Moreauvia is a dark, alternate-history sandbox where the strange biological sciences of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau actually work.
Born across several afternoons of intense debate between creators Pete S. Allen and Byron Starr, the setting explores a provocative question: What happens to the global political structure—and specifically the American Civil War—when humanity learns to engineer living, breathing “Beast Men”?
In this world, the biological spark of élan vital is a tool of statecraft, war, and industry, yielding an era of bizarre hybrid creatures, steampunk machinery, and biological singularities that reshaped the map of the 19th and 20th centuries.
What began as a collaborative world-building exercise quickly spilled over into print fiction, resulting in a dedicated universe of stories, historical deep-dives, and standalone novels.
To flesh out the corners of this timeline, Creative Guy Publishing produced a four-issue run of Tales of Moreauvia. Published as a print magazine, it featured stellar historical and alternate history fiction from authors such as Dan Pearlman, Gary K Wolf, Carole Lanham, Jason Sanford, Aliette de Bodard, Ruth Nestvold, Amy Sterling Casil, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ian McHugh, Geoffrey Thorne, Ardath Mayhar and Jason S. Ridler, (not to mention our CGP friends Byron Starr, Adrienne Jones, Paul Kane, Joel Sutherland and Michael Stone.)
It also served as an entry point into the universe, focusing on:
Alternate history and speculative period fiction.
Classic steampunk aesthetics fueled by weird science.
Gritty, localized stories tracking the societal fallout of Moreau-style engineering.
The flagship narrative of the setting is explored in Insurrection, a gripping alternate-history novel penned by Byron Starr. It plunges readers directly into the political and military chaos of a world divided by engineered species and human ambition. Insurrection remains available across the web in both digital and print-on-demand formats.
The world of Beast Men and weird biological science isn’t done evolving. We are actively expanding the setting into new mediums to let you experience the singularity firsthand.
We are currently developing a comprehensive, multi-genre tabletop RPG manual utilizing Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP) system. Stripping away traditional magic, this system focuses heavily on the mechanics of Weird Science.
Players will be able to navigate the high-stakes espionage, battlefield horrors, and mechanical marvels of the Moreauvia timeline, utilizing a system engineered to replicate the gritty, dangerous reality of the setting.
The vault isn’t locked forever. As we map out the roleplaying system, we are also keeping our eyes open for potential future fiction anthologies. We hope to open up the shared-world borders once again, inviting authors to contribute new stories of alternate history, clockwork machinery, and evolutionary defiance.
Want to stay updated? Keep your spyglasses trained on our Submissions & Announcements page for upcoming project reveals, playtest opportunities, and fiction callouts.