General History of Philosophy

A distant overview of prominent figures in Iron history that helped shape its culture. Many Kings and Emperors are listed here, but not all, just the most prominent that had an affect on culture itself. For a full chronicle of the Iron Emperor and their many rulers over the centuries, visit this: History of Vaskeer

1. Veler, the Tempest. The most important figure in the history of the Iron Empire. Veler not only saved Vaskeer from untold evils, he then went on a campaign to wipe all evil off the land within the Ivory Wall in the Yellow Campaign. He was unparalleled and the holiest of men, perfect in every way, and manipulated the storm itself. He spoke with God, and came back to his followers to pass on what he learned. He wrote the first Hallowed Writ, telling the people of the Iron Kingdom about the two Gods and what happened outside the Ivory Wall. Why their souls would rise into the great rift in the sky upon death, and what the purpose of life was. He created the Iron Empire upon his Word of Truth.
2. Glorius, the First Iron King. The second most important figure, Glorius was the friend of Veler and fought alongside him. Glorius has the blood of Gods within him, a boon bestowed upon him by Veler for his courage as well. Glorius experienced everything alongside Veler, and was his most loyal follower. When Veler Rested, Glorius took up leadership and forged the land of Old Iron into the Iron Kingdom, starting what would become the Iron Empire.
3. The First Witness. The true founder of the current Iron Creed, the First Witness was witness to Veler in all His mighty glory, rising to meet with Ethos. He witnessed Veler writing the Hallowed Writ, set about the rules of the Iron Creed, and found the first great stores of Iron within Mount Ferrum that would become integral to the technological development of the Iron Kingdom, racing them far ahead of other civilizations in Vaskeer.
4. Cephalos, the Shadow. A Soulomancer from long ago that created the first attempt at understanding Soulomancy. He created The Shadow Theory, in that souls were made up of Light and Dark, like the rest of the world. This aligned with the benign view of most in Iron. They saw it reflected in Ethos and Ydall, Night and Day, Good and Evil. Cephalos made sure to never practice Soulomancy but for the once that he accidentally expelled a soul, so that he would not harm those around him and be burned alive for being a Warlock as was custom during those years.
5. Priscilla Glore, the First Godsmith. Born during Glorius' rule, and then living during the Triumvirate Era, when Priscilla found out she was a Soulomancer she thought it would mean certain death. Despite this, she spent her life perfecting all kinds of crafts, creating objects unparalleled in usefulness and beauty and passing them out amongst her family and closest friends. Her artifacts never need to be recharged. She used her unique skills to accomplish this, and showed the Iron Kingdom that nothing should put the beauty of art down.
6. Abydos. A philosopher from the Triumvirate Era that dedicated his life to philosophy as his life was kept safe from the horrors of Vaskeer during this prosperous time. Abydos believed that the world of appearances is not the real world, but merely a copy of it. The real world, according to Abydos, exists beyond the realm of the senses and can only be accessed through reason and intuition. He believed that knowledge was innate, and that the role of education was to help individuals remember what they already knew. In terms of politics, Abydos believed in the concept of the philosopher-king, where the wisest and most virtuous individuals rule society. He believed that the ideal society would be a utopia, where everyone has a specific role and works towards the common good.
7. Paramonus, the Settler. An Iron King that installed in all the fact that they were conquerors and deserved to rule the world. Paramonus led his people away from the crumbling Iron Kingdom in Old Iron to settle across the Rusted Sea. He would become a great conqueror, although history calls the event simply the Great Settling. This has installed the belief that the land belonged to the Iron Kingdom. They had merely departed for a century to grow, but the land was always theirs. The tribes that lived there during the early years of the Storm Age were to be servants of House Glore and the nobles of the Iron Empire.
8. Makarios, the Elementalist. With the need for greater technology to aid with the 'peaceful' Great Settling, rules on Soulomancy was temporarily lessened. This surmounted in the rise of Makarios, the Elementalist, and The Elemental Theory. Makarios presented the Iron Kingdom with the idea that everything and essence itself was not made up of only light and dark like Cephalos had theorized, but that there were four elements that were the building blocks of everything. He figured this out with extensive Soulomantic experiments, already theorizing the four elements, and trying to find the components that would bring these elements out. He believed that if he could find them, it would prove that souls were made up of four elements, and if souls were made up of four elements, then everything else was, as souls were the base fundamental of life. His experiments returned great success, finding that Sulfur created Fire, Salt created Earth, Mercury created Water, and Blood created Air. Because of this overwhelming success, his Elemental Theory was accepted as fact and used by Soulomancer's for generations to craft spells.
   Although Makarios focused on elemental theory, he also became a philosopher of note for contrasting the accepted beliefs of Abydos to a large degree. Makarios believed that the physical world is the real world, and that knowledge comes from the senses. He believed that individuals are born without any innate knowledge, and that knowledge is acquired through experience and observation. Makarios believed that the pursuit of happiness is the ultimate goal of life, and that virtue and morality are necessary for achieving happiness. Also in contrast to Abydos, Makarios believed in a system of government that was based on the rule of law, with a constitution that protected the rights of citizens. He believed that the best form of government was a constitutional government, which he defined as a mix of democracy and oligarchy.
