i know other people have talked about this before, but i think the perceived threat levels of the masters is really interesting. there are some of the masters who are very blatantly awful, and then others who position themselves in different ways very much escape the perception of being obviously dangerous and evil.
pages obviously is very visible, but a lot of what it does seems at a glance to be very surface level control. in contrast, fires is so obviously The Evil Boss who is entirely about production and productivity over human lives. stones is the embodiment of hoarding wealth. but, pages has the capacity for a massive amount of violence, and additionally having organised the mask of the rose census, also has a lot of information about the citizens of the neath. it moves beyond censorship --which is still a huge concern, information control does a Lot of damage -- and into tracking and tracing of people and information.
veils and iron both are very obviously physically dangerous. iron has the weapons industry.
you can learn a massive amount about people by what they throw away, and cups can make claim on a lot of things in the neath by way of claiming vessels. it is also known for its anger. it also has additional domain by way of taking mirrors' role.
wines and spices both as those who are in the leisure industries have a different field of control. for wines, there is also exploitation of workers. and for spices the drug industry is Incredibly dangerous, and there is the additional late victorian complexity of the extreme poverty which is present and affecting both of their domains a Lot.
happles has the entire food industry as pointed out by others, but is not perceived as having that power and control. it's looking into immortality, it has little interest in human life beyond what it can find use for. immortality is a big thing to climb towards, and it specifically seeks it for itself. the threat of control and destruction in london should it decide to act on something is on the higher side for the masters. there's also happles' likely control over the healthcare system of london too, which is another can of worms others have discussed already
they are all manifestations of substantial threat and fear, fear of control, fear of famine, the hoarding of wealth, control of information, the exploitation of workers, of drug use and abuse... it all adds up, and it's such a fascinating thing to explore and look at, especially in how they all present themselves and how fl presents the london's perceptions of them.
(tags via @cataloguerie )
oh no you're 100% right!! i think veils and the great game is Super interesting, and really important to its character as a whole. veils' has the political intrigue levels that the others dip into way less. its also got exploitation, but the state of political intrigue and dance across europe in the late victorian through early edwardian periods is incredibly dangerous and prevalent.
there's something to be said, i think, about how it targets two demographics in that space too, sweatshops are a direct impact on the lower class, while the intrigue is primarily an upper class concern, it bridges the gap between class concerns but in wildly different ways, which the other masters don't in the same capacity. the textile industry in the victorian period was absolutely horrific, and veils is absolutely capitalizing on it. have a poem about it from 1843, and we see it as a continual theme throughout the period. fires and veils both are in industry spaces that are absolutely horrific to their workers.
veils' threat is also far broader in regards to geographical scope than the other masters. they have space outside of london, sure! but none of them have the same sort of direct continental impact as veils does with the game.
NO the poem was exceptional, and seeded so much thought about the transition from slow fashion to fast fashion and everything that represented
I am absolutely fascinated by the idea of exploring how Veils approaches industry compared to Fires. Like with Fires, I'd argue the idea is industry for its own sake - it's deriving its enjoyment from the thing itself, and any suffering caused by it is largely tangential or collateral damage.
If we can argue that for Veils, the Game is not merely a means to an end but also a mode of violence in and of itself in the socially destabilising force the constant threat of being spied upon presents, there's a huge scope to view the rest of it in that light too
The transition of production labour in the fashion industry from performed in the household and visible to performed in the factory and invisible is massively interesting to explore as specifically intended to foster violence.
Like working from home is beneficial: You can multitask (Stew's cooking and you're keeping an eye on it while you sew, or you're waiting for your clothes to soak in the tub while you sew), and the members of your household are seeing your labour and efforts and are (hopefully!) less inclined to discount them by ruining their clothes constantly. Simply because it takes time to repair! But with textile mills.. all of a sudden that's now done out of sight. Don't need to take care of my clothes, a machine makes them. Any labour you'd do while sewing must now be done after work, making women less available.
The resentment this would cause in a home as women's efforts are now discounted and devalued.
I'm also thinking about the class divides and the eventual transition of sewing and other fibre arts as a necessary part of domestic labour to sewing as a hobby undertaken by the time-rich. Like man. For Fires, the industry is the point. For Veils, it's just the stone it's throwing into the pond, and the ripples are liable to reach every part of society in some respect.
