#9. Scarlet Dashwood

Lore

Lady Necessity, The daVinci of Steam

"Scarlet Dashwood is the inventor of the steam dirigible, the aether oculuscope, the undersea bathydrome, the electric light bulb, the rocket lance, the first practicable space travel, the first practicable time travel..."

– Encyclopedia Omnibus, 1889 edition


"Ignore the pterodactyls! Get me on that Zeppelin!"

– Scarlet to her air skiff pilot, Second Battle of the Andes

As the story goes...

Scarlet Dashwood was the youngest person ever elected to the Royal Society, and the only female boxing champion of England. On a expedition to the remote Andes searching for the source of the mysterious aether-flux, she discovered a Lost World of dinosaurs, but was betrayed by her partner, the most beloved scientist of the age, Baron Von Evilstein. The Baron stole her inventions, framed Scarlet for his supposed murder, and vanished.

Ten years later, the Baron emerged from the Lost World at the head of a vast armada of airships and dinosaur-riding ape warriors. One after another, the armies of the world fell before the Baron's high-tech aether weapons, until Scarlet and her Royal Airship Navy were all that stood between the Baron and world domination. In the skies over the English Channel, Scarlet led the counterattack, finally defeating the Baron in a vast air battle that twice circumnavigated the globe.

Since arriving in Valhalla, Scarlet has been obsessed with the wondrous technology of the gods, and is constantly devising new weapons and challenges to add to the tournament.

Connections

• Arcadia teaches her & Ulgrim the finer points of giant beetle care.
• Wants to take Orion apart and see how he works
• Totally wrecked Thor in a fight (I believe the term was "bodied"), surprising him afterwards
• Argues feistily with Ulgrim regarding her contraption building methods
• Vector has recently discovered that Scarlet may know more about time travel than she admits
• Challenged by Xull for leadership of the Valhallan Ladies Book Club
• Tinkers with Yumiko in her (Scarlet's) workshop

Context

Scarlet is the resident steampunk legend. A note about her name, though. According to Matt Woomer, managing director of BMG and part of their lore team, Scarlet's last name was going to be Dangerfield, but that was "too on the nose." Dashwood, on the other hand, suggests a possible connection to the protagonists of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility: Elinor & Marianne Dashwood!

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy/sci-fi. It is one of many different "punk" subgenres that seem to take inspiration from "cyberpunk" and apply it to different technologies and time periods. Steampunk is what you get when technology in the 1800s is powered by steam. Several sources say the term "steampunk" originated in a 1987 letter from K.W. Jeter to Locus Magazine. He was trying to find a way to describe Morlock Night, The Anubis Gates, and Homunculus. Later, in 1992, The Difference Engine was published, in which the authors took their typical cyberpunk approach (integration of machine and man) and applied it to 1885. Since then, the steampunk movement has sped along ever since.

What does the "punk" part mean? The ideas that seem to unite all the "punk" subgenres are anti-establishment, individual freedom, and sometimes a dystopian world view or a gritty, edgy tone. By the way, that "vast air battle that twice circumnavigated the globe" could be a reference to Around the World in 80 Days, or it was just the first thing that comes to my mind when I read the word "circumnavigate."

Steampunk is often placed in the realm of "speculative fiction," especially with the way the subgenre is often used in an "alternative history" setting. Case in point, Scarlet is clearly from a steampunk version of London, with its airship navy and her steam-powered weapons.

Speaking of weapons, she carries a steam-powered hammer and a steam-powered rocket lance. Unusual weapon choices for a steampunk character. What does make sense is the fact that Scarlet is one of the strongest legends in the game...thanks to her own steam-powered inventions. She would have to have a fair amount of muscle strength anyway to carry such large, metal weapons (and to be the only female boxing champion in England, which would explain her strength in unarmed attacks).