Embark upon a journey of adventure and intrigue in a steam-powered world fueled by magic and contested with gunfire and steel. Armed with mechanika and accompanied by mighty steamjacks, explore the soot-covered cities of the Iron Kingdoms and the fell ruins of ancient powers.
Class Based Pilot, Wizard, Scientist, etc. Log In. New Account or Log In. Hide my password. Get the newsletter. Subscribe to get the free product of the week! More recent events are described by the passage of generations or significant local events, such as before the river flooded. But for convenience major events in this chapter are depicted with standard Iron Kingdoms dates.
The standard dating system was created by humans and divides history into two distinct epochs defined by the struggle against the Orgoth. Older dates count backward from the start of the Rebellion against the Orgoth and are listed as BR Before Rebellion , while recent dates count forward and are listed as AR After Rebellion.
The sophistication of their crafts varied considerably from tribe to tribe, though most were armed with weapons of wood and stone. The shaping of bronze was known to the largest villages, where simple smithies blazed. Devourer shamans boasted other gifts of their predatory god and used them to terrorize the Menite humans who eventually settled in the plains and valleys near the Black River. One of the enduring legacies of the Molgur was a shared language, created from a variety of previously dissimilar tongues.
Languages descended from the ancient Molgur tongue are still spoken today by trollkin, ogrun, gobbers, bogrin, Tharn, and many human wilderness tribes. Four thousand years after the rise of the elves and dwarves, Menoth returned to mankind to give them the guidance needed to become civilized. This lore was not shared by all, however. Menoth wanted some of his children to succeed better than others.
He is an angry god and was embittered by how many of his children had gone over to the Wurm. The one who heard the words of Menoth the Lawgiver most clearly was a man named Cinot. This priest received the Gifts of Menoth, the tools whereby humanity would rise to dominance. These gifts are considered the foundations of Menite civilization: the Flame, the Wall, the Sheaf, and the Law. The Flame gave humans fire, by which they could work even in winter or in the dark of night.
It also burned their foes and served to forge weapons of war. The Wall let these people pile worked stone until it reached the sky, surrounding their towns and dividing them from the wilds. The Sheaf gave mankind the knowledge of sowing seeds and reaping grain, providing ample food they could store against winter.
The Law gave them the codes by which they determined who would rule and who would serve and laid down the ways their strict god would be praised and remembered. The Kingdom of Morrdh Some former Menites settled in a valley amid the vast forest now called the Thornwood. A religious schism resulted in these people abandoning the worship of the Lawgiver, but they retained the gifts of civilization and employed these to create well-fortified settlements.
The people of Morrdh killed and drove away the people of the wilds, seizing what lands they wished. Morrdhic armies were led by lords boasting dark powers hitherto unknown to Immoren.
The Lords of Morrdh could make the dead rise to fight in their stead. Though little remains now of Morrdh but ruins buried in the swampy depths of the Thornwood, tales of the Black Kingdom are still told by the light of campfires across western Immoren.
Some gatorman tribes unearth the abandoned stones and put them to new use, finding they are redolent with ancient spiritual power. According to the legends, the blessings of the Wurm were strong among the tribes of the Molgur. Some human tribes could channel the power of the Devourer to flow into their bodies, transforming into hulking brutes with bestial strength and savagery. In accepting these gifts humanity vowed to tame the natural world, to exploit its resources and subjugate its inhabitants where it was possible, and to isolate themselves from the wilderness where it was not.
For the people of the wilds, these gifts represented the forsaking of freedom and oneness with the wilds, the giving up of the hunt. These tribes of humanity ceded the wilds to those more able to survive them. Cinot applied these gifts to found the city of Icthier. Led by other prophets, these early Menites spread northward and then west, creating lasting townships and fiefdoms where they went. As Menoths people spread across western Immoren, so too did their faith.
Around BR by human reckoning, the sky in the east lit with a supernatural intensity, burning day and night for a time and putting profound fear in all who saw it. Throughout Immoren there was a rise in freakish unseasonable weather: fierce howling winds, tornadoes, and hurricanes together with frequent shaking of the earth.
In some places the earth cracked open and lava flowed like blood. Ash and fire fell from the sky. As strange as these sights must have seemed to the peoples of western Immoren, what they witnessed was only the distant echo of a tremendous calamity in the east. Soon enough in the west the weather and climate returned to normal, and the Time of the Burning Sky became just one of many legends.
