Current Affairs

Below is a rough summary of what has happened in the FR world in recent years. This does not include things that have resulted from player actions as none of this is yet in the 'public domain', though no doubt soon will be.

1804: Napoleon Proclaimed Emperor 

Napoleon Bonaparte, an undead fiend created by the efforts of Murat, Talleyrand and Robspierre outstrips his creators and is crowned Emperor by the ‘false’ High Master of the Church of Mithras in Florence

1805: Trafalgar

Napoleon raises the Spanish Armada from the depths of the sea and uses them to  try and cover an invasion of England by combined undead and human troops. His efforts are defeated by Nelson

1812: Madrid Falls

British troops under the command of Wellington fight through Spain, using longbow and Mithraic and Isian blessing against a mixture of human and undead troops.

1814: Napoleon Defeated

Defeated and captured at La Rothiere, Napoleon is placed on the heavily warded island of Elba.

1815: Napoleon Escapes

Napoleon breaks out of Elba and moves across France, raising troops – often fairly literally.

 1815: Waterloo

Wellington and Blucher defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, blessed longbow arrows putting the awesomely potent undead Imperial Guard to flight. Napoleon secured in the much more potently warded Snt Helena.

1818: The Fall of Reality

Lady Rebecca Wade, devotee of Isis and spy for His Majesties Government reports that a group of French Mathematicians are seeking to break the wards on Saint Helena and free Napoleon. Her reports are intended for Royal ears only, but are intercepted and published in various Chartist newspapers.

A few days follow of either outcry (for Lady Wade is well known and respected) or incredulity (for many claim the reports are not from her), but on May 17^th people living on the outskirts of the home counties notice something has gone terribly wrong.

In a circle around London, (roughly five miles out from the modern day M25), the world has taken on a mysterious look. Woodland seems dark and confusing, fields seem to go on forever without feature, and settlements seem to have turned into ghost towns. People venturing into what was to become known as the ‘wasteland’ do not return, or if they do then they come back raving.

One young lad, a farmer’s boy by the name of Tom Wilkinson, his father of yeoman stock and a local landowner, is not so intimidated by the woods that live near his home and sets off into them searching for his fiancée, who lives in the next village. He finds his way there, but finds the village a ghost town, seemingly abandoned for years. Tom comes back, but his story is not believed. Over the next few months he travels into the wasteland many times, returning each time. Sometimes he has with him people he has met. Many of these seem to be from the past, a mixture of cultures and time periods, all confused, most of them having gotten themselves terribly lost in the wastes. Now he is believed and, over these months, the ‘Wastelander’ phenomena comes to light: although to most people the wasteland is impossible to navigate, featureless and intimidating, there are some few people who can find their way through it.

London faces disaster. It is dependent upon its colonies and foreign trade. Though there is considerable farmland still in existence around London, there is not enough to feed its huge population.

Ships stationed at Dartford – the outermost port that was not within the Wasteland – are dispatched to explore. The National Geographic Society rounds up what Wastelanders in can find and sends them out to explore.

Legislation is passed such that any new arrivals are to be kept in camps and under observation (habeas corpus had been suspended due to the actions of the Chartists anyway). There are miles of border, though, and too few people to patrol it.

London is running out of food, people are leaving the city hoping to find something to eat in the more rural areas, which is wrecking the farms and causing growing civil disorder.

Winter 1818: The Road to Recovery

After some Parliamentary high jinks Lord Wellington is made Tory leader and thus Prime Minister. He declares martial law – reading the riot act is Parliament itself as the first act of his administration- cordons London as best he can with what troops he has (most having been overseas). He is far from humanitarian and very reactionary, but also very effective. Though the man becomes hated by larges sections of the populace(mostly the urban poor, who get to starve), he is loved by many others. He restores order, but it is plain that it will not last.

Salvation comes as a result of a variety of efforts

Professor Hiram Brandy has developed a revolutionary method of producing glass windowpanes. Gaining private backing, he begins churning glass out at a rapid rate. Though the factories he builds start to heavily pollute London, they provide work for the poor and the means to build greenhouses. Miles of greenhouses are built and food starts to be grown in them, though it does not look as if it will be grown in time to save London from mass starvation.

George Fraser was an 18^th century mage and ritualist who had been tossed out of the Royal Society for refusing to share much of his research. He wanders out of the wasteland, a number of his students in tow. The Fraser that show up in London is a young man. He reads his own masterwork, The Golden Bough(the Fraser that showed up was too young to have finished it) and visits his own grave. From his own books, he determines methods for growing crops quickly and does so, filling the greenhouses in months. Enough food to keep everyone alive – just –is grown. Still, those without work starve.

Juliet Fraser, George’s daughter, turns out to have been infected by Entropy. She seeks to sabotage the ritual magic growing the crops, but does so in a half mad, badly conceived way. She is juts about stopped, but kills several members of the Royal Society – who are there keeping tabs on Fraser – in the process.

