Name: The Ironwood, Yron Forest, Black Forests

Description: A great, dense expanse of forest that spreads unbroken over hills and flats and down coastlines. The ground beneath the massive trees is a land of shadows, all dark and gloomy. The clime as a whole is rather miserable by the standards of most: fog limits visibility and grey skies are the norm, leaving the misty ground underfoot damp and chilly. While the forest is vast and seemingly too unforgiving to harbor civilization, in hidden groves, retreats deep in the forest, and even in the occasional rocky cave system there are villages, most being very small and tight-knit communities. The Ironwood is home to the Ruhig Kingdom and its tribes, and its people are fiercely protective of their lands and distrustful of outsiders.

Appearance: A land trapped beneath the shadow of countless millions of great trees, the ground below is in perpetual twilight. While the forest is dense and hardly navigable, sparsely scattered across the place are otherworldly feeling clearings and groves that can see the dreary skies. In the rest of the wood, what little light reaches the ground is paltry. The occasional beam of light from the outside world illuminates the black bark of the ironwood trees and grey moss that carpets all. Filtered through the perpetually misty and grey sky above and down through the canopy of leaves, such light almost feels drained and musty.

Small shrubs, saplings, and berry bushes offer the only verdant green to be seen in this dark forest. Struggling in the shadows of the wood are many small saplings of everything from oak to spruce, though almost without exception all trees of noteworthy size are Ironwoods and have leaves darker than clover and bark black as tar.

Name: Yron (pronounced iron)

Description: In the old days the Ruhig people knew little of mining or metalworking and their land had scarce minerals to begin with, so they used what they had in abundance: magic and trees. Through an absurdly long and complicated process that involves specially nurturing a tree and regularly imbuing and reinforcing it with Wi and commanding it to grow a certain way with Dimok, it is possible to transform an ordinary tree into an ironwood tree. Ironwoods have leaves such a dark shade of green that they appear nearly black, while their bark is truly the color of night or coal. Ironwood trees notably lack the ability to produce saplings and grow very slowly (even by the standards of trees) if they grow at all.

Fortunately for the Ruhig, the Black Forests that they dwell in consist almost entirely of the ironwood trees. This was not always the case; indeed, they would have had no reason to invent their overly complicated way of creating ironwood trees if the things had been there naturally. Other people or civilizations would have to travel all the way to the Black Forests to gather ironwood there (an action that would not taken as a grievous crime by the locals) or otherwise go about it the old way, using magic to create their own trees.

Yron is the name for the raw wood from inside the trees. Like its namesake, it appears a metallic gray although it is not shiny like real iron. It shares other properties with actual iron as well, namely being absurdly hard and capable of holding an edge. It of course does not rust and if properly preserved and prepared it will not rot either. While heavier than any other wood, it is still lighter than true metal. It also borders of being nearly impossible to set aflame.

All of these properties make it an excellent material for everything from weapons, armor, and shields to boats and buildings. Granted, its hardness makes it exceptionally difficult to craft. Even for the Ruhigs who are undoubtedly the most skilled artisans with it, making an Yron sword of good quality is no small task. Felling the trees in the first place is difficult, as is chopping them into sizable pieces and moving the heavy things. Then the lumber has to be treated and preserved. Even after that it takes hours of toiling to file it into the correct shape, following the wood's grain and shaping it in the perfect way so that it will retain its strength.

Appearance:

Name: Ruhig Kingdom

Description: In this tribal kingdom gods aren't held in high esteem, but lumber and the forest are! The Ironwood is more than their land or even their home; it is their community, their livelihood, their armor, their craft, and their duty to maintain and protect. Needless to say, the forest itself is incredibly sacred, but so too are each and every tree. The lumberjacks and foresters are held in especially high regard, as are the woodcarvers who work the freshly harvested Yron. All the warriors fight with Yron weapons, shields, and armor, the fishermen sail in boats of Yron, and even the forts are made of the magical stuff. It is no wonder that their entire society and culture revolve around the Yron's harvest and revere it so.

There are five very distinct tribes that exist (mostly) in harmony and cooperation, though this was not always so. Many generations ago, they were attacked by both the Horse People of the plains and by strange invaders from across the sea that were led by some sort of God-King. The Horse People were a chaotic kratocracy of various marauding hordes, naturally enemies to the various forest tribes and anybody else that was civilized. That old enemy struck an alliance of opportunity with the foreign invaders, and together they attacked. The tribes were forced to unite under a great confederation simply to avoid extinction. Probably taking inspiration from the idea of the God-King of their enemies, they united, centralize, and started the tradition of naming a lumberjack their king. Every king is an ordinary lumberjack chosen by the chieftains rather than some pomp and distant princeling, and they are all called by the same name: King Yronwud. Or so the tales say; a new king has not been appointed in living memory and the current King Yronwud has not appeared in many years, which has of late created much unrest and suspicion amongst the many chieftains and elders.

