Irongate

**Irongate**, sometimes called **the Irongates**, is the capital city of Northwind. It is the largest city in the North in population, area, and influence. Situated at the apex of all of Northwind's major roads, it is seen as the epicenter of trade and civilization in the region. The city is organized into three divisions separated by walls Ihdros, Iahris, and Oaldin.

Irongate is governed as if it were a Kingdom contained within a single city. Prior to the year 400, the city was ruled by **House Albion** and its Kings from the Black Keep. The death of its last viable King led to the nominal rule of the Regency Council, headed by Lord Regent John De Burgh. However, the city's rulership has fallen significantly under the direction of De Burgh's armies.

To the south and along the North Road, a series of Lordships and cities under the control of the Regency facilitate the passage of caravans into Irongate. These Lordships, known colloquially as the Road Lords, expand Irongate's dominion to the entirety of the Highlands of Northwind. Some of the cities under the control of these Lords include Millstone, Vronovo, Burgh, and others.

## City Layout

#### **The Walls**

Irongate is divided into three sections by the walls of **Ihdros**, **Oaldin**, and **Iaris**. These walls are named after deities and many religious sites could be found around and inside them, as they themselves are symbols of divinity. Over the centuries, the Road Lords have changed the names of the walls liberally. Sometimes for those of personal deities, others in the honor of a dead King or some other autocrat. De Burgh's government has stated that the current names are the original ones restored from the mists of time, but many dissidents are eager to spread doubts about the veracity of this claim.

The walls bear no distinctive hallmark save for their colossal size and the fact that they get weaker as they move in, since the outsides are the oldest and have undergone the most fortification.

#### **The Black Keep & The Imperium**

The old eptarchs of Athmore served in two primary functions, head of state and head of faith. Thus, Irongate's oldest major buildings reflect this philosophy.

The Black Keep is where all bureaucratic and political/state affairs occur, and historically that has remained it's function for most of the city's existance. In present day, it is where the Council Forum is located.

The Imperium is the religious capitol building and derives its name from the throne of the empire located within it. It's religious signifcance was diminished with the waning of the Athmorean faith, while its political significance faded away after the Age of Magic. Historically, the monarch was hardly ever associated with the throne or with a seat, because they hardly ever used it. Their attention was always held by more pressing matters. In recent times, the Imperium has been reconsecrated once more as the true sanctum of the Athmore Pantheon by the decrees of John de Burgh.

#### **The Depths**

Irongate is the oldest city in Marin, and it’s sewers are the most ancient creation that, to his knowledge, man knows he can lay claim to. Over the aeons, the tragedies of that benighted city have seeped into the watery darkness below, where they have fused and stirred into a gestalt that hungers for the lost and the wanderers.

The bellows of Northwind’s capital are old, dirty, and forgotten, but if you venture deep enough they will become treacherous and oneiric. The dark calls to the curious, the destitute, and the greedy alike. All are welcome to venture into a place where no eyes are needed to see.

#### **Vebris Market District**

The Market District is an elite quarter inside the Ihdros wall where the wealthiest merchants of Northwind, those that have made their fortune from the trade of Irongate, reside. But even the wealth of decades is unable to wash away the grime that permeates the city. From the outside, the buildings are barely distinguishable from the rest of the city, save for the occasional eroded ornamentation. Inside, the manors ressemble a huge, complex and grotesquely ornate castle. Many different estates make up the Vebris District and they each have their own style, which in turn has been embellished and replaced over the centuries. Their interior is always archaic, with feasting rooms, dungeons, cobwebbed galleries and many other places that seem to have little connection to the business of the owner or the needs of the servants.

#### **The Silver Plains**

the Silver Plains are a massive ring of land between the walls of Oaldin and Iaris. During the times of the ancient Northwind Empire, the fields within the two walls were the capital's breadbasket. Centuries later, with the empire gone, the soil eroded, and the city depopulated, only a fraction of the ring is used for agriculture. In present day, the vast majority has been overtaken by drygrass and sparse forests of thorned vines.

## History

Legend tells that Irongate is the oldest community of humans in all of Marin. The Athmorians believe that, in a time when the settlement was known as Athmore, it was built by the mythical first leader of men when he began his great empire. This great civilization eventually waned, until Irongate devolved into a mere city state. For most of its history, 'Northwind' has not been a single, united sovereignty, and the title 'Kings of Northwind' as is claimed by those who rule Irongate is a dubious position based on the misconceptions of recent Southern imaginations.

### Mythical Origins

The history of Irongate mythically began as the first human settlement established on Marin. The Athmore Pantheon teaches that the city was built around the Black Keep, the headquarters built by the mortal God Cedrik to expand his dominion. There is considerable evidence behind Irongate's innermost wall, Oaldin, that the city's founding is indeed ancient, and that primeval battles between men and the native races occurred there.

For several centuries, Irongate was the seat of a great dominion that spread ruins into virtually every nation that borders what is now the region of Northwind. The true extent of this dominion is lost to history, but many of its relics are preserved by their host Kingdoms and guarded fiercely by the Paladins of the Bulwark. The oldest confirmable structure in the entirety of the city's infrastructure is Wall Oaldin, which was constructed to defend the human settlers from the hostile native species. Wall Oaldin, as well as the two outer layers of walls, were initially built of wood and earth before being reconstructed with mortared brick. Over the span of the city's existence, these walls became hulking basalt monstrosities that have never once been successfully besieged.

