The Iron Republic
Structure
Culture
The culture of the Iron republic is a strange amalgam of of many different cultures smelted together into one. Each different city has its own unique ways and customs but there are some universal ideas that permeate throughout the republic and are taken up by both devil and dwarf. There is a great focus and respect given to miners in the iron republic, no doubt due to the large economic impact that metals and gems have. Dwarves hold a large ceremony where the new miners names are chiseled into the mine in which they will be working, and in will call their second home. When a mine collapses and or must be abandoned the mine entrance is sealed, but many miners still insist to be interred in the mine so that they may be with it forever more.
Another highly venerated and respected group in the republic is the smiths, the smiths of the iron republic are among the best of the realms. Dwarven crafts are considered the best of the best for a reason. That mixed with their near monopoly of adamantine makes the smiths one of the only able to work with the rare metal. This has caused the smiths to be highly sought after, but their love of the republic has made them reluctant to leave, and work for another nation. Citizens see this ability and mixture of love for the republic with their knowledge as signs of wisdom and leadership ability. There is a reason why the first dwarven prime minister of the republic was a blacksmith, and even now the prime ministers have at least one blacksmith among their advisory boards.
While the cooperation of Devils and Dwarves may be seen as odd by many outsiders the reasoning and similarities are actually deeper than one would expect. For One they are both highly ordered societies with roots of a heirarchal structure. They also are both formerly patriarchal and with a great focus on rules and laws. Furthermore they both are better suited to underground living with a need for heat and fire. In order for this alliance to work both sides had to give up a few things, the dwarves had to give up their monarchy, their state mandated religion of the forge father, and their complete control of the future of their nation. Devils on the other hand have to get rid of their slave trade, the devil hierarchy, and their mandated fundamentalist worship of Asmodeus. Despite the concessions given by both sides the bond forged between the two species has proven to be stronger than steel with inter-species marriage quite common among the populace. Over time Devils and Dwarves have become very protective of one another as an insult of one is an insult of both. It has always been a focus for both sides to maintaining the balance of power between the two sides with one prime minister in charge of infrastructure and homeland issues, and the other focusing on diplomacy and international issues. These responsibility are swapped between the two every election.
Despite the abolishment of both the slave trade and fundamentalist worship of Asmodeus one thing has remained for the devil population; the soul trade. Crates of "souls" can be seen being ferried back and forth throughout the republic, and at the borders custom agents are their inspecting the contents for proper markings and stamps confirming that the soul crate contents are legally obtained. Being found with an unstamped crate of souls in the republic is a sure way to get jailed or fined. Many still wonder what the souls are used for but the devils aren't saying.
Religion while still practiced among the populace is not as large of a focus for either side. Even so the lexicon and rituals are still practiced by the populace as a sign of their culture.Public Agenda
Assets
- 40 Legions of Highly treained dwarven IUfantry
- A vault filled with precious metals, gems, and enchanted items
- Advanced technology
- Large Adamantine reserves
- Mines with precious metals and gems
History
The Iron Republic Started out as a kingdom in 1256 AA by King Gulnar Emberbrew. The kingdom named the Old Iron Kingdom was made up of 4 Dwarven settlements Volyarhum, Buhrn Todur, Dehrnulum, and Vortorhum; which were united by King Emberbrew via conquest. After the conquest of the cities Gulnar Emberbrew crowned himself king and named Volyarhum as the capitol.
After the Birth of his eldest son Rusdreath in 1286 King Emberbrew created a caste system in which the royalty and nobles were at the top, followed by smiths, then miners, then traders, then the church, and lastly the manual laborers. Though not a popular decree the dwarves accepted the proclamation and moved on with their life. However, underneath King Gulnar's nose Prince Rusdreath was following the Church of the Forge Father and its teachings. Becoming indoctrinated by its beliefs Prince Rusdreath became angry with the placement of the church so low on the caste system. Rusdreath then bides his time training so that he may one day stand up to his father and his laws.
That day came on the 24th of the Month of Beasts, Prince Rusdreath challenged his father to a duel to the death for the right for the throne. King Gulnar wanting to keep his honor accepted the duel. There in the ring Rusdreath rushed his king axe in hand and before King Gulnar could so much as put up a defense Rusdreath deftly hacked Kings Gulnar's legs off and buried his axe into the King's Head. Grabbing his father's axe Prince Rusdreath Emberbrew declared himself king of the Old Iron Kingdom. Seeing this and respecting the duel the council agreed with the results and Prince Rusdreath was crowned king 2 days later.
