History TearJerker / FallenLondon

** You have an important choice: you can take the choice from the Dignitary to guarantee both London and Istanbul's safety - by murdering his daughter. If you took the Nemesis ambition, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters a part of you realizes that you have become no different from the bastards who murdered your loved one [[spoiler:purely to manipulate you]]]]. Worse still, you can then go leagues further and use the intel you've stolen from the project to ''start a war''. All for London, of course, but the quality indicating how much permanent death you have caused jumps up by about ''150 points''.

** It says a lot about the Comtessa storyline that [[spoiler: you can tell Mrs. Plenty what happened to her is the reason you are determined to seek the Name, and she is understanding]]

* If you end up besting the monkey at cards, he offers to stake what's left of his humanity for a final chance. Except he's not looking for a final chance. He's looking to [[DespairEventHorizon end it]]. He [[TheGamblingAddict loves]] the game as much as he [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor hates]] it, and if you don't take his humanity away, the drive to continue playing is all that will be left of him. If you do accept his chance, he folds before even looking at the cards, and you get to watch Gregory Beechwood drains from his eyes, until there is only an animal before you, frightened and confused.]] It's not clear which option is the crueler of the two at this point.

* If there is such a thing as an entire setting made a Broken Angel, the Ruinous Future you can find in Irem is it. All the wonder of London and the Neath is gone, with those supernatural elements that made it a marvelous or at least interesting place either dead and withered, or given a turn for the worse. The false-stars are so dead their glim has turned to gray (and if you went through the Light Fingers ambition, not even ''yours'' was spared and the game brings back the ArcWords just to hit you with it), the rats (talking or otherwise) are all ''gone'', and all you have by then is people slowly starving to death but never dying, bandaged in whatever rags they can find, scavenging just to try and make another day in what was once London a little more bearable.

* The hidden [[NextSundayAD Neon Future]], while [[RayOfHopeEnding ultimately hopeful,]] implies that your character, despite having all the resources, abilities, and PlotArmor you have now [[FutureBadass and more]], was still [[YouCantThwartStageOne unable to stop London or the Sixth City from being destroyed.]]

* The ''entire'' Cheesemonger storyline could be considered this. It starts off with you doing increasingly shady and morally blurred things to people who don't seem to deserve it. Then you get to talk to people who used to be agents of the Cheesemonger like yourself. They're hiding in the darkest corners of Fallen London, terrified that the Cheesemonger will come after them, saying she's snapped and wants to KillEmAll. If you investigate her past, you find her reasoning for this: her family used to all be operatives in the Great Game, but her entire family was assassinated. As revenge, she decides to ruin the Great Game forever so that no one will suffer like she did ever again -- by "[[KillEmAll wiping half the pieces off the board]]". If you agree to help her and make all the operatives who killed her family DeaderThanDead ("''Can you live with that much blood on your hands?''"), the Cheesemonger is eventually found dead. Furthermore, the Game was merely paused for a few weeks, not stopped -- so the whole thing was [[ShaggyDogStory meaningless in the end]]. The alternatives aren't much better: you can kill her yourself, which means she dies without any sort of fulfillment, or you can have her packed off to the Tomb-Colonies and put her "daughter" into her place, which is probably the last thing she ever wanted for her.

** It becomes even worse for [[spoiler: The Regretful Soldier, as he had to deal with his wife becoming an EmptyShell.]]
* Arguably a Fridge Tearjerker: it is well-documented how much the real-life UsefulNotes/{{Queen Victoria}} loved her husband. In Fallen London, [[spoiler:she sacrificed London to the Bazaar to save his life when he was about to die of typhoid - and of course went on to become the game's Traitor Empress]]. Of course, the real-life Prince Albert died in 1860 and Victoria spent the rest of her life in mourning. All of which implies that in ''our'' universe [[spoiler:she refused the Masters' offer, and watched the love of her life die for the greater good of her subjects]].

* If you choose the Heart's Desire Ambition, you eventually get to learn more about the identity of one of the players of the Marvellous: [[spoiler:The Topsy King, whose true name is Tristam Bagley. The short of it is that he was a composer, violinist and scholar (of [[BrownNote the Correspondence]]), and that he attempted to write an opera involving some symbols of the Correspondence. He could not finish it, and so he desperately played in the Marvellous, hoping he'd be able to complete it. However, he lost his mind while playing, and has been the Topsy King since. His sister asks you to help him recover his mind, in the only way that is possible - Double or Nothing. To get to the next steps you need to convince him, temporarily bringing him back to sanity by staging his opera.]] When you manage do so, you next meet him as he once was:

-->[[spoiler:Tristram Bagley]] looks down at his feet. He drops his cigar. A bat lands on his shoulder. [[spoiler:The Topsy King]] looks up at you. 'Garbles,' he says softly. 'Garbles...'
** If he ends up facing [[spoiler:the Manager again, he loses. It's implied he stakes even more and ends up even worse off the second time, being unable to make music anymore. The first time left him insane. The second time leaves him [[DespairEventHorizon utterly broken]].]]
* Keep going and you can start trying to recruit another of the players: the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel. He promised someone in Polythreme that he wouldn't play it again, but if that someone released him from his promise, he'd do it. Go there, and you learn that [[spoiler: the Manager was the Priest-King of the First City, and he fell in love with a traveler who then fell ill.]]

