Armada Burning

Armada before the Catastrophe: Photo by Mr PJ Trenton

Alarming Reports have reached us of a Catastrophe that has claimed the stunningly beautiful region of Armada Breakaway, the city built on ships. We have received the attached film from Miss Koshari Mahana and a report from Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander, of the Consulate of Europa Wulfenbach.

Film Supplied by Miss Koshari Mahana

It had been reported that a storm was approaching Armada. Despite this, citizens of the Steamlands were invited to participate in a social event ... (the editor must remark, in passing, how often, in the face of disaster, the inhabitants of the Steamlands choose to dance ... ).

Dancing Before the Disaster
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

Let the Baron take up the story:

The Vice Consul (Frau Annechen Lowey) and I arrived around 1pm that afternoon to help with possible storm damage. It was as powerful a hurricane as I'd ever seen, but the eye was both curiously stable and stationary -- we never even saw rain.

Armada before the Catastrophe:The Eye of the Storm
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

After some time, this mysterious trio of storm dragons appeared from the waters below the city.

The Dragons Attack
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

The fires they set were too extensive and too fast-spreading for the few of us to fight efficiently.

The Dragons Attack
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

The only equipment to hand were some fire extinguishers, as all the water-pumps and even larger bilge pumps had been salvaged away from possible storm loss.

Fire Extinguishers Utilised Against the Conflagration
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

Even some of our more reality-fluid companions, who were able to shapeshift into dragons themselves, were not able to hamper the flames using ice-breath.

A Draconic Attempt at Defence

Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

One of the most touching views as the buildings collapsed around our floating platform was spying through a glass the New Babbage Embassy, little flag still waving proudly as the decking collapsed beneath it. Somehow it remained balanced on unseen supports until the very end.

The Gallant New Babbage Embassy
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

After some time of watching the destruction around us, it became almost numbing to watch one hull after another disintegrate and sink beneath the waves.

Armada Burning
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

Fraulein Okeanos Magic, a relative of some of my staff, braved the debris field at the bottom of the sea to see the remains first-hand.

Flames beneath the Waves
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

The spirits of the survivors remained surprisingly high all during the collapse of Armada - they danced in the face of disaster.

Dawn brings a More Beneficent Dragon
Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

Finally, the storm dissolved around us as dawn broke over a clear and very bare ocean.The Aftermath

Photo by Herr Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander

I commend the Thursdays, Herr Weka, Herr Icthus, the missing Herr Streeter and of course Fraulein Trafalgar for not only creating a fascinating place initially, but for bravery in the face of disaster and courageous leadership through storm and flame alike.

The Pride and the Passion: Counter Revolution in the state formerly known as New Babbage

Since the start of the Recent Unpleasantness in New Babbage (now known as Obolenskidonia, our correspondent, Beq Janus, has been sending dispatches from the front line. In addition, Miss Saffia Widdershins has managed to obtain interviews with an individual known only as T, a leading member of the Resistance, and with the de facto ruler, Doctor Obolenski himself. Photographs by PJ Trenton


Part 2: The Overlord
Having spoken with the Resistance, we were eager to speak with the man (or perhaps we should say 'overlord') behind the takeover of Doctor Obolenskki himself. Perhaps it is the reputation of The Primgraph as a journal of record throughout the vintage and steampunk sims, or perhaps it is a taste for self-aggrandisement that the octor shares with other significant overlords, but he agreed to the request with great willingness, and promptly transported me to his lair ... I mean his Observatory.


However, it was clear that his intentions were benign, for he made no objection to my inviting the trusty Primgraph photographer, PJ Trenton, to join us.

Nor did he make any secret of his reasons for seeking power in the city formerly known as New Babbage. He sought amusement - and declared the takeover of the city had afforded him a great deal of amusement although (he said) he rather regretted that no hero worthy to oppose him had arisen from among the citizenry.

Having recently met members of the Resistance who had made every effort to oppose him, I forbore from comment.


"I've found the best way to divide my enemies is to introduce them to each other," he said with a chuckle.

His views on the children who have brought such unexpected terror to the streets of Babbage is one of calm satisifaction. He claimed that his motives in founding the Youth Corps were to keep the ragamuffins occupied - but they embraced the roles of spies and informers with an enthusiasm that surprised even him. He remained undisturbed by the news that they were turning feral and shooting citizens.

"Of course ... you see, their indolence and tomfoolery is, at it's root, due to the fact that they're not working," he said, displaying a perhaps unexpectedly socially progressive view of the situation, "Once they've all been trained in some form of skill, and put to work, I suspect that sort of thing will die down. For instance, next week I'm going to turn the former City Hall into a large training bakery. The shiftless children will be gathered up, given a bed and food, and taught the essential skills."

This will, of course, have the advantage of keeping the children fed and employed at the same time.

"And out of my hair, so to speak," he added.


His closest henchman is Mr Merricks, who. he says, has been with him for years. The Doctor scorns any closer ties.

"I have my work, and my minions," he said. "Frankly, family are nothing but trouble. They tend to be just as dull and uninteresting as the general populace, but for some reason, you're supposed to be nice to them. A man with a workshop and a few loyal henchmen, hardly needs that sort of thing."

It was as I was saying my goodbyes and leaving that a rather startling occurrence took place. As he was speaking to me, the Doctor was startled by seeing what appeared to be a giant mushroom flying around the perimeter of the Observatory. For a momment the urbane mask he had presented slipped - and I had a glimpse of the strain the overlord is under, striving to maintain control over the city - a city that increasing opposes his rule. For just one more it was there - and perhaps a certain alarm. Then the mask slipped back into place.


"There's some new residents in the boat slips ... I suspect they're fiddling about," he said. "One of our newer residents displaying something he had built, to another one of our newer residents."

