Faction Name: Clan Black Anvil
Alias: The Forged, The Iron Host, Seekers of Embers
Government Type: Dwarven Clan/Gerontocracy & Racial Stratocracy
Faction Specie(s):-Black Dwarves
-Greenskins & Beaskins
Species Descriptions:
-Black Dwarves: The mountain dwelling stunted kind that have been slowly corrupted by the insidious evil that sleeps within the dark lands. They are taller than their cousins but didn't lose any of their girth either and as their name implies have also been tainted with an ashen skin. These dwarves have also somewhat gained in strength but lost their kin's prodigious magical resistance due to the mutations that afflict them.
-Greenskins & Beastkins: Goblins, hobgoblins, orcs... just some of the countless names the dwarves have for every sub-species of greenskins. They are all slaves in some way, but the dwarves use racial division and separations to keep them at each other's throat, calling some subspecies better than others and giving them special treatments to make a hierarchy and likewise do the same to the beastkins they manage to subjugate.
Territory Details: -The Claws: Named after the impossibly dangerous creatures that inhabit the shadows of these mountains, the Claws were still the industrial powerhouse of the Dark Lands and Daigon before it fell to ruins. Enormous forges animated by enslaved primordial fire spirits created warmachines of such powers that they shook the world! Clan Black Anvil payed a heavy price to secure the Heart of the Forges and fortify its few entrances against possible but still they occupy a mere fraction of the enormous industrial complex and will need many, many times the amount of slaves they have to operate the machineries, that is, when they figure out how to lit the fires. Embers remain of the starved fire spirits that animated this place. They CAN be brought back, the dwarves know it, they feel it in their guts, but they have yet to figure out this secret.
Faction Religion/Ideology:-The Worship of the Great Predecessors: Dwarves worship their ancestors and lengthy meditate on them and their achievements in hope to commune with them, to get council and wisdom from the past. Nibelung the Seeker however was more liberal with this and didn't stop at contemplating his ancestors but other people of power. Daigon, his master smiths and engineers as he sought to unlock the hidden secrets of the Dark Lands... And they answered him! Well, their spirits or that of demons or other unspeakable evils... Dwarves listen and evil whispers in their ear, guiding them to do dark deeds but always rewarding them with the crumbs of knowledge they so dearly seek. Engineers will unlock mysteries after an illumination in a dream, warriors will have a supernatural sixth sense brought by invisible eyes that whisper what they see to them... It is like a second nature to them now, the dwarves don't even realize that evil stalk their every steps.
Faction Description:The dwarves are no longer an army like when they first took over the Claw, now they are an elite seldom seen. Indeed the task of slavedriver itself has been taken over by other slaves and the bulk of the forces of the Iron Host is composed of orcs clad in expertly made armor who fight on the behest of their masters for the benefits the dwarves bring them and by fear that rebellion might end very badly. For while they are not numerous, the dwarven core of the Host has been thinned and honed to an elite of Armored Juggernauts with several orcish lifetime of combat experience behind which hide the engineers and experts of all caliber that make this faction one of the most technically competent one in the Dark Lands. Surprisingly, they even have a couple of magic users, something you'd never see amidst normal dwarves, but these aren't normal dwarves.
Faction History: Nibelung always suspected there was something hidden. The wars against evil were mythical but true, traces of it could be found around the world despite the best efforts of the agents of Justinian to wipe away history. This force that could have almost defeated the forces of good, it intrigued him. His questions brought to him the unwanted interest of clerics who warned him to stay away from this path but it only made him feel more persecuted, more justified in the idea to find old weapons made anew that could help dwarven kind to free itself from what he saw as the oppressive yoke of a human God Emperor.
But he was no fool, he continued in secret, gathering likeminded individuals and his own clan around his idea. To gather coin, he spoke in length of the miracles that such ancient technologies could bring economically and so forth. Around the world he gathered trinkets and baubles but it was nothing. Nothing compared to what he knew hid in the Dark Lands. With a host of warrior, Nibelung went into these lands along with one of the purges of the local Marche lords. He however didn't come back, they thought him dead after entering the Machine Chambers in the Claws. But he lived and not only that but managed to send back the wonderous things he promised, slowly by boat, underground or even by air a couple of times.
Eventually time took a tool on his clan as his father died, giving him the mantle of Clan Leader while he was away. Immediately he ordered his entire clan to pack and join him along with any who would follow him outside his own clan. The travel was a calamity and many died but worst, when they arrived so did the news that Justinian had found out something was going on and that Nibelung was made an heretic to be killed. There were arguments for days but eventually one night after a long shouting match, loyalists of Nibelung, those the most touched by evil, killed scores of their own kin in their sleep, making the matter settled. Clan Black Anvil would stay and turn its back on Justinian.
It was not the end of their misfortune. The dwarves were an impossibly well armed and organized faction in this wasteland of evil that fought back countless attacks from the inhabitants of the land but each loses was irreplaceable and slowly, their numbers dwindled. They compensated with slaves but were almost anihilated during a rebellion and so developed a more careful and calculated approach to slavery, making groups hate each other so much they'd refuse to work with one another under any circumstances, rewarding traitors and snitches, organizing the greenskins in classes and even using breeding techniques to try and weed out flaws and make a more submissive kind of slaves but with limited success. Today Nibelung is old but obsessed with the hidden knowledge just beneath his feet. How to make the foundry alive again, make the fire roar and give birth to a sea of molten metal!
Important Characters:-Master Nibelung the Seeker: He is old, unnaturally so even for a dwarf, and holds much dark knowledge in his mind. An apt warrior and surprisingly powerful mage, he is the head of the Clan and its undisputed master.
Relations to other Factions:The Iron Host is known to be isolationist and with no real desire to expend. It willingly trades superior arms and armors even to potential enemies in exchange for many supplies they need, being hardly self sufficient. At times, squads of dwarves and their combat thralls can be seen picking through ruins, looking for whatever thing their master orders them to find.
