A novel/world that probably only lives in Renovalino's mind. It was set in a Steampunk fantasy world, where most of the known lands are ruled by a magocratic empire. The story starts at 376 Third Age, and follow Vyrdaes, a merchant from the town of Shendal and a member of a secret group of revolutionaries who tried to fight against the oppression of the Empire prohibiting the use of technology, steam power and gunpowder particular. The fact that the Empire also happened to be oppressive and the land has suffered from more than a decade's food shortage and such does not help the Empire either.
As the story progress, the naive protagonist slowly becomes cynical and the revolutionaries are not as ideal and good as them claimed to be.
A Tabletop RPG was being made by the troper using D20 Sorcery and Steam supplement.
Steam Chronicle provides examples of:
- The Alliance - The revolutionaries. It got worse.
- Anachronism Stew / You Fail Politics Forever - Communism before the rise of capitalism.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign - Most names are generated by an online Elven translator and a list of (sometimes) meaningful words.
- Somehow justified, as the ruling power, as well as a few humans, considers elves as a Superior Species and used the Elven name instead of one in the native tongue for many names.
- Awesome, but Impractical - Most stuffs from both sides turned out to be ineffective, if not downright counterproductive. However, as fear of the unknown is the strongest fear, sometimes they are still put into practical uses anyway.
- Balkanize Me - The Empire was like that, with most lands was not directly ruled by The Emperor, but by feudal landlords, aristocrats and occasionally monarchs of surrendered countries. As many of the above-mentioned people changed sides before and after the revolution, the situation remains generally the same for a while, then the map is shot by a 12-gauge when The Alliance falls apart.
- Crapsack World - The world is not in a pretty state as the first character the protagonist meet in the story is a little girl begging for food.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts - Eiloli. Due to the nature of magic, the magical potential of a given area is finite. Even Eiloli can burn down everything (and she means it), she is still done for when all the potentials are spent. The revolutionaries are smart enough to figure it out, and send dozens waves of militia to her and depleted her magical reserve. It still takes a dozen volleyballs to put her down though.
- Downer Ending - Our protagonist is totally broken inside, The Empire is defeated but replaced with the revolutionary ones. People's live is still hell, and possibly even worse as everyone is made equal by the availability of gunpowder weapon, crushing the dreams of adventures and making a life because one is unique.
- Enemy Civil War - Happen equally numerous on both sides. One of the major strugglings in the falling empire is between the authoritarian Privy Council who wanted to keep The Magocracy to continue their rule, the reformist aristocrats who wanted to loosen the iron grip on their lands or have their sorry arses saved from the revolution, and the militarist military who just wanted to rule.
- The Federation - Formed by the original revolutionary committee, it starts out as a typical federation, but like most other things, things went bad.
- Functional Magic - Magic is caused by the movement and reaction of various elements. Therefore, in an academic sense, everything is magical, from the steam engine to human body to the Sphere of Destruction there. However, the "real" magic in the world's sense is the results of your mind interfering and controlling said movements and reactions.
- Ghost City - The city of Bys, once one of the biggest city in the Tal region. It is burnt down during the Battle of Bys and is never rebuilt. Several parts of the imperial capital also suffered this.
- Good Republic, Evil Empire - Played straight at the beginning, as the empire is obviously evil, and the republican revolutionaries good. Subverted at the end as both sides are equal arseholes. The only (probably) "good" power at the end is the Perian coalition, which is led by a kingdom.
- Guns Are Worthless - Lampshaded by one of the revolutionary commander.Commander: Despite the fear of the almighty gunpowder weapons, they are not as powerful as anyone claimed, especially when our enemy is the entire empire with magicians on their side. One advantage that we have, though, is that only a very few individuals recognised this fact. Therefore, when we handed the muskets to the masses and told them to shoot towards the enemy lines, they would believe they are holding a battalion of archers and fight without much fear.Vyrdaes: You mean we are lying to the masses and sending them to the sure oblivion?Commander: Yes, but with the courage given by the myth,
they self-fulfilled the myth and won against all odds. - Humongous Mecha: The revolutionaries made one during the battle of Bys, in an attempt to scare the shit out of the enemy. Said mecha can march forward and shoot flames from its hands, but that is about all it can do. Like guns, its psychological impact is what makes the revolutionaries win the day.
