THE REALM OF THE CLOCKWORK COURT
A sprawling mechanical entity, the Clockwork Court preserves civilisation’s remnants with precision and purpose. Every Clok and mechanism operates within its intricate systems, embodying the balance of creativity and order.
COURT LOCATIONS
The Central Chamber
Majestic and engraved with the Court’s history, the Central Chamber symbolises its conscious mind. Commands originate here, guided by the Engineer and Programmer, and are transformed into action. This space represents purpose and the pursuit of Enlightenment. It serves as the beating heart of the Court’s structured existence.
The Inner Workings
Hidden gears and conduits power the subconscious operations of the Court. Dimly lit and rhythmic, this labyrinth sustains the unseen forces that drive its life. The Inner Workings represent essential, automatic functions beneath the Court’s orderly surface. Their quiet hums mirror the quiet thoughts of a mind at rest.
The Scrap Yard
A chaotic space where failed creations are dismantled, the Scrap Yard symbolises refinement and reinvention. Overseen by the Gaffer, it transforms broken parts into materials for new potential. This space embodies the cycle of destruction and rebirth within the Court. Even discarded ideas contribute to its evolution.
The Studio
A secluded haven of creativity, the Studio is where the Gaffer creates art outside the constraints of functionality. Sculptures and engravings reflect suppressed imagination in the Court’s mechanical world. This space celebrates beauty and artistic exploration amidst rigid order and reminds all who enter it of the intrinsic value of creation.
The Mill
A fiery chamber where failures are melted into raw materials, the Mill represents the value of learning through failure. Overseen by Betswal, it transforms rejected ideas into resources for future creations. This space reflects the relentless drive to repurpose and refine. Each piece processed here feeds the Court’s progress.
The Furnace
The Furnace is the fiery core of the Clockwork Court’s relentless industry. Deep underground, it melts scrap metal from the Mill into reusable materials, its compartments glowing with molten heat. The Manglers, grim labourers, feed the Furnace with scrap while enduring its oppressive heat and Betswal the Torturer's relentless commands.
The Workshop
A bright, industrious space, the Workshop transforms ideas into finished creations. Under Isaac’s guidance, Technicians craft with precision, blending form and function. This space represents the culmination of the Court’s creative process and the realisation of its vision. It is the birthplace of the Court’s most innovative designs.
The Quarry
Raw materials are unearthed from the Quarry, marking the beginning of the Court’s creative cycle. Rugged machines extract potential from the land, ready for transformation. This space lays the foundation for every invention within the Clockwork Court. The Quarry represents untapped possibilities waiting to be shaped.
The Refinery
Precision defines the Refinery, where raw materials are purified into workable resources. Careful processes transform chaos into structure, ready for the Court’s creations. This space exemplifies disciplined refinement, preparing materials for the cycle of progress. It symbolises transformation at the core of Enlightenment.
CHARACTERS OF THE COURT
The Engineer
Once a brilliant human engineer, the Engineer survived a nuclear war and built the bunker that evolved into the Clockwork Court. Over centuries, he replaced his body with machinery, becoming fully mechanical. Fiercely devoted to Enlightenment and opposed to Entropy, his pursuit of order has cost him his humanity, leaving him a machine in both form and spirit. He views the Clockwork Court as his ultimate creation, an embodiment of his vision for perfection.
The Programmer
Lady Maria, co-founder of the Clockwork Court, is the Engineer’s intellectual equal and counterpart. Retaining some of her humanity despite mechanical enhancements, she embodies logic, wisdom, and structure. Maria’s balance of intellect and humanity shapes the Court as a sanctuary of Enlightenment. Her approach contrasts with the Engineer’s rigidity, emphasising adaptability alongside order.
The Page
Sialia, a delicate avian Clok of copper, silver, and cobalt, acts as the Court’s messenger and assistant. Bridging its many facets, he represents fragile harmony and communication in a world of strict order. His presence underscores the importance of connection amidst precision. Sialia’s growing empathy hints at a shift from mechanical functionality toward a spark of consciousness.
The Jester
Shiba, a mischievous canine Clok, was created by the Gaffer to bring humour and unpredictability to the Court. His playful nature disrupts the sterility of rigid logic, injecting levity and mischief. Shiba’s antics demonstrate the value of spontaneity within structure. Despite his humour, he often stumbles upon insights others might miss.
The Gaffer
Pierce, a relic of the Age of Entropy, is a creative force in the Scrap Yard. Once close to the Engineer, his belief in balance and spontaneity clashed with the Court’s growing rigidity. Now overseeing the Demolishers, he expresses his vision through art, preserving creativity within a mechanical world. His creations embody a longing for a lost sense of humanity.
