tapping communications and infiltrating both their agents and London's for your own purposes... or, if you're like your benefactor in the story, just for the sake of it.
Stealth Expert: High ranks in Shadowy allow your character to be one of these, making you practically invisible to all but the sharpest eyes.
Supreme Chef: A well-stocked kitchen in Station VIII allows the player character to start cooking delightful meals that the Railway's passengers will always enjoy and pay for handsomely. While there are (difficult/specialized) skill checks involved in the process, you never serve a bad meal (you do get horribly injured if you fail the check, but you can just redo it until it's right). With some rarer ingredients, a bit of know-how and probably some painful accidents, you can even serve and please the Masters themselves; one particularly expensive concoction can even leave Mr Wines on the verge of crying of sheer nostalgia.
Trademark Favorite Food: Rubbery Lumps! They appear quite frequently from the start to the end of the game and at multiple moments you will have the opportunity to buy them, much to your character's delight. The reason why you seem to switch around between praising and complaining about Lumps in London so much is because most rubbery lumps available in London aren't "rubbery food" at all, and simply made from whatever zailors fished from the Unterzee, which means their quality is mostly up to the quality of the ingredients in the stall they are being bought, having a strong stomach and sheer dumb luck. Of course, when your character goes to Muttom Island and taste the "genuine" lumps, they express delight on eating them, even though they're heavily implied to be made of Lorn-Flukes. Their first reaction to seeing certain zee-beasts in the open can be to try and make Lumps out of them, too (not that it goes well).
The Unfettered: Certain stories, especially the ambitions, may be played this way. Also true for characters with high Ruthless. Once they have their eyes on something they want, nothing will stop the player character from getting it. You have many opportunities to threaten, cheat and murder a great deal of people standing in your way before you get your prize, and reaching that point requires a great deal of commitment, sacrifice and determination.

Your Companions

Character Development: At Hallowmas, you can encourage some of them to develop their interests, or their morality. Or traumatize your goldfish.
Multiple-Choice Past: Your Alluring Accomplice can join you for several reasons: as a criminal from Redemptions, at Hallowmas, or a French agent after purchasing Paris before the Masters.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Several rats, cats, bats, and criminals. And monkeys. Who all, incidentally, loathe each other.
Yes-Man: The Rubbery Yes-Man is a companion who can serve on the Board of Directors of your Great Hellbound Railway, and as long as the Board is not acting against Rubbery interests, can be persuaded to agree with all of your proposals after a trivial Persuasive check.

The Masters of the Bazaar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_master.png

When London Fell and the Bazaar arrived, they were there to acclimate the populace and hawk their wares. The enigmatic true powers of London, though they claim otherwise. Not much is known about them, but they aren't a united front — each one has its own schemes and allegiances. They are also definitely neither male nor female.

Affably Evil: Wines, Fires, and Pages can all be rather friendly and charming, and the other Masters are distant at worst if you don't piss them off (though unfortunately Mr Veils and Mr Fires are perpetually pissed off). Unfortunately, they all have skeletons in the closet. Lots of skeletons...
Alien Space Bats: They are responsible for the fall of five cities, London being the Fifth, and why the events of this game exists. Also, it turns out that underneath their cloaks, they are literal Alien Space Bats.
All-Encompassing Mantle: They wear heavy cloaks that reach the ground, obscuring everything about them but the vaguest impression of their shapes. What's beneath? Nobody knows. But it probably isn't human. Something like giant alien bats, actually.
Berserk Button: Do not mention the Second City in their presence. Each Master will lash out at you in its own unique way. They were tricked and imprisoned by the Pharaoh's daughters of the Second City for an indeterminate amount of time and many of them are still sore about that experience.
Big Bad: To those who have a less than stellar view of them and Fallen London, they can be viewed as this. They are, as of now, too powerful to topple. However, the Masters, through some method or other, are directly responsible for the events of all Ambitions that you undertake.
Blue-and-Orange Morality:
- They seem to hold... strange values, and often don't quite comprehend how humans think. Mr Hearts in particular seems bewildered by the apparent dissatisfaction of their rule.
  When Mr Hearts speaks, it sounds genuinely bewildered. "London has such stories now! Salted with tears and spiced with the passions of the heart!"
- One of the most common manifestations of it all is that the Masters, as a whole, seem to find charity and gifts to be one of the most utterly baffling concepts they have ever seen. This can be sometimes plied to your advantage in that they may feel obligated to pay you back, because a trade is something that makes a lot more sense.
Deal with the Devil: Every city that became host to the Bazaar saw one of its rulers make a deal with the Masters: their city for a single precious thing (from past examples, this is usually the restored life and health of a doomed lover, but isn't always. The rulers of the Third City were known as the God Eaters after their city fell. There is a good reason for this). Interestingly, while the bargain will almost certainly backfire on the ruler and their lover, that may not be the Masters' intent. They just don't understand humans very well.
From Nobody to Nightmare: With the exception of Wines. The Masters are exiles of the High Wilderness, the name used for space in the Fallen London universe. They were exiled to the Neath for a myriad of "crimes". If they wish to return, they must redeem the Bazaar. One of them was exiled for "runtery", but whoever they are, they are definitely no longer powerless.
Giant Flyer: The hunched way they walk suggests they may be concealing enormous wings, but they don't use them for flight — at least, not in the Neath. Except for Veils as the Vake.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Some of them seem affable... but their glittering eye-lights make it hard to trust them.
Humanoid Abomination: They look human, some even act human, but there are a few signs that whatever they are, they are something else.
I Have Many Names: The Mister Descriptor-style names they've adopted these days are only the latest, and even the descriptors have changed with the times.
Jerkass Genie:
- They've repeatedly approached the rulers of cities who have some great, passionate love in danger of being lost and struck a bargain — their city and its people sunk into the Neath in exchange for eternal life for the ruler and their beloved. They assure their "customers" that they take good care of these cities too, that being cut off from the Sun won't mean mass starvation. But things never turn out well. The population of the cities dwindles and a newly acquired one falls from the sky and squashes the last one. The lovers saved by the Masters' powers survive in horrible forms which the Masters use for their own ends — the King With A Hundred Hearts for cheap labor, the Cantigaster for venom.
- Subverted for the most part when it comes to the Marvellous. They would grant the wish of anyone who emerges victorious and Pages claims they have not yet failed in doing this. Meeting the previous winners seems to indicate that more often than not they have granted exactly what the winner asked for with two exceptions: The first winner who could not come up with a wish and the boatman who is still waiting for his wish to be fulfilled. Zig-zagged if the player wins. In the Power ending they grant exactly what the player asks for. Some endings, such as Love or Escape, have them state outright that they cannot fulfill the player's wish to the letter, but they would do their best to give the player the closest possible thing. And in the Time ending Mr Hearts arguably shortchanges you by not outright giving you its Hesperidean Cider, which would be entirely within its power. However, for all the endings they cannot fulfill to the letter, they do throw in a significant amount of bonuses to sweeten the deal. Going by the text, regardless of their choice, the Player Character comes out of it considering their reward a pretty sweet deal indeed.
- Totally averted in the Nemesis ending, if you choose to bargain with Mr Cups to resurrect your loved one instead of killing the Master. It arranges for a ritual that fully restores their life with no side-effects (there is a drawback, but it's rather mild, all things considered, and it explicitly states it simply cannot do more), spending all its fortunes on the Cider needed for that and going bankrupt.
Logical Weakness: Being similar to bats, they don't seem to handle particularly loud noises too well. Even louder parties can get them a little jittery, and at one possible point a particularly loud music box dazes one of them for some time.
Long-Lived: They have been around for many years, since the Fall of the First City (which was young when Babylon fell). Though some of their number may have been replaced.
Manipulative Bastard: All of them. Every last one. Even Stones, with its blunt avarice, and Wines, with its oddly-judged affection, are extremely cunning and have probably dozens of plots running at a given time — most of them against one another.
Mister Descriptor: The Masters of the Bazaar go by 'Mr X', with X relating to what they trade in.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Mr Stones is described as having "more rows than a shark's mouth could hold". And that time not all its teeth were even in its mouth. Likewise, disguising yourself as Mr Veils involves gaining a mouthful of Scary Teeth of your own. You can bite Fires with them. This improves your disguise.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: By our standards, the Masters are huge, eldritch, extremely powerful and utterly undefeatable. By their species' standards, they're a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits full of undisciplined, somewhat useless and runty criminals. By cosmic standards, they may be bigger, but they're still tiny. Notably, in the timeline of Sunless Skies, humanity has caught up and they had to run away, and locomotives can find and kill other Curators like them out in the High Wilderness, something that would've been unthinkable in the previous two games. This becomes particularly obvious when they interact with anything higher than them in the Great Chain, or when Furnace Ancona uses the Discordance on Mr Fires and it has absolutely no defense.
Proud Merchant Race: The Curators, the species that they come from, embrace ruthless capitalism as a show of strength.
Scary Teeth: Going by Mr Veils and Mr Stones, Curators appear to have these. Plentiful, insanely sharp, ambulatory and autonomous. They don't need to be in the Master's mouth to tear you apart and bring you back in pieces, and they always seem eager to cause harm. It is implied that Mr Stones' teeth, while outside its mouths, are powerful enough to destroy an entire building on their own.
Starfish Aliens: Everything they understand about humankind they picked up from observation, and it usually relates only to their trade. At best they regard humans as clever, productive and amusing pets; at worst as a grotesque but useful variety of livestock. They also do not understand human biology on any level, which is one reason why the bargains they make with the cities' rulers don't go quite as planned.
Vocal Dissonance: They're tall, cloaked figures with glowing eyes and dubious intentions. How do they speak? In high-pitched, shrill voices (with the exception of Fires, who has a hypnotic purr, and Iron, who doesn't speak at all).

Mr Wines

The Master who controls the trade of beverages, and has major stakes in the entertainment industry. Friendly and jolly for a Master, it hosts lavish parties and has a weakness for music, but has famous issues with actually paying those who cater for its soirees.

Chessmaster Sidekick: Jervaise, Wines' major-domo. He's usually acting under the orders of his boss, but Wines allows him to use his own judgement in some interesting places. In any event, he's loyal and doesn't seem to mind menial tasks (like keeping track of Wines' corkscrew).
Code Name: M. Mourvèdre, while planning to buy Paris. (Mourvèdre is a type of grape.)
A Day in the Limelight: Appears in The Silver Tree, angling to buy the city that game is set in. Its presence, as the Cloaked Emissary, is the first clear hint of the supernatural, though the characters, used to Surface life, take a long time to realize this being, incredibly tall and always cloaked and high-voiced and faceless, isn't human.
Dead Person Impersonation: If another Master is killed in the course of an Ambition, Mr Wines is the one to take over its portfolio. If you kill Cups, it winds up bursting into tears over the stress of acting as three Masters (as Cups had already done exactly this for Mirrors).
Determinator: Mr Wines does not appear to have given in to cynicism as some of its colleagues have. In a possible destiny, it is the only Master who tries to openly object to the Player Character's accusation that they all think the Bazaar is doomed to fail in its mission.
Dirty Business: During the Bag a Legend Ambition, it clearly isn't happy when it realizes the only way to stop Veils' rampage is to kill it - but it still honestly helps you finish it off, after downing an entire cask of wine.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even Wines can see that Veils has become an abomination and will assist a Bag a Legend player with killing it despite their old friendship, though not without requiring a steep price anyway.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Subverted, unlike the other Masters, to the point where it's almost a case of From Nightmare to Nobody. Not that it's a nobody now from Londoners' perspective, but compared to what it once was it might as well be nothing. Wines was a monarch and a tyrant who held unimaginable authority and privileges. The power it once held seem more akin to that of a Judgement and it ruled over countless kingdoms that rose and fell by its whims. Then it failed to keep its promises, lost everything and the rest is history.
Its crown freezes. Its sceptre crystallises with celestial ice. Its wings enfold its body as it plummets with dead stars, cast into a darkness where love atrophies, where it shrinks and shrinks until it sits before you, trembling: Mr Wines, just Mr Wines at the toasting table, fumbling for a bottle to drown out the memories.
Future Badass: In 1908, if the ravens of Parabola can be trusted (and to be frank, denizens of Parabola cannot often be trusted), it will venture to the surface and attempt to secure Paris, the Sixth City from an unnamed Emperor of the Third French Empire.
Gargle Blaster: The Neath's foremost purveyor! And one of its more pronounced drinkers. As a rule, you should generally avoid anything Mr. Wines calls "absinthe", as its only rule governing what counts as absinthe appears to be "will mess you up".
I Need a Freaking Drink:
- Occurs whenever it's in a melancholic mood, such as being reminded of its fall from grace. In almost every appearance in an Exceptional Story, it's drunk.
- Partakes heavily after realizing Veils needs to die, and it is going to help the player character kill it. It starts by gulping a glass, then pulls out a full cask of wine.
Irony: Promises. Despite the fact that Wines ruined itself by failing to keep its word, it appears to put a lot of stock in the vows of others. It is possibly one of, if not the only Master who still believes in the Bazaar's promise. During one scene in Bag a Legend, it also asks you to make a promise before giving its assistance and apparently takes you at your word. Even if the player gives their word, it is entirely up to then whether they really mean it. If you are aware of Wines's circumstances, you can even reference its own broken promise as justification for your lie.
Large Ham: Wines is noted to carry a theatrical flair to its actions and speech.
Riches to Rags: One of the crimes committed by the Masters of the Bazaar is "failure and defeat" and "a fall from king to beggar". This is pretty much confirmed to be Wines. During Christmas, it may give you the crown it presumably wore when it was king.
Taking Advantage of Generosity: A minor storylet (which can be repeated) has the player character organise and cater one of its parties out of their own pocket. Including the wine. When confronted for payment, Wines claims to have left its wallet in its "other cloak" and pays the player character using detritus left by the party guests.
Undying Loyalty: Among the Masters, Wines appears to be the one most loyal to the Bazaar, and it demands the same from its peers.
The Wonka: More than most other Masters, Wines comes across as genuinely trying to be friendly to human beings; due to the inhumanity of the Masters, it therefore also comes across as extremely weird. That said, it is still a Master of the Bazaar. Even when drunk, or talking about its corsetry, or the nature of time as a snake covered in onion marmalade.

Mr Spices

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spices.png

The Master who controls the trade of spices and smokeables, and who lays claim to the honey-trade. A very irritable character, with a long-standing rivalry with Mr Wines over who has domain over dreams.

Bizarre Alien Biology: Mr Spices is pregnant. The 'father' is a female Devil, and Devils are colonies of bees. And when the player must help it give birth, a train is involved. That's about as bizarre as it gets.
The Comically Serious: Spices does not react well to affronts to its dignity. Which, of course, makes affronts to its dignity really amusing. Sinning Jenny and Wines used to tag-team it on that front.
Good Parents: The stash it is sneaking behind the other Masters' back is not actually a sedative, but a nutritional supplement for the fetus Spices is currently pregnant with; as shown by its interactions with the Storm-Bird, it is sincerely dedicated to the health of its offspring. If you deliver the child to the Bazaar, later interactions with Spices (for instance, during Christmas) lead to it having to leave early to take care of the baby, and if you delivered the child elsewhere, it gives some pointed remarks about whether you actually know where anything belongs.
Jerkass: It is rude and short-tempered in interactions. Spices is also responsible for Jack-of-Smiles, causing multiple permanent deaths. The only reason Jack was around for so long is because Spices was too lazy to get rid of it despite the fact that it knows for a fact that the scheme had failed and will never produce the intended outcome. Pages also remarks that Spices is often surly simply for the sake of being surly.
Pet the Dog: Despite being a surly jerkass, Spices is kind and gentle to the Storm-Bird, even asking for a toy from the player character (if they happen to have one) for the Bird to play with. This is likely because of the Storm-Bird's connection to Spices' (probably unborn) offspring in some way. What we see of its interactions with its offspring is also implied to be about as close to good parenting as eldritch space bats can get.
You Can't Go Home Again: This applies to all the Masters to some extent, but Spices might be the one to take this the worst. In one scene, Spices dreams of the High Wilderness again, and begins sobbing in its sleep.

Mr Apples

The Master who controls the trade of agricultural goods, from fresh fruit to lumber. It likes to gamble and to demonstrate its largesse, and is said to be the Master to deal with regarding immortality. It's said it was once known as Mr Barley.

The Bus Came Back: Shows up in Sunless Skies as the Chiropterous Hoarder.
Didn't Think This Through: The Marvellous is this trope. You get the impression that Apples gave very little thought to the rules and the implications thereof. To go down the list of the disasters: the death of Mirrors is the prime example, but in the Time ending of Heart's Desire the player can trap the Masters in London for far longer than they ever wanted to be.. In the latter case, the other Masters lampshade how Apples' lack of thought has screwed them over.
The Gambling Addict: Possibly. You can win a Yacht from it from a game of card. It is also the one who began the Marvellous and appears to also be the Master most reluctant to see it end.
I Have Many Names: It also trades as Mr Hearts.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Claims that "authority is what's left when the money runs out." Which is, perhaps unintentionally, a very accurate description of the power held by the Masters.
Token Good Teammate: Apples has far less blood on its hands compared to its compatriots, aside from its rather questionable Mystery Meat...

Mr Hearts

The Master who controls the trade of meat. A mysterious and sinister Master with an attitude of extremely disconcerting friendliness.

Big Eater: As would be expected of the Master who controls the trade of meat.
Horror Hunger: If you are dumb/unlucky enough to buy from its butcher shop in the Labyrinth of Tigers, you may find yourself feeling rather... Unaccountably Peckish.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: It organizes ‘Hearts Game’ where teams of assassins coordinate to slowly and subtly poison a target to death.
Mystery Meat: It's bad enough that it specializes in offal, but sometimes its meat will drive the careless diner mad, or get up and walk away on its own. The meat doesn't seem to resemble that of any particular creature, with its contorted bones and strange shapes.
Mysterious Backer: Its motives for organizing Hearts Game are deeply unclear and could plausibly be anything from testing methods of immortality, murdering potential threats, or even just amusement.

Mr Veils

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_bagalegend.png

The Master who controls the trade of cloth, and who also has stakes in the entertainment industry.

Bad Boss: On top of everything else, it is also an apathetic and cruel boss. Its factories employ children working under abysmal conditions, most of whom don't even qualify for wages, and when they do the bureaucratic process makes it hardly worth the bother. And unlike Mr Fires, whose factories are at least implied to be efficient if cruel, Veils doesn't even seem to care. In fact, its death has a positive effect on production.
Blood Knight: Like Iron, Veils loves fighting. Unlike Iron, Veils does not even limit this hunger to combat, extending its capacity for violence to fashion and politics, to the point where its thirst for blood has begun to make it a liability to the Bazaar and its peers. It has gotten bad enough that Fires prepared a mechanical replacement to Veils in anticipation of Veils becoming unsuitable for its duties.
The Chessmaster: Perhaps surprisingly for such a vicious creature, Veils is also a skilled Player of the Great Game, making moves and arrangements both in the Neath and the surface. For the climax of Bag a Legend, the aspect associated with spycraft and politics is one of the three dominant ones.
The Fashionista: For such a violent and animalistic Master, Veils appears to be very passionate about fashion and is quite offended by rumours to the contrary. In fact, trying to forge a convincing disguise of him in Bag a Legend can cost a Veils-Velvet Scrap, the most expensive Rag item in the game.
"You might have heard rumours about me. That I do not care about fashion, despite my standing. This is slander." It caresses your outfit, fetid fangs dripping. "I care more than you could fathom."
Hero Killer: Zig-zagged. It played a key role in the killing of Mr Eaten. The rest of the Masters condoned and even helped in the murder. It didn't entirely work; Mr Eaten and the Seekers of the Name resent it viciously, condemning Veils as a traitor. On the other hand, there's also its tenure as the Vake, which seems to involve killing (quite a few) people for sport.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: When it tires of wheeling and dealing with the other Masters, it takes to the skies and hunts Londoners as the Vake. It delights in killing his own hunters, to the point he's the one that had the great idea of offering an absurdly huge reward on his own head, to keep a steady stream of them coming in.
Jerkass: For the most part, a lot of the Masters' villainous acts are due to laziness or avarice than outright malice. Veils does horrible things because it's impatient, bored, hungry, and kind of a prick. And if you think it's merely a matter of feeling superior over the lowly humans, it treats fellow Masters pretty awfully too; a few events in Bag a Legend imply physically assaulting its colleagues when it's in a worse mood than usual is not uncommon.
Karmic Death: One of the endings of the Bag a Legend ambition. The monster who lures Vake-Hunters to their doom might finally be put down by one of those very same Vake-Hunters.
- To the Veils of the Third City, for Seekers who went the distance but turned back at the very end. They skip the extremely expensive requirements for forging the Jaguar Blade necessary to kill the god who transgressed. The Seven-Fold Knock suffices to bring this long-awaited reckoning.
- If you initially capture Veils of the Third City instead of killing it right away, you later have the option to eat it and gain power. Do unto others...
Literal Split Personality: During the final segment of the Bag A Legend ambition. The Chorister's Bomb, a Red Science superweapon developed specifically to neutralize Veils, converts the Master from WHO into WHY, turning it into all the "selves" it has within it. Most are small and too trivial to persist, but in the end three remain to be dealt with; Curator Veils, its self as the animal that he was before joining with the Bazaar, Veils of the Surface, its self as a network of influence after allying with the other Masters and becoming a force all his own in the Great Game, and Veils of the Third City, its self as a god that committed the most terrible of crimes.
Nice, Mean, and In-Between: When the Chorister's Bomb is detonated, it is split into three main facets of its personality:
- Veils the Curator, a savage and bloodthirsty animal, is the Nice one, being the least intentionally malicious of the three. Yes, that's not a joke.
- Veils of the Surface, the Chessmaster is the In-between. At first, it seems the least malevolent of the three, but when it's drunk, it freely divulges it's heinous intentions, revealing itself to be Always Chaotic Evil.
- Veils of the Third City, its form when it appeared to the people of the Third City, is the Mean one, having committed the most atrocities. It is rude, murderous, unrepentant for its evils and refuses to learn its place. It's the only aspect that the player can't deal leniently with.
The Spymaster: It is the patron of the Face and possibly also the Teeth of the Foreign Office.
Stealth Expert: For such a large creature, Veils is noted to be remarkably stealthy when it wants to be.
Mr Veils is at your side again. You did not even see it arrive. No more than you would see your own blood pumping to your heart.

Mr Cups

The Master who controls the trade of pottery, as well as the rag-and-bone men of Fallen London.

Berserk Button: It's the only master stated to explicitly "fly into a rage" at the mention of the Second City, as opposed to the other Masters' more passive-aggressive behavior (or Spices, who also gets angry, but is more likely to get overwhelmed by grief rather than be able to attack you).
Brutal Honesty: Even when it's about to suffer a Fate Worse than Death, Cups makes no attempt to apologize or conceal the fact that it feels absolutely no remorse for all the people it's killed. It's even honest about bringing your loved one back if you spare it, at great cost to its fortune.
Collector of the Strange: Its Relickers search through scraps to find valuable odd things, which they bring to it.
Dead Person Impersonation: By the time Mr Mirrors died, the number of Masters was too well known to too many survivors from the previous cities to try to erase it completely. Cups took over for Mirrors' portfolio.
Deal with the Devil: With it as the devil. Mr Cups and Mr Eaten made the very first deal for the First City.
Two figures step into the chamber, hunched and garbed in many petalled black cloaks. Masters of the Bazaar. One carries a clay cup, the other an unlit candle. The one with the cup says, "I think we can be in service to each other. Allow me to propose an exchange."
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: It's murky who can be called "good" or "evil" in this scenario, but it thought the avengers it lured to the Neath would be satisfied with just killing Scathewick, not expecting them to keep going after the one who arranged the murder.
Fate Worse than Death: Potentially at the end of Nemesis, through the consumption of Cardinal's Honey.
Gone Horribly Right: Wanted to craft stories of vengeance for the Bazaar. Potentially murdered for vengeance by one of the people whose loved one it killed. Bonus points if the player character chooses to write a story of revenge on the Bazaar afterward, which is what Cups would have wanted, but not in the way it had hoped.
Ironic Death: At the conclusion of "Nemesis," it can potentially die from drinking out of a poisoned cup, delivered by the player, who infiltrated its quarters through a mirror.
Karmic Death: Killed at least seven people to lure their loved ones to the Neath to seek revenge. Potentially killed by the seventh.
The Power of Hate: One possible interpretation of its plan. Rather than through love as the Bazaar intended, Cups wishes to "ignite" the Bazaar's heart to save it, "for vengeance is as hot as love".

Mr Pages

The Master who controls the trade of knowledge and publications. Through the Ministry of Public Decency and the Special Constables, it manipulates, seizes and censors texts and authors deemed threatening to the social order — or that it would add to its own collection of texts.

Bait-and-Switch Boss: Everything suggests Mr Pages would be the final boss of the ambition Heart's Desire. It is the most high profile player and the last to appear. It performed the best in the first round. It is a Master of the Bazaar, someone who would be either the main villain or at least the one pulling the strings if this was any other ambition. Instead, before you can face Pages itself, the Master is bested by Beechwood, a mere monkey, who goes on to be your final opponent, albeit likely a more sympathetic one.
Book Burning: The modus operandi for the Ministry of Public Decency. Pages keeps a single copy for itself.
Breakout Character: Its popularity is noted to be one of the reasons it was chosen to be one of the love interests in Mask of the Rose.
Ditzy Genius: Hard to tell with a Master, but it seems to genuinely adore books, reading, words and print. The "ditz" part comes with being a Master and as such deeply odd to human sensibilities. Or maybe just that odd; the reason the Curators banished it from the High Wilderness was because it could not resist the impulse to spruce up and edit for clarity the foundational text of their people.
Great Big Library of Everything: The spire it lives in. Whatever it doesn't burn, it will collect.
Love Freak: Writes gushy hamfisted love stories in its spare time, and obsessively collects the love stories written by others. Romance is on its mind quite a lot. It's also one of the few Masters who still thinks the Bazaar can find love with the Sun, and continues to aid it long after many of the other Masters have given up. In Mask of the Rose, you can attempt to romance it.
Perfectly Cromulent Word: A glance at any of its dialogue will prove its fondness for invented (though technically correct in construction) words.
Pet the Dog:
- It won't be happy if you let the Wilted Dandy keep one of its books, but it will let him and you off the hook if you personally write a new copy of the book for it.
- If you move into the Bazaar, it personally welcomes you as its new neighbor. If it visits your home, it tries to compliment you on your carpet.
- During the Exceptional Story The Calendar Code, if you refuse its offer of paying you to give it a manuscript another party commissioned you to retrieve, it backs off and says that it even admires your courage.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: As one would expect from a master of what is written. It sometimes comes across as trying too hard, or just really, really fond of hearing itself talk. In one scenario it describes some of its own poetry as "inane but heartfelt".
Sore Loser: After it loses to the monkey during the Heart's Desire ambition, Pages writes "two hundred and seventy-two pages cataloguing and condemning the evils of monkeys".

Mr Mirrors

The Master whose sphere is not entirely clear, except that it trades in glass. It seems to be charged with the secret knowledge relating to the dream-world behind mirrors.

Dead All Along: Not really dead, but it was trapped in Parabola by October before the events of the game, and most things attributed to Mirrors in the game are actually Cups. You can kill it for real during Nemesis, or free it. It will bring you presents if you do the latter.

Mr Iron

The Master who controls the trade of metalwork and mechanisms, as well as the duelling competition known as the Game of Knife-and-Candle. A silent and threatening Master. It is said it was once Mr Bronze.

Blood Knight: It enjoys combat. This is possibly the only thing it enjoys.
Defector from Decadence: While it hasn't really "defected", it's the one Master who displays contempt towards the Bazaar's manipulations. Its Mr Sacks self will praise players who have professions independent from the Bazaar and condemn those who have high-tier professions closely entwined with the Bazaar as choosing to be only cogs in the Bazaar's schemes.
Dual Wielding: A blade in each hand. (Or pens.) It wields both with perfect skill simultaneously.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Stoic as it may be, it seems to be in a state of perpetual grumpiness. Which, being a Master, means it will issue some horrific written threats (which you never get to see, but they do scare the absolute hell out of its own enforcers for just reading them to you) for minor offenses, like getting a little too close to it at the Carnival. Other overhead conversations imply that it just hates everyone, even its own enforcers, and especially the other Masters.
The Speechless: It does not speak, ever, but it can write with both hands at once. It's unclear if its lack of speech is choice or not.
The Stoic: Says little, emotes little, gives away little, especially compared to the other Masters. It has even less interest in human customs than its compatriots.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: Mr Iron does have a FL character, the only one to have a 10-card lodging.

Mr Fires

The Master who controls the trade of fuel, from household candles to industrial coal. Often at odds with the common workers of Fallen London, as well as with the other Masters.

