A small group of islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of Valisthea's twin realms. Here the Crystalline Orthodox, an extreme faith that worships crystals, reigns supreme. The Iron Kingdom controls Drake's Breath, the Mothercrystal that sits at the heart of one of their islands—long a source of contention with neighboring Rosaria. Isolated and aloof from the mainland nations, the Ironblood speak their own language. Orthodox doctrine judges Dominants to be unholy abominations, and any unlucky enough to be born on the islands are executed.
Official description[1]
The Iron Kingdom (鉄王国, Tetsu Ōkoku?) is an island nation in Final Fantasy XVI. In their own language, the kingdom is called Haearann. Their emblem shows two crossed axes and two anchors at the bottom. The citizens worship crystals and view Dominants and Bearers as unholy; any found to have been born on the Iron Kingdom are to be executed. However, they are not above using Dominants as weapons of war to give themselves an advantage in their raids. Eighty years ago, the Iron Kingdom took advantage of a conflict to seize Drake's Breath, the Mothercrystal formerly under Rosaria's control. The citizens of the Iron Kingdom are referred as Ironbloods by the other peoples of Valisthea.
The Iron Kingdom is nominally a monarchy. Its royal family and sovereign have virtually no power and the real ruler of the kingdom is the Patriarch of the Crystalline Orthodox, the highest priest of this religion that was once practiced throughout Valisthea, but is now only practiced by the Ironbloods. The Patriarch of the Orthodoxy in Year of the Realm 878 was Imreann.
The kingdom's fighting forces are known as the Iron Crusade, divided into battalions led by commanders under the orders of the king. Their warriors are seen by the other nations of Valisthea as brutal and primitive because of their preference for using clubs and large axes rather than lighter weapons.
History[]
The Crystalline Orthodox church predates the establishment of the Iron Kingdom. The predecessor for the kingdom was established in the Year of the Realm 450, and the kingdom as it stands in the modern day in 790.[2]
The predecessor nation to the modern day Crystalline Dominion was established in the Year of the Realm 790. In the year 820, the Iron Kingdom deployed a spy named Ishtar to the dominion's predecessor to gain power and spread the faith of Crystalline Orthodox, which worships the Mothercrystals as deities. In four years, Ishtar had gained prominence and declared the region independent and the dominion closed its borders. In 825, war over Drake's Tail broke out due to the dominion's predecessor trying to lay claim to it. The combined forces of Veldemarke (nation in Ash prior to Waloed), Sanbreque, and Dhalmekia halted the war, and governed the dominion together. In the year 833, Ishtar was discovered to be a spy from Iron Kingdom, and the Crystalline Orthodox faith was suppressed in the region and many followers were massacred in a religious cleansing, which only ended when the orthodoxy's followers committed mass suicide in Fawn Coast.[2]
The Iron Kingdom took advantage of Sanbreque's subterfuge in the fall of Phoenix Gate in 860, and seized the chance to invade the duchy with the goal of killing many men while taking the women and girls and Bearers captive. Moving on Storm as soon as word reached the Iron Islands of the deaths of Rosaria's Archduke and their Dominant, they encountered remarkably little resistance on the road to Rosalith. Not to be outdone— and emboldened by their lethal prior incursion into Rosarian territory at Phoenix Gate— Sanbreque launched an invasion of their own, and drove the Iron Kingdom back into the Boiling Sea. Jill Warrick was among the girls taken from Rosalith Castle, and later used as a weapon against the Ironblood's enemies, a hypocritical act which was against the tenets of the Orthodoxy. Furthermore, Rosaria was annexed by Sanbreque becoming an imperial province governed cruelly by Anabella Lesage (née Rosfield) herself— barring the Iron Kingdom from the shores of Storm proper for the time being. Their only holding outside the Iron Islands at that time would be Mount Drustanus (known as Beinn Leodladh in the Haearanni tongue), where Drake's Breath was located.
In 865, all nations entered war in what came to be known as the Battle of the Twin Realms. The Ironblood's advance formed the core of the conflict on the western front of Storm, in which Waloed—now led by King Barnabas Tharmr—deigned to form an alliance with the Dhalmekian Republic in order to tie down the Sanbrequois elsewhere, while simultaneously letting the Dhalmeks deal with the potential threat of the Iron Kingdom. This alliance, however, was merely notional and a marriage of convenience for the Waloeders. After the conflict ended, the Nysa Defile became the site of repeated skirmishes as the Iron Kingdom attempted to make incursions into Dhalmekian territory.
Ultimately, the Iron Kingdom's attempts to expand into Valisthea were put on indefinite hold due to their losses at the Battle of Nysa in 873, and Clive Rosfield's party systematically eliminating both the Mothercrystals and Patriarch Imreann meant that both their manpower, objects of worship, and leadership would be respectively depleted and destroyed. The destruction of Drake's Breath in particular was a massive blow for the Ironblood as it took the entire island of Beinn Leodladh with it, and therefore their foothold in Storm as well.
Culture[]
Drake's Breath.
As described by Vivian Ninetales, the Iron Kingdom is the embodiment of the Crystalline Orthodoxy. While revering the Mothercrystals like the rest of Valisthea, the orthodoxy differs in that they do not use crystals for mundane tasks and despise the other nations for exploiting the objects of their worship. Ironically, despite being viewed as "barbaric" and "backwards", this might make them the most technologically progressive nation in Valisthea, since it implies they have developed a way to survive without magic.
