History VideoGame / SunlessSkies

A small officially-licenced [[TheRolePlayingGame Role-Playing Game]] by Rowan, Rook and Decard, ''Skyfarer'', was based on the setting and released to accompany the game's launch.

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''Sunless Skies'' entered Steam Early Access and GOG Games in Development on 30 August 2017, with the full release arriving on both platforms on 31 January 2019. On 19 October that year, Failbetter Games announced ''Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition'', which is the definitive version of the game, containing all previous content in addition to several new narrative events and gameplay improvements, and that ''Sovereign Edition'' would also be ported for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. ''Sovereign Edition'' was eventually released on 19 May 2021.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: If you choose to deliver the Black Box to the House With No Windows in London (which will take a while to accomplish), you eventually find out that, for all the death and cloak-and-dagger and the "DO NOT OPEN THE BOX" talk...it just contains a person that is now resting in the House. And that's the end of the storyline. The ''implications'' are much more far reaching (it's implied that Captain Whitlock managed to save someone from the afterlife, at the cost of her own life), but your part in the story is basically discharged without any fanfare.]]

* PermanentlyMissableContent: Unlike ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'', where everything's reset upon a new legacy, ''Skies'' carry over some things from older runs...including things like some questlines, like, say, officers. So you can get into problem where if you chose a wrong choice and prematurely end their quest, or finish their quest in such a way that they leave you, ''those will be carried over subsequent runs'', which means you'll be either left with a permanently unupgradable officer, or that officer never appears in the game again, without starting a new save file over. On the upside, any officer whose questline you ''did'' complete will reappear in their upgraded form for the next captain. [[spoiler:The only solace available is that at least you can make a custom officer with the Forge of Souls, but that still doesn't alleviate the problem that the old officer's gone and you can't access their storylines again.]]

* ImmortalityImmorality: Aside from the fact that the upper class hoarding Hours results in this, it seems that the Blue Kingdom particularly hates would-be immortals. To get registered in their kingdom you have to issue a vow that you're never going to try to become immortal (and there's a Well whose cult delights in throwing immortality seekers into it). [[spoiler:Of course, anything the Azure says is just is suspect.]]

* AlternateContinuity: This game is merely a possible future of ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' verse, like the destinies presented in FL, in a timeline where the Empress never decreed the cancellation of the year 1900, like she did on 31st December 1899 in the main timeline (which translates to 31st December 2021 in real life).

** Prices for Fuel and Supplies are consistant everywhere and most ports sell at least one of these essential items. Given that Supplies can be reliably substituted for Fuel in a pinch getting stuck is less likely.
* AppealToObscurity: To complete the Song of the Sky Ambition you need to complete significant accomplishments in-game to have something to write about, you do get one for free though, you can claim to have escaped Piranesi because no one in London knows enough about it to prove the contrary.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Gravity, among others, works rather slyly. Particularly egregious in places like Traitor's Wood, where you land on a mountaintop campsite and hike to find a grave you probably flew *right past* to find the dock. It's [[JustifiedTrope alright though]], because SpaceIsMagic.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: You can achieve this [[spoiler:at Death's Door, pledging your allegiance to the Judgement of the Blue Kingdom, resulting in your physical form [[BadBoss (and your entire crew)]] being incinerated. It is a little unclear whether this is a good thing (for you anyway) or whether you are brainwashed against your will into singing the Judgements' praises for all eternity.]]
* AsteroidMiners: Since asteroids make up the majority of habitable ground in the High Wilderness, these make up the majority of miners, potentially including yourself, if your locomotive is fitted wiht a mining rig. Lustrum in particular is absolutely full of them -- with the twist that what they're mining isn't ore or minerals, but time itself in material form.

** The Storm That Speaks also occasionally pops up in certain places in The Reach. Think of a sentient, extremely lightning-prone hurricane with familiar whispers on its winds and with which you can strike up conversations if you're charismatic enough (or have brought gifts of bottled souls), and you've more or less got it. It's a weird entity even by this universe's standards.

