Jeremy Thomas Fuller
The Metalwood Saga / Reference Guide

Full-series spoilers

The Under

The Under

Author's Note

When I first envisioned what would become The Metalwood Saga, at about age 14 or 15, I knew it needed to have three things: a flying city, a "Framework" below the city where the poor and homeless lived, and a beautiful fantasy setting on the ground with elves. I called this part of the world the 'Framework for over a decade, finally realizing it sounded better to call it "the Under" shortly before the series came out. As brutal as it is—and it's meant to be—the Under is always my first and dearest invention for what become a sprawling saga.

The Under (often referred to by topsiders as the City Framework) is the massive, labyrinthine lower depths of the floating sky city of New San Francisco (Newfris). Hidden beneath the pristine streets of the topside, it is a perilous and sweltering environment of exposed infrastructure, garbage, sewage, and steel. It serves as a dumping ground for the city's unwanted populace—homeless, jobless vagrants, castaways, and orphans—who fight a daily, brutal battle for survival in the endless night.

Geography and Environment

The Under is a chaotic, unplanned maze of cement, metal grates, ductwork, electrical cabling, and massive sewer pipes. Lighting is sparse, provided mostly by flickering fluorescent bulbs, and the air is stiflingly hot, humid, and permeated by the stench of urine, body odor, and grease.

Because it houses the city's critical infrastructure, it is filled with specialized utility sectors, including:

  • Water Processing Centers: Massive, cavernous rooms filled with glowing blue tanks (such as Water Processing Three and Forty-Seven) that are often co-opted as campsites by underkid Crews.
  • Power Storage Facilities: Immense, hundred-foot-tall chambers filled with towering, cylindrical batteries used to store the city's electricity.
  • The Underroads: A secret network of modified sewer pipes and maintenance tunnels used by the gearhead squad to race stolen, high-speed undercars.
  • Mystery Rooms (The Escape Module): Nearly half of the Under consists of completely sealed, inaccessible "mystery rooms" that even the Planners do not fully understand. In truth, these areas were secretly engineered over three centuries by the human faction known as the True People. They form the Escape Module, a massive life-saving mechanism designed to detach from the city in hundreds of segments to evacuate citizens to the ground.
  • The Below: Hidden even deeper beneath the Under is a completely drowned, secret city submerged beneath a floating lake of lead-poisoned water, tasked with magically synthesizing water for the sky city above.

Culture and Society

Life in the Under is merciless. Unsupervised by the topside government, it operates on a strict "kill or be killed" mentality. To survive, the abandoned children of the Under—known as "underkids"—form tight-knit gangs called Crews. Underkids rarely live past their teens due to starvation, violence, or being abducted by the Department of Civil Service to be sacrificed as magical fuel. When an underkid proves their worth through a difficult job or a kill, they earn an undername (such as Dust, Phoenix, or Beam).

Notable Crews include:

  • Her Majesty's Navy: Historically the most powerful and ruthless Crew, ruled by the tyrannical Queen. The Navy monopolized the Under's resources and employed specialized squads, including killgirls (assassins), trashboys (waste sorters), spysquad (interrogators), and muters (magic users).
  • Shock Crew: Originally led by Dill (Dust) and later by Shot, Shock Crew operates out of a water treatment plant. They are known for stealing electricity, utilizing mergeguns, and eventually uniting the Under into a massive, organized army.
  • Other Crews: The Tenderloin Crew (a fearsome gang led by Blade), the Waller Crew (wiped out by Phoenix and Beam), the Haight Crew, and the starving, desperate Castro Crew.

The Planners maintain their secret control over the Under by deploying black-clad Monitors, who use mindmaster magic to suppress the underkids' curiosity and prevent them from questioning the nature of the floating city.

Key Events

The Measure K Riots

Following the passage of the "Clean Up the Streets Act" (Measure K), topside shantytowners and vagrants were violently forced into the Under or taken by Civil Service. In retaliation, the displaced topsiders mounted a coordinated rebellion, setting catastrophic fires with transmuted explosives in Power Storage centers in an attempt to cripple the city's infrastructure.

The United Under

Following Queen's death, the Under fractured into violently warring factions. However, under the leadership of Shot, Dill, and the secret backing of President Greyson, the United Under was formed. Shock Crew headquarters was massively expanded into a towering, colorful settlement resembling Trash City, ultimately housing an army of over 20,000 underkids—including thousands of hidden mages—ready to fight the Twins and the Cothellon.

The Fall of New San Francisco

During the climactic confrontation with the Twin Nelenor, the Under of New San Francisco became a chaotic battleground. When the underkid mages attempted to reverse the city's magical energy to strike Nelenor, the Twin retaliated with a devastating energy beam. Gate Control and the surrounding Under were ripped apart by massive explosions, sending chunks of cement, infrastructure, and thousands of underkids plummeting to the Earth before the entire city was ultimately destroyed.

Deployment of the Escape Module

During the final battle against the Imprisoner (Orym), the True People leader John Ronald activated the Escape Module. The remaining Unders of the United Sky Cities split apart into thousands of crescent-shaped metal fragments, flying gracefully through the air to evacuate citizens and combat Orym's illusions.

See Also