Furnace Ancona

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously." Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"There are many people in London looking for many different Revolutions. But we can't get distracted squabbling among ourselves. My aim is to keep my Union together long enough to demand a settlement of land for every member. When the Railway is done, we can have our own town, somewhere out along the line, and the Masters can leave us alone."

Furnace Ancona is the leader of the Tracklayer's Union.

An Advocate for Labor

"I'm not putting down a single rail tie if we're not being paid, and it takes more than your word on that."

A tracklayer.

As the leader of the TLU, Furnace supervises her union's projects, meets with investors, and ensures her workers are paid fairly. She possesses excellent political acumen, though she adamantly refuses to be a bureaucrat. Instead, she leads from the front lines, working alongside union members and making use of her practical knowledge. She stands in opposition to any threats to workers' rights, especially Mr Fires and its lackeys. Thanks to her deeds, she is a living legend among many, from tracklayers, to labor advocates, to revolutionaries alike.

Furnace's ultimate goal is to build a city for the Tracklayers, where they can live free from the Masters' influence. This is the founding principle of the Emancipationist ideology, one of three schools of thought within the union. She has detailed plans for this city's infrastructure and governance, and hopes its establishment will set an example for the future. She claims this to be a practical, down-to-earth goal, though she seems to have utopian leanings.

History

"My grandfather belonged to a Friendly Society – before the fall. They all swore – on the skeleton of his neighbour's goat – never to work for less than ten shillings a week. One of his friends was caught and transported to Australia, for taking such a stand. And that was before... before Mr Fires and Mr Stones and the Bazaar."

"She used to be called Beatrice. But then she was working for Mr Fires. One day it gave instructions to the workers that they weren't to wear helmets for protection. So she jammed the machinery so it trapped Fires in the back room of the factory and got everyone out. Master was stuck in there for three days before it escaped."

Mr Fires

Born in the Neath as Beatrice Ancona, Furnace is of Italian descent. Her grandfather belonged to a Friendly Society, and swore to never work for an unfair wage even in the face of punishment. Before becoming a tracklayer, Ancona worked in one of Mr Fires' factories. One day, Fires demanded its workers no longer wear protective helmets; refusing to stand for such blatant cruelty, Ancona trapped the Master in a back room for three days while everyone evacuated.

In the wake of this incident, all the workers in the factory lost their jobs, but Ancona gained the nickname "Furnace" because "what else contains a fire?" Furnace went on to form the TLU, and she and her team worked on many projects, including the Moloch Line, a children's ride at Mrs Plenty's Carnival, and recently the Great Hellbound Railway. To this day, Ancona prefers to be called "Furnace" over "Beatrice", as she would rather use the name she earned than the one she was given at birth.

Appearance

"Early the next morning – much earlier than a civilised person should be awake – a woman presents herself at your lodgings. She's wearing overalls, work gloves, and a vast metal helmet, as though she were going on a deep-zee dive."

"Furnace's other two faces are not positioned quite where her ears should be. They are a little further back, so that, counting the frontward face you know, the three of them are evenly spaced around her skull."

Furnace's helmet.

Furnace is a muscular woman who typically wears rugged overalls, gloves, and an enormous metal helmet with a front-facing visor and holes drilled into the sides.

Furnace's helmet conceals two extra faces positioned slightly behind her ears. Each of these faces can act and speak independently: they sometimes comment from within her helmet and display other autonomous behaviors, such as one falling asleep while the other faces remain awake.

Personality

"Furnace isn't the kind that stays home stamping letters for the front. Where the work is, that's where she is. When she's in London, that'll be because that's where she's found the biggest threat to the workers. But she's been all the way out. Made the journey to Hell and back on foot, twice."

"Furnace accepts the Hillmovers with pleasure. "I'd like to see a Master roost on this," says a voice that doesn't come from her mouth."

A Minacious Union-Rat.

Courageous, charismatic, and compassionate, Furnace is steadfast in her principles. She is willing to incur personal sacrifices for the greater good, and refuses to let her workers be defrauded. As the leader of a broad coalition, she tries to ensure fairness in her decisions and values unity, even when she does not agree with all parties involved. She gets along best with her working-class fellows, and dislikes the rich and privileged. She rarely displays vulnerability, though she privately worries her plans may fail, her union may break apart, or that she may let her fellow workers down.

Each of Furnace's faces has its own personality, in accordance with the three factions of the Tracklayer's Union:

• Her front-face is Emancipationist. She presents this face to the outside world.
• Her Prehistoricist face follows the teachings of Cornelius. It is conservative regarding change and disorder, and has a tendency to wax philosophical.
• Her Liberationist face supports the Liberation of Night. It is audacious and driven, but prone to picking fights with the other faces.

Furnace's reflection in Parabola runs a tea parlor, displaying paintings of Furnace's dream city. Her reflection prefers to go by Beatrice, and has only one face. It seems the real Furnace sees opening a tea business as a backup should her union no longer need her.

The Hurlers Incident

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?" Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"This is what Cornelius' experiment did. He invoked a power against speaking 'more than one truth with the same mouth.' So when I needed to speak for one of my constituents that I don't personally agree with, this happened. Didn't silence me, though. That should explain anything you need to know about me and Cornelius. And I'm done with this conversation."

Cornelius

Furnace once had a partner, Cornelius. The two worked on the Moloch Line as co-leaders of the TLU, and eventually reached the Hurlers, standing stones marked with the Discordance. Hell wanted the stones excavated, but Furnace refused due to the dangers involved. After some persuasion from one Supervising Deviless, however, Cornelius went to study the stones anyway.

In reading the stones, Cornelius invoked a Discordant law that forbade "speaking more than one truth with the same mouth." It is implied that Cornelius wanted to "cure" Furnace of her tendency to advocate for points of view she did not agree with, but Furnace was not to be silenced. Instead, she grew extra faces to speak for the Liberationist and Prehistoricist ideologies, neither of which she believes in personally. As for Cornelius, he grew a multitude of extra mouths, was inflicted with fatal frostbite, and disappeared from the public eye.

Forbidden.

After the disaster, Furnace started wearing her signature helmet, focused more on worker safety, and developed a hatred for devils. She has mixed feelings about Cornelius, but has no intention of working or collaborating with him in the future due to his actions. While she believes her extra faces serve a purpose, she would like to be rid of them after her duty to the union is complete. She is also firmly against trifling with the Discordance again, a rare thing that all three of her faces can agree upon.