Val Hitherto/IF-1667
Rumor / Community LoreThis article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community. It is just one of many Rumors that we've found in the Interdimensional Rumor Mill. You can find more Rumors about Val Hitherto at their Rumor Registry.
The waters beyond this point are uncharted, tales from distant shores echoed back into our reality.
Background
The following accounts can be traced to a single leather-bound journal originally found in a locked wooden chest alongside a sextant-like device of indeterminate origin and a shell that matches no known species of mollusc. The chest was located in a storage room in the Legscraper’s lower levels that was described as “smelling faintly of the sea”. Subsequent attempts to locate and navigate to said room have been unsuccessful thus far. The journal details the exploits of the crew of a large sailing vessel, The Tokyo Adrift, descriptions of which are largely consistent with mid-17th century galleons.
With The Tokyo Adrift
Val Hitherto, occasionally referred to in the text as “Valmon”, is a figure who appears in several journal entries. Physical descriptions vary but share the characteristic of Hitherto being part-man, part salmon. These range from “a beautiful merman with the shining silver tail of a salmon” to “an odd amalgamation of a Pacific salmon with the legs of a human”.
Occasionally, Hitherto is described as fiddling with objects the writer is unable to identify, though sketches and brief descriptions seem to portray them as anachronistic tools that Hitherto should not have had the means to acquire. Examples include a magnification device which resembles a late 17th-century microscope and a pristine specimen of a Neolithic era stone axe. Hitherto collectively referred to these objects as “his thingamajigs” and when questioned about their origin, “shrugged and stated he jumped upstream and found them”.
Several entries are dedicated to describing Hitherto’s “enchanting singing”, with one entry in particular beginning as a factual recount of the crew’s encounter with him after inviting him onto the ship before breaking down into three pages of adulation and praise for Hitherto’s vocal stylings. Yet another entry details rumours that prior to meeting the crew of The Tokyo Adrift, Hitherto would lure unwary sailors to dash their ships against the shore, his enthralling voice the last thing they hear before sinking below.
Later entries depict Hitherto as an ally to The Adrift, guiding them to favourable ocean currents and through storms. Hitherto was not without his detractors in the crew, with the journal reflecting significant friction with the ship’s quartermaster and describing several spats “that could be heard from the crow’s nest”.
Hitherto's whereabouts during the events of 1667 are unknown. 2 months prior to the last dated entry in the journal, Hitherto described hearing singing coming from the sea. In his words, "There is a chorus calling to me, begging me to join their song. Mandy's soul sings with them, I have to obey the call." Following this, Hitherto would retreat into the Depths, leaving the crew little idea of his next destination.
