Brassveil began as a modest riverside trade settlement, valued for two things:
reliable water flow and natural mineral deposits nearby. Early mills and workshops clustered along the riverbanks, powered by waterwheels and primitive steam engines. Craftsmen, engineers, and merchants arrived, and with them came the first guilds.
From the beginning, infrastructure dictated growth. Streets followed pipe routes. Housing formed around power sources. Control of energy meant control of livelihood.
This foundational logic—power first, people second—never left the city.
As steam technology advanced, Brassveil transformed rapidly. Water power gave way to boilers, pressure lines, and centralized foundries. The city expanded vertically and underground. Maintenance tunnels, exhaust vents, and pressure-release systems were built beneath every district.
Crucially, this era introduced standardization:
Unified clock systems
Regulated shift schedules
Centralized rail and freight timing
Time itself became a resource.
The first citywide clocks were installed—not just to keep order, but to synchronize labor.
Rapid growth bred instability. Dangerous conditions, wage suppression, and overcrowding led to strikes, riots, and sabotage. Several districts were nearly lost to open revolt.
Publicly, reforms followed:
Labor laws
Safety standards
Expanded Watch presence
Privately, something else happened.
A coalition of city planners, inventors, and Crown representatives authorized an experimental solution: predictive industrial control. Using interconnected clocks, steam pressure data, and logistics records, the city could anticipate unrest and intervene early—by redirecting resources, creating shortages, or staging “necessary” disruptions.
This was the birth of the hidden machine.
Over decades, the system was expanded quietly. New infrastructure was always compatible with old designs. Clocktowers communicated through pressure pulses. Street systems doubled as message relays. Foundries reported output automatically.
Most citizens believed the city had simply become efficient.
In reality, Brassveil had become self-monitoring.
Entire districts were shaped around this logic:
Workers housed near controllable choke points
Rail lines designed to isolate unrest
Watch routes timed to infrastructure signals
The conspiracy didn’t replace governance.
It supplemented it—until it became indispensable.
Now, Brassveil cannot easily be separated from its systems. Disabling one part causes failures elsewhere. Removing the hidden network risks economic collapse, mass unemployment, or open revolt.
Many within the system believe they are preventing catastrophe.
Others profit from it.
A few seek to expose it, regardless of the cost.
The city is not ruled by a single villain, but by momentum.
Brassveil no longer asks who should be in control.
It asks whether control can ever be removed without destroying the city itself.