User:Ximothy/Wrynnverse/Iron Crusade

Iron Crusade
Main leader	High King Llane Wrynn
Secondary leaders	Grand Crusader Lothar Lord Crusader Uther King Arthas Menethil King Galen Trollbane King Liam Greymane Queen Beve Perenolde Lord Admiral Baradin Sky Admiral Rogers Empress Zoe Archchronomancer Jaspard Levi Rocketrail
Formerly	Varian, the Stranger
Race(s)	Human Recaste Dwarf  Vrykul  Gnome Mechonized Gnome  Worgen Wargs Storm Giants
Capital	Stormwind City
Base of operations	Stratholme, Stromgarde, Greymane Manor, Perenolde City, Iron Foundry,
Theater of operations	Iron Kingdoms
Language(s)	Common, Gnomish, Dwarven
Sub-group(s)	Stormwind, Lordaeron (kingdom), Stromgarde, Gilneas, Alterac, Tol Barad, the Silver Hand Legion
Affiliation	Independent
Status	Defunct

This article is fan fiction.
The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official Warcraft lore or history. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and are applied for roleplaying purposes only.

The Iron Crusade was forged under the banner of Stormwind as a cause more devoted to human supremacy and bringing prosperity and security to the Seven Kingdoms, even the nations that refused to join were not spared from their crusade.

They are based out of the Iron Kingdoms, a time displaced Eastern Kingdoms -and only the Eastern Kingdoms- created by Kairoz to build an army before Varian usurped the operation for his own ends.

Membership

The Human Nations

• Kingdom of Stormwind: Ruled directly by High King Llane Wrynn the Kingdom was based out in the forests south of Khaz Modan and their capital was Stormwind City. They are renown warriors and are considered as having the greatest army of the Seven Kingdoms, commanded by Anduin Lothar. Knights of Stormwind serve as calvary across the Iron Crusade providing calvary charges and leadership in the name of their High King.
  • Ruled by High King Llane Wrynn.
  • Their territory was the forests south of Khaz Modan, and their capital was Stormwind City.

• Kingdom of Lordaeron: Ruled by King Arthas Menethil, Lordaeron was the last of the kingdoms to join the Iron Crusade after it was invaded by Gilneas and Stromgarde, loosing territory to them and being forced into the Iron Crusade. Arthas has become incredibly desperate to secure Lordaeron's future even if it means invading the elven homeland. Much like his mainline counterpart this Arthas won't stop at anything to save his people and secure their place in the new world order.
  • Ruled by King Arthas Menethil after his father passed in his sleep.
  • Their territory is Eastweald, which was the Eastern and Western Plaguelands, and their capital was Stratholme after they lost the previous Capital to Gilneas.

• Kingdom of Stromgarde:
  • Ruled by King Galen Trollbane.
  • Their territory is Arathor Mountains, which consists of Arathi Highlands, Hillsbrad Foothills and the Hinterlands.

• Kingdom of Gilneas:
  • Ruled by King Liam Greymane.
  • Their territory is the Whispering Coast, which consists of Gilneas, Silverpine and Tirisfal Glades.

• Kingdom of Alterac:
  • Ruled by Queen Beve Perenolde.
  • Their territory is Khaz Modan which is vastly different from the mainland as its completely frozen over and hardly recongisable.

• Principality of Tol Barad:
  • Ruled by Lord Admiral Regina Baradin.
  • Their territory is Baradin Bay that they are warring with Kul Tiras over.

