For nearly a millennia The Iron Valley were the conquerors of Southern Esterra. While their fortunes waxed and waned, they held great territories, defeated their enemies and knew none before them. From the Mountain Kings to the Axeman's War, the Endenmani and the Lowfolk, seeing Valleyfolk banners on the horizon seldom meant peace. They were champions of their people.
But time, as it always does, has a habit of blurring our greatest truths. In the current age The Iron Valley is bloodied and bruised, but not beaten.
The last season held many important decisions for the Valley, the most important among them is how they will heal and how they will grow. With even more mountain paths before them, these folk-in-iron will carve their legend in the Age of Heroes as surely as their ancestors did.
Kneel or be Broken
Inside the Valley are two tales.
One is that of the conqueror. The warbands that broke the Bailite Kings, that fought the might of Artebazzan to a standstill, defeated Pothus the Golden and raised one of the greatest empires in Southern Esterra. These are the champions of their history such as Red Makrod the Slayer, Freydis Longarm and King Baelag the Ninth. While each of these heroes has changed and morphed over thousands of retellings, the martial legend and culture flows as strong in the Valley now as it did then. But their axe is blunted, their shield broken.
The other tale is that of the great builders. Of Deorling the Hero, King Baelag the First and Kafrida the Carver. They raised up the massive structures that survive storm and sleet. That survived raiders and invasion. That survived betrayal and boon. They were builders before their time and they forged homes that allowed the Valley to survive in a land that was equal parts coveted and condemned. But their great homes are lost, their fortresses stolen by squatters.
As The Concord shifts, with opportunity on the horizon to make real advances against their enemies, The Valley is looking inside itself. There have been too many losses, heroic and otherwise. There have been too many lost opportunities and too much disunity. As the Valley does with all things, it looks to its past.
This introspection has been aided by the High Historian, Dhahab Al’Murjil. As the archivists and agents of the Civil Service sweep across the Iron Valley and beyond seeking out the legends of the Old Gods, they unearth much history lost or obscured is misremembering. While the exact contents of the High Historian’s report are yet to be known, there is rumour. These rumours tell of the Valley’s ancient past and its warrior heroes. Of a time when the Valley marched under the red antlers of the Bloodglass Stag and warriors swore on their blades that they would conquer the world. While these gods may be heathen now, their legend still exists. Those buroughs across the Valley that see the Iron Valleys future in its conquerors past have adopted these sigils, adorning their arms, shields and brows with the blood red antlers of the Bloodglass Stag. They believe that the Iron Valley can only be redeemed when the Illsevir, the Onyx and any other who dares to call the Valley foe know that they have already condemned themselves to a shallow, mournless grave alongside each of their brethren.
But there are others who see in the stones around them and in what they now protect as their last. They see a different future. A path through the fog of what may be into a grand citadel. A Concordian future where the Valleyfolk are hailed as great builders, who erect shelter that will protect one and all. Who will raise great churches, who will dream wonders of stone, iron and timber so great that they will be the envy of the Heralds. These boroughs adorn themselves with the crenellated patterns of the Valleys' great fortresses, reminding themselves of what they have already achieved.
Two paths through a murky future lay before the Valley, how shall it respond?
Game Information
As the Iron Valley looks for a national mythos to guide it through its recent misfortunes, two have risen; The Great Builders and The Bloodglass Inheritors.
Those characters who believe that the future of the Valley lies in its martial culture and its history as a great power may choose the path of the Bloodglass Inheritors. For one day of the Summit, each Iron Valley character may adorn their arms, head or shield with the sigil of blood-red antlers. Doing so will grant them the Additional Energy or Additional Mana skill for that day.
Those characters who believe that the future of the Valley lies in its great work as engineers, craftsfolk and industrialists may choose the path of the Great Builders. For one day of the Summit, each Iron Valley character may adorn their arms, head or shield with a crenellated pattern. Doing so will grant them the Deathless skill for that day. If they already have the Deathless skill, they will gain the Unstoppable skill.
Each character can only select one path and only for one day. The effect remains for that day provided they are still adorned with the mark. They may reapply. The overall choice of the heroic delegation from the Valley will reflect the beliefs of the Valley as a whole and guide the story of the Valleyfolk forwards.
Alternatively, if your character believes strongly against both paths, they may choose a different design or no design at all. While these will not have a mechanical effect, a large enough representation may guide the story of the Valley in a different direction.
The High Historian’s research for this coming season relates very closely to the history of the Iron Valley, their time as great and powerful conquerors and their fall from power. This research will be given to Dhahab Al’Murjil to censor (or not) before being released to the public. Those characters with interest in this copy should seek him out, or seek out the archives at the Hub later in the Summit.
Not Children of Men, but Children of the Gods
The Valley finds itself surrounded by foes old and new. In the East, the Illsevir still hide, carving away at their mysteries. In the South a once vanquished rival returns with blade in hand. In the Mountains, the shadows of their own heretical past have returned to taunt them.
The Rotted Pelt, that cult of heathens who had spread through Bolsterlee and Windholme for the greater part of a year have dealt the Valley a grievous blow. Many of the greatest Valleyfolk alive lie dead, broken on the mountainside beneath the temple to the Great Stone Bear. Those broken and misshapen cultists snarling and roaring their defiance into an uncaring blizzard while the besieging summiters look on in dismay.
