Lore

"In the summer of 1886 the snowstorms began. Crops failed, people starved. Millions fled south. They met only destruction, famine, and death.

In the farthest reaches of resource-rich north, the British Empire began construction of massive heat-radiating Generators, These grand engines would allow a chosen few to survive the frigid global winter, safe from the chaos of crumbling civilization.

They ran out of time.

An apocalyptic ice storm came from the south, devouring all in its path. People fled in panic. Some managed to cross the seas and reach the site of a Generator, only to find it frozen solid.

The Generator was designed to power a City capable of weathering the end of the world...

It falls to us to build it."

- Frostpunk Demo

The events of Frostpunk take place in an alternate AD 1886. It is yet unclear precisely when the game's timeline diverged from our own, but, given the technology, notable people, and events derived from the snippets of lore presented in game, it may be speculated that the divergence began as early as the year 1822.

Frostpunk's Timeline
BGF: Before the Great Frost

AGF: After the Great Frost

1822 (63 BGF) – The Triumph of Charles Babbage
In 1822, the British mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. The project, funded by the British government, was a failure in our timeline, but in world of Frostpunk Babbage succeed in building his Difference Engine, an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. With the success of Difference Engine, the British government increased Babbage's funding and help from his fellow mathematician, friend, and correspondent Ada Lovelace allowing him to build the successor to Difference Engine, the Analytical Engine. The latter was a mechanical "general purpose computer" and the world's first computer in the World of Frostpunk.

Over the decades, Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine continued to be improved and made smaller with each generation by other scientists and engineers, until a new type of Computational Engine was invented that is capable of following orders and performing complex tasks.

1822–1886 (63 BGF – Year 0) – Inventing the Steam Core
Somewhere between 1822 and 1886, the Steam Core was invented by Professor Hawkins. The invention of Steam Cores became a massive boon for the British Empire and the technology was adopted by other countries, such as the United States.

However, all knowledge regarding the manufacture of Steam Cores was lost during the Great Frost and in the ensuing chaos of civilizations' collapse. Most tragically was the loss of Professor Hawkins, who attempted to escape the Fall of London by crossing the Channel with his belongings, including all the blueprints and other documentation about Steam Cores, onboard an experimental Steam Core powered aeroplane. Only a Model of the Steam Core Prototype inside a waterproof chest was found afloat by a corvette searching for Professor Hawkins. The few intact Steam Cores available to the residents of the Last Cities must be salvaged from buildings or derelicts dotting the Frostlands.

1822–1886 (63 BGF – Year 0) - Birth of the Automatons
Concurrent with the invention of Steam Cores, and doubtless building upon the success of Babbage's project, sometime between 1822 and 1886 the giant steam-powered robots known as Automatons were invented. These metal behemoths were born through the combination of complex clockwork mechanisms, the advanced computational engine, and the application of the Steam Core device. These huge machines, towering over people and structures, were the pinnacle of human engineering before the Great Frost and a massive boon to the British economy which propelled it to become the world’s first Superpower in the modern sense. Many other countries tried to make their own Automatons independently and even attempted to reverse-engineer them with mixed results, while others simply bought Automatons from the British.

1886 (Year 0) – The Arrival of the Great Frost
In the summer of 1886 the Great Frost began. Initially it presented as a chain of strange weather patterns, frost during summer, killer snowstorms in the northern countries, never-ending rain storms in the Sahara and an ever increasing drop in temperatures worldwide. The United Kingdom and several other countries sent out expeditions to the North to conduct research into the origin of the incipient changes in climate. Many of these British research outposts were equipped with Heat Generator Towers to enable prolonged study of these phenomena.

Meanwhile in Britain and in the rest of Europe, the general atmosphere continued to deteriorate. As even the hardiest crops began to fail, starvation had set in among the public. As days became months, millions of desperate people fled south in search of warmer weather and sources of food. They were met with chaos, famine, and death. Many southern countries had neither the inclination, nor the resources, nor even the infrastructure to handle a massive influx of refugees. Many governments tried to calm their people or turn a blind eye to this problem until it was too great to ignore, and anarchy erupted as man turned against man in a struggle over the few remaining resources, civilization slowly crumbled under the growing weight of snow and ice.

