We've already established that this isn't a joke. It's part of a school project for one of our classes.
The idea, as previously stated by Jacko, is to have a central base starting faction, which, after a brief time, can become modern technology or sorcery, at the behest of the player.
I also fail to see anything laughable about the concept of an alternate history in whence, magic and machinery live side by side. Such a concept is nothing new.