King Rusdreath was not a popular king, as his first order of action King Rusdreath reformed the caste system putting the church above the nobles, but below royalty; and moving the miners below the traders. Miners have always been seen as the life blood of dwarven society, so the movement of them down in the caste system caused a small protest. In response to this protest King Rusdreath ordered all of the protesters deaths, the soldiers marched out to the palace square and brutally massacred the protesters. Those that surrendered where interrogated and then drawn and quartered. The reason of the movement of the miners are unknown but historians theorize that it was done in an attempt to downplay the role miners had in comparison to the church. In any case the massacre of the protestors was seen as only the beginning of the Tyranny of King Rusdreath.
King Rusdreath, unhappy with the limited power he had made an order to disband the council of the Old Iron Kingdom and raised taxes the next day in order to "Clean the Palace of their Filth" these taxes were never lowered. He surrounded himself with yes-men and ordered the King's Right act in which if a noble got married the king could request the first lay with the new bride. These are only a few of the many orders that King Rusdreath enacted, any who went against these laws or broke them were sentenced to death. The final straw was a request to not only increase the size of the mines in the kingdom but also increase turnout of the mines. This was all done without any increase in manpower in the mines. Growing angry with the horrible treatment of the public in 1365 General Netrami Frostfinger met with the head miners and started a plot to overthrow the King.
General Netrami spent the next five years gathering supporters and co-conspirators. The plan was finally in place on the Month of Ends in 1370 AA. The plan was to get a co-conspirator to entice the king to throw a feast, and invite the General and several other co-conspirators. Once the feast was in full swing Netrami Frostfinger would excuse himself and meet up with a group of allied maids. These maids pretending to be drunk would lure the gate guards away from the gates where they would be tied up by allied guards. Once out of the way Rusdreath would open the gates and let in his army of supporter soldiers. There they would march on the feast and arrest the King. On the 11th of the Month of Ends the feast was held and the plan went off without a hitch King Rusdreath was dragged out of the palace by his robes and was throne in a cage which was paraded throughout the town. General Netrami Frostfinger giving himself emergency powers held a trial for the king who was found guilty of tyrannical abuse of power and extreme cruelty. He was sentenced to death by boiling which was performed on the 5th of The Month of Nights 1371 AA. His execution was done in the same arena he killed his father in. Those in attendance said his screams of pain were worse than any of those he put to death; laying bare his true cowardice.
General Netrami Frostfinger claimed the throne on the 19th and started to undo much of the decrees done by King Rusdreath. One year later he marries Vandwestr Ironblood a maid who was a co-conspirator. With the reestablishment of the council in 1376 and the birth of his son Shakolim frostfinger in 1386 life for Netrami was going great. Unfortunately the life of the Well-loved King Netrami was about to end as on the 28th of The Month of Rests 1400 King Netrami fell mysteriously ill and passed soon after on the 12th of the Month of Winds. Queen Vandwestr not wanting her son to claim the throne until he is of age decreed that she would hold the throne until Shakolim's 50th Birthday.
The mourning of King Netrami was cut short as it was soon found that he was poisoned. Queen Vandwestr Frostfinger devastated by the news ordered the murderer to be found. Stating that the assassination was likely done by a disgruntled cleric she ordered the caste system undone as she believes it has only brought pain since its inception. On the 20th of the Month of Festivals 1401 the council declared they found the murderer Queen Vandwestr.
Queen Vandwestr was brought to trial on the 25th of The Month ofFFestivals1401, there they laid out the evidence that showed she brought the cup that had the poison to the king, and also the testimonial that a servant saw she was traveling frequently to a traveling apothecary. She retorted that the trips to the apothecary was for medicine for her son Shakolim and that she poured the wine in front of the king, but it was to no avail she was found guilty and sentenced to death. The attempted to get a confession out of her stating that if she confesses they will make her execution quick and painless, but she maintained her innocence. On the second of the Month of Beasts she was sentenced to death by sawing. As for Shakolim Frosfinger, a servant stated that she saw him conversing with his mother about the apothecary and after the poisoning stated that she heard him ask Queen Vandwestr "Is it done?". Though not enough for him to be convicted of the murder he was still banished to the Frostback Tundra.
On the 15th of the Month of Thunder Judge Yuvroth Granitdelver was crowned King due to his career of being a judge since the days of King Gulnar Emberbrew. King Granitdelver wanted to make a point to better enforce law and order in the kingdom as well as make the public feel more listened to by the king. For this reason King Granitdelver decreed that the caste system shall not return. This was met with mixed reception as many of the lower castes rejoiced but the higher castes remained disgruntled at this turn of events. Over the next 50 years King Granitdelver passed many laws such as a restriction on the trade of soul ingots and the standardization of the mining systems. King granitdelver seeing the coming raids from the Forest of Cannibals orders the construction of Neghlodir and on the first of the Month of Ends 1458 it was completed.
