Generation E

Generation E, often shortened to Jenny, were the fifth demographic cohort since the dawn of Eden’s Second Age. Born between 194–213, they were seen by the generations which followed them as the last vestiges of an old way of thinking and living. As a result, the nickname for this cohort became a pejorative of sorts. It wasn’t uncommon in the 260s to hear an exasperated twenty-something say, “Okay, Jenny” to an elder, or for a thirty- or forty-something to fear they were becoming a Jenny themselves.

Resentment of Jennies was particularly common in the kingdoms of Wonderland, and reached a fever pitch in the years preceding Frieda Jacobs’ coronation as the first Queen of Hearts. The younger folks in those southern kingdoms were increasingly weary of their elders’ anti-technology stance. They wanted their part of the world to start catching up with the rest of Eden. And as these folks came of age and into their power, many saw Generation E as the last thing standing in the way of building the future they imagined.

Characteristics

Broadly speaking, Jennies valued the hard-won stability their forebears had fought and died for. They were born and came of age during a time of relative peace in Eden, but they were regularly exposed to stories of just how dicey things had once been. So, while they were theoretically open to the kinds of changes their children and grandchildren wished for, Jennies were far more cautious. Life in Eden was finally stable, and the idea of progress for progress’ sake just wasn’t appealing to them. Things weren’t broken—not yet—so why did they need to fix them now?

Legacy

The progressive reforms of Frieda Jacobs’ United Kingdom of Wonderland were adopted far more slowly than the Queen or her advisors had hoped for. There were a lot of Jennies, they were loud, and they would not walk away from a fight. The ban on halflings, instituted following the The Invasion of Oz, was eventually lifted, but anti-halfling speciesism died far more slowly. And while imports of technology from the Reek and the Garden began to trickle in almost immediately after Jacobs’ coronation, it would be twenty to thirty years before the would-be technologists of Wonderland could found successful start-ups in their homelands. The Jennies who controlled the banks and the local assemblies just would not have it.

Only when they began to retire and to die out did Wonderland finally begin to modernize for good and all.

Cultural Type

Generational Cohort

Defining Characteristic(s)

Born 194-213