** How long have they been like this? Well. [[spoiler: They say that even Babylon was young when the First City fell...]]
* If you end up [[spoiler:besting the monkey at cards, he offers to stake what's left of his humanity for a final chance. Except he's not looking for a final chance. He's looking to [[DespairEventHorizon end it]]. He [[TheGamblingAddict loves]] the game as much as he [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor hates]] it, and if you don't take his humanity away, the drive to continue playing is all that will be left of him. If you do accept his chance, he folds before even looking at the cards, and you get to watch Gregory Beechwood drains from his eyes, until there is only an animal before you, frightened and confused.]] It's not clear which option is the crueler of the two at this point.
---> His shoulders are slumped. His eyes are pleading. He is tired of this game, tired of remembering it, tired of playing it, tired of loving it. [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide This is his way out]]]].

* Further in the ambition, and you'll find [[spoiler: the murderer in the Iron Republic: Scathewick. By the time you find him, however, he's a broken man. You can either fulfill you revenge and kill him, or spare him and let him go. Regardless of what you pick, though, the mystery of your loved's one death isn't over yet.]]

* The simple fact that if you [[spoiler: choose the resurrection option at the end of the storyline, despite all you've done, sacrificed, and gone through, your daughter or brother doesn't remember you. The murderer still lives, and while your loved one is back, they'll never be the person you knew and went to the Neath for.]]

* When at a party, you can ask the Turkish Girl to put her name on your dance card. If you fail the persuasive challenge [[spoiler: she begins crying and runs away. A woman next to you says the Turkish Girl never learned how to read or write and that "It's a common ailment of the lower classes"]]. MoodWhiplash at its finest.

* The DrivenToSuicide overtones present for many of the [[spoiler:Black Ribboners]].

* If you play the long game and raise an orphanage, you can reunite a talented orphan with his well-off family... [[YankTheDogsChain only to discover later]] that they were servants of [[spoiler:Mr. Eaten]], who plans to... well, the name says it all.

* The ending of the Comtessa storyline, mixed with a bit of PlayerPunch. [[spoiler:You arrive too late to do anything; the Comtessa is in the process of [[AndIMustScream being turned to stone]] by her Clay Man lover. You are given no information as to whether or not the Comtessa gave consent, or what the end result of the process is, only a frightened look in the Comtessa's eyes. Your only options are to MercyKill the Comtessa or turn and leave.]] Yeah, it's a DownerEnding.
* The ''entire'' Cheesemonger storyline could be considered this. It starts off with [[spoiler: you doing increasingly shady and morally blurred things to people who don't seem to deserve it. Then you get to talk to people who used to be agents of the Cheesemonger like yourself. They're hiding in the darkest corners of Fallen London, terrified that the Cheesemonger will come after them, saying she's snapped and wants to KillEmAll. If you investigate her past, you find her reasoning for this: her family used to all be operatives in the Great Game, but her entire family was assassinated. As revenge, she decides to ruin the Great Game forever so that no one will suffer like she did ever again -- by "[[KillEmAll wiping half the pieces off the board]]". If you agree to help her and make all the operatives who killed her family DeaderThanDead ("''Can you live with that much blood on your hands?''"), the Cheesemonger is eventually found dead. Furthermore, the Game was merely paused for a few weeks, not stopped -- so the whole thing was [[ShaggyDogStory meaningless in the end]].]] The alternatives aren't much better: [[spoiler:you can kill her yourself, which means she dies without any sort of fulfillment, or you can have her packed off to the Tomb-Colonies and put her "daughter" into her place, which is probably the last thing she ever wanted for her.]]

* The Noman. [[spoiler:A Lacre based alter-ego who will inevitably melt away and knows this.]]

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

* The Regretful Soldier's backstory, which you can hear from him if you have access to the House of Chimes. [[spoiler:He was a member of the cavalry that attempted to invade Hell and failed, and his wife had to sell her soul to rescue him from the underworld. He now lives with the soulless shell of her.]]
* The end of the Long Lost Daughter storyline. [[spoiler: The woman who you thought was your daughter was an imposter. While you can get your revenge on her, at the end of the day you have no idea what happened to your real daughter.]]

* The entire game gets sadder when the sequels are taken into account. ''Sunless Sea'' has the player characters exploring the Unterzee and leaving London behind, while ''Sunless Skies'' has [[spoiler:the stars being murdered and the Empress herself abandoning London]]. That said, these are only alternate futures, which mean these occurrences may or may not come to pass.

* Keep going and you can start trying to recruit another of the players: the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel. He promised someone in Polythreme that he wouldn't play it again, but if that someone released him from his promise, he'd do it. Go there, and you learn that [[spoiler: the Manager was the King of the First City, and he fell in love with a traveler who then fell ill.]]

** How long have they been like this? Well. [[spoiler: They say that even the First City was young when Babylon fell...]]