Tales from the Sunless Sea - The Fourth Zee Captain

First Zee-Captain --- Previous Zee-Captain --- Next Zee-Captain

     Garrid lasted quite some time at Zee. He lasted so long, in fact, he was able to use his riches to set up a family. Whilst stopping by in Fallen London he returned to spend nights with his sweetheart multiple times until one day she cried out to him just as he was leaving. Leaning over the barrier of his vessel he was left with the information that she, Thistle, was pregnant.

     Of course, this news was taken in two minds, firstly, he was overjoyed at the idea of being a father, secondly he realised what an awful life it would be to bring up a child in a small hotel room mostly with only one parent. What if he died at Zee? So his next trip out was a short one. He doubled the money that the urchin boy was to give to his lady upon news of his death, and purchased a nice town house for them all to live in. When Garrid was back in Fallen London, all he did was spend time with his partner and child. He was successful and happy.

     That is not to say this his life went entirely smoothly. Plentiful times he met danger whilst out at Zee and his dealings had turned less and less civil as time went on. Running small errands of smuggling back and forth and spending a lot of time in some of the outlying pirate isles for some extra parts of underhanded cash, Garrid was not exactly legal. In order to keep the suspicion off of himself, however, he made sure to keep up the sinking of pirate vessels. This was messy work in itself. The slaughter and ruthless strategic fighting he learned at Zee earned him somewhat of a reputation. His family knew nothing of his life at Zee.

     Though that is not to say he was entirely a pirate himself. He also took Zee Ztories back home to his children, enough for his child to decide to wish to be a Zee Captain when he grew up. Garrid allowed this, but only after he was of age. Garrid even wrote a will so that his family could keep his home if he never returned.

     One of the stories of curious nature that intrigued Thistle the most was the strange story of Nuncio, the isle of post. For some strange reason, the post at Zee was drawn to the island and washed up there constantly. The Postmen there also seemed unhappy and drawn to the island for reasons beyond their knowing. There was also something in the heart of the island that was unspoken of, something of nightmarish origin so fr down that must have been the cause of all the disturbance, though Garrid was never to find out what it was.

     Thistle also learned of some of Garrid's more profitable legal dealings, such as sphinxes from the Salt Lions, and delivering Clay Men from Polythreme. Of course, this is the kind of tale that made Thistle believe she was capable of becoming a Zee Captain herself. One day, when Garrid was out at Zee for a particularly long time, all the returned was news of his having got into one fight too many and was unable to make it back, though there was claim that his last words were of love for his sweetheart in Fallen London.

     A day later, a large package of money arrived at Thistle's doorstep and he barely hesitated before raiding Garrid's study for any information she could. She got herself a cheap vessel, she put her growing boy into care with the nanny who helped raise him, and she left for the wide and open Zee.

     Thistle's journey was safer and more successful than any who had come before her, because she was prepared and had a lot of strategic information from her partner. She also had a fairly accurate and open chart of Garrid's travels. Thistle, you see, was an old thinker. A Philosopher who had been kicked out of the university fairly quickly for her refusal to work in the way they wanted. She was a wise and clever woman, but also a curious one. Her journey started with exploration. She travelled north and then east and then south, visiting every possible port on the way and staying at Zee for a lengthy time using her spare funds for fuel and supplies to continue her journey.

     This was a problem, however, as while money can get her so far, as she travelled she fully begane to realise what Garrid was putting himself through and how terrifying the Zee could be. As she travelled, she could feel her and her crew's sanity slipping away. This was not aided by finding out stories of Garrid and the horrible tales she heard of his brutality. As she went, things got worse until eventually she found Nuncio. She needed to know what it was about that place, so she asked questions and tried to go down the whatever was below the island in the darkness and all she got was more fear in the very pit of her.

     She needed to return to Fallen London urgently, but it was a long trip and without being able to justify stopping off many places for fuel, it would be a risky trip. On the way, one of her crewmates went fully mad and tried bludgeoning some of the other folk aboard. They tried to restrain him, though he was fulled with insanity and managed to kill two people before he was taken out. This did not help to calm the crew, everyone now suspicious of everyone. A few leagues more and it is said that everyone watched the attack.

     An enormous tentacle rose up from the Zee, wrapped around one crew member and took him below. It is said that the taken crew member was not scared, but she simply accepted death. Though when people looked overboard, there was no sign of the beast. Had there even been an attack? Nobody was certain of anything anymore. What started off as a curiosity voyage became awash of stories of terror and unreliable accounts of incredible luck. With scarcely any crew, fuel, supplies, sanity and the ship itself having taken much in the way of damage it is a miracle any of them survived to see Fallen London. Though they did.

     The stay in Fallen London was a long one. The two remaining non-officers retired and Thistle brought on an entirely new crew - for she was not done. After spending two weeks with her child and preparations, she knew she could do this. She travelled South this time and filled in more of the map that Garrid hadn't. She bought and sold information, she spent time at Polythreme to trade Claymen and at the Salt Lions to trade Sphinxes. She spent less time at Zee, picked her battles carefully and visited many places of wonder along the way amassing riches and respect. Needless to say, she was successful.

