The Presbyterate

Beyond this point lie **major spoilers** for *Fallen London*, *Sunless Sea*, or *Sunless Skies*. This may include **endgame** or **Fate-locked** content. **Proceed at your own risk**.
You can find out more about our spoiler policy **here**.

>
>
> The Presbyterate
> ----------------
>
>
>
>
> The Mountain, the beating heart of the Presbyterate. Art from Sunless Sea.
>
>
> ### Location
>
>
> The Elder Continent
>
>
> ### Affiliation
>
>
> The Mountain of Light
>
>
> ### Notable Figures
>
>
> The Presbyter
> The Mountain of Light
> The Presbyterate Adventuress (former)
> The Seven Against Nidah (former)
> ~~Nicator~~
>
>
>
>
> *"The Presbyterate is not the Continent, but it dominates it. The Presbyterate's genius is its extraordinary heterogeneity. Seventy-seven kingdoms – men, Beasts, stones, flowers – a hundred schools of war and a thousand schools of thought – but all united under the Presbyter's word. And behind the Presbyter, the College of Mortality."*
>
>

**The Presbyterate** is a major power in the Elder Continent, ruling over its territory of the same name. Seventy-seven kingdoms answer to its banners, and it has a strong connection to the Mountain of Light. Notoriously secretive and oftentimes snobbish, there is far, far more to the Presbyterate than meets the eye.

## Culture

   The Presbyterate is known for its less-than-mortal populace; they're far beyond the normal Neathy immortality seen in, say, London. People from this place can be killed several times over, live to a hundred, or be sliced into mincemeat, and still recover with barely a headache. That being said, even they have a limit before they succumb to death like everyone else. The Presbyterate's language, referred to as "the language of Adam," is described as one that "jangles like bells of bronze." In addition to this biblical tongue, certain Presbyterate Passphrases are composed of bits of English, Latin, and the Correspondence. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the prevalence of immortality in the Presbyterate, belief in the afterlife is rare.

**The Order Vespertine**, a powerful group of Knife-and-Candle players, based their traditions and fighting techniques on the Presbyterate's traditions and rites.

**The Mithridate Office** is a branch of the Presbyterate, based in Apis Meet's **Surcease Street**, that fabricates false stories of the Elder Continent to confound and mystify foreigners; hilariously, they often employ foreigners themselves for this very purpose. Their workers, **Mithridites**, pay foreigners with **Formulums**, which probably don't exist anyway.

A former director of the Mithridate Office apparently chose to retire to the faraway Shepherd Isles, and may be responsible for the inhabitants' fondness for telling tall tales.

## Leadership

> *""...each Presbyter is different, but each takes the identity of the last. Presbyters never truly die, even after a thousand years. At their 'deaths' they give up their names to join the College, who live nameless. The rebels who serve the Thief-of-Faces - they live faceless. I'm no friend to the College, you know that, but they have served our realm well - they are just...""*
>
>

The **Presbyter**, or **Prester**, is the leader of the Presbyterate, elected and dismissed through a ceremony that would be very fatal on the Surface. After a Presbyter's term expires, they are sent to live nameless within **the College of Mortality**, the Presbyterate's backbone and authority on life and death, and their successor inherits their identity.

The College of Mortality is particularly infamous for a certain decree: ***None shall live a thousand years***. Not even the Presters themselves are exempt from this rule, but, as stated above, they do not truly die when their time is up. The Presbyterate Adventuress's father lived for twelve extra years, so the Presbyterate punished his transgression by forcing his children to live up to only a hundred. Anyone who lives longer than they should is ruthlessly hounded and arrested by the Presbyterate's powerful assassins, and in the words of the Bishop of St. Fiacre's: *"Death is the fist of the Presbyterate. One may not oppose death"*.

## Nidah

**Nidah** is the capital of the Presbyterate, located in the deepest regions within the Elder Continent. According to rumors, this city is the source of the Presbyterate's immortality. Nidah is surrounded by massive basalt walls, and only its **Persimmon Gate** can serve as a point of entry. While the city is described as a paradise, gorgeously paved with gemstone roads, it is also located dangerously close to the Mountain of Light, and eye protection is required to avoid certain doom.

To reach Nidah by land, one must brave the following challenges, according to Isery of the Isle of Cats:

* **The Desert of Eyes**, "*where eyes bloom in the sands. Their regard strips all pretence, reducing the traveller to a state of foetal self-loathing."*
* **The Listening Desert**, *"where earthquakes pursue the unwary."*
* **The Desert of Delights**, *"the touch of its sands is indescribably engrossing."*

Within Nidah lies the College of Mortality: grim and grey on the outside, and heaven itself on the inside. Within the College lies a door to the Garden, where true immortality can be found.

## The Kingdoms of the Presbyterate

There are seventy-seven, yet we know of only a few. Those who venture beyond Adam's Way into the heart of the Continent will encounter wonders and dangers beyond anything they could ever imagine...

