The humans are mainly of Oeridian descent with a lesser amount of Suloise blood from intermarriage with the predominantly Suel humans of the surrounding area. While the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer says the local dwur are of the hill dwarf sort, From the Ashes claimed they were mountain dwarves ( Cyclopedia, page 12). Another prominant dwarven clan is called Highforge ( Greyhawk Adventures, page 91). The city's hill dwarves primarily belong to the Grummild clan, who are rivals of the Dorgrimm clan that rules the Kingdom of the Iron Hills. Elsewhere in the city, things are more or less undefined, the various social strata and professions mixing well. The land surrounding the city is hilly and generally unsuitable for farming.īesides the Undercity, Irongate's major wards are the Civic Ward, which contains its houses of government, the Tower Ward, which houses its wealthiest citizens, and the Dock Ward built in the shadow of the city's plateau along the waterfront. The climate is generally warm and comfortable (on another world, it might be called Mediterranean) year round. Its plateau is within a narrow valley that runs north to south at the north end, on the Sea of Gearnat, is the small town of Northanchor. Irongate is built on a plateau above the eastern Azure Sea on the short isthmus between the Onnwal Headlands and the Iron Hills, framed by imposing cliffs pocketed with mines. Irongate managed to escape conquest by the Scarlet Brotherhood during the Greyhawk Wars due to the resourcefulness of Cobb Darg and the aid of the Azure Masks and Splintered Mind. The following year the whole of the South was in rebellion, and after a brief struggle the Iron League was born. On that infamous day in 446 CY they were thrown into prison, given a mock trial, and executed for the Overking's amusement. Yet it was not, at that point, fully free.Īs the rule of the Overking grew more despotic, the Lord Mayor of Irongate petitioned to have his grievances heard by the Herzog of South Province in Zelradton. Irongate, which had supported House Rax in that civil war, survived and refused to bow before House Naelax and its newly constructed Malachite Throne. The city was besieged during the Turmoil Between Crowns.
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After a series of battles, the alliance of dwarves and men proved to be decisive, and the region belonged to the Great Kingdom.ĭuring the Great Kingdom's height, the city of Irongate was known as "the Overking's Armory," and its weapons and ores were famed throughout the Flanaess. In the early days of Irongate's existence, the Iron Hills region was still controlled by the Zelrad Suel, and they considered this construction to be an act of war. Both dwarves and humanity have lived within it since. It was a collaboration between the dwarves of the Iron Hills and human architects of the Great Kingdom (including, perhaps, the legendary Daern), the first major project of its kind.
Irongate was completed in 124 CY, commissioned by the Great Kingdom to give the mother country a well-defended base from which it could mine for iron and advance its interests in the Azure Sea. Beneath it is a vast Undercity, twice as deep as the towers are high, made up of a dozen sublevels connected by endless stone stairs and passageways.Īs stone endures and stone endures still! are greetings that convey friendship or alliance with Irongate, referring to the heroism of the dwarves of that walled city.
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Irongate, properly known as the Free City of Irongate, is surrounded by concentric stone walls and dominated by its great towers, especially the Cidereal Citadel, the Tower of Daern, and the southeastern Siren Keep. Scarlet Brotherhood, Ahlissa (distrusted) Kingdom of the Iron Hills, Onnwal (rebels only), Sunndi, Nyrond, folk of the Headlands Heironeous, Zilchus, Procan, dwarf pantheon, Osprem, Xerbo, Norebo, Fortubo, Jascar, Lendor Human 83% (Os), Dwarf 15% (hill), Halfling 1%, Other 1% His Resolute Honor, Cobb Darg, Lord High Mayor of Irongate The heraldry of Irongate as depicted in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (2000).