    It was then that the strangest of her stories began...

To Be Continued...

---Howard Sterling, Chronicler of the Fallen London University

Bloodborne - The Gothic Horror Influence

Minor Spoiler Warning: I'll be talking a little bit about some of the events of Bloodborne even though I won't be addressing most of the story or 'twists' directly.

     Bloodborne is a horror game. To clarify, I do not claim it is a 'survival horror' in the classic sense of a horror game – but it draws upon the very core of what horror is[1]. Now, the fact that Bloodborne is heavily involved with Lovecraftian style lore is something that is particularly commonly known and discussed at this stage. So, I would like, here, to have a closer look at some of the other horror influences of Bloodborne – the 'Gothic fiction'.

The Popularity of Victorian Horror

     Victorian Gothic horror is something that has had repeated surges of popularity ever since they first arrived with tales such as Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' (1764); continuing with stories such as Frankenstien (1818), by Mary Shelly; The Tell-Tale Heart (1843), by Edgar Allen Poe; and Dracula (1897), by Bram Stoker. The main part of the popularity of this kind of fiction appeared during the Victorian era, and thus the Gothic and Victorian styles became synonymous.[2]

     As a testament to the popularity of this style of story in Victorian London, it wasn't just the wealthier folk who were able to enjoy the high literature of Gothic horror. The 'Penny Dreadful' serials (1830 – 1890) were cheap and often unimpressive stories that could be bought in instalments as quick as they were churned out. Some Penny Dreadfuls proved significantly more popular than others, introducing us to stories such as 'Sweeney Todd' (Originally 'String of Pearls') – but the style remained and many of them were copied stories of previous Gothic horror tales, or a stylised retelling of old folklore stories such as Witches, Highwaymen, Werewolves, and Hunters. This Victorian approach to Gothic horror is the core aesthetic of Bloodborne's characters and the setting of Yarnham, as is the basis for which it was inspired. From top-hats and cloaks to canes that become serrated whips to a medieval fear of witches – Penny Dreadfuls and Gothic fiction has them all.

     Let us have a look at some particular examples of Gothic fiction in Bloodborne.[3][4]

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

     Experimentation, for education purposes or otherwise, plays a common role in Bloodborne owing largely to diseases that need to be cured and some folk's beliefs that they can become improved beings by infusing some part of themselves with other beings. These 'experiments' often incur some kind of transmogrification, often into some kind of beastly or violent form. A popular tale this rings true to is that of 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. In this story there is a Doctor who wished to hide some of his darker indulgences so found a way to transform himself in a way that would hide his identity when doing so. However, the alter-ego was dangerous and uncaring and eventually could not be controlled, causing murder and destruction in his wake.

Frankenstein

     Similarly: quite a heavy fear for people during the Victorian era was the weirdness of medical practices and that, with speedy advances in medicine, they may have gone 'too far'. Bloodborne also uses similar themes such as the main character getting a blood-transfusions from the man in Yharnam as a way of opening the story. Specifically, getting a blood transfusion extends the player's lifespan until they can find an actual cure to their disease, as well as many of the other medical experiments being toward the goal of things such as immortality and thereby 'playing with life and death'. Frankenstien by Mary Shelley has themes of worries about scientific advances at the time, such as 'galvanisation', which was a feared practice within the Victorian era that people thought could re-vitalise the dead thereby 'playing with life and death'.

     Another link to Frankenstein is that the game starts with a man muttering that what you will experience will seem like a “bad dream” to frame the entire story. The main hub in the game that we return to often is 'The Hunter's Dream' and, at many parts throughout the game, the character dips in and out of other people's dreams. Each dream frames its own little parts of the story, making the whole narrative both unreliable, uncertain to have actually happened, and somewhat confusing. In Frankenstein, the tale happens as a series of letters as a prelude to someone telling the story which is a frame of a story which at some point is further framed by another layer of story – leaving the whole narrative just as unreliable, uncertain and confusing.

Dracula

     Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, used a series of letters and second-hand accounts to make up the story of the people surrounding the vampire in his castle. This adds to the speculative aspect of the story in having to figure out a lot of what is happening otherwise than what is seen, as one does in Bloodborne. Dracula, being written and set heavily into the Victorian period suggests a lot of the imagery for the characters, also. While clothes are not specifically mentioned much in the book, it is not beyond reason to suggest, owing to the time period, there would have been, depending on character social status: canes, top hats, suits with long tailcoats, capes and cloaks, and other such garbs that can be seen in Bloodborne.

     The main link between Bloodborne and Dracula, however, is the social factor. Toward the start of the game the player is contracted to participate in a night of the hunt, where people go out and kill any monsters or diseased folk. One thing to note about this situation is the status of the people involved. Most of the hunters outside are poor to middle classed men, and we sometimes have the option to talk to the people secure inside their houses. Of which, those are the safe folks who have the social status to not participate and not only that, they have the gall to mock you rather than offer shelter. Meanwhile we later find the higher-ups and important folk, such as leaders of the healing church, are not only safe and remote from the hunt but are also corrupt in their own ways. This kind of thing is a running theme throughout Dracula, where much of the power of Dracula is in his social status and stands as commentary on the social power people have.

