Lead and Glamour

[Jays]

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The streets of 1950 New York seethes with discontent, from the heaviness weighing down the air even unwitting citizens could sense to the near instinctual agitation of cut-throats and thieves unconsciously growing to fear the dark, to the pervading unspoken dread hanging like a guillotine blade over every conversation whispered between those in the know.

Strange occurrences sparked throughout the city like the first signs of an oncoming wildfire, past agreements disregarded, the Treaty broken. More worrying still are the increased disappearance of those with the Iron Fever, baffling the police with their peculiarity and raising numerous alarms across every Scire organization of any importance.

There are rumors of the return of the Fay Court for the first time in 50 years. Those who laughed them off did so uneasily, hesitant to disregard troubling signs as mere fantasy.

The rise of the zealot Adam Prisc splintered the Changeling community into opposing factions while the Ironguard watches idly, confident--no, arrogant in the immovability of the prolonged status quo that has been giving them power.

Something bitter and foul carries on the changing wind. Those who stand in the way of the tide risk everything--heart, mind and soul.

Art by Eddie Mendoza​

Lead and Glamour is a noir urban fantasy set in a fictional 1950 New York.

The Industrial Revolution had driven the wild and exotic Fay from this world with iron, steel and fire. Their efforts in finding ways to return led to the creation of the Changelings some time in the 1840s--hybrid Fay and human creatures that while still not completely immune to iron were able to survive it.

Unfortunately for them, Changlings were also too human. The Fay's children disavowed their creators, declaring independence during the 1870s and cutting all ties in a devastating betrayal against the Fay Court.

At the tail end of the bloody Changling revolution, the phenomenon known as the Iron Fever spread without apparent cause or cure, leaving countless deaths in its wake while granting some survivors an aura of Iron that was toxic to Fay and Changelings alike. The core of those in New York founded the Ironguard with the blind self-righteous conviction that they were the chosen shepherds to shield the pack from Fay wolves.

There was only one word that could be used to describe their actions--Atrocity.

The 1897 city-wide Purge nearly killed both sides--would have, had it not been for the intervention of the government of the United States of America as a whole, and the late President McKinley personally.

A Treaty was signed, overseen by the White House. The Ironguard were granted official duties, and the Changelings gained the right to be seen as human beings for the first time since their creation.

The Purge was 50 years ago.

Power was power, regardless of stance or struggle. Old alliances and mutual understandings fade with time. Interest and profit always find a way to push to the top.

Bureaucracy led to corruption led to exploitation. Changelings became political tools, bargaining chips on a larger table, and ultimately weapons. The Ironguard's role regressed from mediators back to enforcers and guard dogs.

The price of discourse had faded from memories as a new generation rise to replace the old. A new revolution sweeps across the country--that of human rights, political reforms and social liberation, and no corner of the nation was untouched--not even one hidden under glamour.

How can the hot blood of young Changelings who had known oppression and exploitation their whole lives not rage and burn like bonfires? How can a seedy, arrogant institution born on the back of the persecution of an entire people not scurry like rats when wave crashes through?

The era of caution and peace have passed. The dark water of iron and magic boiled and bubbled, steaming rebellion like a burning scent on the wind.

 

[Jays]

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The City Iron Changeling Notable Factions Notable Destinations Terminology

• New York By Daylight New York by Night

  • Thirty two years after the Great War, the world is a very different place. Except for the near-catastrophic rapid rise and just as rapid fall of the fascism movement in Europe during the late 1920s and early 1930s, the world has sustained a long, albeit grudging peace. America, the heart of the New World thrived in that peace, evolving with blinding speed. The discovery of a massive oil reserve off the coast of California in the 1920s granted the country its fuel independence, catapulting the social and technological advances into a new era. The heavy industries progressed into automaton production seemingly overnight, the development of City Train, widespread electric network and rich cultural landscape were the least of it.
    
