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Traces of Veils [Fallen London/Arknights]
- Thread starter thenew
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- United States
[X] THE BETRAYER
thenew
#1 Masters of the Bazaar Fan
- Location
- My Lodgings
Alright, so. TVTropes is a good place to start if you just want a general overview of the setting, but:
Mr Veils is a large bat-creature from outer space. It features proeminently in the Bag a Legend! questline of Fallen London, where your chief objective is to kill it.
Fallen London is a text-based browser game. The gist of it is that some decades ago, the city of London was stolen by bats, and dragged into a fantastical underworld known as the Neath. Now, Hell is their next-door neighbor, men with faces of squid walk through the streets, and the city is ruled by the Masters- one of which being that Veils you follow.
While the opening scene is, well, not very easy to understand, don't worry! I'll make sure to make it more accessible for pure Arknights fans and such as you progress.
Fallen London is a text-based browser game. The gist of it is that some decades ago, the city of London was stolen by bats, and dragged into a fantastical underworld known as the Neath. Now, Hell is their next-door neighbor, men with faces of squid walk through the streets, and the city is ruled by the Masters- one of which being that Veils you follow.
While the opening scene is, well, not very easy to understand, don't worry! I'll make sure to make it more accessible for pure Arknights fans and such as you progress.
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[X] THE CURATOR
[X] THE INTRIGUER
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] THE CURATOR
- Location
- In the oldest city on the oldest land
[X] THE BETRAYER
[X] THE CURATOR
[X] THE CURATOR
BarnabusBarnabus
Something like spice and something like pine.
- Location
- A beach, limned in silver like the painted moon.
[X] THE CURATOR
[ ] THE INTRIGUER
Anything but that last. Anything but him. There is a seeping dread in me - something will follow us, if we choose that mask. Something cold and drowned and nameless. And we would deserve it. Deserve him.
EDIT: Should probably justify the other parts of my position too. I favour growth, and I think that the Curator and the Intriguer have actual potential for growth. The Curator is Veils reduced to basest components - the least human, the eldest shape, predating the shackles of the Bazaar. It could, I think, be salvaged. All things are a product of their environment, and the High Wilderness is an environment in which good people die - it is really no wonder Veils became what it did. But removed from that, and placed into a marginally more healthy place (I will not claim that Terra is healthy, but anywhere is better than the Wilderness) I think the Curator could grow into something less malignant. The Intriguer is in many ways the opposite - Veils' mortal guise, the youngest form, inexorably tied to humanity, and I think that that could be his salvation. The Intriguer understands people, and understanding necessarily presages empathy. Veils the Curator is a return to youth, a rebirth, a do-over in a better place. Veils the Intriguer is a connection to humanity, a reincarnation, a fundamental change in mindset.
Veils the Betrayer is unsalvageable. The Intriguer is a man. The Curator is a beast. The Betrayer is a monster. He is the savagery of the beast and the cruelty of the man. He is what he is and he revels in it; he will not change because he does not want to. He will learn nothing and become nothing. To say nothing of his greatest sin, which seeks him even now - a reckoning may not be postponed indefinitely, and not even death will let him escape. We do not want that fucking smoke.
[ ] THE INTRIGUER
Anything but that last. Anything but him. There is a seeping dread in me - something will follow us, if we choose that mask. Something cold and drowned and nameless. And we would deserve it. Deserve him.
EDIT: Should probably justify the other parts of my position too. I favour growth, and I think that the Curator and the Intriguer have actual potential for growth. The Curator is Veils reduced to basest components - the least human, the eldest shape, predating the shackles of the Bazaar. It could, I think, be salvaged. All things are a product of their environment, and the High Wilderness is an environment in which good people die - it is really no wonder Veils became what it did. But removed from that, and placed into a marginally more healthy place (I will not claim that Terra is healthy, but anywhere is better than the Wilderness) I think the Curator could grow into something less malignant. The Intriguer is in many ways the opposite - Veils' mortal guise, the youngest form, inexorably tied to humanity, and I think that that could be his salvation. The Intriguer understands people, and understanding necessarily presages empathy. Veils the Curator is a return to youth, a rebirth, a do-over in a better place. Veils the Intriguer is a connection to humanity, a reincarnation, a fundamental change in mindset.
Veils the Betrayer is unsalvageable. The Intriguer is a man. The Curator is a beast. The Betrayer is a monster. He is the savagery of the beast and the cruelty of the man. He is what he is and he revels in it; he will not change because he does not want to. He will learn nothing and become nothing. To say nothing of his greatest sin, which seeks him even now - a reckoning may not be postponed indefinitely, and not even death will let him escape. We do not want that fucking smoke.
