The Iron Empire

The Iron Empire was a human Empire on the peninsula of Ra'kar, which came to be as a result of the expansionist of the dark elf city Menzo.

 

In 4102, after more than 1600 years of living in isolation in the Silent Forests, the dark elves of Menzo decided that it was time to expand and conquer the human lands north of their home.

At that time, Ra'kar was made up by many small kingdoms, baronies and city-states. While they were certainly organized, there was little of alliances and such. In short, they were absolutely not prepared for the level of organization that the dark elves brought with them.

Using orcs and goblins as canon-fodder, ogres and even giants as shock-troops, the dark elven armies swept in over the human lands, conquering one kingdom at the time. It took some time though, especially after the general population learned how whole cities that aided the armies had been put to the stake and to the torch. After that, there was no question that this was merely not another conqueror coming to rule them. The dark elves meant to break them, to enslave them, and keep them firmly under their steel boots as slaves.

But it was to no avail. After more than 100 years of fighting for every square inch of their lands, the humans had been soundly beaten and broken. The dark elves ruled the Silent Forest, and the human lands as far as the Hills of Blood, the Black Hills and all the way east, just south of Blackwell.

A truce was established in 4117, with the dark elven council of Menzo legitimized as the lawful ruler of their realm. Some sages speculate that the dark elves agreed only because there was some infight amongst their nobles, or (and?) because their ressources were stretched thin, but we will never know. The truce (later named the Dark Truce) was made, and for a while, Ra'kar once again knew peace. The people who still lived under the dark elven yoke probably didn't know peace, but there was no war, at least.

Then in 4169, all hell broke loose again. Apparently for no reason, the dark elves decided to take up their campaign again, and attacked Blackwell and Castle Durgard with more or less all they had. For almost a year, they kept coming, and while the Castle did not fall, the city did. And when the castle didn't want to surrender, they put Blackwell to the torch and killed every single inhabitant. While such things had happened several times before - they even had a name for it: Dark Elf Justice - it had never been seen on such a scale. More than 20.000 people were slaughtered for no good reason other than punishment.

That event triggered something in the good folks of Ra'kar. Sure, there had been resistance before, and some dreamed of fighting back, liberating the poor souls living on dark elven lands, but until know, it had been whispers and secret dreams. But the sacking and subsequent execution of Blackwell all changed that.

In the north, King John of Laketown was one of those who were horrified and appalled, and at the same time had some means of striking back. New to the throne of Laketown, he none the less swore a solemn oath to rid the human lands of the dark elves.

He gathered his army, who grew by the day with free people from all over that wanted to help, and then started his campaign against the dark elves. Now the humans had an army of a size that had never been seen before in Ra'kar. Town by town was liberated, the dark elves beaten at each step. Maybe King John was an extraordinary strategist, or maybe the dark elves had other problems to deal with, we do not know. We do know that in two short years, the dark elves lost all they had spend more than 100 years in taking, and in 4172, the last dark elf was seen heading into the Silent Forest.

After that, King John named himself Emperor John I, and went on to unite all of Ra'kar, from coast to coast, after the battle of the Forest of Death in 4178. He doned an iron crown, saying being emperor was not about gold and riches, but about the people.

Emperor John lived to be an old man, he died in 4242, and left a host of sons and grandsons to take care of his empire. Unfortunately none of them was up for the task, and slowly, the Iron Empire became more about hoarding riches for the rich than being there for it's people.

In 4401, King John IV, ninth emperor of the Iron Empire died at the hands of his servants, as the revolution started. The Empire dissolved and returned being a collection of independent city-states.

 

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