The Abbey of the First Fission
The Abbey of the First Fission was one of the brightest hopes and greatest dangers to the fallen world. Built on the South Side of Rail City around a pre-fall university, the Abbey served as a Darwinist research institution, holy site, and weapons development facility during the Ironworks era. A bronze monument marking the site of the first atom splitting made the ground holy to the Church of Darwin, and the castle-like university buildings provided ideal defenses against the zed.
Red-cowled guards wearing deep red habits patrolled the approaches. Beneath the surface, a rabbit warren of steam tunnels connected the entire complex, providing safe travel paths for the scholars and soldiers within. The vast library-fortress contained ancient texts of religion, medicine, and science. While digital stores had been lost and delicate equipment destroyed in the Fall, an immense amount of information survived in physical form, making the Abbey one of the most important repositories of knowledge in the post-fall world.
Novitiates faced grueling admission tests of literacy, general education, and the Hunt: a mission to scavenge artifacts from a list of esoterica devised by the Prioresses. Only those who returned successful gained entrance and received a radioactive isotope number added to their name. The Abbey produced useful elixirs and devices, some reverse-engineered from artifacts, some recovered from the library, some developed entirely anew.
The Abbey's darkest work was the Iron Dragoon program. Weaponry was grafted directly into the flesh of Iron Slaves, combined with radical mental conditioning that created fearsome warriors devoted to protecting the Ironworks. The program was overseen by Prioress Angela Proctor-124, Head of Research and Development. Born deep within the tunnels and rarely seen outside, she was one of the most brilliant and amoral minds of the Ironworks. Always garbed head to toe in deep red habit, her bone-white skin appeared almost pale green, and her yellow predatory eyes missed nothing. A voracious intellect specializing in biochemistry, she would devour any new information brought before her. Botching an experiment under her watch could be fatal for the novitiate involved.
The Sainthood of Ashes maintained an uneasy presence at the Abbey, allowed access to certain archive sections while many more remained under Darwinist control. And across the Lake, the Abbey's eyes were fixed on Can Do Station, the nuclear facility that would complete its ambitions if it ever fell into Darwinist hands.
Red-cowled guards wearing deep red habits patrolled the approaches. Beneath the surface, a rabbit warren of steam tunnels connected the entire complex, providing safe travel paths for the scholars and soldiers within. The vast library-fortress contained ancient texts of religion, medicine, and science. While digital stores had been lost and delicate equipment destroyed in the Fall, an immense amount of information survived in physical form, making the Abbey one of the most important repositories of knowledge in the post-fall world.
Novitiates faced grueling admission tests of literacy, general education, and the Hunt: a mission to scavenge artifacts from a list of esoterica devised by the Prioresses. Only those who returned successful gained entrance and received a radioactive isotope number added to their name. The Abbey produced useful elixirs and devices, some reverse-engineered from artifacts, some recovered from the library, some developed entirely anew.
The Abbey's darkest work was the Iron Dragoon program. Weaponry was grafted directly into the flesh of Iron Slaves, combined with radical mental conditioning that created fearsome warriors devoted to protecting the Ironworks. The program was overseen by Prioress Angela Proctor-124, Head of Research and Development. Born deep within the tunnels and rarely seen outside, she was one of the most brilliant and amoral minds of the Ironworks. Always garbed head to toe in deep red habit, her bone-white skin appeared almost pale green, and her yellow predatory eyes missed nothing. A voracious intellect specializing in biochemistry, she would devour any new information brought before her. Botching an experiment under her watch could be fatal for the novitiate involved.
The Sainthood of Ashes maintained an uneasy presence at the Abbey, allowed access to certain archive sections while many more remained under Darwinist control. And across the Lake, the Abbey's eyes were fixed on Can Do Station, the nuclear facility that would complete its ambitions if it ever fell into Darwinist hands.