    New York was at the center of it all, riding the tide of innovation and prosperity to become the one of the most advanced metropolis of its time. Being the doorway between the New World and Old fed the city with a constant stream of immigrant workforce, keeping the heart of the machine that was New York burning white hot.
    
    But 1950 New York is different, now. The technological craze had died down, slowing enough to allow the social landscape to settle into a stable norm.
    
    The city is overpopulated. Within ten years the population had risen from 7 million to more than 13, an uncanny phenomenon in history. Many parts of the city, especially Manhattan are grand and monumental, but many more, especially Brooklyn and Queens where most of the bottom workforce lived, had stayed unchanged since the last decade, making for a striking contrast between the center and the slum.
    
    It is those slums which are crime-ridden, people struggling to survive had form their own ecosystem of gangs, street rules and social pyramid.
    
    That is not to say the more progressed parts of town are crime-free, far from it. The kind of evil here is just different, less reckless and more sophisticated. Corporations have been known to keep in their employ fixers, sometimes even organized groups. The concept of gentleman gangsters may sound odd, but it is quite real. Any gangster of importance situated themselves in Manhattan and keep up a front of legitimacy, employing grunts and runners from the slums as their hand in the shadow.
    
    New York is a dark city, perhaps even a cruel one. Luxuries like City Trains and skyscrapers are proudly built and presented like they're the next wonders of the world, while in some districts even the most basic living infrastructures are missing.
    
    New York presents to the world all of her marvels while hiding the other ugly face underneath a distracting facade, like she's shameful of the little greasy people that feed and nurture her. She is as spoiled and rotten as she is mysterious and beautiful, in her own dark, depressing way. She has a thousand suitors, a million lovers, but in the end she will forsake them all, in time.
    
    After all, this city is a cruel mistress.
  • The world of iron and magic hides beneath the shiny but greasy surface of the city. They call themselves Scire - Latin for to know. Scire is not only those of iron and magic, but is the general label for any group or organization who knows the existence of the hidden world and actively employ, use or attempt to manipulate the politics within it. The Scire world is half of an open secret, known by most of those with money, influence or simply attentive enough to notice. Its existence is not actively concealed, rather only contained so the general populace couldn't be affected.
    
    The Scire often keep to themselves, minimizing contact between that side of their lives and the normal world. Outside of Scire circles the Ironbound are mostly regular people. Changelings are capable of much more with their strange and wonderful magic, but are also greatly limited by the abundance of iron all around them. At the same time, the population of both is inconsequentially small compared to the millions of New York. As such, their circles are tight and greatly contained.
    
    *Changeling and Ironbound are global phenomenons, however their limited population meant that individuals group together in small isolated communities, and contacts between communities are extremely rare. The American Scire communities maintain exchange of information and occasional travel, but little more than that.
    
    *The name Scire as well as associated and derived terms are therefore specifically applicable only to New York's population.
  
  
• The Iron Fever Children of Progress

  • Ironbound Timeline
    1853 (early): First recorded case of Iron Fever in America
    1853 (late): First recorded case of Iron Fever survivor
    1855: First contact between survivor and Changeling
    1855 - : Large increase in the number of recorded cases
    1859 - : The Fever started becoming a more common sickness
    1872: The phenomenon of Iron Fever was removed from medical record, practice and guidelines
    1877: The founding of the Ironguard in New York
    
    The first recorded case of Iron Fever was a factory worker in 1853 in Missouri. The patient exhibited no abnormal symptom except those of high fever including delirium, severe dehydration, seizure and hair loss, all of which suggested metal poisoning. However, doctors noticed a strange phenomenon in which all iron within 30 feet of the patient started to rust and crumble at a highly accelerated rate. The patient was then quarantined, and upon his death cremated for fear of infectious disease.
    