Kingdom	Monarch	Zone	Capital
Stormwind	Llane Wrynn	Elwynn Woods	Stormwind City
Lordaeron	Arthas Menethil	Eastweald	Stratholme
Stromgarde	Galen Trollbane	Arathi Mountains	Stromgarde Keep
Gilneas	Liam Greymane	Whispering Coast	Greymane Manor
Alterac	Beve Perenolde	Khaz Modan	Falconholdt
Tol Barad	Regina Baradin	Baradin Bay	Tol Barad
Recaste Empire	Empress Zoe Thaurissan	Khaz Modan	Iron Foundry

Legions and Organisations

• Golden Lion Legion: Commanded by Anduin Lothar personally the Golden Lions had the duty of guarding High King Llane Wrynn and were only occasionally fought by the outlanders from the alternate Azeroth. Named for the Lion of Azeroth himself.
  • Commanded by Grand Crusader Anduin Lothar.
• Silver Hand Legion: Commanded initially by Crusader Lord Uther before his death at the hands of Arthas, the Silver Hand was considered some of the most zealous soldiers of the Crusade and they served on the frontlines against Quel'Thalas and later against the Alliance and Horde. Saidan Dathrohan took command after Uther's death and saw the Silver Hand abuse a captured Naaru dug up from deep below Lordaeron before he too was struck down in the Stratholme Sieges.
  • Originally led by Crusader Lord Uther, succeeded by Saidan Dathrohan.
• Iron March Legion: The legion deployed before the Temporal Spire into the alternate Azeroth they were joined by the remnants of the True Alliance forces and were commanded by Sky Admiral Rogers. They sacked Theramore and warred against both factions before being ultimately dismantled as the Spire was stormed and their leaders struck down ending the remnants of Varian's forces on Azeroth. Few escaped back to tell the tales of the strength of the outlanders and steeled the Iron Crusade against the Outlanders.
  • Led by Sky Admiral Katherine Rogers.
• Church of Holy Light: The religious body of humanity was at first agaisnt the radical changes humanity was going under as Alonsus Faol stood against Varian's influence. He was removed from power and Isillien took his place, redirecting the Church to support the Crusade and purged the out spoken members. They supported the Silver Hand in its invasion of Quel'Thalas and the Archbishop defiled the Sunwell before fleeing to Light's Hope where Isillien was slain.
  • Led by Archbishop Isillien after Faol was removed from office.
• Sparkplugg Industrlies: Although Honzo died at Stormwind his legacy lived on as Varian took his plans for the Iron Star to this alternate Azeroth to arm humanity with them, and the Sparkplugg survivors supported Rogers in the aftermath of the Siege. When the Temporal Spire was opened the new head of the company, Levi Rocketrail, travelled there to head the Sparkplugg Industries in the Iron Kingdoms. Recruiting many gnomes from the Iron Kingdoms bolstered the Sparkplugg back to their pre-Siege of Stormwind numbers. Sparkplugg have over taken Gnomeregan and begun conducting horrid transformation on its inhabitants, turning them into cyborgs loyal to the company.
  • Run by Tinkmaster Levi Rocketrail.
• Chronomancy Academy: As the Iron Kingdoms was created by a time distortion it is flushed with Time magic and many magi within the realm seek to understand the anomalies as there was no Bronze Dragonflight in this world to interfer. Across the Iron Crusade chronomancers can be seen supporting the Iron Crusade giving them a unique magic to use against their enemies as the Chronomancers of the Iron Crusade understand its magic better than the high elves or Kirin Tor do.
  • They were led by the so called Arch-Chronomancer Jaspard, a gnomish genius.
• Adherents of Goldrinn: When the Temporal Spire opened many allies of Varian's crossed over, notably the Sparkplugg gnomes, however so too did many religious followers of Goldrinn as Varian carried the Wold God's essence in him. These forces consisted of humans, worgen and even night elves who came to join Varian at his base in Tol Ronal, where Varian had come to largely isolate himself. Their numbers included Royce Duskwhisper, Ian Duran and Rio Duran. The Adherents are home to the few elves who are members of the Iron Crusade. When the Alliance and Horde assaulted Tol Ronal to finally bring justice to Varian the Adherents were the bulk of the islands' defenders, however they were cut down by the forces. The Adherents dissolved after Varian's death.
  • They follow Varian Wrynn though the organizing was left to Royce Duskwhisper.

