Editing Iron Kingdoms (section)

==Races==

===Humans===

{{see also|Human}}
Humans in the Iron Kingdoms are basically the same as the humans that you know and feel neutrally about from every other RPG game ever and/or real life (where applicable). They're probably the most populous race in Caen (since they're the only race that has been seen to live on other continents), as well as the rulers of all of the Iron Kingdoms and the Circle Orboros. As is standard in most fantasy settings, Humans have a tendency to reckless experimentation with pretty much any form of technology or magic, which means that they're the most innovative race in the Kingdoms as well as the most likely to turn to crazy evil shit.

Pretty much the only unique thing about humans in the Iron Kingdoms is that Privateer Press has actually put some thought into how ethnicity works in their world. The human population of every kingdom is comprised of at least two ethnic groups, which trace back to pre-Occupation tribes. This can provide a bit of interesting extra character detail if you feel inclined to think about it.  This sounds interesting and might be, although for every nation the story is basically "these guys are in charge because they were more successful at being dicks than the others".  Its only really important in Llael, where half the country would rather side with the invading Khadorans to unite Umbrey and then secede from Khador.

Rules-wise, humans get average-to-good stats across the board plus a free stat point.  They are also goddamn fucking <s>spoiled for options</s> racist, with more unique race-locked classes than anyone else in the core book and sole access to almost all of the classes released in the first major expansion.  The aristocracy, priesthood, and most knightly orders and elite forces are closed off to non-humans.  

====Satyxis====

Horned, all-female descendants of the few survivors of Toruk's brawl with one of his offspring raining blighted blood onto one of the Scharde Isles.  All the men died, but the women turned inhuman.  Fearsome and cruel pirates with great racks in both senses of the word, they raid all over the coastline, practice violent blood-magic rites, and get killed on sight almost everywhere that isn't a pirate-friendly port, which just drives them deeper into their destructive and predatory culture.  Satyxis reproduce by kidnapping men and raping them, then forcing them to walk the plank when they start siring sons instead of daughters. If the women do like the men enough, they even steer close to land first.  Also if one gives birth to a son, then the latter is promptly sacrificed on a altar, hence why there are no male Satyxis around. And even if there was one, his life would a constant hell due to both prejudice from others as well of the constant fear of being found out by the females. They recently got [http://files.privateerpress.com/ironkingdoms/documents/Full_Metal_Fridays_1.1.1.pdf|playable rules] here.  Satyxis are mostly human, stat-wise, with an extra attack for their horned headbutts.

===Goblins===

{{see also|Goblin}}

====Gobbers====
Gobbers are the "civilised" branch of the goblin species, who live as an underclass in most human cities. While descended from Dhunia-worshippers, modern Gobbers aren't particularly religious and will pay lip service to any religion that they think will benefit them. They love to tinker with mechanical and alchemical devices, although they have no capacity for magic themselves. Gobbers aren't so crash-hot when it comes to human notions of property, meaning that a lot of humans see the whole species as a bunch of kleptomaniacs. They love working in any type of workshop or laboratory, if the humans running the place will let them in. Gobbers usually form tight bonds with other members of their species in their local area, but don't have any great degree of social stratification. Nomadic gobber tinkers are considered the most skilled and honourable members of the species, noted for their fancy [[hats]].

Gobbers are the only officially statted version of the Goblin race so far. Their stats suck. Do not play a Gobber if you want to be a [[munchkin]]; play a Gobber if you want to be a [[Star Wars|Jawa]].

=====/tg/-recommended houserule=====

The Gobbers have a rule that's supposed to represent their small stature. It says that they can't use weapons from the Great Weapons or Rifle classes. This is a bloody silly way of representing their small size, because the category of a weapon is more to do with fighting technique than size. The default rule for Gobbers locks them off using quarterstaffs and carbines while still allowing them to use longbows. It also isn't really supported by the Warmahordes fluff, because Pygmy Trolls (which are the same size as goblins) can use rifles just fine. We recommend replacing it with this rule, which we have blatantly stolen from [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]].

'''Small Stature:''' Gobbers cannot use any weapon which must be held in two hands. They can use a weapon which can be held in either one or two hands; however, they must hold such a weapon in two hands, but may only use the weapon's one-handed profile.

====Swamp Gobbers====

The middle ground between city gobbers and wild bogrin, swamp gobbers are goblins that live in the swamp. They can build some decent tech, mostly out of wood and swamp water. Swamp Gobbers haven't been officially statted, but probably won't get stats of their own -- use the Gobber stats for them.

====Bogrin====

Bogrin are tribal goblins, who are slightly bigger and a lot meaner than gobbers -- more like goblins as the traditional D&D monster. They can be visually distinguished by their mohawk-like cranial ridges and their love for piercings and tattoos. Bogrin don't get along in human cities and mostly live in the wilderness; they are particularly numerous in the northern parts of the Scharde islands (i.e. the non-undead-infested parts).