Bad Boss: The dock-workers certainly think so. An early storylet sees a violent uprising at Wolfstack Docks; you can either support the workers in their protest or take up the stick of a Neddy Man and do some strike-breaking (and head-bashing). As revealed during the final parts of the Light Fingers Ambition, this is actually the reason it loves London so much, since the combination of the advances in industry and its Victorian-era attitude toward workers's rights and conditions allows Fires to fully explore how much of a Bad Boss it can be in the name of productivity.
The Bad Guy Wins: If you choose to hand over the Hybrid at the end of Light Fingers, Mr Fires gets everything it wants and ends the story ecstatic.
Butt-Monkey:
- In Bag a Legend, the player gets the option to bite Fires while in disguise as Veils. If the player does so, their impersonating Mr Veils' quality goes up, implying Veils regularly bites his compatriots. There's even a hidden quality "Repeat Dentistry" that counts how many times Fires had been bitten
- It's heavily implied that Fires is doomed in multiple possible futures. Hell, Veils has a better chance of survival, going by how many times each of them shows up in a possible future.
- The final resolution to its meddling during the Railway can involve being completely outplanned or drugged into a stupor, and definitely ends with it accidentally pronouncing Discordance, knocking itself out from hypothermia, and generally getting horribly injured while having an entire chunk of memories deleted; it's reduced to huddling in the corner of the room, shivering pathetically with no idea where the hell it is. If the player has completed Light Fingers and chosen not to hand the Hybrid over to Mr Fires, they can also choose to let their child freak the hell out of Fires while it's unconscious, just for the hell of it.
- You also have the option of infesting its office with fungal spores.
Crazy-Prepared:
- During certain heists, you can find out in its office it has a contingency prepared "In case the Drowned One stirs". Meaning, it has a plan for when Mr Eaten's reckoning actually comes.
- It has no fewer than three ongoing schemes to prevent the Creditor from calling in the Bazaar's debt.
- It also has a contingency plan in case Veils is killed.
- A certain line in Bag a Legend implies that it's also plotting against the Liberation of Night.
Enemy Mine: Tries to invoke this in Light Fingers even if the player expresses open disdain for it. Mr Fires relies on the player's presumed love for London to secure their aid, expressing a desire to save the city from being crushed as a worthy enough goal to work toward together.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: We do not see the whole conversation, but it appears that during a scene between Mr Fires and the Tentacled Entrepreneur, the former expresses confusion at the latter's motive, that being defending his fellow Rubbery Men rather than cold callous profit as Mr Fires has always done.
Evil Is Petty: Though not necessarily directed at the good guys. Near the climax of Light Fingers, Fires pretty much encourages the player character to burn down a library of failed love stories for no other reason than it would piss off Mr Wines. It is almost giddy if you go through with it. Fires stands to gain nothing from this pointless act of arson at its colleague's expense. It just wants to spite Mr Wines.
Exact Words: The Player Character suspects Mr Fires employs liberal use of this trope when it offered to make a deal with Furnace Ancona. In addition to trying to transfer a massive debt with grave consequences from the Bazaar onto the Union (while downplaying its importance), it offers to never interfere with Union's business if she does not encourage its own workers to unionise. The Player Character suspects that from its point of view, her mere existence is encouragement to his workers to unionise.
"'It is possible.' The falsehood begins there. It is possible that something would prevent this old power from calling in its IO Us. But Fires would not be so eager to sell this debt on unless it were afraid. 'The debts are very old': another falsehood through truth. Age, in the Neath, does not mean toothlessness. Something that has refused to die for millennia can be a serious threat.
And then 'as long as you do not encourage my workers...' Another hole, large enough to pass a GHR engine through. Furnace's daily life is an encouragement to unionise. Simply by existing, she sends a message.
Greater-Scope Villain: For the Light Fingers Ambition. While it doesn't show up until near the end of the story and has no more than two scenes, Mr Fires is the one responsible for the orphanage, the moon-milk experiment and the baby. Poor Edward is your antagonist and serves as the final enemy you face, but he's only Fires's lackey.
The Heavy: In total, it is responsible for, or has taken a significant part in, the Battle of Wolfstack (it runs the Neddy Men, obviously), and the Boxful of Intrigue arc, where it fights with Stones to keep the Sixth City, Paris, from falling, and the Light Fingers Ambition, and the Exceptional Stories the Ballad of Johnny Croak (where it is opening up a factory to serve some yet to be revealed scheme) and A Bright Future (where it opposes an attempt to bring electric lighting to London). It is also heavily involved in the ongoing Railway story, kidnapping Furnace, with at least three ongoing schemes involving the Tracklayers Union, the Creditor and an unknown Surface Contact whose mail you keep intercepting. It's really only rivaled by Veils in terms of villainy, though Fires is more Obliviously Evil compared to Veils.
Hypocrite: During the Heart's Desire conclusion, if you go for the "Time" ending, which involves London remaining indefinitely, Fires is your staunchest supporter, claiming that the Masters must abide by the results of the Marvellous. However, during the "Power" ending, Fires is the one that storms out of the meeting midway through. Apparently it meant "abide by the results so long that the results serve Fires's agenda".
Karma Houdini: One of the cruelest Master and the true villain behind the events of Light Fingers. At the end of the ambition, unlike Poor Edward who can be killed, Mr Fires is never fought and other than having its plan thwarted, it continues as before. At least you can get some satisfaction out of learning that it is incredibly pissed at your intervention... unless you choose to assist it, in which case this trope is played 100% straight.
Karma Houdini Warranty: If the player raises a hybrid with strong inclinations toward humanity, Mr Fires survives the event of Light Fingers, but in a distant future, the Hybrid will return and bring about its demise.
Karmic Death: In one ending of Light Fingers and only in a distant future, but the Hybrid Mr Fires created to further its scheme, a scheme that caused unimaginable pain and horrors to innocent victims, returns with a vengeance, and an army.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Ancona inflicted this on herself and Mr Fires. It does not remember her, and she does not remember it. One can assume she has done this to prevent it from meddling with the business of the union. All its Creditor-related schemes, and the Creditor itself, are collateral damage, which collapses a whole bunch of its plans since the amnesia is self-perpetuating.
Lonely at the Top: Siding with Fires during the Railway plotline will result in a scene where Fires confides its plans with the player character, who discovers that the Master likes to talk about its schemes, but for one reason or another is unable to do so with his peers or subordinates. The player even outright states that it seems like Fires is lonely.
"Not So Different" Remark: Fires explicitly compares its younger self to Veils in Bag a Legend.
Fires stands looking at you. It is not trying to see you. It is, rather, contemplating its reflection in the form of Mr Veils. “We have gone such different ways,” it says. “I remember when we were more alike. But then… you were always the Vake, at least a little. Not able to keep to the allowable times. Killing whenever it suited you. Not so coarse in your thinking, but vicious, even then.”
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In one possible event after you finish Light Fingers by giving the Hybrid to Fires, the Master can be reported to treat its workers unusually generously at one point. Naturally, everyone thinks this is really freaking weird. Of course, the player knows that this is because Mr Fires has achieved one of its schemes which has put it in a very good mood.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some might say the worst of the Masters, certainly the most proactive from the player's perspective. Fires' glowing, red eyes are often remarked upon by the text.
Uncertain Doom:
- Maybe, and only in a far future scenario. Whereas every other Master is name-dropped at least once during the "a Conversation on the Road" Destinies, Fires is the only one conspicuously absent in all of them. This, combined with its desire to remain in London against the wishes of the majority of its colleagues and presumably the Bazaar, does not bode well for its fate in these possible futures.
- Less uncertain in one outcome of Light Fingers. You don't actually witness it happen in the present, but a vision of the future at the end of the story shows the Hybrid you saved leading an army against Mr Fires and won.
Voice of the Legion: All the Masters that actually speak have oddly shrill voices except for Fires. Its voice is instead described as "hypnotic", "purring" and having "strange harmonics".

Mr Stones

The Master who controls the trade of minerals, including building materials and precious stones. An exceptionally curt and covetous Master. Until quite recently, it was known as Mr Marble.

Cruel and Unusual Death: In the Tyranny of Stones, Mr Stones drowns a smuggler in gemstones for daring to illegally sell jewelries in London. It is a long and excruciating death, though likely not a permanent one. It also brutally murders the Calculating Lapidiary if you successfully break into the vault and show it proof that its security is lacking.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Stones is often laconic, though at times indulge more flowery language. However, though the player does not get the translated version, Stones is noted to be the opposite of this when speaking in Correspondence, winning a debate with Mr Spices over who should holds authority over sugar.
Greed: One of the few things it does say — and often — is "Mine!" It has a stranglehold on the trade of precious stones, apparently hoarding all it finds. Including an enormous diamond that is supposedly (and pretty obviously, given the events that follow), cursed as all hell. Nobody has any idea why.
Impossible Theft: You can attempt to rob Stones. It will not be easy. The lock can only be unlocked with the blood of a specific person who is loyal to Stones and has to both be fresh and given willingly. It requires a very elaborate Cover Identity, consumes a fair amount of items per attempt, is a ludicrously difficult Shadowy check (less than 20% odds even if you have the highest possible Shadowy in the game) and kills you upon success. Managing to commit the theft anyway and then flaunting it in front of Stones impresses it enough that you are then hired to work your magic and commit even more impossible thefts to expose flaws in security.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: It reminds you that it governs more than jewels. Blasting powder, hydrochloric acid, and numerous other corrosive mineral compounds fall under its purview too. It describes a few ways to use them.
Recruiting the Criminal: If the player character steals a very important note and sells it back to it, Stones pays for the note, and then tells them that they would be paid if they continue "exposing more weak points in security".
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Possibly. It is said that his focus is not gems, but value itself, and he was once known as the Khan of Shackles.
Terse Talker: Says little. No pleasantries.
You Have Failed Me: It is implied that the Calculating Lapidary is torn to bits and scattered across various places if Mr Stones discovers that the player character has stolen an important item of it right from under her nose. A Calculating Lapidary does return if you rebuild your Trading Post, which Mr Stones also destroys, but she may just be another Lapidary.

Mr Sacks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_sacks.png

A jolly red-cloaked Master who visits the people of London every Christmas, collecting gifts and taking them away. It hasn't been seen in recent years; instead, other individuals taking up its name and cloak have performed its duties for it.

Bad Santa:
- It comes at Christmas — not to give things, but to take them away. It might take your headache. It might take your best wine. It might take your shadow. If you're very unwise, it might take you.
- Eaten Sacks, the only one to give gifts instead of take them, might be the most dangerous of the lot. The least damaging option is to simply ignore it.
Intangible Theft: Many of its visits have Mr Sacks offering to take emotions and feelings away from you, instead of material objects. It never takes them forcibly.
Never Grew Up: Traditionally, Mr Sacks was accompanied by gangs of Urchins, who claimed to have given it their aging as a method of attaining eternal youth.
Pet the Dog: Some of them. Despite the things listed under Bad Santa, Sacks will also accept cheap offerings from the player even if it displays displeasure at it. Furthermore, if given a sufficiently desirable offering, it will either remember the player's good service or return the favor right then and there. However the most significant example of this is when it fulfills a Rubbery Man's wish as it lays dying, for once giving rather than taking. Even the player is utterly shocked at this turn of event and consider it a true Christmas miracle.
Trademark Favorite Food: Mr Sacks loves the 1868 First Sporing, a rare and valuable wine. It is the only gift that may be given to him on multiple days.

Mr Cards

The Long Lost Master who is being prepared to control gambling and games of chance in the Neath, and until their orientation is complete acts as the Master's secretary and record-keeper.

Card Sharp: Naturally.
Cutting Off the Branches: Quite a few Lategame Exceptional Stories where the player character is an attendent of the Bazaar make much more sense if they're Mr Cards.
Long-Lost Relative: Or so the other Masters claim.
Painful Transformation: The process of becoming an alien space bat is said to be quite painful and will take around a century to perform without the subject dying.
Professional Gambler: As to be expected and how they obtained their position.
Pronoun Trouble: Mr Wines suggests letting it choose its own pronouns, which Mr Hearts dismisses as immaterial to their species.
Superior Successor: It's implied that Hearts, Wines, and Spices see them as this when compared to Mr Eaten.

Sinning Jenny

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_electionjenny.png

An intimate of Mr Wines, and the madam of the Parlour of Virtue. Formerly the first Mayor of London, after defeating the Bishop of Southwark and the Jovial Contrarian during the election of 1894.

Action Girl: Oh yes. As a member of the Covent of Abbey Rock, an order of ferocious warrior nuns trained to hunt the Vake, she is almost certainly a bona fide badass.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mixed with Good Is Not Nice: She is (at least so far) actually making good on her promises to help the poor of London, teaching zailors how to read, opening orphanages and soup kitchens, etc. But, to get her office in the first place she blackmailed her wealthy clients to fund her campaign and was planning in advance to smear future opponents by digging up their hidden scandals. Retrieving her wimple for her during the Zee Festival reveals that she's sincere about wanting to help the poor and suffering, but fears that her plans may be only furthering secret schemes of the Masters.
Femme Fatale: If you buy a kiss from her during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, there's a chance she turns out to be wearing poisoned lipstick to knock you out because someone paid her to do so.
High-Class Call Girl: She charges people for kisses and other related activities, but is respected enough by Londoners to be able to run for mayor of London with the support of other nuns.
Ms. Fanservice: We don't get to see an awful lot due to the game's lack of graphics, but it's almost certain that she is this.
Naughty Nuns: She's far more well-known for wearing thigh-high scarlet stockings and running the Parlour of Virtue than for being a prioress.
Stealth Pun: She's a nun who runs the Parlour of Virtue. In the Victorian era, 'Abbess' was slang for a woman running a brothel. Her own name is somewhat obscure wordplay on a 'spinning jenny', a multi-spindle spinning frame. Neither of these puns have been pointed out in-game.

Penstock

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oldman2.png

The owner of Penstock's Land Agency. He sells lodgings to the people of London. During Neathmas, he also allows the player character to access the Sundered Sea via Penstock's Wicket.

Mouth of Sauron: For the Bazaar. He acts as both messenger and translator.
Undying Loyalty: Like the lady in Lilac, he is in love with the Bazaar (even when he acknowledges how foolish this is), and will do anything in his power to further its cause.

The Neddy Men

Sometimes the Masters need their will enforced by someone ingenious, knowledgeable and subtle... and sometimes they need a few tonnes of illiterate bruisers who'll break a strike or seize a cargo of contraband. That's the Neddy Men.

Carry a Big Stick: All you need to be a Neddy Man is a stick to beat the disobedient, and a willingness to use it. This makes their level of danger vary quite a bit, and you'll be facing them both early in your Dangerous career and later on; some people are really good at beating you up with clubs.
Dumb Muscle: Compared to the Masters' other enforcers, all they can do is beat you up. Constables are dangerous in the normal way, but they have trickery at their disposal like any good police force, hunting you down for regular crimes. Special Constables even more so, having both political clout and even more resources than the regular constables, and will hunt you down for the more treasonous kind of felony. Agents of the Masters are some of the best intriguers you can get, and can get you assassinated with little problem without having to lift a finger. Neddy Men? They'll just catch you in the act of defending a docker/approaching a Master out of turn and beat you to a quivering pulp right then and there.
Pinkerton Detective: Not literally Pinkertons, but they perform the same services as strikebreakers. They are a lot less subtle about it though.

Poor Edward

An extremely dangerous man, who seems to be some sort of senior enforcer for one or more of the Masters. Nothing is known of his identity; he wears a mask at all times.

And Now You Must Marry Me: He proposes to the player at the docks, under the threat of letting Hephaesta drown due to her moon-milk induced love of the sea. The player can actually go through with it near the end of Light Fingers, which lets Poor Edward visit them in their dreams.
Anticlimactic Unmasking: At the very end of the Ambition, you knock his mask away from him during the brawl, only to reveal that, besides his eyes, he is an absolutely completely normal, unremarkable man under the mask. Going through with the wedding has the narration describe his face as borderline innocent looking, complete with dimples.
Big Bad Wannabe: Despite the fact that he is your final opponent and that he defected from his former employer, Poor Edward is a much lesser threat than Mr Fires. Clara puts it best.
"I'm scared of the Orphanage. I'm scared of Mr Fires... But I'm not scared of Poor Edward. He's a pathetic little man in a mask, playing at being the villain."
The Dragon: Or one of them, perhaps — to Mr Fires. Fires itself hardly gets directly involved in the Light Fingers Ambition, but Poor Edward is taking his orders directly the whole way through, and will get in your way every time he can.
Karmic Death: If you let Clara or the Hybrid kill him, his life is ended at the hand of one whose life he once made a living hell.
Laser-Guided Karma: Twice. He runs an orphanage that performs non-consenting Moon-Milk tests on living humans. Due to the player character's involvement, he's either burned alive in the same orphanage or suffers at the hand of a rioting mob of his former victims. Later, he would also get hit with Moon-Milk himself in a struggle with the protagonist, resulting in obsessive, self-destructive love for them.
Last Chance to Quit: Just once, Poor Edward will offer gently to wipe your memories and allow you to walk away without looking further into his interests, using the logic that it will be easier for all concerned — especially you — and it won't lead anywhere pleasant, anyway. Especially for you. He's quite sincere. If he catches you after that point, he'll bury you alive. You can get revenge if you so choose, by burning the orphanage with him, though at the cost of the other prisoners.
Malevolent Masked Men: They don't get much more malevolent. Even when he's madly in love with you, he attempts to make you or your allies suffer. His card image depicts a red mask in an open-mouth frown, with Edward grinning maniacally behind it.
Shrouded in Myth: There are many peculiar rumours about his nature and purpose. Even the player character learns little of his past and motives over the Light Fingers ambition.
Stalker with a Crush: After being splashed with moon-milk, he begins obsessing over the protagonist, sending them increasingly more horrifying gifts. The narraration also mentions the player receiving large swathes of love letters full of disturbing poetry.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: When faced with a problem Edward will almost always resort to kidnapping. If he can't kidnap someone he'll go after their loved ones but the solution remains the same. With the exception of Jasper and Frank and Mr. Fires itself pretty much every character in the ambition will be abducted by him at least once.
Yandere: Late into the Light Fingers ambition, due to the effect of Moon-Milk, Poor Edward is consumed by an obsessive love for the player character whether they are interested or not, resulting in him sending you progressively creepier "gifts", culminating in one of those gifts being the skin ripped out of his own face.

The Relickers

Mr Cups' rag-and-bone men — that is, scrap collectors, who trade in everything from common waste to unlikely antiques. Each relicker is assigned a rattus faber companion, for reasons unclear. The four most prominent pairs are the Shivering Relicker and Pinnock, the Coquettish Relicker and Mathilde, the Capering Relicker and Gulliver, and the Curt Relicker and Montgomery.

Collector of the Strange: Each of them will collect random junk from you in exchange for some improbably rare or specialty items. The Capering Relicker takes this even farther — he can swing by and, among others things, happen to give you back your own soul if you sold it to the Devils in the past.
Go Mad from the Revelation: The Shivering Relicker was a Correspondence-scholar. It appears to have had a deleterious effect on her health and station.
Grail in the Garbage: Among the random refuse they collect are true treasures, some horrifically dangerous or scholastically significant.
Inexplicably Awesome: While all of the Relickers are less than forthcoming about their pasts, the Capering Relicker is about as enigmatic as you can get — he is not a devil, yet he seems to acquire more souls and infernal items than any normal human should. In fact, his rat Gulliver will say that devils usually avoid him. Does he steal the souls? Does he claim them from devils? Do the devils owe him? And what's with him showing up whenever your "Someone is Approaching" quality gets high enough to give you free stuff? How does he know the location of a former Prince of Hell?
Knowledge Broker: The Curt Relicker deals in rumor (er, rumour) and blackmail. If you give him enough scraps, you can basically become one yourself.
Non-Human Sidekick: Seems to be part of the job, as they always have a Rattus Faber assistant.
Only Known by Their Nickname: The Relickers do without the encumbrance of names.
Public Domain Character: If the Manager of the Royal Beth is (literally or figuratively) Gilgamesh, it seems likely that the Capering Relicker is Utnapishtim: he lived in the First City, the Manager calls him "uncle", and he knows the secrets of immortality.
Really 700 Years Old: If the Capering Relicker is to be believed, he's as old as the First City. He's certainly older than the Fourth, at least.
Rodents of Unusual Size: Pinnock, the Shivering Relicker's companion-rat, is described as being around the size of a badger.

The Efficient Commissioner

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A woman who serves the interests of the Bazaar. She ensures procedures are followed, especially in times of tragedies.

Ambiguously Gay: Possibly. If you try to kick Sinning Jenny off the Board of Directors and fail to convince the Commissioner, she will refuse to vote with you in kicking Jenny from the Board, being suspiciously cagey about her reasoning. She has thus far shown no romantic or sexual interest in anyone else.
Beleaguered Assistant: She can feel like this if whatever motions you take in the Great Hellbound Railway are especially outlandish. Trying to keep her professionalism against things like passing trains through Parabola or inviting bizarre choices to the board clearly taxes her.
"Every week I come here for these meetings, and every week I walk out feeling like I should check into the Royal Beth."
Consummate Professional: Intensely professional in all her interactions. It's hard to stay unflappable and keep the cold politeness demanded of her job in a place like the Great Hellbound Railway directory, but she does admirably.
Noble Demon: If you consider her evil. She hasn't done anything particularly villainous, but she does work for the Bazaar and her priorities align with its own. Still, she is shown to be professional and principled, capable of defending the interest of the Union when she feels the player is forgetting their obligations to the Tracklayers.
Not So Stoic: If you visit her nightmares in the Viric Jungle, it becomes obvious that a certain event during the time of the First City haunts her deeply. If you decide to lay tracks near area where the incident in question occurred, she can be seen almost panicking.
Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: After the player encounters the Creditor and the Commissioner realizes that the debt cannot be delayed much longer, she begins weeks of investigation that takes her to many places across the zee and even the roof, presumably by herself. These incidents, though not described in full, are noted to be extraordinary that even the Board Secretary puts down his pen so he can listen.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When it comes to the matter with the Creditor, the Commissioner can be reduced to hysteria and panic if the player chooses to ignore her warnings. Of course, gameplay demands you be able to convince her anyway.
Retired Badass: It is unclear how old she is, but she remembers the fall of London and claims she is too old to protect the Seal of the Bazaar from the creatures that might come after it. However, she can still go on a hell of an adventure to investigate the incident of the First City. If she is indeed Giz from Mask of the Rose, she would be at least 50 years old by the time of Fallen London.
The Stoic: Never shows much signs of emotion, even as she reads out a Tragedy Procedure detailing the "liquidfication of the present city" which causes many who are present to wail and sob uncontrollably.

Society

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Riches, power, beauty, refinement. The great, if not necessarily the good.

Generally, the upper class and the aristocracy. Though the Masters of the Bazaar are the real powers of London these days, the Crown and those who derive their authority from it still hang onto their status and influence.

Ambiguously Evil: The royal children, some less ambiguous than others, are this by virtue of their limited appearance. Many of them have yet to commit any heinous act as far as we know, despite their monstrous forms, and their presumably frequent partaking of red honey.
Eldritch Abomination: Most of the royal children have become physically monstrous via consumption of a bad batch of red honey.
Family-Values Villain: Big on family value. This is not always a good thing, as they can employ some pretty reprehensible means to keep family members in line and protect their reputation. The royal family seems to care for each other generally to a certain extent, even if they do not seem to always enjoy each other's company.
The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Servants at the palace are only allowed to look upon the royal children's reflections, which show their human appearance, rather than directly at their actual physical form. Though it's debatable which one is really their "true" form at this point.
Old Money: Many. Perhaps most examplified by the Parthenaeum club, which the player character can join. Its membership are generally old and respectable men of authority.

The Traitor Empress

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After the Fall, the Empress retreated to the Shuttered Palace, where her courtiers dress in black and never speak above a whisper. She is seldom seen in public, and none are allowed to speak her name. Loyalists prefer to refer to her as "Her Enduring Majesty" (or HEM, for short), and calling her the Traitor Empress in earshot of the constables is probably a bad idea.

The Caligula: She has her moments sometimes, but manages to stay subdued. Though cancelling the 20th Century and ordering the year would loop back to 1899 as soon as it was over is, at the very least, objectionable (in private of course).
Deal with the Devil: In exchange for London, the Consort was restored to health.
Historical Domain Character: Though no-one is allowed to use her name, she's clearly Queen Victoria. Or was her. Or is her partly. The Fall had odd effects. She goes back to using her name in Sunless Skies, however.
Humanoid Abomination: Her whole family is this bar one, and she is no different. As an example, the only composition she actually enjoys when you're writing symphonies at her Court is a nightmarish attempt at turning Correspondence sigils into music that drives everyone into rioting madness. If you have the misfortune to be her footman while her children have a feast, your character can glimpse them in their true forms which are so monstrous and unnatural that you Go Mad from the Revelation.
The Scottish Trope: We've never seen a single character use her actual name, and it's heavily implied that awful things happen to anyone who does. Not even the revolutionaries and thieves, no friends of laws, nor the royal family themselves call her by her real name. At least, until Sunless Skies.
Time Master: In Sunless Skies, her command over the Clockwork Sun allows her to have the power over time, at least somewhat.

The Consort

The Empress' husband, the Consort, fell gravely ill just before the Fall of London — typhoid, they say. He seems to have recovered, though it left him rather pale and wan, poor chap.

Bus Crash: In Sunless Skies he's passed away and his remains were entombed within the Most Serene Mausoleum. Except, not really.
Historical Domain Character: He's Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria.

The Captivating Princess

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The youngest child of the Empress and the consort noted for her beauty and charm. She was born right at the moment of the Fall. It would be libelous — nay, treasonous — to repeat gossip about her owning select honey-dens, or partaking of depraved, sadistic and highly illegal indulgences. She ran as a candidate in the 1896 mayoral election, following the election of her paramour, Feducci.

Art Evolution: The art used to portray her differ significantly before and after her election campaign.
Beauty Is Bad: The most attractive of the royal family. That's a low bar to meet, but her beauty is often remarked upon as being able to drive others mad. She is also likely the most sadistic and unsympathetic of her family. And that's a high bar to meet.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: She appears to love her parents still, and seeks their approval for marriage in as an officer in Sunless Skies.
Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Her character portrait is decked out in diamond drop earrings and a tiara.
Family-Values Villain: Perhaps more so than the other royals, she repeatedly expresses a wish for her family to remain together. She even wishes to reconnect a baby brother she barely knew, albeit in a manner that really does not respect his agency as a person.
Femme Fatale: There is no long string of lovers she spurned who threw themselves over cliffs or into lakes. Anyone in the Court will tell you, if they know what's good for them.
Green-Eyed Monster: Her Hallowmas confession reveals that she was deeply envious of her older sister who was still living on the Surface. She devised a cruel plan to indirectly kill her sister's husband by persuading him to stay longer in the Neath than he should have, so that he died shortly after being exposed again to the sun. ^note
Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Unlike the rest of her family, she is fictional and exclusive to Fallen London.
Humanoid Abomination: There are very vague hints in "The Gift" that she is, or at least was, something terrifying and inhuman. (Of course the red eyes don't help matters.)
Lack of Empathy: She cares for very few people, if any. The Captivating Princess will not hesitate to ruin innocent lives, including those of her suitors, for her own amusement.
Politically-Active Princess: The Captivating Princess ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 1896 mayoral election.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Not red like blood. Bright red.

The Empress' Shadow

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The eldest child of the Traitor Empress, she's still able to live on the Surface unlike the rest of her family. However, her life up there hasn't been rosy with her husband's death and her strained relations with both her mother and her deformed son who rules Prussia. Her background and motivations were explored in depth in a Fate-locked story released during Christmas 2016.

Be Careful What You Wish For: She considers selling Berlin to the Masters as the Sixth City. The Neon Future in Irem reveals that the Masters would eventually accept it... as the Seventh City, presumably over 100 years later since that future takes place in 2023.
Black Sheep: She's the only member of the royal family who lives on the Surface instead of the Neath and the Empress seems to treat her as The Un-Favourite.
Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: One-sided on the Shadow's part; she's in love with Mr Wines and even asks Sinning Jenny if he visits the Parlour of Virtue, but telling it about her affections causes it to be revolted and say that it having intimate relations with a human would be like it having them with a dog.
Historical Domain Character: Her real-life counterpart is Victoria, Princess Royal, who married Frederick III of Prussia.
Meaningful Name: She's the shadow of her mother — still trying to follow her example, after all these years. As Dowager Empress of Prussia, she's also the shadow of her former self, in terms of the power and respect she commands.
Offing the Offspring: In one possible ending to her premium story, she poisons her son to regain the Prussian throne.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Her premium story makes it clear that in spite of her mother's undisguised disdain for her, she still feels a need to follow in her footsteps even to the point of seriously considering selling Berlin to the Masters as the Sixth City. You can persuade her to break out of this and strike out her own path in some of that story's endings.
Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Has this attitude towards her son who was born with a malformed arm, refuses to associate with her family or London, and is interested in astronomy.