In an attempt to save the Empire and its people, the British Government arrived at two solutions. The first involved sending multiple naval vessels with refugees to their colonial holdings in South America, East and South Africa, India, and Australia where it was warmer. The other plan would involve sending icebreakers and purpose-built Land Dreadnoughts with refugees to the farthest reaches of the resource-rich North, where members of the British Science Expeditions have finished the construction of heat-producing Generators, and where a chosen few could survive the environmental catastrophe and the consequent socioeconomic collapse.

However, the strategy of the British Government was thwarted by Mother Nature herself. An ice storm of apocalyptic proportions came from the south, devouring all in its path, and severing all communication and travel between Britain and rest of its Empire. Robbed of options, the British Government begun putting into motion the complete evacuation of London and rest of the country.

1886 (Year 0) – The Last Autumn
With the ever-lasting cold bringing about famine, starvation and bread riots all throughout Britain and with its colonial empire having been destroyed by an apocalyptic ice storm, the British Government, robbed of any other options, begun mobilizing all available resources to carry out a complete evacuation of the British Isles, with the intent of evacuating as many people as possible to the coal-rich north to save what still could be saved of the British Empire. Ships were built or seized in order to transport both workers and resources to the far North. The Imperial Exploration Company was tasked with the goal of navigating to the sites of the British Science Expeditions' research outposts, construct Heat Generator Towers, and thus create safe havens for the people of Britain to survive through the approaching cold and eventually re-establish both the empire and civilization. All of the generator sites and cities that the player can play as are products of this evacuation protocol.

One such generator site was Site 113, or New Liverpool, set up by the Imperial Exploration Company to build a Generator to house the people of Liverpool.

The British Empire was not the only great power seeking refuge in the far north, however. The French (most likely the French Third Republic) were also sending explorers, workers and resources to the north with seemingly similar intentions of building safe havens for their people.

1886 (Year 0) – An End to the Old World
Once the Great Frost arrived in force and consumed the northern hemisphere, civilization collapsed. It is not known exactly what happened but the results speak for themselves. Just as the Great Frost begun to approach Britain, the British Government, financially exhausted and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, ordered the complete evacuation of the British Isles. Boats, ships, Land dreadnoughts any other viable forms of transportation were mobilized (and seized) and outfitted to transport a many citizens to the generator sites, with a seeming priority on the wealthy upper class.

This would ultimately turn out to be the last act of the British Empire as by the end of 1886, the United Kingdom, the United States and the British dominions had been reduced to little more than scattered groups of survivors and refugees, desperately trying to make their way north to the generator sites. Many died in the harsh, icy and cold conditions while others became lost and trapped out in the Frostlands but some groups of survivors succeeded in reaching the safety of the Generator site and begun gathering resources to found cities to enable their own survival and to locate and save those that became trapped in the frostlands.

1886–1887 (Year 0 – 1 AGF) – Fall of Winterhome
Winterhome was a settlement of survivors not unlike New London, which started out as one of the British generator sites but fell under military governance. By the time of the Fall of London, Winterhome had become a small city. It had access to a number of advanced technologies and plenty of manpower and resources, which allowed them to construct numerous Automatons, several Research Outposts, an Observatory, and even a Steel Bridge over a deep, wide ravine.

When the news of London's destruction and arrival of massive amounts of refugees caused major strife within Winterhome, a riot broke out over food shortages and increasingly harsh rule by an Army captain before the Generator exploded from lack of oversight. Most of the city's denizens perished from either the explosion itself or the resulting chaos. Some left the fallen city and established ad-hoc encampments across the region; all those that remained in Winterhome succumbed first to cannibalism, and then to exposure.

Some of the survivors that survived the destruction of Winterhome were found and possibly saved by Scouts from the nearby New London.

1886–1887 (Year 0 – 1 AGF) – The Rise and Fall of Tesla City
Tesla City was a settlement founded by survivors of an American Expedition under the leadership of Nikola Tesla. They too were sent north to study strange weather patterns in the advent of the Great Frost. Using his great intelligence and keen technical knowledge, Nikola Tesla founded both his namesake city and Tesla Manufacturing, an engineering and manufacture concern that could very well be the largest contemporary production facility in the world.

