The Empire: Humble Horizons

[Echoscream]

This is a a story in the making and will be regularly updated.

"It's hard to believe how prosperous we have grown in such a short time. My father's idea is a concrete reality, we Plague have nearly matched our tea sipping Victorian allies. Our handiwork is what has built the future, but the damn aristocrats still think of us as mice. We are rats. I will never walk on two legs like the flesh-born whitecoats, but I can talk with the best of them. We have a voice. We are the future. We deserve to be treated as equals, or let the sacreligious thoughts of Victorian lessers tread the edges of a fate hot as embers." The small beady eyes of a well muscled rat were glistening with the lightning licked perception of understanding.

These ideas were not so new, perhaps an earlier time will allow it to come to understanding for you, a time when the asylum was young and roses had not bloomed in the garden of life for quite some time. Just after the main food safe had the door replaced and foolish rats who had no food stores were starving. The garden was dead from inmate lockdown after P-0629 in cell block B had managed to evade the whitecoats for three days in the cellar beneath the boiler room. The poor soul nearly managed escape before the accursed pangs of hunger gave away his hiding. All us rats knew where he was, we would have provided him food had we not been given the pangs ourselves. The only rats that were doing decently had keys to different asylum locks - these lucky ladies are known as the Mistresses.

Mistress rats are the most genetically sound and beautiful rats you will ever lay eyes upon. Their muzzles are broad and short and they have wide, expressive, eyes with ears that would make any buck brux at the sight of their vibrations. Their bodies are stout and not excessively racy, and they have the tail of a proper rat, nice and fat at the base with the finest tapered tip. They are the real deal and are chosen at birth to be taken away from their does and trained into the elusive life of being a Mistress. They grow to head colonies and promote well-being among the rat folks. Dolled in magnificent dresses and given keys, siding with a Mistress is a great honor and intelligent living strategy. All Mistresses are Victorian and those of the pedigree will give you an earload if you express even the idea that a Plague might be anything more than what our name suggests.

[Echoscream]

We are founded by a Plague, a rat who has so much respect in this colony that those who speak anything less than fondly of him are to have their whiskers pulled and be reprimanded to the fullest extent. This rat goes by the title of Sir Thadius Maxwell, though he insists that Thadius is his father and we should all just call him Thad. He is the oldest rat I have seen aside from Taar'n! He created the Empire with an unnatural friendliness and a few rats that would listen to the idea of a Plague. He and his best friend Count Vladimir Vandrix, scouted the location out and found a doe roosting by her lonesome. They aptly welcomed her into their colony idea - though she was a bit of a pessimist. She helped the boys clean out all the leftover junk that had been scattered around the Empire and cooked the meals for the two. She still does a lot of cooking and cleaning, you should go try her food sometime, just ask for Dame Helena Astrisk. Helena called for her sister Hayden to join and the four were settled for just a few weeks until a black Plague leading a blind Victorian completed the settlement. The original Empire rats did a lot of recruiting and eventually got to the forty strong we are today.

The Mistresses did not take interest in the Empire until a year after the founding, when fifteen rats were gathered together and the colony was a fine oiled machine. Food was coming in well enough to feed all the members, no fights broke out, and there was just a mutual respect from eldest to youngest in the hierarchy. The two key-wielding Victorian does - Mistress Lucielle Dimonte and Mistress Cassia Debonaire - toured the colony and spoke to Thad, who accepted the two was rulers of the colony when he knew that the rations would not last without those keys. Plus a well-defined schedule could be created with leaders of the colony.

Things were quickly changed and the six classes of rat were adopted along with the food storage count. Each rat has a food storage bank where they collect their own food and benefit from their collection. It is the you-slack-you-die strategy that has made it successful. After you have enough points to supplement for the rest of your life, you can cash in with the Mistresses and be promoted to a Lord or Lady, getting a housing upgrade, being off the job, and living your life in general luxury. Rats of this class are called Nobles. They are exempt from breeding restrictions that keep the rest of us in line. All of us can only breed at a certain point in the year and must have the approved point count to properly care for our children. It keeps the butter on the bread and the gentle in gentlerat.

Specialization started to pick up in the latter portion of that year. Rats versed in medicinal herbs began to show up and are in their own healer class that creates all the medicines for the colony, preserves the food rations, and can make some delicious recipes for practically no cost. A few tailors exist among them to give many beautiful accessories for food and supplies. This class rarely forages in groups. Most of their supplies come from the other classes. Another interesting class came in with many different kinds of exotic creatures and were trained by Taar'n himself! They are Druids and Oracles and have connection to the afterlife and future of every rat. They spend a lot of time observing all the rats in the colony and deciding life paths and jobs for the youth. They appoint every rat with their most sacred possession - their name. They even have say in Mistress business if Taar'n directs them to speak.

Most of us are just warriors though, we scavenge in little groups lead by a more experienced warrior called a deputy. We also patrol our boundaries, recruit other rats, and attack any enemy rat that threatens our civilization. Some of us have hobbies like creating useful tools or going to other colonies for aristocratic meetings. Most of us are too busy to have time for much else. Especially us overworked Plagues. That is something I am on a mission to change though. Something that is bound to reset the course of history for a whole group of rats.