I wanted to kind of do a bit of a study here. And it’ll get a bit messy, so bear with me.
So this is Solanum’s family home on Ember Twin, right? It’s the only abode in the Eye Shrine District where Nomai got to live in, whereas some Nomai simply visit a place and hang out there excessively.
First Floor: This is the living room of the house, with a ginormous sitting circle, some shelving, couple of benches, a plant, household objects, and a leaning partition-like decoration.
Second Floor: Here’s the bedroom with two beds for Solanum’s parents, a couple of helmets, a plant, some benches and shelving, and clutter. (Note: of course you won’t see the usual mini bed attached to the adult bed for children because Solanum is all grown up at this point, if that is the reason why.)
Third Floor: Attic or simply a storage room. We got a writing staff, shelving, a plant, a bench, an empty pot, and some clutter.
And then they have the massive deck right outside the attic. Many benches, a plant, and more clutter.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this is one seriously decked out house. None of the other Nomai in the Sunless City have this much to their name, and right next to the Eye Shrine no less. Hell, her parents might’ve even built the Eye Shrine.
Many Nomai on Ember Twin simply live in apartments in the Stepping Stone Cave District or the communal housing in the Anglerfish Overlook District.
But whomever Solanum’s parents were, they were significant enough to garner their own house, a three story house, with a lift at their leisure. And the helmets in their bedroom might imply that these Nomai often traveled outside the city to do work, plus the proximity to the Eye Shrine might hint at what their professions were.
And considering that their daughter Solanum once believed as a child that the Eye was evil and malevolent, one could speculate that her parents worked to keep faith strong in the Eye, including their child whom once she had grown up had come to see the Eye as a neutral entity.
And there is another helmet in the Sunless City, particularly in the communal area, which is also where Pye and Idaea were discussing how to get to the Sun Station, so it’s not entirely unreasonable to have important figures stationed at the Sunless City.
Now I won’t delve into theories about if Solanum’s parents were any of the named Nomai we see throughout the story. It feels reductive to always tie significant characters back to “important” and “prominent” figures in their society, acting as if that’s the driving force as to why we’re following this character to begin with. Nomai are a community based species. They’re a web, not a hierarchy. It could be that Solanum’s parents were just not very archival in their public records. Or maybe they were prominent named characters in the story. I don’t think it matters necessarily. After all, these are all just possibilities in this puzzle of a non-linear story.
(As a bit of an aside here that I absolutely wanted to feature is the differences between the Sunless City and the Hanging City on Brittle Hollow, not counting the obvious ones of course.)
- The Sunless City has absolutely no tables anywhere except within the Eye Shrine, whereas The Hanging City has tables everywhere regardless of district. Not even Solanum’s family had a table.
- To contrast with that, the Hanging City has no beds anywhere except in their Eye Shrine District. I want to point that out because the Hanging City is meant to be an industrial city, it’s where Nomai go to work and school. For those who actually live in the Hanging City, it makes sense that they’d want to sleep close to their faith, their motivator. Keeping their work lives separate from their personal lives.
- And so the Sunless City would be more comparative to a small town with a significant spiritual population. When the Nomai went extinct, if you look at their final resting places, you’ll see that the majority of the Sunless City’s population was hanging out in the lobby of the Eye Shrine. To find comfort or peace after the Sun Station failed, perhaps.
- The Nomai of the Hanging City were more spread out when the Interloper exploded. More focused on work or school rather than honing in their faith, a different kind of distraction.
- Noting that Solanum’s family had such a lavish home in a rather less refined settlement, it is reminiscent of how some spiritual leaders would have these massive estates in an otherwise rather rural town.