What no one in the west knew was that this sight signified the collapse of the mightiest and largest civilization on Immoren the elven Empire of Lyoss, which had endured for six thousand years. Only the dwarves in their northern mountains had some apprehension, having had limited contact and trade with the people of Lyoss.
Immoren had been fractured and changed by the cataclysm. A deep chasm called the Abyss opened at the center of the continent.
The region surrounding this became the Stormlands, an unnatural and violent region, where unrelenting lightning raged. A large portion of central Immoren, once fertile and lush, became barren and blasted, creating the Bloodstone Desert that divides the continent. Many creatures were left irrevocably changed by this period, particularly in eastern Immoren. The Molgur descended from the Wyrmwall Mountains or the forests at their base to attack any poorly defended settlements on the fringes of the frontier.
Tributes were demanded, with dire consequences for those who did not provide sufficient recompense to the war chiefs. Initially the Menites were easy prey, unprepared to defend themselves.
What the Molgur chiefs did not apprehend was that the descendants of Icthier would become a force to be reckoned with. This was a people unlike any other they had faced.
Tharn legends tell of the first clash with a formidable Menite warrior named Valent at a place called Thrace.
Filled with holy zeal, Valent slaughtered the Tharn by the score. He united the Menites of the Black River delta and became the first great priest-king of the era. In BR at the mouth of the Black River he founded the Hold of Calacia, a fortress that would in time become a thriving city. A long wall of connected fortifications was built at his behest to protect the regions farmlands; this was the Shield of Thrace.
With its protection the people of Calacia thrived and multiplied. They mastered the working of iron and steel, allowing their soldiers superior weapons and armor. They demonstrated discipline and tactics by which they humbled the warriors of the Molgur. Menite priests marched among them chanting prayers that could summon fire to drive away those who revered the Wurm. For centuries the Calacians fought to protect themselves, seeking mostly to hold their lands and only occasionally to expand them.
The Molgur continued to raid any assailable settlements and occasionally gathered in sufficient numbers to penetrate the Shield of Thrace. Calacian soldiers fought against them as they were able, but the wall was vast and could not be completely garrisoned.
There were always places vulnerable to attack. The city of Icthier felt the impact of the Time of the Burning Sky more singularly than elsewhere in the west: the sudden desolation left farmlands barren and forced the Menites to abandon this sacred place. This exodus from Icthier put them on a collision course with the Molgur as they moved into the untamed wilds. Though countless battles were fought between the Molgur and the people of Calacia over the following centuries, a hostile equilibrium was established between these peoples.
It was not until the rise of the zealous and bloodthirsty ruler Priest-King Golivant that matters took a turn. Unlike Valent, Golivant was not content to protect his people but sought to break the Molgur entirely. He significantly expanded the armies of Calacia and, when ready, ignited the first Menite crusades, seeking to slaughter all who worshipped the Wurm.
Uninterested in spoils or vengeancemotives the chiefs might have understood Golivant was bent on obliteration, burning entire Molgur villages to the ground. The Menites began to settle in the fertile region where the Black River emptied into the ocean. They discovered these to be excellent lands, rich in resources for all their needs. The soil was amenable to crops, the ocean offered ready fishing, and both quarries and mines were established nearby, allowing the creation of new settlements and towns.
These new outposts of. Although the eastern tribes were surprised and appalled at Golivants bloody crusades, the Molgur were not a people inclined toward collective action. Villages yet untouched were glad for the misfortunes of their rivals, and even when driven from their lands, proud Molgur chiefs did not acknowledge weakness or ask for aid. Molgur warbands had drawn. Only the mighty trollkin chieftain Horfar Grimmr understood the true threat posed by Calacia and moved to oppose Golivant directly.
Grimmr went to one Molgur village after another and confronted their chieftains. He challenged their courage and demanded they bow to him and band together to wage war against Golivant. Duels were fought, with Grimmr and his staunchest champions attaching dozens of tribal banners to their cause.
He promised that together they would shatter the Shield of Thrace and burn Calacia to its foundations. He wielded the axe Rathrok, the World Ender, said to be a weapon that could channel the strength and hunger of the Wurm. With this axe in hand and backed by a monumental war host, victory against the forces of Calacia seemed certain. Those who followed Grimmr represented the largest and strongest Molgur horde ever assembled.
They stormed out of the Wyrmwall Mountains toward a clash where the fate of the wilds and civilization itself lay in the balance. Human historians insist the Molgur crashed against the Shield of Thrace and were shatteredbut this war was not so simple.