     The 'good guys', then, are not anyone of status. They are simply workers who desire not to die by the hand of the corrupt. Whether this is a direct link or something that happens to be a common suggestion or theme owing to the style and setting of both Bloodborne and Dracula is to be seen – though it is certainly something to consider and gives a bit of an understanding as to why people consider the first half of the game to be something 'straight out of a Bram Stoker novel'.

To Be Continued...

     As the risk of repeating myself, I would like to clarify further that I do not think these links are strong or directly influential to the game. My goal is to merely give insight to the kinds of themes that are prevalent in the Victorian and Gothic horror setting which Bloodborne in some kind of way either falls prey to or pays homage to; I personally think that is something to be respected. Bloodborne does not simply copy these styles of story – it adds to them. It is part of the fiction of Gothic horror genre which is something people pay attention to less than the more obvious connection with Bloodborne... Lovecraft.
     The links with Lovecraft in Bloodborne are not subtle and the works of Lovecraft came a decade or so after and were slightly inspired by the kind of horror works that popped up in the Victorian period. With this in mind, as a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror, I will chip in with my thoughts and links next time...

     Until then - thanks for reading.

1. Horror only need to play upon things that people are not okay with, it can be scary and based on our fears, but it can also just be unsettling, disturbing, suspenseful, nightmarish or plainly weird.
2. It is a common theme amongst this genre to be told as if it were true, through letters or second hand stories suggesting the possibility of this strange thing that happened rather than addressing it as a narrated fiction. This is one reason a 'Souls' series game owes itself greatly to this genre, as most of the lore is found out through stories or second-hand writings.
3. Less specific, though still a link: Werewolves have been popular in folklore since ancient Greece, though Lycanthropy in horror fiction was very much popularised by the Gothic horror in the early 19^th century with stories such as 'The Man-Wolf' in 1831 and 'Hughes, Wer-Wolf' in 1838. Popular themes involved similar tales to the Scourge Beasts in Bloodborne with it being some kind of disease or curse that transforms them, often permanently, into a murderous wolf-beast.
4. While some of these links may be tenuous as oppose to direct influence, it they will still ring true as tropes of the stories with Bloodborne being reminiscent of them due to being part of the genre as a whole.

Exploratoring The Real World - The Racecourse

Three and a half years ago, I wrote about a place in Northampton called 'The Racecourse' that was a nice place by day, but dangerous and to be avoided by night. This held a lot of symbolism for me, so I wrote and recorded this. Thanks for reading.

 The Racecourse

     Do you walk dogs, or do dogs walk you? That's what I was thinking. Swaying on those swings – rusted and immaturely coloured with reds and blues. Those creaky chains could resist the wind, but not my weight. I wasn't swaying forwards and backwards, as it was more of a side-to-side; my mind was peaceful – simple. Noticing the childish smoke from my mouth, I pretended to be a dragon in the way that had always been funny since I was little.

     It was a heavily coated dog, walking a heavily coated man. That's what it was. The dog had a jovial bounce to his step – somewhat of a skipping child on four legs. He was as fluffy and grey as the looming clouds. A dark night threatened. The man tailed a rigid trail behind; he definitely wasn't in control. I stared out to the mass of open space peering closely at the hiding spots: trees that could hold dens or hills to roll down. The Racecourse was so innocent and vague; there were fewer things more sinister.

     Guess who I felt sorry for most, though? Those information signs that act so self-importantly. They sit and tell you things, constantly - sat gleaming their information to deaf ears and dull minds. Who was really going to stop and hear them out in that kind of cold? Must be hard to have a job. Or at least a boring one where you slave away the majority of your waking life to a cause that isn't your own. Those kinds of people probably cross through places like the The Racecourse every day in an attempt at being punctual. I doubt they even stop to look at the monotonous, striving, aimless field.

The signs probably should quit their jobs. They won't, though, because they work to live their ever extending life. You have to admire their persistence, calling out to happily married couples romancing hand in hand – clearly enjoying the rest of their lives so much more than the signs. I wondered how old they were – when does a sign retire, anyway?

     So many leaves on the ground from the time of year. Some of the leaves had a youthful shade of white spread over them as if trying to dye their 'greying' hair. Hiding from their own mortality. Brown must be a dull colour for a leaf; morbid and dry. Sometimes the wind would carry them speedily along as if chasing a hearse: 'Take me with you' they'd whisper in the despair of the night. At first they lose their tree, and then the death of darkness has to plague them, destroying their overt attempts at being innocent and pure. When the scythe strikes, The Racecourse wins.

I wonder if the dog made his way home? I bet the man got enough exercise. I made my own way home before dark, it's not quite my time, yet.

