TypeProtonA town founded to exploit metal and material deposit in the East.
Originally a small makeshift settlement for farland miners looking for the riches within the Eastern mountains, the growth of Falzan’s mining industry saw industrial facilities overtaking the town even before the Mechanical Revolution, but its city-state status was officially approved relatively recently during Insurrection Era. While the mineral riches in the East has been known for sometime they were only mined after the Great Unification, as rampant wars at the time prevented safe trade routes and meaningful developments to be established. A news of an old farmer striking iron spread to the West. And soon young, adventurous men arrived in droves seeking new fortunes after centuries of conflict. The settlement grew and grew, with factories and residence rising up to accommodate.
Not all dreamers get their happy ending. The lack of regulation has allowed the settlement to be a “free market” open to all enterprising individuals who had the skill and means to succeed. But it also brings high level of unchecked worker exploitation and poor work condition. Poems and news articles of the era often describe the town as gargantuan, shambling mess. All sort of sordid stories could be heard on the regular here; from underpaid staffers, violent strikes to forced children labor and deaths from hazardous work environment.
When Mechanical Revolution arrived, the dissatisfaction has turned into wide-scale worker’s rights movement. The city became a hot bed of “free-thinkers”, a stage to express opinions on the matters of working mass. Despite the education problem, the political conversation can be heard more keenly than ever. Many of Eastern Falzan’s famous advocates and writers first found their footing here, giving talks in cafes or penning books that spread far and wide to the other side of the land, lending voices to those who were never heard before.
The Distribution Law enacted to combat economic crisis during Insurrection Era did nothing to placate the movement. To many in the East, the restructuring and resizing industrial firms across Falzan into the hands of Imperium-controlled few means not “the pooling of scattered manpower and resources into more organized development and growth” but an attempt to co-opt independent effort for government’s gain against the will of many workhands and business owners. Subsequent crackdown on “The Tavern March” and attempted arrest of Sigman Ikva (one of Falzan’s returning “prodigious students”) and 9 other councilmen was the last straw for the Eastern movement. In the chaos that followed the protest, Sigman Ikva mysteriously vanished from the authorities only to reappear in Zalinistadt. Here, he declared his rousing dissatisfaction with the Imperial Council and announce the creation Worker States Alliance to the cheer of sympathizers. The factory city moved, arming itself in anticipation of coming conflict.
2022-03-05 05:54:44 +0000