Trollkin legends describe how the far-flung defenders manning the wall were not prepared for such an onslaught. Grimmr had chosen his attack well and descended on the Shield at dozens of locations, his warriors bearing ladders hewn from logs. They overwhelmed the defenders and seized portions of the wall. For a time Horfar Grimmr and his forces plundered the heartlands of Calacia.
Grimmr sought to restrain his followers, to pull them back to the wall to prepare for the battle to come, for he knew that Golivant had not yet shown his strength.
But the Molgur were not so easily controlled. With the taste of victory on their tongues they rampaged, ignoring the warnings of their chieftain. Just as Grimmr suspected, Golivant was even then raising an imposing army at Calacia. He marched forth to reclaim what had been taken. Scattered and disordered, the Molgur were unprepared for the Menite army, which possessed all the discipline they lacked.
Soon a large number of the Molgur had been killed or captured, and Golivant moved to confront Horfar Grimmr directly. They fought several battles in the shadow of the Shield of Thrace, and the Molgur were put on the defensive, yielding ground before the holy fire of the Menites. As these battles became desperate, more of the Molgur broke and fled. Only the resolute stayed with Horfar Grimmr, as they were surrounded. Rathrok took a weighty toll on the Calacians,. Eventually the trollkin chieftain was battered into submission and taken alive.
He was made an example of atop the wall, within sight of what Molgur remained: Horfar Grimmr was strapped to a Menofix and wracked by the Menites, who sought to break him.
In this Grimmr defied them, spitting curses upon his enemy until his lifes blood left him. So powerful were his epithets that their transcription had a power of its ownwords that resound down through the centuries with the power of the Wurm and the resolve of the trollkin kriels. His last act of defiance was not lost on the Molgur. Though they retreated into the mountains they continued to fight against the Calacians in the months and years to come.
They would never gather in such strength again, though, and their efforts ultimately proved fruitless. The Menites would endure, while the Molgur would dwindle. Although it would take them many centuries to be fully extinguished, the Molgur had been delivered a mortal wound with the death of Horfar Grimmr. Priest-King Golivant and his descendants continued to expand their realm.
They gathered armies to hunt the Molgur, burning their villages and rooting them out wherever they could be found.
Eventually these tribes fled the Wyrmwall Mountains entirely, scattering to the far north and the islands in the west. The largest tribes went north, though they would find no respite. Priest-King Khardovic arose from among the horselords of the plains beyond Morrdh and set about his own crusades.
Worshipers of the Wurm were put to the sword or flame wherever they could be found, though the Menites were reluctant to chase them into the mountains or the deep forests. In time there were none who would identify themselves as Molgur, though their legacy endured in legends. The shattering of the Molgur had a lasting impact on nearly every people living in the wilds. First, the amity among. The Kalmieri The stories of Horfar Grimmr and the other Molgur champions were not set down in stone for centuries after his death but were instead preserved by word of mouth.
These stories became an essential part of trollkin tradition. When these tales were inscribed, the runic depictions were abstracted and simplified from the versions of the tales told by chroniclers, who were expected to bring the stories to life. The stories of Horfar Grimmr and his companions have been collected as a epic tale called The Kalmieri.
This saga includes The Kalmieri Grimmr, also called The Grimmkar, relating Horfars deeds in detail, but also other kalmieri focusing on Horfars closest companions. These include his young champion Lokan Stoneheart as well as Blodsul, Felken, and the ogrun Korune Stonemet, who led thousands of his people against the Shield of Thrace. Northern scholars find it hard to reconcile this myth, asking why she would meddle with southern Molgur.
One theory is that Rathrok was not a gift but a curse. The axe emboldened Horfar Grimmr to attack Golivant and so brought about the fall of the Molgur. This prompted the surviving tribes to flee north, where they were eradicated by the crusades of Priest King Khardovic.
Khardovics legacy led to the Khardic Empire and lasting civilization in the north. Humans willing to give up their barbaric ways were allowed to convert to the worship of Menoth, but the Menites saw other races as unrepentant servants of the Wurm. Slaughtered and driven out, these races dwindled and were forced to seek remote places where they could eke out a frugal existence.
Some barbarians refused to kneel. The Tharn survived the early Menite crusades, as did several other wild human tribes such as the Vorgoi and Vindol. As a result of the hardships that had befallen these tribes during the waning years of the Molgur, many gobbers, bogrin, ogrun, and trollkin abandoned the worship of the Devourer Wurm. They still acknowledged him as their divine father, but they blamed the Beast of All Shapes for the excesses that had led to the downfall of the Molgur.
