Iron Kingdoms - Player's Handbook.pdf - Iron kingdoms and War Machine - lcrpg

The Iron Kingdoms

Players Handbook

dangerous deals with infernal powers. If this is true, the Iron

Kingdoms have yet to pay off this ancient debt. Considering the

poor historical record from this time period, no one has been able

to prove anything one way or the other. Only time will tell if the

legends have substance.

The Birth of the Iron

Kingdoms

With the Orgoth driven away, some opportunists tried to take

advantage of the situation, and small conflicts began to break out

just as they had in the old days of the Thousand Cities. The leaders

of the rebellion had other plans, though, and the budding warlords

were put down quickly and brutally. While the rebel armies kept

the peace, their leaders convened in Corvis. Though the city still

smoldered from the Scourge, it was the best meeting place in the

realm – centrally located and easy to travel to. Within the cold

marble chambers of Corvis City Hall, the rebel leaders held the

Council of Ten. Weeks of furious debate followed, but when it was

all over the famous Corvis Treaties had been drafted, and the Iron

Kingdoms were born.

More than a thousand years ago, the land that is now called the

Iron Kingdoms was a mire of warring human city-states. Strong

leaders would come and go, but in the chaotic realm then known as

the "Thousand Cities" no one could carve out a kingdom for long.

The continent's Elven and Dwarven nations, much older, wiser and

more stable, observed the tragic human conflict but chose not to

involve themselves. On the rare occasions when they were attacked

by a foolish human warlord, their response was quick and

devastating. Before long, the Thousand Cities learned not to

meddle with them.

Strictly speaking, the term "Iron Kingdoms" refers to the lands of

Men; those kingdoms which signed the Corvis Treaties after the

rebellion against the Orgoth. There are five official Kingdoms in

total: Cygnar, Khador, Llael, Ord and the Protectorate of Menoth.

In the frigid north, near the Glass Peaks, the dwarven kingdom of

Rhul is found. To the northeast lies the mysterious homeland of the

elves, Ios. In practice, the nearby Elven and Dwarven nations are

often included when Men speak of the "Iron Kingdoms," (a fact

which annoys Elvenkind to no end) and these realms will be fully

detailed along with their human neighbors. The last kingdom

informally included when speaking of the "Iron Kingdoms" is the

hostile island nation of Cryx, ruled over by the dragon Lord Toruk.

All these nations – and others yet to be discovered – share the

continent of Immoren.

Just when things looked blackest, when it seemed as if the human

civilization of the continent was doomed to an eternity of conflict,

the first Orgoth longboat arrived on the beach near what is now the

city of Caspia.

The Orgoth explorers were representatives of a tightly disciplined

military society hailing from somewhere across the Gulf of

Cygnar. They were a nation of humans, but they were savage,

callous folk with many dark and unsavory customs. Seeing an

opportunity for conquest, they immediately launched an invasion

and a war of domination. The citizens of the Thousand Cities were

taken by surprise, but they fought valiantly – and to no avail. The

land eventually fell under Orgoth control, though there were two

centuries of scattered bloody resistance before the Thousand Cities

were totally subdued.

The Orgoth Empire occupied the land for a total of six hundred

years. During this time the invaders contemplated assimilating the

elves and dwarves, but the price of attacking these powerful

nations was deemed to be too high. The xenophobic and

unpredictable elves were left alone, and the dwarves of Rhul

became occasional Orgoth trading partners and nothing more.

(Some humans still hold a grudge, accusing the dwarves of being

collaborators, but this is uncommon by the time of the Witchfire

Trilogy.)

Nations of the Iron

Kingdoms

The Orgoth rule was without incident for four centuries.

Inevitably, a rebellion began to take shape, and another two

centuries of scattered conflict began. The Orgoth Empire was

eventually defeated and driven back across the sea, but during their

retreat they took the time to destroy almost all of their records,

artifacts and structures – to this day, historians know little about

them despite their centuries of occupation. The Orgoth also salted

the fields, poisoned wells and put cities to the torch. The Scourge

was their final act of barbarism.

The Kingdom of

Cygnar

Cygnar is the largest and most

powerful of the Iron Kingdoms.

