Steampunk Stories

Knowledge is currency. Alchemy is knowledge. Most people don't know it exists. Those who do call it heresy. Those who practice it call it ascension. Man wakes in the lightless depths of Tauran City Prison with no records, no past-only a vocabulary that doesn't belong to him. In a facility built to process human bodies, ignorance is a death sentence. To survive, he bonds with a parasitic alchemical metal: a weapon that grows stronger with blood, memory, and use. But power always comes at a price he doesn't yet understand. Guided by a man who knows too much and a girl who should not have survived this long, he descends through a system where alchemy is graded, identities fracture, and nothing is free. You are not a prisoner. You are a specimen. And ascension has already begun.

There is no night in the Everburning City. There can never be. ***** For four hundred years the Everburning City has withstood the advance of the life-strangling fog known as the Gloam. Its walls have held back five invasions, but on the eve of the sixth, the city's inhabitants know things have changed. Golems are coming out of the mist, and the bodies of the dead are rising at the Gloam's bidding. The city's last and most desperate line of defence comes in the form of the Crafters, individuals who can channel the power of fire, though they risk their sanity each time they do. The brightest of these valiant heroes are Tabitha a'Loria and her apprentice Gerald Reath. Risking their lives, they mount their airships, determined to save the last bastion of humanity - the Everburning City. [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]

A storm god approaches and destiny follows with him. While the rest of medieval Karnassis is ushered into the industrial age by the outlanders of the Öd, the humble island of Dyma clings to the past. They prepare for a time honored tradition -- the arrival of the Silent Chorus, a divine tempest crafted by Zoreus, the great eidolon of storms. But little do its people know, more than a god is coming to their shores. Mylo has never wanted to leave his island. But with his sister gone and a bond to a demigod accidentally forced upon him, his love of Dyma will be tested, as well as his fear of the world. Verana is leaving Dyma behind to become a powerful summoner, with ambitions to defeat the king and rule all Karnassis in his place. But her brother's shadow still lingers on her, threatening to turn those ambitions to a darker purpose. And a cowardly outlander named Claude hides a devastating secret. And if revealed, it could spell destruction for all Karnassis. When these fates intertwine, events will be set in motion that will change the Etherea forevermore. Cover Art by Amrin A. Sloat

Editorial in the "Backlund Messenger" Special Edition - An unpublished manuscript. "Welcome to Backlund, where the air tastes of coal and secrets taste of blood. Here, we do not fear dragons or Dementors. We fear Printer's Ink. If Hogwarts is an ivory tower, then Backlund is a machine designed to grind down humanity. The Press-the Fourth Estate-has ascended the throne. Typewriters clatter to the rhythm of war. Front-page headlines carry more lethality than a Killing Curse. 'The Lucky One' Tristan enters this labyrinth not as a wizard, but as a target. Beneath the suffocating smog of this industrial city, gentlemen in tailored suits are shaking hands with devils. Truth is distorted, honor is auctioned off, and justice is nothing more than a luxury commodity. Tristan must learn to fight not with spells, but with information. To use lies as a shield against lies. To sow seeds of terror through whispers and rumors. The enemy remains faceless. He lurks behind the morning papers, watching with a cold smile as society collapses according to his script. In the mists of Backlund, he who holds the pen, holds Destiny. And be warned: by tomorrow morning, the name appearing in the Obituaries... might just be your own."

When a cursed bangle binds Sea Drifter Ninnette to a dangerous demon, she only has three days to break the curse before it claims her life. °:•.🪸.•:° Ninnette is a Sea Drifter with the power to command water, dredging shipwrecks, and salvaging lost treasure. When she braves a sunken ship no one else dares to dive, she finds a strange clockwork bangle that binds her to an ancient curse and to the infuriating Kazi, a demon who leaves destruction wherever he goes. The moment the bangle is activated, they are hunted by a secret order led by a relentless Priestess who believes the armlet is a key to something far greater than treasure. But the true danger isn't the order. It isn't the demon Kazi. It's the curse. When Ninnette puts on the bangle, a countdown begins. If she doesn't break the curse in three days, she will die like every wearer before her. °:•.🪸.•:° She commands the sea. He is a demon who has lived for centuries. They are both bound by a curse. Only three days to survive. °:•.🪸.•:° Set in a Maritime Steampunk world, and inspired by Filipino cultures, from Spanish influence to the seafaring Sama-Bajau. This story weaves dangerous magic, high stakes, and heart-aching romance. °:•.🪸.•:° ONC 2025 Honorable Mention °:•.🪸.•:° Romantasy High Fantasy Fantasy Adventure SciFi Steampunk Fantasci Young Adult