The Rotted Pelt struck a blow, but it is one that sealed their fate.
With no success in a frontal assault, forces of the Valley besieged the Valley of the Bear over the Summer. When the harvests were at their greatest and it was a time to grow, the Rotted Pelt began to starve. Summiters, Borough-Guards and mercenaries held the line against meagre skirmishes and penned in this caged animal. The Valley knows that charging up that rock-strewn-graveyard is a fool's errand. So they will see this foul heresy starved and weak before they place their axe in its skull.
As the weather turns and snow begins to fall in the high places, the Valley knows that their time draws nearer. Whatever supplies the Rotted Pelt have been able to scavenge will surely not survive them the Winter and come the Summer Summit the Priests of the Valley will be able to ascend that mountain pass and break down their idols in the name of The Church. Their souls may be condemned, but their blasphemy in stone and bone will be carved from the earth by true Iron Valley Hearts.
But now is the time to prepare. To make hard decisions and look to the mountaintops. Something is moving out there in the ice. Something more than a bear. Something more than a man.
Game information
There will be decisions in regards to the Rotted Pelt this coming season for the Champion of the Valley, The Reeves Council and the Senators of Windholme and Bolsterlee.
It appears that the attack on the Cult, while a failure, has drawn the vast majority of its worshippers back to defend their mountain temple. This, coupled with the success of the Iron Valley Priests in crafting great icons of the Spheres and touring the regions have rejuvenated a divine fervour.
Any Iron Valley character can feel free to include the following roleplay prompt in their play:
“All our dead are released to the Spheres and will return to us in time. Those heathens who stand against us will know the kiss of the abyss and the edge of my axe. I love my lost and know I will see them again soon. Heretics will know only a cold greater than any winter's bite.”
Secrets of the Forbidden Sea
It might have been a small thing, the creation of the township of Jaalstead. Barely more than a few piers and a halfway decent tavern surrounded by cottages and then farmsteads. But it has awoken something in the Valley. Something lost to the bergs and the drowned.
The way of the Jarl.
These mystic-mariners have flocked to the small fishing township in the Bay of Promised Gold in great numbers over the past season, their longships dotting the shore and crammed around the jetties as more pontoons and moorages are scrambled together. A great many of these wanderers had heard tales of a new settlement where the Valley once again grasped the sea and returned from hundreds of different ports and boltholes. Many of them bear the scars of Anderslee and beyond but all of them carry the homesickness that the meagre settlement of Jaalstead has healed with its ramshackle touch.
But more than that, the Jarls are not beaten. Far from that, they have already made themselves known. A force of Concodrian vessels, lead by the ornery Jarl Ludin and his Scaled captains have passed the Cape of the Bailes and sailed all the way to
Anderslee. The ships were as varied as their captains. A hefty Lerona Mere warship dubbed ‘Le Tyrans Malediction’, the beautiful Andashi sloop ‘Incendio’ and more. These ships evaded foes of many different banners in pursuit of one thing in particular.
A Jarlhome.
These hidden coves protected the Jarls, their ships and their legends for centuries. Using the secret tides of their forefathers, the Iron Valley Jarls lead their Concordian allies into a hidden break in the armour of the Onyx Aristocracy. While it will be up to them to tell you exactly the tale that they wove, it is safe to say that many of the dead never made it to Weiland.
As this ragtag fleet returns home, breaking apart like an Icereach berg as they seek out their home ports, those Jarls can’t help but imagine. They call Bolsterlee home now and it is unlikely that their once homes of Anderslee will be returned to the fold anytime soon.
Bolsterlee needs a Jarlhome.
Game Information
The Concordian attempt to explore the Jarlhomes has been a great success. Characters who followed this endeavour will have an additional brief in their character packs detailing their adventure and some supplies retrieved from the lost Jarlhome in Anderslee.
There will be decisions and information regarding Jarls, Jaalstead and Bolsterlee for the Senator of Bolsterlee.
The Senate could request an appraisal of a Jarlhome in Bolsterlee through using the power of Appraisal. The senate can only request two Appraisals per season.
By Our Hands be Risen, By Our Hearts be Known
In the other lands of the Concord there are the great Noble Houses, the loyal Coterias, the secretive Havens and influential Clans. In the Valley there are only the Boroughs. These bonds of blood, history and hearth that carve these people together like stone. As the Valley weathers strike after strike, it only drives them closer together.
In these wounds the Valley has turned inwards. Each person returns to their Burough and their people's history. More than ever before it's the individual Buroughs that will heal and lead the Valley rather than the Valley as a whole.
As the Summit begins to loom, it is these peoples that send their delegates and these peoples that welcome newcomers in from the cold. New Reeves make their way by foot, sail and wagon wheel to Passage and there is safety in the knowledge that the Valley will never be truly lost until the last Burough is sealed and forgotten. A future that could never occur.
Game Information
The Valley turns inwards in times of hardship, holding each other up. While this is sometimes interpreted as the whole of The Valley (and it often is) the real foundation of these people is the Burough.
Every Iron Valley Band (not sect) will gain a single investment worth of additional resources. Which investment will be based on the most common investment within that band. This will be paid to the Reeve of that band.
Each Iron Valley Reeve of a Band will receive additional information and opportunities to make their influence felt at this coming Summit.