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

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almost anywhere in the capital. It sits near Stasikov
Palace within the safety of the walls behind the Gate of
Warvotsk and serves as a lofty and potent reminder of
the Morrowan influence in Korsk.
Khadoran Institute of Engineering: Established
in 295 AR by order of Queen Cherize, the Khadoran
Institute of Engineering originally consisted of a
suite of workshops and one massive stone hall where
prototypes could be assembled. Now this hall has
become a museum to the past glories of Khadoran
engineering, and manufactories and storage depots
surround the original building. The workshops are
reserved for the use of the most senior academics
with extensions several times the size of the original
building set aside for newer staff and their projects.
The queen’s patronage of the arts and sciences shows
in the Institute’s achievements, producing much
of Khador’s hydraulic, clockwork, mechanikal, and
metallurgical advances. Security is tight; despite being
in the center of bustling Korsk, an entire division of the
Winter Guard protects the Institute and its secrets.
Korsk Station: The Iron Highway is the heart of
Korsk’s economic prosperity. Its rails link the capital
to Ohk and thence to all the other major cities in
Khador. Most importantly, the Iron Highway serves
as an information network and military transport
ensuring that troops can react swiftly to any threat.
Located on the commercial side of the city, the Iron
Highway always buzzes with activity; trains move
along its rails day and night. Blaustavya Shipping &
Rail and Korsk-Khardov Railworks Konsortium both
have a major presence at Korsk Station. To guard the
station itself and to ensure the trains run on time,
Kommandant Makarov has garrisoned two Winter
Guard companies to rotate patrols at all times to
discourage misbehavior and outside interference.
The Iron Highway has proven so popular that the
regime has ordered the construction of three more
expansion rails—to the chagrin of the local residents
weary of the incessant hammering.
Stasikov Palace: In the city’s center stands the
royal Stasikov Palace, the most renowned structure
in all of Khador. This massive palace is one of the
largest fortresses ever built in western Immoren. It was
reconstructed from the black granite slabs claimed
from the ancient Orgoth barracks between 276 and
304 AR by the designs of King Dmitry Dopatevik,
a stern and zealous Menite of the Old Faith. The
shape of the foreboding stone building is repeated
in Khador’s insignia—a triangle with a tower at each
vertex—to show his god the strength and power of
Khador. Though it was finished well after his death,
the builders remained true to King Dopatevik’s dream.
Even the imposing walls dominating Korsk’s skyline
cannot conceal the majesty of the pointed domes
soaring above them. It is a city-within-the-city—a
walled fortification encompassing the queen’s center
of power. Should Korsk come under attack, the palace
walls can withstand years of siege.
Inside the palace resides a collection of art and
marvel sculpted from every precious stone or metal
found within the confines of Khador’s original
borders. Bearskin rugs and woolen tapestries line
most floors and walls respectively, and polished brass
or marble tiles nearly every inch of floor. The throne
room is a circular cavernous hall that is surrounded by
life-sized alabaster statues of all the kings and queens
that have ruled since the palace’s creation starting with
Dopatevik and circling around to the pristine image
of Queen Ayn. The throne is a tall-backed oaken seat
wrapped in furs and silks, supposedly carved for King
Khardovic himself in the ancient days and brought
here from Korsk when the capital changed locations.
Militarily speaking, the palace is nigh invulnerable
to invasion. Fools who manage to get past the threefoot
thick basalt and iron walls find themselves
swarmed by the Queen’s Guard and their numerous
warjacks supported by several ternions of Greylord
wizards. The palace has its own private weapon
cache, mechanik’s workshop, warhorse stables,
and alchemist laboratory at its disposal creating an
efficient royal fortress.
Rigevnya Complex: The birthplace and
headquarters of the Khadoran Mechaniks Assembly,
this spanning string of linked buildings lies within
heavy iron walls topped with spun rolls of barbed
wire. Originally designed as a wartime foundry and
weapon depot named for the most prolific bloodline
of blacksmiths to survive the Orgoth, the complex
perfectly fit the Assembly’s needs when they took over in
393 AR after their founding. It has become a testament
to the power of steam and mechanika as a whole and
produced complex machinery that performed as magic
solely did before: titanic warjacks, steamships capable
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