Its capital is Caspia (pop 1.2

million), located at the southern

end of the Black River. It is also

the home to Corvis (pop 100k),

City of Ghosts, birthplace of the

Corvis Treaties, and a critical

There are many strange legends from the last days of the rebellion

– tales of dark, mysterious allies that helped to drive away the

invaders. Some say that it would have been impossible to defeat

the Orgoth without help, and the rebel leaders had to make

trade nexus for the realm. Cygnar is a lawful land, led King Leto

Raelthorne. It is a wealthy kingdom with a strong military, and it is

home to skilled wizards and engineers. Cygnar has a sophisticated

government and culture, and is known to all as the jewel of the

Iron Kingdoms. Of course, the King's men can't be everywhere,

and there is still plenty of lawlessness and adventure in the wild

lands that lie outside Cygnar's modern cities and roads.

where the Black River crosses over into Rhul.

The King of Llael is the head of state in title only, and it is the

Council of Nobles in the capital of Marywyn that sees to the day-

to-day operation of the government. Llael has a torturously

complex system of government, making the Dwarven Moot look

like a paragon of efficiency. Currently, Llael is actually without a

regent; when the last king passed on, the line of ascension was a bit

muddled, and the matter has been tied up in the courts for eight

years. In the interim, the Council of Nobles has appointed a Prime

Minister (Lord Deyar Glabryn IX), but it looks like a permanent

position a little more every day.

King Leto the Younger, as he is known, dethroned his elder brother

Vinter Raelthorne IV, who was a savage and merciless man, as was

his father before him. The coup was bloody but quick, and when it

was over the land rejoiced and welcomed the new King with open

arms. Raelthorne the Elder was unfortunately able to evade his

execution and escape from his prison cell in Caspia, but he has not

been seen for several years. Most believe him to be dead.

The Protectorate of Menoth

The Kingdom of Ord

The Protectorate is the newest of all the Iron

Kingdoms. It was born of a religious schism

within Cygnar, wherein worshippers of the

ancient god Menoth began to contest the

state religion, the Church of Morrow.

Menoth's followers were small in number,

but their faith and piety were unrivaled. The

devout and vocal group felt that the Church

and the Kingdom as a whole were sliding

into corruption and decadence. They warned

of the price of wickedness, and of the

coming Armageddon, producing portents and prophecies to support

their claims. The common folk put little stock in their alarmist

tales, and the matter was given no official attention by Morrow's

Primarch. Ultimately, this was a critical mistake – the worshippers

of Menoth, weary of being ignored, decided to take action.

Something of a backwater territory, Ord

is the farthest to the west of any of the

Iron Kingdoms. Ord has a long, rugged

coastline, and many of its citizens live

near the water's edge and make their

living off the sea. It's a dangerous life, for

the waters of the western seas are harsh,

and pirates from the Scharde Islands are

often close at hand. These conditions

serve to breed the toughest, most skilled sailors anywhere, making

Ord's Royal Navy a force to be reckoned with despite their

somewhat antiquated ships.

The capital of Ord is the city of Merin, but the most famous place

in the realm is the disreputable town of Five Fingers. Situated near

the end of the Dragon's Tongue River, Five Fingers is a trade

nexus and naval station. There can be found the roughest sailors of

both the rivers and the seas. Sometimes even privateers in service

of the Lord of Wyrms will hide their colors and come to port for

supplies – or unwilling recruits. Another famous city of Ord is

Midfast, which guards the northern border and has repulsed both

barbarian hordes and Khadoran skirmishers in its bloody history.

Their discontent simmered for several years while they assembled

a secret army of zealots. What once was a good intentioned

(though misguided) movement began to take on sinister cult-like

traits. The extremist group began a campaign of sabotage, designed

to destabilize the state Church and provide "evidence" for their

prophecies of disaster. Their campaign was not wholly successful,

but it did touch off open hostilities involving the Church of

Morrow, Menoth's followers and Cygnar's standing army.

The present ruler of Ord is King Baird II, a great loud bear of a

man who is rumored to have lived a debauched youth and kept the

friendship of many criminals and cutthroats. King Baird was third

in line for the succession and had the crown thrust upon him after

the unfortunate deaths of his older brothers. It is rumored King

Baird secretly enjoys trips to Five Fingers, and that his true court is

there rather than among the capital in Merin.

When the dust settled Menoth's followers were in control of a

fragment of the eastern region of Cygnar. After weeks of

negotiations it was decided that Cygnar would officially retain

control of the eastern territory, but that the state religion would be

different there. The arrangement persists on paper to this day, but

in practice the Protectorate of Menoth is a separate kingdom, ruled

by a strict theocracy. Any citizen or visitor who breaks the strict

rules of conduct is punished severely, and the worship of Menoth

permeates every aspect of life. The mortal leader of the

Protectorate is the High Scrutator and Fist of Menoth, His

Eminence the Hierarch Garrick Voyle.