- Lighter and Softer - The Tabletop RPG version is much lighter and softer for gameplay reasons. Basically the revolution ended after the Destruction of Bys, with various factions hammered a temporary peace.
- Magic Versus Science - Magic and science can and do get along, but the magicians and scientists apparently do not.
- Made of Explodium - Every steam engines seems to be stuffed with gunpowder and explode spectacularly when being hit hard enough. No, of course escaping streams of steam will not lower the pressure and prevent the explosion.
- The Magocracy - The Empire is one of them.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - Vyrdaes, maybe you should reconsider when you decided to give some money to a starving girl begging for food, as she now has something valuable but have no means to defend. Hell, you indirectly kill her by doing so, just like Karma wanted to mess with you and rub the messes on your face over and over again.
- The revolution generally screwed up the world even more with all the civil wars during and after the revolution, as well as the pollutions and such.
- Oh, Crap! - Most time when something big appeared at the other end of the battlefield. Notable examples:
- The imperial army when the Humongous Mecha slowly raising at the frontline and started tossing fireballs towards them.
- The revolutionaries gets one when the aforementioned Mecha lost control and started destroying the city of Bys.
- One-Federation Limit - Almost all political entities are called only by its government type. As a result, we have: one Empire, one federation and one People's State. An exception is made to Peria as the Perian Coalition.
- One-Man Army - Eiloli Sherasti Talthis, the viscountess of Tal, a half-elf with the appearance of a adolescent girl, also probably the most powerful individual on the world in terms of magical ability. She literally stopped the advance of a fully-armed musketeer company by burning everything near her, including bullets and cannonballs.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Magicians with enough practice and/or talent. Particularly with Eiloli Sherasti Talthis, a half-elf who is literally an one man army with the magical ability and reflexes to disintegrate bullets flying towards her before getting hit. Multiple times.
- Deconstructed later, as it is revealed that Eiloli is the result of the imperial selective breed program, where little girls with extraordinary magical talents were selected and trained 24-7, together with other conditionings and probable abuses and rapes. It seems that she was the only one whose body and sanity survived till adulthood, and she has become the Empire's ultimate weapon, as well as a honourary aristocrat.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified - At first, the revolution is basically savior for the poor masses who were opposed by the authoritarian, elitist Empire, as well as the harbinger of peace and happiness as the marvelous steam technology is said to be able to produce enough food that no one have to starve again. But as the revolution goes, it becomes......
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized - To the point that The Empire started to look good in comparison. It is not saying much though.
- Shades of Conflict - Originally it was Black-and-White Morality, with the Empire being the Card-Carrying Villain and the revolutionaries being a Messianic Archetype. As the story progress, it slowly turns into Black-and-Gray Morality.
- Shoot the Messenger - After the Battle of Bys, and the crossing of the Morale Event Horizon of the imperial forces, the empire offered a peace negotiation to the revolutionaries. While the militant factions refused to participate, the more moderate ones do. So what does the falling empire do? They massacre the entire negotiation team, meaning that the militant factions can take over and basically burn the empire down to ashes.
- Steampunk - One of the goal of the revolution is to turn the world from Low Fantasy to this. It worked, though not as intended.
- Utopia Justifies the Means - That is how the revolutionaries justify many of their questionable actions, including but not limited to mass murder, drug munition to militia, rape and numerous war crimes.
- We ARE Struggling Together - The revolutionaries all agreed that the existing government is wrong, but that is about it. Not even everyone embrace the steam technology.
- We Have Reserves - Offended mostly by the revolutionaries due to the 0% Approval Rating of The Empire.
- Zerg Rush - Almost all sides resort to this due to the lack of superiority of equipments on each other.
