Mortal Geography

Ancoats is the area known as Cottonopolis proper: a sea of old mills, warehouses and industrial sites. On the surface it's all brick and steel, but here, beside the canal, the spirit of eureka thrives. All the city's creative potential, its legacy of invention, has left the area awash with Glamour. Though human eyes see only warehouses and bridges, those who know how to look see something far more spectacular.

To find Cottonopolis, you need a guide. The entrance is shrouded in magic. But there are those who have sailed canal boats under the influence of good wine and a fine summer evening, only to find the waters running purple with die and the geese replaced with patchwork turtles. To carry on would be to find Cottonopolis, and the fae who call it home.

Set mostly along the canal, the easiest way of getting around Cottonopolis is by boat. A ferryman named Kaires guides guests to the freehold on his boat, often taking them to the Goblin Market that spills across the water and the shore every night.

Beyond the Goblin Market is the Spindle, a giant mill-owner's mansion where the freehold's vast balefire burns in a furnace, and the Seamstress dwells with her spinsters and tailors.

Creating a Magical World

Mages and changelings in the city had signed a compact that dates as far back as the Industrial Revolution, when both sides had agreed to work together to prevent Technocracy destruction of key nodes and freeholds. The Compact of Cottonopolis allowed changelings and mages to freely share the magical resources of the city, in exchange for never taking too much Glamour or Quintessence, and always seeking permission from each node or freehold's master. Any mage or changeling could take sanctuary among either people, and both sides would help the other in the battle against Banality and stasis.

The most powerful mage at the time of the Compact was the Seamstress - herself kinain and a keen observer of past treaties with the fae - who controlled a Horizon Realm tied to a node in Ancoats that had been built upon by a cotton mill. The Technocracy was responsible for this act of spiritual vandalism, which barred the usual routes to the Realm and suggested to the local fae and mages that a sustained programme of construction could be used to cut them off from their sources of magic. The Compact allowed fae and mages to work together to keep the Technocracy out of Ancoats, and to solidify their joint control over the area's magical resources.

In the late 1990s, the Seamstress - who had lost her own Horizon Realm as a result of the Avatar Storm - moved once again to protect the local sources of magic from the Technocracy. As part of their increased Pogrom against Reality Deviants, the Technocracy had pinpointed a new target for destruction. The vast changeling freehold of the Spindle, which had been a vast source of Glamour for centuries and which had been stabilised during the Industrial Revolution with the help of local mages, was at risk of being destroyed. The Seamstress used her magick to defend it in exchange for permanent shelter there, given that she had become a mere spirit herself due to her time in her own Realm. The freehold's leader had been killed by the Men in Black, and Count Jake knew he needed the help of the magi to defend it. The Seamstress swore allegiance to the Count and the Count agreed he would rule from his own freehold at the Docks, leaving the Spindle to the Seamstress and the commoners who remained in Ancoats.

Calling on favours from adepts and masters alike, the Seamstress managed a grand feat: tying the lost nodes buried beneath the old mills to the freehold, feeding the Spindle with magic from across Ancoats, and strengthening it against attacks. This act of magick also had another benefit: many minor Realms that had been created in the past were effectively moved from the Umbra to the Near Dreaming, meaning that when the Technocracy looked for them, they weren't where they were supposed to be.

Politics and Power

In theory, Cottonopolis is an open sanctuary to any mortal or fae who take the Oath of the Compact of Cottonopolis. The Seamstress keeps the magic of Cottonopolis alive - and its vast spinning machines moving. With a paradigm apparently based upon some version of the Great Wheel concept and the paradigm A Mechanic Cosmos, which sees reality as a giant mystic machine, the Seamstress draws upon the mythic power of Cottonopolis to fuel her magick. Once a mortal woman, the Seamstress is now spoken of with reverence by fae and magi alike.

Due to the Compact of Cottonopolis and her continued successes against the Technocracy, the Steamstress now controls the district of Ancoats, but is (in theory at least) a subject of Count Jake Carmine, whose territory spans the entirety of the city. The Seamstress is allowed the freedom to do as she pleases on her own turf - which her entourage has taken to encompass the nearby Northern Quarter too. She employs a coterie of 'spinsters' and 'tailors': mortal hedge mages and Nockers who serve as her elite guard. Strangely, however, there are no other true mages in the Seamstress' ward.

Known colloquially as the Court of Orphans or the Court of Misfits, the Seamstress' inner circle is recognised as a powerful presence in Manchester, and rumours abound that Count Jake is in actuality the servant of this great mage, rather than the other way around.

Notable Treasures

The Emperor's Loom: This treasure seems like an ordinary loom - nothing more, nothing less. Stories tell of a group of Nockers who were once bid by an emperor to create a robe of the finest cloth in all the world. True to form, the Nockers made a loom capable of spinning chimerical cloth armor so strong and fine that it is actually invisible to all but the most discerning of eyes. This caused the emperor some later problems when he chose to parade around in his new suit. No clothing made of the cloth is known to exist, but with this loom a practiced craftsman could potentially make some, though wearing it is another issue entirely. (Written by Sir Ipsum.)