View the full timeline
Every entry, in plain order — readable without scripts, and the canonical record for the field guide.
Chapter 1 — The Steam-Dream Ancestors 1818 – 1902
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1818 | Frankenstein | Novel · Proto / Gothic Machinery (Book · Proto) | Science, hubris, Gothic modernity and the body as machine. |
| 1870 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas | Novel · Vernean Age (Book · Proto) | Nemo, the Nautilus and the engineering romance that later steampunk inherits. |
| 1873 | Around the World in Eighty Days | Novel · Vernean Age (Book · Proto) | Victorian travel, global acceleration and imperial-era adventure. |
| 1886 | The Future Eve | Novel · Proto / Automata (Book · Proto) | Artificial life, electricity, decadence and invention. |
| 1895 | The Time Machine | Novel · Wellsian Age (Book · Proto) | Time travel, class horror and scientific romance. |
| 1898 | The War of the Worlds | Novel · Wellsian Age (Book · Proto) | Alien technology, invasion and imperial reversal. |
| 1902 | A Trip to the Moon | Film · Silent Scientific Romance (Film · Proto) | Early cinematic science fantasy and lunar spectacle. |
Chapter 2 — The Brass Screen & Pulp Inheritance 1954 – 1978
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Film · Brass Screen Age (Film · Proto) | Disney’s Nautilus becomes one of the great visual ancestors of steampunk design. |
| 1958 | The Fabulous World of Jules Verne | Film · Brass Screen Age (Film · Proto) | Victorian engravings brought to life as moving cinema. |
| 1960 | The Time Machine | Film · Brass Screen Age (Film · Proto) | A classic screen version of Wellsian machinery and time travel. |
| 1965 | The Wild Wild West | Television · Pre-Coinage Age (TV · Proto) | Western adventure, gadgets, mad science and proto-steampunk television. |
| 1971 | The Warlord of the Air | Novel · Pre-Coinage Age (Book · Proto) | Alternate history, airships, empire critique and adventure. |
| 1976 | The Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec | Comics · Franco-Belgian Proto-Steampunk (Comic · Proto) | Belle Époque adventure, monsters, weird science and French retro-imagination. |
Chapter 3 — The Coinage Spark 1979 – 1990
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Morlock Night | Novel · Coinage Age (Book · Core) | K.W. Jeter’s early Victorian fantasy, later central to the naming of steampunk. |
| 1982 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Manga · Japanese Retrofuture (Manga · Adjacent) | Ecological war, airships, post-industrial ruins and Miyazaki’s machinery-poetry. |
| 1983 | The Anubis Gates | Novel · Coinage Age (Book · Core) | Time travel, secret history and Victorian grotesquery. |
| 1983 | The Obscure Cities | Comics · Continental Steampunk (Comic · Core) | Monumental architecture, alternate urbanism and European retrofuturist grandeur. |
| 1984 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Anime film · Japanese Retrofuture (Anime · Adjacent) | Airships, ecology, war machines and mythic ruin. |
| 1985 | Brazil | Film · Retro-Bureaucratic Dystopia (Film · Adjacent) | Retro-tech, ducts, oppressive systems and machinery as nightmare. |
| 1986 | Homunculus | Novel · Coinage Age (Book · Core) | James P. Blaylock joins Jeter and Powers in the founding literary cluster. |
| 1986 | Castle in the Sky | Anime film · Japanese Steampunk Landmark (Anime · Core) | One of the essential international steampunk visual landmarks, full of airships, lost technology and skyborne adventure. |
| 1987 | Infernal Devices | Novel · Coinage Age (Book · Core) | Jeter’s clockwork-Victorian weirdness lands right beside the naming moment. |
| 1987 | The word “steampunk” is coined | Term / Genre moment · Coinage Age (Term · Core) | K.W. Jeter’s famous letter gives the genre its name by analogy with cyberpunk. |
| 1988 | Space: 1889 | Tabletop RPG · Playable Steam (RPG · Core) | Victorian ether travel, Mars, Venus and one of the first major steampunk roleplaying landmarks. |
| 1989 | Gotham by Gaslight | Comic book · Superhero Gaslamp (Comic · Adjacent) | Batman enters Victorian Gothic mode and steampunk spreads into superhero comics. |
