Story & World
Arkham City
A bustling hub of commerce and industry, Arkham is also a center of eldrich lore: home to Miskatonic University, an institution of higher learning with one of the most complete libraries of arcane literature in the world. In the span of two generations the town was built up to the status of prestige it now commands, an expansion helmed by the Hadou Group, an industrial complex and family dynasty currently run by the young Hadou Ruri. She pursues the peace and prosperity of Arkham diligently, against the forces of darkness threatening to plunge the city, and the world, back into a second dark age.
The Black Lodge
Among the most sinister threats to Arkham City is the evil Black Lodge syndicate. Led by the charismatic Master Therion, his nihilistic outlook shapes the group's destructive goals: with a circle of powerful sorcerers at his command, the potential for sowing chaos in the city is unmatched. While currently manifest in the capricious crimes of the giant robots of the Lodge's mad Doctor West, the group's potential for destruction is far greater: they are rumored to control of one or more Deus Machina, and they actively seek the keys that will unlock the power of these fearsome machines.
Deus Machina
Deus Machina, the god machines. Armored behemoths perfectly crafted in the images of gods, these enormous mecha have the power to flatten armies through the unlocking of their arcane might. They can only be controlled by sorcerers wielding mystic grimoires, tomes of eldrich knowledge that provide the power necessary to fuel the arcane engines of destruction. The power of these grimoires has only grown with time, and they are now able to take human form: the better able to escape those who would capture and employ them for malicious uses. It is said that in each generation just one magic user is truly fit to wield the power of each grimoire...
An Unlikely Hero
Former Miskatonic University Magic Academy student Daijuuji Kurou knows little of grimoires, but what he does know terrifies him - enough that he left his university life behind, and now practices a failing detective business in the shelter of an orphanage in a quiet corner of Arkham. But just when he thought his Academy past was buried, it catches up with him and pulls him back into the dark shadows of the occult: Hadou Ruri herself appears at his door with an offer he can't refuse. The only way to combat the Black Lodge's growing magical power is to find, and retrieve, a grimoire with the power to activate the mightiest Machina of all: Demonbane. The quest to find this forbidden tome will change Kurou's destiny... forever.
