Who Counts the Days, and why?

Who Counts the Days, and why? - A Person Holding a Blood Glucose Meter and Blue Ribbon Tape

There's a progress quality in Fallen London called Counting the Days. You build it up for a while, then cash it in once it hits 14, to gain a Mark of Credit, or spending said Marks on various things. The quality is, in short, about hidden currencies – exactly the sort of thing that the Numismatrix deals in. (She's the one who introduces you to Fallen London's idea of multiple currencies, and she's one person to buy a Mark of Credit from.)

That's all well and good, but what's the significance of the name "Counting the Days"? I could ignore the name, but it crops up from time to time, such as on the Orthographic Infection opportunity card, where someone reading Correspondence symbols shouts "The bargain holds! The Name is gone! We count the days!" What's the significance of Counting the Days, and what do Fallen Londoners refer to when they mention it?



Best Answer

Snowskeeper's answer is very good and likely true. Here is my presentation of what is perhaps an alternative interpretation:

In Sunless Sea, one is now able to collect the letters of the "Name-which-Burns", which belonged to Salt (a being of unclear nature), an agent of the White, who is a Judgement.
Salt was sent into the Neath on a task of unspecified nature, but shed its name and travelled out into the East, presumably abandoning its purpose. This is very speculative, but perhaps Salt was sent by White on some kind of quest against the Bazaar or the bargain?
"The Name" being gone could be a reference to Salt's abandonment of its quest, resulting in the bargain holding. "Counting the Days" could be a reference to waiting until the "TRAVELLER RETURNS" (to paraphrase Frostfound) and Salt completes its task, perhaps damaging the bargain. However, in the Chapel of Lights, one of the final lessons contains the excerpt "You who remain, you know that there is no betrayal.
The Drowned Man [Mr Eaten] was torn that he might feed us. The White comes to fulfill the frozen law. The seventh city will never fall, and all of us will live."
Who knows what this implies for the actual nature of the White's (and therefore Salt's) purpose? I'm not clever enough to interpret it.




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Who Counts the Days, and why? - Free stock photo of baking, bastille day, birthday
Who Counts the Days, and why? - Man in Blue and White Crew Neck Shirt Sitting on White Sand
Who Counts the Days, and why? - Woman in Blue Sleeveless Dress Sitting on Brown Sand



Who started counting the days?

Dividing the days As with many things, we have the ancient Babylonians to thank for our 24-hour days. They were the first to divide both the day and night into 12 equal hours, later separating each hour into 60 minutes and the minutes into 60 seconds.

How are days counted?

To count days: Assign each day of the week a value between 1 and 7. If your days occur within the same week, subtract the earlier date from the later date. If your days occur in different weeks, add 7 to the later date for each week of difference, and then do the same subtraction.

How did the counting of years began?

A monk called Dionysius Exiguus (early sixth century A.D.) invented the dating system most widely used in the Western world. For Dionysius, the birth of Christ represented Year One. He believed that this occurred 753 years after the foundation of Rome.

When counting days do you count the day of the event?

When counting a timeline, the day of the event is not counted, the next day is counted as one, and the last day is included in the count.



Sunfreakz feat Andrea Britton - Counting Down The Days [Official Video HD]




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Images: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Polina Kovaleva, Kindel Media, Kindel Media