Most of those who survived turned to their divine mother, Dhunia, whose powers of fertility were sorely needed. Devourer worship persisted only in isolated places, particularly on the western islands and among the most insular communities. The Dhunian awakening was most profound among the trollkin kriels, leading to a powerful sense of kinship among them. Dhunian shamans began to explore the ties of blood connecting trollkin to full-blood trolls, eventually approaching trolls and learning to communicate with them.
Full-blood trolls answered the call to join the kriels. They assisted in rebuilding villages, carrying stone and wood, or defending the kriels from their enemies. This kinship allowed the emergence of trollkin warlocks who could commune with trolls and command them in battle. With such creatures supporting them, the kriels prospered.
The trollkin were not alone in experiencing a mystical awakening after the collapse of the Molgur. The organization known as the Circle Orboros was created in the aftermath of the Menite crusades, built amid the ashes of the Molgur. The founding of this organization is shrouded in mystery. It is believed that its. From its earliest days the masters of this organization entered into binding pacts with powerful supernatural beings such as the Tree of Fate.
Druids of the Circle Orboros were the first to systematically study and understand the primordial power of the Wurm. They identified a phenomenon known since the dawn of humanity, whereby some youths were born different from their peers, possessing predatory instincts, a connection to wild animals, and the ability to summon the raw elements.
Such youths went through a time of madness in their early years, confused by unusual sensations and strange powers. This was called the wilding, which represented a direct connection to Orboros, an entity the druids described as encompassing both the Wurm and the natural world. Among the human tribes of the wilderness, the children who underwent the wilding were viewed as blessed and became shamans of the Wurm, proving to be capable spiritual leaders.
But in civilization, such children were thought cursed, touched by darkness. Among the strictest Menite communities such children were sometimes killed to save them from themselves. The druids made it a priority to find and collect those born with this talent, to teach them to harness their powers. Druids saw the rise of Menite civilization as a cosmological peril, one that would change the world. The nature of this threat had been proven by the actions of Golivant and Khardovic, each of whom had reshaped western Immoren through bloodshed.
The Circle Orboros knew there would be no return to a time when civilization held no sway. Yet they felt compelled to organize and stand against the encroachment of structured society, and they set themselves to the futile task of slowing its spread. Members of this organization did not set about preserving the untamed wilderness for its own sake but rather because of a greater underlying struggle.
All the battles of history, from the foundation of the first Menite settlements to the fall of Horfar Grimmr, were but reflections of the strife between the Devourer Wurm and Menoth. So far as the Circle Orboros was concerned, neither of these gods could be allowed to win the struggle victory for either would have dire consequences for Caen. The world would endure only so long as these two divinities were locked in a clash with no end.
The shattering of the Molgur had tipped the scales in Menoths favor. The most perceptive druids foresaw that in centuries to come the wilderness would be choked off by cities, roads, and the industry of man. The spread of these was akin to cancerous tumors across the body of Orboros.
If Orboros were weakened too much, it would provoke the Devourer Wurm to abandon his clash with Menoth and return to Caen in a frenzy of destruction. Amid his wrath, mankind would be obliterated along with all other races of Caen. The Circle Orboros took a stand against that inevitable doom. Those who joined the Circle, also called blackclads, swore pacts to try to limit the rise of cities, whether by culling populations,. They were too few to stop all progress but worked to delay an apocalypse the Menites seemed eager to hasten.
In the process they worked to master power over the natural forces, tapping into ley lines below the surface of the world. They learned to control certain breeds of wild beasts and to construct guardians of wood and stone.
They sought to understand and influence various wilderness peoples, employing them as an information network and sometimes as unwitting pawns in their far-reaching plans. The blackclads became respected and feared in the deep wilds, seen as prophets and sages.
Tribal peoples who continued to worship the Devourer Wurm often entered into alliances with blackclads, viewing them similarly to their own shamans. The Circle Orboros fostered relationships with these peoples, even borrowing able-bodied warriors for their strength of arms.
These warriors evolved into a group called the Wolves of Orboros, a secret society with members among hundreds of scattered villages and towns. The onset of what human scholars call the Thousand Cities Era was notable to the people of the wilds primarily for how they were increasingly pushed into inhospitable regions.