Tales from the Sunless Sea - The Third Zee Captain

First Zee- Captain --- Second Zee-Captain --- Story Continues...

     I have made some grave errors of judgement. It seems that my withdrawn lifestyle in Fallen London has blinded me to the amount of Zee-Captains there are. That does not stop me wishing only to chronicle this particular line, but in my research I have found that most Zee-Captains bump into numerous others on their travels. I would guess there are plenty though most of their lives are secret and personal and some do not last very long at Zee. This is a mistake I have had to accept, but it changes nothing.

     The Third Zee-Captain had a story of his own that goes against the  desires of the  previous two in my chronicles. After the Cavies from Pigmoat Isle sent the money back to Fallen London, it fell into the hands of a particular individual down on his luck. His name was Garrid and he was a street urchin of Fallen London - the only problem was that he grew too old for his gang to continue accepting him. Upon his first free day he was lost and unsure of his direction in life when something fortunate happened to him by the docks. A Zee-Captain newly taking port approached.

     "Oi buddy, you know who 'the hairless advisor' is?"

     "What...? No."

     "Right, well it's a fool's errand to find someone who does, so take this and go..." the Zee-Captain shoved a package toward Garrid's stomach. Garrid took it, of course, without asking any questions. He grew up on the streets and learned to always take free gifts. Even if you ought to be wary about the giver. Package in hand he ran to the nearest alley-way and opened the package of money. It was more money than he had ever seen in his life.

     Over the past month or so, he knew he was going to be booted from his street gang soon, and had also begun hearing tales of noble folks taking to the Zee, such as the philosopher Ylvanna, seeking knowledge and a place to settle. Garrid began to dream of such things. To be able to afford a small vessel and pick up a small crew and earn money, legit this time. Only with this bundle of cash in his hands did he realise that this dream could become real, however. Over the next week, he recruited some sailors with nothing to lose, he pooled their money into securing a worthy vessel he stocked up well on fuel and rations and went off on his first journey, hoping not to return for as long as he could manage.

     Naturally, his name as a street urchin had travelled further than his possibility of being a successful Zee-Captain, so first things first, he had to prove himself a legitimate non-criminal captain. There would be authorities watching him, after all. The first task he took upon himself was to grant passage to a desperate woman. Being from the streets, Garrid noticed immediately why this woman so desired passage and why others seemed to be avoiding her. So he offered her passage under her pretence that she was to be reunited with her long lost love, though he knew she was smuggling goods. He took her all the way to Vanderbight and let her ashore, knowing immediately that the authorities would check her suspicious look. He watched her get arrested and secured his place as a non-criminal Zee-Captain.

     Garrid did not shy away from battles. Rather, when he saw a creature, he hunted it down. On his first long voyage out, he took down two pirate ships, which even further aided his good-guy reputation, and travelled north to south, far and wide. Helping people felt good. He wasn't engaging in anything of the dodgy sort of his past, yet this took him a little too far. On his visit to the northern town of Whither, he spotted a woman in a green dress clearly in distress. Calling out to her in the frozen land she did not respond. Desiring to help he approached her and with a hand on her shoulder she drooped to the ground and slithered away as a giant serpent emerged from just below the icy waters nearby. The serpent threatened to eat them all and Garrid had a swift choice – fight or flight. He fled to his boat, told his crew to move as quickly as they could, though alas the serpent caught up and managed to devour a crew member before the boat sped away.

     Saddened by the event, he knew that at least he had a story to tell and that he had learned his lesson. You shouldn't try to help everyone, and sometimes running or hiding might be wiser than trying to fight everything. At least he didn't try to fight the beast. It was a long trek back to Fallen London, but once he arrived he rested a while. Having recruited an entire crew, he knew the benefit of skilled groups from his urchin life, so with increased morale and skills was his method realised.

     Garrid sought coin, and coin he made. He sold many stories and port reports to Fallen London and his voyage was one of the most successful, enlightening, and enthralling that almost any Zee-Captain had to offer. One night in Fallen London, however, he took the night off and socialised. In this night he met a fine woman, and they enjoyed each other's company more than just one night would justify. So when the time came to take to the Zee once more, the lady offered him a Locket with the only wish being that he not forget her. He did not.

     Taking to the seas for a much shorter time, Garrid ran some errands to Vanderbight and the Iron Republic and returned to Fallen London within two weeks. This time, he was met by that mistress, who admitted she was partially there in the hopes of his return and they chatted. She admitted how pleased she was that his work was not of criminal origin like mahy Zee-Captains and they agreed to meet up later that day. Maybe she had spoken too soon, however, for as soon as she left, Garrid was approached by a shady sort. The very same man who offered gift to Ylvanna offered similar gift and asked for return favours from Garrid. Old habbits die hard, as they say, and Garrid took the offer and accepted the underground request.

