The Steamwrights Atlas

In a world forged of brass, where shimmering molten seas divide floating continents held aloft by geothermic vents, civilization clings to existence, powered by intricate clockwork and the relentless hiss of steam.  Here, nature and technology intertwine, biomechanical marvels coexisting with whispers of a forgotten era.  A disgraced cartographer, Zoravelle Belrose, exiled for daring to map the impossible, discovers an ancient atlas bound in leviathan hide, a key to a world before the brass oceans, a world shaped by a vanished civilization.
On the floating continent of Aethelgard, the exiled steamwright Lorrick Finch tinkers with his biomechanical creations — clockwork spiders, hummingbirds with gears for wings, and the awe-inspiring *Brass Kraken*, a colossal biomechanical leviathan.  Lorrick's obsession validates Zoravelle’s impossible maps: their world is no natural phenomenon, but an engineered marvel.
Emerging from the Obsidian Archive, a vault of forbidden knowledge, Elara Vance, a fugitive librarian haunted by her past, holds the key to unlocking the atlas: she can read its forgotten language. But the atlas holds a terrible power, the ability to redraw the world, to destroy civilizations.
Drawn together by the atlas and its potential, Zoravelle, Lorrick, and Elara embark on a perilous voyage aboard the *Brass Kraken*. Their quest leads them across treacherous metallic currents, beneath the shimmering brass oceans, and into the heart of forgotten, underwater cities. They encounter the Silent Ones, pale descendants of the world’s architects, who offer cryptic warnings of tampering with ancient forces.
Hunted by the ruthless Brass Syndicate, who covet the atlas’s power, and pursued by Elara’s former colleagues, bound by oaths of secrecy, the trio battles not only external threats but internal demons. Zoravelle grapples with her tarnished reputation, Lorrick with the destructive potential of his creations, and Elara with the weight of forbidden knowledge.
Aided by Maeve Thorne, Lorrick’s former apprentice and a double agent within the Syndicate, they race against time to reach the Crucible, a submerged city at the heart of the brass oceans, where the secrets of their clockwork world await.  But unlocking the past comes at a price.  Will they wield the atlas’s power, risking the destruction of their world, or will they find another way, a path to redemption and a future forged not in brass, but in hope?