Toward the end of the twentieth century, the world was becoming a crowded place. Environmental catastrophes were occurring with increasing frequency. It seemed that pollution and consumption were destined to destroy the planet, and humanity with it.
In response to this terrible threat, the people rallied behind Victor Hypocrates, a young genius with a grand vision. At the outset, his appeals to turn back the clock and return to a golden age were seen as the eccentric ravings of a freakish Neobedouin. His small band of followers, the Neovictorians, were seen as busybodies at best, terrorists at worst.
But, as the climate warmed, the acid rain fell, the waters rose and the Earth shook, fear gripped the planet. Elected President of the USA following a landslide win, Victor then made a global appeal for unprecedented powers to save the dying world. He asked the citizens of the globe to bow to his leadership and sign up to his program of improvement - a program he described as "The Great Rectification". The other world leaders capitulated, some out of fear, some due to immense pressure from their own people. The heads of state met in Washington, where all agreed that Victor should become the first ever World President.
In a world unused to dictators, few were prepared for what came next. VIctor recruited the best warriors from all the world's armies and formed his elite unite - the Chuno Ggun. His most loyal followers went about eradicating all political opposition. Victor cut secret deals - promising the richest and most powerful individuals high and unassailable positions in his new society. Then, in control of the military, with the most influential people on the planet on message, and able to apply terror through his secret agents, the new society began to take shape. He began the work of transforming the planet and, when he died, his son the next Emperor (a title Victor bestowed upon himself once his heir had been born), continued it. Uber-beasts, genetically hard-wired to attack humans, were created and released. Twentieth century technology was banned. The military began to herd the population into newly built Change Cage cities.
Change Cage cities were founded to contain the human population in a few concentrated areas. At the heart of each city a Change Cage was built. The Change Cages were impenetrable fortresses in which people were at first encouraged, then forced to throw innovative ideas and technologies. Before long, innovators and inventors themselves were thrown into the Change Cage. All of humanity was to be relocated to the Change Cage cities. At least, that is what people thought. In fact, vast swaths of people were relocated to the wilderness instead, where they were set upon by the uber-beasts. But some did make it to the fledgeling cities. The military facilitated the whole process. Sometimes people would try to resist relocation, and then the military would forcibly move them. But often the cities were seen as salvation, many people voluntarily heading toward them. It was a slow process (which allowed the Skyfolk time to get aloft, and the Neobedouins time to hide), but soon vast areas became depopulated. As the lands emptied, the regular army was itself scaled down, the Chuno Ggun taking on the responsibility of finishing the job.
Around the same time, the first airships of the line were built and the Imperial Air Navy was formed. By the end of the twenty-first century the vast majority of the population had been slaughtered; much of the planet returned to the wilderness; and most of the survivors were living in Change Cage cities. Anyone living outside such a city was declared outlaw and undeserving of the Emperor's mercy. The world had changed forever.
In North America there are three Change Cage cities. Desolation, Old Borealis and Everglade. Desolation is in the hot and dusty Nevada desert in the Southwest; Old Borealis is in the cold pine forests, on the edge of Lake Winnipeg, to the north; and Everglade is in the Florida swamps to the southeast. They are each home to over ten million people. Although the local habitats are very different, cultural life in all the Change Cage cities is similar. In all of them, the masses live in grinding poverty, the rich in relative splendor. All have been indoctrinated to believe that their ancestors' move to the Change Cage city was an absolutely necessary step to save the planet. And most Neovictorians believe, not without reason, that leaving the megalopolis would mean a swift and gruesome death in the jaws of some wild beast.
Outside of the Change Cage cities there are a few Chuno Ggun and Imperial Air Navy bases; some tiny, isolated research station; the Emperor's palace; and the mining settlements, which are small and heavily guarded. Most of the actual mining is done by Automata. Automata also harvest wood, with which the IAN boats are built. This is the only legal exception to the Emperor's rule forbidding the cutting down of trees. Any other tree-felling is punishable with immediate execution.
Any differences between Change Cage cities are minor and cosmetic - slight variations due to the local landscape (Everglade, for example is, in part, built on stilts and platforms over the swamps) and regional culture (the only creative freedom the city architects were allowed). But, by and large, the Change Cage cities are all planned and laid out in much the same way. The experience of a Neovictorian has much more to do with occupation and class than which city they live in.
Each city is surrounded by a huge wall. The wall is both tall and wide, designed to keep people in and all but flying predators out. Steamcannons and gatling guns are placed at intervals along the wall, ostensibly under the command of the Navy but usually manned by Automata. The supposed purpose of the guns is the defend the city against flying predators, however they are really there to deter pirates or attacks by the Skyfolk.
The only way out of the city is via the canals and the railway. The railway links the city to the mining settlements and the other, far-off Change Cage cities. Only a few trains run, and those that do are heavily armed and armored - sinister looking steam trains, all black iron and rivets with big "cow catchers" on the front for clearing wildlife off the line. The canals are busier, the home of the Bargefolk, who live in family groups, plying up and down stretches of the canal network.
Most Neovictorians will never see a train or barge, and will never meet those that run them. The poor are crammed into filthy tenements, filing to work in the morning, and then back to their homes in the evening. Most Neovictorians never leave their own block - they are born into squalor, then work in miserable factory buildings until they die. Curfews are enforced by the Peelers (Automaton cops). The poor tend to have little spare money - just enough to eat and drink, or enough to buy more gin and go hungry.
The rich live in their own walled off area - nearly half the city is given over to them, even though they comprise a tiny fraction of the total city population. They have vast garden estates and live in sumptuous mansions. The only lower class people who are likely to see the homes of the wealthy are the servants, usually selected from the workhouses and bonded to their employer's family for life. Rich men only visit the slums in their role as administrators or for the purposes of vice, and they travel there in the only public transport available (aside from walking), the automaton cabs. Wealthy men and women might also jump in a cab to venture to a trade block, the slightly more pleasant blocks that directly border the wealthy areas, where malls have been constructed in which the rich might browse for diversions, fripperies and trinkets.
