Iron Kingdom Summary

[Cynical Cat]

Since people are interested in having a game, I thought I would lay down the important information about the setting and answer questions. We'll start with Gods and Cosmology.

Caen: The world

UrCaen: The realm of the gods. Each God maintains a divine realm which houses the souls of their worshippers. These worshippers are also the army of every god when they war against each other.

The Infernals also fit into this somehow, but IK has very little knowledge of the planes. As a consequence, teleport spells are extremely rare and no bags of holding.

Gods and their servants have difficulty directly affecting Caen.

Menoth: Strict, authoritarian god. Believed by humans to be the creator of Caen and humanity. Credited with being the patron of civilization. Always depicted as being huge and masked. Constantly at war with the Devourer Wurm. Symbol is a menofix (fancy cross).

Devourer Wurm: Chaotic, violent, predatory primal force. Still worshipped by some human and inhuman barbarians on the edges of civilization.

Dhunia: Earth mother and creator figure worshipped by some nonhumans (ogruns, trollkin, and goblins among them. According to myth creator of Caen and the Devourer Wurm. The Wurm raped her and a large and powerful ogrun (Menoth) was the child, who then went to war with the worm.

Morrow: A human who preached a gospel of fulfilling your potential and ascendance along with his more self centered sister Thamar. Ascended and is now the most popular human god. Symbol is a sunburst.

Thamar: Preached ascendance with her brother, the Dark Twin ascended first. Her goals were selfish, her brother's alturistic. Her worship is legal in most countries, although her clergy is not due to the belief that they must commit criminal acts to please their goddess. Symbol is a glyph called Thamar's Leash or the Ternion Brand.

Cyriss: New goddess. A secretive cult of reason, logic, and machines.

Great Fathers: The creators of the dwarves, originally created as slaves on Urcaen. They overcame their oppressor, created wives from clay, and brought forth the dwarven race on Caen.

The Divine Court: The gods of the elves. Long ago the ancient kingdom of Lyoss in the east created the Bridge of Worlds directly to Urcaen. It exploded catastrophically, separating the elves from most of their gods and laying waste to the kingdom, forcing a migration west. The goddess Scyrah was trapped in Caen and is ailing.

Nyssor: The god of the Nyss (winter) elves. Their ancestors followed the trail of their god north and found him entombed in ice.

Toruk: The Dragon Father, creator of all dragons (which are all evil, unique, heinously powerful beings). His offspring defied him and he intends to hunt them down and devourer their heart stones (athanc). He is the only god that dwells in Caen and the power of his dragon blight makes his capital literally glow in the dark from a distance. Absolute ruler of Cryx.

[Cynical Cat]

Brief History:

Humanity develops civilization under the patronage of Menoth. There is a constant struggle against barbarian tribes, especially the multispecies Molgur Confederation, who worship the Devourer Wurm. Slowly, the forces of civilization win out.

What follows next is the Warlord and Thousand Cities eras where the first nations and city-states are formed. The twins Morrow and Thamar walk the world during this time period, eventually Ascending. Over the next a thousand odd years a dozen followers of each will follow in their footsteps, becoming the Ascendants and the Scions. Tensions with Menites over religion are high.

The Orgoth arrive. Brutal human conquerers from across the sea, they worship their own pantheon (includes a Menoth like figure) and possess arcane magic in the form of fearsome war witches (sorcerers). They are cruel and irresistable. Most human lands fall to them.

Thamar negotiates the Gift (details murky) allowing the humans of the Iron Kingdom to use magic. Morrow doesn't oppose her, but Menoth is enraged (if he wanted humans to have arcane magic he would have given it to them). Sorcerers who are found by the Orgoth and captured are turned into more war witchs, but some oppose the Orgoth. The first wizards emergy as scholars learn to study and manipulate arcane energy and the advent of arcane magic helps push ahead the science of alchemy. Many early magicians use their powers to help defend the temples and faithful of Morrow and Thamar.

The first mechanika are created using a combination of arcane magic and alchemy. Combined with the invention of blasting powder and the first guns and cannons is the creation of gigantic steam powered fighting engines by the Rhul. Animated by mechanika and controlled by wizards, these Colossi are the forerunners of the steamjacks and warjacks. The Orgoth are defeated and driven into the sea.

New kingdoms are created in the wake of the rebellion and the worship of Morrow is more popular than ever. Tensions between the Morrowian majority and the Menite minority in the nation of Cygnar lead to a bloody civil war and an eventual peace treaty with the Menites moving to a semi-independent province called the Protectorate.