===Dwarves (Rhulfolk)===

{{see also|Dwarf}}
The dwarves of the Iron Kingdoms don't stray too far from the standard fantasy model in most respects. They like mining (although they mostly don't actually live in their mines), they have a high degree of magical and technological skill (with no limitations on their use of magic) but mostly turn it towards spells and tech that are already proven to be stable and reliable rather than bonkers experimentation, they're incredibly Lawful-aligned and crazy about contracts and family lines, are very obsessive about perfecting their chosen crafts, and even have the innate ability to be better at wearing heavy armour than other races. 

The main unique thing that's been mixed into IK Dwarven culture are a bunch of stereotypes about the Swiss. No, really. Dwarves have a strong military that they never use because they're obsessive about staying on peace terms with every other nation, keep everyone afraid of that army via constant mercenary activity, and have used those peace terms to create a massive trading fleet. If the Iron Kingdoms had ready access to chocolate (which does exist in-world but is an incredibly luxurious good that comes from the southern continent of Zu), the Dwarves would probably be the best at making it. 

Also all Dwarves in IK are clean-shaven. As in, they shave their beards. We're not fuckin' kidding here. Clean. ''Shaven''. '''''Dwarfs'''''. Fetch your heart medication, take a few. You good? Need a break? No reason to be down about it, you might need more than a few hours to get through this.

Moving on.

===Ogrun===

Big ogres, tusks and all.  The urban ones tend to be blue-collar union men and women in human settlements, using their massive strength to work hard and keep away the strikebreakers.  Up in Rhulic country, ogrun and dwarves live side by side in relative harmony, with the ogrun having a long, glorious history of serving dwarvish bigwigs as "bokur," or bodyguards.  

Up in the far north, there used to be some wild tribes of "uncivilized" ogrun, but they've gotten fucked even harder than the Nyss by the whole Everblight deal.  The current meat puppet/sex doll of the disembodied dragon, Thagrosh, who started this whole mess, was an escaped ogrun slave.

===Elves===

{{see also|Elf}}

====Iosans====

Iosans are the "High" elves of the Iron Kingdoms setting, living in the kingdom of Ios. Ios is fanatically isolationist and hideously paranoid, which is fair enough considering that the majority of its gods went missing, their sole surviving god is possibly having its life drained to feed human magic, their species has stopped reincarnating properly etc. etc. As in many other fantasy settings, being an Elf in the Iron Kingdoms is not pleasant from a survival of the species point of view, but unlike most Tolkein-ripoff elves the Iron Kingdoms ones haven't kept their cool composure; in fact, quite a lot of them are determined to murder every single human mage so that their gods get better. 

In the Iron Kingdoms RPG, Iosans have the choice of being [[Aspect Warrior|specialist]] [[Culexus|mage hunters]], with an innate ability to ignore ALL magical defenses automatically; eventually they get bonus damage against anything that can use magic.  

However, the majority of Iosan players will probably join the Order of Seekers, which is basically an official organisation of D'rizzit Do'Urdens. They want to actually look for answers as to why Scyrah is getting sick rather than indiscriminately murdering humans in the hope that she'll perk up.  Iosans get good intellectual and "dexterity" stats, and can choose an extra archetype benefit at character creation.

====Nyss====

The Nyss are the winter-y, snow-y kind of elves, descended from worshippers of Nyssor, god of winter, who followed a prophet named Aeric into the frozen northlands under the assumption that said god could maybe possibly be found there. Because, y'know, he's the god of winter and it was really cold up there. They have a few physical differences from elves (taller, skinnier, darker skin, white hair), but the differences between Nyss and Iosans are mainly cultural. Traditional Nyss culture is very tribal and nomadic, with next to no farming, technology or literacy.

That said, there isn't much left of traditional Nyss culture, because the vast majority of the race has been eaten and/or mindwiped by Everblight. The survivors of the race consist of a bunch of refugees who have taken up shelter in any kingdom that will have them. By the time of ''Requiem'', though, they've at least gotten their god back following Goreshade's attempt to murder him.

===Trollkin===

Bigger than humans, but smaller than the full-blooded [[trolls]] they're descended from, trollkin are probably best thought of as [[Warcraft]] orcs mixed with Scottish clans and Native Americans.  They aren't as advanced as some other nationalities, but they do still have their own culture and way of life.  Biologically, their regeneration isn't quite up to par with regular trolls, but they still slowly regenerate lost limbs over months of time, and in-game they always start with high Physique scores, the Tough rule that grants them a 1/3 chance to shrug off death, and a turbo-charged version of the Walk It Off rule to simulate their uncanny ability to heal quickly.  