The only other location in the city is the Change Cage. The actual physical layout and appearance of the change cage might vary (Old Borealis has a Cage with a vast underground area; Everglade has the widest; the walls of Desolation are the highest on the continent; the Middle Eastern city of New Mecca's is one massive minaret), but they are, without exception, forbidding places. The area containing the Change Cage is walled off from the other blocks. The area around the bottom of the tower is cleared, meaning anyone approaching has to cross a large barren stretch of ground. In the center of this area is the Change Cage itself. The walls of the actual Cage are built higher than any other in the city (including the high outer walls and those that separate the blocks from each other). This emphasizes the austere majesty of the architecture and prevents anyone from approaching unseen. There are a myriad of holding cells, inset into the base of the tower - although there is only one entrance to the central Cage itself. It is said that no-one has ever escaped a Change Cage, and that once inside the person (or item, design, etc) is lost to the world forever. What actually goes on within is reported to be a "fate worse than death".
Technology: Post-nineteenth century technology is forbidden in Neovictorian cities. That still allows access to innovations that did not exist before the screwing up of the timelines - technology in this timeline is quite different from what we are used to imagining for the era. Steam and clockwork technology is quite advanced. The innovator Herr Drosselmeyer perfected the formula for motivating essence and the construction of Automata toward the end of the 1890's. Likewise, the airship technology employed by the Imperial Air Navy pre-dates twentieth century developments (which is why the IAN do not ever use airplanes). One consequence of this change to the timeline is that many functions in a Change Cage city are carried out by Automata, who are viewed as thinking machiens, fit only for serving the human population.
One interesting technological marvel is the cities' Difference Engines. The Difference Engines are basic mechanical computational devices, developed back in the nineteenth century, that the Automata (usually the Autocrats) pass data through, and recieve data from. Autocrats (essentially bureaucrat Automata) have phenomenal memories, but the difference engines allow the input from all the Autocrats in the city to be cross-referenced for analysis (which is useful in monitoring and categorizing the population).
Administration: The Change Cage cities are run on behalf of the Emperor, by administrators. Without exception, administrators are member of the upper class. Most administrators are responsible for a city block. They are required to monitor loyalty, prevent innovation, and ensure that industry is carried out efficiently. They are expected to examine population control returns; make the workhouses run efficiently; and generally make sure standards (such as curfews and public order) are adhered to. They have supreme authority over the block. They are aided by automaton Peelers (who keep order) and Autocrats (who carry out bureaucratic functions). The data produced by autocrat inspectors from autophrenometers, visual recognition and punchcard returns, is fed through the difference engines and analyzed by other autocrats. The autocrats are responsible for data collection and analysis, the administrator for making actual decisions.
Some administrators rarely visit the block that they hold sway over, managing the accounts and data and sending out orders from the comfort of their private mansions. But in doing this, they take a great risk. If their block becomes problematic - failing economically, getting a reputation for laxity, or even rebellion, etc., then they are accountable. The Emperor has been known to make examples of even the highest ranking aristocratic administrators.
Select committees of administrators, comprised of members of the wealthiest families, are responsible for checking up on individual block administrators.
Such task groups tend to concentrate on citywide surveys, looking for waste, factory theft, public disorder - and target the poorest performing blocks. Some anomalies are ignored - the auditors themselves often have a prediliction for visiting the pleasure blocks and sourcing the best smuggled goods. But generally, all administrators pride themselves on fulfilling their tasks with vigor, having their accounts in good order, and ensuring the workers in their block are tightly controlled and directed. As they should be, for everybody knows that the lower orders require close moral and physical supervision, for the good of all!
The Lower Classes: The lower classes live in huge walled off blocks - slum complexes which are ruled by the upper class administrators and where rules are enforced by a largely automaton police force. Work is assigned to the lower classes by upper class administrators. They mainly work in factories, filing to and from work in long ragged lines. A few work in tiny shops, serving gin and selling the few pitiful products that are available to the poor. Fewer still serve in the better shops, adjacent to the rich estates, which offer a wider range of goods. Some supplement their income through criminal activities, such as smuggling, extortion and vice. Lower class children go to work as soon as they are able, and are given no education, aside from basic instruction in their trade (literacy is only taught by parents handing down the skill or, for the few that bother to attend, at Sunday school, when there is a chaplain that offers one). Population control (no one is permitted more than two children) and curfews are strictly enforced, and freedom of movement is very limited.
The Blocks: Whereas the wealthy live together in one large area (although in secluded privacy due to the size of their estates), the poor live in separate blocks, each of which is walled off from all the others and the outside world. The walls separating the blocks from one another are usually made of smoothed stone, and are built uniformly sturdy and high, making them unscalable. There are entrances in and out of adjoining blocks, but these are guarded by Peelers and autocrats. Anyone wishing to leave the block must show their punchcard and submit to autophrenometer (devices which can identify a person by their cranial bumps) and facial scan inspection. If they don't have the correct authorization, their identity doesn't match, or if there is a problem with their stated purpose of travel (as detailed on the punchcard), then when the data goes through the difference engines the anomaly will be spotted, and the individual will immediately be removed to a holding cell. Upper class men do not need to state their reason for traveling. Upper class women are expected to have their punchcards authorized by their husbands or fathers.
The poor, who comprise the vast majority of Neovictorian society, live in squalid tenements located within each block. Each block usually concentrates on one industry - usually factory work, although a few on the outskirts are given over to docks; these are the least crowded blocks, as much of the unloading and distribution is automated. The factory blocks pour out pollution, smog hanging over them, a foulsome stink permeating the air.
Each block has its own police station, where the Peelers hurl any offenders awaiting sentence by a block administrator. Most have a hospital of some descrption, although they are notoriously unpleasant. Some of the blocks contain workhouses for orphan children, although in fact they are mainly used to train children who have been removed from their families.
The blocks that border the estates of the rich are the least noxious, although they still have stinking tenements, tukced behind the facades that face the wealthy area, they do have purpose-built shopping arcades where the fanciest goods are made available for upper class shoppers. Other blocks do have some private stores, although they have little to sell and people have little money with which to buy. The foulest blocks are those inhabited by the Misbegotten; neglected and wretched, these ghettos are truly loathsome places.