In the present, tensions are rising. The unholy pirate nation of Cryx, ruled by the Drogon Toruk who is worshipped as a god, raids the coasts. The Protectorate has been secretly arming and is reading for war while nationalistic ambition burns through Khador. War seems inevitable.

[Cynical Cat]

Races

Humans


Big, tough nationalistic northerners

Khards: pseudo Russians

Kossites: rustic Russians

Skirov: wild, barely civilized Russians

Umbreans: the remnants of a fallen kingdom of horselords. Cling to memories of lost glory and spread through the modern day nations of Llael and Khador.

Ryn: Not so big and tough, vaguely French with optional foppishness and swashbuckling. Dominant ethnic group of Llael.

Central Kingdoms

Midlunder: rugged, practical, and stubborn people.

Morridane: short, wiry, swampers the descendents of criminals, exiles, and renegades.

Thurian: tend to fair haired, vaguely Celtic, from foggy moorlands. Place a high value on arcane magic and stereotyped as quick witted rogues or devious magicians.

Tordoran: vaguely Italian, majority ethnic group and ruling ethnic group of Ord. Noted sailors.

Caspians: Cygnar's majority ethnic group. Tend to be lean or dark haired. Proud to being leaders in culture, science, and magic.

Sulese: darker skinned Caspians living in the Protectorate, who have renamed themselves after the Menite Patriarch who started the civil war. Not so progressive. Proud to be loyal servants of Menoth.

Idrians: formerly barbarian tribes living near the Bloodstone Marches. Vaguely Arabic. Now those in the Protectorate have been converted at sword point several generations ago.

Scharde: Marked by blight, ritual scars, tattoos, and body piercing these dark skinned and haired people are the inhabitants of the Scharde Islands which make of the nation of Cryx. Notorious pirates, slavers, and worse.

Rhul: dwarves.

Gobbers: civilized goblins

Bogrin: wild, nomadic goblins. Both have chameleon skin

Iosan: Insular elves with a talent for divination magic and a slowly dying civilization.

Nyss: Northern elves. Resistant to cold and dark haired. Nomadic and tribal.

Ogrun: 8 foot tall honorable humanoids and skilled craftsmen. The Rhul accept them into their clans as full members. Some wild tribe and the less said about the Black Ogrun the better.

Trollkin: semi-civilized, intelligent trolls. Small trollkin are the size of big humans. Grey skinned with blue and green spots and dark, bristly growths. Three fingers and tones and sonourous voices. Smaller albino sorcerers are greatly respected. Live in clans called kiths, which are organized into larger kriels. Heal much faster than humans, have great appetites, and can eventually regenerate lost limbs. Very poison resistant.

[Cynical Cat]

Nations:

Khador: Big northern, nationalistic, and expansionistic. Think white Russia with ice magic and some of that communist "for the motherland" patriotism from WW2. Better ruled though. Conscription for all males, military service is optional for females. Feels that it bore the brunt of the Orgoth invasion and has never been recognized or compensated for its losses. A rising industrial power. Majority Morrowan, but with a large Menite minority that is conservative but not as powerful or extremist as the Protectorate. Their military magicians, the Grey Lords, are known for their use of ice magic.

LLael: South and east of Khador. A wealthy nation known for trade and politcal maneuvering, not military might.

Ord: South and west of Khador. A nation resting on past glories. A strong navy, but an self satisfied aristocracy and an obsolete army. Depend on treaties with Cygnar to bolster their defence.

Rhul: East of Khador. Good relations with Cygnar.

Ios: East of Llael. Isolationist with their own variant of mechanika.

Cygnar: Most magically and technologically advanced nation of all the Iron Kingdoms. Socially progressive and the greatest center of worship of the god Morrow. The current king overthrew his tyrannical brother and abolished his corrupt inquisition. The former king, Vinter Raelthorne IV fled and is believed dead. South of Khador and known for advanced electrical based mechanika.

Cryx: Island Kindgom of undead and blight marked humans and non humans. Piracy and necromancy is what they are best known for. They have their own abominable varients of war jacks known as bone jacks and helljacks which are fueled by souls and black magic.

