Ironically, one of the only Great Clans that is not dependent on hydrocarbon fuels was founded by veterans of offshore oil-rigs. In the summer of 2029, as a newly formed U3C was preparing to take drastic action against incoming refugees, several oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were chosen for occupation by the US Military. These rigs would serve as “hard-points” to support what U3C (as always, subtly directed by imbedded Formers agents to pursue wasteful and ineffective strategies), believed would be a massively increased naval presence in the Gulf. Through conferencing with various BP executives they were able to make the company “decommission” several of their offshore rigs. The 194 employees stationed on the Greenway-2, near the Southern border of Texas, were told that they needed to be off the rig by 6 PM on the 19th of June. By 5:49, a skeleton-crew of 26 had completed the final deactivation of the rig’s drilling operations. The platform was now running on a hastily-developed autopilot program to keep it in one place. By 6:01, as their boat was pulling away from the rig, they encountered a US Navy vessel and helicopter approaching the rig. Using their ship’s radio, they were able to contact the rig and speak with its new inhabitants about their intentions. The Navy personnel seriously considered destroying the civilian vessel and the witnesses it contained. Fortunately, a drilling engineer said that he had texted his family the moment he had stepped on the boat, and that they would suspect foul-play if he didn’t make it home. These 26 people were immortalized in U3C’s files as the “Sebree-Screw-Up”. They were later contacted by the organization at Dallas Forth Worth Airport, where they planned to fly to their respective homes, and collectively given $13 Million USD (All that Madillo had on him at the time) for their continued silence. 

Madillo, sensing an opportunity, offered to buy the group a late dinner at one of the airport’s three Chic-Fil-A’s. He told them about U3C’s purpose, and that civilization would indeed collapse within a year. He also told them that he was working for another organization, and that they needed a back-up in case their planned cells in Manhattan or Chicago couldn’t be formed in time. He told them to find somewhere “up North, but not totally remote.” If they could work to establish such a cell, Madillo would give them free consultations on its defense— even if it wasn’t chosen as his organization’s refuge. After two more hours of discussion amongst themselves, the 19 men (one of whom was trans) and 5 women went to the private terminal and chartered two jets to take them all to the Wittman Regional airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. One of their welders had a summer house on Lake Winnebago, which would be essential to their survival-plan: construct a semi-submersible offshore colony in the middle of the lake. 

Their goal was to purchase several house-boats and modify them so they could submerge below the water-level to hide from marauders. Within a few weeks, they had spent over half of the money making bulk purchases of various materials, the house-boats, and in transporting the crew’s families to Oshkosh. Another project was to purchase massive caches of supplies, store them in water-tight containers, and dump them into other surrounding lakes. Each family would receive fragments of the exact coordinates, requiring them to stay unified if they ever hoped to retrieve those resources. As their project continued, they inevitably had to tell several locals about their intents. Unfortunately, they were only able to make 10 houseboats “lakeworthy” by the time supplies for more houseboats became unavailable due to the Burnout. In early 2030, as the initial waves of Canada-bound refugees approached, they had to come to an agreement on who would be on the boats, and who would have to remain in vulnerable positions on land. The final compromise stated that for two weeks 10 of the 31 families would stay on the boats, while the other 21 would try to survive on the periphery of the lake. If anyone managed to make a craft that could stay on the middle of the lake without drawing attention, they would be able to keep it for their family with the expectation that they continue to aid the community’s survival. 

During the Locust-Era, their domain, known as “The Lake”, was continually bombarded with small groups of Marauders leaving Chicago and trying to head North, South-bound Marauders who realized that entering Canada would be pointless, and columns of other survivors. The most influential of these groups came all the way from the Singing Road massacre. By 2031, there were over a hundred approximate family-units camped around The Lake. Due to raiding and the unexpected increase in numbers, their food-supplies had been exhausted and many had to resort to cannibalism. The families who held coordinates for supply-caches were too fearful of the surrounding area to risk trying to retrieve anything. In desperation, a few groups allied to construct a radio-system and tried to contact other friendly survivors for resources. Meanwhile, another Family modified their houseboat to “walk” atop its pilings— basically turning it into a mobile fortress. With these efforts, they were able to reach a handful of other surviving communities and attract a first-generation Caller. The Immersion of the Lake’s survivors has been considered the most drastic and “haunting” for any Great Clan.

In a weeklong conference with the leaders of the various refugee groups and the surviving heads of the original 26 families, the Caller wrote up the first draft of the Northway Doctrine: a document calling for an embrace of the Burnout’s horror, guilt, and the sacred opportunity granted to survivors. It basically stated that the purpose of their intense suffering during the Burnout and Locust-Era was to suffer in order to better perceive the righteous, highly disciplined lives that they were now to lead. The actual violence and social degradation of the Burnout was coupled with the brutal Wisconsin winters into the “Winds of Ruin” which had turned the country and its people into savages. The Lake’s people fell into extreme isolationism and xenophobia— the only Proto-Clan to do so (Their Caller was well-acquanted with Passage-Theory, but was so attracted to the idea of a “Burnout-embracing state” that she went along with the Northway Doctrine (It is also believed that she was under partial influence from the Singing Road)). 