     Knowing his demise could happen at any time out at Zee, having been shaken by the serpent trickster and although confident of his voyage was fully aware of what was possible, he decided to take on extra measures. He took much of his coin, wrapped it up in a small pouch and went to visit one of his urchin 'brothers'. He gave him the package in confidence and asked, a promise made in blood-pact, that should the boy hear of his death, that this was to go to a woman named 'Thistle' right there in Fallen London. With that, Garrid went off, spent a wonderful night with his new love, and in the morning went off to sail again.

     To be continued...

--- Howard Sterling, Chronicler Of The Fallen London University

Transistor - The Power and the Process

Spoiler Warning: This post will be heavily spoiling the back story to a fantastic game which is much better played without knowing anything about it. So if you have not yet played the game Transistor, then I implore you to turn back now and do so. The content of this video is for people who have either played the game or have no intention of ever doing so.

-----The 'explained' story of Transistor is further down the page. Begin with my first post on the philosophy of Cloudbank and  Who Is Red? Here.-----

     Transistor, unlike its spiritual predecessor Bastion, gives the player almost no narrative clarity as to the events throughout the game or the game's back story. In fact, where in Bastion what was happening was told by our narrator, voiced by Logan Cunningham, that same voice in Transistor knows as little as the player does. What is known has to be figured out, or inferred by the player and that kind of subtlety is rarely seen in games. The information, however, is all there and there are plenty of explanations given to things that seem to go unexplained weaved into the very fabric of the game. Due to the depth of story without much being told, however, what seems to have mostly cropped up in discussion of the game is the theory that the game's city of Cloudbank and all the inhabitants inside of it are actually virtual, therefore not real. While there is a fair amount of evidence for this idea, such as the name 'cloudbank' meaning a storage of virtual information and the Transistor represents those inhabitants being able to manipulate their own programming, I feel that this theory overshadows the story and events of the game.

     The thing about the virtual theory is that, true or not, it doesn't really matter. Descartes once made a similar suggestion about the real world, in thinking that what we sense and experience could be manipulations or a fake reality, so he reduced everything we fully 'know' to it's rawest form, and in doing so found that there is only one possible thing that must be true, and that is that we are thinking and therefore we exist. From here, many other things can be understood because there are only two possibilities that follow: either everything is real and we are not being manipulated, in which we carry on as normal, or we are being manipulated from outside influences, but we aren't to know that and we do have to survive in this world, real or not, so it doesn't matter. Overall, if Cloudbank is not real, even if the characters are programmed to act a certain way and have no free will – it makes utterly no difference, because the events of the game happen to us: the player. So, we can freely talk about the story under full assumption that it did happen and that it has an impact.

     What does appear to be real however, is the constant cycle of change that is apparent throughout the game.

     Let's say, for example, one day the people want a lovely bridge, so an architect designs a lovely bridge and a lovely bridge is constructed. Then a social commentator complains that there should not be a bridge there when there are poorer parts of the city with overflowing schools, so people agree on the polls and the bridge becomes a school very shortly after. Then people claim that there is no need for more education when there are not enough jobs for skilled workers, everyone agrees, and so the school becomes a factory, but then some years later, when society changes again, people whimsically desire that the spot would be a great spot for a lovely bridge, and it is made so. This kind of cyclical desire is apparent in all aspects of people's lives, and it is the very centre of Cloudbank's society. A society free to the whims of the people is somewhat of an ideal situation of democracy. Cloudbank, however, is also the epitome of a city in flux where everything is at the easily manipulated whims of the common populace. Everything in Cloudbank's life becomes fleeting and synthetic. So life in Cloudbank is in a constant state of change where people decide the changes and the changes get carried out in the background by The Process.

     The Process are a group of robots that nobody sees (likely due to hailing from a different 'dimension' - explainable by the virtual world theory) but everyone simply knows exists and takes for granted. People want that bridge turned into a school? The Process carry out the work. Need a skyscraper demolished? The Process can do that. Want the local park to just look a bit prettier? Consider it a blank canvas to The Process. They are unthinking, unfeeling beings bidden to the whims of the engineers such as Royce Brackett. I will discuss the different types of Process a little further on. So, with all the labour, creation, and menial jobs getting carried out by the process, that leaves a large amount of scope for people to do what they most desire. An example of this is Farrah Yon-Dale who learned to change the colour of the sky and so became a painter of it. Or Bailey Gilande who ended up as head of the city archives due to her excellent organisation skills and lack of social skills leaving her to enjoy the solitary work.

     The Process, then, are controlled robots of different kinds that do their work in the background. In the game of Transistor it becomes clear there is a malfunction and the Process appear to be recreating everything to the most basic state they can; which Red navigates throughout the game, seeing all of the different kinds of Process at work. Some examples of the Process and their purposes are as such: 'Fetch' are like guard dogs for any construction work happening, 'snapshot' take photos - either for reference or planning purposes, 'weed' and 'cheerleaders' repair and protect The Process respectively, while 'cluckers' and 'jerks' are used for destruction and flattening the ground. The stand out ones that do not appear to have an obvious purpose would me 'man' and 'young lady' which could be speculated to have been created by The Process for reasons we do not understand. While much of this can be marked as speculation, it fits into their purpose within the world so simply stands to reason. The Process however, as unthinking beings, have no real intention of harming people and destroying everything, however, something went wrong. What went wrong was the Camerata.

