Faction Profile: Steel’s Progeny
Table of Contents:
History
Headquarters/Territory
Organization/Ranks
Closing Thoughts
History: Mobile, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast of the United States, had been transformed. What was once a small city, mostly quiet, had become a major manufacturing hub. The Riverside Industrial Area was revamped completely, with steel mills directly beside the weapons factories the steel would be sent too. The greatest creation, however, was the Mobile Efficiency Track, a series of looping and intertwining rail tracks that took materials from the mines that produced them to the factories that used them to the manufacturing centers and craftsmen nearby. It was the creation of southern mastermind Aldous Craythorn, who had been called by some the R.E. House of his Commonwealth. The tunnels led from the shipping centers on the city’s outskirts, underground to the waterside steel mills and weapons factories. From there the tunnels and carts went to the airport, as well as other shipping stations. It would be those tunnels that proved essential to the growth of the Progeny.
Craythorn died soon after his establishment of the MET, leaving behind two things beside his great underground track. The first was the Mobile Crisis Control Center. The second was his son, Adrien. The MC3 was similar to House’s satellite and laser array, except it took the form of a series of tiny mobile missile stations that could intercept any attacks. Craythorn originally thought up the MC3 as a way to prevent his rivals from destroying his creations. But when he bought the last of his rivals’ businesses, he would no longer need it. Instead, he sold it to the government, earning a pretty penny in the process. However, the government had made a mistake when they bought the MC3 from Aldous. They had tampered with the programming, setting it to the exact parameters that they believed would be fulfilled when the nuclear war began. In the process, they had mostly disabled the previous settings, which would have detected any missile and intercepted in.
His son, Adrien, was a different type of man than his father. He had been raised half his life in the country by the Cajun woman that Aldous had had an affair with, and so he better appreciated the human side of a business, having started a successful hunting business by himself at a young age. When he was finally revealed as the heir to the Craythorn fortune (with much fanfare) Aldous himself was relieved. And when Craythorn became sick and dying, and Adrien took over the daily operations, he changed much of how it worked. Instead of managing his steel empire from the confines of a headquarters far away, Adrien would wander around the factory floors, and often donned a hard hat to embark on the routine maintenance operations. It was a day like that when the bombs fell.
Adrien and about a dozen of his employees were down on the tracks, running repairs on the section between the airport and one of several storage facilities between the airport and the waterside steel mills. The bombs fell on Mobile, and only three units of the MC3 were able to respond. The city, save for select areas, became a wasteland, 90% of the population perishing within ten hours. All that was left was the lonely waterfront, the steel mills silent after their power had been shut off.
The lights of the underground railway had been severed, leaving only those few lights that were powered by the backup generator. The group of men tried to make their way to the nearest place they could ascend at. However, the tracks were not made for human transport, and navigation was almost impossible. Instead of surfacing at the waterfront, they came into the basement of downtown warehouse, the floors above it demolished by the aftereffects of the nuke. They slowly made their way up the elevator shaft (the elevator itself no longer functioned), until they reached the ground floor. Once outside, they could feel the heavy radiation, and made their way back to the waterfront quickly. 
Once they arrived again at the rows of factories, they looked down to see utter chaos. Thousands of factory employees rioted across the yards, each group trying for the same thing...to scale the wall.
The wall had been a creation of Adrien’s father, a method for containing striking workers, or those who wanted to reach his local office, planted at the top of the wall. It was some two hundred feet tall, and glowed with the midnight glare of government-issued sentry turrets. The factory workers were trapped, the gates having locked automatically when the power shut off. None of the workers liked that, and so several attempted to climb the wall. When each one made it up only a few feet, the sentry turrets turned on them, and another dead body would fall to the concrete. This only riled the workers further, but not quite as much as when Adrien and his party finally crested the wall, completely visible to the workers. Their rage boiled over, only to be silenced by a screech from the factories’ PA system. Adrien had entered his father’s old office, and turned on the backup power. While lights flickered on and sentry turrets continued to hum, Adrien gave an impassioned speech. In part, he told the rioters, “So what, so what? You were trapped for some three hours! But you did not see the world how I did. It is dead! There is nothing left! Only the work of my father, a distant and calculating man as he was, saved you...Take this not as a reason to leave your stations, nor to abandon the work of your lives. Instead, take this as an opportunity to remold the world. Remold it! like a piece of steel that each of you have fondled! Take this chance, to rebuild the world that hath been destroyed.”