The Brooding Captain

The fourth child of the Empress, prince Alfred Ernest Albert now takes the form of a "Shadow with Teeth". He used to captain the HMS Galatea. The Brooding Captain is featured in the story "Say It With Flowers".

Benevolent Boss: In a strange way. He seems to treat his enforcers and agents well and remains popular with his crew, in direct contrast to the Captivating Princess. However, his enforcers are absolutely awful to their own laborers as a result, since he never makes any effort to curb their cruelties.
Even Evil Has Standards: Whatever else may be said about him, he is not as wantonly cruel as the Captivating Princess and considers her monstrous and rewards the player character if they stop her from trying to influence their sister, the Playful Prodigy.
Evil vs. Evil: In "Say It With Flowers", he has a feud with the Captivating Princess, and neither of them come out looking good. She is possibly among the most evil people in London who regularly puts her servants through hell. He allows his enforcerers to conduct some of the most heinous and corrupt practices on Cumaean Canal's laborers.
Historical Domain Character: Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Noble Demon: He is honest and forthright in his dealings, and seems to take efforts to hold up his end of the bargain and treat his agent well and keep her safe if she aids him, despite the fact that she previously betrayed him under coercion.

The Recalcitrant Sculptress

The sixth child of the Empress, princess Louise Caroline Alberta is a sculptress who now takes the appearance of a "gaunt thing with a coat of glass feathers". She is known for being an artistic person and the prettiest of the royal daughters. After her transformation, her sculptures now take the appearance of warped humanoid shapes.

Historical Domain Character: Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.
Mad Artist: She considers herself an "admirer of true beauty", but her sculptures are all warped and deformed humanoid shapes.
The Unintelligible: She can only let out "chimes" and "glassy ululations" by way of speech, which her servants interpret, and otherwise communicate only through correspondences.

The Bellicose Prince

The seventh child of the Empress, prince Arthur William Patrick Albert participated in the Campaign of 68. He now takes the form of a "weeping horse-sized grub". He is featured in the Exceptional Story, a Crown of Roses.

Historical Domain Character: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
I Am a Monster: Came to believe that his current form is only a reflection of something he had always been after his decision led to the death of his comrades.
My Greatest Failure: Him refusing to surrender despite orders led to the death (and worse) of many of his comrades, a mistake so catastrophic that he would consume his own red honey again and again to punish himself for it.
Self-Inflicted Hell: Having red honey extracted from your mind and having it consumed is one of the worst things a person can experience. He does it to himself, over and over again, out of guilt for what he did during the war.
War Is Glorious: Felt this way at a young age, and joined the war on Hell in disguise as a result. The Campaign of 68 taught him otherwise.

The Playful Prodigy

The second youngest child of the Empress, princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore now takes the form of a "spider-thing with face-hands and needle-fingers". She is featured in the story "the Gift", where she may gain a human form and the title the Generous Princess.

Ambiguously Evil:
- As the Playful Prodigy, she tries to consume some intangible but irreplaceable essence of the player character under the Captivating Princess's direction. However, if they just ask her not to do that, she backs off, and the Captivating Princess scolds her for being too soft.
- As the Generous Princess, she appears as generous as her title implies, giving many Londoners her gifts and favours. However, disasters and accidents would soon befall the receivers of her generosity, seemingly without fail. It is unclear if this is some sadistic game of hers, a curse of some sort or merely coincidences or people wishing to monopolize her generosities.
Beauty Is Bad: Possibly. In her monstrous form, she appears shy and merciful, not wishing to hurt the player character without their consent. In her human form, which she gains after consuming some unspecified aspect of the player character, she is more ominous thanks to the inexplicable tragedies that befall anyone who receives her generosity (presumably excluding the player character).
Historical Domain Character: Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore.

The Duchess

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A highly fashionable and refined lady, who hosts the city's most elite salons in the Tortoiseshell Wing of the Shuttered Palace. Her opinions do not always align with those of the rich and powerful — particularly, the Masters'. Known for her love of cats.

Ambiguously Brown: Her appearance is African, though she uses her make-up to make herself more ambiguous both in skin colour and in age.
Cain and Abel: The Duchess may or may not have murdered her brother-husband Tutankhamun; it seems she faked being in love with a scribe and used her brother as bait for the Bazaar, and the Masters remain pissed about it several thousand years later.
The Chessmaster: As Ankhesenamun, she pretended to be involved in a tragic romance, to lure the Bazaar into resurrecting her husband in exchange for her capital city. Unfortunately for the Masters, the capital of Egypt was Amarna, which had only just been built and was in the process of being abandoned again, trapping the Masters with a useless depopulated city for centuries longer than they intended.
Crazy Cat Lady: She's not crazy, per se, but she is perpetually surrounded by cats, and is greatly devoted to them. This being the Neath, of course, the cats can talk back, and share their secrets with her. She may even be part cat herself — her eyes look a cat's. And, of course, she's an ancient Egyptian, and they worshipped cats.
Deal with the Devil: She made a deal with the Masters to save her husband, who was bitten by a snake and dying from its venom. He's still alive, but he became the Cantigaster.
Defrosting Ice Queen: If your Connected quality with her is sufficiently high, she chooses to trust you in certain scenarios. This is further indicated by the milestones for said quality; her attitude towards you progresses from "Oh. You." to "Good Evening.", then "You may be seated.", "Tell me something..." and, at its highest, "Quite Exceptional!".
Historical Domain Character: She's Ankhesenamun, the youngest daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and sister-wife to Tutankhamun.
Immortality Inducer: The Gracious Widow's major competitor for the Neath's supply of life-extending concoctions.
Love Triangle: The Exceptional Story The Calendar Code features an ancient tale about a scribe deeply in love with a highborn woman married to someone else. Given that the tale is being sought after by someone with access to talking cats, it's much more likely than not that the woman mentioned in the tale is the Duchess. Even more interestingly, the scribe says that the woman tried to kill her husband with a snake so that the two of them could be together, which raises interesting questions of just how much she was truly devoted to her husband-turned-Cantigaster... or how much said scribe is to be trusted given she not only sold a city to save him, but in the Watchful Make Your Name quest you see the two kiss... before she milks off the venom from his body.
Older Than They Look: She looks like an elderly English lady. It's a disguise; under the make-up, she's a young African lady. But that's misleading too — she's extended her life considerably.
Really 700 Years Old: She's more than 3000 years old. She's not the oldest person in Fallen London, but she's close.

His Amused Lordship

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A hearty, good-natured fellow, fond both of popular amusements and of radical intellectual and scientific movements.

Hidden Badass: He’s a winner of the Marvellous, and unlike most of the other winners who used their heart’s desire to obtain power or immortality, he used his to convince Mrs Plenty to stop Seeking the Name.
Immortality Seeker: While there's many types of these in the Neath, and his particular kind is not yet defined, being a founding member of the Dilmun Club marks him as someone that'll journey into far-off lands to find immortality.
Large Ham: He's described as having 'a laugh that could topple buildings'.
Life of the Party: He's big on revelry and eagerly funds parties with both his deep pockets and his even deeper wine cellars. When he was stopped from celebrating the coming of the new century he was miserable for a whole seven months until he finally got a chance to start a proper revel for F. F. Gebrandt's museum opening, and he even bought back much of the wine he sold off during these months.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's basically BRIAN BLESSED if he was trying to unlock the secrets of a colossal mountain in a distant land. So... he's basically BRIAN BLESSED.

The Prim Baronet

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The last living representative of one of London's noble dynasties, living in greatly reduced circumstances in his family home, The Marsh House.

Impoverished Patrician: He has nothing left but a damp old house with a few inhabitable rooms.

Mr Huffam

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The editor of The Unexpurgated London Gazette, and an elder statesman of Doubt Street, London's newspaper district. Highly respectable, and known for his progressive views.

Historical Domain Character: Mr Huffam's full name is Charles John Huffam Dickens.

The Wry Functionary

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A civil servant, steeped in the methods and manners of the Shuttered Palace. He wields respectability like a knife and exercises power through protocol. And he never uses one word when he can use eight or nine.

The Lost Lenore: After many years, he's still mourning his wife. Who may have been Really 700 Years Old.
May–December Romance: His wife was older than him. Much older.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The player character's visits basically consist of being talked at for a while over some nice wine.
Third-Person Person: The Functionary always refers to himself as "one" when you speak with him, never stating outright his opinions or what he intends to do. Being a veteran of the Palace's intrigue as well as an employee of the Admiralty in the Great Game one can see why one would speak in such a circumlocutory way.

The Veteran Privy Counsellor

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One of the oldest and most important men in the court, your guide when it comes to making works of art within the Shuttered Palace, and generally one of the prominent figures of London's polite society.

Dirty Old Man: There are some hints every now and then...
"The trouble with plays is that one must work with... actors. Actresses are an altogether superior breed, however."
Disappeared Dad: To at least three children in orphanages across the city, something you can divulge if you want to cut ties to Society. And this after going on about the "debased morality of the working classes".
Missing Steps Plan: Certainly comes off this way to you in particular, but exactly why does he need you to make something so scandalous it gets you kicked out of court is... uncertain.
Sucks at Dancing: Perhaps in general, but definitely ballet. He's excited enough about the artform to immediately try a move, but utterly unskilled at it in particular.
He leaps to his feet and performs something that suggests a pirouette, in much the same way that a cockroach suggests a butterfly. He remembers himself and sits down sharply, his eyes daring you to comment on the matter.
Technologically Blind Elders: A self-acknowledged example, refusing any attempts to explain what a "film" is when you offer to make one.
Troll: Sometimes it appears one of his many objectives in steering what you write is to provoke the Court and the Empress in ways they might not desire, such as informing you of given themes for a novel as "advice" on things to "avoid".

The University

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The University of London's colleges may have changed their names, their mottoes, and much of their syllabi after the Fall, but they've retained their original character.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Like many prominent people and institutions, the colleges have had a change of name. Benthic reflects its association with Jeremy Bentham; Summerset, its connection to the grand Somerset House.
Pretentious Latin Motto: Of course! The Benthic motto is "Omnes adsint, quamvis dementi, quamvis nefasti." ^note Summerset has "Superbe et sophistice." ^note"Proud and sophisticated."

Benthic College

Formerly University College, London, Benthic College is radical and secular and noted for its provision of degrees to women, the soulless, and non-humans.

Decadent Court: A science-based kind, as Victorian science was fierce in terms of competition, and the races to find out about something first only got twice as vicious in the Neath.
The Neocartography department has politics that make a dockside knife-fight look elegant.
Mad Scientist: The one place to find 'em in London, even if they're a bit scarce. Whoever created the Truthbreaker Turbine can not have been right in the head. One of your contacts also seems positively thrilled about the fact Sorrow-Spiders can travel through mirrors despite the fact such a revelation would keep most people from sleeping ever again.
Serious Business: Cricket. Part of the reason devils are so welcomed in Benthic is because they're short on teams to challenge as-is, and disparaging comments about it are not recommended in the least.

Summerset College

Formerly King's College, London, Summerset College is aristocratic and Church of England, and noted for its conservative admissions.

Dark Secret: The "Tales of the University" and "Uncovering Secrets Framed in Gold" storylets both reveal the Provost indulges in some distinct impropriety.
Hot Teacher: The Provost of Summerset, the Profoundly Educated Gentleman, is known as one of the most attractive bachelors in the city.

Dr Gideon Orthos

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A notorious pirate-scholar — he and his crew of vicious crooks and disaffected academics (the "Fleet of Truth") descend upon less well-defended researchers, ransack their laboratories and dig sites, and publish their findings as their own.

Adventurer Archaeologist: A crooked, lazy one more inclined to plagiarize by force than anything, but one nonetheless.
Blatant Lies: His 'Fleet of Truth' makes a living by stealing research from colleagues and let Orthos publish it as his own.
The Hedonist: Which you can use against him on the occasions that he proves a rival to your own expeditions.
Mugging the Monster: His Fleet of Truth will continue to harass you even when you become a Corsair, even one of renown. No matter how many times you intimidate them into giving you their research, or just sink them because they called your bluff, they'll keep coming.
The Rival: Get used to matching wits with him should you explore the Forgotten Quarter or embark on scientific voyages (when his "Fleet of Truth" will hound you all the way to the site and back). He's the most frequent rival out of the four possible, the others being Virginia, February and Monsieur Pleat.

F.F. Gebrandt

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A business-minded chemist and highly respected academic who ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 1898 Mayoral Election under the slogan "Science Serving Society".

For Science!: Perhaps her primary motivation, and one she had hoped to foster in all of London.
Healing Potion: She basically invented their equivalent in this game. Of the four menace qualities, three (Wounds, Nightmares and Suspicion) can be reduced by using her products.
Nay-Theist: She's perfectly aware that Parabola exists; she simply doesn't like the place because Reality Is Out to Lunch there and anything analysed or measured won't b____y stay that way. Case in point, collaborate with her in your laboratory and her mirror-self (in most cases a symbolically aggrandised version of the original person) is just her as she is in the real world.
Snake Oil Salesman: Most of her stuff actually works, but her Love Potion is a farce, and she will readily admit it if you send her a complaint (and ream you the hell out for being the sort of person that would buy one, as one customer found out).

Student Researchers

Pointy-Haired Boss: The earliest student research assistant you can get is the shifty student. He is not good at research and is terrible at everything. If you look at his reflection in parabola, he is described as a future dean.

The Church

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Theology in London, down in the earth among the devils, is a tricky business. The Church has learnt to adapt.

The church had always been tightly wound up in the day to day life of London, and the Fall did little to change this state of affairs. One of the more influential factions, the church works tirelessly to hinder the machinations of the Brass Embassy, and to explain to the flock why The Heavenly Host and his angels are so conspicuously absent from The Neath when your neighbor might have a forked tail, glowing eyes, and cry scalding hot water.

Corrupt Church: Zig-zagged. Some priests are selfless and moral, seeking to protect the weak and aid the destitute even at the cost of their own life. Some are there only for status or money or connections or to escape suspicion. The Catholic church of St Leonard, meanwhile, is simply a front for criminals, with the priest passing on jobs in smuggling, arson, murder, and burglary as "penance." However, it is not taken seriously as a religious institution; it is only frequented by those seeking commissions and opportunities in crime.
Fantastic Catholicism: An Anglican example. It's not the same Church as our world, since the Bazaar's presence and influence means history took a similar but noticeably different route than ours did. Changes include:
- New saints are mentioned that don't exist in the real life canon, including some that would be considered evil, such as a "saint of devils". Other Neathy saints even veer into Humanoid Abomination, like St Destin who both did and didn't exist simultaneously. Seven saints: St Arthur, Beau, Cerise, Destin, Erzulie, Forthigan and Gawain, are false saints. They exist only in the heretical canon of the hidden cult of Drowned Man (Mr Eaten worshippers), and even there they are labeled as false. Fitting, since their candles are links to What Is Not - Mr Eaten and Parabola, and anything true would be What Is.
- The Bible is also different, containing new verses and even entire new books within it. There is a theological school — Saint Cyriac's Illuminated College, aka "God's Editors" — which exists to revise Church texts (including the Bible) to reflect Fallen London's rather fantastic recent circumstances. You can even become a member!
- It does bear mentioning not everyone agrees with this changes, from the looks of it, especially up in the surface. The Archbishop of Canterbury in particular seems to deal with the whole matter of the Neath by just completely refusing to deal with anything related to the Neath to the point of ignoring/burning any letters coming from the London church.

The Loquacious Vicar

Vicar of a church on Ladybones road, he's a rather chatty fellow with a love of mysteries and an even bigger love of gossip, making him a good source of leads for those pursuing watchful storylets. If you can stand how loudly he drinks his tea.

Gossipy Hens: Genderswapped version. So much so that your motivation for breaking away from the church in the "rail against the church" storylet is that your are just so damned tired of listening to his constant babbling gossip.
Motor Mouth: He isn't called the Loquacious Vicar for nothing. It's very hard for your character to ever get a word in because he just goes on, and on, and on...

The Bishop of St Fiacre's

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The Bishop of London's major cathedral, and a highly sociable gentleman of rather unusual tastes and hobbies. He's one of the select group who play The Marvellous.

Affably Evil: To an extent. He's much less actively malevolent than most of the Snuffers one encounters, and it's possible he's more of a Creepy Good figure considering that he does seem to sincerely believe in the possibility of redemption for the Bazaar and his race.
Humanoid Abomination: He's a Snuffer, which are these by default. It's not clear when he last changed his face, but that is definitely not his face he's wearing, and it's implied all those candles the Spite cathedrals demand go straight to his dinner table.
Insistent Terminology: He calls Snuffers "Cousins" instead because he's one of them and wants to emphasize that they were all created from the same source.
Foil: With the Bishop of Southwark. Fiacre's is calm and somber and emphasizes redemption in his teaching. Southwark is boisterous and lively and emphasizes divine punishment. Furthermore, the former is one of the Church members who can be more accepting of Devils, whereas the latter is probably the biggest and most vocal opponent of Hell in the game. Little wonders they don't get along.
Sinister Minister: His Snuffer nature automatically qualifies him for this trope, though the Flint story reveals that Snuffers aren't necessarily Always Chaotic Evil.
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With the Bishop of Southwark. It is said that they agree on little.
The Stoic: He rarely changes facial expressions. Which makes sense, as his "face" is a mask.
Tortured Monster: The Flint story reveals that he's fully aware he's a monster and his reason for asking you to bring him essences from the Mountain of Light is so that he can use the essences to absolve himself into something better.

The Bishop of Southwark

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The Bishop of Fallen London's other Anglican cathedral, south of the Stolen River. A fierce opponent of infernal influences in the city, and a charismatically fiery orator, he's at the head of a scheme to militarize Fallen London's churches. In 1894, he ran for mayor of Fallen London against Sinning Jenny and the Jovial Contrarian, and came in third place.

Badass Preacher: He's the finest orator in the Church. He's also the size of a Clay Man, a formidable wrestler, a former cavalry officer and hopes to lead an invasion of Hell.
Berserk Button: Devils and Hell, likely a result of his experience as a soldier in the Campaign of '68.
Despair Event Horizon: He starts the Brass Grail on the edge of this. Depending on player's choice, he can break out of it triumphantly or sink further into despair.
Fantastic Racism: On top of his raging hatred for Devils, he also expresses a low opinion of snuffers, which likely adds more fuel to his feud with the Bishop of St Fiacre's. This can potentially be subverted a little during the story A Brass Grail, in which he can be convinced that the Church needs to be more welcoming of non-humans.
Foil: With the Bishop of St Fiacre's. Fiacre's is calm and somber and emphasizes redemption in his teaching. Southwark is boisterous and lively and emphasizes divine punishment. Furthermore, the former is one of the Church members who can be more accepting of Devils, whereas the latter is probably the biggest and most vocal opponent of Hell in the game. Little wonders they don't get along.
Large Ham: Even his notes are hammy — he emphasizes using ALL CAPS that you are a SINNING WRETCH! And it seems, judging by the spittle-speckled paper used in his letters, that he even hams it up during letter dictation.
My Greatest Failure:
- Back in the army, after his brigade was routed during the failed invasion of Hell, he and five others were hiding in a field of roses, and could have fled if he hadn't tried to pluck one. It did something horrible, flaying his arms, he screamed in pain, and they got caught. His companions were all hanged.
- One revealed during the Brass Grail: After he was captured by Hell, half-starved and mad, he accepted an infernal contract that would let him walk out of Hell with his soul in tact. Years later, Hell comes to collect their due.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During the Brass Grail, he is so despondent that he doesn't even want to wrestle you. If you help him get his spirit back, he ends the story wrestling the player to the floor.
Pet the Dog: If you are inclined to nudge him in the right direction, he reveals a much more compassionate side beneath his rough and sometimes violent exterior during the story A Brass Grail, such as giving shelter to Revolutionaries in need (despite not supporting their cause) and allowing a former lover to preach for a more inclusive Church with much gusto.
Signature Headgear: Rarely seen without his mitre; on close inspection of his portrait it seems to be made of riveted metal, which isn't unknown for London's hats.
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With the Bishop of St Fiacre's. It is said that they agree on little.
War Is Glorious: He is very excited by the prospect of a Holy War on Hell, despite his first hand experience with London's previous, disastrous attempt.

The Dauntless Temperance Campaigner

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A grey-haired, sober-minded lady, often seen at charity drives, church functions, and protests against the proliferation of spirituous liquors. As upright and respectable a citizen as you might ever see, though her campaigning has brought her into conflict with Mr Wines and its business interests. She served as a candidate in the 1895 mayoral election, with the slogan "Teatime for London", and came in third place.

Enemy Mine: During her campaign. Despite her anti-addiction policies, she accepted the support of the Young Stags, Sinning Jenny, and other Bohemians. They were opposing the Implacable Detective's more authoritarian platform and the Hell-supported Feducci. She seems to have tolerated her unlikely allies much more than she tolerated the Revolutionaries who tried to influence her campaign.
His Name Really Is "Barkeep": It emerged during the election that her name really is "Dauntless", and the notorious Chuffy McAvoy-Dauntless of the Young Stags is her tearaway (but loving) grandson.
Moral Guardians: She campaigns against alcohol, as well as honey, gambling, sensuous dancing, and anything else that too closely resembles fun.
Non-Idle Rich: The backbone of her mayoral campaign — public-spirited members of the upper classes throwing themselves into projects for social reform. The Campaigner herself took on slum lords, drug dealers and Revolutionaries in the course of her bid.

The Constables

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The Constables protect the rich, the powerful, and the Masters. But sometimes, too, they protect the wretched poor.

Fallen London's law enforcers are a mixed lot. There's the traditional police force, based out of Concord Square, who are in equal parts modern scientific investigators and old-fashioned brutes. There's the Special Constables — the Masters' secret police — who are increasingly loyal to Mr Pages' Ministry of Public Decency. There are also a number of private investigators, upon whom the official police have come to semi-formally rely.

The Chief Constable

Reasonable Authority Figure: He's not above streamlining procedure for well-connected friends or those who can offer him favours, but he'll willingly take decisive action against serious corruption among his charges when presented with the evidence.

The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector

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The leader of the Velocipede Squad — Fallen London's elite detective division, mounted on top-of-the-line bicycles. Some say they're little more than another gang, using their authority to extort good and bad alike — but they get results, d—n it!

Da Chief: Not that they especially give a d—n about things like warrants (this is still Victorian London), but somebody has to keep them pointed in roughly the right direction.
Old-Fashioned Copper: On penny-farthings!
Police Brutality: Quite often, their job is to "administer the swift and thorough kicking of Justice."
Squad Nickname: On the streets, he and his squad are known as the Pennies.

The Implacable Detective

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An elderly private detective, who is very well-respected by the official police. She takes on so great a case load that she will often offer up-and-coming investigators chances to take over minor cases to develop their skills. She was also the runner-up in the 1895 mayoral election, with the slogan "The Only Logical Conclusion."

Determinator: One of her most important tips when it comes to investigating: perseverance will work where nothing else will.
"If you're getting nowhere, just keep snooping around the suspects and wait for someone's nerve to crack. That one's solved me more cases than I care to admit"
Friendly Enemy: Possibly. She can be seen playing chess with the Cheery Man, the leader of one of the most prominent criminal gangs.
Great Detective: Highly logical and scientific, and skilled in manipulating suspects, she's Fallen London's finest investigator.
Immortality Seeker: One of the lesser-known members of the Dilmun Club, who are all dedicated to finding the source of Immortality in the Neath.
Initiation Ceremony: She was subjected to one back at the Magistracy of the Evenlode. And those who have completed the local storyline with the newbie constable know that it meant a dive into deep, Peligin waters and a close encounter with the Light-In-Exile. She never reveals the mental scars that incident gave her, but you stumble upon them anyways during the Evolution storyline.
Little Old Lady Investigates: She's begun seriously investigating projects to extend human life dramatically — she is not ready to settle down any time soon.
Repressive, but Efficient: Her mayoral campaign included proposals to expand police powers to reform society along more logical lines, and was supported by the constabulary and by conservative academics. Her personal morality was so strong that she spent much of her campaign identifying corrupt elements in the justice system who would have to be weeded out for her plan to succeed.
Worthy Opponent: She'll hand you her card whether you're on her side or against her, presumably for this reason. That, or she finds wily criminals are just as adept at solving cases than a detective. After all, they have the mindset down pat.

The Honey-Addled Detective

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A formerly great detective, who has fallen a long way since his heyday. While his career might be over, he's looking to pass (what remains of) his wisdom and experience onto someone else. Hopefully a "someone else" who doesn't have a terrible honey addiction. Perhaps that someone will be you.

Defective Detective: Once the greatest in his field, he has fallen to the mental ravages of honey addiction, and now ekes out an existence in what was once Baker Street, assisting younger investigators.
Drowning My Sorrows: Was driven into depression by the crushing bleakness and brutality of Neathy crime. He turned to the honey dens for escape, and it ruined him.

The Last Constable

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A holdout from a previous iteration of the Special Constables, before they allied themselves to the Ministry of Public Decency. She is currently attempting to bring down the notorious crimelord the Cheery Man, both in the name of justice, and for personal reasons.

The Bus Came Back: It's heavily implied that she is the Stiff-Backed Young Lady from the 2014 Feast of the Exceptional Rose. As a result, she's also been Promoted to Love Interest. Her story was continued as part of a series of reworks in 2017.
The Fettered: What makes her the Last Constable. She's chained herself to Justice and Law, and once the rest of the Constables threw their lot in with the Masters and their schemes, she couldn't abide by it.
Killed Off for Real: As part of the game of Russian Roulette, she can potentially end up drinking beer with Cantigaster Venom in it.
The Last DJ: She refused to join her colleagues when their priorities shifted from taking down serious criminals to censorship and exotic monster-hunting. She's left policing with only the resources and contacts she can get hold of on her own.
Put on a Bus: If you side with her during the storylet involving her and the Cheery Man, she's ultimately forced to go into hiding on the Elder Continent in order to escape the Cheery Man's henchmen. She promises she will return one day, though.

Bohemians

Writers, actors, musicians, painters and other reprobates. There is a certain glamour in attic and gutter, but surely there are better ways to make a living.

Patrons and practitioners of art in all of its forms, the Bohemians are among the most creative and eccentric factions of Fallen London. They simply wish to live out their lives of pleasure, art and hedonism, but the often scandalous nature of their work tends to bring them into conflict with the city's upper class and law enforcement.

Mad Artist: A few of them tend to be more... avant-garde than others, ready to use just about any medium and method to make an impression. Even if it takes actual murder on-stage (even if the temporary sort).
Odd Friendship: Going by what you find in Helicon House, their love of weird art and outcast natures let them get along very well with the Rubbery Men.

Miriam Plenty

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The Irresistible Lady. Proprietress of Mrs Plenty's Most Distracting Carnival, in the East End. Originally from Mutton Island, in the Southern Archipelago, she's now the popular patroness of Fallen London's bohemia. She ran for mayor in 1897 under the slogan "A Moment's Peace".

Bad Boss: She underpays her workers and seems to be a rough employer just in general, going by several events and Shoshana's testimony. On the other hand...
Benevolent Boss: Investigating her during the election will reveal that none of her workers have anything bad to say about her. That said, this is primarily because she intends to expand her business using her mayoral seat, so it may be that this is the exception rather than the rule.
Crappy Carnival: She makes some cheap tents, a legion of underpaid jugglers — and a handful of genuine oddities — go a long way, but she's not above putting a horn on a cart horse and selling it as a unicorn.
Hidden Depths: You might think her straightforwardly greedy and shrewd in business, but like much in the Neath, she has her secrets.
"Leave Your Quest" Test: Acts as this during the "Obtain St. beau's candle" step of Seeking the Name, asking them why they want to do so. Depending on the player's answer, she'll either sympathize with them, (often) try to convince them to stop Seeking, or insult them for Seeking for such a petty reason. Either way, she'll still give you the candle if you ask for it.
Rags to Riches: She came from Mutton Island to London and apparently "play fair well with a bad hand". Now she's among the more well-known and wealthy people in the city.
Retired Badass: According to events in a Mutton Island storylet and when acquiring St Beau's Candle, she was once a Seeker of the Name. Heart’s Desire reveals that she was convinced to stop after His Amused Lordship won the Marvellous and used his heart’s desire to make her realize just how foolish seeking the name was and what would happen if she found it.
Tsundere: During the 1897 election, Plenty is seemingly very displeased when Shoshana, a former employee, ran against her, calling her ungrateful and disloyal`, among other things. However, the player thinks Plenty might actually be proud of her for all that.

Dr Schlomo

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The Viennese Exile, the Interpreter of Dreams. A doctor of the mind with a devoted following among the more esoteric of Fallen London's fashionable set. It's difficult to be sure whether he's a genius or a charlatan, but he certainly seems to know a lot about the Neath's stranger secrets.

