Steamland (original) (raw)

Steamland is a city-state and kingdom in a continent far away from Dreamland. The steam that makes Steamland technologically powerful comes straight from Hell, though this fact is hidden from the population at large.

Overview[]

Compared to the rest of Earth, which is set in a medieval time period, Steamland is a technologically-advanced country with advanced steam engines and electricity as the norms of everyday life. It has flying machines, zeppelins, elevators, escalators, horses with wheels (Automobiles), and even steam-powered robots with light bulbs for heads. It also has carnivals, buzzbrighters (Automatic lights), motorcycles, escape whales/electrofish (Types of submersibles), films, radio and rudimentary television broadcasting, along with animation of some form, as Mora talks about voice work for a show called Squalid Squirrel. There is also a racetrack, chlorine plant with child laborers, and an abandoned factory which made "elf-style candies."

Steamland is the only country shown that is capable of making firearms and is portrayed as having the greatest level of achievement in technology, beyond any of the other locations in the series, and its high society includes institutions like The League of Gallivanting Scrutinators, an exclusive club for explorers of distant lands. There are also a variety of shops, such as microbreweries, breweries, and robot shops.

This country appears to be lead by an industrialist named Alva Gunderson, who runs a huge factory named Gunderson Steamworks in the city's center, and has nearby housing for the employees who work there. There are also roadways for the horses with wheels to drive on.

The country is also far ahead at the rest of the world in terms of social norms and gender equality. In Steamland nobody bats an eye at women owning their own businesses or being on equal terms with men. On the other hand, the country does make use of child labor, as seen in "Freak Out!" when Lady Bowmore and Bean stop by the chlorine plant.

History[]

Before the series[]

According to The Calliope of Progress, the steam in Steamland comes from geothermal chambers underground. Early mankind used this steam rising from the ground to relax, until one day a monk got caught in on a steam outcropping and got killed by the hot steam, but his clothes where cleaned in the process, which gave people an idea of what steam could be used for. So a village was build near the outcroppings called "Dead Monksburg", which would eventually grow into Steamland. Alva Gunderson played a key part in the development of Steamland.

How much of this story is true is questionable however, as the Calliope is a carnaval attraction. In The Good, The Bad, and the Bum-Bum, it is revealed that the steam actually comes from Hell because of a deal Alva made with Satan.

One day, Alva sent his lover, the Arch-Druidess to spy on Dreamland since he was interested in it's supposed "magic", but his "spy" never returned.

Season 1, Part 1[]

In the first episode, A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar, a Zeppelin from Steamland is seen spying on Dreamland.

Season 1, Part 2 []

Bean flies the machine back to Dreamland after leaving Steamland.

In the The Electric Princess, Sky Gunderson's airship is seen flying over Dreamland and mistaken for a dragon. Bean shoots down the airship with her bow and arrow, only to see Gunderson crawling out of it, who is taken into custody. After helping him escape, Bean visits Steamland, where everything is driven by technology, rather than magic. While curious, exploring the ground around her, in part thanks to Lady Bowmore on a mechanical horse, who brings her to Gunderson Airships, on Farnsworth Boulevard, and a sequence follows aboard a zeppelin, where Sky is killed when Bean pushes him outside the craft. The flying craft itself crashes in Dreamland after guards shoot at it with arrows, and she then has a gun, with which she accidentally shoots her father, King Zøg. Later episodes imply that Odval may be aware of Steamland.

Season 2, Part 1[]

Steamland's plan to create an alliance between science and magic.

In the episode "Steamland Confidential," Bean goes undercover to find out why the Arch-Druidess ran away to Steamland, and Elfo attempts to join a club of explorers in high society, talking about his exploits. She then learns, in the episode "Freak Out!," that the Arch-Druidess was a spy for Steamland, and that Alva Gunderson wants Steamland to create a reunion between science and magic and seek a powerful source of power said to be underneath Dreamland, which is part of the reason why they are interested in Dreamland from the very beginning. She escapes, frees Elfo from a carnival, and attempts to leave. With the help of Mora, who she frees from the carnival in the episode "Last Splash" and leaves the country. Later, in the episode "Bean Falls Down," it is shown that Alva has been secretly watching what has been going on in Dreamland through a secret camera within the king's crown.

