Iron Kingdoms

Full Metal Fantasy. It's as awesome as it sounds.

The Iron Kingdoms are a fantasy setting created by Privateer Press. The setting supports a tabletop RPG game and two miniature games: Warmachine and Hordes. There is also a Warmachine: Tactics game, which is basically slow XCOM with Warjacks.

The Iron Kingdoms are a magical place, where the dwarves are clean-shaven, the elves have beards, orcs are gone and goblins, trolls, and ogres are all PC races. Guns and steam-engines are gaining a foot-hold right alongside magic and swords. It's one of those games where the setting and rules are really closely intertwined, so I'm going to bounce back and forth between talking about the two of them. You don't like it, bugger off.

While still listed on Privateer Press's product line, no new supplements have been introduced since around 2015 and the system is for all intents and purposes dead. Update, as of July 7th 2020, they announced a new edition using D&D 5e rules. It is set after the Infernal invasion, and will be funded through Kickstarter.

Basic rules

Iron Kingdoms only uses d6's (with very very occasional d3's), but most game-affecting rolls use 2d6 as a base. It's also possible to add extra d6's onto a roll, or occassionally take d6's away. You're very unlikely to need more than about 5 or 6 d6's per player though.

You'll be using these d6's in a fairly D&D-esque manner; roll 2d6 (+ any extra dice you managed to squeeze in), add your relevant skill and any active bonuses or penalties, and hope to beat a target number. In combat, you roll 2d6 + Accuracy to beat the opponent's DEF, then 2d6 + Power to beat their ARM, and they take damage equal to the amount you went over their ARM stat by (e.g. a damage roll of 20 against an armour of 15 = 5 points of damage). Non-combat skill rolls are either 2d6+stat+skill to beat a target number, or an opposed roll-off between you and the target. The system tends to be combat-heavy, though social, investigative and explorative games are very much possible as well.

Character design is slightly interesting, especially when it comes to classes. When you create a character, you choose two Careers that then creates your class, as well as decides exactly what your character can gain when it comes to skills, abilities and sometimes even items. This can create fairly common combinations like Thief/Highwayman, Warcaster/Military Officer or Fellcaller/Man-At-Arms, or totally wacky ones like Bounty-hunter/Knight, Arcanist/Trencher, or Warcaster/Thief (yes officer, this is my laborjack).

You also choose something called an "Archetype" that gives you one of several different slightly broken abilities (Wanna always attack twice? Choose Skilled!), or the ability to use magic.

Real World History

The Iron Kingdoms setting began as an adventure path for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (that's 3.0, not 3.5) called the Witchfire Trilogy. While Witchfire had its flaws (chiefly that the players all played second fiddle to an official DMPC), it created a weird and interesting setting which was described in pretty damn fine detail, so it was popular enough to expand. Eventually, the authors had enough cash to found Privateer Press and create the wargames Warmachine and Hordes, based on stuff from the Iron Kingdoms setting, but with several retcons to fit it more closely to their original ideas of the world (e.g. almost no half-elves, and healing magic was even more restricted). Warmachine and Hordes then got big enough that Privateer Press was able to reverse their original journey; they went back to D&D's OGL and built an RPG called Iron Kingdoms D20. But that didn't last much longer than a corebook and two "Monsternomicons" (monster manuals) before they declared the D20 system to be "too restrictive". So then they took the system from the Warmachine/Hordes wargame and built an Iron Kingdoms RPG around it.

The end result was... well, it's a bit niche, because you need to either know your way around the Iron Kingdoms setting or homebrew a functionally identical world; the rules are occasionally flimsy (especially around how to create monsters), and a few homebrews are recommended to keep things running really smoothly. It was also rather repetitive, as the classes required a lot of duplication to throw magic but in my class's special snowflake way (gunmage fireball, arcanist fireball, runeplate fireball, etc). All in all, though, it works pretty well and is likely to keep players interested if they're bored of standard fantasy settings.

A conversion of the game to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, set after the big Infernal Invasion event, was officially due for release in September 2021 but... y'know, that whole mess with the plague and screwed up shipping held it back until November that year. In fact, the Kickstarter backers' physical copies actually spent all of October literally stuck on a dock waiting for somebody to be able to get to them to ship them out. Still, despite that hiccup, the response was positive enough that Privateer Press jumped on the bandwagon for their first splatbook, which is now scheduled for official release in June 2022.

History (in-universe)

Creation and ancient history

(There's a lot of fluff here, but we're gonna leave it for the Deities section and/or skip ahead to more interesting and relevant bits).