Dream Walker: The Viscountess explicitly acknowledges him as being more aware of and in Parabola than your average Londoner, giving him a certain measure of control.
Historical Domain Character: He's Sigismund "Sigmund" Schlomo Freud.

The Sardonic Music-Hall Singer

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A lady of famously independent and caustic opinions. She passes in and out of fashionability year by year, though she's presently enjoying an upswing through her relationship (friendship? intimacy?) with His Amused Lordship. She's certainly well-connected, and knows a great deal about a great many subjects.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: There's a lot of the young Shirley MacLaine in her appearance and demeanour.

The Set

A bloodthirsty artist-gang, who orchestrate stirring compositions and merciless crimes on the Unterzee.

Mad Artist: Their creations are terrifying. Their ships spray mind-destroying colours across enemy decks. And it's not unlikely they'll simply chop you to bits if you give their work a bad review.

The Artist's Model

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A young lady trying to make a living in Veilgarden. If the player marries her and later aids her business ventures, she becomes the Notorious Art Dealer and eventually the Incendiary Tastemaker.

The Dreaded: As a business woman, the Notorious Art Dealer is feared by artists for her skills and ruthlessness, willing to engage in bribery and blackmail if needed. She has +2 Dreaded, tying with the Revolutionary Firebrand as the most dreaded spouse.
First Girl Wins: She's likely to be the first romantic partner you can encounter, and also the easiest to court. You may choose to ask for her hand in marriage, if you're so inclined.
The Ingenue: As much as anyone can be innocent and pure in a place as bizarre as the Neath. She cheats at cards, though, and certain stories give her a sharper edge, though she can still weaponize this innocence even then.
Took a Level in Badass: The Artist's Model appears to be no more than what the title suggests, if perhaps rather successful at her career. After she transitions from modeling to business, the Notorious Art Dealer sometimes behave like a crime boss and feared like one too, having +2 Dreaded to cement her reputation. If the player further upgrades her into the Incendiary Tastemaker, she also a +1 to Artisan of the Red Science

The Epigrammatic Irishman

A gentleman and celebrated wit, who faces censorship by Mr Pages.

Historical Domain Character: He's Oscar Wilde.

Clarabelle

An unfortunate music-hall singer, featured in the Light Fingers! ambition. A victim of Poor Edward and his orphanage.

Earn Your Happy Ending: After all she's been through, she earned her happy ending, returning to her old career and freed from the villains who kept her in captivity.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: You free her from the orphanage by having her forget that she's in love with the place, using Lethean tea. Her other memories are kept.
Mystical Pregnancy: The main hazard to her well-being, once she's out of the orphanage. She is pregnant with a moon-miser hybrid and the birth could kill her under normal circumstances.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: While the person in question isn't present, granted, but she delivers a devastating one to Poor Edward, calling him a sad and pathetic man, unlike the actual monster that his former boss Mr Fires actually is.
Took a Level in Badass: Spend most of the Light Fingers story either captured or in distress. Spend the first two parts of the conclusion more active and sure of herself. Then join you for the final part of the story in defeating Poor Edward, her captor and someone who earlier in the story reduced her to uncontrollable sobbing. Bonus points if you let her decide his fate, whereupon she puts a bullet in the middle of his head with barely a second thought.

Hephaesta

A Mahogamy Hall strongwoman, one of your leads during the Light Fingers! Ambition, and gets unfortunately dragged in.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Downplayed, because she just wounds it rather than killing it but if allied with the cats, at Poor Edward's wedding she launches a spear at the Parabolan sun, cracking it.

Criminals

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Wherever there's poverty, darkness, despair, there's folk to make a profit on it. And London has these a-plenty.

The Cheery Man

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Landlord of The Medusa's Head, Watchmaker's Hill's premier public house, and leader of one of Fallen London's most dangerous criminal gangs.

Archnemesis Dad: The Cheery Man's archenemy, the Last Constable, is also his daughter.
The Chains of Commanding: The constant stress of underworld life (and of playing his family against each other) is getting to him.
Dragon with an Agenda: His number 2, the Blind Bruiser, is a major underworld presence in his own right — see his listing under Sunless Sea.
Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a thug, a smuggler, a poisoner and a torturer, but he refuses to get involved in the soul trade.
Fountain of Youth: Possibly. In Sunless Sea, one possible quest has you retrieve a supposed immortality elixir for the Cheery Man, although the Fathomking hints that it won't work. Afterwards, you meet with a young man who claims to be the Cheery Man's never-before-mentioned Identical Son, that his father is dead, and that he's now taking over his criminal empire. It's left ambiguous whether he's telling the truth, or is actually the Cheery Man himself after being restored to his youth. For what it's worth, the only other source on his family, the Last Constable, never mentions having a brother.
Handicapped Badass: He's one of the most dangerous men in London. Few know that he also has little use of his legs.
Killed Off for Real: Assuming his "son" is telling the truth about the Fountain of Youth not working. Also, as part of his Russian Roulette game with the Last Constable, he can potentially end up drinking beer laced with Cantigaster Venom, killing him for sure.
London Gangster: A classic example — tough as nails and twice as nasty to get on the wrong side of.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Subverted. He can afford suits from the city's best tailors, but he's so clearly ill-at-ease in such finery that he looks like a schoolboy made to wear his Sunday best.
Odd Friendship: Plays chess with the Implacable Detective. And if he dies, the Bishop of Southwark attends his funeral.

Tristram Bagley, The Topsy King

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Once a respected musician and scholar, now the leader of the Raggedy Men, the gang of lunatics who rule Fallen London's rooftops.

Friendly Rivalry: In pursuit of his desire to finish an opera, he staked and lost his mind to the Manager of the Royal Beth in the Marvellous. Later the Manager is the one who prompts the player character to complete and stage that opera, fulfilling his opponent's initial wish, and attends the premiere in Veilgarden together with him.
King of the Homeless: Or rather, king of the Raggedy Men, a specific variety of homeless who live in the Flit.
Love Is in the Air: Before he lost his mind, he was exploring the possibility of music that could induce this effect.
Mad Artist: Well, he's mad and he was an artist. There's a reason he likes paintings. And that Opera he was writing back when he was still nominally sane was definitely pushing it.
Renaissance Man: Surprisingly, he used to be this. Tristram Bagley used to be a court composer, scholar and violinist for the Empress and was versed enough in the Correspondence to write an opera called 'The Bell and the Candle' related to it. But before he could finish it, he bet his sanity in the card game called the Marvellous and lost, and that's why nobody can understand a thing he says.
Talkative Loon: Though with some puzzling you can guess at what he's trying to say, an awful lot of it still sounds like nonsense.

The Gracious Widow

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Despite her name, the brutal and ruthless head of much of Fallen London's criminal enterprise, especially smuggling. Linked by heritage to Asia, her brand of crime is a shade different from what normally brews in the dark alleys of Fallen London.

Benevolent Boss: It should say something about her that even Furnace Ancona admits she takes care of her own people (if not anyone else).
Cold Ham: She is often calm and soft-spoken but nevertheless carries a dramatic flair in her actions.
Continuity Reboot: When the Orient was still a faction, the Gracious Widow was just one of its higher ups. At some point, Failbetter concluded that the modern inappropriateness of the term Orient outweighed its historical correctness (and the faction-related choices the player makes are largely about the Widow). Now all the cards relate directly to her.
Deal with the Devil:
- In exchange for saving her lover, the Once-Dashing Smuggler, she gave up the Fourth City to the Bazaar.
- Also, with Yesterday's King. She "promised [him] the thrones of the world" in exchange for Killing the Masters. She may not have liked how her first deal turned out.
The Don: Though she's actually Asian, she fits this archetype better than the Yakuza. The mafia she runs definitely works closer to Western styles, and she runs it with an iron fist.
The Faceless: Her face is never shown, as she is always hidden in literal shadows or wears a veil that covers her face.
Friend to All Children: For all her ruthlessness, she appears genuinely fond of children, adopting and employing many, all of which she seem to be treating quite well (if we can ignore the fact that they are committing crimes on her behalf anyway).
Historical Domain Character: She's the daughter of Möngke Khan, who was the ruler of the Fourth City and indeed the whole Mongol Empire.
I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The Gracious Widow takes a liking to a Street Urchin girl caught robbing her and offers to adopt her.
Ironic Name: People call her "the Gracious Widow" because that's what she prefers to be called, and it's not a good idea to do things she wouldn't prefer you to do.
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: During Neathmas, once she has you in her darkened chamber, she tells you that you would "get what you deserve". She clicks her finger, the door swings open... and then you two have dinner.
Pet the Dog: In the Exceptional Story "Older, Not Wiser", she catches you and others trying to steal her Peach Brandy. However, despite her reputation for utter ruthlessness, she forgives the attempted crime, all because one of you has earlier helped out a child under her employ out of the goodness of her own heart. She then offers everyone (except the player character) a sip of the Peach Brandy, the entire reason they were there in the first place.
Really 700 Years Old: She was a princess of the Fourth City, the remains of which are now the Forgotten Quarter. The city was Karakorum, capital of the Mongol Empire, which fell (or Fell) in the 13th century.

Jasper and Frank

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Two Unfinished Men — Clay Men with an unusual capacity for independent and self-centred behavior — who technically work for the Masters of the Bazaar, most often Mr Stones, but are more usually found intruding themselves on everything illegal in the city.

Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Whenever they need to hurt someone (which is often), they'll bring their sledgehammers along. They don't technically need them, as a punch from a Clay Man is already a spine-shattering affair, but they enjoy smashing people's chests in with them anyways.
Character Development: You can tutor their "nephew", Lyme. He becomes a nicer person for it.
Hidden Depths: You wouldn't think so considering their usual activities, but these two can be surprisingly articulate and insightful. They are also acutely aware of the hidden politics between the Masters.
The Mentor: They're instructed to provide for the education of various individuals, including a louche Devil and their Clay "nephew". They're happy to shove all of them onto you.
Minion with an F in Evil: Their "nephew", Lyme, who shows no inclination towards crime, and only ever assists their schemes by being kind and gentle with the people involved.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Their shared portrait is a dead ringer for David Bailey's famous photograph of the Kray twins, who they rival for notoriety and brutality.
Not So Stoic: As befitting of Clay Men, they rarely emote. But upon their arrival in Parabola late in the Light Fingers! Ambition, they are visibly taken aback and impressed, before returning to their usual attitude.
Pet the Dog: At the end of the Light Fingers ambition, after helping you defeat Poor Edward, they are "filled with unexpected comradely sentiment" and rather than take the Hybrid from you to hand over to Mr Fires right away, they allow you a few days to say goodbye.

The Repentant Forger

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A former criminal, now trying to make his way as a legitimate painter. A talented painter who sincerely regrets his crimes, he's often targeted by former colleagues or rivals who want to exploit his skills.

The Atoner: The man just wants to leave his past behind and do legitimate work from this moment forwards, but he's such a useful contact for many criminals that this is very difficult.

Jack-of-Smiles

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A strange and ancient entity that emerges to go on throating-cutting sprees until captured, killed or disabled, whereupon he (or she, or it, or they) will be stymied for a time, only to emerge again somewhere else. He seems to jump from one body to another, but no one is entirely sure how, why or what causes the transition; only that he retains the same murderous inclinations whatever face he wears. Unfortunately for ol' Jack, he's not seen as very threatening — unless he cuts his victims to pieces, they often just get back up when he's done. This has made him a tad cranky.

Artifact of Doom: He is one, or rather several: a set of Polythremean knives, i.e. living ones, that cause their wielder to attempt to murder people.
Berserk Button: He'll always kill you if he meets you, sure, but should you refer to him as "Smiles" he'll do it with extreme prejudice.
The Comically Serious: Jack doesn't enjoy being the subject of fun, but hasn't really grasped that London is a Quirky Town and its citizens are likely to have met, been killed by, and had tea with entities much stranger and more frightening than he'll ever be long before meeting him.
Gone Horribly Wrong: Mr Spices created the Jack knives in an attempt to create more love stories for the Bazaar. The believe that threat of death will inspire love. They were wrong: the Bazaar doesn't accept synthetic stories like those. They abandoned the experiment...without actually trying to destroy the knives or its forge, thus now there's a lot of Jacks running around, killing people.
Killed Off for Real: Usually, killing Jack just stops them for a while, and then another Jack pops out to kill again, however finishing the related questline allows you to destroy the knives and eliminate Jack for good. To reflect this, all events and cards involving Jack will be unavailable after this decision.
Psycho Knife Nut: Always a complete psychopath, and always carves others up with a variety of knives; those are the main traits the public is aware of. And since Jack is the knives, he can't and won't resort to anything else.
Shrouded in Myth: How does he switch bodies? Where did he come from? Does he have some sort of purpose? Answer key: He actually takes over his wielders as part of a Deal with the Devil, he comes from a forge in Polythreme where his bodies keep on being produced, and it has something to do with the King With A Hundred Hearts.
Slashed Throat: The origin of his name. He gives his victims "smiles" from ear to ear.

The Clay Highwayman

A mysterious Clay Man about which very little is known, not even if he's Unfinished. All that is certain is that much of the banditry in the Upper River regions answers to him, and that he apparently has mysterious, utterly gigantic creature as a mount. He's bound to make his presence known as you stretch the railroads west, especially if you let Banditry in the Hinterlands run a little too wild...

Brave Scot: Dresses like a Highlander, and exclusively employs Scottish bandits in his gang; no one is exactly sure why, since Clay Men are all from Polythreme.
Fission Mailed: Letting Banditry in the Upper River rise to 8 will have his men kidnap you, like it was a Failstate just like Wounds or Nightmares. But this Failstate has very little failure about it, as it's a must to start investigating his story proper.
Genius Bruiser: Poetry aside, he's also well-versed in complex topics like Parabolan mathematics. And of course, he's still a clay man with all the strength that implies and possibly hundreds of scuffles under his belt.
Heartbroken Badass: Like so many in the Neath, he's been ruined by love gone wrong, but unlike the usual the Bazaar had nothing to do with it. Rather, he built himself a partner and lover out of a piece of the Mountain of Light's heart, so that they would have nothing to do at all with the King with a Hundred Hearts that the Highwayman spawned from... but the King, for reasons unknown, forced the Highwayman to dismantle them. Now he raids for treasures, and readies himself for a confrontation with the King.
Horse of a Different Color: Whatever it is he rides appears to be a metallic(-clad?) construct the size of a house, about which very few visual traits are given until you find his Camp proper; even then, it is described as slightly elephant-like.
Human Notepad: He has poetry written on himself in many, many languages, including one Correspondence sigil right on his forehead. His beast seems similar, and might have the even-more-dangerous Discordance written somewhere in it.
King of Thieves: Of the Hinterlands, at least. He commands most of the criminal activites west of London, and he inspires actual reverence in a few of them as well.
No One Sees the Boss: He has in-betweeners for everything, and refuses to show up in person for anything unless it's a raid. The people that actually meet him at his personal cave can probably be counted in one hand.
Shrouded in Myth: He seems to be deliberately trying to inflate his own legend, only showing up in person when it's time to raid and making sure as little about him is known as possible.
Stealthy Colossus: His ride, despite being as big as an elephant at least, leaving tracks big enough to fill with water and take a bath in and seemingly covered in iron, is incredibly silent. No one ever hears it arrive until it's within spitting distance, and the only reported sound from it is when you manage to injure it and fend it off. The Highwayman himself does the same thing; his heavy, stony steps make absolutely no sound whatsoever.
Train Job: One of the few capers you can run with him (under an assumed identity) before you find his camp proper, at least is a train robbery against one of the Moloch Line trains, taking a cut of Railway Steel for it. Devilish trains or not, it's amazing how much easier those can go when the boss is riding a creature that can stomp the locomotive into so much scrap metal.
Uncertain Doom: Last seen sailing off towards Polythreme... and if you come with him, last seen diving into the Zee to try and fight Polythreme itself. No one ever sees him come back up, but there is always the uncertainty he is still alive; Clay Men cannot drown, after all.
Warrior Poet: He seems to be more erudite than most bandits, certainly. It's specifically said by some that every line he deigns to speak is part of an Epic poem he's writing, and that he will finish it with his dying last words. When you meet him, he proves even more erudite than the rumors say even if he isn't composing a poem with every word.

The Great Game

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Another day, another move. The players come and go, but the game is eternal.

With so many factions seeking to make a mark on Fallen London, it is only natural that these factions engage in spy networks and backroom dealings. That is the purpose of the Great Game, a catch-all term referring to the vast, intricate spy network that is played by nearly every major power in the city. The Game's machinations can range from subtle blackmail to bloody violence and everything in between, and only the most shrewd and cunning of players can come out on top.

Chess Motif: Everywhere, both in terminology and literal chess pieces. A Player who has reached 50 Renown with the Great Game is even called the Pawn who reached D8.
The Chessmaster: The quirk associated with them seems to be Subtle.
City of Spies: The Great Game has its players nearly everywhere in London, including the Admiralty. They have one area where they explicitly control- Wilmot's End.
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Most prominently on the Moonlit Chessboard. Status quo and establishment players are represented by White. Revolutionary and criminal players are represented by Black. Independent players are represented by Red. Additionally, the Great Game itself is also often associated with Irrigo, a purple-ish Neathbow that induces loss of memories.
Complexity Addiction: Pretty much their modus operandi. Nearly everything involving the Great Game requires wading through several layers of coded messages, unrelated conspiracies and obscure traditions and rules.
Do Wrong, Right: Wilmot's End is explicitly non-violent... In public. The players of the Great Game will drown, ambush and murder each other away from spying eyes. This prohibiton is less of a moral one than a pragmatic one- no murders or violence, or no public murders, and there'll be no reason to start investigations in Wilmot's End.
Genre Shift: While the writing for most of the Great Game's operations will be the normal snarky and somewhat verbose method, in Wilmont's End the writing becomes minimalistic, Hemingway-esque Beige Prose.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Players of the Great Game are often required to give up certain memories and secrets. Most prominently, the Shrine of Saint Joshua is a place where Midnighters come to perform certain, unknown rites. These rituals are learned, performed and forgotten, every time.
That is the way of St. Joshua. He forgives; you forget.
Overt Operative: Many of their spies are known to be spies, but they get around this by either using disguise, or using their reputation to disguise their true goal... or doing both and disguising their reputation and true loyalty.

The Face

London's diplomatic corps, based in the Foreign Office, between Tyrant's Gardens and Burly Street. Though they are without exception affable, charming, and lovers of music, many are not (as one might expect) from well-respected families, but rather, of common origins.

Dark Secret: They have cannibalistic appetites. They purchase corpses (properly dead ones) rather than murdering people, though.
Formal Full Array of Cutlery: They can never get proper procedure with these right. It'd be a huge problem, considering they're the ambassadors, but to their credit, they're so good at charming people they always get back in the game without a hitch.
Interservice Rivalry: With The Teeth. They find them to be useful, but terrible people.
Recruited from the Gutter: They have a habit of snatching Urchins from their gangs and raising them as operatives. The greater the potential, the more dogged their recruitment process.

The Teeth

London's intelligence service, also based in the Foreign Office. Oddly, many of them are of foreign origins, and retain certain unusual customs — particularly, exceptional piety and regular worship. They're masters of assassination, blackmail and, especially, disguise.

Dark Secret: Every one of them is a Snuffer.
Interservice Rivalry: With The Face. They find them to be awful individuals with disgusting table manners, though whether this means their utter fumbling of the usual "which fork now" routine or their dietary habits remains unknown.
No Sense of Personal Space: They really like to touch your face while speaking.

The Devout Intriguer

An agent of the the Teeth, who accompanies you to your post at Port Carnelian.

Interspecies Romance: You can marry this face-stealing Snuffer if you feel like doing so.
Promoted to Love Interest: You can marry her, if you side with the Teeth during the Mysteries of the Foreign Office.

Alice, the Cheesemonger

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Once a major player in the world of espionage, the Cheesemonger has been increasingly sidelined since the death of her family.

All for Nothing: Her plan to end the Great Game. Even if you choose to help her, the Game is only paused for weeks, then resumes as normal. At least she goes out peacefully.
Easily Forgiven: You, if you work for her. The Cheesemonger gives you repeated assignments to sabotage other factions, and each time you have the option to turn coat and warn the other faction instead (gaining quick and easy Favors). No matter how many times you do so, she'll never expel you. Justified in that at this point she's so desperate for help she can't afford to lose even the most untrustworthy agent.
Gotta Kill Them All: Her entire family bar Catherine were killed when she opposed another agency's scheme. Her planned revenge: kill the leaders of the major imperial networks, and half of their agents, in the hope of shutting the Great Game down for good.
The Handler: She sources missions from clients, and hands them on to agents she knows to be capable.
Peaceful in Death: If you follow through with her plan to end the Great Game, you find her dead in her home. It is unclear if she took her own life, but you note that she looks peaceful in her final moment.
You Are What You Hate: The Cheesemonger hates the machination of the Great Game for costing her her family. Throughout her story, you almost certainly ruin or end even more lives doing her work, especially if you follow through with her plan.

Catherine, the Cheesemonger's Daughter

Possibly the Cheesemonger's biological daughter, or possibly not, Catherine has a knack for the spy business herself, and is ready to follow in her mother's footsteps.

Jumped at the Call: If you choose to get her involved in the Great Game despite her mother's wishes, Catherine is swiftly taken by the machination and intricacies of the trade.
Passing the Torch: She can take up the role of her mother, if you help her.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Her fate isn't mentioned in several endings.

The Clathermonts

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Mr Clathermont

Mr Clathermont; his wife Millicent; his three "daughters" Edie, Myrtle, and Lily. A family tattooist's business on Ladybones Road, pre-eminent for their role in providing tattoo-codes for transmitting secret messages, recording clandestine allegiances, and still stranger uses for ink on skin.

Big, Screwed-Up Family: Mr Clathermont cavorting with at least one of the "daughters" is the least of it. It might have been fairly normal, if nonstandard once, but it's implied things went sideways when Millicent... disappeared.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Despite openly serving all sides in The Game at once (usually a huge no-no) Clathermont has not been killed or really even targeted by any of its players, since without him who would ink their code tattoos?
Overt Operative: Everyone knows their connections to the Great Game, but they have enough traditional clients — or clients wanting dangerous, possibly illegal tattoos for reasons unrelated to spycraft — that they can still hide in plain sight.
The Reveal: At the end of "Entwined in the Intrigues of the Clathermont's", you find out Millicent is The Lady in Lilac.

The Lady in Lilac

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An enigmatic woman who can be found roaming the streets during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose to offer "desired" people arrangements to meet with companions at the Feast and perhaps even extraordinary tattoos for those curious enough to delve into her backstory.

Eye Color Change: Her eyes are violet, but Mr Clathermont remembers them as having been blue once. This change was most likely caused by her constant exposure to the Cave of the Nadir's purplish irrigo.
Literal Split Personality: The St Erzulie's Candle section of the Seeking Mr Eaten's Name storyline features a being encountered in the Cave of the Nadir who's strongly implied to be a fragment of Lilac that she gave up due to it being the part of her that couldn't love the Bazaar.
(I was given up, you know. I am that part of her that does not remain. That part that never learnt to love a monster.)
Power Tattoo: In gameplay terms at least. Her tattoos are the only ways of permanently getting Bizarre or Dreaded points.

The Man in the Fez

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A man in a fez. He rewards the player in Wilmot's End, for Seeking out a Missing Woman. He also is mentioned working with the Waltzing Duke along with the Prussian Fellow.

Genius Bruiser: He's apparently a fairly large and powerful man, judging by the Strong-backed Labour he and his friends can provide, and he's also a high-ranking intelligence agent and one of your main contacts in the Great Game.
Signature Headgear: Obviously, his titular fez.

The Muffled Intriguer

An intriguer whose past is unknown. They aid in using and obtaining items of influence.

Ambiguous Gender: A he? A she? An it? Or even more interestingly, a they?
Defrosting Ice Queen: As you convert to higher levels, they switch from a Terse Talker to a more friendly, even snarky personality.
The Faceless: They conceal their face in a myriad of scarves and a hat. You can see them without their mask during a romantic indiscretion with them. Your character is pleasantly surprised, but we are never told who it is.
Mysterious Past: Their past is completely unknown. Only that they have an odd distaste for cheese. Even the meaning of that phrase is unclear. It is possible that they are a member of the Teeth, given their ability at subversion and stealth (and their naming scheme) and thus a Snuffer, but that is merely speculation.

The Old Man in Vienna

Also known as Gentleman of the Bureau. The Old Man is a very powerful player of the Great Game. His agenda is unknown, but we know he fights the forces of anarchy and the Liberation of Night and is aware of the existence of the Great Powers of the universe. He is connected to the White in some way.

The Chessmaster: Naturally, as one of the most prominent and dangerous player of the Great Game.
The Ghost: Since he lives in Vienna and there is currently no way for the player to reach the surface, he has yet to make an appearance in Fallen London, though it's not rare to find his agents in London. Plus, he's so high up the chain of spies that him even being aware of your existence means you're deep into the game. It is possible for a Sunless Sea player to meet him however.

The Mithridate Office

The Presbyterate's "ministry of lies", which keeps the intelligence gatherers of the rest of the Neath in the dark about their nation's activities.

Confusion Fu: Their operatives use this extensively by mixing modest truths in amongst lengthy reports filled with information that generally contradicts their recipients' existing intelligence and/or common sense.
Consummate Liar: They will pretend to help you, and hide actual advice in an enormous cavalcade of lies, both blatant and otherwise. They are very good at misinformation and lying, making this approach effective.
Oh, Crap!: They clearly aren't trained to play it cool when the aforementioned actual advice is plucked from the lies. At the very least, the one you meet in Port Carnelian will visibly freak out and run away.
Person as Verb: Or as a noun, as it may be, but they're the reason the art of metaphorical truths, lies of omission, and general steering of the interpretation by telling nothing but the truth (and the counter-art of untangling these lies) is called Mithridacy.

The Reformer of Reputations

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Once a Khanate spymaster and general intriguer, now a Tomb-Colonist that very much doesn't want to be one, and is trying to stave off his final end by swan-diving into the Great Game one last time. He's your man if you want to establish an espionage network in the Khanate.

Because I'm Good At It: A more bizarre example than most. True, he wants to dive back into the Game because it's what he was best at, but his skills and the sheer effort and general time of his life invested in intrigues means going back to it staves off a particular metamorphosis he very much doesn't want.
The Spymaster: Once, he had a whole network to himself. Now, he's fine passing the mantle to you.
Wild Card: He cares not whether you work for the Khanate he once served and threw him away, against it, or in an entirely different direction. He just wants to be involved.

The Precocious Engineer

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A young member of the Eagle clan, one of the leading clans of the Khanate. They are generally underestimated by their family and are viewed as an unperceptive eccentric who is not worth including in the clan's politicking. While they are as eccentric as there family thinks they are, they are much more perceptive than their family gives them credit for and they can become a cornerstone of the players spy network.

Absent-Minded Professor: They are generally quite disorganized with a messy laboratory that is open to visitors because they forget to lock the door most of the time.
Beneath Notice: They avoid openly getting involved in their clan's intrigues and present themselves as a harmless and unambitious teen content to spend their days tinkering in their little workshop. With the player's help they can turn that workshop into the hub of a massive spy network capable of playing any faction in the Khanate against one another.
Teen Genius: They are twenty at most but already a skilled engineer capable of incorporating the correspondence into there work and devising an ingenious way to infiltrate the deepest reaches of the Khanate unnoticed.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Their primary focus with red science engineering is perception, specifically the ability to make things seem unimportant. Because of this visitors to their workshop ignore the masses of correspondence sigils decorating the walls or the large Iguana literally vomiting up state secrets, considering them entirely unimportant.

Revolutionaries (spoilers)

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Some call them the dynamite faction, but they're very far from united. Socialists, anarchists, foreign agents: only their hatred of the Masters unites them.

Not everyone's happy with how Fallen London is now under the Bazaar's control. Led by a mysterious group called the Calendar Council, these rag-tag anarchists are determined to topple the Masters and put London back in the hands of the people, and are willing to do whatever they must to further their cause.

The Calendar Council

Not much is known about the Calendar Council by the people of London, and the Masters and the Councillors themselves like it that way. A group of unknown size, influence, resources, and violently protective of its secrecy, the Council unites the otherwise bickering revolutionaries, though ironically its leaders aren't quite unified themselves. Those seeking more about the council are in danger, both from Special Constables and the agents of the twelve themselves.