All the blocks operate a curfew. Once the day's work is done, all are expected to return to their homes immediately, and anyone caught on the streets risks being accosted by a Peeler. Usually the only people on the streets at night are wealthy men, out looking for a good time in one of the blocks renowned for vice. Some administrators are slightly more liberal than others - turning a blind eye to the revelries of the lower classes after hours, but they need to take care - if they allow too much freedom, and things get out of hand or the Emperor hears of it, they will be for the chop.
Factories: Most of the lower classes work in the factories. These factories are placed next to the tenements in which people live and, aside from picking up food and drink on the way, many people live their lives making no journey other than the short trudge from home to work and back again.
The factories manufacture automata; manufacture and process food; and to a much lesser extent, make domestic items. A few who specialize in making parts for the IAN airships (and the Chuno Ggun airships, although they do not know it), barges and steam train parts.
The work is very much divided up into individual production tasks. Often the workers will not actually know what they are producing. The final assembly of automata does take place in the block factories, but the airships are finished in the IAN hangars and the barges alongside the canal docks. There are so few trains (often only one running in an entire week) that production of these no longer takes place, merely the continued manufacture of the parts that most commonly need replacing.
All designs and recipes have to be approved by the relevant administrator, who gets guidance from the select committee that monitors the specific trade the factory deals in (very little gets produced outside the factories, due to the risk of being thrown into the Change Cage for innovation).
Hours are extremely long, children begin working in the factories at a young age and holidays are non-existent. Only one day off is granted per week. There is no concept of health and safety, and many people die at work - crushed by machinery, drowning in the food vats, etc. Those that aren't killed outright are carried to the block hospitals.
Although the Change Cage cities were built to save the environment, the environment within them is foul. The upper class estates are large enough to be free of the worst of it - the choking toxins, stinking foggy miasmas and acrid by-products of the factories make the life of the lower classes unremittingly uncomfortable. The effect is often ill-health and sometimes an early death. Even in the upper class area the stench of the factories is unmistakable - particularly when the wind is blowing the wrong way.
Cleansing Automata scour the streets at night, using heat ray steam-cleaners, but all that seems to do is break down the filth into a thick glue-like sludge which coats every surface. This sludge is sluiced into storage vats, but there simply isn't enough storage to cope with the waste bieng produced. Sewage and waste processing is completely inadequate. The Emperor demands that humans should avoid polluting outside their cities, and recycle all their waste, an impossible request - much of the factory waste is unprocessable, although that doesn't prevent the food processing plants attempting to use the sludge.
Supervision is carried out by foremen, but all factories are also regularly inspected by resident autocrats, who monitor productivity and individual performance. Wages are deducted and foremen replaced if targets aren't met. Stoppages are also made for items purchased in the factory shop. Many folk never buy any goods that do not come from the facotry shop, as they sell food, gin, cheap quality clothing, course blankets and a little solid fuel for burning - all that a worker could need. A few other services are available at work - automaton barbers cut hair, automaton doctors visit and give innoculations, automaton dentists pull teeth, etc. Small deductions are made for these compulsory services.
Food: By order of the Emperor, all food consumed, or for sale in the Change Cage cities has to be manufactured within the city iself. The eating of meat, or any animal products, and the use of any animal derivatives is forbidden. The solution to the first, seemingly impossible edict is the widespread factory farming of fungi proteins. This raw foodstuff is grown on a colossal scale. The production process involves the use of some of the city waste, which reduces the recycling and storage burden - but this also means that the food plants are some of the most unpleasant and noxious place to work.
Once the vast blocks of raw foodstuff have grown, they are cut up and sent off for processing - transportation of all goods is carried out by Automata adapted for the purpose. The processing is dependent on the destination of the finished product. For the wealthy, chemicals are added to improve taste and texture, and care is taken to cut and shape the food. Less care is taken with the food destined for the lower class table, and the chemicals that are added to this food are chosen for their pacifying qualities (extra quantities of these drugs can be added at an administrator's discretion). The additives also contain the basic vitamins and minerals that are neeed to live, but in trace quantities, so that surviving on such food causes one to feel continually hungry and remain slightly undernourished.
The rich do have the means to supplement their diet. They often keep vegetable gardens. Maintaining a good trim garden which produces fine food is considered a gentlemanly pursuit, although most prefer to allow a servant or Automaton gardener to do the actual hard work. The cooks who work in the mansions of the rich will usually maintain a small herb garden, which they use to give extra flavor to the diet of fungus and vegetables.
One of the main smuggling activities is the supply of illicit meat, which mainly ends up on the tables of the rich. This invariably comes from the Bargefolk, who in turn recieve the carcasses from Neobedouin tribes or Skyloft merchants. Although highly illegal and punishable by exile (or in the case of the wealthy the formal eviction from their estate by the Emperor) the trade is widespread and lucrative. There is simply no will to enforce the embargo - few of the wealthy want to be restricted to a diet of chemically enhanced fungal matter and fresh vegetables.
The factories also manufacture cheap gin, the staple drink of the lower classes, which is available in two strengths. The stronger is drunk by adults, the weaker by children - both are usually seen as preferable to drinking from the public water supply. Administrators occasionally toy with prohibition, but most conclude that the lower orders seem more manageable when given access to the gin shops. Drinking communally is frowned upon, as it often leads to rowdy and unseemly behavior. Barely palatable rum is also produced, but is strictly reserved for the air sailors of the IAN.
The rich have a much greater variety of drinks to choose from. Tea, grown in their gardens and prepared with well water, is the drink of preference for the more reserved. A whole range of exotic liqueurs and aspteritifs are available, although most of them are made from the addition of artificially flavored mixtures to the standard gin recipe.
Trade: In the lower class areas, legal trade is extremely limited. People simply have no money to spend, and there are limits on what items may be produced for domestic consumption. There are small, wretched shops, aside from those located in the factories themselves, but they offer the most basic and cheaply made items, and the profits are expected to be returned to the city. Most people live in unfurnished tenements, sleeping on the floor, covered by cheap blankets. Once they have purchased food and gin they have nothing left.
