Underkids
The term underkids refers to the homeless, orphaned, and castaway youth who inhabit the Under, the dark, mechanical infrastructure located beneath the streets of floating sky cities like New San Francisco (Newfris). Because the environment is so brutal, violent, and impoverished, most individuals living in the depths do not live past their teens, which is how the moniker "underkid" originated. If, by some stroke of luck, someone lives to an older age in the Under (such as Glint), they are still referred to with the moniker "underkid."
Culture and Survival
Crews
Survival in the Under is nearly impossible for a lone individual. To secure food, shelter, and protection, underkids must join gangs known as Crews. Crews operate as a makeshift family and defense force, fighting rival factions for control of resources like water processing rooms, abandoned power stations, and scavenged topside food. If an underkid is kicked out of their Crew, it is often considered a death sentence.
Undernames
To be accepted into a Crew, an underkid must earn an "undername". Undernames cannot be self-assigned; they are granted by peers only after the individual performs a significant feat, such as completing a highly dangerous job, displaying an exceptional talent, or successfully killing an enemy. These names typically reflect a defining skill or physical trait, such as Speed (an expert driver), Small (a tiny boy skilled in electronics), or Con (a master con artist).
Environment
Underkids live in extreme squalor compared to the wealthy topsiders living above. Their world is defined by sweltering heat, rusted steel, raw sewage, and the constant rumble of trashburners. They sleep in canvas tents or hammocks suspended in the maintenance rigging, eating stolen cans of soup, synthbeans, or whatever the scavengers manage to find.
Because of their environment, underkids are perpetually dirty, covered in soot, grease, and grime. They wear this dirt as a badge of honor and toughness, frequently asserting that underkids "aren't afraid of a little dirt".
Magic and Metalwood
While the topsiders have their minds strictly controlled by the Monitors to keep them completely ignorant of magic, the underkids are intimately aware of practical magical abilities. However, the vast majority of underkids remain entirely unaware of mindmaster magic, as the Monitors periodically blanket the Under with a simple mental command not to ask questions.
Only Dust (Dillon) and his secretive gearheads squad are fully aware of the mindmasters. By employing four of their own mindmasters to diffuse the magic, Dust keeps Trash City and the gearhead quarters completely free from Monitor influence. When Phoenix joins the gearheads, she experiences a unique awakening as her mental conditioning wears off, allowing her to finally question her reality and understand the true nature of the city.
Many underkids possess magical Talent, and they desperately scavenge or steal shards of metalwood (darkprime wood) from the Department of Civil Service to power their abilities. Mages in the Under use their powers for combat, traversal, and survival. fallfoilers use gravity magic to navigate the vertical drops of the Under, while transmuters synthesize raw materials into edible food and drinkable water, keeping the Crews from starving.
History and Leadership
Queen's Reign
For roughly a decade, the Under of New San Francisco was brutally dominated by a ruthless young woman named Queen. Operating from New Union, Queen hoarded resources and established Her Majesty's Navy, an umbrella organization consisting of specialized squads like the elite killgirls, the spysquad, and the lowly trashboys. Queen maintained order through intimidation and torture, crushing smaller groups like Castro Crew and forcing them into starvation.
The United Under
Following Queen's death, the Under immediately fractured into violent chaos as rival Crews sought revenge and attempted to claim territory. However, as the apocalyptic threat of the Twins loomed, the young mergemelder Shot (Shane Greyson) stepped up to lead. Leveraging his father's position as President of the United Sky Cities, Shot successfully united over four hundred disparate underkid Crews from across all seven sky cities.
Under his leadership, the newly formed United Under abandoned the senseless infighting and transformed into a massive, organized fighting force. Tens of thousands of underkids banded together to battle the Twins during the final conflict, executing highly choreographed magical attacks. Following the deactivation of magic, the new sky city government offered all underkids a free migration path to topside, though many chose to stay and rebuild the Under under Shot's leadership.
Notable Underkids
- Beam: Phoenix's partner and the deadliest fallfoiler in the Under.
- Blade: The physically imposing, gold-pierced leader of Tenderloin Crew.
- Blend: The dangerous captain of Waller Crew who holds a lethal grudge against Dill.
- Con: A master manipulator and Rylan's closest childhood friend, tragically murdered for Civil Service.
- Crow: A Shock Crew guard characterized by his use of a large, rusted crowbar as a weapon.
- Dill (Dillon / Dust): The secretive leader of Shock Crew and the gearheads who successfully shielded his followers from the Monitors.
- Green: A killgirl who acts as an informant for Phoenix.
- Grime: A core member of Shock Crew's inner circle who helps direct operations in the Under.
- Grit: The stocky, round-cheeked lieutenant of the trashboys and a loyal inner-circle member of Shock Crew.
- Jabjoy: A tall fallfoiler and trainer for the trashboys.
- Jackal: A scrawny shockstriker who serves in the trashboys alongside Phoenix.
- Phoenix (Megan): A rare forcefinder and former top assassin who was forcibly ousted from the killgirls by Queen before helping to lead the rebellion.
- Rylan (Ryl / Fall): Phoenix's son, who survives banishment from his Crew to awaken as a powerful Prime Mage.
- Shot (Shane Greyson): A cocky mergemelder who rises to become the supreme leader of the United Under.
- Sludge: A fighter in Shock Crew known for bragging about escaping a topside jail cell through a toilet.
- Small: A tiny, brilliant tactician and electronics expert.
- Smoke (Luthar): An elderly elf and brilliant engineer who creates the mergeguns for Shock Crew. Having served as Aten's (Orym's) chief research assistant for centuries, he eventually turns against his former master to provide the underkids with the weaponry needed to fight the Twins.
- Speed: A short, quick-to-anger expert racer who serves as the lead driver for the gearheads.
- Spike: Shot's fierce, pink-haired second-in-command.
- Spoon: A Shock Crew member who frequently fights alongside Phoenix and Beam during clashes with rival Crews.
- Stick: A tall, spindly teenager with a massive appetite who serves alongside Spike as Shot's second-in-command.
- Swing: A mocking, drawling killgirl in Her Majesty's Navy with long blonde hair.
- Wrench: The lead mechanic for the gearheads, responsible for repairing and modifying their undercars.