I was reading Penny Arcade today and they linked to a game called Malifaux (http://www.malifaux.com). While it is a miniature tactical combat game, their website has a detailed history section and a variety of faction write-ups that give a fascinating look into the world behind the game. I found it to be a solid read with some good use of themes including fairy tales and steampunk. If you're bored and would like to take a look, I think it is certainly worth it for idea mining.
I've heard Malifaux discussed several times by 40k players but I never checked it out. The fluff is pretty cool. Weird but cool.
It reminded me of a mix between Girl Genius and Deliria.
Dabbled in it. It's ok. Felt kind of restricted game wise though, since it revolved heavily around named characters very specific to the faction at hand.
M.