After this speech, the workers had mostly been calmed, and rioting came to a halt. Adrien gave whoever desired it a chance to leave, opening the gates at the bottom of the wall. After taking various supervisors to the top of the wall, and letting them look out on the ruined cityscape, almost no one wanted to leave. The few that did were known as The Wanderers, and were never seen again. Once they had left, Adrien closed the gates once again, and he got his men to work.
There would surely be threats in the wastes of Mobile, Adrien promised to his subordinates. In order to prevail over them, they would have to be well armed and armored. With the limited backup power, they would have to make the most of their time. This sent the impassioned workers into a fit of productivity, pumping out rifles, combat armor, and more at an unprecedented speed. The backup power was whittled away, and eventually shut off, just under a year after Adrien had shut it on. Thus ended what would come to be called the Age of Craftsmanship. With the end of power across almost all of Mobile, the world of Adrien and his workforce would be sent back to the age of pike and shot.
The first of several expeditions ended mostly in disappointment. Not only were there no events of note, but there was nothing to kill, which the fervent workers saw as a shame. They had wanted to make their impact on the wasteland known immediately, but they would have to wait.
When the higher-ups within the group realized that there was almost nothing for several blocks around the waterfront, they instead took to a different form of expansion.
The bravest workers, those who were willing to risk their lives, began the process of mapping out the Mobile Efficiency Track. This was the origins of those now known as the Iron Explorers. Their order numbered around 40 in those early days. They made their way all throughout Mobile, first mapping the actual tunnels, then the various points of entry to the surface world. Then the strongest of the workers would follow the carefully marked paths to the entry points. Pulling the heavy carts by hand, they would take materials they had crafted with which to build fortified points of entry. These men were the Craftsmen, and were famed for their ability to build great structures with few resources. They were for a long time the regarded as the smartest members of the workforce.
That changed when official expansion began. By this point, the workforce was fully militarized, and encountered its first real resistance. This came in the form of Tower 16. Tower 16 was a brand new apartment complex built only a few years before the Great War. It was 16 stories high and held some thousand people in it. A miscalculation on the part of the Chinese meant that it had been hit almost directly by a nuke. Those that weren’t immediately decimated were turned into the worst type of ghouls--Glowing Ones. On a routine patrol, several of the workforce’s members encountered the building, and the collective groaning coming from inside its door. Upon opening them, they encountered the several hundred Glowing Ones...and ran. Attempts to close down every fort and the tunnels beneath them resulted in only partial success, and Glowing Ones ran rampant underground, killing dozens that were unable to retreat to the safety of the Waterfront. The gates were locked down, and the panicked workforce put on high alert. Their only saving grace was the wall that Aldous had built. It was too high for the ghouls too climb, allowing those that were above ground to be picked off slowly. For those below ground, another solution was created. One man, a simple worker, fashioned a flamethrower from leftover assembly line parts, and with it they flushed out the ghouls over a period of months. Thus ended the Age of the Wall. To this day, the wall is almost worshipped for its role in fighting off the horde. It was at that point that they renamed themselves Steel’s Progeny. The large metal wall was like a mother to them all, they would tell passersby. 
From that point, their expansion throughout Mobile was almost unopposed. Despite the death of Adrien (he had lived longer than expected) they continued to flourish under the rule of his nephew Freman. Though he never quite reached the level of fame of his uncle, he simply continued on in the same vein, changing almost nothing within the Progeny.
The area had been bombed so heavily that only several raider tribes survived. Forty two years after Adrien had returned to the Waterfront, they controlled all of the city. Then began their expansion outside of the city. Just as they had in the city, they grew along the rails, following the various tracks and building their bases along it. However, this growth was slow, and they encountered more adversaries in the first two years of expansion than in the last 42 years of their reign. Their lowering ammunition and reserves of armor and food didn’t help either. The only thing generally regarded as positive was the fact that several enterprising engineers managed to get parts of one rail line functional again, allowing for easier transportation of goods. By two hundred years after the Progeny’s birth, and reign of seven leaders, their growth came to a halt. Their borders were mostly finalized, never extending past a sixty mile radius around Mobile. Several other cities were established, namely A l’ouest.
