Finally introducing Marion (Sherwood Park) after months and months of teasing! She represents a bedroom community east of Edmonton that "technically" is one of the largest cities in Alberta... or would be, if it was actually a city.
Your first fun fact is that Marion was originally going to be named Campbelltown, but since there were too many Campbelltowns across Canada, Canada Post forced her to change it to avoid confusion. She's much much younger than most of the other munis being founded in 1953.
More fun facts below!
Like Mac, Marion represents a "hamlet" in a very large service area, which means she can reap the benefits of being both rural and urban at the same time while also benefiting from living in Ed's shadow too.
I think generally the relationship between her and Ed is "he's scary! one time, i actually had to go to his house and nearly died!!"
where Ed is like "I don't know what her deal is or why she freaks out whenever I'm around" (meanwhile Edith trying to explode her with her mind)
She's just masc enough that Mac doesn't feel intimidated by her and they're best buddies. Her other close friends are other satellite communities such as Stab St. Albert and Spruce, etc.
The Strathcona County Website boasts their own Raisin Sour Cream Pie Recipe, which is sooo mid-century 'Berta lol. Back in the 50s, Marion had much longer hair, but found the upkeep too difficult and sheared it all off some time in the last few decades.
Refinery Row occasionally makes national meme news, I remember seeing some "THIS CITY IN CANADA LOOKS LIKE THE EYE OF SAURON" type clickbait on blogto or some such thing that I can't find now, and apart from not being a city, we immediately clocked the location from the photo. It just looks like that sometimes. Don't worry about it. :)
Like I say, don't worry about it!
Was doing a lot of newspaper research in the late 80s/early 90s and a plastics plant explosion was front page news for a while, so this was on my mind.
Okay so I'm always kicking myself to get a timeline together or two for these guys but there's so many points to focus on, the 20th century obviously could easily have each decade featured, it's pretty overwhelming whenever I undertake something like this.
That's why this time I decided to FORCE myself to do only one highlight per century. It was difficult, but I tried to give the clearest and most dramatic recount of Ed's personal timeline as I could, in case the person reading this was completely unfamiliar with the city's history or even barely knew the broad strokes of Canadian/North American history. The "bookend" dates of founding to today were easy, I tried not to get too caught up in the other two in order to leave myself room to add more around them later.
Summary of each bit below the cut.
18th Century: Founding
Ed is the oldest of the main characters of BoAB and the only one to date back to the 18th century, and only emerged at the tail end of it. Fort Edmonton was founded by rival fur trade companies, which made bank sending valuable furs from First Nations trappers back to Montreal where they would then be sent on to London.
19th Century: Hub of the Northwest
By the 1830s, Edmonton had emerged as a centre of trade, an economic powerhouse, and one of the hearts of Métis culture in the Northwest. The final iteration of the fort was built at a turning point in the growing settlement's history and would stand through to the next century as the skeleton of the new provincial legislature was constructed behind it.
20th Century: Beaver to Black Gold
After the importance of the fur trade declined during the World Wars, Edmonton soon found itself on the frontier of an equally lucrative opportunity. The young city grew and continues to depend on the discovery of oil at Leduc, which would fuel not only vehicles but nearly every aspect of civic life through the next century.
21st Century: New Normals
I don't have any idea wtf is going on and I would like to get off the rollercoaster now thanks!! But hey at least we are leaning into the angry socialist queer stereotype more and more these days.
this is a temporary bio for jasper since I don’t have access to the original templates I made and I haven’t gotten the guts to try to rescue them yet; there’s still some decisions (like a full human name for instance) that I have to make before I would properly type this up too. I just wanted to finish the art though since I wanted to have a coloured ref up somewhere.
Notes:
Jasper’s “key shape” is triangle. The 90s snowboarder outfits tend to reverse their silhouette a little bit but imagine a bit of an hourglass shape with very buff shoulders, thick soft chest, etc. Lots of visible back muscles. Generally, they are a little more angular than Eleanor.
Their necklace is a jasper stone but it’s actually not something that really occurs in the area, you’re more likely to find jade locally.