Rather than some abstract deity of time, chaos, or even forging (metal is so rare in the kingdom that there are some who have never seen it) the Ruhigs worship something more direct and closely tied to the land: a being that they call the Forest Spirit. What exactly the Forest Spirit even is is sometimes debated amongst different tribes and elders. Some say that it is an abstraction for the forest itself, some that it is a god just like any others, and others simply say that it is the being that is responsible for providing the ironwood trees and by extension, the Yron. In any case, the King is believed to be a vessel of the god's will and representative to the people.

Appearance: You're unlikely to see anything but the Black Forests when in the Ruhig lands, but if you stumbled across one of their redoubts or fortified villages it would look something like this:

Name: They call themselves the Kharigits, but are usually referred to as the 'Horse People' by others

Description: The Kharigits are a large group of nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists, united by shared culture. They are usually splintered into several steppe hordes, but sometimes a great Khan will unite the clans under his banner. Inevitably such unions eventually break, since there are deep-rooted feuds between clans and that is simply the rule of the land.

They roam across steppe, desert, and grassland alike. Because they are notably warlike and most have no fixed territory, they roam most of Orabahk and are a menace to most settled people that they encounter. Having little save their precious livestock and plunder to barter with, they usually resort to raiding to get what they want. Living life on the saddle means that simply occupying conquered land isn't an option for them, so the inevitable result of any successful raid or conquest is their enemy's settlement looted and razed while its people are either massacred or enslaved. This has earned them the hatred of the Ruhig tribes and no doubt many other civilizations, though the Kharigits have thus far proved impossible to conquer or subdue for long.

They fight their battles almost exclusively on horseback and are known for their composite bows and elaborate cavalry tactics and formations. Most of their horse archers and light cavalry wear only leather armor, but their strongest warriors are made into lancers and are equipped with lamellar or even metal armor.

Appearance: While their squat little camps are hardly impressive, their hordes and warbands are truly terrifying. Before you even lay eyes upon them, you can see the dust kicked up by their countless horses rising on the horizon. You can hear the thunder of hooves and the baying of the wild dogs that follow the hordes to feast upon the carnage the warriors leave behind. The smell of horses and animals taints the air, and then the cavalry that will be your death finally draws close enough to be seen.

Name: Ialu's Zealots, Immortal Warriors

Description: A holy order that comprises about 2,000 of the humans in Arguilla and rules over the remaining 2,500, this is the reincarnation of the Strong Tribe that was the demigod Ialu's holy order in the days of old. Though only a few are actual descendants of Strong Tribe hunters or warriors, enough survived for the order's magic to continue.

Aside from the Strong Tribe's method of telekinetic attacks and traditional Wi, they have encountered and gained knowledge of Vistoc, lifeblood for its healing properties, and (to a much lesser extent) even Dimok.

While the Strong Tribe were mainly hunters at heart, the Zealots are trained as true warriors. After their exalted leader Ialu vanished, the Cimex began to invade. What remained of humanity retreated south into the mountains of what was once called Orab, and they used the rugged and defensible terrain to their advantage and rebuilt. Fully expecting that the Cimex will one day look to drive out humanity for good and claim the mountains for their rich minerals, the ruling class (remnants of the Strong Tribe) began to recruit others into their order and transform it into a mighty army of true soldiers. A combination of paranoia, fear, desperation, and experience allowed them to create an extremely disciplined and trained fighting force, although they have barely ever tasted combat. Still, they are most likely the largest and most formidable holy order in existence and they stand ready to once again serve their master upon his long awaited return.

They live as a monastic order that rules over many small villages in mountain valleys and on the coastline, protecting them in exchange for food and supplies. Ialu's Zealots found the abandoned fortress of the Mountain Crown and have expanded and fortified it even further to serve as their headquarters, though they also maintain many smaller forts and watches along the various mountain passes. Every path, trail, and pass through the Cimex lands into the valleys is trapped and guarded by countless vigilant eyes.

Appearance: Thanks to a deal Ialu struck with Sauranath some time before the two vanished, they are regularly given the scales and bones of dragons so that they can craft armor. Though they do not work metal, through some limited trade with the denizens of Brightwood across the sea many of their soldiers are able to acquire Mithril Steel weapons as well.