Tesla Manufacturing had a complete monopoly over the City, holding ownership of every single building, and had the capability to produce highly advanced pieces of technology, which included Prosthetics and Steam Cores. Ostensibly to ensure humanity's survival in the frozen wasteland, Nikola Tesla grew to rule the city with an iron fist; those who could not work efficiently enough were either exiled or abandoned. Consequently, his utilitarian principles of Progress and Efficiency were viewed as dehumanizing by the people in his charge, who saw themselves as mere cogs in a soulless machine.

At some unknown point, Nikola Tesla attempted to implement an electricity field designed to shield his City against the encroaching snow. He succeeded in creating a dome of electrical energy which kept the ice and snow from engulfing the city proper. However, the field was either flawed at its inception, eventually developed a critical malfunction, or was somehow altered to electrocute humans within its radius. When a Scout Team from New London arrived at Tesla City, the city was completely intact, with the exception of the blackened and scorched corpses laying in the streets, and some notably minor damage to buildings from the field's discharge.

Even in its desolation, Tesla City is a veritable treasure trove of advanced technologies. The city appears to be the only location in the region that has the facilities capable of manufacturing Steam Cores, should an Outpost be constructed and manned in its vicinity.

1887 (1 AGF) – New London
New London was a settlement founded by a group of survivors fleeing London. It may be the last refuge of human civilization against the bitter cold, as the nearby cities of Winterhome and Tesla City have fallen.

The City of New London is located inside a massive, roughly cylindrical hole in the middle of a glacier, also known as The Pit. It appears that the glacier has naturally formed as the massive amounts of ice and snow descended from the grey clouds above. Additionally, there is the presence of disused Outpost Depot-like elevator structure which previously allowed people entrance to the Crater. It is possible that either the crater formed naturally around the perimeter of the Heat Generator's thermal radiation, or was perhaps excavated by unknown means to provide a stable surface for the former. At one time, New London’s Heat Generator Tower was surrounded by a massive forest, the majority of their trees now frozen within the icy walls of the glacier.

Since the Heat Generator Tower was not covered by massive amounts of snow and ice upon its discovery by the refugees, it is believed that the members of British Science Expeditions used up all of their coal resources to keep the site ice-free for the refugees before they were forced to abandon the research post. The site of the generator is littered with discarded wooden containers and metal debris which potentially came from the two currently defunct shaft elevators.

Lost and Scattered, but Not Defeated
After weeks, even months of traveling, the Land Dreadnought from London finally ran out of coal and gave up the ghost. With little choice left the London Survivors left their Land Dreadnought to make the long trek to the Generator site. The journey towards the site was long and grueling, and many died due to exhaustion, hunger or bitter cold. Misfortune struck when the Convoy of London Survivors was separated during a blizzard. Of the Convoy of several hundred survivors, only small a group of 80 people under the leadership of the Captain was able reach the site, only to find the Generator stone cold and abandoned.

After they scavenged and salvaged enough resources from the wreckage and debris littered across the Crater they began setting up camp around the reactivated Generator. As days passed, the small camp of survivors became a small settlement with a Medical Post, Cookhouse, several Hunters’ Huts and full functional Workshop. However many were still worried about the missing members of the Convoy and their loved ones, and some wanted to go out and find them. However, due the harsh weather and lack of identifiable landmarks, it was nearly impossible for anyone to find their way to the city.

So the Engineers came up with the idea for a strange contraption which they called the Beacon. The best way to describe what this strange contraption is a tethered hot air balloon with a light beacon and lookout post attached underneath it, which function as both watchtower and lighthouse. Using the Beacon, they were able to survey the frozen wastes and find several sites of interest, one of which appeared to be a large group of people camped in the snow.

Journey to Winterhome
Following the recovery of the lost members of the arrival expedition, scouting parties would trek further north (presumably, as they head further inland) into the Frostlands. The first landmark they would discover would be the bridge erected by the denizens of Winterhome, faithfully kept clear of ice and snow by a still-functioning but very much alone Automaton (how it remained fueled and functioning on its own for an extended period without a nearby heat source is never explained). Concerned citizens questioned why the Automaton was unattended, as well as the lack of obvious signs of the bridge having been crossed recently by anything other than the Automaton.