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Vote closed
On Mr Veils
BarnabusBarnabus
Something like spice and something like pine.
- Location
- A beach, limned in silver like the painted moon.
I thought I should probably explain who and what Veils was, by the way, and how he was divided into the three beings we see before us now. Just for some context.
Veils was a creature known as a Curator - an alien bat with a body the size of a train engine and a wingspan of six, capable of compressing itself down to the size of a human. Or, well, just a bit bigger, in Veils' particular case - he liked to be intimidating. Typical Curators live among the stars in a place known as the High Wilderness - imagine space with air, albeit thin, where suns rule as uncaring and capricious deities called Judgements. They are a hermaphroditic species (having only male or female parts is considered a shameful deformity) and their native pronouns are usually "it" or "they"; I refer to Veils as "he" for reasons which shall be explained later on. Interestingly, music has an intoxicating effect on them, like alcohol for humans. All Curators are compelled to form a hoard of some kind - the instinct is built into them down to the basics of their psyche, and is present even before birth. A Curator carrying a child may feel the need to begin their child's hoard for them, in a strange parallel to pregnancy cravings. The species as a whole are solitary - they tend to travel alone or in small family groups, only gathering in large numbers for five-day congregations in which they trade with eachother, socialize, feast, and commit ritualised murder. Curator culture is not pleasant, as you may have guessed - though, to be strictly fair that is not entirely their own fault. The law of the Judgements is merciless, and lesser beings eke out lives where they can under their light. Certain crimes, however, can have a Curator cast out and marked as an exile forever, and it was one of these crimes that Veils committed which began the path he walked to where he is now.
Veils' specific crime was Violation of the Order of Days. He made a mockery of the traditions of the congregation - committed a murder before the fifth day, when such things became acceptable (and indeed encouraged). He was kicked out of the congregation immediately, and told to never return. He wandered the sky for a while, continuing to hoard (his specific obsession being interesting and exotic cloths, which is why he would eventually take that name), until he was approached by the agents of a being then known as the Courier. The Courier was of a species known as Messengers - seven-spined space crabs who outsize many cities, and act as the messengers of the Judgements. To make a long and elaborate story short, the Courier, who would eventually become known as the Echo Bazaar, offered Veils and several other exiled Curators a bargain. They would gather for it seven cities from a small and inconsequential planet in its master's domain, bring them into the Neath, and harvest those cities' love stories to be inscribed upon its shell for reasons too complex and stupid to get into here. In return, it offered them a single promise; "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." The Curators, desperate and alone, accepted and became the cadre of beings who would come to be known as the Masters of the Bazaar. They took male affectations to blend in with humanity, hence why I use "he" for Veils, and began to harvest stories for their patron. At this point, Veils somewhat drops out of the narrative - he plays no role of real prominence in the first two cities, Uruk and Amarna. In the third city, though, Veils becomes the architect of one of the greatest sins to continue to plague the Neath. I will not speak of it in detail, save to say that it was a betrayal - that Veils devoured kin and permitted kin to be devoured for power - and that a reckoning will not be postponed indefinitely.
Many hundreds of years later, when the fifth city - London - is in the Neath, Veils has become bored. He longs nostalgically for simpler times, when he roamed the High Wilderness, hunting and being hunted as he wished. So he disguises himself as a great beast, names himself the Vake, and places a four million echo bounty on himself to attract monster hunters. (Echoes being the currency of the Echo Bazaar.) This goes well for many years - to the point where an entire order of monster-hunting nuns are founded specifically for the purpose of hunting him - and then the player of Fallen London shows up. They set themselves to hunting the Vake, and though I'm not going to explain the entire Bag A Legend storyline here suffice it to say that eventually they bait Veils into Parabola, the dream-realm, and there they set off a device called a Chorister's Bomb. It ensnares him with music - Curators, as you're aware, are intoxicated by it - and then seeks to diminish him; to strip him of his mystique, to force him to become something lesser, something explainable, in one of my favourite scenes in the entire game. Here, in fact, is an incredible piece of fanart of that very scene by tumblr user @snippity.
Veils fundamentally rejects this - LIES, he screeches. THERE IS NO WHY. I AM NOT SUCH A SMALL AND BORING THING THAT I COULD BE EXPLAINED. The contradiction shatters him into the myriad masks he has worn over the aeons, and three are strong enough, defined enough to survive as individual identities; Veils of the Surface, Veils of the Third City, Veils of the High Wilderness. The player hunts down each in turn, slaying or sparing as they choose - in this case, it seems all three were killed. Only one may be spared per character in the game; the player could take the Intriguer as an informant or a source of knowledge, the Betrayer as food for themselves or their dreams, or the Curator as a truly excellent mount. But in any case, Veils dies - or enough of him dies to make no difference - and we arrive, inevitably, here.