     The Camerata are a group of powerful individuals who desire to change the very foundations of Cloudbank to make it a more stable place rather than a cyclical city of flux. Their tag line 'Everything changes therefore nothing changes.” is a huge indicator that this limbo that has been created seems not to be a good thing to the Camerata. They are headed by people who understand the city better than the common people, or at least they think they do. As Cloudbank is supposedly an idyllic city, yet an underground resistance organisation had to be constructed in order to make any change happen, emphasises the huge faux pa to suggest any negativity with the way Cloudbank is. To even hint that Cloudbank is not great would be an insult to democracy itself and would suggest that people should not be in control. As a result the Camerata are essentially a resistance group of higher-ups rebelling against the people as oppose to the more common opposite situation. In essence, Cloudbank can be seen as a metaphor for people being so free that very few people can really afford to think for themselves, and this is what The Camerata are rebelling against (See my first post on the political philosophy of Cloudbank here). Where thinking for yourself can be dangerous, there are public figures who do the thinking for you such as Wave Tennigan a radio broadcaster, or Lillian Platt creator of the terminals, who both end up inside the Transistor.

-----What follows is a loose partly-speculative explanation of the story of Transistor: (Massive Spoiler Warning!)-----

     The story starts with Sybil Reisz of the Camerata hearing one of Red's songs at a concert and noting that Red appears to be unhappy with the way Cloudbank is in a similar way that The Camerata are. The Camerata are using the Transistor to absorb certain individuals that they think will be useful to use and recreate Cloudbank in a specialised vision resembling a messed up version of Meritocracy. Sybil's obsession with Red hit a peek when she noticed Red becoming more withdrawn from the limelight of fame and Sybil blamed this on one of her companions whom she did not know. It is then believed that, against the will of the rest of The Camerata, Sybill Reisz decided to absorb Red into The Transistor so her creativeness could be used and she couldn't be taken away from Sybil by this man. When she waited up after one of Red's concerts to carry out the task, she didn't count on the unknown man being there and Sybil accidentally absorbed him instead of Red.

     The problem was that he was an unknown - The Transistor could not handle this 'glitch' of an unrecorded person in Cloudbank and started to malfunction. Part of the result of this is the unknown man being able to talk through The Transistor and The Process breaking through to Cloudbank and recreating it like this blank slate of a man. Thus the events of Transistor begin. Red learns of The Camerata and what is happening throughout the game, and eventually decides to join the unknown man 'in the country' instead of using her new power and blank canvas to make Cloudbank anew.

Tales from the Sunless Sea - The Second Zee Captain

 The First Zee-Captain ----- The Third Zee-Captain

     The second Zee-Captain was a wise one and a foolish one. They were certainly more cautious about their trip than Ylvanna, and they definitely made sure to pass on more information about their journey than Ylvanna. However, they failed to take into account an ability for combat whilst at Zee and that for combat one might need a fully intact boat. They also refused to give away their identity; those who claim to have spoken to them claim they were female so I shall continue with that. She bore a particularly interesting story.

     The reason for the second Zee-Captain to become a Zee-Captain was a direct result of the death of Ylvanna, for she was an acquaintance. Her first mission at Zee, then, was clear – sail to where Ylvanna's first crash happened and seek out the boat. Sailing directly east of Fallen London, she searched for two days without finding anything on the nearby islands – so decided to pick one and get rations. When she landed on Pigmote Island, the entire place looked desolate save there stood two folk seemingly awaiting her arrival at a distance. When she and her crew approached, she noticed that one of the figures was a chief-engineer rat and the other a Seneschal guinea-pig clad in armour. Many folk cease to believe her stories at this point – though much stranger things have happened out at Zee.

The rodents proceeded to tell their quarrel to the second Zee-Captain. A most recent dispute that appeared to have no peace to garner and thus she was forced to make a choice. Pick a side or depart. 

     The side she chose was that of the Seneschal who then lead her to where the rest of the oversized Cavies were – Cavia. The central building of Cavia was a grounded Zee vessel where the guinea-pigs corralled nearby. There, she noted the situation by speaking to different folk and she reportedly noticed how utterly incompetent they appear to have been as a species. Due to the incompetence and not wanting to lose any of her own crew to a rodent war, she decided to advise only and went to meet the king of the Cavies who put her plan into action – a full scale attack to steal back something precious to the Cavies and then gain control over the island while the rats were weak.

     The plan was mostly successful though the population took a significant decline, but with control over the island, the king thanked the second Zee-Captain who stayed for some of the celebrations and departed. Not, however, before recruiting one of the Cavies as her mascott on-board her vessel, thus following Ylvanna's example of having a 'pet' on board. Having left, though, she felt somewhat important to the island and reportedly made multiple return trips over the next few months.

