Ironswift Clan

The Ironswift clan is a group of Dwarves, Giants and other humanoids that are living within the surface levels of Dalruan that in the recent centuries have gained a minor noble title within Dalruan from both past blood ties with the former city of Rorrin and efforts made recently in the Bazaar as well as the Deep.

Origins
Started by a Dwarf known as Torsun, the Ironswift clan was formed in the dim past of the eons when in the many wars against the orc-kin Torsun led a brash and for all thought suicide mission to tunnel underneath the citadel of the Orc Warchief Rotuk. It is said that the Carsha Citadel had repulsed all attempts that came from the surface to breach it's defences, and walls having fell in only served as killing pits and the grinding of Dwarf and Orc flesh alongside their mercenary allies. Torsun with his fellow men moved about the walls carefully, digging out the supports for each all the while attempting undetection as the siege raged about the citadel itself. While several lives were lost to collapsed tunnels by the thudding of siege weapon ammunition into the base of the wall, Torsun and his men were successful in their efforts-digging into the keep itself and breaking in through the kitchen firepits to spill forth while the tunnels were purposely flooded from behind by water mages-causing a landslide of stone and earth to collapse onto the defenders within. While Torsun did not take the Orc Chief's head personally, his valour in the extreme and patient measure he took earned him the title of Ironswift for his fast working pickaxe he used as both tool and weapon.

Originally from the Dwarven Hold of Rorrin, the Ironswift clan began as many new nobles do with a great bout of ambition. Torsun's easy going but observant fashion led to series of political victories as the decades went on and the rebuild efforts towards the damages caused by the horde invasion from Carsha was successful. A surface settlement in design, Rorrin was a city of Dwarves and humans for the most part with a district of elves to the north end of it, with most of it's vital warehouses, workshops and the like underneath, Resting upon the northern coast of Gramayre, it functioned as a moderate entryway for the tunnels to the harbour of Raund, and supported a decent sized garrison of Dwarf pikes and crossbows for it's defense. Torsun put forward in his time in  the idea of Deep-Farms; a concept using certain fungus and other minimal light plants as well as animals to be used in the case of siege or if drought occurred. It was received with some distate by the nobility, who did not enjoy the bland and usually bitter taste of the said things that grew in the dark when the much more succulent and fresh foods were available above ground, but a Giant by the name of Tathic presented the solution, a spice found in the southern reaches of Varigal. combining it with the simple fry cooking, the combination of mushroom, wall-vine minced and strips of either cave fish or blind giant salamander gave to it an almost sweet and spicy taste that turned into a delicacy overnight for the city of Rorrin, most in part perhaps by it's ease of collection and making.

As like many of the Dwarven Holds of old, this too fell to a series of unfortunate circumstances. The Ironswifts, now a prominent family within the city, were attacked from within it's walls as a smaller clan, known as the Talonbeards. The Talonbeards were in conflict with the Ironswifts over the usage of the tunnels beneath, pushing for them to be excavated ever deeper underneath the city itself and gather the rumored riches that was propped by tales of the occasional gem or high quality metal found by salamander herders. The Ironswifts, knowing full well to the tragedies of previous Dwarven Holds to have with greed reached too far into the Deep, resisted all efforts and even went so far as to set out patrols in align with the city guard to make sure illegal digging was not occurring. Sadly this was not successful in finding all of them, and striking back the Talonbeards struck out with one rash raid against one of the younger cousins of the leading Ironswift head, killing all who lived inside the complex. The Talonbeards and Ironswifts grew to drawing blades and crossbows, and the civil war between them sprung into the fires of Dwarven stubborness.

Years would  pass as blow and counterblow were delivered against both the Talonbeard and Ironswift, weakening both in the process. The city built something of a figurative series of walls, where those who sympathized with one clan avoided the other districts of the city's where their counterparts resided. It was in the middle of Summer that Talonbeard's diggers, working with smugglers and investing in a subterranean network, dug and broke into a cavern of total darkness, where the scent of a charnal house erupted into the faces of the miners. Reports came up to the Talonbeard, who sent several of the city guard down with their miners to explore what they had found. As they had bribed these guards, they did not give to the Ironswifts as well what they found.



Inside the cave they found a place of elaborately chiseled stone, with several runic designs that stretch back to the dim past of the dwarves in dialect. What it was dedicated to, or perhaps to hold in, was not found out-for as the team continued their explorations, those outside the hold into the catacombs suddenly heard shouts, screams and then silence after moments of combat. With the events unfolding the Talonbeards take up to fortifying the entrance to the cave, and informants within the clan take the strange event back to the Ironswifts, who send in the new recruits of soldiers members of their own company to unobtrusively take part in the invested security. Two days after the initial revelation, the Talonbeards prepared an expedition below-wanting to find out what was within the strange opening in the depths. Once ready, the mercenary force was led by Bruhadin Talonbeard, the younger brother of the Talonbeard clan chief, and descended into the cavern. With torches and other light sources flung at random to provide a general lighting, the catacombs appeared to be a large circular room with several paths-each ending at a formal door made of some sort of reflective metal that as they could see were closed. In the center surrounded by a ditch filled with quicksilver, was a complex set of structures that were alien in both structure and design. An Ironswift sympathizer, a sergeant by the name of Gennas, watched the progression as the mercenaries spread out to investigate the buildings below, ramps of wood used to make  not really knowing what to expect when they approach it; but all shields were ready and apt near the front, knowing full well what happened to the last group to enter this cave.

