History TabletopGame / IronKingdoms

%%* FleshVersusSteel: When ''WARMACHINE'' meets ''HORDES''.

%%* AGodAmI: Lord Toruk.

* The ''Grymkin'' come straight from hell with a army of Halloween monsters to ruin the creations of Menoth. For allowing them to invade Caen, they have gifted Zevanna Agha the ability command Grymkin armies -- so she can stop the Infernals (who are classic demons from another hell in Urcaen) from invading Caen.

* The ''Legion Of Everblight'', a growing empire ruled by a disembodied dragon that is two parts TheVirus to one part DemonicPossession, with a HiveMind thrown in for good measure. Their numbers comprise the Nyss elves who weren't lucky enough to escape Everblight's grasp, and Ogrun tribes that were in the region.

* FiveRaces: Humans are Mundane, elves are Fairies, gobbers are Cute (when they want to be), and dwarves, trollkin and ogrun all have their own unique way of being Stout.
* FlamingSword: Paladins of the Wall carry around swords called Firebrands, which can cause an enemy to catch on fire if they are hit hard enough. Exemplar cinerators have giant swords... with FLAMETHROWER NOZZLES ON THEM.
* FleshVersusSteel: When WARMACHINE meets HORDES.

* FortuneTeller: Calandra Truthsayer.
* FriendToAllChildren: Strangely, this is a trait developed by a warjack - Captain Damiano's Rociante - of all things.

* GhostPirate: The Cryxian Revenants. Complete with their own {{Ghost Ship}}s.

* AGodAmI: Lord Toruk (and by D&D standards, he is).

* MadDoctor: Dr. Arkadius, the setting's equivalent to Dr. Frankenstein, who is obsessed with unlocking the secrets of anatomy and biological enhancement. He "works" with the Farrow because he found that their anatomies were most receptive to his experimental surgical techniques, and eventually their current overlord, Lord Carver, decided to "accept him as an assistant" because his monstrous creatures add valuable muscle to the farrow forces. His most preeminent creations are the War Hogs, which are oversized battle-crazed farrow turned into cyborgs with stolen warjack components, and Road Hogs, a new variant of the War Hog with prosthetic lower legs for enhanced speed.

*** Cygnar's higher tech level allows it to field the more [[GatlingGood traditional]] variety.

* SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence: Warjacks in the Iron Kingdoms range from enormous Bricks in most cases to Robo-Monkeys on the Cygnaran/Cryxian end of things... before warcasters, high-level mechanikal engineering, gods and/or age get involved. Most warjacks are capable of high-functioning Robo-Monkey levels under a warcaster's direction, and the more time spent with their warcasters, the more likely a warjack is to form a personal bond as the warjack's cortex adapts to the warcaster's mind.
** Character 'jacks have also emerged, either from bonded warjacks sticking around for a ''very'' long time ala Sorscha's Beast 09, or being personally built, ala Lich Lord Asphyxious' [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Cankerworm]]. They're actually so potent that machine wraiths, Cryxian ghosts specialized in warjack possession, can't manipulate their cortices.

On 4/11/2016, it was announced that the 3rd Edition of the game would be released on 6/29/2016. In 2021, a Kickstarter campaign [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/privateerpress/iron-kingdoms-requiem-5e was held to]] fund ''Iron Kingdoms: Requiem'' source books compatible with 5th edition ''D&D'.'

* ''WARMACHINE: Tactics'' (2014): A VideoGame unveiled at Gen Con 2010 with an actual trailer shown at E3 2011 (which can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHG6BhqZY74&feature=related here]]). The Gameplay Footage from 2010 can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7K5lfIoBfQ here]]. Th was re-tooled as [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics a turn-based tactics game funded]] through Website/{{Kickstarter}} and achieving well-beyond its initial funding goal.

A Warmachine video game is in the works, with gameplay footage unveiled at Gen Con 2010, with an actual trailer shown at E3 2011 (which can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHG6BhqZY74&feature=related here]]). The Gameplay Footage from 2010 can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7K5lfIoBfQ here]]. This has since been re-tooled as [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics a turn-based tactics game funded]] through Website/{{Kickstarter}} and achieving well-beyond its initial funding goal.

A new version of the Iron Kingdoms RPG was also released in 2012, using a modified version of the wargames' rules system and a 'dual-class' character-creation system. A quick-start introductory adventure can be found on the Privateer Press website, titled [[http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms/downloads Fools Rush In]]. A sibling game has also been released in 2015, ''Iron Kingdoms Unleashed'' and covers the savage wilds of Immoren. It was originally going to be an expansion book for the 2012 game, but expanded beyond the scope of an expansion. A [[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/146332/Iron-Kingdoms-Unleashed-An-Introduction-to-Savagery?src=newest free starter adventure]] for it can be found on DriveThruRPG.