Allied

• Recaste Empire: The changing timelines seems to have affected Khaz Modan dramatically, as Time Wurms have turned Khaz Modan into a frozen wasteland and the inhabitants infused part of that ice magic into themselves to survive, 'recasting' themselves and becoming a unified Empire under the still reigning mother of Dagran Thaurissan, Empress Zoe Thaurissan. With the support of the Iron Crusade the rest of Khaz Modan was forcifully united and the old clans abolished, now loyalty to Empress Thaurissan is paramount above all else. The Recaste Empire now forges weapons and armors for the Iron Crusade from massive foundries across Khaz Modan, most notably the Frostforge Foundry.
  • Ruled by Empress Zoe Thaurissan.

History

Stranger's Homecoming

The Siege of Stormwind was a brutal affair however the combined efforts of the Alliance and Horde brought down the Wolf King, Lo'gosh, and ended his reign. Varian Wrynn was taken into custody, and brought to Pandaria as a neutral ground between the two reeling factions. The trial was heated, as it became clear the Alliance and Horde were not debating Varian's actions, but in truth the actions of the other faction. The chaos allowed the Bronze Dragon Kairoz, a compatriot of Wrathion, to take Varian into a time portal into a pocket timeline of Kairoz's creation.

Wrathion and Kairoz had created the idea of forging new alliances through temporally created humans. Noting humanity's durability and ability to over come overwhelming odds, Kairoz created a paradox recreation of the Eastern Kingdoms- and only the Eastern Kingdoms. Taking Varian to a time before the Horde had ravaged the Eastern Kingdoms, when the Seven Kingdoms stood high and strong, they desired his aid in marshaling the humans. Varian questioned why him of all humans, to which Kairoz explained that he ran the tests, and of all potential human candidates only Varian would've agreed, others like Jaina, Anduin or even Greymane would refuse and resist their deals. Kairoz was confident in their choice, and stated that he'll act as Varian's adviser in uniting the kingdoms, noting he'll need the Hourglass's ability to show visions to the kings as proof of the future's horrors, or else they may not unite.

Heading to Stormwind first, Varian spent the first his first few weeks to months on this world acting as a wandering warrior, butchering outlaws with ease, and slaughtering entire gnoll encampments singularly. Whenever he was asked for a reward, he only took a small amount of gold, and asked for an audience with King Llane. Finally, after defeating a rather large gnoll onslaught he was granted the audience. He was known only as the Stranger at the time, and once inside he learnt that Llane did not have a son, only a daughter named Adariall Wrynn. Introducing himself as simply Varian he stood in awe before King Llane Wrynn and Highlord Anduin Lothar. With the help of Kairoz Varian showed them visions of the Burning Legion destroying worlds and rendering them into ash. Medivh appeared before them, and confirmed the existence of this Legion, surprising everyone. Varian was suspicious of him, but Medivh states that months ago some strange magic washed over the world and in the process a demon possessing him was removed from his body. He suspected time magic involved and thinks Varian may be truthful.

With the words of Medivh backing Varian, Llane took him to court. Here, Varian made a vital choice- he told Llane that Kairoz himself couldn't be trusted and he was intending to turn humanity into a slave army against the Legion. He assures the Legion is a real threat, but he disproves of how Kairoz was going about this. To this end he convinced Llane and Lothar to help subdue Kairoz and get Varian the Hourglass.

The task was difficult, but the Brotherhood of the Horse, backed by Conjurors of Stormwind, were able to subdue the surprisingly powerful dragon, imprisoning him below the Stormwind City, in the deepest vaults. Varian took the hourglass and was able to choose what visions the Hourglass showed, the mechanism were made simple as to allow the very Hero that ended Varian's reign to use it. With the ability to choose what to show, Varian portrayed the Azeroth he came from as a hellish place, showing the Horde butchering Stormwind; the Scourge washing over Lordaeron; Dalaran brought low by demon lords; Daelin and his forces slaughtered by the Horde; Gilneas invaded by the Forsaken; Stromgarde and Alterac in ruins; and the various races of the world uniting and besieging Stormwind.

