Homeland
Homeland was the name the Reclaimers gave to the northern territories across the Great Lake from the Ironworks. To its people, the word was not merely a label; it was a statement of identity, a declaration that this frozen, contested land belonged to those who had bled for it. The Ironworks derisively called the region Canuckistan and treated it as an embarrassment, a sore thumb that refused to submit. To the Reclaimers, it was freedom.
During the Ironworks era, Homeland remained contested but never fully conquered. After the Fall, the borders were broken open by a flood of Merican refugees fleeing the zed plague. In the decades that followed, southern settlements breached the borders again, this time to gather breeding stock for their slaves. The Reclaimers and their ancestors fought to stem these incursions, destroying two of the three main bridges at the Reach to choke off invasion routes. Despite constant pressure, the Ironworks could never subjugate the north.
The resistance took both covert and overt forms. The Shadowy Men conducted intelligence operations, fleecing money and goods from Ironworks interests. From Lakehead, Monty Mackenzie led the Sleeping Giant, an ever-expanding military faction preparing to retake Steel City and free the enslaved Reclaimers held there. Armed privateers struck at Ironworks ferries on the Lake, particularly those carrying slaves. Soosainmaree sheltered escapees who had crossed the water, its legend carried in Kings' Court songs that reached every slave quarter in the empire.
Tohr, the greatest Reclaimer city, had been devastated by a virulent plague widely suspected of being an Ironworks weapon. The disease killed eighty percent of those infected, with Reclaimers hit especially hard, and the city fell to plagued undead. But the survivors were reclaiming it, operating from offshore islands and the Whiskey District, using escaped Iron Slaves who showed resistance to the illness. The Spire still stood visible for miles across the Lake, a defiant symbol while Rail City's own towers were being cannibalized for scrap.
Far to the east, the Kaybekwa of Mont Royal formed a distinct cultural group speaking La bell Fransez, a language the Reclaimers adopted as a code against Merican eavesdroppers. Between Lakehead and Tohr, the Fork served as a crossroads for trade and information. Wins maintained its precarious independence on the border by reinventing itself as an entertainment hub for Ironworks bosses who needed a vacation. The war between north and south simmered constantly, held at bay only by the mutual distraction of surviving the dead.
During the Ironworks era, Homeland remained contested but never fully conquered. After the Fall, the borders were broken open by a flood of Merican refugees fleeing the zed plague. In the decades that followed, southern settlements breached the borders again, this time to gather breeding stock for their slaves. The Reclaimers and their ancestors fought to stem these incursions, destroying two of the three main bridges at the Reach to choke off invasion routes. Despite constant pressure, the Ironworks could never subjugate the north.
The resistance took both covert and overt forms. The Shadowy Men conducted intelligence operations, fleecing money and goods from Ironworks interests. From Lakehead, Monty Mackenzie led the Sleeping Giant, an ever-expanding military faction preparing to retake Steel City and free the enslaved Reclaimers held there. Armed privateers struck at Ironworks ferries on the Lake, particularly those carrying slaves. Soosainmaree sheltered escapees who had crossed the water, its legend carried in Kings' Court songs that reached every slave quarter in the empire.
Tohr, the greatest Reclaimer city, had been devastated by a virulent plague widely suspected of being an Ironworks weapon. The disease killed eighty percent of those infected, with Reclaimers hit especially hard, and the city fell to plagued undead. But the survivors were reclaiming it, operating from offshore islands and the Whiskey District, using escaped Iron Slaves who showed resistance to the illness. The Spire still stood visible for miles across the Lake, a defiant symbol while Rail City's own towers were being cannibalized for scrap.
Far to the east, the Kaybekwa of Mont Royal formed a distinct cultural group speaking La bell Fransez, a language the Reclaimers adopted as a code against Merican eavesdroppers. Between Lakehead and Tohr, the Fork served as a crossroads for trade and information. Wins maintained its precarious independence on the border by reinventing itself as an entertainment hub for Ironworks bosses who needed a vacation. The war between north and south simmered constantly, held at bay only by the mutual distraction of surviving the dead.
Geography
Homeland stretched across the cold northern territories beyond the Great Lake, encompassing port cities, forested wilderness, and strategic waterways. The Great Lake itself, swollen by arctic meltwater that merged formerly separate bodies of water, served as a natural barrier between Homeland and the Ironworks to the south. The expansion had created new coastlines and salinated the water, making it undrinkable. The Reach and its ruined bridges controlled the southeastern access point, where the Reclaimers had destroyed all but one crossing. Harsh winters and cold year-round conditions made sustained military occupation by southern forces difficult. Major settlements included Tohr on the Lake shore, Lakehead on the stormy northern coast, Wins at the border crossing near Motor City, Soosainmaree as a port refuge, and the Fork at the crossroads between Lakehead and Tohr. Can Do Station, a nuclear power facility converted to a fortress, provided energy to surrounding communities. Far to the east, the Kaybekwa of Mont Royal formed the region's most distant cultural outpost.