Headquarters/Territory: The Progeny’s capital is the ashes of the city of Mobile. It is split into a variety of districts, mainly the following: The two Human districts are the civilian areas, filled with bustling markets and tent cities. The Waterfront is the military and governmental district, with the husks of factories serving as barracks, offices, and conference rooms. The Outer district is a quarantine zone of sorts, where the vagrants and recent migrants are kept.
Several other cities were also built. One such was A l’ouest. It served as the westernmost point of the Progeny’s control, and was the most lawless of the region’s cities. It also served as the headquarters, ironically, of the Lawman’s Franchise. A l’ouest was also marked by its particular affinity for religions. Though the Progeny themselves weren’t quite religious, many of those formed had their roots in the city, with many more outlawed after certain events. 
To the north, Trailfort marks the end of the Progeny’s control, an abandoned train station turned marketplace, and the main point of entry into Steel Progeny territory. It is the end of the repaired tracks, and thus houses most of the engineering Progeny, who maintain careful watch over their easily broken repairs. Because of this, the city is known by a second name...Mind’s Bastion.
Beliefs: The Progeny are not a religious organization, but they do hold certain things in high regard. The first is the Wall, which protected them from the ghoul horde and from the nuclear wasteland as they tried to escape, without knowing what lay beyond it. They regard it the way a child regards their mother, with loving adoration. On some holidays, members of certain orders are said to kiss the wall itself. The second is The Bay. During the age of expansion outside of Mobile, a military armory was discovered, including one of the missile trucks from Aldous’ MC3. They belief that, one day, a great threat will come to the Progeny, and will be eliminated by the MC3 truck in fiery justice. This is the only semi-religious notion within the Progeny.
The Steel’s territory are governed by a very loose set of laws, never written down but instead passed down as common knowledge. They are generally very simple, including the outlaw of unjustified murder. It is made unique, however, by the fact that thievery is not directly outlawed. It is not accepted, and will generally be met with punishment if caught, but the Progeny seem to understand that the lack of resources in their territory mean that certain sacrifices have to be made.
Organization/Ranks: There are few actual ranks within the order of the Steel Progeny, instead, a more flat command structure is preferred, with only the leader of the time at top, and several supervisors to maintain unity. Besides that, there is little organization within each order of the group.
There are many orders, each serving a different role. Most have their origins in the rich history of the conquest of Mobile, though several originated during the long period of expansion outside the capital city.
The Iron Explorers are the pathfinders and huntsmen of the Progeny. They were those that mapped the tunnels of the MET, and the irradiated backwoods of Alabama. They are picked from the other orders when they have shown the correct characteristics, namely speed, an analytical mind, and an ability to get themselves out of sticky situations. Being an Iron Explorer, at least when the Progeny’s borders were still expanding, meant knowing that the chance of death was high, and ignoring it.
The Craftsmen were the most well-respected order among the Steel, renowned for their skill in creating functional weapons and armor from limited resources. Though their role diminished when the power to the factories was lost, they still enjoyed the status that came from their old roles. Though some of the stronger were poached into other orders, those that remained saw their roles morphed into…
The Engineer Force are those that maintain the old creations of The Craftsmen, as well as the various walls, barriers, checkpoints, and roads of the Progeny. They also serve as the operators and staff of the portions of the railway that still function.
The Way-Makers are formed from the strongest of the Progeny, and serve to do what their name suggests. They were originally formed from those that killed the most ghouls during the Age of the Wall. Since then, they served as the front line of combat and as peacekeepers after the end of the expansion. Some still miss their old roles, though the chances of death when serving as a police force are hard to deny.
The Lawman’s Franchise, mentioned earlier, are a splinter group of the Steel’s Progeny. Formed from those outlawed or expelled from the group, but not quite evil enough to be forced out, they serve as a mercenary force that is often hired by the civilians of Progeny territory to do...dirtier...work.
Closing Notes: So there goes my second faction profile. Tell me what you thought. I tried to go for a completely different vibe with this one than with my first. Where that one was a semi-corrupt religious fanatic faction, this was a guild of hardy men and women, with tough armor and plenty of lead to spit. I do not own any of the art in this post.
Thanks for reading.
PCTY Out.
