The Brabazon Workworld: Difference between revisions

From The Fifth City Wiki
← Older editNewer edit →
KestrelGirl (talk | contribs)
Bureaucrats, emailconfirmed, Administrators
6,614 edits
No edit summary
Tag: visualeditor
KestrelGirl (talk | contribs)
Bureaucrats, emailconfirmed, Administrators
6,614 edits
mNo edit summary
Tag: visualeditor
Line 10: Line 10:
__forcetoc__
__forcetoc__
==Work Them to Death ==
==Work Them to Death ==
<blockquote>''"Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go. Time is precious here: minutes not spent at work are given to sleep."''<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Exploring_Brabazon|Exploring Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}}</ref></blockquote>Brabazon primarily employs the less fortunate who might otherwise go to debtors' prison<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Bit Between|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Brabazon Workworld: the first workworld to be established in Albion. Working here, debtors can escape prison; they remain till their debts are repaid and a ticket away has been funded."''</ref> - and is rather reluctant to let them go even when their debts have been paid off.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Help a Workworlder with their paperwork|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The Overseer is most displeased when you turn up with one of her workers, forms all correctly filed out and stamped. They are forced to release the prisoner on schedule. Your only reward is a smile from the prisoner, and a scowl from the Overseer. It is enough."''</ref> Its main purpose is the processing of [[hours]],<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Peer through the window at the hour-refiners|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Inside, hard-working souls refine raw hours imported from the Reach. After this process they may be spun in hour-looms and put to use."''</ref> which, as one might imagine, tampers with how time works in the area.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Bit Between|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The primary industry is that of hours processing, which has the side effect of accelerating time on the workworld surface."''</ref> However, its workers also produce rugs,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Admire the rugs|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Please admire our beautiful handcrafted rugs and weavings – exported for sale in London! Workers here gain skills that can support them for the rest of their days."''</ref> glassware,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Visit the glass workers|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The building you enter is heated by vast furnaces and ovens. Workers are blowing molten glass. "''</ref> and raw components.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Watch the rock-breaking|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Unfortunately, not all work on Brabazon can be creatively fulfilling. We also produce raw components, like gravel and aggregates."''</ref>
<blockquote>''"Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go. Time is precious here: minutes not spent at work are given to sleep."''<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Exploring_Brabazon|Exploring Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}}</ref></blockquote>The first workworld established in Albion,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Bit Between|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Brabazon Workworld: the first workworld to be established in Albion."''</ref> Brabazon primarily employs the less fortunate who might otherwise go to debtors' prison<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Bit Between|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Brabazon Workworld: the first workworld to be established in Albion. Working here, debtors can escape prison; they remain till their debts are repaid and a ticket away has been funded."''</ref> - and is rather reluctant to let them go even when their debts have been paid off.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Help a Workworlder with their paperwork|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The Overseer is most displeased when you turn up with one of her workers, forms all correctly filed out and stamped. They are forced to release the prisoner on schedule. Your only reward is a smile from the prisoner, and a scowl from the Overseer. It is enough."''</ref> Its main purpose is the processing of [[hours]],<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Peer through the window at the hour-refiners|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Inside, hard-working souls refine raw hours imported from the Reach. After this process they may be spun in hour-looms and put to use."''</ref> which, as one might imagine, tampers with how time works in the area.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Bit Between|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The primary industry is that of hours processing, which has the side effect of accelerating time on the workworld surface."''</ref> However, its workers also produce rugs,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Admire the rugs|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Please admire our beautiful handcrafted rugs and weavings – exported for sale in London! Workers here gain skills that can support them for the rest of their days."''</ref> glassware,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Visit the glass workers|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The building you enter is heated by vast furnaces and ovens. Workers are blowing molten glass. "''</ref> and raw components.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/A_Tour_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Watch the rock-breaking|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Unfortunately, not all work on Brabazon can be creatively fulfilling. We also produce raw components, like gravel and aggregates."''</ref>


