Factions

Nobody rules the Ruins. Everybody taxes it. The powers Mia threads between on every run.

Fictional setting

The Relay

The courier network. Neutral by code, powerful by necessity — every faction needs parcels moved. Mia’s faction, insofar as she has one. See the Relay.

The Dustjackals

Raiders who work the open ground — the Salt Flats, the Ferry Mile approaches. Fast, hungry, and disciplined about one thing: they never touch a sealed Relay parcel. The code holds because the Relay once starved them out for a season. Everyone remembers.

The Cistern Keepers

They hold the water: the cisterns, the filters, the rationing. Couriers drink on the house by ancient agreement; everyone else pays the water price. Quiet power, politely exercised.

The Lampwrights

They keep the signal lanterns lit along the Cinder Steps and the flare towers. Part engineers, part priests — the flares are the closest thing the Ruins has to a shared clock.

The Hollow Market

The Sunken Market’s traders’ compact. Everything is for sale, nothing is as labeled, and the haggling is a contact sport. Sable is Mia’s way in.

The Wire Choir

The rooftop runners’ crew. Young, loud, brilliant on the cables. They run messages the Relay won’t touch and stunts nobody should. Mia respects their spans and distrusts their judgment.

The Drowned

Not a faction so much as a rumor: people living in the flooded service levels under Drowned Boulevard, who surface only at flare-night. The Relay has no policy on the Drowned. The Drowned have no policy on anyone.

World notes

All factions are fictional, set in Mia Rowan’s fictional world. All artwork is AI-generated dramatization art. See About This World.