[@Dead Cruiser]

1. Guns are fairly new, they're not that advanced; as powerful as they are, they are rather vulnurable to malfunctioning. As of right now, only the Council of the Damned has advanced far enough to have guns, though they're not used that much, only by non-magic users.

2. Mid to late 1800's.

3. There's ALOT of Lovecraftian influence in this universe. Lotsa dark stuff... Arkus is heavy magic-based, even the air you breathe contains it.