Debauchery; scandal; the lowest levels of depravity and excess.

Such things have been inextricably tied to the inner circles and darkest corners of high society since time immemorial – entire governments with strings manipulated by individuals of great power and persuasion behind closed doors, tainted by vice and immorality; and the origins of the infamous Hellfire Club are no exception.

Visit our Alchemy Empire feature site to view steampunk inspired artefacts and art from the Alchemy studios.

Imagine a world in which the greatest leaps of innovation were propelled in a heated rush of industrious haze; a bygone era where proud pioneers dared to break the mould, creating prototypes for unfathomable feats of technology that relied on nothing more than the power of steam, the energy of the sun and the crank of metal – or the crashing force of a lightning bolt, captured and harnessed for some improbably exotic experement.

Such a world is not as far-fetched a concept as one might first believe – its ideals of progress to launch society out of the darkness of the Victorian age not quite so lost to the dusty annals of history.

200th Anniversary

1809 – 1849

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

Hailed as the father of modern mystery, skilled weaver of the darkest gothic horrors and inarguably the foremost pioneer of detective fiction, Edgar Allan Poe continues to stand not only as a benchmark of the unearthly and macabre, but also as a catalyst for the deepest and direst fears of the human consciousness.