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

108.1.141.197
24 Iron Kingdoms
Technology continued to progress as Copolius
penned Crucibilus Synthetatus in 753 BR, the most
detailed work on alchemy in its time. Large quantities
of the book were printed, and it became the key
text and reference for alchemists throughout the
Thousand Cities. In 743 BR the engineer Drago
Salvoro witnessed an explosion as he tested the first
heated boiler. As inventor of the steam engine, Salvoro
received the Imperial Scientific Bursary. After Salvoro
died in an unfortunate accident, his work continued
on the shoulders of an astute dwarf named Urbul
Rothbal who pioneered the first effective steam
engine. By 698 BR steam engines powered most of the
heavy equipment in Khardic mines. Haulers, steam
powered drills, and ore sifters were all converted to
run from steam power instead of water driven mills.
At the height of the Khardic Empire (660-605
BR) all manner of technological innovations were
implemented. Leonid Bratakov invented the first
trinary piston-driven steam engine in 635 BR, which
became used in heavy equipment and industry. 620 BR
brought forth the first construction of steam-powered
vessels built by Tordoran merchants and Caspian
shipwrights, and around that time the first powered
locomotive was constructed in Korsk. The Khards
also intended to construct a rail line from Korsk to
the mines of Skirov, but their plan suddenly halted by
the momentous landing of hostile invaders from the
sea. The Khardic Empire immediately refocused its
energies into defense.
As construction of the Archcourt Cathedral
finished in Caspia around 610 BR, the news of the
invaders caused a great deal of concern. At first
many dismissed the reports because they believed the
incursions were made up of marauding long ships
from the Broken Coast or the Scharde Isles. After
communities ceased sending dispatches and couriers
however, it became apparent this was not the work of
simple raiders.
A Storm from the Western Seas:
Orgoth Occupation Era
Darkness Upon the Shores: The Arrival of
the Orgoth
The earliest records of the Orgoth come from
firsthand accounts of Caspian sailors who witnessed
the arrival of Orgoth blackships in 600 BR. Such
vessels had largely been the subject of rumor and
hearsay in the southlands, yet there was little doubt
the Khardic Empire was at war with some mysterious
force from either the north or Meredius. By the end of
that year, countless Orgoth troops landed bearing steel
and were aided by dark magic as they began taking the
Thousand Cities by force.
Tordor, the nation that had held off the Khardic
Empire for generations with such bravery and skill at
arms, folded under the Orgoth assault. In the space of
three years, Tordor was reduced to a nation of slaves.
The Tordoran navy, once a proud and powerful fleet,
had been reduced to tinder with storm magic wielded
by terrible warwitches. Orgoth invaders spread
like blight and conquered everything in their path
despite the increased resistance put up by Thurians
and Midlunders. The Tordoran warrior-poet Dergen
Marterosa (623-592 BR) penned the appearance of
the Orgoth in his journal only weeks before his death
at their hands:
They are the blackest of things. I have seen them shearing
the hair off women and children to make rope with which to
hang their own fathers and husbands. While we strike at
their armored beasts, they laugh. Their robed women make
play with strange words, turning the air dark with hate and
causing fires that boil flesh. Even the prayers of our priests
faze them little. They are implacable, as dark as the deepest
waters of Meredius. They are made of hatred and blood and
covered in armor wrought with leering faces that actually
howl in torment. These Orgoth have brought an evil stain
with them.
While the Orgoth carved out a hold in Tordor,
they began staging attacks against both Caspia and
the lower Khardic provinces. By 589 BR, the steam
powered river vessels of the Caspians and Tordoran
exiles began making river raids against Orgoth
outposts. This effectively irritated the Orgoth but did
little more. Thuria and Midlund still fell in 586 BR,
and 15,000 sworn soldiers to the Caspian crown sought
mercy. They were executed to the man, slain with their
own swords or burned alive on wicker pyres, and their
deaths seemed to make the Orgoth stronger. The
invaders moved their forces from Tordor and Midlund
northward against the Khardic Empire. The southern
provinces held out and the Orgoth were forced to
regroup and wait for the arrival of their warwitches. By