The world began in some way with a fight between Menoth and the Devourer Wurm. Menoth made mankind, the Wurm made forests and monsters, and Dhunia made trolls, goblins, and ogres. Then the Gods of the Divine Court improved on these base models and made elves, and the Great Fathers escaped their slavery and made dwarves. Menoth gave the gifts of civilisation to humans, but this basically consisted of giving them walls, fire, farming, and writing, and then saying "I gotta split, figure out what to do with these on your own", so humans progressed slowly. The Elven and Dwarven civilisations got built up much more quickly with help from their respective gods, and thus established the Empire of Lyoss in the far east of Immoren and the nation of Rhul in the north. A Wurm-worshipping alliance of wild tribes known as the Molgur sprung up in resistance to the forces of the first human cities, as did a civilisation of possible Infernal-worshippers called Morrdh. A separate human civilisation called Khardorvic grew in the north.

The elves brought their gods into the world, thus royally fucking up the eastern half of the continent. There was a big war between the Menite civilisations in the south and the Molgur.

Deities and Dragons

All of the deities (except for the dragons, and possibly Cyriss) come from the plane of Urcaen. Urcaen pulls dodecatuple duty as all of your Mystical D&D planes rolled into one; it could be made up of hundreds of planes, it could be the gateway to planes unknown, or it could be the only other plane out there; nobody knows. If you die in Caen (the Prime Material Plane), your soul probably goes to Urcaen (unless it gets trapped by a necromancer, where things get theologically tricky). Lost souls wandering Urcaen apparently get eaten by the Wurm or stepped on by Menoth in short order, so it's prudent to worship a god to ensure that your afterlife is longer than your first one.

Oh, and by the way, only one dude has ever officially travelled to Urcaen and made it back alive, and he's sworn to an eternal oath of silence. Urcaen is not a plane to which you can jaunt back and forth easily. Taking a trip to Urcaen might be okay for a religiously-minded group of extremely high-level PCs, but not for anything less.

Menoth

God of Humanity (not this guy). Lawful Neutral in the D&D system, and that should tell you a lot. Menoth made humanity and gave them the basic technology they needed to become vaguely civilised (fire, farming, buildings, writing) and has spent his entire time since then being as massive a dick to humans as he can possibly manage. The good news is that he doesn't pay that much attention to humankind in general, being rather preoccupied with his neverending hunt/battle/whatever with the Devourer Wurm. Demands that you pay him strict and total obedience forever, and boy will his priesthood get you if you don't. Menite worshippers who die without having sinned too much get to go to the City of Man, one of the few strongholds of not-being-eaten in the mirror plane of Urcaen.

The Protectorate of Menoth is a theocratic nation dedicated to Him; think all of the worst bits of Muslim theocracies mixed with a caricature of medieval Roman Catholic Europe, or the Imperium in third edition, that's it. Basically Douglas Seacat thinks the ancient conflicts between Muslims and Christians was an enormous cripple fight.

The Twins (Morrow and Thamar)

Morrow and Thamar, unlike their fellow gods, were once mortal humans. Morrow is like Jesus, teaching you to work to improve yourself into the best person you can be while helping others to improve themselves too. Meanwhile, his bitch sister Thamar is like Ayn Rand, she is very much evil; teaching you to work to improve yourself into the best person you can be while tearing other people down so that you shine that much brighter.

In life, the two agreed that a person should be able to rise above their current station in life, even to a point where they can rival the Wurm and Menoth. In death they went and did just that, though there were a lot of tears, heartbreak, and family drama in-between. While Menite priests like to say that only Menoth can fight the Wurm and save his faithful, the Twins also have their own cities for their followers and help out too. Their followers claim Menoth basically showed up to talk with them and, after some bluster, basically told them that so long as they kept acknowledging him as Creator and helping him hunt and fight the Wurm, he'd be cool with them running Caen for him. He didn't care much about that place anyway.

Since then, various extraordinary individuals have managed to raise themselves up to something like sainthood, becoming mini-gods under one of the two twins. Morrow's saints are called Ascended, and like Christian saints they were each righteous badasses and paragons of virtue. Thamar's saints are called Scions, and they got where they are by being unscrupulous badasses willing to do absolutely anything to get ahead. Morrow gave men hope in the dark ages of oppression on the part of the Orgoth, but Thamar gave humankind the Gift of Magic to put that hope on a firm foundation, bargaining elf gods and two thirds of human souls to Infernals for that.

Morrow's church is the dominant one in the Iron Kingdoms, and it fills the role of a Protestant church for the setting. All of the human Iron Kingdoms except for the Protectorate of Menoth are majority-Morrowans. Theologically, most "moderate" Menites (a.k.a., those outside the Protectorate) are somewhat cool with the Morrowan church, which does acknowledge Menoth as the creator of man and sings his praises in their hymns alongside Morrow.

Thamar's worship, meanwhile, is highly decentralized. Most followers treat her religion as a very secret and personal thing, since, though not technically illegal in and of itself, most people don't want it widely known that they're worshipping the god of ruthless do-anything-to-get-ahead. Her followers are also notorious for getting up to things that are illegal in her worship, like necromancy and crime.

