The Updates

The Steam

That's what any clockworker will tell you. In actual fact, the Steam isn't that bad. It does do the pollution thing, 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, and there's a whole lot of mutual backscratching going on between them in order to get by inconvenient regulations and thwart the Union's more audacious plans.

The local gang in the Steam is known as the Rumblers, a group of thick-set, heavy men in overalls who started out as a strike-breaking force and... moved up from there. In style and appearance, the Rumblers stay true to their working-class ethos: they are generally middle-aged, paunchy, gruff, no-nonsense businesslike men who enjoy a pint of best and a read of the newspaper after work. Take the staff of a 1950s Welsh slate-mine, arm them with crowbars, pickaxes and various other easily-available factory implements, put them in charge of a major crime cartel and there you have them.

The Rumblers are still hired out by factory owners as strike-breakers from time to time. Most of the time, they concentrate on keeping a rather brutal peace in the Steam and on a bitter feud with the Steamworkers' Union over... well, these days they feud with the Union because it's what they've always done. They seem remarkably reticent to move into other areas: narcotics, whoring and racketeering are all closed books to them.

One would think that the Rumblers would have sided with the Clockworkers' Guild by now. This doesn't appear to have happened; most likely because, although the Rumblers hate the Union, they're still closely associated with steampower and thus hate the Guild for the same reason the Union does.

The Steamworkers' Union also, unsurprisingly, have power in the Steam. The entire district has, as long as anyone can remember, been a battleground between the Union and the factory owners; while the factory owners have lots of money, the Union have the advantage of their stated aim being to improve the lot of 99% of the inhabitants of the Steam.

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 fighting firm opposition from factory owners 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.

Rumours about the Steam:

The factory owners are all members of a secret organisation, which is plotting to take over Horizon by stockpiling supplies then suddenly ceasing all production and quietly taking control in the confusion.

The factory owners are all members of the Grey Order. The ones who refuse to join meet mysterious accidents.

The factory owners are all members of a group called the Merchants' Army, who are covertly building a factory that can churn out soldiers en masse.

The Rumblers are in the pocket of the Steamworkers' Union. Those constant feuds are just a ploy. When the time comes they're going to throw the factory owners out on their ear and make everything better.

The Rumblers are in the pocket of Ivan Gregor, one of the factory owners. That's why they never have to do any work to make money - they can just ask him for cash.

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 Steamworkers' Union are all worshippers of Arikel the Toolmaker. All the good steamworkers left, and they want to take over the factories and turn them into shrines for him so that he can give them his talents.