9. Queen Dexamene. The wife of King Lucianus Glore (The Failed King) and her once-outlawed views on rulership from a woman's perspective. Was banned for a long time, but is now a greatly valued piece of literature. She wrote of all the failings of her husband which saw her killed at the time due to its heresy, but later when Lucianus was coined as the Failed King, Dexamene's views were revisited and blew up in popularity. Her most notable remark was that "Leaders should be held accountable to the people they serve."
10. Theodosius Glore, the Last King. Not only did he conquer the Highlands and Ember Dominance, but he united the Iron Kingdom into a great Empire, completely changing its culture. Theodosius penned the Novus Imperialis book in the Hallowed Writ, creating many new rules seen as Holy Law by followers of the Iron Creed, which due to the conquering of House Glore, was all. Theodosius was also one of the first to properly utilize Soulomancers in his army, despite the risks. He began to train them and attempt to make them useful, instead of just hindrances.
11. Xandros - the Second Godsmith. Xandros was the shining example of the usefulness of Soulomancy in war. His crude but effective Xandrian weapons were at the forefront of every battle in the Burning War, and showed the public what Soulomancy is capable of, including the drawbacks.
12. Arthumar Glore and Alchemist Bellarion. With Arthumar Glore and Alchemist Bellarion, Soulomancy boomed and became more widely accepted, particularly with nobles. They saw the usefulness of Soulomancers and their incredible spells, as long as they were taught properly. The Thorn was constructed and a school teaching the art of manipulating the souls of the dead was formed, Soulomancers quickly becoming an asset to many nobles. These two created and perfected the five element theory, expanding on Makarios' great work and introducing a fifth, holy element.
    The fifth element was the power of the Gods, the arcane or Aether, that connects the other four. It is this fifth element that explains what the prior scholars always pondered: the nature and purpose of all things and everything unexplained. The four elements were pure and unchanging, raw power in each of their own ways. The fifth element is what held them together in a human body, making a soul. The Alchemist Bellarion expanded the metallurgist assignments of the five elements to metals during the great Iron boom in the Iron Empire that brought forth the mass production of steel and other metals to vastly improve the Iron infrastructure. Metals were assigned to specific elements, and each metal was given a symbol of Alchemy. Initially, all he could find were the three prime substances: Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Blood was a unique exception, which released air. With the Alchemist's running theory of a fifth element, Arthumar surmised that there must be a fifth component to draw it out. He searched long and wide, and eventually found Aether in the depths of the Ember volcanoes.
    The Alchemist argued that the practice of transmutation in metals that was the Alchemy practice was the same theory as Soulomancy, as a Soulomancer simply transmutes the soul itself with a component. This is the current theory in Iron and what they teach at the Thorn. Alchemy symbols are used for each of the elements to transmute the soul into the element as it is expelled. Now, Alchemists argue about the ever-expanding list of elements that they find, including Iron, but the Soulomancers do not accept any of these new elements as ‘true elements’ since they don’t have the power to transmute souls. They have agreed to call the elements in Soulomancy true elements, and the others lesser elements. Alchemists always pondered why blood was a Soulomancy component when all their experiments returned that blood was made up of several lesser metals. It was this theory that eventually led to the theory of the fifth element: Arcane. The arcane power in blood is what made it tied to air. The initial theory of Light and Dark were brought back under the umbrella of the Arcane element.
    The Makarios view on elements was often represented in a diamond. Fire was hot and dry. Its opposite of Water was cold and wet. Connecting the two was Air of hot and wet and its opposite was Earth of dry and cold. Arthumar’s theory holds the five senses alongside the five elements. Earth is the basest element can be perceived by all five senses: heard, felt, seen, tasted, smelled. Then came Water which could be heard, felt, seen, and tasted, but not smelled. Then came Fire which could be heard, felt, and seen, but not tasted or smelled. Air can be heard and felt. Then finally, Arcane, is beyond the senses except for feeling alone. The Arcane is an element that touches the soul, touching your inner self and avoiding all other senses. It can be felt on the skin, causing goosebumps, it can be felt touching on emotion, spinning thought.
13. Tiberius Bloodsteel. Tiberius Bloodsteel of House Skelsmith made a massive breakthrough in the Empire's forging techniques, and found a way to forge iron with blood, strengthening the steel tenfold. He created Bloodsteel swords, unbreakable. House Skelsmith then embarks on a quest to create a unique Bloodsteel sword for each House, a task given to them by Emperor Leocius Glore. Glore will receive theirs last, which will also be the best. This unique forging of blood into iron represents what the Iron Empire is as a whole. Iron through Blood, and vice versa. Many believe Bloodsteel is the holiest of creations because of this.
14. Khaine Godson. He is growing exponentially in popularity as he travels around the towns of the Iron Empire and preaches the work of the Hallowed Writ in a more modern take. He is a bright light to which many young men especially are drawn to. Their views and values are reinforced through him, and they are better for it. He is not a Witness, but knows the Hallowed Writ as well as an Edricson. He draws meaning through the stories within and preaches them to others, not demanding, but showing.
15. Leocius Glore, the Ivory King. A boom of trade and prosperity that has, for the first time since the Rise of Veler, ushered in a new age, bringing the Storm Age to an end and starting the Ivory Age. Leocius has opened the borders of the Iron Empire to all kinds of trade and created many good relationships this way. He has ensured the proper oppression of the Highland and Ember people, so that they know their place but are happy within the Empire. Everyone in the Empire is at their most productive, and the economy is booming.