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Spoiler warning!
This article or section contains plot spoilers for the Mortal Engines quartet. Proceed at your own risk. |
The Rustwater Marshes are an area of marshland that was introduced in Mortal Engines. It borders the Sea of Khazak.
Description[]
The marshes are considered unsafe for Traction Cities since the ground is too soft and muddy to support their weight; cities would get bogged down.[1]
Some very small towns hide here, where the larger ones cannot pursue them. Tunbridge Wheels rebuilt itself to handle the marshland and even cross open water, so that it could hunt down these hiding towns.[2]
In the war, the traktionstadts broke through the defenses and Dortmund and Darmstadt were bogged down here.
The Rustwater Marshes are a swamp.[3] Its market is made from the ruins of an old traction city.[4]
History[]
Mortal Engines quartet[]
Mortal Engines[]
The Rustwater Marshes is where Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw land after Shrike shoots down the hot air balloon they used to escape Airhaven. Tunbridge Wheels find them later on, and plans to use them as slaves when Tom speaks up. Recognizing that he is from London, Chrysler Peavey frees Tom. Much to Peavey's chagrin and Tom's insistence, Hester is also freed. Peavey then takes the duo through the marshes.
Film[]
Orme Wreyland takes Scuttlebug to the Rustwater Marshes, where a trading cluster is set up. He pawns off Tom and Hester to potential buyers before Anna Fang intervenes, deciding to buy them both.
The auctioneer threatens to turn Fang into the authorities, but she kills him, inciting a fight between her and patrons, allowing Tom and Hester to escape.
As the duo escape, they are hunted by Shrike, who was freed from Sharkmoor Prison by Thaddeus Valentine to kill Hester. Tom helps Hester onto a nearby traction city, and they jump from wheel to wheel before landing on a platform. Shrike effortlessly follows them.
Hester steps forward, allowing herself to be killed by Shrike, but Tom pulls her back and Anna Fang uses the Jenny Haniver to shoot the Stalker.
Fang then allows only Hester to get on, leaving Tom behind as Shrike's next kill. The young woman vehemently protests, but Fang ignores her. Hester throws Tom a rope she found in the Jenny, but Fang slides Shaw a knife, insisting that the young man must die.
Hester throws down the knife, allowing Tom to be free from Shrike and to climb into the Jenny.
Trivia[]
- The marshes are called the Rustwater Marshes because the water is supposedly red from the rust of towns that became trapped in them.[1]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mortal Engines, Chapter 15: "The Rustwater Marshes"
- ↑ Mortal Engines, Chapter 17: "The Pirate Suburb"
- ↑ Mortal Engines (2018)
- ↑ Director's commentary feature on Mortal Engines DVD/Blu-ray