The Night That Never Ends: The ultimate plan of Revolutionaries who support the Liberation of Night, like February. All colours but the Neathbow would cease to be. Apparently would result in freedom from all law, too. Since the Judgements of the stars come from non-Neathbow light, and Judgements determine reality... 'all law' in this case is rather literal.
Rage Against the Heavens: The Liberationists' ultimate goal is to destroy the Judgements.
Reign of Terror: In the Exceptional Story Cut with Moonlight. There's an alternate version of London that never fell, where they overthrew the Traitor Empress instead... and they've set up their own offices and bureaus in the old order's place.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Generally, they staunchly oppose the Masters, the Traitor Empress and anything resembling a law; some also want to abolish said laws on sheer principle, even if the result causes major suffering for those who want nothing to do with any upheaval.
Shout-Out: To the Council of Days from The Man Who Was Thursday.
Temporal Theme Naming: Its leaders are named for months of the year. 'Seasons' may correspond to positions on the Liberation of Night.
We ARE Struggling Together: Council members agree the status quo cannot continue... but that's about it. Sometimes this infighting results in a murder of the permanent kind.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Council is united in this trope - the status quo, to them, is miserable, and anything that breaks it cannot possibly be worse. The Liberation of Night is a logical extension of this; the Judgements and their laws, born of light, is what continues the miserable status quo for everyone, and so by getting rid of light...

January

A masked woman known to be bankrolling some of the Revolutionaries' more visible schemes. Runs the Museum of Injustices, a hidden archive used by the Revolutionaries, and appears to be aware of allies in places high above. The current January was first mentioned during the Jovial Contrarian's first campaign, then served as his campaign manager during his second campaign.

And Then What?: Cornelius accuses the Liberationists at large of not having any idea what their plan is. In a way, January admits it to a degree. Despite being an intelligent woman who articulate clear critiques of the Emancipationist and Prehistoricist movements, January says little about what the Liberationist seeks, aside from the obvious. She justifies this by saying she herself is a product of the oppressive system created by the Judgements and her mind cannot conceive of the values and way of life of a post-Liberation world.
Legacy Character: The title of January has been passed down following the previous holder's death at least once.
The Night That Never Ends: She is far from the only Revolutionary who advocates for the Liberation of Night, but she is currently the face of the Liberationist movement as far as the Railway storyline is concerned.
Non-Idle Rich: She's shown working for the Revolution's benefit whenever she appears in person.
Politically Motivated Teacher: She was once Dean of Benthic College, and her specialisation is radicalisation through education.
The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Deconstructed. She expresses solidarity with groups like Clay Men and Urchins, personally running a museum about oppression. She's also an intellectual associated with the Magnanimous Quirk. However, she plans to help marginalised people by tailoring rhetoric to recruit them, then initiating the Liberation of Night. It seems that her anger against the Judgements takes precedence over immediate injustice.

February

A tall, handsome, well-dressed woman, and exceptionally cunning and dangerous. She's a committed enemy of Mr Iron.

The Chessmaster: She'll never have just one plan when she could have two or three or more.
Combat Pragmatist: She seems to favour underhanded tactics to gain any possible advantage in a fight.
Complexity Addiction: February can't resist an opportunity to demonstrate her intellect. This leaves her vulnerable to a counter-plot that's a lot simpler than it looks.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Her favoured method of revolution is the knife, the gun and the Phlebotinum Bomb. (Someone ignoring the gun, however, will make her sigh wearingly and try asking nicely instead.)
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Her demeanour lies somewhere between "motherly" and "flirtatious" — she'll sign a note ordering an assassination with "fond kisses."
Terms of Endangerment: She refers to Mr Iron as "my sweet" and generally acts as though every success in her schemes is a wonderful gift she's reserving especially for him.
Token Evil Teammate: Opinions are divided when it comes to the Calendar Council. However, most would agree that February is the least sympathetic of them all, being a little too keen on chaos and violence.

March

The original March in-game was a squat, rustic, amiable-looking fellow, who was a known enemy of Mr Wines. But then he stopped appearing. He's been replaced by a new March.

Historical Domain Character: The 2018 Mysteries answers confirmed that the original March was John Cassell, the Working-Man's Friend.
Legacy Character: The Red-Feathered Pin reveals that Cassell has been replaced, and a different March has taken over Cassell's post.
Unknown Rival: Cassell gave away Darkdrop Coffee and seemed pretty well convinced that he was undermining Wines terribly. Wines didn't appear to be aware that he existed.
We ARE Struggling Together: The Council thought Cassell was too pious to fit with their vision of the revolution, and had him assassinated. If you manage to get a confession from the Haunted Doctor during Hallowmas, you find out that he was the one responsible for killing March. However, despite being ordered by the Council and admitting his religion conflicted with his politics, he does remember how he always gave him coffee and believes that he owed him better.

April

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Mentioned rarely, but renowned specifically for intense brutality. She's also very skilled at designing and building explosives. Her real name is Emilia Hathersage, of Cotterell & Hathersage, who make some of the finest naval weaponry in London. She appears in the Bag a Legend! Ambition.

And the Adventure Continues: At the end of Bag a Legend!, which requires her help, she leaves with a note that will let you hire her once more, back to her Revolutionary endeavors. Partly because the work of a Revolutionary is never over, partly to hit the ground running because Fires is next.
Demolitions Expert: If you want high-tier explosives, she's your woman. Especially unnatural explosives, from mere Perfumed Gunpowder to the Chorister Bomb, which can rip apart a Master and scatter its component concepts far and wide.
Faking the Dead: She's been presumed dead for more than a year, following a factory explosion, but she's very much still around and not even bandaged. And throughout the Bag a Legend! storyline, you have to take care that she never reveals herself to be alive, even if the covers get a little flimsy at times. Presumably, she had to fake her death to throw off suspicion over her Revolutionary activities.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite Faking the Dead, she can join your board of the director and will be physically present during meetings, potentially in the same room as the Efficient Commissioner who works for the Bazaar.
Mad Scientist: Not that mad, but she can get carried away. Having her help in Red Science matters can have her get quite enthusiastic, especially anything with the Betrayer of Measures. She'd gladly make a ribcage the size of the Neath if it was possible. She is also very keen on highly destructive weaponry. Her only objection against putting military-grade weapons on your train is that they aren't as powerful as they could be.
Talking with Signs: Only communicate to others via writing. Possibly she's been deafened by her dabblings.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Has stirred up so many fire-bombing mobs that such riots are nicknamed "April Riots" by the Constables.

The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel (May)

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Also known as the Merry Gentleman, the Manager is as he sounds — the owner and proprietor of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel, an unbelievably luxurious institution-slash-insane asylum, mostly the latter due to the normal costs of getting a room being far, far too high for the majority of people. He waives the fee for those who are insane though, mostly because he finds them interesting and takes their nightmares instead. Thanks to this and to the quality of the hotel, a lot of guests end up actually regaining their sanity (by Neath standards) under his care. He is also May of the Calendar Council and the priest-king of the First City.

Beat Them at Their Own Game: During Heart's Desire, you deliver this to him. The Manager sends his own nightmares your way to wear you down and distract you from playing the Marvellous. Unfortunately for him, you come prepared, and defeat his nightmares with dreams of your own, and he ends up on the receiving end of his own tactics.
Bribing Your Way to Victory: On his opportunity card, you can pay him Fate and a diamond(s) to get rid of your Nightmares and receive a bigger diamond from him.
Byronic Hero: Through and through. Tragic, eccentric, charismatic, mysterious, world-weary, revolutionary, devious and Crazy Sane.
Collector of the Strange: Dreams, diamonds and insane people.
Creepy Good: Notably non-hostile, in contrast to many horrors of the Neath, and faithful to the ideal of eternal true love. Although it's of very little comfort when he starts to haunt you.
The Royal Beth has a reputation that goes beyond the strange, strays into the menacing and loiters in the foyer of the chilling.
The Dandy: Prefers this side of London's fashion when trying to blend in Victorian era with his eccentric stovepipe hat, gorgeously brass-buttoned frock coat and silver-capped cane.
Deal with the Devil: His lover was suffering from violent convulsive fits and obviously close to death. The Masters came and offered to make them both immortal in exchange for the First City. Unfortunately, the method used to "cure" his lover made him into the King With A Hundred Hearts.
Dream Stealer: Harvests dreams from the Hotel's guests for his Garden of Nightmares. It is also possible to give him your own ones as payment for his advice.
Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: As the priest-king of the First City he wore a lot of copper and brass jewellery. In the Fifth City he's downgraded to some really shiny brass buttons. He's also kind of obsessed with diamonds, because they remind him of his Gem Heart love.
Fisher King: During the Season of Ruins all the guests of his Hotel were directly affected by his distressful state of mind.
Friendly Rivalry: In pursuit of his desire to finish an opera, the Topsy King staked and lost his mind to the Manager in the Marvellous. Later the Manager is the one who prompts the player character to complete and stage that opera, fulfilling his opponent's initial wish, and attends the premiere in Veilgarden together with him.
Genius Loci: His real heart's desire is to share his lover's fate by becoming a second living city.
Homefield Advantage: Makes liberal use of this in the Marvellous. After the opening match, he faces all subsequent opponents in his Garden of Nightmares and make use of visions and dream creatures to distract and wear down his opponent in the middle of the game.
Large Ham: He's a theatrical sort, given over to random soliloquies.
Love Makes You Crazy: His love for the King With A Hundred Hearts led to the fall of the First City, and hasn't lessened in the intervening millennia.
The grief of separation can be a sort of madness.
Mark of the Supernatural: Has eight fingers. We never get to find out how he lost the other two, but from the moment he shows up he makes sure to show them off, and it's jotted down as one of the marks there's something off about him.
Mind Rape: Quite capable of inflicting madness and waking nightmares on purpose, as seen in the Heart's Desire finale.
Public Domain Character: His backstory has a bit in common with The Epic of Gilgamesh. Combined with the revelation that he was a Mesopotamian priest-king of the First City more than four thousand years ago implies that he may be Gilgamesh himself.
Really 700 Years Old: He was a priest-king of the First City. His real age is probably between 3000-4000 years.
Stalker without a Crush: When your Nightmares reach level 5 he starts following you around, presumably because he can see someone about to Go Mad from the Revelation and thus one of his future guests.
Stepford Smiler: Beneath his persona of the Merry Gentleman he is far from merry, and his Quirk in The Calendar Code is Melancholy.
Things That Go "Bump" in the Night:
Sleep is no refuge. You hear the squeak of a trolley, and the creak of your door — is that the Merry Gentleman, come to check on you in the night? No, no! You are at home.
Unusual Pets for Unusual People:
He is out walking his scarlet lizard, searching for new guests for the hotel. His smile is bright like fire in the dark.
Villainous Breakdown: Depending on your view, possibly more antagonistic than villainous. Near the end of Heart's Desire, as he begins losing, he begins to lose himself, visibly shaking and mistaking you for his former lover. The stress of harnessing his very own worst nightmares and throwing them at you strains him to the breaking point, and seeing your dreams trounce that is even more disheartening. He eventually recovers though.
The Wonka: He's affable and charming, but also cryptic, menacing and extremely strange.

July

A once-fashionable and cultured violinist, who has apparently lost her mind to the land of dreams. She appears in the Exceptional Story Lost in Reflections.

Arch-Enemy: Mr Wines. Like all Revolutionaries, she's utterly opposed to the Masters, but Wines is the one most actively involved in trying to secure another city (Paris, to be exact), and thus July stepped up to him in particular.
The Chessmaster: London, Paris... Hamburg? Whatever will happen in 1908 and beyond, she makes sure that she herself will appear as little more than an innocent entertainer.
Deal with the Devil: The Devil in this case being the Orts — Parabolan snakes that assume the shape of birds. She trades her memories for dreams of a possible future.
Feather Motif: Of white ravens and black ravens; one for memories of the past, one for echoes of the future.
Living Memory: What survives of her in Parabola is little more than that.
Mad Oracle: She seems confused about when she is, recognising passers-by from visions of the future.
Unexplained Recovery: Regardless of which outcome you achieved at the end of Lost in Reflections, July can be acquired as a companion from Mr Chimes' Lost & Found. Downplayed, however, as conversations with her on the Railway Board makes it clear that "recovered" would be putting it rather generously. The July who accompanies the player character is not the same as the one trapped by the Fingerkings, and her lines indicate that she's not... all there.

The Jovial Contrarian (August)

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A society figure known for his love of political debate. He's not publicly attached to any one cause — he'll happily argue for the establishment one minute, and against it the next. He certainly knows all about the Council, however. The Exceptional Story The Calendar Code and text from the Red-Feathered Pin confirm that he's a member; specifically, August. He ran for Mayor in 1894 and again in 1896 — he came second in his first run, and succeeded in his second, becoming Fallen London's third Mayor.

"Balls" Gag: His 1896 mayoral campaign ran on two key law-and-order policies: to restructure London's constabulary under the Mayor's office, and to hold a Constables' Ball as a way of thanking them for their hard work. According to him, they've never had balls before.
Benevolent Boss: As a candidate and a mayor, he pays his staff well and ensures they work reasonable hours.
Commander Contrarian: As the name dictates, he will pounce on anything he finds controversial and argue on whichever side is not yours. He just really, really loves arguing, and has a jolly good time when you actually beat him, not that he'd admit defeat. Even seen in his brief appearance in Sunless Sea, purchasing a Soothe & Cooper Longbox. He'll argue about the price, the condition, and even the kind of wood of the coffin while probably aware the wood has nothing to do with the box's value. And then he'll go and happily pay your initial offered price, having haggled just for the argument. If invited to the Great Hellbound Railway board, the difficulty of persuading him depends exclusively on how many people disagree with the motion at the moment, with more making it easier.^note
Disabled Snarker: He's a wheelchair user who acts exactly as his title describes, which often includes snark ranging from lighthearted to ominous. (Although details about his disability are very vague, Word of God has confirmed that he's really disabled, and not Obfuscating Disability.)
The Gadfly: He's not above provoking people in the middle of a (possibly unwanted) debate, as it both amuses him and gets the other one to actually want to win. He can get so annoying he can literally kill a guy by giving him a conniption just from needling him. It's apparently a constant problem for him.
Good Is Not Nice: Zig-zagged. He actively cares about London. His argumentativeness doesn't stop him from being friendly, treating his staff well, and being an inclusive Mayor. But he plays devil's advocate for issues like Clay Men's rights, gleefully backstabs allies, and repeatedly kills people by annoying them. And what Quirk is associated with understanding him or getting his attention? Ruthless.
Hidden Depths: The first time he ran for Mayor, his campaign appeared to be just a joke that not even he took very seriously like most of his other in-game contrarian actions. Deeper investigation of his campaign, however, revealed that it was actually a very serious attempt by him to try to Take a Third Option and find a way to free London from the Masters' control without resorting to the extremes of the Liberation of the Night.

September

A Scottish young man who advances Revolutionary causes in Balmoral. He is especially contemptuous of the English Empire.

Badass Bookworm: Definitely an avid consumer of various philosophical, political and artistic texts, and you don't earn a spot in the Council by being helpless. He's at the very least not afraid to preach dissent against the Queen in the town right outside Balmoral, where it'd hurt the most.
Bookworm: He's an avid reader of philosophy, scripture, poetry, and political tracts. As Balmoral's Castellan, he's set up literary salons in the castle and spends afternoons reading voraciously in his study.
Brave Scot: Scottish as they come, complete with the written accent, and he despises the Masters and the Crown without being afraid to openly preach it. Keep in mind he's preaching against the latter right near the front lawn of the Queen's summer home.
Legacy Character: As usual, Month positions in the Calendar Council are passed on as previous bearers of the title retire or (perma-)die. It's heavily implied that the previous September was the Curt Relicker, in this case, but whatever made him quit remains unknown.

October

A revolutionary whose battlefield is dreams and nightmares.

He Who Fights Monsters: She is willing to go to any length in her fight against the Masters. One Engineer who once worked for her see her as just another oppressor not so unlike the Masters who he had hoped to escape from by fleeing to the Revolutionaries in the first place.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Inflicted this on the Masters. She used a card game orchestrated for the Masters' entertainment to acquire the mean to get rid of one of them. They have had second thoughts after "the Mirrors incident".
The Unfettered: Utterly ruthless and feared by her own people. Once you find her in Heart's Desire, her advice to you as a previous winner is to cheat and to undermine the other players even when not actively playing.

November

A Purple-Clad Revolutionary, appearing at the Ministry's Parade in the Exceptional Story A Little Pandemonium.

Big Eater: Constantly seen munching on fruit. Even while being arrested.

December

The leader of the Calendar Council, the only member who knows the identity of all other Council members. A mysterious revolutionary, whose features are always concealed behind an elaborate mask.

Ambiguously Human: We don't know what they are, but it is implied that December is something other than human. Something that would be intimately familiar with the Judgements and their world.
Hidden Weapons: They keep a knife concealed inside the body of their mask.

The Affluent Photographer

One of the main correspondents and liaisons for the Council. She uses her position of authority and her connections with various parties to preach the Revolutionaries' goals and messages to any who would listen.

The Revolutionary Firebrand

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A severe, reserved, and really exceptionally handsome anarchist, recently arrived in Fallen London. He's rarely seen outside of his spartan lodgings, but he does make visits to the modest eateries of Doubt Street and to the occasional political meeting.

The Stoic: The only real show of emotion he gives you is at the end of a long, long questline spanning the entire early-to-mid-game, and even then it's very muted.

The Secular Missionary

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An exceptionally charming lady, dedicated to a number of beneficial social causes, who has come to the Neath searching for her missing husband. Despite her apparent innocence and delicacy, she's seen a surprising amount of the world and made the acquaintance of some very unusual characters.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Is this, if you believe the Revolutionary Firebrand's claims. At the very least, she's not half as innocent as she initially acts around you and turns out to be willing to threaten her husband with a gun to get what she wants.
The Ingenue: Outwardly appears to be this at first, but it soon becomes clear that she's more worldly than she lets on.

"Furnace" Ancona

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The woman representing the interest of the Tracklayer's Union and its workers.

Big Good: For Labour and the Tracklayer's Union. Her goal is to create a much more democratic society in the Hinterlands, hoping this would inspire others from achieving the same ideals.
Cool Helmet: More of a case of the woman making it work, but her customized Tracklayer's Helmet (think of an old time diver's helmet turned into bulky armor) is pretty nice. And quite functional, apparently even better than the ones you can buy (which reduces your Wounds increase).
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Her response to Mr. Fires getting up to his usual stuff and trying to stop union members from using protective gear was to sabotage the facility's machinery so that he ended up trapped and spent three days trying to escape. If she wasn't the leader of the union, that would have ended with her beaten to seven different deaths by Neddy Men at best. That, and the Master generally despises unions, so Furnace is a living middle finger in his face.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She takes a very risky gambit against Mr. Fires in an attempt to finally get it off her Union's back after it corners her: sign with a Discordance sigil she remembers (without knowing what it was) and trick Fires into reading it; the ensuing blast freezes the entire room, nearly kills her (it blew her main face off, for starters) and knocks Fires right the hell out, leaving it shivering in the corner of the room, huddling under its cloak having no idea where it even was; neither of them even remember what happened afterwards.
Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: If she becomes Furnace-Unionville, she becomes the spouse of the Creditor.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": She does not like to be called "Beatrice".
Cornelius: You all know, of course, that her name is Beatrice? She doesn't like it if you call her that. Gets all red-faced and prickly and says she'll thank you to call her by the name she earned in life and not the one that was stuck onto her by her parents at the moment of birth.
Genius Loci: If she becomes Furnace-Unionville, she becomes an entire city to house the Tracklayers.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Inflicted this on herself and Mr Fires. He does not remember her, and she does not remember him. One can assume she has done this to prevent him from meddling with the business of the union.
Married to the Job: If you express romantic interest in her, Ancona appears to turn you down for this reason. Her Liberationist face is more open to the idea though.
A Mother to Her Men: Her Tracklayers are above all in her priority list. Her end goal is to hold the whole thing together, no matter what the Liberationists want or what Mr. Fires attempts, until she can get them a settlement of land for every one of them, so that they can retire to a town to themselves when the Railroad is done. A place where the Masters won't bother them again.
Multiple Head Case: Under her helmet are three faces, each representing one faction within the Tracklayers' Union. They all have different personalities and priorities, with the face representing the Prehistoricists and the face representing the Liberationists often being in conflict.
The Night That Never Ends: One third of the Tracklayer's Union seeks this, and it is implied that some part of "Furnace" herself is this too. However, the "dominant personality" of Ancona, the person who you usually speak to, is actually a subversion. She is actually a Revolutionary who isn't keen on living in a world without light.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Doesn't actively try to be, but officials that try to use her real name and everyone else that actively opposes it tend to squabble. Mostly because of the meaning of the nickname, earned when she trapped Mr. Fires in a factory for a while; only a Furnace can contain a Fire, after all.
Secretly Earmarked for Greatness: If she survives to become the leader of the Tracklayer's City, September may mention that the Calendar Council are considering offering her the position of March.
Universally Beloved Leader: She is extremely popular among the tracklayers and even outside of that she appears to be a beloved living legend among Revolutionaries and the working class. Unlike Cornelius, whose election (if he is running against her) is a close run that requires underhanded means to secure a victory, her election is a landslide and appears squeaky clean. In fact, if you succeed the Persuasive check, she basically wins the moment the Tracklayers can be convinced to hold a vote in the first place.
We ARE Struggling Together: Unlike the Calendar Council, she tries to avert this. Ancona represents the Liberationist faction of the Union as much as the rest, despite she herself not agreeing with their goal, or at least the personality of Ancona that the player primarily interacts with. This even translates into gameplay if you invite her onto your board. Regardless of the agenda you set, you can make use of her leadership to get the entire board to agree with you no matter what in one fell swoop.
We Used to Be Friends: She used to be Cornelius's partner, but now says she is never partnering with him again.

Cornelius

A Prehistoricist of the Tracklayers' Union and a former partner of Ancona.

Anti-Hero: If you sympathize with the Revolutionaries and his ideology in any case. Cornelius is at least partially responsible for Furnace's current state, can be a jerk for no good reason at times and does not shy away from employing underhanded means to get his way, including ones against his former friend. Despite all this, he still believes in humanity's place as destined revolutionaries and seeks to create the world that serve the interest of all living creatures.
Brown Note: His current condition is due to reading Discordance, a variant of the Correspondence that freezes rather than burns.
Fossil Revival: He is very enthusiastic about his vision of reviving prehistorical beasts (or perhaps modifying them) to serve the Tracklayers.
Gone Horribly Wrong: He is responsible for Furnace's current predictment. Turns out, he did not like that Furnace chose to carry the Union on her shoulder, championing ideas and opinions she does not herself hold for the benefits of others. When they arrived at Hurlers, Cornelius invoked a Discordance law that caused them to not be able to speak truth they do not hold. Instead of preventing Furnace from speaking for everyone, it simply makes her grow two extra faces (and mouths) to speak for the major positions of the TLU. He holds himself responsible, and when given the opportunity, asks that Furnace's condition be fixed.
Hypocrite: He accuses Ancona of running the Union like her personal plaything, despite the fact that as leader Cornelius only seems to push his own vision, whereas Ancona considers the interest of all three major factions of the Union, Cornelius's included.
Take Me Instead: He offers to be chosen as the Creditor's spouse in place of Furnace, which would result in his physical transformation into a city. Neither of them seem to think this is a great deal, but it may be greatly beneficial to the Tracklayers, and Cornelius begs the player to use him as sacrifice instead of Furnace.
Too Many Mouths: Under his bandages is a face filled with mouths the size of eyes.
Tsundere: He is a jerk to Furnace, calling her Beatrice and enjoying telling her that she does not lead the Tracklayers Union anymore with just a bit too much satisfaction. Regardless, he is incredibly invested in her safety, outright telling the player character that he would murder them on the spot if he thinks it would produce Furnace's location (while she was imprisoned). At the end of the Railway story when Furnace Ancona is asked to marry the Creditor, which would result in the latter being physically transformed into a city, something she is not entirely happy with for obvious reasons, Cornelius begs the player to pick him instead. When asked for his reasons, he would not give a straight answer, but it is clear that despite everything, he still greatly admires her and does not want her to be sacrificed for the good of the Union.

Parabola & The Wars of Illusion

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Why is there blood behind the mirrors and the smoke?

A good magician never reveals their secrets, and London's entertainers have quite few secrets to hide indeed. Like their involvement with entities that dwell deep within the realms of dreams...

The Glass

A cabal of stage magicians, illusionists and escapologists, with interests in the deeper mysteries of the Neath. They claim to be allied with a group called the "Fingerkings".

Deal with the Devil: Well, more like deal with eldritch abominations, but their "magic" is a result of their pact with the Fingerkings.
Magicians Are Wizards: They're not magical themselves, but they have friends on the other side of the mirrors. How the Fingerkings benefit from this arrangement, one dreads to think.
Public Domain Character: It's been suggested the Fingerkings are in fact, the Aztec or Mayan pantheons, though why they're in London is anyone's guess.
Serious Business: Stage magic. They take it extremely seriously. Arson, murder, and other such acts are simply tools of the trade outside the stage to keep their spot. And once you know what the Fingerkings truly are, the fact they'd strike deals and give offerings to creatures like that just to do magic tricks in front of a crowd has to count as taking the art very seriously.
Stage Magician: The traditional variety — top hats, tails, rabbits and mirrors. None of them seem exceptionally talented in their trade — they rely on the Fingerkings' assistance to wow audiences.

The Shroud

A confederation of psychics, mystics and clairvoyants, who dabble in delving into the advanced science and philosophy of the Neath. Bitter enemies of The Glass.

Fortune Teller: Many Shroud practitioners aim for more up-to-date scientific spiritualism, but some of its leaders — like Madame Shoshana — favour a traditional scarves-and-crystal-ball routine.
Phony Psychic: At best, they have some incidental knowledge of the genuinely fantastical elements of the Neath... but they tend to use it to run the usual sort of phony mystical schemes anyway.
Serious Business: Fortune-telling and stage magic. They take it extremely seriously. Arson, murder, and other such acts are simply tools of the trade outside the stage to keep their spot. They might not be as connected to the Fingerkings as the Glass is, but they still take their work to heart enough to deal with men that'd give everything for a leg up in the artform.

Monsieur Pleat

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The city's foremost mesmerist, with connections among both the Glass and the Shroud, as well as his own interests in the secrets of the Wars of Illusion.

Hypnotic Eyes: His mesmeric powers seem genuinely uncanny; one look in his eyes can place you under his control.

Silas the Showman

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A once-great stage performer, now fallen on hard times, drink, and petty confidence-trickery. Despite his decline, it seems he's still caught up in the mysterious affairs of the Fingerkings.

Meat Puppet: One possible explanation for his periods of unexpected knowedgeability and eloquence coupled with loss of memory.

Fingerkings

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fingerking.png

Fingerkings are snake-like entities that swim in the dreams of the denizens of the Neath. They swim in a river of memory and dreams, which can be accessed via several locations scattered around the Neath.

Arch-Enemy: Cats are the sworn enemies of the Fingerkings. It's the same as the Glass-Shroud conflict, except behind the mirror instead of in front of it. Place a snake within sight of a cat, and you'll be rewarded with a vigorous hissing contest. The cat will loathe the snake, even more than they'll now loathe you.
Deal with the Devil: If one makes a deal with them it is possible to peer into the deepest secrets of the world, but that's not necessarily advisable, as those who have done so often end up regretting it. However, it is also said that they will not lie to you, and interactions with them seem to indicate that the Fingerkings make it a point of honour to keep their end of the bargain so long as the other party does and are in fact offended by suggestion to the contrary.
Demonic Possession: Fingerkings can possess people in order to leave Parabola. The original owner of the body has absolutely no control, and the Fingerking kinda has to figure out how to work the new stolen body. If the Fingerking relinquishes control, then the host won't have any memory of the incident at all.
The Fair Folk: Strange, unknowable creatures, who do not live by the code and values of humanity. Interactions and dealings with them should not be taken lightly.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: Despite often being the metaphorical devil that people make deals with, when they made a deal with the literal devils in the distant past, it ended very poorly for them. The Fingerkings agreed to assist the Devils in exchange for being able to possess them after. They eventually and painfully discover what happen when they try to possess a devil, and relationship between the two soured.
Luke Nounverber: In the Gallery of Serpents, there are statues of Fingerkings named Reconciler of Friends, Procurer of Lost Dignities and Favour, and Revealer of Fortune.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Some of them have wings, making them something like weird snakebirds.
Never Sleep Again: Should one ever happen to get on the bad side of a Fingerking, it's advised that the unfortunate individual never sleep, ever, lest they be killed permanently by furious dream-snakes.
Our Dragons Are Different: The Parabolan dragons are basically Fingerkings that decided they'd become dragons because Parabola is a lawless dreamscape.
People Zoo: The Third Coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers houses people possessed by Fingerkings. Mirrors are forbidden around them since they provide an escape route to Parabola.
Weakened by the Light: The Fingerkings don't exist, they Are-Not, while the light of the Judgements determines what Is. If a Fingerking were to escape to the Surface somehow it'd be destroyed by the regulating effect of starlight. That said, they still have a fascination with light that do not harm them, such as the Parabolan Sun.

The Ophidian Gentleman

The Fingerkings' representative for their dealings in Fallen London.

