House Slattery (The Tinkers)

The members of this once nomadic family can fix anything. Their innovations are the reason why many of the other factions have to keep altering their tried and true methods for, well, whatever it is that they do. Despite this, they manage to make friends and keep from having too many enemies in New Dunston. Though some say this is more due to their mastery of Abjuration than any natural charm that the family members have. Many Slatterys still get the itch to travel and are often found offering to join up with other factions for a trip out of the city.

Internal Structure

The Slattery Family is run by a council of the eldest Slatterys. They're relatively informal as far as the numbers on the council go. Usually they all simply agree that a Slattery is old enough to start taking part. Currently the elder council of the family is lead by Thomas Slattery, Karen Slattery, and Benjamin O'Connor. Thomas is a well known toy maker is in his early fifties but still has the hands of a young adult. Karen became famous for her constant creation of machines that confound gremlins for a short amount of time. Benjamin, the oldest member of the council at a strong ninety-eight years old, was born at the end of the Third Johnstown war. He's been on the council longer than most family members have been alive and was once known as the family's greatest tinker, knowing a bit about everything.

From the outside the family seems like just a large family where the younger members are all but ignored by the eldest, unlike most other families in the praetermundus, because they are allowed to go and do as they please. The elder Slatterys are in favor of letting their children make their own mistakes, but they are actually far from ignored. All children are apprenticed to an elder at a young age after rigorous testing to find which areas they are strongest in.

They also have a long history of "adopting" people, young and old, who have impressed them with one skill or another, though their standards are high and fewer and fewer people are being allowed in. Partly in response to the incest of the Enfields and partly to gain more allies, the Slatterys have arranged several marriages between themselves and the members of Angleterre over the years. Over the years the family has obviously branched out quite a bit, though the faction still refers to itself as the Slatterys out of respect for the founder, Michael Slattery.

Relationships with Others

The Slattery family has gathered many enemies with their constant countering of many other faction's monopolies. They've experimented with ways to get around gremlins and have often found counters to the weapons of the Smiths. While House Somerset views the opposition as a healthy rivalry in the security field, Somerset's allies often take the opposition more seriously. The Smiths, on the other hand, are openly hostile towards the Tinkers, often claiming that their work is in violation of one law or another. Formerly old allies, the Bergmanns sided with the Lycaons in the last war, a war in which many Slatterys died. Needless to say the families do not get along at all. The Slatterys have very close ties to Angleterre due to their regular intermarriage. Family members, while very loyal to the family, are often found associating with other factions for both short and long term work. Micah's Question in particular has regular additions of a Slattery to their exploration team.

History

Michael Slattery was the patriarch of a large family group who made their living as itinerant workers, traveling around Pennsylvania and the surrounding states. While a rather large family (Michael had over ten children), they continued to travel throughout the late 1700's. They would make their living doing odd jobs, occasional construction work, fixing of household items, appliances and farm equipment.

Early on it was only the men of the family that had the knack for fixing things and only the women were skilled in the arts of blessings and hexes. This gradually changed over the years, but was still accepted as true until the early 60's, when a young Jon Slattery was admitted to the family council due to his mastery of Abjuration and discovery of many new rituals. Though it had been the family practice for near two generations, the elder council only then officially allowed women to apprentice under any family member they wished.

The Slattery family joined with several other factions to form the Pittsburgh Trade Union in 1818. Their ties with the Bergmanns and the few family members that had joined the Union of Workers made them welcome additions to the Union. Later, when the Union dissolved, several members came over to the Slattery family and were "adopted."

The Slattery family took many casualties in the latest war, including Jon Slattery himself. While still larger than most factions they lost many of their most capable members. Some of the older members have been forced to come out of retirement and the youngest members have found a lot of responsibility suddenly thrust upon them.