What Was Veils?
Veils was a creature known as a Curator - an alien bat with a body the size of a train engine and a wingspan of six, capable of compressing itself down to the size of a human. Or, well, just a bit bigger, in Veils' particular case - he liked to be intimidating. Typical Curators live among the stars in a place known as the High Wilderness - imagine space with air, albeit thin, where suns rule as uncaring and capricious deities called Judgements. They are a hermaphroditic species (having only male or female parts is considered a shameful deformity) and their native pronouns are usually "it" or "they"; I refer to Veils as "he" for reasons which shall be explained later on. Interestingly, music has an intoxicating effect on them, like alcohol for humans. All Curators are compelled to form a hoard of some kind - the instinct is built into them down to the basics of their psyche, and is present even before birth. A Curator carrying a child may feel the need to begin their child's hoard for them, in a strange parallel to pregnancy cravings. The species as a whole are solitary - they tend to travel alone or in small family groups, only gathering in large numbers for five-day congregations in which they trade with eachother, socialize, feast, and commit ritualised murder. Curator culture is not pleasant, as you may have guessed - though, to be strictly fair that is not entirely their own fault. The law of the Judgements is merciless, and lesser beings eke out lives where they can under their light. Certain crimes, however, can have a Curator cast out and marked as an exile forever, and it was one of these crimes that Veils committed which began the path he walked to where he is now.
Who Was Veils?
Veils' specific crime was Violation of the Order of Days. He made a mockery of the traditions of the congregation - committed a murder before the fifth day, when such things became acceptable (and indeed encouraged). He was kicked out of the congregation immediately, and told to never return. He wandered the sky for a while, continuing to hoard (his specific obsession being interesting and exotic cloths, which is why he would eventually take that name), until he was approached by the agents of a being then known as the Courier. The Courier was of a species known as Messengers - seven-spined space crabs who outsize many cities, and act as the messengers of the Judgements. To make a long and elaborate story short, the Courier, who would eventually become known as the Echo Bazaar, offered Veils and several other exiled Curators a bargain. They would gather for it seven cities from a small and inconsequential planet in its master's domain, bring them into the Neath, and harvest those cities' love stories to be inscribed upon its shell for reasons too complex and stupid to get into here. In return, it offered them a single promise; "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." The Curators, desperate and alone, accepted and became the cadre of beings who would come to be known as the Masters of the Bazaar. They took male affectations to blend in with humanity, hence why I use "he" for Veils, and began to harvest stories for their patron. At this point, Veils somewhat drops out of the narrative - he plays no role of real prominence in the first two cities, Uruk and Amarna. In the third city, though, Veils becomes the architect of one of the greatest sins to continue to plague the Neath. I will not speak of it in detail, save to say that it was a betrayal - that Veils devoured kin and permitted kin to be devoured for power - and that a reckoning will not be postponed indefinitely.
What Happened To Veils?
Many hundreds of years later, when the fifth city - London - is in the Neath, Veils has become bored. He longs nostalgically for simpler times, when he roamed the High Wilderness, hunting and being hunted as he wished. So he disguises himself as a great beast, names himself the Vake, and places a four million echo bounty on himself to attract monster hunters. (Echoes being the currency of the Echo Bazaar.) This goes well for many years - to the point where an entire order of monster-hunting nuns are founded specifically for the purpose of hunting him - and then the player of Fallen London shows up. They set themselves to hunting the Vake, and though I'm not going to explain the entire Bag A Legend storyline here suffice it to say that eventually they bait Veils into Parabola, the dream-realm, and there they set off a device called a Chorister's Bomb. It ensnares him with music - Curators, as you're aware, are intoxicated by it - and then seeks to diminish him; to strip him of his mystique, to force him to become something lesser, something explainable, in one of my favourite scenes in the entire game. Here, in fact, is an incredible piece of fanart of that very scene by tumblr user @snippity.
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Lurking_Badger
Cheese Enjoyer
- Location
- Wisconsin
I wonder if Veils will still be bored in the new world he finds himself in? He will be lesser then he was, but that might be to his benefit. He will be scheming on more equal ground with an understanding that he can be defeated. A much more exciting time then what was before.
He has also gained something from the loss of his many faces and his past. An opportunity for a new beginning.
I'm curious, why did people go for the Intriguer over the others?
First option bias, probably. Dunno why'd you want to be an alien space bat without the wings and sharp fangs.