The workworld is notorious for exhausting the lives of its employees - both due to its abysmal working<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Exploring_Brabazon|Exploring Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Weary workers struggle to their first shift, grey as ghosts in the smog. They struggle under heavy tool bags, and heavier debts. The debtor's court does not give a good rate of exchange on sovereigns owned to years worked."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Secure a worker medical attention|Sunless Skies|}} ''"A worker has been injured in a factory accident. A common occurrence. So common that she can't be seen until the doctor next visits."''</ref> and living conditions,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Backstreets of Brabazon Workworld|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The shanties are pressed close together. There are no more streets – only cramped alleys. Their few windows are clogged with filth. Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Supplement the workers' meagre rations|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The locals have grown so used to gruel that even Murgatroyd's Fungal Crackers come as an exotic extravagance to them."''</ref> and because the workworld and its immediate surroundings run on a faster clock than the outside;<ref name=":0" /> workers leave their shifts visibly older than when they entered,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Airs_of_Brabazon|Airs of Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Two Overseers nearby join you in waving. They plaster false smiles on their faces. Once the children are gone, one says: "Some of them won't stop crying about the nannies. But the alternative was so much worse. To see your parents wither into old age? They are too young to understand.""''</ref> and a sentence of "a few years" may manifest more like decades.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Last Day|Sunless Skies|}}"''Those Workworlders lucky enough to have reached the end of their service blink in the light of freedom. They were young when they first arrived. Now their skin is calloused and wrinkled; aged not only by hard labour, but the slow-burning light of the Clockwork Sun."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Recruit crew from the Workworld|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Former workers, now old and exhausted. Brabazon does not pay for their journeys home. [...] The now elderly crew shuffle aboard, almost relieved to be given orders. Their bones are brittle, but they will work hard. Working hard is all that they've known in their lifetimes under the lash."''</ref> Overseers working in the factories are not exempt, either.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Airs_of_Brabazon|Airs of Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"An Overseer checks his watch before pausing beside you. "I'm very sorry, but I can't stop. Unless you're from...? No, you aren't in uniform. Sorry. I can't dawdle – I'm only twenty, and look at me—" He does not look twenty. "I can't afford to risk demotion.""''</ref> It is both unsurprising and understandable, then, that a trade in stolen hours has appeared in Brabazon.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Investigate the rogue hours trade|Sunless Skies|}} ''"A group of sooty youths guards their loom protectively. "Please, Inspector. You've seen how things are. We're spending the best years of our lives working here. We just wants a few of 'em back.""''</ref>
The workworld is notorious for exhausting the lives of its employees - both due to its abysmal working<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Exploring_Brabazon|Exploring Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Weary workers struggle to their first shift, grey as ghosts in the smog. They struggle under heavy tool bags, and heavier debts. The debtor's court does not give a good rate of exchange on sovereigns owned to years worked."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Secure a worker medical attention|Sunless Skies|}} ''"A worker has been injured in a factory accident. A common occurrence. So common that she can't be seen until the doctor next visits."''</ref> and living conditions,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Backstreets of Brabazon Workworld|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The shanties are pressed close together. There are no more streets – only cramped alleys. Their few windows are clogged with filth. Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Supplement the workers' meagre rations|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The locals have grown so used to gruel that even Murgatroyd's Fungal Crackers come as an exotic extravagance to them."''</ref> and because the workworld and its immediate surroundings run on a faster clock than the outside;<ref name=":0" /> workers leave their shifts visibly older than when they entered,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Airs_of_Brabazon|Airs of Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Two Overseers nearby join you in waving. They plaster false smiles on their faces. Once the children are gone, one says: "Some of them won't stop crying about the nannies. But the alternative was so much worse. To see your parents wither into old age? They are too young to understand.""''</ref> and a sentence of "a few years" may manifest more like decades.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|The Last Day|Sunless Skies|}}"''Those Workworlders lucky enough to have reached the end of their service blink in the light of freedom. They were young when they first arrived. Now their skin is calloused and wrinkled; aged not only by hard labour, but the slow-burning light of the Clockwork Sun."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Recruit crew from the Workworld|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Former workers, now old and exhausted. Brabazon does not pay for their journeys home. [...] The now elderly crew shuffle aboard, almost relieved to be given orders. Their bones are brittle, but they will work hard. Working hard is all that they've known in their lifetimes under the lash."''</ref> Overseers working in the factories are not exempt, either.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/Airs_of_Brabazon|Airs of Brabazon|Sunless Skies|}} ''"An Overseer checks his watch before pausing beside you. "I'm very sorry, but I can't stop. Unless you're from...? No, you aren't in uniform. Sorry. I can't dawdle – I'm only twenty, and look at me—" He does not look twenty. "I can't afford to risk demotion.""''</ref> It is both unsurprising and understandable, then, that a trade in stolen hours has appeared in Brabazon.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld|Investigate the rogue hours trade|Sunless Skies|}} ''"A group of sooty youths guards their loom protectively. "Please, Inspector. You've seen how things are. We're spending the best years of our lives working here. We just wants a few of 'em back.""''</ref>

