The Black Fog War was a short but brutal rebellion that arose from attempts to form unions for worker safety and protections. After several public figures who represented unions were assassinated, workers rebelled, attacking private security forces. In response, professional soldiers were sent to quell the laborers. Battles were fought within the cities, where the workers fought as guerilla units against the government army, using the incredible pollution levels to their advantage. Deep in the cities, the fog was so thick with soot and chemical vapor that fighters could get lost and separated within feet of each other, hence the name Black Fog War. In total, the rebellion lasted less than six months, but it changed the social and industrial structure of large cities.
The Conflict
Prelude
After a string of preventable factory accidents led to several hundred deaths, workers organized strikes and began to form unions that crossed several industries. There were demands for safety improvements and compensation systems for injuries and death. In response, industrial barons sought help from the aristocracy, and hired union breakers to assassinate the most influential voices of the burgeoning unions. The assassinations were successful, and worse, publicly and openly lauded in the newspapers. When brought before the judiciary, the crown stepped in and dismissed all charges against the industry barons for hiring the hitmen. Outrage from the working class exploded, and several expensive sabotages of factories and ships took place in quick succession.
Private security forces were the first line of attack against the workers. Many of them knew disgruntled workers directly or indirectly, and were sent to attack them in their neighborhoods. In some instances, the security forces would kidnap key laborers and jacks from their homes and bring them back to the factories, forcing them to work. At this time, there were no criminal repercussions to private impressment, and the press caused people to believe that the public generally supported such measures. A concerted effort was made between industrialists and newspapers to increase feelings of isolation in the laborer class.
After two months of this private level of battle, the crown deployed soldiers to quell the rebellion as the numbers were showing a cut to profits from trade. For three months, the war escalated, threatening to spill into aristocratic districts.
The Black Fog War saw a boom in military manufacturing and advancement. Experimental equipment such as gas masks, untested chemical weapons, and various clockwork machines finally got to be tested in the field. Several classes of chimaera were lost in the thick smog, and are thought to still be running loose in the depths of the city.
Unions took a major hit in the aftermath of the war, as high-profile union betrayals crippled trust in future union efforts.
Several districts in some cities were sealed off, access blocked by destroyed buildings. Those areas remain lost, and are thought to be sanctuaries for criminals and outcasts.
Laws were put into place after the war to ban private impressment and allow limited union bargaining power after evaluating the economic damage caused.
Secret societies and underground organizations grew more common, and complex codes through many mediums were created to obfuscate communications among them.
Many factories were lost, but reclaimed and rebuilt by underground factions.
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