Affably Evil: In all of his interactions, he is infallibly polite. He even gives you gifts on a few occasions. He is, however, a loyal servant of the Fingerkings.
The Dragon: To the Fingerkings. He seems to serve as the Fingerkings' agent for matters requiring subtlety, and a human form.
Magic Mirror: He uses mirrors for a variety of purposes, including surveillance. These apply to any reflective surface, really.
Really 700 Years Old: He used to be a priest from the Fourth City, and he was already old by the time it came down several centuries ago. But he's still around, as active as ever.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He is impeccably dressed, despite traveling through a dimension entirely composed of jungle.

The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle

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A feline mayoral candidate in the 1898 Mayoral Election, running under the slogan "Defending Your Dreams". She won the election against her rivals, the Tentacled Entrepreneur and F.F. Gebrandt.

Action Girl: As a mayoral candidate, she promised to take Londoners to battle.
Battle Couple: In the past, both she and her husband actively fought the Fingerkings. Though they are still in love and remain committed in their fight against the snakes, circumstances force them apart.
The Comically Serious: She acts like both a high-born Viscountess and a panther at the head of her pack, whether in Parabola, where all that is true... or over in the Neath, where the latter is significantly less true and she's more of a regular, very fluffy black cat. She takes commoners casually trying to rub her belly hilariously badly.
Dream Walker: Moreso than most felines, even. Part of what she promises is to use what she can do to keep Londoners' dreams safe. A good campaign hook, considering the nightmares in London can drive you insane at best, and drag you into another realm to eat you at worst.
Gone Horribly Wrong: Her involvement with the dreams of the Stone Pigs and attempts to take weapons from them to use in her war against the Fingerkings ended in some manner of unknown but monumental cockup that brought nightmares of being immobilized under sand to you and possibly others, caused a ridiculous mess in the Viric Jungle, and forced her to take an "extended vacation" far away from London while the Masters look for her to "extend their felicitations to her in person" and decide Mayoral Elections were a terrible idea after all.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: This campaign is, apparently, merely another facet of her trying to be a proper Viscountess, and fulfilling the demands of the role. Even if it needs her to use it to stage a campaign of war against Londoners' nightmares and, "incidentally", the dream-snakes that are usually involved with them and that all cats utterly despise.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In her attempt to find a weapon to use against the Fingerkings, she awakens the Stone Pigs, leading directly to Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out in 1899. When this plan fails to produce the outcome the Masters had hoped, it further accelerates the Stone Pigs' awakening, finally leading to the earth beneath London splitting apart, greatly damaging the city and endangering its population.

The Red-Handed Queen

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A powerful entity who rules in Parabola. She is a main character of the dreams of A Game of Chess, where she is engaged in a war against the Beleaguered King.

Ambiguously Evil: It is unclear what her agenda is, but between her and the Beleaguered King, she is often depicted as the crueler monarch. Her realm, what we see of it, can be bleak and ominous at times. And the Destiny you acquire for freeing her is the Gloom, which is often associated with ominous and destructive destinies.
Ambition Is Evil: She encourages people to further their own ambition at any cost. The Beleaguered King says that ambitiousness is one of the qualities she desire in her subjects.
Arch-Enemy: Of the Beleaguered King. They seem to be utterly opposite concepts given a more-or-less living form, pitted against each other because their very natures demand it.
The Chessmaster: While her motive is ambiguous, her agents can be found in Parabola and London. Her war against the Beleaguered King is also called a game of Red Chess, one she often appears to be winning.
Deadly Doctor: The majority of her agents that we know of are surgeons. And since the Queen's intrigues are known to be especially bloody, these doctors often need to both preserve lives and end them.
Deal with the Devil: In the Exceptional Story the Fair Unknown, she offers the winner of her tournament one of this. It is implied that whoever receives her boon becomes her subject and she will call upon their service one day. Considering the number of characters who are implied to be her agents, quite a few seem to have taken the deal.
Evil Is Petty: She flips out upon being told the Beleaguered King did not cheat when she believes he must have, regardless of whether she achieved her goal or not. Additionally, if she feels you were not sufficiently dishonorable while participating in her tournament, she will push you to a dangerous area in Parabola, shooting your Nightmares straight up to 7.
Evil Laugh: She lets out an epic one upon being told the Beleaguered King broke his own rule.
Friendly Enemy: Despite their bitter war, she and the Beleaguered King appear rather friendly to each other in person. Of course, since the scene in question only occurs in the Seeking Mr Eaten's Name questline, it's difficult to verify how "true" it is.
Mark of the Beast: Those who form a connection with her appear to have their reflection's hand stained with blood.
Red Is Violent: Her hands are perpetually covered in blood. The blood stains her clothes as well, turning her from a white chesspiece to a red one. Accepting her boon involves the Queen inflicting some (thankfully temporary) impressive violence on your person. During A Dream of Chess, a passage goes into detail about how it's connected to violence:
You can go anywhere. You use secret passages to enter the rooms of your enemies, vulnerable in their sleep. You climb dark staircases and cross vast, silent halls. You manage to stay several steps ahead of those other assassins, the One-Eyed Bishop and the Lonely Knight. You can do anything. Anything except scrub this gore from your hands.
Take a Third Option: She is the third option for people who do not choose to align themselves with the Fingerkings or the Cats. Somewhat unusually for this trope, the Red-Handed Queen is probably the least moral option of the three.
They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: A number of her agents appear to be seemingly perfectly unremarkable people.
Summon Bigger Fish: In Burrow-Infra-Mump, when dealing with a former Monarch of Hell who has been haunting your church, you can get her to squash him like a bug for you, dealing with that problem once and for all.
The Unfettered: She is one and encourages other to be as well. In fact, in the Exceptional Story the Fair Unknown, if you don't cheat when competing in her own tournament, she gets very crossed at you, regardless of whether you won or not.
Villains Act, Heroes React: The Queen is almost always seen actively pursuing her own agendas. By contrast, the Beleaguered King often only react in opposition to her.

The Beleaguered King

A White Monarch who rules in Parabola. He is a main character of the dreams of A Game of Chess, the enemy of the Red-Handed Queen.

Ambition Is Evil: Seems to believe this, in contrast to the Red-Handed Queen. He claims that, as a White king, he will only reflect the desires of dreamers.
Arch-Enemy: Of the Red-Handed Queen. They seem to be utterly opposite concepts given a more-or-less living form, pitted against each other because their very natures demand it.
The Good King: Though he appears much less often than his rival, the Red-Handed Queen, what we see of him tend to put him in much better light. The Beleaguered King is honorable and principled, whereas the Red-Handed Queen is utterly ruthless and self-serving.
Honor Before Reason: He will take actions detrimental to his own goals if asked, as he believes that is the nature of a White king (though he's not above "accidentally" hurting the offending party out of spite). He also encourages the player to act honorably, in direct contrast to the Red-Handed Queen, who encourages the player to cheat.
Hypocrite: His action during the exceptional story the Fair Unknown might be interpreted as this. Though he claims he only reflects the desires of dreamers, unlike the Red-Handed Queen, he clearly has an agenda he wants to push and encourages the player character to asks him to take action. Granted, he will take action detrimental to his goal if asked, so he at the very least does follow the letter of the rule. The player gets to choose whether they consider him to be a hypocrite for this reason or not.
An Ice Person: When he exercises his powers, the text often places emphasis on ice and cold.
Icy Blue Eyes: Cold Sapphires. The texts sometimes emphasize the blueness of a character's eyes to hint that the Beleaguered King may be involved. It is also implied that whenever he possesses a person, their eyes turn blue.
Irony: Despite the fact that White is supposed to make the first move in Chess and therefore has the advantage, thus far the Beleaguered King appears to be purely reactive to the Red-Handed Queen for the most part.
King Incognito: During an exceptional story, he infiltrates the Red-Handed Queen's tournament, participating as a Mystery Knight.
Villains Act, Heroes React: Thus far, his actions tend to be in response to his rival's moves. The King himself claims that as a White King it is not in his nature to act of his own accord but to reflect the desires of dreamers.

Hell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devil_11.png

Courteous, rapacious, merciless, beguiling. The emissaries of Hell are here for one purpose: souls. Well, and also perhaps the company, the sights and a little chamber-music.

Fallen London is "conveniently located" for Hell, which the Stolen River (once known as the Thames) passes through. As a result, there are many devils on its streets — charming, friendly, wealthy, handsome and beguiling individuals working out of the Brass Embassy. They are readily identifiable by their brilliant eyes, fanged mouths, and strange fashions. Hell and the Bazaar have contracts governing the sale and trade of souls, and the whole business is moderately civilised, particularly given that some people deliberately seek to "unburden" themselves. Make no mistake, however: devils are not human, nothing they do comes for free, their motives are cruel, and they are never even remotely trustworthy. Gathering souls is their foremost priority, and when that option has failed, they amuse themselves with mortal suffering. Dealings with Hell are extremely unwise. Bargaining is the prerogative of the terminally foolish.

Affably Evil: They are capable of being polite, charming, and affable, but make no mistake — every devil is a sociopath who wants exactly one thing: your soul. (Un)lucky Londoners may have romantic dealings with the Affectionate Devil and the Quiet Deviless, who will proceed to abandon them after getting their soul, and are pissed off if the soul is sold to someone else.
Always Chaotic Evil: Some options in the Case of the Absconding Devil imply that they have an innate or even supernatural compulsion to do evil, and they're generally characterized as sociopaths.
Arch-Enemy: The Devils don't seem to harbor true hatred for most of their enemies, and even find someone like the Bishop of Southwark to be an amusing diversion. But the Judgements are another matter. During the Starved Men crisis, Hell was ready to leave London to die and saw no reason to intervene until they heard just what was going to destroy it: Sunlight. To give the Sun, any sun at all presence in the Neath, let alone a single victory was so anathema that the normally bureaucracy-choked Hell immediately geared itself for war
Berserk Button: Being a Seeker of Mr Eaten's name will qualify you as quarry for their hunting parties, at no charge, instantly, and without warning should they come across you in the Forgotten Quarter. It would seem the denizens of Hell really, really, really hate Seekers of the Name, and will maul, Mind Rape and rob blind any they find whenever they're allowed. Oh, and they'll return your soul (by way of reinserting it so violently it only adds to the general horror). That's right, they hate you so much they don't even want your soul. It seems to stem from Seeking the Name requiring that one stain one's own soul hideously multiple times, rendering the soul useless/disgusting to them.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Suffice it to say that those gold-eyed humanoids they walk around as are not their true forms. Want a closer analogy to what they really are? Think beehives. Yes, bee hives.
Brown Note: Stained souls seem to cause actual physical distress to them.
Deal with the Devil: Of course. They'll even give you a copy of the contract. Ones that have expired are still somewhat valuable, as well; lawyers like them (presumably to learn new tricks), and restoring someone's lost soul is easier if you have their contract.
Evil Is Burning Hot: Presumably as a result of originating in a Fire and Brimstone Hell (though human depictions of a fiery Hell amuse them), devils are literally scorching. Their skin is very warm, their tears scald, their brass never cools, and their buildings require special safeguards and shielding before humans can enter them without suffering burns.
Fallen Angel: They are confirmed to be this in Sunless Skies. Originally, they were servants of the Judgements, who prepared the souls of the dead for finally being consumed. They came to desire the souls they handled for themselves, and were ultimately forced to flee from their former masters and conceal themselves in Parabola and the Neath.
Fangs Are Evil: Not all devils show them off, but all devils have razor-sharp fangs in their smiles. And they are definitely not vegetarians, either, so those fangs see some use.
Foil: To the Rubbery Men. Possibly. Both came from somewhere alien to us. Devils from Parabola. Rubbery Men from a planet called Axile. Both use something from humans as a resource. Devils collect souls. Rubbery Men collect Vital Essences through Ambers. Both use these resources to subvert the laws of reality. Devils by manufacturing their own laws, thereby altering their environment. Rubbery Men by climbing the great chain through red science, thereby altering themselves. Neither of them find each other useful. If you acquire a Peculiar Personal Enhancement from the Rubbery Men, Devils have no use for your soul. Likewise, you find their Vital Essences venomous and useless for the Rubbery Men's purposes. Both have (or, in the Devils' case, used to) rulers. The Devils rebelled against their princes. The Rubbery Men seemingly remain loyal of the Flukes.
Gargle Blaster: Devils drink two kinds of mushroom liquor toxic to humans, Amanita Sherry and Muscaria Brandy. Humans can't drink Amanita Sherry without dying horribly, but people have been known to sip Muscaria at Mahogany Hall.
The Legions of Hell: At one point, the Londoners invaded Hell, and were dismayed to discover how very literal this description was. Certainly the place never seems to run out of devils.
Natural Weapon: Pointed teeth, burning hot skin, and surprisingly sharp nails.
Our Demons Are Different: Devils are actually bees from the High Wilderness who take refuge in Parabola that later migrated to hell and are wrapped up in all sorts of disguises. Devils appear human-ish, although they'll sometimes have obviously demonic features like red eyes and horns. They're apparently somewhat out-of-synch with the rest of the world, and dress in fashions more appropriate for the 1920s than the game's actual timeframe. They are in London for one purpose: souls. There are also the goat demons, which are native to Hell but not technically devils.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Season of Revolutions abolished the monarchy of Hell. Now, it is ruled by a vast, draconian bureaucracy that is still mercilessly hunting for its exiled princes.
Schedule Fanatic: Trains depart Moloch Street Station for Hell with absolute punctuality. If a train is delayed, the damned are released, and the devils take their timekeeping seriously.
The Sociopath: How most devils are characterized — as polite and charming individuals who care about you only as long as it takes them to acquire your soul.
Timey-Wimey Ball: The devils have a strange relationship to time. Their technology and culture includes fashions and inventions that appeared long before, or after, the era of the setting. Some of these seem to come from alternate timelines, where London never fell — from "years that will never come." It may very well be that the Hells of multiple timelines are all interconnected, which is why the number of devils is literally endless.
Vast Bureaucracy: Legions of officials; continents of paperwork; centuries of servitude. While insufferable as intended, it also makes Hell less efficient than it could be.
Villainous Fashion Sense: Decades ahead of the Victorian era, and always perfectly tailored.
Wicked Cultured: They have art and music, they're generally very wealthy, they dress nicely... it's all a façade, of course. But they've put a lot of effort into it — sometimes too much to break it because of a minor setback, which can be exploited.

The Brass Ambassador

Hell's representative in Fallen London. The role evidently has a high turnover rate.

Virginia

One of Hell's leading agents, dedicated to digging up the secrets of the Correspondence. She ran for mayor in the 1897 election under the slogan "Good for the Soul" and won, defeating Miriam Plenty and Madame Shoshana.

Berserk Button: While she keeps her usual Affably Evil mask even in the face of slights that Mayors have to deal with, messing with her hat immediately has her break character and get into a Tranquil Fury of horrifying whispered threats.
Facial Horror: She needed a "new face" after her betrayal.
Fantastic Racism: Does not seem at all fond of Rubbery Men. This is likely to do with the state of their souls being no good for the Devils' purposes.
For Science!: As a mayor, she is often seen conducting scientific experiments of some kind. She herself stated that she ran for mayor because she wished to satisfy her "intellectual curiosity".
Hellish Pupils: In bright golden eyes, like most devils do. She's otherwise more downplayed in terms of devilish features, so these are the main mark of her infernal nature.
Honey Pot: She seduced and betrayed a Prince of Hell who was opposed to Hell's revolution.
Pragmatic Villainy: Possibly her mayoral run in a nutshell. It's almost certain that her goal is to make the souls of Londoners more appetizing, but to do so she intends to implement social services that would improve their livelihood like Healthcare and Public Spas. There's a reason she is backed by the Dauntless Temperance Campaigner.
Signature Headgear: Almost never seen without her Pillbox hat. One of them; she has spares, one of which you could obtain during certain seasons. It's pretty anachronistic, as the style didn't come until The Roaring '20s, but devils aren't as fixed in time as Londoners are and their fashions do this kind of thing a lot.
As every sophisticated dresser should, Virgina has spares of the accessories that really makes her outfits.
Smug Snake: In Heart's Desire, she is rather smug and self-assured about her supposed lack of desires and obsession that plague the other players, saying you cannot tempt her into joining the Marvellous. Once you have contrived a reason for her to do so by making her think (correctly or otherwise) that you have released a Prince of Hell, Virginia is clearly fearful for her own safety and joins the Marvellous immediately, exactly as you intended. Additionally, for all her confidence and skills, she would be the first to be removed from the game, albeit by losing to someone who was very likely the best player at the time.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Devil eyes are usually a bright, blazing orange, but hers are a little more golden, if still ablaze. And she is a devil; such eyes aren't unusual for them.

The Infernal Sommelier

The devils', and London's go-to man whenever it comes to infernal liquors, and general Hell-related things like high-quality souls and Brass Rings.

Ambiguously Human: The man's said to be older than the Fourth City, and both his knowledge of the devils' terribly poisonous liquors and his descriptions of souls like one'd describe wine lend themselves to doubt if he's really completely human.
Sommelier Speak: But of course. Made a bit more unnerving considering these are souls he's usually talking about, bringing up a slow slide into utter depression like it was a subtle taste of strawberry in a regular wine.

The Affectionate Devil

Affably Evil: He's very polite and charming. And he's a devil, so the evil is guaranteed. The main hint the affability is genuine is that he handles the revelation your Soul is Stained by the search for the Name much better than any other, excusing himself as politely as he can and making his way out without a fuss when by all (devilish) rights he should vomit and run away.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Played with in the Freelance Smuggling cards. If you tell the Affectionate Devil about the Once-Dashing Smuggler trying to pursue a romance with you, he politely assures you that he'll make sure the Smuggler stops his advances immediately.
Fashion-Victim Villain: In-Universe example. It's revealed that, while he's stylish, he has a terrible taste when it comes to mixing patterns and colors.
Hellish Pupils: Slitted pupils, like all devils, which are in fiery orange eyes like molten metal.

The Quiet Deviless

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deviless.png

Affably Evil: She is shy, quiet, genuinely adores her little bat and loves poetry, but raise your Intimate with Devils to 13 and she'll reveal herself to be just another soul-greedy devil.
Beware the Quiet Ones: As soft-spoken and shy as she is if you refuse to let her talk about selling your soul, she leaves deep claw marks on your hand as a parting message.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She has a pet bat, and she genuinely adores and dotes on it. It's a marked break from the usual Devilish sociopathy, from which even pets aren't usually safe.
Get Out!: If you try selling her a stained soul. And she means permanently — the quality that tracks this story will be set back to 0, and you can't restart it normally with a stained soul.
Hellish Pupils: Her eyes seem brass-coloured, and, unusually, she has irises as well. All with the usual slit pupils devils have, of course.
The Quiet One: It's in her name. And it marks her apart from most devils, who are overwhelmingly, suspiciously friendly to mortals.
Stress Vomit: If your soul is stained and you try to sell it to her, "She inhales deeply... and lurches away from you, retching."

Mr Slowcake

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/electionslowcake.png

Slowcake's "face" in 1896.

Author of Slowcake's Exceptionals, the guide to notable people of London. He is seldom seen in London - preferring to remain in his mansion in Hell — and does most of his business through his nameless Amanuensis. He ran as a candidate in the 1896 mayoral election.

Invented Individual: Slowcake himself, by the Brass Embassy. The why of it is still a mystery.

The One-Time Prince Of Hell

Once an opponent of Hell's revolution, now cast out of London.

Eldritch Abomination: Not remotely humanoid. Insectoid, actually.
The Evil Prince: Of course, in Hell, everything is relative. But he's definitely a prince, proper Hellish royalty, and by standards of most people (even Londoners) he's evil to the core.
Nature Spirit: The land itself reveres it.
Every wiry blade of Corpsecage grass lies flat in reverence. The zee-waves prance like horses on parade.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Imprisoned on Corpsecage Island. There it lies, waiting for a chance to be free... and hiding, in the meantime, from the devils that would hunt it down.

The Drummer-in-the-Depths

A former Infernal King, before Revolution came to Hell. Now, his grave lies in Burrow-Infra-Mump, along the Hinterlands and between London and Hell.

Always a Bigger Fish: A former Monarch of Hell is squashed like a bug by the Red-Handed Queen, if you choose to call upon her to get rid of him.
Eldritch Abomination: Like most aristocrats of Old Hell, the Drummer is one bizarre entity indeed. Its form is bizarre and ambiguous, staying on the other side of a mirror you never enter yet able to work his drums into reality still, and despite being dead it can still operate in the world. Older devils are hard to comprehend, even if you know what devils usually are.
Not Quite Dead: Burrow-infra-Mump is where his grave is. Like the other Monarchs of Hell however, dying is difficult business for a being so old. He can still impose his will and communicate with others in his current state.
Odd Friendship: Strangely, if they are both members of the board of director, the Drummer appears rather fond of the Delightful Reverend.
Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: When asked to play the drum for the Drummer, the player may elect to hand the task over to the Submerged Rector instead, who proceeds to wail on the drum with the kind of enthusiasm that nearly got him kicked out of Bell-ringing duty at his previous parish. The Drummer does not appear well after this, and you last see him backed against the wall, twitching and regretting everything.
The Unintelligible: The Drummer does not speak English. However, in his presence, the player character can understand him all the same. On the other hand, as a board member, the Drummer is too far from the boardroom and communicates entirely by noises other than speech, usually involving drum.

The Docks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sailors.png

Lightermen, smugglers, zailors – rough folk, and often overlooked. But they're fierce and proud and they know the river's secrets.

London remains a maritime power and maintains naval and trade routes through the Southern Archipelago and between its colonies across the Unterzee. From the Admiralty to the dock-hands, zailing means power in Fallen London. Many prominent figures associated with the Docks appear more prominently in Sunless Sea.

Phantasy Spelling: After a Dutch explorer discovered the Tomb-Colonies, Fallen London popularly associates life at "zee" with gratuitous Zs.
Superstitious Sailors: The zailors are known for being incredibly superstitious. Their most sacred belief is to never kill a zee-bat, one zailor even weeps if you decide to cook one.

The Ravenous Lifeberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lifeberg.png

Many a salt-encrusted zailor still harbours nightmares of being hunted across the zee by homicidal geography.

Lifebergs are bad news all by themselves, being utterly huge and utterly hostile masses of ice and ruins that eagerly hunt down whatever vessels come nearby. The Ravenous Lifeberg, however, is much bigger, and much angrier, enough that every time another dons the mantle it heads straight for London instead, intent on destroying it. Will you join the hunt?

Kaiju: Regular Lifebergs could almost count by themselves, being bigger than a ship. The Ravenous Lifeberg is even bigger than that to the point of rivaling actual landmasses. And like a proper Kaiju, it's headed straight for the biggest, most modern city it can attack.
Marathon Boss: A different sort of boss, in that each player needs to undertake a trip and a mission to damage it, and it has plenty of health. The third lifeberg to strike took almost four days to die under the siege of thousands of players.
Time-Limit Boss: The more time passes, the closer the Ravenous Lifeberg gets to London. So far, none have made it there, but what will happen remains to be seen if one ever does.
Unstoppable Rage: Monster-Hunters remark that Lifebergs don't kill for food (though they do eat their kills), but rather because they're unfathomably pissed off and vengeful about something. At least one of them has been directly acknowledged as avenging its predecessor.

Lady Black

A mysterious entity that dwells in the deepest parts of the Unterzee, and will attempt to claim those who spend too long below the surface.

Dream Weaver: Lady Black appears in the Doomed Diver's dreams to compel them to seek out Old Fritz again.
I Gave My Word: Silas made a deal with Lady Black for reunifying him with his sibling (the Doomed Diver) in exchange for their service in killing Old Fritz. When the Doomed Diver brings you along, she says that whatever her own heart might desire, she will not take you along since you weren't part of the deal and she cannot extend an offer already made.

The Tomb-Colonies

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bandagedman.png

The dead, the near-dead, the forgotten. Perhaps we will all end up that way.

Whatever vital force animates much of the Neath ensures that even death is not always permanent... but that doesn't mean that people are never sick or injured, and not every ailment can heal on its own. Those whose bodies are too badly damaged to be seen in polite society usually retire to the Tomb-Colonies — overzee settlements with the facilities to attend to the needs of the living dead. Many Tomb-Colonists are retired soldiers, hunters, and other martial veterans, and keep up these habits until they're too ragged to move. Time in the Colonies is accordingly either very dangerous or very dull.

Bandage Mummy: Their usual look, to the point their culture starts to revolve around them, including writing valuable secrets into them, and expensive silks being even more valuable to them.
Dissonant Serenity: Both parties in a tomb colonist duel are usually grinning with excitement.
Fearless Undead: Once you're damaged enough to become a Tomb-Colonist, there's not a whole lot more life can throw at you, and Tomb-Colonists generally find the horrors of the Neath to be rather boring once that line is crossed. Killing one another (honorably, of course) is even a beloved pastime in the colonies, and the reason many are master duelists.
Nothing Personal: Londoners usually hate being killed because it inches them closer towards their inevitable retirement in the Tomb Colonies. But tomb colonists are already there, so they take the damage they suffer from their opponents in stride.

Feducci

An exiled prince of the Tomb-Colonies — or so they say — Feducci runs the Black Ribbon Society, a ring of duellists who fight to the final death (rather than the one you just get back up from, which is more common in the Neath). Though seemingly straightforward in his motives, there are plenty of clues that he's not what he seems to be. But one thing is certainly known: he was elected the Mayor of Fallen London in 1895, after defeating the Dauntless Temperance Campaigner and the Implacable Detective with less than "fair game, fair play".

Bandaged Face: As is usual of Tomb-Colonists, though some of his storylets have little hints they might not be disguising the scars of a colonist...
Blood Knight: Love combat. "Convincing" him into voting with you as a member of the board of directors is a Dangerous check rather than a Persuasive check.
Duel to the Death: And more than that — duel until one of you is Deader than Dead. It's both harder and easier than it sounds.
Everyone Has Standards: He's often amoral and bloodthirsty, not to mention his highly dubious term as Mayor. However, The Marriage of Feducci reveals that he dislikes wars of conquest and is disgusted by the London nobility’s sense of entitlement towards foreign resources. Just mentioning these concerns can make him end the engagement.
Inexplicably Awesome: To individuals not knowledgeable enough about the Neath's mysteries, the narrative asks — Where did he come from? Why is he exiled here? What's actually under the bandages? Where does he keep finding all these relics, these mysteries? Why is it that he only feels alive in duels to the death? Why does he come back from being sliced into pieces? Putting the many pieces together on him reveals this Awesome isn't quite that Inexplicable: He's a Presbyterate agent, and has lived near the Mountain of Light for decades, which makes him horrendously immortal. The rest is him simply using some of the time and experience that allows one to become an Elder Country veteran and extremely dangerous fighter, which leads to pastimes like the Black Ribbon.
Infinity +1 Sword: A replica of his weapon is currently tied with the Waxwail Knife for the most Dangerous weapon in the game, at a massive +20 bonus. Considering the real thing can One-Hit Kill even the strongest player characters, this makes sense.
Jousting Lance: He uses one and judging by the narrator's reaction, that's quite an esoteric choice nowadays.
Kick the Dog:
- The Regretful Soldier recognises him from the Campaign of '68: he steered the brass trireme that prisoners of war were forced to row. It was a low-ranking position—even the Devils aren't sure why Feducci requested it.
- If you have him as a board member in the Railway and decide to deal with the Tracklayer strike with violence, he is both entirely in agreement and eager to be at the head of the actual strikebreaking. This and other interactions in the board shows he has some deep disdain for the lower classes that he prefers to solve, like anything else, with gratuitous violence.
One-Hit Kill: Losing to him will put you on the slow boat even if you had no wounds to start with ^*. Obviously not as bad as the Permadeath that losing Black Ribboners usually receive, but still quite a hefty penalty.
Pet the Dog: If given certain confessions during Hallowmas 1895. He sent the Veteran Privy Councillor's illegitimate child to Sinning Jenny's Finishing School and sympathised with the Jovial Contrarian's troubled childhood; he also kept the Bishop of St Fiacre's' identity a secret, despite capturing Snuffers in the past.
Spirited Competitor: He'll only fight when both you and he decide you're good and ready, but he won't hold back when you are. And judging by the number of black ribbons he's collected from members of the ring who challenged him, he's never held back for anyone else, either.
Staying Alive: It's hard to die in the Neath, but Feducci recovers from injuries that should have killed anyone.

Snake, Red Bird and Cat

Three priest-kings who rule a distant and obscure Tomb-Colony they call "Xibalba". Just how old and powerful they are, no-one knows for sure (the accepted answer to both is "extremely"), but few of the living who travel there ever return.

