Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Charles Phipps 08-08-05, 08:22 PM	hey guys, as I've mentioned before. Our game basically had the Fall of the Lord of Blades happen and I've been tinkering with the idea that post his fall that there might be a rising of a more public nation.... and the questionability of whether Cyre won't use this opportunity to descend into the Mournlands like a hawk on some kind of crusade. I am thinking of making minature "kingdoms" inside it as well but I'm not sure Cyre has the numbers to try any sort of 'exterminate the monsters/settlement' campaign.
Charles Phipps 08-08-05, 08:23 PM	This was what I had for the Warforged nation to be used as a template for.... The Iron Nation Capital: Eston Population: 3,500 (estimated 99% warforged, 1% other) The fall of the Lord of Blades resulted in most of his followers turning their allegiance to a new warlord that managed to take over his position and a softened position for the warforged that has a broader appeal to their race. The Iron Nation's credo is simple enough "To build a homeland for the warforged where we may grow in number, live as men do, and secure our place as an eternal people of Eberron." This has started with the takeover of the former House Cannith territory of Eston in which has been fortified by the warforgedand made into a new base their operations with much of the damage being repaired and replaced. The former scouting positions and places prepared by the Lord of Blades are still in existence and the Forge that he possessed has also been taken by them as they are working to understand it and perhaps replicate it. Industries The "Iron Crown" (LG male personalitied warforged pal of the Silver Flame 9) as he is currently called, is largely interested in looting Cyre for as much as he can and also working to start securing the "borders" of the place. Treasures and tradeables are being horded at Eston as the Iron Crown wishes to use them to establish trade but finds opposition from Prince Oargev who effectively thinks the Iron Nation is robbing his nation's valuables in addition to declaring false sovereignty. Mercenary work and warcraft are oddly largely forbidden to be traded by the warforged by the Iron Crown's decree. Until they have firm understanding of how to replicate themselves, every warforged's life is precious and only to be spent in service to the Realm. This has been problematic with some of the recruitment because many warforged are loathe to give up the skill they were literally made for. Life and Society The Warforged of formerly serving the Lord of Blades that now serve the Iron Crown are largely a lot that could not function without a commander or outside of a military lifestyle. They are individuals who live in direct formation, take orders, and obey everything told to them without question. In this case, they have been ordered to convert to the Silver Flame and perform engineering duties with guard duty (almost all are lawful neutral). While some grumble that it was more glorious the fight against humans, the blind loyalty to whomever is in charge is a disturbing case for nearly half the Iron Citizenry. The true fanatics of the Lord of Blades have mostly left since this time and work to refound their movement elsewhere or plot to retake it. In sharp contrast to the "Soldiers" are the "Livers" which are warforged who have better acclimated to the outside world and were instead brought here by the possibility of founding a new nation. The stark contrast of vibrancy and cosmopolitianism of the "Livers" makes a great deal of the Iron Nation's limited culture up and it is formed from their experiences here. The Iron Crown has done his best to keep their allegiance by occasionally sending those who find their new life too difficult out as 'recruiters.' There is surprisingly a small number of members of other races in this land. Artificers mostly and close companions of others, the Iron Crown has made special efforts to make sure that they have first access to the few clerics and unnatural healers amongst them in order to maintain their lifestyle. He would like more non-constructs to live here (always overshadowed by a considerable warforged majority of course) but the issues of food, water, and healing coat everything unfortunately and the maintainence of the small population that already exists is a full time job for many warforged. Government and Politics The Iron Nation is problematic for the other nations of Cyre as they more or less publically repudiate the idea that the warforged should not be allowed to repoduce and are a direct violation of the treaty of Thronehold. Military action would be jointly taken by all four of the surviving great nations against it were not for the fact that a trek across the Mournland would be wastefully costly for what amounts to a simple annoyance. Some nations are also grateful for the Lord of Blades defeat and Thrane is in an unpleasant position because the Iron Crown is a holy warrior of the flame. Prince Oargev has already more or less declared war on the nation but has not gone beyond harsh language due to the fact that attacking a even small collection of people literally built for war and all trained in combat would effectively annihilate Cyre. This has led the Iron Nation to accepting surprising envoys from the Reidrans and oddly a bit of dialogue with the Dargunn. The Dargunn seem sympathetic to the Warforged nation and are actually quite happy about their pacifistic tendencies in that it may open up more work if all warforged were to join into this country. They have no fear of trading with them either and are the only Khovaire nation to currently sport any diplomacy with them. The Reidrans largely seem only interested in the occasional gift and offering promises of perhaps giving the Iron Nation the secret to forging more of their kind. The Iron Crown is authoritarian King with control