Bound in Copper

Steam Fantasy AU Index

The story so far: In 1980, the president of the United States was shot, ending peace talks around the world. Rising tensions between world powers, terrorists, and militant ecological groups caused a multi-focal World War.

At the end, there was a shift to more Ecologically friendly thinking, and steam and other clean burning re-useable resources became the standard. The nations changed how they were grouped and ruled, many returning to or adopting a Monarchy political structure with limited constitutional rights. Edwardian-type values came back into fashion, causing a shift to almost a caste-style society with five main social groups: Nobility, Aristocrats, Merchants, Working Class, and the Forgotten.

Nobility: Starting with a King or Queen (or emperor or whatever they wanna say) with a limited Noble Family. This is the smallest of the castes. A Lord or a Lady rules (with permission) the larger cities and their outlying areas. Think...counties in America.

Aristocrats: Any person or family with a ton of money and ties to the nobility are considered Aristocrats. They generally do political work. I'm thinking they're the heads of Governmental offices like Transportation in America.

Merchants/Scientists/: These people run the economy. Although they're ruled by the nobles, and answer to the Aristos, a merchant with sufficient ability, money, and attitude could buy and sell the world with ease.

Working Class: Almost everyone else. If you work, and you're not rich, this is who you are.

Forgotten: Homeless. Criminals. Anyone who society has forgotten. Often the mentally unstable as well. You can become and escape this realm of society.

Way Of Life: Old era fashion became the norm as well. But hair, makeup and body modifications, including tattooing, remain cutting edge. Since copper and other metals are widely used in airship construction, it's become highly sought after. It's also decoration in clothing, hair and other fashionable use. Talismans from old religions and practices are forged (I'm thinking they're small like charms) from silver and gold, and are worn in the hair or as jewelry. It's pretty common to hear clinking and chiming from women and men from beads, talismans and other bits and bobs in their hair.

With the change in political status and a return to old-fashioned values, chemical birth control is strictly regimented. If you're Merchant level or above, you can easily get medicines that we take for granted. If you're a lower or forgotten class, underground hospitals and clinics will help as they can. Condoms are the number one form of birth control, and are easily found world-wide. Black market medicines including birth control is how many Forgotten become merchants. Though many just remain black market dealers for the hours. (It's a joke from MIB. LOL I make myself laugh, so I have that going for me... heh. ok, I'll stop.)

The World: Very few nations remain as we know them. America and Mexico united to become the American Federation. Many European countries with the exception of Germany, France and Britain (Now Renamed Britannia) joined together to form the Euro-Protectorate States. Germany and Britannia are independent, but still open ports. Scotland and Ireland took their chances and joined the Protectorate.

Eastern Europe was taken by the Russians, and reformed into the Czarist Republic of Russia.

South Eastern Europe formed the Eastern European Union. I suppose I could come up with more, but I won't be mentioning it. Or if I do, I can always update.

Some places are believed to be unlivable. France is the one I'm dealing with. Bombed heavily in the war as a disputed land, the French took it upon themselves to raze their own land and put an end to making war early on. It's been about 40 years, now, so the land has come back to life, but most people remain hard and unfriendly. They separated, and live in small (quite normal) communities or in terrifyingly lawless towns. Many unsavory criminals make France their home. The crew of the Izanami took over a nice little farm house in Bordeaux. Paris remains an underground hub for pirates, slavers and rebels. Some nations have begun looking at France again as a place to recolonize so lately, people with a more upstanding bend have started a movement to see France reinstated to the world scene.

Ships: Worldwide, the advent of Steampower and the movement toward clean energy ignited the imaginations of the scientific community. Airships were born during the war, and perfected when the relative peace was achieved in the 90s.

I took my inspiration from the sailing ships of the 1600-1800's. The three basic designs I have are the Brigantine, Frigate, and Galleon. I took inspiration for the speeds of the ships based on actual steam engine data. Weight, upkeep, and old sailing data. So... Whatever. It's pure fiction.

The Endeavor (Sovereign Nations of Jap-Asia) is a Frigate class. She boasts 150 crew, 32 railguns, and an average cruising speed of 120/193 MPH/KPH. She's the heaviest ship in my story.

The Magdalene (Pirate) is a Brigantine class that's been converted for mixed use. She boasts 78 crew, 15 (one aft mounted) Railguns, and an average cruising speed of 137/220 MPH/KPH. She's the fastest ship in my story, due to her Chief Engineer, Mei Hatsume.

The Izanami (Pirate) is a Galleon Class converted to extreme battle configuration. She boasts 30 crew, 20 railguns (including one forward and one aft mounted guns), and a cruising speed of 113/182 MPH/KPH. She's slow because she's run by bloodthirsty pirates. And she's heavily armored.

Money: A world standard monetary unit was adopted by all the major nations and nation states after an economic collapse in the 90s. 1/5/10 Credit Coins 5/10/20/50/100 Credit Chips. In my imagination, the chips look like dominoes. In places where Credits aren't accepted, gold, silver and other precious metals can be traded. 1 credit is 2 USD/ 200 Yen/ 1.75 EUR

Quirks: The first bombs were nuclear. Then biological and chemical warfare became standard. No one used incendiaries anymore! Thus the first humans with changed DNA were made by our own stupidity, and babies with strange abilities were born. This actually was the biggest reason for stopping the all out warfare.

Now, two generations (approx 20 years to a generation) in, quirks are becoming more common, as quirk + quirk nets 80% chance of quirk. Q+N= 60% Q N+N= 30% Q. Quirk marriages are not only common but encouraged between the upper level families. Quirk registration is mandatory in nearly every government on Earth.

Rare/Dangerous/Profitable quirks are sought after. Even a Forgotten parent can guarantee their child a better life by registering these kinds of quirks early. Government run nurseries and orphanages will pay for a strong quirk. These children either become wards in care of and for use by the government or adopted to upper class families whose quirk pool is shallow. And though all quirks can potentially be classified as one of those above, there is a scale.

The law outlawing public quirk use is in effect. First offense is a fine you'll likely never recover from. Second is mandatory Prison. Third is quirk removal via lobotomy. Everyday quirk use, like using kinesis to pick up fallen keys, or flame to light a cigarette, are largely ignored. But every use is prohibited, so use care!

Our heroes and villains will likely keep their quirks untouched. I do have an interesting theory about Ochaco's quirk. If anything needs to change, I'll note it.

Notes:

Edinborough to Paris 982 km approx 5 hour flight time for the Magdalene. (Take-off around 4pm/9PM same day)

Edinborough to Bordeaux 1402 km 8 hour flight for the Izanami (Take-off arround 1pm/9pm same day)

Bordeaux to Paris 542 km (according to google maps, that'd take approx 111 hours to walk. That assumes that they didn't factor in little things like sleep and food and potty breaks... about 5 days no stopping. I'd say closer to a whole week even with using their quirks.)