Eileen
Eileen was a Pureblood in the fullest sense the Iron Works understood the word: ambitious, strategic, and convinced that the civilization built on the backs of Irons was worth preserving at any cost. She organized, she thought in systems, and she created value from nothing. By every measure the Iron Works respected, Eileen was an exemplary citizen.
She was also, from childhood, the only person in the Iron Works who treated the Retrograde L. Arx with genuine kindness. Arx was an aspiring doctor with a decayed face and no hard edge, someone who did not automatically want something from Eileen. The friendship was real, at least at first. The two grew up together; Eileen eventually married and had children, while Arx remained devoted from a distance. When Eileen fell gravely ill, the trauma of nearly losing her drove Arx to become first a medic and then a Graverobber, and eventually the architect of the infection-enhancement process that made the Iron Works military nearly impossible to kill.
That devotion did not go unnoticed. The Full Dead strategist E. Koch recognized Eileen's influence over Arx and recruited her to keep the Graverobber loyal. Eileen agreed. She listened to Arx's growing moral objections about slavery and cruelty, lent a sympathetic ear, argued that freeing the Irons would destroy everything they had built, and ensured the work continued. The scheme was calculated, hatched by Pureblood leadership, and Eileen executed it without hesitation. If Arx ever became truly disloyal, Eileen would regret the necessity, but she would kill Arx herself. Her loyalty to Pureblood interests and to the civilization she believed in outweighed a friendship she had learned to wield as a weapon.
She was also, from childhood, the only person in the Iron Works who treated the Retrograde L. Arx with genuine kindness. Arx was an aspiring doctor with a decayed face and no hard edge, someone who did not automatically want something from Eileen. The friendship was real, at least at first. The two grew up together; Eileen eventually married and had children, while Arx remained devoted from a distance. When Eileen fell gravely ill, the trauma of nearly losing her drove Arx to become first a medic and then a Graverobber, and eventually the architect of the infection-enhancement process that made the Iron Works military nearly impossible to kill.
That devotion did not go unnoticed. The Full Dead strategist E. Koch recognized Eileen's influence over Arx and recruited her to keep the Graverobber loyal. Eileen agreed. She listened to Arx's growing moral objections about slavery and cruelty, lent a sympathetic ear, argued that freeing the Irons would destroy everything they had built, and ensured the work continued. The scheme was calculated, hatched by Pureblood leadership, and Eileen executed it without hesitation. If Arx ever became truly disloyal, Eileen would regret the necessity, but she would kill Arx herself. Her loyalty to Pureblood interests and to the civilization she believed in outweighed a friendship she had learned to wield as a weapon.
Children
