Albino Tribe

**The Albino Tribe** is a group of people indigenous to the land that is now New Albion. Every Albino with a speaking role has been voiced by either Lauren Osborn (individual Albinos) or Paul Shapera (ensemble part).

## Background

### Pre-New Albion

The precursors to the Albino Tribe existed in a forested area north of New Albion. They are thought to be the descendants of humans and fairies. The resultant group moved southwards as time passed. At some indeterminate point, the AI travelled back in time to deliver TanSan to the Albino princess Alice in order for her to travel forward in time. At another indeterminate point, the AI travelled back in time once more to warn the Albinos of the founding of New Albion. The Albinos, pragmatists they were, developed a vast subterranean tunnel network in which they would live once the city was built.

### New Albion

With the city now built, the Albinos were now full-time residents of the underground tunnels their ancestors had constructed. However, try as they might to remain entirely uninfluenced by the surface world, the Albinos *would* eventually buy property in the city, if only for the purpose of expanding their tunnel network. This made them easily the most formidable force below the city's surface, and even those aboveground had to respect them. In some cases, the Albinos and surface-dwellers worked in conjunction, albeit amid some friction, to build things such as a sewer system for the city. Eventually, the various members of New Albion's *criminal* underground attempted to take advantage of its *literal* underground. The Albinos rarely took kindly to this, but in spite of that they adapted well to gang members in the tunnels, and woe be to those who upset them, for the Albinos could make a person disappear underground with *incredible* skill. That said, their reputation as vicious Morlock-like creatures is advantageous, but inaccurate most of the time. It serves as protection first and foremost, and gives surface dwellers a reason to avoid the underground.

## Appearances

### The New Albion Radio Hour

The New Albion Radio Hour contains the first reference in music to the Albinos. In it, 3 Albino brothers are mentioned as the source of a new sandy, dusty rust that has become the hot new drug in New Albion.

### The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness

In The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness, it is revealed that the Red-Haired Lad married an Albino princess, and their child now rules the underworld and controls the city's supply of TanSan.

### The Room Beneath New Albion

The Room Beneath New Albion is the first appearance of an Albino in a speaking role or in a major role. The Albinos are visited by Angels (which are revealed at the end to be not angels, but AI) who select the princess Alice for a mission and supply her with TanSan to send her forward in time in order to carry it out. Upon arriving in New Albion (around the time Dolls of New Albion's third act occurs), Alice is shunned by the present-day Albinos and gets to work building the Room Beneath New Albion. In her 4th year of this undertaking, she meets Alexander, a mafia boss who attempts to kill her for stealing his bootleg Dolls to complete her task, but ends up helping her finish construction of the Room instead. When the task is complete, Alice takes one last dose of TanSan, whereupon the AI reveal themselves and their plan to her, before she overdoses.

### The Broken Cyborg

The Broken Cyborg, too, features an Albino in a major role. This time, it is the current Albino queen, Lilith, who explains to the refugee parkgoers that the souls of the Albino Tribe's members are the shattered remains of a Goddess, and that in order to resurrect the goddess, the Albinos must rely on magic and therefore shun technology. Nevertheless, she allows the parkgoers to stay in Albino territory for a time before they go on their way. They do, however, show up for the final battle of the album, in which the parkgoers take back the park and annex it from New Albion, forming a new state in the process.