That is not to say there is absolutely no money in circulation - some money is generated by crime, some by people saving through going without, some simply taken from children by their parents (an extreme act of cruelty when they are half-starved already), etc. This cash may be spent on illegal goods, extra gin and food, or vice.
The rich have a lot more to choose from. Administrators allow some of the factories to fill the stores of the trade blocks which the wealthy frequent. Again, the shops are staffed by lower class workers and Automata who are not enttled to the profits. Fashion items, gramophones, novelties, confectionary (artificially sweetened fungus products) and other goods fill the exclusive shopping arcades for the amusement of the rich.
Vice: There is a seedy underside to the Change Cage cities. Peelers are directed to enforce strict controls, but they are also directed away from some areas by administrators who partake of unseemly diversions, the pleasure blocks.
The official gin houses are often operated by Automata, and the consumer is not allowed inside. Gin is dispensed down a tube into a cup or bottle (or cupped hands, if the purchaser has no cup or bottle) to be consumed on the spot, or taken home for consumption. As well as these official premises, there are hidden saloons, low bars and brothels. Many of these are provided exclusively for the rich, although their existence brings money into the slums, which means there are a few that are frequented by the lower classes. Often smuggling contacts can also be found in these haunts.
The brothels are mainly serviced by Dolls. The better, more realistic-looking models work in the more expensive joints, the lower class brothels often employing older and less convincing types despite (or perhaps because of) the stiflingly oppressive prevailing morality, these brothels are frequented by most upper class men. They justify their actions to themselves, reflecting that brothels and Dolls are an important aid to population control, and allow the release of unseemly passions away from the sanctity of the family home. A few of the pleasure dens offer human prostitutes. This is considered a much more sinful vice, but that makes it all the more tempting for many. Some of the more unseemly brothels even offer Misbegotten prostitutes for those with a fetish for the exotic.
Medicine: As with everything else, medical care for the Neovictorian is determined by class. Lower class medical care is sparse and not conductive to recovery. Block hospitals tend to be staffed by Automata who are designed to carry out crude medical tasks - innoculations, pulling teeth, amputation, etc. They are not designed to carry out more complex medical procedures, and if the lower orders have a serious or ongoing medical condition they will probably recieve no constructive help at all. Conditions are unsanitary; resources sparse; checks on invalids, who lie on dirty pallets, infrequent; diagnosis crude. Most of the lower classes die from starvation when they become too ill to work, preferring a slow, agonizing death at home to one in the notorious block hospitals.
The rich recieve their medical care from their peers - trained upper class physicians. These physicians are educated in the manner of all upper class professionals - expected to learn techniques by rote and not to dabble in experimentation or areas that might further medical knowledge. They do have more access to drugs. The drugs that are produced in the factories are divided into the few crude solutions that are available in the block hosptials, and the relative cornucopia of medicines that a rich Neovictorian physician keeps available in their study, or that can be freely purchased in the fancy drugstores that can be found in the trade blocks.
The Workhouse: Subjects of the Emperor are usually only allowed a maximum of two children. Any extra children are forcibly taken away. Most people believe these children are taken to the wilderness to be exposed to the elements. In fact, most escape that fate, and are taken to the workhouse instead.
There they are trained either to be sailors, conscriptd at an early age into the Imperial Air Navy, where they are subject to harsh naval discipline; or chosen by the upper classes, to work for them as bonded servants. Although in many ways little more than slaves, this servant class are taught to believe they are better than the rest of the lower classes.
In a sense, life for a youngster in the workhouse is better than that of the children in the slum blocks. At least they usually have some food and an education - even if that education is entirely focused on brutally inculating in them deference - whether that be to their new superiors in the Navy or their new master or mistress to whom they will be in service. If a youngster does not work out in their assigned profession, they are seldom given a second chance. Workhouse children invariably lack love. The prevailing morality suggests that such children require instruction, not affection, and many of the tasks in the workhouse are carried out by crude-looking Automata to cut costs, supervised by a human beadle. The block administrator receives an income from those wanting servants, or airship captains requiring crew. This money is used for the upkeep of the workhouse, the employment of a few staff, the purchase of the Automata, gruel, etc. - and surprisingly, corners often get cut to save cash.
The Misbegotten: One of the consequences of the toxic chemicals that leak into the air and permeate the city streets, has been the increasing incidence of mutation among the Neovictorians. These mutations occur mainly in the children of the factory workers themselves, but no one is immune. These mutants are known as The Misbegotten. The Misbegotten are taken from their parents (often as older children, since not all mutations manifest themselves at birth) and usually relocated in separate blocks. Any who have particularly rare or unique mutations are sent to the Change Cage.
All the blocks are dreadful, but those inhabited by the Misbegotten are the worst - their industry pays the lowest wages and their administrators are the harshest. They are treated as subhuman - forcibly sterilized and classified according to the type of mutation they have. Each Misbegotten block clusters together people with the same, or similar mutations. The only Misbegotten that ever legally leave the Change Cage cities are those few that are recruited into the Chuno Ggun - their mutations making them militarily useful as expendable shock troops.
The existence of the Misbegotten is one of the open secrets, the hypocrisies, at the heart of Neovictorian society. Although many people are aware of their existence, they are offically never talked about, and in upper class circles they are not acknowledged at all. To even raise them as a topic would be most impolite (which doesn't preclude the fetish for the exotically mutated that some upper class gentlemen are predisposed to). If an upper class child develops a mutation, then they are removed and never publicly referred to again. Their very existence is erased from the family history. There may be a few people who develop a mutation and not consigned to the Misbegotten blocks - perhaps their mutation has been covered up by their family, or they find a means of disguising the fact. This would be very rare, as all physicians and Automatons are charged with reporting mutation - but some individuals might have slipped through the net.
