If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.

The Steam

At least, that's what any clockworker will tell you. In actual fact, the Steam isn't that bad. It does throw out pollution like there's no tomorrow, and life in the factories isn't all that great. At the same time, it's not really that much worse than what the people working there were doing before. And, as any member of the Steamworkers' Union will tell you, the factories do at least produce convenient household goods at a price that the average man-in-the-street can afford.

As for the rich, fat factory owners, they do exist, and they exert a great deal of power over the Steam, though they've fallen considerably in power since the golden days of the Empire. They're not members of the Steamworkers' Union; they have their own cartel of powerful industrialists, calling itself the Merchants' Arm and devoted to allowing its members to collaborate against anything which might knock them from the top of the pile.

The Merchants' Arm

Most of the Rumblers were furious to discover that the gang had been taken advantage of in this way, and fell to infighting. The Merchants' Arm dropped the Rumblers like a bag of scorpions and called in the Watchdogs to restore order in the Steam.

The Rumblers were ruined, and the Steam became a contested territory between the Watchdogs and the Family. Since then, the Arm mostly operates through a network of spies and through the Watchdogs, if the use of force becomes necessary.

The Steamworkers' Union

Steamworking is a relatively new technology, and the Union reflects this. While the Clockworkers' Guild (who the Union also frequently snipe at) is mired in antiquity, the Union is fresh, new and full of vim. Anyone working in a steam factory can buy membership, and the Union agrees in return to support them and strive to help them win certain rights, including:

• The right to a minimum wage.
  
• The right to half an hour's break per six hours worked.
  
• The right to work in safe conditions.

Of course, the Union never actually manages to win these rights for all its workers - it's still battling the Arm for them - but it is making a genuine effort and most of the workers are, for now, happy to stand behind them and fight for their rights.

The Steamworkers' Union is obsessively democratic. Meetings are minuted in minute detail, votes are held for each and every position, and the system is moderately weighed down with bureaucracy. Not quite so heavily that nothing gets done, but the more bitchy members are quite capable of descending into endless squabbling over details.

While the Watchdogs are standing behind the Merchants' Arm, the Family's stake in the Steam lies with the Union. Most protests these days have a couple of Family heavies lurking around in case violence breaks out, and there are always large men looming around Union meetings in case people need protecting.

Rumours about the Steam:

The Merchants' Arm are all members of the Grey Order. The ones who refuse to join meet mysterious accidents.

There's a monster living in the smoke of the factories. It's called Gargamel, it's a daemon of the Sky, and it can turn to smoke. It eats people who stay out in the Steam late at night.

The Steamworkers' Union aren't really fighting for your rights. It's just a ploy so that they can get you on their side and take control of all the factories - then they'll just carry on taking advantage of you.

The Rumblers were all worshippers of Arikel the Toolmaker. That's why they ended up falling apart after he vanished.

The Steamworkers' Union is just a front for the HPLF. They're planning to bring about bloody revolution.

The broken-down factory on the corner of Luther Street is haunted by the ghosts of all the workers who died in there. When a man gets killed by machinery, his spirit never goes away.