Basically Paragon and Renegade from Mass Effect.

The Devourer Wurm

The other great big god of the setting; Chaotic Neutral God of the Wilderness. The Wurm represents wild beasts, forests, and all that jazz. However, he is not a peaceful happy nature god; he is into blood sacrifice, burning down cities, and creating monsters for the fun of it. He's such a jerk that in the background lore a lot of his defeated worshipers converted to Menoth as he was the more benign of the two. Like Menoth, he's too preoccupied fighting his arch-rival to pay any attention to the world. Wurm-worshippers tend to be savage wild cannibals. His worshipers believe that they will get to join his eternal hunt across Urcaen when they die, looking for lost souls to eat and laying siege to the City of Man.

The Circle Orboros view the Wurm and Dhunia as two aspects of the same god, representing the destructive and nurturing aspects of nature respectively, although their version of this single god is a lot closer to the Wurm than Dhunia. They believe that Menoth and the Wurm must remain in balance, or the losing party will try to escape into Caen and probably step on and/or eat it in short order. Since Menoth is so powerful what with the spread of civilization and all, so they're trying to take civilization down a few pegs. If the wilderness was too powerful, they'd build a metropolis or two.

Dhunia

The mother goddess of the trolls, goblins, and ogres. These races used to worship both her and the Wurm, but as Wurm worship got them repeatedly screwed over, they gradually turned away from him and focused exclusively on Dhunia. This is where you go if you want a reasonably kind and nurturing nature deity, although it's only those "primitive" races who take her seriously. Dhunian worshipers are into reincarnation; she collects the souls of her worshipers, adds them to her metaphorical Big Pot O' Souls, and ladles out a mixture of old and new soul bits whenever something new is born.

Dhunians believe that the Wyrm was Dhunia's first son, and Dhunia's second son was Menoth himself. The Wyrm grew so wild that he raped her, impregnating her with all the predators of the world, from lions and tigers and bears to trollkin and ogrun and, yes, that most dangerous of all predators: MAN. Menoth struck out to hunt down the Wyrm and kick his ass for hurting their mother. But the millennia have gone by so violently that Menoth and the Wyrm don't remember much of anything besides the joy of hunting one another which... actually makes a kind of sense.

Dhunian clerics are generally old-school shaman-spellcasters, and quite a few of them are always procreating hither and thither.

The Divine Court of the Elves

Since Elves always have to be special snowflakes they have eight gods, all associated with a particular division of time; Lacyr (Ages), Ossyris (Hours), Ayisla (Night), Nyrro (Day), Scyrah (Spring), Lurynsar (Summer), Lyliss (Autumn) and Nyssor (Winter). When these gods noticed the existence of sentient beings on Caen, they decided to have a crack at making their own, and therefore Elves happened (so this setting's see themselves as a refinement of earlier designs rather than an elder race).

The elven gods were considerably more interventionist than the others, handing out secrets aplenty. However, this seemed to get harder for them over time, as the walls between Caen and Urcaen apparently thickened. The gods decided to teach the elves how to make a bridge between the planes, and the elves made the fucking stupid decision to put this bridge right in the middle of their capital. And of course, people flocked from miles around to see the opening of the bridge. So when it exploded after the gods made it through, a lot of elves died. It also split the continent of Immoren in half and turned most of the eastern half into a royally fucked-up desert, so it's not like building the bridge on the outskirts of town would have helped much, but that's still some pretty damn terrible urban planning.

Elves believed that their dead would either get to spend eternity in Lyoss if they were extra-specially good, or be reincarnated (still as elves) if they didn't make the cut. However, since the Rivening, the cycle has stopped, and some elves have been born without souls. It's hypothesized that these elves were meant to be receptacles for old souls, except that the old souls couldn't find their way back.

The Great Fathers and the Claywives

The dwarves have a total of thirteen gods, all dedicated to a particular form of craftsmanship or art; Orm (building), Godor (oration), Dohl (mining), Ghrd (wealth), Lodhul (cooking), Jhord (espionage), Odom (secrets), Dovur (weaponsmithing), Uldar (armoursmithing), Dhurg (axe-manship), Hrord (swordsmanship), Udo (hammer-manship), and Sigmur (whose role isn't mentioned in the IKRPG Core Rules but must be written down somewhere). These gods were created in slavery to a giant sentient mountain called Ghor, but they were eventually able to escape Ghor's clutches by tricking him into letting himself be mined hollow. They made their way to Caen, fashioned themselves some women called the Claywives (who are also worshiped by some dwarves), fathered the dwarven race, and left down an extremely detailed system of laws before heading back to Urcaen again. The dwarves believe that their dead get to live in the tower that the Great Fathers built out of Ghor's insides, eternally refining their chosen crafts. So where elves are slowly slipping away into nothingness, humans are either in a state of eternal servitude or getting spiritually nommed, and skorne are damned to everlasting torment in the Void, Rhulfolk chill and make themselves useful during a huge metaphysical game of Dwarf Fortress. That is, after a likely long life of making steam-powered magic robots, shooting the other races in their stupid tall people faces, and making fat stacks of bling from doing both. So praise be to the gods for assuring the vaguely Jewish/Scots-Irish thug life will be pimping from beginning to end and beyond.