    This, however, was not an isolated incident. Several similar cases followed within the same year, all factory workers who interacted with metal on a regular basis, all exhibiting the same unnatural phenomenon which was later called the Rust. There was no cure and no apparent cause, so in most cases the patients were left to die after prolonged feverish seizures. Despite the strange circumstances leading up to and surrounding such incidents, their regularity was rare enough that the Iron Fever never grew to become more of a concern than an equivalent of a ghost story.
    
    The first survivor of the Iron Fever was recorded in December of 1853. There was nothing abnormal about their health or recovery that doctors could find.
    
    It was not until another of the exceedingly rare Fever survivor came into contact with Changelings in 1855 that the result and nature of the sickness were revealed.
    
    After 1855 the phenomenon of Iron Fever grew increasingly widespread, no longer limited to factory workers but seemingly random people who shared no behavioural or environmental similarity that could explain the cause of their sickness. Due to the nature of the Fever, most people disregarded its existence as an urban legend despite numerous official record proving otherwise. By 1859, the Fever was no longer near-fatal, at least three quarter of those who caught it survived, though many recovered without gaining the aura, and many more who did never crossed path with the rare elusive Changelings to confirm whether they had it or not.
    
    As the sickness became more common and less deadly, the majority of people who caught it never brought it into attention of the authority. So while the regularity of the Fever increased, the record for it slowly dwindled and ultimately disappeared from official sickness practice and guidelines in 1872.
    
    Now in 1950, an Ironbound joining the Scire community requires multiple unlikely coincidences occurring to lead them down such path. This means that their number is greatly limited, reduced through several unavoidable filters. By rough estimate, in the last decade there had never been more than 300 Ironbounds in New York's Scire community at any given time.
    
    
  • Many who survived the Iron Fever gain an aura of iron. The Changelings call them Ironbound, or Children of Progress. The majority of them disliked these melodramatic names, however, and most prefer to call themselves Heavy, a much more apt name for the street of New York.
    
    Despite their powerful influence within the Scire community, Heavies do not have any unnatural way of affecting regular people.
    
    The characteristics of the aura includes:
    

    • High resistance to Fay charm.
    • High pain tolerance.
    • High physical resilience.
    • Physical proximity weakens those with Fay blood.

    
    The potency of one's aura varies without much rule or order, although the difference is often miniscule.
    
    The backgrounds of Ironbound are infinitely diverse as anyone can fall sick of the Iron Fever. However, it takes more than chance and a mysterious sickness to stay in the Scire world. Those with weak will are quickly devoured by it, or frightened away if they're smart enough to stay alive first contact. The ones who thrive are tough, strong, and above all know their limit, with the exception of many of the new Ironguard generation.
    
    In a way, the Scire world follows the same rule as the streets, where a bullet can be as fatal as any potent magic or mystical charm. As such an Ironbound is made, but a Heavy is earned.
    
    
    
  
  
• History of the Half-Fay The Hybrid

  • Fayborn Timeline
    1840s (early): Creation of Changelings
    1855: First contact between Ironbound and Changeling
    1840s - 1872: The Fay Court's control quickly diminished as the Industrial Revolution progressed
    1872: The largest faction of Changeling declared independence from their master, led by Anne Weisz and Edmund Williams
    1878: Anne Weisz's arrival in New York
    1877: The founding of the Ironguard in New York as a response to the Changeling community's growing influence
    1882: The term "Scire" was first used
    1902: Anne Weisz's death, fragmenting the organized Changeling community
    
    It is unclear as to the exact circumstances surrounding the creation of Changelings as there was no written record or first-hand account relayed that passed down to existing parties today. The first few generations of free half-Fay lived in isolation and raised their children specifically in human ways in order to detach them from their Fay nature. The result was pieces of agreed upon events with little to no detail.
    
    The creation of Changeling was agreed to had happened during the 1840s, most likely early in the decade. The first generation of Changeling kept themselves a secret tight-knit community until their reveal in 1855 through contact with an Ironbound.
    
    From the 1840s until early 1870s, Changelings were instruments of the Fay, faithful zealots and servants hellbent to bring about the return of their masters. Their approach was subtle and discrete, using their magic to rise to positions of power and utilizing gathered influence to attempt ritualistic magic in an increasing desperate effort to achieve their goal.
    
