Welcome to Lydin. The city that launched the Empire of Albion- that stretches so far West that it becomes East, and so far East that it becomes West. From Tianzhu to Alleghany, the fingers of the Empire stretch and curl. At home though, at the beating heart where millions scurry around the city? Poverty, despair, inequality. These things so deeply entrenched that digging them out would take generations on generations. But that’s not this story.
No, because on Templar’s Street, in Lydin’s Slumside, there are a set of buildings. Three streets away, Commericum owned factories chug and churn, but here women and children live, making their living off of the bustle of London. Girls, Forced smiles plastered across faces as they wooed and cooed at the workers that passed through these cobbled roads.
Between the girls were the children. This was no normal orphanage though. No, here there was no strict mistress prepared to keep the children in line. Faunus and Human children alike scurry with dirtied clothes, laughing, playing, and alleviating pockets. This is the small little kingdom of The Mademoiselle- a Galeish woman with a wide smile and clothes unbefitting of her class.
In this little corner of Lydin, perhaps the most momentous occurrence in the Empire is about to take place, all kicked off by one thieving little faunus, and one equally thieving factory worker.
“You git! Fucking give it back!” The man growled and dashed after the boy, who stuck his tongue out and laughed. He tossed the device up, which clacked clattered around in the air. Every time the worker charged forward, the boy would back off, slitted eyes taunting the man more than the thief. “Fine. You know what? Have it. Stupid little thing anyway.” The worker shook his head and walked away, grumbling.
The boy taunted the man as he walked away, and looked down at the device. It was a grooved ball, perhaps the diameter of a Guinea. It clicked and whirred around in his palm, and despite his scrutiny, it seemed perfectly whole. Oh well. Maybe the fence would know someone who could give him a shilling for it.
Hello folks! Irredeemable here! This is the Guttersnipes of Lydin. A story about steampunk shenanigans in a gritty Victorian London, with a dash of magic thrown into the mix to add a little zazz. There is a rough story I have in mind, so keep that in mind, but I hope you'll remember the key rule:
Characters
Characters should be orphans living with 'The Mademoiselle.' They can come from any background, but obviously they are far more likely to be factory boys than anything else. Escaped workhouse urchins like Oliver are possible as well. Characters should not be law abiding. Rule one of slumside is that honest people come last. See the char sheet for specific details on character creation.
(Red is Albion, Grey is Vacjian.)
The Empire has never been more powerful. With the only power that can come even close to them being the Vacjians- and even then they are still far in the dust. Abroad, they are the supreme power. Repeating carbines and red coats have trod every continent, apart from perhaps Antartica, but that’s not relevant right now. Coal from Akebu and Albion herself power mechs and blimps ply the air roads- stuffed with goods a plenty.
However, that isn’t relevant to the average person in the slums of Lydin, because Lydin itself is torn between three powers. These powers are the all mighty Commercium, the huge population of noblemen in the city, and the legitimate government. All of these powers have their fingers in the pie that is the city, and all of them distrust the other immensly. However, in slumside, things are a little different. Whilst there are Commercium factories, as there are everywhere in the cities, the main powers are smaller gentry and the government.
The Main Factions:
The Government
The Empire. The roiling bureaucracy that keeps billions of people serving under Queen Victoria. The woman herself is doing excellent, apart from the recent death of Prince Albert. Flip over that coin you just stole, that’s her face right there. Long live the Queen!
The Nobles
Whilst not a single, unified faction, there are enough of them that the old nobles (and the new ones) have significant overall power. They might not always be able to agree, but nobody can deny that a wealthy backer can mean everything in the Empire.
The Commercium
The Commercium is about as neutral as it gets, at least, as far as the Empire is concerned. Almost any major business within the Empire has links with the Commcercium, and If one doesn’t, it’ll find itself being quickly put out of business, with mysterious fires, boiler explosions and worker strikes plaguing it into bankruptcy.
The Strangefellows
The Strangefellows live in pubs and cafes throughout the Empire. An open secret- if you need someone quietly taken care of, important blueprints stolen, or a non-Commercium business set fire to, the Strangefellows is the group for you. Morals matter not.
The Freefellows
The Freefellows are a group of ex-soldiers who now act as mercenaries. Noblemen and various companies hire them an awful lot, but they’re a nebulous group who are focused mainly around squads, with entire regiments being quite rare to find.
Various Scientific and Magical Research Groups
From the Institute of Faunus Biology to the College of Mechanical research, the Empire is no slouch when it comes to scientific progress, The various scientific guilds and group are at the cutting edge of research most fields worldwide.
Non-Humans:
Faunus
Faunus are, for all intents and purposes, humans, but with at least one, although two is also common, animal features. These features can be immediately obvious, or can be more innate. The maximum features that a faunus has been found to have is 5, and any more than 3 is very rare.
Attitudes towards Faunus are very much dependant on what species they most resemble. Canine and Equine Faunus are probably regarded highest, due to propensity for strength in the latter, and military prowess in the former. Vulpines are alternately believed to be good luck, or bad luck, and sometimes even outright evil, whilst the worse regarded tend to be rodents and felines- the former for obvious reasons, whilst felines are heavily regarded as untrustworthy, lazy, and criminal.
Demons and Demi-Demons:
Whilst once thought as man’s worst enemy, it is hard to really hate demons. Well, demi-demons. Demons themselves are a whole other ticket, but most demi-demons are real charmers after all. Demons themselves are incredibly difficult to kill, functionally immortal, and have no regard to death (if they do die, they simply enter hell and have the chance to return back to Earth when they want to.) This makes them beyond perfect for soldiers, and long lives mean that they have built up a truly prodigious amount of experience. This makes them excellent soldiers and generals. Demons look rather inhuman, with deep red skin, horns, and other non-human feature, including, but not limited to, scales, feathers, fur, digitigrade legs, tails, wing, muzzles and more. Demons have golden blood- Ichor, which has an acid like effect on non-demons.
Demi-Demons on the other hand, are the bastard progeny of their (normally,) Demon fathers and human mothers. They look much more human- with only a slightly reddish hue to their body and animalistic horns to reveal them. Also functionally immortal, and curiously with very little visible aging once they reach a certain age (this is different depending on the demon. Some have been known to stop aging at (visually) thirteen, some at (visually) seventy.) They are roughly as difficult to kill as a human, and do not enter Hell when deceased- they have to wait until Judgement Day to do so. Because of this, they tend to become business tycoons or playboys rather than soldiers, and there is a high population of them in the nobility.
(Note, as I know this will come up, the Abrahamic religions have not been confirmed as gospel. Demons don't actually know about the Judgement Day things, they just know that Bad ThingsTM happen when demi demons die thanks to knowledge gained pre-loss of magic. There are still other religions that aren't Christianity, Judaism and Islam- demons are pretty universal beings anyway.)
The Role of Magic:
Magic is not an active part of people’s lives, or, at least, not in the same way that steam is. There are stories that magic used to be much more prevalent before, and true or false, they are stories of before. Nowadays, the only magic you’ll see is the magic of how your pocketwatch suddenly vanishes when that young girl comes near you. The non-humans are the only last remnants of magic.
Or, at least, that’s what people think.
