The ZEITGEIST setting is a step away from traditional fantasy. In many parts of the world, day to day living is much unchanged from how folks lived centuries ago. Fey trickery, prowling monsters, and roaming brigands pose as great a threat as ever. Priests and druids offer guidance, and it’s possible to live one’s entire life without seeing a cogwheel.

But ironclad industry is reshaping cities, and railroads slice through the wilderness. Steam and soot darken the skies, urban labyrinths seem to have spirits of their own, and new frightful creatures crawl in the shadows, fiends that the old religions have no defense against.

Heroes and scoundrels stroll cobbled streets in top hats and tails, wield pistols or enchanted arcane fusils, and battle over matters of philosophy and economics as often as over treasure and thrones. Groups once lumped together as ‘savage races’ have founded nations of their own, eager for prosperity and respectability. And while many resist efforts to scientifically categorize magic, academic institutes of sorcerous studies are attracting extravagant investments from nations who fear what inventions – technological or thaumaturgical – their rivals might bring to bear.