Chapter 4 — The Canon-Forge 1990 – 2004
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | The Difference Engine | Novel · Canon-Forge Age (Book · Core) | Gibson and Sterling’s alternate Babbage London becomes a central literary landmark. |
| 1990 | Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water | Anime TV · Japanese Steampunk Expansion (Anime · Core) | Vernean anime adventure with Nemo, submarines and global mystery. |
| 1992 | Anno Dracula | Novel · Gaslamp / Neo-Victorian (Book · Adjacent) | Vampire alternate history in the gaslit borderlands. |
| 1992 | Porco Rosso | Anime film · Diesel/Steam-adjacent (Anime · Borderlands) | Miyazaki’s retro-aeronautical imagination, all seaplanes, war memories and bruised romance. |
| 1993 | The Chaos Engine | Video game · Playable Steam (Video Game · Core) | Early steampunk-ish video game machinery and mayhem. |
| 1993 | Myst | Video game · Puzzle Retrofuture (Video Game · Adjacent) | Mechanical worlds, old machinery, books as portals and tactile mystery. |
| 1994 | Castle Falkenstein | Tabletop RPG · Playable Steam (RPG · Core) | Faerie, sorcery, Victorian adventure and high brass romance. |
| 1994 | Final Fantasy VI | Video game · Japanese Industrial Fantasy (Video Game · Adjacent) | Magitek, empire, airships and industrial fantasy. |
| 1994 | For the Crown and the Dragon — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · British Alternate-History Steam (Book · Adjacent) | Stephen Hunt’s early alternate-history flintlock / steampunk-adjacent adventure, a precursor to his later Jackelian world. |
| 1995 | The Steampunk Trilogy | Short fiction collection · Weird Literary Steam (Book · Core) | Paul Di Filippo’s playful literary contribution to the genre. |
| 1995 | The City of Lost Children | Film · Continental Weird Steam (Film · Adjacent) | Grotesque machinery, laboratories and dreamlike retro-tech. |
| 1996 | Sakura Wars | Video game · Japanese Steampunk Pop (Video Game · Core) | A major Japanese steampunk / magitech game franchise. |
| 1999 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | Comics · Canon-Forge Age (Comic · Core) | Victorian popular fiction becomes an intertextual steampunk engine. |
| 2000 | Perdido Street Station | Novel · New Weird / Industrial Fantasy (Book · Adjacent) | City, industry, monsters, politics, grime and wonder. |
| 2001 | Mortal Engines | Novel · YA / Moving Cities (Book · Adjacent) | Traction cities become one of the great modern steampunk-adjacent images. |
| 2001 | Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura | Video game · Playable Steam (Video Game · Core) | Magic versus technology in an industrial fantasy world. |
| 2001 | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Animated film · Pulp Expedition Steam (Film · Core) | Expedition retro-tech, submarines and lost civilisation. |
| 2003 | Fullmetal Alchemist | Manga / Anime · Global Steam Age precursor (Anime · Adjacent) | Alchemy, military industrialisation, automail, trains and war trauma. |
| 2003 | Last Exile | Anime TV · Airship Anime Steam (Anime · Core) | A key airship anime entry with strong steampunk visual DNA. |
Chapter 5 — The Maker, Anime & Game Explosion 2004 – 2015
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Howl’s Moving Castle | Anime film · Japanese Gaslamp / Steam Fantasy (Anime · Core) | Walking machine-house, war, magic, smoke and Miyazaki contraption-soul. |
| 2004 | Steamboy | Anime film · Japanese Core Steampunk (Anime · Core) | One of the most overtly steampunk anime films, built around steam power and industrial spectacle. |
| 2004 | Iron Kingdoms | Tabletop RPG / Wargame setting · Tabletop Steam Fantasy (RPG · Core) | Warjacks, steam fantasy and miniatures gaming crossover. |
| 2006 | The Prestige | Film · Tesla / Gaslamp Science (Film · Adjacent) | Invention, stage magic and dangerous electricity. |
| 2007 | The Court of the Air — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · British Steampunk Fantasy (Book · Core) | The first major Jackelian novel by Stephen Hunt, combining airships, revolution, strange machines, ancient powers and adventure. |
