Twenty years ago, a horrible infection -dubbed the Blight by those who saw it- swept over the world and decimated plant and wildlife. What land was not withered was cultivated and preserved by cloisters of civilization; Conclaves. The world outside the Conclaves is still ravaged by the Blight, threatening to always sweep in and kill what usable land remains.
In an effort to prevent the already limited food stocks from becoming strained further, people created machines to assist in the work force. Steam powered, Clockwork, coal burning; a multitude of different sorts of semi-intelligent machines. All of them built with Robot-Ethics built into them: The Three Laws of Robotics.
However, at a young age, one girl sought to grant the robots something greater. A freedom that they never knew they could have.
Humanized/Robotized characters.