On 4/11/2016, it was announced that the 3rd Edition of the game would be released on 6/29/2016.

A sequel, titled ''TabletopGame/WarcasterNeoMechanika'', with different rules and set 5000 years after the events of ''Warmachine'' and ''Hordes'', was funded with a Website/{{Kickstarter}} [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/privateerpress/warcaster-neo-mechanika campaign]] in 2020 with 2,330 backers pledging $459,633.

* ArtMajorBiology: Relates to pretty much anything in the IK that isn't human.

* MindOverMatter: House Shyeel of [[OurElvesAreBetter Ios]] is the premier provider of magic users for the elven military; their abilities all revolve around varied forms of force manipulation, be it [[DeflectorShields deflecting incoming projectiles]], tearing foes apart with force blasts or messing with their positioning and knocking them down.

* OurElvesAreBetter: They're {{Animesque}} religious zealots in shining white {{Magitek}} armor. Some even have ''beards''!

%%* HiddenElfVillage: The elven nation of Ios.

%%* HordesFromTheEast: The skorne.

** Now that the forces of the Infernals have begun stirring up trouble on Caen, the gods have sent down Archons to help deal with the problem. Most of these fit the WingedHumanoid mold, with the exception of the Primal Archon, which is more of a vaguely-humanoid conglomeration of wood and tree roots.

A sequel, titled ''TabletopGame/WarcasterNeoMechanika'', with different rules and set 5000 years after the events of ''Warmachine'' and ''Hordes'', was funded with a Website/{{Kickstarter}} [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/privateerpress/warcaster-neo-mechanika campaign]] in 2020.

-->''"Play like you've got a pair!"''
--> -- The oft-quoted Page 5 of the ''WARMACHINE Prime'' and ''HORDES Primal'' rulebooks

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Deneghra, Baulder and the Harbinger.]]
** As of ''Warmachine: Tactics'' [[spoiler: Dalin Sturgis joins this list, coupling it with a case of CameBackWrong.]]

** Baldur the Stonecleaver - a druid so good at making living golems that his masterwork actually has limited sentience and regenerates. He hates Everblight so much that he came back from the dead just to punch more abominations in the face.

* BiggerIsBetter:
** Khador is suffering from a shortage of critical components used to create cortexes ([[{{Magitek}} magical brains]] which are required to create a warjack). This leads them to build warjacks that are ''very'' heavily armed and armored so that they won't have to replace them as often.
** Colossals are apparently a case for this.
** Gargantuans, Hordes' equivalent to the Colossals too.

** Cygnar - The Storm Guard's halberds can discharge a bolt of electricity after hitting you.
** Khador - The Iron Fang Pikemen carry around lances which can explode upon impact.
** Menoth - The Temple Flameguard can set things on fire by stabbing them with their spears.

* CaptainErsatz : Many, usually folk characters
** The Old Witch, Khador's own Baba Yaga, complete with chicken legged personal robot.

* DeathSeeker: Gudrun the Wanderer.
* [[DefeatMeansFriendship Defeat Means Obedience Before The Will Of The Supreme Archdominar]]

* EvilVersusEvil:
** Terminus and company vs. Asphyxious and company.
** Toruk vs. all his children.
** [[spoiler:Vinter Raelthorne]] vs. [[spoiler:Makeda and company]].
** At the end of Metamorphosis,[[spoiler: Kruger the Stormlord informs the dragon Blighterghast that his sibling, Everblight, is raising an army and intends to kill every other dragon and absorb their athancs, the source of draconic power that every dragon has in place of a heart. This disturbs Blighterghast greatly and he flies off, presumably to gather other dragons to put Everblight down.]]

* HeroicLineage: Vladimir Tzepeci.
* HeroicResolve: MANY characters demonstrate this both in the story and the actual games.
* HiddenElfVillage: The elven nation of Ios.
* HiddenEyes: Mohsar and Lylyth.
* HollywoodAcid: Cryx Sludge weapons, and any weapon with the "Corrosion Damage" trait.
* HordesFromTheEast: The skorne.

* LightningGun: Cygnar exclusive.
* LittlePeople: Gobbers.

* MageKiller: Retribution's purpose

* NiceHat: Lots of people have one.

* {{Ouroboros}}: The Circle Orboros and the Devourer Wurm.
* OrderVersusChaos:
** The Entire Civilized World versus the Circle of Orboros.
** Menoth vs the Devourer Wurm.

** The angelii, seraphim and archangels are angels InNameOnly; they are just as monstrous as the rest of Everblight's warbeasts.