* **Caution** is the City of Beasts, home to a hundred different tongues.
* **Vesture** is a kingdom of silkweavers - and the spiders that produce their silk.
* **Huz** is perhaps more of a hive than a kingdom.
* The people of **Skite** have lost their immortality privileges - and their ability to heal from their wounds at all.
* **Cline** is a kingdom of snails, whose inhabitants have all grown spiraling shells.
* **Grandinia** has been consumed entirely by a kind of fungus known as the Homesick Deceiver. Yet it lives on...

## THE PRESTER SAITH

* *No Man Shall Live a Thousand Years*
* *She Who Commands The Principle Of Victory May Feast On Its Spoil* (**The Privilege of Victory**)
* *She Who Hath Become A Tyrant May Be Toppled To Dine Upon The Ashes* (**The Edict of Policraticus**)
* *She Who Rules in Deed, Rules in Law* (**The Doctrine of Eminence**)
* *You shall harm no thing that flies, for they carry with them the airs of the Garden. No bee, no bird, no bat. Only to my servants is it given to hunt them, and that only for my table. Yet I am generous: all shall feast.*
* *The Thief-of-Faces shall not be suffered to return to the Garden, nor its chattels, nor its children. It has taken from us that which is precious and returned only lies and empty fires. It shall be locked in a prison of flint, and it shall know no light.*
* *When I die, yet shall I not die. The hour of my death shall be chosen, yet no man shall choose it. I am eternal, and yet my reign in circumscrib'd by law and Fate. I will feast at my funeral, and my child shall be my cup-bearer.*
* *In the Garden is the Design; in the Garden occurred the Ascents; in the Garden were selected the Shames. Therefore none shall enter it without that they be blinded with thorns and bound with the **Three Oaths**. And should any seek to alter the Design or repeat the Ascent or uncover the Shames, they shall be given to the Wax-Wind.*
* *None shall set foot in Nidah save he that was born there. He who violates this law shall be cast into the deepest deep, and always forsaken.*
* *Every Planet In Fixed and Solitary Orbit: intrigue between nations is forbidden.*

## One of the Three Oaths

> *"...that my word shall bind me. My promise shall outlast my flesh, and the very flesh of the world. Even when I am dust it will bind me, with red gold and a wind of wounds. If I break it, let my crown burn. Let my flesh run like wax. Let me hunger, and let nothing sate my hunger except my own skin and the marrow of my bones..."*
>
>

## References

2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 A duel to the death with Feducci 2, *Fallen London*
3. ↑ Ask the Adventuress why you've been ambushed by assassins from her homeland, *Sunless Sea*
4. ↑ Democratise death, *Sunless Sea*
5. ↑ Bitter Saker Falcon, *Fallen London* *"It's written in the red ink of the Elder Continent. And in the language of Adam, their native tongue..."*
6. ↑ Presbyterate Passphrase, *Fallen London*
7. ↑ Flint, *Fallen London* *"I now believe in something beyond life – but that is a rare strange belief in the Bright Continent."*
8. ↑ Flint, *Fallen London* *"...they draw their traditions from the traditions of the Presbyterate. [...] Knife-and-Candle is more than a game [...] it is a rite. Their rites are [...] a twisted shadow of the Presbyter's laws.""*
9. ↑ Flint, *Fallen London* *"The Mithridate Office fabricates [...] stories about the Continent [...] to confuse foreigners. [...] they often employ foreigners. The Office maintains a proud building at the head of Surcease Street. [...] Mithridites [...] pay you with a Formulum..."*
10. ↑ Listen to a storyteller, *Sunless Sea*
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 The Last Night: Record her memoirs about her homeland, *Sunless Sea*
12. ↑ Your Salon: invite a Presbyterate Diplomat as a guest of honour, *Fallen London* *"The College of Mortality, which elects and dismisses the Presbyter in a manner which on the Surface would be very final."*
13. ↑ Immortality, *Sunless Sea*
14. ↑ Offer a preposterous price, *Sunless Sea*
15. ↑ Secure the route to Nidah: plot a course across three deserts, *Sunless Sea*
16. ↑ Democratise death, *Sunless Sea*
17. ↑ The Thing That Came in the Fog, Fallen London
18. ↑ Defeat the Presbyter's armies: foster a popular uprising, *Sunless Sea*
19. ↑ The Season of Sceptres, *Fallen London*
20. ↑ The Season of Sceptres, *Fallen London*
21. ↑ Defeat the Presbyter's armies: foster a popular uprising, *Sunless Sea*
22. ↑ Order Vespertine, Perilous, *Fallen London*
23. ↑ Order Vespertine, Merciless, *Fallen London*
24. ↑ Order Vespertine, Monstrous, *Fallen London*
25. ↑ Order Vespertine, Irresistible, *Fallen London*
26. ↑ Welcome Batuk back to the Seven Against Nidah, *Sunless Sea*
27. ↑ The House of Silk and Flame, *FLWiki* *"He turns and holds the Princess' gaze: "The Prester Saith: Every Planet In Fixed and Solitary Orbit: intrigue between nations is forbidden."*
28. ↑ 'Swear by one of the Three Oaths!', *Fallen London*