Quote - Its your story, so have whatever world setting that suits you.   There is stuff that would blend well with the steampunk  and some level of magic might explain why they stayed at the steam level.

I like that thought, that they built on Seam Mech because they didn't discover the atomic but magical partices, or that electricity led to somthing else entirley else, pierced another dimention nearby drawing power from there  for example. Thank you.