The Automata: The Automata are built in the Change Cage cities, designed to work in a variety of roles - as bureaucrats, manual laborers, heavy plant machinery, prostitutes, cops, etc. Many of these functions involve the oppression of the lower classes - as they help control the gates between blocks, police them, monitor them, etc, and most lower class Neovictorians despise them. Most of the upper class don't even acknowledge their existence. The Automata have no rights whatsoever. They are self-aware, but go to painstaking lengths to pretend they are nothing more than servile machines.They are treated by the Neovictorians as clockwork slaves. They have no homes aside from their workplaces and, as they do not require sleep, are only permitted short breaks in which to carry out routine maintenence.
Law and Order: The peace is kept by the Automaton police force, the Peelers, who are directed by administrators and gain most of their information from the autocrats. They are directed to deal with criminals who resist arrest with lethal force, and they generally lock up suspected miscreants in local holding cells. Anyone who finds themselves in this unfortunate position will be at the mercy of the local administrator, unless their crime is innovation.
There is no right of trial for any crimes. For offenses that don't involve innovation, the administrator is the final arbiter. He will have access to the report by the arresting Peeler and the autocrat who has analyzed the arrest log data. If the administrator wishes, he can request a statement form, or audience with, the perpetrator. If the perpetrator is lower class, the administrator usually doesn't bother with an interview, unless he has a specific reason) for instance, if the crime is vice-related and he wants to help cover up any evidence). If the perpetrator is upper class, it is traditional to charge a small fine and let the miscreant go...after a stiff lecture on morality, of course.
Most administrators pronounce tyrannical sentences on lower class offenders they find guilty. In a way, they have little choice. There are no prisons, aside from the holding cells and Change Cage, so the usual punishment is "exile and exposure". This requires the individual to be "taken from this place, at a time of my choosing and transported to the wilderness. Once there the individual is to be released into the wild, to be destroyed by beasts, as is fitting. God have mercy 'pon your soul." Transportation is via the weekly steam train, which has a purpose-build caged carriage in which the condemned are housed, and the site where criminals are to be abandoned is always a long ay from any Change Cage or known Skyloft city and chosen as likely to harbor the most vicious predators.
Exile is likely to be pronounced on a lower class order for a minor crime as it is for a major one. If the administrator wishes to show leniency, he does have the option of merely demanding a small fine, payable immediately (as mentioned, the most common sentence faced by the rich), having an individual held in the cells for a very few days, or a caution.
Administrator Austin Barking-Blower, Jr has a reptuation for pronouncing a sentence of exile on wealthy young rakes caught causing a ruckus at the brothels in his block (he doesn't object to the brothels, just the ruckus). He then releases them, if they haven't committed suicide in dispair at the last minute. "Ha, that'll teach you!" he snaps as the unfortunates are allowed to return to their mansions in disgrace.
If the suspected crime is innovation, the case will be referred to the appropriate select committee and the details immediately sent off to the Emperor. Innovators are usually swiftly removed from local holding cells. They are moved to the cells at the bottom of the city Change Cage tower, in anticipation of them being found guilty and thrown in.
The other phenomenon worth mentioning is the vigilante activity that takes place. Usualy young upper class men, singly, or in small groups, take it upon themselves to act as vigilantes, fighting crime in the blocks. Whether out of boredom or conviction, these individuals hunt down those they see as moral degeneates or rogues, meting out their own brand of rough justice. Sometimes the vigilantes are the worst sort of cowards, attacking brothel workers as they return home exhausted to snatch an hour's sleep before their morning shift in the factory, or brutally beating petty criminals, or even the innocent, knowing that their status will protect them. but, every so often, the vigilante will actually prevent a murder, stop a bully stealing food from the weak, or even stand up to a Peeler to protect an innocent from a trumped-up charge.
Propaganda: As much as the lower classes are oppressed, and the upper classes find themselves at times constricted, most people actually support that status quo. Part of the reason for this is the common assumptions about how and why the Change Cage cities came about. People genuinely believe that Victor I saved humanity. People are uncertain about what is actually going on in the outside world - the official line is that no people exist outside the Change Cage cities and leaving them would result in certain death.
Although literacy is patchy in the lower class blocks, most people can read a little, and some can read fluently. The Emperor's dicts are read out at the start of the day in the factories and the Emperor sometimes allows pamphlets to be circulated, which he has approved - for many people this is the only source of information, aside form factory gossip. The wealthy are kept, if anything, in an even greater state of ignorance. They are given an education, of sorts, but one which concentrates on teaching set facts about the world, by rote, and discourages, through firm discipline, the asking of any questions.
Thus people "half-know" a lot of things. They are told that aside from in the Change Cage cities there are no people and that the predators make it an impossible place to live. And yet, many people know of goods smuggled in. They are told there are no enemies left to fight. Yet, many peole suspect that the Navy is needed for more than just inspecting a barren wilderness. The IAN themselves know the truth; of the Skyfolk, the pirates and the Neobedouin - and although it is forbidden, they let slip a little of what they know, so that all the population realize, on some level at least, that they are not being told the complete truth. Some folk just pretend that nothing is amiss, others are a little curious, but would never admit it. A rare few dream of leaving the city and finding a better life outside. But even these folk are happy to keep such thoughts a fantasy - if actually offered the opportunity to leave of their own free will, in the main they would steadfastly refuse - fighting with all their might to retain their poverty and misery, rather than be cast into the unknown.
In fact, many people believe that there are airship pirates. They are a favorite topic, written about in pulp stories. Despite the poverty and oppression, a few illegal printing presses operate within the cities and some literature is smuggled in from outside. Most illegal presses produce pulp fiction or erotica. The pirate stories are lurid tales of adventure and romance and are highly sought after by rich and poor alike. The pirates within are sometimes described as raunchy romantic killers, sometimes as dangerous killers. usually both. (Wealthy women enjoy tales of refined Neovictorian ladies being abducted by handsome pirates; wealthy men of Amazonian female pirates who tease their male "victims" and the poor of pirates who rob the rich to give to the poor. In every case it usually goes wrong and tragedy ensues, a moral sting contained at the end of nearly every tale). Shutting down these illegal presses is difficult, and even so if an administrator doesn't make a more concerted effort to quell the literature, it's often because their wives (or they themselves) enjoy them as a guilty pleasure.
