Ironbrand Empire
Born in the wake of great tragedy, the wounds of the Shattering where still fresh in the minds of man when from the ashes of the world came a great leader borne of the time and bred to handle the struggles of rebuilding; a mighty orc named Gad'dread the Inferno rose from the broken tribes of Krelvane. With this mighty orc came the Ruby a powerful gemstone wrought of the blood and power of the thriband god and with it The Inferno went abroad in the world and spread word to his kin, a message that was simple and clear: unite or die, we must have order.
Over decades Gad'dread rallied the people of the thriband, the goblinfolk, the orcs, the trolls, the kobolds, and even the fierce and cunning gorgoroth. With the power and favor of their gods they carved out a space on the isle of Belle'vas'cera which they would renamed 'Ironvein', a war over the land between the inferno and the elves of ultan which would eventually become known as the 'Five day Firestorm' gave the empire their first true footing.
Upon the empires of man and elves Gad'dread beset himself, with his fierce armies sailing the seas claiming islands and lands as they came upon them. To the very gates of these once mortal enemies he strode wrapped in gold and flame.
"We are the Ironbrand. The lands we have claimed are our own. And we will find our own peace." Words the resonated throughout the planet like a thunderous gong. An empire was born, fresh and blind. A collection of the many varied races of the thriband spread out over a great many islands in the warm oceans of the south. And in the wake of the terrible and horrifying loses of the Shattering the world... welcomed this tenuous peace and new potential for trade and growth. In a time were none could stomach the thought of more war and loss.
Structure
The tribes of the thriband still mostly follow their original hierarchy of > Chieftan->Elder->Smith and this is often the way for the several different island kingdoms that have formed under the Ironbrand Empire. The cities and villages are often ruled by a chief who will have a council of elders and a trusted smith.
The elders in a community help run day to day necessities and advise the chief in regards to matters of religion, commerce, trade; ultimately they hold much of the power.
The chief itself is the ruler, and able to overrule any decision made within its hold but to constantly go against the council is a rare occurrence. They are also the dedicated war leader for the settlement and the one directly in control of all units it contains.
The smith is a much sought after, highly respected job of being the chief's personal smith and closest attendant. In other cultures it is a position similar to a valet, a trusted person who is in theory committed to their chief absolutely and usually the one with the most final say.
Normally the Empire itself is ruled by an Emperor, the head chief who wields the Ruby; a powerful krystal forged by the thriband pantheon. But this was lost in the Seven Year War and the Emperor at the time was slain. Leaving no know Heir the council of elders in the capital city banded together to rule by committee until such a time that a new emperor is chosen or found.
Culture
Ultimately the core tenant of the empire is that through unity there is strength. And that none cn have unity through slavery. As such the ancient ways of the orcs and big folk enslaving the goblinkind and small folk of the thriband as menial work force and fodder has been for the most part abolished. Many of the smallfolk still end up in jobs they might have done before but now they are paid for the work fairly and their lively hood and survival is the responsibility of their employer or, in the case of smaller settlements directly the responsibility of the chief.
Often wary of outsiders and people of other regions and cultures the ironbrand empire has only now begun, in the wake of the Seven Year War look into advancing past a wary, guarded acceptance of other cultures to be more welcoming and inviting of immigrants and the like; while since its inception the empire has enjoyed tense, sometimes disastrous emigration attempts.
Within the empire the focus on this unity and perservering through adversity has lead to an interesting form of art worship. The ironbrand applaud and cherish creations that further the history of their people; either through expressing some great part of their past or helping immortalize the stories and tales told by the lore speakers of the tribes, or by creating something so grand so as to stand out as an immortal piece of history within the empire itself. This could be as varied as a stunning painting on the wall of some ancient cave, beautiful armor and weapons forged in the heart of a mountain, to even a genius and almost impossible victory on the battlefield. All of it has fallen under what the Thran refer to as 'Teshva' or 'Spirit of the people'. Not something fully aware to outside cultures is just how much creating a piece of Teshva, or in some way leaving teshva behind is often seen as one of the greatest accomplishments a thran can achieve.
Public Agenda
In the wake of the Seven Year war the mandate of the Thriband empire is to mend bridges, recuperate, repopulate and pay compensation to the nations damaged by the thran when they had been taken control of by the villainous necromancer Ras'al Khan. Taken for heavy losses of bodies including the previous emperor and the holy Ruby itself in the wake of a Krystalless existence the Thran find themselves suddenly needing to play politics much more keenly and are struggling hard as an entire nation to try to earn the trust of the other nations that was betrayed.
Assets
Military: in the wake of the Seven Year war much of the old Thran military was decimated, but even through this the orckin of the thriband possess one of the greatest fleets in the world, though at the moment they are struggling to provide enough able hands to crew their vast iron fleet.
Material: At the capital there is a great mine which provides much of the empires metals and ore for coin and smithing, but beyond this the volcanic islands the empire controls within the Thunder god's bay are all rich in ore and metals of various rarities and purities.
Agricultural: though not rich in land the many volcanic soils that pepper the dozens of islands rules by the Thran are fertile and grow exquisite rare vegetables and fruits, including red olives and black grapes which are only found within the control of the empire. In terms of fauna they grow and raise goats for milk, clothes, meat and bone using their mountainous homes to their advantage to grow some ofthe finest goats in the world. the export of meat and rare, exquisite plant life has helped soften the blows of the Seven Year war while the empire struggles to regrow its population.
History
Founded in the tenth year of the fourth age, the Ironbrand Empire was born out of the tatters of the Shattering and a need by the Thriband pantheon to consolidate their forces into a singular power lest the absolute traditionalism of the old, war like ways lead to their people to extinction or worse, enslavement under the banner of more powerful nations. Already it was all too common for the weaker members of the thriband to be made slaves of the stronger members or worse still any member of the thriband to be made slaves and servants of stronger and varied creatures.