A Chronicle Set After the Events of Orion and Cael's Tale: On an ancient, stormy night, Cael Silvershade entered the world amidst a sky in great upheaval. His mother, Lira, a keeper of ancient lore, vanished into the sea, but not before bestowing upon Cael a unique pendant-a dormant lightning bolt captured in stone. His father, Edric, chose to neglect Cael, focusing his attention solely on his other son, Orion. This continued until Cael's eleventh year, when a sudden lightning strike changed everything. The bolt revealed Cael's extraordinary powers: the ability to command both storm and earth. Meanwhile, Orion, consumed by envy, forged a secret pact with malevolent, primordial forces known as the Ancient Shadows, gaining mastery over darkness. Years later, Cael discovered his father's plan to surrender him to the kingdom as a weapon. His fury ignited, and his power erupted. During his escape, he liberated Orion from his isolation. Bound by a shared history of abandonment, they fled the crumbling mansion together. Now, they are outcasts: Cael seeks to master his tempestuous gifts under the guidance of wandering masters, while Orion refines his dark arts in the shadows. Hunted by a world that fears them, they carry the symbols of their destinies-Cael's cracked pendant and Orion's cursed shard-forever tied by a bond stronger than light or darkness.

Something powerful is drawing Ward back to Devil's Island. Something he thought he had forgotten. He must evade vicious lighthouse keeper George Jaggles in order to get it, but Jaggles will soon be the least of his worries. Because an assassin is on his tail. With Nick gone on a journey to the other side of the world, the clans have been thrown into chaos. The Scowerers have botched a robbery and Lightfinger has been imprisoned. When Ward's dore turns up at Carmen's house, Carmen suspects Ward may be in trouble too. The Devil's Bones is the sequel to The Sleepers.

In the city of Chronosburg, time does not simply pass. it is hoarded, controlled, and weaponized by those who have too much of it. Seven tiers rise from a dead volcano's heart, a vertical kingdom where steam powers machinery and immortality powers tyranny. The higher you climb, the thinner the air, and the thicker the secrets. At the very top, above the clouds, the Eternal Council has ruled for three hundred years, their ages frozen, their grasp absolute. At the bottom, in the furnace-hot depths, the forgotten work themselves to death maintaining the machines that keep their masters comfortable. This is not a story about heroes. It is a story about Silas Vane, a clockmaker who can rewind time by a handful of seconds, enough to fix a broken gear or save a falling child, but never enough to undo the things that truly matter. He carries the weight of failures he's erased, remembers deaths that never happened, and feels the phantom pain of wounds he technically never received. His power is a gift. It is also a slowly accumulating curse. When his carefully quiet life collides with a rebellion he never sought and a conspiracy he cannot ignore, Silas must decide what he's willing to sacrifice, and what he refuses to become. The rebels need a weapon. The Council sees a threat. And somewhere between these impossible choices, Silas must figure out who he is when time itself seems determined to break him. The Clockmaker's War is a story about power and its prices. About the weight of seconds and the ghosts of choices unmade. About learning that some things cannot be fixed, only carried. And that sometimes, the most human thing you can do is stop trying to go back.

Lynn transmigrated into a steampunk world. During a mine incident, he touched a witch named Grace-and awakened a system. Now he can transform into witches and wield their mystic arts. He finds himself in Oakus, the birthplace of steam and mysticism. But this city is sick. A disease called "delirium" is spreading. Eerie beings roam the streets. They worm their way into people's minds. Nothing is normal anymore. Lynn's goal? First, escape the asylum that's holding him captive. Then, flee this infected city before it's too late. Along the way, he'll encounter multiple witches: - Grace, the girl with a collar and no answers - Miss Carly, the detective - Miss Angelina, the tavern owner With their powers, Lynn must survive in a world where steam hisses, madness spreads, and nothing is what it seems.

Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death. Her only chance to save Grim is to seek out the strange old man who lives in the haunted Old City. Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is master criminal Saint Nick. In exchange for Nick's protection, Ward must find the long-lost horn said to have the power to wake legendary beings known as the Sleepers, whom Nick believes can aid him in his guerilla war against the Brotherhood. This leads Ward to Carmen, whose family has a long and mysterious association with the fabled horn. Ward and Carmen are soon hot on the trail of the horn. But the Brotherhood are closing in on Carmen's family. Ward and Carmen soon realise that waking the Sleepers may be the only thing that can save Carmen's parents from certain death. If only they knew how. FOR READERS WHO LIKED Scarlett & Browne - Jonathan Stroud Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

PROTOTYPOWY POMYSŁ Kojarzycie, jak w środku wakacji za granicą nagle próbują was wciągnąć do sekty? Bo to chyba mnie spotkało. Podczas przerwy od Piekła zwanego Szkołą, na wczasach w Anglii, zostałam przypadkowo wzięta za czarownicę. Tylko nie przez Gothów, do których mi blisko, tylko przez jakiś totalnych odludków rodem ze średniowiecza. Mają nawet swojego Gandalfa! A teraz mam rzucać wszystko i jechać w Bieszczady! No, może nie w Bieszczady, tylko do jakiegoś zamku w Szkocji, co pamięta czasy Króla Artura, i tam uczyć się magii, latania na miotle i warzenia eliksirów. No i jest jeszcze Zombie zmutowany z wampirem, czyhający na życie poznanego w parku dzieciaka. Nazywał się chyba Harry Potter... Okładka moja - to Murcielago.