Further north, and closer to Winterhome, the scouting parties would discover the Weather Station that supplied Winterhome with weather forecasts, having since been abandoned, presumably when Winterhome's acting captain conscripted them to work in the city. As more and more signs point to something very concerning having happened in or to Winterhome, and increasingly anxious citizens begin to despair, the Captain attempts to maintain morale by suggesting that all the answers will be found in Winterhome proper. The scouts continue north, until they come upon the city...

Tragedy of Winterhome (find and scout Winterhome)
...Or, what was left of it.

Where there should have been a bustling, vibrant settlement with a steam-belching Generator glowing within, they found only a frozen pit, littered with bodies, refuse, wreckage, and the centerpiece of this macabre monument: the horrifically mangled, charred-black skeleton of a Generator, now caked with ice and snow. What few bodies could be counted suggested that the majority of the people living there had fled, and those that could or would not do so are what remained. The few logbooks still legible told of catastrophic riots which crippled an already grossly-mismanaged city, the subsequent rise of a new captain, their attempts to restore order, and finally, the ongoing failure and terminal breakdown of the Generator, whose cascading malfunctions culminated in a catastrophic steam explosion, which signaled an agonizing, slow death by starvation or exposure for all those who were not claimed by the explosion itself. In their desperation, the last pitiful stragglers of Winterhome turned to cannibalism, delaying the inevitable by mere days.

The news of Winterhome's demise sent the city of New London into a death spiral of hopelessness which threatened to tear the fledgling city apart at the seams.

Survivor from Winterhome (not scout Winterhome after set time limit)
Near the final days of Winterhome's demise, a group of explorers who had been surveying the area spotted the smoke rising from the newly-rekindled Generator at what had become the settlement of New London. This group of explorers, having not been tapped by the acting captain of Winterhome and foreseeing its imminent destruction, set out towards New London, though they failed to make contact with any of the latter's scouting parties. Of this group of a dozen or so explorers, only one survivor manages to reach the edge of the city, where he is discovered dying of frostbite. He lives just long enough to share his tale of the Fall of Winterhome, affirming everyone's worst fears.

A City Divided: New Londoners Vs. Londoners (Chose: Order or Faith)
It is at this point that the Captain of New London concludes that the only way to restore morale and maintain order is to instill their people with a sense of greater purpose. To this end, the Captain announces a new concept of order in the city, based either on authoritarian order or in religious faith, which is met equally with approval and resistance from citizens.

The resistance movement brands itself the "Londoners," after their stated desire to abandon New London and return to Great Britain, reasoning that if Winterhome could fall, then there was no hope for New London; it would surely succumb to the same fate given time. Though the Captain manages to calm the majority of the populace and convince them to stay, a dozen or so Londoners are unmoved and begin a campaign to convince others to join their cause.

Having noted Winterhome's example, through careful management of people's needs and concerns and a sharp eye on the Generator, the Captain first begins to re-instill hope within their citizens, enough to move past the initial shock of discovering Winterhome. Whether through compassion or by force, it is assumed the Captain succeeds in restoring morale and convincing a number of the resistance to stay, though with no small amount of effort owing to ongoing disruption perpetrated by the Londoners faction. The latter prey upon the discontent of people and potentially cause trouble, beginning with vandalism and progressing to theft, assault, and potentially murder if sufficiently pressured by a determined Captain and zealous enforcement authorities, religious or otherwise.

(The lore diverges here based on the overall state of the city and the player's actions up to this point in the scenario.)

New Londoners’ Exodus (Worst/Bad Ending)
In the event that the Captain failed to instill hope sufficiently and thus convince every member of the Londoner faction to abandon their ill-fated quest, and/or opted not to use lethal force as a means of dissuasion, the remaining Londoners gather themselves and leave the city on foot. Whether the Captain chooses to spare them extra provisions for the journey or not, it is all but certain that this party perishes long before they ever reach their destination.

A City United (Golden Ending)
In the all other cases, the Captain manages to convince the entire number of the resistance to abandon the idea of leaving New London, either by threat of force or by sufficiently bolstering morale.

