Essentially, the WIP would be a political, social, and economic drama with 1920’s/1930’s technology. The reader would take the place the place of a protagonist, a gender/race inclusive university student who lives in the “Heavenly Empire.”
The Empire constitutes a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural hegemony that includes diverse populations like elves, dwarves, humans, and other magical creatures but who otherwise have little magical ability (low fantasy).
The Empire is reeling from a disastrous war with a coaltion of foreign powers, the Iron League, who has extracted extreme territorial and economic concessions from the Empire. In turn, the Empire has suffered extreme poverty, corruption, political repression, ethnic conflict (as in between species, rather than between races) and social stratification.
The protaganist would be thrust into the front of the gradual erosion of the Empire’s fall, and the many different political, economic, and social factions, all with different goals and priorities, that aim to take advantage of the chaos.