The Wreckers

The political movement commonly known as "The Wreckers" was founded in 1785 in response to the initial introduction of constructs into industrial use. While the group was originally formed under the title "The Guild of Honest Laborers and Artisans for the Defense of Livelihood and Dignity," it quickly became known simply as "The Workers' Guild." They initially engaged in public demonstrations, strikes, appeals to the government, and boycotts, with only a few members calling for more violent measures. While the Workers' Guild achieved some early successes in negotiating better conditions, the movement was derailed in 1789.

That year, a group of workers protesting outside their factory were attacked by off-duty police constables, hired by the factory owner to break the strike. The constables opened fire on the strikers with military wands, killing seventeen workers before the rest could scatter. When word of the massacre spread, riots erupted across the city. The protests quickly overwhelmed the police, who called in the Army of Albion to suppress the unrest. The soldiers opened fire on the crowds almost immediately upon arrival, and more people died that night than during the initial massacre.

In the aftermath, Parliament blamed the rioters and passed laws banning public protests of all kinds. The Workers' Guild was held responsible for the violence by both the papers and Society, and the government responded by outlawing the Guild—along with any other organization formed to provide collective bargaining power to individual workers. When the law passed, anger swept through the lower classes, and one musician penned "The Wrecker’s Song" in response. The song called for a violent solution to the rise of constructs and was the first to name Wreckers - workers willing to break into factories and destroy the machines that had replaced them. As the song spread, angry laborers embraced the title of Wrecker, and several carried out attacks on the factories of Lundeinjon, cementing the name in the public consciousness.

The Dragon Wars

Over the next decade and a half, the Wreckers and the Police fought sporadic battles in the streets. Many of the original Guild members were arrested and executed, and the Wreckers were driven to the brink of extinction. A near-fatal blow came in 1805, when the Empire of Albion joined the alliance against The Little Dragon and the Cult of the Leviathan. Many of the workers of Lundeinjon enlisted in the Army or Navy. Those few Wreckers who were not sent to the battlefront were drawn into the massive industrial effort to prosecute the war. For a time, the job losses of previous decades reversed themselves, and demand for human labor surged once more.

But the changes did not last. During the war years, the use of constructs expanded enormously, driven by the demands of the battlefield and a persistent labor shortage. When the Cult was finally defeated in 1815, soldiers and sailors returned home to find that no jobs remained for them. Discharged from the military and abandoned by the government, many veterans became the core of a new generation of Wreckers - men and women now dedicated to tearing down the devices that had stolen their place in the world they had fought to defend.

Poverty and Treason

In the fifteen years since the wars ended, the situation has only worsened. Thousands of workers compete for too few jobs, and the workhouses, already grim, have grown even more overcrowded and miserable. Many who once blamed only the factory owners have now turned their ire on the government itself, and the underground meetings of the Wreckers are increasingly filled with treasonous talk.

Criminal organizations have begun using the Wrecker name as cover for extortion and racketeering, further muddying public perception. The newspapers routinely portray the Wreckers as the greatest threat to the Empire since the Cult of the Leviathan. Meanwhile, foreign powers and forbidden forces exploit the unrest - recruiters for the Living Gods of Mu, clandestine agents of rival nations, and cultists devoted to eldritch powers from Beyond all find willing ears among the angry and abandoned.

Across the Empire, tensions among the working class have risen to the breaking point. It is only a matter of time before something, or someone, finally snaps.