Revision as of 02:38, 10 October 2024

"The sky smells of smog and furnace-fires. You near the workworld - where debtors, the poor, and the sick are put to use."[1]

The Brabazon Workworld is a massive factory complex in Albion.

Work Them to Death

"Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go. Time is precious here: minutes not spent at work are given to sleep."[2]

The first workworld established in Albion,[3] Brabazon primarily employs the less fortunate who might otherwise go to debtors' prison[4] - and is rather reluctant to let them go even when their debts have been paid off.[5] Its main purpose is the processing of hours,[6] which, as one might imagine, tampers with how time works in the area.[7] However, its workers also produce rugs,[8] glassware,[9] and raw components.[10]

The workworld is notorious for exhausting the lives of its employees - both due to its abysmal working[11][12] and living conditions,[13][14] and because the workworld and its immediate surroundings run on a faster clock than the outside;[7] workers leave their shifts visibly older than when they entered,[15] and a sentence of "a few years" may manifest more like decades.[16][17] Overseers working in the factories are not exempt, either.[18] It is both unsurprising and understandable, then, that a trade in stolen hours has appeared in Brabazon.[19]

Many former employees retreat to places like Hybras in an attempt to relive their stolen youth.[20] Even more die in Brabazon - and their debt is passed on to their descendants and relatives.[21] It is not uncommon to see entire families working their way out of debt.[22]

Cognitive Dissonance

"He points out a plaque on the wall. 'This is a list of the original donors, who helped us set up Brabazon Workworld. They've all contributed to this place: a place where the destitute can learn new skills, and find a home.'"[23]

The factories of Brabazon are neighbored by a pleasant and painstakingly manicured[24] residential district called Little Nice, after the city in France.[25] This is where its higher-ranking Overseers and Governor live,[25] and where the children of Brabazon's inmates attend school between shifts of work[26][27] in hopes that they may earn their way out of the Workworld more quickly.[28] The district is protected from most of the runoff of time-processing and the fumes coming from the factory.[29] So are visitors, each given a quantity of hours to prevent them from feeling the effects.[30][31]

The Governor holds near-absolute power here, especially since the workworld is rather far from New London's authority.[32] He views Brabazon through heavily rose-tinted glasses,[33][34] and its mission as merciful.[35][36] Many of the wealthy donors who tour the workworld[37] hold similar views,[38] and are completely detached from the lives and suffering of the workers.[39]

Of course, this all stands at odds with the reality of the situation. Many of Brabazon's disgruntled workers are determined to strike and end the workworld's appalling conditions.[40] They can't do it alone, however, and a cadre of revolutionaries intends to help them.[41]