Toruk the Dragonfather

Dragons in the Iron Kingdoms are basically Elder Gods, and as his title implies, Toruk is their progenitor and the biggest and baddest of the lot. Dragons keep their heart, soul, mind, and other essential organs in the form of a rock called a heartstone aka athanc. Killing a dragon but leaving its heartstone behind just means that the dragon will generate a new body from the stone and come back for revenge. Alas, athanc is indestructible (breaking it creates two dragons instead of one), unless eaten by another dragon. Dragons also release a terrible nature-altering radiation field known as blight. Different dragons have different kinds of blight, and Toruk's appears to be flavored towards making undead creatures. The resident undead mad scientists of Cryx have used this to create all kinds of biomechanical zombies, ghosts, ghouls etc.

Toruk has never told anyone where he came from, and there doesn't seem to be any other easy way of finding out -- the only thing people are sure of is that none of the other gods made him. We do know, however, where his progeny came from. Toruk got lonely one day and decided to cut some pieces from his heart-stone. Unfortunately, the dragons which grew from those pieces got along like a sack full of cats, since they're all driven by the inescapable desire to join their broken heartstones back together again, so they were in a constant state of war for a while. The dragon-children managed to ally for just long enough to drive Toruk off the Immoren mainland before descending back into anarchy. There are now only a fairly small number of dragon-children left in the world, and most of them seem to be biding their time until they think that they have a decent chance of bringing down all of the others. Toruk, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly content chillin' on his personal island, waiting for his babies to come to him.

Even though Toruk lives on Caen, your players will not get to kill him, any more than D&D players should rightfully get to kill the Tarrasque Asmodeus. He is plot armored up to and including the wazoo. Characters who get within one mile of Toruk either die and come back as zombies or pledge undying loyalty to him before he kills them and brings them back as zombies.

Everblight

Toruk's cancer baby that grew legs and walked around spreading blight everywhere, who seems to have decided that now is the time to make his move against his dragon-dad. Everblight isn't that powerful as dragons go, but he is smart, and unlike all other dragons he actually has the capacity to control and focus his blighting abilities. He also found built himself a magical sword that lets him cut up his heart-stone without making more baby dragons, so of course he's dispensed with his physical form altogether and has been sticking bits of his heartstone into various (mostly female) elves (the males are: one ogre, one golem-ish-thing, and one three-headed monster) to make himself an army. Oh yeah, and he's been making Xenomorph-esque monsters in his spare time.

Cyriss

Goddess of SCIENCE and CLOCKWORK and FUNKY MACHINERY and NO ROBOTS ALLOWED (not that other guy). Cyriss was discovered relatively recently by an astronomer who found a new planet in Caen's star system and was struck by weird prophetic fever dreams; the planet spoke to him, calling itself Cyriss, the Clockwork Goddess. The astronomer gathered likeminded neckbeards to stare at the planet and come up with religious dogma based on what it told them. As far as they can figure, they have to summon Cyriss to Caen in person by building a big funky world-encompassing machine, because that worked sooooo well when the elves did it. They also are not fans of artificial intelligences like Warjacks; they have a Thou shalt not build a machine in likeness of the human mind kind of thing going.

Basically, Cyriss is Friend Computer.

Defiers and Grymkin

Nightmarish creatures from fairytales and their masters. You see, Menoth, for all his power and glory, is a huge asshole. After creating people he simply dropped them in Caen to figure things on their own and buggered off to chase his boyfriend enemy Wurm. Humans had to manage on their own, and in this their souls started showing true potential, shining brightly enough for Menoth to notice. Being a selfish prick, he wanted both hoard new toys and be the only top dog, so he invented basics of civilisation (fire, farming, buildings, writing) and gave them to humans, demanding worship in return and collecting the souls of faithful upon their deaths. But all his laws basically stated "Menoth is great, suck his dick and STFU", and he didn't pay attention to such meaningless things as virtue and decency, rewarding only blind obedience. Naturally, some took offence to that, and defied his will (hence the name), with five of them discovering aforementioned potential of their souls (basically, becoming beta-versions of Morrow and Thamar). Before they could do something really awesome and kick his ass, Menoth stuffed them all in the sack and shoved into the deepest asshole prison in Urcaen, to be endlessly tormented by their own nightmares. They chilled there for several millenia, learning to control and channel their nightmares and transforming an occasional soul that wanders in their domain withouth much else to do. Then old witch and supposedly goddess Zevanna Agha became aware of Infernals (see below), cut a deal with Defiers and opened their prison, so that they could commence a Wicked Harvest upon traders with Infernals and everyone else (but she still holds the keys, just in case they start looking funny at her).

