There is probably a really good ‘biopunk’ story involving Italy reduced by some sort of apocalypse to a schizotech collection of squabbling city states, with lots of da Vinci-style pre-steampunk, some used-future bits and pieces salvaged from the before times; and a running battle between the Papal States and their definitely-more-than-ceremonial Swiss Guard and Inquisition and underground biohackers who use crude Galenic medical techniques and a highly illicit cell line derived from the Holy Prepuce to provide augmentations that grant their recipients limited supernatural power; or cure illnesses beyond any conventional treatment.
(If one wishes to bring the Reformation into it, there could also be a variety of radical protestant sects, some seeking to hasten the return of the messiah and the end of days by particularly radical fertility treatments, others seeking to stamp them out, and maybe a mad plague-doctor or two attempting to study the properties of the divine-made-flesh in order to engineer a plague that will even up the body count if the heavenly host actually comes down and tries any of the Book of Revelations stuff on us)
Naturally, these practitioners are against every law of god and man; but there is no shortage of corrupt and/or desperate princelings, merchant lords, Condottieri and so on who need an heir despite being impotent, who hope that money really can buy health and life, who need an edge in battle or recovery from grievous and crippling wounds, and so on, who are willing to look the other way.
I’m not the one to do it justice; but I’d definitely read it and/or play the RPG.
(Oh, and while nobody knows how to build, repair, or operate the automated hardware from the Before Times, kabbalists understand that highly advanced machines that were built to be able to serve purely through technology, while they can’t be fixed technologically, are far better materials than clay for the production of Golems. All very likely to make the inquisition unhappy;and surviving hardware in good condition is scarce; but you simply can’t get capabilities like that anywhere else… The risks aren’t just confined to the inquisition, though, mixing high tech and ritualism requires skill and precision; and there’s that one aircraft carrier that has been autonomously wandering the atlantic in obedience to the unfortunately flawed words of command inscribed on its nuclear core.)