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: WARMACHINE has an entire Mercenary pseudo-faction (Privateer Press has stated on many occasions that Mercenaries are not an offical faction, despite the fact that they can be taken to tournaments by themselves) with contracts dictating what kinds of warcasters/soldiers will work with the other factions and each other. The Minions pseudo-faction in HORDES is now receiving the same treatment.
** Example: Asheth Magnus is an ex-Cygnaran traitor, so he can't be included in a Cygnaran army. He can be included in a Khadoran, a Protectorate or a Cryxian army, or he can be in an army comprised entirely of Mercenaries that will work for him.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The skorne's [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Also, the totem hunter.
* PsychoForHire: Some of the named characters from the Mercenary and Minions factions.
* PublicDomainCharacter: {{Dracula}} (sort of).

* RazorWind: Very common spell for Khador warcasters and a rather reliable one for storm sorcerers in the 2012 RPG.

* [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Scatterguns Are Just Better]]:

* SoulJar: Cryxian Soul Cages.

* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler: Vladimir and Sorscha.]]

* SuperSpit: Most "elemental" light troll warbeasts do this.
* SwordAndGun: Coleman Stryker, Ashlynn d'Elyse, Phinneus Shae, and Bartolo Montador.

* VainSorceress: Morvahna.

* WeirdScience: Not much of the technology in the Iron Kingdoms is ever explained very well and the small bits of info we do get don't make very much sense either. For example; the most we know about how steamjacks work is that a conventional (albeit highly-efficient) boiler provides steam pressure to move the body as well as drive a device called an arcane turbine. This turbine spins canisters of certain alchemical compounds that react to the movement and each other, turning the motive force of their spinning into arcane energy that powers the 'jack's cortex and any mechanikal weapons attached to it. Once the cortex is 'awake', it takes over finer control of the body - directing steam pressure to move its body as well as controlling an iris mechanism that regulates the rate coal is dropped from a hopper into the tinder box, letting the 'jack control the temperature and pressure of its boiler. This is the most detailed any fluff has gotten on the tech of the Iron Kingdoms and even this is spread out between at least one article in No Quarter magazine and fluff from the old d20 RPG. Even then, it says nothing about how the cortex works, merely how it's powered.

* TheWhiteHouse: Cygnar, Khador, Cryx, the Protectorate and Ios each have their own version.
* WickedWitch: The Old Witch of Khador.
* WindsOfDestinyChange: Primary magic of vlad, but Calandra Truthsayer just runs entirely on this
* WitchDoctor: All of the Gatorman warlocks.

* WolfMan: Warpwolves.
* WormSign: The Skorne razor worm.
* WorldOfBadass: So very much.

A Warmachine video game is in the works, with gameplay footage unveiled at Gen Con 2010, with an actual trailer shown at E3 2011 (which can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHG6BhqZY74&feature=related here]]). The Gameplay Footage from 2010 can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7K5lfIoBfQ here]]. This has since been re-tooled as [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics a turn-based tactics game funded through Kickstarter]] and achieving well-beyond its initial funding goal.

On 4/11/2016, it was announced that the 3rd Edition of the game would be released on 6/29/2016. A sequel, titled ''TabletopGame/WarcasterNeoMechanika'', with different rules and set 5000 years after the events of ''Warmachine'' and ''Hordes'', is set to be released in 2020.

* LeyLine: They run across Caern, though most are ignorant of them. They are of particular interest to the worshipers of Cyriss, who build their temple complexes along junctions of them and draw from them to power their generators and consider tapping enough of them essential to completing their Great Work. Unfortunately, they have exhausted most of their practical opportunities to build temples covertly after centuries of pursuing the Great Work clandestinely, and the need to secure more locations is fueling their recent militant expansionism.

** Now that the forces of the Infernals have begun stirring up trouble on Caen, the gods have sent down Archons to help deal with the problem. Most of these fit the WingedHumanoid mold, with the exception of the Primal Archon, which more closely resembles a vaguely-humanoid conglomeration of wood and tree roots.

* ClockworkCreature: Almost every battlefield unit the Convergence of Cryss fields, most of them directed by vessels for [[BrainUploading Soul Transference]].

* LeyLine: They run across Caern, though most are ignorant of them. They are of particular interest to the worshipers of Cryss, who build their temple complexes along junctions of them and draw from them to power their generators and consider tapping enough of them essential to completing their Great Work. Unfortunately, they have exhausted most of their practical opportunities to build temples covertly after centuries of pursuing the Great Work clandestinely, and the need to secure more locations is fueling their recent militant expansionism.

* OneManArmy: Vinter Raelthorne IV, ex-King of Cygnar. Years before the setting's "starting point" with the RPG he out-fought his brother and ''twenty Storm Knights'' single-handedly, when normally twenty Storm Knights can take down a warjack. After surviving the coup that overthrew him, he crossed a previously-thought-to-be uncrossable desert and found the Skrone, who were a fractious species of warlords at the time. He then, starting without an army, ''single-handedly conquers'' the entire skorne species, uniting them into the Skorne Empire. He wins hands-down every single fight he's ever in in any of the fiction where he fights, which does include warbeasts and warjacks.