Utterly convinced Llane promised to unite the Seven Kingdoms and bring order to their world, then liberate Varian's own world. As a sign of faith, Llane gave Lion's Fang to Varian to wield as a Champion of Stormwind and a sign of his favour. As Varian did not reveal himself as his alternate son Llane was unaware of how deeply meaningful this was for him as his world's Lion's Fang was taken by the Horde and melted to scrap so he never got to wield the blade.

Rise of Iron

Kairoz did not bring Varian to this new world alone. At Varian's request schematics for the Iron Star was recovered from Stormwind's depths and brought to this new Stormwind, or perhaps old Stormwind would fit better. Varian begun travelling with Llane as his adviser, guiding him towards more pragmatic answers to problems. At Varian's suggestion, the entire gnoll population of Elwynn was purged, driven into Redridge, and they begun spreading their power into the Gurubashi territory using new machines of war they had dwarven and gnomish contractors build, and the soldiers of Stormwind uttered King Barathen's name in vengeance as they slew the Gurubashi as Barathen died to their spear.

As for the other rulers of the Seven Kingdoms Varian had mixed opinions. Though he once respected and revered each of them, he'd come to despise the attitude of some of them. He felt King Terenas Menethil was too soft, didn't trust Antonidas and his Kirin Tor, didn't trust Genn Greymane as his world's version sided with the rest of the races of Azeroth, and hated King Aiden Perenolde for betraying his world's Alliance. He still revered King Thoras Trollbane and Lord Admiral Daelin Proudmoore. However, he did not know if he could fully convert them without an actual outside threat invading like the Horde did, and instead looked to the Princes of each nation believing the kings may be too stubborn to adhere to visions.

The growing crusade was not built over months as Varian would come in time to each of the rulers and their heirs to find out who he could potentially convert.

The Lordaeron Conquest

It was at the Signing of Northshire that officially saw the birth of the organisation that became known as the Iron Crusade. The rulers of Alterac, Gilneas and Stromgarde each arrived to sign the treaty, ready to be shared with the knowledge and power Stormwind had attained, with the influence of the Stranger in each of the monarch's minds. Seven days and seven nights were spent debating the details of this treaty, however it was clear that Liam Greymane, Galen Trollbane and Beve Perenolde were already prepared to sign their kingdom to the new Crusade before they even arrived these details were just to make it official.

Once signed, the three pledged their nations to High King Llane, and listened to Llane's first direction; force the empire of Lordaeron into the fold. King Arthas Menethil was not eager to join this massively militarizedc rusade, and he never got along with the Stranger, always feeling like the Stranger hated him for something unknown to him. Still he was invited to the Iron Crusade and he refused to join, stating Lordaeron will remain independent of it regardless of the future wars they planned to wage. Noticing the pro-human sentiment that the Stranger spread far, even through his own kingdom, Arthas was not yet prepared to give in to hate and violence, his duty ultimately and always laid in Lordaeron itself before any one else.

A sentiment Varian was aware of, and how to exploit. His worlds' Arthas was driven to do terrible things in the name of saving his homeland, and he knows that he can use that desperation against him. High King Llane ordered an invasion to take the entire west and south of Lordaeron, everything outside of the Eastweald was to be occupied. The war was brutally short, tanks rolled from Gilneas and took the farms of Silverpine, burning Brill and the other towns on the road, and laying siege to the Capital City. Stromgarde forces moved from their walls and occupied the towns of Tarren Mill, Southshore and Hillsbrad Fields. Alterac were sent to cut off the capital from any potential reinforcements, building a barricade called the Iron Bulwark between the Eastweald and Tirisfal to cut off reinforcements.

The Capital City was old and well built, however before tanks and new weaponry its walls begun crumbling within days and soon, led by King Liam Greymane, the Imperial City itself was breached and Gilnean soldiers took the streets. Once the city fell High King Llane called for an audience with King Menethil and in what was a very tense situation, Arthas knew the Iron Crusade held all of the cards. Llane minced no words, if he wanted the conquest to cease, they must join the Iron Crusade, or else the war would continue. When Arthas inquired about the conquered lands, Llane laid it out that the Gilneans are keeping Silverpine and the Stromic are keeping Hillsbrad, but Llane was willing to give Tirisfal and the City back if he deems the Lordaeroni loyal enough.

