Vampire - Steel and Smoke: Introduction

Steel and Smoke is set in the city of Hamilton, which borders on the south-eastern shore of Lake Ontario. It takes its name from the nick-names of the two major cities involved - Hamilton (the Steel City) and Toronto (the Big Smoke). Situated between Toronto, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, Hamilton is a relatively small (the area has around 500,000 people) city, primarily known for its steel production. In fact, Hamilton is nick-named the "Steel City", and produces the vast majority of Canada's steel, both for internal use and export. Hamilton competes with such American cities as Gary, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan.

In the world of Vampire: Steel and Smoke, Hamilton is a thriving city, doing a brisk trade in steel. Her location on Lake Ontario, along with easy access to the St. Lawrence River, allows her to ship to almost anywhere in the world. Canadian steel is competitively priced, and does quite well on the world market. The city, while not exactly prosperous, is not poor by any standard, and can be considered middle class.

Hamilton (population 350,000) is surrounded by several smaller bedroom communities. The largest of these is Burlington, with a population of around 120,000. After Burlington, there are Ancaster (population 30,000), Stoney Creek (population 40,000) and Dundas (population 16,000). However, each city borders directly on Hamilton, and visitors would not even know they have left one city and entered another. In 1998, Hamilton and its surrounding cities joined into the Mega-City of Hamilton, with the surrounding towns now being considered suburbs of Hamilton.