What does the title mean?

[Axiom]

So, this may seem like a silly question, but I'm not a native English speaker and for years I've been wondering - what does "Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura" mean? Can someone enlighten me? :D

[Muro]

I might be wrong here, but he's how I always understood it:

steamworks - refers to technology, and particularly the steam-based tech that's becoming prevalent when the game takes place. Also, by using "steamworks" as the word representing technology here, we already get to slip through some of the game's steampunk theme into the title.

magick obscura - "magick" is magic, but just said in a fancy, perhaps forgotten way. Similarly "obscura" is in Latin but means roughly the same as the English obscure/mysterious. Why Latin? It could be instead said as "of machines and obscure magic" for the same meaning, but not the same *feeling*. "magick obscura" sounds more archaic, suggesting that magic represents the ways of the old, as opposed to steamworks representing the new way.

[Axiom]

Wow, that's very interesting! Thank you for the detailed response!

[kaiyl_kariashi]

I'd recommend looking up and reading the arcanum manual. It's written in the form of a guide book (exploring the history of magic, technology, the world and how it works, and how the various races evolved) in a victorian style appropriate for the time period. The title is a play on that as well.