Seeing no way out Arthas surrendered Lordaeron to the Iron Crusade, and asked what would be required of them. He ordered Menethil to support the newly formed Silver Hand Legion in their future invasion of Quel'thalas, and only then would Tirisfal, and all the occupied citizens, be returned. Desperate, Arthas agreed and even ordered his magi to find ways and means to ensure the invasion of Quel'thalas succeeded. In his mind, Arthas considered trying to ally with Quel'thalas, however there were so many humans and so few elves that he did not believe elvenkind stood a chance at winning this way. Giving in, Arthas decided that the people of Lordaeron were more important than its soul and that they'll do anything to survive even if it meant genocide against the elves.

With five nations now behind the Iron Crusade, in addition to the Dark Iron allies, it became clear who the continental super power was. Foundries were being built across the lands of humanity and they pushed the boundaries of the other races. Zul'Gurub burned and its people enslaved to the iron warmachine.

After the Lordaeron Conquest Queen Beve expressed annoyance that although they took part Alterac did not receive new territories. King Llane agreed, and said it was intentional as he wanted Alterac for something else. He did not fully trust the dwarves and entrusted compliance across Khaz Modan to the Alterac, as they already had practice in mountainous and snowy terrain, they were the only ones he trusted for this. Queen Beve wasn't sure this was the same as new territory, however her devotion to rule and law meant she would spread her agents and spies across Khaz Modan, making sure the dwarves never forgot who the true power of these lands were.

New Alterac was built, somewhat hastily, within Khaz Modan's mountains in what those in the prime timeline know as Coldridge Valley and Anvilmar. Anvilmar was turned into Perenolde's castle, while the rest of the valley became the new city of the Alteraci. The ancient seat of Alterac was entrusted to the care of the now named Duke Jorach of House Ravenholdt, while Houses Falconcrest, Vardus and Montrose came south to Khaz Modan with her, serving under House Perenolde directly. For the forseeable future the rule of the Reforged Empire was enforced by a dagger in the dark which was also pointed at their supposed allies to watch for potential betrayal.

The Remaining Independents

The events around them troubled the Kirin Tor of Dalaran, they were long time friends with Lordaeron as well as Quel'thalas, and they can see war on the horizon between humanity and elvenkind, a war most in Dalaran feel is unjust. Who to side with; their own kin and turn against their ancient allies or side with the elves against humanity and be branded race traitors? The Kirin Tor attempted to alleviate the situation however even their own nation was not immune to the growing pro-human sentiment. The internal problem as well as the growing Iron Crusade led to an exodus of many powerful elves from Dalaran, such as Prince Kael'thas, who returned to Quel'thalas although the elven prince did plan to return one day. As tanks of the Iron Crusade grow closer, the Six decided to protect their city, pulling all citizens from settlements around and withdrawing them to Dalaran where they erected a shield around themselves.

With Dalaran under their dome the last real independent powers came in the form of Quel'thalas and Kul Tiras. The elves, of course, isolated themselves from humanity to begin with and the surge of pro-human sentiment simply made this more prudent. At the beginning of the Iron Crusade's rise they did not pay heed to it as their more immediate concern was the strange magics that erupted when Kairoz created this pocket timeline. While Dalaran lost focus of this in wake of the Iron Crusade encroaching on them politically, distracting them, the elves spent decades studying this strange event and noticed that time magic had become completely disrupted.

The Sun King even reach a point where he issued an emissary to visit the Night elves to convene only the ship was lost at sea. They tried magical means but could not locate the continent of Kalimdor. It was as if the continent itself vanished, only vast seemingly endless seas spread from all directions from the Eastern Kingdoms where ships would just vanish if they sailed too far. Concern rippled across the Kingdom of Quel'thalas, with the mass exodus of elves from Dalaran to escape growing anti-elf thought making Dalaran not tolerable for now. This exodus brought attention back to the rising Iron tide, and Anasterian Sunstrider determined that whatever was behind this sudden militarization of the Iron Crusade possibly was also related to the time disruption. For now he called his kingdom to prepare for possible war.