over the military and all branches of government. Notions of democracy and seperate institutions are held by some but the Iron Crown is sympathetic but skeptical his race is ready for them. House Cannith is currently divided about how to treat them. Power Groups The Knights of the Iron Crown- A group of specially recruited warforged that exist to go on undercover missions across Khovaire to find their fellow warforged and lead them to the "Homeland", especially in areas of persecution. They also exist to gather information and, in Iron Crown's paladin like fashion, "do good deeds of merit and justice that will show others the quality of our race." Some are paladins like himself but others are clerics, rangers, and other people of "noticible skill and knowledge of the outside world". No evil member is allowed by the Iron Crown's decree. The Cult of the Living Blade- A group of terrorists already located in the city, they number only seven right now but intend to wear down the "new society" and perhaps overthrow it with some having grandiose delusions of ressurecting their master or resuming the war. It has only been recently reformed and actually is larger outside the Mournlands with new recruits being acclimated. The Church of the Silver Flame- Supported by the Iron Crown, a few priests have dared come to the warforged 'land' to help convert them and are alittle unnerved at present but are interested in building a true institution here with his support. They misunderstand many things though and not the least is the fear that the Iron Crown wishes to seperate his people from the Church's Pontiff in Thrane. Religion Most of the warforged are Silver Flame followers but the worship is skin deep with the vast majority being faithful because their (current) military commander is and a few are fanatical because their commander effectively just gave them an outlet for their devotion. The Crown is inspiring some warforged with his ideals of honor, duty, and sacrifice though that they are considering the notion seriously. Religious freedom is a given though with the race being what matters rather than personal beliefs. Most of the other races are somewhat ambigious in their faith, believing but not particularly caring with some pockets of strong Sovereign Host worship. The Dark Six and Vol are allowed to be worshipped oddly so long as no crimes are committed in their service. The later may result in some undead thinking they can move to Eston as well. However, there's still plenty of Mourning to do and I'm not sure that the Five Nations wouldn't just swoop down and annihilate the whole thing rather than tolerate a gathering of warforged like this...especially if they repudiate ANY of the thronehold accords. 1 warforged is a curiousity, 3000 is an army and all that.
Steelpunk 08-08-05, 08:33 PM	Even with LoB gone, the Mournlands would still be a pretty inhospitable place to normal humanoids. I'd think some investigating by the national governments and magical societies (providing tons of adventure hooks in the process) into what exactly happened would be in order before anyone would attempt any sort of large-scale resettlement Or, one of the LoB's former minions might just pick up where he left off and cause all kinds of new problems. As well, from what I recall LoB wasn't the only established baddie in the area either - though I can't quote the actual source, wasn't there also supposed to be a group of warforged cultists somewhere in Mournland dedicated to a machine god of some sort? From what I remember, they're building some kind of giant effigy of their god, and attack anyone who gets near their territory. Aside from all that though, the Iron Nation idea is certainly nifty, though to make it work would require that thousands of warforged would want to populate the area - if this is how you have it set up, great - but doing so might affect the demographics in the rest of the world.
Charles Phipps 08-08-05, 08:39 PM	Even with LoB gone, the Mournlands would still be a pretty inhospitable place to normal humanoids. I'd think some investigating by the national governments and magical societies (providing tons of adventure hooks in the process) into what exactly happened would be in order before anyone would attempt any sort of large-scale resettlement Or, one of the LoB's former minions might just pick up where he left off and cause all kinds of new problems. That's certainly something I'm thinking on. Part of the reason that I don't think there's any sort of talk of resettlement plans is that Keith has given no indication whatsoever of ANY method of reversing ANY of the damage done to the Mournlands. Not a Druid spell that can "purify" a patch or Earth or a holy spell to make pockets of sanctuary. Otherwise PCs would be taking back the lands, one patch at a time. As well, from what I recall LoB wasn't the only established baddie in the area either - though I can't quote the actual source, wasn't there also supposed to be a group of warforged cultists somewhere in Mournland dedicated to a machine god of some sort? From what I remember, they're building some kind of giant effigy of their god, and attack anyone who gets near their territory. Really? I'll have to look into this. Aside from all that though, the Iron Nation idea is certainly nifty, though to make it work would require that thousands of warforged would want to populate the area - if this is how you have it set up, great - but doing so might affect the demographics in the rest of the world. There's about 50,000 or so warforged throughout the nations of Khovaire and I figure they're divided by idealogy, loyalty to "their" nations over others and similiar things. Hence, getting them all to come to the ruins of Cyre (especially if they have lives elsewhere) is a big question mark I know. I'm already trying to think of methods that the 'Iron Crown' guy (a NPC the PCs put in place) will go about it.