    However, despite their massive influence and virtually complete lack of opposition, bringing back the Fay Court took more than ruthlessness and influence. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the power of Fay blood quickly diminished, weakening the tie of the Court and the human world to a precarious degree. More and more Changelings were forced into the open, their past position and behavior leading to blooming opposition of early Ironbounds, many of whom took up contract to hunt and kill Changelings.
    
    All of which led up to the eventual and inevitable fragmentation within the Fayborn community of America, with a large faction led by Anne Weisz and Edmund Williams declaring independence in 1872. The Fay Court was powerless to muster any substantial retribution due to their tenuous influence, and within five years all contact between the Fay realm and the human world was eliminated. Those loyal to the Court could not increase their number due to their unwillingness to procreate with human, and was eventually wiped out by hunters.
    
    The remaining Changelings were however not an unified group as it first appeared, quickly scattering across America of their own free will. Williams went to Washington and Weisz came to New York.
    
    With Changelings no longer a threat, the practice of hunter were abandoned within a few years. The organized Changeling community in New York led by Weisz was a massive threat against those in power, which ultimately led to the founding of the Ironguard in 1877.
    
    Anne Weisz died in 1902. New York's unified Changeling community fragmented quickly after her death, and had remained leaderless ever since.
    
    
  • Wild, dangerous, alluring and mysterious, Changelings are creatures of Fay blood, which meant they carried the Fay nature depending on the potency of their blood. Always aloof, inhuman beautiful with a flair for the dramatic, many of them are performers, singers, actors. But Changeling is not so much a name as a category, and so they are called by a different name by those in the know. Glamours.
    
    Changelings can procreate with human - except Ironbounds - and any children born by a Changeling parent is guaranteed to be a Changeling themselves. However, the potency of one's blood - and in turn their Fay nature - is not decided by parentage but is completely random. A child born of a Half-Fay who only has a sliver of Fayblood can, for no apparent reason, be more Fay than a child born of both Changeling parents.
    
    The Changeling population is further limited by an issue perhaps of their biology in which in most cases a Changeling can only ever have 1 child in their entire life. The occurrence in which a second child is born is extremely rare. Changeling has a slightly longer lifespan than a regular human with the maximum recorded being 114.
    
    Although the Fay nature starts affecting a Changeling's personality the moment they are born, it is not until their 16th birthday that their strange magic manifest. Until that time, one can only guess the potency of their blood based on their personality.
    
    The Fayblood grants several traits that all Changelings share to a certain degree:
    

    • Beautiful appearance.
    • The ability to "charm" a person - to lull someone into a drousy suggestive state with their voice.
    • The ability to manipulate emotions of others, heightening some and dampen others.
    • Inhuman dexterity and athleticism.

    
    But more than their innate abilities, Changeling's most powerful capability lies in their strange rituals that are half instinctual, half passed down from previous generations which can be used to imbue items with various magical attributes, making for powerful artefacts and tools.
    
    As resourceful as the Changelings are, they are greatly hindered by iron and its abundance within civilization. The proximity of iron, even diluted or mixed with other materials - as in the case of steel - weakens their magical abilities marginally. Physical contact with iron dampens those abilities greatly in addition to being physically uncomfortable, growing to painful if the contact is prolonged. The same reaction applies for the aura of Heavies.
    
    As such, Glamour establishments are often surrounded and made entirely of wood or natural materials.
    
  
  
• The Treaty The Ironguard Changeling Community The Maximilian Corporation

  • An formal Seize-fire signed a few years before Weisz death as a direct result of more than a decade of conflict that reduced both side's population to a dangerous level, the treaty itself is a series of formal rules and regulations that ultimately can be summarized by a few major points:
    
    

    1. Ironbounds and Changelings cannot harm each other openly in nonmagical environments, and not at all without probable cause.
    2. A group of individuals who are well-respected and of authority are voted to become members of a Council to judge and settle grievances and conflicts.
    3. Charming and manipulating people of influence are greatly frowned upon. Serious cases are brought before the Council.