The Royal Society is engaged in trying to work out just what has happened and why London has survived in this way. They determine that the will of the monarch combined with the ritual power of his regalia is keeping London free of the Wasteland. It becomes plain that somehow King George ‘foresaw’ this and that the effort of maintaining London, even before it actually needed to be maintained, drove him mad. This is made public and the King: driven mad to keep everyone alive, is feted as a hero.

Spring 1819:The Road to Empire

Exploration starts to bear fruit, with Wastelanders under the auspices of the Royal Geographic Society finding three separate places in the Wasteland: two of these were no surprise, being Brighton and Peterloo (a suburb of Manchester). These two were, as near as one can tell in the confusing wasteland, where they should be. However, a group trying to find Bristol instead stumbled into a realm that was inhabited by Germanic tribes and pre Mithraic Romans. The group made contact with some of the tribes and with the Roman forces (who, as they mostly worshipped Mithras, though not as sole deity, were basically friendly).

One of the ships sent out from Dartford returns, six months later, the Redoubtable under Commander William Suckling. Suckling, who turns out to be a Wastelander, reports dangerous seas and scattered islands. He became separated from and lost all contact with the rest of his squadron, but landed on a mountainous island. Here he made preliminary contact with what appeared to be Aztecs, though pre Columbian ones. They seemed to expect him and wished to talk to some superior who could negotiate: Suckling is given powers to negotiate by Wellington and sent back.

The Royal Society progresses in their understanding of what has happened, though much is kept secret. Key to the maintenance of the Realm of London is the monarch and also three items in his regalia, the so-called ‘Three Swords’ of Justice, Faith and Temporal Power. Unable to use thee personally, they are conferred on three individuals: Temporal Power on Wellington, Justice on the Lord Chancellor Michael Mithras Allthrop and Faith on the Archbishop of London Amanda Isis London.

Using these as ritual props and the aid of Wastelanders walking and marking the routes, ‘Wasteland Ways’ are established between London and Peterloo and London and Brighton. Subject to attacks from creatures out of the Wasteland – the Entropic Will can both drive people mad and form creatures from any available material – they are far from safe passages, but do allow for regular contact. Peterloo is used as a huge dumping ground for new arrivals and ends up across between a prison camp and a ghetto.

It remains a mystery, though perhaps the Royal Society know, as to why Peterloo was able to remain grounded in reality.

Brighton is a different matter. The Prince Regent maintains Brighton. Possibly the most unpopular man in Britain (mostly due to his treatment of the future queen, Caroline, but also because of his incredible lack of charisma), he is seen as very important – he is the heir to George and perhaps the only one who might be able to maintain London if George were to die. It is found that, if the Regent leaves Brighton, then Brighton starts to collapse, the Wasteland moving inwards. He stays there, ostensibly because the fishing industry Brighton has developed helps feed London, though many think that he likes being Lord of his own little bit of creation.

Pamela Isis Wales and Doctor Henry Fuggerton, two Wastelanders, represent British interests in what has become known as ‘Little Germania’, or more colloquially as ‘Hairy Bristol’, though it is clear that though located roughly where Bristol might be, it has nothing geographically in common with it.

This realm is large, twice the size of the London one and rich in timber, ore and farmland, all things London needs very badly. Mrs Wales, a skilled diplomat, develops close ties with the Roman Governor and Centurion and then goes on to develop ties with several of the tribes. Others wish nothing to do with her.

The Royal Society develops a ‘Wasteland Path’ to Little Germania and some mining, lumbering and so forth begins. This upsets some of the tribes greatly.

William Suckling sails to where Sweden should be, which is where an Aztec Realm is now. He is in company with Henry Matheson, president of the Royal Society. This worthy is expected, it seems and taken into private conference by the senior Aztec Priests. It turn out they knew the collapse was going to happen and were ready for it, and see their future as allies of Britain. Matheson spends a long time talking to these priests and most of what is discussed is not made public. He emerges shaken and pale.

A ‘Wasteland passage’ – the nautical equivalent of a path – is established between London and the Aztec Realm. The Aztec penchant for blood sacrifice is not popular, but they are happy to listen to missionaries. Mithraic and Isian preachers head out there. Trade begins and the Aztecs, very skilled at growing a lot of food in a small area, become a vital trade partner.

The establishment of both paths and passages requires regular travel before the path can be established. The only people who can do that are Wastelanders. People with this talent are actively recruited and employed by a new government agency – the Wasteland Commission. They engage both in travel to allow the Royal Society to establish permanent links and exploration.

Summer 1819: Discovery of Faith

Wastelanders had been heavily engaged in trying to find both Canterbury and Winchester, the two significant Holy Cities in Britain. They found both of these in the summer of 1819, only a few weeks apart. They were not as expected.