For Babbage, that seemed a wholly understandable and acceptable explanation. And yet ... I felt that for a moment I had seen the ovelord glance up ... and above his head seen the sword of Damocles suspended ...

Is the hand that grasps it none other than Mosseveno Tenk?

The Pride and the Passion: Counter Revolution in the state formerly known as New Babbage

Since the start of the Recent Unpleasantness in New Babbage (now known as Obolenskidonia, our correspondent, Beq Janus, has been sending dispatches from the front line. In addition, Miss Saffia Widdershins has managed to obtain interviews with an individual known only as T, a leading member of the Resistance, and with the de facto ruler, Doctor Obolenski himself. Photographs by PJ Trenton

Part 1: The Resistance Fighter
We had communicated for several days through obscure means before our arrangement meeting took place. I wore white pearl ear-rings had we had agreed, and T unerringly made his way through the cafe towards me. A relative newcomer to the former state of New Babbage, T has nevertheless made the city his home, and the cause his own.


It was clear that he had been living hand to mouth. We both ordered coffees - and I added a tray of delicious pastries. While I nibbled delicately at a slice of Battenberg, he fell on the sticky buns and cupcakes like a starving man. His clothes were stained with soot and blood - something that is, perhaps, less worthy of comment in the industrial streets of the region fomerly known as New Babbage than elsewhere, but even by Babbage standards it was apparent that something had Gone Wrong.

There had recently been an encounter, it seemed, with some of the metallic robots in the likeness of Doctor Obolenski in the commercial streets, and popularly (or perhaps notoriously) known as 'smashitrons'. According to T, they had been engaged in an attack on a leading citizen, one which had not only failed, but had led to the destruction of some five or six of the coonstructs who had literally lost their heads.

"I imagine it will be discussed as a malfunction," T told me. "I do not (believe it) ... for they fought with too much intensity ... but I will maintain the ruse ... if nothing more to allow Dr. O to maintain a low level of respect for us citizens."

T went on to speak with some passion of a disrupted and angry citizenry, children enlisted as spies, streets filled with grotesque iron images of the new leader, commerce endangered ... but was concerned that there seemed to be little done to save the city.

"I am new to the city," he explained, "just a couple of weeks under the stewardship of this clockwinder....a fine fellow as I can tell....with an odd taste in drink - frequently seen laying accross that very hearth behind you ... quite lost in his sour milk dreams. Then the announcement ... that he had been spirited away ... and the dark curtain of oppression falling upon the city."

T may be a newcomer to the city, but vehemently denies the charge that he is acting as the agent of a foreign power. He is proud of the democracy that the old New Babbage formerly embraced, for he believes that the people are the state, not the leaders alone (a view that might occasion a raised eyebrow from the Doctor).

He took me to see the devastation in Loner's Lane, where the attack that he had spoken of had happened. There, while T faded unobtrusively into the background lest his secret identity be suspected, I was able to speak with some of the cituzens and see for myself the outrageous assaults on the citzenry that are apparently taking place without restraint, with young (and irresponsible) children being armed with dangerous weapons which they have not hesitated to use.

I was able to speak with one citizen who had, to her great distress, been shot by a young girl. The girl seemed to feel no remorse and - indeed - revelled in her status as one of Doctor Obolensky's Youth Movement.

What will happen in Babbage? Will Doctor Obolenski succeed in his plans for his new city state? Perhaps it was time for find out just what his plans are.

Read Part 2 tomorrow.

Revolutionary Art in New Babbage

Our Art Correspondent (Miss Saffia Widdershins) writes:
One fascinating and hitherto little explored element of the Upheaval in New Babbage is the Street Art that has emerged.

We should, perhaps, explain that for the citizens of Babbage, the idea of Street Art is not new. More commercially motivated, perhaps, than other communities such as Caledon and - in addition - possessing a superfluity of bare brick walls, the citizens of New Babbage have been in the custom of adorning (although some less artistically or commercially inclined minds might say 'defacing') the aforementioned walls with posters advertising events or business opportunities of one kind or another.

It was perhaps in this tradition that the earliest images of the changed government of New Babbage first appeared. The style we might term as "Ministry of Information"; simple, bold colours and messages were expressed, reminiscent of images employed by governments in times of emergency, such as the legendary "Kitchener" poster, or "Keep Calm and Carry On".

The messages contained in these posters did, however, raise some disquietude among the citizenry of New Babbage. "Peace and Security Corps depends on you! Inform on your friend, it is the right thing to do!" might be memorable as a crude piece of doggerel (its scansion is exreable, though), but it is hardly likely to induce a sense of security and well-being in its readers. The message directed at children is even more chilling: "Join the Youth Movement! Be Strong Like Dr O. Free Clothes. Some Food. Warm Floor. Bonuses for the Arrest of Rebels. Parents Double".

On the whole, it is not surprising therefore that the earliest examples of Resistance Art should take the form of defacement of these images - either in the form of the symbol internationally recognised as "No!" - the red-barred circle, or later by the use of messages exhorting the citizenry to support their cause: "Citizens of Babbage Stay True! Our Leader will oneday return!" which was inspiring, if a little optimistically vague (and mis-spelled).


The next move appears to have been the revolutionaries themselves adding their own art, in a style that might be described as in part traditional revolutionary, with heroic imagery:


And in part owing more to neo-realism:


It was, of course, not long before these images were in turn defaced. At first the cocophony of mutiple images occupying a small space became a cacophony of symbolism, some of which was obscure.



And sometimes, as in the increasing presence of the sombre and menacing Black Rabbit, it has the power to become, like the situation in New Babbage itself, decidedly sinister.