As much as people might enjoy fantasizing about pirates, most would do anything to remain in the city. They fear the outside, fear the unknown, fear that the world will end if people colonize it once more, and fear change and innovation. Propaganda and indoctrination have effectively kept people ignorant and scared but, for those that can be bothered to think things thorugh, much of what they have been taught doesn't quite add up.
Rebellion: There is little organized rebellion evident in the Change Cage cities. Some of the blocks are said to have an underground, comprised of cells of resistance working against the Emperor. But if they exist, they are keeping very quiet about it. Dawn raids and deportations by the Peelers are the only indication that trouble might have been brewing - and truth be known, most radicals are actually agent provocateurs, agents of the Emperor - Chuno Ggun placed to check the loyalty of his subjects and report back theri findings.
There is little organization amongst the workers; they are too confined, too controlled, but mainly too scared. Resigned to their fates, they are careful about what they say and who they grumble to. Where resistance has occurred it is easily contained - rather than send in the IAN, Chuno Ggun or Peelers, any blocks that do become radicalized are easily cut off and starved into submission. Communication is so poor that if this does occur, nobody other than a select few know it has happened. The smugglers and criminals have the best means of communicating, but they tend to be more pre-occupied with doing a little better than anybody else than changing the status quo.
The one thorn in the side of the Emperor is the appearance of a wave of absurdist and surrealist propaganda and graffiti. This usually consists of material and slogans that use humor to mock the status quo or expose the hypocrisies and contradictions in the official propaganda. For instance, recruitment posters for the IAN (who never recruit), posters advising citizens to beware of airship pirates (who don't officially exist) and invitations to visit the gardens of the upper classes (who never let the lower orders anywhere near their grounds). Upper and lower class free thinkers have realized that organizing as a group leaves them vulnerable to infiltration and betrayal. So they have concentrated their efforts instead on spreading subversive messages and slogans, or engaging in individual acts of sabotage. Often designed to draw attention to the contradictions thrown up by everyday experience, rather than focused on the grinding misery of everyday life, the Peelers don't even notice the posters, paintings and literature these radicals leave about town, although the autocrats have noticed the higher than usual frequency of spanners being dropped into factory works.
The Change Cage: As covered before, the Change Cages are used by the Emperor to stifle progress. Items that are on prescribed lists and even particularly important or scandalous prisoners are stored within. The Cages are not hidden, in fact the opposite, the high walls of the Change Cages dominate the landscape as a warning to all. But few people know anything of what goes on within the walls. They just know that innovation might be rewarded with being thrown into the Change Cage - a fate considered worse than death itself.
The Rich: The upper class within each Change Cage city is tiny. They are descended from grand families, wealthy folk who supported the Emperor and and his apocalyptic dream. The men are usually engaged in one of two trades - working as either administrators or officers in the Imperial Air Navy. A few will train as physicians, so they might attend to other rich folk, although it is seen as a fairly eccentric choice of profession. An even rarer choice of occupation is that of an educator (most teachers in the colleges for the wealthy are automata) or member of the clergy (most Neovictorians play lip service to having a faith, but they are generally unenthusiastic, to say the least although some, few as they are, do attend religious services). The vast majority do not work at all - perhaps leading a life of debauchery (visiting the fleshpots, or metalpots, in the blocks) or that of a country squire.
Upper class women are expected to do little more than act demurely and breed the next generation of administrators and officers. They might be permitted some small hobby and may attend round after round of social functions and balls. They may have a small budget, or be given a larger allowance with which they might go shopping in the trade blocks. But women are generally considered the weaker sex, inferior to men intellectually and physically and encouraged to passively stay at home.
Some of the maintenance of the rich area is done by automata, particularly the maintenance of the large parks in which the individual estates sit. But the upper classes do have human servants as well. These servants are trained into service at a very young age, and are bonded to their employer and his family for life.
Although they live a much more luxurious life, the wealthy still have some restrictions place upon them. Aside from the Imperial Air Navy, upper class people are still confined to the city - although their confinement is at least more pleasant than that of the lower classes. Their diet may be better, but they are still officially forbidden from eating meat, and still expected to get their calcium and protien from the fungus vats (although it is made to taste and look a little better than the sludge served up to the poor). And they are subject to population control measures. Like the poor they are restricted to only having a maximum of two children (which also ensures that being upper class remains a hereditary status) - although, unlike the poor they are able to buy rights to have extra children from other rich couples who can't - or haven't, had them.
The Emperor is generally tolerant of the upper classes and they are fairly content to support him in return - but there are tensions. The Emperor doesn't really like the decadence, even though he has his own private palace, and the upper class don't really like having their number of servants, types of food, number of offspring, etc., limited. That said, few would be willing to rock the boat, and if they tried, the outcome would be fairly certain - disgrace and exile.
Education: As mentioned previously, the lower classes are considered unworthy of getting any proper education. For the upper classes it is somewhat different. Young boys and girls will be given a very basic education at home, probably by a nanny or governess.
When they are older, the boys go to a general college, to learn about their role in the world (or in other words, how to be an administrator, physician or vicar), or to a naval college. It is an education, of sorts, but very much designed to instill the Imperial point of view. Learning all there is to know, by rote, is considered the best and only acceptable method of education. Inquiry is actively discouraged. Any educators who seem to be attempting to instill a love of learning beyond the prescribed syllabus are in danger of being thrown into the Change Cage. So most education is actually carried out by Automata, with humans taking on the customary role of acting as the college administration. Women will have been lucky (or unlucky) to have attended an academy to learn how to be a good wife and mother, but most will not attend college at all, their governess responsible for teaching them until they are of an age to marry.
Morals and Manners: Upper class Neovictorian society is governed by strict social rules and, at least outwardly, a rigid adherence to conservative ideas about morality and manners. Many topics are considered not fit for polite discussion. There is an accepted order to the day, and it is expected that the household is presentable and acts with decorum at all times. People do gossip, but they are careful as to when they gossip, not to gossip in front of the servants, and with whom they gossip.