The Kingdom of Llael

An unremarkable kingdom with little natural

resources, magical or technical skill, Llael

manages to eke out an existence by exploiting

its proximity to the Black River trade route.

The realm has but one true blessing – ample

deposits of coal, without which its economy

would be truly crippled. The largest coal town

in the realm is Leryn, scarcely a league from

The Kingdom of Khador

This rustic realm is a sharp

contrast to the more modern

kingdoms of Cygnar, Llael

and Ord. It is a harsh land

with few resources, sparsely

populated by a tough and

grim people. Its citizens are

simple folk, but they are

intelligent, honorable and

fiercely independent. Their

ruler, Queen Ellyn Vanar

XXI comes from a long line

of rebel warriors, and can

trace her lineage back to the first landed nobles that fought against

the Orgoth invasion centuries ago. Not surprisingly, the Khador

have a strong military tradition. Everyone trains in arms and tactics

from almost the time they can walk, and every able-bodied citizen

is considered to be in the military reserves. Even the Queen herself

will take to the battlefield, fighting shoulder to shoulder with her

soldiers. Wizardry and sorcery are uncommon among the Khador,

but their regiments are well supplied with fearsome battle-clerics.

Beyond the Iron

Kingdoms

The Iron Kingdoms are by no means the only nations on the

continent of Immoren. There are sizeable enclaves of Dwarves and

Elves adjacent to the lands of Men, and to the west across the dark

seas of the Broken Coast there is the island realm of Cryx, home to

the Lord of Wyrms. The continent's eastern reaches are a hostile

wasteland known as the Bloodstone Marches, in which nothing is

thought to live.

Rhul – The Land of the Dwarves

Compared to the

dynamic kingdoms of

Men and the strange

doings of the

inscrutable elves, the

dwarves are a bastion

of order and reason.

Their society has

been without major upheaval for over a thousand years, and the

history of Rhul traces back longer than any other established

civilization in the region. Even their civil wars are more like duels,

being organized and adjudicated by the dwarven Parliament,

known among their own kind as the Moot. The traditional leaders

of the Moot are the Stone Lords, aged and respected dwarven

paladins who can trace their bloodline all the way back to the

Thirteen Clans who first founded the dwarven nation. The other

members of the Moot are representatives from the Hundred

Houses, the most powerful landed clans. It is this group that is

responsible for forging the laws of dwarven society, using an

incredibly lengthy set of procedural rules called simply the

"Codex."

In years gone by, Khador has had an aggressive, expansionist

agenda. Centuries past have seen skirmishes with its neighbors, and

Queen Vanar's ancestors have even annexed resource-rich land

from Llael and Ord, under the pretense that the territory was

rightfully theirs by the agreements of the Corvis Treaties. Khador

may appear too weak today to seize more territory, but Llael and

Ord are still not eager to try and take back the lands they lost –

despite their poor resources in magic and technology, the Khador

are warriors second to none, and any military action against them is

bound to be expensive.

Per people in Cygnar, Khador is a rustic and primitive kingdom,

and some aspects of that analysis are true. But they seem to bee

adapting to the times better than some expected, and have made

some strides forward. Their resources are also adequate, just a bit

more spread out and they haven't been able to take advantage of

them as much as Cygnar. In many respects Khador is behind

Cygnar in developing various technologies, but they were quick to

see the advantages of rail travel and have spent a great deal of

money to get the system underway. Cygnar has simply placed this

as a somewhat lower priority, given they already have good roads,

excellent river travel, and other alternatives to shipping goods.

Across all the known lands dwarvenkind are renowned for their

fine craftsmanship, engineering, and prowess at building. Any

child knows the quality of dwarven stone craft, and the stout folk's

love of gold, gems and other treasures of the earth is a truism.

What many people do not know is that the dwarven skill in

stonework is not restricted to the dark spaces of tunnels and

dungeons. They also craft many magnificent castles, keeps, towers,

temples, and bridges, a fact that shocks most first time visitors to

the great city of Ghord.

Khador has a long-standing rivalry with Cygnar as the two most

dominant kingdoms of the region. There are periodic bloody

skirmishes between these two nations, particularly along their

shared border. Other battles are sometimes fought by

intermediaries such as hired mercenaries, although both

governments usually deny responsibility for these hostile actions.

