Iron Tribunal

The Iron Tribunal

“Law is not written—it is forged.”

The Iron Tribunal is the ruling body of Khurdan and the undisputed core of governance across the Obsidian Concord. Composed of dwarves and deep gnomes known as the Forgesworn, this council is less a group of lawmakers and more a conclave of artificers, runesmiths, and forge-mystics, each of whom has proven their right to rule not through birth or blood—but through the anvil and flame.

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How Rule Is Earned: The Trial of Iron

In Khurdan, authority is not inherited. It must be forged.

To ascend the caste and earn a place in the Iron Tribunal, one must pass the Trial of Iron—a sacred rite that demands the creation of a masterwork of profound rarity and power. The piece must not only be flawless in form but resonant with meaning, history, or divine alignment.

• A blade that sings when drawn beneath the stars.
• Armor that binds a soul in place.
• A relic that calls back the memories of a forgotten king.

Each creation is tested not by battle, but by ritual. Tribunal smith-priests place the item upon the Anvil of Judgment, where its truth is revealed. If it endures the trial by flame and echo, the forgemaster ascends. If it shatters—so too does their name.

“To forge is to write your soul in steel. If the metal breaks, so would you.”

The Structure of the Tribunal

• The Grand Anvil – The leader of the Tribunal, a dwarven forge-lord whose title changes with each succession. The Grand Anvil does not rule by decree but by example; they have created the greatest relic still in use within the Concord.
• The Hammer Circle – The core members of the Tribunal, each a master in their specific domain: weapons, armor, constructs, runic bindings, soulforging, etc. Their voices shape law, trial, and governance.
• The Ember Tongues – Deep gnomes whose skill in arcane metallurgy and alchemical alloying gives them insight into the oldest, most unstable forms of matter. They serve as interpreters of divine flame and advise the Tribunal on relics whose origins predate known history.
• The Trialbound – Aspirants awaiting their Trial of Iron, they are revered apprentices living in harsh solitude beneath the forges, working tirelessly for decades or centuries until their moment comes. Most never rise.

Political Philosophy: Forge Equals Faith

• Lawmaking is Craftwork. Every law passed by the Iron Tribunal is inscribed into metal, not parchment. The older the law, the harder the metal it was inscribed upon—some are carved into adamantine pillars, others into liquid steel eternally held in suspension within crystal runes.
• Punishment is Symbolic. Those who violate Concord law are often sentenced not to prison but to redemption in the forges, where they must craft their penance. A criminal who forges a masterwork can, in rare cases, be purified and lifted.

Belief of the Tribunal:

“The surface speaks of law. We do not speak. We shape.”

To the Iron Tribunal, law is permanence, and permanence is only achieved through metallurgy. The Concord may flex, but it never bends. It endures—because its leaders are tempered, quenched, and unbroken.