02 - Iron Kingdoms W.. - Captain Spud Is Amazing

108.1.141.197
the Occupation Era
The Orgoth came to Immoren by sea. Tremendous
sailors, they navigated the towering waves and black
depths of the vast ocean. What are not known are the
types of ships, sails, and navigational equipment they
employed. Most of the time when an Orgoth ship was
seen cutting the waters toward some hapless sloop,
the fleeing sailors were not particularly interested in
the looming ship’s appearance; they were focused on
getting away with their lives and cargo intact. The few
extant accounts refer to “huge black sails like wings”
and “low rails making it easy for us to pick them off.”
Due to these accounts and similar accounts,
it is known the Orgoth sailed in enormous black
longships. These ships would have been low of draft
and built using techniques no master shipwright in
Immoren has yet mastered in order to withstand the
forces exerted by the deep Black. The draft of these
ships must have also been shallow enough to navigate
a river, for accounts tell of Orgoth invaders sailing
upstream to swarm inland. This also lead scholars to
infer that their ships had banks of oars as well.
With its first wave of ships, the Orgoth fleet sailed
north and began burning shipyards, destroying the
towns, and proceeding to massacre each and every
inhabitant of the ship-building villages down to the
infants in their cradles. Alone and unable to amass any
number of ships capable of countering the threat, the
Khardic shipyards fell one by one.
Every ship that sailed against the Orgoth burned,
and its sailors died by fire, poison, or with lungs
filled with the brine of the sea. The Tordorans put
up a gallant fight, destroying many enemy ships, but
eventually gave way to the superior numbers and
terrifying new weapons of the invaders. It was the
Battle of a Thousand Sails—for which the Sea of a
Thousand Souls has taken its name. On that fateful
day when the last Dirgenmast Captain went into the
deep, he ordered his burning ship to ram the Orgoth
flagship and take it and its crew to the bottom of the
sea with him.
Ultimately, all of the major shipbuilding facilities
burned. During their rule the Orgoth decreed that no
ship could be built of a size that could accommodate
large weapons of any kind. They enforced this
rule with ruthless efficiency, keeping all but small
merchant vessels out of the water for the entirety of
their occupation. Only after the cities freed themselves
did warships once again set sail, and the addition of
the new technologies of steam and forge enabled
these new ships to aid the war effort, steadily establish
rebel supply lines, and do their part to win the day. It
took some doing, but eventually the Orgoth fled and
left the Immorese to build anew.
The Rise of Steam Power
Part of the reconstruction after the signing of the
Corvis Treaties included building new ships. Wherever
there was water and a current, people could be found
constructing fleets of sloops and schooners or multidecked
brigs and frigates in the deeper waters. Cygnar
lent its assistance to Ord which helped to recreate
some of the former naval glory of the Tordorans,
and in turn Ord furnished many a shallow keeled
ship to bolster river trade between the two kingdoms.
Once again, the Immorese inherited the waterways
of their homeland. Oars dipped, sails unfurled, and
communication and the transport of goods were once
more well underway. However, if things were thought
to have begun moving more quickly, a veritable
explosion was soon to come—steam power.
The application of the steam engine has
revolutionized travel on water as well as land.
Suddenly, the ships of the newly founded Iron
Kingdoms had aid other than the waves, winds, and
tides, and the combination of engine and paddlewheel
greatly expanded the industry of trade-by-water. A flatbottomed
paddlewheel could travel further upstream
than most sailing ships by fighting currents and not
having to worry about rowers when the wind was
not favorable. River trade exploded. New towns—
Fisherbrook, Riversmet, and Cherov-on-Dron to name
a few—sprang up almost overnight, and the size of
others such as Khardov, Merywyn, and Corvis easily
doubled or even tripled.
Naturally, when steam was profitably applied to
the rivers and seas, the popularity of the sailing ship
took a hit. The paddlewheel and the ship’s engine
were indeed pricey and difficult to maintain, but travel
stability, especially upstream, more than made up for
the cost. In due course, steamships became the craft of
choice for the more progressive and prosperous river
traders, and even on the seas the retrofitted steamship
World Guide 101