The Infernals

Demons who live in Urcaen, or possibly somewhere beyond it, who desire human souls. Much like Dr. Faustus, it's possible to gain insane magical powers if you're willing to offer a soul to the Infernals. Unlike in Dr. Faustus, the Infernals don't particularly care whose soul you offer them -- any soul will do. That said, the Infernals also charge insane rates of compound interest, so they're going to keep asking for more and more souls and they'll take yours if you can't deliver. Infernals basically exist to give your campaign's main villain whatever insane magic powers you want. Also, gave arcane magic to humans per the deal with Thamar, in exchange for the Elven gods and 2/3 of all living human souls. Then decided to show up to collect way earlier than agreed, and now Thamar and everyone else shit bricks.

Races

Humans

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.

Rules-wise, humans get average-to-good stats across the board plus a free stat point. They are also goddamn fucking spoiled for options 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 rules here. Satyxis are mostly human, stat-wise, with an extra attack for their horned headbutts.

Goblins

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 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)

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

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 specialist 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 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 warjacks. 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.
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.

Nations/Factions

• Cygnar
• Khador
• Protectorate of Menoth
• Cryx
• Retribution of Scyrah
• Convergence of Cyriss
• Mercenaries
• Trollbloods
• Skorne
• Circle Orboros
• Legion of Everblight
• Crucible Guard
• Minions

Iron Kingdoms in D&D

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Privateer Press naturally tried to jump on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition bandwagon back in the glory days of the D20 Brand, though only their bestiary "The Monsternomicon" is at all remembered.

Well, come the advent of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and the failure of their own branded Iron Kingdoms RPG, and Privateer Press has decided to try it again: a 5e-based RPG called Iron Kingdom: Requiem is scheduled for release around late 2021; though the books are apparently stranded on a dock somewhere as of this writing, PDFs can be found online.

Despite being amateurishly bad, committing multiple old-fashioned sins on the design in a system that was, at time of publication, a decade old, such as including 3.5 race design holdovers like situational +1 or +2 modifiers and weapon typing bloat, having crappy internal balance, and taking up an entire page with nothing but first and last names for Cygnaran characters, it has gotten good reviews off the strength of the setting itself and PP is already announcing a 2022 sequel/expansion.

Races

Gobbers can use the halfling traits if you really want, but their official trats are +2 Dex, +1 Cha, Small size, 25 feet speed, Superior Darkvision, and the traits Beneath Notice (free Stealth proficiency, when you Disengage you can then attempt to Hide), Nimbleness (you can move through the space of bigger creatures), and Tinkerer (1 free tool proficiency from the list of alchemist's supplies, mason's tools, smith's tools or tinker's tools).

Humans are all Medium with a base speed of 30 feet, but gain an ability score modifier and racial traits based on their nationality:

• Cygnaran: +1 Int, +1 Cha, +1 to attack rolls with Simple and Martial Firearms, Well Educated (pick 2 skills: Arcana, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Religion) and Industrial Revolution (+d4 to ability checks with artisan's tools).
• Protectorate of Menoth: +1 Str, +1 Con, Pilgrim's Path (proficiency in History, Religion and Survival), Citizen Soldiers (proficiency with simple & martial melee weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields).
• Khadoran: +1 Con, +1 Wis, Legacy of the North (pick 2 skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Survival), Iron Will (Advantage on saves vs. Frightened), Norther Resilience (+2 to Constitution checks and saves).
• Llaelese: +1 Int, +1 Cha, Keen Mind (pick 2 skills: Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth), Blood of Liberty (+d4 to Investigation and Insight checks), Dueling Code (free Martial Weapon proficiency).
• Ordic: +1 Str, +1 Dex, Shore Leave (pick 2 skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Performance, Survival), Sea Legs (Swim Speed 30 feet when in Light Armor or less), Coastal Home (1 water vehicle proficiency, 1 tool proficiency from: carpenter's tools, cartographer's tools, navigator's tools, or cook's utensils).
• Cryxian: +1 Dex, +1 Wis, Smuggler's Heritage (pick 2 skills: Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth), A Pirate's Life (proficiency with Cutlass and Simple Pistols), Touch of Blight (Advantage on saves vs. disease and poison, Resistance to Acid and Necrotic damage).

Iosan Elves are Medium sized with 30 feet speed, +2 Int, +1 Cha, Darkvision, and the racial traits Keen Senses (free Perception proficiency), Martial Society (re-roll attack rolls of 1; 2nd result stands), and Skill Versatility (pick 2 skill and/or tool proficiencies of your choice).