Faction Profile: Steel’s Progeny
Table of Contents:
History
Headquarters/Territory
Organization/Ranks
Closing Thoughts
History: Mobile, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast of the United States, had been transformed. What was once a small city, mostly quiet, had become a major manufacturing hub. The Riverside Industrial Area was revamped completely, with steel mills directly beside the weapons factories the steel would be sent too. The greatest creation, however, was the Mobile Efficiency Track, a series of looping and intertwining rail tracks that took materials from the mines that produced them to the factories that used them to the manufacturing centers and craftsmen nearby. It was the creation of southern mastermind Aldous Craythorn, who had been called by some the R.E. House of his Commonwealth. The tunnels led from the shipping centers on the city’s outskirts, underground to the waterside steel mills and weapons factories. From there the tunnels and carts went to the airport, as well as other shipping stations. It would be those tunnels that proved essential to the growth of the Progeny.
Craythorn died soon after his establishment of the MET, leaving behind two things beside his great underground track. The first was the Mobile Crisis Control Center. The second was his son, Adrien. The MC3 was similar to House’s satellite and laser array, except it took the form of a series of tiny mobile missile stations that could intercept any attacks. Craythorn originally thought up the MC3 as a way to prevent his rivals from destroying his creations. But when he bought the last of his rivals’ businesses, he would no longer need it. Instead, he sold it to the government, earning a pretty penny in the process. However, the government had made a mistake when they bought the MC3 from Aldous. They had tampered with the programming, setting it to the exact parameters that they believed would be fulfilled when the nuclear war began. In the process, they had mostly disabled the previous settings, which would have detected any missile and intercepted in.
His son, Adrien, was a different type of man than his father. He had been raised half his life in the country by the Cajun woman that Aldous had had an affair with, and so he better appreciated the human side of a business, having started a successful hunting business by himself at a young age. When he was finally revealed as the heir to the Craythorn fortune (with much fanfare) Aldous himself was relieved. And when Craythorn became sick and dying, and Adrien took over the daily operations, he changed much of how it worked. Instead of managing his steel empire from the confines of a headquarters far away, Adrien would wander around the factory floors, and often donned a hard hat to embark on the routine maintenance operations. It was a day like that when the bombs fell.
Adrien and about a dozen of his employees were down on the tracks, running repairs on the section between the airport and one of several storage facilities between the airport and the waterside steel mills. The bombs fell on Mobile, and only three units of the MC3 were able to respond. The city, save for select areas, became a wasteland, 90% of the population perishing within ten hours. All that was left was the lonely waterfront, the steel mills silent after their power had been shut off.
The lights of the underground railway had been severed, leaving only those few lights that were powered by the backup generator. The group of men tried to make their way to the nearest place they could ascend at. However, the tracks were not made for human transport, and navigation was almost impossible. Instead of surfacing at the waterfront, they came into the basement of downtown warehouse, the floors above it demolished by the aftereffects of the nuke. They slowly made their way up the elevator shaft (the elevator itself no longer functioned), until they reached the ground floor. Once outside, they could feel the heavy radiation, and made their way back to the waterfront quickly.
Once they arrived again at the rows of factories, they looked down to see utter chaos. Thousands of factory employees rioted across the yards, each group trying for the same thing...to scale the wall.
The wall had been a creation of Adrien’s father, a method for containing striking workers, or those who wanted to reach his local office, planted at the top of the wall. It was some two hundred feet tall, and glowed with the midnight glare of government-issued sentry turrets. The factory workers were trapped, the gates having locked automatically when the power shut off. None of the workers liked that, and so several attempted to climb the wall. When each one made it up only a few feet, the sentry turrets turned on them, and another dead body would fall to the concrete. This only riled the workers further, but not quite as much as when Adrien and his party finally crested the wall, completely visible to the workers. Their rage boiled over, only to be silenced by a screech from the factories’ PA system. Adrien had entered his father’s old office, and turned on the backup power. While lights flickered on and sentry turrets continued to hum, Adrien gave an impassioned speech. In part, he told the rioters, “So what, so what? You were trapped for some three hours! But you did not see the world how I did. It is dead! There is nothing left! Only the work of my father, a distant and calculating man as he was, saved you...Take this not as a reason to leave your stations, nor to abandon the work of your lives. Instead, take this as an opportunity to remold the world. Remold it! like a piece of steel that each of you have fondled! Take this chance, to rebuild the world that hath been destroyed.”
