Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Imagine a place of wonder, where magic and technology reign equally, and an adventurer can wield a flintlock pistol as well as a flaming sword. A place where great industrial cities house castles and factories that are home to dwarves, humans, orcs, and elves alike. A place with ancient runes and steamworks, with magic and machines, with sorcery and science. Arcanum is the first game from developer Troika Games, LLC, founded by former Fallout team members Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. This team takes the depth of gameplay and world building in role-playing games to a whole new level of realism and excitement. Arcanum creates a compelling new world where magic and technology coexist in an unbalanced equilibrium. At the beginning of Arcanum, the mechanical age has only recently arrived in this ancient land, where humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and other races have learned to survive in the new, sprawling industrial cities. But this radical shift from magic to technology has created a potentially explosive situation. As city dwellers and other thinkers begin mass producing light bulbs, batteries, eyeglasses, and weapons, the mages become suspicious. This tangled situation is the starting point from which the character must start searching.
Story
Arcanum begins with a cutscene showing the IFS Zephyr, a luxury zeppelin, on its maiden voyage from Caladon to Tarant. Two monoplanes piloted by half-ogre bandits approach the ship and launch attack flights, successfully shooting it down. An old gnome passenger aboard the Zephyr is dying under charred debris and tells the player to bring "the boy" a silver ring, whereupon he dies. As the sole survivor of the crash, the main character is declared "alive," a holy reincarnation, by the only witness to the crash, Virgil. The story follows the player's path in search of the origin of the ring.