The World Maker - An Epic Artifact of Planetary Proportions

Everything in this world is magic, except to the magician. -- Dr. Robert Ford, WestworldThere are hardly any records of Joonas of Barthro--the Toymaker. No monuments, no wizard colleges, no noble families claiming his bloodline. Only a handful of archmages have referenced him, be he real or merely a concept. Some knew him as a saint, some others, a devil. But all legends point to his genius.
The most detailed description is in the massive--if rather embellished--tome, The Testament of Zygon the Elder. In the Testament, Joonas the Toymaker could imbue objects with animation, intelligence, and perhaps even life itself. Mechanical knights, steam-driven horses, animated dolls and brass attendants. But this was only the start.“You spoke of what was possible and impossible, my dear Zygon,” the Toymaker said, opening the door. A blast of fresh, spring air flew past us, carrying with it tiny, white butterflies. “Step inside, and see this world I have made.” --The Testament of Zygon the Elder
== The Toymaker ==
They say his name was Joonas of Barthro. A toymaker by trade, consumed by a desire for ever more elaborate machines. When his townhouse was not secluded enough, they say he ran off to the countryside. Some time after that, even the caves and hills beyond the valleys were too loud for his ears, and he hid himself away in some island, his constructs labored under his guidance to create a vessel with which he could travel to the middle of the sea, and be left to perfect his devices.
== The Island, the Palace, the World Maker ==
There are multiple pitches for different places and repair states that the World Maker and its surroundings are in, but one thing remains the same--the World Maker should always be something truly awe-inspiring. A creation of a mechanical god, or perhaps the creator of one. 
=== The Pristine (Variant) ===
The island till in perfect working order, and still traveling its paths around the ocean. Ships see it every so often, and adjust their charts, but are mystified to find it gone the next time they sail by. The palace is fully functional, with a labyrinth of traps and tests. Murals spin and change, depicting the rise of the Toymaker from mere mortal to something beyond. When the adventurers have proven their mettle, they may meet the Toymaker, who has been waiting for the adventurers for some time, for some missing piece he lacks...
=== The Buried (Variant) ===
This form of the Palace ground to a halt long ago, crawling into an island cave before losing its power. Only bits and pieces of it still run, maintained by a small army of rather mad clockwork assistants. The machines work tirelessly to repair the machine, to resurrect their clockwork god... but are missing a key component. The twist? The Palace's cave, long since collapsed, is directly under a populated town, one full of usable souls for the machine. 
== Similar Concepts ==
For similar concepts and possible inspiration:
* The Clockwork City of Sotha Sil from The Elder Scrolls
* Clockwork Time -- a dramatic SCP Wiki tale about a mechanist who creates a monumentally elaborate clockwork toy. Things that go into the machine are different when they come out...
** The machine itself is implied to be SCP 914, "The Clockworks".
* The mysterious, robot-populated Undercity from Batman: Arkham City
== References ==
*Pyramid 3/25 Epic Magic, p.28
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