The year is 1894...

Welcome to the World of Infernal Gaslamp. It is a world of transition, the old customs and philosophies of the Elizabethan Era and the Age of Reason have not died but they are now coupled with the inventions from a future where Electricity and Steam reign supreme and World War I is but twenty years away. It is also a time of heroes and villains. Victoriana has given some of the most archetypal characters the world over from the deductive logic and
practical sensibilities of Sherlock Holmes to the animalistic passions and raw, destructive
power of Dracula.

It is a time in transition too between magic and science. The age old beliefs of witches,
vampires, ghosts and goblins are fading as the use of new technology and the application of
philosophy blaze a new trail towards the sensibilities we hold today. And yet, for a few
decades, magic and reason thrive side-by-side. The tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is equal parts
Medieval Witch Hunt and Sci-Fi thriller.

Historically, too the period is significant. But a few decades earlier, the economic theory of
mercantilism had died out, leaving room for Adam Smith's theory of Capitalism, enhanced
further by the start of the Industrial Revolution.

In America, the Wild West was beginning to be tamed and President Ulysses S Grant was faced with problems
resulting from the aftermath of the Civil War while simultaneously coping with the daunting authority of the American
Robber Barons.

Latin America was finally free from Spanish Control and struggling to maintain itself as a republic over the people which
would be immortalized through fictional characters like Don Diego de Estrella and his infamous alter ego. In just a few
years, the Spanish American war would liberate the lower Americas permanently.

European Power had been slowly shifting westward. France was becoming a world power after clearing up the mess of
the Napoleonic wars. Spain would finish its descent into poverty that it had started after the defeat of its glorious
Armada. Russia's Romanoffs would fall shortly to a people's rebellion based on the principles of Karl Marx. Commodore
Perry would have sailed to Japan just a few years ago opening up trade and allowing the culture to flow westward while
the Opium Wars would have raged in China causing turmoil that would lead to the end of the Empire and make way for
Chaing Kai Shek, Sun Yat Sen and Mao Tse-Tung. India would soon wrench itself free from the control of the British
under leaders like Mahatma Ghandhi and within a few years of each other an Italian Nun and a German Artist would be
born and grow into their now unforgettable names: Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler. Charles Darwin, Fredrick Nietzsche
and Sigmund Freud all would publish their beliefs during or just prior to the 1890's and spark debates that would rage
for years to come. In only a matter of years, the Spirit of St Louis would bridge the gap between Eurasia and the
Americas while the Panama Canal would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as one. The father of an elderly man in this
time might have lived through the French Revolution and a child born in 1890 might very well live to see a revolution
of a different sort with the Hippie Movement of the 1960's in America. Television, Radio and the Automobile are just
around the corner whereas the Musket, Caravel and Broadsword have just been left behind.

More than anything, though, the Victorian Era is a time of struggle. It is a time of extremes. The very rich and very
poor play a giant chess match using the world as their board. World Wide tension will soon erupt into half a century of
various wars. The Suffragette movement has begun to blur gender roles and the abolition of slavery has shattered the
world's notion of race relations. It is also an age of deceit, for these conflicts are masked by high society, called the
gilded era in America. Etiquette, Tradition and Formalities are used to cover up the ruthless nature of man and his
sins. The Protestant Work Ethic first proposed by Luther some two-hundred years ago is now an excuse for the rich to
get richer and the poor more destitute.

Though plagued by economic nightmare, social instability and growing world animosity the Victorian marks many
important crossroads that have decided the future of our world, it is the age of the Zeppelin and the Submarine, the
Gaslamp and Carriage, the Bowler and the Deerstalker. It is the age of Decisions for the Modern World; decisions that
are now yours to make.