Nyss elves are Medium sized with base speed 30 feet, +2 Dex, +1 Int, and the racial traits Keen Senses (free Perception proficiency), Child of Winter (Resistant to Cold damage), Nyss Weapon Training (free proficiency with Nyss Longbow and Nyss Claymore), Quick Response (roll Initiative with Advantage 1/day) and Light Resilience (Advantage on saves vs. Blindness).

Ogrun gain +2 Str, +1 Con, are Medium Size with a speed 30 feet, and have the racial traits Powerful Build, Huge Stature (can wield 2-handed weapons 1-handed, Versatile weapons always do 2-hands damage value), Thick-Skinned (+1 AC when in Medium, Light or No Armor), and Imposing Presence (free Proficiency in Intimidation or Persuasion). If you want to specifically play a Rhulic ogrun, you can swap Imposing Presence for either Lessons of Ghord (free proficiency with History and either mason's tools or smith's tools) or Oath of Fealty (designate a friendly ogrun or rhulic dwarf as your korune; you must obey them and can grant them a free Dodge 1/short rest).

Rhulic dwarves use the standard dwarf core race with these subrace traits: +1 Int, Firearm's Training (proficiency with Carbines), Master Craftsman (proficiency with Tinker's Tools, can craft magic items in 50gp increments and mundane items in 15gp increments) and Oathbound (swear a formal oath for a specific, long-lasting task at 1st level, with a 2nd at 7th level and a 3rd at 12th level; when performing tasks directly related to an oath, gain a +1 bonus to all relevant skill checks).

Trollkin are Medium sized with a speed of 30 feet and +1 Str and +1 Con. They have the core racial traits Darkvision, Born to be Wild (Proficiency in Survival), Ceaseless Stamina (ignore all effects of Exhaustion until you reach exhaustion level 3, whereupon they all hit you at once; you also recover 3 exhaustion levels per long rest), Regenerative (reroll Hit Die results of 1-2 when spending Hit Die to regain HP during short rests; 2nd result stands) and Trollkin Toughness (Advantage on saves vs. disease and poison, resistance to Poison damage). They also have to choose one of the following subraces:

• Woodland: +1 Con, Woodland Survivalist (ignore nonmagical forest-based difficult terrain, Advantage on Survival checks to hunt in forests).
• Northkin: +1 Str, Northkin Resilience (Resistant to Cold damage).
• Albino: +1 Cha, Cantrip (choose 2 cantrips from the Sorcerer spell list, cast with Cha).

In addition to all of these, the DM's section of the corebook offers two further options.

Firstly, if the DM permits, a Satyxis character can be played by using the tiefling statblock, save for replacing Hellish Resistance with Blight Resistance (Resist Necrotic Damage) and Infernal Legacy with Blood Rituals (spilling your own or another's blood when casting a Ritual spell cuts the casting time from 10 minutes to 1 minute).

Secondly, if the DM permits, the Dragonborn statblock can be used to represent somebody who was exposed to dragon blight but survived relatively intact and sane. In this case, the "dragonborn" must take one of the following ancestries based on the dragons of Immoren:

• Ashnephos (Fire, 5ft by 30ft line, Dex save)
• Blighterghast (Acid, 5ft by 30ft line, Dex save)
• Everblight (Cold AND Fire, 15ft cone, Dex save)
• Halfaug (Cold AND Fire, 5ft by 30ft line, Dex save)
• Scaefang (Poison, 15ft cone, Con save)
• Toruk (Necrotic, 15ft cone, Dex save)

For Everblight and Halfaug ancestry, the character must try to divide their breath weapon damage dice as evenly as possible. When rolling an uneven amount of dice, choose one type to do more damage.

New Classes

The Alchemist is a character who studies the arcane sciences of chemistry to create and utilize potent chemical tools and weapons. As they gain levels, they gain an arsenal of increasingly complex alchemical formulae that they can create during downtime, as well as certain simpler formulae they can whip up on the fly if they have access to their alchemist's supplies. The three subclasses of the Alchemist are:

• The Combat Alchemist, a warrior-alchemist who specializes in the use of weaponized alchemy, lobbing homemade grenades at foes with increasing skill and versatility as they age. Whilst their features don't revolve around it, they often carry Crucible Arms - specialist weapons that either spray deadly alchemical liquids like flamethrowers or can infuse bullets with fiery, acidic or toxic fluids.
• The Synthesist is dedicated to pursuing the true understanding of alchemy, allowing them to produce more powerful alchemical items and otherwise wring more use out of their alchemical supplies and formulae.
• The 'Rogue Alchemist is either a criminal who turned to alchemy to augment their lawbreaking, or just an alchemist who refuses to knuckle under to the established alchemical guilds (or was kicked out of them, or otherwise has cause to operate under the table, as it were). They specialize in scrounging up substitute ingredients and outright pilfering alchemical formulae from others, but are also masterful poisoners.