References

  1. ↑ Log Entries, Sunless Skies
  2. ↑ Exploring Brabazon, Sunless Skies
  3. ↑ The Bit Between, Sunless Skies "Brabazon Workworld: the first workworld to be established in Albion."
  4. ↑ The Bit Between, Sunless Skies "Brabazon Workworld: the first workworld to be established in Albion. Working here, debtors can escape prison; they remain till their debts are repaid and a ticket away has been funded."
  5. ↑ Help a Workworlder with their paperwork, Sunless Skies "The Overseer is most displeased when you turn up with one of her workers, forms all correctly filed out and stamped. They are forced to release the prisoner on schedule. Your only reward is a smile from the prisoner, and a scowl from the Overseer. It is enough."
  6. ↑ Peer through the window at the hour-refiners, Sunless Skies "Inside, hard-working souls refine raw hours imported from the Reach. After this process they may be spun in hour-looms and put to use."
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Bit Between, Sunless Skies "The primary industry is that of hours processing, which has the side effect of accelerating time on the workworld surface."
  8. ↑ Admire the rugs, Sunless Skies "Please admire our beautiful handcrafted rugs and weavings – exported for sale in London! Workers here gain skills that can support them for the rest of their days."
  9. ↑ Visit the glass workers, Sunless Skies "The building you enter is heated by vast furnaces and ovens. Workers are blowing molten glass. "
  10. ↑ Watch the rock-breaking, Sunless Skies "Unfortunately, not all work on Brabazon can be creatively fulfilling. We also produce raw components, like gravel and aggregates."
  11. ↑ Exploring Brabazon, Sunless Skies "Weary workers struggle to their first shift, grey as ghosts in the smog. They struggle under heavy tool bags, and heavier debts. The debtor's court does not give a good rate of exchange on sovereigns owned to years worked."
  12. ↑ Secure a worker medical attention, Sunless Skies "A worker has been injured in a factory accident. A common occurrence. So common that she can't be seen until the doctor next visits."
  13. ↑ The Backstreets of Brabazon Workworld, Sunless Skies "The shanties are pressed close together. There are no more streets – only cramped alleys. Their few windows are clogged with filth. Grimy workers trudge from work to home, eating as they go."
  14. ↑ Supplement the workers' meagre rations, Sunless Skies "The locals have grown so used to gruel that even Murgatroyd's Fungal Crackers come as an exotic extravagance to them."
  15. ↑ Airs of Brabazon, Sunless Skies "Two Overseers nearby join you in waving. They plaster false smiles on their faces. Once the children are gone, one says: "Some of them won't stop crying about the nannies. But the alternative was so much worse. To see your parents wither into old age? They are too young to understand.""
  16. ↑ The Last Day, Sunless Skies "Those Workworlders lucky enough to have reached the end of their service blink in the light of freedom. They were young when they first arrived. Now their skin is calloused and wrinkled; aged not only by hard labour, but the slow-burning light of the Clockwork Sun."
  17. ↑ Recruit crew from the Workworld, Sunless Skies "Former workers, now old and exhausted. Brabazon does not pay for their journeys home. [...] The now elderly crew shuffle aboard, almost relieved to be given orders. Their bones are brittle, but they will work hard. Working hard is all that they've known in their lifetimes under the lash."
  18. ↑ Airs of Brabazon, Sunless Skies "An Overseer checks his watch before pausing beside you. "I'm very sorry, but I can't stop. Unless you're from...? No, you aren't in uniform. Sorry. I can't dawdle – I'm only twenty, and look at me—" He does not look twenty. "I can't afford to risk demotion.""
  19. ↑ Investigate the rogue hours trade, Sunless Skies "A group of sooty youths guards their loom protectively. "Please, Inspector. You've seen how things are. We're spending the best years of our lives working here. We just wants a few of 'em back.""
  20. ↑ Wander the wilds of Hybras, Sunless Skies "[...] you find a plinth adorned with broken and twisted nameplates, the shape of collars. 'Brabazon Workworld' has been imprinted on each."
  21. ↑ Exploring Brabazon, Sunless Skies "Many fail to pay off their debts at the workworld, and end their days here. Should the deceased have any debt still owing, it will now become the responsibility of his descendants and relatives."
  22. ↑ Provide Fuel for warmth, Sunless Skies "[...] Families draw close around the heat (it is quicker to work off a debt as a family) [...]"
  23. ↑ Converse with the Governor, Sunless Skies