Once again the flag is heavily censored because i find the text so cringeworthy lol
Some doodles and notes on Jas for you guys and my apologies for the scribbly quality. I’d like to get some nice digital art done soon for ya. I’ll try to transcribe some of my messy writing below.
How to describe Jasper. Is “thembo” accurate? lol.
I think Jas is complementary to Eleanor’s high energy busybody personality by being kind of laid back and sort of ambivalent about everything (including all the bears in the fruit trees) (c’mon they’re just chillin’). But they’re both good friends and they get excited about stuff like cool rocks and plants. Jas is pointier and tougher where Eleanor is softer and squishier in design - the mountains around Jasper are geologically younger than in Banff so it’s reflected that way in the landscape as well.
Of the two Jasper is the elder and was involved with both the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company to some degree in the fur trade days of the early 19th century where Eleanor more grew up in the tourism and hospitality industry with the railway and sanitarium towards the end of that century.
I have more to say probably but here’s a general gist for ya.
JASPER
Human Name: [Redacted]
Pronouns: whatever!
Height: tall
Est: 1813 / 1913 / 1995
Birthday: August 31 (Virgo)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Heritage: Metis
MBTI: INFP maybe
Shape: Triangle
HBC Club, CN Club, National Park Club, Athabasca Club, Northern AB Club
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FACTS
- more chill and relaxed than Banff (less a fact and more a vibe lol) (people tend to visit Jasper for the cozy cabin culture where Banff has more of a nightlife, shopping, etc)
- Largest national park in the Rockies + tallest mountain (in Alberta) (2nd in the Rockies) Mt. Columbia 3,747m
- 3rd largest pride in the province?!
“I’ve been told I have ‘man bun energy’.”
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- “Jasper the bear” mascot
- muscles from climbing hidden under all the flannel and hoodies
- copper and jasper stone necklace (also wears jade)
- [with eleanor] different vibes, same energy?
- outfits including clinbing, parks canada uniform, hot springs historic bathing suit, skiing
these aren’t official ref sheets for the characters just consistency sheets for a thing :’ ) as usual drum belongs to @zomsaurus
also have i mentioned how much i hate municipal flags i think the town of vulcan does have a municipal flag but the only place i can find it is curled up on google street view so i used the county flag. Also in searching for this info i did find out that the town has an official policy on distribution of vulcan ears and that town councillors are required to have access to 5 sets of ears for AUMA meetings.
Flower: Marigold, which symbolizes the sun and the connection to the Klondike Gold Rush
Tartan: Light blue for prairie sky, green for agriculture, yellow for sun and wheat, white for peace and snow, purple and gold as the official city colours
Bird: This is actually not an official symbol, but there is a popular idea at the moment to adopt the magpie as our municipal bird due to the high population in the city. I for one embrace our yegpie overlords.
Crest: As on the flag, it includes the mace as a symbol of Edmonton’s capital authority, the sun and the river, a gear for industry, wheat for agriculture, flanked by a trapper and the goddess Athena for the city’s origins and the University of Alberta.
Transcription under the cut.
City Info
City: Edmonton
Nicknames: City of Champions, E-Town, The Big E, Gateway to the North, The Oil Capital of Canada, Festival City, Deadmonton, Stabmonton, Redmonton, Edmonchuck, River City
Region: North (Parkland)
Population: 900,000+
Founded: 1795
Incorporated: 1892 / 1904
Other: Alberta's capital, Alberta's 2nd biggest city, Hub of Northern Alberta
Character Info
Name: Edward Murphy (he/him)
"Birthday": January 9 (Capricorn)
Height: 5'6"
Heritage: Métis [First Nations (Cree) + European (French + Scottish)]
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
MBTI: INTJ
Symbols
Tartan
Flower
(Bird)
Crest
Bio
Edward straddles the line between blue and white collar much in the same way he navigates being the "liberal" capital amongst capital C Conservatives, with both feet on the ground and a stubborn streak as long as the skyline. Despite his frigid provincial reputation as resident wet blanket, Edward parties as hard as he works regardless of the dark or the cold.
Edmonton was founded as a fur trading post between two rival companies. Growing up amongst the children of two worlds, Ed has had the most time and experience out of all his provincial colleagues. He held onto his administrative role with unmatched tenacity, and is learning to be less insular on the national stage.
