The species

The Grimps dug the tunnels the Works' coal comes out of, and they did it for generations before anyone thought to pay them. It left them short, thick, astonishingly strong and permanently annoyed about something they can no longer name.

They came up out of the Undersink and found that the one skill the city would pay for was the one they'd accidentally perfected: being the largest problem in the room. Now they work the doors, the meat halls and the pits. Violence in Sootfall is a trade like plumbing, with its own tools and its own etiquette, and the Grimps hold the licence.

They think they're tougher than everyone else. They are mostly right, which is what makes them exhausting.

The Mutts came in with the supply caravans, and a great many of them didn't leave with one. Left behind, they did what street dogs do: stayed, learned the routes, made themselves useful faster than anyone could decide to remove them.

They are the reason Sootfall functions. They fix what breaks, haul what's heavy and know every shortcut in a city that was never mapped. If the Grimps hold the licence for violence, the Mutts hold the one for competence, and they are significantly more tired.

They know every way out of the city. They have never used one. Something always needs fixing first.