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

338 Iron Kingdoms
108.1.141.197
Imports: Metal goods, timber, stone, weapons,
and armor
Exports: Cereals, fine cloth, glass, herbs,
livestock, salt
Originally Scyrah’s home and the site of her Great
Fane, Iryss is the second largest city in Ios and home
to a vast majority of military personnel. The outer
portions have become less populated by commoners
since the days of the War of the Houses. Now the
fringes of Iryss are sprawling, enormous fortifications
and barracks where all five of the military hallyntyr are
represented to some capacity.
The battles taking place around and within
Iryss less than 30 years ago deeply affected the city’s
appearance. Architecture still shows scorch marks
from the various fires, and only the Great Fane of
Scyrah and the Sylgarden seems to have escaped
damage. Aiesyn builders restored the major buildings,
especially those rendered little more than mountains
of rubble, but many of the lesser buildings are
practically untouched. Still, Iryss is noted for its many
green spaces and leafy parks due mostly to the efforts
of House Syllrynal.
Within the heart of the city, the many trade houses
are in constant production in the district referred to
as the Marketplace. House Ryvrese manages the trade
houses and is one of the most influential hallyntyr in
all of Ios because of it while House Syllrynal maintains
the city’s renowned fruit orchards, herb gardens, and
other crops. Thylryn Vyr, an impressive 220-foot tall
octagonal tower of crimson and gray stone blocks, is a
place of arcane learning maintained by House Vyre.
What visitors—if there were any—might never
learn is that a ghostly city complete with roads and
buildings lies beneath the heart of Iryss, its crystalline
walls glittering and gleaming in the flickering light.
It is a world of no night or day, but of salt. This
massive salt mine a thousand feet beneath the surface
encompasses more than 900 acres and nearly 30
miles of tunnels and roadways. Millions of years ago,
if not hundreds of millions, all of Ios was a great sea.
Countless millennia later Iosan workers labor in the
salt deposits left behind as a testament to those ancient
waters. The mines grew over the centuries, for salt has
ever been in great demand in western Immoren.
During the War of the Houses, thousands of Iosans
fled to the City Below, as it is called, and erected
habitations and other structures during the years they
resided there. Now salt miners still work small sectors,
but only seedier or more intrepid Iosans frequent
the abandoned regions of this ethereal place. It is
rumored to be the home of a number of the leaders
of the Retribution of Scyrah who meet secretly in its
bowels and gain access from an undisclosed lift system
located within the Great Fane of Scyrah.
Noted Persons
Alyrra Ryvrese (female Iosan Ari5/Wiz14): As
matriarch of one of the most powerful hallyntyr in
Ios, Alyrra is a woman used to having things her way.
A careful manipulator, she has mastered the fine art
of playing both smaller and larger houses against each
other to the benefit of her own house. Alyrra is keenly
political and has a number of enemies. Knowing this,
she is seldom seen in public without a large contingent
of house guards. It is rumored that she has aided the
Retribution of Scyrah in securing training grounds
near the border of Llael. Ironically, her younger
brother Tylien (male Iosan Ari3/Ftr11) sits upon the
Ministry of Scyrathyl and is a firm campaigner against
Retribution practices.
Byress Pwylvyrr (male Iosan Exp4/Rog4/Wiz7):
Uncommonly haggard and disheveled for an Iosan,
Byress is a former apprentice to the arcanists of House
Vyre. Now he sits day and night near the marketplace
wall wrapped in a blanket and absently sipping some
steaming concoction. He seems even more forlorn
than is typical for the elves, and those who attempt
to engage him in conversation will receive cryptic
mutterings about how doom is upon Ios, for the signs
are everywhere. His rantings rarely seem to make much
sense. In truth Byress is a lookout for the Retribution
of Scyrah and is perfectly sane. Those who respond
appropriately to his mutterings will suddenly find a
clear-eyed agent who will give them instructions about
Retribution activities, via innuendo of course, unless a
safer place to converse is available. Byress also knows of
the secret access to the City Below in the Great Fane.
Master Diviner Vyrillis Yryas (male Iosan Div20):
The rapidly aging founder of the Seekers sect is
still active and dwells near Iryss. The sanctuary and
headquarters of his research is actually several miles
south of the city though he maintains some buildings