The Shuttered Palace

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### Notable Figures

The Royal Family
The Duchess
The Cantigaster
His Amused Lordship

### Music

Empress at the Window

> *"The Traitor Empress and her consort live safely in the Shuttered Palace, in the protective custody of the Bazaar. No-one is permitted to use her name anymore."*
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> *"Why is the Empress' Palace shuttered? Apparently the Empress doesn't like light. Or sudden movements, loud noises, foreigners, treason, peaches. When you're Empress, you can do this kind of thing."*
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**The Shuttered Palace**, at the very west end of London, was likely Kensington Palace but was renamed after the Fall. The Empress and her family, with the scandalous exception of the ahistorical Captivating Princess, are largely confined here.

It is a magnet for London's up-and-coming entertainers... though they have to stay quiet.

## The Empress' Court

**The Empress' Court** is the inner sanctum of the Shuttered Palace; it is where the Empress and most of her family (the Consort, and eight of their ten children) live, and the most famed artists in London work. It is most interesting to London's more Persuasive types, who can get a little, ah, *bold* in their writings, compositions, and deeds.

## What Lies Below

The Duchess's betrothed, the Cantigaster, resides in the palace cellars, along with huge collections of objects - living, dead, and inanimate alike.

## Not Quite Blood

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> *"These are the Empress' children. The oldest ones stand in a row at the back. The Redundant Heir holds a goblet in one casual hand. The drip that runs down its stem seems too treacle-like for wine, and too brightly red. To his left stands the Dutiful Daughter; to his right the Brooding Captain. Before them, the younger children sit on stools: the Heartbroken Bibliophile, the Recalcitrant Sculptress, the Bellicose Prince, and the Delicate Duke (who is still much mourned in patriotic corners of society).*
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> *At the very front, cross-legged on the floor, sits the Playful Prodigy. She has the cheeks of a cherub and blue, mischievous eyes. In her arms is a baby, wrapped in a black swaddling-cloth: presumably the Captivating Princess.*
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> *Only the oldest child is absent: the Empress' Shadow, who did not Fall."*
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After an unfortunate episode involving gaoler's honey that took place sometime before ~1890, all of the Empress' children save two have been transformed into monsters. One stayed on the Surface, and the Captivating Princess, who was born in the Neath, managed to avoid the effects (at least superficially). One may see the siblings as they were before, but only in a mirror. Thanks to this predicament, many of the royal children suffer from severe insecurities and other character flaws, but they still seem to retain sapience despite their appearances.

* **The Empress' Shadow** is **Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise** (born November 21st 1840), the Princess Royal, nicknamed "Vicky," who stayed on the Surface and married the future Kaiser Frederick III of Germany. Frederick only ruled for three months in 1888 before his untimely death of cancer, leaving his and Vicky's son Wilhelm II as Kaiser. This does not appear to have changed in the world of *Fallen London.*
* **The Redundant Heir** is **Prince Albert Edward** (born November 9th 1841), nicknamed "Bertie," who seems to have transformed into a gigantic humanoid creature with a severe limp. He occasionally visits Flute Street to presumably alter his deformed appearance. Bertie's wife Alexandra of Denmark and now-grown son Prince Albert Victor have history surrounding London's politics. In the real world, Victoria blamed Bertie's carousing for Prince Consort Albert's death, but Bertie succeeded her as Edward VII anyway. Albert Victor died of influenza in 1892; he's avoided this fate in *Fallen London.*
* **The Dutiful Daughter** is **Princess Alice Maud Mary** (born April 25th 1843), "the Serpentine Coils." She married the Prince of Hesse in Germany; her youngest daughter Alexandra (now Tsarina of Russia) is known to exist, born in 1872, so we may presume she raised her family on the Surface as in real life, making only occasional visits to London. Her final trip to England was in late 1876, making it quite probable that this was when the siblings all took red honey. In the real world, she provided comfort to Prince Consort Albert as he died, then provided moral support to her mother, but their relationship was rather turbulent toward the end of Alice's life. She died of diphtheria in 1878.
* **The Brooding Captain** is **Prince Alfred Ernest Albert** (born August 6th 1844), nicknamed "Affie," who is now "the Shadow with Teeth." He has a rivalry with the Captivating Princess due to a disagreement over the working conditions of the Cumaean Canal's laborers. In the real world, he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, and became captain of the *HMS Galatea* in 1867 at the age of 22. In *Fallen London,* he brought the ship down to the Neath; in real life, he remained in his position on the Galatea until 1879 before being promoted and assigned to other ships.
* **The Heartbroken Bibliophile** is **Princess Helena Augusta Victoria** (born May 25th 1846), "an abhorrence of rusting quills." She has a unique taste for red honey that's distinct from her siblings; she partakes in honey extracted only from one individual, who's kept separate from the other prisoners. Her discarded poetry also litters the floor of the Palace. In the real world, she helped write a biography of Prince Consort Albert and translated several books from German to English. She was considerably devastated when her father died, and began to court Albert's librarian, who was dismissed when the flirtation was discovered.
* **The Recalcitrant Sculptress** is **Princess Louise Caroline Alberta** (born March 18th 1848), "the gaunt thing with a coat of glass feathers." Since her transformation into a monster thanks to the effects of red honey, her sculptures have taken on the appearance of horrifying and warped humanoid shapes. She was known as the prettiest of Victoria's daughters and a skilled artist. In our world, she pursued an artistic career despite her royal status, and enrolled in the National Art Training School in 1863. She ultimately produced several famous sculptures.
* **The Bellicose Prince** is **Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert** (born May 1st 1850), "the weeping horse-sized grub." He fought in the Campaign of '68 against Hell, but his refusal to surrender combined with his later desertion took a massive toll on his self-image. He would then consume his own red honey as "penance", turning him into the maggot of a man he thought he always was. In our world, he spent his life in the military, and was said to be Victoria's favorite child.
* **The Delicate Duke** is **Prince Leopold George Duncan** (born April 7th 1853). He had hemophilia, a blood disorder common among the royal families of Europe, which left him in poor health. In the *Fallen London* timeline, he has died, and it's unknown whether he recovered or not. Historically, he was made the Duke of Albany in 1881 and died in 1884.
* **The Playful Prodigy** is **Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore** (born April 14th 1857),  "the spider-thing with face-hands and needle-fingers." In the *Sunless Skies* timeline, Beatrice was able to return to human form. **The Generous Princess**, as she's now known, is notorious for her extravagant (and extremely dangerous) gifts and services and is the center of society in New London. Historically, she was babied by her mother, became Victoria's constant companion after Albert's death, and married a German prince (to Victoria's exasperation at losing her innocent baby daughter). She was originally supposed to marry Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte; this would imply that the Anglo-Zulu war, in which Louis-Napoleon died (ending the marriage plans), did not happen thanks to the Fall. Furthermore, the existence of the Bonapartist separatist faction in France further implies that the Bonaparte dynasty does not have the relevance it did historically.
* **The Captivating Princess** was born during the year of the Fall, and thus does not have a historical counterpart. Unlike her siblings, she has retained her human form, which is also unnaturally beautiful; it is implied that she exchanged her body for its Parabolan counterpart in order to remain human.

## References

1. ↑ Adam's Way - *Deliver the snuffer to the Avuncular Broker* - "Inside is a chart, its folds stiff with zee-salt. The corner is stamped with the seal of the Empress herself. It is labelled 'First voyage of the *Galatea*, 1867' and shows a tenuous, roving course across the Unterzee."