Commonwealth Rocket Group

Weird Science has already been mentioned as being the main Arcane Background in the Frozen Skies setting, there are possibly others that may be covered at a later date. Course using Arcane Backgrounds in Frozen Skies will be optional depending on what sort of game the GM wishes to run, though I still wish for there to play up the 'Pulp Science' aspect.

Enter the Commonwealth Rocket Group.

Boffins & Eggheads

Whilst Glimmer Rock has seen incredible technological wonders such as Skyships there are still those pushing back the boundaries of what more conventional technology can do. One such group is the Commonwealth Rocket Group headed up by the retired Colonel Frank Congrave, formerly an engineer in the Commonwealth Army. At the beginning of his army career he was a sapper in the garrison force of the Commonwealth colony of Orduesh which regularly saw skirmishes with the Sultanate of Taramate. It was during this time when the the fort Congrave was posted to came under attack by Taramate rocket artillery, despite being a tad unreliable the weapons left a deep and last lasting impression on the young Congrave. Eventually he acquired a commission and started working his way up the officer ranks, biding his time until he felt he had influence.

Congrave reached the rank of Colonel fairly rapidly due to the then still raging Great Darmonican War and shortly afterwards he started petitioning the army chiefs for permission to start a rocket programme. Naturally the army chiefs were a little wary and so Congrave tried pitching it as a long range weapon to take out the enemy whilst keeping Commonwealth soldiers out of danger. Despite the various demonstrations conducted by Congrave (with varying degrees of success) the army chiefs remained unconvinced and didn't quite see Congrave's vision. By the time it seemed like Congrave was actually getting anyway with his project the War was effectively over and the army quickly pensioned him off.

Disgruntled but still driven, Congrave sought out others who shared his interests in rockets and founded the Commonwealth Rocket Group. Unable to acquire a suitable test site in the Home Isles the Group looked elsewhere, the Alyeskan wilderness seemingly what they needed and the Group made the difficult crossing over the great ocean. Finding land was the easy part, raising the money needed to buy and fund the project proved to be more difficult. Fortunately the Group had plenty of technical skills available to it and its members started a side business as mechanics to help fund their research. Now free to peruse his ambitions Congrave has turned his focus on developing rockets as a means of flight, first in the form of a rocket powered aircraft before working towards his ultimate goal of leaving Darmonica's earthly embrace.

To many Alyeskans the Group is seem as a bunch of eccentrics forever blowing themselves sky high with their various experiments. Though the Group has come to the attention of others, particularly as the dark clouds of war blot the horizon....