Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning: Steam Edition
The year is 1908. The 20th century is still young.<br /> An unfamiliar 20th century - in an unfamiliar world.<br /> This is a world that experienced a 19th century very different from our own. A world filled with innumerable steam-powered Engines. <br /> The unnaturally rapid development of this steam civilization has left the world's skies shrouded in grey... and its seas dyed in shades of black.<br /> <br /> "Sea" - Once, the word suggested an expanse of blue. Today, it refers to something dark and putrid.<br /> The former harbor city of Marseille in the European Kingdom of France looks out on a sea as black as any other. But these particular waters are home to something that can't be found anywhere else on Earth...<br /> A massive artificial island, solid and imposing as a fortress. A city in its own right, but also a school; a place bursting with life and color.<br /> Its formal name: The Marseille Offshore Academia.<br /> <br /> The Academia - a city founded on cutting-edge engine science; an academy designed to produce the greatest Erudite Scholars in the world. <br /> It stands above a sea fouled by the flourishing of modern civilization.<br /> It sits below a sky polluted by the emissions of countless Engines.<br /> And nonetheless, it shines like a jewel, filled with the radiance of students glorying in their youth.<br /> This is a place so overflowing with energy as to recall the long-lost sun.<br /> A place that glitters with a beauty reminiscent of the long-lost stars.<br /> <br /> However, the Academia is also a city with a secret. Beneath its facade hides a darkness feared even by the French monarchy.<br /> Specifically... the school lies under the control of the "English West India Company," a secret society that rules Europe's underworld with an iron first.<br /> Not even the agencies of the great European powers could expose the Academia's true nature; powerless to interfere, heads of mighty states can only watch warily for some sign that might reveal the Society's intentions.<br /> <br /> The Academia - a gorgeous island closed off completely to the outside world.<br /> A school that no student is permitted to leave, except as successful "graduates."<br /> A society of the young and for the young, self-sufficient and proudly independent.<br /> A city-state under the absolute rule of the "Governing Council," an elite body composed of the "Fraternity" and "Sorority"... and a subordinate branch of the English West India Company.<br /> A radiant distortion in the fabric of the world, continually producing both brilliant young talent and fearsome supernatural Arts.<br /> A carefully-cultivated, absolutely impenetrable garden of secrets.<br /> <br /> However, in the spring of 1908... A single young man appears within its walls.<br /> After declaring his intent to wage war against the Governing Council, he introduces himself in this way:<br /> "Nikola Tesla. 72 years old. I'm a transfer student."<br /> "Students of the Marseille Offshore Academia. My hundred thousand young friends, cursed by fate."<br /> "...I will save every last one of you with my own two hands."<br /> <br /> And at the summit of Château d'If, a bell rings out.<br /> The Bell of Gahkthun, announcing that the time of rejoicing is at hand...
- Developer: Liar-soft