Tephroiite; A Description

[Camille]

There’s a wide spread of land between the Nepheline district, and the Tephroiite district. The air hung heavy and thick, ladened with smoke, and the scent of production; of modernizations. The pollution is the price one pays for technological advancements.

They’re pumping out heating units, steam engines, parts for automobiles. The factory produces almost anything one could imagine wrought in iron. Whatever Empress Camille ordered, they filled, much to their disliking. The pay was low, despite the high price of the iron pieces produced. It was becoming increasingly difficult to get-by, and all would need to tighten their belts, so to speak, in order to pay the mortgage month after month.

The rooftops of the homes are dark with heavy soot, thick windows required to stifle the sounds of the factory; the deep grinding of edges being beveled, and the near constant roar of one large hearth fire, used for melting iron, and containing a blinding white heat. Pollution aside, the homes are warm, and comforting, definitely a pleasure to come home to. The homes themselves are neither large, nor small, more often than not, they’re cramped together with little room between one home and another. Most families live upon two separate floors, though occasionally the second floor may be rented out as an apartment of sorts.

Very few of the children belonging to this district belong to the school just a number of miles away. People were no longer able to afford what they once had, and more often than not a proper education was quickly nixed. The folk living in this district are almost impossibly close to that of the Petalite district.

There’s little room for fun to be had, and even less safe places for the people to gather within. More often than not, the children will be sent to work within the same factory as their parents, at a young age. Sure, it’s dangerous, but without the money made there’s little hope for a better future for these children, and their families. They’re struggling to survive within these hard times, and even moreso to cling to that social status that the folk had once held so dear. The land so close to poverty, and the people still too proud to confess to such.

Needless to say, in such a state the folk in this town are ever so close to rebelling against the Empress Camille.