Open main menu

The Fansus β

Changes

The Demiurge

13 bytes added, 02:26, 20 September 2021
m
no edit summary
| origin = Light
| titles = The Lion-Faced, The Redsmith, The Great Copper Serpent, The Higmost of Artists
| names = The Spokesman, The Grand Merchant, Adonis, The Landlord, The JailorJailer
| aspects = {{Aspect|Forge}} {{Aspect|Grail}} {{Aspect|Moth}}
| arrival = After Her Scarred Serenity
The part of the Lighthouse in this layer also contains the Mint, which engraves the shed copper scales of the Demiurge with arcane symbols and pay them as wages to the working Long. The Demiurge sheds his skin like a snake, and pay comes when the scales have been removed from the skin and engraved. The remaining skin is then used as an isolator, being capable of keeping out heat, Nowhere, and Glory-light alike. The conversion rate between the scales and Spintria changes frequently and irrationally, and conversion between them requires tons of bureaucracy, cementing the kafkaesque nature of trying to leave the New Mansus. The New Mansus is also one of the only places where they're legal tender. The Mint also acts as the timekeepers of the New Mansus, as time is measured according to the time between sheddings. As the Demiurge has several forms which do not shed their skin, this gives him nearly full control over time in the New Mansus by simply deciding when to shed or not shed.
The Overseer of this Sphere is the Grand Merchant, an odd fellow dressed in heavy yellow robes. Whether a Long or a mechanical creation lies beneath these robes is an enigma, and nobody knows where the Grand Merchant appeared from or what it was before becoming a Name. Like the Spokesman, it spends much of its time outside the New Mansus, but it prefers the waking world to the Mansus. There, it travels the wastes, offering deals that seem too good to be true in exchange for material and insubstantial things. It is through The Grand Merchant that most get the rare materials required to construct a Bronze Gate. The majority of these profits go towards the purchase of new goods from the Demiurge, but some always remain the Grand Merchant's own, at least for a while. When the Grand Merchant visits the New Mansus, they enjoy gambling at the Second Sphere casino known as the Red Pearl, co-owned by a GraiGrail-Long known as Aramintha and an Amaranthine Aristocrat calling herself Esmerhild. The Demiurge has attempted to acquire the Red Pearl several times, but Aramintha and Esmerhild have so far refused to sell it. There are rumors that they have connections to the Scarlet Mandible Cabal or that they have gained access to information that allows them to exploit the Grand Merchant to their own ends, but nobody dares accuse them, as they have several Long and possibly a Name in their pocket.
The Aspects of the Grand Merchant are Lantern and Grail.
The Sixth Sphere is a winding mess of maintenance tunnels and plumbing, where many down-on-their-luck Long work to pay off their debts. Nowhere incursions are an uncommon but extant threat, and the Sixth Sphere is also a hub for various criminal activities. Illegal fighting pits are common here, both for Long and for their automatons, and many Long ashamed of their works have dumped or released them here to get rid of them.
The Overseer of the Sixth Sphere Jailoris the Jailer, who is chained to the part of the Lighthouse that goes through the Sphere. The Jailor Jailer is part mechanical computer like its successor The Landlord, and part amalgamation of various forms of scrap, automaton parts, torture implements, and esoteric art. This all has caused it to be known as The Ramshackle among the Syndicate. The Ramshackle is responsible for carrying out what the Demiurge calls reprocessing, brutal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual torture that takes place in this part of the Lighthouse. The Jailor Jailer was formerly the Overseer of the Fifth Sphere, but was compromised by sabotage carried out by what would later become the Syndicate. For this, the Jailor Jailer was cast into the Sixth Sphere to be reprodessed reprocessed by the one who then held its current position, now known as The Syndicalist. After the The Syndicalist had reprocessed the JailorJailer, she began to doubt the Demiurge, as the prospect of a creation of the Demiurge becoming compromised had formerly seemed impossible. She abandoned the Demiurge and gathered the people who had sabotaged the JailorJailer, and founded the Syndicate. The Demiurge, meanwhile, installed the reprocessed Jailor Jailer as the Overseer of the Sixth Sphere.
The Aspects of the Jailor Jailer are Edge and Moth.
The true master of the Sixth Sphere, however, remains the former Name known as The Syndicalist. A slight woman in a bright red dress, she leads the vast organization known as The Syndicate, striking fear into the hearts of the Long and the Names of the New Mansus. Some call the Syndicate a labor union, others call it an organized crime group, and others yet call it a terrorist group. It is heavily decentralized, and may very well be all of these at the same time. It is headquartered in the Sixth Sphere, though the location of these headquarters changes frequently and irregularly. Some members have allied themselves with the Unfettered, or the Old Wyrm, or strange Gods-from-Nowhere that nobody in any Mansus has heard about, but officially the Syndicate affiliates itself with no Hour and defines itself in opposition to the Demiurge. Their goals vary equally wildly, some simply want better rights for the worker Long, some want to organize a mass escape from the New Mansus through the Leonine Gate, and some want to kill the Demiurge and remake the New Mansus into the worker's paradise that the Demiurge promised them.
The Hull has no Overseer. The Hull has never had an Overseer.
'''=== Demographics:''===
The New Mansus grants citizenship to any Long that enter it, which helps replenish the ranks of workers despite the myriad who perish due to horrid working conditions. The process of constructing and activating a Bronze Gate also reforges the constructor into a Forge-Long, though it is fully usable by individuals who are already Long.
'''Forge-Long''' are the most common form of Long in the New Mansus, and can be found in any part of Bronze House society. Most are outfitted with large amounts of prosthetics, either to aid in their work or to replace limbs lost to workplace accidents.
'''Edge-Long''' are one of the rarer forms of Long in the New Mansus. In the early days of the New Mansus, a cadre of Edge-Long staged an uprising against the Demiurge, but were quickly defeated with the survivors being driven into hiding. Therefore, the Demiurge distrusts Edge-Long and most Edge-Long keep a low profile or hide in the lawless parts of the Sixth Sphere. The Syndicate claims descent from the rebellions cadre of Edge-Long, though not all records corroborate this theory, with some indicating that the two are unrelated while the others claiming that the Syndicate existed before the uprising and motivated it. Many Edge-Long despise the Syicate Syndicate for ruining the reputation of their kind in the eyes of the Demiurge, though there are others who ally with them due to hating the Demiurge more.
'''Winter-Long''' are not permitted in the New Mansus, as they are classed as mortals under New Mansus law.