(For the "suburb" (really, an airship) of London, please see New London.)
London is a recurring city throughout the Mortal Engines quartet and the Fever Crumb trilogy.
All inhabitants of the city can be found here.
History[]
Pre-Series[]
London was a large and powerful city before and up to the Sixty Minute War (according to a piece of scrap, up to 2118), but during the Dark Centuries became a hellhole; generally people avoided it due to it being devastated by nuclear strikes and orbital weapons. However, during the transition between the Black Centuries and the Traction Era, London was re-inhabited and became a city of trade, learning and politics.
It was conquered by the Scriven up to the Orbital Moatway (M25 Motorway) during the dawn of the Traction Era; they ruled London for around a hundred years, before being evicted by an uprising by the human population. This was a period of time when London remained static and had yet to be converted into the first Traction City.
Fever Crumb trilogy[]
After The Movement conquered London, their leader Nikola Quercus oversaw the conversion of the whole city into a colossal mobile construct. Rather forgotten was the fact that in the process more than half of London’s population was abandoned, due to the need to mobilise and because of their apparent lack of skills to maintain the city. This sparked the Second Traction Boom in which many cities followed suit in mobilising. In the ensuing war London eliminated the remaining Nomad Empires of the North. When the Traction Cities adopted the system of Municipal Darwinism London became a predator city, eating hundreds of smaller statics and traction towns alike.
London was a feared predator in the golden days of Municipal Darwinism and eventually built twenty two suburbs to carry her excess population and hunt on London‘s behalf. The most famous was Crawley, although there were several more, including Purley Spokes and Tunbridge Wheels.
Mortal Engines quartet[]
Mortal Engines[]
Many hundreds of years after the golden age, London tried to use an old directed-energy superweapon named MEDUSA to break through the shield wall at Batmunkh Gompa. The computer brain was tampered with by Katherine Valentine and the weapon backfired, destroying London.
A Darkling Plain[]
Many believed that the ruins of London were haunted, until this was confirmed as not true.
London was eventually rebuilt as the hovering mag-lev New London, which did not consume other cities.
Film[]
Many hundreds of years after the Golden Age, London tried to use an old directed-energy superweapon named MEDUSA to break through the shield wall at Batmunkh Gompa. The weapon had been reconstructed in secret within the Saint Paul's Cathedral. During London's attack on the shield wall it was able to fire MEDUSA twice, to which almost all of the wall was destroyed. However, before they could deliver the final blow Hester Shaw was able to sneak in and disable the weapon during it's third launch sequence. This caused it to backfire, breaking and burning, before falling into the Cathedral and the upper parts of London. In a last ditch effort to break through the shield wall Thaddeus Valentine ordered London to drive directly into it, but once again, the plan failed as Tom Natsworthy destroyed The Gut (London's Engine) with the Jenny Haniver causing London to completely break down just short of the wall, but not before crushing Valentine underneath its treads. Most of London's residents fled the city's wreck and took refuge in the Batmunkh Gompa, leaving the city abandoned. Besides the MEDUSA, the biggest difference between both versions of London is it's size, the movie variant is larger and longer, and is heavily armed with a network of anti-air weapons and searchlights, something not present in the novel version of London.
Locations[]
(All London locations can be found here.)
Click on each tab to view the locations of London.
- Brickwater Marshes (swamps covered with the remains of buildings; and likely the Heathrow Airport)
- Godshawk's Head (the head of a statue of Auric Godshawk)
- Orbital Moatway (the M25 Motorway)
- St Paul's Cathedral (later placed atop London as it's spire)
- The Barbican (a fortress; grounded after the Scriven invaded London)
Trivia[]
- One of the early designs of London was based off of Trafalgar Lions.[2] The final design in the film was inspired by the tiered, wedding cake-like structure in the books, and the lions were made statues like London's "sentinels".[3]
- London fighter ships were supposed to appear in the film.[4][5] They were scrapped from the final product, as the director didn't want the Anti-Traction League to battle airships in the finale because it opposed the group's ideology. They were instead replaced with gun turrets.[4]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ A Darkling Plain, Chapter 18: "That Colossal Wreck"
- ↑ Building London feature on the Mortal Engines DVD/Blu-ray features
- ↑ London concept art - Nick Keller's website
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Director's commentary feature on Mortal Engines DVD/Blu-ray
- ↑ Airhaven concept art - Nick Keller's website