* GodOfEvil: The basic portrayal of the Devourer Wurm in the game -- there's a reason that those who aren't part of the Circle Orboros sometimes speculate that dragons (immortal, vile predators that poison everywhere they go) are the Wurm's truest offspring. The Circle Orboros is the only fqaction that doesn't think of it as evil, just one of the less pleasant aspects of Orboros (nature itself).

* GogglesDoNothing: A great many Cygnaran characters wear goggles, which have no effect in the strategy game or the 2012 RPG (and a fairly minor effect in the old roleplaying game). In their defense, most of them also work in situations (EG, around steam-powered fighting robots that have a tendency to emit sparks and shrapnel) where goggles would be a good idea.

* AnimeHair: Many Cygnarans. Commander Coleman Stryker, whose hairstyle resembles a lit match, is a both a particularly egregious example and an in-universe trend-setter. The elves of the Retribution of Scyrah also have hair the [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair color of which you'd only find in anime]]. [[BaldOfEvil Assuming they don't just shave it all off]]. Partially justified, however, because Cygnarans tend to spend a lot of time near arcane energies, electricity, or both at the same time. The in-universe reason Commander Adept Nemo has Albert Einstein's hair is because of the gigantic tesla coil powering his armour that's mounted right behind his head.

''Iron Kingdoms'' is a fantasy setting created by the gaming company [[http://home.privateerpress.com/ Privateer Press.]] Originally designed as a campaign setting for the 3rd edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', it is now known chiefly as the setting for the two miniatures-based tabletop strategy games ''WARMACHINE'' and ''HORDES''.

* HeroicAlbino: Madrak Ironhinde, and to a lesser extent, Grim Angus. Any heroic trollkin sorcerer is automatically this as all trollkin sorcerers are albino.

''Iron Kingdoms'' is a fantasy setting created by the gaming company [[http://privateerpress.com/ Privateer Press.]] Originally designed as a campaign setting for the 3rd edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', it is now known chiefly as the setting for the two miniatures-based tabletop strategy games ''WARMACHINE'' and ''HORDES''.

* A new faction known as the ''Grymkin'' have joined the wars, coming straight from hell with a army of Halloween monsters to ruin the creations of Menoth. For allowing them to invade Caen, they have gifted Zevanna Agha the ability command Grymkin armies -- so she can stop the Infernals (who are classic demons from another hell in Urcaen) from invading Caen.

On 4/11/2016, it was announced that the 3rd Edition of the game would be released on 6/29/2016.

** The Church of Morrow is this setting [[CrystalDragonJesus analogue for Christianity]].

* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: We have Cygnar and the Trollbloods as the Good; Khador, the Circle and the Thornfall Alliance in the middle; the Protectorate, the Retribution, the Convergence and the Blindwater Congregation as the Bad; Cryx, the skorne, the Legion and the cephalyx as the Evil. And except for the Cryx-cephalyx alliance, ''none'' of these factions get along well with each other.

** Every unit of the Steelhead Mercenary Company. Even their warcaster from ''Wrath'' has the title [[CaptainObvious Steelhead Warcaster]].

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When learning to play Warmachine/Hordes, if you can't get into this mind-set, be prepared for numerous moments of [[CurbStompBattle complete]] [[DespairEventHorizon failure]]. The more accepting you are of this, the more satisfying it is when you finally [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome find your niche]]. The less comfortable you are with loss, the more likely you are to turn into [[StopHavingFunGuys someone]] who [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids completely misses the point]] of playing games.

* MadDoctor: Dr. Arkadius.

* ExactWords: Julian agreed to a treaty with Kardor that saw the other country withdraw from the Thornwood in exchange for Cygnar publicly recognizing their hold over Llael... as long as there were no other living memebers of the Llaelese royal family remaining. As soon as they were gone, he betrothed himself to the last living Llaelese heir.

* PigMan: The farrow, full [[IncrediblyLamePun hog]].

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The Khadoran High Kommand's reaction to the apparent death of Kommander Zoktavir, one of their most veteran and feared soldiers? A collective sigh of relief. His random bouts of insanity made him just as much of a nightmare for them as he was for the enemy.

* TurnUndead: Some things in the minis game and RPG have abilites to do extra damage to the undead (such as Precursor Knights).

* TheVirus: Prolonged exposure to dragon blight of any kind will enventually turn you into a mutated mockery of what you once were.

* WarElephants: Titans (which can be described as small, four-armed elephants) and their larger cousins, the mammoths, are widely used as warbeasts by skorne warlocks.

* AwesomeByAnalysis: While most feats are often described as a burst of arcane energy, Supreme Kommandant Irusk's feat is described as basically him being Sun Tzu. Even writing a [[Literature/TheArtOfWar book.]]