Overview
The Church of the God of Steam and Machinery is one of the orthodox Churches in Lord of Mysteries. The Church was officially founded in the late Fourth Epoch and is one of the three most influential Churches in the Loen Kingdom alongside the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of the Lord of Storms. The Church controls the Paragon Pathway and is closely tied to the post-Roselle Gustav industrial revolution.
Deity
The God of Steam and Machinery is the Church's patron deity. The Church's emergence is closely tied to the industrial revolution sparked by Roselle Gustav in the early Fifth Epoch; the deity gained widespread worship as steam engines, locomotives, and mass-produced machinery transformed the Northern Continent's daily life and economy.
Domain and Pathway
The Church controls the Paragon Pathway, the Pathway of mechanical perfection and self-augmentation. The Pathway's adjacent group includes the Hermit Pathway (one of the six Crimson Test Pathways). Hermit-Pathway player characters often have natural alignment with the Church through Pathway-adjacency mechanics.
The Church's iconography centres on gears, steam, brass-and-copper aesthetics, and industrial machinery. Cathedrals incorporate working machinery into their architecture: visible gear-train clocks, steam-powered organ pipes, and rotating conveyor altars.
Headquarters
The Church's headquarters are in Backlund, the Loen capital. Backlund's industrial east borough houses the Church's central cathedral and the headquarters of the Machinery Hivemind, the Church's Beyonder operative arm. Major satellite cathedrals exist in the Republic of Intis, where the post-revolutionary government has institutionalised Steam Church worship as part of national identity.
Beyonder operations
The Church's Beyonder arm is the Machinery Hivemind. The Hivemind handles supernatural cases that fall under the Church's industrial domain: anomalies in factories, machinery cult suppression, sabotage cases, and Beyonder-related industrial crimes.
Player relationship
The Church appears in the player's campaign through Backlund-arc story content. Hermit-Pathway players in particular receive reputation gains through interactions with the Church and the Machinery Hivemind. Specific Backlund-side content (including Steam Church-themed dungeons and faction-allegiance options) is gated behind the Crimson Test scope and unlocks during later beta phases or the live game.