Ironspire

**Ironspire** is a large, semi-independent city in the Inner Circle of the Encircled territories It is known as the industrial capital of the Circle, the most technologically advanced city outside of The Academy, and is the home-city and pet project of The Great Engineer.

## History

### Ironhaul

Ironhaul was a mining town in the Dawn Era, built on top of a very large iron deposit by the Shining Kingdom.

### The Great Engineer

On his conquests, the Philosopher King came across an empty village with noticably high technology. In the center, next to an incomplete contraption made of copper, iron, and primitive steel, intended to produce Lektrik energy, he found a lone Immortal, quoted as saying "All my Sims died." This immortal was given control of Ironhaul's infrastructure, and became known as the Great Engineer.

### Construction

Massive amounts of resources were funneled into Ironhaul as the Great Engineer began to build, "what a real city ought to look like", claiming he was trying to "bring back modern civilization." Great towers were built of stone, and from a distance, they were mistaken for swords rising out of the land. It was because of this that Ironhaul became known as Ironspire, especially after the mine began to run dry in the late Classical Era.

## Construction

The city plans for Ironspire are maddening, complete with massive buildings connected by sky-bridges, and tunnels and ducts which seem to serve no purpose, many of which have been used to run infrastructure centuries after they were built.

### Perimeter Wall

Ironspire is surrounded by a concrete weather-wall, which is used to keep out the elements and invading forces.

### Underground

The mines of Ironhaul are now the subterranean tunnels of Ironspire. Maps highlighting certain pathways can be found near the entrances, with the beginnings of a strange new track system. A few small apartment complexes can also be found near the entrances, mostly occupied by Ironspire's night-shift workers.

### The Great Forge

The Great Forge was conceived of as one of the earliest attempts at zero marginal cost manufacturing. Today it manufactures primarily industrial equipment used to manufacture other tools, but also has runs of consumer goods. It is powered on a mix of coal, solar, and geothermal. Reproductions of the original design show that it was originally intended to run entirely on geothermal power, however only a single pair of wells was dug. Historical records indicate the design was modified by the city council to run primarily on coal due to the geothermal gradient leading to worker fatigue and safety concerns. The Great Engineer, determined to get his free power, grabbed a shovel and pickax, and jumped down one end of the well. He was next seen decades later, saying, "Okay, I think that's deep enough, but the first thing we're forging are the parts for a kilometer-long drill to dig out the next ones."

The parts were never forged.

### The Forest Garden

At the center of Ironspire lies not its tallest building nor its greatest forge, but the Forest Garden. In the Forest Garden, various perennials grow alongside fruit and nut trees, arranged in a way that allows the plants to interact beneficially with each other. The end result is three square kilometers of fresh, locally grown food. While in olden times, the Forest Garden could feed the entire city, population growth has left it able to theoretically feed about one percent of citizens. Ironspire now relies heavily on trade for its food supply, with most of the Forest Garden's output being canned or otherwise preserved as a ten-day strategic reserve in case of supply lines being disrupted. The last time this happened was during the Great War. While enemy forces expected the city to quickly fall given the meager reserves, ten days was enough time to the foundries to retool, melt down the backlogged exports, lob the appropriate weapons over the wall to decimate the enemy, and put a sword in the hand of every hungry and able-bodied man, woman, and child.

A million armed, starving, and just generally ticked off civilians can be a surprisingly effective fighting force.

*"That's not how I remember it. They were holed up for over a month before they came out with sheet metal shields for defense and whatever they could find for offense: steel swords, iron hammers, lead pipes. Then they just started beating the bronze-using Goran to death thanks to greater numbers and superior metallurgy. I don't think the Goran ever expected to be out-swarmed or out-brutalized. But then again, can we really trust my faulty memory over the Technocracy's meticulously kept history books?" - The Great Engineer*

## Culture

Ironspire is somewhat isolated, culturally, as they do not have open borders and operate somewhat independently. The big wall around it helps too.

### Attire

*"One need only a sheet to clothe oneself!"* - The Great Engineer on a trip
The most common clothing in Ironspire is the toga.

### Bathrooms

The bathrooms have pressure-plates to make sure people wash their hands. Most often, this is a simple "ding" or a pre-recorded message, but more aggressive bathrooms might even lock the user inside until they have washed their hands.

### Mad Science District

*"Move fast and break things."*
In keeping with the Circle of Friends' interest in the value of Science, the "Innovation Borough" is known for cutting edge research (in fields not explicitly forbidden by the Technocracy). In keeping with the Circle of Friends' interest in the value of Friendship, the Innovation borough allows those with similar interests to find like-minded avant-garde researchers. And in keeping with the value of maintaining everyone else's property values, they all live in a district just outside the city walls. These guys, of course, are the reason that some research had to be explicitly forbidden.

*"No, you cannot use lab rats as artillery and call them "rat cannons", that is not going to be a thing." - The Princess*