The Oncoming Storm
Following the conclusion of the Londoners incident, the watchers in the lookout of the Beacon spot several sizeable groups of refugees making their way toward the city. Half-frozen and delirious from sickness and hunger, their panicked whispers of an "oncoming storm" and a "great frost" seemed at first to be delusion, until the terrifying specter of a roiling squall line made its presence known on the horizon. Scouting parties raiding abandoned research outposts discovered logbooks of famed explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who had been studying the weather patterns, had already spotted the oncoming storm front, and--against all reason--had gone to meet it head-on to confirm his theories about it, which suggested gale force 10 winds (out of a possible maximum gale force 12) and plummeting temperatures the likes of which were impossible to endure. Unsurprisingly, Nansen himself is never seen or heard from again.

As the churning, flashing storm front continues to advance and consume the horizon, the city of New London once again finds itself in the midst of a morale crisis as its citizens first begin to despair and then turn on each other in their desperation to secure supplies like food rations and wood. At one point, at least one citizen whose daughter has fled into the Frostlands chooses to go after her mere hours before the storm is slated to arrive, potentially weighed down with rations from a compassionate Captain.

The New Order (Order Ending)
''We started as a formless rabble, battered by the elements. 80 people. Disorganized. Weak.''

''First, we put our children to work. Parents lost their children. And every day was a struggle, so we adapted.''

''Executions of public enemies. People spying on each other. Brainwashing propaganda. Forceful interrogation.''

''In the fight for survival...we crossed the line. Order became despotism.''

The city survived...but was it worth it?

A city beset with an authoritarian-minded Captain, who answers trial and tribulation with brute force and stubborn determinism, finds itself adequately prepared for the storm, at great personal cost. Guard towers, casting bright spotlights over a wary, subjugated populace, encircle the Generator, from which hang newly-affixed flags of scarlet and black, bearing the symbol of the New Order. Packed prison facilities dot the edges of the pit, unforgiving and impatient security patrols march up and down the streets, and paper flyers bearing unabashed propaganda litter the residential quarters. Everything is heavily-regimented, there is no room at all for dissent, and the idea of "hope" is wasteful sentiment in the face of discipline, strength, and loyalty. The Captain's word is law; you obey, or you pay for your insubordination with your life.

Children are put to work, usually in supply gathering outposts or kitchens where it's at least relatively safe, but sometimes also right alongside the adults in places like coal mines, depending on how callous the Captain is. Stockpiles are well-kept and supplied, if only because of the extensive demands the Captain places on workers to make it so, often forcing them to work 14 hour shifts for days on end, leaving people hardly enough time even to eat or sleep before returning for the next shift. Those who drop dead from exhaustion are not buried in a grave at a cemetery during a funeral, but are instead dumped unceremoniously into a mass grave and covered with snow, not to rest peacefully, but to be preserved like fresh game meat, until such a time that any still-viable organs which can be used to save the life of the still-living can be harvested.

New London itself feels more like a military garrison run by a strict (and short-sighted) general, than a city of civilians shepherded by a duly-elected Captain.

Didn't Cross the Line (Golden Ending)
''We started as a small society...some refugees. 80 people...no food...old habits.''

''When sickness hit us, we refused to give up on anyone. And every day was a struggle...so we adapted.''

Watchful guards...prisons...work oversight...morning gatherings...

Yet, I think...we haven't crossed the line.

''Order gave us strength. We survived.''

A city blessed with a fair-minded Captain, who plans ahead for crises instead of merely reacting to them and dutifully but not over-zealously manages their workforce, finds itself comfortably prepared for the coming storm. An imposing Generator tower, heavily modified and almost indistinguishable from its initial construction, effortlessly drives vast quantities of heat through a veritable sprawl of fully-furnished and well-insulated houses, sheltering an exploding population of over 600 residents and refugees from a now empty(-er) Frostlands. The stockpiles are overflowing with coal from well-established mines, and packed with balanced meals carefully prepared both from hunted game and hardy hothouse vegetables. Automatons take over the lion's share of the labor, relentlessly marching and utterly indifferent to the blistering icy winds, while grateful retired workers happily watch them from within their cozy abodes. To the delight of its populace, the city's children, instead of being forced to toil alongside the adults, instead have an entire street of classrooms dedicated to educating them in engineering and medicine, ensuring both practices endure.