Season 2, Part 2[]

Derek and Jasper are held captive in P.T.'s Freak Show.

Bean escapes hell through an elevator to end up in the office of Alva Gunderson. She steals an aircraft to go home to Dreamland, and gets shot down when she gets there. Derek and Jasper escape to Steamland after they thought they killed an elf. They were captured by P.T. and put in his Freak Show, along with Ursula, Freckles and Odval, while King Zøg ends up missing in Steamland when he tries to rescue his sons.

Season 3[]

When Bean and Mora find a television that the Arch-Druidess left in the basement of Dreamland's Cathedral, they discover Zog is lost in Dreamland and set out to rescue him. Zog meanwhile ends up arrested by the Steamland police, and then gets drafted into a wrestling show where he has to fight The Perc-O-Lator. Zog is eventually rescues from the Wrestling manager and his troupe by Alva Gunderson, and reunites with Bean in Alva's penthouse. However, it is again part of a plot by Alva to steal Bean's magic. Zog, Bean and Mora manage to escape from Alva, and proceed to rescue all the freaks from P.T.'s freakshow.

After the freaks, Bean, Zog and Mora all escape back to Dreamland, Alva follows him there with his latest invention, a Rocket, to try and abduct Bean to the moon. The plan is ruined by the Arch-Druidess, who instead has the Trøgs kidnap Alva for her so she can abduct him to the moon.

Trivia[]

• Steamland is modeled after Victorian-era Britain.
• While the country is steampunk in its design, it has technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery, it has dieselpunk elements, as has some of the aesthetics of the diesel-based technology of the interwar period through to the 1950s, even though no diesel engines are shown.
• Steamland is the only country in the World to be confirmed to have had an industrial revolution.
• Gender equality in Steamland is much better than other medieval countries like Dreamland, giving Bean a new perspective, showing that women are capable if society gives them the choice to do so.
• All of the episodes that feature Steamland include references to Futurama, with the name Gunderson possibly referencing Gunderson's Unshelled Nuts, an airport for Gunderson Airships located on 22483 Farnsworth Boulevard, Sky Gunderson owning a model of the Planet Express ship, similar sight gags like a line from Bender's voice actor, John DiMaggio, and multiple lengths of wire, and Fry's hair shown on a robot inside a shop.
• In the episode "The Electric Princess", the location Rat Island may be named after a private-owned island in New York, and Atoll K is named after a 1951 French-Italian film of the same name.
• Many locations within Steamland are puns, like an adult bookstore for Gutenberg, Bitsy’s Bitterbeer, Poem Depot, Gertrude’s Steins, the Potato Radio Stack, and Electric Boots.
• The robot shop Otto's Automatons may either reference Otto, a character from The Simpsons or a character from the Trinyvale Campaign of Not Another D&D Podcast, Otto the Automaton. The Simpsons has also referenced the series on various occasions.
• The streets of Steamland may be a nod to the Bioshock franchise.
• The show's official Twitter account first promoted Steamland in a tweet on October 19, 2019, and has mentioned the name four other times.
• The Gunderson Steamwork is based on a factory seen in the 1927 movie Metropolis.
• The Trøg reveal in "Goodbye Bean" that they dug a tunnel from Dreamland to Steamland, and sometimes go there to shoplift appliances that no other place on Earth has, including the blenders to make their Sacred Goo.

Gallery[]

Image of Steamland originally shared in a tweet in October 2019, calling it a "kingdom".

Image of Bean and Elfo in Steamland in a tweet in January 2021.

Bean gets off Lady Bowman's mechanized horse and enters the sky port of Gunderson Airships in "The Electric Princess".