TheNexusProject/ShackleBreakers

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The Shackle Breakers

by Xarak

"We are the hammer that shatters the lock, and smashes the bones of he who holds the key."

- From the Manifesto of the Shackle Breakers

"The Breakers? Don't make me laugh! We've got nothing to worry from those idi... ugh!"

- Last words of "Iron Eye Jimmy," Slaver

---

In a world where the lives of most mortals are nasty, brutish and short, few have the time or compassion to recognize any injustice other than the ones they themselves suffer from. A few great souls do, however, and in Nexus this happens more often than almost anywhere else in the world. Perhaps it's the generally anarchic atmosphere and lack of Immaculate hegemony, but from Bastion to Firewander, radical ideas are a dime a dozen. Most of them are very bad ideas, true, but not all of them.

The "Shackle Breakers," or just "The Breakers," were formed about thirty years ago by a repentant slaver, Cynis Janys. A Fire-Aspected Dynast of some age and great wealth, she was famous as a slave trader and was one of the principal suppliers of "voluntary labor" in Nexus. Although the institution is illegal in the city, loopholes abound, and many thousands of heads of human property change hands each month. Janys was one of the ones making a great deal of money from this trade when, quite suddenly, she announced that she had experienced an epiphany and abhorred the idea that any man, or even an Exalt, should treat another as property.

Promptly freeing several hundred of her cargo, she announced the formation of a "political organisation" to further the cause of abolition. Many of the earliest recruits were ex-slaves with nowhere else to go, but there were also a suprisingly large number of well-off people who were simply attracted by the idealism. In the early days, the Breakers confined themselves to non-violent protest and the purchase of as many slaves as possible in order to free them, but soon the merchants decided that this was threatening to damage the economy, and prominent Breakers found themselves being beaten up by mercenaries with increasing frequency. Then, about five years after their formation, Janys was assassinated in her chamber by a hired team of elite killers.

Her designated successor, who is still in office, was Thousand Cries of Freedom, a fierce and brave Northerner who had been enslaved and taken to Nexus before being freed by the group. He immediately announced the formation of the "Defense Wing" of the organisation, and a great many of the male (and some of the female) members, especially the ex-slaves, eagerly took up arms. Street fights and bar brawls became a regular occurrence as the Breakers clashed with the mercenaries hired to suppress them, and many on both sides were killed. The Defense Wing soon expanded its activities to out-and-out banditry, raiding slave caravans coming into Nexus and assassinating several prominent slavers. There was a great deal of speculation as to why the Council didn't step in and put a stop to this, because it was certainly bad for business - but no action was taken, except by the merchants themselves.

In recent years, the Breakers have quieted down a little; they recently lost hundreds of members in a battle outside the gates against a Guild caravan, the leader of which escaped and caused the Guild to begin funding anti-Breaker activities. However, they are still a major force in Nexus, and the cash keeps pouring into their coffers from various sources. Slave trading in Nexus may still be massive, but it's not quite on the scale it once was, and many thousands owe them their freedom. They currently command about 800 people willing to fight for the cause, with a few thousand other sympathizers, fundraisers and hangers-on. They have spies in most of the big trading companies, and have even infiltated several of the Houses of the Realm.

Members of the Shackle Breakers

• The Widower Trak, secretly

Rumours

• The reason the Council takes no action against them is that one of the Council is a member!
• No no no, it's because they're paying off the Council. They're secretly trading in drugs, that's how they fund it....
• It's because slavery is illegal, and the Council takes that seriously enough to not intervene against people who are enforcing the law.

Secret

• Cynis Janys was trading slaves until the day she died. The Shackle Breakers were founded as a grand ploy to eliminate the competition. Although no-one ever worked out the pattern, they never targeted traders who were in association with Janys or in some way making her money. She poured funds into the Breakers, seeing it as a business expense, and made a great deal of profit from the whole scheme. Her fatal mistake was that she approached Thousand Cries, an obvious born leader, to try and get him in on the scheme, but underestimated his hatred of slavery - despite offering him wealth beyond imagination, he flew into a rage and slew her there and then.
• The Breakers have an agreement with the management of Malfeas - they provide the bouncers from the ranks of the Defense Wing, and in exchange, Malfeas positively encourages subversive and abolitionist acts to play there. Several popular bands are linked to the Breakers in some way.

Comments

Ooh, I really like the first secret. 'Tis nifty. Also, I tidied up a bit of spelling. I hope you don't mind; if I didn't do it, Shataina would have, anyway.  ;-) -Everyl

No problem. Feel free to do that to anything I write :) -- Xarak

Yes! I love the first secret myself! Good job doing a good plot-twisty secret. You also have the honour of being the second person to write one of my phantoms, be proud. Did do a bit more editing, ahem hem; also added a section for members, figuring it might be useful, and started it off with my original entry.
~ Shataina