As such the gods unified themselves with the creation of the Ruby, all gave an equal amount even those gods who were of the weaker races and as such the wisest of them knew that the inequality among their races needed to be sorted. They could not waste time and energy warring and enslaving each other in the face of the world being torn asunder. So along with the Ruby, Malvrice, the orc god of storms, the maelstrom eye, sent a vision to Gad’dread to unify the people using the power of the Ruby. This lead to many of the thriband tribes and clans in Helfdome, Aldabryn, Krelvane and Warden being united beneath the Ironbanner and came to be known as the Great Migration within the annals of human history. Many fierce and bloody battles were fought during this time, both with tribes that were competing for power in this new world order, or combating directly against Gad’dread for control of the Ruby, as well as many small but bloody conflicts with the wounded empires of Jaralism and Embram as the massive influx of goblinkin across the land left their inevitable mark.
Great ships were made of wood and iron along the edge of the Great forest and, all together, most of the thriband took to the sea towards the spine of the world. Over the course of eight months the ships sailed south around the tail of the world, trading and bartering with the burgeoning city of Krrsh’yyvar, the Sahuagin capital which was being formed at the edge of the spine filling the space at the bottom of the world between the spine and the southern ice caps.
Many were lost, or stopped to settle newly formed islands along the way; but eventually the bulk of the force arrived at their goal. A vast stretch of the Ultan Sea surrounding the Thunder God’s Bay, a vast section of ocean wrapped in a near constant Maelstrom. A section of sea that was full of new, richly soiled, and temperate volcanic islands. But the Elves of Ultan had arrived first, the Twin Empire looking to settle the rich island chains themselves.
This lead to the war that was known as the ‘Five Day Firestorm’ where Gad’dread lead an offensive against the elves and with the power of the Ruby put the island chain to the flame and sword. Unable to bear the might of the massive orc fleet with their overwhelming numbers even after losing 15% of their kin in the journey the Elves were forced to retreat from the islands or be slaughtered. When many eager tribes desired to push forward and chase the elves back to their homes to pillage and ravage the coast of mainland Ultan Gad’dread used the power of the Ruby to call the ships to stop.
From this, and with a singular minded effort to colonize and construct homes and infrastructure along these new island chains. After that was established and the islands were mostly under control, though even to this day new islands are being found and settled by enterprising tribes that want to earn a better position for themselves within the empire, and once this was accomplished the empire looked forward to declaring its existence.
Many tribes travelled far and wide, returning to lands they had come from to reconnect and reaffirmed the lines and loyalties of those tribes who had stayed behind while also working to declare their intention to the nations of the world that the Ironbrand Empire exists and would be recognized as such. They had their own mint and currency controlled by the capital, a set of coins equal in purity for as far as any Jaralian Economist could tell to the coin of the human empire which had become near omnipresent over the course of the millennia. They brought trade, missives of peace, offers to establish embassies, requests for asylum, and political delegations for immigration and emigration; both ways. Handpicked tribe leaders and lore speakers travelled far and wide to cement the Ironbrand Empire as not only a powerful political rival with access to resources and an unmatched navy, but also as a willing trade partner and potential ally.
And in the state of the post shattering many of the nations of the world were too weakened or disabled to consider combating a united empire of orcs and goblinkin with control of possibly the world’s second largest navy after The Fleet of Roger. Though old prejudices are hard to overcome and many of the thriband tribes who came seeking peace were once members of clans and tribes that had warred and battled with the nations of the world in the old ways of slaughter and violence.
As such members of the thriband races to this day often still suffer some prejudice when living away from the Ironbrand islands, and the same could be said for any outside living within the Ironbrand islands. Both sides are nervous at trusting one another and old racial prejudices and habits have a tendency to resurface.
Over the past age there had been a handful of conflicts as new emperors came to power, or when the smaller tribes of the Ironbrand felt they were being unfairly treated, leading to the Red Rock rebellion in the year 1167 of the fourth age. While unsuccessful it did result in the dethroning of the current emperor and the replacement of the clan and family that would lead the empire into the doom and tragedy of the Seven Year War.
Before the events of the war, or at least before the machinations of the infamous necromancer Ras’al Khan came to light, the wizard had approached and bested the then Emperor; forcing the orc to bend the knee. This lead to the Ironbrand Empire enlisting in the necromancer’s forces willing instead of being put to blade and spell to be raised as his undead army like much of what had happened to the population of Helfdome.
This disastrous decision caused the death of the Emperor at the hands of the Krystal Bearer, the one who would go on to end the Seven Year War. Though without their leader and with the Ruby taken, the Ironbrand Empire was weaker than ever, with no clear leader. Which made it all too easy for the Necromancer to seize absolute control of the Iron Fleet and throw the might of the Ironbrand Empire at his foes.
With the loss of the Necromancer at the fields of Warden in the final effort, the Ironbrand Empire was freed of the wizard’s tainting presence but not before 33% of their population was lost in the war effort, a full 20% of their fleet sunk at the battle when the forces of the Krystal bearer had retaliated; both the sahuagin of the south, the yuan-ti of the north and the vast armada of the Fleet of Roger brought upon the Iron Fleet one of the greatest naval battles ever recorded.
Now recovering from their wounds post Seven Year War and the dawn of the fifth age, the empire struggles to find a new emperor to unite the people without the raw divine power of the Ruby to keep things under control while also being forced to pay light, but strict reparations for their involvement with the war.
Cast in Iron
Founding Date
1oth year of the 4th age
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Alternative Names
The Thriband
Demonym
Thran
Leader
Location
Neighboring Nations
Related Myths
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