      Her tale follows with some difficulty, a scarcity in fuel and rations a scuffle with some Zee creatures. Not wanting any hostility, her main focus was to run – at first – and escape she did, only after taking some damage to her hull. She retreated south-west to the Shepherd Isles where she found some stories to trade and recruited a first mate and, shortly after, a doctor. At Abbey Rock, further south, her difficulties subsided as she struck a significant fortune.

     As she neared Abbey Rock, with every intention of just passing by, her lookout on her crew shouted that there was something interesting by the rocks – a wreckage. The Captain, hoping it to be Ylvanna's Wreckage and that there might have been some clue as to what happened to her, decided to dock and search the crashed ship. It was not the wreckage of Ylvanna, though it was that of a previous Zee-Captain who had grounded and left behind a large amount of fuel and food. The ship has strange markings on it showing signs of worrying struggle – however, the Zee-Captain's worries of returning to Fallen London were over for now. This tale is also surprising to myself as I believed there not to have been many Zee-Captains of this kind previous to Ylvanna - sorely we must accept that there are many unknowns out at Zee.

     As the second Zee-Captain neared to Fallen London again, she decided to stop and make an enquiry at the Hunter's Lodge, for she too had heard that one of the sisters was a friend to Ylvanna. Over the next week she managed to sit down for lunch with all three sisters, which was either a blessing or a curse. While none of them wished to discuss Ylvanna, they all had their odd stories to tell that had different effects on the crew. Some crew claimed they were being watched by Storm. Other crew claimed that Salt was aware of the and they just knew. One man claimed they should be weary of the attention of Stone. The three Gods – if they exist – had some part of their gaze on the second Zee-Captain. There were tests that support this claim.

     One of the crew told the story that while at Zee, some of the crew looked up at the shining on the ceiling of the Unterzee, spread out like stars over the cavernous expanse. With permission to gaze at them, they were rewarded with calmness and reduced fear for the rest of their voyage. Another time a crew-mate told the story that the Zee-Captain was eating a biscuit when a hard crunch had her picking some kind of stone from her mouth. It was a diamond. The crew warned her that diamonds are a sign of Stone – the God of home, hearth and healing - and should be cast into the Zee. The Captain refused, however, and sold it in Fallen London, instead.

     The next of her voyages had her with much food and ration so lasted a long time out at Zee – she learned many things such as sometimes it is better to fight. She took more damage to her ship but refused, still, to get any repairs until it was “absolutely necessary”. She also stopped by the port to the Surface and enquired what it was like up there and she learned that many neath-dwellers fail to survive in the heat above. The surface is not a safe option for us, either.

     Over the next days, little of the second Zee-Captain's story trickled back to Fallen London, though it was said she was seen heading too far North into some dangerous mists. After more visits to the Hunter's Lodge and finally Cavia, she met her match just off of Pigmote Island where she encountered a threat that did not take long to sink her damaged vessel. The cavies watched and wept at the coast as they saw their 'hairless advisor' and crew get picked off as food. That same evening, the Cavies got a raft together and found a passer-by to send a package containing what they found at the wreckage back to Fallen London that it might be useful to another.

     Thus begins the tale of the third Zee-Captain.

--- Howard Sterling, Chronicler Of The Fallen London University

Life is Strange: A Meta Problem of Ethical Choice

Spoiler Warning: As counter-intuitive as it is to write an entire post based on the ending of a game and then beg you not to read it – please do not read this unless you have completed Life is Strange or have no intention of ever playing it. I will be specifically talking about the end of the game, so I personally recommend playing it first; it is a really good and gripping story-rich game.

Life is Strange is a story-rich game, to say the least. It starts with some interesting characters and scarcely any game-play mechanics, save for one element – the time reversal. In Life Is Strange it is possible to reverse time for a limited way back and there are multiple uses of this, such as learning new dialogue options to re-talk to people in a better way. While this power might seem immediately useful to replay scenes in order to choose the best scenario and therefore time-line, it isn't as simple as that. Life Is Strange is all about multiple options of equal value, so that either every scenario seems bad or all scenarios seems okay – there is not much middle ground.

With this background it is easy to see how far this notion could be pushed. For example, using multiple bad options we are able to see which option most will think is the lesser of two evils, or which option might seem bad now but looks to be the most beneficial for the future. The entire game culminates in this kind of notion, too. After each chapter, we are offered a page with all of the important choices from the previous chapter and what percentage of people chose each scenario. With judgement and moral choice, the percentages are often close, however with some possibly skip-able scenarios in the game, there are other scenarios which are heavily weighted on people picking one choice. One of these choices is looking at Dana's pregnancy test and getting told off for doing so, which only 2% of people kept the decision of and 98% of people either missing it entirely or rewinding so that Dana never knew you looked at it. The one choice that stands out as particularly interesting, however, is the last decision in the game.