Winchester was found to be Elizabethan, held together by the most celebrated of British Isian Priestesses, Sarah Westminster.

Canterbury was found to be even more primitive and under Beckett, before he was murdered.

After some confusion, the establishment of paths and cultural chaos, Sarah Westminster was proclaimed once more to be High Mistress and Beckett High Master of their respective churches. Both could wield miraculous power with great aplomb and the two cities, though small realms, were and are still very strong and rarely troubled by Entropy.

Winter 1819 : Revolution

Though things were getting better, London still sported many starving people, a Parliament elected from constituencies that may not even exist any more, an effective but dictatorial PM and a state of martial law.

Peterloo was by far the worst place to live; being used a dumping ground for people who came wandering in from the Wasteland. Chartist sympathies began to emerge here and Chartist speakers were common. One large meeting was broken up by the Yeomanry(a sort of part time military police) who, when the crowd panicked, started hacking with their swords and trampling people with their horses. Hundreds died many of them innocent.

The press was outraged: these people had done no harm and women and children were killed. Resentment had been against Wellington in any case and the massacre sparked off a huge round of civil disorder, disobedience and chaos.

Wellington called an election and got back in – no real shock, as many of the MPs were the only voters from their constituencies. It did nothing to stem the growing tide of resentment and London teetered on the edge of armed revolt.

Spring 1820 : Railroads

Professor Brandy had, meanwhile, become something of a one-man industrial revolution. With raw materials now coming into London from Little Germania and food from the Aztecs he developed the London Glass Company into the biggest single employer in London and sank huge amounts of money into inventions that, until that time, had gotten no backing.

Spring 1820 saw railroads built incredibly quickly (given the labour and incentive was there) between London and Brighton, Little Germania, Winchester, Canterbury and Peterloo. Waterloo station was built and became the central hub for these. The rail brought lumber and ore from Germania, fish from Brighton, food stuffs from Canterbury and Winchester and took unwanted people to Peterloo. A rail link to Dartford, which now had an expanding dock, linked up with the sea trade with the Aztecs. Manufactured products were shipped out of London en masse.

Summer 1820: a New Constitution

Faced with imminent social collapse, Wellington was forced to negotiate with Chartist leaders and, specifically, their spokesman, Thomas Pain, who has wandered out of the wasteland a few months before. In Paine, the people had someone who could negotiate and he did so.

The Charter was embraced – yearly elections, secret ballots, the constituencies of MPs redone to reflect the population, suffrage for anyone over 21 who could prove they worked 6 months in the last year. An election was held and the Chartist were dumbfounded when the Tory party won anyway, though Wellington had resigned as leader in favour of Sir Benjamin Heald - a charismatic man who served at Trafalgar. They blamed it on ineffectual voter registration and started to complain again, but now it was peaceful: the crisis was over.

Late Summer/ Early Autumn 1820:Commonwealth and Empire

The Aztecs, for reasons best known to themselves and perhaps to Matheson, are very keen on close ties to Britain. Heald proposes and gets passed the ‘Commonwealth’ act, which creates very close ties, free trade and full military support between Britain and any other Commonwealth members and the Aztecs join.

Pamela Isis Wales and Doctor Henry Fuggerton seeks to negotiate similar membership with the rulers of Little Germania. These consist of a council of friendly tribes and the Roman Governor. Both sides are keen, but there are other tribal elements who are not. A meeting is held in friendly tribal lands, which is raided by tribes less friendly that use magic to attack the meeting under cover of mist. They kill the Roman Governor, Rape and kill Mrs Wales, murder many of the friendly chieftains and blind Fuggerton and send him packing to deliver a message: ‘stay out of our lands’. The unfriendly tribes then go on to raid various mining and lumber operations. The friendly tribes are leaderless and do little, though some link up with the Romans to fight.

Heald sends Wellington and troops. A combination of a Roman legion, Germanic auxiliaries and Peninsular War veterans backed up by magi and ritualists from both the Royal Society and Golden Bough crushes the unfriendly tribes in reasonably short order.

Little Germania is for the most part brought into the Empire, something the locals are more than happy about. A couple of the friendly tribes (the unfriendly ones do not get the option) end up independent, but part of the Commonwealth. The Romans get to elect an MP, as do the three larger tribes – Westminster is agog when a Roman Patrician (the governor’s son) and three barbarian elders are sworn in.

Late Autumn 1820

London is now moderately secure, peaceful and prospering. Still, expansion is necessary: there is overpopulation and a shortage of resources. The Wasteland Commission gets busy, sending out explorers to pave the way for trade, expansion, diplomatic relations or whatever such exploration may bring. Matheson is adamant that without such expansion, London is doomed.

This is where the game started, with 1820 corresponding to 2004 in our own world.

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