Empire of Iron
By Virgil Shelton
We’ve spent the last three and a half months meticulously combing the ruins under the shadow of the Urun Peaks (mountain range on the border between Curath and the Caliharah). The summer sun has been brutal. I started out this expedition excited but must admit I don’t find myself cut out for this sort of work. Up until now working with books had suited me just fine. I had begun to wonder if my lust for adventure had been somewhat ill advised and perhaps I should trade my muck boots back in for my scholar’s robes. But finally Eos has seen fit to bless our labors with that which we have sought these long months. I believe we have discovered what can only be a bonafid relic of the Empire of Iron.
At first I thought that the earth covered pole was only a piece of petrified wood that the workers had uncovered. I idly dismissed it as refuse, deposited by a long since evaporated river. It was only when a cook tried to use it to tend a fire did I notice that it had a most unique glow to its material when exposed to heat. I took the item to my tent and inspected it closer. What I found was astonishing. The pole was not of wood turned to stone but a metal the likes of which I’ve never seen. Once carefully cleaned and polished, it was undoubtedly a sword, but I never imagined that a sword could ever be so light and yet as hard as iron. The metal was almost blue like silver and seemed to have ripples running through it but was smooth to the touch. One of the scholars who traveled with me was an expert in metallurgy and he could not identify the metal or determine how it could have been made. Wielding such a weapon would give any soldier an immense advantage over his opponents.
Legends of the Iron Empire all tell of their superior craftsmanship and that they could forge materials in ways that have since been lost to time. I’m aware of items similar to this one being created with congruence in modern times, but only with congruence, and such items are rare and only available to the wealthy. The sword we unearthed was found in what we presumed to be a guard house of some kind, although it is hard to say. We inspected the area again, on the lookout for similar items. We found dozens. If we’d only found a single sword we could have passed it off as an anomalous artifacts that these people had long ago discovered, but this find shows that they were common, enough that even ordinary foot soldiers would have been armed with them. This artifact, I believe, is irrefutable proof that the Empire of Iron is more than just a legend.
The mystery of how a civilization, that clearly possessed knowledge of the material world far beyond what we understand today, begs a great deal of wonder from many in my party. There are still so many questions we have that we may never know the answer to. I can only speculate that there were forces at play far beyond our current meager level of knowledge. What unimaginable force could have toppled such an empire and then seemingly vanished without a trace. Perhaps there are powers at work here beyond the physical. I can only ask Eos that whatever entity responsible for this remains dormant, lest we too fall prey to their wrath.
Notes for writers:
At the height of its power the Empire of Iron controlled all of what we know as Rowlem, Curath, Nashriam and Caliharah, with the other areas being mostly wild lands. They developed impressive industrial technology and mastered the use of many artifacts from the 3rd epoch. The sword that Virgil unearthed was made of a material similar to conventional titanium. The technology of mining and smithing this material has long since been lost to time.
The name of the Empire is the result of the tradition of naming civilizations after the material it learned to forge. The first city state might have been called the city of stone, then the nation of bronze etc. Finally the name “Empire of Iron” was reached around the time the Empire reached the zenith of its territorial gains and the name became the popular title. We’ll have to come up with Giblang equivalents of these.
In the time of our story, the Empire of Iron would have fallen around 900 years ago. Only a few ancient Synthoids would have any living knowledge of the Empire. Legends have persisted throughout the ages of an Empire that could control the very earth itself. This would be a subject of fascination for many scholars, and many would have written their thoughts on its supposed existence, with wildly varying degrees of accuracy. Overall, the time of the Empire is looked on with a mythical reverence. It is thought of as a peaceful time of plenty before the dark ages.
The reality of the fall of the Iron Empire is far less otherworldly than Virgil’s imaginings would leave him to believe. With no real challenges to their power, the nobles of this Empire settled into a great decadence focusing on their own pleasure above all else. The lower classes were almost entirely ignored and eventually discontent was rife amongst anyone not in the elite class. Most of the nobles ignored this threat but one group of wealthy merchants and landowners formed a pact of mutual protection and loyalty to protect themselves against the growing unrest. This group, which formed around 500 years before the fall of the Empire, would continue to gradually isolate itself from the rest of the Empire.
Eventually various conflicting ideologies would form and vie for power. The nobles, still enraptured with themselves, would wait far too long to take any effective action. Once rebellion began, the Empire descended into a vicious civil war with the wealthy class rounded up and summarily executed in a French Reign of Terror style. The administrators of the state were likewise executed as sympathizers, destroying the expertise needed to keep the society and economy working. The ideology that emerged in control believed that everything the Empire had built was inherently evil and sought to destroy all the technology it had toiled for hundreds of years to create; they worshiped congruence itself and believed any other form of science to be an affront. Scientists, industrialists and engineers were also rounded up and executed; foundries, factories and mines were destroyed. Once all was said and done, there was nothing left for the new regime to rule and the continent descended into a new dark age. The destruction and subsequent erosion of time was so complete, that the locations of major cities from the Empire are completely lost, including the fabled capital. Considering how the geography of the world incentivizes building in certain locations, regardless of the era, digging down under any of Aropria’s modern cities will likely yield some discoveries. While the fanatic ideology that had taken power quickly died out, the technology of new nations shifted to be congruence based, with the material knowledge of the Empire lost.
The faction which had isolated itself from the empire was able to survive the Reign of Terror by destroying their material industries on their own accord to avoid the onslaught of the new regimes fanatic ideology. When the continent fell into chaos they maintained their political identity and became the Kingdom of Curath.
Another faction that survived became Vas’tek. It was formed, about 50 years before the fall of the Empire by a researcher who was studying congruence in the Thundering Sands and discovered the means to create artificial oases. It survived the upheaval due to its physical location in the desert. It had not built any industry with the Empire’s technology yet at the time of the rebellion.
Example art of the sword Virgil found:
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