Rebellion and the Corvis Treaties

Era beginning/end

The logistics of the eventual overthrow of the Orgoth conquerors are infinitely complex, but two major factors gave the Immorese the tools they needed to ultimately drive the invaders from their shores. One was the Gift of Magic, brought to humankind by Thamar’s bargain with the infernals. The other was alchemy (see Alchemist), the first science of magic. Through the combination of magic and alchemy, the people of western Immoren were able to construct the weapons that made the Rebellion possible. The first Human sorcerers had appeared in 137 BR and within a century alchemy would provide new weapons to fight the Orgoth.

One of the most important of these weapons was Firearms. Invented by Alchemist Oliver Gulvont in 28 AR, the earliest firearm relied on relatively simple mechanisms, but like its modern counterparts, it utilized alchemical blasting powder to propel shot. The efficacy of blasting powder as a weapon had already been proven in one of the earliest battles of the Rebellion, which took place at the fortress of Fharin in 1 BR. The Orgoth governor had announced a tithe of eight thousand slaves to be sent across the sea to the Orgoth homelands—a tithe that disproportionately targeted priests of both the Morrowan and Menite faiths. As the people of Fharin spontaneously rose up against the Orgoth, alchemists passed out explosives that helped swing the battle in favor of the rebels.

The uprising at Fharin lit the fuse of the Rebellion, but the first great battle of the age was what came to be known as the Battle of the Hundred Wizards. On a Tordoran field in 32 AR, rebels unleashed two of their most potent weapons— firearms and battle wizards—in a clash with Orgoth soldiers and warwitches. Smoke blackened the sky, the earth itself cracked apart, and the air was filled with lightning and fire. This battle was a major blow against the Orgoth, but even the power of magic could not alone crush the occupiers’ mighty armies.

Although it was ultimately victorious, the Rebellion was neither easy nor quick, and nearly every victory was followed by a subsequent defeat. As groups of rebel Alchemists unified into the Order of the Golden Crucible and continued to refine firearm technology, a new development was needed to drive the Orgoth from Immorese shores.

That development took nearly two centuries of bloody fighting to arrive. As arcanists and Alchemists were smuggled to Caspia in order to build greater weapons of war, the first seeds of ultimate victory over the Orgoth were planted during the Mechankia Revolution, when arcane innovations and alchemical advances were brought together to create the earliest automatons and other new inventions.

In 191 AR, the first colossal strode forth from the gates of Caspia. Even though they were rudimentary in comparison to their later brethren, these early war machines were the precursors of the modern warjacks and laborjacks (See Steamjacks) that are such an integral part of life in the Iron Kingdoms today, and they struck the decisive blow in the war against the Orgoth. Combining the mechanikal might of the colossals with the Magic mastery of battle wizards and the killing power of the newly evolved fFirearms, the rebels were able to cast off the yoke of the Orgoth tyrants altogether, although it would take another decade of intense fighting before the last of the blackships departed the continent. The Orgoth did not go gently. They demolished virtually everything they left behind, razing whole cities to the ground, destroying records, and burning what could not be taken in an event known as the Scourge.

In the aftermath of the Rebellion’s success, the Corvis Treaties—named for the city in which they were signed— defined the boundaries of the four modern Iron Kingdoms: Cygnar in the south, Khador in the north, Llael in the east, and Ord in the west. These nations stood for centuries to come, with all but Llael enduring until the time of the Claiming.

Although the Corvis Treaties did not mark an end to strife and struggle, they ushered the people of western Immoren into a new age—one free from Orgoth oppression. In the centuries that followed, the greatest threats to humanity’s kingdoms came from one another—or from within. But even as memories of the Orgoth faded, other threats grew in the shadows.