To celebrate the completion of Neghlodir King Granitdelver held a feast on the 4th, but it was interrupted by a dwarf in a long cloak. The dwarf introduced himself as Shakolim Frostfinger the rightful king of the Old Iron Kingdom. He demanded the throne back and retribution for the execution of his innocent mother. King Granitdelver refused and so Shakolim declared war on the King.
The War for the Old Iron throne was a long one, Shakolim had a great many loyalist's at his side and were quickly able to capture Dehrnulum. There he built a new royal palace and would use it to coordinate his attacks on the Old Iron Kingdom. King Granitdelver not one to sit on the sidelines lead his troops into battle and always made sure to be the first in and last out. However this had to stop after a crossbow bolt struck him in the arm causing him to be unable to fight anymore. On the 26th of the Month of Sunlight 1487 King Granitdelver was in the throne room going over some proposed laws, and was stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant that appears to have been a supporter of Shakolim Frostfinger. The loyalist soldiers demoralized by the death of their king started to lose ground as they became pushed back towards the capitol. This turn of the tide made Shakolim reckless and against his generals orders joined in the frontlines. As they marched into the capitol of Volyarhum a trap formulated by general Lodeag Magmamaker was sprung and he and his entire company were captured on the 10th of the Month of Frost 1488 AA. He was immediately tried for high treason and was put to death by immolation on the 15th of the Month of Frost. Losing their leader and all claims on the throne the frostfinger army scattered and the War for the Old Iron Throne Ended.
General Lodeag Magmamaker became a hero overnight and calls to make him the next King were sung throughout the nation, and so on the 19th of the month of Rest 1489 Lodeag Magmamaker was crowned King of the Old Iron Kingdom. Using his time on the front he realized how important proper training was so Lodeag ordered all military recruits to spend a year repelling elven raids at Neghlodir. This while not immediately popular soon proved to be a boon as with more battle experienced soldiers the military strength of the Iron Republic grew exponentially. King Ledeag spent some time traveling the continent and upon returning in 1500 AA stated that a port town was necessary and therefore the town of Kegbuldor was built.
With the construction of Kegbuldor a island called the Fetid Tundra was discovered up north. With a strange yellow slime showering from above and corpses having a habit of reanimating themselves in that wretched land the Scientists of the Old Iron Kingdom were fascinated and a call for a town to be built on the island was started. However the need for materials were great and as such the king ordered the mines to go into overtime collecting all the raw resources they could. In 1546 the ships were loaded up and colonists set out to the Fetid Tundra. 5 years later a message came from the colony it called itself Dobeshnikol and said things at first were tough going but they soon overcame it and are settling in nicely. A message was sent back asking for a location, but no response was heard. Multiple more attempts were made to reach Dobeshnikol, until a one sentence letter returned "Don't dig deep". That was the last anyone heard from Dobeshnikol.
Years passed and public attention turned from Dobeshnikol towards home again. The raids by the Elves were becoming more frequent, and the orcs of the Grand Archives were attempting to negotiate for permission to climb the sacred Mt. Dormiota; then the town of Burhn Todur went silent. PArties of guards were sent to the town never to be seen again and dwarves who ran their looking for relatives disappeared. The questions were piling up and they were answered on the 1st of The Month of Rest 1578 AA. A miner from Burhn Todur had broken through to a large Volyarhum mine from the underdark and demanded to see the king at once. This is what he had to say:
- "My name Grozaed Largespine, and I was one of the head miners in Burhn Todur. We had nearly depleted all of our mines metals so we needed to find more. One of the miners who worked under me Hetgrotir had been mining and thought he saw a vein of Iron that could be exploited. After following him I was able to confirm that is was indeed Iron and ordered my men to start digging... That was the biggest mistake of my life. As we were digging we felt it grow warmer but paid it no mind, until Hetti's pick broke through part of the wall of the mine. Seeing a golden glimmer coming from the other side, he started digging frantically. The hole opened wider until he could fit through. It opened up into a stone overhang and when he stepped out he said "That's not gold"... That was the last thing Hetti said. There was a large crash sound and then the whole wall was broken open and we saw a large creature red, with wings and a obsidian colored mace. It started shouting in a language i couldn't understand and then laughter and cheering was heard from the newly opened cave. All manner of creatures started pouring out and I ordered my men to run. We dropped our torches and started to run in the same direction. As the mine was starting to fill with shouts, other dwarves started sounding the alarm until a stampede of dwarves was underway. I got pushed to the side as I tried to maintain order and was thrown down a side mine and was knocked out... That fall saved my life I think. When I awoke I don't know how much time had passed but I stood up and started to head back to the main shaft. What I saw sire... There in the shaft was my men, my co-workers, my friends crushed, torn apart and fried by all manner of arcane magic. I ran to the town but before I could get there I saw more of those creatures marching towards the town from another side mine. I knew I couldn't go to the town anymore so I hid until they passed. Once they were gone I grabbed my pick and ran as deep as I could into the mine away from that hole and the town. Then Pick in hand I dug until I made it to the underdark. Using what little knowledge I could I found an area close to here and dug my way into Volyarhum's mine. You need to cover that hole I broke in the mine sir, we can't allow those forgotten beasts to follow me back here."
