Introduction

All across America—from the bustling ports, to the laboratories of pioneering scientists, to the newly laid tracks of the nation’s expanding railways—the lyrium is humming. The oscillations of this remarkable substance mark the passing milliseconds in timepieces of unparalleled precision and stability, driving substantial demand across numerous key industries despite the troubled economy of the 1890s.

And in Fielding’s Hollow, the birthplace of lyrium and its sole origin, the town’s central clock tower looms over an unfolding web of secrets and uncertainty. It was this remote New England hamlet that witnessed the dawn of the lyrium age, five years ago, when the substance began its mysterious ascent from the hidden entrails of the earth up into the town’s former copper mines. Lyrium has transformed the Hollow from an anonymous enclave of spiritual utopianism into a prosperous mining town, linked by rail to the metropolises of the eastern seaboard.

The three ruling houses of Fielding’s Hollow, with their authority respectively derived from religion (Lyons), public security (Cross), and the mining industry (Devereux), attempt to persevere through these shockwaves of social change, while the rest of the nation struggles through an economic depression and a political realignment that will set the stage for the new century. 

In recent months, a series of local crises have come to threaten the very heart of this isolated community, where little can stay secret for long: a stolen Enchiridion of the town founder’s teachings, the local industrial magnate found dead under suspicious circumstances, a deadly explosion in the mine halting the town’s economic life, and now the trains seem to have stopped running altogether…

You can view the full introductory document for Fielding’s Hollow here.