Among his war council was Ranger-General Lireesa Windrunner, Grand Magister Belo'vir, High Priest Vandellor and his son Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider, combing from a wide variety of their society's aspects. He wanted them on high alert, especially following the Lordaeron Conquest as now this Iron Crusade bordered their own nation. Becoming concerned at the sheer size of this empire King Sunstrider begun looking to potential allies, first contacting the Aerie dwarves, as well as testing the waters to see if the conquered Lordaeroni King Arthas was open to a possible alliance but found this was quickly shut down by Menethil himself who returned the heads of the emissaries; a brutal act intended to please the Iron Crusade. He sent more mages and boats out to see if they could find Kalimdor, feeling they'll need allies more than ever soon as even the aged King was concerned about their ability to fight a united humanity.

Outside of Quel'thalas another nation worked to secure their borders was Kul Tiras. While in the main timeline, Daelin Proudmoore stood gladly alongside humanity in unity, this worlds' found the Iron Crusade unsettling and decided to distance himself from them due to warnings from his people known as the Tidesages. The Stranger made many attempts to broach to him, however in their very first meeting the Stranger let slip the name Jaina and alluded to possible future crimes. Absolutely enraged that the Stranger would dare use the name of his still born daughter in such a manner he kicked him out, and although they had meetings since the Stranger never recovered from this early blunder. As time nearly reached equilibrium with the main timeline Daelin still stood as the ruler of Kul Tiras despite Varian's efforts with Derek being a proud son and eager to follow in his footsteps and not over throw him like Varian was able to manoover Liam Greymane and Galen Trollbane to do.

An aspect of this rebellion against the growing status quo was the Tidesages, Kul Tirans intune with the Elements who could feel the growing Iron Crusade torture the elements beneath them, taking note of the dark seers of the Alteraci in particular. The Thornspeakers have come from self imposed exiles with warnings of the Drust, creatures of the Dream who have begun to pour back into reality. Kul Tiras faces a spiritual crisis and have turned inward away from the Crusade and towards their own issues.

Leadership

The Grand Crusader, Anduin Lothar, is the supposed supreme commander of the Crusade answering only to the High King.

High King Llane Wrynn (High King of the Seven Kingdoms and King of Stormwind)

• Grand Crusader Anduin Lothar
  • Golden Lions Legion
    • Lord Gavinrad the Dire
      • Knight Karos
      • Knight Varis
      • Knight Alomen
  • Silver Hand Legion
    • Crusader Lord Uther
      • Saidan Dathrohan
      • Gryf Graythorn
      • Alexandros Mograine
  • Iron March Legion
    • Sky Admiral Catherine Rogers
      • Iron Commander Herrick
      • Chronomancer Ronan Hasfield
      • Aruns Ragebeard
• King Arthas Menethil (King of Lordaeron)
• King Galen Trollbane (King of Stromgarde)
• King Liam Greymane (King of Gilneas)
  • High Sorcerer Or, Court Wizard
• Queen Beve Perenolde (Queen of Alterac)
  • Duke Jorach Ravenholdt, Regent of Alterac City
• Lord Admiral Regina Baradin (Lord of Tol Barad)
  • Lord Stormsong, Father of the Tidesages
• Archbishop Isillien
  • High Inquisitor Benedictus
• Arch-Chronomancer Jaspard (Head of the Chronomancy School)

Allied Powers

The Recaste Empire:

Empress Zoe Thaurissan, Empress of the Reforged Empire

• Siegecrafter Arkenbeard, Master Siege Engineer
• Thane Braccus Stonefist, Thane of Clan Stonefist
• Thane Tarjia Blackburn, Thane of Clan Blackburn
• Thane Racanus Frostforge, Thane of Clan Frostforge

Sparkplugg Company

Levi Rocketrail (President of Sparkplugg Company)

• High Tinker Cogsrocket, Puppet ruler of Gnomeregan.