Heart of Time - A Steampunk Overhaul mod for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

The once flourishing Parliamentary Republic of Great Britain is almost unrecognisable in the modern day. The once greatest power ever seen on this Earth, a bastion of social, political and technological innovation, the nation now stagnates, slowly choking on that which had once fuelled it's rise to power. Nowhere can this be seen better than in the formerly bustling capital itself, London. A husk of what it once was, London slowly rots and decays from the inside, torn apart by division and distrust. With political extremism, criminality and general violence now ruling the streets, the government has seemingly lost all control. The LCG (London City Guard), has long since been withdrawn from the lower class outer city, and now cling to their fragile authority within the city's upper class inner centre. Power instead lies in the hands of those who can provide the protection or money that the people rely on, and various urban powers, who have capitalised on the city's dire state, now jostle for control, each fervently defending their own patch of turf.

Even now, as their power shrinks around them, Parliament and the government internally bicker and fight, watching the last flame of their remaining authority slowly flicker and disappear in the winds of dissention and unrest. A combination of radicals of all different colours, and conservatives who cling desperately to the last remnants of Britain's past triumphs, Westminster's glorious past is slowly forgotten, as the dream of democracy that it once pioneered falls under threat from within and without. In these current times, who else to turn to but the the thugs and factories who can provide an inkling, even at that, of protection and stability. For, at this stage, they are the only true powers left in the cold, darkened streets and narrowed alleyways that make up the dank sprawl of London.

London itself stands as a bleak hulk of steel and brick, a shadowed monolith in a barren, dead wasteland of it's own creation. Hidden mostly from view by the never-ending cloud of smoke that wreaths and screens the densely populated city from the outside world, it's undeniable aura of despair and bleakness can be felt from the moment eyes are first laid upon it. Despite this, the city is home to millions upon millions of natives, as well as a sizable foreign minority, a remnant of the once great promise and prosperity that the city had seemed to herald. The true epitome of urban industrialisation, the vast majority of the city's mostly uneducated and poverse denizens find employment on the abundant factory floors and other industrial complexes that litter the withered warrens of the city and it's outskirts. Capitalising on Parliament's seeming inability to maintain power, the rich employers and land-owners are left to dictate and abuse most to all aspects of their worker's lives and bodies. Children as young as 6 are widely recognised as beneficial assets to the factory system, due to their natural agility and size, and no matter how many are chewed up and spat back out broken onto the dirtied streets of London, there are are always more willing to sacrifice their health and safety for even the barest hint of food and certainty. In recent decades, many factories and their owners have even gone as far as to attempt to transfer the entirety of their workers' lives to business' premises, setting up dormitories and soup kitchens, where those who work without question can be rewarded with the food and shelter that has become ever-increasingly difficult to nail down.

This social and financial divide can also be seen in the physical layout of the city itself. Sectioned off by a series of LCG checkpoints and barricades, constantly monitored and garrisoned to this day, the far more prosperous and maintained inner city differs so drastically from the rest of London, it can practically be classified as it's own entity. Made up of streets upon streets of terraced housing occupied by the rich and important of the city, it represents the last bastion of centralised authority and regulation. Also home to the last remnants of the city's uncorrupted green parklands, it's aesthetic is ruined only by the spill-over of pollution coming from the outer-city, that no amount of checkpoints and restrictions can block out entirely. Gazed upon by the lower class majority of London's population with an equal amount of envy and bitterness, the inner city stands as a monument to the uncaring and exploitative attitudes of those in power and wealth, with it's neat rows of houses and dainty parks built entirely upon the physical sacrifice of those below.

While this period of decay, brought about by the unbound exploitation of past industrial innovation, has lasted for multiple decades, there is an undeniable sense that is the 1930s that will prove the tipping point for London and Britain's future. As the remnants of past prosperity and power are fought over by the powdered and dirty alike, who think to capitalise, either legally or illegally, on London's deep decline, the city continues to head towards it's imminent collapse. Now is the time for new powers to rise up, and seize the unbound opportunity that has been granted, to make their mark on the city's history and steer it towards a new future. The battlefield, it seems, has been set, for those who seek to hinder and halt London's decay, and for those who seek to capitalise upon it.