The Protectorate of Menoth: Concentrated theocratic nastiness with a dose of pyromania. Virtually every crime is punishable by burning the the Scrutators (priests in charge of punishment) have a lock on the head religious office and the ability to punish without trial. The land is arid, but has Menoth's Oil and diamonds. Their mechanika is produced by captured wizards (Vassals of Menoth). Have their own LN paladins (Exemplars) and a few paladins who are popular with the lower castes but not with the hierarchy (Knights of the Wall). Multiple signs of Menoth's approval of the regime. Weak industrially, but no shortage of clerics and zealots. Thirsts for revenge against Cygnar and received clandestine support from Khador until recently, when their call of Menite immigration and obedience was perceived to be a threat to Khador's national strength.

[Cynical Cat]

Classes:

There's a bunch of tech related advanced Craft Skills. You can usually guess which classes get them. Hint: not Barbarians.

Barbarians: can't take firearms proficiencies at first level. Wow. Huge change.

Bard: Called a War Bard. Tend to join the military to legitimize their sorcery derived magics, which are viewed with prejudice. Get martial weapons.

Cleric: Lots of god, Ascendant, and Scion related benefits.

Druids: Druids revere the Oroborous, the wild and destructive side of nature. The Devourer Wurm is its personification (according to them). He's generally happy eating things in Urcaen unless the balance between civilization and nature gets disturbed. Druids can use light armour and barbarian associated weapons, most noted for huge scary bardiches. No shape shifting, little healing (although they can convert spells into healing energy for themselves), lots of elemental and animal control spells along with some buffs.

Fighter: No real change

Monk: Order of the Fist is Menoth, Order of Keeping is Morrow. Differences in skills and weapon proficiencies. Secret police versus protectors. Yes, Menoth is a dick.

Paladin: Rhul don't ride, but get extra smites and bonus feats.

Ranger: no magic, animal companion, or fighting styles. Evasion and a good number of bonlus feats.

Rogue: No real change.

Sorcerer: No Ogrun. Fewer familiars due to social stigma.

Wizards: No Ogrun. Anyone can learn wizardry, but like engineering or hard science it takes years and lots of brains to actually get anywhere useful with it.

New Classes:

Arcane Mechanik: bonus feats and cheap mechanika creation. Decent fighter, light armour, casts like a wizard (no somatic penalty for light armour), tops out at 6th level spells.

Bodger: roguish, evasion, skills, jury rigging, bonus damage against constructs and machines.

Fellcallers: Trollkin of a legendary bloodline. Good fighters and have bardic music abilities. They also have fell calls with can empower, confuse or stun opponents.

Gunmages: Sorcerers who develop an affinity for pistols. Mostly found in Llael and Cygnar. Light armour, sixth level spells, fairly good fighters. Spell list of buffs, illusions, and combat spells. Can channel spell energy into rune bullets (easy to make) for bonus damage (d6 per spell level). Can also fire ray spells from pistols (allowing combo with pistol feats). Can use special magelock guns to have rune bullets deliver ranged touch and touch spells (and bullet damage, multiple actions though).

Common Prestige Classes

Adventuring Scholar: Skill points, moderately capable combatant.

Battle Chaplain: Cleric of Morrow, 5 levels, good fighter, double healing allowance

Bone Grinder: Makes magic charms from the remains of monsters.

Mage Hunter: Iosian renegades who hunt human spellcasters.

Monster Hunter: Guess.

Pistoleer: Roguish pistol specialists

Rifleman: rifle experts and snipers

Second Story Man: burglers

Warcaster: Specialists in handling 'jacks. Good fighting and full spellcasting. Need specialized training (skills and four feats). Can channel spell energy to augment warjacks big time or ignore somatic penalty when casting other spells in warcaster armour. Other abilities derived from specialized mechanika.

Arch-mages, duelists, blackguards, and hierophants also present.

Magic Differences

Raise Dead is 9th level and has side effects. Morrow doesn't approve except in extreme cases (but the exarchs and the primarch don't suffer penalties although the raisee still does), Menoth is also reluctant. Thamar most likely to do it. Good luck with that.

Healing can have backlash. Can safely heal (10 + Wis bonus) xlevel of someone relatively close to your god in alignment. Going over or opposed alignment or your god is feuding with their god (Menoth and everybody, anybody but Morrow trying to heal a Menite) yields backlash. Healing domain or Battle Chaplain helps with the total.

In other words, healing is a secondary use of magic by most clerics.

Necromancy is viewed very disfavorably and has backlash (fortitude save or nonlethal damage)

No planar travel.

Almost no summoning.

Wish, limited wish, and miracle are out.

Teleport and associated spells incredibly rare.

