The Iron Baronetcy

Introduction

The Celestial Realm is rich in minerals and mortals (mainly humans) have spent centuries mining for priceless metals and coal. Much of the precious ore that lies buried in the Losivaa islands and gigantic floating glaciers has properties beyond the understanding of human settlers, but the Iron Baronetcy's wealth comes from mining and trading in the ice cold of the Celestial Realm.

The Baronetcy

The first Iron Baron was Larakh Trodin, a noble of the Solustine Kingdom, who discovered that the Frost Margin was rich in ore. He made the Solustine crown very wealthy, but his son Berek grew resentful at filling the King’s coffers. When Berek succeeded his father under the reign of the sickly Solustine boy king Gridin, he saw an opportunity to settle uninhabited Losivaa. Berek took the title of Baron with him and seized Losivaa where he was convinced iron and other ores could be mined and smelted. Gridin’s regent, Tholasin was outraged, but quickly realised the Solustine Kingdom lacked the forces to seize the Losivaa back from the upstart baron. Instead Berek offered Gridin a deal. Instead of paying the taxes of the King, the Iron Baronetcy would remain loyal to the crown, and supply iron, copper, coal and other resources that could be dug out of the Losivaa. This placed the Iron Baronetcy in a position of power over the Solustine Kingdom; one which the Solustines have attempted to break ever since by establishing their own mines, but so far without the same degree of success. The Baronetcy is currently ruled by a triumvirate, the three Khorwinden brothers, Aesaf, Trayje and Martar, whose only loyalties are to another, and who view the rest of the mortal fiefdoms with immense suspicion, believing that their wealth and power is constantly under threat externally and internally. Not all their suspicions are entirely misguided. The Iron Baronetcy occupies just one of the Losivaa in the warmer and more inhabitable region of the Celestial Realm, but numerous islands in the Frost Margin. The main Losivaa is Havanholdt, a large island of jutting mountains, wintery forests and deep, dark lakes. The great furnaces of the mining colony of Dorenholdt can be seen from the Iron Baron’s capital, Douthand; and the smoke from its foundries rises into the clear air of the Celestial Realm. The people of the Iron Baronetcy are tough, pragmatic and skeptical, they know they control most of the mineral resources of the mortal fiefdoms in the Celestial Realm and have little time for the pretensions of the Solustines. Dotharian, Yanari humans and non humans are treated relatively equally in the Baronetcy, where nobody is granted any special statuses based on their origins, only on their capacity for hard work. The barons know that they are best served by staying allied to the Solustine Kingdom, but they also enjoy showing Solustine Kings that their loyalty does not come for free. In recent years, the wealth of the Baronetcy has grown by the arrival of the Laagar, hardy subterranean humanoids from the Frost Margins who are able to endure the harsh cold, dark conditions in the Baronetcy’s mines. The Laagar also have an affinity with all things metallic and have helped the iron masters of the Baronetcy discover precious ores within the rocks of the Losivaa. The Laagar are desperate for a home, their former Losivaa having been consumed by the ice, and are willing to tolerate the exploitation of the Baronetcy, for now.

Notable Baronites

Corman Soth - Frost Margin Miner

Corman Soth is an angry embittered man whose loyalties towards the Iron Barons have been misplaced. He was once a miner and led a team of human and Laagar diggers deep into the heart of the great Thogun Losivaa, where his lords believed a seam of sapphires could be extracted. As they dug deep, they were plagued by strange dreams and portents and Corman came to believe that the Losivaa itself was conscious and had spoken to him. When he discovered the seam of gemstones that the Barons looked for, instead of sapphires he found stones of the purest and most iridescent white. He took only a handful, uncertain of what he had uncovered and returned to Douthand with his men, only to find that one after another his comrades died in suspicious accidents once the stones had been handed over. He learned that the Barons had never expected to find sapphires, instead they looked for a stone of extraordinary power. Soth now hides from his former masters in the Frost Margins, having kept a handful of the stones for himself.

Iron Baronetcy Adventure Hook

The Iron Barons have lost six teams of miners in the past month and human and Laagar prospectors and diggers have downed tools, refusing to go deep into the ground until the danger has passed. The problems began when miners discovered a vast subterranean lake, and some claim they have seen a strange green light beneath the waters. Suraian scholars have travelled to the Baronetcy at the behest of the barons, and have reminded them that this Losivaa was touched by the chaos of the Devourer long ago.