    
    The current Council includes the head of the Ironguard Philip Travis, a respected Changeling elder Samantha Mars and the capitalist Henry Maximilian.
    
  • Claiming themselves to be the Scire police, the Ironguard had long declined from the peak of power and integrity they used to uphold. Now they carry the same arrogance and none of the moral and capability they believe still come along with their name. Their number often includes no more than 40 Ironguards with no ranking system except an informal one based on seniority. Ironguards often work in pairs, with partnership often assigned for life.
    
    The leader of the Ironguard, Philip Travis is long past his prime, more than 70 years old. His experience in the secret war half a century before meant that he knows the cost of conflict, which makes him uphold the Treaty like the Bible, rigidly sticking to every rule and code of conduct to the letter.
    
    Due to their diminished number and limitations of circumstance that greatly reduce the number of Ironbound joining the Scire world, in the last 10 years the Ironguard had started utilizing the practice of actively seeking out and recruiting fresh Ironbound into their ranks regardless of whether or not the individual is suitable for the Scire world at all. This led to an entire generation of arrogant entitled bullies who abused the Ironguard name and power until the organization more resembles a criminal gang than anything else.
    
    *The post of an Ironguard is not a job but a membership within an organization. Everyone in the Scire community have a regular job in the normal world.
  • There isn't much unity within the Changeling community since the death of the Weisz. Individual Changelings stay in tight-knit closed groups that while may very well know of others by reputation don't often interact with one another.
    
    Samantha Mars, 52 years old, is the representative of the community within the Council. Powerful in the art of magic and well respected due to her force of personality alone, Mars had risen from a popular jazz singer in her youth to become someone of great influence within New York's entertainment industry.
    
    1947 saw the arrival of Adam Prisc, a Fayborn from England migrating into New York. Adam Prisc is a faithful zealot of the old way and the Fay Court, and even as many laughed him off as a deranged fanatic, within 3 years Prisc had gathered a sizeable following within New York's community, consisting mostly of young rebellious Changelings tired of the status quo and the constant harassment, oppression and limitation brought about by the Ironguard and the Treaty.
  • Founded by Arthur Maximilian in 1904, the organization is currently being ran by Arthur's son, Henry. The Maximilian Corporation is a formidable presence within the Scire world, employing a large number of Glamours and Heavies under a subsidiary company Crystal Dreams which owned multiple nightclubs and bars throughout New York, many of which are regular spot or even specifically to serve the Scire community. Henry Maximilian himself also personally employs Scire as part of his personal entourage.
    
    Henry Maximilian, 42, is a Council Member.
  
  
• Velvet Blues: A jazz club privately owned by two partners, one Changeling and one a famous musician. Located on 49th on Long Island City, the Blue is New York's Scire Switzerland, the neutral ground where no conflict is to be conducted.
  
  Cloud 'n Ocean: A bar owned by Crystal Dreams, a frequent spot for the Scire community most used to discuss business.
  
  to be updated
  
  
• -Scire: means "to know" in Latin. The common name for the Changeling and Ironbound community in New York.
  
  -Ironbound: A human who had survived the Iron Fever and gained an aura of iron that makes them resilient to Fay magic.
  
  -Changeling: Half-Fay hybrid that which retains some Fay magic and characteristics due to their bloodline.
  
  -Heavy: Street/common name for Ironbound.
  
  -Glamour: Street/common name for Changeling.
  
  -Charm: a Changeling's ability to lull a person into a drousy easily suggestive state.
  
  -Spook: A Private Investigator.
  
  -Pig: Derogatory term for the police.
  
  -Rust: Derogatory/mocking name for the Ironguard.
  
  to be updated
  
  

Art by Eddie Mendoza​