  24. ↑ Write a Port Report, Sunless Skies "The Overseers here work hard to ensure Little Nice remains perfect: from the freshly painted fence curlicues to the newly-mown grass of the lawn. It's hard to get a sense of what's going on in Brabazon from your current, curated surroundings."
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Little Nice, Sunless Skies "Little Nice is entirely charming. It is populated with carefully unique houses [...] Overseers in striped blazers tend the topiary and maintain the paintwork. Behind a water feature bustling with cherubs is a cottage with an out of place little tower. This is the home of the Governor of Brabazon."
  26. ↑ School Timer, Sunless Skies "The children on Brabazon Workworld are allowed breaks from labour to attend school."
  27. ↑ Airs of Brabazon, Sunless Skies "A clock strikes three: the end of the school day. A stern schoolmistress is saying farewell to her charges. "I shall see you tomorrow – I mean, well, in a month. Do be good!" "
  28. ↑ Wave at the children on the way to school, Sunless Skies "The Governor is trialling a scheme whereby the children get to attend school in Little Nice. Their chances of earning a way off port while still young, are increased."
  29. ↑ Travel to Little Nice, Sunless Skies "Thick double doors separate the Bit Between from Little Nice. Only these doors, and the distance from the Workworld, protect Little Nice from the stench of industry and the run-off of the large-scale processing of time."
  30. ↑ Receive a carriage clock, Sunless Skies "As you know, time on the workworlds moves more velocitously than it does outside. In order to exempt you from the effects [...] Please carry these carriage clocks. They will show you how much time your protection will last for. [...] It is crucial that you stay with the tour. If your time runs out, every minute it takes for us to realise could be hours for you."
  31. ↑ Time as Measured by a Carriage Clock, Sunless Skies ""A fold of hours exempts you from the accelerated time on Brabazon Workworld. This clock lets you know how long under that fold will last.""
  32. ↑ Converse with the Governor, Sunless Skies "The Governor runs Brabazon. In the absence of more direct control from London, he is all powerful here."
  33. ↑ Converse with the Governor, Sunless Skies ""I'm immensely proud of our workers. Industry's up. Our hour refining is more efficient than ever. Our weavers are the best in the region. I've even heard rumours that Her Renewed Majesty commented positively on a glass piece made by one of our very own blowers." He beams at you. "Albion wouldn't be the same without them.""
  34. ↑ Listen to the Governor's request, Sunless Skies ""Brabazon must be self-sufficient. Without industry to justify their lighting, our fires will go out. We must have work." His brow furrows. "The workers refuse to understand that they live so long as they work. That is not a threat; it is a fact of living here. They require hope. Give it to them. Not enough to stir them into revolt, but enough that the fires remain lit.""
  35. ↑ Converse with the Governor, Sunless Skies "The Governor stands by the window. He looks past the tasteless fountain to where an Overseer is sweeping up leaves. "This man here: came here with his parents and worked his way up. Paid off their debts entirely. In a few months, he should be able to afford to leave.""
  36. ↑ Converse with the Governor, Sunless Skies "He points out a plaque on the wall. "This is a list of the original donors, who helped us set up Brabazon Workworld. They've all contributed to this place: a place where the destitute can learn new skills, and find a home.""
  37. ↑ Join a tour of Brabazon Workworld, Sunless Skies "A neatly printed sign offers: 'Tours of Brabazon. Witness the Worthy Work of Albion's Unfortunates, Blessed with Toil'. Near it, several well-dressed personages are gathered in a tight group. Occasional guffaws rise above the chatter."
  38. ↑ Watch the rock-breaking, Sunless Skies "A stout gentleman with a monocle sidles up to you. "This whole place is just marvellous, eh? Kept busy while paying off debts. Given new skills and education. Simply marvellous.""
  39. ↑ Visit the glass workers, Sunless Skies "A young lady in gaudy finery turns to you. "My parents paid for the main furnace to ensure that the poor would never go without. What did you fund?""
  40. ↑ Unrest at Brabazon, Sunless Skies "The workers are resentful. Tempers flare. The spark of revolution is hard to extinguish."
  41. ↑ Talk to the revolutionary leader, Sunless Skies "I want you to help us fight back, and secure better conditions for everyone who is sent here. [...] We have the will, and the strength, but lack something you have in abundance: freedom. We need provisions and materials. We need someone who can smuggle them in."
Retrieved from "https://thefifthcity.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_Brabazon_Workworld&oldid=17633"