Depending on the choices the Captain made, the people have either become paragons of carefully-measured discipline, or devout practitioners of a truly compassionate religious doctrine, careful in both cases not to cast aside their humanity in pursuit of their purpose.

Morale is at an all-time high, dissent is virtually non-existent, and the people of New London nearly universally praise their beloved Captain, who demands no recognition or reward, instead wholly content with the knowledge that people could now live comfortable lives and look forward to tomorrow with renewed hope. They remain at their post at the controls of the Generator, watching the city and its people from on high, vigilantly keeping the frost at bay as the wheels of progress begin to thaw and turn once again.

(Owing to the presence of Guard Towers and crimson flags in the On The Edge introductory cinematic, it is assumed that, canonically, the city of New London took the "Order" path but did not cross the line.)

The City of Legacy and the Seedling Arks
The City of Legacy, also known as Legacy Ark, is a settlement founded by academics from Cambridge and Oxford, who were sent to preserve the last vestiges of plant life on Earth. While having the smallest population compared with New London and Sanctuary, the city is an industrial powerhouse. Heavily industrialized and automated, with its mechanized army of towering Automatons work day and night to keep the furnace of the City’s Generator fed and keep the life-support system of the Seedling Arks going. Unlike the circular crater in New London, the city of Legacy is located in an eye-shaped crater with significantly more frozen trees but no suitable place for an Outpost Depot. Most of its natural resources like frozen trees, coal deposits, iron deposits and the cracks in the wall are all concentrated on the southwestern end of the crater while the northeastern end of it only contains a few frozen trees.

During the early days of the missions it was tough for the people of Legacy; the Expedition had reached the safety of the Generator site and stored Seeds and Seedling within the Seedling Arks, but not without cost. They had lost the blueprints for the Factory when their Land Dreadnought had given up the ghost, and one of the two Automatons they had had broken down during the long walk to the site and they were forced to leave it behind. They organized a Scout Team to retrieve the blueprints and salvage any valuables from the Land Dreadnought. During the journey back to the Land Dreadnought the Scout Team found the broken Automaton; they succeeded in repairing it and programming it to go to the city.

After the blueprints were successfully retrieved, the construction of a Factory and expansion of the industrial base began. However, early on the Engineers of Legacy ran into a snag. Their small supply of Steam Cores was depleted quickly. Lacking both the facilities and technical know-how to make their own Steam Cores, the Scientists of Legacy were forced to continue scouting the surrounding region in search of more Steam Cores to increase their industry and the number of Automatons. With some research into experimental technology, the scientists figured out how to turn an Automaton into a Mechanized Scout Unit, allowing them to increase their number of scout units, in order to find and salvage more vital resources for their small settlement as the devastating snow storm slowly approached.

With much of the city’s industry fully automated by Automatons, the people of Legacy began to prepare themselves to weather the oncoming storm, when suddenly a lonely man, who was almost half frozen to death, came stumbling out of the frozen wasteland.

The Plight of New Manchester
New Manchester is a settlement founded by refugees from Manchester. Due to bad fortune their Land Dreadnought ended being trapped by collapsing ice sheets. Forced to abandon their vehicle and most of their supplies, the Manchester survivors arrived at their Generator and founded the City of New Manchester. However, due to poor leadership and the lack of skilled labor they could not develop their city any further since most of them were all working class.

With resources running low and a devastating snowstorm slowly approaching, the leadership of New Manchester began to send Scout Teams out into the Frostlands in search for help or any sites with the resources they needed. Many of these Scout Teams died; only a sole survivor from one of these teams stumbled into the sheltered canyon where a small community of scientists and engineers had founded the City of Legacy.

The survivor pleaded for help and the People of Legacy sent out one of their Scout Teams to find New Manchester and determine the situation. When Legacy’s Scouts arrived at New Manchester, things looked really grim. New Manchester looked more like a slum than a city: tents and ramshackle huts surrounded the barely functioning Heat Generator Tower, and the people managed to scrape just enough food and coal for each day to survive. There was no chance that the city would survive the storm without some kind of outside intervention.

The people of Legacy were faced with a difficult choice: would they help New Manchester and risk compromising their mission, or keep focusing on their mission and leave the people of New Manchester to their fate?