The Gun Mage is one of the most iconic classes of the Iron Kingdoms; a gish who combines spellcasting powers with gunslinger talents to become a master of ranged combat. Take note that despite using the 5e spell list, Gun Mages do not specialize in the use of ray spells and other "beam" type offensive spells, but instead focus on taking ordinary ammo and channeling magic into it; this is represented by their core class feature, Rune Shot, which lets them pick a number of different potential buffs they can apply to their bullets by spending spell slots, such as adding elemental damage, boosting accuracy, heightening damage, turning it into a guided projectile, etc. The higher the Gun Mage's level, the more Rune Shot options they can pick up. They are Charisma-based Half Casters, although they can cast 6th level spells rather than the normal 5th level spell cap. They rely on the use of the Magelock weapons, but can substitute any firearm - however, until they gain the Weapon Bond feature, using non-Magelock firearms to launch Rune Shots causes the weapon to degrade with each use. There are three Gun Mage subclasses:

• Militant Order of the Arcane Tempest: True soldier gun mages who gain increasingly potent combat-related abilities.
• Order of the Thorn: Covert operative from Llael who specialize in espionage, sabotage and assassination. Their subclass features are a mixture of stealthy shooting tricks and an increased ability to fight to the last.
• Order of the Lone Gun: Self-trained, mavericks, or heirs to minor traditions that haven't developed into fully-fledged orders. They're the most versatile of the gun mages, with a grab-bag of useful tricks.

The Gunfighter is, of course, a gunslinger by any other name. It's a warrior class dedicated to mastery over the new firearms included in the Requiem corebook, with its core feature being access to a number of special attacks called "Trick Shots". They tend to focus on evasion, stealth, and just staying well out of reach of the enemy, so don't mistake them for a fighter even if they are a "mundane combat-focused" class! Three subclasses here:

• Pistoleers specialize in the use of pistols, allowing them to draw and fire with greater speed than other gunfighters.
• Sharpshooters specialize in the use of long arms like rifles; they don't fire as frequently as pistoleers, but they hit targets a lot harder and from a lot further away.
• Commandos are stealthy gunfighters who specialize in quick, brutal stealth attacks to take down foes. As a result of their tendency to work in close range, they are also more adept at melee weapons than pistoleers or sharpshooters.

Mechaniks are the artificers of Immoren, adventurer-scientists who specialize in building, maintaining and utilizing the various steampunk gear of the Iron Kingdoms to solve their problems. Unlike the Alchemist, Gun Mage and Gunfighter, they don't have a specific class-based set of "things you can build", they just have class features that make them better at building and using "tech" items on the fly - they're a Skill Monkey class more than anything. Three subclasses, yet again:

• Combat Mechaniks are used to serving in combat and keeping valuable military gear, like guns, steamjacks, cybernetics, etc, functioning under pressure. On the other hand, they're also very good at knocking out enemy machines too.
• Ironheads are specialists in the use of steam armor - the Power Armor of Immoren. Human(oid) tanks, ironheads get to build their own free suit of standard-class steam armor, and subsequently customize it as they level up with more unique tricks and abilities.
• Arcane Mechaniks really are the artificers of the Iron Kingdoms; they're mages who've turned to blending science and sorcery, allowing them to specialize in industrial thaumaturgy - the very elite branch of science that creates the magitek devices known as mechanika. They're Intelligence-based Third Casters with the ability to both cast spells of up to 4th level and to build, fuel and otherwise augment mechanika devices and weapons.

Finally, there are Warcasters; mages who can telepathically link with steamjacks, allowing them to command these steampunk magitek golems in battle, as well as to exploit mechanika weapons and armor to greater effect. They are Intelligence-based Half Casters of the "prepared spells" style - the iconic "Focus" from the wargame is adapted into a kind of mana system; you have a level-based cap on how powerful a spell you can cast (up to 6th level) and on the maximum size of your Focus pool, and you spend Focus points to cast a spell or apply a buff. Their three subclasses reflect their approach to mechanika-augmented magic:

• Controllers are the iconic "steamjack master" warcasters, focused on pushing their steamjacks further and getting the most out of them in battle. They're the only subclass who start play with a steamjack companion as a result.
• Arcanists focus instead on battle magic; steamjacks are used as "living" defenses and reserves of magical energy. Their features revolve around maximising their offensive spell capabilities, and they can even use Focus to alter their spells in a form of pseudo-metamagic.
• Soldiers are the warcasters least interested in steamjacks, instead focusing on their bond with mechanika arms and armor. They're all about boosting the most out of their mechanika gear and using Focus to augment their own personal killing abilities, making them the most gishy of the warcasters.

New Subclasses

Fell Callers are a bard subclass only available to trollkin, since they're based on trollkin lore and culture. Fell Callers are warrior-bards with access to a unique variety of sonic based augments and attacks.