Mankind spread and multiplied, erecting fortified townships and walled villages across the best lands, at the mouths of rivers, and wherever sufficient soil existed for crops. This period also saw some members of wilderness races giving up their traditions to join the humans. Trollkin, gobbers, and ogrun moved to the cities to seek their livelihoods in peace. Though such individuals were not welcomed as equals, they were allowed to contribute and make homes for themselves.
The blackclads of the newly created Circle Orboros found the early centuries of this era to their liking despite the spread of keeps and townships.
At first their efforts to forestall human civilization seemed fruitful. Seeking to keep humanity divided, they manipulated a multitude of petty princes and tyrants into destructive wars, forestalling unity and the risk of renewed crusades. However, they knew such efforts would not avail them indefinitely. A sharper divide began to form between lands tamed by man and the wild places humanity feared. The deep mountains, the impenetrable forests, the swampsmost of these remained in the grip of wilderness peoples, who were slowly regaining their numbers.
They could not confront the armed might of the rising city-states on their own terms but if pursued could melt back into their native terrain and slay any who followed. One of the most momentous historical events of this era was little noted in the wilds: the Ascension of the Twins, the first gods to arise from those who were mortal-born. This era saw the unfolding of the faiths of these gods, whose teachings and philosophies would do much to transform civilization.
The Circle Orboros saw the rise of the Twins as a boon to its cause,. However, the blackclads failed to anticipate how much the teachings of the Twins would strengthen human civilization. This ensured the eventual supremacy of the Khards, with Sveynod Skelvoro declaring himself emperor in BR. The spread of intellectual thought promoted by these religions eventually prompted new forms of governance and advances in mathematics, engineering, and the natural sciences. These allowed mankind to push deeper into the wilds, to tame landscapes formerly inhospitable, and to build denser and more sprawling cities.
Such cities required more farmland to feed their populations; woods were cleared, swamps were drained, and the land was prepared for crops. In all cases, small tribes of bogrin, bog trogs, gatormen, and trollkin were driven out to make room for humanity. The leaders of the Circle Orboros saw this unlikely outcome as the intervention of Zevanna Agha. The Old Witch had feigned an alliance with the blackclads for centuries before this, then turned on them after learning their secrets.
It is thought she conspired to shield the Khards from the plague to ensure the ascension of the Khardic Empire. Kos soon surrendered, followed by the Skirov not long after. In time the Khardic Empire would conquer lands until it stretched across almost half of western Immoren. The changes affecting human civilization were slow and subtle. Additionally, there was every sign that the Menites might put an early end to Morrowans and Thamarites alike in the early days of these faiths.
Efforts to expunge Morrowans as heretics continued for centuries, but this new faith endured and spread, gaining a lasting hold in the cities of western Immoren. Despite the efforts of the blackclads, stronger nations and kingdoms began to emerge, consolidating the Thousand Cities.
Caspia, the successor state to ancient Calacia, became a major power in the southeast, Midar toward the center of western Immoren, and Thuria on the western coast. In the north there was the eventual rise of Khard, Skirov, Umbrey, and the unification of the Kossites.
Eventually Tordor and Rynyr would also grow to dominance. The early centuries of this era saw the toppling of at least one major kingdom, though the Circle Orboros could claim no credit for it. This was the collapse of the long-enduring and much-loathed Kingdom of Morrdh in BR, which after a long decline finally met its end amid wars with the Midar.
The collapse of this kingdom was a boon to several wilderness peoples in the fringes of the Thornwood and enabled that ancient forest to be reclaimed. Trollkin kriels, Tharn tribes, and gatorman conclaves moved to seize territory once denied them by the armies of Morrdh. With the help of the blackclads and their mastery of earth, Morrdhic ruins sank below the overgrown surface and were forgotten.
While the Khards consolidated power in the north, the foundations for a wholly unnatural empire were laid on the islands to the east. Just before BR the Dragonfather clashed in the skies once more with his progeny. If you have any other trouble downloading iron kingdoms core rulebook post it in comments and our support team or a community member will help you!
The Young Pope Soundtrack Download. Jan 10, - 1. Simulator; 3. Reshaped in the cataclysm that destroyed an ancient empire and forever altered the continent, these lands have claimed countless lives over the millennia. And buried with these lost souls are ancient secrets waiting to be uncovered, secrets that can provide answers to otherwise inscrutable questions. Searching for these answers is an unlikely group of skorne adventurers whose journey is at the heart of The Treason of Dakaan.
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