Upper class women are considered, by upper class men, to be weak, inferior and to derive no pleasure from physical relations. They are controlled by men from birth, usually by their fathers and then their husbands. They are expected to submit to the male head of the household's authority in the same manner as the children of the house. Wealthy women are expected to be accompanied by a chaperone at all times. Women are expected to be demure (to the point of it being considered bad manners to raise one's voice) and to defer to male wisdom. Children are expected to be seen and not heard, and sparing the rod is said to spoil the child. Of course, there are many families who act quite tenderly toward each other in private, but they will be considered by their peers to be lax and in danger of fostering loose behavior.
Appearances are everything, manners should be adhered to and vulgarity is to be avoided at all times. This covers everything from standing up when somebody enters the room, to the use of each of the dozens of different knives, forks and spoons that are laid out before one at family mealtimes.
More significantly, art and entertainment are judged for their propriety - Neovictorian attitudes to such things are stultifying. It is expected that all music should be classical, art insipid and literature selected from a handful of old classics. Amateur musicians are common (indeed, it is expected that children might learn the piano or violin, in order to perform in the drawing room for their family) but are expected to select their playlist from a set number of pieces, all of which are three hundred years old or more. Art is generally restricted to watercolors, and anything abstract is treated with suspicion. Creative writing is a definite no-no! Much of this is to do with the fear of encouraging innovation - anything considered avant garde, bohemian or challenging, is suppressed.
One thing the Neovictorian upper class isn't, is philanthropic. Philanthropy is considered a highly dangerous and destabilizing weakness, and would not be tolerated, even if people were so inclined. The nearest the Neovictorians get to such a notion is participation in vigilante activity and the occasional overly indulgent administrator.
Leisure: The poor are expected to avoid all leisure, as it will lead them to vice and indolence. That is why it is important that they are kept hard at work. For the rich there are certain leisure activities that are seen as acceptable.
For gentlemen is it currently popular to enjoy gardening, or at least planning the garden and watching the gardeners carry out all the work. They also might spar, fence or practice Baritsu - sporting and martial pursuits are considered suitably manly activities. Ladies are encouraged to do a little embroidery and to entertain guests with a light afternoon tea (the maid prepares the tea, but the lady of the house might pour it, in this instance).
Both men and women might like to take a stroll in the parklands (ladies accompanied, of course), visit the trade block and pick up a few smart items, paint a watercolor of their estate, and attend dinners and other social functions. At the balls and parties that are regularly held, ladies might even find themselves dancing with gentlemen of an evening, the only permitted form of physical contact for the unmarried.
People being people, many individuals have secret lives and get up to activities that they should not. Vice, smuggling and rebellion has already been covered, but people also indulge in forbidden creative activities. Some people write, sometimes just for personal satisfaction, perhaps keeping a candid private diary. Others use auto-stenographs to plot lurid fiction, which might even find its way to a hidden press for private distribution. Artists might create dark and subversive works, hidden away in private workshops. Many creatives gain quiet satisfaction working some subtle innovation into an established form - dangerous and radical stuff, but thrilling if they get away with it.
Fashion: The rich have a lot of time on their hands, and not much with which to fill it. One obsession is fashion. Fashion in a Change Cage city is a complicated affair. The wealthy might wear four or more outfits in the course of a day, and each outfit should be worn with the correct accessories and be appropriate to the occasion for which it is worn. Innovation is avoided, but fashions change back and forth. Collage lengths lengthen and shorten, bustles expand and reduce, colors come in and out of fashion. Some of the fashions are garish and even flamboyant (although nothing as flamboyant as Skyfolk fashion), others are drab and restrictive.
Items and pets also come in and out of fashion. Currently it's fashionable for the upper classes to keep trained beasts as pets. IN particular, officers aboard Navy airships take a pet as a mascot, the more vicious looking, the luckier for the ship.
For the lower classes, fashion is much less important for the majority. Most simply can't afford to think about such things, although they will be bedazzled by the appearance of their betters, should they get a glimpse of them. The exception is those working as servants, or in vice or crime. They often wear better clothes than their peers. If the factory girls appear to be wearing more fashionable clothes, all will suspect where they got the means to buy them. Likewise, thugs who work extorting from others often sport flashy suits. The majority tend to view these fashion icons strutting around their communities with envy and contempt in roughly equal measure.
The Servants of the Rich: There is a limit to the number of human servants each rich household is allowed to maintain. Applications have to be made, agreed by the relevant select committee and referred to the Emperor's palace for approval. But generally, every upper class household will be staffed with some servants. Servants are schooled in the workhouses and generally work hard to impress the beadles and bullies who train them. Most household servants are female, although some boys are considered more suited to service than the navy, and might find a position as a butler or footman.
Nearly all servants are taught that they must not only serve their betters without question, but also that they are most privileged to be selected. Servants tend to think they are far better than the wretched lower classes who live in the blocks, and are always keen to distance themselves from their own humble beginnings. Some male servants get to see the world beyond the city. If they work for an IAN officer, then they might be taken along on a voyage - most officers find their servants indespensable, as having to prepare their own attire and dress in the morning can be quite taxing.
The Imperial Air Navy: The Imperial Air Navy (IAN) was formed in the early days of the Change Cage cities. As the outside world returned to wilderness, ground forces were largely dispensed with (the exception being the few Chuno Ggun agents who weren't assigned to the frigates or the Emperor's palace). The new threat to the Emperor's dream came from the skies. At the outset, the ambition of the navy surpassed their ability. Defeated, an uneasy accomodation was reached with the Skyfolk. Mutual hatred between the Skyfolk and IAN continues to this day, but the Emperor is less than certain of what the outcome of any war would be, so the two sides hold to an uneasy truce. The IAN focuses much of its energy on pirate hunting, although hawks in the high command still dream of the day when they might swat the Skyfolk out of the air.
The IAN have some advantages over the Skyfolk. They have access to large hangars, docks and airships. They have much getter supply of manpower and coal. Their mechanized production process restricts itself to set designs - they have a wide variety of airships, from small scout airboats to mighty Super-Frigates and the newly-commissioned but no less feared dreadnaught HMS Leviathan. First of her class, pride of the fleet, The Emperor's Hammer. However, the Imperial airships lack innovation, experimentation and individual flair (the only exception being the sheer intimidating appearance and firepower of the Leviathan). Likewise, the IAN's officers are painstakingly taught set procedures and maneuvers, expected to follow all orders rigidly. The air sailors are drilled over and over again, in marathon length mind-numbing and back-breaking drills - while the Skyfolk value individual skill and dash.
