Jackie ΘΔ

Garnet Moors, my character, continues to travel through the snowy woods, on the run from the Royal Guard. She and her new assassin lover have a routine of seeing scouts, hiding in trees, flirting in whispers, and continuing on their way.

Nadia: "When this is over, I need a hot bath."

Garnet: "Yes... and maybe I could join you." 🥺👉👈

Garnet Moors, my character, continues to travel through the snowy woods, on the run from the Royal Guard. She and her new assassin lover have a routine of seeing scouts, hiding in trees, flirting in whispers, and continuing on their way.

The Crucible of Aether team had a long discussion today about the term we use to describe the setting: Mystic-Industrial

The big thing we are running into is that it isn’t really a term other people use. Yet, the CoA setting dances so oddly between genres that it’s hard to describe it otherwise.

We talk about the setting in the book is as follows: ” The Empire of Odayos is in the throes of an industrial revolution fueled not by steam but by the ancient technology of a long-forgotten people. Ever-turning gears of fleshy metal power great factories, and new inventions are birthed in the dreams of faceless, robotic scholars. Meanwhile, the imperial Valthurian's iron grip of these strange resources has caused a vast technological disparity. In Odayos, mechanically augmented knights might meet with pike-wielding legionaries on the battlefield, or nobles in woolen tailcoats might discuss politics with undead librarians in stone ziggurats. Your party might be composed of a factory worker, a noble lord, a sunlight-throwing warrior, an archivist of forbidden secrets, and a cook, each bringing their own skillset to the table.”

The tech we describe in the book is like the height of the age of sail, so like 1750-1800. Just the beginnings of the industrial revolution. It's not steampunk - we explicitly don't have a steam engine. Gaslamp isn't right either, for similar reasons. It implies a society that's too technologically advanced. Gunpowder is a closer analogue within the historical fantasy genre but I don't think it quite works. There's also an element of DaVinci-esque clockwork vibes to the Maekrons and the other tech that I'm not sure "industrial" gets across. People may hear that and think something more regularized than the jerry-rigged gear systems that power factories.

Thematically though, industrial fits: the soot-filled skies, the evils of careless industry, and of course, so much class struggle.

Even the mystic part stands out. Sure it is more or less a fantasy setting… but is it high fantasy? Magic is common, sure, but as religious rituals. The only dragon that exists does so in diegetic fables (And may just be a metaphor). Beyond this, there are monstrous creatures, but they are eldritch, alien. We don’t even use traditional fantasy species (Everyone in this world is an animal-like being with a very humanoid base).

Yet, so many strange and fantastical things happen within the story. Biomechanical labyrinths run under the Empire, an entire playable people come from another dimension, there is a desert were the strings that hold reality together are torn, oh yeah, and there was 1000 years of werewolf terror.

So like, CoA is Mystic-Industrial.

Maybe that’ll become a term… maybe we will have to come up with a different one. What do y’all think?

Also, it was just super nice to put this into words and finally explain what was going through my head about what "Mystic-Industrial" even fucking means :P

The Crucible of Aether team had a long discussion today about the term we use to describe the setting: Mystic-Industrial

The big thing we are running into is that it isn’t really a term other people use. Yet, the CoA setting dances so oddly between genres that it’s hard to describe it otherwise.

We talk about the setting in the book is as follows: ” The Empire of Odayos is in the throes of an industrial revolution fueled not by steam but by the ancient technology of a long-forgotten people. Ever-turning gears of fleshy metal power great factories, and new inventions are birthed in the dreams of faceless, robotic scholars. Meanwhile, the imperial Valthurian's iron grip of these strange resources has caused a vast technological disparity. In Odayos, mechanically augmented knights might meet with pike-wielding legionaries on the battlefield, or nobles in woolen tailcoats might discuss politics with undead librarians in stone ziggurats. Your party might be composed of a factory worker, a noble lord, a sunlight-throwing warrior, an archivist of forbidden secrets, and a cook, each bringing their own skillset to the table.”

The tech we describe in the book is like the height of the age of sail, so like 1750-1800. Just the beginnings of the industrial revolution. It's not steampunk - we explicitly don't have a steam engine. Gaslamp isn't right either, for similar reasons. It implies a society that's too technologically advanced. Gunpowder is a closer analogue within the historical fantasy genre but I don't think it quite works. There's also an element of DaVinci-esque clockwork vibes to the Maekrons and the other tech that I'm not sure "industrial" gets across. People may hear that and think something more regularized than the jerry-rigged gear systems that power factories.

Thematically though, industrial fits: the soot-filled skies, the evils of careless industry, and of course, so much class struggle.

Even the mystic part stands out. Sure it is more or less a fantasy setting… but is it high fantasy? Magic is common, sure, but as religious rituals. The only dragon that exists does so in diegetic fables (And may just be a metaphor). Beyond this, there are monstrous creatures, but they are eldritch, alien. We don’t even use traditional fantasy species (Everyone in this world is an animal-like being with a very humanoid base).

Yet, so many strange and fantastical things happen within the story. Biomechanical labyrinths run under the Empire, an entire playable people come from another dimension, there is a desert were the strings that hold reality together are torn, oh yeah, and there was 1000 years of werewolf terror.

So like, CoA is Mystic-Industrial.

Maybe that’ll become a term… maybe we will have to come up with a different one. What do y’all think?