Summary
Formed by Sleepers just before the turn of the 20th century to provide hydraulic power throughout the city, the Co-Op became the vehicle of a group of magi eager to change the world for the better — and who have now become a part of the system they once wanted to overthrow.
History
During the waning decades of the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution had made all of London aware of the things that could be done if power were available — but, with electricity not yet a practical solution and steam engines considered too much of a headache for widespread distribution, much debate ensued over how best to provide it. One solution was put forth by the Co-Operative’s Sleeper founders, who proposed that high-pressure water be piped throughout the city — thus allowing a centralization of the required steam engines and a concomitant reduction in the coal smoke and noise that any other parts of the city would need to be subjected to.
Initially the project was a great success. Hydraulic power, once made available, was used to power everything from workshop machinery to Tower Bridge itself, and the public clamored for more and for increased availability. Among those quick to see the possibility were several technologically-oriented magi who would later become early defectors to the Sons of Ether; in their minds, water power was merely the start, and the Co-Op could become an instrument for improving the lot of the working man in a whole multitude of ways – health, education, nutrition, and more. Their abilities allowed them to gain effective — and then, before long, official — control of the group, and they set out to make good on their promises.
The Electric Age, however, had begun even before the Co-Op’s formation, even if most of those involved were unaware of the developments or felt that they would not soon become practical. The hydraulic-versus-electric power dispute became one of the first battlefields between the Etherites and the Union, with both sides striving to bring their solution to the forefront and capture as many hearts and minds as possible. By 1904, however, the writing was already on the wall, with the pumping stations beginning a long and steady decline that would not end until the shutdown of the very last station more than seventy years later. The Co-Op personnel were not discouraged, though; instead, recruiting aggressively from the rest of their new-found allies in the Traditions, they set out to make London a true workers’ paradise.
It would be hard to say that their efforts over the decades have not known some success. Members would argue that their efforts were — though not the sole reason — a major reason for England’s increasing embrace of workplace safety laws, the gradual elimination of child labor, the increase in power of trade unions, the extension of women’s rights and universal suffrage, the establishment of the National Health Service, and many other triumphs. The struggle to keep these changes from being rolled back is a constant one, and not always successful; over the years, the older leadership of the Co-Op, who’ve seen most of their original ambitions realized over the years, have grown more and more comfortable with the status quo, and today the chantry’s efforts are more likely to be expended in rearguard actions than bold new initiatives. Some of the younger members still have the old spirit in them, though, and there’s always the chance of a proper resurgence.
The Board of Directors
Andrew Archer
Archer founded the Nature’s Bounty organic-foods grocery store chain in the 1970s, and ran it himself until he finally sold it off a decade or so ago. In retirement, he’s dedicated himself to making Britain a better place for everyone — although his chosen method is via extremely subtle and extremely slow ritual magicks that make very small and gradual changes in the political landscape, and there’s some understandable doubt about how effective he really is. Still, he’s a good-hearted fellow who regularly shows up in blue jeans and a t-shirt to pass out food to the hungry or help build housing for the poor, and hasn’t let his age (now well into his seventies) slow him down. His granddaughter Evelyn is also Awakened, and has followed him into the Celestial Chorus, though she’s currently working on a conservation project in South America.
Cal Broadleigh
Everything about Cal is a little bit larger than life — he’s a big, tall man with a bushy salt-and-pepper beard, and the forthright manner of the ex-military enlisted man he is. After a career spent in the British Army, the Verbena has spent his civilian life working closely with an NGO (non-governmental organization) that’s devoted to the preservation and restoration of the London docklands where he grew up. Despite the occasional remark that makes clear he’s been almost everywhere Her Majesty’s Finest have in the past twenty-odd years, he doesn’t talk in much detail about his time in the service, preferring to downplay it in favor of what he’s doing now. In fact, he’s so enmeshed with his own agenda that he has little interest in anything else, and tends to be just a little bit brusque and dismissive of anything not directly related to it.
Emma Verlinden
Born in Belgium, Emma considers herself a cosmopolitan citizen of Europe and the world rather than any one particular nation. Accordingly, she spends a great deal of her time traveling — often to the European Commission’s headquarters in Belgium, but to anywhere else in the world with equal facility when the need arises. In her view, the world is so interconnected that the only lasting way to effect change in London is to change the world around it, and as a result, it can be difficult to get her attention for anything local. Being a Euthanatos has led to her being subjected to the usual ugly rumors when it comes to conveniently-timed deaths in the countries she’s visiting, and while she isn’t embarrassed to admit that sometimes those rumors have truth in them, the reality — she claims — is that there are far more people inconvenient to her plans than there are those who warrant the Good Death.
Facilities
The last remnant of the Co-Op’s original purpose what was once the Wapping Hydraulic Pumping Station. Now a small compound incorporating the original pump building and several others as well, it’s been turned into something of a museum cataloging all the great things that they’ve been involved with in the past. Photos of chantry members with Lloyd George, Asquith, Attlee, Wilson, and many other prominent Labour politicians, displays commemorating legislative or judicial triumphs, some of the old-guard members protesting or accompanying works on strike — the storied history of the group is on full display.
Most of their headquarters, however, resembles a typical nonprofit organization more than it does a school for wizards. The office spaces are bright, well-lit, neat, and almost obsessively modern — funding isn’t a problem for the Co-Op, even though there’ve been rumblings that the donations are as much a way to keep them quiet by making it difficult to criticize, much less act against, major supporters. It’s a place for cocktail parties, rather than candlelit ceremonies, and for power lunches rather than hymns to the One. As the members are quick to point out, though, you can’t fight a war without understanding your opponents’ weapons.
Envoi
The Co-Op is loosely based on the real-world London Hydraulic Power Company.