The New Dunston Post Office

The New Dunston Post Office has a simple job—moving messages around the city rapidly. As long as they do that, no one, inside or outside the faction, demands anything else of them. The result is that the Post Office has attracted some of the most independent minded residents of the city—people capable enough to stand on their own and who don't want to be told what to do. They particularly distinguished themselves in the recent war, and the result is that even though the faction is officially neutral in most political matters, several members are quite influential behind the scenes.

Internal Structure

The Post Office is a small faction which admits anyone who has an efficient means of moving letters and packages around New Dunston. The only internal hierarchy comes from their dispatching system: most factions deal directly with a single member of the faction to send messages, and that member then hands off specific deliveries to other members. The dispatchers then wield the only centralized power within the faction, which generally everyone else has to keep at least one of them happy enough to get work from them.

Currently there are three dispatchers; the one with the largest network at the moment is a bird trainer named Lyle Hobbs—ten other factions each keep two of his trademark black pigeons around, and when they have a message to send, they strap it to a pigeon which flies to one of Lyle's dispatchers, who then deliver the message in a variety of ways, ranging from teleportation powers to old fashioned bike riding.

Outside of not pissing off the dispatchers, the faction makes almost no direct demands of its members. Many of them are quite skilled with weapons, nominally to ensure that no one tries to interfere with their delivery duties, although mostly because of personal preferences. This benefited the city in the war, when the post office's members, almost to a one, volunteered to join the fight as soon as it began.

Relationships with Others

The Post Office has no particular enemies, and no strong allies, although its long history of working with the Coalition of Tradesmen keeps the two close. Few factions are willing to openly oppose the Post Office, and most will happily do a favor or two for a faction member. Some members haven't entirely forgiven the Bergmann Family for the number of their friends who died in the war, and Bergmann has found that its mail service is a bit spotty as a consequence.

History

Originally founded as a private company called The Post, this faction hasn't changed much over the years. It began, simply enough, as a messenger service, carrying messages among the various business groups sprouting up in the early 1800's. When many of their clients founded the Pittsburgh Trade Union, they joined as well. Despite that affiliation, they continued doing business with the Peerage during times of peace between the groups (although, naturally, never sensitive documents). While their monopoly has never extended to radio waves or communication outside New Dunston, it covers any means of physical exchange of messages, be it by personal messenger, animal, or something else entirely.