Gennas and only a few others were survivors from the events that followed, and not much beyond this came from Gennas' lips, who was found near the cave with his right arm mauled and twisted grotesquely, curled into a fetal position. The cave mouth itself remained empty, with the lights that had been spread around all extinguished. Reports of intense combat came from the tunnels, and Gennas was repeating the same phrases over and over until given several droughts to cause him to black out so the healer's could work on him.

"Scatter, Scatter, Men, Scatter! The liquid silver swallows you all. Scatter Scatter, oh for all the gods scatter, their denizens will take you all!"

The Ironswifts in working with the other city elders sent a rescue team to the edge of the tunnel network itself along with one of the city's wall siege pieces. With the Talonbeards being arrested for their open arrogance now caught and red handed, they were sent as their punishment to this front line to reinforce the fortifications around the mine entrance. Any who did refuse was directed to the headsman's block.

Rorrin forces clashed and finally in the light of the next afternoon identified their mysterious attackers as two distinct fighters. The Azarai, the name which escaped from their lips, flowed as the main body of attackers looked to be humanoids with scorpion attributes, with an out shell as hard as well made iron armour. With an aggression akin to beserking, the Dwarves about the hole fought hard but were overwhelmed as Azarai bloodied and frenzied striking over shields with their tails and claws slashing against chainmail. The second group of attackers which ultimately broke the lines were amoebic quicksilver beings which bore a hardened shell that looked to be robe-like clothing, moving about the defensive lines and 'drowning' soldiers in their quicksilver limbs while moving around like a graceful phantom. The battles drew out but the inevitable began to be apparent on the third day, when the last of the Talenbeard prisoners had been slain by the mysterious attackers and the city forces were now a shadow of itself. Despaired and gritting their teeth, the order to evacuate the city was given and the refugees flooding from the gates, directed to the city of Dalruan.

Time in Dalruan


Once arriving at Dalruan, Torsun aged, feeling dishonoured and sunk within a dark gloom, organized the efforts and using up the last of the Ironswift wealth they could bring with them to buy a sturdy house in the areas near the Bazaar as well as provide for those families who had been in the fighting. With that the Ironswifts fell into inobscurity as a minor noble family owning two caravans for Dwarven goods.

Two years later, Torsun would pass away broken hearted and alongside friends and family in his bedside. The family would be taken up by Yath'gun Ironswift, Axneth Ironswift's father and grandson of Torsun. His stay was a steady and quiet one for the first two centuries of life, building the wealth of the family once again to be simply well and prosperous, but staying away from the political stage. It was not until the era of the Durgan's descent into the caverns that Yath'gun now taking up axe and shield stepped up with then younger son Axneth of his fiftieh year that they came to the assistance of the Dwarven troops going into the depths to help exterminate the vermin below, recalling with family history the fate of Rorrin and not wishing to see it here. It was in one of these many skirmishes that Yath'gun was slain, taking an axe to the chest which breached the heirloomed armour he had gained from Torsun-leaving Axneth at the age of 63 to take on the head as clan head.

When the clash of ideals and politics came about as Durgan was declared outlaw, Axneth decided in it's own efforts in the dark that truly something else needed to be done, something that valued the last remains of the once powerful Dwarven War Machine. as individuals then their objectives. Taking up his warhammer and donning the armour of infantry, Axneth joined the para-military factions aligned with Durgan's feelings on the matter, joining more then once in the battles that followed. When it was decided he was to be the next king and Axneth stood down in arms, the Ironswift clan feeling the prestige of the winning side now changed their goals for the long term.

Today
Today the clan is still committed to the new goals of the ambitious Axneth Ironswift, who in a series of expeditions seeks to reclaim the north western part of the Gramayre Ruins, including the old ancesteral home of Rorrin. Looking to trade, reorganize the Ironswift Guard, and gain allies, the Ironswift clan moves to emerge from the shadows once more.













The great-nephew of Axneth. Going against the grain of the traditional Ironswift family Steirn chose to become a Gladiator. Most comfortable with single-handed weapons Steirn can also use a shield and in dire circumstances he will swing almost wildly with a two handed weapon. Chosing to go on a hiatus from the Gladiatorial Arenas of Dalruan after coming in third place for the first time in his eight-year career Steirn's fighting record stands as follows; 21-wins, 7-loses, 2-draws.