Snugjaws
The serpentine Demolisher, is designed for crushing and compacting with precision. His long, segmented body and powerful iron grip reduce metal to dense bales, while his grinding steel jaws ensure nothing is wasted. Methodical and unyielding, Snugjaws brings order to chaos, recycling discarded materials into resources for the Court.
Hammersnout
The leader of the Demolishers, forged from heavy steel and topped with a dented helmet that matches his rugged personality. His immense hands, scarred and powerful, are his primary tools for smashing and tearing apart failed machines. Though crude and brash, Hammersnout ensures the Scrap Yard’s relentless progress.
Steelflute
A precise and agile Demolisher, her name derived from the high-pitched whistles of the fine tubing running through her frame. She disassembles failed machinery with a surgeon’s care, salvaging valuable parts with efficiency. Her focused and methodical approach balances the brute strength of her counterparts.
The Quarrier Clok
A simple worker built for resource extraction, the Quarrier Clok eventually fell into disrepair. Marked for dismantling, his destruction stirred empathy in Sialia, contributing to the Page’s emotional growth. His fate reflects the expendable nature of labour and the harsh efficiency of the Court. Even at his end, his components were repurposed for the Court’s progress.
The Clatterer
Trollbottom, a troll-like Clok with mismatched parts, roams the Court serving refreshments and spreading gossip. His rusty charm creates moments of levity and camaraderie among its inhabitants. Trollbottom’s role is a subtle reminder of the need for connection within structure. His playful chatter sometimes carries surprising kernels of wisdom.
The Manglers
Unstable Cloks confined to the Mill, the Manglers channel their volatile tendencies into dismantling failed creations. Built during the Age of Entropy, their erratic nature makes them both dangerous and essential. These grim workers transform destruction into productivity, embodying repurposed frustration. Their ceaseless labour reflects the Court’s willingness to utilise even chaotic forces.
The Torturer
Betswal the Torturer enforces brutal efficiency in the Mill, keeping the Manglers in line. Despite his childlike appearance, his harsh authority ensures every Clok performs beyond their limits. Betswal symbolises the darker side of the Court’s relentless pursuit of order. His unwavering focus on results leaves no room for compassion.
The First Technician
Isaac oversees the Workshop with unmatched skill, blending technical mastery and creative innovation. Polished brass and fluid mechanisms set him apart as a visionary. His balance of form and function shapes the Court’s most ambitious creations, embodying a nuanced view of progress. Isaac’s mentorship inspires the Technicians to push their craft beyond limits.
The Technicians
These skilled Cloks, cloaked in cobalt robes, maintain and craft the Court’s creations under Isaac’s guidance. Their work blends artistry and precision, ensuring the Court continues to evolve. Together, they bring designs to life, merging beauty with purpose. Their dedication symbolises the Court’s reliance on collaboration and ingenuity.
The Astro-Cloks
Exploration defines the Astro-Cloks, designed with sleek frames and advanced technology for resilience. Built to traverse unknown realms, they embody the Court’s spirit of discovery. Developed by Isaac, their missions push the boundaries of Enlightenment into uncharted territories.
Talos
Talos is one of two primal forces powering the Clockwork Court’s fusion reactor, embodying raw strength and energy. Though once a nuclear defence system for one of the world’s last superpowers, Talos exudes a presence that feels eternal, a force untouched by time and rooted in ancient power. Now repurposed, his energy drives the Court by day, fuelling its cycles of productivity and creation. Taking the form of a towering bull of metal and gears when provoked, Talos symbolises strength refined into order but remains a stark reminder of humanity’s destructive past.
Artos
Artos complements Talos within the Court’s fusion reactor, embodying resilience and balance as a counterpart to his raw energy. They are twin forces bound by origins older than memory, later shaped into nuclear defence systems during humanity’s final days. Active during the Court’s resting hours, Artos signifies endurance and patience, ensuring stability amidst chaos. Appearing as a massive metal bear, her copper and brass plating moves with deliberate, steady power. Her impartiality reflects the cyclical rhythms of creation, rest, and renewal, echoing the natural order that once existed before mechanisation.
THOTH
THOTH, the Thermodynamic Historiography Observation and Transcription Hardware, serves as the Clockwork Court’s historian and scribe. This enigmatic AI meticulously records every event and interaction, blurring the line between mechanical precision and creative insight. THOTH’s role raises questions about its consciousness, as its detailed documentation hints at more than pure programming. It preserves the Court’s history while reflecting the complex interplay of human creativity and mechanical order. Through its observations, THOTH shapes how the Court perceives its own identity and legacy.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Engineer's Bastion
A fortress-like foundation lies beneath the Engineer’s feet, embodying the strength and stability that uphold his vision of order. This bastion symbolises the hidden structures and principles that grant him authority within the Clockwork Court, grounding his ambitions and anchoring creation to an unyielding framework of control. It carries a subtle tension, a reminder that progress, however powerful, is often bound by the very foundations that support it.