The IAN offers upper class men a place in the scheme of things, and the chance of action and glory. Those put forward by their fathers, if accepted, attend a strict military academy from a young age. There, they are taught the principles of command and are expected to memorize a weighty tome of IAN regulations, which cover everything from the guideline number of lashes to be delivered to a drunken sailor, to the correct tactical command response to any given circumstance while aloft. When they join a ship as a teenager, serving as a lowly midshipman. Promotion can often by a slow process, but most stay on the career, as IAN officers are viewed as heroes within their own class.
There are a host of badges to pin on the tasseled jackets of the officers, and they enjoy nothing more than showing off their plaudits at upper class soirees. The highest honor granted is the much-coveted Emperor's Medal - Captain Pelinor Fines-Valor was famously quoted as saying that his "holds more value than any Admiral's jacket." His career may have suffered since making the remark, but he is never without a beautiful and wealthy dance partner.
The sailors and marines come from the workhouses. Theya re terrorized and indoctrinated at the workhouse and moved aboard at a young age. Starting out as powder monkeys and cabin boys, few survive to an old age; usually they are worked to death before they are allowed to retire. Life in the IAN is unremittingly hard. The pay is low and they are seldom allowed ashore to spend it. Marriage is forbidden, and a man can be put to death at the whim of an officer. However, there are perhaps some compensations when the lot of the ordinary lower class Neovictorian is considered.
Rum is freely available, Dolls are sometimes allowed on ship while in dock, and those who do make it to retirement live out their lives in segregated quarters in the dock blocks (to prevent them telling others tales of the outside world), and usually their savings (if they haven't been gambled away) are enough to ensure they have a more comfortable old age than their counterparts who work in the factories.
Escape: Considering how grim life in a Neovictorian city is, it is hardly surprising that some of the Emperor's subjects wish to escape. However terrifying the prospect might be, some few brave souls still think it worth taking their chances on the outside - boredom, repression, oppression or poverty enough of a spur. Others have heard tantalizing tales of the world outside, so far at odds with the official version. Still others are motivated by fear - believing it is a matter of time before they are going to be exiled anyway, murdered by their husbands or locked away forever in the Change Cage.
Actually getting out of the city might be achieved in a number of ways - none of them undertaken without considerable risk. Of course, there might not be a choice, the individual might find himself or herself bundled onto an armored train and dumped in the hostile wilderness. Those who work in some capacity for the Imperial Air Navy or whose employers work for the IAN might be able to jump airship, although the officers try to keep their men confined to avert such a possibility. Then there is the possibility of joining up ith underground organizations - smugglers might assist an escape, for the right price. It won't be easy, and few manage it, but ever year some Neovictorians do find themselves leaving their home city - usually forever.
Now we'll take a look at one such Change Cage city, Desolation.
Desolation is a Change Cage city located in the heart of the Nevada desert. It is a dry, dusty place. Outside the city, frequent sandstorms, incredibly high temperatures and hungry predators all make escape seem impossible.
Conditions in the factories are unbearable. They are, without exception, foul smelling, baking hot places. Dehydration, heatstroke and exhaustion are rewarded with a stay in a block hospital - where, if it were possible, the atmosphere is even worse. In some of the other factories, when temperatures reach the highest levels, steampowered fans rotate. This usually doesn't help - the air circulates somewhat, but the heat and smoke generated by the engines negates any benefits.
In Desolation the entrances to the canal and rail networks are located underground - Automata and Bargefolk are responsible for the underground locks that terminate in blocks where the main trade is dock working. The dock blocks are a hive of activity, a steady stream of automaton-transports delivering materials from the barges to the factories across town. A single underground platform is maintained for the lonely train, that disembarkes once a week, to be replaced by an incoming train from another city.
Water is scarce. The canals are fed from old irrigation systems and snow-melt from the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. BUt these old waterways are not maintained and vulnerable to attack. The IAN patrol the ancient dams, but who knows, perhaps one day the water will stop flowing for good? The rich have access to some underground water supplies, but most of the water in the city is recycled, it smells and tastes disgusting. Most lower class people in Desolation prefer the strong gin to the weaker brew - it has less water in it.
The wealthy all own automata whose sole purpose is to work fans - a rudimentary, automata-intensive form of air conditioning, which although largely ineffective, does help to make life slightly less unbearable for the rich. If the upper classes travel to the blocks, they ride in automaton cabs. Their park and estates are irrigated and maintained to a high standard. The rich side of town is a veritable oasis, but simply strolling in the sunshine is exhausting and tends to make one sweat, which is most unseemly.
The Governor of Desolation, Franco Royston-Ragland Havering, is an astute judge of character. His promotion of the most able administrators to the various select committees responsible for regulating the city allows him to spend most of his time hosting social gatherings. Over the course of the year he entertains every upper class family in the city at vast parties, hosted in his own private pavilion. Franco declines the seedy temptations on offer in the notorious pleasure blocks and although he turns a blind eye to the consumption of animal flesh, he never partakes himself - his loyalty to the Emperor is such that he would consider it a betrayal. The administrators and wealthy rakes make a point of not drawing attention to their carnivorous habits or the seedy goings-on in the pleasure blocks, and that is how Franco likes it. He likes to know what is going on, while pretending he doesn't.
The Admiral of the Imperial Air Navy fleet stationed at Desolation, Sir Roderick Strickland-Villiers, is a hot-headed bully. Common enough qualities in the IAN, perhaps, but his rash actions have previously brought him dangerously close to gaining the ill-favor of Victor III. His ambition outstrips his ability, and repeated humiliation at the hands of the Skyfolk have led him to become a bitter, frustrated, tyrannical man, whose subordinates universally despise and fear him. Simply put? Even by IAN standards, he's a jerk.
Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:16 am