In Aetherion, a floating city ruled by gears and ritual, time never slips-until it does. When a young man finds a hidden artifact that shouldn't exist, the city's old paths begin to shift. Maps rewrite, doors awaken, and the clock that once kept order now demands proof of worth. But when the city deems him 'unsuitable,' his true journey begins-not to fix Aetherion, but to listen to what the sky forgot.

Jareth Coppersmith and Pol Flynt have one thing in common. They kill for a living. One works for GAME, the powerful Guild of Airship Mechanics and Engineers and the other, for the Royal Spymaster. But what happens when they are unknowingly sent on the same secret mission? At best they are rivals, at worst, mortal enemies. SciFi / Thriller/ Steampunk/ LGBT

The sky has stopped bleeding, but the Regime is always hungry. Across the nation of Geordyne, the "Fourteeners" are being harvested. They are the brightest young minds of a crumbling world - the inventors, the rebels and the forgotten - and they are Marshal Cadoc's most-feared threat. From the soot-choked alleys of Castlefye to the glistening dunes of Onaaba, all the way to the frozen forest of Indigo Steep, an unspoken pact is in motion. For Owen and Bryn, it begins with a mysterious carriage manned by a lanky giant. For others, the path to sanctuary is paved with lights and shadows. Plucked from their lives by fate or by force, this disparate group is thrust into a world of trials and a secret academy hidden beyond the maps. But the Yorne Academy of Life is more than a refuge. It is a forge for a revolution. These are the chronicles of the pupils who were never supposed to disembark. A small army of progress in a world that wants them silent. The gears are turning. The tide is rising. And the Gooubs are in formation. Are you brave enough to be lost? Follow me on IG for news, insights and more: @KassandraNiklaus

Aurélis brille au-dessus des nuages toxiques. Nocteryn suffoque dans son ombre. Seris et Lya ont grandi ensemble dans la Basse-Cité, unies contre la misère et les fumées empoisonnées. Mais lorsque Seris est choisie pour intégrer l'élite magique d'Aurélis, elle voit une chance de changer le système de l'intérieur. Lya, elle, y voit une trahison. Quand une explosion sanglante embrase Nocteryn, la guerre éclate entre les deux cités. Seris devient enquêtrice pour le pouvoir. Lya rejoint la résistance. Chacune est persuadée de se battre pour la justice. Mais entre manipulations politiques, secrets d'État et amours interdits, leurs convictions vacillent et leur lien se fissure. Peut-on encore être sœurs quand on choisit des camps opposés ? Et jusqu'où est-on prêt à aller pour sauver celle qu'on aime... même d'elle-même ?

mekanika is a story about hunter and his descent into the rusted earth's pit full of steam punk machines and old ancient technologies

Notorious air pirate, Don Karnage, gets more than he bargains for when he kidnaps a ditzy foreign princess. Fun-loving cargo pilot, Baloo, and his adventurous young navigator, Kit, scramble to save her, but find themselves entangled in the sinister secrets of a lost civilization. This story is written as if it were a long-lost episode of Disney's TaleSpin, with the same tone, humor, characterizations, and wacky scenarios!

Ever since the Abstraction epidemic seized the country in one fell swoop, everyone was forced to take refuge in a gigantic building known as the Tent. Years passed and the Abstractions never went away, but the Tent was so secure that no Abstraction could ever get in. At least, that's what Pomni, a mechanic on the second floor of the Tent, believed. But when she discovered a troupe of seemingly innocent circus performers, she realized that the Tent was hiding a massive secret, and that if it was allowed to stay hidden, no part of the Tent would be safe for very long.

Humanity moves in a cycle of four stages: discovery, development, extermination... and rebirth. Sixteen thousand years after the fall of the first world, humanity has changed. Some are born faster than beasts. Stronger than men. Shaped by blood, defined by genetics. But while the body evolved, civilization did not. The knowledge of the old world was lost in the ashes of the Third World War - the catastrophe that ended one cycle and began another. Now, in the Fourth Cycle, kingdoms rise from ruin, and power belongs to those born superior. This is the story of vengeance of the last Agapracto... ...the deadliest warrior of Agaphenas. (Translated by AI)

From the minute he was abandoned as a child by his parents, the path Edwin trod was a dark one. Yet, such a life was Edwin's greatest regret, and he finally wanted to leave it behind. Deciding to save lives rather than take them, Edwin is hired by the royal palace. What starts as guard duty spirals out of control, and somehow Edwin suddenly gets landed the job of being the princess's personal bodyguard. A job already difficult enough with a terror group targeting her life. And couple that with a headstrong princess who shares Edwin's knack for getting into trouble, you get a dangerous mix. Edwin is dragged along for a journey with danger at every corner. A plot to incite war, a vie for power and remnants of Edwin's past are uncovered. Allies turn enemies, enemies turn allies, and the fate of millions hangs in the balance. Being the princess' bodyguard is a lot more than Edwin bargained for, will the former assassin be able to handle such a task? 'To think that not only would the princess be attacked on my first day, but I would be arrested for saving her: what!!!!!?'