Body Surf: Reportedly why they're still around even after all these years; the bodies decay and die, but by now they're entities on both sides of the mirror, and they can quickly snatch up another's form.
Cannibalism Superpower: There are a number of hints that their power is derived from the ritual during which they ate one of the Masters... which is why it's called Mr Eaten now.
Death World: "Xibalba" was what the Mayans called the underworld/afterlife, and in their beliefs, it was by no means a fun place (rivers of scorpions were just the start of your problems if you ventured there). The descriptions offered by those who've been to the Tomb-Colony and returned suggest that it's much like its namesake.
Fair-Play Villain: While few ever return, those that do say that the Three allow them to play games to try to get out and that the Three keep their words when they've won.
Fluffy the Terrible: Their names make them sound pretty harmless. In reality, they're frightening and tyrannical.
God-Eating: There's a reason they're also referred to as "The God Eaters".
High-Class Cannibal: They were the three rulers of an ancient mesoamerican city - king, priest, and general. They used their power to seek out any meat, the more exotic the better. Eventually they grew a taste for eating their prey alive. One might suspect they consumed Mr Eaten to gain his power, but given their personalities it seems more likely that they simply asked the Masters for exotic meats from outer-space and any alien flesh would have sufficed for the deal. Instead, Mr Veils served them Mr Candles.
Power Trio: Their symbolism and roles tie into the three major factions of power in mesoamerican society - the Mottled Man represents the Warrior Caste, the Red Bird the sacrificial priesthood, and the Serpent-Handed the royalty.
Sapient Eat Sapient: They ate Mr Eaten but it's definitely implied they ate other humans before him as well.

The Mercies

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mercy_10.png

Lettice

Grace and Lettice, two twin sister Tomb-Colonists known for their wild, daredevil adventures. Lettice is the more sociable of the two, with a number of suitors around the city. Grace sponsors up-and-coming duellists in The Game of Knife-and-Candle.

Bandaged Face: As standard for Tomb-Colonists. Lettice leaves eyes and lips visible, but Grace is so completely covered it's a wonder she can even see anything.
Drives Like Crazy: Probably one's first meeting with them will be a certain option to swap some really good wine for a ride in their hansom cab, which is always a dice-roll. Either they'll race around like a pair of lunatics, which hurls you out of the cab, or they'll race around like a pair of lunatics and then hurl you out of the cab "for your own safety."
The Lad-ette: They smoke like chimneys, they drink wine by the bottle, they swear in mixed company, they drive like maniacs, and if you invite them over for dinner, it's not unlikely they'll end up firing a gun into your ceiling before the evening's over.
Mad Bomber: Lettice can be employed at your lab, with some results once you have explosives. She enjoys them way, way too much, and her expertise and advice on armaments, chemistry and other sciences comes with a ton of collateral damage.
You'll be picking shards of metal out of the back wall for a week. But the results were certainly informative.
Mad Scientist: Lettice has shades of this if you hire her as a lab assistant, with the flavour text showing her to be a destruction enthusiast, and more than a little odd. Though the game tends to imply that it's less that she's entirely mad, and more that she's bored, and old enough to have stopped giving a rat's arse centuries ago.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Or Omnidisciplanary Assisstant, at least, but Lettice can provide a good amount of reserach for any project your Lab undertakes, whether it's building complex machinery, analysing objects and substances, studying animals, what have you.
Smoking Is Cool: They both smoke constantly using cigarette holders. Lettice claims it 'preserves' them. Whatever's in there is apparently a bit much for player characters, though.

The Once-Dashing Smuggler

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_tombsmuggler.png

Bandaged Face: Puts on the image of a regular Tomb-Colonist, albeit a well-dressed one.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He's well-dressed in a purple suit.
Something about a Rose: The time you spend with him is marked by a number of Myrrh-Scented Roses. Usually, you lose one rose per storylet.
Stalker with a Crush: While he does leave you alone if you reject him, many of his romantic overtures have more than a slightly creepy undertone to them.
Supreme Chef: After a successful raid of the Empress' larder, he demonstrates he's an amazing chef by cooking a banquet with the stolen goods.

Urchins

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/urchincatapult.png

They're an eery lot, the gangs of kids who rule the roofs of London. They hear things up there, things the wind forgot.

Fallen London has no shortage of orphans, and many of them end up forming tight-knit communities with their fellows. Although uniformly children, years of practice and exposure to London's underworld have made the Urchins expert pickpockets and spies.

Older Than They Look: At least some of the children are implied to be ageless. A few of them might be older than London itself.

The Fisher-Kings

... they live a life filled with joy and possess an insight that few do. If any other urchins were to speak with the Thunder, it would be a Fisher-King.

One of the more superstitious and eccentric child-gangs in the city, but also one of the friendliest. They live on the rooftops, and believe it to be bad luck to set foot on the ground — they steal things from street-level using long fishing-lines.

The Gadfly: They are fond of pranks and mischief.
Roof Hopping: Their exclusive means of getting about. This being Fallen London, there are rough bridges set up across many of the gaps too wide to hop unassisted.
Wound That Will Not Heal: To be a true Fisher-King, an urchin must have one of these, like the Fisher-King of Arthurian Legend.

The Knotted Sock

... they live on their wits. They're focused, and never brute force their way through. They fear unfettered force - more than a few have had nasty run ins with Clay Men.

A gang of urchins who specialize in two things: stealing cloth, and learning occult words of power from secret places in the Neath. Up-and-coming rivals of the Regiment.

Collector of the Strange: While common in the Neath, the Urchins — the Knotted Socks in particular — have a thing for Wild Word items. These include screams from the beginning of time to the sound that occurs when silence itself is removed. They very rarely explain why they have/need them other than "they're ours" or some incredibly vague references to "listening to the wind". If you want to trade up for these items, you need to get on their good side for more than a few particular trades.
Creepy Child: Urchins are one of the strangest and most mysterious groups in Fallen London. That is a hell of an achievement.
Oracular Urchin: They read mysterious truths in the snow that settles on rooftops and the echoes that can be heard in the void.
The Smart Guy: Among the Urchin gangs, they are noted to be clever and crafty.
Sock It to Them: They use half-bricks in socks as their weapons. This may or may not be the origin of the gang's name. Nothing's simple with Urchins.

The Regiment

... they approach problems directly and don't suffer for nonsense. They're a loyal bunch, and they always stick to their code: never let anyone - even urchins in other gangs - get caught.

The most powerful of the urchin-gangs, in no small part, because they discovered and took control of an old watch-tower by the river that still has a working cannon.

Child Soldiers: They're just kids with some antique artillery, but Mr Fires will happily recruit them into London's defence force if they can be of any use.
True Companions: Extremely loyal to each other. Their most important rule is to never leave each other to hang, and they stick to it closely to the point they stretch it to rival gangs of urchins.

The Noughts & The Crosses

They're the most versatile gang, and can turn their hand to anything in the search for information. If you want gossip - or something more significant, the Noughts and Crosses know it.

Two child-gangs who have been fighting a brutal territory war for decades.

Kids Are Cruel: Their gang wars apparently get really vicious.
Recruited from the Gutter: Not exclusively, but the Foreign Office is said to try to recruit from the Noughts & the Crosses as soon as they "age out". Makes sense, considering these urchins tend to have a talent for information gathering.
Shout-Out: Their contested territories are the city blocks divided by four intersecting streets.

Rubbery Men

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_rubberyman.png

Do you recall how they came to that place?

Unusual creatures, with faces like octopodes or squid, who talk in a kind of burbling sound. They consume small fish and enjoy human music, though they perform themselves on occasion as well. Sometimes seen in Fallen London, always very respectably dressed, and trading a kind of sticky amber-like substance. They're obvious outsiders in the city, and, lacking the Devils' charm and the Clay Men's brawn, they're easy targets for derision, harassment, and outright violence. Their own territory is a place called Flute Street, deep in the caves below London.

Artistic License – Biology: According to one faction conflict storylet, some genius has decided to dub them Homo cephalopoda, despite them very obviously being in no way hominids, or, indeed, mammals.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: As one learns more about them, it's discovered one of their biggest ideals in life is the capacity to change one's self in manners both metaphorical and literal, in both the subtle self-improvements and modifications that border on Shapeshifting. The big idea is to literally change yourself into something that can face the next challenge, and whatever alterations remain after that is simple evolution.
Characterization Marches On: Text in Helicon House indicates that they have become more aware of arts and culture and their priorities have shifted since their earlier appearances in the game.
Cthulhumanoid: Faces like squid! They have to be taught how to drink tea without getting it everywhere and horses panic at the sight of them. They dress very nicely, but it hasn't really helped gain any popularity among Londoners (outside the fanbase, anyway. The fanbase adores them).
Dreadful Musician: They appear to be a very musical people. However, their music is mostly hideous cacophony, to ordinary people, that is. Deeper examination shows that there are deeper meanings to the chaos and imperfection.
It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable.
Dreaming Of Things Gone By: Their dreams are of Axile. In sleep, they see the memories of their ancestors.
Epic Fail: During the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, one can see the Rubbery Men masked as... the Rubbery Men.
Fantastic Racism: One of the worst victims of this in London. The player used to be able to take advantage of this to murder them for money with impunity. This appears to have lessened after the Tentacled Entrepreneur ran for mayor however.
Foil: To the Devils. Possibly. Both came from somewhere alien to us. Devils from Parabola. Rubbery Men from a planet called Axile. Both use something from humans as a resource. Devils collect souls. Rubbery Men collect Vital Essences through Ambers. Both use these resources to subvert the laws of reality. Devils by manufacturing their own laws, thereby altering their environment. Rubbery Men by climbing the great chain through red science, thereby altering themselves. Neither of them find each other useful. If you acquire a Peculiar Personal Enhancement from the Rubbery Men, Devils have no use for your soul. Likewise, you find their Vital Essences venomous and useless for the Rubbery Men's purposes. Both have (or, in the Devils' case, used to) rulers. The Devils rebelled against their princes. The Rubbery Men seemingly remain loyal of the Flukes.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Well... that was the idea. They were shaped to be humanoid to help them interact with humans, but it's manifestly obvious that the shaper doesn't know much about humans. However, the Tentacled Entrepreneur claims that while this was the original intention, their priorities have since changed.
The Unintelligible: They can understand English just fine, but they're incapable of speaking it. Nobody really understands their language, either. Communication is only possible in mime, gesture, and...fluids of some description on the side of the Rubbery Men.

The Tentacled Entrepreneur

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tentacledentrepreneur.png

Factories that rival those of Mr Fires and wealth that eclipses that of His Amused Lordship, the Tentacled Entrepreneur is the rare Rubbery Man that has achieved wealth and success in London, a city that often mistreats and harms his kind. He ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 1898 Mayoral Election under the slogan "OTHATHAROOTH".

Fiction 500: He is absurdly rich, apparently above even most of the nobility and barons of industry of London. He can smooth over any and all amounts of prejudice, even the murderous sort, just by laying down enough cash. It appears he's done so by staffing all his factories with Rubbery Men, and since the Flukes can just make those and back the factory itself, thus providing basically free labor, it'd make sense.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Due to discrimination against Rubbery Men, they are not under the protection of law enforcement, and you can exploit this to callously murder them for profit on their faction card. However, ever since the 1898 election, the player can no longer murder Rubbery Men with impunity as many of them are now under the protection of the Special Constables. Investigation into his election activities reveal that the Tentacled Entrepreneur has bribed Mr Fires specifically for this, and it has paid off in demonstrable gameplay terms.
Honest Corporate Executive: Curiously enough. Even trying to gather dirt on him during a Flash Lay shows part of why it's backing art so much is to quell Mr Fires, who would be very glad to have him in a more familiar arrangement but backs off so long as he stays bribed with amber art.
Nonstandard Character Design: More octopoid than squidlike, compared to other Rubbery Men. Which makes sense, considering which of the two is the more intelligent in nature. Perhaps literal character design, too, considering the Rubberies' easily-edited nature.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Probably more "screw social conventions", but his massive wealth is probably the reason why the Tentacled Entrepreneur is able to find his way into high places despite rampant prejudices against Rubbery Men.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: ...slightly. His wanting to protect the Rubbery Men is understandable, but trying to have Special Constables known for Police Brutality do it seems like a recipe for disaster.

Martin McIntosh

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mcintosh.png

The first Rubbery Man known to have returned from the Slow Boat.

Back from the Dead: In the Neath, human corpses might not reliably come back (or even reliably stay in one place), but non-human corpses reliably don't—until a Rubbery corpse suddenly twitches to life. The reason is because when McIntosh died he was grappling a human, so both ended up in the Rubbery version of the Slow Boat. The Rubbery version of the Boatman was alerted that a human snuck into the wrong boat, and tried to throw the human overboard, but accidentally threw McIntosh out instead, which allowed him to return to life.
Odd Name Out: The Implacable Detective remarks that Martin McIntosh is an unusual name for a Rubbery Man.

The Flukes

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_fluke.png

Odd, spiky, sea-urchin-like creatures, which seem to be related to the Rubbery Men, and to serve as their... leaders? Advisers? Generals? Priests? Their precise nature is not clear... and zailors speak of even stranger varieties, like the Fiddler's Fluke and the enormous, ancient and dreaded Lorn-Flukes.

Bad Boss: They created the Rubbery Men to serve their purpose. Despite the Rubbery Men's apparent loyalty often at great cost to their own persons, the Flukes seem ungrateful or incapable of understanding the difficulty their servants face. When a number of Rubbery Men escape to form their own society, the Flukes send a beast in an effort to destroy it.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Even the Rubbery Men have trouble getting ideas across. For instance, the flukes are confused about why the Rubbery Men aren't doing well at whatever it is they're trying to do in London, unaware how much danger they face from xenophobic humans. The concept just doesn't seem understandable to them in any way.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Flukes came from a planet called Axile. They came to London with the Bazaar after making a deal through Mr Eaten, likely due to how inhospitable their planet was.
Starfish Aliens: The Flute Street Flukes are friendly ones! Or at least non-malicious, so far as anyone can tell. They come from a different planet, they're definitely alien, and have trouble surviving in conditions that humans find comfortable.
Starfish Language: Even weirder than the Rubbery Men. They communicate using bioluminescence and controlled ink-squirts.
You Can't Go Home Again: Axile, their home planet, is lost. Many of them will do anything to find their way home. Others wish to indulge in dreams and memories of their home however they can.

The Starved Men

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starvedman1.png

SO ARE WEE SHAPEDE

Once they may have been entirely normal humans, but after taking the Shapeling lessons of the Rubberies and the Flukes deep, deep to their heart, Starved Men have become something else entirely. Dwelling on the roof, shaping together habitats from the very stalactites, they used to stay away from London until a doctrinal conflict drew them to the city with catastrophic results.

Abhorrent Admirer: What little communication we get from Rubbery Men on the matter hints that they and the Flukes see the Starved as overly enthusiastic imitators who aren't really doing it right.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: They don't have a goal. Change is the goal, and asking what they even believe is compared to asking where the tide comes to an end. Their attack on London was seen by both factions as something to aid an incoming change through, and they simply sought different methods, both of them horribly disruptive to London and its citizens. But after the war, they're now trying to understand at least. The Starved Lithologist even expresses fascination and bafflement alike over the idea of the city changing back to the way it was before the event, as if the concept of "recovery" is lost on them.
Body Horror: Often. Their bodies are entirely disposable, as they can mold them on the fly and they get terribly creative with what they give themselves. And if you get in their way, they can easily reshape you in ways that'll ensure you won't trouble them.
Fights Like a Normal: Occasionally; it's been reported that when Starved Men go to war against one another, they often use guns and dynamite to blast each other apart like any Londoner who can't grow entire biological arsenals on a whim would.
Human Subspecies: They are technically still human (because there was no defined point in which they stopped being so), but they have molded themselves so far from it at times in ways both physical and mental that you cannot help but wonder. If the Theseus' Ship Paradox can be applied to Homo sapiens, they would be a good case study.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Shapeling Arts can get fairly Lovecraftian as is, but the level of mastery the Starved bring to it pushes it well over the border. They can turn your bones to liquid, your skin to wood, give themselves new organs on the fly and even turn stone to meat with a sweep of their amber-soaked hands.
Meat Moss: They can spread it around and even turn inorganic materials into flesh and bone when they have the Amber for it.
Posthuman Nudism: They have long since morphed their bodies beyond any human limitation and forgo clothing in favor of simply reshaping their bodies to meet their needs. This ends up being a sticking point once they attempt to establish ongoing contact with London and one of the potential gifts for their embassy is fine fabrics, meant as a pointed request to put on some pants.
If they wish to understand London, they should understand its fashion. Or at least put on some trousers.
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: The closest thing to a recommendation even experienced Monster-Hunters can offer. Their brains usually don't wander too far from their heads, destroying them is just as lethal as usual, and they don't ever seem to give themselves two.
Silent Antagonist: The Starved Lithologist and Saint Stalactite are the only ones of them that speak, and they're no longer antagonistic by the time they do. The others either adopt languages only other Starved understand or simply don't bother.
Super Drowning Skills: It only comes up once during the war, but their adaptations are for roof and cavern and they cannot swim worth a damn. The one time they try as one of their stalactites is sinking, they try to adapt to the water but the zee just washes the Amber off and they cannot achieve anything before the Fathomking presumably takes them.
Super-Toughness: Putting a gunshot through their vitals is easier said than done when not only can they armor themselves and grow bigger, but those vitals are rarely where they should be and can be shoved around at will. If they see you coming their organs can even dodge by themselves.

The Elder Continent

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mountainglow.png

Travellers tell of strange tribes and incomprehensible religions, carnivorous flora, pygmy elephants and giant mice. But no-one believes travellers' tales, do they

The Elder Continent is a vast landmass to the south of the Unterzee; it is the location of the Garden and the Mountain of Light, and it may be older than the Bazaar.

Darkest Africa: Let's see: the Elder Continent, a mysterious, verdant place located to the south of London, inhabited by black people, full of jewels and fruits, massive Scowling Flint Idols and other weird and wonderful flora and fauna which probably want to kill you. It fits the bill all right.
Endless Daytime: The whole Continent is constantly bathed in the light of the Mountain.
Shrouded in Myth: The Elder Continent is a big mysterious place, and the Presbyterate generally doesn’t let foreigners get far enough inland to get a good look at the place. The Mithridate Office is responsible for magnifying this; their job is to create myths and lies good enough that outsiders can't tell what's actually true.
Talking Animal: Tigers are a powerful and influential faction here, and the species has no trouble speaking with humans.

The Presbyterate

The area ruled by the seventy-two kingdoms of the Presbyterate, led by the allegedly-immortal Presbyter.

The Ageless: Implied. In practice, the College of Mortality, with the purpose of preventing overpopulation, forbids anyone from living a millennium. Except themselves.
Ambiguously Brown: People from the Presbyterate tend to be (very dark) black, but the Elder Continent's lack of a clear real-life counterpart culture leaves the question of race open.
Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: It's difficult to permanently die in the Elder Continent, even more so than in London. However, the only inviolable law on the Elder Continent is, "No man shall live past a thousand"; once you reach 999 years and 364 days, either you accept a permanent execution or your entire family pays for it. (The one person stated to have broken that law had all of his descendants condemned to be killed when they turn 100.)
Genius Loci: Under the direct light of the Mountain of Light, everything is alive, which is why you get apples growing in rocks and bones growing like trees; there's just a whole load of vitality in the air seeping into everything, which makes things all messed up.
Legacy Immortality: The Presbyter (also called the Prester) supposedly never dies; it is either an open secret or common knowledge (unclear which) that while the name never dies, the man holding the position changes every thousand years. However, the former Presters, while they are ritually considered nameless, do get to live forever for real; they make up the College of Mortality, which is also the electorate for the Prester's successor. And they're on the slopes of the Mountain itself, guarding the only path into The Garden, so they get the full Death Is a Slap on the Wrist treatment. A good racket if you can get it.

Snuffers

One of the less savoury species from the Elder Continent, snuffers are a type of disturbing creature that has settled in possibly every major community in the Neath. Snuffers can disguise themselves as any human, ripping off their faces to use for their own goals.

Bizarre Alien Biology: Their internal anatomy is more or less consistent with any other creature in terms of what is there, but not where since they can shift their organs around at their leisure. Sunless Sea can have a snuffer being given away during a medical check because they had a lung in the wrong place entirely.
Face Stealer: They physically tear peoples' faces off (with naturally fatal results) and wear them like masks, which fit perfectly even if the creature's true face resembles an insect's more than a human's.
Humanoid Abomination: Snuffers are horrific creatures that disguise themselves as men by wearing sewn-together human faces.
Interspecies Romance: You might marry one of these face-stealing creatures if you desire during the Fate-locked part of the Foreign Office story.
Latex Perfection: These creatures can perfectly disguise themselves with actual human skin torn from actual faces. Even the ones that wear mangled faces just look like they're Covered in Scars rather than being given away.
Lightning Bruiser: Snuffers are surprisingly fast and strong for their size, and a single Snuffer can easily overtake their opponent in a one-on-one fight, even if caught off guard. Thankfully, however, they're about as frail as humans are, so actually landing a stab between their ribs is usually just as fatal. More so, even, since they don't return.
Nightmare Face: In their true form, the face of a Snuffer◊ looks like a cross between a shotgun blast victim's and a demonic cicada's.

Nicator

Most historical research is limited by the availability of sources. When it comes to Nicator's biography, however, one is confronted with limited time with which to examine the vast surfeit of sources available to a Historian.

Either an ancient king of the Presbyterate who might have been the one that conquered the entire continent and turned it into the thriving federation of kingdoms it is now... or a complete invention the Mithridate Office pulled out of their collective backsides to snarl even their very history into a mess. With the Presbyterate, it's hard to know, but he either participated or was inserted into many historical events.

Founder of the Kingdom: Going by the tales, he's the one who led the conquest of the Presbyterate and its myriad kingdoms, taming the Elder Continent before anyone else. Supposedly, of course.
Invented Individual: Possibly. It's very hard to know; relics related to him are explicitly stated to be either evidence he existed, or damning evidence they made him up. It's even harder to tell with Nicator than with others; Mithridate Office agents have been around for enough centuries that some of their forgeries technically are ancient artifacts by the time you find them.
Really 700 Years Old: The stories about him (if they are to be believed) come from all Neathy ages, from the First City era all the way to London's war against Hell, spanning well over two thousand years, and there's speculation that he might still be alive. This isn't too strange for the Presbyterate what with the Mountain Of Light giving everyone immortality, but the Presbyterate usually hunts people down after the first thousand years; this would mean, if the stories really are true, that he's either cooperating entirely with the Presbyterate or he's very good at evading them.
Shrouded in Myth: With the Mithridate Office making sure that shroud stays thick; it's very hard to distinguish fact from fiction when it comes to anything he did, if he even did anything, but he's involved in a lot of stories of adventure, intrigue and even heartbreak.

Unknown/Unaffiliated

The King with a Hundred Hearts

The strange monarch of a strange city — Polythreme, where everything is alive, from the clothes you wear to the coin you spend to the stones you walk on and the water you drink. He is very old and rarely seen. Sometimes referred to as "the Hundreds".

Emergency Transformation: Was once human, but afflicted by 'fits' that almost killed him, until his priest-king lover struck a deal to have them both endure through the centuries. He's not happy about how it turned out.
Fisher King: Overlapping with Fisher Kingdom and Genius Loci. The King is his city, the city's inhabitants are all affected by him (often unconsciously), and the city itself affects whomever ventures there (your clothes will come to life, for instance). Come invited to the center of Polythreme and he will say "Welcome to me."
Gem Heart: Literally. It's broken now, though. A speck of diamond dust is in each Clay Man.
Living Statue: Although the King With A Hundred Hearts is the city of Polythreme, he also embodies a living marble statue of himself which lives in the palace-villa there.
Power Crystal: His replacement heart was a diamond from the Mountain of Light, which gives life and vitality to everything.
Public Domain Character: Possibly. Due to the parallels between his lover and Gilgamesh, it is possible that the King with a Hundred Hearts might be Enkidu. However, he does reveal to a player seeking their Heart's Desire that he was from China originally.
Really 700 Years Old: Like a lot of the rulers of lands across the Zee, since it's where remnants of the previous cities tend to go. He Fell with the First City about 3000-4000 years ago.
Star-Crossed Lovers: The King and the Manager of the Royal Beth. The Manager still loves the King and probably always will, but the King has yet to forgive him for what the Masters did. And yet the King still harbors enough fondness for the Manager that he rallies his armies as soon as he's told London is at risk, and that the Manager would die with the rest.
"I no longer love him. How could I, after what he had done to me? But his love abides, over the sea in London. I am his heart's desire."

The Sisters of Hunter's Keep

Phoebe, Lucy, and Cynthia. Three charming ladies who live on a remote island in the Southern Archipelago known as Hunter's Keep.

Killed Offscreen: They are burned alive after one of their rituals goes horribly wrong in Sunless Sea. Fallen London characters cannot encounter this event. The captain has a chance to rescue Phoebe, but the others don't make it.
Meaningful Name: Cynthia means "moon", Lucy means "light", and Phoebe means "shining". They have some sort of beast in their well which gives off artificial moonlight.

Sophia & Soap

Sophia

Soap

Sophia Kincaid and Mr Soap, Department of Menace Eradication officers 442/A and 467/C; also known as the Monster-Hunting Academic and the Restless Clay Man. A team of monster-hunters who make their first appearance in the tie-in comic "A Punch of Snuff." Sophia is a highly intellectual lady with a dark secret yet to be revealed to the players. Soap is a self-proclaimed Unfinished Man and a frequent guest of Her Majesty (which is to say, often imprisoned in New Newgate). They are saving up the bounties they earn for some purpose yet unknown.

Brains and Brawn: Soap, as a Clay Man, is the Brawn more or less by default. He's sharp enough on his own, but Sophia makes the plans and gives him instructions.
Cultured Badass: He might be Unfinished and a bruiser, but Soap sips his tea with pinkie raised like a proper Englishman.
Golem: Soap, as all Clay Men are. The sheer strength he can bring to the table is key to the team's plots and some of his crimes.
Impostor-Exposing Test: They perform one. Using pie. An esteemed meat pie offered repeatedly and left alone with their suspect while they watch from outside. And when the suspect goes and eats the candle instead, suspicions he's a Snuffer are confirmed.
Meaningful Name: "Soap" is a kind of stone, following the tradition of a lot of Clay Men. "Sophia" is derived from the Ancient Greek word for wisdom.
Monumental Theft: Soap's rap sheet includes a variation: Rotating a Municipal Building.
Promoted to Love Interest: Both of them were added to the list of possible companions for the 2014 Feast of the Exceptional Rose, though you can't actually marry them yet.
The Stoic: Sophia. Her poised non-reaction to Soap removing a Snuffer's mask — which is to say, pulling the skin of man's head off his skull — is pretty memorable.
Wunza Plot: One's a well-spoken intellectual; one's a colossal bruiser. They hunt monsters!

The Regretful Soldier

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reluctantsoldier.png

A veteran of the ill-fated Campaign of '68, when London attempted to invade Hell. Traumatised by his experiences, he now lives in a meagre cottage on the outskirts of the city with his wife, Agnes, and spends most of his time getting drunk, killing rats, and starting fights.

The Alcoholic: There are very few times he can be relied upon not to be drunk.
Bar Brawl: Probably how the player character will first meet him, and he'll be thoroughly inebriated and challenging everyone nearby to match him. It's up to the player whether to talk him down or take him on.
Deal with the Devil: Quite literally, except the deal wasn't with him, it was for him. The captured soldiers were considered souls now owned by Hell, since there was no way the Londoners could force the issue. The only way to get them back was by paying Hell something of equal value. The price was one soul per prisoner. The Regretful Soldier found himself released, returned to London, reunited joyfully with his wife — which was when he discovered she'd been his 'donor'. Agnes gave her soul for his freedom, leaving her a listless Empty Shell. That was twenty years ago, and they're still together, but the love she has for him was such that she's no longer capable of expressing it to him. Or of expressing much at all.
Drowning My Sorrows: The failed invasion of Hell that led to his capture, the Deal with the Devil his wife made to rescue him, and her resulting soullessness is why he's rarely sober anymore.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's one thing to invade Hell. It's another to invade Hell and fail, leaving you and your company stranded there as prisoners-of-war waiting to be ransomed out.

Benjamin Villein

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/villein.png

Also known as the Face-Tailor. An official with the Ministry for Public Decency, who has for several years been pursuing a project of his own — an investigation into the face-stealing methods of the Snuffers of the Elder Continent.

Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His surname is an archaic English word for a feudal rank, similar to a serf — it's also the root of the word "villain", and several similar epithets. His unofficial title, "Face-Tailor", also doesn't sound pleasant.
Stealth Pun: Pages from his book allow you to change your player character's cameo portrait. It's a face-book.

The Bespectacled Visitor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bespectacledvisitor.png

The Khanate's most prominent overseas agent, often seen scheming against London's colonial interests.

The Sleepless: If zailors' gossip is to be believed, he doesn't sleep. This is rare, but not unheard of in London, and you might know someone like that if you've played Sunless Sea; it's usually a mark of someone that's pissed the Fingerkings off so much they will kill them if they ever reach Parabola again.

The Sinister Sprout

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A seemingly sentient flower that sprouts inside your Lodgings once you've fully integrated into the Neath. It's green, which is unusual in Fallen London's sunless landscape. You can either sell it or try to raise it yourself. As it grows, it demands stranger and darker means of care and becomes much more a — well, singular piece of vegetation. It may eventually repay your efforts in unforeseen ways...