After this speech, the workers had mostly been calmed, and rioting came to a halt. Adrien gave whoever desired it a chance to leave, opening the gates at the bottom of the wall. After taking various supervisors to the top of the wall, and letting them look out on the ruined cityscape, almost no one wanted to leave. The few that did were known as The Wanderers, and were never seen again. Once they had left, Adrien closed the gates once again, and he got his men to work.
There would surely be threats in the wastes of Mobile, Adrien promised to his subordinates. In order to prevail over them, they would have to be well armed and armored. With the limited backup power, they would have to make the most of their time. This sent the impassioned workers into a fit of productivity, pumping out rifles, combat armor, and more at an unprecedented speed. The backup power was whittled away, and eventually shut off, just under a year after Adrien had shut it on. Thus ended what would come to be called the Age of Craftsmanship. With the end of power across almost all of Mobile, the world of Adrien and his workforce would be sent back to the age of pike and shot.
The first of several expeditions ended mostly in disappointment. Not only were there no events of note, but there was nothing to kill, which the fervent workers saw as a shame. They had wanted to make their impact on the wasteland known immediately, but they would have to wait.
When the higher-ups within the group realized that there was almost nothing for several blocks around the waterfront, they instead took to a different form of expansion.
The bravest workers, those who were willing to risk their lives, began the process of mapping out the Mobile Efficiency Track. This was the origins of those now known as the Iron Explorers. Their order numbered around 40 in those early days. They made their way all throughout Mobile, first mapping the actual tunnels, then the various points of entry to the surface world. Then the strongest of the workers would follow the carefully marked paths to the entry points. Pulling the heavy carts by hand, they would take materials they had crafted with which to build fortified points of entry. These men were the Craftsmen, and were famed for their ability to build great structures with few resources. They were for a long time the regarded as the smartest members of the workforce.
That changed when official expansion began. By this point, the workforce was fully militarized, and encountered its first real resistance. This came in the form of Tower 16. Tower 16 was a brand new apartment complex built only a few years before the Great War. It was 16 stories high and held some thousand people in it. A miscalculation on the part of the Chinese meant that it had been hit almost directly by a nuke. Those that weren’t immediately decimated were turned into the worst type of ghouls--Glowing Ones. On a routine patrol, several of the workforce’s members encountered the building, and the collective groaning coming from inside its door. Upon opening them, they encountered the several hundred Glowing Ones...and ran. Attempts to close down every fort and the tunnels beneath them resulted in only partial success, and Glowing Ones ran rampant underground, killing dozens that were unable to retreat to the safety of the Waterfront. The gates were locked down, and the panicked workforce put on high alert. Their only saving grace was the wall that Aldous had built. It was too high for the ghouls too climb, allowing those that were above ground to be picked off slowly. For those below ground, another solution was created. One man, a simple worker, fashioned a flamethrower from leftover assembly line parts, and with it they flushed out the ghouls over a period of months. Thus ended the Age of the Wall. To this day, the wall is almost worshipped for its role in fighting off the horde. It was at that point that they renamed themselves Steel’s Progeny. The large metal wall was like a mother to them all, they would tell passersby.
From that point, their expansion throughout Mobile was almost unopposed. Despite the death of Adrien (he had lived longer than expected) they continued to flourish under the rule of his nephew Freman. Though he never quite reached the level of fame of his uncle, he simply continued on in the same vein, changing almost nothing within the Progeny.
The area had been bombed so heavily that only several raider tribes survived. Forty two years after Adrien had returned to the Waterfront, they controlled all of the city. Then began their expansion outside of the city. Just as they had in the city, they grew along the rails, following the various tracks and building their bases along it. However, this growth was slow, and they encountered more adversaries in the first two years of expansion than in the last 42 years of their reign. Their lowering ammunition and reserves of armor and food didn’t help either. The only thing generally regarded as positive was the fact that several enterprising engineers managed to get parts of one rail line functional again, allowing for easier transportation of goods. By two hundred years after the Progeny’s birth, and reign of seven leaders, their growth came to a halt. Their borders were mostly finalized, never extending past a sixty mile radius around Mobile. Several other cities were established, namely A l’ouest.