Clerics in an Iron Kingdoms 5e game have access to the Cleric Domains of Benefaction, Guile and Obedience. Whilst these are associated with the Immoren deities of Morrow, Thamar and Menoth respectively, other clerical domains do exist in the setting; Morrowan clerics can take Life, Light, War or Knowledge, Thamarite clerics can take Death, Trickery, or Twilight, and Menites can take War or Order.

Fighters get three subclasses to play with in Iron Kingdoms: Requiem. The "Battle Chaplain' is basically the fighter-cleric to the Eldritch Knight's fighter-wizard, being a Wisdom-based Third Caster with access to the Cleric spell list. The Man-at-Arms specializes in fighting defensively and in the use of polearms. Finally, the Storm Knight is an elite Cygnarite warrior who fights in a specialized suit of mechanika armor and with a lightning-based mechanika weapon.

Monks of the Way of Deception are essentially variant ninjas focused on spying, disguise, manipulation and politicking rather than Shadow Magic, with the order largely being associated with worship of Thamar. In contrast, those of the Way of the Fist are elite unarmed bodyguards trained in the Protectorate of Menoth.

Paladins of the Oath of Radiance are heroic champions of the Morrowan faith dedicated to battling evil, especially in its manifestations of infernals and the undead. Those of the Oath of the Wall are Menite champions dedicated to protecting the flock, and much beloved by the common Menites for their compassion compared to the self-righteous fire-and-brimstone zeal of the lay-priests and their "holy" torturers.

Rangers can take the Bounty Hunter and be just generally good at hunting and capturing opponent, the Mage Hunter to be extra good at fighting magic users and constructs, or the Vigilant to be represent one of the Morrowan-trained magical monster killers.

Rogues have the option of Cutthroat (an urban specialist with a mixture of features) or the Duelist (combat-focused specializing in dual-wielding blade and pistol).

Borderlands and Beyond

The first of several planned splatbooks. In addition to examining Rhul, Ios, and the Borderlands, it has an assortment of crunchy new goodies, including more "HORDES-based" stuff, such as Rhulic Steamjacks, Iosan Myrmidons, and Warbeasts. Planned for release in 2022.

New Races

Offers Bogrin, Farrow, Idrian Marchfolk, Pygmy Trolls and the Soulless Elves as playable races. Sadly, no gatormen, bog trogs, or anything associated with the Circle or Tharn; that's being saved for a future splatbook. The Borderlands Survival Guide splatbook also offers the optional rules to play as Eldritch, which are basically elf vampires.

Borderlands Classes

Just like how the Requiem corebook offers the new Gunfighter, Mechanik and Warcaster to replicate the most iconic "Full Metal Fantasy" troops/concepts of WARMACHINE, Beyond the Borderlands offers three new full classes to replicate the savage mystics of HORDES, each of which comes with two subclasses.

Bone Grinders are the primal counterparts to Alchemists (with a dash of bio-Mechaniks), artificer-necromancers who have learned to exploit the fundamental magical energies inherent in living creatures by harvesting bio-matter and shaping it into potions, talismans and fetishes. This mixture of alchemy and magic allows these, quote, "filth-encrusted meat wizards" to create the equivalent of magical items by butchering their kills. Its subclasses are the Way of Bile and the Way of Blood and Bone.

Shamans are a more savage counterpart to the conventional cleric. Their subclasses are the Matron Domain and the Predator Domain.

Warlocks replace the counterparts of the same name from D&D 5e and are the fleshy counterparts to the Warcaster from the Requiem corebook, being spellcasters tied to the new Warbeasts. Their subclasses are Devourer Resonance and Farrow Resonance. Weirdly, they're Wisdom casters rather than Charisma casters, which you'd expect them to be given a) Charisma tends to be the "force of will" mental stat, and b) it'd complete the trinity with the Int-based Bone Grinders and Wis-based Shamans.

Borderlands Subclasses

Naturally, there's at least one and usually more subclasses for each of the classic D&D classes.

Barbarians get the Path of the Long Rider, Path of the Runeshaper, and Path of the Warchief.

Clerics get access to the Judgment and Void Cleric Domains.

Fighters can take the Ryssovass or Trooper options.

Monks have the Way of Lys Healing, Way of the Battle Mage, and Way of the Gun.

Paladins can take the Oath of Edicts or the Oath of the Custodian.

Rangers only get the new Nyss Hunter.

Rogues can be Bushwhackers or Mage Slayers.

Sorcerers have the Ice Forged subclass.

Wizards can take the Magister or Tactical Arcanist traditions.

The new classes from Requiem also get their new subclasses, too! Gunfighters can take the new Ghost Sniper subclass. Mechaniks have the Arcanist Mechaniks and Rhulic Mechanik subclasses. Finally, Warcasters get the largest array of new subclasses with the Arcane Assassin, Arcanika Adeptis, Rhuilic Warcaster and Void Touched.