Big Damn Heroes: If its level is high enough, it will come to your rescue if you enter the unique failure state for the Light Fingers Ambition.
Fantastic Flora: It does a number of extremely strange things, one of which is producing yellow sap that you can taste. It's somewhat like pineapple, and somewhat like your mind being consumed by the endless depths of the earth.
Grows on Trees: Heads. Why heads? Nobody knows. But definitely heads. They sing.
Man-Eating Plant: Well, small animals. At first, anyway...
Oracular Head: Its species is responsible for all those Counterfeit Heads of John The Baptist (the counterfeit part refers to where they come from, not because they lack mystical attributes).

Cardsharp Monkey

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monkey_6.png

An unexpected player of cards, featured in the Heart's Desire ambition. His real name is Gregory Beechwood, a former winner of the Marvellous.

Batman Gambit: He played Pages marvelously, betting all his coins and losing everything right away to trick Pages into being complacent. Pages, confident from defeating an opponent he has been wary of from the start, unwisely accepts Beechwood's offer for one last game and lost, allowing Beechwood to bypass the need to chip away at Pages' massive stack of coins and defeat him in one fell swoop.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Beechwood got exactly what he wished for after winning the Marvellous. Suffice to say, he regrets it.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At cards at least. He didn't win the Marvellous the first time for nothing, and even then he was kind of a nutter. Demonstrated again when it beat Mr Pages handily, becoming your final opponent. Even with all the training from all five players and possible magical assistance from the Bazaar, Beechwood still proves your match, beating the player until they offer their own chance for a final round.
Despair Event Horizon: He offers the last of his humanity if you defeat him at cards. You don't have to accept, but it's not entirely clear whether that's actually better or worse.
The Gambling Addict: As much as Beechwood hates the Marvellous and what it does to people, he also loves playing the game. You can use this against him in your final match, offering your chance for a final game, which can be only single penny. It doesn't matter if it's useless to him, Beechwood will take it just to play another round. He ends up losing the Marvellous as a result.
Insane Troll Logic: The original Gregory Beechwood was obsessed with a crank-ish theory, born from bizarre attempts to reconcile Darwin's theory of evolution with humanity's theological origin. Somehow, he ended up convinced humanity was but a devolution, a degraded remnant, of the divine perfection God created back in the Garden of Eden: the monkey. He and his thesis were laughed out of the university, and when the time came for him to make his wish, he staked it all on trying to return to what he assumed was the closest to Heaven man had ever been. It's implied reality itself proving he was doubtlessly, completely wrong was detrimental to his mental health.
Noodle Incident: Defeated Virginia off-screen in Hell. You never get to see this, but whatever its experience in Hell was, it was deeply affected. Might have something to do with Beechwood's faith.
Wasteful Wishing: One could argue his first wish, the one that got him into this, was less twisted and more fundamentally flawed, perhaps outright stupid. He was out to prove a theory, that monkeys were humanity as intended by God in the original Garden and current humanity is a devolution, and wanted to return to such divine primordiality; he was both refuted by reality itself and stuck with the consequences.

Drownies

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/drownie_bearded.png

As mentioned before, death in the Neath is not usually permanent, but it can leave lasting scars. In the case of certain drowned individuals, that scar comes in the form of looking perpetually waterlogged, a belief that in spite of all evidence to the contrary that they are well and truly deceased and a morose disposition because of it, and the conviction that they must repeat the drowning with everyone else they meet. They are not good neighbors, even if they are good singers.

Always Chaotic Evil: All of two Drownies you meet are in any way peaceful, and only one of those is outright friendly. All the others immediately attempt to sing (or drag) you into the waves.
Cannibalism Superpower: Of a sort. Essentially, the key to turning into a Drownie when drowning is to have eaten Mutton Island's original rubbery lumps. Which are actually made from Lorn-Flukes which willingly donate bits of themselves.
Magic Music: Something about becoming a Drownie gives them a terribly hypnotic singing voice. They unsurprisingly use it in their attempts to make people join them. Monstrous scholars are aware that Drownie songs have both movements and countermovements, though, and every song a countersong, so with some know-how and good vocal chords you can reverse the effect, much to their annoyance.

The Creditor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tlu_creditor.png

A mysterious entity of which very little is known. But who or what it is isn't important. What is important, and what has the Masters and all the Bazaar's agents in a panic, is what it's owed. And the closer the Great Hellbound Railway comes to Hell, the closer this debt is to be finally called.

Berserk Button: Betrayals and dishonesty. It can honestly forgive and understand your circumstances, but as long as you’re willingly upfront about it. This is due to its own betrayal by the Sun ages ago.
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: More like indebted Cthulhu, and the metaphorical cultists are doing everything they can to keep him placated until they can pay.
Genius Loci: Among all the other things that the Neath holds, there’s also a sentient patch of land that the Bazaar owns a loan to. Later revelations in the Silver City storyline states that it’s basically ALL of the Neath.
Lunacy: The Creditor is what remains of the Moon after it split off from the Earth, due to a deal from the Sun that lead it to believe it would be uplifted to a Judgement. Unfortunately for it, the Sun lied, and both the Creditor and the Moon are pissed about their betrayal, with the Moon retaliating by changing the light that reflects off it to showcase alternate futures.
Outside-Context Problem: Shows up about halfway through the Railway plotline, having barely been mentioned before.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Turns out to be one. It did the Bazaar a great, if ambiguous, service in the long distant past, and is simply looking for the payment it is owed. When the Bazaar mints of a currency for this purpose it is quite satisfied.
That's No Moon: Well, technically it is but this actually refers to the Neath in general, the Neath itself is the inside of the Creditor's head, which it rented out to the Bazaar in return for the promise of a massive payout.

The Youthful Naturalist

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/naturalistyouthful.png

An excitable, erudite young man and ex-member of the Dilmun Club who's interested in the Neath's unique and bizarre fauna, and intends to reach a different sort of immortality than the one the Club members would like.

Big Eater: His meals with you in your cabin are pretty much always sizeable feasts. He's trying to stave off the emaciation that comes with being the Boatman's replacement; he'll get outright skeletal pretty fast otherwise.
Enemies with Death: Well, one reaper at least. The Fathomking and his Court apparently hate him so much that if your vessel sinks with him aboard, they refuse to take him with such vehemence they send it back up with crew and repairs. He himself really doesn't want to see the Boatman, either, because he knows he won't return. The Boatman wants a holiday, and the Masters have singled him out as the replacement.
Immortality Seeker: Like the rest of the Dilmun Club, though he's pursuing a very different sort; rather than seeking a provider of immortality, his goal is closer to altering the human form until mortality can simply be removed. The specifics of it are, partly, because he knows he's destined to replace the Boatman if he ever even arrives at the River, so he has to be absolutely sure he won't even get there.
Persecuted Intellectuals: It's noted that if the Ministry of Public Decency caught even a single book of his collection, or even just one page of his actual work, they'd throw him in New Newgate and never let him out again. Though he had been persecuted even before he started his research.
Professor Guinea Pig: He gets started on himself, getting a Stone-Tentacle Key implanted after studying the growths of the people of Cline. Going by the dream you have later and the dire sickness that follows, it didn't go well at all.
Trademark Favorite Food: Jellied eels. No meal of his is complete without at least one tin of them, even if it's just a snack.
Tongue Trauma: His own tongue ends up consumed by a Traitor's Tongue during a forced confession, and he goes and bites it right the hell off afterwards. He needs to resort to some on-the-spot Shapeling Arts to talk again.
Transhuman: His possible goal; his research into nature, biology and evolution seems very focused on alteration of the form. He appears to have been inspired by both alterations observed in the Elder Continent and the Emergence seen in utterly ancient Tomb-Colonists, assisting in one of them himself to study the change from man to coccoon to moth.

The Echo Bazaar (SPOILERS)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fl_bazaar.png

In the deepest matters of the Bazaar, always look to love. Always.

The Echo Bazaar is the strange and alien marketplace where the Masters of the Bazaar sell their wares, an immense building covered in strange red sigils and concealing a great many secrets.

Not the least of which is it that it a sentient being and the ultimate driving force behind the game's plot.

Ambiguous Gender: It's questionable whether it has a gender at all. Some refer to it as female, while others refer to it as male.
Ambiguously Evil: A case can be made for questioning how aware the Bazaar is to crimes committed on their behalf (or by their people) or the suffering of the city as a whole. In many instances, the Bazaar only act through intermediaries, who may distort or withhold information from them, such as when the Masters withheld the fact that the Bazaar had been put in debt due to the action of another out of fear about how the Bazaar may react. Despite the centuries of suffering inflicted upon the cities sold to the Bazaar, it is entirely possible that as a creature so impossibly vast and high up the Great Chain compared to humans, it had been legitimately unaware of the damages caused by dragging entire cities beneath the earth (even the Masters regard what happened to the lover of the First City's ruler a genuine error due to their lack of understanding of what humanity can take). What little we hear from the Bazaar isn't avarice or spite, as is the case with the Masters, but instead a lot of grief, angst and anxiety.
Anthropomorphic Personification: It is not human-shaped, but it has some emotions that are reportedly understandable and it was created with the intent of acting as perpetual messenger between Judgements. It essentially was the idea of delivering messages in biological form. When it settled down in Earth, it hired a human surgeon to lobotomize the part of its brain that makes it restless for travels and deliveries.
Big Bad: Being responsible for the Fall of the five cities, the Bazaar is certainly this if you aren't sympathetic towards its methods and goals.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Has shades of this, and it's implied to be how the other stars see it and its relationship with the Sun.
Debt Detester: To the extreme. In one ending to the Bag a Legend ambition, you learn that a Fragment of Tragedy Procedure states that in the event where the Bazaar fails to pay off a debt of some kind, they would call for the "liquidfication" of the current city and the sale of all those that are bound to serve the Bazaar. The Masters are aware of this. When a debt is incurred on the Bazaar's behalf, they hid this fact from it and tried to resolve the matter themselves. In their word, they believe that had the Bazaar known, it would have done everything in its power to pay the debt, even at the expense of the fallen city or at the cost of its own life. When the Bazaar discovers this, it is both humiliated and outraged, and is desperate to have the debt paid as soon as possible.
Despair Event Horizon: All it mostly does nowadays is get high on a Fantastic Drug that makes it get lost in nostalgia from better days. It really doesn't have a high hope for accomplishing its mission: it's been through five cities, and only two are left...
Eldritch Location: Not quite as maddening as the Judgements, but read some of its sigils too close and your mind might regret it. Plus, it's quite a few spots above humanity in the Great Chain, just below the Judgements and maybe whatever Storm used to be. All in all, it's still an unknowable, terrible entity even if it's literally set up shop in Earth and can actually deal with its inhabitants.
Genius Loci: The Bazaar isn't a building — it's an enormous sentient organism masquerading as one.
Greater-Scope Villain: Arguable, but for those who consider the Masters the main antagonists of the game, the Bazaar is basically their employer, and much of their villainy were done on behalf of or in response to the Bazaar. Despite this, the Masters are often the main antagonist of the stories, not the Bazaar.
I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It was willing to deliver a message of love from the Sun, who at the time was its recently ex-lover, to another star. With the other Judgement rejecting the Sun, the Bazaar worries that the Sun will commit suicide upon hearing the reply. It started stealing love stories from humans in a desperate attempt to find some way for the Sun to give up its love of the other star.
Inter-Class Romance: The Bazaar is in love with the Sun, which as a Judgement is high above its station.
Interspecies Romance: The Bazaar's romance with a Judgement, the Sun.
Love Triangle: It and the Sun were once lovers before the Sun spurned it for another star.
Missing Steps Plan: To the point where the Masters, who were once its loyal servants, have become highly skeptical of its success. Its plan is basically "Step 1: Collect love stories from humans". Step 2: "???" Step 3: "The Sun doesn't die."
Romantic False Lead: It is implied that the Bazaar cares for the Sun far more than the Sun cares about it.
Shipper on Deck:
- It needs to collect love stories, and stories of Forbidden Romance in particular, in order to accomplish its goal. Therefore, it has the Masters and other agents try and induce them, and meddle in those that are already in progress. A Deconstruction, however: its meddling isn't always put in a good light, as it frequently strains relationships and will start making them suffer just so it makes for a good story.
- It was willing to step aside and let the Sun love another Judgement. But when the other Judgement rejected the Sun, the Bazaar went a little crazy.
- It arranges for potential couples to get together during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose through the lady of Lilac, who acts on its behalf.
Spurned into Suicide: It worries that the Sun will have this reaction when it gets its message of rejection from the other Judgement — partly because it seems to be thinking of this end itself.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With a literal star. This has made quite a few other stars very cross indeed.
Starfish Aliens: The closest thing it could be compared to is a gigantic crab someone built several spires on, with giant hungry pigs made of rock that double as rocket thrusters in a symbiotic relationship with it. Its tears, known as Lacre, do awful things to creatures and detonate souls, and are also kept in one particular organ that looks more like a huge facility full of honeycomb-shaped pools. It's a strange creature, all in all.
Timed Mission: If it doesn't find a way to convince the Sun not to die from unrequited love, both of them will get eaten by a cosmic light dragon entity called Storm (or something very much like Storm). Even if it does, they both might might end up getting eaten on principle, for having conceived Stone.
Tragic Villain: Even if one considers the Bazaar to be an antagonistic force and the boss of the Masters, unlike the often cruel and greedy Masters, the Bazaar's scenes often emphasize their longing and sadness. Their mission, despite the (possibly unforeseen) suffering it had caused, came from a place of love, and their long stay in the Neath had been torment and pain. The Betwixt Us and the Sun recurring dreams emphasize how the Bazaar had always longed to be part of the world of the Judgements but never could, and their descent had caused much anguish and despair, both from being so far from the object of their desires and from the growing possibility that the plan won't even work.
Unstoppable Mailman: It was originally an interstellar messenger. However, there was one thing that made it stop: its love for the Sun. It's implied that whatever message it was going to give to the Sun wasn't going to be pleasant for it, so it's trying to come up with a new one to replace it.
Villainous Breakdown: Villainy is debatable, but the Bazaar definitely has an intense nervous breakdown when it finds out, in the latter end of the GHR storyline, that not only it's in debt to someone, but it has been for centuries and the Masters hid it afraid of the reaction. It has the writing-in-Correspondence equivalent of a screaming, weeping fit as it keeps flashing symbols to communicate almost too fast for Penstock to translate, for hours on end until it's midnight and whatever equivalent of a voice it has goes hoarse.
Walking Spoiler: The fact it even is a character in the first place qualifies as a spoiler, its agenda even more so.

The Judgements (SPOILERS)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sun_8.png

The supreme beings of the Fallen London universe, sitting at the top of the Great Chain of Being.

Anti-Magic: The laws of physics are ordained by the Judgements, and their light destroys anything that violates them.
Berserk Button: While they enforce all of their laws, the one thing that pisses them off above all else is messing with the Great Chain of Being. Specifically, any undue relations between different links, or worse, actually trying to move along it to another level. Know your place, or you will burn.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Judgements aren't evil, per se, but they are obsessed with preserving the natural order, even when it's manifestly unjust.
Boomerang Bigot: They are rigidly racist and classist, believing in a caste-like tier of existence called the "Great Chain of Being". However, their spores (Judgement's Eggs) are formed from conglomerations of many lesser souls, meaning the line between castes is a matter of scale — not kind.
Deity of Human Origin: Since souls are the spores of the Judgements, this can theoretically happen. It's unlikely the Judgements would ever let it, though.
Eldritch Abomination: Unfathomably ancient, unspeakably powerful, and completely unconcerned with most human concepts of morality.
Greater-Scope Villain: They're ultimately responsible for everything wrong with the universe, everywhere. Until the Liberation of Night decided they ought to "top off the morning" to the stars themselves...
Knight Templar: They are absolutely obsessed with order, and in particular with maintaining the rigid hierarchy of living things.
Light Is Not Good: Not only are they the reason that nothing supernatural can survive outside the Neath, one is also the reason the Bazaar embarked on its quest in the first place.
Not So Above It All: Something they actively try to cover up. The Judgements fight among themselves and murder one another. This knowledge is implicit proof that they are no more harmonious and infallible than the creatures they rule over, and are just as prone to conflict and pettiness as anyone else.
Order Is Not Good: They’re obsessed with following order, but that’s not the same as justice. Their obsession with their rigid hierarchy actually turns them into Knights Templar.
Our Gods Are Different: They're the stars, for one thing. Judgements oversee the lesser beings that exist alongside and beneath them. They are the ultimate lawmakers of the universe, and every star, including the Sun, is a god to their respective planets and subjects.
The Power of the Sun: The Sun naturally follows as an example. While its particular domain is never spoken of, one can infer Sol is the King of some concept or another, and enforces its law through powerful sunshine.
Sentient Stars: They are the stars, and their shine is their method of imposing their law.
The Stars Are Going Out: In Sunless Skies, the Liberation of Night has begun, and the Judgements are dying. Only it's a lie: the stars were killing each other en masse in civil wars and exchanges of courtesies for millennia. Liberation is just another facet of this, and without star-backers is mostly decorative.
Stars Are Souls: Or rather, souls are star-spores. They haven't allowed it in a long time, but souls bright enough can become Judgements themselves.
Star Power: Both the Classical and Lovecraftian variety at the same time; their shine is both a powerful, cleansing light and an enforcement of alien rules at the same time.
Walking Spoiler: Given that they're closely tied to the cosmology of the Fallen London universe and the ultimate explanation for everything that happens in it, this goes without saying.

The White

The Spymaster of the Heavens. The White is a mysterious Judgement, often referenced in various places but never directly seen or heard. Perhaps the biggest Player of the Great Game in the entire cosmos, not even the Neath can escape the White's influence.

The Chessmaster: In a sense, the literal god of this. In fact, the part of the Chessboard representing the fight against the Liberation of Night is colored in his honor.
Final Solution: According to Nicator and the end of Seeking Mr Eaten's name one of his goals is to "bring light" to the Neath and by "bring Light" he means gaining the political power to annihilate the solar system, the sun, the Bazaar, the Earth, and all lifeforms in that area of space.
Greater-Scope Villain: If Nicator is to be believed, not only did he foresee the whole "Seeking Mr Eaten's Name" debacle, he might have even orchestrated it with the ultimate goal of "bringing Light to the Neath". Additionally, he was likely also responsible for sending Salt to the Neath. Details are vague, but considering Salt defected, his goal was unlikely to be anything good.
Knight Templar: Though he's hardly alone here, he might be even worse about this than his fellow Judgements. The White "would rather see an empty universe than a disordered one".
Light Is Not Good: The Judgements in general are tyrannical and classist to the extreme, but especially the White, considering his namesake and his goal of enforcing utter, unbreakable Order.
Manipulative Bastard: Naturally, as an extension of the Chessmaster above. See Greater-Scope Villain for just one example. The Chessboard in Parabola heavily implies that his influence in counteracting the Liberation can be felt in everything from shifting borders to the translations of peace treaties.
The Spymaster: Of the stars themselves. Naturally, he is aware of the Neath, which is supposed to be a secret to the other Judgements, and exerts his influence over it.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: For those who are against the Liberation of Night, he might be this.^note

"The Ravens"

The counterparts to Judgements, also called "Sable Suns". Their true name is unknown. They once worked alongside the Judgements, but were too vain to serve them and so started a war in the heavens that became the Liberation of the Night.

Confusing Multiple Negatives: A way to protect yourself from the more negative effects of the Discordance is to keep on reminding yourself it does not exist - and describe it in ways that it does not work, because if it did work that way, then it would exist and cease to be the Discordance.
Dark Is Not Evil: The Black is an okay sort, just desperate to escape from its And I Must Scream fate of never having existed.
Death of the Author: Played with. Studying how the Discordance does not exist suggests that when a Judgement dies, laws it has written in the Correspondence eventually decay into Discordance. And Correspondence laws enact the will of the Judgements... but Discordant laws enact the interpretation of whoever reads them.
Divine Conflict: Against the Judgements. It started as a disagreement once, and then became a full-on War in Heaven between stars and sable-stars.
Eldritch Abomination: Black suns made of darkness who wish to see light extinguished from the universe. And then there's The Black, who in a Discworld-ish way doesn't simply not exist, but anti-exists because it was written out of reality that thoroughly, and yet it still plots its way back with a chilling language of chaos that similarly anti-exists.
Evil vs. Evil: Possibly. The only Sable Sun we meet directly in the Fallen London universe is ominous and often uncaring of mortals (unless they break his laws). The Black is far more benign and personable, but doesn't particularly care about what it does to escape its horrific non-imprisonment as nothing in its mad desire to exist again. This may or may not still be a case of the lesser of two evils, but what we see of the Liberation doesn't imply a utopia and what we see of the Halved doesn't suggest benevolence either.
Fantastic Racism: Apparently goes both ways. They are very vain, but it is also implied that the light-based Judgements discriminated against their Sable counterparts, putting them at a lower tier than even messengers like the Bazaar.
Greater-Scope Villain: The man behind the man regarding the Liberation of the Night and the Anarchists. We finally meet a Sable-Sun up close in the form of The Halved.
Language of Magic: They speak a counterpart to the Judgement's Correspondence, called the Discordance. It is written in ice and does not exist - but it does not exist in the sense that it is anti-existence, causing things that are not of the Discordance to exist (because the Discordance cannot exist - anything that does come into being as a result of it is no longer Discordance).
The Man Behind the Man: The origin for the Liberation of the Night.
Order Versus Chaos: They're the Chaos to the Judgement's Order, with their Language of Magic causing outright warps in reality in unpredictable ways.
Painting the Medium: Since the Black was annihilated from time and the Discordance is the opposite of reality, everything to do with either is phrased as something that it is not, because if it did exist, it would not be of the Discordance anymore.
Rage Against the Heavens: They once worked alongside the regular Judgements, until both disagreed about which race was better.
Sentient Stars: They are black stars that exude darkness, the same way their Judgement counterparts exume light.
The Stars Are Going Out: Their millennia-long goal is to ensure this happens, killing every star that still radiates light.
Walking Spoiler: Even fewer things about them have been revealed than about the normal Judgements, and those few things are even quicker to reveal the hidden truths of the setting.

Mr Eaten (SPOILERS)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_well_9852.jpg

A reckoning is not to be postponed indefinitely.

The light on the edge of sleep was mine. I was Mr Candles. I will not be again.

The subject of the eponymous Seeking Mr Eaten's Name quest. From what we know, it was once a Master of the Bazaar before the others betrayed it and erased its name from existence. Aside from that, very little is known about it. If you value your sanity, you'll keep it that way.

Abstract Apotheosis: Of a sort. His demise changed the nature of wells forever, at least in the Neath, and he is now an inextricable part of every well. Any well, yes any, can be a conduit of his maddening, life-ruining influence, or a way to feed him offerings.
All Take and No Give: Seeking will ruin you, and Mr Eaten does not give much in return, to put it lightly.
Arc Words: All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. That was the promise.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: One of the endings allows the player character to transform themselves into an eternal grave for Mr Candles in the High Wilderness, and the other Masters of the Bazaar and Curators come to pay their respects and say their apologies.
Broken Angel: As the Lady in Lilac put it:
- "It was a broken toy anyway. Like the one they used to call Mr Candles. Oh, hush, I can say it down here. No-one’s listening, except me and you: and I’m no one, and you’re not even that."
- Certain text snippets in Winking Isle imply he was always a 'defective' outcast even among the other Masters, even before his death.
Deus ex Machina: The Salt ending to the quest is utterly bizarre, and implies Salt sweeps in at the last moment to absorb you into it, warn the Masters, the Bazaar, and the Sun about Mr Eaten and White's plan and then go back to relaxing on the beach.
Dream Walker: Can manifest in seemingly anyone's dreams, at any time. Non-Seekers will occasionally dream of going NORTH, or of a certain number of candles...
Eldritch Abomination: In a world already jam-packed with Eldritch Abomination entities, Mr Eaten stands out. The other abominations are actually scared of him.
God-Eating: Mr Candles was offered as a new kind of meat to the three priest-kings of the Third City in exchange for their city. One of the other Masters lured him to the priest-kings, and they cut him open and devoured him alive, turning them into the God-Eaters and sinking the Third City.
Horror Hunger: It has one, as do the Seekers of the Name. Inedible objects, sentient beings, even abstract concepts are not safe from its hunger. It's been known to consume forum posts that give away too much information about it — and parts of developer blog posts that discuss it!
"It" Is Dehumanizing: Curiously, Mr Eaten is the only Master who is usually referred to as "him", though "it" is still used occasionally.
Light Is Not Good: One of the things associated with Mr. Eaten are various candles; the quest requires seven special candles (St. Arthur's Candle, St. Beau's Candle, St Cerise's Candle, St. Destin's Candle (which is no candle), St. Erzulie's Candle, St. Fortigan's Candle, and St Gawain's candle), and the Chapel of Lights is devoted to it. Mr. Eaten is not in any way good for anyone.
Misplaced Retribution: Mr Eaten wants revenge against the other Masters (especially Mr Veils), the Bazaar and the Sun. The former two are probably fair game, but the Sun receives his ire merely for being the Bazaar's master, despite the fact that there is no evidence of the sun even knowing anything about the Bazaar's activities in the Neath.
Motifs: Candles, wells, hunger, and the North. Hints of all four run throughout the game.
Multiple Endings: You may ask one of three questions when you finally knock, each with a different answer:
- What is due?
- What is forgotten?
- Who is Salt?
Not Quite Dead: Mr Eaten still holds considerable power and influence over the Neath, despite its death.
Numerological Motif: 7. 7 ways to increase your Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name, the Dream of Dark Waters happens at 7 SMEN, you get 7 Weeping Scars, Memories of Chains, and Stains on your Soul, 7 candles, 7 services at the Chapel of Lights, and when you reach 77 points, you can set zail NORTH.
Permadeath: All we can tell you is that if you make it to the very end of its quest and don't chicken out on the final choice, your account will be pernamently rendered unplayable. Don't say we didn't warn you.
"If you touch the gate, you will be grievously wounded. Very well."
The Power of Hate: That, and emptiness, is all that remains. Hatred and a desire for a Reckoning are the only things that have kept Mr. Eaten around in any form at all.
Press X to Die:
- Seeking Mr Eaten's Name is made of these. Death and insanity are only the start of your misery if you decide to pursue it.
- One of the black-bordered non-discardable opportunity cards you get by having Unaccountably Peckish involves cheerfully wrapping your head in dough and shoving it into an oven, so another Seeker can devour you like some kind of human pie.
Rasputinian Death: Tied up and chained, head to foot, and stabbed repeatedly. Then devoured by the priest-kings of the Third City. Then the remains lowered headfirst into a well to be drowned/dissolved in the purest sorrow. It says something about the hardiness of this creature that even that didn't put it down completely.
Revenant Zombie: For a given value of dead, anyway. He certainly fits the "single burning purpose" criteria, being an undead(?) being out to avenge itself upon those that wronged it, even if it lacks a body to do so.
Right-Hand Cat: Which cat? The Starveling Cat. Whether it's actually a servant or is merely associated is unclear, but they're definitely linked in some way.
Sapient Eat Sapient: The Priest-Kings of the Third City devoured him, and so became the God-Eaters.
Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Mr Eaten's goal is to turn a Seeker into the ultimate cosmic snitch and have them report all of the Earth's crimes to the Judgement's ruling counsel, which allows the White to "bring light to the Neath" and by "bring light" we mean the total and utter disintigration of the entire solar system.
Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: The entire Seeking quest is based around this. You're not meant to know who Mr. Eaten is, what his Name was, and anything at all about it and the circumstances that made sure it came to pass. Even approaching these truths will destroy you in every aspect. But you can try.
Un-person: The Masters are doing their level best. While they may acknowledge he existed, they never speak the old name, and asking won't get you anywhere; their responses range from telling you it's a phantom best forgotten to claiming it never existed at all to bluntly saying "Do not pursue this." Take their advice.
Unwitting Pawn: If Nicator is to be believed, the White foresaw that Candles would be sacrificed by its fellow Masters and might have even planned it to happen to serve its own purpose. Nicator believes that by bringing about the Reckoning, you will bring that plan to fruition.
Walking Spoiler: Everything about Mr Eaten is peppered in spoilers, and knowing anything at all beyond the fact it even exists and you should not pursue it unless you're really curious or want to suffer means you're fairly deep into the lore.
Wham Line: When Mr Eaten reveals its name (though only to the player — the character inevitably forgets).
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: While the being it was before may have had flaws, nothing deserved the horrible execution and fate that Mr. Eaten got. Devoured alive and drowned in a well of pure sorrow, the sheer awfulness and injustice of it all made sure that what was once just a Master of the Bazaar returned to haunt its colleagues as something much, much worse than a Curator by itself could ever be. A reckoning will not be postponed indefinitely.

Characters / Fallen London

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