1887 (1 AGF) – City of Sanctuary
Back in london, a working class revolt against a portion of the upper class resulted in a large amount of workers taking over a dreadnought and making a city upon which was meant for the lords. all was going well until the lords returned, but with a twist. lord craven (The most evil of the lords) and many more were at their mercy. tensions were high for weeks, with social unrest at a peak until a riot resulted in the hanging of lord craven

1887 (1 AGF) – The Great Storm
After potentially rescuing several encampments worth of refugees, stockpiling supplies, building shelters and facilities, and recalling all scouting parties, the menacing face of mother nature's raw, unfettered fury crests over the edge of the pit. The clouds consume the sky and everything turns disconcertingly dark. The wind doesn't merely howl, it shrieks its announcement of the storm's arrival, the Generator's structural supports creaking and groaning under the weight of the wind.

The storm itself borders on unnatural in its intensity and its persistence, plunging the city of New London into nearly a week of perpetual darkness, biting cold, and endlessly howling wind. Hothouses become worthless as the soil freezes in spite of heat from underneath. All edible game has retreated into hiding to wait out the worst. With only stockpiled rations of food to sustain them, and the prospect of restful sleep an impossibility, the storm begins to take its toll on the populace.

As the mercury in the thermometer dips to its lowest possible point and the temperature continues to plummet beyond measure, hydraulic supports keeping established coal mines begin to freeze due to the heaters being unable to counteract the unrelenting cold, the air being pumped into the normally stifling mine shafts remaining well below freezing. It soon becomes impractical for naught but inhuman Automatons to continue working in the inhuman cold, and many people accordingly abandon their work posts to spend what they believe will be their final hours with their families.

Just as the final shred of hope seemed lost, an engineer who had been frenziedly running calculations burst into the Captain's office, with news both uplifting and demoralizing.

The end of the storm was near, he said, but the absolute worst would come just before the end. The extrapolated, calculated, estimated lowest temperature would bottom out at around -150 degrees Celsius (-238 degrees Fahrenheit).

Even with the Generator fully upgraded, well-fed, at full power, overloaded, and with fully insulated homes, there would be no possible way to withstand that temperature. New London faced a very real risk of freezing solid literally overnight. The city fell utterly silent; even the Automatons ground to a halt in the unyielding freeze. Only the medical posts remained staffed by the most determined individuals.

The city held its breath, waiting for whatever the end would bring.

Late 1887 (1 AGF) – Beyond the Great Storm
After what seemed like an eternity of hell, people began to notice the ambient light increasing, as though the clouds were thinning. The howling of the wind had died down; all that could be heard now was the creaking and groaning of the overworked Generator. Slowly but surely, people began to force their way out of their frozen front doors. The rush of air that swept in felt warm. They looked up, and saw blue sky. They saw the sunshine creeping down the walls of the pit as the sun began to rise.

Tears were shed. Jovial voices cried out in unison. Loved ones embraced each other. In the middle of all of this, a disbelieving Captain stood, jostled by congratulatory and grateful citizens, taking it all in. It wasn't a dream. They had done it.

The city had survived.

Almost as quickly as it had arrived, the storm dissipated and the temperature skyrocketed back up to a relatively balmy -20 °C. In addition, the storm had also unearthed an abandoned warehouse left over from the days of the northward evacuations, possibly full of supplies needed to expand the city, rebuild the fallen British Empire, and bring mankind out of its forced hibernation. An expedition was launched to set up camp and establish an outpost at the warehouse.

A

 * A New Home
 * Ada Lovelace
 * American
 * Automatons

C

 * Captain
 * Charles Babbage

E

 * Europa

F

 * Frostlands

G

 * Great Frost

L

 * Land Dreadnought
 * Legacy
 * London
 * Londoners
 * Lord Craven

N

 * Neu Berlin
 * New Ice Age
 * New Liverpool
 * New London
 * New Manchester
 * Nikola Tesla

O

 * Outpost 11

P

 * Professor Hawkins

R

 * Relic

S

 * Sanctuary
 * Steam Core

T

 * Tesla City
 * Tesla Manufacturing
 * The Arks
 * The Dragonfly
 * The Lords
 * The Pit
 * The Refugees
 * The Storm

U

 * United Kingdom
 * United States

W

 * Winterhome