The Infinite Labyrinth - Shanghaied

In the last days of 1800, five circles of engraved and ornamented metal appeared in five different places on Earth. Called the Great Gilded Gates, they offer access to a strange dimension, or maybe a set of interconnected dimensions called the Infinite Labyrinth. People appear to be evaluated on their intrinsic “potentials” on a 10-20 scale, and only those with 18 or greater in at least one of these can cross the Gate to enter the Labyrinth – about one in every 350 people on average qualifies.

The unrelenting efforts of Professionals, those whose potential is high enough, have brought a spate of changes to the nascent 19th century. Ambitions across the world from every state blessed with one of those Gates have spiked. What could have be a short war between European alliances and a failed French Republic have become two decades of locked struggle, with the an arms race of technology altered by the Labyrinth.

Following a failed attempt at starving the British Empire, six ordinary people, whose potential would have fallen short of the requirements for the Labyrinth have ended up caught in a paradox. Unfit to enter, impossible to turn away, the impersonal forces that govern the Labyrinth started a process of Adjustment, providing not only the missing potential, but additional abilities, as well as alterations of their bodies.

With each progress, they endure an abnormal – even for the supernatural Labyrinth – reshaping of their selves, paid in increasing excruciating pain. This gives them large advantages, but at a steep price.

As they slowly work to integrate their existence in the sub-culture of the British Professionals, they discover what it means to be a Professional and how to use their own abilities. As lowly tier two, they are vulnerable and limited, yet potentially powerful assets, and they have to work out how to improve that, and fast.

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The Infinite Labyrinth - Shortcuts

But their unique perspective and circumstances also brings new insights to the Professional community. Thanks to their isolation in the Labyrinth, they have chanced on secret pathways across the Labyrinth, promising access to distant places, and treasures. Their ability to see how the Labyrinth operates behind the scenes has also led them to crack open a puzzle no one suspected existed – an entire category of equipment that high-end Professionals mistook for curios for almost an entire decade.

The scholars of the Royal Society for Science and their Professional branch, the Labyrinth Archives, have never been so excited, and expect much more to come from them.

But while they explore the Labyrinth, politics do not stop. The United States enjoy their relative isolation, having an entire double-continent to conquer, but the two enemies of the British Empire, the French Dominion of Masterful Watchman Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Qin Empire of Emperor Jiaqing and his daughter Teaching Spellbender Zhuangjing seek alliance.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom sees a pathway to victory, thanks to the secrets uncovered by the Adapted team. It will take time, it will require great efforts, but it may tip the balance, and for some, that is good enough.

The six of the Adapted team are still small fry in a pool of great powers, but they have the potential to become more, and fast. They are a lever that can change things greater than they.

All of that might be a mere distraction, though. For there is a fifth Great Gate, and another would-be world power built around it. In the depths of South Africa, a hidden kingdom builds his strength. If, in another history, their name would be legend despite their defeat, in this, in this one, they expect to win. The Zulus, under the auspice of their God-King, Mhambi Meshindi, slowly prepare. They have confidence, they have powers, and they have the guidance of their leader, whose insights into the Labyrinth become scraps stolen by the rest of the world empires. And they trust in him, for he is so obviously beyond the abilities of man or Professional.

Until, of course, Zulu dissidents learn that Mhambi Meshindi isn’t one of a kind. That there are six more that have the same potential. And the French agents find the confirmation that what happened once can happen again.

The Infinite Labyrinth - Secrets