I think a major background event, and possibly more than minor campaign focus, for my new swords & sorcery steampunk mash-up campaign is going to feature the emancipation of clockwork servants.
Any ideas on what the two sides will look like?
Just spitballing here:
Pro-emancipation:
1. The constructs themselves
2. Humanoids who want the servant jobs the robo-butlers have.
3. The people who make clockwork friends
Anti-emancipation:
1. Rich douches with robot butlers.
2. Superstitious folk who think clockwork servants will steal their jobs.
3. The people who make clockwork slaves
4. The army with clockwork soldier cannon fodder
Try looking a bit further abroad for the people who feel affected. People who have been persecuted, religiously or otherwise, might feel that they have to aid someone else being persecuted. Members of the dominant religion might see constructs as not people by definition - or being dominant might give them more room to maneuver since they're not at the bottom of the social pyramid. Another anti-emancipation country might oppose because of a common belief or support because they think it will weaken the country emancipating their army.
Also there would almost have to be events leading up to something like this. Another country trying to cut off supplies of some magical reagents used to make the constructs, an underground railroad to let some constructs escape, etc.
The dominant religion is actually The Clock Queen, high goddess of creation, invention, and the arrow of time.
The campaign is set in a mostly isolated steampunk city-state surrounded by a barbaric Stone Age cultists and savages. So it's pretty much a local issue.
I'm re-reading Perdido Street Station and maybe its sequels (which deal (mostly off page) with the repercussions of a (mostly failed) machine rebellion). I'm also reading the The Mechanical series by Ian Tregillis. Also some inspiration by Ex Machina, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, etc.