Headquarters/Territory: The Progeny’s capital is the ashes of the city of Mobile. It is split into a variety of districts, mainly the following: The two Human districts are the civilian areas, filled with bustling markets and tent cities. The Waterfront is the military and governmental district, with the husks of factories serving as barracks, offices, and conference rooms. The Outer district is a quarantine zone of sorts, where the vagrants and recent migrants are kept.
Several other cities were also built. One such was A l’ouest. It served as the westernmost point of the Progeny’s control, and was the most lawless of the region’s cities. It also served as the headquarters, ironically, of the Lawman’s Franchise. A l’ouest was also marked by its particular affinity for religions. Though the Progeny themselves weren’t quite religious, many of those formed had their roots in the city, with many more outlawed after certain events.
To the north, Trailfort marks the end of the Progeny’s control, an abandoned train station turned marketplace, and the main point of entry into Steel Progeny territory. It is the end of the repaired tracks, and thus houses most of the engineering Progeny, who maintain careful watch over their easily broken repairs. Because of this, the city is known by a second name...Mind’s Bastion.
Beliefs: The Progeny are not a religious organization, but they do hold certain things in high regard. The first is the Wall, which protected them from the ghoul horde and from the nuclear wasteland as they tried to escape, without knowing what lay beyond it. They regard it the way a child regards their mother, with loving adoration. On some holidays, members of certain orders are said to kiss the wall itself. The second is The Bay. During the age of expansion outside of Mobile, a military armory was discovered, including one of the missile trucks from Aldous’ MC3. They belief that, one day, a great threat will come to the Progeny, and will be eliminated by the MC3 truck in fiery justice. This is the only semi-religious notion within the Progeny.
The Steel’s territory are governed by a very loose set of laws, never written down but instead passed down as common knowledge. They are generally very simple, including the outlaw of unjustified murder. It is made unique, however, by the fact that thievery is not directly outlawed. It is not accepted, and will generally be met with punishment if caught, but the Progeny seem to understand that the lack of resources in their territory mean that certain sacrifices have to be made.
Organization/Ranks: There are few actual ranks within the order of the Steel Progeny, instead, a more flat command structure is preferred, with only the leader of the time at top, and several supervisors to maintain unity. Besides that, there is little organization within each order of the group.
There are many orders, each serving a different role. Most have their origins in the rich history of the conquest of Mobile, though several originated during the long period of expansion outside the capital city.
The Iron Explorers are the pathfinders and huntsmen of the Progeny. They were those that mapped the tunnels of the MET, and the irradiated backwoods of Alabama. They are picked from the other orders when they have shown the correct characteristics, namely speed, an analytical mind, and an ability to get themselves out of sticky situations. Being an Iron Explorer, at least when the Progeny’s borders were still expanding, meant knowing that the chance of death was high, and ignoring it.
The Craftsmen were the most well-respected order among the Steel, renowned for their skill in creating functional weapons and armor from limited resources. Though their role diminished when the power to the factories was lost, they still enjoyed the status that came from their old roles. Though some of the stronger were poached into other orders, those that remained saw their roles morphed into…
The Engineer Force are those that maintain the old creations of The Craftsmen, as well as the various walls, barriers, checkpoints, and roads of the Progeny. They also serve as the operators and staff of the portions of the railway that still function.
The Way-Makers are formed from the strongest of the Progeny, and serve to do what their name suggests. They were originally formed from those that killed the most ghouls during the Age of the Wall. Since then, they served as the front line of combat and as peacekeepers after the end of the expansion. Some still miss their old roles, though the chances of death when serving as a police force are hard to deny.
The Lawman’s Franchise, mentioned earlier, are a splinter group of the Steel’s Progeny. Formed from those outlawed or expelled from the group, but not quite evil enough to be forced out, they serve as a mercenary force that is often hired by the civilians of Progeny territory to do...dirtier...work.
Closing Notes: So there goes my second faction profile. Tell me what you thought. I tried to go for a completely different vibe with this one than with my first. Where that one was a semi-corrupt religious fanatic faction, this was a guild of hardy men and women, with tough armor and plenty of lead to spit. I do not own any of the art in this post.
Thanks for reading.
PCTY Out.
