Mr_Smigs Posted June 18, 2010 Report Share Posted June 18, 2010 really, I don't recall reading a whole lot on what the "earth" side of the Malifaux universe is like... it seems like it's in the "western expansion" era, but the Guild's existence implies a more global awareness... is there fluff on this anywhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstripe Posted June 18, 2010 Report Share Posted June 18, 2010 There is not a lot published about "Earthside" as of yet. I think the focus of the first book was the City itself, but I think we can expect to learn more about the Earth of this era -and- the world that Malifaux resides in both as the game expands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerzel Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 The Guild is the government of Malifaux. Earthside from what I have gathered it could be: A. A large corporation holding controlling interest in the portal similar to the East India company. B. A part of a larger government, probably the US or analog of US, but not the whole of the government itself. C. A separate magical organization from any government, similar to the Catholic church that controls the world's magical resources. D. A full government Earthside as well. Perhaps the gov of the US. Though I doubt it would control the world. It makes things much more bland if you have the whole earth under one rule and you miss out on great things such as the upcoming World War analogs or perhaps even civil war. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenabrae Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 I assume it's the Deadlands RPG - a mix of science, magic and the wild west but probably a lot closer to the late west (1900-). I hadn't noticed until someone pointed it out that the city the breach appeared in isn't named in the story... it could well be Tunguska (though there is a lack of Russians in Malifaux ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Smigs Posted June 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 (edited) there's where it all starts... assuming it's alternate earth, logically, if they were going to rip a hole in space-time without absolute certainty were it would connect, they'd want to use somewhere without a large population center... but, getting outside Europe in 1790 is rather dodgy... russia (IIRC) has a bit of a war in the late 1700s... given the information, we know a railway is later attached to the breach, but then, that can be justified just about anywhere... which leaves me thinking Stone Henge... we know there are multiple "henges" throughout the world, and the book mentions other breaches.... why not connect the two? the book mentions the Guild running the magic industry, but not nations, so there's no reason to think there's much else in the world controlled by it... which makes me think it's more like any other religion, influential, but not running things openly... (or in the "modern" age of Malifaux, Pinkerton Agency.) Edited June 20, 2010 by Mr_Smigs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 The book says that the Guild seized control for the greater good. It doesn't say that they only control soulstones. It sounded to me as though they used soulstones as leverage to seize the majority of political control, thus they are able to push laws such as only the Guild and its members are allowed to have soulstones, on pain of death. There are multiple circles of stones.... in Europe only. The majority of them are in the UK. The fiction says clearly that the breach was opened in a city. I got the feeling it was American, particularly as Leveticus stands out so much as having a British accent. Being where the company is based I always think of it being in Atlanta. In their history I'm sure it wasn't destroyed during a march to the sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manicmac Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 Pretty neat we all have our theories! I see the breach as being around the San Fransisco area, with all the reference to "back east" in the story line. But who is to say the original breach and the "newer" are in the same place? Or that the breach only works one way. . .Jack the Ripper, er, Seamus anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 Manicmac, great catch! It would indeed be farther west then. I don't know about the San Francisco area as it didn't have a city of any appreciable size in the late 1700's, when they opened the original breach. Although, admittedly, the timelines might well be different in this history. Also, the breach the Guild controls is in the exact spot of the original breach, just much smaller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Smigs Posted June 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 hmm... alas, the west wasn't really developed around the time of the Breach... (normal history) 'bout the farthest west it could've been would be Chicago... (I'll admit, with the train-based access, and chicago being the hub of train activity in the US for a while, this would've been my first pick) but then "back east" could refer to over the pond... so somewhere in the "new world" could work, but then, why would the bulk of the world's educated relocate to, effectively, the frontier where all their resources would be a world away? they could just be somewhere in western europe... france, or spain perhaps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProdigalPunk Posted June 22, 2010 Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 Being an American Elitist that I am, I naturally assumed that the Breach was in the states. I was going to say everyone has a midwestern feel to them, but then I thought about it and that is not really true. The guild does, but the Rezzers seem sort of English/Irish and Marcus seems to have African or Carribean roots, although his name is Marcus and he carries a Shelighlie, so not sure what to make of that. I kind of always pictured Malifaux being a city on a much bigger alternate earth, so I assumed that the other side of the breach would match Malifaux but more normal making it seem like Colorado or California or some place like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerzel Posted June 22, 2010 Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 Chicago sounds like a good place for it to be. Irish and English influence is pulled in from Irish immigrants and all the best medical schools being in England. You got the trains right there and something to flatten in a location that would be re-built. Marcus is African but with a western name. I took him as a descendant of a plantation slave, or if Wyrd has the *ahem* balls to do it an escaped slave himself. Defiantly he is someone who has seen a lot and taken a beating from life at times, a stranger in a strange land, and now that he's in Malifaux an even STRANGER land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstripe Posted June 22, 2010 Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 The books clearly establishes Malifaux's breach as on the same landmass as (and west of) New Amsterdam (an anachronistic name for New York) which would indicate it is on the North American continent. I