No shadow magic (well, there's a few who can)

[Cynical Cat]

Mundane Gear

cultural weapons like the Caspian battleglaive (blunt tipped chopping heavy sword) and Umbrean War Axe (big, evil, and a spear like butt spike)

Armoured and reinforced great coats that add to light armour.

Firearms: pricy, but available

Muzzle loaders are old tech, breach loaders standard.

Silk wrapped slug and blasting powder (red and black, firing pin punctures charge, mixes, explodes and bullet shoots out). Does have to be cleared before reloaded.

Miltary Rifle and Pistols are the standard, but old muzzle loaders, long rifles, multi barrelled pepper boxes, serrec steel guns, and other exotics exist. A few revolving barrel designs are being experimented with and are available.

Grenades and explosive and incinderary weapons exist as does specialty ammunition and arrow heads.

Serrec Steel: Rhul made special steel. Lighter and good for cleaving through hard substances (like armour). Setting equivalent of adamantine.

Alchemy

More powerful than standard

healing ointments, some more effective than standard healing potions

More powerful acids, explosives, and incinderaries

blasting powder for firearms

recharging accumulators and vital for mechanika

fire resistant treatments, treatmeants against infections, sticky stuff, cold light, etcetera


Magic Items

Other than one shot items, they cost 150% normal cost to make. On top of that for every full 200xp they cost there is a 20% chance of losing one hit point permenently.

This is why mechanika is so popular

Mechanika

As it is made in pieces, not subject to 150% increase and the cost divided up among smaller chunks, often below 200 xp each.

As it adds more equipment to whatever it is modifying, mechanika stuff tends to be heavier than standard gear.

Size matters. You can put more rune plates on a rifle than a pistol.

Arcane Mechaniks get a level based discount, helping even more.

Powered by accumulators which range from small (5 charges) to super heavy (40)

conduits handle energy transfer (expensive)

rune plates handle the spells necessary to create magic items.

arcantrik convergence engine (usually worn in a belt or on the back) to power wonderous item equivalents or spell engines (up to 3 rune plates per convergence engine).

elemental emitter: 3 to 5 foot long staff that acts as the emitter for elemental effects from arcane convergence engine based spells. Only handle one element.

arcane condenser: field recharge of accumulators. converts arcane spell levels to charges inefficiently. Arcane mechaniks are good with them.

Armor and weapons: rune plates for the effects, conduits to connect the power, accumulator and sockets.

Rods and Staves: base wand and staff with conduit, charge socket, and accumulator. very pricy

Wands: rune plate, conduit, charge socket.

Spell Engines: activate them and they trigger the spells in the arcantrik conversion engine. Power sucks, but instant spell effects. Require induction belts for defensive spells on wearer, reflextive arcane matrixes for emanation effects.

Wonderous Items: Alchemical goggles for vision effects, glyphweave cloth for clothing items, alchemical gloves for hand effects, and archronographs (a clockwork device about the size of a lantern) used with various enhancement and revealing effects. Arcantrik conversion engine and conduits.

Charge sucking:

rune plates that give +s to armour or weapons: 1 a day

rune plates that have special effects (fire resistance or shock damage for example): 1 a use

wonderous: 1 a day

wands, rods, staves: 1 for 1 with charges and uses

spell engines: based on level of spell per use per spell. Power sucks.

[Cynical Cat]

Prominent Organizations:

Greylords Covenant: Khador order of military mages. Specializes in ice magic and trains most of their warcasters.

Fraternal Order of Wizardry: male humans only. The oldest and most respected organization of wizards. Responsible for gathering much lore and a number of great innovations. Their are rumours that a few of their members secretly practice dark magic and their chauvanism is probably responsible for Scion Stacia's (patron of evokers, arsonists, and female wizards) popularity with non-Thamarites.

Order of the Amethyst Rose: Llael based military order of gun mages.

Order of the Arcane Tempest: Cygnarian order of military gun mages.

Order of the Golden Crucible: Oldest arcane association, specializing in alchemy. Mostly concerned with commercial matters and has a near monopoly on the manufacture of blasting powder

Order of Illumination: Wizards associated with the Church of Morrow who hunt dark magicians. They are treated as priests in the rankings of the Church of Morrow.

Union of Steam and Iron Workers: International union and professional association of industrial and mechanika workers.

[LadyTevar]

Scion Stacia's (patron of evokers, arsonists, and female wizards)

Me: Ya know, there's a joke somewhere there.
Nitram: Well... you are a pyromaniac
Me gives Nit dirty look.
Nit grins.