Life is Strange ends with a strange twist to a philosophy of ethics thought experiment called 'the trolley problem'. The trolley problem is an old scenario that tests people's morality in a difficult situation and was popularised by Philippa Foot; it goes as such:

There is a trolley (train) moving on the tracks towards five people who are stuck and will be killed. You happen to be stood next to a switch that you know will change the direction of the tracks and move it away from the five people towards the other tracks where there is one person working, who will then be killed instead. Would you pull the switch?

As the notion of Utilitarianism suggests [1], when asked, a significant portion of people say they would pull the switch and let the one person die rather than the five. There have been variations of this problem that changes the scenario to include factors that might sway people's decisions, such as knowing some of the people on the tracks, or actually having to push someone onto the tracks yourself to stop the train. However, Life Is Strange ends with a variation of this problem and is interesting for two main factors. Firstly that people have played many hours empathising with the characters so it is a closer situation to actually having to make the decision in an informed way rather than just being asked a hypothetical. Secondly it reverses the circumstance set out in the problem entirely. At the end of the game you are asked if you want to let your best friend die as fate appears to be trying to make happen, or change that fate (by 'hitting the switch') but as a result you sacrifice an entire town and the people inside of it.

What is most striking about this choice is that in any utilitarian perspective it seems obvious – one life against an entire town of hundreds / thousands. However, this is your best friend who has gone through a lot of the game's difficulties with you, against a town of people, about thirty of whom you know with some of them you don't care for. When the page comes up to show the results of what people chose, the split is almost half. Around 46% of people choose to save one life and condemn hundreds (potentially thousands) to their demise. Furthermore, the developers of the game said that they wanted there to be no right decision, they wanted each ending to simply be the player's choice and that it as fine. Under a logical notion, though, it still seems like a difficult choice to justify.

So, we can use this statistic to consider a few things about making this decision – as there is so much more to the game's story that has gone unmentioned – what has happened up to this choice would seem to make a big impact on the decision made. Firstly we ought to consider that there will be some people who could never let someone close to them die, even if it means the sacrifice of many others, and for those people, there is only one choice. For everyone else who picked that choice, it stands to reason that something about their game and the choices they made pushed them towards the decision.

In Life is Strange there are up to three other characters who have the potential to die from the choices made and many of those who don't die in the game are easy to dislike. If the decisions kept in the game amounted to some of the characters you liked dying and big mistakes having been made and an utter dislike for the town was created – it starts to seem like a more viable option. There is also the consideration that throughout the game you saved your best friend multiple times, so feel the whole experience would have been valueless if you decide to just go back and let her die anyway. With this kinds of extra perspectives, the choice is a little harder to make for some and it might be easier to see why some were tempted by the seemingly less moral choice. If, however, you like Warren and Joyce and Kate, then you know they are in the town and it is a matter of not wanting to let people such as that die as they are greater in number, again, the choice seems obvious to that player.

Overall, it is possible to understand from the perspective of the player that all the choices they made throughout the game factor into this last choice. [2] Of course, it is also important to take into account the null-choices of people who didn't fully enjoy the game and just wanted to see what would happen, but if they got to the end of the game I'm going to unprofessionally assume this is a low number.

Foot first raised the thought experiment of the trolley problem to emphasise the idea that there are not always good options in moral decision making and, in the many variations of the problem that have arisen, it seems that each variant has different numbers of people taking action or not. One of the most important factors in your decision of any varient, it has been shown, is having encountered this kind of hypothetical before. [3] Those who have never heard of utilitarianism are more willing to let the five die over the one, and those who have heard of it and have been asked these questions are more likely to kill the one instead of let the five die in any circumstance. As it is likely that most of the people who have played Life is Strange have probably not studied ethical theory or know much about Utilitarianism at all – then the statistics support this idea. To those who have not encountered this kind of theory of hypothetical before, the choice may present itself in their heads not as a numbers difference but in some other kind of way. If it simply seems like a choice between two equally bad options and you simply choose your best friend whom you have been through so much with and is right next to you, maybe that is just as viable decision.

Another factor not yet considered is that nobody would remember most of the events that happened as resetting the time means the time-line will be rewritten. Naturally, this is impossible to factor in with real life situations, but it may well affect the decision made at the end. Though with a 46 to 54 percent split on what seems to be easy choice for a utilitarian, it shows that the world doesn't work the way logic would suggest. When put on the spot, people's choices are their own and perhaps that is okay, or perhaps everyone simply needs a little more moral education. [4]

Footnotes:

1. Utilitarianism in it's most simplistic form is to 'act in such a way that brings about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.'
2. There are some who have criticised the game for the choices made throughout not changing the ending as there are only two endings based on this final choice – though the entire journey along the way changes according to those choices and the journey affects which of the two choices you make – so I would argue that it does matter and is a satisfying ending.
3. Unger, Peter. “Causing and Preventing Serious Harm.” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 65(1992):227–255
4. Thanks for reading this meta-exploratoring of Life is Strange, I would quite like to return to this game and perhaps look into the story a little deeper in a less meta way. If this is something you might be interested in – send me a message and let me know! Thanks again, ciao for now!