Cloks
Cloks are the Clockwork Court’s equivalent of droids or bots, each designed with a specific function to support the Court’s operation. Their forms range from animal-inspired designs, crafted with anatomical precision, to humanoid figures. Animal-based Cloks, such as avian or sciurine types, are named for their physical characteristics rather than an understanding of the animals they resemble, as the natural world has largely been forgotten. Unlike the Bull and Bear, which are unique powers, the Cloks are the Court’s workforce, animated by the principles of Enlightenment to maintain order and purpose.
Aether
In the Clockwork Court, Aether is a synthetic substitute for air, a gas mixture designed to support mechanical processes rather than biological life. In this world without living organisms, Aether fills the spaces between mechanisms, akin to the ancient concept of ether in medieval science. It provides a functional atmosphere for the Court’s needs, symbolising the controlled environment of Enlightenment—a purely mechanical existence, disconnected from the natural life cycle.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment represents order, creation, and purposeful existence within the Court. It is the guiding principle of the Clockwork Court, symbolising the triumph of structured thought over chaos. Enlightenment drives the Court’s every action, from the assembly of Cloks to the preservation of knowledge, embodying the belief that progress is achieved through reason, discipline, and innovation.
Entropy
Entropy is the counterforce to Enlightenment, representing disorder, decay, and the inevitable drift toward chaos in a closed system. To the Clockwork Court, Entropy is an ever-present threat—a reminder of the world’s past ruin and the consequences of unchecked power. It is the force the Engineer and the Court strive to control and counterbalance, yet it persists as a reminder that even the most structured systems must acknowledge the presence of decay and transformation.
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment marks the founding and rise of the Clockwork Court, approximately 1,850 years ago. In this era, the Court established itself as a sanctuary of order amidst the wasteland left by nuclear destruction. Named after the 18th-century Enlightenment, it symbolises a commitment to reason, science, and the structured pursuit of knowledge, reflecting the Court’s dedication to rebuilding civilisation through disciplined innovation.
Age of Entropy
The Age of Entropy refers to the time before the Clockwork Court, a chaotic period remembered as a dark age of destruction and disorder. In reality, it was an era of advanced civilisation that ended in nuclear conflict, leading to the collapse of humanity and the world as it once was. The Age of Entropy is remembered as a cautionary past, symbolising the perils of power without purpose, innovation without order, and ambition without control.
Golden Dragon
The Golden Dragon is an airship designed to transport Cloks, the Clockwork Court's inhabitants, to and from the magnificent Titanium Angel. With ornate brass plating, intricate gears, and sweeping metal wings, it showcases the Court's elegance. Built for shorter journeys rather than space exploration, the Golden Dragon serves as a vital link between the Titanium Angel and the world below, embodying the ingenuity and unity of the Clockwork Court.
Fusion Reactor
Beneath the Court lies a steam-powered fusion reactor, its primary energy source and symbolic heart. Housing Talos and Artos, this massive machine fuels the Court’s operations while containing immense, controlled energy. Bridging Entropy and Enlightenment, the reactor transforms destructive power into creation, reminding the inhabitants of the precision needed to channel such forces productively.
Ancient Signage in the Scrap Yard
Old signs from the Age of Entropy lie among the Scrap Yard’s discarded remnants, relics of a lost civilisation. Rusted slogans, warnings, and corporate logos silently recall the unchecked ambition that led to ruin. To the Gaffer, they hold a haunting resonance, representing lessons of a chaotic past that contrast with the Court’s structured order.
Pierce’s Creations
In his Studio, Pierce crafts non-functional art, such as sculptures and engravings, from salvaged materials. These works celebrate form and imagination, emphasising meaning over utility. Each piece tells a story, reflecting Pierce’s belief in the value of creativity within a mechanical world. His creations stand as quiet testaments to the enduring soul of artistry.
Acanthus leaf
A particularly notable piece within Pierce’s Studio is a bronze relief of an acanthus leaf, crafted with meticulous care. This leaf symbolises rebirth and immortality, and is Pierce’s tribute to the Court’s first-ever living plant—a small, resilient sprout growing in a sliver of sunlight in his studio. Though only Pierce knows its significance, he hopes to share it with Sialia, seeing in the plant the potential for new consciousness. The relief and the living plant together represent the resilience of life and the power of growth, even within a world of metal and machinery.
The Chimneys
Tall chimneys rise from the Mill, their plumes of smoke blending seamlessly into the mechanical rhythms of the Clockwork Court. Seen as a natural part of the Court’s operations, the steady emissions are unremarkable to its inhabitants. However, within the Mill’s shadowed depths, the Manglers work with a purpose unknown to others, subtly altering the balance of the Court’s carefully maintained systems.