In the physical domain, the situation of Northway was equally grim. While they were able to use their walking houseboats to retrieve several of their supply-caches with food, seeds, and other supplies, they were facing an energy crisis. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to cache any reserves of fuel (due to the buoyant force of the liquid), and their existing stores were nearly exhausted. What they did have was an overabundance of backup diesel-generators. Without the requisite diesel, the people of the Lake set about trying to find another energy source (pyrolyzing waste biomass and reprocessing it into fuel was considered too inefficient). Most of the area’s wood had been burnt by marauders and the remaining forests were too important as they provided shelter for the deer, squirrel, and bird populations that they were managing for food. The surface of the lake itself was utilized; through several rafts and clockwork mechanisms, their engineers were able to generate erratic but consistent power from the lake. They effectively had to make a miniature power-grid with a complex system of transformers in order to keep the lights on. Despite not receiving an Agribine, Northway had become the only electric-capable Great Clan before 2032 (Arcwater was making great use of their nearby rivers for hydroelectric power).

Until 2035, Northway existed as a strictly isolationist state. They continued to expand in order to hunt game, strip settlements, and ensure that no one else was encroaching on their land. In 2032, they were forced to banish what they called a “radical faction” from their immediate territory. Their leader was Major Bogdani, who had fled from Arcwater and now advocated that Northway become militarily capable in its own right. Although his group had no political influence, Bogdani was still allowed to raise his army with support from Northway. His faction ultimately became the expansionist part of Northway, and eventually recruited the Nessuns for their program. In early 2033, as they began moving large shipments of salvaged machinery, they finally found a use for the miles of heavy-duty piping that they had acquired before the Burnout. Although there wasn’t enough time to make underground pipelines before the Locust Era, they were able to create a monorail system in their territory. Another key innovation was their development of a power-storage medium in the form of molten salt, which then enabled the periodic operation of several arc-furnaces for producing new metal products. One area of almost maniacal interest was in machining. One of the families who joined the original 26 had Albert Merrins, a professional machinist and clockwork hobbyist. Merrins had actually convinced the group to purchase a range of manual and CNC machines for making specialized parts that they might have otherwise had to outsource. He, and several others, were part of a fringe movement that had independently arrived at a set of beliefs that were remarkably similar to Passage-Theory. Merrins wanted to help secure Northway’s future by making them “valuable” to outsiders. His group believed that the best way to accomplish this would be to use their electrical supply to start high-precision manufacturing. Although he was unable to convince a majority of his vision, he was allowed to try to teach a particularly contentious minority of Northway’s population. Due to heating failures, many young children had lost appendages to frostbite (or cannibalism). Wanting to give them purpose, Merrin’s team set about modifying several of the original machining devices for them to use. They also started making customized control-sets for the disfigured operators. 

Northway was able to remain as a semi-autonomous state until 2035, when various internal and external factors forced radical alterations to their doctrine:

• The rapid growth of their separatist faction. By now, all contacts in the surrounding region were tied to Bogdani’s group (now lead by a Central Committee). They had been acting as a trading intermediary for Northway, and had convinced many other groups that they were still a part of the Lake’s community. Although they had practically no industry, they had a considerable army. Either Northway would have to peacefully resorb the separatists or try to take them over.
• Agraria and the Guild’s peripheries were also expanding into Northway’s territory.
• There was a clear demand for the components that Northway was producing, namely generators and arc-furnaces. If Northway didn’t increase their trading involvement soon, another faction would take the opportunity. 
• They had also exhausted most of the strip in the local area, and realized it would be more efficient to have other clans providing them with some logistic support.

Thus, Northway made several amendments to their Doctrine and ushered in a period of “begrudged outreach”. In order to more effectively sell this transition, their Callers worked with Merrin’s sub-faction to create the Children: mobile industrial platforms operated by children disfigured in the clan’s early years. CNC systems were dubbed too threatening for Immersion, and having able-bodied adults dedicated entirely to machining operations was considered a waste of manpower. Furthermore, the extraordinarily advanced platforms could be used to inflate the prices of already specialized goods. A single one of the Children (always used in plural, even if referring to just one machine and operator), could produce any manner of advanced parts for a buyer. This system was mobilized with their train system to reach buyers on the fringes of their territory and beyond. Their economic administrators had predicted that to fully leverage their advanced capabilities and source the niche resources they needed to maintain production, they would have to have specialists actively seek out potential trading partners. This program led to the creation of wandering traders, who would come to be known as “steel-tongues” across the country. 

Northway also developed a proper “fleet” of trains and rail-laying machines powered by thermal batteries. In the early 40’s a partnership with researchers from Arcwater would produce a composite material with similar heat-capacity to the salt but with greater density, enabling the ships to launch their thermal batteries at raiders. They also started courting the Guild, particularly Arcwater. By this point, the Guild’s Cities had acquired many of the industrial machines needed to produce their respective components and they needed a faction who could reliably produce the parts needed to maintain them. Northway appeared to have saved them years of developing their own fabrication-assets through other clans, but they were not completely loyal to the Guild. And, like everyone else, they wanted to keep an arms-distance away from Northway’s culture. Ultimately, the Guild decided not to treat Northway as anything more valuable than another Clan-affiliated trading partner. The other Great Clans were similarly wary of the newcomer, but recognized the implications of importing in parts that would otherwise threaten their Immersion. Thanks to trading with Northway, many clans, Great, Lesser, and Free, saw enormous technological gains:

• The Crude Nations were able to make their fuel-production process vastly more efficient thanks to complex valves, gauges, pipes, and chains for their vehicular tracks
• The Belters were able to purchase a few machining devices of their own in order to produce the tools required for their own production-lines (this came at a stupefying cost to them)
• Hellridge was able to upgrade the locomotion-systems of their snakes 
• Lucky sects of Agrarians received new farming equipment
• Basically every tinkerer in the country could now work with Pre-Burnout quality gauges and measuring implements.
• List shit here
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In the late 40’s and early 50’s, Northway realized a niche in “banking” high-value items that had been captured and entrusted to them.