Urbanized trollkin live all over the Iron Kingdoms, though they are most common outside of human-supremacist Menoth and openly-xenophobic Khador, and they occupy a space not unlike 19th century American immigrants: doing more work for less pay while living in ethnically-segregated neighborhoods.  But, they aren't outright murdered in the streets like black people either, and their racial crafts (stonecutting and textiles) are often highly-prized by collectors.

Rural trollkin live in ''kriels'', complete with their own individual patterned kilts, all over the heart of the continent, from the western borders of Cygnar to the Rimeshaws in the icy north.  Like the ancient Scottish clans, they're all very possessive about their little patches of territory, and like Native Americans, they were promised ownership of their ancestral lands by the white-man-analogue for helping fight off the Orgoth, only to see him systemically violate the shit out of their various agreements for generations whenever something he wanted was lying around on their property.  Though disconnected and estranged for their entire history, the kriels have begun to coalesce into a united proto-state under the charismatic leadership of Madrak Ironhide in the face of the ongoing world war, despite many, many setbacks.

===The Orgoth===

The Orgoth aren't currently a faction, but they are one of the most important pieces of background [[fluff]], comparable to the [[Horus Heresy]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. In fact, they're the reason the Iron Kingdoms exist in their current form ''and'' why the steam-and-magic-powered technology was made, (they are essentially a plot device). Ironically, there isn't actually much known about them, besides the fact that they're humans from across the ocean that wielded incredibly powerful black magic and enslaved Western Immoren for centuries. They sent boatloads of slaves to their homeland and built massive strongholds before suddenly stopping and setting up puppet rulers across the continent. The only free city left was Caspia, future capital of Cygnar, and ''technically'' Cryx (if they were free to begin with), although they threatened Cryx enough that Lord Toruk himself had to destroy their invasion fleet. 

So, for the first time in the history of Western Immoren, the humans had a common foe. Meanwhile, the church of Menoth lost followers (after all, it's hard to say you're the supreme master of mankind when you don't raise a finger to help), whereas the Twins gained followers, spreading a message of hope and help. It also helps that Thamar was a god of magic, which gave Western Immoren a fighting chance against the occupiers. However, something more was needed, in this case science.  Although they took great lengths to suppress sorcery, the Orgoth didn't particularly care about their subjects in Immoren, so alchemy/science could take hold without interruption. Soon, humans had invented the very first cortexes, to be used in massive "Colossi," the precursors to the [[warjack]]s. With the aid of the dwarves of Rhul, they built and learned to control the Colossi, using them to beat back the Orgoth after 800 years of their rule. 

Of course, as mentioned before, not a whole lot is known about the Orgoth. They didn't appear that often to their human subjects, instead ruling through puppets and intermediaries, and they destroyed most of their written lore when it became clear they would be expelled. The did leave ''some'' things behind, though, primarily weapons; although potent, these weapons frequently cause the wielder to go insane, but, in a time of war, the nations are putting aside their moral qualms on such topics, ''especially'' Khador.

Cryx uses Orgoth artifacts often and most of their plans involved uprooting their Strongholds, they're also the only ones who still have Orgoth namely the Warwitch Sirens.

Some speculate that the Orgoth is a faction waiting to happen, probably introduced when the fan has been cleansed of the current shit (aka: the invasion of Llael). I mean, the old masters of the world returning to get the meddling kids off their lawn and in chains again? Terrific.<br>So far however, Privateer Press maintains that the Orgoth will never be playable, and the Circle's fluff maintains that they unleashed a horrifying plague in their homeland that killed almost all of them.

And, to few peoples' surprise, it turned out that was all bullshit; the Orgoth are coming to the tabletop in 2022. Details are currently scarce and limited to two news articles on Privateer Press' website, but evidently the Orgoth have been very busy whilst they were away. Orgoth forces contain a mixture of "Orgoth style" [[warjack]]s, which use the displaced soul of a [[warbeast]] in a mechanikal body, Orgoth troops (who are described as having a "dark, gothic Vikings" aesthetic), warbeass and slave-races harvested from their own corner of the world. Orgoth [[warcaster]]s are apparently ''extremely rare'', so they are actually kept hidden off-shore in fortified ships; they use their soul-binding magics to turn chosen Orgoth champions into living vessels for their powers, sending them into battle as expendable drones to serve as proxy-casters. Mention has been made of a unit consisting of an Orgoth gunner riding a "woolly titan", an Arctic cousin of the Immoren titan wielded by the Skorne, and flocks of massive, draconic vultures that launch from their ships as the vanguard of their invasion force. Conceptually, the faction is described as "mixing aspects of Cryxian warwitches (which are an offshoot of old Orgoth warwitches), the savagery of the tharn, and aspects of the brutal slaver culture of the skorne".