Centuries ago, the fabled city of Coghearth “The City of Gods” reached the pinnacle of arcane engineering. Its Clockwork Mages wove spells into gears, birthing living constructs and even transcending mortality by pouring their souls into metal vessels. But jealousy and hubris unravelled their society: a cataclysmic event sealed Coghearths fate, its wonders lost for a thousand years.
Now, in a world that has long forgotten magic’s mechanical marvels, scavengers sometimes unearth relics but most are inoperable with their power sources remaining unknown. It is said that these may help point to the location of Coghearth itself.
Finding the city might help discover lost technologies that would advance civilisation and yet awakening Coghearth may also resurrect the horrors buried within that destroyed it.
It is said that the Central Council of Cogs. At its zenith, the guild was governed by a twelve‑member Council, each seat named for one of the Great Artificers of Old. The Council presided over doctrine, rank promotions, and the sealing of dangerous transference rites.
Regional Houses. Beneath the Council were seven autonomous Houses, each headquartered in a run part of the city. They would meet in the Grand Cogitarium, a vast, central spire described as a "collective mind," where the metal Immortals connected their consciousnesses intertwining like gears meshing, solving problems beyond mortal men.
The metal not just used for constructs, but integrated into the city's structure – self-repairing bridges, streets that hummed with energy, buildings that subtly shifted and adapted.
Harmonic Foundries, Immense structures where raw ore was infused with arcane resonance, "grown" into usable Living Metal, and where the Grand Transferences were performed. Their pulsing heartbeats powered the city.
Legends speak of a constant, low thrum like thunder in the air – the sound of the Living Metal, the Foundries, and the networked minds of the Gods of the Gears. A city alive with thought, not breath.