| 2007 | The Golden Compass | Film · Gaslamp / Parallel-World Steam (Film · Adjacent) | Alternative Oxford, airships, daemons and prestige fantasy imagery. |
| 2008 | The Kingdom Beyond the Waves — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | Stephen Hunt expands the Jackelian world into lost-world adventure and ancient secrets. |
| 2008 | The Affinity Bridge | Novel · Neo-Victorian Adventure (Book · Core) | Newbury and Hobbes help represent detective / adventure steampunk. |
| 2009 | Boneshaker | Novel · American Steampunk (Book · Core) | Civil War atmosphere, zombies, machinery and industrial Seattle. |
| 2009 | Soulless | Novel · Paranormal / Manners Steam (Book · Adjacent) | A key comic manners-and-monsters branch of modern steampunk. |
| 2009 | Leviathan | Novel · YA Biopunk / Steampunk (Book · Adjacent) | A First World War alternate history of machines versus fabricated beasts. |
| 2009 | The Rise of the Iron Moon — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian world expands into invasion, war and political machinery. |
| 2010 | The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack | Novel · Adventure Steam (Book · Core) | A loud, readable modern adventure-steampunk landmark. |
| 2010 | Secrets of the Fire Sea — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | Murder mystery, island-state intrigue and deeper Jackelian worldbuilding. |
| 2011 | Jack Cloudie — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | Airship, naval and military adventure inside the Jackelian setting. |
| 2012 | Dishonored | Video game · Whale-Oil Punk / Dark Steam (Video Game · Core) | Plague city, aristocracy, industry, assassination, occult machinery and huge visual influence. |
| 2012 | From the Deep of the Dark — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | The Jackelian underworld and the machinery of power. |
| 2013 | BioShock Infinite | Video game · Sky-City Retro-Dystopia (Video Game · Adjacent) | Floating city, American exceptionalism, airships and industrial spectacle. |
| 2014 | 80 Days | Video game · Interactive Vernean Steam (Video Game · Core) | A brilliant interactive response to Jules Verne with global branching steampunk travel. |
| 2015 | Mission to Mightadore — Stephen Hunt’s SFcrowsnest | Novel · Jackelian Sequence (Book · Core) | A later Jackelian adventure tile in Stephen Hunt’s British steampunk-fantasy sequence. |
| 2015 | The Watchmaker of Filigree Street | Novel · Literary Gaslamp (Book · Adjacent) | Watchmaking, London, Japan connections and delicate mechanism mood. |
| 2015 | April and the Extraordinary World | Animated film · French Animated Steam (Film · Core) | Alternate France, scientists, industry and adventure. |
Chapter 6 — The Global Steam Age 2016 onward
| Year | Work | Media & Era | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Everfair | Novel · Global / Anti-Imperial Steam (Book · Core) | A vital alternate Congo work for the global and decolonial steampunk era. |
| 2016 | Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress | Anime TV · Japanese Action Steam (Anime · Core) | Trains, fortresses, undead and industrial spectacle. |
| 2018 | Frostpunk | Video game · Survival Steam (Video Game · Core) | Cold, coal, governance, survival and moral machinery. |
| 2018 | Mortal Engines | Film · Moving-City Spectacle (Film · Core) | Visually important traction-city steampunk. |
| 2019 | His Dark Materials | Television · Gaslamp / Parallel Worlds (TV · Adjacent) | Pullman’s alternate-world visual language reaches prestige TV. |
| 2021 | Arcane | Animated series · Hextech / Industrial Fantasy (TV · Adjacent) | Class conflict, industrial city, magical technology and modern borderland steampunk aesthetics. |
| 2023 | Lies of P | Video game · Dark Automata / Belle Époque (Video Game · Core) | Puppets, Belle Époque nightmare machinery and dark fairy-tale brass. |
| 2024 | Sovereign Syndicate | Video game · Modern Indie Steam (Video Game · Core) | Victorian London, tarot RPG structure and indie steampunk revival. |