* PurposeDrivenImmortality: Those held captive in the Well of Wonders are forced to perform in and attend to a theatre play reenacting the story of a Prophet that tried to convince the Twin Kings of Eleutheria that a revolution was necessary. [[spoiler:When at last the story managed to be told in its entirety thanks to your captain, they all crumbled instantly to dust, as they only had been kept alive and young to fulfill their role into reciting and hearing the complete story of the Prophet Exile. The sole exception was a little girl that became a very old woman as soon as the play ended, and died mere moments later.]]

* DerelictGraveyard: The Flotilla, which can be visited near [[spoiler:the Avid Horizon. This small town of decommissioned ships float on the Unterzee waters that spilled from the Horizon's gates when the Londoners breached through it.]]

** [[spoiler:At the end of the Fatalistic Signalman's storyline, you discover a LockedRomMystery indicating that he's ''somehow'' been in this state for years and years, despite journeying with you for months on end prior to the discovery.]]

* TickTockTerror: A creepy, loud and distorted version of the iconic Big Ben chime will sometimes ring when flying in the desolate and ominous area surrounding the Floating Parliament. Justified AND inverted since one of the spectacles found there is the Tower of Chimes -- the remains of the actual Big Ben; and because it is a wonder (instead of a horror), being near it actually *reduces* terror!

* SiblingYinYang: The Murgatroyd sisters met at Lustrum and Achlys are basically polar opposites. The older sister Amberley can barely wait for the day she can take control of the company, is far more narrow-minded, and holds utter contempt for her little sister. Younger sister Melusine dislikes being under her father's thumb and working for the tea company, longs for other pursuits in life like her inventions, and is more open-minded. Thrown into situations that aren't quite to their liking to expand the tea company, Melusine has adapted as well she can and wants to explore Lustrum to further her knowledge while Amberley loathes Achlys because she can hardly make a dent into its market and can't wait to leave. Just about the only trait they share is their equally determined ambition to achieve their goal.

** The malady that befalls [[spoiler:the researchers at Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Reserve, and the Cinders that cause it]] bear a striking resemblance to how the war on drugs plays out in Film/AScannerDarkly by Creator/PhilipKDick.

** Characters who make the mistake of being suckered in by Old Tom AKA [[spoiler: the Amiable Vagabond]] will be condemned to plunge to the very bottom of the [[HollywoodBlackHole Well]] that bears his name, where they are [[{{Transflormation}} transformed into trees]] - a process that essentially destroys their personalities and leaves them mindlessly worshipping the light for eternity. [[spoiler: Depending on your choices, you can become a victim of this, ally yourself with Tom to sacrifice a skylark, or condemn Tom to the fate he evaded for so long.]]

* AlternateUniverse: This game is merely one of the possible future of ''VideoGAme/FallenLondon'' verse, like the destinies presented in FL.

* LovecraftLite: Sure, you're a tiny bug barely worth notice, but you're a tiny bug who can kill a sun, and the suns [[JerkassGods probably are asking for it.]] [[spoiler:In one of the endings for the Truth Ambition, you poison the Azure and join the Sorrow Spiders as the new kings of the dead, and it's heavily implied the dead universally like you and them better - and should you become a conquerer of Albion, it's implied you [[TheStarscream get rid of the Sorrow Spiders]] too.]]
** On the other hand, [[spoiler:It is stated that only a being of comparable magnitude may kill a Judgement (usually another Judgement) and humans have little to no chance against one directly. In fact, the murder of Albion's star was a lie. London essentially arrived in Albion long after the fact, picking up the pieces and pretending it was our work all along. Arriving at Death's Door demonstrates this point further. You can mount a futile protest against the heavens, only to be promptly swatted like a bug by a Judgement just looking at you. [[DoubleSubversion Which is why, of course, you have to be clever about it]]. ''You'' can't kill one, but you can make it ''very likely something else will.'']]

** Both these weird weather events are explained with the right ambition or dialogue options: [[spoiler:They are the souls of murdered stars. To be specific, the Peacock Wind is the ghost of the Gardener King, the dead Judgement of the Reach, and the Storm That Speaks is the remnant of The King of Hours, frozen in time as a vengeful ghost.]]

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] -- the High Wilderness actually ''does'' have an atmosphere, albeit a very thin one, so it makes sense that weapons have a maximum range.