Tensions continue to mount and some major armed struggle seems

inevitable between King Leto and Queen Vanar. Such a war could

plunge the entire region back into chaos and strife.

The Bloodstone Marches

Ios – Home of the Elves

East of the Protectorate and Cygnar, the land becomes dry and

harsh. Thin forests quickly give way to spires of reddish rock,

baked earth and blowing sand. The land is so hostile and seemingly

worthless that little exploration has been done to date, and the few

brave adventurers who have attempted to

cross this desert have never come back.

The common wisdom is that the

Bloodstone Marches are an unbreakable

barrier, and what lies beyond is surely not

worth the price of the crossing.

Elvenkind are reclusive, secretive – many

would even say xenophobic. They are

also chaotic and unpredictable, at least to

the more ordered minds of Men and

Dwarves. There is one thing for certain,

though – those who approach the land of

Ios without being invited do not return.

What little trade there is between the

Elves and other races is done in such a

way as to conceal the homeland from the

sight of strangers. There are rumors, of

course... some say that Elvenkind are

masters of the elements, that the trees and

stones whisper secrets to them, or that their cities are built around

the temples of living gods as old as the world itself... but no one

can or will confirm any of it. Even the rare Elves that choose to

leave the homeland are silent on the topic.

No one, not even the most mad and

reclusive hermits live in this blasted and

withered realm. The only settlement

anywhere near the Bloodstone Marches is

the small mining town of Pierson's Pit.

The Pit lies on the edge of the Marches, a

few leagues from the river, and the hard

folk who live there make their living

digging for coal or gold and shipping it

out to Cygnar or Llael. The Pit-folk know more than anyone about

the Bloodstone Marches, but their advice boils down to this – stay

out.

The Kingdom of Cryx

Far to the west, in the pirate-infested

coastal waters past the Broken Coast of

western Cygnar, lie the Scharde Islands.

Upon the largest isle (for which the chain

is named) lies the kingdom of Cryx. The

jagged, foreboding coastline of Scharde

hints at the realm's true nature – it is a

land even more dark and treacherous than

it appears. Its inhabitants are fell troll-kin,

beastly ogres, evil Men and warped half-

breeds. Dwarves and Elves are all but

unknown in Cryx, except perhaps as

cowering slaves in the obsidian palaces of the wealthy, or as

expensive livestock at the waterfront markets.

Races

Strictly speaking, the term "Iron Kingdoms" refers to the lands of

Men. There are five Kingdoms in total: Cygnar, Khador, Llael, Ord

and the Protectorate of Menoth. In the frigid north, near the Glass

Peaks the Dwarven kingdom of Rhul is found. To the northeast lies

the mysterious homeland of the Elves, Ios. In practice, the nearby

Elven and Dwarven nations are often included when Men speak of

the "Iron Kingdoms," (a fact which annoys Elvenkind to no end)

and these realms will be fully detailed along with their human

neighbors. All these nations – and others yet to be discovered –

share the continent of Immoren.

The inhabitants of this blighted land all live in fear under the

shadow of their ruler, an ancient dragon named Toruk. The Lord of

Wyrms, as he is known on the mainland, has utterly dominated his

territory for centuries, and his privateers terrorize the western

coasts of Cygnar and Ord. Toruk is believed to be the oldest dragon

in the world – perhaps even the first dragon. He uses his immense

size and power to stay personally involved in the politics of his

realm, gleefully putting down would-be rebels or rabble-rousers

with claws and fire. His royal court is held in a gigantic black stone

palace, warmed by the heat of the wounded earth beneath. For

now, King Toruk seems content to rule his remote island realm, but

everyone fears the day he decides to expand his border

Dwarves are a common sight in the human-dominated territories,

but Elves are solitary and rarely leave their ancestral home. Other

races from far away are seen from time to time, but it is without a

doubt Men, Dwarves and Elves who make up the vast majority of

Immoren's population. If a DM wants to use gnomes, halflings or

any other classic fantasy race there's no reason not to – the world

of Caen is a big place and there's room for everyone. However,

these other races are alien to the core of the Iron Kingdoms game

setting and will not be developed in IK materials. As the IK line

Humans

Total IK Population: 20,300,000

develops, new races suitable for player characters will be unveiled.

Iron Kingdoms - Player's Handbook.pdf

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