also believe that the "soul stone rush" is so time and theme appropriate to America's Gold Rush era, that the analogy is difficult to ignore. This would make me believe that Malifaux's breach is in the Far West of the American continent (as opposed to Near West locations such as Chicago.) In addition, East-West Steam Transit seems to be named in a similar manner to reality's Union Pacific Railroad in suggesting a goal for transcontinental rail, a national goal for the United States at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Smigs Posted June 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 (edited) The books clearly establishes Malifaux's breach as on the same landmass as (and west of) New Amsterdam (an anachronistic name for New York) which would indicate it is on the North American continent. could you do me a favor and give me a page where that is? In addition, East-West Steam Transit seems to be named in a similar manner to reality's Union Pacific Railroad in suggesting a goal for transcontinental rail, a national goal for the United States at the time.again, where? tho, even on the big east-west connection, Chicago would be the major hub. the problem here is the implication that the 1787 breach destroyed a city... assuming the possession of magic sped up the expansion from europe into the new world, real world, chicago was just a fort in the early 1800s... so, with a boost from magic, that would make it the largest frontier city of the time, with further west being the "wild west" still... (assuming magic sped up development by 15-20 years...) Edited June 22, 2010 by Mr_Smigs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Posted June 22, 2010 Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 I didn't think it destroyed the entire city, just the greater area of the breach, and killed a large portion of the inhabitants through a psychic or spiritual backlash. I'd have to look though when I get home. I just read the fluff again last week just for this stuff for the RPG I'm looking at running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstripe Posted June 22, 2010 Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 again, where? You made me look it up and I'll eat my words. I could have sworn I referenced East West Steam Transit in the "Into the Breach" chapter in the book. I did not, however. There is some discussion about East West Steam Transit in the Wyrd Chronicles 2, in the story "My Name is Master." But that's the best that I can do for published evidence in my search. And even that doesn't place the breach well. New Amsterdam and "back east" are referenced so many times, I must have just arbitrarily linked them in my head. I concede that evidence is not as clear as I originally thought. The Breach is certainly west of something! Of that we can all agree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Smigs Posted June 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2010 (edited) "the city where the breach was opened was flattened,..." (pg 6) i'm in the same boat, planning an RPG thing... that's why i'm so interested... been tearing through the fluff trying to get a handle on where everything would be. The Breach is certainly west of something! Of that we can all agree! true that. and the more banter, the more I like the idea of Chicago... it just doesn't mesh well with the 1787 timeline of the real world... we'd have to assume there was more expansion in the area... perhaps, on the fluff reason, it could simply be that the mystics that gathered built a city as they pooled their resources in the place where the barrier was weakest.... the swampland of Michigan seems to help that fact (for that matter, Detroit could work...) thanks for the pointer to Chronicles 2 tho... (I finally got the DL to work today) Edited June 22, 2010 by Mr_Smigs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sholto Posted June 23, 2010 Report Share Posted June 23, 2010 There is more than one breach now, which helps explain why there are so many different nationalities in Malifaux and its surroundings, but like most others I had assumed that the Great Breach and its successor were in the western continental US. Happy to learn otherwise, but there isn't much to go on, and what there is ("New Amsterdam" and "back east") don't pin it down much. Maybe Book 2 will clarify matters. The Earth is clearly different to our own, and reminded me strongly of the Earth in "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". In that book, inconveniently placed towns and villages were simply moved out the way (some very far out of the way - Belgium to the US was the further, I think), so that might help explain why the Breach appeared in a city that does not exist in our world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstripe Posted June 23, 2010 Report Share Posted June 23, 2010 Maybe Book 2 will clarify matters. Maybe not, but I'll look into getting this topic nailed down in print very soon. It is a very very common question about the setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdelemental Posted June 23, 2010 Report Share Posted June 23, 2010 ...One that's not going to be nailed down very soon... Good to keep guessing, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstripe Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 I just said I was going to nail it down! You never listen to me Nerd! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manicmac Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 Well I just imagine Nathan laughing his arse off at our speculations. Just like the producers and writers of LOST. Well, until they screwed up the entire thing. . . So don't do that Nathan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sholto Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 He's not laughing his arse off, he's thinking, "Dammit! Now I need to set it somewhere none of them have thought of. Hmm, where's Brigadoon exactly?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliver Chocobo Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 (edited) There is more than one breach now, which helps explain why there are so many different nationalities in Malifaux and its surroundings, but like most others I had assumed that the Great Breach and its successor were in the western continental US. Happy to learn otherwise, but there isn't much to go on, and what there is ("New Amsterdam" and "back east") don't pin it down much. New Amsterdam is the first name of new york (thank you doctor Who ) Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam Edited June 24, 2010 by Sliver Chocobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sholto Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 New Amsterdam is the first name of new york It is indeed, although I think Redstripe mentioned that earlier (I may be wrong). The point being made was that "west of New York" covers a lot of territory. Sholto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mospaeda Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 For some reason, I keep thinking its in New Mexico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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