Where the Road Ends

Sixty years have passed since the Pigeons' War and its end, leaving the Kingdom of Angen locked in the uneasy stalemate of the Great Play. For decades, the Crown has maintained absolute order over its mainland and its colonies. But on a damp morning on the outskirts of Torsbrücke, reality tears open to reveal the impossible: a world utterly devoid of magic.

Or:

That spring, Germany was finishing a change of government, Scholz on the way out and Merz not yet sworn in. Then, one morning, a stretch of the B2 south of Potsdam tore open. On the other side was a kingdom that looked straight out of the 1800s, except it ran on magic. And they somehow spoke German.