Worker's Story
A rough summary of the character arc of my OC, Worker. Probably needs to be updated eventually (~2k words)
PRE-ACT II
She was born 154 years after the Collapse in Camp Asher in the Desert, under the name of Girl, the standard name. She was not particularly special growing up, her family was relatively loving to her, but preferred her younger brother to her. Neither she nor her brother understood the broader context of this, and were closer to each other than either were to their parents. Her mother was bed-riddenly weak for most of Worker's adolescence, instilling in her the cosmic fear of the unknown, that her mother herself tried to quell.
At 10 years old Worker sees her brother go to school, somewhere she wasn't allowed to go. It was full of classes similar to the Sanctuaries' academies, though women were not permitted to attend in the Desert. She spent 5 years seething over this loss until her father finally found a Wise Woman to read her miscellaneous facts, a haphazard education. Worker was enamoured with the schools, the thrill of all the newness of this information, but instead she was made to sit at home and appreciate that she at least had a tutor, unlike most girls. She got very little information and seethed at this, her jealousy of her brother driving a rift between them.
The lessons didn't last long, as her mother's illness overtook her and the rift completely tore their family apart.
PRE-ACT III
At 17 she meets a strange reclusive woman who had been teaching on the outskirts of the Camp to a small number of devoted students, largely consisting of boys who were progressive enough to think that a woman could have lessons to be learned from. Piety. Their interactions were at first cordial and impersonal, but as Worker heard more of the philosophies of Piety, she became more determined to become one of her pupils.
Their relationship started off slow but once the first barrier was down, they grew closer at a faster and faster rate. After a year of trying to break into Piety's sphere, she succeeded, and quickly became one of Piety's favourite students. Piety spoke of divine madness and violent revolutions and sexual freedom and all that was abstract. It went from academic to religious.
At 21 Worker officially becomes Piety's protégé, inheriting all of Piety's knowledge, even her terrible discovery Northwest, at the Chasms, that caused her to not speak for 2 years on end. Together, they decide to leave Camp Asher and establish their own Camp, a true sanctuary, for the workers, not the Servants of Lord Fame. It was here that Worker got her name, for this.
While exploring the Desert to find a place to settle, Worker sees the Mines. While already angry at Lord Fame according to what happened to her mother and the things Piety told her of, seeing the suffering he and the Sanctuaries brought firsthand radicalised her even further. She was angry.
She and Piety establish the Workers' Sanctuary when they are 26 and 46 respectively. It is made up largely of the women who wander the Desert, women akin to those Mad would meet in her later years. It was difficult to form the pseudo-Camp from scratch but it was a skill not forgotten from when the Desert rebuilt society 180 years before from the ground up.
ACT I
The next 6 years are spent trying to hold her own against the other Camps with the small but loyal group she has cultivated, mirroring Piety's method of recruitment. The most violent towards her were the camps aligned with Lord Fame, whereas the Camps aligned with only themselves tended to likewise stick to themselves. At first they avoided, but as Worker's supporters grew in number, they were able to fight back and steal materials to build with. Before they built houses, they built a wall to protect themselves.
Piety was not one to rule, and quickly retreated back into her wordless shell, only communicating with the others with Worker as a mediator. This was the first rift of uncertainty in their relationship, the seemingly special connection they had with one another wearing thin in the face of conflict.
Worker is 32 when Rager and her friends escape from the Farm, and she finds out about this only when finding women who sought refuge in her Sanctuary after fleeing the Farm as well, inspired by Rager. Worker and Rager would spend many years knowing of one another but never directly meeting. Mad, a friend of Rager's, became well-acquainted with the women of the Workers' Sanctuary that grew hallucinogens, and it was through her Worker found the most authentic information on Rager. In many ways, Mad reminded Worker of Piety, if she were more erratic and immature. Piety, however, did not agree. While she was not hostile towards Mad, she still did not speak to her.
In the wake of Rager's more violent attacks towards the Camps, indirect attacks against Lord Fame, Worker also begins fighting with the Camps. Self-defence turns into war, and the Workers' Sanctuary started to really grow. She absorbs an entire section of the Mines into her territory, earning a means of producing materials, like the agriculture within the upper levels of the complexes.
