by Aeryn Rudel
She finally noticed him and turned that withering gaze in his direction. She stared at him for a few moments, possibly trying to gauge his reaction to the demise of his former captain.
He didn’t make her guess. “Your father was a good captain, but he’d gotten complacent, satisfied with his position. That’s why he’s on the bottom of that port and you and I are standing here. Leave the past on the Scythe. There is only the future now, and the power we take from it.”
She opened her mouth to say something but hesitated. In the end she said nothing and simply walked away.
Such control, he thought. It will serve her well.
Aiakos turned his eyes back to where the Scythe had gone to the bottom of the Meredius. The Ordic guns had fallen silent, and already the turmoil upon the water was quieting.
How quickly the balance of power shifts. He thought of his rise from Blackwater enforcer to pirate to warcaster and still he was not satisfied. There was still a way forward. Someday even the admiral of the Cryxian fleet would have no hold on him.
GLOSSARY
Berck: The largest and wealthiest city in Ord, home port of the Ordic Royal Navy and House Mateu.
black ogrun: A brutal and bloodthirsty offshoot of the massive and powerful ogrun race. Considered barbaric even by the standards of the Scharde Islands.
Blackwater: A port city on Scharde, the main island of Cryx, that both facilitates trade with the criminal element of the Iron Kingdoms and serves as a safe haven and resupply point for raiding pirates.
bonejack: The general term for a Cryxian light warjack, notable for being particularly swift and nimble.
Buccaneer: An Ordic light warjack that is designed to remain nimble and sure-footed even while moving along heaving ship decks and is typically armed with a net and gaff hook. Entered service in 584 AR.
Caen: The physical world containing the continents of Immoren, Zu, and so on. Sometimes contrasted as the material world as opposed to the spiritual world of Urcaen.
Cryx: An island kingdom of necromancers, undead, and pirates off the southwest coast of Immoren; also known as the Nightmare Empire. Cryx and its ruler, Toruk the Dragonfather, have no problem sacrificing their soldiers in one battle to set up a greater victory elsewhere.
Cryxlight: A yellow-green glow associated with the necrotic energies utilized by the forces of Cryx; also known as balefire.
Deathripper: A bonejack, or Cryxian light warjack, built of black iron and steel fused with the skulls and fangs of blighted beasts and armed with powerful jaws. The bonejack has an arc node that enables it to serve as a conduit for the spells of its controller. First reported in 502 AR.
Dragonfather/Dragon Lord: See Toruk, Lord.
helljack: The general term for a Cryxian heavy warjack, which arguably demonstrates greater autonomy than a regular warjacs and is inherently violent.
Immoren: The continent containing the Iron Kingdoms, Ios, Rhul, the Skorne Empire, and the lands between them. Much of Immoren remains unexplored, and its inhabitants have had limited contact with other continents.
´jack marshal: A person who has learned how to give precise verbal orders to a steamjack to direct it in labor or battle, sometimes called marshaling. This is a highly useful occupational skill, although it lacks the versatility or finesse afforded by the direct mental control of steamjacks exercised by a warcaster.
Leviathan: A four-legged, amphibious helljack armed with a long-ranged spiker cannon and a powerful claw. First reported in 586 AR.
lich lords: The twelve appointed generals and rulers of Cryx, powerful undead who answer only to Lord Toruk, the Dragonfather. The original lich lords were created from the pirate kings who ruled the island when Toruk arrived. Each lich lord is an extremely powerful and intelligent iron lich capable of controlling warjacks and wielding formidable necromancy.
Meredius, the: The ocean west of Immoren. Immorese have crossed the Meredius to reach the southern continent of Zu, but only the Orgoth have successfully navigated its expanse to whatever continents lie to the west.
necromechanika: A dark science that combines mechanika and necromancy, utilized primarily by Cryxian necrotechs in the fabrication of such horrors as mechanithralls, bonejacks, and helljacks. See necrotech.
necrotech: Both an arcane technology representing the fusion of mechanika and necromancy (sometimes referred to as necrotechnology) and the term for those who practice this black art. A necrotech is an undead mechanik and necromancer of Cryx versed in creating a variety of weapons and machines as well as repairing warjacks in battle or creating explosive scrap thralls from corpses and the remains of destroyed ’jacks. Necrotechs are responsible for much of Cryx’s war industry.
necrotite: A foul mineral found in places that have seen mass torture and death, where life energy has saturated the stones beneath the soil. Used to power Cryxian warjacks, it is functionally similar to coal but longer burning and more efficient. Both the substance itself and the fumes and residue it produces are highly toxic to all living things.
Ord: The small and resource-poor kingdom on the western coast between Khador and Cygnar, respected for its formidable navy. Ord has defended against Khadoran incursions with varied success in several border wars since the Iron Kingdoms were founded. Ord has become a haven for mercenary companies profiting on the wars of other nations.
Orgoth: A fearsome race of men from an unknown continent to the west across the Meredius who invaded western Immoren and enslaved it for centuries. The Orgoth were driven from Immoren in 201 AR.
Satyxis: A horned, blighted race of the Scharde Islands that is entirely female, infamous for their blood magic and inventive cruelty.
Scharde Islands: An island group southwest of Cygnar, named after the largest island, which has become the heart of Cryx. The Nightmare Empire claims the majority of the Scharde Islands and preys upon those few that remain contested.
Slayer: The most common helljack among the forces of Cryx, Slayers have stout tusks and powerful claws on both arms.
thrall: An undead creature assembled from body parts that have been enchanted by laying glyphs of power on the bones and flesh. Thralls can vary widely in power but are not self-willed. Most thralls are mindless; the more advanced ones can emulate intelligence but have no goals or purpose except what they are given by their masters.
Toruk, Lord: The dragon that is the evil and vastly powerful ruler of Cryx. Toruk is both the oldest known entity on Caen and the progenitor of all dragons. Also known as the Dragonfather and the Dragon Lord.
warcaster: An arcanist born with the ability to control steamjacks and connect to other mechanika with the power of the mind. With proper training warcasters become singular military assets and are among the greatest officers and soldiers of western Immoren, entrusted to command scores of troops and their own battlegroups of warjacks in the field. Acquiring and training warcasters is a high priority for any military force that employs warjacks.
About the Author
Aeryn Rudel is the Publications Manager for Privateer Press. When not wrangling Skull Island eXpeditions projects, he contributes fiction to the Iron Kingdoms setting and writes WARMACHINE, HORDES, and RPG articles for No Quarter magazine. He is also a notorious dinosaur nerd (ALL theropod dinosaurs had feathers!), a rare polearm expert (the bec de corbin is clearly superior to the lucerne hammer), and has mastered the art of fighting with sword-shaped objects (but not actual swords). Aeryn lives in Seattle with his wife, Melissa, who has demonstrated near superhuman tolerance to her husband’s nerdery.
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First electronic printing: February 28th, 2014
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Table of Contents
MAP
WELCOME TO THE IRON KINGDOMS
PART I
PART II
PART III
GLOSSARY