Upon further questioning and feeding, King Magmamaker was able to learn this happened about 10 months ago. He then sent out his best scout to see if there was any voracity to the claims of Grozaed. On the 15th of the Month of Winds his scout reported back, and it was all true. The town was under occupation by these monsters but the conditions and fate of the town was unknown, as the scout was unable to get close.What the king did not realize was that the dwarves had broken into a gateway to the nine hells. Ever since the disappearance of asmodeus and the other devil princes the hells were dieing and the forgotten beasts (the devils that lived there) were liberated from their dying realm. In any case the king then summoned his generals and began to create a plan to liberate the town of Burhn Todur. This would mark the beginning on what is know called the War of Unification but was at the time known as the War against the Forgotten Beasts.
The dwarven battalions clashed with the devil invaders on the blood Road where they were pushed back to the capitol. Seeing the extent and sheer numbers of the invaders the king called a draft of any able-bodied dwarves. There they were able to hold the invaders back and even start gaining some ground. However the devil invaders proved to be strong as well and the stalemate on Blood Road continued. This battle continued back and forth for decades anytime one army would seem to be gaining ground the opposing army would rally and gain back the lost ground. However on the 13th of the Month of Beasts 1658 the devil army was able to break through the line and they descended on the capitol like a tide of death. The devils arrived at the capitol 6 days later before the message could be relayed back and they began to clear out the town. Dwarves who were lucky enough to be on the outskirts were able to escape along with one of the council members named Dasteginn Grimbelt. She ordered soldiers to go to the neighboring towns of Neglodhir, and Vortorrhum and order the townsfolk there to evacuate to Dehrnulum. Without the completion of the Nortelrel Passage it was the Farthest from the front that they could escape to. King Magmamaker and his family were found by the horde in their wine cellar and were killed.
The messengers were fast but the horde proved faster. The towns were unable to be fully evacuated before the army arrived, so Councilor Dastegrinn ordered the collapse of the Unearthed road burying untold numbers of fleeing refugees with it. Then with what populace they had she ordered all adult dwarves to be fitted with armor and prepare for the coming onslaught.
Dug in and prepared the dwarves battled against the coming invaders with all they had and proved victorious against the siege. However there was little time to rest as every day the city was besieged with another wave of devils. This continues for almost 2 decades, both sides growing exhausted and demoralized called for a temporary ceasefire on the 17th of the Month of Frost 1697. Meeting outside of Dehrnulum Councilor Dastegrinn of the Dwarves and Crogend Firebreaker of the Devils agreed to coauthor a peace deal and then on the 5th of the Month of Ends the Declaration of Unification was signed giving Devils equal; citizenship in the nation and the dismantling of the kingdom in favor of a republic which they will co-administrate. And thus the Old Iron Kingdom Fell and from the ashes rose the Iron Republic.
The time for the first elections came and both Dastegrinn and Cogrend excluded themselves from candidacy; and on the First of The Month of Nights the Dwarves elected the blacksmith Fiddor Bitterpike, and the Devils elected Sergent Vaikhim as the first Co-Prime ministers of the Iron Republic. With a new election being held every 10 years the tyranny of the former kings melted away and the resentment the parties held for each other soon followed, and by 1750 AA the Unity road was completed and the Republic began to see themselves as a united nation. This came not a moment too soon as the War of the Northern plains cemented the kinship between the two races.
When the war finished in 1798 AA the Nation solidified itself as a force to be reckoned with. They soon were contacted by the Hornlodhir and negotiated to have them be absorbed into the nation. Now a days the Republic is busy with being stuck between two jealous nations all the while trying to keep peace with the Zoog, but despite the precarious position the nation is in there has never been a better time to live within the Iron Republic.
Demography and Population
Territories
Military
Technological Level
Religion
Foreign Relations
Agriculture & Industry
Trade & Transport
Education
Infrastructure
Born in war, flourished in peace, forged in iron
Maps
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The Iron Republic
A map of the Iron republic Co-governed by devils and Dwarves