She and Piety grew closer once more, and Piety told her of all she had seen in the Chasms, how she had seen the rot of the earth, and the corporeal God, that had struck her with such cosmic terror she couldn't speak for years afterwards, and still has not recovered.
ACT II
It is not until she is 41 when she meets Rager, only 25. Piety had expressed interest in meeting her, information which would have hurt her admirer Mad, should she have heard it. Worker did not see what conversation they had, but she saw how the very short exchange changed Rager and Piety deeply. 2 years after this strange encounter, all the while she and Rager are working together, Rager finally joins the Workers' Sanctuary, after having seen the Mines.
Rager had already earned a skirt from the Sanctuaries for her battle prowess, and she was a very useful tool in the battles against Lord Fame, dedicated to honing her anger to a task. Worker wanted to consider them friends, though Rager would disagree. There was no animosity, but there was much formality. Worker started off with a strong hope for Rager, but it spelled doom for her.
Shortly before the 200th year after the Collapse, Rager disappeared in the night, presumably back to Mad's arms as per usual.
But this time, Rager returned with a war on her heels. Neojerusalem proclaimed war against the Desert, a promise of conquest, on the 200th year. With this war, it wasn't short before the Workers' Sanctuary's defences were knocked down, and during the night, Lord Fame set their town alight. Many people died in that night, casualties on top of the people dying in the wake of the new war, and one of those people was Piety.
Worker had dedicated her life to Piety like a one-woman cult, she lived her life by her word. Even when Piety grew distant in her age, Worker cared no less for her. Her grief tore her open. She was angry before, but not like this. She had much in common with Rager, she knew this, but now she knew the rage that drove Rager to madness.
ACT III
The typical sporadic battles between Camps became a full-fledged war spanning the entirety of the Desert, even across the whole of Truebablyon. Worker spends the first few years running; it would be absurd for one woman to take on whole armies, even Rager isn't that brash. It was hard enough building the Workers' Sanctuary the first time, when she had the help of someone much wiser and no war to worry about.
But, in the second year of the war, she gains a powerful, if shaky, alliance. Rager's loyalty to her was still present, though taking a backseat to her new partnership with Haver, resulting in her convincing Haver to align herself with the Desert. Ceremonially, Haver was baptised by Mad, and Worker attended the ceremony. She was surprised by how easily Haver gave her the materials, and territory, to build her Sanctuary back up.
After a year of building, Mad's followers slowly began flocking back to her, telling her they had no idea where Mad was, if she was even still alive. A few months of searching, and she found her, kidnapped by Lord Fame and kept in a room with seemingly nothing to survive off of, save for a meagre blade. She brought Mad back to the Workers' Sanctuary once more, now flourishing once again, filled with refugees from the now conquered Little Sanctuary, east of Neojerusalem.
Rager returns to her shortly after, and would return to her over and over again for the next few years, a cycle of promising never to return to Haver again, and then the next morning gone, back to Haver. Worker tried to be patient with her, but by the 8th year of the war, she knew Rager couldn't keep this up.
It was in this year that Worker's army finally managed to break down Lord Fame's fortress, and Worker was the one to cut off his head, triumphantly parading it around the Desert. The war was not yet over, however. Whatever allegiance had formed between Worker and Haver thanks to her baptism had ended. Haver had grown cruel from power, and Rager wasn't helping.
Worker put her foot down, and told Rager that she needed to go to Haver and settle this, or she should never return to the Workers' Sanctuary. Rager didn't return the the Sanctuary. She went to confront Haver, and neither were seen again. The war was over.
Mad disappeared as soon as she heard the news. Worker stepped down from her position as leader in an attempt to balance the scales of power in her village. The Workers' Sanctuary grew, and the people who did attempt to take the role of leader didn't get very far, there wasn't much of a vacuum to fill.
Piety had died at 66 years old, but Worker made it farther, if by a small margin. At 70 she met her brother's child, finally hearing of what had become of him since they had last seen each other so long ago. He had died during the war. She had comforted Rager in her grief after she hadn't been there to see her brother's death, and again she could finally relate.