The Iron Kingdom arguably has Valisthea's worst policy regarding the treatment of Dominants and Bearers. While the other nations venerate the former and at least see the usefulness of the latter, the Kingdom views aether as evil and follows a doctrine of killing magic-users upon discovery. However, they have proven flexible (or hypocritical) with this policy, sparing at least one Dominant, Jill Warrick, to use her as a weapon of war.
Politics[]
The king is little more than a figurehead, with real power lying with the Crystalline Orthodox and its head priest.
Military[]
The Iron Kingdom designates its armed forces as the Iron Crusade. Divided into battalions, each led by a commander, the Crusade is under the orders of the monarchy whose sovereign gives his orders to the various commanders. The Crystalline Orthodox exercises great control over the armed forces, with priests supervising the battalions.
The Ironblood warriors, who make up the ranks of the Iron Crusade, are heavily armed, preferring the use of clubs or great axes to lighter weapons, in keeping with their brutal and direct fighting style.
In addition to its warrior battalions, the Iron Kingdom boasts a strong navy, essential for sending raids against the other nations of Valisthea.
While the Iron Kingdom has fierce warriors, it also has major weaknesses: its armed forces are equipped, or at least accustomed, to raiding their enemies, but they have never succeeded in extending their territory beyond the main island they control. The only exception is conquering the volcanic island of Mount Drustanus when Rosaria was too distracted with the Northern Territories to defend it. While they were also able to at one point take the greater part of Rosaria, including the capital of Rosalith, in this instance Rosaria had lost its commanders and a significant portion of its fighting strength during the massacre at Phoenix Gate, leaving the rest of the duchy leaderless and vulnerable. The Ironblood were, in turn, quickly seen off by Sanbreque.
Foreign relations[]
The Iron Kingdom shares no positive relationships with any of the other nations in Valisthea, being viewed as as "barbaric" and "backwards" due to their rapidly different culture and beliefs. The Kingdom similarly despises the mainland nations for exploiting the Mothercrystals, whom they worship, and has attempted to invade them numerous times in the past to spread their holy doctrine, though without success.
Rosaria[]
The Iron Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Rosaria were long-standing enemies, the Grand Duchy not only exploiting a Mothercrystal, but its ruler was a Dominant. Over the course of their shared history marked by bitter conflict, the Iron Kingdom gained the upper hand over Rosaria by taking control of the island of Mount Drustanus, the volcanic island on which Drake's Breath stands. Following the death of the Dominant of the Phoenix, the Iron Kingdom made inroads into the duchy once again, killing the men and taking the women and girls captive. When Sanbrequois forces entered the territory, they drove out the Iron Crusade and annexed Rosaria.
Dhalmekia[]
After being driven from the former Rosarian territory by Sanbreque, the Iron Kingdom turned its attention to its other enemy neighbor, the Dhalmekian Republic. Ironblood attacks on the republic culminated in the Battle of Nysa, where the Iron Crusade suffers heavy losses, including the loss of the Dominant of Shiva, whom the Iron Kingdom had forced to fight among its forces.
Sanbreque[]
The Iron Kingdom and the Holy Empire of Sanbreque are separated by the Grand Duchy of Rosaria stretching between them. The annexation of Rosaria by the Empire may have enabled the Iron Kingdom to attack the latter directly, as the Empire is hostile enough towards the Kingdom to send its Branded soldiers to assassinate the Dominant whom the Ironblood uses in their attack on Dhalmekia in 873.
Waloed[]
Due to the sheer geological distance between them, the Iron Kingdom's relationship with the Kingdom of Waloed is virtually non-existent. Still, the nation from the continent of Ash appears aware of the threat that the island nation poses, but never acts on it.
Northern Territories[]
Due to the Northern Territories effectively ceasing to exist following the loss of most of their land to the Blight, the Iron Kingdom's relationship with the nation is virtually non-existent. Still, they have profited from the nation's plight, using their invasion of Rosaria as a distraction to capture Drake's Breath and later capturing and exploiting the nation's Eikon, Shiva, for 13 years.
Crystalline Dominion[]
Due to the sheer geological distance between them, the Iron Kingdom's relationship with the Dominion is virtually non-existent. It is not impossible to suppose that if the Iron Kingdom had been closer to the Dominion, it would have maintained hostile relations with it, since the Dominion, even without a Dominant, is known for its exploitation of the Mothercrystal Drake's Tail.
Known locations[]
Artwork of Drake's Breath.
- Creag Loisgte (Capital)
- Drake's Breath (Mothercrystal)
Behind the scenes[]
The main inspiration for the Iron Kingdom is Celtic culture, with the language of its inhabitants and the names of its places, such as Creag Loisgte, being of Celtic origin. Ironbloods appear also based on (often inaccurate) tropes about Vikings, such as wearing horned helmets, using axes, frequently raiding the mainland, and being considered barbaric by mainland citizens.
The Iron Kingdom is an island nation located in the west of the continent of Valisthea, possessing a particularly violent religion with a culture somewhat similar to the Vikings, and uses terms related to iron; these traits hearken to the Ironborn of the novel A Song of Ice and Fire.
Citations[]
- ↑ (n.d.) . The Realms of Valisthea. Square Enix. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Final Fantasy XVI Ultimania, Timeline