Because of its intent as a staging ground for a war of conquest, the city is largely constructed as a military capital. Its relatively awkward figure and construction can be attributed to the change between the city's days of war and its modern nature as an all-encompassing city-state trade nexus.

It was also around this period in which the Imperium was constructed alongside the Black Keep. From here, Eptarchs utilized their status as the divine head of faith to make infallible decrees and manage the extensive religious bureaucracy. In the modern age, it has fallen almost completely out of use.

Professedly known as "Athmore" during its days of dominance, the city was the focal point of a widespread religious movement initially led by the mortal God Cedrik. It was this legendary ruler that led the human expeditions to Marin, and was the first man to ascend to Godhood in accordance with the Athmore faith. Unlike the nation-states of the present political climate, the old Empire of Athmore was not ruled by Kings. The history of this civilization predated the inception of feudalistic monarchs. Ancient rulers were given their mandate purely through religious lineage, and were elected by a body of the most esteemed Athmore clergy. These rulers were known as Eptarchs, and ruled with much the same divine presence as Cedrik did.

### Age of Magic

Irongate entered the Age of Magic as the seat of a unified civilization. While the squabbling civilizations of Terresol were little more than conglomerates of city-states ruled by mages, the northern Athmore Empire had developed as a singular unified nation-state. Throughout this early period, Irongate's expansion was at its peak. Both walls Iaris and Ihdros were constructed, resulting in the creation of the Silver Plains: a span of grain wrapping leagues around the interior of Wall Iaris. Archeological evidence in the Rustlands and the Drygrass Steppes also hint at the constuction of masive walls at the Empire's borders, but the evidence is inconclusive.

Following this, Irongate developed exponentially. Coupled with the spoils of conquest, expansion and the inherent self-sufficiency granted by the Silver Plains, the city almost became a country within itself. It was at this time it began developing somewhat independently of the regime it commanded. Corruption began to fester at the heart of the empire's higher echelons and it wouldn't be long until Irongate felt the effects of the nation's slow descent into decadence.

The first sign of the empire's waning came with the slow but steady abandonment of the Athmore Faith, a process that had already begun several generations after the death of Cedrik: in time, the Eptarchy would come to be replaced by a corrupt nobility of aristocratic familes, not too dissimilar to that of modern-day Azarya. Religion would retain it's cultural significance, but it would eventually stripped of their political influence as the citizens of the empire gradually adopted new gods. By the start of the Age of Night, little would remain of the ideals that pushed Northwind to greatness beyond dramatic refences to mythology in the plays of the aristocracy.

#### The Age of Night

With the coming of this age of hubris, Irongate experienced massive surge in monumental architectural projects: palaces for the nobility were raised atop the highest spires, while aqueducts, plazas, and underground reservoirs were created for the populace. All of this came at great expense however, and as a result Northwind became more aggressive in it's thirst for slaves and ressources. Irongate's, and by extent the Empire's, wars of conquest were indirectly responsible for causing other nations to become more homogenized. Otherwise independent city-states would occasionally band together to resist the Empire's southward expansion.

This latter half of the Age of Magic is a "Dark Age" of Northwind, one might say. Despite being at what was supposedly the peak of the empire, historical archives of the epoch are scarce and unreliable. Fragmentary records of the time describe this period as being of great technological and artistical advancements, but also of population "harvests", cruel inhuman rulers "lurking in the spires of the city", and of a reign of tyranny enforced by "creatures of the night"... Much of this is shrouded in rumor and whispers, but what remains a constant across primary sources is a general feel of terror among the populace, while the surviving records of the most dreaded aristocracy depict an ever-shifting political landscape of convoluted betrayals and court intrigue.

This status quo seems to have come to an end rather suddenly. Historical sources begin to flourish in the last decades of the empire, as if heralding the coming of end of Magic. Curiously enough, most of these accounts go to great lengths to avoid making referrence to the Age of Night, leading many to believe that the reason behind the lack of records from this era is that they were actively destroyed.

### The Fall of Athmore

Following the age of magic, the Athmorean Empire fell apart. Not necessarily as a result of the lack of magic, but as a result of groundbreaking geopolitical developments that prevented Athmore from sustaining itself as the dominant civilization. The city's status as the epicenter of power waned as magic did. It was unable to develop to the same extent following continuous defeats along the nations frontiers, and eventually became solely responsible for funding the maintenance of the Empire as its territories withered away. The process was gradual, but Irongate was unable to preserve its dominion over its numerous dependencies as new powers emerged such as the Taemish Empire.

Despite the nation itself crumbling, Irongate itself saw a remarkable increase in trade still. New fiefdoms and breakaway lordships meant it's strategic position became more valuable, and more interwoven supply networks to keep their traders employed. Irongate still held nominal jurisdiction over these increasingly independent regions, as lip service towards the city's aristocracy likely resulted in lower rates for merchants. It was around this time period that the name "Irongate" had developed. Lining the outer wall was a great many gates designed to facilitate trade, and many of the breakaway fiefdoms held contempt for the old empire. The reduction of the state, and the obvious trademarks of the city, birthed the city's new name.

For the centuries spanning the collapse of magic, Irongate devolved into a city-state. Southern influence grew as the aristocracy prioritized trade and increased supply of labor as opposed to preserving an idea of Athmorean culture. Athmorean culture became an increasingly distant memory, with southern terms being applied to describe lands and titles. It was this time in which Southern inspired noble-houses emerged as the dominant power structure in the city.